Installation 09

The Unsc Lazarus came out of slipspace in an unknown area, just off the grid. The ship had just left from Draetheus V and was ordered with the task of exploring unknown regions in hope of finding another habitable planet. Searching around the Crew found nothing of relevance and marked it on the grid that were to be uploaded to the universal network when it can.

Johnathan Howard, Captain of Lazarus, stood at the bridge of the ship and looked over the vast empty vacuum that laid ahead. A couple asteroids were present but it was nothing to fear about.

"Michael, Perform a scan over the area. I want to know what's ahead before we get to it."

A Hologram flashed up on the table behind him showing a American Soldier outfitted in battle gear.

"Yes captain. Scan in progress."

Johnathan was getting rather impatient over the time it took to scan.

"How long does it take to scan an area?"

"I'm sorry sir, but this is unknown area, we have to do more than just scan it."

Johnathan sighed at the reply that Michael just made. Ever since the battle of Draetheus V, time seemed to go slower, and when they left it after Cleaning up, time seemed to go even more slower.

"Captain, I'm picking up signs of a rather large object close ahead," Michael said in an interested tone. "I can't quite pick up what it is. But I don't think it is that bad."

"Well than," he said as he sat down in the captains chair, "I guess we should go find out. Set a course over there. And get some Spartans ready just incase."

Noah sat in the cafeteria with his friend. The cafeteria is where they always seem to hang out around, probably originating from when he was in highschool. Noah's friend Mark laughed as he begun to recount a time he had before.

"So, I saw a group of Unggoy ahead and there was no Sangheilli with them. I activated my camouflage, walked up behind one and ripped off it's Methane tank and chucked it to the side. It wasn't for a while later that it started noticing the lack of methane coming and started screaming around. But in that time, I also managed to rip off all the others methane tanks. When they noticed their bud running that they noticed their lack of methane as well. They hurried over to a nearby methane station, but little did they know I rigged it up to blow."

"Four melee's would've done the job just as well you know that right?"

"It wouldn't be as fun! Besides I destroyed the Methane station for other Unggoy as well."

Noah suddenly got a message on his Data pad. He picked it up and read it over.

"What does it say?"

"It says I have to get ready and head over to the drop station. They expect to find a new thing up ahead and want me ready incase."

Mark was confused.

"And it had to be you why? Don't ODST's Normally drop first?"

"They don't actually know who's there so they're sending someone tougher, a Spartan, like us. They also don't want to send a pelican down for it might alert anything down there. I know how to use a Drop pod, so that's probably why they're picking me," Noah replied as he got up and started heading up to the S-deck to equip his armor. Being a Spartan IV, his armor was easier to don and remove as it was designed to accommodate it; by leaving on a single part of armor which meant the armor wouldn’t have to be precisely measured to be placed in a correct position.

“Is that,”

“Yes, it is.”

Johnathan Howard got up from his chair to get a closer look. Up ahead was a giant Ring like structure.

"Dear god, I Never thought we'd finda another halo. What is this? 06, 02, 01?"

"The Ring appears to be larger than Normal. I think we have to go down there. If we don't the covenant will get to it first."

"I'm not to sure, even if the covenant gets to it, we still have control of the third halo and we can stop anything that happens," Jonathan said with concern. While the covenant could fire the from this halo, any other halo can stop it.

"No, as I said, this one is different," Michael said as a signal was received, " Hold on, I'm getting a message. Michael brought the message up on the deck where it could be easily observed.

Welcome traveler to installation 09 of the Greater Ark. We advise you not to interfere and try to land on this as this is here to protect the galaxy and you may damage something. However, if the galaxy already is in danger, Go right on ahead.

"Installation 09? I thought there were only seven halos," Jonathan said confused. He had a choice, he could risk his crew and ship, or just leave which could also risk this halo being discovered by the covenant remnant.

"The only way we're going to get more answers is if we go down there."

"Well I guess that's the answer then. Send a pelican down there."

"Sir, I've actually got a spartan ready to go. This spartan was once a ODST so he can easily handle an SOEIV. The insertion vehicle also looks like an asteroid when in atmosphere so it should be mistaken for one and not alert anything down there to our presence. Atleast, not straight away."

After the engineers equipped his armour, Noah made his way down to the Drop bay where he was to be dropped down onto the surface of the newly discovered Halo ring. His armour was a new prototype. It was like the standard issue Warrior armour, but it also had a feature where the energy shield projected even if a piece of armour was missing.

Another halo ring? One that's bigger than the others? Sounds like the creators stuffed up the process. Noah thought as he entered a Drop bay.

SOIEV's were positioned on either side of the bay. A total of 30. The number of drop bays was according to the number of ODST's that were to be positioned on the ship. Noah was to use one to drop down to the surface of the ring while the insertion would look like a normal asteroid.

Noah went over to the supply racks in the middle of the bay, several bits of weaponry was present here. Several MA5D's, M7's and their suppressed counterparts. M90 Shotguns and several more weapons. He went over and grabbed a M392 DMR, a M90, a m7s and a Socom m6. He also grabbed a SRS Sniper rifle just incase, although he wouldn't be lugging it with him that far. He grabbed a nearby module. It was a camouflage module. Unlike in war games, the module lasted on a battery that took longer to recharge. He grabbed some ammunition for himself and inserted the gear into the nearest SOIEV.

He turned on his comms and sent a message to the captain signalling he was ready.

"Sir, I got a message from Spartan Noah. He's ready to drop onto the ring. I'm going to move the ship between the ring to enter the gravity field. The Atmosphere is quite dense, so anything down there shouldn't notice us."

Jonathan made no action against it and gave a slight nod.

The Ship had positioned itself so that the SOEIV could easily be dropped onto the surface. Noah could see the ring below, but he couldn't really see anything through the atmosphere. It could be all ocean down there, however halo rings normally don't share the same landscape as another. There already was a ring with an ocean landscape.

He got a signal telling him that they're ready for him to drop. He climbed into the pod and closed the hatch. He gave the all go. A panel slid up infront of the pod sealing it off. It was almost time to drop. He remembered back in the old days where dropping was actually way more hectic like the time he was to drop onto the carrier over Mombasa. The carrier jumped away before any ODST's could land on it, but luckily for him, he hadn't dropped yet and it was aborted.

But this wasn't all hectic, and there was no carrier that was going to enter slipspace. It should be a smooth trip.

There was a sudden jolt as the pod was released, No countdown due to the fact that he was going alone. The Pod fell through the tube and out of the ship. There was no turning back now, and he knew that perfectly clear.

The Pod shook as the gravity of the ring pulled it closer. He did this many times, and he knew that there was no chance of dying, if he believed in himself. Although he didn't believe that either.

He entered the atmosphere and was met with the first layer of atmosphere, which was quite dense. His Navigation System suddenly shut off and a warning appeared on his Heads up display. If Michael was accurate enough, he wouldn't need it so he turned off the warning.

The pod made it through the first layer and he saw a forest. A forest, was not exactly a great thing to land on. He deployed his chute and that slowed his decent, however that was still not going to stop a tree in the way of the ground. He slammed into a tree and was thrown a significant distance away. In the last moments before hitting, he wondered if he was going to live. His Armour said yes, but there's always a No.

End Black Box Recording I