Halo: The Dunes of 2560

Chapter 1: Up In Smoke

A large box truck speeds through the desert, the grill colliding with dunes, the driver tries to keep the truck from crashing as they speed. Behind them, banshees blast at the box truck. At 80 kilometers per hour, the modified warthog V8 engine starts knocking, the driver shouts, "It's starting to lock up!" A man opens a slider between the cab and the box, "The bridge should be over this next dune, keep going!" The pink visor of the Spartan's helmet tilts up, catching the light of the noon sun, and the green explosion erupting upon hitting the dune. The box truck catches air, but lands softly on a downhill dirt road, in front of them, the city of Romaroah, a once neutral city now the last sanctuary for the UNSC after the Fall of Reach. David opens the slider, "Candy, you need to drive faster!." Candy, the Spartan, slams his elbow into the metal wall, "Shut the fuck up!" The dent tore the metal apart, David peers through the gash in the metal, "You owe me for the damages." Candy ignores his last annoying comment, he holds off from putting the pedal to the floor due to the Box Truck's underlying issues.

"I need a wrench buddy, not a screwdriver." Candy is underneath a Box Truck placed on 6 jack stands, he reaches his hand out with the screwdriver, a Sangheili hand takes it and replaces it with a wrench, "Here you go Candy. I'm sorry, I'm still trying to figure this all out." Candy returns to working on the box truck, before commenting, "You need to figure shit out quick Vixon." Vixon removes his crested helmet, "It's so hot here. How do you maintain in your Spartan armor?" A clunking noise rings out from under the box truck, Candy slides out, his pink air mildly stained black and his face dirty too, "You complain too much, that's what maintains me." Vixon tilts his head looking Candy in the eyes, "Uh... That makes no sense." Candy chuckles as he grabs his helmet off the workbench, "It's not supposed to split lips." Vixon sighs, "Well, alright." Candy drops his hand on Vixon's shoulder, "Hey, look I know split lips is an offensive term but I only called you that because that's what we do here in this platoon. We're a special platoon, you know? We're friends!" David opens the door of garage, "Hey you love birds, quit fondling each other and get the fuck in here!" Vixon puts on his helmet, "Well, Nishun, time to get to work." Candy giggles as he puts on his helmet."

Candy shakes his head, "Fuck, I was remembering again!" he smacks a button on his helmet, death metal starts blaring out from his helmet, he starts headbanging. David opens the slider and sees that they're on the bridge to Romaroah, then a green flash of light blasts the bridge to pieces, "Candy!!" Behind David are the platoon, 2 other Spartans, and 2 other Sangheili, including Vixon who is rocking back and forth. The Spartan across from him holding a shotgun leans forward, "Yo Vixon, are you okay buddy?" All the noise from the engine, the wheels, the echoes within the box truck conceal his mumbles of him saying, "We need to ditch the cargo." in between all of them on the floor is a large UNSC labeled capsule. The Spartan grabs Vixon's shoulder, trying to console him, "We won't die, I promise you!" But Vixon cannot hear him, he just grabs the Spartan's hand and says, "We are all going to die Trent! We're all dead!"

David is sitting at the table, the 2 Spartans and 3 Sangheili stand before him, David is shaking his head as he looks down at the papers on the table, "Alright... Here's the deal. We're fucked. We need to get off this shithole dust bowl. We're gonna completely abandon all this bullshit, I mean I know this sounds nuts-" Trent removes his helmet, he is furious, the scar over his right eye making it closed is wrinkled, "We can't just leave you moron!" David cheeks his tongue, "Well, you tell that to the fiscal budget, and the current situation at hand. We got an entire Galaxy crawling with Flood, the Covenant is vying for the UNSC resources to help themselves, the UNSC has only two outposts left, and finally, the Leak." The Sangheili look at each other, and Trent is dumbfounded, the Sangheili furthest to the left, in dark red armor, raises his hand slightly, David nods to him, "What leak, David?" David inhales, "I am glad you asked Red. A whistleblower within the UNSC leaked out a data set, from within the depths of the United Nations Space Command Special Fields Agency." Trent shook his head, "Special Fields Agency? The same agency under the Naval Intelligence Branch that created the ORION Project over two hundred years ago?" Red cut in, "The same office that was investigating deep space assets beyond the Covenant's reach. I remember, because I learned that the Covenant had tried spying on their activities." David nodded, "The UNSCSFA, as it's called respectively, had abandoned the Spartan Programs so that it would be picked up by the public military organizations. However, the SFA had done something incredible since the Orion Project ended." Vixon didn't even glance at the papers, "They worked with a breakaway civilization of Sangheili for several decades." They all looked at Vixon, David's eyes wide, "You know?" Vixon just looked down, "My home world was that breakaway civilization. In my early childhood I saw humans in pitch-black garb, Spartans dawned in sleek black armor with very intimidating weaponry. They had set up secret bases in my world, that were ultimately discovered by Covenant forces when I was still young." Trent cuts in, "The Massacre of Number 19. I saw the report when the report came about Covenant activities that raised major concern in the past several decades. Number 19 is now one of the most dangerous Covenant bases." David slams his hands on the table, jumping the Spartans and Sangheili, "Listen... The SFA has been creating reinforced super-bases across the universe, in places we have never even heard of, with races of beings we do not know of. The Leak is a unique report that only the SFA utilize, it's called an Inner-Dimensional Cosmic and Damage Report. This IDCDR says this. 7/10 Bases are compromised by Flood. 1 Base is compromised by Covenant. Prophet of Death and his Covenant have acquired reasoning tactics to utilize against the Gravemind. 3 New Halos have been discovered, 1 is in control of Flood, 1 is in control of the Prophet of Death. 1 has yet to be explored by any being."

They all look out the slider and see that they are about to drive off a destroyed bridge, simultaneously, everyone removes their helmets, including the Sangheili. Red speaks low, but loud enough for everyone to hear, "This must be the moment where we all scream. Right?" Trent shakes his head, "I was trained to accept death. Why do I refuse to accept it though? In the face of death, I fight to the end to survive. We won't die." Vixon is crying, he is seizing in his seat, Trent unclips his seat belt and holds him, "He's fucking dying Candy! Hurry!" Candy sees that the bridge curled up, he makes a slight turn, and stomps on the gas just as the banshees blast the concrete behind the box truck. They take to the air above a rocky and sandy river below, as they take to the air the banshees turn around, the anti-air cannons on the city wall are aimed at them. The box truck lands nose first, and spins before landing on its wheels, the suspension collapses and the truck lays on its belly, the wheels completely mangled and the engine up in smoke.