Halo: The Dunes of 2560

Chapter 2: Dawn Speaks

The first to regain consciousness is Vixon, his helmet has been removed, his vision is blurry from tears, he tries to speak but his mandibles twitch, he sees flickering rectangular lights come in and out of view. A man tries putting a mask over his mouth, but he reacts and grabs the man's hand, but Vixon is too weak to resist, so he tries not to breath. He loses consciousness quickly.

Vixon finds himself surrounded by fire, two Sangheili lying on the floor in front of him. "Mom? Dad?" The fire and heat distorts his vision, he sees purple blood pooling and soaking into the wood floor, he pushes the male Sangheili over and sees that the chest cavity has been torn open. The male Sangheili flops to the side, organs spilling onto the floor, Vixon looks at the organs and watches as the blood seeps toward the doorway. In the doorway are black metal boots, he looks up and it's pure black. A feeling swells in his chest, a burning fire within him that makes the fire surrounding him feel cold. The wooden floor peels away, curling, blackening as if it's returning to its basic carbon form. The doorway into darkness lights up, he sees in between the light shafts are the two hands of a human and a Sangheili. He reaches out and grasps the hands, and is pulled back to consciousness.

"Osa, wake up!" Candy is holding onto the handle bars of the hospital bed trying not to shake it, he sees Vixon open his eyes slowly, "Thank fucking... Oh my, we thought you were gone." David pulls Candy back, he leans down toward Vixon, "Osa, we're in deep. We need you to tell the doc you're fine, we need to get going in a few hours." The doctor walks in, "Alright soldiers, shoo! I need to get to work." They back away, they don't leave the room, the doctor walks up to Vixon's bed and turns his head, "You can leave." David scoffs, "Don't bother. Just do your job."

Within the hour, Vixon got a clean bill of health, no injury, full psych evaluation passed, and he's hungry. They walk down the hall of the hospital, Vixon looks to David, "What's happened? How are we alive?" David chuckles, "Candy is a good driver. That's not what's important right now though. We deserted our post, and the capsule we had has already been identified by authorities. Command has called us down to the court house." Vixon shakes his head, "Are we in trouble?" No response, except Red whom taps his shoulder, Vixon turns, "Yeah, we're all in trouble. Even Crystal here, see?" He points to Crystal, the smaller Sangheili of the platoon in a chrome-like armor, looking very fearful. Vixon speaks calmly, "It's ok Crystal, you don't have to worry. We'll be fine."

At the Courthouse, the 6 of them are brought to an interview room, where they are accompanied by two ODST's, and on the other side of the glass is a man in a suit and tie. The man in the suit speaks as he sets his briefcase on the table next to the microphone, "Sit down fellas, and don't mind the Shock Troopers. Just relax. I'm looking at you Vraram!" Crystal recoils, looking at the others but they just sit down in their chairs. David politely motions to Crystal to sit, "Come on." After several minutes, the man on the other side of the glass introduces himself, "You may call me Pan. It's not my real name, that will remain confidential. This face you see, is not my real face either. If and when you ask or say anything about any of this, I was never here and you cannot prove that I was. You don't have to agree to these conditions, you already do by contractual obligation as all 6 of you have agreed too. And don't think for second Garrison, you are exempt from this just because you signed yourself by your code name." Trent inhales through his nose deep, "What even is this? Why are we even here?" Pan ignores the question and cuts to the chase, "The capsule. How do you 6 come to find it? Where did you find it? Why? Tell me everything, explain EVERYTHING!" They all jumped, except David, who just rests his chin on his hands cupped together, elbows on the table, "You tell us." Pan rolls his eyes, "I'll tell you just this, it came from the Forward Unto Dawn vessel."

8 years ago

Master Chief and the Arbiter are in the Forward Unto Dawn escaping the exploding Ark. As the vessel makes a break passed the gravity field, stashed scorpions break from the chains holding them in place and tumble around the holding bay, Master Chief dodges one and Arbiter makes his way to the control panel, to set coordinates, while Chief makes his way to the bridge. He opens a door and as he enters, he hears static behind him, an electromagnetic field develops, the metal lights up, he covers his visor and feels tugging, he grabs the doorway and sees space in front of him.