//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Earth Like Planet // Story: Halo Zone // by Rookie109 //------------------------------// (Two Hours Later) It was pitch black inside the lifeboat, the people inside were unconscious except for one, Lee was the first to wake up from the riding of the storm. He had woken up to find himself on the floor in a pile of crew members and marines that were thrown to the ground from the storm. But now that the storm has passed and the lifeboat was still intact with everyone in one piece, Lee had to see where they are. Lee could hear the the sounds of the waves outside the lifeboat, when he was curious to know where the lifeboat had taken them, Lee would have to open the top hatch to check outside. Lee didn't hesitate to open the hatch, as he managed to push it open, he was blinded by the sunlight. As Lee tried to cover his eyes from the painful brightness, he then looked down at his surroundings, the lifeboat apparently washed up on a calm beach. The planets air was also breathable, from many planets that were colonized by the UNSC had breathable air. He then turned from looking at the ocean to see a big jungle in the direction of the beachfront, the beachfront from Lee's perspective was beautiful from left to right. Eva's analysis on the planet was confirmed, it was Earth like. Lee had to cut his sight seeing short, he had to wake up the people on the lifeboat to show them the situation. It took him a few moments to manage waking everybody up, the first three people he was able to wake up were marines, one of the three marines was Sergeant Maddox, he was loud and fearsome enough to wake up the whole lifeboat, Sergeant Maddox was highly encouraging according to his rank and his bombastic enthusiasm. As every crew member and marine made their way out of the lifeboat into the new world they made landfall on, there was some worry and confusion among those who got out the lifeboat. For reasons that that they were on an unidentified planet inhabited with life they don't even know of yet and that their means of getting off this planet, has suffered unexpected damage causing the Tycora to crash somewhere far away from their at right now. The argument and confusion was quickly getting out of hand, but suddenly a loud orderly tone of Sergeant Maddox got everybody's attention. "ENOUGH, all of you!" Shouted Sergeant Maddox. After the tone of Sergeant Maddox's voice get everyone's attention, for he had something to say to man them up. "This is not the time or the place to shout on about this nonsense!" The Sergeant strictly stated, "So we ended up on another strange planet now did we, you all need to man up!" "Us marines have handled many situations like what we're in right now, what I need from everyone here at this very moment now is to remember one thing, we are the UNSC ,and we need to pull ourselves together if we want to get off this beach and find the Tycora's crash site." Sergeant Maddox finished in a determined attitude. As there was silence among the crew and marines, a question came out of turn from the group. "Pardon my interruption sir but, what should be our first objective?" Questioned Lee. "That's a good question you asked kid, I'll tell what are first and only objective will be." Said Sergeant Maddox. "We're all gonna get off this beach and find the Tycora's crash site, when we get there, we will then get off this strange planet." Sergeant Maddox finished. It was time to put their misfortune aside and focus on their objective, to prepare for their long struggling journey into the strange new world. Their primary objective was through the enormous jungle, many questions wanted answers, but what was important now was getting off the beach and find the ships crash site. The group tried to gather what they could find from the lifeboat, the lifeboats distress beacon was unfortunately damaged due to the impact from the unexpected landfall. Luckily their was supplies that was enough for the group to survive on their journey ahead, there was medical supplies, food, travel equipment, and tools. But there was one important thing that was missing, weapons. For reasons, the lifeboat wasn't supplied with fire arms when panick was happening on the Tycora, some lifeboats had weapons and some did not. There was no time to organize thirty percent of the ships inventory while escaping the Arcadia system, this situation would make the journey difficult for the group without a means of protection against any threat they might face along the way. There was no telling if the inhabitant life on the planet was either hostile or friendly, but it wouldn't be necessary as as long as they stay as one big group, but for now, they had to get off the beach and into the jungle. (13 Minutes Later) It was 13 minutes wandering the jungle, in was in fact endless and huge from what they thought. The trees were ginormous showing streaks of the sun shimmering through the open spaces in the bushes. While some people were spectating, Dr.Erik awake and observing, was busy recording for document researching, he was a big deal and a essential member to the group. Dr.Erik had the tracking device and the intelligence to lead the way to the Tycora's location. Dr.Erik's documenting was interrupted by Sergeant Maddox grabbing him by the shoulder, it was his way of telling him to put away his science ambitions and focus on the task at hand. While there was a few moments of silence, the group suddenly heard sounds of birds, roars of alpha lions, and sounds that were hard to identify. Even though they heard similar sounds of common animals on Earth, they then heard another loud much audible noise that stopped the group and drawing their attention, it was from an animal that they never heard the sounds of before. It was so loud and fearsome that the other noises stopped, it was then getting closer to the group. The creature they we hearing was shaking the trees above them, it also made the sound flapping wings as it flew above them. As it was above them, it was hard to see what it was, but one of the people in the group was able to see from clear sight in the small opening through the trees, it had giant wings and appeared to be covered in red scales, Erik saw a dragon fly above them with his own eyes. As the dragon flew above past the group below in the jungle, everything went nice and quiet again, as one of the crew members of the group began panicking from seeing a vicious monster flying above them. Erik escalated the panicking by accidentally peeping out the word dragon when he was boggled with realization. Dragons were only mythological creatures in human culture, but wasn't anymore from what they had just seen from above. They were considered in mythology to be hostile or friendly, but the groups thoughts in reality highly saw them as fire-breathing behemoths of destruction. To some of the people of the group, they thought of it as an illusion and couldn't believe what they saw. Once again, Sergeant Maddox had to quiet everything down. ''Everyone be quiet!'' Sergeant Maddox ordered ''If all of us are expected to get to the crash site through this jungle, I am expecting all of you to keep it down, Sergeant Maddox said, I am gonna tell every one of you something clear and you all better remember well, we are not the only things crawling out here.''Finished Sergeant Maddox. From the discovery that was just made moments ago, it had made Dr.Erik very curious of what kind of world they were on, a planet very similar to Earth, but also inhabited with mythological species thought to be fiction. In the history of humanity, secrets were unraveled of their kind not being alone in the galaxy discovering the Covenant and the mysterious ancient race known as the Forerunners, even the fact that a long time ago every living thing in the galaxy was annialated by the divine power known as Halo, this fierce weapon was built to cleanse the galaxy. After the end of the noble Forerunners, they left the work of their technology to repopulate every world the Halo ring cleansed of life, like if nothing was never lost in the process of saving the galaxy from their ancient enemy. But worlds, was hard for Dr.Erik to believe they were highly advanced enough to create a world with life they didn't believe was real. As time went by, it was now night time, stars were now shining in the dark blue and purple sky looking like a canvas painting in the sky, but was real and beautiful. It was time for the group to set up camp somewhere for the night, luckily for them, there was a safe area for a spaced out peaceful camp site. The area was in open grass with three boulders surrounding the area, one of the boulders had a small cave which was only room for one to sleep in for the night. It was obvious that the person in charge would take up the perfect spot in the cave, Sergeant Maddox called the cave while the others would set up their tents. From Lee's opinion, he thought it was unfair that the Sergeant would be sleeping in the most safest spot while the others set tents up in the opening, just because he was high-ranked doesn't mean he can take up the safest spot for himself. Lee wouldn't have persuaded him to at least let the nervous or exhausted to sleep safely in the cave, for another reason Sergeant Maddox chose the cave cause it reminds him of what he's strongly made of. Lee thought of persuading the Sergeant to give the cave to Dr.Erik, but unfortunately he didn't care about sleeping in a cave. He wasn't in the camp in with the group but was sleeping at a different spot, he was lying on his back on the grass plain away from the others, but he wasn't the only one wanted time alone. It was the people who saved his life, Lee, Dale, Mike, Kent, and Glenn. They wanted to see if he was doing alright. "Thanks for saving my life, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you guys." Said Dr.Erik. "Your welcome, we couldn't just leave you in the middle of all that." Lee replied. "What you guys did back there was very courageous of you all, and make a great team too." Dr.Erik said in appreciation. As Lee and his friends were having time with Dr.Erik, they where about to ask him a question. "So what are doing out here by yourself when you can be safe where everyone else is?''Kent questioned Dr.Erik. "Well since you asked me that, just because I'm the groups navigator and also the person who can fix the Tycora's drive doesn't mean I can't have the time I need for myself to analyzing everything like the genius everyone thinks I am." Said Dr.Erik who was felling exhausted from being ordered around by Sergeant Maddox. Glenn agreed with Dr.Erik's opinion."Of course, the Sergeant couldn't give you a break, he couldn't give us a break either, we've been wondering the jungle for a while now, but finally we get to have some sleep after all this walking." Said Glenn. "I know that but this is serious, he's only being strict and on guard because we're on a planet that I don't even know a thing about yet, not like what the UNSC discover while exploring the galaxy. We have landed on a world where we discovered a mythological creature, who knows what else this planet be inhabited with, what if there could be more to this planet than what the Forerunners had to offer?" Lee and his friends were at that riddling question as much as Dr.Erik was, he also couldn't get the time to document data on the planet, but luckily he had new friends to help him. ''You know, we could help you with your recording and documenting on this planet,''said Lee. Dr.Erik was relieved when Lee was glad to lend a hand with his work.''Thanks, that would be really helpful of you guys, there is something i have to tell you guys, when I was recording little data, there was something...'' His sentence was interrupted by the tone of Sergeant Maddox telling everyone to go to sleep. Erik would have tell the portion of his sentence in the morning of the next day. The group had to set up two tents in Erik's spot, there was a big day for them tomorrow depending on how long it takes them to get there. As everyone was getting into their tents, Erik looked up in the sky at the moon with a puzzled look, Lee joined in on what his friend was looking at. ''What are you looking at?'' Lee asked Erik. ''The moon, it looks strange, i haven't seen anything like this before.'' As Lee was looking in the same direction that Erik was, he was also puzzled from what he was looking at, the moon had a shape of an animal on the moon, the animal was a unicorn. ''Is that, a unicorn?''Said Lee. ''I believe it is, but i don't understand, how can something that strange just form by itself on the moon?''Erik said with a puzzled thought. ''Maybe we will look more into the next night, for now we need to get some rest, it's been a long day after all."Said Lee After they stopped looking at the moon, Erik forgot to ask Lee one of his questions he forgot while he was explaining himself. "Their is something I forgot to ask you and your friends, what are your names?''Said Erik. As the others were finished with the tents, they joined in with Lee and Erik. ''Of course, my name is Lee." ''Dale Spade, but you can call me Dale." ''Mike, what I easily go by.'' ''Kent, cautious and alert.'' ''Glenn, you know, the one who was carrying you while you were dreaming.'' ''It's great to know you guys and glad to make new friends too, you can just call me Erik.'' As they were finished introducing each other, it was time for them to get some rest. As the lights in the camp went off, everyone was now asleep. At that very night, was their "last night being human!"