the best halo make up side-story i've ever seen.now if you would just make a book out of it maybe you will profit from it.the time line matches the actual time line of halo and if Bungie agreed on your story i believe it would be a great addition to the halo universe.

from another supportive fan:
thomas yap from malaysia

p.s.if you would like to e-mail me of other future plans of yours here's my e-mail adress

I know the story's been over for a while, but I have a random question for you, whatever happened to Marks, from "If I Were Your Hero"? It's not really a big deal, I'm just wondering what happened, if you forgot him or if I'm just skipping over his name or something. Your stories are awesome, by the way. I hope you're planning to write more for Halo.

Damn. Just damn. Dude, thank you for your trilogy and side stories. If you manage to do whatever you do in life with the amount of passion you put into this, you will succeed. Thanks for creating this for the public's enjoyment, it has given me quite a few hours of solid enjoyment.

With thanks,
Andrew

Sweetness!

This is a captivating story. I really enjoyed reading it.

Man, I sound like a broken record. Interesting story, but the execution could do with some (considerable) improvement. Awkward word choices and phrases. Plus, I noticed that "rifle" was consistently being misspelled ("riffle"). I would also recommend against using shortened slang terminology outside of character dialogue; words like "ammo" and "full-auto" should be typed out in their entirety: "ammunition" and "full-automatic." But, ultimately, it's really up to the writer...(shrug)

I also wanted to point out some blatant technical inaccuracies pertaining to firearms (in general) in this chapter. Or maybe these are cases of inappropriate/awkward word choice.

First: "Eric shouldered the BR and pulled down his new MA5C. The full-auto chamber roared as it tore into anything in his view. Flood combat forms were split in half by its gas fueled chamber."

The chamber is where the cartridge is seated after being stripped from the magazine, and is also where heated gases generated by the burning gunpowder expand (this expansion is what causes the bullet to fly through the barrel, its flight spin-stabilized by the barrel's rifling, and down-range). The chamber has very little (if any) bearing on whether or not a weapon is capable of fully-automatic fire. That is usually determined by the trigger sear, and whether or not the weapon possesses select-fire switches(for multiple modes of fire; mainly: semi-automatic, burst-fire, or full-automatic. On some firearms, the safety mechanism is completely separate from the fire selector (e.g.: the Springfield Armory M14), whereas others integrate the safety mechanism into the selector switch (e.g.: the AR-15)).

Shouldering usually refers to something akin to the rifle drill position - holding the rifle butt with one hand and resting the weapon against one's shoulder, depending upon the order (typically "left shoulder" or "right shoulder"). Hardly an ideal position for bringing a different weapon to bear on a target, I assure you.

Typically, rifles are attached to slings - there are some that allow the user to simply let his/her primary weapon drop and hang at the user's side, while the user draws a secondary weapon (typically a sidearm; it's not often that people will carry two rifles at once).

And then there's this part: "He leveled the riffle and pulled the hammer all in one motion."

Most gas-operated assault rifles do not have hammers - that feature is typically found on revolvers, Single-Action and Double-Action/Single-Action automatic pistols (as well as break-barrel weapons). What you're referring to is the cocking lever or the charging/bolt handle.

Also, what is this "gas" that's "fueling" the rifle? I've never heard of a rifle consuming petrol. And the MA5C is not a plasma rifle. As I've mentioned before, most firearms utilize the expanding, heated gases in the chamber. This propels the round out the barrel, and the expanding gases push back a narrow rod known as the gas piston as the bullet leaves the muzzle of the weapon. This gas piston, contained within a gas tube, pushes the bolt back, compressing the recoil spring and ejecting the spent casing. Then, the spring releases its energy and sends the bolt flying back forward into the battery position, stripping a round from the magazine as it does so, so that the next round is ready to be fired.

For more information, I suggest looking it up on "Howstuffworks" (I don't know if the link will show, but here: http://science. ). Pretty good primer.

I know I'm anal (and I suppose some would/could accuse me of being pretentious) for bringing this up, but it's like calling an arm a leg: a clip is what's used to load cartridges (the bullet and its casing) into a magazine. And a magazine is usually what feeds a cartridge into the firearm (with exceptions like belt-fed machineguns; although they, too, have magazines to hold readily-accessible ammunitition). I have observed many people making the mistake of referring to magazines as "clips" - and when corrected, they defensively insult the people correcting them, accusing those people of being pretentious.

Well...that's about it from me. Even in spite of all this stuff I'm picking out, the storyline/plot is undeniably good. I'm still reading, after all. 83

What can I say? Really enthralling storyline. Although my point about awkward/incorrect word choices and phrases still stands.

There were a couple of other things that bothered me - mainly it was Melanie "pocketing" her sidearm. The M6 pistol uses ammunition with dimensions similar to the Desert Eagle .50 AE (12.7x40mm). Already, the Desert Eagle is a large-framed automatic pistol. It's bleedin' huge! There's no way anybody could have large enough pockets to stick it into.

Therefore, nobody in their right mind would stick such a large, heavy, loaded pistol into one's pocket without expecting it to fall out at some point or another (unless the pocket was specifically designed for concealing firearms - or there was some form of secure holster in the pocket - but even then, it's only really suitable for small, concealed-carry snub handguns). Not to mention the extended magazine (which would be quite heavy). Really, I would expect military personnel to carry sidearms using shoulder rigs, belt/hip holsters, or thigh rigs. Most firearm owners have the sense to use holsters.

That's it for this chapter, I think. On to the next one...

Excellent read, so far. It's been awhile! =)

However, I have to say I've observed a lot of grammatical errors and questionable word choices. Some phrases and sentences are rather awkward, as well. The dialogue is okay, but I think some of it may be out-of-character. For example, SPARTAN-117's line: “For now, we’ll make this our command post. We’re in hostile territory. Linda, get a team together and establish a perimeter. Kelly, see if you can locate any ammo crates. They should be littered all over the place. I’ll see if I can contact High-Com, and get this mission back on track.”

In my humble opinion, John seems unusually verbose, especially in the latter segment of his line of dialogue. He's adding unnecessary details - stating the bleedin' obvious, as some might say (the phrase "...they should be littered all over the place..." is actually a pretty good example of awkward word choices throughout the story).

I've also noticed that the helmsman aboard the Rogue Fantasy held the rank of "private." This is not possible, because there is no rank of "private" in most (if not all) naval ranking structures. The rank of "private" is typically given to infantrymen who are either members of an army or of a state's marine corps.

On another note, it would also be highly unorthodox for an enlisted crewman to be part of the ship's command crew, which is typically comprised of a ship's most senior officers and the ship's captain (who does not necessarily hold the military rank of "captain" - although that largely depends on the tonnage/size/classification of the vessel).

Still, very nice descriptions. Enjoyable and enthralling story. I'm definitely going to keep reading. Whenever I have the spare time, at least...

Awesome trilogy. Although, I never bothered to review, (I think I may have done one for the 1st or 2nd story?) I'm gonna make up for it by saying that this is the best Halo fanfiction I've ever read. Once again great job...I friggin love you dude!

Bravo. Look...the Mater Cheif isn't dead, so read about his return in Something Lost Now this Way Comes, coming soon

WoW! That was amazing just as good as the books, maybe even better cogratulations on writing such an amazing story

what of the hunters? this story isn't over. look to the horizon. Something lost now this way comes.(Look for my first fanfic sooner of later)

kick ** i love your stories

Oh my god i can't believe it's over after so long. Great Fic i loved it and I'm sorry it has to end.

~For the Honor of the Mirratord

Hey man i've been reading since the start of it all,i've never posted or written but i've been here since day 1(well actually started reading about 2 days after it was posted on account on Bungie is Masterchief456 if you've ever seen me post around,and my Gamertag for Xbox Live is Perry USMC if you'd care to add me i'm a sick sniper at Halo 3.

I just want to say it was absoultely and hopefully(at some point in the future) you could write more stories with the Mirratord and Black Ops..

Great story man.Thanks.