AN: So….updates every week, huh? Sorry about the ridiculously long delay. I won't waste time with a bunch of excuses, needless to say a lot has happened. But now that I have free time (and writers block has been vanquished) I will begin updating Broken Moon once again. I told myself that I wouldn't be abandoning this story when I started it, and by god I'll stand by that promise...even if it takes me two years to update.

I hope my writing has improved a bit, and I've thought over more on what directions this story will take. I'm going to be avoiding situations which just have the Master Chief absolutely steamroll everything with no challenge, because what's the fun in that? I won't be nerfing him, either. Needless to say, I'm going to be making the Grimm as dangerous as a threat to remnant should be, as for the most part they seem rather lacking in the whole "threaten to wipe out civilization" department in RWBY.

Thank you to everyone who has checked out this story and reviewed, especially to everyone who waited two years for an update...Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, I'm going to try to respond to every review via PM. Sorry for the short chapter again, but I'm just going to try to get one out quick to get the ball rolling once again. This chapter was already halfway finished back in 2017 but when I picked it up again recently I ended up rewriting it completely. This chapter is rather heavy on internal monologue, so action and dialog is lacking. Sorry, but it'll be better once the Chief and Cortana stumble into the characters of RWBY. For now, enjoy!

Chapter 3: Players, Pieces, and Grimm.

1000 Hours, August 8th, 2555 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Unknown Planet (Designated XF-38693 by UNSC AI CTN-0452-9 "Cortana")

He was really starting to get tired of these creatures. When he would engage one, more would always follow, apparently attracted by the sound of combat or some other unknown factor. It was slowing his progress through the forest heavily and making a lot of noise. Worst yet, he was starting to worry about his ammo situation. The repeated engagements with the creatures were quickly depleting what magazines he had remaining for the assault rifle, and if they didn't let up soon he'd be forced to switch to his sidearm. He could hear distant gunfire as well, most likely from the unknowns that dropped in earlier.

Most of the creatures themselves weren't too tough, the automatic fire of his Assault Rifle tore them apart easily. It was their numbers that was worrying him. Much like the Flood back on Halo, they seemed to just appear from the forest, coming after him endlessly, only giving him short breaks before he would stumble into more. The 7.62 rounds of the AR tore the wolf-like creatures apart, but the amount of them was forcing him to conserve ammo and reload constantly.

More problems arose when he first encountered a different type of the creatures. It was much larger and more powerful. However, this creature resembled a bear instead of the other's wolf-like qualities, while sharing the midnight-black skin with the white bone-like protrusions. It was tougher too, as it took a significant amount of bursts from the assault rifle to take it down. They could even be surprisingly stealthy as well, sometimes practically appearing in front of him in the midst of a fight unnoticed. He couldn't tell if they were hiding or simply coming into existence in front of him. The latter would not surprise him, since so far all of the creatures corpses mysteriously fade away after killing them.

Cortana had rambled about the possible science behind it for several minutes, which definitely didn't help him concentrate on killing the creatures. It was starting to feel like going through the Library with Guilty Spark on Halo all over again. Luckily for him, it seems the creatures were either starting to run out of their seemingly endless reinforcements or they were beginning to become disinterested with him, as there were a lot less coming after him now.

They had continued their path towards the ruins they had spotted, attempting to avoid the creatures as much as possible. Judging by his mission clock, it had taken him around an hour to pack up everything from the pod and reach their current location, fighting through the hordes of creatures every few minutes. Now they were nearing the point where Cortana had marked the location of the ruins. Keeping a close eye on his motion tracker, the Chief continued to cautiously approach the area.

Cortana broke the silence while he advanced through the forest. "Chief, I'm detecting distant communication signals. Looks like they're connected to some sort of global network. I'm going to snoop around, see what I can find" Cortana informed him.

"Understood. Tell me if you find anything important." He responded. Cortana could sometimes get a bit distracted at the prospect of new information. She didn't respond to him, already delving into the network.

He needed to find a secure place to take stock of his situation, try to get to some form of civilization and identify what exactly is going on with this planet. As he thought about the planet, less made sense. Why are there signs of human activity, yet no space presence and some form of unsecured global network? An insurrectionist base wouldn't make sense either, as they're in completely unknown space, along with the fact that Insurrectionists would never have an unencrypted network, giving UNSC AIs easy access to their information. No, the Chief began to doubt the insurrectionist cell theory more and more. They had to be somewhere between The Ark and Earth, in unexplored and largely unmapped space. Unless they were drifting on the Dawn for much longer than he and Cortana thought.

In short, he was in the unknown. Spartans hated being in the unknown, because lack of information leads to snags, and snags complicate missions. It troubled him that he had no idea what had happened since the final battle at the Ark, completely unaware of the ultimate fate of Earth and the UNSC. He hoped that Earth was recovering, as humanity had already lost too much to the Covenant. Only now did he realize that the Human-Covenant war was effectively over. The final members of the Covenant leadership had perished on High Charity. He and the Arbiter had cut the final head off of the snake, silencing the Prophet of Truth on the Ark. In the chaos afterwards, it hadn't quite set in that the war was effectively over, after twenty eight years of non-stop fighting.

Now that the mission to stop Truth and the Flood was over, he realized he was tired. More tired than he'd ever felt, even the hardest and longest missions which would push his body to the limit. He was 44 years old now, though in reality he had no idea how old he biologically was due to the significant amount of time spent in Cyrosleep. All of Halseys' Spartans had spent their entire lives fighting and bleeding in the defense of humanity, and the toll of it was finally catching up to him, emotionally at least. He did not regret any of it though. His Spartans had pulled Humanity from the brink of their extinction at the cost of their own lives.

He was broken from his thoughts by the ever increasing sound of gunfire in the distance. It sounded like he was close to the location of the ruins now...and the unknown people as well. Before moving any further, he made sure to check his ammo status. Four magazines left, two of them containing only half of their rounds. Not great, but it was all he had, along with his sidearm and the Spartan Laser attached to his back. Judging by the sounds coming through the underbrush, whoever these unknowns are, they had firearms and they're definitely willing to use them. He only hopes its going to be against the hostile creatures and not himself. Cortana was still suspiciously silent, most likely continuing to gather data through the network she found.

Determined to figure out what is going on with this planet and its inhabitants, he slapped a fresh magazine home into the AR and advanced through the bushes, assault rifle raised and ready to fire. As he emerged from the underbrush, he assessed the situation. First he saw the large ruins, which were constructed around and in a canyon. Second, he saw the giant, monstrous raven-like creature flying high above the canyon, screeching. Third, he saw the giant scorpion, chasing what appeared to be several teenagers dressed in bright clothing.

For a moment, he stood there, trying to process the fact that a bunch of (human) teenagers are being chased by a two story tall scorpion (which strongly resembles the monsters he fought earlier) while a huge bird-creature (who also resembles said creatures) shoots feathers at them from above, screeching.

He never thought he'd miss fighting the Covenant until now. At least they were simple.

Codex:

Grimm: Dark, evil creatures native to the world of Remnant. Described as creatures of pure destruction, they are attracted to negative emotion, terrorizing and murdering the inhabitants of Remnant. Human and Faunus kind are only able to survive through a source of energy called Dust, which gives them the much-needed weapons to fight back against the never-ending hordes of relentless Grimm.

Beowolf: One of the main Grimm native to Remnant, Beowolves are dangerous creatures resembling werewolves from tales of old. They share the deep black skin and white protrusions of their fellow Grimm. Beowolves vary in size, but they are share the dangerous claws capable of disembowelling an unprepared huntsman, or lost civilians. Much like normal wolves, Beowolves are fond of traveling and attacking in packs, using their numbers to overwhelm inexperienced huntsmen and lost travelers.

AN: Do you guys like these Codexes which provide little tidbits of information? I'm not sure if I should keep doing them or not.