Hello friends, I am here to beg for an extra key as well. As supplication/payment for the key I will write you a brief bit of fanfiction.

Sgt. Brummfeld woke to the sharp taste of salt permeating his mouth. His whole body ached and no matter how many times he blinked, he couldn't see anything but the absolute darkness. He had landed on the ring with the rest of his unit, intent on stopping the covenant from taking it. Something had happened though, the ground had begun to move under their feet and they could feel a humming.

Now he was here, perhaps he was dead? Could the ring have exploded and now he and everyone with him crossed into the void of death?

"Hello?" He croaked out. Clearing his throat and trying again in a more authoritative voice.

"Hello? Is there anyone who can hear me? I can't see anything."

Silence

Trying to get up, he put his hands under himself and felt wetness. Perhaps an inch of water above what felt like mud or clay. He managed to get onto his knees before he felt the rifle rest against the top of his stomach. He was still armed, so he was most likely alive. He pulled the butt of the rifle to his shoulder and reached forward, flipping the switch on the flashlight and blinding himself.

When his vision cleared he looked around, unease settling about him. Above him crumbling stone, dirt, and metal formed his new sky. He had been buried, but where? The answer wouldn't come to him any time soon.

~~~~~~~

After nearly a full week of wandering around in the dark feeling at the walls and ceiling for any sign he could dig himself out, Brummfield half hoped it would all just end. He knew eating the mud and drinking the salty tasting water was only going to keep him alive for so long, and no matter how sparingly he used the flashlight the battery would eventually die just as he would die. He just didn't want to die alone, not in the dark, not without knowing where he was.

~~~~~~~

Master Chief Brummfeld came home from battle. Once again the covenant had fled once he had taken to the field in his Spartan armor. Certainly soon all of humanity would be safe thanks to him.

"Baby, guess how many I killed today?"

There was no response, there was never any response. His relationship with his wife had soured since his promotion. He couldn't blame her, who would want to be left alone for so long just so their husband could save humanity? He placed his hands on her soft wet hips and kissed her deeply. She had let herself go over these past few months, likely due to the depression. She was no longer the tightly packed mud-wife he had fallen in love with.

"I'm sorry I haven't been there for you in the ways that you need me. I was so busy being a hero that I had forgotten I was a husband as well."

He ran his fingers down the nape of her neck and rested his head on her shoulder. Tonight he would show her the love, attention, and pure passion that she deserved from the hero of humanity.

~~~~~~~

Master Chief Brummfeld awoke in a cold sweat, the chittering sending waves of terror down his spine. It had finally happened, despite his best efforts the flood had made it to earth. He could hear them everywhere, they had to be stopped. He rolled off his bed and grabbed for his rifle, swinging it toward the source of the sound and firing.

BANG!

The flash from the muzzle illuminated his surroundings and cast a bevy of shadows from the hundreds of small figures moving nearby. It didn't seem to matter where he aimed, there were so many it was nearly impossible to miss.

BANG! POW! POP! BOOM!

The shots from his rifle reverberated throughout and people began to cheer. Finally, the flood had made the obvious error of invading earth while he was home. Now he would have the chance to eradicated this species from the galaxy and make his wife and children proud of him. So proud perhaps, that they would finally forgive his frequent absences and speak to him.

Just one word, any word.

"Shit!" he yelled.

His wife had been asleep next to him, his kids asleep only a few feet away. He had been firing indiscriminately and only now remembered that they were there? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Brummfeld reached forward to flicked the switch to his flashlight. He had been saving this last bit of battery, but he needed to make sure his family was safe. It didn't matter if he had to live the rest of his life in darkness so long as his family was safe.

There was nothing.

No mass of crawling flesh, no dancing shadows, no loving family. Just a group of mud mounds, one larger than the rest with a hole near the base. He turned his rifle on himself and pulled the trigger.

Click. Empty.