Prologue
End of the Human/Covenant War, aboard the Covenant Supercarrier Brute Stroke
The team assembled within the docking bay of the Brute Stroke, getting off the Covenant Troop Carrier that the Covenant Separatists had provided. A team of five Spartans, an equal number of Elites, plus ten ODSTs and a pair of bond-brother Hunters all stood around, with most taking the time to double-check their weapon conditions. Finally, the leader spoke. Dressed in standard Mk. VI Spartan armor, painted orange with a silver flame decal, he struck an imposing figure.
"Ok, team, you know your duty. We're here to stop this Supercarrier from simply flying up to Installation 04B, and blasting the daylights outta John-117 and the rest of our people on that Halo system. Now, we've all been trained for a mission that could win the war, but this is a babysitting job. Not that it'll be easy. Ah, hell, I suck at public speaking, so let's just leave it at this – if you've gotta die, die proud. If not, shoot straight, and run fast." This prompted a cheer from the squad, who quickly stepped to the sides to allow the Hunters to open the door. A single Assault Cannon blast and they were in. Instantly, the Hunters allowed the more agile Elites and Spartans through, with the ODSTs moving along behind. The squad leader looked out over his people, taking a moment to relax. Then, all hell broke loose. A careless ODST stumbled into a corridor, right in front of a Brute Major, who instantly opened fire with his Spiker, taking the man in his torso, punching through the armor like butter. However, he fumbled on the draw with his second Spiker, resulting in a second ODST and one of the Spartans, a two-tone green one, opening fire, the ODST with an assault rifle, the Spartan with a Plasma rifle. The beast took round after round and managed to raise its second Spiker, but the Spartan acted faster, hurling a spike grenade into the Brute's stomach. It collapsed, torn to shreds from the inside.
"Nice kill, X-ray." From the lazy, slight twinge on the voice, it had to be the team leader.
"Thanks Flare. Now let's find a wider chamber already, those spikes nearly blew back to us. Nearly put us on the barbie, instead of that shrimp." Flare laughed at his Australian colleague, then gestured for the team to keep moving with his left hand, his right clamped tightly around a Beam Rifle, the gun sporting slight modifications faint to all but a knowledgeable observer. Alarms started to ring out, and a rhythmic thudding in the corridor implied that something was coming. As if they had been waiting for that, the entire team moved, with the ODSTs in the lead, moving with a quick but wary pace, covering every doorway and corner with their primary weapons. The Spartans, Elites, and Hunters, on the other hand, simply barreled down the corridor until they reached a larger section, already blockaded by a mixture of Jackals and Grunts, a handful of Brute Minors and a single Brute Captain further back in the field. Flare stopped, and without waiting for his teammates to cover him, raised his Beam Rifle, sighted, and fired, all in the one fluid motion. His shot blasted forward, straight and true, and picked off the Brute Captain with ease, the beam passing through the massive alien's eye. Instantly, Chaos broke out. Grunts began to panic and ran towards the coalition force, only for a third Spartan, her armor all-over silver with a pair of extremely large pistols sticking out of shoulder holsters, to start mowing them down with a pair of SMGs, no shot wasted as she fired into the growing mob of frenzied aliens. Rapidly, she was overtaken by a pair of Elite, who didn't even bother with using their weapons, but tore into the Grunts with their bare hands, ripping the small aliens apart with the daggers in their gauntlets. The head Elite, clad in black armor emblazoned with gold, moved forward, as did the remaining Spartans and Elites, the Hunters and ODSTs covering the rear until one found the door controls, shutting the blast door behind them, sealing it with a bullet to the controls. The black and gold Elite tapped Flare on the shoulder and pulled him down a small dead-end passage, loading up a holographic map on a small wrist-mounted computer.
"The command center is nearby. The ship captain will be there. In order to eliminate this ship as a threat, we need to clear this room and prepare for a hard run, Flare."
His counterpart nodded. "I see exactly what you mean, Slay'ethor. I've fought the captain of this ship, Thantos, before. He's no tactician, no Sanghelli, but he's a mean fighter, and brutal, as you'd expect. However, if I can bait him into close combat, then you, in command of the rest of the team, might be able to take out his honor guard and the bridge crew." Slay'ethor nodded, and gestured to the other Sanghelli and the pair of Hunters, speaking something in the Covenant language. Flare, in turn, walked over to the human soldiers and joined in their firefight, taking out the Brutes that dared emerge from side passages with his Beam Rifle.
Finally, no more emerged, and the Spartans simply switched off, checking their weapons and relaxing. Flare approached the two Spartans whom hadn't made themselves obvious to him before, a young woman in black armor and a guy in pink armor, emblazoned with Hello Kitty decals and a pink assault rifle slung across his back, a Spartan Laser his current weapon.
"So, Layton, Allison, how're you holding up with your first taste of a commando run?" The girl shrugged, examining her rifle carefully, before looking back up to the leader.
"Fine, commander. The armor enhancements Dr. Church provided me are well worth it." Before the orange Spartan could comment, the girl turned and walked over to one of the others. The pink guy turned to face his commanding officer, smirking.
"That wasn't nice of her, boss. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Running a little low on ammo for my rifle, though. Had to switch to my backup." Flare sighed.
"Layton, that's an anti-armor weapon. Not anti-infantry, and defiantly not anti-Brute. Save your ammo, grab a new gun." Instantly, the pink-armored man began to protest, but Flare simply followed Allison's lead, turning and walking off a short distance. He gestured to his team, and one by one, they came. X-Ray and the girl with the SMGs were the first over, followed by Allison, Layton and the remaining ODSTs. Flare cleared his throat, and instantly, all focus was on him.
"Ok, folks, we're at the end of the line, nearly at the bridge. We've got a good stash of weapons here, so if you're running low on ammunition, switch to one of the Covenant weapon littering the ground here, or switch to your secondary weapon. Either way, keep your wits up and weapons too. Slay'ethor suggested a hard run, hard contact from here to the bridge, so be ready. When we reach the bridge, Slay'ethor will take command of your operations, and your mission is simple – eliminate the Covenant bridge officers. I plan to personally deal with the captain, Thantos. So, are we clear?"
"SIR YES SIR!" The ODSTs droned as one, their training overriding their personalities. The Spartans nodded, flicked thumbs up, sent him private messages between the helmets – anything to get their message across in a way that didn't scream 'I'm a marine, shoot me!' One picture message in particular, an image of a scantily clad woman in a silver helmet with a pair of SMGs and a message on the walls, marked 'Roger Command', was of private significance to him. Without the military knowing, one of the agents on his team, a girl by the codename of Magnum, was his girlfriend. She'd been the one to open up with her SMGs, and was the one posing for the photo. Flare smiled. This mission would be their last together, but he hoped it'd be the last of the war for both of them. Master Chief, the last SPARTAN-II, had his mission, and his team had theirs. Soon, Slay'ethor and his group started to move down the corridor, prompting the human forces to do the same, breaking into a jog as they barreled down the corridor behind the blood-brother Hunters. Here, the beasts did their job perfectly – any Brute to emerge from a side corridor was splattered by a Hunter's shield being slammed into their body at moderate speeds. Granted, the travel wasn't fast, but it worked. The Elites had the surviving enemies dealt with as well, with most of the former Covenant command troops simply stabbing surviving Brutes, or in the case of Slay'ethor's targets, twisting their neck past breaking point, a slower and more painful death.
The next thing Agent Flare knew, he was breaching the bridge behind the Hunters, watching the two beasts soak up fire and return a few Assault Cannon blasts towards the bridge crew. Suddenly, a loud thud was heard, and one of the two Hunters was launched into the air. The Covenant Separatist flew up at least eight feet into the air, before slamming back down to the ground, the orange worm-like aliens within leaking out through a fresh number of holes, slowly dying. Instantly, the second Hunter bellowed and charged at the threat, only to go flying sideways as a massive maroon Brute Chieftain, armed with a Gravity Hammer, struck his target with such force it was catapulted into a bank of computers, before slamming the hammer down on top of the crippled and enraged Separatist. The force of gravity striking the Hunter was too great, and its armor simply crumpled, the Mgalekgolo within crushed by the force.
The Jiralhanae Chieftain laughed, his deep voice ringing out throughout the bridge.
"So, Slay'ethor himself comes to kill me. And he brought humans..." The beast spat the words as if they had a foul aftertaste. "And a familiar face amongst them. The monstrosity. The one they call Flare. We have faced before…"
"On the communications deck of one of your Supercarriers. I remember you, Thantos. You cost our war effort many trained soldiers, many lives. And, in remembrance to them, I challenge you." The Spartan's words seemed to pierce the air, and as his team watched, Thantos shifted. And then he laughed again. This time, it was less sinister, but a whole lot more menacing.
"I accept. It has been too long since the last time I killed a human with my hammer." Flare smirked and clipped his energy rifle to a strap over his shoulder. His hands reached up to his shoulders, grasping the two silver bars on his armor. Each thumb depressed a tiny button, and the two silver adornments unlatched themselves from the plates, sprouting blades as his hands wrapped around them. Instantly, instead of holding his beam rifle, Flare was holding a pair of Energy Swords.
"Let's dance, Thantos," he growled, before charging at his beastial foe. The Jiralhanae's booming laugh followed him.
"Lets!" Instantly, Flare's senses seemed to widen as he forced his brain to take in more information, a skill he seemed unusually good at, when given the right stimulus. He could see the slight bunching of muscles in the alien's physiology, hinting at a hammer swing. He could feel the direction of the hammer's arc before it even started its arc. He could hear the tiny crunches of the Brute's feet on the metal floor, and that was enough for him. Before Thantos even had his gravity hammer raised to his shoulder for an overhead blow, Flare had dived to the side, his twin energy swords leaving a blue-tinted path behind the orange Spartan as he ducked around behind his beastly foe, puncturing the Chieftain's armor by stabbing both blades into the same spot, leaving the dual swords embedded in his shoulder. Quickly, he yanked the back out before the Brute could reach back and grab his Spartan assailant, then approached from the injured side, attempting to strike again. This time, however, Thantos was ready, and caught Flare with a horizontal swing from his gravity hammer. Amazingly, the soldier stood back up, dazed. Instantly, he dodged a leaping slam from the Brute, then straightened back up, leaping over the Jiralhanae's shoulder's to land a lucky strike into the back of the Brute's neck, forcing Thantos to his knees with an energy sword embedded to his spine.
"Curse….you…ENEMY!" the crippled Brute screamed as it began to force itself to its feet. Flare approached, ready to finish his foe, but another voice stopped him.
"I've got your back, boss!" Layton shouted, followed by the familiar sound of a Spartan Laser charging up.
"Layton, do not fire. I'm ordering you, do not fire. If you fire, I'm your target!" Flare shouted back to his team as Thantos lifted himself up, the orange Spartan placing himself between Thantos and Layton. The pink soldier, on the other hand, didn't seem to care, moving around so that he could see the critically wounded Brute past Flare, but at the last second, his aim wavered towards Flare.
"Layton, no!" Magnum screamed, but it was too late. Layton fired. The beam went straight through Flare's right leg, into Thantos' chest. The energy melted its way through the armor, the Brute's torso and out his back in a single blow. The Brute slumped, not quite dead, but obviously dying. For Flare, it was a whole new dimension of pain. He couldn't actually feel anything from his leg, but every single nerve ending going into that area was screaming in agony. Even so, he was still standing, adrenaline holding him up as his body started to bleed out. Instead, his right hand, the hand with no blade in it, grasped the plasma pistol at his side, pulling it out of its holster. He pressed the pistol up against his opponent's head, and without letting the pistol charge, fired. The blast was the last straw for Thantos, who collapsed, unmoving, to the deck. Then, Flare fell. His right leg stayed standing, but detached from his body by a massive circular hole as the Spartan officer passed out, his armor going into lockdown. Instantly, Slay'ethor had Layton against the wall, a blade to the Spartan's throat.
"For treason, the punishment is death." The now-commanding officer started to press his energy dagger into Layton's neck, but X-ray came to his rescue.
"Slay'ethor, Layton is a human soldier, and as such should be tried as one. I ask if you can spare two Sanghelli, plus Magnum and Allison, to rush Flare back to Earth. He needs emergency medical treatment, so as long as they can stop the bleeding and keep him from bleeding out or dehydrating, he'll survive. We'll keep Layton here with us, but bound so he can no longer fire a weapon or do anything but move. When we return to Earth, he will be tried, and more than likely killed." The Elite looked at his old rival, a human he had grown to befriend, as he lay there, dying as his precious lifeblood leaked from his armor. He gestured to two of the Sanghelli commandos, barking something in their native tongue, before passing on the same message to the two girls.
"There is a dropship with a warp drive in the first hanger. Get him there, and get him back to Earth. Maybe, just maybe, they can save him." Allison nodded as she clipped her weapons back to their hardpoints. Magnum wasn't so willing to leave. Instead, she spun, grabbed Layton, and pressed her SMGs to his head.
"He killed Scotty, I kill him." The two black-suited Elites hoisted Flare's body and began the long walk to the dropship, leaving Allison to coax Magnum to stop. She never got the chance. X-ray shifted faster than she'd ever seen, his Plasma Pistol in hand before she could blink. At that same speed, he released an EMP burst into Magnum's armor, forcing it to release Layton into Slay'ethor's arms.
"Allison, get her out of here, she's a liability," he shouted. The black-suited Spartan nodded and grasped her silver teammate's arm as she led the weeping woman down the corridor. X-ray nodded.
"Now, shall we finish this mission, so we can wait for the final news in safety?"
On board the dropship, things weren't much different. Allison was locked out of the pilot compartment, instead trapped with a dying man in a cryotube, and Magnum. The airlock groaned as it sealed shut, the ship launching gently. As it did, Magnum ripped her helmet off. Her asymmetrical brown hair flopped in front of her left eye, and she sobbed noisily as she positioned herself on a bench designed to carry Brutes. Allison sighed, and approached the silver Spartan.
"I…I really cared for him. Care. Hell, I just can't deal with this shit…" Allison slid next to her teammate and removed her own helmet to reveal blonde hair and piercing green eyes as she fixed the woman with a compassionate stare.
"Look, Kat, he'll live. My partner, Dr. Leonard Church, is a genius with technology, so if they can save his life, I'll make sure he walks and fights again." Kat sobbed again.
"You… you really mean that?" The blonde nodded. Her tears redoubled, but instead of letting her whimpers escape, Magnum smiled.
"That's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me. Him. Us. Ah, shit, I don't know…" her voice faded away, and the two girls sat in silence as the ship rattled into its warp pace, taking them home.
A/N: Well, a new series, and a new Fanfic. It might claim to be a Halo fic, but we all know it's Red vs Blue. See if you can guess which two Freelancers appear in this OC armada!
On a side-note, this one's going to be a little different to my Sonic fics. A little darker, and more centered on the main cast, but with original characters popping up all over the place, to help deal with their fan-made foe. No hints shall be given, so look forward to the next part of the intro, before we get into the full scheme of things.