Spartan Claude T017 entered REM sleep. His mind began to run simulations, returning itself to biological activity, first by simply allowing dreams to occur. Dreams, specifically, of its last recollections of activity, starting from 6 months ago. The sight of falling in a metal pod, landing in a flaming hill. Enemy territory. The sounds of his comrades, death surrounding them. He looked up to see a covenant banshee take position and fire. The resulting explosion hit him hard. Elites ran to him, swords readied, grenades armed. Surely, he would die here, just like his allies had. Another explosion. His vision blurred, as he felt his life slipping away. That's when he saw her; Alice T023, helping him. His mind went over the surgeries that followed. Repair, reconstruct, augment. All of these happened to him. All he really knew for sure was that he signed one hell of a lot of paper work in the process. His minds focus left the traumatizing images to a sound. Depressurization. Suddenly, his eyes became active, slowly. The darkness gradually left him as his consciousness was pulled out of sleep, and into the real world.
His cryo pod opened, and he quickly climbed out. Turning, he saw Alice, the closest thing he had to a friend. Her back was turned to him, and she was naked. Alice was a slim woman, long dark hair, and pale skin. She was tall, at 6'5 in her armor. Moving, he remembered why she was naked unlike himself. Cryo had a bad effect on covered skin. The result was usually itchy, and often blistered rashes that generally lasted for a couple days. He shrugged off the physical discomfort and turned to a holo stand sitting next to his cryopod. A foot tall, blue male hologram stood on it.
"Sleep well?" The A.I, Ender, asked.
"No." He replied, taking the AI's chip out of the holo stand and putting it into a small pouch around his waist. He turned to Alice, who was now wearing the same skin-tight black under suit that he was. She looked at him with her electric blue eyes.
"We've got 30 minutes for breakfast. Briefing is at 0600." She explained. Without a word, Claude walked out of the cryo room, only to be stopped by a medical officer. His ID tag said "Gordon" on it.
"Not so fast, sir." Gordon began. "You need a medical exam before you can leave the cryo bay." Claude glared at him with his cold black eyes. \par
"Save it for the marines, Gordon." Alice said as she and Claude walked out of the bay.
Fire-team Triton's got nothing but bastards.. Gordon thought.
As Triton walked past a window, they glanced outside of the Sahara-class ONI Prowler. It seemed that they were in orbit around some kind of forerunner construct. It was different from the last construct of this type: Requiem, as it was the moon of a planet. Interesting as it was, they moved on. Odds are, that was what the briefing was about. The mess hall came up on a right turn. Triton sat down together at a lonely table. Whispers quickly spread across the marines on the other edge side of the hall. "Hey is that fire-team triton?" Whispered one. "The very first Spartan V's, I hear." whispered another.
Ignoring the marines, Claude and Alice got small rations of oatmeal, and ate in silence. 12 months ago, they would have been deep in some kind of conversation. But not any more. Not after Sanghelios. Alice looked into Claudes eyes, who paid no mind to her. She remembered, all too well, finding him after he'd been hit. His right hand had been scattered into fragments and thrown across a 5 meter radius. his entire left arm was gone, and his body was so heavily burned, it didn't even look like him anymore. His retinas were seared, rendering him blind. She got him to evac just in time. Surgeries repaired him, but only the Spartan V augmentations actually healed him completely. His eyes were replaced, as were his arms, parts of muscles. His body was almost the same. But his mind was forever scarred by the memories. Suddenly, the thought passed as claude looked at her.
"What is it?" He asked her.
"N-nothing..." She began, looking at the clock. It was 0555. "We need to get to briefing."
The arrived in the briefing room at exactly 0600. Admiral Hawkins was standing there, waiting for them.
"Sir." Alice said, saluting.
"Lieutenant." Hawkins said, looking at Alice. "Captain."
"Sir."
A hologram of the moon-like construct came up.
"This is a Forerunner shield world, designation: Anvil." The Admiral began. "I'l let your A.I explain the rest." Claude took the AI chip in his pouch and inserted it into the table. Enders holographic body popped up, and he began.
"We don't know all that much about this sheild world; well, shield moon, really... There seems to be a large canyon encircling its equator. We'v scanned, and there's no entrance ways."
"Not even a gravity well like requiem?" Alice asked.
"Nothing. It has no atmosphere either. This is a forerunner design we've never seen before... Which is where you come in. Admiral?" Ender concluded.
"Your job is to get down there, gain entry, and find out why the hell the covenant bastards want it so much."
Moments later, Triton was getting suited in the heavy MJOLNIR armor. Alice had the flexible recon armor attached to her suit, but Claude was sporting something very different. A modified version of Venator armor, with Promethean technology engineered within. In the 10 years since the discovery of Requiem, human tech had gone far. This prototype armor variant, nicknamed Phantom, had advanced armor abilities integrated into it, including a teleporter with a range of up to 10 meters. With the armor on, the team walked alongside each other, Alice Sporting her black-red armor, and Claude with his new black-blue armor. They approached the Commander of the Spartan fire-teams onboard the ship, Wilson.
"So, how are we getting down there?" Claude asked. Wilson looked at him.
"Are you familiar with the Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle?" Wilson asked.
Claude smiled behind his helmet.
"Yes Sir." He replied.
"Good. Your dropping in five. Good luck, Spartans."
With 5 minutes to spare, Claude and Alice equipped themselves with their preferred weapons. For Alice, this included a Sniper Rifle, and a pair of SMGs. And for Claude, a pair of M6C/SOCOM pistols, and a shotgun. They each entered a drop pod, parallel to one another. Enders voice came on within Claude and Alice's helmets.
"Drop in 5-4-3-2-"
The heavy force of the launch lurched Alice's stomach into her chest. Soon she was outside of the ship, though she could not see it. The ONI prowler was a stealth variant, after all. A few hundred meters in front of her was Claudes pod. She calculated them landing within a distance of about one click away from each other. Not bad, especially considering that covenant forces would be at a minimum on the surface thanks to its lack of an atmosphere. After about a 10 second free fall, the Pods smashed into the surface of the construct. The pod burst open, and Alice jumped out. The gravity was about half of that on Earth. She surveyed her surroundings, before noticing the blue beacon appear on her HUD. Claude's rendezvous beacon. 487 meters North. She took what gear she had, extra ammo, grenades, etc, and headed out.
The surface wasn't particularly crawling with covenant activity, but small patrol groups surveyed the surface of in the instance of intruders. A Phantom dropship passed over Alice's head. She knew they'd catch on quick enough, and prepared herself. As she figured, a handful of troops leaped off of the ship, moving in her direction. Nothing to worrisom, a group of 5 grunts, 3 jackals, and 2 elites. All ranger class, of course. A few short bursts of her SMG dispatched a large chunk of the grunts. Their lifeless corpses left to float in low gravity. Running forward, she let another couple short bursts go, ending the lives of the remaining grunts and jackals. Now for the elites. She felt a pulse of plasma strike her chest. She took aim, and fired several burst shots into its head. Although the first 3 bursts were absorbed by its shields, the fourth one put several holes in its lightly armored chest, and left it mortally wounded. In that distraction, however, the second elite managed to get behind her. It kicked her in the back, sending her into the ground. In retaliation, she kicked it in its groin area, before getting up and punching it in the visor, which cracked. She punched the visor again, shattering it. The elites body instantly succumbed to the vacuum of space. She watched as the air rushed out of its lungs, and its skin went through the rapid loss of water. Very soon its face had bloated, taking up a much larger space than the helmet could hold. She continued to her target as the elites suit tore, and its body doubled in size due to gasses expanding inside it.
10 minutes later, and she was there. Claude was waiting around a similar group to the one she had dealt with. Ender spoke to her through her internal speakers.
"I scanned the surface of the construct. A large tower seems to be protruding outwards at each pole." Claude pointed to the North. They were only a few clicks away. Time for a quick march towards it.
Claude scanned the environment with his hidden eyes. The tower was much more visible now, only 500 Meters away. His hypothesis was right. Covenant forces were more populous around this area. A way in? It seemed ever so much more likely. Now they approached a covenant fortification. A small base, by the looks of it. Set up to keep watch, and also bring supplies in. Prehaps it went into the tower? Visual evidence seemed to lean towards the idea. The gate was covered by the equivalent of three or four patrol squads. A simple target. He glanced at Alice.
"Go left." he began. "I'l distract them, and you come in from behind."
"Understood." she replied.
In an almost casual manner, Claude approached the covenant group. Pulling a pistol, he relieved a grunt of its duty via a bullet through its head. The battalion reacted almost immediately, returning fire. Now in a slow sprint, Claude continued to dispatch their infantry. The blood and brains of jackals, grunts, and an elite or two showered the ground. Alice took the head off of a grunt as she came in from behind. Things heated up pretty quickly from then on. Backup was coming in from the base. More and more covenant rangers were ordered to defend it. Claude was now getting into close proximity with several targets, specifically elites.
Holstering his pistols, he took out an experimental weapon, the hardlight shortsword. The hilt sent out a foot and a half long blade of pure hardlight energy. Designed specifically for combat situations where the enemy was in close proximity, it was an effective weapon against elite armor, as it pierced shields with ease and sliced through flesh like butter. He did his best to avoid plasma shots, but that was hard. His sheild absorbed them fairly well, and so he persisted. The blade wiped into the side of an elite, and splashed its grunt infantry in purple blood. The terrified grunts were massacred by Alice, whom had shot them each with short bursts through the head.
Claude's short sword wiped through the top half of the head of an elite, ending the fight. They moved into the base itself. Moving through an airlock, they were greeted by an elite zealot. Whatever was in this place, it was damn valuable to the covenant. It thrusted its energy sword at Claude, who flowed around it, grabbing the elite's sword arm, and pulling it behind the elite. Alice shot it through the head. Time to move onward. Enders voice came into their speakers yet again.
"I'v scanned the tower and its features. It appears to be an energy vent of some kind. It leads directly downwards, to the core of the planet." He explained.
"Any maintenance tunnels?" Alice asked.
"Lemme see..." Ender began. A few moments later he continued. "There are tunnels lining the vent, they seem to go encircle the entire construct... All leading to one central location at the core: A terminal."
"I dunno about you, Alice, but this kinda reminds me of a Halo." Claude stated.
"Yeah." She thought.
"We got more bastards up ahead." Claude replied.
He pulled the shotgun off of his back as they approached a door. It opened, and they were greeted by a very surprised grunt, who was in turn greeted by an 8 gauge shotgun blast to the skull. Several grunts, jackals, and elites immediately sprang into action. Triton was surprised by the large number of Elites in this section. There was a number of jackals and grunts, but elites outnumbered them 2 to 1. Most of the jackals retreated to the higher point of the room, which consisted of a flat area, in front of two ramps which led onto a large platform. Behind which there was an elevator, and further was what appeared to be the energy vent. They were in the tower. The grunts were easily dispatched. A large group of 10 elites, 5 of which were zealots, came down the left ramp, while their Jackal cover shot from the top. Claude noticed that a smaller group of 5 elites were coming down the right hand side. They were in trying to flank them. He and Alice stood back to back, fighting off their forces. Alice took several shots at the Jackals, ending most of their lives. Claude dispatched elites, one at a time. The shotgun was an effective weapon when used correctly against the enemy. The bodies of several elites piled up on the floor. Soon, they dispatched the last of the elites, and made way for the elevator.
The elevator ride took a full 30 seconds. It was very dark down in the depths of the construct. It was calm, for the time being. The Spartans fully expected there to be more hostiles shortly, but for now, they took advantage of the lack of hostiles to cover ground. Claude surveyed his surroundings. The forerunner structure looked very similar to the halos, beside its geometric shape and lack of an Earth like surface. The duo walked in silence.
"Why are you so quiet?" Alice finally asked.
"What do you mean?" Claude replied.
"You used to be an outgoing smart ass of an ODST." She began. "Now you just keep everything to yourself. You don't even seem to care anymore."
"Is now really the time?" Claude argued.
"Sure it is. Nothing here to kill us." Alice replied. Claude kept quiet, hoping the conversation would die and they could get on with the mission.
"What am I to you?" She finally asked. Claude was confused. Why would she ask something like this now? Why did she care, anyway? Alice looked at him as they walked. Finally, Claude gave up.
"You," he began. "Are the most important person in my life. Now please, let's just complete the mission. We can discuss this later."
Claude looked at a map in his visor. They were rather close to the terminal. So where were all of the covenant forces? They put in an effort to guard the door, why not the terminal itself? They approached a chasm. Beyond it, appeared to be a series of pillars. He looked around. A large ramp led up to a small station, probably with a smaller terminal.
"Stay here." He told Alice. He approached the terminal.
The humans failed to notice the 4 zealots coming up from behind. Their active cameo had been greatly improved. Suddenly, Alice got struck by a heavy, blunt force in the back of the head. It knocked her down. She turned onto her back to see two elite zealots. One, with a storm rifle, stood at her feet. The other was at her side, with an energy sword aimed at her chest. Claude avoided getting punched at first, turning and stabbing the elite in the abdomen with his combat knife. The second zealot sliced the armor on his leg. It grabbed him by the throat, and tossed him off of the 20 meter balcony and nearly into the chasm. Meanwhile, Alice narrowly avoided getting an energy sword in the chest. She managed to pull an SMG, and used it on the Zealot with the storm rifle. The other one managed to knock the gun out of her hand, and then put her into a choke hold. These elites seemed stronger than the others, much stronger. String enough that she couldn't find the strength to stop this elite from strangling her.
Claude got up, grabbed his pistol, and shot the elite on top of Alice. His shields absorbed the impact. Instead of retaliating against Claude, the elite stayed put on Alice. Meanwhile, the other one jumped down onto Claude. He had just enough time to pull out his hardlight sword, blocking the energy sword of the elite, and slicing its abdominal cavity open enough that its internal organs spilled out in a river of blood. He ran towards Alice, and in one movement, decapitated the elite on top of her. She gasped for air and coughed. Staying still for a moment. Claude helped her up.
Alice thought of the near death experience for a moment before it dawned on her that, she was actually attracted to Claude. He climbed the ramp and touched the terminal, activating a hard light bridge that spanned the chasm, and connected all of the pillars. Claude came down to find Alice still standing in the same spot.
"Come on, lets go." he said. She looked at him, and then turned to walk with him. They went down the series of bridges, finally making it to their destination: The master Terminal. Behond them was the core of the construct, which looked like a massive ball of energy, expanding, and then shrinking in a pulse like way. Claude took Ender from his helmet and placed him into the terminal. His hologram quickly came up.
"Okay, Ender. Tell us what the hell this thing does so we can go home." Claude said. Ender took several moments to analyze the data.
"Oh my." He finally said.
"What is it?" Alice asked.
"It appears that this construct is an early precursor to the halo rings. It releases the equivalent of a kinetic pulse from its equator. It shakes planets apart." Ender began. "And like the halo rings, it requires a key to fire. The location of which is on the planet below..."
"If the covenant got their hands on this, they could wipe us out in a matter of days... Forget glassing a planet; they could turn it to dust!" Alice said.
"We need to get this intel back to ONI." Claude replied. He yanked Ender, and they turned. As they were walking along the hardlight bridge, a sudden burst of green plasma struck Alice. In an explosion, it sent her back. Knocking out her shields and rendering her unconscious.
Claude looked 50 meters ahead, where an assembly of covenant forces grouped up. 2 hunters, and at least 10 zealots stood in his way. They targeted him with cold eyes as their lead exclaimed
"Kill the Human!"