Loop:0
Location: UNSC Infinity, Earth Orbit
Author: Parody Here
The Chief just stood there looking out of the viewport on the infinity. When Capitan Lasky walked up behind him and asked, "Mind if I join you?"
"Of course not, Sir."
"At ease Chief. It feels kinda odd for you to call me Sir." He walked up beside the Chief and looked out of the viewport at earth. "Beautiful isn't she? I don't get to see her often enough. I grew up on New Harmony. Attended Corbula Military academy. Never saw Earth until I was an adult, but… I still think of her as home." He paused and looked at the Chief and the continued looking out of the viewport. "You don't talk much, do you?" He waited and when the Chief didn't say anything he continued on, "Chief… I won't pretend to know how you feel. I've lost people I care about, but never anything like you're going through."
The Chief thought for a moment and then he spoke without emotion, "Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost."
Lasky turned and looked at him' "You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren't machines." The Chief looked at Lasky, "We're just people." He paused, "I'll let you have the deck to yourself." With that he turned and left the chief standing there.
The Chief looked out of the viewport once again. "She said that to me once," he thought out loud. "About being a machine." He stood there for some time and then he turned and started to leave when everything went black.
Loop:1
Location: Unknown
Author: Parody Here
White light appeared as the Chief groggily came to and several thoughts went through his mind at the same time, what had happened, where was he, and how did he get here. He was mulling all of this over when someone said, "Sorry for the quick thaw Master Chief, but things are a bit hectic right now. The disorientation should pass quickly."
He also heard a second voice say, "Welcome back Master Chief." The Chief then realized that he was in a cryo tube, that coupled with the two statements he had just heard made him realize where he was, but… he couldn't be there.
The tube opened and when he didn't immediately get out the technician in front of him asked, "Are you ok Sir?"
The Chief climbed out of the cryo tube and looked at the technician, "Yes. Where are we?"
"Not even the captain knows that right now. We just made a blind jump from Reach and the covenant are already chasing our asses again. I guess that's why the captain needs you. Stand on the red square please," the technician said indicating a targeting alignment device attached to the wall.
'Well that confirms where I am. Now what do I do?' the Chief thought as he finished the calibration test.
"Please follow me to the energy shield test station," the tech in front of the Chief said.
'I guess I don't have any choice right now,' the Chief mentally sighed as he walked to the indicated station. What he heard next made actually made him pause for a moment.
Cortana's voice came on over the intercom and said, "Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders."
"Sir are you sure you're ok?" the tech asked
"Yes I'm fine." The Chief said dismissively and continued on to the test station.
"Then stand on the yellow square. This will just take a second," the tech said placing himself in front of a control panel.
The ship rumbled and the Chief complied taking a step into the indicated square and standing in between two pillars. The tech said something to his assistant in the control tower and the pillars began to rotate around the Chief and emit a yellow glow. The Chief definitely knew something was wrong now, he was back aboard the Autumn and Cortana was present. Was this some kind of Forerunner trick? Why was he in his own past? None of it made sense to him, and then he realized that if this really was his past and it wasn't a trick of some kind then he could use this to his advantage in so many ways. He knew what was going to happen and as long as he didn't change any major events he could save so many lives, but there was still the problem of how he had gotten here in the first place. If he was being influenced by an outside entity and this was not reality then he could reveal an enormous amount of classified information. He was torn between the two ideas until Capitan Keyes made an announcement and he thought of something else. If whatever entity that might be controlling him at the moment was able to reproduce the environment he was in now then it didn't matter what he did, as they could just take whatever information they wanted from his mind anyway.
There was an explosion in the control tower and before the tech inside could do more than drop the emergency door and sound the alarm the Chief had already left his pedestal. He jumped up and broke through one of the large windows separating the control tower and the cryo bay. After landing inside he grabbed the technician and jumped back out of the window he had just come in. when they landed he set the second technician down beside the first one and motioned for them to head out of the nearest door. The tech got up and all three of them where out of the cryo bay before the Covenant could burn through the blast door. Once through they were in a poorly lit hallway. The first technician said, "This way," and started to proceed down to the next door.
"No, Wait!" The Chief yelled.
The technician stopped, looked at the Chief, and asked, "Why?" A second later an explosion blew up the next corridor and the door separating the corridors bulged outwards. The technician simply said, "Oh..."
The other technician complained, "Where do we go now?"
The Chief paused ,looked around, and noticed a pair of conduits separating him from another hallway, "This way," he said as he climbed over.
AN: Sorry for the short chapter. This is my first story of any kind and I plan on keeping a regular update schedule but until life settles down for me it will be monthly. That aside I am open to story suggestions. If you have any questions on how the loops work then visit Infinite Loops Wiki and look around for a while. It's the best site I could find that explains the loops.
Ps AN: As of 7/3/2015 my laptop has suffered a fatal error and I an stuck to writing this story on my phone and emailing it to myself. After that I can publish the story from a public library ,but it is going to take much longer to write even a single chapter. I apologize for the inconvenience and I am working on getting a new laptop in the meantime.