Hello FF readers! This is my first fan fic, so all feedback is appreciated!
Summary: Instead of Six staying on Reach, he goes on the Autumn escaping. The UNSC finds some new pals.
Noble Six's objective was complete. Cortana was safely aboard the Pillar of Autumn. The frigate had taken an extremely high number of would-be doomed civilians. What he saw aboard the frigate spurred his rage against the Covenant.
Upon entering the ship, the Spartan saw things which even bothered his battle-hardened self. Torn families gathered in the hangar, some with photos and makeshift memorials set up. Children now considered orphans, parents which lost children, brothers and sisters whom would never see the other again.
Walking past the med bay, he saw injuries which would leave some scarred for life, and some which would be lucky to survive their injuries. Even the military forces were low on morale. They just watched the UNSC's most fortified planet fall with its surface partially glassed, despite everyone saying Reach would not fall.
Noble Six, one of two surviving members of Noble Team, started making a B-line to the nearest exit to kill more Covenant for vengeance. He wanted to make them pay so bad. However, through the rage and bloodlust, he began to think.
"Kat, Carter, Emile, Jorge, all of them gave their Iife for so the innocent wouldn't have to. If I stay behind to "go down with the ship", how can I protect anybody, how can I make these Covie's pay!" That's when he remembered one of his favorite quotes from a US World War 2 general. "You don't win a war by dying for your country; you win by making the other son of a bitch die for his."
Observing his surroundings, the Spartan noticed something. The civilians and military alike looked at him, and for once he could see the seeds of hope take root. Noble Six got a reputation among the UNSC and civilians; for being the next biggest badass next to the Master Chief himself.
"Mommy says you'll protect us! You'll keep us safe from the monsters that took daddy." A little girl, no older than 6, called out to Six, her voice bolstered with a new found sense of safety.
This touched the battle-hardened Spartan's heart. For a brief time, the rage calmed, turning into the goal to ensure the safety of everyone there. Six kneeled down, and gently placed his hand on her shoulder, "I promise, you, your family, and everyone else on this ship will be safe." Noble Six, a badass with a heart of gold.
The girl's mother called out to her, just as Capt. Jacob Keyes called through on his armor's comms. Keyes urgently said, "Six! Are you staying or going?! We don't have time to dilly-dally! I gotta get off this planet now! Stay or go?"
Six gruffly replied, "I'm staying, sir! Hit the engines." With that, the ship began to roar to life. The Pillar of Autumn made its escape from the doomed world.
For the most part, the journey was safe. Covenant was not pursuing, or so they thought. The Halycron-class cruiser eventually detected a strange, ring-shaped object, unbeknownst to them as Installation 04. Curiosity filled the air as the object was in clear view of the cockpit and other windows.
That curiosity was replaced with fear as the emergency sensors started blaring. This only meant one thing, the Covenant had arrived. Noble Six gritted his teeth as he knew the amount of civilians which were on this ship.
Then, an icon appeared on his HUD. It was Keyes.
"Six! I'm sure you're aware of our new friends! We have to get these civs out of here! There's enough Pelicans to evacuate them, but we can only spare a few marines for protection. I know you'd rather slash Elite's throats, but I need you with the civs." Jacob said in a rushed tone of voice.
Six, dying to get payback for the horror of Reach, had to swallow his thirst for vengeance. "Affirmative. I'm on my way to the hangar." He replied with an overtone of disappointment.
Spartan B-312 rushed first to an armory amidst the chaos, which luckily wasn't to far. The armory guards didn't even bother to ask to fill a requisition form, since Covies definitely wouldn't wait on a req form.
First, he checked out a BR55. It passed his inspections, so he attached to the magnetic plates on his back. He grabbed an SMG, and attached it to the thigh, and inspected his magnum. Grabbed as many loaded BR and SMG clips as possible, check. Topped off his magnum mags, check. Grenades replenished, check. Knife, armor, and shields in good shape, check.
The rearmed Spartan rushed to Hangar 2C, again dodging personnel also in a hurry to their stations. With his speed and agility, he made it to the hangar in good time, as the civilians were hurried into the Pelicans. Six even saw the little girl and her mother from earlier being loaded on the ship next to his.
It didn't take long for the Pelicans to be ready. Six sat in the lead Pelican, between four of the last S-III's and some civilians, mostly married couples and a few kids. The pilot announced as the craft roared its engines, "There's a habitable planet not to far from this ring. That's going to be our destination."
"Great...Landing on an uncharted world with civs while the Pillar of Autumn tries to hold off the Covies. What could go wrong?" Six quietly thought to himself.
The Pelican lifted through the hangar, and finally into the vacuum of space. Six, sliding the cover up in front of a window, looked at the vacuum, and the purple menace which was emerging from a Slipspace portal.
The Pelicans flew in formation with a few Longswords flying protection. The pilots pushed the crafts to their limits. If these dropships could talk, they'd probably be crying. The pilots wanted to get out of range before the Covies started deploying fighters.
Luckily, their journey was smooth. They figured the Covenant would be busy engaging the Autumn at the ring, and wouldn't have the chance send fighters for them. Despite the heavy atmosphere of fear among the fleeing group, they were relieved when the pilot announced, "We're descending into the atmosphere, we'll be landed completely in a few minutes. This atmosphere is just like Reach's, so don't worry about that."
Noble Six looked out the window again. He witnessed clouds, lush vegetation, birds flying by, some rodent-esque critters moving around, lakes, hell this looked like one of the nicer planets of the UNSC's inner colonies.
When the Pelicans came to a still in an open prairie surrounded by thick forests, Six stood up, and sternly said, "Ok Spartans! We got Pelicans full of civs with a poor marine-to-civ ratio! We're going to go out first, and do some recon! We'll have time for formal introductions later!"
Six outranked them, but that didn't matter to them cause they would take orders from him regardless. The S-III's, in unison, stood up and concurred, "Sir yes sir!" They did a quick weapons check, and were ready to go. There was a MA5C-armed S-III, a DMR-armed S-III, an SMG-armed S-III, and a SAW-armed S-III.
Six hit the green button, opening the metal door. Looking back at the civilians, he sternly said, "You stay in here till it's clear!" The civilians did not argue at all.
The Spartans, wary of any movement, fanned out closer to the tree line. They scanned the environment profusely looking for any sign of activity. There was none. Eventually, they gave the clear for the civilians to come out and stretch their legs.
There were four marines and an abundance of civilians, some were adults, some were children, and some were teenagers. It seemed they were happy to have lived this long, seeing what they've gone through. People chatted, explored the landing site, and just took in this beautiful scenery and the wildlife before the Covenant turns it to glass.
The Spartans sat around the outer edge of what looked like a Pelican dealership, with the craft sitting in organized rows and everyone crowding around them. They kept a watchful eye on their motion sensors.
Seeing as now would be the best time for introductions, one of the S-III's opened with a Hawaiian accent, "I know we didn't have time for formalities, so here it goes. I'm Dante-0754." Another responded in a New England accent, "I'm Michelle-1369." The other jumped in with a Swiss accent, "I'm Connor-0246." Lastly, the other chimed in with a Spanish accent, "I'm Octavian-1247." They all looked at Six, trying to cue him, to which he replied, "I'm Six...Just Six."
"You think they'll make it, the Autumn? I've tried to radio for a sit rep, but no reply back." Dante lamented obviously worried. Michelle responded, "They'll be ok. I mean, the Master Chief is on that ship. We made it through Reach!" They would've continued there speculations, but their motion sensors, as well as the marines, started going off.
The reason? Two Jackals had civilians in their sights while the Elites, Brutes, and Grunts slowly inched their way to sneak up on the humans, planning to ruin what they call a false sense of security. What the Covies didn't realize was this was no false sense of security, even if they didn't realize it. What takes place here will change the war.
The Jackals suddenly found themself suspended in mid air with bone-breaking pressure on its neck.
Snap, crackle, pop
The two Jackals didn't know what hit them as they were twisted and crushed into a multi-colored gooey pretzel. The rest of the task force didn't even realize there overwatch was gone as they rushed head first from the trees.
The motion sensors picked up the red dots, meaning hostile...and some white ones, which meant unknown. The Spartans remained aware of the unknowns, but charged to the commotion. What they saw next was unbelievable.
These hazy clouds could be seen behind the Brutes with two red glowing lights on the upper part. These lights turned into a violent bright laser, which screamed as it tore the air apart to reach its target. When it did, the Brutes exploded into a gory mess.
The Spartans were flabbergasted, narrowly missing an overcharged plasma shot which hit a Pelican and EMP'ed it. With fast reflexes, Dante made an inferno with his incineration grenades, incinerating some grunts. The Spartans and marines laid suppressing fire on the enemy.
Of course, this scene became chaotic. Civilians screamed and ran for their life trying to dodge plasma fire. Some ran in the forests, some ran behind Pelicans, some clutched their loved ones and prayed for divine intervention.
"MOMMY!" A shrill bloodcurdling scream shot through the air. A Zealot had cornered the same mother and daughter from earlier. In a last-ditch effort to buy the daughter some time, the mother charged at the Elite with a rock in hand. The Zealot simply grabbed her arm, and flung her against the metal exterior of the Pelican.
The little girl pulled a stunt which some marines might not have. She charged at the Zealot to protect her mother, screaming, "YOU AREN'T TAKING MOMMY TO!"
The Zealot kicked the girl against the same craft activating its sword, leaving her crying by her wounded mother. Six, immediately recognizing the scream, looked horrified at the scene. If you think parent bears are brutal when it comes to protecting young cubs, then imagine a genetically augmented bear with MJOLNIR armor. Finishing off the last Brute with a point blank BR burst to its skull, he launched himself to the Elite.
The Zealot, shields taking well-placed fire from Six and seeing him on its motion sensor, turned around and stabbed its sword at Six when he was in range. The Spartan side stepped out of the way remarking, "Not this time, fucker!"
Then he saw it. The hazy cloud materialized into a what Six at first thought was a new Covenant faction, one which would even give Hunters a run for their money. It activated what looked like the staff part of the gravity hammer.
With noises Six hadn't heard before, the top section emitted this dark swirling plasma, similar to an energy sword but much darker and volatile-looking. It looked like a high tech scythe the grim reaper would do cart wheels to get ahold of.
The Zealot, puzzled at what was so important that his opponent couldn't even bring his full focus on him, turned around. The Zealots mandibles curled to a surprised expression. He even tried to warn it to back off in Sangheili, but he was interrupted as the creature let out a monstrous roar.
The Yautja brought the weapon down on the Elite to fast for it to move. Thunderous crackles and hisses filled the air as the Elite's body was cleaved in two, with much of the body vaporized.
The Yautja turned its gaze to Six, then the wounded mother and daughter behind him, and repeat a few times. With a low growl, the Yautja pointed to the civs, then back to Six, and back to the civs. The Spartan, still mesmerized, nodded. The thing wanted him to stay with the wounded and out of the way.
"SIX! WHAT THE FUCK?! ARE THESE COVENANT!?" Connor yelled. The enemy task force was neutralized, but the rest of the Spartans and marines, with their weapons raised, and the three Yautja gazed upon each other. It wasn't until a Phantom appeared for the silence to be broken.
The Yautja made a series of unintelligible noises, and pointed to the remaining civilians hiding around the Pelicans. The Spartans deciphered the Yautja were telling them to stay at the landing zone, with the civilians. One the Yautja aimed its dual-shoulder cannons at the enemy ship, and with a bright laser "one-shot" it out of the sky.
"One things for sure, you aren't Covenant." Six remarked. "Obviously! They fucking took out Brutes and a Phantom in one damn shot! Let's not make enemies here! Enough aliens want to kill us!" Octavian said hastily. Connor added, "Plus they cleaved an Elite in half with one swipe of that Robo-Reaper scythe!" Michelle, adding one last statement, "So we all agree we should at least try to be civil with them."
Leaves crunching could be heard as more heavily armored Yautja emerged. They were fireman-carrying the human civilians which fled into the forest back to the landing zone. However, some of them were bound at their hands and feet, but were unharmed. Well, one person was a little bruised due to the escorting Yautja not being all to gentle when handling humans. It was probably cause of the warm, wet, and foul-smelling liquid now all over his crotch and seeping down his leg, but it could've been anything.
The UNSC forces, still in high alert and weapons in hand but not pointed at the Yautja, were dumbfounded. Covenant would slaughter them all without hesitation, but these creatures were returning their wayward civilians. Eventually, the Yautja went into active camo and moved out, leaving only one there. This Yautja paced closer to the UNSC forces, and spoke into its gauntlet. Then, a voice in human English came out, like some Predator Rosetta Stone.
Raspy and mechanical, it translated, "At first, we were going to kill you because we thought this was a hostile force. Now, we understand why you sought refuge. Those unhonorable beasts have violated many of our sacred laws and code. This is an abomination to us. Come warriors, we have much to discuss."