"Good to see you, Spartan. Halsey assured me I could count on you." Six handed the package to him. "Now, are you sure about this?" Six stopped. "Sir, yes sir." Keyes turned to the approaching Cruiser. "What? Your staying behind?" Emile shouted. "Cruiser, adjusting heading for the Autumn! Noble Four, Noble Six will take your position, retreat to the cruiser, now! Do you copy?" Emile turned to Onager to the sky. "I'll be onboard, sir." Emile said before muttering, "Good to have you on this team, rookie." Keyes stepped back on the Pelican, as it pulled off. "Bridge, this is the Captain. The rest of Noble Team is onboard and we have the package. Returning to the Autumn, over." A Pelican came to extract Emile and followed Keyes' Pelican to the ship.
Now set to give his life for the Autumn, Six knew what he had to do. "Noble Six, I need you to get on that mass driver and cut me a path." Six directly mocked these words, and rushed all the way to the Onager, mounting it. "Cruiser, moving into position. I need it dead!" Waves of Phantoms and Banshees attack the lone Spartan, but are obliterated by the power of the Onager. As he awaited the Cruiser's positioning, he continued to destroy the Covenant aircraft that assaulted. "Mass driver won't crack those shields! Steady, Spartan!" The Cruiser came right over the Autumn, and charged it's plasma projector. "Fire! Now, Lieutenant! Hit her in the gut!" Six ignored the distractions, aimed directly at the ship's plasma projector, charged, and fired.
The magnetic areas destablized. "Good guns, Spartan. All stations: brace for cast-off." The Pelicans docked in time, as the ship departed. Six climbed down, and watched as the Autumn made orbit. "They win this one." Knowing the Covenant had won this round, Six equipped a Fragmentation Grenade, and threw it at his feet, disabling his shields. He then equipped a Magnum, putting it to his temple, three...two...one. Six fired a shot, and his vision immediately blackened out, and he dropped to the deck, silently. Two Phantoms flew over it. One dropped off a group of Grunts, and another dropped off the Field Marshall and it's two Zealot companions. It emerged it's Energy Sword, and drove it directly through the chest of the lifeless Spartan, then roared, along with the other two Zealots. Covenant Victory was declared, but only for Reach.
The Pillar of Autumn exited Slipspace, and drifted towards Installation 04. "Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?" Keyes' voice whistled, in this silent area of space. "I think we both know the awnser to that." Cortana, now activated, said.
John-117 awoke, as white light faded out from his vision. Afterwards, he spotted Tech Chief Thom Shephard infront of him, with Tech Officer Sam Marcus in the observation chamber above. "His suit shows green. Cycle complete." His cryo tube lifted. "Sorry for the quick thaw, Master Chief. Things are a little hectic right now. The disorientation should pass quickly." John looked up at Marcus, who waved at him. "Welcome back, sir. We'll have you battle ready stat."
John adjusted his neck, and blinked several times. "Chief, please look around the room. I need to get a calibration reading for your battle suit's diagnostics." He then looked around the cryo bay. "Good. Thank you sir." John noticed his HUD's health bar appear. "I'm bringing your health monitors online, sir." His health bars appear, from red, yellow, to blue. "Vital signs look normal. No freezer burn. Okay sir, go ahead and climb out of the cryo tube." John lifted his torso, and stood up, then jumped down to face Shephard, stretching his arms.
"I gave you a double dose of the wake-up stim. Take a quick walk around the cryo bay and join me at the optical diagnostics station when you're ready." John quickly jogged around the cryo tubes, as Shephard waited for him to be finished. He then stood on the red square. "I know the ordnance techs usually take care of your targeting sensors, but we're short of time, Chief. Just look at each of the flashing panels to target them. When you lock on, it'll change color." John directed his helmet towards the orange lights, as they turned green.
"Okay, that looks good..." John rubbed his neck. "I'm ready for the energy shield test now." He then took a deep breath. "Please follow me to the energy shield test station." John followed Shephard, as Cortana broadcasted over the ship's COM. "Fire teams: Report to defensive positions Alpha through Sierra. Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders. Noble Team: Report to the bridge ASAP." He entered the energy shield test station.
Shephard looked up at Marcus. "Okay, bring his energy shields online please." The two prongs spawned yellow lights, and began to spin, as the Spartan's shields came online. "Alright. Shields read as fully charged." John raised his arms, and watched the effects of his shield recharging. "Alright. Shields read as fully charged." Marcus nodded. "Okay, sir. Bring them down to test the automatic recharge." John did so, as the prong lights turned red, and spun around faster. Then, his shields were knocked out, forming red energy waves around him. The prongs began slowing down. "Recharging normal. Showing green across the board."
They stopped. "Bridge to Cryo 2, this is Captain Keyes. Send the Master Chief to the bridge immediately." Keyes acknowledged over the COM system. "Captain, we'll have to skip the weapons diagnostics and I-" Shephard was cut off. "On the double, crewman." He blinked. "Aye aye, sir. The skipper seems jumpy, we'd better get moving. We'll find you weapons later." John exited, and followed Shephard to the door. "Okay. I'll leave the self-diagnostics running, at least."
"Good idea. You'd better get to your evac group, Sam!" Marcus began rushing. "Affirmative. Just have to reset the computer and I'm outta here!" Bangs were heard on the door to his left. "Oh God! They're trying to get through the door!" The door explodes, and through comes an Elite Major, who shoots at him with a Plasma Rifle, narrowly missing. "Security! Intruders in Cryo Two! No, please don't, agh!" Marcus' voice garbled, as the Elite finally landed a shot on him, making him fall to the floor. Shephard panicked. "Sam! Sam! Come on, we've gotta get the hell out of here." The door to exit the cryo chamber opened, and the two entered. "This way!" Marcus ran down the corridor, to a door that was locked. John sensed something, and the door exploded, blowing Marcus away.
John was blocked off, so he jumped over one of the ship's pipelines, and into another corridor paralell to the previous. He went through multiple areas, seeing crewmen fighting off Covenant. He ignored, and continued through more corridors. Chipps Dubbo was using an Assault Rifle to assist the crewmen. "Sir! The Captain needs you on the bridge, ASAP! You better follow me." John does so, and the two go past the fighting, and to the bridge. John overheard a conversation around the corner, and slowly approached, then stopped when he spotted four Spartan-III's and one Spartan-II standing around Captain Keyes. Before John could approach, a large explosion rocks the ship, tumbling everyone. Cortana's avatar appeared.
"Report!" Keyes snapped. "It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an Antimatter Charge!" Cortana provided. A Fire Control Officer turned around. "Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" Keyes turned to Cortana. "Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option." He calmed down. "Alright then. I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana." Cortana rolled her eyes. "While you do what, go down with the ship?" she smartly remarked. "In a manner of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it." Cortana prepared to speak. "With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes." Keyes gasped.
"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer." Cortana agreed. "Aye aye, sir." Her avatar disappears. "Which is where you come in, Noble Team. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research... Earth."
"Sir. Consider it done." Carter obeyed. Cortana's avatar reappeared. "The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach." She smiled at him, as he gasped. "Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?" Cortana looks at the Spartans, and then spots John, who in return pretends he is a whole different person. "Yank me." Keyes pulls the data chip out, and holds it. "Who will be the carrier, sir?" Carter asked. "Your new Noble Six...behind you." Keyes looked at John, as the five do so aswell. "Oh come on. Another one?" Emile whined. He walked to Carter, face to face. "Master Chief." he acknowledged. "Commander..." John let out. "Have you read his file?" Emile asked. Kat nodded. "Not a single thing."
"I'm Carter, Noble Team's leader. That's Kat, Jun, Emile, and Jorge: Nobles Two through Five. You're Noble Six, and you're on your own." Keyes handed the data chip to him. "Good luck, Noble Team." John slides the chip into the back of his helmet. "Hmm...your architecture isn't much different from the Autumn's..." Cortana's voice shiffled through, chuckling. "Don't get any funny ideas." he demanded. Keyes pulled out a Pistol, and handed it to John. "I don't keep it loaded, son. You'll have to find ammo as you go." He inspected it. "Get going, Chief. We'll keep the Captain safe." Carter ordered. John exited the bridge, and through a corridor, he heard sounds of Grunts around the corner. He readied the Pistol, and came out to fire on the Grunts. They returned fire, but their Plasma Pistols couldn't get his shields down fast enough, so John picked them off one by one.
The door to the Lunch Room opened, and he spotted Marines fighting off an Elite down the corridor. "Those Marines could use some help, Chief! Do what you do best!" Cortana advised. He picked up an Assault Rifle below him, and assisted, taking the Elite down. On the far side, Sergeant Johnson commanded another group of Marines, as two more Elites and Grunts entered through two more doors. The UNSC forces swept off the attackers, as John went through corridors, and came across an Elite fighting off three Marines. He simply meleed it in the back, killing it instantly. As he met them, another explosion rocked the ship. "What the hell? Did something just hit us?" one cursed. "Move it! Back to the airlock!"
At the airlock, two Marines stood infront of it's doors, which soon exploded, sending them flying. The usual lance of Grunts and Elites emerged. The UNSC forces swept them up, and John explored the boarding craft's interior. "They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft. We go out and they come in! Clever bastards..." Cortana expressed. After multiple corridors, he then moved to a room where Covenant attacked from the ledge above. "Covenant! On the landing above us!" John advanced to the top, and eliminated the Covenant opposition. Through the large area, he came to a dark area, with a window overlooking lifepod hatches. Bumblebee's launched, as pulse lasers impacted repeatedly. "The lifepods are launching! We should hurry." Cortana warned. As one more Bumblebee launched, it was quickly destroyed by a laser. "The Covenant are destroying the lifepods...they really don't want us on that ring." she moaned.
John went past the now empty lifeboat hatches, as the blast doors began closing. "Warning! Blast doors closing! We'll have to use the ship's maintenance access ways. Follow the NAV point, it will lead you to an opening." A NAV point showed up, and he followed to an access tunnel entrance. The grating door open, and he moved through. "I'm detecting Covenant movement outside the access ways. Activating motion tracker. Let's find a safe exit."
His HUD displayed the Motion Tracker, which showed all cleared, but he found the exit which lead to a darkened room with a broken door. "Wait. We need to get through that door, but it's been damaged by an explosion. Analyzing...the door's control mechanism is offline, but it's taken a lot of damage. You should be able to bash it open with the butt of your weapon." John looked confused, then meleed the door, letting him through. In this partially burned area of the ship, he moved through a corridor, and into the observation chamber. Below were three elites; two Minor, and one Major. "It looks like the Covenant wanted to catch you napping." Cortana expressed. They fired at the invulnerable glass, then exited the cryo bay.
At the end of the same corridor on the other side, an Elite stood, then prepared to engage him, but it was quickly blown away by an explosion. To his right, a group of Grunts were tampering, then an explosion too wiped them out, also lowering John's shields. He ducked, then entered another maintenance access way, as another explosion erupted behind him as he entered.
Exiting the maintenance access tunnels, he assisted Marines in battling through the Covenant, towards one more lifeboat bay. The Elite Major that was spotted previously appeared. Luckily, Frag Grenades were infront of John. He picked them up, and threw as many as he could, wiping out the Elite and it's allies. "There's one last lifeboat. Quick, get aboard before it launches!" A Marine jumped to the floor, frightened, covering his head with his arms. "Oh no, oh no!" he cried. John picked him up by the back, and threw him inside the remaining Bumblebee pod. "Now would be a VERY good time to leave." Cortana said.
John stepped inside, with the doors closing behind him. "Punch it." he ordered. "Aye aye, sir!" the Pilot acknowledged, sealing her eye visor. The lifeboat launched, causing John to drop his Assault Rifle. "We're disengaged. Goin' for minimum safe distance." He settled down, "We're gonna make it, aren't we, sir? I don't wanna die out here!" a Marine panicked. John put his hand on his shoulder, ensuring he'd be okay. "Look!" Cortana said. He stepped to the back, and watched the pod approach the Halo ring. "What is that thing, Lieutenant?" a Marine asked. "Hell if I know, but we're landin' on it." she replied. "The Autumn! She's been hit!" the panicking Marine shouted. John dashed to the back of the pod to watch the Pillar of Autumn. "I knew it! The Autumn's accelerating, Keyes is going in manually!" The ship is struck by multiple Plasma Torpedos as the pod passed under it.
"Heads up everyone, this is it! We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five!" The Pilot continued to count down. "Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana asked. "We'll be fine." John remarked. He gripped the sides of the lifeboat. "If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed..." The vehicle enters Halo's atmosphere, and a piercing white light blinded everyone.