The Pillar of Autumn
Not to happy with this chapter to be honest... But then I expected as much, this level is a little straight forward, the fic won't get interesting until the real sandbox levels start... Which is the next chapter... Funnily enough...
Im aware there's an issue withparagraphs/structure; I'm currently uploading via my iPhone, and the paragraphing system doesn't work as it should. Once my laptop is fixed, I'll add paragraphs. Should be fixed now :)
Slowly, quietly, drifting through space; was the pillar of autumn. Three long swords on each side accompanied it, scouting for covenant forces who might have followed the ship from Reach. Gradually, an object came into view, no, not an object. A structure. A massive super structure shaped like some sort of ring...some sort of...halo.
Captain Keyes' voice could be heard.
"Cortana, all I need to know, is did we lose them?"
A brief pause, followed by Cortana's reply: "I think we both know the answer to that."
Inside the ship, Keyes scratched his head thoughtfully; how could they find us? We where careful, there was no way they could find out about Cortana. Why chase this ship? Surely taking Reach was enough?
"We made a blind jump, how did they-"
"Get here first? Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light speed my manoeuvring options where limited."
Keyes turned and walked up a set of steps. "We where running dark, yes?" He moved to a computer screen, to see for himself.
Cortana sighed. "Until we decelerated, no one could have missed the hole we tore in sub-space." Keyes checked long range scanners. She was right. The covenant had them surrounded. Cortana felt the need to clarify, Keyes needed to understand that they where out gunned, and needed to evacuate. "They where waiting for us on the far side of the planet."
Keyes turned away from the screen. "So, where do we stand?"
"Our fighters are mopping up the last of their recon picket now, nothing serious. But, I've isolated approach signatures signatures from multiple CCS class battle cruisers." An alarm rung out. Cortana continued. "Make it three capital ships per group. In about 90 seconds, they'll be all over us."
Keyes stood there. This was very problematic. He had two choices. Die fighting. Or die running away. Keyes was many things. And a coward was not one of them.
"Well that's it then. Bring the ship back up to combat alert alpha. I want everyone at their stations."
Cortana immediately started sending the crew orders, but then halted when realising the Captain's exact words. "Everyone, sir?"
"Everyone. And Cortana?" Cortana's avatar materialised in front of him. "Hm?" "Let's give our old friends a warm welcome."
"I've already begun."
...
Down in the cargo bay, Cortana's voice could be heard over loud speaker. "Attention, all combat personnel, please report to your action stations."
A warthog turned, and drove past a group of troopers. Stepping forward, was sergeant Johnson. He waved his rifle forward, ushering his men to assemble. "You heard the lady. Move like you got a purpose!" Six troopers lined up in front of him, preparing for his orders.
Cortana's voice returned. "This is not a drill. I repeat: this is not a drill."
Johnson stood in front of his platoon. "Men, here's where we show those split chinned sons-of-bitches they could not have picked a worse enemy than the human race. We are gonna blow their heads outta them dumb bugs, until we don't have anything left to shoot em with! And then, we are gonna strangle them with their own living guts! Am I right marines?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Uh huh, damn right I am. Now move it out. Double time!"
"Attention all personell, we are re-engaging the enemy. External and internal contacts imminent."
Jonson stood in front of his men again. "All you green horns who wanted to see covenant up close, this is gonna be your lucky day!"
...
*Hiss* Slowly, chief could feel his vitals increasing, he returned to consciousness relatively quickly. Voices could be heard. "He's hot! Blowing the pins in five!" The pod opened, and chief stepped out. "Come on! We gotta get the hell outta here!" Chief eyed up the technician. Why? Why where they in such a hurry? The marine quickly sprinted across the hall. He vaguely heard Cortana mentioning 'inbound covenant boarding crafts'. Which meant trouble. He followed the technician. "This way!" Suddenly, a door exploded in front of the techie, killing him instantly. The chief dove back, managing to minimise damage. He turned and saw another path; he hopped over some pipes, and proceeded down a corridor. Looking round, he turned right, passing another dead techie. A wall exploded near him, he covered his face to protect it from the blast. Pressing forward, he heard screams followed by gun fire. Not good. He turned and crouched under a door. Bolts of blue plasma shot past him, followed by a plasma grenade. Two elite's where to his left, luckily the bulkheads where closing, protecting the unarmed spartan. He turned a corner, and reached another stand off.
"The cavalry has arrived!" a marine shouted. "Sir, the captain needs you on the bridge ASAP, better follow me." The chief did so, passing many injured marines. Finally, he reached the bridge. "Captain Keyes?" Keyes held out his hand, to which the chief shook.
"Good to see you, master chief. Things aren't going well; Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance." Cortana popped up at the mention of her name.
"A dozen covenant superior battle ships against one helicon class cruiser, with those odds I'm contempt with three... make that four kills. Sleep well?"
The chief sighed. Hardly a priority question. Still, he humoured the AI. "No thanks to your driving, yes."
"So you did miss me."
Suddenly, the entire ship shook; Keyes gripped the deck, while Chief struggled to stay up right. "Report!"
"It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an antimatter charge."
One of the pilots cut in: "Ma'am, fire control for the main cannon is offline!"
"Captain, the cannon was my last defensive option."
"Alright then. I'm initiating cold protocol article two. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana."
"While you do what? Go done with the ship?" "In a matter of speaking... The object we found, I'm gonna try and land the Autumn on it."
"With all due respect, this war has enough dead heroes."
"I appreciate your concern, Cortana. But it's not up to me. Protocol is clear, destruction or capture of shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, and that means you're leaving ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landings, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer."
"Aye aye, sir." With that, she disappeared.
Keyes finally turned to the chief. "Which is where you come in, chief. Get Cortana off this ship, keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything: force deployment, weapon research... Earth."
"I understand."
Suddenly, Cortana popped back up. "The autumn will continue evasive manoeuvres, until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach."
"Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?" She considered this for a second. Hard transfers where never... Comfortable. "Yank me."
Keyes quickly started disengaging Cortana's connection to the Autumn. She disappeared, and Keyes withdrew her chip. He handed it to the chief. "Good luck, Master Chief." Chief took the chip, and placed it into the back of his helmet.
Cortana voice suddenly appeared inside his helmet. "Hmm, your architecture isn't much different from the autumn's" John gulped.
"Don't get any funny ideas."
Keyes handed him a pistol. "I don't keep it loaded, you'll have to find ammo as you go."
With that, the chief turned. And exited the bridge. ... The chief found a couple of clips in the corridor outside the bridge, which was quickly accompanied by the sound of grunt squeals. Two head shots and a melee later, the three grunts where dead. He entered the next room. Where a firefight was taking place.
"Those marines could use your help, do what you do best!"
Spartan time kicked in.
He quickly surveyed the room, noticing a squad of elites and grunts. He picked up an assault rifle, stepped forward, and pulled the trigger. He unloaded a clip upon an elite, killing it efficiently. His motion tracker alerted him of more covenant, to which he quickly turned and sprinted in that direction. Athletically jumping over a table, he reached the bulk of covenant. He ducked behind cover, and let his shields recharge. A grenade went off behind him.
"Watch out! There's two of us in here now, remember?"
Sheesh... Chief thought.
He jumped out of cover, and mowed down multiple grunts with his assault rifle. He turned to an elite, taking that down too. Suddenly, a roar broke out, and an elite was standing 10 feet away. His assault rifle dealt with its shields. Seeing it weakened, he sprinted over. *smack* He hit it square in the face with the butt of his rifle. This only angered the elite. He tried again, only this time it ducked, and hit him back. Using all his strength, he hit it again, only this time, a crunch could be heard, as the elite's neck snapped. ... He exited the room, and dealt with two more grunts.
"Nooo!" An elite's voice could be heard.
Damnit.
He turned the corner, only to find himself in close quarters with an elite. A clip of bullets and a smack to the face was more than enough.
Suddenly, the entire ship shook. "What the hell? Did something just hit us?" a marine asked.
Good question.
The chief pressed forward.
Ah, an air lock.
The chief jogged over to the door, where two marines where guarding it. A plasma grenade detonated, killing both marines. Chief ran to the air lock, noticing a covenant boarding ship. He tossed a grenade in, eliminating the threat. "They're using our life pods. We go out, they come in... Clever bastards." Chief wasn't sure if he could get used to Cortana's voice inside his head. He was a quiet thinker. But then, Spartans where exceptional at adapting. Two grunts later, he found himself in another fire fight with squad of elites and grunts. He found spamming grenades to be quite effective, and the butt of his rifle served well against an elite. He used his pistol to mow down the remaining forces. Next, he found an elite major, along with its two grunt squad mates. Which where blown up by two frags, which a marine happily threw. The marine was however killed by a plasma grenade. ... Pressing forward still, the chief's search for a life boat continued. He came across another skirmish, but the covenant had their backs to, him; the chief smiled to himself, and stuck a grunt with a sticky grenade. The grunt panicked and ran towards its squad for help. The look of fear in the elite's eyes was priceless.
"Covenant! On the landing above us!"
Chief dove into cover, coming back to back with Johnson. Both men stepped out of cover, and stormed the stairs, assault rifles burning at the covenant.
"The life pods are launching, we should hurry." The chief double timed it, sprinting through squad after squad of covenant. "We have to use the ships maintenance access ways. Follow the nav point, it'll lead you to an opening."
The chief homed in on the orange arrow, and entered the dark corridors. Once he exited, he was face to face with an elite. Quickly, he took cover, only stopping to throw a grenade over his shoulder. Plasma rained upon the wall he was using for cover. After about four seconds, it stopped, and he stepped out, returning fire. Once clear, he proceeded through.
Great... More dark catacombs.
Once his little trip through the dark was over, he stepped out into another firefight. Sprinting through, he reached the life pods. He literally lobbed every grenade around him at the covenant guards. Until every last one had suffered death. A marine ran ahead of him and jumped into the pod, only narrowly missing the door.
"Oh no..." The chief picked him up and through him in.
Cortana's voice returned."Now would be a VERY good time to leave!"
The chief closed the bumblebee's doors. "Punch it."
The pilot replied. "Aye aye, sir." The pod shot off, explosions happening all around it. "We're disengaged, going for minimum safe distance!"
A marine looked up at the chief, "We are gonna make, aren't we sir? I don't wanna die out here."
The chief patted his shoulder, only to be interrupted by Cortana. "Look!"
The chief marched towards the starscreen. Halo was in view. The marine piped up again; "What is that thing lieutenant?"
"Hell if I know... But we're landing on it."
"The autumn! She's been hit!"
"I knew it, the autumn's accelerating... Keyes is going in manually!" Suddenly, the Pillar of Autumn raced past the life pod, only narrowly missing it.
"Heads up everyone, this is it. We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five"
Chief gripped the walls for support, Cortana sensed his discomfort. "Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?"
"We'll be fine."
Clearly not convinced, Cortana replied: "If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed." And with that, the pod crashed down onto Halo...