Author's Notes:
This story is a mixture of Halo and Gears of War. Some people might find that totally strange but I'm working off a fantastic idea by EZB. He deserves mention here, as he was the first one I know of to try out this concept. A lot of action and language ahead, so read responsibly. I am All That Is Legendary, none are like me.
Cortana sighed. She was lost in the middle of space, with the man she loved in a cryogenic sleep. Love. Not so much a new concept for her, but one that she had never really thought about. Complex data streams flowed through her glowing body. Some of them she recognized, they were the standard codes and commands used to create her image and intelligence, others were codes used to find and organize information. Some, however, she did not. They resembled any other code, but they utilized pointless commands, they were random segments of numbers and letters. Why did they make her feel? She extended an electronic hand and touched the codes. They oscillated around the fingers. Curious.
With nothing else to do, she activated the ships external sensors; hysradar and gravity flux nodes came online. Within seconds, she had readings that told of a massive gravity distortion within eight hundred thousand kilometers. The hysradar scanner confirmed that the bends in space and light were caused by a planet. How did we end up so close to a planet? Cortana used outboard cameras to get a visual on the H-congruous planet. Lights twinkled welcomingly on the surface; large bodies of water surrounded two massive continents. Cortana set the camera to full zoom at 4000x. She could see the outlines of a huge city, details were blurry, but it was inhabited.
Cortana hurriedly began to thaw the Master Chief, she didn't have much time until the segment of ship they were on drifted into the planet's atmosphere. Ten seconds later, she had estimated trajectories and the location that the ship would land. Two point eight minutes later, the Chief was shaking his head, dislodging pieces of carbonate and nitrogen. He breathed heavily. "How long was I out?"
"About three minutes. We've got a problem."
"And that is…?"
"In about twenty minutes, we are going to enter the atmosphere of a planet. The planet is habitable, and it already contains life. Our "ship" won't last five seconds against reentry, it's too damaged. I recommend you load up on weapons and take the last life boat that's still in its hangar."
"Sounds like a plan."
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Marcus Fenix slept peacefully in his cot. That is until Baird busted into the room. "Sargeant Asshole, get up Hoffman wants us in command in thirty minutes."
He groaned at the intruder. "Alright I'm coming, just get the hell out."
Baird smirked sarcastically, "Why? Wanna get some more time to have your little wet dreams about Anya?"
Marcus didn't hesitate to hurl his shoulder armor piece at Baird.
Marcus was dressed and on his way to the raven hangar in fifteen minutes. Cole, Dom, and Baird were already there. Marcus took a quick glance around the cavernous room. Six King Ravens were parked on their pads in the Main Hangar. They looked indestructible with their massive metal panels and bulky cockpit. Marcus knew, however, that they were far from invulnerable. One Nemacyst could totally obliterate one.
He walked over to King Raven Four-Six, one that had taken him to many battles with the Locust. Dom sat on the ground, leaning against the Raven and cleaning his Lancer. Cole was already in the chopper, inspecting the chain gun latched to the doorframe. Baird was re-assembling a Longshot sniper rifle. Satisfied, he hopped into the Raven and yelled, "Alright, we're ready to go."
The others ignored him and kept to there tasks. Marcus adjusted the strap to his breast piece; it felt too tight. Baird was pissed. "Hey assholes! I said lets go!"
Marcus, Dom and Cole took their sweet time finishing up and boarding the Raven. Baird's face resembled a tomato. The pilot started the engines and requested permission to leave. Air Control granted their request and opened the hangar doors directly above them. King Raven Four-Six rose gracefully of its pad and through the now opened blast shield. It soared towards Central Command Headquarters of the Coalition of Ordered Governments. The headquarters was a massive complex, roughly a kilometer long and wide, with twelve floors. Six floors were for military purposes, two for the administration, and the remaining four were residential quarters. Marcus looked beyond the leviathan structure to the ruins of Sera. What was once a beautiful, utopian world, was now a smoke and rubble filled wasteland. The smell of decaying bodies and burning streets filled the air. There was no escape from it.
The King Raven touched down on one of the helicopter pads. The four Gears jumped out of the chopper and walked away, their faces battered by the blades' gusts of air. Anya stood waiting at the entrance; a steel door with a dark corridor beyond. She smiled warmly and waved them over. Marcus felt his cheeks heat up. She was very pretty. Her long blond hair flowed to her shoulders, her soft face glowed with luster. Her chest was quite large and her curving hips made Marcus incredibly awkward around her. She turned and strode down the corridor and told them to follow. She briefed them as they walked the endless halls, "About ten minutes ago, our satellites detected a large object floating towards us. Normally, we would not have been bothered, but the object in question was man-made, badly damaged and emitting pulses. We were scanned several times by its advanced systems. Then, after approximately seven minutes, a smaller craft, possibly an escape boat, had launched from the object."
Baird cut in, "So, how come we can't just blast it out of the sky?"
Anya looked annoyed. "Because Private Baird, it was emitting an S.O.S signal, an the Locust are not capable of space travel, we are assuming that whatever is inside the small craft is not hostile. The ship has no weapons and neither does the large object it came from."
"Yeah, well—
Cole sighed loudly, "Baird don't argue with the lady, she don't need yo' bitchin' right now."
Anya continued, "So, the plan is for you to travel to the site where we believe the escape pod will land. The problem is that there are a lot of locust in the area. You will need approach the area on foot, but we'll take you about one click southwest of the area."
The Gears grunted in unison.
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Master Chief deployed the air brakes as the lifeboat soared over the city. He caught a glimpse of an enormous building, with what looked like…helicopters!? Buzzing around it. Helicopters were ancient history on Earth, the Chief remembered. Cortana saw them as well, "Maybe this place is a little primitive, and I haven't seen a helicopter since 2038!"
John grunted a response as he ignited the reverse thrusters. The lifeboat shuddered violently as there speed came down to 600 kilometers per hour. The nose started to dip downward. John pulled up on the joystick and eased the nose up to 30 degrees. Their altitude dropped to 70 meters when John pushed the throttle to maximum. The reverse thrusters spewed flames as they were pushed beyond the limit. Then they burned out. John deployed the two drag chutes. The large circle of rip-stop nylon with reinforced titanium netting slowed them down to 200 kilometers per hour. 185. 155. 125. At 95 kilometers per hour, John jettisoned the chutes. He increased the thickness of his suit's gel layer and waited for the coming impact. And holy shit did it come. The lifeboat slammed into a small building, burrowing through its concrete walls. The windshield was blown in and chunks of rock bounced around inside. The lifeboat emerged on the other side of the structure and hurtled to the ground. It bounced and rolled twice, flipped three times then came to a halt on open ground.
Cortana's voice echoed around his head, "Chief! Chief, can you hear me?"
Master Chief groaned and lifted his head.
"Oh John! I was so worried! Are you alright…running diagnostics…you have a slight bruising on your chest, some minor lacerations on your neck and a fractured wrist."
"I'll survive." The Chief picked himself up and glanced around. The lifeboat was amazingly still upright. MA5Cs, BR55s, rocket launchers, plasma grenades, and other weapons lay scattered about. Master Chief collected the weapons and placed them in a mobile weapons cache nicknamed "Pony Express" by bored Marines. The Pony Express would follow him around and supply him with ammo and give him access to the weapons he put into it. The heavy armor would allow it to follow him into direct battle and if enemies captured it, it would self-destruct.
The Chief programmed the Pony Express to follow his own DNA and MJOLNIR signature. The little cart whirred and hummed. Satisfied, John picked up a new MA5K, much more accurate than an MA5C and with a higher rate of fire. He flicked off the safety and ran to the cover of a nearby building; surely the species inhabiting the planet, most likely humanoid, would come to investigate the crash. From a safe distance, he could determine their threat level to him. The Pony Express followed quickly and rolled into the shadows. From his vantage point, the Chief could see the entire clearing and the buildings through which the lifeboat smashed. Several minutes later, the sound of heavy footfalls echoed through the clearing.
The Chief went prone. Through the scope of his MA5K, he could see strange reptilian creatures, walking on two legs, rushing towards the lifeboat. Their eyes were sunken back, yellow with deep red veins. Their scaly skin was white with different shades of brown and gray. They carried short and stubby weapons. Behind the six of them were two massive ones; their skin the same color but they carried leviathan grenade launchers. The Chief did not need one more second of observation to know they were hostiles. He aimed at one of the shorter ones' head. He fired. Black blood spewed from the hole in its skull. The others were slow to react. Master Chief took advantage of their stupidity to down four more. The Chief rolled to the side as a grenade whizzed by his ear and struck the Pony Express. With speed that only a SPARTAN possesses, he ran at the creatures. To them, it had seemed as if he'd appeared out of nowhere. And he might as well have. The remaining drone was decapitated as the Chief swung his arm out in a chopping motion. Within a tenth of a second the first gargantuan with the RPG was pierced by the drone's removed spinal column. Black and red blood flowed freely. The giant keeled over. The second one wasn't even finished reloading. The Chief grabbed its neck and tore out its windpipe, jugular and carotid arteries. A sick gurgling noise emanated from its open neck.
Seeing the battle over, the Pony Express' AI told it that it was safe to come out. The small, six-wheeled thing resembled a hi-tech looking box on wheels. It sort of was. The chief relieved the large ones of their RPG launchers and placed them in the Pony Express. "Not as bad as the Covenant." He said to Cortana.
"Nothing phases you does it?" She asked, giggling slightly.
Author's Notes:
Well, I hoped you liked the first installment, another chapter should be ready by January 18th. Thanks again to EZB for the idea. If you read the review I wrote for his story, please ignore it. To my fans (If I have any) I hope I don't disappoint you. I really do try hard on these stories and if they suck…oh well.
I hope to be completely finished with this story by late February. I should have three chapters completed by that time. If you would like me to write longer or shorter stories, and if you have any ideas just send me a message from my profile.
P.S. Check out my good friend, Sargentaaron2004, he's got some good stuff.