Halo fic

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Halo, and any characters, locations or terms taken from it are owned by Bungie, Microsoft Corporation, The Authors of the books and their respective corporations. Any OC's created and the plotline for this story is owned by MaddnessWriter

0600 Hours, October 30, 2543 (Military Calendar)/ Pelican Inbound to No Regret

Click, clack, echoed through the hold of the pelican of the interior structure as the dark red humid light lit the dark robust compartment which groaned as the pelican drifted to its destination across the soundless space. The pelican compartment held six passengers all of which were male with their kit bags swaying in the racks above their head.

Five of them were ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) in their usual matte black armour, with helmets making it hard to distinguish each other if anybody saw them. They were slowly losing what was left of their patience and sanity from the insisting clicking from the sixth passengers laptop.

The clicking stopped, causing a sigh of relief to pass through the ODST squad. They had to remain with the high personnel that they had been assigned to, and they had spent the last 2 hours listening to the man's insane talk on how their life expectancy has dropped throughout the war with happy perky face or listen to the laptop continuous click clacking on board since the pelican was launched from the prowler.

"Thank God, I couldn't bear another minute of that f**kin..." one of the ODST with a Australian accent said on the helmet com, but interrupted by the restart of the clicking, causing a groan over the com.

"You just had to jinx it, you just had to f**cking jinx it, didn't you!" shouted a ODST in a southern American accent, looking accusingly at the first ODST, who shrivelled at the combined stare of the squad.

The leader of the squad banged his helmet on the metallic wall of the pelican then looked at the squad member next to him who was slowly edging his hands to the M6S Magnum strapped to his thigh. He was abruptly stopped by the leader, who gave him a light shake of the head.

"For f**ck sake!" The ODST next to him shouted on private com "I really wish we didn't take the short straw at that meeting. I rather be strapped in SOEIV in my underwear to a destination full of the Covernant Elites and Hunters than here!" Before rocking his head in his hands and mumbling about insane Doctors that has to be high personnel that can't be shot at.

The leader signed and wondered where the hell on Earth his Hell Jumpers calm and sane demeanour had gone after only two hours on this trip. His thought were interrupted by one of his squad with a blue line across his left shoulder armour walked up to the professor and stood there for a moment trying to see if the sixth passenger would notice him before giving up by the sounds of continuous typing.

"Doctor Swaksly," said the ODST with a deep French ascent, who looked like he was ready to fall to his knees and beg if necessary "Could you please stop using the flipping laptop for a moment, please?"

The Sixth passenger looked briefly up in astonishment before it turned into a childlike amusement.

Doctor Arthur Swaksly was a male in his late forties, who face was worn away from years of war. His hair is thinning and slowly turning grey, from its original colour of black as a bald patch is slowly forming on the back of his head. He slowly stands up showing his height to be 5.9 ft tall with his blue eyes shining with curiosity, child like excitement and insanity. Though behind these eyes there is a constant pain he pretends that doesn't exist. Doctor Swaksly was once a brilliant scientist that helped in the team to create the Modern Smart A.I's and a few other bits and pieces that the UNSC military use today.

His sanity was lost when he found out the Covernant had glassed his home planet, killing his family that were living there. Though some consider him too insane to do the job, Swasksly continue with his work in order to avenge his family that were lost in the war.

The insane scientist peered at the visor of the of the Hell Jumper with untamed curiosity and slowly walked towards him causing the Hell Jumper to nervously edge back before Swaksly nodded in excitement while mumbling about improvements to the ODST's helmet, returning to his seat and closing the laptop resting it on his lap. The Hell Jumper stood shocked for a moment before returning to his seat mumbling on the com about insane doctors.

"God, that guy is more insane than any Hell Jumper around." grumbled the southern marine on the com. The leader shook his head and chuckled before receiving a message from the pilot and shouted "Alright shut your mouths! We are docking with the No Return in one minute so get yourselves into gear to depart!" This caused the Hell Jumpers to jump up with renewed energy and start to move their gear from the rack hoping to get off this mental ship and away from Swaksly as quickly as possible. Doctor Swaksly watched in child like amusement before taking down his kit bag from the racks and stood next to the ramp waiting for it open and let his mind wonder onto the meeting taking place on the ship.

"Sir, did he just giggle?"

"Not another word Private, just not another f**king word."

0800 Hours, October 30, 2543 (Military Calendar)/ Aboard No Regret

Doctor Swaksly swallowed another pill of his medication, feeling his thoughts become clearer every passing second as he took the maximum allowed of his medication with a grimace. Knowing this meeting would be one of his biggest achievement if he could pull it off and not to show that he is insane. Well reasonably insane, he thought as he paced around the table of the meeting room onboard the No Return only to stop briefly by his chair checking that his notes were arranged properly. The meeting was with three important military personnel and hopefully allies after the meeting... if everything goes to plan... and doesn't get thrown out of the airlock because of his mouth... and the ODST squad doesn't kill him on the way back to the prowler.

The room was metallic grey circular wall with a metal circle table with four chairs that had only one entrance that was magnetically locked into place and with his personnel A.I made sure to make the room was not bugged and all surveillance systems in the room was offline. The three that he was thinking of entered the room causing him to smile as objective 1 getting them to meet him was a success. The three were who Colonel Ackerson met for the introduction of the Spartans 3 project were Rear Admiral Rich who was already in his fifties and gray, Captain Gibson who moved like a panther though his strides shows that he spends most of his time in microgravity and Vice Admiral Parangosky who looked older than her rumoured age to be in the eighties. How Ackerson could have believed that his personnel A.I. could stop infiltration into Ackerson's system database from someone who helped to create that A.I! Mind you it was a rush job putting that A.I together, thought Swaksly before he motioned to the seats for them to sit.

"Why the hell did you call us here, Doctor Swaksly?" Rear Admiral Rich stated as he stared at the Swaksly who met the stare, before he replied neutrally giving a way no ascent to show where he came with a slightly child like voice, "You will see in a moment." Swaksly activated a hologram at the centre of the table showing the documents that he wished them to see.

The three read through the documents before Parangosky sighed with war weariness and said sharply "Is there a reason you are showing us these causalities reports or is it just to get on our nerves?"

Doctor Swaksly then pressed another button showing a document and motioned them to continue to read as the three glanced at him before continuing only to be further confused by the reports.

"Swaksly, what the hell does A.I.s have to do with this?" asked Captain Gibson glaring at him with confusion.

"In this war we have lose millions... no billions of humans to these invaders known as the Covernant." Swaksly said only to pause briefly, as he stood up walked around the room while continuing on. "We have our mightiest troops slain by this enemy, and no matter how many we kill more fill thier place and they have more advance technology than us." He stopped briefly before turning to the group before saying, "We however have one... wait I mean two things they don't have."This caused the attention of the three that were dwindling to perk up.

"What are these advantages Doctor Swaksly." questioned Parangosky as she stared intently without any hint of emotion on her face with her arms folded at Swaksley who felt that his soul was being dissected apart by her caused the insane doctor to shiver.

"Firstly, our Spartans, are known to be one of our biggest factor in ground combats" he said while thinking of also of the Spartans 3, but they didn't need to know that he thought, before he continued "And our Smart A.I.s, the fact that the Covernant show no sign of using them, or having them, has helped us many times in space and ground combat. Hell, if we didn't have these A.I.s, we would have lost more people than we have today."

"A.I.s are shown to be quicker thinkers than the average soldier and can plot a strategy, totally fool proof with a number of simulations in a few seconds while for our troops would take minutes before deciding one that would work best for them," said Swaksly, before he continued with his eyes wide childish and said "An A.I with a body of its own on the battlefield."

He held up his hand briefly to stop Gibson before he said with a frown on his face. "Not a biological body. Our cloning technology is not at those standards, I mean a humanoid machine, one that is not limited to our body weaknesses!"

"So you want to give an A.I. a body to lead us, Doctor?" Parangosky said looking at Swaksly with cold eyes causing him to blink in confusion.

"No! I mean an A.I. soldier! Someone that can mingle with the other soldiers while fighting with them on the ground! Also you wouldn't lose any life if it is destroyed on the battlefield! Hell, you properly can just take the body and replace with another A.I with the originals memory of its experience on the battlefield and be ready to fight in a few days!" he shouted, staring manically at them while gulping in some air for his brilliant mind to catch up with what he said, and waited for the reply.

"So Arthur, what do you need?" BINGO!

1630 Hours, November 27, 2546 (Military Calendar)/ Planet Reach/ Restricted Area Beta 6B Research Wing

Two and a half years, thought back Doctor Arthur Swaksly in his office looking at the new reports strewn across the desk showing progress of the project. Project Zero Alpha One also known Excalibur had taken years of perfection and trials and errors to produce what is now the final product, being given last tests in the room next door, shown in the one way mirror.

"Where the heck are they?" grumbled the insane Doctor as he put on a childish pout while ranting on in his head about how they're not there to see his shine of brilliance once again. The office was small Metallic Square, with only a desk, over flowing reports and computer screens giving constant updates and the only piece of nature was a small lily in a pot at the other side of the room. The only light was either from the one way mirror light in the next room or the lamp on his desk shining across the reports like a demented angel.

"Doctor Swaksly" drawled Butler, a personnel A.I. unit that Swaksly created for his own purposes, appeared at holo pad at the edge of the table in the form Hawk.

"Your guests are waiting inside training area beta at the observation platform to see the test of the project" said Butler before closing his holographic eyes and continued. "Vice Admiral Parangosky said exactly, if that insane Doctor is not here in 10 minutes, expect him to lose more than his job."

The Butler opened his eyes to find the room empty and the base security updated him that Swaksly had already exited the lift and running full pelt to the training arena, not bad for a fifty year old man. With a sigh of amusement as he found the Doctors antics amusing to say at least, Butler sent a message to the military personnel to prepare the test for Excalibur before returning to training area beta and the surveillance cameras, making sure no bugs had been placed and waited for it to start.