1 Beginning & Kurt 1
Disclaimer: If I owned these, would I be writing a FAN-fiction? I own nothing except the plot, an iPod, and the burning desire of a fan.
This is what happens when the Spartans we ended with in Ghosts of Onyx find themselves in separate worlds where magic is real, technology is slow, heroes exist, and the missing could be closer than you think. Based off the characters from the books, games, cartoons, comics, tv series and movies that make up this web of worlds.
Ultimatum
1; part one Ch 1 (prologue) "The Escape"
*Kurt, Ghosts of Onyx
Kurt turned back to the Spartans. "Tom, Lucy, Team Saber," he said over the COM. "Set Dante and Will on the pods. Saber will go ahead and scout the core." Tom and Lucy nodded, and with help from Olivia and Mark, they gathered the fallen Spartans.
Ash jumped into the center and approached. "Sir," he said. "We're not leaving this fight."
"This isn't about a fight." Kurt told him. "You have a mission to accomplish, son. Carry out my orders."
"Understood, Sir." He motioned for Olivia and Mark to join him near the rift.
An Elite decloaked behind Kurt and opened fire, spraying the room with plasma. The SPARTANs dove for cover as Kurt spun around and grabbed one of the alien's mandibles; pulling it off with a sickening snap. The elite let out a howl of pain and Kurt threw a hard punch into its chest; there was a wet impact and blood spattered his armor. Kurt's hand had hit with such force that it had entered the Elite's body. He pulled his fist out, shook off the blood, and turned back the others. Ash gestured at the rift, which was now sputtering sparks and had become a deep black in color. Two bolts of black lightning shot off in opposite directions and disappeared, a third shot out at the place where Holly's boot prints were; it too disappeared.
"Sir, the rift was hit." He said to Kurt.
Kurt gazed in despair at the rift. "Is it still intact?" he queried Halsey.
She briefly looked down at her laptop and then back at Kurt. "Yes, but the plasma has altered the rift, I'm afraid it's very unstable. I don't know where it leads to now." She said, slight worry in her voice.
Kurt looked at the Spartans; this was still their only way out. He nodded to Ash who motioned for Mark and Olivia to join him by the rift once more.
"Go." Ash told them. They both looked at Kurt and together they jumped into the unstable glimmering darkness. Ash hesitated, his hand moved up for a salute, but he stopped, recalling the standing order of "No Saluting in combat areas". He stood straighter, gave Kurt a nod, and jumped in after his team mates.
Kurt keyed the COM "Saber One, you read me?"
"We're Gooooo-"Ash's voice started, but static washed over the channel.
"Saber one? Ash?" Only static answered. Not even a COM signal made it through—an observation that only strengthened Kurt's conviction that he was doing the right thing. He hoped for the best, hoped Saber and the others would be okay.
"Pods," Kurt said and motioned toward Tom and Lucy. His NCOs pushed the cryopods and the bodies of Will and Dante through the rift. The pods were enveloped in darkness.
"Chief. Doctor. You're next." Kurt said. Mendez looked at the shimmering black rift and then back to Kurt.
He swallowed and said: "Aye Aye, Sir. We'll see you on the other side." For once Dr. Halsey did not have anything to say. Instead she made the traditional Spartan two-finger 'smile' gesture over her face. She blinked quickly, and then together they turned to the fissure. Mendez took her hand and they stepped in—then they were gone.
"They're starting," Fred announced over the COM.
"Guard the opening, you two," Kurt told Tom and Lucy. Kurt moved back up to the edge of the hill and watched with Fred as one hundred and fifty Elites moved toward them. This time it was not a slow, careful march with over lapping shields; now they charged en masse. Banshees swooped up and over the formation, two high and two low, accelerating ahead of the covenant infantry and then over the hill. They ducked behind the towers, and Linda popped out as the banshees passed.
"I have them." Linda's sniper rifle was to her shoulder. She stood motionless for a heartbeat, then fired once at the receding fliers, moved her arm slightly and fired once more. The rear two banshee pilots fell. Now without pilots, the banshees nosed to the floor, bounced, and sparked to a halt. Linda dropped the magazine, examined the chamber, cycled the bolt, and then said simply: "I'm out."
Kurt, Kelly, and Fred leveled their assault rifles at the remaining fliers and opened fire, tracer rounds arched through the air and stitched over the Banshees, smoke billowed from the leader and erupted into a ball of flame that smeared across through the air. The last lone Banshee pulled up and circled back. The advancing horde of Elites and Hunters was only two hundred meters away. A few in their ranks fired and wild energy bolts streaked overhead. The towers now lay only thirty degrees off the deck, and the 'hill' was only three meters tall. Kurt knew they would soon have no cover left.
Fred glanced at the open smoking bolt of his MA5B. "I'm out, too." He said.
Kurt opened up the administrative subdirectory on his heads- up display and accessed SPARTAN- 104's file. "As acting CO of Team Blue, I am here by granting you a field commission to the rank of Lieutenant, junior grade." Kurt told Fred. "Congratulations." Fred shook his head, not understanding. Kurt uploaded Fred's change of rank, and his IFF icon blinked to the star-and-bar insignia of lieutenant. "As an officer, you'll have to keep an eye on the larger picture, Fred. Get your team through that slipspace field. I'll be right behind you."
Linda and Kelly gathered around them. Kelly whispered "We lost you once, Kurt. We're not leaving you again."
Plasma artillery pounded the face of the hill, shattering stone, and superheated convection rolls distorted the air.
"No one's leaving anyone behind." Kurt assured her. "I just have to rig up a little welcoming present for our friends." He grabbed the pack with the FENRIS warheads, and swung it over his shoulder. Kelly, Linda, and Fred exchanged glances. "I'll be right behind you," Kurt told them. "Now, go. The Spartan-IIIs are going to need you."
A hail of Needler shards arced up and over the top of the slope, impacting the surfaces around them. The Spartans huddled together, presenting the smallest target surface, their energy shields flaring as the crystal rounds detonated.
The hardened plates of Kurt's SPI armor cracked and the concussion rattled his bones and splintered the hardening bio-foam in his abdomen. He tasted fresh blood. The bombardment ceased. "Hurry!" Kurt told them. They all jogged to the center. The rift was fading and was now only a meter across. Kelly and Linda entered without hesitation; Fred halted, turned, and held out his hand. Kurt took it and shook. Fred stepped backward and vanished. Only Tom and Lucy remained, still guarding the fissure. "Okay you two-"
"With all due respect, Sir," Tom said. "We're not leaving. You'll have to court-martial us." Lucy said nothing but made her intention to fight understood as she hefted their last SPKNr Missile launcher. The rift wavered and contracted to a mere half meter.
"There's no time for this," Kurt growled. Tom took a step closer to Lucy. Of course, Kurt had been foolish to think Tom and Lucy would leave him after so many years together—orders or not. Perhaps they even knew what he had in mind.
"Okay, you win. How much ammunition do you have?" Kurt moved to Tom, "We'll pool our reserves." Tom looked down at his rifle—Kurt hit him, his flattened palm connecting with the underside of Tom's helmet. The impact lifted the Spartan a half-meter off the ground, and then he landed in a heap.
Kurt wheeled on Lucy and held up a warning finger, indicating that she stay put. He checked Tom's bio-signs. No bones broken. No cerebral swelling. Just cold cocked. "He'll live," he said. "You're both going to live. Now give me a hand."
Shadows crisscrossed the hill and fifty meters overhead; Kurt watched three banshees streak past. Lucy dropped the missile launcher and helped Kurt pull Tom up. Kurt wrapped Tom's limp arm around her shoulder.
"You two didn't survive Pegasi Delta to die here," He told her. "There's too much left for you to do." She shook her head violently back and forth. "Yes," he said. "Don't make me…"
His vision blurred and a wave of dizziness washed over him. His heart struggled, pumping harder and faster. There was a warm trickle in his stomach. He was losing more blood. Slipping into shock. Plasma bolts stitched the stones nearby, shattering them, as banshees screamed by on a strafing run.
"Please," he whispered.
Lucy reached up to Kurt's faceplate, touching two fingers to his mouth. She struggled to make a sound, but all she could muster was a half-choked cry. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze, and let go. Lucy lingered, looked at Kurt one last time, and then slipped into the rift.