Well, I must say it's refreshing to be back. I had such fun writing this first chapter. Virtual cookies to anyone who can guess why I almost laughed myself to death writing this very serious chapter.
I do not own HALO or Black Rock Shooter
Accessing Mission Files.
Access Denied. Enter Authorization Code.
Access Granted.
Welcome Back, Lord Hood.
Folder: Forerunner Installation
Sub-Folders:
648-Guilty Spark
HALO I
HALO II
Genesis
Requiem
Installation 44-15UR
Opening Folder…
MCPO John-117 (Blue One) (Team Leader)
PO1 Kelly-087 (Blue Two) (Scout)
LTJG Frederic-104 (Blue Three) (Sub-Leader/CQC/Assault)
PO1 Linda-058 (Blue Four) (Marksman)
ARBITER Thel'Vadaam (Arbiter) (Support)
NRnk Mato Kuroi (Rock) (Support)
UNSC Frgt Tomorrow's Destiny-Ship's Log
Accessing….
Access Granted. Displaying Ship's Log
UNSC War Frigate Tomorrow's
Date/Time: 2563/18:61
Location: Unexplored Region 15
Log Title: Contact
Commander Johnathan Riker stood on the bridge of the the Tomorrow's Destiny, gazing out into the vast vacuum of space. He sighed quietly and turned to the ship's navigator, "How far is the instillation?"
Sergeant Sarah McAllistar looked up from the navigation display, face lit up a soft green color from the light of the screen, "We will be arriving at the Forerunner Instillation in approximately thirty minutes, sir. Visuals should be available in fifteen seconds…"
The captain nodded and gestured to the communications officer on deck, "Bring up port side visuals, Lieutenant Conner. McAllistar, bring the ship to a halt and turn her port side to the installation. I don't want to be caught in that thing's gravity well if it decides we're hostile. Everyone, we are going into yellow alert. Bring the ship's weapon systems online and prepare for possible hostilities." He glanced up at the now active viewscreen, which was slowly panning across a small, spherical Forerunner outpost. Officially named Installation 44-15UR, it was unremarkable in terms of Forerunner technology. For starters, it was small, not much bigger than Ceres actually. Most Forerunner outposts were about the size of Mars or Earth, sometimes bigger. And then you had the HALO rings. Despite their destructive nature, the ancient objects were a true marvel. This one though… up until recently, it had been deemed dead. Only a minimal amount of energy usage had ever been recorded, and that had been written off as leakage from the energy cores used by Forerunners. It was rare, but known to happen.
About two weeks ago however, the site reappeared on the map. Installation 44-15UR had begun to reactivate itself, causing mass paranoia and fear within the UNSC top brass. No one wanted another Didact loose in the galaxy, or worse, another Cortana. It was quickly decided that the UNSC's best fireteam would be dispatched to assist with a thorough investigation. That's why Tomorrow's Destiny was here. Or more importantly, that is why Blue Team was here. Riker tore himself away from the viewscreen and his thoughts, turning to his Number One, "Alert Cryogenics that Blue Team is to be prepped for combat and-" An unearthly shriek interrupted the captain, causing most of the bridge and ship to slam their hands over their ears.
"SIR! WE'RE BEING SCANNED! SOMETHING'S INVADING THE SHIP'S SYSTEMS!" Lieutenant Dornez, the Chief Science Officer, looked at his station and the rest of the bridge as an orange light washed over everything. Unfamiliar symbols from the Forerunner language flickered across monitor screens at an impossibly fast rate.
"MCALLISTAR! GET US OUT OF HERE!"
The navigator turned to her leader helplessly, a flicker of raw, primal fear in her eyes, "I can't Captain! I've been locked out!"
Commander Riker's blood went cold. The ships navigation and engine systems were completely isolated from the ship computer's core to prevent this scenario exactly. Using an air gap system only accessible from the navigation console or the engine rooms themselves ensured that the steering and propulsion of the ship were both, for lack of a better term, unhackable. The fact that something not only scanned the ship, but also hacked what he could only guess was every ship system and disabled the engines at the same time, meant only one thing. That outpost did not want them to leave any time soon.
Without warning, the scan stopped. For a few brief moments, there was nothing but silence, save the terrified and panicked breathing of most, if not all of the crew. That did not remain so for long. Slowly, the terrified navigator pointed a trembling hand at the Installation, still on screen even after the hack. "S-Sir. The Installation, it's opening!"
Riker twisted to see a portion of the Forerunner Outpost's surface sliding back to form a large entry way. The same thing that was reported by the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn before it was pulled into the Didact's prison. He quickly patched though to the ship's emergency PA system. "ALL CREW PREPARE FOR GRAVITY DISTORTION! I REPEAT, BRACE FOR GRAVITY DISTORTION! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" He turned back to the veiwscreen, settling into the captain's chair and gripping the armrests tight enough to see his knuckles turn white. The entire ship held their breath, waiting for the inevitable drag of the Promethean Well to destroy them. One second passed, then ten… After half a minute, there was no apparent act from the outpost. In fact, it seemed to be rolling out he welcome mat for them.
"..aptain… ou read m…"
Riker jumped in surprise as the bridge PA system came online suddenly. He glanced down at the chair's built in display and frowned. Cryogenics? Did the hack damage the Cryo-pods? "Captain to Cryogenics, repeat your message. The speakers seem to be a bit damaged."
"Cryo-pods deac… hac… Spar… king…. Want… ders…"
Riker shared a concerned glance with his second in command, Sergeant Sam Jackson. It sounded like Cryogenics had been affected by the hack as well. "Data, what is the status of the Cryogenics in room Six-A?"
The yellowish white image of a man in UNSC attire appeared in front of Riker, saluting smartly. "All pods in 6-A are fully functional. However, during the hack, I noticed that the probe seemed especially interested in the pods being used by Blue Team, so I deactivated them and started the thaw and release stages for all of them. I apologize if my actions have caused any inconvenience to the mission, sir."
He just shook his head, "No Data. You are perfectly fine. I was going to wake them up anyway, but the scan interrupted me." Riker glanced at the still open Installation 44-15UR for a moment. "Data, how far is engineering with getting the engines back online?"
Data paused for a moment, eyes reading something invisible to Riker, "It appears that no headway has been made. Whatever managed to infiltrate the ship's systems seemed to be very insistent on taking control of the ship's mobility it seems. However, I think there is little chance of hostilities now. If whatever is controlling the installation wanted us dead, you would all be dust, and this ship torn apart by gravitational tidal forces."
After a brief pause to digest this theory, Riker looked at the ship's AI with a small amount of trepidation. "That means that thing wants us to go in there…"
Data nodded, "Yes. That is a very distinct possibility. Seeing as the probe was so interested in the Cryogenics levels, it leads me to believe that it wants Blue Team especially to come aboard."
The on deck crew turned to observe their captain, waiting for orders. Riker drummed his fingers on the armrests. "Hmm… Bring the ship's alert levels to Red Alert. Consider this entire mission to be a war exercise. Weapons are to be brought online and everyone is to be ready for combat. Data, relay this to the rest of the ship. I want all crew at battle stations until further notice. After a display like that, I don't care if the damned thing isn't hostile. Something is bound to show up that is. Have Blue Team report to Pelican Bay 10. Tell flight control to get a pelican prepped and have the armory deliver their weapons directly to the bay." Data nodded once and saluted, vanishing to deliver the messages. Commander Riker stood and glared at the viewscreen as red lights began bathing the bridge in a blood red glow. "Anderson, are scanners online?"
The Science Officer glanced down at his station nervously, only to blink in surprise, "Er… Yes, sir. In fact, the ship is already performing multiple scans of the installations." He entered a few commands into the the console and sighed in relief when he was rewarded with a successful scan change. "I am in control of my station, sir. Is there anything in particular we are looking for?"
He nodded, "Yes. I want to know how that thing was able to get inside an air gapped system with little to no resistance. Can you do that?"
Anderson shrugged, "I can do you one better, sir. I can tell you without performing the scans. It basically hacked into the navigation console and used that to create a bridge to access the engines. It's quite ingenious actually." He frowned as something appeared on his console. "Sir, I'm picking up a strange reading… It's coming in as a pulse, but faintly… Let me put it on screen. Also, can we get Data's help on figuring out what it is? I don't really know what it is, but is seems almost… familiar…"
Riker watched the viewscreen quietly as a digital readout of the strange pulse signal appeared. He was right, it did seem familiar… "Data, if you are through with delivering your messages, we could use your assistance in identifying the origins of an unknown signal."
Without a moment's hesitation, Data reappeared, ready to assist the Captain. He turned to inspect the signal and frowned, surprising everyone., "Sir… The signal here is not some electronic pulse. It's an audio file."
Riker raised an eyebrow in surprise. An audio file? That's new… "Data, can you-"
"Convert the signal into an audio format? Yes, captain. That is simple enough… Converting…. Finished. Now playing audio stream."
A hush fell upon the bridge as they waited for the audio to filter in. Thu-Thump…. Thu-Thump… Thu-Thump…Anderson looked at Riker in awe, recognizing the sound for what it was, "Sir… it's a heartbeat…" He looked positively giddy as Data nodded with agreement.
"Yes, and from what I know of human anatomy, which is considerable, it sounds as if there is a teenage human on board that outpost. Most likely in some form of suspended animation or stasis. It would also explain both the lack of hostility, and the energy consumption. It was not an energy leak, as we originally believed, but the minimum amount required to keep this unknown organism alive…" Data paused and looked to the side. "My apologies sir, but Blue Team is arriving at Bay 10. What would you like the briefing to include?"
Riker listened to the impossible heartbeat for a few seconds more, and turned to look at Data, a fire in his eyes. "These are my orders…"
HELLO ONCE AGAIN! 'Tis I, Marethyu! After a long hiatus, I have finally returned to writing fanfiction. I have been reading over my stories, and decided that they need either major revision or complete rewrites. This is one of those rewrites. I finally managed to see the actual story lines and characters of HALO 5: Guardians, and realized that I had completely screwed up! Wow… Anyways, I wanted to thank everyone for the massive amounts of support I recieved before my impromptu hiatus took place. VIRTUAL COOKIES FOR ALL! (I think I did that right…) I will try to write as much as possible over the next few weeks, because on the twenty sixth of February, I ship out to Basic Training in Fort Sills, Oklahoma! That's right, I'm in the Army now! I am now a Combat Medic in training! Wish me luck! Also, I need some input. Again…
If you don't remember, I was planning on making a few fanfictions, but I had no idea who the pairings were going to be, or what the titles should be. Remember, my writing is a bit darker and grittier than most romance writers, so I can't use fluffy titles. First question, and I know this one is already written, but I still need some help with it.
In Warlock's Destiny, what House should Stella be in? Remember, Houses tend to follow a person's personality, so don't just all say Griffindor because that's the house Harry's in.
Griffindor- House of the Brave/Honorable… (Other side) Reckless/Somewhat dimwitted at times…
Ravenclaw- House of the Wise/Logical… (Other side) Narrow Minded/Authority Followers
Hufflepuff- House of the Loyal/Friendship… (Other side) Meek/Average(?)
Slytherin- House of Ambition/Cunning… (Other side) Pureblood Beliefs/Arrogance
So there are your choices, unless some of you have other ideas. NEXT!
So… Stella in the word of Remnant. Title ideas? Pairings/Pairing Names?
Trying to rewrite BRS/RWBY, same as above. Titles/Pairing/Pairing Names anyone?
Signing out… (Still haven't gotten a response on this one… Kudos to whomever knows what my outro means.)
Ego Mortem Pestifer Mundi…