Disclaimer: I do not own Halo...or Jorge sadly. 'Cause I wouldn't leave his fate quite as ambiguous...Even if it may be heavily implied he died...
A/N: Nothing to say other than Solace is the perfect name for this story, as it means (for those who don't know) "comfort in sorrow/distress" and these rebels definitely need some comfort...as well as Jorge. One more thing: this story will tie in with a future story, provided I get the chance/get to that point. But on with the story now!
/Spetember 11th, 2552/
/14:43 hours/27 days after Operation: UPPER CUT completed/
/Unknown Insurrectionist Space/
/Jorge-Spartan-052/
He was hoping he'd feel nothingness. Absolute peace and harmony. Something...anything pleasant. But all he got was weightlessness. But it still felt like he was wearing armour.
Jorge opened his eyes.
Well he wasn't dead. Yet. But oddly enough the Pelican and slipspace drive had completely vanished. He looked around and noticed absolutely gaping holes in the hull.
That can't be good. He thought.
Then the feeling of moving suddenly came to him and he nearly missed his helmet floating by him. He quickly placed it over his head and closed the seals. As the Spartan floated towards and out the gaping hole he grabbed onto the edge and kept himself from being lost in space. He twisted his neck back and noticed he was headed towards a massive asteroid belt.
I've gotta get this hunk of junk working again. He though to himself. Good place to start would be the bridge.
Before pulling himself to safety, he grabbed another of his belongings which happened to float towards him: his machinegun. As soon as he got onto soli- relatively solid ground, he activated the magnetic locks built into his boots, which luckily enough worked with the Covenant alloy. He then began working his way towards the bridge, gun at the ready.
Well...he did it. He saved his planet. His home. The rest of the UNSC forces and Noble could handle any stragglers that were left behind. The Covenant should've known better than to attack a heavily fortified Human colony, especially when there were Spartans around. Jorge smirked to himself.
Boy will it be a surprise when I get back. Cards and drinks would be a great way to spend a day off. Jorge thought.
But it was time to end these thoughts, he had to get home first before doing anything else. He found himself at the doors to the bridge and they, like all Covenant door technology, opened automatically for him. The place was relatively unharmed save for the earlier interference from Six and the marines. It seemed like a lot of stuff was missing though...a result of the slipspace rupture. It seemed to have either atomized the missing stuff or teleported it elsewhere. Probably a glitch from the unusual circumstances.
Jorge stepped up to the center hologram of Reach and toyed with the control panel, hoping that he was doing the right thing. The hologram faded and a blurry and fuzzy camview showed up, looking directly at the asteroid field. He was about to disregard it when he noticed very small tubes and hallways leading between some of the rocks.
"What?" he questioned aloud. He studied it closer and realized they were indeed tubes and pipes. "Probably Insurrectionists...but I haven't got a whole lot of choices..."
He'd have to go to the hangar to find a Banshee or Seraph...presuming they hadn't already been atomized or taken. He messed with the hologram cameras and eventually found one which viewed the hangar. 2 destroyed Spirits, a damaged Seraph and a single Banshee of the space variety. The Banshee would do fine. Jorge left the bridge and after ten minutes of wandering he found himself in the hangar...but there was a problem...a space-equipped Elite and Hunter were in his way. He had never seen a Hunter equipped with space gear before though.
Obviously the Elite was the bigger threat, as it could steal his easiest way off, and so he launched off the ground flicking off the magnetism in his boots and began firing round after round into the body of the Elite. It didn't stand a chance against the onslaught of lead and was soon just a corpse floating out into the dead of space. Jorge brought his attention to the Hunter who greeted him with a friendly blast of green which wiped out his shields instantly and sent him flying towards the far wall.
He hit it with a grunt, his shields completely dead. He kicked off the wall with his Spartan-enhanced legs and another fuel-rod blast flew by him. He only had to render the thing's suit useless. No need to waste the energy or ammo to kill it himself. As he flew over the behemoth of a monster, he fired at it and soon air began hissing out. It fired a fuel rod wildly, which missed him completely but hit the banshee directly.
"Damnit! Just die!" Jorge swore, firing at the Hunter before it finally gave in to death. He brought himself back to the floor and magnetized himself there. He walked over to the Banshee and found that it survived...but it was lightly damaged.
"I love it when a plan comes together..." Jorge said sarcastically.
Luckily though, the banshee hadn't been damaged enough to render it useless so he crawled in, an extremely tight fit for him and his machinegun (which he would've left behind were it not for the insurrectionists) and soon he had gotten away from his almost grave. In the 20 or so minutes that he had wasted on the ship, it had gotten considerably closer to the asteroid field and it was now a whole lot more feasible for him to make it there.
The ride there was completely uneventful, unsurprisingly and thankfully. If the insurrectionists saw him coming, he'd probably be blasted away by missiles. Having entered the asteroid field moments ago, he maneuvered as best as he could around the flying rocks and eventually made his way to the hangar bay. Hopefully they would let him inside.
"Hello, this is UNSC personnel requesting permission to land. I'm in a damaged Covenant banshee. You can keep it to salvage for all I care." Jorge said, very professional sounding.
"Permission granted. You better not be pulling anything. And any weapons you have will be confiscated." a young and rough voice said in response.
"Got it." Jorge said, before hearing the hangar bay outer doors opening and beckoning for him to land inside. He touched down, a bit hard and the outer airlock doors closed behind him. Seconds later the inner doors opened and 3 men with outdated MA5Ks came up to the banshee, weapons raised and ready to fire.
"Get out. Now!" one the men said.
The banshee lifted open and Jorge backed out of it and stood to his full height, machinegun hanging loosely at his side.
"...Oh sh-shit..." the man whimpered, thinking he was tough mere seconds earlier.
"Hand over your weapon." one of the other, braver men said.
"I don't think so." Jorge said. "I don't plan on using it. Don't force me to either. Now where's your leader? I'd like to have a chat with him."
A handsome, yet aging man stepped out to greet him. "Right here."
A/N: Hope you liked it, even though it feels a bit rushed and very short. Read, review, constructively criticize. Kthxbai.