Author's Note: hello everyone, this is my first fan fic so forgive me if it's horrible.
Trooper in the Wastes
Chapter 1: The Awakening
The hissing noise of the opening cryo tube was the first thing David heard after going into the deep sleep of the cryogenic freeze. For him it had only been a few seconds since his squad leader Sergeant Léonard Baker had ordered him to cryo in full combat gear. David was fully aware that he needed to be ready for combat at a moment's notice if the Dawn was to come under attack, even if that risked freezer burn. He hopped out of the tube first surprised by the lack of light and second at the lack of gravity. Turning right he noticed a blue woman hovering over a holotank, it had to be an A.I. he floated over wincing at the pain of his ODST armour chafing on the freezer burned skin of his body.
"Good to see your alive trooper", the A.I. replied
"Ahh Cortana, good to see you again. What happened here?" asked David.
"When we were going through the portal to escape the ark we were severed from the rest of the ship", Cortana explained.
"S-so where are we?"
"I can't say, the majority of the Dawn's sensors where on the front half of the ship, along with the reactors and slip space drives. Meaning that we are floating in space and all we have is a rescue beacon which I'm not sure has a long enough range for the UNSC to pick it up"
"So we are in the middle of nowhere, with no-one to rescue us? Why did you wake me?" David asked waving his arms around.
"You were reaching the limits of what a human can cope with after being in cryo so long"
"Wait how long have I been in there?"
"Roughly 150 years, give or take a few minutes"
David was shell shocked. Being in cryo that long meant that everyone he knew, everyone he cared about was long since dead. His life had no purpose anymore. He no doubt knew the war was over and that humanity had won, but that seemed so insignificant now. All his military life had been spent fighting covies. It was all he knew how to do. But out the corner of his eye he saw a flashing light. He turned to see another cryo tubed being used. Maybe someone from his squad.
"Cortana, why wasn't I woken before this? Before the Dawn went through the portal like everyone else?" David asked
"Due to the panic of crew not everyone was woken and able to run to the front of the ship in time. You and the chief are all that's left", Cortana replied
David quickly looked to the occupied cryo tube and back to Cortana. "Whoa whoa whoa, you mean the chief is in there?" the trooper asked, astonished as he pointed at the tube
"Yes, the one an on- hold on the ships few sensors are picking up something. Oh no, we are on a collision course with a nearby planet, we enter the atmosphere in a little over two hours. I better wake the chief" Cortana exclaimed
David was worried now as he was drifting in half a frigate towards a planet he knew nothing about, what if he couldn't survive down there. There might not be a breathable atmosphere, or hostile natives, or some threat he couldn't think of right now. Just then he heard a beeping noise indicating a lack of air in his suit. David searched the cryo bay for emergency oxygen and found it as master chief's pod started to open. David plugged in his suit to the oxygen canister and was soon greeted with the tone signifying his suit being full of breathable air again. He soon floated over to Cortana's holotank and waited for the chief to come out. Through the rapidly escaping mist of the cryo tube shone the lights on Master Chief's helmet and he quickly stepped out.
"What's wrong cort- who's he? I thought we were alone", the Chief said in a surprised tone.
"Private First Class David Parks, sir", the trooper said as he saluted the Chief the best he could in zero gee.
"At ease, zero gee is hard enough as is", the Chief said. "Cortana, where did he come from?"
"He was in a cryo tubed that hadn't been evacuated before the portal collapse. He's just as stranded as us. Which brings me to why I woke you up; it seems we are on a collision course with a planet. You're not going to believe this but it appears to be earth, or rather what's left of it" Cortana explained
"What? What do you mean?" the trooper yelled
"Well it appears to be earth, the continents match, however there is a high radiation level that goes around the entire planet." Cortana answered as she showed a render of the planet.
Master Chief was shocked at the discoloured planet before him "the covenant used nukes?"
"No I don't think the covenant would use nuclear weapons as their plasma beams glassed planets more efficiently, also there seems to be life forms on the planet as well" as Cortana informed the soldiers the Dawn moved closer to the remnants of earth entering the gravitational pull.
"Accelerating, you boys better think of a way off this thing, fast," Cortana warned
"The drop pod bay, it's on the bottom deck at the back, it might still be intact," the trooper suggested
"Good idea", the chief responded
The Spartan and the ODST rushed as best they could to the drop bay, avoiding many broken support beams on the way. Cortana showed up on David's HUD and said "ok boys I've scanned the ship, it looks like your best bet is the drop bay, there are two pods ready to go, you're making a blind jump"
"Fucking great, are there any other pods? We need to put spare equipment in them" the PFC asked
"Negative there aren't but the pods will land with each other so at least you won't get separated" Cortana said
"No the trooper's right, we need back up gear. I'll have to jump", said the chief
"Chief, that's crazy. Lucky for us, I like crazy", Cortana said with a grin on her avatar.
The trooper stopped in his tracks. Jump? The Master Chief is crazy, no not crazy, he's fucking insane. Chief turned around wondering why the trooper had stopped, David quickly started moving again.
They made it to the SOEIV bay where Master Chief instantly started packing a pod with weapons and ammo, David didn't even know what he was throwing in, but he didn't care. David walked over to his locker and opened it revealing his M7S sub machine gun with 2x reflex sight, suppressor and foldable stock and his M6S Suppressed Magnum. He holstered the pistol and carried the SMG over to his pod, placing it in the designated slot. He went back to his locker grabbing several survival kits, Military food packs and a spare COM system in the form of a Marine helmet, he didn't want to lose contact with the chief or Cortana. He turned around and put the gear inside his pod before walking up to the chief, who was speaking to Cortana.
"Hey chief" he said
"Yeah", the chief responded in his deep monotonous voice
"Have a safe drop", the trooper sad
"Thanks, you too"
"Ok boys I've got an idea", Cortana chimed in. both the trooper and the Spartan looked to the holotank in the bay where her avatar was. "I'm going to copy myself and go into each of your suits, that way I won't be lost if the chief is… injured by the jump"
"Sounds like a plan", David said
"I don't like it, but I see where you're coming from, do it", the chief said
"Ok commencing, chief insert the data chip", Cortana ordered. Master Chief did so and watched as the chips centre began to glow blue. The Chief pulled out the chip and inserted into his helmet, shivering a little. "Alright trooper, plug me in"
David pulled a cord out of his armoured rucksack and plugged it into the side of his helmet and the holotank. He had never had an A.I. in his helmet before and discovered why the Chief had shivered as a cool sensation flowed into his brain.
"Don't worry you'll get used to it", Cortana cooed
"Here's hoping", David said as he sat in his pod. The SOIEV rattled and turned sideways. David closed his eyes in an effort to calm his nerves, and flashed back to the first time he jumped.
"How do we go troopers?" the sergeant yelled
"WE GO FEET FIRST, SERGEANT!" The squad yelled in unison, David amongst them
"Your pulse is elevating", interrupted Cortana
"Yeah, it happens when I blind jump from a 150 year old pod", David replied
"We are in vacuum, there's no air or moisture to corrode the pod's systems"
"Still not comforting Cortana"
The familiar tones of the countdown set off in his pod and David gripped the rudder controls, blind jumps tended to fail, and his pod was 150 years old.
The pods launched out of the bay heading through the atmosphere and heating up intensely. David wished he didn't have his helmet on so he could wipe is very sweaty forehead. Despite his suits climate control, the overwhelming heat always made him uncomfortable, that and the fact he's plummeting towards a planet at twice the speed of sound.
"30 seconds to impact, hold on, the Chief's trajectory is off" Cortana said.
"Wait what? How can his trajectory be off, this is a blind jump" David questioned
"I mean in comparison to the SOIEVs trajectory"
"Oh, well how far off"
"2.7456354654 degrees"
"Well that doesn't sound like much"
"It equates to a 70 mile distance in landing zones"
David was about to yell 'fuck' when the chute pulled forcing all the wind out of his lungs. He failed to hear the warning due to his conversation with Cortana. "Oh fuck that hurts, you can never get used to that"
"Closed proximity, close proximity, close proximity" the pods alarms yelled and continued to yell.
"Fuck fuck fuck! Cortana take over the controls and prevent me from hitting anything"
"You got it private"
"Hey, call me David"
"What about Dave?"
"Nah, never liked nicknames"
The pods thrusters engaged 50 metres above the ground, as per regulations. The pod hit the ground with a crunch, drowning out David's groan and sending everything within a 10-foot radius away at great velocity. David saw the pods class crack and knew that the heavily reinforced Plexie Glass doesn't crack unless there is major damage.
"Diagnostics indicate heavy damage to the pod, recommend explosive door ejection" Cortana's voice echoed through the Trooper's helmet.
"Yeah kinda' figured. Well are you ready?" David asked himself
"Yes, I'm an A.I., we are always ready" Cortana responded
"Rhetorical question"
"Oh"
David sighed, "Well, here goes nothing". David leaned forward pushing the emergency door ejection buttons and sat back waiting for the door to fly off.
Man these things take forever. David thought as the door flew off the pod with a particularly loud explosion. He stepped out and saw a caravan of some sort with tables set up and people sitting at them, staring at him with shock written all over their faces.
Author's Note: gah finally done. Just a few things you should know, David is an OC, and he seems familiar with Cortana however he had never met her until just before the drop. Cortana is a fair bit crazy as will be proved in the following chapters as A.I.'s tend to go rampant after 7or 8 years, Cortana has been around for 150 years, maybe she's got epic rampancy? I don't know yet. Also I'll hope for reviews rather than tell you to review me as this is my first fan fic and most people have established themselves as writers before reviews start coming in. one last thing, I'll be accepting any and all forms of criticism as I would like improve my writing coming into the senior years of high school. The HSC is a bitch and I'd like to pass. That is all and I'll see the few of you who could be bothered in the next chapter of: Trooper in the Wastes…