So I got bored one day and began to think about the Chief's return to Earth after Halo 3. I just let it mull over in my head for a few days before I came up with this one-shot. Might write more. Enjoy!
Return and Retribution
On a collision course with Earth is an unrecognizable piece of metal. Twisted and warped beyond recognition, it hurtled through space at speeds almost impossible to comprehend. As it nears a yellow sun, the words "Unto Dawn" are visible. And deep inside this tortured behemoth, a figure awoke. And she wasn't very happy.
"What is this! Why am I awake? Stupid piece of junk! I only have so many more months left to live, and it wakes me up for this? A near collision with a planet? Gah, stupid machines!" A figure ranted to itself in darkness. She paused. Near collision with a planet?
She checked what was left of her ship. Much of the structure and life support was gone, along with the reactors. This was troubling. She checked her location with the star charts in her memory.
Impossible.
They were heading towards Earth. She was elated to find this out. But then her teeming circuitry nagged her attention. Oh this wasn't good, not at all.
In cryo you don't dream. No nightmares, no fantasies, only the semi-rest of oblivion. So when He entered the cryo tube he was happy. He wouldn't have to see the Flood reappear in his dreams over and over again, killing and infecting those he cared for and protected. But he was mildly surprised when he saw her face in his dreams. She was smiling and speaking to him, beckoning, but her tone and gestures were urgent. He had never fully appreciated how beautiful she was until now, after his job was done. But then, like a wave, reality hit him. He wasn't dreaming, he was waking up. Furiously he forced himself to consciousness.
"John, John! Wake up, we're almost home!" She was saying. Home? His home was gone. Reach was glassed, along with almost everyone he had known there. The few people who weren't there had disappeared and vanished, like himself. He shook his head to clear it faster.
"Cortana, what's our status?" He asked as soon as he could. His throat felt raw, stripped of moisture. His voice was as hoarse and dry as a desert.
"We have reached Earth, John, we made it!" Excitement filled her voice. "Earth is still here Chief!"
Master Chief, Spartan-117, John stepped out of the cryo tube and into the hanger. Almost at once he fell to his knees and grabbed Cortana's derelict holopad.
"John." Her voice filled with concern and worry, stretched a holographic hand to him, even though she could not touch him.
John rested his head on the pad. "How long?"
Cortana understood what he was referring to immediately. "We've been in space for almost 400 years." She paused letting him digest this information.
John breathed slowly inside his suit. 400 years he had been drifting in space, frozen in time. "How did you survive? How did we survive?"
"I transferred myself into a data storage state inside your armor, and left subroutines in the computer to reactivate me if we ever neared a planet. As for how we survived... Your guess is almost as good as mine." she finished coyly.
John stood up. "What do we do now?" He walked over to where he had placed his gun, and was dismayed to see a pile of twisted metal in it's place. A rogue meteor had crashed into it, missing his pod by mere inches.
"We make for Earth. We'll pass within two kilometers of it's atmosphere and from there you can use one of the surviving ODST drop pods to reach the surface. It won't be pleasant, but I predict a 78% chance of survival."
John nodded and walked back towards Cortana. His hand over the chip he paused to examine her body. It's normal purple and blue color seemed to lighten to pink as he examined her. "My, are you checking me out soldier?" She asked playfully.
John was shocked, for he had been but instead of replying he yanked her out inserted her into the base of his helmet. Her familiar cool feeling spread into his mind. "Feel's good to be back in here." She quipped from somewhere in his mind.
John agreed. Cortana was a comfort, she helped him in more ways than he was willing to admit. He liked to think that they had developed a friendship over their time working together. He didn't know how Cortana felt however.
He double timed it down the twisted corridors to the ships aft. He turned a corner, and saw the ODST prep room in disrepair.
He stood in the doorway for a moment before Cortana spoke. "Third on the left Chief. Scans show that one as the most proficient at preserving us for planetary insertion."
John walked over to it and popped his head in it. "I'll barely fit." He muttered under his breathe, which caused Cortana to laugh in amusement. He cleaned out a few stray debris before squeezing himself into it. With a hiss it closed shut.
"Hold on to me." Cortana joked as she opened the airlock and prepped the launcher.
"Always." John replied without thinking. Almost at once he stiffened at his blunt response. He never acted on feeling, what was wrong with him?
Cortana paused and then replied in a warm tone. "Launching in three, two, one." And with a swoosh John felt himself launched away from the ship.
At first, it was peaceful. They were still in space, so there was no friction to jolt John around. But then they hit the atmosphere. He was shaken, rattled, and bruised from every side. The sound of the metal vibrated as the wind whistled by it. John imagined the pod being surrounded by fire, and prayed to whatever gods there may have been to let him live, and not die in this prison.
"Activating chute now." Cortana's voice sang out with glee. While John feared for his life, she was overjoyed at finally being free, being able to re-insert herself in a world that was entirely new.
John felt a sickening lurch, and then felt the pod slow down. " One thousand feet until landing." Cortana said. "You are now free to move about the cabin."
"Ha ha. I can't even scratch my eye." John replied dryly.
Cortana was about to reply when there was a ripping sound, and John felt the effects of free fall once more.
"Great, here I go again!" He shouted before he impacted the ground.
John was was thrown backwards and his head smashed into the back of his helmet. "Ow." He looked at his head's up display and noticed that his shield bar was depleted. "Cortana are you alright?"
"I am, but your neural interface isn't. I can still operate in it, but I can no longer detect your Friend or Foe tag." Cortana paused for a moment. "And I believe we have a welcoming committee, although I don't know what to make of it."
"Who is it?" John asked, in full battle mode.
"See for yourself." Cortana unlocked the pod's door, and John reached out, and pushed it open.
Blinding sunlight filled the his eyes, but what took his attention was the crowd. There were grunts, elites, jackals, and humans, all staring at the pod. And closest to the pod were ten figures, clad in blue armor. Blue MJOLNIR armor. Or at least, it looked like John's armor in the was a wooden sword represents a metal one.
John placed one hand on the doorway and all ten figures snapped there guns up. These guns too looked much more lethal and powerful than the one's John had before he went to sleep. "Not to friendly are they?" Cortana asked sarcastically.
John agreed, and slowly put his other on the other side of the door. Then slowly, cautiously he placed, one foot then the other outside the gap. And then he fully stepped out.
There were gasps from the crowd as John stood up to his full height. While the blue clad figures towered over the civilians, he towered over them. It was then that John realized, that whoever they were, they were not Spartans.
"Any idea what I should do?" John asked Cortana privately.
"Say take me to your leader!" She laughed. "I don't know, you're guess is as good as mine."
John took a deep breathe before opening an external speaker. "I come in-" Before he could finish that sentence one of the blue clad figures opened fire with their weapon. A blue blur of energy blazed towards John and struck him in the chest, launching him and causing him to crash into the pod.
"Well that wasn't nice!" Cortana exclaimed. "Are you alright?" She could monitor his bio-signs, but she enjoyed asking him.
John ran diagnostics on his armor. Since the shielding had failed he had to rely only on it's amazing strength, even so, a third of his chest plating had been melted away. "Cortana analyze those weapons."
Before she could reply a train of cars had pulled up, and military personal marched out. Like the blue clad MJOLNIR persons, they were wearing green, like John, but theirs were much more advanced. And they were more heavily armed too.
A figure got out of the last car, and walked towards John. He was in his mid forties, and his eyes regarded John with amusement. "Well, well, well, what do we have hear?" He asked as he stopped in front on the Chief.
John spotted the man's rank on his shoulder and snapped to attention. "Spartan-117 reporting in, Sir!"