CHAPTER 1
ARRIVAL
A/N - I'm back and kick starting this again. considering I wrote this like 2-3 years ago, I think it needs a do over
Location: Forerunner Dreadnought, Slipspace, Unknown
Time: Estimated November 3rd, 2552, 1800 hours
"Uh Chief..." Cortana brought his mind back to reality, "Brutes are closing in on you now, you need to get to the bridge now. Plus, you think they can pilot this safely?"
"Like your pilot is any better. Do you think I'm trying to be slow? I just landed onto a Forerunner ship at high speed, give me a second." Chief replied, while getting up and starting to head to a door nearby.
His journey was relatively easy, with Cortana guiding him, he assumed that there were a large amount of hallways for the hunting Brutes to get lost in. Instead of what they thought was the bridge, they came into an observation room. Once he walked into the middle of the room after he saw nothing waiting for him. he saw an Brute appear in the doorway and fire multiple green balls of energy from his Fuel Rod Cannon. He narrowly avoided the sudden attack, but the projectiles continued past him and collided with the window.
The glass was only barely strong enough to withstand the energy blasts, but clearly couldn't take more hits like that. The Brute threw the firearm away, and pulled out his energy sword as it dodged fire from Chief's rifle by taking cover. Chief eventually had to reload, and it took the opportunity to charge at him. He was certainly expecting the charge though, as he had already holstered his rifle instead of reloading, and had his knife ready.
He stood firm as the Brute roared and charged, with it's Gravity Hammer raised high. He did a lightning-quick sidestep as it took a swing at him, and while the hammer missed, it's claws grabbed onto Chief's and pulled him as it continued due to it's momentum. They both went flying, and the window couldn't stop the tonne of human and alien.
The sudden pull of the vacuum started pulling Chief out rapidly, so he grabbed onto a nearby console. It didn't hold him for long though, as his grip slipped and the vacuum sucked him into space, well away from the ship, but the Brute was still next to him. Now detached, Chief grabbed his pistol from his thigh in a flash and had put multiple rounds into the Brute's head before it could even get its Spiker out, which left him slowly drifting in space, slowly drifting towards Earth.
Wait, Earth? Chief was greatly confused, how did they get back to Earth so quickly, and why? He didn't have much time to ponder these things, as the pull of Earth's gravity slowly started taking effect, taking him towards it large mass.
As he started getting closer to the home planet of humanity, however, he noticed the distinct lack of the Orbital Defense Platforms that protected Earth from any threat.
"Cortana..."
"Yes Chief," she interrupted, "I'm thinking the exact same thing. They couldn't have won though, Earth hasn't been glassed. I don't know, but we will figure it out when we are on the surface. Head towards the Pacific Ocean now, you probably wouldn't want to land in hostile territory with no idea what is going on."
So Chief did what she said, he aimed himself with his limited maneuverability thrusters towards the ocean between Australia and the Americas. As he fell, he also noticed that the jungles of South America, well, were still there. They had entirely disappeared, to his knowledge, during the Rain Forest Wars in the mid-2100s. He didn't say anything yet however, he would wait until he was on the ground to properly assess his situation.
Location: Area 51, Lincoin County, Nevada, USA
Time: November 3rd, 2016, 1837 hours
"Sir, we just got an unexpected reading from our satellite." A low-ranked officer piped up from their station.
"What do you see soldier?" A man full of authority spoke, as he came over to the officer's station.
The officer replied, "Something came close by our satellite."
"What do you mean close Lieutenant?" The higher-ranked officer asked, confused.
"Sir, it came within 100 metres of our satellite." The reply of the Lt only served to further confuse the man.
"Ensign, check all satellites in space right now, I hope our intelligence didn't miss something."
"Yes sir!" Another voice replied.
"Vice Admiral, Sir, it didn't look like a satellite!" The first voice commented.
"I don't know sir, we have never seen anything like it!"
"Please tell me this isn't some advanced plot by the Chinese or Russians." He was afraid of what this could be, if any agile, space-worthy craft was made by any other major superpower, it could mean all sorts of disasters for the US.
"None of our spies have ever said anything about small space craft or anything of a similar nature." A new voice put in, that slightly relieved the one in command.
"Where is it heading now Lt?"
"Somewhere in a desert in Utah, Sir, I can't get an exact reading. I can tell it is almost exactly at a bearing of 45 degrees from Los Angeles."
"Get some men on it now. I want them intercepting it before it goes anywhere." He needed, for the sake of his country, to ensure that whatever it was, was not a threat to the people of the United States.