Halo: Innocence

By Renault Bordeaux

[Halo and all Halo characters, fictional technologies, creatures, and locations are properties of Bungie Studios, 343 Industries, and Microsoft. This is intended as a fan-based story, not to make any money, but to show appreciation for those properties.]

Chapter 01 – Only An Idiot Would Run Into A Fire

There was a loud noise on the outskirts of town, like a great explosion. The settlers exited their shabby living places and saw a great fire on the horizon, glowing orange in the darkness of night. The dirty people of various ethnicities and diversity asked one another what was going on; no one had any idea. The planet was fertile, made such by the process they used to terra-form the location, but the trees were dry and crackled from lack of rain. The fire was spreading quickly.

A man in a tattered brown cloak was sitting on a bench in the street. He asked the closest man to him, "What's everyone doing? Shouldn't we be getting out of here?"

"Not really," the man said, an elderly gentleman missing most of his teeth, "where would we go? Into the wasteland to the West? The mountains to the South? The oceans to our North? The fire's here, to the East, and we have nowhere else to go."

"The ocean would be better… less trees, more water."

"And let our houses burn? We got nothing but these!"

As they were talking, the elderly man realized something, "Hey, buddy. I don't think I know you…"

The man in the cloak stood up, nearly seven feet tall, and held down his hood to cover his face. The mysterious man quipped, "That a sin, now?"

"Well, we just don't get no visitors here." The old man got closer to him, slightly intimidated by his size, but more curious about his face, "Who are you?"

The tall man walked away from the elderly man, denying him an answer. The fire was nearing the edge of the town, and the cloaked man seemed to be running to the shore, as he had suggested.

"Help!" A shrieking voice called out, piercing out over the sound of the blaze. "Help me, please!"

The cloaked man, as well as everyone else in the town, looked into the blaze, and saw that it had finally hit one of the houses. At first the townspeople thought it was fine, the house was abandoned anyways, but soon they realized the problem: there was a homeless child on the top floor of an abandoned five-story building. She was hanging out of the window, screaming for help. The girl had long, brown hair, dark skin, and seemed to have been living on her own for years.

The tall man in the brown cloak turned away, and looked in the direction of the sea. He seemed to be thinking to himself, trying to decide what to do. As he stood there, the elderly man saw him, and asked, "You got something on your mind?"

He replied to the old geezer, "No. Not really." Then, he took a few steps in the direction of the ocean.

"Help! Please! Help!" The girl screamed again, coughing violently. The townspeople looked up at her, helpless to do anything.

The tall man turned around, sprinting as fast as he could towards her building. His cloak opened, but in the chaos and with his speed, his clothing underneath could not be seen. He kicked in the front door, and climbed the burning stairs. Several of the steps broke beneath him, but he ran up anyways. When he reached the top, he realized he didn't know where she was. He heard the girl coughing, and located her room in seconds. Then, he slammed in her door, and surprised her. The girl turned around, her eyes tearing and face covered in soot.

She asked, "What- Who are you?"

The man, whose hood temporarily fell behind his head, jokingly replied, "Your guardian angel." The girl saw his face, it was covered by a reflective face mask on a metal helmet. The rest of his body was covered by a similar metal armor. She had never seen anything like him.

"My angel?" She asked, confused. The metallic man ran quickly over to her, and grabbed her up into his arms. She asked him, "Are we going to fly, Angel?"

The armored man emotionlessly said, "Of course." He jumped out of the window that she had been hanging out of, and felt the pull of weightlessness in free fall. Time seemed to slow down for the girl, who saw the man's cloak lift up behind his body like two large wings. She truly believed he was an angel. The townspeople looked up, gasping at the sight of a man carrying the small girl jumping out of the window. With the brightness of the fire behind him, they couldn't' tell anything about his armor, and only saw his silhouette; he truly did look like he was flying.

Yet, as all men attest, what goes up will go down. The man began to descend, and the townspeople separated to give them all a space to fall into. Time was speeding up for the girl, her angel was falling, and she was with him. She grabbed onto his metal chestplate, tears still dampening her cheeks, and awaited the pain of the abrupt end of a fall.

Her angel smashed feet-first into the ground, his legs bending, but absorbing the entirety of the fall. She heard some kind of sound coming from his suit when it happened, but didn't know what it meant. She only realized one thing: they had stopped falling. The man quickly released her onto the ground and returned his hood to his head. The townspeople, still confused, were silent as he walked through them towards the sea.

"Wait, angel!" She said to him, "Where are you going?"

He turned to the girl, the townspeople whispering to one another, and said, "To the ocean. Your town will burn, and you need to survive. You should all go to the shore."

All who heard him despaired, but knew he was right. Their town was done for, they needed to rebuild soon. The girl ran to the side of the angel and said, "I'm staying with you."

"I can't take care of a kid."

"I can take care of myself. I've been on my own as long as I can remember."

He saw in here a kindred spirit, another loner who needed someone to help them. The man asked her, "What's your name?"

She said, "Lynn. It's always been Lynn."

He said, "Call me 'Angel'."

…

The man lead the girl to the shore, and the townspeople followed closely. The men and women got to work quickly and setup tents and fires for warmth. The night was nearing dawn, and the fire was close to consuming the entire forest. The moons, in a cloudless sky, reflected over the dark blue sea.

"Hey," the elderly man from before said to Angel, "what's your deal? No one else saw it, but I saw the military grade armor you're sporting."

"Your sight's failing, old man," Angel said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

The old guy snorted, "I was a sniper, a Marine for years, and I know what I saw."

Angel said nothing, but started to walk towards the town.

"Woah!" The old guy said again, "What are you thinkin'?"

"I'm thinking about knocking out an old man."

The old guy frowned and grumbled, "I mean going back in town. Only an idiot would run into a fire. Even with all your armor, you'd be overheated, right?"

"I'll be fine," Angel said quickly. He felt something on his arm, so he looked down and saw Lynn grabbing him. Quietly, he got close to her and asked, "Lynn, what are you doing?"

She was still covered in soot, saying to Angel, "Please don't go! It's dangerous."

"You're pretty smart for your age aren't you?" Angel asked, rhetorically. He sighed and said, "Fine. I'll leave in the morning. But I have to go."

"Go where?" She asked, worried.

He whispered, "To the explosion that started the fire."