Halo: Enter the Vale Ch 1
AN: Hello all, this is a project I decided to start most recently, being a Halo and Dragon Age fan i decided to finally do a crossover of the two. i apologize if the beginning of this chapter seems rushed, also of what i have come to understand most recently it may seem a little bit similar to another Halo-Dragon Age crossover called Lost and it was never intended to be. please leave a review and tell me what your thoughts are and if i am doing good so far, enjoy!
Will lay on the ground as he crawled his way forward, his Sniper rifle in hand. He stopped and aimed his rifle as he approached the ledge, taking aim at the elite that stood guard. He swept the area making sure that no one would notice when the elite dropped dead. Being satisfied with how little the area was guarded, he lined up the shot and pulled the trigger, his rifle ringing out and the elite slammed against the wall, his blood and brain matter covering it.
He jumped down and slid down the rocky drop, hopping down and pulling out his pistol, also drawing his dagger as he approached another elite who hadn't heard his approach.
He jumped up on its shoulders and dug the knife into the large aliens blue armor, purple blood spilling out of the wound. He pulled the dagger out and set the body down quietly as he continued forward, hiding behind a corner as a large group of grunts passed. After they were a good distance away, he crept from the corner and quietly made his way to the labs.
The Covenant may have taken this base and slaughtered the scientists working on the Forerunner artifacts, but he was determined to make sure they paid for it. He punched in the code that opened the lab doors and rushed in when they opened, quickly silencing the two jackals examining test tubes. He looked around for his target, a small white crystal that apparently was in the middle of research when the Covies showed up.
He looked around before finding a cylindrical glass tube that contained a white crystal about 15 centimeters long and 7 centimeters in diameter. He grabbed it and set it on a magnetic strip on his back, turning and coming face-to-face with an elite clad in red, an energy sword in hand.
He quickly rolled to the side as the sword lashed out and severed several tubes containing several liquids in half, their contents spilling onto the floor. He stood and charged the elite, ducking the sword and grabbing the arm holding it, pulling the elite closer. He chopped the elbow, breaking it, the elite cried out in pain and Will wretched the sword out of its hand and turned it around, impaling the elite with his own sword.
It gave out a choked cry as it collapsed on the floor, Will looked at the energy blade in his hand and turned it off, putting it on his hip, it may come in handy later. He searched the body for anything else of use and pulled a needle rifle and several extra bundles for it from the corpse, hey the elite wasn't gonna be using it any time in the near future.
He looked around and heard several pairs of feet scampering across the floor, the reinforcements were coming, great. He set the rifle on his back with his rifle and put the spare clips in a pouch on his hip, checking the schematics of the building and finding an alternate exit. He ran out the other exit and made way for the hangar, his Short sword should hopefully still be there.
He hid as a group of several grunts, jackals, and elites ran down the hall, he peered out and ran across the hall to the hangar, almost running into a group of elites. Thankfully he stopped himself and hid fast enough for them not to see, they were focused on something else thankfully.
He heard them talking about something in their language, unfortunately he didn't know any of the Covenant language, but they seemed to be discussing something their apparent leader was holding. Will checked his timer, he had placed the bomb nearly half an hour ago and set the timer for 35 minutes, he needed to hurry if he planned on getting out of here. He activated his camo and tried his best to stay as quiet as a mouse, he snuck over to where he had hid the Short sword.
He looked around before deactivating his camo and punching in the codes to open the ramp. He climbed aboard and ran to the pilots seat, activating the fighter quickly and lifting off, he saw several Covenant burst into the hangar and began to open fire, but he took off before they could do any more than a little damage.
After a moment or two when he was out of range Will pulled a small cylinder with a red button on the top out of one of the compartments by the cockpit. See you in hell you bastards he thought, pressing the button, a large nuclear flare erupted behind him, obliterating everything that remained of the base.
He finally sat back and sighed, he removed his helmet and set it down, grabbing the cylinder off of his back and inspecting it a bit more closely. It was interesting, it had several jagged edges like scales as they overlapped each other till it reached the sharp pointed tops.
He reached over and pressed activated comms, "Admiral, this is Spartan R816, I got the crystal, I'll be making the slip-space jump shortly," he said when the older man appeared on the screen,
"Good job Spartan, be cautious with it though, of what we have come to understand the crystal reacts strangely around slip-space ruptures. The Covenant worked hard to try and get their hands on it in the first place, let's not give it back to them," he said.
"Aye sir," Will said, the screen blackening and he looked at the cylinder one last time before putting it in a compartment and punching in the coordinates to the base on the planet Runtron.
He walked passed a terminal that was turned off and took a moment to inspect his features. His black hair had grown out about another two inches, a slight shadow of a beard coming in. He grabbed and rubbed his chin, turning his head a bit, the large scar that went across his right cheek to his chin was now became a lot more visible.
He rolled his shoulders and set his weapons in a compartment next to the cryo-tube he'd be sleeping in, minutes away from the slip-space jump. He didn't have enough time to get out of his armor, he'd have to deal with the rashes when he got out. He climbed in and the glass slowly lowered with a hiss as it sealed and he drifted to sleep.
He was completely unaware of the crystal that bow began to glow and begin to separate, the multiple sections floating around it as it gave off waves of energy that disrupted the Slip-space. The ship came out of it's jump two hours after it had initially entered, not nearly as soon as the Spartan needed it to be, but not only was the jump early, but also in a completely unfamiliar place.
The alarm on the cryo-tube activated and began to thaw the Spartan off. He woke up from his dream and looked around as the lid opened up, climbing out and realizing that the ship was disabled. He ran to the pilot's seat and checked the crystal. The hell happened, it was shattered into several pieces, each one had a faint glow to them which gradually faded.
He took his eyes off the crystal and tried to get control of the ship as it was entering atmosphere of a planet. As he closed in on the planet, which was dark on this side signifying it was most likely night, the ship began to heat up and a flame started to build around the Short sword.
As he fell into the night sky, the Short sword spiraling slightly, he saw a mountain and a large dense forest beneath him. No matter how hard he tried, he could only barely keep the ship stable, the EMP blast had shut down most of the systems. But as the forest came closer to meet him, one of the wings of the Short sword hit a large tree and the alarm began to blare as he lost all control of the fighter.
"Shit!" he yelled, buckling in the straps and doing his best to try to regain control of the ship, but his attempts were in vain. He braced for impact as the fighter quickly approached the ground, bouncing once, taking air, and bouncing again, taking out several trees that weren't strong enough to resist the fast moving fighter.
The ship slid to a stop and Will sat there for a moment, his right arm was sore, his chest throbbed and he had a pretty bad headache. He was able to unbuckle from the fighters pilot seat and collapse onto the ground as he tried to get up, only to collapse again and drift into unconsciousness.
Merrill sat up, her ear twitched and she strained again to hear what had woken her, it seemed to have been a large booming. She listened for a while, but all she heard were the crackling fires outside and the woodland creatures. She frowned and walked outside, stretching and looking around, upon finding nothing she went back into the tent, crawling back into the bedroll. She drifted to sleep again quickly thinking of the day ahead.
Will woke up on the ground where he had collapsed, his vision was blurred and edged with darkness. He blinked his eyes and his vision began to come back to him. He groaned and pushed himself off the ground, a large piece of metal had fallen on his back, but he didn't notice it till it clanged to the ground as he sat up.
He checked his armor diagnostics and there wasn't anything that wasn't too significant. He stood and stretched out for a moment before checking to see how long he had been out, about eight hours. He looked around and walked over to the compartment where he had placed his weapons, the sniper rifle had been split in half, but otherwise the pistol, needle rifle, and energy sword were in fairly good shape.
He grabbed the needle rifle and put it on his back, grabbing the extra bundles and putting them in the pouch they had been in earlier, taking the pistol in hand and placing the sword on his thigh. He checked the crystal one last time and then abandoned it, it was beyond repair at this point.
He walked over to the hatch and prayed to god that he wouldn't need to either punch his way through or climb out the main window, which had been shattered almost entirely in the crash. He typed in the command and nothing happened, he frowned, typing it in again for the same result. He sighed and braced himself, shooting forward and slamming into the metal with his shoulder, repeating this three more times before the hatch just fell, the pylons keeping it attached creaking as the metal slid.
He looked out at the forest, it was already day time and there was a large visible crevice that the ship had dug up when it had crashed. He rolled his shoulders and hopped down off the ship, if he was being tailed by the Covenant then he would have to get moving as soon as he could. He climbed out of the crevice, ignoring the pain and creeping into the forest, maybe he could find some humans here, he hoped so, because he definitely wasn't getting off in the Short sword.
After a while of walking, Will found a break in the woods that opened up to a small clearing, ten men stood in metal armor talking. The Spartan III used the magnifier in his helmet to get a better look, as good as his vision was, it was still a little messed up from the crash and the men were a while away. They were wearing heavy looking plate armor like the knights that he had learned about when he was training to be a Spartan.
They even carried shields and metal swords of various sizes, they seemed to be talking about something. He crept forward so he could hear them better, he was several feet away from the edge of the clearing, but in the shadows so as to not be spotted.
They seemed to be discussing something when another man showed up. "Alright there's two elves in the next clearing, a girl with a large stick and another young boy who has a bow."
Will raised an eyebrow, his interest spiked at this, elves eh, "Alright this should be easy as pie, we just need to grab them and take them back, that or put a price on their heads."
Another man smacked the man upside the head at this comment, "Idiot, didn't you hear what he said, she has a staff, she's probably a mage, and the other has a bow. Either way though, we just need to sneak up on them and we should have them in the bag," the man said.
Will continued to watch as the slavers, at least what he guessed by the way they were talking, began to organize themselves before creeping into the forest. He sighed to relax his muscles before following them, elves, slavers, men in metal plate armor carrying metal swords and shields, before you know it there'll be dragons.
Merrill was sitting on the edge of the stream as Himlum scurried after a badger that ran under a rock. She swirled her foot in the cold water of the stream as she watched him, he had followed her here once before and now he came with her every time she went. She would have liked her privacy, but he didn't bother her much.
As Merrill sat there she thought about all the sounds of the forest, though they were always around her, she still liked to listen to them from time to time. She closed her eyes and took a big sigh, opening her eyes to see that Himlum had run out of her line of sight. She didn't mind, it gave her more privacy and he knew how to take care of himself.
As she thought this, a metal clad hand slapped around her, mouth and another brought a dagger to her neck, she let off a startled muffled cry. "Try anything and I'll gut you and your friend," a bearded mouth said next to her, it stank of ale and meat.
She was pulled to her feet and she heard the struggle of another. The hand warily removed itself from her mouth and floated in front of her in case she yelled for help. When she bit her lip the hand withdrew and she felt her hands being bound, they turned her and she saw ten men in plate and leather armor scanning the area, Himlum in the arms of another human.
"Let me go you stupid shemlen," Himlum protested, which he was rewarded with a metal fist to his gut, he doubled over groaning.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him," Merrill said trying to go toward her friend to be pulled back, he chin was pulled back and the dagger took up its place on her neck.
"I said we wouldn't kill him, but I'll do the same to you if you don't stay quiet," the human that held her said.
She nodded and he let go of her, she stumbled a bit as he pushed her toward Himlum. She was so scared and nervous right now, she didn't want to offend the humans so they would hurt them, but she didn't know what they took offense too.
"Alright get them up and let's head back," a large one said, he was covered in plate armor and had horns on his helm as well as a dragon etched into his breastplate. She felt large hands grab her and force her off the ground, but then there was the sound like that of a bow and the man holding her let go, a large purple crystal stuck out of his eye slit.
"What the-?" the leader said, turning and looking at her, but she shook her head furiously and backed up as he walked toward her, pulling out a short sword.
"I didn't do anything!" she said frantically, tripping over a rock and falling back, her hands were thankfully bound on her front and she tried to crawl as he reached down to grab her.
The pink crystal that was in the mans face exploded and sent chunks of gore everywhere, Merrill cringed back as a streak of blood went across her cheek. There was another sound and another man fell over with a crystal in his neck, a second later it exploded and the mans head hung limply from only a few tendons.
There was movement in the woods, but when she turned her head it was gone. She was pulled to her feet and dragged over to Himlum and was forced back onto her knees. Suddenly the light seemed to bend around one of the humans when she looked back, and gasped when his neck was cut open and he fell to the ground.
All the remaining men circled around them, one of them grabbing Himlum, she tried to grab him, tried to make sure they didn't take him away from her, but she was struck in the face by a sword hilt.
"Show yourself!" the human that held Himlum yelled out, and surprisingly, he was answered.
"Gladly," a cool human voice said, a man appearing out of thin air in grey and black armor, but his was different, and he had no face behind his helmet. He lunged forward and grabbed the human that held Himlum, pulling the hand off the boys neck, and punching the other human in the face. Despite the fact the human wore a metal helmet, the fist dented the metal severely, the man stumbled.
The warrior pulled out an odd looking dagger that already had blood on it and it shot forward, opening the humans throat. He fell to his knees as he grabbed his throat, red blood gushing from the fatal wound as the warrior spun away from a thrust and swung around the man holding the sword, grabbing his head and spinning it with him, a loud crack was heard.
And when the warrior turned, a greatsword came crashing down upon him, but he caught it, slapping the metal together between his palms and holding the sword still, inches above his helmet. He slammed the sword down and sideways into the dirt, punching the human several times in his chest, his only defense was the leather armor, but audible snaps and cracks were heard with each blow. Finally the warrior brought a straight palm over his head and brought it down the humans head with a chopping motion, upon making contact a wet crack was also heard.
Four more humans were left standing, the leader included, the warrior held the blade like a dagger and took a pose as he brought the knife level to his face and circled the four remaining humans as they spread out around him. Merrill tried to move, but was grabbed by the leader, she struggled, the sound of a fight was heard as she fought against the large man before being hit again and pulled to her feet.
The human pressed an arm around her neck, a dagger in hand, and they both had surprised looks on their faces and Merrill gasped as the warrior stood looking at the last of the three who had attacked him. He looked up from the last man and lopped off his head with the mans own sword.
"Take another step and she dies!" the leader yelled at the warrior and he stopped briefly, Merrill whimpered as she felt the cold dagger press against her skin, the warrior stopped. "That's right, now kill the other elf boy over there and let us be on our way."
Merrill looked in horror as the large warrior looked at Himlum as he stumbled up, "No leave him alone!" she yelled and she was hit again.
"Quiet whore!" the man who was holding her said, but the large figure grabbed something from his thigh and held it up, a loud sound was heard as a flash came from the silver thing in the warriors hands. Merrill looked up as she felt the hold on her slacken, the man holding her stared blankly into the abyss, a blood trail running down his face as a small hole appeared on his helm.
He fell onto his knees before collapsing onto the ground and letting out his last breath.
She jumped back as the body fell nearly on her feet, bumping into something, she felt it, it felt like a smooth rock, and was thick and strong like one. She turned and jumped back again as she realized she had bumped into the warrior, his black mask following her movement.
"Please don't kill us, we were just minding our business when the humans attacked us," she pleaded. The figure made a step forward and she cringed back, expecting to die at any moment, but that moment never came, instead she felt him grab her hands and cut her restraints.
"I didn't plan on," the cool voice replied, she looked back at him to see that he was walking toward Himlum to undo his restraints.
She was so busy looking at the figure that she barely noticed when he walked back up to her, she shook her head and took a step back and inspected him more closely. He was very tall, nearly at least seven feet, he was very well built, but she expected that to mostly be his armor, and she still wasn't exactly sure he was human or not.
"Um hello," she said a little nervously, "are you a human?" she asked, looking at Himlum as he walked up to her.
"Yes, but I'm not quite like the humans you have seen," he responded, taking a step forward and looking closer at her. He stepped back again, "And you're elves huh?" he asked, what an odd question, of course they were.
"Why yes of course," she said, "Where did you come from? What was that thing you had in your hand a moment ago was it magic?" she asked.
He looked at her a little confused for a moment. "I crashed here in my fighter, and this," he said holding up his pistol for them to see, "this is a pistol, and no, it does not use magic, it uses bullets."
Merrill looked at him a little confused, "I'm sorry I must sound extremely rude, I didn't even ask your name, is that rude for humans? I haven't met a lot of them before, I mean humans." She said, her face reddening, she was very nervous, she always babbled when she was nervous.
"You're not being rude at all in my book," he said, putting the pis-tol on his thigh again next to an odd looking artifact. "I am Spartan R-eight sixteen, or Reaper as several of my squad-mates call me," he said, Well that's an odd name.
She stared at him for a moment, "Um… would-would you like to come with us back to the camp, I'm not that good at magic and Himlum is hurt?" she asked him, the Keeper would hopefully be alright with a shemlen coming into camp, especially one that had saved their lives.
He nodded and walked over, delicately putting one hand on Himlum's back and sliding another under his knees, lifting him off the ground like he weighed no more that an arrow. She jogged over and grabbed her staff, walking back over to the Spartan and leading him in the direction they were supposed to.
"By the way," the Spartan said as they began to walk, "Your friend here is unconscious," he said in the same tone as before. He almost seemed to possess no emotion in his voice.
She frowned, "Well you'll still be able to carry him to the camp won't you?" she asked.
"Never said I couldn't," he said walking up the steep incline with ease.
Merrill watched him as he climbed, she felt a little warmer as she watched him, quit it Merrill, she told herself shaking her head, I doubt he even likes you, she thought, following him to the top. He stood waiting for her until she reached the top, "Alrighty then let's go," she said and they started walking again.