Yay first chapter book three! This is the first book to include Halo in any real capacity. Wasting time doing awesome author's notes is fun, but I need to get down to business.
Battleground: Jasper book 3
Chapter 1- The Return of an old hero
Unknown P.O.V.
We had been drifting for years, the cold of space had frozen John in his armor. By my clock it had been over two-hundred years. Ahead a small dot was growing in the stellar-scape (the landscape of space) I hurriedly turned on the rescue beacon in the Mjolnir armor. The dot grew larger and larger, until it resolved itself into a giant ship. But it couldn't be... if my analysis was correct it was at least twice as large as one of the Covenant super-carriers!
However, it wasn't Covenant either so maybe it could help us. If they could defrost the Chief there would be at least one Spartan left. I didn't know if the Human race had continued creating Spartans, probably not. I looked forward to seeing a human face after all that time drifting in space. We were pulled towards the ship until a hatch in the side opened, and we slipped into darkness.
Several minutes later another hatch opened on the inside and a trio of figures appeared carrying some weapons I wasn't very familiar with. As they drew closer, the lights were activated. Standing there were three wolves. They weren't wolves as the wolves in my database, more like wolves who adapted to standing upright and using technology.
I decided my best chance was to lay low for now, so I simply did nothing for what seemed like any eternity. It was only a few minutes though. They put the Mjolnir through decontamination before it was put in a large room. The room was about sixty degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the rest of the ship. Even so, it must have had the specific purpose of defrosting people because the rate of melting was slow enough that the Chief had a 99.637% chance of living through it.
A few minutes later gasp from inside the armor brought my thoughts back to the current situation. I projected my voice to him. "Hello again Chief. It's been a while, in fact it's been over two-centuries." John started moving around, the ice cracked on the outside as the suit warmed up.
"Cortana? Where are we?" I sighed aloud, "I really don't know Chief, all I know is that we are on a ship that's about twice the size of a covenant super-carrier that's inhabited by a sentient race of-" I was cut off when the hatch opened, admitting a old-looking gray wolf into the room.
John-117 "Master Chief" P.O.V.
Wolves? A sentient race of wolves? The first wolf was accompanied by two guards, one a dark brown and the other was a reddish color. A string of barks and yips, seemed to be how they talked. "Cortana, can you translate their speech?" "Hmm... give me a moment." A few seconds later I got a bland, "We have already detected the AI present in your armor and are attempting to fix any problem with communications between us. I'm Rear Admiral Langstonwho might you be?"
" John, my name is John." I hadn't used that name in such a long time. But since it had apparently been two-centuries since the Ark, I was no longer a UNSC soldier. Or was I? If I could live a civilian life, would want it? After thirty years of fighting, could I really settle down and be a civilian?
Cortana translated the sentence into as good a translation as she could. "John? A very good name, one of my pups is named John. Nice kid always running off with his girlfriend to do this or that. He loves to go dig up whatever remains of those old war sights. But anyway, no need for your AI to do the talking now. Our translator has figured out your language."
My Mjolnir armor was wet and it being wet on the inside bothered me, the water in the helmet alone was making my head itch. I removed my helmet, and the wolves stepped back, they had to have been wondering why I didn't have an extended muzzle helmet. There were whispers "A human!?" "I thought they fled the galaxy over two centuries ago?" That armor, I've seen it in the old records... that's it Mjolnir armor! It's a Spartan!" "A Spartan? No, there aren't any of them left. We nailed that last one on Taurontus 12."
They all interested me, especially the last one. "Cortana, access their archives. I want a full brief on what this ship has done." Cortana responded a few seconds later. "Chief, I can't. The shipboard AI is so much more advanced than I am. It's smart too, not the typical "dumb" AI we put in our ships. It's been specifically designed to both be good at combat, and at cyberwarfare. Chief it's too advanced, the small amount of attention it's giving me is enough to stop me."
Who are these people? They say that humans fled, fled what? They killed at least one Spartan, there must have been extenuating circumstances. No Spartan went down against anything besides the Covenant! A paw was extended to me and I shook it, when we released Langston signaled his men out. "Well John, lets see if we can find you any decent quarters."
Eventually we reached a door that was a little small for me to walk through standing, what wasn't on this giant of a ship? "Sir, how many wolves are on this particular vessel?" His face looked thoughtful for a second. "After the recent battle damage we took... I'd say about forty-six thousand wolves fit and ready for action. Oh yes! That reminds me, welcome to the 'Star Razer' Master Chief Petty Officer John."
"How do you know my rank?" I wanted to slap myself for the question as soon as I asked it. "We used our own AI to access your own files, it wasn't really much of a fight when she was focused on trying to breach our security. Oh, you can find a holo-projector in your room. Fit to talk with your AI." I asked if I could talk more to him about the ship later and then he went along his merry way.
After looking around my new quarters I discovered that the bunk was a little small but still comfortable. I had removed my armor and plugged Cortana into the holo-projector. "Okay, what do you know about these guys?" Cortana's holographic form appeared on the surface. "Not that much really... hmm interesting. The Rear- Admiral just sent word back to command about you. Oh my God..."
Though Cortana never really restrained herself on profanity, the sense of pure awe in her projected voice made me curious. "What is it? The Covenant?" her hologram was ablaze with numbers and letters. It was glowing bright enough from the amount she was working to make me look away. "No, I just got into their damage reports and outer surveillance. I think you'd better have a look at this."
Cortana disappeared and was replaced by a list of battle damage. It looked like a lot of damage had been taken on the port side. Laser batteries one through fourteen, missile tubes one through eighteen, plasma batteries one through twenty. The list went on and on detailing every bit of damage they had taken.
"Okay Cortana, why did you need to show me this?" instead of answering she flicked the holographic projector over to the outer surveillance, on the starboard side it looked like a good healthy ship on the port side... nothing. The whole port side had been destroyed, the only thing left was trailing metal and wires.
It was a shocking discovery, these people had been fighting a force that could do something like this? Sure the Covenant could, but then the ship would be killed. It looked like this ship was made to handle this though as it's reactor hadn't blown. Which got me thinking about what this things reactor was, it had to be huge to power this behemoth.
It had been a few hours since Langston left when a beep! came from a small desk in the back of the room. A small red button was flashing there, I pressed it. The door slid open and there stood the Rear- Admiral, he invited me to come with him for a grand tour, so we began the long walk around what remained of the ship.
Humphrey's P.O.V.
It was the night I got back, Eve had stayed away from me the whole time. I wondered why, but I didn't want to lose a minute with Kate. So, I put it in the back of my mind and spent the whole night with my mate. Well, almost the whole night.
At about 3 AM a beeping sound woke me. I knew what it meant, but Kate didn't. She simply covered her head with a pillow, I rolled out of bed faster than I meant to. Ending in a tumble to the metal grating below.