Noble Six POV
Pillar of Autumn Medical Bay
XXxXxXxXxXxX
Pain. That's all I felt, and it was good to know as it reminded me that I was still alive. I don't know how I survived, when the last thing I saw was an elite with his energy dagger bearing upon me, but complaining that I made it wasn't on my mind. My armor was lying next to me, looking brand new. Wait what? My armor was akin to destroyed on the field, how the hell did it get repaired so quickly? As the shock of my survival wore off, I began to take in my surroundings. I was in a medical bay, an empty one, and it looked all too small and compact for me to still be on Reach. I had to be on a ship. I got up quickly, and pain lanced up my side.
"Slow down son, you are still healing."
I turned and immediately saluted to the hero of Sigma Octanus. Captain Keyes looked much younger than the press made him out to be, probably around his early 40's. The "Keyes loop" had circulated around the UNSC like wildfire, and here I was standing in front of the man who was the subject of it.
"Sir!"
"At ease soldier. I am sure you must be confused as to where you are and why you ended up here. Do you want the short or long version?"
"Short. Sir."
"A man of action I take it. Well, here it is then. I couldn't leave another man behind for the damn Covenant to slaughter, so I came back and found you. Wasn't hard, as Cortana hacked into the Covie battlenet, and half of it was chatter about a lone 'Demon' who managed to slaughter around half of the invading forces on reach. We picked you up, took off your armor and started repairs on it, and it's been a day since we got you."
"What happened to Reach sir?"
Keyes paused at the question, as if wary of my reaction. He only paused for a fraction of a second, but nothing escapes a Spartan. He quietly whispered
"It's all gone son, we lost it."
Noble Six POV
Pillar of Autumn Command Center
XXxXxXxXxXxX
Keyes invited me into the command center so I could have a look at where we ended up. During the long walk there, I was filled in on my injuries: Cracked ribs, and some internal bleeding. Nothing a Spartan couldn't handle, but it would take me a day to get back to a 100 percent again. I was also filled in on the situation. So Master Chief was on the ship huh? The man was a living legend to the Spartan 3's, as a leader, and a fearless combatant. I was hoping to meet him in person, and if I had a chance to fight with him. From my position on the bridge, I saw nothing but empty space. A Slipspace transition always had at least a day of leeway to wait, so I had enough time to recover. I spent the time taking a tour of the ship, and getting up to speed with my situation. We lost reach, and we narrowly evaded the Covenant, hopefully where we ended up was far away from them.
XXxXxXxXxX
It had been a day and a half since I was saved by Keyes and taken aboard the Pillar of Autumn, and we were now able to transition back into normal space. I took a position in the corner, where I would not bother anyone but I still could get a view of the bridge. The crew all shared a look at me, and quickly turned away. While a Spartan 3 and not nearly as large or threatening, I still was larger than the average human, standing at around 7 foot 3 without armor, and now 8 foot 4 with it. My helmet, an Operator variant lay next to me on a table. The helmet luckily protected me from a plasma bolt that would have killed me, and the navy techs had managed to repair it best they could. Now, my armor was back to a 100 percent, and I was ready to face anything.
Keyes walked into the bridge, and I took the initiative.
"Officer on deck!"
The crew stood up and smartly saluted. Keyes let slip a small smile as he walked over to the command chair. The friendly tone that he had taken with me was replaced by a more business, more fitting to a captain like commanding voice.
"Men and women, get ready to transition back to normal space. Be ready for anything. Lovell, Hall, systems check."
A man with a young face, slick red hair a tad against the regulation hairline nodded along with a woman who was slightly younger than the man, with a neat blonde haircut. They both checked their respective systems, then yelled
"All systems ready sir!"
"Very well, Transition in 5 seconds."
"5…4…3…2…1… Transitioning now."
A bubble of UV rays slammed through the hull and various groans were heard as the battle-hardened ship tore a hole in Slipspace and went through it. Damn, first thing in our sights are the Covenants cruisers. Why are they everywhere now? Where aren't they? Keyes immediately barked orders and the Pillar of Autumn shot around the gas giant Threshold. As we passed around the giant, something big came into view.
It was a massive object floating close to Threshold and its moon, Basis. It looked like a giant ring, and it was gargantuan, making us feel like a speck of dirt on a tennis field. The bridge was silent for a second, and all we could hear was the silent hum of the engine. Suddenly a voice interrupted the silence, Cortana's.
" I hate to interrupt the silence, but our slingshot orbit will be completed soon, and we will slip right into the range of the covenant cruisers."
Keyes pulled out his pipe and chewed on it, a slight frown on his face as his mind went over all the options in his head.
" All hands on deck, Lovell I want navigation coordinates transferred to my terminal, men and women, this is going to be a bumpy ride. Spartan, I need your eyes. Watch the screens, and tell me where they are."
"Sir!"
I made my way to the screens and watched intently as we slowly moved within viewing range of the carrier. With the MAC cannon fried during the battle for reach, we were sitting ducks. However the Covenant didn't know that, and my guess was Keyes was intending to keep it that way. We moved sideways, approaching the giant ring. Keyes yelled more orders to the crew and Cortana, and suddenly we were given a picture of the ring. An oxygen nitrogen atmosphere, flora and fauna on an artificial ring, it seemed too good to be true. There was no time for speculation, as boarding cruisers courtesy of the carrier were approaching fast. It appeared as though instead of annihilating us, they wanted to capture us. Keyes then made a quick decision
"Cortana, unseal the husked casket. Spartan I'm going to need you to get down to Cryo two. We're waking up a very special guest from his sleep, and you are going to be his escort."