Halo Legacy

Chapter 1

Awakening

He noticed a sudden change in his environment. His mind started a short struggle against the urge to open his eyes but the next second it accepted his will.
The first thing he saw was a heavily blurred Violet glow on the helmet's glass just before his face. Slowly his body activated itself, booting the advanced parts of his brain what made him rub his eyes – or try to because his hand's movement was suddenly stopped by the helmet.
"John?"
The Voice sounded careful, silent and all above damped. He was certain he knew it but…
Someone groped for the helmet's release controls located by the sides of his Neck. The Hand was everything but certainly not human.
"So. This is the one that brought so much death in our rows… and saved us all by doing it."
This second voice was rough and John noticed that it was not used a lot to pronounce words in a human Language, "The Master Chief…"
With a hissing voice the helmet went off John's face and his eyes focused two Persons standing right besides him. The violet glow, he noticed, came from a life – sized hologram of Cortana, the AI that traveled with him quite some time. Her face showed sorrow and a tad of fear what made John look for the second Person.
The golden amour's highlights gleamed in the shallow light emerging from the light teal sword on the Arbiter's side.
The Master Chief's body made a rough movement and the Elite answered with a soothing gesture.
"Do not fear. The time when we could afford being enemies are long past. Let me aid you."
The Alien Soldier grabbed the Chief by his shoulders and helped him to a sitting position.
"Now explain…", the Spartan suddenly coughed up, "Why the hell am I so fucked up?!"
Cortana grabbed his hand and he was absolutely startled how she even could – she was a Hologram!
"Well… the Energy systems of the ship will experience complete failure in two minutes so we had to wake you faster than usual. It's my entire fault! I should have been more on my guard…"
"There is no time for that, Artificial! Help me bringing him to our Ship. Do you think you can Walk?"
"I doubt it.", Cortana said silently but the Master Chief rose easily.
"Do not forget your Head Protection.", the Covenant warrior said, "The Atmosphere on our ship can get dangerous for your Kind."
"One Minute left. We should hurry now.", Cortana warned.
Grabbing his Helmet the Master Chief followed the two of them. His mind was drowned in confusion and if his mouth would have been able to he would have asked questions all the way to the damaged airlock where some grunts waited for their leader to arrive. They shared a short conversation and then proceeded into the shuttle.

"This Grunt will show you to your Room, the atmosphere there has been adjusted to meet your body's requirements. Also feel free to take a walk around the ship. When you are hungry… well that's a bit of a problem but I guess we will figure out how to reprogram our synthesizers with the Artificial's help."
"Would you please stop calling me that? I have a …"
"Silence, Artificial. Stop demanding more than you are."
Cortana swallowed her next words to avoid an argument. After the Covenant mounted her Program on a modified portable Shakal Shield Generator she felt more real than ever before. She didn't want to loose this feeling again.
"Arbiter.", the Chief turned around to face the Elite, "If you don't accept her wish do it because I asked you to, will you?"
"I don't see where AI earns the honor to be talked to like I talk to you, face to face!"
"But I do. Without her we'd be Flood or dead. She had a huge Part in that little theatre we both acted in."
"So it wasn't you alone who destroyed the Rings?"
"She was with me all the time."
The Elite turned around to face a monitor.
"Go to your Room now. The Artificial should bring you up to date."

"I don't want to be a brat, that's why I didn't say a thing."
"I don't want to start a fight with the people who pulled my ass out of that ship as well - but I can't accept that they resist seeing your personality… Is there a shower or something like that?"
"Around the corner." the grunt answered shyly, "We changed the whole interior after some plans we got from… Cortana"
She smiled at the little creature.
"What the hell", John laughed, "Am I a frigging VIP or something like that?"
"After all you rescued two Races…"
"Ah don't give me that again!"
With a laugh the Master Chief started to dissolve his armor.
"Jesus Christ - it must have been ages since I got rid of that thing the last time… ugh, what a smell. Ah well… see you later."
The Grunt left the quarter through an energy shield and John vanished to have a shower while Cortana sat down on the bed. Now that her program was updated with sensor routines she could understand that higher level life forms search for physical contact with others. It was such an amazing feeling to dig into the soft blankets, to feel their warmth. With a slight shock she noticed that she really forgot about herself and was completely hidden in the blankets. Very new. Very interesting.
Suddenly John started singing in the shower and the AI had to bite the blankets to not burst out laughing – it was absolutely horrible.
After listening for a while she decided to connect to the ship's database to gather information she never took herself the time to earlier. She wanted the Ability to program and use her body now that she had one. Sheer happiness struck her mind as she realized that she could now make sports or play with children. It was a weird thought but since the day Captain Keyes brought his Family to the Pillar of Autumn to show them around, she had wished she could play with those kids. Something caught her Attention and she opened the file.

"Ok Cortana! Now what happened, tell me – I'm curious now.", The Chief said rubbing his hair with a towel.
"Well… eek! Don't you mind me seeing you like that?!"
"Um… why? Do you see any parts I should hide?"
"It's just… I've just read that showing one's chest is…"
"Haha, only Women, Cortana! I thought you were given such information long ago?"
"Err… yes… but it looks like I lost some old data on the freeze time in the data store of the ship…"
"I know that feeling."
"For our current situation, in short words, we drifted in that godforsaken place for almost five years and got discovered by this Covenant Shuttle's Base Ship. They are more or less stranded as well so they decided to pick us up.