A/N: Welcome to the 3rd chapter! Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for the reviews guys
To answer some questions, superblahbityblaheh: Yes, it's a bit hard to incorporate both the starcraft and halo canon together, so I have to make some parts up. And the MC isn't gonna be OP for long…don't forget the protoss are there and as the main antagonists, the hybrids are gonna be making an appearance as well… So enjoy the story!
1657 Hours, August 17, 2570 (Military Calendar) / Five Km from FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, Girax II
"She's still following us," reminded the ever present AI.
A cloaked human in what appeared to be a hostile environment bodysuit was stalking the Master Chief, unaware that with his forerunner upgrades, the chief could see the ghost as plain as day.
Crash Site of FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn
Captain Kerimov took in the sight of the downed frigate. The ship was perfectly bisected by some sort of energy weapon, so only the aft part of the ship remained. Judging by the details on the hull, this ship appeared to be of a frigate class belonging to a faction named UNSC, yet Kerimov estimated that at full length, this ship would be nearly as long as a Minotaur-class battlecruiser, one of the largest ships in the Terran fleet.
Kerimov turned to consult with his tech specialist, Corporal Riley Cooper.
"Corporal, what do you make of it?"
"It's amazing, I've taken a sample of the hull, and it's very durable, tougher than even neosteel! The ship has sixty centimeters of this armor plating, but there's severe damage on the hull, from what appears to be energy weapons fire, and from the looks of it, whatever caused the damage is a great deal more stronger than whatever we have," replied Cooper.
"Anything else?" asked Kerimov.
"Well, it's impossible to tell for sure without more equipment than just my portable scanners, but the alloy does resemble titanium, but not entirely…Also, besides conventional rockets, this ship also appears to utilize an alternate form of propulsion, of which I can't recognize."
Captain Kerimov nodded to the tech, and turned away, starting to make his way into the interior of the ship, when his CMC combat suit comm. Set beeped. Kerimov stopped and listened. The quiet and calculating voice of Specialist Hana Nakano came through his ear piece.
"Single contact three kilometers from your position sir, it appears humanoid, but it's encased in some sort of full body armor. It's heading directly for the crashed ship."
Hana Nakano was a former Dominion Ghost trooper, turned Raider Black Ops. Anatoly didn't know her history, but word was that the 19 year old ghost trooper had been recruited by Raynor himself. Regardless, Kerimov was glad he had her skill set. Hana was a top sniper, as well as a close quarter combat expert. She was particularly proficient with her signature psyblade, and Kerimov had seen her skillfully assassinate Protoss troops before.
Kerimov frowned, "It might be a survivor from this ship, is it armed?"
"Yes, and with some significant firepower too, I see at least four firearms on it."
It was probably human, but still, Kerimov thought, it would be best to be sure.
"Alright, see if you can disable this person, and find out more about this ship's origins" said Kerimov.
"Roger that sir…"
"And remember, we need it alive to be questioned," insisted Kerimov.
"Yes sir. Nakano out"
Kerimov continued into the ship, keeping close attention to the next status update from Hana. Meanwhile, Sergeant Oliver Ward lumbered over, with heavy footfalls in his marauder armor.
"Captain, I've done a sweep of the ship, there are no bodies, no one alive on the ship."
"Hmm, then that person could be our only source of information then…" said Kerimov, in deep thought.
"Sir?"
"Hana found someone, possibly a survivor, a couple kilometers away, while she was securing the perimeter, she's going to bring him in." explained Kerimov.
Ward chuckled, "I feel sorry for that poor sap, he'll never know what hit him."
In a cavern three kilometers away…
"She's reaching for a rifle Chief, she may be trying to disable you."
The Master Chief tracked the cloaked ghost with his 360 degrees vision system, with no outward change in appearance.
"Remember, don't use too much force, she looks like she's wearing some sort of thin form fitting polymer suit, and we don't want to accidentally kill her with your augmented strength, it wouldn't be the best outcome of our first encounter with the local humans," said the AI.
"Don't worry, I'll be careful," reassuring the fastidious AI.
The ghost made her move.
Cortana scanned the rifle the ghost was using.
"She's loaded some sort of emp shot."
Hana fired a single specialized lockdown round at the Spartan.
The Chief, faster than the speeding bullet, evaded it, and closed the distance between him and the ghost. Even with her suit's psi-sentsitive artificial muscle fiber boosting her reaction time, to the augmented Spartan-II, Hana might as well have been standing still. The Spartan super soldier disarmed the ghost in one quick move, and then straddled the ghost, taking care not to crush the woman's body with the half ton weight of his mjolnir armor.
Hana's POV
Hana fired her lockdown round, hoping it would immobilize the unknown soldier, and make it easy for her to question him. But as soon as the bullet left her C-20 rifle, the soldier disappeared in a blur of green. The next thing Hana knew, she was being straddled, and her rifle had been knocked away. The ghost blinked. "What the hell just happened!" The soldier had been impossibly fast, and had reacted to the sound of her rifle firing, pinpointing her location in that frame of time, and taken her down before she could even blink.
The green armored giant spoke, in a deep male voice, clearly and in English. "Who are you and what do you want from me?"
Hana swallowed nervously, painfully aware that she was in a very bad position. As an elite ghost, Hana was usually in the opposite position.
"I'm Specialist Hana Nakano of the Terran/Protoss Alliance, I was trying to disable you, to question you, I meant no harm otherwise, are you from that crashed ship nearby?"
Normal POV
"You could have just asked nicely…and yes, I'm the sole survivor from the ship" replied the Spartan. "So, it would appear that the terrans and these protoss have some sort of alliance" The Spartan pocketed that piece of information away in his mind.
The Chief let Hana go, as a gesture of good will.
"Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117, UNSC."
"I haven't heard of a faction named the UNSC before…Will you come with me? My commander would like to speak with you, to find out the how did you get here." Asked the ghost, embarrassed at her dismal failure to take this Master Chief down. The Spartan-117 had to be a code name, but it wasn't her job to find out his name, she'd leave that to Captain Kerimov.
The Chief nodded in assent.
"I'll go with you; I need to find some information out myself…"
Hana nodded, and gestured to follow. The two set off toward the Forward Unto Dawn, the seven foot tall Spartan-II and the much shorter ghost.
While walking, Hana commed Captain Kerimov,
"Captain, I'm heading back with the survivor, he's a Master Chief Petty Officer of the UNSC"
Hana could almost imagine the Russian officer's signature frown, "UNSC? Never heard of it before, it's on the ship though. We'll be waiting."
Hana was about to acknowledge, when a loud explosion came from Kerimov's end. The Master Chief had Cortana pick up their comm. Frequency and listened in.
An officer, with a slight Russian accent was yelling orders to people,
"The dropship's been fragged! Fall back!"
Crash Site of FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn
Captain Anatoly Kerimov sprinted toward the crashed ship, Forward Unto Dawn, his speed enhanced by his CMC-500 powered combat suit. The team medic, 24 year old 1st Lieutenant Akilina Silvinit was close behind him.
"Take cover in the ship interior!"
Point man Corporal Devin Moore came up beside Kerimov.
"Captain, there's a wave of zerg advancing on our position, it's from that rogue brood we detected on the other continent, there are zerglings, at least a hundred, as well as several dozen hydralisks!"
Following the successful transformation of the Queen of Blades back into a human being, all zerg in the Koprulu sector became rogue, without a superior intelligence to control them. The raiders had detected a sizeable brood on a nearby continent, but Kerimov didn't think they would be this close to the raider landing site, and in these numbers.
"We'll take cover in the crashed ship; it's the only defensible position here."
The trio reached the ship, and vaulted into a hole in the hull, about four meters across, and one meter high. Inside, were Ward in his 5-4 marauder suit, and Cooper in her CMC-500L light technician suit.
Kerimov informed Ward and Cooper of the situation,
"The dropship's been destroyed, and a wave of zerg are advancing on our position, Cooper, contact HQ for evac ASAP!"
"Roger that sir."
Kerimov turned to the others,
"Me, Moore, and Cooper will line up on this wall and take out any zerg that comes up that path. Ward will cover us, and concentrate on any hydralisks, stimpacks are authorized, Silvinit will heal us when needed."
Cooper looked up,
"Sir, HQ has medievac incoming, ETA 12 minutes."
"Good, I'll have Nakano give us fire support from somewhere."
Back to the Chief and Hana
"Our transport is down, and evac is 10 minutes away, I need to help my teammates."
The Chief nodded,
"I'll help in anyway I can, we better hurry, from the sound of things, your one squad won't be able to hold out long against an opposing force this size."
Hana nodded in gratitude, and the two sprinted toward the Dawn.
Inside the Forward Unto Dawn
Kerimov fired a two second burst from his C-14 impaler rifle. Sixty 8mm depleted uranium slugs smashed into a charging zergling, and stopped it in its tracks. Around him, Moore and Cooper did likewise. Ward fired his Quad K12 "Punisher" grenade launchers, able to pump out four jackhammer concussive grenades in as many seconds, each grenade slowing down the zerglings. Together, the four soldiers were able to take down a dozen zerglings before they could even get close. But for every zergling they killed, two more took its place.
"We're gonna be overwhelmed pretty quickly at this rate" thought Kerimov.
"Stimpacks are authorized!" Kerimov shouted.
Wordless, all four spec-ops troopers activated their armor's built in stimpack system. Kerimov instantly felt the empowering effects of the temporary stimulant. Things slowed down to half its normal speed, and Kerimov was able to take down at least twice as many zerglings as before. All his senses were heightened by the stimpack's effect…at a cost. In addition to his temporarily enhanced senses, he also felt debilitating weakness, the downside of the stimpack. And in about a minute, at which point the stim would wear off, that weakness would become even more intolerable. However, that was what Lt. Silvinit was there for. The medic activated her gauntlet's nano-conveyed anesthetic "healing" beams. With the new stabilizer medpacks, Silvinit could also heal faster and for less energy.
A pair of hydralisks arrived on scene and advanced up the path, firing needle spines coated with acid. One spine hit Silvinit, penetrating her CMC-405 light combat suit in the left shoulder. The Russian descended medic flinched, but didn't stop in keeping her teammates vitals up, and her suit's medical agent delivery system counteracted the acid from the spine. Silvinit pulled the spine out without a sound and dropped it.
More spines were fired, and Kerimov positioned himself between the projectiles and the lighter armored medic, taking the spines against his alliance standard issue M98 combat shield. Meanwhile, Ward lobbed half a dozen grenades at the hydralisks, reducing them to smoking cinders. However, four more hydralisks appeared, unleashing a flurry of spines. Three spines hit and shattered Cooper's faceplate and knocked the young tech specialist to the ground, on Kerimov's HUD, Cooper's vitals flatlined. The team's first casualty. Kerimov forced himself to ignore the death, because if he froze up, more of his team would die. His radio beeped, and the combat coordinator back at base camp told "ETA dropship in 7 minutes."
Meanwhile, the ghost trooper and the Master Chief had just finished traversing a cliff. The shattered grey hulk that was the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn laid in a self-made valley. At least a hundred zerg crowded around one side of it, streaming up a very narrow path in small groups at a time.
Hana froze in shock at the sight of so many Zerg. To her, the situation looked hopeless, but her training took over, and she put herself in a calm, zen no-thought state. The dark haired ghost reconfigured her C-20A rifle into sniper mode, and started firing psi enhanced rounds, which utterly destroyed hydralisk after hydralisk. But at this rate, the beleaguered team's position would be overrun anyway. But the Master Chief was there. He was the soldier that had turned the tides of countless battles throughout humanity's fight against the Covenant, and he had stopped the threat of the Halos and the Flood cold.
The seasoned soldier took in the situation in an instant. He noted that while there were a lot of zerg in the valley, only a few of them were attacking at a time, while the rest milled around, waiting for their turn to rush the Terran position.
"Time to test these upgrades" He thought.
"Cortana, whenever I need a reload, can you create more ammunition for me using this suit's system?"
"Even better, I can modify and enhance the ammunition based on the situation. This matter-converter is amazing, I can create my own designed munitions!" Replied the AI.
Cortana continued, "Here are two new ammunition types. I've created a new plasma round for your assault rifle. These rounds have plasma cores encased within the round, and they detonate when they impact the target. Very effective against shielded or armored targets, these should be more than enough for the Zerg carapaces. Additionally, I've enhanced your M41 SSR's rockets. Like your assault rifle's ammunition, they are enhanced with plasma energy. Each rocket has multiple times as much power as your standard rockets, but this kind is made specifically to take on massed infantry."
The ammunition appeared on the ground next to the Spartan, and he proceeded to load them in his weapons. The Spartan took careful aim with the M41, targeting the largest clusters of Zerg, and fired both rockets in the double barreled launcher. Before the rockets hit their targets, the Chief reloaded and fired his last two. The pairs of rockets detonated three seconds apart, killing more than half the remaining Zerg forces. The Chief waited a moment for Cortana to create more rockets, but when she didn't, he got annoyed.
"Cortana, I need more rockets." Asked the Spartan in a irritated tone.
Cortana spoke, taken aback, about a disheartening discovery. "Hmm, this suit's new power plant is much, much stronger than anything the UNSC has. But it seems creating high energy complicated custom ammunition will put a strain on even this. Those four rockets took up 27% of your suit's energy. If I create more, it'll have to draw power from other parts of your suit, like shields."
The Spartan frowned, but accepted it. "I guess I'll have to make due then"
At the sight of just four rockets wiping out the majority of the Zerg forces, Hana had snapped out of her no-thought state, and had stared at the Chief in stunned silence for a good half minute. She finally regained her voice, "Holy shit. That was amazing! I've never seen such firepower, even with the Protoss!"
With sudden realization, the ghost continued in an awed tone, "No Terran force in the Koprulu has such incredible firepower and your speed back in the cavern..."
And came a shocking revelation to the Spartan, "Which means you have to be from Earth, only they might have such impressive weaponry."
John whipped his head around, toward Hana.
"You know about Earth?" He asked in an astonished tone.
"The UED attacked years ago...but even though they had some technological advantages, most of their forces used the same technology we did…But this UNSC, is it some kind of more advanced faction in your sector of space?"
John was even more confused than before, but he was saved from having to respond.
Cortana, using the suit's speakers, reminded the two of a still present threat.
"Um, in case you two haven't noticed, there are still a lot of Zerg out there, and they look like they're heading for us now!"
Hana was surprised, "Who was that?" she inquired.
The Chief replied while observing the approaching zerg, "An artificial intelligence contained in my armor named Cortana, she provides real time intel and support."
Cortana was right, the Zerg, having noticed the evidently larger threat, was rapidly closing in on the pair's position.
The Spartan took aim with his MA5C assault rifle, and opened fire. The enhanced ammunition caused a small plasma explosion effect when they hit zerg units, and they were highly effective. A burst of six to eight rounds were enough to put down a single zergling. Half a clip was needed to kill a hydralisk however, but he reloaded quickly, and any break in firing was negligible. More clips were created, and Cortana had a bit of good news.
"It turns out that I can create assault rifle ammunition without significant power usage. You can effectively have an unlimited supply of ammunition using your standard weapons."
The Chief grunted a reply, "I'll take it."
Hana fired an irradiation grenade from her canister rifle at a cluster of zerglings, and ducked down behind some cover when a hydralisk targeted her.
"Why don't you use some more of those missiles from earlier?" She shouted, over the unrelenting cries of the zerg rushing their position.
"I'm out!" The Spartan replied, he reached for some grenades, and then realized he hadn't replicated any. Cortana noticed the action, and created four fragmentation grenades immediately.
"They're enhanced for more armor penetration!" said Cortana.
The Spartan lobbed all four without hesitation, wiping out a column of six hydralisks.
But there were still around forty zerglings, with another twenty hydralisks, and with only two sources of fire, they would soon be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Dozens of spines hit the Spartan, and his shields dropped rapidly, although no more than a hair at a time. John took cover behind the same rocks Hana was hiding behind, and fired his MA5C over them.
To Hana, she faced another surprise. "You have shields too! And pretty strong ones too, judging by all the spines you took…"
"Chief! Use the grey device strapped to your waist! It's a sentinel beam, I've analyzed its power, and it should be very effective against these zerg!" Cortana was back.
The Spartan stopped firing his assault rifle, and slung it on his back, magnetic strips holding onto the weapon. He grabbed the sentinel beam, and after studying it for a second, found it to be similar to the ones he used from fallen sentinels, albeit connected to his suit by a thin, yet sturdy, flexible cord. The Spartan pressed down on a touchpad, where a trigger on a firearm would traditionally be, and a bright blue beam was emitted from the weapon. Cortana was right, it was very effective. The beam sliced through zerglings in an instant, cutting through them like knife to butter. The Chief raked the beam across the field, and killed at least thirty zerglings. He then brought the tremendously powerful weapon to bear against the remaining hydralisks. It took a little longer, but the beam still melted through the zerg carapace in no time at all. In seven seconds, the Spartan, using the sole forerunner designed weapon given with the suit, had laid waste to every last zerg in the valley. Even the Chief was awestruck.
The Terran ghost was even more so, having been stunned into silence for a second time recently. But Hana was smart, and noticed several things, even while being awed by the magnificent technology the Chief had displayed.
"You didn't use that weapon before because you didn't know about it, until your AI analyzed it. That would mean that you're not familiar with your armor, or it's relatively new."
The Chief nodded at the correct deduction made by the ghost. "She's pretty smart"
"Yes, I recently got my armor upgraded, on this world actually, in a Forerunner outpost."
Upon seeing the blank look on Hana's face, John elaborated.
"They're also known as the Xel'Naga."
And at the mention of that particular name, Hana's face lit up in realization.
"You've found a Xel'Naga outpost? AND gotten such powerful weapons out of it? We've been searching for weeks on this planet alone without success. And you've been on the planet for only a couple hours!"
Hana's exclamation was interrupted by a medivac dropship rocketing toward the crashed UNSC frigate.
Realizing where they were, Hana decided to question this Master Chief back at base. For now…
"We'll talk later…And thanks for saving us." With that, Hana started towards the dropship.
"No problem" replied the Spartan, as he followed.
The dropship landed in an open space, and Kerimov, with Moore and Ward carrying Cooper's body, and Silvinit bringing up the rear ran towards it. Eight marines disembarked, taking up a defensive perimeter around the dropship. One of them, a Lieutenant, came up to Kerimov.
The Russian captain started briefing the officer on the situation.
"We were pinned down, and took cover in the wreckage of that ship. We took one casualty, our field technician, Cpl. Cooper, and then we heard several large explosions. Following that, the entire zerg force moved off, away from us. I've assumed it was Specialist Nakano, our Ghost operative drawing the zerg away from us. I don't know her status now, because our radio got hit, but there's no way she could've taken them on."
The lieutenant looked at Kerimov and frowned.
"Well you don't need to worry about that, because all the zerg are dead. We passed their remains on the way here; it looked like they had been vaporized by some powerful particle weaponry."
Kerimov was shocked at this piece of news, and mulled it over for a second.
"There was one person with her, a survivor from this ship, in some sort of armor, but from her description, I doubt even he could cause some devastation."
"Wait a minute, a survivor? So this ship is human made?" Asked the marine.
However, Kerimov didn't have time to answer the marine officer. For Hana and the Master Chief had just arrived on the scene.
Hana immediately pointed out the Chief's incredibly destructive weaponry.
"Guys, this is the Master Chief, and he just single-handedly wiped out a hundred zerglings and hydralisks."
Everyone in the area stood in stunned silence. A marine in the back said what was on everyone's minds.
"Holy shit."
Hana continued, after everyone had regained their composure enough to listen.
"He's also the sole survivor from this ship, and he got the tech from a Xel'Naga outpost on this planet."
At this point, Kerimov interceded.
"And he's been on this planet for what? Less than half a day and he's already got the firepower to wipe out a hundreds of zerg in a couple minutes? Wow…"
The Chief finally spoke,
"Yes, I was told your commander wanted to question me. I'm Spartan-117, a Master Chief petty officer in the UNSC navy."
Kerimov, having gathered his wits, nodded.
"Pleased to meet you, especially since you just saved our asses. I'm Captain Kerimov, leader of the Wildcats Bravo squad special operations division."
Seeming to remember how sudden the zerg attack was, Kerimov made a decision.
"Lets continue this back at our base, my superior officer would very like to meet you, and learn more about your UNSC, this place is no longer safe, the last comsat scan we made indicated that the closest zerg forces were thousands of kilometers away, obviously, they were wrong, and after what happened today, I don't want to get ambushed by an even larger zerg force."
Everyone murmured their assent, and they all boarded the dropship. The Master Chief was led into the dropship, and given a surprising large seat by Hana, who gazed at the Spartan with not only awe now, but respect.
And that's the third chapter! I'm also lowering the rating to T for now, at least until I get better at describing a violent scene. I'm not that satisfied with this chapter, I had some writer's block and this could have been better otherwise. I hope to those that this may concern, that the Chief's upgrades didn't seem too power overwhelming. I'll try to write more fluid, and descriptively in the upcoming chapters, for now, please rate and review! Thanks for reading this chapter! -bldude P.S. I've noticed some ppl think I'm bi. I'm not. the bl stands for my initials.