UNSC Spectre

Low Earth Orbit, Sol System,

400 Hours: July 24, 2557

"…-Oel, Joel, wake up! C'mon!" Claire's voice drilled into Joel's ears, waking him.

Joel sat straight up, looking down at his leg. The medics had operated and fixed the break. The stench of biogel filled Joel's nose. He tried moving his leg, and found it easy and relatively painless. Satisfied, he looked to Claire.

"What's Going on?" Joel asked, sliding out of bed and into his MJOLNIR boots.

"It's Earth. Slipspace rupture right above the Western coast of North America." Claire replied, leading Joel to the armory

"Covenant?" Joel inquired, running full speed down the hall.

"No. It's something else. Take a look for yourself." Claire said, pointing out the window.

Joel stopped at the glass window, staring out into the fringes of the blue-tinted atmosphere of Earth. Near the horizon a strange object floated menacingly above earth. Immediately distinguishable as Forerunner, the tip of the long structure glowed vibrantly and dangerously. The glare from the beam blinded Joel.

"We gotta get moving." Joel said, his heart beginning to race.

"Captain informed our team of the logistics of our mission. We're to set up in two heavily armored pelicans, infiltrate the structure, and neutralize it. Infinity and Stalwart are en-route, ETA thirty minutes.

"We got any other assets?" Joel asked as they reached the armory.

"Yeah. The Admiral informed us the Chief may be onboard the vessel."

Joel stopped, rifle in his hand, to look at Claire.

"The Master Chief? Impossible, he died four years ago."

"Apparently not, but I'll believe it when I see it." Claire said, shoving grenades into her holsters.

Connor and Andre came into the room moments later, rifles shouldered. The two rummaged through the crates and came out with rockets, a railgun, and two sticky detonators.

"Why the hell wasn't I awoken? What the hell are we up against?" Joel asked angrily.

"A Forerunner. Data gathered from Infinity says it calls itself the Didact. It's a ruthless killing machine; Infinity suffered heavy losses battling it outside this system. It's a killer, and it's powerful. The station it's occupying may be a weapon of unimaginable power." The Admiral said, striding into the room quickly.

"Admiral, I need to know more than that to get this done." Joel said, grabbing packs of ammunition as he spoke.

"I'm afraid that's all I can give you right now. Your mission is to link up with the Chief and neutralize the Didact." The admiral finished, walking out of the armory and out of sight.

Andre and Connor turned to each other, then to Joel.

"Hey Joel, it's just the average mission. Nothing crazy, right?" Andre consoled, loading his rifle.

"The Chief is there. That's anything but average." Claire said, looking to Joel.

Joel stood in front of his team for a moment, taking in their remarks. They all had their Spartan helmets on, rifles shouldered and ready for battle. He noticed the cuts and holes in their armor, small areas blackened by hot plasma during their campaign on Sanghelios. They had grown so much with him, soldiers and friends.

"Guys, if this is it, which I have a feeling it might be, you were the best men and women I've had the privilege of serving with." Joel said, looking out at the strange ship on the horizon.

The team of four stepped out of the armory and made their way quickly to the shuttle bay. Two outfitted Pelicans sat waiting for them, while two marine pilots stood at the ready in front of the aircraft. The Spartans arrived, and Joel spoke out to the marines.

"Gentlemen, we honor your willingness to serve with us, but this is a mission that may prove to be a one-way ticket. I'd suggest you let us go ahead." Joel said to the pilots, who nodded their understanding and stood aside.

"Claire, You're with me. Connor and Andre, you'll be behind us with the heavy weaponry. You wait for us to call you, and then you'll come in guns blazing. Sound good?" Joel informed as the Spartans stirred up the pelicans' engines and exited the ONI frigate.

The two pelicans shot out into space, Claire maneuvering the Pelican through leftover debris from the Mombassa space elevator.

"Wow, this stuff is ancient. Who knew they wouldn't send clean-up crews for this kind of shit." Andre said over the link.

"A good question." Connor chuckled through the link.

Joel looked straight ahead as they flew silently through the darkness. Below them the east coast of North America stretched across his vision. The forerunner ship came ever closer in the Spartan's view. With each passing moment Joel worried more and more about the outcome of the mission.

"Split up and flank, Andre." Joel said through the link.

"Yessir. Let's fuck this forerunner up." Connor yelled as their pelican fell out of sight behind Joel.

Suddenly the Forerunner structure began to glow intensely bright. The turret at the edge of the device sent out a strange pulse, and then fired in a orange beam that splashed out into space. Joel watched as it slowly covered the black space between it and earth, unable to speak. It fell almost gracefully to the earth, glowing with golden orange light as it touched the Earth's surface. Joel looked down and immediately approximated the probable area of impact. His heart skipped a beat as Abby's last words exploded into his head.

"I'll see you when you get home."

"Where did that beam hit?" Joel managed to Claire, who was looking at a satellite image of the effected area.

"New Phoenix." Claire said sternly.

"What happened down there? What the hell happened down there?" Joel asked, fear bubbling in his chest.

"I don't know. There appears to be no structural damage."

Joel sat down in the co-pilot's seat, watching the beam as it continued its stream of unknown energy down to New Phoenix.

"…I know. We have to keep going." Claire whispered quietly inside her helmet.

Joel managed to overhear it and switched his link channel in his own helmet.

"I'm not seeing any signs of life on the surface. New Phoenix is just dust and echoes." Connor said solemnly.

All of a sudden Joel could no longer hear. His vision began to blur and tunnel, and his throat began to seize.

"Wha-what the hell did you just say?" Joel managed to stutter onto the channel.

"Joel." Claire said, turning to face him in the co-pilot seat. Her words said everything.

"Is she gone too?" Joel asked, his voice breaking.

"We have to finish the mission." She said, moving the datapad away.

Joel lunged for the datapad, his fear uncontrollable.

"Is she gone too? Is she fucking gone too?" He screamed over and over, reaching for the Pelican's controls.

"Joel, calm down!" Connor yelled over the link.

Joel looked at Claire, who held him at bay with both of her arms as the Pelican coasted on autopilot. He stopped lunging and stood back away from her.

"I need to go down there." Joel said.

"We have a mission." Claire replied, trying to calm him down.

"My mission is Abby." Joel managed.

"Joel. We have to finish this mission. This thing could destroy everything. For all we know Chief is re-dead and that forerunner death machine is not going to stop." Claire spoke.

"Let the Infinity take care of it. Please." Joel said.

Claire turned to the Forerunner ship still firing off in the distance. She stared quietly for a moment, and then took control of the pelican. She banked the aircraft hard and sent it speeding down towards Earth.

"Andre, Connor. Find a way into that thing and fucking destroy it." Claire said as she glanced at Joel.

"Rodger that." Andre replied and burned towards the ship.

Joel's pelican descended towards the beam. Soon the darkness of space was replaced with blue sky, and the pelican was skimming above the clouds. The orange beam pushed masses of clouds towards the Pelican, which swirled and clouded the windows as they descended. The beam became more and more brilliant as they came closer to the ground, and they soon managed to break below the cloud line. The Arizona desert stretched barren in all directions, pale rock and sand. Up ahead in the distance, pillars of silver and sparkling towers of glass shone against a backdrop of huge mountains. The beam slammed into the buildings, and strange tendrils of orange energy reached down into the city. Yet nothing was broken, and there were no explosions or falling buildings. Joel stared transfixed at the beam, wanting to grab it and throw it back out into space.

"Joel, I'm getting some bad readings from that thing. You're not expecting us to go in it, are you?" Claire asked, holding the pelican in a hover on the outskirts of the city.

"I don't know." Joel replied, staring at the beam.


Andre and Connor watched as Claire's pelican banked towards the surface and out of sight. They flew continuously for a while, nearing the strange forerunner ship. As they came close to it's surface, they saw a more brilliant light begin to emerge from the end of the machine.

"Turn it around!" Connor yelled, and Andre flipped the pelican backwards.

They engaged the afterburners and rocketed away from the ship just as it exploded in brilliant yellow flames. As the pelican receded from the exploding forerunner ship, an EMP pulse knocked its engines out. Both of the Spartan's shields were depleted, and a warning sounded on their suits of incoming gamma radiation. Andre analyzed the radioactive particles, running them in a suit test.

"This radiation appears to have a HAVOK fallout signature." Andre said, furiously trying to get the Pelican's engines back online.

"Chief?" Connor asked himself as bits of the forerunner ship began to fly past them.


The beam stopped as suddenly as it began. The orange tendrils fell like rain to the desert floor, and the beam's brilliance dimmed until it altogether stopped. Claire gunned the Pelican into the city as soon as she deemed it safe, guiding the pelican through the streets. She opened the ramp, letting Joel go and look out through the lowered door as she searched for Joel's apartment building. Joel watched quietly as they flew though the streets. Not a single car moved, nor was a single person seen. All that Joel could see was small piles of ash, pock marking the gray street with brilliant orange. He sat down, his legs dangling off of the ramp, rifle at the ready. They finally reached the building as the sun came up above the eastern mountains. Claire hovered the pelican at the 86th floor, and Joel shot three bursts into the window to shatter it. Once broken, Joel leaped from the pelican into the building.

The room was quiet, dark, and empty. He walked carefully, afraid that he may wake Abby from her sleep. He glanced at the refrigerator that held all of their pictures, grabbing one of the two of them at ONI graduation. He stared at the picture for a moment, smiling to himself at the memory of it. He walked down the hall and to the door that led to their bedroom. He reached for the handle, a lump of pure horror prematurely building in his throat. He turned the knob and opened the door, walking into the room noiselessly. He looked at the bed first, the nightstand holding pictures of the two of them in various moments during their lives. The alarm clock sat untouched, still waiting to go off. He glanced to the area next to the bed, knowing he would find the ashes there. He walked slowly, like a child not wanting to be caught in the night. The other side of the bed finally came into view. He fell to his knees when he saw the pile, smoking and orange, where Abby must have stood not an hour ago. He began to sob, falling to his hands and dropping his rifle.

"No no no…Abby...I'm sorry." Joel managed between sobs, pounding his fist on the floor of the apartment.

"I'm sorry Abby. I'm sorry baby, I love you." He said, crawling to the ashes.

He removed his helmet and placed it on the bed. He lay down beside the pile, staring out the window and out to the ONI building across the street. The sky above suddenly filled with bright shooting stars, burning pieces of the Forerunner ship falling to Earth. Joel managed to get himself back into a crawling position, making his way out to the living room. In the living room a cradle and menagerie of baby toys sat in boxes waiting to be opened. He stifled a set of sobs and crawled to the guest room, which he found cleared of his workout material and replaced with paintings of planets and pirate ships.

"It was a boy." Joel said to himself, trying to hold back his tears.

Joel's stomach emptied itself on the floor, and Joel wiped away the remnants before returning to the kitchen. The hot morning wind blew through the apartment, sending papers flying everywhere. Joel managed to make it to the dining room table before collapsing, the grief overtaking him with waves of uncontrollable sobs.

"WHY?" Joel cried out, his voice echoing off of the empty streets of New Phoenix.

Claire landed the Pelican on the roof of the building, taking the elevator down the fifty floors to Joel's floor. She entered the room to find Joel scooping a pile of ashes in the bedroom into a small canister. She silently helped him, watching as he sobbed hysterically into the floor. When the ashes were in the canister, she took Joel and led him out to the kitchen. She sat him down in the chair and went to grab a glass of water.

"Its in the second cupboard. The one with the ONI symbol on the mug." Joel said.

"Okay. Where's your helmet?" Claire asked, watching him run his gloved fingers through his brown hair.

His head looked almost too small, dwarfed by the size of the torso armor that wrapped around him. His eyes gleamed with tears, the green as dark as a forest. His chiseled cheeks ran black with soot-mixed teardrops, and his teeth grated against each other as he struggled to hold back a greater barrage of tears.

"I'm sorry, Claire." He managed, looking up at her as she set down the water.

"For what, Joel?" She asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not fit for this." He said, looking at the cup sitting on the table.

"Yes you are, Joel. You're the finest Spartan I've ever served under. You're our friend and our comrade. We'd be lost without you." Claire complimented, trying to dodge he pitfalls of grief that were opening up beneath Joel's tired eyes.

"Did I give too much?" Joel asked himself, standing up and walking to the broken window.

"No Joel! Without you, Sanghelios would be in ruins! We've done so much for ONI! So much for mankind!" Claire stated.

"But nobody can see it. Nobody sees it until we fail." Joel said to himself, looking down to the deserted streets of New Phoenix.

Claire quickly walked to him, ready to grab him in case he jumped.

"Can you gab me the datapad on the table there?" He asked Claire, pointing to the ceramic countertop where a small device sat.

Claire grabbed it, still keeping an eye on Joel, and handed it to him. She watched as he opened up the device and scrolled through the display, searching for something. Finally Joel found something, and sat down at the kitchen table.

"This." Joel said, pointing to a picture he pulled up on the pad.

Claire glanced at it. It was immediately identifiable as the forerunner ship. It sat encased in a rock on some orbital station. The picture was not very detailed, but It appeared to be on some sort of asteroid belt.

"What is it?" Claire asked, tapping on the source page.

"It's called the composer." Joel spoke simply.

"So what do you want to do?"

"I want to find out where it came from."

Claire stepped back.

"What do you want to do?" She asked.

"I want to destroy everything that created it." Joel whispered, holding the ONI cup in his hand.


LOCATION:UNKNOWN
ERROR:ECUMENEPROMETHEANTRANSIT
TRACK3342987

"Wha-where am I?

"You're home."

"Who are you? It's so bright."

"Don't worry, your eyes just need to adjust."

"And who are you?"

"I am you, I am me. We are one and the same; souls."

"Where am I? Why can't I feel anything?"

"It's the effects of the composition. It will wear off soon."

"I can't feel my head. What's happening? Where is Joel?"

"Be still, the composition is not finished quite yet."

"What composition? What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"I matter not. I merely see to the souls that are composed, before they are placed into their Promethean combat machine."

"What? Is this an ONI exercise? What are you?"

"A fragment. A collective intelligence left from millennia ago. You may refer to me briefly as the Librarian. My husband's machine has surprisingly not yet been able to index your consciousness."

"Why is this happening? Is this just me?"

"No, I'm afraid my husband's murderous tool has composed your entire city of New Phoenix."

"Dear god..."

"...am I going to die?"

"Your soul will not, but your consciousness will be wiped when you are placed into your Promethean. You will not remember your human life."

"What-no! Joel! I won't let it happen! I'm not dead yet!"

"I'm afraid it's too late. You've already..."

"AGHHHHHH!"

ERRORECUMENECONTROL ~[FLAG ERDETRYRENESUBJECT19997864086]

"...intriguing. There's something different about you. You may be the answer to my search."

"What are you talking about? Wait, what are you doing? No! Stop! That hurts!"

"You posses something. Something within your soul that may hold the key to stopping much more than my husband."

"It hurts...dear god it hurts..."

"The pain will go away. I'm taking you away from this place."

"Please...make it stop..."

WARNING [DIDACT], CONSTRUCT INFILTRATION OF ECUMENE CONTROL SUBSECT707:PROMETHEAN TRANSIT, DATA LOSS OF 1.2 TERABYTES. REQUEST DIRECTIVE/