Chapter 4: C-Day
Soell System, Installation 04
Shallow Ocean
September 20; 2552
After finally savin Captain Keyes, the teams went to bed for the night. Weiss listened to Ruby, as she explained how the mission went. For the heiress, it was quite a worrying thought that the Grimm were here on the Ring, and she hoped that they were confined to the plateau around the Truth and Reconciliation.
And if not, well, than it was another thing to add to the list of things that ruined her day. At this point, Weiss was sure that they didn't have a way home. And if that was true, than there was no way for her to take over her dad's company, and bring it back to its old days.
But that were matters she'd have to think about when the time was right. And it certainly wasn't now. She was sitting in a Pelican, together with her Teammates, Masterchief and a couple of Marines. Team JNPR, along with other Marines, sat in a second Pelican, called Bravo 022.
"The Covenant believe that what they call the 'Silent Cartographer' is somewhere under this island. The Cartographer is a map room that will lead us to Halo's control center. The island has multiple structures and installations. One of them contains the Cartographer." Cortana explained to everyone, while the Pelicans slowly closed in on the beach of the Island. The plan was simple: Storm the beach, split up and find the map room.
It wasn't going how Weiss wanted it too. She hoped to assist Keyes in his own mission, but the Captain insisted that finding the Control Room was more important, and they could use the teens here more.
"We're approaching the LZ, it's gonna be hot! Get set to come out swingin'. Touchdown!" Foe hammer yelled, and the Pelican's bay opened. They were already under fire from some Sangheili and Grunts, aided by a couple of Jackals. "Hit it, Marines!"
Ruby instantly used her semblance to take out one of the Grunts with her scythe, while Weiss provided cover for the Marines.
Yang moved from stone to stone to take out two Jackals. When she was there, however, they were already blown up by one of Chief's grenades.
"They were my kills!" She yelled over to him.
The Chief only looked at her, and returned to shooting Covenant.
Next to them, JNPR jumped out of their Pelican, and started to storm their position. Pyrrha used her Semblance to move a crate, and proved cover for her allies, while Ren took the Covenant under fire. As soon as the crate was moved, Pyrrha took her DMR, and started to take out the Grunts.
Weiss watched it for a second, while she waited for the Marines to get into actual cover. As soon as they were save, Weiss dashed forward, and stabbed Myrtenaster into a Grunt. She heard a hissing sound, and saw something blue flying into her direction. Thanks to Ruby, Weiss already knew what it was, and created a glyph to stop the grenade.
Meanwhile, Chief, JNPR and Yang were closing in on the last troops. It didn't take long to take them out, and thus securing the beach.
"Area's secure. All hostiles have been eliminated." One of the Marines said over Radio.
"Affirmative. Echo 419 inbound. Somebody order a Warthog?"
"Yeah, we could use one." Pyrrha answered, and they all gathered around an alien structure, peaking out of the sand and going into the inner parts of the island.
"Alright. We'll do it like that." Ruby said. "My Team is going to search for the Cartographer in that direction." She pointed south, up the beach. At least that's what Weiss guessed, considering that the arrow on her Assault Rifle pointed into the other direction.
"Meanwhile, we'll look in the other direction. That way, we can probably cut down the time it needs to find it." Jaune added.
They heard the sound of engines, a sound they already learned to like, and saw how Foehammer brought a Warthog, which set down on the Beach. "I'll bring the second one in a couple of minutes." The Pelican took off again, and the eight were approached by a bunch of Marines.
"What are we supposed to do?"
"That's still my decision, leatherneck!" Another Marine joined them. The teams knew him as Waller, a Gunnery Sergeant. He had the commando over the local forces, if one doesn't count the chief. It was decided that the kids could give orders, especially when they were dealing with Grimm, but unless they do, the highest ranking Marine has the commando. Or the Chief, depending on the situation. However, most of them didn't like to give the commando over the troops to a couple of teenagers.
"We'll stay here and defend this position. The Covenant will probably try to take it back. We won't let that happen. Right, Marines?"
"Hoo-Ah!"
"Good. We just have to wait for the second Warthog." Ren explained. All of them stood there for a minute, until Chief finally broke the silence.
"To hell with the waiting. RWBY, get on the Hog."
The four girls sighed, and jumped in. Yang took the Chaingun, Blake rode Shotgun, and Weiss stood next to Yang, managing the ammo supply of the gun. Ruby grabbed the bars at the end of the jeep, and held tight to not fall off. "Good luck!" She yelled as the five drove away.
"Okay, let's go find that map room that will show us Halo's control center." Cortana said.
Back at the beach, it took one more minute for the other Hog to arrive. Ren took the driver seat, Pyrrha jumped on the other seat, and Nora took the Machinegun. Jaune was handling the ammo.
"Thanks, Shoehammer!" Nora said over the radio, and everyone could hear a loud, annoyed growl.
They drove off, leaving the Marines behind. It didn't take long for them to arrive at a cliff, with a gigantic structure jutting out of the cliff. On the beach was rock formation with a small path leading up.
"You think this is it?" Jaune asked.
"Well, it could be. But how can we get up there?" Pyrrha asked, and looked around. "We should try to drive around the cliff. Maybe there's a way that leads into the island."
"Good idea." Jaune replied. "Ren, go."
He started the engine again, and they followed the beach. After the next turn, they actually found the wanted path. Which was guarded by a huge amount of Jackals, an Elite and three Grunts.
Ren sped up the Warthog, and rammed it into the group of Jackals. It mowed down four of them, and Nora used the Chaingun to mow down the last Jackals, before the surprised Aliens could even react. Suddenly, a grenade flew into their direction, and stuck to the Warthog.
"Get out!" Jaune yelled, and everyone jumped as far away from the jeep as possible. The grenade exploded, and destroyed the Wathog in a bright ball of plasma, fire and molten metal.
Pyrrha got up, and shot her DMR at the Elite. His shields absorbed the bullets, but eventually fell. He expected a headshot, and thus went into cover. Pyrrha guessed that, and threw her shield, using her semblance to guide it around the tree.
With a splatter of purple blood, her shield came back, and as she stepped around the tree, she could see that her shield decapitated the Sangheili.
In the meantime, her teammates had taken out the Grunts, and wanted to advance into the middle of the island, as a message came through over the radio.
"Yes?"
"Jaune? It's Ruby. We've got a problem."
A couple of minutes earlier, Team RWBY and the Chief were approaching another structure. Along the way, they saw some Jackals, so nothing they couldn't handle.
The structure itself was coming out of the cliff, and a Spirit was taking off from the balcony.
"They're already inside! We need to get in there quick, before they discover the location of Halo's control center!" Cortana explained over the radio.
"Alright. Let's give them hell." Yang said, and saw two big aliens walking out of the structure. "Uhm, that are hunters, I take it?"
"Yep." Ruby replied.
She and Weiss jumped off, while the Chief drove the Hog around the hunters, so that Yang could shoot them.
Weiss created a glyph under one hunter, throwing him, or it, into the air. Ruby used the chance and used her semblance to jump high into the air, and rammed the blade into the hunter. It didn't do enough damage though, and Weiss used another Glyph ram the Mgalekgolo into a wall. Ruby took her Sniper Rifle, and shot at the creature, hitting it's neck. Worms flew everywhere, and the helmet fell off, as the Hunter slid down the wall.
Chief was still driving circles around the Hunter, while Yang and Blake took it under fire. Most of the bullets bounced off the armor, and it was only a question of time until the Mgalekgolo would hit them. And even with their Aura, they weren't sure if they could survive the impact of the Assault Cannon, and the explosion of the Warthog.
John stopped the Hog, and went on collision course with the hunter. It stopped the hog with it's hands, and rammed it's shield into the front of the vehicle. The back went flying into the air, and Chief climbed out of the front, and on the Hunter. It tried to shake him off, but soon had a grenade stuck in its back. Chief jumped off, while Blake and Yang landed next to him. The hunter exploded, and smoking worms flew around everywhere. The ruined Warthog fell down to the beach behind them.
Ruby and Weiss joined them. "Well, they are tough." Weiss pointed out.
"They are." Masterchief replied. "Come on. We have to get inside." He ran off, and Team RWBY followed.
They went into the structure, and down a ramp, where they saw a golden Elite, holding an energy sword, standing in a doorway. He was accompanied by an Elite minor, and three Grunts. They took down the Grunts in a hail of fire, and Ruby shot the Elite with her Sniper Rifle.
"Don't let them lock the..." The Elite locked the door. "Door."
"Well, so much for that." Yang stated, and shot her Shotgun at the door. Of course, it didn't do anything.
"Interesting..." Cortana begun. "I underestimated the Covenant's understanding of Halo's subsystems. They've locked the doors, and we don't have enough firepower to get through them." She opened up a radio channel to Keyes. Team RWBY was able to hear the conversation over their earpieces. "Cortana to Keyes."
"Go ahead, Cortana. Have you found the control center?"
"Negative, Captain. The Covenant have impeded our progress. We can't proceed unless we disable this installation's security system."
There was a small pause. "Understood. We're still en route to the objective. I may be out of contact when we get there." There was another pause. "Here are your orders. I want you to use any means necessary to force your way into the facility and find Halo's control center before the Covenant, and failure, people, is not an option."
Suddenly, they could hear Foehammer over the comms. "Echo 419 to ground teams. I'll stay on station and keep an eye out for Covenant bogies."
"Second squad, ready to roll!" Waller yelled over the comms. "Soon as everybody's topside!"
"Good luck, people. Keyes out."
"So, do we just go and look for it?" Yang asked.
"Wait, let me contact Jaune. Maybe they've found something." Ruby contacted the leader of the other team, and soon heard his voice through her radio. "It's Ruby. We've got a problem."
"What? What is it?"
"The Covenant locked us out. According to Cortana, there's a security station somewhere on the island. Can you look for it?"
"Sure. We are actually on the way to a structure. Maybe it's it."
"Alright. Good luck. Ruby out." She closed the connection. "Okay, Jaune says they may have found it."
"Good." Cortana replied.
Ruby opened up her own radio, again, and called Waller. "Sergeant Waller? Here's Ruby. Listen, can you watch out for Covenant outside the structure?"
"Affirmative. We'll go into position."
Back on the other side of the island, Jaune turned off his comm. "Okay, it seems like we're on the right track." The four started to make their way into the island. The way led through a ravine, guarded by a couple of Grunts and a single Elite.
After taking the platoon out, a green ball flew over their heads, and hit the cliff next to them. They looked up, and saw two Hunters coming into the ravine, their assault cannons ready.
They fired another shot, which hit a tree, destroying it in the process. The Team jumped behind a rock to take cover.
"Come on, let's take them out." Nora said determined,
"We can't." Jaune said, and looked around the rock. "They are blocking the way. There's no way we can get a clean shot at their backs."
"Can't we use our Aura to block the shots?" Pyrrha asked. At that moment, another shot hit a nearby stone, completely annihilating it.
"I'd rather not try it." Ren deadpanned.
They thought for a moment about what to do, while the shots of the hunters impacted around them, destroying stone after stone.
"Nora?" Jaune asked. "You have grenades, right?"
Nora nodded, and showed him the bag. "I've got five or six."
"Pyrrha, can you use your Semblance to control them?"
"I can try."
Jaune looked around the rock, and looked where the hunters were currently at. Most of the stones had already been destroyed. "Throw them into the cliff. Maybe we can burry them under rocks."
"Alright." Nora threw the bag, and Pyrrha used her Semblance to let it crash into the cliff above the hunters. One of them was burning from the fireball, while the other was burried under stones.
"Nice one." Nora said.
They ran up the hill, and moved the rubble, to make sure the Lekgolo were dead. The one that was burried tried to move, but was stopped by a hail of bullets from Ren.
The four ran up the hill, and found themselves in some sort of crater, with a structure in the middle. They looked around for a minute, but didn't find anything useful.
The way out of the crater led to a bunch of trees, where an Elite, Grunts and Jackals were already waiting for them. One side of the area led to a structure. Plasma hit the side of the hill, as the four teens went into cover.
Pyrrha shot her DMR at an Elite, taking out it's shield, and finishing the Alien with a headshot. After some testing, she noticed that the bullets for the DMR sometimes hung in Milò, something she had to look into as soon as she had the time.
The loss of their officer caused the Grunts to flee. A useless option, as Ren and Nora went in to take them out.
Meanwhile, Jaune engaged the Jackals, and tried to get a hit. However, the energy shields of the Kig-Yar held off his sword. Thus, he used his shield to block the plasma shots and claws of the aliens, and tried to use his Magnum to shoot them. Eventually, he hit the exposed hand of one Kig-Yar, and the alien cried out in pain. A bullet soared through the air, and into the creature's skull. The other Kig-Yar turned around, and looked at the source of the bullet: Pyrrha.
While doing that, they exposed their unprotected side to Jaune, who went in and rammed his sword into the abdomen of one Jackal. The last one turned back to him, and got shot in the back by Pyrrha.
With the Covenant forces taken out, they made their way around a structure, and found themselves on the structure they saw from the beach. Now, they could see two entrances, leading into the complex.
"Ruby?"
"Yeah? Do you have it?"
"Well, we think. We've just entered the structure."
"Okay. Take care."
"We will." Jaune closed the radio, and they went down into the structure. The way led down a ramp, and into a giant room. The back was blocked with Covenant Crates, and two hunters, accompanied by a couple of Unggoy, were guarding it.
Luckily, it seemed like they had just put up the blockade, and were distracted. JNPR used the chance, and shot the hunters in the back. The monsters turned around before they were done though, and opened fire.
Nora charged forward, and used Magnhild to ram one of the hunters into the wall.
"I see... something gray." Yang said.
"Oh! Oh! An alien structure!" Ruby answered, and Yang gave her a thumbs up.
"Can't they unlock the door faster?" Chief asked, getting annoyed by the wait.
"Well, who knows how big their complex is." Weiss stood up, and walked up to a window, which enabled them to look inside the structure. "I mean, look how big this is."
She was honestly baffled by the sheer size of the structure. From her estimations, it led over a kilometer deep into the ring.
The hunter in the wall wasn't done for, and swung his shield at Nora, who also flew into a wall.
Pyrrha engaged a Grunt that was watching the fight. It had it's pistol overloaded, and when she attacked, he let go of the trigger, shooting one of the hunters in the back, killing it.
This led to an awkward silence, where his allies stared at him angry. A chance that Nora used to ram her hammer into the other Hunter, severing his upper and lower body. Pyrrha quickly rammed Milò into the Grunt, and the others tried to flee. However, they forgot about Ren and Jaune, who took them out before they could even reach the ramp.
With the fight over, they looked at the barrier.
"Why did they pile up these crates?" Nora asked.
"I don't know. Maybe to stop us?"
"If that's the case..." Pyrrha said, and started to move the crates around with her Semblance. "Then they should have tried better." She opened a hole on the blockade, which they used to get through.
They were in a long tunnel, leading up to some sort of hologramm. "This place is unbelievable." Pyrrha muttered, as they walked throught the tunnel. All of them were amazed by the architecture.
They reached the hologram, which depicted some sort of building. In front of it was a holographic panel. Jaune walked up to it, and, for some strange reason, knew how to use it. He accessed the panel, while Nora walked off to the sides, looking into the pit below the room.
"Well, that worked out better than expected." He muttered, proud of himself, and opened a connection to the other team. "Hey, Rubes? We've found it. Is the door open?"
"It is. Thanks." There was a small pause. "Chief says you should get outside and wait for extraction. Or come here and help us. Whatever you want."
"Alright. Jaune over." He closed the connections. "You know, it was kinda weird." He said to Pyrrha. "Like, I knew how to use it out of instinct."
"Uhm, guys?" Nora said, from the ledge. Her friend came closer.
"What is it?"
She pointed down. "Something down there just moved."
"What?" They looked down, and noticed that the ground was indeed moving. Then, they saw two red, glowing eyes looking at them. "Uh-oh."
Something rose up from the pit, and they could finally see what it was: A gigantic King Taijitu.
"Well, we found them." Ren said.
"Run!" Jaune yelled, and they left the room, running through tunnel, as a transmission came through.
"Mayday, mayday! Dropship Bravo 022 taking enemy fire! Repeat! We are under heavy fire and are loosing altitude!"
Behind them, the Grimm was crashing through the walls of the tunnel, following them. They jumped through the hole in the blockade, and now knew why it was there. Appearently the Covenant was scared of the Grimm. Jaune noticed two glowing dots in the room, and plasma flew through the air.
He groaned. "We can't deal with this right now." He and his team ignored the Stealth-Sangheili, who turned their fire to the Taijitu, as it broke through the barrier. It swallowed one of them, and wrapped itself around the other Elite, squishing him, before it followed JNPR again.
Said Team left the structure, and with no other option, jumped down to the beach, their Aura packing most of the impact. On the beach, they saw the wreckage of Bravo-022, with bodies of Marines scattered around. On the ground was a Warthog, one Rocket launcher, and rockets. Grunts and Jackals patroulled around it.
They didn't notice JNPR, until the Taijitu left the complex above them, and came down to the beach. Now they could see the full scale of the monster. And it was gigantic, bigger than any Taijitu they'd ever seen.
To their surprise, the Covenant actually concentrated their fire on the Taijitu.
Jaune looked around. "I've got an idea. Nora! Take the Rocket launcher!"
"You don't have to say that twice!" With that, Nora sped off, and took one of the SNPKR.
"Pyrrha! Can you put the Warthog back on it's wheels?"
"Sure." She flipped the Warthog over, and Ren jumped in. Jaune took the Machine gun, while Pyrrha rode shotgun, so that she could use her semblance to get them out of the way if needed.
The Taijitu had nearly exterminated the Covies, as bullets started to hit the side of its armored, black head. It turned towards Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha, while the other head continued to fight the Covenant. At this point, all of the Jackals were dead, and the only reason the Grunts were still alive, was due to the fact that they were on top of the stone formation.
Ren drove the hog around the Grimm, while Jaune took it under heavy fire. The bullets didn't do much damage, but enough to cause it to stagger. The Taijitu tried to snatch them again and again, but missed every hit, thanks to their speed.
"Hey, look over here, you giant bitch!" It turned around, and saw Nora, holding a SPNKR. A rocket escaped the launcher, and hit the Taijitu's head, blowing off parts of the bone armor.
It tried to bite her, but received another rocket, which flew right into it's mouth. It blew up the black head, leaving only one.
The other head now shifted it's attention back to the Warthog, which was driving around the snake. On the cliff, there was only one Grunt left. And a brave one at that. Out of anger, the Unggoy jumped off the rock, and onto the Taijitus head, where it started punching the snake.
It didn't do anything though, and the Grimm shook the Grunt off, only to catch him mid-air, and swallow him whole. Another Rocket hit the side of the face, and bullets penetrated it's left eye. It cried out in pain, and a blue light eminated from it's mouth. It fell down dead, and started to dissolve.
Ren drove up next to it, and all of them jumped out. "What was that?" Nora asked.
"I'd say the Grunt activated a Plasma Grenade in it's mouth." Jaune said, and walked up to the body of the grunt. Or what was left of it. "In a way, we should thank him."
"Why are they attacking the Covenant though?" Pyrrah asked. "I thought Grimm only attack Humans and Faunus?"
"I think I know why." Ren said. "We always say that because Humans and Faunus are the only sentient species on Remnant. But now, there are other races."
"So, they attack all intelligent life forms?" Nora asked, and Ren nodded.
Team RWBY was still waiting, and Chief was getting frustrated. A couple of minutes ago, he even tried to open the door with a grenade. Needless to say, it didn't work.
That made it even better when the door finally opened.
"Seems like your friends did it." Chief said.
Suddenly, the radio turned on, as Ruby received a message from Jaune.
"Hey, Rubes? We've found it. Is the door open?"
"It is. Thanks."
"Tell them to wait for extraction, or get here and help us." Chief told her.
"Chief says you should get outside and wait for extraction. Or come here and help us. Whatever you want."
"Alright, Jaune over."
With that, the connection was closed again, and they went into the hallway. One side led to a balcony, overlooking a deep pit. The Chief kicked a piece of rubble down into it, and no sound was heard. Everyone gulped, and went into the other direction.
Suddenly, they heard a message over the comms. "Mayday, mayday! Dropship Bravo 022 taking enemy fire! Repeat! We are under heavy fire and are losing altitude!"
"Oh god, please don't die..." Yang muttered.
They went into the first room, where a red armored Sangheili was tapping around on a holographic panel. He hadn't noticed them, and Chief took a knife, only to burry it into the Elite's neck.
"They don't know that we're here yet. Be quiet." They walked up a ramp, and realized that the Covenant really didn't know that they were here.
Blake used Gambol Shrud to drag a Grunt to them, and broke his neck with a swift motion. Another Grunt on the ledge noticed it, and tried to scream, as bullets of Blake's SMG hit it. The silencer did it's work, and the other Covies below them weren't alarmed.
They looked down, and saw an Elite, standing next to three Grunts. Yang already had an idea, and took a Plasma Grenade from one of the Grunts. She activated it, which wasn't too hard, since it only had one button, and threw it. It got stuck on the Elite, and exploded, killing the group.
"Yang!" Ruby yelled. "We wanted to be quiet!"
"Oh... Right. Shit."
The door in the back of the room opened, and two Jackals came through. Ruby turned into Rose pedals to get behind them, and took them out with her Scythe.
With the way free, they advanced down into the facility, and came into a bigger room. It had one open part, and a hallway leading around it. They could see two Hunters in the middle, accompanied by Jackals and Grunts.
"You think I can take on a hunter in a fist-fight?" Yang asked, and received shocked looks from her friends.
"If you want to die, go ahead." Chief replied, and shot down the first Grunt. The Covenant opened fire, and Weiss provided cover for her team. Chief, Ruby and Blake took out the little guys, and then concentrated fire on the two hunters.
"Aw, why not?" Yang muttered, and ran up to one of the hunters. She ducked under a shield swing.
"Yang! Are you crazy!" Ruby yelled.
Masterchief ran around the other hunter, and planted a grenade into its back.
Meanwhile, Yang ducked under another hit, which cut off some of her hair.
Her friends fell silent, since they knew what would come. Chief aimed at the hunter, but Blake pushed his gun down. "Trust me. She got this."
"You. Little. Asshole." Yang muttered, and punched her fists together. A shockwave eminated from her, shattering class that was built into the walls, and her hair catched on fire.
She grabbed the hunter's shield, and ripped it off, only to climb onto him, and rip off his backarmor. The Hunter led out a guttural scream, as she started to rip the worms out of his back.
"Remember me to not piss her off either." John said.
"Don't worry." Weiss assured him. "Unless you touch her hair, she's harmless. Well, as harmless as a huntress in training with shotgun gauntlets can be."
They looked back at Yang, as the hunter's armor fell to the ground. Dead worms laid around everywhere, with some of them still twitching. She calmed down, and they went down a U-shaped ramp, as a transmission came in.
"Foehammer to ground teams, you got two enemy dropships coming in fast!"
Waller's voice was heard. "Dammit! Okay, people, we got company comin', let's set the table. Engage enemy forces on sight!"
"It'll be easier to hold them off from inside the structure. Can you get inside?" Cortana asked.
"Negative! They're closin' in too fast, negative!" There was a pause, and they could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. "Chief, Girls, you've gotta find the Cartographer! We'll keep 'em busy as long as we can."
"Give 'em hell, Marines!" Cortana replied.
"Just try not to die. We'll back you up in short time." Ruby responded.
"We'll be in a tight spot if we don't get out of here before additional reinforcements arrive. Let's find that map."
"Alright." They entered a bigger room, with two doors leading out. They took the first one, and came to a ledge, overlooking a small room, that led to an intersection. One way led down into a tunnel, while the other one led into another, bigger room. "Okay, I think it'd be best if we split up." Ruby said. "Me, Chief and Blake will go into the room, Yang and Weiss will go into the hallway."
They agreed, and split up. The hallway wasn't too long, and they could already see two Elites standing guard at the end of it. One of them wore a blue armor, while the other one had a red one. Weiss created a glyph, while Yang cocked her M90. The heiress shot her forward, and Yang crashed into the Minor. He fell down, and Yang ended him by blowing a hole into his upper body with the shotgun. The other Elite turned around, and opened fire. Yang dodged the plasma as best as she could, and went closer, to attack the Sangheili. He dodged, and delivered a punch to the back of her head.
This way, he turned his back to Weiss, who slashed him with Myrtenaster. His shields still held, and he opened fire on her. Weiss created a glyph as cover, and shot her Assault Rifle at the Sangheili. His shield broke, and he fell down a couple of bullets later. Weiss reloaded her rifle, and both went into the room. It was a circular one, with a hologramm in the middle. It depicted the ring, and strange symbols pointed to different sections of it.
They saw the Chief coming around the corner across the room, followed by Ruby and Blake.
"I think we found it." Yang pointed at the hologramm. Chief went over to the holopanel, and accessed the map.
"Analyzing... Halo's control center is located there." The ring highlighted a certain section. "That structure appears to be some sort of temple or shrine, if I interpret this correctly." Cortana paused for a second, as she looked through the acquired data. "Interesting. A shrine is an unlikely place to put such a signifcant installation."
"Maybe whoever built this was highly religious themselves?" Ruby suggested.
"If that's the case, then they must've been pretty full of themselves." Blake pointed out. "You don't worship yourself unless you have a giant ego."
"Come on now." Masterchief interrupted the conversation. "We have to get out of here."
"Right. Waller is still out there. Let's go and help him." Ruby said, and they went outside, onto a small balcony overlooking the pit.
"Cortana to Captain Keyes."
Everyone eagerly waited for an answer, but none came. Instead, Foehammer answered the call.
"The Captain has dropped out of contact, Cortana. His ship may be out of range or having equipment problems."
"Keep trying. Let me know when you've reestablished contact, and then tell him that we determined the location of the control center. We'll be heading there as soon as we're topside."
"Affirmative. Foehammer out."
They went up a ramp, and were instantly under fire from Covenant forces. They dived into cover.
"What are they doing here? I thought Waller-" That's when it hit Ruby, and she opened her radio, as her friends started fighting. "Waller! Waller! Are you there?"
She heard plasma- and gunfire over the radio, and an explosion. To her relieve, she also heard Waller coughing. "We're here. Some of them slipped through."
A plasmagrenade went off near them. "Yeah, we noticed. Try to stay alive. We're coming."
"Please be quick. We're under heavy fire out here."
Now, Ruby took action herself, and charged forward using her Semblance. An Elite and a Grunt got caught in the resuilting vortex, and thrown into a wall. The force of the impact killed the Unggoy, and left the Sangheili open to get shot by the Chief.
They took out the remaining Unggoy and Kig-Yar, and went up the structure, and re-entered the room where they fought the hunters. They used the hallway leading around the room, and found a ledge with dead Marines and ammo on the ground.
"Take what you can." Chief said, and grabbed a pack of Assault Rifle ammo.
Ruby sighed. She didn't like to take stuff from dead people, but she didn't have much of a choice right now. She took a medikit, while Blake took ammo for pistols.
They went back, and met a group of Sangheili and Unggoy. They were taken by suprise, and thus taken out quickly. The group went back up the ramp, and took out some Grunts in the other room.
The five entered the hallway where the locked door was. As Weiss went around the corner, a blue blade slashed across her side, and she stepped back. Her Aura still held up, but was depleted greatly.
They saw the golden Elite that closed the door, and opened fire. To their surprise, he actually managed to block some of their bullets with his sword, and charged at them, concentrating on Weiss.
She blocked a slash with Myrtenaster, and threw him around with a glyph. He landed between her and Ruby, who used her semblance to create a whirlwind, and threw the Elite down the pit at the little balcony.
As they left the facility, they saw in shock how all the Marines, including Waller were dead, and a Spirit took off. Ruby ran to the Marines, and looked if anyone was still alive.
"Please no..." She said, as she found the body of Waller. Most of his body was cooked from plasma.
Meanwhile, Weiss looked around, looking for any survivors. There were a couple of dead Stealt Sangheili around, but nothing that survived the battle. She turned to Ruby.
Yang walked up to Ruby, and embraced her in a hug. "It's okay. Calm down."
"It's not okay. I told them to stand guard. It's my fault that they're dead." Ruby said.
"It's not your fault." They looked up, and saw the Chief. "As much as I hate it, soldiers die. You can't safe everyone. No matter how hard you try. Take their dogtags, and get ready. Foehammer is inbound."
Ruby nodded, and collected everyone's dogtags. They heard the sound of an engine, and Foehammer came closer. Everyone stepped in, and Ruby tried not to look at the corpses.
Meanwhile, the Chief opened up a channel to JNPR. "Here is Sierra-117. Please come in, JNPR."
"We're here. Is something wrong?"
"We've found the location of the control room. Stand by for extraction."
"Understood."
The pelican flew around the island, until they could see their friends, next to the wreck of Bravo-022. The ship went down, and everyone jumped in. Nora put a rocket launcher in one of the weapon racks on the wall.
"And? How did it go?" Jaune asked.
"Well, we finished our mission." Weiss said, and then looked at the ground sad. "But the Marines are dead."
"Dammit." Jaune replied. "Do you at least have the dogtags?"
Ruby nodded. "You seem like you had quite a battle yourself."
The four looked at each other. "Yeah. We found the King Taijitu we were looking for."
"Oh god. It's dead, right?"
"I'm sorry." Chief interrupted. "What is a King Taijitu?"
"A big snake, with two heads." Chief looked around the room, trying to imagine how this thing looked. "Anyway, it followed us out of the structure, resulting in a fight. You may not believe it, but it was actually taken out by a Grunt."
Everyone stared at them. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. It got eaten, but managed to detonate a grenade inside the thing." Jaune said, a bit proud of the little guy.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we go back to our mission, please?" Cortana said, and everyone nodded. "Foehammer, here are the coordinates and a flight plan I've worked up."
"Uh, Cortana... these coordinates are underground." The pilot answered from the front of the ship.
"The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan. My analysis shows tha Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels, which circle the whole ring." The Pelican flew up to the crater in the middle of the island, where the structure opened, revealing the entrance to said tunnels.
"I hope your analysis is on-the-money, Cortana. This Pelican won't turn on a dime."
They entered the structure, which closed above them. "Look on the bright side, Foehammer. The last thing the Covenant will expect is an aerial insertion... from underground."
Solar System, Remnant
Forerunner structure, Emerald Forest
September 22; 2552
Doctor Arthur Watts had a rough week. He was just getting back from Mistral, as his mistress, Salem, send him here. According to her, one of her Seers found the structure, and she was immediatly interested, hoping that it was a relic.
It wasn't, but neither was it a dissapointment. It turned out that it was some sort of foreign machine, with the power to teleport anyone. After they realized that, everything had gone fast. He placed a charge above the entrance to the cave, and thus blocked the entrance.
He was then tasked to find out exactly how it worked, something that was harder than he expected. Especially with the roadblock he had right now. He needed a test subject to send through. Luckily, he heard Tyrian enter the cave through a secret entrance they built. He was looking for a subject, and him returning meant that he got one.
He was a bit surprised though, as the Faunus entered the cave with a child in his possession. "Please tell me you didn't just pick her off the street."
"Don't worry." Tyrian replied, and sat the girl down. "I stole an Icecream truck and lured her into it. I just had to knock her out then." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a bundle of lien. "I also made some money along the way."
Watts shook his head. Sometimes, he wondered how nothing had collapsed. Sure, it worked, but it wasn't exactly done in secret. He took the unconscius girl, and sat her down next to the pedestal. Tyrian didn't even tie her up.
He found out that one could adjust the range of the device. The first time it went off, it took eight children, and nearly all the Grimm in the forest. That the kids disappeared wasn't a bad thing though, as one of them had silver eyes. Something they were glad was gone.
At this point the girl seemed to slowly wake up. "Where- Where am I?" She stood up, and dusted off her gray-green dress, before she looked at Watts. "Salutations! Can you tell-"
He quickly pressed the button on the device, and the girl disappeared. It seemed like everything was coming together. Soon, they could send Grimm through, claiming a whole new world for Salem.
And Chapter 4 is up.
A little explanation to the dates: It is the 22th on Remnant, due to a difference in the flow of time. Basically: 1hr in Halo = 3hrs on Remnant.
Now to reply to some reviews:
TheFishKing: Well, the Flood can also infect animals. But in the early stages, the prefer sentient life. They still can't be infected though, since they dissolve upon death, leaving no biomass behind.
rocketmce: It's gonna be roughly the same ending, but I won't tell as of now who'll survive. I can say that I'm haven't decided on Bailey's fate yet.
About this mod: Yeah, I like it. But then there's the problem with, well, the ring blowing up.
In case you wanna know how Johnson survived: He and two other Marines took a Pelican and fled the ring.
TheComposcreator: No, it's just metal. The reason it holds of plasma is due to his Aura, which is channeled into the weapon. And he won't even be there when the Flood is released. Why is gonna be explained in the next Chapter.
Evinco: No, it doesn't fly in their faces. But they had only seen him in combat, and were tired and hungry from a long day, with other things on their mind the Chief's backstory. Still, they'll eventually find out. And I don't know anyone who doesn't take issue with ONI. And yes, they'll take influence.
Edrap: See my reply to TheFishKing.
A fan: No, they'll not show up. And RvB isn't part of canon, just an alternate timeline. (Even though I'd say that the concept of Project Freelancer could fit into the Halo Universe.) And when the Halo part wraps up, well, we'll see what happens then.
Halo belongs to 343 Industries and Microsoft; RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.