The Fall of Reach
(Chapter 4)
Thel withdrew a small alien pistol. "Ah, but, no...Just stop, please...no...Wait...Listen!" The Doctor pleaded. Thel approached the Doctor, raised his pistol. "Thel, please! One day, you'll be the most honoured Sangheili that ever lived! You help stop the Covenant!" The Doctor shouted. Thel laughed as he moved one of his big alien fingers over the trigger...
"Goodbye Doctor, I'm afraid this is going to hurt; but if it's any constellation, the dead don't tend to remember" Thel squeezed the trigger.
The marines on Earth where prepping the SS Pillar of Autumn; the last beacon of hope for humanity. As long as that ship escaped Reach, the humans might have a chance of survival. Captain Keyes was at the docking station, he was about to receive a special package; a Spartan-II. Not just any Spartan-II, but the commander of blue team himself, Spartan-117, the Master Chief. But that wasn't all, soon to come, an even more important package, humanity's only survival chance, an AI. But the most important AI, an AI who is so intelligent, that she might be the only way of keeping Earth a secret. Keyes felt he worked too hard, he needed a break, what would Catherine think? Whatever the outcome, this would be the longest day.
The Doctor closed his eyes, braced for impact. Thel held his finger on the pistol; it slowly charged waiting to fire. Suddenly, a covenant alarm started; covenant soldiers began panicking and arming themselves. "The Humans are arming their assault; they have destroyed a super carrier." Thel said, without even the slightest sign of emotion.
Keyes was on station when the first package arrived, the Spartan. He was in cryo when he arrived, asleep and inactive. Keyes placed his hand on the cryo case; "I hope you're as good as Catherine says you are, John. And the AI even better." Keyes needed a sign, to ignite his hope, just the Spartan shifting would be enough, what good was a sleeping Spartan? He knew the covenant would retaliate soon enough, and the pillar of autumn would be out of time; he could only hope the package would be delivered in time. A Spartan-III was in charge of delivering the package, one Spartan held the humanity's best chance of survival in his hands, quite literally. Too much stress was building up for the humans, an ongoing war with the covenant is hope draining, and he wasn't sure if humanity could stand any more.
The Doctor took his chances, it was time for him to get out of here; but how? He was in his twelfth form, meaning he had potentially died 11 times, meaning he needed to be more careful. Ok, so he needed to escape a covenant cruiser, packed with hostile aliens, and get down to Reach and escort Avril off of the face of the single most doomed planet in history. In that nanosecond, he had worked out a plan, distraction and escape root; and in them few seconds since them, he had put that plan into action. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver, left it on auto-mode and threw it at the battle computer. The sonic's scream was amplified by the machine and caused an EMP burst; disabling Thel and all the other Sangheili in the room's shields. With that, the Doctor sprinted for the escape pod, leaving his screwdriver behind.
Suddenly, Keyes saw the super carrier go dim for a second, like an EMP in the system, but who could have done this? Whoever it was had just saved humanity, the carrier was about to fire, and destroy the pillar of autumn when the EMP had happened. Where was that Spartan-III and the AI? They needed to leave. Now.
"I can't stop you Thel, I just can't. The Fall of Reach is a fixed point in time...and there's nothing I can do. But I can slow you down; give the humans an hour or two to escape." With that, the Doctor departed in his escape pod and crashed into Reach.