Commander In Chief
Chapter 7
Asteroids
March 2185
Lt Commander Konner Shepard
SSV Normandy
Orbiting Above Alchera
It has been 2 months since the assault on the collector base and everyone had survived that hell-hole the collectors called a home in the galactic core, those things had taken our crew out from under our noses and Joker had to unshackled that damn A.I EDI just to save him and the Normandy from the Collector threat, those were hard times for the crew and for myself, but now after all I have done with Cerberus and even going to the extent of cutting all ties with the rouge black ops Alliance Corporation so as soon as I try to land on Earth again I will be arrested by my former Military group, *Sigh*, Might as well extend it as much as I can so I can stay with the crew and at least, Tali.
At this point the haptic interface on my cabin door turned from deep red to green and it opened when I thought I had EDI lock it and ask everybody to leave me alone for the time being, 'Wow I really do need to increase my security on my door don't I? ', As soon as I turned around I saw a purple realk of the Quarian shoot past the door towards me and my face beamed with joy when I realized it was Tali who had got through my security 'Oh, well never mind it was just the best hacker I have even known in my life but she still is my girlfriend' I thought intently, she immediately noticed that expression and didn't even bother warning me in any way as I was drawn in to a tight hug with the strong women
"What are you doing up here at this time of day? You should be commanding the ship and telling us where to go and that kind of… stuff." She expressed with a little intrigue, then she looked in the same direction in the way I was "And why are will orbiting the planet where I nearly lost you to the collectors?" She started to fiddle with her fingers in the way I knew that she was either worried or embarrassed, I choose the former and returned the hug and calmed her down by explaining what we were doing
"We are here because Hackett found the wreck of the SR-1 on the planet's surface and he wants me and only me to go down there and place a monument to the crew that didn't survive the attack"
"But why can't I come down with you? Please can I? I was with you when the Normandy was destroyed as well" Tali pleaded
"No, you can't, like Garrus can't either because I need to be the one placing down the monument and collect the Human dog tags"
"But what if you get in trouble or the reapers attack you or-"
"I won't be in trouble, we destroyed the collectors and the reapers are delayed for a few months because of the destroyed Relay. Look if I do get in trouble, you will be the first one to know about in. Deal?"
"Ok but I am really worried about losing you again, please come back...for me"
"I will. I Promise"
"Konner?" she asks
"Yes?"
"How common are meteorites here?"
"Not one has ever been recorded, why do you ask?"
"I think another ship has crashed…They…It all happened so quickly, there was a explosion, then there was wreckage falling. But it wasn't normal, only one of the objects flared into fire-"
I nod, figuring that if anyone was alive down there, they might need help, or it might be a new species, slowly emerging from the borders of their home world.
"Tali, do you want me to have a look at the crash site? You could come too of course."
"Ok."
John 'Master Chief' Sierra-117 (Pronounced M.I.A.)
Location Unknown
My god I have practically given myself a death sentence haven't I? By setting off that nuke inside the mouth of the composer I have blown myself out of reality and into my dreams, but still, Cortana is gone, trying to shield me from the imminent explosion coming off the warhead, what am I going to without my A.I?
Suddenly I fall out of my 'Dreams' and see and red/orange flame build up around, "I must be free-falling…again" I instinctively shut my armour in to lock mode to brace for the sudden impact on whatever I am falling into and then the automatic thud of my armour cracking against the ground floor, I remember Johnson saying "You will land on something as hard as you one day and I don't do bits and pieces " I hope it's today. My one and only friend is gone, my species has deserted me and I wish for death. I curse Halsey for making me the way I am. I land, my shattered world shakes and I black out. Incessant dreams of Cortana plague my mind.
I awake, the sun light pouring through my visor, the cold penetrating my thermal armour. I restart my systems; I have a look at my surroundings. All is covered in snow, a crashed ship lays buried, my armour beeps. The restart is complete.
"Cortana?" Silence. "Cortana, come in"
Still no answer, my augmented heart sinks further. A slight buzzing rings in my ears. I dismiss it as an after effect of the crash. The buzzing grows louder, more clearly, almost as if a voice is talking to me. Not just any voice, a feminine voice.
"Cortana? Is that you? Please, tell me it's you!"
A sudden static pop rings in my helmet.
"Chief? I'm here, don't worry, I'll never leave you."
"Never?"
"Never."
I breathe a sigh of relief. "Anomaly detected in geosynch!" Cortana screams in my helmet. A flash fill the sky, blue and red shines down upon me as if God himself is revealing himself to us.
"That doesn't look like a UNSC or covenant vessel there does it?, Cortana, do a system Reading of that ship that just flew off "Ship reads as Alliance, Turian, The SSV Normandy, none of these things match in UNSC databases, wait-"
'CONNECTION FAILED'
"The rest of the database is not responding" she responded with a heavy sigh, "Unless we are in another galaxy, the UNSC signal never gets dropped out like this"
"What about jamming?"
"Perhaps, but I would be able to get through anyway"
"Well as UNSC states, anything we can't identify is hostile unless proven otherwise"
"Well, let's get back to work then"
"Umm… problem"
Cortana sighs probably knowing what it is "What is it John?"
"How are we going to get off this planet?"
"Not the question I was expecting -"
"And where's my weapon?"
"There we go… You do realize that you're stuck in armour lock?"
"Can you disable it?"
"Not from here, I'm running on backup power as it is and when Johnson and the marines were messing around with your armour when you crashed on Earth? He had to completely delete a part of it to disable it, that is the connectors between the 'ON/OFF' and can only be activated and not deactivated, so we're practically stuck here till we get hit by something or someone takes me out of your head"
"No-one will be taking you again..."
