Reach

ONI SWORD Base

5 hours after first contact with

Covenant battleships

The two Banshees flew across the plain, and then arced back for another pass. They were out here for recon. Once they saw anything unusual, they would report to Reach HICOM and the rest of Team Alpha would be dispatched.

Kerry was bored. Nick had refused to let him take potshots at the moa running around on the plain, so he had nothing to do. This had been their fourth hour out here. Luckily he had hooked up his iPod to an interior compartment of his armor. He was blasting Hoobastank's "Connected" through the Banshees comm speakers.

The music faded, and an alarm sounded through the cockpit. He glanced down at the radar. A large bogey was headed their way.

"Uh, Blue Leader?"

"What is it, Blue One?"

"I have a large, unidentified ship headed our way. Please confirm."

There was a pause over the line. "Confirmed, Blue One. Contacting HICOM."

The alarm sounded in Alpha Squad's quarters. Ethan sat bolt upright.

"ALRIGHT, people, let's move! SQUADCOM says Kerry picked up a Covenant strike force en route to SWORD. Now we go in. GO!"

They assembled their gear and ran for the Hornets. They got on the sides, Kevin and Tyler rather reluctantly, and their appointed pilots took them off.

6 hours after first contact

The Hornets had just come in sight of SWORD. Kerry and Nick were too busy with another pair of Banshees to defend the base, but evidently not enough to talk.

"Nick, pop that guy!"

"He won't stay in my crosshairs!"

"Hey, dude, look. The calvary has arrived!"

Ethan leaned out of the Hornet, and charged his laser. "Ready…FIRE!"

A red beam of energy lanced across the distance and cut through one of the enemy Banshees. The macerated aircraft spiraled to earth and landed on a Portable Methane Chamber, igniting it. That set off a chain reaction that opened a huge hole in the enemy line.

One of the Banshees broke off and flew toward them. It did a U-Turn and flew alongside them. The cockpit opened.

"Whew," Kerry yelled, "I owe ya one! Now, where's Tyler?"

Tyler waved his hand.

"Alright, Bro," Kerry yelled, "Jump on. We gonna go Brute Bomb their ass!"

Tyler took a leap, and landed on the cockpit cover. The Banshee peeled off and divebombed the hole. A fuel rod arced from the underside to impact any stragglers. The vehicle abruptly pulled up, minus one Brute.

Tyler landed in the middle of the scorched crater. He unlimbered his Brute Shot, and turning, fired grenades in all directions. This cleared enough space for the Hornet to land.

Ethan and the rest of the squad leaped from the vehicle. Once they hit ground, they opened up on the Covenant that were in the vicinity. Wave after wave of Covenant fell.

After about five hours of fighting, they had demolished the enemy line. SWORD Base was safe for now.

Kerry and Nick brought their Banshees in for a landing. They got out, and headed to the mess hall. They had both been out for about fifteen hours, and needed the food. The others hung out around the team room, chatting and gaming. Ethan headed out to the shooting range with his DMR for target practice.

In the mess, Kerry and Nick scrutinized the choices on the board. Kerry eventually went for a medium-rare ribeye steak and a Sprite, while Nick chose a hamburger and water. They went to an empty table, which made most of the tables qualify. After about five minutes, with Kerry exclaiming about how much he had missed a good old cattle steak and lemon-lime soda, another person joined them.

"Sup, Natalie."

Natalie sighed, "Not much. You know, that Ethan-241 is a dick."

Nick looked up, "What did he do know?"

"He was complaining about how I didn't work during the siege. How can I, when I'm fucking ASSIGNED TO SPACE!"

"Well," Kerry started, "I'll talk to him. He may have tactical control, but I'm still his boss."

Kerry finished off his ribeye, dispensed his dishes, and left. He headed back to the team room, ready to give Ethan a few choice words.

He never reached there. A giant plasma beam cut through the walkway in front of him, and set the hallway on fire. The blast knocked him back, and a beam fell on him. He struggled for about fifteen minutes trying to get it off. When he did, he saw dropships fly by outside the window. Startled, he realized SWORD was under attack. He turned and ran back to the mess to make sure Nick and Natalie were alright.

When he got there, Grunts were swarming the room. Nick and Natalie were barricading themselves in the kitchen. He sprinted over to them, diving through the kitchen window. When he landed, he looked up to find a Plasma Repeater in his face.

A female voice yelled, "Whoa, dude, it's Kerry!"

Kerry got up, "Thanks Natalie."

He turned to the window.

"So…how we gonna get out of here? They're everywhere!"

Nick thought a bit. "You still have your grenades?"

"Yeah, why?"

He pointed. "Look what they brought."

Nick looked. Three Grunts were struggling to bring in a Methane Recharge Station.

Nick turned to him, "You think you can stick it?"

"I can stick it."

He primed the grenade and waited. The Grunts set down the Station. As soon as it touched the ground, he threw the grenade.

The blue ball arced through the air and hit the tank, immediately adhering to it.

They all ducked. Overhead, a flash of blue shone into the room. Immediately after, the mess hall exploded. The flash was so bright, and the noise so loud, he had to black out his eye coverings and turn off his audio receptors.

Even then, he was nearly blinded and deafened. After about five minutes, he turned everything back on and looked over the counter.

The room wasn't there anymore. A smoking crater was all that remained. Glowing blue blood spattered everything.

He looked at Nick, "You alright, dude?"

"Yeah."

He looked around. "Where's Natalie?"

The door to the oven opened up. "I'm here."

They helped her out of the oven. She had stuck herself in tight so it ended up with Kerry putting his hooves on the sides of the oven and pulling as hard as he could. When finally she came unstuck, the force of the pull flung Kerry into the wall. He got up, dazed.

"Kerry, stop messing around!"

"Come on!" Kerry yelled, "We have to get to the squad room."

They left the kitchen and ran. When they finally got to the squad room, the door was busted down. Fearing the worst, they burst in…

…and came face to face with a Brute Shot.

"Holy shit!"

Tyler lowered the Shot. "Where have you been?"

"We got pinned down in the kitchen."

"Kerry got an awesome stick on a Methane Recharge Station."

"The room exploded."

"And Natalie got stuck in an oven!"

Tyler started at that one. "Wait, what?"

"Long story. Tell ya later."

They walked into the main room. Ethan walked up to them. Natalie tensed up when he approached.

"Well, we just got orders from HICOM. We are leaving on a slip vector toward coordinates the Master Chief found in a rock sample retrieved from the battle of Sigma Octanus IV. We have been ordered to check 'em out.

"WHAT?! We're abandoning Reach?"

Ethan tensed, "I don't want to do it any more than you do, but we have our orders. As long as the orbital guns hold, we're fine."

He turned to Natalie. "You cooled down enough to pilot us there?"

She thought for a second, and then abruptly punched him in the face.

"What the fuck was that for?!"

She smiled coldly, "Now I'm cool."

Kerry clapped his hands to get their attention. "ALRIGHT, now that that's over, can we get back to business?"

They all piled onto the Spirit of Discovery. Kerry took the Weapons station. He ached to try out the MAC gun, but also hoped they didn't run into a situation in which they needed it. Ethan was on navigations, and as usual, Joey was on life support.

Natalie turned the large ship around and headed out of the atmosphere. Almost immediately, the ship came under fire.

"Evasive maneuvers! Sound general quarters! All hands man battlestations! Arm weapons!"

"Charging MAC. Arming missile pods A through D."

The ship dove, then came back around into a perfect parallel firing position.

"Firing pods A through D."

180 flashes streaked through the night, arcing and twisting. They hit a ship that just seconds before had been hulled by a Super MAC Gun. The ship, already listing helplessly, was bombarded by the missiles. Explosions popped up all over the hull, and the ship disintegrated

"YEEEHAW!" yelled Kerry, "My first kill in space!"

Suddenly a heavy Corvette slipped right in front of them.

"Firing MAC!"

A dull thump reverberated through the hull. Almost instantly, the corvette was gutted through and through. A large part of the ship disintegrated.

"Now!" yelled Ethan, "Clear shot!"

"Ethan, engage Slipspace drive!"

"Drive engaged."

A hole appeared in the space-time area right in front of them. They nudged the Spirit of Discovery through the rupture. The last thing they saw was a large amount of Covenant ships turn and angle themselves toward them. Then the rupture closed.

Natalie sighed, "We were lucky that time. Good shot with the MAC, Kerry."

"Eh, it was nothin'"

"Alright, crew, get into cryo. We got approximately three days in slipspace. Dismissed!"

Kerry and Nick headed toward the cryobay.

"Damn, that was exciting'!"

Nick frowned, "You know, I'm starting to think you're an adrenaline junkie."

"So, what if I like excitement?! I am what I am!"

Kerry crawled into his cryopod. He was exhausted. The day's events were catching up to him. The lid closed and he immediately fell asleep.

In his dreams, he saw a giant ring-world. It looked artificial. His mind's eye zoomed in on a meadow. Peaceful, idyllic. Suddenly, a sickly infection spread through the landscape. Balloon-shaped aliens scurried and hopped everywhere.

Now his mind's eye zoomed in on an immense room. In the center floated a large metal ball. The ball turned and Kerry saw a light.

The ball spoke to him, "You have been gone for far too long, human. I have been gone for far too long.

Kerry looked down at himself, instead of the tanned skin, back-jointed legs, and armor he usually saw, he saw blue sweats, Oregon Ducks jacket over Blue Army shirt and Nike Shox.

"You see yourself as you truly are, Reclaimer. The heir of my creators. I am 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04. Help me cleanse this infection that has polluted this insallation."

Guilty Spark's light (was it an eye?) flashed. Kerry woke with a start. He coughed up the cryo-sludge. He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down. He got up and put on his combat harness. Even as he tried to dispel the nightmare as a byproduct of fatigue, he knew it was something more. He was about to leave for the mess hall when a voice came over the comm.

"Kerry? You better come up and see this!"

Kerry took off at a dead run toward the bridge. He skidded to a halt as he entered the bridge.

On the viewscreen was a giant ringworld, just like the one in his dreams. He turned to Natalie.

"Uh, what is…"

"That, Kerry, is Halo. Or at least, that's what our translation of the Covenant name for it is."

Joey piped in, "We just received orders from the Pillar of Autumn. The Master Chief is on board and we are to go with him down to the surface of that planet."

Suddenly a klaxon went off.

"Just received word from the Autumn! They have been targeted by Covenant forces and are attempting to land the ship! The package is evacing via lifepod. We will orbital drop next to his proposed coordinates. Kerry, Ethan, Nick, Kevin, and Tyler, you have ground duty! Dismissed!"

As they left the bridge, Kerry noticed Kevin shudder.

"Dude, you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just don't like drops."

Kerry shrugged, "Eh, who does?"

They reached the pods. They turned to the weapons rack next to them and picked out weapons. Kerry chose a Carbine and a Plasma Repeater. Ethan took a heavy turret and a SRS-99 Sniper Rifle. Tyler picked out a Brute Shot and two Maulers. Nick chose a heavy plasma cannon and a Plasma Launcher. Kevin grabbed an MA37 and two M7/C SMGs.

Kerry took a deep breath. "Alright, everyone in!"

They all got into their pods. Kerry hit the release button. They dropped toward the surface of the ringworld.

Alpha Halo

Bumblebee escape pod crash site

5 seconds after drop

"Chief? Chief! Can you hear me?"

John stirred. He looked around and saw carnage all around him.

"At last! Can you move?"

John slowly got up. He picked up his MA5B from where it landed near the door. He kicked out the door of the Bumblebee and stepped out.

Cortana whispered in his ear, "The others…the impact. There's nothing we can do."

An alert pinged in John's helmet. "Warning! I've detected multiple Covenant drop ships on approach. I recommend moving into those hills. If we're lucky, the Covenant will believe that everyone aboard this lifeboat died in the crash."

Another alert pinged in his helmet. "We have UNSC contacts coming in directly above our position. Probably drop pods. I recommend-"

Now John spoke up, "Quiet!"

Five fireballs streaked above his head. Four of them impacted on the cliff he was on. The fifth went over the edge and exploded on the rocks below.

The door of the first pod blew open. An Elite stepped out.

"Damn! Poor Kevin!"

Chief walked up to the Elite. "Who are you?"

The Elite straightened up. "I am Corporal Kerry Freeman of the UNSC Marine Corps. This is my team, minus Kevin, poor bastard. We have been ordered to assist you in the exploration of this 'Halo'."

The rest of the team exited their pods. Two Banshee's screamed over their heads.

Nick asked the question they all were thinking, "D'ya think they saw us?"

As if in answer, the Banshee's arced back toward them.

Kerry turned to Nick, "Take those bastards out now!"

Nick charged up two plasma bolts and locked on to the Banshee. The gun fired. Two bolts arced toward the Banshee.

They stuck. A second later, they exploded in a cloud of ionized gas. A split-second later, the fuel rod magazine violently detonated, taking out the second Banshee. They spiraled and hit the rocks below.

Kerry looked over the edge. "Damn, dude. Nice shot."

John had had enough. "Why in the hell was I sent a bunch of punks and a triple-crossing know-it-all!?"

Kerry got up in his face. "Listen, 'Master Chief', I was brainwashed! And this group of 'punks' managed to hold off a five hour siege of SWORD Base without any support! So, show me and my team some respect!"

Ethan walked up and pulled Kerry to the side. "You know who that is, right?"

As Kerry and Ethan walked back, Cortana spoke to John. "Kid's got spunk. Never seen anybody get in your face like that. Just remember one thing, John."

"And what is that?"

"He's been in military longer than you. In fact, you and him share similar DNA. He personally was the donor for your particular batch of enhancement."

"Fine…"

John turned to the two men standing before him. "Let's move!"

They crossed the bridge and headed into a large canyon. Almost immediately Cortana picked up an emergency beacon.

"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors"

Kerry turned to his team. "Alright, guys. There is a very good chance Covenant have located them. Tyler, we send you in first!"

"Wait, but, but..." he sputtered, "Why me?"

"You're the strongest of all of us." John clarified, "We need brute strength, no pun intended."

"I've already sent a message to the survivors," Cortana added, "They know about your...irregular team, Corporal."

"Alright!" yelled Nick, "Let's go kick some Covenant tail!"

(Authors Note) Ok, I am ending the Rise of the Arbiter here. As writing any more will result in pretty much a carbon copy of the games, i will pick up with my new story, Strange Circumstances, set after the Battle of the Ark.