Hours later
Unknown sector of space
The vastness of space stretched further than the eye could see in all directions, It's immense size just un-comprehendible to all life within it. The millions upon millions of stars lit up this vast place like miniscule lamps. Each were like tiny rays of hope that cut through the darkness and told those who were scattered throughout the universe looking for adventure that there was a chance they could fulfil that passion of theirs, almost as if the stars themselves were calling to those who wished to explore the galaxy and those beyond it, beckoning them to come to them. It was truly a peaceful scene.
All of a sudden, a bright flash momentarily seemed to enclose around space, then as quick as it came it disappeared. Everything was normal, still the same before the flash. Well…actually, there was one tiny little difference, and that was a manta ray shaped fighter flying through space, a longsword fighter.
Inside the cog pit, Eve sat in the seat, staring out of the window in front of her at the vastness of space that rushed past her, almost as if she was in a trance. Her blue eyes were now searching everything that went by, trying to find the planet Sanghelios. Though Auto had already put in the co-ordinates of the planet's location among the stars and was auto-piloting it towards their destination, Eve was just filled with desperation to try and find this planet as quickly as they could so they could land and begin searching for Wally. That was her sole directive now and she was not going to stop until she found him.
On the control panel in front of her, Auto's seven inch high avatar rose up out of it.
"Alright, we're set on the course for Sanghelios and we should reach it soon," he said to Eve, but as he looked up at her he saw that she was not listening, but continued staring ahead out of the window at the passing stars. "Eve?" he inquired, raising his voice slightly.
She shook her head and blinked several times and looked down at him as if noticing him for the first time.
"Oh, sorry, Auto," she replied quietly.
"You looked a little lost," he told her with concern lingering in his voice. "Are you okay?"
She nodded a little. "Yeah, I'm…I'm fine. I just want to try and get there quickly,"
"You really are worried about him, aren't you?"
Another nod. "Yes. Weird thing is that it was only earlier that I really began to think of Wally, when I had that dream," she sighed. "I really do think he's in danger,"
Auto breathed in deeply. He was having second doubts about this so called 'dream' Eve had had and he hated having to say this, but it was just to make sure so they were not wasting their time or going headfirst right into a trap.
"Eve, has it not occurred to you that you may have been exaggerating or just having a nightmare?" he asked her, trying to point something out.
The look on her face lowered to one of slight annoyance, though this was not the first time she had had Auto disagree with her, but still she was not happy that he was not being very supportive of her in what she was doing as she had done before.
"Auto, I'm telling, what I saw was not a nightmare or a dream or me having hallucinations or whatever!" she replied sternly. "I'm telling you, I saw this…well, this…person in front of me and he told me that Wally was in danger and I had to rescue him!"
"Eve, just think for a minute! You might have been having a nightmare, this does happen to people. And even if what you saw was true, don't you think it might be a trap?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, think back to the war raging on the planet, Eve. I'm pretty sure that the Brutes and any Covenant loyalists still want your head after what you did to them in the war and they could probably be using Wally as a bait for you, to try and lure you out to them so they can get you,"
"Auto, are you implying that Wally could be dead?" Eve leaned forward in her seat towards him, the look on her face going slightly darker, but he was unnerved by this.
"No, I'm just saying that they could use him to get you. I mean; remember Tartarus, the Brute chieftain?" Eve nodded at this. "Well, he saw you with Wally back on Delta Halo's library and he might have already figured it out himself that you and him were lovers and he might have spread the word, so…It's not hard to see it that way," he told her reasonably.
She huffed and sat back in the pilot's seat, annoyed, but somewhere in her mind a little voice was saying that Auto did have a point. The theories he was suggesting were possible but Eve was not going to take any chances.
"We'll go and make sure," she told him after a few moments of silence, her voice becoming firm again. "I have to know if what I saw was true or not, Auto, and I'm not going to stop!"
"Eve, we might just be wasting our time doing this!" Auto snapped at her, his voice beginning to rise now. "And we're already in really big trouble! Do you know what could happen to us when we go back!"
"I'm willing to accept it, Auto," she told him in a confident and unafraid voice. "If I do get arrested, at least Wally will be back here on Earth,"
"Or he won't even be coming back with us and you'll be landed in the brig for…God knows how long and I'll get de-programmed or something," Auto pointed out to her firmly.
By this point, Eve had really had enough and she shouted at him angrily.
"Auto! Will you stop it! Just pack it in, will you! I'm doing this whether you like it or not and I am going to find Wally and find out if he's alive or not! If you want to stay here in this fighter, then fine! I don't need to fully rely on you, okay?!"
She took several deep breaths to try and calm down whilst Auto just stared at her, dumbfounded by what she had just said to him. Even though he was still thinking that what she was doing was not a good idea, he really was shocked, to say the least, over her willingness to do such a drastic action, one that had already made them wanted and could well and truly even get them killed. Though this was not the first time Eve had chosen to do something like this, it was mad that this time she was doing because she herself had chosen to do so without any other thoughts of who she might be saving or helping or whatever, not like when she had destroyed the first Halo in order to save the galaxy years ago. This time, she was doing this just to save Wally and she was willing to have herself put in danger because of that. It was really un-comprehendible for Auto to understand, let alone believe it was actually happening.
Just then, a small beeping sound emitted from the control panel. Both looked towards it and then out of the window into space. Almost at once, their eyes were set on a large red/green planet with two smaller planets, no doubt moons, hovering around it. Eve's eyes lit up and she pressed a button that made the ship's co-ordinates lock onto the large body in front of her fighter. A few beeps emitted from a small hologram of the planet that appeared next to the button as the co-ordinates of it. After another second, the words: Planet identified: Sanghelios appeared above the planet. Eve's heart leapt upon seeing this.
"Yes!" she exclaimed happily. "Alright, we're almost there!" she added.
She stood up from her seat and walked over to the side window, staring at the planet as they neared it, her mind filling with hope that she was to soon find and be reunited with her long lost friend, that she was going to be with him again after not seeing him for so long. It just made her almost happy to the point of breaking down, which was even slightly noticeable as a few tears began to form in her ears.
As Eve watched the approaching Sanghelios, Auto on the control panel suddenly heard a repeating beep erupt, followed by a red light flashing on the panel. When he looked at it, he quickly commanded the computer, technically, to show him what was happening. A small holographic image of the fighter appeared and behind it two flashing red lights also appeared. Both seemed to be moving towards the fighter, which worried Auto at first, but it was when the words Hostile targets approaching flashed up next to the red dots that he became terrified. They were being attacked!
"Eve, come over here quickly!" he called to her worryingly.
She heard him and, with a roll of her eyes, thinking that he was going to give her another lecture on that they were wasting their time, walked over to him. He pointed to the holographic image and as soon as she saw it, her eyes went wide with fear.
"Oh no-"
BOOM! The fighter shook wildly as if it were being thrown around like a toy, throwing Eve to the floor of the fighter and almost striking her head on the edge of the seat. The cog pit immediately began to flash a dark red colour and a low constant beeping alarm sounded throughout the craft. As she got up, the small holographic screen where the fighter had been suddenly fizzed out and several sparks began to fly from it.
"Oh shit!" Eve muttered as she sat down in her seat and strapped herself in. She took Auto's data cord out and placed it on her shoulder, the object sinking into it like quicksand, and his avatar rose up on her shoulder. "We're in big trouble," she said to him as she grabbed the fighter's controls and banked it to the left slightly.
"It's probably the Brutes using Seraphs," he said to her. "Always real deadly those things,"
"And just our luck, we seem to attract them as soon as we come anywhere near a Covenant held place," Eve muttered.
BOOM! The craft shook again, though this time it sounded more like a train ploughing into the craft and, looking behind them, the two saw fire erupt at the back. A strangled, computer voice erupted from the control panel, Eve and Auto only just managing to capture: "Damage critical! 50% sustained!"
"Oh no!" Eve began to panic. "How far are we from Sanghelios, Auto?" she asked him in a desperate voice.
He shut his eyes for a moment, his mind trying to calculate the distance from them to the planet, and then re-opened them and looked back at Eve.
"A few hundred thousand miles, we'll be hitting the atmosphere soon," he told her.
The cog pit suddenly lit up a dark purple colour as a blast shot past the fighter, becoming visible to the two. That was a close call, but there was no doubt that another blast would surely finish them off. Eve tried to turn the craft right, but the steering would not budge an inch. Panic began to fill her and she tried again and again, but it was no use. Oh great, they had destroyed the steering mechanism. Now they really were doomed.
Then…BOOM! The craft shook wildly once again, only this time the fire at the back was now extremely fierce. The beeping sound now silenced completely and the computer voice erupted from the control panel once again: "Alert! Malfunction of engines! Damage at critical 85%"
BOOM! Another explosion erupted on the engines as the fuel began to feed the fire and spread it further.
"Power draining! All…power…lo-o-o-s-s-s-t-t!" the voice turned off and the control panel went dead. The alarm stopped the red light disappeared, along with the regular light that had filled the cog pit before the attack began, plunging Eve and Auto into darkness.
"Oh no!" Eve cried in a panicked voice and looked at Auto with heavy fear in her eyes. "We're going down! Hang on!"
She leant forward and covered her head, Auto's avatar disappearing into her suit, both of them praying they would make it through the crash.
Outside, the craft began to heat up as it collided with the atmosphere of Sanghelios, the amount of friction between the two rising greatly. Very quickly as the craft shot down further and further into the atmosphere towards the surface, fire began to shoot out of the end, it rising greatly to the point that it looked like a kind of comet coming in for an impact on the planet, only this time, unless anyone happened to be on the ground of impact, only two would be lost rather than an entire, or at least an huge swath, of a species.
Down and down the longsword fighter descended, quickly disappearing into a cloud layer, cutting a hole right through it. Parts of the craft began to break off. The engines fell off to the ground, nothing hut burning wrecks, the wings were splitting apart like toothpicks, the craft was literally falling apart, and only a few miles from the ground and it was edging towards it at terrific speed.
Moments later, the ground came into full view and the fighter smashed through the tops of several jungle trees, ripping off the wings and launching pieces of them and other parts of the craft in all directions. Then, with an almighty crash, the fighter smashed into the ground, driving deep into it, smashing the cog pit windows and pulling off the parts of the fighter around the window.
It looked like nobody could survive a crash like that.
Out of the undergrowth, several large figures walked out dressed in robes, though some were dressed in thick armour. Quickly, they descended onto the craft to investigate the origin of it and if those inside it were alive or not.