AN: I"M BACK FROM THE DEAD!!
For how long, I don't know though. This thing took such a long time because the chapter was very hard to write. I had so many ideas that I simply couldn't make all of them fit. Others I tried didn't come out well on writing. This repeated pattern of deletion caused me to grow lazy... Wow. Two years break...
I hoped that it was going to be a fun chapter (because of all the ideas), but it turned into a form of torture. But I finished so yey. I really hope that the next chapters will go by quicker.
On the good side is that with a new, and powerful, computer, I won't have to worry about computer troubles again.
I'm being very liberal in the technology here, you will notice some of it, and some of it was already presented (nuclear warthogs).
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Eragon.
PM me if you think this should go into the Inheritance Cycle section. But my arguments for Halo are: 1. The POV is mainly on the Marines, but sometimes shifts to the Inheritance characters. The next one (I'm planing on a sequel) will definitely be Halo.
Chapter 12: Greenery is not that good for you
"This is unacceptable, one ship was not enough last time, why should two be victorious this time?"
"You will continue as planned, but you will strike the humans when they won't be able to fight back. The first ship will attack, while yours will stay in orbit observing. The brutes will accompany you and watch over you to ensure victory. Try to collect data on the powers the inhabitants posses. These are different humans, numerous reports from our spy drones showed that these humans are not aligned as one. They fight each other, as these vermin always do. Strike their armies when they're weak. When they are fighting each other. The Council gives you two ships because many are required for Regret's expedition to the holy world that we discovered coordinates of. More ships are to be prepared for the exploration of the planet system we discovered that is a remnant of the gods."
"But noble Hierarch, what of the worriers? All unshielded fighters died before they harmed a single human, at a normal engagement, we would have been victorious."
"Are you sure your not suffering from battlefield hysteria?"
"Only the Sangheili were able to stand at all without the aid of our gravity lift. The others fell where they landed. They died before they got to breath the world's air."
"Then you will only get Sangheili as your worriers, commander. The Brutes will accompany you on your ship, for they will watch how you perform this time, but they won't fight on the ground, for, if you speak truth, they will fall instantly. We cannot risk them in open combat for the very reason that you just gave."
"Yes, noble Hierarch, I understand, for my failer is significant, and I will pay for it. Your words are holy and just. But with the Brutes accompanying this campaign, failer is guaranteed. All they seek is bloodshed and war, they will not plan for victory, only mindless brawls. Their plans involve the quickest way into a fight, but not how to win one. We Sangheili have fought by your side for many a millennium, and will continue as such."
"My decision is final, commander. The Brutes will come, and you will succeed. Once you return, we will continue in our quest of the human's annihilation. With these Forerunner powers, not even the Demon will stop us. Do know that you will come back victorious. Or you will not return at all. Now be gone, I have more important things to do."
The Chief tried to find good way to start explaining. "These are the Covenant," he said, "They are a band of various species held together by a single religion. One that dictates the destruction of the human race."
A local asked why.
"Ask them. But they will kill you first."
Haverson walked over. "The only message we ever received from them was 'Your destruction is the will of the gods. And we are their instrument.' Right after sending it, they attacked. We went to war, and are fighting for over thirty years now."
"Thirty years? How long can a war be fought, against that large floating . . .?"
"Cruiser, and the war will not last much longer. They are winning. We are stretched so thinly, we need every last space faring ship we have. We came to this forest because the Covenant did. We need their ship to return to our home."
The old local asked in a calm voice, "Then how did you get here originally?"
Haverson hesitated. "We don't know. Before we got here... no, even before that, we were stationed on a colony turned military base named Reach. We were assigned on a top secret mission, which I cannot tell you about. Right as we were about to set off, the Covenant made a surprise attack. They brought the largest fleet anyone ever saw," he paused. "We are better than the Covenant on the ground. But up there in space," he pointed at the night sky, "Their ships are much more technologically advanced then ours. Only a few times has a human fleet won while outnumbered. The battle over Reach was quickly lost, and we had to flee." Haverson noticed the shocked faces of the locals, but chose to continue. "In order to confuse the Covenant on the location of our homeworld, ships flee a lost battle in random directions, to keep them guessing. We didn't exactly follow that. In a previous battle we recovered what can be described like a map from the Covenant. It told of a single, unexplored location. We went there. And we got to something very unusual. It is better for you to see it."
Haverson took out a combat computer. He then proceeded to show and explain various recordings of Halo, the battle on the surface... and the flood. "We had no choice but to sacrifice our way home in order to destroy Halo." He showed his last recording in the sector – looking out from a pelican as a blast fractured a section of Halo, and the ring falling apart do to the loss of gravitational stability. "What happens next, I cannot explain," Haverson said as the recording got enveloped in golden light, and clearing to reveal a grassy plain next to a large river. Haverson stopped the recording then. "This is your world as I first saw it. And it is also very strange," he nodded at the dragons. "Dragons and magic are common in our fiction, no matter how old. But they were never proven to exist until now."
the old local looked at the golden dragon. "It seems," he said, "that two very different worlds have met. The results are very amazing. Your human kind seem to be most advanced in the creation of machines, while not knowing of magic. We on the other hand used magic for as long as we knew of existence, while remaining far behind in invention. Very interesting indeed." He looked at the chief, "But there does seem to be some overlap. I can't sense this one's presence. And those flood? Are you sure they are destroyed? I doubt that anyone can stop them if they are free."
"You mean that mind reading stuff that you magicians can do? And I thought that the flood took first place in weirdness, but they now have second. Which means stay out of mine, or there'll be hell to pay." Locklear clearly didn't like the idea of crazy mind reading people running around loose.
Haverson waved him off. "It doesn't matter anyways. We need to go back. Leave this forest to be able to catch the Covenant when they come back. This place didn't work out, so they will try another."
The old local frowned. "I'm afraid that we can't allow you to leave," he said.
"Why not?"
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Some days later...
Flying just over the treetops, Cookie turned on the radio and said, "Get out of the way and put out the fire. The flyboy is coming to town." This was the signal that the expedition to the Empire plains was a success and all known UNSC equipment was either stored next to the city Ellesmera, or currently airborne on either the longsword or two pelicans, five minutes until Ellesmera.
Not willing to risk the empire getting its hands on UNSC tech, the elves allowed five UNSC personnel to leave the forest and retrieve everything. The longest part was going through the forest on foot. Time spent in Empire territory summed up to a short three days. Two of which took driving nonstop towards the cache next to the aircraft at max speed. Which was the second reason why horses were not used. Not to mention on one in the expedition knew how to ride.
Barley five minutes later, Cookie set the longsword down in the clearing where the battle took place. An elf escort that had to come along with them looked grateful to be back on solid ground. The large, trans-atmospheric fighter took most of the available space, but the two pelicans were small enough to fit in the gaps between the trees and the longsword. Cookie lowered the ramp and got off the aircraft. He noticed elves surrounding the area to look at the aircraft. The escort ran off, saying how he had to report to the queen.
Then the kid, Eragon came over, the blue dragon nearby. "Why is it so big?" Eragon asked.
Cookie smiled through his flight helmet. "That's because it was made to fit the two engines. And those are required to be powerful enough to escape the atmosphere and reach Earth-orbital escape velocity."
"What?"
"Errm... Listen, kid, it's hard to explain, but simply put it's a very fast speed that..."
Eragon cut him of. "I don't have time right now. But I came here to tell you that the queen wants to talk to you as soon as you can."
Cookie looked at the human. He looked frail and weak, but at the same time fit and strong. Wit ha shrug, he proceeded to take care of all the new equipment that was brought along.
Something caught his eye. It was a book, one of the elves was holding a book that was written in their language.
"Hey, can I see that?" he asked. Looking at the writing, he thought that something looked familiar. It was the writing: It was very similar to glyphs that the Covenant used and the few he saw on Halo.
Later, having gotten a book that hew was allowed to keep, Cortana translated it to the best of her knowledge. The translation didn't get anything but some random words. So they tried another test. Taking a piece of Covenant writing they copied on a paper, they had an elf try to read it. Again, the results were useless, with the elf unable to translate except for random words. And that information was decoded Covenant script captured and kept on board the Pillar of Autumn until it was removed. The original, Cortana was able to translate.
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The meeting with the queen was about an elf celebration that happens every hundred years. It was custom for everyone attending to give something, weather it be a story, a poem, or something more solid. The marines warned of Covenant attack because as the queen described the celebration: "It is our most magical of occasions." Skipper said that a ship was already in orbit and waiting for something to happen. "And they never give up once they have their sights on an objective." he said. In the end, it was agreed that half the marines will look out for Covenant while the other half comes to the celebration. The two groups will switch every four hours. As for the celebration gifts, the marines don't have to due to the sudden notice and their … military condition, referring to the marines' state of combat readiness, which was applied due to the possibility of sudden Covenant attack, hampering any "civilian" activity. Such as making gifts.
And the elves started to arrive by the hundreds. It was a few days before the celebration All of them seemed to want to meet the kid and the dragon. Johnson said that made UNSC just a four letter word. And the curious technology just something the humans use. "And we were kindly forbidden to fly," he continued, "But f**k that. We own the skies. Our aircraft outnumber theirs three to two." Three UNSC craft, two dragons. But all the marines can do was wait.
Burton was one of the members of the half that got guard duty when the celebration started. Ignoring the loud sound behind him, he waited in a warthog, with a radio telling him of progress from the other guard members as they kept a lookout. Cortana scanned Covenant radio traffic for anything suspicious.
Unknown to the elves, but the longsword and a pelican were kept on constant alert, ready to take off at a moment's notice. He expected an attack any second, especially since Covenant radio traffic was buzzing with activity, which Cortana said was plans for attacking. While previously fed fresh elven food, Skipper had everyone grab all left over rations so that food won't smell, and won't spoil during a long wait, and the marines won't have to leave if their hungry. For some reason, darkness was coming sooner than expected. And he felt very nauseated.
Two hours later, he wasn't able to handle it anymore. "Guys," he said over the radio, "I'm not feeling to good."
The reply confused him even more. Almost all the guards were also sick in various stages. Only the pilots and the Chief reported no sickness. Which happened to be the only people with full-head helmets.
"Something is not right," Reported Skipper, "The locals might know what is wrong. I'll go ask them."
Skipper went towards the celebration, which was very noisy, but for some reason followed a musical pattern. Heading closer to it, he realized that he was no longer in control of his own body. He was being pulled towards the center of the celebration, and getting worse by the minute. Which was made worse in that the harder he tried to turn around, the more sick he got, and the less control remained with him. Being a marine, he was trained not to panic, but staying calm didn't help. Ahead of him, he saw outlines of locals, all merry and celebrating. None of them paid any attention to him.
Nearing the clearing that circled a very large tree, Skipper was no longer seeing any color. His breathing was now in gasps, and he was sweating hard. He no longer knew which direction was up or down. Spotting Polaski, who was in the group that was attending the celebration, he managed to gasp out "Something's wrong" before he too, passed out.
Skipper woke up to the lights of the inside of the pelican rear seating area. The hatch was closed, and the entire aircraft was fully vacume sealed. Cookie was siting next to him, asleep. Skipper nudged him awake, and Cookie smiled at him. "About time you woke up, skipper," he said, "We'll have to refill the air compressors in half an hour. It's a good thing that all those grunts died with the methane bladders intact, we need the fuel.* Yeah, so we talked with the elves. They said that all non-magical creatures get affected during their celebrations, but they didn't expect such reaction from all the way back here. This scared them a lot. So they placed these things they call wards around everyone so that the magical effects are neutralized. That's why the other half didn't have anything wrong with them." Cookie paused, and muttered something about magic on magic to get no magic. "They also said that they never heard of a negative reaction to magic, but based on what happened here, it's different. I guess that's what happens to people when they meet magic for the first time."
Skipper sat up. Already he was feeling much better. "What about the Covenant?" he asked.
"Oh them, yeah they won't be coming down. Apparently they found out about the hostility between the Empire and the others, so they're waiting for them to start fighting and eliminate the armies. And their leaders won't allow any more failers, so the Covenant aren't taking any chances here. And Cortana got some coded coordinates, so right now she has reserved part of her computing to decode them. She says that the Covenant believe the coordinates lead somewhere important."
"So where are everyone now, then?"
"They went down to the celebration. With the protection, they simply waited until they felt better and left. But their armed, so don't worry. And you should go there to, I don't see why not."
The last thing Skipper wanted to do was go back to the celebration, but he did feel better, and everyone else were there already. Getting nearer, he worried that he might get sick again. But instead, he got out of the trees to the clearing. Sure enough, every other marine was there, with one warthog parked at the edge of the tree line, playing music. "So, how is it?" he asked.
After cries of "Hey, the Skip's back!" Locklear said, "Well, the music is not bad, until you get sick from it in about half an hour, everyone talk in another language, and all we do is stand around here. But other than that, it's just fine." The answer made others laugh. "But the queen says that we can join in. Although non of us know how to use those musical instruments, she said we can introduce our own if we want. The more it tells about us, the better." he motioned at the warthog.
The song was playing a song that Skipper didn't recognize. It sounded very old to him, until he remembered that everything the marines had was over a century old or very new. But listening to the words, he had to agree that it fit the marines' mood. "... and every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be: homeward bound. I wish I was, homeward bound..." They made him smile, because his greatest worry was the low moral the marines were experiencing. They all wanted to be back with the UNSC and fighting, not sitting around isolated.
A few elves came to them. "What strange music you have," one of them said. Is there any way of getting it to where others can here it?"
Burton said sure and turned up the volume. "...Homeward bound. I wish I was, homeward bound..."
Being able to hear, almost all the elves stopped what they were doing to stare at the marines. The queen came out of nowhere, just appearing out of the shadows. "You humans are certainly full of surprises." She laughed, making a very strange, but strangely, natural sound. "If you feel like it, continue, for we would love to hear the sounds of your culture."
As she left, Polaski added an "s" to the queens statement for correction. Locklear said, "you know, I really do feel like I wish I was homeward bound." His statement caused others to laugh.
Sure enough,the elves continued with their music, but allowed the warthog to always be heard. Even when the not so pleasant songs where playing. Like Johnson's flip.
********************************************
For their gifts, each individual marine went up to the tree and gave a poem, story, or as in Evan's case, he burrowed a musical instrument that closest resembled a guitar and sand a song he said he crated in secondary school. The only trouble was with the chief, who admitted that being trained for war for one's entire lifetime didn't help in the arts. But he managed without trouble when the time came.
*********************************************
Every being that attended the celebration came to listen to the queen's and he daughter works. The marines had no choice... They weren't even able to understand anything due to the language gap. The dragon's gifts were amazing for being created by creatures with no hands.
When Eragon gave his narrative poem, Tipritz remarked that things that get killed shouldn't go on living. But for someone heavily preoccupied with secretive training, he did well.
************************************************
At the ending of the celebration, all the elves came closer in eager anticipation. The marines instead retreated into the forest to aircraft, where Cortana told them of what she had decoded, and of Covenant activity, which was rising sharply.
The Chief afterwards went to tell the queen of the news.
"Where have you gone, and right at the most important part of the..."
The chief cut her off. "We have to leave," he said in a stern voice. It hid a faint shadow of fear. Ignoring the queens look of anger at the statement, he repeated. 'We have to leave. Now. There is other option. Nothing you can do or say will stop us."
All the queen was able to say at the definite action of defiance was ask "Why? We have allowed you to live in peace within this forest. We gave you shelter..."
"And were are grateful for it. It is not about you nor the empire. The Covenant have two ships in orbit. On of them is coming down to the atmosphere to attack. Not here but far south, in the plains region. We need the ship right now. Because," he paused.
Raising his head so that his faceplate was parallel with the queen's face, he finished in a voice that didn't belong to him. "Because the Covenant have found the location of our homeworld, Earth."
*Methane rocket engines: real and in development. Natural gas is always a good source of energy. So I plead to literary license for changing the engines from the oil guzzlers they were that Bungie had them as. A methane flame looks just like color as the pelicans emit from their engines (Halo 1), so it is safe to ASSUME that they CAN use methane. As I do believe in progressing technology, I use right of literary license for claiming that the aircraft engines are able to run on natural gas. At least, the engines should be compatible to be able to use combustible gas as fuel. Like diesel engines using vegetable oil.*** .gov/headlines/y2007/04may_
