Halo: Rebirth

By: TRX108

Immediately after the events of Halo 4- Humanity is saved, the Didact defeated. The future looks bright, but at a terrible cost in John's eyes. While the Master Chief struggles with coming to terms with the loss of his closest companion, old enemies close in. But all is not as it seems, and all is not lost, the Rebirth is at hand.

Author's Note

Hello everyone, I know it's been awhile, and I'm so sorry for that. Truth is the past months were very unkind to me. So, with all that unpleasantness behind me, I finally present you with a new chapter. Hope you enjoy and again, sorry for the long wait.

Chapter 12: Departure

Forerunner Shield World Requiem

John, Adrienne, and Hartlett followed 281 through the facility and a short time later arrived in front of a set of reinforced doors. The monitor bobbed in front of a control panel and the door hissed open, revealing a long room lined with weapons lockers. The room wasn't well lit, causing the hard-light weapons to cast an orange glow over everything in the room. Adrienne pushed ahead of the rest of the group with a smile stretching across her face.

"Now this is what I'm talking about, not bad light bulb," she said, patting the monitor as she pushed past it. The AI bobbed with agitation.

"Grab as much as you can," John instructed.

"Way ahead of you," Adrienne shouted from down the room a bit.

Hartlett nodded. "Aye, sir." She started towards a rack, then hesitated. "Chief...," she started, but immediately trailed off. John turned to her.

"What is it, Spartan?" John asked as he inspected the light rifle he had just picked up. Hartlett shifted uncomfortably.

"Sir, I wish to apologize, and take full responsibility of what happened with Leach."

John turned to her now. That wasn't her fault, he thought. "There is no responsibility to take, nothing you could have done would have prevented his actions."

"I'm a Spartan, I should have seen something was off," she replied. John almost winced at her words.

"If anyone should have noticed, it should have been me," he said evenly.

"A Spartan died, sir. My immediate subordinate. That's on me," Hartlett said, her voice slightly strained.

"I'm the team leader Hartlett, casualties are on me. There was nothing you could've done," he paused. It's been a long time since I had to inspire someone. "You have performed excellently so far. It was your actions that incapacitated him. No fault lies with you. I've served with a lot of Spartans,you bring credit to the name." He looked at Hartlett's body language. She seemed to straighten up a bit.

"Thank you, sir. I'll try not to disappoint you." She turned back to a locker.

Cortana popped up on his HUD. "Well well, when did you become mister inspirational?" she asked, a slight tone of amusement in her voice.

I don't know, John thought to himself. He didn't think his words were all that impressive. "I make it up as I go."

Cortana laughed slightly. "Do you ever plan anything you do?" Her window vanished.

Apparently not. He checked his weapons, made sure he had full ammo reserves, and turned to the others. "Ready?"

Adrienne and Hartlett nodded. The monitor guided them down more winding corridors until the came to a large wide hallway. John observed that it was nearly identical to the exit of the other facility. 281 bobbed in front of them.

"Your transportation is just outside. I am detecting Prometheans closing on it's position. I suggest you hurry, Reclaimer." The AI floated back the way they had come. John motioned to his team and quickly made for the large door at the other end of the hall. It opened as they approached. Upon crossing the threshold, John immediately felt something impact his armor and his shields began to drop.

"Snipers!" Cortana exclaimed in his speakers. He dove in an attempt to throw off the enemy's aim. Another bolt impacted the ground next to him. He rolled forward, coming up in a sprint. Three navpoints appeared on his HUD. "I'm detecting three snipers, Chief," Cortana said. John smiled inwardly. It was nice to have her intel again. He fired his light-rifle several times at the nearest target. It was obscured by foliage, but he saw the tell-tale orange particles of a disintegrating knight. They had reached the ship now, and it was providing cover from the other two hostiles. John motioned for Hartlett to attempt to gain a flanking position. She acknowledged him, and sprinted from behind the ship as he and Adrienne opened up on the remaining snipers in an attempt to cover her.

"Is this how all your missions go?" Adrienne asked him over the sound of their weapons. John reloaded his rifle.

"Yes, this is how it always seems to go," Cortana answered for him through his external speakers. Adrienne nodded.

"Great, I'm so glad I accepted this assignment," she replied. She released another burst of fire from her suppressor, but her target teleported before the rounds found their target. "Shit, it teleported, Chief!"

John squeezed off two more shots at his current target and then quickly scanned the area. "Cortana do you have it?"

Cortana popped up on his HUD. "Negative, I'm not detecting any slipspace signatures. It must have run."

More new behavior, thought John. He checked his motion tracker to confirm Cortana's analysis. He trusted her, but he knew she wasn't herself, and definitely wasn't operating at 100%. Satisfied the threat was gone, he turned his attention to the last remaining sniper. Checking his motion tracker again, he saw the yellow dot representing Hartlett close on the sniper.

Hartlett switched from her rifle to a scattershot, made sure it was loaded, and broke cover. Her flanking movement had worked and she was on top of the sniper in a few steps, leveling her weapon. She fired twice. At such close range, the knight had no time to respond. Hartlett jogged back to the ship where the Chief and Adrienne were waiting. "Target eliminated, Chief."

John nodded. "Let's get moving. We still have to stop at our first ship to try and gather supplies."

Adrienne nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I don't know about you Spartans, but I'm hungry as hell," she said with a smirk.

John ignored her statement. He had learned to push hunger from his mind when he was still a child. In fact, if he was going it alone, he wouldn't even be stopping for supplies. Maybe I should do this alone. Cortana popped onto his HUD.

"What's bothering you?" she asked firmly. "Don't bother denying it either. I know something's on your mind. So...what is it?"

John sighed inwardly. She had a knack for detecting his inner conflicts. "I think we should continue alone," he replied simply. "They're weighing us down. I can move faster without them."

Cortana frowned and cocked her head to the side. "They've been a huge asset to this mission."

"I could have done everything alone," John countered.

Cortana sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "You know," she huffed, "you don't have to do everything alone all the time."

"I work better alone."

Cortana raised an eyebrow. "I seem to remember you used to work with a team when we first met." John's features tightened ever so slightly that only an AI could have noticed, and she did. She instantly regretted bringing up his fellow Spartans.

"Yes," he said. "I used to work with a team." His voice didn't change, but Cortana could sense the hurt underlying his words. "But this is not that team."

"We still could use the backup," Cortana said. "The fate of the entire galaxy is at stake. The pros outweigh the cons here. And besides," she added playfully. "I like having some girls around for a change. So they're staying."

The corners of John's mouth raised into the tiniest of smiles briefly before returning to their normal neutral state. "Fine, but you have to watch them," he said jokingly, though his voice remained even.

Cortana knew he was joking though and let out a small laugh. "Been awhile since you graced me with your jokes." With that her window disappeared.

By this time they were all on board the Forerunner ship and Hartlett was just lifting off. John walked to the cockpit, curious as to the setup since he'd not spotted any windows from the outside of the black ship. The cockpit appeared configured much like a human ship, and John wondered if that had been the Librarian's doing. The strangest feature was definitely the viewports, or what John guessed were viewports. Despite being unable to spot any glass from the outside, the view afforded from inside the cockpit looked as if one was indeed staring through traditional glass. He watched as the ship sped over the terrain below, back towards the resting place of their first ship.

He decided to check on Adrienne. She's a good, tough soldier, but she's been through a lot, and she's not a Spartan. Although comforting others was not something he considered a strength of his, he felt obligated to try, if she needed it. John walked out of the cockpit down a short hall and into a small room that housed readouts of all kinds. Leaning against a bulkhead at the end of the chamber was Adrienne. John eyed her curiously as he approached. The woman was once again playing with the yo-yo he had seen her toying with on Infinity. She appeared engrossed with the thing, and didn't seem to notice his approach until he was right on top of her.

She jumped slightly as she finally registered his presence and quickly pocketed the yellow toy. John was about to ask how she was doing when Cortana popped onto his HUD and stared projecting through his external speakers.

"Okay, I gotta ask," she said with a slight laugh. "What's with the yo-yo?"

Adrienne's face flushed slightly, apparently embarrassed she'd been caught playing with the ancient toy. She took it out and looked down at it, letting out a small laugh. "Back during the war, I was part of an evacuation op on one of the outer colonies. Covenant were getting ready to glass the planet, so we were trying to evac as many civvies as we could," she said, still looking at the toy, turning it over in her hand. "My squad was escorting a group of school kids to a Pelican," she continued. "I lifted the last little girl on board. Cute little thing, red curly hair, freckles, maybe 11, 12 years old. She smiled at me, said thank you, and reached into her pocket and pulled out this, yo-yo. She handed it to me just before the bird dusted off," Adrienne said with a smile, but it quickly faded. "My squad started back into the town to get the next group, when we heard them." She looked up, staring past the Chief as if focusing on some distant object. "Couple of Banshees buzzed right over us. I looked back in time to see the bastards fire their fuel rod cannons." She stared down at the toy again. "The Pelican stayed up for a couple seconds before the engines failed. We checked the crash site but...," Adrienne took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. "No survivors." She bit her lower lip before tossing the yo-yo up and catching it. "Carried this little thing into ever battle since," she said looking up at John before putting the toy back in her pocket. John knew how she felt. He'd seen countless people die on the doorstep of safety. He simply nodded to Adrienne. She smiled slightly, returning the nod, acknowledging the unspoken understanding.

Flood Zone Echo, South America, Earth

Sarah Palmer limped over to the temporary field hospital. Despite her best efforts to return immediately to the fight against the Flood, Lasky had insisted she get her wounds treated first. After the assault on the stadium, Lasky had ordered her Spartans to clear the rest of the city. She had thought she'd be leading that sweep, but he'd ordered her to medical. She stood impatiently as the doctor seemed to take her sweet time getting over to her. You'd think these people would realize we are fighting for survival here and they should hurry the hell up. Sarah sighed heavily out loud. The doctor finally made it over to her after another couple minutes and ran a med scanner over the commander.

"'Bout time," Palmer said impatiently. The doctor ignored her and studied the readout on the scanner. Palmer sighed again. "Come on, just shoot some bio-foam in me and be done with this I got things to kill."

The doctor shook her head as she looked up at the commander. "You have internal bleeding all over the place, cracked ribs, a broken clavical, broken shoulder blade, a broken leg, several cracked vertabrae, a torn ACL, a torn rotator cuff, a severe concussion, and multiple gunshot wounds."

"Yeah, so let's get a move on with that bio-foam so I can get the hell outta here," Sarah said slightly annoyed at the doctor's hesitation.

The doctor shook her head again, giving the commander a slightly incredulous look. "You aren't going anywhere except a full medical facility. You're in no condition to return to the frontlines."

Sarah took a deep breath to keep from smacking the woman in front of her. "I don't know if you've noticed since you've been in good ol' doctor-playtime-land back here with your scanners and fuckin' ice cream cones, but people are out there getting torn apart and infected by monsters that just happen to be threatening humanity's very existance!" she snapped. "So give me the damn bio-foam and get the hell outta my way or I'll just take the shit and run you the fuck over on my way out."

The doctor scowled and turned to the nurse next to her, instructing him to get a small crate of bio-foam. About damn time. Thought Sarah. These damn doctors are never as smart as they say they are. The nurse returned and started injecting bio-foam into Palmer's wounds. The commander grabbed a can herself and went to work as well. The doctor shook her head once more as she walked to the next patient.

"See doc, that wasn't so hard now was it?" Sarah called to her as she moved away. The doctor shot her a glare over her shoulder but Sarah was already focused on injecting more bio-foam into her damaged body. After nearly using the entire crate, Palmer stood up and tested her body, quickly assessing her condition. Much better, still hurts like hell, but nothin' I can't handle. She jogged out of the field hospital and over to the small makeshift armory that head been setup. She grabbed a battle rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, loaded up on ammo and grenades, and then grabbed one of the plasma pistols the elites had brought down. She began to turn towards the motor pool, but realized she needed a new helmet as well.

"Hey, got any Spartan-IV helmets layin' around?" she called to the Marine quartermaster. He walked over to a large locker and tossed her a standard Spartan-IV helmet. Not as good as my scout gear but it'll have to do. Sarah thanked him and jogged to the motor pool, climbing into a warthog upon arrival. She pushed the ignition. Time to get back in the fight. The engine roared to life and she sped off back into the city.

Forerunner Shield World Requiem

Leach sat on the hard-light bed, eying the four Sentinels training their weapons on him. He sighed and looked across the room where Major Trace sat inspecting a boltshot pistol. If only I could get that weapon... Leach stood and took a couple steps towards the major, stretching as he did. A pain in his chest reminded him of the gunshot wound 117 had inflicted upon him. The Sentinels tracked his movement and maintained their position around him wherever he went. They wouldn't let him leave the room, or go within 10 feet of Trace of the wall panel however. He got as close as he could to the major and opened his mouth to speak.

"I don't talk to traitorous scum so such your pie hole," Trace said before Leach could get a word out.

"Hey now, not only did you just talk to me, I'm also not a traitor. But you will be if you don't help me get back to the others before they get off this world," Leach said in a relaxed tone.

Trace glared at the man he had known as 'Blake'. "Save it for the court-marshal," he snapped back.

"I assume you mean your court-marshal? Because that's what'll happen if you don't help me."

Trace ignored him this time, continuing his inspection of the Forerunner weapon.

Leach sighed. "You know I have friends in very, very high places, Major. They would definitely reward anyone who assisted me in achieving my objective." Trace continued to ignore him. "They would also be sure that anyone who obstructed me would pay a heavy price." Leach paused before continuing, "i understand you have a wife at home, isn't that right, major?" Trace stopped his inspection of the boltshot. "It'd be a shame if she had to pay for your traitorous and cowardly acts..."

Trace's anger boiled over. "I'm gonna beat the shit outta you, asshole!" Trace quickly moved to strike Leach with the boltshot, closing the gap between them. Leach smiled. Perfect. He blocked the major's blow with lightning fast speed, wrenching the weapon from his grasp at the moment of impact. Leach rolled immediately s a Sentinel fired it's beam weapon. Leach fired as he came out of the roll, quickly knocking two of the Sentinels offline, before he dodged again to avoid another blast from a Sentinel beam. Trace scrambled to get his assault rifle as Leach destroyed another Sentinal with the last of the ammo in the boltshot as the last Sentinel recharged it's beam. Leach knew he had only a couple seconds before it fired on him again. He dashed towards Trace as the major began to turn, rifle in hand. Leach quickly grabbed the weapon, and using Trace's momentum and his own, positioned the major between himself and the final Sentinel. Trace's eyes went wide as the smell of burning flesh accompanied the sound of a Sentinel beam firing.

The major fell to the ground, dead, a large wound smoking on his back, leaving the assault rifle in Leach's hands. He quickly aimed the weapon and released an extended burst of fire at the last Sentinel that had killed Trace in its attempt to destroy Leach. The robot crashed to the floor, nothing but smoking scrap metal. Leach looked around the room, admiring his handiwork briefly before turning towards the door. Let's see if the Librarian will be more receptive than the Major was.

Forerunner Vessel, En route to Crash Site, Forerunner Shield World Requiem

John sat in the pilot's seat scanning the terrain below. They would be coming up on the crash site of their old ship any second now. "Are you ready?" he asked Adrienne, who was seated at the weapons console behind him to his left.

"Ready to blast some tin cans," she replied energetically, a large grin plastered across her face.

John had no doubt that the Prometheans would still be swarming over the site, and decided that since this ship had weapons systems, a couple strafing runs were definitely in order. He guided the ship towards the open field where the remains of their first ship could now be seen.

Cortana appeared on his HUD. "I'm detecting mutltiple slipspace ruptures around the ship, they know we're coming and are bringing in reinforcements. Lighting up individual targets now."

Markers began appearing on his HUD and on Adrienne's console. "Got 'em," Adrienne confirmed. "Let's see what this ancient hunk of junk can do." She pressed the firing buttons as she lined up the targeting reticule... and nothing happened. John pulled out of the attack angle as they began to take fire.

"What's the problem?" he asked turning to glance at the woman behind him.

Adrienne shook her head, frustration written across her face. "I don't know! The damn guns won't shoot! What an old, worthless, piece of...," she trailed off, then laughed slightly. "Ohh... might help if the guns were deployed I suppose...," she said with another nervous laugh. She tapped a control on the hard-light display. John brought the ship around for another pass.

"Ready?" he asked once more.

Adrienne nodded. "Yes, definitely ready this time." She pressed the firing control again and this time a storm of hard-light bolts shot from the ships now deployed cannons. Prometheans began disintegrating quickly as the ship mounted weapons tore through their shields and armor as if they weren't there.

John brought the ship in for another pass and more of the knights fell before the hail of weapons fire. He was about to line up for another run when Cortana spoke up.

"Slipspace ruptures, they're retreating! Detecting no further Prometheans in the vicinity," she said happily. John nodded and brought the ship in for a landing.

"All thanks to some damn fine shootin' by yours truly," Adrienne said, propping her feet up on the console in front of her and placing her hands behind her head. "Quite a bit of fun, too."

John set the ship down and got up, moving to the exit of the ship with Adrienne in tow. "Watch for hostiles while Hartlett and I gather what we can from the wreck," he told her.

Adrienne nodded. "Will do."

John and Hartlett readied their light-rifles and headed out the hatch towards the wreck, while Adrienne scanned the surrounding area with her own rifle. Despite Cortana giving the all clear, John didn't want to take any chances. The two Spartans approached the wreck and immediately began sifting through the twisted metal remains of the ship, looking for anything of use.

"Got some intact weapons crates here, Chief," Hartlett said over the com.

"Get them back to the ship," John instructed. He threw a large piece of bulkhead out of the way, revealing a few crates of emergency rations and medical supplies. He grabbed them all and made his way back to the ship, relying on his sense of direction since he could barely see over his load.

In another few minutes they had everything that was salvageable on board and John and Hartlett were heading back to the ship when Cortana popped onto John's HUD, a panicked look on her face.

"Detecting a slipspace portal! Very close!" she said, her voice elevated.

John whirled around scanning the area and immediately saw the portal forming in the field not far from them. He calculated twenty yards at most. The portal stabilized and a being appeared. John's finger lifted off the trigger as he recognized the being, the Librarian. But a quick look at her face told him something was wrong, and he leveled his weapon at the portal again, just as a second being appeared.

John's finger tightened his weapon as he saw Leach appear from the portal and take cover behind the Librarian. Hartlett and Adrienne leveled their weapons as well.

"You!" Adrienne exclaimed. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance," she said, her voice venomous.

Leach simply shrugged. "Your mistake, agent."

"Let her go," John said, his voice had fallen into his combat tone.

Leach laughed slightly. "I let her go and you kill me? Is that the plan here?"

"Yes," said Adrienne coldly.

Leach put on a hurt look. "You wound me, agent." he eyed John again. "Now, 117. Here is what I propose...,"

John looked at the Librarian. The Forerunner woman smiled softly, and he felt her voice enter his mind.

"Wound me, and you shall have a clear shot at him. Do what you must, now!"

John leveled his weapon and fired. The bolt hit the Librarian and she fell to the ground. A surprised look flashed across Leach's face, and he hesitated for half a second.

That half-second was all John needed.

He fired again, the bolt impacting Leach in the center of his chest and he went down.

John and Hartlett rushed out to where the Librarian had fallen. When they reached her, she was laying on her back, and she smiled at John. He kneeled down and inspected the wound on her shoulder where he'd shot her.

"I'll be fine, child," she said, though he could hear she was in some pain. "Go, 281 has already dispatched Preservers. Don't waste any more time."

John stood and nodded. "Let's go," he said to Hartlett. As he jogged back to the ship, John noticed Cortana in his HUD, a slightly shocked looked on her face.

"How did you know she wanted you to do that?" Cortana asked bewildered.

"She told me to do it, telepathically," he replied, seeing no reason to lie to Cortana about it.

Cortana nodded slowly in understanding as they reached the ship. They boarded and lifted off. John punched in the coordinates for Genesis, and began the spin-up of the FTL drive. Adrienne entered the cockpit, an annoyed look on her face. She sat down next to him and crossed her arms, staring out the forward viewport. John glanced in her direction.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She continued to stare ahead. The ship exited Requiem and the FTL drive was almost ready. "Adrienne, what's wrong?" John asked again.

She let out a huff, continuing to stare straight ahead. "Damnit, Chief," she said, disappointment and annoyance tinging her voice. "I wanted to kill that son of a bitch."

Flood Zone Echo, South America, Earth

Sarah Palmer motioned her team forward down the poorly lit hallway. She had linked up with the nearest Spartan fireteam she could find. Now they were clearing what had once been a hospital of Flood, and it was going very slowly. Despite a seemingly complete lack of any of the Evolution forms, the sheer number of Flood they were encountering was making up for it. The hospital had 18 stories and 3 basement levels. Palmer's team had only cleared the basement and levels and the first five floors and they had been at it for at least an hour.

Sarah turned a corner and was immediately confronted with several combat forms. She blasted three with her shotgun before crouching to give her team a clear line of fire at the remaining hostiles. They made short work of them combat forms and continued on. As the hall came to a large open waiting area, Sarah got an uneasy feeling. She checked her motion tracker. Red dots swarmed the outer edges and were closing in.

"Contact! Hostiles closing, defense formation bravo now!" she ordered over the com. The five Spartans turned so their backs where to each other. The Flood burst from the rooms and hallways leading into the waiting area, and Palmer's blood ran cold.

They were all Evolution forms, dozens of them.

Sarah drew her plasma pistol and fired at the nearest enemy. She fired continuously and dropped 5 of the creatures, but the pistol's battery was already half drained. Shit. Not good. Why the hell did they have to show up now? Sarah cursed as she switched to her shotgun and began blasting away furiously at the Evos. The weapon clicked, signalling it was empty and she switched to the plasma pistol again. 4 kills later the pistol had run dry. She dropped it and drew her Magnum, aiming for the spot just under where the antennae from the infecting forms protruded from, hoping she could pop the bastards controlling the bodies, if there were actually infection forms there at all. But, as before, her rounds simply seemed to be absorbed into the sickly flesh. One of the Evos was on top of her now and uncurled its tendril to strike. Sarah raised her arms, hoping she could deflect the strike enough to minimize the damage. She heard the crack as the tendril swung. But she never felt the impact. She uncovered her face quickly and stood amazed for a couple seconds at what she saw. The Evos were running past her, as if she wasn't there. She quickly reloaded her shotgun and turned towards her fellow Spartans. As she gazed upon the scene before her, an uncontrollable rage built within her. The entire fireteam was down, the Evos still firing their weapons and slashing with their tendrils at the bodies, mutilating them. Sarah blasted the three nearest Flood forms when an excruciating pain erupted in her neck where not long ago an infection form had penetrated her skin. She screamed and dropped the shotgun, falling to her knees as she did. The pain didn't subside, it remained constant, unyielding and unbearable. Sarah struggled to remain conscious. She attempted to reach for her shotgun, but the pain intensified and she crumpled to the ground in agony. It was then that she heard the voice, booming as if it were in her skull, the voice of the Gravemind.

"Sarah Palmer, why do you resist? Do you not see that you are already one with the Flood?"

Sarah wanted to respond, to tell the voice to go to hell, but the overwhelming pain prevented her from talking. It had spread from her neck to her entire body, as if every nerve ending was on fire.

"See what you have done, Sarah Palmer? You have lead these humans to us, just as I said you would. And you will continue to do so."

Sarah gathered all her remaining strength. "I'll...d-die...f-first..." she managed to say through her agony. The voice laughed loudly.

"You are strong, Sarah Palmer! But we are stronger. We have grown inside you and now we can consume you. You will be one with us now, Sarah Palmer. Welcome to the Flood..."

The pin in Sarah's body exploded past what she could handle. She screamed as her vision faded, and darkness consumed her.

Forerunner Shield World Requiem

The Preserver floated over the field, over the many bits of charred metal. It's only concern was healing organics. 281 Truthful Horizon had given it a command and it would carry it out. Heal the wounded in the field. The robot approached a being, scanned it, and when the data returned stating it was an organic and wounded, the Preserver began its work of healing the damaged being. It cauterized, regenerated, replaced, and soon it was done. The Preserver floated away and noticed another being reading as organic and wounded. It floated over and began its work again. But suddenly, it was unable to complete its task. It registered damage to its structure. Then more damage. And then, it went offline.

The Librarian watched as hard-light bolts tore the Preserver hovering near her to pieces. She covered her face, trying to protect herself from the shrapnel created from the exploding robot. She struggled to sit up, her wound paining her greatly. The Librarian saw a figure approach her. The sun shone bright in her eyes and she was weak from her wound. She had trouble making out the being standing over her. She saw it aim a weapon at her, and then her world went black.