HaloME: Era of Contravene

by Evident Disaster

The Era of the Human Covenant War has ended, but the strife of a new age has dawned, now comes the threat from beyond and the chronicles of those who live in these troubled times. Chapter 26, the battle for Eta Halo has begun, the greatest battle since the time of the First Contact war has begun and all will decide the future of the galaxy. Updates have begun, CH22 has been edited.

14. Chapter 14

CH14

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What the future holds, what the future gives

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AN: Rather important

(This will wrap up our comedic streak for the chapter and we'll get back onto task, BTW why anyone hadn't voted? I mean come on guys I need the votes on the previous chapter to be answered, or do you want me to take a blind shot at this and hope that everyone finds it fine, if so then I'll do that, but I'd rather like to hear about the story's progression from you guys. Well here's the chapter…)

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Noveria

Port Han Shan

Joseph and the marines were finishing their upload of the manager's files and getting what they needed to for them to access the banks of stored weapons down in the lower levels of Synthetic Insights. The team exited the office in moments and hurried off back to the manager, they weren't interrupted as they headed back, they returned to the café where the turian was still present, he smiled when he saw the Spartan and his allies return.

He smiled jovially and asked.
"Have you succeeded in getting my records back?"

The Spartan produced the data disk and handed it to the turian who then checked it on his data pad, he smiled and then replied.
"Thank you. Here's the password for the access into the storage level of the port, the weapons should be sitting about near the back of the workshop." He uploaded the information into the Spartan's TAC pad and said.
"It's been nice doing business with you Spartan, have a good day."

The team departed and headed off when the team com received an update.
"Hey sir, I think I need some help." Jason Taylor said as he worked.

"Define help?" Joseph asked.

Jason struggled with some tools as he fixed the door and replied.
"I need someone to locate an adaptor, the fission ones; they usually work well for these kinds of lifts."

"Okay, we'll just add that to the list…" Joseph was about to add something else to that sentence but decided against it.

Somehow he just loved that the whole galaxy was screwing with him. The team hurried to the area between the Synthetic Insights and Binary Helix. Joseph used the codes and accessed the door to storage level, the team found themselves in the lower levels and of course it wasn't as easy as one would think…

Upon the doors opening into the storage level the team was confronted by another interesting problem. The sight before them wasn't an organised neat row of rooms where they had labs in each one; the whole place was a gigantic storage room which had over 200 prefabricated rooms and what seemed to be a drop of 9 meters below to a painful injury or death. The room stretched over 200X200 meters and seemed to have a complex of walkways and catwalks.

Joseph commented.
"You have got to be fucking shitting me."

The walkways were cut off and certain intervals and there was a control box nearby controlling all the cranes and walkways, but the thing was such a maze that it would take hours trying to figure out where their items were. Joseph also noticed that there was a noticeable number of walking security drones which were all armed and looking rather dangerous.

One popped out from the side of them and commented.
"Intruder alert, you are not permitted to be in this section of the facility, please vacate premises or face extermination."

Joseph whipped his pistol out and shot the machine in the face. The Loki droid exploded moments later and Joseph asked. "Okay, so who wants to control the lift while we go looking for the parts we need?" He asked.

The team hacker of course volunteered.
"Sir, I'll get you through, but don't count on it being fun, those catwalks are sitting ducks for open fire and I think there's a droid manufacturing plant down there as well."

"Don't worry corporal, just don't fuck up and we'll be alright, or I'll be haunting your ass if you survive." He replied.

The marine nodded and quickly sliced the panel into the controls. Rana asked.
"Are you sure about this?"

"Well how else are we going to get through all of this? I can't waste ammo on the droids and the fact that we're already here should be enough, unless you want to go and find an alternative." He replied.

The asari nodded and followed after the Spartan as they got onto the 4th walkway, the marine started up the controls and brought the machine to move the crane, the marine had to be careful as the boxes of high explosive content might accidently fry the Spartan and the team should he bump them, and also there were walkways packed with armed droids.

After 10 minutes of trial and error which had resulted in a lot of explosions the team arrived at their objective, it was a prefab with a large caution sign on it, the team opened the room and entered inside, there they found their heavy weapons, the plasma launchers were still in prime condition, except one, but the rest were fine.

"Okay, secure 3, that's all we need and then we need to go after than damn fission adapter for the private." He said as the walkway moved once more.

So here's the summary to the next part, left, right, back, back, left, left, up right, down, down, right, left, and then 3 forwards and then another left, before a level up and then right. The walkway was half riddled with holes when they finally arrived at the spare maintenance fab; it was there that they found the fission adapter.

Joseph swore once more and this time at his technician.
"What the fuck? The fission adapter is a box the size of a footlocker and it was stuffed inside this damn place?" He said to himself.

The adapter was a 40kg rectangular prism with a large energy sign on it; the battery easily took him to carry it, and it was hard shooting whilst carrying a box that size. The team had to take their sweet time to get back and avoid being attacked, not because Joseph had his hands full, it was because the battery would explode if the thing took a direct hit.

The team made it back to the other side in 20 minutes and then got back out of the storage facility. They arrived back at the lounge and then to the emergency lift where Joseph deftly dropped the 40kg box into the arms of the marine technician and then they headed up back to the admin office where Valesi and their explosives expert was waiting.

"What took you guys so long?" The marine asked as he ran the calculations over again.

"You don't want to know." Joseph said pulling the massive gun out.

"Okay, so how do we do this, do we just blast the doors apart and then knock him out or just confront him and then ask him to stand down?" Tara asked.

"I think we should get this over and done with ASAP, so let's blow the door and see what he has to say." Joseph said as he pointed the plasma launcher at the doorway.

The team ducked as the Spartan began blowing the doorway to pieces, the plasma launcher had a lot of kick but it was made for those who could carry it well and the Spartan had more than sufficient strength in holding the weapon steady as he fired into the doorway. The masonry around the door began to sizzle and melt as the door finally gave way from the continuous bombardment of plasma.

The smoke and steam cleared and finally they could enter the smouldering hole. Once inside they found their way to the officer where the doorway split off, they walked into the room and were confronted by a single scrawny looking salarian in uniform. He had a gun in his hand and pointed it at the team.

"Stay where you are you damn usurpers, I'm too busy to die!" He said nervously.

"You're not busy, you're about as dead when I grab that gun and slam it into the side of your face, if you don't drop it that is." Joseph replied.

The statement had not done as well as the Spartan had hoped and the salarian looked even more unstable. So now what to do?
[Paragon] Talk the salarian down from his panic and make him submit peacefully

[Renegade] Grab the pistol and do as you said

[The marine way] Bitch slap him in the face and then confront the fucker and make him consider his situation

[The Spartan way] Crush the pistol and give him the stare

Option selected: Spartan

Joseph snatched the pistol from the hand of the salarian and crushed it in his hand and stared at the administrator who paled and said. "I think I might want to step down from office."

Tara arrested the salarian and Joseph got to work on getting the doors open for the rooftop, the gunships would have a clear landing to pick up the survivors and he could now access the location to the Peak 15 complex. The facility was located about 40km to the east of Port Han Shan; it was in a mountain within a valley.

The valley itself seemed to have a lot of security and the route to the facility was packed with dangers as there were definite reports of activity in the region. The team would have to trudge through it with some help, and he knew where to get help. The Spartan called in the fleet.

"This is Octavia Actual, lieutenant report." The AI asked.

"Octavia, I have confirmation of the facility, however it's heavily guarded and I do believe that our friends have probably left a lot of their buddies waiting for us." He replied.

"Very well, the pelican flights will drop some support off, but after that you're on your own, you better hurry lieutenant, the reaper fleet has already begun landing on the other facilities in the region, you need to get to the Peak 15 complex and finish it." She reminded him.

"On it Octavia." He replied.

The cut of the com and he addressed his team.
"Okay, we're finished here, Jason hurry up and regroup at the lobby, were hitting the peak in less than 1 hour, pelican flights are dropping off our support so we better not miss our chance."

The team flashed green on his HUD and he left the desk, Tara was still present in the room and said.
"So I guess this is it? You're going off to save the world?"

"No I'm going off to kill some flood and then save the galaxy from a parasitic alien while trying to uncover the secret behind an ancient alien threat that now is almost upon us all." He smiled at her.

The asari held her hand out and he took it with a warm shake.
"Good luck Tara, I hope you have a better career somewhere else."

She smiled and said.
"Who knows?"

The Spartan took his team and linked with the technician down at the lobby, the people departed from the port in droves. The team arrived back at the lower level and found themselves in the presence of the flood once more, Uri waited on a wall smiling.
"So it seems that you have found your answer?"

"There's a facility about 30ks from here, you know anything about it?" Joseph asked.

"Oh, that place, well I do know that the region is the most heavily contested, the flood have been wrung from my control there by another flood overmind, but this one seems different, it's unlike the other overminds, it's more like something closer to a familiar variation, but this one knows who I am." He shivered.

"Wait so that means, that flood mind is from Warden?" Joseph said in mute confusion.

"Looks like it, but that's the problem, the Warden overminds are usually linked to the forerunners in some way shape or form, I have a close idea as to what they maybe planning, however I intend to stop them in my own fashion. The reapers on the other hand I shall bide my time with. Are you sure that wouldn't like to join us?" Uri asked.

The Spartan knew that his former brother had still deeper plans in wait, but he had no intentions of giving his humanity away like that, not unless he had no choice.
"Sorry Uri, but you know me, stubborn to the end."

A croak and chuckle came from the former Spartan; it seemed that Uri still had something in his mind. "Ah brother, it seems that you are right, you are stubborn, but don't let that stubbornness be the end of you." He warned.

The corrupted left in a flash; their presence was still being felt by them all but it seemed to relax a bit. Rana eyed her ally carefully and asked.
"What does he mean by your stubbornness?"

The Spartan looked down and replied.
"Nothing, it was just something that happened a long time ago, now if you don't mind. Our backup is waiting."

The Spartan walked on and down the stairs with the marines, Jason hung back a moment and said to Rana.
"There's a lot you don't know about Joseph, and trust me, you don't want to know him more than we already do."

Rana hadn't the chance to ask what Jason had said before he followed after his squad.

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The squad entered into the garage once more and headed to their transports, the warthogs outside were replaced by something rather flashy and big. They couldn't imagine what the Spartan had done to call in this thing, but who cared? They had a cougar Assault APC. The large armoured transport held a marine space of 18, and it had 2 drivers and 1 gunner. The transport was definitely enough for the mission at hand.

"Shotgun!" 1st class Private Josh yelled.

Jason got into the driver's seat and was followed up by Joseph next to him; Rana took up her position in the rear and was eyeing the gunner seat where the marine corporal took his position. The inside of the APC was clean metal, the grated floor was nice and the seats had cushioned crash braces, everything about the APC was pretty good.

Monitors on the inside and a mounted gun at the doors, there was also a drink dispenser and a wall pack of medical gear. Ammo and weapons lockers were located under the seats, there were also a few extra suits for combat and a number of handy tools that the marines needed in the missions, Rana helped herself to the rations inside the APC. The rations that the APC had been not as bad as when she was stuck on the human's frigate in transport, the meals there were horrible.

Once they buckled themselves in, Jason let the engines heat up and he kicked the cougar into gear, the APC drove away from the port and to their objective, along the way the lieutenant made sure to keep his eyes levelled with the sensor net, he'd tell if they'd run into anything along the way. As they travelled they noticed that the other UCAF marines in the region were grouping with them along the way.

"This is Silver Steel to Strike Actual; we're linking up at the outskirts to priority objective." The marine Sgt reported to Joseph.

"I hear you Silver Steel. Be advised enemy hostiles in the region, prepare for heavy contact, any armour support?" He asked.

"None sir, aside from a few APC we have no heavy armour." The Sgt replied.

Joseph knew that this wasn't going to be fun. His thoughts were interrupted when the sensors went red, the APC banked to the right as a cluster of laser blasts ripped over them, Jason shouted.
"Hostiles dead ahead, gunner, get them."

The turret opened up with the heavy GC72 the dual barrelled heavy gauss gun fired in response with machine gun fire as well as gauss shells, the deadly assault blew chunks out of their enemies. From afar Joseph could just make out their silhouettes, humanoid bodies; he zoomed in with scanners until they came into focus. Their enemies were not human, but they were surely not any known race he had ever seen before, they had a single eye and had a few fingers, but what defined them was that they were machines.

The coms blared from the marines.
"Contact in approach vector, we are breaking off to engage, Lt you're on your own for now."

Joseph hated when luck decided to abandon him. The APC drove through the enemy blockade and down the road with the gunner still firing, their shields had taken light blasts but not enough to cripple them, he noted that the hostiles were firing some sort of energy based round, but that was impossible, the council hadn't even touched on the UCAF tech, how did these beings differ?

The APC arrived at a tunnel and drove right into it, they encountered a few stragglers and dealt with them rather quickly, continuing on the APC headed out the other end and was clear in the open when an enemy drop ship arrived. The gauss guns tore the ship to pieces, but not before it dropped what it needed to.

The cougar came up to face with a large 4 legged walker; it was much like the other things but had a mounted gun underneath its glowing eye. The machine charged a shot and fired, Jason banked hard to avoid the incoming blast, but sadly their speed wasn't enough as the blast impacted their shields, the vision of the APC blurred as the charged shot fizzled from the APC.

"What the hell?" The gunner yelled.

The tank had just taken a direct hit from an energy based weapon and that meant a plasma blast, their tank had been hit by plasma, the bastards had plasma based guns? Joseph yelled.
"Jason, get us around that walker."

The marine complied and drove the tank around hard, their speed accelerating and crushing a few of the machines along the way, once around the enemy walker the gunner unleashed hell of the slow walker. The guns took a bit to rip the machine open, but after one smoking hole in the torso shot came through, the walker dropped dead and exploded.

Joseph contacted.
"Silver, be aware, there's walkers over the area."

The marine replied annoyed.
"We figured sir, we're already engaged with 4 of them, and we might take some time to join you at the primary objective, head on if we can't make it!"

The Spartan closed the line and ordered.
"Fine, we're going on ahead, Jason keep going, if we run into anything else, just keep going."

The marine nodded and pressed on, the APC drove onwards as the battle for the planet continued, they were still a fair way off from the Peak 15 complex, but that didn't mean that they couldn't reach it, as they broke through the other hostile barricades and road blocks they came upon the last stretch into the valley. From here it should have been pretty simple, sadly that wasn't the case.

The APC paused at the top of the cliff overlooking the valley, there they found their biggest problem, the gunner commented.
"Holy shit!"

The valley was packed with more than the visage of a nice snowy mountain top at the end with waterfalls, the valley was packed with what were about 2 dozen walkers and a few hundred enemy hostiles, the marines weren't going to cut through this any time soon. But what really made them pause was that there was their reaper, the 25m tall machine with about a dozen legs, it had a single glowing eye and was about as deadly as a super scarab.

"You have got to be shitting me." Jason swore loudly.

"Well how do we get around that?" Rana exclaimed.

Joseph thought over their situation, an army with a super walker was now standing in between them and their objective and there was little support from the UCAF fleet, and the marines were trapped behind them trying to catch up, this was one of the situations everyone would call FUBAR. Joseph was trying to contemplate their position; the reaper was in front of them with a veritable army, the Spartan knew that even he couldn't punch through all of this without any help.

Of course help does arrive in small packages, from his position Joseph watched as his IFF lit up, the skies above the valley were suddenly alight.
"Incoming friendlies." Jason yelled.

From above their position the skies were lit from the hundreds of slip-space rifts being opened at once, from the rifts massive purple and silver ships arrived, one cruiser hovered over the valley and unleashed a number of drop pods and gunships. The vehicles rained fire on the hostiles below in the valley. A transmission came over their com lines.

"Hold fast humans, we have come." The voice of a wise warrior stated.

The purple gunships of the covenant forces had arrived en masse, they dropped their troops off while others fired on the reaper avatar. The most distinguishable gunship from the swarm was the silver and blue one with an escort of 6 banshees. The gunship's IFF was that of the legend himself.
"This is Arbiter Vadam, all forces engage these abominations and drive them to their damned graves!"

The covenant forces rushed onwards to the reapers own forces and engaged in a bloody free for all, the area was suddenly filled with gunfire; the marines were absently shocked at the sudden appearance of the covenant in the attack against the flood on the world of Noveria. This had been an unexpected turn of events.

The Jason commented.
"Well that solves one problem."

The reaper in the valley reared its head and began to fire at the covenant gunships; the heated laser beam ripped through two gunships and clipped another. The covenant responded in volume with a number of plasma cannons at the reaper walker, their shots pelted the reaper but it didn't cripple the massive machine, the thing was as large as a super scarab it made sense that it wouldn't be easy to destroy.

Joseph got a call from the Arbiter.
"Spartan, you must hurry to disable the reaper, or we'll all fall!"

Joseph nodded.
"Roger that, any idea where the weak spot is on that thing?" He asked.

The Arbiter replied.
"Our scans indicate that the power source is located at the centre of the machine, it is about 2 levels inside the machine. You must board the machine and then manually disable it, but be warned there is something different about this creature."

"I noticed." Joseph remembered the psychic screams of the last reaper.

He motioned for his team to get back in the APC. He called over the coms.
"We're going in; all UCAF personnel engage the reaper and follow us in!"

There was a chorus of replies and Joseph knew that they were ready to get going. Joseph mounted the main guns from the outside to get a better shot at the reaper, and if he needed to board such a machine at least he'd have the ability to do so without having to jump out of the APC and then boarding. The cougar ran about and went downhill, they passed a dozen contacts along the way blowing them to pieces as they headed to the reaper.

The UCAF marines were engaged over the length of the area fighting the reaper's forces while closing the distance to the reaper walker in the valley, the only reason that they hadn't just MAC blasted the massive machine was because of the explosive force of the MAC would shatter the ground and destroy the facility nearby. They had to recover whatever the turians had been testing not accidently wipe out all the vital information and leave themselves empty handed.

There was also the factor of the council which had been desperate to avoid being pinned for the blame of Noveria and the war, the council was always trying to keep its hands clean of taking anything that would make them look bad, and of course they'd use their spectres in any case or scenario. So destroying anything critical would be seriously counterproductive and thus the UCAF wasn't willing on losing any chance to recover anything that would be necessary against the council's pet soldiers.

Joseph watched as they closed the distance to the reaper, the covenant phantoms would keep the machine from turning them to scrap while they dealt with the ground troops and disable the enemy walker. Joseph let loose a few shots at the walkers along the way, thankfully the other convoys dealt with the walkers.

The cougar passed another cluster of troops and Joseph let loose another shot and splattered them where they stood. The battle was fast paced, but not challenging, at least not unless you were on the wrong side of the reaper. Joseph brought his guns on the legs of the reaper and began to chew through the heavy chitin like plating, the reaper noticed the APC and its efforts and attempted to turn around, it was slightly faster than that of a scarab, but not enough to out manoeuvre a cougar.

"Arbiter, we need you to blind the sensors on that bastard, we'll hit the legs while you do that. We might be able to board it then." Joseph suggested.

"Very well, we shall, be ready." The Arbiter replied.

The two forces began to hammer the reaper, the covenant gunships dropped in and landed a few wraiths and let the mortars launch some plasma blasts on the reaper, the combined efforts slowly withered away at the reapers armour and shielding. Joseph's team was shortly joined by 3 warthogs; they split up and fired on multiple vectors.

The reaper began to change tactics, it began to stomp down as fast as it could against the offending insects, it was difficult with the covenant firing on it in waves of plasma, but it was better than letting the humans find its core. Joseph corrected the change and alerted Jason to follow closely wherever the reaper wasn't about to crush them.

Joseph's shots ruptured a leg and sent explosions across one of the limbs sending the machine staggering to one side, the other leg on the other side was dealt with in the same manner by the wraiths which fired in concentrated blasts and turned the leg to slag. The massive walker staggered and collapsed to the ground, it tried getting up, but like a wounded predator the machine wouldn't be able to rise until it healed itself.

Joseph and the Arbiter took their chances then, Joseph yelled over the coms.
"Time to get going!"

Jason, pulled the APC alongside the reaper and close enough to find a place for Joseph to jump off of and get aboard the machine, the Arbiter did the same and jumped from his gunship and landed on the hull of the reaper with a team of rangers. The Spartan caught up with the Arbiter at the centre of the reaper and met him there.

It had been well known that the Spartans had gained the respect of the elites during the war, especially the UCAF Spartans who had fought the covenant to the bitter end, the same was for the Spartans who saw the marital honour of the elites, they trusted each other during a fight, and that was for sure. As they met the Arbiter greeted him with a ceremonious bow.

"Good to see that there are still warriors of your calibre young one." He greeted.

"Same to you Arbiter, however our focus should be on the reaper right now, I'm sure we'll have a proper meeting once we have concluded our business here on Noveria." He replied.

"Very well, we must enter through this section of the abomination, I shall gut through the plating, be prepared to jump in, we do not know what awaits us inside so be vigil." He advised Joseph.

Joseph nodded and the Arbiter hacked open a clean cut with his new energy glaive, the spear was an addition created by the UCAF during the cease fire and it was a welcome addition to the covenant's armoury. The Arbiter himself looked much more deadlier, and much more formal, his armour had been repaired and polished, but had been added with white pauldrons with a fixed plate on his face to accommodate as a mask for heavy combat, the chest piece looked much more refined as it had a heavy plating along with an impressive crafting much like that of the Hayabusa class.

The Spartan jumped down with his AR and was followed by the elites, they found themselves in the core of the machine, it was a dead drop about 5 meters, but where they were was a completely different story, there was about 25 meters in all direction which had been cleared and the floor was as if it was alive. The glowing metal seemed to emanate a deathly feeling, as if it reeked of poison.

The core was like a massive rib cage packed with muscles, but missing the organs aside from the heart, the core itself was large it was circular and was the shape of a orb, but the size suggested about the size of a water tank. It glowed luminescent blue and white and irradiated a pulse of energy enough that Joseph's scanners were going off the scale.

"I guess that's it." Joseph commented.

He aimed and fired into the heart, however when he did so, something happened.
"YOU SHALL NOT TAKE ME!"

The psychic scream pulled into his mind and strained his neural interface, his head was boiling, Joseph collapsed to the ground and heard the screaming voice, it was fuming at him, and it was after him. It was out to kill him, his vision blurred and soon he heard the elites shouting.
"Here they come, brothers!"

Joseph saw nothing what the elites could see, he was soon in another place, a plain of darkness surrounded by emptiness much like that of space, he could see the core of the reaper, it wasn't like that of what was in the physical plane, it was a sphere which was held in a twist of tentacles much like of vines, it glowed a deep green and seemed to burn into his head.

But what came next frightened and shocked him. A woman stood there, her face hidden as she looked away, but she seemed familiar. She turned about as he approached her and she smiled and said.
"Welcome back son…"

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(Oh CRAP, we have some serious dead space following event now. Oh well bound to happen right?)

So I need to ask.

What was wrong with Dragon Age 2?

I mean I didn't entirely disapprove but I'd like your opinion on it and I'd like your idea if we should include a few themes from Dragon Age!

Also should we have Hawke in this story? Yes or No?

Oh and there's a special little treat for you guys, Silent Hill surprise.

(BREAKING THE WALL)

If you were guided to the corner of the Noveria Storage facility you would have found a puzzle, on the wall there were 8 markings, each with a specific mythical animal, you need to locate each animal and hit their symbol in the right order. Pegasus, Unicorn, Alicorn, Manticore, Alicorn, Unicorn, Hydra, and then Pegasus and then Manticore, and then finally Pegasus

This will open up the wall where the puzzle starts now head there and you'll find out the prize.

Joseph opened up the all and found himself staring into a large room with what looked like a dozen monitors, he and the team located a person who was busy typing at a console, he said.
"What the hell?"

The young man jumped back with his Spartan helmet on and yelped.
"Damn it you nearly scared me to death, what are you doing here beyond the 4th wall?"

"We should be asking you what the hell you're doing here; there aren't any humans on Noveria." He commented.

"Ah yes well, I'm the author of this universe, sorry about that, I guess you figured out the puzzle, I should say welcome but I'm kind of busy, so if you don't mind, how about a special surprise." He hit a button.

A blue pony with wings and a horn popped up and smiled.
"Hello, can I give you a hug?" She asked shyly.

Joseph stared at the pony and then grasped his chest.
"HNGNGNGNGNG…"

Rana commented.
"Well that was anti-climactic…"