Hello everybody and welcome back to my Halo - Terminator crossover. Thank you for your patience and continued support of both my crossovers. It was a really interesting start to this week, and I deeply appreciate your patience. I'll be doing some catch up on the weekends, so expect more chapters to come. As always, leave a review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or Terminator franchises. they are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Game Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, Carcolo Pictures, Hemdale, Skydance Productions, Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their developers, producers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.
Halo
Underground Forerunner Tunnel
September 20th, 2552
The underground chamber was calm and silent, with only the sound of sleeping Grunts breaking the silence inside. All around, the architecture of the Forerunners continued to perform it's duties, from the simplest task of illumination, to the more complicated efforts required to remain operational. Only a few Grunts were up and about, with some admiring said architecture, while others kept a watchful eye out for any intruders. On the platform that they were at, a single, tall, trapezoidal door was located on the right side of the platform, allowing for access into the rest of the area.
One Grunt, who was walking around near the edge of the platform, thought it heard a sound. Coming to a stop, it began to listen closely, as it was a wooshing sound, similar to what one would hear of a Ghost drove by. Curious, it began to sniff the air, attempting to find out what was going on. It would soon get a nasty surprise.
Moments, later, three large, metallic objects few up into the air. Yelping in surprise, the Grunt looked up, spotting a symbol that was painted on the left and right side of the object's front, which vaguely resembled a beak. Recognizing the symbol, the Grunt ran away, screaming at the top of it's lungs as it ran for the door.
Inside the Pelican, Chief looked outside as the Pelican rotated around, with the view changing as the VTOL slowly spun around. It had been roughly two hours since they had left the tropical island that held the Silent Cartographer, having descended into the tunnels that crisscrossed Halo's internal architecture like an ant colony. Cortana's analysis had been perfectly on point, as none of the Pelicans had run into any form of trouble or delay while flying through the underground tunnels. Now, they were reaching the end of their underground journey, having reached the very end of the tunnel itself.
Looking around, Chief watched as Pops checked over his gear, replacing a spent Fusion Magazine with a fresh one before holstering his weaponry. Hearing more noise from his left, Chief turned to see Fireteam Raven making sure their gear was fully ready to rock. He wondered if a similar routine was being done by the Terminators on the other Pelicans, only dismissing the thought when he watched the platform that Foehammer had spotted wheel back into view. "This is as far as we can go, Cortana," Foehammer reported.
"Roger that," Cortana replied. "We'll make our way to the Control Room from here."
"Good luck," Foehammer replied. "Foehammer out." A moment later, the Pelican descended towards the ground, coming to a stop just three feet above the platform. Getting up, Chief, Pops, William and Fireteam Raven jumped out of the VTOL, landing on the platform moments later. At the same time, the Terminators got off as well, with some Marines getting out of the last Pelican as well.
Once everyone was out, Foehammer flared the engines and began heading back down, the engines flaring as the Pelican moved under her expert guidance, disappearing beneath the platform seconds later. No sooner had Foehammer disappeared beneath the platform, four Elite Ultra's entered the area via a tall, trapezoidal door that split into four components as it opened. "Heresy," one of the Elites roared. "Remove this fil-"
Suddenly, the Elite's head exploded as a plasma bolt tore through it's skull, with the alien's corpse landing on the ground with a thump. Before the other Elites could react, the Terminators immediately charged at them, dragging the remaining Elites out into the middle of the platform. Moments later, the Terminators began to beat the Sangheilians into a bloody pulp, as fists smashed through nanolaminate armor, while crushing organs, bones, limbs and skulls. Within just half a minute, the Elites had been beaten into a bloody pulp, with the Terminator's tossing them over the edge of the platform moments later. "You are terminated," Pops told the Elites, his MA5E's muzzle smoking slightly from the plasma bolt it had fired.
"Nice work," Raven One remarked. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." With that out of the way, they began to proceed into the interior of the doorway. The door led to a long hallway that was in the shape of the door itself. More Forerunner glyphs were present, with an arrow shaped glyph in the floor that glowed a soft blue color. More of the bas-relief alloy was present, with some of the ridges and markings providing good traction for their boots as the UNSC personnel continued forwards.
Moving forwards, they came to another door, which opened up into a large, circular room that had another room built inside of it. The first room encircled the inner room, with large panels of what looked like transparent metal alloy built into the walls at regular intervals. The inner room was split in half by what appeared to be a narrow, but deep, chasm, with metallic bridges that bridged the gap, with each bridge having a panel of transparent alloy built into the middle. The room was lit with a bright, but gentle white light that had a slight tint of blue to it. On the other side, Chief thought he spotted another door, just like the one they had entered.
That was when Chief's motion tracker lit up, with a number of red blips appearing on the edge of his Motion Tracker's range. "Contacts up ahead," Chief told the others. "Make sure your weapons are ready."
"They are," the Marines and ODST's replied. Moving forwards, Chief found that he could access the inner room via large entryways that interrupted the walls of the inner room. Looking inside, Chief spotted some Covenant Shield Barricades, distinctive for the domed energy barrier that they created when activated. A pair of Elite Ultras were present in the room, as well as some Grunts and a pair of Shield Jackals. Beyond that, he didn't see any other Covenant in the area, though he knew from experience that just because he didn't see any more Covenant didn't mean they weren't there.
Spotting the Covenant forces, the Marines got into cover, with the ODST's and Chief flanking left with the Terminators, while the Marines moved to the right. Once they had surrounded the Covenant inside of the room, they checked their weapons one more time, then, on Chief's signal, one of the Marines hurled a grenade inside. There was a loud BOOM as the grenade detonated, with a sphere of hot plasma vaporizing the Jackals that were in the room, as well as a couple of the Grunts. Caught off guard, the Elites fired back wildly, with some of their shots missing the Marines by a considerable margin. Said Elites were cut down moments later, as Chief and the others engaged from the rear, killing the aliens before they had a chance to sound the alarm.
"That was quick," one Marine remarked.
"A little too quick for me," another said. "Still, I like the fact that we don't have to cower and hide when those Covenant come around. Now we can duke it out with the best of them." The other Marines nodded in agreement at that observation.
"Cut the chatter, people," William told them. "We can play twenty questions once we're out of here. Right now, we need to get to the Control Room and snag it from those Covenant before they cause any more trouble." With that, the Marines quieted down, with most checking their gear before moving out. Walking towards the door, Chief proceeded inside, sweeping the hallway beyond for any enemy contacts.
Exiting the hallway leading out of that room, Chief found himself standing on the end of what he thought was a barricade at first. Looking around, he noticed a few Grunts that were dead asleep, but what caught his attention was the presence of snow. Snow, he wondered, surprised for a moment. Moving quietly, he leaned out to the right to see what was going on. Looking out, Chief found that they were actually on a bridge that spanned the length of what appeared to be a canyon, with sections of the bridge having more of the transparent alloy he'd seen earlier. Looking up, Chief looked at the sky, which was now completely overcast and filled with dark gray clouds. Snowflakes were falling down from the sky, and the clouds indicated that a blizzard might come their way.
Cortana was also surprised, as she performed a brief scan with Chief's suit. "Hhmm, interesting," she observed. "The weather conditions here are natural, not artificial. I wonder if the ring's environmental systems are malfunctioning, or if the designers wanted this installation to haveinclement weather."
Behind Chief, Pops and the Terminators remained silent, with two of the Terminators eliminating the Grunts nearby. Moving silently, one Terminator drove it's combat knife into the skull of a nearby Grunt, while another sharply twisted another Grunt's neck, a quiet snap briefly traveling through the air. Following their example, Chief quietly neutralized another Grunt, using his combat knife to slit it's throat. The Marines, William and ODST's remained silent, moving forwards slowly to minimize the sound that they were making.
They were about to move up some more when Chief heard something on his COM. "This is Fireteam Zulu to any UNSC forces. Does anyone copy? Over."
"More Marines," Cortana realized. "I didn't think there were any UNSC forces left in this part of the ring." Using Chief's suit COM, she said, "Cortana to Fireteam Zulu, we read you. Fireteam Zulu, this is Cortana, hold position. We're on our way."
"Roger that," Zulu One replied. "Make it quick. We don't have much time."
"Looks like we need to expedite our efforts," Raven Two remarked. With that, the UNSC forces continued to move up, heading for the other side of the bridge as silently as possible. Noticing some ramps leading downwards, Chief motioned for the ODST's and Marines to move downwards, while he and the Terminators would continue to move on the upper level of the bridge. Nodding in assent, the Marines and ODST's moved down the ramps to the underside of the bridge, leaving Chief with Pops and the other Terminators.
As they moved up, Chief could hear the Marines and ODST's silently eliminating more Grunts, with their corpses being pushed over the edge of the bridge and into the canyon below. As he moved forwards, he took cover behind a divider between part of the bridge, with Pops and the other Terminators taking cover behind it as well. Peering over the edge, Chief spotted some Skirmisher Champions moving around, as well as some Grunt Ultra's that were keeping a vigilant eye out. Clearly, whomever commanded these Covenant knew what they were doing.
"The Covenant are in a heightened state of vigilance," Pops noted. "We will have to use force to move past them. Stealth is no longer an option."
"Agreed," Chief conceded. Keying his COM, he said, "Fireteam Raven and company, the Covenant have entered a heightened alert state. We won't be able to sneak past them. What's your SITREP?"
"We've neutralized the Grunts down below your position," Raven One replied. "They won't be a problem, and we're in a good position to flank the enemy. Once you start shooting, we'll come up the ramps and provide fire support."
"Good," Chief replied. "As soon as you hear my weapon firing, go loud." Closing the COM, he peered over the edge of the barricade, noticing that the Covenant forces at this part of the bridge had their backs turned to them, a costly mistake on their part. Leaning out of cover, Chief took aim at the first Skirmisher Champion before him and fired.
Superheated hydrogen plasma tore out of the muzzle of Chief's weapon, punching through the Skirmisher's armor and into it's body. The alien screeched in pain as the fourth bolt of plasma tore into it's body, flash cooking it's organs in an instant. The other aliens whirled around, only to be cut down by the Marines that had come up the ramps from the lower deck of the bridge, silencing them almost immediately. Up ahead, Chief could hear more weapons fire, which he guessed were the ODST's.
Vaulting over the Forerunner divider, Chief and the others continued to move up, passing another divider moments later. Reaching the other side of the bridge, Chief found Fireteam Raven firing on some Elites that had come out the door on the other side of the bridge, with plasma bolts being exchanged between both sides of the firefight. While the Elite's were good, the ODST's were already proving their worth in gold, as two Elites fell to Raven One's M7E PDW. Adding their weapons fire to the mix, the Marines, Terminators, Pops and Chief gunned down the remaining Covenant.
As they neared the door to the other side, Chief heard a loud, snarling roar from behind the barricade. "Look out," William shouted as an Elite in purple and blue armor charged out from behind the barricade. "Take him out!"
"Sangheilian Zealot," Pops shouted. "Do not get within melee range. They are armed with an Energy Sword that will penetrate your armor." Taking his advice, the Marines and ODST's fell back, while the Terminators surged forwards, not afraid of the Zealot in the slightest.
The Elite, spotting the incoming machines, fired it's Plasma Rifle at a couple, while using it's Energy Sword to cut down any that got too close. One Terminator got close enough, with the Elite stabbing the machine through the chest with the Energy Sword. Instead of going down immediately, the Terminator in question grabbed the Elite by the face and the neck, choking the alien before hurling itself and the Zealot over the edge of the bridge. The Elite roared as it fell down, with the machine remaining emotionless as they fell out of sight.
"Shit," one of the Marines groaned. "We lost a man. We're down one Terminator now."
"Keep it together, people," Raven One told the Marines. "We may have lost a Terminator, but we've got fifteen more where that one came from. Reload your guns and keep moving forwards." Following Raven One's advice, the others reloaded their weaponry and continued to move forwards. Reaching the door on the other side, Chief proceeded through, with the others continuing to move forwards behind him.
It turned out, the hallway led to another one of the circular rooms, only this one didn't have a chasm in the middle. Rather, the room was mostly empty, with a few ramps that led upward to a series of platforms built into the walls of the inner room. Moving forwards, they also found that this room was, strangely enough, empty. "I've got a bad feeling about this," one Marine groaned.
"Me too," another one remarked. "When do the Covenant abandon a Forerunner constructed room like this? You'd think they'd have a lot more men in this area of Halo than everywhere else." While he didn't say anything, Chief had to agree with the Marines. Something wasn't quite right, and it was starting to bother him.
It was Parsons that immediately noticed what was wrong. Chief watched as Pops seemed to spot something, before pulling out it's M45E Shotgun and blasting a certain part of the wall. Suddenly, a Spec Ops Elite shimmered into existence, with the alien falling to the ground, it's stomach area having been blasted open by Pop's shotgun. "Covenant Special Forces are in this area," he reported moments later. "Remain vigilant. They are using Active Camouflage."
"That explains the bad feeling I got," William remarked.
"Move out," Chief ordered. "Keep an eye out for any distortion that you see in the air. If you see any, fire on it." Having been given their orders, the Marines and ODST's moved forwards, keeping an eye out for even the slightest distortion in the air. As he moved to the left, Chief heard plasma discharge from the right, indicating that the Marines had encountered another Spec Ops Elite.
As they moved forwards, Chief spotted what appeared to be a small, doorless entry way into another part of the area they were in. Moving inside, Chief spotted another Forerunner object in the middle of a small room, as well as a door that was built into the other side of the room. Walking through the door, he passed through a narrow, short hallway and through another door. This door led to what looked like the Forerunner equivalent of an lift shaft, with a single lift in the room, as well as a control panel on his right side.
Looking around, Chief could tell that the lift couldn't hold everyone that was in the thirty man strong Fireteam. "We'll have to leave some people behind," he told the others. "The lift doesn't have enough room to hold everyone on board."
"We'll extract to the bridge and call for a Pelican," One of the Marines told Chief.
"We'll continue with you," Raven One told Chief. "Any Terminators that want to come along can as well. The rest will get out of here via any Pelicans that can fly into the canyon without being shot down."
"Agreed," Chief replied. With that, the Marines and William turned around and began heading back to the bridge, with most of the Terminators following them as well. Only Fireteam Raven, Pops and two other Terminators remained with Chief. Getting onto the lift, Chief waited for the others to get on before hitting one of the panel's holographic icons. With only a very slight shudder, the lift began to travel downwards, smoothly flying down the shaft before coming to a stop at the bottom, where another door was present.
Moving through the door, Chief passed through another small hallway, exiting out the door on the other side moments later. The room on the other side was a short hallway that led into a much larger room, with an outer room that encircled the one inside. Small sections of transparent alloy gave Chief glimpses of a much larger room on the other side. Looking around, he noticed that there were Grunts in this area as well, only these were dead asleep, enough so that the opening of the door hadn't even woken them up. Moving silently, Chief and the others began to neutralize the Grunts as silently as possible, slitting throats, severing spinal cords and snapping necks silently. Moving to the left, the Terminators spotted more Grunts, with each one silently eliminating the aliens.
At the same time, Chief turned towards the right, killing a single Grunt before spotting a contact on his Motion Tracker. Stopping for a moment, Chief waited for the contact to begin moving in the opposite direction, before sneaking out of cover. Rounding the corner, he found a single Elite Zealot that was performing patrol duty, it's mandibles moving as it mumbled something under it's breath. Moving silently, Chief took the alien by the mandibles and plunged his knife into the back of it's skull. The Zealot barely even grunted before it was silenced, with Chief dragging the corpse backwards towards where the Terminators were at, moving on once he dumped the body.
Moving forwards silently, Chief noticed that the outer room had small hallways that had a long strip of transparent Forerunner alloy that looked into the room. Looking inside, Chief noticed that there were a series of pipes that were in the larger room, with a section of the floor that bulged upwards, indicating the presence of Forerunner machinery underneath it. Grunts and Jackals were in the room, with the Jackals being at least as attentive as the Elites, as two Elites were in the room as well, while the Grunts were asleep as well.
Motioning with his fingers, Chief showed the Terminators and Fireteam Raven what the plan was. Nodding in agreement, each one of them silently proceeded into the larger room, using small openings that were accessible via overhanging walkways. Sneaking silently into the room, they got into position to neutralize the aliens that were awake. On a single signal, the ODST's, Terminators and Chief moved simultaneously, killing the Jackals and Elites before they had a chance to utter a single sound; lowering their bodies to the ground, the UNSC forces quickly silenced the Grunts, having prevented any of the Covenant inside from waking up and sounding the alarm.
Moving forwards, they passed by more Forerunner devices, using them for cover as they continued onward through the facility they were currently in. Spotting another door, Chief moved inside silently, with the others following closely behind. Traveling down the hallway, they quickly reached the door on the other side. Instead of coming out into another room, Chief watched as the door opened to reveal the canyon floor that he had spotted earlier while he was on the bridge. Sheer walls surrounded the snowy canyon floor, with snowflakes falling with increased intensity as the weather continued to deteriorate. A clump of trees was on one side of the canyon, while Chief spotted a small bluff, as well as what he thought was a frozen lake nearby.
The Covenant were present here as well, as Chief spotted a Shade Turret and some Covenant on the other side of the valley. So far, the Marines by the clump of trees were doing well, but Chief noticed that a Covenant Wraith was shelling the area, with large bolus' of plasma coming down nearby. So far, the trees had served as cover, but there were few left, as each time a plasma bolus struck one, the tree's sap would flash boil, causing an explosion each time a tree was hit.
Spotting a nearby Shade Turret, Chief quickly neutralized the gunner, before running across the snowy ground towards the Covenant forces that were in the area. Spotting him, one of the Elites jumped into a nearby Ghost, clambering onboard and powering up the vehicle before driving it towards Chief. As soon as it was in range, the Elite fired, before boosting towards Chief with the intent to ram him.
As soon as he saw the threat, Chief rolled to the right, narrowly dodging the Ghost's front section. As soon as he got up, Chief's endocrine system went into overdrive, pumping his system full of adrenaline, and a number of compounds that his endocrine system could now manufacture, courtesy of the Spartan augmentations that he had received. When a Spartan entered this state, they almost immediately reached their maximum potential, becoming their most dangerous to the enemy. It was a phenomena known as 'Spartan Time' to those in the Spartan-II program.
Almost immediately, Chief watched as time seemed to slow down, with the moments of the Elite and the Ghost becoming slow and sluggish, while his own movements remained normal in their speed. Running towards the Elite, he leaped into the air a full five meters before landing on the Ghost, causing the vehicle's front end to dip down, nearly digging into the snow with the force of the impact. Using his hand as a pivot point, Chief swung around to the left, driving his boots into the Elite's flank; the alien roared as it was evicted from it's seat, landing on the ground near Pops and the other Terminators with a thump. While Chief got into the Ghost's pilot seat, the Terminators picked up the Elites and, holding him still, allowed Pops to snap the alien's neck, killing the Elite instantly.
As soon as he was in the Ghost's pilot seat, Chief felt the effects of his system wear off, with time resuming it's normal speed to him moments later. A feeling of weariness flooded his system, though he shook it off through a combination of experience and training. Spotting the remaining Covenant forces, Chief drove forwards, gunning down the Covenant on the ground while Pops and the Terminators ran forwards at maximum velocity, reaching Chief's position fairly quickly.
Spotting a Warthog near the Marines, which numbered four at this point, Parsons ran over and flipped the vehicle back onto it's wheels, with the other Terminators getting in. "I'll drive," Parsons told the others, taking the wheel of the vehicle a moment later. Looking at the Marines, he said, "Wait here for extraction. A Pelican is on it's way to assist you."
"Thanks for the rescue," one of the Marines called out to the Terminators. "We nearly bought the farm at this point. The Covenant thought they were dealing with normal Marines, but the others, it turns out, are some of the toughest badasses in the Corps. They're further down the valley up ahead." He pointed to a part of the valley that turned towards the left, into another part of the area they were in.
"Thank you," Parsons replied, before gunning the throttle on the Warthog. The vehicle roared as it charged forwards, getting some air before landing with a THUMP in the snow. Despite the slippery terrain, the Warthog's wheels managed to gain a considerable amount of traction, allowing the vehicle to zoom forwards with little difficulty. Driving towards the frozen lake, the Terminator manning the P-LAAG spotted the Wraith that Chief had seen earlier, with the Spartan currently engaging it with his Ghost. Once in range, Parsons drove to the right, allowing the Terminator manning the P-LAAG to pepper the Covenant tank with plasma bolts.
"Drive around behind it," Cortana informed Pops. "The Wraith has a weakspot: an exhaust port on the rear of the vehicle. The armor plating is thinner there than at the front."
"Affirmative," Parsons replied, driving towards the Wraith a moment later. Having reviewed combat footage from his time on Reach, Parsons knew that a good way to draw the Wraith out was to bait it into charging at him, which would expose the rear section of the enemy vehicle. Communicating this to the others, Parsons drove towards the Wraith, tricking it into charging at him. Dodging the ramming attempt, Parsons wheeled the Warthog around, allowing the Terminator on the P-LAAG to fire on the thinner armor at the rear of the Wraith. One of the plasma bolts traveled down the exhaust port and into the vehicle itself, disrupting a number of components while damaging others. After about two passes, the Wraith detonated, blasting apart into dozens of pieces as it's plasma reactor overloaded. With the immediate threat down, Parsons drove the vehicle towards the entrance to the rest of the area.
The entrance to the next part of the canyon was just past a frozen rapid that led downward, with the Ghost and Warthog easily clearing the jump. Looking around, Chief found that he was in another part of the area, with a strand of evergreen trees on what appeared to be a small island in the middle of the frozen river they were at. A Pelican drop ship was on the left side of the small valley, having been shot down by Covenant plasma fire a few minutes earlier. On the right and up ahead was a tunnel into part of the rocky walls, as well as a thin gorge that led into the rest of the area.
UNSC Marines were here as well, with most of them firing their weaponry at Covenant that were invading the area. While the Marines were doing well, the Covenant had sent a lot of personnel at them, enough that the Marines were having trouble. In the middle of the area was, to Chief's pleasant surprise, a Scorpion Main Battle Tank. Unlike the original Scorpion, however, Chief noticed that this one was modified, using the new ablative armor that SKYNET had designed, as well as what appeared to be a Gauss Cannon in lieu of the traditional M512 Smooth-bore, Hypervelocity 90mm Cannon. A V-95H was mounted in the coaxial mount, as well as another one that was mounted on a pintle in what appeared to be a gunner's seat.
Driving forwards, Chief fired on the Covenant with his hijacked Ghost, killing some of the Elites and Skirmishers that were engaging the Marines. At the same time, Parsons drove the Warthog closer, nailing the remaining Covenant with a ram, as well as the P-LAAG that the other Terminator was manning. After a few seconds, the Covenant in the area were down, with most becoming smoking corpses due to the intense heat that the plasma generated.
Getting out of the Ghost, Chief watched as a UNSC Staff Sergeant walked over to him. "Thanks for coming to our rescue," the Sergeant, identified by his nametag as Sgt. Stacker, said to him. "Until you showed up, I thought we were cooked. Those Covenant kept on coming at us."
"What's the situation," Chief asked Stacker.
"We've got some supplies in the Pelican," Stacker replied. "As for our situation, the Covenant have us hemmed in this area. They've got a pair of Revenants in the area up ahead, as well as a pair of Wraiths, with one in a frozen lake, and the other on a terrace above a tunnel entrance we spotted earlier. They've got a pair of Banshees as well, and one of them shot us down with a well aimed shot."
"Are your men wounded?"
"We've got a couple with minor plasma burns. They'll live, but we've lost a few men as well. Either way, we're ready to go back into the fray with you, Chief."
Nodding in agreement, Chief walked over to the downed Pelican, were a few munitions crates were lying around. Gathering what ammunition and supplies he could, Chief made sure the Terminators and the other Marines could get what they needed, before walking over and getting inside of the Scorpion. Powering up the systems, he watched as his armor linked up with the computer systems inside of the tank, with the hatch closing over his head moments later. A photorealistic image of what was outside came up on Chief's HUD, courtesy of small cameras that were built in strategic locations on the tank. Moments later, the others got onto the tank, while the Terminators loaded up into the Warthog once more. Once everyone was on, he gunned the throttle, driving towards the tunnel that Stacker had told him about. The Covenant were now in big trouble. They just didn't know it yet.