Planet Hermes-78

2549

"Currently there's a large-scale attack going on in the city of Veronica D, we have troops on the ground but we're losing quickly" A screen flickered, showing the large city with the ugliest purple ships he's ever seen hovering above it. "Many have gone MIA and KIA, and for once the Covenant are taking prisoners, and I'm afraid I don't know why, it's a rare occurrence" The flickered holographic orange male Avatar standing on the podium in a room full of marines, with their commanding officers standing in the back. "You're the backup, rescue as many as you can and meet at the checkpoints for a retreat, understood?"

A soldier raised his hand, the AI turned his gaze onto them, nodding for them to speak. "Are we evacuating off the planet?"

"No," The AI stood straight. "I'm afraid we're not, only the city. We will fight for this planet until the last city is glassed" The Soldiers all looked at each other. "Which, I know isn't reassuring but the Commander isn't too keen on losing his home"

Without asking, another Soldier spoke up. "Will we have a Spartan with us?"

The AI paused for a moment not bothering to scold the marine for the random slip-up, lifting a finger. "You will have helljumpers, they'll be working on saving prisoners off of Covenant corvettes," he noticed that statement didn't make any of them look too confident. "But allow me to say there is currently one Spartan out on the field, finding them is one of our priorities as well since communications were cut off with..them" he felt a bit awkward, he knew this Spartan to be the rebellious type, turning off their comms or just going silent during missions, the AI fake coughed and than continued. "Immediately after this meeting is adjourned you will all meet up with your squads, debrief anyone who decided to skip and board the dropships"

The Commander spoke up, after the moment of silence that followed straight after the AI gave his briefing. "And with that, this briefing is actually adjourned, Godspeed to you all and and thank you Osiris for the presentation" The AI went to retort but the Commander seemed to sense his motive and quickly went back to his nonchalant stance, Osiris went back to watching the marines quickly file quickly and calmly out the rooms and he wondered how many would survive, he wondered if that Spartan was still alive. "You worried about Colton?" The Commander spoke firmly, tone laced with concern however.

Osiris scoffed. "No," Technically he couldn't lie, it wasn't in his programming to lie, but that was a lie wasn't it? "He can handle himself Commander, I may have worked with him for a few years but I am not his AI anymore"

The Commander smiled, his eyebrows wrinkling so Osiris knew it was a genuine smile. "Well, that makes sense I suppose" The Commander didn't catch onto the lie of which Osiris had told, and the AI looked confused, he didn't comment on it forward. His genuine smile turned to a frown as he glanced back at the city, watching the horror unfold on the screen.

In the hangar

The Marines all scrambled to the dropships with their teams, however in all the chaos one pilot tapped the dashboard inside of the Pelican with boredom, his co-pilot watching as some marines and one of the Sergeants got on, but they weren't able to take off unless they were cleared. "Davison," he greeted, flicking some switches. "How are you on this fine day?"

The co-pilot. Davison turned to look at him as she sat down next to him. "Grim" she responded, she seemed tense. "Tell me you're not bored, are you Kane?" The Pelican shuttered and vibrated as Kane got the clear to go, the side doors closed and he heard the marines singing in the background, possibly to keep their nerves at bay.

"Not anymore," He pushed the stick forward, and soon the aircraft was in the air, heading down to the city below, which was the only city being attacked by the Covenant at the moment which he found weird since normally with an attack like this they'd be spread out. "We have something to fly towards now"

Davison scoffed. "The innies weren't enough to satisfy you?" She asked, she only got a shrug in response. "Lemme tell ya, you're gonna wish we were fighting the innies instead of a bigger challenge like this" the pelican soon flew a few hundred feet above the water, which prompted Kane to stop walking and keep his focus on not getting shot by a Phantom that seemed to be flying around, luckily it didn't notice them.

Kane decided to cheer the marines up a bit. "Alright men," he said through the Pelicans speakers. "Let's make this trip a fun one by playing eye spy," Davison gave him a look, Kane charmingly grinned back at her, thought they were both wearing helmets so they could only interpret what the other was thinking or making facings of. "I spy something big, purple and ugly?" It was quiet for a moment, before out of every soldier the Pelican, the Sergeant was the one to yell out the answer.

"Covenant cock!"

Even Davison burst out laughing along with the rest of the marines in the back, Kane managed to keep the Pelican steady as he kept the aircraft from shaking as he laughed. "Now that's something I wouldn't want up my ass" The tension was unbearable earlier but now it is a little more bearable. "We're dropping y'all off at the mall, get me a trinket, Godspeed folks" Kane shouted back instead of using the speakers, he got a couple of cheers and smiled, he liked interacting with marines and sometimes ODSTs on rare occasions, he's worked with a Spartan or two sometimes and they had a stick up their ass most of the time.

The Pelican once again went silent as it weaved past buildings and at this point Kane was starting to get suspicious, where were the Phantoms? He could clearly hear the sounds of battle, even the Sergeant came up to see if he could help spot any, though the only thing he saw were ground troops going at it, it was blue sky besides the multiple buildings billowing with smoke, then Davison spotted something, pointing to an unknown white- thing or whatever sparking with electricity. "The hell is that?" Sergeants Yellowstone mumbled, furrowing his brows. "You think it's the Covenants doing?"

Davison shrugged. "In all honesty, yes, they're always up to some freaky shit" she turned to Kane. "I honestly wouldn't put it past them to try and open portals to alternative realities with girl scout cookies in hand"

"I once drop kicked a girl scout" The Sergeant mumbled, "The brat was knockin' on the door too much and almost broke my shin, she was cryin' to mommy that day, which is what we're going to make the Covenant do today hoo-" the Pelican shuttered, and alarms flashed in their faces. "Yah.."

"What happened?"

"Something hit our tail?"

"What was it Kane?"

"I don't know but the engines out, BRACE YOURSELVES WE'RE GOING DOWN" Kane tried his best to pull the Pelican back up but to no avail, he quickly braced himself for the crash landing, turning his head to see the Phantom flying past and as the aircraft slammed into the ground causing him to hit his head on the dashboard and knocking himself out he realized what hit them from behind, sneaky ass devils.

Somewhere in the middle of the city

Crashed Pelican, two hours later

Kane's eyes shot open and his nose filled with smoke, he wheezed out a cough and stood up, his head hurt and the visor of his helmet was cracked slightly. "Fucking shit" he grumbled, tearing the helmet off of his head to feel his temples, feeling a thick liquid dripping down. "Fkin' assholes" he stepped to the side, nearly tripping over something on the ground, he looked down and his eyes widened a bit, Davison and the Sergeant, their bodies were entangled and one of their necks were broken, blood was everywhere, he gagged a bit and moved to the- what was it called? The area where the Soldiers would reside, the smell wasn't letting him think straight and once again nearly gagged at the bodies strewn about the pelican outside the open back, he quickly stumbled outside and threw up in a puddle nearby. They were all dead. Kane sat back breathing in violently before calmly letting it out. He should have paid attention to his surroundings- he needs to go back inside and grab those nametags.

Kane turned his head, his arms shaking a bit. "Fuck get yourself together" he stood back up, taking another deep breath. "I'm a Soldier not a pussy" Actually he was a Pilot but- that didn't matter he needed to get himself together before the Covenant came back. So, hesitantly Kane headed back inside the downed Pelican, collecting the nametags he could find, putting them in his pouch, but when he got to Davison he swallowed, grabbing her name tag he stared at the names and numbers, instead of putting the tag in his pouch he fixed the chain and placed it around his neck.

After that he checked the radio in the aircraft, but everything came back as static so he sighed, grabbed the emergency Medical kit and made his way out of the Pelican, he eyed the dawning sky and realized he might have been out for an hour or so, he kept staring at the sky, it seemed clear but the last time he thought that a Phantom shot them down, so he moved through the city trying to remember a rendezvous, but his memory had gotten a bit fuzzy since the crash, but he did remember there was one on the other side of the city, so with a gun- "Shit" he turned and tracked his way back to the Pelican, he forgot to grab himself a rifle.

As he made his way back he took notice of the white entity in the sky, still spiking with lighting, he had no fucking clue what that was. He watched it, grabbing a few weapons, along with his side pistol he began to walk back out, turning his gaze away from it he did an ammo count before looking back into the city, loading his rifle he sucked in a breath at the sound of explosion and gunfire in distance indicates that the battle was still going on, a moment after gaining back his confidence Kane made his way into the danger zone.

However he failed to notice three figures falling out of the white entity before it completely vanished out of the sky, and when Kane noticed he wondered if it was really the Covenant behind that or not.

Somewhere else in the city

The energy sword laying discarded on the ground was picked up by the owner, a Zealot with his battle armor dented but not pierced, the 'elite' growled slightly down at his fallen comrades, now he was left with a couple of those barbaric Brutes, annoying Grunts murmuring with each other and those pirates looking bodies, Dal'Verda deactivated his weapon and glanced at the Chieftain Brute, flaunting his hammer with pride and giving out orders that made no sense to him, he hated following the orders of someone who held no honor with their actions or words it was ridiculous, they were supposed to be taking prisoners yet, these brutes were killing the humans before they got the chance to become captives.

"And you" The Chieftain pointed to Dal, and the Sangheili looked up at him, glaring at him, the Brute paid no mind to his hatred. "Sangheili, you will stay behind here" Dals eyes widened and he scowled, what? "We will regroup and meet at the designated point for leave later, look for survivers"

Dal didn't argue, currently the Chieftan was in charge of operations after their higher up died. So Dal stood there as he watched them retreat, thought something in him knew that he would be left behind despite the words spoken to him of the regroup, and so the Sangheili hoped he would meet up with a different squad. "Yes sir" he scowled, than glanced down at his fallen brethren, he prayed for their souls before glancing around the rubbled area, there were no survivor he would conclude after not even a minute of looking.

But than he noticed something, and arm slightly poking out from behind one of the larger pieces of rubble, Dal'Verda moved quietly, his four mandibles shut as he peered over the piece, a small gasp reached his ears and he stared down at the young human child, her eyes wide and round, filled with tears and innocence still and for a moment Dal felt an urge he didn't recognize, the young girl didn't scream, she simply stared in shaken silence, at first he spoke to her in Sangheili and her little hiccup told him she didn't understand him, he racked his brain, trying to remember their language before speaking English. "How are you not frightened of me, little one?"

The girl lifted her head, making eye contact with the alien in front of her, he noticed she clenched her chest at his words. "I am" she said, Dal figured as much, but was surprised she didn't scream when she noticed him. "You speak," she was hesitant. "English?"

"Little" Replied Dal, "I am not fluent" A small chuckled emitted from his throat but than realized what he was doing, he was talking casually with a human, more barbarians and possibly more or less worse than the brutes, but- was what he was looking at a barbarian, a heretic? The Hiarch told them the humans were a parasite, a simple "cockroach" in the grand scheme things and they were weak. But after fighting with them for years Dal realized they were a more formidable foe than they were made out to be, clearly the cockroach name was earned but as he stared at this young girl, he didn't feel the urge to strike her through the heart with his weapon, he felt compelled to something he didn't entirely understand yet, Dal stared at her before reaching down and holding out his three fingers hand, the girl flinched back staring at the hand. "Don't worry, I do not bite" he reassured.

The girl stared for a long time, before she reached up and grabbed hold of his hand, he almost shivered at the five fingers wrapping around his three tightly, it felt strange. "You won't kill me?" He asked, clearly being very hesitant, Dal pulled her out of the rubble, shaking his head.

"No" he said in response, but he left out the part where he would be taking her to the Hierarchy as a prisoner, the brutes refuse to take one so he's taking one himself- even if she's..rather young and adorable- wait why adorable? Her clothes were a mess and her skin was covered in dirt. "I won't kill you"

So, there are slightly two different storylines that'll eventually meet up, one following Kane and the Legends and the other following along with Dal and the unnamed girl. Hope you enjoyed reading this. The next chapter will be where the crossover truly begins.

Please note I won't get everything canonical correct with both Apex and Halo, so don't be on my ass about little things pls.

I so appreciate constructive criticism however.