Author's note 1:
Well, at least I know some people are actually interested in this work.
Carlosxvx: Wut?
Brother Bov: Yes, Sergeant!
Dark demon619: I might actually be the first one :/
Ksgrip: Indeed.
Althyrios: Eeeehhh… not really.
Gold: Here I am.
Guest 1: Thanks for the informations, but our guardian here is a Titan, not a Hunter. You might want to re-read the prologue.
Guest 2: You'll have to wait, do not demand.
Guest 3: In what way? Where is the criticism? Where is the: "Your poorly handling of the subject BECAUSE…". I'm just gonna pretend your review doesn't exist.
KINGREADER: Here it is!
Now, you read the title and might know what I have in mind.
Yes, I'm going to answer the biggest question everyone has since the beginning:
"GUARDIAN vs MASTER CHIEF: WHO WINS?"
The few followers might stop following my story after this particular chapter, but that's okay.
Enjoy!
Darkness…
Only Darkness…
He couldn't feel his body, his digits were dormant and he felt a heavy mass upon his chest.
Was he dead?
He tested his fingers, finally shaking away the soreness, and opened his eyes.
He squeezed them behind his visor and looked down.
He gripped the debris with a hand yanked it off as fast as he could before grabbing his rifle with the other one.
He raised and scanned the area: the ship's pieces were scattered around, smoke slowly floating and dissipating in the air.
"Where are we?" Chief asked, rolling his shoulders and neck.
"Checking coordinate impact data. We-"
"We have asked you to give up your family, your childhood, your future-"
He shook his head and blinked a few times, reaching for Cortana he pulled her away from the helmet.
Her hologram appeared.
"Cortana!"
"I'm sorry, it's the crash, I'm fine." He wasn't entirely convinced.
"Something was wrong even before we left the Dawn." He wanted to help her, he just needed to know what was happening.
"Chief, really, I'm fine." He narrowed his eyes at the interference in her voice and raised from his crouching position.
"Cortana." He simply answered.
Cortana looked at her intertwined hands before sighing. "I was put into service eight years ago."
Chief broke eye contact. It couldn't be. "Eight years?"
"AIs deteriorate after seven, Chief."
There had to be something he could do to prevent… that. Anything to fix her, to fix this…
…
Of course!
"Halsey…" She interrupted him but he ignored it. "…we need to find Halsey." The scientist could do something.
"Chief! Please."
"She made you, she can fix you." Perhaps he was too delusional to think it would have been the right solution, but he was a soldier. He would leave the science part to Halsey.
"I won't recover from rampancy, Chief."
Not if he could save her first.
"If we can just get back to Earth and find Halsey, she can fix this."
She stared at his eyes, behind his helmet and sighed. "Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep."
He already heard that before, but he could keep this.
Chief knew he could.
Various Covenant ships flew away from their position, he immediately put Cortana back.
"We need to move and-"
BOOM!
Chief turned his gaze to the sky, another ship was badly damaged. Small size but fast: it was going to crash.
Problem was? It couldn't be a Covenant ship.
"Is that a UNSC ship?"
"My scanners cannot find a model matching ours, Chief. But it's not of Covenant origins, that's for sure."
CRASH!
"We should go and search for any survivors." He eventually said.
"Chief, we are dealing with a complete unknown. Are you seriously taking chances?"
He stared at the location the ship went down. "You said it is not of Covenant origins, right?"
"Indeed."
Fair enough.
"If the UNSC managed to create other models over the years, we should probably look for survivors. They might help us on this planet."
"I do not agree with your thinking, Chief."
He just started marching for the landing location.
Who said she had to?
Planet's atmosphere.
10 minutes before impact.
When the trembling finally stopped, Drake gripped the main commands and tried to stabilize his weight, taking in deep breaths.
Even his Ghost had to take a moment to stop rotating, his lone eye narrowed by the dizziness.
They were still in space, that much the Titan grasped. But where?
"W-where are we?" He could finally ask, checking the ship's status by himself as his Ghost tried to find the location they were at.
The engine was pretty damaged, along with the systems in general. Especially for the flying department.
Maybe they could reach the Tower and attend to maintance, he needed a drink badly.
"I… don't know."
He coughed and turned his gaze to Ghost, waiting for an explanation.
"I cannot find the right position, we are not near Earth, Nessus or even Europa. Scanners are showing nothing…" He remained silent for a moment. "…we might not even be in our solar system anymore."
So, they were… drifting in space, with no destination.
"Wait, scanners found something… maybe it's a planet!"
He patiently waited for his Ghost's analysis in case they could find a suitable place to land the ship on.
"I-I found something, but it's not registered in our archives. No name, no nothing. But I think it can sustain life, so we should probably take our chances."
Fair enough, anything was welcomed at this point.
He took control of the commands and pointed to the planet.
BOOM!
He was thrusted ahead; an explosion rang through the cabin.
"It won't last long enough, Guardian!"
…
"Divert the last energy resources to the engines, we need to land on that planet, even it means risking our ride to blow up."
Ghost was not happy with his order, but he understood how futile it would be to argue.
He just hoped the landing would not cause their death.
"Guardian! Guardian wake up!"
He jumped from his seat and looked around, but he only found his Ghost rotating his shell in front of him. A sigh escaping his robotic voice.
"Thank the Traveler you're awake! I thought I would lose you for good."
He searched for Hawkmoon and Felwinter's, taking his gear and placing it in place, carefully making sure to avoid the burning sectors in the ship. They finally landed.
"What do you mean by that? You could have just resurrected me as always."
"Y-you can't feel it? Try to access your abilities, even Stasis."
He raised a hidden eyebrow but shrugged, he just opened his palm and waited for flames to surround it.
But nothing happened.
He widened his eyes and tried to summon Stasis, but it didn't work.
And now that he checked it, he felt… empty…
"It's happening again, Guardian. I'm not sure how it is possible, but whatever happened disabled our connection with Light or Darkness…" His lone eye stared at the floor. "…I feel without purpose, empty. And I can't bring you back if you die, I can only heal any wound."
He clenched his fists for a moment before his shoulders shrunk down in defeat. "We'll figure this out later. We just have to get out of here first and understand where we are."
Ghost disappeared into his dimension and Drake opened the emergency exit, jumping on the ground and landing with a heavy 'THUD'!
He knew from the moment he saw the sky that he wasn't on any known planet, it was all so alien to him.
"It doesn't make sense! I can't establish contact with the Vanguard, and any other channel is not available because they do not exist! Where did that portal send us to?"
He reloaded the shotgun just in case, scanning the area for hostiles.
"Wait, I've got movement! One unknown ping detected, and it is coming straight to us." His HUD was marked, he decided to hide behind some debris, waiting.
Sure enough, he heard a pair of heavy footsteps approaching his ship. He kept his head down and made sure to check at the right time, not wanting to be discovered.
The footsteps stopped.
He heard a voice.
"What type of ship is this, Cortana?"
It was a male one, deep and professional. He knew it was a soldier.
"Drake, we do not know who he is and who he's speaking to. But he's for sure not a Guardian, I would keep a neutral approach, he might be aggressive."
Trapped on an unknown planet with an unknown soldier with no powers? Everything could be dangerous to him.
"I'm not taking any chances." He whispered.
"Then make sure to aim your first shot well."
He waited a bit more and acted: faster than any other human could be he raised from his cover and fired with Hawkmoon on his target. Three out of the four shots missed, but the fourth landed, he saw some sort of yellowish shield deflecting most of the damage.
So his target had an energy shield as he did.
The soldier rolled out of the way and faced him the moment he jumped over his cover in the opening.
They both stared at each other.
Drake has never seen anything like the armor the soldier was wearing.
Greenish in appearance with black outlines, it had an orange visor. He could tell it was constructed for warfare by the speed the soldier used to roll out of the way.
But what amazed him was the height of the one who was wearing it.
Standing at 7 feet tall, the man was carefully aiming his rifle at him. He noticed how the weapon was an assault rifle, but it looked… older… than most of his equipment.
Not advanced would be the correct description.
It reminded him of the Khvostov he found when he woke up, the older version of the one he constructed when the SIVA crisis began.
Now, most of the guardians were around 6ft and 2in. But Titans? Titans were slightly taller.
His comrades had to be 6ft and 3in. This was because of their roles in the three classes.
But Drake was around Shaxx's own height. He proudly stood at 6ft and 4in.
Seeing someone like this particular soldier was outstanding, but he defeated Gods, Kells, Emperors and Vex Minds.
He was simply unfazed.
He held Hawkmoon and prepared himself.
While on the other end, Master Chief stared at the one who attacked him.
At first he thought a Covenant Elite or Grunt had tried to test their luck with a surprise attack. He was amazed at how the blow had lowered his shields, the shot wasn't clearly a plasma attack and he knew it was no Covenant at all as soon as he realized what happened.
This… humanoid armored being in front of him, reminded the Chief of a Spartan by the stature.
But the type of armour and weapons he held were nothing he has ever seen before: a gun, totally different from a standard magnum, was loosely held in both of his hands. Strangely enough, he saw some kind of decorations on it, like a ceremonial weapon to use for special occasions.
And a shotgun strapped to his back.
The armour itself was clearly structured to operate at low temperatures by the heavy design. A strange… backpack on his shoulders, still connected to the rest of the armour.
His visor was a variety of colours, the helmet ending with an oval beak.
"Chief…" He totally forgot about Cortana. He tried to listen to her while keeping a close eye on the attacker. "…I don't know who that is, I'm not even sure he is human. I suggest that… he, is to be considered a threat seeing as how he shot first."
He needed no more incentive.
He opened fire.
(Small Author's note:
From now on, the POV will be in general so I will use names, adjectives etc.)
Drake quickly drove away and got into cover, the shots aimlessly colliding where he previously stood.
This surprised Chief, he didn't expect him to react this quickly. He was clearly as experienced as he was, and because of that, Chief won't underestimate Drake. He simply won't.
In fact, it didn't take long for heavy fire to drawn upon him, forcing him to retreat momentarily.
The bullets let out strange sounds, it reminded Chief of a crow. He was deeply curious on what gun Drake was using, perhaps after he took him out he could check it and see if it was useful.
They were in a stalemate, peeking every now and then to waste a magazine on each other before ducking down as the other opened fire.
This went on until Drake realized the futility of the tactic. "I need to flank the guy to have a chance to end this."
"There is actually a small entrance created by the debris of the various ships fallen on the planet. You can use them to daze him and strike when required." His HUD was marked, he narrowed his eyes and thought of a strategy to lure Chief in his trap.
Emptying another magazine of Hawkmoon he ducked down and grabbed a rock, he waited for Chief to suppress his position. He did not answer back with his load of lead, instead he patiently crouched and let time pass: he knew this would draw his attention.
When he was sure Chief would think he changed position, he threw the item at his left and sprinted for the opposite direction as the clang echoed: a rifle answered.
Drake smirked, it was a classic and primitive move. Make your enemy think you are there when in reality you are changing your location to better suit in combat.
Effective as much as unpredictable. A trick he learned from Marius and his time in the wild, Hunters were unpredictable and this gave them advantages in combat.
Drake simply learned and mirrored, and he knew how to do it.
Despite being a Titan, he was still very agile, fast and concise in his steps. But despite his speed he heard two heavy footsteps behind him, glancing behind his shoulder he saw Chief sprinting right on his toes, not that far from him.
He entered an inlet and crouched, waiting.
Chief in fact arrived and pointed for the exit on the left side, away from the entrance. Aiming for Drake as he would leave his position.
But he didn't.
"Chief, look out!" Too late, he didn't have enough time to prepare for the attack. A fist impacted with his weapon, sending it flying away to God-knew-where but before Drake could pull the trigger of Hawkmoon he kicked him in the chest with a foot and elbowed his arm, the gun falling on the ground.
Before Drake could try to collect it, he slid it away with a fast motion.
That only left him with his gun, and the Titan with his shotgun.
He drew his weapon between his fingers and Drake did the same.
He expected him to start shooting, but Chief was surprised when the Guardian dropped the weapon on the ground and a walked a step towards him, leaving it behind him.
It took him a few moments to realize the implication. "He wants to play on the same level."
He hesitated but complied, interested in this particular warrior. Discarding his gun away, he got in a fighting stance.
"What are you doing Guardian?! Are you seriously throwing away your only chance at winning this fight?!" Ghost was sharp and fast in his warning, tone desperate and demanding.
"I find him interesting, and want to test him in hand-to-hand combat." Drake whispered back, a small smirk tugging his lips as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Glad that Chief accepted the terms of their next round.
"It's not that, but the fact that I can't revive you if you die! Do I have to remind you of our predicament? I cannot feel the Traveler's light or stasis flowing through you. We only have a shot at this, are you willing to take this chance and risk to lose everything to keep your Titan pride?"
"I can do this, trust me."
Silence…
He was afraid Ghost wasn't convinced despite his attempts at reassuring him. That is until Ghost simulated a small sigh.
"Be careful… Drake."
When he got the green light he started to walk, but gradually speeding towards Chief. Considering Chief was the one who properly started the fight, Drake figured he could begin round two by his rules.
He raised his hand and prepared a blow, going straight for his target.
But what he didn't expect was for Chief to quickly duck down and step back, before his own fist impacted his helmet.
It hurt… but not that much.
He slowly regained his composure, and looked at Chief, tilting his head.
So, from what he saw he lacked strength but compensated in agility and speed wherever he lacked the latter and mastered the former.
It was pretty balanced, he assumed.
He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, a grin spreading across his hidden face.
Drake lunged forward again, swinging his fist towards Chief who simply stepped back and elbowed the Titan in his flank, making him slightly slum to the ground on one knee.
Chief went to finish him, ending the fight…
…If not for the fact that Drake snapped his head up and grabbed his hand, squeezing it in his palm.
The Spartan tried to free himself by using his free body part, but it was caught too. This surprised him since the force applied was so much he almost felt his bones crushing.
How strong was this guy?
He tried to headbutt him, this would definitely give him the distraction needed to escape the hold. But when his forehead impacted with his visor, he just shrugged the blow off and continued to apply pressure.
A second and third time was useless as Drake was unfazed by each attempt.
The only thing left for the Spartan was to kick him in the chest and hoping the force would be enough to push him back.
Big mistake.
Drake knew this would eventually come, he let go of the hold and dodged the kick before crashing against the Spartan's chest, throwing him on the ground.
He jumped and tried to finish the job by slamming both of his hands on him, only for Chief to roll out of the way.
The Titan sprinted and used his momentum to start attacking, one of his punches impacted with the walls of a ship creating a hole inside. He took a moment to get it out of its imprisonment, as Chief witnessed this.
He wouldn't admit it, but his eyes slightly widened in surprise. Who was he? How could he be so strong to being able to do that?
While Drake knew he had to change his way of approaching this fight. Maybe if he isolated Chief, he wouldn't be able to use his agility to dodge, giving him an advantage to exploit.
But he got an idea.
As he endured another blow to the helmet and to his chest, he grabbed Chief's leg and flipped him backwards. He quickly scooped closer as he landed and took his foot, making sure he couldn't escape.
He started to spin around and groaned, lifting 450 kg was not an easy task even for a Titan as powerful as him.
Drake threw the Spartan away, who crashed against a ship and fell.
Chief… could feel rage building inside him. This fight was really taking its toll on him, something he was not prepared for.
He had to end this.
Breathing deeply and getting up, he faced the Guardian and clenched his fists. "Chief, please! You have to do something or you won't survive this encounter." Cortana's voice only fomented his emotions. He still had a promise to keep, and he would make sure to keep it.
He ducked down and sent a stroke directly to Drake's chest, the Guardian slumbered on the ground and started to cough violently.
But Chief wasn't finished.
He elbowed his visor and grabbed his back, throwing him in a closed space.
Each time the Titan would try to flee the dead end he found himself in, the Spartan would just push him back and continue to hammer him down.
"No, no, no! There has to be something you can do Drake. Fight back! You are a Titan for the Traveler's sake! You are one of the best fighter of the Traveler, chosen by it to protect humanity! We did not come all this way to lose now, didn't we?"
If the Guardian could hear Ghost's words, he did not show it. Each blow was a sting, he would not resist much longer.
But the pain was slowly fading, his vision darkening, his sense drowning, his soul shifting form like molding ceramic.
Would he die permanently?
"It is not your time yet…" Thousands of voices echoed around him and he…
He saw… light…
Drake suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline, his vision regained colour-
-Just in time to catch the Spartan's fist coming straight for him.
Even though the Spartan couldn't see him, he glared like he never did before, maybe only matching the fury of his past self when Cayde died.
And along with that fury, electricity cracked and wrapped around him like a blanket, engulfing him.
"T-the Light! We are back!"
He ignored his Ghost's cheer, there was only space for the Spartan in the Guardian's mind.
Only him…
He whacked Chief right in the chest, sending him back. The Spartan had to use his hands to slow down the speed.
Drake ran at him, arc energy continuing to crack on his skin, enhancing his speed and agility.
He was fast, very fast. But most importantly? Deadly.
In fact, he was more agile than Chief himself. When he started the hand to hand combat again, his bulky size did not limit the momentum of his punches as arc energy was helpful.
He would repeat a simple circle: throw a few punches in his flank, dodge a whack coming from him, hit his chest and repeat.
Hit, dodge, hit, dodge, hit, dodge.
The tables had shifted in his advantage, and he knew he would win if he kept on going.
Not to mention how the Spartan's time of reaction slowed down, exhaustion getting the hold of him.
He yet again grabbed his back and threw him away like a tin can.
Considering how he struggled to get up, Drake just needed the final push to finish this.
He calmly walked towards him-
-Until Chief's helmet beeped and the hologram of Cortana appeared, projected by it.
That made Drake stop and stare in wave at her, his super's energy dying down.
"Cortana! What are you doing?" Chief groaned, standing on one knee.
His AI companion glanced behind her shoulder for a moment. "I'm putting an end to this, John."
She concentrated her attention to the Guardian and took a small breath. "By what I witnessed you shouldn't even be human or Covenant. Neither of these two races can charge that amount of energy. But my analysis reveal you are indeed one…"
Drake took the dead time to digest the AI's speech and appearance before she continued.
"I do not know how you are capable of doing that, but if you are human I need to ask you why you attacked us…" She gestured behind her. "This, is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 of the UNSC."
By the time she ended the greeting of the Spartan part, Chief managed to get up.
Cortana placed a hand on her chest. "I am Cortana, an AI charged as his companion."
"You are…?"
…
"What in the Traveler's name?"
Drake had to agree with his Ghost as he blinked, astonished.
Author's note 2:
Well, if you managed to reach the final line, I suppose some explanation are in order.
First things first, the reason of the fighting.
If you were stranded on a strange planet, with no way to contact the Vanguard, with an unknown contact approaching, and most importantly, Lightless, I suppose you would consider everything the enemy, yes?
The absence of the Light.
This problem will be fully addressed in the next chapter, but for the cliché of writing about "a strange entity that gives Drake his abilities back" (which we all know what it was), I just felt like write it.
This leads also to the fight.
I just wanted to write a Titan vs Master Chief fight on the same ground.
This is my thesis:
Master Chief vs Guardian (No light): Master Chief wins.
Master Chief vs Guardian (Light): Guardian wins.
I don't think that Chief's armour can resist the possibility of being atomized, but seeing as how he survived the fall on a planet, I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
But aside from that, Chief saved the galaxy and universe 3 times (until Halo 4).
Our Guardian?
Countless times.
Guardian Master Chief all day.
The Height.
I will use meters now, so no feet.
As an example, I will use my country, Italy: in the previous century, my population's average height was around 1.75 meters or 1.76 meters.
However with the development of science, style of life etc. etc. our average height increased from 1.75 meters to 1.80 meters.
Of course there are some exceptions, like my father who is 1.88 meters.
So, If the Golden age tripled the life spawn, I think the average height actually increased, especially for Titans.
One example: Shaxx.
So, I just wanted Drake to be slightly taller.
One punch man.
Seeing as how Titans are giant, bulking, refined Spartans with paracausal powers; they are the only ones capable of having a chance against Master Chief in hand to hand combat.
Their durability alone would make Master Chief tired by the time a real Titan would start to take the L.
But even then I think Chief's agility could help him win in the end, after a tiresome battle that is.
And unless he gets punched, because if he gets it a few times it's game over.
One punch man fight indeed.
Raising Chief's weight.
I don't know how the fuck Master Chief's weight in armour is 450 kgs, it doesn't make sense.
But a Cabal weights between 252 kgs and 452 kgs. And seeing as how Zavala wrestled with one in the Vanilla campaign, this added with how our Guardian is currently the strongest entity in the Destiny universe and a Titan in this case, I can safely assume he could raise Master Chief and throw him around.
Drake's agility in super.
Do I really need to point this out?
Arc's super makes us faster and more deadly, so I think that it can increase stamina, agility and speed like in this chapter.
Why they fought hand to hand.
All Titans like to test their strength and power.
Drake is no exception.
The reason why the fight ended.
If a fight between the two begins, I always thought about either Cortan or our Ghost stopping it.
Maybe the reason is shitty, but it's okay for me.
…
Having said this, I hope I didn't forget to cover up any points in the fight.
If you dislike it, it's okay.
But know that I had fun writing it so much ^^
Until next time!
Gino out!