Characters: Arbiter, Master Chief, Mario, Samus, and Doomslayer
Settings: Master Chief's Pelican
Arbiter took off his armor plating, as he sat down with the rest of his crew, for a meeting. Looking at his reptilian flesh, he glanced at the brand that he'd had for what had seemed like ages now.
The Mark of Shame.
When he served the Covenant, he was given the mark, due to his inability to secure a Halo ring from the UNSC, and his now friend, 117. While it was considered a brand of shame, he was very glad he had failed. Had he succeeded, the damage done would have been far greater than anything that these portals had been able to do thus far.
However, regardless of what his success would have caused, the fact still stood. He had failed. Since then, failing was not tolerable, and he cherished the brand for reminding him of that. Ironic how things turned out...
But he had just failed. Failed to gain the warrior known as Link. Maybe had he got to Hyrule in time, to help defend them, he would have proved his worthiness of the Hylian's service. But he had failed...
Their crew now sat in the hull of the Pelican, all ready to pitch ideas for whom they could recruit next.
Arbiter decided that he should start off.
"With the failed recruitment of the Hylian, and the growing portal attacks, we will need to recruit a new warrior very soon. The Swords of Sanghelios still defend Sanghelios, and as such, there is no possible way to recruit them. Mario and Samus, I turn to you. You seem to have connections to multiple warriors scattered across the stars. Do you have any recommendations?"
The 2 exchanged glances, but Samus decided to start off. "I know of a few people that could work. For one, there's Dreamland. They have the Meta Knight, Kirby, and Dedede. All of which are great warriors, by the way. But I'd say it'd be better to go and recruit Pit and Palutena. Pit is and angel, and Palutena is a goddess. Both of them might have some idea of what these portals even are, since they live in Skyworld."
Mario shook his head. "Both-a of those are-a no-gos. We-a have no way-a of reaching Pit, and Dedede will want-a to keep Kirby and Meta Knight to-a protect Dreamland."
Samus nodded thoughtfully, "True, true... What about Sonic? He's plenty fast, and is impulsive enough to join without a second thought."
Mario gave Samus a dirty look. "Sonic and I-a are not-a on speaking terms."
Samus rolled her eyes. "You still hold a grudge against him?
To the Arbiter's surprise, Mario's scowl only increased. "He'd-a still be alive if it-a weren't for that-a blue hedgehog!"
Samus seemed to accept defeat. "Fine, you win..."
Before either of them could propose another candidate for recruitment, the Master Chief pressed a button on his arm, revealing a hologram projection of a large document. He then spoke up.
"I was searching through some old UNSC files, and I found something interesting... Back on Reach, there was a Spartan stationed there, who was reported MIA. He was a Spartan 4, and" - he turned to face the Arbiter - "he's the only other 'hyper lethal' Spartan, besides me."
Arbiter took in this information. He knew Master Chief to be a highly skilled warrior, and if this new Spartan was anything like him, he was desirable. Some questions still lingered however.
"How do we know he's still alive? It's been decades since Reach's destruction."
117 scrolled further into his document. "There have been reports, sightings...of a man in Spartan armor, who's been seemingly hunting. By this point, he would have been stranded for quite some time."
Samus raised a hand, and everyone turned towards her. "Umm...what is this 'Reach' thing?"
"Reach was one of Humanity's primary planets", Arbiter said lowering his head. His involvement with Reach's demise still wore on him. "The Covenant, a faction of zealots, that I used to be a part of, destroyed the entire planet, and killed everybody that lived there."
Samus went silent, in shock, and the Arbiter continued. "If this Spartan survived the fall of Reach, he will be a valuable asset. That is, unless anyone else has other recommendations?" Arbiter turned towards the Slayer. To his knowledge, the Doom Slayer hadn't spoken a single word, since recruited.
The Slayer gave Arbiter his signature scowl, and simply nodded his head 'no'.
"Then it's decided. We set course for Reach."
Arbiter sat in the cockpit once more, wondering about the topics Samus and Mario were discussing. Skyworld? Goddesses? The 2 certainly knew their fair share of warriors, but he'd never imagined that their knowledge would include those of the divine.
And what had Mario said earlier about this "Sonic"?
"He'd-a still be alive if it-a weren't for that-a blue hedgehog!"
Who had died due to this warrior? Why did Mario care, when it came to his usefulness in battle?
All of these questions he'd be sure to ask later. There was more to this galaxy he needed to know of, and more about his newfound allies that intrigued him.
This trip to reach was going to be and interesting one...
Author's Note: These first 10 chapters make up Part 1 of this story. Chapter 11 will begin Part 2, and will contain many more characters.
In other words, Part 1 was the setup, and Part 2 is where shit starts to go down lol. See you then!