Chapter One: A Fresh Start
1325 hours, February 12, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Aboard Pelican Dropship inbound to Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.
Lieutenant Astrid Hofferson cladded in her Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armor was strapped in the dimly lit cargo space of the UNSC Pelican Dropship with the rest of her team, the Valkyries. She was in deep thought remembering that only three years ago she was a cadet at the Reach Officer Academy where her only responsibilities were studies, combat exercises, and becoming the best military officer to honor her parents, who died a few years earlier fighting the Covenant. She was not expecting that back then in a few short weeks she would be presented the opportunity to avenge her parent's death during the Battle of Reach.
On that thought, her hand stoked the cold circular Covenant alloy of an Energy Sword that was attached to her hip ODST armor plate, remembering the encounter with the previous owner of the blade. Her mind jumped back in time three years who, where the overwhelming stench of death and fresh blood filled her nostrils, and the sounds of automatic gunfire rang in her ears. The hissing sounds of discharging plasma bolts retaliated as she ran down the hall with her MA5B swinging back and forth upon her back as she rushed to the fireteam's aid. She slid to a halt and braced herself against the double door frame leading into the large reception area of the hospital. Her security forces were assigned to protect this area, only to see a marine private being lifted by his neck, begging for his life. Astrid leveled her MA5B and took aim at the Sangheili warrior only to have the marine's body block her shot. She clenched her teeth and rifle hard as the marine's pleas were silenced with the whack of the energy sword piercing his body armor and exiting his chest like a hot knife cutting butter.
Astrid froze in horror as she realized that the entire fire team was wiped out and she was alone with the Sangheili warrior, who adorned maroon Covenant combat armor, indicating him to be a veteran. The Sangheili removed his blade from the now limp body and threw the corpse across the room, freeing his field of vision to notice Astrid for the first time. A nerve wrenching laughter emitted from the Sangheili's throat. "One lone infidel dares oppose me hahaha!" in appalling English bellowed the Sangheili as he slowly walked towards Astrid, dragging the tip of his sword in the ground that left a trail of gashed tiles in his wake.
Astrid, shaking off the shock, squeezed the trigger and felt the familiar repeated kick of the rifle stock in her shoulder as her rifle spat lead at the approaching Sangheili. A brilliant blue engulfed the seven-foot build of the warrior as the bullets ricocheted off the protective energy shield. Astrid depleted her magazine and dropped her right hand to her hip to begin retrieving her M6 sidearm from its holster. The action was never completed, for Astrid was startled by the roar of defiance as the Sangheili charged the last few meters, his arm posed high above his head- preparing an overhead cut with the sword. Astrid's eyes grew large with fear at the speed and ferocity of the assault and raised her own rifle to deflect the incoming blade as she stepped into the Sangheili's guard. Her heart was racing with adrenaline as the super-heated plasma of the blade glanced off the rifle fusing the barrel and central body into useless molten slag, burning her hands from the proximity of the blade. With a yelp of pain, she dropped the now useless rifle with it achieving its goal of keeping her alive a few more seconds.
The moment of respite was short lived as the Sangheili yelled in frustration at Astrid's defiance and kneed her in the abdomen with enough force to send her slender frame flying into a support column a few feet away. Astrid cried in pain from the attack and spat blood out of her mouth. The pain was quickly replaced with hatred towards the Covenant, giving her new-found strength. Astrid looked up in time to see the blade descending upon her once more as the Sangheili sprang curses at her. She pushed herself off the column into a combat roll, grabbed the knife from its sheath and in one fluid movement, sprung to her feet behind the Sangheili in a combat stance. With her own roar of defiance, she used the inverted knee of the Sangheili warrior to boost herself onto the back of the warrior. The stream of abuse from the Sangheili ceased as he turned his head to the side only to watch in surprise as Astrid's blade descended on his vulnerable neck, piercing the suit lining and embedding deep into his flesh, causing him to drop the sword.
Astrid landed hard on the floor, jarring her bruised ribs, which caused another painful yelp to leave her lips. She turned her head to the side to notice the Sangheili warrior sink to his knees, his sword hand attempting to cover the wound on his neck that was gushing out dark purple blood. Her attention was focused on the deactivated sword on the ground a few paces away. She dragged herself towards the blade causing her wounds to flare up in protest. Clenching her teeth, she desperately grasped the handle and forced herself to stand, scanning the devastation of the room. The entrance was littered with the dozen corpses of Unggoy warriors, five-foot-tall bipedal aliens clad in environmental armor, the ground splattered with their neon blue blood and the makeshift barricade painted red from the blood of the defending fire team. Their armor still glowed orange from where the energy sword passed through, ending the marines' lives. In that daze, she was standing before the dying Sangheili warrior, her right hand gripping the handle of the blade and the left covering her bruised ribs. Sangheili made a clumsy attempt to stand and draw his plasma pistol on his own hip, but with the amount of blood lost he could not manage to grip the handle and failed. Seeing the motion, Astrid activated the sword and plunged it deep in the Sangheili's chest, her face void of emotion and coldly whispered, "Die you Bastard."
"Hey LT, are you listening?" Cami said with a smile waving her hand in front of Astrid's face. "No LT was in deep thought, thinking of all the boys we will be meeting on this assignment, Cami," snickered Heather. The other women of the Valkyries laughed. With the memory interrupted, Astrid rolled her eyes at the jab from the green eyed, raven-haired female ODST across from her in the dropship. Then she turned her head towards the short blue eyes, blond hair ODST to her left. "I am sorry Corporal Camicazi, can you repeat your question. I was attempting to nap during this journey to Berk," Astrid deadpanned. "Oh, sorry LT, now that you are awake, have you heard anything about our new CO General Haddock? I heard that he is a giant of a man and fierce on the battlefield with the strength of a Spartan!" squealed Camicazi. Astrid raised an eyebrow at her energetic subordinate at the comparison between their new CO and a Spartan. With a dismissive look, "I have no doubt that General Haddock is strong and a good leader, but the strength of a Spartan? I need evidence to believe," stated Astrid. "On a further note ladies, on the subject of fraternizing, we are professional soldiers and I don't wait any paperwork during this assignment because you heartlessly crushed some poor man's heart!" Astrid commanded sternly. The cargo bay erupted in laughter from the other women. "The only one, hahaha, that needs to worry, hahaha, about not crushing hearts is you LT, hahaha!" Heather managed between laughter. Laughter was renewed and Astrid could no longer hold her bearing and joined in. The laughter ended when the intercom clicked open "Ladies welcome to FP-089, we will be making our atmospheric re-entry in just a moment, please remain strapped in your seats, for re-entry can get rough and thank you for flying UNSC. Next destination Research Outpost Berk," stated the pilot.
1337 hours, February 12, 2555 (Military Calendar)/ Omega Delta System, Research Outpost Berk, Planet FP-089.
Lieutenant Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III took a deep sigh as he leaned back in his chair, trying to clear his head from his current task of deciphering Forerunner encryption keys that Berk's communication tower keeps intercepting. He was the first to uncover the mystery signal six months ago during a routine maintenance check of the comms mainframe and followed protocol by making a copy of the Forerunner signal and sent it up the chain. His Father, General Stoick "The Vast" then sent it to the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI for short for analysis, only for their specialists to be just as baffled as the researchers at Berk were. Nowadays, he uses the signal puzzle as a distraction from his brilliant mind from tinkering with the base main systems. In the past, such a course of action lead to "unforeseen hiccups" with base operations followed by a reprimand from the base commander about him endangering the base. This lead to his current nickname Lieutenant Useless from most of the base personal that was only used not in General Haddock's presence.
Hiccup sighed again at that depressing thought and looked around his complex, his only sanctuary, living quarters, office, and workshop. Across from him on his desk was his computer terminal still displaying the Forerunner code with multiple decipher algorithms running. To the right of his key board were a stack of reports of Forerunner sites and combat reports with Forerunner defense units. On top of the reports was a mug half filled with coffee that was forgotten hours ago and long since turned cold. Hiccup turned towards the door and walked past his drafting station with data tablets scattered on the table and dozens of blue prints hanging on the wall. He walked through the tiny living room to enter his garage that he converted into a workshop. Pausing briefly, he took a deep breath and smiled when the similar smell of machine oil, sweat, and burnt electronic motherboards engulfed his senses. Hiccup grabbed the battered and stained leather work apron that was a gift from Colonel Gobber, his father's best friend and who he viewed as an uncle. Gobber was the only one besides Major Gothi, the Berk's lead medical officer, and Specialist Fishlegs Ingerman, who all treated him with some level of decency. After donning his apron, he strolled past a disassembled Warthog that he liberated from the motor pool after the mechanics deemed it unsalvageable after taking a hit from a Forerunner particle cannon. It took him four months of hunting for parts, but now he almost had it in somewhat working order and is currently the centerpiece of his latest inventions. Since January, he was in the process of modifying the Guss Cannon currently attached to the Warthog to emit an EMP pulse when the rail round hits a target. The EMP component works a little too well to the point that he accidently shut down Berk in a 200 ft radius. He got an ear full from Colonel Spitlout Jorgenson, the lead security officer about making Berk vulnerable to a Forerunner attack.
Pushing the memory aside, Hiccup retrieved his electrical tools and sat down at his workstation and began attempting to recalibrate the EMP regulator. Too engrossed in his work, he failed to realize the low hum being emitted from the regulator that was beginning to raise in pitch and intensity. "Oh Thor!" dropping his tools, Hiccup grabbed a sheet of alloy leaning to his right and placed it between himself and his project with practiced ease. BOOM! The concessive blast knocked Hiccup over singeing the tips of his out of regulation choppy amber hair. Dazed with a constant ringing in his ears, he glanced through the smoke at his workstation that has a new scorched mark. His attention was focused on the regulator that was shooting off sparks of electricity from a fried motherboard that he was working to notice a pair of arms grip him under his armpits and began to drag him away from his workshop. He looked up and his mouth dropped at the sight beholden in front of him. "I knew it, I have died, and this beautiful Valkyrie is carrying me to Valhalla," thought Hiccup. He studied her face beginning with her exquisite blue eyes filled with intelligence followed by her small nose and fair complexion. He couldn't believe how golden blond her hair was with that single braid. Analysis complete, he confirmed this breathtaking warrior maiden was a Valkyrie from the legends of old. The blond Valkyrie moved outside his field of vision and he tried to follow but was impeded by another Valkyrie. This one had short buzzed brown hair and grey-green eyes filled with concern. She had a stronger nose than the first and a strong grip apparently, for she halted his motion with ease and shined a flashlight into his eyes, causing him to have dotted vision temporarily. This Valkyrie turned her head to say something to the blond Valkyrie who then nodded, but his hearing was still impaired. He then felt a puncture in his arm and the last thing he felt was being moved onto a stretcher and passed out.