Chapter 3, Emergencies

Texas, United States, Earth.

John-117 and his second-in-command, Taylor-013, sit in a UNSC Pelican, flying towards Dallas. Commander Thomas Lasky had given John orders back in New York to help UNSC personnel in Texas with evacuation efforts due to abnormally strong storms heading for the DFW metroplex. "Take point, we drop in thirty seconds," John orders Taylor as he calibrates the scope on his DMR that he picked up from the UNSC armory in New York.

"How we dropping?" Taylor asks while loading a clip into her MA5B Assault Rifle.

"The door opens and we jump. We're Spartans; we'll survive the landing. Just brace for a hard landing, and let's go to work."

Sure enough, approximately thirty seconds after that, the door opens. John and Taylor stand and sprint out the back. John jumps and spreads his arms and legs and starts free-falling towards the ground. Through his visor, John can see the ground coming up fast, and steels himself for landing. "You good?" he asks Taylor.

"Yeah, that was a little bumpy. Probably gonna have a bruise or two later," Taylor says as she stands and shakes her EVA-class helmeted head.

"For your first chute less air-drop, you did alright. Alright, onto business. Cortana, replace TEAMCOM with a weather radar on the HUD for me and 013, and patch in any EAS warnings for the storms."

"Already on it. We got here just in time; National Weather Service has already issued a PDS Tornado Watch. I've alerted city officials of imminent danger. Warnings are being put out, UNSC forces are opening up their doors to the public, and letting civilians seek shelter underground. Schools are cancelling classes for an indefinite amount of time, Interstate 20 and Highway 80 both have been shut down; 20, from the other side of Dallas, to Canton. 80 has been shut down from Terrell to Edgewood. "Acknowledged. ETA on the storms?" John asks.

"Later this evening, exact time, unknown. I'll keep you posted with latest warnings and announcements and live radar feed," Cortana replies.

"Situation?" Taylor asks.

"PDS Tornado Watch in effect, a major highway and interstate shut down into and out of Dallas, schools cancelled classes for an indefinite amount of time, UNSC bases are letting civilians seek shelter underground. It doesn't look good," John explains as they sprint through the fields towards the outskirts of downtown.

"Why are we here again? We can't stop the storms, and it sounds like things are being handled fine," Taylor asks.

"We're here to give extra warnings, and help with search-and-rescue once the storms move out."

"Do you have any sort of plan for this thing?" Taylor inquires.

"Yeah, Cortana has put a weather radar in our HUDs so we can track the storms without being immobile. We'll split up and meet up with other UNSC forces, then go from there. The way these storms are looking, Dallas is going to get smashed up worse than a bunch of Marines facing a Chieftain."

Soon after that, John and Taylor find themselves on the outskirts of downtown Dallas. Interstate 635 is eerily desolate, no cars driving back and forth, however, John does see a few Troop-Carrier Warthogs.

"Chief, National Weather Service just issued a Tornado Warning for the DFW Metroplex. Storm spotters have spotted intense rotation, and a possible funnel between Reunion Tower and downtown Fort Worth," Cortana alerts John.

"Acknowledged. Taylor, we need to find UNSC personnel fast. National Weather Service issued a Tornado Warning for the storm we're on. Things are going south, fast."

"Alright, where we going?" Taylor asks.

"Reunion Tower. Best vantage point around, best view. We'll know what's coming before it hits," John replies.

Fifteen minutes later, John and Taylor are riding the elevator up to the top of Reunion Tower. From the window in front of the elevator, John can see angry, black, swirling clouds up the sky. He would not have been ashamed to admit it intimidated him a little bit. For once he was facing a problem that couldn't be solved with a gun, some bullets, and whole lot of luck. He's going to have to think his way through this, in order to prevent getting himself and Taylor killed. "Master Chief, can you hear me?" a UNSC Search-and-Rescue operative radios John over COMS.

"117 copies, go ahead," John replies.

"We need Taylor-013 to get to the base, double time. Our thinking is you'll be better off with her at the base, able to watch civilians, while you focus on being out in the field, watching the storms." "Agreed. Taylor, I'm sending you to the UNSC base near here. The guys there will give you instructions. Go, don't argue with me," John tells her. She nods and goes back down the elevator, and out towards the base. John turns his eyes back to the skies, and sees something truly terrifying. A funnel protrudes from the clouds, and from what John can see, it's expanding towards the ground. "Cortana, is that what I think it is?" John asks.

"Yes, that would be a tornado in the process of touching down. Doesn't seem to be that strong though. There's a major cell heading this way from Forney, ETA, thirty minutes, maybe less," Cortana replies.

John watches the tornado touch down, move forward, then pick back up. He watches the swirling clouds, and sees the funnel spinning high above him. It starts to descend back towards John, who doesn't see it until it's twenty feet above him. "Oh... shoot," he mutters. He turns and barrels towards the glass doors, the tornado almost down completely. He looks back, and sees it fully on the ground and moving towards the tower. John crashes through the glass doors, flies towards the elevator, jams the button and calls it up. He grabs the doors, rips them open and punches a hole through elevator floor. He looks back and feels the tornado making the tower sway. He jumps into the hole and free falls through 500-foot elevator shaft down to the bottom. He grabs onto the wall just before he lands and stops himself, while also ripping cords and steel bars off the wall. He grabs his Energy Sword and cuts a hole to the outside, where he sees the tornado tossing tables and chairs down from the top of the tower. "So, I just escaped a tornado by falling down an elevator shaft. All in a day's work for a Spartan," John says to himself.

"That was a bit close," Cortana remarks. "We have a confirmed extremely large and dangerous tornado on the ground from the Forney cell as well."

"Taylor-013, do you read me?" John asks over public COMs.

"Yeah, what's up?" she asks.

"Tornado on the ground here in downtown, and an extremely large and deadly tornado inbound, coming from Forney," John replies.

"I saw the one in downtown, I'll let FOX8 know about the Forney tornado," Taylor replies.

"Acknowledged, 117 out," John looks off at the tornado that almost hit him as it goes off towards some open fields.

"John, National Weather Service has bumped us up from Particularly Dangerous Situation, to Extremely Dangerous Situation. That's unprecedented levels of danger in that case," Cortana tells him. "They also issued a new tornado warning; one I don't recognize: Catastrophic Tornado Warning. From what I can tell, it's being used because the tornado in Forney has surpassed even the strongest EF5 ever measured in human history."

"This is going way too south way too fast for my liking," John remarks. "Patch me in to Channel 8, I need to report this, and send any drone shots of the tornado." Cortana sends the images, and what John sees shocks him beyond belief. All he can see is a massive wall of black and debris, the tornado has to be 3 miles wide at this point.

"Can you hear me?" a voice says in John's helmet.

"Yeah, hi. This is SPARTAN-117, UNSC. I'm standing next to Reunion Tower, where a tornado just passed by. My intel tells me we have a Catastrophic Tornado Warning in effect, and drone images I've seen show the Forney tornado to be at least 3 miles wide. Anyone not underground, or in a UNSC facility needs to reevaluate their life choices and get to safety ASAP. I'll be watching for the tornado, and I'll keep you guys updated." John watches the approaching storm, and starts to tremble very slightly in his armor. What he had seen in the drone shots was terror in physical form.

"Chief, the tornado is moving into Mesquite right now. It'll be here in ten minutes tops," Cortana tells him.

"Acknowledged. Let the UNSC Search-and-Rescue that the thing is here." Just as John says that, the wind suddenly starts whipping and blowing like a screaming gale. A tree branch narrowly misses hurtling into John; even being a Spartan, having a large object hurtle into his armor is never fun. A spear of lightning cuts the sky, followed by a mighty crack of thunder that sends John diving into cover. "Cortana, what's happening?" John shouts over the wind.

"The storm is hitting! I can't locate the tornado, but I think we'll be seeing it soon enough," Cortana replies.

John scans the sky and sees odd things falling from the sky; things such as tires, parking meters and newspaper dispensers. He dodges into an alleyway (all the while he had been communicating with Cortana and FOX8, he had been running into downtown for cover.) He watches, from cover, more junk fall from the sky. The strangest thing happens after a minute: the wind, rain and lightning all stop. Complete silence engulfs Dallas, but it's short lived. A thunderous roar sounds out, and John instantly knows what it is. He peeks out, and sees a massive swirling wall of cloud out in the middle of everything. "Taylor, the tornado is here. I want you underground right now," John radios Taylor.

"I'm in the reinforced bunker underground, looking at your suit's live feed. You need to be careful," she replies.

John doesn't reply, for he becomes aware of the tornado bearing down on him. "This isn't going to be fun," he growls. "Come on tornado, let's dance." He grabs his Energy Sword, steels himself, then sprints, as fast as he can make his MJOLNIR go. He penetrates the tornado, and has to catch himself, or else he would've been picked up by the storm. Pandemonium reigns inside the funnel; John throws himself to the side as the massive ball from the Reunion Tower hurtles towards him. He looks straight up, and what he sees could only be described as incredible. Multiple vortices are constantly forming and breaking away from the main circulation, lightning constantly flashes, giving the interior of the funnel a strange, eerie glow. John sprints through the carnage, out of the funnel. He leans forward to catch his breath. He turns and sees the tornado heading into the heart of downtown. "Taylor, I don't know if you can hear me, but this monster of a tornado is about to hit downtown head-on. Thousands of people are about to die, and I just ran through the beast," John tries to radio in. All he gets in return is seven seconds of static silence. He feels the ground start shuddering violently and turns to see what happened. The tornado had entered downtown, and destroyed a skyscraper, blowing it over.

"Chief, you're not going to like what I'm about to tell you, but there's an even stronger storm about to drop a tornado, and it's trekking straight for the metroplex," Cortana informs him.

"Will this madness never end?" John groans.

"This seems like it's the last storm, although we're going to have our work cut out for us." John looks at the radar in his HUD, and sees a purple and red mass moving down Interstate-20, coming from Canton. "Is it just Dallas that has major damage? Or have other places had confirmed tornadoes," he asks.

"Canton, Tyler, and Grand Saline have all had major tornadoes plow through them, but they weren't nearly as strong as the one in Dallas, nor the one inbound," Cortana replies.

John turns and sprints into the city, and he stops when he realizes what he's witnessing. Skyscrapers lay on their sides, a few still standing, but nothing left except a mangled frame of steel girders. Smaller buildings are completely demolished, nothing except the foundations and a few bits left over. Collapsed tower cranes lay over the still-standing skyscrapers. From what John could see, the tornado managed to leave its mark. "Cortana, how many?" John asks breathlessly.

"I've scanned, and the death toll is well over fifty-thousand. Adequate warnings were put out, but no one was prepared for a tornado of that size and strength. There's still another one coming and I think it's going to shred what hasn't already been destroyed."

John feels an ache in his chest, the kind of ache you feel when you realize people died and there was nothing you could do. "I'm a veteran of the Human-Covenant War. I was on Reach when it was attacked, I destroyed the first Halo ring, Thel 'Vadam and I defeated the Covenant. But this is far worse than anything I've ever seen," John mumbles. Numb with shock, he moves through the apocalyptic damage and sees fires burning, cars upside-down and something he really didn't want to see. A body lays off to the side of the street. He walks over to the body, a middle-aged man by the looks of it. "Cortana, who is this?"

"I can't be sure, but it would appear blunt-force trauma to the head killed him. Likely, he was trying to run for cover and the tornado threw something and it hit him. Chief, we need to get out of here, the final storm is about to hit."

John nods and sprints back out the way he came. He looks up and sees a funnel starting to appear. It stretches towards the ground and makes contact with a ground-shaking boom. The tornado starts to pick up dust and debris, and it steadily grows larger and larger.

AN: Or ya know, I could release what I have written so far :) (This first section is based off an EAS video I watched a while back, and thought I could incorporate it somehow.)