Author's note 1:
TheLandMaster: What do you think? He has Stasis -.-
Edboy4926: I haven't found any page of the wiki describing how Destiny's ships work and I'm too lazy to stay on the internet for hours to research that. So roll with it.
Guest: Why should I continue a crossover on Halo 4 when I can just write about the three masterpieces games and throw in a Titan?
GodzillaMaster: Each fanfiction has its own rules, this in particular won't include that feature. So, yes, he has his powers.
Enjoy!
The vegetation was an excellent place to flee the upcoming ships, which were constantly trying to his Jake's own one.
Turns out that they didn't even need the shields in the first place, as the ring had an atmosphere similar to Earth. So, Ghost directed the energy to the rest of the systems and the Guardian concentrated on his task.
Though at one point, be it for too much distance from their fleet or because he truly lost them, the unknown and hostile contacts were nowhere to be seen.
"That was a close call…" The Titan said, slowing down the speed. "…any damage?"
"Minor ones, the engine and life support are up and running, but I don't think you'll put down that helmet anyway…" Jake bumped his eye, wanting Ghost to be serious. The child of the Traveler chirped angrily but continued. "…computer is up and our data is safe, NLS drive is ready so we can quickly reach light speed in case we're not in our system."
Jake nodded and pilotated their vehicle through some mountains, finding a good spot to land and hide their ship as they explore.
He cracked his fingers and reloaded Fatebringer, on his back rested Felwinter's Lie, his favourite shotgun.
Ghost disappeared in his dimension and transmatted the Guardian outside.
The Titan took in his surroudings, fascinated by the structure the ring possessed. In fact, because of the circular shape he could see how it extended.
"Any updates?"
Ghost sighed. "No, communications are down. Can't contact anyone, almost like the channels do not exist."
"Wort! Wort! Wort!"
Jake quickly scrambled for cover, something akin to a roar came not too far from his position. "We didn't lose all of them. How much boogies might be incoming?" He whispered.
"Small patrol, five contacts in total. Cannot define their biological trace, so I can't tell you if they're Fallen, Vex, Hive or Cabal."
He peeked from his position and almost coughed on his saliva.
There were indeed five aliens searching the area as they watched his ship, but they weren't the species he was familiar with.
Three of them were small, very small, with orangish armours and what seemed to be breathers on their mouths. Finally, they appeared to have weapons in their little hands.
One of them even slapped his friend on the back, before being punched on the face.
The other alien roared at them, ordering to stand down. This other species had four mandibles on their faces, almost like the Fallen, though they looked more reptilian like by the skin.
The armour was much tougher and they held what appeared to be a plasma weapon.
"So, the three little guys are subordinates while the others are the bosses. Got any data on these things?"
"No, they are oblivious to me as much as they are for you. Unless they are the population of this ring, they might be who was shooting at us. They might be part of that giant fleet."
If that's true, no reason to be diplomatic at all.
PUM! PUM! BOOM!
Two direct shots made contact with the smaller aliens. The first one immediately collapsed to the ground, the wound was too deep to be healed.
The second one was killed with a shot to the head and Firefly activated, generating an area of solar damage that instantly incinerated the third guy and damaged the shields of the taller alien that was nearby.
"So, they have their own tricks, uh?"
They snapped their heads to him and unleashed two powerful roars.
He ducked down and plasma shots travelled to where his head previously stood.
"Those weapons are enough to knock down your shields, though they could heat up and give you a chance to retaliate."
Jake decided that a strike would be enough to take out one of those things.
He suddenly jumped over his cover and ran straight to the first alien his eyes sat on.
A few hot plasma shots made contact with his armour, lowering the defenses down on 50%.
The Titan prepared void energy in his palm as the alien continued to shoot, probably expecting him to collapse by the time he reached him.
Wrong move.
BBUM!
Shield Bash was the right tactic as he disappeared in purple energy.
He just had time to turn around as the second guy came crashing into him, though he simply grasped the ground with his gloved fingers to slow down.
"Not bad…" The Titan said, cracking his fingers. "…not bad at all."
The alien dropped the weapon and tried to punch him, but he wasn't fast enough.
Jake simply grabbed his elbow and headbutted him with his helmet.
The force of the blow was so high that the alien slumpered to his knees, holding his bleeding forehead with a hiss escaping the mandibles.
The Titan simply continued his job, quickly grabbing the sides of the alien's head and headbutting him again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
On the third blow, some dark blue blood splattered on his visor. He let go and wiped it clean.
The alien fell on his back, watching the Guardian. "D-demon…"
Before Jake could process the nickname he was given, the alien was already dead.
Ghost appeared near his shoulder. "'Demon', uh? And here I thought that 'Slayer of Gods', 'Hero of the Red War' or 'Young Wolf' were already strange. This surpasses them by a lot."
Rolling Fatebringer in his palm, Jake circled the species in question. "They remind me of the Fallen, you're sure you got nothing on them?"
"Positive, unknown species…" He ran a scan, just in case, and did that to the smaller ones too. "…Mhmm."
Ghost suddenly shot up from his position and widened his eye. "I-I've got a distress signal coming from the surface of his ring and multiple ones are adding up."
That got Jake's attention. "Does it have to do with the… 'Pillar of Autumn'?"
"Indeed…" He chirped. "…should we help them? I mean, we're dealing with a complete unknown and though they're humans they could be hostile."
"If we want answer on where the fuck we are, we must search for other humans, little light." That was met with a bump on his visor, but he ignored it and Ghost disappeared.
"Your sparrow should work here, try it out."
He transmatted and hopped on it, sprinting for the signal's location.
Sprinting on the sparrow was a fun activity he often did on Earth when missions weren't clouding his thoughts.
He loved the speed and adrenaline he could experience with a simple vehicle.
Though he had to admit that the fauna and the rivers on the ring were artificially created in the right way, making them as realistic as possible.
He hopped off the sparrow and continued to march, hiding behind the trees to avoid any unnecessary encounters.
He then chose to rest a little bit and sat on the grass, grasping his notebook and pen.
We thought we would meet some Vex or Hive here, considering how the ring was constructed.
But instead, we encountered other alien species who cannot be the inhabitants of this… 'facility'.
We're searching for the people who sent this distress signal and find some answers.
I just hope we won't be forced to take drastic maneuvers against human beings.
ROOOARRR!
"What the? Is that an engine?"
The Titan got up from his position and crouched, peeking outside.
He knew people in the Last City that still used old Golden Age vehicles, but nothing was as big and as armed as this.
In fact, there was a machine gun strapped on the back of the giant machine.
The driver stopped near a hill with a waterfall and stepped outside.
Jake tilted his head in surprise.
He was armoured, very armoured. A rifle in his hands and a gun on his hip, with an orangish visor.
"Is that a Guardian?"
"No paracausal energy detected, he isn't one for sure."
The soldier watched down the hill and… just stood there, like he was having a conversation with someone.
"I'm going to talk with him." He declared and started walking.
"What if he's hostile? I've never seen a human as tall as him outside of Guardians like Shaxx, unless he's an Exo."
"If he'll attack me, I'll make sure to quickly retaliate."
Just to be safe, he cuffed Fatebringer to his waist and marched unarmed, even if a Titan as him could always use fists as weapons.
What he didn't expect was, when the distance had been about fifteen meters, the armoured soldier to grab his assault rifle and do a three hundred and sixty degrees spin in the blink of an eye.
Jake put his hands up. "Don't shoot! I'm friendly!"
He watched the Guardian for a few more seconds before lowering his rifle and gesturing to approach.
As he finally stood before the soldier, Ghost beeped in alarm.
"Someone or something is trying to access our comms, makes no sense since the signal comes from him."
"Open them up." Jake whispered with no hesitation, while the speakers of his helmet were still turned off.
Interferences at first… until the voice of a woman came up.
"We didn't know the Pillar of Autumn had other Spartans in it. May I ask who you are?"
"W-what? 'Spartans'? What is this AI talking about?"
Jake narrowed his eyes and walked towards the vehicle, the soldier followed his movements in complete silence.
"Uh, hello? Is this thing on? What are you doing?"
He leaned on a part of it and tapped the sides of his helmet, before slightly bump it with a palm.
"Oh! Your speakers are malfunctioning? Alright…"
"That should buy us some time. Ghost? Do not question what I'm going to say: I need you to check his vehicle for a datapad or anything else, download as much informations as you can and quickly make a summary to give me and work on." He finished with another bump to the helmet.
The child of the Traveler appeared behind his shadow and circled the vehicle, though luck was on their side apparently since a datapad was rested on the front.
He made a scan and download all the useful informations in it, he had to suppress a gasp.
He disappeared yet again in his dimension.
"Apparently this is 2552 and Earth, who is governed by the 'UEG' or Unified Earth Government, has established the so called 'UNSC' or United Nations Spoce Command: the military, exploratory and scientific agency, which is in charge of ships like the Pillar of Autumn…"
"Go on, tell me something useful…"
"…the humans here are in war with the 'Covenant', a theocratic hegemony made up of multiple alien species. What we fought earlier was part of it. The taller aliens are nicknamed 'Elites' while the smaller ones are 'Grunts', a pretty specific adjective if you'd ask."
"…"
"Jake?"
"Listen to me carefully: copy the structure of the files you downloaded and make other ones with what I'll say to the AI and guy here. Understand?"
"Yes, Guardian."
He gave one last bump to the helmet before facing the armoured soldier.
"Name's Jake… Jake Torrance and I'm not a Spartan, my call sign is 'Guardian'. I… I'm part of a specific program installed by the UNSC to help the Spartans with new types of soldiers against the Covenant."
Silence…
He knew there would be more questions, he just hoped the AI and guy here would trust his words.
"A secret program? There's no such thing in the UNSC, do you have any proof?" The AI asked, clearly suspicious of that claim.
"Ghost?" The small being appeared and the soldier slightly recoiled back.
"Ghost here…" Jake gestured. "…is one of the specialized AIs given to us once the program's procedures are completed. All of this happened with the discovery of two artifacts by the UNSC. Ghost, please send a file about them."
He did.
"As you can see, one of them is a sphere while the other is a pyramid. The peculiar traits about these artifacts is that they are made with two different energy traces."
"Paracausal energy? Forgive me but that isn't possible, nothing could bend or break the rules of physics like that."
He activated his super and invoked the Sentil Shield. Jake let the display sink in before letting the energy fade of.
"May I continue?"
"O-oh, of course."
"To divide the energy of each artifact, our program simply labelled them as 'Light' and 'Darkness'. We knew of the difficulties of the war against those bastards and we decided that a human with that kind of abilities would be an effective war machine if he worked along side a Spartan. To overthrow the situation and have another possibility at winning this war. We studied them and found a way to harness them too."
He gestured to Ghost again to send another file.
"So our project was born, Project Penumbra. We created a station and started out studies, as well as experiments."
"And where this station might be?"
Jake shook his head. "Unfortunately, I cannot reveal that."
"What? Why-"
He held up a hand. "I'll explain that later."
He continued. "As work came on, one of the artifacts started to emit a powerful trace of energy…" He motioned with his head to Ghost. "…and suddenly he appeared. We didn't know how that was possible, but it just happened. But what was more interesting was how Guardians are truly born."
"With genetic enhancements and exposure to this energy I presume?"
"No, a Ghost as him would choose a dead person and resurrect them with all the abilities in the storage."
…
"I-"
"I know, but we have all the proof you want…" Without warning, he grapped the shotgun from his back, turned it around and shot himself in the helmet. His dead body slumpered on the ground and the soldier took a step back.
"If both of you would excuse me." Ghost hummed.
He opened his shell and scanned the body of his dead comrade, they watched how the wounds would heal before the AI sent a pulse and Jake rushed to his feet, a good portion of adrenaline pumping in.
"Next time be quicker, will you?"
"I'll think about it."
Strapping the shotgun back in its place he cracked his shoulders. "I was dying of cancer and I did die on that station, but… he brought me back…"
His covered expression darkned. "But it came with a price."
"What price?" Incredible how she could ask that with such a calm voice after what happened.
"All the Guardians that were brought back, even though there are few of us, suffered a total amnesia. We didn't remember our names or lives and I'm sure you can understand what could have happened if one of us was captured by the Covenant and manipulated, right?"
"Yes…"
"This is why our project is a secret, we're working on a bypass for the amnesia part but for the rest we are still waiting for the green light… or at least my other comrades are."
"What do you mean by that?"
"We discovered this ring a few days ago and it was decided that it would be my first mission…"
He let the phrase hang there, but the AI didn't waste time.
"You… you were the one contacting the Pillar of Autumn above that unknown ship, weren't you?"
"Precisely."
"But that doesn't explain why you said 'Last City'."
He slightly clenched his fists. He had to lie better… he had to lie so better even he would believe his own bullshits.
He smirked. Challenge accepted.
"Our station has many nicknames, it's located around a moon of another planet in our Solar system, which I'm not going to name. We haven't founded a colony and it's very armed. Considering the inhabitants do live in there, some troops started calling it 'Last City' or even 'Tower'. In time, I just took on the habit."
"But why can't you tell us about this station? And if you discovered this ring before us, why weren't we alerted? I'm sure that Captain Keyes will want an explanation to all of this and will try to contact it. This… this is huge!"
"Ghost?"
Another file sent.
"This is where things get tricky. There has been established a special code, one every inhabitant of the station must follow: Code Black Plague…"
He breathed. "Black Plague is the ultimate code and warning status in our station. It's severely violated to mention the project to anyone outside of the station's inhabitants and if the Covenant or unauthorized personal has discovered any data about it, said data must be destroyed at all costs and witnesses must be neutralized. This of course applies to humans too… and AIs."
He could see from the corner of his eyes that the soldier tensed but did not move. "We didn't expect you to show up and I had to identify myself or risk the possibility of being shot down. I'm risking very much by revealing this informations to you but I'm here to give a warning too."
"What type of warning?"
"I'm going to ask of you to not reveal any informations outside of Captain Keyes, just make an excuse to your troopers about me being another type of Spartan. If you won't respect this, I will be forced to take drastic maneuvers."
"W-what? You cannot do that!"
"I can, Black Plague was created for this by Commander Zavala and Ikora on the station…"
Two pictures were given but Ghost made sure to change the pattern and colours of Zavala's skin and eyes.
"Do not bother to research them, their existence is a secret and you won't find them on any archive. This is also why you can see the various files labelled as 'Penumbra: Black Plague' as the union between the name of the project itself and the code."
He let all of this sink in. "Seeing as how the Covenant might be a threat to whatever there is on this ring. I'd like to join your ranks for the time being and once the mission is over, I will return to the station for debriefing…" He shrugged. "…guess I'll skip some medals back home in case something big happens."
The Titan gestured. "Though I forgot to ask your names."
"My name's Cortana, the AI charged to keep this man…" She was obviously referring to the soldier. "…out of trouble."
"Master Chief Petty Officer John-117." Chief briefly answered.
BOOM!
Debris fell from the sky, Ghost quickly disappeared in his dimension.
"So, there are more survivors from the crash?" Jake asked.
"Yes, multiple ones too. We got the Warthog and are using it to reach the Marines' locations."
Chief got inside the main seat and gestured to the gun behind. "You know how to use it?"
The Titan climbed on and grasped the sides of the baby. "And you're even asking?"
"Oh boy, he's just like you."
That was ingested as an insult from the Spartan, but he did not answer.
"Hey Jake, you've got any ideas on where we spit into?" Ghost asked in private.
"I have an idea, but it needs confirmation."
The Warthog sprinted.
Author's note 2:
If you were not expecting a title drop this early or you were expecting another revelation about the multiverse theory, then you're surely disappointed.
I wanted to try out something new.
Now, I don't know if the UNSC can or could hide in reality a project this big like the SCP Foundation does and if it can be in fact a plausible excuse but I don't honestly care.
This is the chapter and excuses Jake came up with, and you'll just have to roll with it.
Also, considering Ghost's abilities, I'm sure he could copy the stamp and structure of the files of the UNSC and create empty ones of his own to fill in with informations in a matter of seconds.
Tomorrow I'll go to vacation and on the sea, WOOOO!
Until next time!
Gino out!
