Author's note 1:

Finally! Finally we can end Combat Evolved and NOT skip entire pieces of missions because of poor design!

SpoopyTheScout: Bingo!

OnePunchPlayer: What the hell am I looking at? I just demonstrated how Jake is intrigued by Halo's level of technology since for them, Master Chief and Humanity still live like monkeys. Please, if there's criticism among those lines, repeat it using more understandable words.

Enjoy!


The teleportation grid transported them inside of the Covenant's ships, although greatly damaged.

He narrowed his eyes as he scanned his surroundings. Why was everything-

THUD! THUD!

"Oh, I see! The coordinate data needs to be-"

"Cortana." Jake growled dangerously while Chief slapped his helmet, his own way to scold the AI.

"Right, sorry."

"It's really hard to master such primitive technology, Guardian." Ghost opened a private channel to speak. "Once you use our instruments for so long, it becomes rather difficult to light up a fire by utilizing sticks."

Oh, that was true. Whatever these Forerunners were though, left behind the scraps of their advanced technology which was clearly only accessible to humans. If the Monitor wanted to easily activate Halo, he would have established contact with the Covenant since they were blinded by indoctrination.

"Chief? Guardian? Don't be fools! Leave me!"

That was Captain Keyes. So he was still alive! Reassurance and hope filled his spirit, motivating him further to destroy whatever there was in their path to reach Keyes and rescue him.

"Captain? Captain!" Cortana cursed under her 'breath'. "I've lost him."

They stopped running and almost slipped down a big hole, they grabbed the edges of the wall to stabilize their weight.

"Analyzing damage. This hole was caused by some kind of explosive…" He internally scoffed at the AI's hidden sarcasm. "…very powerful, if it tore through the ship's hull. All I detect down there are pools of coolant. We should continue our research somewhere else."

"You can at least. Jake could reach the other end with his double jump."

The Titan shook his head. "You said yourself, Cortana. The ship has been damaged, so what if other portions have been hit? We would find ourselves in a maze while Keyes' brain continues to be fucked up by the Flood. I'm gonna stick with you two."

They both jumped and splashed in the water, they quickly got to solid surface and were immediately assaulted by the Flood. Jake rolled Ace on his hand and hipfired, headshotting various combat forms and making them explode in solar flames. Master Chief on the other hand ducked on as a combat form swung his claws against him, he blocked another strike with his elbow and unloaded the entire magazine of his assault rifle on the Flood's horrific face.

They reloaded and crossed over a hill, encountering a Covenant patrol.

Jake used another trick this time. He launched a stasis grenade, it impacted against the ground and produce a bolt which seeked the nearest enemy. It collided with an Elite and he was literally frozen in place, bullest from Ace shattered the poor alien and this created a shockwave which eliminated the grunts near him.

"First fire and now ice? Are you gonna show us poison or something like that later?"

"I'm afraid poison is not present in my personal arsenal."

Yet…

Energy barricades were distribuited on the battlefield as grunts and jackals used them while Hunters and Elites were the tip of the sword against the Flood.

"It's a damn war zone. Stay here, I'll handle it."

"With your icy powers?"

"With my icy powers." He confirmed with a thumbs-up.

BRRM!

Iced armour covered him from head to toe, he leaped in the air and summoned a bigger gauntlet. Glacial Quake froze everything in this path, he then slammed again on the ground and shattered every single enemy. He did it until his super died out.

"Our control over the Darkness has been refined with each use." Ghost beeped, satasfied. "Remember what I told you back on Europa? In Light or Dark, we're always gonna be partners. I still stand by that claim."

Good to know.

"You know, maybe we should let you Guardians deal with the Covenant and Flood once we return home." Cortana giggled. "I think a retirement could be good for Chief, unless he can gain access to these powers."

Oh, he could just feel Ghost rolling his eye. "Sure! If you want to die and wait for the T-artifact to choose you, which by the way could last for many years. And don't forget the memory loss too."

"Was just a suggestion."

On the top of another hill stood the gravity lift they were looking for.

"Power source detected, there's the gravity lift. It's still operational, that's our way back in."

Jake double jumped and exploited Shiver Strike to punch one of the Elites who held a needler in his claws. The impact sent him flying against the wall of the canyon behind him, breaking his neck in the process.

The Titan rolled down as the other Sangheili tried to impale him using an energy sword, he landed behind him and kicked his back to send him forward.

"Chief!"

The Spartan aimed.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two shotgun ammunitions to the face, one to destroy the shield and the other to kill the alien.

The gravity lift allowed them to re-enter the damaged Covenant ship. They frowned at the sight of infectors gathering corpses to alter. They dispatched of the Flood in the room and quickly sprinted for the nearest opened door.

"Look, in the corners! The Flood are gathering bodies here."

It was pretty easy to eliminate the Flood when you had the advantage of high ground. Jake covered Master Chief while he scavenged for more ammo and grenades, both human and Covenant.

The corridors were filled with Covenant troops and Flood, they alternated between shooting and using explosives. Soon enough they entered the main shuttle bay.

"Looks like another shuttle bay. We should be able to reach the Control Room from the third level."

"I gave you an order, Soldiers!" Keyes groaned out on the comms. "Now pull out! Both of you!"

"He's delirious, in pain! We have to find him."

"His readings just spiked up. Whatever the Flood are doing to the captain, they're killing him!"

Their speed increased but they were slowed down by more Flood occupying the corridors of the ship.

Jake had enough.

"Give me Hezen Vengeance!" He glanced to his right. "Chief, stay behind me."

He aimed… and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The rocket annihilated everything in its path, whatever small danger remained, it was quickly dispatched of.

The two warriors rushed towards the Captain's location.

Jake had to put the palm of his hand near where his mouth would be, even if he couldn't touch it. "My God." Jacob Keyes was surrounded by Flood mass, infused with it. He had his mouth stuck open, showing a terrified expression. "What the hell happened to him?" The Guardian quietly whispered.

"No human life signs detected. The Captain… he's one of them."

Jake did a quick cross sign and then prayed to his own God, the Traveler, to help Keyes with his journey in the after life.

"How much must he have suffered to die?"

I hope my words were enough to endure the pain, Captain. You were a good man. You reminded me of my Commander, always doing the right thing.

"We can't let the Flood get off this ring. You know what he'd expect-" She paused for a moment. "-what he'd want us to do."

John nodded and dug his fist in the Captain's face, he retrieved the neural interface and stored it inside his helmet.

"It's done, we have the code. We should go."

"I have found two Banshees inside the previous hangar. We can use them to reach the Pillar of Autumn and destroy Halo. Cortana, you sure the neural interface is still intact and functional?"

There was silence…

"Cortana? Cortana, you okay?"

"Uh! Yes, yes, I'm alright. The neural interface is indeed still operational."

Battling their way to the shuttle bay, they saw one Elite snatching one of the Banshees and flying away. Shrieks behind them signaled the arrival of more Flood.

"You take the Banshee, I'll cover you!"

"What about your ride?" John asked. "You can't fly on your own."

"Plan B. You just get the Banshee, I'll do the rest." The Spartan stared at him. "Just trust me."

Chief nodded and rushed for the vehicle just as combat forms broke in the bay. Jake hipfired Ace of Spades and covered his retreat. When he was sure the Spartan was safe and secured in the air, he ran for the edge of the hangar and jumped.

If she was in her hologram form, Cortana's eyes would have widened. "Is he crazy?!" The Titan disappeared from view. "Guardian? Guardian, do you copy?! Guardian!"

An engine roared, the shape of a ship appeared and raised in the sky until it was directly in front of the Banshee. "Loud and clear, Cortana."

"Uh hu, so this is the ship you used to travel to Halo."

"Indeed, ready to save the universe?"

"Don't have to ask twice!"

Jake's ship flew towards the Pillar of Autumn's coordinates, Chief's Banshee on his tail.

The Titan got himself comfortable in his seat and enjoyed these moments of pure peace.

"Uh, Jake?" The little light materialized over his shoulder. "Cortana wants to speak with us… privately."

Peace can't last forever for us, uh?

He nodded and seconds later, the small hologram of the female AI appeared. She avoided eye contact with them, making him narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Cortana? You had a blackout on the Covenant ship before too. What's going on?"

"I have analyzed the data collected by the Captain's neural interface." She finally met his gaze. "And processed the words you exchanged with each other."

He sighed. "We'll talk about it when Halo is destroyed."

"But-"

"Cortana." He held up a palm. "The Monitor is threatening a good portion of our galaxy with total annihilation. Do you want to waste time by talking about UNSC protocol and arrest me, or accept my help and let me face the consequences of my actions later? Choice is yours."

The AI looked at her feat. "Alright, we'll face the argument when we're done."

"Don't tell Chief, yet."

She tilted her head. "Why?"

"He needs full concentration on the mission. We both need it. So please, don't tell him until we're done."

Cortana simulated a sigh. "Okay. I won't tell him."

She disappeared and Jake grasped the opportunity to take off his helmet and rub his eyes.

Ghost clicked in reassurance and nuzzled under his chin. "It'll be alright. I'm here with you to the end."

He smiled and rubbed the shell of his companion. "To the end."


The Pillar of Autumn wreckage barely held itself together. Jake circled around the structure to patrol the area and check if hostiles were ready to take them down once they approached it.

It was after an hour or so that he noticed the damage Chief's Banshee had endured during their escape. It could crash in any moment.

"You might wanna get out of that tin can, Chief. Don't know how long it'll last."

"I have my entrance. Cortana will send you the coordinates."

"This thing is falling apart!"

"It'll hold."

"Pull up! Pull up!"

BOOM!

He blinked. "Chief? Chief, do you copy?"

"Affirmative." John emitted a small but still noticeable grunt as he pulled himself up.

He flew towards the entrance the Spartan used and tramsmatted there once he stepped back.

"So we have almost died while you teleport around like it's walking?"

"It's called 'transmat', cool technology we developed over the years. And pretty useful." Jake rolled Ace on his hand and looked around. "Now what?"

"We need to get to the bridge… from there, we can use the Captain's neural implants to initiate an overload of the ship's fusion engines. The explosion should damage enough systems below it to destroy the ring."

"We're actually not too far from it. We have to cross the dining area and proceed in the corridors. However biological traces suggest that both Covenant and Flood have breached inside. I wouldn't be surprised if the Monitor joined the party as well."

Arriving at the dining room, Ghost's claim proved to be correct. Sentinels, Hunters and Flood were engaging all against each other. Jake activated the only super he hadn't used yet: Fist of Havoc. He slammed against the ground and let arc energy loose, atomizing everything in its path. Though when he did slam, he sprinted around and literally kicked any tango in his range while Master Chief stayed clear and used his magnum to help him from his distance.

They continued down the corridors, heading to the left. "The bridge! We made it. Let's get to work."

He wondered why the Covenant thought a few grunts would be enough to secure the bridge.

Chief inserted the chip in the main terminal. Ghost materialized and interfaced with the console as well using his beam.

"I leave home for a few days, and look what happens." She smirked. "This won't take long." Cortana snapped her fingers. "There!" A countdown of 15 minutes began on the monitor. "That should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat, and put some distance between ourselves and Halo before the detonation."

"I'm afraid that's out of the question, really…"

"Oh, hell!"

"Are you serious right now?" Ghost deadpanned.

"Ridiculous! That you would imbue a warship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge… Weren't you worried it might be captured or destroyed?"

"He's in my data arrays-a local tap!"

"Can you trace him?" Jake asked.

"We're trying! Looks like he's well concealed but his security won't last for long." Ghost glanced at him before interfacing again with the Autumn's systems.

"You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all our lost time. Human history, is it? Fascinating! Oh, how I will enjoy every moment of its categorization! To think you would destroy this installation as well as this record! I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."

"He has stopped the self destruct sequence…"

Jake sighed. "Should have let me squash him in my grip when we had the chance." He glanced at the Spartan.

"Why do you continue to fight us, Reclaimers? You cannot win. Give us the construct, and I will endeavor to make your deaths relatively painless and-"

"At least we still have controls over the comm-channels."

"Guh, his voice is so girlish. It was gonna fry my mainframe!"

"Where is he?" Chief demanded.

"He's in Engineering! He must be trying to take the core offline. Even if we could get the countdown restarted… I don't know what to do."

"How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine's shields?"

Cortana raised an eyebrow. "Not much. A well placed grenade perhaps. But why…"

She stopped and blinked as her partner launched and catched a grenade in his hand while Jake transmatted Hezen Vengeance and rested it on his shoulder. "Plan B it is." He grinned behind his helmet.

Ghost hovered near Cortana and whispered to her. "They're like twins, aren't they? Thinking the same tactics."

"Yeah." She muttered back. "Alright, we're coming with you."

Sentinels descended outside the bridge's glass, they shot their beams and one managed to hit them both. Their shields absorbed the damage and they responded in kind, emptying all they could on the small robots while they ducked under cover.

It looked like the Covenant had the intelligence to abandon the ship and consider it a lost cause, they did not find anymore aliens in their path but only Sentinels and armed Flood. They eradicated each of them until they reached Engineering, passing through the cryo chambers.

"Alert! The Monitor has disabled all command access. We can't restart the countdown! The only remaining option is to detonate the ship's fusion reactors. That should do enough damage to destroy Halo. Don't worry, I have access to all the reactor schematics and procedures and have shared these informations with Ghost. We'll walk you through it."

"Mmmh." Ghost hummed. "We need to pull back the exhaust couplings. It'll expose a shaft that leads to the primary fusion drive core."

"How many fusion cores are there to be destroyed?" Jake asked as he transmatted Hezen Vengeance and equipped it.

"Four in total. They are divided into two sections."

"We'll take each side and complete the job." He informed Chief. "Cortana, when we're done send us a waypoint for the nearest exit!" He rushed for the other side and faced a console. He tapped it and heard a metallic sound of something opening, he shifted his attention to the floor.

"We should have a shot in the fusion reactor. Jump on those crates over there to have a better aim and send our first regard to Halo."

He did as instructed and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The rocket generated one big explosion.

He double jumped and got back on the railing.

BOOM!

"Chief has destroyed the second fusion reactor. Two remaining."

Before he could tap the console, shrieks vibrated from behind him. The Flood had reached Engineering and were about to assault him. He activated Burning Maul and slammed his hammer on the ground until his energy died out, the extra flames surrounding the entrance to this part of the trail would give him enough time to destroy the fusion reactor.

BOOM!

"And that's the third! Only ours remains."

He double jumped on another crate and aimed.

BOOM!

"And that's the fourth." He finished himself.

"That did it! The engine's gone critical. Based on the current state of decay we should have fifteen minutes to get off the ship. We should move outside and signal for evac. There's a service lift at the top of the engine room. It leads to a Class Seven service corridor that runs along the ship's dorsal structure. Hurry!"

A platoon of Covenant troops with Elites wearing some new type of armour blocked their path. But Jake and Chief combined their rocket launcher shots and took care of the problem.

Explosions alerted the duo, they backed away from the slowly closing door and glanced at each other.

"Cortana to Echo-419… come in Echo-419!"

"Roger Cortana, I read you five by five."

"The Pillar of Autumn's engines are going critical, Foehammer. Request immediate extraction. Approach the crash site and be ready to pick us up at external access junction 4-C as you soon as you get our signal."

"And be fast!" Ghost added. "There won't be anything left of this portion of the ring when the explosion happens. We'll be literally launched into orbit."

"Affirmative. Echo-419 going on station now but… things are getting noisy down there. Everything OK?"

"Negative, negative! We have a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion core. The engines must have sustained more damage than we thought." She switched to their own comms. "We have six minutes before the fusion drives detonate. We need to evac NOW."

"And it'll generate an explosion of almost one hundred million degrees. I'm not ready to turn in a Ghost omelette!"

Jake pointed to one of the still functional vehicles. "We'll get a Warthog and navigate through the ship! Chief you drive, I'll mow down any son of a bitch with the minigun."

If at the beginning Jake criticized John's skills in driving, now he had to admit they sucked ass. They had to jump over various obstacles and avoid them with acrobatic maneuvers. All while the timer continued to drop and he mowed down any Flood on their trail.

He glanced at the remaining time and swallowed. 3 minutes and 30 seconds left.

"Cortana to Echo-419: request extraction now! On the double!"

"Affirmative Cortana. Foehammer inbound."

"Call our ride too!" He raised his voice over the volume of his weapon. "We've gotta get out of here."

"On it!"

They stopped on the bridge connecting the two portions of the Autumn, waiting.

Echo-419 and Jake's ship flew towards them, but Echo-419's had its back on fire. Two Banshees were hot on their tails.

"Cortana to Echo-419: two Covenant Banshees are approaching on your six. Evade! Say again. Eva-"

BOOM!

She passed under the bridge. "I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday! Rear port thrusters have been shot to hell! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!" Her ship disappeared in the distance below the clouds.

The Banshees immediately targeted Jake's own ship when they were done with Echo-419. But this time, when the engines were fucked up, it headed straight for the bridge.

"Oh, shit! Go, Chief! Go, go, go!" He slammed his fist on the weapon.

John practically slammed the pedal with all his strength and the wheels became very hot, leaving black trails behind them. They passed through the passage just as Jake's ride slammed against the bridge, destroying it in the process.

"My ship!"

"Forget about that, we have 2 minutes and 15 seconds left! Calculating alternate escape route. Ship's inventory shows one Longsword fighter is still locked I launch bay 7. If we move NOW we can make it."

The cycle repeated again although a giant gap separated them from their freedom.

"At top speed we should be able to clear it."

"Then why do I feel a granny could be faster than this Warthog?"

"Only one way to find out."

Oh, he did not like Chief's tone at all.

The jump sent them in the right direction and they crashed on the ground. They both coughed and got out of the wreckage, sprinting for the Longsword.

He groaned when more Flood invaded the hangar, he covered Master Chief and hipfired as much combat forms as he could. He rushed for the interior of the vehicle and joined John at the two main seats.

Cortana and Ghost set to activate the engines and launch the Longsword into orbit.

BOOM!

Jake glanced through the glass to Halo and widened his eyes as the explosion happened. He sent a silent prayer to the Traveler that they would go faster. Seems like it was answered because they managed to put much distance before the piece of the ring where the Autumn was detached and slammed against another, detaching it also.

The Titan relaxed his muscles and let his head fall on the seat he occupied. He breathed a few times. We made it.

"Did anyone else make it?"

"Scanning… just dust and echoes… we're all that's left. But… an entire Covenant armada obliterated and the Flood! We had to do this, for Earth." Her hologram smiled. "Halo, it's finished."

"No, I think we're just getting started." Chief slowly reached for his helmet and set it aside.

Blue eyes met Jake's visor, the Guardian saw Cortana wincing at her partner's word as her gaze met his. He sighed and shook his head. "Guess it's time, Ghost." He said to him privately.

"Are you sure about it? There's no turning back."

John tapped the Titan's shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. We already discussed it while travelling for the Autumn's remains."

The Guardian raised from his seat, he walked back a few steps and… presented his hands together. His weapons transmatted away. "Arrest me, Sierra 117."

"What?" John blinked and narrowed his eyes, he looked at Cortana. "Cortana? What is he talking about?"

"Chief, its-"

"I lied." Jake interrupted the AI. "I asked Ghost to fake the files we sent you. There are no artifacts…" He shrugged. "..well, a-at least not here but we'll keep that for the interrogation. There's no secondary program to aid the Spartans in the war against the Covenant and there's no Tower. It was pretty easy to copy the structure of UNSC's files and replicate them using the same pattern."

He walked directly in front of the Spartan who had also raised from his seat. "Now, I'm sure the UNSC protocol dictates my custody until the martial court or whatever legislative system you have here pronounces my sentence. So, arrest me. You've gotta have some energy cuffs or cuffs in general around here, right?"

Master Chief stared at him. He noticed the slightly twitch of his gloved fingertips.

Bingo, Spartans are always called to respect protocol and my admission only pushes him to do it.

"Is it true?" Apparently he waited full confirmation of his claims as he turned to Ghost and asked this question.

"Yes, it's true." The little light clicked. "I faked them myself and we Ghosts generally never lie."

"Chief, maybe me should wait and-"

"I offered my admission here and now, Master Chief." He spat out the word. "Arrest me, soldier."

He waited a few moments before John robotically retrieved a pair of cuffs and wrapped them around his hands.

"Follow me." He led them inside the cargo bay where they found a cryo tube. "You'll be hibernated until we find a safe way to Earth and I report your claims." John inserted a few codes and the glass opened. "Step inside."

He did as he was told. Ghost disappeared in his dimension.

"Wasn't there another way?"

"Kill Chief, destroy Cortana and take hold of the Longsword. But where would we go? We're in a different universe. This isn't our home."

"I'll be waiting for you to wake up."

Soon enough, darkness welcomed him by the sweet sleep.


Back with Chief and Cortana, the two were having a conversation.

"He could have easily snapped the cuffs and killed us both." She noticed. "Why didn't he? And why were you so calm around him?"

John looked at Halo one last time before giving his answer.

"Because he's like me. He'll do the right thing no matter the risks."


Author's note 2:

I'm glad the Guest saying "I'm out!" did not stick around. He would have vomited if he saw the ending to the first arc.

So! I'm not gonna cover the novel-comic because I have no interest in reading it and this fanfiction is about the main games. The production of the cover goes smoothly but our dear fellow needs time and that's understandable. The first sketches are awesome!

If you didn't like the ending feel free to criticize it as much as you like and also feel free to un-follow and un-favourite me.

It might take some time until I decide to jump in with Halo 2 but at least I won't skip entire portions of missions because the level design isn't as re-used as Combat Evolved.

Until next time!

Gino out!