UNSC Infinity tore through the sky towards Requiem's exit at full battle readiness.
"The Didact needs the Composer in order to turn the rest of humanity into the Prometheans we've been fighting." Cortana was explaining as she assisted with getting the ship to where it needed to go. The bridge crew had noticed that their instruments were feeding them better information at a faster rate, to the point where they were having some difficulty adjusting. Apparently Cortana was now boosting the Infinity's systems even as she rewrote the firmware to be more efficient, computed navigation data, hacked the Covenant transmissions, and briefed the team on what was going on.
Honestly, even doing all that, most of her processes were idle, and she found herself almost bored if not for the situation. Whatever Harry had done, it had certainly been effective.
"In that case, our best option is to keep him from leaving Requiem." Lasky said seriously as he leaned against the holotable. "Cortana, think this ship can take his out?"
Cortana nodded slowly. "He's tough, but considering how we sent him running earlier, I estimate we have a fairly good chance of taking him down, depending on what he has up his sleeve."
Lasky nodded. "Alright. In that case, we hit him with everything we've got when we get in range. How long till estimated intercept?"
"Seventeen minutes." Cortana said immediately.
"Do we know where the Composer is?" Lara asked, arms crossed as she stood by the holotable. "We need to know in case we fail to prevent him from leaving, so we can follow."
Cortana shook her head. "Not at the moment, no."
Chief cocked his head to the side. "Commander, didn't you mention a research team that had members killed by a Forerunner artifact before? It had the coordinates that led here."
A look of comprehension appeared on Lasky's face, the others not far behind. "That was Halo Installation 03." He turned to Cortana. "Can you confirm?"
Cortana nodded. "Yes, I just went through all of the records on the incident. It all fits." She shot her SPARTAN a smile. "Not bad, caveman."
"Alright, good, then we have a plan." Beast Boy said with a small grin. "Smash the Didact's ball to itty bitty pieces, and if he runs away before we can, jump to the Composer's location and finish the job."
"Simple, but effective." Harry said with a smile.
"He's not going to be unguarded." Chief cautioned.
Lasky nodded. "Yeah." He turned to his new XO, Palmer. "Have all Longswords and combat oriented Pelicans prepped and ready for takeoff. I want them ready to fly the moment we reach our destination. They're to keep any Covenant forces off of us as much as possible so we can focus fire on the Didact." Palmer immediately saluted and began to do as ordered.
"Five minutes till contact." Cortana reported shortly afterwards.
"Alright everyone, showtime." Lasky said with a grim smile.
They soon reached the Didact's position as it hovered between some Forerunner towers. Unfortunately, as they got closer, they saw that the Didact's sphere was surrounded by a reddish shield.
"Damn. Can we do anything about that?" Harry asked.
"I'll have that shield down in a few seconds." Cortana said with a smirk. "Recommend launching fighters, Commander. We've got Covenant forces incoming."
Lasky nodded. "You heard the lady. Launch fighters."
"Yes sir, launching fighters." Palmer replied.
As the fighters flew out of the Infinity's launch bay the shield around the Didact's ship flickered and died. "Shield's down!" Cortana announced.
"Fire at will!" Lasky barked.
Every gun on the UNSC Infinity opened up at his command with pinpoint precision born from an advanced AI directing them. Every single bit of firepower that the human ship had available to it was focused on destroying the target.
The Didact's ship attempted to avoid the volume of fire pouring on it, dodging to the side to put one of the huge towers between it and the Infinity, but it had already received several grievous wounds.
"Yes!" Beast Boy cheered as he watched the Didact retreat. "Run away, asshole!"
Thus began a game of cat and mouse, the Infinity moving into line of sight of the Didact and getting a few shots in while the Forerunner's more maneuverable ship did its best to keep out of view.
"Why isn't he fighting back?" Alice asked.
"I don't think he has any weapons on board that thing." Lara answered as she watched the large black sphere move behind one of the spires again.
"Correct, from what I can tell." Cortana said. "Which makes sense, as that sphere was originally supposed to be a prison cell, not an attack craft. That should make this much easier. The only issue is how maneuverable he is. He'd already be scrap if it weren't for his evasiveness."
Harry was the first to notice something happening below. "What's that?"
Everybody looked down. A large circular mechanism cut into the planet was opening up. From within it a machine began to slowly rise up. As they watched, the top of the machine began to open up, leaving a circular hole.
Cortana was, of course, the first one to realize what was going on. "That's the Didact's ship! It's how he's going to get off Requiem!"
"Focus fire on that ship!" Lasky ordered immediately. "Do not let that thing leave!"
All of the Infinity's firepower was refocused on the Forerunner ship as it continued to rise, blasting holes in its structure and scarring the hull. As they watched, the orb containing the Didact moved to the circular opening on top, entering the ship that way. Cortana focused fire at the opening, but it began to close immediately once its passenger had boarded.
The immense craft began to rise, escaping out the planet's outer shell, no longer impeded by the gravity well they had disabled. It gained speed as it rose, ignoring the damage inflicted on it by the Infinity.
"We're not going to destroy it before it jumps." Chief stated.
Lasky frowned, fists clenched against the holotable. "You're right. Cortana, full speed out of the planet, jump to slipspace the instant it's safe to do so, destination Halo Installation 03. We need to get to the Composer before he can."
"Aye aye." Cortana stated simply as the Infinity began to rise, accelerating quickly as the fighters returned.
Lasky turned to Chief. "Get ready to go secure the Composer while we keep the Didact busy, Chief. Keep it out of his hands by any means necessary. If you have to destroy it, do so."
Harry stepped up before the Chief could respond. "We'll get it done." The others smiled or nodded in agreement.
Chief turned to look at Harry before giving a brief nod.
The glowing blue light of a slipspace portal opened up in the black of space, and the UNSC Infinity rushed out, weapons ready, heading for the location of the Composer. They were trailing the Didact's ship as closely as possible, but the only reason they weren't already too late was that the Composer had been moved to the Ivanoff Research Station some distance from where it had been found on the Halo ring. Thus the Didact had not headed straight for it, going instead to its previous location, which gave the humans enough time to reach the station and take up a guard position, putting it on alert in the process.
The Chief and Harry's team were travelling to the station on a Pelican, Cortana in constant contact with the Infinity from Chief's suit. She had decided to stick in her usual place with the Chief rather than stay on the ship since her assistance might be required.
Harry wasn't the only one that thought that was mainly an excuse, but he wasn't going to say anything. She had, after all, only recently survived a near death experience.
Lasky had already deployed the fighters to help intercept any Covenant craft, allowing the Infinity to focus on the Didact's ship. With any luck they'd be able to destroy it, but they weren't going to put all their eggs in that unlikely basket. While that was going on, the staff of the research station were evacuating in case the station itself needed to be destroyed to get rid of the Composer.
The Chief had a HAVOK nuclear warhead attached to his back to use in the destruction of the composer. The thirty megaton bomb would make sure there was nothing left of the Forerunner device. They intended to be extremely thorough in the neutralization of the threat.
"Didact's closing in fast." Cortana reported as the pelican touched down inside the station's landing bay.
The team stepped out of the vehicle to be met with the head of the station, Doctor Sandra Tillson. The fiftyone year old researcher approached them quickly. "I hope you can finally tell me what is going on." She said in lieu of a greeting.
"An enemy force is on its way here to acquire one of the Forerunner artifacts you're studying." Chief said. "It's the object that killed several of your researchers."
"Ah, that." Tillson frowned. "Somehow I'm not surprised that's what they're after."
"Can you direct us to it?" Lara asked.
Tillson opened her mouth to respond when Cortana interrupted. "Didact has arrived and engaged with the Infinity. Infinity is putting up a fight, but we need to get this done quickly, especially as the Covenant forces that he brought along are rushing for the station, trying to get passed our fighters."
"This way." The doctor said quickly, leading the way into the research station. "It's not far."
Before long the group had arrived at an area that was somewhat open to space where the Composer was being kept, meaning Harry had to apply the shields he'd used when they first arrived on the Forward Unto Dawn onto his friends, as they didn't have time to get in the appropriate suits. Tillson quickly left them to evacuate as well.
"Daaamn…" Beast Boy said as he looked at the several story tall Forerunner artifact. "That's bigger than I expected."
Chief stepped forward, reaching for the bomb strapped to his back, but Harry stopped him. "Wait, let me try something else instead. No need to use a hammer when a scalpel will do just as well." He moved towards the Composer, drawing his wand.
Before he could do anything, however, plasma began to fly as a Covenant ship came in overhead and began to fire on them. The group quickly scattered, taking cover from the assault even as a group of Covenant troops dropped to the ground, beginning to fire on their enemies.
"Dammit, don't these guys ever take a break?" Beast Boy growled where he was crouching behind a metal walkway.
Lara hefted her rifle, while nearby Alice had her hobby horse at the ready, waiting for an enemy to get close enough. "Harry, go for the Composer. We'll cover you."
Harry nodded and got ready to move. Within moments Lara and the Chief had popped out of cover, firing at the Covenant troops, taking down several in quick succession. Beast Boy burst forward in the form of a cheetah, gaining speed as he aimed for an Elite. Then he jumped and shifted mid-flight into the form of a hippo, the mass plus the momentum more than enough to crush the alien under his bulk. He quickly shifted into the form of a gecko to avoid retaliatory fire.
Alice, in the meantime, waited till a group of Grunts had gotten close before beginning to smash into them with her hobby horse, breaking them with crushing force as they began screaming in panic.
Harry took advantage of the confusion to rush to the Composer. He pointed his wand at the large machine and focused on what he wanted. Slowly it began to shrink, the object getting smaller and smaller. He didn't stop till it was about the size of a can of soda.
Satisfied, Harry put his wand away before drawing his gun. Dark energy began to gather in the barrel, and when he pulled the trigger a blast of his power shot out, impacting with the Composer and making it burst into a thousand pieces.
Harry smiled, pleased that his idea worked. "Composer neutralized. Didact isn't getting his toy today."
Alice, Lara and Beast Boy all made various sounds of congratulations, but Cortana cut in. "That's great news, but we've got a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Chief asked as he took out the last Jackal.
"Oh, nothing much. Just that the Didact is now ignoring the Infinity and heading this way." She answered.
"Oh… Yes, that might be a problem." Alice said, letting her hobby horse disappear for now.
"We should probably leave." Lara said in agreement.
"You aren't going anywhere…" A menacing voice said, one that the Chief and Cortana recognized.
The Didact's original sphere flew into the area and touched down, letting the Forerunner walk out, his gaze wrathful. "What did you do!?" He thundered.
"We got rid of the composer. No one will be able to use it ever again." Harry said as he gripped his revolver tightly.
Prometheans began to appear in the area surrounding them, the orange light they emitted casting odd shadows on the ground as they began filling the space with their numbers.
The Didact clenched his fist. "I will make sure you live just long enough to regret what you've done…"
Chief and Lara hefted their rifles, aiming at the various Prometheans, while Alice materialized her own long range weapon, a pepper grinder in the shape of a demonic pig, and Beast Boy shifted into the form of a tiger.
Harry looked around him. They'd need to fight their way out, but the odds were stacking against them as Prometheans continued to appear. He lifted his gun while his other hand began to crackle with arcane energy. "Ready guys?" The others nodded in response, Chief included, and Harry promptly pushed his hand forward, launching a wave of energy that turned the Prometheans in front him into gerbils, which promptly died from vacuum exposure.
The others began to fire, felling Prometheans before the digitized humans could react, while making their way down the opening Harry had provided, trying to make it to cover. Beast Boy pounced on a Promethean, bringing it down and clawing at it as the shield Harry provided kept its shots from doing more than sting. Alice fired her pepper grinder as she walked, the odd weapon causing severe damage to anything she aimed at. Lara and the Chief were picking off any Prometheans that tried to get a bead on them.
Even so, they were taking damage. The sheer volume of fire was intense, and they kept getting hit. It was a relief for all of them when they reached the cover of a large support pillar.
"Anybody got a plan?" Cortana asked somewhat sardonically.
"One." Chief said, removing the HAVOK nuke from the small of his back.
"Uh, small issue with that: we have no way to get away from here before it blows." Beast Boy said as he nursed his ribs after taking a hard hit from a Promethean's kick.
Lara was at the edge of the pillar with Alice, doing her best to hold back the tide. "That's a bit more than small!"
"I thought you would have at least accepted your death with dignity, humans." Didact said from where he stood among his troops, which had now been joined by Covenant forces.
Harry's eyes lit up and he reached into his bag, pulling the Lance out. He studied the head before turning to the Chief with a smile. "How would you two like to visit another universe?"
Chief cocked his head to the side, but Cortana was the one to answer for the both of them after a couple of seconds. "Anywhere's better than here! I just became metastable, I'm not dying now!"
"Alright. Chief, set up the bomb." He transfigured a pebble into a small monkey. "He'll set it off once we leave."
The Chief gave him, then the monkey, a look, but proceeded to arm the nuke.
"I tire of your futile struggling." The Didact said, sounding irritated.
Alice looked at Harry. "We should do something to make sure he doesn't escape."
Harry nodded. "We just need to keep him contained for a few seconds." He knelt and placed his palm on the floor.
The Didact, waiting for his forces to eliminate the humans that had kept him from obtaining the Composer, didn't notice anything wrong at first. However, when some of the Grunts made sounds of shock he looked down to find bands of metal rising from the rock he stood on, writhing like snakes. His eyes widened, but before he could react they had already wrapped around him, going solid as soon as they bound him. He roared in fury as his subordinates tried to free him.
Harry smirked. "That should do it."
"Good. Then open the portal, Harry. They're getting awfully close now." Lara said as she continued shooting.
Harry picked up the Lance and aimed it at a nearby wall, hoping he was right that it could be used now, and focused his power. He tried to focus on reaching Lara's world, but as the portal formed he knew he had failed in doing that much, at least. It was another random location.
Better than nothing, at least.
"All aboard the 'GTFO Express', get a move on!" Beast Boy called as he made his way to the portal.
Alice quickly disengaged and ran for the portal as Lara walked backwards, continuing to fire at anything that came close, gritting her teeth at the shots that sporadically hit her.
Chief set the nuke in place so that the monkey would be able to easily press the button before getting up, grabbing his rifle as he did. He moved towards the portal and watched as the others entered it. Hesitantly he reached a hand out and touched the pool of darkness with swirls of color.
"Fascintating…" Cortana said softly.
"I don't mean to rush you, but we should probably get a move on?" Harry said as he kept the portal up.
Chief got over his hesitance and nodded, stepping through the portal. Harry quickly followed, stopping only briefly to make the monkey press the button before he dived though the portal, shutting it off as he did to make sure the blast wouldn't come through.
The monkey waited, as instructed, for the count of two before pressing the button even as it turned back to stone, the magic animating it no longer present.
The Didact looked up from his struggles when a flash of light caught his attention. He didn't even have enough time to realize what had happened before he was nothing but ash.
Harry closed the portal behind him almost before his foot had cleared it, not wanting to risk the blast from a thirty megaton nuke coming through to kill him and his friends. He stopped and looked around to see where they'd ended up this time.
They appeared to be in a small forest clearing, large trees standing silent vigil. It was nighttime, the silver moonlight the only illumination to see by.
Satisfied that they weren't in some weird Lovecraftian nightmare of a world he looked to his friends. "Everyone alright?"
Lara was sitting down on the grass, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Can we please stop making last minute death defying escapes? I've grown quite tired of them."
"I second that motion." Alice said as she raised her hand where she was sitting against a tree.
"We're fine." Cortana said as Chief checked his weapon.
"Good. How about you, BB?" Harry asked. When he got no answer he looked around for Beast Boy, who he saw was in the middle of the clearing, looking up at the sky. "Beast Boy, you okay?"
Beast Boy looked at Harry, his eyebrow twitching. "Harry, we've got a, uh, minor problem."
"What?" Harry asked. Beast Boy pointed up at the sky, so Harry tilted his head to see what his friend was talking about. He froze when he realized what he was looking at. "Oh… shit…"
"What?" Chief asked, hefting his rifle.
Before he could get an answer they all heard growling come out of the woods around them. The group quickly got to their feet, clustering together in the middle of the clearing, weapons at the ready.
Out of the woods came a large group of odd animals. They were like large, semi bipedal wolves, with pitch black bodies that almost seemed to absorb light, covered in boney protrusions and spikes. Their heads were almost skull like due to the bone masks that covered them. The only color on the creatures was lines of glowing red on the mask, and their literally luminescent red eyes.
Harry and Beast Boy shared a look as their worries were validated. "Well… Fuck." Beast Boy said succinctly.
Then the night was filled with the howls of monsters and the sounds of battle as a shattered moon hung in the sky, illuminating the world below.
Far from where the dimensional castaways were fighting for their lives, in a dead land where creatures of darkness roamed, a woman approached a pool of darkness. She would be beautiful, were it not for her inhuman features. Skin as white as bone, covered in sickly red veins around the cheeks and eyes, with crimson eyes with black sclera, and a black diamond in the center of her forehead.
Something had just changed in the world. She could feel it. As she approached the pool she looked into it, but instead of the typical blackness she saw the image of some sort of village. Carefully reaching forward she reached through the portal and managed to touch dewy green grass. Hey black eyebrows rose.
"Interesting…" The queen of monsters whispered with an intrigued smile.
FINALLY!
This chapter FOUGHT me, and it shows. It's garbage. It took me 3 hours to write 500 words. Unfortunately, it's the best I've got right now.
Part of the problem was that I had to toss my initial plans out the window because of the last minute change I made to the previous chapter. Originally I was going to go with something close to canon, where Lasky helps the team leave the Infinity to go after Didact. Then, as I was writing the last chapter, I decided mid-sentence to change it so Lasky takes over the infinity, meaning now I had to fit that in while still leaving the team in the position I wanted for the next world hop.
Still, I saved a lot of people that died in canon, and hit Didact in the face with a nuke. So I'll keep it for now, though I might go back to it later to improve it.
Now then, I wonder how many people know what the new world is. I look forward to finding out. This world will provide some interesting opportunities, though to be honest I haven't planned out everything that happens in it. I don't think we'll be here long though.
I think that's it for now… Don't forget about my Pat A Ron, /athanmortis. Donate to have a say in what I write.
Till next time, please review.