ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY. WELCOME TO YET ANOTHER STORY THAT MIGHT END UP HORRIBLE IDK I'M A SHIT WRITER ANYWAY. WELCOME ANYWAYS, JUST TO BE CLEAR I AM NOT TOO FAMILIAR WITH THE EXPANDED LORE OF THE ENTIRE HALO UNIVERSE (AS IN THE COLONIES, MODELS, EVENTS, WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THE BOOKS ETC). SO APOLOGIES IF I GET ANYTHING CANONICALLY WRONG. THEN AGAIN THIS IS FANFICTION, NOTHING IS CANON AROUND HERE BESIDES SOME THINGS FROM THE FANDOMS. ANYWAYS ENJOY!
BTW IF THIS LOOKS LIKE A CROSSOVER FROM THIS CHAPTER IT'S NOT. I PROMISE THINGS WILL GET MORE HALO-LIKE AFTER THIS.
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING HERE. ALL HALO CONTENT IS RIGHTFULLY OWNED BY 343. I DO OWN THE OC, PLOT AND THIS STORY IN GENERAL.
7TH SEPTEMBER 2557 - SYSTEM: UNKNOWN, DATA AWAITING TO BE FILLED - TIME: ESTIMATED LATE AFTERNOON
"Bloody shit!" I cried just as my eyes ripped open from my slumber. "Wha- where... gah!" I stammered, glaring all around with a blurred vision, as a bright orange light beamed onto my face. My head pounded with multiple questions screaming at once, as if I had finally reached the limit of human confusion, my ears rang louder than an out of tune choir, and the air was thick all around, like I was breathing in the ashes of a volcano yet a lush forest at the same time. Never knew you could naturally smell both at the same time. It only raised a question in front of all, where the hell was I?
It took about a minute or two for my vision to straighten, it was until then my observations and surroundings became more clear. All around me rested the ruins of a recently crashed ship... ship. I was on board the UNSC Albany... when it crashed. We were attacked... I couldn't remember who or what did. There were multiple holes naturally smashed all around, certainly explained the light in my face, must've been about morning wherever I was. Turning next to me widened my eyes in horror, as there laid a fresh corpse killed upon impact, one with a familiar face yet I couldn't place whom it was. Seemed to have been a female marine, fresh conscript... like me. It was then my memories pieced together, one by one. I was a marine, Private Christopher Alford, I think I was about nineteen, twenty years at the time? Depended on how much time had passed. Crazy how one image or thought can return so much. I grabbed her tags, Private Beatrice Davies it said. Well, rest in peace, Beatrice.
I stood up, aching slightly across all of my muscles. Thankfully I wasn't brutally injured, somehow there were nothing but a few scratches and bruises all across my body, how I survived that crash with lacking injuries I'll never know. Maybe there was a God after all. It didn't matter to me at that moment, all that mattered was finding out where the hell I was. Hopefully I didn't end up like the crew of the Infinity back on Requiem. From what I heard, they had a hard time.
There was a large hole that stood out, about no less than twenty metres ahead of me, leading outside. I proceeded forward, finding a DMR lying on the ground, including a visored CH252 helmet, no doubt they flew away from Beatrice back there when we crashed, plus I was off shift as far as I could remember. There were no other corpses lying around too, had to have been survivors like me scrambling about.
I stared around before stepping outside, the skies burned a hellish orange blanketing over the red forests all around me. It was either morning, or I had ended up in one hell of a climate. There was nothing but some small structural pieces of the ship lying around, at least pieces from this part of the ship. Must've ripped off the Frigate itself and landed here.
I activated my comms, hoping for any signal, "Testing, testing, one two three, can anybody hear me? This is Private Alford, serial number #17835. I repeat, can anyone hear me?" The only response I gained was pure static, the communications suddenly fucking shorted out when I tried switching frequencies. "Son of a bitch!" I scolded quietly.
Well, I guess I was on my own. At least that was what I thought for a short time. In the distance, standing amongst the trees, stood a small figure. I'd assume they were just far away, but the body structure implied to me either a child or perhaps a small individual. I never got a good look at their appearance, all I could make out was a slightly visible silhouette. This definitely wasn't an illusion, my radar already detected an unknown individual many metres away.
"Identify yourself!" I called out, holding on the rifle tightly. Like the comms, there was no response. Maybe they didn't speak English? I called out again, this time in a Sangheili, yes they didn't seem anywhere similar to the Elites, but I could have at least tried, "Wah Eenngahnehnn (You Human)? Sangayri (Sangheili)? No? Uhhh... sprichst du Deutsch?"
Didn't matter what language I spoke in, there was still no response besides some movements of confusion. It didn't take long for the child to run off back into the red forests. My mind still wasn't exactly straight, so I brushed it off like it was nothing.
However, I suddenly did have the urge to follow them. There was nowhere else to go anyway, the wreckage barely had anything useful besides a DMR magazine or two. So off to follow what may have been a hallucination I went.
It didn't take long for me to get used to the environment, it's what I was trained to do. The air wasn't as thick as before the more I delved into the forest, no it felt like taking a stroll through the park back on Earth. Only I was all alone.
Unfortunately, my mind remained muddled. I gained a few more pieces of my memory back, but none of them actually explained or supported my current situation. Fondest I had was when I enlisted in the UNSC, thought it would give me some valuable skills, plus it should've been easier to be part of with the Human-Covenant war ending almost five years ago. I had been on a few skirmishes, dealing with some insurrectionists on Draco III, handling the 'new' Covenant's forces in a raid, but nothing like this. Dropped on an unknown system all alone, blind without any clear objectives or support besides following the figure from earlier. I hoped whomever they were, they'd give me some answers, hell maybe some support to find them would've sufficed.
There weren't any signs of any other UNSC personnel or equipment dropped from the Albany, there was a small piece from the wreckage that also flew all the way out here, but nothing else at all. Strange how a frigate about the size of a small stadium could fly off so far from one of its assets. Not even a signal in sight.
It was pretty peaceful, to be honest. It had been a while since I went on a walk like this, actually it had been years. Last time I took a walk in the forest was about ten years ago outside my uncle's farm back on Earth. Since then, the closest thing I had for a stroll in the forest were boot camp and a training exercise in Brazil.
"Hello? Anyone out here?!" I called from time to time, yet like earlier, no response from the child-shaped being. Or anything else for that matter. The animals (at least I assumed there were) kept at bay, out of sight.
The peace didn't last long however, as all of a sudden, the bird-like creatures began to fly off with fear. It didn't matter what planet you were on, the sign of birds retreating through the sky always hinted danger.
What followed after that was a loud roar under a hundred metres from my position. I didn't bother running, I just crouched down and aimed in the direction of the roar, under the impression I could put up a fight. Fucking hell, I was such an idiot.
There were twelve rounds in my DMR, add that with my two other magazines I had about forty-two overall. From my experience against both the insurrectionists and covies, ammo wasn't something to be wasted, you were forced to make every shot count. I had a feeling this would be one of those moments.
The roars got closer and closer, before a large red blip appeared on my radar. Straight ahead stood a massive beast, about thirteen feet tall and twenty feet wide as it stood on all fours. The void black skin and fur gave the impression the beast was reinforced, the head was equivalent to the brutal hounds back on Earth, yet the eyes were blood red and the teeth beyond sharp.
I completely abandoned all thoughts off attack and retreated behind one of the thick trees, any other move I'd have gotten myself mauled alive. The beast seemed to have been on a hunting run, scavenging for whatever poor prey roamed out here, and that happened to have been me. The wreckage was about a click or two from my current position, so no chance on luring them over there. I took a look at my rifle once again, was it really enough to fight something this huge? Maybe it was best if I retreated out. Yeah,yeah that sounded for the best.
However, before I even took a step out of place, the beast roared once again, but this time in a different direction. I peered around, tightening my grip on the DMR. The beast was attacked from the side by a figure, coincidentally the same size as the being I saw earlier. They seemed to have stood over five foot from my position. Might've been taller, might've been shorter. The individual looked to have worn tribal like clothing with a mixture of dark and blue colours including a hood over their head, possibly a mask of sorts on their face too. The figure, without hesitation, hijacked the beast like a spartan would do with vehicles. Only instead of sticking a grenade, they jammed a short blade-like weapon into their flesh, before moving straight up to the head.
My mind told me to run off, it was already their problem not mine. Yet my instincts told me to help them out, hell it's what us marines were trained to do, help humanity. I jumped into place and fired my DMR at their head. Yet unlike the blade, I barely did any damage. It was like I was shooting at a heavily upgraded Hunter, no not a Scarab, more like a bit of a mix.
The beast responded by hurling the figure off of it, and began to charge straight towards me like an Earth rhino. I evaded their attack and fired once more, emptying my entire magazine onto it. I weakened it thankfully, but the wounds were like small cuts. It came around once again, pouncing itself above me, forcing me once again to evade.
The figure jumped onto the beast once more, jamming their blade into the eye. Well at least I found a weakness; for Hunters, it was the exposed back. For... whatever the hell this was, it was the eyes.
My shots didn't exactly kill it instantaneously, it gave a disturbing groan as it crumbled about blindly. It wasn't long before the creature met an agonising death, blood screeching out of the torn eyeballs and the soft armoured skin shrivelling up dryer than a raisin. The biology of this creature puzzled me, but I wasn't in the mood for an environmental study. My concerns were obviously on more pressing matters now.
The figure suddenly turned their attention to me, simply saying in a light feminine voice, "Ezia." Before heading to slice off the hide of the beast.
Ezia? Oh shit. Looked like I just hit a language barrier, that will complicate many things, plus it didn't sound like something from any language I had heard. Then again, only the common languages like English, French, German, Mandarin etc I was familiar with, perhaps she spoke one of the less common languages like Javanese, could be wrong, I sucked when it came to language topics. Though I assumed it meant 'Thank You'.
"You're welcome?" I mumbled to her awkwardly, not sure if I intended her to hear it or not.
She came back, holding an average sized chunk of meat out to me, guessed it was a thank you gift for helping her out. "Ezia," she repeated once more.
I pushed back the meat, showing that I'm declining the offer. "No thanks. I was hoping you could provide me with some information if that's all right," I said formally still in an awkward tone. But I could tell that behind her mask she was puzzled by my words as she tilted her head sideways. "You don't understand me do you? Right. Well shit." I knew I wasn't going to get any answers from her, only implications.
All of a sudden, more roars similar to that of the dead beast's grew in the distance. My rifle must've attracted more. The figure gestured for me to follow her, she was already my best bet in surviving wherever the hell I was, and I don't think the beast's friends would be happy if I was standing next to their dead shrivelled up comrade.
OKAY SO THAT WAS THE FIRST CHAPTER. APOLOGIES IF THIS SUCKS I HAVEN'T EXACTLY WRITTEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE (AS IN CREATE A WHOLE NEW SPECIES IN THE HALO UNIVERSE). THERE'S BOUND TO BE AN AWFUL LOT OF MISTAKES BUT THIS IS FANFICTION, NOT A PUBLISHED BOOK ON AMAZON.
HOPEFULLY IT GOES WELL, OR MAYBE IT MIGHT BECOME ANOTHER BURDEN LIKE THAT HORRENDOUS 'WAR NEVER CHANGES' STORY I'M WRITING.
AIGHT BYE.