Disclaimer: This is a work of pure fiction I do not own Halo and it's characters. All rights belong to Bungie and 343 Industries and its affiliates.
This is my fourth story. I appreciate any feedback. Thank you.
Author's Note: I haven't read the books this is going purely off the games and movies so things will be different then you are expecting and I apologize for that.
Chapter 4: Hi Uncle, I've Got Your Six
Time: 30 minutes after exiting hyperspace and orbiting Requiem
Location: Infinity Pelican being pulled into Requiem gravity well.
Aala gritted her teeth as she stood next to Palmer and Lasky as Infinity was pulled down to the forerunner planet's gravity well.
The Pelican she was in was shaking terribly from the intense gravity pull almost crushing it. She could see the metal pulling and tear at the corner or her vision.
Seeing that Palmer was busy making sure Lasky was okay she turned her attention to the other Spartans on the pelican. Tapping her helmet. "All spartan teams engage lockdown mode! I repeat engage lockdown mode this is not a drill!" Aala said sternly as she initiated her own lockdown mode by bracing herself against the pelican door. Seeing the rest of the spartan teams copying her on her hud she braced for either impact or the pelican exploding.
"Damn you Del Rio!" Aala swore in her mind as her vision turned white then black as the pelican hit the ground hard and throwing her far from it and deep into the forest they crashed in. With Palmer screaming her name and many of the Spartans groaning in pain while attempting to help each other and their pilots.
Time: 1 hour after Master Chief encountered the Didact
Location: Requiem Forest
"Wait I'm picking up a new friendly IFF and it seems alive." Cortana told John as she put the IFF waypoint on his hud. "That can change quickly though with the covenant and prometheans attacking anything that doesn't serve Didact. So you better hurry." Cortana warned to a already running John who for some reason felt his gut clenching painfully at not making it to this particular survivor.
When John finally made it to the IFF he found a Spartan in lockdown mode glued to a piece of a Pelican door.
"A spartan? I don't recognize her armor or the IFF you showed me." John said in confusion as he knelt down next to the female spartan and attempted to bypass her lockdown mode.
"Need your help Cortana. Some program is preventing me from accessing her systems." John told Cortana who quickly connected to the female spartan's suit through John touching her. A crackle of energy passed as the female spartan shield disengaged and her armor relaxed. "How is she?" John asked as he felt Cortana come back into his armor. "Hmm… What? She is fine just knocked unconscious from being used as a rag doll from her pelican crashing. Thankfully she was in lockdown mode or she would have died." Cortana said as she pondered the strange feeling of being in the female spartan's armor. It felt like she knew this woman or at least some part of her was familiar.
"So who is she?" John asked curiously as he stood back up making sure no one caught the drop on him while he waited for the female spartan to wake up. "It's hard to say the armor is registered to Aala but other than that everything in her system is encrypted it would take me days to get a chance to crack it and with my rampancy I can't be in two places at once without making it worse." Cortana answered with a frown and put out voice. She loved secrets and cracking puzzles but something about this spartan unsettled her.
Before they could continue talking a female groan from Aala disturbed them. Moving over to her John prepared to give her a hand to get up. But was unprepared for the Aala to gasp and lunge at him from her down position causing him to fall to the floor getting prepared to attack back only to stop when he heard sobbing coming from above him.
"Is it really you? Are you real?" Aala sobbed out as she hugged John's head to her bosom. "Yeah… I'm real are you okay? John asked confusingly as he tried to get Aala off him who only hugged him tighter causing him to grunt in pain. He was about to push her off him but before he could she came back to her senses and pulled off her helmet.
I'm… wow this is awkward… I had this all planned out but this is harder than I thought." Aala said as she stumbled over her words and looked at John in wonder. Getting back up John looked at her confusingly. "So who are you exactly? You seem to know me better than I know myself." John said causing Aala to get a really sad look on her face before steeling herself.
"I don't know how much you remember when you were six but you were kidnapped by ONI and doctor Halsey and turned into a spartan. What you don't know is that your family has spent the last decade if not longer looking for you. And I'm your niece. Your mother had another child with my mother's father after her marriage fell apart and my mother tried looking for you but never got the chance because she was severely wounded on Reach trying to get Cortana the AI you have to the Pillar of Autum." Aala said trailing off at the end as a dead silence filled the clearing. Cortana was stupefied and amazed that John's family came looking for him let alone the daughter of the only other spartan she had trusted with her life and was considered Hyper Lethal. No wonder this spartan felt familiar to her.
"That's impossible." John said at last causing tears to fall down Aala's face believing he was rejecting her and his family. "Please believe me!" Aala said desperately as she pulled her necklace with her grandmother's wedding ring on it off her neck. "This is all we have left to connect you to us other than our blood." Aala cried out as she thrusted the necklace into his hands. Sensing John's dna the ring activated and holograms of his mother and a man he looked up to appeared in front of him as if ghosts.
"Hey, sweetie if your hearing this message then either we finally found you or our children or our children's children finally found you. Please believe whatever they say. You mean the world to me my baby. I've never not stopped loving and hoping to see you again. You were my world. The corner stone of it. Without you… everything fell apart." Everette cried out as she started sobbing and wailing into her hands before her husband Renjiro pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back soothingly. "Hey kiddo sorry about your motor mouth mother. But she's right. Everything changed after you were taken and your flash clone died. We probably won't ever fully know why they took you or what you are doing but no matter what we are proud of the man you will become. All we ask is just give us another chance to make things right so we can all heal from this tradgey and be family again." Renjiro said as tears fell down his face before him and Everette disappeared.
All was silent in the clearing as tears of anguish fell down Aala's face at seeing how much pain her grandmother and grandfather were in. She didn't look up until John took her by the shoulder and pulled her into a hug causing her to gasp in shock before immediately crying in joy and hugging him back fiercely afraid this was just another nightmare and he would vanish.
"I… don't know how to be a family let alone a human… I've spent so long going from one battle to the next that I started to believe I was a machine." John choked out as tears of loneliness and pain came forth like a waterfall and crashed into him. Causing Aala to hug him even tighter and sobbing at how much pain John suffered through for all their sakes.
"We will just start small and work our way up okay uncle?" Aala said nervously not wanting to offend him or run him off. John shakedly nodded his head a strange warmth feeling his heart and thawing it. A uncle… he had a sister and her child was standing in front of him. He felt a strong urge to protect her and teach her everything he knew.
"Right… that sounds good." John said smiling in the end as they stepped away from each other. He moved to give her the necklace with his mother's ring back but she just smiled happily at him and shook her head. "That's yours now uncle. Take good care of it so you can give it back to her." Aala said her spirit lifted up higher than its ever been. She finally succeeded where the rest of the family had failed. Now she just had to get him back to them.
"Back to her?" John said in confusion. Smiling in amusement at him she picked up her helmet and slammed it on locking it in place. Before pulling her assault rifle from her back to her hands. "You will know when you see her again uncle until then just hold on to it." Aala answered him gleefully enjoying this particular secret.
"Until then uncle let's get back to my CO/girlfriend before she kills everything in sight to get me back." Aala said shivering in fear.
Shaking his head in amusement he took the lead since Cortana could pinpoint the friendly IFFs and listen to radio chatter while they were focused on combat. Taking a step next to him Aala cocked her hip. "I got your six uncle, just lead the way." Aala said in happiness and wonderful as she cocked her gun ready for anything to try and separate her from her uncle. "They will all die with vengeance if they even tried. She finally was reunited with her uncle and she wasn't ever going to let him leave her sight." Aala swore in her head and heart. Her heart burning fiercely in love and rage.