Ruby Rose (PILLAR OF AUTUMN):
She read all that she could during the slipspace jump. Most of the crew was asleep, but she had to go through training to make sure that if they were attacked she would not up and die. She seemed to be able to shoot all the weapons they had and follow orders correctly, but they still believed she wasn't ready. The word, if you call it that, UNSC was what really intrigued her. It stood for United Nations of Space Command, but the short-term was what piqued her interest. She lived in Patch once but had to move to Argus when something fell from space. It obviously was just a form of metal plating, but it said UNSC. Theories popped up, and well the Grimm starting coming after the fear that was produced by what this simple abbreviation indicated.
Ruby tried to find out everything she could about this place but didn't know what she could do with the information. She most likely couldn't go home ever again, but that did not stop her from looking for answers. Answers brought up more questions which she needed to find more answers. Ruby sighed and continued her research.
She didn't understand why the people thought it was strange for a girl to make such a weapon. 'I mean I did go overboard, but that doesn't mean it is that strange,' Ruby thought. She also thought about what they said about her genes. Yes, her genes did allow her to have stronger bones and make her faster, but that was because of her family being hunters for generations. Aura would change your genes to benefit you, but only to a certain extent and it usually was there to support a semblance or fighting style. Pyrrha was naturally a jack of all traits so her genes were more balanced in that regard. Ruby had more endurance for her speed, and Yang had more mussel mass. All of them were obviously stronger, faster, and more resilient than normal people, but she didn't know what to think of these people though. They didn't seem to fight Grimm or have their aura unlocked. She could feel some people's auras like the SPARTANs, at least a little. She didn't know if it was a visage of pride or it was just how strong their beliefs really were.
She modified Crescent Rose to fit more of a "modern" energy. Dust was unreliable and also seemed unavailable, so she opted to make it more like the weapons on the ship. She didn't take any parts of the other weapons, but only studied them. She always had many spare parts with her and was able to make her favorite weapon work.
She heard stories about bad food in the Atlas Military, but the food they served here tasted better than her dad's cooking. She cringed as she remembered her dad trying to make anything from scratch. Mom was the one who knew how to cook good food, but she wasn't like a casual stereotypical mother. She would fight monsters and protect people. Her mom was a huntress after all, but to very little Ruby she was like the heroes in the storybooks. She would just keep on reading until she found her answers.
Cortana (PILLAR OF AUTUMN):
Ruby was interesting, she was similar to another woman that she met on Reach. Technically they didn't really talk to each other, but she chose her to be her courier. It was a strange feeling to think the two were similar even though they were almost nothing alike, other than their ideals and combat skills of course. Cortana thought Ruby would have felt overwhelmed by needing to be trained to survive, but that was far from the case. Ruby seemed to be more than capable of handling herself, but what intrigued the AI was her love of science and engineering. Cortana was surprised when she saw that the young teen had made a scythe rifle, and didn't know how to react. She had quite a few conversations with the girl, and she was interesting, to say the least, but genuinely kind.
The girl sat reading about everything that she could, she was obviously amazing at science and math, but wasn't good at writing and really lacked in history. Even with all this, Ruby still excelled at the things she was good at. The girl obviously had a love for weapons and was trained in many different guns, but it wasn't known why or how. Weeks had passed and it was obvious that the girl was hiding something, but Cortana didn't know how to confront her.
She needed to push those thoughts away anyways because they were exciting slipspace really soon and needed to wake up some of the crew, including the Captain. She believed that the Covenant were already at the location they were going to since nobody could've missed the hole they tore in subspace, and they needed to get ready for an attack, those Covenant ships were always faster.
She woke up Captain Keyes, and when they left subspace he was surprised to see the enemy waiting for them, and Cortana explained how it happened. She informed him that they were going to be surrounded by the enemy who had an entire fleet of ships. It didn't take the Captain a second to make an order to Cortana.
"Well. That's it then. Bring the ship back up to combat alert Alpha," Keyes calmly said, "I want everyone at their stations."
"Everyone sir? What about the girl?" Cortana asked him.
"Everyone. And she can fight, yes?" he asked the AI, and she responded with yes, "I want her to provide support under Sergeant Johnson, they already know each other so they will be fine. And Cortana."
"Hmmm?" she responded her hologram appearing on her stand.
"Let's give our friend a warm welcome," Keyes said to her.
"I already begun," Cortana stated.
Ruby Rose (PILLAR OF AUTUMN):
She listened to people being ordered around, and she was told to meet up with Sergeant Johnson, the problem was, she couldn't. The ship shook, she could guess they were being boarded, but she didn't know where to go. Cortana, the shipboard AI who was totally so cool, warned her about an attack so she had her armor on and was currently residing in the armory. The other people had already left, but she didn't know what to do, I mean she knew who to meet, but not where they were. She put her Crescent Rose on her lower back and also grabbed a pistol, for a sidearm, and assault rifle. She put all the ammo she needed in her pouches.
Ruby ran out of the room to hear gunfire, most people would've run away from the fight in her situation, but she wasn't like them. She shot at her foes and killed an elite and quite a bit of grunts. Ruby continued on her killing spree, but she did feel very bad. This was so much different from killing Grimm, but it was necessary. She dogged an elite trying to bash her spine by crouching and she used her assault rifle to kill it.
"We need to evacuate the Autumn!" a man yelled at her.
"But I-" Ruby was cut off as quickly as she started.
"We were given orders to leave, all of us!" another marine shouted, but just then they were attacked by the enemy.
"Get to the pod!" Ruby yelled at the marines, "I will be right behind you!" She didn't stop firing, but they were being swarmed. She heard something between the marines about Keyes driving the ship himself. "Look after this for me," Ruby said as she threw her favorite weapon at him, "GET OUT OF HERE! I WILL PROVIDE COVER!" They turned to look at her. "NOW!" she ordered, she knew she was really scary when she was like this. They attacked her and she knew she couldn't win, but she would die fighting instead of sitting around watching others leave this world. She killed every single one of them, not even one was left.
Ruby walked the empty halls to find someone, anyone, and she was successful. She found the Captain being captured by the Covenant, and they were taking him away in a Phantom. She prayed to whoever was out there that they weren't going to space, and when the hatch closed she used her semblance to get onto the thing. They were lifted up into the air, and she waited until they reached their destination. Luckily for her, it wasn't in space, but it seemed to be a Covenant ship that may or may not have been grounded. The phantom parked in the vessel, but she didn't leave her hiding place. She moved her head up a little to see where they were taking the captured Captain and Marines, but she quickly ducked when something turned to look at the Phantom.
Ruby waited for a little longer until nobody was looking. She used her semblance to sneakily go around the aliens and through a door. This was definitely one of her worse ideas, but what else could she do? Anyway, it was far too late to turn back now, she walked through the halls avoiding all the unnecessary conflict that she could. Ruby, after all, was only one girl, and she didn't want to fight an entire army, so it was vital to not be noticed. She looked around the ship for where her allies could have been, and it was quite a bit of walking, but the worst was the hiding. She quickly peeked through a door into a room that looked like it was made to hold people.
'Probably where the Captain is,' she thought. There were guards everywhere, and she couldn't face them all head-on. "Think Ruby, think," she whispered to herself, 'I will cause a big problem somewhere else!' she thought, 'What could go wrong?' The problem was, she didn't know where to cause the problem. 'Well, Covenant ships like this have a fusion reactor somewhere... No, if I do that the ship might explode, probably couldn't distract them anyways.' She hit herself in the head and thought of something entirely new.
She quickly ran into the room and used her speed to hide behind a pillar, moving depending on where the enemy was. They were interrogating the Captain. She waited for many of them to leave, and she smiled as none of them noticed her. Ruby pointed her Crescent Rose (box form) at the remaining elite and took the shot, before the other elite could yell his body dropped to the floor, too. She gave her gun a pretty decent silencer so the Covenant outside couldn't hear her. A few grunts squealed, but a few hits to the head changed that. She ran to what seemed to be a control panel, and, with a lot of guessing, pressed the right buttons to let them go. She walked to Captain Keyes's cell and he was sitting down looking at the ground.
Captain Keyes (PRISON CELL, COVENANT SHIP, RINGWORLD)
"Coming here was reckless," Keyes stated, "You two should know better..."
"Didn't have any training on what to do in this situation, so I will say no on that," a young female voice responded, "And sorry, but there is only one of me." He looked up to see a teen holding her hand out, and he grabbed it, being lifted off the ground.
"How did you-?" Keyes asked, but was cut off by the teen.
"It isn't a proper rescue until I get you out of here," the girl stated, didn't Halsey say something like that before?
"Okay Miss Rose, how do we get out?" Keyes asked the girl who tossed him a needler.
"Do we have everyone?" she asked him.
"No, we are missing a few," he responded, "They were taken to another holding bay."
"So do we rescue them or not, you are in charge here," Ruby asked the Captain.
'No man should be left behind, but he needed to also listen to protocol," he considered his options. "If we encounter their holding bay we will get them out, otherwise we follow protocol and get out of here," he answered, the girl was disappointed by his answer but nodded.
"You can be sneaky right?" Ruby asked the group as they picked up the dead aliens' weapons.
"A big group like ours can't do that," Keyes answered.
"Grab all the weapons you can, and switch to better things if you can," Ruby ordered, "Shoot anything on site. Someone watch our backs, and all of you stay behind me, if we do this right we might be able to survive this."
"What if we don't?" a Marine asked her.
"Do not focus on the negative things! Let's get going now!" Ruby stated as she switched her weapon to an assault rifle.
They followed the girl and killed everything on-site without prejudice, they encountered the other trapped Marines and saved them. When they got to the hanger they were met with a lot of resistance. They had to deactivate the hanger doors to get out, and a few Marines were sent to do that, but they were being swarmed. When they deactivated the hanger doors they all got into a Covenant troop transport.
"TWO HUNTERS COMING THIS WAY!" a marine yelled.
"Time for some revenge," Keyes said killing the pair by hitting them with the ship.
"Nice driving, but can you get us out of here?! That would be much appreciated!" Ruby yelled to him, and he turned around the ship straight out the door.
Ruby Rose (SPIRIT, UNKNOWN WORLD)
When they got out of here Ruby was concentrated on finding a UNSC signal on her helmet. She was the only one here who had the supplies because the other people had it taken from them. "I found something!" she stated, "It is a distress signal." She gave the Captain the coordinates, and that was the only place they could check.
"We can regroup with them all then," Keyes stated as he drove to the location, "Tell whoever is down there with an itchy trigger finger to not shoot us."
Master Chief (UNKNOWN RINGWORLD):
The SPARTAN was helping some Marines fight off the Covenant when Cortana chimed in his ear that another Covenant Dropship was approaching. Her voice grew confused, something was wrong, but he had no idea what it could be. "Cortana?" he asked his AI companion.
"Something isn't right," Cortana stated. Chief then heard buffering as if someone was trying to communicate.
"Um... Hello? Is anyone there?" a female voice asked.
"THAT IS NOT HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO IT!" a man yelled in the background.
"Well, you can do it when you have your own helmet! SHUT UP!" another person replied.
The woman sighed and continued, "If anyone is there it is much appreciated if you don't shoot our Spirit or us in it, thanks."
"SERIOUSLY GIRL! DON'T YOU KNOW-" the man was cut off when the radio turned off.
"Well, that was interesting," Cortana stated, "The buffering was too hard to tell who it was, but they are definitely human. All the other Marines in the area should've got the message." He watched as the ship landed and saw Marines land and provide support, and they cleaned up the entire Covenant battle group.
"Is that all?" a Marine asked the Master Chief as a Pelican lowered to collect some, and others climbed into the Spirit.
"Yes," Chief replied, they had rescued everyone they could in the escape pops. He walked onto the Pelican, and they flew to Alpha Base, and they were "greeted" by Major Antonio Silva. The people started unloading off the Pelican and Spirit, and a young female Marine walked out helping another Marine with an injured leg.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the ODST asked (Silva is an ODST by the way) looking at the Master Chief, "Why did you bring a Covenant vehicle to our base?! What if they tracked you?! And they say SPARTANs are the greatest soldiers..." The Master Chief didn't respond to the verbal attack and just listened to the superior officer.
"Okay, how about you calm down," a female voice said, it was the same person that helped the injured soldier (they are referred to as both Marines and soldiers in the games and books, so I guess in this case it is interchangeable, after all, the military seems to just be one thing and not divisions like in most countries), "We have enough problems already, and sometimes you just need to take risks to save lives-" Master Chief now recognized her as the civilian he met above Reach, Rose. She had a friendly and sincere smile when she said all this, but she was cut off.
"Aren't you a little young to be in the UNSC?" Silva said with a tone of superiority, "What would you know about the safety of others? What would you know about strategy?" He kneeled to look her straight in the eye, still standing above her, "Look I know it is hard for your naive mind to understand this, but this is a matter of life or death. I am a Major, I know what I am doing."
"I am not saying it isn't a tactical mistake, but we were given an all-clear to do it by another experienced man, and I am not fond of you ruining the morale of your own soldiers by announcing this for everyone to hear," Rose said as her smile didn't even falter as she stared back in his eyes.
"Listen I rather have those men-" before the Major could finish he was interrupted. Rose moved a few steps back and gave a solute to someone, and she opened her mouth to speak.
"Sir, the Major has something he wants to say to you," she stated as she looked at a person standing behind Silva. The Master Chief and Silva turned around to see the Captain standing there in the flesh.
"How the..." the AI said, "The Covenant battle net informed that he was captured."
"Looks like he has broken out or was broke out," Chief commented.
"I can tell that, but how?" Cortana demanded to know, "Whatever group did that had to be crazy enough to sneak into a Covenant Cruiser and somehow fight their way out, or just invade the ship. And they stole a Covenant Spirit." Master Chief only shrugged at this, what was more important was that the Captain was free.
"Sir," Master Chief said as he saluted to the Captain who saluted back.
"Good to see you are alive, at ease Rose," Captain Keyes responded to the SPARTAN and girl, and then he turned to the ODST, "You have something to tell me, soldier?" The Major didn't reply, he was obviously shocked, but it barely showed.
"We were just talking about everyone on the Spirit," Rose was still smiling, but it wasn't malicious or anything, just her kind smile, "I guess I was mistaken."
"You two are dismissed," Keyes stated to the girl and the ODST. Rose nodded walking away without any issue, but Silva seemed to glare at the SPARTAN before leaving.
"That was very unprofessional on Silva's part," Cortana told the Captain on comms, "Tried to find any reason to blame the Master Chief for something. I guess it is the rift between ODSTs and people better than them." Master Chief ignored the second sentence.
"It was under my order that the ship was to be taken here," Keyes replied, "There is something very important about this ring that could affect the universe. When I was captured, I heard Covenant say that however controls the ring decide the fate of the galaxy. I don't know what exactly this weapon does, but I do know it is called Halo..."
Nobody (Literally Nobody):
Ruby may have been able to save everyone today, but tomorrow, how many could she help...
Author's note:
I always thought that Silva wasn't professional, he did nearly kill off the entire galaxy, and only First Lieutenant McKay and Jenkins managed to stop it from happening.
