(Hey everyone, I wanted to say that I welcome scolding reviews when it comes to Chief and my errors in the lore. Silence does more damage than voicing an opinion because when you stay silent, I DON'T LEARN! Thanks to everyone who has criticized my use of Chief's character and my errors in the Halo Lore. I'm a better writer for it. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps)
A brief recap of last Chapter:
Chief and the Covenant attacked David's community.
Chief compromised the walls.
Jaxx blew Lily up.
Chief killed an Umbrella Mutant and rescued Clem and AJ.
Clem was severely injured when Chief found her.
The rescue crew escaped without casualties.
Noble Six found out about Chief's presence in the past.
(I do not own Halo, The Walking Dead, or any other franchise that I may pull from, such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, Godzilla, or the Loud House.)
…
"Will she be okay?" Louis asked from outside the medical bay.
"I wish I knew Louis. She's sustained some severe injuries. I'm doing what I can but it might not be enough." Cortana said.
"If she makes it, when will I be able to talk to her?" Louis asked.
"I don't know that either, she's in a comma. We can't know for sure, but it was likely caused by extreme trauma to the head." Cortana said.
Louis put his hand on the glass while watching the robotic arms and medical devices work on Clem.
"She'll be okay kid. She held on this long." Chief said before taking Louis out of the room.
AJ, the Ericson crew, and the Covenant were waiting in the hall outside.
"How is she?" Aasim asked.
"Not good." Louis said.
"Cortana's doing her best. That's the bottom line." Chief said.
"Is there anything that we can do?" AJ asked.
"Not right now." Chief said as he walked down the hall.
AJ started crying. Bruiser picked him up and held him. Mac and Sill left to get some food. For reasons that they themselves weren't aware of, the others stayed.
Chief walked into the war room.
"How is she really?" Chief asked.
"I'm shocked that the kid made it this far. Her body has more reasons to quit right now than the Covenant had to be scared of you." Cortana said.
"How long?" Chief asked.
"A day, maybe less. There is still some hope that I can stabilize her but its grim." Cortana sighed. "How could they do such a thing to a teenaged girl? How bloody barbaric can people get to do that! At least the Covenant had a half good reason for trying to kill humans but these people…" Cortana was cut off by Chief.
"He can shed some light on this." Chief said while watching a security feed of David Carver's cell.
"Chief, normally I'd tell you to use some restraint but…" Cortana trailed off.
"I understand." Chief said.
…
David still had a splitting headache. The walls of his cell were metal, so was the door. There was definitely an air conditioning unit since the room was cool and the light was artificial so there must have been power. He tried to get up and found that something was holding him down, but he couldn't see it. 'How ironic.' He thought to himself. Suddenly the door retracted into the wall and he stood there. That massive green soldier that had killed over half of Lily's team. He really was huge, seven feet or maybe taller. And he looked pissed.
"Before you say anything, I AHHOWWW!" David stopped short in his sentence when Chief slammed his chest with a punch. David felt at least two of his ribs turn into powder with the massive hit.
"There's a small part of what my friend is feeling right now!" Chief said in a tone of voice that could make anything cower in fear. "Now I'll make this simple, tell me everything about the mutants at your base and why you attacked that boarding school, or else!"
"Alright! Those things were genetically enhanced walkers that were designed to destroy everything in their path." David winced from pain.
"Who made them?" Chief asked.
"Umbrella." David responded.
"Is that what the logo on their uniforms meant?" Chief asked.
"Yes, they were a pharmaceutical company before the outbreak but now they try to keep some level of peace. They turn walkers into mutants, like the ones you saw, and use them to defend communities like mine." David said.
"Did they know that you tried to beat, and torture a disabled teenaged girl?!" Chief said coldly.
"She deserved what she got!" David yelled.
Chief wanted to kill him so bad and actually had to mentally stop himself from doing anything.
"Why?" Chief asked in voice that could kill.
"That hag killed my brother, kidnapped my nephew, almost lost him to strangers in Maryland, killed tens of good soldiers, soldiers with families, and put my nephew in danger every step of the way." David hissed. He clearly had no remorse for his actions. Before Chief could speak, Cortana appeared on a nearby table.
"Let's fact check everything that you just said. First, Umbrella, a biological research subdivision of D.A.R.P.A. had three installations, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. All three of which are currently over run by walkers. Second, I ran genetic tests on AJ a couple hours ago. His Parents were Rebeca and Alvin Persilo. Your brother William Carver, a notorious crime boss, is not his father. And as for those "good soldiers with families", they tried to kidnap and kill children as young as seven. So David Carver, literally everything that you just said is false. And yes I know exactly who you are." Cortana said.
David was dumfounded. This mouthy little blue hologram had just blown the doors off every lie he had told and even some things that he thought were true.
"What even are you?" David finally asked.
"Mad as hell." Cortana snapped.
"He's useless, just let me kill him." Chief said while winking to Cortana in his helmet. Cortana was baffled for a nanosecond but realized what Chief was doing.
"Sure, I mean he has committed 21 crimes in the past 72 hours." Cortana said.
"Alright! The only thing I haven't told you is that Umbrella, or at least the people calling themselves Umbrella, are looking for something in the forest south of my community. An advisor of mine told me that something crashed out there but that they hadn't found it yet. That's all I know ok!" David pleaded.
Cortana nodded to Chief and then disappeared. Chief raised his magnum up to the prisoner's head.
"David Carver, you are charged with murder in the third degree, two counts of kidnapping, abuse of a minor in the first and second degree, willfully lying to a military interrogator, illegal possession of firearms, unprovoked assault, illegal trade, and possession and use of biological weapons. Per UN law, you are hereby sentenced to life in prison." Chief said as he lowered his gun, walked out of the cell and closed the door.
"They're looking for the Covenant ship." Chief said.
"Chief, when I said that Umbrella wasn't around anymore… Well, I was talking about Umbrella from our universe." Cortana said with some worry in her voice. "I finished going through all the information that I could find from before and during the initial outbreak. Umbrella in this universe was a pharmaceutical company; however, I think that that was just a cover."
"For what?" Chief asked.
"Well, they did a pretty good deal of business down in South America involving parts, that when put together would create a linear kinetic launcher. Oddly enough, the passive strain of the virus is airborne. They also invested rather heavily in the research of one "ancient mutagenic pathogen." Furthermore, they were amassing a pretty hefty private army in the two years leading up to the first reported outbreaks. They even built several of what I would assume were bunkers around the world. Closest one being in Raccoon city." Cortana said.
"Cause the apocalypse, then take over the world." Chief followed.
"Exactly." Cortana said.
"Well if they get their hands on that Covenant ship, they'll be well on their way to doing it." Chief said.
"Let me guess, you're going to stop them?" Cortana asked.
"Yes, but why do it myself when I could bring a hunter with me?" Chief asked before walking down the hallway leading to the medical bay.
…
When John got to the medical bay, only Louis and AJ were still there.
"Where did you go?" AJ asked.
"To get answers." Chief responded.
"Do you know if Clem is going to be ok yet?" Louis asked.
"I don't know kid. Have you seen Bruiser or any of the covenant?" Chief asked.
"They went to the mess hall." Louis said.
Chief started walking away but turned back to Louis.
"Hey kid, whatever happens with her, just know that you did everything you could." Chief said knowing that Clementine wasn't going to make it.
Louis nodded with some amount of hope left. Chief walked away thinking about all the people he had lost in the war. He still remembered the names and faces of every Spartan, Jorge, Sam, Alice, Jerome, and Douglas were the ones that immediately came to mind. He remembered both of the Keys, and how they heroically gave their lives for humanity. But no loss stung more than that of Sgt. Johnson. John also realized that he was probably never going to see Cali, Fred, Linda, Admiral Hood, Dr. Halsey, or even the Arbiter again either. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how many people he had really lost. All that was left was Cortana. John suddenly remembered what Sgt. Johnson had said just before he died. 'Don't ever let her go!' To some degree, the only person that he really had in this world was Cortana. John just kept asking himself one thing though. 'Why did these kids have to experience that feeling of lose too?'
Chief reached the mess hall and found Violet, Jaxx, Bruiser, and Sill there. Violet was resting her head in the corner, Bruiser was just staring at the ceiling, and Jaxx and Sill were speaking Covenant to each other.
"Cortana, have you located the Covenant ship yet?" Chief asked in his helmet.
"Yes, I have its exact location. It's about a day long drive on a warthog or a few hours long flight with a Pelican." Cortana said.
"Bruiser and Sill, come with me." Chief said.
"HMMPH?" Bruiser responded.
"Some people connected to the compound we just raided are after your ship. They're not going to find it if we have anything to say about it." Chief said.
"What about me and Jaxx?" Violet asked.
"No offence but you've been through a lot lately Violet. And Jaxx is more useful in the war room than in the line of fire." Chief said
Violet scoffed but relented. The hunter and drone followed Chief into the vehicle bay where Cortana had prepped the Pelican for launch. The Covenant sat in the back while the Master Chief flew the ship. After the group had taken off, Cortana relayed the coordinates of the ship to Chief's HUD. Meanwhile Violet had an idea.
"Hey Jaxx, what do you say we take the Warthog and follow Chief?" Violet asked with a smile on her face.
"Well, the Demon said that I more useful here…" Jaxx naively responded.
"Oh come on, he just thinks that you'll get in the way. Besides, what if your friend… the Elite is still alive?" Violet argued.
"Okay, we go but not let Demon see us." Jaxx said.
"Deal, come on lets get to the hanger." Violet said before running toward the elevator.
They had just made it to the vehicle bay when Cortana asked; "Where do you two think you're going?"
"We go look for Terra." Jaxx said stupidly.
"No, Chief can handle it. Besides, there are likely hostiles in the area where he's going." Cortana said.
"The warthog has a turret. Come on Jaxx." Violet said before starting the engine.
Jaxx hopped in the passenger seat but the hanger door started closing.
"Nice try Cortana!" Violet said before gunning it out the door right before it closed.
'Rats!' Cortana said to herself.
"Chief, Violet and Jaxx took the warthog and are trying to follow you. What should I do?" Cortana said.
"They'll get lost, and we'll pick 'em up on our way back. Just track their position." Chief said.
…
Violet and Jaxx had gotten to what use to be an interstate highway and were driving in the general direction of the Pelican. Violet was driving like a speed demon and Jaxx was just trying to hang on.
"Can you please go slower!" Jaxx yelled.
"No way, this thing is awesome!" Violet yelled back.
They had been going for around 45 minutes when a loud shot rang out. The windshield of the warthog cracked and Violet heard Jaxx yelp. She quickly turned her head to see that Jaxx had a sizable gash in his left arm and he was bleeding bad. Another shot rang out and a spark flashed on the hood. Violet started moving in a serpent motion to make it harder for whatever sniper was attacking them. She had gone less than 800 yards when a squad of soldiers in black and red gear started shooting the warthog from all sides. Violet spun thee wheel and lost control when a bullet hit the center console and shorted it. The warthog careered off the road and fell down a series of inclines, before finally stopping after hitting a tree. Violet was dazed and nauseous but otherwise okay. Jaxx's arm however, was almost entirely covered in purple blood. Jaxx himself was unconscious but the injury spoke for itself. Violet was trying to decide what to do when she heard what sounded like shouts from up the hill. She grabbed Jaxx, pulled him out of the truck and started running into the forest. Violet kept running till her legs literally gave out. She stopped by the side of a stream that had thick tree cover.
'At least those guys will have a hard time following us.' Violet thought to herself.
She tried to rap Jaxx's arm with some cloth she had on her but he just kept bleeding. Eventually she heard a twig snap in the distance so she drew her pistol and waited by the nearest tree. Every second felt like an hour and every sound was like a warning sign for danger. She heard another crunch behind her and looked back expecting Jaxx; however, she found herself staring at the barrel of a high powered rifle. The person holding it looked about her age. He was about five foot eleven, had an eye patch, and had longer brown hair. Behind him stood another woman about her age who was holding a pistol. She wore a lime green coat and blue jeans. She had a rather thick pair of glasses and her reddish brown hair was nicely combed.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The guy asked menacingly
"Okay, I'm Violet. My friend and I were ambushed and we ran. He's hurt so I brought him here for better cover." She said frantically.
The gunman lowered his weapon.
"Let me guess, Umbrella?" He asked.
"I don't know who they were, I barely even got a look at them. They had red and black military gear, that's all I know." She said.
"Yeah, Umbrella. Sorry for getting off on the wrong foot. I'm Carl, Carl Grimes. This is my associate Lisa Loud." Carl said.
Lisa lowered her weapon but still kept her eyes trained on Violet.
"Your friend, he's not human. What is he?" Lisa asked in cold tone.
"He's a grunt, a member of a collective of alien species called the Covenant." Violet said.
Carl raised an eyebrow.
"He's hurt, do either of you have anything to treat him?" Violet asked.
"I'll look at him." Lisa said.
She walked over to the Unggoy and began looking at the gash in his arm. She then looked at some of Jaxx's armor including his mask.
"Whatever it is, it can't breathe oxygen, not by itself. The armor its wearing is a mobile gas apparatus, likely for helium. I need to seal its wound, its exposed to oxygen and there's already rapid tissue decay. About how long ago was he shot?"
"Wow, nothing gets by you. About an hour ago." Violet said shocked that this person could simply look at Jaxx and understand basic parts of his physiology.
"Okay, the bullet was likely a 50 caliber full metal jacket and it grazed him. It missed what I think is a major artery but it's still lost a lot of blood." Lisa said.
Violet noticed a young little girl peep her head out from behind a far off tree. Her skin tone was much darker than Carl and Lisa's so she was probably not related.
Carl evidently noticed too when he said; "Ally, it's okay their friendly. You can come down."
The little girl went from tree to tree, never taking her eyes off Violet, until she was next to Lisa.
"Aunty Lisa, who are they?" Ally asked in a timid tone.
"People that need help, and uncle Carl and I are going to help them." Lisa told the child.
Ally looked to be about four years old and had a scar on the back of her neck.
"Come on, there's a cave not far from here that has better cover and an advantage point, if any Umbrella troops are pursing you, they'll give up before they reach it." Carl suggested.
Violet nodded and helped Lisa carry Jaxx to the cave. It was a hard hike up a tall hill. Carl carried Ally on his shoulders most of the way up. Seeing it remained her of what Clem had told her about Lee and how he cared for Clem after her parents died. When they finally reached the cave, it was about noon and the sun was blazing hot. The entrance to the cave was well hidden in a thicket but still had a good vantage point for spotting incoming people or walkers. Lisa pulled out some kind of medical kit and started working on Jaxx. Carl took up a sniper position at the entrance to the cave. Ally walked over to Lisa and curled up in a corner behind her. Violet walked up to Carl.
"So what's your guy's story?" Violet asked.
"It's a pretty long and boring one. How about you?" Carl asked.
"Equally long but not so boring." Violet said.
"I got time." Carl said.
"Okay you asked for it." Violet said. She then told Carl everything from Ericson and the crew there before the outbreak to the arrival of Clementine and AJ to when they first met the Master Chief to the attack on David Carver's community.
"That is one heck of a story. How's Clementine now?" Carl asked.
"Not good, Cortana doesn't know if she'll recover or not." Violet said sadly.
"I will admit, I can envision these Spartans that you were talking about and I have living proof of the Covenant, but Halo and the flood seem a bit farfetched to me." Lisa said from the corner, proving that she was listening the entire time.
"Dang, nothing gets by you does it?" Violet asked.
"Listening into conversations is a skill you pick up fast when you live in Umbrella territory. Besides, I had graduated college with two PHDs when I was four. So the statement "nothing gets by you" would be correct." Lisa said, while never taking her eyes off what she was doing to Jaxx.
"Lisa is the dictionary definition of Einstein. Ally got bit on the back of the neck a year ago and she would have died if Lisa hadn't figured out how to kill the virus." Carl said.
"Wait, you guys have a cure?" Violet asked shocked.
"Not a cure, more like first aid. My method does kill the virus but only the passive strain and fresh bites. If a bite goes more than two hours without my treatment, you either have to amputate the limp or you die. Honestly, short of a very targeted and perfected Nano probe attack, there's no possible way to kill the late stage active strain and survive." Lisa said harshly.
"So you were some kind of child genius before the outbreak?" Violet asked.
"I came from a family of thirteen, out of eleven children I was the second youngest. I like to say that out of the eleven of us, I got all the intelligence." Lisa said.
"So what happened to the other ten? If you don't mind my asking?" Violet asked.
"Well surprisingly, they all survived the initial outbreak. Even managed to save a bunch of family friends and other people from our town. But time takes its tolls, over the years we just got picked off. One by one. Some settled down in communities to the north, others died. Eventually it was just me, my older brother, and his wife and daughter. We finally settled down in Carl's dad's community but…" Lisa trailed off.
"Umbrella attacked us, they killed everyone. We were the only ones to make it out alive." Carl said.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Violet said.
"Don't be, that was years ago. All that matters now is our survival. There's no use in nor time for weeping for the dead these days. Hell, they practically rule the world." Lisa said.
Violet's memory shot back to Omar's funeral and the burial rite that Cortana recited.
"Well what have we here?" Carl asked.
"Hmm?" Violet shot around. "What is it?"
"There's a squad of Umbrella soldiers down at that creek" Carl said while looking through the scope of his rifle.
Violet looked out to see the soldiers herself and sure enough, they were identical to the attackers on the road. They wore full body protection, their main armor was black but had patches of red on the chest plate and shoulder pads.
(Think black version of Gears of War armor except the visors are red instead of blue)
"See those patches of red on them?" Carl asked.
"Yeah, what are they?" Violet asked.
"They're walker blood soaked sponges. They wear 'em to keep the walkers oblivious to their presence. They have air filters in their helmets to block the stench too." Carl said.
"How do you know so much about these guys?" Violet asked.
"I killed one once, took his gun and armor and infiltrated their ranks for a few days. They are seriously messed up people but have the best military in the world these days. They're at war with some holdout of the United States military though, Monarch is what I think they're called. They aren't doing so hot though, in fact last I heard at the base was that Umbrella had just flipped a city out of Monarch's hands." Carl said.
"When was that?" Violet asked.
"About six months ago." Carl said.
The Umbrella soldiers suddenly started hiking up the hill.
"Oh boy." Carl said.
"I though you said they wouldn't come this far?" Violet said.
"They never have before." Carl said. "Well, we're not going down without a fight." Carl fired one shot and watched the visor of their leader crack as he fell backward down the hill.
The other soldiers took up defensive positions but not before Carl had killed two more of them.
"Lisa, stop what you're doing and pack your stuff up. Umbrella found us." Carl yelled.
"Two steps ahead of you Carl." Lisa said while closing up some last things on a military grade brief case.
Jaxx was patched up and semi awake but still drowsy.
"What… happening?" He asked Violet who ran over to help him up.
"Long story, bad guys are trying to kill us right now. That all you need to know." Violet said.
Carl fired another shot and killed another soldier but the squad as a whole had moved up drastically.
Lisa grabbed her pistol and walked over to the entrance of the cave.
"Carl, enough of the one hit one kill doctrine. Have you ever heard of this thing called suppressive fire?" Lisa yelled before emptying her whole magazine in the general direction of the squad.
"We've been over this!" Carl yelled while taking another shot and killing another troop.
"I don't care how little ammo you have for that rifle! Just shoot at the basters and get them to back off!" Lisa yelled while reloading.
The squad had almost made it to the entrance when they were all cut down by what sounded like a different automatic weapon. A weapon that Violet had heard before.
"That wasn't me." Carl said in a scared tone.
Suddenly a figure jumped down off the roof of the cave and landed right in front of Carl and Lisa.
It stood up to full height and was over seven feet tall. It wore black armor and had a UNSC assault rifle in its hands. On his shoulder pad, were three logos. An American flag, two triangles that formed an infinity sign, and a UNSC logo.
"Chief?" Violet asked.
"I hate to disappoint you if you were expecting 117. I am Spartan B132, AKA Noble six." The Spartan said.
(For all my Halo fan base, my apologies as I was going for more of a WD chapter. Next time though, the Chief will fight some covenant.)