(Hey, everyone! First, I would like to thank everyone for the support! You guys are amazing, and I am very thankful for all the attention that this story has been getting! Second, I am going to write a side story around one or two of the characters for A New Mission. The poll should be on my profile and my new forum, "Halo Storm Front!" If you guys want a place to discuss Infinite or Halo stories you've read/written, then check it out! Just as a warning for the next few chapters, I have not had a lot of time to storyboard lately, but I am going to get back to that soon. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps!)
A brief recap of the last chapter:
Clem is dying from her injuries.
Chief and Cortana discovered that Umbrella is looking for the Covenant ship.
Violet and Jaxx tried to follow Chief on the Warthog but were ambushed.
Violet met Carl Grimes, Lisa Loud, and Lisa's niece, Ally Loud.
Umbrella attacked Carl and Lisa's hideout but were thwarted by Noble Six.
(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, The Loud House, or Godzilla)
…
"Chief?" Violet asked.
"I hate to disappoint you if you were expecting 117. I am Spartan B132, AKA Noble six." The Spartan said.
"Wait, there are other Spartans here? And if you're not Chief, where is he?" Violet asked.
"Yes ma'am, however, the only other Spartan currently in this universe is 117. As for the second question, that is what I am here to figure out." Noble Six said.
"Sorry, I'm not following. Violet, who is this clown?" Carl asked.
"Sir, I am a genetically modified soldier called a Spartan. I am currently in the service of Monarch. Our mission is to locate and rescue survivors of the apocalypse and destroy Umbrella." Noble Six said.
"You keep saying 117, do you mean Chief?" Violet asked.
"Yes, Spartan Sierra 117's rank is Master Chief petty officer. From what I've heard about him, it doesn't surprise me that he would choose to go by that over his number or name." The Spartan said before tapping his helmet and appearing to listen to a transmission. "We need to go; Umbrella is sending reinforcements this way. My troops are trying to slow them down, but we won't have much time."
Lisa had finished packing her equipment. She loaded her pistol, grabbed Ally's hand, and said; "Then let's not squander time."
The group left the cave and followed the Spartan. They could hear gunfire off in the distance as well as what sounded like rockets.
"You never asked about the grunt," Violet said while carrying Jaxx.
"He hasn't tried to kill you, and a Covenant ally is not something you pass up in war." The Spartan said.
"War, Chief said the war ended and that humanity won?" Violet said, confused.
Six stopped and looked at Violet. "We won? How?"
"Humanity found a way to turn the Elites on the Covenant. But you would know that?" Violet's voice turned to suspicion.
"Let's just say; I've been out of the loop for a while." Six turned and kept walking.
"Violet, this guy is one of those Spartans that you were talking about?" Carl asked.
"Yes, I've seen them in action before. Let's just say; we're well protected." Violet responded.
They kept moving until they reached the main road.
"Wait, we got ambushed here!" Violet yelled.
"Don't worry, Monarch already swept this area." The Spartan said while pointing to a dead Umbrella soldier.
Violet saw other troops all dead on the ground. A soldier wearing a different armor ran over to six.
"Lt. Shark, report." Six said.
"Umbrella's got a B.O.W. up the road, as well as several armored units. We're doing our best, but they're crushing us." Shark said.
"Pull the troops back, let them come to us. I'll deal with them personally." The Spartan said.
"But, that would cut us off from Evac." The Lt. protested.
Six turned to Violet. "How close is 117's base of operations?" Six asked.
"The Dawn? It's not far, and I think it has defense systems too." Violet said.
"Lt. Have this girl direct your retreat effort. I will rejoin you after the enemy units are neutralized." Six said before taking a militarized motorcycle in the direction of the fight.
"Do they all do that?" Carl asked.
"Yeah," Violet sighed.
Six made his way down to the front line of the battle. Indeed Umbrella did have a B.O.W. It was a tyrant, nothing that Six hadn't handled before. The hulking mutant charged Six but was dumbfounded when he slid his bike between the beast's legs and embedded a grenade into its back. The blast tore the mutant in half, but its upper body was still alive. Six jumped off his bike, grabbed a rocket launcher off a fallen Monarch soldier and incinerated the remainder of the beast. Six threw the rocket launcher at two approaching Umbrella troops, killing them instantly. A walker attacked Six from the side but had its head blown off but the Spartan's fist. Six used the body as a shield while he charged an enemy tank. The machine gun made quick work of the walker body but didn't have a chance to hurt Six's shields before the Spartan was on the tank. He punched through the hatch and went to town on the unfortunate crewmembers. Looking on in shock, the remaining Umbrella troops saw the main gun turn toward them. Six fired the main gun, killing five Umbrella soldiers and injuring more. He then armed a grenade, placed it in the ammo rack, jumped out, and saw the tank explode. Six drew his assault rifle and proceeded to cut down any Umbrella soldier, or even walker that was still moving. Once the enemy had been neutralized, he calmly made his way back to his bike and rode off.
The Monarch squad hadn't come off well from the either though. Of the fifty soldiers that had engaged Umbrella, Shark counted only twelve as still alive. They had two armored vehicles left, and it was a tight fit inside of them.
"Aunty Lisa, where are we going?" Ally asked Lisa.
"Somewhere safe. Just keep your head down for me, okay?" Lisa said kindly back to her niece.
"Okay." The little girl said before putting crouching down in the corner of the vehicle.
"If you don't mind my asking, how old is she?" Lt. Shark asked Carl.
"Ally? Four and a half. Most of that she's spent on the run with us." Carl said.
"So, she's not related?" Shark inquired.
"Not to me, but she's Lisa's niece. Her parents were Lincoln and Ronnie Anne Loud. Great people, but nothing good lasts around Umbrella." Carl said.
"Oh, I didn't mean to bring up a painful memory." Shark apologized.
"No need, we moved on a long time ago," Lisa said coldly.
"So how about you, who are you?" Violet asked.
"Ah, where are my manners. I am Lt. Max T. Shark, Monarch 1st mobile infantry division. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. When the outbreak first hit, my family and I fought rather than hid. When the National Guard finally secured the island, I joined the military to take back the rest of the island chain and, eventually, the rest of the country. A little while after we had secured Oahu, I was asked by Noble Leader to join the mobile infantry as his second in command. I have fought with him and Monarch ever since." Shark said.
"Hawaii is still safe?" Carl asked.
"Yeah, Umbrella's master plan was to cripple our military right after the outbreak because they knew that countries like the U.S., Russia, and China would be able to stop the infection with our superior military. They demolished military bases and reserves in almost every state, but thanks to Noble Leader, they failed in Hawaii and had trouble in D.C. The National Guard had remnants in states like California and Georgia, but they were either overwhelmed by the infection or systematically destroyed but Umbrella. Eventually, we got our feet back under us, and with advanced military weapon designs from Noble Leader, we took back the Hawaiian Islands, San Diego, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Anchorage. Before we found out about Serria 117's presence in this timeline, we were trying to insert the mobile infantry into this area as a distraction for our invasion of Portland." Shark explained.
"So, you guys are just taking back coastal cities from Umbrella and the undead?" Violet asked.
"Pretty much, it's been slow going, but we're making progress," Shark said.
"I infiltrated Umbrella for a few days, and I heard that they had just taken a city from you guys?" Carl asked.
"They must have been talking about Richmond; it was a community around here that helped us when we first started causing trouble here. Umbrella didn't take too kindly to that, and they tried to destroy the community, and it was a community, not a city. Anyways, Noble Leader held Umbrella off long enough for us to get all the inhabitants out of there and back to our staging ground. From there, we got them back to Hawaii, and to my knowledge, they're all fine and happy." Shark said.
"Sir, there is a large structure up ahead." One of the drivers of the transport yelled back to Shark.
"Human ship!" Jaxx said as the Dawn came into view.
Suddenly their communications system was hacked; "Unidentified transports, halt your approach or you will be destroyed!" A female voice said.
"Wait; let me and Jaxx say something!" Violet pleaded.
Shark nodded to the driver. Violet made her way to the radio. "Cortana, it's Violet. These guys are with us, and they're friendly." Violet said.
"Need I even ask what happened to the Warthog?" Cortana said.
"Umm, about that… We got jumped by these guys called Umbrella…" Violet was about to continue when Cortana yelled. "Umbrella attacked you! You didn't let them follow you, did you?"
"No ma'am, we destroyed their units and retreated." Shark stepped in.
"Who is this?" Cortana asked.
"A friend," Shark said.
"Fine, make your way into the main hanger. And Violet, don't do something that stupid again." Cortana said.
The Monarch transports made their way into the hanger and were joined by Six on his bike. The ship dumbfounded Carl, but Lisa was just curious. Cortana appeared on a console in the hanger and was about to say something when she saw Noble Six.
"Well, hello stranger, long time no see." She said sarcastically.
"My apologies, ma'am, but I do not think we are acquainted." The Spartan said.
"Oh come on you don't remember me, I did choose you over the rest of Noble team to get me to captain Keys after all?" Cortana said.
That jogged Six's memory. "You are…"
"UNSC AI Cortana. And yes, I was the AI that Halsey needed you to get onboard the Pillar of Autumn," Cortana said.
"I hear we won?" Six inquired.
"We did," Cortana said.
Meanwhile, Louis had come frantically searching for Violet.
"Violet! Where the hell have you been?" He said as if the sky was falling.
"On a stroll, how's Clem?" She asked.
"She's the reason I came to get you. She's slipping fast! You need to be there if…" He could not bring himself to say the next part.
"How badly is your friend hurt?" Lisa asked.
"Bad," Violet said.
"Let me have a look at her," Lisa said.
"I appreciate the offer, but if Cortana can't save her…" Louis was interrupted.
"Cortana isn't me," Lisa said.
"Louis, she saved Jaxx from a pretty bad injury, if there isn't any hope left, it couldn't hurt to try." Violet pleaded.
"Alright, follow me!" Louis said before running to the medical bay with Lisa and Violet.
When they got there, Clem's heart rate had spiked.
"Lisa took one look at everything in the medical bay, then Clem and said; "She's going into anaclitic shock; I need some space," Lisa said.
The others left and went to the viewport of the medical bay. They watched as Lisa worked tirelessly, and with such a knowledge of the tools, she was using that it seemed like she was born with them. In under an hour, Lisa had stabilized Clementine. She walked outside the medical bay and said; "Well, someone did a number on her. Anyways I have her stabilized and out of her comma. With any luck, she should be awake in a day or two."
"Wait, you just did in an hour what a literal supercomputer couldn't do in a day?" Violet said in shock.
"Problem with computers is that they overthink everything. They get locked into simulating outcomes of problems, and based on that; they use the most logical or best-ended simulation to try and fix the problem. They lack the ability to try something completely untested with unforeseeable outcomes. The human body is one tuff thing, and you can never really predict any certain outcomes in it. I'm not saying that your AI isn't brilliant, I'm just saying that there are certain qualities about its thinking process that make it an illogical choice for a doctor." Lisa explained.
…
Chief had lost contact with Cortana about an hour ago; however, he had predicted that a Covenant jamming beacon would be active in the area. Chief set the pelican down about half a mile from the ship, but already he noticed a heightened walker presence. When the door opened, three walkers tried to board the pelican, but Bruiser made quick work of them.
"Keep your eyes peeled for surviving brutes, putting them down should be our number one priority," John told the hunter and drone.
They made their way through thick forest until reaching a wall with semi-active camouflage. Chief nodded to Bruiser who, in turn, charged his cannon and nocked in the wall. The blast attracted the attention of several walkers, so the group heaped some debris in the way of the make shit door after they were through. Based on directions from Sill, the group their way to the bridge. When they made it to the entrance, the door was jammed. While Sill looked for an alternate route on a terminal, Chief pried the doors open. The sight on the bridge was horrifying. There were bones everywhere, all of them belonging to brutes. Any corpse that hadn't already been reduced to a skeleton was in the process because of the brute walkers that had taken over the bridge. The gore even made John wince a little. Just before Chief raised his assault rifle to put the beasts out of their misery, he noticed three or four of them still trying to bash in a service door. He motioned it to Bruiser, who apparently got the message as he started charging his cannon. John and Sill opened fire on the walkers. Most of them were cut down instantly but the ones that were not actually ran at the group. While Chief was shooting them, Bruiser fired his cannon and obliterated every zombie in the way of the service door. Once all the walkers had been dispatched, John walked over to the door. He gave diplomacy about a half a second of thought and then kicked the door in. He stepped in with his assault rifle raised but saw another dead brute. However, this one had not been bitten; it had been shot. Chief turned around to see an Elite in the corner. It was bleeding from its side, from what appeared to be a stab wound. It had a storm rifle next to it; however, the Elite had not raised it.
"If you're going to kill me, just do it." The Elite said in a recognizably female voice.
"You're Terra, leader of the defectors, aren't you?" Chief asked.
The Elite made something resembling a smile, then said; "What's left of her."
"Are you bitten?" Chief asked.
"No, but never the less, my fate is sealed." She removed her hand from her injury to reveal its severity. "This is not a recent injury."
"You're not dead yet," Chief said before helping the Elite to her feet. However, she could barely stand with Chief's help, much less walk on her own.
"Are there any surviving brutes left on the ship?" Chief asked while helping her out of the service hall.
"One, possibly two. They aren't a threat to you though; in fact, they're the reason this ship crashed, to begin with." Terra managed to say while Chief carried her.
Bruiser caught sight of Terra and ran over to her.
"BMMHHHBB!" It said.
"It is good to see you too, my friend," Terra said compassionately.
"Sill, have you been able to disable the jamming beacon yet?" Chief asked.
"VVVVVERT" The drone croaked while nodding its head.
"Cortana, do you read?" Chief said into his com-link. "Cortana, respond!" Chief finally gave up trying and turned to Sill. "You're sure you disabled it?"
The drone nodded again.
"What is wrong, human?" Terra asked.
"Someone else is jamming our coms," Chief said before going over to the window and looking down. Chief saw several transports pulled up to the ship; all marked with an Umbrella logo. "Is there any way to restore the ship's defense systems?" Chief asked.
"The controls should be to the terminal beside you," Terra said.
"It doesn't have power," Chief said.
Sill looked at his consul again and saw that the main reactor was offline and that both secondary reactors were powering life support and the cloaking device. He pointed this out to Chief.
"Bruiser, find something to stop her bleeding. Sill, keep working on punching threw the jamming frequency. I'll be back." Chief said.
John exited the bridge and accessed a terminal in the main hall. After locating the main reactor, he drew his assault rifle and started heading toward the coordinates on his HUD. About a third of the way to the reactor, Chief found himself in a corridor with ten undead brutes. The first beast never even saw Chief before it had been shot in the head. The second had heard the shots but also never saw the Spartan before its head was punched in. John grabbed a piece of debris and smashed it into the head of another. By now, the remaining seven brutes had noticed Chief and were charging him. John threw a fallen trust clean through the heads of the fourth and fifth brutes, but the six had successfully closed the distance between it and Chief. The Spartan was thrown several meters backward but rebounded off the wall, drew his assault rifle, and put the sixth, seventh, and eighth brutes down. The assault rifle ran out of ammo, but John did not intend to give his opponents ground. He threw the rifle at the closer of the two remaining walkers, killing it instantly. The final beast had almost reach Chief when he doubled back and threw the sidekick to end all sidekicks. The brute's head flew across the hallway, and the body doubled over. Chief did not waste any time though; he was off to the reactor as soon as his foot hit the ground. Occasionally he ran into one or two more walkers, but they were easily dispatched. Finally, John reached the entrance to the main reactor; the door had been forcibly barricaded, so he assumed that the brutes Terra had mentioned were inside. John opened the door and then barricaded it to avoid further conflict with the undead. Ahead of him stood a damaged main reactor, and at its base was one lone brute who seemed to be making repairs. The alien looked back at Chief, and then calmly resumed its work.
"There is no need for your weapon here human; those who would have done you wrong are dead." It said.
"Who are you?" Chief asked.
The beast stood up and turned to face John. "I am Vernum. I am what humans would call the ships chief engineer. I am also a secret ally of Terra and humanity. It was my wife and I who brought this ship down before Halo fired. How ironic that I now toil to undo my prior actions."
"How badly is the reactor damaged?" Chief asked.
"This ship will never fly again, let us put it that way. I have been working to restore defensive systems and security measures to rid the ship of the infected. As of now, I must only reroute several couplings, but they are located all across this deck. My love is working on one now, in the upper inverse fusion core. I am aware that tensions between our peoples are the same as when the prophets lived, but may I request your assistance in repairs? It would greatly speed things along." Vernum asked.
"I would say yes, but there's a small army of some very bad people trying to gain access to this ship right now," Chief explained.
"Then it is imperative that we complete repairs to the defense matrix as soon as possible. Come human; we have much work to do." Vernum said before leading Chief in the direction of the first power coupling.
While on the way, John noticed a good number of dead brutes. However, these had not been reduced to skeletons like their comrades on the bridge. Rather, these had been shot and stabbed to death.
"You two killed all of these guys by yourselves?" John asked.
"No, they killed each other. When the fighting had settled down, we simply eliminated the survivors, and there weren't many." Vernum said coldly.
"Why did you guys defect, especially you, a brute?" Chief inquired.
"I was never, what is the expression that humans use? 'A fan' of the mass genocide of a race that had so much to give culturally and architecturally. Those were my passions before the war. My distrust of the prophets only grew with the number of battles we won. However, I would have stayed loyal to the Covenant if not for one moment. Once, I was sent to oversee the fortification of a stronghold on a recently conquered world. The local population of humans had either been captured or killed. Those who did survive were faced with brutal deaths at the hands of my kind. However, your people, rather than abandoning them to die like mine, would sent a lone soldier to rescue the remaining humans. I was unlucky enough to meet this soldier face to face." Vernum turned his head to reveal a massive scar on his neck. "That warrior had every right to kill me then and there, but they didn't. They made sure I was not getting back up and then said; "You're alive because, unlike you and your kind, we can show mercy." I will never forget those words, the face of that soldier, or the incomparable act of mercy they showed me that day. It made me come to terms with who the real aggressors of the war were, not humanity but the Covenant. As for the others, all I know is that they saw things, good and bad, on the field of battle that changed their perception of the war as well." Vernum finished as they arrived at the first coupling.
"We will need to align the coupling with the linear stabilizers, then reroute power from the secondary generators through it," Vernum explained.
Chief looked at the coupling and helped Vernum drag the mass of cables beside what could have been mistaken for a magnifying glass.
"Now stand clear human, even you cannot withstand the amount of power that is about to surge through these cables," Vernum said before accessing a terminal to the side of the coupling. Chief took careful note of what Vernum had just said and stepped backward. Just after he did, there was a buzzing noise, and a beam of energy was projected toward the core. Vernum finished checking the power readout on a terminal and then directed Chief toward the second coupling. While they were making their way to it, an explosion rocked the ship. Chief grabbed Vernum, who would have fallen over a guardrail into the core from the shock.
"We got to get moving, something tells me they're getting impatient," John said.
A communicator on Vernum's belt suddenly started talking; "My love, something just attacked the ship, are you alright?"
"I am fine Morrissa, thanks to our new human ally," Vernum responded to the device.
"Human? Here?" Morrissa asked over the communicator.
"Indeed, but have no fear, he is a friend," Vernum said.
"Well, extend my gratitude to him. Moreover, do not delay, that blast ruptured the hull. We could have intruders." The voice said.
"They won't be a problem once the defense matrix is restored, and even so, they must bypass the infected before getting to us," Vernum said, almost gleefully.
Vernum turned to Chief; "My wife, she was allowed to serve aboard the ship because of her extensive knowledge of the cloaking device and advanced quantum mechanics. Now let us make haste; we still have two more couplings to repair."
…
Major Nix stood atop the mobile command vehicle. He wore the standard uniform of an Umbrella officer. His black hair resembled a military cut, but it had been grown out. His skin was deathly pale. The joke among the ranks of Umbrella was that he never stepped outside in his life. However, he was outside today, at least. His ears were still ringing from the general shouting orders at him. 'DON'T LET MONARCH WITHIN A THOUSAND MILES OF THAT SHIP!' He might have been frightened if not for his past, a past full of loss and pain. It was a past that he blamed completely on Monarch, and his mission today was to avenge it.
"Sir, the explosive charges that we set pierced the hull." One communications officer said.
"Good. Move our troops in; we're going to crush whatever resistance is left on that vessel." Nix said.
"Sir, latest from intel. Monarch destroyed that blockade we had set up on the highway. They haven't confirmed it yet, but they think that the 'Spartan' was present during the engagement." Another officer said while handing Nix a tablet.
"Any survivors?" Nix asked.
"No, sir, casualties were complete." The same officer said.
Nix scrolled through the pictures of the wreckage for about a minute. "Tell intel to confirm the presence of Noble Leader in this region," Nix said mechanically.
"Sir, how do you know?" The officer asked while relaying the transmission.
"I've not only seen his combat style first hand, but I've dealt with a 'Spartan' before," Nix said.
Nobody asked any more questions. They had all heard the rumor that Nix had killed one of these "Spartans" in New York. Simultaneously, they had all heard about how an entire infantry division got wiped out in New York a few years back by a single Monarch soldier.
"Tell command to scramble birds and hunt that Monarch unit down," Nix said after a while. One crewmember made particular note of the grin that was coming on to his face.
'Probably wants to add another one of those guys to his kill count,' the crewmember thought.
"This is Task Force Gamma to Castle, over." The communications officer said.
"This is Castle Gamma, we read you, over."
"Requesting aerial surveillance on R-74's last known position, over."
"Roger, birds will be up within the hour, over and out." The transmission ended.
"And then there was one," Nix said.
…
"That ought to do it," Vernum said while reconnecting the Defense Matrix to the main reactor, which was also now operational.
"Do we have communications back?" Chief asked.
"Yes." The brute said.
"Cortana, do you read?" Chief asked over his coms.
"Chief! I take it you disabled the jamming device?" Cortana asked.
"Twice," Chief said sarcastically.
"Okay… Well, you are never going to believe who just showed up at the Dawn!" Chief cut off Cortana.
"We don't have time right now; Umbrella is attempting to board the ship, and we have a critically injured asset here," Chief said.
"Don't worry, help is on the way," Cortana said.
"You didn't send the kids, did you?" Chief asked.
"No, an old friend is on his way to link up with you. And he may or may not be bringing a small army with him." Cortana said.
(Hey guys, I know it's been a while. I wanted to get this chapter up over the weekend but a family tragedy prevented that. Anyways, I am going to do as much writing as possible over this weekend and will hopefully have a new chapter out soon. In addition, I saw the trailer for TWD Saints and Sinners. It looks awesome and I definitely plan to use content from it in this or other stories. [Once it comes out, of course.])
PS (Before everyone goes NUTS over my "MISUSE" of the Brutes character, I just want to say that I am setting up a dichotomy between the savage nature of the Covenant and the values that the defectors hold dear. {Pursuit of Knowledge, Peace, Freedom, and Equality among species.} Vernum and Morrissa contrast to Brutes like Atriox and Tartarus because they, and the other defectors, represent a push toward knowledge and peace rather than war and destruction. So please, do not hate on me for this one :)