(Hey, everyone, so the poll I announced last chapter is officially closed. I held off on posting this chapter to give the poll time. It was actually a tie between Noble 6 and Lisa Loud. I was originally only going to do one story, but hey, two is cool. Due to school ramping up lately, updates might slow to once a month. I will try my best to avoid that, but grades come first. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad it helps.)
A brief recap of the last chapter:
Six rescued Violet, Jaxx, Carl, Lisa, and Aly.
Six destroyed an Umbrella blockade while the remaining Monarch troops escaped.
The survivors arrived at the Dawn and Lisa saved Clem
Chief, Bruiser, and Sill found the Covenant ship and rescued Terra.
Chief met Vernum, and the two restored the ships' defense matrix.
Major Nix and an Umbrella troop detachment are attempting to board the ship.
Noble Six and Monarch are en route to help Chief defend the Covenant ship.
(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, Godzilla, The Loud House, or TWD [show])
…
"Old friend?" John asked.
"Well, you never actually met him. Probably heard of him, though. Spartan B132, Noble Six." Cortana said.
"He was declared KIA on Reach; they found his helmet!" Chief said.
"Long story short, he was transported to this Universe somehow and helped the United States Government get its feet under itself to fight Umbrella," Cortana said.
"ETA?" Chief asked.
"30 minutes, I trust you can hold Umbrella off that long?" Cortana asked sarcastically.
Chief silently chuckled and ended the communication. He then turned to Vernum, "Reinforcements are inbound, but we need to buy them a half an hour. Any Ideas?"
"We could attempt to antagonize the infected," Vernum suggested.
"If these guys started the infection, I would assume that they would be utilizing some method of camouflage to protect themselves. If we stir up the walkers, we might only be hurting ourselves." John said.
"A good point, we could also put the ship on full lockdown. It wouldn't help us repel them, but it would slow their advances into the ship drastically." Vernum said.
"Right now, we need every advantage." Chief activated his coms. "Sill put the ship on full lockdown."
…
On the bridge, Sill pressed a couple of buttons, and the ship entered lockdown.
"I envisioned it being harder to ally ourselves with the humans," Terra said in covenant.
"Well, we almost died when we first encountered the demon." Sill said back in Covenant.
Bruiser had been doing as much for Terra's injury as his size would allow, but she was still in critical condition.
"Save your energy; you are hurt worse than you think," Bruiser said in his own language.
Terra was a master of languages, and although she was physically incapable of speaking in Bruiser's language, she understood him perfectly. She laid her head back against the wall.
Sill had been hard at work getting the exterior defenses online and finally got one AA battery up and running. He targeted the closest Umbrella transport and incinerated it. Another transport fired a missile at the battery, damaging it but not destroying it. Sill targeted another transport and wiped it off the face of the earth. Another missile finally took the battery out of commission. Sill attempted to bring up another turret but found none functional.
…
"Twenty minutes!" The soldier at the front of the armored transport yelled back to the rest of the crew, which included Shark and Six.
"Roger, keep us posted!" Six yelled back.
"Sir, how many hostiles are we expecting?" One of the soldiers to Six's left asked.
"10 confirmed infantry transports, 15 unconfirmed. Possible mobile artillery units and pheromone vehicles. The enemy also has air support, but our jets should knock them out before they get to us." Six responded.
"Sir, is it true that you guys found a UNSC ship?" Another soldier loading a mini-gun asked.
"Now, where on earth did you hear that one private?" Shark asked making the soldier a bit nervous.
"We overheard somebody talking about it at camp, sir!" Another female soldier said.
"Didn't they tell you, kids, that hearsay isn't viable Intel in basic?" An older and more battle-hardened soldier asked coldly.
"Yes sir, they did!" A soldier with three red scratch marks on his chest plate said in a smart-ass comeback.
"You know, just 'cause we're the same rank doesn't give you the right to talk to me that way, Davis!" The older soldier snapped.
"Sir, with all due respect, maybe if you weren't such a jack-ass, they would have promoted you." The soldier with the mini-gun said.
"Ted has a point, Hunter," Shark said, siding with the mini-gun trooper.
"Oh, shut up! I was blasting terrorists long before any of you were in high school." Hunter, the older soldier jeered.
"How much you want to bet on that private?" Six asked calmly.
"Roasted!" Davis said while he put an additional sniper rifle magazine in one of his vest's pockets.
"Where the hell did they even find you, Davis?" The female soldier asked.
"Anchorage," Davis said.
"Well, there you go," Hunter said jokingly, inspiring a small chuckle from everyone else except Six.
"Well, how about you Hope, where'd they find you?" Davis said, trying to save what little of a reputation he had left.
"They didn't find me; I found them jack-ass." The female soldier, Hope, snapped.
"Privates Fandrick, Dow, and Tucker are originally from Hawaii." Six said.
"How about we all introduce ourselves so that there's no confusion," Hunter said jokingly.
"You know, that's the first good idea you've had this week Hunter," Shark said.
"Max, I think you just volunteered to go first." Six said.
"Dammit," Shark said under his breath. "Okay, I'm Lt. Max Timothy Shark. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii; I've served with the 1st infantry for about ten years now." Shark said. "So what now, popcorn?" He asked to which Six nodded. "Okay, popcorn Hope."
"Oh, gee thanks. I am Private second class, Hope Yassee Tucker. I'm from Oahu Hawaii, and I just enlisted three months ago. Popcorn Davis." Hope said.
"Okay, I'm Private 1st class Davis Ken McConner. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and have been in this unit for about a year. Popcorn Noble Leader." Davis said.
Six was surprised at this but decided to answer it. "My real name is classified as is my place of origin. I can tell you that I served in the UNSC Spartan 3 program as a head-hunter, test pilot for the saber program, and as a replacement unit on a special ops team from which this brigade gets its designation. Popcorn Private Fandrick." Six said.
"Oh, that's me. Umm… Hi, I am Private second class Teddy Jones Fandrick, but my friends call me Ted. I am also from Oahu, and I literally got here yesterday. Umm… I guess popcorn, Hunter." Ted said.
"Thanks, kid, now let me show you all how it's done. The name's Private 1st class Hunter Paul Dow and I have been with the US 1st mobile infantry since Operation Desert Strom."
"Dam! And they never promoted you?" Davis asked, shocked.
"Yeah, something about a 'complete inability to lead,'" Hunter said looking at the roof.
"Imagine that." Shark joked, getting everyone to laugh and a small but noticeable chuckle from Six.
"Oh yeah, laugh it up! In fact, keep laughing; you can distract the walkers for me while I kill them all." Hunter said.
"Five minutes!" The soldier at the front yelled.
"Roger!" Six yelled back. "Alright, enough chatter! The plan is for Fireteam Cyclops to go ahead of us and distract Umbrella while we slip into the ship and make contact with 117. Private McConner, you're on overwatch. Stay outside; Stay out of sight. Neutralize anything that tries to follow us and give sniper support to Cyclops." Six instructed.
"Yes, sir!" Davis said.
"Upon entry, Lt. Shark, Private Dow, and Tucker will sweep the eastern sector while Private Fandrick and I sweep the western. We will meet up in the central power core. Am I understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!" The others yelled as gunfire could be heard, getting louder and louder.
"Alright, ramp down in 3, 2, 1, go!" The driver yelled as the door of the transport opened, and Fireteam Legion dashed for cover in a Walker infested battlefield.
Six was the first out, as he had a shield and was the fastest. He ran across the field, dodging several bullets while firing a brand new UNSC style US army assault rifle. He hit and killed several Umbrella soldiers before throwing a grenade behind a dirt mount, killing several snipers and a soldier with a stationary gun. While Six covered, the others followed behind him and took up defensive positions. They were taking the brunt of the fire, and their support was nowhere in sight.
"Where the hell is Cyclops?" Hunter yelled while shooting his assault rifle at a group of Umbrella soldiers who were trying to cross cover.
"Their transport must have been hit!" Shark yelled while gunning down several walkers approaching them.
"What do we do now?" Ted screamed in a panic.
"Improvise!" Hope yelled as she took out a grenade.
Before she could prime the grenade though, several plasma missile banks on the side of the ship fired and destroyed the front-most portion of Umbrella's lines.
"What the hell?" Hunter asked in shock.
"Dude, that was awesome!" Ted exclaimed.
"117 must have control of the ship's defense systems." Shark theorized.
"Ask him yourselves! Move!" Six yelled to his squad as he ran to the entrance that Chief had used.
Legion booked it to the entrance while their enemy was recovering. Two Umbrella soldiers guarded the entrance, but Six made quick work of them. The rest of the squad made it to what they thought would be an open hallway but found a sealed door that several Umbrella soldiers had been trying bypass. In the background, the gunfire started up again.
"Well, sh*t!" Hope yelled.
"What are your orders, sir?" Shark asked.
"Hold the position while I bypass the defense system." Six said.
"Yes, sir!" Everyone yelled before singling out targets and cutting them down.
Six took out a high-powered mobile transmitter. "This is Noble Leader to Cortana, do you read me?"
"I read you Six, what's your status?" Cortana said.
"Pinned outside the ship, I need you to override a covenant defense system." Six said.
"Roger, connect your transmitter to a terminal," Cortana instructed to which Six obeyed.
"This may take a minute, keep this terminal covered," Cortana instructed.
"Roger, Noble Leader out." Six responded before joining his team.
"Sir, this is Davis. I have solid contact with several B.O.W.s." Davis said over the radio.
"Specify." Six ordered.
"Four tyrant class, usual loadout, and six nemesis class, heavily armored and armed." The sniper reported.
"Report coordinates and specifications to HQ; do not engage!" Six ordered.
"Yes sir," Davis responded as the door opened.
"Move!" Shark yelled.
Legion ran inside just before a rocket hit their position. Once inside, they split up into their groups and began sweeping the ship. Sharks team had cleared about half of their sector when they encountered two brute walkers. The beasts were mauling the corpse of an Umbrella soldier down the hallway, much to the horror of the team.
"What… The… Hell?" Hope asked quietly.
"I've seen some crazy sh*t, but that takes the cake by far," Hunter said in shock.
"From what I know about the Covenant, I'd say those two are, or were, brutes," Shark said.
"Can we slip around them? I don't know about you guys, but I'm not keen on fighting two alien zombies five times my mass."
"No, I want to get that corpse away from them. We need to know where that guy came from, and where the rest of his squad is." Shark said.
"Frag down the hallway?" Hunter suggested.
"Should distract them long enough." Hope seconded.
"Aright, don't miss," Shark said before handing Hunter a grenade.
Hunter threw the grenade over the walker's heads and into the hallway behind them. It detonated, instantly gaining their attention. While the brutes were away from the body, Shark and Hope dragged the body down the hallway to investigate it. Shark took the comlink and GPS chip from the soldier's helmet and began investigating them. Hope and Hunter kept lookout for the walkers but became increasingly worried when they didn't return.
"Great. Just great." Shark said.
"What?" Hunter asked.
Shark tapped his comlink, "Sir, we've found the body of an enemy soldier. His GPS chip indicates that hostiles have secondary entry points."
"Roger, proceed with the objective." Six said over the coms.
"Affirmative, Shark out." He said, finishing the transmission. "Alright, we're going to have to take care of those things. Aim for the knees to stun, and eyes to finish."
"Roger." They both said while advancing down the hallway.
When they turned the corner, they found not only the two walkers from before but also several others dead. In addition, there were bodies of Umbrella soldiers, enough to comprise an entire squad.
"Oh… That's not good." Hunter uttered in fear.
Before any of them could more, Chief dropped down from the ceiling and trained his rifle on Hunter and his pistol on Shark.
"Friendly!" All three yelled in unison.
Chief, seeing that they were not Umbrella or walkers, lowered his weapons. "Monarch, I assume?"
"Yes, sir! US Army 1st Mobile Infantry, Fireteam Legion." Shark said.
"Where's your CO?" Chief asked.
"Went down another hallway searching for you, sir!" Shark said respectfully.
"Contact him and establish a rally point at the main reactor, I'll escort you there myself," Chief said.
"Sir, that's our current rally point," Hope answered.
"Good, follow me," Chief said, before leading the team through several hallways full of bodies.
"Good Lord! You do all of this?" Hunter finally asked while going through another hallway full of dead walkers and Umbrella bodies.
"Yes," Chief answered coldly, making the team wonder how this Spartan stacked up against their leader.
They finally reached a door that appeared locked.
"Vernum, open the door," Chief ordered as the door opened to reveal a massive room. They stepped inside before the door closed and locked again. The first thing that they noticed was the sheer size of the reactor, which took them all back. The second was a pair of brutes working on ship systems and monitoring a terminal's readouts.
"Contact!" Hunter yelled, but his attempt to raise his gun was met with a signal to hold fire by Chief.
"They're friendlies," Chief reassured.
"Ah, human! I see help has arrived." Vernum said.
"And it won't last much longer either," Shark said before turning to Chief. "Sir, there are multiple bio-organic weapons outside. Our forces are not equipped to handle their heavy weapons."
"Once your CO arrives, I'll engage Umbrella's external forces. Until then, our objective is guarding these two while they make repairs." Chief said.
"For which we are very grateful." The female brute, Morrissa, said.
"Sir, I don't understand. Aren't these guys' hostiles?" Hope asked Chief.
"Negative, they're defectors," Chief answered while checking a terminal monitoring several hallways. He then proceeded to unlock one of the doors on the other end of the core room.
The members of Fire Team Legion looked across the room and saw Noble Leader and Ted enter the room. Chief made a hand signal, indicating the two to come to his position. Once the two had arrived, Six walked up to Chief.
"Sir, Noble Six, Spartan 3 UNSC special forces. It's an honor to finally meet you." Six said.
"The honor is mine, sir. I believe you outrank me." Chief said, seeing Six's rank patch on his armor.
Six looked at the brutes, "Friendlies?"
"Affirmative, what's the situation on this planet?" Chief asked.
The ship rocketed, and an explosion sounded from the hull.
"I'll answer that question later; for now, we need to eliminate all hostile units outside." Six said.
"Agreed," Chief said before grabbing a storm rifle.
"Lt. Shark, hold this position and protect these assets." Six said before, he and Chief left the reactor room.
…
Monarch had started the fight off strong but was now being utterly destroyed by Umbrella's superior numbers and BOW's. One Monarch soldier managed to dodge a hailstorm of bullets while retreating from his earlier position, only to be slammed on the ground by a nemesis. He covered his head as the monstrosity prepared to pound him into the ground, but just before it could kill the soldier, it took a sniper rifle round to the side of the head. The beast recoiled but did not die due to its enhanced bone structure that could survive a couple of high caliber impacts. Before the BOW got a chance to recover from the hit, a mortar shell struck it center-mass, finally killing it.
"Dam! We finally got one!" The mortar cannon's spotter exclaimed.
An RPG was fired at the mortar's position and scored a direct hit, leaving only the spotter alive and in bad shape. The wounded soldier regained consciousness only to see another nemesis approaching him, wielding a massive rocket launcher. Davis, seeing the situation, fired at the beast's head and disoriented it, but not killing it. The nemesis turned its attention to the Legion sniper in the tree line and readied another missile. Davis shot the cannon's sights out, but the beast did not need them to kill the sniper. However, in its desire to eliminate the sniper, it had neglected to notice the mortar spotter loading and aiming his own cannon at the nemesis' head. The mortar spotter fired, leaving only the bottom half of the BOW in existence. Davis wiped a drop of sweat off his head before noticing movement near the entrance of the ship. He looked through his riflescope and saw Noble Leader stabbing an Umbrella soldier in the head with his knife and another Spartan behind him firing a DMR at the enemy troops with deadly accuracy. He grabbed his communicator and yelled into it, "Noble leader, come in, this is Private McConner."
"What's our status, Private?" Six asked.
"Three BOW's down, but we've sustained heavy casualties," Davis yelled before nailing an Umbrella soldier who was firing a mini-gun.
"Roger," Six said before switching to an open Monarch frequency. "All remaining Monarch troops pull back to the staging area. I'll deal with these guys personally."
A tyrant spotted Six and charged him but was slammed in the side of the head by Chief, who knocked the beast to the ground and then drove a piece of debris through its head. Chief picked up the body and threw it into a group of enemies, crushing them. He then pulled out the storm rifle and cut down the rest of the enemy soldiers in his immediate area. Six, meanwhile, used his assault rifle to melee an enemy across the face, kick them through a barrier and shoot them twice in the head. Chief spotted a nemesis wielding a machine gun, chewing apart the cover protecting two Monarch soldiers. He threw a plasma grenade onto the beast's weapon, destroying it, while he closed the distance between himself and the BOW. Once he was close enough, Chief jumped over the beast's head landed on its back in a lion kill chokehold. Chief then shot the creature repeatedly in the back of the head with his storm rifle. He depleted the magazine but also killed the monster, allowing the two soldiers to escape. An Umbrella tank began targeting Chief, but he jumped out of danger right when the cannon fired, ensuring that the shell killed a group of Umbrella infantry. Chief landed and ran around to the side of the tank before throwing a grenade down the barrel and taking cover. The tank exploded, attracting the attention of another tyrant. This tyrant attempted to throw a destroyed Monarch transport at Chief, but its elbow sustained a sniper rifle round, making it drop the transport and pin itself. Chief saw a C4 charge on a dead Monarch soldier, which he proceeded to acquire, arm, and lob at the tyrant. The blast killed the tyrant and destroyed a pheromone vehicle, which had been attracting walkers.
Six had been eliminating infantry and enemy vehicles, during which he had acquired a rocket launcher when he saw a mobile artillery unit that was guarded by a nemesis, the one remaining tyrant, a small herd of walkers, and many infantry. "117, focus on the artillery unit!" He called out over the comlink. Six threw a grenade and neutralized all the enemy units between himself and the main defense force, which in turn focused on him and not Chief. Chief had reloaded the storm rifle and flanked the tyrant with it. The beast took the bait and was leeward away from the rest of the defenses. Once it was far enough, Chief threw a plasma grenade on its throat and blew the BOW apart. He then returned to the artillery unit to find that Six had killed all the infantry and most of the walkers. The nemesis was distracted with Six, so Chief took a couple of Umbrella grenades, simultaneously armed them, and tossed them into the vehicle, totaling it. Noble Six did a backflip, reloaded the rocket launcher in mid-air, and fired it at the nemesis when he hit the ground. The BOW lost an arm and was blown back but finally died when Chief threw a sharp piece of metal debris, cutting the nemesis' head in half. Several jets that resembled sabers flew overhead and dropped bombs on the remaining Umbrella units, sending the survivors retreating.
"It's good to have another Spartan, 117." Six admitted while watching the ordeal.
"Call me Chief." He said before walking back toward the covenant ship.
…
"She's waking up," Louis said.
Clementine's eyes opened slowly, closing a few times from the lights in the Dawn's medical bay.
"Louis?" She finally asked.
"I'm here; you're safe." He said warmly.
"What… happened?" She said while trying to get up but falling back down.
"Take it easy, you just exited a comma, and you've got multiple severe injuries," Lisa said.
"Comma? Louis, who is she, and what's going on? Where even are we?" Clem asked, becoming more restless.
"It's okay. Chief rescued you and AJ after Carver and Lily took you." Louis giggled a bit. "He did a number on the place too."
Clem looked around the room and saw Jaxx in another medical bed, sleeping. This genuinely scared her.
"Okay, what the hell is that?" She asked in a panic.
"Oh, that's Jaxx. Remember those aliens Chief and Cortana told us about? Well, Chief's ship was not the only one to end up here. A covenant ship crashed a little ways from here, but some defectors escaped and found Chief. They helped rescue you, and that one, in particular, killed Lily." Louis said.
Clem found some amount of comfort in the knowledge that Lily was dead. She still had burning questions, but at least AJ was safe too. "What happened to Ericson?"
"We had to leave; there were too many walkers after the battle. Besides, we lost Omar." Louis admitted.
Clem slowly put her head down on the pillow. "How's Aasim taking this?"
"Not well, he barely talks to anybody right now," Louis said.
"Did everyone else make it?" Clementine asked.
"Well, Violet almost got herself and Jaxx killed an hour ago, but yes." Louis joked.
"To answer an earlier question, I'm Dr. Lisa Loud. Your friend, Violet, and that 'covenant' helped me, my partner, and my niece escape Umbrella." Lisa said.
"Umbrella?" Clem asked curiously.
"Some really bad people who may have started the infection. Don't worry about them right now, though; we're on Chief's ship the Forward unto Dawn. Cortana has everything under control, and another group called Monarch is defending the ship." Louis said.
"And I'm glad to see you awake," Cortana said, appearing on a table next to Clementine's bed.
"Cortana, I can't thank you and Chief enough for everything you've done for us," Clementine said.
"Don't thank me; I didn't do much. If you should be thanking anybody, it is Dr. Loud. She stabilized you when I was giving up." Cortana said.
"Don't thank me; I was just returning a favor," Lisa said.
"Where's Chief?" Clementine asked.
"He and a couple of our covenant allies are at the covenant ship right now," Cortana said.
"How's that going?" Louis asked.
"Well, they just beat Umbrella back and are currently sweeping the ship of walkers," Cortana said.
"That's good," Louis said.
"Hey, Cortana. This ship has faster than light speed capabilities, correct?" Lisa asked.
"Well, yes," Cortana said, a bit puzzled.
"Would you mind if I took a look at main engineering?" Lisa asked.
"Umm… No, I'll direct you to it?" Cortana said.
Lisa walked out of the medical bay, only for AJ and Violet to enter.
"Clem!" AJ yelled as he ran up to and hugged her.
"Careful Goofball, I'm not all better yet," Clem said, happy to see him all right.
"Did she freak out when she saw Jaxx?" Violet asked Louis.
"Yeah, you were right," Louis admitted.
"So, I hear you did something stupid," Clementine asked.
"Okay, it's only stupid if you let Cortana tell you about it," Violet said sarcastically.
"No, I told her. And it was stupid." Louis said.
"Hey, who found the mad scientist that saved her life?" Violet asked.
"Fair enough," Louis said.
Just then, Clementine noticed a change with Violet.
"Violet, your eye?" She asked in shock.
"Oh, you like it? It's a functional prosthetic. Cortana made it for me when we got here." She said proudly. "I think she's also working on a leg for you."
"Oh, that's great," Clem said a bit surprised.
"Yeah, don't worry. They only feel weird for a couple of hours before you get used to them." Violet said.
"Clem, maybe you can play soccer again," AJ suggested.
"I don't know kid; I hear Violet's new boyfriend is a 'wicked shot' with 'pretty much anything,'" Louis said.
"He is not my boyfriend!" Violet protested.
"Who?" Clem asked in an interested tone.
"Uh, see what you did, Louis. You know spreading rumors is a bad habit." Violet said.
Louis answered the original question, "Carl Grimes."
"He's Lisa's partner and one of the people that Jaxx and I rescued." Violet said before turning to Clementine, "And he's not my boyfriend!"
"Oh, really, is that why you couldn't shut up about him while we were waiting for Lisa?" Louis asked sarcastically.
"I plead the 5th," Violet said making Louis and Clem laugh, and AJ get confused.
…
"You chose your champion wisely. He is strong, perhaps even strong enough to rival my own."
"Indeed, he is strong, but you still underestimate him."
"And rightly so, for he has not yet faced his own greatest enemy. The one of my choosing has already overcome it."
"Even in all your countless years, you still are blind to the truth."
"Truth is whatever we make it."
"No, even still, you deny the outcome of our war. But I warn you, my old enemy, that yours is a fatal mistake."
"We shall see, my old enemy, we shall see."