Welcome back, i am posting a new chapter today. As i have realized the first might have been too short for an introduction. This chapter will include some action, and some more info about Halo.
I have edited this chapter into the proper format as well. I also fixed some flaws with my grammar, and Lorent's interactions and dialogue.
Location: Unknown garden world
Time: 0600 EST
Date: 2546 March 15th
Lorent shot up out of his bed, magnum in his hands. Sweat ran down his forehead as he scanned the room. Shaking his head, he lowered his weapon; tossing it onto the bed. Remembering where he was. He groaned in frustration. 'That damn memory…' he thought to himself. He slumped back onto the bed, grabbing his data pad from under it. Scrolling through he found an urgent message. Raising an eyebrow, he tapped the message, a short but prompt text read, "Spartan, gear up and be in the bridge in five mikes." Closing the message, he slid the data pad back under the bed. Standing up and grabbing the Magnum he had just discarded a few moments ago, and clipping it to his waist. With a satisfied nod he strode to the door and opened it. Heading to the armory.
Striding through the armory door, he looked around to find the technician responsible for his SPI armor. Looking around a bit more, he found the technician, standing in the back of the room, he appeared to be running calibrations on the SPI armors photo-reactive panels. The stand it was on helping it stay upright as he worked, the suit fading in and out of view until it completely disappeared from view. Lorent kept walking, standing behind the technician as he gave a fist pump of victory. "Is my suit ready?" he asked with a rasp voice. The Technician jumped and turned around. Holding his hand over his heaving chest. "Jesus Christ! A little forewarning next time? I almost shit myself." Lorent just looked down at him with a cold gaze in response. "We-well right, the suit. It's functioning perfectly, the damaged plating was removed and replaced with fresh ones, the photo-reactive panels were damaged from the plasma splashes, a direct hit would've made them inoperable." the technician rattled off, but Lorent ignored most of it after hearing it was combat ready. Nodding to the tech, he saluted Lorent and went to the otherside of the armory. Leaving Lorent to suit up into the SPI. Two and a half minutes later he was decked out in his black SPI, moving to the elevator. Stepping out onto the bridge, Lorent saw many crewman vigorously working at their respective stations, he kept sweeping the room until he found the captain in the CIC. Moving forward at a brisk pace, he reached the captain in a few steps. Coming to an abrupt stop a few feet away from him, clicking his heels and bringing his forearm to his head in a crisp salute. "Sir, Spartan A-219 reporting as requested sir!" He said in a respectful tone to the captain.
The captain in turn saluted him back, "At ease spartan." Lorent then widened his stance slightly and clasped his arms behind his back. The captain then moved to the holo table, bringing up an image of the star system. "Now, i'll keep this brief; we have found a planet emitting unknown signals, it is not Covenant in origin." Lorent raised an eyebrow in surprise, a rare thing for Spartans of any generation. "Have the Covenant found it sir?" the captain shook his head "No, not yet. ONI wants us on the ground ASAP. Their have been Cherenkov bursts in the star system. They will find it eventually. So your mission is to drop via HEV pod five clicks East of the source, from there you will trek to it by foot. You are to report in as you find the source, a bird will extract you at a TBD LZ. Do you understand the mission?" Lorent nodded "affirmative captain. When do i leave?" The captain shut down the holo table, then turned to face him "Now, go get geared up. We will be in stationary orbit in less than five minutes. Dismissed Spartan" Lorent saluted him, and did an about face walking down to the armory.
Lorent walked into the drop pod bay, all geared up. He is armed with a MA5C, that has an under barrel M301 grenade launcher, and a smart linked Recon sight. Strapped to his back was an M392 DMR, equipped with a suppressor, and a smart scope 4x optic. On his right hip he carried a suppressed M6/C Magnum, on his left hip he had four blocks of C12. Doing one final check-over, he stepped into an empty HEV pod. Closing the door with a pressurized hiss. As he did a pre-flight check, the pod rotated clockwise, giving him a full view of the planet below. It appeared to be a lush tropical world, with a sea of hurricanes spanning the Eastern hemisphere of the planet. Admiring the view for a split second, he soon went back to pre-flight, or pre-drop check. With everything green, he signaled the bridge he was ready. There was a light thunk and then a sense of vertigo as the pod was released. Already beginning to burn a faint orange as it quickly entered the atmosphere. The pod began to shake and bounce as it breached the upper atmosphere, the flames that had licked at the outer shell vanishing. At 25,000 feet the drag chute deployed, slowing the pod down enough for a human to be able to survive impact. As the meter on Lorent's HUD got closer to zero, he braced himself as the pod crashed down into the jungle, knocking out seven trees and knocking the local fauna off of their feet. All was quiet, the dust clearing. The pod's door exploded outwards, ricocheting off of a rock into another tree. Lorent got his weapons from the built in racks on either side of the seat, scanning the area before taking off in a light "jog" towards the source of the signals.
Two kilometers in, Lorent halted. Hearing a light humming sound, his instincts as a HEADHUNTER told him that a Covenant Phantom was approaching. With a rapid succession of blinks, his photo panels activated. Blending himself seamlessly with the foliage. Taking a knee, he listened as the humming sound got closer and closer. Then to his expectancy, a phantom flies overhead, hovering for a moment before the grav-lift activates, Lorent watched as four grunts and a lone skirmisher exited the Phantom. As they fanned out, the Phantom began humming again, accelerating off towards the west. Lorent observes the small patrol group, frowning as he contacts the captain.
"Archangel actual, i have made contact with a Covenant patrol, i repeat; the Covenant are here over." the line was silent for a few seconds before the captain responded. "Damnit, this makes things complicated… You have permission to engage, however if you are made we can not extract you. How copy?" Lorent sighs and responds "Solid copy on your last, moving in to engage hostiles. Will maintain radio silence until i reach the objective."
He turned his comms off. Turning his attention back to the small patrol group, trying to find the lone member that usually accompanied these patrols. After a few seconds of scanning the dense jungle. He found him, a grunt fifty yards to his 4. Lorent unsheathed his combat knife, and crept closer, closing the gap in seconds even as he stalked.
"I wonder if i will get the nipple when i get back! FonYap better not take it from me again or i swe-augh!" The tiny grunt's ramblings were cut short as Lorent embedded his knife through the top of the grunt's skull, splashing blue blood onto a nearby plant, staning it with a light blood hue. Sliding his knife out of its skull, he proceeded to see if the others had heard their comrades demise. They seemed to not notice, so Lorent sheathed his knife, pulling out his pistol and aiming at a grunt, pulling the trigger he immediately cycled targets; firing at another grunt, then the final. In the span of three seconds the grunts laid dead, violent holes torn into their heads, The skirmisher squawked in surprise, backing away slowly. But Lorent had already flanked him. The skirmisher bumped into him as it crept backwards. It turned slowly and looked up. Towering above him was a demon! The golden visor reflecting his visage back at him.
Before he could turn to fire at the demon, it had already grabbed his neck, squeezing until the bones were pulverized with a sick crack. Dropping the alien, Lorent looked on impassively at the mangled corpse. He reloaded his pistol and holstered it. Checking his HUD, he saw he only had a few clicks to go. He turned and began sprinting towards his objective at top speed.
He had finally made it to his objective, he hadn't encountered any Covie patrols since his last confrontation. As he crested the hill, his HUD began chiming. Alerting him that he had reached his destination. He was confused, he had arrived at what was seemingly a bowl in the earth, with no entrances natural or artificial. He looked down into the 'bowl', it was at least one hundred meters across, and maybe three hundred wide, a twenty five meter drop into it. Compared to the rest of the region, this was lacking barely any flora, much less fauna. He was about to radio Archangel when his comms suddenly crackled to life, a garbled voice began to work it's way through.
"Com- sold- i a- what you seek." Lorent's eyes widened and narrowed, he knew it had to be a trap of some kind by the Covenant. He disregarded it, and attempted to radio Archangel again, but he couldn't, a sudden burst of static washed through his ears. "Aghhh!" he gripped the side of his helmet with both his hands, the voice came back; this time it was crystal clear. "Come. i am what you seek." It said. Then a 'bloop' sound came from Lorent's HUD. It appeared to be a way point that lead into the bowl.
With his comms obviously compromised, he had no choice. He leapt down the large drop, rolling forward as he landed to disperse the inertia, cracking the dry dirt. Standing back up, he withdrew his MA5 from his back, scanning back and forth across the bowl. With no signs of Covenant he began a steady march to the way point, occasionally stopping to scan the landscape ahead, as well as behind him. As the meters crawled down with his approach, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding, his instincts had saved his life countless times before, so he cradled the rifle tightly. The HUD beeped at him, letting him know he was at the way point.
He looked around, nothing but dust and patches of dead tall grass. Then in an instant, the earth began to rumble, small pebbles began to bounce as the tremors got bigger. Right below Lorent the earth began to split with an unnatural metallic groan, backing up a few paces; he watched as as well lit passageway was revealed, it appeared to be adorned in black blue lights running up and down the corridor. He took a tentative step forward, waiting for an ambush that would never come.
His comms crackled again, this time without the high pitched droning of static. "Come. i mean you no harm soldier, i only seek your aid." Lorent not really convinced, but with no way to radio to call Archangel, he reluctantly entered the passageway. As he stepped in, the doors behind him shut much faster than they had opened, meaning this place had not seen a living being in quite a long time. Disregarding those thoughts, another way point popped up on his HUD. He raised his rifle and followed it, as he passed by other corridors, he noticed they too were lit. 'This place must have a very effective power source.' he mused to himself, still walking forward slowly. His footsteps not making a sound as he neared closer to the end of the corridor.
He noticed a wall with a set of doors. The doors themselves were huge, at least five meters tall 'what the hell? These creatures must have been giants.'. His thoughts stopped as they slid back into the wall, allowing him to enter. The doors closed with a clang when he stepped through, looking back over his shoulder, he shrugged and tightened his grip on the rifle yet again. Making his way to what appeared to be a control room of some kind, with a luminous set of consoles in the center. The rest of the room appeared to have nothing occupying it. Then the room was set ablaze by a large flash of blue light, Lorent's visor polarizing to compensate. After the light had died down, his visor unpolarized. What Lorent saw shocked him to his very core, standing on one of the consoles was a very Human woman; with dreadlocks, and white markings on her face. Her eyes were sapphire green, her face was heart shaped. Her body was covered in an advanced armor. She still looked very attractive despite the armor.
She smiled and spoke to Lorent "Greetings, i am Yprin Yprikushma." Lorent still shocked, couldn't speak for a solid two seconds, and impressive feat to have made a Spartan take pause. "What? How is this possible?" Was all he could say.
She just simply gave a sad smile and replied
"Young soldier, you and the rest of Humanity, are not the first Humans to explore the void. In fact we were the first, and you are our descendants." Lorent is again gobsmacked with this revelation… 'We are their descendants?' Lorent took a step forward holstering his rifle "What happened? You look so advanced? Why are we just now finding this?" She backed away and slowly spread her arms outwards, the whole room was bathed in light, as what appeared to be pictures rotated around the room lazily.
Looking up, he saw pictures of ships he had never seen before, some big; and some small. They all shared a sleek resemblance to one another. Yprin began to speak.
"Millions of years ago, the creatures known as Precursors arrived in this galaxy. They Created life, planets, and us." She paused showing a picture of a Precursor. "They created two species; Humanity, and Forerunner." A picture of an ancient Human and Forerunner appeared. Lorent noticed the Forerunners looked remarkably similar to a Human.
"The Forerunners were like us in some ways. They were intelligent, strong, and proud. They sought to be the holders of an ideal called 'The Mantle Of Responsibility' an ideal created by the Precursors. Originally, they had decided to bestow us with that honor. The Forerunners in their insurmountable jealousy, destroyed them. Taking the Mantle by force. Ironically, that is how the enforced it. Join them, or die." She brought up a picture of a world that had been shattered into an asteroid field. Lorent's mind flashed back to his home world being glassed.
"But, all was not lost. The last Precursor, The Primordial, gave us the knowledge of their technology, propelling us even higher than we were ever before." A picture was displayed of Ancient Human soldiers marching in rank, with advanced armor and weapons, and ships the size of a moon.
"But nothing prepared us for the flood… it started as a simple dust compound, we used it to make our pets more intelligent. The Pheru was a Humans best friend. But the compound changed them, each generation becoming more grotesque than the last." she shed a single tear and continued "They turned into the flood, a parasitic organism capable of destroying a whole species. They took our worlds, one by one. Each person they absorbed, the more intelligent they became. They used our dead against us… we managed to buy time by altering the genetics of half of our soldiers, when they turned into a flood form, they would attack the other forms. Buying us time to purge the damned parasite!." She huffed "Unfortunately, the Flood had fled to Forerunner space, we had no choice… we cleansed every world the Flood was on, and this in turn caused the Forerunners to go to war with us. We were not alone thankfully, our allies; the San Shyuum stood with us in our final days."
Lorent interrupted her before she could continue. "You were allies with those fanatical zealots?" he asked her. His cold emotionless tone caused her to flinch. "Yes, they were our allies. We had a military alliance for ten millennia. Why do you ask?" she said in partial confusion. Lorent seethed but maintained his temperment "They have been leading a war of genocide against humanity for the last twenty years. They have killed billions, and burned countless worlds. All because we were an affront to their religion." He finished saying. Lowering his head, remembering all that they had taken from him.
Her mouth opened in shock, to think their most trusted allies would condemn this Humanity to extinction! She was outraged, but had to let it be. He needed to know the true history of Humanity, "
I am sorry, i didn't know. I will help you in any way i can, but we must hurry. Others are in need of your help." Lorent tilted his head, and asked "Who is it that needs my help? I thought you were the only one left?"
She smiled and spoke
"Before our homeworld was destroyed by the Forerunners, some of us fled this galaxy. A small pocket of Humanity so that we may have lived on. They reached a galaxy approximately one million light years from the Milky Way as you call it. But they were destroyed by an unknown enemy, i have only recently been able to see them, they like you; have devolved and re-evolved again. They are less advanced than either of us, but i sense they too are now in danger of extinction." Lorent could sympathize, but also remembered about his Humanity suffering the same fate "What about my humanity? I swore an oath to defend it with my life." She nodded her head in agreement "I told you i would help you young soldier. I will keep my word, i have recorded the data about the passage of time in that galaxy, it appears to move much faster as compared to ours, a moth here is a year there. I believe you can help them with minimal time loss. I will give you the technology to crush this Covenant, and save the other Humanity as well. Do you accept young one?" Lorent lowered his head in deep thought, thinking of all the benefits. He was disposable anyway, and ONI had already cooked up another company of Spartan III's… It would also be a big win for Humanity to gain this technology… With that in mind, he raised his head and looked into her eyes "I accept."
I literally spent hours on this, i hope it was a good read, and the Ancient Humanity twist was acceptable. The Forerunner cliche had run too dry. I wanted to take a new approach, and this was it. Next Chapter will include New toys, Portals, and lots and lots of Action. Thanks for Reading!