I do not own Halo, Star Wars, Predator or Mass Effect.
Episode 5
Unknown location. 10 seconds after Philips' disappearance.
The members of Shadow Team had gathered around the spot where an ODST had 'magically' appeared on their ship and just as quickly disappeared. The squad leader; Thomas Kaleb (aka Shade) was the first of the team to speak.
"Gerald, what did we just see?" Shade asked.
A hologram of their AI appeared in the center of the room. A screen also appeared, playing back the last seconds of the ODST's appearance in slow motion.
"Given the nature of what just happened, he must have been experiencing some kind of dimensional displacement." Gerald explained, depicting the rapid disappearance of the UNSC soldier.
"You mean like what happened to that West kid?" Nye asked. A male Chiss, Nye was the youngest member of the team.
"An accurate assessment. Note how he rapidly disappears as if he's being pulled away by another force."
Aeian T'Reck (aka Fade) interjected with her own observation, "Whoever he was, he apparently lacked a translator. He said he couldn't understand any of us." The asari said, gesturing to the four aliens in the room.
N'cra (aka Dread) pointed to Gerald's display, specifically at the ODST himself, "Judging by the appearance of his armor, he might actually be an MIA soldier, considering that the design is out of date." The Yautja gave his own analysis to the situation, "Actually, given his response to seeing us, this guy might not even know that the Human-Covenant War ended decades ago."
"Then it's probably a good thing that he didn't see me." Thul replied. Towering over Dread by another foot, the Sangheili had been behind the ODST when he had appeared in the middle of the room.
"Whoever he is, he probably needs help." Shade said, "Gerald, has the Captain been alerted to the incident?"
"Indeed sir. He wants to debrief your squad in person." The AI responded.
"Tell him we'll be right there," The human replied as the squad filed out of the room. Fade paused to look at the image of the ODST one last time, getting a sinking feeling that Shadow Team would be the ones to find out what happened to him. With that, Fade turned away and followed her squad.
Unknown World. Several Hours later.
Philips had been driving nonstop for 6 hours, following the events at the power plant. The rocky terrain had eventually turned into a desert, and Philips finally stopped when he realized that he had no idea where he was going.
"Oh, fuck me." The ODST uttered angrily, looking around and seeing only sand in every direction. He checked the built-in GPS in both his armor and on the Warthog's dashboard, but he couldn't get a signal.
Philips was utterly lost in this desolate wasteland. Just as he thought about making camp until the next day, a glimmer of light caught his eye. Figuring that it might lead to somewhere habitable, Philips turned the Warthog towards where he had seen the glimmer and drove towards it. Half an hour later, he was overlooking ruins made of stone.
"Well, at least I found some kind of shelter." He said, trying and failing to keep his spirits up. Something about the design of this place told him that it hadn't been created by humans.
Another glimmer of light coming from the opposite side of the ruins interrupted his train of thought. Choosing to go around the ruins rather than the path through the center of them, which looked like a good place for an ambush, since an attacker would have the high ground and he would have no cover.
As he circled around the stone structure, Philips finally got a look at what he had been heading towards.
A crashed Covenant Phantom.
Though his body started flooding with adrenaline at the worrying prospect of having to fight Covenant forces on his own, Philips also felt a sense of relief. This was something tangible, something that he knew how to deal with. Unlike the ghosts or spirits or insanity or whatever the hell he had been dealing with earlier.
Dismounting the Warthog, Philips carefully made his way towards the wreck, scanning for any and all signs of movement. Finding nothing, Philips carefully entered the Phantom and scanned the place with his VISR. There was nothing except a few broken weapons, some empty crates and a small box full of plasma grenades. Grabbing a pair, Philips went back to his Hog and brought it closer to the crash site.
As he was scanning the area once again, a flash occured, this time in its normal orange tint. In the path between the ruins, near the entrance to what seemed to be a temple, a group of workers and archaeologists were busy moving equipment and artifacts to and from the dig site.
Weirdly, a group of soldiers was also standing guard near the entrance, almost as if they expected an attack from inside the temple. As Philips approached, he could make out conversations between several workers.
"Get this stuff packed and loaded, I want it shipped to the city by tomorrow morning." Someone, the foreman most likely, ordered. As most of the workers did as ordered, one approached the foreman.
"Sir, we found another of those artifacts." the worker said, "Well, get it out of there ASAP. You know how much they're paying us for those?" The foreman replied.
"You there, freeze!" At that moment, one of the soldiers noticed Philips and pointed his gun at him. The other soldiers behind him followed suit as several of the workers stopped to watch what was going on.
"Oh, shit." Philips muttered under his breath.
"Drop your weapon!" The closest soldier ordered. Checking his Battle rifle, Philips carefully let it drop in the sand and put his hands in the air. The soldiers circled him but none of them bothered to handcuff or disarm him further.
"Identify yourself." The lead soldier, a sergeant by the look of him, ordered.
"Private Jacob Philips, 105th ODST Division." Philips replied. As he said that, some soldiers began to lower their weapons and even the sergeant relaxed slightly, his eyes filled with curiousity.
"Philips? Are you related to Colonel Elisa Philips?" One soldier asked. Out of all the things he had seen or heard on this planet, nothing had shocked Philips more than this.
"How do you know my mother?" Philips asked, determined to learn what had happened to her. Just as he said that however, the ODST noticed the workers behind the sergeant moving something.
It was the same alien artifact he had encountered earlier.
"Would you like to know what happened to her?"
A demonic voice emerged from the sergeant, as Philips focused his attention back on him, he realized all the soldiers had gained glowing yellow eyes. One of the soldiers hit him in the face with the butt of his rifle, sending him sprawling towards the ground. The flash ended the second his head landed in the sand, leaving him alone once again.
Getting up, Philips' thoughts started racing at a thousand miles per minute. 'Who were those guys? What do they know about my mother? How do I find her? Did she have anything to do with this?' Philips looked towards the temple entrance, wondering if he would find any answers within.
"Well, it's a start."
As he reached the entrance way, a flicker of movement caught his eye and he looked towards the top of the temple. For a second, he could have sworn he saw something shimmering, but after checking his VISR, he saw nothing there.
Enthusiasm tempered slightly, Philips entered at a cautious pace, scanning everything he could see. Scattered all over the ground were strange glowing spheres, which the ODST had never seen before. Deciding to leave them be, Philips continued his search through the sandy temple, eventually coming across a central area with a stone platform partially buried under sand.
And the body of Michael was lying on top of it.
"Michael?" Philips ran up to the dais and looked over Michael's corpse. Two of his squadmates were now dead. Philips bowed his head in mourning and removed Michael's dog tags and sidearm. Turning away, Philips pulled out his combat knife and waited.
"I'm sorry, Michael."
Heavy breathing from behind him confirmed his suspicions. Having learned his lesson after finding Doc, Philips spun around and lunged at Michael, slashing at his squadmate's throat. Unfortunately, it appeared that whatever had possessed Doc had also learned its lesson.
Michael leapt out of the way of Philips' slash, before grabbing his arm and twisting it over his shoulder. Screaming, Philips dropped the knife and was hurled across the sandy floor. It seemed Michael's corpse still possessed his fighting skills, as Philips remembered all the times he had lost to Michael during combat training.
Rising to his feet, Philips pulled Michael's sidearm out, aimed and pulled the trigger, only to hear an empty click. Michael paused for a moment and Philips could swear that he saw his squadmate smirk behind his visor. Tossing the gun away, Philips reached for his BR, but Michael had already closed the gap and left him no room to aim.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire went off as the two struggled for the weapon. Philips managed to land a good hit by smashing the butt of his weapon into his friend's head, but Michael eventually knocked the gun out of his hands and punched him in the stomach hard enough to knock the breath out of him. Wheezing, Philips fell to the floor.
Michael turned to grab his sidearm and Philips reached for his own, only to realize that he had left it in the Warthog. Cursing himself for making such a rookie mistake, Philips made to move towards the battle rifle, but Michael's boot landed on his chest, preventing him from moving.
Putting a magazine into his M6C, Michael took aim, and Philips found himself staring down the end of his friend's gun barrel...
Michael's POV
An unknown amount of time earlier.
Michael was on top of the temple's roof, using his HUD to scan the crashed Phantom dropship. Seeing no signs of life, Michael climbed off of the roof and began making his way towards the crash site. He stopped when he heard whispering noises emanting from the temple entrance.
"What the hell?"
Turning towards the sound, Michael had to admit that it sounded strangly hypnotic, and found himself wanting to go towards the noise. He hesitated however, the rational part of his mind and military training kicking in. After a short subconscious battle, the rational part of him was willing to investigate the sound.
Entering the temple, Michael cautiously looked over every nook and cranny in case something hostile was hiding there. A bunch of strange greenish-blue orbs littered the ground, and while Michael was curious as to what they were, he was more curious about where the whispering was coming from.
Arriving near a dais in the middle of the temple, Michael saw a figure in green armor crouching down in the middle of it. Coming up behind him, Michael realized that the whispers were coming from him.
"Sir, what's going on? Who are you?" Michael asked the whispering man.
The lights flickered for a moment and the figure disappeared as a bloodcurdling howl started echoing through the room. Suddenly a throbbing pain caused Michael to clutch his head, drowning out any other sound and bringing him to his knees. The figure seemed to flicker in and out of existence as yelling entered his mind.
"THE DARKNESS MUST NOT BE BREACHED! THE SEAL MUST NOT BE BROKEN!"
Groaning in pain at the sound of the voices in his head, Michael looked around and realized a nearby orb was causing the pain. Retrieving his sidearm, Michael opened fire on the orb in question, shattering it after 3 shots but Michael kept pulling the trigger until his entire magazine was spent.
The pain quickly subsided, but the howling returned and the figure in green reappeared right in front of him. His hands had been replaced with large claws, and he lunged at Michael, causing everything to go black. The last thing he ever heard came from a demonic voice.
"You shouldn't have done that." The voice said, *referring to shooting the orb*.
Philips stared at the gun in Michael's hand, oddly accepting of the fact that it would be the last thing he'd ever see. Before Michael could pull the trigger, a blue-white light burst into life behind him with a disturbingly familiar hissing noise.
Philips gasped when he saw what happened next.
Two prongs of bluish-white energy erupted from Michael's chest, causing him to lose his grip on his M6 as he was hoisted off his feet by the energy sword and the Spec Ops Elite that was holding it.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and as always, reviews are welcome.