"Chief?" Cortana asked worriedly, his body was still, no heartbeats or neural activity registered on the suits computer. Suddenly, he began twitching his fingers. Opening his eyes, he found himself half through the glass window of the pod, glass was shattered all over his body. Craning his neck to the side, he searched for any activity in the wreckage. Finding no movement on the motion tracker, he proceeded to push himself out of the cockpit, landing with a thump on the ground.
"Cortana, what happened?" he enquired. His mind was telling him one thing, weapons. Quickly surveying the wreckage waiting for Cortana's answer, he found a magnum laying on the ground next to a steel brace. Walking over to it, he found it had a full magazine. Attaching it to his hips, Chief kept scavenging for weapons.
"Well Chief," she started, "when we entered the gravity well, the pressure was so great that the ship tore to pieces, the pod was speeding so fast that if you didn't curl into a ball, your body would splatter inside your armour from the impact". Chief stared into the distance, before turning his head.
Walking through the burning wreckage, he found a small passageway out of the crater. Trudging down the shaded tunnel, he found himself in the direct sunlight. Not a dark cloudy sky, nor an overly bright sky, it was a warm and beautiful sun, with a mountainous landscape, large patches of grass grew around the area, whilst small cliffs hung over the valley. Floating spires littered the sky and constantly moved parts.
"Heads up Chief!", she exclaimed, "we've got a huge sentinel coming towards us, about a kilometre away". Chief turned himself to see the sentinel; it was massive, blue light glowed from a pattern on its body, two huge cannons on top of each other was facing him and two 'arms' hung from it's sides. In short, it was Armageddon for him and Cortana. Taking a deep breath, he calmly took a fighting stance with his magnum lifted up.
"Cortana, any information on this sentinel variant", he asked with composure.
"According to my probing of this sentinel, the Forerunners call this variant the 'Destroyer Variant', not much else I can glean from it other than the main cannon which will pulverise you", she explained. Still acting with composure, he stood still.
The sentinel drew closer to him, it's blue optics glowed even in the sunlight. It came to a sudden stop ten metres away from the Chief. An orange scanner (much like the one on the dawn) appeared and scanned him from head to toe. A reclaimer symbol appeared and the scanner clicked off.
"Welcome Reclaimer", it declared in a sonorous voice. "I am Omicron, one of the twenty-four destroyers assigned to Requiem as it's guardians". Chief looked at the newly identified Omicron with suspicion.
"Chief, we should be wary of this sentinel", Cortana drawled quietly, "remember last time". Of course, last time had gotten the forerunner AI 'Guilty Sparks' to kill Johnson and almost purged Cortana.
"What is Requiem?", Chief suddenly questioned the monster of a sentinel. Omicron hummed and whistled before replying, much like 'Guilty Sparks'.
"Requiem is a Forerunner fortress world, home to one point eight billion sentinels and the Prometheans base of operations during the Forerunner-Human war", it replied succinctly. Chief immediately brought up his assault rifle.
"What do you mean 'Forerunner-Human war?", he asked with a miniscule hint of aggression. Omicron kept humming and chirping. A small ding was heard in Chiefs armour. A screen popped up onto his HUD, Cortana's face was creased into a frown.
"Chief your going to want to see this video, it's about the Forerunner-Human war", she chimed in. About two seconds later, a video opened on the HUD in his helmet. The video started with advanced humans on warships, two stood out from the rest.
"We can't keep doing this Lord of Admirals", the first figure started. His face was mixed with worry and desperation. Lord of Admirals turned to him looking him in the eye.
"Yes we can Konnor", he replied curtly, "we can and will risk fighting the Forerunners, the flood will not stop unless we do something about it". The bridge crew turned and looked at the most respected leader, all eyes watched the argument pace back and forth.
"If we keep burning their worlds, they will come and destroy Humanity!", Konnor exclaimed, "and the Didact will kill us with his Prometheans". Lord of Admirals looked at him with a contemptuous look, then chuckled.
"You have a lot to learn when it comes to prioritising Konnor", he humorously declared, "we should not be thinking patriotically, instead we should be doing what the Forerunners are failing to do, upholding the Mantle of Responsibility". As those words came out, the room became dead silent, then one by one they began clapping, soon enough the whole ship was filled with cheers and clapping.
The scene ended and another video showed, this time featuring human and forerunner forces combating each other. Hardlight and plasma projectiles streaked through the air before hitting something. Massive forerunners over 3 metres in size, attacked humans of similar size, whilst getting cut down by the sheer assault of the glowing bullets. Fighters lit up the night sky and the stars seemed to dim from view. Chief couldn't help but be intrigued by the weapons and armour created by the humans, they just looked so different than what humans during his time used.
The scene changed yet again to show a space orientated battle, ranging from the small five metre agile fighters, to the humongous one hundred kilometre long capital ships. Explosions ripped apart each sides vessels, with no apparent strategy or advancement. It was a stalemate between those two sides.
It then changed to a different location, one he was very familiar with, it was Reach, but something was off about it. He analysed the screen carefully before morphing his face into horror and disgust. The Flood had invaded, and converted all life on the planet into biomass. It was a sickly sight and Chief closed his eyes. Seeing his discomfort, Cortana quickly selected a new scene.
Atop a platform was the Lord of Admirals chained in what looked like energy binders. Sixteen tall Forerunners with orange glowing armour surrounded him in a perfect hexagon in what looked like a military standing position. A command was called, and suddenly rifles constructed themselves on the Forerunners, they turned and faced the human on the platform.
The Lord of Admirals' face showed no hint of fear and looked proudly into empty space in front of him, the screen focused on another position before the sound of the unknown weapons fired. Chief bowed his head in honour for the human. The video feed then interrupts, showing a blood red message that read 'File Corruption'.
"Omicron, are you sure that happened?", Chief asked with suspicion. The sentinel seemed to cock it's body in annoyance from that question.
"That is one hundred per-cent pure footage of some events during the Human-Forerunner war", Omicron answered, "Those were also two key battles such as the assault on Erde-Tyrene and the defence of Charum Hakkor. Both were human controlled planet before the Forerunners stripped them of their technology and planets". Chief hung his head in knowing a greater human race existed.
As if on queue, the hum of a covenant dropship was heard nearby. He lifted his head to see a distinctive purple dropship coming at him at a rapid pace. Checking his ammo for his pistol, he silently made count and found he had just enough to take down three elites.
As the dropship started to deploy its troops, Chief came into action. Sprinting towards the troops, the first three Jackals that jumped out only had a few seconds to screech before their heads exploded. Chief jumped behind a thick rock, before an explosive plasma round struck the ground nearby.
"Chief you should probably stand back a bit", Cortana informed in an urgent manner. Chief retreated several steps back before turning to look at what was going to happen.
"Holy one, we are honoured in your presence", the leading Brute in maroon coloured armour spoke humbly and kneeled to the sentinel, the others followed his example and kneeled. The sentinel's usually blue bright eyes turned into a harsh orange colour, as well as it's body. It then spoke in a deep rumbling voice.
"You dare hurt the reclaimer, his race are the only kind worthy enough to wield the Forerunner's gifts, you disgrace the mantle and thus are not fit to live anymore". The Destroyer then turned to face the dropship and fired a hardlight laser into the ship. Immediately the transport literally disintegrated on the spot. Omicron then turned to the frightened group of aliens and blasted them with a short burst of light, disintegrating them as well.
Chief stepped back into the clearing, seeing the reclaimer, Omicron immediately went back into his calm blue colour. It turned it's body and motioned with it's arms for Chief to come to it. He followed the request without hesitation. Pieces of the sentinel detached and created a floating staircase, Chief tentatively took a step on the first ledge. As he felt it was stable, he took more steps slowly but casually up the staircase. After reaching the top, he found a seat that was a metre behind the sentinels head.
"Reclaimer, may I ask that you take that seat since we are going to be travelling at four kilometres per second", Omicron politely asked the Chief. Doing as he was told, Chief sat the chair. Instantly the sentinel took off leaving a rush of air behind.
As Omicron sped through the air, Chief was pushed back by the sheer g-force, Cortana was humming in his helmet marvelling about the hover technology used to travel at this speed.
After one minute of travelling, Omicron began to slow down, finally stopping at a building embedded in a cliff. The stairs reappeared and Chief stepped down to the ground.
"Reclaimer, I have to go due to maintenance issues at sector 46alpha, be careful and take precautions, for this is his prison", Omicron said before taking off quickly and leaving Chief with Cortana. Wondering what it meant by 'his prison', they continued to the interior of the structure.
Entering the structure, they arrived at a large room, filled with raised and lowered platforms, ramps and other objects. Sentinels seemingly patrolled the air and rays of sunlight provided the luminescence of the area.
"Chief there's a console on the far side of the room, plug me into it", Cortana urged. Quickly sprinting to the console, Chief then plugged the AI into the port. Her usual blue body hologram sprang up on the holo-projector and started tapping away at invisible keys.
"Take a look at this", she asked, a symbol came up next to her on the projector. It was a circular red symbol that had twelve sides in the centre shape, a horizontal rectangle hovered above the centre shape.
"This is the symbol of the Ur-Didact", Cortana said, "apparently, this fortress world is literally his house, unfortunately he was imprisoned in what is called a cryptum, designed to hold a person in stasis for a very long time, similar to cryo". Chief could tell she was getting overloaded with information.
"Cortana, can you send me coordinates to this cryptum", he asked, she nodded. A few seconds later, the wall behind him opened into a passageway. The walls were angled inward and a faint blue glow was present at the end. Walking through the passageway revealed terminals attached to walls and floating parts of the wall. He finally got to the end to find a doors slowly opening into a chamber.
Stepping inside the room, Chief stared in confusion. On either side of the thin walkway were pillars sticking out of the blackness. He walked precariously on the walkway to the other side. Looking out for dangers, he inserted Cortana into the terminal. As she started to sort out files, creatures suddenly started forming out of thin air. Chief frantically started pointing his weapon at them.
"Chief, pull me out", Cortana urged and Chief complied without hesitation. A blue portal formed out of two pillars rose from the ground. He bolted for it; unfortunately one of the creatures grabbed him before he could escape and flung him to the wall.
The creature picked him up and teleported to an unknown location.