Ashes Chapter 3

Hello again, this was my favourite chapter to write so far. This chapter is almost twice as long as the first two and I was really excited to upload this one. Thanks for all of the feedback! I decided to add a shameless self-insert in this chapter, well not really. We share the same name, but other than that we have absolutely no resemblance, so it's not REALLY a self-insert. So without further ado…

Reach, September 9th 2552…

Six raised her DMR rifle and slowly walked down the narrow corridor outside the lab. She had to find her armour, find out where she was then get out of there. The alarm was still flaring out of control; she would be swarmed if she didn't move fast. Six came up to a 'T' intersection at the end of the hallway, she was about to poke her head out to look both directions when she heard a rabble of footsteps. Six backed up and took cover behind a heavy metal crate, DMR at the ready. Six's aim was steady, a single bead of sweat trickled down her neck. She had no idea how many guards were approaching, let alone how many were patrolling the base. Then, without warning, four guards stormed around the corner. They stormed in combat formation, shouting orders with their assault rifles ready. Six launched her upper body from cover and took aim. The Rebels did not shoot right away; it was obvious they wanted her alive. They would not shoot unless fired on, six was happy to oblige. It only took four quick trigger pulls to drop them all. The four rebels lined the floor, but one was still moving. He looked over to the left corner.

'I need a medic, get over here!' He plead

Idiot, he just gave away the fact that there were more guards around the corner. Six waited about ten seconds, and then one more rebel popped around the corner. He instantly fired his DMR; the bullet skimmed the side of six's face. She felt the pain and instantly dropped behind cover. For a moment six had forgotten she was not in her armour; that was too close. It seemed like the guard thought he had killed the Spartan.

'I got her! I killed the Spartan! Check it out!' The rebel shouted in complete disbelief. Three more Rebels rushed around the corner all cheering and patting him on the back.

'Let's go claim the body' one of the men said. Six had to act quickly; she could not take out four soldiers with no cover and no armour. She could hear the footsteps getting closer and hitting the metal grating floor. Without even thinking, she whipped out one of her two frag grenades, pulled the pin and gently tossed it over the corner and ducked down, knowing very well if any shrapnel blew through the box she would not be protected.

'Look out, Grenade!' A man shouted in panic.

Less than two seconds later a loud bang engulfed Six's ears, she could feel the heat of the flames on the back of her neck. Many loud pinging sounds filled the room from the shrapnel. Finally the noise and heat died down, six lifted herself up to check out the damage. Four rebels died in the blast, but the wounded rebel seemed to survive the explosion. Six angrily approached the downed rebel and lifted him by the collar. She slammed him hard into the wall, but not too hard; he was no good to her dead.

'Alright dirt bag, I need answers NOW!' Six barked. The Rebel remained silent, obviously in great pain. Six glared at the man, her light blue eyes flaring. The Rebel couldn't help but look away. Six just grabbed his chin with her second hand and turned his head towards her.

'You really shouldn't ignore me; your life depends on how well you cooperate with me.' She said calmly, but firmly. The man's eyes began to tear up, he was extremely frightened.

'I...I…I'll tell you what you need to know' the man stuttered.

'That's better' six said casually. She dropped the man to the ground, he yelped in pain. His leg was bleeding really badly.

'First of all, where the hell am I?' she asked.

'Y…you are in the Hurlikas desert, w…we built this base when the covenant showed up to Reach, we knew we wouldn't be able to hold. Hurlikas isn't a very populated region, only a few thousand settled here, we thought "the covenant wouldn't waste manpower invading over a few thousand settlers" and we were right. All we had to worry about was the fact that they planned on glassing the whole goddamn planet, that's why we're this far underground. To be completely honest, we aren't really a proper rebel group. We are just a bunch of former UNSC troops who ditched the whole operation once the damn covenant showed up.'

Six pondered for a moment. She knew that Reach would get glassed, but somehow hearing the reality of it was still quite the shock. The man continued to speak.

'I know you probably want to know why we captured you. When we heard the UNSC were getting their asses kicked, we sent out several squads out to find a Spartan. We figured, with the UNSC scattered all to hell we could find a stray Spartan and capture him, this proved more difficult than we originally planned. If we could capture a Spartan and force him to fight for us, nobody would stand against us. Not the Covenant, not the UNSC, nobody. I was part of the team that found you, when we saw you passed out… You were just too perfect to pass up.'

Six was still in shock. She just stared at the man for a moment. The Spartan finally collected herself.

'Where are they keeping my armour?' she said with a relaxed tone.

'Over in the Laboratory, just down the stairs to your left.' He replied. Six grabbed the man by the neck and lifted him again. Her eyes blazed at his as she brought her face closer to his.

'Don't make me regret sparing your life.' She firmly stated.

'Yeah, you won't have to worry about that' He spat out quickly. Six just dropped him back to the floor.

Six raised her DMR and proceeded left of the "T" intersection, she came up to a flight of stairs. Cautiously she crept down the stairs, checking the dark corners, fully prepared for an ambush. She went down two floors before she hit the bottom. This floor was vastly different, the walls were still aligned with pipes, but the floors were not covered by grating. The hallway stretched forward about twenty metres; at the end was a single door. "That must be the lab" Six thought to herself. She slowly approached the solitary door, ready for any guards that may come out guns blazing. This door was not automatic, it was traditional. For some odd reason this struck her as strange. She wrapped her hand around the nob, it was quite cold. Six gently turned the nob and creaked the door open slowly; her DMR poking through the door. The walls were lined with lockers and the room was full of multiply lab tables. She quickly snapped to her left. To her dismay, a man in a lab coat was standing right there, shotgun in hand. The man quickly realised the intruder's presence and raised his shotgun.

'Hey! You! Get down on the ground!' The man barked.

Six leaped behind the nearest lab table. The man let out a few shells, but six did not get hit. She heard the loud "PINGS" of the pellets impacting the lab table. The Spartan could tell the man was moving closer, probably trying to flank her. She had no choice; she would have to go for it. Six dove out of cover, DMR at the ready. The Rebel was standing near a set of bars lining that section of the wall, six had him in her sights. She was about to pull the trigger when something interesting happened.

A pair of arms came out from behind the bars and snared the man from behind. With a rather unpleasant sound of snapping cartilage and bone, the Rebel's neck gave way. He fell to the floor a corpse. The arms reached out again and grabbed the man's shotgun; they dragged the weapon with it into the black abyss. Six had to be careful, who knows if the man in the cage would fire on her. Suddenly she could hear loud smashing noises coming from the cage, Six's curiosity got the better of her. She had to check it out.

As six crept closer to the cage, the image became more clear; a bruised man with very short brown hair wearing a tattered black jumpsuit hitting the hinges of the bars with the butt end of the shotgun, trying to break free. Then six spotted something that was unmistakeable; on his left arm he had an ODST tattoo. Six lowered her DMR and approached the cage at normal pace.

'Need a hand trooper?' she asked with a small trace of joy in her voice. The man stopped what he was doing and looked up at the Spartan with a blank stare. He then returned to what he was doing.

'So you're the Spartan Michael was bragging about capturing' he replied.

Six felt kind of stupid at this point, she did not even introduce herself to the man.

'Lieutenant Jennifer Higgins, Spartan Noble 6 at your service' she said casually. The man did not even look up at her.

'Corporal Jordan Battenfelder, 56th ODST regiment. Proud member of the "Bullfrogs"' he said in a lifeless tone.

She could not deny that something seemed odd about the man, you'd think he would be a bit more excited to see an ally; especially after being imprisoned for who knows how long. Six didn't really care at this point, she was just happy to see anybody from the UNSC.

'Why don't you just shoot off the hinges?' She asked the man. He just let out a deep sigh.

'Because "doc" here wasted all of the shells shooting at you' he replied, almost annoyed. Six was somewhat surprised on the tone of his voice, but she didn't dwell on it for long.

'Stand back Corporal, I still have ammo. I can shoot off the hinges and set you free.' She said assertively. Jordan stopped smashing the gun for a moment and thought. He then looked up at the Spartan.

'You know what? Fine. Spring me out please, you won't regret it' he said eagerly.

Six raised her finger as to inform him she still had something to say.

'Hold on their corporal, before I bust you out I need information' she stated.

'Well I'm not really in the position to turn you down so… yeah go for it' he replied.

'First of all, how did you get captured? And on top of that why are they keeping you caged in the laboratory? It seems odd that they wouldn't have some sort of brig.'

'Well if you must know, I was one of the "lucky" marines that couldn't make it to a frigate on time. You see, my unit stayed behind to defend a farm hold from the covenant. We knew we couldn't hold them off forever, but we still felt obligated to give those farmers even a few more minutes of life. We were surrounded, and we didn't last long. My entire unit accept myself and our rookie private Daniel were overwhelmed. We just simply didn't have the firepower to defend all of the farmers. One by one the covie bastards killed all of the farmers, but we managed to save a little girl. Her name was Maya I think… no wait it was Mary. We escaped the village, but just barely. Both Daniel and I knew we had to get to the pillar of autumn, but the girl was slowing our pace greatly. Daniel told me we had to leave her, but after watching my entire unit and all of those civilians get murdered by the covenant… I just couldn't leave her.'

He paused for a moment, six pondered on what he just said. It was both heart-warming and sad. She had to hear the rest.

'Please continue…' she said, almost saddened by what she just heard.

'I…I can't. Believe me, it's nothing personal, I just don't want to go there. It's personal.' He replied, nearly in tears.

'I understand.' Six uttered.

For a moment, six zoned out. She knew how painful it was to watch civilians die on your watch. But in an instant she snapped out of it.

'So… Why are they keeping you here?' she asked.

'Here? You mean the laboratory? Simple really. I was my squad's tech expert. I did all of the armour and weapon repairs, as well as hack doors, bypass security systems, you know the works. They thought since I know almost everything there is to know about standard issue weapons, I would know how to work your armour. They just don't seem to realise they don't teach grunts like me how to operate machinery above a class four rating, let alone a Spartan suit.'

'So where is my armour then?' Six asked.

'It's being held in the second last locker to your right.' He replied quickly.

Six felt a quick jolt of excitement; she just hoped the rebels didn't tweak it too much while she was out. Jordan brought himself closer to the cage.

'I just have a quick question Spartan; I thought it would be only fair since you got to ask me questions.' Six looked up to him again.

'Make them quick.' She said.

'First off, even if you could kill everyone here, how the hell are you planning on escaping? The entire surface is glassed, a good majority of the covenant fleet is still orbiting the planet, and even if we could send out a signal we couldn't possibly expect a rescue for months, if we can even expect a rescue at all.'

Six hadn't really thought it through. Hell, she barely even knew where they were; let alone how they were to escape. Before she could even reply he continued to speak.

'As much as you may deny it, you'll need me Spartan. I know how to hack their security systems and send out a distress call. Plus, as gung-ho as you no doubt are, you'll need the extra firepower.' Jordan said.

Six remained silent for a few moments. "He's right" she thought. Six raised her DMR.

'Stand clear' she warned.

With two quick bursts the hinges broke free and the cell door collapsed. Jordan immediately leaped out of his cell.

'God it feels good to finally get out of there!' he shouted with glee.

'Calm down now, were not out of the fire by a long shot.' Six said.

Six approached the locker with her armour and shot off the lock. She opened the locker door, and to her delight she saw a familiar sight. Her armour gleamed in the light in almost a god like aura. She was happy to see it again. Next to her armour laid a tattered set of ODST armour, the helmet had an Ace of Spades attached to the side, and on the left shoulder "death to covies" was engraved with a combat knife.

'Nice addition corporal' she smirked.

'What can I say, I like to stand out.' He joked back.

It only took about ten minutes for them both to get suited up. Six reloaded her DMR while Jordan found more shells for the shotgun.

'So what's the plan corporal?' Six asked.

'We need to head back up the stairs, I need to head over to the computer console inside the med bay where they were keeping you, I will turn the automated defense systems against the remaining rebels, send out a distress signal, then prep our stasis pods. All you need to do is keep those bastards off me for a few minutes.' He replied.

'Sounds good, keep in radio contact when we split up. For now I'll take point.' Six replied.

The two soldiers quickly left the laboratory, six up front with Jordan not too far behind her. While walking six got distracted for a moment, "Despite all this, that marine doesn't look half bad" She thought to herself. At least, she thought it was only to herself, she didn't really realise she said that out loud.

'Yeah I know I'm great and all, but we really should take care of business right now' He said jokingly.

Six couldn't believe she just said that, she felt like a fool. But the Spartan quickly regained her resolve and pushed onward. Once they reached the top of the stairs, they were greeted by a small squad of Rebels. Before they could even notice the Spartan and the ODST, they became victims of a hailstorm of shotgun shells and DMR rounds. None of them survived.

"Good job Spartan, now just hold off any more that come, this may take a few minutes.' Jordan said.

Jordan turned at the "T" intersection and went through the door, six bunkered down and prepared for an onslaught.

'Okay, I have gained access to their terminal, but there is a firewall. This may take some time to bypass' Jordan said over the radio.

'Sure thing, just don't take too long, I'm expecting company.' Six replied.

Sure enough, right after she said that a flash bang grenade flew out of a side door down the hall. Six just turned on her Visors tint and sound blocking systems on. When the grenade detonated, three rebels rushed out, expecting to shoot a dazed and blind six. Instead they were met with three clean headshots. There was a ten second delay before one more came rushing out, he met the same fate as his fellows. This hardly made any sense, why would they keep throwing waves of suicidal attacks? It just didn't seem very smart; then again the rebels weren't known for their military strategy. Another man sprang out, but this time he leaped out to the nearest crate. He aimed his Sniper rifle at six, but the Spartan immediately fired on the man. Unfortunately she missed her shot, and the man was able to fire a round off. Six felt a large thud hit her chest. This knocked the wind out of her. Her shields absorbed most of the impact, but she still had to take cover. Her shields would take some time to recover.

'Quickly, she's taking cover! Go go go! ` The sniper barked.

This wasn't good. Any moment six could get overrun, but she would not survive another sniper round if her shields didn't charge fully. Then she remembered, "I have another grenade!" She heard the footsteps on the grating floor, once they got close enough, six hurled the frag grenade over her crate. With a loud bang, the frag exploded, taking out all except her, and the lone sniper.

'For god sake! Just die already!' The Sniper shouted in frustration.

Six saw this frustration as an opportunity; she raised her DMR and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. "NOT NOW!" She nearly screamed it out loud. She had to go for it. Six leaped over her crate and charged the sniper. He let out another shot, but it missed her by inches. When she got close enough she tossed the DMR at the man, knocking him to the floor. She then punched the man as hard as she could; she felt his bones crunch inward, killing him instantly. Six let out a sigh of relief. Then, her radio sprung to life.

'Spartan! I have rewritten the security systems to kill anyone in the facility that cannot identify themselves as UNSC personnel, I have also sent out a distress signal. Come meet up with me in the med bay before I seal the door.'

'Copy that Corporal…'

'Spartan… Just call me Jordan'

Six felt a bit of joy from the comment, but all in all she was exhausted. She headed back to the med bay and met up with Jordan.

'I have prepped our stasis pods and rewrote all of the non-essential power to running out pods. We have no idea how long we may be in cryo.' He said.

'You did good… for an ODST that is' She commented.

'You did well too… for a genetically altered super warrior that is' he joked back.

Six allowed herself a faint smile.

'Anyways, after you' Jordan said, gesturing her to take her place in her stasis pod. Six Laid In the pod, it was less conferrable than the UNSC issued pods, but she wasn't one to complain. The massive glass frame engulfed the pod; frost skimmed its way up the inside of the glass and on her armour. Then, in an instant, all was black…

2185 CE, Normandy…

'Shepard, we have installed the Reaper IFF, but it will take some time to integrate it with the Normandy, I suggest you take a shuttle to your next destination.' EDI informed the commander.

'Thank you EDI, Inform the crew to meet me in the Cargo bay' Shepard said

'I already have commander…' EDI replied.

Shepard stepped down from the galaxy map with a smirk across his face, everything was going smoothly. All of the dossiers have been recruited successfully, and with their personal issues out of the way all he had to wait for was for Joker and EDI to integrate the IFF. As he was about to walk away, Yeoman Kelly Chambers stopped him.

"Commander, the Illusive Man you like to see you in the debriefing room' she said with her regular upbeat attitude.

"Oh great" Shepard thought to himself, he always hated talking to the Illusive man, It ended in him getting ordered around or sold out every time. He entered the hollow chamber inside the debriefing room; the scanner went up his legs to the top of his torso, providing the Illusive man with a hologram. The Illusive man was not sitting down this time, and he looked determined.

'Shepard, one of my Cells picked up an unknown distress signal from an isolated planet out in the Sentry Omega cluster.'

'Is it Alliance?'

'Like I said, it is unknown. It doesn't match any known signatures. What interests me is the fact that this planet has been deemed uninhabitable; there is no strategic value or any valuable natural resources of any kind. But perhaps the most interesting fact is how long this signal has been up for.'

'Exactly how long are we talking about?' Shepard's curiosity peaked.

'Just over 50,000 years. Shepard, this may be another Prothean beacon, like the one on Eden Prime. It won't be long before others hear about this Shepard, we must get there first.'

'Just send me the coordinates…'

'Already sent'

All in all this was a great chapter to write, and like I promised, Shepard finally makes an appearance . The next chapter may run a little late, but it will be worth the wait I promise. Remember, review if you can! I can use all the advice I can get!