"I Am your shield... I Am your sword... "
A long time of stillness filled the room. The dark aroma filled as very faint. Not a sound, not a whisper... just empty dark space inside the wreckage of a UNSC warship. But every few seconds electricity would bounce off something creating a bright trickle for just a moment, a purple and pink one that shaded the whole room dimly. For each flash revealed floating debris, open cryo-freezing tubes, and much more clutter.
In the center, adrift and facing downward, the seeming corpse of the Spartan in his sage faded MJOLNIR. Steam gently came off of the outer armor from the recent strange electrical surge.
Even then the area was physically peaceful, but something was brewing in the atmosphere. It was there... not seen... but felt. Thoughts loosely trickled around the mind like fireflies as consciousness was slowly regained. The Master Chief groaned once shaking his head. Taking a step forward to regain balance, with space being awkward for the foothold. He took a deep breath glancing around at his surroundings.
"Cortana," he spoke aloud in his helmet. The tone was thick and deep, faded and raspy, slightly telling of his age. Strangely enough, the Spartan turned his head to the side in slight displeasure, before he waited.
Silence...
Not a single response from the AI companion, just the faint sound of his breathing. Continuing he spoke again, "Cortana, status report."
The feminine voice came at almost a startle (but almost not even phasing the metal man), "Yea sorry, I was running system ship diagnostics, you alright?
"I am fine, where are we?"
"You should... go take a look outside."
Ambling to the observation window on the side by the crying tube, he gazed out the window. And a shocking sight beheld him.
This massive warship drifted outside easily seven times the length of its wreck. It was easily not recognizable as either Covenant or UNSC, but still, there it is like a mighty giant.
"how long has that been there," asked the Chief.
Cortana sighed, "I detected it coming in range about two hours ago, then that energy wave hit and knocked out the power to every system including communications, so we can't talk to them or them to us."
"Are they friendly?"
"Who knows, but I don't think we should stick around to find out."
At that moment four ships, smaller in size came out of nowhere as they appeared from thin air. Strange grey designs with red colors and wide ship architecture, this was so foreign to both of them.
Immediately though these vessels started firing strange blue lasers at the first monster battleship. It in return fired the same back but in a reddish color. This laser fire almost mesmerized both Spartan and AI for half a moment, until the booms set in. Vibrations so powerful they rocked the whole room like an earthquake. Taking a moment to adjust, the Chief spoke,
"We need to go."
"yea that would be a good idea," Cortana exasperated.
Jogging out of that cryo room, they came to a long hallway. Debris, wires, and some floating metal panels were around from the lack of gravity, this ship was a mess. Low gravity the Spartan did not even notice as he trampled through at a light jog around the corner. Out each window still was the massive warship and the small ones engaging in battle and fray.
"There should be a longsword left in the hangar," said Cortana.
Chief picking up pace darted around another corner seemingly changing his course, "did that surge knock out its power?"
"possibly but that will be easy to reboot."
Wiring and cables floated about with some sparks flashing giving some light into the dim corridor. Damaged cement, stained walls, and cluttered floors all made for a destroyed inside. Ironic as this was the horse they rode in on. At one point adrift right in front of the aisle was an object, the infamous military grade MA5C Assault Rifle Recognizably the Master Chief quickly grabbed it, checking the action and magazine for munition in the weapon. Continuing his speed without slowing pace, he chambered a round, and the holographic number '32' glowed at the front screen panel of the weapon.
Right as he did the whole ship shook again from the battle raging above, causing the Spartan to stumble for a moment. Shrapnel and debris rattled around, and more sparks popped and crackled.
"that's getting more heated," she emphasized, "there should be at least one in the hangar since we were in the back half of the ship when the portal to the Ark collapsed."
Finally, turning the last scuttled arcade, he came upon the longsword hangar. Everything was a mess. Open crates everywhere, lighter objects floating around, seared walls, and stained paint making the room fairly unrecognizable. With ruins of a few pelicans and a torn-apart long sword, this whole place seemed deserted and almost haunting. One ship in the center, its triangle shape with a ramp heading up to the belly of the vessel chipped and almost fallen apart, it's a wonder this thing is still in one piece.
"that will have to do," said the Chief.
Cortana took a breath to comment on what the Spartan said, then stopped suddenly. She blared through the Mk. VI helmet speakers almost immediately after,
"We got two contacts, coming in close, unknown classification."
Two LAAT gunships zoomed into the littered hangar, with their infamous rotor engine sounds. Of course, their designs and configurations were unrecognized by both Spartan and AI (and considering Cortana has a wealth of indexed Forerunner and Covenant technologies and still does not recognize this), both were bewildered. As these strange tan and red drop ships landed, their side doors opened like an automatic blast doors revealing the insides. Strange white soldiers configured in strange armor not UNSC or Covenant in origin descended out of the two aircraft (which at this point was only hovering six or so feet off the ground before landing, which shook the whole room simultaneously).
The Spartan immediately raised his assault rifle at the men, in a tense combat crouched position behind a down crate. These soldiers could immediately see him and were bewildered by the metal man.
Is he a droid? Is this a Separatist trap? Who is he?
All thoughts by the men. Instinctually, these soldiers pointed their blasters at the Spartan, seeing the potential hostility.
The squad leader, a soldier dressed in blue stripes and color configurations with a strange (and assumed) officer shoulder patch approached the front of the pack. He had two small firearms, clearly pistols, aimed at the Spartan.
"I am Lieutenant Vaunt," he said, "we were sent here receiving a distress call."
"These are not Covenant or UNSC," muttered his AI companion.
"Put your weapon down," said the SII, "and then we will talk."
Vaunt pointed, "You first."
"that's not gonna happen," responded the Chief instead.
"Their heart rates are intensifying, this doesn't look good," said Cortana.
Immediately following two of the troopers from the squad rotated around forming a half-semicircle around the Spartan. Without hesitation or movement this massive sage metal warrior did not even break contact, only focused on his weapon pointed at the officer in front.
The moment following was a loud crash and rumble. Like an earthquake from the ring of fire, everything metal rattled and shook (even the landed LAAT gunships and the Longsword behind them). The Spartan jiggled a bit hardly losing balance, but the other men tossed and turned underneath these violent rocks.
One of the troopers tripped on the floor, pulling the trigger of his blaster.
A single blue streak zipped across the hangar out of the barrel of the rifle. Lighting up the dark filthy area and all its contents. Making contact with the ceiling above, massive chunks of tiles and debris fell downward toward the Spartan. A dust cloud followed as the Master Chief did a duck and rolled forward dodging it.
A huge boom came as the ground shook behind from the fall of debris. And now out in the open, with instinct, the Spartan began to engage. Immediately these soldiers noticed that his metal man was a foot taller than all of them which surprised them greatly.
Fireballs with gunpowder rounds blazed the quick silence in the hangar, letting loose their wrath to the pilots of the drop ships behind the men. Fast movements, there were two pilots in each drop LAAT gunship, one on the top/back, and one in the bottom/front. Bullets pierced through the glass of the bottom cockpit, shattering it and creating a massive hole in contact, penetrating the pilot and causing a deadly wood with an explosion of red blood from the wound. The body of the pilot fell low and his yellow helm slammed into the kiosk in front, tilting and damaging the controls. Now the gunship spun to the right, immediately striking into the side of the other LAAT. Both collided a loud bang of the crushing and screeching metal followed as they both were set to a halt losing their six feet of altitude. Crashing into the floor both wrecks burst into flames adding to the assumed chaos of the room.
Now turning to the men in front, the Master Chief unleashed his assault rifle on these men. But, he surprisingly noticed that these soldiers were not as durable as their armor looked.
Bullets from the Master Chief's assault rifle exploded from the chamber heading straight to these strange white soldiers. Splintered pieces of white metal splattered around the room. Like a jigsaw puzzle, they exploded as such leaving debris everywhere. The first two, fell to their backs dead with screams and red blood oozing from their woods.
The other soldiers darted to cover along the sides, among various downed scuttled wrecks and crates. Tactical chatter spurred among them as they returned fire. Blue bolts lit up the dark hangar descending like a wave to the super soldier. Most miss and a handful makes the target (possibly by luck even for the skills of these men).
He was too fast.
Dashing to left and right, the Spartan's shields glowed with yellow hexagonal pixels around him and got brighter the more hits he took (or to the few that made it). Orange fire bolts burst from his rifle taking shots at the other smaller men.
One, two, and three, all took fire. Two landed their marks (both headshots), causing blood to explode out of their heads. Two more are gone.
Screams of agony and death added to gunfire from both the blaster bolts and the gunpowder. Brass, and casings, trickled with dings as they hit the floor. Twice as precise and twice as fast, these bullets made their mark on the soldiers with impeccable accuracy. While these poor soldiers even for how large the Spartan was could not keep track. But as the metal man approached the last group (which included Lieutenant Vaunt), they became more exact.
Blaster bolts streaked at the Spartan and high speeds to the point where his shields could not take it anymore. With a loud pop followed by the red flashing of beeps inside his HUD, his protective layer was gone. Electrical sparks came around the armor as the shields kept trying to recharge.
'Click no bang' came from the Master Chief's Assault rifle, revealing the fat number '0' at the front blue display of his rifle. Within melee distance of a soldier, he slammed the metal weapon like an axe with mighty downward speeds. Smashing him into the ground like a potato, white armor splintered and went everywhere. Crushed bones and blood splattered following the destructive force. A quick scream following death was the only thing ever muttered.
Quickly grabbing the soldier's rifle, the SII returned fire with their weapon (DC-15a Blaster Carbine), adding their blue bolts of fire to the chaos.
Diving to the side for a second, out of the main firing alley and behind a tall crate the Master Chief stayed for a second until his shields recovered. Only for a few moments, yellow pixels encased the armor once more as a loud upward tune rippled around. In the meantime, the two clones and their officer stood mumbling to each other tactically.
Another moment came when Cortana spoke aloud inside of Spartan's helmet, "Chief, the banister above!"
Loose cargo hung above by cargo nets and crates only thirty feet above where the soldiers were dug in. Without hesitation, the Chief turned and unleashed blue glowing bolts into that cargo net above. Only about three or four shots into it before it broke. Following that, the men underneath quickly realized what this was. Escaping from their cover right in time, the net broke free, and well over a metric ton of supplies and weight crashed to the hangar floor below. Completely exposed, now the Spartan went in for the kills. The rest was slaughter.
Two shots dropped one white soldier leaving horrific black incineration marks on the face and chest. Perfect accuracy to the point that there was not a single wail in death from this man.
Another, from behind, charged the Spartan pelting round after round into his back, causing his shields to take damage and glow yellow. Turning around with a wind up he let loose a massive Spartan punch to the face of the man, who tried his best to dodge. Falling back with a shattered helmet (face exposed from the inside, bleeding, and with a destroyed nose), the neck broke instantly as he fell back easily fifteen feet. Vaunt, the only one remaining, fired both sidearms in rapid succession and failed to dodge the counterattack. Three shots from the Spartan dropped the officer who let out a final cry before his descent to the floor.
Sizzling silence from the seared wounds from all the men, the last of the blaster echoes came throughout the halls of the shuddered Forward Unto Dawn. The quick skirmish was over, and all the men were dead. A still and ghostly vacuum of sound came, to nothing. Not a sound, the stillness of the area came once more.
He took a moment to almost examine the bodies and just stared at them (specifically Vaunt) lifelessly through his visor just as still and dead as they were. Looking back to the rifle which he held, this small carbine, inspected it too.
"There is nothing like these men in my whole UNSC logged archive," said Cortana, "even in Covenant files there's nothing, not a mention in Forerunner installations, nothing, absolutely nothing."
Jogging lightly to the longsword on the far side of the hangar, the Chief mumbled, "It doesn't matter now, we need to get out of here."
The ramp to the ship came down, and the Spartan entered inside awkwardly as this ship was not made for a man of his size. Moving quickly to the front of the vessel, he took a seat down in the small pilot chair, before unplugging his AI chip from the back of his head and putting it into the side pedestal next to the controls.
"Hang on!" she blared.
Almost instantly the V-shaped strike ship fired out of the hangar of the wrecked light frigate, going at booming speeds. Even the Spartan's head jolted back into his chair.
The beautiful view of space, with the bright yellow glow of the sun behind, this perspective was awe-striking. White sparkled glitter sprinkled the entire cosmos, and bed sheets of purple and green of stardust in the far-off universe. If there was any time to sit and contemplate, there would be a breathtaking of the universe's designs. But as all things are, it immediately faded.
Without any rest, the small spacecraft shook and rocked. Huge battleships from two separate militaries bombard each other, seemingly the same ones from earlier which they saw out of the window of the Dawn. These red and blue lasers blasted each other from these battleships, and they were just a small ship amongst all the others.
Cortana exclaimed, "I've never seen warships like this!"
The vessel rocked and creaked from the fire that came from all around. Now caught in the crossfire unknown fighters streaked around in space engaging in dogfights of various kinds. Passing around and through it was impossible to tell what was going on. Their entire ship jerked to the side, barely missing an explosion coming from one of the fighters being destroyed. It was almost humbling being a small cog like this in the machine of battle, but in this case, quite the opposite. Shrapnel from decimated vessels everywhere unleashed bright lasers that would easily cause epilepsy if stared at too long it was chaos. In the center was a massive capital ship, with a huge purple ring in the center (the Malevolence) surrounded by smaller ones.
At one point one of the smaller frigates directly ahead (Munificent-class star frigate, but of course both the Spartan and AI had no idea what this was), took a significant amount of fire from another larger cruiser that was broad-siding it. An eruption of fire like a volcano ensued, and the smaller vessel split apart into pieces. Fire bolts of metal and debris combusted into space without any set direction causing huge chunks of the ship to fold and break. Snapping in two, the wreck of this mighty vessel drifted apart from each other and the front upper half of the ship came down straight in front of the longsword.
"Might wanna hold onto something!"
The whole vessel shot downward, and the Spartan held for dear life as the whole ship swan-dived. Attempting to out-pace the sort of 'free space fall' of the severed warship, the blue back flames of the engine exhaust turned bright yellow as the engine pushed to maximum speeds. Out of the front windshield, it was evident of no debris. Leveling off, they boosted forward getting around the fresh wreck by a small fraction of a second.
Around the corner, and the relative fighting behind them, they out of the battle. Rocking and swaying faded to a still, Cortana over the com took a deep breath. This one, single moment of stillness lasted for way longer than it actually should.
They were now home free, or so they thought.
Without hesitation, their long sword shook and rocked for a moment before stopping in its tracks. Hauling to a stop, all the small metal pieces and things flew forward to the dashboard clinging with metallic sounds. Even the Spartan braced himself a little not foreseeing this.
A bright red flash blindly swiped over the front control kiosk, revealing all the control functions within the ship that was either offline or damaged.
"Engines are offline!" she blared over the intercom.
Out the window, the Chief could see that their ship somehow was being pulled back into the battlefield that they attempted to get out of.
Ships zooming about engaging in the fray, huge cruisers broadsiding each other nothing had changed since their brief moment away. It was amazing how slow they moved compared to everyone else that they did not get shot.
But now, they loomed under the shadow and underbelly of one of the massive battleships. The sun in the off distance was blocked and faded in the way of this beast of war. From end to end, it was impossible to tell how large it was.
"We are being held by some sort of tractor beam."
"Anyway out of it?"
"None that I can tell, but..."
Being completely cut off by sheer bewilderment. Their eyes adjusted to the brightness of this new hangar that was completely unfamiliar. Strange ships and shuttles scattered about along with crates and other various containers. Some hung along the ceiling, and most on the floor organized, but this was still a busy and operable military landing bay. An entire battalion of these strange tan robots in perfect and straight formation in the center, wielding weapons of otherworldly origins. In the center and by the front was a man, older, draped in black with a brown cloak. A single chain hooked in the center held his cloak together and glistened slightly.
"This doesn't look too good."
As the ship came to a full stop it bounced landing on the deck. As both men and robots stood there without any real or noticeable reaction, it confused both of them. Without a word, the Master Chief stood up from the pilot seat and walked back to the main cabin of the vessel. Along the metal wall, there was some shelving, standardized and normal, and a few small containers with the 'UNSC' logo on them. A first AID kit, and some basic tools and whatnot (most of which were now on the floor due to the full stop of the tractor beam from earlier).
Grabbing one of the containers (which looked unbelievably small in his hand as it was the size of a small briefcase), he opened it. Loud and sharp clicks came from the plastic covers coming off on the sides, inside and covered in protective polyurethane foam along the borders was a firearm. A sidearm, the M6D Personal Defense Weapon System (or infamously known as the magnum). Its silver smooth texture and fine grip were an excellent hang cannon for any military user against aliens that were twice their size of them. But in this Spartan's hands, this looked like a small concealed carry.
He grabbed the three magazines that lay in the top inside pocket of the case. Loading one, he pulled back the action chambering a round, Deja Vu.
"Let's see if this goes any better," Cortana sighed.
Unyielding
Halo 2
Hey all, thanks for waiting that took a bit longer than I thought. Finals were around the corner plus the delivery driver at my work retired after 15 years, so both school and work were busy. Anywho, I am back on my feet and am working on the next chapter actually before this note was written. Should expect it in a couple of weeks, but yea, the standard. I hope you guys are liking it so far, and I am liking this retake on it (for any of you who remember the earlier one lol). But yea not too much to say other than I am hard at work on this story, got a lot of plans, and keep pumping ideas in the comments cause I am open to ideas. I am an endless void of ideas so anything to enter the void is welcome haha.
Yea anyway, COMMENTS!
jjcoup95 - YESSSS I AM TOO HYPEEED
gabekaykwok - that actually would interest me just for my benefit, and I am completely amazed and astounded that you even have that lol.
Jctherebel - nice to see you again my guy. Love to see a familiar face :).
naotw - same with you my guy I love to see a familiar face, love ya man thanks for coming back :}
Guest117 - Okay, I love these types of comments because they test the waters of lore and theory. Let me get into my response.
Yes, as stated briefly in Halo lore MJOLNIR as a whole IS heavily resistant to EMP and Electromagnetic based attacks. But there is a flaw within that line of theory. We truly do not know based on lore how the Malevolence ion cannon works beyond just an EMP. Could there be more? Could it be less? We don't know. In any case. There are cases within the gameplay of EMP working against Spartan shields, say the charged-up plasma round from a plasma pistol in all Halo games. And most noticeably with Halo: Reach Armor Lock if you stand close enough. Granted, we have no idea how long the Master Cheif was/is knocked out for in this story mostly likely a few minutes. And well for the sake of it, I mean most likely. The ion cannon on the Malevolence is upwards of hundreds of times more powerful, so that could be something to keep in mind. It is an attack as well as an EMP, whereas the Guardians in halo five are more of an EMP, does that make sense? You are on the money but not at the same time. Thanks for the comment I appreciate those. I love ya man and thanks for the feedback.
Guest - I am too ;))
Azai Jin - I am very much well ready, have so many ideas for this one don't you worry. See ya in the next one.
SupremeSongLeader - You do give a really good fic idea as the empire is not touched very much in terms of a Halo Star Wars crossover and whatnot. Yea, I do for the most part regard the sequels as Star Wars Legends haha. But don't get me wrong, Bungie left major plot holes that 343 had to fill, but what they did with expanded ideas... less than appealing. Halo Infinite didn't go past eye candy for most Halo fans to be honest. But the Forerunners? That was a concept in the books that was beautiful and NEEDS more expanding upon please oh my gosh that would be amazing.
Halo Star Wars X-over fan - I love these ideas and I honestly had a really fun time reading them. Not many people sit down to think about this type of stuff and it's neat that I'm not the only one who enjoys this leisure time. I was not expecting any comments of any length so any is most enjoyable. But, at the end of the day, I'm not gonna dive to deep into the lore like you are for this story, just cause I do not wanna confuse anyone who does not know and move on like nothing happened. That's just my thought. I love your idea on halo plasma though because I never thought about it before.
All your comments mean a lot to me, and I hope you guys can all enjoy this as much as I am writing it. Hopefully I provide interesting writing material and not the weird stuff that you see and facetiously know fanfiction for.
Have fun out there, stay safe. I'll see u in the next one. Heh that sounds like a YouTuber lol, I kinda don't like it.
DEUS VULT!
~ 1DL1NG KN1GHT