"Cortana to Echo 419, come in Echo 419!" Cortana said, the nervousness echoing through her voice. Six and John were, for lack of a better term, running for their lives, with the now nearly passed out Six leaning on John's shoulder. He was shuffling his feet as fast as he could, John practically dragging him a across the floor with all of his strength, and they weren't going fast enough, not to get out within fifteen minutes.
Six's vision was fuzzy, beyond even before. When Guilty Spark destroyed his prosthetic, the laser had cut down to the shoulder, inches away from what was still flesh and bone. Every thirty seconds or so, his eyes would close, and John had to pound him on the chest to wake him.
Right now, Six was seeing things. He had lost enough blood to the point that he was hallucinating. He turned his head to the left and saw Carter, Noble Team's Leader, dead on the floor. He inhaled sharply and looked around him. There were... things... hanging from the ceiling. Bodies. He recognized them to be of the rest of the team. Not only that, but dozens of marine corpses littered the floor, blood welling in the sides of the hallway. All of them were cut up, carved and bloody. He closed his eyes tightly and tried to block out the images, but he could only look away for so long. The pain in his side was pulsing, and the bleeding was slowing down, but the only thing that he was worried about were the dark thoughts echoing through his mind.
It was my fault. All my fault.
They hated me.
"Six! Six, snap out of it!" John said, pounding Six's chest hard. He opened his eyes. The bodies were gone. He kept his emotions at bay with some difficulty.
"You don't... have to hit... so hard." Six said.
"Yes I do." John said simply.
"Come in, Echo 419!" Cortana said again. This time, Echo 419, Foehammer, responded.
"Roger, Cortana. I read you, 5 by 5." Foehammer said.
"The Pillar of Autumn's engines are going critical! Request immediate extraction! Approach the crash site and be ready to pick us up at external access Junction 4C as soon as you get my signal!" Cortana said.
"Affirmative. Echo 419 going on station." Foehammer replied.
Six tripped over his own foot and caught himself before landing face first. As John pulled him up, Spec-Ops Enclave rounded the corner at the end of the hall behind them and started firing.
"Not these guys again..." Six muttered, drawing his magnum. Even with his trembling hands and blurred vision, he still managed to hit most of them. John picked Six up, and Six's balance steadied.
"Are you good?" John asked, firing on the Enclave.
"I think... I think i'll be okay." Six replied, the heat of battle giving him something to focus on. His head was pounding, and his vision started flashing again. He continued to shoot, but trying to aim and concentrate on his shots made him feel like someone was putting a bullet through his head. After a few moments, the pain subsided and the last Sangheili hit the ground, although the flashing in his eyes didn't stop. The walls felt like they were closing in around him, and he trembled as he turned back to John.
"Come on, there's an elevator up ahead." John said, putting his arm around Six. Six pushed it away.
"I can walk." Six said wearily. "Don't worry about me."
"Six, you're in critical condition. Let the Chief help." Cortana said.
"I'm fine... trust me." Six replied, louder this time.
They walked to the elevator, Six trailing behind John, and hit the button to lead them to the top floor. The elevator doors closed all of the way, surprisingly, and the two Spartans began the long ride up.
Six's head began to pound again. He closed his eyes and held his head with his arm. When he opened them, He saw something.
Something that he didn't expect to see. He was braced for graphic images, some sort of blood-and-guts filled vision, but this sight was far from it.
It was his family. Just the sight of them stunned him. The sight made his heart race and his legs ache. It brought him to emotional agony. He was so surprised that he nearly fainted, although that could have been from the blood loss. He blinked his eyes again, but just like that, they were gone.
The pain of his headache increased sharply, and something else happened. He remembered something. Just one little thing.
He pushed the thought out of his mind, but it crept back. It was stuck there. He was glad he remembered, but at the same time, he was appalled. Horrified, even.
"Six, are you okay?" John asked.
Six snapped out of his stupor, looking at his surroundings. He was sitting in the corner of the elevator, against the wall. he had been clutching his head and trembling, curled up like a child. His nose was bleeding.
"If... if we get out of here... I need to... talk to..." He said, the pain in his head making him lose focus.
"You mean when we get out of here." John replied, pulling Six up. "Come on. We don't have much time left until this place is dust."
"Yeah... yeah, okay." Six replied.
But he decided to stay quiet. He didn't want to worry John or Cortana with his hallucinations, or his headache.
And he didn't tell them what he had remembered, either.
"Cortana, how much time do we have?" John asked, propping Six up on his shoulder once again. Six's sight had become less blurred than before, the vision shocking him so greatly that the mere thought of it kept him from succumbing to the always descending stupor that was falling on him. His hands weren't shaking as much, and the bleeding had stopped almost entirely, his body finally moving into action.
He still felt like shit, sure, but he felt a lot better.
"Analyzing..." Cortana said. "Judging by the state of the engine, we have about twelve... Wait..."
"What? What's wrong?" John asked.
"Dammit! Guilty Spark must have fried the engine room!" She said. "We have five minutes at most before the fusion drives detonate. We need to evac, now!"
"Great." Six said.
"Try and find a vehicle, so we can get to Foehammer. In less than five minutes now, the engines will detonate, and the explosion will generate a temperature of almost 100,000,000 degrees. Don't be here when it blows." Cortana said. "There are a few Warthogs stored in the vehicle bay up ahead. Grab one."
John and Six hurried as fast as they could down the hallway and stopped at a door. It looked rusty, and easily breakable. Six stepped forward, raising his arms...
...And remembered that his arm wasn't there. He looked at the metallic stump with realization, then looked at John.
"I've got it." John said, pulling a grenade from his belt. He pulled the pin and dropped it at the door, then backed Six up for the ensuing explosion. The metal of the door blasted inwards, sending chunks of rusted iron shooting across the floor on the other side. They walked through, and were greeted with the sight of the vehicle bay that Cortana had mentioned. Warthogs lined the walls, as well as mongooses. As John walked up to the nearest Warthog, something caught Six's eye among the vehicles.
"Hey, John?" Six asked.
"Yeah, Six?" John replied.
Six pointed with a much steadier hand than before to the vehicle he was looking at. "How about that one?" He asked.
"It's a prototype, but..." Cortana said.
"How fast is it?" Six asked.
"Faster than a Warthog, I'm sure. But this is the only model, and it hasn't been combat tested yet." Cortana replied.
"Alright... get on, John." Six said, resting himself in the comfortable passenger seat.
The vehicle was essentially a souped up motorcycle, jet black with a white UNSC symbol printed on the side in matte finish. There were guns mounted on either side of the front wheel, and the tread looked as tough as the cycle itself, metallic pistons and exhaust pipes lining the sides. There were a pair of heavy looking boosters on the back wheel, perfect for the current situation.
John hopped off of the Warthog and walked over to the vehicle, sitting down in the driver's seat. "Comfy." He said.
"Hey Cortana," Six said as John began revving the engine. "What do they call this thing?"
"Its prototype name is the Panther." She responded.
"Really?" He said. "I... I like it."
"Hold on tight!" John said.
They shot down the hall, much faster than a Warthog, the lights around them becoming a blur. They had to be going at least 120 miles per hour.
John checked the Panther's speedometer. Nope, they were breaking 130.
"Echo 419! We need extraction now, on the double!" Cortana said.
"Roger, Cortana. I'm coming up on your location now." Foehammer replied.
The wall to their left exploded, sending shrapnel towards them. It scratched the paint as John swerved skillfully to the right. More pipes on the walls exploded, sending more shards of metal exploding in front of them and behind.
"The Autumn Is destabilizing! We only have four minutes left!" Cortana said.
"We'll make it!" John said, reassuring himself just as much as Six and Cortana.
John swerved, stopping the Panther as he caught the sight of Foehammer approaching. But there was something on their tail. The Pelican's engines were smoking, thick black clouds erupting from the back of the aircraft.
Banshees. And this time, he knew they were Covenant, not Enclave.
"The Covenant are here!" John said.
One of the Banshees shot a fuel rod into the Pelican's left engine, causing a large explosion and damaging Foehammer's left wing.
"I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday! Airfoil structures have been shot to hell! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!" Foehammer yelled over the coms. The Pelican swerved in the air, beginning to turn without manual control, as Foehammer's communications went to straight static. The Pelican immediately did a nosedive, flying towards the sand and jagged rocks. Six flinched as Foehammer crashed into the ground full force, the impact blowing the hull, and everything inside, to hundreds of pieces.
"...She's gone." Cortana said, a hollow tone in her voice.
Six could hardly believe it. "That was our only way out." He said.
"Not if I have anything to say about it. Calculating alternate escape route..." Cortana said. "The ship's inventory shows one Longsword fighter still docked in Launch Bay 7. If we move now, we can make it. We don't have time to mourn "
John leaned to the side and gunned the engine, shooting them back down the hallway.
They only had three and a half minutes left.
The Flood and the Sentinels were fighting battles inside of every room the two Spartans sped past, the Enclave and Covenant fighting outside of the Autumn with Phantoms and Banshees as well as killing each other throughout the ship. The Flood was attacking every corpse and converting it to their side. The Covenant ran for their lives when they began to see their dead rising once again, but the Enclave simply killed them as they ran and faced the Flood with resolve, using a mix of Human and Covenant technologies. The Panther was fast enough to whiz by without the two Spartans being seen, and quiet enough to aid them even more. The muffler on this thing must have cost a fortune. Of course, this was UNSC technology, there was nothing stopping them from getting only the best.
"How much further?" Six asked. If he had been counting down properly, they had close to two minutes before they became one with the ship.
"Not far! We should be able to get there within the next fifteen seconds!" Cortana replied.
"Just when I was having fun!" Six said, as John revved the engine with more force.
Five seconds later, a group of Enclave and Covenant took their battle out into the hallway.
Right in John's path.
"Oh!" John said, swerving around them shakily. As they flew past, a particularly dead-eyed Enclave soldier fired a beam rifle shot into the back tire, shredding the tread and causing John to lose control and speed.
"This isn't good!" He shouted.
"Chief, up ahead there's a gap in the trench! At top speed, we should be able to clear it, but be careful, don't push this thing! It's experimental!" Cortana said.
"Noted!" He said, having much more to worry about now. He revved the engine and shot the speed up from the 70 they had been going without their back tire to a shaky 110.
"Careful!" Six said.
"Hold on to something!" John yelled as they hit the gap.
On the takeoff, there was a loud noise coming from the back of the Panther. The shot from the beam rifle that had blown the tire off, but neither Six nor John took into account what could have happened to the rim, as the twenty-pound hunk of carbon fiber metal broke off and fell into the hole through the bottom of the ship. They flew through the air at great speed, clearing the gap with ease, but completely botching the landing. The Panther hit the ground front wheel first, spinning so unbelievably fast that, without the support of the back wheel to even out the cycle, the wheel pulled against the metal floor of the Autumn with full torque and flipped the Panther forward.
"Whoa!" John yelled, still clutching the handlebars as the ground and ceiling swapped around him. Six was thrown from the Panther, sliding across the ground ahead on his back. John fell off as well, the Panther sliding on both pipe and wheel before coming to a grinding halt a few yards away, hitting the door to the launch bay. John ran to Six and grabbed him by the arm.
"...Ouch..." He said, trying to get up. "That thing needs work."
"It was just a prototype." John said.
"Cortana, how long do we have?" Six asked.
"Two minutes!" She replied, the nervousness in her voice clearly showing. "I can get the door open."
"Really?" Six asked as John pulled Cortana's chip from his helmet and inserted it into the door's keypad. "We'll make it in record time, then."
As the door opened, Six realized that he couldn't have been more wrong.
Hundreds of hostiles filled the launch bay. Enclave, Covenant, Sentinels and Flood, all killing eachother. Flood were tearing apart corpse's and infecting them while Sentinels cut them down. An Enclave corpse fell from above, landing in front of them. When the door opened fully, several of each noticed the two Spartan's entrance, and began to fire.
"Get down!" Six yelled, moving to the right side of the doorway. John moved to the left, pulling the chip out of the keypad and reloading his assault rifle.
"I jinxed it, didn't I?" Six asked. He pulled out his magnum. He wasn't going to be able to reload with just one arm, so all he had was a clip of magnum ammo, the shotgun he had grabbed from the armory earlier and a few frag grenades.
"We need to get through to the Longsword!" John said.
"Cortana, how do we get through here?" Six asked. "There's too many!"
"I did the calculations when the door opened. There's not going to be an easy way through this! You're going to have to fight your way to the ship!" She replied.
"We need a plan." John said, ducking to the side from plasma blasts.
"I've got nothing!" Six replied.
"Damn." John said.
"... Well, Cortana is always right!" Six said, holstering the magnum, pulling his shotgun from his back and running in, blasting several hostiles with each shot. Flood parts spewed forward, covering those standing in the way with blood and puss. John stepped out from the doorway, assault rifle firing into the crowd and gunning down a few every couple of seconds. Six blew a hole in the crowd with the shotgun's clip, pumping the shotgun by shaking the pump down with as much force as he could muster, but he ran out of ammo, and, without two hands, he was unable to reload.
"John!" Six yelled, tossing the shotgun overhead towards John. He reached up and caught it in one swift motion, pushing a shell into the shotgun, planting the barrel against an Enclave soldier's chest and pulling the trigger. John, only having the one shell, proceeded to use the shotgun like a baseball bat, bashing Flood in the face as he swung. The Sentinels were much more concerned with the Flood threat than the Spartans, flying overhead and shooting their beams.
Six ripped the magnum from its holster once again, blasting everything and everyone in the way with a bullet that might as well have been that of a sniper rifle, his skillful shooting penetrating multiple enemies at once and killing them in the process.
"You have barely a minute left!" Cortana yelled.
Six and John fought through with even more vigor than before, both out of ammo and using melee weapons. John had ripped an energy sword from a nearby Sangheili's hand, and was using his favorite weapon to its fullest extent, cutting down as many Sangheili and Flood as he could. Six had drawn his knife, still caked with his own blood, and began slashing away at the crowd, cutting throats as easily as clay putty, all while knocking tiny Flood creatures off of himself by barreling through everyone.
The number of Sangheili in the room was dwindling, Flood forms overtaking and inhabiting the bodies of the freshly dead. Six and John pushed through the crowd, making the final stretch to the longsword with great effort. A Goliath had entered Six's side of the room, killing everything from Sentinels to even its own kind in a fit of rage.
As the two Spartans broke through the thicker patch of the crowd, trampling fallen bodies as they stepped through blood and organs, among other things, like teeth.
Six and John slashed with furious strokes, practically committing genocide upon the Flood with such synchronization and precision that they could have toppled powerful foes as easily as the smallest insect.
Concentrated on the fight, Six was unaware of the Goliath's close proximity to him, and it was getting closer.
"Behind you, Six!" John yelled.
Six whipped around just in time to see the Goliath towering above him. He jumped back as far as he could, Flood grabbing him as he backed up. John broke through the crowd and began to run up the ramp to the longsword, sprinting as fast as he could. Six ducked an enormously powerful swing from the Goliath and pushed back through the crowd, breaking through them and back up to the ramp. Six looked back, as to admire his handiwork, but no bodies could be seen, all of them underfoot the Flood or up and walking around with the rest of the crowd. No more Sangheili were in sight, the Sentinels fighting a losing battle as two more Goliaths entered the room.
"How are we doing, Cortana?" Six asked.
"The ship is going to blow in about forty-five seconds! Move faster!" She said.
Six jogged up the ramp. John was smacking the panel to open the hangar, the controls malfunctioning.
"The doors won't open! Something is jamming the controls!" John said with frustration.
"Son of a bitch!" Six yelled. "Can you get it open?"
"Sure, but it would take me at least another minute, and we don't have that kind of time!" John replied. "Cortana, can you open this thing?"
"Plug me in, I'll see what I can do!" She replied.
John pushed the chip into a slot on the panel, and the screen filled with information. Flood forms were running up the ramp, realizing that the two Spartans were the only hosts left to take.
"They're coming, and I'm out of ammo!" John said, raising a dead energy sword.
"So am I!" Six said. "Do we have a plan?"
"I've got nothing!" John said, pulling his own knife from its sheathe and readying it.
Six looked at his belt, looking for any sort of bullet, when something caught his eye.
"... Actually, I might have a plan!" Six said.
"Do tell!" John said.
"No need! It's self explanatory!... I hope this works!" He stepped out of cover, gun raised. At first, John thought that he was raising his magnum, giving him a look that he couldn't see.
He was wrong. It was the Sentinel beam.
Six pulled back on the lever and out of the barrel fired a laser of epic proportions, much brighter and concentrated than a normal Sentinel's attack. Flood forms in front of them were burned as the Sentinel beam wrecked havoc throughout the crowd, harming even the dense and rubber-like skin of the Goliaths.
"Whoa!" John said, backing up.
Through Six's tinkering, he had attempted to adjust the power output from the battery to the laser itself, increasing the force and destructive power of the beam to make it at least on par with the penetrating power of a beam rifle. He had turned quite a few screws and messed with the wiring, but he was unsure of which one had made the beam this powerful, making it reach nearly the power level of a Spartan laser fired in a continuous blast. He cleared out a very nice chunk of the room with the beam, killing nearly all of the Flood present. But more were coming, Six could see them quite literally flooding through doors on the other sides of the room.
"I've got the door! We have twenty seconds!" Cortana said. John pulled the chip as Six fired another burst from the Sentinel beam. Six stopped firing, whipping around and sprinting through the doors. John followed quickly as the doors closed and locked behind them. John ran to the cockpit, sitting down in the primary seat without taking any time with a seatbelt. He grabbed the controls as Six looked to the back window, where dozens of Flood were pressing against the three inch tall glass in the middle of the mostly metal door.
"Eight seconds!" Cortana shouted.
"PUNCH IT!" Six yelled.
He gunned the engines, rocketing away from the Pillar of Autumn at nearly three hundred miles per hour. Six could see the Autumn burning and explosions flaring all along the room's walls. The horde of Flood stumbled around before the entire back of the ship exploded with the force of a megaton bomb. The explosions intensified, shaking even the ship, already high in the air, with great force. John pushed the controls harder, piloting the ship as quickly as he could.
As they broke the atmosphere, the entirety of Halo shattered into hundreds of pieces from the unbelievably powerful explosion. Six put his hand to the wall, walking to John's side.
"... We... we made it." Six said, incredulous.
An even more intense explosion rocked even the space around them, causing a rough patch for John to fly through, but he regained control quickly, evening out the ship's elevation.
"... Okay. Now we've made it." Six said.
John was breathing heavy, his heart racing. He let his arms go limp to his sides as he tried to relax. His helmet felt uncomfortable on his head. He pulled Cortana's chip from his helmet and placed it into the terminal on the control board.
"Are you alright?" Six asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I just... need to get this thing off." John said, grabbing his helmet. He twisted it, then pulled upwards, dropping the helmet on the ground.
His pale face was covered in battle scars, some faded and some that looked more recent. His dark brown hair was clipped short in typical military fashion, and his hazel eyes were shadowed by his strong brow line. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyelids, and exhaled, reopening them. He grinned. Lightly, but the smile was there.
"Oh yeah, we did it." He said. He looked up at Six with those intimidating hazel eyes of his, happiness dancing within them.
Six sat down next to John's seat and chuckled. With his one arm, he put his hand to his helmet and turned it to the side, removing his, too.
John got a good look at him. In the light, he had equally pale skin, but fewer scars, a perk of his old wetwork-style stealth. His black hair was a bit longer than John's, slick and thick. His eyes were green, but deeper than just green. They were the same color as jungle grass, dark and mysterious. He had 5 o'clock shadow that was turning into short stubble, and his eyebrows were thick.
Six grinned. His was obvious. His bright white teeth shined with his smile, and he chuckled again lightly. This was the first time that either of them had seen each other's faces, not just their helmets.
A screen on the control board flashed red.
ENGINE TEMP CRITICAL
"Shut them down. We'll need them later." Cortana said, her avatar popping up on the dashboard. With the flick of a few switches and a pull of the control stick, the Longsword slowed.
John leaned back against the seat of the ship, glad to finally be able to sit back and relax. He shut his eyes for a second, content. Then a look came across his face.
"Did... did anyone else make it?" John asked.
"Scanning..." Cortana said. "One small transport ship, yesterday. No others, just ... dust and echoes. We're all that's left."
"Who was in the transport?" Six said immediately, worry in his eyes for a reason that John didn't know.
"Gimme a second, I'll see if I can pull up the records." Cortana said, going through her databases.
As she started listing off names, Six's skin got progressively whiter, as if in fear of something.
"... Private First Class David Shulmer... Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson... and one more..." Cortana said.
Six looked as white as a ghost.
"... a Corporal Clancy Maegan."
Six exhaled sharply and heavily, relief washing over his face.
"He's a friend of yours, isn't he?" Cortana said.
"Yeah." Six said. "Yeah, he is."
John grinned. The tough son of a bitch made it out. John was relieved, too. Clancy was a good kid, and a fantastic soldier.
After that, the color in Six's face returned as they sat in silence.
"We did what we had to do ... for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated, and the Flood... we had no choice. Halo ... It's finished." Cortana said.
John chuckled. "No," He said.
...I think we're just getting started."
I have so much to celebrate on this day, Wolfgang. Without any of you, none of this could ever have happened. You've read this story, my first ever fanfiction, with dedication, with every chapter to come out making you hungry for more. Some of you have been critical, others have been soft, and every single one of you have been helpful in the highest possible quality. I would like to give a shoutout to a few of these people, in the hopes that you'll find them to be epic storytellers as well, so that some of them can one day say that they feel the same way about their stories, or so that they can continue to feel the way I feel every time I read your reviews.
This first shoutout goes to a user by the name of Wilhelm Wigworthy, my first ever reviewer, and the person who gave me the courage to write my second chapter. I thank you, sir, with all of my heart. He has a Harry Potter fanfiction, but he hasn't updated it since the day I wrote the first chapter. Wherever you are, sir, good luck.
This next one goes to Lord of Death and Time for being a dedicated reader and a good pal. He has a One shot and a story he is currently developing. Both are Percy Jackson, one of my favorite series, so check them out if that's your style.
Another goes out to The writing boy, whose only fanfiction originated from reading mine. He has much to learn, but so much time and space to grow. Although his writing may have more grammar issues and misplaced commas than you may like, he is a genuinely good guy, and his story isn't half bad.
Lastly, I would like to give a shoutout to AshleighAishwarya. She doesn't really need a shoutout, as she is a very successful writer, but I would like to thank her. After reading her stories, an idea crept into my head, and on notepad I began to write it down. Now look where we are.
If you choose to read any of their stories, tell 'em that Husky sent you.
I'm changing the Title of the story when I start writing again, too, so be prepared for that.
This isn't a goodbye, Wolfgang. The story is far from over. There will be a three week hiatus for me to select what route I'm going to go, write other things and think different thoughts, and then I'll continue, whether it be destined to follow the story of First Strike or moving on to Halo 2 (Expect the first one).
But for now, don't think of it like that. Just think of it as an ending.
Or a beginning, whichever you prefer.
Thank you, Wolfgang.
~Husky