They That Have Spoken
000
Installation 00 glowed with a vibrant intensity of light and energy, an instrument of war, destruction and ultimately salvation.
The dust swept away, as if for fear that the rumbling beast of a machine, driven by a Legend and its Light M41 AA gun, manned by yet another Legend, shooting the daylights out of its enemies.
As the rotting infected pursued the Warthog, explosions erupted from the very ground they stood on, melting and vaporising their already decaying biomass. Debris of fallen towers and mighty constructs that soared to the heavens had soon piled up as the newly rebuilt Installation 04 began to activate, along with its imminent destruction.
"We gotta jump now Chief!" the AI was desperate, she was not going to let this man fall, not after everything he has done. The Warthog soared through the air, crashing into the hanger bay of the Forward Unto Dawn. The Spartan and his Sangheili counterpart landed but were thrown off balance by the sheer force of the improvised landing.
Both of the warriors evaded from incoming obstacles, both clearly exhausted yet holding dearly to Hope. The Spartan transferred the Smart AI, Cortana, into the one of the network of the Dawn just as his comrade was nearly crushed by a 66 ton Scorpion tank. For a brief moment, Spartan-117 looked at the place where the Arbiter was trapped in out of concern, when the Sangheili made his way out a split second later they locked eyes and gave the other a nod. Their brotherhood was sealed.
The Arbiter made his way further into the Dawn to seek shelter while never realising that his human brother was still trapped. His elation bought him a sense of relieve, clouding his better judgement of his surroundings until it was too late. When he looked back, only the darkness greeted him along with the closing air-locks. The happiness he briefly discovered was gone, replaced by trepidation, but he knew better, Spartans never die and he would await his return.
"Chief, if we don't make it…" Cortana chimed. "We will make it." was his reply. "It's been an honour, John."
000
The Dawn picked up its speed, trying to escape the impending destruction that was soon to be. John rested his head on the terminal he had clung on to in the hanger bay, his eye lids closing, accompanied by the sounds of the Dawn's thrusters, his fading heartbeat and the thoughts of home. The Dawn activated its Fujikawa Slipspace Drive and left the burning mega construct of Installation 04 in its dust.
In mere milliseconds after their departure, Installation 04 fired its destructive energy pulse which decimated any and all biomass in a 25000 light year radius, it was destroyed as well, it's force field generators were still too weak to support the sudden spike of energy from its miniature star that sustained it, causing it to collapse completely at the moment it fired. Like how it was, a hundred thousand years ago, Installation 00 was left in its midst of dust and radiation, albeit suffering from near catastrophic damage. With the blight of the Milky Way galaxy gone, the now dead Gravemind would consume, no more.
The energy pulse from Installation 04 was detected by an ancient sensor tower, as if awaking from its long hibernation, the ancient machine sent a message to the overseer of its local star system. The humming of an awakening planet loomed somewhere in the star system, there was no denying it, fate was set in motion. The fight has only just begun.
000
"Chief!" Cortana spoke with alarm as the Spartan gave no response. "Chief!" she shouted once more in desperation. John groaned back as his eyelids struggled against the grinding headache he felt at the back of his head, she felt herself calming down after his response. In a soothing voice she inquired once more, "Chief. Can you hear me?" John struggled to recollect his senses, shortly after remembering what hell that have just gotten themselves out of. Giving a nod in response to her question, I thought I lost you, were the words unspoken. Knowing the hidden meaning of his simple gesture, she acknowledged his concern, "I thought I lost you too."
The warrior took a look at his surroundings, We made it through!- No, something's amiss… His brief joy was shattered at the sudden realisation of the lack of gravity and the darkness that enveloped him. Instinctively, he activated the built in flashlights in his suit, illuminating the unnerving darkness. As he pushed against the wall to propel himself forward, his fingers impacted weakly against the wall, showing his disappointment. Flipping himself upwards until he was facing what was behind him, he understood his predicament.
As the stars and dust stared back at him, radiating their immense power while the darkness shrouded at the edges of their display of power, his thoughts clouded his mind. Its space… It's been such a long time since I appreciated its beauty. The last time was- he stopped his line of thought, forcing himself not to recall the painful bits of his life.
Gathering his senses he asked "What happened?" "I'm not sure…" Cortana accessed and began recalculation of the events again, "when Halo fired… it shook itself into pieces. The portal couldn't sustain itself, we made it through just as it collapsed." she said with a hint of amusement. Cortana was quite certain luck was no mere figment of imagination, after all the possibility of them still being alive now was nil and yet, here they are, having seen through the beginning and the end of the human-covenant war and the end of the flood threat. Then her cheery mood dissipated, "well some of us made it", we were left behind. John nodded only so slightly, he understood now, the world had abandoned them and it dawned upon him how unfair his whole life had been towards him.
His surge of anger did not go amiss, Cortana had realised it from his expression before she picked up his rising heartbeats and the adrenaline that coursed through his veins. It has only been less than a few months since she was introduced to the Spartan, yet she began to comprehend how his mind worked, what was this… thing, humans addressed it as? Familiarity? Returning back to calming him down, she quickly added "but you did it, Truth, the Covenant, the Flood, its finished…" ending her sentence with the sweetest smile she could offer. The light her AI avatar illuminated onto his helmet, he looked into the electric blue eyes of his companion that had remained with him through it all, "it's finished…" Accepting the truth was painful, John's throat felt constricted as a spike of adrenaline passed through, but he was a Spartan, he nodded away the tears that were beginning to cloud his vision. As he began to swim his way to a cryotube, his thoughts hounded him, the fight is over, humanity and her allies are safe and yet here I am, unable to experience the joys I could have, I always wondered what it is like to have kids, but fate just had to torment me further. As he reached closer to his destination, he heard the same tune whenever he felt all hope is lost, The Song of the Stars, the chorus of the heavens set alight his hopes once more. Placing his assault rifle into the nearby weapons holder, Cortana added, "I'll drop a beacon, but it will be awhile before anyone finds us…" the rhythm of the stars became stronger and John smiled. "years even…" he already accepted his fate, peace was all that was on his mind.
Cortana was unsure if she could her Spartan if the day of salvation comes for him, she knew her own lifespan, it would only be a few more months before she reached rampancy, the immense data of the original installation 04 Halo and the torture the Gravemind subjected her to had severely eaten the majority of her seven year life span. She felt an overwhelming sense of loss amongst the chaos of her clashing emotions, so she lowered her avatar's head, not knowing how John would react, "I will miss you." John had already closed his eyes, lying on the bed of the cryotube, the Song of the Stars were immensely strong now, "Wake me, when you need me." This is my fate.
Cortana never felt so hopeless before, despair clawed at her, she did not know what to do, her Spartan, her best friend, her everything that she has left, would be gone. All because she was sure she would reach rampancy before any help could reach them, hell, she was clueless as to which desolate part of the milky way they had been stranded on. But the worse was that she could no longer achieve the dreams she had. By far, she was the most technologically advanced creation of the UNSC, she was capable of dreams, of visions she wants to accomplish and now, her gift remains to haunt her. John has accepted his fate of never becoming a normal human being, she would never have the chance to enjoy existence together with him and she was certain she would fail in sending the Spartan back to the home he had saved.
000
Fate is a strange thing; many believe that there are many different variations of fate, depending on our course of actions and others believe that there are variables and constants in fate, yet fate is the fixed event at that particular point in time due to our course of action and would change again when we have done something differently than our predicted fate, so it changes and another fate is predicted at another particular point in time.
Yet the fate of the Spartan and his companion were to be extinguished and their existence to perish, were it not for the actions of another.
The beacon Cortana had released sent a weak signal transmission of distress, picked up by an ancient machine that was left hidden within the star system the Spartan and his companion were in. The luck of John-117 had known no bounds.
000
A/N:
Well hope you enjoyed it, it was a pleasure to finally write out what I have always held in mind since I finshed Halo 3, do send me your thoughts on this, I look forward to hearing from all of you, so thanks and see you again for the next chapter.