Here we go with chapter three. As I said it's going to be Chiefs backstory, everything before the first Halo ring on the timeline, so if you know the story, you won't miss much by skipping, but there will be some differences. Thanks for tuning in.
"Nothing classified Cortana," said Chief. He had settled himself in at the back of the guard, in the left corner, trying to make himself as small and not in the way as possible. It was cramped in there with two people, so three with one of them in a large suit of armor made it even worse. He had removed Cortana's data chip from his helmet and was holding it in his palm, allowing the other pilots to see it wasn't him talking, but a fully functional AI. She was projecting her holographic form from the chip. The two strangers didn't look like insurrectionists, and definitely not like members of the covenant. Besides, Cortana said they checked out.
The two pilots had situated themselves in the front of the Garde, Tanikaze in the right corner, Hiroshijiro to the left. "Is that an AI! Is it real!?" asked Hiroshijiro excitedly. "At Sidonia, we've only been able to make VI's, never fully functional AI's!" Tanikaze was considerably less excited but still interested none the less.
"So, this AI, Cortana, she'll explain everything?" asked Tanikaze
John nodded. Cortana had her holographic form sit down cross-legged, and projected a screen, about the size of a small computer monitor, wich would pull up relevant documents and pictures when she talked. "I would ask that you stay quiet while I am explaining things," began Cortana, "and brace yourselves."
My name, as you already know, is Cortana. The big green guy over there is- well that's classified. Stop looking at me like that, Chief! For now, just call him that. I am an AI, artificial intelligence, and I was created by a technological genius. Her name is Dr. Catherine Halsey. She also happens to be the one that created HIM, yes, I did say created, but we'll talk about that later. For now, let's start at the beginning.
We came from another seed ship. Her designation is, was, Freedoms Call. After the Earth Collapse, three seed ships formed an alliance, the UNSC, going against protocol and forming a fleet. There was Freedoms Call from the U.S, Mombasa from Africa, and Reach from the U.K, as well as hundreds of other warships, Citizen vessels, mobile shipyards, etc. For over 100 years, this fleet fought against the Gauna, but as there was no known way to actually kill them, it was losing battle from the start. Until we found it, Kabi. The fleet came across a strange structure, of unknown origin and design, and within it, the Kabis. Through extensive testing of the material, it was revealed it could be used to pierce the Gauna core, wich eventually turned the war to our favor. Our research teams and dear Dr. Halsey figured out how to create man-made Kabi, and were able to synthesize bullets, for small arms and heavy weaponry.
It was at this point during the war, that citizens of the seed ship Mombasa decided they wished to break away from the fleet. A large sect of cultist who worshiped the Guana and antiwar protesters believed that the Guana were no longer hostile and that the Military section of UNSC was using the war as a cover to continue Martial law. They were also under the impression that the Kabi attracted Guana, and made them hostile, making them wish to distance themselves from the fleet. To the prevent the Mombasa from being destroyed by Gauna almost immediately after separation from the fleet, and due to the fact that the seed ship was made almost entirely out of earth fragments and dwarf planets full of natural resources, making it an invaluable asset and essential to the fleets survival, the UNSC as a whole forbid the Mombasa's departure. This resulted in Urban warfare within the seed ship Mombasa, as again it was too valuable an asset to risk in naval combat. Though most of the citizens who wished no part in the rebellion were allowed to leave Mombasa, particularly radical sects of the rebellion executed those who wished to leave, to send a message to the UNSC. This only escalated the situation. In an attempt to quell the rebellion as soon as possible, Dr. Halsey had the Spartan Program cleared, wich had been originally been planned for combat against Guana. The entirety of that program is classified, suffice to say that chief over there is one of them and that all of his other comrades are missing in action. The Spartans had no time to actually make any progress in taking back Mombasa, as out of the blue, and a new threat emerged.
We call them the Covenant. They are a ruthless collective of different alien races. The first contact was made by one of their capital ships. It completely annihilated a moon colony as well as a scout ship. Direct engagements always ended the same, total defeat, no survivors. Their technology is vastly superior to ours, but they lack access to Kabi, rendering them defenseless against Guana, but their main reason for hostility against humanity, is not to gain access to Kabi. All diplomatic attempts were met with extreme hostility. Since the Covenant showed no discrimination between the UNSC, Fleet or Rebels, the Rebellion offered a truce to fight back against the Covenant. Once The truce had been cemented, the fleet scattered. Each seed ship along with their respective civilian ships traveled in a different direction, with a contingent of warships. To give time for the seed ships to escape, a large portion of the fleet's warships were left behind to engage the Covenant, and hold them for as long as the could. Equipped with experimental stealth technology, and aided by the Spartans, this 'defense fleet' was able to hold off the covenant using guerilla tactics. During this phase of the war, the Spartans were equipped with the Mjolnir Mk. IV power armor, what he's wearing, and Garde's, all developed by, of course, Dr. Halsey. The Garde's design was to be able to fight both Covenant forces and Guana interchangeably. Spartans were then deployed in all combat scenarios, and though they were able to hold back the Covenant in their engagements on planets, abandoned colonies and ship infiltrations, the UNSC defense fleet began to lose ground. In a desperate attempt to end the war, a plan to capture one of their leaders, known as a Prophet, was being put into play. Just before the plan was to be carried out, the covenant found Reach.
The seed ships conquest was quick and brutal, destroying its entire fleet, and the ship itself. At least, half the Spartans were redeployed from the front lines to Reach. They used their Gardes, catching up to her using faster than light travel archived by clasp formation. Dr. Halsey, myself and chief over there all barely managed to escape the ships destruction, even with Spartan reinforcement. We escaped aboard the UNSC Warship Pillar of Autumn. Dr. Huey Emrich (I know this isn't right) had the ship equipped with experimental technology that allowed slipstream space travel, wich is a collective term for the eleven non-visible infinitesimal dimensions that can be used for faster-than-light travel.
Upon exit of an emergency slip space jump, we found it. Halo, a type of space station in the form of a ring, along with the seed ship Freedoms Call. But the Covenant was there as well. Freedoms call had come across the ring earlier, but was too far away to actually send a message to the rest of the fleet. The covenant had managed to catch up with Freedoms Call and engaged in naval combat to gain control of the ring. They wasted no time in shooting down the Pillar Autumn. When we crash landed on the rings inner surface, we were able to find out that the ring was actually one of the most powerful weapons of mass destruction ever created. The Chief and I began to search for a way to disable the station, but things only got worse and worse. Within the halo ring, there was a secret unknown form of Guana, one that had the ability to absorb its prey, and take on their form. This type of Guana also required sentient life abortion to survive. We were tricked into releasing them, and then the fight was not against the Covenant anymore, but the Guana. Though most were grotesquely mutated, some were able to actually perfectly mimic their absorbed prey. They used these infiltrators, as we called them, to infiltrate the seed ship and Covenant fleet. This is where our small arms Kabi bullets came in handy, as this type of Guana had its core located in their head 98.5 percent of the time. With the help of the rings AI, 343 guilty Spark, we attempted to contain the Guana infestation, but ultimately failed. We then tried to activate the Ring itself, but when we reached the control room, the true purpose of Halo was revealed. When it fired, it would not destroy the Guana, like we assumed it would, but would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, to deprive the Guana of their food. When we refused to activate the ring, Guilty spark turned on us, activating the ring himself. We then fled to the Pilar of Autumn, to try and stop halo from firing. Chief prepped his Garde for flight, then sabotaged the ship's reactor, creating a super bomb of sorts. We escaped in his Garde and watched as Halo was torn apart by the explosion. Freedoms Call and the Covenant fleet were also caught in the blast and destroyed. We, at this time, are the only known survivors.
Tanikaze and Hiroshijiro looked at the AI, stunned. "I'll send a copy of that story to each of you, I know, it's long." Both Cadel pilots looked at each other a look of utter disbelief on their faces. "Its all true, we're actually in the Halo debris field right now." Chief stayed silent in the back, contemplating the story himself, thinking of what he could have done better, to save more lives, and maybe even prevent the seed ships destruction. Hindsight is always 20/20
Hiroshijiro was the first to speak up. "This is amazing, we've just made contact with people from another seed ship Tanikaze!" she yelled excitedly. "Cortana, I have so many questions-"
Cortana held up her hand, silencing the overly excited pilot. "All right, shoot."
Glad I'm done with that. More background will come later, and yes, Huey Emrich will be in this Fanfic, as well as Big boss, Solid snake, and the Metal Gears. Next chapter will be from Samari's point of view, as the Garde sortie searches for Tanikaze and Hiroshijiro. Thanks for tuning in
This is Eye0fTheSt0rm, signing off.