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Echoes Within

Academy

January 3rd, 2560

Local time 1933

Spartan Hieu Dinh was at the Academy's shooting range with his squadmate and friend, Sigrid Eklund.

"He found memories I never told anyone, details I wish I forgot," said Dinh, as he stared at a small chip in his fingers.

"Dinh, that desert was a long time ago. There's nothing you could have done to save them," Eklund tried to console him.

"'Death for you, and triumph for me.' What does that mean?" asked Dinh.

Eklund removed her STRIBOG helmet, revealing a pale face, braided blonde hair, and a green bandana around her forehead. "That I am your friend, and that the thing in your head was not," she responded. She lowered Dinh's hand, taking his attention away from the chip. As she did that, another Spartan walked in, wearing a set of gray MJOLNIR Mark VII armor with pale orange highlights.

The pair turned to see their companion. "Ah ja, here's the one I told you about. The newest member of our pack," Eklund greeted.

"What's up?" the Spartan returned. Dinh growled slightly.

"Play nice, this wolf saved your life," Eklund reminded Dinh. She began to walk away.

"You tell Agryna not to worry. My head's as good as it ever was," assured Dinh.

"Maybe that's what she's worried about," joked Eklund before leaving with a smile.

"You shove one Banished AI into your neural matrix, and everyone panics," lamented Dinh.

"I'm no AI expert, but I'm pretty sure there's a difference between the standard dumb AI and our homicidal mutual friend," the Spartan jested. If Dinh found any humor in the statement, he didn't show it. He went to the stand to grab his gun, a battered, olive-green M392 Bandit rifle.

"Look, I'm not great with 'thank you.' So, here," he handed the Bandit to the Spartan, who took it. "It kicks. But it's never let me down."

The Spartan looked at the newly acquired weapon. "Where did you get this? I thought these were phased out years ago!" the Spartan asked incredulously.

"Sevine made a deal with Misriah to make those for alien markets, though the main buyers are Gao and Venezia," answered Dinh. "The quality standards are as high as ever, though."

He briefly went to grab his ARTAIUS helmet, before speaking up again. "You know, I cycled through here for training, too. This place is old, just like me," he reminisced.

He held the chip up again, before thinking out loud, "Iratus didn't care about me. He only cared where I might go." He began walking away, but turned to the Spartan again. "You get good with that, then come find me," he instructed. Before he left, though, he made a rather cryptic statement.

"This place, it has memories too."

Academy

January 4th, 2560

Local time 0153

It was late at night, and the Spartan was walking the now-deserted halls of the Academy with the Bandit on the backplate. Dinh had called, asking for help with something, though he hadn't said what. The Spartan was sure that banging had been heard though, along with a grunt of anger from Dinh.

Turning a corner, the Spartan spotted Dinh by a door. It used to be bright orange, but after what the other cadets believed was a stray grenade or rocket from one of the many training simulations, the emblem of the Office of Naval Intelligence had been revealed. Curiously, the screen next to the door had been removed from the wall, with the wires behind it hanging out.

"C'mon. BLAST IT!" Dinh suddenly yelled, briefly startling the Spartan. Seeing that his new friend had finally arrived, he gestured to the door.

"Give me a hand!" called Dinh. The Spartan obliged and hurried towards the door. As Dinh hotwired the screen, the Spartan asked, "Dinh, what's going on?"

"You hear this noise?" Dinh asked in response. An eerie whistling could indeed be heard from the other side of the door.

"Grab the door!" Hieu ordered. The Spartan crouched down in preparation for its opening.

Dinh then did something to the wires, causing the door to briefly pop open. Before it could close, however, the Spartan grabbed the bottom and kept it from shutting, with Dinh moving over to help.

"Ready?" Dinh asked. The Spartan nodded. "Let's do it."

The pair then gradually began pushing the heavy door open. "Just a little more!" Dinh grunted, as the door finally stayed open.

Behind the door was an empty elevator shaft, with red emergency lights providing an eerie glow. It evidently went very deep, given that no bottom could be seen. Dinh lit a flare and held it over the edge, and glanced at the Spartan with a smile.

"Dinh, what is this?" the Spartan asked.

"The Office of Naval Intelligence always did like to bury their secrets," Dinh cryptically replied. "And by the way, it's Hieu."

The Spartan was briefly taken aback, but quickly nodded in affirmation. "Well then, Hieu," the Spartan began, and gestured to the elevator shaft, "shall we?"

Hieu then let go of the flare, letting it drop to the bottom of the shaft, seemingly to emphasize how deep it was. He offered a mock salute, then playfully said, "See you at the bottom!" before howling like a wolf and jumping down the shaft.

The Spartan's head shook in third-party embarrassment, before leaping down to follow Hieu. There was only one thought on the Spartan's mind:

What did I get myself into?

Beneath the Academy

January 4th, 2560

Local time 0217

A wide door opened into a dark room, with Hieu and the Spartan entering shortly after. The room had cobwebs all over, as if it had been abandoned for quite some time. Given the fact that the elevator car was nowhere to be found, this seemed rather likely. In the center of the room was a BROKKR mechanism, meant to mount armor on Spartans. Inside the BROKKR was a set of pitch-black MIRAGE-IIC armor with the chestplate removed. Surrounding the machine were several computer servers. A mysterious silver-colored cube, about half a meter high, that had cables connecting to it, was seen on a table nearby.

"Where are we?" asked the Spartan apprehensively.

"ONI built this place at the start of the war against the Covenant," Hieu began. "Top secret. Real Section III black magic." The pair then advanced up a ramp towards the BROKKR.

"I was here, back in the day," Hieu continued. "It's where I got my first set of armor." He approached the MIRAGE. "Just like this one."

Hieu held the flare up to the armor. "And if I know about this place…" He paused briefly, "...then so did Iratus."

The Spartan looked around, and shrugged. "Hate to break it to you, Hieu, but I'm not seeing anything of interest."

Hieu sighed. "Eklund's right. Maybe it's time I let things go."

The flare began to dim, and Hieu lowered it away from the armor.

Suddenly, the emergency lights began flashing, and angry red electricity flowed through the cables in the room, before a sinister cackle sounded through the speakers. "But there is so much more to see…"

"Hieu…" said the Spartan tensely as the Bandit was shouldered.

"The entire history of the Spartan program…" Screens on the servers began coming to life, as an inverted triangle with a three-pointed cross in the middle flashed. The silver cube began glowing red.

"Oh no…" said Hieu fearfully.

"Your weaknesses, your failures…" The BROKKR began moving of its own accord, and the arms of the MIRAGE fell off their grips. The cube suddenly split into several pieces, which began floating in the air in a roughly circular shape.

"And now, all of it belongs to the Banished!" Red holograms flashed into being around the MIRAGE as the armor twitched, and as the pieces of the artifact finally aligned, a slipspace portal came into existence. An evil laugh sounded throughout the room, and the crimson face of Iratus appeared around the MIRAGE's helmet.

On the surface, the Academy's communications dish began moving. As it became vertical, an angry red beam began blasting out of it, alerting the Banished to the facility's location.

AN: And that is the first chapter done and dusted! I apologize for the fact we aren't crossing over to the Benderverse just yet, but I felt I should start this story here.

Anyway, you might have noticed that I am starting this fic in the Academy from Halo Infinite's multiplayer. I noticed that there were few if any crossover fanfics taking place there, so I felt that I could show a bit of appreciation for the multiplayer narrative by launching the story there. I added dialogue here and there so that the conversations aren't so one sided, gave our Spartan the Bandit for the future of this story, and removed the curses to fit personal standards, but it's otherwise true to form minus the portal.

As for where the story goes, I plan on having things in the Benderverse go roughly the same as in the show, with changes here and there to accommodate the appearance of the player character, as well as making sure that events in one world affect the other. I'll also be focusing on events in the Academy as the Banished begin their takeover. In no way am I intending on making our Spartan or the Gaang the sole focus of the story, nor am I making the Gaang overly reliant on the Spartan or vice versa. I don't want to write the kind of story where any one character steals the spotlight.

You might have noticed that I omitted any mention of the Spartan's name and gender. This is intentional, as I want to give the audience a bit of a say in the cast. Leave a review with the name and gender you personally want, and I'll pick my favorite for the next chapter.

As for the armor configuration, it's the default Mark VII MJOLNIR armor. A CAVALLINO helmet, VITUS shoulders, and no chest, wrist, or utility attachments, as well as the Cadet Gray coating and Enlisted visor.

On a different note, this is my first fic, so I really want all of you to leave a review and give me your constructive criticism. No flames though, I just want to know how to improve my writing for future chapters.

Anyways, this is Believer218 signing off.

Edit: Minor details and changes to the AN as a result of new ideas for the story.