Chapter 2: Starting Out

Review Replies

zacker1590: While I love this crossover story the only problem I have is that he is a titan and not a Hunter. Noble Six past was a lone Wolf and a headhunter so it should fit him as a Hunter and not a Titan.

ThermalsniperN7: I think it was a matter of perspective. Halo Reach didn't have many opportunities for stealth, and even then, there was only one mission that barely had any stealth at all. Plus, with what Six did, he felt more like a Titan to me.

Dragon Emperor0: Not to mention there are plenty of lone Titans in the lore. Take Saint-14 or Razil Lazire for example.

CheesusChrist15: Hnnng the pairing scares me.

ThermalsniperN7: … I'd ask why, but, well… it is my story.

Dragon Emperor0: I'll ask cuz I'm curious… Why?

icedragon512: Does 6 have to go through the New Light tutorial now?

ThermalsniperN7: We thought about it, and decided against it since… Well, even if Six doesn't have any mental memories, he's still got instincts and muscle memory.

Guest: Six seems oddly timid. Uhs and ums really don't seem like something that should come out of a Spartans's mouth unless it's a 4. He also seems oddly casual. Again I think this Six acts like a Spartan 4, not a 3, to my understanding even if Guardians don't keep their memories, they keep their personalities. And Six isn't acting like the child soldier that he should be as a Spartan 3, he's acting like a regular, well adjusted adult.

ThermalsniperN7: I seem to remember Spartans generally being socially awkward before the Spartan 4s came around. Plus, you gotta remember, he died. Of course there's gonna be differences in his character since most of his past is gone in this story.

Dragon Emperor0: Yeah, an example of this kind of change via resurrection is Uldren Sov when he's resurrected as Crow. Sure, they're technically the same person since they share a face, and certain mannerisms. But functionally they're totally different characters. It's the same concept here.

edboy4926: Awesome intro. Looking forward to more.

ThermalsniperN7: Good to hear.

Dragon Emperor0: *Thumbs up*

Archangel Xireon Chaos God: ok. This has potential. plus unique pairing. definitely original. I wanna see where this goes! Invested

ThermalsniperN7: Glad to see you think that.

Dragon Emperor0: Mmm hmmm.

-Tower, Last City, Earth-

Noble groaned as he slowly woke up, blinking the grogginess out of his eyes. Sitting up, he noticed that Aphrodityss was gone, looking around, he saw that she must've gotten her clothes and such back on and left for whatever reason. He got up and stretched his limbs, groaning in relief as he felt his muscles loosen up.

"Nice of you to wake up." Epsilon said, hovering over a lamp.

"Where'd Tex go?" Noble asked as he started getting dressed.

"She went to talk to Cayde about when you and her would go on that raid you two planned on." The Ghost replied as the Spartan got his chest plate on.

"Why didn't she just wake me for that?" The Titan questioned as he continued to piece together his armor.

"Something about "letting you rest your bones" after they'd been plucked out of the grave, recently." The drone replied.

"I was a soldier in my past life, but I get the point." Noble conceded. Sure, he knew soldiers were trained to tough out anything that was bugging them, but even that wasn't good enough to shrug off being fresh out of the grave.

"Yeah, I'm of the same opinion. Anyway, head to the Vanguard hall when you're up for it." Epsilon told his Guardian.

"I'll need to take care of a couple of things first before I head there." The Spartan stated, knowing he still had to check up on Banshee's progress with his hammer and Amanda's progress on his Prowler.

"Fair enough. It's more of a matter of you just getting there at some point anyway." The drone nodded as Noble finished getting his armor on.

He then left his room and made his way to the Tower courtyard, seeing Guardians walking around or chatting about other stuff. Paying it no mind, he went to the Gunsmith and saw that the old Exo was working on a random shotgun. Hearing his footsteps coming toward him, Banshee looked up and saw Noble.

"Morning, Titan. Sleep well?" He asked in a greeting tone.

"Yeah I did." Noble nodded in reply. "Anyway, how's my hammer? Did you run into any complications?" He asked.

"Yes, unfortunately." The Exo nodded. "The workings of the hammer's gravity based mechanisms are more complicated than I thought they'd be. I'll need a blueprint of how these things function before I can proceed further on it." He explained.

"Crap…" The Spartan hissed. "I'll see what I can do to help out." He told the Exo Gunsmith before he walked to the hangar, where he saw the crew back to work on his Prowler. He went to where he saw Amanda the day before and found her there again, the shipwright looking up upon hearing him walking toward her.

"Hey, Noble. Lemme guess: Here to check up on your ride?" She asked.

"Yep. It's a medium sized thing, so I can't really see it being ready in a day, even with the blueprints available for you." The Spartan nodded.

"Well you'd be right about that." The blonde sighed. "We have to replace parts with newer versions we simply lack the materials to make. I'll get you sadded up with a City Hawk in the meantime until we can finish the job." She told him.

"I was afraid you'd say that…" Noble sighed. First his hammer, and now this. Definitely not a good start to the day… "Anything I can do to help?" He then asked.

"If you can give us any scrap metal you get your hands on out there, we can remold it into parts we need for the Prowler." Amanda replied.

"I'll set up a list." Epsilon nodded, doing just that.

"Come on, let's see what Zavala has to say about what stuff we can start on." Noble said as he started strolling towards the Vanguard Hall.

As he entered the area in question, he spotted his Eliksni companion talking to Cayde and walked over to them to see what was up.

"Look, all I'm–" The Hunter Vanguard started to say before spotting the freshly risen Spartan walking over. "Oh, hey, Noble." He said with a nod, prompting the Eliksni woman to turn to him.

"Oh, you're awake." Aphrodityss said. "I was asking Cayde about the hit on that Devils cache I mentioned before, but he already put another fireteam on mission for it, so I'm feeling a little… upset about it." She added.

"As long as the raid happens, I'd say it's still a job done." Noble shrugged.

"That's exactly what I was saying!" Cayde exclaimed, exasperated.

"... As long as a Servitor is brought back for me, I guess it doesn't matter." The green eyed Eliksni sighed.

"Anyway, I was wondering if you had any bounties available." The Titan questioned as he adjusted his newly obtained armor.

"As luck would have it, I do." Cayde nodded as he laid out a trio of bounties on the table for the Spartan. "Take your pick." He urged. Noble looked over the three starter bounties, reading what they entailed. One in particular was a search and destroy bounty for a Baron that was aspiring to become the new Kell of the House of Devils.

"Search and destroy. Sounds like a specialty for me." Noble said as he took the bounty in question.

"I can't read the human language. What is that bounty for?" Aphrodityss asked as she looked at it.

"For a bigshot Baron trying to become the new Devil Kell." Noble replied, causing her to bristle.

"Oh, I think I know exactly who that is…!" She hissed angrily. "Let's go!" She added before storming out, leaving Noble and Cayde to look at each other.

"I feel like this is personal for her." The Hunter Vanguard noted.

"I better go after her before a mishap happens." The Spartan stated before he went after his Eliksni companion to let her know that the Prowler wasn't ready, and that they would be using a Hawk for a while.

(Later)

One flight in their temporary Hawk later, Noble and Tex found themselves in the wall of the Cosmodrome. The Eliksni woman didn't appreciate how cramped and uncomfortable the aircraft was, finding it ill suited for her.

Then again, they were meant to transport humans, not Eliksni, so she couldn't really complain about that.

"Oh, my back!" The female captain groaned as she popped her spine, her lower hands on the small of her back.

"Sorry. I'll be sure to get a bigger ship later." Noble told her as they made their way into the Cosmodrome.

"You mentioned that you knew this Baron we're after. Who is he?" Epsilon asked.

"I knew him back when I was still a member of the Devils." Tex nodded. "His name is Kavix, the Brute. He saw me as a potential mate and tried to make me his. I refused, and he got forceful." She continued, causing Noble to tense as murderous thoughts entered his head. "Though when he did that, I took one of his eyes and docked two of his arms. Violently." She added with a viscous tone, causing the Spartan to let out a breath.

"Okay, that sets me at ease. You may not know it, but humans have an extremely low opinion of people like that." He told her as they exited the wall. "What are you gonna do when we find him? He asked.

"I'm gonna finish what I started and beat him to death with his own skull." Tex replied with bloodlust in her voice.

"...How do you beat someone to death with their own skull? That doesn't seem physically possible." Epsilon stated, noting the absurdity of the idea.

"Funny, that's exactly what my last boyfriend said when I did it to an elite that was following us." The Eliksni hummed, tapping her chin thoughtfully, her hip cocked to the side.

"Speaking of elites… Epsilon, are there any Covenant squads skulking around the Cosmodrome?" Noble asked as he looked around the field the trio was in.

"Nope. Intel suggests that they can't afford to spare any scouting parties with the heavy presence of two Fallen Houses here." The Ghost replied. Noble was a bit disappointed since he hoped to kill a Brute Chieftain and have Epsilon scan his Gravity Hammer to make a blueprint.

But it still meant that he didn't have to worry about random Jackal snipers taking pot shots at him or Tex at least.

"At least there's that." He mused before shaking his head. "Anyway, where's Kavix at?" He asked.

"Knowing him, he's probably…" The captain grumbled before a guttural roar could be heard in the distance, followed by a chorus of chirping cries of… Bliss? "Yep. Knew it." She sighed.

"Do I even wanna know?" The Titan questioned flatly as they started heading in the direction of the noise.

"No, but I think you can guess." Tex sighed as she checked her Seeker Rifle.

After a bit of walking, they found their target… and he was busy fucking a trio of female captains that had caught his eyes. Noble felt an eyebrow twitch under his helmet as he facepalmed in utter exasperation. He knew Tex said he was a Brute, but this?

For fuck's sake, this was too damn much!

"The Brute. Very apropos." The Spartan noted as he looked at him through his rifle scope.

"Now you see why I hate him." His companion growled.

Kavix was two heads taller than the Captains he was busy mating with and was twice as muscular. Two of his arms, one upper and one lower on his left and right sides were replaced by robotic ones, and he had an eye patch over an upper right eye.

"Clear as day." Noble muttered in confirmation before he glanced at her. "How do you wanna do this?" He asked.

"Wait until those three Captains leave– They don't have any part in this. Then when he has his armor on–we jump him before he can grab his weapons." The Eliksni mother of mothers stated, cracking her four knuckles.

"Sounds good to me." The reanimated supersoldier nodded. With that, the long wait that snipers learned began.

It took up to six (Noble chuckled silently at that) hours for Kavix to finish his romp with the three Captains. Tex was just eager to finally kill the bastard, and when the three females left the Brute alone, the duo made their move.

Silently, they got close to him, and right as he was about to grab his Wire Rifle, Noble made his move and snatched it out of his reach, surprising him. Surprise gave way to anger, however, as Kavix roared at him and moved to turn him into a stain on the ground.

He would have, had Tex not made her own move and shoulder tackled him to the ground.

"Kyssk issizire zabu! Raaaagh!" The larger Eliksni growled as he lifted himself off the ground with his lower arms and hurled Tex with the other two. He then grabbed a shock pistol from his bandolier and fired at Noble, who quickly put up a rally shield.

"Noble! Use a void grenade, chuck it!" Epsilon told his Guardian.

Deciding now was a good time for a field test since he accidentally skipped the evaluation at the Tower, the Spartan focused his Light in his left hand, and a Suppressor Grenade formed in his fist. He quickly hurled it at Kavix, who saw it but couldn't react in time as it went off, leaving him feeling slightly weaker.

"Okay, he's stunned, now try hitting him with a melee charge." The Ghost prompted. The Titan nodded as he vaulted over his rally barrier and then started running at the Baron to build up speed before…

BAM!

He collided with the larger Eliksni with a Void Shield in hand. Said shield looked like a void version of a rotella shield, the same kind of shield that Captain America's vibranium shield was modeled after. Except instead of a star, it had the symbol of Noble Team on it.

Kavix staggered back, and since he wasn't very stable, he ended up falling on his back. Tex used this opportunity to straddle him and keep him pinned. Then she tore his helmet off before she reared a fist back and punched him as hard as she could before she grabbed his head and, to Noble's utter shock, yanked his skull out of his head! Then she proceeded to do what she promised to do: Beat Kavix to death with his own skull.

"Holy crap, she's actually doing it…!" Epsilon uttered in shock.

"Yeah…." Noble nodded as he stared at his companion's show of absolute, grotesque brutality. 'And it's… oddly beautiful.' He added mentally.

After a good ten minutes, all that was left of Kavix's head was mush. There was literally no way for anything to survive that level of brutality.

"Okay… I'm finally calm again." Tex sighed, letting her body relax. "But I don't feel ready to go back to the Tower in that stupid Hawk just yet." She added.

"I'm more than willing to explore the Cosmodrome a bit and get a feel for the place." Noble offered.

"I just hope we don't run into Randal." Epsilon noted with an audible shudder, causing his Guardian to raise an eyebrow.

"Who?" He inquired.

"He's an insanely strong Vandal with the strength of at least fifteen to twenty Kells. You could land ten Fists of Havoc on him and he'd be nearly unscathed." The Ghost explained. "The Vanguard even put a "Flee on sight" order on him.

"That… feels like an embellishment." Noble blinked.

"I know who he's talking about, and trust me, it isn't." Tex told him with a shudder as they walked away from Kavix's corpse. "I've seen what he can do, and I actually viewed him as mate material at one point before I was kicked out of the Devils. Crossing him is a bad idea." She continued.

"I… I guess I'll trust both of you." Noble gulped, now suddenly feeling nervous about meeting this Randal character.

"Another place we should try to avoid is the Murder Cave." Epsilon added.

"... Do I even wanna know?" The Titan questioned as they started walking through the Cosmodrome.

"Not unless you wanna get killed from behind." The little light told him.

Nope. Definitely not going to that cave.

(Later)

The two panted as they reached the Forgotten Shore, feeling a little exhausted from the long walk it took for them to get there. Noble looked around and immediately knew it was a dock at one point before the Collapse happened and the sea level dropped.

"Well, this looks somewhat interesting." He remarked.

"Except I can see Devils crawling all over these old boats." Tex added, spotting several of said Eliksni skulking about.

"Let's try our best to– Huh?" Epsilon started to say before he turned confused.

"What's up?" Noble asked, wondering what caught his attention.

"I just picked up a strange signal. I can't identify it from here." The drone replied. "Here. I'll waypoint it for you." He added before a waypoint appeared on Noble's visor.

"This could be worth a look. Let's check it out." The Spartan said to his Eliksni partner, who nodded in agreement before they headed in the direction of the waypoint.

They followed it to the old docking port, and found a hidden basement… that just so happened to have a rather suspicious looking door with a terminal in front of it.

"A bunker door…" Epsilon gasped as he floated in front of the door before he started hacking it. "Stand back, guys." He told them before the door opened. Noble and Tex glanced at each other before looking at the now open bunker.

"Let's go in, but carefully. This could be a trap." The Spartan stated with narrowed eyes.

"Agreed." The Captain nodded, her eyes narrowed as well.

The two then went into the bunker, weapons at the ready in case anything started shooting at them. The signal also seemed to be getting stronger, too, according to Epsilon. Before long, they found themselves in what looked like a core room, the waypoint directing them to a terminal opposite of where they were.

They didn't like the way this looked, but nothing had attacked them yet, so they decided to risk it and went to the terminal, where Noble let his Ghost work his magic.

"I got the signal and…" He trailed off before something came up. "Wait, I got something else, too! It looks like... Wow, this is a human rendition of a Gravity Hammer!" He said in surprise. Noble was surprised too, but was still pleased since he could give that to Banshee.

"Who's sending the signal?" Tex asked.

"I'll see if–" Epsilon started to say before… "Damn. The signal vanished, but I still got the blueprint. Whatever sent that signal must've wanted us to get it." He hypothesized.

"Sounds about right." Noble nodded. "Now let's get out of here before we're trapped inside." He added. The group wasted no time and left the bunker, the door closing behind them. They looked at the door before looking at each other.

"... Mention this to the Vanguard?" Tex asked.

"Yep." Noble nodded. "But I still need to get some resources for Amanda for the Prowler." He added.

"Eh. I could go for some harmless resource foraging." The Captain shrugged. With that, the two went on a little expedition to gather supplies.

ThermalsniperN7: So this is how Noble starts out… and he doesn't need an evaluation by the Vanguard, judging by his performance. Guess some of the past stuck around for him.

Dragon Emperor0: To be fair, VIP 2014 (The Guardian) basically killed an Archon in their first week so, I'm not at all surprised that a Spartan turned Guardian could too.

ThermalsniperN7: Fair point. That was a given. And now you guys see why Aphrodityss is nicknamed Tex: she just beat an Eliksni brute to death with his own skull… and also managed to win Noble's heart in the process. Are we sure he's not an under-the-radar descendant of Kratos? Cuz that's the only answer I can come up with for that kind of thing.

Dragon Emperor0: What're you…? Ohhhh. I get it. If Tex does end up sleeping with him, I have a feeling that they're gonna need a new bed come morning… Oof.

ThermalsniperN7: Yeah… And then there's the oddity in the chapter: Everyone's favorite ballet loving AI lured Noble and Tex into his bunker in the Cosmodrome and gave them blueprints for a human rendition of the Gravity Hammer. Odds are that he probably spotted Noble's Spartan characteristics and let him in for this… or something else. Hard to tell. Anyway, see you next time.