Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or DC franchise.
Chapter 3:
Aboard the ship, Labyrinth of Chaos
John had completed his first heroic mission and made contacts with two of the city's guardians, Superman and Supergirl. He was currently out of his armor, in his civilian clothing. In the bridge, he was standing besides Cortana.
"Looks like you showed them hell and that definitely left a lot of impression on them" she said cheerfully though she noticed the mildly sullen face of her friend.
"John, You alright? What happened?" she asked with little worry.
"Nothing" he said blandly to which she raised her eyebrow and folded her hands.
"I know that's a lie. Now would you be kind enough to tell me or should I have to tranquilize and scan your mind myself" she asked which made John give her a bizarre look. She simply shrugged in response. John decided to tell her since they never maintained any secrets between them.
"On my way to the ship, I was telepathically contacted by someone" he said to which Cortana acknowledged the reason for his dullness.
"Who was it? Any enemy from the ground we didn't know about?" she asked.
"No, whoever tried to contact me was in pain and desperate to reach out for help. I can guess that specific person is weakened as he couldn't make a clear sense with his message. But I have a gut feeling that someone is in need of legitimate help" he said to which Cortana rubbed her hardlight chin. She could now understand John's worries.
John was a kind of soldier who always stepped front to help the others. When he became the supreme commander of the human military, he took it as his personal responsibility that he would not only protect humanity but also help every other species that asks for help.
"So, what do you plan on doing?" she asked though she knew his response.
"I am planning to find out who. Alone in my room, deep in meditation, I am going to trace the psychic link. Mean while you can scan the planet for any abnormalities. Since it's a telepath, filter out normal civilians, look for powered individuals" he said.
"I will roger that. But there is one more thing that requires our attention. Besides, this one is even more important than searching for superheroes and villains, our primary reason to be here" Cortana said in a serious yet cryptic tone.
But for John, he didn't need another word to understand the meaning. He instantly recognized what she was referring to, as a matter of fact, he was quite staggered.
"So where to this time?" he asked getting straight to the point. Cortana brought up a 3D holographic image of the Milkyway that then zoomed into a planet that resembled planet Harvest of their world, except this was rich in cities and flourished with advanced technologies. John touched the planet's hologram and rotated it slowly to take a good look at it.
"What is this world?" He asked. Cortana then brought up specifics about that planet nearby in another hardlight display.
"This planet designated 'Dhor' in the Antares binary star system, 600 light years from Earth. And the inhabitants?...Dhorians, they are a technologically advanced inter-stellar beings" she said as she brought up the image of a male and female Dhorian and their bio profiles. They were near human looking except they were pale white, had compound eyes like insects, a little taller and muscular and also had reddish brown hair.
"So there's another conduit open on this planet from the Domain?" He asked as he rotated the planet hologram as it began to flash red in a small zone. John touched that part which zoomed in further showing signs of large scale attack.
"Looks like it's already under attack. The ship's sensors are picking up huge amount of Promethean energy signatures and-...wait, what is this?" Cortana asked shrinking her eyebrows and her mouth gaping like fish.
"I am detecting another signal, more like a distress signal with no encoded message, but a flare...and you won't believe this" she said as she brought the signal pattern. John worked on the display to convert the signal pattern only for it to reveal a series of symbols which Staggered him. Never in a thousand years, he expected to see this.
"Cortana!? That's a signal from a forerunner device!" he said to a shocking revelation.
"This doesn't make any sense. A forerunner distress signal? Here? Anyone who turned this on, was he or she thinking any of 'OUR' people could actually pick this up?" she asked without understanding the logic behind this move.
"Whether it's a trap or not, The prometheans have restarted their game and that colony-..." John said as suddenly he was torn between the choices. On one end, there is someone on Earth that needs help and on the other hand the rogue AIs on the prowl. But Cortana could easily observe John's mentality as she had seen him been though this a lot of times.
"I know you got two birds to kill with one stone except that two birds are really far from each other. but I am with you, whatever it is you decide" she said with a assuring smile.
John for his part didn't want to sacrifice one mission for the other, he is a Spartan and they have always been through insurmountable odds. He then made his decision.
"Let's do this. I will take a Phantom vessel and go to Dhor while you monitor the whole planet for anything anomalous related to my visions. If you find anything, don't wait for my arrival. Do what you have to, but under the radar" he said in a commanding tone.
"Roger that, Commander!" She replied.
"I am prepping for departure. See you soon" he said as he left the bridge.
"Good hunting, Sir!" she said with a smile.
The door opened in 3 segments as John walked out as he was standing in a huge pathway with a floating platform. There were Argus drones flying on either sides for maintenance and surveillance. He walked over to the platform and used the hardlight panel to turn it on as the platform started to hover to the other side of the deck. Then he used the elevator to to go 50 levels up to the Phantom flight deck.
The deck was so large and enormous and there was one Phantom vessel, 410 meters long hovering above the ground anchored with a gravitational stasis field. He used a console to turn off the stasis and remotely power on the vessel as the engine began to hum with life as the repulsor engines ejected the bright blue energy. The rear door opened as he entered the vessel and the door closed behind.
He then walked to the cockpit and took a seat. As he sat down multiple hardlight panels and consoles lit up. He worked on it to fire the engines full and pilot it towards the exit as it rammed out of the flagship into the empty space with the sun light on the left and the moon in front. John took a moment to admire the cosmic beauty.
"Cortana was right about one thing. I never had the time to calmly admire these views. Space had always been about Naval warfare in my career" John thought.
It was indeed true, it was always one fight after another. They never had any rest. John and his fellow Spartan IIs had been leading the UGSC for 30,000 years and John had led them into thousands and thousands of victories, that cemented his already bloated legacy as humanity's champion. But because of his duties, he never had a time for serenity.
John flew the phantom vessel to a safe distance as he initiated the slipspace jump after entering the coordinates sent by Cortana. The bluish energy vortex opened as the vessel entered and the portal vanished immediately. He will reach the system in 3 minutes so it won't be late.
...
On planet Dhor...
A few minutes ago...
Dhor was the core home world of the Dhorians, the race of humanoid interstellar species with advanced technologies. As of now, their capital city is under attack and there was fire raging everywhere as the people were screaming in fear as they ran for their lives. The planet's military forces converged into the city and were repelling swarms of huge golden mechanical constructs.
"Flank them! To the right!" a squad leader yelled amidst the mass shooting between the soldiers and the constructs.
"EVERYONE! GET DOWN!" another soldier yelled as he fired a version of RPG that managed to destroy a huge construct though it still managed to fire its own explosive that blasted off and disintegrated everyone including the squad leader, as they all screamed in agony.
Then in another highway, there was another fire team that was laying siege in vain against these robotic constructs. But along with the team, there was one woman, a human in her early thirties was wearing some alien armor over human officer clothing. She was carrying an alien directed energy weapon, shooting the robotic constructs.
"Major Thes'en, What's the status of the reinforcement? Do we even have one?" the Woman asked yelling due to the loud explosive noises around them, as she and the fire team were taking covering fire behind a barricade.
*BOOM...BAM*
"Ugh! We have signaled them, though it would take time. I hope that SOS transmitter of yours will do the job. If it reaches the lantern corps or any other response team in time, we'll be lucky" he said as he fired at the constructs.
"AAAHHH" another soldier disintegrated into nothing.
"SHIT! Where in the blue hell did these things came from and What are they?" The woman yelled as she threw the alien grenade that destroyed one of the construct that shot a form of assault rifle. But she saw two more pop out of nowhere.
"My God! I have never seen anything like this. It's been only 5 years since I returned to the land of living and I am fighting things again that are no different than-...those-...parasites!" she thought despondently and stressed at the situation at hand.
"Major, We need to fall back to the streets. We don't have enough firepower to make a stand here"
"No! I will not go without getting everyone here to safety" the Major objected to her idea.
"Oh yeah!? Fighting hundreds of them alone with a small fire team? If you can survive this, you are welcome to save them. If not, suck up your pride and get your soldiers back to safety to live and fight another day!" she yelled almost in Commanding tone. But the Major's face sullened which she could understand.
"*SIGH* Listen, I know. I've been in this situation and I know the difference between spending lives and wasting them. The ugly reality of war is you cannot save everyone even if you so much wanted to" she said placing her left hand over his shoulder. Thes'en took some time to process her words and she was right on that regard.
"All units fall back to the secondary defense position. We will hold them off there" Thes'en said over the comm as he and the woman retreated back as the constructs started to swarm over the place.
Meanwhile in the orbit...
The Phantom vessel exited slipspace as it approached the Dhorian world to the city being under attack. It was night time for the city and even from space he could see the city on fire.
"This is Dhor command and control station to the unidentified vessel. You are trespassing the Dhorian zone. Leave or be prepared for termination" The planet's defense station sent out a warning to him. John knew he had to convince them as well as not to fully explain who he is.
"This is Sierra-117 of the human military. I am here to assist you in repelling the attack in your city. I have intel on the attackers, so please cooperate" he responded. Though it was a bland response, he believed it have to do.
"Human? Since when did your kind become space faring?" the native asked feeling puzzled, irrelevant to the situation.
"It's not important. Thing is, I can help you. I need your defense stations not open fire on my vessel" he said as started to lose his patience with this debate. There was a moment of silence and the whoever's behind the comm spoke. While their comm signal is in a different language, they didn't find it difficult to speak human tongue. It was as if they had either acquainted or having observed them for a long time.
"Huh, We already have enough in our hands. Fine, you may enter the city. I will notify the ground forces of your arrival" the comm finished as the channel was closed.
"That was pretty quick. Looks like they didn't want to play balls in this chaos" He thought as he flew the vessel at full speed towards the city. He was indeed right on that regard as if the situation had been under control, they would have never allowed any vessel into the planet. He then set it to auto pilot as he got out of his seat. Then he raised his arms to the side as the Armageddon suit wrapped over him.
On the surface...
*MULTIPLE RIFLE SHOTS*
"Everyone! Form a defensive perimeter around the street. We need snipers on the building ASAP. Target the big ones firing explosive rounds!" The human woman yelled as she fired upon the roaring constructs.
*MULTIPLE DIGITAL ROARS*
The golden robots began to pop out of nowhere in greater numbers.
*ZZZAAAAAMMMM* *BOOM* an attack craft flew at high speed only to be shot down immediately by the robots.
"DAMN! Even the air support is not enough. Open fire!" Thes'en ordered as they all open fired at the constructs. While they managed to kill two or three, the huge ones were tough and fired explosive rounds that costs more lives.
*BOOM* *BAM* suddenly the building behind them exploded as it started to fall apart.
"SHIT! WATCH OUT!" Thes'en yelled at the human as he pushed her away. But it was too late as the building collapsed so fast that it fell down creating a huge debris as the human as well as well as Major Thes'en were under the ruins. They both blacked out from the shock.
*DISTANT ECHOES*
"ALERT!-...EVADE!-..." the voices echoed intermittently as she could see her vision fade.
"IT WOULD KILL US ALL-...EVERY SENTIENT BEING IN THE GALAXY!-..."
"NOT WITHOUT YOU-...AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-...AHHHHHHHH!" the echoes faded as she regained mild consciousness as she heard a scream. She turned to her left only to see Thes'en was being choked over by a huge construct that took a huge blade of hard light and pierced his chest deep. The alien being's lifeless body fell down the ground.
"N-..Nu-...NOO!" the woman could only mumble under her breath as she so much tried to get up and fight but she was wounded badly. Once Thes'en dies, the remorseless machines came to check on her. Amidst her impending fate, she could only smile,
"Huh, looks like the reaper doesn't like to be cheated" she thought with amusement as she prepared for her death gladly.
*RRRAAHHH* the construct roared only to be interfered
*WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH* three rounds of bright blue energy hit the construct as it disintegrated letting a roar...
*BAAM* suddenly a huge being in a dark silvered armor standing tall landed with a pound on the ground as it immediately shot the next construct with a strange alien like black weapon whose energy rounds penetrated the carapace and killed them.
*DIGITAL CHIRPS...RRAAAHHH* There were three more huge constructs. The armored being made a short work of the two with the rifle and the last one lunged at the being. It immediately maneuvered left and summoned a long energy blade from the left arm and pierced the construct that immediately died out and vanished in thin air.
John-117 finally arrived as he saw an alien soldier being killed and another one, very surprisingly a human female, visible through his visor beyond the debris, was pinned down and the Promethean commander was about to kill her too.
"A human in an alien planet? What is she doing here!" he thought in confusion as he used his Ion-Particle rifle to fire at the prometheans as it died out screaming in agony. The he finished of the remaining two with the rifle and the last one lunged at him. He dodged to the left and summoned the telekinetic energy blade in his left arm and pierced the carapace deep as it died out too. His visor display shows the immediate threat is over.
He then turned to see the woman down trying her damnest to get up. John lifted the huge piece of building debris and threw it away. The he cleared out another curved broken wall that was supported by another inclined wall, under which she was stuck. He removed both the walls and helped her get back to her feet.
When she stood straight, his visor instantly picked up the image of her face beyond the face mask and one could say that never in a thousand lifetimes, can anyone see a Spartan II, that too a stoic personality like 117 to be completed mentally rattled and shaken to the core. She proceed to remove the mask as he saw the face of a woman he can never forget, someone who died for a greater good. He immediately removed his hand from her as she knocked the dust of her body and started speaking.
"Thank you...Whoever you are. *COUGH* I take it you are one of the rescue parties we were waiting for. Looks like my SOS beacon worked, Though expected an army" she said with a smile.
"So it was you who sent the forerunner distress beacon?" he asked blandly still can't reel back from the effect of seeing this woman.
"Yes, I used it as-...Wait!? What did you say? Forerunner? How did you know that name?" she asked wide eyed as the mention of forerunners.
"Who are you? How do you know the forerunners?" she asked now warily looking at her savior.
"I am Spartan-117, Commander Miranda Keyes" he replied which made her fell dumb and flabbergasted. She was stunned at the mentioned of the name, the name that everyone remembers as humanity's hero, the one who saved everyone from extinction, the one who saved the whole galaxy from annihilation.
"No-...NO! You are lying! You must be!" She said reluctantly as she took her sidearm and aimed at him, gazing into his long and narrow blue glowing visor. But John was unfazed as he too equally shocked at the sight of Miranda. Anyway he knew that this wasn't some staring contest so he has to convince her and besides, the city is being attacked by Prometheans.
"You better-..."
"You mother's name is Doctor Catherine Halsey and your father is Capt. Jacob Keyes, a man I respect deeply. I served under you in the last days of the Covenant war, me and Avery Johnson" he said in a calm tone once again bringing back the memories of the man he called friend and the one who supported him and taught him many things in the early days of the covenant war and even had a hand in his career defining promotion to Master Chief.
Miranda was quite shaken at the mention of the names that she held most dear. Finally John retracted his helmet to reveal his face which made her calm down as she lowered her side arm and smiled a bit. Actually, this is the first time he's seeing his face in her life as John never revealed his face to anyone. She did accept that he was quite attractive to the eyes. Even his voice had changed a bit from the last time she worked with him.
"Can't believe it's you! It's really good to see you chief! Huh, but what the hell did you do to your armor!? Last time I remembered seeing it green" she said with a witty remark. John knew this explanation would take a long time.
"While I too would like to know how you-...you are alive? But you got a lot of catching up to do and I will tell you everything once we finish off the Prometheans" he said much to her disarray. She was confused at the name.
"So that's what these robots are called? I take it you already knew these things" she asked as she readied her weapon.
*COUGH COUGH* they both heard a coughing sound as they turned left to see the fatally wounded alien. Miranda cursed herself for not looking into him already. They both rushed towards him.
"Wait! I got ya!" she said as she helped Thes'en to sit and lean back over a wall. His breathing was rapid as he was in death's grip.
"I need to get you to safety, Thesn'en" she said with worry.
"*BUH* *BLOOD SPIT* Lis-..Listen-...Don't *GASP* worry about me! Sss-...save the others!" he said with all the strength he could muster up.
"Not a chance Thes'en! I will save you!" she said with determination. John could see that she was close friends with this alien being to worry that much. But something she realized the next second, he already breathed his final breath.
"NO!" she yelled loud in vain as she lost a good friend. John suddenly placed his palm over his forehead as he was still able to pickup his neural activity telepathically.
"I couldn't save him. At least I can avenge his death" she said as her face saddened as she displayed mild anger.
John then summoned his Phantom vessel as it flew to his place. He and Miranda looked above. She was stunned to see a black alien like vessel slowly coming down to near ground level.
"What the hell is that ship? Forerunner or Covenant?" she asked in awe.
"Human" he said to which she simply shrunk her eyebrows. He then used his suit's computer to access a hibernation capsule which he auto guided it out of the ship.
He then used the capsule's holo panel to open it up. Then he picked up Thes'en and placed him inside the capsule and closed the lid. He then activated the time suspension to stop the flow of entropy. Miranda for her part couldn't make much sense of it.
"What did you do to him?" she asked.
"He's in temporal stasis. I can revive him once I am done with the prometheans" he finished and suddenly.
*RRRAAAAHHH*
Multiple prometheans started to teleport out of nowhere and roared at them.
"Shit! They are back" she said as she began shooting at them.
John remotely activated the vessel's weapon systems. The ventral heavy pulse laser cannon began to shoot laser beams that exploded over the swarms of prometheans and completely wiped out the local forces with a huge loud flare and bangs. Miranda was stunned to see that as the vessel's energy weapons blasted them off in a blink of an eye.
"Oh God! I indeed got a lot of catching up to do" she exclaimed at the display of power.
"Now I will send the vessel to kill all the stragglers while I will fend off the next wave that my armor is picking up" he said as his helmet wrapped his head . Keyes couldn't see any robots but then understood what he meant by that. Several promethean soldiers and battle wagons began to pop up.
John readied his Ion particle rifle.
"Ms. Keyes, you need to get to safety. I will deal with them!" he said.
"Not a chance! I will fight and can take care of myself, Soldier!" she denied though she was quite startled about the authoritative tone he took on her.
"I thought the actual flow of authority was other way around" she thought sarcastically.
But little did she know that he's no longer the Master Chief she once knew, that is by rank. John didn't want to argue as he had no time.
Suddenly two wagons shot explosive rounds. John used telekinetic shielding to block the attack. Then he shot 5 rounds to kill one wagon on the right and then immediately lifted the other wagon telekinetically and threw it back with a force that hit a vehicle and exploded. Miranda was shocked to see John pull off something like that and held her attacks abruptly.
The other knights started to fire upon John but his armor simply repelled them. John then open fired on all the knights and killed the 4. One knight managed to evade and teleported in zig-zag fashion to attack him by surprise. John having seen this, he suddenly teleported out of the place and appeared behind the confused knight and hit the face with force. He then grabbed it's skull face with his left hand and crushed it with brute strength as it disintegrated.
Then outta nowhere, 5 more knights appeared and open fired on him. John used the gravity surge as he channeled gravitational energy in his left fist and launched his arm forward as a huge gravity wave hit the knights at high speed. They all flew back uncontrollably with huge force and died simultaneously. Thus he fended off another wave. He then accessed the Phantom vessel's systems to check the status. The vessel was sweeping the city as it cleared the promethean forces one by one.
Things settled down for quite sometime. As Miranda sheathed her weapon as she approached the Spartan.
"Chief, that was the most incredibly amazing thing I've ever seen!" she said and began to question the fate of humanity itself and she believes that she's in for one hell of a surprise or trauma.
He then received a status signal from the Phantom vessel as it displayed that all the prometheans in the city have been eliminated.
"All the enemy forces in the city has been eliminated. Now-..." he said as he suddenly was interrupted by the visor display showing a single slipspace portal about to open, a few meters from his position. Just in time, a crackle of electricity started to appear in the mid-air as he and Miranda turned to look at it.
*ZAP ZAP BAAAM* the portal wide opened as a very tall robotic bipedal being of gray armor and golden profiles just like the prometheans he fought. The being carried a huge hardlight sword in its hand as it slowly walked. John for his part is very well aware of who that being was and once more a confirmation that this was a planned large scale invasion, not a mindless stampede. But still he couldn't understand why is this happening only in this universe.
"Chief? What is that?" Miranda asked her eyes wide in terror.
"GREETINGS ONE-...ONE-...SEVEN!" the huge being spoke in a loud baritone voice that could echo the entire boulevard. It's skull face letting a grin of its own.
"Looks like you made a lot of friends" she said with a jest.
"His name is the Warden Eternal, Forerunner Promethean AI tasked with guarding the gateway to Domain on the planet Genesis. I have faced him before" He briefed her though she didn't understand this entirely, but knew this AI's gonna be a lot of trouble.
The Spartan sent his rifle back through slipspace and summoned a huge adamantine hammer.
"Why are the Prometheans invading here?" he commanded.
"YOU ARE THE REASON WE FAILED AGAIN! AFTER SO MANY MILLENNIA OF WAITING, HE IS BACK AND THIS TIME HE WILL RETURN MORE POWERFUL THAT HE WILL SHAKE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THIS REALITY!" The Warden grumbled in anger.
"He? Who is he talking about?" John thought in confusion.
"I give you one chance to go back to wherever you came from" John threatened the hardlight robot.
"HA HA HA! AS JUVENILE AS YOUR JOKES GO, PREPARE FOR YOUR DEMISE! YOU ALREADY ESCAPED FROM NEW-GENESIS, BUT THIS TIME YOU WILL FALL!-...AAAHHHH!" he yelled as he fired a huge ball of energy towards him. John telekinetically deflected as it exploded with a loud boom.
He then charged his hammer and shot a powerful energy strike that hit the Warden. Though he was not hurt, he still got mildly fazed and was pushed a couple feet back by the force.
John then ran at top speed with his hammer charged. The Warden swung his blade for a right cross slash. John ducked and slid the ground below and swung his hammer to his back. But Warden was quick enough to block it with his sword. John immediately swung it in reverse direction once again to be blocked by his blade. This time, it was a short term deadlock. John knew Warden's strength, but he can easily match it with his own. But the AI was 13ft tall and had an upper hand in covering more area. Then the AI slipped its blade as they both exchanged three quick slashes. The Warden then uses his constraint field to lift the Spartan. But John countered by creating a gravity surge from his armor that negated the constraint field and he was dropped down. Then John used his telekinesis to push the Warden back despite providing full resistance.
"UNACCEPTABLE! A MERE HUMAN CHALLENGING A FORERUNNER WARRIOR SERVANT! NOOOOO! The Warden began to get pissed off as the Spartan was gaining upper hands.
"I am not the same you faced a long time ago" he said as he walked towards the AI. John's visor already displayed Warden's AI matrix getting unstable due to emotional subroutines overwhelming its primary functions.
"RRRAAAAAHH" the AI growled as it charged towards the Spartan. John knew how to defeat him and knows its weakness. He fully charged his hammer and as they both closed the distance, John leapt above the Warden with a upside down full body spin as he got to its back and struck Warden's upper back with full force that shattered the carapace and exposed it's translocation core.
"AAAHHHH!" The Warden yelled in pain as he slowly turned back to face him in utter defeat. Electricity was already crackling.
"YOU STILL-...UHH-...FAIL-...ONE ONE SEVEN-...WE ALREADY GOT WHAT WE WANTED IN NEW-GENESIS AND OUR MISSION-...*GASP* IS A SUCCESS REGARDLESS" The Warden Eternal spoke in weak tone though it echoed the entire place.
John started to feel uncomfortable at the mention of New-Genesis. That was the first place he fended off the Prometheans. But the mention of the success of their mission confused him and began to question himself if he had missed anything in the first encounter.
"I will stop whatever it is you are planning. But tell me something...Why this place? Why the Prometheans are attacking here and after a long time of silence. Who activated the Domain?" he asked with enough authority.
"HUH...HA HA! DID YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL? TO TELL YOU? YOU ALL WILL D-.."
**BOOM**
John created an energy ball in his left hand palm, channeled from Nexus and shot at the Warden that made a huge explosion that covered both of them.
"CHIEF!" Miranda who was watching this for a long time, suddenly got afraid if he too died in that explosion.
But as the fire cleared, John was standing there unfazed, resting the big hammer over his shoulder. Only difference is the Warden was completely gone, eliminated.
He then slowly walked towards Miranda, whose face had an expression of relief.
"Damn it Chief! I thought the explosion got you" she said with a concern.
"I have seen worse" he replied in a stoic tone to which she chuckled.
That's when the native world's military drop ships approached their position as the two looked above.
When the drop ships touched down, the bay doors opened as the alien beings in their military armor and holding their directed energy weapons walked out and approached the two and began aiming at the spartan much to his surprise.
"No Wait! He's the one who helped you fend off the attacks!" Miranda chimed in before the situation escalated.
The leader of the squad held his hand up signalling the others to stand down.
"Command and Control said they received a transmission from a human ship, claimed to know these things that attacked. I take it that's you" the alien being asked to which he nodded.
"What where those things?" he asked as the other soldiers moved in to secure the place.
"Prometheans, Combat AIs designed to kill. I-...don't know about their origins, but I am investigating this out break" he said, though not sure would it be quite convincing.
"Well, We don't care where they came from but we have sustained a lot of casualties. You came at the right moment. For that, you have our thanks human. We wouldn't have lasted much longer here. Though, we knew humanity for a long time. A Green lantern from Earth perhaps-...what's his name again?...-ugh...*SIGH* Fine, doesn't matter. But humans never achieved inter-stellar travel, at least not through a space ship" he said.
"I belong to a different branch. That is all I can say for now. Military secrets and stuffs" he responded feeling unnecessary to divulge his origins.
"Well, we don't mean to pry. You came to help us and it would be rude to interrogate further" the Dhorian squad leader replied, turning his attention to Miranda.
" , Thanks for helping us out. Yo have been a valuable member for our species for 5 years, now a good friend to us. Now that we have another human here. Perhaps, I believe you would-...?" he asked stating the obvious.
"Yes, I would. I uhh-...wanted to go back to my home world at last, a chance I can't refuse" she said as she glanced at both John and the other alien.
"Then we will miss you" he said as he extended his hand to which she clasped in response with a firm grip.
"Well, looks like I can visit this place anytime, thanks for treating me as your own for these 5 years" she said with a smile of sorrow as in that time span, she started to see them as a family and now that she's leaving them.
"We will proceed with securing the city. You may leave whenever you desire" he said as they scattered all over the place.
"Now time to wake up your pal" John told Miranda as she was reminded of Thes'en. They both walked towards the hibernation capsule that was secured under a rubble. He then lit up it's holo console and input some commands. The capsule started to light up inside as they both watched Thes'ens wounds in the chest disappeared to a point as if he never got stabbed including the hole in the armor. Miranda was looking awestruck at the sight. Then the lights turned off in a few seconds as the procedure was complete.
"Its done" he said as the capsule's lid opened.
"Keyes, He won't remember anything related to his death, the reversed entropy restored not only his physical condition but also his memories" he said to which she was astounded.
"You mean, you brought him alive?" she asked with a gasp to which he nodded.
In the next few seconds Thes'en woke up slowly straining his eyes to open up and look at the faces of Miranda and the strange armored being.
"Easy there soldier!" John said as he helped him get up. It took sometime for him get adjusted.
"Wha-...What just happened? I feel like someone blew my head" Thes'en said as he felt tired.
"It will pass on. Nothing else!" he replied.
"By the Gods! Those machines!-...Those things!-...they were attacking!" he said in a rumble as the attack was the last thing he remembered.
"Thes'en, the fight's over. This armored man is the one that helped us fending of the attack. We are safe now" Miranda said with a smile, feeling happy to see his friend back alive. She knew his wife and children too and she's glad he would be able to return to see them.
"Over? Who are again? How did you-...Ahh-...doesn't matter!-..Thanks to you...Whoever you are. But I need a damn vacation!" he said that made her smile.
"Thes'en, It's time I left this place. Through him, I've got a chance to go back to Earth, to my home" she said which soured his mood as he didn't expect this.
"Really!? Well-...I-...Good for you!" he replied as he felt little disappointed.
"Listen, it's not like I can't come and see. After all, we too can travel across the stars" she said as she held his hands. He too embraced it and nodded with an alien smile.
"Then we will meet again, Farewell" he said as he walked towards the other soldiers.
"Chief, we can leave. Its about time" she said to which he nodded as he remotely commanded the Phantom vessel to come to his their location.
In a minute, the vessel reached their place as the engines hummed and slowly it reached the ground just a couple of feet from touching it as the door retracted and a platform came out for them to walk over. John telekinetically controlled the capsule and guided it into the vessel and they proceeded to walk in. Once inside, the platform rolled back in and the door closed. Then John and Miranda entered the cockpit to see Hardlight controls and other features in the vessel that only amazed her.
"Holy shit! I have never seen anything like this" Miranda said looking around.
The spartan worked with the hard light panels to start the lift off and get off the planet in auto-pilot mode so that he can speak with her in the mean time.
"I have set the vessel in auto-pilot. Once we are out of the planet, we make the jump to Sol" he said.
"Good, that means we have enough time to talk" she said finally removing her armor to be in her traditional UNSC uniform that she wore during the last Human-Covenant war.
"Before that, How are you alive? Last I saw, you were killed by a prophet" he asked finally decided to dwell into the mystery. Miranda sighed in response as she knew there is a big story about to come.
"Huh, Where do I even begin, chief?" she said as she looked at the Spartan retracting his entire armor away to reveal his civilian clothing which she found intriguing.
They then entered the observation room that had a single large window that revealed the stratosphere of the planet. She then began her explanation.
"After the Halo was fired, the stress collapsed the Ark's portal and when the ships entered the slipspace, there was an anamoly that caused many of our crew members to vanish simply. I ended up on a remote forerunner planet where a monitor nursed me back to health. The planet had no active ships, so used a civilian transport vessel with good slipspace capabilities"
"You used a transport vessel to get to human space? Even for a forerunner vessel, its translight engine capacity is beyond threshold" John said with his analyses.
"You are right and it was too late for me realize that. While in transit, the engine failed in middle and was abruptly thrown out and crash landed on to this Dhorian world. They were a violent species, but they did treat me good and even as one of their own. I helped them even with couple of fights against small scale invasions. Then I asked them to help me get back to Earth and their advanced scanners showed the complete demographics of the planet that took me completely off guard" she said to which the Spartan filled the gaps.
"That this Earth had no UNSC or any UNSC related forces, stations etc.,?" he asked which made her shrink her eyebrows.
"You know this already?" she asked to which he nodded.
"Yes, so I decided to stay here and find out what was going on to try and make sense. I tried my best to find UNSC controlled space but to no avail. 5 years passed and it was peaceful and finally I even accepted this new home until these robots you call 'Prometheans' attacked us and I used the forerunner distress beacon I had to signal for any help from any galactic forces" she said
"Until I arrived" John finished and now finally getting to know how she survived and how all things came to be. To be frank, he was glad to see her back into the land of the living.
"Doctor Halsey would threw herself to fits when she hear this" he thought in amusement.
"Okay, now that my story is over, care to explain yours? From the things I've seen, I need to know where we are in terms of existence" she asked with a little irk in her tone as she truly wanted things to make some sense.
"Well, this might be a little confusing to you. First, the reason UNSC doesn't exist here is because we are in an alternate universe with an entirely different History. That goes same for the Alien species too" he said as her eyes bulged in revelation.
"Alternate Universe? I must be dreaming and someone needs to blow my head hard. Okay-...Okay with the slipspace anamoly, there is a possibility for this. But did you arrive here by accident too?" she asked still couldn't reel from the face that she was in an alternate universe all this time.
"No, we intentionally travelled here while Investigating the Promethean attacks in this universe" he replied. Something began to sqeeze her mind. "Traveled intentionally!?"
"Did you get here by any other forerunner vessel?" she asked as she believed only forerunner technologies were capable of such feats having built planetary constructs.
John could understand as it was only 5 years for her in this place and didn't know that Humanity is a Tier-0 empire and are too far beyond the Forerunners.
"No, You see humanity in our place has advanced far beyond anything we have known" he said. Miranda was curiously looking at him as John summoned a hardlight display from his suit that continuously scrolled records of human history and all the millennias of conflicts they fought.
He then briefed how humanity found the Large Magellenic Cloud a 100,000 light years from the Ark and Humans utilized its extremely vast material resources, helping with thousands of years of technological and economic advancement in few decades. Several Human scientists who had only theorized many of the unconventional technologies began experimenting them with incredible 86% success rate. Then he went on to explain the next 60,000 years of every single achievement as well as struggles and conquering the space of 250 million light years becoming the apex species of the universe.
By this time, the phantom vessel jumped into slipspace.
Miranda was flabbergasted by this and couldn't even comprehend the scale to which humanity had ascended itself. On one end, she was happy that humanity had got powerful and on the other end she still struggled to accept that humanity's broader sense of philosophical approach to life itself as she was still from the old era, an era where humans were simple space faring race and struggled to find a place for itself and fight for the very survival. But now, its entirely different.
"Never thought I would see the day. I made peace with my death, but now I am glad the monitor brought me back to witness this. So time works differently here?" she asked.
"Non-linearly, there's no definite factor" he responded to which she nodded in acknowledgement.
The vessel exited slipspace as the travel was only 3 minutes and the hologram in the observation room lit up presenting the status.
"Good, we have reached Earth" John said to which she nodded. The 600 light years travel was only 3 minutes. Currently the ship was cruising towards the moon and to the Lagrangian point where his flagship was present.
"Time for you meet somebody" he said with a smile to which she looked curious.
"Well Well, This day has been full of surprises!" she said with a smile. John then activated the comm display to open the channel from the bridge. Cortana's image appeared in the display.
"Cortana"
"Whoa Spartan! You're back!" Cortana said cheerfully after having not seen him for few hours.
"And I have brought a very special guest" he said with a smile to which Cortana was confused. She never seen John doing that evasive smirk unless he was all too serious about it. That's when from the bridge's entrance, came a woman. The sight itself paralyzed Cortana's AI matrix as she was frozen in thought with her mouth gaping like a fish.
"MS. KEYES! WHAT THE HELL?" she yelled loud in amazement as she never thought she would see the woman who died, who was a key figure in the decisive battles fought by the end of Human-Covenant war. To her, this was a miracle.
"Hello Cortana, Good to see you again!" Miranda said with a smile.
"Open the Phantom hanger bay. I am parking in" he said.
"At once Commander! Holy shit! I can't believe this!" she exclaimed as she opened the ship's hanger bay. Miranda slowly walked towards the window only to see a humongous oddly designed ship that was very tall and large.
"Whoa! That ship is HUGE! You weren't kidding!" she said with a smirk.
John then manually flew the vessel into Labyrinth's hanger slowly as the gravitational stasis held the ship in place as the engines turned off.
"Time for a walk" he said
"After you" she said.
The main door opened as they both walked out only to be welcomed by the sight of a huge space where she could see lots of flying drones similar to the sentinels she had seen except these are twice the size. There was also lots of physical structures like stairs, beams, pillars with lots of holo displays.
Then Cortana's hardlight form at a average human height appeared before them.
"I would hug you guys if you never reeked of blood" she said sarcastically to which they chuckled.
"We've been quite busy" he said with a jest.
"Never thought I would see you again! How did this all happen? How did you get here!?" Cortana asked Miranda, eager to know the circumstances that led to this exciting moment.
"Well, I was teleported-..." she once again said everything that she told John for the next few minutes. Cortana was totally astonished the way she was brought alive from a random forerunner world and got stuck here for 5 years.
"Wow, this day has been an eye opener for everyone" Cortana said cheerfully.
"Glad to be back! So what's next?" She asked now that she's among her people, she wanted to know about her future. Before that, Cortana wanted to make sure of something.
"By the way , I assume you know-...John is the-..."
"Supreme Commander of the Human military? I know. Title's quite catchy. And trust me, there is NO BETTER SOLDIER-... than him who can lead us all. Humanity is well and safe in the hands of the Spartan IIs" she said honestly, truly feeling happy that humanity chose the right person who is both ruthless and level headed to be the ultimate leader.
"I am just doing my level best, that's it"
While Miranda Keyes led the last few battles with courage, she was putting her trust on the Spartan whom she considered the best under her command, though every soldier is a decorated hero. But the courage and renewed hope he instills in the battlefield is unparalleled and some of the feats he has pulled is considered borderline insane even among his peers. Now she feels honored and looking forward to serve under his leadership, that is if she is reinstated back into UGSC as it is called now.
"So it's your call commander" Cortana said. John for his part don't want a war veteran and an inspiring leader like Miranda, who followed her guts, to waste all of the talents.
"First she needs rest. Show her, her room. Also give her the briefings of our status, everything from the post-covenant to our mission here" He said to Cortana.
"On it. This way Ms. Keyes. And John? There's something I need to inform you. Will converge on the bridge" she said as she waved her to follow. John had quite an idea what it might be about. He did leave Cortana here to monitor Earth to look for the mysterious telepath.
"Miranda, Take your time. Once when you are ready, see me at the bridge. We'll discuss further" John said.
"Yes sir" she replied. Then she took a step back and gave crisp salute to him. He replied with the same gesture. Then she proceeded to follow Cortana as he went to his room to take rest for some time.
...
Miranda and Cortana walked over a civilian quarters in the 42nd floor, from the bottom of the ship.
"So Cortana?" she called out.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"Last time I remember seeing you small. Looks like you have changed a lot! Even your appearance" she said.
"Well, let's say I juiced up myself with upgrades a really long time back. While humanity had grown to inconceivable heights, some things have never changed" she said.
"Like?" she asked as they entered her room.
"My My! This room looks crazy as hell!" she thought admiring the beauty inside.
"Like the wars for instance" Cortana said which made her feel puzzled.
"Wars? You mean humanity's still fighting?" she asked not geting the bigger picture.
"Post-covenant war, Humanity had been in hundred and twenty thousand battles, sometimes 3 to four fights at a time. John and remaining Spartan IIs had been leading UGSC for 30,000 years and they had been in around 50k full military operations in the time span. It was always one shitstorm after another. We have made acquaintance with thousands and thousands of civilizations and not everyone were-...friendly" she finished as Miranda understood the reference. This reminded her only of the covenant wars.
"Like you new room?" she asked.
"Like? This is awesome!" she said with a smile.
"You can rest and you got plenty of food in that storage unit. Once you feel you are ready we can meet at the bridge. Oh! I forgot one more thing" she said as she opened the small door on the wall, the size of a brick. It opened to reveal a watch which Miranda found intriguing.
"A Wrist Watch?" she asked raising her eyebrow.
"Not some watch. Its a communication device with a holo projector and a map. Also there is a decryption module that can hack into any systems. Used by everyone for just-in-time tactical advantage" she explained.
"Cool" she replied.
"Alright, I'll leave. In case you need my help, use the holo computer in the table" she said as she vanished from the place.
*WHISTLE* "First, let's take a look at the information codex on the current affairs" she thought as she used the holo computer in the table. The options rolled on the display she scrolled for the info she was looking for. After opening the file, the display flooded with human timeline based information, detailing the important plot points through out the course of human history.
First was the Spartan's encounter with a living forerunner named the Didact.
"Didact? I remember that name. The monitor that revived me told me of him and his deep hatred for humanity. So he was accidentally awaken by our Spartan only to defeat him at a great cost, but judging by these reports, looks like he won't be coming again" she thought. While she was in the unknown forerunner world, the ancilla showed her the records of the distant past including the history of ancient humanity who rivalled the forerunners and oddly their alliance with the San'Shyuum or the Prophets who formed the covenant .
Next was the discovery of Large Magellanic Cloud or Path Kethona as called by the forerunner by September 2559 AD. Miranda was stunned to see that they actually found that place during the last battle of ARK without her knowledge. It was Cortana who used the ARK's terminals to gain information on that. Then further timeline for the next thousand years dictates how humanity used the vast resources in LMC to their advancement.
Chills ran down her spines at the mention of Human-Flood war in the 47th century and how humanity struggled against the enemy in overwhelming numbers for 1000 years. Then she saw something called '117 game plan' which detailed how the then Lieutenant commander John 117, formulated a strategy, that weakened the flood forces by luring them in random directions across the systems and then finally leading them into the galactic center danger close to where the supermassive blackhole's immense gravity absorbs any signal and lose it permanently through quantum information paradox and having the singularity's spinning magnetic field burn the sensors. This strategy cuts off all supports for the enemy vessel as the reinforcements would never know their position. Then the nuclear missiles will be fired to destroy the enemy fleet and provide cover against the black hole's gravity.
"Now that's a fanatical move. But after all, this man alone caused destruction to fleet of covenant in those days. I'm not surprised. But a full scale war with a flood all over the galaxy" she thought in amusement as she knew that only John can pull something like that.
But little did she know what John actually did to help humans win the war with flood.
Then came details on thousands of first contact scenarios with new species tat were both friendly and hostile. Some of those races include Vulcans, Romulans, Yautja, Klingons, B'Naari, Ankarans etc., in the Milky way and then the first colonization of Andromeda galaxy, thus beginning the expansion on extra-galactic scale. Then the colonization of 19 more galaxies in the inner local group and then 30 more galaxies and its neighbouring satellite galaxies in the outer group in the virgo cluster. Thus spanning a network of 250 million light years encompassing 64 million worlds. There were also other races like Seekers, Aurelians, Draconians, Ethereals, Warlocks, Ceph etc., to name a few whom the Humans made contact in other galaxies, though the Ceph was a different story as it is the third and the most toughest war Humanity ever faced in the 40th millennia, a thousand two hundred year war that pushed Humanity to their limits.
"Huh, And I thought only the flood gives creeps. So, 7233 civilizations among which 730 were space faring and 265 were interstellar species. Damn! That's a long count" she thought.
Then came the briefing of every military operation in all the 50 galaxies and the satellite galaxies.
The next segment showed the Human space ships ranging from Phantom class stealth vessels to Oblivion class fortress ships. Further the details on planetary orbital and ground defense. The power of orbital defense particle cannons only boosted her adrenaline as she somberly felt that if they had those kind of weapons in the covenant war, they could have curb stomped the covenant in a blink of an eye. Then she read the details on Doctor Halsey and Doctor Brown's theories on Alternate dimensions and development of multiverse chart.
"Doctor-...Mother? She's alive?" her mind raced at the mention of her mother. Though she distanced herself from her for most of the time, she still cared for her and even started to become eager to see her.
The next file showed complete details on Human engineering and technology and weapons. She was flabbergasted at their sheer power and efficiency.
Also there was a file containing reports of 'THIS' Earth. She saw the reports on different costumed individuals like Batman, Superman, Steel, Supergirl etc.,
"What the hell? This whole planet is a circus show with these so called superheroes and villains!" she thought perplexed with the feeling of existence of such beings. They only existed in a child's fairy tales.
With that she completed her study and turned off the display. She took a deep breath at the overwhelming amount of knowledge she gained in a short time. She knew one thing for sure. Humans were once in the sidelines. But now, they are the apex predators.
She then took a 2 hour nap, went to have a shower and then wore civilian clothes, a full sleeved amber colored high-neck t-shirt with velvet texture, a black leather pants and a black cut shoe. In the food storage container, there was varieties of Earth based food on the contrary to MRE.
"Macaronis in a warship? That's great!" she said with a smirk as she had her lunch precisely. She was famished since the fight began that drained a lot of energy.
She was ready to get to the bridge to talk with the Commander as she felt fresh after the sleep. She then used the wrist watch to get a local 3d holo-map of the ship to know the way to the bridge. it was only 40 levels high from where she is. Miranda walked out of her room and took an elevator to the bridge level, in a place that looked like an armory maintenance sector. From there she walked to a platform and activated a hard light console to summon an internal transport system. A highly sophisticated flying unit that can carry 5 people at a time, they are usually found in all Oblivion fortress ships, contrary to the anti-gravity tram system found from Dawn class destroyers to Juggernaut super carriers. The flight was ellipsoidal and curvy in shape with glass window. Once she got inside, a console popped up and a automatic voice spoke
"DESTINATION PLEASE"
"To the commander's bridge" she said in a hunch not knowing if this was even the correct format to reply. But to her relief it worked.
"DESTINATION SET...PLEASE FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT FOR SAFE JOURNEY" the voice spoke which made her chuckle. It began flying through the huge space as she could see lots of industrial works going in as the drones kept flying for routine check and security. She also saw lots of weapon racks fully loaded with weapons in all the floor platforms, large mammoth as well as sabre vehicles in the bottom floors. But traveling inside the ship itself was like traveling in a city.
"Its magnificent!" she exclaimed. Though at first she was confused why would one person need such a huge vessel, but then saw its advantage during the Ceph war. Apart from being used in battles, John's vessel also acted as massive troop and supplies carrier in the battle field, capable of transporting one million soldiers at a time between any two points. Also there is a ship building facility at the bottom of the vessel. The flight reached another platform where it hovered and stopped as the door opened, Miranda came out looked around and whistled at the sight. Then she entered the the big door a 5 meters away that led to the ship's bridge.
John and Cortana were already there talking about further mission.
"Mission to the Dhorian world was more crucial than the New-Genesis." Cortana said.
"May be, but the Warden said their mission was a success in New-Genesis. I fear we might have overlooked something. I will speak with Metron lately. Now what about the scan results?" he asked.
"Yes and I got something interesting for you" she said as she brought a 3D hologram mapping a facility.
"This is the ground station for the Wayne tech deep space telemetry and there was an explosion 0415 hours and Batman and Superman were fighting these-..these things" she showed the hologram of a human beings in a doctor uniform but their biological composition was completely alien. He could see the recorded footage of Superman and Batman fighting them and Batman was slightly wounded by them as Superman helped them away.
"But after this fight was over, they managed to send a highly encrypted signal to another facility in the city outskirts, beneath this mountain" she said bringing up its schematics.
"Then something is down there and I intend to find out. I have a feeling this is just a beginning of a large scale attack" he said as always gets this feeling of uneasiness when some shits about to blow up sky high.
"May I know what sort of attack, Commander?" a woman's voice came as John turned to look at her.
"Ms. Keyes, right on time. Cortana, please do the honors" John said to which she smiled.
"Gladly" she said as she walked towards John and summoned a small Hardlight display that brought up the Image of Miranda Keyes.
"Wait, Wha-...What's this all about?" she asked heedfully. John decided to speak in more formal approach.
"Commander Miranda Keyes, You have been a valuable soldier and a leader in the darkest times of humanity. Your continued service to UGSC will be valuable for our further endeavors" he said as she was standing in attention.
"Thank you sir" she replied.
"Now I, Supreme Commander of UGSC there by officially promote you to the rank of Captain" he said to which her face expressed mild bliss as even she didn't expect this promotion.
"Good luck Captain Keyes. you deserved it. At ease" he said as he and Cortana glanced at each other and smiled.
"I have updated your service number in the UGSC database. Congratulations! How do you feel? John wanted it to be a surprise" she asked feeling excited. Miranda was dumbstruck with this.
"I-..I dont know...Ah-...I don't know if I can do this. Its been a long time" she said her face dulled a little.
"Jacob Keyes was great man and I know you are more than your father. You will be just fine" he said with a faint smile to cheer her up. Miranda smiled at the mention of her father.
"Thanks Commander, those words mean a lot to me" she said from her heart.
"Not only that, John wanted to give you a brand new ship" she said as she brought up a 3D holo-image of a Dawn class destroyer that rotated and fragmented into thousand parts with multiple descriptions which then assembled back. The destroyer was 5.2 kms long and Miranda had studied about these ships in the codex and how this ship is considered one of the most deadliest as it carried a planet cleansing energy beam projector. She was feeling thrilled to have a ship like that.
"Manufacturing process has begun in the ship building facility at the bottom of this vessel. It will be over in a day" Cortana said..
"Once done, you will leave this universe and link up with the home fleet near Earth" he said which shocked her.
"Wait, You want me to leave?" she asked rushing her words.
"Affirmative" John replied monotonically.
"But Sir, I can be here with you, help with whatever mission you are in" she said trying to convince him as much as possible. Even Cortana was taken back by his decision.
"Ms. Keyes, this mission is more dangerous and it will only get worse by the day. So I don't want to risk anyone's life when we both can handle this. We just got you back, humanity needs you in our place" he said with determination and as a caring friend.
"With all due respect Commander, I am well aware of our strengths particularly the Spartan IIs. But even then you never undertook any critical mission alone despite your solo investigation. If this new threat is as dangerous as you claim, then I would like to be part of this mission-...as a soldier of UGSC" she said with determination that matched his own.
John was feeling she can't be convinced to return. He always cared about people's welfare and the soldiers under his command. He always held himself responsible for loss every single life vowing to be better than before. This is the very same reason for denying her request too. He's so glad that she came back and it would deeply affect him if he lost her again and can't even imagine about facing Doctor Halsey with that bad news. But he didn't have any choice, So he reluctantly agreed.
"*SIGH* Fine, you can stay. But please refrain yourself from facing extreme threats" he said to which she smiled.
"Thank you so much" she replied with a satisfactory glee.
Cortana then briefed her on their new mission to investigate the promethean attacks in an alternate universe and the overview of the domian. Having been in a forerunner world before, she had learned about the ancient pre-history times of Humans, Forerunners and Precursors including the powerful domain.
"So where are we at this investigation?" she asked.
"First we detected the distress call from a planet named New-Genesis in the distant part of the galaxy. We helped them fight these rogue AIs and the second was the Dhorian home world where we found you and finally met their leader Warden Eternal. We will once again contact the New-Genesis as the Warden mentioned something about their mission being a success" Cortana explained.
"Great, We never get to rest one bit huh!? So what are we doing here?" Miranda asked.
"Well, we just came to take a look at this world only to see there are lots of conflicts here as well, too much for one planet, though the existence of certain individuals are quite intriguing. Even made contacts with the individuals, Superman and Supergirl" John replied.
"Great! Even I am feeling thrilled to meet them" Keyes replied with a brooding face.
"Fine. Cortana, I will take a griffin fighter and get to that facility. We may find something. Keep an eye on the planet" he said.
"Aye Aye Commander"
"Captain, you and Cortana have the conn. Be prepared for hostile engagement" he said
"Yes Sir!" she replied with a salute as John exited the bridge as he made his way to the fighter craft hanger to board a griffin fighter.
"He hasn't changed much, has he?" She asked as her eyes still fixed to the door. Then turned to look at the AI who laughed in mocking fashion.
"That's a terrible understatement. He's become obsessed" she said as she went on to work with the hologram. As Miranda approached Cortana curious as to her quip.
"Obsessed?" she asked.
"As he and the other Spartan IIs grew up in ranks, he became overzealous with protecting our people, going mission after mission non-stop. At point,it wasn't just us, but he began to lend help to any species that begged for help. His fervor for fight increased to a point, he had to be grounded for one full year with false accusations" she said.
"You sound it as if it's a disease" she said as she folded her hands.
"Disease can be cured . But not pointless obsession. You learned about the Flood war right?" Cortana asked decided to reveal a top classified information to her as she's close to many that other people.
"Yes, I can't believe they returned in that much of force and numbers. How did we even managed to defeat them?" she asked still stupefied of the fact.
"Because of John and-..." she replied blatantly, though her face expressed as if she was hiding something that Keyes noticed.
"Cortana? what happened? Come out with the truth" she asked pressing her tone. Cortana's face turned despondent and Miranda believed that it wasn't good.
"Fine. John agreed that neither front door fights nor brute force can help win this war and decided only outsmarting their central neuro processing hub can provide any chance of survival"
"You mean the grave mind?" she asked having witnessed them during the human covenant war.
"More powerful than a gravemind. An interstellar keymind that can control the flood in the entire galaxy and even making the very space-time to become hostile to anyone attempting slipspace jumps. You won't believe but they even had the capacity to manipulate starlight in an unknown fashion that made the sentient beings to loose their sanity when irradiated" she said which shocked Miranda. She never knew the war was worse than thought possible.
"That time, the entire Milky way was in the verge of becoming devoid of life, a threat similar to the halo arrays. John was deeply traumatized as he had to watch people screaming in agony as the flood consumed them. But he was relentless, he didn't give up. Trust me, his tenacity was what kept us going and he never believed in no-win scenarios" Cortana said. Miranda knew John's trait in increasing the battlefield morality which she always admired.
"So how did it play out?" she asked. Now Cortana felt more troubled to reveal that information but proceeded to tell her anyway.
"John was the primary target of the flood intelligence as they knew one way or another he will defeat them. So the keymind used to taunt him in an attempt to demoralize him and that was the only biggest mistake and probably the worst for such a transcended being. John took advantage of that and gathered the military leadership of every race and revealed his plan to defeat the entire hordes of flood in just 10 days"
"How?"
"The plan was to have the fleet of every race distributed at key areas in the galaxy and hide from hostile forces by masking their signatures, including the residues of slipstream transit. Then the remaining military assets will destroy the flood super cells in the ground side" she said.
"The 117 game plan, tricking the flood ships to get sucked up in black hole. I have studied that part" Miranda said.
"Yes and there was another part that was left out in the codex since that was a highly classified information that only a select few people knew of that"
"Was that you were trying so hard to hide?" Miranda asked
"I shouldn't say this, but what the heck? You deserve the full truth. Fine, to have the keymind distracted, John baited his own capture by the flood. This was the second part of the plan" she said unnervingly.
"HE DID WHAT? You jest right!? You must be!" Miranda yelled in horror.
"No . That was the only way. John baited his capture by the keymind and even promised it to reveal the locations of the potential worlds flourishing with life that can help its expansion. But he didn't give it right away, he forced the keymind to get it from him by brutal methods. It would torture him, physically and mentally like piercing a needle slowing until your skin gives up to sensitivity and you yell in pain, imagine that for 10 days straight..."
"Cortana Please STOP! I don't want to hear anymore!" Miranda said, agonized at the mere implication as she can't even imagine such a thing. It was against all morals.
"Sorry Miranda, I was just stating how worse it got. John gave the necessary limited information to it every day, so that the keymind would send its forces to those worlds only to be suddenly taken out by the galactic military. To prevent the keymind from getting suspicious, the military vessels would send out a fake distress beacon as if their ships have failed completely"
"Every single day it continued as the flood was slowly defeated and pushed back and finally on the tenth day, Humans found the location of John-117 and there by the location of keymind and destroyed the entire planet after rescuing him. Thus the key mind was defeated and flood war came to an end after last 50 years. All because of one man who never gave up" Cortana finished which made Miranda downcast and doleful. She was glad humanity defeated the flood, but at what cost.
"But nearly at the cost of John's life. No one has the guts to go so far risking everything they hold most dear to defeat the enemy. The galaxy, every sentient being is in his debt for his selfless act. He indeed is the hero" She said as her voice trembled little.
She couldn't believe he went that far to save everyone. She was sure that no one would have that kind of dedication to protect people. Was he overzealous? Damn yes and because of him, every man woman and child could sleep peacefully and live to see another day of sunrise and sunset.
"But you know what? This is just another objective to him, nothing more. He did a lot more than that in the forth coming years" Cortana said to which she nodded.
"But doesn't interaction with a flood keymind leave him vulnerable to infection?" she asked.
"Yes, for that only he was grounded for one full year to be kept under observation. To see if he showed any sign of infection or abnormal genetic mutation" Cortana said and Miranda understood the logic behind the decision. But internally she felt that John and the other spartans deserved rest and that UGSC shouldn't be exploiting them too much.
"Well, I wish I never heard about that. But let's focus on the task at hand" Miranda not to think about it ever again.
"Aye Aye" Cortana obliged.
...
At the planet's surface...
John was flying the griffin fighter at hypersonic speed towards the mountain in the outskirts of Metropolis. After reaching the designated place, he found a huge hanger area to drop the craft to the ground. The craft's sensors scanned the complex and found no life signs in the outside, though there were bio-signatures inside the facility. He landed slowly as the engine's humming sound faded to silence. He then got out and armed himself with GMX-100 pistol as he slowly walked towards the door as the door controls were in red light. John used his suit's computer to hack through the doors and opened it.
He then raised his weapon straight. The first hall was dark and only had a couple of dim light. His visor adjusted the lighting to make it look bright only to find the room had lots of computers and consoles. He lowered his guard as he walked towards a table to see a picture of 3 scientists with their hands on each other's shoulders. The person in the middle, he was able to identify him from Earth's records as the current Senator Carter.
He then closed his eyes to concentrate and establish a telepathic link and this time, he was able to sense a living being beyond a tightly sealed door.
"So there you are" he thought as he walked towards the door. But there was no power. He didn't waste time to find the power controls so he simply held the door handle and pull it using brute strength as the door started to cave in and then he used both his hands as the door began to crack and finally
*BAAM*
The door lock was broken and it freely opened to reveal a facility which made John feel so curious. There were biological storage units that had some strange species floating in preservatives.
"What are those things!?" he thought. That's when he looked straight at the end of the hall to see a green colored alien being cuffed with arms and legs widened and some sort of inhibitor in its head.
John rushed forward and touched its cheek to telepathically connect to its mind to wake him up, only to find that he was the one that tried to contact him early on. By then the being opened its eyes suddenly to reveal its glowing yellow eyes that made John to take a couple steps back. It couldn't speak so the being talked to his mind.
"TH-...THANKS FOR-..FI-...FINDING ME! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!" the being said to which John replied telepathically.
"I'll get you out of here" he said through his mind as he shot the cuffs that held his legs and then removed the inhibitor in his head and then crushed the hand cuffs too fully release him as he fell down, being weak to stand.
"Easy there. So you were the one that tried to reach out to me" he said. The alien being took time to catch its breath. Then it stood straight.
"Yes, and we don't have much time. They are coming and will attack this planet any minute" he said which confused John.
"An invasion? By whom?" he asked.
"By extraterrestrial forces that he might know already. Wayne tech telemetry station was attacked by 3 alien beings in human disguise"
By then they both heard another voice outta nowhere turning to look for the source. They both saw a man in a black costume that resembled a bat. Then besides him, came another man in red and blue costume with a 'S' symbol.
"Spartan? What are you doing here? Whose that?" Superman asked the armored man who once helped against Metallo and Grundy.
"Good to see Superman, Batman" he replied to which Batman gave a glaring look at the armored being wondering how he knew his identity.
"My God! There's no sign that indicates he's a human. I have to be careful!" Batman thought warily as seeing the Spartan for the first time face to face, he felt some sort heaviness and power just with his presence alone. Batman has met a lot of good and bad guys, but this was something entirely different. He knew he had to play safe.
"The visions that I had, It was you" Superman said looking at the green alien. Batman and Superman didn't take it lightly about psychic intrusion.
"Yes it was me. I know you don't trust me and I get it" the alien said as it took a couple steps back. Then it changed itself into a more human form with a long blue cape and an armor which made the three to give a bizarre look.
"My name is J'onn J'onzz, the Martian. I hope this form will suffice, but we have to hurry. There's little time for they are coming!" he said in a hurry.
"They?" the Spartan asked in suspicion as he suddenly felt something odd.
**BAAM** **RUMBLING SOUNDS** **EARTH QUAKE**
The ground started to shake violently as they lost a little balance.
"What the hell is happening?" Superman yelled.
"Cortana, what's going on here?" John asked through the comm which made other to wonder to whom was he talking to. That's when they heard a voice of a woman.
"Commander, it's Keyes. The ship sensors are showing massive seismic activity all over the planet. The tectones are shifting abnormally"
"I am detecting huge alien spire like objects raising from the ground. My God!-..." she said in a shocking tone.
"What happened?" he said not liking the sound of this.
"It has begun. They are here" J'onn said in a grim tone.
"Cortana, can you target those spires?" he asked.
"I can't! Some how I believe damaging the spires will also disrupt the earth crust in unimaginable way. And you are getting plenty of alien hostile forces swarming the whole world and attacking everything" she said.
**BOOM** **BAAAM** the three heard multiple explosions.
"Lets go! We need to stop them before they destroy the cities" Superman said as the others agreed.
"Cortana, Keyes, we will fight the hostiles, keep me posted" he said.
"Acknowledged Commander" Miranda said as the comm was closed.
As the four came out of the facility, they watched as numerous alien crafts and giant walkers firing and destroying everything. In a few moments, the place has gone to hell. The four watched as the fires blazed every where.
To be continued...
And there goes the fight that creates one of the best team. See you in next chapter.