Disclaimer, I own nothing
Halo is owned by 343 Studios and Microsoft
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is owned by Nintendo and Monolift software.
*Author side note*
"Cortana talking"
'Cortana thinking'
'Someone Thinking'
any sMaLl 70nt, UnderlInes, or rnD0m k3yS pressed together will be how i show signs of Cortana's rampancy.
Chapter 2: A Destroyed and desolate civilization. And a tree?
BGM: XC2 Land of Morytha:
"Chief. Chief! CHIEF!" Cortana's voice echoed through the chaos. "CHIEF! WAKE UP!
You need to see this!"
He stirred, groaning with pain as consciousness slowly returned. "Oh good, you're finally awake. Did you enjoy your nap out of cryostasis?" Cortana's cheeky tone cut through the haze.
"If by nap you mean getting knocked out from falling into orbit and getting hit with debris moving faster than a Covenant ghost ramming me at full speed," Chief grumbled, pushing debris aside as he struggled to his feet. "How long was I out?"
"Not too long, just a little over half an hour. Speaking of feeling like that, you took some serious damage when we made impact. In fact, this might be the worst crash landing you've suffered so far," Cortana reported, her voice adopting a more professional tone as she materialized in the upper right corner of his HUD, alongside his vitals on the top left.
"It's concerning, but nothing that should stop you from operating at eighty-five percent." Cortana reported but paused, "For now."
"What's the damage?" Chief asked.
"This crash actually managed to sprain one of your ribs," Cortana reported, and Chief blinked his eyes in slight surprise at the news.
"Was it that bad?" he queried.
"Hoho, I meant what I said when I called it the worst," Cortana continued, "After you blacked out, your body practically went into free fall. Hitting just about everything and being flung around like a ragdoll until we landed in this spot. Then, after everything finally seemed to calm down, that piece of metal you threw off yourself a moment ago fell right on top of you."
Chief grimaced slightly at her retelling of their harsh landing. "Show me," he said, curious to see if her account was accurate.
She pulled the footage up on his HUD, and as Chief watched, her account proved true. He saw himself flung across the sky, constantly getting hit or slammed into by walls, crates, support beams, and other miscellaneous debris. One hit actually made him wince slightly, confirming Cortana's statement about being flung around like a rag doll, as he saw his helmet's camera spin rapidly after being clotheslined by another steel beam. He subconsciously began to rub his neck as he continued to watch.
As the footage continued, Cortana decided to continue her status report. "So, as terrible as this looks, it's luckily not that bad. You fractured the femur on your left leg, cracked your humerus on your right arm, suffered a medium neck sprain, and probably have a minor concussion from getting clotheslined several times. Plus, to put some icing on this fiery cake, you are now starting to run a fever. Thankfully, there were no major injuries to your legs, so hey, we have your luck to thank for that," she listed off as she closed the footage playing on his HUD.
"Switching back to our main topic, like I said when I woke you up, take a look around." Cortana pointed out.
Chief surveyed their surroundings. Looking up from the surrounding wreck he noticed dark clouds filling the sky, punctuated by occasional thunderclaps and lightning strikes. To his left, a tornado raged in the distance, while his binocular feature revealed a giant eel-like creature flying further off.
Turning to his right, he saw damaged and desolate buildings, their unfamiliar architecture hinting at a resemblance to cities on well-known colony planets. A full turn revealed the burning wreckage of what little was left of the Forward Unto Dawn.
"Did we land on a glassed colony planet, and if so, where are we?" Chief inquired.
"No, we didn't, and I've been trying to get a scan of our impact data, but I haven't been able to get anything. So either something is jamming my scanners, or these clouds are too thick for me to get a proper signal," Cortana explained with frustration.
Chief nodded, then asked, "Did any ships tail us when we jumped through that portal?"
"No. None did," Cortana responded, sounding confused and relieved at the same time.
"Why didn't any of them follow us?" Chief inquired, although his voice remained the same flat monotone, he couldn't fully hide his surprise and relief at the new development.
"It's possible," Cortana speculated, her voice carrying a hint of uncertainty. "For them to assume we died in it. I mean when I opened up the first one we were only half a ship with no way to stabilize it. So it was already incredibly dangerous for them to try and chase us through it. So they must have scrambled their turrets and just fired at whatever they could hit, managing to destroy our left engine. So seeing the explosions on our ship as the portal was closing, they believed that we were as good as dead. Of course, this is merely conjecture on my part."
Taking a moment to absorb what his AI companion theorized, Chief nodded in acknowledgment. However, that only gave rise to another question. "Do you at least know where you tried sending us before we crashed?"
"At first, I tried sending us back to one of the glassed colony worlds, best case scenario, we find or repair a ship that can fly us back to the UNSC. Worst case; we wait for them to find us with an SOS signal I'd send out. However, when one of the engines blew up on us, I just jammed in some random coordinates and opened another one. With the remaining power left, I kept the portal open and the engines going while they were exploding. I was so focused on getting us through the portal alive that I wasn't paying attention to what I punched in,"
Cortana admitted, her holographic form appearing with sagging shoulders and a tired deadpan expression. "To sum it all up, no John, I don't know where that portal sent us."
"You did what you could" Chief replied, trying to comfort his AI companion.
During Cortana's explanation, Chief took some time to survey their surroundings, hoping to find something salvageable amidst the wreckage. However, what he managed to scrounge up didn't leave him feeling very confident. An assault rifle with 136 bullets, a Covenant carbine with 36 bullets, a shotgun with 15 shells, a fully charged energy sword, and a partially charged one with 76% of its power. Additionally, he found a plasma pistol at 89%, 30 bullets for a magnum, two fragmentation grenades, and three plasma grenades.
As for medical supplies, Chief could only find a single damaged bio foam injector with 72% of its foam left. Anything else he found was either too damaged to be of use or posed a risk of exploding while in use. Surveying his decent but limited arsenal, Chief couldn't shake off the slight concern gnawing at him, especially in light of Cortana's explanation, which only served to exacerbate his apprehensions about their current situation.
His current condition had him verging on being heavily injured, and he couldn't find any water or provisions, as any supplies he did stumble upon were rendered useless by the ravages of the crash. They didn't know where they were or find out where they were because of Cortana's explanation, and with no hope of contacting reinforcements, the UNSC as a whole, or even transmit a distress signal because they were too deep beneath the ceiling of clouds or not high enough to send out anything.
Not to mention, Chief had no means of restocking ammo and medical supplies. With his current inventory, any combat engagement would quickly deplete his already finite resources. He understood the importance of conserving ammunition and medical supplies, especially in their precarious situation. In normal circumstances, he might have foregone carrying any medical supplies at all, but faced with so many unknowns and potential dangers and only having the injector available, he felt it prudent to err on the side of caution.
BGM end:
So with his assault rifle in hand and other weapons magnetically hooked onto him, He begins his trek out of the Foward Unto Dawn's wreck site and into the ruins of the desolate city.
"Chief! We've got incoming," Cortana's voice cut in abruptly, tinged with alarm. Before Chief could inquire, he heard the sound of something roaring, but it was distorted, as if transmitted through a damaged microphone, the noise peaking and crackling with intensity.
As if to confirm Cortana's warning, Chief's motion tracker lit up with several life signs from the west of his current position. To compound the threat even further, he heard more distorted roars and screeches emanating from the direction of the approaching hostiles, signaling their imminent arrival at his location.
Quickly scanning his surroundings, Chief's eyes landed on a damaged barricade lying on the floor nearby. Without hesitation, he dashed towards it, his movements swift and precise. With a deft motion, he flipped the barricade upright and pushed it next to a nearby wall made from the crashed Dawn, creating a makeshift barrier and a semi-corner to hide in between. Taking cover behind the barricade, Chief activated his A.C.M., blending seamlessly into his surroundings. Peering over the top of the barricade, he spotted several of the creatures quickly approaching his position.
Several humanoid and animalistic creatures emerged from the ridge of debris, their forms shrouded in a dark grey and red matter resembling flesh. Small and large tentacles protruded from their deformed bodies, adding to their grotesque appearance. Trampling, attacking, and even trying to ride one another to get to him.
As the creatures stormed into the wreckage, their frenzied movements added to the chaos already wrought upon the debris. With primal aggression, they flung slabs of metal and debris across the ground, creating a cacophony of destruction as pieces collided with one another. Occasionally, the haphazardly thrown objects would land on another one of the monsters.
They lunged at standing walls, their deformed appendages clawing and tearing at the structure in a frenzied attempt to breach it. Anything that wasn't securely anchored to the ground became fair game for their assault, as they unleashed their primal fury upon the shattered remnants of the crashed Dawn.
Luckily for the Chief, he and the barricade were left unscathed for the moment, so he took this time to study the appearance of the grey and grotesque monsters.
Among the horde of creatures, Chief observed a diverse array of body types, each one more grotesque than the last. Some of the creatures appeared smaller, their humanoid forms reminiscent of twisted, malformed humans. Some with almost human hands and arms while others sported tentacles, four-fingered claws, or stubs.
In contrast, some of the bigger ones had more animalistic forms for their appearance. Ranging from gorilla, dog, or even snake-like forms to name a few but still sharing the trait of having several body parts of different species or human appendages and tentacles protruding all over their bodies. Such appendages made them more clumsy than the smaller ones as they would trip over themselves or the other grey-skinned creatures.
Yet, amidst the chaos and destruction, it was the vibrant blue glow emanating from the creatures' mouths and the large crystals protruding from their bodies that truly captured Chief's attention. The pulsating azure light cast an otherworldly glow amidst the wreckage, illuminating the grotesque forms of the creatures as they tore through the remnants of the crashed Dawn.
"What. Are those things?" Cortana says with worry and a morbid curiosity while observing the remained silent as he looked for an opening to escape while the monsters tore through the Dawn, but at the same time in the back of his mind couldn't help but slightly wonder the same thing.
*Tick, tick, tick, pop, pop, insert more metal bending sounds here*
His attention snapped to the source of the noise when he heard the loud groaning of metal. Chief's gaze darted to where the sound emanated from, and he spotted one of the larger quadrupedal creatures attacking a damaged lone steel support pillar. As he looked up, he realized that the support held up three floors of wall.
Realizing the imminent danger, Chief wasted no time. He vaulted over the barricade and sprinted out of the wreckage onto a street littered with destroyed cars and debris. The area was populated with more of the grey-skinned creatures, advancing toward the wreck site, behind him he could hear the crash of the wall along with more debris and the distorted roaring and screeching of the monstrous creatures that were crushed by it.
Start BGM: Land of Morytha
"Well, at least we've got a distraction to occupy quite a few of those things for a while," Cortana commented at the mayhem behind them as Chief slowed his pace to a quick and quiet stride, deftly maneuvering around the cars, creatures, and excess debris cluttering the street.
"We're too exposed out here," Chief remarked, his voice tense as he narrowly avoided tripping over another one of the creatures crawling across the ground, most of its body missing or crippled to where it was useless. Yet remained undeterred as it used its sole limb to drag itself toward the Forward Unto Dawn's wreck site.
"These things look like something the Flood would make. Excluding the bright blue crystals, of course, also the grey and red skin," Cortana observed as they passed by more of the grey-skinned creatures. "What's even stranger is that I'm picking up corrupted data from them."
She continued, pulling up a data-corrupted message in Chief's HUD. "Like they were also some sort of artificial intelligence at some point given flesh and it backfired and this was the result. Or tried to do something similar to the Spartan program, but something went horribly wrong. Clearly not having the-"
"Cortana focus." Chief chided, as he walked over to a clearing that was empty of the creatures for the moment. "We need to find a good vantage point if we want to get a better understanding of our surroundings and more importantly, See if we can find a way out."
"Right, right," She said, a bit sheepishly, closing the window with the error message and refocusing, "What about that building to the right of us?" Cortana pointed out on his HUD with a marker to a tall and large desolate building, northeast of his position. "It looks quite tall no?"
The building in question was littered with cracks, holes in the walls, and shattered glass windows, with Chief's motion tracker picking up five more of the Flood-like monsters inside on the first floor, all trying to get out and make their way to the Dawn's crash site.
Looking up the upper floors weren't in much better shape either. Entire sections of the floor and wall were missing or destroyed by explosive damage. And from looking at his tracker, he could see that there were several more of them coming down. Taking a large stride to the right, Chief narrowly avoided a falling creature that fell from 10 stories above and face-planted onto the ground next to him.
"Um... Maybe not that one," Cortana says a little more sheepishly while Chief raises an eyebrow at her behavior. Mimicking the act of clearing her throat, she changes the marker to behind him. "This one looks a lot better," she states with more confidence. Turning around, Chief looks to see a much more intact building about twenty stories tall. Most, if not all, of the glass windows were shattered, but the majority of the foundation and upper floors remained intact. However, his motion tracker picked up several more of the grey-skinned monsters inside, with about ten of them on the first floor alone.
"What do you think?" Cortana asks.
"It'll do," Chief states as he marches into the monster-filled building.
Upon entering, Chief saw that all of the creatures were in similar, if not worse, conditions than the one he had seen outside. Some resembled human torsos with a single malformed limb or two, unable to move, while others were merely blobs on the floor or attached to walls with appendages that looked like body parts that resembled a foot or head sticking out. The ominous glow of blue crystals littered their deformed bodies, casting an eerie light. Their grotesque forms hopelessly tried to reach, strike, or grab at anything that came near as a result of his ship crash.
Easily avoiding the stationary blobs, Chief carefully made his way up most of the floors with little difficulty. His primary obstacles were weak areas in the flooring and the occasional monster that was not stuck and wandered around limply. His movements were so quiet and light that the blobs never even knew he was there.
"Hey Chief," Cortana called out.
He let out a small grunt to acknowledge her.
"I recommend you grab something to secure your carbine because the next three floors are too unstable to hold your weight. I suggest you use your jetpack to fly up the rest," Cortana advised.
Scanning his surroundings, Chief noticed a mostly intact curtain on the ground. Wasting no time, he slid both the curtain and the metal rod off, tied them together, and then used the makeshift strap to secure the covenant sniper to his person, slinging it onto his back. With that done, he walked over to the edge of the building.
"Hey, wait a minute! Wha-?!" Cortana tried to speak up but was cut off as Chief jumped out of the window and used his jetpack to fly up, easily landing on the rooftop.
"I was thinking you could have just flown across the room and grabbed hold of a girder or support beam I could point out that could hold your weight, but this works too," she said, a bit exasperated.
"Was faster and quieter this way," Chief replied.
Walking over to the edge of the roof, he took in the desolation that stretched before him like a canvas of ruin. Shattered windows glinted in the dim light, jagged holes punctuating the walls of once-proud structures. Through his HUD, he detected the ominous presence of more of those enigmatic creatures, either sleeping or prowling within the dilapidated buildings.
Untying the carbine from his chest, Chief brought the scope to his eye, scanning the ground below. What he saw only reinforced the grim reality of their situation. More destroyed vehicles, both military and civilian, littered the streets, their twisted metal frames silent witnesses to the chaos that had unfolded. Collapsed bridges spanned empty chasms, while caved-in tunnels bore witness to the collapse of vital passages beneath the city.
Among the debris, old blast marks scarred the earth, remnants of past conflicts that had ravaged the landscape. Ancient yet familiar weapons lay strewn about, relics of a bygone era now rendered obsolete by time and war. Among them, old missiles lay dormant, their deadly payloads inert and forgotten. Peering further through the scope, Chief beheld a vast expanse of darkness, broken only by the occasional silhouette of a skyscraper rooftop jutting defiantly against the gloom.
"Uuuh... Chief. You might want to look behind you," Cortana's voice broke through his observations, tinged with awe. Confused, Chief turned to see what had captured her attention, and his eyes widened in surprise, and even took a slight step back at the sight before him.
In front of him loomed two remarkable sights. The first was a colossal entity, its sheer size dwarfing anything Chief had encountered before. Scales, their size reminiscent of how big scarabs were, adorned its massive form. Large blast marks marred its body, some gouging through its hide while others tore gaping holes through its entire form.
The aftermath of a fierce battle was evident, leaving the creature's remains as a testament to the destructive force that had befallen it. However, what truly captured his attention was the fact that the creature appeared to be cleaved in two.
Behind the fallen behemoth stood a towering structure, resembling the base of a tree reaching skyward. Its peak disappeared into the dark clouds, hinting at the immense scale of the edifice.
"Well, at least we know where we're going now." Cortana said her tone filled with awe at the scene before them, "Maybe we'll find out what happened here when we climb that." Awe turning to hope with a new objective to focus on.
"That seems to be our only option anyway," Chief remarked as he walked to the other side of the rooftop and looked upon the desolate cityscape. "Looking around I'm not seeing anything else that would get us up there and we should move quickly. Pretty sure those things heard what I had to do to get up here." To emphasize his point, not two seconds after he says that he can hear multiple distorted screeches and roars from below.
"Well, how do you plan on getting us there quickly?" Cortana asked.
"Simple-," Chief says as he backs up to the edge, gets into a sprinting position, he launches himself forward, sprinting at full speed before leaping off the edge. Activating his jetpack mid-flight, he soared through the air, landing seamlessly on another nearby rooftop.
"We use the rooftops to do it and it lets us avoid having to fight those 'things' on the ground." He continues as he repeats the process to land on another rooftop.
"But what about when you run out of rooftops to jump off of?" Cortana asks with her head tilting.
"Then we stick to the shadows and use the active camouflage, avoid combat as long as possible, run from those things if I need to. Can't waste my ammunition on those things if it can be avoided" Chief retorts as he takes another look at his HUD that shows his ammo count.
Cortana then appears on his HUD with a chipper look in the upper left and claps her hands together, "Good plan. I'll go ahead and set up a general direction to the tree that's bigger than a covenant cruiser since that's the best I can do right now in terms of navigation. While we're at it I'll also scan the surrounding area while you're moving to see if I can find anything worth investigating."
Authors note:
I've decided to rewrite chapter two and split it into three parts.
Why you may ask? It's because I've received complaints about them being too long. I'm also not a fan of how I wrote this originally and I felt like I was kinda rushing through it. However, That means this part will also be longer. So more story for you guys, yay. Right?
I've also decided to use an acronym for Chief's Active Camouflage Module by calling it A.C.M just for it to not sound annoying and repetitive.
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