AN: A thought experiment - if this continues it will be using Bungie Lore for Halo.


SECTION 0 - Prologue


December 7th, 2010

At the current moment in time, Sophia Naomi Hess hated life, she had been conscripted into the Wards and was going through their training. It sucked, frankly she would rather be back to punching Nazis or at the very least, trying to find Kool-Aid in this goddamned fridge which was being remarkably difficult to find. Exhaling, the probationary ward tried to restrain her anger at this whole situation.

Despite that, she knew more than likely, deep, deep down that the Wards could likely be good for her. But she didn't know to what extent. The Breaker class Parahuman finally had found her prize and extracted it from the fridge, she put the pitcher on the counter. Then she closed the fridge and opened the freezer, it didn't take her long to find what she was searching for: the ice tray.

"Hey Sophia?" Dennis called from across the room, Sophia absolutely hated the man even if his power was rather impressive.

"What?" Sophia called back, a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Think you can pour me a glass of kool aid as well?" he asked.

Sophia shook her head. "And you're asking me why when you can just get up and do it yourself?" she demanded of him.

Unseen by Sophia, the expression of Missy Biron, the Shaker class Parahuman known as Vista went from her usual carefree look and began to contort into a mask of pain.

"Because you're over there by the fridge, and I'm all the way over here on the couch?" Dennis asked and Sophia shot the kid a glare. That was the stupidest, laziest fucking thing she had ever heard. But what was she to expect from some spoiled kid? Sophia forced herself to take a deep breath, and she held it for several seconds before releasing it.

"How about you get it yourself?" Sophia snapped. "Mister Lazy Bones."

Dennis looked like he had been punched in the face while Carlos guffawed at his friend. The Alexandria Package looked at Sophia with a smile on his face. "Nice one Sophia."

Sophia couldn't help but preen a bit. "Thank you."

Missy screamed, clutching her head. "MISSY!" Carlos shouted and Sophia, watching from the kitchenette, watched as the older teenager got up and dashed over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Hurts," The young girl moaned.

"What's causing it?" Carlos asked.

"Power, power is going berserk." Missy moaned.

"I didn't think you could get thinker headaches." Carlos said before looking at Sophia. "Sophia, there's some Vicodin in the kitchenette, can you find it please?"

Sophia nodded and began opening cabinets to look for the medication, meanwhile by the fridge, the air began to shimmer. She never noticed the shimmering, neither did any of the other wards, their focus was solely on their teammate. Which meant that they were caught completely off guard when a swirling purple green portal suddenly yawned open. It instantly consumed Sophia before she could even scream in surprise and within an eye blink it expanded and consumed in order: Missy, Rory, and Carlos before they could even try to begin to get away from it. Then the mysterious portal vanished and then there was a shrieking roar that hurled various objects through the room.

As the noise died away, Dennis was vaguely aware of pain in his side. Chris rushed out of his workshop, laser pistols ready. He lowered them in shock and then said one thing. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Twenty seconds later, the armored reinforced door was ripped off its hinges as Victoria Dallon stormed in, right behind her came Dean Stansfield and looming above the two of them in his immaculate power armor, long swords drawn and at the ready, was Armsmaster. The three capes stared at the devastation that just moments ago had been unleashed and had consumed a full half of the Wards Team. "Wha-what happened?" Victoria stuttered.

"Portal opened, took Sophia, Rory, Missy, and Carlos then closed." Dennis slurred.

Armsmaster looked around the room and said one thing. "We'll get them back," he promised.


2000 Hours September 23, 2517 (Military Calendar)

Epsilon Eridani System, In Orbit of Planet Reach

Onboard UNSC Circumference

A small green-purple rift in reality opened and something slunk out of it before closing as if it had never existed. The craft was small, barely 200-meter long and half that wide, shaped vaguely like a bird. Deep within the innards of the ship, within the Cryopod Bay, a single sentence boomed through speakers. "CRYOPOD ACTIVATED."

Sophia gasped and tried to inhale, her tiny body spasming. Voices echoed around her, she couldn't make out much through her foggy mind. She just wanted to continue sleeping. A single sharp voice cut through her foggy mind. "CLEAR!"

Wham. She arched her back and gasped in pain as something arced through her body. Choking gasping, another voice echoed through her foggy mind. "Normal rhythm restored, what the hell caused that?" a voice asked.

A man appeared in her face, shining a light in her eyes. She groaned and noticed the man offering her a hand which she accepted. She was hauled up, roughly, and then the man told her to cough. Likewise, she hacked violently until something filled her mouth, she was about to spit it out until the man said "Swallow" and nodding, she grimaced as she swallowed the lime flavored gunk that she had hacked up.

She looked down and realized that she wasn't wearing anything, the man however handed her something, which she got into. The fabric was gray and itchy, she felt an urge to go wandering as she heard and felt, deep within her bones, a rumble like thunder in the far distance, only it was continuous. As she searched her memories trying to figure out why she was here, she realized something.

Why was she even here? She went to start walking, only to have a hand clamp on her shoulder. She looked up into the visage of a stone faced white man wearing a pixelated, multicolor, gray and black shirt. Something flickered across her mind and she tried to shift into her shadow state, but found that she couldn't grab onto anything. Her gaze flicked back up to the man holding her shoulder.

What was going on? Where was she? Would she see her mother again? What about her little sister?

The man holding her urged her to walk, and it was only then that she noticed that there were others, maybe her age. Not many, about eleven of them, actually. They looked as confused and nervous as she did. She was led through gray hallways, men in strange uniforms marked with a circle that had a pyramid with an eye in the center that said "UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence" on their shoulders.

God, she was tired. However, said tiredness didn't last long in the face of a low rumbling sound as she and the others were guided into a room where this thing sat. It was squat, long, and bulky with a pair of wide wings and twin tails with blinking lights at various points in different colors. The craft had thick pods near the back with twin nozzles that jutted from them and swollen pods near the body that contained larger nozzles. What was that thing? Regardless she was guided aboard and saw ranks of seats, she got into one, the man who had been guiding her getting in next to her.

With a whir, the hatch closed, a much deeper roar built up followed by a jolt of movement and then the sensation of movement that lasted for a second. She looked out a viewport and gasped for inky black greeted her soft brown eyes, countless numbers of stars glittering like multicolored diamonds.

Space.

She was in space.

Despite the wariness in her bones and everything that was going on - she couldn't help a very slight up ticking of her lips. She had dreamed about this, and now she was actually here. The spacecraft swept through the void seemingly heading towards something, as it did, it passed an enormous thing, a blocky gray mass of metal with various gun turrets and hatches that dotted its body. Then a glittering atmosphere and streamers of fire, the roar deepened as they plunged deeper.

She couldn't help but wonder where she was going. The roar dulled somewhat and something went clunk below her and something whirred before a thunk echoed. They seemed to be slowing and descending, it was pitch black outside, she could vaguely make out lights - various buildings and maybe airliners depending on how they were positioned.

Then the sky vanished and moments later, the craft stopped before whirling in place and the engines began to wind down. With a thud something unlocked, and the immense hatch opened, descending, a hand on her shoulder and she was guided down the ramp that had formed. From there it was through a maze of passageways and there, it was into an elevator - which proceeded to drop like a rock into the earth of this planet and then through more passageways.

A few minutes later, she was urged forward again, through a set of double doors and into an amphitheater, which was absolutely enormous. In the center was a tall woman with dark hair standing next to a man who looked like he could break her in half, and a third woman who seemed to be made of light. After she was seated, the woman in the center stepped forward. "As per Naval Code 45812, you are hereby conscripted into the UNSC Special Project, codenamed SPARTAN-II."


A terrified little girl scrambled through the ruins of a great familiar city as the sounds of war echoed around her. The scream of engines, the crackle of artillery shells and aerial ordnance landing, the thudding, cracking, and popping of assault weaponry, and the strange whine of energy weapons. She crept nervously through the wreckage of the city, through bombed out buildings and carefully creeping around ones that had been reduced to half slagged ruins. Strange creatures marched through the streets, every so often there would be a scream, a gunshot, and what sounded like an explosion. Where was mom? Where was dad? She wanted to be in her nice warm bed and safe.

She caught a glimpse of a body and almost threw up, calling the corpse mangled was not doing it justice. Whatever the hell had happened to that unlucky son of a bitch had blown their torso apart and rigor mortis had twisted them into an effigy that didn't look human that had black, fused blood lining where whatever had occurred. Scrambling, she quickly made a stride to leave the mangled corpse behind as she choked down a scream of horror and disgust.

A sound like a yapping dog got her attention, she looked and paled. This thing was pointing in her direction, it had an exoskeleton and was wearing orange armor with a facemask and a strange pointed pack on its back. It leveled something at her that was vaguely claw shaped and had a menacing green glow. The girl's eyes widened, and she ducked, an instant later there was an electric crackle and a flash of green that blazed over her head followed by a crashing thunderbolt with heat kissing the nap of her neck. She bolted, running as fast as her small body would allow her to, more yapping and giddy barking and more green thunderbolts flashed by her.

Then there was another sound, an unearthly roar. She looked over her shoulder and…oh my god! Was the girl's first thought as this monstrosity suddenly emerged from an alley, more of the strange aliens with exoskeleton scampering around its feet. The thing had to be close to ten feet in height with that intimidating power armor that worked silently, held in its hand almost casually was a weapon that had a menacing blue glow. It fired, the streak of bright blue light was absolutely dazzling and pain exploded across her front as the bolt blazed by her, she fell, her screams echoing through the streets.

She fell whimpering, the flesh of her chest and arms turned red and black by the sheer heat of the bolt streaking by her, tears streaming down her face as she curled into a tight ball. She felt the footsteps of something approaching her and then a hand clamped on her torso and with white-hot agony ripping through her body and her screams filling the street as this enormous walking gorilla packing a maw filled with canines and incisors aplenty lifted her up, its face contorting into a grin and a throaty sound not unlike a chuckle coming from its throat amongst a growl. It's going to eat me! The girl thought as the monster seemed to be weighing her in its grasp, it was in the process of bringing its free hand up, when suddenly with a sound like an angry wasp flicking past her ear and then the monster's head exploded in a wave of black blood and shattered bone.

The decapitated corpse tumbled to the ground, the strange rifle blowing molten, glassy craters in the ground as it fell. She landed awkwardly, painfully on top of the monster and the baying of the small aliens around it were of a different sort. She heard a constant high-powered whine and saw the aliens firing at something out of the corner of her eye, she looked at a cluster of four of them…their heads exploded, all four of them within half as many seconds - bright luminous blood erupting from their shattered heads as a quartet of gunshots echoed. Furthermore, she threw her head back in the direction that they were shooting and beheld…was that Dragon?

Standing tall in immaculate iridescent green armor with a gold visor and '102' etched on in white on the left chest plate with flint arrowheads on the shoulder pauldrons was a cape, that's all it could be, except, that was about the only good look she got for the cape exploded into motion. A literal green blur that deftly evaded the streaks of green and blue that lanced towards it all the while the weapon it had barked its deadly voice and the sharp boom of the bullets exploding. Within seconds, the small courtyard she'd been navigating was filled with the wails of dying aliens as the cape advanced into the courtyard, it palmed something under the rifle, a large almost two-inch diameter tube and with a whipping crack it fired.

She looked in that direction just in time to see another group of aliens that was charging into the courtyard get caught in an explosion, their bodies were torn to fragments and liberally painted that side of the courtyard in a 65-foot diameter circle with gore and body parts amidst the heaving roar of the blast. She looked in the direction of the strange cape and saw it rushing towards her. Not only that, but she tried to pull herself to her feet to walk alongside the cape, but Dragon had other ideas for the greatest tinker in the world effortlessly secured her rifle to her back and then picked her up and effortlessly secured her, the other hand clamped around the strange weapon that the monster had used. "I got you, let's get out of here."

Then she turned and ran, sweet Christ did she run. The world blurred into motion and all the girl saw for the next few minutes was a blur of chaotic movement, streaks of green, blue, yellow, and purple, blooms of fire and the rumble of explosions, and splashes of blood amidst the firing of Dragon's acquired weapon that spat electric blue fire. "Pelican 479, found our lost sheep, need extraction!"

A roar of noise and this huge craft swept into view, pods under the wings flared and something producing a supersonic crack roared overhead. The explosions were deafening, and then the craft turned, and a ramp lowered, Dragon leapt and soared at least twenty feet into the air, her boots slamming onto the ramp and she stormed in. "CLEAR!" The ramp began to rise and the engines roared. "Medic, I need a medic here!"

She was laid down on the ground and the last thing she saw was another figure, in very similar armor breaking open a white case with a red cross on it and then darkness took her as Taylor Hebert slid into unconsciousness in the skies of Jericho VII.