Alpha Ophiuch/Kryx System
The Key: Crimson Fleet Headquarters
Once upon a time, the station known as The Key was used for Military star station customers and visitation for the United Colonies' most secured supermax prison in the galaxy, The Lock. Then, a century ago, the prisoners staged a revolt against the guards and the Wardon, which successfully took not just the prison facility but also the orbiting station. It was then put under the new management of the newly formed pirate group, now known as the Crimson Fleet.
Coming out of his personal quarters was a man in his mid-forties with a mixture of Mexican and Asian, black hair styled to the side and a thick mustache resting on his upper lip. This is one of the deadliest men in the Settled System, Delgoto, the current leader of the Crimson Fleet.
The Fleet leader walked onto The Key's Command Center with a focused look as alarms were set. Neava, talk to me. What the hell's going on that you put us on alert for? "
The question was directed to his second, a woman of African descent in her early thirties. Her face held multiple facial scars, and she was wearing a red-plated hard suit. She was standing at her station, looking over the ratings that she was getting.
"Something appeared at the edge of the star system, something big. We only just caught it due to its size, and it is running on low power."
Delgado looked over her shoulder to see if it was there. "Is it the UC or Freestar? Are those cowards actually making a move on us?"
"I'm not sure if they are UC or Freestar. But if it is, we'll give it to those bastards if they try anything. The ships we have are ready to go on the offensive. I'm sending Stew's crew in to scout it out. And report back."
"What do we have so far?" Neava inputs some commands into her terminal and puts them on the main screen. It shows the object its dimensions, and from Delgado's point of view, it is a brick in space. 450 feet tall, 510 feet wide, and 830 feet long. There was no clear picture yet, but that will change pretty soon. "The fuck is that? That thing is the size of a star station. It looks like someone strapped engines to a fucking metal slab. Seriously, how the fuck did we miss this? Jasmin, you got anything you can tell us?"
A woman with dirty blonde hair and peach skin, wearing ground crew scrubs, was reading some reports on her terminal. "I don't know. We'll find out soon enough as it gets closer. What I'm wondering is why is it so slow? Look at those big engines it has. Never seen anything that big before on any ship. They look like they could cross over and attack us in no time. Yet I see them floating at us with minimal motions from maneuvering thrusters."
"Are they even close to our defensive batteries?" Neava asked her girlfriend for clarification as she brought up the defense grid.
"Na, they're still out of range for a while."
Delgoto scoffs. "Tell Stew to advance and get me an update. I want this over quick. Time is credits."
He was floating in the never-never land somewhere between cryo and full consciousness when the dream began. It was a pleasant and familiar dream, one of very few that had nothing to do with war. He was on Eridaus II, the world of his birth that's been long been destroyed by the Covenant. He heard a distant laughter. A female voice was calling him out by name. A pair of arms held me, and he recognized the familiar scent of soap. The woman said something he could not hear, but it sounded nice. He wanted to reply but couldn't; the words wouldn't come out. The woman's face distorted, and he couldn't distinguish the features well. The distortion shifted like ripples in water. Turning the face into one he was much more familiar with, with that dark hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.
Dr. Catherine Halsey selected him for the SPARTAN-II program. Few knew the truth about the Spartan program, while most were told they were chosen from the best the military had to offer; in reality, it was much darker.
It involves the abduction of select children who hold certain genetic traits. Those kids were taken and replaced with flash clones with neurological disorders, taking over the kid's life with the parents never suspecting their children were duplicates. In many ways, many children in the program saw Halsey as the "Mother" figure for most of their training. Be she wasn't his mother, nor the pale semi-translucent image of Cortana that appeared to replace her.
The dream changed; a dark, nebulous figure loomed behind the Mother/Halsey?Cortana figure. His combat instances kicked in, and he felt a weight in his hands. A rifle, an MA5C, moves to put himself between the dark figure and the women, knowing his armor can take the punishment of any attack. The beast roared at him, and in turn, he lifted his weapon to fire only to discover a new horror; he wore no armor, and his body was that of a six-year-old. He was powerless in the oncoming threat. Just as it was about to attack, the dream faded...
The dream started to fade as darkness took over his vision. Vapor vented, swirled, and began to dissipate. A voice came as if it was far away. It was female and friendly. "Chief! Easy, you've been out for a while."
The Chief felt his muscles stiff from the thaw. His armor was hard to move in its powered-down state. "Where are we?" he asked, his voice groggy and deep.
"Still adrift on the Dawn," Cortana answered, bringing up a control screen that interfered with his suit.
"Why did you wake me?" His question went unanswered for a moment as he felt the reactor in his suit turn on, his HUD blinking to life.
"One moment, I rewrote your suit firmware while you were out," Cortana told him as a different hud screen appeared before his face.
"You've been busy." He mused as he took in the new layout.
"Activating the ship's gravity generators." The A.I. announced. Another synthetic voice echoed through the ship as the floating creatures and debris quickly fell to the floor. "Chief, you need to pull the manual release; look up!"
Chief saw it and pulled the release valve, opening his cryo pod. Stepping out, he walked and stood before Cortana's holo pedestal. The A.I. turned to him with a bright smile. "Just like old times, Chief."
"Ready to get back to work?"
"I thought you never asked," Cortana said happily, right before Chief pulled her from the system and into his helmet, letting her merge with his Neural Interface. The feeling of ice water flooded his head.
"Give me a sitrep," he asked as he retrieved his worn rifle from the rack, which had several preloaded magazines.
"We got multiple craft inbound towards the Dawn."
"Friendlies? Covenant?"
"Unknown," Cortana informs him of the situation. We have a bit of time before they arrive. Our best bet to figure out who they are before they try boarding us is the observation deck, four floors up," she directs.
"Do you think it could be a rescue team?" the Chief asked as he walked out of the cryo bay.
"Who knows at this point, but we'll soon find out! New data, the unknowns just accelerated; they will be on us in minutes!" Cortona waned.
Chief then approached a system console and checked the system status and compartments of The Dawn,
Weapons Systems: Online
Gravity Control: Online
Ship Propulsion: Minimum power/disable
Life Support: Offline
Communications Array: minimum power/disable
Vehicle Bay roster: Register x Remaining
3x1 M808b Scorpion Main Battle Tank
6x1 M12G1 Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicles
10x4 M12 Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicles
6x2 M813 Warthog Transport Vehicles
20x9 M274 Ultra Light All-Terrain Vehicles
7x2 D77H-TCI Pelican Dropships.
"Not bad, your luck is still holding out for you," Cortana chimed in.
"Hopefully, we can find a favorable situation where we can utilize them instead of abandoning them," Chief replied as he made his way through the ship's interior.
As he walked through the halls, Cortana's distress signal came through the ship's intercom and echoed off the empty metal hallway walls.
"How long was I out?" Chief finally asked.
"Eight months, 29 days," Cortana answered.
"It was only a matter of time till someone found us," Chief stated.
After a bit more walking, they came to the ship's Galactic Positioning System Display, showing a planet with multiple moons orbiting it.
"Are we close to any known celestial bodies? Do you have an idea of what part of the galaxy we ended up in" Chief asked
"None that I recognized within my star charts," Cortana replied.
The Chief then approached an Elevator door and hit the control panel, but he got no response. Seeing that the lifts were offline, he dug his fingers into the doors and, using his strength, pried them open.
"Chief... be careful.." Cortana began to warn, but as the doors were forced open, the compartment they were in went under a violent decompression event and sucked large boxes out, which slammed into Chief's side, and him into the wall of the elevator shaft.
"Because some areas might've lost pressure!" she finished her interrupted warning.
"Right..." Chief mentally cursed himself as he climbed up the shaft, dodging items that came were being sucked out. Climbing from the side of the shaft, he reached his objectives floor and pulled himself up through the elevator doors.
Entering the deserted corridor, he moved to the observation deck ahead of him. Upon entering the expansive room, multiple loud clangs echoed the room. This made Chief shoulder his rifle. "Cortana, assessment?"
"Getting pings on the Dawn's hard points. They're coming through the airlocks... We've been boarded!"
"Let's find out who." Chief moved to the upper platform to the window shutter controls. Hitting the commands, the metal shutters slid down a moment later to reveal multiple small red craft circling the Dawn flying around the ship; some were attached to the Dawn's side at the airlocks while others just floated nearby as humanoid figures floated out onto the Dawn's outer haul. The invaders wore red and black environmental hard suits and carried rifles in hand as they floated along the hull, looking for entry points. The nearest ship flew past them, giving way to a clear view of a techno-eyed skull displayed clearly on its side.
"...That ship there displayed a Jolly Roger. Are we being invaded by space pirates?!" Cortana asked with a small mixture of disbelief and excitement.
"So it would seem." The Chief confirmed this as he saw the ship marking as well. "We don't know their intentions yet. ROI applies first. Try opening a dialogue first; we eliminate them as a threat if they confirm hostile."
They didn't have to wait until the door on the far right of the room opened. Entering were six of the red-clad pirates who walked in. At a closer look at them, their environmental suits looked bulky with plated armor and cobbled-together parts with helmets that hid their faces, and they all carried a type of weapon that the Spartans and A.I. were unfamiliar with. They all walked in a loose wedge formation, meaning they all had some level of military training. Chief moved in and stood above them on the stairs with his weapon pointed down at them.
Captain Conner Stew, along with five of his men, entered what looked like a viewport lounge.
Like many of his men, he was a gutter rat from The Well in New Atlantis. He got his gang together to pull in creds to buy their own ship and joined the Crimson Fleet to get back those UC upper-crust volks that oppressed him and those like him. It was a glorious time of fighting and pillaging UC territory for nearly five years. Getting back and taking what was due for them. They were on The Key when word of this strange space hulk came out of nowhere, and Neeva told us to go check it out. So far, this whole trip has been creepy.
One soldier started talking about random conspiracies that annoyed the rest of them. "Okay, hear me out; this thing was made by another faction outside of the settlement systems."
"Louis... just stop. That's just stupid." Another soldier told the guy. "This ship clearly has some UC design from before the colony war. Just look at the designation, UNSC. U in the front and N in the back. It makes perfect sense."
Stew sighed at his crew's unprofessional bicker. They were great guys and worked well on the job, but sometimes, they were just morons.
"Shut up, you idiots. Whoever this place used to belong to is no longer of concern. All that matters now is that it belongs to the Fleet. Just keep a lookout for anything that could-" He didn't finish his words before they saw what shocked them; it looked like a giant man, clad in heavy green armor that looked better on a FreeStar military mech with a bright golden vizier and standing at least 2 feet taller than themselves. Their shock caused them to draw their weapons. Almost firing when the giant did the same.
"Unknown Boarders, you are trespassing on a United Nations Space Command Vessel; identify yourselves and state your intent, or else I am authorized to use deadly force," Chief warned them.
"Whoa! What the fuck is this?" One pirate shouted.
"Everyone shut up!" Stew shouted at his men before focusing on the newcomer. "And you. We're the Crimson Fleet and declare that this derelict and everything on it belongs to us now. Put the weapon down, and we'll spare your life."
Inside the Chief's helmet, Cortana scuffed at the threat. "These guys must be either stupid or don't know who you are, Chief."
The Master Chief ignored his companion and focused on the one who spoke. He spoke English like the rest of his crew, making them human. They were all armed and pointed their guns at him with no indication of who he was; at the same time, he was wracking his brain on who this group was. Going down the list of insurrection group names he's known about, no Crimson Fleet had ever been through the lists ONI provided him and his Spartan brothers and sisters. If they were pirates, they would be dealt with according to UNSC law.
"You have one more chance to stand down and leave, or you will be treated as a threat," Chief warned again.
"Ah fuck this pig!" One pirate didn't take his threat seriously and chose to attack. His rifle discharged, and Chief felt the bullets impact harmlessly against his shields, sparking in a golden glow. This stuns the pirates in disbelief at what they were seeing, a mistake they paid for.
The Spartan quickly dropped the first three pirates with quick, precise shots, noting that their armor provided little protection against the AP 7.62 rounds. The other three broke from their stupider and fired back in retaliation. The following two fired off their Melstrom auto rifles, their 6.5 rounds colliding against the Mark 6 shield system, draining away the power. The last pirate thought it was a great idea to flank him while shooting a boxy rifle that fired off beams of intense blue light. Taking cover and reloading his weapon behind a pillar, Chief sprinted out of cover and quickly closed the distance on the two pirates; one pirate was crushed against a shoulder tackle by a 1500-pound armored Spartan. Getting the equivalent of a car traveling at 40 miles an hour, sending him flying and crashing into the wall. The Chief then reached out to the next pirate, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him off his feet. With superior strength, he was brought down on the Spartan's knee back first, causing the pirate's back to shatter in several places and killing him. A cry of anger drew the Chief's attention to the last pirate. He was charging right at him with his weapon firing at full blast. His shots sparkled over the Spartan. The Chief shouldered his MA5C and put the pirate down calmly with six shots, four in the chest and two in the head.
It was quiet again, the pirates all down with blood seeping from their suits. Going up to the last one he shot, the Master Chief twisted and yanked off the helmet of the pirate, showing off his freshly dead and human face.
"Well, that confirms their human. I don't get how they didn't recognize you. Spartans are pretty hard to miss, and then there's this." Cortana flashed a waypoint to the man's weapon.
Picking up the rather boxy weapon in hand, Chief looked over it. "Analysis it."
"Scanning." Cortana used the suit's internal scanner over the weapon. "It's some kind of direct laser weapon, like the M6 nonlinear rifle, but with a much smaller charge and capacity. I'm unaware of anyone making something like this."
"Neither do I." He put the weapon aside and drew the dean man's sidearm. It was another weapon he was unfamiliar with. It looked like the UNSC M6C pistol design but felt lighter in his hand than that model. It also sported an electronic ammo count on the back of the slide. A company logo was also on the slide. Looking back at the laser gun, it showed a match on its buttstock. "Do you have anything on Combitech?"
"Negative, Chief. And look at it's ammo." Chief pulls down the slide and drops the pistol mag, revealing the cartridge. "I'm reading it as 7.77MM. I've got nothing in my files that indicates who built this, as it's not even on the civilian market. Something is wrong here."
Chief silently agreed with his companion and set the weapon down. "We'll sort this out later. We have hostiles on board to deal with right now. Didn't the ship's sensors say Weapons Stations are online?" Chief recollected as he dropped the gun and moved to the door.
"Yes, but only a few we have that could be useful," Cortana informed, while at the same time marking all the borders as hostile on the Chief's motion tracker. "The remaining archer missile pods are depleted, so they are out. We still have a single Hyperion Missile in its birth, but using it so close to the frigate would take us along with them. The only other thing available is the two remaining Rampart Point defense guns that the Arbiter didn't take with him when the ship was cut in half, along with the weapon station. I need you to plug me in manually so I can activate them. From there, I can establish a handshake with your suit and take control of them."
The motion tracker lit up as more hostiles entered their range. Chief moved to engage them in close combat. They were quickly picked off, one after the other, leaving none alive. "Where do I need to go?"
"We need to get to the airlock. Head for the Elevator Banks!" Cortana then pinged their location with a waypoint. With an objective set, Chief moved in, eliminating every pirate that stood in his way.
Two pirates jumped out from the shadows with axes in hand when the spartan neared the elevator. They landed on his back, bashing away at his armor with their sharp weapons. The Chief felt a bit of amusement, recalling a similar event when he was trying to get off the Autumn back over Installation 04. Letting his rifle drop to the floor, he grasped hold of both pirates by the arms and twisted them down on the floor before him. Without letting go of them, he dragged them out and brought them together with extreme force, their helmets colliding against one another. They fell in a heap before Chief finished them by drawing his M6G and putting a round in each. The SARHE round made their death quick before picking his rifle up and entering the elevator.
"You were having their fun, weren't you?" Cortana chimed in his helmet with a smug voice.
John didn't comment on that. In truth, he felt a bit lax when fighting these pirates. He and the other spartans were trained to put down Insurrectionists and groups like these pirates. Compared to fighting Covenant mainline infantry after so long, dealing with this Crimson Fleet would be a much more manageable change for once.
As Chief fought his way to the airlock, quickly dispatching the foes he encountered, they reached a small window overlooking the missile bays and a view of the pirate ships.
"Chief, I'm detecting energy admissions coming from the pirate ships. They are shielded!"
That shocked the spartan. Shielded technology was still in its intimacy within the UNSC, and it had only recently been able to reverse engineer Covanet shielding tech. It took them years of dedicated research, tremendous funds, and humanity's most brilliant scientists to make it work. It's also a well-guarded secret that the UNSC and ONI have been jealously protecting. The only successful models he knew about were what was implemented into his Mjolnir power armor systems and the Saber multi-role orbital fighter. How did some pirate gang have access to that tech? Another question is how they are producing it. Either way, their threat level has increased and needs to be eliminated.
"Do we have an idea of where these guys come from?" the Chief asked as he saw a few pirates examining the lunch tubes before engaging them. The pirates were caught unaware as a hailstorm of bullets rained down, breaching their suits and causing them to choke as their oxygen escaped out into the void.
"Their ships originated at a space station in orbit of the planet we are floating on. Why, looking to take them on yourself?" Cortona answered while she observed her super soldier cutting down the last of the pirates along the outer hull.
"If we can. The pirates are somehow in possession of technology that should not be possible in their hands. The amount of damage they could do and get away with is unexceptional." Cheif explained. "Could we use the missile on the station?"
"Negative, Chief. The pirate station is still too far away. It will run out of fuel before impact and calculations for successful impact. And given the distance, the pirates would have time to intercept it before reaching its target."
The Master Chief approached the outer weapons control stations and plugged Cortana into Dawn's network. Not a moment later, the ship's remaining defense guns lit up with power, pointed at the nearest pirate ships, and started sending rounds at them. The first pirate ship was caught entirely off guard. The coilguns firing their 50mm sub-caliber armor-piercing sabots impacted against its shields. The energy displacement system saved the vessel from imminent destruction, but the force behind the UNSC ship-grade rounds sent the pirates tumbling out into the void. A few more cracked them before digging through its hull and turning it into a ball of flame and scrap. The remaining pirate craft shattered to get out of turrets firing arcs, the ships moving slowly to break their loose formation, with only the guns sending another ship to the void.
"Alright... with those guys taken care of. I figured out a way to deal with these guys. A few of their ship had docked with us. If we can steal one, we can take it and make a run for that pirate base." Cortana explained. "You get me in their battle net, and I can look through their logs to find out how they got all this tech."
The plan was solid, and the Chief quickly agreed to it. "Locate the remaining pirate groups still alive on The Dawn, then pinpoint their dacked ships."
"On it."
"The hell's that?!"
"I'm hit!"
"Watch it! GrenaHHSHSHSSS!"
The chatter of despair filtered out of the radio station in the Command Room. This had been going on for the last twenty minutes as each team sent in was mercilessly killed by whatever was on the derelict. Members of the Crimson Fleet that stood watching it felt unnerved at what they were hearing.
"Just what the fuck is going on over here?" Neeva growled. The secondhand woman of the most feared pirate gang in the Settled Systems marked over and picked up the line. "Stew! Ferrell! Someone better tell me who the fuck yall fighting over there!"
"Neeva?! Send backup! It's a goddamn killing machine!" Responded a female member of the boarding team
"Nia? Okay Rook, what is killing you? Use your words and describe it." Neeva ordered.
"I don't know what it is! Definitely not UC or Freestar. It's big, armored like an assault mech, and... and... Oh gZZzzzz!" The line went dead after that. The pirate looked at the radio in disbelief.
Behind her, Delgado stared down the control panel with a focused look. Questions circled his head about the situation. His ships told them the massive object was a dialect. Guesses were made that it was some warship from the Colony War. So, a salvage operation was approved. Now, that operation had turned deadly, as the crews sent on board were being killed off, and whatever turrets the ship had sprung to life, taking a few of the ships like they were nothing.
"Neera!" Delgado called on his second, getting her attention. "Pull everyone back. Regroup for now; we'll decide what to do with this later and form a proper response."
The other pirate leader nodded before returning to the radio. "All members of the Fleet. Pull back out with your ships and return to the Key. We'll sort this out later with more manpower and firepower."
In space around the Forward Unto Dawn, the few pirate vessels not docked with the derelict retreated to the Key. Meanwhile, two of the three remaining boarding craft popped off and retreated. However, for the last ship...
"What the hell? Why are we still here?"
"The latch isn't responding. We're still attached. "
"Is it on our end?"
"No, our system was fine last time Durand looked at it last week."
Shurshek.
"Was that the fucking docking hatch that just opened?"
"Did Stew and the rest of them make it back?"
"I thought they bought it like the rest of them?"
"Yeah... I'm pretty sure they SHIT!"
BANGBANGBANG BANGBANGBANG BANGBANGBANG
The Master Chief is cooking.
I'm happy so far for the positive feedback I'm getting here with this story. Not completely sure where I'm going to take this after our favorite Spartan fights the Crimson Fleet so who knows what I'll think up.
Now to answer a some things that was privately asked in my DM's. NO, I am not making this Chief X Cortana fic. Mainly on the subject that I am terrible with romance would not be able to write a good one that would attract readers and not offend half the fandom.
Another thing. I'm currently "UN-interested" commission art. If people want to make fan art my idea than I give you go ahead for it. But I'm currently in not in the market for such and the 30+ private message from 30+ different people, half of which waving red flags to my eyes on fake accounts, you can stop with the messages. Seriously stop. It was nice at first but its getting ridicules.
Otherwise I'd love to read more comments in this story and what you readers think about this.
So till next time, I'll see you out there in the web!