Chief wasn't sure what was the weirdest part about this mission. It wasn't that he was working along side covenant. No, he had gone on missions with covenant species a lot recently and was used too it. It wasn't the fact they had encountered a new species. The officer who had briefed them said it was a distinct possibility. No, he had decided one of two things were weird about this. Either it was that they were arguing with a blue skinned female who called herself Liara T'soni and her friends, two of which, three including herself, seemed to have telekinesis, or that they were on a world where there were talking horses. Yeah. Probably that last one.
…
The whole thing started about a month ago back on earth. He was called to a briefing for an exploratory mission, or as the rank and file called them, “Lewis and Clark” missions. He was the last one to the briefing room. He sat next to an elite he knew well. The former arbiter of the covenant, Thel Vadam. Probably the only covenant he was relatively comfortable around. Chief wasn't wearing his armor, much as he wanted too. There were also some Spartan-fives, or, more accurately, three. There was a single brute in the room, a head taller than Thel, with green fur. Obviously dyed. There was also a single jackal. It looked familiar, but most jackals looked alike, so he wasn't certain. “Must be important if they have a Kig-yar and Jiralhanae with us,” Thel whispered to Chief. Before Chief could respond, the officer giving the briefing walked in. Chief and the Spartan-fives stood up and at attention.
He looked to be in his mid to late thirties, which could easily mean he was in his late sixties to early seventies. Most people think that while your in cryosleep, you still age. That wasn't the case, though, as the cryo pods freeze you at absolute zero, effectively keeping you at the biological age you are when you step in to one. For example, chronologically, John was forty-seven, but biologically, speaking he was about twenty- five years old, though he didn't look it due to the wrinkles he had due to the stress war tends to put on you.
“At ease, Spartans. My name is Lt. Commander Mathews, and I'll be briefing all of you.” The Spartans sat down and the screen behind the Lt. Commander lit up and what appeared to be statistics scrolled across it. Chief had been to enough of these to tell what they read. They said the planet was similar in size too earth, only slightly smaller than earth, in fact. Similar atmosphere to earth in the 20th century. The only thing of interest was that the bottom said “Structures present, intelligent lifeforms possible.” He wasn't the only one who noticed. One of the Spartan-fives stood up and asked “Sir, the information board says “Intelligent lifeforms possible.” How can we be certain?”
The officer looked a bit annoyed that someone skipped ahead of the schedule. “Well, Ken, we can't be for certain for a multitude of reasons, including the fact they might be forerunner structures. Another reason is that every probe sent, we've lost contact with, which is why the team is the way it is.”
Chief was wondering why a brute was with them. They weren't exactly the most “diplomatic” species, more of a “beat your skull in just for the fun of it” species, but if there was going to be combat, he would rather have one on his side.
“You will also have a squad of ODSTs with you,” Mathews said, surprising the chief, but he kept his mouth shut, as he didn't want to show disrespect. Plus, he had fought alongside ODSTs before. They were a kind of scaled down Spartan, only lacking the modifications Spartans needed to wear the armor that had become a symbol of human strength. The rest of the briefing was what the chief though it would be. “They'll meet you on your ship. I'll give you all time to get too know one another.”
Chief really only paid attention to names and skills during that time. He found out that the brute was, in fact naturally green, that it was a very rare genetic mutation, and that his name was Hades, and ironically, he was selected because of not only his strength, but his diplomatic skills. The jackals name was sawn and was a damn good pilot and was one of the few jackals that was actually loyal to more than his next paycheck. The spartan-fives, he found out were actually paramilitary privateers who worked with the UNSC on missions like this on a regular basis. Though they had no rank, their defacto leader was the one who spoke out earlier, Ken. He had a unique armor combination, his helmet being that of a raider Spartan. He had a scout armor piece for his left shoulder and an air assault shoulder piece on the right. He had a warrior class chest piece, with bulk model greaves and inner plated arm guards. His second in command was a woman named Lily, who like Ken and their heavy weapons expert Maruco, had cyan as her primary color, but unlike Ken, whose secondary color was brick, and Maruco, who had an olive secondary, her secondary was steel black. Her armor was entirely air assault class armor. Maruco's armor was entirely an E.O.D armor set. Chief assumed the secondary was to help them differentiate each others armor from the others until Ken told him that they were only three of their group and each secondary designated what role they had in an op. Given what they were going to be doing, it was obvious what their colors meant. Maruco said that they were going to be using their ship, a frigate called Tip of the Spear.
…
To say the Tip of the spear was a frigate was as huge an understatement as saying that John was a celebrity. It looked like a frigate, except that it had three MAC cannons, three hundred archer missile silos, and to top it off, according to Lily anyway, shields that were almost as strong as the UNSC Infinity, and was as large as a marathon class cruiser. When Sawn remarked this, he said, “It seems Kig-yar aren't the only good ship thieves in the galaxy.”
“We didn't steal it, we got it from the credits we get from jobs and the occasional bit of legal salvage,” Ken replied, almost automatically, which implied he had to say this often. “Though we did have some help from Kig-yar.” This got a chuckle out of Sawn and a slight grin from John.
Just before they docked, a voice that John assumed belonged to their A.I.. “Ken, those ODSTs that were supposed to be coming with us were taken by ONI just before you guys came into sensor range.” “Copy that, Artemis. You know what to do,” Ken replied. “Of course. Wish me luck,” Artemis replied.
Lily, who was in the cockpit of their pelican, said “ Don't worry anyone. We may have the firepower to level Sydney ten times over, but we tend to tell Hood this and he makes sure ONI knows that we could just as easily turn on ONI, not that we would, but it is there.” This comment made John worry a little, simply because Lily mentioned turning on ONI, not that he liked them a lot, but they were still human, if only because they had been born that way.
…
As soon as they docked, John noticed that every console that would have been in the bridge was in the hanger. When he asked Ken about this, Ken replied, “We saw a lot of ships destroyed during the war after their bridge was destroyed in the first salvo of plasma, even if the ships themselves survived the shot itself. Plus, with this not being a UNSC ship, we can have the layout however we like.” At this, he turned to Lily and Maruco. “ Hey, guys, mind showing our guests the layout in person. I need to make sure we'll be ready to lift off when it's time. Maruco, you can show them the armory so long as you don't go overboard with showing them our custom weapons.”
Maruco responded by saying, “Sure Ken. Killjoy,” mumbling that last bit.
…
The walk to the armory was one that took about ten minutes. As Thel and the others were led there, Lily tried to make small talk with everyone. “So Thel, why did you decide to leave the covenant, or at least step down as arbiter,” she asked, scaring Thel a bit as he didn't see her right there. But she asked a legitimate question. Why had he stepped down as the arbiter? “Honestly, Lily. I wanted to make a difference more directly than the arbiter ever did. Even then, so many people recognize me, it's like I can't get away from that title.” Lily thought about that then said, “ I suppose that makes sense.” She then turned towards Hades and asked, “So Hades, what's your story? Why exactly were you chosen for the mission, especially given the tension between your people and the Sangheili?” Hades had an almost amused smile on his face just before he answered.
“Well, unlike a lot of my kin, I didn't look at only physical strength to determine who my commander should be. I looked at the tactics they employed, and with those, the causality rates of those under their command. This got the attention of the prophets, who eventually gave me my own command, though, it was probably just so I wouldn't become a further issue for them. When the great schism came, I was one of the few of my race, relatively speaking, of course, who stayed loyal to the Sangheili, even after the rebellion on Sangheilios shortly after the wars conclusion. I was actually a large part of the group that put down that group and the servants of abiding truth.” If Lily had her helmet off, everyone would see her slack-jawed expression at Hades service record, or at least it's condensed version.
She was able to recover her wits and asked Sawn the same thing. “About the same thing as Hades really, with out the prophets wanting to see me of course, but still,” he replied. Just before she could say any thing else, Maruco, who was leading them, stopped and turned around tho face the group.
“Okay, before we go in, some ground rules. One: you are not to touch any of the weapons without my permission. Two, and this is also the last: If one of you jackasses touches Honest AJ, I will make you wish that the war was still going on and you were bleeding out!” Lily rolled her eyes at this, knowing he was referring to his DMR. She turned off her armors external speakers and opened a com channel to the ships other AI. I still can't believe that we got enough reactor components to be able to make a reactor that can power our ship and two AIs without going critical.
“Apollo, you there?” The AI, who wore an ancient Greek tunic and carried a lyre (or was it a harp?) was basically a male version of Artemis, who had a similar outfit, but had a bow and arrow instead of a musical instrument, replied almost immediately in his trademark voice that had a bit of self confidence in it.
“Yes, Lily. What do you need,” he asked, sounding annoyed. “ Think you can get Maruco's theme song going,” she asked. Almost immediately, the one song she and Ken thought described Maruco perfectly started playing.
The look on everyone elses faces showed that they had no idea what was going on. “We all have a song that the others think describes our personality well. This is what me and Ken think describe our weapon master perfectly.” At this, Maruco flicked Lily off and opened the door into the armory.
…
While the others were getting a tour of the ship, Ken was in the hanger/bridge making sure that the ship was ready for take off. He was in the process of making sure the engines were ready when Artemis came in over his com.
“Ken, our benefactor just contacted me. She said that when we get to that planet, there are going to be native life. Sentient life. I asked how she knew, but she just said that we will find out in due time. What she did tell me, though, is that an old enemy of ours is probably going to be making an appearance.”
“Any idea who she means Artemis? She knows as well as I do that we have no shortage of old enemies,” Ken said, though he had a pretty good idea as to who it was if the person who told him about it and introduced him to Lily and Maruco contacted one of their AIs. “Actually, scratch that. I don't want to know.”
“Right. By the way, I just got talking to Hood. He says that we can destroy any ONI facilities we might find between the end of this mission and the start of the next and not expect there to be a lot of FLEETCOM after our asses, so long as they aren't doing anything Hood would approve of. Also, the ships ready to take off. I'll let the crew know so they can get to sleep,” Artemis said, a hint of confidence in her voice.
“Right. Guess it wouldn't hurt for me to get some shuteye, either. Let me know if any thing bad happens. And no, that dosn't include Maruco sleep walking to get his DMR. That's to be recorded at his expense for everyone else's entertainment.”
…
John was in his bed a few hours later, but his dreams were anything but calming.
What he saw amazed him. What he saw was a large hallway that was tall enough to hold a pelican standing on its wing. He also saw stained glass window panel, though he could not make out what was on them.
“Quite spectacular, isn't it,” a voice said behind him. John looked behind him to see what could only be described as an ONI project gone wrong. He saw an animal with a dragon like body, whose arms were from different animals. His, and John knew it was a he from the voice, head was that of a horse and had two horns on it. John could also see what looked like wings on his back.
Jumping into his training, John immediately assumed a combat position. “What the hell are you,” he asked. The strange creature only laughed at this.
“I can't tell you who I am, much as I would like to. To answer the question already forming in your mind, you are in your own mind, inside a dream I created for the purpose of talking with you.” The creature than snapped his claws on his more eagle talon like hand, and the scenery vanished, to be replaced by a dark room, one that reminded John of where he first encountered the flood on Halo. “I don't have much time, so you'll have to listen closely. The mission you and your crew mates are on is just a front to get you to the planet I live on so you can be killed. I can say that won't happen when you first encounter the others who live here, though I recommend that you don't, oh, what's the expression, 'Shoot first, ask questions later,'. Regardless, those you meet on the planet will become your allies in a new fight that would make your most recent mission of galactic proportions look like a border skirmish where everyone was injured, if only due to the amount of people it will affect. It may not be a bloody battle, but it will only be a battle. The war will be the bloodiest you have ever known.”
At this, the creature began to disappear, but before it could fully, it gave but one more bit of advice. “Trust your heart.” What John thought the thing meant, he had no idea. He did know that, just from its tone, the creature was deadly serious, which scared John a little. Something worse than the Didact. How is that even possible he thought to himself. He then woke up to an alarm on the Spear.