//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Halo: Into a Darker Storm // by Slaphappy16 //------------------------------// Alice, SPARTAN-130, walked silently towards the cryo chambers. Douglas and Jerome had already crawled inside their pods and were ‘sleeping’. She came upon the shut pod of Sgt. Forge. The recent fight on the shield world filled her mind. From The Battle of Arcadia, the nightmarish Flood, to the Apex. The three Spartans had defended the Spirit of Fire’s Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine, or in layman’s terms, the thing that makes you go very very fast, from a force of Elite Honor Guards. While this happened, Sgt. Forge dueled with The Arbiter. After he had killed The Arbiter with his own sword, Alice had the honor of rolling the dead beast over the cliff. She also policed his camo unit. The spooks at ONI will want it. After the attack was cleared, Jerome had volunteered to ensure the engine was destroyed, for its destruction would demolish the forerunner ships previously activated and make them useless to the covenant. Sgt.Forge had denied his request, stating ‘they would need every last Spartan in the fight’. He stayed back and sacrificed himself for all of them. He was one of those rare soldiers- might as well of been a Spartan in that armor. Alice continued on towards her cryo pod. As she came upon one of the last open pods, she had that feeling that something was going to go wrong… She shook the feeling away as she stepped into the pod. The pod closed and she was slowly eased in unconsciousness by the ever-so freezing temperatures. *** It was two weeks since the Spirit of Fire had left the shield world to its explosive destruction, and almost nobody walked around the ship, as they were still in cryo sleep. Only a few still wondered about, two of which being Captain James Cutter and Prof. Ellen Anders. “Anders, you did a great job. You got all of them out of there alive.” Cutters stated as he escorted her to the cryo pods. From what he knew, she hadn’t slept at all since her time off the shield world. He was finally forcing her to get into the cryo pod. They stopped at Anders pod. She turned and looked him in the eye. “Not all of them.” She sadly stated. She then turned around and stepped inside the tube. Cutter watched as she was frozen into a dormant state. Cutter turned away and started the small trek towards his own pod. True, they had lost many men, one of which Cutter would have trusted with his life. But that was war, and that fact has been nailed into his mind, sinking deeper and deeper with every passing battle. He stopped momentarily in front of his own pod to undress. Wearing clothing in cryo sleep led to freezer burn, blisters and rashes for a few days after getting out of cryo. Now that he thought of it, Anders was going to regret going into cryo with her clothes after she woke. He stepped into the small pod, letting the slow freeze take him under. *** “Captain, wake up. Something has happened.” Serina, the AI that helped run the ship, said as she quickly awoke Captain Cutter from his pod. “Huh? What?” Cutter groggily replied as he stepped out. “Get to the bridge, we have a problem.” Cutter quickly dressed himself and made his way through the barren ship towards the bridge. Once he walked through, he noticed Serina’s female avatar hovering over the command table. “What is it Serina?” “I’m picking up slipspace signals. Two, to be exact.” Serina answered. “Well, can you tell if they're ours?” Cutter asked. “No, we just have to wait. If there Covenant, it won’t be long.” Serina said. “Either way, wake everybody up from cryo and scramble. Last thing I need is to be caught by a pair of covenant ships with no means of defending ourselves.” Cutter ordered. A few minutes later, the bridge crew started to trickle in. As they sat down, Cutter turned back towards Serina. “Any idea on how long this could take?” “To be frank, I wish I did. I’m bored already.” Cutter couldn’t help but smile slightly at that remark. She was a ‘smart’ AI, she could process more and acted more human than the ‘dumb’ AI’s. She also had a strange love for chocolate. “Then I guess we will have to wait.” Just like Serina said, they didn’t have to wait for long. Soon, two ships melted into view from seemingly nowhere. “Aaww, fuck.” One of the bridge crew whispered as he stared at the two purple bulbous ships slowly turning towards them. “Covenant. Great.” He looked over to the ghostly figure on the dashboard. “Serina, initiate Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1, the Cole Protocol." Cutter glanced over at one of the officers sitting at weapons. "Lieutenant Lea, I want Archer missile pods A-E hot and ready to fire onto the closest ship. Also, charge the MAC cannon and give me a firing solution to gut the ship after the missiles hopefully take down the shields." He turned to one of the officers sitting at navigation. "Lieutenant Dunkan, give them the smallest possible target, but allow the firing solution a clear course." “Aye Sir!” Serina, Lea and Dunkan said in unison as they saluted. The ship shuttered as they turned their nose towards the purple giants in the distance. Cutter could do nothing for those precious seconds but watch as the two covenant ships loomed ever so closer. “Sir, firing solution ready. Making a couple tweaks... done. Mac at 60% charge. Archer missiles ready to fire.” “Good. Fire on my command…” Cutter waited for a moment and examined the firing solution before giving the order. “Fire!” Large thumps could be heard across the ship as 150 missiles arched and weaved their way through space. The sides of the closest covenant ship glowed before it sent off its own torpedoes. The globs of boiling blue plasma impacted on the missiles, destroying a quarter of them. The torpedoes that didn’t hit the missiles streaked for the ship. Meanwhile, the remaining Archer missiles hit their target. The ships shield shimmered, changed color to red, and popped. 5 Archer missiles impacted on the surface of the covenant ship. “Serina, how is the MAC?” Cutter asked as he watched the battle through the front screen. “87% sir. We will be ready to fire in a few more seconds.” “That’s not gonna be fast enough, Serina! Cut some power from the support engines and use it to speed it up!” Cutter angrily said as the second covenant ship started to charge its own torpedoes. The glowing blobs on the Covenant ship condensed and started fly towards the ship. “MAC ready sir.” “Fire!” The ship rocked as the special four-shot MAC gun shot, but it was cut off by a bigger rumbling as the plasma torpedoes impacted. The bridge rocked, and some of the crew were thrown to the ground. Cutter held on to the rail to keep himself steady. “Serina, status?!” Cutter asked, his hands started to sweat. “Direct hit to the MAC, it was cut short and only three shots made it out. It is unusable. Direct hit to our Comms unit, max communication range dropped to 1 mile. Fires throughout decks D-F. Venting. Archer pods M-Z destroyed. It would seem they're crippling us and are going to attempt to board.” Cutter watched the screen as he heard the devastating news. The three tungsten shells from the MAC obliterated the covenant ship, one demolishing their engines, another hitting close to the top, sending them spiraling out of control. The last missed and continued its journey through space. “Like hell they will. Serina, initiate main engine meltdown. Dunkan, set a course for the last covenant ship. Alarm the ship of a collision course. Heat up and fire whatever missiles we have left. Tell the Spartans to take the Professor to the lifeboats, and that it was an honor serving with them.” “Sir?” Serina said, a hint of confusion in her voice. “Were about to be boarded, sending a few hundred covenant into our ship. Even with the Spartans, they will get to something important before we can stop them. And if they do stop them, that cruiser has at least a thousand ready covenant troops. They might get to the bridge, and there they will find the location of earth. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. The battle we just had against the covenant back over the Shield World basically depleted us of all ship-to-ship weapons. We have nothing left but a few hundred marines, and maybe 20 ODST’s. Time it so we blow ourselves and that covenant vessel.” Cutter went through the list. “Aye, setting collision course for the last covenant ship. Alerting the Spartans now.” *** “Alright, we need to be ready for anything. Take what yo-“ Jerome was interrupted by an alarm and red flashing lights. A voice he recognized as Serina’s was heard throughout the deck. “Collision imminent. Self destruct sequence set. Abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship.” The Spartans looked at each other. Serina’s voice came up again, but within their helmets. “Captain Cutter wants you to take Professor Anders off the ship. She will be meeting you at the lifeboats. The Captain gives his regards; it’s been an honor serving with you.” Serina finished. There was a small click, then nothing. “All right, change of plans. You heard her. Take what you can and get to the lifeboats. We have no idea where in space we are, for all we know, we're right next to the covenant capital.” If that was so, they would all be dead by now. But Jerome hated not being prepared for anything. Douglas grabbed a standard issue M19 SSM Rocket Launcher. He hefted it up and checked its condition. When he was satisfied, he grabbed one of the dual-rocket 'magazines' and snapped it into place. He then grabbed 3 more and placed them into their respective areas around his armor. He then picked up an MA37 Assault Rifle, and 9 32-bullet magazines. He finished his arsenal with the M6D Personal Defense Pistol and 5 mags and a silencer. Jerome checked over an SRS99 Sniper rifle. This thing could wreck a Scorpion tank with enough shots, and a skyward Banshee with no ease at all. As a plus, the magazines were small, and he could also take rounds and refill them. He took 6 mags and slapped another into the sniper, adding up to 28 rounds total. Unlike Douglas, he grabbed a single M7S Caseless Submachine Gun. With 48 rounds and a silencer, it was the perfect close-range weapon for a sniper. He snapped 4 magazines into place around his armor, and finished with the same pistol as Douglas. When Douglas and Jerome were finished, they looked to see how Alice was doing. Alice lifted up the biggest gun a SPARTAN could carry and use on the battlefield. An AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun turret. She looked down towards the bipod. She kicked it off as if it was an annoying bug. Now happy that it was fit for her, she looked up and noticed the other two staring at her. “What?” “Is that really necessary?” Douglas asked. “Hey, you get a rocket launcher, and you get a sniper rifle. Am I supposed to take a regular machine gun and be happy? Cmon, give me a break.” She said and continued picking up the same setup as Douglas, minus the rocket launcher and plus the HMG. She stuck a 200 round box-mag into the turret, and grabbed two more and stuffed them into her backpack. “Alright, are we ready?” Jerome asked as he inspected his team. Alice nodded, but Douglas hesitated. “Cmon, we don’t have all day. What do you need now?” Jerome was getting impatient. In case they forgot, the ship wasn’t that far from giving a death-kiss to that covenant destroyer. “Just one more thing…” He grabbed a medium-sized backpack. Jerome knew exactly what it was. A Damage Pack, or ‘Blow Pack’, was a backpack that carried C-12. Two of these packs had enough explosives to blow three meters into the standard UNSC armor plating. Solid, but just malleable to be shaped to stick to any surface or fitted into tight spots, it was a force to be reckoned with. Douglas was the demolitions expert of the team, and he hated not going somewhere without the stuff. He also clipped the detonator the pack. “Ok, I’m ready.” Douglas said. “Professor Anders is waiting for us, let’s move.” Jerome started to run towards the lifeboats. Even with the heavy machine gun Alice toted and all the explosives Douglas was carrying, they kept up easily. A lot of the crew gave them various looks. Some of awe at the sight of the legendary SPARTANS, and some in fear. After all, they looked like they were getting ready to fight a small country. When they reached the lifeboats, seven still remained. Professor Anders stood waiting, a worried look plastered to her face. “Hello, Ma’am. Sorry for the wait. Shall we get off this time-bomb?” Jerome asked as he walked up to the civilian. “That would be much appreciated, but why so packed with weaponry?” Professor Anders asked as she started to step into the closest lifeboat. “We don’t like to be unprepared.” He simply stated. “I see…” Jerome followed her into the lifeboat, the metal chair buckled a bit as he got into the pilot seat. It was almost too small for the behemoth. He tapped a button on the dashboard, and the door to the lifeboat closed, a loud bang as the air-tight slab of metal slammed against the boat. “We're leaving the other Spartans?” Anders asked, confusion in her voice. “Of course not. They’re taking different pods. More chance of survival, between being shot out of the sky and oxygen levels emptying faster.” Jerome explained as they shot away from the ship. The small metal egg bounced for a bit, but slowly stopped. The battle raged on in front of them. The Covenant destroyer continued to batter the Spirit of Fire. The small boarding-ships continued toward the UNSC ship. He could also see Alice’s and Douglas’s lifeboats following closely behind. Jerome took one last look at the ship. He had grown to respect Captain Cutter, he was smart. He knew what the hell he was doing. He just hoped he knew what he was doing this time. *** “Captain Cutter, the Spartans and Professor Anders have cleared the ship.” “Good news. It will be our last of the kind, other than knowing were gonna blow the hell out of this damned covenant ship.” Cutter smiled as the boarding craft made an attempt get out of the way of the speeding UNSC ship. There was a small bump as one of the boarding craft got to know his ship a bit more than it probably wanted to. He knew the covenant ship wouldn’t shoot down the lifeboats; they were too focused on him. This was confirmed as they took another hit. “Fires in decks G and I. Venting now.” Serina reported. “How is the evacuation?” Cutter asked. He obviously knew the Spartans and the professor were out, but those weren’t the only ones he cared for. “The majority of the lifeboats are away. Seraph fighters incoming to take them down, though.” Serina warned him. “Activate the point defense guns. Don’t let them take down any of them.” Cutter ordered. He knew he couldn’t save all of them, though. Hopefully, at least the Spartans and Anders would survive. He watched from the camera view as little bright lights wizzed across the battlefield. Flickers of shields and small explosions accompanied them. “Sir, I think they know what we’re doing. They're increasing speed, and attempting to move.” Serina voice came up once again. “Adjust course. Don’t let them get away.” If the covenant ship survived, there would be nothing left. Nobody to warn the rest of humanity of The Flood. Nobody to tell them about the forerunners. Nobody to tell there story. Of course, there was still the chance everybody was going to rot away inside their lifeboats until they die. But that’s not the bright side, and as of now, Cutter needed an entire bloody supernova. “Course re-adjusted. Collision in twenty seconds.” “You know Serina, there was something if always wanted to ask you.” Cutter began. “Yes sir?” “Why do you have such an obsession for chocolate?” “To be honest Captain, I have no clue.” Serina answered. “Huh. I’ve never met an AI quite like you Serina. It was great working with you.” “Ditto, Captain. Collision in five. Four. Three. Two. One.” Cutter couldn’t help but laugh as the entire ship blew up around him. If only he could see the look on those covenant bastards faces. *** Anders watched as the Spirit of Fire collided with purple covenant ship. She would miss Cutter. And Forge. The Seraphs had retreated their attacks and returned to their ship, which was strange seeing as they were only going to meet their death’s there. And they had to know it. Either way, it was no longer her problem. Her new problem would be floating around in space for god knows how long. “Jerome, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you really so armed to the teeth?” Anders figured time would pass faster with small talk. Jerome was still in the ‘drivers’ seat (you couldn’t really drive it, just aim it and hope for the best). “You ever get that feeling that everything is about to go to hell?” he asked without turning. She had. The Flood. The moment she saw one take over a marine’s body… “Yes. Did you have one of those?” “In a way. Something is going to happen, I just don’t know when. Whether it’s bad or good, can’t tell you. All I know is that something will happen…” * They had floated about for two days. They had passed the time with little word games. Anders almost never won. They were much smarter than they looked. They would sleep in shifts. Somebody would always be looking for some livable planet or sign of civilization. And today was their lucky day. Alice was sitting back in the driver seat, snacking on some crackers from an MRE. She looked out into the infinite void. A sun slowly started to grow as they came closer to it. So peaceful. Spartans almost never got time of serenity like this. It gave them the chance to think. She wondered how all the other Spartans were doing. This reminded her of her childhood. CPO Mendez. The ‘Playground’. The Augmentation. Her body shivered at remembering that living hell. It was like hammers smashing down onto her bones, a hot knife slowly melting through her, liquid napalm seeping through her veins. She shook her head. It was all worth it. It had made her was she was today. She took it as an honor to be called a demon by the stubby little grunts. She looked about the vast blackness again. They were passing the sun now. Not far, she spied a little planet. She enhanced zoom. How had she just now noticed it? It looked like it could hold life… “Jerome, Douglas, I got something.” She said over her mic. They were able to talk, as long as they didn’t get out of radio range. There was some fumbling on the other end, and Douglas’s voice came up. “What did you find?” “You see that planet?” She tagged it so they knew where to look. “Yeah… Looks inhabitable.” Jerome spoke up. “I’ll take a scan really quick and see what we get.” There was a moment of silence as Jerome worked the scanner, checking the atmosphere and its various gases. “It shows up nearly identical to Earth. I mean, you can’t get any better than this! 79% nitrogen, 19% oxygen, and it has all the other small gasses, but I’m detecting another gas. Not even sure if it's gas. Either way, there is not enough there to effect us. I’m also getting traces of water vapor. Good eye Alice. I think you just saved us.” Jerome stated. They all turned using small puffs from the small RCS modules planted on the side of the pods, and were slowly pointed towards the planet. Looked like they were going to end up on the bright side. Ever so slowly, they made their way to the growing ball until it took up the entire window of the lifeboat. The sides of the window started to show little spots of red. When they started to grow brighter, she hit a button on the dashboard. The engines on the front powered up, and the lifeboat slowed. She could see one lifeboat a ways away. Looked like they were gonna have to walk quite a ways to find each other. She was about to deploy the parachute when there was a small explosion on the front of the lifeboat. That couldn’t be good. She franticly checked the boats diagnostics. One of the four engines had overheated! This was proved as the uneven ship started to slowly spiral. This was bad. It was slowly getting faster. She started to sway farther away from the other pods. She quickly went through her possibilities. A: she could stay in the ship and say hi to St. Peter on her way down to hell, or B: she could jump. The second possibility was certainly not unheard of among Spartans. They had been trained for that kind of situation, and that looked like her only option. She assorted all of her equipment as fast as she could, except for heavy things like (though regrettably) her Heavy Machine Gun. She waited until they were further within the atmosphere. If she jumped now, her armor might be able to take the heat, but on the inside, she would cook like a turkey. By the time she was ready, the lifeboat was whipping angrily side to side. She punched the airlock, and immediately everything flew about, a loud roaring flowing through the air. She shut off her external speakers so she didn’t go deaf. Without another thought, she jumped away from the lifeboat, which tumbled down away from her. She spread her arms and legs and put her shield right under complete armor lock. It was harder to move, but it would ultimately save her life. Next part- she looked for the closest possible area, like a mountain. She spied the closest mountain, and though not the biggest, she aimed herself towards it. It had an awkward shape. Her shield slowly started to drain. The closer she got to the mountain, the more it looked less like a mountain. By the time she was ready for part three, she was completely sure there was something… different about this mountain. There was a castle planted right on the side. Well, she couldn’t reposition herself now. Looks like she was about to meet the occupants. Just before she hit, she curled herself into a ball flew straight into it. *** Luna sat next to her sister Celestia with a bored look on her face, her arm bent so that her head rested on her hoof. They were at some meeting for taxes or something like that. She wasn’t really trying her best to listen. It almost made her happy she wasn’t here for the past 1,000 years, so she wouldn’t have to put up with these. She started poking at her magical, constantly flowing hair. She had always thought it looked like a giant glob of goo. Oh, how cool. There was a star blowing up in her little miniature space. They were so fun to look at. After a while, another star would take its place. She was so content watching her hair that she didn’t notice it. A slight change. In… what? Something was happening though. She could feel it. “Uh, Tia?” she poked her sister. “Yes, Luna?” she whispered, trying not to interrupt. Though on the inside, she hated these things just as much as Luna. “We have felt something… but we are not sure what it is.” Luna explained. “Like what?” “We don’t know, just some feeling. Like that strange pink pony Twilight is friends with gets.” “Pinkie Pie?” “Yes, that one.” “Yeah, she is a bit strange, isn’t she?” “You know, I th-bah! We're getting off track! Point is, I really think we should-“ She was cut off by a huge crash in the room above them. The roof suddenly exploded and a green object flew across the room, skipping three times before implanting in the wall. The room went dead silent. The earth pony that was explaining some tax problems jaw dropped. Luna looked up into the hole above them. A red pony head slowly came into view as he looked down at them. It had came through the wall of the room on top of this, and then through their roof. Man. It must’ve been going fast. The door burst open, and six guard ponies ran into the room. They all turned to the green thing in the wall. It was like a starfish. A big green starfish. They too went silent. The thing started to slowly peel of the wall, and landed on the ground unceremoniously. It had a big gold piece staring up at the roof. A few passers-by’s poked their heads through the door, and Shining Armor came running in. “What the hay was that-“ He stopped for a moment to look down at the green metallic thing in front of him. He looked around at the startled guard ponies. “Don’t just stand there, do something!” He ordered. They all snapped out of there trance and gave their yes-sirs, and then circled around it defensively, swords and spears pulled out. The thing suddenly started to glow for a moment, and stopped. “Well, what now?” one of them asked. “I don’t know…” another said. “What is it?” a third reached down to poke it. *** Alice slowly came to. She heard nothing. She checked her diagnostics without moving, not wanting to risk breaking something further. The screen took up her vision for a moment. Her rib cage took some heavy damage; she would have to tend to that soon. Other than her high blood pressure, which was perfectly normal, she was fine. She checked her weapons. Her assault rifle was apparently missing, but her pistol was still in its holster, nothing wrong. There was a small sound as her shields recharged. She double checked the diagnostics, making sure everything was fine. There was a slight prod to her head. She blinked away the screen, and looked about. Seven white four-legged creatures stood around her, all pointing some sort of weapon at her. Instinct kicked in. She did the first thing every Spartan was trained to do when faced with a threat. She reacted.