I Have Returned

by EPiiCx5587

Chapter 2 Games Of War

I Have Returned Chapter 2:
Games of War

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Wargames loading… loading… complete
Map: Haven
Gametype: Ricochet
Fireteam: Crimson + fireteam Twilight leader
Time: 0740 hours

In a blinding flash Jane's senses came back to her as the map around her literally built itself bit by bit as each aspect from the geometry to the lighting came into view in all its magnificent glory creating an utterly beautiful world full of detail right before her eyes until the entirety of the map could be seen:
Whether it was the sun setting over the blue skies, the glow from the lights around them, or the way the metals were layered upon one another creating strange patterns, she loved every bit of it and couldn't get over how real it looked considering that it was just a computer simulation, but then again the UNSC did have deep pockets. The map was a personal favorite of hers, Haven. It was a symmetrical map set in a Forerunner environment which was why it was her favorite, the sprawling architecture created a sense of amazement in the young woman's heart. She quickly glanced to her sides making sure everything went right and that she spawned next to her team, and thankfully she did as she saw the rest of Fireteam Crimson spawn around her.

First on her left was Crimson himself in his sleek blue and white armor using mostly ventonater RPTR armor parts with a deadeye helmet, and a solar visor creating a threatening vibe that any Spartan would absolutely die for. Sadly though her armor was far more basic, but it had the pink and purple colors of the highlights in her hair, so it had a personal feel which was good enough for her. Alongside Crimson was the rest of his fire team Spartan Irus, and Spartan Therin. It was recently implemented that only fireteam leaders could have customized armor while the rest of the team would have to wear standard recruit armor with the same colors as the fireteam leader had as was the case with the two Spartans.

Her first instinct was what all Spartans typically did, run for whatever power weapon was in the middle of that map. From the looks of the blips she had on her heads up display she had three to choose from:
The first one was a Promethean scattershot on the lower level where most combat occurred during regular matches, second was a Covenant energy sword on the higher level, and the third was a Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (aka. Spartan laser) located in a small compartment that was a bit hard to reach. Out of the three weapons the sword was obviously stronger because of its lunge attack, but it made herself more noticeable and she'd still need to be fairly close to use it while others could still attack from a distance. The Scattershot though being an actual gun let her deal damage at a slightly longer range which seemed ideal, but the weapon could only be deadly at even closer ranges than the swords lunge attack, plus there was the fact it spawned right next to the ball which meant that there would be more activity in that sector. The Spartan laser had excellent damage and was almost always an instant kill but it only had four or five shots and it took a few seconds to charge up, not ideal for a long term battle. She didn't have any time to decide though so she chose that she would go for the sword and found herself running towards in a mere second after the match started.

She was halfway to the upper middle area of the map where the sword spawned when she decided to activate her armor ability Promethean vision an ability that let her see through wall for a short time frame. Thankfully most of the enemy team was heading for the ball, key word most as she saw one enemy Spartan heading for the sword as well. And just like that her armor ability ran out of energy and where she once saw the enemy was now blocked by a small mound of cover that she saw through.

Jane once again had two options. There were two ways to go around the cover the was behind, the way on her right side contained the sword that she could possibly get, but at the same time the opposing Spartan could also get it. The second option was to go to her left and flank the enemy who would probably go for the sword, giving her the perfect attack plan. She chose the latter of the two and saw the Spartan heading to the sword completely oblivious that she was there. Seeing her opportunity Jane took out her BR85HB SR Battle Rifle and pumped 4 bursts of three shots each into the Spartans head effectively killing him.

As soon as her adversary was dead she went to claim her prize, the energy sword. The second she picked it up the weapon it flashed to life revealing two plasma blades extruding from the base of the sword glowing and ready for battle.

Before Jane could do anything though the Infinity's war games AI who often acted as the announcer's deep voice echoed throughout the map saying "Escort your carrier." Well that wasn't entirely true, the voice only went through her teams com system, but from the way it sounded it felt like it echoed through the arena.

Either way though this was good news, chances were that the opposing team would likely all head to the lower area of the map once they heard this, and since she was at the top of the arena this was a perfect chance to find a good route for her team to sneak up behind them and kill them, earning her teams a good amount of points.

She started running towards the enemies spawn point in hopes that they had their backs turned so her plan would work, and they did. Jane giggled to herself knowing that they wouldn't know what hit them. She raised her gun and set her sights on the closest enemy, but before she could fire a searing pain rushed through her body like nothing she had ever felt. She screamed in pain as she fell to the floor. At first she thought she was killed but the pain was far worse than a gunshot, and she wasn't blacking out and respawning. She looked up and saw the enemy team, strangely though they were not shooting her, but staring at her dumbfounded as to what was going on. She wondered why all of them were just there looking at her, it wasn't that uncommon for a Spartan to scream in pain during a match their simulations were supposed to mimic real life, pain included, but then she looked down at her body and noticed it was entirely enveloped in a purple aurora, and despite the burning sensation she realized what she was feeling because she had felt it before…. magic.

Just then Crimson ran up behind the enemy team stopping at what he saw, followed by the rest of Fireteam Crimson who did the same. Seeing this he quickly turned on his com speaker and contacted the war games AI and yelled "SHUT DOWN THE WAR GAMES, SOMETHING GOING WRONG!"
____________________________________________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY BRIDGE
Three minutes ago.

Captain Lasky strode through the bridge on the Infinity as he came back from starting the war games, receiving multiple salutes from the officers on deck before going back to their computers with the light glow of monitors on their faces as they got back to their work. He had planned to stay and watch the finals, but was called back to the bridge when he was contacted by the ships new AI Pearl saying that she had to tell him something. As per usual Spartan Sarah Palmer accompanied him to the bridge hoping to get away from S deck. Nobody really knew exactly why she didn't feel comfortable around there, but most believe that it was because of her reputation as a quote on quote bitch to the other Spartans. The Spartans never refused orders from her or outright disrespected her, but the way in which they acted around her gave her the vibe that she was not welcome down there. She always acted tough around others and never let anyone know that it bothered her, but Lasky could tell that she was upset. She may be brash and at times rude, but she was still human and she still had feelings.

"You know you're going to have to face it sooner or later Palmer" Lasky said, breaking the silence

Lasky's words didn't startle her; they had this conversation multiple times with the same response every time. "Sir I am fine, there is nothing going wrong."

"Don't lie to me Sarah, you know what's bothering you, you've been like this for months now, and I'm worried about you and how it is going to affect your performance on the battlefield."

She knew she couldn't run away from this fight, Lasky would eventually win sooner or later; he almost always won his fights, which was probably one of the many reasons on why he was such a good captain. Only two people on the entire ship could ever win an argument with Lasky, she was one of them, the other was Commander Arimondo. Sarah tried her hardest but this was another fight she knew she couldn't win. "God dammit, why does everyone on this god dam ship hate me?"

"To be honest I don't really know"

Sarah deadpanned at that. "Well very helpful, thanks sir."

"Maybe you should just ask them why, maybe that will help."

"Yes and I'm sure that will work out great, they'll probably just lie and say 'I don't hate you' and move along so they don't have to talk to me." Sarah said, frustrated that she couldn't do anything about her situation.

"Well I don't know then, the Spartans seem to take a liking to Commander Arimondo, maybe you should ask her. From what I see she doesn't seem to hate you, maybe she will give you some advice on to how to improve your relationships with the Spartans, how about that?"

"And why would she help me? She's probably basking in all the attention that she gets, especially from Fireteam leader Crimson who is practically kissing her feet. And how the hell did she become a Commander anyways? As far as I know she's only been in the UNSC for six years, I've been in the UNSC for way longer than her."

Pearl, the ships A.I., quietly observed two's argument in awe of what was transpiring. She was a fairly new A.I. construct only a few months old so she didn't quite understand humans very well and was always fascinated when she got an opportunity to observe 'unique' human behavior as she developed her own personality, and arguments were the things that interested her the most. Pearl was a part of a new A.I. program just implemented to mass produce smart A.I.'s without using a human brain, thus they would have to build their own personalities over time. She took on the form a child with brunette hair and hazel eyes wearing a dress that looked like it was from the early 20th century. Lost in the events unfolding before her she almost forgot about her news for Lasky, almost.

"Captain I need to speak with you." She said hoping to get his attention.

Lasky and Palmer were quick to turn around and face the small A.I. Seizing her chance to get away from the argument at hand Palmer quickly walked away and said "This sounds important; I better leave you two alone."

Lasky knowing what she was attempting replied with "Okay, but were still going to talk about this later."

As she walked away he could faintly hear a 'dammit' coming from Sarah's mouth making him giggle before he turned his attention back Pearl. "You could have chosen a better time to speak to me Pearl."

"My regrets captain but I needed to relay this message to you before I forgot."

"You're a million dollar AI with more memory than every person on this ship combined how could you forget something?"

"It is entirely possible Captain, like you I am preoccupied with several things at once and may get caught up with one and forget the other."

"Well in case you hadn't noticed I was in the middle of an important conversation."

"Forgive me captain; I'm still working on my sense of timing."

He chuckled a bit at the humor of the situation. "Alright then Pearl, what is it you need?"

"Captain, we will be passing through a star system in a few minutes on our way back to Earth, and we'll be coming awfully close to one of the planets in the system."

Concerned Lasky asked "How close will we be to the planet?"

"Very close Captain, definitely within its magnetic field, but my calculations indicate that we will not hit it."

"Then why call me up here if everything is going to be fine?"

"It's not that Captain, it's that this system just appeared on our radar twenty minutes ago, it was like the star system didn't even exist."

"What do you mean didn't exist?" Questioned Lasky.

"Well, the star system just appeared out of nowhere when we started to get close to it, like it just popped into existence, or was completely cloaked until we approached it."

"That's awfully strange, are you sure you didn't make a mistake or something, it could be a miscalculation maybe?"

"Possible but highly unlikely Captain. Even if a made a mistake, I highly doubt that it would be one massive enough to overlook an entire solar system. All that I know is that it just came up out of nowhere and we'll be passing through it in five seconds."

"Okay then, but I'm sure everything is going to be fin- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Lasky screamed as he was thrown backwards across the bridge, hitting his head on the wall from what felt like an earthquake. Slowly regaining his composure Lasky looked up to a horrifying sight before his eyes, the infinity bridge was practically destroyed. Most of the lights were out, computer monitors were busted, and shrapnel was scattered all across the remains of the bridge, but that was nothing compared to what he saw out the window which was thankfully still intact, something that shocked and confused him. Summoning all his strength he finally stood up and said "Pearl, why am I looking at a cartoon planet?"

______________________________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY MEDICAL WING
1205 HOURS

Jane slowly woke up from her deep slumber to find herself under the warm blankets of a soft bed, which was odd considering that she didn't remember going to bed with her armor on, in fact she didn't remember anything after she went into the war games to help Crimson. In a daze she slowly sat up to observe her surroundings, she seemed to be in a small sterile room, probably in the medical wing of the ship. What struck her as odd though was how the room looked like a hurricane came through it. From what she could see there was medical equipment strewn all across the floor, to her right was multiple hospital beds either completely turned over or in a disheveled mess. Also there was Crimson himself fast asleep in a chair right next to her, seeing that put a smile to her face, Crimson was always one to care for his fellow soldiers. But still why was she there? And for that matter what happened to her that caused that searing burning pain? She looked to her right and gazed out the window expecting to see the void of slip space, but instead saw planet that she never thought she would see again in her lifetime. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight before her eyes, at first she didn't believe it, but the vibrant colors of the planet could only belong to the place she once called home. All at once the memories of what transpired in the war games came back to her confirming that that planet was indeed Equestria, it looks like this solider has finally come home.

Author's Note:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it's here. Sorry for the wait guys, I promise the next update will be up sooner, and that the next chapter will be longer than 3k words. Until then I'll see you guys on the Halo 4 battlegrounds!

Comments

[BronyPonyMan]

i'm really really really liking this story!

[EPiiCx5587]

3717283 Glad your liking it.

[High Flyer]

honestly the only issue I'm seeing here is that a ship using its slipspace drive doesn't travel inside normal space, but in a separate dimension.

Slipspace is a tangle of intertwined spacial dimensions, comparably similar to a wadded up piece of paper, which lie underneath the three conventional spatial dimensions of the universe. Because of this tangle of intertwined dimensions, objects in slipspace often group together in mass transit.

So if the ship was traveling via slipspace, it would not have been affected by Equestria's magnetic fields. While in Slipspace, a ship doesn't travel in our dimensional boundaries (sorta) so it would simply pass through any planet or star without repercussion. Because of this, they would have no need to scan for star systems in their path.
Just a couple of issues that bug me because i am way to into the Halo universe, I'm enjoying the story so far, we'll see what happens next.
Also, it wouldn't be called a radar, radar doesn't quite work on planets. try Scanner.

[guilmon21]

i like it

[WaihekeHalo]

1.bp.blogspot.com/-5uKYn713ut4/UZZ7Y_BbqlI/AAAAAAAAA4w/yGYLeDtDlwQ/s1600/give-it-to-me-gif.gif

[PhillyCh3zSt3ak]

3717414 I'm thinking he was sort of thinking along the lines of Star Wars' hyperspace transit where they have to do that kind of stuff.

[Alicon Glactistar]

I await for.... MOAR!!!

[EPiiCx5587]

3718474 marshu.com/images-website/fark/fark-photoshops-please-dont-kill-me-i-am-a-canadian.jpg

[Alicon Glactistar]

3718487 "Stay frosty"
-Halo Wars, Vulture

[EPiiCx5587]

3720685 I've read some of the books. I've read the Forrerunner books, and ghosts of onyx, and I'm currently reading the Fall of Reach.

[EPiiCx5587]

WOOOOOOOOOO 100 LIKES!

[Bum]

I just started reading and in the earlier chapter, you said you dont know if your lore is right, but it all looks pretty good. Just one thing, don't plan on romance, SPARANS lose there sex drive and love due to augmenting. Keep up the good work.

[EPiiCx5587]

3804232 Don't worry there will be no romance. BTW I like your icon, RWBY is awesome!

[Bum]

3805487 Thanks, I hope ypu update soon. Also, with the War Games part, The energy sword is only a sword, the spartans do the lunge themseves, its not a proporty (Pretty sure I spelled that wrong) of the sword, its the SPARAN that does it. Thats pretty much it.

[Cakebomb]

.....It's damn, not dam.

[muffinator]

Mmen dont giggle. We high pitch chuckle

[Hidemain]

5404013
They do giggle and is usualy a sign of mental instability

[Bob_The_Wizard]

6211706 no. We screech chuckle.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Holy throne, that happened! Looks like Twi is back home...