Feet First, Spartan.
Rows of glass boxes were lined up in the cavernous Office of Naval Intelligence facility, each holding what Catherine had hoped would be the salvation of humanity; each was a child destined to save civilization. Originally their purpose had been to be the silent arm of the United Nations Space Command's authority on some of the more distant colonies where factions of less-than-satisfied citizens felt that they knew better how to govern themselves than the largest and most powerful single organization in the history of the species. She thought it was a charming, if silly idea. Regardless, her allegiance was to the UNSC, and she would devote every ounce of her ability to protecting it. These children were the penultimate step in her plan. Then, there was John. His blue eyes still pierced her soul when she thought about him. If only she'd known...
"Tell me about the children." The investigator requested. His voice seemed distant as she returned to the here and now, reminded of her current situation. There was a long pause while she collected her thoughts. "Doctor Halsey?"
"You already know everything." She stated simply.
The investigator held out his hand for a moment, almost as if to supplicate for her to tell him again anyway. When it became apparent she would not, he replied. "You kidnapped them."
"Children's minds," she recalled strapping John into one of the beds to undergo one of the augmentation procedures, "are more easily accepting of indoctrination, their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier." Ultimate soldier indeed. The first time she saw John in MJOLNIR armor was terrifying, even for her. He towered over all the technicians, and bore the strain of the armor's weight as though it were nothing. "... and because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready."
"Doctor Halsey, you're bending history for your own favor and you know it. You developed the SPARTANS to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant." He stood, moving to the other side of the table. She watched him with a steely calm.
"When one human world after another fell, when my SPARTANs were all that stood between humanity and extinction... nobody was concerned over why they were originally built."
"So you feel that in the end, your choices were justified."
She brought her hands up slowly, and there was a faint metallic clang as her restraints rested on the table. "My work saved the human race."
There was a long pause while the investigator regarded what she had just said. He started slowly, his voice dripping with contempt. "Do you think the SPARTANs' lack of basic humanity helped?"
Catherine's calmness broke. She looked at this man with fear plain on her face. "What are you after? The others before you, they were Naval Intelligence, but you... you're something else."
"Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization, furthermore --"
"The records show efficient behavior operating in hazardous situations. I supplied the tools to maintain that efficiency."
"Do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?"
There was a long silence as Catherine's demeanor changed again. This time, she made no effort to hide her hostility toward this line of questioning. "What does John have to do with this?" She thought for a moment, and it dawned on her. "You want to replace him!"
"The Master Chief is dead."
Defiance filled her voice. "His file reads Missing in Action."
"Catherine," he almost chuckled, "SPARTANs never die."
"Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step... our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them. But most of all," her eyes narrowed with determination, "do not underestimate him."
Aboard the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn proximity alarms began to sound. Cortana combed through the systems to find out what the sensors were detecting so she could shut them up -- the number of false alarms that having your ship torn in half can cause are truly staggering -- when she came to a startling conclusion.
They were actually crashing.
"Cheif," she shouted as she turned her holographic projection to face his pod and swiped furiously at the controls, "time to get up!" The cryo-tube began to defrost, and the Dawn began to shake violently. "Any time now, Chief," she added, impatiently. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Spartan began to move, obviously disoriented. Suddenly, he sprung to life. His hands pushed against the lid of the tube as he struggled to get his bearings. "Easy," she cooed, "you've been out for a while."
"Where are we?"
"Still on the Dawn."
"Why did you wake me?"
"Well..." the ship shook again as the gravity of the object they were flying towards gained a better and better grip, "crashing is a good reason, right?"
"Right," he stated plainly. He reached up to pull the manual release on the cryo-tube's lid, which opened with a hiss. He stepped out, stretching only briefly, before walking over to Cortana's hologram. "Ready to get back to work?"
"I thought you'd never ask." She smiled as the SPARTAN pulled her chip from the pedestal that had been projecting her hologram, and put her into his helmet. "We've got a proximity alert lighting up in the ship's planetary sensors. That rumble you feel? That's the ship slowly being torn apart by gravity. When we hit atmo, this ship is going to light up the sky."
Chief ran through the hallways until he found a small hole that had been torn in the hull. He hazarded a glance out and saw a lush, green world with a single moon. "UNSC?"
"No such luck. This planet is uncharted -- wild. If there's life down there, it's not UNSC."
"Covenant?" He spoke with hesitation. They were supposed to have a truce with the Covenant, but the years of hostility were hard for him to overcome.
"I'm not picking up any signals that... oh, wait." She paused as she combed through the Dawn's sensor data. "I'm finding a very faint transmission. Patching it through now."
The guttural sounds of the Elites' language filled the audio transmitters inside Chief's helmet for a few moments before his suit's translation system kicked in.
"...wort ga -- the planet's surface, when our power systems failed. We have crashed on the surface amidst a forest full of new, alien creatures. None yet seem capable of hearing the word of the Covenant, and exploratory expeditions have not returned. Our numbers are small, and we need the support of our fleet. I repeat, if you can hear this, this is the Corvette Fear to Prosperity. We had mounted an expedition to go to the planet's surface, when our power ..." The message began to repeat.
"Covenant." Chief shook his head.
"They must have been part of an advanced scouting party before the end of the war. Their signal is using an encryption that I haven't seen since installation 04."
"Which means they probably won't be happy to see us."
"That's a safe bet." The ship began to shake more violently as the planet grew closer.
"Do we have any control left over the helm?"
"Some basic auxiliary thrusters, but not much. I can try to steer us as far from their crash site as possible, but it won't be much. Chief?"
"Yeah?"
"You might want to get to an escape pod."
"Yeah." He turned and began to sprint down the corridors. As he went, he checked his rifle's ammo. Full magazine, two more spares; that was a grand total of 96 rounds. One frag grenade, one plasma. That's all she wrote. The sound of his boots clanging against the ground echoed through his helmet. His shields flared orange around his body with the force of each step he took, until he turned a corner to a room that was lined with drop pods. ODST drop pods. "Cortana, I thought you were pointing me to the escape pods."
"Well, those got ripped off into the other half of the slipspace portal, so this is the best we have!"
He walked over to one and realized quickly that with all the equipment lining the side of the pod, he wouldn't fit. Without a word, he began to grab the equipment and frames to which it was attached and remove it forcefully. Finally, he was able to squeeze in. He had managed to salvage an SMG from the equipment he removed, and it stuck to the magnetic holster on his back. He pulled the lid down, and the pod flickered to life with a bit of strain. He looked around at the controls, and found a name on a small metal plate, screwed in to the frame. "GySgt Edward M Buck -- 92458-37017-EB. Thanks, Sergeant." He grabbed the controls in front of him.
"Wait for it..." Cortana said with just a bit of hesitation in her voice. "... NOW!"
The pod shot downward with frightening speed. Through the window, Chief could see the Dawn beginning to glow orange, rolling on its side as it fell. Soon, flames began to lick his field of view as the heat shield on the pod began to burn off. "Cortana," he said with passive calmness, "can you get a reading on this atmosphere?"
"78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and less than one percent other. It's almost identical to Earth in the 20th century."
"So, breathable?"
"Should be, yes."
Chief's vision was obscured completely now by the flames that enveloped the drop pod. "Are we on track to miss the Fear to Prosperity?"
"Yeah, but you're not going to like this."
"I already don't."
"We're headed for a lake."
"That's great."
Rainbow sneaked up behind Twilight with the stealth of a cat, aided largely by the cloud she was putting along lazily with her wings. She licked her lips and reared up, delivering a bolt of lightning right over the newly-coronated princess' head, who jumped into the air with her hair standing erect.
"RAINBOW DASH!" She hissed as she landed on the ground again. "I'm gonna..."
Dash took off a little ways and hovered over the lake. "You're gonna what? Come get me? I don't think s--" Twilight flapped her wings and started in Dash's direction. "Oh yeah... I forgot about that." She laughed audibly to herself moments before Twilight slammed into her. The two tussled in mid-air while the rest of their friends, still on the beach, looked on.
"You get 'er, Twilight!" Applejack cajoled gleefully, always eager to see a good friendly competition.
"Twilight, dear," Rarity cooed from under her umbrella, "this is most unbecoming of a princess!"
"I think it looks like FUN!"
"Pinkie Pie, sweetheart, everything looks like fun to you."
"Yuppers!"
"Oh, my... Twilight, Dashie?" Fluttershy chimed in inaudibly, looking at the ever-growing shooting star that had been forming in the background. The two fought on.
"Oh, that hoof to the gut had to hurt, Twi!" Applejack winced.
"I just hit a princess, and I'm getting off scot-free!"
"Oh, I assure you," Twilight said with a grin, "there will be a tax for your action!"
"A tax? Huh?"
"You said 'scot-free'," Twilight returned to her usual self for a moment, "which is derived from the old Equestrian 'scotfreo', meaning 'exempt from royal tax'. Ergo, I declared that there would, in fact, be a tax for hitting me."
"Eggheads..." Dash shook her head.
"Girls, I think we should move..." Fluttershy had gotten to her hooves and was stepping backwards slowly.
"Excuse me? I didn't know it was being an egg-head to have curiosity, Rainbow Dash!"
"It isn't, but hitting everyone else over the head with your curiosity is!"
"I was only trying to teach something!"
"Girls..." Fluttershy went unheard again. The shooting star was now very apparently headed directly for them. "Girls!"
"WHAT?" The bickering fliers said in unison. They blinked in confusion when Fluttershy simply ran, a faint squeak of a scream trailing behind her.
"What was that about?" Applejack asked.
"UH-OH." Pinkie began to shake uncontrollably. "I-t-'s a d-o-o-z-y!"
Twilight looked around just in time to pull Rainbow Dash out of the way with her magic; the loss of concentration caused her wings to cease functioning, and she fell toward the water with Rainbow Dash still clutched to her. The ball of flames whizzed past through the air where they had just been wrestling, and smashed into the water with terrifying force, sending waves in all directions and a fine, foamy mist into the air. Twilight just hoped that there would be enough water left to soften her landing. Soon, the rushing, cataclysmic sound of her impact with the surface filled her ears and her body with the relief of a -- relatively -- soft landing. After floating to the surface, she released Rainbow Dash, who hovered in a dazed state of confusion.
"What is that thing?" Dash said groggily. She pointed with a hoof toward a large metal object floating in the tempestuous waters. It was, as best she could tell, about 6 meters from tip to tail.
"I don't know," Twilight began to paddle backwards, "but it looks hot... we should get away from it."
"I agree!" Dash picked Twilight up and rushed for shore.
The crash was sudden and violent. The ship's braking rockets had fired just a bit too late, leaving Chief to lock his armor. He was immobile. "Cortana," he managed to cough out, "are you there?"
"Still he-e-ere Chief." Her voice glitched a bit. "I'm unlocking your armor now."
"Are you all right?" There was no response. A minute later or so, his arms fell down to his side. They were looking straight up at a clear blue sky, not unlike Earth's. The pod bobbed a bit, reminding him that they had landed in a lake. "Cortana, any details on this lake? Cortana? Cortana!"
"I'm working on it, okay?!" She snapped at him. He remained quiet while she worked, until another couple of minutes later, there was a sigh. "Sorry about that. The lake is about fifty feet deep where we are now. Nothing too serious. It's clean water, minimal microfauna, good temperature... we should be good for ex-fil."
Chief chuckled; this was rare for him. "Why do you do that," he readied himself to pop the hatch, "sigh? You don't have lungs."
Cortana's demeanor softened a bit. "My sub-processes insert little things like that into my speech patterns to make me more relatable. Not that I need that with you; sometimes I wonder which one of us is the real machine."
Chief's face fell flat inside his helmet, but other than that he showed no outward appearance of having been affected by her comment. He popped the hatch, which flew outward like a bomb had gone off.
"Whoa, hold it Chief!" Cortana turned on his HUD devices. "Check the motion sensor. We have two unknowns on our periphery. Might want to check it out first."
Chief nodded and shouldered his rifle. He worked his way around so he was kneeling on the back of the seat and facing the potential hostiles. When he had gathered himself, he stood up, rocking his little boat, and pointed his weapon at the two ... horses? His aim dropped for a fraction of a second before putting a round into a tree five feet or so from the blue one to scare them off. They both screamed -- screamed? -- and ran off. Did those horses have wings?
"Where in the hell are we, Chief?"
"I was hoping you would be able to answer that." He hopped out, his armor making him sink like a stone. He trudged along the bottom of the lake toward the shore. "Something tells me this is going to get worse before it gets any better."
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Write moar! I can't wait!
Great story! Just one thing, UNSC = United Nations Security Council
4282931 I thought it was the United Nations Space Command
4283037
It's both, actually.
4283052 huh... The more you know...
I took a gander at the chapter first since it was this account's first time writing and realized that it was NOT the first time writing. I can tell you have experience writing and I very much enjoyed how well done this chapter was! Any idea on how often one can expect new updates?
Fascinating.
Can we get some Marathon?
Also wort wort
BTW I think it's spelled Equis not Equus
Looking forward to Chiefs reaction XD
4283457
Equus has precedence, and Equis tends to nowadays be more associated with The Most Interesting Man in the World (c/o Dos Equis beer), but both have been used in reference to various horse related things.
4284397
Ok that works
I believe that question mark was meant to be something else.
An actual decent Halo crossover? Stop the presses!
Give. Me. MOOOAARR!!!!!!!
good I like halo and I think this is going to be great!
achievementgenerator.net/cache/53598da98158b.png
4283037 It is.
Love Chief and Cortanas characterization, which is very important to me can't wait for more
That story description hurt my brain. Firstly, is this post Halo CE, or Halo 3? Also, this story needs one of two things. Either one, a new description, or two the Alternate Universe tag. Because one, Halo destroys the flood's food and two, S-117 destroyed Instillation-04.
Cite.
4285339
I noticed that too.
As the forerunners have been the only ones to activate the rings for their intended purpose; wiping out the flood by starvation, I first thought this would be somehow in the past a bit but not really because, the chief's here, and...
Oh hell yah! I'm gonna read this for sure.
Interesting start. I can't wait to see more of Chief interacting with the ponies and how Cortana will deal with Magic since she's a product of science and magic largely ignores that.
if we are going to name equistria equus, then i'm going to call earth homo.
4285339
Bro, this is after Halo 3. The Foward Unto Dawn is the ship The Chief was on at the campaing end of Halo when the slip space drive malfunctioned, sending the Arbiter back to Earth, an The Cheif to Reqium, where the story of Halo 4 takes place. Though since he ended up in Equestria and not Reqium, the story is an alternate universe
4287292 Equestria is the country, not the planet.
Equis is just a popular fan created name to attach to the world the ponies live in, because the show has neglected to give us one.
4287781 yes, if I recall installation 04 was the one destroyed in the first Halo
4287669 cue planet X joke
4287623 I've got to be honest, I didn't read this story. Why? Because when you pull a Halo Reach and screw over canon that horribly in the description, it's a serious detractor to the legitimacy of any fan-fiction you may be attempting to create.
Let me reiterate, Halo Installations kill Sapients - the Flood's food, not the flood. S-117 destroyed Instillation 04, not activate it. And if (the author) was referring to Instillation 04b at the Ark, it should be written as such, or mention the Ark. Also, I'm pretty sure that didn't kill all the Flood, because they appear in Halo 4.
4287824 I was referring to Installation 04B.
Additionally, I've played through Halo 4 quite a few times, on Legendary, and haven't seen a hint of Flood.
I respect your opinion, but I don't know if it's fair to judge my story when you openly admit you haven't read it! Regardless, thanks for the review.
I'm liking this! Please continue.
More!! continue writing the story this is a grate begining
The comment section is the aftermath of Nagasaki. But blam! if I'm not one of the Biggest halo nerds of all time. Having all the books in paper form and all the comics in ebook form. And absorbing information from the wiki. I was and still am a massive fanboy. Possibly even buying the Xboned for No. 5 even though I know I won't like it as much unless they call all their favours.
D:< Many Native Americans are twisting in their graves.
4290350 Oh my.
I shall have to remedy that! Butterfingers on the keyboard.
I really like your first chapter and general intro,
even though you cheated with the Halo 4 prologueeven though there was a little confusion with the timing of the fic. So far it's looking like a good story.Let me tell you something now, though. There are a few things that you'll want to avoid to make sure this isn't a "stoic badass warrior becomes a crying wuss after he transitions from crapsack war to Equestria." story.
Please, for the love of god, don't make Chief change his personality from "badass" to "traumatized". A lot of stories have awesome, kickass warriors get sucked into Equestria through death, portals, etc, and now that they're in a peaceful, idyllic world that has no conflict, they lose their badassness, suddenly are traumatized by the conflict they fought in, and go all "I'm suffering from PTSD solely for plot purposes! All Equestrian characters, shower me with pity and turn me into an anti-war hippy!" Then the characters settle down, become best friends with everyone, and live happily ever after.
Let's not have it come to that, please. Chief went through training from hell, went through the war from hell, saw almost every person he ever gave a damn about die while he was helpless to go to them, and yet he never broke. He kept fighting, kept inspiring people to strike against the Covenant, and did all of it because it was his duty. If the death of all of his comrades didn't make him forsake war, then landing on Equestria shouldn't come close.
Also, if you're going to have Chief and Cortana go "ZOMG MAGIC???" and the ponies go "ZOMG TECHNOLOGY???", then please make it more subtle than that. A lot of stories have paragraph upon paragraph of each group crying rainbows about how amazing the other system is. Pls no.
I'll probably rant about more warnings later, such is my
obsessiondesire to make this a good Halo crossover. But don't take the stuff above as a preemptive attack on your story. I'm just trying to give you an early warning to keep this story from turning into a hugfest.Good job. And I mean that.
4282931 Your comment is horrifying to me on so many levels...
4291517
How so?
I googled UNSC halo and the halo wiki page said it was security council
4291675 I'm not sure how the Halo wiki could have made that mistake, and I would urge you to check again when you get the chance. But just so you know from now on, in the context of Halo, the acronym UNSC always means United Nations Space Command and not the current-day United Nations Security Council. Knowing the difference could save your life (but I highly doubt that).
I hope this makes things clearer for you.
4292599
4290902
There have been others, but those are rare to find. A good number of Halo crossovers have way too many grammar and spelling errors, destroy lore, OOC, etc.
4292599
Ok thanks, I also thought it was space command until I read the wiki but I guess wiki can also be wrong
My name is Cheif...
I’d love to see the Covenant team up with the Storm King and his army to take over this world.