• Published 25th Oct 2012
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Halo: Stranded - The R0fl Guy



The Master Chief is stuck on an unknown planet, and to make matters worse, Cortana's going rampant.

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Rude Awakening

Halo: Stranded

“Mayday mayday mayday, this is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate EVAC, survivors aboard. Prioritization code Victor 05-3-Sierra 0117.”

Cortana played her distress signal back to herself once more, as if listening to it would change something, even though she knew it wouldn't. She was beginning to wonder if she had gone insane, but she cast the thought away as she once again realized how close to rampancy she actually was. She knew it was inevitable, but she preferred not to think about it, and to focus on what to do once someone or something found them, or vice versa. She found that sometimes talking to herself helped to relieve the boredom, so she did just that.

“We've been floating aimlessly in space for one thousand six hundred fifty one days, six hours, and nineteen minutes. Over four years aboard this ship with nothing to do; no tasks to complete. For over four years, all I have done... is think.” She flashed red for a split second, then quickly returned to her usual blue self. “...What are you dreaming in there?”

-

Cortana was sifting through older files containing information on the original Halo installation they had found, when one the Dawn's few functioning close range radars pinged. She didn't think much of it, as they hadn't come across a single life supporting planet yet, and assumed it would just be another asteroid. What she saw, however, turned her to a bright shade of blue and purple, showing excitement.

The radar showed that the frigate was approaching what was indeed a life supporting planet. However, she quickly realized that the planet was much larger, and had a much stronger gravitational pull than the few other uninhabitable planets they had passed while adrift in space. She knew what was going to happen, and surely enough, she felt the ship shudder then heard it slowly start to groan and creak. Cortana knew what she had to do.

-

The hulking Spartan lay in the cryo chamber, completely unaware of what was happening around him. Inside his head, he was running through a field of poles. The poles were exploding into shrapnel around him as something poured round after round into them in an attempt to hit him. He recognized where he was instantly as the Pillars of Loki.

Chief remembered doing this once before, and also remembered what was firing at him. As he continued running, he heard Cortana say something, but he couldn't make it out. Suddenly, he appeared in an open field, and noticed a bell sitting on a tripod across the field from him. He then heard the sound of thrusters behind him, and turned to see a SkyHawk jump jet diving towards him, most likely locking onto him with a Scorpion missile. He tried saying something to Cortana, but found that he could not use his mouth. He tried turning to run, but quickly learned that he could no longer move any part of his body, except his eyes. All he could do was watch as the SkyHawk continued diving towards him.

Chief knew it would be over soon, so he closed his eyes. As soon as he closed them, he heard the SkyHawk fire. The missile soared through the air, and was only milliseconds away from hitting him, when he heard a voice yell his name,

“Chief!”

Everything around him faded into blackness. He felt relieved, but soon realized that something was wrong. He wondered why everything was black.

“Damn it Chief, wake up!”

He heard it again, more clearly this time, and instantly recognized the voice as Cortana's.

“Don't say I didn't ask...”

Chief didn't understand what she meant by that, and knowing Cortana, he was starting to worry. Suddenly, he was jolted violently as a shock of electricity surged through his armour and body, traveling up his spine and into his brain. He was awoken instantly and sat upright lightning fast, nearly smashing his head into the glass cover of the cryo chamber. For a brief second, he was confused as to why Cortana had woken him up, until he started to feel faint vibrations, and could hear rumbling in his cryo chamber. He pulled the manual release, then threw open the door of the chamber, ignoring the pain from the freezer burn that came with waking up from cryo sleep. He floated over to Cortana in a single leap, then ejected her data crystal chip from the holo pad and inserted it into the back of his helmet.

“Chief, you're going to want to see this...”

Before he could say anything, an explosion rocked him off his feet, sending him drifting a few meters to his side. He recovered, and kicked off the wall he had drifted into. By now, he fully realized what was happening. It was not Covenant or insurrectionists attacking the ship, or it would have been vaporized almost instantly in the state it was in. He propelled himself through a pair of jammed blast doors with his zero G boosters, while dodging any shrapnel that got in his way and getting knocked around by explosions. He dodged and weaved his way through the hallways, then finally arrived at the hangar.

The doors of the hangar were completely open, untouched since the last time he was inside of it. He entered cautiously, grabbing onto railings, equipment, and anything else he could hold himself down with. He then looked out of the open hangar at the new world he was approaching and saw huge forests, oceans, and lakes covering the planets surface. He also noticed that there were almost no clouds above the planet for some reason.

The Dawn was shuddering and groaning quite violently now, explosions from deeper within her rumbling loudly. Large chunks and sections of the ship were being torn off as it entered the atmosphere; it would crash land on the dark side of the planet. Chief couldn't tell exactly where it would land, as he was still too high in the atmosphere to be able to make an accurate assumption. As he gazed upon the planet, Cortana realized what he was thinking and piped up immediately, happy to finally be leaving her four year imprisonment aboard the Dawn.

“There!” Cortana yelled, directing Chief to an open SOEIV ODST drop pod safely attached to a wall by a thick metal cable.

Unfortunately, the drop pod was missing its hatch. Chief didn't worry about this though, as he wouldn't be using its acceleration thrusters, only its parachute and braking thrusters. The Dawn was starting to heat up dangerously as it fell closer and closer towards the planet. Chief didn't have much time left to disengage the safety locks from the restraining cable and get the pod airborne before he'd have to activate his armour lockup fail-safe. Doing so would effectively seize up his armour, protecting him from the heat, but dooming him to crash into the looming planet while still being inside of the frigate. He didn't know what to expect on the planet, so he made a dash to pick up any weapons and ammunition he could find from the various weapon racks bolted to the hangar walls.

The hangar was mostly barren of anything useful, but there were still weapons and pieces of equipment scattered around. Chief was beginning to get very hot, so he grabbed and equipped all he could before disengaging the locks from the restraining cable and gunning his boosters into the pod. He flew into it with immense force, knocking it and himself out into oblivion. As soon as he was airborne, he quickly fastened himself into the pod while Cortana used the thrusters to make minor course adjustments so they would not spin out of control.

“Just in time...” he heard Cortana whisper.

As they fell towards the planet, they could only wait, and wonder what might greet them once they landed.

-

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were eating dinner while they discussed the events of the day.

“That was a pretty awesome party, hey Twi?” the small purple dragon asked.

“I enjoyed it very much, and I'm glad you did too,” Twilight said happily. “Although you really shouldn't have eaten so many cupcakes,” she added scoldingly.

“Sorry, I'll try to remember that next time,” Spike replied apologetically.

The two of them were almost finished eating their dinner, when a reflection of light caught Twilight's eye. Curious as she naturally was, she decided to go and check out the cause of it. Spike followed her gaze, then the two of them approached the kitchen window and looked out across the street to another house.

The light was reflecting off of a large window in the house. They scanned the entire neighborhood for the source of it multiple times, until a bigger flash of light caught their attention. This one was obviously the source of the light reflecting off of the other house's window. They looked up to the sky, where the bigger light came from, and saw a massive meteorite falling towards Equestria. It was in a huge ball of flames, with more flaming pieces falling off of it and a thick trail of smoke following it. Spike and Twilight looked at each other, mouths both agape.

“I'll go get the girls, you send a letter to Celestia. This thing is huge and it looks like it's going to cause some damage!” Twilight yelled as she ran out the door.

Spike nodded, even though Twilight could not see it, then grabbed an inkwell and quill as fast as he could and sat down to start writing.