Chapter Text
Jack Cooper felt sick.
Even more so than when he’d been hopped up on sansufentanyl when the HEV crash landed. What felt like so long ago was really just a couple days prior.
“Pilot,” BT-7274 said, his voice echoing in Cooper’s mind.
“The injector back-blast has overloaded my critical internal systems,” BT continued, his voice catching and repeating like a broken record.
“BT!” the radio crackled, “Cooper! Respond!”
It was Sara Briggs; leader of the Marauder Corps.
“Attempting to restore ocular systems,” BT said, voice still stuttering and unstable.
“We’ve fired everything at the Fold Weapon – No effect on target!” Sara said, voice tense.
The inside of BT’s chassis blackened, before digital chirps sounded and the ocular systems booted up, bathing Cooper in red light, before it slowly shifted to reveal the ceiling.
“Ocular systems restore,” BT supplied, “Warning. Hostile hostile HOSTILE Titan detected,”
The large rotating barrel of a Predator Canon belonging to a Legion class Titan appeared from above him. The barrel lifted, the gun being moved out of the way for the hatch of its owner to open.
A man stepped from the open cockpit and fell, landing easily on his feet on the hood of BT, a loud thud echoing inside briefly.
“It’s your lucky day, hero,” Kuben Blisk said, voice calm, “I’m not going to kill you. I don’t work for free,” he explained, voice dark and deadly.
He took a breath and crouched.
“But…” he began, “you don’t get to kill me either,” he chuckled, somehow finding it amusing.
He reached for his left breast pocket and pulled out a card.
“Here,” he said, dropping the card down onto BT’s chassis, “You earnt this eh?”
The card read ‘Apex Predators’.
His slapped the card down, the echo coming nearly a second before Cooper saw him do it. A testament to how damaged BT was at the moment.
“That Vanguard class Titan is still in there!” came the voice of General Marder from the hacked voice channel of the radio.
“Not my problem, Marder,” Blisk said, relaxed, “Should have put it in my contract. I’ve got other people with money to see,”
“What are you doing?” Marder asked as Blisk allowed his Titan to pick him up and return him to the cockpit.
“What do you think you are doing?!” he repeated, voice commanding, as Blisk walked out of sight.
Text lit up on the Ocular Screen in front of Cooper.
INITIATING EMERGENCY RESTART
REROUTING AUXILARY POWER
AUX POWER ONLINE
“Cooper,” BT spoke, his voice clearer, “I require your assistance. My auto-navigation systems are offline,” he said quickly.
“Get me into that injector assembly. We must do this together,”
VALIDATING NEURAL LINK
SUCCESS
MOTION LINK RESTORED
Control returned to Cooper, and with an incredible effort, he began pushing BT and himself upwards.
REBOOTING COM ARRAY
“BT! Cooper!” Sara yelled through the radio, “Our ground teams can’t make it there in time! You’ve got to find a way to destroy the Fold Weapon from the inside! There’s no other way!”
Cooper slowly maneuvered the hulking mass of combined Titan and Pilot towards the opened injector.
“Commander Briggs,” BT began, “I believe I have a solution,” he told her, “In its exposed state, my reactor core may be able to destabilize the Ark at the centre of the Fold Weapon,”
Cooper guided BT’s hands onto the injector.
“What are you saying?” Sara asked.
“We can blow it up,” BT told her, his voice resolute.
“I… I understand. God speed you two. Briggs out,” Sara responded, her voice quiet.
BT climbed into the injector and it began to rise, lifting them into the assembly and to the barrel of the gigantic coil-gun.
REROUTING LINK OS V18.723X
CONNECTION VERIFIED
UPLOADING…
The colossal electromagnets activated, lifting BT into suspension in the middle of the barrel.
“It’s been an honour BT,” Cooper said, his first words since waking.
“Likewise Cooper,”
The lights lining the barrel lit up one by one, slowly approaching their suspended form.
The final light activated, and they were flung forward, accelerated to an incredible rate towards the Ark.
Then everything went white.
“What were those things?” the Master Chief asked.
“Some kind of advanced defence AIs,” answered his faithful companion, the AI Cortana, “Related to the sentinels, I’m guessing,” she continued, “but it’s hard to say without a closer look,”
Her voice implied she didn’t exactly want to be closer.
“C’mon, let’s figure out where that transit system dumped us,” she continued after a moment.
Chief, with Cortana in tow, had arrived in a hallway, styled the same way as the temple they had just been in before.
He walked carefully through the hallway, glancing at the short podiums that appeared on both sides every few metres.
As he approached the end of the hall, guided by the twin, glowing lines in the centre, a wall split vertically, and shifted to the sides.
A door, he decided.
The door opened, and revealed the planet.
Or the inside of it, at least.
Two purple beams of light, originating from the ‘surface’ 90 degrees to either side of him and opposite each other, met in the middle, contacting with a gigantic, translucent-purple sphere, with a relatively smaller, but still incredibly large sphere within.
Large bars of lights stretched to either side from the platform he was on, reaching all the way around the inside of the planet to the start point of each beam, then continued around the back until it disappeared behind the orbs in a complete circle of the planet’s circumfrance.
Master Chief walked up a ramp towards what appeared to be a central viewing platform.
There was a podium in the centre of the platform, with identical circular patterns leading to each side. Perhaps they were for more of those portals to reach each of the beams origins.
“Put me in the console,” Cortana said.
Chief obliged, extracting the data chip from the back of his helmet and pushing it into a receiving slot on the podium.
“Where’s Infinity?” Chief asked her.
After all, this is where her signal had been origination from.
“This is Requiem’s core alright, but Infinity is definitely not here,” Cortana stated, a holographic image of herself appearing from the console.
A holographic interface appeared in front of Cortana, likely more for Chief’s benefit than her own.
“That satellite in the centre is amplifying the ship’s signal like a relay,” Cortana explained.
“Maybe we can use it to respond,” Chief offered.
“Perhaps,” Cortana responded, before returning to her interface.
“Those beams coming off it,” she began, gesturing at them, “are creating the interference we’ve been experiencing. We’d have to take them out to contact Infinity,”
Good. A game plan.
Chief hated being in the dark, but now they had a goal, and a means to achieve it.
“Can you get us there?” he asked her.
To his left, up floated two pieces of metal. Between them shot bolts of electricity, before a dark portal appeared between them, just like the one previous.
“Opening a gate to the first beam pylon. Pull me and let’s go,” she instructed.
Chief followed, taking the data chip and returning it to his helmet.
A familiar wave of cold hit his neck, but vanished into the background within moments.
He dropped down onto the corresponding walkway, and carefully stepped into the gate.
A flash of light later, and he found himself in a hallway somewhat similar to the one he had been in a minute previous.
“This is the first pylon?” he asked into his helmet.
“Negative,” Cortana answered him, “This is as close as I could get us. Hope you don’t mind hoofing it a little,” she told him with her usually playfulness.
Chief began moving.
The hallway quickly disappeared into a small, but seemingly well-trodden cave.
At the end of the small incline he could see the first beam, his current objective.
He stepped out of the cave.
“Contacts!” Cortana warned him.
His gun was already up.
Small, dog-like creatures scurried away from his approach. Climbing the sheer cliffs around him to escape.
He slowly, warily lowered his weapon. An MA5D standard issue Assault Rifle.
He continued and took a right turn when faced with a sudden drop, now with strange, haunting whistles following him.
Chief approached a small clearing, more structures visible behind it.
In the centre stood one of the dog creatures, this one with a great deal of spikes protruding from its back, while the others he had seen were smooth.
It lifted its head and roared, before looking back at Chief.
His instincts screamed, and he dodged left, just as the beast opened fire, yellow bolts flying from its head.
He took cover behind a rock and returned fire once the creature finished its burst.
The full metal jacket armour piercing 7.62’s staggered it, but despite the long burst Chief put into it, did not kill it.
Chief shouldered the weapon, taking note of the 25 rounds still remaining as he replaced the weapon with his M6H Magnum.
With incredible precision, Chief put a single 12.7x40mm High Explosive round into the creatures head.
The head shattered, and the creature fell apart.
He peaked out from the rock and quickly and efficiently disposed of one more of the spike-backed, and five of the smooth-backed enemies.
Crawlers, Cortana helpfully supplied to his HUD. The spiked ones were ‘Alpha’s.
He approached the body of the first one he had killed.
Its body had fallen apart completely, leaving only small pieces of shattered armour.
And something else; its weapon.
Whatever it was, it fired fast. Nearly 900 rounds per minute, by Cortana’s calculations.
She highlighted it on his HUD, though he would have seen it regardless. Its angular silhouette and glowing lines making it stand out from the smoother and dark pieces of destroyed armour.
He holstered his Assault Rifle and picked up the weapon, designated the ‘Suppressor’.
He lifted it, and to his surprise, pieces of the device lifted themselves off of it, floating a few centimetres away from where they connected, before they slowly lowered, settling back in.
Chief walked through the clearing towards the structure, where he found a floating button in front of a large gap.
Cortana highlighted it, so he stepped up and pressed it.
The top of it lowered over the green button, and it vanished with a flash.
Across the gap spread a light bridge that Chief crossed.
“Those weren’t the same things we saw in the Terminus,” he mused aloud.
“Similar cortical footprint as the tower AIs,” Cortana informed him, “They’re connected, all right,”
He continued along the path, then three things happened in an instant.
His motion tracker flared.
“Look out!” Cortana warned.
And a large creature, identical to the ones from the Terminus, fell from the sky on top of him.
Taller than he, with thin legs and a large, nearly triangular torso, it looked as though it had been built for war.
Chief managed to push the thing’s weapon away from him before it could fire, but it still pinned him.
It lent down, its armoured mask splitting down the middle to reveal a very humanoid, if blue and glowing, skull that proceeded to screech at him.
He took the opportunity handed to him and punched the exposed skull, stunning it for long enough for him to kick it off.
Then it simply folded in on itself, and vanished into a portal of its own creation.
“Well he’s just a ray of sunshine, isn’t he?” Cortana quipped, voice notably anxious, “From that peak under the hood, I’d say these constructs must be mimetic in nature,” she explained.
He continued around another corner, and standing on small outcroppings stood three tall creatures, which all teleported away as soon as they saw him.
“More of them?” Chief asked rhetorically.
“Similar phasing activity at the edge of our sensor range,” Cortana warned him, “We’re about to get busy,”
He walked the curved path to another clearing, and like before, with a structure behind it.
Two larges pillars rose from the floor near the end of the clearing, flanking a stone outcropping that one of the tall creatures phased onto.
It bent down and its back split open, and from it launched a new foe.
It had a small central head, with two circular ‘wings’ to each side.
Chief disregarded it for the time being. The tall one was the priority.
He began firing the Suppressor, the hardlight rounds filling the air. The gun kicked heavily, he noted. It would need to be used in CQB or in short bursts to be effective.
The creature recoiled, before a translucent blue barrier appeared in front of it, courtesy of its summon.
Chief set his eyes on the flying enemy, its combat priority having raised significantly, and opened fire, taking the opportunity left by the surprised creatures to close the gap.
He opened fire again, once again aiming for the flying enemy, before being forced to take cover as its creator opened fire.
The flyer flashed, the blue lights slowly strobing and it folded itself, becoming a smaller target as it began to flee.
Not on his watch.
He drew his Magnum and fired in a single, fluid motion.
The flyer let out a mechanical scream, and exploded, as the 50 calibre, explosive round collided with it at 550 metres per second.
Suddenly, over the walls poured two squadrons of Crawlers, an Alpha for each group.
They opened fire immediately, forcing him backwards into better cover.
He took a short moment to reload the Suppressor. Pressing a button within the trigger guard to eject the cylindrical magazine, which he then replaced with one he had scavenged from the first two Alpha Crawlers.
He peeked out from cover with his Magnum drawn and began taking precise shots at the heads of the Crawlers, each successful hit rewarding him with a small explosion.
Chief whittled down they’re forces to two basic Crawlers before the tall one reached him.
He drew his Suppressor once more, and opened fire, the high RPM staggering it.
With a flash of light, its shields broke.
It exposed its skull like earlier, and Chief, going on his instincts, lifted his Magnum, and put a bullet in it.
The explosive round shredded it from the inside, and it immediately began to disintegrate, falling apart into golden polygons.
With the main threat dealt with, he returned his attention to the remaining Crawlers.
Deciding to conserve his human ammunition, he dispatched them with the Suppressor, each of them only capable of a fraction of a second of sustained fire before they died.
With the battle complete, Cortana spoke up.
“I’ve discovered something interesting about our new friends,” she told him, “When the big ones explode, that momentary flash we see is actually a data purge,”
“Can you tap into it?” He asked her.
“So far, I’ve pulled multiple strings referring to the big ones as ‘Promethean Knights’. Beyond that, though, things become a bit dense,”
The ‘Knight’ had dropped its weapon.
He approached it, and Cortana gave him a small infographic on it.
A ‘Light Rifle’. Three shot burst from the hip and shoulder, which changed to a singular beam when using the optics attached. Excellent armour penetration.
Chief returned the Magnum to its thigh holster and picked up the new weapon, replacing his Assault Rifle for it.
He was much more likely to find ammunition for these than he was his MA5.
Like the Suppressor, the Light Rifle separated into multiple floating parts, before it reassembled itself in his hands.
Cortana put a waypoint on his HUD, and he followed it to a door, one that opened when he approached, revealing a long armoured hallway, with weapon caches along the path.
He stopped at one.
It contained two Suppressors, the ammo of which he took, and two ‘Boltshot’s, a Promethean pistol with a charge attack similar to a shotgun. Not worthwhile.
In the second, two more Suppressors, and two spiked cubes.
Cortana identified it as a ‘Pulse Grenade’. Something of an area denial weapon. Useful.
Chief took both, and locked them to his belt magnetically.
He stepped through another door and out of the hallway, only to be immediately confronted with three Knights.
The middle one roared at him, but then they all looked away.
They each seemed to stare at an empty patch of space, before collectively they phased away.
“Chief!” Cortana yelled, “Energy surge! Right where they were looking! Get to cover!”
Without hesitation, he dived behind a rock.
The ground beneath him shook, and a flash of pure white light streamed over the rock, accompanied with a cacophonous boom.
Chief carefully looked over the rock, and what he saw, was truly unexpected.
Jack Cooper woke up.
Something truly unexpected.
“Chassis strength back at 100%. All major systems running at peak efficiency. Particle Wall inoperable. Enabling Vortex Shield as substitute,” came the voice of his robotic companion.
“BT? What happened?” He asked as he brought them to a standing position.
“Unknown. Records suggest we collided with the Ark as planned. However, such an action should have destroyed us both,”
Finally to his feet, Copper, within BT looked to his surroundings.
Jack’s jaw dropped.
“Where… Where the hell are we BT?” he asked in disbelief.
“We appear to be on the underside of a planet’s crust,” observed the every calm AI, “However, such a feat has never been accomplished, and would not be possible to accomplish for many centuries by today’s technology,”
Jack looked around again.
It was… Impossible. Incredible. Awe-inspiring. And many other adjectives.
“Pilot. Movement detected behind us,” BT warned.
Cooper spun them, pointing the large 40mm canon at the location indicated by his partner.
It was a tall, heavily armoured figure.
Thick metal armour covered the man from head to toe, with a helmet similar to that of Pulse Blade designated Pilots, only with a much larger orange visor.
The figure was positioned behind a rock, pointing a strange, angular, glowing weapon at them.
“BT; Loudspeakers,”
“Affirmative,”
“Identify yourself,” he told the figure.
Master Chief faced the gigantic, heavily armed robot anxiously.
“Chief? I think you should-“
“Identify yourself,” it spoke, the voice coming over loudly.
“That’s…” Cortana began with disbelief, “That’s not just English, it’s a human’s voice,” she told the Chief.
“Insurrectionist?”
“Nobody has this kind of mobile fire-power,”
Two blinks in a vertical line activated his loudspeaker.
“Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 of the UNSC. Who are you and how did you get here?” Chief informed.
“UNSC? Are you part of the IMC?” it returned.
IMC? And he didn’t know of the UNSC?
“‘IMC’ isn’t showing up on any of our records,” Cortana told him.
“I… am not aware of what the ‘IMC’ is. I’m part of the UNSC. The United Nations Space Command,” he clarified.
The hulking robot shifted in a distinctly human motion of discomfort.
“I’ve never heard of it. But if you’re not IMC, I guess you’re not an enemy either,” it answered, lowering the gigantic canon.
“Oh boy,” Cortana muttered, “this just got a whole lot more interesting,”
The man stood facing BT and Cooper unwaveringly.
“Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 of the UNSC. Who are you and how did you get here?” he said in a deep, imposing voice.
“Pilot,” BT spoke up, “There are no records of ‘UNSC’ on any Militia database,”
“UNSC?” Cooper asked, “Are you part of the IMC?”
The figure didn’t move, nor did it lower its weapon.
“I… am not aware of what the ‘IMC’ is. I’m part of the UNSC. The United Nations Space Command,”
“‘United Nations Space Command’ is not listed on any database, Militia or otherwise,” BT informed him.
“So, we’re dealing with a complete unknown?” Cooper asked him.
“Correct. Advise caution. We do not know the capabilities of the ‘UNSC’,” BT answered.
“I’ve never heard of it,” Cooper told Master Chief, “But if you’re not IMC, I guess you’re not an enemy either,” he said, carefully lowering the 40mm tracking canon.
Master Chief lowered his own weapon.
Cooper sighed, “As a show of faith, I’m going to disembark so we can discuss things more carefully. But know that if you try anything, my Titan won’t hesitate to respond accordingly,”
Master Chief nodded, “Understood,” he said, his posture relaxing.
Jack willed the front hatch open.
He grabbed his R-201, holding it at rest, and stepped out, falling the 4 and a half metre drop with incredible grace, touching down to the floor softly with the help of his Jump-Kit.
“I’m Jack Cooper,” he introduced to the now incredibly imposing, at least 7 feet tall, man, “a Pilot of the Militia. And this,” he said, waving his arm at BT, “is my Titan,”
“Vanguard Class Titan of the Frontier Militia, designation BT-7274,” BT filled in, the front hatch lowing and the 40mm returning to its resting position in his arms as he spoke.
“So, uh, mind telling us where the hell we are?”
“As a show of faith, I’m going to disembark so we can discuss things more carefully,”
Disembark? The colossal robot was being controlled manually?
“But know that if you try anything, my Titan won’t hesitate to respond accordingly,”
Titan. Master Chief filed away the name for later use, responding with a simple “Understood,”
The Titan lifted its large canon to a vertical position to allow its ‘face’ to lift.
The hatch opened quickly and smoothly, revealing a seated, and lightly armoured man seated inside, with a strange, cross-shaped, glowing blue visor on his helmet.
With his left hand, he took hold of a rifle, stored to the side of his feet, and lifted it to a resting position.
With the relaxed stride of someone in familiar circumstances, he fell from his Titan, roughly 4 and a half metres, to the ground, landing much softer than should have been possible.
Chief spotted a large apparatus on the man’s lower back, with what looked to be two small jets on either side.
A jetpack, possibly.
He looked to be roughly 5”10’ tall, and walked in what was obviously a forced relaxed manner.
“I’m Jack Cooper,” he introduced, “a Pilot of the Militia. And this,” he said, waving his arm at the large robot, “is my Titan,”
A Pilot. Of the Militia.
“Vanguard Class Titan of the Frontier Militia, designation BT-7274,” it spoke in a deep, factual manner as it returned to the relaxed state it was previous.
The ‘eye’ on BT-7274’s chassis watched him intently.
“So, uh,” the Pilot continued, voice uncertain, “mind telling us where the hell we are?” he asked.
“Cortana,” Chief said simply. She was the better talker of the two.
Her hologram appeared just to the side of him, projected by his helmet.
The Pilot tensed for a moment, but nothing else.
“Hello Jack,” she greeted kindly, “My name is Cortana. I’m an AI charged with keeping this one,” Cortana gestured to him, “out of danger. Though it doesn’t generally go to plan,” she laughed.
“Hello Cortana,” the Pilot greeted in return, before pausing for a moment, “You’re very… expressive for an AI,” he noted.
Cortana nodded, “That’s because I’m a Smart AI. An AI created by scanning and replicating the neural pathways of a human mind. It means that I’m essentially without limit. I can learn what I want without it impeding my other functions, and can draw conclusions with limited data, similar to creativity,”
He watched her for a second before responding.
“Incredible,” the Pilot said quietly, “Nothing like you exists where I’m from…” he trailed off.
“And nothing like BT exists where we’re from,” Cortana continued.
“So… we might be from different branches of humanity?” Jack asked, uncertainty clear.
Cortana nodded, “It’s possible. Perhaps a part of one of our civilisations broke off to try their own hand at life. What planet does humanity originate from where you’re from?”
“Earth, in the core worlds,” Cooper answered easily.
Cortana blinked, “We also came from Earth, but it’s not surprising that they chose the same name for their new planet,”
“Right... BT, can you send Cortana any information you have about the history of humanity?”
“Acknowledged. Sending data packet,” The machine answered.
“Packet received. Sending you one of ours,” Cortana said cheerfully.
“Received,”
“Well,” she continued, “I can see why you don’t like the IMC so much,” she said, processing the information of the many atrocities committed by the IMC in the previous decades, before she stopped.
“The past,” she said quietly, “It’s identical,”
Cooper froze. What did she mean, ‘identical’?
“Identical?” Master Chief asked, “How can that be?”
Nobody had an answer for him.
“Records are indeed, the same… Pilot,” BT spoke, “Point of divergence detected. January third, 2246 at 11:43pm Standard Time, the time associated with the first successful test of an Alcubierre Faster-Than-Light drive,”
Cortana’s eyes widened. Her functions shifted focus, instead of sifting through the identical information of the past, and looking at records of the present, they went back to the time indicated by her fellow AI.
“You… have functional Alcubierre drives?” she asked, incredulous.
“The UNSC doesn’t have Jump Drives?” Cooper asked the hologram and soldier pair, “How do you travel anywhere?”
“The UNSC has access to Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines,” BT answered for him, “Another type of FTL travel in where the vessel is shifted into a higher dimension in a manner similar to a ‘Phase Shift’. Colloquially known as ‘Slipspace travel’. Invented 45 years and 3 months later than ‘Jump Drives’, by Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa,”
“Right,” Cortana confirmed.
“Cortana?” Master Chief asked, “What’s an Alcubierre Drive?”
“It’s a type of Faster-Than-Light travel theorised all the way back in the twentieth century. It works by bending the space around the vehicle. Expanding it behind, and shrinking it in front to accelerate it in universal travel, while the vehicle itself remains stationary within its own relative space,” She answered.
“From what I can see; Jump Drives are incredibly efficient,” she continued, “More so than Slipspace engines by orders of magnitude. Conversely, our engines are much faster. The highest ever recorded speed with a Jump Drive was twenty-five thousand times the speed of Light, or about 2.85 Light-years per hour, while our engines are capable of over two hundred and fifty times the speed of Light, or 29.3 LYPH,”
”30 Light-years per hour?!” The ex-rifleman exclaimed.
It was unbelievable. Most ships cruised at one LYPH.
Cortana smiled at his amazement, “And the Covenant can go even faster,”
“The Covenant?” he asked.
Cortana nodded, “The thing that differs us the most. The Covenant was a super advanced coalition of multiple, intelligent alien species. On February eleventh, 2525, 32 years ago, the Covenant attacked the human planet of Harvest, and eventually destroyed it. The following war between the Covenant and Humanity cost us the lives of 23 billion people, and 76 planets before the war’s conclusion 4 years ago,”
23 billion.
Cooper’s mouth opened, but no words could express the horror he felt.
“Jesus,” was all he could say.
Cortana nodded mutely.
“Chief here,” she motion at the silent man, “is a Spartan. They’re an elite fighting force held in a similar standing to your COMCERT (Combat Certificate) Pilots. Chosen from birth, genetically and mechanically modified, and trained in all things combat; they are what kept the human race from extinction,”
“Warning,” BT interrupted, “Movement detected 90 metres out and approaching rapidly,”
Cooper, Master Chief and BT raised their weapons, pointing them in the direction BT had gestured.
“BT, Cortana, can you establish a coms link?” the Master Chief asked.
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Done!” Cortana said, “Crawlers! And lots of ‘em!” she warned, “Sending you the data now BT,”
“Received. Pilot, I suggest you embark,” BT told him.
He ran for his Titan and jumped, then a second time with the assistance of his Jump-Kit into the now open chassis of his Titan.
The link established, and he took control.
“Chief!” he called to the Spartan, “Get to better cover, we’ll take the front,”
“Acknowledged,” he responded, and turned on his heel, quickly moving to a better location.
“Here they come!” Cortana warned.
Then Jack got his first look at his new enemy.
The small robotic dogs poured over the walls and down the path towards them.
He took a shot at them with the 40mm, and was pleased to see that it killed three in proximity to the impact.
Gunfire from behind him alerted him to the Master Chief’s contribution.
Jack fired again. And again and again and again.
Shot after shot into the sea of Crawlers, each taking down two, if not more, of them.
Then they returned fire.
Their mouths opened and small lines of light streaked towards them.
He activated the Vortex shield, and caught dozens of small, glowing bullets in the electro-magnetic barrier.
He aimed the shield at a cluster of four Crawlers that were all taking shots at him and released, each of them exploding as they were shredded by the ammunition of their allies.
They were thinning quickly.
A roar was heard, and one of the spiked Crawlers, an Alpha, if the infographic from BT was correct, started charging at him, a pack forming as the remainders joined it in the suicidal dash.
Cooper grabbed the large Ronin sword from his back, the blade similar in size and shape to a vintage helicopter rotary blade, and swung it horizontally, catching all 6 of them on the blade and striking them with immense force. Their armour was no match for the incredible force imparted upon them in milliseconds, and they damn near disintegrated.
“Chief!” Cortana warned over the com channel.
He turned to see that three of the crawlers had gotten past and were rushing the Chief.
But he couldn’t do anything.
They were too close for the 40mm without hitting his new ally in the process. He was too far for him to assist in melee either.
But it seemed his worry was unfounded.
The Chief drew the large, angular weapon from earlier and opened fire. The glowing rounds, unleashed at a blistering pace, carved through two of the Crawlers as they approached. The third, however, evaded and lunged at him.
Chief’s response was to kill it in a single punch, his armoured first crushing its head without difficulty.
“All hostiles eliminated. Pilot, our Combat Effectiveness Rating remains above 90%. Excellent work,” BT informed.
“What were those?” Cooper asked, “Part of the Covenant?”
“No,” Cortana said, “I’ve accessed a bit of their data, and they go by ‘Prometheans’, but that’s about all we know,”
“Mr. Cooper, BT,” she continued after a moment, “I think it would be best if we worked together from now on,”
“Definitely,” he agreed quickly.
They were stuck here, had no clue how to get out, and were surrounded by unknown enemies. They needed as many allies as they could get.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked.
“Chief and I were separated from the rest of the UNSC for a while, but after our ship was pulled into this planet by its Gravity Well, we started picking up garbled signals from a UNSC ship called the Infinity. Scans showed it coming from there,” she pointed up at the centre of the planet where two massive orbs lay suspended.
“That satellite seems to be working like a relay, boosting the Infinity’s signal, but the beams coming off it are creating a large amount of interference, so our current goal is to shut them off, then use the satellite to respond to the Infinity,”
“New mission directive received. Updating Protocol 2: Uphold the mission,” BT said, “Pilot, take care. It is highly unlikely that we will find any batteries to aid in repair. Advise keeping sustained damage within the regenerating Energy Shield threshold,”
“Batteries?” Cortana questioned, “What fuel source do you use?”
“Standard Titan fuel source is in the form of liquid Deuterium batteries. They supply the ‘cold fusion’ reactor within my chassis,”
“That’s fortunate,” Cortana stated, “The energy source for us is also fusion, and a lot of Marines carry around Fusion Packs, which we’ll hopefully be able to integrate to you without much difficulty,”
“So the main priority is still to link with the Infinity,” Cooper mused.
“Right,” Cortana agreed, “Let’s get moving then,”
The newly made team of four, two human and two machine, continued.
They came across another party of Prometheans, but they were swiftly, and rather easily dealt with.
BT’s 40mm canon proved excellent against the infantry sized targets they faced. Even the armoured Knights fell in just two direct hits. Watchers, the flying enemies, proved more difficult. With their small size and airborne position, landing hits with the slower projectiles became challenging. This, however, was not a problem for their Spartan ally, who was able to carve them out of the air with his pilfered Hard Light weaponry.
They reached a circular platform, set into the rock they had been trekking on, when Cortana showed them all a transmission she was receiving.
It was garbled beyond recognising anything more than a humanoid head. It spoke, but the static, and other distortion, made it too difficult to interpret anything he said.
“The relay interference is increasing,” Cortana told them, “We must be getting close to the pylon,”
Cooper looked up at the beam. With how gigantic it was, it was incredibly hard to tell how far away they were, so he’d have to go on her word that they, were indeed, close.
“More contacts detected,” BT warned, and the seasoned soldiers shifted their focus.
Crawlers appeared over the cliffs around them and began firing.
The Titan’s Vortex shield went up, protecting both parties as Chief returned fire, dispatching multiple with precise bursts from his Light Rifle in quick succession.
Cooper enabled BT’s Acolyte Pod, which automatically activated the overlay for the MTMS (Multi-Target Missile System), where he painted the five remaining cliff Crawlers, and opened fire.
Five missiles streaked out from the pod, each immediately turning and hunting down their specified target. Five small booms sounded moments later, each signifying a successful hit-and-kill.
They looked down to the next clearing. Three more Crawlers, one Knight, and one Watcher.
Cooper fired a 40mm round, hitting the top of the Knight, the resulting detonation pushing the Watcher above it away, and doing enough damage to send it into a panic.
“Chief! The Watcher!” Cortana guided.
Chief followed up, putting a beam of condensed light into the fleeing enemy, courtesy of the Light Rifle’s secondary fire mode, killing it before it could flee.
A follow up 40mm round took the surprised Knight out of the equation, and Chief easily finished off the Crawlers that were approaching.
Unbeknownst to BT and Cooper, Master Chief’s HUD suddenly flared, the visual elements shaking and distorting.
“What’s that distortion?” he asked into his helmet.
“That’s,” Cortana paused and sighed as she appeared on his overlay, “me. Something about moving through those portals is increasing the load on my systems,”
“Are you… going to be alright?” John asked with concern. A rare display of emotion from the normally stoic warrior.
“Don’t worry,” she smiled, but even Chief could tell it was forced, “I’ve held off Rampancy this long, haven’t I?” came her rhetorical response, voice bitter.
Chief walked up the ramp to the top of the structure they had arrived at, to find another corridor.
“Master Chief,” came BT-7274’s voice over the radio, “My chassis will not fit through that hallway. We will climb around this cliff and regroup on the other side,”
“Understood,” he responded. He had wondered what they would do when they eventually came to a passage too small for the behemoth.
“See you in a few, Chief,” came the mildly upbeat of Jack Cooper, reminiscent to that of Cortana’s behaviour. It was no wonder they communicated so well, despite only having known each over for less than half an hour.
Chief walked through the hallway quickly. It was identical to the one he had passed earlier, just before encountering his new companions.
Chief came to another weapon rack, one containing two Light Rifles and a ‘Scattershot’. From the infographic Cortana provided, it was a shotgun, but with high armour penetration, and a ricochet potential that came from using ionised partials as the projectiles.
He considered the weapon, and while he decided against taking it himself, but believed it may better suit the fast and nimble Pilot.
He placed the multitude of shells into his Ammo dispenser, and picked up the weapon in his left hand, while he held the Light Rifle in his right.
He came to a door at the end of the hallway, and stepped close enough to activate it, then stepped through.
He was greeted with a large compound, the, by far, largest building being the beam array they had come to find and shut off.
A Knight standing on top of one of the small buildings spotted him, and roared, alerting its comrades to the hostile, before it bent down, and its back split.
It was creating a Watcher.
Chief dropped the Scattershot at his feet, and immediately started firing at the Knight, taking advantage of the full second of opportunity where it stood still.
Three precise shots to its head, and its shield broke. One more and it disintegrated just as it finished launching the Watcher.
Rather than engage him, the Watcher folded, and begin bathing the area where the Knight had disintegrated with a strange blue light.
What was it doing? Chief didn’t know, but he did know that it couldn’t be good, so he opened fire again. Two shots was all it took, and it exploded in the air with a mechanical shriek that Chief had come to identify as the Watchers’ unique death throes.
Chief switched targets to the three Crawlers that were now rushing his position. As he was about to open fire, a deep ping noise sounded, and the three dog-like constructs were destroyed by an explosion.
Good. The cavalry had arrived.
He looked to his right to witness BT drop a few metres from his suspended position on the wall, back down to the surface.
“Miss us?” Cooper asked cheerily as he opened fire on the remaining Crawlers in the vicinity.
“I don’t know about him,” Cortana answered as the few remaining hostiles were efficiently killed off, “but I certainly did,”
Her hologram appeared and beckoned to him, “C’mere Jack. Chief’s got a gift for you,”
Cooper was surprised. A gift? In this place?
He disembarked from BT and followed Master Chief when he turned and returned to the door that must have been the exit to the hallway he had taken.
Chief bent down and grabbed the shotgun he had found in his off hand, before turning to the pilot, and tossing it to him.
Cooper was surprised, but acted quickly, catching the strange tubular device, seemingly a weapon, in his hands. He was more surprised, however, when the weapon seemed to fall apart as he put his hand onto the trigger guard, before the pieces slowly returned to their original positions.
“What is it?” he asked. It was large, around the size of an EPG, but reasonably light. It wouldn’t slow him down.
“A shotgun using ionised particles as projectiles. Semi-automatic with high armour penetration. Designate: Scattershot,” BT informed him using the information packet he had just received from Cortana, “Pilot. I recommend you take this weapon. Data from the Master Chief and Cortana suggests that standard ballistic weaponry will have little effect on enemy Prometheans,”
Jack nodded in understanding, inspecting the weapon. He shifted its position and weight, put an eye down the sights, and got a general feel of how the Scattershot would affect his movement.
“Great,” he said, nodding again, satisfied with the inspection, “Thanks Chief,”
The mountain of a man nodded back.
Cortana’s hologram reappeared, and she grinned at him.
“Chief’s fast,” she said before pausing, “but not as fast as you are. You’ll get better use out of it than we will,”
“Right,” he agreed.
He took a couple of steps and leapt, jumping back into BT’s open cockpit, as he had followed his charge to the hallway.
“Okay,” Jack said from within BT as he finally took stock of the surroundings, specifically the large structure and gigantic beam escaping from it, “How do we shut off the beam?”
“The beam control seems to be at the top of the tower,” Cortana answered, “but the entrance is shielded. Scanners are picking up three power cores for it, so we’ve gotta take them down, then climb up. I’ve marked the cores on your maps,”
“What kind of numbers are we lookin’ at?” Cooper asked in return.
“Less than you’d think, considering the location. Nothing more than what we’ve already seen,” Cortana responded.
“Then I say we split up. Both parties are capable of dealing with the Prometheans by themselves, and we’ll take out the cores much quicker,” Jack suggested.
Cortana’s hologram nodded, “That sounds like a good idea,”
“Master Chief, you can get one, then start making your way up. Me and BT can get the other two, then I’ll meet you at the top,”
“Understood,” Chief replied, before making his way to the closest marked target.
He reached it very quickly, the housing of the core being very close to where they had just stood.
He heard the thundering steps of the Titan as his allies made their way for the other cores.
Chief focused back on the task at hand when his motion tracker lit up with the detection of hostile movement.
He peaked around the wall to look at the core’s container, and spotted a Knight above it, while four Crawlers patrolled around it.
He drew the Suppressor and immediately opened fire on the Crawlers. The high rate of fire and armour penetrative properties of the weapon ensured the death of each before they could so much as react to his presence.
With its minions destroyed by a wave of Hardlight, the Knight roared in challenge, leaping from the roof of the small structure towards the Chief.
Chief backed up around the wall and allowed it to pursue him until it rounded the corner, where he then dumped a long burst into the surprised Knights helmet.
Its skin flickered, and a stream of tiny particles fractured off, signifying the destruction of its armour.
In a manner reflective of its brethren, it stumbled, before its mask split, only to catch an explosive 50 calibre round from the Magnum Chief had drawn in his off-hand.
With the threat dealt with, the Magnum returned to the thigh holster, and Chief rounded the wall once more, this time with the purpose of destroying the power core.
“One down!” came the cheerful voice of the Pilot over comms, evidently having cleared and destroyed his first core.
“Energy levels on the shield dropping! Good work Pilot,” Cortana responded, “Chief, yours is just in there, marked on your HUD,”
A red ping, simply labelled, ‘Destroy’ appeared off to his left, within the housing the Knight had stood on.
He walked to the side, past the ramp, and found an open door.
Inside was a large, translucent and glowing sphere, bright white in colour and suspended in the air. Lightning came off it, connecting with the floor and ceiling.
Chief decided to test the Pulse Grenades.
He took one from his waist and tossed it to the floor under the power core.
Immediately upon landing, it launched into the air and detonated, forming a spherical energy field, about 3 and a half meters across.
The initial detonation didn’t destroy the core, but he could see that the field was continuously straining it, the cores colour shifting from pure white to a dulled pink.
The field pulsed four times, over nearly three seconds, before it detonated, destroying the core with a bright flash.
“Two down!” Cortana cheered, “We’re gonna start heading up. Last one’s on you two,” she told the Titan and Pilot combo.
“Got it,” he returned, “We’re nearly there,”
“C’mon Chief,” Cortana began, “Marking the ramp,”
And indeed, a blue ping appeared, only 40 metres from his current position. He began moving immediately.
He encountered no enemies, but spotted BT making his way to the third and final core.
He moved up the ramp quickly, turned 180 degrees and continued up, but stopped before the top as his motion tracker lit up.
Three Knights, all hunkered down just above him. There was no way for him to get past them.
Cortana knew it too, so she reopened the comms channel.
“BT, Cooper, we’ve got three Knights waiting in cover just ahead of us. Think you can help us out?” she asked.
“Yeah, I think we can,” Jack replied, looking at the filled Core metre, ready and waiting to unleash a large, guided-rocket salvo.
“You thinking what I’m thinking BT?” he asked his mechanical friend.
“I believe I am Pilot,” he responded, “Coordinates for Danger-Close Air-Strike received from Cortana. Read for launch, on your mark,”
A push to the neural link, and the Acolyte Pods began launching the salvo high into the air, before streaming up towards the main structure.
They turned in the air once they were suitably above the tower, and split into three streams and rained down on the cowering Prometheans.
“You got ‘em!” Cortana cheered, “Thanks for the assist,”
“No worries. See you up there in a minute, Chief,” he finished.
“Alright BT,” he began, “Just one more core,”
“Correct,” was his curt reply, “Motion tracker indicates more hostile around the core containment,”
“Got it,” he replied.
He pointed the 40mm canon at the now visible Knight and unleashed a round.
The Knight, which had been facing away from them, was knocked off its feet, and very quickly destroyed by the follow-up shot. Then the Crawlers engaged, two from either side of the containment.
Vortex Shield went up a moment after he put a round in between the two on the left, catching the munitions from the two remainder.
He returned them after a moment of collection, the bright yellow rounds shredding them.
Cooper then aimed the 40mm again, and put three rounds onto the floor within the containment, easily destroying the core within.
“Shield’s down!” Cortana acknowledged immediately, “Great work Pilot! Now get up here!”
He laughed lightly as he disembarked, “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he said, looking back to his Titan, “Alright BT, time for a fastball,”
BT’s frontal camera looked to the top of the structure, where Master Chief was looking down to them, only just visible.
“Understood,” he said as he bent down and readied his hand for the toss.
Jack climbed in, complete faith in his Titan to get the throw just right.
“Height; 42 metres. Distance; 23 metres. Mass; 89 kilograms. Wind; minimal. Calculating trajectory,” he listed off before pausing, “Calculated. Pilot, ready yourself for a ‘Fastball’,”
“I’m ready BT,” he answered immediately, and BT threw him.
Chief was unsure how the Pilot would reach him, considering what Cortana had told him about the Jump-Kit enhanced movement. Perhaps he would run up the ramps, or maybe chain jumps and wall-running.
He didn’t expect the gigantic robot to throw him.
Jack Cooper flew through to air towards him, climbing higher and higher, before he reached the apex of the arc, right at the lip of the platform.
He landed and took all of two steps to stop himself.
It was a perfect landing, as far as Chief could tell. He had cleared the necessary height by a centimetre, if he was generous, and touched down as smoothly as though he had walked instead of being tossed.
It would have taken an incredible degree of trust in his companion, as the fall likely would have harmed him, Jump-Kit or not.
Something Chief could compare himself to. He would follow Cortana’s instructions as though they were his own, without hesitation or concern.
“Master Chief,” the Pilot greeted, slightly smug, “Cortana,”
“Pilot,” Cortana greeted in turn, “Nice of you to finally join us,” she replied cheekily.
“Yeah well, I had some stuff to do,” he returned with a laugh.
They got on well, Chief noted. It would be good for communication in the future.
“C’mon then you two,” Cortana said, addressing them both, “Let’s get this beam down,”
Cooper nodded, settling back into a serious mindset. While the banter with Cortana was fun, they still had a job to do if they wanted to survive.
The two warriors crossed the three Hardlight bridges to the main tower, Jack a little sceptical at first, having never seen Hardlight prior to that day. He was unsure it would function, but seeing the Chief step onto it unhesitantly, he followed.
They entered a wide tunnel, at least three times their height, and made their way into the tower.
They reached the end, only a few seconds later, at an elevator.
Chief stepped to the front and pushed the control at the end, and it began steadily rising.
“Have a look at this!” Cortana declared, bringing forth a static filled image of a man onto each of their HUDs. They recognised him as the man who had make the previous transmission, though now the audio was nearly distinguishable.
“Thi… -Captai- -l Rio… surv-ors -f th- For-ard -to Daw- we are -proachi- your la- -own loca-on”
“Did he say Forward Unto Dawn?” Chief asked.
“You’re ship?” Cooper asked in return.
“Yes,” Cortana answered, “They must have intercepted out distress beacon,”
“The beacon was pulled into Requiem with us,” Chief began, “If they try to follow us-“
“They’ll get caught in the gravity well! I’ll keep trying to warn them! You shut down that beam!” Cortana responded with urgency.
The elevator slowed to a stop as they reached the top of the pylon, displaying a large spinning contraption, with the beam emanating from it.
“That’s the beam control!” Cortana said, marking the device, though it was quite obvious, as the only visible interface of any kind.
Master Chief approached it quickly, Cooper following behind him.
Chief grabbed the handle of the device and began to pull, drawing it out by half a metre before twisting the handle and pulling more.
“That’s it,” Cortana urged, “The signal is clearing up,”
Another quarter turn, then Chief slammed the handle back into place.
The beam shut off immediately, the contraption slowed its spinning and lowered, a flooring stretching across the now open space.
“Fleetcom Actual,” came the transmission again, now nearing perfect clarity, “we are detecting a faint UNSC signal from inside the planet,”
“They haven’t hit the gravity well yet,” Master Chief observed.
There’s still too much interference to warn them,” Cortana informed, “You’re gotta disable the other beam before they’re pulled inside like we were!” she ordered.
“Portal’s open! Jack! Follow us! I’ve given BT a bigger one, so he’ll meet us there!” Cortana said.
“Got it!” he returned, quickly following the rushing Spartan.
The Spartan leapt into the swirling portal and vanished from sight.
“Here goes nothing,” he mumbled, and jumped after him, and his vision filled with white.