Part one: Awakening
"Chief,
Chief can you hear me? Dammit John, wake up!" Cortana's voice shouted,
echoing in the Master Chief's mind. He could feel the temperature
getting hotter, his limbs loosening as they unfroze.
He felt that same feeling he did every time he emerged out of a cryo sleep, stiff, annoyed, and tired.
"What's the situation?" He asked, climbing out of the pod.
"We're
about to crash into a planet of some kind, I just thought you should
know. Anyway, it may be a good idea for us to leave. Now."
He assessed the situation, his artificially accelerated mind racing through numerous problems and solutions.
"Can you not bring the Dawn in slowly?"
"I would, but the thrusters are in bad shape. If I activated them, there's a 80% chance they could blow."
"Do we have any Pelicans, or a HEV pod?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"Nope,
we're totally out, and we don't have a parachute on board either, no
way getting off the ship, or what's left of it anyway."
John could feel the surge as they entered the Planet's atmosphere, and knew they had to get off now, or die.
"There's always a way" He said, walking over to the shattered edge of the broken ship.
"Please don't tell me that you're....oh, you are, excellent."
"It's the only way Cortana, besides, it went well last time; well, sort of."
"Last time? And what do you mean 'sort of'?"
"Brace yourself" He said. Two simple words, then, he jumped.
**********
The
Elite approached the Zealot with no little apprehension, he was known
to take his anger out on anything in the nearby vacinity when given bad
news.
"Noble Zealot, my scouts have just reported seeing something in the sky, a burning comet of sorts, rushing down to the surface."
The Zealot, named Z'thanee, slowly turned his head to face the messenger.
"You
interupted me for this?" Z'thanee was tired of managing the citedel he
had been appointed to govern, and as a result had developed a short
temper.
The smaller Elite Minor gave a noticable flinch, something which pleased Z'thanee.
"We, that is to say, I, thought it may be important, after all, the Humans use such methods to quickly deploy their troops."
The Zealot paused, and leaned forward in his gravity defying chair.
"You
could be right there, for once. Take a squad of five and investigate
the crash site, if you discover anything of worth, report it to me at
once."
The Minor lowered his head respectfully.
"Yes, noble Zealot, it shall be done."
**********
"Aim for that body of water!" Cortana shouted, indicating on his heads up display the ocean in question.
Swerving
to the side slightly, John snapped his arms to his side, and prepared
himself for what would come. With a huge crash, the Spartan cut through
the water and sank several dozen metres below. Luckily the water was
very deep, so he avoided major injury.
He swam up to the surface, and crawled onto the rocky shore.
"See? No problem." John said, collapsing onto the floor.
He looked up into the ruby red sky. He could see no trace of the Dawn, it must have disintergrated in the atmosphere.
"So, how long was I under ice for?"
"I'd say about two months, give or take."
Two months? It wasn't as bad as he had been expecting, but it was still quite a long time.
"Any
idea where the hell we are?" He asked, surveying the scenery around
them. The vegetation in the area was tall, and strange birds could be
seen up in the sky.
"Your guess is as good as mine. No where near Earth, but we're still in it's galaxy."
That was a relief. John had been worried they might have been sent to a dark, unknown corner at the edge of the universe.
"We'd best set up camp." John said, already snapping branches of trees to start a fire.
"Agreed, tommorow we can do some scouting around, see if this planet has any advanced life on...wait."
"What is it?" The Chief said, slowly drawing out his weapon.
He
was still carrying the Spartan laser Johnson had used before his death,
the one John had used to kill the Monitor. Johnson had made a few
modifications on it, placing a nuclear battery inside; expensive, but
effective. The laser's charge would last a long time, he could fire a
hundred shots and not even waste one percent of the battery.
"I'm picking up multiple figures heading this way, odd, my sensors are showing them as Elites."
"Really?
That's a relief then." John lowered his weapon, things were turning out
perfectly, if Elites were here then he'd have a way to contact Earth,
and Lord Hood.
"Chief, I wouldn't relax just yet, I've hacked into their com chatter and they seem to be on the offensive."
How
strange, thought John, surely their HUDs would show him as human. He
raised the weapon again, finger resting upon the large, black trigger
of the Spartan laser.
Suddenly, six Elites burst into his small camp, all holding Covenant Energy swords, adapted from Forerunner technology.
"Demon...."
One of them growled, advancing upon him in a menacing manner. John
slowly backed away. He could only see five Elites now, hadn't there
been six before?
"Whoa...easy there. I'm a human, we have an alliance...."
The Elites began to laugh, a deep, intimidating one.
"You have been gone a long time Demon, things have changed..."
"What the hell are you talking about? Where's the Arbiter?" John challenged, hands gripping ever tighter upon the laser.
"All will be explained shortly Demon, but for now, I grow tired of this talk." He turned to face the others. "Take him".
John
didn't care if they still had an alliance or not, all he knew now was
that he was in danger, and so was Cortana. His combat instincts kicked
in, and he readied himself for action.
Four of the Elites charged as one, the one who had done the talking hanging back, with a sneer upon his sharp face.
The
Chief held down the trigger, and the Spartan laser's end glowed a deep,
vibrant red, then discarged. A beam of concentrated light hit one of
them square in the chest, burning a hole through the alien flesh. With
a whisper, the Elite silently fell to the ground.
The remaining
ones cried out at the loss of their 'brother', and one lunged directly
at John, aiming for his heart. Reacting quickly, John hit the ground
and rolled away from the lunge, ending up directly behind the attacker.
With a grunt, he crashed the butt of the Spartan laser into the Elites
chest, puncturing the thick lungs inside. Wheezing, and crawling
desperately along the ground, the Elite began to move around in
circles, frantically trying to draw breath. As one final attempt to do
so failed, the Elite collapsed, and moved no more.
John was
confident he could win, the Elites were of a low rank, and only two,
not including who he assumed to be the leader, remained. He still
couldn't see the sixth Elite who had mysteriously vanished earlier
though.
He charged his laser, and another beam came forth, this
time burning into the side of one of the Elite's head, killing him
instantly. The remaining one was backing away now, fear present on his
face, and the leader's confident sneer had vanished, to be replaced by
a uncertain scowl.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of an active
camoflage deactivating behind him, and before he could retaliate, the
strong fist of the sixth Elite hammered into the side of John's head,
knocking him to the ground in a daze.
The last thing he saw
before he blacked out was the sight of two Elite's rushing towards him,
victory clear in their expressions.
"Welcome to Sanghelios Demon....." He heard one faintly say, then, darkness.
"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.