Remnants Lone wolf

After the fall

It was quiet. There was no longer any noise echoing through my head. The rumbling stopped and the ground stood still. My eyes opened and I stare at the cracked gray ceiling. "So they finished glassing the planet did they?" I questioned my self quietly thinking what would be next on my agenda.

I lay silently before getting up, grabbing my helmet and putting it on, twisting it to seal with the suit. A mirror was on the ground and I picked it up, placing it back on the wall where it was before it fell. Looking into it I see my white and black helmet look back to me through the reflection. My teishin armor with my regnum visor, (above) all made specifically for me to perform what no others could. Yet it wasn't enough.

I turn and leave the small room and begin heading to the bunkers armory. The bunker was once owned by ONI, the office of naval intelligence but no longer. To anyone off the planet. It's now just glass on a once great planet, second to earth.

Upon entering the armory I look to see what's left; two SMGs, some assault rifles, a DMR, and a shotgun. "Hmm." I think about what I should grab. "Obviously my favorite please." I grab one of the SMGs and place it on my right just below my waist. "Well don't mind if I do, thank you." I grab the shotgun and the DMR placing them side by side on my back before deciding that's all I would need, I grabbed some extra ammo to clip to me and begin to head out of the armory towards the hanger bay.

The walk is short but besides the only sound being my foot steps I feel as if I'm not alone. The door to the hanger was sealed shut. "Welp, knock knock." I step back and twist bringing my back leg forward sending the door to the opposite side of the hanger only to get stuck in a pelicans landing gear. "Oops."

Walking in I see only one vehicle, the gauss warthog. Running up to it I turn the key still in the ignition. It turns over and over before firing up. "Haha, there you go girl." I drive the warthog under a second pelican due to the firsts landing gear crumpling before the weight caused her to roll on as much of her side as she could.

The pelicans hatch is opened so I park the warthog right before the edge of it. Jumping out of the vehicle I jump into the pelican and run to the front the pilot door separating the cockpit and the bed where the crew sits still open. With no trouble the pelican lights up and the engines fire up. I look around noticing a dead marine in the gunners seat. Bringing him down I look at his dog tags. "Lt. Adam Chrysler." I break off his tags and set them on the pilots seat for now before picking him up and carrying him out. "I'm sorry you had to die, but at least you'll always be remembered by others. At lest you have Reach to call home."

I place him in the seat of the console where the bay doors get opened. "Greeting sierra-L176 Spartan.... unknown, Spartan? why is there nothing about you in my data base? Only you number. That and the listing 'hyper lethal'." I blink at the console as a dark red, almost black colored humanoid appeared in front of me.  I'm stuck on what to say before finally answering. "Doctor Halsey didn't want me to be in the files. So that if I were to die during my missions then technically I never existed. Who are you?" The small AI woman faces me with a blank face, "my name is Eta, I am the AI that controls this station. I've been watching you as I've got no information on you." "I see." I stood up straight and looked at the hanger doors.

"Is it possible to open the hanger doors for me Eta?" The doors begins to creak and moan as the machinery tries to pull them open. "Negative, it seams the glass is to thick on the other side. You'll need to find another way out." I sit in the silence and think to myself. "Do you think the glassing made the doors weak enough to blow open?" She stays silent for a second. "Possible."

"That's all I need. Is there a chip I can use to take you with me?" I asked while looking the console up and down. "The only way you can do that is to go to the command room." At the words I sprinted off to the room. The bunker is small so it didn't take to long to get there.

Upon entering the room I see a large circular holographic table with a map of the area. It's soon replaced with the AI standing at rest. "The chip is right in front of me, you can pull me when you're ready, I've already wiped all data in the bunker as per protocol." Grabbing her chip I slide it into my helm.

At the locking click my visors top left depicts a picture of the red woman. Now that I see her right in front of me I notice her figure. She's relatively skinny with some curves. Her hair is long turning black at the edge. "This is some advanced hardware you have in here guess it is required for a lone wolf." I'm now walking back to the hanger. "I thought you didn't have any info on me?" She giggles in my head, "I've watched all the missions you've been on since you've gotten this helmet and armor." One of the many things that surprise me about the AIs.

I jump in the pelican, engines still running hot. Grabbing the tags I tie them up and hang them on the gunners console. "Maybe we can get these home for you." Sitting in the pilot seat I flip a switch and hear the warthog get lifted and connecting to the back of the pelican. The doors begins to close and I look forward.  "All right lets see if this works." I connect the AI to the pelicans console and begin to lift off. "Aim for the weakest points of the door with the missiles." As I finish missiles from the pelicans wings launch and impact the door. The shockwave causes the pelican to shake but it didn't faulted to much.

As the dust cleared light beamed through the opening. I smile under the helm, "Haha, we are out of here." The engines wind up and the pelican blasts forward. "Is there any other UNSC personnel alive?" The AI stays silent for a while, checking all possible places, "negative. We are the only ones." Under my breath I let out, "I see"

As we raise in altitude I look down onto the planet. Reach, a once great planet I called home, now covered in nothing but glass. The light from the sun scattered off the glass making it look like an ocean. "Even when everything is singed red, I guess reach can still be beautiful.

We break through the atmosphere before seeing a torn apart ship. It was once a UNSC carrier. But no more. "Structural integrity states that this piece is still partially pressurized" the AI speaks to me as a marker appears on my hud. Maybe there we can find something to take us home.

Flying by it I realize the part of the ship left is the hanger connected with something else. Slowly, I bring in the pelican to land and replace the AI back into my helmet. I open the door and the remaining air in the pelican gets sucked out nearly breaking the lowering door. Pushing the pelican forward.

Stepping out I activate my gravity boots and grab the lowered door of the pelican to stop it and keep it as still as I can. looking around there is crates and vehicles floating around the hanger. I walk to and connect Eta to a console "what else is connected that's pressurized." Silent before she speaks, "just some escape pods, most have launched it seems. There's also half a cryo chamber and a back up battery that is still connected for the most part. A little wiring and depending on what you use it'll last some time." I look along the walls. Some corners are mashed together and here and there there is some tears in the metal.

"Where's the damaged wires?"

"Well I mean there everywhere but the ones you have to worry about are just behind you." I shake my head as I turn around. "Whatever smart ass." Popping open a circuit breaker the wires spark from the electricity going through trying to flow. After some connecting and using some electrical tape I found for a quick fix the wires go through.

I begin turning off thing that are useless. Lights, bay shielding, life support, anything that is no longer connected or vital. "How long can I use what's left of the cryro chamber?" Looking to the console Eta forms herself atop one of the screens. "With everything else shut off and me sending out a distress... a year at the most."

"I see." I walk over to the cryro room and see only two pods however one is just dangling on wires. The other however just has a few scratches but nothing too detrimental. "Well. It's better then suffocating out here. Eta? Wake me up if something happens or I'm running out of time."

"Understood Spartan. Um, one thing however. What's your name?" I sit in and close the chamber. "I don't remember." I begin to feel cold as the chamber boots up.  "It's been a while since some one has called me something. In turn, I forgot it. Didn't need it." With that, my senses go dark as I freeze. My missions were so long it would be months before I became in contact with someone. And even then they just referred to me by my tag. At least it's not all bad, I'm alive right. Spartans never die, right Halsey? They're just MIA.