October 28th, 2558. Sol System.
The sound of metal boots on polished titanium floors echoed off the hallway as people parted like the red sea for the figure marching in perfect time to his destination. The facilities on this ship were just as expensive as on its sister ship. As such, they were built with two beings in mind. Humans, and what some believe to be humanity's next step. Spartans. Soldiers to the core, warriors of unparalleled might, and defenders of humanity's future, tasked with ensuring its survival and prosperity through any means necessary. They have been the one thing standing between humanity and its extinction for years. So, ships like the Infinity and her sister, the Eternity are equipped to keep these men and women in top physical condition, requiring equipment well beyond what the average human body can survive. Treadmills are topping out at over eighty miles an hour and can withstand three hundred pounds. Check. One-ton dumbbells, check. Reinforced pull-up bars and obstacle courses, check.
It was a Spartans playground for those who took the role seriously. Sadly, most Spartan IVs acted like children aboard the Infinity, where Commander Palmer failed to demand and instill the same cold, machine-like discipline the Spartan IIs had beaten into them from childhood, or the Spartan IIIs ruthless efficiency and near suicidal dedication to the mission, having lost everything to the covenant, and more than willing to give their lives to strike back. Their homes, families, friends, loved ones . . . whole worlds turned to glass in a lie told by false prophets. Those Spartans were little more than cheap copies of the legends they were named after and those who came before them.
The hiss of pressurized doors opening shook the spartan from memories of battlefields long past as he stepped into the training deck of the Infinity. To the left, a large glass wall showed a War Games session going on, a big team battle from the sound of it. To the right, rows upon rows of standard spartan training equipment. Striding towards a bench with weights and a bar, he noticed a nearby fireteam in only tech suits, their color a deep blue, showing they were fireteam Azure, one of the teams under his command. They quickly stood to attention, heels snapping together, backs straight, hands saluting in perfect sync. These Spartans weren't normal spartan IVs. Ninety-two fireteams, comprised of four Spartans each, were on the Eternity. Out of the four hundred assigned to her, thirty-two had decided as teams to take shore leave, showing that most, if not all, the Spartans of the Eternity were staying onboard while the ship slip space drive was being swapped out, having burnt out from constant jumps between inner colony worlds and systems to raise morale post-human-covenant war.
These Spartans were atypical because of their commander. Thomas R-095. Originally put into the service at 6 after being kidnapped from his home world, he was sent through with the second class of Spartan IIs, augmented at fourteen, and retired at twenty-two to search for his home and his family. He found a planet broken by war, covered in glass, and nothing left to come home to. First, he had lost reach, watched as his friends and his family fought, bled, and died for the planet they had been raised on, trained on, and became Spartans on. Fifteen years they had been on reach, and it had made them family.
They had been split at first, angry and distrustful of each other, they were old enough to know they had been kidnapped, and stolen from their homes and families, but they had also known what was out there, the danger the covenant represented. They had all heard by the time the UNSC came for them what happened to the outer colonies, and eventually, they banded together as the First Class had and became the soldiers humanity needed them to be. At fourteen, he and seventy-four others were put through augmentations, thirty didn't make it, and twelve were permanently disabled.
For those that survived, it was a proud moment, and for seven years, they would fight in several battles for the UNSC, truly earning the nickname given to them by the covenant. They were, in every sense, demons. To Thomas, that was what a spartan was, a soldier so effective, so ruthless, that even alone their enemies feared them as nigh untouchable beings made for one purpose. To kill any threat to humanity.
That was the mindset he brought when he was asked to reenlist for the spartan IV program, not only being re-augmented but also being given the rank of commander and put in charge of all spartan forces onboard the Eternity. He found out very quickly he was a glorified babysitter to a bunch of petulant teenagers who thought they were superheroes and could do what they wanted without repercussions. They lasted two days before the captain of the Eternity began receiving complaints of cruelty and unfair disciplinary action from the spartan core aboard the ship, but when questioned, all the commander would reply with was, "If these are supposed to be the Spartans that struck fear into the covenant and died on reach, then I refuse to sit back and let them spit on my brother's and sister's names." Captain Gideon Pillow had nothing to say to this and was more than willing to let "sleeping dogs lie" and ignore the complaints to avoid the spartan commanders' wrath, the demon appointed by lord Terrance Hood himself.
So it was that for the next four years, as the Eternity toured the colonies, and the Infinity searched for Halo, found Requiem, and the master chief, Thomas, trained these sniveling children wearing powered assault armor and turned them into demons. First, he broke them, as he found many of them to have been marines, and as such, they were flawed. Marines were soldiers, yes, but they were not enough for him; he needed them better. How did he do this? War games. He sent them into simulation after simulation. But he wouldn't use any standard scenarios, no, that wouldn't do. He sent them to hell, where all demons are born and thrive, alone, outnumbered, outgunned, sometimes barehanded. Sometimes, he would give them a knife sometimes a whole squad would have to share, sometimes a stick. He made them do the unthinkable. He made them think.
Any marine can shoot a gun, but a demon must know what to do when you run out of bullets, when you snap your rifle over your enemies' head, when your armor fails, when you are surrounded and alone, what do you do then? Failure was punished harshly, but the thing that inspired respect and devotion from them was every simulation he put them through, which he would do as well, showing them how to truly fight like a demon. He spoke, and they listened through failure, pain, and time. Through this hell each Marine was broken, taught not to rely on weapons, or armor for they are breakable as well, and reforged into something that while not perfect, they never could be after all, was enough.
Thomas was never satisfied with their performance, but he knew when they improved, and they were rewarded, with new gear in simulations, and better odds, not always but sometimes when teambuilding was required. The more Spartans you can throw at something the less likely it will survive after all. Five years, and four hundred Marines later, Thomas finally requested to talk to the captain, who by now forgot the demon was even on his ship and was startled to see him again. The captain however approved his request and every one of the Marines under Thomas' command was gathered in a hanger for a ceremony lead by their commander, where he shook every one of their hands and told them that now, they had earned the name of Spartan.
He had seen in every last one of their eyes that they finally understood that being a spartan wasn't being humanity's best but becoming that which stands between humanity and its destruction. Every man and woman in that room understood that they were to give their all for humanity, their loved ones, and their brothers and sisters in the spartan core, even if it just buys them time to finish the fight. And now here he was, planning to remove his armor and join them in their daily PT.
Before his Hud alerted him to a message from the shipboard AI that he was needed on the bridge. Double time it is then, he would think to himself, dismissing the Spartans in front of him and returning to the entrance. He began attempting to hail the captain on a private channel but was getting nothing for 30 seconds before attempting to reach the XO, who oddly, also refused to reply. By now he had reached the main elevator which would put him in spitting distance of the bridge and decided to get some answers from the resident brain of the ship. Activating the external speakers of his Helmet, he spoke quickly, "Zayn, where's Captain Pillow?"
A small dark cyan-colored hologram appeared next to a control panel for the elevator, showing that he was about halfway up, it was a short human, with short hair and hearing aids where her ears would be, wearing a hoodie that was almost too big, shorts and sneakers, she leaned forward, both hands on her hips, and in a VERY annoyed tone shouted at him "He's made the decision to take himself and his BUDDIES on shore leave. ON EARTH"
Unfazed the spartan asks another question "And the XO?"
The angry Artificial intelligence only shakes her head at him "Drunk, and same place the captain went, with most of the enlisted officers, which means YOU are the highest-ranking officer onboard right now."
The spartan resisted the urge to sigh, though it was strong indeed, the captain had done this with almost all other planets the Eternity had docked at, and the XO was an alcoholic with a history of bad decisions behind him. The only reason he had his position was the captain, he was the brother of some rear admiral or something. The spartan hadn't cared when he was introduced to him enough to remember it. "So, you called me up here to babysit"
The AI looked insulted for a second then annoyed again and replied "No, I detected an anomaly, and I need someone who can give these shit-for-brains their orders, damnit. No one listens to me up here!"
Immediately alarm bells began ringing in the Spartans head, anomaly's meant bad things, ALWAYS bad things. The elevator opened at that moment and the spartan disregarded a steady march for a fast walk onto the bridge, a whistle going off as he entered, but none of the staff seemed to notice as a game of pool was going on at the hollow table. One word described the spartan then. Pissed. Lack of awareness while in drydock was deadly, ignoring an officer entering the bridge a severe sign of disrespect and worst of all improper use of a captain's most VITAL asset, the war table. One of the bridge crew almost walked past the spartan, two red plastic cups in hand, when he noticed the spartan and froze, staring at his visor. The spartan stared back and could hear him gulp, his heart hammering in his chest, and smell the liquor in the cups. The name on his shirt read Lieutenant Franklyn.
"Lieutenant. An officer has entered the bridge. Sound off."
Each word was quiet, but on the ships bridge it was deafening to Franklyn, even above his friends woops and hollering. He quickly dropped both cups, spilling the liquid into a nearby waste bin and shouted, "OFFICER ON DECK!"
All heads whipped around and one by one everyone was soon at attention before the armored man. Standing at seven foot two inches and half a ton soaking wet, stood Commander Thomas, Spartan R-095, acting captain of the Eternity, and the bridge crew were playing pool instead of listening to the AI's warnings.
"Clean this up. You have thirty seconds." The words once again sounded quiet, and calm, but anyone who knew this man would have rather heard him screaming it, because that was predictable. No one was still after they processed his words, and true to form, as he walked to the head of the table everything was put away. At thirty seconds exactly, he turned around and saw the bridge clean, nearly spotless, and every member of the bridge crew that stayed behind lined up next to the table on either side.
"I would normally take the time to reprimand each of you individually but seeing as we have an emergency, I don't have the time, so I will say this to all of you. I have never, in all my years been so disgusted by a group of soldier's blatant disregard for protocol or common sense. each and every one you deserve to be demoted effective immediately and relieved of bridge duty but unfortunately the good captain has seen fit to give himself and over half the bridge crew shore leave in the middle of repairs. So, I'll have to make do with your sorry lot later. All hands to battle stations, prepare for anything, and bring us to combat alert Alpha 2."
The bridge crew looked stunned, and glanced between each other, alpha 2 meant they expect to engage enemy ships in combat, and they were in drydock, but immediately set to follow orders. Zayn popped up onto the now clear table as alarms began to ring out across the ship. "Thank you, and good call. That anomaly just became an incoming slipspace signature, and its huge"
"How huge are we talking?"
"About as big as us."
At the end of this exchange the spartan turned sharply left to who was stationed at the comm officer's chair and saw.... Franklyn. Who was shaking like a leaf now that the commander was looking at him. Thomas didn't have time for this and quickly gave orders.
"Contact Serrys station, tell them to prepare for hostile contact."
Franklyn hesitated then asked, "Sir, what makes you so sure we have hostile contacts?"
The spartan walked away to check the shield's charge status, finding them to be at about 80 percent but not coming all the way online due to the docking clamps, before replying, "I'm a spartan lieutenant. We have a sixth sense for this."
Franklyn quickly turned around, and panicking said, "Sir, distress signals, all channels." And following that statement, dozens of panicked helmsmen were heard over the comms, but nothing could be made out aside from enemy contact, and all systems offline.
"Patch me to Serrys. Now" The spartan calmly said.
"yessir"
The second he saw a green light on his Hud signaling the connection was secure, the acting captain began speaking.
"Serrys station this is acting captain of the Eternity. Code red, evacuate immediately, Eternity will standby to receive you how copy?"
Moments later, from the observation window, showing a beautiful picture of Earth slightly off to the left surrounded by her defense platforms and drydocks, a slip space portal opened, and from it, something resembling a segmented winged monster. The spartan could tell it was Forerunner, and nothing they had could stop it right now, not without help. If the Infinity and Eternity were both here right now, maybe, but Infinity was too far out of range to contact, let alone regroup with. His thoughts were interrupted by a large glowing orb growing in front of the strange construct, and the spartan had no information to even try and guess what it would do, but ever since new phoenix he didn't need to, to know he didn't want it touching Eternity. "Full shields to port."
Had Zayn not already had some idea of what the spartan would want to do in this situation she may have been too slow. As it was the shields flared just as the Guardian let out its EMP and caught the blast shaking the massive ship and knocking out the lights for a moment.
"Status report." The order went out as soon as the lights returned.
"Shields were knocked out but power is still online. Weapons and thrusters are down, along with our slip space drive." Zayn rattled off quickly, listing what was broken and what was still usable.
The spartan shook his head and said, "So sitting ducks, great. How about Serrys station?"
"No reply. They may have lost power" Franklyn replied. Deciding he had sat around enough the spartan decided to take action "Who's the Chief security officer on duty?"
Another tech by what appeared to be a weapons console, a woman with long brown hair, looked up, wearing a guilty face "Um, that would be me.... technically. I'm covering his shift so he could take leave. He was going to bring me back a cake."
The spartan stared at her before replying in a frustrated tone, "I don't care about some cake. I need to know if you're even capable of the role."
The officer, he now noticed her last name is Bell, straightened up and looked confidently back at his visor and replied, "Yes sir, I'm capable."
Without pause the spartan began "I need security teams at both docking hooks, they need to make sure that Serrys station is evacuated before the demolition team gets there." The spartan then sent a message to fireteam Azure who by now should have gotten suited up and told them to head to the armory for demolition charges. Standard protocol for all spartan fireteams is that when a combat alert above beta is declared, Mjolnir armor systems must be equipped as soon as possible in the event of a boarding action. Bell, with a very alarmed look on her face then spoke up.
"I'm sorry, demolition team!? What exactly do we need blown up?" Without missing a beat, the spartan replied.
"Docking clamps, we can't do anything stuck here, and Zayn's been trying to override the controls from here, but there's not much she can do when the stations lost power."
Over on the halo table, Zayn is seen laying on her back throwing a ball in the air and catching it, being almost the full size of the table now instead of small. She looks over at the two and speaks in a bored manner "Their motion sensors are still working so I know they're about 30% evacuated, might take another minute or 2 for them to be clear. The only other way I can see us getting the clamps off would be a spacewalk out to the emergency releases, but that'd take longer. Oh, and Hannah, your weapons are about to come online, so stop leaning on the keyboard."
Suddenly one of the sensor suites began rapidly beeping, indicating a large object on an intercept course, and looking out the window, it seemed the guardian was moving towards the Eternity to take another shot at her. The spartan began thinking rapidly, needing to get the crew to safety and formulate a battleplan, he decided to try and hail the admiral.
"Eternity to lord Hood, do you read me, come in admiral." The line was dead for several seconds, until a staticy reply came through.
"We read you Eternity. Where's the captain? Who am I speaking to?" The confused voice was laced with recognition, although no trace of fear could be seen. The comms link was too fuzzy for visual.
"This is acting captain Spartan Thomas R-095, we are still in drydock and currently evacuating Serrys station. Need coordinates to regroup with the Home Fleet. Please advise." As he was speaking, he recieved confirmation from Azure that they had donned Mjolnir and were enroute for the Armory.
"I'm sorry spartan, but the home fleets been disabled. This is checkmate for Earth I'm afraid. You say you're evacuating the station. Does that mean you're still space-worthy Eternity?" Many of the bridge crew hearts sank at this.
"Yes sir, weapons are coming online and we're preparing to leave drydock. We expect to depart shortly, but we may not have long before that thing is on us."
Admiral Hood is seen looking down and nods to himself a few times before closing his eyes, sighing and shaking his head.
"You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you spartan, but I need you to take the Eternity and run. We can't win this fight, not today, so we just have to ensure that humanity can live to fight another day. complete the evacuation and see to it that Eternity and her crew make it away from Cortana and her forces."
The Admiral was right, and the spartan knew it. He hated it with every fiber of his being, but right now, he couldn't risk the lives of every single person onboard this ship for one fight. He'd run, and he'd find a way to end the threat just like he'd been trained, but first, he needed Eternity underway.
"Bell, how much longer till we get all of Serrys station onboard?" He kept his tone level, but underneath he seethed.
The Burnette turned around and answered him "IFF readings show she's empty sir, everyone made it, and we have about 30 seconds before the Demo teams make it to the docking clamps."
Deciding to check on Fireteam Azure, Thomas radioed the Fireteam leader to check on their progress.
"Azure this is Eternity. What's your ETA to the docking clamps, over?"
Out on the hull of Eternity beneath her name two Spartan IVs are seen sprinting to the clamp on the starboard bow of the ship, each carrying two high-yield breaching charges, with maneuvering thrusters on their backs. Both spartans wore the standard OD Green Mjolnir with blue stripes seen on their helmets and right shoulder pauldron, the left showing their symbol, a black wolf over a blue shield, a mirror of fireteam crimson on Infinity.
"This is Azure, Team 1 is in position, team two ETA to the second objective is thirty seconds. Team one, blow the hatch in 45 seconds, and hold the door for us would you, I'd hate to get locked out again Maxwell."
"Solid copy Azure, Serrys station has been evacuated. Proceed with demolition."
Just as the spartans had said, 30 seconds later they arrived at the foremost docking clamp keeping Eternity from her glorious escape, and the two spartans quickly set the charges in tandem, working as the well-oiled machines their commander had made them into. The second spartan turned towards the Fireteam leader and quipped.
"Early wakeup, short breakfast, Double PT, and then to top the day off, we get to walk on the outside of the ship while we're under attack by an unknown enemy force, man I love Mondays."
"Only you would complain about getting to go on a spacewalk Alex. Are you done? the other clamp should be blowing any second now." And shortly after a bright flash was seen down on the other end of the ship, signaling that one clamp had been removed already, followed by a slight tremor a few seconds later. Already the ship could be seen drifting away from the station.
The lead spartan quickly set his charges timers for 15 seconds and began sprinting, radioing his partner as he ran "Last one to the airlocks is on cleaning duty!" and leaping from the end of the clamp, slamming into the hull of Eternity. The other spartan to his credit was not far behind him, having set his charges and taken off just as the other cleared the clamp, and began after him, replying
"Thats not fair! And Monday always sucks, its oatmeal day. It always tastes like dirt." His complaining did not affect Alex. He made it with time to spare and got to watch his partner struggle to stay upright as the charges went off. Hidden thrusters spun to life just before he caught his footing and made it inside.
Eternity was freedjust as the thrusters came online and the Guardian is seen approaching charging another EMP. Back on the deck the acting captain begins marching towards the Navigators chair holotable before speaking to Zayn "We need to leave. Now."
The sound of gunfire erupted from the hull, signaling that Bell had begun trying to force the enemy behemoth away, to little effect at a glance out the window as the guardian's shields began glowing, but it did seem to draw energy away from the EMP that it was attempting to charge showing that it took a significant amount of power to generate. Hannah turned to Zayn and quickly said "Requesting a firing solution, maybe we can punch through its shields"
Before Zayn could reply the spartan butted in "No time, Emergency slipspace, anywhere but here." The AI nodded, also disliking the necessity to run but knowing to pick her battles very carefully. The Eternity's slipspace engine was heard powering up, a loud humming noise, followed by an announcement over the ship's speakers, "All hands brace for emergency jump." before a large tear in space-time appeared in front of Eternity as she accelerated towards it with a desperate urgency, and just as her bow entered the portal the guardians EMP went off. And that was the last the galaxy ever heard of the Eternity.
At least, in this galaxy.
On the bridge, immediately after the wave hit the supercarrier, sparks flew from a multitude of different components on the bridge while new alarms began blaring, and a god-awful screeching could be heard, as if reality itself was being torn asunder under the strain of whatever just happened, a look out of the viewport showed instead of the ship passing down a spiraling tunnel, it appeared the ship was being thrown along a great many tunnels, before another screech was heard, and what appeared to be a tunnel of pure blue flames was what greeted them, to anyone who had seen slipspace before they could tell immediately something was very wrong. The spartan slowly stood from his kneeling position, having been thrown to the floor earlier next to the holotable, and looked around before speaking. "Status report."
Zayn appeared from the table and looked very concerned at the window and the surrounding portal they were tunneling through. "Well, we're not dead." She looked at the spartan with a smile that slowly faded, "Weapons and shields are still online, but I've got over 10,000 errors in the slipspace engine right now, and 90% of them should've been fatal by now, I have no clue where we're going or if we're going to come out in one piece at all." The rest of the officers had picked themselves up by now, and all of them had grim faces. Franklyn looked around before turning to his console and was stunned for a second before scrambling to pick up his earpiece and listening to what he had found. It was a distress call. they had picked it up in slip space, and he knew the captain would want to hear it. "Uuuuugh. Captain, I think we may have a situation."
The spartan in question nodded to him, silently giving him permission to play what he found, and he was right, it was concerning. It came through faint and cut to static at times, but it was there plain as day, a Mayday from another ship. The panicked voice of a woman was calling out for reinforcements.
"Mayday, mayday...(static)... Ascension requesting immediate support...(static)...several thousand civilians onboard...(static)...Severe damage from...(static)..."
The spartan had just abandoned Earth to an unknown enemy and knew he needed reinforcements to take it back, so without more than a second thought, he turned and marched to the captain's chair behind the holo table and gave the order. "Drop us out of slip space, we're going in hot."
Muttering was heard over by the fire control console. "Finally, I get to blow something up!"
It seemed Bell was eager, as did the rest of the crew, judging by the looks on their faces. Zayn looked nervous but resolute. "Alrighty then, better hold on to something, dropping out of slipspace in 3...2...1...Mark"
Eternity dropped out of slip space, flew directly into a vessel not entirely unlike the covenants, and tore it apart with her frontal shielding. Immediately, multiple similar ships began opening fire to little effect on Eternity's shields. Thom looked through the observation window to see a massive blue vessel in the shape of a cross as it was being hounded by several of these Ships.
"Prepare archer missiles and bring the MAC array online. Somebody hail that ship. We've got work to do." The spartans words marked the beginning of a new war for the UNSC.