New York Airspace
Jorge, having taken off Ardent Prayer in the YSS-1000 Sabre starfighter Noble Six had landed in, executed three strafing runs, hoping to further weaken the supercarrier's defenses before it deployed its fighters. Three times he passed along the remains of the supercarrier's hull, and three times he tore into its defenses with missiles and expertly placed machine-gun barrages, destroying a significant fraction of the point-defense weapons. He, like all UNSC Spartans, had developed an intuition for quickly getting accustomed to unfamiliar vehicles, and as the Sabre was a UNSC vehicle he had little trouble adjusting to it.
Putting some distance between himself and the carrier, he began to try to understand where he was, allowing the implausibility and practical problems of his current situation to begin to sink in. "Based on the buildings and technological level from up here, this appears to be 20th or 21st century New York City.... The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center aren't in the skyline, so it must be early 21st or thereabouts," Jorge reasoned as he peered out of the Sabre's cockpit.
While training to fight the interplanetary Insurrectionists of the 26th century, Jorge, along with the other Spartans, had been educated on the various facets of such movements. One of the topics of their study included the major terrorist acts of recorded history, including the jihadist attacks of the early 21th century and the destruction of the Statue of Liberty and UN headquarters in New York by the fascist Frieden movement in the mid-22nd. Jorge himself had an affinity for history as it was one of the things that helped him ground his values and remember the value of human life. The other Spartans, of course, did not lack a concern for humanity, as they spent their entire lives fighting to protect it, but Jorge's interests had helped him learn to be more comfortable outside of a military environment than many of the other Spartans.
"Alright, let's see if I can make contact with... oh hell, I bet FleetCom doesn't even exist here. I'll have to contact whoever's in a position to stop whatever's left in that supercarrier. A shipboard AI would be nice but I suppose I'll have to make-" Jorge muttered before he stopped himself; a screen on his left had come to life, displaying the text: "UNSC AI 464400 SBR-B029 activated. What services would you like rendered?"
Smiling under his helmet, Jorge was relieved he had a little bit of luck left. "I guess only Six would have noticed the AI; he must've never felt to need to use it." the Spartan thought to himself; he then ordered SBR, "Scan this planet's communications for any military or other tactical chatter and patch me into it. I need to give the forces here a fair warning about who's just landed in New York," Jorge replied.
After 5 full seconds of analyzing the internet and local communication signals, SBR displayed: "Opening communications with Mr. Tony Stark, A.K.A Iron Man. Monitoring communications of SHIELD helicarrier..."
Jorge furrowed his brow in skepticism. The names "Tony Stark" and "Iron Man" didn't ring a bell, and he'd never heard of an organization called "SHIELD" before in his studies of this era. He could barely believe that this day could get any more bizarre....
As if on cue, an energy beam began firing from one of the city's skyscrapers, and another portal opened above New York.
New York Airspace
"Right. Army." Tony Stark nervously muttered as the Tesseract reactivated, opening another portal above Stark Tower. Blasting upward to meet the new, swarming invaders, Iron Man fired his repulsors and let loose a missile volley at the first wave, blasting over a dozen of their gilded vehicles out of the sky when he heard an unfamiliar voice that sounded vaguely Hungarian patch into his suit's audio, "Mr. Stark, please respond."
Blasting another Chitauri vehicle with his repulsors and carefully weaving through their speeding formations, Iron Man casually responded, "Ok. Now please tell me who you are and how you got a connection to this highly secure channel."
The new arrival responded "Explaining my identity would take some time, for now you can call me Spartan-052. The AI on my ship patched my into your comms. I'm inbound in a starfighter ready to offer assistance against the hostile aircraft streaming through that slipspace portal." Jorge activated his afterburners to close the gap more quickly, and began opening fire on the airborne chariots of the swarming invaders with the Sabre's autocannons. SBR began calculating the trajectories of the aircraft and linking them into Jorge's HUD, allowing him to "fire and forget"; Jorge shot down over a dozen of the enemy aircraft in seconds.
Somewhat impressed by the attack run of the Sabre, Iron Man replied, "Nice ride, and you're not a bad shot either, Spartan. You wanna keep count?", and proceeded to blast two more chariots with his repulsors. Dodging through a cluster of Chitauri plasma fire, Iron Man then asked, "By the way, you came from that giant metal lump that decided to connect Brooklyn to Staten Island, right? What's the deal with that?"
Jorge responded, "I did, it's the remains of a Covenant supercarrier. It won't be long before they send their fighters to join the air war." The Sabre, a much larger target than Iron Man, began to take concentrated fire from the invaders. Jorge began doing evasive maneuvers, but found that while the Sabre had powerful armaments and a high top speed, it was optimized for high or exo-atmospheric flight; the Sabre wasn't quite as maneuverable in atmosphere and the Spartan was unable to fully evade this new enemy's concentrated plasma volleys, so he dropped his altitude, hoping to give the Sabre's shields a chance to recharge.
Puzzled, Tony asked, "Covenant? Loki said his army was the Chitauri, not the Covenant." Stark paused for a moment, and then let out with amusement, "Oh, he had no clue what he was doing the first time around. That's rich."
Ducking between the buildings, Jorge noticed something as he shot down another enemy aircraft. None of the Chitauri vehicles seemed to be airtight or shielded, yet they still poured through the portal. Slipspace travel was extremely hazardous, however, and the displaced Spartan reasoned "Whatever's producing that is creating a far more stable portal than UNSC or Covenant technology is capable of. And yet this seems to be 21st century earth; they shouldn't have anything remotely this advanced. That 'Iron Man' armor seems ahead of its time as well..."
As the Spartan couldn't help but feel as though both he and Stark were missing a significant amount of context on a lot of matters, he gravely explained, "The Covenant is a genocidal alien alliance. I'm not entirely sure what the wreckage of that supercarrier contains, but unless the damage the ship itself took was largely irreparable, it's going to be a significant threat, on top of these 'Chitauri' coming through that portal."
Tony Stark could barely contain his groan. Not only was Loki trying to summon an army to crown himself king, but he'd also inadvertently brought along another, genocidal faction. An idea dawned on him, however, and Iron Man responded, "Genocidal? I don't think Loki wants to wipe out humanity, he's one of those guys that feels the need to be worshipped." Diving down, Iron Man ducked between buildings with a Chitauri squadron hot on his tail, and then continued, "It may be possible to get this Covenant and Loki's army to soften each other up for us."
A female voice entered the comm channel. "Stark, we're on your three heading northeast."
Iron Man responded "What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay them out for you. Oh and Nat, I've made a new friend: Spartan-052, meet Black Widow."
Jorge, rolling with the impromptu introduction, said in a professional tone, "A pleasure, ma'am." The Spartan wasn't entirely comfortable with the billionaire's nonchalance, but figured that a life in the private sector as opposed to the military could make that kind of chummy casualness feel natural.
Romanoff, surprised by the presence of a new arrival, responded, "Likewise, Spartan. Best time as any for you to make a new friend, Stark", and deployed the Quinjet's minigun to begin spraying the killzone after Iron Man flew through it, cutting down a few of his pursuers and then pulling up toward Stark Tower. Turning to Hawkeye, she muted her earpiece momentarily and asked, "Barton, that new aircraft doesn't fit any design I've seen before. Is it some kind of top-secret SHIELD project?"
Shaking his head, the archer responded, "Not that I know of. I don't think he's with SHIELD, unless Fury has some kind of 'Spartan Project' he hasn't told anyone about." Shrugging, Hawkeye added, "Long as he keeps shooting at the bad guys, I'm ok with waiting a while to hear him out."
Executing a barrel-roll, Jorge dropped behind the Chitauri squadron pursuing him and opened fire, taking care to control his aim and avoid damaging the nearby buildings as much as he could. It was a surreal experience for the man of the 26th century, flying through an antiquated city that was still in the prime of its life when all he was expecting from the slipspace bomb's detonation was the destruction of the Covenant flagship. He'd been so sure of his death that he'd even handed his dogtags off. Now it seems he, Jorge, Spartan-052, Chief Warrant Officer in the UNSC Army's Special Warfare Division and formerly Noble Five of Noble Team, already has a new mission: to protect this innocent world from being destroyed, especially from the evil that he'd inadvertently brought with him.
Back in the open sky, JARVIS informed Tony "Sir, we have more incoming."
"Fine. Oh-Five-Two, let's keep them occupied." Iron Man responded, beginning to chase down another flight. Jorge picked a different battlegroup and began to pursue.
"By the way, Five-Two, any suggestions on what we can call these flying jet-ski things?" the billionaire asked the out-of-place Spartan.
Jorge, shooting down another alien ship, responded to Iron Man's query, "I'm thinking 'Chitauri Chariot'. They resemble the designs of the ancient world's chariots and serve a similar tactical purpose". Muting his comms for a moment, Jorge-052 asked his AI, "SBR, can you summarize who these people are and why they're assembled here?"
SBR instantly displayed the text: "Tony Stark/Iron Man and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow are members of an elite team of strategically invaluable specialists called 'the Avengers'. The other members of this team are Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Clint Barton/Hawkeye. Currently they are also being aided by a powerful alien, Thor of Asgard. They work under the organization SHIELD, or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, an extra-governmental military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency. Their operations often involve acquiring and mothballing extraterrestrial artifacts, locating and indexing enhanced humans, and clandestine alien contact. Currently their operations involve preventing Loki of Asgard, another member of Thor's race, from using the Tesseract, an ancient artifact of immense power, and the Chitauri army to subjugate the Earth. Data on the Chitauri is sparse; all that is known is they hail from a region of space that both SHIELD and Asgard have no knowledge of."
Jorge-052, using a mental and physiological technique he'd learned to slow down his perception of time (known to the UNSC as "Spartan Time"), took only a few seconds to read and process the message (unable to shake a nagging concern that the AI was somehow malfunctioning) before refocusing on the battle.
Coming about, Spartan-052 saw Black Widow's Quinjet take ground fire from some energy weapon and begin to fall out of the air. He also noticed what appeared to be two men, one blonde, wielding a hammer as a weapon, and the other adorned in gold, wearing a helmet sporting what appeared to be curved horns, and wielding some sort of staff weapon. "I suppose the one in gold is this 'Loki' Stark and SBR mentioned. SBR's message seems to have been accurate after all, despite how odd it sounded. If Loki gets too much of an advantage against the one that's probably Thor, I'll light him up." Spartan-052 decided as he held his fire on his first pass.
Thor, however, had gained the upper hand in their battle of fisticuffs, and Jorge decided to move on and cover the Quinjet's crash site against hostile strafing runs. He called out over the comms "Black Widow, are you and the rest of the passengers alright?"
Jorge spotted Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America stepping out of the wreckage. The Russian Avenger replied over the comms, "Don't worry, we can walk off a shaky landing."
As Jorge pulled up to look for more Chariots to shoot down, all of New York was able to hear an unearthly moan call out from the portal, and, accompanied by several squadrons of Chariots, a colossal, armored beast floated into the skies. The Spartan briefly stared in disbelief as the massive creature seemed to swim through air as though it were a whale in water. Jorge then said over the comms, "Mr. Stark, wanna give a name to this fella?"
Long Night of Solace - Hangar 42
The hangar's engineers had finally gotten the emergency blast doors to open, and dozens of sleek, humming starfighters were ready to take to the skies. Rho 'Barutamee had been angered yet again by the human's most recent attack on his vessel, as the destruction of the point-defense lasers had practically neutralized his ship's defenses, making the deployment of Seraph and Banshee squadrons all the more necessary.
While the performance of starfighters would not be at an optimal level due to flying in atmosphere, the frustrated Fleetmaster had little alternative but to put up whatever defensive screen he could muster. While this planet appeared to be poorly defended, he couldn't let his guard down again. The surprise attack with the slipspace weapon showed that the humans' ingenuity could still harass the superior might of the Covenant. "If the humans send even a small fleet to reinforce this planet, we won't be in a position to fight them off," the Fleetmaster thought with trepidation, unaware of just how far his ship had been thrown, "And we don't have enough ground forces in the section of the Solace that survived the incident to mount a large-scale offensive against even this seemingly primitive world."
Quite livid, Barutamee stewed, "A demon was responsible for this treachery. It must have been. I can practically sense it." Giving the command, the 20 Seraphs, 20 Phantom gunboats, and 60 Banshee Interceptors in the hangar took to the air, ordered to fly tight defensive patrols around the Solace's wreckage until given further instruction. Asking for an update on the status of the surrounding area, Barutamee was surprised to hear that another slipspace portal seemed to have appeared and now a battle was taking place inside the primitive human city.
Back on the bridge, General Sato 'Moretumee had his hands full as well. Some of the center's crew still hadn't regained consciousness from the crash, and many of the holographic displays were sputtering in and out. As the insectoid Yanme'e engineers got the essential surveillance systems up and running again, the general asked for footage of the nearby air war to be brought up. After carefully viewing the holographic display, the general asked the Sangheili officer operating the sensors, "Major 'Pozralee, what is the current number of unknown aircraft participating in the battle outside?"
The officer, stunned by what he read on his instruments, blanched and shouted, "IT'S OVER 9000!"
The general, incredulous, asked, "What? 9000? There's no way that can be right!"
Pozralee, collecting himself, did another scan of the systems and replied, "Correction, sir. That reading was a fluke; there are still a few glitches in our systems since the power loss. Currently the number is 117 and rising."
Calling the ship's technicians, the general asked, "Will you be able to activate the ship's antigravity systems and get us airborne?"
He heard a flurry of activity and static on the other end of the line before a flustered Elite answered, "General, the antigravity systems are repairable, but it will take several hours to get the Solace off the ground."
Growling, the general switched the comms off. "If we don't get our critical systems and shields online again soon, even the pathetic forces we've picked up on our sensors could pose a threat" he thought with a rising concern.
The major then reported, "General, we're picking up two... unique... energy signatures in the human city. I've run several scans to confirm and they check out."
Intrigued by the new development, Moretumee pressed, "Describe these energy signatures." Given the unprecedented events that had occurred in the past few minutes, the general had suspected that this strange human planet might have valuable secrets on it.
The major opened a holographic viewscreen that displayed Stark Tower and the immediate vicinity, highlighting the locations of the energy signatures and responded, "It is difficult, sir. There are two, as I said, and in close proximity to one another, near the summit of one of the taller human structures. One is nearly silent compared to the other, and the one that speaks seems to be sustaining the portal that the unknown ships are entering from. The only energy signatures I've seen that were similar to these..." the elite paused as the realization dawned on him, "were Holy Relics."
General 'Moretumee, suspicious of such good fortune after all that had occurred, asked, "How sure are you of this? Without the Luminary to confirm this we cannot be sure that the devices are truly divine."
The sensors officer double-checked the data before replying, "The similarity in the power readings is remarkable, I'd be quite surprised if they were flukes. Regardless, in my opinion, an investigation is worth considering." Lowering his voice, the officer quietly added, "Have my estimations been incorrect in identifying Holy Relics before?"
"Not that I recall, but be careful to not speak too highly of that in the presence of the rest of the crew." Moretumee advised, reminding his confidant that the crew as a whole ought not learn of their Supreme Commander's covert artifact collections, before informing the Fleetmaster of what he had learned.
Rho 'Barutamee's seething rage ebbed and was replaced by a surprised curiosity upon hearing the news. He replied to the general, "This does indeed warrant investigation; I'll soon be arriving at the control center. Order the Phantoms to return and pick up several lances of infantry, as well as Kig-Yar marksmen, shock troopers, and a Mgalekgolo pair; anti-air Shade Turrets are to be loaded onto the Phantoms and they are to be accompanied by a fighter escort. The snipers and anti-air emplacements are to be deployed in the city along the path to the tower, and the rest sent to retrieve the Holy Relics."
With a sinister grin appearing across his mandibles, Barutamee schemed, "So the gods did not entirely forsake us after all. At least these new treasures will be mine." Still grinning, he changed to a separate comm channel and ordered, "Demonslayer! Ready your lance!"
A/N: What energy signatures could the Covenant have detected at Stark Tower? Who is this mysterious Demonslayer? Am I making another dated DBZ reference? You probably know the answer to two of these questions already, but STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE OF SPARTANS... NEVER... DIIIIIEEEEE! Yeah, I'm terrible, but hopefully I'll be able to fix a couple of plot-holes I wrote and release the next update soon.