Long Night of Solace - Commanders' Council Chamber
Rho 'Barutamee set his generals at ease as he mounted the tall center throne of his ship's military council chamber. Tak 'Pozralee and ten Sangheili holding the rank of general were present, as well as Vorn 'Vornakree and Tilts to One Side. The group was seated around an oblong, ovalular table with a hologram projector at its center and the Fleetmaster's throne at the head of one end, facing a massive, compound blast door. Addressing Pozralee, the Fleetmaster asked, "You were on the bridge when the void-space rupture engulfed our vessel, major. What can you tell us of what has transpired?"
Pozralee responded in a disciplined tone without hesitation, "Although there remain many mysteries regarding the exact nature of the incident, we've deciphered from our star charts that this section of the Long Night of Solace has traveled approximately 10.5 light-years from the human planet that we were assailing." At this point a hologram display of star chart appeared over the table, marking the location of Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system and Earth in the Sol system. The major continued, "Although the data isn't entirely conclusive, we believe the relic that was creating the portal that the barbarians came through was also involved in our appearance here."
One of the generals inquired, "Is it possible that these barbarians inhabit a region of the galaxy beyond that of the humans? And if that is the case, does this not confirm the humans' resources and worlds have nearly been exhausted?"
Pozralee replied, "That hypothesis is highly plausible. Our scans of the planet and its immediate vicinity have discovered no presence of orbital defenses or a defense fleet. A point of interest here is this planet, while appearing far more primitive than the others we've encountered, has many strange mysteries about it, and the more we learn, the more unanswered questions arise." Looking toward Vorn, Pozralee continued, "The Zealot can attest to some of these, I'm sure. At one moment it seems as though this planet has no resources at all and the humans have built everything from scraps, yet the next it seems that it is a world filled with experimental technology."
Barutamee then ordered, "Vornakree, tell us what you and the Huragok have learned of the Holy Relics from your encounter."
With deference, the Demonslayer laid the scepter onto the table and said, "This relic has much power, and it can begin to be accessed by touch alone. Both I and the Ranger commander who retrieved it and held it in our hands were instantly gifted the ability to understand any language, Human or Covenant. Any words we speak are also comprehensible to humans and the other Covenant species, simultaneously. In short, the relic seems to give any who hold it in reverence a gift of tongues."
All of the generals were astounded to hear this. They'd heard legends of Forerunner artifacts leading the Covenant toward a new discovery or weapon development, but it was nigh-unheard of for a holy artifact to directly interact with the minds of the wielders and immediately gift them with knowledge.
Revealing the shining cubic artifact in the containment device, the Zealot continued, "All that is known of this relic is that either the humans or the barbarians were able to set up a device that could generate a stable portal into the void-space, with the relic as the source of its power. When removed from containment it is also unstable and possibly capable of maiming the being who tries to handle it."
A moment of reverent silence followed. The Fleetmaster broke it with by speaking, "In absence of further questions you have our thanks, Zealot, and may go. Take the relics to the ship's sanctuary for the time being." Vorn bowed in deference before respectfully recovering the scepter and Tesseract and departing with Tilts in tow.
After the Zealot and Huragok departed, Rho asked, "General 'Moretumee, have your soldiers secured Ardent Prayer?"
Moretumee reported, "Yes, fleetmaster. Its essential systems should be operational within a few hours, and its weapons appear to be largely undamaged. We found several human starfighters of the same classification as that of the human survivor docked on its outer surface and a human dropship in its hangar; there were no survivors on board, human... or Covenant." His voice slowed down and saddened as he finished his statement.
The other Sangheili gave a respectful silence before Rho answered, "You have our condolences for the loss of your brother. You'll be taking over in his stead; have the corvette in the air soon, shipmaster. The human may have destroyed the majority of the Solace's weapons, but those of the Ardent Prayer should be readied soon."
Addressing the rest of the generals, the fleetmaster commanded, "Have your soldiers mobilized and ready to counterattack the human armies should the shields fail, and have all repair crews work as though the gods themselves command them!"
SHIELD Helicarrier landing pad
Nick Fury stared intently into the sky as the mysterious human aircraft circled the helicarrier. Speaking into his headpiece, the SHIELD director said, "Spartan-052, I repeat, you're cleared to land."
The pilot answered, "I'll be right down, Director Fury. I was double-checking the landing procedures with my starfighter's AI to make sure I don't break anything in my descent."
The director raised his eyebrow upon hearing this and immediately asked incredulously, "What, you haven't landed this 'starfighter' before?"
Completely serious, Jorge replied, "I'm not at liberty to confirm or deny that."
"And I thought by now nothing would surprise me anymore," the director thought to himself as he shook his head and ordered several staff at the helicarrier's landing pad to designate the landing position for the starfighter. As the craft touched down, Fury asked over the Avenger's comms channel, "What's the situation in the city, people?"
Steve Rogers answered, "The civilian evacuation's gotten everyone at a minimum safe distance of 2 kilometers from the Covenant ship's crash site. Romanoff got in a scrap with Loki and could use a medevac, Tony and Thor're en route to Stark Tower to recover Loki." Grinning, the Captain continued, "Natasha says that Banner really tore him a new one."
"Wish I could've seen that." Barton commented with a hint of complaint in his voice.
"I'm sure we all would have liked to see that smug, overdressed embodiment of jealous-sibling syndrome get his comeuppance" Iron Man replied. "Thor and I're just about at the tower now."
"Alright people, the military can handle the situation for the time being, I need y'all to return to the helicarrier if you're able-bodied. I'm sending a quinjet to extract those of you who can't fly on board." Switching to another channel, Fury ordered, "Agent Hill, get Echo 5 in the air for a quick extraction."
The director's eyes turned to the starfighter's cockpit as it slid open. He wasn't sure what to expect the pilot to look like; he'd put together a rough outline of possibilities based on a few educated guesses on who could have the capability to make use of an advanced aircraft design without his knowledge. A figure armored from head to toe, bearing no markings of any organization Fury could recognize, armed with several completely foreign firearms, and with a height in excess of seven feet wasn't his first guess. Several SHIELD agents nervously gripped their weapons as the Spartan rose from his seat in the aircraft, startled by the armament he carried on his person.
"Don't worry gentlemen, safety's on" Spartan-052 gently said, putting the DMR over his shoulder and leaving his chaingun Etilka in the cockpit. "Probably best to not let on that they could probably empty their magazines and not even scratch me" Jorge thought, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to his equipment for the time being.
"You're packing some serious heat there, Noble. I trust you're not looking for trouble?" Fury asked warily.
THUD. Several SHIELD agents jumped as the half-ton armored Spartan slid down from the Sabre and planted his feet on the helicarrier. The cockpit slid shut behind him and locked, a precaution Jorge had taken to discourage any overly curious personnel from poking about. With a subtle hydraulic hissing sound, the Spartan unfastened his helmet and removed it.
There was a rumor throughout SHIELD that Nick Fury could deduce a person's life story from simply studying their face; the director himself found the rumor amusing when he was made aware of it and made no effort to contradict it. When he looked at the Spartan's face his first deduction was that the man before him had fought in war for longer than many SHIELD agents had been out of diapers. Scarring dotted the man's face, with the most notable being a scar line running over his right eye. A fairly thick mustache had grown over his upper lip, but other parts of his face were more or less clean shaven, and the Spartan's scalp was covered in brown hair less than a centimeter long that was showing signs of beginning to grey.
In an attempt to relieve the tension, Jorge smiled and replied, "Of course not, director. I came to help rid this planet of the Covenant; I'd like the world's leaders to receive any information I can offer before they choose the next course of action."
"Then by all means, follow me Spartan. I'm sure you'll understand the presence of an escort, regardless." As Jorge nodded, Fury told the SHIELD agents, "At ease, gentlemen. Come with us," before leading the Spartan inside the airship.
Hoping to subtly gather some information about the new arrival, the director casually commented, "That accent of yours, it's Hungarian, right?" as they walked down a hallway that forced Jorge to occasionally nod his head to avoid hitting a protruding object.
Jorge responded with a slight touch of friendly sarcasm, "Ah, so you've noticed. Yes, I was born and raised in a city called Palhaza for my early childhood. Although it's probably not the Palhaza you'd read about in an atlas."
"How so?" Fury asked as they continued walking toward the director's communication room.
"Well, here it goes." Jorge thought with some reservations. "This may not sound credible until I can provide evidence, but long story short, Director Fury, I was born on a planet called Reach in the year 2511."
After pausing for a moment and taking in the director's look of incredulity that wordlessly said "Anything else you'd like me to know?", Spartan-052 smiled and added, "Incidentally, this is the first time I've been on Earth. Shame the circumstances are so dire."
Stark Tower Penthouse
"Agent Hill, what's your ETA?" groaned Natasha. Between the broken legs and exhaustion of fighting nonstop for quite some time, Agent Romanoff could hardly wait to sleep for the next 24 hours or so. A luxury unattainable at the moment, as the sound of dozens of helicopter rotors chopped through the air. Once the Covenant's air squadrons had withdrawn behind the carrier's shield wall, military, police, and medical aircraft were given the green-light to perform emergency-response measures.
"Echo Five should reach Stark Tower in under 3 minutes, Agent Romanoff," Hill replied. Sighing and pulling herself into an upright position, Natasha squirmed a little closer to the balcony where the evac quinjet would hover. Suddenly, she heard an all-too-familiar whirring sound. Frantically crawling toward the overhang that she'd seen Loki tossed off, Black Widow unholstered one of her handguns. Biting her lip and ignoring the constant, shooting pain in her shins, she looked down the tower and saw Loki and one of the aliens preparing one of the Chitauri chariots for flight.
"Thor, your brother's trying to make a getaway from Stark Tower. You need to step on it before he leaves!" Natasha barked into the Avengers' channel. "I'm really getting tired of today," the spy fumed as she opened fire on the two wounded stragglers and their vehicle. A few bullets bounced off the chariot and the aliens' respective armors before the Zealot below unholstered his sidearm and began firing volleys of blue plasma bolts upward, forcing Natasha to roll back to avoid both the projectiles and the super-heated debris and fragments that they blasted around as they struck the building.
"When are you going to get this piece of junk moving?!" hissed the Zealot as he suppressed the windowed edge of the penthouse with his plasma rifle.
"The damage it took when you lot shot it down certainly didn't improve its functionality... almost... there!" Loki quipped as he managed to fully connect himself to the chariot's piloting interface. The chariot hummed as it lifted itself about a meter above the balcony, but to the Zealot's surprise, it held position there.
"What are you waiting for?!" the reptilian alien roared angrily, looking away from the balcony and at the Asgardian fugitive.
Generating the green smoke of his magic, Loki answered, "Have you been paying attention to our flight path? Until we're invisible, we have no chance of reaching-" before he was cut off by a bullet bouncing off his left hand with a loud 'TINK', disrupting his spell. To make matters worse, the exiled prince saw two all-too-familiar figures flying toward the tower in the distance.
"Change of plans, running the gauntlet it is." Loki hastily murmured before surging the chariot off the balcony, with the Zealot barely able to retain his footing and nearly falling off from the sudden acceleration. "I will not allow those simpletons to humiliate me again!" Loki seethed as he pulled the chariot 30 degrees off course and into the cover of the city's buildings.
"Several human aircraft in the vicinity," growled the Zealot as he fired his plasma rifle at a helicopter that was hovering stationary just above the top of a nearby building, clipping its tail rotor. As the helicopter began to spin erratically in mid-air, Loki, somewhat irritated, asked, "Does your malice toward the humans run so deep simply because your Prophets declared them an unclean race? That vehicle posed no threat to us, and your attack will draw attention to our position."
"You don't have the stomach to give your enemy no quarter?" taunted the Zealot, "When outnumbered, we cause havoc to make our strength seem greater than it actually is, so that the humans hesitate before attacking, as well as dedicate resources to repair or protect their infrastructure."
Hovering the chariot between two buildings, out of Stark Tower's line of sight, Loki began to cast his spell again, coldly remarking, "I can tell that you're being disingenuous. Do you derive ecstasy from causing suffering in whomever you're permitted to slay?"
Catching sight of a large green figure landing underneath the helicopter and holding it steady as the pilots safely jumped out, Loki added with color draining from his face, "And for the record, I'd hesitate to call all of our adversaries human."
From behind, the two allies of circumstance heard a voice broadcast, "Gonna have to interrupt your vanishing act, fellas." Charging his chest-cannon, Iron Man added, "It's touching to see how the two of you kissed and made up so fast."
Unaware that he had been subtly insulted, the Zealot shouted, "Burn, heathen!" in his alien tongue, firing his plasma rifle and forcing Tony to weave around in the air to dodge the incoming projectiles. However, a green mist suddenly enshrouded the chariot, making the craft invisible to both sight and motion trackers.
Still dodging the plasma bolts, now with more difficulty as their source was both shrouded and mobile, Tony decided, "I may be shooting blind, but the origin of the enemy shots has to be on the chariot; I'll track them with a low-power continuous beam." Releasing the orange beam, Stark charred the walls of several buildings before he managed to get on target. As the beam began scoring the chariot's hull, Tony spotted a section of the chariot become visible again and noted, "Loki's ability must be to bend the light around a field that he generates, making the objects inside appear transparent. Not really different from a quickly-adapting active camouflage; the field will get interrupted by enough external perturbation, though."
Interrupting his hypothesizing, however, was a plasma shot that found its mark, striking Tony's already-damaged shoulder-plate and throwing the beam off-target. Cursing his luck, the scientist shut down his chest-cannon and fired a hastily-charged repulsor shot in a desperate attempt to keep the chariot visible for a few more moments, hoping one of his fellow Avengers could take finish the job. Streaking through the air, the energy blast bounced off the Zealot's shield before the shroud again enveloped the chariot. Stark cursed under his breath as the chariot vanished from his suit's sensors...
only to be relieved by a resounding CRASH, and the sight of the Hulk swatting the chariot down with a double hammer-fist to its center. Loki could do nothing but force the chariot to skid forward along the road as it plummeted, crashing into a parked car before it stopped. The exiled prince, robbed of his last shred of dignity, spat blood before collapsing behind the smoking piloting-interface.
The Zealot, however, had managed to dive off of the chariot at the last moment, and as his combat harness' shielding had been largely undamaged, was able to shake off the impact of his landing more easily than his companion. Gripping a plasma grenade, the Zealot immediately hurled it like a fastball in the direction of the Hulk, who himself was just landing. Sticking to the center of the beast's chest, the Zealot snarled as he raised his plasma rifle, calculating, "A direct hit followed up by concentrated fire must do SOMETHING to that monster. My death on this refuse-heap of a world will NOT be a pointless-"
The Sangheili then keeled over as the hammer Mjolnir cleaved his helmet in two. Standing over the reptile's body, Thor smiled at the Hulk as the latter shook off the damage from the plasma grenade with little difficulty, commenting cockily "You're welcome."
Hardly worried about being one-upped, the Hulk laconically grunted, "Same," while lazily pointing a finger at the chariot.
More somberly, Thor turned toward the smoking wreck and cautiously approached the figure lying prone at its helm. The brother he'd spent over a thousand years growing up with, only to have that relationship disintegrate entirely within the span of less than a single year. Thor resolved now to give Loki no benefit of doubt, and no opening for a sneak-attack. The brother Thor thought he knew had since proven himself to be dead, replaced by a venomous creature of malicious spite and deceit.
"Loki," Thor said firmly as he gripped his rival's right wrist and pinned it behind his back, "It's over."
His pride too wounded to argue, Loki feigned unconsciousness and silently fumed, "My part, perhaps. But I've seen enough from that zealot's mind to know that the monsters in that starship may rob you of victory yet."
A/N: Kudos to ZKool13 for reminding me about this, it's been a while. It's been a long day in MCU New York... and we're not out of the woods just yet. Now Jorge, SHIELD, and the US military need to work out a way to destroy that starship once and for all.