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TTK Stories: Halo Chapter FINAL

Deviation Actions

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TTK: Full Circle

The deck of the Archangel was buzzing with action. Seated personnel with headsets giving out orders and technical information, and crewmen taking their positions, and one particular officer reporting to Major General Shepherd and Lt. Ramuius.

"Sir, the site has taken extensive geographical damage. All callsigns and Victors (vehicles) except for Point have been accounted for and are vacating the area as ordered,"

Shepherd raised an eyebrow. "Give me Point-One Actual's status."

"Right away sir," the officer replied. "Shadow Rider-One is beginning to extract Point One Actual, along with the second in charge. "They are circling the area as we speak." The officer concluded.

"Good, tell Rider-One to wave off in one mike, we will commence the bombardment. That's a direct order." He said completely disregarding the situation.

With everything out of the way, he only felt slightly assured. Not that it wasn't a problem having their own team caught in the crossfire, but there always had been some nagging feeling at the back of his mind. Trying to pull him back from...

No, that was absurd.

He was a General of the United States Army. He fought and led in numerous wars. He watched thirty thousand soldiers under him die in a blink of an eye. There was clearly no Unwritten Law back in his time. And there was certainly no Law on the real world before. Victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice. The Gensokyo Administration would never take those necessary steps. Whatever the intention of the Gensokyo in upholding that unfair rule, it would surely spell doom for his country and the men under him. They must understand. He would make sure they would understand.

"General," Captain Ramius, the second in charge of the Archangel suddenly spoke up, surprising Shepherd. "We still have men out there, we can't leave them..."

"You heard my orders clearly Captain," he spoke with his voice slightly raised, attracting the eyes of the curious crew. "The men had strict orders to pull out, they didn't."

Ramius stood, in a challenging motion, defiant eyes staring right into Shepherd's. "So you are going to just eliminate our own men along with our failed objective? As the Captain of the ship, I refuse to watch as our own men die from your own actions, Sir,"

All eyes faced the two of them. The deck fell deadly silent.

Shepherd glanced at Captain Ramius, completely unmoved by her. For a moment, it looked as if he was going to unleash his anger violently. But Shepherd just continued. "As much as we wanted to hear your opinion, it is irrelevant, and I'll give you strict orders to stay your tongue, and take your seat.If we have to leave them behind, we are to continue with our mission as planned. Are we clear, Captain?"

She kept silent. Reluctantly, she sat back in the chair relieving her opportunity for the ship's brig.

All insubordinations suppressed, Shepherd continued.

"All hands on deck, ready all amendments, Op. Hammerdown is a go, I repeat Hammerdown is ..."

"Sir!" the radar officer alerted the room. "Unidentified target has just emerged from the structure!" On the operations map, a small red blip appeared next to the target structure. Shepherd eyed the new object. "I want video surveillance on the new target. Get me some eyes on the bogey now!" The officers rushed to comply with the orders.

Shortly after, the small video feed appeared on the screen. It enlarged to fullscreen, showing a small, olive-green winged aircraft. The front of the ship was oddly large and wide while multiple boosters lined the rear flaps. It reminded him of a local coastal bird. "I want a scan of that craft. Prepare anti-craft engagement. And begin charging the Loheingriens for bombing run of the structure."

Ramius may have just caught her break, but he now had a much larger problem.

"All hands on deck, standby to engage new target. We are not letting it escape. All crew to battlestations."

--------------------------------------------

The Archangel loomed closer. The Pelican and its occupants stood as much chance against the superior firepower of the assault carrier as a candle in a storm. Inside Pelican Kilo-25, was a crew consisting of Misaka, CHIEF, the A.I Cortana, and the cryo-pod of Master Chief. They had finally escaped their ordeal inside the Forward Unto Dawn. All except for Hardy, absent from the dropship.

Surviving the undead horde aboard the Dawn, losing his native friend, and now flying against insurmountable odds,  CHIEF felt a little broken. Still, he had a job to finish. He still had Cortana to help him with flight and navigation. They had to time their flight carefully so as to enter the Slipspace jump as per Cortana's instructions.

"Cortana, report!" he commanded over the control panel. The small holotank lit up with the familiar blue, slender figure of the A.I.

"I have almost no data on the enemy ship. And I am unable to come up with precise countermeasures until it does engage us," she replied with stress in her voice, even more than usual. "It'll be too late by then."

Misaka, just entering the cockpit held on to the metal doorframe and the Pelican banked right. "Isn't there anything you can do to help you stupid computer?" she yelled in frustration.

Ignoring her insult, Cortana continued. "I'm trying my best. I just need time." She pleaded.

"Cortana, set flight controls to manual," CHIEF demanded. "I'll buy you as much time as you need." Since they began flying, Cortana had the ship under autopilot. Despite the A.I's superior flight knowledge, she was preoccupied with other important tasks.

She raised an eyebrow. "Can you handle this?"

"Yeah, I know how to fly this. Just watch my back." He said, grasping the joystick tightly with both his hands. He could do this. For everyone's lives.

For Hardy.

--------------------------------------------

Cortana floated around her digitized world. A personal space where she resided seemingly safe, while her hosts battled in constant danger in the outside, the real world. A myriad of images on holographic screens filled in around her body, representing all precious data and information at her fingertips. She assessed the situation with whatever memory blocks that weren't being used to recalculate their Slipspace jump. If they could somehow loop around the Archangel without turning into flaming mid-air debris, they would normally make it in time for the scheduled Slipspace jump she initiated while they were still on board.

But for some reason, the numbers didn't add up at all. Even taking the Dawn's extensive damage and her near-perfect calculations, the standard UNSC Slipspace protocol code wasn't tallying right now. It was as if natural physics was defying her logic.

Was something wrong with her? Was it some kind of intervention from the outside? Or perhaps…

That's it. She had to improvise her calculations to fit the current situation. Using knowledge she gained during her active service, in less than nanoseconds, she finally determined an algorithm. Something she had not used for a while. Forerunner glyphs ran around her holographic arms. Seizing a set of them with her hands, she pondered over them with uncertainty. Her probability calculation came up with only less than percent of success. Even so, she thought of John-117 and inserted the data into a nearby terminal with a glint of hope in her artificial heart.

As the screen began changing, she noticed a small communication blip, on the map. Looking closer, it originated from the Dawn.

--------------------------------------------

Nothing but a sharp ringing in his ear.

He opened up his eyes, gazing his surroundings. At first it was pitch black, but sudden movement caught his attention. Something flew past him fast. In fact, several objects seem to dart past his eye, seemingly flying towards the ceiling. As he realized, his own orientation was wrong. As he got up from the floor, his head began to split again. Putting his hand against a nearby wall, he struggled to figure out where he was.

He was in a room. A large one, but everything seemed to tilt to the left. Which would explain the 'flying' objects.

A shrill scream pieced his ears. As he witnessed a large object, humanoid in shape with failing limbs skidded past him. As he looked closer, it looked completely inhumane...

Necromorphs. Those undead monstrosities that stalked the Dawn's current occupants.

Another sharp shrill broke the droning noise, except it was right next to his ear. Putting his hand next to his ear, he felt a small round headset and pressed the button to receive the transmission.

Fuzzy static, then, the whisper of a woman's voice.


--------------------------------------------

"New signatures, missiles, CHIEF, bank right..." Cortana yelled. CHIEF yanked the joystick hard. The ship veered sideways, before a small payload of flares ejected from its head. Large surface-to-air 'Wombat' anti ship missiles, originating from the Archangel  sprang after the flares like flies to a buzzer. Small explosions ensued harmlessly behind the Pelican. "Nice one Cortana!" he complimented on her timely move.

"Not yet. Heads up, we've got more!" Another deadly barrage of missiles approached once more. Flares reloading, they had to do this manually. Cortana flashed several warnings and missile vectors on the control panel. CHIEF swerved almost expertly to avoid a proper lock on. Missile after missile streaked past the cockpit, narrowly scraping its hulls. CHIEF began to feel the strain. His mind feverishly balanced predicting the trajectories of missiles with the maniacal manoeuvres of the controls. The last of the missiles flew right above the cockpit, and without warning, detonated. The dropship shook and CHIEF struggled to pull up.

The joystick ceased vibrating, and he had full control.

"Hm, not bad at all my new ace pilot," complimented an impressed Cortana. "Foe Hammer would have be proud." CHIEF did not know who Foe Hammer was, but she must be one heck of a pilot herself to impress Cortana.

"Woah,  I have an energy spike" Cortana interrupted his thoughts. "... the cannons! WATCH OUT!" Cortana warned. CHIEF only then noticed the large twin barrels on its stern facing towards them. CHIEF jerked the joystick urgently.

The Pelican veered left, an ominous alarm ringing due to a positive lock on by the Archangel's 'Valiant' cannons.  Then, with an electrical thud, the cannons fired a pair of bright yellow plasma bolts, piecing the chilling Antarctic skies. It flew at a straight trajectory, flying right past the Pelican. He barely managed to turn in time. The Pelican completely swerved out of control, and CHIEF struggled to take back control of his ship.

--------------------------------------------

"A direct hit on enemy bogey, I repeat, bogey is going down," the radar officer reported in triumph. A wave of cheers passed through the deck as the video feed displayed the target dropship spinning downwards leaving a small smoke trail. A smirk emerged from his mouth as he observe his enemy falling. For some reason, their foe attempted to fly directly towards them, almost suicidal in fact. Despite the impressive evasion tactics displayed by the dropship, the superior firepower combined with precise targeting systems, their fate was inevitable. But for some reason, this felt too easy...

"Err, Sir, I am getting a strong thermal reading from Crash Site," the radarman shouted.

The digital scan displayed on the bridge revealed a large red glow emitting from the engines. Several smaller glows lined the side ports of the ship. Unexpectedly, the engine of the Dawn roared back to life once again. It lifted itself out of the ice and miraculously levelled itself with the ice shelf once more. Shepherd could not believe his eyes.

"Sir, structure is deploying offensive countermeasures! Orders?" the crewman spoke. A bewildered Shepherd watched as the Dawn opened its portside hatches, and several missiles emerged, flying straight out. They flew in an upwards trajectory, piercing cloud level and almost out of sight.

"Ready the anti-missile systems, keep track of the missiles," Captain Ramius took charge of the situation. "75mm autoguns are ready, standby to counter enemy projectiles."

In an incredible feat, four of the missiles shot downwards from the sky with a godly wrath, blowing up the nearby cliff. Large amounts of ice and earth collapsed into the rear end of the digsite. Large ripples tore through the ground and hit the rear of the ship.

The Forward Unto Dawn had miraculously levelled itself due to the man-made seismic activity.

The Archangels missile warning system sprang, an ominous alarm echoing through the bridge. Three missiles still airborne, turned to face the Angel.

"Fire Igelstellungs now!" Ramius commanded. The weapons control officer nodded as he furiously tapped his keyboard.

"Firing!"

Small but multiple barrelled seventy-five millimetre miniguns fired simultaneously, filling the airspace with hot lead. The Archer missiles flew into the barrage, prematurely exploding in an awesome spectacle of shrapnel and fire. Shepherd faced Ramius, impressed with her combat reactions. His respect for her just went up a single notch. She was still a useful asset for him. For now, he would have to put his faith and trust on the woman.

"Sir, we have a problem!" The radar officer reported. "Enemy dropship is still in the air!"

Shepherd's attention was diverted to a blinking red dot on the digital map, dangerously close to the Archangel.

--------------------------------------------

His mind felt clearer now as he drove past small debris in a small four-wheeled motorcycle. Against all injuries, fatigue and possibly gravity itself, it was by pure chance the M274 Mongoose all-terrain-vehicle was just laying there in the hanger. He didn't have experience riding one, but somehow it felt too easy. The small military motorcycle proved useful in going against the tilting environment, but he had to be wary of the bumpy steering.

Even though it was heavy, he felt that he had to bring that along too. Attached to the rear seat of the Mongoose, he prayed that it wouldn't lose it. The nagging feeling in his mind assured him, but he still had doubts.

He was suddenly overwhelmed with blinding light at the end of the corridor. 'His end?' his mind joked. 'Nope, just the beginning,' he replied.


--------------------------------------------

CHIEF flew the Pelican closer to the Archangel. He pressed the red trigger, and Kilo-25's missile payload erupted from their pods flying straight for the Angels' main armaments. The ANVIL-II missiles made contact with the left twin long range 'Gottfrieds'. Explosions covered the turret in a bloom of fire and smoke. The left cannons took terminal damage, the tubes bent out of shape and the main turret completely wrecked. The Pelican continued to fly towards the Angel's portside, taking advantage of the blinding smoke created by the destruction. As they approached the side, the Pelican's chin-mounted gun opened fire. Cortana's precise targeting laid waste to the anti-missile miniguns and several of the missile pods.

"Good shot. Primary targets disabled, you're clear for the loop," Cortana announced.

CHIEF banked the Pelican left to gain distance between the Angel's rear engines. He began slowly turning, matching Cortana's precise trajectory around the Angel, and back towards the Dawn. But as he began turning, a new threat began apparent to them. On the rear of the Archangel, more missile pods lined above the rear fins.

"Cortana, pop the flares, hurry!-" he relayed to his virtual wingman. Just as he said it, a flurry of warheads ejected from their pods, and careened towards the Pelican.

Without warning, the air around the Pelican began sparkling. From the troop bay of the Pelican's rear, electrons began to ionize, as Misaka gathered energy. Unleashing it with a thrust of her arms, a wave of supercharged electricity at the wave on oncoming missiles. The projectiles, either malfunctioning or exploding created a spectacular display of orange fiery trails in the sky dropping onto the ice below.

"Nice work Misaka!" he hollered.

"I've got our back," she panted, drained from her attack. "You take that ship down!"

Kilo-25 sped past the Archangel's starboard. Pressing the joystick's red trigger, he unloaded another payload of missiles to the smaller guns and their missile pods. Smaller explosions lit the portside deck with sparks and discharging munitions, as the Pelican pierced through the smoke in triumph.

The Archangels interior rocked violently and crew hung on to their seats. Rising from the side of his chair, Shepherd brushed off his disorientation. "Damage report, NOW!"

"75mm guns are offline! Sledgehammers, Wombats pods are heavily damaged!" The systems officer hollered over the rumbling noises, panic evident in his voice.

"Do we have immediate countermeasures or not?!?"

"Portside Gottfrieds are damaged and automated targeting systems are offline! I'll need to reset the system or we go manual -"

He slammed his fist on the chair. "God dammit!" He had underestimated the enemy craft's capacity for combat. This was a seemingly unexpected battle. It was ridiculous enough that such a damaged and small ship could have working armaments. Who or what is in the dropship that could have perfectly coordinated the attack on their weapons, so as to disable them? He grossly underestimated his enemies, but for some reason, they were going back to the structure they've just emerged from. What on earth could they be trying to pull off?

"Sir, I'm reading a rising radiation emission from the structure," a crew member interrupted his thoughts.

"I said get the system up and running, double tim-"

"BUT SIR! radiation levels are off the charts! Requesting new orders!" he protested.

His attention was finally diverted to the new development.

The Dawn began to rumble as the fusion reactors began to divert its power to a greater purpose. The Slipspace engine began a series of electromagnetic rotations, combined with technology nearly impossible by native standards. As it began charging, it released radiation flares. The ship began glowing, and a small sphere of blue light began expanding. The brilliant shade of blue darkened into a swirling dark vortex, slowly swallowing the Dawn.

As the crew watched in awe, Shepherd suddenly darted over to weapons control, seizing the surprised crewman by the shoulders.

"Give me a full sitrep of our weapons, now!" he hollered fiercely. The frightened officer quickly stammered back.

" E-eh, right sir..." He began furiously tapping into the keyboard. "Missile targeting system is offline for now, but Loheingrins are at 100%...."

"The Loheingrins! Fire it at these coordinates, NOW!" Shepherd bellowed at the top of his lungs. The officer proceeded to tap in the codes swiftly. The screen displayed the Dawn, and the positron cannon's crosshairs aiming directly at it. As all lights went green across the board and a small timer popped out. Whatever their enemy had planned, he was about to blow them all away in one fell swoop. A sense of anticipation and  victory quickly overwhelmed Shepherd at the thought.

"It ends here."

--------------------------------------------

A warning strobe flashed persistently on the dashboard. "We've got a large heat signature behind us!  Misaka, what is the Archangel doing?"

"The legs," she reported. "They're opening up, and something is coming out of them... " she squinted. "...Are those..."

"Particle energy cannons! But they're not aiming for us; they're trying to take out the Dawn!"

"They pulled their trump card. I'm not in a position to take them out! What do we do Cortana?"

She stood rigidy on the holotank and to his surprise, she whispered, "I don't know."

This was the first he witnessed Cortana flustered. They were at a dead end. Even he could tell there wasn't enough time to make the jump. There was no escape. His mind raced to find a way out. Clenching his teeth, arms holding the joystick as tightly as he could, he accelerated. It was a long shot, but he had to make the jump. If only there was more time. If only he was here...

The Pelican careened towards the Forward Unto Dawn, now glowing a bright blue and being engulfed by a dark electrical sphere. Against the fallen ship's last voyage, the battle damaged Archangel hovered, dual-positron cannons fully exposed and glowing with destructive energy. In mere seconds, the Angel would fire, and CHIEF prayed his hardest for a miracle.

Shepherd roared boldly. "FIRE!"

"CHIEF!"

The radio buzzed to life.

"...Yippie kai yay m-"

A loud scream echoed through the Antarctic skies. A bright red laser shot up from the land below, piercing through both the positron cannons. The pulse lasers began fading, and began emmiting erratic screech. The Loheingrins then imploded, robbed of their chance to fire. The resulting explosion backfired, disabling flight controls on the Archangels bridge. As the crew braced themselves for the incoming impact, Shepherd stood completely numbed by the outcome. His vessel now disabled, its machinery malfunctioning, and Captain Ramius now took charge in an attempt to salvage the situation. Defeated, he could only take his seat, while watching his ship's command fall apart.

--------------------------------------------

"CHIEF, the Archangel is down! Someone took it out!" Cortana reported excitedly.

As he observed the Pelican's rear cameras, he saw the Archangel, frontal cannons smoking and banking towards the ground.

"...I've... always wanted... to say that line... CHIEF..."

At first, the voice on the radio left him dumbstruck. His monitor quickly displayed a lone person on the ground, standing next to a small vehicle. The person, carrying a large weapon stood waving with his left hand. As he strained to look, his mind was overwhelmed with relief and exhilaration.

"Hardy! You're alive!"

The lone figure continued waving, as the radio crackled once more.

"..CHIEF... take care of Misaka... Cortana and John... and don't give up... don't ever give up, on finding her!"

CHIEF understood. The Dawn began to explode into a bright vortex as the Slipspace engine triggered its final sequence, opening up Slipspace.

"Hardy... Thank y-"

Hardy watched from a distance as his comrades flew straight into the Slipspace rupture, completely disappearing from sight. The vortex swallowed the Dawn and everything around it. The event released an electromagnetic pulse creating deafening roar around the icy valley. With a blink of an eye, everything was gone. An strange, deafening silence filled the dig site, now completely devoid of activity. All ice and rock around the Dawn was completely gone, making a smooth, large and perfectly concave crater.

Hardy dropped the Spartan Laser, the same one used to kill the Tyrant, and recently, to intervene with the Archangels attempts to destroy his friends. His mind reflected on his entire experience. It was a miracle he made it this far. His body ached, and the cold air began biting into his bones as all adrenaline faded from his muscles. He was felt completely wrecked, but seeing his friends escaping was the only thing that kept him from dropping. He grasped the small glimpse of achievement he felt in his heart. He couldn't help, but break out into a small fit of tears.

A loud whirring noise suddenly filled his ears as a black helicopter suddenly hovered into view. Hardy turned and began to run, trudging through the cold wind. As fast as his legs would carry him. The helicopter pursued slowly, clearly tracking him.

Almost recklessly, he pulled out his M6G sidearm and fired a round at the choppers general direction. His arm threw itself upwards due to the massive recoil and fatigue.

"... I'm going home... not gonna get me..."

He fired two more shots, somehow thinking that his act of aggression would scare them off.

"... sorry CHIEF... sorry Cortana... sorry Haruhi..."

Deliriously, he continued to fire his weapon while attempting to run away from the site. Eventually, the clip ran dry, signalled by a click and the pistol slide retracting backwards. Cursing, he fumbled his pockets for another magazine, when something materialized in front of him with a blur.

A familiar young girl stood less than a metre from his face. Black-clad in military gear, the only distinctive feature that stood out were her brown pigtails, and a white bandage on her right shoulder.

"...I'm sorry..." Shirai Kuroko whispered, guilt in her voice.

Before Hardy could respond, she spun. He felt a hard, raw force colliding with his head. His body dropped onto the floor, slowly losing all touch on his senses. Sideways, he saw several figures rope down from the helicopter, and Kuroko towering over him, frowning in guilt. As black spots began to appear, he thought of his friends once more, and himself running off to open the hanger doors. Whatever happens to him, he would never, ever regret his actions.

As his eyes closed, he smiled with a fulfilled conscience as the Gensokyo Blackhawk helicopter loomed closer, blades chopping relentlessly through the cold Antarctic winds.

--------------------------------------------

........

........

"...*cough* Where the heck are we?...."

"...I don't know.... are you injured?"

"My head feels weird, but I'm okay..."

........

"... They sky.... I don't think we're in North High anymore..."

"What? How?"

"It's post Doomsday. Anything is possible."

"What do we do now?"

.......

"CHIEF?"

"...We'll keep moving on."
And so ends the Halo Chapter, a small tale of seemingly unlikely people in an extraordinary adventure of post-Doomsday Earth.
But this, is just the beginning...
I’m a bit tired, and still have a long list of things to do (including games :XD:) and I may take a short break on this story. I apologize for the VERY long post, but I hope it was interesting and worthwhile. Just take your time if you will. :)
And thank you to anyone who read this from the start. Your support means a lot to me. :D
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Chapter Archive

First Chapter: 1 - Forward onto the Dawn [link]

Previous Chapter: 7.2 – ...But a Whimper [link]
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Synopsis

"On Doomsday, 21st December 2012, the barrier between imagination and reality was smashed, throwing characters, locations and objects into the real world. Within hours, The Bad Apple Incident sends the entire planet into conflict.
By the end of the day, three kingdoms controlled the entire world, separated by barriers:"
:iconmikuplz: Hatsune Miku's Yamaha Kingdom
:iconreimuplz: Hakurei Reimu's Gensokyo
:iconharuhiplz: Suzumiya Haruhi's North High Colony

- by dra2k4

Set months after the events of Doomsday, an unknown structure is found hidden in the polar ice caps of Antarctica. As North High braces for a covert Gensokyo assault, the fate of a UNSC Spartan lies in the hands of the people fighting for him.

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New Terms:

LCAM-01XA Archagel [link] : An archangel-class assault carrier found in the Gundam Universe. Aside from two linear catapults to launch mobile suits, it has an impressive armament, including the powerful twin 'Lohengrin' positron blaster cannons.

D77H-TCI Pelican Dropship [link] : A assault troop carrier used by the UNSC forces in Halo. Equipped with sturdy armour, offensive armaments and able to carry vehicles, it is an excellent mode of transport versatile for most combat missions.

M274 Mongoose ULATV [link] A light all terrain vehicle resembling a quad bike. Useful for recon and fast travel, it has no offensive capabilities.

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Copyright Stuff

Dead Space © Visceral Games, EA

Gundam SEED © Sunrise

Halo series © Bungie Studios

Full Metal Alchemist characters & locations © Hiromu Arakawa

Left 4 Dead © Valve

Original Characters © Respective Owners

Resident Evil © Capcom

Team Fortress 2 © Valve

:iconthethreekingdoms: © :icondra2k4:

Toaru Majutsu no Index characters © Kazuma Kamachi

If you came this far, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading it as I had making it. :D
© 2011 - 2024 SSgt-LuLZ
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Warsie's avatar
uh......whoa