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Halo: Reclaimer by T. K. Niemann
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Halo: Reclaimer Part one: Ticket to Ride
Date: 21 May 2002, 8:21 am
"I think we've got a problem."
Cortana's voice swirled around the Master Chief, everywhere and nowhere at once. He had long ago grown accustomed to the phenomenon. In a way, she was all around him, coursing the electronic pathways of the Longsword fighter that had recently become their home. Her simulated voice had been the only voice he'd heard for some time. While the AI was as good a conversationalist as could be hoped for, the echoes of all the other voices, the ones he knew he'd never hear again, still haunted him. The Master Chief could not forget the Marines he'd fought with and for, all the soldiers he'd left to die on Halo.
He banished those thoughts as he'd done many times before and began pulling up the ship's maintenance logs for inspection. Now was not the time.
"What kind of problem, Cortana?" As he spoke, the Master Chief accessed the maintenance work he'd done last week. Keeping a ship that was meant for brief, intense use running for months was tricky at best. Since the destruction of Halo, however, he and Cortana were without any other choice and much of their time had been spent diagnosing and addressing the Longsword's technical shortcomings and making adjustments as they went. In other words, they were jury-rigging the thing when it broke and crossing their fingers. "The nuclear manifolds seem to be holding better than we'd thought."
"It's not that simple, I'm afraid." Her semi-transparent form flickered into being above the console before the Master Chief. Some might have considered her form attractive had it not been a holographic projection of flowing data streams. "Not that simple at all."
The Master Chief spared her a glance. She didn't look happy.
"Covenant?"
Cortana nodded. "Our scanners picked up the hyperjump signature of one of their Alpha-7 class battle cruisers a few moments ago. I had hoped it was a misreading of a human jump signature, but it only took me a few sweeps to forget that idea. Human ships don't leak plasma coolant, and this ship's been doing nothing but."
The Master Chief drew in a long breath of recycled air. His life, it seemed, was defined only as a struggle against these creatures. What else had there ever been? Something in him was weary of it all, weary of constant battle, weary of the grave duties he had been given. Something deep in the Master Chief wanted nothing more than to live the normal life other Marines spoke of.
Something deeper still, however, burned with thirsty excitement. Something in his deepest place rejoiced and called out that it was time to dance the only dance he had ever known.
"How long before they're on us?"
"Analyzing." The AI construct paused, symbolically touching her forehead. "That's odd. I don't think they know we're here. The cruiser's local sensors must be out, something to do with the coolant leak. Yes, that seems right. And since we haven't jumped recently, our hyper signature isn't giving us away."
Looking over the data Cortana was pulling up, the Master Chief mentally reviewed his options.
"So they won't know we're here unless we try to jump out?"
"Or until they fix whatever problem caused them to drop out of subspace in the first place, yes," she corrected. "There is a good chance they'll spot us then. About eighty nine percent chance, I calculated."
The Master Chief rose from the command seat and paced the vessel's small bridge.
"Any estimates on how long before that happens?"
Cortana paused again. "Negative. This ship's scanners are too limited to make such evaluations. All I can say is that it seems an internal problem made her drop from subspace, so we can forget hoping to see allied forces pressing the attack. Beyond that I'm in the dark."
"Very well. Keep me posted."
Staring out into the blackness of space, the Master Chief began to think.
"Sir? You want me to do what?"
The Master Chief was back at the command screen, working furiously. "You heard me. Get to it. We don't know how much time we have until their scanners come back online."
"That's exactly my point," Cortana countered, hands on her hips. "This is madness!"
Her holographic body sputtered as the Master Chief jammed the ship into full acceleration. After a few seconds, he shut the engines off entirely and let the Longsword drift.
"Maybe."
The AI glared at him, as much as an AI can glare.
"You do realize we're going toward the Covenant cruiser, don't you? You're a good pilot, Master Chief, but nobody's that good."
"I know. Did you send that message yet?" He slipped the MJOLNIR's helmet on and felt the familiar hiss and click of its air tight seal.
Cortana groaned and several beeps sounded from the command console. "Yes, it's going out. They'll pick it up long before any human ship, you know. Now will you tell me what you hope to accomplish with this?"
The Master Chief went back to work on the console himself. "In a minute." He tapped a series of buttons with finality. "There."
"Uh, Chief," the AI asked gingerly, "I know the air supply in your battlesuit is self contained, but did you mean to vent the ship's oxygen reserves into space?"
He did not look up. "Yes."
A few button taps later he added, "And there goes our fuel."
Cortana's projection flared angrily.
"Are you totally off your rocker? What do you think you're doing? I know the Halo incident was stressful for us all and...oh, wait, wait. I see it now..."
He continued with his preparations.
Cortana arched an electric eyebrow. "You wouldn't."
The Master Chief could not help but smile.
"If you've got a better plan, I'll take it into consideration." He came to his feet and stepped over to a nearby weapons locker to review his ammunition stores.
The AI was speechless for a moment.
She then shrugged and sighed. "I suppose I'll kill the life support systems."
"That a-girl."
The bridge of Kal'Khok's ship was, by nature, a quiet place. If things were running as they should in his little world, the bridge of the Atonement would be all but silent. The only things to be heard would be the soft purr of the ship's efficient engines and soft steps of his subordinates inviting Kal'Khok to midday prayer services. Even the sounds heard during battle where quiet ones: the musical pings of enemy ships registering on their sensors and the sharp but pleasant chirps that told of their demise.
It seemed that the reality of his bridge rarely conformed to that ideal. Alarms pulsed on the screens in front of him and shrill voices of grunts relaying unpleasant messages came far more than he liked. The news he received was too often not about their continued slaughter of the blasphemous earthlings or of his family's growth in honor, but rather boring details of gravitational abnormalities and leaking plasma coolant.
This day had been noise after noise on his quiet bridge. The fact that they had been forced out of subspace on their reconnaissance mission was bad enough. That the cause was an internal error and not enemy attack Kal'Khok found even more distressing. It was one thing to be delayed by glorious battle but quite another to be delayed by some fool's misalignment of an induction conduit.
Kal'Khok silently vowed to have the one responsible boiled alive and he then set about seeing to the banal matters of his ship. Before he was too bored with reports of damage from the overheated engine, he was pleased to find the sensors back online, slightly ahead of schedule.
What really pleased Kal'Khok, however, was the ping that came next.
The Atonement's Captain had almost decided on the most pleasing and most drawn out method of obliterating the newly found prey when his subordinates interrupted with the news.
"My Captain," Kerley called as he came through the doorway, only bowing slightly in his eagerness, "we have found something!" The little creature was out of breath and nearly shriving with excitement.
Behind him, striding tall and proud as befit his race, came Pa'Garesh. He was more restrained than the science officer and managed a full bow before entering his commander's room. "Our sensors picked up the craft as soon as they came online. It is a mid-range earthling fighter..."
Kal'Khok raised a hand to silence both of them. "I know all of this already. Did you not remember that I personally oversee such things? You should both be glad you found me in a mood willing to tolerate such idiocy."
"B-b-b-but, my lord, there is more," Kerley's shrill voice began.
"Well, you have a few moments to explain before I destroy the little ship."
Pa'Garesh gripped the shaking grunt by the shoulder. "Be silence, Kerley. Sir, our more delicate scanners have intercepted a distress call from the vessel. On earthling channels."
Their commander let out a bark of laughter. "Yes, I suspect they would be begging for help upon seeing this warship as mighty as this!"
"Sir, it is not that kind of distress call. The message has been broadcast repeatedly and requests help from any other transport headed for Earth."
Now this interested him. "What was that? Earth?"
Pa'Garesh nodded before touching the screens to the left of the Captain to access the message. A translated version of the communiquÈ soon sounded through the bridge.
"This is UNSC Fireteam Charlie on Longsword designation E12278, repeat, Echo 1-2-2-7-8. Does anyone copy? This is a class 44 extraction request, maximum priority. Our jump engines gave out en route to Earth and we are stranded, repeat, stranded. Does anyone read? We have data that must not fall into Covenant hands. I don't know how long we can last out here. Does anyone..." There was a sharp crackling. "This is UNSC Fireteam Ch-"
Pa'Garesh cut off the recording and continued. "It seems as if this craft has been drifting for some time. They have minimal fuel and their life support systems are not functioning. It is my estimation that they must have been trying to reach their Earth on sub-light drive."
Kal'Khok looked over his command screen once again. Earth. The long fabled home of these heathens. If he were to be the one to find it, then his name would be revered. Revered as none such in his family's considerable history.
Maybe he would not boil the engineer at fault after all...
From inside his helmet, Cortana spoke softly to the Master Chief. "Are you sure this was a good idea?"
"We're not dead yet, are we?" He rearranged his legs in the cramped darkness.
Cortana paused. "No, not yet. But I think I should add that if we do live through the next few minutes we will be in direct violation of the Cole Protocol. We're practically handing my data stores over to them."
"No more than when we rescued Captain Keyes on the Truth and Reconciliation."
She harrumphed in his ear. "I knew you were going to bring that up. I still don't see how this could possibly work."
"Relax. We'll be fine."
"How can you tell me to relax? We're stuffed in the storage closet of an empty ship getting sucked into the gut of a Covenant battle cruiser crawling with who knows how many alien soldiers light-years from the nearest friendly unit! And that's all assuming they don't blow us out of the sky first. It doesn't get much worse that this, Chief."
Her complaints were not unexpected. "You know this Longsword doesn't have many hyperjumps left in her before she gives out, Cortana. If we're going to get anywhere, our only option is to find another means of transportation."
"Yes, but did it have to be a Covenant ship?"
"Don't worry, I've got a plan," he stated in his gravelly tone.
Cortana sighed. "I'm not sure that'll cut it this time, Chief."
Bizarre moaning shuddered through the Longsword as some nameless Covenant device warped the very gravity around them. Up and down flip-flopped. The cruiser was pulling them into its holds.
The Master Chief adjusted his grip on the dented MA5B assault rifle he held in one hand and checked the pistol at his side a third time.
"It will have to."
The next dance had begun.
Halo: Reclaimer- Part 2
Date: 19 May 2003, 5:45 PM
Halo: Reclaimer
Part Two- Have Hijacked Ship, Will Travel
Hesher didn't know why he always got the boring jobs; that just seemed the way of things. Whenever there was a boring, repetitive task on the Atonement, it always landed on his lap. Hesher liked to think this happened because he had a reputation for reliability, but he knew that wasn't really true. It was just that he didn't complain as much as anyone else.
Trudging up the loading dock to the vessel while dragging the unwieldy particle scanner behind him, Hesher solemnly swore that he would start complaining more if it got him out of assignments like this. He knew just the right high pitched tones the others used to annoy the lieutenant without angering him. The trick, as he understood it, was to complain and annoy at the same time so he'd be sure to find someone else.
For now, however, he was stuck with such boring and meaningless tasks as scanning a derelict human craft for particle residue. Hesher knew he wouldn't find anything. The important crew members had already been through: the Captain, Pa'Garesh, the science officer, and a bunch of the inky armored Elites. All equipment, weapons, and even the ship's databanks had been forcibly removed by the techs and taken elsewhere for analysis. There was no way anything of interest could be left to find. But he had his orders.
Tapping in the security code he'd been given for the lock on the empty earthling thing, Hesher was rewarded with a wash of stale air from the ship. It stank of humans. He had never seen a live one up close but had smelled the stench of man on warriors fresh from the front. They were filthy creatures, by all accounts. And blasphemous heathens, of course.
Hesher was less than surprised to find nothing at all inside the ship. As he meticulously made his way through the interior he found nothing. Oh, look there, he thought, bits of dirt, fantastic. Particles of explosive materials, how unexpected on a fighter! And what's this, unidentifiable biological residue? Wonderful, just what he always wanted!
Moving further and further into the alien vessel, Hesher only found more and more of the same. He began checking the hidden nooks and crannies in the hopes of find something, anything, different. But there was nothing new.
Deep in the engine room of ship, he found one storage closet still closed. And locked. Since it was sort of out of the way, he though, perhaps the others had overlooked it. Hesher was sure there might be something new and interesting in such a place. Maybe, if he was truly lucky, he would find something important the others had missed.
He had been tugging at the locked closet door for what felt like an eternity before he felt it start to give. His back ridge tingled with anticipation as he flung upon the door.
Striding out of the darkness came a human larger than any Hesher had ever imagined. His head was enclosed in some kind of shell and he held a blocky earthling weapon.
Hesher turned to run.
"H-h-human devil!" he managed to squeak out before some hard smashed down on his neck.
There came next a crunch he vaguely realized were his vertebrae being crushed.
"Well," Cortana whispered in his ear, "at least this part went according to plan."
The Master Chief paused to hide the dead grunt it in the locker along with its scanning device.
"Don't sound so surprised. We did take out a Covenant armada and the Flood, remember?" He moved through the corridors of the Longsword, checking each passageway to make sure that it was free of any other Covenant before continuing.
Coming back on to the Longsword's bridge, the Master Chief kept to a crouch to be certain no one outside the vessel could see him.
He began to reach up to the side of this helmet. "Cortana, I'm going to reconnect you to the Longsword. See if you can discreetly bring its sensors back online so we can see..."
She had no physical form, but the tone of the AI's voice smirked as effectively as lips. "Way ahead of you, Master Chief. Now that we're inside the Atonement-that's the name of this ship, by the way-it's child's play for me to interface with their com channels. This ship's not even on combat alert, so I can monkey around with impunity."
There was a pause. "There. I've triangulated the location of every Covenant within a seventy meter radius from our position using their comlinks. Let's see here... in this hanger there are three elites, five grunts, and three engineers, which I think are jackals of some variety. Two of the elites are in the command station directly behind you, a pair of jackals is inspecting the top of the ship, and one of the grunts is napping in the corner. The rest seem to be working on a coolant system along the far wall."
The Master Chief turned and rose a bit to peer out the Longsword's fore windows. About forty meters from him on a platform stood two blue armored elites, busy at work on a piece of alien technology.
"So," Master Chief said, "you AI constructs are good for something."
"Hey, mister, let's not forget which one of us almost destroyed all life in the galaxy."
The Master Chief crept toward the open airlock. "Touché."
Cortana quickly changed tones. "Be careful. The jackals are somewhere on top of the Longsword. There's a good chance the nearest one will see you if you just walk out."
Slowly and soundlessly, the cyborg crept to the opening into the hanger. His audio sensors picked up the sound of some creature scuttling about above him. The Master Chief glanced as the assault rifle's ammo display out of habit.
Lightly, he reached out and tapped on the side of the hull. After a moment, he tapped again. And waited. He tapped a third time.
This time came hissing alien words.
"My database translates that as 'what the hell's that sound.' If you were wondering."
The Master Chief could here from somewhere above the sounds of footfalls on metal drawing closer. Another hissing sound came from further away.
"The other one said, 'it's probably just that idiot with the scanner,'" Cortana translated.
Moving back into the corridor of the Longsword, the Master Chief waited. Before long, a creature resembling a jackal dropped down from the top of the vessel and began inspecting the doorway. The Chief pressed himself into the shadows of the corridor and prayed that he would take the bait.
The jackal looked once more over the doorway and was about to climb back to his former position when he glanced at the floor. Footprints. His eyes fixed on the Master Chief's new footprints in the doorway. He hissed something to himself and took a step forward.
"Cortana," the Master Chief whispered.
The AI remotely closed the Longsword's doors and the Master Chief rushed at the jackal. Fumbling with a plasma pistol and communication device, the creature was too shocked to defend himself from the armored fist that bashed into his face. It folded to the floor instantly.
"That's one," said the Master Chief as he wiped the violet blood from his knuckles.
The Longsword's door slide open and he moved quickly down the loading ramp.
"Chief, take a left at the bottom of the platform," Cortana directed in his ear. "The other way leads directly in front of the control room. This way, we can sneak over to the sleeping grunt and work our way around the room unseen."
Moving with catlike grace, the cyborg skimmed down the platform. As he moved, the Master Chief kept his assault rifle before him, ready to let lose at any threat. Stealth was the main priority now and his enhanced sight and hearing kept him aware of everything the two elites in the control room and the large group of Covenant did.
So intent was the Master Chief on the other aliens that he almost tripped over the sleeping grunt when he came upon him. The creature murmured a bit.
"Careful," Cortana reminded. "One alarm and this whole plan is toast."
As the little one slept, the Master Chief eased one hand over his snout and the other around back of his neck. A quick twist and the grunt's neck snapped.
The Master Chief assessed his position. The grunt had chosen his napping place well, with two crates in front and the wall behind. He was totally guarded from the sight of anyone in the control platform and most other places in the room. By peaking around one crate, the group working on the two large pipes could be seen about twenty meters away.
"Cortana, what can you tell about what they're fixing?"
"Hmmm..." she replied, "it seems like part of their ship's main plasma drive system, the coolant cycler. The larger exposed tube on the right is taking the heated coolant away from the plasma driver and the one on the left is bringing new coolant in. From what I know of Covenant ship design, the problem we saw earlier could be causing a back up of used coolant. Nothing serious, unless there is an internal leak of hot coolant. But troublesome nonetheless, I gather."
The Master Chief glanced back at the two elites in the command station. "Let's make that a little more troublesome." Leaning down, he took the dead grunts plasma pistol from its holster. He calculated the necessary angle and began checking for the right moment when the elites wouldn't be looking and the group would be in the proper position.
The two in the command station seemed intent on something on their view screens and the group had moved to the left. Perfect. The Master Chief clicked off the pistol's tracking option, took aim, and held down the trigger. Angry green light filled his field of vision and the plasma weapon jerked like a captured snake as it charged. Almost...almost...
"Who's that, there," he heard one of the grunts ask.
He released the trigger.
The bolt of emerald energy screamed through the air before any answer could be framed, slamming into the rightmost coolant tube. There was a moment as the group of Covenant tried to understand what had just happened, silent but for the hiss of the plasma bolt burning into the tube.
"Chief," Cortana screamed, "getting moving now!"
He turned and dashed toward the command station as the heated coolant tube erupted. Plasma coolant rushed into the room as if from an opened fire hydrant, soaking those nearby in the boiling liquid. The grunts and jackal died instantly, but the elite's energy shields kept them alive just long enough for them to understand their horrible fate.
The Master Chief rushed up the exposed ramps to the command station, away from the coolant, but the elites took no notice of him. Their attention was devoted solely to rerouting the superheated plasma coolant and shutting down the leaking pipe so that no more escaped.
Only as he reached the command station itself did the elites seem to stop shouting at each other and look up from their panels. A stream of automatic fire from the Master Chief's assault rifle tore into the first before either realized what he was. They never died easily. The elite dropped to floor the same instant as the assault rifle's empty magazine.
Shaking with rage, the second alien ripped his plasma rifle from its holster and lunged forward. The Master Chief ducked under the powerful blow and rolled behind the creature.
Dropping the rifle as he rolled, the cyborg came to his feat with pistol drawn, striking the elite with the butt of his pistol to weaken its shielding. Then, as it turned to face him once more, the Master Chief set the muzzle of the pistol to the creature's skull and fire.
He was retrieving his assault rifle before the elite's body was through crumpling to the floor. As the Master Chief reloaded the weapon, he kept his eyes on the nearest door, waiting for it to open and issue more Covenant. The door kept still.
Cortana whispered in his ear again, "Those two did us a few favors before you took care of them."
"Meaning?"
"Well, they successfully rerouted coolant flow, so you don't have to worry about this room flooding with 600 degree liquid. The really good bit is that they also issued a warning to other personnel to stay away from this cargo bay because of the leak."
The Master Chief nodded. "Good, that should buy us some time. See what information about this ship you can access from this control station."
It took her only a moment.
"Let's see here...ship's mission briefing, blah, blah, blah, general schematics, good, history, yada yada...Whoa! Chief, you would not believe how freely I can move through their internal networks. They never dreamed an AI like me would get in here, especially while the ship wasn't on alert! I can get you everything you need from right here. In fact..." There came what sounded like a giggle from her.
"What is it?"
"Except for a few key blocks..." she giggled again, "I could run this whole ship! These guys don't know the first thing about internal security. Even if they went up to full combat alert right now, I doubt they have a firewall that could completely lock me out."
The Master Chief thought for a moment.
"Where would you need to be to have unrestricted access to the ship's command functions? If it were possible."
"Engineering," Cortana answered instantly. "If you plugged me in at engineering, I'd have total access to all of the ship's systems. Only the captain himself would be able to override my control, and even then only on matters of navigation."
The cyborg salvaged plasma grenades from the dead elites and rose to his feet, looking once more to the doorway.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking," the AI asked.
"Which way to engineering?"
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