User:Leo Fox/Halo: The Dawn

"The darkest hour is just before the Dawn."

- Proverb quote

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Prologue
"If you are going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill

This is the way the World ends
Time unknown / March 3rd 2553 / Installation 04B / Status: Halo Capacitors 90% Charged; Firing sequence initiated

The landscape of the partially completed Halo flew past the lone M12 Warthog, as it screamed past towers and girders that the partially constructed Halo was almost completely comprised of.

Behind the wheel of the Warthog, was Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117 (United Nations Space Corps Navy), a battle-hardened veteran of the Human-Covenant War, who had destroyed one of the Forerunner constructs called Halo, not even a year ago.

The Chief took a hard left, putting the Warthog into a a skid, turning tightly, narrowly avoiding a falling tower that destroyed part of the "road" he was driving on. The road was actually horizontally-placed square plates, made out of some sort of Forerunner metal, held together by some sort of gravity field.

"Sorry about that", the SPARTAN remarked to Thel 'Vadam, the Arbiter, who was clinging precariously to the Warthog-mounted M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun in the back. The passenger seat was empty. Johnson didn't need it now.

The SPARTAN could not believe that Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson, the tough-as-nails Marine that had survived the Human-Covenant war from the very beginning, had been killed. He had, with the Master Chief alone, survived the First Halo, the Flood, and the fight to get back to Earth. Then, the Battle of Earth, Installation 05, and the Battle of the Ark, only to be killed by the former monitor of Installation 04, 343 Guilty Spark, so close to completing what could be the last battle of the War. But the Master Chief and the Arbiter had been powerless to stop Spark, because the damn things Forerunner alloy outer casing.

But Johnson had given him the means to crack the casing and destroy the rouge monitor; Johnson's W/AV M6 G/GNR "Spartan Laser". And with it, he did manage to destroy Spark, after 4 direct hits with the weapon.

SPARTAN-117 was rudely yanked out of the past, to Cortana's panicked voice.

"Capacitors 90% Charged Chief! Firing sequence initiated", she stated. The Chief glimpsed out to the left, beyond the potmarked and cracked toughened-plastic windshield, and saw the UNSC Foward Unto Dawn, looming just behind a small mountain-like structure.

"Hold on, Cortana. Almost there," the Master Chief calmly said, as he made a few sudden turns, dodging flying debris and falling objects, around fighting Flood and Sentinels. He was glad that the Sentinels were focusing on the Flood, removing two worries from his mind in the meantime, since 343 Guilty Spark had been destroyed, the Sentinels had begun attacking everything. Thel 'Vadam, the Arbiter, dealt with the threats easily enough, with the Warthog's 12.7x99 millimeter M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun.

The Master Chief drove the Warthog right up a ramp-like platform, and skidded around yet another missing patch of road. He continued through some sort of 'natural' arch, which Cortana was kind enough not to make a comment about.

Cortana had not been herself since being rescued from High Charity, not that he could blame her for going...she could not be rampant, could she?

The Warthog then came to a rather steep hill, with a convenient ramp-like ending, allowing for a jump...right into the back of the Forward Unto Dawn.

"Gun it, Chief! Floor it! Right into the Hanger!" Cortana shouted at the Master Chief.

"Hold on, Arbiter!", the Chief commanded.

The Chief hit the gas, and the Warthog rapidly accelerated, to the the maximum design speed of the Warthog; 78 Miles per Hour. Coupled with the 3.25 tons of Warthog, a half-ton of SPARTAN, and the 500 or so pounds of Arbiter, when the Warthog reached the jump, the Warthog had quite a bit of momentum behind it, just allowing the Warthog to make the 70 meter jump into the Forward Unto Dawn's Hanger.

Of coarse, regular Warthog shock absorbers were simply not designed for that kind of impact.

Impact
Time unknown / March 3rd 2553 / Installation 04B / Status:  WARNING: Halo Capacitors 100% Charged; Firing 

The Warthog hit the deck, the forward shock absorbers snapping like twigs from the force of the impact. The rear shocks absorbed the impact, and the Warthog bounced and flipped, cartwheeling end over end, until it came to a stop on its back. The Master Chief and the Arbiter pulled themselves free of the twisted wreckage, as an explosion on the surface of Halo rocked the ship, causing a 66-ton Scorpion tank to break free of its straps and slide towards the Arbiter.

The Arbiter turned and ran from the tank, leaping over crates and other obstacles in the way, as the tank gained speed and momentum behind him. The Arbiter leaped into a corridor outside of the hanger, the passageway too small for the tank to go through. The tank's impact with the bulkhead sent a resounding BANG through the Hanger, and left a large dent in the bulkhead.

The Chief pulled himself up and sprinted halfway to the Hanger control panel, but paused for a moment, to ensure that his his ally was unharmed by tank. The Arbiter nodded, acknowledging that he was fine, and the SPARTAN nodded back. Thel 'Vadam rushed away from the hanger, to get to the Bridge, while the Master Chief slotted Cortana into the Hanger Control Panel.

Cortana popped up on an adjacent holotank, and yelled to the Chief, "Hang on!", as the Forward Unto Dawn's engines went into 190% maximum output. The Master Chief gripped the Control panel to keep his footing, as the Frigate groaned as the vessel gained speed and altitude, all the while increased its angle of attack, to gain additional distance from the self-destructing ring.

Crates, tools, and Vehicles started sliding towards and out the open hanger door as the ship passed 45° in its desperate bid to escape the Halo. As the ship reached a 90° angle and a vacuum, the oxygen in the Hanger rushed out the open hanger door. The Chief started climbing up the console to reach the other side, only to be slammed free of it, halfway up, by a falling Warthog. The Warthog left the hanger and burned as it plummeted back to the surface of Halo. The Chief desperately clawed and dug at the Titanium-B deck to halt himself. Cortana reflexively reached out, as if to help him, even though she knew she could not help him anyway.

"Chief!"

The SPARTAN halted himself just short of the edge of the Hanger deck, and started to drag himself up, when he noticed the very same Scorpion tank that almost killed the Arbiter only seconds ago, barreling towards him, as if it wanted to kill something that day, after missing out on the action on the Ark and Halo.

The SPARTAN barely ducked under it, and it crashed onto the hanger deck behind him, rolled off the edge of the Hanger, and fell back to the surface of Halo.

The near-death experience over, the Master Chief dragged himself up the vertical wall of Titanium-A Battleplate, towards the Holotank. Behind him, Installation 04B continued to charge, the power - or was it light? - continued to pool in the center of the ring, in a rather pleasant pinkish hue, a very short time from firing.

The SPARTAN reached the Holotank - just as the Halo fired. Likewise, the Arbiter only just made it to the Bridge, and sat down behind the controls when the Halo fired. Dazzling bright light radiated from the ring as the wave of energy expanded outwards at an incredible velocity. The Chief took cover from the light behind the Hanger Control console.

"Chief...if we don't make it..." Cortana started.

"We'll make it," the Master Chief said optimistically in his deep voice.

"It's been an honor serving with you, John," the AI said, as the Master Chief lay back against the console, completely exhausted, just as blindingly bright light enveloped the Frigate, and all went black for John-117.

Goodnight
'Time Unknown / Date Unknown / Location Unknown / Status: Alive? [unverified] '

"Chief? Chief? Can you hear me?"

The Master Chief awoke, drifting in the Dawns unlit hanger, with a dull headache. He noticed the Engines were not running. The MJLONIR Mark VIs built-in flashlight was already on.

"Cortana?"

"Good. I thought I lost you too," Cortana stated mournfully.

"What happened?", the Super Soldier asked as he oriented himself and grabbed his nearby drifting MA5C Assault Rifle.

Cortana answered as the Chief slowly made his way forward through a corridor - only to find the forward half of the ship gone, the metal close to the edge still glowing red from heat.

"I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn't sustain itself," Cortana paused. "We made it through just as it collapsed."

The Master Chief was about to ask what happened to the forward half of the ship, when Cortana added, "Well… some of us made it."

The SPARTAN pushed off a nearby bulkhead and made his way through the darkened ship, towards the primary Cryogenics Bay.

He navigated the debris-strewn corridors, past abandoned crew corridors, and weapon stations, until he drifted into the 'Cryo' bay. The Chief propelled himself to a Holotank in the center of the bay.

"But we did it," Cortana said, before being removed from the MJLONIR armor via a crystal memory chip, and plugged into the Holotank to directly access the Foward Unto Dawn's mainframe.

Cortana's avatar sprang up on the holotank. "But you did it. Truth and the Covenant... the Flood... Its finished," Cortana concluded.

"Its finished", John echoed.

The Chief pushed off from the holotank to a weapons station on a bulkhead wall and placed his MA5C in it, as Cortana began again. "I'll drop a beacon. But it'll be a while before anyone finds us."

The Master Chief glanced at the holographic representation of the AI, as it continued. "Years, even." The Super soldier clambered into a Cryotube, and as it began closing, Cortana remembered back to when she chose John, and the what the two had been through together.

Cortana had never considered how important the SPARTAN was to the AI, until she had suffered in the High Carity's mainframe, tortured by the Gravemind, in its demand for information. The Gravemind had damaged and broken her to its will, and Cortana was at her snapping point, when John saved her from the very bowels of High Charity.

"I'll miss you," Cortana said softly and truthfully.

The Master Chief nodded and replied "Wake me... when you need me."

Cortana grimaced, and froze the SPARTAN in the Cyro tube, and began to figure out another way out of their dilemma.

Chapter 1 - Reveille
"Few can foresee where their road will lead them, till they come to its end.""

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Some Assembly Required
Time: / Estimated Date drifting: 5 weeks [verification needed ?] / Rear section of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn / Status: Initiating emergency repairs

Cortana had to admit; the remainder of the Forward Unto Dawn was a mess, but not a completely unrepairable mess. Since she started repairs on the ship almost two weeks before, on a craft lacking a crew to repair her, and only had 3 Service Drones left, she had done well.

Before even attempting to repair the ship, however, she had reconstructed herself to the best of her ability. After her...misadventure aboard High Charity, she had been corrupted and fragmented as hell. According to her self-diagnostic scans, she was 17.72 percent less efficient then she had been before going into High Charity, even after all the repairs. Well, she was lucky to have not been absorbed into the Gravemind, now that she thought about it.

All three drones were committed to repairing the Secondary Engines, as the Primary Engines had simply melted from the 190% overload to escape Halo, and were simply too damaged to repair. Cortana had eventually decided to repair the less damaged secondaries, and to cannibalize the intact Primary engine parts for spares.

She also restored the Artificial Gravity, life support and repaired inoperative air locks aboard the ship.

The primary weapon on the Dawn, the single Magnetic Accelerator Cannon had been rendered useless, due to lack of functioning magnetic coils, and capacitors to store the gigawatts of power needed to power the system. Not to mention the forward half of he barrel missing, which, she hoped, made it to Earth with the forward part of the Ship. She also detected 317 Archer Missiles unfired, left in various pods around the remainder of the ship, as well as two pairs of Gauss cannons on top of and below the Hangers on the side of the ship.

The main reactor went critical just after Halo fired. She had to dump the contents of the reactor; plasma and coolant, into space, and, at the same time, saved the Engineering spaces from becoming dangerously radioactive, although the Reactor was permanently wrecked.

The Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace engine...well, she could not do anything with it yet, but it was damaged.

The two auxiliary reactors, capable of producing 30% of the main reactor output, were fully operational, providing power to systems around the ship. The chemical thrusters were also operational, after being repaired by the drones.

Multiple holes had been patched, and the compartments vented to space when the portal sheared the Ship in two were sealed with spare armor plate, and repressurized. The Dawn also had 4,000 gallons of liquid oxygen still in various tanks around the ship.

The main command center had been lost when the froward part of the Dawn when through the portal, presumably along with the Arbiter. The secondary command center, just forward of the Engineering spaces, had survived fairly intact, as had the aft hangers.

The Dawn still had a pair of partially disassembled Pelicans in a repair bay, as well as a single damaged Longsword. The Pelicans had been in the process of being overhauled from actions over the Ark, while the Longsword had been written off for the extensive damage it took while fighting Covenant Loyalist ships. The ships also had a fair supply of Aviation fuel still aboard.

The Dawn also had a total of 7 infantry armories still intact, as well as the Medical bay, machine shop, and Vehicle bay, the last of which being useless in microgravity.

The Medical bay Cyrobay contained a half-dozen frozen corpses, and, much to her surprise, a pair of critically wounded, frozen Marines. They must have been bought back from the fighting on the Ark, before the Flood had been unleashed, and must have been frozen just before, or just after succumbing to their wounds.

Meaning she might be able to revive them. With the help of John-117. She was unable to do anything, where she was. She was able to supervise repairs with the Drones outside the ship, but inside, apart from simple retrieval of spares for outside the ship, she was unable to make any repairs inside.

It was time to wake John.

Memories
It was a beautiful, clear night. A teenage John lay in a field of Grass, with a female SPARTAN candidate laying a short distance away.

Both were staring at the Stars, after a long day of Physical Training, academics, and many other activities the instructors put them through.

"You ever wonder what's up there?", John asked the other SPARTAN.

"Like what?", Kelly-087 asked.

"Maybe someone up there is wondering what it's like here." John elaborated.

Kelly turned to look at him. "I guess. Do you think we'll ever meet them?"

John turned his head so he could look at Kelly. "I hope so. Don't you?"

Kelly smiled and suddenly faded before his eyes, as she and the soft grassy plain faded away into inky, all consuming blackness.

Corana's voice filled his head. "Do you think we'll ever meet them?"

Hello...again
Time: / Estimated Date drifting: 5 weeks [verification needed ?] / Rear section of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn / Status: Thawing SPARTAN-117

Cortana's voice invaded the Master Chief's consciousness.

"Wakey, wakey, Chief"

John-117 slowly opened his eyes, to find the Cyrogenic pod's hatch open. The Cyrobay was well-lit, which was an improvement from when he froze himself a undetermined amount of time before. There was a slight rumble under his feet, meaning at least one of the engines were working.

He pulled himself to his feet and discovered the artificial Gravity was back on. Apparently, Cortana had been busy fixing systems disabled by the Halo and the Portal.

"Cortana," he said. "Am I needed?"

Cortana's avatar flickered and appeared in the adjacent holotank. John strode over to it.

"You wouldn't believe, John. I pieced together what happened-" she started.

"Hold on. Firstly, where we are, and what is our status?" the Chief asked.

"I probably should have started with that. Alright then, we are on the rear section of the UNSC Foward Unto Dawn. As you might remember, the ship was severed in two at frame 47 from the Portal collapsing. The forward half presumably went to Earth, but we didn't. As of now, we are about 237,144 lightyears away from Earth, and about 500 billion kilometers away from the Ark." Cortana explained.

"What about Halo? And the Ark?" the Master Chief asked.

"As I said before I froze you, the Halo fired, and destroyed itself. The Ark was crippled as well in the explosion. Its beyond repair, to us and the Covenant. And the remaining Sentinels are useless without a Monitor."

"So, where does this leave us, Cortana?" the Chief asked, frowning inside his Helmet.

Cortana responded hesitantly. "I don't know if the Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace engine will even work after the damage the Dawn has suffered. Even then, with the current UNSC Slipspace engines, we can only go 2.1 lightyears a day and I don't need to tell you that it will take a long time to get back to UNSC-controlled space at a mere 2.1 lightyears a day."

Cortana sighed, then began to grin as the beginnings of a plan formulated itself in her "mind". "But I think I just found a solution. Scanning for nearby Covenant ship wreckage."

The SPARTAN turned away from the Holotank and retrieved the MA5C, and affixed it to the magnetic holster on his back plate, and returned to the Holotank.

"Chief, I've found quite a few crippled, but structually intact Covenant ships. You remember what we did...well, me, Sergeant Johnson, Lieutenant Haverson, and Vice Admiral Whitcomb, back when you were off trying to destroy the Unyielding Herophant."

She paused for a moment, thinking back to the incident, and giving the SPARTAN a chance to reflect on that incident, about 6 months before.

"So we you are going to suggest is that we strip the Slipspace engine from the Covenant ship, and replace it with the one currently on the ship?" the Master Chief asked, sure of the answer.

"Thats pretty much what I had in mind. Unless you have a better idea, lets get cracking."

The rumbling under the Master Chief's feet increased, as he left the Cryogenics bay for the secondary command center, deep in Engineering.

Chapter 2 - Plots and Plans
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"

- Robert Burns ("To a Mouse"), Misquoted

Revelations
Time: / Estimated Date drifting: 5 weeks [verification needed ?] / Secondary Bridge; Rear section of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn / Status: Engines 30% maximum output (Primary reactors: wrecked ; Secondary reactors: running hot, 100%) 

John-117 raided a Weapons Locker directly outside the Secondary Bridge. He grabbed additional ammunition for his MA5C, a M90 CAWS Shotgun, a pair of M7 Caseless Submachine Guns, and a half-dozen fragmentation grenades, in addition to filling a satchel full of ammunition and various explosives. No sense going into a crippled Covenant ship unprepared.

The Master Chief then entered in the Secondary Bridge. The first thing he noticed about the Bridge was the mess, which was a result of when all the objects floated freely when the artificial gravity failed, and landed elsewhere when it was restored.

The compartment resembled the primary bridge, with dedicated consoles for a Navigation Officer, Communications Officer, Operations Officer, and a Weapons Officer, along with another 4 consoles for officers of other professions. There was a small holotank to the side of the Commander's chair, which was in the middle of the compartment, surrounded by the other consoles.

In fact, the SPARTAN could only one real difference from the real bridge: in the place of a viewport, there were pair of screens where video feed from cameras outside the ship were displayed.

John took a seat in the Commander's chair in the middle of the compartment, as Cortana's avatar appeared on the 'tank on the arm of the chair.

"Its not much, I know, but I suppose its home for now." Cortana remarked.

The Chief shrugged. "I've seen worse." In truth, the SPARTAN had. High Charity, for example. The repulsive Flood-biomass had covered every surface inside of the former-Covenant space-fairing city, comprised of the former inhabitants calcium, as well as the crew of the Frigate In Amber Clad, Commander Miranda Keyes' former ship.

The Master Chief pushed the images of High Charity and the late-Commander Keyes out of his active consciousness, and concentrated on the retrieval of a Covenant Slipspace engine from a crippled Covenant ship.

"Cortana, what is our ETA to the Covenant ship you chose?" the Chief asked.

Cortana gestured to the screen. "About an hour, Chief. I assume you already have plan to get into the ship ready. Are you planning on using the wounded frozen Marines in the medical cryobay I told you about?"

The Master Chief glared at the AI, surprised and puzzled. She hadn't told him about any Marines left on the ship. Cortana must have been more damaged from the Gravemind then he had initially guessed.

"What Marines, Cortana. You didn't mention that there was anyone left on the ship."

Cortana looked horror-struck. "Oh...", she murmured quietly. Cortana knew she was slowly losing herself to the depths of Rampancy. The only questions were; how far gone was she already, and how long could she hold it off?

The Chief wondered how long Cortana would last, before she went rampant on him. Before she become a liability. Before she became a ticking time bomb, with the capability to go off at any time.

Cortana was his only way back to Earth. He couldn’t pilot half a ship, with no training on doing so and no crew to assist in the various duties required to maintain an operating space-fairing vessel.

He needed Cortana to get him home. He didn’t want to die out in the inky darkness of space, for any reason. He sure as hell did not want to die like that, after surviving so much in his 45 years of life.

“Cortana,” the SPARTAN said carefully, cautious not to say the wrong thing in the wrong tone to Cortana. “Thaw the Marines, and get them patched up. Then get them up to speed on the situation. I might need them quite soon.”

Cortana looked up, and said, with a slight smile that looked more like a grimace, "Done."

Making it up as we go along
Time: / Estimated Date drifting: 5 weeks [verification needed?] / Hanger 5A, Airlock 21; Rear section of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn / Status: 100,000 kilometers off Target, Airlock secured

The SPARTAN gazed out of the Airlock porthole, into the deep, dark abyss of space. The only light was from the distant stars and from the artificial sun over the remains of the Ark.

His focus was not on the stars or the artificial sun,however. It was on the approaching Covenant Loyalist Cruiser. Normally, the vessel would be spewing blue-plasma; more then enough to destroy of the ‘’Forward Unto Dawn’’ a dozen times over. Thankfully, the ship had been crippled by the Elites during the beginning stages of the Battle of the Ark, and it had gradually drifted far enough away from the Ark and Halo, that it was out of range when Halo fired.

A COM channel opened, and Cortana's voice came out of the internal speakers. "ETA is less then a minute. Stand by to release the airlock."

The Master Chief Petty Officer punched the Emergency Airlock release panel, and a small lever popped out. The Covenant ship was now in sight, with silvery gas leaking out of ruptures in its hull.

"Cortana, give me a countdown," the Super Soldier ordered.

Seconds passed.

"Cortana?" the SPARTAN queried.

"Do you mind?" Cortana snapped. "Ten seconds."

The Master Chief noted the irregularity in Cortana's behavior, as he did a hurried triple-check of his armor and T-PACK. He then made sure the Airlock door leading to the Hanger was secured shut. When he found both satisfactory, he grabbed hold of the lever and waited for Cortana's countdown to end.

"Three...two...one...mark," she stated.

The Chief yanked the lever, and the Airlock doors parted, and the atmosphere vented, sending the Chief out into space, with the inertial forward force sending him barreling towards the Covenant ship.

Time: / Estimated Date drifting: 5 weeks [verification needed?] / Hanger 5A, Airlock 21; Rear section of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn / Status: 500 kilometers off Target; providing support for MCPO SPARTAN-117 

Cortana navigated the Dawn around the Cruiser, decelerating as she did so. She did not think that boarding the Covenant Cruiser this was a very smart idea.

But then again, it was the fasted and most immediate way to board, even if it was not very smart idea.

She knew she was changing, just since being saved by John a mere 5 or so weeks ago.