Halo: War of Alzatia

Author’s note: This is my first ever publishing of any fanfic, so bear with me. The storytelling might be a bit off, but it’s loosely based on the Halo story. Of course, most of the cast were created by me. Dr. Halsey of course is not created by me, she is solely the property of the Halo franchise. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the prologue and I welcome criticism. But be constructive, please! You can dislike it and be friendly about it! Thank you! ~David

Searing pain exploded throughout his body, a cascading shower of fire to his right was the culprit. An explosion. There were others scattered around in front of him, often disappearing when he shut his eyes, as if doing so would halt his seemingly unending agony. His hearing had been impaired within those seconds that felt like minutes, but as it slowly started coming back, shouts from his fellow Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were everywhere around him. As soon as he realized it was coming back to him, that he was in the middle of a warzone, his eyes widened to refocus. An ODST in front of him was firing her MA5B Assault Rifle from behind a sandbag, occasionally giving pointers to where hostiles were coming from. At one point, she turned with her visor depolarized to see that he had regained his senses, taking a kneel where she stood.

At this point, he was looking around for his gun, which had been knocked clear of the blast. The female ODST in front of him had just finished replacing the clip in her magazine, her eyes on him now,

“Get your ass up, David! Covies are everywhere!” The ODST popped up to fire another burst, scoring a hit on a squat. The methane tank on the little bastard popped before exploding, sending its insides flying. Getting a little too cocky, she popped up again, too soon, before a shard from a needle rifle impaled her helmet. Grasping at her helmet as she fell lifeless towards David,

“Deena!” David heard himself scream. Private Deena Paige. His squadmate, who he fought side by side with for years, was dead in an instant. Exploding, the shard in her head destroyed her helmet, making sure the deed was done. Grabbing her assault rifle, David moved into a crouch, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Just like they taught them.

“Watch it, Helljumper!” A voice behind him yelled, grabbing David’s backplate to toss him into cover as a plasma ball from a wraith hit where he just was. David looked over to see his squad leader, Lieutenant Emmett Locklear, his helmet was not with him and there was a trail of blood down the side of his head. He didn’t look good.

“Sir, you’re hit!” David fumbled his pack for biofoam, Locklear’s hand stopped him though. The older man shook his head,

“It’s all good, David.” Locklear faked a smile, he was always horrible at lying, “Where’s Paige?” David shuddered inwardly before turning to look at her corpse. Emmett saw what he was looking at, or rather who, before he bowed his head. Two banshees screamed above, both of them not realizing they had come back around for another run. Out of the corner of his eye, a rocket streamed towards one of the enemy fighters, taking it out. The two banshees were flying so close that the explosion from the first one was enough to damage the second one’s wing. Clipped, it started to spin, the marine with the rocket launcher cheering in triumph. However, as it started getting closer to the ground, Locklear and David saw that it was heading right for their position.

“Fuck us.” Locklear said under his breath as he grabbed David’s shoulder pauldron, attempting to throw them both out of the way. A loud crash could be heard, followed immediately by an explosion. David was out of the way of the blast this time, picking up the AR he got from Deena, he rose. Almost getting sniped by the same perpetrator as the one who killed Deena, David dove for cover, making sure his rifle was loaded. Locklear. Where was his squad leader? He looked around the rubble before his eyes stopped on the burnt combat armor of his squad leader. He was dead. David cursed under his breath, tears in his eyes as he took his dogtags. Locklear was like a father to David. This was hard for him, but he would have wanted him to push on. To take command.

It only took a few seconds for David to recompose himself, directing his assault rifle towards the onslaught of alien forces. A yell could be heard from the left somewhere, stating that the sniper that took Deena out had been killed. Good. They had breathing room. David moved out from the crater he had been sitting in, dishing out lead towards the enemy to buy himself time to find more cover. Looking over to a dead marine, David saw a radio sitting near him, and he crawled to reach it. Plasma flew over his burned out car, David feeling the heat even under the back of his breastplate.

“Mammoth 3-3, where the fuck are you?! We’re getting swarmed!” Said a voice, followed by another.

“We have our own problems, Kilo 1-4! Banshees are strafing us!”

“This is Staff Sergeant David Eicher of ODST 2nd Platoon, 3rd squad! We have taken heavy casualties in the town square and need immediate evac on my coordinates!” David screamed through the radio, plasma honing in on him as the covenant figured out what he was doing. A jackal used it’s beam rifle to tear up his cover, one of the last beams hitting David’s left arm. Screaming into the radio in pain, his arm separated from his shoulder blade, the limb flying ten feet behind. A voice replied over the radio,

“Staff Sergeant! We’re sending a pelican now! ETA 3 minutes! Protect that data!” David screamed again before replying,

“I don’t have three minutes, damn it!” David was now attempting to stop the bleeding on the stub where the arm disconnected but was failing miserably.

“Eicher, you don’t get to die today! That’s an order, goddamnit!” David recognized the voice of Colonel Joseph Graves, his CO, who was fighting with 1st Platoon in the city bank, “Anybody left in 2nd Platoon get to Eicher’s IFF tag and protect him! As a matter of fact, any UNSC forces in the area, protect that ODST! He’s the key to stopping this!” Growling, David rested his assault rifle against the concrete slab he was hiding behind, having lost the ability to fire it effectively when his arm was blown off. Drawing his magnum, he aimed at the jackal that had blown his arm off, somehow being passed up by the next beam. It whizzed past his helmet, an inch to the right and he would have been dead. Firing his magnum, David hit his mark, the bullet embedding itself in the head of the bird like creature. An elite fired his plasma rifle at him, missing completely, but killing a marine behind him. Two ODSTs slammed against the slab next to him, his squad mates to be more accurate,

“Get your ass down, David!” As one said this, a needle found its home in David’s chest. David grunted, looking down at the needle before looking back up to the swarm. David fired again, two more hitting a squat square in the face, killing it instantly. An elite took four before dropping, a guttural last yell before doing so. The ODSTs next to him managed to keep most of the gunfire off of David, also still yelling for him to get down. Nothing would persuade him. His belief was that he would die before the pelican arrived, so his last stand was to protect anybody left. His magnum went off again, this time it hit a gas tank, blowing up a wraith that had arrived moments before, but not before the wraith took out four marines. Running out of ammo, he tossed the magnum over, arming a grenade before tossing it as well. It bounced off of a car, landing next to a group of elites, ones that had been picking them off. All of them were either dead or wounded bad after the explosion, rendering them harmless. David was breathing hard, his visor on his helmet was cracked, and he screamed for another magnum,

“Colonel, where the fuck are you?!” David screamed, his voice now desperate as he watched more and more covenant advance on them, “My men are dying out-“ He was cut off as another needle hit him in the gut. David screamed, firing more rounds into the fray, plasma hitting across his breastplate as well. David fell to his knees, the other ODSTs screaming things that were inaudible to him, as was the entire world around him. The ‘data’ appeared in his helmet,

“Staff Sergeant, I advise you transfer me to another marine. Your vital signs are failing. It is surprising you are still alive.” Said the voice, the experimental AI; Darci.

“No, I’m the only one with the access codes to your...matrix.” David then ignored it, his life flashing before his eyes. He coughed, blood spattering the inside of his helmet,

“2nd Platoon, standby for evac!” Said a pelican pilot as she landed behind them, the ODSTs in front of David started to drag him towards the pelican, both firing their respective weapons with one hand as they tried to hurry to safety. Plasma zeroed in on them, killing the ODST to his right, the one on the left throwing his rifle aside to use both hands to pick him up into a fireman carry. As he was running, two marines started to defend them from behind but were quickly picked off. As the ODST carried David, an elite with an energy sword charged towards him, killing three marines before impaling the other ODST. Seconds before the elite could finish David off too, a loud crack could be heard, the elite falling to the ground. It gurgled on its own blood before dying, having been dropped when the ODST was killed carrying him, he was now facing the pelican. A large figure exited the pelican, wearing the armor of a Spartan. The Spartan moved towards him with the utmost urgency, killing six more elites with swords as they tried to push, David barely seeing the name of the Spartan that was saving his life. Toni-180. Turning, she moved back towards the pelican,

“Colonel Feonaro, package in tow. Returning to base.” Toni said, entering the pelican and settling David in a seat, “I know, sir. No, no, sir. The damage is pretty severe. If we don’t get him there soon, he’s going to to die.” Toni nodded, her voice now hushed. After she was done, she told the pilot to punch it. Speeding up, the pelican tore off towards the sky, blasting through clouds to try and reach space. After several minutes of David coming in and out of consciousness, he finally closed his eyes and drifted into nothing.

Finally, it was the end.

David woke up. How? He was dead. In a room, laying on a table, he looked around. No one. But something was off. David gasped, realizing he had an arm again. His wounds were gone. Then he saw and felt the change. David was stronger, more alive. A crackle could be heard as an intercom activated, David looked up confused,

“Hello, I am Dr. Catherine Halsey. Your new boss.” She pauses for effect, letting her name sink in, David’s eyes widened,

“What the hell is going on?! You’re a war criminal!” David yelled at nowhere in particular.

“Quite the contrary, I am your savior. David-202, welcome to the Spartan IV program.”