Halo: Safewind

Halo: Safewind

This fanfiction article, Halo: Safewind, was written by LoyalHaloFan. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission.

Plot Summary Dramatis Personae Point of View Noah Sówka Otto Hall Éimhear Selim Çelik Supporting Felix Goudreau Ashley Coeman Malak Joyner Záviš Souček Leena Kadri Satomi Sasaki Additional POV/Supporting Yvette Kelsi (POV) Josef da Costa Fedor Volkov Halo: Safewind Prologue Yvette Kelsi Stormfalcon 17 Kilometers outside Toruń Mazovian Wilderness April 9, 2538 The call had come in this morning. Yvette and the others were still loading up the back of the Stormfalcon when Jori and Axel drove south down the dirt path with the Spade. She sat on a crate of freeze-dried desiderfruit, listening to the whistling of the trees around her and feeling the cool morning air on her face. Not yet fully awake, she daydreamed as Mazovia’s sun rose over the valley, illuminating it with a violet-orange hue. Mazovia was a beautiful world, and it had been so long since she felt real, solid ground on her feet. They had been running for weeks. The Stormfalcon had passed through six different colonies before landing on Mazovia. All of them were burnt to a crisp, their surface cracked and glowing. No communications of any kind could be detected, it felt like the entire universe had died. She remembered being in the control cab of the ship when they arrived at Cyrus VII. The destruction was unfathomable. Yvette had witnessed her fair share of Covies before she deserted, but she’d never seen they’re destructive capability from above until then. The Stormfalcon had to wade through a wall of debris and ships as it approached the planet. A jungle of twisted wrecks and melted metal now served as a graveyard for thousands of sailors and civilians. When they finally cleared the debris, the extent of the colony’s destruction could now be seen in greater detail. She remembered the audible gasp Beta made when the ship’s visual sensors focused on the now desolate ruins of a Cyrusian city. A glyph was carved into what used to be the city, and Eve could not tell whether it was a mark of warning, or a mark of triumph. Beta was a stowaway, sneaking aboard the ship when they left Mamore. Yvette found her huddled in a ventilation shaft, dirty and smelling of dried mud and urine. She took her to the ship’s showers when the rest of the crew was asleep and afterward she cooked her a meal in the galley. When she felt safe and comfortable, she told her story. Her name was Elżbieta Pryce, a native of Mamore who wanted to escape the anarchy that had engulfed the world for as long as anyone could remember. She was only fourteen years old, but the stories she told sounded like she’d lived an entire lifetime. When she was done eating, Yvette took her to her bed and let her sleep. The next day, she introduced Beta to the rest of the crew and explained her situation. Most of the crew accepted her and introduced themselves in turn. But not all were so receptive. Yvette noticed the looks some of them made at her. Depraved looks on their faces, most of them hid it quickly when she noticed, all except Axel. After that, Yvette made sure to keep her safe and watch over her, and for a time things were good. But at Cyrus VII, Beta’s smile that she had gotten used to seeing was no more. It left her shaken, and when she tried to console her, she ran away to the crew quarters. But for Yvette, the shock had already worn off after seeing so many other worlds burned away. Desensitized is such a terrible word. She couldn’t understand how anyone could become desensitized by such mindless slaughter. Yvette shook her head wildly to rid her of those thoughts. That’s when she finally heard Rhys calling her name. “Eve, what the hell are you doing? I told you to move the shipments fifteen minutes ago.” “Sorry. On it now.” She said, hopping off the crate. She dusted off her pants as Rhys walked up to her. “Make sure they’re kept in cold storage. I don’t want them to get spoiled before we reach Terra Nova.” Rhys lifted the top of a crate to check the inside. She could see the desiderfruit in its clear plastic packaging. Her mouth watered a tiny bit. She hadn’t eaten at all this morning. “This is a lot of fruit for a ship like ours.” She leaned backwards and gestured at the long row of desiderfruit crates behind her. “It’s taking up a lot of cargo space already. Who’s buying?” Rhys closed the crate he was inspecting and his eyes shot a perturbed glance at her. She could see he was bothered by the question, and tried to mask it by rubbing the freshly shaven stubble on his face. “You know those worlds we passed by on the way here?” he said, licking the inside of his cheek. “Mazovia is the only colony that grows these, and this colony doesn’t have much time left. You’d be surprised to see the prices these things fetch on the market these days now that the Apocalypse is here.” Eve’s voice lowered when she saw Beta playing in the field next to the Stormfalcon. “You really think they’re coming here?” “Every world we passed through after picking you up was dead and smoking. Everyone’s on edge here. The cities are emptying by the day. They had some kind of mass panic a few years back—drove off half the population out towards Earth or something like that. This world is finished.” Yvette’s eyes dropped, her left foot tapped the ground rapidly, a habit she developed as a child when she was anxious. “So nowhere’s safe.” She said half-heartedly, unaware that Rhys had heard her. “Earth is safe. That’s our destination, selling these crates will get us there.” “I can’t go to Earth. I’m. . . a deserter. If I set foot on Earth they’ll throw me in prison for the rest of my life.” She said nervously, her fingers were trembling. Rhys laughed. “I’m sure the Oonksies have more pressing concerns right now than to be looking for someone who’s likely already been marked as dead or missing. Vodin is a pile of rubble by now. If you don’t wanna come to Earth with us, we’ll leave you on Terra Nova.” Eve thought about it for a second, and nodded her head. “That might be a good idea. I’ll take Beta with me when we arrive on Nova. Earthlife won’t suit her.” Rhy looked over his shoulder at the girl playing in the dirt. “Something’s not quite right about her. She’s almost. . . feral.” That word provoked her and irritation flared in her eyes. “Feral? She’s just scared, Rhys.” “Maybe. But you’ve never heard of what it’s like to be a child of Mamore, have you?” He leaned against the crates with his elbow. “I can’t say I have.” Rhys grunted and stood away from the crates. “Perhaps another time then. Get these crates on the ship before the cryo-freeze starts to wear off. C’mon, I’ll help.” Yvette and Rhys spent the next half hour loading the crates of desiderfruit up the cargo ramp of the Stormfalcon. The crates weren’t too difficult to move thanks to Jori’s stolen exo-skeletons. They were halfway done with the cargo when her battery of her exo-suit failed without warning. The suit stopped abruptly when she was on the ramp, and her momentum nearly shattered one of her legs. Eve fell backward from the ramp and landed on the dirt. She gritted her teeth as the suit was still exerting a painful strain on her leg, but Rhys jumped off the ramp after her and helped take off the suit. Relief rushed over her as the latches loosened and she was released from the suit’s binds. “Thank you.” she said, still breathing heavily. She sat up and rubbed her calf to ease the throbbing. Rhys smiled and let out his hand to help her up. Rhys was a strong contrast to his brother Axel. He was always so kind and helpful to her, though she chalked it up to him being the leader of the group. That was, until she caught him staring that one time. His face had a sweet and innocent look, but he never took any steps further. He might’ve been nervous, but that didn’t stop her from teasing him about it whenever she could. Eve was about to take his hand when the sound of an overworked engine revved off in the distance along the dirt road. She stood up and saw the Axel and Jori in the Spade driving up the dirt road in some haste. The truck was covered in dirt and dotted with blemishes of soot. Yvette rested at the side of the ramp as Rhys walked over to meet them. The Spade was moving fast, kicking up a wave of dirt and dust behind it as it raced toward them. The Spade screeched as Axel slammed his foot on the brake when they arrived inside the camp. They nearly hit Rhys until Axel turned away at the last second. The Spade was empty and damaged with burn marks all over it. Axel lept from the driver’s seat and was in hysterics. Rhys tried to calm him down but his mouth closed when he looked over at Jori. He was slouched over in the passenger seat, plasma burns covered his arms and chest. His vest was torn and burnt, with blood soaked through it. Beta walked over to Eve to see what was happening. She tugged at her armed. “What’s going on?” she asked. Her voice was elevated with fear. Eve shook her head and knelt down to face her. “It’s nothing. Wait for me on the ship.” She put a hand on Beta’s shoulder when she tried to protest. “Go.” she said sternly. Beta rushed up the cargo ramp without another word. By then, Graham and Jessika were pulling an unconscious Jori out of his seat. Yvette walked over to the Spade. “We need to leave. Now!” Axel was yelling at his older brother, his eyes were bloodshot and full of fear. He was pacing back and forth with his hands on his head. Rhys grabbed onto him by the shoulders to stop him. “We’re not leaving until you calm the hell down and tell us what happened!” Rhys was shouting now, and drawing the attention of the rest of the crew. Axel looked to be calming down, but he kept glancing down the dirt road. As if he was expecting something to come after him. “We have to leave.” He was pleading now. “What happened?” Rhys said slowly. The forest around them had grown eerily silent. Off in the distance, a large flock of birds flew off to the north in a hurry. “The city’s gone. They blew out the highway we was on and started massacring everyone. The city was on fire. Jori. . .” Axel ran his hand through his blond hair. “Everything’s gone.” She saw Rhys pretend to not understand what Axel was saying. “Who’s ‘they’? Axel. . . who’s they?” Axel’s response was interrupted when a pair of military jets flew overhead to the south. Their engines screamed through the skies, heading towards something over the horizon. And then it arrived. Breaking through the clouds, a single massive ship appeared in the sky. It had a sleak, grayish, almost organic look to it. Eve recognized the teardrop shape. Violet dots of light lined the hull of the ship. They continued to build up along the ship, until finally converging and shooting out dozens of violet rods of plasma at the fighter jets. One of them exploded, leaving only smoke and balls of fire in their place while the other tried to evade the fire coming at it. It spun and dashed through the air in every direction as it tried to escape but a lucky shot struck it on its wing, and sent it twirling out of the sky into the valley. She never heard the explosion, but she saw the pillar of black smoke rise high into the clouds. With them out of the way, tiny dark specks began to shoot out from both sides of the ship. Like a swarm of bees, they circled around each other before setting off altogether toward somewhere. It was only when the specks grew larger that Eve noticed the swarm was coming to them. “We have to go!” she screamed. The crew had been frozen in place when they saw the Covenant ship, but her words had jolted them back into reality. Together they raced up the ramp, leaving behind the Spade, the remaining desiderfruit crates and other cargo. Eve followed Rhys into the cabin of the ship, watching him ignite the ship’s engines and preparing for takeoff. She looked out the window of the cabin and could now make out what the swarm was. They were Banshees, ground attack aircraft used by the Covenant. They would overrun them in minutes if they didn’t leave soon. The engines of the Stormfalcon roared to life and she felt it lifting from the ground. It had no weapons, no defense of any kind. But it did have speed. The Stormfalcon was an old ship, officially they were marketed as the Brzina-class, a cheap line of affordable freighters, allowing the average civilian to explore the stars on their own. Unofficially, it was a blockade runner designed, built and owned by those sympathetic to insurrectionist causes. They were responsible for bringing supplies, goods, and weapons that kept insurgencies afloat all across the Outer Colonies. Earth eventually figured out what was going on and had the company shut down, it’s assets confiscated, and most of the ships were impounded by the Navy. Today, they’re nothing more than antiques, but they can still fetch a hefty price with a willing buyer. Eve felt the Stormfalcon lift slowly from the ground. She leaned as the ship angled upward in preparation to escape the planet. It rose high above the treeline and then it began to shake violently as the engines kicked into full gear. Rhys turned back to her and waved her away. “Get to the center of the ship, it’ll be safest there.” He faced the control console and input commands for the flight plan to escape Mazovia’s atmosphere and continued, “Wait by the jettison-paks if anything goes wrong. Grab Beta too. If I give the warning, you and her jettison yourself from this ship to someplace safe, then get as far away from civilization as possible!” Eve rocked back in forth, trying to keep her balance as the ship rose higher and higher into the sky. When she opened her mouth to speak, Rhys interrupted her. He was yelling now, but his eyes were sad. “Just do what I said, Eve! Please.” Perplexed, Yvette stood for a second in protest, but then swallowed her pride and ran out of the cabin. The rest of the crew were either running around the ship, cowering in their rooms, or arguing with each other. She ran through the ship’s sections, first the maintenance room, then the kitchen and finally to the crew quarters. Eve reached her room and tried to open it. The door’s lock flashed red, and indicated that it was occupied. “Beta!” Eve knocked on the door. “Beta? Are you in there? Open the door, honey. It’s me.” Eve stood waiting for some time, and when she began to think that nobody would open the door, she heard the door’s lock unlatch. The door slid open and Beta stepped forth. She stood in the doorway and looked up at Eve. Tears streamed down her face and her eyes were engulfed in fear. She had seen that kind of fear before on Vodin. Her own. Yvette kneeled down toward her. “Hey you.” She tried saying without any hint of anxiety. “Hi.” Beta trembled. “Why did you lock the door, honey? Give me the key.” Eve said softly when she saw it in her hand. “Come on, it’s okay.” She laid out a hand. Betas lifted her arm and dropped the key into Eve’s palm. The moment she took the key, Beta jumped into Eve’s arms, crying. “Everyone was running around so scared, then Axel started chasing me and I ran to the room, and then he started banging on the door when I wouldn’t let him in, and then—” “Hey, hey, hey. . . It’s okay Lizzy. Hey now.” Eve squeezed her hard in an embrace. The child cried into her chest soaking her shirt. Eve rubbed Beta’s back until she began to calm down. When she stopped crying Eve released her embrace and wiped away any remaining tears from Beta’s eyes. “Hey, I need you to look at me.” Eve said while concealing her worry. Beta’s eyes were so red from crying when she looked at her. Her mouth still trembled a bit, but she was listening. “I need you to grab your things, okay?” Eve rubbed her shoulder to keep her calm. “We’re going on a trip together. It’ll be real quick.” “Okay. . .” Beta sniffled. Eve stood in the doorway as Beta grabbed her things. The ship shook violently again, presumably from the Banshees that had caught up by now. The ship turned sharply as it tried to evade the Covenant fighters. Eve had to help Beta pack when the evasive maneuvers almost made her cry again. Eve only took a small amount of things from her room, some of it was food and a sidearm she stole from the ship’s armory after a previous run-in with Axel many months back. Beta carried her bag on her back, full of old drawings, toys, and Mr. Slim, a stuffed animal Eve gave her to help against the nightmares. Eve and Beta walked briskly down the crew quarters and passed kitchens to the cargo bay. When they stood on the scaffolding on the cargo bay, she saw the jettison-paks in their pods, ready to shoot out from the Stormfalcon to safety. Nobody else was in the cargo bay from where she could see. They were halfway down the staircase when the Stormfalcon rocked again as it was hit by plasma fire from the pursuing Banshees. Beta whimpered as the sounds and motions of the ship frightened her. Eve pushed her along, reminding her of their goal. They reached the bottom of the cargo bay and ran toward the jettison-paks in front of them. But just as they were about to reach the paks, Axel stood from behind stacked crates of desiderfruit and appeared before them. “There you are.” He said, eyeing Beta. “Axel.” Eve said. His head was bleeding from a wound where a chunk of hair used to be. “Eve.” Axel turned his eyes to her this time. His eyes had been replaced by something sadistic. Something primal. “I’d hoped to meet you here. I’m guessing my brother told you about these jettison-paks.” He twirled a knife in his hand as he revealed his arms from behind his back. Both of his hands were bloody, and it wasn’t his. “Axel. . . please, there’s no time. We have to get off the ship if we’re going to survive.” Eve tried to bargain with him with items from her bag. But to no avail. “Leave?” Axel laughed. “It’s the end of the world, sister. I’m just starting to have fun.” He licked the blade with a sadistic smile. Eve reached for her pistol in the bag and pulled it out. She aimed it at Axel’s center mass. “Whoa, now.” Axel backed away when he saw the handgun. “Where’d you get that from, sweetie?” He pointed the tip of the blade at her. “Back off.” Eve said, flicking the safety off. In the corner of her eye, Beta was crying silently. Axel’s smile disappeared and he raised his arms to yield to her. “Now that’s not very lady-life.” He remarked. “You’re scaring the girl.” Eve looked down at Beta for no longer than a second before she caught Axel charging toward her with the knife. She fired the gun once into his abdomen but he kept coming. “Stay back!” she yelled, and fired again. The gun jammed. Before Axel could reach her, a massive hole was torn into the side of the ship. Green plasma and black smoke appeared for a brief moment before the ship depressurized. Axel lost his footing and was thrown backward, sucked out of the ship and into the heavens. Yvette grabbed onto a beam and instinctively reached for Beta. She missed. Beta was almost sucked out of the ship too, but Eve caught her arm at the last second. Eve held tightly onto her arm, but she couldn’t pull her in. “Beta! Don’t let go!” Eve screamed for help but nobody came. She felt like her shoulder was about to be dislocated with Beta exerting too much of a strain on her arm. To her left, the straps that held the crates of desiderfruit snapped. The depressurization flung the crates toward the gaping hole that gutted the Stormfalcon, flinging the tops of the crates open and spilling its contents for all to see. But the contents weren’t desiderfruit. Bags upon bags of Feride flew out from the crates. A mini-tornado formed with a mix of the drug and the fruit that were concealing the illegal and deadly substance. She couldn’t believe it. Rhys. Jori. Axel. They were all liars. How could she have been so stupid? Her focus returned to Beta, who was still clinging for her life. Sweat began to build up on their hands, and their grip became slippery. “Beta!” Eve yelled out again. All of the color from Beta’s face had been flushed away leaving on her pearly white fear, her eyes never left her own. “Eve! I’m slipping!” Beta was crying out for help but there was nothing Eve could do. Eve spotted another beam that Beta could grab onto and planned to throw her over to it. She waited for another crate of the drugs to fly past them before telling Beta the plan. “Beta! Beta, look at me, yes, that’s it. I’m going to throw you over to that beam, okay?” Beta nodded. “When I throw you, you need to grab it with all your strength, okay? “Okay. . .” Beta said weakly. When Eve motioned to toss her, the Stormfalcon took another hit from a fuel rod cannon, and Eve lost her grip. Beta screamed when she slipped. They were barely holding on by interlocking their hands together. But the sweat had built up too much, and Eve’s fingers loosened. Beta felt the end was near. “Mom. . . please!” Beta said one last time until her body was forcefully flung away and out through the hole of the Stormfalcon. A horrible, maddening scream overtook Eve as she lost Beta forever. She was gone in an instant. Eve’s arm was still outstretched, grabbing for a person that was no longer there. Her body was frozen in place, the depressurization seemed to have no effect on her. She stared at the hole, hopeless. “Mom.” Eve said to her defeated self, trying to make sense of what she had heard. To her right, another set of straps were broken, sending out a fury of more crates. When she looked at the chaos, a crate was flying directly toward her. Everything went black when a crate smacked her hard across the head. Back to top Chapter One Éimhear A Second Chance Kampus Scientifica City of Toruń, Mazovia April 9, 2538 Back to top Chapter Two Noah Sówka Home UNSC Atacama Nearing Mazovian Orbit April 10, 2538 Back to top