The Evrensel Conflict -- Chapter 2: The Gang Goes Halo

Wade Von Doom

All Caps when you spell the man's name
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Speed of Light
  2. Multiple posts per day
Writing Levels
  1. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
Genres
Sci-fi, modern, horror, a bit of dark romance stories.

"Tell me about the children." The interrogator, framed in shadow, sits at the other end of their table. "Dr. Halsey?"

"You already know everything."

"You kidnapped them."

"Children's minds are more easily accepting of indoctrination, their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier. And because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready."

"Dr. Halsey, you're bending history in your favor and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."

"When one human world after another fell, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction… nobody was concerned over why they were originally built."

"So you feel in the end that your choices were justified."

"My work saved the human race."

"Do you think the Spartans' lack of basic humanity helped?"
"What are you after? The others before you were Naval Intelligence, but you… you're something else."

"Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization. Further…"

"The records show efficient behavior operating in hazardous situations. I supplied the tools to maintain that efficiency."

"Do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?"

"What does John have to do with this? You want to replace him."

"The Master Chief is dead."

"His file reads 'missing in action.'"

"Catherine, 'Spartans never die'."

"Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step. Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them. But most of all, do not underestimate him."

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"............. The Master Chief............"

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A ship called the 'UNSC Forward Until Dawn,' drifted in space aimlessly for four years. It's purpose was to escape from the collapsing 'Installation 00.' Or 'The Ark,' as it was called. On board the ship are two passengers. One male soldier, and one female AI program, designed to aid in the soldier during combat. The ship has left its emergency rescue beacon on for these long four years, yet no ship has ever intersected it.

"Mayday Mayday Mayday - this is UNSC FFG201, Forward Until Dawn requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard - prioritization code victor zero five dash three dash sierra zero one one seven."

The broadcast repeats the line over and over again, but to no avail. The ship is quiet, and only six percent of the ships main functions are still in tact. Any remaining power goes to the cryopods, where the soldier sleeps while waiting for rescue. The AI who waits for rescue, can only watch as her Spartan rests. But the ship eventually is found, though not by UNSC fleets. Instead, it is scanned by an orange glow, and the AI can see through the cracks of the ship that what surrounds them are vessels that she has never seen before. Not Covenant. Something else.

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Smaller ships fly out from its hanger doors, flying saucers of all things, ready to board the Dawn. The AI is hesitant to wake the chief, unsure of if this unknown will be an enemy of ally. After a moment of pause, she decides to activate his pod. The frozen condensation on the glass of the pod slowly melt away, and she can now see his helmet once again, giving her a feeling of relief and calming.

"Wake up, Chief... I need you."

 
Master Chief/Sierra-117/John

Unlike in normal sleep, where one would dream about anything, from the most happy memories to the most dreaded of nightmares. In cryo-induced sleep, there was nothing. Not even the most basic of thoughts or what could pass for dreams. Just nothing.

So when you would be 'woken' up, you were a lot more groggier and would have to undergo a certain procedure involving a small team made up of medical staff and some technicians to ensure that your exiting of the pod is done correctly, but to also give you a check-over and administer medicine for cryo-sickness. A term for the aforementioned symptoms. Or at least, this was the case for a regular human being.

For a Spartan, it was a different experience.

When John came to, his mind groggy with the effects of being woken from cryo-sleep. Faintly hearing someone say something to him, the thought and importance of what the words meant barely making it to the forefront of John's mind. But when they did, something in John snapped him out of it. Be the source part of the Spartan-II's augmentations along with the assistance of the armor kicking in, or something else entirely. From what he could see, his armor was offline as evident from the helmet's empty H.U.D.

He could see Cortana, which the last thing he remembered saying to her was to wake him if she needed him. Adrenaline flowing through his veins, John attempted to push into the glass, but his muscles briefly failed him. 'Those placed in the cryo-pod's for an extended period of time have to be careful when doing certain things as the body when inactive for too long is weak due to not being used.' He remembered what one of the technicians said back on the Pillar of Autumn.

His enhanced hearing picked up more words, that this time he could actually understand. "Easy Chief. You've been out for awhile."

His gaze went to the familiar blue figure on the terminal in-front of his pod.

"Give me a second to bring your armor online, as while you were out, I made some upgrades to the firmware."

Within seconds, the H.U.D inside his helmet turned on, filling his vision with the usual items such as the energy bar for his shields and his radar. Not skipping a beat, he looked around for the manual release for the pod. Upon finding it, he pulled the lever, which in turn opened the pod with a loud hissing noise. His first steps were done gingerly and carefully as he had to make sure the magnetic grav-locks would properly secure so he didn't float about. And to get his legs some time to brace for the upcoming activity.

"What's the situation?" He asked, his voice more gravellier than usual. Most definitely from a combination of the cryo-pod and lack of using them. He looked at the 'upgrades' to the MJOLNIR, it made him feel more bulky than for his liking. But he could understand why he needed it. As due to the Guilty Spark's attack severely compromised his armor as the laser tore through the armor and stopped short of the skin suit underneath the armor. He would ask Cortana about how she had done this while he was out, but that'd come later when they had a chance to properly recuperate. Right now, John did not want to distract Cortana when in a situation like this where it was unknown if the reason why she woke him up was for the sake of a potential rescue, or because there are intruders onboard the Forward unto Dawn. And he wanted to know if he needed to protect her, himself and what was left of the ship from falling into unknown hands.
 
"We've got intrusion alerts lighting up on multiple decks. Our best bet to figure out who's boarding us is the observation deck, four floors up."

"Could it be a rescue team?" Chief asked back. The ship suddenly shook the moment he asked it, with Cortana replying with, "I wouldn't bet on it." She looked the Chief up and down, glad to see him standing back on his feet again. Even though she was an AI, she couldn't help but bring a smile to her hologram face. "Seems like old times." She commented with a small tone of delight.

"Ready to get back to work?" Chief asked, grabbing a rifle from within the chamber pod, the one he used while escaping the Ark, and checked its magazine for ammo. "I thought you'd never ask." Cortana replied with a small sigh. Like that, Chief nodded back to the AI, grabbed the small data drive from the console, and plugged it into the back of his helmet, how he usually carried her with him. A quick job to the nearest way up showed just how much the ship had deteriorated, as ice, rust, and dust floated about the corridors, thanks to the sudden gravity.

"How long was I out?"

"4 years, 7 months, 10 days."

"Somebody should have found us by now."

Their small jog was interrupted by some sort or orange glow that rang through derelict ship, along with a piercing noise to accompany it. "What's that?!"

"Sensor scan, high intensity! Doesn't match any known patterns!"

"How close are we to the observation deck?"

"It's directly above us!" Chief jogged faster, looking for the elevator shaft. The elevator itself wouldn't work, but climbing up through the shaft would get them to the deck faster. When he came across them, the doors were sealed tight, and used his arms to try prying them apart. "Chief be careful -" When the doors open, suddenly a gust of air passed by him, and when he turned around, a metal box hit him in the face; pushing him into the shaft. "Because some areas might've lost pressure!"

Chief managed to grab onto the shaft's wall before being pulled down further, though the pressure didn't let on. "Right." He remarked, climbing up the sides. While difficult, it wasn't impossible for the Chief, and before long, he managed to make it up to the fourth floor, where the elevator doors were fortunately open. He grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up, only to be found by an enemy. It wasn't covenant though.

This enemy looked a lot more human than the last.

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"Vemosi botus!" It sounded at Chief, pulling out a massive club that lit up with red electricity around it. The enemy charged at Chief, lancing forward to hit Chief in the stomach, but Chief was fast enough to dodge out the way. Grabbing the enemy's arm, he shoved him out into the elevator shaft, where the enemy hit the wall opposite to Chief and screamed as it fell to the bottom.

"What the hell was what?" Chief asked, confused by what he just witnessed.

"I don't know! It looked human, but I've never seen uniforms like that before."

"Did you understand what it said?"

"No, couldn't tell if it was from any known alien language. We should keep going, there's likely more of him to come." And indeed there were. On their way through the ship, the duo would come across more soldiers like those, dressed in similar fashion. They spoke no English, only strange gibberish words, yet looked human from their shape and the mouth openings in their helmets. Whatever they were, they hunted vigorously for Chief and Cortana, openly firing upon them whenever they came into sight of the Chief. Yet, Chief's skill was unmatched by them, taking out squad after squad of these strange men.

But they needed to get off the ship somehow. It was falling apart, and it was coming into orbit of another planet. Though, this one was much more 'metallic.'

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Meanwhile!

Below said planet, the strange big blue, yet somehow small box, landed and stopped shaking after managing to escape from a universe imploding on itself. On board was Alec, who was laying on the ground to the TARDIS, lifting up his upper body so he could try to stand. He let out a small groan of pain from all the shaking and being through around, though his light-headedness didn't help, having been dehydrated for longer than a human being should be. "Uuuuuuuuuuuugh....." He moaned out, leaning his body against the center console.

"Here," a voice said aloud, offering up a cup of tea. "Brewed it once we landed." Alec looked confused, though took the cup and tried downing it, only to spit it out once he realized how hot it was. "Oiiii, don't spit all over my TARDIS!" The man shouted, as Alec coughed up a lung. "Wha' the hell's a TARDIS?!" Alec yelled. "Time And Relative Dimension In Space, now try not to yell to loudly, I'm trying to be clever and figure out how to make my ship move again!" The man hypocritically yelled back.

At this point, he would do better if he decided to organize all his fancy socks, then try out the various different pairings with them, because they'd do better work at fixing his TARDIS than what he was actually doing..... Nothing. Well, to be fair, the TARDIS had jumped between universes once before, but that was because of freak accident, but this time the doctor actually tried, going off a simple guess that the borders between universes was so weak, even his TARDIS could punch a hole through it, which..... Was a really bad idea, but one problem at a time. "Alright, I need roll call now! Names, age, favorite coffee flavor, anything that'll make yourselves better known to me, because I need to know why a bunch of people from various universes ended up in another one, trapped on a planet infested with demonic creatures, here I'll go first.

I'm the doctor, I'm a clever man, my age is of no importance, I rescued you all in my ship, and I have no favorite cup of coffee, though a mocha is a very nice thing to have once in a while. You all?"

"Ummmm..... Alec Duggan. Age 25. I enjoy plain coffee, and I like video games." It was the best the Scotsman could do.

"Well...... You tried, Alec, anyway moving on! I would also like to know why some people just suddenly appeared on my ship without reason, and others suddenly disappeared, because I can see that we have some new faces."

"Wait, what?" Alec looked around and did see some new faces. Because this wasn't the same Doctor as the other group.


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Much different man.
 
Hunk

Hunk was never the type to ever relax, even when in situations like this where he was now a freelance mercenary waiting for the next job offer. As he didn't have time to relax, or seemed to think so. This was most likely a side effect of the training and routine that Umbrella gave its operatives.

He was in the midst of inspecting his gear and weapons, making sure they were still at the best condition possible. Especially the gas mask, or whatever fancy term used by Umbrella to keep its operatives safe from airborne contagions, when the phone rang. Without missing a beat, he picked it up, not saying anything until the other person spoke up. As he wanted to avoid saying something to a random person that was not going to be hiring him and hearing sensitive information.

"Greetings, is this...…-" A woman's voice on the other end said, pausing for a second. Possibly reading something, which almost made Hunk hang up if it wasn't for what she said next. "-Mr. Death, or Hunk. An anonymous employ-" He cut her off this time.

"When and where?" He said, his voice monotone. He had to stay professional, especially to someone acting as the go-between his future employer.

"Straight to the point, eh?" The woman gave a little chuckle, which turned a bit forced at the end when she noticed he only responded with silence. "Okay then, Mr. Gray wants you to meet him down at the airport hanger number fifteen in about twenty minutes. There he will brief you on the job." He hung up, before going about putting his gear into a duffle bag and heading out into the street to catch a cab.

Once this was done, he told the driver where he needed to go, ignoring any and all small talk the driver tried to make.

Despite all of the hinderances such as a traffic jam or a wrong turn, he made to the airport with three minutes to spare. After paying the driver what he owed and proceeded to make his way through the tourists to the path where one could walk to the hanger.

He was stopped only once by security whom asked what purpose he had. "I am here to see Mr. Gray." Which caused the two security officers to pause, before checking on their radios. A few minutes and a wave later, he was on his way to see his employer. The man was well dressed, looking as if he balanced being a monster and setting up billion dollar charities to keep face. Hunk didn't care, the man was going to hire him.

His employer simply asked him to go and steal a virus sample from a rival company, after doing a H.A.L.O jump to infiltrate the compound, get the sample, get out and evac at the extraction point. He only spoke up once when Mr. Gray said to be discreet and don't even think of betraying him. "Do not worry, so long as you pay me, I could care less what you intend on doing with it." The phrase seemed to be put his employer in a good mood.

Wasn't long before he was geared up and in a plane waiting for the plane to get into the right spot for him to do the jump. However, something peculiar happened. In the edge of his vision, there was a bright light that despite his mask being on, forced him to squint to look away. But that didn't help as whatever it was enveloped him.

Feeling like he was simply floating in nothingness, the sensation of when one dreams but there is nothing in it and you're just floating in darkness.

Hunk didn't stay in this void for long, as he soon woke up in some strange room. His first thoughts were that Mr. Gray had drugged him or something, and that he would have to pay for his actions. But when he found himself not bound and still having his gear on him, in a strange room with others. There was someone speaking in a British accent to another whom had what sounded like a Scottish accent.

Standing up, Hunk looked around at the strange instruments and technology in the room. The strange British man called for roll call. Or rather for names. "I am simply known as Hunk. And that's all you need to know." He said, his voice slightly muffled by the gas mask.

@AIM Leader Wade
 
"Oh! Yo! By fuckin' MEKHANE! You're the goddamned Doctor!" Marcus, who was just as disoriented and confused as everyone else a second ago, jumped up with renewed energy. "You..." He trailed off as he looked around, realizing that he'd best keep the ruckus to a minimum. He's met characters from fictional universes before, and almost none of the appreciated being called "fictional". So he put his hand up in a sheepish manner. "Uh. Sorry about that. I know you from... uh... long story. You don't know me. Big fan, by the way."

He paused for a second, suddenly realizing he should introduce himself. "Uh... I'm Marcus. Marcus Grey. I'm actually on this-" he stopped himself. "Well. Man on a mission and all that. Just don't bring clockwork near me, and I'm good. Also, not a coffee guy, sorry. Or tea." He added, feeling the adrenaline slowly fade away.
 
Prophet's POV
After all the chaos where they were previously, Prophet kept to himself as his wound was healing. After all the chaos with an unknown enemy, meeting an unknown ally who assisted in their escape, and even getting picked up by a Police Box device that was actually much, much bigger inside than on the out? It was times like these that made him considering whether or not taking the Nanosuit was the best decision in his life or not. Taking a look around, he spotted... a human? Dressed in some sort of casual ware, he and Alec spoke until he spoke up to everyone else. Once he did, Prophet spoke up as well.

"They call me Prophet. I'm equipped with a state-of-the-art Nanosuit, a Super soldier."

Augustus Cole's POV
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"Uh, remind me why we thought Hanover was a good place to look for supplies?"
"Baby you gotta trust the Cole Train to find the goods. This is my turf, Cougers territory."
"Yeah... 'Cause that's going to count for a lot right now..."

Several years after the sinking of Jacinto, the Gears were on the run. Forced to scavenge for food, supplies and ammunition, they sent Cole and Baird to the town of Hanover to look for supplies. Landing their Raven at the site, the team jumped off to gather what they need. "Okay Zero-Seven, we'll call you back when we find something." "Roger that, good hunting." When they landed and jumped off the Raven, they were greeted to destruction. Cars destroyed, buildings wrecked, and makeshift walls and barricades on most main streets. "So this is home, eh Cole? Has it changed much since you've been away?" "Hey. The whole damn world looks like this. Let's move out."

As they patrolled the town to look for civilians, a sudden surge of light appeared and engulfed Cole. "What's this shit?" "I don't know! But whatever it is it likes you." "Oh hell no!" Then all of a sudden he just vanished out of existence! "Cole! Guess I'll call Zero-Seven to come pick us up..."

After a few minutes, Cole woke up to find himself inside a strange room, surrounded by multiple people. "Where the hell am I?" Cole stated as he stood up and dusted himself off, his Lancer and Gnasher Shotgun planted on his back, a Revolver on his right leg and Grenades on his left.
 
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Trigger
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The events that had transcribed were whimsical to say the least. Trigger’s original means of transportation used to be a nearly empty room with a console on it. Wires had hung from the ceiling, low enough to the point of questioning if they were a safety risk. When Trigger had first entered the Tardis, as it was called, he was hit with a harsh yellow glow from the lightbulbs on the ceiling and walls. After the dimensional split that had separated him and the group he had entered with, the Tardis had taken considerable changes.

Trigger didn’t quite view the change as instantly as his new companions. Wires began to disappear from sight as Trigger transitioned from one Tardis to another. Many of the wires disconnected and faded from existence, while others completely ceased to be in reality. The walls of the Tardis elongated to account for a second section above the console. The very console itself changed to provide a more modern aesthetic. Buttons were replaced by various different screens and dials became electronic meters. The platform that the console was on began to rise higher off the floor, catching Trigger's leg in one of the safety bars on the sides. He was risen up and hung upside down off the side as the Tardis continued to transform.

By the time that the transition from one Tardis to another was done, Trigger had found himself climbing up back onto the platform to meet a new pilot. This new person was also british and in the same suit, but didn’t quite have the same face. The Doctor who was now in another form, this time with a bigger nose and slightly taller. Trigger made it back on top of the platform with a soft thunk of his feet on the metal. When he got up a few of the people in the room had already said their piece. Trigger, having not heard any of the conversation, said “What just happened?” He then realized how it might be annoying if it was explained again “nevermind,” he said, "I'm Trigger, and whats the plan?"
 
"Hello." said Alistia, waving her hand quietly at the new teammates. Ever since the city she had kept herself quiet. Her reasoning was simple enough. She had lost all sense of just what on earth was actually happening in the first place. Keeping an entire squad of lemmings alive? Easy. Following what was going on with so many new and different people seemingly just popping up all over the place at seemingly random like some sort of hyper-energetic brood of rabbits? Each with their own unique tales, personalities, and seemingly massive amounts of history? Her poor little mind just couldn't keep up with all of that at once. So she had done the next best thing. Shut up. Be quiet. Don't do jack. Wait for things to calm down. She didn't know if even the Doctor had forgotten about her by this point or not.

"My name is Alistia." she said simply and kindly, keeping that she was still lost and confused hidden behind a mask of professionalism and artificial niceness... Something she had many years of practice with. "Don't mind me too much, but if any of you get hurt I can heal you up. Likewise, I can see you use guns and the like and I wouldn't be surprised to find this world has them in ample amounts. If so, I can also provide limited shielding for you from bullets. Won't stop them but they probably won't kill you either so long as we're not talking about something huge and powerful."