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Halo: Journey to Earth by Zeta
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Halo: Journey to Earth: Part 1: Arrival
Date: 9 July 2003, 4:36 AM
The Master Chief sat at the controls of the Longsword and thought about what he had just accomplished. He had destroyed Halo. He had won. He had won at the cost of the entire crew of a Hycalon class cruiser, John knew that it had been neccesary but he still didnt feel good about it. John looked at the Longswords' data readouts, he didnt have enough fuel to make it to Earth. "Cortana?" John said "Can you make contact with any UNSC warships?" there was silence, then Cortana said "No... There are none in range..". John frowned, he wasn't sure how they would get back to Earth, the Longsword didnt have a Slip Space drive. The only way for them to possibly make it to earth would be to find something with one. John felt his stomach grumble, he hadnt eaten in days but his suit had administered him enough vitamins and minerals to keep him functioning. He went to the back of the Longsword and went through the small storage compartments looking for an emergency ration. He found a small rectangular metal container and opened it, there were six meat sticks and four grain bars. John took out two of the meat sticks and ate them, but it did nothing to satisfy his hunger, He closed the container and saved the rest for later. He searched the rest of the compartments for anything else useful, found a thruster pack and went back to the cockpit. "Cortana, can we make it to any of the human colonies with our current fuel supplies?" John asked "Calculating" said cortana "We could make it to Sigma Octanus, but that planet has already been glassed.." Cortana said mornfully. "Okay then, lets go" said John "But why go there?" Cortana questioned, "Dont worry, i've got an idea." John told her. "You better.." Cortana said under her breath, "Okay, plotting course for Sigma Octanus" Cortana said, the Chief sat at the Longswords' controls, he had a long journey ahead of him.
John awoke out of his uneasy sleep, he got up quickly and went to the cockpit. He asked Cortana how long till they arrived "Three hours" she told him. John looked out of the Longswords' view port, he could see Sigma Octanus in the distance. It was a small glittering sphere, John remembered back to when it was glassed. The water boiling away. The trees and plants being vaporized. Then finaly the ground turning to a thin glassy surface. He donned his helmet and switched on his battle recordings, he watched from the start. The captain telling him to get Cortana "off this ship", his arrival on Halo in a life pod, Him saving three squads of marines. I saved them for nothing. thought the Chief They all died anyway... John watched as he saved the Captain and then found the Silent Cartographer. He checked the time, fifteen minutes till they would be at Sigma Octanus. John went to the back of the Longsword and retrived the thruster pack had found a few days back, he strapped it on and went back to the cockpit. The fifteen minutes passed, "Entering Sigma Octanus space" Cortana announced. The Chief pulled Cortana out of the Longswords' computers and inserted her into his head, he felt a cold presence in the back of his head as Cortana entered his brain. "So, what do you have planned?" she asked "Im counting on there still being wreckage around from the battle here." John told her. "Scanning" she said "There still is some wreckage in orbit" she told him, "Good" John said. John set the Longsword on a course to orbit Sigma Octanus then walked to the the Longswords' door and waited until the wreckage was nearby then opened it and jumped out. John was sucked into the blackness of space, he grabbed hold of a piece if wreckage and scanned the surrounding area. He found what he was looking for, it was a Lancer class corvette, it looked to still be functional. John engaged his thruster pack and manuvered through the wreckage over to the Corvette, he grabbed on to it and pulled himself to the hatch. "There is still atmosphere inside" said Cortana, the Chief opened the hatch and watched as the air was silently sucked out. He entered the corvette, the inside was a complete mess, all sorts of things floated about the cabin. The Chief pulled himself over to the control console and inserted Cortana, "The engines are damaged, it wasnt Covenant weaponary though. Probably a stray Archer missle". The Chief went to the back of the cabin and removed a large panel from the wall, he turned on his flash light and shined it into the engine compartment. There were lots of parts and fragments of metal floating around, the Chief turned off his flashlight and replaced the panel. "I can get it running, but only to about fourty percent power". said Cortana "Okay then lets get going" said John, he felt a rumble go through the floor and the ship began moving. "It'll take thiry minutes to get up to Slip Space speed" said Cortana, John nodded and sat down at the controls of the Lancer.
The Lancer came out of Slip Stream space, almost instanly the comm chatter of hundreds of ships filled the Lancers' interior speakers. There were pleas for help, damage reports, and frantic orders being shouted at a dizzying pace. John looked out of the front viewport, the whole area around Earth was filled with thousands of ships with plasma blasts, MAC rounds and Archer missles tracing fiery paths in between them all. "No!" Cortana yelled, "I detect over two thousand covenant ships!" she said, panic seeping into her voice. John watched in utter disbelief, as the thousands of ship exchanged fire, a MAC round slammed into a covenant cruiser causing it to disentigrate, Plasma Torpedo burned a large hole clear through a UNSC frigate, the rim of the hole glowing bright orange. "I've managed to contact a UNSC ship, the Silver Spear, it hasn't enterd the battle yet." Cortana said. A voice came over the comm, drowning all the others out, "This is captain Pyrok, hold you postition we are coming to pick you up.". John spotted the Spear a small ways out to his left and watched as it changed course and began to head for the Lancer, it pulled up alongside and Cortana manuvered the Lancer into one of the docking bays. The Chief grabbed Cortana then exited the Lancer and walked toward the elevator on on the other side of the docking bay, the crew members in the bay gave him a wide berth as he walked by. He entered the lift and hit the button for deck sixteen, the lift began to rise, harsh beams of light rolled over him as he passed the different floors. The door opened and he walked out of the lift and took a left, he walked down a short corridor and then entered the bridge. Captian Pyrok was sitting in the command chair or "Hot seat" when he entered, the captain turned around and a look of surprise appeared on his face. "I didnt know you were a...Spartan." he said as the rest of the crew turned around to get a look, the Chief strode up to the Captain and saluted. The captain returned the salute while keeping his gaze locked on to the Chief, "Well... As you can see" the Captain gestured with his hand toward to front viewscreen "Earth is under attack.".
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