Halo Legacy

"Vermilion this is Admiral Vincent Turner, you and Shackler's Revenge are to leave asap for New Madrigal. Once there, send a team in and hold in orbit until further orders are given."
The channel closed before Alice had a chance to reply.
"You heard the man."

Vermilion roared to life as the engines came on, and with repairs for the ARC complete we were back at full operational status.

We detached from Cairo Station and set coordinates for New Madrigal.

Anno didn't seem to have any questions, so I went ahead with the command.

"Noble Warriors," I said through the comm. "Today will be a glorious day for our free Covenant, we will venture into the place in which the Forerunners took their last steps before sacrificing themselves to the vile Parasite. Today we will follow their steps, and discover the truth behind the origins of the Halos themselves! now go, onto the new Age of Truth!"

Sangheili gathered in roared in agreement, other Ship Masters and their crew also joined in. Our ship entered slip-space, other's closely followed behind.

With all system green, the Vermilion shot into slip-space.
"May as well get comfortable people, it'll take us about two hours to reach New Madrigal."
Courtney's voice came over the comm system as I entered the hold.
I could hear the sound of music again, and I knew exactly who it was.

Jeff was in relaxing in a beach chair, drinking what looked to be a glass of wine.
His choice of music was still exceptional though.
You Could Be Mine - Guns N' Roses
"Nice time for a drink?" I said as I approached the back of the battered Pelican.
"Oh hey Matt, didn't think to expect you down here or I would've got the other chair out."
"Don't worry about, just thought I'd come and see what you and the old girl were up to."
He smiled at my comment.


*Up on the bridge.
"I'm picking up a glitch in the system... wait... what the hell?" Panic in Courtney's voice was rare.
"What is it Courtney?"
"I'm not sure... is that even possible? No... there's no way that's possible... it has be something else."
A few lights flashed red on one of the control panels, the rest following shortly after.
"Damn it! Everybody hold on!!"
The Vermilion fell out of slip-space with little warning, and it seemed the same had happened to the Shackler as well.
"Shut down all outside communications except the emergency beacon and bring status up to code red!"
"You mind telling me what's going on Courtney?!"
"I was just getting to that Alice, there is a virus in the system... I don't know how but there is and its shut down slip-space systems... and whoever did it is coming our way fast!"
Alice opened the internal comm system.
"I want all Spartans on deck asap and everyone else to there stations, we have hostiles closing in fast!"

The Vermilion was bustling with activity.
Me and the entire Spartan X team were on the bridge and fully armoured in record time.

There was a muffled bang followed by a few flashes of light.
The Shackler was under attack, they were fighting back but it was hard to tell who was winning.

(OOC: They vary in size. Smallest are the size of a Ghost, largest are as a big as a longsword..
They're all vaguely insectoid, each gun mounted on a limb-like, branching cannons..
They fire weapons similar to Sentinel Beams..
The big ones can fire missiles..
They fly and stuff..
The Ghost-sized drones have tons of little manipulatory limbs and welders on them, too..
They come in huge swarms, and basically fly around and tear fighters, and occasionally frigates, apart..
They basically fire Giant Sentinel Beams. They're good against shields.)


"This.. the U..C S..ckle.. ..veng., .. are under ....... repeat .. are ..... attack by unknown..."
The signal went dead.
There was a louder explosion as the Shackler's Revenge blew itself in half.

"All weapons are online ma'am!"
The concern and terror on everyone's face was evident.
"OPEN FIRE!" Alice gave the order.
There was a series of low thuds as every mounted weapon we had opened fire.
The Vermilion swung around to face the wreckage of the Shackler... no one said a word.
The ship had been torn in half by the explosion, numerous hostiles seemed to be scavenging it.
"Charge the arc cannon, one hundred percent power and fire on my command."

All emergency lights came on as power was cut from the main electrical grid of the ship.
That was the only thing I needed to know.
I made my way to the Spartan quarters.
The entire ship was dead, everyone at there stations.
It left the halls with an eerie feeling.

Every Spartan X on board was waiting for me, in full armour.
"Good, were going outside. I want atleast five on long range, I don't know what the hell these things are so take the Stanchion rifles. Four take heavy weapons, Spartan lasers will due fine. The rest of you take what you want and make it count... we've lost the Shackler."

Once everyone was ready we approached the airlock that led to the top of the ship.
"Courtney... kick the door, were goin out."

The cruiser entered slipspace. I walked through the halls, Vera following me. I could not wait to find what was on the Forerunner planet we were speeding towards. The anticipation was palpable. Vera paused.

"So, what do you think we shall find on this planet?" She asked.

"It could be anything. Technology, ancient knowledge. The Forerunners way even bless us with one of their greatest artifacts. Vera, it will be glorious."

The warthog skinned my back as I ducked the flaming wreckage. My eyes spotted the source of it; a high ranking elite with a fuel rod. It seemed like the equivalent of a Zealot, they had the same high ranking status and skill.

In response my legs pumped, making me sprint towards the Elite. He fired 3 shots at me, but I weaved out of the way of them, getting into close combat in that same instance. The elite jumped back, whipping out his sword, making a slash at me. I sidestepped, but the thing turned and tackled me into a crashed Ghost. It went for a stab at my head, but I moved it out of the way, the plasma barely missing me. The sword was still so close it sapped my shields.

Before it could do anything I kicked it off and stood up ducking under the sword, but meeting it's knee into my face. I was stunned for a short second as i fell to the ground; looking at the Elite's grin as it went for the final slash. My feet kicked up and caught it's forearm before it finished me off. Twisting my whole body a full 360 degrees, I disarmed it and stood up moving up close. I sent a rapid flurry of hard punches to it's stomach, popping it's shields; I moved up eventually hammering it's mandibles into it's skull. It fell down bleeding profusely, left to die.

"Sir, you need to get back on the Mail Man, Alice is in trouble; unknown forces moving in on them and Shackler's revenge has lost contact with us. We'll handle the situation from here," the Army Officer Dufrain said through the radio, "we'll meet you back on the ship later!"

"Alright, I'm trusting you, sir."

"When havn't you?"

At that moment a pelican came to pick me up and I soon found myself back on the marathon cruiser. Admiral Chenkov's voice rang through the speakers, "get ready for slipspace, and Richards I want you to lead the fighters into battle."

"Roger."

I made my way with my co-pilot Griffon. He was one of the best Air Force pilots in our ship.

"Sir, ready to kick some ass?"

"Don't get to cocky soldier, I'm going to need you to be focused."

"Yes sir!"

We arrived at our Sabre, which had navy orange decal all over. Hopping in, I turned on all systems as our cruiser went into slipspace. I spereated all fighters into their seperate squadrons, closing our cockpit at the same time.

After 30 minutes of slip space we arrived at the scene; thudding noises were heard shortly after. The hangar opened up slowly revealing to us our new threat; swarms of drones and ships the size of longswords....and there in the middle Shackler's Revenge.

"Ready? Launch!"

All the Sabres and longswords bursted out, leaving a huge cloud of smoke behind; we were ready to engage our enemy.

"Stand by for airlock release."
The airlock blew open and we hit the deck running.

That's when we saw them.
They were some sort of drone, some the size of a longsword and the smallest ones were no bigger than a Ghost.
"Tonight we dine in hell my friends, so dig in!"
I took Phoenix team right through the middle as everyone else spread out.
I could here the low thuds of the cannons going off, most shots meeting there targets.
The small ones were easy to take down, there shields weren't as strong. It was the larger ones that gave us problems.

Courtney's voice chimed in my helmet.
"In coming... wait... no... there friendly... you guys got backup comin in hot, Sabres from the looks of it."
The best news so far.
"Alright, tell them to cover our perimeter and take care of the big ones!"

Now it gets interesting.
I rolled sideways, narrowly missing a concentrated beam from one of them.
"Watch the beams Spartans!"
The Vermilions shields were fading slowly as each beam met its target.
Three red lasers fired at the same time, hitting one of the big ones.
It plummeted towards us.

I went full speed, running straight for it. Jumping at the last second, I landed on it as it skidded along the top hull of the Vermilion.
My vision seemed to narrow as I ran along the top of the drone... my adrenaline... something the others didn't have... something they gave me back when I was the prototype for all of them... back during the unseen path.
I jumped off when I reached the end, turning the jump into a roll.
"Status on the arc cannon?"
"Seventy five percent and climbing, give it another minute or two and she'll be ready to go."

I skimmed the Vermillions starboard and blasted away 3 drones that wnet out to seak the Spartan Xs. More of the drones , small and big, came into view; this was going to be hell. My hands clenched the controls, pulling back towards me so I could perform an immleman a few beams barely missing me.

My team flew towards the drones, blasting more out of the sky before we moved onto the bigger ones. I locked on and fired my missiles, but before they hit it shot a large beam blasting one of our Longswords out of the side. Our rockets hit simultaniously, blasting the large drone into the wreckage of Shackler's Revenge. After a few more minutes of fighting, Admiral Chenkov was heard through the radio.

"Richards, I'm setting up all our missiles for a huge barrage, you need to make it back to our ship immediately!"

"Roger."

I signalled all our ships to dock inside the Mail Man; at that moment everyone turned towards it and barreled through.

"Watch it sir, their coming to cut us off, pull around!" my co-pilot called out.

At that moment I barrel rolled to the right, barely missing the huge drones. Unfortunately, the drones split us away from our formation. We couldn't go back because the drones had blocked off that whole section, making a wall like form. I checked to see who had made it back in the hangar; they all made it except for 2 of our fighters...damn.

"Sir, I'm getting signals from the Vermillion, their going to fire that huge mac thing! And our own ship is setting up for a barrage, we gotta find a safe place," Griffon, fiddled with the controls and pointed towards a large asteroid, "that should suffice us...I hope."

I nodded and flew towards the cave inside the big rock, hovering inside of what seemed to be like the middle of the giant rock. My radar showed the Mail Man moving away from the Vermillion.

"One hundred percent! Initiating firing sequence."

My heart skipped a beat.
"EVERYBODY MOVE NOW!! FALL BACK TO THE AIRLOCK!!"
There was no time for any of them to reply.
All eleven of us ran for the air lock as the ship seemed to vibrate slightly.
There was a small burst of energy... the shields went out.

We made it just as the area surrounding the Vermilion became charged with a low electrical current.
The door closed... and the entire ship shuttered violently.
The emergency lights flickered twice before going out for a few seconds... the power was out and the ship was still shaking.

The blast from the ARC cannon streaked through the vast battlefield and struck the broadside of the Shackler's debris field... vaporizing anything it hit.
The air within the blast radius was charged with a high voltage static current as the massive shock wave moved outward, shaking nearby asteroids and other debris to pieces.

Debris pelted the Vermilion, striking the unshielded hull at high speed.
"Engineering has a hull breach... and the crew quarters... effected sections have been sealed for hull integrity and shields are charging up. Hull integrity is holding steady at eighty percent."
The Vermilion limped out of the inner debris field, scars from the debris strikes evident all over the hull.


"Everybody alright?"
All there bio-signs flashed green, there was a slight static over our radios but they remained functional thanks to the emp resistor systems in our armour.

I was unsure how much time had passed since we had went into Slip-space. A notification popped up on one of the monitors, it began counting down the minutes until arrival. My finger clicked impatiently on my seat, from what I could tell the other warriors were feeling just as anxious. I stood and walked to the armoury to get my equipment. As I was doing so I passed by Anno and Vera in the hallway.

“Get your first line of troops ready, we’ll be arriving shortly” I said, respectfully nodding to them.

I got to the armoury, grabbing a plasma repeater along with some plasma grenades. With his personal energy sword already strapped onto his side, he had everything he would be needing.

I got back to the bridge mere moments before we exited slip-space. I quickly walked over to one of the monitors, eager to see the Forerunner world. An image of the shield world came up, at first glance it looked like an average planet. It had forests and oceans, but the image zoomed in and I knew we had found it. There were distinct lines running in strange patterns along the surface of the planet.

“We’ve found it…” I whispered, then turned to the nearest Sangheili, “Go get the Oracle, we’ll need it’s assistance in finding the entrance, ask Anno where to find it, he’ll know”.

The asteroid broke apart as I was hiding inside. Quickly, I maneuvered through the rocks, albeit some still slammed into us. The Sabre rolled out of an on coming rock, before the Mail Man came into view.

"Richards, you might wanna hurry up, we're firing these bad boy's in 1 minute," Chenkov's voice rang through the Sabre.

"Aye, sir."

A few more of the new enemy's ships came into view, but we blast a few so we can fly through. As we were about to reach the hangar, one of the drones shot our right port, making us spiral through the ship. As quick as I could, I diverted all shields to the front to increase our survival rate. Before we knew it, we crashed through and skidded down the hangar, before a wall haulted us.

"Aw, -wort!-! My fucking arm man! Get me outta here."

Medics quickly rushed, taking out Griff to have him patched up. I waved them off me, my body was fine.

"Well, looks like you got yourself in a fine mess, eh?" I looked up to see Sergeant Abraham, smoking a cigar with a grin.

-----------------------------

Sgt. Jackson Abraham

I looked down at Richards, as I held out my hand to help him up. He stood up, and we both walked over to the window, looking at the drones amassing.

"We're launching all missile bays, hold on!"

The whole ship rumbled, and then thousands of missiles flew out, looking like a flock of birds. Bright lights, each like a shooting star, locating a drone before it hit. Then, they exploded; a huge ball of fire erupted before quickly disappearing, then the shockwave. It had the same effect as the ARC that was fired earlier, pushing our ship back a little bit, and shattering anything else that wasn't shattered. Pieces of ship debris and asteroids all fell apart, separating in different directions.

"Well, Admiral Chenkov wants to see you...I'm going to be taking over your squad for a bit."

He cocked his head and if I could guess the expression on his face it would be concern.

"Don't worry, I think he has a special mission for you anyway. Maybe one with the ladies, heh," I finished with a quick chuckle. We had to clean this up fast, I needed to get back on New Madrigal to check up on the rest of them, but first this problem had to be solved.

"Courtney... full status report now."
All Spartans were up on the bridge now, we didn't even drop our weapons off yet.

"Its not good... slip space drive is beyond repair with the equipment we have on board right now. The shields are holding steady at fifteen percent but they won't go any higher than that... plus there's the two hull breaches... that knocked our camo out until the holes are patched. The good news is that the engines and weapon systems are still online, and the first one hundred percent fire of the ARC was a success."

"So now what?"
"There is one thing... due to the size of the Mail Man it is possible we could 'piggy back' our way back to Earth."
"Than do it... we need ship at top condition because I get the feeling that this attack was only the beginning."

A channel opened to the Mail Man
"UNSC Mail Man this is the UNSC Vermilion... we are in your debt for saving us but we need to ask one more favour... we sustained heavy damage and would like permission to dock with you for transport back to Earth."

"I'm afraid we can't have you 'latch on', but we'll be able to have you dock inside."

I was on the bridge looking at the image Katherine. Chewing on my cigar, "will we be able to do anything to their ship?"

"We could repair it a fair bit, just to make it safe, but I'll have to scan it first."

"We ain't giving them a ride to Earth though, we have to go back to New Madrigal. I have a mission I need to to attend to."

"When their docked inside, I'll set the co-ordinates. Is that okay Chenkov?"

"Fine with me...I have some spartans I need to pick up anyway."

I saluted to the Admiral and made my way towards the weapons cache, with Nicole and Charlie behind me. Hopefully Richards would be alright with his briefing. Making my way towards the armoury, Katherine's voice echoed throughout the Mail Man, calling all the engineers to help fix the Vermillion to a safe condition.

"Thank you... Katherine right? I'm Courtney... this is more than we could have asked for."

The Vermilion limped its way towards the Mail Man as its docking doors opened to receive us.
"Crap... hold on everyone... one of the engines just burned out

Courtney eased the battered ship into the Mail Man's docking bay with ease and precision, a plume of black smoke billowing from one of the primary thrusters.




OOC: Tomb, feel free to ask me what the damage to the ship is so you can include it in your post.

I looked at the weapons rack, grabbing a grenade launcher and an M6H handgun. Turning, I noticed the new shipment of delivery we got a while back.

"It looks like they recovered some of the blue prints for these..."

Opening the crate I saw a whole stack of equipment, and then a separate section for the spartans. Nicole and Charlie came over, and picked up the equipment that was designated to them. They were wearing jump packs....or the snazzy word jet-pack. Richards probably had picked his up already, seeing as how there was an empty slot.

"As for me..." I leaned in to pick up the jet pack and attached the drop-shield to it. An old piece of equipment, but still extremely useful and upgraded at that. I attached it to my pack and turned to make my way to the hangar to check up on the Vermillion.

upon crossing the threshold, Katherine popped up, "the ship has sustained a lot of damage: theres a breach on the left mid-section of the ship, located near the crew quarters, and a much larger hole on the right port near the slipspace driver core. The circuits overloaded the shields, from the ARC after it had fired.After that just more sustained damage."

"Can she be fixed?"

"We can't fix her up 100%, unless we were in a station, but we'll do as much as we can. I have already sent the engineers to do their work."

"What about our destination to New Madrigal?"

"ETA, 10 minutes."

I nodded in assurance, and made my way closer to the Vermillion.

"We've also got some vehicles that were damaged by flying debris, the older pelican we have took a hit but he won't let us near it... says he'll fix his girl up himself. Stand by, I'm lowering the cargo lifts... nevermind... better make that lift... the other two are jammed... and so the list goes on."

"Report on personnel?"

"We lost some engineers... a few marines... you want me to..."
"No... I'll notify there families, just get me the names and take care of our ship."

Losing men while on board was never easy... especially during a blind sided surprise attack.
I still don't know how we made it out alive... if it wasn't for the Mail Man arriving when it did... we would have ended up like the Shackler.

"One more thing Courtney."
"Yes?"
"Get me the entire crew list for the Shackler."
"Already on your desk... anything else?"
"Actually yes... reopen the long range comms systems and bring all electronics back online... I need to make a call."
"Opening them as we speak, want me to set up a line in your private quarters?"
"Thank you Courtney."
"You may as well just say who your calling... I already knew... so I'll give you some privacy."
"Yes... that would be great. Unless its important, have Alice take care of everything."

I left the bridge, the other Spartans soon followed.
Making my way back to my private quarters, I walked passed the med-bay... it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be.

I stared at the holographic image of the shield world, still stunned by it's majesty. I heard the large foot steps behind me and I turned to see Voron standing there, a puzzled expression on his face.

"What is it?" His expression confused me.

"Nothing Commander, nothing at all" The large Sangheili looked down at me and did the equivilent of a grin. "I just recieved word we're close enough for the first two teams to land and check it out"

I nodded and looked back at the screen.

"Get them to the Phantoms, it's time"

Voron nodded and walked away. I glanced back at the shield world for a few more moments. I walked towards the hanger, Sangheili and Unngoy filled the ship now. They looked up as I walked fast, some said a few words of encouragement, others simply nodded and got back to work.

I walked into the hanger, pleased with the sight of seeing soldiers loading onto the many phantoms we had now. At the end I saw a purple one with a gold trimming to it. I walked into the grav lift and acended into the phantom, where I was greeted inside.

As I walked down the large room, the sounds of gears and clanking filling it, Richards came. He walked by my side, with the other Spartan IVs behind me. Making my turn to the side of the Vermillion, I noticed the Admiral of the the ship, Alice.

"Good day ma'am," I said tipping my hat. Spartan Xs were by her side, I never personally got to see them myself.

"So this is the other Spartan project, eh?"

Alice looked up from the data-pad she was occupied with.
She looked him over quickly before snapping a quick salute, the Spartan X's did as well.
She flashed a welcoming smile.
"That's correct, the one and only Spartan X team... I don't know what we would have done if you guys hadn't shown up when you did."

OOC: He's a 1st Lieutenant not a seargant, just a heads up

"Thank the Admiral, Ma'am."

I motioned to my Spartans, "we'll be getting prepped for New Madrigal, I think your Spartan X's would be helpful down there. Well, don't be a stranger," with that I winked at her, saluted, and made my way towards the pelican, climbing in before the doors closed in.

"Alright! We're in, let's go kick some ass!"

Alice motioned for the Spartans to move out, they split off into there teams and headed to the pelicans.
"Courtney, have Matt know that all Spartans are to be ground side at oh six hundred, tell him to bring the M99 special operations rifle."
"Yes ma'am." The image Courtney disappeared as Alice entered the Vermilion.

Pelicans began exiting Vermilions hold, Spartans on board and ready for action.

Anno 'Rhculee:

Vera and myself borded the Phantom. It was wonderful. We'd be touching down on the planet soon, and we would see the glory that the Forerunners left behind.

It would be a thing of beauty, that was to be certain.

UNSC Asylum
Orbiting New Madrigal
August 4 2558
06:00 UNSC Standard Time

"We are green troopers! Lets show these bastards who there dealing with."

The hatch on Serina's pod closed, spinning into position.
"Here we go again." She whispered to herself, double checking her equipment to make sure it was secure.

"Launch in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Launch!"
The pods launched from the belly of the Asylum, rocketing towards the planet below.

There was a sudden bright flash from above them, followed by a shock wave that sent everyone of the 100 drop pods off course.
"Son of a bitch!! They just took out the Asylum! I repeat Asylum is down!"

This wasn't supposed to happen. To her it felt like Reach all over again as two more covenant cruisers left slip-space.

Almost every pod was spinning out of control, rocketing towards the planets surface.
They hit the outer atmosphere hard, her pod rocking and shaking violently as she held tightly onto the sides.
Her pod was one of the few that managed to enter atmosphere right side up... the rest weren't as lucky.
Her pods upper panel blew, revealing the drag fin type chute as the pod began to slow.

There was already a significant amount of anti-air activity in the area... an area there weren't supposed to land near.
"How far off course are we!?" She yelled into her radio.
"You still alive over there?"
"Yea... they just can't seem to get rid of me."
"Ha! Well don't worry... the captain is here to save the day" He laughed.
"Just get us through this anti air fire and I'll owe you a drink."
He chuckled. "That'll be two then, you still owe from last time... Shit... that was too close... alright kid here we go!"

Her pod slammed hard into the planets surface. She blacked out for a few seconds, shaking her head.
"Fuck... that hurt."

The Phantoms exited the hanger on their way to the Shield World.

I watched the monitor silently as it showed the awe inspiring structure get ever so nearer with ever passing moment. Only four Phantoms had broken from our small fleet, a small exploration group to scout out the place, and be the first ones to see the amazing glory before us.

"Just a few more minutes, Commander..." I turned and saw Ouranos approach. "And we may discover the final moments and treasures our lords left behind"

A small smile crept on to my face.

"Yes indeed, I can barely contain my excitement"

The Phantoms hit the planet's atmosphere, glowing as the heat shields protected us. As we broke through the clouds I got a good look at the forest terrain, very similar to Halo it's self. I stood up and walked over to Anno and the others in my Phantom.

"Warriors, brothers, today is a glorious day! Today, we march into the very place where our Forerunners made their final stand, and witness their great actions and gifts left behind!" I looked around as several Sangheili roared in agreement. "We are the first teams to enter. We're going to need to find the entrance, this World is not quite like the others, so we're not as sure what it is as there are several structures on the surface. Luckily, our recent discovery of an Oracle should help us with that problem"

I scanned them all before walking over to the side. I looked at Anno and Vera.

"It's time"

Suddenly the Phantoms slowed as they reached their drop points, the side doors opening. I looked back at everyone, and then jumped out, feeling my feet hit the muddy jungle floor.

We drifted through space before rocketing through the atmosphere. Metal cluttered and there was a lot of radio chatter. Once close the pilot called out, "getting ready to drop out!"

Everyone on the ship got ready as the door opened and the wind got gusting out.

"Ready.....jump!"

I fell out first rocketing towards the ground before being suspended in the air by my jetpack, needles whisping past me. The spartans followed suite, bursting past me taking out any elites in the vicinity. Soon ODST drop pods were entering atmosphere, flying towards the ground. Something happened though, the Asylum erupted into debris, sending the pods off course and tumbling into the dirt.

"Alright, Spartans let's cover those troopers!"

We cleaned up what was left and made our way towards the drop pods.