The Brink Of War

Chapter 2: A New World:

UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, Uncharted space - 2557 A.D.

The Master Chief continued down the hallway, his heavy footsteps echoing in the bowels of the derelict Forward Unto Dawn. As he reached the end of the dark passage, he came across a massive, sealed elevator door. "This door looks sealed tight..." He said, adopting a solid stance as he attempted to pry it open with his bare hands. "Chief, be careful!" Cortana chirped as the door opened, sucking all the air out of the hallway as the area depressurized. A trio of crates came hurtling towards the Chief, smashing against him and propelling him into the empty elevator shaft.The Master Chief clung to the wall of the shaft, grunting.

He climbed upwards, hand over hand, the handholds groaning in protest. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling from above as a chunk of debris came hurtling towards the Spartan. "Chief, look out!" Cortana cried out as the Master Chief leapt out of the way, latching onto another part of the wall. "I didn't think that the ship had deteriorated so badly." Cortana said as the Master Chief continued climbing, periodically dodging falling debris until he reached the top. Hoisting himself up through the open doorway at the top of the shaft, the Master Chief quickly proceeded down the hallway and into the Observation deck. He snatched up a couple of M9 HE-MP fragmentation grenades floating around in the zero gravity, presumably having fallen from the over turned weapons crate near the door way. The Observation deck was littered with similar crates as the Spartan made his way towards the catwalk overlooking the entire room.

"Chief, look! There's the blast shield controls." Cortana chirped, lighting up a waypoint of the Chief's HUD. The Master Chief approached the console, which stood perched at the end of the catwalk. He reached out, pressing the override icon. The deck shook as the titanium armor covering the thick windows slid upwards, revealing the black expanse of space before them...and something else. "Okay, that's not what I was expecting..." Cortana said, eyeing the giant, metal planet that the Dawn had been orbiting for the past 4 and a-half years. Suddenly a loud, shrill screech filled the air as a beam of vibrant, orange light pierced the thick glass separating the Master Chief from the cold depths of space, shrouding him in light. Cortana shuddered, her neural net working feverishly to pull anything that she could from the beam. "Analyzing...Chief, the planet itself is scanning us!" Cortana cried out, alarmed "Forerunner signatures confirmed!" In that moment, the surface of the planet fractured, opening in an aperture pattern. The opening glowed as the ship began to drift towards it, shifting and causing the crates to collide with the glass, chipping and even fracturing it in some places.

"Chief, the planet is pulling us into the surface with its gravity well! We need to get off of the Dawn ASAP,the second we cross the dome's event horizon the atmosphere will tear us apart!" Cortana shouted as John jumped into action, turning around to head back the way he came. "Where are the nearest escape pods?" The Chief asked as she ship shuddered, nearly throwing the Spartan off of his feet. "Aft vehical bay! Lighting up the nearest air lo-CHIEF!" Cortana shrieked as the Dawn suddenly lurched forward, dislodging the Master Chief from the steel grating and sending him hurtling towards the already fractured glass. "Grab ahold of something!" the AI shouted, the Spartan grunting in response as he seized ahold of a nearby rail.   Suddenly a blue glow came from the hallway, "Cortana what is that?" Chief yelled out, "Just a second, wait...no, no thats impossible!" Cortana said in a panicked tone.  "What is it?" Chief asked again, something was very, VERY wrong, "I don't understa- oh no! Chief it's a slipspace rupture!" just as Cortana answered, a bright flash of light flooded the room before everything went black.

5 hours later...

Everything was dark and cold as the Master Chief struggled to pull himself back from black abyss around him, clenching his armored fist tightly. He bit back a groan of pain as he opened his eyes, attempting to sit up, only to find himself pinned beneath a couple of titanium plates. Shift forward, he braced a hand against the metal and shoved them off of him, sending the heavy slabs of scrap metal flying back a good half dozen yards as the Chief quickly got to his feet. The Spartan looked about, still slightly dazed from the trauma induced by his unconventional atmospheric reentry before spotting his MA5C assault rifle on the ground next to him. He immediately scooped it up, checking over the weapon to see if it was still in working condition. To his surprise the rifle's casing was only slightly scorched, and still in perfect working order. The durability of the MA5 series of rifles was legendary amongst the armed forces throughout its long 50 years of service with the UNSC, but surviving atmospheric reentry was something that even the most diehard marines would view as improbable, and would most likely chalk it up to luck.