When Destiny Burns, Ep. 2 A Halo and Inheritance Cycle Crossover [Discontinued]

Chapter 14.1 The First Gear

"While the Ark was initially made for the creation of replacement Halos, we have recently found out how to use some of the factory-functions for a different purpose. As of a month ago, we have started to construct new experimental frigates and cruisers using the Ark. Our alliance with the Sangheili and the new technological advances that the Ark grants us have enabled us to achieve a great many things, most important of all is full Energy Shielding on an ever-increasing percentage of our ships,"

- Motivational speech, Lord Hood – March 23, 2553

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Ever since their ship had taken fire above the big city, Captain Adrian Wren had known that things had absolutely gone to hell. The Spartan had jumped, leaving them in a damaged Pelican dropship as they tried to steer it to the north while continuously taking fire from an enemy that did not seem to have possessed guns. There had been no turrets, no installations and no humans with firearms and still their ship had taken enough fire to bring a dramatic change to their plans. And from there, things had gone from hell to the place where the devil went when it died. They had been forced to touch down at the base of an enormous forest, where India Three-Sixteen had attempted to repair her bird. Two hours they had sat there, keeping a close watch on a large perimeter with only seven marines.

At first, it had looked like the pilot might have been able to fix her craft. But then, these...things...had appeared. Floating machines with three metal blooms that were centered on a red eye that was capable of dispensing high-intensity lasers.

Sentinels. First encountered by the Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan one-one-seven at Installation zero-four, sentinels were the AI-controlled drones that protected Forerunner installations from all threats. They had encountered plenty of them on the Ark, where the last collection of mankind's warriors had fought for their very survival. There, they had been friendly.

But like the drones that Battlegroup Lima had encountered during their Operation to retrieve Math-011, these ones had other things on their collective minds. They had surged towards the already feeble position held by the soldiers, seemingly out of nowhere, starting to bombard them with lasers.

The thing was that the lasers hadn't been lethal. He had seen Corporal Hudson getting blasted by at least three of those bright beams, only for the man to get right back on his feet after having been knocked a few feet away from the Pelican with virtually no wounds at all. Captain Wren had quickly concluded that the sentinels hadn't been firing with lethal shots, leading up to him ordering for his men to stand down.

However, more and more of the machines had appeared together with more stranger looking units. Their position had quickly been swarmed by the mechanical bastards and it had gotten pretty obvious that they hadn't wanted the Pelican to be fixed. After half an hour of intense fighting, the units had started to use increasingly dangerous weaponry. So in order to preserve the lives of the men and women serving under him, Captain Wren had called a general fallback, leaving behind the Spartan's Experimental Field-Strip Unit and most of their ammunition. The Field Unit was the least of their concerns, as Wren had only installed it in their Pelican should the Spartan be wounded beyond normal recovery, or in need of replacement parts. There were enough MJOLNIR Mark VI parts on board of the When Duty Ends to outfit the Spartan two times over, but they lacked the expertise and knowledge to do so themselves. Hence the stripper.

He, India Three-Sixteen and the seven marines had done the one sensible thing that they could have done: they had temporarily abandoned the Pelican Dropship and moved southwards, away from the enormous forest and towards civilization. They had marched for three days, easily covering a hundred miles before they had finally reached the first sign of civilization: a giant lake. To the south-east of that lake lay a city, one that Captain Wren would soon learn to be Gil'ead.