As the Pillar of Autumn left slipspace,Cortana got to work bring the ship back up to speed and doing a scan of the system she had 'blindly' jumped into as she started the defrost cycle for the crew, finishing the scan she saw exactly what the relic had told her would be here, a massive ring hung in orbit above the systems gas giant she wondered how the forerunners had constructed such a massive structure, she would have to ask Spartan Jamie as he seemed to know more than he let on. After a while of stewing in her thoughts and making sure the ship had made it intact Captain Keyes finally made it to the bridge as did other officers, walking up to her podium he asked her "Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?" he asked warily as the crew went around and powered on their stations and got to work, "I think we both know the answer to that sir." she said as Keyes sighed "We made a blind jump, how did they-" "Get here first?" she finished "The covenant ships have always been faster, as for tracking us all the way from Reach? At lightspeed my maneuvering options were limited." she said as he started pacing "We were running dark yes?" "Until we decelerated, no one could have missed the hole we tore in slipspace." she said as they received a transmission "Captain Magnus is hailing us sir." Patch him through." On the main view screen Captain Magnus appeared and looked like he had just stumbled out of bed 'Probably a bad cryo sleep' Keyes though with a grimace as Magnus started talking "We made it through just fine, but the ships not holding together in some places so we're going to the dark side of that moon to repair, I'll send out fighters and any other help you need just ask." he said before he cut the transmission. As Keyes ordered a few other crew members around and looking at a crew mens console he saw battle reports, looking at Cortana she simply said "They were waiting for us on the far side of the planet, our fighters are clearing up the last of their recon picket as we speak." she said as Keyes sighed again and took out his pipe, shook a bit of ash out and stuck it in his mouth but didn't light it "But I've isolated approach signature for multiple CCS-class battle groups, make it three capital ships per groups, and in about 90 seconds they're gonna be all over us." she said as Keyes straightened "Well that's it then, bring the ship back up to Combat Alert:Alpha. I want everyone at their stations." Everyone sir?" "Everyone." he said as alarms started to go off and various crew and personnel sprang into action "And Cortana . . . let's give our old friends a warm welcome." Keyes said as Cortana's form appeared in the holo tank as she gave a small smile "I've already begun sir."
Down in one of the launch bays of the Autumn, a marine waves light batons to guide a pelican into the correct docking position as Cortana's voice comes over the PA "Attention,all combat personnel: please report to your action stations." "5th platoon secured airlocks on Deck 11. 14th platoon, rendezvous with 22nd Tactical at bulkhead Charlie 14." As Cortana relays other orders a group of marines are talking while reading their weapons, preparing Scorpion tanks and Warthogs as Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson walks through a line of marines "You heard the lady! Move like you've got a purpose!" he yelled as Cortana continued overhead "This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill." Quickly the marine gets into two lines facing each other as Johnson walks down the column between the formation. "Men, we led those dumb bugs out into the middle of nowhere to keep 'em from getting their filthy claws on Earth, but we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for that they're scramblin' all over each other to get it. Well, I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let 'em have it! What we will let 'em have . . . is a belly full of lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in!" he says turning around "Am I right Marines?!" "Sir,Yes Sir!" "Uh-Huh. Damn right I am, Now move it out, double time!" he yells as the marines break formation and leave the area as Johnson follows slowly behind them "Attention all personnel, We are re-engaging the enemy. Internal and external conflict iminent." Cortana says over the PA as Johnson smirks "All you greenhorns who wanted to see the covenant up close . . . this is your lucky day!"
Down in the cryo bay one of the terminals receives a message
>X - CORTANA 1 0 CRYOSTOR. 23.4.7
>(PRIORITY ALPHA)
>UNSEAL THE HUSHED CASKETS
One of the tech officers sees the message and calls out "Whoa, Sir?" he says as the tech chief looks over his shoulder "Right. Let's thaw them out." he says as they start the process pushing several buttons. "Okay, bringing low-level systems online. Cracking the case in thirty seconds." he says as two cryo pods in the bay below start to emit steam "They're hot blowing the pins in five . . ."
As Jamie groggily came back to the waking world he heard a loud voice "Their tubes show green. Cycle complete." the tube covering his cryo tube lifts as showing a man who salutes "Sorry for the quick that Master Chief, Lieutenant sir. Things are a little hectic right now, the disorientation should pass quickly." he said as Jamie flexed his gloved fingers to try and wake up his body faster as the PA sounded "Welcome back sirs, We'll have you battle read stat." a man up in the viewing platform said waving at them as the man in front of him began speaking again "Please look around the room. I need to get a calibration reading for your battle suits diagnostics." He said as Jamie looked left and looking right back at him was the Master Chief, even with his still half asleep mind he was excited before he quickly calmed himself, he still had to fight the covenant and the flood before he could get fan-girly with the Chief. They looked around a bit more as the man spoke again "Good,thank you sir." he said before the man in the viewing platform said "I'm bringing your health monitor online now." he said as Jamie watched his HUD light up "Vital signs look normal.No freezer burn. Okay, you can go ahead and climb out of the cryo tube." he said and so Jamie got out as the Master chief did the same, and man was he a big guy, Jamie being a spartan as well was much larger than the crewman next to them but just being next to the Master Chief, the man who would blow up the ring, stop the Covenant,Flood and the Didact was a bit much but he snapped out of it as he had a job to do. "I gave you a double shot of the wake-up stim, bring their shields online." the man said to them and his partner up top and the Spartans watched as their HUD lit up again as the bar that represented their shields slowly climbed.
As they finish charging Cortana comes over the PA "Warning! Covenant incursions on port decks Three and Nine. Alpha Team, engage enemy borders." she says as Captain Keyes is heard next "Bridge to Cryo Two, this is Captain Keyes. Send the Master Chief and the Lieutenant to the bridge immediately." he says "Captain, we'll have to skip the weapons diagnostics and I-" the crewman starts to say but Keyes cuts him off "On the double, crewman." he says "Aye aye, sir." turning to them. "The skipper seems jumpy, we'd better get moving. We'll find you weapons later." he says as the man in the terminal says "Okay. I'll leave the self-diagnostics running, at least." "Good idea. You'd better get to your evac group, Sam!" "Affirmative. Just have to reset the computer and I'm outta here!"
Before he can do that however, banging is heard on the door as an alarm starts blaring "Oh God! They're trying to get through the door!" the man says in a panic as the door bursts open and an Elite Major enters firing at him "Security! Intruders in Cryo Two! No, please don't—" he yells as a plasma bolt hits him and he drops dead to the floor, seeing him dead the elite turns and seeing the spartans try to fire at them but the glass is too thick, stopping its barrage the elite lets out a roar and runs off. "C'mon, we've got to get the hell out of here!" The remaining crewman says as he leads Jamie and the Chief out of the cryo bay, leading them down the corridor he is about to open the second door before it explodes, killing him.
Seeing this Jamie leads the way and they head towards the bridge with the Chief right behind him as they pass by Crewman and marines fighting off covenant soldiers. As they pass through a few door and turn the corner they suddenly some face to face with and Elite minor, but before they can do anything it gets hit by several bullets and runs away behind another door as a group of marines chase it, seeing the coast is clear they continue before a marine stops them "Sirs! The Captain needs you on the bridge, ASAP! You better follow me." and so they do dodging plasma fire as marine and covenant fight for every inch of the ship as the marine leads them to the bridge, as they finally reach the bridge the marine stops outside and motions them in "Captain Keyes is waiting for you, sirs!" Then he ran back to fight more covenant as Jamie and the Chief walked into the bridge, seeing Keyes the Master Chief walk over as he turned and faced them.
"Captain Keyes." Chief said as he and Jamie saluted which Keyes returned, "Good to see you Master Chief. Things aren't going so well, Cortana did her best along with help from Everchanging's fighters but we never really stood a chance." he said as Cortana appeared in her holotank, "A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. With those odds, I'm content with three - make that four kills." she said, sounding proud "Sleep well?" she asked with a smirk "No thanks to your driving, yes." the Chief says as Jamie snorts, Cortana smiles as Chief "So you did miss me." she says with a smile before the ship shakes violently, Jamie stumbles as the Chief keeps Keyes standing.
"Report!" Keyes calls as he grabs the holotank for extra support, "It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an antimatter charge!" Cortana says scanning the ship as a bridge crew calls out "Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" he says as Cortana faces Keyes with worry "Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option." she says. Keyes without missing a beat springs into action "Alright then, I'm initiating Cole Protocol,Article 2, we're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too Cortana." he says, cutting her off before she can protest. "While you do what, go down with the ship?" she demands as several more alarms start to sound. "In a manner of speaking, that object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it." he says "With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes." she says quietly "I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer." he says turning to the Chief as Cortana salutes "Aye Aye Sir."
"...which is where you come in, Chief. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research...Earth." Keyes says to Chief, turning to Jamie "You will follow the chief and assist him in whatever he does and should he fall, keep Cortana safe, that is a direct order." Keyes says as Jamie nodded with Cortana appearing again. "The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach." She says, "Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?" Keyes asks her and she looks around at them and the bridge and sighs, "Yank me." and Keyes does before handing her chip to Chief and he slots it into the back of his helmet, "Hmm...your architecture isn't much different from the Autumn's..." she says over their channel "Don't get any funny ideas." Chief says as Jamie grins knowing that things were now not so grim now that these too were together.
As they leave Keyes hands the Chief his pistol with an apologetic look "I don't keep it loaded son, you'll have to find ammo as you go." he says as the Chief nods before they leave the bridge, hearing the telltale squeaks of grunts ahead Jamie runs forwards and turning the corner, he slams his fist into the face of the grunt Major that was coming towards the bridge and snatches its pistol as it falls, Chief catches up and fires on the other grunts as Jamie uses the plasma pistol to bash another two heads in before they move into the next room. As they move they hear Captain Keyes on the PA "Combat Teams on decks Seven and Eight, fall back to secondary defensive positions."
As they enter the next room they see several groups of marines fighting off covenant elites and grunts and snatching up an assault rifle the Master Chief gets to work as Jamie follows behind him overcharging the plasma pistol several times to break elite shields to give the marines a chance to take them down. As they move through, taking out a covenant , a grunt minor manages to hit the Chief in the shoulder making Cortana call out "Keep your head down! There's two of us in here now, remember?" as Jamie cuts down the offending grunt and moves into the next corridor where a trio of marines have an Elite Major pinned, running Jamie leaps over the elites cover and smacks it over the head with his plasma pistol dazing it as he takes out his combat knife and stabs the elite right in the next putting it down as he bends over and takes its plasma rifle for himself.
As he joins the Chief over by the marines the ship rocks again "What the hell? Did something just hit us?" one of the marines yells as their leader calls out "Move it! Back to the airlock!" and as one the marines and spartans move towards the airlock, as they reach it through the marines standing guard are thrown against the wall as the covenant destroy the lifepod and one of their boarding craft enters the gap and they open up swiftly taking down the grunts that pour out, once that's done Jamie walks over to one of the dead marines and trades his plasma weapons for some good old fashioned lead before catching up with the Chief.
"They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft! We go out and they come in! Clever bastards..." Cortana says mad as the marines turn to them "Go on ahead, Chief. We'll secure this airlock." they say and the spartans move forward and soon come across an open room with stairs with marines at the bottom "Covenant! On the landing above us!" Cortana yells as Jamie and Chief dodge plasma bolts from above as they reload and regroup with the marines below. Springing into action, three marines throw grenades up onto the landing as Jamie runs up shooting any covenant not quick enough to dodge with Chief right behind him. As they clear out the landing they press forward and help a group of marines that are pinned down before moving down a corridor, they see a lifepod launch as pulse lasers hit the hull "We need to hurry the lifepods are launching!" Cortana says and they speed up as the ship rocks as plasma torpedoes hit the hull as a trio of lifepods blast off from the ship with the last one getting hit by a stray pulse laser. "The Covenant are destroying the lifepods. . . they really don't want us in the ring." she said as they turned the corner just as a set of blast doors closed.
As Jamie and the Chief wonder what to do next Cortana comes to their rescue "We'll have to use the ship's maintenance access ways. Follow the NAV point, it will lead you to an opening." she tells them as a marker appears on their HUD. Following it they duck into the access way and take out a pair of grunts who were sleeping in the dark as they creep around with Cortana guiding them. "I'm detecting Covenant movement outside the access ways. Activating motion tracker. Let's find a safe exit." She tells them as their motion trackers come online and they see swarms of angry red dots moving around, after a couple of minutes of checking the door and finding too many covenants outside them they finally enter an empty room, "Motion tracker shows all clear." Cortana says as they step into the dark room and turn their flashlights on
"Wait. We need to get through that door, but it's been damaged by an explosion. Analyzing... The door's control mechanism is offline, but it's taken a lot of damage. You should be able to bash it open with the butt of your weapon.". Nodding, the Chief looks at the door Cortana mentioned and slams the butt of his rifle into, breaking the door open as he enters a hallway that has its lights on.
As the walk through the hallway they enter the control room for the cryo bay they were in not long ago, down in the cryo chamber they see a trio of Elites waving at their empty cryo tubes and clacking their mantibles, no doubt irritated that they hadn't gotten there in time. "It looks like the Covenant wanted to catch you napping." Cortana chuckles as the Elites notice tha Spartans are watching them and fire at the glass, seeing it does nothing; they stop shooting and run out of the chamber. "Let's move." Chief says as Jamie nods "Lead the way."
As they move through another hallway, Jamie and the Chief see several damaged sections of the ship as Cortana comments "The damage to the superstructure is extensive... I don't know how much more abuse the Autumn can take.", as they round the corner to the last airlock they come across a group of marines fighting several elites and a whole slew of grunts and jackals. "There's one last lifeboat! Quickly, get aboard before it launches!" Cortana tells them as Jamie and the Chief open fire on the covenant, seeing the Spartans pair a few marines feeling brave throw grenades and they go off throwing around grunt bodies like toys Elites dive for cover with their shields down as the jackals get mowed down.
After a bit more back and forth they finally take out the remaining Elites and they all rush into the last lifeboat. More explosions go off shaking the ship as the marines pile in first, one of them trips and starts to freak out but the Chief grabs him and tosses him in as Jamie follows behind him sweeping the corridor one last time. "Punch it." Chief tells the pilot as he nods and they blast away from the Autumn. "We're disengaged. Goin' for minimum safe distance." the pilot calls out as Cortana calls out, moving forward Jamie and Chief see the giant ring, "What is that thing, Lieutenant?" one of the marines asks "Hell if I know, but we're landin' on it!" the pilot jokes as another marine yells "The Autumn! She's been hit!", snapping around, they can see Autumn accelerating as it flies over the lifepod getting hit by plasma torpedoes, "I knew it! Autumn's accelerating. Keyes are going in manually!" Cortana says as the Autumn passes them by.
As they get closer to the ring the pilot warns them : "Heads up, everyone, this is it! We're entering the ring's atmosphere at five!" "Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana asks Chief as Jamie laughs, "Scared of heights?" he jokes as Cortana scoffs "No, but at the rate we're falling I'd have my fingers crossed." "We'll be fine." Chief says as he grabs the overhead rails on each side and bends his knees as Jamie does the same, all the while the craft shakes and heats up as they enter the ring's atmosphere.
A/N- Legit has no idea why this took so long, sorry.