HALORP: Yankee Squad's Origins

[Darth Revan]

I've started an RP that turned into a Fanfic in Intro Randomness.

Since it's no longer an RP, I thought it only fair that I bring it here, to the Fanfic section.

Unfortunately, the edited version is on my home comp, so I'll start posting the story later tonight.

Please post all comments in http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3632.0.html . Thanks!

[Darth Revan]

We join Spartan 281, "Shaft", while on a mission to recover any other stranded SPARTANs out in the galaxy. He's met and recruited Spartan 219, "Sith", and they've picked up one SPARTAN that's in a catatonic state in the sick bay.

Flying in high orbit, Spartan 281, “Shaft”, was making routine life sign checks, scanning for any sign that another SPARTAN had survived. Out of nowhere the ship's alarms go crazy, and the ship shudders.

Shaft yells, "Report!"

Sith turns and yells, "We have a perimeter breach! Someone's appeared on our ship! I have no clue how they've arrived!"

"Where?"

"In the cargo bay!"

"Stay at the helm! I'll check it out."

Shaft goes to a lower deck and finds a crumpled woman, scorched to hell with a collar that appears that she used to have a cloak or some sort.

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

The dark being stands up, a beautiful bright light encases her, and without notice or provocation, attacks Shaft.

"What the --?"

Shaft quickly jumps and flares back to avoid the collision. The woman doesn't even come close, but for some reason, Shafts censors are yelling at him, his shield is completely drained, and his armor was hot as hell!

"No way are you staying on my ship."

As he sees the figure that blow past him, he sees it attempt to turn around to attack again. Shaft grabs hold onto the roof of the cargo bay and hits the emergency airlock on the wall. The cargo bay doors fly open. With everything in the cargo bay no longer supported by the artificial gravity, all of the ship’s cargo flies towards the creature, the closest items are instantly incinerated.

"Well that explains my suit. Everything that gets close to her melts completely."

He watches as the women falls behind along with all his cargo as his ship continues throughout the Harvest system. With a flash of his cargo exploding, he sees the being disappear into nothingness.

"Thank god she's gone. Sith!"

"Sir! Our shields are starting to recover, what happened down there?"

"To tell you the truth? I have no idea. Get us out of here, if she comes back I don't want to be anywhere near here."

"Where to?"

"We're going to the Reach system. Hopefully we can recover some more SPARTANs."

"Is our patient still okay?"

After closing the cargo bay doors manually, Shaft goes back up to the sick bay. He approaches an unconscious SPARTAN II.

"She seems fine. Her shields are at 80 and rising. She'll make it."

[Darth Revan]

While in the slipstream of Hyperspace, Shaft joins Sith at the bridge. Shaft takes off his helmet and looks over at Sith.

Sith takes off his helmet, "Sir, what happened down there?"

Shaking off the experience Shaft says, "Nothing, something appeared in the cargo bay and attacked me. I jettisoned her and our cargo, and got out."

"What was it?"

"I have no clue."

"It wasn't human?"

Shaft shakes his head, " Whatever it was, it's gone now."

"Could you get anything from the SPARTAN we picked up?"

"No, All I know is her designation, ‘Spartan 329’."

"Who is that? I don't recognize her number.”

“Neither do I, she's on the listing as MIA."

Blue lights begin flashing. Shaft puts his helmet back on and checks his HUD.

"What the hell? She's crashing!"

"I thought you said she was going to make it?"

"I thought that because her shield was recovering, that she would."

Sith and Shaft go back to check on Spartan 329. Shaft visually scans her person.

"She seems fine," while turning her over, Shaft sees a breach. "God dammit! Why didn't I see that before?"

Sith looks at the bed Spartan 329 was resting on and notices a strange degradation and a hole. "Sir, look."

"What the hell? Help me move her." After moving Spartan 329 to the next bed, Shaft tears the padding of the bed Spartan 329 was occupying and finds a strange metal mysteriously welded to the framing.

Sith tears it off. "Sir, I think this was in her back. When we first looked, it looked like part of her armor. How did it get out?”

“The heat from the creature must’ve melted the metal, and re-opened the wound it created in her back. Alright let's get this armor off of her, so we can stop the bleeding." Shaft turns back to Spartan 329 and finds that the bed padding turned red with blood. We're too late, but how did she bleed out so quickly?" Shaft turns Spartan 329 over, and begins stripping her armor off. Once off, he again examines Spartan 329's wound. He sticks a small rod into the wound to find the direction of the hole. "Whatever pierced her back just hit the bottom of her heart. While the metal was still in place, it must've kept the wound in her heart closed, when the metal melted, it opened the wound to her heart. Dammit."

"Sir, there was no way to know."

"We could if we were on something better than this junk ship. We'd have a proper sick bay, and a body scanner to find any internal problems."

"What'll we do now?"

"Put her back in her armor, put her in cargo; and when we're out of Hyperspace, jettison her. She's already listed as MIA, we've just confirmed it."

"Sir." Sith places Spartan 329's armor back on her body, he picks her up and carries her down to the cargo bay. "Sir, she’s in cargo bay now."

"Leaving Hyperspace now. Okay, are you clear?"

"Yes sir. You are clear to open the cargo bay doors."

Shaft's hand hovers over the handle to open the cargo doors. "Rest in Peace Spartan 329." He opens the doors, and Spartan 329's lifeless body falls out into the void of space. As Sith rejoins Shaft on the bridge neither of them says anything, nor even looks at each other. Shaft hits a button on the console, and the view screen switches to the reverse view. They watch as Spartan 329's body slowly floats out of view.

[Darth Revan]

Sith switches the view back to the frontal real-time display.

"Shall we continue to the Reach system?" asked Sith.

Shaft snaps out of his moment of silence, and replies, "Yes, set our destination for the Reach system."

Sith inputs the codes for the Shaw-Fujikawa drive. "Destination input, entering Hyperspace, now."

The ship speeds off into what appears to be an aurora, and disappears from view.

Shaft looks onto the beautiful sight of the Hyperspace trail, and is reminded of the light that was emanating from the strange being. "Sith, run a diagnostics on the ship, I wanna know if that thing that attacked us earlier damaged anything else."

"Yes sir. Running diagnostics now."

"Good, get back to me with the results. I'll be in my quarters."

"Yes sir."

Shaft steps out of the bridge, and hangs a left to get some sleep. He moves into his room, removes his helmet and sits on his cot. Visions of the bright being, flashes of how quickly it decided to attack them, and visions of the blood soaked bedding and the floating body of Spartan 329 all came rushing at once. It happened all so quickly, there was no time to process anything. Luckily for Shaft, being trained as a solider since he was 10 years old came in handy with losing comrades, and seeing dead bodies; but that thing, that weird creature that attack him, that was different, that was new. He didn't have label for it, no category to put it aside to. He tried just accepting it as "unknown" and shoving it aside, but it just felt big. Too big to just push aside. Hopefully with time he can just let it go; but for now, there on his cot, he needs to sleep on it.

[Darth Revan]

Lying in REM sleep, Shaft is allowed to go through the events of the previous day. Knowing he's in a dream state, he controls playback, tries to see small details his subconscious hadn't yet shared; reviewing the ambush by the dark creature bathed in light; and trying to see if anything could've been done to save Spartan 329. While breaking down his encounter with the dark being, Shaft begun to hear a voice, <But no one was speaking during this moment.> thought Shaft. He strained to hear the voice.

"Sir, we're out of Hyperspace. Sir!" It was Sith attempting to awaken him. Shaft's eyes open and looks to his newly recruited comrade.

"Status report."

"Sir, we've entered the Reach system. We’re directly over Reach right now. There seems to be half of a ship trapped in orbit above the planet."

"Good, move us to intercept its course so I can investigate the ship."

"Yes sir." Sith leaves Shaft's quarters to fulfill his new orders.

Shaft puts his helmet back on and joins Sith on the bridge. Sith narrates their approach, "Entering the planet's orbit, second ship approaching, reversing thrust for interception, intercepting the ship in 6, 5, 4, 3, 2-" A loud 'clang' covers Sith's last countdown as the two ships meet. "Ship is intercepted and ready for inspection."

Shaft stands and approaches the air lock. “Get ready to vent the air lock.”

“Roger.”

Shaft climbs up the ladder and into the air lock. He secures the entrance and tells Sith to vent the air lock. After confirmation, Shaft opens the outer air lock door. As he exits his ship he sees the half-melted remains of a Corvette class ship directly in front of him.

“Alright, I’m approaching the ship now.” Shaft pushes off of his ship and floats to the empty shell. He guides himself along the level, his helmet’s lights shining back at him from the metallic walls. That light reflects off his armor and illuminates the area around him.  Everything that wasn’t bolted down had been ejected from the instant depressurization of the plasma hit. Only the bare structure was left. There was nothing but empty walkways, empty rooms with only tables and bunks, which were soldered to the walls and floors, left. “As we expected, there’s nothing so far. I’m going to the sick bay, see if there’s anything there.”

Shaft exits the crew’s quarters and approaches the sick bay. It was the same story there, as well. The room was stripped from the rush of escaping atmosphere, bare beds and tables, some instruments and devices were extending from the wall. Shaft reports in, “There’s no one in sick bay; no medical supplies, nothing. All right, I’m gonna check one more place.”

“The cryo room?”

“Yeah, hopefully someone thought fast enough to get inside one.”

[Darth Revan]

Shaft works his way into the Cryogenics Lab; a large square room with four pillars in the middle. At the foot of each pillar is a pod for cryogenic sleep. The control console for the pods is on a balcony six feet above the pods. Shaft approaches the console, “Sith, we got something here; one life sign.”

“Is it one of ours?”

“Checking.” Shaft vaults over the balcony and pulls himself downward to reach the pods. He grabs hold of one, wipes away the condensation off the glass, “It’s one of ours. I’ll  bring the pod on board, there’s not enough power to bring this one out of cryo. Open the cargo bay.”

“Yes sir, cargo bay is vented and open.”

“Good.” Shaft reaches down and pulls the emergency disconnect lever and separates the pod from the station. Free from the clamps, the pod begins to float upward. Shaft waits for the pod to pass his head, then pushes off the floor and grabs the pod, then pushes off of the pillar and propels toward the exit. Shaft swings himself around the pod so it doesn’t collide with the wall. He absorbs the slight impact and walks the pod down the wall to the balcony.

Exiting the ship with the bulky pod was difficult without gravity, but after a while, Shaft was able to guide the pod back to the ship, and into the cargo bay. Once atmosphere was pumped back into the cargo bay, Sith went down and helped Shaft move the pod into the sick bay. They hook the pod up to a machine, and Sith turns to a panel on the wall.

“Okay, ‘rise and shine’ pal, time to wake up.”

As Sith finishes inputting the command to wake the Spartan, the pod’s cover slides upward and lets out a cloud of steam/condensed air. Shaft lifts the pods cover and reveals a Spartan in salmon and tan E.V.A. armor.

“Pink? The armor is pink?”

The Spartan sits up straight and holds its head. A female voice says, “Ugh. It’s salmon, not pink.”

Sith snickers, “Oh, she’s a girl, that’d explain it.”

The Spartan attempts to backhand Sith, but misses horribly. “S-shut up.”

Sith mockingly jerks his head back as if he was avoiding an attack, “Whoa there, careful, you might hurt someone.”

“Shut up Sith.” Shaft ordered. “Welcome back Spartan, you’re still a little groggy from being in cryo. What’s your name?”

“T-ugh. T-t-Tara-three-zero-eight sir. They call me, ‘Sally’.” Sally forced her answer, then attempted to salute, but collapsed back into the pod.

[Darth Revan]

Sith helped pick Sally back up, “’Sally’ huh? Is that your middle name?”

“N-no, it’s from ‘Mustang Sally’.” Sally throws her arm out of Sith’s grasp, but then falls into Shaft.

Shaft catches her and props her up. “Slow down, Sally. You’re in no condition to be throwing yourself around. Here, you can rest in my quarters. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Sally shakes her head and tries to step forward, but passes out and falls forward. Both Sith and Shaft catch her.

“Whoa,” Sith lets out, “I see why they call her ‘Mustang Sally’, she’s hard to tame.”

“I’m taking her to my quarters.”

“Your quarters, huh?”

“Shut up Sith. I’m serious, my bed’s the only one that’s dressed for sleeping. Unless you want to play ‘House keeping’, and make up her room?”

Sith waves his hands in protest. “No, no. I’m not cleaning out another bunk. She can do it when she’s feeling better. I’m done. I’ll be in the bridge.”

Sith watches as Shaft heaves Sally’s body over his shoulder, and takes her towards his quarters. Sith calls out with a smile, “Remember, no funny stuff!”

“Sith!?”

“Sorry.”

[Darth Revan]

With probe in hand, Sally tests every contact on her visor’s circuit board. The HUD was constantly one short on her ammo count, she also wanted to fine tune her magnification focus for shorter ranged combat.

Sally was alone in her quarters on the Corvette class ship named Shining Advancement. Her team had been deployed to the planet to assist in the ground assault on planet Reach. She was in no condition to fight with her visor malfunctioning. While closing the visor’s access panel, an alarm goes off in the ship. The ship’s normal lights go dark, and are replaced by pulsating red alert lights.

“Red Alert, we are being ambushed by a covenant cruiser! Plasma fire incoming!” The announcement only meant one thing.

“This ship is toast.” Sally mutters to herself as she replaces her helmet on her head. “This visor better work now.” The helmet’s polarization lightens and adjusts to the low light levels in the ship. The HUD then comes on-line. “Great! Now I gotta get outta here!”

Sally runs to the armory. She grabs an assault rifle, a shotgun, and starts for an energy sword, but just then the entire ship shifts and rumbles, causing Sally to stumble. A great wind starts up, rushing everything towards the bow of the ship.

<Dammit! We’re hit. This ship is gonna melt! I have to leave.> these panicked thoughts run through Sally mind, but are pushed aside by her training. She continues toward the sword’s hilt, but it’s pulled away by the vacuum of space and flies out of her reach. She turns back out of the armory and heads for the nearest escape pod.

The moment she leaves the armory doors the ship rocks again. Now the red lights have gone completely dark. The ship’s lost all power. The impact from the latest hit knocks her down completely. As she stands up, the entire forward section she was heading towards melts in front of her eyes. She watches as the plasma melts through the metal hull of the ship. More air escapes through the new void created, and the pressure starts to drag Sally out with everything else. Luckily her suit is heavy enough that she has enough time to hold onto a nearby ammo dispenser and stay on the ship.

Fighting against the pull of the vacuum, Sally starts to climb across the wall towards the rear of the ship, hopeful that she can get to the other pods and escape with her life. As the pressure begins to balance, and the wind dies down, Sally can begin to walk and even run towards the aft of the ship.

She reaches the aft escape pods, but two were already deployed, and one had malfunctioned. “Dammit!” Sally exclaims as she slams her fist into the malfunctioned pod’s door. She pauses, and thinks for a while. “The cryogenics room! It runs on an independent power source, it’ll still be operational!” With that, Sally runs back towards the cryogenics lab.

When Sally reaches the lab, she opens the door and runs inside. The room is completely empty. No pods, no monitors, not even a control panel. She runs to the center of the room in a panic and falls to her knees. “Where are the pods? Where are the God Damn cryo pods!? Where!!!???!!?!” Once again the ship rocks, Sally collapses on her back, and the room fills with plasma, Sally watches as the plasma surrounds her and starts to burn through her exposed flesh. “My armor! Where’s my armor?!?” Sally lies still, completely drained of hope. The plasma begins to envelope her body, burning away her limbs. “No. No! NO! NNNOOOO!!!!” The plasma climbs up Sally’s body and covers her entirely and dissolves her into nothing.

[Darth Revan]

“NO!” Sally sits straight up in Shaft’s cot. She holds her forehead trying to figure out what happened. Her memory starts to return to her. She found the cryo room and got into a pod safely. She was later awakened by two other Spartans, one of which was a pig.

“Ugh. My head.” Sally looks at her unarmored and and freaks out. “What the hell? Where’s my armor? What did you freaks do to me? What’s going on? Where am I?!?”

Sith looks over his shoulder from the make shift card table in the cargo bay, “Hmm, sounds like our guest is awake.”

Shaft sighs and puts his hand down, “I guess I’ll calm her down.”

“Yeah, it is your room.” Sith says back.

Shaft climbs back up to the crew quarters and opens his door. “Agh!” A tablet PC flies by his left ear.

“Where is my armor?” Sally yells as she readies another item to throw.

Shaft stands in the door frame with his hands in the air, showing no hostility, but also ready to catch anything she tried to throw at him. “Take it easy. Your armor is in maintenance, and getting a couple upgrades. We picked you up aboard a-“

“I know where I was; I want to know where I am!”

Shaft explains, “You’re on a ship in orbit above the planet Reach. I’m on a recovery mission to find any MIA Spartans that are still alive.”

Sally relaxes a little, stands up straight, and tosses her next weapon on the cot. “What happened on Reach?”

“Have a seat.” Shaft sat Sally down and told her the story of The Fall of Reach. He explained the story of Master Chief and the discovery of the second HALO.

Sally sits shocked by all of this info. All this time has passed by as but a moment for her; so many advancements, so many battles, so much loss. Her training allows her to put it aside. She sits up straight and asks, “So, what can I do?”