Fantasy Chain, Jump 2: Halo

Halo UNSC Jump:

Jump 2: Halo - UNSC

Origin: Spartan II [400]
Location: Reach
Perks:
-Soundtrack of the Stars [000]
-Stoic [000]
-Augmented [000]
-Advanced Weapons Training [000]
-Terrifying [100]
-Adaptational [200]
-Antigen [200]
Items:
- SPARTAN Neural Interface [000]
- Data Crystal Chip [000]
- Portable Spartan Support Module [000]
- Spoofer [000]
Weapons:
- M6C Magnum [000]
- M9 Fragmentation Grenade [000]
- Forerunner Weapon Cache [300]
Armour: [+1000AP]
- MJOLNIR Mark V Powered Assault Armor
- Fall Negation [100AP]
- Biofoam Injectors [100AP]
- Modular Construction [200AP]
- Force Multiplying Circuits [100AP]
- GEN2 Upgrade [500AP]
Ship: [+1000SP]
- Gladius-class Heavy Corvette
- M910 Rampart Point Defense Network [100SP]
- Bident Missile Pods [200SP]
- Slipspace Drive Alien Advancements [300SP]
- Self-Destruct Function [000]
- A.I. Data Network [000]
- Augmented Sensor Array [100SP]
- Energy Shielding [300SP]
Companion:
- Smart AI Import [Ohma] [200]
Drawbacks:
- Time Extension [+000]
- Cassandra [+100]
- Loot Goblin [+100]
- Tag Along [+200]

    My first thought when I became aware again was ‘Oh goddess damn it, not again!’. My second thought was, ‘Holy crap that energy sword looks cool, I want it’. Of course then my instincts, both new and old, kicked in and I was leaping backwards in order to dodge said energy sword from carving me in two. The elite that was holding my new sword did not seem impressed. It roared at me with seething rage in its eyes. Still though, it was hesitant to approach me, like it was waiting for something.
    “Valky, Covenant reinforcements approaching your position from the west. ETA 3 minutes. Disengage and regroup with Delta Squad.” Ah, that was it.
    With the flick of my eyes I activated my comms. “Roger that.” But first, I was getting my energy sword.
    “Come on then big boy! Let’s dance.” I raised my arms in a come hither gesture.
    With a bloodcurdling battle cry, the red armoured elite charged in my direction, sweeping the crackling plasma down in a swift overhand swipe. I rolled under it and came up by its side. With a small jab I scored a deep cut across its flank with my blade, blue blood splatting the knife. The next second I was a dozen meters away and facing it once again. I infused a bit of lightning into it to clear the alien blood off of my knife. There was a quiet crackle akin to that of the energy sword as the blood turned to steam, leaving naught but a faint blue stain on the metal.
    “You will pay for that Demon.” The elite growled, one hand clutching its side to stem the flow of blood. On any other person it would have been a debilitating wound, but I knew from experience that the Elites were made of sturdy stuff. It would fight on to the death if it had to. Ordinarily I would happily oblige it, to assuage its honour if nothing else, but right now I had to make this quick.
    Battle instincts refined over a lifetime of fighting took the wheel and in one smooth motion I removed my magnum from my hip and fired it straight into the Elites head before it could do anything more. The alien’s shield flared up briefly but three more rounds from such close range soon overloaded it and its brains were splattered across the ground, to join the dozens of grunts and jackals who had met similar fates. I jogged over to the corpse and retrieved the now silent energy sword, and stowed it by my side.
    My motion tracker bleeped. Movement was approaching fast, and a lot of it. It was time to go. With one last glance at the corpse, I started sprinting away from the battlefield towards the woods which would provide better cover. Once in there, I could move more carefully towards the rest of my team. I slid to a halt under some bushes as a pair of Banshees screamed by overhead. Once I was sure they weren’t circling back I continued my trek. My overlay informed me that the team was only a click out. While maintaining stealth, I got back to camp within two minutes.
    The camp was located in the centre of the forest, embedded inside a cave. A leaf covered mottled tent hid an array of technical equipment that I was only vaguely aware what did. With large confident strides I pushed one of the tent flaps aside and entered in. My squad leader gave me a cursory nod from his spot by the comms unit. He was in the middle of talking with the overseeing officer. I sat down on one of the various metal seats scattered around the tent.
    “S122 has just returned Sir. Mission objective complete.” He said. The hologram of the commanding officer nodded.
    “Good work Yellow Team. Extraction will be there to pick you up soon. Hold out until then. Jerome out.” With a quiet fizz the hologram disappeared. He turned to face me. “Valky, what did you take this time?” One of his eyebrows was raised in quiet expectation. Damn, straight to the point as ever.
    “Whatever do you mean?” I asked innocently.
    “We all know what you are like with anything you find interesting. The brass only allow it because of how much stuff you ‘donate’ to them for research.” A quiet chuckle came from my side, where a Spartan in blue paint was sat cleaning their weapon, an assault rifle. I pouted in their direction as I lay my helmet by my side. I would get my stuff back eventually, just you wait Alex.
    “Didn’t get anything they haven’t already seen,” I muttered, in what passed for a petulant tone for a Spartan. Still though, I knew he wouldn’t let it go until I at least showed him my spoils. With a sigh I got out the sword, several plasma grenades, and a cool metal thing that one of the elites had had. He passed his eyes over the equipment before nodding.
    “Alright, nothing special. The R&D folks are still going to want to look over this stuff. You know the drill.”
    “Damn it,” I muttered. From under one of the tables I retrieved a containment box and regretfully filled it with all the loot I had gained. Until I came to the sword that is. I took a quick glance around. No one was looking. I surreptitiously stored it by my side again and closed the box. With a small application of magic, it faded into the background. A few taps of the screen on top and it was locked and ready for transport. I heaved it upwards and put it alongside a small pile of similar boxes, mentally dubbed as ‘lost and found’. A large hand was placed on my shoulder. A deep rumbling voice comforted me in my moment of mourning.
    “It’s alright Valky. I’m sure the boys in white will let you keep something. Look on the bright side. Soon we will be back on our way to Reach. Time spent at home is a rare chance.”
    “Thanks Jorge.” I said with a sigh. Through my mind flashed a memory from a lifetime ago. A Jorge saying goodbye and tossing someone out of a hanger. A massive blue and black explosion. I shook my head to dispel it. That was a ways off. I still had plenty of time to plan out saving him, and Reach.
    Transport arrived fifteen minutes later, in the form of an armoured pelican. Along with it was a small contingent of Marines. We quickly loaded up the ship with everything important, ferrying boxes up the ramp as efficiently as possible. Once we were don, Jorge banged the cockpit door to let the pilot know he was clear for take off. The pelican engines thrummed near imperceptibly through the ship. The ship high tailed it out of the planets atmosphere at great speed.
    Now in the presence of other soldiers the Spartans clammed up any verbal communication. The awe present in the eyes of the marines at the sight of a team of super soldiers was uncomfortable to see. The Spartan program had only recently been revealed to the public at and her peers were not yet used to the worship in people’s eyes, as opposed to fear or anger they usually received when quelling an insurrection base. It was at times like this that I wished these ships had some kind of window that I could stare out of. It was with a silent sigh that I moved from the door to sit on of the metal chairs. It groaned ever so slightly under my weight. I forewent removing my helmet, as I knew some Spartans did.
    By chance my eyes met with one of the marine troopers opposite me. She nodded to me. I nodded back, before wandering off into thought. I cared little for the hushed conversation that was started by the marines over my acknowledgement. Now I had time to process this new world I had found myself in. For the last hour I had been acting on autopilot, letting my new memories guide my actions. I had been summoned to many worlds by now, though most had followed the same general form of ‘hero summoned to kill demon lord’. This sudden change to space age civilisations at war was jarring. If not for my new memories I suspected that Elite would have gutted me before I could regain my bearings.
    Now for the real elephant in the room though. I recognised this universe. I knew it well. This was the Halo Universe. My memories informed me that I had appeared in the year 2547, decades into the Human Covenant war and five years before it ended with Human victory. That meant another five years of fighting on the front line, and sometimes behind enemy lines. Five years of constant bloodshed. It would be war on a scale I had never fought before.
    Actually, I thought, my eyes hardening, it wouldn’t. Visions of blood filled battlefields flashed through my mind. Comrades and enemies alike lying in pools of their own blood as they passed away in pain and battle. The amount of people dying would be larger, and the type of war would be different, but war was war all the same. And I knew war, as did the memories that I had been gifted. I would fight, and I would kill. I may even die. But it would be a war worth fighting, I decided. For the briefest moments, hidden from sight under my armour, lightning crackled across my skin.
    “Docking with The Renowned now,” I glanced up at the intercom. Although I had only sat down scant minutes ago, I hauled myself back up. I did a cursory check to make sure I had my equipment with me, and then went to stand by the Pelican door. There was a brief rumble as the gravity on the cruiser took over for the pelican. I, and the rest of Yellow Team, were the first to disembark, swiftly jogging out of the hanger. With a silent signal we each split up to go our separate ways.
    I beelined it straight for my personal quarters. The door opened as I approached with a woosh. Inside was a rather spartan room. Only what was required and nothing more. There was a large bed with a thin mattress atop next to a terminal that was active and showing various news articles. The walls were barren of any windows and objects, leaving it a dirty silver cube. The door closed quietly as I stepped into the room.
    The second I was sealed from the outside world, the terminal glitched out. In a flash of light, a small green figure appeared on the desk. It was a young woman in a flowing summer dress. She appeared to be standing on a digital cloud, number dripping down from it like water. She was also frowning at me something fierce.
    “Took you long enough.” Her hands were on her hips. On the terminal behind her a clock appeared. It had a big blaring ‘3 hours’ on it.
    “Sorry I couldn’t teleport to you in space,” I commented drily. She gave a huffed laugh. She hopped off the desk. Mid air a pair of shimmering wings unfolded from her back. At the same time she became more solid. Her vaguely transparent body became fully opaque. She flew over to hover by my helmet. She peered into the visor, as if trying to see through the polarised material. Actually, if it was her then I wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t be able to see through the orange tinted visor.
    “Well you aren’t leaving me behind again. After all,” she tapped the helmet and promptly vanished. When she next spoke it was from the suit itself. “We’re sharing more than just a soul space now.”
    “What’s that like? Being digital?” I couldn’t help but ask. The idea of switching between organic (well, kinda) and digital at will was fascinating. On the inside of my visor a small screen appeared, in which a video of Ohma could be seen sitting cross legged in a static filled room. She tipped her head up in thought. Eventually after a few seconds she seemed to settle on an answer. A small part of me took note that for a Smart AI, that may well have been an hour.
    “It’s interesting. I don’t see the world in the same way anymore. I don’t really see the world at all actually. I receive information which tells me what everything is like, but it isn’t quite like that of an organic creature. It isn’t processes in quite the same way that a brain would. The only way I could really explain it would be to show it to you.” I shuddered, and quickly shook my head. I’d already had a similar experience when she had shown me how she perceived the world as a fairy. It had been disorientating to the extreme, and had left me throwing up for the next day. I can only imagine how much worse it would be for something even further removed from my frame of reference.
    “I’m good,” I said. She laughed in response. “Anything else interesting happen?”
    “Oh you have no idea. The way the Covenant make use of plasma has given me so many… ideas.” She purred, a vindictive smile spreading over the digital lightning fairy’s face. “I may have also tapped into the UNSC database to pull up any schematics they may have that could be of use. Sadly everything interesting isn’t stored on the ship board network.”
Thank the goddess for small mercies. I wasn’t sure how long this cruiser would last if she started experimenting with Covenant technology on her lonesome.
    “Please don’t perform dangerous experiments with alien technology in a fragile metal box floating in the vacuum of space.” I exasperatedly asked her.
    “No promises.”
Without any warning a resounding alarm rung throughout the ship. The slipspace alert, we were about to head off. I made my way over to the bed and sat down. Seconds later there was a lurch as we transitioned between dimension.
    “What’s our ETA to Reach?” I asked Ohma. Without any noticeable pause to think she replied.
    “At current FTL speeds we should get there in a four and a half sols. Cryo Pods are ready and waiting if you want to sleep for the journey.”
    I considered it briefly. I shook my head. Reaching up, I took off my helmet and combed my hand through my short hair. One of the downsides of this world was that I was now missing my long locks that I had grown to enjoy. Ohma popped out from the back of the helmet and sat down on top of it in her fairy form.
    “No. I want to make sure I am fully comfortable with this body. These next few days should help.”
    She raised her eyebrow at me. We both knew that was a lie. Our new memories made sure that I could use this body just as well, if not better, than my previous. Still, she didn’t comment on it, only giving an accepting nod. The bed creaked as I leaned back. As I did so my hand brushed up against something by my side. I looked down. It was the energy sword that I had acquired.
    I picked it up in one hand. Bringing it closer to my face, though angled so if it were to activate I wouldn’t kill myself by accident, I turned it this way and that. It was shaped not too unlike that of a bat, designed as it was for alien hands. I snorted as I imagined putting it over a flood light and summoning Batman. With the flick of my wrist I activated it. It formed instantaneously, seething plasma mere inches from me. It was contained only by small magnetic fields created by the device. I could practically taste the electrons flowing through it.
    “Ooh!” Gasped Ohma from beside me. She zipped over and swirled around the sword. “That’s so cool! I been wanting to see one of these up close since forever!” Forever no doubt being a few hours ago at most. She reached out slowly towards the blade. I jerked it away, not wanting her to burn herself on it. She glared at me until I brought it closer to her again.
With a pleased grunt, she once again reached out and stroked the blade. It flared out as her hand made contact but she remained unharmed. Where she touched it, the glowing blue sword steadily changed in colour to a more subdued yellow colour. Like a virus, it spread out through the plasma until all of it was the same uniform daisy yellow. She withdrew her hand and turned to face me.
    “We’re keeping it,” she declared. I chuckled lowly. No arguments from me. I flicked my wrist once again and the blade snapped out of existence. Another flick revealed that when I turned it on again, the plasma retained its yellow hue. Well then, at least I would know which sword was mine. It went well with my muted yellow armour.
    Putting the sword away under the bed, away from prying eyes, I tried to relax. I even succeeded for a little while. But it was not to last; I soon started to get fidgety. My hands needed to hold something, my legs ached to run. I was quickly growing restless in this barren room, and watching Ohma play around with the terminal screen barely took the edge off. I needed to work off some energy.
    Ohma glanced at me as I stood, the bed groaning as my great weight was relieved from its frame. We knew each other well enough at this point that she guessed what was up instantly and sent me a small wave goodbye as I headed to the door. I raised one hand in response before gliding out of sight, for me at least. She could probably still see me via the hallway cameras if she wished, and I had little doubt she was devoting a small number of processes to keeping tabs on me.
    My long strides took me down the long hallways swiftly. It wasn’t a particularly large ship, so after only a half dozen automatic doors and a couple of stairways I found myself at my destination: the gym. Much like the rest of the ship it wasn’t massive. At a modest 35mx35m, the silver and black room was possible one of the largest in the vessel. Rows of running machines were arranged along the far two walls. Two of them were occupied by random officers. I recognised one as an ONI agent that ‘I’ had met sometime before setting off for this previous mission.
    In the centre of the room was a boxing ring, and surrounding it were various coloured mats complemented with a set of weights. They were rated for Spartan use, so the larger dumbbell weights were rather heavy. Just what I wanted.
    I padded over to one of the closest mats, a light blue material that was spongy yet firm. It squeaked as I centred myself and started a warm up exercise. The next hour blurred together as I went through some basic routines. I was aware peripherally of people trickling in and out of the room as they went about their day. Most steered clear of me, allowing me to exercise in peace.
    The intercom dinged in through the gym, capturing my attention. Ohma’s ‘professional’ voice echoed through the room.
    “Spartan 122, you are required on the bridge. There has been a change of plans. You have a mission”
    No rest for the wicked huh.