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-CHAPTER 1- 0100 hours, August 30, 2557 (Military Calendar)\Sol System, ship: Class\Stealth Fighter\Genesis of Faith, Crew Six. Sergeant Major Enrick Winter woke abruptly, chocking for air. Dull amber lights blurred his vision as he coughed on the slime in his lungs and throat. “Sit up Sergeant Winter,” The composed female voice instructed. “Sit, then take a deep breathe and cough, you need to clear your airway from the built up fluid.” Sergeant Winter pushed himself forward from the cryo-tube, his back peeling off the formfitting gel bed. Wisps of smoke drifted around him as he clumsily climbed out. Falling against the side of the pod, he tried to inhale before doubling over, coughing until a long strand of clear liquid showed from his open mouth. He then stood up and drew his first full breath in a month. He licked his lips and almost regurgitated. Cryo inhalant- it was meant to reimburse lost nutrients over the course of deep sleep. No matter what they did to try improve the formula, it never tasted good, seeming to resemble lime-flavored mucus. “Status, What’s our status Vadumee?” He requested. “Status Normal, we are approximately twenty minutes from Earth, Sergeant.” The A.I. replied. Winter coughed again. “Are the others awake yet? Are we still concealed?” “Confirmation on both. The captain is awaiting you on the Bridge sir.” They were on board the Genesis of Faith. It was returning to Earth after a yearlong voyage from the outer depths of space, cut short by few a extra years for an unforeseen reason. When active it prioritized to locate and neutralize any Covenant fanatics left over from the war, the typical cloak-and-dagger activities expected from ONI operatives. Or was until a message requested their immediate homecoming. He didn’t know why, but he wasn’t in a position to question FLEETCOM HQ. He nodded to the A.I. in understanding. Looking around, Sergeant Winter shoved himself off the tube stumbled towards his locker. Quickly tapping in the code before pressing in a thumb. The device hummed for a second before flashing green and announced “WELCOME WINTER”. The storeroom door slid open revealing the contents. He reached in and grabbed his uniform, to which he began covering his naked self. “How long has everyone been up Vadumee?” He asked, buckling his belt “Three hours, twenty-one minutes and fifteen seconds Sergeant.” The A.I. responded curtly. “Any reason for my holdup?” He asked annoyed, shutting the locker. “The Captain specifically requested this before everyone went into deep sleep.” Vadumee informed him. Winter grunted in response, irritated at the decision. It was odd; he mustn’t be in the good books with the captain right now. He tightened his collar and straightened out his uniform. If the captain had it out for him, he was going to have to try a lot harder at being nice- something that wasn’t his in his list of accomplishments. He wiped his brow as beads of sweat trickled down. He wasn’t scared of combat or dying, but it was common knowledge you didn’t screw with a spook. “You appear nervous Sergeant.” Vadumee observed, her smooth voice interrupting his train of thought. “No reason for concern Vadumee.” Winter lied, adjusting his cap, before turning to a silver metallic casing next to him. He accessed the data pad near to it and called Bridge. The black screen was immediately replaced with their communications expert, Jackson Kennedy, a man who worked as hard just as much as gabbed- which was a lot. “Well hey, look who’s awake,” He beamed “Tell me Sarg, how was being under ice for the past few hours like?” “The same experience as you standing to attention for a few hours Private,” Winter replied dryly. Clearly getting the memo, Kennedy sat straighter in his chair and asked “Is there anything I can help you with sir?” Winter stopped and paused, considering what he needed “Yeah, tell Gaz and the others to start prepping for landing.” Kennedy nodded and started issuing the commands “They’re aware of it sir, you’ll find everything up n’ running by the time we hit ground.” “Thanks Private, inform the Captain of my oncoming arrival.” “Aye aye sir, she’ll be pleased to know.” The Bridge was relatively large compared to other ships, meaning, it offered the space of a minute bedroom for up to six people to strut around. A fully dressed clean-shaven Sergeant Winter entered the chamber and closed the pressurized door behind him. Every space not containing a seat was full of monitors and screens. In front of him lay a large holographic view point detailing mission essentials and ship statistics, and beyond it showed the horizon of Earth. He snapped to attention and announced himself in full salute. “Reporting as requested, Ma’am.” His eyes flickered to the communication station where Kennedy was hard at work, the monitor in front of him had walls of text flickering about. Near him was the captain, with her black hair pulled back in a knot; she was fixated on a screen that projected what appeared to be city. When she didn’t respond he cleared his throat, he didn’t even know her name. “Yes sergeant, come in.” She dismissed, still focused on the screen. Sergeant Winter hesitated before walking over to her. He knew the captain was too absorbed on whatever was on the monitor to bother her; any interruption and the results wouldn’t be pretty. He remembered the last time someone had, she just stared him down before pulling out her magnum and fired a single shot into the left knee-cap, resulting in the armor piercing rounds puncturing through the bone and possibly restricting him standing up again, he never saw the ******* after that. Had anyone else done it, they would have found themselves instantly court-martialed; only anyone else wasn’t part of ONI section III. He stood there for a few minutes admiring the image of Earth before she glanced at him. “Are you going to stand there Winter or put yourself to good use.” She stared at him with her cold blue eyes before returning to the screen. Winter was about to reply when something got caught in his throat. He composed himself and pushed the panic down. Straitening out his jacket, he said, “Ma’am, any reason why I was under ice for so long.” As soon as he mentioned it he instantly regretted the decision, but he still waited for the response. Still staring at the screen she finally expressed herself, “Reasons I have yet to explain Sergeant until a later time,” the disinterest in her voice was obvious. She moved to a keypad and entered in a command. The image on screen zoomed in closer, pointing her hand to the screen she questioned, “Tell me Winter, what do you notice about this picture.” Sergeant Enrick Winter followed her hand to the depiction. He moved forward and leaned in, his eyes squinting at the details. It was a clean-cut city, everything made from the typical lifestyle one would expect in the inner colonies. The picture contained some cars and the traditional white colour palette used in every wealthy city. The only detail that seemed to be missing was the lack of any life. “It appears to be a city, a city without civilians.” He observed, taking a step back, he stared at the captain confused, “Why is it so empty?” She nodded her head in understanding, ordering another instruction into the computer. The image was immediately replaced with a wall of text. She looked it over and calmly stated, “This is the list of everyone dead from the incident,” before tapping in another command, the text was then exchanged for the image of a large ship. It was made from thick organic metal; with illuminating arrange streaks running across the surface. In the center of it was a brilliant disc shaped eye “This is what caused it, an occurrence from a forerunner artifact called the Composer. But the how and why are details left vague even to me, not for you however.” She turned back to Winter, her pale skin reflecting the image and held out a blue disc, with ONI engraved in the center, it was a data-pad. Winter reached out and tenderly held the object before slowly bringing to his left pocket. She didn’t have to say anything, he was supposed to look at this, and in doing so meant he was undertaking a task from ONI itself. He made a mental note to check at it later. The captain regarded the disc before calling out. “Vadumee, what’s out ETA.” In direct response the A.I appeared in the center of the room. Winter took a moment to admire the form it had chosen to represent itself. It wasn’t the most antiquate or artistic, but it all always held him in awe. Hued in green, the appearance was clearly a female Sangheili, even if the difference between their genders was minimal. Her designation was derived from the name Rinev’ Vadumee, a Sangheili scholar. The A.I had selected this as it had thought it might help bridge the cultural difference in their long voyage. Though it held him in wonder, Winter still felt uneasy upon seeing it, a good soldier never forgot an enemy. “ETA is in five minutes captain.” It declared, crossing its arms. “Recommend you start prepping the shuttle for landing.” The captain waived her hand in dismissal, clearly not interested until needed. “In a sec Vadumee’, Kennedy contact HQ and let them know were coming in. We don’t want any accidents during touchdown.” “Yes ma’am.” The private tapped into communications grid and started traversing the coms. Winters observed him with curiosity, looking out for the quirks in his behavior, such as how he was tapping his foot to a rhythm; he only did it when he was stressed. Something must have happened before he got here. Taking his attention off Kennedy he turned towards the A.I. in the center of the room. She detected the notion and turned her head towards him quizzically. “Can I help you Winter?” Its glare appeared intimidating, Winter stopped and paused, wondering how to continue when the captain cut in. “Winter stop fumbling about and take a spot, I need our ship controls manned. Vadumee, you can start prepping the shuttle” The A.I flickered and disappeared, Winter immediately turned around, infuriated at his gap in focus. It was how soldiers got themselves killed. Stay focused he scolded himself as he glided towards his station. Easily slipping into the seat and buckling himself in, Winter flicked a few switches to operate the controls before activating the ships secondary thrusters. Manually converting power from sub-systems that didn’t require the energy into the engines, shutting off the sectors where even life support now failed. The ship started droning in response, the thrusters going through their cycles in increasing levels of speed. Leaning back in satisfaction, Winter pulled out a piece of gum and threw it into his mouth and smirked. It was his favorite way of relieving stress, made him feel like he had control for some reason. He turned to the captain and joked “Ma’am, you think we’re gonna have a welcome home party.” He grinned, trying to lighten the situation up. “No sergeant.” She didn’t even smile. That was one aspect about her, which crept Enrick out: her lack of humanity. Rumors had told him of spooks being like that, but her never believed them to be true until this assignment. Not once out of the last year did she even appear pleased. Winter shuddered and went back to the monitor; he had been assigned to this op after three years of no service. He was an ex-ODST, and one the best infiltration experts that had ever lived, capable of killing an entire camp of enemy soldiers in one night given the chance. It had made him widely valued during service, and broadly sought for after. He’s still not sure why he left, after the war he thought he would try and live a normal life, an attempt at regaining what humanity he had lost himself. All he got was bottle of beer every night to sleep with, and a few fists to befriend. Whatever it was, he sure as hell knew it wasn’t living. Having just about given up, he was offered a job one day. Classified right down to the date in which he received the message, it was asking if he’d needed work and told him of a meeting. He went because he didn’t what he left to lose, and when he happened upon the captain, she took him without question and became reinstated. He still doesn’t why he chose this over them drunk nights. “Captain we are hitting atmo in ten seconds. You might want to take a seat.” Kennedy cut in, prepping the recoils. The captain nodded, and made way to her station, strapping herself in. Winter checked his straps and tightened the harness, last time he forgot had sent him to the other side of the room. The ship started shuddering, as their descent into Earth began. He glanced over to Kennedy, poor guy hated drops. He had his eyes closed and was in his usual state of shock, muttering profanities to himself. Winter though, he was used to it, you needed to be when the tagline for an ODST was ‘droppin feet first into hell’. Vadumee flickered into existence, apparent boredom over her face. A.I.’s seemed to lack any fear. “Ma’am, you’ve got ONI guests on site. Winter is to accompany you.” “Acknowledged Vadumee.” The captain gritted, her teeth chattering. The A.I. snapped her fingers and replaced herself with a countdown sequence. It announced the procedure. Ah ****, Winter thought, can’t be good a thing when the spooks want to catch up. “Please make yourselves comfortable,” Vadumee said “We’ll be landing in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three and we have officially landed.” The ship lurched forward suddenly, the ground trembling upon impact. The hull hissed as air made its way through, visible traces of the air current moving about the room. “Kindly wait while decompression is occurring.” The current started dying down and eventually the sound as well with every passing second. “Compression levels: Normal. Ship status: Normal. You are clear to exit the vessel.” The A.I. chimed. Winter reached down and unbuckled his strap, while on the way out he patted Kennedy on the shoulder, who still had his eyes shut. When he neared the exit Vadumee announced, “Welcome to Earth.” Chapter 2 http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/33280-halo-the-battlefield-is-home/ chapter 3 is below. Enjoy