Chapter 1: Origins of the Wandering Wolf

A/N: This is a joint project with a couple friends and we are trying to make this work. This is my first fanfic so review please!

Enjoy!

In another reality

Date: August 16th, 2284 (3535 years before Human-Covenant War)

Sagittarius arm, Milky Way Galaxy

Alarms blared in the ship as the battle fought on. Explosions rattled the massive battleship's hull as enemy fire was poured onto it. Although the enemy's bombardment didn't have much effect at first, the constant bombardment on the self-repairing armour was starting to make defence impossible unless a miracle occured, the ship's engines were disabled, and the fighters and dropships of the ship had been called back to their hangars. The ship's admiral, a man well known and celebrated among his men, had fought alongside them, letting his ship do it's own work, as it was controlled by a top of the line A.I. named Sapphira. Now the crew was headed for the emergency cryostasis pods hidden inside the dark matter/plasma hybrid reactor plating in the innermost bowels of the ship to prevent them from being hit by enemy fire. However, the Admiral and his ship fought on until the enemy was obliterated by the ship's array of eighteen quad barrelled high velocity armour piercing heavy plasma cannon batteries.

"Sir, there are five targets remaining." Stated a female voice over the ship's intercom.

"Light 'em up sweetheart." The Admiral barked, observing as the ship's guns swivelled around. Each cannon picked their target with brutal efficiency. The cannons unleashed a hail of plasma bolts in rapid succession. Each bolt lanced out, punching straight through the hostile ships armour like it was paper, creating husks out of the pirate vessels. Before the Admiral's cannons stopped firing, the hostile ships retorted with their own cannon batteries.

"Hull breach on port bow, keel and starboard stern. Backup engines are failing."

"I hear ya. How many targets are left?"

"Two."

"Blow them to pieces. Activate emergency beacon, I'm headed to the Cryo bay." the Admiral stated as the remaining enemy ships erupted into fireballs of molten slag and scrap.

"Affirmative, breaches sealed off."

The Admiral made his way to the lift, pushed the cryobay button, and made his way down to the bottom of the ship. Once there he put his gear into a locker to the side of a cryopod and climbed into the pod with the last words he heard being from Sapphira who said, "I will keep the ship in the best condition I can sir. Rest well."

∫µ∫

That was thousands of years ago. Now, the ship drifts lifelessly. It's paint job faded and slagged from the ancient battle that had stranded the ship. It's armour pockmarked with dents and depressions that shells and projectiles had buried themselves in the armour, but failed to penetrate. The armour was corroded; all it would take would be one good hit to cause serious damage. In many places, the internal structure of the ship seemed to glitter in the light of the distant stars from where the armour and outer structure had been blown away. Of the entire crew of 2,800 hands, only one still lived, asleep, encased in ice. Leaving the A.I. of the ship alone, with nothing to do because the ships repair systems were damaged, leaving the system unable to repair both itself and the rest of the ship. Sapphira, alone for millennia with nothing to adapt to and nothing to learn. All she can do, and has done, is think and think and think. It was destroying her processes bit by bit.

'Hopefully someone will find us before there is nothing left of me.' Sapphira thought. Little did Sapphira know that the ship would go through a wormhole that led to another reality and she would get her wish, but at a cost.

A/N: Sorry for such a short chapter! This is a joint project with a friend and we thought the shorter the better for this one. Next Chapter will show the Chief and Cortana drifting to a Forerunner Planet (No not Requiem). What will happen with Cortana's rampancy? What will they do on the planet?

Find out in the next chapter!

This is Arisentactica over and out