One Small Step For A Man, One Helluva A Swandive For A Spartan

Chapter 1: What in Fresh Hell Just Happened?

On-Route to Forerunner Installation, Velocity? Really damn fast…

Country Rooooads

Take me hooooome

To the place where I belooooong

WEST VIRGINIA

MOUNTAIN MAMAAAAA

TAKE ME HOME

COUNTRY ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOADS!

…could be heard extremely quietly throughout the asteroid field as a small black silhouette went swooping past towards the large, silver-metal structure mounted onto the largest asteroid field.

That black shadow, of course was Spartan Vance. He and his AI were lazily cruising through the field of floating rocks as that speedy exit from their Prowler had provided more than enough momentum that Santa only had to apply precise firing of the thrusters to correct their course. No one wants to die from being lost in the cold vacuum of space without a ship, that would be just embarrassing.

The two had been singing along to a song by the great John Denver as Santa let the tune of his piano drift through the helmets speakers while the stars shot by and the Forerunner installation came ever closer. Santa had located the entrance (closely resembling a hanger bay) long before they had begun their explosive journey to the structure by the only species that had come close to Godhood.

As the song ended the two idiots shared a laugh before reality rushed back in the form of a metal floor slamming against them. Idan had been really into the song and had his eyes closed, Santa had noticed this window of opportunity back in the Prowler while Idan was conked out in a cryopod. The closer the structure came and his vicious grin grew wider with anticipation.

The spartan could take the hit most likely, thanks to the augmentations his body had undertaken a few years ago, and the armour was hypercompetent in its protection but just in case, Santa fired the thrusters in reverse to turn the oncoming slam into a mere bump to shake Idan back into focus.

"AHH SON OF A BITCH!" Idan shrieked, just in shock instead of pain. His eyes shot open towards the window of Santa's avatar on his visor and saw the AI slumped over the piano, shaking in mirth and guilty pleasure. "YOU".

"ME!", Santa shrieked back, imitating breathlessness as he had absolutely no evolutionary requirement for air, unlike some people.

"You planned that didn't you?!"

"Course I did, is that really surprising?"

"Nope, definitely not", Idan raised himself up to a kneel with his arms and looked around the 'hangar'. "Sooo…where's the door?"

"No idea".

"Wait, seriously?" Idan said in disbelief.

"Yeah seriously, I don't know. Start feeling about, maybe there's a doorknob".

"Right". Idan raised his hand to the hardpack on his back and took the SAW with arms lowered. "If I were the owner of a large Forerunner structure in the middle of nowhere, that was already a well-kept secret, where would I leave the keyhole?"

"Right out in the open with a glowing symbol that blinked rapidly?"

"My thoughts exactly". Idan set off with a strutting-march. The closer they got, the slower the symbol blinked. "You got a translation for that symbol?"

"I do indeed, it's Forerunner for 'Reclaimer', ONI used to think it meant 'human' but apparently the symbols are near-identical". They stopped in front of the door and the symbol stopped blinking, staring blankly back at them. "Well? What are you waiting for? The bear's not gonna poke itself". Idan reached out with hesitant fingers, barely grazing the metal before the wall slid open to reveal the corridor that lay behind it, light flickering on. "Well that wasn't creepy at all".

Idan nodded with agreement and marched on until they found another door, except this one opened the moment he came close. A Sentinel drone hovered behind it, the spartan shot into action and raised his SAW. "WAIT", Santa exclaimed, "It's not hostile!"

"Yet", Idan rumbled out. The Sentinel was different compared to the usual orange-glowing Prometheans, it was the usual Forerunner silver and grey, except it glowed blue, like they had on the Ark and Requiem so long ago.

Suddenly, a blue beam emitted from the Sentinel and ran up and down the spartan. Idan tensed up when the Forerunner drone started but quickly relaxed once it finished with a chirp. "Well then, that just happened. Hey there, little…guy?"

The Sentinel chirped again as it slowly moved down the passage before looking back at him. "Santa, my creep-o-meter just went from 0 to 60". The sentinel kept staring at them before it did something completely human, it tilted its floating chassis towards and down the corridor in a clear 'come hither' gesture.

"Might as well follow it, hasn't done anything yet".

"YET. Keyword here is YET".

Idan walked down the hallway, SAW lowered but ready to be raised should anything happen. The Sentinel, ever patient, waited until the Reclaimer had caught up and it matched pace with them, leading them further down into the Library.

"Okay. What. The. Fuck.", Santa let out in monotonous shock. They had been following the Sentinel he had decided to name Steven for half an hour now and now they were standing in one of the largest, sketchiest rooms they had ever had the misfortune to witness.

Several Promethean soldiers ranging from Crawlers, Watchers and to Knights were lining the outline of the room. Only, none of them were the standard Promethean orange. They all glowed blue and they weren't attacking, no guns raised or aggressive shivers, they just stood there, watching Idan. A large blue platform lay in the centre of the hall.

"Well, we're dead if we try anything and we might be dead anyway", Idan huffed out in frustration with worry that added up as time went by.

Steven the Sentinel, their unofficial tour guide, started flying gently into his back, nudging him in the direction of the platform. Idan, seeing no other solution to continued survival walked towards it. He stopped before he reached, several metal rings had risen up around the platform with an opening in front, right in his path.

"Shiiiiiiiiiit…Uh Santa? What do we do?"

"I've got nothing, boss. Either death by Prometheans or unknown fate by unknown Forerunner machine, take your pick. Just remember there's two of us in here and I would very strongly like to live much longer towards the end of my lifespan".

"Please don't remind me of that, we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Together", Idan shivered. Smart AI's only had a time of 7 years after 'birth' before they started to fall apart. They would eventually and slowly lose their minds and literally think themselves to death. Idan had no desire to see that happen, he couldn't bear watching not only his, but also his only friend's life come crashing down around them. He'd already lost so many people in the war and on Requiem, the ODST he used to be, couldn't help forming attachments and friendships with the soldiers he fought with. From Reach to Earth, from Earth to the Ark and finally to Requiem. It tore him apart every time it happened.

"It's inevitable but just promise me you'll find something to do with your life, don't shut everyone out. I only just got you out of your shell, you know!", Santa trying to change the subject, thinking about one's death was already super depressing, he swore to himself that he would make the most out of it and he'd keep Idan safe.

Once they reached the ringed machine, a spartan-waist high pillar rose up and out of the ground. Idan stopped before it and ran his hand down the front of it, finding exactly what he thought he would. A slot, roughly the size of an AI chip.

"Ooooooh, what do we have here?", Santa's curiosity was already aroused but now the urge was painful, "Plug me in, do it now!"

Idan, without many other options and not in the mood to have an irate AI pissed off with access to the speakers and locked inside the helmet with his sensitive ears in there too, immediately reached for the back of his helmet as the dual-plates that covered the port slid open and to the sides, granting his fingers access to Santa's very essence. He pulled and hesitantly inserted Santa into the podium.

Instead of Santa's hologram flaring into being on the podium, there was just swirling energy like a miniature sun with Santa's usual red colouring. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get in there!"

Idan took another look around, the Prometheans were still staring him down but now there were several Knights standing in front of him, facing the door, almost protectively. "Well, if they wanted us dead they wouldn't have wasted this much time", he said with a shrug and turned back to the rings and stepped in. Suddenly, he seized up as energy enveloped him and lifted him off the ground, his vision blacked out and his body relaxed.

The Prometheans collectlively hummed with approval and encircled the machine that held the Reclaimer and his ancilla, all facing out towards the entrances to stand vigil.

Across the stars, the Corrupted Ancilla and her Warden halted their plans involving the Guardians in shock and looked towards the wall, exactly in the direction of the Lifeworker Installation that activated autonomously. The Warden started to gather sufficient Prometheans and prepared for Slipspace travel, determined to discover the cause of this anomaly.

He felt warmth on his face, touched with a light breeze. He heard birds, trees rustling in the wind and…piano music and humming?

SANTA!

Idan's eyes shot open and saw a sky, an all too familiar sky. A light blue sky that clouds lazily drifted across. He slowly raised himself into a kneel, seeing grass beneath him and rubbed his eyes…wait, his eyes?! He patted both of his hands around his head, feeling and confirming, yup, his helmet was gone.

He stood up in the long grass for a better look. He was on a coast! Nurtured plantation swayed around the perplexed spartan, an ocean was to his left and he could see ships! Wooden with sails and everything! Only these looked archaic, far different to ones he'd seen in educational holovids and some of his favourite movies, ancient classics involving pirates.

"Santa? You here, bud?", Idan called out.

"Over here!", he heard from his right.

Idan spun around and saw something he'd thought impossible. A large-as-life Santa sat there at his piano hunched over, eyes closed and swaying to the gentle music, all without a projector to show off with. Idan sped over to him but before he could talk, Santa beat him to it.

"Someone needs to speak with you.", Santa said calmly, throwing one fist over his shoulder with a single thumb outstretched behind him, pointing.

Idan glanced in that direction with puzzled eyes and went rigid in shock. A tall being sat in the grass, long silver dress flowing with a silver headdress floating about her head like hair. He knew her, Santa had been obsessed with talking about once he'd finished studying through the information that ONI had gathered from the Forerunner machine designated Catalogue. It had records, history and information all about this very Forerunner in front of him.

Santa spoke again, still playing but now reading through the information on the floating holoscreens that levitated above the piano like a musician's scripts. "Go, we'll compare notes and gush about this like schoolgirls later".

Idan, on autopilot as he went through this out of body experience, just nodded and slowly walked to the Great-Mother, the very being that was undeniably the closest thing Humanity had to a caring god, whether they knew it or not.

"Hello, Reclaimer". The Librarian turned to face him, a gentle smile as she looked up to him. She had been looking down from atop her seat on the hill proudly, watching as the settlement of humans below went about their lives, inventing, foraging, learning, all of this at an astonishing pace. Such short lives yet resolving to doing all they can with the time they had, this was one of the many reasons she believed Humanity was meant for the Mantle.

"I…I…", Idan at a loss for words, feeling self-conscious and nervous before the ancient Forerunner before him and dropped to both his knees, now noticing the village of his surviving kind below and looked to the one responsible. "Thank you…for everything you did for us" He noticed she held something in her hands, black, curvy and shining…his helmet.

"It was my honour…and apology, for everything my kind did to yours. What we did was wrong, had we known the results of our actions we might have found another solution and done things differently", stroking the helmet of a Forerunner Prefect and looking into the visor, "…the Forerunners might have survived the Flood".

The Librarian patted the ground next to her. "Please sit, we have much to discuss with so little time". And so, she spoke for a long, long time. The Human-Forerunner war, Humanity's discovery of the Parasite and attempts to cleanse it, the Forerunner's de-evolution of Humanity, stripping them of their deserved right to be a space-faring species and exile to Charum-Hakkor (now known more simply as Earth), what the Mantle of Responsibility truly meant, to safeguard life across the galaxy and finally the reason he was brought here.

Idan sat through this in shock and respectful silence, only asking questions when she paused, never interrupting as understanding and enlightenment dawned on him.

"Reclaimer…Idan, your kind has always been adept at war and their ability to learn through conflict, even now your kind succeeded in their endeavours to survive against the Covenant, the Flood and my husband. But your progress is impeded, another trial must be undertaken, the ancilla of the one that came before you had been corrupted with the Logic Plague by the Gravemind, I could sense it when they met me, long ago on Requiem, I was going to give to them what I will give to you soon back then but the Didact prevented me from doing so. Humanity will ascend to the Mantle…

Before she could finish, a slipspace rupture echoed out across the land around them and a gargantuan, horrifying machine swooped in from the portal and assembled itself, blocking out the sun as its wings fanned out and a dull roar reverberated across the coast.

"She's found us! Spartan, you must leave!", the Librarian shrieked franticly and shot to her feet alongside Idan, thrusting his helmet into his chest as his hands wrapped around it. "Take my gifts and go! Humanity must continue without me!", She spoke as she placed a hand on Idan's shoulder.

Idan, like the soldier he was, shifted into his analytical mindset and slammed his helmet back down onto his head and his vision blacked out again.

The Warden Eternal and his contingent of Promethean Soldiers stepped out from the slipspace rupture, the arrogant Promethean leader swivelled his gaze across the Atrium and notice a substantial dent in the floor, roughly 4 inches deep and 6.8 metres wide.

The Warden immediately sprinted down the open corridor and saw something far too cruel. The Gateway of Ascension was online… and was now being tainted with the filth of a HUMAN! Even worse, it wore the armour of a Prefect and there were already Prometheans there! None of them were trying to stop it, were they protecting the human? Impossible!

Humanity were not meant the Mantle! His master, The Didact knew this and so did Cortana. "Stop him!", he boomed to the Prometheans, even if none listened, the traitors! He raced toward the ringed platform, sweeping Knights and kicking Crawlers out of his path as he reached out to rip the disrespectful creature from the Gateway and crush him in his fist.

Then the Gateway's defence subroutine kicked in and released a shockwave of energy, hurtling the Warden Eternal across the room. The Gateway powered down as it lowered the Reclaimer back down to the ground, leaving him in a kneel held up only by his fist. Its purpose was finally accomplished, The Mantle of Responsibility was finally Reclaimed.

One moment Idan was standing on an ancient coast with the most compassionate Forerunner ever born as he slammed his helmet back on, next he was back in the hall, kneeling. He saw nothing except silver metal, as he looked up he saw the largest Promethean ever seen, staring him down. Huh, at least this one is the normal orange.

The Spartan stood to his feet and every Promethean in the room, Big-boi and his orange henchmen included, either bowed their heads or kneeled before him. He immediately retrieved Santa from the terminal and inserted him back into his helmet. Strangely, Santa didn't speak, either he was still processing that information and recovering from post-orgasmic bliss from the massive information upload or he was in reset-mode.

Seeing the compliance and loyalty of the Prometheans that now served him, he set off at a pace towards the orange newcomers. As he walked, a familiar Sentinel floated beside him, showing him the security recording of the leader's intrusion of the 'Atrium' and attempted interruption of Idan's 'Ascension'. "Hmm, what to do with you…thank you Steven", he spoke to the Sentinel as it chirped at the praise before he stopped as he reached his destination, "What's your name, Sonny-Jim?", he asked/ordered to the large one that held itself up on its hands and knees.

Just because he was chosen to be the Forerunner equivalent of a galaxy-wide judge, jury and executioner didn't mean he had to let go of his humanity like the Forerunners had done when they became ever-serious and arrogant with their stolen title.

Unbelievable.

The human had not only succeeded but the Warden had failed Cortana! And now he was held captive.

"I-I…", he groaned in shame, "I am the Warden Eternal, I stand in service to Cortana and her people!", he spat out at the human, defiant to the last.

The human just stared back, hands on hips, a human expression that he was unimpressed. "Oh, do you now?", then it nodded and stepped closer to stare the humbled and immobile Warden in the eyes, "Well, there's been a change in management, now…", the human clapped his hand upon the Warden's shoulder as he kneeled before him, "…now you serve me".

The Forerunner AI felt mental pain crashing into him at all sides, crushing any attempts to resist for a time as logic and instinct demanded he submit to the Reclaimer! Then the Warden's mind divided. The Warden Eternal had millions of bodies and the Domain connected them all, he always had a backdoor, always a way out! But the dominance of this Reclaimer-his Reclaimer, forced him to stand and serve.

The Warden that wanted to serve Cortana fled across the Domain while the Warden that stayed loyal to the Mantle of Responsibility, remained with his Reclaimer, submitted and the orange hardlight changed to blue, like the loyal Prometheans around them.

"I see it now, I understand…forgive me, Reclaimer".

The Guardian that orbited the Installation, ever loyal to Cortana and unaware of the shift in leadership, sensed the Warden Eternal's defeat inside the structure and began to power up its 6 beam cannons, intent on destroying the installation and the rebellion inside it.

"Good", Huh, easier than I thought..what a bitch, "Santa you back yet?" No response. Well shit. The Spartan looked around the hall at his new dominion and he thought it…bloody fantastic. Giddy with adrenaline, he barely felt the vibrations in the floor as the structure shook around him.

"Oh, Sweet Lord Above, what the hell was that?!", He yelled, and Steven the Sentinel, ever helpful, displayed a screen that showed the exact same flying metal behemoth from the meeting with the Librarian, waiting out in the asteroid field, laser beams out to impact and burn away the Installation. "Damn…", he looked directly at the legend that was Steven, "Remind me that you deserve either a promotion or reward if we're both still alive in the foreseeable future". The Sentinel beeped and chirped once more.

Suddenly, the Prometheans glowed blue and vanished back into slipspace, Steven too. "Fuckfuckfuckfuck", was the mantra he muttered in rapid repetition and nervousness, "SANTA NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO WAKE UP, I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW!"

Then like the eerie voice of God, Santa finally spoke up, distorted as he may be and still not fully recovered, "…e…need to go! …THrouGh there go!" A slipspace portal exploded into existence in the centre of the hall as the ceiling started to collapse and a dull, booming base was heard, steadily ramping up.

Idan didn't need to be told twice and immediately hoofed it as the floor started to become a downhill slope towards the portal and promptly jumped with arms outstretched as the dull bass-boom turned into a violent explosion just before he made it through.

The pulse the Guardian released as it vanished back into slipspace, grazed the spartan's personal portal before it could close up behind him and caused it to malfunction, time stretched, stars shot past the Crimson Spartan went blurring past before everything went black…for a third time today…

The battle was not going well for the Republic on Christophsis, the droid army of the Separatists were endless, and the deaths of their clone forces kept adding up with no end or reprieve in sight. We need to retreat, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi thought but before he could open his mouth to shout the order to his troops, a roar immediately screamed across the battlefield and the sky ripped apart above them in blue and red lights, before a black object came blasting through towards the ground from the tear in reality itself as the colourful tear in the sky closed up again.

This immediately caused a sudden stop to the battle as either side looked on in confusion.

What was that, "Binoculars now!", he called out and a single clone in the generic white armour, came running up to hand him what he asked for.

"Thank you", he raised the block that enhanced the user's vision came up to his eyes and he zoomed in on the crash site…directly in front of enemy lines!

A tall, armoured figure rose up on shaky legs before it stumbled back to its hands and knees. Kenobi couldn't tell if it was a droid or a living being, so he decided against ordering the troops to continue bombarding the new entity's position.

"Sir, orders?", Commander Cody asked him in the same amount of confusion he was in.

"Hold fire unless the droids don't, I don't know who or what that thing is, but I sense that we'll have our answers soon enough".

His head felt like it had been placed inside a blender upside down before someone turned it on and added salt. Eager to find out what in fresh hell just happened, Idan staggered to his feet before collapsing back into a crouch when he found his balance was currently on a drunken binge and would need time to sober up again.

"Santa, I have no idea what you just did but we're still alive, so we can say your plan was a success, at lea…."

"FREEZE!"

"YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"

Oh…

He looked up to see a literal army of tan-bony figures standing above him with black rifles pointed directly at his chest. They were metallic, and he could see an antenna poking up from behind some of their backs.

Oh…

He turned his head to look behind him and saw another army, this time with white armour and black rifles, their black weapons were lowered in ready position and they were all watching him, adding to his stage fright and definitely boosting his confidence.

Oh…

Judging by the bodies of white soldiers and tan robotic drones (all practically identical to their respective side), he developed a solution Einstein would have puzzled over for a long time while Archimedes would have taken one look at it and given up immediately.

He had dropped directly into a warzone, a definitely ongoing one…

Idan heard clicks sound up from the robots again.

Oh…oh dear.

"OPEN FIRE", and his visor saw red.

END OF CHAPTER ONE