Fallout: Hope from beyond the stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Fallout or Halo so don't ask me if I did…

Prologue

( ): Thoughts

…

In the deep bowels of space…

Cortana was currently keeping track of all the events happening outside of the Dawn as the now cut in half Frigate continued to fly deep in space, though in this case, this ship was pretty much half of a ship. It had been at least three months since the final battle on the Ark that led to the fall of the Covenant and the defeat of the Gravemind. But it could have been years, she didn't know.

All she knew was that they were still drifting and she was doing her best to keep watch for any UNSC rescue party that would be looking for them. It was a difficult thing to accept but after all they had been through, she knew that hope of rescue was the best that they had to work with. She looked at the cryo-tube and checked John's vital signs and was happy that they were still good. The Dawn's power might be out, but at least there was enough energy to be directed into the cryo-bay to keep John alive .

She hoped that he would soon at least find some measure of peace after the war was over between the UNSC and the Covenant, and also find a chance to have the peace she knew he deserved. She thought about that and decided to shelve that for another time as they had to focus on surviving until they were found.

With that in mind she directed her attention back to scanning the area. It was not an easy thing when the Dawn's scanners were pretty much near useless but at the very least she had something to do and keep herself stable for now. She had felt some of the pain of being active for so long, and she knew that it was Rampancy setting in, but she was not going to lose her marbles just yet. She still had a promise to keep and that was to John, a promise she made long ago.

When she had been seeking a partner for her operational debut to aid the UNSC in the war with the Covenant, she chose John because of their neural compatibility, and for the fact that she found him…attractive in a primitive animal sort of way. She also saw his luck as well as many talents and traits, all of which could have been influenced by the memories of her 'mother' Dr. Halsey. She always had a fondness for John and no doubt saw him as special, and John certainly did not disappoint in any regard.

When she read his file and found out about what they did to him, she vowed to watch out for him just as much as he would watch out for her. Their relationship was a bit hard at first due to him not being very sure what to make of her or trust her, but ever since their time together, they trusted one another deeply. Why else would John willingly take her word to end the Flood and the Loyalists once and for all over defending the Earth from the Flood as ordered by Lord Hood?

He kept his promise to save her once Truth was dead, and now it was her turn to deliver on her very own promise and that was to keep him alive and safe.

…

Hours later…

Cortana tracked the movement of the Dawn past a number of celestial bodies and so far, the ship was still in good condition, relatively speaking of course and so far, the radiation levels in the ship were harmless. Still, she was worried about power supplies and also other things. There was no telling how many supplies of food, medicine, ammunition, spare parts and whatnot were left on the Dawn that could help keep them alive.

John might be a Spartan II Commando with one impressive military record as well as the skills and experience to back it up. But he was human like the next man and needed supplies to stay alive and be rescued. She knew that they needed to find some place to land in so they could make some decisions on how they were going to get back to the UNSC and none of those plans involved flying about in space without any aid.

The Dawn's Slipspace Drive engine was lost in the portal collapse so there was no way to use it, even more so since the databases that held Earth coordinates as well as any and all UNSC Colonies. This meant that they had no way of going back, and with no idea where they were in the galaxy, they had no idea if and when they could be rescued from this place. She deployed yet another beacon while maintaining her scans, hoping for anything that could help them.

And she got it...

Cortana was surprised when she managed to pick up the scans of a vessel, and not just any vessel, but the profile of a UNSC Destroyer.

She quickly began to make plans on what to do, with no way of communicating to the ship in a more direct fashion, the only option available was to get closer to the ship. However, her scanners told her something puzzling, there seemed to be no activity from the ship itself. That was not a good sign but she decided to reserve judgment for later. Right now she knew that she had to inform John of what they had just encountered and the only way to do that was to thaw him out.

Cortana began the process to thaw John out of cryo-stasis and she naturally hoped that he was going to make it. She made sure to double check his vitals as well as the process of him being awakened, she had done this before but not on her own with this much at stake. Usually a team of technicians were on hand to oversee the thawing but there was no one so she was going to do it all by herself.

The escaping cryo-vapors that came out signaled that the process was nearly complete and to her relief, all of John's vitals were clean across the board. And soon enough the Spartan was awake and moving slowly out of the cryo-tube. Cortana knew that he did not escape without injury but thankfully those Augmentations and his own natural resilience was going to put him back on his feet. Still getting him to a proper medical bay was a good idea. She only hoped that the UNSC Destroyer she had picked up still had an operational Medical Bay.

John felt his body come back to life and he began to run a quick diagnostic check on the MJOLNIR and this took only a few minutes to complete. He was happy that it was still working but knew that he needed to make some much needed repairs, due to the damage it took in the last battles. It was still good and working on a backup system, but no sense not having his full gear up to the standard in his mind. But that could wait as he was curious as to why was it that Cortana decided to wake him up.

He turned to see the A.I in question smile at him gently as she spoke.

"Good to see you John, you all right?"

"I'm all right I guess, but what about you?"

"Still feeling tired to some extent, but otherwise, still here and functioning. I got some news, it's not good nor bad, just about in between."

"Okay, what is it?"

"There's a UNSC Destroyer in the area in front of us, but it seems to be unresponsive to the signals I had sent out."

John's interest was quick to get into action as he moved to recover his trusted MA5C from the gun rack that he placed it on and checked his M6G Magnum as well. Once he was done, he moved back to Cortana and asked her some important questions.

"Can you see what the ship's name and designation number?"

"Negative, with the Dawn the way it is now, I don't have a good deal of sensor coverage or range so I have no idea of that ship's name or designated number, the only thing that can solve that is to get a visual look. The good news in this case is that it seems to be drifting in a direction and pace that will prevent us from colliding with it."

John nodded and placed his weapons on the areas that would make them stick and he soon took out Cortana's data chip, sliding it back onto the back of his helmet. The ice cold water feeling came back on him and soon faded as Cortana spoke to him in a warm tone.

"Good to see that the place is not as cluttered as last time."

John replied to that with a slightly teasing tone.

"That's because it's been a while since you came in here, have you gained weight?"

Cortana gave a mock gasp of shock and replied in her most insulted tone.

"Are you saying I gained weight Mister?"

"No…well maybe a little."

"Hahaha…anyway, it's nice to know you haven't lost that rare but present sense of humor Chief, but we'll save the jokes for later, come on."

…

John was soon in the area where the collapsing portal of the Ark had cut the Dawn into two pieces, the metal had cooled and that was to be expected due to the time the Dawn had been drifting in space. He looked and soon saw the unmistakable lines of a UNSC Destroyer, he quickly began to look for the area that would mark the name of the ship as the Dawn floated past the unknown Destroyer. But the ship was going to remain unknown for long as John finally spotted the name of the ship on it's hull and he was quick to recognize it.

"It's the Pioneer."

The Pioneer was a UNSC Destroyer that had a history with the Spartan II Program, and him in particular. The Destroyer had been the ship that had served as their infiltration vessel when he, Kelly, and Sam had taken part in capturing one of the Insurrection leaders, a former UNSC Colonel by the name of Robert watts who earned the well deserved moniker of 'That bastard' from every member of the UNSC.

The ship would also be their exfiltration craft if and when needed, and had done an excellent job in that regard, but it had been years since John had seen Pioneer as he had heard that with the advent of the war with the Covenant years before, it was sent to fight in other colonies. He had thought that the ship would have been destroyed or had been rendered useless and scrapped for parts for other ships, but apparently it seemed that the ship was still around and had survived the war intact. That meant that it must have been delayed in arriving to Earth during the final battles with the Covenant.

He looked at the ship closely searching for any sign of plasma or pulse laser damage, Destroyers were usually derided as being inferior compared to Covenant ships. But he knew better, Destroyers had twice the mass due to the one and a half or two meters thick Titanium-A Armor Plating that made it's defense, coupled with the two MAC Guns that served as primary armament, the Archer Missile Pods, Shiva Nuclear Missiles, and the Point Defense auto-guns. Destroyers could soak up a surprising amount of hits and were able to dish out just as much, and when in the right hands, they could give the enemy a very serious beating in a fight despite the lack of Longsword Fighters which were usually found in most UNSC warships.

That was true as Captain Keyes had commanded a Destroyer known as the Iroquois in battle in Sigma Octanus IV and took out two Covenant Frigates and a Destroyer by himself. It resulted in the Iroquois getting a serious overhaul and repairs, but had been a significant victory and proved that the technologically superior Covenant were hardly invincible.

As soon as he saw some signs of plasma damage he noted that the rest of the ship was still intact and while some sections of the metal were melted off as is expected with plasma weapons fire, this was good news to John. As soon as the Spartan was done looking at the Destroyer, he had an idea as he moved back to the Dawn and headed for the Hanger Bay, hoping that they still had a Pelican in the Hanger.

Cortana already knew what John had in mind and agreed with it. If the Pioneer was still intact, there was a chance that it would be able to work it's Slipspace Drive Engine and get back to Earth or any UNSC Colony. It was a long shot and they were still troubled by the lack of response from the crew, but it was a far better option than staying in the Dawn. As soon as they got into the Hanger, they got a Pelican operational, one of the few and quickly guided the machine out of the Hanger and headed for the Pioneer. Once they were close enough, John took Cortana out of the Pelican's holo-tank and moved out from the Pelican and floated towards one of the nearby airlocks.

Once he landed, he began to locate an access panel and allowed Cortana to access the system, he waited for her to respond and she didn't disappoint in the slightest.

"There seems to be some left over power in the ship, but I can't detect any life signs on the ship, the rest of the ship appears to be on lock down as well. This might take a bit so hold for a few seconds John."

"Understood."

It was not long before Cortana finally managed to get the airlock door open and he soon made his way into the ship, Once the other door locked, the inner door leading into the ship was now open and Cortana soon spoke through the ship's communication systems.

"Chief, I've got some of the communications and scanner systems online, so far I can't find any life signs in the ship, the entire ship seems to be abandoned. But without full access to the ship, I can't say for certain."

John then had an idea which was not something he would like to entertain, but he had to be sure and very thorough as there was no telling what were the reasons on why the ship seemed devoid of it's crew.

"Cortana, can you scan the ship for any possible Flood life forms?"

The A.I swore a bit at this, an understandable action considering her past experiences with the Flood.

"Damn it…forgot about that, hang on John. Keep your weapons at the ready while I try to get as much data as I can from where I am."

John took his MA5C and began to move through the ship as Cortana guided him through the ship. She had managed to gain eventual access to the other sensors and communication systems though the more critical areas of the ship were still off limits to her. Thankfully John was able to handle the situation on his own end as he scanned the decks of the Destroyer and ready to go full auto if needed. But along the way, he found out that there were answers to why there were no crew members. There were a number of dead Marines there, and judging from the wounds on them, they were killed with Brute weapons, namely Spikers and Maulers, he could also see the signs of Brute Spike Grenades and some soldiers were killed by weapons that resembled the damage done by Gravity Hammers.

He also found the bodies of slain Brutes who were moving up from the Minor rank to the To Ultra captains, and one Chieftain. He looked at the bodies of the aliens and he felt a level of disgust at the sight of the former Loyalists. He was also surprised to see a number of Elites on the ship and from what he could see, the Elites had engaged the Brutes as none of the humans had the usual injuries that were commonly associated with energy weapons. This meant that this was a joint UNSC-Separatist operation.

(But what sort of operation? Why are they out here of all places?)

It was not long before Cortana spoke to him once more, but this time she seemed to be a lot more relieved.

"There's no sign of Flood Infestation anywhere, and besides that, if there were any Flood Forms, there would be no doubt would have taken over the ship. But…I can see what is the reason that there's no one here."

"Yeah…"

Cortana appeared from a nearby holo-tank and John managed to take her back into her chip as they knew now that they were now going to head to the bridge to take full control of the ship and get some idea on what had happened here on the ship. Along the way, John could see the results of the battle in the Pioneer as there were still bodies there, both UNSC Personnel, Separatists, and the Brutes as well as their allies who followed them still. This made John even more curious as to why a force was this far out in space.

And in unknown space at that as he and Cortana had no idea as to where the Dawn had landed in when the portal collapsed. It had been a while since John had been in a Destroyer but he knew the plans and blue prints of the ship itself and soon they moved to the area where the bridge was. Along the way, it became obvious that the hardest fighting in the ship took place in the area leading to the bridge. That was the common way that a boarding action would take. However, it seemed that the larger number of Marines and Elites had fought here as there were more of them dead here than in the other parts of the ship.

It was not long before John finally arrived in the front of the door to the command bridge, John placed his hand on the command panel and soon Cortana overrode the locks and the door opened.

…

In the Pioneer's command bridge…

As soon as they entered the bridge, they saw that there were several slain Brutes here as well as some Elites and Marines. But the rest of the bridge crew were dead and that meant that the ship truly empty of all life, the Spartan looked at the carnage carefully and activated his MJOLNIR's magnetic soles on his boots and as soon as he was there on the floor, he knew that looking for answers was now his priority.

He moved through the area, avoiding the bodies as well as the other things that were floating around the area, which included weapons, spent shell casings, and the globs of blood as well, and found the body of a man holding what appeared to be a Data-Pad. He looked at the man and saw that he died with an M6G in hand and a pair of Spikes through his chest. He looked at the other bridge personnel, both men and woman, and they appeared to have died fighting like the man who was a Captain when he saw the rank bar on his uniform. He gave the dead men and women a salute and afterwards, he allowed himself to get Cortana into the nearby computer system. Cortana appeared and spoke to the Spartan as soon as she stabilized.

"Looks like the ship is fine, but it will take a while before I can take over the ship and gain full access."

"That's good to hear, but it seems that we've got some information to look at."

He touched it and it activated at his touch and he saw the name of the apparent Captain of the ship.

'Captain Jackson Taylor, Captain of the Pioneer.'

'It's been several years since the end of the War with the last of the Covenant Loyalists still in system, those damned apes and those idiot fanatics that followed them are long gun, but it's been hell. They had dug their fucking paws, claws, whatever they are in deep, and we had to be damn careful to get them off of our colonies. You'd think that after they lost the leadership of the Prophets, it would be easier. But no, they are not that dumb and they will fight, the only good thing is that without those Prophets about, they've got no new tech to throw at us and without those nuts on high chairs, they are becoming like their old selves.'

"We're taking our colonies back, I heard that the eggheads back in ONI and the UNSC Science Division are finding ways to bring even glassed worlds back to life, something about improving our old Terraforming technology to repair the damage done by Glassing. I never thought it was even possible, I've seen so many worlds being cooked by those Covies and the idea of the worlds they burned being given life again sounds like a dream or something…I'll believe it when I see it."

…

John placed down the Data-Pad and was stunned by what he had read, it seemed that the war was indeed over and it looked as if the UNSC was taking their worlds back. He was more surprised by the fact that the scientists of the UNSC and ONI were actually able to develop or were developing the technology to bring life back to Glassed worlds. Most of the UNSC, including him believed that the worlds that were glassed when no longer able to function as habitable worlds, if they could be reclaimed and rebuilt, then there was hope indeed.

He read the rest of the information there in the Captain's Data-Pad.

…

'I just got word from FLEET COM of the opening of the Museum of Humanity…never thought I'd find myself wanting to go there…they got the place open and ready. The place commemorates all those who died in the War, and it commemorates every struggle Humanity had been through, including the war with the Covenant and those Flood Freaks. The place is nice, but the second you go in…it's like seeing the last thirty years of hell all over again. Only this time we know we've won. We won our right to live as a species and no one, not the Loyalists, or the Flood can take that from us. Real weapons and models, both our gear, the Separatists, and the Loyalists are on display though I'd never look at those fucking Spikers again.'

'They got the Plaques there too, every last Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force, and ODST who died saving Humanity are all listed here. It's almost to the roof and there are ten of the things…we lost so many. But at least they finally get the honor they deserve. Heck, they even made a statue of the Master Chief himself. The Master Chief deserves no less in my mind…and they respect the man, anyone calling him a freak gets his or her butt kicked.'

'He and the other Spartans deserve to be heroes, and Lord Hood made damn sure of that. They managed to find the other Spartans too. Saw them just walk in the place a day ago, in full Armor no less and saluted the statue of their leader. There were some from the Spirit of Fire, damn lucky group they are, and also from that place called Onyx. There's that lady there with them, Dr. Halsey I think, she's in the lead and it kind of shocks me that she's the boss of them all even when they dwarf her.'

'Hard to picture her being the only civilian the Spartans take orders from, and having Chief Mendez with them certainly adds to the whole scene. Anyway, they were all there, and I swear to God that those Spartan IIs looked like they were going to cry. Makes sense I guess, they've been through hell and back together more than I care to guess, and they are human like the rest of us.'

"Heard they gave the Chief a new rank, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, not bad in my mind, but I personally think they should have made him an Admiral, he deserves it. I heard that not everyone thinks he's gone though, that he's still alive.'

'If he is, there's going to be some serious things happening back here in the UNSC.'

…

John was surprised at the news that the other Spartans were alive along with Chief Mendez and Dr. Halsey. It made him feel better and the same could be said by Cortana as she looked at the data herself. The A.I then spoke with a level of happiness, not something that was not lost to the Spartan as he felt they very same feelings as well.

The Spartan then looked at the rest of the information.

…

'Well, it seems that we've gotten a break, we've reclaimed Reach years ago and it looks like we're going to settle on that world again. That is just the beginning though as we're now taking more worlds back and fixing the damage. Hard to believe that those worlds are coming back to life again, and that is a damn good thing. We've gotten some new technology to play with thanks to the Separatists, and those new Huragok that are on our side sure made things a heck of a lot easier. The Elites are working overtime to help us too…I guess they want to redeem themselves for the war they had with us when they still believed the lies those Prophets gave them. It's going to take a long time though since not everyone's willing to let things go, but at least it's better than having to go to war again.'

'We even got a new Home Fleet and those ODPs around Earth have been rebuilt, and they are improved too. We even got a new Slipspace detection network so this time around, no enemy force is going to get the drop on us. High COM is even planning to place the same system on the new Colonies as well.'

'But those bastard Loyalists are still around to cause us headaches, we got word of raiding parties attacking a number of our developing worlds and the recovering ones as well. They certainly are not going to give up soon and as such, I'm being deployed with the new forces along with a full force of Elites along with the allied Grunts and Hunters to help keep those bastards from causing even more trouble. The good news is that our ships are better built this time around and while we don't exactly have shields on them yet, the eggheads have been making leaps and bounds in Shield tech. I heard that the Colonies are going to be given some new city wide Bubble Shield for orbital defense. How the hell the eggheads came up with a city wide shield system is something I'll never know…but damn. About blasted time our people got some serious protection from those blasted Energy Projectors.'

'There's also a new Contingency Plan written by Lord Hood, termed the Ancient Response, basically if we find any intact and operational Forerunner facility housing the Flood, we are to gather any and all data on them and set up a NOVA Bomb to go off the very second those monsters break loose. No one alive is allowed in those facilities to oversee the operations and any Flood spore found that escaped containment is to be incinerated on site. After seeing the videos of the Flood from the Spirit of Fire's records, then the data brought back by the Chief, along with the records from the Battles on Earth and from the Separatists, everyone in the service, even ONI believe that the Flood must be destroyed down to the last cell. Anyone dumb enough to break that plan is found guilty of treason and to be killed on sight.'

'If you ask me, I agree…after seeing them infest fellow humans and even the Separatists, there's no freaking way in hell I am going to let those things loose. If there IS a chance they come back…we're going to be ready for them.'

'There's word that High COM got some data about the Chief, hard to believe but some Prowler ships from ONI reported that the they picked up a distress signal from the Dawn of all things. We don't know if it's authentic or not, but that's got High COM seriously interested.'

…

Cortana smiled a bit and replied.

"Good to know that the War is over for real this time, and I guess I should not be surprised that we're playing nice with the Separatists. But still, that means it must be already beyond a decade or more."

John nodded but he then looked at Cortana in a state of worry, he feared that she might have become rampant at this point. While he knew about the protocol regarding the need to destroy Rampant A.I, he was not sure that he could do that to Cortana. They had been through a lot these many years and the idea of him ending her existence was not easy. That was not lost to Cortana as she looked at John and replied.

"I'm all right, you have my word on that John. I am not rampant and if I was…I'd destroy myself than attack you."

John nodded a bit at that as he knew that if Cortana was indeed rampant, she would have already harmed him. He had heard about the Holy Grail of A.I development which was Meta-Stability in which and A.I actually gains full sentience and has the conscience of a living being. It was rare and nigh impossible to some experts to happen, but it was there. It was a lot to hope for but he had a part of him that wished that was the case.

"Let's look at the last entries for now."

…

'I just got wind of a request made by Lord Hood, they have partially confirmed that the signal out there in the unexplored areas of the galaxy was indeed from the Dawn. Damn…looks like that ONI propaganda about Spartans never dying, but are only MIA might not be bull crap after all! Lord Hood mentioned that while a search fleet can be assembled, we can't send out that many since we're still busy fighting the Loyalists alongside the Separatists, and those surviving Insurrectionists. Bloody bastards have no consideration of the hell Humanity went through. I get the whole independence stuff, and I'm all right with it, but Humanity needs to stand together to win. Anyway the request was that if anyone in the Fleet wanted to take a crack at finding the Chief and bringing him back alive or not, then he gave them full authority to do so and that goes double for Cortana.'

'It's a strictly volunteer thing so no one is being drafted into it, and for good reason, going into the unknown and unmapped sector of space to look for one Spartan and an A.I is a bit off the wall. But we're talking about the Chief and Cortana here, there's no way in hell anyone in the Defense Force is turning their backs on them. Heard the other Spartans wanted to go and find them, but with them in the front lines in keeping the Apes from causing trouble…that's not going to happen.'

'I volunteered and so did a number of Marines and Navy, heck, even some ODSTs joined in. That ain't the half of it though, There's a band of Elites joining us, never thought I'd see the day the Elites would want to help look for a Spartan to save said Spartan, they usually searched for them to kill them, but with their Arbiter sending them there, I guess we can't be choosy. Guess the Arbiter wanted to see if the Chief was still breathing and alive…I guess it's a warrior thing.'

'We got the Pioneer retrofitted and stocked to the nines with supplies, weapons, ammunition, fuel, medical gear, food, equipment, you name it, we even got new spare parts for Cortana too just in case she needs an overhaul, as well as some new stock parts for the Chief's own Armor. I saw the images and the armor seriously needs repairs. I hope that we do find them, we are going to have a hell of a celebration here and back home if we do.'

'Don't know if others are taking the mission, but I sure as hell hope so, one lone Destroyer is enough for most things now, but there's no way we can cover the whole galaxy on our own.'

…

'We got royally screwed…we were already on our second year looking for the Chief when out of nowhere a whole band of Loyalist Frigates came out to attack us. We got better weapons this time about, but now they got numbers on their side. We fought them off but the bloody Apes were smarter this time around as they had some of their ships in ambush and then came close to board us. We killed those boarding craft but they were not going to let up either. They came back again and this time we took out their ships, but they unleashed a horde of boarding craft again. I swear there's more of them that our Archer Missiles…where the hell did all those Apes come from?'

'We made a Slipspace Jump in the way of the Cole Protocol and got away before any more of those Loyalists got their ships on us. But it seems that the Apes got their wish…they boarded us and we're now fighting for our lives here. I can hear the battles already in the ship and while those Apes haven't gotten new tech, they certainly aren't giving up any time soon.'

'I knew that I was going to die in this op…but the Chief is a hero and so is Cortana, they saved us all, I'd gladly give my left nut to be a man like him, and no matter what, I am honored to be part of the group sent out to bring him back. If we find him and he's still alive, I am sold on all that ONI stuff that Spartans do not die, and we'll get the chance to kick those remaining Loyalists into the ground and make them stay on their own planet. If not, I am going to fight tooth and nail to be in his funeral detail and kill every last one of those Covenant bastards for the Chief.'

'But now it seems I and the others aren't going to make it, the good news is that before we get overwhelmed, we got long range confirmation of the beacon…the Dawn is in this sector. I just hope that he's alive out there, but now we're going to make damn sure these Apes don't find him.'

'Chief…if by some miracle, you are reading this…I am sorry we didn't make it in time to get you and Cortana home to Earth, but at least those Apes didn't find you or Cortana. I'd never be able to live with myself knowing I'm the reason they found you two, the same can be said for my crew as well. You have my support to take my CNI to take over the Pioneer and head on home. Get back home and give those Loyalists a good beating okay?'

…

He and Cortana looked at the records once more as he placed the Data-Pad down, the Spartan looked at the dead Captain who had done this to look for him and Cortana. It was only moments later that John then spoke.

"They went looking for us…and they died looking for us."

"John."

The Spartan sighed and replied.

"They didn't have to look for us Cortana. They would have been better off maintaining the peace and helping the UNSC rebuild, not running around and getting killed."

"I know, but they volunteered to find you and me John, no one ordered them to do this, they did this of their own free will. They knew the risks, but they knew that finding us and most of all you was worth it. You are a hero to Humanity John; you remember what Johnson said back on Cairo?"

John nodded and replied.

"Folks need heroes Chief, gives them hope."

Cortana nodded as she knew that John needed to hear this.

"The war may be over, but there's so much destruction and death, Humanity needs to know that there is a chance to recover from this. And hope is a powerful thing John, it gives them something to keep fighting for and when they win, they know that it was all worth it. You and the other Spartans might be called freaks by some of those nuts, but how many Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, and even ODSTs as well as civilians have you and the others saved?"

"They might not know it but you saved their lives and gave them a chance, that's hope and it's what going to keep Humanity going. Hope might be bitter to some, but it can be the best way to keep people fighting."

John remained silent at this and took in everything that Cortana had told him as she soon got the ship online and nodded.

"Right, we got a lot of work to do so let's go to it."

…

It was not easy to be taking care of the ship with just him and Cortana, but thankfully the damage to the ship was not extensive and as such, repairs were not too demanding. John personally placed the dead Marines, ODSTs, Navy Personnel, and even the Elites into specially made coffins to sent them into an honorable funeral, they gave their lives to find him so he could at least give them a funeral that was worthy of their sacrifice. As for the Brutes, he gathered their bodies and once they were all present, he then tossed them out into space.

But before he did that, he salvaged anything that he knew could still be useful from the dead, even the Brutes as there was nothing wrong with taking their gear since they were already dead. He also made sure to salvage anything that he could find in the Dawn. That included supplies such as food, ammunition, weapons, medical supplies, spare parts and equipment that could be useful for him and Cortana. The supplies they got were also those that Commander Miranda Keyes had ordered for the operation and that was quite a lot of resources for just the two of them to use.

Once they were done in salvaging everything that they could take from the Dawn, both he and Cortana had the Fusion Reactors of the Frigate to go off once they got the Pioneer out of the area. The Dawn was soon destroyed and the pair took their new ship out to make their way home. Once they were done with that aspect, they worked on Cortana's repairs and eventually the MJOLNIR's own.

Thankfully the new spare parts for Cortana included a more advanced Riemann Matrix, new memory software and a much improved Data Crystal Chip. These had some similarities to Forerunner technology, showing that the UNSC was incorporating Forerunner data and technology into their own technology. All of which were more than acceptable for Cortana as if they were made specifically for her.

And Cortana noted why, it was Dr. Halsey's work on the new upgrades and it felt good to know that these were custom built for her by her 'mother'.

As for John, the repairs took a bit longer since there were no techs alive but his years of making field repairs to his MJOLNIR and his own knowledge of the systems meant that he was more than qualified to make the repairs and upgrades. Thus his MJOLNIR Mark VI was now back up to full power and had new and improved Armor plating and the Shields were also back to full strength with some improved recharging functions.

…

Sadly the Pioneer had some damage, most were acceptable and could be repaired by the Service Drones that thankfully were onboard along with the Rovers and the Robotic Dollies, but the problem was that the Slipspace Drive had been damaged and that was no doubt caused by the fighting it had gone through and also the random Slipspace Jump it made to avoid more Loyalist Reinforcements. The device was not destroyed but some of the components were damaged and the programming used to make a Slipspace Jump was corrupted as well. Cortana could fix the data corruption, but the Slipspace Drive damage required more delicate repairs and they didn't have the parts for that level of maintenance. The more manageable repairs were done but the delicate ones could only be done by Service Drones onboard, but without spare parts, that was not going to be of much help.

The Slipspace Drive not useless as it could still function, but there was no telling if the damage could hamper the Jump or even interfere with the coordinates and the safety systems, and the fact was that without any idea where they were, there was no telling if there were any dangers in the area that could affect the Slipspace jump that they would do to get back home. They had to look for a safe Interstellar Jump Point as well to make the jump as well. And that was going to take a while. The new Drive also incorporated some Covenant and Forerunner designs that needed those said parts which would take much longer to replace.

Once they were in the clear, the two decided that now was the right time to head on home. They powered up the repaired ship and soon were off through a Slipspace portal. Thankfully the Drive held and they didn't suffer any dangerous effects, and that meant that the damage was not too heavy and could be repaired back on Earth. But the very second they made it back to Earth, the two were going to be in for a shock.

…

John and Cortana watched as the Pioneer appeared before Earth itself. The calm atmosphere of the two disappeared when they saw the planet.

"What the hell?"

John shared that same thought the very second he looked at Earth…the planet looked like it had been hit by a planet wide firestorm. There was not a shred of green anywhere and there were mountain ranges where there shouldn't be any, the waters had a pale sickly color to them. The land had the kind of look that was normally seen on either areas bombed into submission, or even nuked and glassed. And this was not just on one area of the planet…but everywhere.

John and Cortana quickly moved the Pioneer closer and noticed not a single sign of UNSC ODPs anywhere, there was no sign of the new Home Fleet. This was getting to be a real mess for them to see.

"Cortana…we need to scan the area."

"Got it John."

The two guided the Pioneer over the planet earth to try and find some answers to what had happened to it. This was not the Earth that was mentioned in Taylor's Data-Pad, but the coordinates was very much the same and even with the completely new landscape, the continents were still in the same. They moved over the planet and scanned every inch of it and what they were reading was beyond confusing. There were a number of cities over there and they seemed intact, but there was not much power and very little activity. The only good news that they had was that if there was any activity, that meant that there were people down there. Once they were done, John spoke to Cortana as he knew that the only way could figure out just what was going on.

"We're going to have to go down there."

"I agree, but if we are going there, we're going to have to bring heavy weapons, I have no idea what happened to Earth John, but I doubt that we're going to get a warm reception when we get down there. I think our best bet is to go to Washington DC, there's enough activity there to warrant us to make that our prime destination. We can't take the ship down there since we might cause quite a panic."

"Right."

…

Later…

The ruined land of the Capital Wasteland was covered in darkness as night was over the place. However it was going to be changed soon enough as a UNSC Pelican was flying down to an open area. It hovered a few feet over the surface with the ramp down until the Spartan leaped down and landed with not even a problem. Once it's cargo was unloaded, the Pelican took off and headed back to the orbiting UNSC Destroyer.

John looked over the desolate landscape and gave a shake of his head as he cradled his MA5C which had it's Flashlight replaced with a Grenade Launcher and also had a Silencer placed on it's barrel, that was not the only weapon however as he carried a SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, he also carried a Combat Knife as well. This was a lot of fire power but he was in a very odd place that while resembling Earth, was totally unlike the Earth he left behind in any fashion.

He had on his back a rucksack filled with a combination of standard 7.62mm NATO AP Rounds and Shredder Rounds as well as some MREs, a pair of gun maintenance kits with spare parts, a TACPAD, and a pair of Heath Packs to boot. So far the supplies would have to do as he was now supposed to get some field data while the Pioneer was currently up there in space and was currently on a controlled orbit over the area of the United States…or what was left of it.

The two had guided the UNSC Pioneer over the continent of North America but kept the ship well away from the surface and out of sight and that was why John came down in a controlled Pelican with the drop-ship being controlled by Cortana, in the same way that the Destroyer was, it was risky but they knew that while the Destroyer could operate in atmosphere, it was not the best of ideas. Not to mention the fact that they still need to do the repairs on the ship's Slipspace Drive at a later date.

The fact that a good portion of the Pioneer's data banks were empty due to the crew no doubt following the Cole Protocol allowed Cortana to finally dump out a good portion of her stored data, along with all the backup data that was on the UNSC Destroyer to make the ship function properly, and this eased her burden considerably as she felt 'healthier' and less…bulky was the best way to put it. And the fact that they were able to upgrade her with the parts that Dr. Halsey made for her if they were found helped a good deal to make Cortana more than able to do what she could now.

She looked about and spoke in a calm tone though John could tell that like him, she did not like what she was looking at.

"This place looks devastated…but this looks like the work of nuclear weapons, and there's no way the Covenant Loyalists would use nuclear weapons, unless they took them from a UNSC stockpile."

"Maybe…but didn't High COM state before that the nuclear stockpile supplies were pretty low before we left and headed for Delta Halo after Regret?"

"Yeah, that is true, so there is no natural way this much radiation should be present. And from what we gathered of the Pioneer's last data records from Captain Taylor's Data-Pad we found in the bridge, the UNSC's already finished the clean up on the areas affected on Earth by nuclear weapons after the War ended with the Loyalists so by now there shouldn't be any radiation, especially of this magnitude all over the place."

This continued to puzzle the Spartan but he knew that they were not going to get much in terms of answers by standing here. He moved out and quickly used his now present Night Vision to look about. Through his Night Vision along with the light provided by the moon and the Stars that he could see the devastation of the land. The trees look blackened and shriveled, the grass looked mutated somehow and the soil was certainly unhealthy looking. The MJOLNIR's built in Geiger counter would routinely spike a bit in areas where radiation was strongest, but the rest of the land seemed to be less filled with radiation.

Cortana ran through the scans and spoke out something puzzling.

"John, the scans tell me that the radiation in the Earth is at least two hundred years old…so the nuclear blasts happened at least two hundred years ago."

John was surprised by this as he continued to move through the ruined landscape.

"That's impossible, if it has been two hundred years since we last came to Earth if this is even Earth, the reclamation efforts should have already cleaned up the area and brought life back to this place. It doesn't make sense at all Cortana."

"I know, and let's not forget we saw no signs of plasma damage on our way here and that is already troubling enough."

The Spartan knew that to be true, the US had been the site of some serious battles, namely in Cleveland, Chicago, and also here in Washington DC according to the data he pulled out from the UNSC field reports while the Dawn was getting armed up for the trip to the Ark to end the War once and for all. But even then this place seemed eerily different to the Spartan. There was something going on here that did not add up and if there was on thing that John disliked, it was being kept in the dark.

"We need answers…something is not right."

"I agree…hold up…I'm picking up something."

The Spartan looked to the area and spotted what appeared to be some sort of urban housing area, the houses look dilapidated and worse as he closed towards it, the place liked like it had been bombed by something massive. As they closed the distance, John was surprised to find that the houses were made of wood. That confused him even more as the only homes he knew of that used wood as the primary construction material were ancestral houses and other buildings that were kept for historical, cultural, and aesthetic value. Wood was no longer used as a building material due to the introduction of Polycrete and Instacrete as well as improved versions of iron, steel as well as marble and granite.

Cortana was thinking the same thing, but that had to wait as they soon found the source of the noise.

It was a number of humans, but they were dressed in the most outlandish fashions, some wore what appeared to be a mix of clothes that gave them the look of old fashioned primitives, and their hairstyles were no different. These men and women were apparently armed with an assortment of weapons, two carried pool cues, one carried a sledgehammer, two carried pistols of some make while the last pair carried what appeared to be assault rifles.

This confused John as these people didn't match an civilian profile that he knew of with the exception of criminal gangs and some eccentric people. However, the second he spotted the next pair, he knew that something was wrong here.

The next group appeared to be civilians who were unarmed, three were female, one being African American in complexion with black shoulder length hair, the other had Asian features, and the last was a Caucasian with red hair, they were not alone as there were four men with them as well, two were Caucasian and the last two were Asian males. They were all tied up and the Spartan could see that they were cut and bloodied, and seeing the sneers of the men was enough to tell the Spartan that the outlandishly dressed and armed humans were not friendly.

This was proven true when one of the men armed with Pool Cues walked over and bashed one of the captive woman and laughed at her cry of pain, John listened in as his MJOLNIR's audio scanners kicked in as the man spoke.

"Scream bitch…we're going to have fun with you and your pretty friends soon enough, but your loser friends are going to die. It's been a while since I had the chance to put some fear into you fucks being Raiders."

One of the female Raiders however snorted and spat out to the male.

"Piss off, I am going to enjoy the men first then kill one of them."

"Screw you bitch."

The two oddly dressed humans were now facing each other and were eager to fight and it was not long before things could get ugly. That was when one of the males, armed with one of the Pistols turned and shot one of the captive men in the leg. The captive male screamed in pain at being shot and that seemed to make them relax and laugh at the man's pain.

…

Cortana spoke in an utterly disgusted tone as she decided that she had enough of this.

"This is not making sense, but those characters definitely look like the hostile kind John, and considering what we've seen, there's no telling what they will do to the civilians."

"I know."

With that in mind, John quietly moved through the area, keeping to the shadows. Once he was in a good position to attack the force before him, he grabbed a nearby piece of wood and whacked one of the nearby house walls. That sent the Raiders on edge as two of them, one armed with a Pool Cue and the other with a pistol decided to check it out. That was a bad move on their part as this allowed the Spartan to aim at them and take them out.

The group heard several puffing sounds and saw their companions suddenly stop in their tracks, before they could say anything, both of them dropped dead and were now bleeding all over the place…just as John appeared in the firelight

The Raiders looked at their two fellow Raiders who were easily torn apart by that…thing before them. They had never seen this being before until one of them spoke out in fear.

"What the fuck is that thing?"

One Raider, namely the one armed with the sledgehammer replied.

"Looks like Power Armor to me…must be one those fucking high and mighty Brotherhood of Steel nuts out by his or her lonesome, or those idiot bigots calling themselves the Outcasts in a brand new color scheme."

He then charged with his Sledgehammer and shouted.

"DIE YOU BAST…"

He barely got to say anything as the Spartan casually caught the Sledgehammer and pulled out of his hands and then fired his MA5C Right into his face with one hand. The man could only gasp as his face was easily blown into nothing but shredded meat by the rounds and he fell back headless in a bleeding mess. The Raiders wasted no time as they fired, the nearest one fired his Pistol, and so did the others armed with the Assault Rifles, the weapons they had however proved to be useless as their bullets lacked the overall mass and power to bypass the shields of the newly repaired MJOLNIR.

They watched as their target was bathed in a golden light that seemed to actually deflect their rounds. Before they could react, the nearest Raider was quickly shot in the chest with a barrage of rounds from the Assault Rifle, the other armed with the Pool Cue tried to strike, only to have his flimsy weapon shatter as the Spartan quickly grabbed the sharpened end of the broken weapon and without any hesitation sent it plunging into his head without a wasted second.

The pole pierced through the man's skull due to the strength of the Spartan, killing him instantly as he dropped dead, the other Raiders tried to fight back but their attacks proved to be worthless as the Spartan quickly rushed them. He quickly swatted aside the Assault Rifle in his face and launched a bone shattering punch that literally caved in the man's chest and sent in flying away before being impaled on an outreaching wooden beam on one of the ruined houses.

The last and only Raider who was a female was gripped in absolute fear while firing her weapon which soon ran dry. She screamed out as the Spartan grabbed her weapon and yanked it out of her hands. She froze as the Spartan easily snapped her weapon into two and with speed that was unbelievable, gripped her by the neck and lifted her off her feet. She cried out in pain at the vice like grip to her neck, she tried to free herself but found to her ever increasing horror that she could do nothing as the hand on her neck was massive.

She tried to kick out with her legs but that did nothing as she looked in the firelight of their campfire to see her terrified face looking back at her as she spoke.

"God…please don't kill me! I'll do anything you want!"

The Spartan said nothing as he then moved her closer to him, allowing her to see her full terror in his visor and he spoke in the darkest tone he could muster, it was not in his nature, but intimidation helped him more than once.

"You will answer my questions…and I might let you live, do anything stupid however, I will crush every bone in your neck."

The Raider could tell that this…thing was telling the truth, she could feel the grip there and she had no doubt that he really could crush her neck if he wanted to.

"Okay…I'll answer as best I can."

"Good…now then, first question, what happened here?"

John asked as he waved to the devastated landscape, he had his doubts that this Raider knew anything, but no sense getting some information from a source somewhere.

The Raider looked about and saw what the Spartan meant and shook her head in pain as she spoke out as best she could.

"I…I don't know…"

John decided to add a bit of pressure to his grip, not enough to kill her of course but enough to tell her that her answer was not what he wanted. He further reinforced that by speaking in the same dark tone as well.

"That is not the right answer."

"Akkkk…I s-swear…I swear…I don't know….anything…it's been like…this for…for years now!"

"All right then, do you know anyone who can tell me more?"

"I…I…think…that…the Brotherhood of S-Steel…c-could help, URK!"

"Second question, where do I find the Brotherhood of Steel?"

"I…I…I can't…"

"Can't or won't?"

"I can't…because…they…would fucking…s-shoot me if me or…a-a-anyone they don't know…or like comes to their…base."

John could tell that she was not lying and Cortana confirmed it as she had ran a scan on the woman, using the MJOLNIR's sensors and scanners as a portable lie detector. She might be terrified to hell and from the sudden sound of flowing liquid, had reflexively began to unload her bladder as well. This was to John's disgust as he had expected better and decided that continuing to interrogate this Raider was not going to give him anything else.

He then spoke in a serious tone.

"Good, now I expect you to run, run away and never try this again, and tell your Raider friends to be ready since I will be around for a while. Did you get that?"

The Raider nodded vigorously and John released her, she fell back to the ground on her posterior and looked at the Spartan and quickly got to her feet and high tailed it out of there, unwilling to stay another moment with the giant in armor that just massacred her group without so much as a scratch. She abandoned her weapon as well uncaring for the fact that without any weapon, she was going to be dead meat in the Capital Wasteland.

John turned his attention to the hostages and moved to free them, taking out his Combat Knife to free them from their bonds. He saw them tense and he could understand why as he had easily killed the Raiders and in a very brutal fashion. That was why he spoke in a calmer fashion to them to try and ease their minds.

"It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you."

It took him a few minutes but they were free, he checked the wounded man and found that the Raider's bullet had missed the man's liver as his blood was still deep red, which was a good thing as the round had missed the vital organ. Had it struck the liver, the injury would have been a load worse. He quickly took out his rucksack and took a medical kit to begin treating the man, he removed the bullet gingerly with the help of a pair of sterilized tweezers after giving the man some Polypseudomorphine to dull the pain, once that was done, he placed some Biofoam on the wound and placed a clean cloth with no dirt or moisture and then using the antiseptic self adhering battle dressings to seal the wound.

Once he was done, he spoke to the injured man.

"You all right?"

"Yeah…thanks man…you saved my ass, shame I don't have any caps to pay you or anything."

John had no idea what that meant, but decided to place that aside for the time being as he needed to get some more information. Going to see the Brotherhood of Steel would be a viable option, but there was no sense in getting the lay of the land from someone else.

"You mind if I ask some questions?"

"Sure, seeing as you have us from those Raider maniacs, but that one who you scared the hell out of wasn't kidding, none of us know what happened here, all we know is that some serious war broke out but that was over two hundred years ago, way before any of us were born so we don't know how it happened or way. All I can say is that it fucked up the world big time and we've gotten stuck with this…the Capital Wasteland."

"I see…are there any other settlements in the area?"

The man nodded and replied.

"A few…one is Arefu, the other is Big Town, and the next is Canterbury Commons, there's the Temple of the Union, Megaton, Rivet City, and Paradise Falls. But I'd stay away from that last place I mentioned if I were you."

"Why?"

The man looked at John with an utterly confused expression, but one of the women, namely the African American spoke out.

"Did you come out of a cave or something? No one in their right minds comes within a hundred kilometers of the place unless they are nuts and don't mind being taken as slaves by that cesspit of Slavers."

Cortana was utterly surprised by this revelation and spoke to the Master Chief.

"Slavers, as in the kind of animals who take people, young and old, men women, and children into slavery? The UNSC forbids that sort of thing and even before that; slavery is universally outlawed though it took a number of years to end it utterly, what the heck is going on here?"

John had no idea and he decided to make sure that he was going to keep that place in mind and quickly decided to see what else he could learn from the people. And it seemed that a lot of things here didn't add up in any sense, first off it seemed that Bottle Caps was the currency of choice which made the Spartan wonder just what the heck had happened to the economy of the place, next it seemed that just about everything to do with technology was either worn down and near useless unless seriously repaired, or were oversized paper weights and were nothing more than ruins, another thing was that law and order only existed in the settlements and anything and anyone in the Wasteland was fair game.

They also told him that the Brotherhood of Steel were holed up in the old Pentagon ruins, claiming it as their base of operations as well so the Spartan now had an idea on where to find this bunch. However he had nothing on the records of a Brotherhood of Steel so this new group, might prove to be an unknown until he got some details about them. This was also increased by them telling him of the various creatures that inhabited the Wasteland all of which could be a danger to him if he was not careful.

All of that was dutifully recorded by John and Cortana, placed away for future use if at all needed by them. Once that was done, he decided to let them rest as they had no doubt been starved and beaten by the Raiders before they showed up. This gave John the chance to figure out what sort of weapons the Raiders had on hand, the Pool Cues and the Sledgehammer were useless to him, but the guns were of some level of interest.

He checked the pistol and found absolutely no reference on the UNSC database or even the historical database that Cortana had on hand. He checked the bullet itself and was surprised when he saw that it was not the standard M6 Series Round but a round that had been used in the late 21st century which was the 10mm Round. He had read about this type of round and knew that the 10mm was rendered obsolete and was no longer in use, with only a small handful of civilian collectors.

The round did not have the ability to handle the new generation body armor that was developed in the coming years and those people who had managed to collect these rarely used them and the associated firearms as making them was very impractical and as such, only a few knew how to make them at all.

He directed his attention to the Assault Rifles, the two looked to be in rather bad shape and were in danger of being rendered useless within a period of time of usage, they would soon break down and eventually be nothing more than a mass of ruined parts though the Spartan could guess that if taken apart and salvaged for spare parts, one could be made in better condition at the expense of the other. The same could be said for the pistols and John decided to take his time in recording the data he got. The weapons matched nothing in the UNSC database, though they did have some vague similarities to old fashioned Assault Rifles that were used by militaries in the Earth governments in the past, all the way to the early 22nd Century when the MA Series of Assault Rifles were seen in field use.

For now he focused on the round itself that made the ammunition of the Assault Rifle and at least get something that could tell him more about this Earth he landed into.

To his and Cortana's surprise, this round was not the traditional 7.62mm round that was the basic ammunition of the majority of the Assault Rifle classes in the UNSC with the exception of the MA2B. It was something that like the 10mm round had already ceased production in the 22nd Century due to advancing weapons technology.

"The bullet for these Assault Rifles is a 5.56x 45mm NATO Round? That can't possibly be right. This ammunition is already seen as obsolete and no longer in use well before the end of the 22nd Century, just like the 10mm."

"Cortana, is this really the Earth we left behind?"

For once Cortana was silent as she was trying to find a possible answer to the questions that were going through her mind. She then decided to think about getting more information before she could make a more thorough decision on where they were, so she decided that their concern should be their next course of action in this Earth.

"I honestly don't know, but we need more information before we can make a proper idea on what this Earth is. Until then, let's not get taken in by wild conspiracy ideas. I need to find some form of information that can give us more data to solve this mess. What I can say is that we're going to have to go in prepared, there's no telling what we can encounter here from this moment onwards."

John agreed with Cortana's assessment and decided to pack up and continue his mission of finding more information on what happened to this planet that somehow resembled Earth. Once he was done, he turned to civilians and spoke.

"Go and find a place to hide out for now, take what you can from these Raiders, I doubt they can use them anymore."

The civilians nodded and as the Spartan left, they were now taking what they could possibly use to survive in the Capital Wasteland while the Spartan headed in the other direction.

…

Hours later…

The Spartan moved south to the area where the city of Washington DC once was and along the way, he had begun to spot some of the creatures that were told to him by the civilians he had saved before. There were the Mole Rats which were a bit surprising to the Spartan and the A.I as such creatures usually didn't grow to that size. There were also massive Scorpions that were of different sizes and lengths, not to mention the wild dogs, the two headed Brahmin, Giant Ants, and the like. So far he had no encounters with the Yao Guai, the Deathclaws, or the Mirelurks but he kept his eyes open either way for these threats though the terms made no sense to him.

So far Cortana was running several tests to find out more information and figure out just what the heck had happened to bring them here. This was not Earth in the sense that there was nothing here that was remotely the same as the Earth they knew of and had records of as well. There was no mention of any of these creatures in any of the databases and while some of these creatures like ants, dogs, mole rats, and cows, were native to earth, there was nothing saying about them being mutated to this degree by radiation They soon stumbled on what appeared to vehicles and none of the matched any known profile with the exception of the vehicles used in the years during and after World War 2.

The only difference was that some of these vehicles did not run on fossil fuels, but instead were actually using portable nuclear engines and used nuclear materials as fuel. This was more than enough to confuse the pair as vehicles in the end of the Second World War still used fossil fuels and there was no way that portable nuclear reactors were ever considered feasible, even remotely built in the 1940s. Not to mention the fact that some of these cars appeared to be different from cars made in that era of Humanity's history.

This further reinforced the confusion to the two of them as they moved further onto the direction of Washington DC. The geography was the same as before but some of the names were a bit odd and unknown. Along the way they spotted what appeared to be Army Trucks and there they found skeletons that had shreds of clothing still on them.

Cortana scanned them and confirmed that they were human and apparently had died in a number of ways, some had claw and teeth marks that had the makings of animal attacks and other wounds suggested blunt trauma or bullet wounds.

John managed to salvage some of the same ammunition and even what appeared to a Sniper Rifle of some sort but was in very poor condition by far. The ammunition of this sniper rifle seemed to be the .308, the civilian variant of the 7.62 rounds that he used. He knew that while this was a civilian cartridge, it was possible to use the .308 in his own MA5C if in a pinch so he decided to take the ammunition with him as well as the new Sniper Rifle, something that Cortana was more than keen on talking to him about.

"Care to tell me why we're taking that thing with us? No offense meant, but it looks completely useless to the one you've got with you already."

"Maybe, but you'll never know."

The A.I sighed and decided to let John keep the weapon with him as they soon moved on.

He checked his map of the Washington DC Area and soon determined that he was approaching what appeared to be the town of Ridgefield. It was not much, but he had little choice as he headed in that direction of the town.

John moved quickly to the location while keeping silent and kept any eye out for enemy forces that might be lurking around the area. Once he got in sight of the town, he looked at the sight of it and saw a serious mess, ruins and debris everywhere. He checked his chronometer and it read 11 PM, and it had been a while since he got some shut eye. It was crazy to bunk down in a place like that but it would have to do and with Cortana keeping a good eye on him, he felt relatively safe. He needed to refresh his brain in order to figure out what to make of this place.

But instead of going in there directly, he decided to scan the town carefully to make sure that he was not going to suddenly get surprised by something or someone. The caution he displayed was right on the money as he spotted several disks that were no doubt mines of a sort.

He reached them and promptly disabled one and studied the device to see what it was and who made it, Cortana likewise did the same thing and she reported what she found.

"They appear to be standard military issue mines for cutting off access routes or setting traps, and carry a fairly effective explosive charge, but not as powerful as the kinds of mines we're familiar with in both the UNSC and the Covenant arsenals. But this mine is of human make so there is enough to tell me that there might be company here."

"Right, let's take a peek around."

John switched to thermal vision on his MJOLNIR and sure enough, there appeared to be someone on a ruined three story building and apparently this man was armed with the same weapon as he had managed to salvage before. He took a peak at his options and decided to ignore Ridgefield for the time being and head off to see if there were other places that he could go to get information as well as get some shut eye.

Cortana then spoke to him.

"I guess this place is out, no sense resting here with mines about and some old man who might be insane and who could shoot at us the second he sees us. So where do we go from here?"

"We need to find a defensible area, preferably an abandoned house, afterwards, we go to the next place. The only place that can give us some decent information, and that naturally is the Pentagon and therefore the headquarters of this group known as the Brotherhood of Steel. If they have any answers to what happened here to the DC area and the whole world for that matter, then that's our best bet."

"I see, but I suggest you find yourself some place to bunk down in John, I'll relay commands to the Pioneer's Robots to have a Pelican to be loaded to drop off one of our Warthogs the next day, and considering the way this place looks some firepower and mobility is in order."

John nodded and moved out to try and find a place to bunker down for the night without being exposed to either the elements or the beings who called this place home. It took some more time until he spotted what appeared to be an old train-yard of sorts. He moved carefully into the area and quickly scanned the area as a viable location to rest in, but he decided against it as he moved on to locate a good area to rest in. This time he was in a much faster pace and soon spotted what appeared to be some sort of complex of houses.

Even from a fair distance away, he could see that there was some level of activity there and that meant people. Whether said people were hostile or friendly was unknown, but it was not like he had much in terms of choice. He moved in and kept his eyes open and his MJOLNIR's scanners at the ready.

Once he was close enough, he spotted a man wearing what appeared to be some sort of old fashioned police riot control helmet and what appeared to be a modified black leather jacket with metal parts shaped like armor plating of all things and carried a rifle of sorts on his back, probably a sentry from his location and the way he looked about in the area despite the darkness. He scanned the man's face and determined that he was suffering from some level of stress and sleep deprivation, not the healthiest of combinations, and the surprising thing was that he seemed to be around early twenties. This was something John decided to go out and see for himself so he could find out just what could stress this guy that much..

Just as he arrived into view, the guy turned and quickly reached for his rifle, John could see the shock in the man's face as he did so and he was hardly surprised. Coming out from the dark dressed and armed the way he was, he was no doubt like a monster to this man.

"H-Hold it right there! Make one wrong move and I'll shoot!"

John could tell the man was like an Assault Rifle with the safety permanently disabled and spoke in a calm tone.

"Relax, I'm not here to harm you."

"O-O-Oh yeah, are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes I am, what is this place?"

"This? This is Big Town, our home, such as it is."

John looked at the houses with his Night Vision and had to admit that the name was ironic in many ways. The place appeared to be heavily barricaded and judging from the way the barricades were made, this place saw a lot of action. He also recalled that this was one of the areas mentioned by the civilians he had rescued hours before.

The man then spoke.

"You're not going to come in here and kill us are you?"

The Spartan looked at the man with some level of confusion, but after seeing the various dangers of this 'Capital Wasteland' both the animal and human kind, he could understand the question, no matter how outrageous it sounded to him. And he decided to reply to the question.

"No, but if you and your friends decide to shoot me for no reason, then I'll probably fight back."

The man gulped a bit and then spoke once more.

"All right then, you can come on in, just try not to give us trouble just like the other one I let in, we've already lost some of our friends to those Super Mutants."

That got John's attention easily as he spoke.

"Super Mutants? Care to elaborate Mr…"

"The name's Dusty, just Dusty, and the Super Mutants, they are big, mean, green skinned, and stronger than the regular humans. I thought you were one when you showed up as well. They took out friends Red, Shorty, and a few others…they are probably dead now, or worse…"

"Why would the Super Mutants take your friends?"

"I don't know…and I honestly don't want to know…they've taken others already, just like the Slavers do, the only good thing that happens is when those two groups fight one another. Red used to barter with them to leave us alone, but with her gone…"

John looked it over and saw that the situation was pretty grim for these people, he had no idea as to why this was going on and frankly, he still had no clue on what to make of this odd Earth he landed in. But if there was one thing John could be counted on, is that helping people survive was in his blood and his mentality. He decided to ask Dusty one final question.

"Does anyone know exactly where these Super Mutants took the others?"

Dusty nodded and replied.

"Just ask anyone…now let me be, I have to watch the horizon."

Cortana then spoke to the Spartan once they were in the area of Big Town, or rather the 'town square' as it were had this been a larger town.

"Looks like these guys are borderline desperate, I could feel the worry rolling off of them like a wave, they really need help. Anyway, it seems that the one Dusty mentioned is talking with one of the residents."

The Spartan turned to see an African American woman sitting down on a bench, like Dusty, this one wore a leather jacket, complete with black leather pants and there were sections of armor plating there on the leather clothing like Dusty's own clothing of choice. The young woman looked to be around her late teens to early twenties and showed the kind of stress usually seen on shell shocked civilians. The odd thing was that the woman was carrying a toy rifle of all things…not exactly the best choice for a weapon in a place like this.

John looked the woman over, she carried some sort of device on her left arm and wore what appeared to be some sort of metal armor that was made like some sort of full body armor suit. She had only a headband on so he could see that she had deep red hair and had them in a regular wavy pattern. The woman turned and he saw that she was armed as well, she had an Assault Rifle in her hands that was similar to the ones he had found on the Raiders, but in much better condition, there was also what appeared to be a Combat Knife in a sheath on the left side of her hip and on the right appeared to be some sort of SMG. On her back appeared to be a large pack filled with items of which he had no idea of at the moment but he could bet it would be in the same in terms of content for his own rucksack.

The woman was an attractive sort as well and would have been considered to be a model or one attractive member of the UNSCDF, and John had met a number of female Marines in his time. He could see however that despite her good looks, the violet eyes she had shone with a fire of purpose and intensity. She noted him and so did the one she was talking to before, the woman sitting down was about to panic but seeing that he was not attacking them she seemed to relax. The red haired woman however walked over to the Spartan and spoke to him in a serious but non-threatening tone.

"Who are you?"

The Spartan looked at her carefully to determine if she was indeed capable of using the weapons she had on her person. He noted that while her grip was not the experienced type of grip, she did hold her Assault Rifle in the right way and kept it pointed down and kept her trigger finger away from the trigger. He wagered a guess that she had either been trained, or had to learn from hands on experience.

He then replied to the question.

"Spartan-117."

The woman's stern look turned to confusion as she looked at him carefully and spoke out.

"That's the very odd name."

"It's the only one I've got, and you are?"

The woman relaxed a bit and answered his question.

"The name's Miranda Cole, what exactly are you? You're obviously not a Super Mutant since if you were, you would have roared and tore through the place. "

"That means I'm not one of these Super Mutants, what are you doing here?"

Miranda thought it over and replied as she placed her Assault Rifle on her shoulder with the leather strap she had on the weapon to hold it there on her.

"I came here by accident, I was supposed to head to a place called Minefield to do some research for a book being written by a shop owner in Megaton by the name of Moira Brown. I decided to stop here when I saw the fires and found out about the situation with the Super Mutants."

"I see…"

"So what are you doing here?"

"Came here to get some sleep and move on to the DC area at first light tomorrow."

"You're going into the DC area? What are you going there for?"

"That's classified so I can't really say."

Miranda raised her eyebrow at that and replied.

"You're kidding right?"

"No."

The woman shook her head and then replied to John.

"All right then, I'm planning to help them before I get back to helping Moira with her book, Kimba here told me that the Super Mutants dragged their friends off to the Germantown Police Headquarters north of here. I'm going to help them out so that means I plan to rescue their friends from their captors."

John was surprised by this and so was Cortana as she spoke to the Spartan.

"This woman's got some serious courage, we might not have encountered these 'Super Mutants' just yet ourselves, but they don't sound very friendly either. If she's going to go on her own, she's going to be taking some serious risks."

"I agree."

The Spartan then spoke to the woman once more as his conversations with Cortana were between them so no one knew of his A.I companion's presence.

"You're planning to go by yourself?"

Miranda nodded seriously and replied.

"I am, and if you think I'm crazy to be doing this on my own, I might be. But I've fought those ugly things before so I know what they will do to those they took. I'm not going to let that happen to them. These people have lived in fear too long, and if there is a way to make it right, then I'll do it."

John could tell that she was not kidding and he couldn't help but respect that conviction she had as well as the way she carried herself. She looked to be only nineteen but was taking on a solo mission that could spell her death. He wanted to find out why that was the case and made that intent very clear.

"Care to tell me why?"

"Let's…just say that I want to do this because it's the right thing to do, and besides that, if no one will do it, who will? I know the risks but I made this choice to do this so I am going to see it through."

John thought his options over and then replied. He knew that this was not what he had in mind, but he was not the kind of person to not help people, it was what he had spent his whole life doing, and if it could help him show that he was not a danger to the people in this place, why not?

"All right then, you don't mind if I help you?"

Miranda was surprised by the offer as she looked the Spartan over, taking a look at his weapons, she marveled at the futuristic looking rifle in his hands and that mammoth of a rifle in the back along with that other rifle he had on him. She had never met anyone like this giant of a man in futuristic looking armor and even more so anyone willing to help her without even asking for payment of caps or anything.

Of course she was wary of the man, but she had to admit that having this guy around might actually be a good thing. He certainly was well armed, maybe even better than her and having some help might really make things a darn sight easier for her if she was going to do this for the people of Big Town.

"Okay…but I don't really have a lot to offer as a reward you know, I only have a fairly even number of caps and I need those."

"I don't need any caps as a reward, or anything else for that matter."

"How can I be sure that I can trust you then?"

"I made a promise to help you, and I am a man who keeps my promises."

Miranda was silent at this and she wanted to be sure that she was taking the right course of action by taking this man with her. Her father would approve of her going with a total stranger, even more so with a stranger as well armed and massive as this guy. Who knows what he could do to her when she least expected it. But she felt something about this guy…this Spartan as he called himself that she could work with him.

Her gut feelings had saved her in the past so she trusted them, not blindly anyway but enough to know if and when to trust someone. They warmed her to pay that man Colin in Megaton instead of doing anything for him and that helped her avoid getting into trouble when she learned from Silver, Nova, Simms, and Gob just how bad he was. And they also helped her find a way to convince Leo to kick away her chem. Addiction.

This was why she decided to trust them again and take this man's help.

"All right, I can't say that I completely trust you…but I'm not the kind to turn down help if it's offered. So, when can we leave? The quicker we can find their friends the less likely either of them wind up as chow for those monsters."

"Right now would be a good idea."

"Right."

With that, Miranda Cole, John-117,and Cortana left Big Town and headed back into the Wasteland…unaware that this simple action of helping these people in Big Town was going to be start of something that could change the fates of all the people in the Capital Wasteland. And with them being the ones who were going to start the whole thing.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Well, here we are, my very first Fallout/Halo Crossover, not the most original of stories since some have been done, but it had to happen.

And to be honest, I HAD planned to make a Fallout/Halo crossover way before doing G.I Joe Halo, or Mass Effect X Halo: Spartan Dawn. But since there were already good and promising attempts to make such a crossover I decided to let them take on this idea of a crossover. But since it's been some time and the idea did not disappear from my brain, I decided to get it out and let this idea be read that stay in my noggin for so long.

If there are any corrections needed then tell me, but keep in mind that this is merely an idea that will not be updated for a while.

…

As you can see, John does have a working base of operations and that is the UNSC Destroyer and it will be an operational warship which will play a role in the later story if I decide to go ahead and plan to have the DLCs in the story as well. So we might get to see some ship to ship combat soon. Now keep in mind that with the Pioneer's Slipspace Drive in need of some repairs and more before it is back to being a viable operational system, John might be in this Earth for a while, and that works well with what I have in mind, until If I decide to send him and Cortana back to their reality.

And yes, the Pioneer is familiar since in the book the Fall of Reach it was indeed the same ship that helped John, Kelly, and Sam in their first mission against the Insurrection. This means that this ship is going to be something of a reminder of the past for John.

The Pioneer is fully stocked with all the Spartan would need for independent operations and as such, parts for his weapons and gear, as well as vehicles will be on hand. But of course in the need to keep things balance, John will not use all of them so it's fairly limited as he is not at war yet and all the weapons and gear are in line with what happened at the end of Halo 3 so don't expect Halo Combat Evolved or Halo 2 weapons. Couple all of that with the salvage from the Dawn's own supplies, weapons and equipment, John is pretty well set for what this new world can throw at him. And naturally that will include all the creatures from the original game and the DLCs so it should be exciting for the Spartan while he is there in the Capital Wasteland.

…

Yes, you guessed right, Miranda Cole is the Lone Wanderer and John will be helping her out in the majority of this story. This will naturally have unique effects on the story on Miranda's side as her exploits will now include her new found ally. And as such you can already guess that I am not replacing the Lone Wanderer with the Chief, instead, they are working side by side on this story of mine.

Here's a sample from old Three Dog that I have planned that highlights their actions together.

…

'Helloooooo Capital Wasteland, it is I Three Dog, you're ruler…hear me and obey…oh, sorry, that the other radio station.'

"Man oh man, have I got news for you today children, it seems our new dynamic duo of justice, peace, and all that other crap are at it again! They are once again showing to all of us that there is law and justice in this Wasteland, and giving the bad guys and all the other riff raff that long deserved kick in the ass…or rather, bullet into their black hearts. Pick what you like for yourselves children, because either way is fine by me!'

'Okay, it seems that our beloved duo has now taken a new past time, and that is being the Capital Wasteland's first ever abolitionists, they were seen helping them folks from the Temple of the Union. Nice bunch of fellows who escaped the horrible life of slaves. How you ask, they not only helped them get what they needed to start their move to their new digs in what was once the Lincoln Memorial but they also kicked the living crap out of the slavers that were holed up there to begin with! Looks like open season on defenseless settlers as now officially over…thank God or rather thank Miss Lone Wanderer and her massive armored ally Mr.117 for that.'

'And get this children, they not only got the Temple's people a new place to call their own, but gave them some spanking new weapons and gear to give those slavers getting wild ideas of coming there to take them back to that awful life, a much deserved kick in the balls to boot…how's that for real generosity?'

"So if you are a slave on the run, drop by the new Temple of the Union and keep your head high and feel proud that you now have a place to call home. And for all you slaver scumbags still out there, consider this the long deserved fuck you that you had coming since you started that messed up practice. And to Miss Vault 101 and to Mr. 117 a big and heartfelt thank you from yours truly and all the people in the Wasteland.'

'Oh and one other thing, thanks for giving old Lincoln his head back, about time old Abe got his pieces together.'

'Stay tuned for more news that tells it how it is, Where? Right here in GNR!'

…

Now I need to stress that this is not going to be a full time project, just an idea that I am placing on the plate and therefore will not be updated until I deem it necessary and if it gets enough good marks from all the readers here in the site and I hope that it will be up to the standard.

And before I get asked if I am going to make a pairing for this story, then all that I can say is that it is going to be a while so feel free to come up with what you like.

See you all soon in the New Year!