Halo ODST: The Great Journey

And so, The Great Journey continues

After The Rookie had been told about the two queries, he had asked a couple of questions, and while the results were less than desirable, he had learned a deal of knowledge of this new land. Vea had, long ago, started to send a distress beacon out, one that should have been at the range to the extent of the solar system, but there had never been a reply back, not yet. Vea had some control of this building, but she had been completed, and utterly thoughtless for what must have been decades to centuries in order to maintain her mental state. After AI's take a certain amount of data, they begin to corrupt, so in order to maintain her status, she had been completely dormant this entire time. She estimated that she still had almost a full lifespan that most AIs can retain, seven years.

The planet itself was quite a mystery. All of the information that Vea had was that it was called Equestria. This planet had an odd system, that being that the world itself was stationary and that the moon and sun rotated around it, sometimes suddenly and instantly, and at other times not at all. It seemed that there was a mechanism controlling it. As for creatures, there were a few instances of mythical animals that Vea had claimed to see before. Dragons, in the standard European style from Earth, seemed to be real here, as well as manticores. Vea had not seen any other animals out of the ordinary though, and she had seen deer, squirrels, and other animals that seemed to originate from Earth here. As for a strange anomaly, Vea had claimed to see other, potentially sapient creatures like her in the past, flying in the distance. It seems that the foliage covering the building and the Pelican have both been enough to disguise them from all of these creatures that could have caused damage.

And, as for The Divine Wind, Vea had no knowledge of it, other than a possibility of linkage with the covenant's beliefs. Vea had somehow known about the covenant, even though she had been dormant for quite a while. It seemed as if time had passed as if years of The Rookie's life had passed without him knowing, but a subsequent scan on him revealed him to be the same age he was when he was on Draco III, Twenty-Eight. Vea thought that The Rookie had somehow been put in a cryo-pod and sent here, a flawed guess, but there was nothing else to base this off of. To guess the year on Earth was impossible, as they could not tell where they were on the map, they were off of all UNSC maps they had available. The Divine Wind was most likely linked to The Great Journey that the covenant believed in.

There were many questions and almost no answers.

Now, it was late in the afternoon, and the building grew quiet as all the noises outside dissipated, leaving a tired rookie and his newfound AI ally. He sat now, on a bed. He had taken the liberty of taking off his amor. There was no need for it now. He had only just taken a shower, in what felt like eons without one, and ate one of the Ready-To-Eat meals he had found. The AI seemed to stare at him from the edge of the table, as he rested on the bed, clearly troubled.

"You are... Dead?" She asked, breaking the silence of the setting. The Rookie's eyes had grown heavy, but the question woke him right awake. He looked over to the Vea, his face obscured in the darkness.

"I am?" Rookie had replied, after a moment of silence, sitting up. His face still was hidden behind a veil of darkness, even Vea couldn't get a look at him.

"Well according to your date, in your system, it is 2560. My files on you, they say you died. January, 1554." She said. Even through her alien look, could The Rookie see her confusion and discomfort. She had good reason for it, this was all... Very strange. To say this didn't trouble him would be a very lie.

"Blood Type O+, Enlisted July 7th, 2547, born on Luna. Referred to as, "quiet." Your first battle, The Battle of New Jerusalem. You were among the only survivors. At the Raid of Mount Haven, you were again one of the only survivors..." The Rookie quietly looked down. He remembered those events. He remembered a dying Gage Yevgenny telling him all about his life, and sending him off before he detonated Mount Haven. That's where he swore to forever fight the covenant. He ran with almost no gear, running from ODST that had defected, the covenant, and a bomb with nothing. When he finally reached salvation, he was told Reach, humanities largest military instillation, had been lost. All seemed so lost then.

"You were promoted to Lance Corporal, and moved to a new squad. You then fought in the defence of Earth on New Mombasa. Alone, you travelled and found your squad, after days of fighting alone in city ruins. You saved an engineer. An engineer that changed the tires of the war. You were redeployed after the end of the war to quell rebellions. And on Draco III... You were held hostage and murdered."

The Rookie let out a soft sigh as he heard this. He hadn't dwelled much on that realization, but he knew that it had happened. To have a gun pointed at you, then suddenly awake in a poppy field... That's not right. All this thought and rememberable was shaking him to his core. He didn't want to remember any of this. As far as he knew, it was in the past.

"And so I died." He whispered before beginning to put on his amor again. He needed to find a way back to the UNSC, and back to Luna. He was born on the Earth's moon, and he wanted to return, perhaps soon. With a soft click, his helmet was snapped on and it's HUD lit.

"I'm going to take that Pelican out, to the edge of the atmosphere. I want to see the moon." He said, looking at Vea who had been watching him with a mix of curiosity and confusion. She shook her head, and nodded. "Take me with." She said, motioning to a chip on the side of the table. He nodded, and removed her core from the table, holding it in his hand.

The Rookie made his way to the pelican, the sky dimming around him. He entered it and went into the cockpit. He put Vea into the Pelican's AI slot, mostly reserved for simpler AI. She suddenly appeared beside him, and already seemed quite eager. She looked around, and took in her environment. "Being out of that old shack feels amazing. Would you like me to fly?"

The Rookie looked at the eager pony and nodded. She grinned, and the Pelican's engines roared on. The plane that had been still so long now began to lift, and lift, until it was a hundred, then two hundred, then a thousand feet in the sky. It didn't take the old, resilient ship much to fly into the planet's atmosphere. There, Rookie looked out of the Pelican's windows, and into the bright, large moon before him. It reminded him of his home. He sat in the chair, and stared and stared, Vea seemingly understanding. And so The Rookie looked, his eyes growing heavy yet again. Before he had noticed, sleep overtook him, the last image remaining in his mind being that gorgeous moon.

"So it hath chosen thee? A troubled, but good man. I will save thee."

A voice, loud, but yet, clear and elegant in determination spoke. The darkness around him seemed to spark, to envelope him. Then, just for a moment, he saw her. Another like Vea, but dark as the moon and bright as the stars, infinitely more incapsulsting.

"Farewell. Find me soon, moon watcher."