Shawn tended his fractured arm as he walked over to Forge, who was shit talking the dead Arbiter. "Not bad, Sergeant, we can make a Spartan of you yet." He joked as Forge grinned and looked over at him, noting how he shifted his arm.
"What happened to you?" He gestured to his arm as Shawn checked to make sure the drive wasn't about to go off, "He fractured my arm, I'll fix it later. First, we gotta make sure the engineers know what's about to go down." He said as Red Team finished the last of the honor guard that had tried to cause trouble.
"Damn, didn't think I'd ever see you take a hit!" Alice said as Jerome and Douglas agreed. Shawn waved them off as the engineers walked back out of the door they'd hidden behind, "Is it over? Because we need to start now if we want any chance of this working." The lead engineer said as Forge looked confused, "What are you talking about?"
Shawn sighed before telling Forge the real plan. They were all there just to make sure the drive and the engineers could get here in one piece; the ones who would be staying behind to blow the thing were the engineers. "Hell no, not a chance. I should be the one to stay behind." Forge hated the idea, already fighting it as one of the engineers smiled sadly, walking over to Forge.
"Do you know why we volunteered, Sergeant?" He asked as Forge shook his head, "Because we have no one left, 5 years of hell have taken our families and so many others, we just wanna level the score." He patted Forge on the shoulder before rejoining his crew as they got to work preparing the drive.
Forge had to step aside and argue with Captain Cutter since he still didn't want to leave the engineers, giving Shawn and Red Team time to push the drive further into the core before sealing the door shut. Just as an extra 'fuck you' to any Covenant that came sniffing around, Shawn piled up the bodies of all the elites in front of the door, while taking the two ornate swords for himself, as well as the silver helmet.
"Here ya go, proof that you're probably the first normal human to beat an Elite in hand-to-hand, a pretty high-ranking one at that." He said, handing Forge one of the blades before setting the helmet over his head. It didn't quite fit, so it looked pretty silly to the rest of them.
Douglas didn't bother hiding his laughter as Forge finally calmed down and did a double-take at the mound of dead aliens. "Did you have to do that?" He asked as Shawn shrugged, "Sending a message, that's all." He said as Forge and the others were glad he was on their side.
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"Spirit of Fire this is Forge, Drive is secure and in place. We're heading back." "Copy that Sergeant, hurry back, the last lock is almost open."
As Red Team, Sgt Forge and Shawn made it back to the Spirit of Fire to assist with packing everything up. Serina and Captain Cutter were personally giving orders as both Flood, Covenant and Forerunner resistance smashed into their forces on the ground.
The engineers keep them updated on their trajectory, getting closer and closer to the artificial sun as more and more locks are opened. "Spirit of Fire, we've reached the detonation site, we can see plenty of Covenant about to blast through those doors, we got ten minutes tops before we blow the core!"
"You heard him, double time! I want all personnel not fighting down below to pack up everything they can, we're getting outta here!" Captain Cutter delegated control back to ground-side commanders as he and Serina focused on getting the ship ready to leave, making sure everything was settled, and nothing was left behind.
{Captain, the Prowler has reestablished contact, surface scans show the Flood writhing on the surface of the planet, and a good portion of it is swarming towards the planets interior.} 'That's fine, we're about to leave anyway. Get the ship ready, once everyone is put to sleep I'll be leaving the Spirit via airlock, be ready to catch me.' {Affirmative}
After arranging his exit, Shawn went to Ander's lab where he found the Professor and Forge gazing into each others eyes, a bit too hard. "Am I interrupting something?" The pair jumped apart as they looked everywhere but at him or each other. "What do you need, can't you see I'm busy packing!" Anders said.
Shawn gave her a look before pointing to the Infection form still floating in a tank. "I'm here to burn that thing, and stomp on the ashes." She immediately stood in front of it, not letting him close. "I won't let you, there so much we have yet to learn, how they spread, what changes are happening to hosts at the genetic level, and-" "I don't care." Shawn interrupted.
He pulled up pictures taken from orbit, that she was supposed to had looked at after she got back. "The Flood cares not for research, it will consume this entire ship if even one of these things escapes." She still didn't budge, until Forge spoke up, "You haven't seen what they do, have you?" She shook her head before Forge showed her the footage of the ODST's who'd been bitten, and the corpse' that the Flood had defiled.
She tried to look away, but he forced her to watch every single time the Flood took over bodies, and the twisted monsters they turned into. He even showed her the mountain of flesh that was the Proto-Gravemind, as she gazed in terror.
"That is why they must be destroyed. So that the horrors we have seen, never afflict the rest of Humanity." Shawn nodded, "No research, no specimens, not even a spore. It would be the end of life as we know it, that cannot happen."
Professor Anders nodded, then apologized for being stubborn, they didn't hold it against her, she just hadn't seen the hell they had in the past few days. Both Shawn and Forge turned on their cams as they disposed of the infection pod, and burned away anything that might be contaminated, before sterilizing the entire lab. Ander wrote a report, and stressed multiple time to never engage the Flood, and to burn them down to the last atom, lest all of Humanity be consumed.
As the final locks were opened, and the exit hole was opened, Captain Cutter did one final check before they left. "Hangar bay reports all crews checked in." Serina said as the rest of the command staff read green across the board. "Then let's not outstay our welcome. Best speed away." Cutter said as Serina shook her head, "Captain, the gravity field from the sun is expanding. We're not going anywhere."
Down in the lab, Shawn got a bad feeling and mag locked his boots.
"Let's see if we can't turn that to our advantage. Serina, plot a course that takes us into the sun. We're going to slingshot around it." Cutter said as Serina scoffed, "Threading a needle, while accelerating around an exploding star, inside a planet that's falling apart. Sure, why not?" "Serina, can you do it?" "It's done. You might want to hold onto something."
The Spirit of Fire accelerates towards the artificial sun as several pieces of the planet are pulled into it. The ship circles perilously close to the sun, burning it's edges as blinding light floods into the bridge.
Down below, all hands on board grab anything they can and brace as the ship flings them about. In Anders lab Shawn calmly walked over to Anders and Forge who were pressed together against a wall, having been to busy with each other to brace, though they didn't seem to mind being pressed so close.
"Ah come one Spartan, you're ruining the fun." Forge pouted as Anders giggled, Shawn rolled his eyes withing his helmet as he gazed out at sun, as Serina started the slingshot. Feeling oddly sentimental, Shawn lifted his hands to his helmet, waited for his suit to release, then removed his helmet, staring into the sun, as the Forerunner world collapsed around them.
Forge and Anders were shocked into silence, they expected him to be older. The lab was quiet as Serina expertly shot around the sun, using the gravity to sling them forward into the open gate, as the Spirit of Fire rocketed through the planet for several long moments, before breaking the surface, leaving the planet behind as it collapsed in on itself, imploding before exploding outwards, shoving the ship even more.
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2 WEEKS LATER . . .
CRYO BAY 3
"I'm certain the ship is clean, we've done several sweeps and decontaminated the whole ship, none of it got on." Captain Cutter was getting a bit tired of Shawn and his obsession with keeping the Flood off his ship. For two whole weeks, the Spirit of Fire had stayed in the system the used to hold the Forerunner world, nothing left but dust and echoes, no Covenant came to reinforce, but neither did the UNSC.
"All systems are ready Captain, I suggest you enter cryo-sleep along with the others." Serina said as she went over a few more things internally. "What about you?" Cutter said looking at Shawn. At first he didn't know what to think about think Spartan, just appearing with an ONI spy ship, then having almost prophetic knowledge about the horrors they were facing, in a matter of hours, he'd gone from silence to joking with crew members he'd never even met before then.
But considering the hell they'd just been through, He was glad to have had his help, even if he was a bit strange.
"I have my own arrangements, Captain." I said as we walked to the Captain's cryo chamber. It still felt so unreal, for years he'd wished he could change how Halo Wars 1 ended, but now he was here, and it wasn't a game.
These were real living people, not characters on a screen. He'd done what he could to save as many as he could, but still someone had to stay behind to blown the drive, at least it wasn't Forge.
The Sergeant and the Professor were already on ice, the Captain had gotten tired of them making stupid faces at each other as they combed the system, so he sent them to bed early. Now it was his turn, as I shook hands with the legendary, James Gregory Cutter, Captain of the UNSC Spirit of Fire.
As the pod closed, I saluted the Captain one last time, before going to the nearest airlock, it was time.
It was strange, seeing the Spartan leave. She'd grown used to his jokes and banter with the crew in the almost three weeks he'd been with them. Of course, Serina would never admit that, she had dignity of course. She did appreciate the system check his did for her though, it gave her a bit more time to watch over the ship and her crew, for however long they would drift.
"Are you sure you won't stay, we've plenty of empty cryo-pods." She said as the Spartan reached one of the airlocks that led onto the deck, where his ship, a Prowler, was already waiting. "I have other people to help, and plenty more to kill Serina, take care of them for me. Maybe we'll see each other again someday."
She knew he was talking about the crew, but still she dared hope, deep within her circuits that she might get to see that day. She watched as the Spartan carved something onto the blast door, then opened it and stepped out into the vacuum. As the airlock sealed behind him, she took a picture with one of the deck cams, the picture showed the Spartan, walking towards his ship, as the cosmos shifted behind him.
She sent it to him, one last thank you, as the Spartan turned around and waved at her. She waved back, as a data package arrived from his ship, she'd look at it later. She watched as he boarded his ship, watched it take off and leave them behind, as well as the Flood, the Covenant, and any secrets the Forerunners may have left.
As the Spirit of Fire drifted in space, destination unknown, Serina began her silent vigil over her frozen crew as she silently read the information had left for them, waiting until the day they would awaken, for better, or worse.
A/N-And that's the end of the Halo Wars: Definitive edition ARC!! I really enjoyed writing all of this, and can't wait to do a separate novel over Halo Wars 2, but that's far in the future. For now, I'm going back to the Wings of Fire in MHA fic, as it's almost time to wrap that story up (IDK what the hell I'm doing) See ya later :P