Turn of the tides Ch1: Out of the frying pan…

Authors note: Greetings! Im not much for words when it comes to things like this so I will just say it. Tronjheim is the mountain inside a mountain instead of that shit they pulled in the movie. Thought speech is denoted by italicized text in quotation marks. Also , everything, unless otherwise specified, is property of their respective parties. Thank you and enjoy.

On Alpha B Halo, shortly after the destruction of High Charity...

The Master Chief moved silently and swiftly through the massive hallway, checking around corners and keeping to the shadows, not making a whisper despite being encased in a half-ton suit of armor. Behind him, Thel 'Vadam, also known as the Arbiter, was sweeping the area and checking for threats, his silence granted from years of experience. The Gravemind would certainly know that they were headed for the Control Room on the new Halo, and would certainly try and stop them from setting it off.

They came to a corner and waited for Sergeant Johnson and Commander Keys to catch up. As the two waited, a loud crash and screech of metal sounded from the door that led to the control room. The Chief and Arbiter snapped their weapons up towards the door, but it was just a repair drone dropping a metal spar and getting crushed under it. They lowered their weapons as Keys and Johnson ran by, and joined them down the hallway at the door.

"Cortana, can you get this door open?" Keys asked. "Yes, but it will take a moment." The disembodied voice of the AI replied, coming from the external speakers on the Spartan's helmet.

A loud bang and the telltale groans of the Flood down at the end of the hallway said they didn't have the time they needed. "We don't have a moment," The Chief crouched down and opened fire with his pistol, watching as the 35mm high explosive slugs hit their targets and blew them apart, sending mottled yellow and green limbs flying everywhere, propelled from the shock wave created by the supersonic passage of the bullet. But for every combat form he shot, another 3 took its place. 'Vadam added in with his carbine, each green bolt finding multiple targets and punching holes through the mass of dead flesh at the end of the hallway. With a beep, the Arbiter's carbine ran dry, and he pulled the fuel rod gun off his back, fully intending on bringing a rain of green death down on the Flood. "Hurry construct! We cannot hold against the Parasite!"

"I'm going I'm going," Cortana said exasperatedly. With a groan, the 10 ton door began to open, and then came to a halt. "Door's open." "About time," Johnson growled. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to tango with these walking freaks again."

They all ran inside, and with another groan, the door closed and locked, sealing the Flood on the other side.

The control room was a vast space, but different from the last time John was in the Alpha Halo room. Instead of solid walls, many were missing their paneling, exposing the circuitry within. The bridge was different too. Instead, the ring around the massive hologram of the Ark was bare of glass, with only the path between the door and the console having the original glass on it. The console itself was lit up, with letters of the Forerunner language scrolling rapidly by. They walked up to this holographic panel, and as they did, an all too familiar humming was heard.

"God damn-it I thought that little bastard was somewhere else on the ring," Johnson growled

"On the contrary, I have been waiting for your arrival, Reclaimers." 343 Guilty Spark, the former monitor of Alpha Halo, floated down from the ceiling to come to a stop before them, pulsing with every word he spoke. "In normal circumstances, I would have suggested that the ring is to be activated to deal with the Flood. However, in this situation, protocol does not have anything that can even compare to this situation, and as such, I am lost."

"Yeah well, our plan was to get in here, set off the ring, and then get the hell out of here," Johnson said, taking a pull on his cigar and flicking the ashes onto the glass. Cortana added, "Since this ring is not attached to the Array and every indication that the Flood is here on the Ark and Halo, if we trigger this ring, even though it will result in the destruction of the ring, it will also result in the extinction of the Flood."

"Extinction of the Flood… my creators tried so hard to achieve that goal, but ultimately failed as the previous Gravemind and Medicant Bias hammered our own forces," Spark recounted. "We used the Array as a last ditch attempt to destroy the Flood, but that attempt was ultimately futile. For over hundred thousand years I was on that ring, running about my duties, knowing that the attempt failed and that sooner or later the Flood would be released again, and then there would be nothing to stop them."

The Monitor paused, before continuing. "When you Reclaimers arrived on the ring along with the others, I thought the Flood would finally be contained and destroyed. But then it was released, and I could not risk their escape into the galaxy again. That is why I sought to trigger the first installation. That is why, even though I am supposed to get this installation as a replacement for the previous one, the threat of the Flood means we must activate this ring. And with collateral kept to a minimum, I do believe you will agree with me in this."

"That's what we came for, light-bulb. We didn't make this trip for our health." Johnson growled before finishing off his cigar and tossing the unburnt nub over the edge. "I am personally tired of these walking freaks, and would like more than anyone to see them get wiped out. I say light this candle and get the hell out."

The others muttered their agreement, and Keys sighed. "Well, its decided. But how are we going to activate it? We don't have the Index."

The master chief had walked over to the console and had already transferred Cortana to the Core during the Monitor's monologue, and with a hiss of static, Cortana appeared. She snapped her fingers, and with a pop the Index came into existence in her hand. "Oh, you mean this? I kept it as a memento from the first Halo. If this ring and the first one are identical, or at least reasonably close, this Index should activate this ring."

The Monitor nodded, and then said. "Do it. I cannot transport you out of here due to the shielding this room has, but once we reach the outside of this building, I will be able to transport you to your ship so we may leave."

BANG!

Everyone snapped around to the door, which now had one hell of a dent in it. "What was that?" Keys asked.

"The Parasite. It seems they know our intentions." The Arbiter murmured. He checked the charge on his energy sword, and then unslung his borrowed shotgun and pumped it. The others did the same, Keys readying a Brute Spiker, Johnson a Spartan laser, and the Chief a rocket launcher. Another loud bang came from the door, and the dent got significantly bigger.

"YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE ALIVE!" Gravemind's telepathic roar blasted through their minds, stunning and disorienting them. "Well, I do believe this is going to be harder than expected." Johnson pulled out another cigar and lit it using the last of the charge in his plasma pistol. The monitor shifted from a cool blue to a bloody crimson and, tapping into the Ring's communication system, responded "The Flood shall be no more! You have lost!"

Gravemind began laughing, a chilling sound that sent tremors up Keys' spine, reminded Johnson of his hell on Halo, and unnerved the normally unshakeable Arbiter and Chief. "And tell me, little Monitor, what makes you think you have won?" He asked, completely dropping the iambic pentameter he normally spoke in.

Cortana casually dropped the Index into the console and then replied, venom in her voice. "How about this?"

The laughter immediately ceased, and was replaced with a psychic howl of fury. The pounding against the door redoubled in its strength, and with a screech of metal, the entire door was ripped free of its mount and blasted into the control room, closely followed by an endless tide of Flood Combat forms.

Everyone opened fire, spraying rockets, bullets, and energy beams downrange, turning the Flood into charred and pulped husks. The Monitor shouted something in another language before letting loose streams of brilliant orange light and projecting a force-field to knock the Flood back. The orange beams were like a scythe, cutting down combat forms and burning any who still stood.

"Chief, time to go!" Cortana shouted over the noise. With a brief flicker of lightning, she jumped back into his armor, and as she did a deep rumbling began to sound underneath the control room. A second later a brilliant white shaft of energy shot up from the abyss, through the hologram of Halo, and out through the roof, disrupting the anti-gravity support holding the platform up. Everyone immediately took this as their cue to run for it, and run they did, mowing down anything that moved. As they made it up to the door and began mopping up the remaining Flood forms, everyone picked up a broadcast coming from Forward Unto Dawn.

"This is to all allied forces within the area. The Dawn and Fireteam Bravo are under attack from Flood and are trying to escape. All forces are requested to either help beat the Flood back or destroy the ship. Repeat, we are under attack and need assistance."

Cortana didn't waste time. "This is Sierra-117 calling Fireteam Bravo. We hear your signal and are on our way. Stand by." "A Spartan? God damn, I'd be glad to have you help us fight off these freaks. Get to an open area and drop a nav-beacon, we will come and pick you up." Gunfire and explosions abruptly sounded over the radio, along with cursing from the marine on the other end of the line.

They were nearly outside when they ran into a small company of Sangheili, Unngoy, and Mgalekgolo fighting for their lives outside the entrance of the Control Room. "Arbiter!" One of the Unngoy called to them as they ran out. "The parasite is everywhere!" It squealed. One of the Mgalekgolo turned to the Arbiter and rumbled, "We cannot survive here, we must escape."

The Arbiter turned to the Monitor and said, "Get us all to the human ship." The Monitor paused, and then said, "Stand by, I have to re-calibrate the local transportation network to account for the disruption caused by the firing sequence." Cortana tapped the local network and examined the fluctuations, and then suddenly said, "I know the solution. These fluctuations are similar to what I had to compensate for when jumping from within the gravity well of Threshold. A few simple alterations and I should have the solution within seconds... done." The monitor swung around and looked at Master Chief. "Impressive, construct. For someone who has a fraction the processing capability of one of my kind to pull something like that off, very impressive indeed. Give me the equations and I will get us out of here." A glowing green globe sizzled by the AIr, who whipped around and blasted the Flood form which had shot at him.

"Alright, the equations are in." The Monitor paused as it processed the massive amount of information needed to move 22 individuals 17 miles up-spin. Gold rings streamed around the soldiers, and with a flash, they vanished.

And reappeared in the middle of hell. Plasma bolts and bullets flashed by the group from the attacking Flood, and they immediately took cover behind the nearest barricade. One of the Mgalekgolo turned and loosed a lethal green stream of burning radioactive goo at the flood and was rewarded with an inferno as the Flood forces went up in flames. The other Mgalekgolo opted for the projectile shot, which arced over the Flood and landed in their midst, sending burning yellow flesh flying everywhere.

"God damn its good to see you guys," one of the Marines defending the Dawn shouted to them. "Stow it Marine. We are getting out of here, cause this firecracker's been lit and I dont want to be here when it blows," grunted Johnson as he prepped a SPNKr rocket launcher. "Oh hell yeah I'll drink to that!" one of the other marines whooped, before taking a plasma bolt to the face and falling, screaming in agony. The Flood took this opportunity to run forward and attack with renewed vigor, forcing everyone back to the lower part of the ship. Johnson finally got the rocket launcher ready and fired. With a whoosh of rocket exhaust, the high explosive warhead lanced forward, eager to meet its prey and rip it apart. The missile hit the first Flood form in the attack wave and passed clean through without stopping before exploding behind it and sending more Combat Forms flying everywhere. "Everyone onboard!" Cortana called over their headsets, and they needed no second prompts. Everyone dashed aboard the ship, and as soon as they were all on, Cortana floored it.

Eragon braced himself against the thick walls of the dragon hold, waiting for the ground-quake to go away. They had been hitting for several days now, and they were slowly getting more and more powerful with each one that hit. Reports had also been coming in of huge cracks and fissures in the ground around Tronjheim, each one pointed almost exactly at the great mountain-city, except for one that went all the way round the base.

"What do you make of it Saphira?" Eragon didn't need to have to speak it out loud, his connection to the sapphire dragon saw to that. Still, he felt it was necessary he voice his thoughts, as these quakes were not natural. The dragon tentatively sniffed the air using her tongue before saying, "I feel great change coming to this world. This change will not be wrought by our hands, but by newcomers and beings with devastating power at their disposal. I have spoken to Arya about this, she senses it too. Whatever is coming, it will choose this city as its arrival point. I just pray whatever comes, it is friendly to our cause."

Eragon was about to respond when Orik, his dwarvish companion in the city, came up to him, slightly out of breath. "You alright Orik?" The Dwarf nodded his head before saying, "We found something down in the armory that I think you and Saphira might like, and we have found some appropriate armor for you as well. Come, we must get you ready, for the Urgals will be here soon." Eragon nodded while Saphira got up and stretched, her entire 30-foot length trembling as she did so. When she was done she extended her foreleg, allowing Eragon to jump up to her back and strap himself in. "Sure you don't want to ride down as well Orik? It's a long walk."

The dwarf shook his head, beard flapping slightly. "No my friend, flying is not for dwarves. I will take the slide back down instead."

"Suit yourself," Eragon said, before Saphira spread her wings and jumped off the top, beginning the long glide down to the bottom of the city. As they flew, another tremor hit the city, and this time it was accompanied by a huge cracking and grinding noise, so loud it shattered dozens of the mighty icicles hanging above them, raining ice down upon the Rider. Saphira was already moving through, rolling and dodging the ice chunks as if they were little more than a minor inconvenience, when each chunk was the size of a horse and if one hit it would kill both of them instantly.

After a few tense seconds, the storm of ice finished falling, and both of the noticed and extremely bright light on the other side of the hollow mountain. "What the blazes is that?" Eragon shouted over the continuing quake and subsequent thrashings of the rock and stone. "I do not know, it opened while I was still avoiding the ice. It can't be the work of the Urgals though, they would not be that obvious in an attack."

They were interrupted when Arya contacted them and said, "Eragon, word has spread that one of the fissures is now emitting vast amounts of light. Can you check it out?" Eragon blushed slightly as he thought of the elf before replying, "Me and Saphira noticed it after the ice stopped pelting us. We are about to go investigate now. Any injuries from the quake?"

Arya looked around at the fallen debris and the damage it had done to both life and limb. "Yes many, with more than a few dead. These quakes are not a product of magic. Durza is not that powerful, and Galbatorix is reported to still be in Uru'Baen. We must figure out the source of these quakes and stop it before more lives are claimed before the battle."

Eragon was puzzled about this. Unnatural quakes? That was more than a little odd to him, and he would think about it later, but first he had a fissure to investigate.

"This is troubling, young one. If the forces of evil are not the cause of this, nor are the forces of nature, that what can cause it? The dwarves said that this mountain has been inactive for thousands of years, I find it odd that it would start acting up now." Saphira glanced over her shoulder at Eragon, who looked as troubled as she was. "Well, we wont know until we get over there to the fissure and see for ourselves."

Saphira nodded and began to fly towards the glowing crack in the ground, pure white light spilling from it as water would spill from an overflowing bucket. They made a pass directly over the fissure, with Eragon leaning over and glancing down into the crack, casting a spell to shield his eyes from the bright light. What he saw stunned him.

Huge plates of metal were shifting; moving so fluidly it seemed surreal. The light itself was coming from thin strips and patches, almost impossibly bright for objects so thin. "Eragon," he nearly jumped out of the saddle as Arya contacted him again. "What is it? You sound like you've seen something big."

"I have," replied the elf. "All of the fissures around the city are emitting light, including the ring surrounding the city. To add to that we are hearing screeches of what sounds like metal against metal, but the dwarves say they have nothing that can make that kind of noise. There is something big underneath Tronjheim, and whatever it is it's not in the local archives. Have you seen anything that might be of importance?"

Eragon glanced back down into the fissure, looking at the shifting metal plates in awe that something that big could move that quickly and quietly. "Yeah. In the fissure over here I'm seeing what looks like huge plates of metal shifting and moving around. When I say huge, I mean huge." He sent her a mental image of what he was seeing, and for several moments Arya did not respond.

"Eragon!" Saphira called to him with a tone of urgency in her voice. "The Urgals! They used the quakes to mask their arriva1 and are about to attack!" Below them, sure enough, was a medium sized army of Urgals, mostly Kull, and they were streaming out of holes in the ground and running full tilt towards the city. "Oh damn. ARYA! WE GOT COMPANY!" Saphira began pumping her wings to get back to the city to get Eragon armored up and armed so he could fight. Another voice responded, and Eragon immediately knew it came from one of the twins. He recoiled at the thought of those two speaking to him, but he let them do it. "Greetings rider. We acknowledge that the Urgals are inside the mountain. Ajihad wishes that you return immediately so that you may get the equipment you and your dragon need for the fight."

Eragon sighed, before replying, "We are on our way back. And my god, there are thousands of them"

Without warning, a massive ground quake hit, ten times more powerful than anything that had hit before. The larger icicles that resisted the previous quakes snapped off, some of them thirty feet in diameter and hundreds long. Eragon and Saphira again dodged the icicles, and then were blinded as the fissures surrounding the city flared brighter than the sun.

With a sudden roar of shifting rocks, the entire city of Tronjheim simply dropped. Eragon watched in shock as the city rapidly descended down a brightly lit shaft until it was down at the bottom nearly a thousand feet down, and like Eragon said, there were large shifting pieces of metal under the mountain in the cracks.

What happened next would be burned into the memories of everyone in the city forever. The mountain itself, Farthen Dûr was opening up, while at the same time the metal plates settled over the city, completely covering it. The mountain had split into 8 massive segments, each one miles long, yet moving as if they were being pulled by giants. The ground around the city suddenly brightened a thousand-fold, and without warning a massive shock-wave hit Eragon and Saphira, throwing them about and deafening them from the force of the blast. From the floor of the mountain, 16 colossal panels began to lift off, each one glowing brightly on the bottom and revealing that the machine, for that is what it was, went under the entire extinct volcano.

The 8 segments that used to be Farthen Dûr opened well past the vertical, and finally stopped with all panels facing outward, turning the massive volcanic cone into a stone flower almost twenty miles across. The 16 panels had stopped too, but they were vertical. For a moment, everything was dead quiet, the approaching army of Urgals having retreated to the gap between the panels and the segments, the only level ground in the area. Then something began to happen. They noticed that the glowing panels surrounding and encasing the city were glowing brightly. Even though they were several hundred feet up, Saphira and Eragon could both hear something extremely powerful winding up, rising from a deep subsonic rumble that shook their bones even in the sky to a high pitched whine, not quite painful to the ears, but still more than enough to get them ringing.

As the noise reached a fever pitch, a huge beam of white light shot up from the peak of the encased city. This beam was too blinding to look at, but Eragon and Saphira could see what was coming next. The 16 panels were absolutely encased in the same strange light that was streaming up from the center of it all, and as they continued to watch in awe, all 16 panels discharged their energy towards the main beam. There was an ungodly brilliant flash of light, a noise like ripping combined with water rapidly draining out of a bucket, a noise that sounded like a portal to hell had opened. When they looked again after the light faded, they realized just how close to the truth that might be.

A huge black globe, well over several thousand feet across, hung suspended over the open cone of the volcano, even as Tronjheim began rising out of the hole it sunk into. It seemed that the 16 panels could provide enough energy to maintain this without having to keep the main beam going.

As panicked telepathic voices came up from the city asking them just what the hell happened, the only thing that Eragon and Saphira could think about was what was going to happen next. Little did they know, the portal signaled the end of one age, and the rise of a new one.

"The ring has entered its final firing phase!" The Monitor cried out over the ship intercom. He was down in engineering, dumping as much power as he could from his own circuitry into the engines so they could get the hell out of here.

On the bridge, Johnson nonchalantly lit another cigar, in full defiance of having a combustible material on the command deck of a UNSC ship, and said, "Well, I don't know about you, but I am quite eager to get back home and get drunk off my ass. I'm getting too old for this shit."

"We all want to get home Johnson, we just have to outrun the shock-wave of the ring first" Keys hissed at him as she jockeyed 3 stations from her command seat. "Monitor, ring status?" Keys wanted to know exactly when their time had run out, especially considering they still hadn't made it to the portal.

The response that came back was completely unexpected. "The ring firing sequence seems to have been stalled by something… by my creators!" the AI exclaimed. "Its Offensive Bias doing it. He's buying us time to- wait… Oh no."

"What is it monitor?" Keys asked the AI.

"The portal is becoming unstable due to ring activity. To make things simple, it will most likely not go back to your world anymore. My creators had discovered how to cross between parallel universes, and had spread their knowledge and technological wealth through these universes. That portal" with a simple flick, one of the displays focused on the portal, "Could lead anywhere."

"It's worth the risk," 'Vadam said in his deep voice. "It would be much better to go to another universe and live out the rest of our days on a world that can support us rather than get caught in the shock-wave of the Ring."

The Master Chief was about to add his comment when Spark yelled, "The ring has detonated! Shockwave impact in 17 seconds!"

"Cortana, h-" "Sixteen seconds" The AI cut through already knowing the question beforehand.

"This one is going to be close" Johnson chuckled, knowing that once again, he was going to cheat death by the hide of his ass.

The Dawn surged forward as the Monitor diverted every scrap of power into the engines, throwing everyone back into their seats. Cortana put the countdown until the blast hit them and the ETA to the portal up on the screen and began counting down. "Ten"

"Nine" the ship began to rumble slightly as the first whispers of the shock hit them

"Eight" The marines and remaining crew began to pray

"Seven" beads of sweat began to form on Keys' head

"Six" the rumbling had intensified into a bone-shaking roar

"Five" "OH GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" Came from a panicking marine, closely followed by a loud slap

"Four" Keys groaned from the G forces as the ship continued to leap forward

"Three" Johnson leaned back and took a long deep pull on the cigar

"Two" The ship began to screech with stress as the concussive part of the blast hit

"One"

With a fraction of a second to spare before the brain-frying part of the blast struck without mercy, the Dawn blew through the portal.

"Eragon…" Saphira had been watching the portal, and she noticed something near the west side of it.

"What is it Saphira?" Eragon followed her mental prompting and saw… something come flying out of the portal. It was fairly large, about half a mile long, and was crafted of a dark metal. Flames could be seen coming out of nozzles at the back, and it moved at an impossible speed for an object so large. There were obvious signs of damage too, with the most obvious sign being intense scorching covering the back half of the thing, as well as fires and large holes blown in the thick skin of the object. The object rotated and rocketed upward, using gravity and drag to slow its incredible velocity down.

That's when all hell broke loose. The intense white glow from beneath Eragon from the portal machine suddenly dimmed and went out with the sound of something winding down. The panels surrounding the machine wavered for a moment, and then, with a titanic crashing noise, came back down one after another, some of the plates breaking in pieces and breaking with loud reports. The portal, robbed of its power source, collapsed on itself with a howl of hurricane force winds, and released a visible shock-wave in the air as it disintegrated. Eragon covered his ears in an attempt to shield them from the noise, but Saphira had no respite, and howled in agony as her eardrums were destroyed. "Saphira's been injured!" he called down to Arya, but there was no response. Eragon looked up and noticed the thing that came out of the portal was several miles high, and was coming back down, the thin contrail behind it revealing that it was in a controlled spiral.

"Eragon, things are bad down here. The city's drop and return to the top did a very large amount of damage and injured many people. And whatever caused that racket blew out almost everyone's eardrums and was loud enough to shatter some of the stonework.

"It was a portal machine," Eragon sent back. "The whole blasted mountain was this machine, and it opened a portal. Whether it was activated somewhere else or it was done here, it doesn't change one fact. Something came through, something not natural, and something big." he sent Arya the mental image of the thing that came flying out of the portal, and for several minutes, she didn't respond.

Eragon in the meantime used the opportunity to land and heal the damage done to Saphira's ears. When he dismounted and examined her ears, he was dismayed at the severity of the damage.

A thin crimson stream of blood dribbled from both ears, with small fragments of flesh mixed in, all that remained of her eardrums. The eardrums he could fix, but the internal bleeding would be much harder, and would have to wait. The Urgals nearby, at least the survivors, had noticed them, and were charging forwards to eagerly get first crack at the Rider and his dragon.

Saphira's response to the Urgal threat was a forty foot long jet of blue-white flame, instantly incinerating the first to reach them. The other Urgals let loose roars of fury at their fallen comrade, and without warning, Eragon was in for the fight of his life.

He drew his sword and immediately made for the first Kull, wielding a wicked double axe, and nimbly dodged to the side just as the blade came slamming down, embedding itself in the dirt. Eragon used this opportunity to cleave the head from the shoulders of that Urgal before turning and intercepting the short sword of the next Urgal, turning it aside and swinging upward, driving Zar'roc into the skull from the jaw up, before twisting and turning to the next Urgal, who was about to cleave him in two with another axe. Not having time to block it, Eragon shouted, "Jierda!", focusing the magic on the head of the axe. The blade exploded, showering metal everywhere, but the force of the magic had done as intended, and allowed Eragon the time to turn the now useless handle of the axe to the side and thrust Zar'roc into the Kull's gut, the crimson blade seemingly shimmering with glee at the bloodshed.

Saphira in the meantime was using her new-found ability to breathe fire to devastating effect, incinerating the dozens of Kull who swarmed her. But there were simply too many, and unprotected she began taking severe injuries, the first of which was an axe to the right rear haunch. Several spears to the wings were next, pricking holes in them and causing Saphira to roar in pain. The offending Urgals suddenly found themselves on fire as Saphira proceeded to incinerate them with another jet of flame.

"We are under attack and need help NOW!" Eragon didn't bother picking a target within the city, he just pointed his thoughts in that direction and sent it on its way. Little did he know that help was coming from an unexpected direction.

"We are under attack and need help NOW!" a voice was heard in their heads as they circled over the area.

"What the hell? I could have just sworn I heard someone say they were under attack." Johnson exhaled the cigar smoke. They had made it, although barely. The energy wave from the Halo detonation had caught the back third of the ship and had killed several crew-members, thankfully no one important or critical to the running of the ship.

'Vadam turned to Johnson and said, "I heard it too. I do not believe it was the Parasite. Its mind-speech is not like that. This almost sounded like a human."

"A human with telepathy?" Keys mused. It wasn't impossible though. They are in another universe and as such the rules of their own no longer apply here, so it was entirely possible that if there was a living human down there, they could have telepathy.

One of the crew brought up from the lower decks manning the sensor console paused, and then said, "Ma'am? You might want to see this."

The main display switched to one of the exterior cameras, which panned around and pointed to a flat area on the other side of the city, where a boy in his teens fighting of a large number of huge bipedal beasts and…

"Oh my god, is that a dragon?" Keys couldn't believe her eyes.

Sure enough, there was a large blue dragon fighting the creatures beside the boy, and as they watched, the dragon let loose a blue jet of fire, burning several of the creatures.

The Chief leaned forward and examined the pair, and quickly stated the obvious. "That kid and the dragon are about to be overrun, and even if the city on the ground could get reinforcements on the move, those two will be dead by the time backup has arrived." "Indeed," the Arbiter added. "That human may be one of the most skilled I have seen with a blade, but the odds are against him." The John and 'Vadam turned to each other, and Keys immediately knew what they wanted to do. "I can't allow it you two. We don't know whether they are hostile or not, and I have to put the safety of my crew before him. Request denied."

"With all due respect ma'am," Johnson pulled on the cigar again, savoring the flavor. "If we help that kid, it's likely we will get some of the assistance we need, plus some allies for the road ahead. And if there are creatures like that in this world, then who knows what else is here, so intel on what precisely we are dealing with will be a bonus. And if anything, we need the food. I'm not quite content to live the rest of my days on old MRE's and recycled water." The John and 'Vadam, as well as several of the crew on the bridge nodded in agreement. Keys sighed, knowing that they were unfortunately right.

Cortana was about to add her own opinion when sensors detected a large EM flare coming in the direction of the fight, and it was centered on the boy. A fraction of a second after the flare, his sword ignited and began setting the monsters on fire as he hacked away at them. "Uhhh guys? If dragons and telepathic humans weren't enough, if this data is correct, there is also magic as well."

Keys immediately knew that the rules of the game had changed, and nodded to 'Vadam and John. "Request granted."

Eragon was exhausted, and wounded badly. A large gash in his right arm made it difficult to raise his shield to block strikes from the Urgals. There were several small cuts on his face and arms where arrows and short swords narrowly missed him, and he could have sworn he sprained his right ankle. Saphira wasn't better off, with one wing in complete tatters, victim of spears. Her tail had been shortened by a foot and a half due to an Urgal getting off a lucky attack on her rear, and her right haunch was all but dead. They had successfully managed to beat back 4 successive waves of Urgals, but he knew that if he didn't get reinforcements before the next wave hit, he and Saphira would die. The thought of getting killed by Urgals simply because he didn't have enough strength to maintain the slaughter drove him to keep fighting, taking down the stragglers from the last wave in bloody sprays of blood and gore.

"Eragon, here they come!" Saphira stood behind him and let loose a defiant roar, determined to not go down without one hell of a fight. The Urgals charged on unfazed, and as the first of them arrived, so did his reinforcements.

The first Urgals had made it to the pair when a large silver streak screamed out of nowhere, went deep into their ranks, and exploded. Eragon staggered, stunned from the force of the biggest explosion he had seen. The Urgals unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast disintegrated, their burning remains flying everywhere. Those further away from the blast had a much worse fate. The concussion from the blast proceeded to "jellify" their flesh, giving them all an extremely painful death as their organs melted into one another.

When Eragon looked up again, he couldn't believe what he saw. Standing about 15 feet away were 2 of the strangest beings that he had ever seen. One of them could be described as a man in strange armor, but there the similarity ended. For one, this being stood over 8 feet high, which was far taller than any normal human. The armor was thick, angular, and a ghostly iridescent green, and moved almost impossibly fluidly, as if it were as quicksilver. A gold faceplate hid the features of the being inside the suit, but Eragon knew this wasn't a magical creation like a golem, because he could sense the person inside, hard and focused like a well forged sword, with a mental armor unlike anything he had ever felt. In this being's hands was a large, tube-like object, and as he watched, the man turned and did something to it. With a whoosh, another silver streak lanced on a column of flame out of the tube, raced for the approaching Urgal scout group, and blew them to hell.

It was the other being that really got his attention though. It wasn't human at all, nor any other creature, magical or otherwise. It also stood 8 feet tall, and was clad in strange silver armor, covered in intricate designs and unquestionably old. The creature had dark skin-like hide, and under it rippled many powerful muscles, no doubt incredibly strong. Its head and neck were almost blended together, and its mouth consisted of 4 mandibles around a large closed hole. Its eyes were almost serpent-like, with a thin slit surrounded by gold. These eyes carried wisdom well beyond Eragon, and of things best left unmentioned. Eragon's eyes wandered down to the being's chest and saw a massive scar that looked like it was a branding, and must have been exceedingly painful. Its legs, he noticed, were double jointed, like a cat or dog, and Eragon had no doubt that in a full sprint this being would easily outrun most creatures without trouble. In its hand, a silvery handle was grasped, and with a loud pop, a blazing white blade came to life. The being ran towards Eragon and jumped over him, coming down with a thump on the other side and continuing to charge towards the Urgals.

One of the survivors noticed the new challenger and hurled its axe at the creature with the blade. The newcomer let the axe hit, and a glowing silver barrier of some kind flared to life, deflecting the axe away and leaving the being unharmed. A moment later, the white blade had completely cut all the way through the Urgal, the smell of burning flesh reaching Eragon's nose as the white-hot blade cauterized the injury. The upper and lower halves of the Urgal fell to the ground, where the being proceeded to crush it under its weight.

The green-armored human had switched to a smaller weapon, silver in appearance, and looked like a T with the back and lower parts cut off. This weapon let loose extremely loud bangs, and with each one, another Urgal's skull exploded. Kull, normal Urgals, it didn't matter. Anything which met this being's weapon was blown apart from the inside out.

After barely 30 seconds of slaughter, the rest of the wave was gone, either chopped up into burning remains or blown to steaming bits. Eragon was over by Saphira and was tending to her injuries as best as he could, and was hoping the two beings which had effortlessly destroyed all the Urgals would not attack him next. The one in the green armor moved towards him, weapon pointed downward, and before either the being or Eragon could do anything, Saphira let loose a vicious hiss at it. The being stopped, apparently deciding what to do. Eragon watched it, while Saphira growled."These beings reek of death!"

Eragon turned to her and said "Well, they did just destroy all the Urgals. I would expect them to reek of death."

Saphira stopped growling and turned to him. "Its not the recent death that I smell on them. It's the kind of death that lingers only after tens of thousands of lives taken. It's the kind that lingers after a very long and brutal war."

Without warning, the green being raised its hands to its head, and began fiddling with something there. After a moment, there was a loud hiss as the seal was removed, and a crackling storm of gold electricity all over its armor as a similar protective barrier went down. It gripped its helmet, twisted slightly, and then pulled it off. What greeted Eragon was a person, but not like any person he had ever seen. The man inside was very pale, like he hadn't seen the sun in years. His face was roughly chiseled, and had its fair share of scars, some reaching up into his short brown hair. His eyes were a piercing emerald hue, and Eragon saw a merciless killer in those eyes, someone who would ravage the enemy without hesitation, and someone who had seen many evils and conquered them.

For a moment this person studied him, before asking, "Are you alright?"

Eragon quickly examined his injuries before replying, "I'll live. My dragon though needs help."

Saphira was panting hard now, and was in intense pain from her injuries. The axe which nailed her right haunch was still embedded in it, and her tail was bleeding freely. Her right wing was the worst injury though, the limb having taken a near direct hit from a short sword, almost completely cutting it off, with but a few tatters of flesh and sinew holding it on. This wound also bleed freely.

The human in the green armor looked at Saphira, who growled at him and said, "Don't come any closer human. You reek of death and destruction!"

The human raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "I'm a soldier who just got done fighting a 2 front war that claimed untold billions of lives on both sides and saw the destruction of a alien species called the Flood and the shattering of a union of alien races known as the Covenant, a war which lasted for 33 years. During that time I was deployed to fight off the Covenant wherever they might have been, and although even I don't know the true numbers, I have taken millions myself. I would be honestly surprised if I didn't smell of death."

Eragon's jaw dropped. Billions? What kind of war claims that many lives?

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the forces from Tronjheim. Among them was Arya, Orik, and Murtagh, all fitted in armor and with their weapons drawn. Orik and Murtagh immediately turned to the being in the armor and was about to attack him when a loud roar sounded right behind the newcomer. One of the Urgals was faking it's death, and used the opportunity to attack the warrior, stabbing its short sword into his back, only to watch the blade skate off the armor as if it was made of solid stone, not even scratching it.. The warrior moved, turning impossibly fast to face the Urgal. His gauntleted hands lashed out like snakes, each one pounding a deep hole into the Urgal's chest, breaking every bone in it and sending the creature staggering backwards. He then pulled out a blue object the size of a orange, and then triggered it, causing it to burst into a strange sapphire flame, before hurling it at the open maw of the still alive Urgal. The Urgal howled in agony as the flames began to melt its mouth and throat, and it ran back to the mounds of slaughtered Urgals, before the burning blue object beeped, surged in brightness, and exploded.

The whole thing had taken less than 2 seconds. Murtagh and Orik immediately stopped, not wanting to meet the same fate, and instead Orik demanded, "What in Gûntera's name are you?"

The warrior put his helmet back on, and the crackle of gold surged around him again before replying, "I am a Spartan, designation number 117, and currently hold the rank of Master Chief in the UNSC. This," He gestured to the creature, now cleaning his equipment, "Is Thel 'Vadam, also known as the Arbiter. He is a former military commander of the Covenant, who fell from grace and rose again, but is not a member of the UNSC."

Eragon was about to ask when a loud feral roar got his attention, and everyone snapped around to see an Urgal scout disappear back into the tunnel behind it.

The Master Chief muttered something under his breath before turning back to them and saying, "I would explain more about where me and my companion are from, but there is no time. My motion tracker is detecting thousands of contacts moving this way. I suggest we get back into that city."

"Aye," Orik said, before saying, "Where are my manners, I do believe we have yet to introduce ourselves." The Spartan turned to face him, and Orik stopped. This warrior was very intimidating in his armor, and Orik knew now was not the time. He nodded and muttered, "It will wait until after the battle, Spartan. After that, Ajihad and Hrothgar would both like to have a word with you two, and possibly anyone else who came with you."

They started to move when Eragon called out, "Saphira cant walk with her current injuries. How do you expect us to get her back to the city?"

The Spartan paused, and then said, almost seemingly to thin air, "This is Sierra-117 to the Dawn, requesting heavy lifting for one wounded dragon and its rider."

The others raised their eyebrows, and then nearly jumped out of their skins when a female voice responded, "Dawn to Sierra-117, heavy lifting en-route, eta thirty seconds."

Almost immediately a dull rumble was heard, and everyone except the Arbiter and Master Chief turned to see an odd gray object with wings speeding towards them, with what looked like large straps hanging beneath the back half. This object flew close to them, and the Chief motioned for the pilot of this object to move it over Saphira. The dragon hissed weakly as it descended over her, said, "Get it away from me." Eragon crouched beside her and said, "Saphira, these wounds are far beyond my ability to heal. If these warriors can do that," He motioned to the still smoking pile of dead bodies, "Then maybe they can do the opposite as well."

The gray vehicle set down next to Saphira, and out of the back of the craft came 3 more people, all three dressed in armor somewhat similar to what the Chief was wearing, but lighter, both in size and coverage, and without exception covered in small holes and burn marks. One of the men had dark skin and a mustache, and had a small brown cylindrical object in his mouth, the end of which glowed and smoked slightly. On his hip was another one of those T-shaped weapons, and in his hands was a gray object with a long, thin tube sticking out the front, a larger cylinder on top on a rail, and a glowing blue display with numbers on it. Eragon probed their minds and again, found an unbreakable mental shield. Whatever these warriors went through, it must have been very brutal to cause them to protect their minds like this.

The dark skinned man turned to Eragon and said, "For a kid, you got guts. Going up against a superior force without some sort of armor is something which I doubt even the Chief has the balls to do. And he is crazy enough to jump out of a space station with an enemy bomb in tow, make it inside an enemy ship, and then use their own bomb to blow it up. Don't worry about your dragon, we are quite capable of fixing the damage." Eragon turned to Saphira and examined her wounds, before turning back to him and asking, "Are you sure?"

"Hell kid, under the right conditions we can bring the recently deceased back to life. Closing deep wounds and re-attaching limbs is almost a cakewalk for our medical technology. Oh yeah, name is Sergeant Avery Johnson, although people usually call me Johnson." Jonson extended a hand to Eragon, and reluctantly Eragon shook it. Saphira meanwhile was watching Johnson like a hawk, but was too exhausted to do anything other than glare at him. She did not trust the newcomers and their technology, especially considering their arrival absolutely ruined her day and almost got her killed.

Eragon looked at the strange gray craft, and Johnson answered his question before Eragon could even get it out. "This vehicle is called a Pelican. Its a dropship, a vehicle that ferries cargo and personnel to and from the battlefield. They are space capable, but only for planet to ship and vice versa. Trying to travel anywhere off-world in one is not a good idea." Johnson then turned to the other two with him and said, "Alright, get the dragon strapped up and ready for transport back to the Dawn." Johnson pulled a small boom down in front of his mouth and then said, "Johnson to Dawn come in please." "This is the Dawn, go ahead."

Johnson glanced at Eragon and Saphira's injuries. "We are going to need a medical team and a full medical suite in the cargo bay. The dragon has really taken a beating and will be needing a limb re-attached. And also, get the replicators warmed up, and make a set of combat armor for the dragon."

Eragon listened to this as he probed the would around the axe wound, trying to figure out how to get it out without killing her so they could strap her to the pelican and fly her to the newcomer's vessel.

"Johnson," Eragon called, causing the marine to turn to him with raised eyebrows. Eragon pointed to the axe and asked, "Got any rags or bandages to close this wound with after we rip it out?" Johnson chuckled before saying, "I got something a little bit better." He went into the pelican and came out with a octagonal white box with a big red cross on it. He popped it open and began digging through the contents of the box, pulling out a medium sized canister with the runes "BIOFOAM" on the side. "What is that?" Saphira asked, causing Johnson to jump. He realized it was the dragon who spoke to him, and replied, "Its called biofoam. The specifics are beyond me, but we use it to close up and make a temporary repair to major injuries. It will expand and fill the wound once its been applied, and causes blood at the site of the injury, whether it be internal or external, to coagulate, essentially stopping the bleeding."

"Will it help with my wing?" Saphira waved the near-stump of a wing arm. Johnson shook his head. "No, we gotta use something else for that. If I remember correctly, we were to field-test nanite technology for medical purposes, but never had the chance. Essentially they are tiny machines which read the DNA of the being they are injected into, and then use that and the materials available in the users body to re-build lost cells in the original form, afterward which they go dormant until there is another injury which requires repair. They only last a week or so, but during that week, it becomes very difficult to die from most major injuries. The reason we never used them is we didn't have the time to properly test them in battlefield conditions. Now, about the axe." Johnson went back into the pelican and pulled out a dark green bag, one stuffed with cloth and other items, and threw it to Saphira. "Bite down on that while we pull this thing out. And try to not thrash around much."

Johnson prepped the biofoam canister, attaching a flat applicator to the dispensing end while Eragon got a better grip on the axe. Saphira clamped her jaws down on the bag, before saying, "Alright... make it quick."

Eragon nodded, and then swiftly wrenched the axe out of Saphira's leg. Immediately blood began spurting out of the severed artery, and Saphira let loose a howl of pain through the bag, but managed to keep still long enough for Johnson to empty the contents of the biofoam can into the gash. Almost like magic, the pale yellow foam rapidly expanded in the wound, cutting off the stream of blood and closing off the breached blood vessels, stopping the bleeding entirely. Saphira groaned, and then turned around to examining the results. The gash had been replaced by a small mound of stiff foam, tinted red from her blood, but amazingly the wound didn't burn like fire anymore. It still hurt, but it was more a dull throbbing ache, and if she didn't overexert herself she would be able to move.

Johnson quickly did the same with her tail and then came to her destroyed wing and sighed. "Well, hate to tell you this, but whats left of the wing has to go. We'll grow you a new one as soon as we get on the ship, and then attach it."

"And how long will that take?" Eragon asked. "Up to about 3 hours." Johnson pulled out his combat knife and quickly severed the remaining flesh and sinew holding on the wrecked wing. The wing fell to the ground with a thud, and Johnson quickly sealed it with more biofoam, pocketing the expended canister. "Alright, major holes are sealed, ready to move. PERKINS!" Johnson suddenly shouted at one of the others, who jumped. "Get this dragon secure and ready to move, we got incoming hostiles." "Yes sir!" the person named Perkins saluted Johnson before him and the other person quickly strapped Saphira up to the Pelican.

A loud roar got all of their attention as more Urgals arrived. "Alright, time to go!" Johnson and the other two climbed aboard the back area of the Pelican and motioned Eragon to follow. He gingerly climbed in and sat down, noting that the seats were little more than a thin cushion over a hard metal he had never seen before. To the front of the compartment was a door, and two red lights. There was another one of those octagonal white boxes, with a similarly shaped scorch mark where the other one used to be. Now that he actually had time to look, he didn't see anything of theirs which wasn't burned, blasted, or otherwise damaged, a testament to what they had went through.

His thoughts were cut off as the Pelican's engines increased from a low rumble to a high pitched screech, and with a lurch the vehicle lifted off and began moving forward. One of the Urgals on the ground attempted to take a swipe at the departing Saphira, who craned her head around and retaliated with a jet of sapphire flame. The Urgal went up like a torch, leather armor catching easily in the super hot flames, and within moments the creature was a pile of ash. The other Urgals on the ground wouldn't have any of this, and many of them readied short bows, and all of them targeted Saphira.

"Oh, so they want to practice shooting eh?" Johnson muttered, taking another pull on the object in his mouth and exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Alright, I think I can deal with that." He kicked open a footlocker, and pulled out a long, thin black object, with a large flat end and a feature he had recognized on the other weapons these newcomers had used: a trigger. Johnson glanced at Eragon and said, "This my good man, is a SRS99D-S2 Sniper Rifle. This weapon fires a titanium-tungsten dart at hypersonic speed, and can place that shot within an inch of where you want it at ranges up to three thousand yards. In the hands of a master, this is the finger of god." With that, he slotted in a small object into the bottom, pulled a lever on the side, picked his first victim, and fired.

The weapon let loose a loud crack, and a thin contrail traced the path of the bullet from the barrel to its unlucky victims, a pair of Urgals on the ground. The first Urgal took the shot through the skull, causing it to simply vanish in a haze of blood and bone. The one directly behind it took the round in the chest, ripping the upper torso from the lower and sending the former flying backwards into the ranks of the approaching army. Johnson fired again, and the shot found 3 more victims. "Hey flyboy! Get us out of here!" Johnson shouted at the door. The Urgals on the ground noticed Johnson and instead shifted their aim to him, and they all released the flock of arrows. "Oh shit."
Saphira let loose another jet of flame and caught the entire flight of arrows in it, incinerating them and causing the metal heads to shatter from the explosive heating. "You keep them off me, and ill return the favor," Saphira turned to Johnson. "Do this, and ill trust you again." Johnson nodded, before expending the weapon and ejecting the object he put in earlier, letting it clatter to the floor. Johnson put the weapon back in its locker, and pulled out his first weapon, before pointing it at the horde of Urgals now almost out of bow-shot. He squeezed the trigger, and the weapon responded with a 3 shot burst, and a trio of golden canisters coming out of the side. The bullets which he fired each found a separate target, and each one fell without a sound. The entire army ground to a halt as they tried to figure out what precisely was killing them. They would never find out as a loud buzzing sound came directly from the front of the Pelican, and the entire leading twenty lines of the army exploded into a bloody paste, the shots from whatever weapon mounted on the front of the dropship pulverizing them. Eragon watched in horror as the weapon buzzed again, delivering its deadly cargo to the Urgal lines, cutting them down like a scythe would wheat. Within seconds the entire enemy army was in a panic, trying to get away from the slowly flying gray hellion that rained death on their ranks.

"Well, ain't that a turkey shoot if I ever saw one," Johnson crowed. "Bastards don't know what hit them."

"What the blazes was that?" Eragon asked.

"That was the chain gun. In its basic form, it has anywhere from three to seven barrels all rotating around a central axis. When a barrel lines up with the round in the chamber, the bullet gets fired out. Thing is, they have fire rates upwards of seven thousand rounds per minute, and fire depleted uranium slugs about the size of one of the dragon's teeth, and then there is the fact each shell is moving close to five times the speed of sound. So, lots of small dense lumps of metal moving at high speed will get you that." He pointed out at the mounds of dead Urgals and the fleeing army.

Eragon shuddered. That would explain how so many died in whatever war they had come from.

Johnson continued to examine the carnage behind them, and darkly muttered, "Damn, now I know what it feels like to be a Covenant commander ordering the glassing of a planet."

"What is the Covenant?" Saphira asked.

"What was the Covenant is what you should be asking. They are a large alliance of seven different alien races, all united by some faith that when they die they walk on a Great Journey or someshit like that. The races involved, from the most important to the least, are the Prophets, Elites, Hunters, Brutes, Engineers, Jackals, and Grunts, but I don't know their own names for themselves. They first made contact with us on one of our own worlds, an Ag world we called Harvest," Johnson saw Eragon's puzzled look and said, "Agriculture world. Its a planet that we used to grow food for all the other worlds we once had dominion over. Anyways, they met us, things went rapidly sour, and before the week was out, most of the six million people on Harvest were dead, and the planet had been glassed."

"Glassed? By that do you mean, melted into glass?"

"Not quite, but you get the idea. What happens during a glassing is that all of the Covenant ships in the area fire everything they have at the planet, burning and melting everything into a molten sea. The atmosphere burns off, the oceans boil, and within a day or two a world that may have been bursting with life becomes a dead, barren ball floating in space. Nothing on the planet survives."

Eragon turned pale.

"That was the start of the Human-Covenant war. For the next thirty-three years, we would try to defend our worlds from the Covenant, and every time we failed. They had superior firepower, superior defensive abilities, and strength in numbers both in space and on the ground. And then came the Spartans. Cooked up by some ONI Section Three spooks, those crazy bastards could be called gods of war. I've seen a single Spartan go up against an entire battalion of Covenant and come out unharmed on the other side, while the battalion had taken near 100% casualties. I've seen a squad of them go up against an enemy stronghold, and even though they lost one of their own, they destroyed the station and almost 500 enemy ships, many of which were cruisers and carriers. Big ships, just one of which could flatten one of our own battle-groups. Whenever faced with superior forces, they always pounded them into the ground, and destroyed them by the millions. Bringing just one Spartan onto the battlefield was often enough to turn the tide of a ground war. It was never enough though. The Covenant were still superior in space, and there really wasn't much one could do against them except evacuate and run for it. Jericho VII, REACH, and hundreds of other worlds were all burned. I was on a ship called the Pillar of Autumn when those bastards finally won the fight and began burning Reach. And that's when we found it. Halo. A ring-world ten-thousand kilometers in diameter and containing everything one could need to survive. Air, water, hard land, hell, even life, it was all on the ring. At first, we were just trying to figure out how to survive on the ring, trying to fight the Covenant ground forces, and at the same time try and find a ticket home. That whole plan got shot to hell when we found the Flood."

He was cut short by the pilot who opened the hatch and, after saluting Johnson, said, "We're almost there sir." Johnson nodded and turned to the two other soldiers in the compartment. "Alright you heard the man. Get your asses in gear and ready to unsling our blue friend."

The Pelican slowed, turned around, and began flying backwards into the cargo bay, treating Eragon to an excellent view of the Dawn. His jaw began to drop as he realized just how massive the ship was. "Its huge!" he breathed.

Johnson shook his head. "Nope, this one is a small one. Allow me to present the UNSC Frigate, Forward Unto Dawn. She is 489 meters long bow to stern, is powered by a pair of fusion reactors, and her hull is sixty centimeters of solid Titanium-A armor. She is capable of transluminal travel, and is armed with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, fifty Archer missile pods, and 3 Shiva nuclear missiles, and is home to some of the best in the UNSC, including the Master Chief, and is commanded by Captain Miranda Keys, daughter of Jakob Keys, possibly the best strategist we ever had." The Pelican shook as something clamped onto it from above, and as soon as that happened, the engines shut down. Saphira shook herself out of the stupor she had sunk into and looked around, and her jaw dropped.

The bay was packed with dozens of vehicles, and close to a hundred humans, all scurrying around and apparently getting ready for battle. In the corner of this massive bay, there was a group of humans all dressed in white, surrounded by a large variety of equipment, some of it quite shiny, and sharp. Spread underneath the humans and the equipment was a large, sky blue sheet, with an area clearly marked off where Saphira was supposed to go.

The Pelican was hauled over to this area, and was slowly lowered until Saphira was able to stand. The two men that came with them jumped out and quickly unclipped the slings, allowing Saphira to move about. The dropship moved off to the side, and Eragon jumped out. One of the white-garbed men motioned for Eragon to walk towards him, and Eragon moved cautiously before sitting down.

The man put on a thin paper mask and then said, "My name is Tyler, and I've been told you and your dragon got into a tight spot." Eragon nodded, and Tyler began gathering medical supplies. "Well? Cant fix whats broken unless you tell me whats busted." Eragon jumped and painfully extended his gashed arm, the wound itself having sealed itself with a thick crust of blood. Tyler's eyebrows rose. "Well, thats not a bad cut you got yourself there. Lets see if I can fix it." Tyler pulled a small canister of biofoam out of the mass of supplies, and a long syringe full of a slightly glowing yellow fluid. "Ahh, biofoam." Tyler said. "Wondrous material in the medical world. Capable of sealing any wound, internal or external, and clean it at the same time. Makes my life a lot easier, as all I have to do is peel it away and get to work." "Whats in that?" Eragon said, pointing rather apprehensively at the syringe.

"Those are nanites." A female voice responded out of nowhere. Eragon almost jumped out of his skin and looked around wildly for the source of the voice. A small, slightly purple glowing disk nearby gave a flare of static, and with a pop, a woman popped into existence. Or at least it looked like a woman. Her hair was cropped short, and her eyes were a piercing ice blue. The rest of her slender frame was a deeper shade of blue, almost purple in color, and was covered in scrolling figures. Eragon turned slightly red when he realized she was nude, albeit without the details.

Johnson walked up to them, and this figure turned to Johnson and said, "You do realize there is an army of those things almost a million strong about to attack the city below right?"

Johnson nodded. "I left the Chief and Arbiter down there to get things sorted out. It would be a good idea to give them some better equipment, as a pistol and energy sword arent going to do much against a force that big." The woman nodded, and then turned to Eragon. "I'm sorry about what happened to your dragon, but we honestly did not have any idea as to where the portal went or what we would find on the other side. It seems this universe has some new rules for us to play by."

Eragon just sat there dumbstruck, not even sure how to answer or what questions to ask. He finally managed to stammer out, "What are you?"

The woman drew herself up to her full 2 foot height and said, "I am Cortana, a fifth generation UNSC Artificial Intelligence, or AI, for short. To cut down on time, I am essentially a sentient machine, and the brain of this vessel."
"That's impossible. Machines aren't supposed to be intelligent or even that complex."

Cortana raised an eyebrow. "And yet here you are on the most complex piece of machinery and circuitry on this world speaking to a computer. We thought magic and dragons were impossible too, until you proved us wrong. Speaking of dragons, are they intelligent? No offense, but I must know."

"Yes, we are an intelligent and proud race, machine, though few in number." Saphira said, trying to ignore the pain of the medics poking at her wounds.

Cortana paused, and then said, "Warning. Motion detectors indicate massive subterranean movement. My guess is the army is moving in from underground." Her image vanished and was replaced by an incredibly accurate scan of the open caldera, showing the city, the panel chunks, and four massive red blobs moving quickly towards the city.

"Oh god..." Eragon breathed. "They are going to get slaughtered."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." A womans voice, younger this time, called.

Eragon turned and was greeted by a young raven-haired woman in her mid thirties, in a uniform that clearly said she was the commander of this vessel. This theory was proven correct when every person in the area saluted her simultaneously. "At ease," she returned the salute, before turning to Eragon. "I am Miranda Keys, Commander of this ship. You said the people in the city are about to get slaughtered right?"

Eragon nodded. "The evil king Galbatorix is trying to wipe us out. I would explain in detail, but long story short, he, as am I, are Dragon Riders. With the dragon comes magic powers and immortality. I can still be killed by blade, poison, or whatever preferred method of death you desire, but barring that, we live forever. Which is the ultimate problem. Galbatorix has gone insane, and has been for quite some time, and coupled with the fact he is many times more powerful than I am, he has a vast army at his command, of which the Urgals beneath us are but a small part. The people of Alagaesia live in poverty and terror, besieged by high taxes, the Urgals, Galbatorix's army, and a number of dark beings under his command, the most powerful of which being a Shade. Those are easily distinguished by crimson eyes and hair, pale skin, extreme proficiency at magic and swordplay, and the fact they are incredibly strong."

"What about you and the others inside the city?" Cortana's skin surged with symbols.

"We are the Varden, the resistance against Galbatorix. Right now we don't have a normal place to call home, so the Dwarves have agreed to let us stay in their city, Tronjheim, which is the reason we are getting attacked right now. And there is one other thing."

"And that is?" Johnson growled.

"I am the last female of my kind. When the king took power, with the help of the Forsworn, he slew all the other riders and the wild dragons, ultimately leaving only his own dragon, Shruikan, and 3 eggs. I hatched from one of those eggs to Eragon, but the other two remain trapped in Galbatorix's vaults." Saphira was growling the entire time she said this, clearly angered at the thought of having the last two of her kin in the hands of that monster.

"As much as I like this tale, we have bigger problems," Cortana's image vanished again, this time showing a live video stream. It showed hundreds of thousands of Urgals surrounding the city about 4 miles away and slowly marching inwards.

"Very well, we shall continue this later." Keys then turned to Johnson. "As the highest ranking officer on board this ship, I hereby give you command of all UNSC ground forces, which includes the Master Chief. Get your men ready for a siege."

So? What'd you think? Bit overkill for a start, but hey, at least i tried. Comments, questions, flames, i take it all.