In the cold and remote regions of space on a spaceship, lies a boy with an unkempt appearance huddled together with many children bearing similar looks. The boy seemed to have been sleeping quite restlessly if the sudden jerks and dried tears on his face were anything to note. The rest of the children did not seem to be a much better sight. Most if not all had either tears in their eyes, snot dripping down their nose, or a dead kind of look in their eyes. In the back of the room were armed soldiers wearing green camouflage and green body armor with the insignia of an eagle with its wings spread and a banner beneath it with the letters U.N.S.C on different parts of the uniform. If one had to note anything in the disposition of the troopers they would note that the men and women seemed to be apathetic to the plight of the children in front of them. Almost as if this wasn't the first time the soldiers had seen such a scene of despair.
After what seemed to be a few hours the boy eventually woke up. His eyes seemed to be hazy and eventually were able to take note of his surroundings. With a confusion and surprise he saw the scene of the many children clustered together along with the soldiers seemingly guarding them at the back of the room.
"...Where..am I?"
The boy asked no one in particular. Still taking in the new environment he was in only to eventually think to himself about the current predicament he was in, and to somehow make sense of his situation.
'I don't understand…What happened? One minute I am planting explosives on shoreline anti-air defenses for the counter-attack on Taiwan. Then the next I am in a room with no windows, a fuck ton of kids, and a bunch of people wearing some strange armor and holding…bullpups!? There must be something terribly wrong there is no way in hell the U.S army would approve of bullpups being standard issue"
(For those who don't know "bullpups" are guns that have their firing assembly in front of the breech and the magazine of the weapon instead of behind it like most. An example of which being the FAMAS rifle, a renowned rifle from France. Now the reason behind him thinking something is wrong is due to the fact that most bullpupped weapons are not very reliable and are not suited to be standard issue in combat. Though there are some anomalies like the FAMAS)
'Ok let's concentrate what did I do last before I woke up-'
While in the middle of his thought he was struck with a sharp pain in his head, as the fog around the part of his memories lifted. A look of sudden enlightenment can be seen on his face only for his expression to turn from surprise to disappointment and sadness as his mood turned grim.
'So I didn't make it out... They ended up finding us while we were exfilling to the boats, and I ended up buying time so the rest of the team could get out. How cliche is that? It almost sounds like the ending to a movie or a video game.'
As the boy reminisces in his thoughts he eventually pushes the depressing thoughts out of his head. Before adopting a small smile and bittersweet look in his eyes.
'Well I am not too hung up on it. I would rather have gone out in a blaze of glory than dying old and decrepit anyway, but most importantly those guys all had families and sons and daughters that not only loved them but depended on them. Meanwhile… I didn't really have much, so it was the logical decision for me to stay behind to complete the mission… Though I must say bullets hurt like a bitch, damn. The feeling of hot metal going through your clothes and shredding your flesh is not an experience anyone should wish for. Though that has made me stronger mentally. What was it that dad said? 'Adversity breeds better character' I think.'
'BUT! That is besides the point. I am most certainly alive when I am supposed to be dead. Which also sounds surprisingly cliche. Hmmm isn't there also a story type based on a person dying and then waking up in different surroundings? Forget it that is not what's most important right now. It also doesn't answer my previous question: Where am I? By looking at my surroundings I am in some type of holding center with a bunch of children. The important thing to note is the soldiers in the back. The guns they are using are vaguely familiar, but I know for certain I have never shot anything like them. They seemed to be well trained and part of a known organization going by that insignia…Wait a minute'
Suddenly the boy's eyes go wide as saucers in realization, surprise, and bafflement. When he reads the letters on the armor and uniform of each of the troopers. Realizing what they must stand for and thinking back to a certain video game franchise that the boy loved in the childhood of his previous life.
'Holy shit! I am in the Halo universe. This is REALLY fucking bad. On lists of universes to suddenly find yourself in this should be damn near the bottom. Oh no no no please god don't tell me we are in the 2500's.'
Of course the last thought was for naught because he now remembered where he had seen the strange bullpup rifle, and was certain that the specific rifle the troopers were wielding was introduced during the very time period he feared.
'The MA5B assault rifle is a 60 round assault rifle with shit accuracy but insane fire rate. Most notably used by the marines and soldiers of the pillar of autumn in Halo: Combat Evolved. A weapon that sucked in both the multiplayer and higher difficulties of the campaign.'
'Which means I am most likely in the hell that is the Human-Covenant war-'
A final shock to his brain breaks loose the memories of the past 4 and a half years of his reincarnation. As well as the circumstances regarding why he is currently in nothing but a steel and titanium coffin if even a covenant corvette were to show up. A morbid thought to be sure but that does not make the statement any less true according to his memories of both his present and past life.
Slowly his expression turns back to a sad and pained look as he sifts through the memories of his first 4 and a half years of living. From childhood to about 4 years of age his family lived in peace, or what could be considered peace for humanity in this new era of all out warfare. Against an Alien threat the likes the human race has never seen and against an enemy that they so far have had little to no chance against in combat.
During the last 6 months of the boy's life that false sense of peace had come abruptly crashing down upon all of the citizens of Jericho VII. That half of a year could only be described as hell for anyone that lived or rather used to live on the colony. In such a short time period the sparsely populated world and surrounding military forces were decimated. The covenant plasma weapons ripped through any and all defenses and melted any form of armor. It had only been a couple hours since the ship had departed the planet's surface. Meaning it had only been a couple hours since the covenant glassed the planet and turned it to ash. Forbidding any life from inhabiting it for years to come.
'I see…so my new family is dead huh. Though I now have somewhat of an outside perspective due to the awakening of my memories. It still hurts to think about how my parents gave up their chance of survival for my own. I won't cry because what is done is done and I must keep walking forward.'
"Fuuuu"
Sighing for what seemed to be the first time with his new mind set. The boy began to think long and hard about his future and what it may hold.
'So shit is beyond fucked I know that for certain. Not only am I now practically 5 years old again but I am in an age where humanity is almost guaranteed to be driven to near extinction due to alien bastards. Who are also religious zealots that cannot be reasoned with unless their precious artifacts and "oracle" say something. Which brings me to the 25,000 light years away and 10,000 kilometers long elephant in the room that is the Halo rings and array. That can literally kill all life in the universe and due to the prophet's own ignorance they decide it is a wonderful idea to go poking around them. Unleashing the horror that is the flo-'
"...Oh shit the Flood"
Staring wide-eyed at the floor upon registering that the universe is also home to Science Fiction's most terrifying and most powerful parasitic organism: The Flood. An organism that infects any other living organism with sufficient biomass. Effectively turning it into a green popcorn zombie, but that isn't the worst part of it. The Flood can spread at an absurd rate just from a single spore which the shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum said could "destroy an entire species" and almost glassed the entirety of earth because of a breach of a Flood controlled covenant corvette. It also was able to infect artificial intelligence at a certain point during the Forerunner-Flood war leading to the A.I known as "Mendicant Bias" turning on its Forerunner creators and all but sealing the race's doom.
That factor along with the minor detail that the Flood gains the knowledge and memories of each creature it infects leading to it becoming smarter with each victory. Which had no limit and the Forerunners even theorized that if the Flood was given enough time to develop they could even leave the dimension. Leading to one of the main reasons why the Forerunners took such drastic measures such as creating a universe wide death way. That didn't even kill the Flood but instead killed its food in order to starve it to death, BUT made the dumbass decision to leave some remnants of the race on the rings.
All of these thoughts circling the boy's head led to one unifying statement. That encapsulated the entirety of the situation that he along with the human race and the rest of the universe found itself in.
"....We are so fucked"
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Greetings big man author here.
So this is the first chapter and you can see what we are starting off with. I would love to hear from some comments about what everyone thinks. Seeing as I am a newbie and could have just made the biggest piece of mid ever.
Anyway this chapter was mostly meant to introduce the threats of the universe VERY broadly. As well as the mind set of the character and speech patterns. It also depicts his reaction to everything. Personally I didn't want anything to exaggerated like crying over his death or the death of his "new" parents because we didn't meet them so there was really no reason. Plus his body while on "auto pilot mode" cried enough for both of them.
I am also getting used to the format of writing on web novel since this is the literal first time I have ever used it. So please let me know of any formatting issues and I will do my best to fix them. On the same matter if anything I said or will say is ABSURDLY wrong fill free to call me an idiot where you see it.
Oh yeah also I want to see if anyone can guess who he is. I mean if you use the wiki it would be pretty easy based on the information I gave, but don't I do not wanna ruin the small surprise.
I will probably start working on the second chapter ASAP. I kinda want to get atleast the first 5-10 chapters out of the way before I set any kind of schedule for the story. I do go to college so that will interfere, but I found writing to be surprisingly therapeutic. So who knows maybe this will be a 5/7 times a week release schedule but no promises.
Anyway till we see each other again!