Dreams of a Super Soldier

Have you got a game, book or movie you'd like to make a story out of? Want to expand on a story or plot that stopped? Have an original idea for a story that you want to post somewhere? Here's where to do it. Basically an RPG where one player controls ALL characters in the story.

Dreams of a Super Soldier

Postby PsychoWarrior » Tue May 29, 2007 8:26 am

((Alright, this is a Halo fanfic that I posted on another forum, but I never really got around to finishing it. I hope to finish it now, on this forum.))

Cairo station; A marvel of weapons technology and titanium architecture. The amazing possibilities of zero-g architecture drew the UNSC Navy's most experienced architects, and work was still being done to make Cairo stronger and even more beautiful, if that was possible.

But the architecture of Cairo station was nothing compared to the gigantic Magnetic Accelerator Cannon in the middle of the station. With combined defensive fire from the other 300 Super MACs, anything that made it through here would have the attack capabilities (and the look of) Swiss Cheese.

"Makes you feel small, huh Chief?" Cortana whispered into Spartan-117's ear. The Master Chief nodded slightly, so that only the most experienced eyes could see it. The Master Chief was currently sitting in the tram that traversed the inner circumference of the ring that surrounded the Super MAC Gun, along with a squad of Marines who appeared very uncomfortable to be in the same vicinity as a bone-crushing, spine-ripping Spartan-II in MJOLNIR armor.

The tram squealed to a halt, and the Marines filed out of the tram, exchanging glances with each other and the Master Chief. With an quiet sigh, the Chief stood up and followed the Marines out of the tram. He took a right turn, and passed into Habitat Delta.

Habita Delta was the Cairo's most out of place room. A greenhouse and aviary combined, it had little practical function, except for a place to Marines and NCOs to relax. And the Master Chief had to admit, it worked. Immediately, the tension in his shoulders melted away, and he slowly eased down onto a titanium bench. It creaked with his weight, but it held.

"Feed me, Seymour!" A pair of tentacles wiggled around his helmet and wrapped around his visor. With a grunt, he twisted his head to one side sharply, which made the tentacles stretch and finally pull away. Turning around, he saw a planet that resembled a Venus Flytrap, but with an sharp teeth and an eery looking grin. "Cortana? What is that thing?" Master Chief asked, with a hint of disgust in his voice.

Cortana replied, "A plant ONI found growing on an outer colony world. The world it was found on has large areas where nitrogen is scarce in the soil, so logically the plants evolved to consume the nitrogen found in animals. And this is a very smart, and very long living species of plant as well. ONI estimates it's lifespan to be 30 years, and to have the intelligence of a chimpanzee."

The plant "stared" at the Chief, though it lacked any eyes. It then repeated it's earlier saying. "Feed me, Seymour!" Apparently, it had been listening to the talk of Marines and NCO's as they passed it by, and it must have picked up a phrase or two of English.

"Smart little sunflower," The Chief muttered, and made a mental note to get somebody to feed it. He proceeded through the Habitat, and towards his personal quarters. "I assume it's time to hit the sack, Cortana?" The Master Chief asked. Cortana replied, in a breathy voice parodying that of housewives in the 1950's, "Why yes, dear! It's almost 23:00 military time, so pick up your toys and turn out the lights!"

The corners of John's mouth turned up into a smile. Ever since Halo, Cortana's personality had become...quirky, to say it politely. She had also become prone to illogical bravado, and that scared him a little.

Thump!

The Chief reeled back from an impact, and shook his head before looking to see what he had hit. The door in front of him, his door to be exact, now had a dent in it from his impact. The Chief shook his head again, and ignored Cortana's laughter as he walked through the door. He had been thinking too much at once, and had not paid attention to where he was. If there was one thing the Master Chief had learned, it was that he had to keep his mind on where he was.

"Nighty-night, John," Cortana said as the Master Chief, or John as he was known by a few select people, eased onto the titanium bench that had been dragged into his room. His MJOLNIR armor was form fitting, and suprisingly comfortable for a suit of armor designed for protecting it's wearer from superheated, ionized gas.

Within moments, he was fast asleep. Not only that, he had forgotten to allow Cortana to exit his armor and enter the Cairo's systems.

"Dammit, Chief!" She whispered.

--Chapter 2: Emerald Cove, synthesizer beat--

Cortana muttered to herself as she used every means nessescary to wake John-117 up. She tried pressurizing the hydrostatic gel in his MJOLNIR armor, but that only caused the Master Chief to wince and absent-mindedly turn over to the other direction. "I always knew you were a heavy sleeper John, but this is just ridiculous," Cortana muttered.

That was when Cortana felt a presence delicately ping off her own. She instinctively raised her defenses, thinking it was an intruding AI, but lowered them as she realized that the other presence was the Master Chief's subconscious. She pressed towards it, intrigued. The only way the Chief's subconscious would be active enough to be a considerable presence would be if he was dreaming.

Cortana pulled up John's biosigns and observed them. His eyes were moving back and forth, a clear sign of Rapid Eye Movement sleep. He was definitely dreaming, alright. It was what he was dreaming that interested her. Was it another combat-induced nightmare?

She felt the Master Chief's subconscious ping off her presence once again, but this time she replied to it, pinging off it as well. There was a pause from the Master Chief's subconscious, then rapidly and without warning, it began to "engulf" her.

Cortana screamed, a terrible sound that echoed through her processors, and tried raising her defenses. John's subconscious bashed through them with a primal force, and continued to engulf her, until she could no longer feel her own presence.

With a gasp, Cortana opened her "eyes", and saw blue skies with a blazing sun. She looked down at herself, and saw her holographic form with mathematical symbols scrolling across her body. However, something was different; She was lying on a black-sand beach, and her body created an imprint in the sand.

She stared in awe at her physical body, but then realized with a sense of dismay that this had to have been John's dream, and that her body was just a figment of his--or perhaps her own--imagination. With a dismayed sigh, she stood up and looked around.

The ocean lapped at the volcanic sand, and she could see coral reefs and various fish down in the crystal clear water. She heard a whoop of joy, and turned to see a group of people sitting down the beach from her around a large bonfire. One of them she recognized as John, though he was out of his MJOLNIR armor and looked much younger. She moved closer, listening to their conversation.

"...He sabotages our air tanks, but forgets to guard his own! Man, sometimes I think Chief Mendez is getting a bit too old," John said. The rest of the people, who Cortana recognized as other Spartan-II's, laughed. Cortana realized that the Master Chief must have been dreaming about the week at Emerald Cove colony, where he and the Spartan-II's ditched Chief Mendez and camped out on a nearby volcanic island.

Cortana continued to watch the Spartans, interested in their conversations. They acted like any other group of Marines, laughing and joking with one another. Cortana moved closer, and out into the clearing near the bonfire. She stepped in front of John, who looked right through her at the other Spartan-II's and smiled. With a sigh of dismay, she realized he couldn't see her.

She turned towards the sea, and squealed as she saw a monstrous tidal wave come crashing down onto the beach, The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the foamy salt water and the glaring sun.

Cortana opened her eyes again, and saw blinding white light. She looked down at her body, expecting to see the transparent assembly of various mathematical symbols and data, but instead she saw a sketchy outline of her body. It was as if somebody had taken her and drawn a sketchy animation of her. As she watched her outline wiggle through the various frames, she looked up and saw the Master Chief in his MJOLNIR armor to a synthezizer beat.

"What the hell, Chief? Is this what you dream about?" Cortana asked to herself. She moved closer, and heard the Chief singing.

"...We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
From the video
But that's me stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is OK.
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

Oh the things that you say
Is it live or
Just to play my worries away
You're all the things I've got to remember
You're shying away
I'll be coming for you anyway

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two"


--Chapter 3: King of the Hill--

Disoriented by the changed of scenery, Cortana shook her head before observing her surroundings. She appeared to be in the middle of a field, nearby what looked like it might be a school. In the middle of the field, there was a sloping hill with a patch of dirt at the top. Cortana visibly twitched as a bell rang from the school, and children rushed out onto the playground.

A group of children ran straight through her, and turning around, Cortana saw the children run up to the hill, pushing one another down the hill as they fought to stand at the top of the hill. With a smirk, Cortana muttered, "King of the hill."

One boy in particular caught her attention. He was a brown-haired, freckle-faced kid with a gap between his two front teeth. He was taller than most of the other students, and he plowed through an trio of them who were fighting with one another on top of the hill. With a smile, Cortana recognized that this was the Master Chief, albeit a juvenille version of him. Holding up his hand, the boy yelled, "King of the hill!" Something glimmered in his hand as the bright sun reflected off it, and the thing in his hand fell, and rolled down the hill, rolling to a stop at Cortana's feet.

"Buh?" Cortana muttered curiously. Kneeling, she reached down and picked up the object before studying it. It was a coin, one used when there were still seperate nations in the world, and humans hadn't colonized other planets yet. Searching through her databanks, Cortana realized in a second that it was an American quarter. She stared at the man on the front. He stared back. After a moment, the man on the front of the coin winked at her. Cortana raised a holographic eyebrow incredulously, then reminded herself it was just a dream. Turning it over, she looked at the other side. There was an eagle on the other side, holding arrows and what seemed to be an olive branch. As Cortana studied the coin more carefully, she heard a child's voice speaking, "Hey, can I have that back?"

Looking up, she saw John, holding out his hand, waiting for Cortana to give him the coin. For a moment, Cortana was surprised he could see her, and that he didn't show any curiousity about her holographic appearance. Then, she slowly raised her hand and dropped the coin into his hand. He clenched his fist around it, exclaimed, "Thanks!", then ran back to the hill where the other children were waiting. Again, they began to fight for the hill, screaming and yelling, clawing their way over one another.

Boom!

The sound of thunder reached Cortana's ears as lighting shot through the sky. Rain poured down on her, slipping down her holographic body. Looking around, she saw that the school and the children were gone. However, the hill was still there, muddy and dripping with rain. And on top of it, the Master Chief, fully clad in MJOLNIR armor, was fighting a group of Grunts. They ran towards him, barking and squeaking like dogs, trying to bring him down. He only roared, a primal sound that scared and excited Cortana. He punched a hole through the skull of one Grunt, then grabbed it's corpse by the head and threw it at a group of Grunts, knocking them down like bowling pins.

A grunt with a plasma grenade leaped through the air, arming the grenade as he whooped with glee, assured he would be the one to kill the demon. But it was not to be...

The Master Chief noticed the Grunt, and with a growl, headbutted him. The Grunt squeaked, flying into another group of Grunts as the plasma grenade stuck to his hand. The Grunts had a moment to squeak and try to get up before a blue flash of light engulfed the Grunts.

The Master Chief stood there, apparently panting as his shoulders moved up and down. Walking over to the Grunts, he made sure all of them were dead. Cortana merely watched, assuming the Chief did not notice her.

Suddenly, she heard what sounded like somebody stepping in a bowl of mud. Turning around, she saw a group of Flood Infection forms. The Chief apparently noticed them too, and with another roar, he ran towards them, stepping on them. Cortana watched, not paying attention to the Infection forms. One of them scuttled towards her and stopped at her feet, as if realizing her existence. It then turned up at her face, and jumped. Cortana only had a moment to scream before everything faded to any icy cold black.

An irritating buzzying echoed through the Chief's mind. It was the alarm clock, and with a groan he tried to turn the alarm off, but ultimately ended up smashing the entire alarm clock. The Chief stared at the alarm clock, and muttered, "Oops."

A voice echoed inside his head. It was Cortana, and with a groan he realized he had forgotten to upload her back into the Cairo. "Sleep well, Chief?" She asked, though her voice had a tone that suggested she already knew the answer. "No. I had a nightmare," Master Chief said. Cortana replied, "I noticed. I checked your biomonitors." She paused for a millesecond, then asked, "What was it about?" Again, the Master Chief detected that tone suggesting she knew the answer. Shrugging that feeling off, the Chief replied, "You wouldn't get it."

Another millesecond pause. Then Cortana replied, "I'm an AI construct, Chief. What wouldn't I get?"
"Today you are You, and that is truer than true..."
PsychoWarrior
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