"All you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up close...this is gonna be your lucky day."

Your POV 

I felt the ship shook as an explosion almost sent me off my feet. I stabilized against a wall as the ship's PA rang out with orders. "Warning! Boarders on decks seven and eight! Security teams: Assist!" The voice of a woman ordered. 

Another explosion almost took me off as the same voice came over my comms. "Helljumper! We have multiple Covenant intruders near the bridge, and some Spartans who need to get there first! Secure a path, and escort them here!" The voice who my comms identified as Cortana ordered. 

I ran down a hallway to see a grunt who had just turned the corner. I filled him with holes before they fell over dead. I looked past the corpse to it was trying to sneak up on a marine and two crewmen who were defending a barricade. 

I ran up, firing my M247 at the covies who were attacking, taking a spot next to the marine. "Where's the spartans?" I asked as I broke through an elite's shields. "Comming." The marine said as he shot up a grunt. 

My bullets finally took their toll on the elite, sending him to the ground a bloody mess. "Hell yeah!" A crewman said as we mopped up the last two grunts. I heard footsteps come from the nearby access way, and looked over. 

Two spartans clad in the same green armor armor came walking up. The only differences were that one had the number 117, and the other 058. I recognized 117 as the Master Chief herself, but not the other. 

"Spartans! The Captain needs you both on the bridge, ASAP! Better follow us!" The marine explained before turning and taking off into the armory. I followed first, and then the spartans. We brisked through the armory, passing wounded before exiting, a plasma grenade going off nearby. 

"Get clear!" The marine said, taking down the hallway. Crewmen shot at the Covenant behind us as we then went down another hall, and then stopped outside the bridge. "The Captain's waiting on you three. Best not keep him waiting!" The marine explained. 

I nodded before turning to the spartans. "You first." I tilded my head to the bridge. They nodded, entering. We walked past a running crewman, and approached the Captain as he turned away from the main view screen. 

"Captain Keyes/Captain/Sir!" The spartans and I said as I saluted. Keyes shook the spartan's hands. "Chief, Linda, good to see you two. Things aren't going well." He said, also giving me a salute back. 

"Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance." He said as a blue hologram appeared out of the ship's AI terminal. "A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. With those odds, I'm content with three - make that four kills." She said before looking at Chief and Linda. 

"Sleep well?" She asked them. Linda grunted with a nod. "No thanks to your driving, yes." Chief replied. "So you did miss me." Cortana said. Suddenly, the ship shook hard, making everyone stumble. I almost fell, if it wasn't for Linda grabbing my shoulder. The shaking stopped as I thanked her. 

She nodded as the captain spoke. "Report!" He ordered Cortana. "It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an antimatter charge!" She responded. "Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" A crewman upfront said. 

"Captain, the cannon wasmy last defensive option." Cortana informed him. "Alright then. I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana." The Captain decided. "While you do what? Go down with the ship?" Cortana sassed. 

"In a manner of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it." Keyes explained. "You mean the giant ass hula hoop?" I asked, looking out the window. Keyes only nodded. "With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes." Cortana butted in. 

"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer." Keyes ordered. 

"Aye aye sir." Cortana responded, her avatar disappearing. "Which is where you three come in. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research.... Earth." Keyes explained. 

"We understand." Chief spoke for the three of us. Keyes nodded before looking at me. "Helljumper, I want you by their side unless I deem otherwise. Major Silva may outrank you, but whatever he orders is irrelevant if it's to separate you from the spartans. Am I understood?" Keyes asked. 

"Sir yes sir!" I saluted. Cortana then came back. "The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach." She explained. 

"Excellent work Cortana, thank you. Are you ready?" Keyes asked. Cortana looked around before looking back at the Captain. "Yank me." Keyes typed on a keypad before grabbing the data chip on which Cortana now resides. "Good luck you three." Keyes said as he handed it to the Chief. 

She accepted it, sliding it to the back of her helmet. Cortana must've said something, cause Chief said "Don't get any funny ideas." out of the blue. Keyes pulled his M6D, and gave it to Chief. "I don't keep it loaded, you'll have to find ammo as you go." He explained to her. 

She looked at it before turning to leave. I put my hand before her. "I'll lead till you find ammo. Let's go!" I said, taking the lead as we exited the ship and down the hall. I rounded the corner, only to suddenly lean back behind it as green streaks of plasma hit where I was. 

I leaned back around, firing at the three grunts that had made it past the blast door which had closed again. I managed to gun two down when Chief learned over my shoulder, and fired a shot into the last one's head. I nodded to her as we entered the cafeteria, Chief leading. 

I stepped over the corpse of a marine before kicking his assault rifle back to Linda who was forced to watch before. We gunned down two grunts across the room, before focusing on the elite. He fired his plasma rifle at us before bullets hit his back. 

Having been flanked by marines, he was quickly delt with. "That's not the way, go right." Cortana spoke through Chief's helmet speakers. A marine ran there only to slump over dead as plasma bolts hit him repeatedly. Through the two doors that way came two elites and four grunts. 

Linda and Chief took the initiative and charged, firing at the elites. "Cover them!" I ordered the marines around. The grunts fell as we focused fire on them. The last one managed to shoot a marine next to me before Linda's hands grabbed it's head, and snapped his neck. 

We the proceeded to navigate down a few more hallways, killing an elite as we went. We rounded a corner when the ship shook again, although not as violent this time. "What the hell!? Did something just hit us!?" A marine yelled. 

"Move it! Back to the airlock!" Another yelled we rounded another corner, seeing two marines guarding the mentioned airlock. An explosion killed them before Covenant started pouring in. We quickly gunned them down before Chief looked into the boarding craft attached to the airlock. 

"They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft! We go out and they come in! Clever bastards!" Cortana said as we then started to move on. "Go on. We'll secure this airlock." A marine called after us. We entered a dark hallway, killing a grunt as we did so. 

We then went down hallways, killing any Covenant that got in our way, and assisting marines and crewmen. We even had to fight our way up a staircase. After taking care of another group of covies, we came across a hallway with windows showing outside. 

We watched as lifepods launched, with one taking a hit of large plasma, killing anybody inside. "The lifepods are launching! We should hurry!" Cortana informed us as we went. I looked out an airlock, seeing another lifepod get hit. 

"The Covenant are destroying the lifepods, they really don't want us on that ring." Cortana said as we gunned down three grunts before a blast door closed behind us. "Warning! Blast doors closing!" Cortana said before taking a pause. 

"We'll have to use the ship's maintenance access ways. Follow the NAV point, it will lead us to an opening." She said before a NAV point appeared on my hud. We entered the access way, with me turning on my night vision. 

We navigated the ways before finding and approaching an exit. "I'm detecting Covenant movement outside the access ways. Activating motion tracker. Let's find a safe exit." Cortana said. "Wait, they didn't have them on already?" I asked. 

"A system that was neglected due to the time sensitive nature of getting them to the bridge." Cortana explained as we came upon two grunts who didn't have the night vision. I brought my knife down hard upon one's head, killing them and alerting the other who Chief neck snapped. 

We found another exit. I checked my tracker as we neared it. "All clear, let's go." I informed the Spartans. We entered a dark room, with a door that looked it was almost busted out. 

"Wait. We need to get through that door, but it's been damaged by an explosion. Analyzing... The door's control mechanism is offline, but it's taken a lot of damage. You should be able to bash it open with the butt of a weapon." Cortana informed us. 

Chief took the initiative and did that with her new assault rifle. We then proceeded to slaughter some more Covenant as we navigated into the control room of some cryo pods. Three elites were in the room looking dissapointed before one noticed us and opened fire. 

The protective glass shielded us before they left. "Looks like they wanted to catch you napping." Cortana said as we moved on. We navigated more hallways through darkness and explosions that killed some covies before we came upon another row of airlocks, and a barricade that had a lot of grenades. 

I ignored Cortana's comment on the Autumn's superstructure as I just started lobbing the explosives at the covies beyond the barricade until they were all dead. We entered another access way to bypass the barricade when Cortana alerted us to the situation. 

"There's one last lifepod! Get aboard before it launches!" She cried as we came out of the access way, seeing a marine trip at the entrance. "Oh no! No no!" He cried before Linda used one hand to grab his collar and yeet his ass inside. 

Me and Chief checked behind us. "Now would be a very good time to leave!" Cortana said. Chief patted my shoulder, and followed me inside, the door closing behind her. "Punch it." She ordered the pilot, grabbing the ceiling with me and Linda. 

"Aye aye ma'am." The pilot responded, punching a few buttons and taking off. "We're disengaged! Going for minimum safe distance!" The pilot informed us as I looked around for a free seat. 

"We're gonna make it, aren't we? I don't wanna die out here." A marine said, with Chief putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Look!" Cortana said. The Spartans went up front while I did a second look for a free seat. 

I guess they looked at the giant metal hula hoop thing since a marine asked what the hell it was. "Hell if I know, but we're landing on it." The pilot responded. "The Autumn! She's been hit!" A marine yelled. 

I looked back with the rest to see the ship speeding up. "I knew it! The Autumn's accelerating! Keyes is going in manual!" Cortana explained as our pilot steered to the left, the Autumn narrowly missing us. 

"Heads up, everyone, this is it! We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five!" The pilot informed us. "Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana asked. "We'll be fine." Chief responded. "Not like there are any." I smartmouthed. Chief and Linda looked around before realizing something. 

"Helljumper, hold onto one of the spartans, and pray you'll make it out safe!" Cortana said as I realized the danger too. I magnatized my machine gun to my back before hugging Linda who held me close. "This is gonna hurt!" I complained as the lifepod started heating up from the atmosphere. 

"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed." Cortana said as I shut my eyes, us both hoping for the best. 

(2177 words. I managed to get this done the night before Sunday, but I wanna wait till the morning to post this. Good thing Wattpad added a feature so I can schedule the automatic posting of chapters, cause it's one I plan on using a lot for this fanfiction. Love you all, and see you next Sunday.)