Matt-038 (Halo Fanfiction)

Chapter 89: Split Decision

Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

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Chapter 89: Split Decision

Location: Sector K91, Asteroid Belt

October 16, 2552

0945 hours

Matt and Linda fired their T-packs on a guided trajectory toward the Dawn Under Heaven. The cruiser was drifting lifeless among the asteroids, its hull showing some signs of combat with the Covenant. The part that troubled Matt the most was the ship was a spitting duplicate of the Pillar of Autumn.

"Commander," Linda said, "I've had a look with the scope, all of the escape pods are still in place and there are no signs of power."

Matt looked at the cruiser and noticed the lack of running lights on the hull. "We'll need to find another way in."

"Well, Commander, I've got good news for you," said Crystal. "I've found a hull breach that has penetrated several decks into the ship so getting inside should be the easy part."

"What's the hard part?" Matt asked.

"The pressure doors on a Halcyon-class cruiser are solid titanium-A," said Crystal, "it'll probably take all the explosives you have just to punch through."

Matt had anticipated the need for explosives to blow through a couple of doors that they couldn't force open, but he didn't expect to blow through a pressure door.

"We'll just have to make due," said Matt as he hit the T-pack and glided toward the breach, followed closely by Linda. When they got inside, the two Spartans ditched their T-packs and proceeded on foot through the corridor. They walked for several meters before running into the pressure door and immediately set to work.

They set all their grenades down by the bottom and sprayed them with C-12 foaming explosive, followed by their detpacks. Matt and Linda retreated to the hull breach and set them off. There was a flash, but no shockwave and no sound, due to it being in a vacuum on both ends. When they returned to the breach they found a fairly small-sized hole in the bottom, but thankfully it was just wide enough to squeeze through.

"I'm not detecting any oxygen on the other side," said Crystal. "That means life support is down across most of the ship."

Matt squeezed under first followed by Linda, he helped her through as she tried to go in with her rifle in one hand. As they traversed the ships dark corridors, Matt got Déjà vu, not because the corridors were identical to the Autumn's but because he remembered when he came through them last, with Linda and John.

'I won't let it happen again,' Matt thought. 'I'd rather die than let Linda die again.'

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Location: Sector K91, UNSC Dawn Under Heaven

October 16, 2552

1000 hours

Matt and Linda reached the bridge, they had found several bodies of crew members as they scrambled for emergency ventilator packs, or trying to shut themselves inside rooms and create pressurized safe areas.

This told Matt that it wasn't a hull breach that killed the crew but most likely the ship's rampant AI when they tried to destroy it. Matt walked over to the AI holotank and inserted Crystal into the ship.