The Secret Story of Dustin Echoes

Chapter 1 - Just Dustin Echoes

            A great rumble spread through the structure of the Pillar of Autumn, shuddering it from tail to stern, and then its reactor core went critical. Fire erupted from every part of the ship, sending debris flying in all directions. The catastrophic explosion could be seen from every part of Halo, as it rocked the very infrastructure of the ring-world... and Halo was broken. The ring was torn asunder, and great sections of it wheeled freely through space, drawn by the gravity of what remained of the ring. They collided with one another, smashing themselves apart. The Pillar of Autumn had started a chain reaction, and the Master Chief, the cause of all the chaos, watched from the window of his lonely Longsword fighter… as Halo destroyed itself.

            “Did anyone else make it?” he asked in his deep, monotone, almost mechanical voice.

            “Scanning…” replied Cortana, the Smart AI in the Master Chief’s helmet. Though she was only a computer, she sounded much more human than the Master Chief.

            “Just… Dust and Echoes,” she finished solemnly.

            The Master Chief knew what she meant. There had been one survivor… the only one. The man who survived every battle and never took part in them... the watcher, the sentinel, the observer, always remaining secret, gathering information, and then moving on… Dustin Echoes. As the Master Chief surveyed the cold blackness of space, he wondered where Echoes wandered now. For all he knew, the ONI agent could be floating right next to his own Longsword. Dustin’s ship was a stealth craft, a special experimental ship built for him by ONI. The Chief had no love for the Office of Naval Intelligence, but he respected their agent, and their orders. He knew he must never reveal the existence of Dustin Echoes. Even when one was alone, he could not be spoken of. Ears were everywhere, and Dustin’s mission was too important to risk being discovered. His existence was not even to be acknowledged.

            And that was why Cortana finished her assessment by saying, “We’re all that’s left! We did what we had to do, for earth! Halo… it’s finally over.”

            The Master Chief sat down in the pilot’s seat of the Longsword fighter and began removing his helmet as he answered, “No, I think we’re just getting started.”

            Not too far away, watching the same spectacle as the famed Spartan super-soldier, was Dustin Echoes, the unknown agent whose eyes had seen great sights, perhaps even more than the Master Chief ever had. He was wearing his simple, blank red navy uniform, seated comfortably in the pilot’s seat of his ship, the Blackdagger. The Blackdagger was about the same size as a Longsword fighter, but it had a more intricate design and less firepower. What it lacked in punch it made up for in stealth; the black-hulled craft could cloak in space using technology usually reserved only for larger vessels. Dustin's employer, the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, had given him this very special ship for his very special assignment. For Dustin’s one mission in life was to stay hidden, gather intelligence, and survive. He was to watch every battle he could that took place between the Covenant and the UNSC, and report whatever he saw back to ONI. He was not to take part in the fight, even to help his fellow humans. Only one person had to survive every battle he watched… and that was him.

            Echoes was not a tall man or a strong man, but he was a smart one. His keen grey eyes spoke volumes of his perception and intelligence, while his relatively long, thick dark brown hair spoke of his separation from the actual fighting force of the UNSC… and its strict guidelines on hair length.

            “Diana,” he said in his usual calm, quiet voice, “who is in that Longsword fighter?”

            A hologram of a female figure appeared on the “dashboard” of the Blackdagger. Dustin always liked to look at Diana. She was a perfect female beauty, too perfect, in fact, to be real… or so he thought. She had long hair that hung down to her waist and wore beautiful, neat robes. A bow and a quiver of arrows was strapped across her back, for she was named after the Roman goddess of the hunt. Like Dustin, it was her job to remain hidden while on the prowl, and that was why she had been given this name and appearance. Her hologram glowed brightly, its color shifting from green to gold as Dustin watched. Diana was a Smart AI, a unit of artificial intelligence built by ONI from the brain of some unknown human. She had been with Dustin for a number of years, and she'd grown on him. He knew that the lifespan of a Smart AI was limited, since after a few years they “thought themselves to death” by gathering and sorting too much information. After that, they went rampant. Still, he usually thought of Diana more as a companion than as a tool or computer program.

            “It contains the Master Chief, one of the last surviving SPARTAN-II super-soldiers... and Cortana, the AI from the Pillar of Autumn,” Diana responded to his previous question, in her flowing, musical voice with its dignified British accent. “They apparently escaped the explosion they caused when they destroyed the ring.”

            “Is there anyone else out there?” Dustin asked.

            Diana shook her holographic head. “I am unsure. It is possible that others may be alive and out of the range of my scanners… Wait, I'm picking up something.”

            “What?” Dustin asked quickly, noting some alarm in her voice.

            “Two Covenant Seraph fighters on approach,” she answered, “They do not seem to be after us, however. They appear to be… fighting each other.”

            Dustin raised an eyebrow at her as he looked at the viewscreen. Sure enough, the image that Diana displayed showed the two teardrop-shaped purple fighters hot on each other’s tail, firing their plasma weapons at one another. Dustin sat back and watched the dogfight in relaxation. That was, after all, his job, and he figured this would be an entertaining distraction for a while. After it was over, then he could move in and try to find out why two Covenant ships would want to kill each other.

            “They’re getting dangerously close, Sir,” Diana warned.

            “Wait it out,” Dustin said. “Space is big. What’s the likelihood that they’ll hit us?”

            Diana seemed to turn and look at something, “Impact in five…”

            “What?” Dustin exclaimed. “Okay, take evasive action then!”

            Dustin knew this was a risky move. Whenever the Blackdagger made any kind of directional adjustments in space, it grew more easily visible. The ripples it made in light waves could be detected more easily by the naked eye, and the discharge of the engines could be detected by sensors as well. As the ship lurched to one side to avoid the oncoming Seraph, Diana knew it was too late. The Covenant fighter slammed into the Blackdagger’s short, curved wing, sending it rolling. A few light plasma shots from the second Seraph struck the Blackdagger’s hull, and as Diana fired the ship’s boosters to adjust its direction, Dustin knew their position was completely given away.

            “Fire on the attacking Seraph!” Dustin ordered, “Wait, give me manual control!”

            As the ship’s controls responded to his hands, he swerved it around to face the oncoming Covenant fighter. The Seraph was still seemingly ignoring him, chasing after its original prey. This surprised Dustin, and more than ever he wondered why they were fighting.

            “Can we contact that Seraph, Diana? Can you tell if there’s a human on board, by any chance?”

            “Negative, Sir,” Diana responded calmly, “There are no humans on board either craft, according to my scanners, and they are not responding to hailing signals. Wait – the attacker has just disabled his foe. He is now moving in for the kill.”

            Dustin saw it. The first Seraph had taken a major hit when it had struck the Blackdagger’s wing, perhaps disabling its shields, and now its foe had managed to take out its engines. Dustin could see the main plasma cannons charging now for the final blast.

            “Is there a way we can disable the second ship before it fires?” Dustin asked quickly.

            “Done,” Diana responded.

            Dustin felt the ship move out of his control. It pointed directly at a nearby asteroid – or perhaps a chunk of Halo; Dustin could not tell which – and fired. Dustin did not know how Diana had calculated it, but the hunk of rock went spinning off in just the right direction to strike the Seraph fighter, hard. The ship was knocked off course and its plasma blasts went flying off in the wrong direction as they fired. The bent and broken spacecraft rotated slowly before Dustin’s eyes, apparently dead.

            “Are both craft disabled?” Dustin asked.

            “Yes, Sir,” Diana responded.

            “Please, Diana, haven’t I told you not to be so official about everything? Call me Dustin, and don’t say Sir after everything.”

            “I apologize, Dustin. I must have resorted to standard military programming as the dangerous situation approached.”

            Dustin nodded, “It’s no problem, Di. Now, can you use the boarding tube to hook up to one of the Seraph fighters? If we could capture a pilot alive, it could prove useful.”

            “Boarding sequence initiated,” Diana said smoothly.

            The Blackdagger turned slowly about as a long, hose-like tube extended from the rear of the vessel. It grew longer until it touched the hull of the small purple Seraph fighter, hooking on precisely over the fighter’s boarding hatch. Dustin got out of his pilot seat, walked to the back of the ship, opened a compartment on the wall, and took out his alternate uniform. Diana followed him, appearing from a holo-projector on the briefing table. She “watched” as Dustin slipped out of his simple red Navy suit and began putting on his ODST, or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, space suit. Sometimes Diana’s watching him change embarrassed him, and he had to remind himself that she was only an AI. Dustin Echoes was not an ODST or a Marine of any kind, but he had been assigned a standard ODST suit of armor for his own personal use. When he was done suiting up, he loaded his assault rifle and walked over to the hatch at the back of the ship.

            “All right,” he said, his voice now filtered slightly like the Master Chief’s as it escaped from his helmet. “Open the hatch, Diana.”

            “Done,” the AI responded.

            There was a hiss as the round portal opened wide. Dustin wondered if any oxygen had escaped, but he knew his space suit would protect him if it had. As he floated weightlessly down the long boarding tube, guiding himself with one hand and pointing his rifle with the other, he saw the gleam of the Seraph’s purple hull on the other side. The tube had fitted around the hatch perfectly, but Dustin did not know how to open it. So he merely knocked. The door flew open immediately, and a monstrous Covenant Elite leapt out. He grabbed Dustin’s free arm with one long-fingered hand and raised a plasma rifle with the other. Dustin fired his assault rifle at the alien’s freakish mouth as he kicked away at the creature’s grasping hand. He felt a plasma blast burn into his side as one of the shots the Elite was firing slipped through his armor. But Dustin had started firing first, and his aim was truer. The Elite, who luckily had no personal shielding system activated, finally released his hold on Dustin’s arm as the life left his body. The ONI agent studied the dead creature’s mutilated face. He had unloaded nearly a whole clip into the alien’s head, shattering the Elite’s blue-white helmet and spattering the walls with its purple blood.

            Ignoring the pain of his wound, Dustin grabbed the Elite’s arm and began dragging its body behind him as he made his way back to the Blackdagger. Once he was back inside, Diana shut the hatch behind him. He turned to look at her and saw the medical storage compartment was already open.

            “Get to work on your wounds, Dustin,” she said. “I wish you had a suit like a Spartan soldier, so that I could begin feeding pain relievers into your bloodstream through a remote connection…”

            “Is that concern I detect in your voice, Diana?” Dustin teased as he walked over to the medical compartment and took out a med kit.

            “Well, yes,” she responded, “I care for your well-being.”

            Dustin did not respond. For some reason he felt sick. He knew that it was her mission to keep him safe, but when she talked like that he almost wished that she felt something more for him. He shook his head, clearing his mind of such thoughts. He’d been too long alone in space with her, he thought. That’s why he was having thoughts like this.

            “What about that Elite?” he asked aloud.

            “What about him?” Diana responded, “He's a standard Covenant Elite, dead. I can detect nothing special about him.”

            “No clues as to…”

            “Why he was fighting the other Seraph?” Diana finished for him. “No.”

            Dustin nodded. “Okay then, begin docking with the other fighter.”

            It was not long before Dustin Echoes was once again in the boarding tube, now dirty with blood, moving down toward the hatch of the first Seraph fighter, the one that had slammed into the Blackdagger’s wing. He was more nervous this time, but he had come prepared with one of the dead Elite’s plasma grenades. If nothing else, he thought, he could chuck that into the ship and close the hatch… if he had time. He was rapidly thinking up alternative plans as he opened the door. Sure enough, there was another Elite inside. This one was in shining red armor... but it dead not leap out and attack him like the last one had.

            “Put your hands in the air!” Dustin shouted, aiming his rifle.

            The Elite climbed very slowly out of his ship and into the tube with Dustin. He raised his hands; his long, thin alien fingers connecting with the sides of the tube.

            In near perfect English, the Elite's deep, alien voice responded, “What do you want with me, human?”

            Dustin was surprised to hear plain English coming from that alien's four freakish mouthparts, but he calmly replied, “Follow me back to my ship. Slowly.”

            The two of them crawled backwards into the Blackdagger. Once they were inside, Diana shut the hatch once again. Dustin pointed his gun at the Elite as it stood up. His hands shook a little. He had forgotten how tall these creatures were when they stood upright… its helmeted head nearly hit the ceiling.

            “No sudden movements, Elite,” Dustin said. “See what I did to your friend there?”

            The Elite turned its long-necked head to gaze at its dead brother. “The Sangheili you killed… was no friend of mine.”

            Thinking quickly, Dustin said, “Diana, open the cryo-tube.”

            He heard the hatch to the cryo-tube on the wall behind him glide open. With his assault rifle still pointed at the Elite, he indicated that it should enter the tube. The Elite slowly responded, walking calmly over to the tube. As he did so, Dustin looked him over for weapons. The Elite seemed to be unarmed… there were no plasma weapons or Needlers on his person, only two bent pieces of metal attached to the Elite’s “belt.” He thought no more about it as the creature lay down submissively in the cryo-tube.

            “Close the hatch, Diana, but don’t activate the freezing sequence,” Dustin said. “I’m just going to use the cryo-tube as a prison cell. There’s no way he’s breaking out of that.”

            Once the hatch was sealed, Dustin walked up to the window of it and peered in at the Elite. The alien turned his head toward him. Its milky, dark reddish eyes lacked pupils, and its four hideous mouthparts were lined with sharp teeth. Its skin was a dark shade of grey, almost black, in fact, and the inside of its maw was bright orange. Pretty standard Elite, Dustin thought, except for those eyes. Most Elite eyes were hardly distinguishable from black, though a few showed color... These were deep red.

            “I ask again,” the Elite said, its voice echoing in the cryo-tube, “what do you wane with me, human?”

            “Information…” Dustin replied. “First, tell me who you are.”

            The Elite paused a moment before answering.

“I am called…” it said slowly, “Rebas Noiproks.”

            Behind the controls of the great Covenant starship, Thanatos the Brute turned to regard his companion. “It seems your Elite failed, Urgas Konoproksee. I've lost contact with him.”

            The golden-armored Elite beside him nodded. “But he made a great discovery, Thanatos: Another human survived the destruction of this Halo.”

            The Brute laughed. “Yes, I guess you've got a point. So what do you suggest we do now?”

            “Leave Rebas alone for now,” Urgas said. “For now, we will watch this human and see where he runs. Then, when the time is right, we shall strike.”