Ch 4 Chapter 4 — Ghosts in Orbit
> "You can't outrun war. You can only meet it before it finds you."
— Commander Alexander-217
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The storm rolled in before dawn.
Lightning flickered over the Atlantic as SHIELD's orbital sensors screamed warnings across every channel.
Up above Earth's thin blue curve, something impossible had appeared.
A vessel — broken, burned, but unmistakably human.
A UNSC frigate.
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The Briefing
Nick Fury's voice carried through the command center like thunder. "That thing appeared out of nowhere. No heat signature, no atmospheric entry, no propulsion trail. Just— pop — orbiting above the Eastern Seaboard."
He gestured to the holographic display — the ship's silhouette slowly rotating. Burn scars, hull fractures, the faded lettering barely visible across its side:
UNSC FRIGATE — VIGILANT DAWN
Alex stood frozen. His heartbeat thudded in his armor's chest plate.
> "SYN," he whispered internally, "confirm that ID."
> "Confirmed. UNSC registry Sigma-Class Frigate, launched 2556 from Reach reconstruction yards. Crew manifest — classified. But there's something else, Commander."
"What?"
> "Energy readings from the slipspace core. It's not dead. It's awake."
Fury caught the tension in Alex's stance. "You recognize it."
Alex nodded slowly. "That ship shouldn't exist. It was lost during a deep-space mission. Two years after… my death."
Tony raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying this ghost ship might've followed you through whatever interdimensional rabbit hole spat you here?"
"Or something sent it," Alex said.
Steve Rogers leaned forward. "What's the risk?"
Alex turned toward him, visor dimly reflecting the ship's hologram. "If that slipspace core breaches, it won't just nuke the planet — it could rip a hole in your dimension wide enough for anything to crawl through."
Natasha frowned. "Anything like… what?"
"Covenant. Flood. Forerunners. Take your pick."
Fury slammed a hand on the console. "Alright, enough talk. We need a team up there. Stark, Banner, Rogers, Thor, Romanoff — gear up. You're going with him."
Tony blinked. "Wait, you're putting Captain America, the Hulk, and a Norse god on a space field trip?"
"Better than sending in rookies," Fury said. "If that thing goes critical, I want the best up there."
Alex nodded. "Fine. But I lead the mission."
Fury arched a brow. "You think you can command them?"
Alex's voice was calm, but absolute. "I've commanded armies. I can handle a few superheroes."
---
The Launch
Within an hour, they were airborne aboard The Helicarrier Argus, ascending into the stratosphere under Stark's external propulsion systems. The air thinned, stars bled into view, and the curve of the Earth gleamed below like a living ocean.
Tony's voice crackled over comms. "Alright, team. Once we hit orbit, we switch to external propulsion. Spartan, you've got point. Your suit's got thruster capability?"
"Enough," Alex said.
> "SYN, sync with Stark's navigation grid."
"Linked. Calculating intercept course with Vigilant Dawn."
Banner, in his reinforced containment harness, muttered nervously. "Space. Great. Nothing like being sealed in a tin can where one bad move means implosion."
Natasha smirked. "At least you won't have to worry about traffic."
Steve glanced out the viewport. "It's beautiful up here."
Thor grinned. "The realm between realms. Reminds me of the Bifröst."
Alex didn't respond. His gaze was locked on the drifting ship. Closer now. Its hull was shredded, its reactor bay cracked open like a wound.
> "Commander," SYN whispered, "the frigate's AI core is still transmitting. Weak, but functional."
"Can you open a link?"
> "Attempting handshake now…"
Static filled his comms, then—
> "—UNSC… request… code verification… identify…"
Alex's heart froze. It was a human voice. Faint. Broken.
"This is Commander Alexander-217, Spartan-II, Naval Special Warfare Command. Respond."
> "…acknowledged… Spartan… we've been waiting…"
The transmission cut.
> "SYN?"
> "Signal terminated. Source located — main bridge."
Alex's jaw tightened. "Something's wrong."
---
Docking the Ghost
The Helicarrier held position ten kilometers from the frigate. The Avengers and Alex exited via magnetic thruster pods — a formation of armored figures drifting through space like silent comets.
Tony hummed the Halo theme over comms. "Admit it, this is cool."
Natasha's voice came through dry. "Try not to explode out there, Stark."
The frigate loomed larger, casting shadows across the stars. Its surface was scarred and cold. As Alex's boots locked onto the hull, the familiar clang of titanium echoed through his armor.
> "Feels like home," SYN murmured.
"Yeah," Alex replied. "A dead one."
They advanced toward the airlock. Stark's repulsors cut out as he scanned the door. "Power's faint, but I can override it."
Alex stepped forward. "No need."
He slammed his gauntlet into the control panel — the old UNSC override code embedding through neural sync. The door hissed open.
Inside, the corridors were pitch black. Emergency lights flickered like dying stars. Blood floated in small red spheres, frozen in zero gravity.
"Jesus…" Banner whispered.
Steve's voice was steady but grim. "Search for survivors. Stay sharp."
Thor muttered, "This ship reeks of death."
Alex led the way. His HUD flickered with motion signatures — brief, vanishing, never consistent.
> "SYN?"
> "Thermal readings inconsistent. Either we're seeing residual echoes… or something's moving."
"Define 'something.'"
> "Unclear."
---
The Bridge
The doors to the bridge were sealed. Burn marks laced the frame. Alex forced it open, revealing the command deck — a graveyard of empty chairs and shattered screens.
At the center stood the ship's AI terminal, glowing faintly blue.
Alex approached slowly. "UNSC AI, identify."
The hologram flickered to life — a fractured image of a female construct, her edges glitching violently.
> "Commander… Alex-217… I knew you'd come…"
"Sophia?" he breathed. "You were the Vigilant Dawn's AI."
> "I was," she said, voice fading. "Now… I'm dying."
Tony whispered, "Okay, creepy hologram talking to ghost Spartan. Classic."
Alex ignored him. "What happened here?"
> "Slipspace rupture… temporal inversion field… mission compromised… we tried to follow you…"
"Follow me?"
> "Directive override from ONI — locate Spartan-217. Retrieve classified artifact: Eidolon Core."
SYN's voice echoed in Alex's mind. > "Commander, that's impossible. The Eidolon Project was shut down decades ago."
> "Not anymore," Sophia replied weakly. "They rebuilt it. Used it to breach the multiverse."
Steve frowned. "Wait — are you saying this ship opened the portal that brought him here?"
> "Not intentionally," Sophia said. "But the core activated on its own. We thought we could contain it… then it awoke."
Thor raised his hammer. "What awoke?"
> "The thing inside the core. The thing that remembers war."
The hologram flared, distorting violently. Energy surged through the ship.
> "Incoming energy spike!" SYN shouted.
Alex turned to the others. "Back to the pods, now!"
But it was too late.
The walls rippled — metal folding in on itself like liquid. Shadows poured from the cracks, forming shapes — twisted armor, distorted Spartan visors, spectral soldiers frozen in silent agony.
Banner hissed, "What the hell are those?"
Alex's visor scanned the forms. "They're echoes… memory imprints. The core's bleeding time-space residue."
"Translation?" Tony yelled.
"They're dead men reliving their deaths."
The phantoms turned their heads. Every one of them looked straight at Alex.
> "You shouldn't have come back," they whispered in one voice.
And the ship screamed.
---
The Rift
The bridge imploded outward — glass and bodies spinning into vacuum. Alex triggered his mag-thrusters, stabilizing midair. SYN's voice cut through the chaos.
> "Commander! Slipspace rift forming in the reactor bay!"
"Coordinates!"
> "Marking now."
He shot forward, streaking through the debris. Behind him, Thor's lightning arced through the void, blasting the shadow forms apart while Stark and Rogers fought to stabilize the structure.
"Banner!" Tony yelled. "Any chance of turning green right now?"
"Not without oxygen!" Banner shouted back.
Alex dove into the reactor chamber — a spherical core pulsing with sickly blue light. The Eidolon Core.
> "It's trying to open another portal," SYN warned.
"Then we shut it down."
He reached out — his gauntlet connecting to the control panel. Data poured through his neural link — impossible, infinite. A thousand timelines, infinite wars, universes collapsing like dying stars.
He saw Reach burn again. He saw Earth crumble under alien suns. He saw himself die — over and over and over.
> "Alex!" SYN shouted. "You're overloading!"
"I can hold it!"
> "No — you can't!"
The rift expanded, swallowing the stars beyond the viewport. The ship shuddered violently. Tony and Steve's voices echoed faintly through comms, distorted.
> "Commander, you have to pull back—!"
Alex roared, channeling every ounce of his strength, forcing the core's energy back into containment. The light dimmed. The shadows screamed and vanished.
Silence.
Only static and Alex's ragged breathing remained.
> "Core stabilized," SYN whispered. "Rift contained. But… Commander… we're not alone."
Alex turned slowly.
Hovering above the Eidolon Core was a figure — human-shaped, armored like a Spartan, but darker, impossibly advanced. The helmet turned toward him.
> "You finally found me," the figure said, voice metallic and deep. "I've been waiting, Alex."
Alex raised his rifle. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head. "I'm what's left of you."
Before Alex could move, the figure vanished — leaving only the echo of its words in the void.
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End of Chapter 4 — "Ghosts in Orbit"