Halo: Finishing the Fight

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What's the Armor Class of a MJOLNIR Mk VI, anyway?

Halo: Finishing the Fight is a crossover styled story taking place in an alternate ending to Halo 3, where the remaining members of the Forward Unto Dawn's crew (The Master Chief, Cortana, Commander Keyes, Sergeant Major Johnson, and the Arbiter) escape the destruction of the Halo array with their lives, only to get sucked through a Negative Space Wedgie in the process, and wind up literally crash-landing into the Forgotten Realms universe (sometime between The Icewind Dale Trilogy and the Legacy of the Drow Series).

Before long, the crew meets the natives of Faerun, and find themselves drawn ever deeper into the conflicts of the local world. As tensions mount, and armies are mustered, the Dawn's crew is forced to pick a side and make their stand, while trying to make sense of who brought them to this strange world, and more importantly, why?

Halo: Finishing the Fight is, as the author put it, "the result of what started as a series of postulated "what ifs" among the author and his friends after a night spent consuming too much root beer while playing games, and listening to far too much Immediate Music to possibly be healthy." It has since grown to a 700+ page work of fanfiction involving (the author hopes at least) passable attempts at blending military science fiction with high fantasy, alternating between the two different elements trying to understand one another and Orcs and Dark Elves being shot in the face with 26th century assault weaponry. The story was completed on 19th of January, 2011, and is available on two major sites. The first is at the Creative Writing Forum of Spacebattles.com with the full forty-six chapters, while a slightly more polished and proofread version can be found at Fanfiction.net, which currently has thirty chapters.

Tropes used in Halo: Finishing the Fight include:
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Didact has learned how to become a god.
  • Anti-Magic: One of the new toys Cortana creates is a grenade that releases this.
  • Arm Cannon: The Golems created by Cortana have a 30mm cannon attached to the left forearm and a flamethrower on the right.
    • Also, the Hunters in canon have these, so the ones in this story have them too.
  • The Atoner: Helm/Didact
    • Also, The ArbiterAscetic and the Covernant Separatists see serving Helm and helping the Humans of Torill as a way of atoning for their near destruction of the UNSC Humans.
  • Badass Back: One drow makes the mistake of trying to interfere with Mephasm facing down Errtu and gets thrown into a wall for her trouble.
  • Badass Boast: A few.
  • Badass Grandpa: Sergeant Johnson is in his 80's and still kickin' ass
    • Gazap the Grunt commander has been in the army for 30 years, and survived 3 engagements with Spartans (both are incredible achievements by Unggoy standards).
  • Battle in the Rain: '“Yeah, all we need is a torrential downpour and the trope is complete,” Cortana said.'
  • Berserk Button: Go ahead, drow, kill one hunter. I dare you. The other one will be killing you extra hard shortly.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: Mias Tarkimee kills himself rather than let Triel Baenre extract information from his head.
  • Big Brother Instinct: John seems to be developing one of these towards Neeshka.
  • BFG: The Rhino main cannon, Spartan Laser, and All the Forerunner weapons.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: It is noted that some of the drow's allies have biology so different that nerve gas will have no effect on them.
  • Bullet Time: One of the powers of the Forerunner suits is controlled time dilation. Spartan time and haste spells also create this effect.
  • Canon Immigrant: Numerous characters from all over the Forgotten Realms' expanded universe make appearances, not least of whom are Neeshka and Drizzt, who share main character status with Chief and the crew.
  • Chunky Salsa Rule: This fic invokes the trope liberally.
  • Click. "Hello.": Inverted. The UNSC and Neo Covenant are pretty jumpy when it comes to people teleporting into their ship. Mephasm and Helm learn this first hand.

Johnson: "The next person who teleports in here is getting a belly full of uranium."

  • Cliffhanger

Helm: "I was born more than a hundred thousand years ago, on a planet long since blasted to ash and dust… There, on that day, at that time, I was given the name Arias Didact."

  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Done to Neeshka by Errtu and the drow.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The MC and co emphasize that this is how you have to fight.
    • Complete with nightmarish videos from the Human-Covenant war to show why they think this way.
  • Continuity Nod: When MC is told that a news crew is coming to Toril, Johnson tells him to wear something nice for the cameras, as back in Halo 2.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Chief vs anybody. On the other hand, we are talking about Master Chief.
    • Then we get to a serious aversion when MC runs into Demogorgon, who can take anything thrown at him - including possibly Forward Unto Dawn's MAC - and keeps coming.
  • David Versus Goliath: Chief in Didact's Class 20 armour would be the Goliath against lots of other things, but is still out-beasted by Demogorgon.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Drizzt is this in spades (mainly because such weapons make his Implausible Fencing Powers utterly obsolete). He does carry and use firearms as the story progresses, but with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Usually.
    • This actually comes from the fifth Drizzt book, where he lays out many of the same problems regarding the idea of guns becoming widespread. Ironically, said book occurs before this story comes in.
    • Which is ironic, considering the need for repetitive drill, that the arquebus made necessary. His concerns there were valid, and even in Real Life it still took five centuries for firearms to completely replace melee weapons as a main weapon in warfare.
  • Do with Him as You Will: Chief does this to the captured leader of a Luskan raiding party, handing him off to the barbarians whose loved ones the raiders took for slaves.
  • Dual-Wielding: The Arbiter does this with plasma swords before Halo Wars made it cool.
  • Dungeon Bypass: It wasn't exactly a dungeon per say, but the UNSC raids Luskan's Hosttower from the top down by blowing off the top third of the tower with one shot from a Rhino's MAC cannon.
  • Elves Versus Dwarves: A pretty epic example, when Corellon threatens Helm/Didact's children (the Halo crew) Moradin makes it known that he will send EVERY Dwarf at whoever dares try it and tells Corellon to watch his tongue.
  • Fix Fic: Somewhat minor. Keyes and Johnson survived, and Guilty Spark was saner in this story's version of Halo 3's events.
    • The author's dislike for the Drow however is palpable as he subjects them to every kind of overkill imaginable (he admits as much in one OOC post).
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: A squad of Elites do this in one battle, drawing their plasma swords and wading into an entire battalion of enemies.
  • Gangsta Style: From the 21st chapter: "Nekar, stop holding that pistol sideways, you are not here to show off!"
  • Genre Blind: The UNSC characters meet various elves and dwarves, and not one of them ever thinks of The Lord of the Rings or Santa Claus and his elf helpers.
  • Goomba Stomp: Chief does this to a Tundra Yeti in the fic's first fight scene.
  • Groin Attack: "Pwent retaliated with a spiked gauntlet, smashing the Elf at about eye level. The Master Chief almost winced as he realized both where the Gutbuster had struck his foe, and that his opponent happened to be a male. The Dark Elven warrior screamed in agony as blood went everywhere."
    • "Twinkle punched through the mail, through the padding underneath, and down until it emerged from the Elf's groin."
    • The Chief's epic takedown of a Glabrezu.

The Spartan's fist connected with the bronze codpiece that it wore, and a resounding 'gong' echoed through the room. The Tiefling's mouth dropped open as the piece of protective equipment crumpled inward and collapsed under the fury of the blow. The Glabrezu stumbled backwards, its eyes crossing slightly. It collapsed to its knees, its lower arms clutching at its wound. Then it howled in agony as its brain finally finished processing what had happened to it. It was a scream, Neeshka noted with a smirk, which was quite a few octaves higher than she believed the wolf demons were capable of. This was followed a by a moment of whimpering, before the Spartan turned his weapon upon the creature.

  • Healing Factor: Demogorgon has a pretty powerful one.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Cortana
    • He's Just Hiding: The reactions to the above. Helped by the fact that the passage in particular doesn't actually say exactly what happened. Chapter 45's last part suggests there might be hope.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: When Mephasm comes for Neeshka, several drow are thrown into their own torture implements.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Accomplished via abusing Bags of Holding for fun and profit.
  • Invincible Hero: Swings back and forth. Whenever Chief is facing something that can't possibly hurt him or even penetrate his armor, it's usually balanced out by him trying to fulfill some other objective, like protecting a much squishier character. He does however blaze through golems, demons, and wizards without stopping. It takes the Matriarch of the Dark Elf race to cause him trouble.
    • The UNSC as a whole however play this trope much straighter. Most of their opponents can't touch them (for obvious reasons), and any potentially clever tactics they come up with to turn the tables such as ambushing with summoned demons, or secret tunnels in the attack on the Dwarf city always seem to get undone within minutes.
  • The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Averted, as while little the drow have can seriously dent MC's shields or those of the Sangheili, he isn't standing around letting them have free hits either.
  • Magic From Technology: Literally. Cortana is having a field day devising new uses for Faerun's local magical artifacts (the above-mentioned Bags of Holding, for instance), and the author has indicated that her ungodly INT and WIS scores (the only real requirements to use magic in D&D) could make her one of the most powerful spellcasters in the entire setting.
    • A running bet on Spacebattles has it that by the end of the fic, or the sequel, she'll become a new goddess of technology and firepower.
  • Mook Horror Show: The perception of the Spartans as seen through Covenant eyes, as well as the newcomers as seen through the drow and their allies.
  • More Dakka: Happens here and there.
  • Mr. Exposition: Usually Cortana or Johnson explaining to the natives how modern weapons work. Often doubles as Shown Their Work as Aratech has clearly made the effort to research the weapons he describes.
  • Mythology Gag: Johnson making a joke about Miranda NOT trying to attack Truth on foot, which was what led to her death in canon.
    • And, seeing how it's based on Halo, a Bungie property, there are multiple references to the number seven.
    • Johnson plays the Mjolnir Mix version of the Halo Theme over his speakers to ease pre-fight tension.
  • Won't Work On Me: One of Demogorgon's Death Knights easily stops a spell that supposedly can damage even the strongest demi-liches. Also, the full power of the deities can shrug off spells that would shred their avatars.
  • Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Played with. While the Halo characters tend to be fairly unusual, even in their own universe (Johnson, A SPARTAN-I and ODST, the Master Chief, a SPARTAN-II, and Orna Fulsam'ee, an Arbiter/Acstetic), the "normal" level technology of the UNSC is a massive force multiplier for those fighting the Drow.
  • Not So Different: The ArbiterAscetic notes how the drow are similar to what the Covenant used to be.
  • Not So Stoic: see the second Tear Jerker entry below
  • One of Us: The title of the second chapter is "Observations, Plans, and a Xanatos Gambit".
  • Out of the Inferno: Done to great effect by the Chief, walking out of the after effects of a blast orb with his shields crackling visibly.
  • Outside Context Villain: Inverted. Chief and co. are Outside Context Heroes.
  • Papa Wolf: Mephasm to Neeshka. So very much.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: The Chief/Cortana in Didact's Class 20 power-armor. Full stop. They even mention that he could probably take down an entire Covenant fleet single-handedly with it. Unfortunately, they're fighting the Demogorgon
  • The Plan: Helm/Didact is very good at this.
  • Precision F-Strike: In chapter 33 Matron Baenre teleports away just as the Chief initiates the decapitation strike. His reaction? "Shit!"
  • Ret-Gone: A spell used by one of Demogorgon's Death Knights does this, so thoroughly killing a pair of elves that Corellon cannot remember them.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: What the surviving member of a Hunter pair goes into after their Bond-Brother is killed. Dwarves also do this.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Averted - and hard - in pretty much every battle.
    • Also rather amusingly inverted on one occasion, where Briza Do'urden is barely halfway through gloating about her newly summoned Earth Elemental before it gets annihilated by a Spartan Laser.
  • Rousing Speech: Johnson broadcasts one to pretty much all of the allied forces as they're gearing up for the final battle.
  • Running Gag: The locals keep mistaking the Arbiter for a demon. Same goes for the Covenant Separatists.

Johnson: The irony here is thick enough to cut with my combat knife.

  • Sequel Hook: The UNSC will be establishing a colony on Faerun's moon. Helm is going to deal with the remnants of the Covenant Loyalists. Triel Baenre is still out there.
  • Ship Tease: If you squint, you can see traces of Chief/Neeshka sometimes.
    • From Neeshka maybe, but having known nothing but war for his entire life Chief is very much a Chaste Hero.
      • Not to mention the fact that the Chief ultimately sees her as a sister (much like his fellow Spartans)
    • Although there is Cortana to remember...
    • There are also small, but noticeable teases between Drizzt and Dove.
  • Shoulder Cannon: The Golems created by Cortana have a Gauss Cannon mounted on their left shoulders.
  • Shout-Out: "I had seen them punch through stone walls and soldiers empty entire power packs at them and hit nothing but air."
  • Spanner in the Works: The UNSC are this to the Dark Elves' Evil Plan to conquer the realm. All According to Plan as far as Helm/Didact is concerned.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Johnson and Miranda.
  • Sword and Gun: The ArbiterAscetic uses both a SMG, later a needler, and a plasma sword to fight a Balor.
  • Take That: One thrown at the source material. Johnson and Keyes reminiscence about her rescuing him from the Prophet of Truth, and both share a laugh about how Keyes was sensible enough not to make the very mistake that got her killed in the actual game.
  • Teleport Spam: Used by the Forerunners, Helm and Lolth.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Tanks, gunships, white phosphorus, and a whole army of Covenant separatists. Later on, they are talking about using nerve gas.
    • Scratch that, it's now been used against the Drow. Bring on the squick.
    • Hell, the only reason they haven't nuked Menzobarrenzan yet is because they need to get Neeshka and some Drow children out. Once those are done however...
    • Master Chief finishes off kills destroys annihilates Demongorgon by opening a one-way Slipspace portal inside of his body, then firing everything he has left into it. The interaction of the portal and the firepower exposes Demongorgon to energies that are in the same league as the Big Bang itself.
    • In a more literal case, the "Antioch Grenade" homes in on, and attaches itself to a target, disintegrates them, the explodes with enough force to level a small house.
  • Time Marches On: Unfortunately for this otherwise well-written story, the Halo Canon has moved on slightly. The Arbiter's name is revealed not to be Orna Fulsamee, but Thel Vadam'ee in the novel The Cole Protocol. The history of the Forerunners is revealed in The Forerunner Trilogy, where the Forerunners are revealed to be a separate species from humanity, invalidating pretty much all of Diadect/Helm's awesome backstory. Also, Spartan-III's were known by military higher-ups by the Battle of Reach, as all but Jorge, a Spartan-II, were Spartan-III's.
  • Villain Teleportation: Some of the enemies use teleportation to get into the defences of Mithril Hall. Including an attempted decapitation strike at Lord Nasher and the command group.
  • War Is Hell: The description of the carnage on Azure Twelve is horrifying, both in- and out-of-story.
  • We Have Reserves/Zerg Rush: The drow employ this in their assault on Mithril Hall, and how! Casualties mount in the millions before long. Later, the demons use this too.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Averted with Lady Alicia who after the group meets Master Chief and sees their 'spelljammer' disappears only to show up in the epilogue apparently having been captured during the battle at Luskan
    • Her actual capture is shown too, at the end of the Luskan battle. She's also shown being interrogated by Miranda and Drizzt.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: "One of the first lessons that Lek'golo were taught in combat came to mind: nothing is indestructible if you apply enough force."
  • Why Won't You Die?: Lolth asks this of Helm/Didact when they fight.
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