Fanfic / Halo: Chimera Rising

"We're building the single most effective fighting force the universe has ever seen. And you're going to help us."
— Director Idris Carter

SPARTAN-IV candidate/Damien-451: "And why the hell should I do anything to help you?"... "My friends have been put through enough trouble!"

SPARTAN-III/Eric-G239: "Trouble? You speak of a thing you don't understand, Candidate. You never fought in the last war. You never served. Never went mag-dry in a foxhole, surrounded by red-flags and hurting on all things but your own squad mates. Never watched as the only people you ever knew got taken from you, one by one. Mission by mission, piece by piece."

Halo: Chimera Rising is a completed Halo fanfic and a sequel to Katsuhiro's Enemy of My Enemy.

The Human-Covenant war is over and has been for some time, but it left its scars. The UNSC decided that Spartans represent the best hope humanity has for defense and reactivated Spartan training programs. Hopeful recruits are being given the chance to try for Spartan training. If they pass, and if they are genetically compatible with the augmentations, they will become Spartans.

Some have prior military experience while some have never fought at all. None of them are quite like fireteam Chimera. Five men and women who have already tried to escape from the training process, holdovers from the last days of the Spartan-III project, they are being given another chance to become Spartans under the watchful eye of a veteran Spartan, their new psychologist and the staff of the Laconia Academy.

Katsuhiro describes Chimera Rising as "A bridging story between The Enemy of my Enemy and its sequel. The story concerns the creation of a Spartan 4 team; their origins, their training, their rivalry with other fireteams. The story is intended to shift from an origin story to a more hard contact military sci-fi story, similar in scope to The Enemy of my Enemy, albeit with a more immediately personal focus."

While it's nominally a sequel, there haven't been any major appearances by Enemy of My Enemy characters. However, there have been a number of cameos and small references to the planet Crassus keep popping up.

Finally, at some point after The Enemy of My Enemy was written, Katsuhiro found the TV Tropes page for it and has been a dedicated troper ever since. So much so that when he was asked if there was anything specific he wanted on this page, all he replied with was One of Us.

Shortly after the completion of Chimera Rising, Katsuhiro began work on the sequel, Halo: Chimera Rogue.

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Halo: Chimera Rising provides examples of:

• The Ace: Fireteam Platinum. They have a habit of getting perfect scores. They're also jerkasses about it.
• Ace Pilot: Chindima and Wing Commander Laurent.
• An Arm and a Leg: A thug who was stupid enough to attack an Elite with nothing more than a switchblade has his arm torn from it's socket. Eric looses his arm in the prologue.
• Arcadia: Hibernia, where Damien grew up, is this, despite the British Weather.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Rashid manages to stop Eric in his tracks with one.
• Artificial Limbs: Eric has one. It gets torn off in a fight later, when he uses it to his advantage.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!:
  • When you're a Spartan, sometimes it pays to just go straight in.
  • Also the favored tactical and strategic approach of General Stape, even when it's not necessarily the right approach.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: Used by Scimitar in the prologue.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Deliberately invoked by Kodiak 2, who blares out Ram Jam's "Black Betty" from his Mantis's speakers as his team obliterates an Insurrectionist convoy.
• Back Stab: On occasion. Fireteam Platinum executes a large scale version when they sneak in and capture the flag from behind while Chimera and Trident are assaulting the position.
• Badass Bookworm: Rashid's only demand is that he occasionally be provided with a good book. He wants to start with Steinbeck.
• Badass Crew: Scimitar in the prologue. All of the Spartan teams later on, but especially Chimera.
• The Bad Guy Wins: While the UNSC successfully puts down the Insurrection on Cadiz, Hedekar accomplishes what he came to do, which involves completely destroying New Cadiz and putting Chimera out of commission.
• Band of Brothers: Chimera'a a bit on the small side, but this definitely applies.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: Rashid invoked this to scare off a thug before he was picked up for the program. It's actually happening for real in the Laconia facilities.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Fireteam Trident pulls one.
  • Chimera themselves pull one off in their first engagement on Granica.
• Boarding Party: The story opens with one gone wrong.
• Body-Count Competition: Part of, but not all of, This Is a Competition below.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Much like it's predecessor, when people get shot they will be realistically injured.
• Booby Trap: A dead Spartan is rigged with a satchel charge in the prologue. Scimitar's pelican is rigged as well.
• Bottled Heroic Resolve: Stimulants are automatically administered by MJOLIR armor when the wearer is injured badly enough.
• Breaking Lecture: Eric crushes Damien the first time they meet. For once it doesn't overlap with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Bring It: Eric asks who in Chimera has, "The stones to take me on." They all go for it at once. And loose badly. Viktoyra lasts the longest, but not by much.
• Bring My Brown Pants: A side effect of Spartans being mook horror shows.
• Bullet Time: Spartans experience this as Spartan Time when fighting.
• Call-Back: A number of references are made to Enemy of My Enemy.
  • Chapter 3 opens with a quote from a MAJ(Ret.) G. Abelev.
  • Sgt. Murphy's ODSTs make appearances in a couple of the flashback chapters.
  • Viktoyra lived on Crassus briefly. Other minor references to Crassus are all over the place.
  • Vtan Arum'ee makes an appearance in a flashback.
  • Amanda Jennings shows up in the flashback to the opening of the Granican War.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: The war knows where Chimera used to live.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: If anyone ever breaks radio discipline this is the likely result.
• The Cavalry: Damien and Chindi play this role at the start of Chimera's last stand. They head back just in time to help finish off the first wave and fight until they go down in the second wave, along with everybody else.
  • Stride Team Kodiak tries to pull this off, but gets ambushed in return.
• Ceiling Cling: Viktoyra's introduction.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The ONI spook in the flashback chapters ends up being the main antagonist of the story, Conrad Hedekar.
• Chess Motifs: Rash brings them up in his Armour-Piercing Question to Eric on the UNSC.
• Combat Breakdown: It's a Halo fic. Firearms used as clubs isn't anything unexpected.
• Combat Pragmatist: Spartans may be the epitome of this.
• Contemplative Boss: Director Carter is overlooking the initial training this way when Rebecca first enters his office.
• Conveniently an Orphan: The members of Chimera who didn't start out this way are now, due to the manner of their induction into the Spartan program.
• The Cracker: Rashid, even as a kid.
• Crazy-Prepared: Sergi has a go to hell bag ready at all times. Naturally, it gets used.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Several.
• Curse Cut Short: Related to N-Word Privileges below.
• Custom Uniform: Mjolnir armor has become this. Each Spartan chooses a their own separate look/functionality. Rebecca thinks it's as close as they can get to artistic expression.
• Danger Deadpan: Played straight and averted by the various pilots in the simulator.
• Dare to Be Badass: What the various Spartan candidates received. They're trying.
• Dark Messiah: Al'Hajar, whose magnetism and tactical brilliance has managed to attract many ideologically diverse Insurrectionist groups to flock under his banner.
• Deadpan Snarker: Many.
• Death by Origin Story: Lots of cases because four out of the five members of Chimera get origin stories. The prologue also counts for Eric.
• Death from Above: In several different flavors.
• Death Glare: Chindi's could strip paint from a starship.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: McBride is ordered to find a way to kill or at least maim a Spartan. He succeeds.
• Deflector Shields: Standard on Mjolnir armor.
• Determinator: Spartans, again. Eric in particular has this as a trait.
  Victory at any costs. An arm, a leg, a Spartan.
• Double Tap: Used all over the place.
• The Dragon: Conrad Hedekar is this to Al'Hajar.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: It quickly becomes clear that Hedekar is the real brains behind the insurgency on Cadiz.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Hedekar and his personal minions do not share the same ideology as the other Insurrectionists on Cadiz, and Hedekar ends up betraying Al'Hajar for his own agenda.
• Drop Pod: Standard for the Halo universe. An Elite in one of these saves Rash and Chindi by accident.
  • They're also how Chimera gets deployed to the city of New Cadiz.
• Dropship: The UNSC and Covenant standbys, the Pelican and the Spirit, make appearances.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: They only show up once, but they're in Chimera's past and the rest of the Spartan candidates had to deal with them to get where they are.
• Dynamic Entry: Several, starting with breaching rooms and going up from there.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Laconia facility.
• Elite Army: Spartan Units form one within the UNSC armed forces.
• Elite Mooks: The Sons of Granica, elite Insurrectionists who are all battle-hardened veterans of the Human-Covenant War.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Apart from the Spartans, the story also shows the perspectives of UNSC Army Rangers and Mantis pilots.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: Mjolnir comes standard with one. Eric proves it can be spoofed.
• Establishing Character Moment: Each member of Fireteam Chimera get one when about to be interviewed. Eric also gets one when he is re-introduced after the prologue, showing off his changed personality and ruthlessness.
• Foster Kid: Luke's parents were killed in a mining accident on Crassus. He spent most of his life in UNSC facilities.
• Hard Light: Name dropped. It's used in some of the simulations.
  • It's not true hard light. Only one thing in the UNSC has that capability, and it's not named.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Hedekar challenges Luke to defuse a bomb before the timer runs out. Luke succeeds, but it turns out that the bomb also had an additional remote detonator.
• Hidden Weapons: Eric's armor is scanned once. It contains, "a truly extraordinary number of hidden knives, blades, and garrote wires."
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Conrad Hedekar, whose goal remains mysterious through the entirety of the story.
• Hitman with a Heart: Sergi, Viktoyra's father. Mostly, he just has a soft spot for her.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Director Carter tells all of the Spartan candidates that no one will know the full extent of what they do.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Chindi's motivation for the escape.
• Improvised Weapon: Boiling water and a frying pan save the day.
• Invisibility Cloak: Spartans in general have a fondness for optical camouflage.
• Ironic Nickname: Rash is anything but rash.
• It Amused Me: Rash was bored with ten years of being a candidate, so he agreed to take part in and organized Chimera's attempted escape.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Parodied; one Ranger is instantly shushed by his comrades when he begins to say it. It turns out the quietness is due to Chimera having already killed all the Insurrectionists in the area beforehand.
• Jumped at the Call: All of the Spartan candidates, Damien and Luke, but not the rest of Chimera.
• Just Toying with Them: After their first simulated fight with Eric, Chimera suspects he might be doing this.
• Kukris Are Kool: Trident's scout is a former Gurkha. He brings his with him.
• Land Mine Goes "Click!": It doesn't, actually. Chimera walks into a simulated ambush run by Eric. A concussion mine killing two of them is the first sign that things are going wrong.
• Large and in Charge:
  • Spartans tend to be tall. Really tall.
  • McBride, the commander of the Insurrectionists guarding Dakhar Market, is noted to be a "slab-jawed monster of a man".
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: If candidates wash out of the training program and don't take a job with ONI they get this instead for security purposes.
• Last Stand: The prologue. Chimera gets a simulated one later.
• Lampshade Hanging: At least once, on Hibernia's meaningful name.
• Leave No Man Behind: The cause of Chimera's simulated last stand.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Chimera does this once. Justified because they had to get clear of an artillery killzone, so they charged the infantry screen guarding the artillery. Also deconstructed because they get pinned down and would have been defeated if not for a Big Damn Heroes moment from Trident anyways.
  • Lampshaded, since a direct assault is described as being tantamount to suicide.
• Love at First Sight: Played with. Sergi suffers from a case of lust at first sight.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Standard for Spartans. Eric has a particularly notable one in the prologue.
• Meaningful Name: Hibernia, the planet Damien grew up on. A lampshade is promptly hung when its Latin translation, "The Cold Place" is mentioned in the next sentence.
• The Men in Black: Admiral Carter's blank uniform gives off this impression. Black Coat is definitely one.
• The Mentor: Eric, as the only veteran Spartan on hand, assumes this role for Chimera.
• Mini-Mecha: Stride Team Kodiak is a team of three Mantis pilots.
• The Mole: Luke. He agrees to send monthly reports on Chimera to command because he's considered the most loyal to the UNSC. This is actually to their benefit—If he hadn't agreed to it the team wouldn't have been reactivated.
• Mook Horror Show: Eric at the bank.
• More Dakka: In varying degrees of intensity, depending on the situation and the weapon. Anything from a SAW to a warhog's LAAG counts, and will be used at some point.
• Mysterious Past: In universe, the UNSC tries to keep Eric's records sealed to preserve this. Rebecca isn't playing ball and goes to Rash for help.
• Mythology Gag: The simulation in chapter 12 is capture the flag played by teams of Spartans. Sound familiar?
• Noodle Implements: Rash cracked Laconia's security system with a datapad and a combat knife.
• Nose Art: Kodiak One's Mantis has a cigar-chomping wallaby clutching an assault rifle stenciled on it.
• N-Word Privileges: Smiler uses it without these while talking to Chindi. She doesn't take it well.
• Obligatory Joke: A bit tied up right now gets used, just because.
• Offhand Backhand: To a body that hadn't even had time to collapse, but was in the way.
• Off the Chart: Rash specifically, but it probably applies to all of Chimera.
• Oh, Crap!: A couple. Viktoyra gets one when told the rifle in her face isn't loaded with stun rounds.
• Old-School Dogfight: The space combat simulator.
• Overheating: Plasma and energy weapons have to cool down just like in the games.
• Powered Armor: Mjolnir.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Always outnumbered, never outgunned, Five."
• Psychotic Smirk: The black-coated ONI agent in the flashbacks has his share of creepy smiles. He keeps up the habit while under the guise of "Conrad Hedekar".
• Rebel Leader: Al'Hajar.
• Red Baron: Sergi gets Duh, which is serb-croat for ghost.
  • Al'Hajar is known as The Lion of New Cadiz.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Insurrectionists on Granica V; among other things, they deliberately engineered water shortages to make the local government look bad.
• Refuge in Audacity: Charging directly into an enemy force to get out of an artillery killzone.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The actions and subsequent battle against the ULF insurgents can, at times, sound exactly like something read from a news report on The War on Terror.
  • Among the things included: Refugees fleeing the conflict and presenting a humanitarian crisis, insurgent suicide bombing campaigns, a charismatic leader with religious undertones that has an army of poorly skilled militia fanatically loyal to him. Heck, the insurgents are even equipped with what are essentially AK-47s and RPGs. Simply replace the ULF with a Middle Eastern terrorist organisation of your choice, ONI with the CIA, Grancia V with Afghanistan and the UNSC with Coalition soldiers.
• The Rival: Platinum is this for Chimera during their training.
• Scars Are Forever: Eric has some truly nasty scars on his face. They're normally hidden by his helmet, but he uses them to great effect during the Breaking Lecture he gives.
• Scenery Porn: Indulged in every now and then. Descriptions of Laconia tend to include this.
• Scenery Gorn: Katsuhiro lavishes description on torn up battlefields whenever they appear.
• Shout-Out: Plenty. Rashid in particular seems to be a source of them.
  • Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn gets a passing reference with the phrase "Snot-nosed CAMS detail."
  • Rashid's reaction to Kazien is to quote Mordin Solus' reaction to EDI.
  • Rash also says, "I will commit to this program," answering a question that gets asked to Jason Bourne.
  • The first line Rash puts up on the walls of the train station is taken from the Halo 3: ODST trailer.
• The Siege: Eric breaks one up quickly and violently.
• The Shrink: Rebecca.
• The Smart Guy: Rashid.
• Smoke Out: The eternally useful smoke grenade makes an appearance.
• Sole Survivor: Eric is the only remaining member of Scimitar.
• Space Elevator: Laconia has one. New Cadiz on Granica also has one; the Insurrectionists defending Dakhar Market take advantage of its proximity to the elevator's support struts to limit the UNSC's use of airstrikes.
• The Spook: An ONI agent wearing a black coat is a recurring character in the flashback chapters. As it turns out, he's currently going under the name of "Conrad Hedekar".
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Eric pulls one at the bank using his active camo.
• Steel Eardrums: Averted. Those not wearing a helmet or ear protection in a firefight will have damaged hearing.
• The Stinger: The epilogue implies that Hedekar is still working for a faction within the UNSC.
• The Stoic: Eric doesn't talk much, and rarely reveals what he's thinking.
• Straight Edge Evil: Al'Hajar is a devout Muslim who never drinks and rarely swears, but also is a ruthless and savage fighter.
• Take Cover!: A necessity on any modern (or postmodern) battlefield.
• Taking the Bullet: Rashid pushes three Rangers out of the way of a rocket, losing a leg in the process.
• Taking You with Me: Chindi in the space combat simulation. Rashid at the end of the simulated last stand.
• Technically a Smile: Damien gives on to Rebecca during their first meeting. It's not particularly surprising, given the circumstances.
• This Is a Competition: Invoked for training purposes. The current leader gets priority on assignments.
• Tragic Keepsake: Quint's dogtags become these for Damien.
• Training from Hell: Eric and Chimera have already endured it. The rest of the candidates get to go through it, and Chimera gets some more.
  • There are 3000 candidates, and Director Carter estimates that from them he will get less than 30 Spartans.
• 24-Hour Armor: Eric. When asked, he says he's performing system calibrations for materials group.
  • It also "Discourages nosy doctors from asking stupid questions."
• Understatement: Katsuhiro seems to like these.
• Undying Loyalty: Chimera feel this for each other. Damien has a particularly bad case of it that he expresses through Leave No Man Behind.
• Villainous Breakdown: Al'Hajar goes from being a charismatic and cool leader respected for his bravery to a desperate man trying to dig a tunnel using a knife when it is revealed that his Dragon had betrayed him all this while and tricked him into a corner. At least he maintains the bravado to charge a fully-armoured Spartan.
• Villainous Valour: Whatever their ultimate goals may be, many of Granica's Insurrectionists are truly ready to die for their cause.
• War Is Hell: Making a return in full force from Enemy of My Enemy.
• Wire Dilemma: Luke's introduction. He chooses the wrong one but it's an exercise.
  • He comes across this situation again near the end of the story. He chooses the right one this time, but unfortunately the bomb has an additional remote detonator.
• Wham Line: Not for for the story, but, "Who said anything about stun rounds," acts as one for Viktoyra.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The interludes about the recruitment of Chimera are all told in flashback.
• Worthy Opponent: Damien's adoptive father manages to earn this from Vtan after his death.
• You Are Number 6: All of the Spartans are referred to by their candidate numbers at times.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Platinum sneak in and steal the flag while Trident and Chimera are mounting a frontal assault. When they finally get to the bunker, they get this reaction.