| Chapter 1: Falling Wings | ||||
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| Future Perfect: Chao Lingshen's Tale chapter | ||||
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| Focus Character | Chao Lingshen | |||
| Place | Orbital Defense Platform Athens | |||
| Chapter Chronology | ||||
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- "I wonder, sometimes, could magic have caused this war to run any different?"
- —Chao Lingshen
The first chapter of Future Perfect: Chao Lingshen's Tale. It opens in space and covers the conflict leading up to Chao Lingshen's journey to the past.
Chapter Synopsis[]
Chao Lingshen and Squad Six are on the Orbital Defense Platform Athens, one of roughly three-hundred geosynchronous Super-MAC defense stations that is being attacked by the Convenant. The future is looking rather unperfect for the humans, as the Covenant strike and Marines begine to quickly succumb to the greater weaponry the aliens possess. Akira Miyazaki, however, is able to kill one Elite, if dying in the process, through the inventive use of his magic to bring a grenade to his hand and shove it down the Elite's throat.
One by one, Squad Six perishes around Chao, until finally only she remains. Faced with an Elite about to murder her, she kills him with a point-blank headshot from inside the protection of his shield and trusts the Cassiopeia to send her through time to a safer place.