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117: part 1, Descent To Hell
Date: 8 October 2005, 1:04 pm
He was known only by his rank, the Master Chief, SPARTAN-117 of the Spartan II program. He sat in his quarters awaiting his briefing. Spartans were the pinnacle of modern military technology in the year 2552. They stood seven feet tall and wore armour that glistened with olive green colour in the light. They had flawless field records as well, never beaten in battle. The military stronghold, Reach, had been invaded by the Covenant, a gathering of alien races bent on humanity's destruction. The Chief and his squad of Spartans were on a mission; to infiltrate a Covenant camp, and capture an artefact that may lead to their home world.
All twenty-six Spartans were placed on a Pelican transport ship and set off for the landing zone. The Chief settled into a seat of the cargo hold and observed his fellow Spartans. They were scared and the Chief knew it. They sat in their seats twiddling their fingers and adjusting their helmets, their eyes overflowing with fear and uncertainty. But he knew these were only pre-operation jitters, and they would subside once they landed. The Chief opened a secure COM-channel so his team could talk without 'eavesdroppers'. The pilot of the ship warned of a rough ride ahead as the Pelican would start evasive manoeuvrers from incoming Covenant patrols. The Chief acknowledged immediately. It came just as he expected, a massive shudder ripped through their ship like an earthquake through a city. The Pelican must have impacted on something. For once the Chief was afraid, he blacked out.
The Chief awakened to find himself in the middle of a dense forest. He had been thrown roughly two hundred metres from the crash site. He checked his team's vital signs. Nothing, he was the only one alive, the sole survivor. He looked around gazing at the never ending darkness that lay before him. He concluded that he was just a bit shaken up from his hard landing. He gave his head a slight knock to clear his head. It worked. Ahead he could see the abstract architecture of the building in which the Covenant had been housing this sacred relic. He was surprised of how close he was to it considering that the prescribed landing zone was a lengthy distance away. He got up, raised his BR55 Battle Rifle and inserted a new clip that locked into position with a crisp snap. He crept forward carefully so he would not alert his presence to the Covenant camp that was sure to be nearby.
The Chief's motion detector flickered to life as he enabled it, and much to his surprise, it displayed two enemy signatures closing in on his location. Fast. He looked around and out of the corner of his eye saw the distinctive light-bending technology known as active-camouflage. Two Covenant Elites, the most fearsome and brutal species of the Covenant armada rushed towards him plasma rifles drawn, outnumbered two to one, the chief did what would he wouldn't normally do, run. Knowing that the Chief had learnt of their presence the Elites materialised out of the forest, their camouflage dissolving. They diverted the power to their personal energy shields. Now that the Chief could see these reckless beasts he turned left around a tree and ducked behind a large granite boulder. The Elites had lost track of him and came closer for an inspection. The Chief watched his motion tracker carefully as the dots moved around like little lost ants. They moved to the left, then to the right, left, and right then stopped. One of the Elites foolishly came closer. The Chief crept around the opposite side of his cover. He was now behind the Elite, he heard its accomplice scream and yell in its foul alien tongue, trying to warn it of the fatal danger that lie behind him. But it was too late; the Chief threw his arm around the Elite's neck and turned him to face the other just in time to shield the Chief from the incoming fire. The Master Chief pushed the Elite in front of him and brought his left knee up to his chest and unleashed a heavy kick that connected with the Elite's chest plate with a loud crack of bone and flesh. He raised his Battle Rifle and shot a quick three round burst into the back of the creatures skull. A purple haze of blood spewed out of the wound as the Elite dropped to the ground with a thud, it twitched twice and died. The Chief then saw an object on the ground that could be of his advantage, a Covenant plasma grenade, which stuck to enemies when thrown. He snapped it up in his hand, activated it and lobbed it straight at the second Elite's face, it stuck. Three seconds passed as the alien howled knowing that its time was up, and then it exploded in a furious aura of turquoise plasma. This time there was no corpse.
The Chief then realised that this was the only Covenant resistance guarding their precious artefact. So, he strode toward the structure thinking that it was over. Once he got to the pedestal he removed the relic and he grasped it tightly. The Chief then called for evacuation. He released his helmet and removed it. He took a huge sigh, relieved that this mission was over, but, this was only the beginning…
To Be Continued...
117: part 2, Reunion
Date: 8 October 2005, 1:07 pm
Evac never came. In its place came the one thing that the Master Chief had prayed not to come, Two Covenant drop ships and two Banshees, a patrol party. The Chief checked his armament. All he had was his trusty BR55 Battle Rifle, a fragmentation grenade he found and a Covenant plasma rifle he had redeemed from his fallen enemies back in the forest. His Battle Rifle had nearly a full clip left, hardly enough to take down a squadron of Grunts, let alone the Elites that accompany them. The Covenant party flew over his head and slowed to a crawl roughly one hundred clicks from his position. The chief observed as one drop ship stopped, landed, unloaded and left again with the rest of the small fleet. This was a huge relief to the Master Chief as he would have been obliterated by the whole group, although he was having his doubts about this one ship load in itself. He made sure he secured the relic he had recovered from the Covenant to him and made his way slowly back into the forest.
As he entered the dark envelope of light created by the forest's canopy, his motion sensor lit up like it had the measles, red dots all around him. He did not let this get the better of him and stayed as calm as he could as the Covenant could smell fear in the air. Thin, pin point rays of light shone down upon the Chief and made the Elite blood on the ground shimmer purple-black. He caught the site of a lonesome Grunt waddling around with its plasma pistol drawn and over-charged. Grunts were the cannon fodder of the Covenant, standing five feet tall, and require a life support system, as they breathe methane gas. The Chief nimbly rounded a large trunk and hung tight until the Grunt had passed. He didn't go in guns blazing as his instinct had told him too. He needed the ammunition. The Grunt sniffed at the air vigorously as it crept towards the left side of the tree. The Master Chief did the same. The Chief knew the Grunt was coming around the corner and swung his arm and clenched fist around his body and the tree. He saw nothing. He only felt the impact of his fist with the Grunts face and mask, and heard the crunching of facial bones and leaking gas from the life-support system. He went around the trunk making sure he had ended this creature's life for sure. The Grunt was dead. The Chief dumped his heavy plasma rifle on the ground and exchanged it for the Grunt's plasma pistol. This would come in handy.
He stood still for a few minutes examining his new weapon, and jumped to his senses and realised that he was still surrounded by enemy contacts. He could not afford to stand around. He had to keep moving. The Chief snuck around the forest, darting and dashing in and between trees trying to stay hidden from the Covenant. He stopped by a fallen log and took to prone position. He now had all of his contacts before him; four Grunts and three Elites. The Master Chief got up into a crouch and charged his plasma pistol, which when charged could drain an Elite's entire energy shield. He grabbed his fragmentation grenade and pulled the pin with a clean 'ting' sound and tossed it deep into the clearing in which the Covenant were looting a fallen comrade. It bounced once before falling by a Grunt's feet. The Grunt screamed and ran helplessly toward the protection of their Elites who had also ducked for cover. The grenade exploded in a plume of smoke and debris. The Chief merely dodged the corpse of a Grunt as it flew straight over his head and landed in a heap of flesh, bone and machine behind him. The Elites had no idea what had hit them, and the Chief knew this all too well. He took advantage of this as he fired the over-charged plasma pistol bolt toward one of the Elites. It was a direct hit, the Elite doubled over in shock as its energy shield dropped to nothing. The Chief then switched to his Battle Rifle and popped a quick shot into the Elite's head. Three rounds pierced through the air and penetrated the beast's skull, killing it instantly. The other two Elites had now learned of the Master Chief's position and had fired at him. A flurry of white-hot plasma rippled through the air and barely missed him, static washing over his HUD. Even though it missed him, the superheated air left in the wake of the plasma bolts were enough to bite at the Chief's own shields. He noticed that he had exterminated all of the Grunts with the grenade earlier and now only had two Elites to deal with. He waited for his shields to recharge before making his next move. He then moved silently and undetected around the edge of the clearing to hoping to flank his enemy. It worked; the Elites were showing off their habit of continuing to fire on an enemy's position, even if they can't hit them. He charged his pistol again hoping to inflict its burning hell on the Covenant. The Elite closest to him saw him, and jumped toward the Chief. The Master Chief did not expect this in any way at all, and unleashed the charged pistol in reflex. It still hit the Elite square in the chest, once again draining its shield. The Chief did the first thing that came to his mind, melee. The alien fell to the ground unconscious. The Master Chief lifted his foot off the ground and stomped it into the Elite's neck. He raised his Battle rifle and aimed directly in between its eyes. He fired. The Elite's head split apart and burst into a bloody pile of flesh and skull.
His plasma pistol now had no charge left. The Chief had forgotten about the last Elite, and looked up to see that the Elite had dropped its weapon. It worked slowly and calmly toward the Chief and stopped two meters in front of him. In its hand was a thin, black cylinder. It pushed a button on the side and a blue-white blade of energy flashed to life in its hands. It raised the energy sword and charged. The Chief quickly stepped backward as the blade sliced the air where he was only a moment ago. The Elite took a vertical swing at him and severed his Battle Rifle in two. The Chief had nothing theft except his own body. He couldn't risk that. He kept stepping back, dodging each swing by less and less every time as the Elite became more furious. The Elite had won. He had pushed the Chief into a massive tree, probably the biggest in the forest. The Chief had nowhere to go. Then, out of nowhere, the Chief heard a gun shot and the sound of a bullet speeding through the air, and then he saw the distinctive white trail of a UNSC Sniper Rifle. The Elite slumped to the ground already dead before hitting the ground, its sword disintegrating into thin air. The Chief looked in the direction from where the well-placed shot came from, a Spartan.
He was not alone. He was not the sole survivor
To Be Continued…
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