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The Alliance, Chapter 1 by Banshee 13
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The Alliance, Chapter 1
Date: 12 May 2005, 1:28 AM
The Master Chief walked over the knoll on the new ringworld humanity had discovered. He and a squad of Marines had been trapped here for three days fighting the Covenant and doing their best to make sure the events of Installation 04 were never repeated.
He had considered rallying all of the Marine forces on the ring but didn't know how to operate the Mark 6 radio. The only one who did know, Cortana, was miles away in High Charity's network. He didn't even know if any others had survived the crash.
It began when a ship was sent to retrieve the Marines stranded when the In Amber Clad had crashed into High Charity. It was estimated that the ring would be packed with Covenant fleeing from their holy city. But the UNSC needed the soldiers on the ring to help in the war effort.
The plan was simple; they would clear a 35 mile radius from the drop zone and load as many troops as possible into Pelicans. An AI would mask their electronic signature so Covenant ships couldn't detect them and deliver them to the UNSC ships that had brought them here.
It fell apart as the first troops were picked up. A Banshee patrol destroyed two Pelicans and grounded another one. The Marines fled to a Forerunner building and destroyed them with tracking rockets. Then, the Master Chief was called in to help defend the area the Marines were in because there were so many Covenant. They were forced to retreat and the Covenant divided them up and killed hundreds.
Of course it was mostly Brutes he fought now. He hadn't seen a Elite or Grunt in ages. It was curious that the Covenant would scrap the cannon fodder they had used for so long. The Chief wondered if there was a change in Covenant politics but he couldn't be sure. He was hopeful that there was, maybe it could give them a edge in this situation and the entire war maybe.
He finished climbing the hill and looked around. To a newcomer to this alien ring it was a wonderful forest but to the Chief and his squad it was another battle. The Spartan climbed down, puffs of dirt accompanying his footsteps; the Marines followed in his footsteps to disguise how many of them there were.
The forest was quiet but the Chief switched to thermal vision to be sure if there were any camouflaged Elites around. Branches cracked as they moved deeper into the woods.
Movement.
He saw it for a brief second and then it wasn't there. It might have been a bird but it was there again. He began to get scared but not enough to force him into panic. The Spartan checked one last time but it was gone. What a relief.
Then, they were surrounded.
Four armed Elites emerged from the woods, one carried a Carbine, two had plasma rifles, and the other wielded a needler.
"It's just some humans," one of them said, clad in gold armor.
"Nothing to worry about," replied another dressed in white armor, his jaw weirdly cut in half. "What do you want to do now Arbiter?" he asked.
An Elite in gray armor emerged. He had been camouflaged the whole time. The squad relaxed, they weren't shooting yet. Three Grunts also came out from hiding.
"Show to them to the base camp Grunts," the gray Elite said. "We'll continue to the supply depot."
"Right," replied a orange armored Grunt. The Chief noticed he had begun to shiver. The Elites left...
" This way," another Grunt said. The squad ran after them, around them Marines and Elites were working on something. He couldn't tell what. But this had confirmed his hope that a alliance had been formed between the Elites, Grunts, and humanity.
They entered the camp, Elite snipers equipped with beam rifles were on the top
like a Western fort. The entire camp was built out of wood, a poor choice the Chief thought, the plasma technology used by the Covenant would burn it and make it a inferno.
There were no humans to be seen but battle rifles, magnums, and shotguns were in a pile at the center of the camp. There was a similar pile next to it containing Covenant guns. The Grunts led them to a building and ushered the Marines away into another one.
Spartan 117 entered the room and saw another Spartan but in dented and scuffed Mark 5 armor.
The Alliance, Chapter 2
Date: 14 May 2005, 7:13 PM
I stared at the person in the older, jaded Mark 5 armor. I didn't recall any Spartans that had survived since Reach fell. Suddenly, he spoke.
"Who the hell are you? I don't recognize that type of armor."
I responded by telling him that I was Spartan 117 but he did not believe me until I took my helmet off. He began to talk again; I still didn't know who he was.
"I am from the second group of Spartans trained on Reach."
"I heard something about that at one time," I replied. "But how did you survive the plasma bombardment?"
"I managed to get into a cave and followed the tunnels done by mining until I reached a spot that the Covenant didn't glass. There were a lot of enemy ships there so I moved into the wilderness and resorted to stealth tactics since I was unarmed," he replied.
"Then, how did you get off the planet?"
"I met a member of my squad and some of your squad members too. I forget which color the others belonged too. But they had secured a Covenant dropship and we stowed away on a Covenant ship in orbit."
"And then?" I asked.
"It took us to a Covenant planet, they were doing something done there that was important according to the crew. No one could figure it out. By that time we had captured the bridge and ordered the crew to pilot the ship for us. We went to Reach and discovered it was destroyed, like a missile had cracked it in half."
"That was my team, the ones I could recover from the unglassed portion of Reach. We also met a officer, he had some experimental bombs which were used to destroy Reach," I explained to him.
"Anyway," he continued, "we found the coordinates for this ringworld in the nav database of the ship and formed a alliance with the Elites. They had given up their religion because they had worked with us for so many days on the ship."
"Then, how did Sergeant Johnson know about it? I asked.
He did not answer my question, there was a bell ringing, I guess the sound for an important announcement.
"Dinner," he said and bolted out the door.
At the food area there were so many Grunts they got their own table. Above the door was a sign that read "mess hall". I thought they would be serving meals-ready-to eat- but Covenant food was there also with steak. There wasn't a lot to choose from, one of the many things you could hear them complaining if you sat within earshot of them.
I grabbed three packages of steak and two Covenant food packages. The steak was delicious but the Covenant food was perplexing. It resembled cheese but it didn't taste like it. After you had eaten you could get a drink. There was soda, beer, and juice and confusing Covenant beverages.
After dinner some of the bored Grunts offered me to show them around the fortress. I could barely understand what they were saying as we neared the motor pool because of the sound of heavy machinery operating. Inside one of the buildings I found Ghosts, Gauss Warthogs, and a Spectre. Another building held weapons, assault rifles, plasma weaponry, rocket launchers and shotguns were there.
Next, the Grunts took me to a guard tower. The Marine inside saluted me and then returned to his post. They also showed me the communications office, nothing but a radio and a Marine operating it. I doubted it was capable of long range communication.
Finally, after showing me the gates and leading past them I was led to a deforested area. I assumed that the trees had been cut down in order to build the fort but one of the Grunts shot down my theory:
"This happened over a year ago, Brutes tried to set the forest ablaze to burn the fort down. We had to kill them all to keep our secrecy intact."
"Then why do you guys even attack the Covenant at all?" I asked. "There's no need to if you have the Index right?"
"We don't have the Index," replied the Grunt. "The Arbiter prefers that it stays with him so if anyone rebels they don't activate the ring. Or he gives it to Half-Jaw."
"Don't say that," one Grunt said. "You know how much he hates that nickname. And we have to head inside, the gates close soon and I don't want to spend a night out in the open."
So we marched inside and the gates closed behind us.
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