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The Final War: Chapter Four: Battle for Installation 02 Part One: Operation: Firestorm
Posted By: Awacar<t.alvner@swipnet.se>
Date: 23 November 2003, 9:55 AM


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-Cortana recordings: Loading...

-Time: Year 2553, January 13th, 0053 hours
-Location: Aboard a Covenant drop ship heading towards Halo: Installation 02's control room.
- Information about the recent past: After the Blood Faction strike against Earth, the Master Chief and I were sent to fight another force, who turned out to be friendly. They see themselves as the real Covenant, and are going to stop the Forerunners from firing the Halos.
      The enemy that we have fought for more than thirty years, the Blood Faction (codename:Betrayers), is a religiously fanatic, military resistance group of the real Covenant, and their highest goal is to eliminate all the "unfaithfull" life in the universe.
      The Forerunners, cloned by our enemy, are highly advanced at the technical side, and clearly the most dangerous resistance that can be found in this galaxy. The Forerunners created the Halos, and the Flood was a genetical experiment of theirs, created to eliminate the Covenant in a war fought more than 500 000 years ago.
      Our own race, the Humans, doesn't believe in the above explained, and have decided that we are a threat to them. They don't reallize the significance, or the power, of the Halos. Their objective is to use the rings and kill all the Covenant and Forerunners, but they don't see that it will be their own demise.
-Information about the current situation: We are now sent out to Halo: Installation 02 by the Gathered Species Government (GSG) to disable the control-centre. The GSG is the highest friendly Covenant organisation, and have sent a great amount of infantry to the Installations, infantry that we, for the moment, belong to.
-Mission: To make Installation 02 dysfunctional, starting with the destruction of the control room and the pulse generators.



      "Description of the target area?" MC asked Awacar as he got himself a rod gun.

      "Volcano, active. We'll have to fight our way through the tunnels shaped by the lava." Awacar responded.

      "Couldn't the Forerunners have found a worse place to locate the control room?" Cortana asked.

      "There was a control room 15 291 meters below the sea-surface in Installation 01." answered Awacar.

      "Don't tell me any more!" Cortana screamed desperately.

      "We're landing, get ready!" the speakers said and the forces took ordered positions.



      Seventeen drop ships touched the ground, and let the forces out. The sky was dark, and only enlightened by the very distant stars. The only sound heard was the machinery of the drop ships, together with a dove roar, coming from the volcano.

Cortana:
      "Battelfield information?"

      "Forerunners and Humans are awaiting us and the Blood Faction will be here soon. The control room is located in the centre of the mountain, and it is our primary goal. Since the Forerunners are the strongest alliance here I recommend an assault in order to weaken them." Awacar answered as he pointed at a tunnel into the mountain and by hand-moves ordered the infantry to enter.

They get to a big river of lava, see the Forerunners on the other side and fire.

      "Our chances of winning this battle is equal to zero, take the advise of making a temporal retreat, Awacar" Cortana recommended with a lot of panic in her voice.

      "People, you heard the lady, I couldn't have said it better myself. Retreat!" Awacar ordered.

      The forces get themselves behind a turn in the tunnel and they start to talk.

      "I wonder how much lava a rod gun or grenade can blow away." MC hummed silently.

Cortana:
      "I'm calculating for a maximum of hundred kilos if you talk rod guns, 120 for grenades. Why?"

      "If that amount is large enough to kill 90 percent of the Forerunners in the area of the splash, it's worth a try." MC answered.

      "It's definately worth a try, I think that it'll be a quite good way of using your weapons." Cortana said, beeing impressed.

Once again they approach the lava-stream, and now they throw all the grenades they have into the melted rock, while the ones with usual weapons fired as if nothing had happened. A layer of lava could be seen covering the ground, and some Forerunners on the other side of the "river". They, at last, backed off, seeming as if it was the first time they ever tasted the bitter fruit named "retreat".

      "Good job everyone, but it's a long way to the target. There will be a party there soon, don't be late!" Awacar said with the purpose of cheering the forces up a little bit. He succeeds, and the force gets moving.
      Later, they get to a big, sphere shaped room having a stone path next to the side seven meters up the wall, just below a tunnel in the mountain. The Forerunners come out of the tunnel, line up on the path and start to use their weapons. Now it's Snipers, Engineers and some new kind of Forerunner that make the opposition. The new type of creatures look almost like Master Chief, just a little broader shoulders and more masculine body. They're holding firearms that enable them to fire detonating, fast and massive shots with a low rate of fire. The height-advantage is tremendous, and Awacar sees that something needs to be done.

      "Take 'em down, and we will show them the meaning of the word "fight"!" ordered Awacar. The Grunts with rod guns start to fire at the downside of the path, together with the Chief. Finally, the path collapses, and the enemies can now fight each other on the same conditions. The needlers play a good role in the battle, making the slower Engineers become walking bombs. Grenade launchers are always a good thing for the side that controls the majority of them, but the Covenant forces have the avantage of the rod guns. The exposive battle comes to an end, and MC sees one of the "new" Forerunners, grabs the unarmed creature around the throat and pushes it up the wall.

      "What do you call yourself? ... ... Answer me!" the Chief says while pushing the Forerunner harder up the wall.

      "I am Ra'shaal, Forerunner Commando at the grade of Reclaimer, didn't think that you needed to know, copycat." the Forerunner Commando answers.

      "You're not in a position to use that kind of words, Forerunner. Tell us everything you know of, and join us, then I might let you live!" MC replies aggresively.

      "Ha, I'd rather die than help un-sentient lifefoms such as you, or the Covenant. You may look like me but the similarities between us end there!" Ra'shaal says, turning the opportunity to live away.

      "You've asked for it, scum!" Master Chief says before giving the Commando a fist that breakes the bones in his face, and kills him.

      "Cortana, can you figure a way out to get the forces up and into the tunnel?" Awacar asked.

      "I don't think that you want to get up there, the tunnel will be filled with lava in less then a minute, and guess where it'll be hot! I see an immediate escape as the best cause of action!" Cortana answered.

      The forces evacuate the area, and later get to a place where the tunnels go two ways.

MC:
      "Which way will lead us to the control room?"

Cortana:
      "The right way, choose the right way."

      "Lets hope that you're not being wrong." Awacar says when he gets into the tunnel.

They get through it and thereafter come to a bridge, and carefully get over it.

      "The next passage won't be as easy, the bridge there has been destroyed, we'll have to take a way around. Take the left here, it will lead you into two fights, but we aren't here to flee, so I see it as a risk worth taking." informated Cortana as they walked along the passages that lava had formed in the past.

Awacar:
      "Acknowledged, can you tell me about our resistance?"

Cortana:
      "The first will be the easiest, a team of fifteen Humans will pose the threat at first. The second is Betrayer based, but I estimate that the Forerunners have engaged them by then."

MC:
      "Sounds good, are there any catches?"

      "Afraid so, the Forerunners should be in the control centre before us, so if we don't hurry they will be in control of Halo before we can stop them."

      "Well then, let's not be lazy, move your legs faster, your lives are depending on it!" Awacar said, and the tempo was doubled.

They reach the Human infantry, and the battle is short, because of the grenades used and the huge numerous advantage given to the Covenant.
The forces pick up whatever grenades could be found and then leave for the Betrayers.

Awacar:
      "Distance to the next fight?"

Cortana:
      "163 meters."

      Forerunner and Blood Faction forces have started to engage each other, and the battlefield is a caotic mess when the Covenant gets there. A Bio-tank engages two Hunters all alone, and skillfully kills them, almost as if he was playing with their lives. There's a constant firing of fuel rod gun shots and grenades going on, making a continous thunder that, together with the sound of bubbling lava-masses smashing into the wall of the volcano, causes an ear damaging sound volume.

Master Chief decides to attack a Commando, and finds it very difficult. The Forerunner is a master in firing his weapon, and hits MC once in the chest. The SPARTAN is heavily wounded, but sees a Grunt throw his grenade, attaching it to the Forerunner Commando, not killing it.

      "Hey, we've got resistance, or what do you think? Will they be worth the time?" the Forerunner says. More Forerunner and Betrayer forces are coming in, and the grenade-blasts are heard even more clearly.

MC gets himself back to the forces, and a serious change of tactics are under discussion. One of the walls in the room is suddenly destroyed by a rod gun blast, and lava is flowing in. But the floor is sloping, so the lava flows into the side of the tunnel that the Covenant forces came from.

Awacar:
      "We're forced to evacuate!"

Cortana:
      "No way! The Forerunners are coming with more reinforcements, the same with the Betrayers... and we're in the middle. The worst thing is that we can't get through the lava flow, it's eliminating the choise of engaging the Betrayer resistance. You can't take us out!"

To Be Continued...

Authors note:I want to thank Zombie Boy for having the patience to read through this story (read: crap) and giving me grammar and spelling correction. Thanks!





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