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"Get us the hell out of here!" yelled out Koju to the navigation officer. "Random slipstream location chosen jump in 5...4...3...2...1" yelled out the navigation officer. Quickly the Thespian began to accelerate speeding away from the slaughter that was the Forerunners first strike. Galileo was overrun and those ships that couldn't go into slipstream were quickly destroyed, everything was lost, a green light engulfed the Thespian as it sped away sending it into slipstream into unknown territory. 1 week later A green light appeared in space and from it the huge cruiser Thespian came. In front of them lay a sight not seen in 150 years, a red dessert plant not out of the ordinary but in its orbit huge pieces of what appeared to once have been a ring floated, their inner curved surfaces now black and lifeless. "What is that," asked Koju as he stared at the screen revealing the broken ring. "I don't know, the closest thing I can get about it is a 150 year old account from the Spartan John," said Derrick typing furiously, "he referred to it as Halo." "Halo, that's in the old covenant prophecies," said Koju, "its supposedly a weapon of mass destruction." "It fits Johns description, after a creature he called the flood were released from deep underground chambers he was left with no choice but to destroy it, apparently Halo had the power to wipe out all life in the galaxy," said Derrick, "This is interesting, according to an AI he encountered on the surface Halo was created by the Forerunner, also in his account the AI referred to John as Reclaimer." "What happened to this AI," asked Koju. "The last mention of the AI was that it tried to set off Halo to destroy the flood," said Derrick. "Very well," said Koju, "Is it possible to land a team on the surface of the remaining parts of this halo." "Yes it is they'll have to use atmosphere suites but according to scanners theres somehow still gravity on all pieces of the ring," said Derrick. "Send a team down there right away this 'Halo' might give us some useful information," said Koju, "what troops do we have left." "According to all reports 95% of our soldiers were killed on Galileo attempting to evacuate civilians," said Derrick, "there is a few remaining soldiers though suitable for this mission, shall I tell them to get ready." "Yes tell them to meet me in the briefing room in 20 minutes," said Koju. "Got it," said Derrick. Twenty minutes later 50 soldiers sat around an oval table examining the holo maps, among them sergeant Alt sat quietly assessing the landscape of the area they were to land. "As you can tell the DZ will be on an island," said Derrick who led the briefing, "the reason we picked this location is because of several crashed drop ships both old covenant and human, this leads us to believe that there was something on this island that they were willing to fight for." "So were going to be dropped down on a 150 year old battlefield to look for anything related to an even older race, did it ever occur to you that it was all taken away after the battle," said Alt. "According to the accounts by Spartan John who participated in the battle upon this island there is a map located inside one of the structures of the island," said Derrick, "with this map we will be able to find more important structures located on other pieces of the ring." "Ok, but how are we supposed to locate this map, that island could take hours to fully explore and atmosphere suits can only help us for so long," said Alt. "Don't worry we already have coordinates of were the map is located, again thanks to an AI that John used on Halo called Cortana," said Derrick. "So when do we leave," asked Alt. "In approximately 4 hours," said Derrick passing out papers containing mission plans. In side the barracks Alt was putting on an atmosphere suit, it had been one of the Marines who had died on Galileo, on the helmet there was a name etched out, it said Private Shear. "All squads report to docking bay A1," crackled the comm. Alt picked up his MAC rifle and a P86 plasma pistol on his way out the door. In a single file all 50 of the soldiers walked, none of them were talking except for a few who were saying prayers. Alt suddenly thought of something, what if the flood didn't need oxygen to survive and they were still down there waiting for anything stupid enough to come looking. At this thought his heart rate went up. In front of the soldiers a double door opened with a hiss revealing the docking bay, in the center f the bay a T- drop sat with both hatches open, all the troops climbed in and sat buckled up. The hatches slowly began to close turning casting a shadow over Alt's face until the only light that gleamed off his visor was a thin line, which then disappeared. Slowly the T-drop lifted of the Thespian's bay floor and flew out down towards a piece of the once mighty fortress world. "Initiating primary thrusters," said the Pilot. The ship jolted as the thrusters kicked in sending the T-drop speeding towards their destination. Alt breathed slowly inside the atmosphere suit trying to keep his heart rate down, but nothing could stop it, he had a very bad gut feeling about there mission and it wasn't about to go away. "ETA 3 minutes, everyone prepare for drop," said the Pilot. The T-drop began to slow down to a hover as it came within 100ft of the ground. The T-drop slowly touched down and the hatches opened. The island that they had touched down on was covered in twilight; near them a derelict pelican lay crashed into a large rock. Off near a cliff several old warthogs sat, they looked almost new due to the vacuum of space nothing could cause them to rust. Also along the sandy beach small pieces of metal protruded every little ways, they were the weapons helmets and armor of the soldiers who fought on the island 150 years ago. Alt stepped out of the T-drop onto the twilight sand, he looked up and the only thing he could see were stars and the Thespian, which orbited just above the shard of the ring. Suddenly he remembered what they were here for, "all troops head out." On his HUD a blue arrow appeared shoeing the location the building that him and his team were to enter, it was up in a cliff wall. As he moved up the beech several men grabbed weapons that protruded from the sand. "Wow a needler," said a Marine as he stared in amazement at his find. "Ok everyone follow me we'll have lots of time to inspect the beech later," said Alt. Quickly the team ran up to the cliff wall and moved up until they came insight of a ramp made out of rack that led up to a platform made out of a strange metal. On the platform two huge bodies of hunters lay there bodies dried and shriveled making their armor seem loose on their wrinkled skin. Also on the platform there was an entrance, slowly the troops entered, into pure darkness. "Flashlights on," said Alt as he clicked his light on. His light-revealed three flood warriors dead on the ground their "skin" shriveled and strange wire like thing protruding from their body. "Holy shit," said a Marine who kicked the mutilated figure on the ground. "Lets go," said Alt in a quieter voice, now with his gun raised checking every corner. The soldiers walked down a ramp that led to a small hatch it opened as they approached. "Be ready for anything," said Alt as he walked through. The troops moved slowly through the corridors inspecting every inch. The comm. suddenly began to cut in, "All squad pull out.... under attack.... repeat all troops pull out, we are under attack," screamed the voice of Derrick through the heavy static caused by the metal corridors of the ancient Forerunner structure. "O shit," said Alt, "all troops get to the surface and find cover double time." Next: Last freedom |
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