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Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife by System Failure
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Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Chapter 1: Hallway)
Date: 5 April 2004, 8:30 PM
0530 Hours, September 20, 2552
UNSC Carrier, Nautilus, Slipspace.
Rear Admiral Jeff Peterson stepped off the lift, and crossed the threshold on to the B deck main hallway. His two Marine bodyguards, who had their guns at the ready, closely followed him. Peterson walked slowly to his destination, the briefing room. He nodded his head toward naval personnel and Marines as they passed by. His guards were sweeping their guns from side to side, looking for covenant spies. There had been several spies recently caught on other UNSC vessels. Luckily, they have never managed to send their intel back to their base. Luck can run out, and it usually does, so security was airtight. Since the guards were issued thermal/night vision goggles to spot cloaked Elites, the Elites had to be extremely stealthy.
"Hold," whispered one of the bodyguards to Peterson just as they turned into a side passage. The guard pulled out modified SMG. It had a black silencer and a dark gray scope. It also had his name, Archer, stenciled on to the stock. He raised his hand and signaled the other bodyguard to turn of the lights. The lights suddenly went out in the hall, and Peterson was left blind.
The other bodyguard handed Peterson the scope from his battle rifle, which had night and heat vision.
" James," said Archer to the other bodyguard. "Switch your goggles to thermal."
"Okay sir," whispered James, and flicked a switch on his low light goggles
"There," said James. He was pointing to an UNSC flag that was draping down from the ceiling. He quietly flipped over his battle rifle and screwed on a flash/sound suppressor.
Peterson saw the flag ripple slowly, as if a gentle breeze was pushing it side to side. A small bump in the flag, about chest high started to grow. Next to him James pointed his gun at the flag. The bump started to glow green.
"Fire," said Archer as he pushed Rear Admiral Peterson to the ground. The silenced weapons of James and Archer made no noise except for the shell casings falling to the ground. The gun of the spy discharged, sending the bolt right at the admiral. James rolled him over just as the plasma bolt connected with the ground. It burned a centimeter deep hole in the spot where Peterson's head just was.
A loud wailing sound came from the Elite as it died. The doors on either side of the trio opened, shedding light on them. The light bounced of the walls and gave an eerie glow to the Elites blood on the flag, and also the blood seeping into the carpet. While James helped Rear Admiral Peterson to his feet, Achier flicked on the lights.
"Are you all right sir?" asked James.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," answered Peterson slightly smiling.
Archer stood stooped over the fallen Elite. He took the shield and cloak generators from it and also a data crystal it was carrying. By now a few people stopped in the hall to see what was going on. Archer tossed the crystal to Peterson. Peterson took it and put it in his pocket. Archer took clicked on his com.
"This is security team Bravo 4," he said calmly into the mike. "We got a dead spy on B deck, requesting immediate clean up." He paused to adjust the head piece and said, "You better hurry or else were going to have a tough a carpet stain." He stood up and made opening in the group of nosy personnel.
"Follow me sir," said James.
James and Peterson went through the opening, and then Archer followed. They rounded a corner into a brightly lit hallway with oak walls, and a carpet with the UNSC insignia woven into it covered the floor. A brass railing sat at waist height along the walls. The doors in the hall were made of maple, with gold doorknobs.
"Almost there," thought Peterson as he walked down the hall. He looked at the end of the hallway were the briefing room sat. He began to get nervous on his walk down the hall, but instead of showing it walked a tiny bit slower.
James slung his rifle across his back. He centered it then tightened down the strap. He straightened out his uniform and adjusted his hat. Behind him, Archer slipped his left arm through the strap of his SMG. He leaned over and checked the strap on the sidearm hoister. He buttoned up his uniform, and then drew his sidearm but held it pointing down. James looked back at him and followed suit. They both clipped their goggles to the holders on their right thigh.
Behind them Peterson took the wrinkles out of his shirt. The two doors guards opened the massive titanium reinforced maple security doors for the rear Admiral. He nodded to them to let James and Archer in. Peterson took a deep as the door into the briefing room opened in front of him. Then he took a step and crossed the threshold into the room, with Archer and James right behind him.
Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Chapter 1: Sensor Post)
Date: 24 April 2004, 1:10 PM
2000th Pulse, 12th Shift of Divine Light/
7834th Age of holy rising / Orbiting Sensor Post
Three, Xenon sector: Covenant Home world.
Probe Retrieval/Control Room 3
Xio, the grunt in charge of probe three, slept with his head resting on the readout panel. Most of the other grunts monitoring the probes were also asleep at their posts. The few ones awake were chattering to each other in their barking language.
The lax effort of the probe monitors was due to long work hours. As the humans got closer to extinction they became extremely aggressive. Suicide attacks on Covenant positions were taking their toll. Hundreds of Covenant positons were already damaged and more were attack every day. The high priests decided to make the current soldiers security monitors, and the new trainees to go right into combat. While putting the veterans in charge of protection made key covenant structures safer, they were extremely over worked. The tight security made getting a full units rest impossible, for Elites and grunts alike.
A pulsating light on the display caused Xio to wake up. It signaled that the probe was returning to normal space. Xio tapped a button to send a recovery drone to retrieve it. For a second he watched the view of the drone taking off. He shook his head then adjusted his methane mask. He checked the methane gauge on his forearm. There were only two units of methane left in his tank.
Xio stood up from his chair and stretched out. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. A soft purple glow highlighted most of the equipment and both doors. The main lights above him were dim and cast eerie shadows over the windowless room. He took a step towards a panel next to him. Xio tapped a button and the lights slowly came to life. The sleeping grunts came into view, as the lights grew brighter. Some stirred, but most weren't even affected by the light. One of the few grunts still awake, Fala, spun around in his chair and faced Xio.
"What you doing?" asked Fala as he stretched out his arms.
"Nothing, go back to sleep," snapped Xio.
"Calm down," said Fala while yawning. He sat back in his chair and fell back asleep.
Xio smiled and then turned to face the methane storage container at the other end of the room. He made his way slowly, as not disturb any of his co-workers, to the container .He stepped over and dodged the piles of instruments on the ground.
Finally he was at the container. It gave off a faint humming sound, and was covered with a dense layer of condensation. Popping open the latch, Xio lifted up the door. Thick, freezing smoke poured out of the container as it opened. Shivering, he clicked on the container's light. It came to life with a blinding flash, and illuminated the frozen body of the Elite that sat inside of it.
Xio stood for a second, looking at the body of Rusee, the Elite guard of this control room. . All of its external equipment had been taken, leaving only the armor and helmet in place. Its golden armor was badly scorched and battered. A large gaping hole sat in the middle of its chest. The blood that was dripping out of it had frozen making a frosty halo of blood and bone around the wound.
Xio thought about the events of the day before. How the grunts had no rest for a week. How they weren't allowed to eat but once every other day. Then he remembered him and the other grunts killing Rusee and the other two Elite guards. And last how hard it was to do this all unnoticed by any other covenant soilders.
He reached down and pulled out a methane packet. Xio hooked the tube shaped bag to a port in his armor. Pushing on the head of the bag, he caused the circular port to open. He watched as the liquid was being drained out of the bag. After a few seconds the bag was empty and he pulled it off. Taking a deep breath Xio pulled off the bag and tossed it into a trash receptacle. He turned and walked back to his console. A few of the grunts followed him with their eyes as he made his way back to his station.
Just when Xio was about to sit in his chair, one of the Elites radios clicked on.
"Russe you have 15 clicks to respond or else you will be boarded," screeched the com. The count down started just as Xio got to the com.
"14,13,12,11,10," said the com.Xio started to hoot panic.He tapped the com and it started to shake. Xio screamed and ducked behind a chair.
" 9,8,7,6,5" read of the com. By now all the grunts were awake and scared shitless.
"Crap, crap, crap!" yelled one grunt as he ran around in circles.
"4,3,2,1," said the com. Now all the grunts except Xio and a few others were huddled together in a tight group.
"Were coming in," said the com as the power in the room went out.
" Damn," said Xio. The door into the control room blew open and roaring Elites poured in.
Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Chapter 1: Orbital Gun)
Date: 28 April 2004, 11:01 PM
0540 Hours, September 20, 2552
Outside Earth's Space Defense System
Orbital Gun Platform 3, Defensive Sheild
Sweat streamed down the face of Chief Tim Jacobs. The seraph fighter in his sights cut back and forth, trying to shake him. Tim jammed his finger on the trigger. His longsword shuddered as the 50mm cannon spit hot lead at the enemy craft. A round hit something vital and the seraph blew into a cloud of plasma and jagged fragments.
Tim banked his longsword hard right. His quick maneuver caused him to narrowly miss several plasma bolts. Glancing down at his radar, he saw that there were two seraph fighters on his tail. Pulling off one evasive maneuver after the other Tim couldn't shake his attackers. Suddenly he had an idea. Smiling he pulled his fighter into a 180.
Targeting the enemies, he fired off two missiles. They sped towards their targets. The enemy fighters peeled off, trying to lose the missiles. Tim turned his fighter back around. He reached over and tapped on the aft cameras. Seconds later the cameras came on-line. The view screens showed one seraph being followed by two of the missiles. Seconds later two explosions filled the view screen. The second seraph disappeared in the fireball.
The remaining seraph emerged from the cloud of plasma and debris left by its wingman. Tim cut off his view screen then spun the longsword around. He accelerated his fighter too full speed, keeping his sights centered on the enemy craft. The seraph fighter followed suit. Tim and the seraph opened fire at the same exact time. Tim set his craft in a rapid barrel roll, shooting off rounds into the enemy. After a few dozen rounds hit the teardrop shaped seraph, it exploded.
Tim eased off the throttle. He wiped the sweat of his brow with his shirtsleeve. Looking out Tim saw a huge space raging or, distorted by the guns energy shield. A bright flash blinded Tim as the gun fired. In the distance he saw at least ten assorted covenant capitol ships get torn apart.
He pulled out his canteen and took a long draft. After taking a deep breath, he turned his fighter around. In the distance was a sea of boiling plasma, missiles, metal and fire. And in the middle of this was a ravaged Orbital gun platform.
He accelerated his longsword to top speed, trying to get back to the gun before it was too late. He tapped a button on his view screen. The longsword pilot roster for Platform 3 popped up.
"Damn," said Tim, pounding the panel. Of the 45 pilots that fought today only 26 were left. He looked outside at the battle going on. Now every pilot would be needed more than ever.
"We've got contacts coming in from all angles," blasted the com. "All remaining longsword pilots of Platform 3 intercept and engage all enemy contacts, I repeat engage all contacts."
Tim sped towards the gun. He came up to a large pocket of burning wreckage. Tim weaved back and forth through the explosions and battered remains of human and covenant fighters and other ships. All he could see were purple, orange, blue and red blobs, any individual object indiscernible from the burning masses of light, fire and death.
Suddenly, it became dark again. Tim was now 400 meters from the Orbital Gun; and from there he could see feathery wisps of smoke. He tapped on the magnification for his view screen. Now he could see that the smoke was coming from the covenant soldiers EVA thruster packs. When he saw the hundreds of soldiers streaking towards the gun his heart froze. For a second he even thought of running.
Then he saw earth. Behind all the fighting, the last human held world stood out. Its cool whites and blues contrasting against the harsh reds and oranges of the space battle. It was outlined as the orbital gun fired again. For a moment he thought of the billions of people living or Earth. Then about the extinction of the human race if earth fell. The thought cleared his head.
Tim maxed out the thrusters and sped towards a line of covenant dropships. He targeted the lead ship and fired a missile. The missile streaked towards the ship, curving slightly to match its target's trajectory. The covenant vessel spit out hot gobs of plasma at the missile but missed. The missile impacted the nose of the drop ship. A second later a bright white flash engulfed the drop ship and turned it into a fireball.
A pair of friendly fighters burst from the middle of the cloud of debris. They fired missiles right over Tim's longsword. Seconds later he heard the explosions of two covenant ships.
"All pilots of Platform retreat ASAP," said the com.
"Aye, aye to that, sir," said one of the pilots.
The longswords streaked back to the launch bay, moving down hundreds of covenant soldiers on the way. Seven longswords near the launch bay door laid out covering fire. Missiles blew up covenant ships and rounds killed covenant troops. This left the ships coming in to attack any enemy between them and the and the launch bay.
Tim held down the trigger for his nose cannon. The 50mm rounds devastated the barely shield soldiers, single rounds killing 5-6 troops each. He carved a path in the covenant invaders to the launch bay.
About 100 meters from the bay, the orbital gun fired again. When his vision was coming back, the collison detector in Tim's fighter sounded. Suddenly his veiw came back. A covenant drop ship was coming at him head on. With inches to spare, Tim rolled tom the left. As he passed the drop ship he took a closer look at it. OLny the front half of the vesssel remained intact . Small patches of purple could be seen under the scorh marks.
Tim straighten up his longsword and guided it inside of the bay. The last of th longswords flew close behind him. As he and the others got in, the massive doors slid slowly shut. They spread out and went back to their seperate docks. Smoke filled the bay as the pressure equalized.
Suddenly the alarm flared. The orbital started to rumble and shake. Not like when it fired but as if were being shoved into a meat grinder. The lights cut off pitching the bay in complete darkness. Explosions caused the bulkheads to bend and buckle. All the electronics on Tims fighter cut off. His engine went with them. Being high above the bay floor, it was a long way down. Tims longsword picthed forward and plunged into the darkness.
Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Capte1: Pegasus Facility)
Date: 12 June 2004, 11:26 AM
0545 Hours, September 20, 2552
Orbit Around Earth/ UNSC Moon Base- A122,
Pegasus Special Weapons Facility
A loud explosion jolted Corporal David Richards back into consciousness. Keeping his eyes closed, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the clean, cool air from his helmet's air scrubbers. They gave a slight metallic taste to the air, but it had saved Cpl. David many times when he was in the toxic environments of certain covenant vessels. The hum of the scrubbers was lulling David to sleep when he remember he was in the middle a waging battle.
David opened his sore eyes and looked into darkness. The blast shield in his helmet was shut, and he could see a deep crack down the middle of it. What the hell happened to me?, wondered the Cpl. as he Lifted up his hurting arms and grabbed his helmet. David lifted up his head and felt for the release button in the back. With a loud hiss and click, the locks holding his helmet to his suit disengaged. He grasped his helmet firmly and pulled it off.
He shook his head and reopened his eyes. David found himself behind a barrier, surrounded by his 8 dead squad mates. Their facial expressions and their positions on the ground showed that they had died fighting. Most had gun in hand, with the trigger half squeezed. Others had full clips in their hands, trying to reload. Almost all had their drop suits burned from the covenants plasma weapons. Strangely he couldn't remember any of their names. Must've hit my head, though David as he rubbed his head.
Looking straight up, he saw the ceiling of the building he was in. The truss style roof was badly damaged, the beam melted and warped. Harsh light shone down from floodlights, bathing him in harsh bright light. A truss section a little past the barrier was hanging on by a thread. It was swaying side to side, just waiting to fall. Next to him a sign read storage room G-4. David slowly got to his feet, pausing to close the eyes of the soldier closest to him. When he was standing straight up, he looked around.
Scattered on the ground, around his fallen comrades and even under his feet lay thousands of shells. They covered the floor in a thick, blinding carpet of spent brass. Puzzled at the sight of so many shells, Richards looked at the top of barrier. Two now slagged LAAG guns were welded to the top of the blackened barrier. Their triple barrels were bent at right angles to the rest of the guns. The dual shields were full of hole that went the whole way through. Two blue bolts of plasma hit each gun. The burnt metal blackened when they hit and left an eerie after glow. Happy growling from what appeared to be a pair of Elites, drifted over the barrier. He lowered his view to a point left of the barrier; there sat a narrow gap that looked like an opening to the area beyond the barrier.
He took a few steps towards it and stopped abruptly. I'm gonna need some weapons fast, he thought. Turning on his heel David walked to the ODST closest to him. He stooped down next to them, briefly pausing to think about the face behind the mask. The raised patch on the soldier's shoulder that showed name and rank, was heavily scratched. All he could make out was, PFC J, as the rest was to badly scratched. The ODST emblem above the patch however, was completely unharmed and shone brightly in the light. The sight made him look at his own patch, which was split down the middle by a large crack. Another round of laughing broke the silence as one of the two LAAGs blew up. The heat of the explosion covered David in a blast of warm air.
He shook his head and picked up the PFC's gun. It was a SMG with a full clip. He reached a hand into their satchel and pulled out two clips and a Flash/Bang grenade. He put the clips into his own satchel, which already contained six SMG clips, and four Magnum Pistol clip. He clipped the F/B to the grenade groves on his right thigh, next to two Frag grenades.
David stood back up, and started back to the opening.
Right in front of it, he came to an olive drab duffel bag and a knapsack. Slinging the SMG, David opened it found 9 grenades, a loaded pistol in hoister, and a boom mike. David reached down and picked up the boom mike. He set the earpiece over his head. He adjusted the black mouthpiece to a point just in front of his chin. He took the plug and put it into the jack in the side of his suits neck guard. David clicked the transmitter on, and changed his attention back to the bag.
He pulled out the pistol and strapped it on, making sure he could draw it on a moments notice. He went back into the bag for the grenades. He pulled out two F/B's and hooked it under the one on his thigh. David reached in again and pulled out three White Phosphorus grenades along with another f/b and two plasma grenades. He clipped them in the slots on both sides and stood up. He put on the sack and straightened it.
He shouldered his SMG and made his way to the gap and squeezed through. On the other side he saw five Elites around some kind of holo-panel. Apparently they were deeply involved in what ever they were doing, which looked suspiciously like a game, to notice CPL. David coming up behind them. There were two blue ones Elites, a gold one Elite, and two red Elites. He aimed his rifle at the nearest Elite, a red one, and got ready to fire. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the intercom cut on.
All combat trained personnel immediately report to testing level alpha, the order echoed throughout the storage room. This caused the gold Elite to take notice of David. He let out a throaty roar and drew his plasma rifle. His subordinates followed suit. They all aimed straight at his chest. As the first bolt went flying, David ducked behind metal dumpster. The wall where David was just standing cracked and sputtered, bits of paint hitting the ground.
He leaded past his cover and squeezed of a few rounds at the nearest elite. It was un harmed, but the bullets cut down some of its confidence. Damn man, I can't kill these elites like this, thought David. They'll crush me in seconds.The last thought gave David an idea as he sprayed rounds at the Elite attackers. He leaned past the dumpster and looked up at the ceiling. The broken truss was hanging perfectly over the spot where the Elites stood. Before pulling his head back under cover, he emptied his clip at the Elites.
David stood up and clamed himself down. He pulled back the release lever and watched the spent clip hit the ground. Sticking and hand into his satchel, David pulled out a fresh SMG. He pulled of the plastic wrapper and tossed it to the ground. He slammed the clip home and pushed back the lever. He fired a single round in the air to hold back the Elites. Just as he started to think when to jump a large explosion shook the storage room, things falling off just and lights shaking. This is what he wanted.
"Three, two, one!," shouted David. He took a breath and jumped from behind his cover. Mid-air, he aimed at the truss and fire. After three rounds it broke free. Landing on his back, David started to slide on his knapsack, gun still firing. As he came to a stop, the truss landed, killing all but two of the Elites instantly. Fortunately the truss bounced off the hard floor and trapped both under the truss. David walked towards them, taking his time. He stopped to pick up three plasma grenades, two of which he clipped on to his left thigh. Slinging his SMG, the Cpl. activated the grenade, the blue glow warming his gauntleted hand. The only sounds now were the metallic click of David's boots on the ground, the hum of the grenade and the battle going on below him. He tossed the grenade into the closest Elite's head. He let out a brief before the plasma grenade went off killing him and his ally.
David looked at the wall past the truss. There was a lift! His spirits rose as he jogged to the lift. He stopped by a snack machine on the way. He shot through the glass and stuffed a few handfuls of candy bars into his sack. He readjusted it and shouldered his weapon. David walked up to the lift. On the left side was the lift call button. He hit the down button, and the doors slid open.
Time for fun, he thought. A pair of Elites stood in from of him fumbling for their weapons. David however was ready. He jumped backwards, firing a he went. He concentrated his fire on the Elite to the left, and it died before the spent shells hit the ground. The second Elite fired, but David rolled out of the way in time. He pulled the trigger, the last of the clips rounds pouring into the Elite. Its shield went down and the bolt jammed open. Two rounds had penetrated the Elites helmet and penetrated its crown, blinding it with blood. David pulled a plasma grenade from his side and threw it into the lift. The Elite disappeared in a flash of fire and blood.
The Cpl. got to his feet and walked into the lift. He ejected the clip and rammed a new one home. David stretched out his neck and flexed his arms. Re shouldering his SMG, he pressed the button for the Alpha level. He shifted his feet and looked a head. The doors slid shut silently in front of him.
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