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The 3rd World by Michéal Douglas
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The Third World - Resolutions
Date: 18 June 2004, 9:21 PM
Summary
The year is 2552. The governing body of an overpopulated Earth has sent faster-than-light ships deep into unknown space in order to find habitable planets for its growing population. As the human race pushes ever outward, they come into contact with intelligent alien life forms bearing highly advanced technology. When a collective army of alien species wipes out Earth's outermost colony, the human race realizes a war has begun.
Known as the Covenant due to their militant religious intolerance of human beings, the aliens don't just want to drive the colonizers out—they want to destroy all humans and the planet where they come from. Outnumbered and outgunned, the human race suffers a series of devastating losses, as the Covenant moves ever closer to Earth.
To combat the aliens and their powerful weapons, the Earth government sanctions the creation of cyborg super-soldiers in a project known as SPARTAN-II. These armoured warriors are far more durable and dangerous than regular human soldiers, and the program shows promising signs of eventual success. There's even a plan to have enhanced SPARTAN-II soldiers commandeer a Covenant star ship in order to locate and attack the aliens' home world. The Covenant recognizes the threat posed by the SPARTAN-II project and, in a surprise attack, wipes out most of Earth's super-soldiers. One survivor is known only by his rank, Master Chief, and with the Covenant close enough to attack Earth itself, it falls to him and the soldiers aboard the Pillar of Autumn ship to stop the aliens.
The battle to save Earth takes place at the far reaches of the galaxy on an unassuming little planet with an artificial ring around it. The purpose of this constructed "halo" is a mystery, but it could be a weapon, so both humanity and the Covenant are eager to claim it. Pivotal battles are fought on the planet and the ring-shaped artefact around it. Master Chief battles the enemy on foot and behind the wheel of powerful vehicles (tanks, Warthogs, and airborne alien craft called Ghosts and Banshees), pressing ever deeper into the heart of the enemy's forces. Desperate to stop the Covenant's advance on Earth and to discover what the artefact does, Master Chief is assisted by his on-board computer Cortana, who provides valuable mission intelligence and helps the Chief navigate unfamiliar terrain.
And so it begins...
+----------------------------------------------------------+
Halo 1.2
"I really - I really don't understand it at all", muttered Master Chief.
"Sir, we're getting a peculiar signal from the Pillar of Autumns sister", Cortana said.
Master chief grabbed the microphone firmly into his hand and cried out, "victory"...
No answer just faded screams of troops coming out of the speaker. Chief crawled down onto the floor and started to cry whilst Cortana was busy finding out what was causing the signals, as she knew it was not a proper human voice.
Moments after, Master Chief takes control of the aircraft and pulled it into the Pillar of Autumns Sister.
"NO!! Don't it's a trap!" Shouted Cortana.
"No, I don't believe you and either way I am going to land this ship and try to save lives not to hear voices suffer!" Responded the Chief.
Cortana could do nothing - Master Chief was now egger to land the ship in whatever consequences.
The ship came in softly and landed down, Master chief jumped out as quickly as possible and started to check for survivors. He searched every corridor and every room, until Cortana got very suspicious of a certain corridor called Sector "John 117".
Master Chief stopped instantly when he heard the footsteps of the past, a baby cried from the distance. Chief rushed down to the bottom of the corridor and opened the door - he saw his whole life past before his eyes, the baby gradually turned to the age of six, when he saw himself getting token away from his family.
Chief did not notice if it was him or not, though he felt angry for these people who where taking this baby away.
Every light in the building just went off...
"Sir, I think we have to leave now!" Cortana rushed.
"I think your right - Oh no... ...Hunters!!!" Shouted the Chief.
"Sir I am picking hundreds of them up from the distance!" Replied Cortana.
"Plasma, the plasma grenade where is it?" Asked Master Chief.
Cortana silenced whilst Master Chief peeked around the corridor which was pitch black to see thousands of tiny flies which where glowing in the darkness. These flies flew right past him heading towards the only light source left, the control room. Though huge footsteps where quaking the ground... ...Hunters!!!
Chapter one - The Fall Of Breach
That was then this is now...
"Trustily the autumns sister's acceleration would have stopped Chief", Cortana said. "That's why, that's why the marines onboard died. They thought - oh no, it can't be!"
"What!" Asked Master Chief quickly.
"The covenant life forms know how to use our ships!" Replied Cortana.
"Echo 419, echo copy over?" An unknown voice spoke. "Can we speak to the captain of the Autumn 2? Its' very important, earth is going under major attack - repeat earth is under attack!!"
"Marine, what's your name?" asked the chief.
"Connor, Connor O'Leary sir!" replied the marine.
"What is the situation at this present time in New York?" requested the chief.
"Not pretty Sir, we need to get in contact with the captain... ...we need everyone on the Autumn 2 to get their butts down here and kick some ass!" answered the marine.
"Connor, didn't you hear that all ships are under covenant control and besides the autumn is down and so will its sister very soon. My name is John 117, I may be the only"- the signal went out.
Master Chief quickly rushed down the corridors down to his aircraft to take off leaving an explosive behind. The clock was ticking whilst the Hunter's where closing in to the chief rapidly. The door in front of him was closing; Cortana knew this wasn't good at all. The chief slide through the door and ran onboard to take off.
"We don't have much time!!" Cortana rushed - it's exploding
The aircraft flew out missing every known obstacle you could ever think of on its way out, dodging them from every angle whilst Cortana set intercourse to earth...
Flying pieces of metal and even particles of flood strangely hit the wind-shade. For some reason the Covenant must know how to kill the flood which would be impossible for such a unlikely life form to understand how to! But the prospect of them even knowing how to control or ships was true so it must be.
"Covenant? Covenant destroying earth!" Yelled the Chief.
"Yeah I guess", replied Cortana. "- But - theirs nothing we can do now till we reach earth".
"Which will be when?" Asked the chief.
"Two Day's, but we can make it in one if we use our turbo", Cortana continued.
"There is not enough fuel to use turbo," answered Master Chief unkindly.
For the next two-day's or so the Master Chief had to wait in the skies for his revenge on this alien scum. He always knew the Maw was always the beginning of the war and the end will never come until peace would actually fall.
What was the point truly? The covenant will just keep on coming and coming even how weak or feeble the convent will always win strangely. Master Chief was starting to think of the last Month as luck, though it's wasn't that lucky for many marines - all marines you could say.
The floating blue orb better known as 343 Guilty Spark is the AI Monitor, caretaker, and historian apparently left to keep watch over Halo Installation 04 and its contents when the Forerunner departed was reminded for some reason in Master Chief's head.
Cortana grew worried for a reason... "Chief what's wrong!"
"Nothing, just that asshole Guilty Spark!" reacted the chief. "I had a vision that he's on earth for some reason".
"No- shit, it can't be! He's on board this ship!!" Rushed Cortana.
"How the hell, not letting that twat confuse me again!" The chief got his gun firmly into his arms.
He ran down to the engine room where Cortana sensed the strongest detection and checked about.
"Hello..." A voice from the darkness said. "So is that you Chief".
"Yes! Who is this?" Replied the chief quickly.
"An old pal, remember me the caretaker?" answer the AI monitor named '343 Guilty Spark'.
"So we meet again you AI scum," responded the Chief.
"Yes I guess so, I feel like I want to kill you but I think I want to help you instead," it retorted.
"Why?" Asked the chief angrily! "I am not falling for your jokes again"
He grabbed his gun more firmly and placed it in front of the machine, "So what do you think about this punk!"
"I think your insanity is at you!" It replied.
'Bang', for some reason it's powerful source was shattered. Usually its force field should have saved it but its protection was down. A database of mental fell to the floor, chips upon chips of information...
Cortana knew what had to be done was done, and the chief hurried back to the cockpit and took over autopilot - he took his helmet off and focused on the turbo button. He pressed it.
The covenant looked to be taking over most of the planet, marines bodies seamed to be endless lying on the ground and for some peculiar reason covenant looked to be having more uses of transport.
About The Covenant -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite their position as the main enemy in Halo, we know relatively little about the Covenant. What we do know is that they are some sort of religious alliance between at least seven, though possibly more, species. These races include, but may or may not be limited to: Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Hunters, Brutes, the apathetic Engineers (seen in the novels), and the Prophets.
The Covenant have a relatively high level of technology, apparently accrued from excavated Forerunner installations; most of their weapons are plasma-based, which means that whatever power sources the Covenant weapons have, they must be incredibly powerful. Their star ships are much faster than Human vessels, and are capable of pinpoint manoeuvring while in FTL travel, as is made explicitly clear several times in The Fall of Reach, when Covenant ships materialize right in the middle of a Human battle group. Their technological feats seem coupled with what can only be described as a reverent ignorance; they seem unable, unwilling, and vehemently against attempts (by Covenant or Human agents) to attempt improvement upon any Forerunner relics they come to acquire. To do so would be blasphemy.
However, this alliance is far from secure. The Covenant ranks have been rife with unrest, and even assassinations within recent years. With the exception of the two founding races, the Elites and Prophets (and possibly the Brutes), all others have joined the Covenant through force and now exist as part of the Covenant caste system with strict rules guiding their upbringing and socialization to prevent any true unity among the conquered peoples.
Even still, their hatred for those filthy primates called Humans is both harsh and powerful. Although from where it springs, how it relates to the Covenant's "Great Journey", and more importantly, how Man may manage to survive them both has yet to be discovered.
Halo, according to Cortana and the Covenant databanks, holds some deep religious power over the Covenant. The ring is extremely important to them; so much so that they avoid firing upon the Autumn for risk of striking it. Upon the Human's arrival, the Covenant are already they're (it is not known for how long they have been), following course and scouring the ring for technology they can adapt to their own purposes. The discovery of the Flood, while terrifying, is not unexpected to them; they have encountered them before it seems. They believe Halo 04 to be a weapon; why they believe this, and how they intended to use it as such, is unknown.
After the destruction of Halo, the Covenant juggernaut still looms large over Earth, and the task is likely to fall upon the Master Chief, Human survivors, and any remaining Spartans, to fight them back while simultaneously discovering the secrets of the other Halos and keeping the Covenant from using them, however they might do so, against Earth.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so this is why, this is why the covenant now have came to earth to fight hand to hand, or maybe to distract them from noticing that they are going to a different Halo.
The International fight of the worlds coded named: The Third World
This code was named by the doctor who found John, or should I be more precise by saying the mother of John 117 also known as Dr. Catherine Halsey who is quite possibly the author of Humanity's only true chance at halting the Covenant's campaign of genocide and pillage. Although a civilian, her work for ONI and dedication to the survival of a unified Human government and its people have earned her the highest security clearance available for non-military personnel, a restriction that has been stretched and broken innumerable times.
A growing respect and budget have also ensued, much to the embarrassment and frustration of her rivals, namely Colonel Ackerson and his own mysterious special weapons program.
Her motivations have always been pure; to protect Humanity from forces both without and within. However, focusing on the necessity and positive yields of her operations, Dr. Halsey had reluctantly bought into ONI's concept of "acceptable losses", always for the greater good and preservation of the species. Her pride and satisfaction have always been coupled with a deep remorse for those she has sacrificed along the way; a remorse she had told herself she should not entertain.
And so she has repented, and is now taking steps (known only to herself) to save not only the many, but the few. How her kidnapping of Kelly-087, with her anomalous DNA, and sudden departure in an ONI stealth prowler will accomplish this is yet to be seen.
Master Chief was determent to see his mother even if it will be his last time or was his last time already over. He cried with shame. Typing her name into a database of the known living people...
-
Name: Catherine Halsey
Age: N/A
Occupation: Pre-doctor now Earth's Military Lead
Known family members living: John Halsey (son)
Missing family members: Kelly Halsey (son)
-
"Cortana run a search for my mother, I want to know where she is," the chief said.
"Didn't you hear she's dead?" Asked Cortana politely.
"- Eh? What? I just searched..." he replied.
"Sorry but she died in a car accident 5 days ago. She was on her way to a hospital when an alien covenant banshee shot her car," she interrupted. "There's nothing they could do and this was the first act of the 'Third World'."
The chief looked down and shed his tears. He couldn't believe what had happened, so he stood up to the fact of her dying and took control to the ship again.
They where now on the verge of reaching the planet earth, they saw the moon lighten up in front of them. Their ship flew past the moon as they saw millions and millions of covenant life forms. It was an army of covenant on the moon!
"I am going to jump Cortana!" The chief said unworldly.
"Huh!" Cortana replied. "You're not going to make it."
"I will, I will," the chief responded.
He looked down on the Earth; it looked badly beaten by the covenant as huge bombs exploded which where visible to the naked eye from space, he opened the back hatch, which was mainly used for dropping vehicles and transporting marines.
The chief jumped out of the back of the aircraft gliding down to earth falling at a capacity of 200 mph - his body armour seemed to be speeding him up and he was not far to the speed his body armour was not allowed to go or it could break.
Cortana was speechless; it was her first time ever seeing earth and she thought it was beautiful. Looking down at its fields of lush grass which she knew will be soon burial grounds of hundred of millions of humans. The death toll was already at '27,079,643' from all the space ships around the ring called 'halo'.
The thought that there is still more rings out there sickens you. You think about the more life's that will need to be taken for the survival of earth again. It was a fact that had to be taken seriously. The chief opened his parachute and landed down on earth softly though he was not long noticed by the covenants! He ran backwards with his gun facing the covenant life forms. A number of grunts like always ran in a small group, they where always an easy target but the chief found it hard when they where in a larger group of say twenty.
The Chief saw a nearby warthog which had a lot of burn marks on it, though he was egger to get over their before the covenant reached him. He ran through the green bloody meadow leaping over marine bodies, he jumped into the warthog and started driving to a close at hand marine party.
He picked up some hectic marines that where in battle with a few elites. A Plasma was chucked from the elites just missing the warthogs rear left tier. "Nice driving their sir!" The marine on the turret said.
The chief smiled and drove straight for a hunter, the hunter tried to jump out of the way but wasn't quick enough. He ran over this covenants main lead, his gunner marine was dying quickly before his eyes. He turned swiftly to kill the firing opponents with the warthog.
Chapter two - The Meeting
One meeting could change it all.
The Meeting Part 1
Master chief drew his vehicle closer to the covenant stronghold, "A Phantom", he ordered the gunner to fire directly at it prosaically at its engine. The Phantom crashed down on a near by ghost. The exploded pieces flew right into the gunner and the gunner fell down on the ground. Master Chief wasn't worried and just picked up another member of the marines on his way to the "United States Embassy".
The chief opened up the life-form radar to see if the place was in good conditions, it was. The giant entrance surrounded by wall turrets controlled the covenants from trying to get inside the base.
The entrance flew open and closed immediately after he flew through, the defence was though and well supported with highly trained marines. The chief jumped out of his warthog ordering the other marines to stand guard. He ran inside the Embassy with his SMG machine gun, the embassy's long corridor entrance lead to the main conference room.
"Sorry sir. You can't go in there..."a women stopped him.
"Eh what, why?" the chief got angered.
"Sir theirs currently a conference in there about an ability to stop the covenant fleet", the women said patiently.
"Do you really think I care, I was born to kill this race and I will do so, so let me in now", the chief reacted figureless.
The chief pushed the women out of the way and started to run quickly to the conference, he ran past the security cameras jumping over laser detecting alarms. Alarms signalled an enemy in the facility, two men ran out of a closed door with 'SMG's" running at the chief.
"Get down sir, but your weapon on the floor!" One of the men asked.
"No... ...I am not sir; I am..."the chief started running.
The chief dodged bullets of many starting to sprint down; he opened the door and the worlds leaders looked still.
The Meeting Part 2
"Who's this?" the Japanese leader said.
"This, I...I am John 117 probably earths last chance of survival!" the chief retorted.
"Chief, is that you - we thought you where took down with the autumn", the American leader wondered confused.
The chief looked around wondering what was the problem; he walked over to the viewing screen that was earth's last plan. He ran over to the laptop beside the projector and edited a strategy, it read:
"Good leaders of earth, our mission is not as tactical as it may seem. All we need to do is to get all members of earth's last army in France. France is the only place not under covenant control, so this plan is simple. Tomorrow we go to France. More and likely most of the marines will not survive though I will try to stop Elites, Brutes and any other covenant force that is a large threat for them by my own actions. If any of you leaders do not agree to this strategy I guess you should go leave this room. We will need every man even if they aren't trained at France. An Army of 900,000,000 marines will be at France tomorrow. You are the leaders of earth you find out yourself!"
The chief left the room give the impression of something big at the marines who tried to stop him; he smiled and started to walk again. He continued walking to the main entrance where he left the building. A warthog was waiting just where he absented it; he got on and drove out of the Embassy.
Chapter three - The Prologue
Introduction to the war.
"Oh NO! Chief a Phantom!" yelled Cortana.
A phantom loomed into shooting range of the embassy and starting discharging huge explosive alien missiles at it.
As soon as the chief left the gates, he made a decisive move to get 'the Phantom' down; he jumped out of the warthog and got into the gunner turret that was a Rocket Launcher. He aimed at the 'the Phantom' and started to shoot continually at the weak point, the engine.
"Nice shot there!" Cortana complimented. "We- we should go NOW!"
"I've only got started," more 'Phantoms' appeared.
"You-r mad! Go-go-go," Cortana shouted.
The chief got off the turret and got in to steering reach. The chief drove through the meadows of lush grass covered with alien tissue, the blue and disgusting corpses smelt like if we had victory. Thus humans feel for our own, this was our strong point. Every principal of each society was fallen; the only expectation was the Chief himself.
The Chief closed in to a media centre. He jumped out of the hog into the beaten construction. The edifice was eerie inside. Large cobwebs with dead human skin emotionally involved to it. It was like the cobwebs where eating on the flesh of humans.
"No doubt this was edible for such a thing to do though was a prosaic and disgusting obsession for this species of cobwebs", Cortana spoke.
The Chief walked on... ...a distant light was flickering on and off, the calm breeze moved it softly around. His footsteps seemed to be becoming closer to the control room of the media centre where he wanted to look at the news around humanity.
Opening the door, Chief grasped hold of his SMG. He peeked through to see televisions covered with dark thick blood. He wiped the blood clear to see many news stories about the Covenant.
"This is NBC News, the US Embassy has fallen today. There were no survivors. In other shocking news, the covenant leaders have came to a treaty with the vice-head of the US Military demanding all Humans to leave or die. The Covenant blew up the whole building and no survivors lived. We have Doctor Halsey with us here today, can you explain what the Covenant are doing?"
"The Covenant are killing all of earths main leaders, it is a very smart tactic which will lead us to no other option to surrender - but I believe strong that that is just a theory not the truth. See the covenant aren't that smart, and so we will defeat them", Doctor Halsey said.
The chief turned off the TV and looked suspiciously angry.
"You said she was Dead!" He shouted.
"Chief, please it was for your best initiations", Cortana answered.
The chief dismayed the answer; he walked on throughout the building. The plot was coming more and more difficult for him to understand. About the flood! About the construct, about humanity and the covenant?
About The Flood -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A species so eminently threatening that a powerful and ancient civilization constructed habitable rings ten thousand kilometres in diameter to contain and observe them. The Flood are as numerous as they are voracious; they neither surrender nor retreat. The Flood appear to be sentient and omni-parasitic, preying upon any host utilizing a certain minimum level of sentience and bio-mass, and can infiltrate "even advanced life forms". It is not known whether they were merely encountered, or created by the Forerunner for some purpose known only, as of yet, to themselves.
There are four known types of Flood. There are the Ranger/Infection class, the Carrier/Incubator class, a Worker/Soldier class, and what can be, as of yet, described only as a Command form. (343 Guilty Spark also mentions "spores" during his own synopsis of the Flood life-cycle, which may be either another term for the Infection form, or an even more base type of the Flood.) To explain how the process begins would lead into a chicken-and-the-egg discussion, so we'll begin at the Rangers. The Rangers are small, tentacled creatures that have their own defined biological framework, which are not dependent upon a host. A Ranger will seek out any life of capable biomass to sustain itself, and proceed to attempt to use the creature as a host, by tapping into the spinal system, suppressing the host's consciousness, embedding itself in the thoracic cavity, and releasing spores which cause the host to mutate. From here, it is assumed that one of two changes will occur in the host.
The first is that the host will remain relatively physically unchanged, save for the Ranger attached to it. These would be the Worker/Soldier class, used for manual labour such as building, gathering, repairing, or defensive/offensive actions. So far, only marines and Covenant Elites have been seen to mutate into Workers/Soldiers.
The second host possibility is that of the Carrier, which presumably only affects creatures that are physically or mentally unsuitable to be Workers/Soldiers. The Carriers grow large epidermic sacs, which contain several Ranger-class Flood. When a Carrier is in close proximity to any number of suitable hosts, it triggers some manner of biochemical reaction, causing the pus-filled sacs to explode and spread the Rangers in order to infect more hosts, and perpetuate the cycle of reproduction. When the Flood's inability to suitably care for the host body has caused sufficient degeneration, the Worker/Soldier class will also change into the Carrier form.
The Command form is seen only once and discussed even less, therefore the process of its creation remains uncertain. Found on the bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation, this large multi-appendaged amalgamation appears to be a combined symbiosis including several, at least in this case, Human hosts. Other than extracting information, its capabilities and roles are unknown.
Though they have a relatively simple procedure for reproduction, as 343 Guilty Spark states, the "parasitic nature of the Flood belies their intelligence". What's interesting is that they're able to function the machinery and technology of their host to an amazing degree, and are able to fire weaponry and repair damaged electrical and mechanical machinery at a surprisingly nominal level. The Command form (as we learn through Keyes) has the ability to access host memory, strip it from them piece by piece, and utilize it to it's advantage; the lesser Flood also possess some semblance of this ability, though from what we have seen (Jenkins) it does not appear to have such a pronounced sense of self; it does not exert the same levels of mental force or operate nearly as methodically.
And although the Halo network is meant to ultimately starve and eradicate the Flood, their continued existence after a previous firing and eons of isolation shows ever more that though they may be contained and slowed, as a whole they are not so easily destroyed...
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Chapter four- The beginnings
And so it commences.
The flood are still alive, alive in every last halo ring out there, although they're main enemies are the covenant, as they cannot eat them. They're still entitled to fest upon human flesh, which is an enemy due to their powerful weaponry against they're week skin tissue. Nothing edible was any good to them; they would only fight for really two things which where to fest on flesh or to keep themselves survived against enemies.
Covenants where our opponent right now, and we shall get them off earth at any aspect or situation that comes in our way.
To be continued...
Thanks for reading!
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