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The Final Meeting by Bluestone
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The Final Meeting - Part 1
Date: 15 January 2004, 7:32 PM
CHAPTER 1
15th July 2560
Aboard Human Vessel, Orpheus in Slipspace
The Bridge door slide open and a pale, tall man entered. His breath smelt of cigarette smoke and his gaze was firmly fixed on the Captain.
"This isn't going to work," the ODST said, "I mean, one Human vessel against the entire Covenant planet... The odds are crazy"
"Watch your mouth, that's no way to speak to a Captain. Has anyone told about the Spartans?" Capt. Stenman remarked. He was clearly angry about the young ODST's respect for him.
"No sir, I was unaware of any Spartans aboard the ship" He answered, being a little more cautious with his words. "I suppose that does make the odds a little more realistic, how many are there?" he added.
Light flickered from the AI terminal and a small figure appeared. Kia had been programmed the same way as Cortana had. Apart from the fact that no AI is exactly the same, Kia was pretty much identical. Cortana started failing immediately after the Covenant failed their first attack on Earth back in 2552. 'Smart' AI's only last around 7 or 8 years. Cortana eventually stopped functioning around 3 years ago... Since then, Kia has been her identical copy. She looked smaller, but spoke with absolute confidence.
"There are currently 3 Spartans aboard... John, Fred and Linda. All are preparing on Deck 4G" Kia said. "We will be arriving in Covenant controlled space in around 3 minutes"
"And then the party starts" the ODST sarcastically remarked.
He had been against the mission even since it was drawn up. Kia had learned the location of one of the Covenant's several planets after intercepting an encoded message sent to Covenant ground troops on Earth. The plan went from there. A group of ODST Marines and the last remaining Spartans were put together to go and 'investigate'.
Once again the Bridge door opened to reveal three fully armoured Spartans, the centre one was slightly in front of the other two. He nodded at the others and walked in.
"Sir!" John said, and snapped a crisp salute. The Captain returned his salute and spoke...
"Good to see you. I called you to finalise the mission. We will be leaving Slipspace shortly, and once we do, it won't be pretty. John, you will be carrying Kia in your suit... She has the essential codes you will need to get past the Covenant defences" Stenman said. The Spartan shifted un-easy, it was the first time he had had an AI in his suit since the loss of Cortana, but he accepted, he had to.
"I understand" John replied. Fred stepped forward abruptly.
"Sir! Permission to speak Sir" he said confidently.
"Accepted" Stenman said.
"We have the dropship ready, but I have a question"
"Proceed"
"What if this doesn't work? The codes we have are months old, and the Covenant change them daily, if they find out that a bunch of Humans are heading for the planet, we won't even get a chance". The Captain sighed and looked out the Bridge front display screen. He was not all that different from Captain Keyes, and had proven outstanding in battlefield tactics in the attack for Earth.
"It will work, I can feel it. We've come this far and we can't give up now. The codes will work" he said confidently.
"Entering Covenant controlled space in 3, 2, 1..." Kia said firmly.
CHAPTER 2
15th July 2560
Aboard Human Vessel, Orpheus in Covenant Controlled Space
A massive star appeared on screen, a long with a huge planet. It seemed to glow with tiny pinpoints of light. The Captain looked closer... He saw thousands or possibly millions or objects close to the planet. They looked like ships like the huge Covenant cruisers he had seen all his life, except they couldn't have been... They were too many.
"Scan those objects Kia" He said, worried.
"Sir... Scan complete" Her voice was slow, and seemed anxious. "Scan shows 1,673,921 Covenant cruisers, 801,843 destroyers and 234 Control Ships. There are 3,495,765 unknown objects"
"Christ" the Captain said under his breath.
"Sir! I've just discovered another object, 10,000 kilometres in diameter" Kia exclaimed. John felt a shiver run up his spine. It didn't seem right, he had heard that number before but he couldn't pin it. Then it was announced...
"It can't be... Sir, the object is approximately 200,000 miles from the planet and is orbiting at a slow rate. Uh-oh... The object matches exactly to the Halo Installation discovered in 2552" Kia said.
Everyone stood in shock. John was horrified. How was it possible? A Halo orbiting a Covenant planet? It didn't make sense; there were too many questions, with too little answers.
"So here it is... The beginning of the end" Stenman muttered.
The Final Meeting - Part 2
Date: 17 January 2004, 3:04 PM
CHAPTER 3
15th July 2560
Aboard Captured Covenant Dropship in Covenant Controlled Space
"This is John reporting successful launch, over" Chief said.
"Roger that, Chief" Stenman replied. The captured Covenant dropship was filled with the three Spartans and around 10 Marines. Kia manovered the dropship towards the Ring, trying to avoid any close contact with nearby ships. Since the discovery of the Halo in the system, the plan had changed. The focus was now on the Ring itself and not the planet. After long speculation, it had become clear that if they got into the Halo's Control Centre, they could try to 'aim' it at the Covenant planet. Due to John's memory, they worked out that no Human settlements would be hit, as they were well over 25,000 light-years away from Earth.
It was a long time since the adventures he had on Halo. He remembered all, 343 Guilty Spark, the fact that he was extremely lucky to escape, and The Flood. It was seen to be preposterous that that The Flood would exist on this Halo. It was presumed by the team that because it was so close to the planet, the Covenant would have wiped out any traces of The Flood long ago.
"The Covenant Control has just requested codes. Strange dialect doesn't seem to be like their usual language. Sending codes now…" Kia spoke out-loud on Chief's suit speakers. Chief was in charge here. Normally this was true anyway, but because of his firsthand experience on Halo 04, this made him especially important.
"Interesting. A scan on the Ring shows that it is identical to Halo 04… Even to the positions of the Control Room. We'll be entering the atmosphere of the Ring shortly, but before then we'll find out if these codes have worked" Kia reported. She liked being a newscaster, keeping everyone updated.
Suddenly the dropship shuddered. It started swinging out of control and barrel-rolled twisting erratically.
"We've started entering the Ring's atmosphere earlier than I thought… Hold on!" Kia screamed. As the dropship plummeted into the atmosphere it heated… Fire licked around as the nose of the small ship lit up, it was white-hot. The air suddenly hitting the craft, coupled with the sound of the engines made a deafening roar.
"I can't control it… The trajectory is too deep!" Kia shouted
"Hold on!" Chief said, trying to keep hopes up. They all gritted their teeth, shaking in their seats due to the un-controllable motions of the dropship.
"30 seconds till impact… We're too fast!" Kia screamed. The dropship was falling like a rock, Kia battled with the ship, trying to bring it under control.
"Brace!" Chief shouted. Everyone in the cabin anchored themselves to their seats. The engines roared as Kia tried to bring the trajectory to something realistic. To the team's amazement, it started to level. The massive G-Forces pulled on the craft as it cleared the cloud layer. Now the ground was visible and the extent of the problem was now clear. The Engines were screaming as the dropship started to level.
"This isn't going to be pretty team, hold tight!" Chief shouted.
"Damn right!" An ODST muttered.
"Impact in 5 seconds!" Kia said. There was a huge explosion followed by several seconds of massive bombardment. Then there was silence.
CHAPTER 4
15th July 2560
Unknown Location on Halo's Surface, Inside Crashed Covenant Dropship
"Wake up… Can you hear me?" Chief could make out the voice… It was Linda. That meant he was alive. The blackness cleared and he opened his eyes. John's shield bar was completely drained and he couldn't feel his legs. He could see the dropship's roof, and new that he was lying on the floor.
"Finally, are you OK?" Linda and Kia seemed to ask at the same time.
"Yeah, I think so" Chief grunted. He got to his feet. The pain in his legs throbbed, but he ignored it.
"So, what's the situation?" He asked anyone who was listening. Kia spoke first through his helmet.
"8 losses… all ODST's" Kia said, with a quiet voice.
"So that leaves five of us" Chief said. Fred and two ODST's walked around from the side of the wrecked dropship, and Chief saw that Kia's grim statistics were actually true.
"Comm's are out, so is just about everything else" Fred remarked
"More good news" Chief said sarcastically. His vision had started to return. And he saw it… The unmistakable image of the Ring's landscape going up from the horizon and reaching over their heads 10,000 kilometres away. He suddenly remembered his adventures on Halo 04 8 years ago. Now was different however, Chief and his team knew what they had to do.
Unlike Halo 04, This Halo's Control Centre had 'good' weather. The caverns were still the same, but because the Ring was facing the sun at a different angle the weather was reversed. Where the team where on this Ring, there were mostly rocky desolate areas but there were a few plants and trees. On Halo 04, Halo was not visible in the sky, but here it was different. Chief could see how tall the giant cavern walls were, and see the blue sky beyond.
"How far too the Control Room?" Chief asked.
"Scan shows it's 0.632 kilometres away. However, the codes we used to get past Control didn't work. The Covenant knows we're here, and they're coming to get us. Using the Covenant satellites I've discovered there is a huge population of Covenant forces at the Control Centre." Kia answered. Almost as soon as Kia had finished speaking. The rumbling sound of dropship engines became apparent. The team looked up. At first there were one, two, five. But then the numbers got worrying.
"Detecting thousands of dropships entering atmosphere. Intercepting radio messages…" Kia said. There was a long pause. "They're coming for us, now!"
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