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Gravemind
Posted By: Bob 121<elektron@wideopenwest.com>
Date: 16 October 2005, 6:39 pm
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Prologue
Everything had been going fine, the Captain and Johnson were getting their "index" while all Colonel Schaeffer and his squad had to do was hold the perimeter. They hit almost as soon as they had secured the perimeter; the brutes' plasma fire rained down on his men. At least a dozen went down in the first fifteen seconds of the firefight. Leaving him with nearly a third of the force he started out with when they entered this cursed Sentinel Wall. Col. Schaeffer ducked behind the wreckage of a massive sentinel and a flurry of bright red plasma beams whizzed by. Schaeffer fired back with his own rifle, not really intending to hit anything but rather in an effort to make the Brutes' heads down while his men regrouped.
Originally disorganized, Schaeffer's men quickly rallied and pushed the Brutes back. Snapping off a shot at a nearby brute Schaeffer saw a few of the monsters go down but not nearly enough to even the odds. Everywhere around him he saw his men fighting back against the unstoppable onslaught with the grim knowledge that whatever the Captain's mission was, it was imperative that it be completed. Already he could see that they were going to be defeated, the Brutes were just too strong. For every Brute that went down they got closer and closer to the Marines position, regardless he kept firing glancing at the aliens masculine bodies, knowing full well what would happen if those Brutes reached the Marine line.
2nd Lt. John Wilson ducked behind a piece of rubble just as the Grenade flew overhead peppering him with shrapnel and causing multiple scratches, but luckily none penetrated his flesh too deeply. The man that had chosen to duck down next to him wasn't as lucky, in fact Wilson could tell that if it weren't for the man next to him he would be just as mangled. With a sudden rush of adrenaline at the anger of his comrade's fate he popped up firing his rifle continuously until the clip ran out. Heedless of the danger of being out in the open, Wilson proceeded to start throwing grenades at the oncoming horde, causing most to actually duck into cover, shocked at the sudden ferocity of the attack. For a moment he stood out in the open, straining his eyes against the smoke, wondering if they had actually driven the monsters back, then the brutes charged.
Any man who saw the Brutes would have thought it impossible for anything so large and cumbersome to be able to be so fast, regardless a mass of nearly thirty Brutes charged into the Marine lines taking full advantage of the rapidly dissipating smoke cover. All around him he saw Marines thrown like rag dolls, he saw Pvt. Summers receive a punch to the chest and get thrown nearly ten feet before crashing into a large slab of wreckage with a sickening thud, out of the corner of his eye he saw a brute cleave Major Wallace in half with a primitive looking blade attached to his gun, he saw Pvt. Jones, with one of the enemy's infernal grenades attacked to his shoulder leap into a Brute, engulfing them both in an explosion of blue-white flame. We're all going to die, he thought suddenly, noting the carnage that surrounded him. Even as he thought this he was cut down by a flurry of plasma.
* * *
Ch 1: Jailbreak
The Brute had paced up and down the hallway for hours now. Sitting in the cell opposite Col. Schaeffer was Sgt. Johnson and Capt. Miranda Keys and a few cells down he could hear the surviving men of his squad coughing, snoring, or muttering. They had been caught on Delta Halo, while retrieving some God-forsaken "index". Well, he thought to himself glumly, that plan turned out well. Losing over three-fourths of his men attempting to retrieve some ancient artifact whose purpose he didn't even know put him in a particularly bad mood, being captured and put in a cell like an animal made it even worse.
My God, he thought to himself don't these Brutes ever get tired? He had been watching the Brute walk up and down the corridor now for over an hour now non-stop. After another fifteen minutes of pacing around there was a sudden break in the silence by a sort of beeping noise and the swishing of the doors opening, followed by the scuffling of thick paws moving against the floor. The Brute's suddenly rigid posture signified that the newcomers were either very important or dangerous enough to instill fear in the Brute guard, or it could mean both. Schaeffer saw the visitor's party consisted of a pair of Honor Guard Brutes with another Brute in between them. The middle Brute caught Schaeffer's attention, taller than the already massive Honor Guards, this Brute had white fur and a Mohawk, and from the way the guard stood at rigidly at attention Schaeffer figured that this was the Brutes' equivalent to their leader. Whatever the Brute leader was here for, Schaeffer thought to himself, he wasn't going to like it.
Sure enough within a few minutes of overhearing the two aliens' guttural barks that passed for their language, the white haired Brute that he had heard the other Brutes refer to as Tartarus walked over to Capt. Keyes and Sgt. Johnson's cell and grabbed them handing them over to his Honor Guards. Before being taken away Johnson turned to the Colonel and said, "Schaeffer, you're in charge now, make sure that you take care of my boys". All Schaeffer could say was "Yes sir Sarge". With that, Tartarus left taking the Honor Guard and the prisoners with him leaving only Schaeffer and two Marines left occupying their cells. Soon the Brute was joined by a trio of Grunts who took up positions near the cells the Marines were occupying. At first they just sat there and watched as the Brute paced back and forth along the length of the corridor, but eventually, 5 minutes later, they fell asleep. Well Schaeffer thought to himself, suddenly feeling exhausted, these Grunts have the right idea, and Schaeffer quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.
Schaeffer jerked awake at the telltale noise of the door opening, the Brute guard seemed to take no notice whatsoever and continued with his pacing, not even bothering to take a glance at the door. This proved to be his undoing, a dozen green blurs whizzed past the cell and Schaeffer heard a muffled thump. Alarmed at the sudden attack the Grunts awoke screaming and Schaeffer could hear them screaming and shooting off their Plasma Pistols at anything that moved, the whole episode lasted all of fifteen seconds ending in the deaths of the entire Covenant Guard. At first Schaeffer thought that the Captain and Johnson had somehow escaped and come back for them but immediately dismissed the thought from his mind, escaping from those Brutes would have been impossible for someone who has been disarmed. As the cell doors opened, Schaeffer stepped out and saw his rescuer, over seven feet tall, wearing the dull green armor that he had long ago associated with the genetically enhanced super-soldiers of the Spartan II project, I wonder if Cortana, his AI with him Schaeffer thought to himself. As if responding to Schaeffer's musings a feminine voice issued from the Spartan's external speakers, "listen up marines, the Chief's hunting a Prophet, and you're going to help him kill it". "And to think I volunteered for this" said the Private next to the Chief half-jokingly while wrestling a Plasma Pistol from a dead Grunt's grasp, and with that they headed outwards toward freedom.
The corridor led into an atrium. It was somewhat U shaped; with about a five-meter wide walkway that ended with the wall on one side and a hundred-meter drop into the abyss on the other. The room had three levels that were accessible via small grav-lifts. There were crates scattered around on each floor creating a kind of maze that provided good cover should a firefight break out. On the highest level the walkways both met in the middle suspending a large platform that provided access to one of the main grav-lifts in the Covenant Holy City of High Charity.
Upon leaving the Marine's former cellblock the Marines found dozens of Covenant bodies scattered throughout the winding maze that the crates created. "Chief" they all heard the female voice say, "There's another group of Marines on the upper level." So that's where they must have taken the others, Schaeffer thought to himself. The Chief and Marines were wary of entering the prison block for the fact that it was almost certainly guarded, and upon entering very stealthily their caution was rewarded, they caught the guards completely by surprise. The Corridor, almost exactly as Schaeffer's was instead guarded by a Brute and three Jackals. The Master Chief fired shot after shot of the lightning fast carbine shots into the back of the Brute's head with pin-point accuracy while the Marines Plasma fire overloaded the Jackals shields and burned through flesh. The cell doors slid open and two Marines jumped out picking up weapons from the ground. To Schaeffer and the other Marines dismay neither Commander Keyes nor Sgt. Johnson were among them.
As the Marines walked out of the second cell block they noticed that their escape hadn't gone unnoticed, hearing the grav-lift's distinctive hum "Cortana" Schaeffer said suddenly, "Where in God's name are we?" "You are in the High Charity, it's what you would call the Covenant's homeworld", Cortana replied almost instantly. The Marine next to him started panicking and Schaeffer couldn't blame him, they were all alone in the middle of the lion's den, a Covenant Holy City, he couldn't think of a more dangerous place. Nevertheless they had the Master Chief with them and that was enough to give him some hope of their chances of survival, but unless they kept their cool, not even the Chief would be able to save them, "Ok Marines, Keep it tight and pay attention, you may think we're screwed, but we have the Chief, and as long as we keep our cool then we'll all get outta this in one piece, do you copy Marines?" Schaeffer was awarded with cheers of acknowledgement, and renewed hope for their chances of survival.
The Marines had all made it to the uppermost level just as the enemy had started coming down the grav-lift, "All right Marines, take up defensive positions behind any cover you can, they're gonna try to smoke us out with grenades so don't get too comfy behind anything." The Master Chief was on one side of the walkway while the Marines would cover the other in an attempt to keep the Covenant that came down the lift in a Bottleneck, as the grav-lift platform provided little cover. The Marines had all exchanged their Plasma Pistols for Carbines and Snipers so that they could take out the Covenant at a distance, still wary of getting too close after their last encounter with the aliens.
Right as the first Grunts touched the base of the grav-lift the Marines open fire, and the first pair of aliens jerked towards the ground each having been shot in a half-a-dozen places. The second pair of Grunts seeing the fate of their two predecessors tossed grenades down on the Marine line, one fell short and dropped into the dark pit illuminating it for a hundred or so meters where it exploded harmlessly while the second landed on the opposite side of a Marine who saw the explosive, jumped a little too late resulting in him being thrown against the wall with such force that he was knocked unconscious. By now there were Covenant everywhere on the platform, Schaeffer saw at least two Brutes at least a dozen Grunts, two of which had set up plasma turrets and were firing at an unbelievable rate, and a pair of Jackals. The entire horde was firing at the Marine's position; plasma fire was wearing down their cover, the metal crates melting under the withering barrage. "Screw this!" Schaeffer muttered angrily, popping out from behind a half-melted crate to throw a grenade into the middle of the platform, the grenade detonated seconds after touching the platform; it's blue/white flames engulfing a dozen grunts and wounding a Brute.
It was at this moment that the Chief struck, since the Covenant hadn't been attacked from the other side of the platform they had assumed that it was unoccupied and given their attention to the task of eliminating the Marines, in so doing they had left their flank wide open to the most dangerous killing machine in the universe. They didn't know what hit them; the Chief stuck a plasma grenade onto a Brute's back and another to one of the Grunts operating a plasma turret, both of which exploded before either of their victims knew about their fate. The Chief snatched up a weapon from a nearby, one of the odd-looking grenade launchers with the blades attached to the end that the Brutes had used when his men had been ambushed, regardless of how unusual it was the Chief used it like he had trained with one all his life, Immediately he sliced Grunts down one by one until they were all gone then he tore into the Jackals. He cut the first Jackal down without it even knowing what happened, two gory halves falling to the floor, the other tried to get it's shield up to block the blow and would have succeeded if it had been slashed at but instead a grenade ricoched off the ground exploding right inside of the Jackal's shield transforming the Jackal into an unrecognizable mass off oozing flesh. The last Brute broke into an enraged charge and barreled into the Chief knocking them both onto the ground, the Brute started slamming his fists down in uncontrolled rage denting the Chief's MJOLNIR armor, the Chief heard ribs crack knowing that even the his genetically altered muscles and reinforced bones couldn't withstand the adrenaline fueled strength of the Brute for much longer. The Chief caught the Brute's fists and struggled to keep them from pounding down again and within seconds his arms were shaking with the strain of keeping the Brute in check, just as he could hold the Brute no longer, he heard "How you feelin' there Jackass?' looking up he saw Col. Schaeffer standing next to the Brute, his carbine held to the beast's head shooting round after round into the alien's head. The Chief rolled out from under the Brute's corpse picked up a carbine and checked on the knocked out Marine, within a few minutes they had him conscious and ready to fight, although he had severe pain in his back and possible broken bones the Marine was up with his weapon and they were headed up the grav-lift, trusting Cortana to lead them to safety.
Ch 2: Civil War
The trip up the grav-lift took all of fifteen seconds; the room they entered was empty, one by one the Marines came up followed by the Chief. Almost as soon as they were all up, a nearby door opened revealing three Elites backing into the room shooting at something in the hallway. The Elites didn't seem to notice the Humans that were occupying the room they had entered and instead kept shooting erratically into the air. Schaeffer noticed loud buzzing noise and saw a swarm of what looked like at least a dozen dull-green beetles, which were swarming into the room.
The Master Chief reacted first, his enhanced reflexes giving him an edge over the Marines, throwing a plasma grenade into the doorway, killing an Elite and a good portion of their insectoid attackers. The Marines opened up on the swarm, killing off three more under their combined fire. The Elites, at first were confused at how nearly all of their attackers had been killed and probably never knew since they were killed by the Marine's Carbine fire. The Chief picked off the remaining Drones and they made their way into the hallway.
Once the door opened carnage and destruction greeted them. An Elite in white armor was sprawled over one of the hologram pedestal, his Energy Sword lying a few inches away from his limp arms. The Chief dropped his grenade launcher and picked up the sword, swinging it a few times to get a feel for it. The Marines, who had never seen anything like the Energy Sword, gazed at it for a few seconds before Col. Schaeffer, who was standing near the Sword, snapped "I know I'm quite a sight, do your lookin' later. Almost immediately the Marines broke from their trance and started moving down the hallway, taking cover behind the small pillars that rose from the floor every five or so feet. When they got near the end of the hallway they heard the door open up and two Elites wearing strange ceremonial armor stepped into the room exchanging fire with a pair of Brutes and trio of Drones. The Marines once again opened fire on the Brutes, one of the Brutes falling to the ground punctured in two-dozen places by carbine shots and falling on an Elite, immobilizing him. The Chief using his newfound sword lunged at an Elite, nearly slicing him in half and then stabbed the very surprised Brute in the chest. The trio of Drones had mad short work of the trapped Elite, even it's energy shield wasn't able to withstand the attack of all three Drones while immobilized, fortunately for the Marines that meant that all they had to do was pick off the Drones, which they did quite effectively at this point.
"Covies attackin' Covies? What the Hell's goin' on here?" a nearby Marine asked. Almost immediately they heard a strange voice come from nowhere fill the entire room, the voice was strangely calming and wizened, Schaeffer found it almost impossible not to listen. "The Elites have failed to protect the Prophets, and in so doing have put all our lives at risk. Let no warrior forget his oath, thou faith will keep us safe, once we find the path."
After battling through another hallway there was another announcement from the same voice that they had heard earlier. "The Brute's have asked for your allegiance, and you will give it. Hmmm, sounds like our alien friends are getting a little antsy, Schaeffer thought to himself, oh well what do I care maybe if they fight each other we'll be able to get out of here alive. They came to a large open arboretum, there were two platforms, the Marines were on the one side and the other platform was on the opposite side. There was a path leading down to the lower level of the arboretum, about thirty-feet below the platforms. The Arboretum was filled with strange trees and quiet a few brawling Covenant. Glancing down, Schaeffer saw a pair of Hunters and a group of Elites battling a patrol of Brutes. The sky was filled with flashing plasma as a swarm of Drones engaged a pair of Elites wearing jetpacks. The Private next to Schaeffer who was holding a Covenant Beam Rifle drew a bead on one of the Brutes and prepared to fire. Schaeffer quickly knocked the gun out of the way and said "Wait Garcia, lets see how this turns out", the Private lowered his weapon and crouched down next to Schaeffer.
The Marines were amazed at the ferocity of the battle taking place below them, The Brutes fired at the Elites with their super-charged Plasma Rifles, the bright red lasers burning an Elite right in the chest and causing another to duck behind a boulder, his shields flickering. The Hunters on the other hand took aim with their cannons and blasted the Brute line, Schaeffer saw a Brute disappear from a direct hit and another Brute lost an arm to the powerful energy beam. The battle in the sky was raging even more than the one on the ground, green and blue light flashed back and forth, illuminating shadowy silhouettes crisscrossing through the tangled mess of light. Suddenly one of the silhouettes started to fall towards the earth, Schaeffer saw the glinting of the armor and humanoid body and knew it belonged to one of the Elites. Not even a second later it's falling body was joined by a pair of Drone bodies, which fell onto the platform with a splat about four feet away from the Marines.
Below, the Brutes charged the Hunters; the Hunter's fire felled two of Brutes before they reached them but at least five Brutes made it. The Hunters, with all of their armor and strength didn't stand a chance against the Brutes, a Hunter swung his shield up shattering a Brute's skull but in doing this he left himself wide open for a second Brute to charge him, a clenched fist tore right through the soft orange flesh in-between the Hunter's armor plates and out the other side killing it instantly. Meanwhile the Elite who had taken cover behind the rock opened fire on the Brutes who were attacking the remaining Hunter; precise shots slammed a Brute's helmet off and punched into it's brain, killing it instantly, unfortunately the Elite didn't see the Brute behind him with a Brute shot, the alien sliced the Elite in the back, overloading his shields, ripping through his armor, and severing his spinal cord. The remaining Hunter backed into a corner opening fire with its huge cannon at the Brutes, the remaining Brutes, caught up in their frenzied bloodlust, ignored the fire and all charged. A Brute disappeared under the withering cannon fire, while another was slammed halfway across the arboretum by the Hunter's shield but the last Brute pounded relentlessly on the Hunter's armor, denting it in at least a dozen places, orange blood splattered everywhere as the Hunter tried to shake the rampaging Brute off him to no avail. A second later the Hunter was dead, reduced to a mass of dented armor and oozing orange matter, the Brute stood in the center of the mess, fur matted with sticky orange blood.
With the Arial battle almost over and the ground battle concluded the Marines set to work, Pvt. Garcia brought his weapon to bear on the surviving Brute and suddenly the Brute's head was gone and his body fell to the ground alongside the Hunter's remains. The Master Chief and the other Marines made short work of the remaining air combatants, sniping them one by one. The Marines made their way down to the arboretum and to the opposite platform with little difficulty, checking the bodies for ammunition and grenades as they went. Upon reaching the other platform they walked up to the doorway and Pvt. Garcia ran right into a Brute. With both of them equally surprised it took a second for either of them to react, the Brute was a millisecond faster, bringing his Bruteshot up towards Garcia, who was fumbling for his weapon, and fired point-blank into the Private's chest plate, sending him flying. Schaeffer, the Chief and the other Marines, seeing that Garcia was no longer in their field of fire, instinctively fired at the Brute, dozens of wounds ripping into its body. They ran over to where Garcia lay but Schaeffer knew that it was futile, the way the grenade hit him would be too much for his armor. Sure enough when they found Garcia he was dead, the grenade had absolutely torn him open to the extent that Schaeffer had to look away for fear that he would throw up. The Chief; bending over to remove Garcia's dog tags, motioned that they had to keep moving, as much as Schaeffer hated leaving Garcia's body he knew that the Chief was right and he quickly relayed this to the remaining Marines.
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