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Halo: Last Stand - Chapter 1 -
Posted By: Draganos<extreme_goalie@rogers.com>
Date: 1 July 2005, 8:08 pm
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Halo: Last Stand
- Chapter 1 -
Earth Space Territory/Combat Zone
Aboard Ancient Forerunner Ship
10.23.2552 (Military Calendar)
A blinding white light opened in a rift through space, lighting up the ongoing space battlefield amongst Planet Earth space territory. The Covenant invasion on Planet Earth had started, the war had reached it's climax. A silver construct appeared from the bright light and powered into the outskirts of the battle zone. The oddly looking spaceship looked similar to a bare boned triangle, as it had giant beams of unidentified metallic material protruding from above the triangular prism-like core of the ship where the inhabitant's worked and resided. Three other metallic beams shot out from each of the bottom vertexes of the core prism in the middle of the ship. The area of ignition that propelled the ship through both Slipspace and in normal space was located at the base of the prism, directly in the middle. To look at the bottom of the massive craft, the three aft "wings" and engine core could be seen.
The Prophet of Truth, the last of the Noble Hierarchs of the once mighty Covenant looked at the Plant Earth in awe.
"So long, I have waited for this day," he said to himself, "And they said it would never come."
The Covenant leader was dressed in a red robe with blue markings, with a golden "crown" like object resting behind his serpent like neck and head. On his oval shaped head, donned a actual golden crown, that was built to feature a vertically high head piece that was shaped like a diamond but the center of the diamond from the middle portion up was missing, leaving two sharp "tower-like" pieces that curved inward. At the very center of his headpiece was a black circle that was highlighted by a greenish-blue holographic image of the holy construct, Halo. He sat on a grey floating chair that hummed as it hovered over the ground.
The first Halo had been desecrated by the green armored Demon, known by the humans as the Master Chief. He destroyed his ship's reactors and severed the ring in several areas. He arrived at the second Halo that the Covenant had found, landed his filthy boots upon and, and then boarded the Covenant Holy City, High Charity. Truth closed his eyes and grimaced at the loss of the city that he had called his own for decades, that is, until the parasite invested it. The flood had done so much damage to his city and he swore vengeance upon them, but his first task was to eliminate the humans. Truth knew what the humans were truly capable of, and Halo was the only way to stop them.
"All the time spent looking," Truth said as he looked at an odd shaped crystal on the pedestal beside him, "and here we are, at the doorstep of the Great Journey." Truth knew that the crystal could bend the physics of Slipspace, increasing speed and giving the Covenant a distinct advantage over the humans. The Prophet of Truth looked towards one of his brute's at the navigational controls. "Set a course for orbit around the planet."
The brute grunted affirmatively and tapped on a holographic panel, causing the ship to accelerate. The bridge was a massive room covered by silver walls with odd inscriptions arising from every panel. The inscriptions seemed to be similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. There were pictures of objects and figures with human features, there was even a number of large circular rings . Truth tried to resist looking at the inscriptions for he knew the story they told.
The bridge consisted of upper, lower, and middle deck. Looking at the upper deck, the left side was dedicated to the ship's communications, the right side consisted of long and short range radar systems, and the center of the upper deck was tactical command. All three stations were operated by blue and orange holographic panels that were physically touchable. The lower deck was quite small and was situated in front of a view screen, and it was there that navigation control was accessed. It had two holographic panels, and one seats behind each of them.. The middle deck had small steps to the left and right of the center to provide access to each of the three levels of the bridge. In the center were two grey seats of some material that resembled leather, that would be used for the captain of the vessel, and his first officer. On the armrest of each chair was a similar holographic panel, but much more condensed with less controls. All stations were controlled by brutes.
The Prophet of Truth hovered from side to side along the middle deck as he watched vessel after vessel of the Covenant destroy numerous human vessels before being destroyed itself. Truth smiled to himself, as he thought he was a genius for putting each Prophet of the Covenant; of course minor, in command of the capital ships that dominated the battle against the humans. The rest of the ships were controlled by high ranking Brute Captains, making them equally as deadly.
Truth's train of thought was cut off by the barking of a Brute at Communications, "Noble Prophet Truth, I am intercepting a transmission from on of the human defense stations!"
"Where is the communication being transmitted?" Truth replied, partly stunned by this threatening detail.
"From just inside the ship's hull," the Brute, "What do I do Noble Hierarch?"
"Put it through,"
Despite some slight interference the sound quality of the transmission,
"This is Spartan 117, can anyone hear me? Over," a deep, rough voice blasted through the ship's speakers.
"Isolate that signal," ordered the other side of the communication, "Master Chief? Do you mind telling me what you are doing on that ship?"
The Prophet's eyes widened as he heard, "Sir, Finishing this Fight!"
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"Lord Hood, sir, the remaining high Prophet is aboard this ship, and my mission is to take him out, Over!" the voice replied in a determined manner.
"Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be a chance in hell I'd like you do that, Chief. Earth is at the brink of annihilation, and we need every advantage we can get," the obvious higher ranking official tensely replied, "Green Light! Go kill us a Prophet! When you've eliminated all hostiles, contact Cairo. But you've only got 15 minutes, Chief, or else I have no choice but to fire, Over"
"Affirmative, sir"
"And Chief?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Good Luck!"
The transmission ended, leaving the bridge in silence. The Brute Captain, Torus, growled, "The Demon! He must be eliminated!" Torus was a rather large Brute, but with a few features that set him apart from others. Instead of brown fur, Torus donned a brilliant green coat. The reasons for this colour were unknown, but it made the Prophet of Truth more attracted to this young prospect so much that he was promoted to Captain within 3 weeks of joining the covenant armed forces. Also, he donned an massive scare that formed an "X" on his forehead, running from the right side of his skill to the left in a diagonal motion, as well as another than ran from the left side of his skull to the right. He received these two marks from a fight with two Brutes with brute shots when he was younger. The two assaulted him, beat him with the sharp sickles on the back of their weapons. But Torus, with an advanced skill set in the area of hand to hand combat, defeated the two primates and left their corpses in a crumpled heap. Amongst his colleges, he was often called the X-Factor mainly from his scar, but also because of his ability to make the difference in several battles against the humans.
"NO!" the Prophet of Truth said, raising one hand in the air to call order, "We may need him, I want the Demon alive."
Torus growled, but nodded in response and keyed the comm., "All Brutes report to the bridge immediately! NOW!"
The Prophet of Truth gazed out into the view screen, awaiting fate.
___________________________________________________________
John 117, the Master Chief, cut the communication link with Lord Hood on the Cairo defense station and slid down a slope to the ground below. He had just made it onto the ship, and now his mission was to kill the Prophet of Truth. As John slid, he recalled the events of the day. His encounter with the Gravemind, the flood invested High Charity, and leaving Cortona. Cortona was the closest friend that the Chief had ever since he had been separated from his fellow brothers and sisters of the SPARTAN II program. She had let the Chief go so that she could stop the flood if they tried to activate High Charity's Slipspace engines. It was the ultimate sacrifice, but the Chief understood what she had to do. He did promise that he would come back to her after Truth was killed, and he held out hope that she would still be alive.
The green armored mammoth's boots hit the forerunner ground with an affirmative –clank!- and he walked towards a door situated in front of him. He stopped on his way however, to check his ammo supply. In his hand he held an Battle Rifle with 3 magazines left, and with three quarters of a magazine left. He had a shotgun with 20 rounds left. He had 3 fragmentation grenades and 4 plasma grenades. Overall he felt pretty good, but he knew by taking on a whole ship of enemies, he'd have to scavenge some other weapons once his ammunition was low.
John walked towards the door in front of him and noticed its features. It was a double panel door that extended 14 feet high and resembled a diamond except the top and bottom vertexes were flat. The door was mainly silver metallic with a black portion in the middle extending to both sides with green arrows pointing inwards. They looked almost identical to the doors that John passed through on the first Halo that he landed on. As he stepped towards the door, a light flickered and with a hum, the doors opened.
John then preceded down a number of corridors, checking his Heads Up Display (HUD), mainly his motion tracker for any hostile movement. He found none, strangely. He continued through hallways, and while cautiously looking for enemies, he marveled in the awe of the Forerunner ship. The architecture of mainly triangle like constructs were both impressive and a wondrous site to look at. The Chief shook is head, and remembered that he only had 15 minutes to take control of the ship. His plan was to make his way to the bridge and eliminate all the hostiles in that area, take out the Prophet of Truth, and lock himself in. It was a flawless plan in John's view, he knew he would win, because he always won.
As John made round after round around corners and doors, he began to get suspicious. Why were there no hostiles? Had Truth taken the ship alone? It didn't seem likely in theory, but it soon became a reality when he finally spotted one contact on his radar that was beyond a larger version of the door that he first passed through. The door hissed open and John stepped onto the Forerunner bridge to see the highly golden shackled Prophet of Truth sitting on his hover chair, staring out into the space beyond through the view screen.
The Master Chief put his Battle Rifle into combat mode as he brought it to his head and aimed for the slight portion of the Prophet's head that was exposed to his targeting reticule.
"Alas, Demon we meet again," Truth said calmly.
"You're Great Journey is over Truth," the Master Chief responded as he stepped forward, "The war is over!"
Truth then paused and chuckled quietly, "Unfortunately for you, Demon, the Great Journey has just begun!"
With that, the sound of doors sliding open and grunts of Brutes echoed in the huge bridge. John looked behind him, and to the left and saw that each of the doors had opened and hundreds of Brutes began piling out, armed with brute shots, brute plasma rifles, and covenant carbines. They began to form a circle around him, lead by a large Brute Captain with green fur. John frantically looked all around him, above and below. Along the ceiling several of the bug-like drones stuck, holding plasma pistols and chirping in their own tongue. Along the newly seen balconies, three dozen of the vulture-like Jackels were situated along every few feet, all with beam rifles pointed directly at John's head.
"Demon, you have failed," the Prophet of Truth said as his chair hovered towards the captured Spartan, "You have failed to delay the inevitable demise of your human race and just to make matters more interesting, you are going to be their murderer! Torus, take him to the brig and I am assigning you to personally guard him, make sure he says in his cell!"
"With pleasure Noble Prophet Truth," Torus replied, and he grabbed the Chief's arm with a forcible grip and his Brutes stripped him of all his weapons. Torus led John and his fellow Brutes out of the bridge and down the corridor as the Prophet of Truth laughed in an evil and sadistic manner.
All John could think as he walk down the corridor was of the way he had failed all of his fellow Spartans, Dr. Hasley, CPO Mendez, Captain Keyes, and the entire human race.
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