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Chapter One - A New Foe
Posted By: Ermac of VGPro<LittleMonsta77@aol.com>
Date: 3 March 2004, 7:07 PM
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"God, private! Pick it up or you'll be put to shame by the carrier forms!"
"I can't run any further, sir!"
"What did you just say?!"
"Nothing, sir! Absolutely nothing!"
"That's what I thought, Edwards!"
Master Chief watched the mission feed being projected on his HUD by Cortana. It seemed like any other feed, except he knew that something was about to happen if Cortana had sounded so jumpy about it. Watching the thing brought back horrible memories of the late Private Jenkins.
The East Procreate of New Mombassa had been cleansed of the Covenant forces. The last Helljumper-style barrage of Elites from the sky left few human soldiers alive, but they had managed to draw the Plasma sword-bearing Elites into one area and bombarded them with small EMP charges. Any civilians left over from the conflict were concentrating on cleaning up the city. Master Chief personally thought it was pointless; if the Covenant stumbled upon the shield generators and the Global Defense system control, Earth was doomed. And it could happen at any moment.
He had a good view of the city from his current position. He was sitting in the driver seat of a Warthog which sat on the helicopter pad of one of the last remaining skyscrapers. Echo 384 had just dropped him and the M12 LRV in the only suitable drop zone. The only trouble was getting down...
John continued to watch the feed. Cortana skipped ahead some. Now Private Edwards and his platoon was somewhere near a destroyed airplane hangar.
"Get inside and blast everything that's green or blue and moving! We have to retrieve the database!" the commanding officer hollered. Edwards kicked the door open, and about a hundred Covenant soldiers turned.
Every human soldier threw about two fragmentation grenades, sending Elites, Jackals, and Grunts flying in all directions. Master Chief watched as three of the humans fell in a splash of plasma from a several Hunters' fuel rod cannon. Private Edwards swung his MA5B like a baseball bat, hitting a nearby Jackal so hard that it flew into a pack of Grunts and knocked them over like bowling pins.
After a few more moments, every last Covenant soldier in the hangar had been eliminated, save for one Hunter. Edwards made a quick maneuver, jumping behind the monster and giving it a good burst of armor piercing rounds.
"He's an excellent soldier, I'll give him that," Master Chief said. "But why is this so important?"
"Just keep watching," Cortana replied with an irritated tone in her voice.
The noncom Edwards suddenly looked up and noticed he was the only human still alive. He stood in shock for a few seconds, then turned and climbed into a destroyed Covenant fighter plane behind him. Cortana skipped ahead for a few seconds, then Master Chief saw Private Edwards reaching deep into the controls. He had taken them apart, looking for something.
There was a metallic clicking noise and Edwards pulled out a small, blue cube from the mass of wires and switches. He made a chuckling noise, slowly examining the cube while turning it with his thumb and forefinger.
"Command will enjoy this," the private muttered to himself.
There was a soft pitter-patter of footsteps. Edwards looked up and there was a soldier with a pistol pointed right at his face. A human soldier.
"I'll take that," he said slowly, but menacingly.
"My orders are to take it to command."
"I'll take it for you," he said, louder this time.
"No!"
The man clicked the safety off of his pistol.
"Don't test me, boy. I'm not afraid to kill you."
"I'm not giving you anything!"
"Put the gun down, you!" hollered another soldier who had just entered the hangar.
"You're on our side!" yelled Edwards.
All in one motion, he man drew another pistol, clicked the safety off, and put a slug into the other soldier's forehead. Edwards recoiled, climbing out of the cockpit, rolled under the ship, and whipped out his Battle Rifle. There was only a few more seconds before the assailant stuck his gun under the fighter and fired a single round. The feed ended abruptly.
"What the hell was that?" the Master Chief demanded. "Who was he?"
"We don't know. What we do know is that this soldier is a threat. He has something very valuable and important, and he probably doesn't mean to use it wisely."
"It's a database, like he said?"
"Yes," Cortana explained. "It's a small cube that can contain up to 100 terabytes of information. It most likely contains a Covenant AI and information about their future plans."
"And why would a human kill to get it?"
"Because he has most likely allied himself with the Covenant."
John pondered the idea for a moment, then told Cortana to rewind the clip.
"I'll take that. I'll take it for you."
The clip froze right on the assailant's face. There was a long scar running down his left cheek and his eyes were dark and cold. He looked like he'd forgotten to shave hat morning, and his bushy mustache was riddled with gray hairs.
"He looks to old to be a soldier," John muttered.
"Look who's talking."
"So my mission is to--"
"You're going to have to watch another feed," Cortana interrupted. "This time, it's from Staff Sergeant Steven Withers."
"Great."
The feed started quickly. Cortana skipped the beginning and skipped right to the important part.
"Withers," said the C.O. "Check the inside for Covenant."
"Yes, sir!"
Withers raised his sniper rifle and slowly opened the rotting, wooden door. He scanned the area, then gave the all clear signal. His platoon walked in, casually and unprepared.
The very same man lowered himself from the ceiling by a shiny rope, wielding a chain gun similar to that of a Warthog. He strafed his "comrades" and in seconds, they were all dead. Just before Withers lost his life, he fired off one shot at the assailant, and Master Chief saw that this traitor had shields.
"That's definitely not MJOLNIR armor he's wearing."
"Not at all," Cortana agreed. "It's obviously homemade, because we've never seen anything like it before."
"However, his accuracy and efficiency in combat resemble that of any SPARTAN.
"So my mission is to take out this infidel and take back the database?"
"Precisely."
"Excellent," Master Chief replied with a huge sigh. He opened a nearby ammo box and reloaded his Battle Rifle. He also grabbed an SR and picked up 30 rounds. He'd need the ammo for this new foe.
"Now, how do I get down from here, Cortana?" She sighed.
"Drive carefully to the external elevator. It's right in front of you."
"All right. And where can I expect to find this man?"
"Follow the NAV point," she said. "Unless I'm much mistaken, that's him."
He was 2.4 kilometers away, doing God-knows what. Master Chief took a deep breath, then slowly drove toward the elevator. This would be an interesting mission.
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