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Shadow Play Part One
Posted By: Lance Johnson<jett_mann@msn.com>
Date: 1 May 2004, 12:29 AM
Read/Post Comments
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Shadow Play
Huri watched from the bridge as dropships stormed towards the human colony. On the surface somewhere was an artifact the Forerunners left on this planet. It had to be recovered, or so says the prophets.
Huri sighed; he didn't want to go down there. There would be so much to report that he didn't know where he should start. A report suddenly came through.
"The humans have broken through the line of Tartagus; it will fall if we do not receive reinforcements!"
Huri pondered this; the line of Tartagus was a major encampment. If it fell then the invasion would be in jeopardy.
"Osoona, you are now permitted to go down to the world for whatever it is your doing" the ship master finally said.
"Why was I not permitted a cycle ago?"
The ship master didn't answer. He simply pointed to the door leading to the hanger. Huri walked out, his heels clicking sharply on the metallic flooring. He jumped onto a dropship headed to the planet.
Aaron, or seven two, waited for Huri to return.
"It will be many cycles before master Huri come back" Zayap told him.
"I'm bored, what do you have to do around here?"
"Nothing, I hate it too."
Aaron's internal chronometer ticked off the seconds. Aaron tried contemplating his mission again, but he just didn't want to think about it. His thought matrix wasn't prepared for death. The bomb inside him was powerful enough to blow a sizeable chunk of a planet apart. It contained a small amount of explosive enhancing bio-materials that would allow him to do some major damage to High Charity if he could get back there.
If only the general had allowed phase two before he was captured. He was still in passive mode, if he went into active assault mode, than phase two would be toast. He pondered what General Ikanobi had said about the other androids.
"You were built to attack and destroy; you will do as you are programmed."
He was, in all intents and purposes, a human child. In both mind and spirit. But he was actually an extremely advanced prototype AI, built for combat. No covenant weapon could harm his shields, and his weapons, built into his skeletal frame, were very powerful. He was the most advanced weapon the UNSC had ever built since the Spartans.
But like a child he was also very impatient and impulsive.
"How long now?"
"Same amount of time as I told you four micro-cycles ago."
Huri, now on the planet, surveyed the death toll. The human to covenant ratio of casualties was unbelievable. For every human the covenant killed, the humans killed a dozen covenant soldiers. The smoking remains of two hunters also told him that the humans carried the powerful weapon that fired a tube that had fire coming out of the rear, and exploded on contact with anything. Huri recalled what it was named.
"A rocket launcher."
Huri wandered across the battlefield, searching for any survivors. There weren't any. It was strange, human weapons only killed 75% of the time. But all of these covenant, every single one, was dead. Most of them seemed to be killed by something other than projectile weapons, evidence shown by burn marks on their bodies.
"Field Marshal, what is the status of your troops?"
"The humans are employing more deadly tactics, they seem to just appear, and kill everything. There are two humans that seem unstoppable; they have shields that completely dissipate plasma blasts."
"What do the humans look like, are they wearing green armor?"
"No, that's the point, they aren't wearing any armor. One of them we were able to lower its shields with four fuel rod blasts from two hunters and a banshee, but even with the shields down, it just wouldn't die!"
Huri contemplated this. How could a human, a species that its body is very vulnerable to plasma weapons, suddenly become almost invulnerable to its affects?
"Where are these humans?"
"We don't know, they left after they killed this squad. They also don't carry any weapons, but seem to be able to fire some sort of energy from their bodies."
Huri stared at the wounds a jackal had all over its body. They were like plasma burns, only very localized, and extremely deep.
"How could humans acquire more powerful weapons technology in such a short amount of time?"
"The Forerunner device?"
"Possibly, but highly unlikely."
"It is still worth putting in your report, no?"
"Yes, it will be included."
Back on the cruiser, phase two, or military phase, had begun. Aaron felt his sub-processing units reassert themselves to combat mode, charging his ion pulse guns, and powering up his shields. His personality units began to switch to active assault mode. He immediately stopped the transfer.
"This is going to take a while" Aaron sighed.
Aaron, or serial number seven two, is the first teenaged sized infiltrator/destroyer class android. Armed with Forerunner weapons and shields, he is built specifically to engage, and destroy covenant, but he is also the first to be made with a smart AI, an unbelievably smart AI. He is the most advanced AI ever built by the human race. Which also means he was able to override his programming because it limited his thought processing.
Unlike most smart AIs, Aaron was not limited by the seven year lifespan shared by all smart AIs. He has a crystal enhanced thought matrix which allows him to continually learn and store information without any dangerous side-affects.
Huri studied the damage caused by the human's new weapons, recording all the data we acquired. He rubbed his forehead in thought.
"This is going to look so bad for my rep."
Huri wandered away from the battle scene. He came up to a large building. He powered up his rifle and walked in. It was very dark inside, but not to dark for him. He suddenly heard a footstep. He looked around. There was no one in the room. He heard it again.
Huri spun around, to come face to face with one of the green armored humans! It slammed its fist into Huri's shield, it sputtered and failed, but Huri, after so many honor fights, knew how to fight hand-to-hand. The human did a sweeping kick, but the kick was stopped by Huri's arm, then he tried punching. Huri blocked again.
Huri got his chance to attack; at almost lightning speed Huri launched an attack on the human. But both were equally matched. They were moving so fast, each one's movements were only a blur. The human finally swept his foot under Huri's legs. He was knocked off his feet. But instead of finishing him off, the human ran off. Huri began pursuit, not wanting to let down an honor battle.
But once outside Huri could only watch as a human dropship, containing his foe, flew away. Huri roared after the swiftly shrinking dropship. He felt dishonored; that an enemy would run from a fight was unacceptable. But he heard moaning, he rushed over. Lying on the ground was a black armored elite, a spec-op. He looked over its wounds, slight breaks, and holes showing it had been hit by projectiles. He patched the elite up as best he could, then pulled it out of the building.
The spec-op regained consciousness soon after. The elite blinked in the bright sunlight. He sat up, but quickly winced and lay back down.
"You saved me?"
"Yes."
"I, I... Why?"
"Because it's just what I do."
The elite stared at Huri.
"I am in your debt."
"I know."
"This isn't important to you?"
Huri looked at him.
"What is your name?"
"Kala' Jaromee, a squad member. I guess they thought I was dead."
"I believe I owe you a debt of gratitude."
"No, I never accept them because as an Osoona, I can almost never repay them."
"I understand."
Huri nodded, then took off some of his armor, and went over his data for the prophets.
On board the cruiser, Aaron retried the combat mode military phase transfer. He completed the transfer and set out to do what he was assigned to do.
"How long until this heals?"
"Not long, the projectiles were stopped by your armor halfway, but the force of the hits caused minor contusions. You will need much rest, I am needed elsewhere."
Huri handed the elite one of his rifles, then walked off towards the large building.
A grunt walked down the corridor, right as it passed one of the personal rooms, a hand punched through the door, gripping onto its mask. The mask was ripped from the grunts face, leaving it to die slowly.
Aaron, now in combat mode, looked sideways at his hand, he had gone for the grunts head, he missed the neck and had grabbed the breather. His targeting systems needed retuning.
Huri walked along a bridge, looking for more signs of the new human aggressors. But he only ran into a group of human marines. He activated his two swords and engaged them. He continued to hack at them until the last one died. He looked over their slashed bodies, nothing different about them.
He walked through a small door, forcing him to bend over. Inside was another human, but it wasn't in any armor. Huri jumped back as the human attacked him, using some sort of energy weapons. Huri attacked with his swords, but they did little to some sort of shield surrounding it. Huri had no choice; he turned and fled towards the other door.
"I feel like a grunt running from a human."
Huri got away before the human attacker could follow.
"Field Marshal, I just encountered one of your indestructible humans, your right, it took a direct hit from my swords and didn't even flinch, this may not be as human as we thought."
"What do you mean?"
"I really don't know; I will update you later."
Huri clicked off the com before the field marshal could respond. Huri looked over each body, surveying the damage the human's weapons did. He started to see a pattern.
"They always aim for the head or chest."
Huri made more notes in his data pad. Suddenly the com screamed an alarm. The encampment was under attack. Huri rushed back to the wounded spec-op trooper. He was okay so Huri rushed back to the encampment. When he got there all that was left was a smoking crater.
"What happened?!"
A grunt crawled out of a small hole in the ground.
"One of those humans ran into the camp and exploded!"
"What? How can a human just explode, and with such force?"
The grunt just curled up into a fetal position and started babbling about who knows what. Huri scanned the destruction slowly. The ground showed traces of particle neutrinos. The kind the humans use for their powerful explosives. But why would they implant one of their super-humans with it?
Huri rubbed his head; it felt like his brain was just going to explode. All this, and the humans now using people as explosives. It just didn't add up.
"Ship Master, send a dropship, the battle is lost."
"Impossible, how can it be lost?"
"Our forces are decimated, and no more dropships remain."
"Sending one now."
Huri ran back to grab the spec-op elite. It was happy that it wasn't being left behind, but could hardly walk. Huri half carried, half dragged it to the dropship. On a hill he could see four humans, all holding the long-ranged rifles they used. One shot would strip his shields; the other would strip him of his life. He quickened his pace. The dropship's shade opened fire on the humans, and they retreated.
"Osoona, we have trouble up here, hurry!"
Once back on the ship, Huri surveyed the damage to his door.
"Whatever it was, busted through it from the inside, not from the outside."
"I bet it was that human" the ship master growled ominously.
"He isn't strong enough to punch through a door, besides, the hole is too big."
Both the elites looked at the hole, it was quite large, the human boy could almost fit through it. Aaron was on a bunk, fast asleep, or so it seemed. The engineers repaired the door and disposed of the body. But what they never found, was its breath mask.
"What happened here?"
"I guess Larel got mad about the door getting stuck again" Aaron joked.
"Maybe. Did you see who did it?"
Aaron lied as he shook his head. Aaron had punched the hole wider, so no one would suspect him.
"Well, alright, next cycle we are launching an offensive on the humans on the planet, we plan to wipe them out."
Aaron's face twisted with what Huri took as disagreement. But the boy was in no position to argue. Once Huri had left again, he opened his com unit in his arm.
"Dr. Halsey?"
"Yes seven two, what is it?"
"Tell me again, what is my mission?"
"Why are you asking me this again?"
"I want to hear it again."
"Fine. Your mission is test out the prototype abilities that your body now possesses. You are to initiate three phases of personality modes before infiltrating the covenant homeworld and detonating your nuclear device."
"Why do I have to kill myself?"
Dr. Halsey's eyes softened.
"You are a very unique AI Aaron. You know what is at stake here."
The android looked away from his com unit. He flipped it closed.
"Yes is do."
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