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They're Random, Baby!

She kept my TV, part 2.............
Posted By: Skavenger_s7 <Skavenger_s7@hotmail.com> Date: 7/27/03 4:59 p.m.

If you missed it... http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=268080

********************* ENDING OF PART ONE *********************

Goatrope: wow, ok. It’s cool. If you say nuthin's up then nuthin's up. I'm cool with that.

I pulled it back.

Skav: OK, we go to try to help our friends... nothing more.

Korhal danced along with us, "Cool! This is like the fellowship of the ring.... only there are only 3 of us...YES! Just like at the end ...I want to be Legolas? I wanna be Legolas. Can I be Legolas? We are the fellowship of Louis, no... ummm HBO. Yep, The fellowship of HBO!

Skav and Goat: "SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I just really wanted to go home...............

********************* Part Two *********************

So off we went. We got about fifteen minutes away from where we started and I stopped. Goat and Kornhole dropped down.

KORHAL: (whispering) What's he doing........................... does he see something.......... I don't see anything... do you see something Goat?"

Goatrope: "I think he's lost"

I turned to them and threw my hands up in the air. "I don't know where the hell to go? Kornboy dragged me off to some place I have never been and now here we are. Any ideas?"

Goatrope came up along side me and said, "Well we are still pretty much in this canyon with only 2 ways to go. We basically have a 50/50 chance either way."

The canyon started to rumble and a slow humming noise filled our ears. Goat and I took for cover and KORHAL put his ear to the snow. "Don't worry; I am part Indian,” he said. Goat ran out and grabbed him kicking and screaming back to some rocks where I was also hiding. He pulled out a pistol and shoved it down KORHALS throat. "I am leaving this here until they pass; the only noise that will give us away is the sound of my gun going off... get it? That means SHUT UP or die", GR said. We all watched as a column of Grunts and Jackals with one Wraith and 2 Ghosts made their way towards us. There were Elites on the outskirts of the column, in front, back and sides. It was pretty obvious they were searching for survivors of their last attack. I could see some of them with human blood spattered on them. It was making me mad to know they were part of my friends’ deaths. I couldn't get the images out of my mind of the last things I saw. I wondered who made it and who died. I look at Goat; he was feeling the same, scared and wondering. But now wasn't the time for revenge, there were too many of them. The Covenant were still a little ways away, I wasn't going to be seen but I needed to plan our next move. I looked around and coming down the canyon was another small group...of HUMANS! Yes! It was some of our guys. OMG, I was hoping they would see the Covies before they were spotted themselves. Shit, I couldn't risk giving our position away to try and warn them. All at once I saw them head for cover, almost directly across from us. They made it safely and unnoticed. The column approached. I scoped in and saw them. There were four of them and they were looking around and spotted us. YES! I took over holding the gun to the inside of KorHal's head and GR scoped them out.

Skav: If I let this out will you promise to keep your big mouth quiet?

KORHAL: (nodded quietly)

Goatrope: OK, I count 4... 4 of our guys. It looks like Guy made it... and there's some old man...

Skav: Louis?

Goatrope: No, older than you both, I think it's Brian Josselyn... and there's some guy facing the other way watching their rear...oh it's Miguel.

Skav: How do you know?

Goatrope: It's him...who else would shave the back of their head with a Bungie symbol? And our 4th guy... looks like... Ross.

* * * * * * *

Ross: (looking with scope across the way) OK, There they are; you were right they’re our guys. I see Skav, Goatrope and Korhal with his pants all wet.

Guy Who Doesn't Post: I'll try to get their attention.

Guy Who Doesn't Post moves to where Goatrope can see and points back to all the guys, himself and holds up four fingers.

Guy Who Doesn't Post: I told him there were four of us.

* * * * * * *

Goatrope: Hey. Guy says there are all ready to attack on the count of '4'.

Skav: What? Attack? Are you sure? Why would he pick the number 4?

Goatrope: Yes I am sure; he pointed to all his guys and held up four fingers.

Skav: He must think there are more of us; tell him we only have three.

Goatrope holds up three fingers...............

* * * * * * *

Ross: Goat said 'OK'... what does that mean, what did you tell him to do that he agreed with?

Guy Who Doesn't Post: I didn't say shit; I told him we had 4 guys.

Ross directs Guy to stop sending signals and get over here behind the rocks out of sight. Brian joins them and Miguel draws in and faces the column.

* * * * * * *

Goatrope: Yep, they’re moving around over there, getting into an attack position all right, they want to fight.

Skav: This is suicide. What the hell is going on over there? Brian should know better than this. I hope he freaking has something up his sleeve.

Goatrope: Relax, Brian has 'something’, or maybe 4 'somethings’ and wants us to back him up. All we have to do is join in when we see what he has got.

So, we got into position. As best as three scared guys behind a pile of rocks could do.

* * * * * * *

Ross: (looking back) Yep, they’re definitely getting ready to fight.

Brian: Look; Skav wouldn't have gone along if he didn't have something really special to drop on the Covies. All we have to do is be ready when he gets whatever it is rollin'... we need to back him up.

And there we all were. A bunch of misguided forum goers on mixed up communications, ready to back up a leader that wasn't even present! At least there were 7 of us altogether, that should have made the Bungie gods smile on us..............But it didn't.

The column moved up and slowly divided any communications between our friends and us across the way. We could see some marines in the center of the Covenant group and a few HBO guys as well. I spotted ElSleazbagano (I was wondering where he had been lately, he must have been sucked into his game a month ago), I saw B-sharp (who looked like he had been beaten badly) and also Postman was there too. I kept sitting there waiting for Brian to make his move; looking back I am sure he was waiting for the same

thing from me. We all stood frozen and holding our breath. The covenant stopped. Silent they stood there. Their column was not moving. They drew their weapons, and stood looking up canyon. Man it was so quiet I swear I could hear Korhal's nuts shrinking up with fear behind me. I looked around and walking down canyon was a Hunter. He was prodding a captured soldier...no wait... it was Geary! The hunter had captured him and was leading him to the column.

Skav: Is that.........

Goatrope: Yep, they caught Geary... But something weird is going on.... Geary has a gun tucked up under his coat.

Skav: How the hell did he manage that?

The hunter came with in a few feet of the Covies, and one elite stepped out and started to talk to the Hunter. All at once the Hunter belted the elite and Geary took off down the column for the prisoners. I wasn't sure what that elite said to piss off the hunter but whatever it was I was going to use this moment to make myself known! Brian Josselyn saw the Hunter and then saw me rise up to fight.

Brian: This is it! Skav bribed a Hunter! He's on our side! Let's go! I knew he had a plan!

Everyone jumped up and ran at the Covies. The Covenant started to fan out and return fire on us. (There went that damn music again............. that really does hinder more than help I learned) Some of the captured marines wrestled a weapon or two and were joining the fight. I was giving this Jackal my Jackie Chan routine when I heard a guy screaming..."He's going to die"..."He's going to die" This dude was off with his head in the snow not far from the action. I ran over and grabbed him. "What’s wrong, get up.” He said, "He's hurt, they're going to kill him."...I looked around. "Where is he? I'll get him", I asked...The guy said, "You can't he's almost dead, and he is the most important guy here". I drew my gun outstretched and swept around. "Where is he? Who is he? Louis? WHO!” a pair of elites started to run at me, so I grabbed this dumbass by the throat. "What the F**K are you talking about?" He looked up at me and said, "You can't save him, and he's going to die... you tried." I yelled,” I haven't tried shit yet, I haven't seen him yet, what the hell is going on??" The elites were upon me, one grabbed me like I was a bottle of ketchup and started to squeeze! The other quickly drew his sword and was ready to strike when Miguel dropped in. He took an assault rifle to the back of the Elite's head and then when it turned around screaming to face Miguel, there was one kick to the nuts followed by a few rounds carefully placed to it's head. It went down. The elite that had me started to use me as a Louisville Slugger. Every swing at Miguel missed and landed me against a tree or a rock. "Would you hurry up and finish this guy please?" I screamed. Miguel hit him head on and rolled around with a plasma grenade to his back. The elite screamed in anticipation I screamed out of total fear as the grenade went off. We both fell to the ground. "Wow those don't do as much collateral damage as I thought."

Mig: Look behind you.

I turned a bit to see the grenade had burned off all my clothes in the back. Pretty much from my ankles to my neck there wasn't much more than a few threads.

Mig: You don't get into the sun much do you?

Skav: Asshole.

Mig: What were you doing over here anyways?

Skav: I was trying to save somebody, but this queer wouldn't tell me where or who he was, I think he might have meant Louis, but he was so mixed up he couldn't tell me where he was, and by the time my head cleared, the elites had me.

Mig: He wasn't talking about Louis; he was talking about himself.

Skav: WHAT??

Mig: This is Pico, he's just like Geary, these 2 idiots always talk in the third person, and it almost got you killed.

I whacked Pico unconscious with my gun.

Skav: I guess I should say thank for saving me. I didn't think you even liked me, Mig.

Mig: I don't, why do you think I let that elite swing at me so many times before killing him?

Miguel raced back to join the fight. I pondered what to do. My temptations were to shoot him, but he did save my life. That bastard. I ran back into the fight. I saw that Hunter slinging plasma all over the place. He was taking out his own guys. They were confused, I was confused but who cared. I mean hey, if these little Covies were pissing off the big guy then so what. I was firing like a mad dog; I was hitting everything I shot at. (At least that's how I remember it) I was firing like a pro. When I found myself face to face with the Hunter. I raised my gun out of total self-preservation. The hunter waived both hands at me..."NO Skav don't shoot me" My mouth dropped open and I stumbled back a step or two. I mean hey, this freaked me out. “You speak English", I stuttered. "No shit..... he he he, just like you do", he replied. I asked, “How the hell did you know my name?" He began to laugh... "It's me, c0ld!"... "c0ld vengeance" ...I shook my head... "NOPE"... He said, “Dude I was playing on my modded box when I was sucked into the game, so... here I am!" I looked around; I guess nothing should surprise me anymore. We were winning, all of us, and with only a few casualties too. The Covenant were starting to scatter. We had the upper hand and mostly thanks to c0ld! I reloaded and ran back into the mess. C0ld jumped back in and started tossing grunts into the walls and making big blood splatters all over. I backed up a bit and took in the sights. Brian had stolen a ghost and was ..................... well running people over. I don't think I saw him fire even once. Ross stepped right out in front of a ghost and was hit! It bumped him 50 feet. I screamed, "ROOOSSS!!! NOOO!!! "He simply got up and capped a few rounds at the disbelieving elite driver. Ross looked up at me and yelled, "Overshield at just the right time!!!" I smiled back at him. The noise growing in the background made me shiver. All the bad guys were dead, and all that remained were some exhausted friends. I looked at GUY. He looked up, and around, then back at me..."Banshees!” We could all see pretty far in both directions. The Banshees started to fly around to mark our location for the ground troops. Closing in at us was thousands in each direction. Foot soldiers followed by Wraiths. This was not going to work out. We had all migrated close together in the center of some seriously blood-covered snow. Everyone was hurt bad. Guy was bleeding heavy from the chest. Ross' overshield was wearing off and he was starting to feel the pains of a few broken or fractured bones. Brian was pretty clean, but his Ghost was about done. Miguel was eating a sandwich and holding a sniper rifle. He looked pretty unharmed. Then there was me, blood striped across my face, beat to crap, and my ass hanging out in the cold from my plasma torn suit. What a site we made. There was no getting out of this. They closed in all around us, still several hundred yards away; they lit their swords and loaded their weapons. We all slowly bent over like a bunch of old men who hadn't stretched before a game, and picked up a weapon. Miguel got into position in the snow, kind of deep and said “Let’s get ready, this is it..."

Brian: (focused on the first group that would hit us) Just let me get one Ghost... just one Lord and I'll teach these heathens to fear you.

A goofy kid who always seemed to have an opinion of anything anyone would say that day came up to me and introduced him. "I'm Nick.” I nodded as I reloaded my guns.

Nick: Listen, we only have a few minutes before they get close enough to attack, so.... um. Are you Skavenger? The guy who writes all those stories?

Skav: Yes, and videos.

Nick: Videos? You made Halo videos?

Skav: Yes, like that's the first thing I did. Hurricane Halo? Built Ford Tough? The Castle? Any of those ring a bell?

Nick: Nope.

Skav: Figures, way before your time.

Mig: Could you two shut up? And Skav, stop with the shameless self-promotion and let's try to keep our eyes on the ball here.

We all went quiet. I was thinking about all the guys who died earlier. I knew there was no way out and we were all going to be next. We were all going to die. Right here, right now, this was it. Our memories were going to be reduced to just a lot of empty space on a forum where we USED post. Nothing more. The covenant had their final position. They said something out loud to us. Ross said, "They want us to surrender" Korhal stood up and put his hands in the air. Guy kicked his legs out from under him, "we are not going to surrender you fool"..."And if I don't see you shooting this time I'll kill you myself" ... It was quiet for what seemed like forever. With a loud war cry they came. Running and shooting and a field of grunts were throwing grenades ahead of the advancing elites. We began to return fire. We were amazing. I mean it is hard to describe how good and accurate desperate men can be. But it wasn't going to be enough; we held them back for what was only seconds but seemed like hours. But they jumped into the middle of us. Even c0ld who was switching bodies couldn't sway the outcome of this mess. Goatrope was out of ammo and swinging his rifle at anything that moved. Miguel had cut off an elites hand and was using the still active sword to cut them down one at a time. I saw Brian fall from plasma fire just as he reached a ghost. Korhal was running aimlessly in circles with his eyes closed and his hands straight up in the air. True to his word, Guy plugged him twice in the leg as he fell to a dog pile of Jackals. Just then the Covenant stopped. I mean like really stopped... none of them moved or fired. After 3 seconds they started up again. This disoriented us but the Covenant were back into full killing mode. I turned around and saw Geary get run through. "Geary's dead!” he screamed. I was out of ammo completely now, and a Hunter was marching right at me. "c0ld?” I whimpered. He walked up and pushed me down, put his foot on my neck and warmed up some green goo for me. "c0ld, this isn't funny", I said. Right as it fired, I closed my eyes............................

I was dead................ But I didn't feel dead. I opened my eyes and the plasma was inches from my face. Turning my head I could see other strange expressions also. Pico was removing a lit but not exploding grenade from his arm. All the covenant had stopped frozen again. For some of us it was just in time, for others it was too late. I scrambled out and fired at a couple of frozen Covies...Nothing happened. For the few of us that lived, we almost started to cry. Then another noise... A voice... From deep in the canyon we heard, "HELLO! HELLO?" I answered back...."Where are you?" The voice came back; "Up here" I looked around but could not see anything. Within a couple of seconds I could see a figure.... a man...WAY WAY up where God lives, Higher than the top of the cliffs. "Who are you I asked and how did you get up there?"

Laughing was all I heard. We looked all over up there but couldn't see whom it was...............Guy picked up a Sniper Rifle and began to look closer.

Guy Who Doesn't Post: Frogblast! HEY! It's the Frogman!!! YES!!!!

Skav: What the hell is going on?

Frogblast: I overloaded the game.... LOL... take off! Run! I can only keep it like this for a few more minutes then you sorry souls are back on your own!

Off we went, dragging the injured and pilfering the dead. As I was running I noticed he was right. The whole thing had stopped but us. Even the snow wasn't falling anymore, just sitting there motionless in the air. We ran until we could run no more. One of the marines that had lived found a small cave and we dove into it. Nobody spoke a word; we just looked around out of breath. I took count of who made it and who died. I think we got another 45 minutes up spin from the Covenant. Just as I started to breathe easy I saw an expression on Miguel’s face I didn’t like.

Skav: What is it? (As I turned and looked out the cave.)

Mig: The snow. It started to fall again. Whatever Frogblast did is over...there on the move again

I still really wanted to go home...

(to be concluded)

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