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20 years after halo 3 by Lamine Sadoun
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halo 4
Date: 24 February 2008, 9:54 pm
It is 20 years after the events of halo 3 and the humans have finally rebuilt earth and the surrounding colony worlds. The UNSC decided that it was imperative that they have more Spartan soldiers. If only one Spartan could save humanity, imagine what a whole army of them could do. So the UNSC sent out for the greatest scientific minds to try and figure out a way to turn the regular soldier in to a Spartan. The original Spartan had to be the best human specimen possible to qualify, but the UNSC wanted every to be able to become a Spartan. The scientists, already on the edge of a breakthrough came up with a solution. Any human could now theoretically become a Spartan thanks to genetic splicing. Genetic splicing allowed for a human to be imbedded with any characteristic or trait of another. The UNSC began taking samples of human DNA so that they can come up with the best gene splices. With in a span of 6 months they had gathered all they needed and began the recruitment of a new generation of Spartan soldiers. These soldiers had nearly all the capabilities of the previous Spartans and a new generation of Mjolner armor. This armor was specially built with the help forerunner objects found on earth. These objects allowed for all battle suits to have shields and performance enhancing equipment.
The UNSC had over 2 million volunteers for the new Spartan generation, but they had only manufactured 60 thousand suits.
The prospect of having 60 thousand Spartans ready and capable of fighting off and repulsing any renegade brute forces was all too compelling so the UNSC went ahead and turned 60 thousand people into Spartans.
These new generation Spartans were not like the old. Too many gene splices and they would become sick and incapable of service therefore every Spartan had to choose his or her specialization. There were five categories to choose from, you could either become a sharpshooter, a berserker, a stealthy recon operative, or you could become a mix of speed and berserker or a mix of speed and sharp shooter. These new Spartans were not perfect but they were 10 times as good as a regular soldier.
The UNSC still had to be cautious, there were still threats out there that could harm the humans, the main one being the bitter brutes. The brutes were not bold enough to strike at earth again, the humans had rebuilt there defenses quite formidably, landing on earth would cause you to lose 2 thirds of your fleet in the process and the remaining on third would have to land to avoid further causalities, and even after landing they would have to put up with ground resistance and this was the optimistic view.
The UNSC had to worry about renegade brutes and other covenant clinger ons so they dispatched teams of combat specialists to patrol the borders of human space. One day one of these patrols picked up a of the strange signal……
Mark, Jason, Beth, and Ted were all part of Squad 3. Squad three's job was to patrol the edge of the sol system and warn the alpha battle cluster of any threats. Mark, the leader of the team, was a tall stoic man who said little but had earned the respect of his subordinates because of his bravery on the battle field. Mark was a rare mix for a Spartan X, he could not be classified in to one of the five specializations because he was none of them. Mark became a Spartan X because he was truly unique and had only needed to be augmented minimally. He was what some people in program call an all purpose. Jason, Beth, and Ted were Berserker, Sharpshooter, and Recon respectively. Squad three's job was one of the more lackluster missions, the real, action packed missions were one the frontier world were the brutes were an immanent threat.
Squad three had been assigned this job because they were greenhorns who needed experience with battle, but were not quite ready to be to conflict heavy areas.
Squad three began to get restless, they hadn't seen any action in over three months, Jason, the hot head, began to complain aloud in the common's area.
"Why'd we have to get stuck with this piece of *censored* assignment, the brass are just trying to screw us man."
"Jason, I know that this may seem like a boring job but its important for humanity's survival" said Beth
"what if a bunch of marauding brutes decided to attack earth, what would happen then"
"well why don't those sons of bitches come then," said Jason as Mark walks in
"be careful what you wish for, you might not like it" said Mark.
Ted rushes in nearly breathless but not because of strain. "Sir, we got something!!"
"show me"
The squad walks over to the Bridge of the mid sized recon ship. Ted calls up his holo pad and show the signal to his team.
"what is it?"
"don't know sir, its seems to be one of ours, but the channel it is being broadcasted on isn't in use anymore"
"where is it coming from?"
"It's coming from the Eradinus system, unknown planet.
"contact HQ lets get authorization to stretch our legs a bit"
"sir, yes sir"
"the rest of you back to the commons, Jason, shut your mouth bit I'm trying to sleep"
Jason and Beth return to the commons to discuss the latest developments.
"what do you think it is?" asks Jason.
"Ted says the channel it was broadcasted on was an old one, it might just be the bridge of some old freighter during the covenant wars"
"well at least, if HQ lets go we'll be able to get the hell out of this *censored* *censored* hole."
"yeah. I guess."
The team waits around for several hours awaiting orders from HQ. Finally Ted calls everyone to the bridge and announces the good news.
"we have clearance from HQ, we're on route to the location"
"Oh hell ya, time get of this *censored* son of a.."
"watch your mouth soldier, we're just as anxious to get of this ship as you are."
"Yes sir"
Ted announces that they should be in orbit to the location in thirty minutes, Mark tells Ted to call everyone to the armory.
Up until this point squad three did not need to, were not allowed to were their Mjolner armor, but now since they were going surface side they were required to.
"Every body suit up, going in heavy"
"why heavy sir?" asked Beth
"we don't know what's down there, I'm not taking any risks"
All of the sudden the ship's AI went into red alert.
"Ted!, status report!"
"Sir, It seems we're not the only ones who picked up the signal"
"Anything on who, or what we're up against?"
"Sir, 2 brute drop ships, the craft aren't equipped for supraliminal flight, permission to take defensive action."
"have they noticed us?"
"no sir"
"keep us on course, lets go dark make sure we aren't noticed" Mark pauses for a second then says
"those two ships are probably part of a brute cruiser, we don't have enough fire power to take them. Until we can safely contact HQ we will proceed as planned. Gear up."
The brute drop ships don't notice squad three's mid sized fighter, but they did pick up the beacon. The brutes, intent on getting revenge on the elites and humans, realize that this was not one of their own decide to investigate. Squad three is 5 minutes away from the drop zone, they are close enough to the ground to able see a huge crater in the ground but no one, not even Ted can recognize the wreckage."
"what do you guys think it is, one of ours maybe?" says Ted
"could be, it definitely isn't brute all their craft are built with plasma radiating engines, this whole area would be a wasteland" says Beth
" Well there's only one way to find out, lets go check it out!"
"Jason, settle down, lets land first" says Beth
"Attention!!" every one rises to salute Mark who has just entered the room fully clad in his Spartan generation x armor.
"at, ease." Jason who was the berserker had the heaviest set of armor. Jason's armor was a regular set for a berserker. His shields were beefed up and he could also lift twice as much as a recon Spartan. Jason was a big guy and he was in charge of explosives and other infiltration operations. Beth was a sharpshooter her armor had normal shields and cloaking, Beth and Ted's suits were not all that different, it was just the training that distinguished them. Mark how ever had a suit that was specially made for his abilities. He was a mix of his whole team. His suit allowed him almost as much strength as Jason but it only had normal shields, it had minimal cloaking which was more of an advanced camo than anything.
"O.K, here's the situation, the brutes know about the crash site and they are on their way to investigate. Our mission is to get to that site first and retrieve any information or any other useful items if any at all. Jason and I will be Alpha squad Ted and Beth will be Bravo squad" turning toward Beth and Ted "Jason and I will be going in heavy while you two scope out the area, look for any landmarks that might be useful, Ambush points, emergency shelter, what ever."
"Sir, with all do respect shouldn't we all go in, dividing our forces like this might jeopardize the mission"
"Ted, don't question my decisions, I have a feeling we'll be here longer than we expect…………"
Back on the brute flag ship the two drop ships have just come back from circling the planet.
The brute in charge of the docking bay began to say something about being late to the brute captain aboard the drop ships when the pack leader barked some instructions to him over the intercom.
"Vladius, send the captain to the bridge immediately"
"yes, chieftain"
The brute captain's name was Scorpius, he was short for a brute but he more than made up for it in muscle.
"Scorpius, the chieftain would like to see you on his bridge"
"did he say anything?"
"no, better brace yourself, you know how temperamental old leather snout is"
"yes…"
Scorpius heads to the bridge anxious of what the chieftain has in store, his patrol was uneventful..
Scorpius enters the bridge and everything is dead silent.
"I'm here"
"yes, I can see that" the chieftain pauses, then
"status report"
"We circled the planet and located the source of the signal"
"is it worth investigating ?"
"cant tell, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to send in a squad to investigate"
"yes, I suppose you're right,"
"What do you suppose we'll find? The crash site looked like a human ship but it is very old, if the humans haven't been here there probably wont be anything except old munitions and the like.."
"you think so?"
"yes"
"why don't you go find out, take a phantom down with your team and investigate, we are leaving this system when you come back"
"yes, chieftain"
Scorpius was not exactly thrilled to be the one who had to be sent down, stuff like this was grunt work. There was an upside though, he would have the chance to get some dirt between his paws. Being locked up in a cruiser with a temperamental chieftain was not a pleasant experience.
Back down on the planet Mark and Jason scope out the crash site looking for any signs of hostility.
"sir, all clear sir, lets get inside the crash site"
"hold up I hear something"
At that moment a brute drop ship came in to view.
"orders sir"
"stay put, lets see what they do, if they try to go in we'll have to move in"
"hoorah!!"
The brute ship came over them and set down in the middle of the clearing. Four blue armor clad brutes dropped out as well as a red captain.
"sir, do you think they know we are here?"
"hush up, wait lets see what direction they are heading"
The brutes started to walk towards the crash site.
"looks like they don't know we're here. Jason I want you to get your jump pad out"
"sir?"
"just do it"
A jump pad is a device that is much like a portal, it is the size of a grenade and can be thrown.
"on three I want you to throw your jump pad in to the inside of that drop ship."
"sir?"
" I want you to go inside and take out the pilot we cant let them know we're here and we can let them get to the crash site first"
"understood"
"1, 2,……three!!!!,"
At that moment Jason activated his jump pad and threw the grenade part in to the portal of the brute ship. The jump pad activated and at that moment Jason was swallowed up by black portal.
"I'm in sir it seems only the pilot is on board, proceeding"
Jason crept in to the *censored* pit of the drop ship. There were to brute pilots, this operation had to be smooth.
Jason took out a poison grenade and activated it, a few second later the brutes slumped over dead.
"sir, the ship is clear, I don't know how to pilot it"
"let it fall out of the sky and stay put"
The brute ship no longer had any one at the head so it began to lose altitude.
"phantom, what's the problem?
Jason gets a bit nervous but then sums up the energy to reply
"engine trouble"
"do you require assistance?"
"yes"
The brutes on the ground begin to walk back toward their phantom
"Jason get ready they are headed your way"
"what are we gonna do sir?"
"do you have any more poison gas left?"
"no I used it to kill the pilots"
"ok stay put"
Mark takes out his sniper rifle but then decides against it he ran around to the drop ship using the trees and undergrowth for cover. Mark makes it around the ship with out being noticed and gets in place. Mark calls Ted over the com channel and tells him to get the warthog out of the ship and to come as fast as possible.
"I be there in 5" says Ted
The brutes are close to the ship now and Ted will not be able to make it in time
"Jason, tell the brutes that you don't need assistance any more"
"sir, yes sir"
Jason calls up the brutes
"I do not require assistance anymore"
Scorpius is now furious
"you bumbling idiots, you have just cost us precious time, when we get back to the ship you'll be punished severely"
Jason fumbled with the controls of the ship and manages to get the ship air born. Meanwhile Ted and Beth have just arrived with the warthog.
"Beth, out of the car stay here. On the count of three I want you to target the red brute and bring him down with your sniper"
"yes sir"
"after that, target any of the others and then stay out once Ted and I set off In the warthog, understood?"
"sir, yes sir"
"on the count of three , one…..two…….three….go"
Beth fired of two rounds right at the head of the brute chieftain, both connected.
"got him!"
The smoke cleared but the brute was still standing,.
"what the hell?" quickly realizing their situation
"Mark, Ted that brute has some sort of specialized shield, two rounds to the head didn't bring him down"
"understood, they know we're here now, no point in hiding. Beth, keep targeting the other brutes leave the chieftain to us."
"understood"
Beth continued to Target the other brutes, she takes down 1 but by the time he went down the others take cover upon seeing the warthog barreling towards them. Ted guns down 2 brutes but the remaining 2 take cover behind a rock cluster.
"Where's Jason?!"
"sir, I've figured out how to maneuver this thing, orders?"
"Jason, do you know how to work the weapons?"
"Sir, think so"
"bring it around here and trick them in to coming out of hiding"
"confirmed"
Ted and Mark continue to fire upon the rock cluster pinning the brutes down. The brutes unaware that the humans have already infiltrated their phantom, call for back up.
"Phantom, we are in need of assistance, it seems we have humans here"
"understood, on my way"
Jason brings the phantom close to the rock formation and sets it down near the brutes. The brutes come out of cover and at that moment Beth nails one right in the head and Ted guns down the other, now only the chieftain remains. The chieftain fearing for his life returns to cover. Scorpius realizes that he is outgunned and that he cannot win so he comes out with his hands up.
"what is he doing?" asks Ted
"is he surrendering?" says Beth
"no one go near him he might be up to something"
"Sir, this is Jason, that brute just contacted me and told me to go back to their cruiser and report to their leader."
"Jason, head back to our ground base, make it look convincing"
The brute slowly puts down his weapon and takes of his head piece, wrong move.
Beth sizing he chance fires 2 round in to his head, on piercing his left eye and the other his nose.
The brute was down.
"Jason, get back here with that phantom, we need to make a little call."
Jason comes back with the phantom and Mark tells them the plan.
"attention every one, there is no way we can take on a who cruiser full of brutes, so we have to get inside these ruins find what ever it is that is sending out this beacon and call HQ for more instructions."
Mark decides the only way to avoid suspicion is by calling the cruiser and telling them that they are having engine trouble. Mark and the others went back to alpha base and decided to check out the ruins for themselves. Mark had order Jason to bring back the phantom, it was going to be their primary mode of transport.
"listen up every one, we're going to start using this phantom as our primary mode of transportation, using anything human might be risky we might be detected by their cruiser.
"Rest up, tomorrow we will investigate the crash site." Mark decides to send HQ a message requesting help, a live feed is too risky, they might be intercepted. Mark and the rest of the team got back in to their mid sized fighter and began preparing the next day's work.
Scorpius woke with a monster head ache, but his ploy had worked. By taking off his head piece, his armor had automatically reconfigured 90% percent of his shields to his head. The two rounds that were fired at his head had connected but only one of them struck, with only a quarter of the intended force. The round to his nose caused a lot of bleeding but it did not go in very far. Scorpius didn't think he would be so lucky, he thought the humans would come over and investigate his body and then maybe take him prisoner, but this was more than he bargained for.
The next day the squad three resumed their initial operation.
They returned to the scene of the fighting and every thing was as they had left it.
"Sir, don't you think we should do something about that brute?"
"we, will take care of it as soon as we are done with our primary mission."
The humans continued towards the crash site and began their way in to the destroyed human freighter. Meanwhile the inert sensors that have been up for 20 years go off.
"Sir, it seems that this ship still has some juice," remarks Ted happily
"Settle down, Beth find the off switch"….
"Beth?"
"Sir, these alarms usually go off when they detect alien life forms, not humans, not us"
Mark realizes his fatal mistake and quickly yells out
"Every body, GET TO COVER NOW!!"
At that exact moment Scorpius come charging in with gravity hammer and got a direct hit on Mark.
It seems that that was the last charge it had because Scorpius threw away his hammer and got out a spiker rifle and starts shooting at Beth. Beth makes it to cover just in time, her shields were down.
"Sir, orders" shouts Beth but after no reply Beth decides that Mark is either down or out.
"Guys, Mark might be down, Ted take point"
Ted the next highest ranking officer begins to bark out orders, but before he could finish them the brute was down.
"Mark, is that?" asks Ted….no answer.
"which one of you guys took him down?"
Jason and Beth are just as stunned as Ted. But then they hear a voice over their comm. Channel.
"This is Spartan 1 1 7, can anybody hear me, over."
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