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A Series of Wierd Events-Sequel by Hunter_Killer
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A Series of Wierd Events- Sequel, Part One
Date: 11 November 2003, 12:29 PM
[CHATROOM, HALO.CHAT.org, 12:30 CST
Hunter_Killer has logged on/
Frensa Geran has logged on/
Walker has logged on/
Elfster has logged on/
'Nosolee has logged on/
Hunter_Killer: Yo waz^? :)
Frensa Geran: Just got back from tourney in Boston, Mass.
Walker: C00l =)
'Nosolee: Didja win anythin
Frensa Geran: Yah, won sec0nd
Elfster: Nice
/ERROR/
.HACK ALERT
SHUTDOWN ONLINE....
....
....
////CONNECTION LOST////
"What the fuck!?" I said, and tried to type a command into the computer, which had booted me out of the chat.
The computer emitted a low beep, and the screen went blank. I tried CTRL+ALT+DELETE, but it didn't work. I tried the power button. No go ether.
"Damnit," I said.
Then, I noticed a small rumbling in me computer. The screen suddenly shone on again, revealing a blue swirl.
A strange vacuum force pulled on me, causing a few of my quarters in me pocket to fly towards the screen. Instead of banging against the screen and falling, as normal physics said, it absorbed them.
Then, my body was thrown free, and was also absorbed into the computer.
I was twirled round and round until I felt sick, and a surge of electricity jolted through my body.
Then, I blacked out.
0845 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
The Pillar of Autumn, Medical Bay
I was in a Medical Bed, and sat up.
"Oh, god please no," I said horrified, remembering the time the HBOers were all caught in the Halo game for X-Box about a month ago.
Then, Frensa walked over to me. "Hunter_?"
"Frensa... what da hell's goin' on here?"
"Ain't sure," Said Frensa, "We're debating this right now on the bridge."
"We!?"
0850 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
The Pillar of Autumn, Bridge
The Marine leading me stopped in the doorway. "Here it is, sir," Said him.
"Thanks," I said, and walked into the Bridge.
"I'm tellin' you, it's a repeat of AsoWE!" Insisted Elfster, who was sitting on a console in the front of the bridge near the display.
"Let's hope not," Said a grim Walker.
"It ain't! I'm sure o' it! We won that battle!" Mainevent put in.
"Barely," Recounted bloodsoldier3.
Captain Keyes and several Marines and Crewmen were watching the conversation.
So, it appeared the whole of all o' the HBOers were on the Autumn.
Wu said, "Well, if it is, we're in the PC Version of it, so if we fight the Covies, we can count on freeze-ups to help."
"True," Said mnemisis.
"Whatever it is, Spark's behind it all," I Said, Entering the debate.
"Hey!" 343 Guilty Spark said indignantly to me.
"I meant the one on Halo!" I said impatiently.
"Oh."
"Sir, preparing to leave slipspace!" Yelled a Tech, and he typed away at his station.
"Ok, so we arrived a little before the first level began. Now we can prepare." Mainevent Said.
"From what?" Somebody in the back asked. The ship jolted, as it landed smack dab into a Covie trap.
"That," I said, and the ship rumbled from several hits.
"Combat Alert Alpha! All personnel to stations." Yelled Keyes.
"All personnel, sir?" Asked Cortana.
"All personnel."
"C'mon, we'd better get to the armory quick!" Yelled Elfster, as he landed on the deck from the last hit.
"Ok, Gimme a sec," I said, and took the microphone. "ATTENTION. ALL HBO UNITS, GET WEAPONS AT ARMORY THEN PROCEED TO MARINE BAY. THAT IS ALL. SIGNED, HUNTER_KILLER."
So, we then ran all the way to the armory, the ship shaking twice more("Shit!" Yelled Frensa, as he fell on his face from the second rumble.).
At the armory, I took two ARs, 600 Rounds for each, and 5 Fragmentation Grenades. Elfster got twin Pistols and 170 Rounds for the lot, Frensa got 10 Grenades and a Sniper Rifle(Complete with 32 spare rounds).
The rest got an assorted lot of firepower, altogether enough to level 5 Covenant Ships.
Then, we all fell in with the Marines, and listened to a pep talk from our Sarge.
Wu stepped between the rows; Artists, Musicians, Fan Fiction Writers, Forum Goers, Managers, and Halo Story Page Submitters.
"Men, I have only the slight suspicion that this'll be ASoWE number two, so brace yourselves. Anyways, we WILL kick the living hell out of those Godamned Covenant Bastards, and come home alive! Do you get me fully and thoroughly, Men(And Women)??!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?"
"SIR YES SIR!!!!" Yelled Marines and HBOers alike, in one cry.
"Uh huh, that's what I though. Now move out! Alpha Squad, cover the Mess Hall! Beta, get airlocks one through 3. The rest of you, split up and secure the Ship! We got Covies inbound.
MOVE OUT!!!!!"
With this order, all hands scrambled.
"Alpha Squad, wit me," Yelled Alpha Lance, and he gathered a team.
"Beta Squad! Over here!" Yelled Frensa.
"Delta Squad!" I yelled.
"Gamma Squad!" Ordered Wu.
"Omega Squad!" Yelled Walker.
"November Squad!" Yelled Mainevent.
After our teams had been organized, we took up our positions, and braced for the wave of Covies...
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Two
Date: 19 November 2003, 12:39 AM
Note to Readers:
Yes, I know. "Oh no! Not another ASoWE!" But wait. I've improved! Oh, and if i get your Sex(Gender) wrong, don't get your undies in a bunch! Kindly inform me in the comments section, and I shall rectify the situation in the next Fan Fic in the series. (there will be over 15 Parts!)
0855 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
The Pillar of Autumn, Deck 3, Section Baker 209
We were in the Marine Bay, and hiding in wait behind barrels, guns, vehicles and Pelicans. Me and Elfster actually boarded an unmanned Pelican, and took up seats in the cockpit.
"Do you know how to fly this thing, right?" Asked him, "You know, so we can get out when the ship is about to crash."
"Easy," I responded, "You just press this here space bar, right?"
Elfster hit his own forehead. He then dragged me out of the Pelican. "Ok, we'll wait till we need to for you to fly us out of here. Private!" He yelled to a group of 5 Marines, "Stay with the Dropship, and keep low."
Frensa's team had blockades set up around the mess hall, Wu's group had Engineering covered, Mainevent's dudes took up defense of the Escape pods, as did Walker's. Alpha's had decided to guard the Bridge.
A crewman ran in, quickly followed by two Marines. They all looked in bad shape, and their weapons were almost out of ammunition.
"Colonel Warbrow!" (The HBOers were inducted into the UNSC Army, Wu was Grand General, Mainevent was Lt. Sg, I was Brigadier General, and so on.) Said one of them, "The Covenant have begun boarding. A Squad is coming here right now!"
"Move out to positions!" I yelled from a rampart overhead.
"Aye," Yelled A Marine back, and my men scrambled up the ramps onto the 2nd floor balconies. I personally leaned over the edge, watching the sealed Security Lockdown door, a Fragmentation Grenade at the ready.
"Elfster! Prepare the Launcher," I ordered over the radio, and our rocket-man crawled up to me, and took aim at the door.
"Where's the bastards?" Asked a Marine, after 5 minutes had passed.
Suddenly, the door was enveloped in a plasmatic explosion, and I raised my hand. Everyone readied their weapons, waiting for the order.
I chopped my hand straight down, and yelled "FIRE!" To my dozen or so companions.
ARs barked, Snipers rifled, Rockets flew and blew, Grenades roared overhead, exploding into the enemy. The enemy fired back, but couldn't quite hit my men above them, and just stood there, firing wildly.
I personally readied an AR and a grenade, and jumped down behind a barrel. After waiting a second, I sent it flying into the enemies over the barrel. As soon as it was clear of my hand, I jumped out into the open, and fired a burst of AR Bullets into a Grunt.
It split wide open, and blood covered a Jackal, blinding him. Taking the opportunity, I drew my other AR and fired them both into it, 30 rounds from each. The bullets ripped the very fibers of it's body apart with a bloodcurdling scream.
A plume rose into the air, an a boom resounded through the bay. A dead Elite's body hit me, hard, sending me and it down to the deck.
I could not get it off me! Bullets, Plasma, Grenades, and Rockets soared overhead, some bursting over me.
I saw out of my peripheral vision that the enemy was withdrawing his shattered forces. The battle was won!
After about a minute, the enemy was totally gone. Dead bodies, ammo cartridges, and bullet pocks littered the floor. A pillar of smoke rose from a hog; Elf must've hit it with the Launcher on accident.
The humans decended to the ground floor, and bloodsoldier3 (along with a crewman) got the carcass off my personage.
"Casualties?" I asked, dusting off my combat vest, and slinging my dual Assault Rifles.
"Two dozen Covies, no Humans," Said Elfster, sliding down a rope to my side.
"Excellent." Then, I yelled to the radioman, "Get me a COMMLINK to November Squad! I wish to talk to Mainevent!"
"Aye, General," Responded the Corporal, and he began to work the portable radio. After several tries (and befuddled looks), he looked at me. "There's no response, sir. Their radio must be out. Huh?" The radio sounded static, then a faint voice:
"This--- Fire Team October..----- Covenant troops...-------------- through defensive barrier Alpha---- toward Bridge...-------------------- ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!"
The Radioman shook his head, and clicked off the radio. "The Bridge... I hope Colonel Alpha Lance's team can hold it."
The ship shook once again, knocking me off my feet, and I just laid there for a second. Then, slowly, I climbed back to a vertical base, and said aloud, "Oh hell. More blowzy upyness."
"Wait, why aren't we still shooting back?" Asked 343 Spark, as he looked out a window.
All the HBOers (About 4) present looked at each other, while the Marines and Crewmen looked indubitably bamboozled at this turn of events.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Three
Date: 21 November 2003, 3:05 AM
---AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER---
0905 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
The Pillar of Autumn, Deck 3, Section Baker 209
"We'd better get off the ship," I said frankly.
"Why?" Inquired a Marine.
"'Cause this ship is going to crash into Halo in about 15 Minutes, and anyone onboard is goin to snuff it purty quick!" I blurted, Elfster ,Warbrow, and bloodsoldier3 all in agreement.
"That Pelican's our way out," Said Elfster. So, we all loaded up into the one Pelican, filling it. I was pilot, and bloodsoldier3 was my copilot.
I pressed the throttle forward, and gripped the flight stick. The engines roared to life, propelling the Dropship upward slowly. After typing a command, the doors to the bay opened, and the Pelican roared out into space.
We shot forward, and I gazed at space. "Helluva graphics show," I said to blood3.
"Yah," replied my copilot, as he began to examine the weapons. "Dual 70mm Autocannons, twin rocket launchers, flack, flare, and foil launchers. Impressive. And a full load of 'em all to boot."
"Look!" Said Elfster, climbing into the cockpit, and pointing towards the PoA through a window. Explosions lined the hull, laser blasts continually hit it, and every now and then an escape pod or two would streak away from the doomed hull.
"I hope the other guys make/made it off," Said Warbrow gloomily, joining in.
"Don't worry. Wu and his dudes and the rest are stubborn. They'll get through," I said, not too sure of myself.
Gripping the flight stick, I saw the PoA speed up, passing us. Then, the emergency retros kicked in, and we rumbled towards Halo, now back in the lead.
"What is that thing, General?" A Marine asked through the door.
I suddenly had a Texas accent as I responded: "Hell if I know, but we're landing on it." Everybody stared at me. "What?" I said defensively, my accent gone. Then, with glee, I said, "I always wanted to do that."
The Dropship hit the atmoshpere, and began to rumble and shake. "Hang on!" Blood3 yelled.
Then, just like that, we were in Halo's air, flying 20,000 ft. over the ground, through the clouds. "Well, now we need to hook up with the other HBOers," Warbrow said.
"How do we find them?" I asked, keeping the Dropship steady. Then, as if to answer me(things always do, even here), one final escape pod entered the atmosphere, and crashed into the ground.
"Look! A pod! Let's go on a rescue mission, H_K!" Said Elfster, and the Pelican began to dive, and I found the pod on scanners.
"Looks like a large enemy force is surrounding the crash site," I said, examining the screen. "An elevated plateau, with steep sides and only one narrow pass up. Good place for defense." Then, activating the radio, "This is Pelican Dropship HBO 1 to UNSC Survivors. Come in, please."
"This is---- Team November--- heavy fire---- about a dozen Survivors---- enemy aircraft---- and Ghosts---- we're---- -surrounded!! HELP!!! Huh?---- H_-----? You---- ere?" Mainevent's voice came through, riddled with static.
"Yah. We got Evac for ya, Main." Actually, the Pelican was at carrying capacity; maybe we could squeeze some extra room in the weapons lockers? No time now, friendly troops were in trouble!
Indeed, after clearing the clouds, we saw the situation. 5 Banshees were strafing the survivors, who were hiding in a small cave. The wrecked UNSC Escape Pod was precariously covering the only entrance to the area. Covenant Teams were trying to dislodge it, but their work was really complicated by a large Machine gun, mounted in a Non-Banshee-Reachable area, manned by the lucky SOB himself: November leader.
Several dozen Ghosts and five times that number in Infantry were circling the Plateau, shooting at the cave.
As soon as the Banshees saw HBO 1, they all turned straight up. It was us, going almost straight down, and them, right for us.
A blob of green plasma rushed past us, coming within 4 meters of the starboard wing. Then two more. Now a stream of the blue plasmatic blobs also rushed past. "Son of a Bitch," I cursed at my control panel, and swerved to avoid a burst of blue bolts.
I jammed down the red button on the stick, and two rockets surged forward, and hit a Banshee in the port wing. Swerving wildly out of control, the one-winged aircraft fell towards the ground, landing on the newest removal team, and promptly exploded.
Note to Readers:
Ok, guys. This is where I need all of your help. Write in to me your point of view of events until this point. All squad leaders can write to me, getting opinions and stuff from their squads. You may choose up to four HBOers of any size and shape except
[1] One used in my squad,
[2] One used in another's squad,
[3] Or the Halo Hackers or Mnemisis or Louis Wu.
So get to writing to me at jlp8118@sbcglobal.net! =)
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One [STERFRYE]
Date: 22 November 2003, 8:46 PM
-- FROM THE VIEW OF STERFRYE --
It was a day like any other. I was watching a video of Halo PC, and wishing direly that my dumb graphics card would support it, when the Quicktime video stopped in the middle of playing a clip of the first level, The Pillar of Autumn. I cursed, put my mouse over the play button, and felt myself being pulled towards the screen.
I screamed as I realized my head was going to be rammed into the plasma screen with crushing force. However, when my head hit, I felt it pass through. Then my shoulders.
Without warning, everything went black.
I awoke to find myself leaning up against a support beam in the side of a hall, across from an airlock. Two Marines were focused intently on it, and seemed to ignore my sudden appearance. I groaned; I felt sore all over, especially near my hand. I looked and it and promptly dropped the Jackhammer I was holding. More out of luck than skill, the Jackhammer fired and flew toward the airlock. The airlock blew outward, killed the pair of Marines and revealed a Covenant boarding party. It was enveloped in fire as the rocket hit home. After the smoke cleared, one Elite remained, and it was ticked.
I screamed until a large, horrendous Flood combat form leapt in the way and fired its Assault Rifle. The bullets tore the Elite up; it roared and died.
Wait a minute...A combat form? On the Autumn?
It turned, lowered his gun and said. "Hey, man, you might want to put some clothes on. You're stark naked."
Wait a minute. The form was talking to me? And I was naked? I blushed as I felt a gust of air hit my...
A dialogue box was thrown up beside my head. It read, "Here, lemme help you with that."
First, underwear appeared on me. Then a Marine uniform and Helmet. I felt slightly weighed down by the ballistic armor, but I was grateful for the help. "Erm, thanks, but who did that? And you," I said and gestured at the combat form. "You're an AI, aren't you? I mean, there is no way I'm in another guy's game."
"Sure you are. The name," the figure said. "Simpsonsrule is the name; playing Halo is my game. You and I are in what is known as a series of weird events. You have basically been put into a Halo game, as have I. However, whatever happens to us here happens in real life, so I would be careful if I were you."
"Hey, man. It's me, Sterfrye. Figures. The expert on Flood is a Flood. But listen," I said and my tone turned serious. "There's no way I'm in Halo PC. My comp was hooked up to the net, but it can't even run Nightfire."
"I dunno how you landed here, but you did. Say, C0ld Vengeance, you coming?"
"Hey, hold on. This is Halo PC. There's no way that you can both be in here. There's no Co-o-"
I was interrupted as a dialogue box popped into the air beside Simpsons. I had to read it backward.
Tell Ster that I can do more than hack, and that includes making a co-op mode. Nope. I'm trying to do something here for the others. I can, however, send you a hacked weapon.
And just like that, a Plasma Pistol appeared in front of me, floating in midair. I grabbed it, and then picked up an Assault Rifle from one of the dead Marines. I scrounged 5 clips of ammo and four frag grenades.
We made our way through a series of hallways. and ran into a firefight. I, using my mad (READ:Nonexistent) AR skillz managed to kill a splash a few Grunts. Simpsons had a shotgun, and he blew apart an Elite. We continued onward, and I had the vaguest feeling that we were making our way backwards, towards the bridge.
"Are we going backwards?"
"Yeah, we are. I'm trying to get you to the others."
"What do you mean by that. Am I not the only one here?"
"Nope. Hunter_Killer, Mainevent, Alpha Lance...they're all here. This has happened before, you know."
"I read about the original series of weird events, but I thought they were just stories...Say, what's that?"
We had reached an overly large airlock by that point. I heard what sounded oddly like...sniper rifle fire. Simpsons slapped a button on the wall, the door opened, and I saw Agent Shade crouched behind an overturned table. There were several baddies in the room. Shade had just taken an Elite's head off, and the body was still standing. I hosed a Jackal from behind, and its guts flew into its shield. I turned my attention on some Grunts, and, just as one of them pulled a plasma grenade and run towards me with a suicidal scream, I ran out of ammo in my Ar's clip. Realizing that I had no time to reload, I switched to the pistol, and held the trigger down. A great green ball of energy formed at the tip and I let go.
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!! BAM!!!
The Grunt was quickly run over by a Ghost.
Ah, the many wonders of hacking.
We cleaned the rest of them out in quick succession.
"Shade, good to see you," I said.
"I can't fu-"
"Didn't you get rid of all that in Shadow Ops II? Sheesh. I mean, enough is enough. Don't say that, will you, please?"
"Fine then. Phu-"
"I don't care how you spell it; don't say it!"
Simpsons said, "Don't worry, man. Ster is always like this. I mean, he hasn't ever used the word, shi-"
"Look, just because I happen to be decent..."
We continued to plow our way through the Autumn until we reached the lifeboat station. A group of three Marines were already seated.
"Okay," Simpsons said. "Everyone hop in."
"What, we aren't going to the bridge where the others are?"
"Nope, my guess is that the others have already left." As if to put a period on the sentence, a lifeboat further down the row launched.
"Fine, fine. Let's get going. Who's driving?"
Shade shook his head, and Simpsons said, "Not me."
"Okay, I guess I'm driving. However, I should warn you; I may have done my Longsword series, but I'm not sure if I really can pilot this thing? Ah, heck how hard can it be?" I said as I walked to the pilot's chair. Simpson and Shade seated themselves, and I closed the airlock.
The controls were easier than I expected.
"Hey, this looks easy. All I have to do is hit the spacebar..."
***
Note to Readers:
This is story of Sterfrye's, he wrote it and turned it in to me. You beter all do the same soon!
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One [WALKER]
Date: 22 November 2003, 9:15 PM
-- FROM THE VIEW OF WALKER --
Omega Squad ran security tight over the escape pods, with men at each
entrance and every member hooked up to squad frequency. Staff Sergeant
Walker, armed with the standard MA5B assault rifle and his M6D sidearm, kept
an eye on the left entrance and his sights on the door. His radio came to
life, and his second-in-command's voice came to his ears:
"Heard anything over the inter-squad frequency?"
"Not yet, Dirk," Walker answered Lance Corporal Kennedy. It felt unusual,
talking to one of his characters who happened to be stationed aboard the
Pillar of Autumn when the game took place. Dirk Kennedy had been the hero of
his first series—and now he served under him, along with fourteen other
Marines who knew him as "Sarge". Surprisingly, Walker knew them, too—though
he didn't know how. And if they had any clue that he had been sucked into
this affair, that he was really a fourteen-year-old and not the hardcore
Marine that they worshipped only second to their platoon Sergeant, they
didn't give any hint to it. And he was glad for that.
"All right," Dirk answered back, and the radio fell silent. The basis for
his question had probably been in an attempt to ease the men with him on the
right entrance, to tell them something about what was going on without their
little secluded duty post. But, it seemed, their connection with the outside
world had been severed... and thus so had they been cut off. It was a solemn
feeling, to be alone.
The feeling ended and was replaced by one of apprehension as plasma fire
echoed down the passageways and reached them from the bridge. Alpha Lance's
unit was on the bridge, and Mainevent's November Squad on the opposite end.
Suddenly, the radio flared to life once more, with urgent speech coming over
from the other end:
"This—Fire Team October—Covenant troops—through defensive barrier
Alpha—toward bridge—" at that point the talking ended and the transmission
was punctuated by a loud battle cry.
Alpha barrier broken... that meant the Covenant had gotten past Mainevent.
His squad had most likely been massacred, scattered and were now combat
ineffective, if not completely wiped out.
Walker switched to the squad frequency and began to give orders. "All
right, guys, the Covenant have reached the bridge. Fire Team October will
give them a lot of blood for their trouble, but we can't count on them to
hold our position for us. Any minute now Covenant will seep through their
position and saturate ours with fire. If they can they're going to break
through, destroy the escape pods, and render our route of escape inoperable.
We'll be fighting with our backs against the wall. Does that sound good to
you?" he asked gruffly.
"No!" the squad yelled at once.
"Are we going to let them cut off our escape?"
"No!"
"All right then, Marines, let's show these savages that if they want this
ship, want Earth, want our lives, they're going to have to pay for it—in
blue alien blood! Am I right?"
"Yes, sir!"
"What's our business, Omega Squad?" Walker asked.
"Killing is our business!"
"And how is business?" he continued.
"Business is good!" the squad finished as one. If they had too they could
have read the slogan of the Walking Dead off of their arms, but every member
of the 9th knew the slogan well enough they could say it in their sleep.
Now the whine of plasma fire and the explosions of needles filled the air.
The doors whoosed open, and Covenant poured out into the corridor. Bursts of
light, smoke, and flying gobs of blue blood filled the air as the Marines
opened fire. Grunts and their bodyparts were scattered over the floor, spent
brass rolled beneath their feet, and bullets ricocheted off of the walls.
The lights would have gone out, but they were bulletproof.
An Elite opened fire with a plasma rifle and metal sizzled as it came in
contact with the superheated bolts. Walker let loose a long burst right into
its back just as it spun to level its fire on PFC Chang. As the .390 bullets
slammed into its back and punctured its armor, it threw its arms out,
dropped its weapon and crumpled to the floor.
"You all right, Chang?" Walker asked the Marine on the ground, back against
the wall.
"Yeah, Sarge. Thanks," she answered.
Their conversation was cut off as another Covenant soldier, a Jackal,
fumbled through the darkness and opened fire with a needler. Walker dove to
the left to avoid the explosive projectiles, and expended the rest of his
clip taking out the Jackal. It fell right on Chang, who threw it off
disgustedly and blew its head open with her MA5B.
The fire faded, the smoke finally cleared, and Walker went over the command
frequency to his immediate subordinate: "Dirk, take two guys up and check
for survivors. Once you're done come back so we have an opening to fire
through if they come back."
"All right, Sarge, but why not just take the whole squad up and stay
there?"
"What, and give them a chance to flank us? Just get!"
"Roger that, Sarge."
Feet pattered as they charged forward, clothing rustled and lights beamed
through the dark of the tunnels. Men examined bodies, or simply stepped over
them, and made sure that, for now at least, they had pushed back the
Covenant.
"Clear up!"
"Clear down!"
"All right, get back down here and brace for another assault," Walker
ordered.
Chang dropped to her knee right behind Walker and raised her assault rifle
to her shoulder, aiming past the other half of the squad on the right end.
"Sarge, something just moved back there."
Walker looked, and raised his own MA5B only to notice it was empty. He
ejected the magazine and slapped in a new one. "If anybody sees anything
move, shoot it," he said over the squad frequency. "If it's one of ours
he'll sing out."
There was tension in the air for a few moments, and it reached its peak
when the thundering of a shotgun was heard. There was a muzzle flash,
followed by the sound of another shell being pumped into the chamber. There
were a few steps, their source not located, until an Elite, a gaping hole
blown through his middle, stumbled into the center of the turn. Immediately
he was riddled with fire that tore him to pieces and caused his guts and
carcass to be thrown to the floor.
"Watch the turn, there'll most likely be more of them."
But instead of more Covenant, there was a voice. "Friendlies! We're coming
out!"
"Hold your fire, but keep your sights trained," Walker whispered.
From the shadows came two tall figures: one, wearing nothing but his dog
tags and pants, held a shotgun, apparently the marksman who had first
mortally wounded Elite. The second wore a lab coat and was unarmed. On each
of his shoulders were three bars, one thick, one thin, and another thick
one, signifying him as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy.
"Who are you?" Dirk asked the naked man.
"Well, the other Pelican pilots call me Hornet," he answered. "Chief
Warrant Officer, UNSC Marine Corps. This is—"
"Lieutenant Commander Ishwar Ganesh," the Indian man said.
"You a scientist?" Dirk asked him.
"No, a doctor."
While Dirk and the scientist conducted some more detailed conversation,
Walker was studying the other man's face. It was hard, slightly wrinkled. He
looked about thirty, so it couldn't be who he thought it was... could it?
Hornet34 was a college student, yet... he was 14 and now he looked like a
full-grown adult, so couldn't Hornet34 age to middle age? It was possible...
"Where are you from, Hornet?"
The man paused, and looked at PFC Chang who blushed at his half-nakedness.
He smiled back, then turned to Walker. "Could we talk somewhere more
private?"
"Of course. Private First Class Chang, keep your guard up on the right
passageway," Walker ordered the female Marine, who walked forward as he and
Hornet backed into the wall.
"So, answer my question. Where are you from?"
"The past, if you could believe me."
"I can believe you," Walker said without hesitation. "My name's Walker.
Staff Sergeant, UNSC Marine Corps."
"Walker, is that really you?" Hornet looked surprised. "Who else is here?"
"Same as last time."
"Same as last time? You mean everybody?"
"Everybody."
Hornet34 held his shotgun tight as the sound of plasma fire once more drew
nearer. "Well, we're going to have to work hard to get out alive."
"Judging by what you said, you just might be our ticket off of the Autumn.
Can you fly?"
"Just as good as Foehammer, maybe better. I don't know, since the character
I've taken the shape of has never met her. How about you? Do you remember
anything this Staff Sergeant knows?"
"Just about, but I don't think much on it. Mostly I've been worrying about
surviving," Walker said. He turned his head and swept the area for signs of
Covenant.
"So, what do we do?" Hornet34 asked.
"Hold our position until we get the order to ditch the ship, which, judging
by my knowledge of the game—"
"Walker, I thought you said you never even got past Assault on the Control
Room!" Hornet exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, I played through every level leading up to it and just about
beat Assault. Plus, I read The Flood."
"Fair enough," Hornet admitted.
"As I was saying, the order to ditch the Autumn should be coming shortly.
If the game wants to toy with us, then it will probably happen just as we
have our backs to the wall and enemies on all sides."
Hornet was about to reply, but one of the Marines yelled, "Contact!" and a
horde of Covenant spilled into the room. Chang was taken out and dropped
almost right at Hornet34 and Walker's feet. Ganesh charged up to her and
took her pulse as both Hornet and Walker fired over him. "She's gone!" he
yelled, and picked up her rifle.
Walker sprayed a Grunt with fire and took it out, along with two of its
little friends. He ejected the clip, slapped in a new one, and pumped
thirty-seven rounds of lead into a Jackal. "Frag out!" pierced the air, and
the Marines took defensive positions just as the center of the Covenant mass
exploded. Grunts were thrown about, and an Elite's back was broken. Kennedy
was splattered in blood, and swore.
"Not again!"
Walker, knowing he was down to his last magazine, dropped his near-empty
rifle and palmed his sidearm. He ran forward and batted a Jackal's shield
in, then caused his skull to collapse with a strike from the butt of his
M6D. The thunder of Hornet34's shotgun filled the air, even louder than the
combined symphony of automatic fire created by Omega Squad.
"Take that, you piece of shit!" yelled one of the Marines as he tore open
the Elite with the broken back with his MA5B. "Yeah, that's right, just like
mom used to make. Want some more?" he asked, and as the Elite groaned he
ended its suffering with a last burst to the head. His buddies watched his
back to make sure he was unbothered as he avenged his fallen fellows.
"Sarge, we can't hold them!" yelled an Aussie Marine—Purser.
"Keep up your fire!" Lance Corporal Kennedy yelled. His order was punctuated
by a long blast from his MA5B that took down half a row of the ever-oncoming
Covenant onslaught.
Ganesh was on the ground behind the Marine lines with a fallen man, trying
to operate on the hole in his shoulder while defending himself and his
patient. "Ammo!" He yelled. "I'm out of ammo!"
There was no one to aid him.
Hornet34 pumped 8-guage buckshot from his M90 until he was also dry, then
picked up Walker's discarded assault rifle and fired the last few rounds
from the magazine. "Walker, we need to haul ass out of this metal can!"
"We hold until relieved!" Walker's grime-covered face was grim and
expressionless as he blew away a careless Grunt with his sidearm. "I'm not
in charge of what happens here, and you know it!"
"Sarge, you're in charge of our lives and these escape pods. You can take us
out and bring us down on whatever's out there. We don't have to die here!"
Purser yelled as he shredded a Grunt's body with rounds from his rifle.
"No, but we have to obey orders!" Walker said. He dropped to the deck and
ducked behind a Grunt and Jackal who lay dead together, then reloaded his
M6D with .450 magnum rounds. "Orders say we hold our post until relieved!"
When he rose again Purser was splattered all over the place.
"Combat teams Alpha through November, pull out to nearest evac station."
Came Captain Keyes' voice over the loudspeaker.
The Covenant seemed to be falling back. "See, told you we could hold them!"
yelled a Marine with a New York accent, the same who had destroyed the
fallen Elite as his buddies covered him.
"Report!" Walker demanded.
"Looks like losses are Chang, Stiger and Purser, sir."
"That's all?"
Hornet34 dropped down beside Ganesh. The doctor lay sprawled next to his
patient, Stiger, who had stopped breathing. The Indian's case was more
painful, as it seemed that his ribcage was disintegrated along with the rest
of his belly and lower chest. "You okay, Doc?" Hornet asked the man.
Ganesh removed his blood-splattered glasses and looked at Hornet. "I'll... be
okay." He said, breathing heavily and slowly.
"Yeah, you'll be fine. You did good, Doc," Hornet said, and Ganesh exhaled
deeply, nodding slightly. "You did just fine," Hornet continued, softly,
sympathetically. But by then he was talking to a corpse.
"Combat teams Sierra through Victor, prepare for evac."
"That's us," the New Yorker, Private Tarelli said. He walked over to the
first of two lifeboats in their corridor. "Sarge?"
Walker looked at Ganesh, then turned away, retrieved his rifle, which Hornet
had also dropped, and his M90, and handed it to Hornet34. "Open the
lifeboats, Tarelli. Dirk?" he turned to the Lance Corporal, who stood with
eight other Marines behind him, staring him dead in the eye with expressions
ranging from weariness and sadness to anger and bloodlust.
"Sarge?"
"Everybody in."
"Roger that, Sarge," Kennedy said, and it was done.
"All combat personnel, fall back to tertiary defensive positions."
The lifeboats were filled one by one, and Marines were strapped in. They
held their weapons close. Hornet34 took the seat at the controls of Walker's
boat, and a farm boy named Owens, who had some experience crop dusting,
apparently, got into the pilot's seat of the other lifeboat, with Dirk.
"Combat teams, fall back to secondary defensive positions."
Hornet34 started the ignition, and instructed Owens to do the same over the
short-range radio. "Stay in touch, kid, or we'll both get lost," he added as
an afterthought.
Turning his head back to his own passengers, he said, "All right, Marines,
everybody strap in. This is going to be one hell of a ride. We go when the
Sergeant here gives the order."
The Marines nodded. "Sarge?" Tarelli asked.
"Let's light this candle."
This is work of Walker, not me. Ok? good.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Four [HUNTER_KILLER]
Date: 24 November 2003, 1:37 AM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
0909 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
Ringworld Halo 004, Upspin 238º
"Well, at least things can't get any worse," Said Elfster, and I almost shot him up with me ARs, as another ten Banshees rose to challenge us.
"This is hopeless," Said bloodsoldier3, as he clung to a metal bar because the Pelican had just avoided a green blob.
The Machine Guns on HBO 1 lit up, and spewed a stream of 70 Caliber Bullets towards a Banshee. It lit up and disintegrated, hitting another one and obliterating that one too. "Two for da' price o' one!" I whooped, and swung the Dropship around.
Two of the bastards followed, shooting deadly blue Plasma at us. I chopped the throttle, and they sped past us. The engines ignited, and twin Rockets turned one into a jumbled heap of scrap and shit.
After realizing that about 5 of their number were now shit, the rest began a tactical retreat. After our victory, I steered for a mass of troops.
The machine guns fired, and the bullets-kicking up dirt-hit in the center of the group. 2 Jackals and an Elite went numb, as another grasped it's broken leg.
The Ghosts couldn't return fire, seeing as I was too high, and the troops' fire had no effect. They swarmed away, helpless against my strafing runs(and I got a few in).
As the last Covenant retreated from the valley, the torn-up November Squad emerged from the cave, and waved down their saviors.
The boys entered, and we did find space in the lockers(more on that later). The overloaded Pelican stumbled away from the sight of the vicious battle, towards Alpha Base.
"This is the game, are you sure there is an Alpha Base? This ain't the book," Said Mainevent's voice from a locker.
"Because," I countered, "There it is." The plateau was unmistakable; besides, 3 Warthogs were circling it and a Pelican had just exited.
"This is Pelican Dropship HBO 1 to Alpha Base. Requesting permission to land," I said into the microphone on my radio.
"Roger, HBO 1. Wait, there ain't no HBO 1!" Came the reply.
"I say there is, and that's the bottom line, cause..." Everyone in the Dropship joined me: "Hunter_Killer says so!"
"H_K!? Sorry, man. I Gotcha," Said the Voice, and I realized it as Alpha
Lance's.
"Alpha, you lucky SOB! I thunked you was dead on the PoA when the Covies broke Barrier Alpha..."
"Nah, but I lost my whole squad one way or another," Alpha said sadly. The Pelican flew into the hanger, and we unloaded. Most of us got Medical Aid one way or another.
I got a couple of hours of the most precious commodity around those parts: sleep.
Three hours later, HPC, Alpha Base/
"H_K! Wake up!!" Elfster's voice brought me back to my quarters, where he stood before my bed. "Wu want's to 'ave a talk," He continued. "He's at the Command Center."
In 2 minutes, I was up there. Alpha, Wu, Main, Ster, and Walker were there. The leaders of the squads that made it back, although there were probably others scattered about Halo.
"What's up?" I asked, as I took a seat.
"Captain Keyes is on the T&R, as you already know,-unless you are the biggest n00b ever-at this point in the game. Because we don't want to screw with the game's system more 'n necessary, we're going to launch an attack on it," Said Wu, "You will be Assault Leader. Squads Delta and Alpha will conduct this bolt. Pelicans Echo 293 and HBO 1 will provide drop-off and airsupport."
"Ok, that don't sound too hard," I responded. The meeting dismissed, and me and Alpha took our squads to the armory to lock 'n load.
A Hunter was there, and I pulled out my knife. Elfster drew his sidearm, and the Squads prepared to fire.
Then, the Hunter did the thing that stopped us all in our tracks. "Wait! It's me, BOLL!"
I holstered my weapon, and said, "Damn, BOLL. You hackers amaze me every single god damn day."
"No time for talk. I'm going to conjure some hacked weapons to help you out, Ok?"
"Gimme," Gratefully said bloodsoldier3, and a load of weapons appeared. I chose an Assault Rifle ("that one shoots Grenades, both kinds, all you need to do is switch thrown grenades, and it'll do the same for the AR," Noted BOLL.)and a needler("That pumps out shotgun shells," Said BOLL).
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One[FORUNNER]
Date: 3 December 2003, 3:39 PM
-- AS TOLD BY FORUNNER --
It was a dark and stormy night, well actually it was a bright and sunny
day, but I?m not much of an outdoor person. Anyway, the point is I
was inside playing Halo PC, laughing my ass off at the Grunt who kept
running around in circles because he had a plasma grenade stuck to his
ass. Then my computer turned into a black hole, I was sucked in, felt a
sense of free-fall, then blacked out.
I awoke on the Bridge of the PoA, surrounded by fanfic writers, forum
regulars, staff members, halo story page submitters, and basically
anybody else that had anything to do with HBO. They were all in a
heated discussion of what the hell they were doing here.
"I'm tellin' you, it's a repeat of AsoWE!" Insisted Elfster, who was
sitting on a console in the front of the bridge near the display.
"Let's hope not," Said a grim Walker.
"It ain't! I'm sure o' it! We won that battle!" Mainevent put in.
"Barely," Recounted bloodsoldier3.
Captain Keyes and several Marines and Crewmen were watching the
conversation.
So, it appeared the whole of all o' the HBOers were on the Autumn.
Wu said, "Well, if it is, we're in the PC Version of it, so if we fight
the Covies, we can count on freeze-ups to help."
"True," Said mnemisis.
"Whatever it is, Spark's behind it all,? said Hunter_Killer, entering
the debate.
"Hey!" 343 Guilty Spark said indignantly to him.
"I meant the one on Halo!" he said impatiently.
"Oh."
"Sir, preparing to leave slipspace!" Yelled a Tech, and he typed away
at
his station.
"Ok, so we arrived a little before the first level began. Now we can
prepare." Mainevent Said.
"From what?" Somebody in the back asked. The ship jolted, as it landed
smack dab into a Covie trap.
"That," said H_K, and the ship rumbled from several hits.
"Combat Alert Alpha! All personnel to stations." Yelled Keyes.
"All personnel, sir?" Asked Cortana.
"All personnel."
Me and the rest of the HBOers ran out of the bridge in a stampede of
MJLINOR armor. H_K?s voice sounded over the speakers: ?ATTENTION.
ALL HBO UNITS, GET WEAPONS AT ARMORY THEN PROCEED TO MARINE BAY. THAT
IS ALL. SIGNED, HUNTER_KILLER?
Immediately I changed course and headed for the armory. Thankfully I
was
one of the first there so I got my pick of weapons. I picked up an
Assault Rifle with the game maximum ammo, two M6D pistols, and 6 frag
grenades. After everybody was suited up, we formed two strait columns,
and Wu patrolled them. He had become the unofficial Sergeant
Johnson?except white (p.s. sorry if you really are black, but the
mental image I get of you is white). After Patrolling the rows many
times, he finally said, ?Men, I have only the slight suspicion that
this'll be ASoWE number two, so brace yourselves. Anyways, we WILL kick
the living hell out of those Godamned Covenant Bastards, and come home
alive! Do you get me fully and thoroughly, Men (And
Women)??!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?"
"SIR YES SIR!!!!" Yelled Marines and HBOers alike, in one cry.
"Uh huh, that's what I thought. Now move out! Alpha Squad, cover the
Mess Hall! Beta, get airlocks one through 3. The rest of you, split up
and secure the Ship! We got Covies inbound.
MOVE OUT!!!!!"
With this order, all hands scrambled.
"Alpha Squad, wit me," Yelled Alpha Lance, and he gathered a team.
"Beta Squad! Over here!" Yelled Frensa.
"Delta Squad!" H_K yelled.
"Gamma Squad!" Ordered Wu.
"Omega Squad!" Yelled Walker.
"November Squad!" Yelled Mainevent.
Instinctively my feet carried me to November squad, along with Wado,
CoLd BlooDed, and 12 game marines. We moved to the engine room and
converged with Gamma Squad, which consisted of Wu, mnemisis, Shiska,
SimpsonsRule, and 12 game marines, we also got a few divisions of
marines to aid us. After our teams had been organized, we took up our
positions, and braced for the wave of Covies.?..
It didn?t take long. A few seconds later, one of the several
heavy titanium doors burst open and Covenant came spilling out. It was
a wave of 30 Grunts at first, but they
barely got through the door as all the fire converged on them. From
behind them, another four Spec Ops Grunts with fuel rods came up and
fired, followed by six Hunters. The Grunts salvo of fuel rods missed
for the most part, one managed to incinerate a trio of game marines,
but the others missed. However, the Hunters next salvo of fuel rods
were much better aimed, and took out a total of 11 game marines and
damaged Wado?s shield.
The return fire was great, but from there current position,
there weapons couldn?t penetrate there armor. Finally after two more
fuel rod salvos, the November-Gamma squad combo was forced to retreat a
little further back into the room. A file of Jackals marched in behind
the cover of the Hunters gun, followed by Grunts and a dozen Elites (4
red, 6 Blue, 2 Gold).
?ARRRRRRRGGGH!!!? I yelled, as I fired in a full auto
frenzy, catching six Grunts and a pair of Jackals in my fury. A barrage
of plasma nearly blindsided me and brought my shields down to 30%. I
ducked down and waited for my shields to recharge, then peeked back up.
The culprits were a pair of blue armored Elites that had tried to sneak
around the barricade. I threw a grenade at there feet, one was smart
and rolled away, the other was oblivious to the explosive and was torn
to shreds. However, the smart one also met a sticky end to a barrage of
Assault Rifle from some of the marines.
Just then I heard what I thought to be mnemisis scream, ?Get
the FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!?
He was yelling at a Hunter. He was in a bad situation, he was
backed into a corner and one of the Hunters was charging him, the
Hunter was directly in front of him so he couldn?t hit it in the
right spot. I grabbed my M6D as quick as I could and fired three shots,
one hit the nearest bulkhead, the second hit the monster in the
shoulder, and the third hit him in his exposed flesh. He groaned and
fell face first, mnemisis barely avoided getting crushed by the falling
corpse. He nodded and gave a thumbs up and I returned the favor.
I ducked from a volley of stray Needlers, shot the offending
Grunt, then took a moment to asses my surroundings.
The HBOers were kickin? ass, Covenant carcasses littered the
deck, but they also had there fair share of losses. A trio of HBOers
lay dead (I wont name anybody to avoid contradicting the story), and
nearly 2/3 of the marine force were dead. Little by little, the
Covenant were gaining ground.
I peppered a few Grunts with bullets, and was forced to duck
as
another salvo of fuel rods leaped over my head. ?Dammit?, I
thought, ?if we could get rid of those Hunters we might actually have
a chance to launch a counter offensive?. Including the one he had
taken out, there had been only two Hunters killed, but another squad of
Hunters had come reinforced with an Elite squad (boosting the numbers
to 24 Elites, 10 Hunters). Most of the Hunters were staying back, all
overcharging there guns at one time and launching massive salvos into
the marine defenders.
I picked up my radio and called Mainevent. ?Main, we gotta
take out those Hunters, once we do, we can actually mount a decent
counteroffensive?, I said.
His voice came back over the radio, slightly distorted but
recognizable, ?Don?t worry about that, me and Shiska are taking
care of it?.
I was about to ask him what the hell he meant, when two
rockets
whooshed down from above. One hit a Hunter strait in the chest, its
entire top half exploded and a fountain of orange blood splurted out.
The second was slightly to the left of its target, but the shrapnel
and napalm at point-blank range easily engulfed the Hunter and a Grunt
with the poor judgment to stand next to him.
I followed the smoke trail, and saw it was coming from an
overhead maintenance, and I could just recognize Shiska and Mainevent,
each with a Rocket Launcher in hand. Obviously the Covenant had done
the same, and a volley of small arms fire was directed up at them, but
it was hardly effective at this range, and the Hunters guns were still
reloading after the last salvo. Two more rockets bared on the Covenant
attackers, one taking out another Hunter, and another detonating
amongst a cluster of Elites, killing two, injuring a third.
I managed to give a WHOOP!! of joy?until the Hunters guns
recharged and they unleashed another massive salvo. 7 Fuel rods aimed
up at them, but Mainevent and Shiska had retreated as soon as they had
fired there second rocket and were now practically through the nearest
door. Most hit above or under there intended targets, a few fell short,
and one hit the door they had just exited through, turning it into
bubbling, melting titanium.
Crap. The rocket brigade hadn?t been nearly as successful as
I had hoped it would, 7 Hunters still remained, and although the
rockets had created considerate collateral damage, there were still
just to many. By the time Mainevent and Shishka were back on the ground
level, we were pinned.
I literally had my back against a wall as I emptied my last
pistol and picked up a plasma rifle lying on the ground, finding to my
dismay it only had enough charge left to fire two shots. And then, just
as quickly as the attack began, it stopped. The Covenant made a hasty
retreat through the blown hatch they had entered through, leaving many
wounded and dying behind.
When the last Covie left and the last shot was fired, I
finally
allowed myself to relax slightly. Marine security teams were already
shifting through the bodies, finding wounded and greeting them with a
face full of lead. As they worked, I mulled over the battle in my mind.
Why had they retreated? They had them pinned, was it because of the
heavy losses they had sustained?
Almost as if to answer my question, the ship rumbled with
shocking force, sending me to my knees. It was because whoever was
leading the boarding parties realized that the Pillar of Autumn was
falling apart, and could collapse at any given moment.
I heard a moan and looked over my shoulder. Mainevent was on
his knees tending to CoLd BlooDed, it looked as if he had caught a fuel
rod strait in the chest, the plasma reflective armor was caved in and
charred in that area. Sparks were being sent up from the MJLINORS
systems. Main had his helmet off and was forcing some painkillers down
his throat, which made him loose conscious. I walked over to him, he
looked at me and stood up.
?hey Main, how you doing??
He looked at me and grinned, ?Oh fine, considering the fact
that we?ve been sucked into a videogame, where immanent danger lurks
everywhere, and everything that happens here happens in the real world,
its just like every other day. How about you??
I chuckled and was about to give some smart-aleck response,
when CoLd BlooDed groaned, then rolled over on his stomach. Seeing the
alarmed look on my face, he said ?Don?t worry, he?ll be fine.
He?s the luckiest man alive in my opinion actually. He?s only
suffered a broken collarbone, three fractured ribs, moderate head
trauma, and a few cuts and bruises from when he fell. The armors a lot
worse off, it took the brunt of the attack, but it?s within working
range.
I shot him a look, ?Since when did you become a
doctor/MJLINOR expert??
?Huh. Oh, umm, since we?ve been sucked in this video game I
guess?
Wu walked over to us, talking to Mainevent mostly, ?A brigade
of ODST?s are coming to take our place. I want your team prepped and
ready to move, you?ll be leaving this shitbucket using lifeboat bays
1C-7C. Gamma squad will stay here for a few more minutes until the
ODST?s arrive, then well be leaving through HEV?s?.
We both went into salutes (though it wasn?t technically
necessary for me since his comments weren?t directed at me) and
replied ?YES SIR!!?
He nodded, ?Alright, be prepared to move it out?, and with
that he turned to the remains of Gamma squad and barked orders.
After Mainevent had gathered what was left of his squad (Wado, me, a
crippled CoLd BlooDed, and 5 game marines), we moved out through the
PoA?s corridors. Wado and Mainevent were carrying CoLd BlooDed?s
stretcher between them, while I (Needler in hand), and the game marines
covered them.
We almost made it home free, till a patrol group of seven
Grunts passed there sights. If it hadn?t been for the idiot marines,
the Grunts probably would have passed us buy and we could have
continued on. But after years of fighting the marines had developed a
shoot-first mentality, and booming reports of bullet striking aliens
rang through the corridors.
As I suspected, they had not been alone. As soon as the Grunts
gave there dying breaths, a pair of Jackals appeared in the corridor
ahead of them. The marines immediately scattered to opposite ends of
the hall so as to spread themselves out, the HBOers were forced to make
there way to cover while covering a cumbersome stretcher. As soon as
the stretcher was set down behind the cover of a support-pillar, the
HBOers ended what would have been a long drawn out fire fight within
seconds. But it wasn?t over yet, 5 more Grunts and a Jackal leader
appeared behind them. One of the Grunts through a grenade that latched
on to a marines forearm. He seemed to be halfway in between rushing the
Covenant, and halfway in between pissing himself, when he exploded,
taking two others with him. I primed another frag and threw it at the
jackals feet, another frag from Wado landed right behind the jackal.
The ensuing twin explosions rocked the floor, leaving only 6 mangled
corpses and one shrapnel filled grunt left, which the nearest marine
promptly shot, the kicked in the face, then shot again, screaming
incoherent gibberish.
We picked up the stretcher again and were off. Again, we
almost
made it down easy street until we came down the final stretch. A
security detachment of 11 marines and HBOer Sergeant B were defending
the life pods, trying to buy them some time. They were trying to hold
out against 4 Elites (3 red armored, 1 blue) 12 Grunts, and 3 Jackals.
There was no time to engage, we simply rushed through the battle zone
and into the nearest life pod. I turned back, and realized that the
Sarge hadn?t even noticed we had gone by, he was to busy strangling a
Grunt with his bare hands.
I yelled to him, ?Come on Sarge, we have to go NOW!!!?
the Sarge looked at me, surprised, then snapped his Grunt
captives neck and rushed his remaining marines into the lifeboat. The
remains of November squad and Sergeant B?s security detachment
managed to squeeze on there one way ticked to hell??.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part One[STERFRYE]
Date: 3 December 2003, 3:51 PM
-- AS TOLD BY STERFRYE --
As the Bumblebee entered the atmosphere, it began to buck with bone-jarring force. The edges of the boat began to glow as well and g-forces started tugging at us.
"So," Agent Shade began. "What now?
"Well, I though we'd head towards Alpha Base. After all," I continued as the lifeboat gave a particularly hard jump and my stomach went with it, "that's probably where the others are heading."
"Wait a minute, this is the game, remember? How do we know that there even is an Alpha Base?" Simpsons sounded worried.
"Well, if you must know, I've been picking up slightly garbled radio traffic from the others."
"Anything else?"
"Well, in my free time I've been writing a symphony, completed legendary mode and deduced a mathematic formula for world-peace. So, do you want to get to Alpha Base or land and let the Chief rescue us? I figured we'd better do Alpha because we don't know who MC is here or how good he is."
"All right then. Do it."
"Done," I said as I heard a beep.
I looked around, confused. The beeping came again. It was the pilot's helmet. I put it on and it continued beeping, with each beep coming higher and faster than the last. I glanced down at the radar in the HUD...my jaw dropped and I immediately began to scream.
"Uh, is something wrong?" Simpsons said. "Did our airbrake fail or something? Because your screaming is making me nervous."
"I KNOW THAT!!!" I yelled in sheer terror.
"Well, has the brake failed or what?" Shade asked.
Plasma bolts suddenly flew around the lifeboat like rain. It stopped quickly; they were ranging shots. That meant that the first volley had come from far off.
Shade stared incredulously and then said, "What was that?!"
"SERAPHS!!!!" I screeched as I slammed my fist on the space bar. The boat shot forward (Down?). The temperature in the boat immediately jumped to uncomfortable levels. More shots came- closer, this time- and I jinked left. The g-forces caused black spots to appear in my vision, and I kept screaming. One Seraph flashed by, its shields taking the brunt of the heat.
More shots followed. The Seraph that had flashed by turned around for a head-on pass. Its engines were flaring pure silver. I used the lifeboat's joystick and juked away from it.
It continued like this down through the atmosphere. Clouds began to pass by us as we came in at a 45 degree angle. I had kept overall movement to a minimum, even when jinking, so as to not put too much stress on the hull or heat shield. The Seraphs had roared around as they pleased and it was going to cost them. The sensors began registering explosions behind us. Another Seraph screamed by, and its shields failed. Its looked like a giant can opener had taken itself to the Seraph as the fighter's skin, hit by the sudden wall of atmosphere, was pulled back off of the ship like a banana peel. It exploded.
Two had managed to stay together, however and continued to pursue us. We had reached an area with several large structures...and a tunnel. If I could get through it, they wouldn't be able to follow me. With any luck, they would slam into the wall. I gritted my teeth and angled towards it. Could I fly through it? I said a silent prayer as I looked at my airspeed.
1,331 MPH
Crap, we were coming in at Mach 2! I leveled out and tilted the ship back its rear. We were flying forward, while the boat was pointing straight up.
"Go back," Shade groaned. "I think I left my stomach on the Autumn.
The airspeed indicator dropped rapidly, and a sonic boom rolled across the ground as we dropped below 600 MPH. Our speed was 469 MPH, still too fast.
I brought my fist down on the air brake button and the flap button. I felt the ship shudder as the already overtaxed hull groaned in protest. Our speed dropped again to 243. The tunnel was close now. I had no choice.
One of the Marines must've gotten a look out of the canopy, because he screamed at me, "Just what do you think you're doing?!"
"I don't have time to explain, just hold on to something!"
He started off, "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
As though they suddenly understood what was happening, everyone else screamed too. Myself included.
"AAAAAAAAA!!! AAAAAAAAA!!!"
We went in.
I came in level, which was a mistake. I should have turned the Bumblebee on its side to maneuver better, but it was too late to correct the error. Immediately, we encountered a hard left turn. I closed the right side brakes and flap, punched the engine up and rammed my foot on the yaw pedal. I even went so far as to use the hat button to trim us even further to the left. We barely made the turn. The Seraphs weren't so lucky. They had been so concentrated on getting a kill that they followed us and they both cratered into the wall.
Now it was just a fight be the force of gravity, several walls and me. I did a repeat performance for the right turn that came next and adjusted as necessary.
We emerged from the tunnel and found ourselves above a river in a canyon. It looked remarkably similar to Blood Gulch. And, as fate would have it, was being patrolled by several...
"NOT AGAIN!!" I screeched.
"Now what?!?!" Simpsons yelled back
'BANSHEEEEEES!!"
One spotted us almost immediately and dropped down on our six. I tried to turn the boat out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough. The boat screeched as a round from the Banshee's Fuel Rod Gun splashed into the rear of the Bumblebee and rocked it. I grappled with the stick, but the round had vaporized the airbrake, flaps and control surfaces. The lifeboat was now a flying, uncontrollable brick with six souls aboard.
"We're going down!!"
"I'm too pretty to die!"
"I sure picked the wrong day to quit smoking!"
"And I promise I won't ever drink again, if you'll just get me outta this alive..."
I was worried we were going to hit a rock arch that hung over the river at 126 miles per hour, but that fear was laid to rest as gravity took over, and the lifeboat dove into the river at a shallow angle.
FWABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!
I came to about three minutes later. I groaned, removed my helmet, and looked around. The lifeboat was in ruins. Water was dripping in through a crack in the canopy. The red emergency lights cast a dim glow over the scene. The others were unconscious and still belted in. Simpsons was closest, so I unbuckled myself, walked over and shook his Flood body.
He groaned too, and I asked, "How do you feel?"
"Shaken, not stirred," he replied.
Shade, who was sitting across the aisle, opened a single eye. "Dude, you are never driving again.
"Shade, you act as though I want to. But we're dead. There is no way out of this tin can."
Shade wrestled with his straps and asked, "Why is that?"
I pointed to the window, which was pitch black. "I think we're several hundred feet under."
"Dude," this is a river. Rivers do not do deep depth. I think the stuff across the glass is mud. And besides, we've at least got to try to get out of this thing."
"Only to get blown to smithereens by Banshees? Staying down here or fighting," I said. I shook my head in disgust. "What a choice."
Simpsons had awkwardly freed his body from the chair. "I think we have a fighting chance. It's easier to take a banshee down than one thinks. Plus, I think you underestimate the storage capacity of this particular tin can. There's bound to be some Jackhammers in the cargo space. Assault Rifles too. Besides, how many Banshees were there?"
I closed my eyes and thought hard.
"Six."
"Okay, then. We are dead."
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Three[STERFRYE]
Date: 10 January 2004, 9:24 PM
-- AS TOLD BY STERFRYE --
"Six. Of all the luck, we find the one canyon that's being patrolled by not one, not two, but six Banshees. Sarge, this is hopeless," one of the three Marines grunted.
I looked at my rank insignia, and it indeed identified me as a Sergeant. "Listen," I said as I quickly looked at his name and rank tag, which was half underwater (The Bumblebee had flooded fast). It read, "Lance Corporal, Jones." I instantly recognized it from Halo: The Flood. He was the sniper who had taken of Ado 'Mortumee's head during McKay's raid on the Autumn for her supplies...or rather, would take off the Elite's head if he lived to see that moment.
"We're either going to make it out of here alive or we're not, so shaddup. Shade, do you think you can knock the pilots out of the cockpits?"
He shrugged his shoulders; that wasn't the reaction I was looking for.
It had been about ten minutes since the Bumblebee splashed into the water. Corporal Jones had made countless complaints about the situation. I couldn't blame him; after all, if any of us got killed here, it would carry over to the real world. We were prepping for taking on the six Banshees that were patrolling the canyon. Shade had his S2 sniper rifle, and carried an MA5B for backup. Simpsons touted a Jackhammer and an M6D. He also carried survival and med gear packs, because his Flood body could take more weight and go longer. I still had my Assault Rifle and Plasma Pistol, and I was confident in my ability to wield them, though I was concerned about the Pistol. If I charged it, it would shoot a Ghost. I hadn't a clue as to the rounds it would fire normally."
"Okay, here's the plan, everybody. Take a breath and I'll pop the airlock. Get to the surface, but stay relatively submerged. Take out the Banshees before they know what hit them, got it?"
The two HBOers nodded, but the Marines gave me a look that said, "Are you nuts?"
"Ready?"
"No," Jones responded indignantly.
"Too bad. One...two...three!" I said as I punched the button for airlock release. Water flooded into what remained of the lifeboat. I pressed against one of the seats and kicked off; my legs thrashed madly. What surprised me was that I expected the depth to be around twenty feet, but the water pressure only registered in my head as about twelve. Perfect. I slowed my ascent as I came closer to the surface. I barely let my head break the water. I could only see...Wait a minute, the logic part of my brain grunted. There were six Banshees here, so why aren't any in the air? I lowered my eyes and saw not six, but four Banshees laying in smoking, smoldering wrecks. Where had the rest gone?
Simpsons popped up to my left, with his back to the tunnel, and his eyes were scanning for the aircraft. I tapped his shoulder and pointed out the crash sites. He glared at me.
"You idiot, There're only four of those flea flickers here!"
"I know I counted six, though..."
"Yeah, well you need to work on your math skills. If you were an A.I., I would not hesitate to blow you into smithereens!" He lowered the Jackhammer menacingly.
"Let's not be too hasty, now!" I said, alarmed. Then I noticed what was emerging from the tunnel. My eyes must have widened to the size of dinner plates and I let out a small, "Eek!"
Simpsonsrule frowned and followed my gaze. He too let out a small squeak. Shade surfaced in behind of us, along with the three Marines. Simpsons reached back and tapped Shade on the shoulder. Shade and the Marines rotated, and once again, they followed our gaze.
The only exception was Shade who managed to find enough of his vocabulary to say, "Oh...CRAP!!!" A column of Ghosts and Wraiths with row upon row of foot soldiers was advancing on us. Not only that, but ten Banshees emerged from over the hill. Several of the Lead Ghosts caught sight of us and shot ahead of the main group.
"Okay, Ster; JUST WHAT DO WE DO!?" Shade screamed.
"Run!" I said; it was the only thing to do. They were going to catch up to us eventually, though. Then, I was struck by divine inspiration; I pulled out my plasma pistol, overloaded it and shot. A Ghost appeared and the three Marines knocked us out of the way to get on it. They all piled on one-way or another, and immediately took off in them. I yelled in frustration as the pistol dumped waste heat (One would think the hackers had gotten rid of that annoying feature by now), and the lead ghosts caught up to us. I hit the deck and rolled as a Ghost tried to run me over. I came back up on my knees, fired a burst from my AR at him and yelled, "You are a cheese boy!"
Wait, cheese boy? I ran a hand over my face and felt a large scar. Yep, I had been forced into the body of Sergeant Stacker. But I still wore the helmet, which was weird. I was forced to dive back into the river as Simpsons nailed one with the Jackhammer, and the flying hulk whistled by my ears. I emerged back out of the lake and eyed a Ghost coming straight towards me. It was the one that had tried to plow me under earlier. I primed and threw a plasma grenade that lay nearby; it stuck to the Ghost, and the Elite driver bailed out a split second before it blew.
I drew my Plasma Pistol shot a normal round: a Grunt, as it turned out. It flew out of the pistol and nailed the Elite dead center in his chest. He was thrown off his feet and landed on the ground, dead. I charged my pistol again and shot. Another Ghost appeared, so I holstered my sidearm and jumped in the driver's seat. Simpsons immediately caught on and he jumped over the back end, straddling it. He let off another shot with the Jackhammer. I yelled at Shade, who was pre-occupied with nailing a Grunt in his...weak point. Simpsons ended up picking him up with one clawed arm and dropped him on my shoulders.
The control was strange. Two pistol-grip like devices jutted out of the panel with triggers on them, and there were foot pedals beneath me. Shade slammed down one of the pedals by accident while I pressed the grips into the panel, and the Ghost pulled a doughnut. I struggled to make the blasted thing move. I finally punched the two pistol-grip like objects forward (Without foot pedal infusion) and the Ghost shot ahead. It turned out that using the foot pedals caused the Ghost to sideslip. I experimented and found that I could drive backwards and shoot with Simpsons giving me directions.
So I did.
"Go left! Not your left! My left!" Simpsons yelled.
"What's up ahead—er—behind us!?"
"It's a hillside cave! With lifeboat...Crap! There's a dropship!"
"What!?" Our conversation was interrupted as a report of an S2 was heard. I looked up and saw an Elite be blown out of a Banshee cockpit. His bird spiraled down and slammed into a Wraith.
"You heard me, a dropship! FLOOR IT!!!" Simpsons resumed yelling.
I did, and the Ghost went even faster before I bothered asking, "Friendly or enemy?"
"It's one of ours! It's one of ours!".
"It'll have to wait, we've got company!" I announced as several Ghosts caught up with us. I squeezed two triggers under my hand, and the plasma cannons on the attack sled spat energy. The bolts splashed into the nose of one of them, and it exploded almost immediately. I tried raising the Pelican on my helmet radio, but to no avail.
"AAAAA! Turn right!" Simpsons yelled at me. I slammed on the foot pedals, and swerved to avoid the Ghost the Marines had grabbed. It turns out that, in verification of popular myths at HBO, Marines really are crappy drivers with bad aim.
They were busy bumping into a rock. Not too busy, however, as they began taking (What I hope were accidental) potshots at us.
Shade yelled an expletive as the bolts fried the air between my back and him. Forget this, I thought, and I spun the Ghost back around. Oddly enough, the Marines decided that we weren't very good target practice, so they followed us.
The Pelican lifted off and roared out of view. This time, Simpsons screamed an expletive out of anger. I agreed. There was a small pass up to the cave, and, without asking permission from the others, I gunned the motor and rocketed up the ramp. I brought her to a halt after getting behind the Bumblebee, which was essentially wedged in a cave opening.
Shade hopped off of my shoulders, and Simpsons slid off the back of the Ghost. I tumbled out of the seat and tried the radio again.
Still no response.
I growled and manned something that looked like a LAAG off of a 'Hog; it was stuck in the ground. It worked pretty much the same. I brought it to bear on a Jackal and pressed in a trigger button. Stray bullets kicked up geysers of dirt, and the Jackal's shield dissolved as a wall of lead hit it. Oh, and it also mangled the Jackal, too. Shade resumed sniping Grunts, Hunters, Jackals, and Elites in their...weak points, and Simpsons concentrated on vehicles with the Jackhammer.
"You know, I really wish this was Halo Two," Simpsons grunted. I assumed he was making light battlefield conversation, but I bit anyway.
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Well, in Halo 2, Marines have the power to call in air strikes, remember?"
"Yeah, that would be kind of handy now, wouldn't it? I can imagine...Tac HQ, this is Sergeant Stacker," I said into my helmet mike. "I've got hostiles on my doorstep, North-Northeast of my position. Bring smoke, over!"
"That was weak, man," Simpsons mocked. I opened my mouth to make a crushing retort, but was stopped dead by the voice that filled my ears.
"Sergeant, this is Major Steele. Hang tight, I'm inbound." Seconds later, the familiar shape of a C709 Longsword Interceptor roared overhead and dropped a pair of black ovals. The ovals had barely visible red stripes on them...My eyes widened; I abandoned the gun emplacement, and dove into the Bumblebee. My head landed on a helmet. It had a stenciled name on it, which I got a glance at. It read, Mainevent.
I couldn't see the napalm bombs hit, but I could sure a heck feel the results through the ground. My entire skeleton shook with the shockwave, and my teeth rattled in my head. Seconds afterward, all was quite.
I emerged from the lifeboat and both of the HBOers gave me withering glares, as did the Marine team (They must've made it up the pass just before the bombs lit up the canyon). The Longsword made a return trip and landed in front of the cave. My squad and I hiked, or in the case of Lance Corporal Jones, rolled, to the bottom.
The familiar ramp on the Longsword lowered itself, and out stepped Steele.
"Hey, fellas," he said by way of greeting. "Need a lift?"
A Series of Weird Events - Sequel, Part One[COLD BLOODED]
Date: 10 January 2004, 9:52 PM
-- As told by CoLd BlooDed --
CoLd BlooDed, one of the five members that made up November squad was strapped into one of the Pillar of Autumns lifeboats chairs. No one in the lifeboat made a sound or an effort to make conversation while Mainevent was piloting the evacuation vehicle. Goatrope, Wado, FOrunnER, and 'Nosolee all peered out of the cockpit window to see the giant ring world that loomed ahead.
"Entering the atmosphere in 5!" yelled Mainevent over the squads frequency.
"That's what they said in the game." informed FOrunnER only to receive a grumble from the squad leader.
The lifeboat lurched as they hit the protective atmosphere of Halo, no one bothered to brace themselves. Goatrope said what everyone else was thinking.
"Shit."
Mainevent had the only UNSC armor that could hold an AI chip inside of the helmet, the artificial intelligence that the leader held was named Maxell after the Floppy disks. The AI had uploaded landing points into Main's neural lace; pointing out the places which were the safest to land.
"We're landing here, it's the bottom of a snow-covered valley; we can take shelter in one of those caves and call for evac." pointed out Mainevent, "Looks like there is some minor movement south of our landing zone, lock and load people."
The earth-like terrain had gotten closer, they could now see the snow on top of the mountains which they were coming in over. They entered the valley, it was at least 3 miles long and caves dotted the high walls of stone, some lit up by unknown reasons. Hopefully some survivors, thought CoLd BlooDed, they could help us out a lot.
"We're coming in fast," said Main calmly, "but not fast enough to kill ourselves like our friends in the game."
Soon the brakes of life pod were released and the pod slowed down considerably, they were now grazing the snow, still slowing down at a significant rate. The pod touched the ground but the snow was icy, a small error that the Forerunners overlooked. Though this was a small error, it almost claimed the lives of the affiliates of November squad. The life pod started skidding as it touched the icy snow; it began sliding on its side and just came to a stop before the outcrop of stone at the end of the valley.
"Another smooth landing by Mainevent." sarcastically said Wado who had stepped out of the life pods exit, he shivered. "Where's the Covenant?"
As if an answer to his question an explosion rang out somewhere above them, several Covenant bodies, an Elite and four Grunts, flew over them and fell into the snow. The team grabbed weapons and ammo which lay on the ground before them. 'Nosolee, Wado, Goatrope, and FOrunnER didn't need an order from Main who had already started up the slope which led to a cave. CoLd BlooDed trailed behind everyone until they reached the entrance of the cave. Each member of November squad had their backs up against the stone wall, more sounds of gunfire echoed off the walls of the cave. There was a hearty roar which came from an Elite and the members of November squad entered the cave with weapons at the ready.
Main, who was the first in, went prone along with 'Nosolee to give a clear line of fire for CoLd BlooDed, Wado and FOrunnER. MA5B's rattled along with the pistols; once the smoke produced by the weapons cleared the bodies of an Elite and five Jackals lay in front of them with bullet holes riddled in their carcasses. A weary looking soldier came out of a group of four marines huddled in the back of the cave which was dimly lit by a lamp.
"CovieKilla, glad to be at your service." the Marine introduced himself.
"How long have you been here?" inquired FOrunnER.
"An hour at the most, "replied CovieKilla, "We're lucky you came, this piece of shit plasma pistol is almost depleted; we wouldn't have lasted much longer."
"How did you get down here, anyways?" asked CoLd BlooDed.
"I was in the Pillar of Autumn with these guys," he gestured behind him, "and then when we were retreating from the Covenant we stumbled upon some of the HEV's that the Helljumpers used in the novel. We used them to drop into the ring and this is where we ended up, only one or two of my men didn't make it through the drop."
There was a brief moment of silence until Mainevent interjected.
"We need to get back to the command center where H_K is, that would be the best place to go right now."
"How do we get there?" asked CoLd BlooDed.
"A pelican came by a little while ago, we tried to contact it but I think our COM devices aren't working." said CovieKilla. "They dropped two Warthogs and a Scorpion in an attempt to make their load lighter when escaping from the Covies. We can drive into the mountains; I think a UNSC outpost was set up on a ledge somewhere on the outside of the mountains."
Mainevent motioned everyone out of the cave 2 by 2; CoLd BlooDed was standing beside Wado who was behind Mainevent and 'Nosolee. They filed out of the cave and down the slope, then made it across a frozen lake to the UNSC vehicles. Main hopped into the driver seat of a Warthog and Wado hopped into the gunner seat and CoLd BlooDed hopped into the passenger's seat. In the other 'Hog CovieKilla was driving, and FOrunnER was in the side seat, 'Nosolee was a gunner. Goatrope had taken the role as a driver in the tank; the four marines that accompanied CovieKilla had taken seats on the sides of the Scorpion.
"Ready to rock, sir!" Goatrope's voice came in clear over the command freq.
"CovieKilla here, lets boot it!"
Mainevent radioed back and then hit the pedal to cause the 'Hog to spin and then shoot off with speed. He was following CovieKilla who was about ten meters ahead, Goatrope trailed directly behind Main, it was like a convoy.
"Hostiles to the left." CoLd BlooDed's voice echoed over the COM channel.
In response the Scorpion opened fire; a small group of Elites had hopped down a rocky slope. An explosion echoed throughout the canyon as it tossed the dead carcasses of the Elites elsewhere.
"Score one for Goatrope." Goatrope chuckled over the freq.
They were nearing a tunnel at the end of the snow covered valley, but two Hunters came out from behind a large boulder. The LAAG controlled by 'Nosolee and CoLd BlooDed started to fire. It wasn't much use, in response to the useless attack the Hunters managed to fire from their fuel rod weapons. The first one missed by a long shot, but the second came closer and closer to the 'Hog that CovieKilla was driving.
In a doomed effort, CovieKilla did a fishtail maneuver to avoid the incoming plasma.
The explosion would've killed CovieKilla, FOrunnER and 'Nosolee if he hadn't tried to dodge the attack. But CovieKilla's vehicle resumed its course as the tank once again sent a shell to the Hunters position, it exploded with much better results. Orange blood sprayed the boulder and snow, the Hunters had only been tossed a meter or so from where they were standing. They made it to the tunnel; it was just wide enough for the Scorpion to fit in. The passageway looked a lot like the tunnel in the level Assault on the Control Room, except it kept on going up, randomly twisting left or right.
Soon they emerged out of the tunnel and onto a large cliff; about a kilometer away was a UNSC outpost. A makeshift road (snow melted so the dirt showed) led them to the base, and November squad and CovieKilla made it to the outpost in less then two minutes. They parked outside of a large beige tent; UNSC soldiers came to greet them.
"Why 'ello, and wot are you doing 'ere, then?" asked a burly marine with a heavy British accent.
Mainevent didn't answer him; instead he asked a question of his own which was where the commanding officer was. The marine led him into the beige tent, inside there was a man sitting on a wooden chair behind a makeshift desk. He wore the UNSC high ranking officer's uniform and stood up from what he was doing as the squad moved into the tent.
"Can I help you?" the man asked with a rough voice.
"We need a lift to the UNSC command center, a friends waiting for us there." replied CoLd BlooDed.
"Oh, ok, so you just come to this outpost looking for a free ride? Well sorry buddy, but that I'm afraid is not gonna happen." said the noncom calmly.
"Oh and why not?" asked Mainevent angrily. "We need to get to command center now. You can ask for H_K, he'll tell you that we're needed there."
"I won't bother," said the officer grouchily, "I just got in touch with him, he said watch out for you guys, but I didn't know if you were the ones he was talking about. McGregor!"
A skinny marine ran into the tent panting, "What is it, sir?"
"We need to give these men a ride to the command center, get a Pelican ready on the double." the noncom ordered, the marine nodded and ran out of the tent. "Now get out of my sight."
Mainevent and his squad mates didn't like the attitude of the officer, but they couldn't change anything about it unless they'd like to be court-martialed. The soldiers walked out of the tent and were lead by the British marine who had greeted them in the first place to the "Landing Pads". It wasn't too far away, maybe a minute away from the beige tent. They stood waiting at the landing pads waiting for a Pelican to be started up.
"Hey, Main, how did you get off the Pillar of Autumn? I bet that ---" CovieKilla had tried to make conversation but two stray magenta-white needles attached to the soldiers arm. "Holy shit!"
The projectiles exploded shortly after they glued themselves to CovieKilla's arms, the team backed away, they knew it was needler shots. Blood sprayed the ground, behind them the Grunt that had shot CovieKilla jumped out behind a tent accompanied by several Elites. CoLd BlooDed dropped to one knee and opened fire, the other members followed suit. An alarm started to blare; the UNSC outpost was under attack.
"The Pelican's almost ready to go, it just needs another load of gas before we can take off!" yelled the technician who was readying the aircraft.
Goatrope primed a grenade and tossed it into a fray of Jackals who had hopped out from behind the Pelican; it exploded sending charred bodies everywhere. CoLd BlooDed took out his pistol and shot down a Grunt, he needed a sniper to show off his skillz.
Mainevent hopped into the Pelican's cockpit as several fights had broken out at the base, he yelled: "I'll get everything operational, this technician is too damn slow! Get in as soon as I say!" CoLd BlooDed stuck with Wado and 'Nosolee, FOrunnER was attending the wounded CovieKilla as plasma bolts went past his head as Goatrope covered him. The technician screamed and ran away as an Elite stepped out from behind a stack of UNSC weapons and ammunition.
CoLd BlooDed took three head shots on the creature to take away his shield, but the alien dodged the forth and fifth shot. 'Nosolee took out his five-inch metal knife and threw it with deadly aim (as mentioned in Mainevent's story), it struck the slit in the Elite's armor where it opened up for the eyes. Blood sprayed out of the back of the alien's head, it toppled backwards, dead. 'Nosolee calmly walked over to the bleeding carcass and yanked the knife out of the creatures head. He wiped both sides of the knife on some snow near his boot.
"Gotta keep it clean," 'Nosolee said with a smirk on his face, "its bad luck if you don't."
'Nosolee turned around and walked back to where Wado and CoLd BlooDed stood; they were impressed with his knife throwing skills. Goatrope yelled with an Assault Rifle in each hand and firing, bodies of Grunts and Jackals and the occasional Elite lay on the snow covered ground in a three meter radius, he was on a "Killing Spree".
"Get into the Pelican pronto!" yelled Mainevent from the cockpit over the team freq.
FOrunnER attempted to lift up the injured CovieKilla who now had a biofoam-filled arm, CoLd BlooDed took the legs and they both took the marine into the Pelican. Goatrope hopped into the back along with Wado, 'Nosolee and the other four marines, the belly jets ignited and soon they touched off. Below them a battle raged, but it seemed like the humans were winning, they would contact them once they reached the command center.
"First in and only out, eh boss?" said CoLd BlooDed as the Pelican rose higher.
The twin turbine engines were given power and they disappeared from view of the UNSC outpost, a little while later the battle was won.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Seven
Date: 15 January 2004, 2:19 AM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1037 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Covenant Cruiser Truth & Reconciliation,
Inside HPC
My vision returned to me, and we were in the right spot. "Ok, guys. We made it in. Now for the tough part."
Cortana said over radio, "No covenant defenses detected."
"No Covenant?" Asked a familiar Marine. "Think maybe nobody's home?"
"No, a lot of em are home, and in about 3 seconds we will be grinded upon by a huge strike force. So I'd suggest BATTLE FORMATION, Teams!" I yelled, and we each ran to a door.
7 of us were covering each of them. Though I calculated that in about ten seconds, our ranks would be a lot thinner. Like cut in half probably.
We heard the RING! from the first door, and raised our modded weapons. I prepped my Shotgun Pistol.
The door to the left side of us opened, and out roared a Golden Elite with a Plasma Sword and a temper, along with a load of his underlings. "Fire!" Yelled CoLd, and all hell broke loose over there.
RING! The door across from us. Agent Shade yelled, "Charge!" And the two forces impacted.
RING! This time, it was our door. When it opened, I had a face fulla Buckshot ready n' waiting for Goldielocks and the Three Stooges behind him. And so did Mendoza, who was carrying a normal Shotgun and was beside me.
RING! The last door revealed the same compliment; Gold Elite, 3 Grunts and a Jackal or two.
On Legendary, in the real world, this battle can be a top candidate for 'Hardest Battle of Level'. That ain't nuthin compared to twenty-five minutes of PURE AGONY at the Grav-Lift. I swear to god, If I ever catch 343, I'll find a way to kill that little blue orb, and it'll probably involve a 120mm Shaped-Charge Rocket, a hot browning iron, and 600,000,000,000 volts of direct current!
The battle was almost over now; just another wave and we could open the door leading to the place where the Marines stay put and wait for the HBOers to open the door from the other side. Great! Just what we needed. To have our ranks further sapped.
At my door, it was down to me and a Commander Elite. Western showdown music started playing on the ship, and everyone (including the remaining Covies) stopped to watch. The only sound was the Plasma Sword humming menacingly.
I shoved a clip into my Modded AR, and pulled back the safety. The elite raised his Sword. He dove for me, but I ducked just in time. The sword passed within Centimeters of my head, ruined my helmet, and gave me a premature haircut. "700,000,000,000 volts," I muttered, as I dived out of an uppercut.
I shot it 6 times in "Sniper Mode" in its... vulnerable area. With a roar, it went down. The remains of my door group began to spread out and assist the others.
After the battle, the big door opened, revealing two Gold Jackals. After a shitload o' Gold Elites +underlings, you can guess how easily we dealt with Dumb and Dumber.
We did the whole "We'd be sittin ducks in that narrow space." Thing, and the Marines held position. All the HBOers went back up the ramp.
"Ok, I got a plan. You know that active Camo that you pick up before going in the halls? I read a |337 article saying if two of us get it at the same time, we both get the Camo, Yo. Me and Walker will move ahead and take out as many Covenant as we can, while invisible. If you hear weapons fire, or a message from us, move up ASAP."
"Got it," Everyone said simultaneously.
It was tricky, and required a few "revert to save"s, but eventually we both got the Camo on, and the HBOers moved into the hallway. We went ahead, and proceeded to bonk the hell out of everything taller than me(remember, I'm 5' tall, 11 Years old. I can look a Grunt eye ter eye! I can barely see over the damn dashboard on my 'Hog! I'm blown back 8 feet when ever I fire a Jackhammer!)
The Elite went down, and just at that moment, our Camos ran out. Fortunately, everything was dead. "HBOers, move up. All clear," I said over the Comm. Channels.
The doors BEEPed, and out thundered our Six fellow HBOers, weapons at ready. We approached the door to the small hanger, and I gave the signal to stop. "Alpha, don't you have that AR that shoots tank rounds?"
"Yah..."
"Move up and BLOW THE LIVING HELL out of anything in that hanger, ASAP. We'll cover you."
BOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-M!!!!! The Massive explosion temporarily blinded the single remaining Grunt.
The body of a Dead Elite, which had been tumbled in the air worse than a bead of sweat in an aerobic teacher's buttock cleavage, landed on the Grunt, squishing it.
"Damn," I said, "Those grunts REALLY ARE unfortunate little buggers."
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Five
Date: 15 January 2004, 11:42 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1000 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC
Ringworld Halo 004, Valley of the T&R
I looked at my squad in the Passengers' Cabin; even though I couldn't see their faces in the dark that it was in there, I could tell the Marines were either scared shitless, or wondering if they would survive the assault. The HBOers were the opposite; cool, calm, and checking their weapons one last time. After all, every HBOer had played this level at least 10 times over.
"Touchdown in ten seconds," The pilot's voice came over the squad radio, and I hung on to the bar above my seat as we came in for the final approach.
The two dropships swooped down onto the valley, over which the Truth and Reconciliation was hovering, and sat down at the place you unload at the start of the level.
The hatch opened, and I ordered, "Men! Move out double-quick! Move! Move!!" The troopers unloaded from the Dropship, and the other group also emerged. We took up holding positions, and I went up to the sniper spot.
Our air rides rose into the air, and sped away to help other HBOers and Marines.
I took aim on the x13 scope on my hacked AR, and let loose 30 Fragmentation Grenades into the hapless enemies in the little depression below.
A second later, a firestorm from hell incinerated every enemy in sight, and sent the Shade Turrets up 500 meters into the air.
"Whoa," Said SOS.Odin, and he shot a Sniper bullet at it from his Plasma Rifle for kicks. One Grunt began to get up after being damn near blinded and deafened by the hellstorm bombardment. The turret landed direct on it. The Grunt was squeezed like a ketchup packet. It burst, and blood flew in all directions, covering the corpses and charred earth within a 30 meter radius with blue blood.
"Sure as hell a weird way to kill a grunt," I said to Odin, "But mighty damn fun. To bad we ain't got that for keepers."
A text box popped up right in front of my face. I jumped. It said:
It's me, Frogblast. The Halo Hacker. Anyways, I can't access the T&R level, probably cause you're there. I intercepted(using my technology)at least thirty calls to Microsoft Tech Support complaining about this. Anyway, I did get that with my webcam LOL. =D I'll keep in touch and give what help I can.
(A)To Continue
"Holy shit..." Said Elfster. He had about summed up popular public opinion in the combat zone.
"Ok..." I asked to everyone in general. "Is this like a touch-screen thing? Do I say 'A'? I sure ain't got no controller, so I can't press it like that."
"Say it," Said Odin.
"Touch it," Countered Elfster. I just sighed and pressed the green portion of the box. Immediately, it disappeared. "Told 'ya," Said Elfster with zeal, and he gave Odin a raspberry.
"I can't believe it!" I said honestly.
"Yah," bloodsoldier3 agreed, "What childishness."
"That, and that box of text. If Frog boy up there can do that, he can probably do more. Much more. Oh, da possibilities..." I pondered.
"Can we PLEASE move on!?" Warbrow asked, exasperated. So, we did. And fought enemies. And Tank Shelled them to a fiery place deeper than Hell.
When all was said and done, we were at the Grav-Lift, fighting the Hunters. Then, my weapons ran out of ammo. Then everyone's went dry, as more enemies came. And more. And more. And more. Eventually, the last Ghost was fired out of Warbrow's pistol, and everyone was out. Another group floated down, and suddenly my ears popped.
Everything stopped. All of reality, except for me and my squads. A single Plasma bolt floated in midair, motionless. Another Text Box popped up, above the Covies:
Oh, crap. My hex codes... aren't working. Someone is blocking them! From INSIDE the game!
(A) To Continue
"It's Spark! The Monitor! He's screwing with the game! Gotta be!" I said to the text box.
I picked up a Plasma Rifle, and shot the Green (A) Button from 200 meters away. The bolt hit dead center, and a series of ripples emanated from it.
The box remained, but the text flashed and faded. New words lit up:
Like the last fiasco we had! Figures. Oh, and just in case you're wondering why there are more Covies than you remember, I'm picking up modifications in Halo's Fractal Coding. It ain't hexed, therefore it goes. I used a temporary code change to put the freeze on these Covie n00bs here. I can't get you more ammo or weapons... you'll have to use Halo's regular ones... I'll get to work fixing the coding, and stopping the Covies. Hang tight till then! =)
(A) To continue
I picked up a Sniper Rifle, dropped by a Dead Marine. A box of unhacked ammunition(30 Rounds)was lying there, and I loaded.
Boom! The vapor trail pierced the (A), and the box slowly began to fade. A new, smaller one popped up quickly:
PS: The Fractal Coding is beginning to repair... some Covies in other zones are coming back online... I'd say you got about 5 seconds till our friends wake up.
There was no (A), it just vanished. Knowing this, we hastily grabbed the closest weapon and a few sprits of extra ammo. It would have to do for now.
Several lines of 0101010101010101010101010101 became visible for a split second, replacing a square meter of the ground, as the game booted up again...
TO BE CONTINUED...
Note to Readers:
Ok, people! SEND IN YO POINT OF VIEW ON ASoWE! And only send it to me, so I can post it in a special manner(like adding it to my series officially) send to: jlp8118@sbcglobal.net.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Six
Date: 15 January 2004, 11:54 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1020 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Ringworld Halo 004, Area of Grav Lift,
Inside HPC
I squeezed the trigger on my Sniper Rifle, and the report echoed for some distance around. A vapor trail made a line going through a Jackal. A gush of alien blood emanated from the enemy soldier.
Without a word, it fell to the purple-ish floor of the Gravity Lift, alongside 6 Dozen of his comrades felled from before.
The aliens fired upon us, and we dove for cover. Me and Warbrow ended up behind a Shade. Blue streaks, green blobs, and magenta needles flew overhead and to our sides.
"Ok, Forum Boy," I yelled over the chatter of machine guns, shrieks, yells and moans from the wounded, explosions, and the sizzle of Plasma, "Elfster's got a launcher, and a rocket left, but he's pinned down on the other side of this valley. Cover me; I'm goin' ter' get him."
Warbrow shrugged, and peeked his head over the turret. A second later, his AR was firing above the turret.
I ran like all hell was about 2 inches from me. Plasma and Needles flew all around me. I passed a group of 3 Marines behind a bush; two were wounded.
I was watching a rather interesting exchange between a Grunt and bloodsoldier3("Give that back! I need that, Damnit!" blood3 yelled.)and wasn't really paying attention to the stuff in front of me. I tripped over a dead Marine, and fell flat on my face.
"Hell," I yelled, as several gouts of Plasma landed around me. I rolled-still on the ground-behind a box, and a Plasma Grenade soared over my head.
I activated my Helmet's radio, and yelled over the sounds of battle, "Alpha Lance, gimme a god damn status report on the triple time!!"
"You want the good news or the bad news first, H_K?" Alpha's voice crackled over the comm.
"I always liked me good news first," I responded.
"Good news is, my boyz and your boyz 've killed a shitload of Covies. Bad news is, THAT'S THE ONLY GOOD NEWS I'VE GOT! My men are almost spent, a few more waves and Alpha Squad will shatter. You men are about in the same way."
"Hell," I replied, "We can't keep up the fight much longer. Wait, hold on. I'm goin to call Alpha Base for Reinforcements."
"Delta 1 to Home Plate, repeat, Delta 1 to Home Plate."
"This is Home. Wacha Need, Hunter_? Got Keyes yet?"
"No. In fact, we in trouble at the Grav-lift. Somehow, 343 Guilty Spark found a way to endlessly spawn Covies to come down for us. But we got a Hacker on the case. Anyway, we can't hold the area for much longer. We need reinforcements, over."
"CoLd BlooDed and his squad departed about 20 minutes ago. They should be in sight shortly."
"Ok, Thanks. Out." I switched frequencies to the Humans near the Grav-Lift. "Ok, guys, CoLd's inbound with reinforce. Should be in sight soon."
"CoLd!? God help us," Came Elfster's voice over the radio.
"There we go, Pelican inbound on drop vector," Odin noted.
The Pelican came into view, with a Warthog on the winch. It turned around, revealing the Passenger Bay. CoLd waved, and smiled cleverly. Man, it was good to see some friendly units for once! The Pelican dropped the Warthog 20 ft. from the ground, causing it to bounce once and come to rest on a Grunt.
I peeked out from the rock I was hiding behind, only to come face to face with another Grunt. This time, for some reason, he didn't power up his Plasma Pistol, and I didn't raise my Pistol. We just stood there for a second.
Then I said to him, "You know, I really do feel sorry for you Grunts. We kill you, they kill you, you guys die in the weirdest ways, they treat you like dirt, make you their slaves. And you guys are made to be the 'Stooges' of the Covies, you know?"
The Grunt nodded. "Truth be told," He piped up in that high voice, "Most Grunts don't have nuthin' against you Humans. And it makes me sad to see all your "Marrenzz' who have to die, and who are already dead. Just cause the Prophets don't like you!"
"Yah. Look, I'm really sorry, but if our leaders saw us like this, you know, just talking and stuff... well you get the picture. So, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you now."
"I understand. But, could you try and make it not hurt?"
"I got it! Here, try some o' Mainevent's meatloaf. This stuff will screw up your respiratory system, but it probably won't hurt much. Not as much as the pistol!"
The Grunt snarfed it down, then began to twitch. "I won't forget you, man!" I said, then his little heart stopped beating.
The Pelican was on the Ground now, and CoLd shot a Ghost from his Plasma Pistol, squashing a squad of 4 Jackals.
The HBOers and Marines filled out, and we fought with a 2nd wind, so to speak.
Finally, after ten more minutes of fighting, no more Covenant dropped down to meet us. "Alpha," I said over Comm. Channels, "I need a casualty report five minutes ago."
"Aye aye, H_K sir!"
Warbrow and Mainevent walked over to me War said, "Hey, I dunno how this one died. I didn't see H_K shoot it."
"He probably bored the poor thing to death. Not even the Covenant deserve to die that way!" Said Main.
"No," I said, on the fringes of a great comeback, "I gave it some 'a you Meatloaf, Main."
War, the Medic pulling away a dead soldier beside us, and another wounded Marine behind a nearby bush laughed. Mainevent, on the other hand, was far from amused.
Alpha ran over to me. "Ok, I count 8 dead Marines, about 80 dead Covies, and 6 Wounded troopers.
"That went well," I noted, half-sarcastically and half-seriously. "Before we mosey on onto the T&R, we should wait for word from the Hackers."
As if hearing my words a text box popped up.
Hey guys, Finaly got that damn Fractal coding back into alignment. I see you guys need Med-kits and modded weapons. I'm finally getting the hang of screwing with the game's Fractal Codes. So, expect more assistance, more often from now until we can get you out of there. Stand by, and I'll spawn you some supplies.
(A) To continue
I touched the button, and the box faded out into nothingness.
Weapons appeared all around us, of all type. I took an AR that shot either Plasma Grenades or sniper rounds(depending on which type of grenade I select), and a pistol that shoots Shotgun shells that not only dispersed, but had pistol-round-accuracy.
The three squads filled in the Grav-lift, tallying almost 30 men. Sergeant Johnson began to float up, along with Warbrow. There went Main. CoLd and Mendoza went sky high. I was the last one to come. Finally, I could feel myself floating upwards, into the T&R...
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Weird Events - Sequel, Part Two[COLD BLOODED]
Date: 26 January 2004, 9:35 PM
-- As told by CoLd BlooDed -
0945 Hours, Unknown Date/On Halo Installation 04, approaching command center also known as Alpha Base.
CovieKilla moaned and FOrunnER attended to him as the Pelican shook from a small patch of turbulence.
"How's he doing back there?" questioned Mainevent sternly over the COM from the cockpit.
"He'll be fine," FOrunnER replied calmly, "Just as long as we get to Alpha Base in the next fifteen minutes."
"Don't worry, according to our speed, Maxell says we'll be there in five." responded Mainevent, "Just keep an eye on CovieKilla."
CoLd BlooDed peered out of the open ramp at the back of the Pelican, they had left the snow-capped mountains and we're now flying over some rocky hills and lakes. Goatrope checked his weapons while talking to Wado and 'Nosolee, who had a relaxed _expression on his face and twirled his knife around between his fingers.
Mainevent flew the Pelican with swift and agile skill, and soon they had crossed the large plain and the plateau where Alpha Base was located could be seen clearly.
"This is November squad to Alpha Base, we have wounded, requesting authorization to set down." Mainevent said over the COM system so the rest of the team could hear the conversation.
"Good to hear from you, November squad, you trapped in the Halo universe too?" asked the familiar voice of Alpha Lance.
"Roger."
"Sucks, I tell you. See in you the next few minutes, your clear to land on pad A-2." Alpha Lance said and then clicked off the COM channel.
The Pelican dove and then re-balanced, below them CoLd BlooDed could see the makeshift walls of Alpha Base. They then stopped in mid-air, and slowly hovered downward until they hit the landing pad. The hum that the Pelican usually make stopped suddenly, and CoLd BlooDed hopped out the back followed by the rest of the team.
Two marines ran over with a stretcher and CovieKilla was loaded on, clutching at his arm, and was carried away to the infirmary. Mainevent hopped out of the cockpit and walked over to the rest of his squad. A technician came over to Mainevent and whispered something to him, then Main turned around to November squad and said, "Okay guys, we're called to the meeting room."
They followed the tech into the structure and weaved through several hallways until they finally came into the "meeting room". Inside was just a large and long plank of wood, balancing among a pile of bricks positioned under each corner of the "table". Several lights flicked above the three meter tall room, and sitting in a chair was Alpha Lance and Louis Wu.
"What's the problem, Wu?" asked CoLd BlooDed respectively.
"Hunter_Killer and his squad were sent to assault the Truth & Reconciliation and rescue Captain Keyes." Wu replied and then added, "They need help, we've been monitoring there Bio-signals and most of the marines Bio-signs have gone dead."
"And you want us to help," speculated Wado.
"Put bluntly, yes. We need you, November squad, to go in and help them out." Alpha Lance said. "We're not taking 'no' for an answer, you're to be on the landing pads in ten."
"We'll re-assemble our team, then." ardently said Mainevent who saluted, he then motioned his team out of the room, and just as they started down the hallway two familiar faces greeted them.
It was Hawk7886, Helljumper and teemus, all walking solemnly down the hall, and smiled when they saw the members that made up November squad.
"Where you guys headed?" asked Hawk, directing the question to Main.
"We're helping out H_K at the T&R site," replied Main, "He's having a bit of trouble."
"Then we're coming too," said Helljumper with a proud look upon his face.
"No." said Wado, "I don't think you're authorized."
"Come on!" whined Hawk, sounding very much like a toddler, Helljumper gave his best puppy-eyes and teemus flexed his arms.
Mainevent looked at CoLd, then Wado, 'Nosolee and Goatrope who smirked with amusement.
"Fine, you're in." Mainevent said quietly, he nodded to Hawk to follow them. "We're first going to the armory to pick up our weapons."
"Sounds good," responded Hawk, and he, Helljumper and teemus followed November squad to the armory with grins on their expressions.
1019 Hours, November 6th, 2003 (HBOer Time, Synchronized with H_K Time)/Halo Installation 04, approaching T&R site to aid H_K and teammates.
"ETA three minutes." the pilot said over the team freq.
Hawk7886 had a Rocket Launcher rested over his knees while Helljumper carried an Assault Rifle and a Pistol with a few grenades. Beside teemus was an AR and Rocket Launcher which was quite a heavy burden, even for a Spartan.
CoLd BlooDed carried a sniper and plasma pistol while the rest of the squad bore AR's and Pistols, with four grenades attached to their belts. Several other ODSTs accompanied November squad. It was night, just like the level, and as they approached a voice came in over the COM.
"CoLd!? God help us." the voice belonged to Elfster.
Below them raged an intense firefight, every few seconds an explosion went off or guns went rattling. The Pelican swiveled around so the could jump onto the ground and CoLd BlooDed spotted H_K crouching behind a box and waved.
The first thing CoLd BlooDed saw was the Warthog that the Pelican had been carrying was dropped onto a Grunt. Blue blood squirted everywhere as the alien's head was crushed. The Pelican dropped down, and November squad and their followers (Helljumper, Hawk, and teemus) jumped out with flashlights activated on their weapons.
CoLd pulled out his plasma pistol and charged the energy, then let it speed towards an oncoming Ghost. The over-charged plasma bolt splashed into the drivers face and temporarily blinded him; the Ghost then went careening off the cliff but not before hitting a few Jackals.
"Move, move, move! Kill those SOB's!" yelled 'Nosolee over the team channel.
Just as H_K's squad had finished off a batch of Elites, twenty more hovered down from the grav lift. Mainevent hurled a grenade onto the grav lift and it exploded, sending a few Grunts in separate directions and knocking out a few Elites shields.
November squad fought with triumph, but were careful enough not to get shot. CoLd BlooDed had scored quite a few kills in the last few minutes, and Hawk and teemus had managed to blow away large hordes of approaching Covenant. Helljumper acted by himself, and had almost been killed when a plasma grenade attached to his boot. Quickly he had kicked it off onto the gravity lift and killed a bunch of Covenant.
Wado, 'Nosolee and Goatrope fought as a team, they camped on the top of a ridge and had taken out lots of arriving enemies. When the Covenant finally stopped coming, the HBOer's and surviving marines secured the grav lift and one by one were sucked into the belly of the Truth & Reconciliation.
November squad, Hawk, Helljumper, teemus, and H_K's team all stood in the familiar room of the T&R in which they were about to be fiercely attacked.
"No Covenant?" said the marine, "Think maybe nobodies home?"
A Series of Wierd Events, Part Seven[H_K]
Date: 26 January 2004, 9:39 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1041 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Covenant Cruiser Truth & Reconciliation,
Inside HPC
We advanced through the ship, annihilating all that stood in our way. Until the 2nd Floor Hanger. The door opened, and we saw that 9 Golden Elites, 14 Red Elites, and 20 Blue Elites were on the balcony.
One of them spotted us, and screamed it's head off at us. "Now time to do what I usually do in these situations," I said.
"What?" Mainevent asked, as the ground rumbled. The Covies beginning to stampede towards us.
"RUN!" I yelled, and we engaged in a tactical retreat, the Covies right behind us. We ran into the next hall, then the next. Finaly, I stopped cold turkey, and turned. "Take cover!" I yelled, and unloaded my sniper AR into the crowd. Three Blue Elites and a Gold Elite fell. My squads dove behind the pillar and the corners.
The empty magazine fell to the ground, and I slammed another one into my AR. The enemies were about 40 feet from me.
Several bolts of Plasma flew past me. I pulled the pin on a Frag Grenade, and ran into the face of a Gold one. Two sniper shots took out it's shields, and I literally shoved the Grenade down it's throat. I took a great jump away from them, as the Grenade went off. I was pasted with gold elite bits. A few Red Elites stumbled back, mortally wounded.
I quickly took a Plasma Sword from an Elite's body and activated it. Three more Golden Swordsmen jumped me, and I was fighting three on one. A slash right into the throat of one made it two on one. The other Elites rushed by, and engaged my squads.
I ducked a swing, and stuck my Sword Clean through it. I pulled it out, and wiped the blood off of my face(it was half mine, half theirs. The last one screamed and charged me. I pulled another Sword, fought and laid the Smackdown on the poor Elite.
I could barely stand. This was too much. I began to fall, but managed in the process to make a vertical cut down the spine of a Red Elite, who was preparing to fire on a knocked down Warbrow.
A Blue-Armored Body cushioned my fall. I just laid there, overcome by exhaustion, listening to the battle. Finaly, after a full 30 minutes of battle, Elfster, Warbrow, Odin, Main, and Shade all helped me stand.
"Good Show," Noted Odin.
"That ain't nuthin," I replied, still wobbling on me feet.
"There's one thing I don't get..." Noted Elf, and Odin interrupted, "Oh? Only one thing?"
"Well, a few, but anyway, why is Spark so intent on stopping us from getting Keyes? He must know if he screws with the story line there's a fabulous chance he himself will get the short straw, not us."
"He just wants us chopped into littler pieces than Mnemisis's Paycheck," I responded, then fell again.
This time I was barely conscious. They had to drag me the way, and Shade made a few remarks about "Cutting back on the Big Macs". Finaly, they ran in and cleaned out the Control room. The marines ran up the ramp, and held position.
"H_K's too much of a burden. I say we leave him here with the Marines wile we rescue Cap'n Keyes," Said Shade.
"All the Marines 'l bite the big one, along with anyone with 'em!: Yelled Elf.
"Exactly," Said Shade with a smirk.
I stood of my own will, and managed to spit, "To smeg with you, yeh ruddy piece of-" However, Odin interrupted me before I could shoot the last word at Shade. "Ok, H_K... calm down. We'll take you, if you promise to walk your own way there." I nodded my head, and a few Grunts ran in.
"It's the..." One said, Scanning us, "Devils! AHHHH!!" They ran away. And brought Elites. Lotsa Elites. After all was said and done on the Bridge, and we were sure the area was secure, I put a bandage on a fresh opened wound. "C'mon. I need Covies to kill," I said, and we went to Rescue the Captain!
We came across the empty brig. However, weirder things have happened than a Covenant trap. I remember the Battle for the Grav Lift, and always will.
So I sent my squad to attack position, and opened the door. We all dived from behind cover, ready to blast Covenant. However, the only thing we found was a Marine in the corner hunched over his Shotgun and holding his hand over a big cut that was bleeding in one of the cells.
Elf opened it, and I ran inside. "Marine," I addressed him, and he stood stiffly. I could tell he was fatigued from battle. He attempted to salute me, falling down in failure. "Relax. I'm here to help. We need all the spare hands we can get to rescue Keyes. Can you fight?"
"Yes sir!" He said, and joined our little formation.
"Hey," Said Odin, "Where'd yeh get that shotgun?"
"Some Hunter, said he was a "hacker" and beamed me this weapon. He also told me to watch out for you, that you would be coming soon.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Eight[H_K]
Date: 2 February 2004, 12:23 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1049 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Inside Covenant Cruiser Truth & Reconciliation,
HPC
Our squad ran ahead, to the Brig Door. I signaled for Elf and Odin to move up. Then I noticed the door was locked. "Impossible," Said I.
"Spark's sealed us from Keyes! Damnit!" Yelled Hawk, as he banged his hand against the door.
I took another piece of meatloaf, and threw it at the door. Elf dove out of the way, as the door gave way to the explosion.
The Golden Elite was right at the door, and yelled at us. "Wort! Wort! Wort!" He then slashed clean through the Marine we rescued earlier with his Plasma Blade. However, before he could advance, he met with Plasma and Buckshot and Bullet and Needle.
His shields gave way, as well as his armor. He writhed in pain, and fell to the ground. Unfortunately, the battle got the stealth elites and the sleeping Grunts all riled up. I ducked from incoming fire, as my squads did the same.
I loaded my AR with Plasma Grenades, and stuck it around the corner with my arm. Twenty(at least)glowing blue orbs landed everywhere.
Three seconds later, explosions and screams came that could be heard world-round came. And I ducked my pretty lil' head in there to see a clear brig, except for our boys in the slammer cells.
"Nice going, sirs! You really kicked the shit--" A Marine said, but was interrupted by the Captain. "Stow it soldier. Chiefs, nice job. Deactivate the cells with the panel up there."
"Aye, aye," I replied, and my men spread out in the cells. I deactivated the shields, and went to the captain's cell. "Sir! Rescue Team has arrived!" I whooped, as I helped Keyes up.
"With a vengeance," Mainevent put in.
"Coming here was reckless. You 20 knew better than that," Keyes said sternly.
"That's why I only brought three squads, Captain," I replied.
A smile came over his face. "Thanks." He walked out, in front of the control platform. The Marines in the cells and my squads gathered round our commander 'n chief.
"While the Covenant had us locked in here, I overheard them talking about this Ringworld. They call it, 'Halo'," He said.
I slung my AR over my shoulder, like the Chief, as Cortana tapped into my Marine Helmet's Speakers to talk. "Stand By... The Ring has some sort of deep, religious significance for them. If I'm analyzing this correctly, they believe Halo is some sort of weapon. One with vast, unimaginable power."
The Captain rubbed his chin with his hand for a second. "Is it true... the Covenant kept saying 'Whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe'." I then indicated me and the other HBOers. "Hunter_Killer, Mainevent, other HBOers, I have a new mission for you. Find Halo's Control Center before the Covenant. If the Covenant find it first, they'll use Halo against us and wipe out the entire Human Race."
"Captain, we have the Control Center's Coordinates. If we are to act, it must be quickly." I said. "I'm in. Let's save Humanity one last time, guys."
The others nodded.
The Captain picked up the needler and all the crystal clips he could carry. He then loaded the weapon. "H_K, you have the point."
"Shut up and get behind me..." I said, as the Chapter headline appeared.
"Sir." Finished CoLd.
At that moment, we got a checkpoint and were molested by a squad of Red Grunts and Invisible Elites to match.
Suddenly, a strong blow by an invisible foe knocked me to the ground and purged me of three health bars. I was down to two.
However, a volley of needles by Keyes found their mark and exploded with pink microshrapnel, offing my assailant. "Thanks," I said, as I slowly stood up.
In the next minute and a half, we "Kicked their asses!" Whooped a Mexican Marine with an accent.
We trooped on, encountering minor Covenant Security. However, most of the Security in the ship was splattered on the walls and ground already.
When we got to the control room, I entered just in time to see the last Marine get sliced by a Stealth Plasma Swordsman.
I fired 10 sniper rounds into the fuzzy area, with the rewards of an elite materializing, dead.
Of course, the other one got major-like pissed and charged. "Give him hell!" Ordered Sergeant Jonson, who we had rescued along with Keyes.
A barrage of Plasma and Needle from the Marines totally obliterated the enemy. "Nice one," I said. "You Marines 're getting better 'n better."
"We made it," Said Cortana. "Cortana to Echo 419. Requesting evac at our position now. We've got the Captain."
"Negative, Cortana," Foe Hammer replied. "I've been engaged by Covenant air patrols. I'm havin' a tough time shaking them."
I predicted this, and said, "Why me? Why now?"
Nonetheless, Cortana kindly informed Keyes of the Evac Status. The third and final Marine, an American Private, freaked out and yelled, "Aw man! We're trapped in here! We're screwed! We're screwed, man!"
"You will be screwed if you don't stow it, Marine," Snapped CoLd.
"Yah, you a leatherneck, mister. I'm 11, an I ain't complaining none," I said. "If we can get to a Covie Ship, I can drive us the hell outa Dodge."
We all agreed, then Keyes said, "Son. That's my line," With another smile.
"Sorry," I said, then a shitload of Veteran Grunts charged us. "You will be!" Yelled a Grunt, with a ferocious bark.
After a bit of shooting, the area was secure. "C'mon. The Bay's 150 meters away! That's cake," I said.
As we fought ferociously for every step, Elf yelled at me, "Cake Huh? What foods you make, boy?!"
I shot a volley at an Elite, who fell. I then snapped back, "Knuckle sandwiches! Want any!?"
He was about to reply, when I yelled at him to duck and opened up the Assault Rifle Smackdown on an Elite right behind Elf.
"You owe me big time!" I chanted. Then, Elf shot a tank round over my shoulder, obliterating the three offending Jackals who had me targeted. "Wanna call it even?" I asked with a fake laugh.
As we entered the Dropship, I ran to the yoke-like controls and alien Pilots' Seat of the ship. "I'm driving!" I yelled, and gave it the gun out of here.
"Time for a little payback," Keyes said.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Nine[H_K]
Date: 4 February 2004, 6:18 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1120 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
UNSC/HBO Alpha Base,
HPC
I sat by a window, watching over the south side of the base. Several Pelicans came in and out, patrols sweeping the area. A small skirmish broke out between a few Ghosts and Warthog Delta 7, but the gunner mopped the floor with the Covies!
The usual crap. I was waiting while the veterans and seigniors and Keyes talked strategy, and their next moves against Spark and the Covies.
Finaly, Elf came into my room. "H_K... You presence is needed in the Command Center. Right away. Looks like the vets a 'nd Keyes've come up with some more ways to toss us up for cannon fodder."
"Great," I sarcastically said, and followed him to the upper Level.
"... And then we'll send Hunter_Killer and half of all HBO Fire Teams to hunt the Control Center, while I will take the other half of the HBO Teams and follow Keyes 'n his merry men into the swamp," Said Wu as I arrived.
Upon hearing this, I pulled Wu to the side while the other Squad Leaders talked. "Um... Lewis... you do realize that Keyes's attack is doomed to failure because of the Flood, right?" I asked him.
"Yes, but maybe we can manage to bring Keyes and some Marines back home alive. The original plan was for Keyes to stay here until the... final run on The Maw, when we need his implants. But he insisted on going. Therefore, my squads will protect Keyes at all costs, whilst also trying to save as many Humans as possible.
"If we can bring him back safe, we can skip Keyes; the level where we need his implants, cause we already got em. And the Captain too. Also, we can automatically skip The Library,-" I gave a huge sigh of relief at this-"because we already know of Halo's true purpose, and REALLY don't want it set off. Much less get through endless waves of Flood to do so.
"You, however, must go and find the Control Room, but don't leave Cortana there. She'll be useful. Then, you guys have gotta destroy the Pulse Generators after that. Then, if all goes well, you can meet us at the PoA, at the Bumblebee Slots, so we can attack with combined force," He inferred onto me.
I nodded. "So you gotta go through 343 Guilty Spark, and we gotta go through Two Betrayals. Ok. We can do that. Just keep the Captain alive. If you don't, then you gotta go through the level Keyes as well!" I replied.
Then, the door opened and out stepped the Master Chief. In his armor and everything. "He will come with us. Floods won't get him so easy," Announced Keyes.
"Ok, Guys. Squads Delta, November and Alpha. You guys is wit me. The rest, go with Wu. We got us a mission," I announced, and led my 3-dozen men to the Armory to fill up as usual on health and ammo.
After we were set, all the HBOers and most of the Marines trudged to the Landing Bay to get our ride. "This is where we go our separate ways," Wu said to all.
"Hey, Wu! See ya at the PoA," I said, then we loaded up into our Pelicans.
The Dropships lifted off, and headed into separate directions. HBO 1 and Echo 419 were packed to the brim with us. Victor 933 and Delta 41 took Keyes and Wu where they wanted to go.
"We're coming in, sir," Came Foe Hammer over the radio. The dropships were dropping in on the valley of the Control Center. "Landing in 5."
"Ok, guys," I said over the radio, "We get in, we get out, destroy the generators. Then we get to the PoA STAT. No muss, no fuss. Drop in five!"
They touched down on the top of the pyramid, and we unloaded from the Ships. "Go! Go! Go! Men, we ain't paid on the hour!" Yelled Sarge Johnson.
A Private said over the radio, "We're getting paid for this!?" And he jumped onto the floor. I got off, and cave the all-clear for the Dropships.
They began to lift off. I said in the radio, "Attention Dropships. Be ready to come and track my signal when we call for Evac, over."
"That's affirmative, Echo 419 and HBO 1 staying on Stand-By. Foe Hammer out,"Came he voice, and the Dropships hovered at a high altitude over the Control Room Valley.
We trooped up to the door. I told my men to take up positions, and everybody spread out. I carefully approached the control pad. "Men... jump in 3," I said and pressed the buttons.
It began to open... "1..."
Almost there... "2..."
The door was open. "3!!! Get em'!" I yelled and our squad screamed, and fired... at nothin. They stopped and looked around, befuddled. "No enemies... this is an easy day," I said, and sauntered up to the control panel.
Lucky me, apparently the 4 Hunters around the corner wanted by bones on a silver platter. "Take em DOWN! Take em DOWN!" I yelled, and my squad started firing.
I stuck 2 Plasmas to one of them, but they just seemed to piss him off. So I jumped over the Hunter's swing, and landed in the back of him. I gave him several dozen AR rounds right in the orange flesh. "This is why they call me da Hunter_Killer," I said, as I got behind another. This time, an overcharged bolt of Plasma did the trick. The third was taken out by a Rocket Launcher Marine. And the fourth...
He charged at me, but I got out of the way. I then threw my Combat Knife into his back. "Can't do that at home," I said, and removed my knife from the carcass.
Orange blood stained it. I took a piece of cloth and wiped it clean, except for a little streak down the middle of it. Alongside it were several other streaks of dried blood. Blue and Purple. And now orange. It was.... sorta symbolic. I still got that knife to this day, you know.
"Area Secure," Said a Marine. "Ready to advance."
I walked over to the door, and opened it. We walked out into the Control Center...
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Ten[H_K]
Date: 4 February 2004, 6:25 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1130 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Halo's Control Center,
HPC
"The Control Center," I said, as we advanced towards the control panel.
"What now, H_K?" Asked Elf, as he propped himself up against a transparent wall.
"Well, we can't just go out 'n destroy the Generators yet. The doors are still sealed. A squad of Marines checked. My guess is that when Wu, Keyes and their teams get out of the swamp, then the Sentinels will jump us and we can begin phase 2 of our plan," I replied.
"Do we gotta wait?" Asked Walker impatiently.
"Yes."
I had taken the opportunity to get a little drop of rest for 30 minutes. Most of the HBOers and Marines were chatting of jokes and having food.
I awoke with a start from my nightmare. In it, Keyes and Wu and everybody got infected by the flood. Then 343 Guilty Spark got into the real world and set off the real Halos.
I laid awake for a moment, then sat up. To my surprise, I heard humming. Then a little giggle and the words, "I am a genius."
Apparently, everyone else heard it too. We all stood up and readied our weapons, as 343 hovered into view. "Reclaimers, I am on to your plans. I'm afraid I cannot allow you to destroy this instillation. You must all perish."
Four Sentinels floated into view. I smirked. "You must know 4 flying tin cans won't get us," I said. A dozen more floated up.
"Which is why I summoned a whole flock, Reclaimer. Sentinels, attack!" The little glowing ball of **** then disappeared via Halo's teleporter grid.
We dove behind the transparent walls, as precision laser beams attempted to target us. The Sentinels floated around the walls, and we opened up with everything we had. Unfortunately, Mainevent got struck twice in the chest.
He fell to the ground, writing in pain. "Damnit!" I yelled, and dispatched a tin can with Charged Plasma. I ran over to him.
Blood began to gush out of the holes in Main's chest, as he coughed up more red blood. "He's hit bad," said a Medic that had made it over to him. "He will die if we don't do something. Those beams punctured his main Arteries and came close to skewering his heart. Do you have a Med-Kit?" Asked him.
"Negative," I said, "The one time we need one..."
"I'm calling it, sir," Said the Medic, as Main's eyes closed. "There's nothing I can do."
I just stood there, beside him. "There's gotta be something!"
"No. His heart's stopped. I can't find any neural activity either," Said the Medic sadly.
Then the battle was over. The last Sentinel went down in flames, and the HBOers came over. "Main's dead..." Said CoLd.
I just sat there, inconsolable for 20 minutes. Finaly, when they had just decided to leave without me, I said, "Why? Why did he have to die? Why did any of them have to die?"
"I promise he will be avenged," Elfster said and put his hand on my shoulder.
I stood. "You're right. We need to... keep going. CoLd, you're in charge of yo squad now. Let's go."
The Chapter started. "The gun pointed at the head of the Universe," I said.
"Bang Bang," Darkly said Odin.
"Let's hope not," Pointed out Elf.
I opened the door, and we watched the brawl between Sentinels and the Covenant. Occasionally, one of us would throw a Grenade to blow away some Covies.
Eventually, the fight died down and we romped in to clean up the remaining Elites and Jackal. Me and Odin sent charged shots at them, while two Marines sniped with pistols and Elf used his Sniper Rifle.
The fight didn't last long. We opened to door to the outside, and hid behind the shields and the nooks and crannies in the walls.
The enemies were just sitting there in a few bunches, asking to die. We obliged. I sent a Frag over the shield and into a group of enemies, while I charged and shoved my AR in the face of the enemy. The Frag went off, and the others gave heavy fire to the enemy.
"All too easy..." I said to myself, as I found a %100 Plasma Pistol in the bodies.
We went up the tower. At the top were 4 Sniper Rifles, 3 Shotguns, 5 Pistols, plenty of ammo for each, 5 Health Packs, and 10 Frag Grenades.
We went in and got full. My weapons of choice were a full Shottie and a full Pistol.
There were cracks between the ramp and the sides of the tower. I sent 3 Frags down there then Elf and CoLd charged down with the Grenades and cleaned house.
Now we had two levels to work with. And we could look down on the enemies now. We were full of health and ammo. I think you know what happened. At some point, Cortana pointed out the Nav-Point as we decended.
At the first sight we got of the snow covered valley below us, we noticed there were 4 vacant Banshees where the one should've been.
A text box popped up:
Ok, guys. I was only able to make four Banshees with the Fractal Coding. At least I got you more! I've also worked out a way to beam you guys Health and Ammo sometimes. Whenever you're low, clear the room you're in and I'll send supplies. Till next time!
(A) To continue
I hit the button, and we moved on. We came to the last level, and found rocket ammo. Alpha Lance had a good old time unloading those rockets on the enemy. When all was said and done, 2 Ghosts sat on fire, a third vacant. Over a dozen charred bodies lay strewn on the ground. And the Wraith didn't look so hot either.
We moved into the open, and surrounded the Banshees. "Ok, guys. I have a plan," I said, "Elf, Alpha, CoLd, get in the Banshees with me, and we can go and destroy the Generator. You other guys, hold position here till we get back. Let's go!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Eleven[H_K]
Date: 6 February 2004, 11:54 AM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1136 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Box Canyon of the Control Center,
HPC
We sped ever higher, reaching the platform. Several enemies came to challenge us. "Ok, guys," I said, "I've read and memorized a great Legendary walkthrough. It says to use normal Plasma cannons to pulverize these guys. We want their weapons to land on the Platform."
"On it!" Said the other three, and a barrage of Plasma destroyed the enemies. We all came in for a landing, and got out.
I put my Shottie in a memorable spot, and grabbed a needler. Elf's sniper rifle was replaced by a Plasma Rifle. Two needlers were switched for their Pistols from Alpha and CoLd.
We entered the room. I just remembered I didn't have a shield! Then I remembered putting a Jackal's shield in my pocket. I pulled it out, and turned it on. "Let's hope this works," I said, and tossed it in there. The earth shook, and a blinding light filled the room. Then it stopped.
"Cortana... is the Generator down?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"Scanning... yes it is. Good thinking, H_K," She replied.
Then, a few Sentinels entered the room. Our Covie arsenal easily wiped out the enemy. We went back outside. On the way, I picked up the shield and put it in my pocket.
When we got outside, the Chapter appeared.
"Breaking stuff to look tough," Alpha noted.
"And you're all about that, Elf," I said with a smirk, "Looking tough."
There were four more Banshees on the ledge. "How the hell can eight Banshees fit here?" I asked, as we retrieved our old weapons.
Since our old Banshees were untouched, we took those. I had a thought, and, using grenades and melee attack, blasted the other four craft to the Ground below. As we took off, I took note of the new navpoint. We flew down, and engaged the Ground troops on the bridge. Once they had been decimated, I flew down to the ground.
They weren't there! "Elf, where'd they go? Scan the area," I said.
"On it, boss man. Wait... friendly movement on the Pyramid... they're in the ammo tower."
I flew there, and filled up myself. After I was done, I said to the others, "Although it was a good idea to fill up, next time you need to follow my orders. This is the difference between life and death. Now git goin towards that bridge. I got an idea."
We were all under the land bridge to the next area, with the eight banshees. "C'mon. Seven of you, mount up!" I said, and we hovered up onto the Bridge. "Good. Now park as close as possible to the edge without you falling. Get out. Now melee it till it falls to the ground for the next person. You can also use Grenades. Next!"
Using my plan, in a minute or two everyone was on the Bridge. We entered the hall, and got the checkpoint. We ran ahead into the room and cleaned house.
We easily sliced through the enemies, and kept going. We killed the next area, and so on. After a while of fighting, we were on the bridge for the first time, watching the brawl twixt Covie and Flood.
The fight was pretty fair. Using stealth, we went up and bopped a few jackals. Eventually, a few Blue Elites and a Gold one emerged. They tore through the flood and looked for more to kill. About now, we were spotted and Flood jumped over from the other Bridge.
For the next two minutes, all hell broke loose. Finaly, I was able to make my way through the chaos to the other side. In pairs of two and three, my men arrived. Eventually, my whole force was mustered, and we just left the Elites and Flood to sort out their own problems.
We stomped in and cleaned house. As usual. We Boomed our way to the other Bridge, and waited for the Covenant Banshees to bomb the Flood. After 10-15 Minutes, the Flood were mostly toast. They were all toast when we romped out, guns blazing. About now, the Banshees got pissed at us and came in for an attack.
A few well placed rockets took them down nicely. When it was under control, we scavenged for ammo. There were some shotgun shells, a few rockets, and a couple of nearly full Covenant Pistols.
After getting the Ammo, we entered the next room. After a having a few minutes fun with the un-movable Flood converting the dead Covies into more Flood near the doorway(Don't ask), we popped them and tanked the enemies.
We squeezed into the elevator, and rode it down. At the bottom, we were jumped with flood, and got out of dodge.
The unchallenging Flood were easily swatted, and we moved on. On the way, we met up with some infected Marines. We had a mosaic of firepower. I think you can do the math of what happened.
We moved out into the open snow, and charged towards the Ghost. My man, Elf, got there and began to fire on the other Ghost to the right, while we opened up on the ground troops and headed for the ditch.
We got into the ditch after neutralizing most of the enemies. We filled up on ammo down there, and Odin quickly got in the other Ghost.
A Wraith and a slew of Ground troops blocked our path. By now, we were seasoned, bad ass Covie killing machines. Ok, we were pretty good. We were decent. Ok, we were a barely competent rabble of idiots and maniacs. But we were well armed. And we got the job done. Occasionally.
After finishing, we went down the switchback, and proceeded through the tunnel. We came to a pair of Jackals and roasted those birds, then found a stash of ammo and a Hog.
We were mostly full, but we took it anyway. We flipped the vehicle, and I climbed in the Drivers' Seat. CoLd indulged in the Chaingunners' Position, and Sergeant Johnson(with a Rocket Launcher)climbed in to be passenger. The others jumped on the hog's back , and on the wings of the Ghosts. We all had a ride now.
We proceeded up the winding path, a mobilized unit of death. Okay ,maybe not. Sorry, folks! Didn't realize it was 'Call H_K's Bluff Day'! Wahhhhh!!!
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events, Part Twelve
Date: 6 February 2004, 12:01 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1143 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Area in Level Two Betrayals,
HPC
Looking up into the next area, I told everybody but the Hog's crew to stay put. We drove out, ripping towards the Banshee. CoLd and the Sarge took out their haul of Covies with their weapons on the way. We reached the Banshee. I got out and yelled for them each to hold onto a wing. So they did. And I flew high over the enemies.
My Fuel Rods cleaved the whole area, and anything I missed, Johnson's Jackhammer or CoLd's Sniper Rifle got.
Once the area was purged, we flew down to and landed on the hill with the Shade. With the door for the Health Pack. There were three, so we all got healthy. When we got out, there was another Banshee in addition to our old one. Each HBOer got an Aircraft, while Sarge hung onto CoLd's wing.
We flew up, and took out the few Banshees that came out to play. Then we cleared the Platform to the next Generator.
We landed, and went inside. After taking out the enemies, we set up a rocket launcher in a vent, where we would retreat to as the Generator went down(thanks to my memory of the Legendary Guide).
I threw the shield into the structure, then picked up the Jackhammer. Some Flood stormed the room, but me and Sarge got most of em. The rest were got by Elf and my's Shotgun as we dropped down.
Like before, I picked up the Shield on the way out.
As we got out, the Chapter appeared. "The Tunnels Below," Said CoLd in a fake-creepy voice.
Now all of us could fly down to the group. The Sarge had to yield his Banshee to Elf. Now, we all flew/drove into the tunnel. We got out, and watched the brutal fight from above.
Finaly, the carnage died down, and we bombed the survivors from above. "You know," I said as we continued on, "It's sorta fun watching them tear each other up without our help. That just leaves us with less bullet receptors."
We acquired another Ghost to ease the Transportation Problem on the way to the next area. As I flipped the switch, we found out it was broken. It got stuck after opening a little.
We un-mounted, and sniped through the opening. A dozen flood came after us, but my 2 remaining Frags cleared that problem up.
We moved into the room, and took the Bridge on the right. A large mass of infection forms charged us on one side, as on the other we were flanked by unarmed Infected Elites.
"H_K!" CoLd yelled to me, as we desperately retreated and shot, "We don't have shields! That means we're unprotected munchies for the Flood! We gotta pop em!" I responded with a dozen AR Rounds, popping a few of the little guys.
Unfortunately, they got to Jenkins before we could stop them. They began to munch on him, reducing his health. In a desperate gambit, I pistoled the little guys on him. They popped, leaving the marine in decent shape.
At the end of the hallway, we lost two Marines before we defeated the Flood who had spawned there.
I flipped the switch, and we followed the tunnel outside. As we charged into the snow-covered grounds, Elf faked an imperious voice, "The FINAL Run."
We took care of the Flood, and took cover as the Banshee attacked us. About now, a Gold elite decided it was a good time to knock.
Fortunately, we had enough Rockets to send one up each's ass. Once the enemy had been polished off, we went ahead and watched the battle. The Covenant barely won, and stayed there. A twitchy Grunt attempted to sleep, but couldn't. The Elite was bleeding bad, but tried to look cool and calm.
We put them out of our misery, then took the Ghosts and sped off. We entered the next area, and sped straight through the Plasma fire.
Flood were getting blasted left and right by Ground Troops and two Wraiths. They didn't stand a chance.
We reached the Banshees. This time, there were eight. We just took off, never looking back. We flew to the Nav Point, and bombed these Sentinels into a place worse than hell. We landed, and filled up our empty weapons and health bars.
This was it. The last battle for this place. We charged in, and fired Plasma at them in a furious, superheated wave. They fell quickly. These guys must have a soft spot for the Covies, because any Plasma weapon really shreds them.
We went inside, and sat down to rest. After several minutes, I had the energy to stick the Shield in the Generator. Mission Accomplished! Spark couldn't fire Halo now!
Cortana said, "Good job. All Generators off-line. Preparing to transport..."
"Wait!" I said, "Take us to Alpha Base. We need to commandeer a Dropship."
"Ok," Cortana dubiously responded. "The teleport needs a massive amount of energy. Needless to say, we should only try this once."
We disappeared in a yellow light, and reappeared at Alpha Base. However, it looked... different. Almost... upside down...
Me and the others fell on our heads, and shakily got up. "Now I see! The coordinates need to be..." I hit my helmet. Hard.
"Right. Sorry." I looked around. Alpha Base was a HUGE wreck. Some serious combat took place here. The Bodies of Flood, Marines, Techs and Elites, along with bullet pockmarks and explosion scorches, were littered everywhere.
"Welcome to Alpha Base Command Center," Said a bloody Marine who walked out from a door that had been torn to pieces. "Private 1st Class Fitzgerald reporting, sirs."
"What in the blue hell happened here, soldier?" Asked CoLd, as he inspected a broken display unit.
"The Covenant launched an all out assault on Alpha Base, right before General Wu left for the Autumn with most of the UNSC Forces on the ring. Then... these things ambushed us! Wu and the others managed to get away, barely. I think I'm the last surviving human here."
"Well, now you're in Delta Squad, Marine," I replied. "Are there any more Pelicans docked here?"
"Yes sir. Two Pelicans. And a Covenant Dropship was brought down in the bay, too. I think it's salvageable."
"Well, gentlemen, let's mount up. We got a plane to catch. And a ring to blow."
TO BE CONTINUED
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Thirteen
Date: 24 March 2004, 1:07 PM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER -
1200 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
Remains of Alpha Base,
HPC
The Armory was still intact, and we loaded up. Before we went, I found a Dead Elite body(There were many), and took the Plasma Sword.
There were also several Health Packs that had been looked over by Wu and his troopers. Those were most gratuitously received by our wounded.
The Pelicans and U-Dropship were in a tight formation, flying towards our target. I looked into the scanner scope. A large spaceship-or what was left of it-was half a kilometer away.
The Chapter appeared. "FU..." Said someone over the radio.
"...And the horse you rode in on" I said, thoughts on Main and the others we have already lost.
"Hi ho, Silver!" Came over the radio.
"Hold on, guys," I said, looking over my HUD. "A group of Pelican hulks at point eight nine... Pilot s, bring us closer."
"Yes sir," Replied BOLL, as the dropships swung around 40 degrees and began to descend. "H_K... receiving radio signal; It's Wu and his crew. Patching it up."
"HBO SOS. HBO SOS. Any UNSC or HBO forces, respond. Mayday, Mayday. We've been shot down near PoA, need assistance. Any humans copy? Setting message to repeat. Over. HBO SOS. HBO SOS..." Captain Keyes's faint voice came through.
I replied over the Radio, "Naw. No humans. Just the remaining HBOers on Halo. No biggie."
"H_K!? Thank god!" Wu said over the radio with relief. "Some Banshees, Sentinels and 343 GS Jumped our transports shortly before we got to the PoA. They got us down here. But we took them out once grounded. And since the Pelicans sported a decent refuge from the sand, temperature, and other unpleasant things, we bunked here for about 4 hours."
"Glad to see you didn't die before we got here. Anyways, we got enough room in the lockers for you guys... I think," I replied.
"Damn," Keyes said, "I hate those storage lockers. Oh well, if it means getting out of winter in New Mexico and into my ship, then let's do it, H_K."
The Pelicans landed, and the Humans barely managed to squeeze into the lockers. We lifted off, and launched forward to the PoA. Or what was left anyways.
"Comfy?" I asked a Marine in the locker next to my seat with a smirk.
"Perfect," Came the muffled reply.
"Hang on, everyone! We're on course for the slots, but a dozen Shades are giving us trouble! Landing in 20!" BOLL Yelled, as he ships swerved, zigged and zagged through the Plasma.
I was thrown from my seat, and the slipstream of air caught me and began to pull me out. Seeing this, Elf, Shade, Hawk, Odin, and Jenkins all grabbed my hand, preventing this.
"Seal the damn hatch!" Wu yelled from the Locker.
"Sir, I..." A Tech stuttered,
"DO IT!" I Yelled to him. Then, CoLd had a bright idea and pulled a clump of meatloaf from his pocket, and threw it past me.
As it exited the hatch, it blew apart, forming a weave of green and brown substance over the opening.
Because there was no more suction keeping me about a foot off the deck, I fell face first onto it. And believe me, that's pure metal. And it don't feel very good either.
"Ouch..." I mumbled, struggling with the pain in my body for a second, then standing up. "Damnit..."
I fell back into my seat after a very hard veer by the Dropship, clonking my head on a wall. Shade began to laugh heavily, saying, "Ha! Now I see why he writes AsoWE!"
A small boom echoed, and a bullet round hit about an inch from Agent Shade's head. He jumped a few meters at this. I holstered my pistol. "I think you might wanna shut up now, Shade," FOrunner said from a locker, "H_K Means business."
Shade, attempting to look big n' bad, began bouncing a Frag in his left hand. The pelican jolted again, and the grenade slipped.
Everyone winced, as it fell to the floor and... did nothing. The pin wasn't out. I got real tired of this about now, and activated my twin Plasma Swords.
I began to dive for Shade, when Elf and Odin caught me. Shade looked very afraid, as I looked very mad. The two in my squad managed to force me back into my seat, and I attempted to calm down.
"Ok, guys! 5 seconds!" A large explosion rumbled, and Elf said, "BOLL! What in the blue hell is going on!?"
"We're hit! I'll try to keep it steady, but I-" The radio failed, an a second later the Pelican hit the access hatch. What happened now was unique: The wings, too long to go in, were ripped off. The front bent and twisted when it reached the end.
We began to teeter, about to fall back down. Cortana said to the Hunter/Hacker, "You did that on purpose, didn't you!?"
I yelled, "WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME! EVERYBODY INTO THE COCKPIT!" Shade replied, "But we don't have a Warthog or a Rocket Launcher or a-"
"Shut up," I said, as BOLL blew a hole in the glass view screen with his Fuel Rods and we all jumped inside.
Just as Elfster jumped into the door, the Pelican fell back out the slot, bumped on the engines and fell to the ground, 300+ feet below.
Another Pelican flew into the adjacent bay, back first, safely depositing it's troops. Our Covie Dropship hovered around for a minute, dispatching two Shades with it's guns before descending and unleashing it's boatload of Humans and CoLd.
The two able ships flew off again, and began to hover high above the PoA's wreckage(on my orders), waiting until I called for them to be at the Bridge Echo 419 was shot down over.
"Well," Said Odin as he dusted himself off, "That went pretty good."
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Four [STERFRYE]
Date: 25 March 2004, 2:59 AM
"This is your captain speaking," Steele said over the intercom system built into the Longsword. "We'll be landing shortly." The Interceptor settled onto one of Alpha Base's landing pads. As the landing gear deployed, we landed with a soft thunk. "Please feel free to move about the cabin," he joked as the ramp at the front opened and Simpsonsrule, Steele, Agent Shade and I, fire team Sierra (We had decided on the name during the flight), walked out of the airplane and moseyed in to Alpha Base.
"Nice digs," Steele commented as we came through the main entrance. I let out a low whistle. It was indeed pretty nice. We came to a T-junction. That had a crude, hand-painted sign:
>ARMORY
OUTSIDE
COMMAND CENTER
QUARTERS
"I wonder what's happened to the other three arrows," I muttered as a snickering Marine walked past us with a bucket of whitewash. "Ah..."
"You from HBO?" a voice asked from behind us and I jumped. I spun and faced a blonde-haired Marine.
"Yeah," I said as I extended my hand. "Sterfrye."
He didn't return the courtesy. "Who?"
I blushed and muttered, "You know, writer of the Battle for the Norah series? I inherited it from Agent Shade. Don't you remember me?"
The HBOer cocked his head to one side and starred into space. "Not really," he answered. I groaned as the others chuckled behind me.
I sighed and jerked my head in order to each of the other members of fire team Sierra. "Anyway, that's Simpsonsrule, Steele, and Agent Sh—" my introduction was cut short as the HBOer dove past me, knocked me over and I slammed face first to the floor. The others laughed. I rolled over to see the guy shaking hands with Shade and praising him for his Shadow Ops II work.
"I hate being underappreciated," I grunted as I heaved myself off of the floor. I finally got him to tell me where the command center was after I shook him hard. To the left as it turned out.
"So, who exactly was that?" I asked as we began walking.
"You didn't read his tag?" Steele said incredulously.
"Uh...no," I answered.
"It was Mnemesis."
We walked down a group of hallways and finally came to the command center. Another hand painted sign read, "MESS HALL", but lacked any arrows. The snickering Marine passed by us once again. I was beginning to see a pattern here...
There were mainly HBOers in the room. I recognized Louis Wu instantly. He was wearing a general's uniform that was adorned with medals. As a matter of fact, his whole chest was adorned with them. There wasn't a single part of the uniform showing in the front. He looked like the very image of a banana republic general. That or a despot. I read the name tags off of everybody else's chest (Keep in mind that, since we were forced into Halo character bodies. It was difficult to recognize everybody.) and found that Alpha, Main and Walker were also there. I took a seat and heard a commotion from the door I had just come through.
Hunter_Killer hobbled in on one foot as he struggled to put a combat boot on. "What's up?" he asked as he took a seat. Wu grinned, puffed out his chest, the lights dimmed, and he initiated a PowerPoint show. He pulled an unfolding pointer from his pocket and pointed to a mug shot of Keyes from the POA.
"Captain Keyes is on the T and R, as you already know,—unless you are the biggest newb ever—at this point in the game. Because we don't want to screw with the game's system more 'n necessary, we're going to launch an attack on it," said Wu. "You will be Assault Leader," our glorious leader announced as he used his pointer to single out H_K. "Squads Delta and Alpha will conduct this bolt. Pelicans Echo 293 and HBO 1 will provide drop-off and air support."
The meeting dismissed and H_K and Alpha took their squads to the armory to get jiggy wit' it. I sighed since we weren't going to be part of the assault, but my squad was tired. After all, we had just been chased down through the atmosphere by several Seraph fighters, and nearly been blown to bits by Steele and his napalm.
Main and his squad walked off to wherever, and I settled down into the seat to grab a nap. Unfortunately, I don't fall asleep easily. I couldn't figure out what was nagging me until I finally looked at my teammates. That was it. November squad, Mainevent's team, had Main, Goatrope, Wado, FOrunnER and 'Nosolee.
I on the other hand, only had myself, Shade, Simpsonsrule and Steele. I could do with a few more team members. I made up my mind, stood up, and marched to where I guessed Major Silva's office was.
"You want what, Sergeant?" Silva asked as though I had just requested 200 pounds of uncut cocaine. I hadn't, so I sat forward in my chair.
"More people, sir. Currently there are only seven people in my fire team. I want three more." The Major scowled behind his desk.
"You'll get one. She's in the brig across the hall."
"Brig? What'd she do?"
"Nothing, but I do believe that she is clearly mental. Take her and keep her away from me." I nodded, stood and saluted, and left. When I informed the MP at the brig of my intentions, he gladly handed me the keys. I unlocked the door, looked inside, and promptly slammed it shut again. Once more, I eased the door open and peeked.
A girl was sitting at a chair wearing handcuffs and bouncing a little baby Elite on her knee. "Wowt, wowt, wowt," it grunted. Egad, I thought to myself.
It's Jillybean! I promptly decided that, since I didn't want to baby-sit, some other poor sap could have her.
As I was shutting the door, I heard Louis Wu dash up behind me. "Ah, I've been looking for you everywhere!" he said as I turned around.
"What's up? You need Sierra for a mission?"
"Uh, no," he muttered as he handed me a mop.
"What's this?" I asked indignantly.
"It's called a mop. You use it to clean up water."
"You can't be serious. Please tell me you're not serious."
"Okay. You're not going to mop up water."
"Good."
"You're going to be mopping up vomit. Mainevent apparently gave some of his meatloaf to FOrunnER before they left and—" he was cut short as his PDA beeped. He looked at it and shoved it back into his pocket.
"Looks like you won't be mopping after all. H_K and the others are having a hard time at the grav lift. Frogblast tells me that Spark has something to do with this. You'll ship out with CoLd BlooDed and his squad. I suggest you get your team and go down to the armory to load out."
I nodded gratefully, saluted and raced back to the T-junction. I glanced at the sign:
It was blank! "Why is this blasted sign blank!?" I screamed. The snickering Marine began to walk past...but I grabbed him and slammed him up against the wall.
"THE ARMORY!!!" I roared. He grinned and said in a somewhat stuffy accent: "Armory? I wasn't aware that we had one." I growled as I unsheathed my plasma pistol and stuck it under his chin.
My voice was dangerously calm. "Let's try this again. Which way is the armory?" He pointed his finger to my right. I dropped him and ran down some hallways. I skidded into an open door and realized that a Hunter and a POA tech were standing behind a desk with several guns on it. Their backs were to me, and they were typing away on an absolutely huge keyboard, all the while muttering things such as, "...someone's blocking it...no, no..."
The rest of Sierra arrived, and I cleared my throat. The Hunter turned around. "You here for the guns?" he asked. I nodded.
"Yeah. We're moving out with CoLd BlooDed's team.
"Boll," the Hunter said as he leaned over to shake with his massive hand.
"Sterfrye."
"Who?"
"I don't have time for this. What've you got for us?" The Hunter leaned over the table and gave an expression that looked like a grin.
"Well," he growled. "There's your decaf and then there's your regular."
"Ha, ha. Seriously, we need guns and ammo."
"Fine, fine," he grunted as he indicated the guns on the table with his Fuel Rod Gun. "Take your pick." Everybody lunged for their gun, and I threw my AR onto the table and grabbed a navy colored shotgun. "Ah, you have excellent taste in heavy weaponry," the Hunter chuckled. "That sucker shoots a spread of sniper bullets and it's automatic. Clip size is twelve. Pump the chamber to switch to a spread grenade shot that uses both frag and plasma."
"All right. What else is there?"
"Coors, Miller, Bud, Heineken, Michelob..."
"Oh, you're a riot," I mumbled as I proceeded to trade my plasma pistol in for another AR.
"Excellent choice. That boy shoots shotgun spreads with a scope and sixty bullet clip."
"Ooooh. I like it," I said jovially as I took double handfuls of clips for the weapon of mass destruction that was now hung over my back. "Has CoLd's team come here yet?"
"Yeah, they have. They're on their way to the pad right now." I gathered the rest of my group and dashed towards the pad.
We ran out the main entrance to get to the outside landing pads, and looked around for our designated Pelican. "Where is it?" I asked rather irately. I didn't want to miss our first mission.
"Say," Simpsons said suddenly. "Have any of you ever seen a movie where passengers try to board a train that's leaving the station, and they have to hop on the train at the last second? You know, while it's moving?"
"Simpsons, what does that have to do with—" I began, and realized what he was saying. "Don't tell me," I said flatly. "The Pelican is taking off right now, behind us, and over a hundred yards away, right?"
"Yep. Well, it's not in the air yet, but its engines are revving up."
"Great," I muttered as I spun on my heel and began sprinting towards our ride. I yelled on my radio at the aircraft to stop, but it paid no heed. The radio must've been broken. By the time we got to it, it was about four feet up in the air. Simpsons was first aboard since he was able to leap onto it easily with his Flood body. The three Marines were right behind him. Steele was next as he grabbed the lip and hauled himself over. Shade reached out and managed to snag the edge of the ship's loading ramp as the aircraft began to lift off. I had fallen behind due to the fact that the ammo was heavier than I had anticipated. Shade was hauling himself up when I grabbed his ankles and watched in horror as we lifted to twenty feet off of the ground!
"Let go off me, you—" Shade yelled. I could guess the rest.
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Fourteen
Date: 12 May 2004, 1:45 AM
-- AS TOLD BY HUNTER_KILLER --
1219 Hours, November 6th, 2003(Military Calendar)/
UNSC Starship Pillar of Autumn, Hallway leading to mess hall,
HPC
Yes, folks. I know I skipped a little. But nothing REALLY exiting happened. So I figured I wouldn't even waste Text on it. Well let's jump right into it, then!
"Wow," I said, wiping some red, blue, purple and green blood off me, as we walked in the hall, "THAT was interesting. I'll have to mention it when I write a Fic on this whole thing."
Then we got to the Mess Hall entrance, I signaled for everyone to stop. I peeked in the café, and saw the aliens tear each other up.
"Ok, guys, on three..." I said, and got my Plasma Swords ready. Elfster got his Jackhammer Rocket Launcher prepped. The others readied assorted weapons.
"Three!" I ran into the area, and found a nice, juicy Black Grunt, who was busy firing on me pals. I ran up, and he noticed me. He yipped a little, before I thrust my Plasma Sword into him. Purple blood gushed from the large wound, as the sword came out the other end.
I had penetrated it's tiny little heart, and it died a second later. I put my boot on the corpse, and pulled. My sword came out, along with another burst of blood.
Two BOOM!s echoed across the café, as a dozen bodies flew up. Elfster smiled, and shoved another container of Rockets into his Jackhammer.
"Area clear, H_K!" Odin said. I nodded. "Let's git goin towards the Bridge." Me marched forward.
We ran into the Black Elite, and he had a needly surprise, compliments of FOrunner. After cleaning off the remains a bit, we got to the Bridge. Everyone ducked behind the walls as Fuel Rods were fired at us.
I threw another bit of meatloaf in the room, and it exploded, cleaving the whole damn Bridge! We ran inside, and took a look around.
I inserted Cortana's Chip into the Holo-Projector, and she looked around n' sighed. "I leave home for a few hours, and look what happens..." I smiled.
"Cortana... can you get this thing to blow?" I asked. Keyes stepped forward, and replied, "I think that's my job, son." He typed in the command codes from his neural lace, and the systems beeped. A count-down timer appeared in the display. It read: 17:00 "Should be plenty of time to escape."
"Ah, Reclaimers. This I cannot allow." At Spark's voice, we all jumped and raised our weapons. "He's in my systems! A local tap; Engineering!" Cortana panicked. "He's overwritten the Self-Destruct System!"
The timer stopped, then disappeared. Agent Shade walked up to me, and said, "Why can't you see these things Coming, Hunter_Killer!?"
I didn't answer. Spark continued, "Reclaimers, I cannot believe you would destroy this installation, with it's wealth of knowledge! I am shocked! Almost too shocked for words!"
I sighed. "Well I got words for you, Mr.-" I started, but Wu stopped me. "H_K... look." A dozen sentinels floated up into the view screen, and began to shoot at us. Most of us dived behind the display or a wall, but I couldn't in time. A beam hit my shoulder, causing blood to flow freely from it.
I landed on the floor behind the display, and FOrunner(our resident medic)along with 3 Medic Marines examined me. "He's hit pretty bad, but we think he'll make it," FOrunner yelled to our glorious leader, Wu. He nodded, and jumped from cover to down a few enemies before jumping back.
The battle died down now; the Sentinels were scrap. I had managed to drown out the woozy feeling, and trudged along through the hallways, keeping in the rear to prevent enemy fire.
We entered the Armory, and I gaped at the firepower. "Ladies, Gentlemen and Elfster, let's get armed."
I managed to get three Fully Loaded ARs, two Pistols, two Shotguns, my Plasma Swords, a Sniper Rifle and 10 Frags. I also got 24 Clips of ammo for each weapon, all in my inventory. However, there were Covies and Flood strewn across the floor, and I also pocketed a needler and 12 crystal clips of ammo, along with Twelve Plasma Grenades.
We dealt with the super-cool cloaked Flood, then headed for Engineering. As we came to the 2nd-To-Final Chapter, FOrunner said, "Light Fuse..."
In response, I squatted and yelled in my Fake-Grunt-Voice, "RUN AWAY!" I then did a life-like imitation of a Grunt's little waddle/walk, going in a circle.
We all broke into laughter, then calmed down and separated into two teams; each would enter a different door. Blue Team came from the Right, Red Team from the Left. I yelled "GO! GO! GO!" And ran in with Blue Team, as Red Team obliged.
We ducked behind the Medical-Kit-carrying barriers with controls on them, and tried to figure out a strategy.
"Okay, guys," I said, listening to the Capitol Carnage above on Floor 2 and 3. "Red Team, create a diversion so we can get up to the exhaust couplings and take out the engine. Then go back to the armory and fill up. And bring some extra for us too. Anyways, then get your asses up here and we can meet near the elevator." Everyone nodded.
Elf ran out into the middle Trench-thingy, and yelled up at the combatants while spraying bullets at the roof aimlessly. Nearly 80 Warrior Forms and 100 Sentinels dropped down, and Elf ran back to the barricades, as Red Team unloaded on the enemies.
While on the other hand, we bravely hauled ass up the hall to level two, where we observed two Floods and 4 Sentinels fighting. We stopped the battle with a few shells, and continued on, unmolested.
"Guys," I said as we crossed the final part of the upper halls, "When we get to the controls, just how in the hell can we open the exhaust couplings? Unless one of you has UNSC Engineering Training, we're in trouble. I mean, it's not like it has a big bright red button labeled: Retract Pipes."
Odin ran up to one of the panels, and pressed the shiny, bright red button. A klaxon went off, and the pipe started to retract. I hit myself on the head, and went to the other panels. "That's how MC can press all these buttons and make everything work..."
Spark was watching the fight between Red Team and his little minions. "What I can't figure out, why did they voluntarily trap themselves under heavy fire. Even for Humans, that logic is highly... well, stupid," He said in his annoying little Techno/British accent, "Unless they wanted to tie up my troops, and divert them from another team of... them..."
The blue ball of -----'s fear was confirmed when he heard the klaxon. "Sentinels! Destroy the other humans! Flood Warriors! Dispose of their diversionary force."
I heard three explosions, and three of the couplings were down. But the Marine I sent for the fourth coupling hadn't returned yet. So I took a peek.
I saw the Monitor, along with about a hundred flying tin cans, guarding the pipe. A Marine body lay on the floor beside the panel, and the control panel was stained with blood. Infection forms already covered the Human.
I took two ARs, and popped all the little buggers. This alerted 343 GS to my presence, and he began to talk. "Well, well. Nice try, Reclaimers. But I'm afraid you have failed. Surrender all your troops and the construct, and I will execute you fairly quickly..."
My reply was 3 dozen Needles, which had the effect of axing a tin can directly to the left of GS. The explosion also took out two more and damaged a third. "How... DARE YOU!?" The Monitor was outraged. "SENTINELS! DESTROY! DESTROY! AND DESTROY EVEN MORE!"
I dived out of the way of the laser beams coming my way, as did my men. They could only stick their guns around the corner and fire a short burst or risk being disarmed by the fierce beams.
"ODIN!" I yelled across the room to the other side, "MEATLOAF EM! ON THREE! THREE!!!!!" Me and Odin both chucked our last clump of the glowing, green, deadly explosive.
I ducked, as all the machines(save our indestructible little buddy GS)were enveloped in a green explosion.
343, without another word, teleported away. Then the last coupling was toast. A large alarm sounded, as pieces of rubble began to fall. I ordered, "C'mon! To the elevator!!"
As we rendezvoused with Red Team at the room near the lift, the lift came down. We began shooting, and a Black Grunt exclaimed, "THIS IS NOT MY DAY!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
A Series of Wierd Events - Part Five [STERFRYE]
Date: 13 May 2004, 3:18 AM
The group of HBOers and Marines sat in the passenger cabin of the Pelican. Most of the game generated Marines in the space looked to be scared out of their wits. The HBOers were all relatively calm as they checked their hacked weapons. I, on the other hand, was relatively ticked off. We had been in the air for about twenty or so minutes. It was cramped in the cabin, and dark. Smelly, too. It was obvious to me that somebody had soiled their trousers in fear of the upcoming op, but no one said anything.
I grunted as I unbuckled myself from my seat. I walked over to the door that led into the cockpit. There was a small slot that sat below a computer screen with a foldout keyboard. My hand dug into my pocket as I looked for a data crystal. I hoped that Sergeant Stacker, the character I had inhabited, had similar tastes in music to me. I felt something vaguely square shaped in there, and I brought it out.
I was lucky; it was a data crystal. I slotted the crystal in and looked at the screen. Immediately, a box labeled Windows Media Player popped up. I stood in front of screen for several seconds, baffled. Why the heck would Microsoft go to the trouble to put this into Halo? I thought to myself, Will they stop nothing short of world domination?. I shook my head and clicked the play button for the file named B&M.
I didn't really care whether it was music or video. The flight had gone on too long, and I didn't have a window seat. That always made me grouchy. Because the truth is that I've always loved airplanes and that sort of thing. That was mainly the reason that I wrote my Longsword series. I love to fly. (I couldn't wait to get my hands on a Banshee) That and the fact that they didn't have a snack cart had irked me. But whatever.
The file it played first was a video. The screen turned completely black. Then it became static, which phased out and I came face to face with a pair of monsters worse than the Covenant. Worse than 343 Guilty Spark, really.
It was a video of Britney Spears and Madonna kissing. "What the—!?" I yelled as I clicked the stop button. Everyone in the cabin snapped their head around to look at me with an expression of surprise on their faces. "What was that all about?" a Marine asked.
"A fate worse than death," I answered. I went back to the directory and opened the next file labeled JJ&JT. It was no better. My stomach turned over as Justin Timberlake ripped off a good portion of Janet Jackson's clothing. I closed the file quickly. As I did, the same Marine said, "Hey, go back; I was watching that!"
"Shut up," I muttered as a Windows Messenger popped up. I wasn't as surprised this time. I began to wonder if I could get satellite TV out of a copy of Flight Simulator or if Microsoft might have gone so far as to put a copy of Halo in Halo, so to speak.
Boll: Yo, Sterfrye, you there?
I quickly typed back: Yeah I'm here. What's up?
Boll: I thought I'd give you a quick briefing. Here's the deal: That @*&$ little orb, 343 GS, has figured out someway to endlessly respawn Covies. The guys already out there have run out of hacked weapon ammo. You guys are going to have to reinforce the first team and hold out until Frogblast, C0ld Vengeance and I can stop Spark.
Sterfrye36: Got it. Can you send CoLd and I an overhead map?
Boll: Why should I bother? Every HBOer has played this level ten or fifteen times.
My fingers froze over their position above the keyboard and I bit my lower lip.
Boll: Dude, what's taking you so long to reply? Don't tell me you haven't played this a dozen times before.
Sterfrye36: No, no, I've played this before.
Boll: How many times?
Sterfrye36: Uh...once?
Boll: You're a squad leader who's going in to save the other squads' butts and you've only played this once?!
Sterfrye36: Look, I don't even own an XBOX, okay!?
Boll:No, not okay! I don't believe this! You seriously don't own and XBOX?
Sterfrye36: Look, I played it over at a friend's, okay? Besides, I'm stuck here and you can't beam me up. Just send me the map, okay?
Boll: Fine, but you're in big trouble once you get back.
Sterfrye36: Whatever.
I disconnected as the pilot yelled over the P.A. system, "Five minutes till dirt!" A small icon labeled "map" came into existence in my HUD. I nodded as I browsed the rest of the files. I grinned with satisfaction as I found a song worth listening to. "Brandy" by Looking Glass. It was an oldies song. From about the sixties I believe, and it was about a girl who lived in a port town...Or something. I had heard it before.
"Ster, what kind of crap is that?" Shade asked.
"It's classic crap," I shot back.
"Yeah, well so is—" he began, but I beat him to the punch line.
"A mercy killing. Yeah, I read that one in 'The Flood'. Nice try, though."
"Seriously, pop in Blink 182 or something."
"Who?"
"Good gravy," Shade gasped. "You seriously don't know who Blink 182 is?"
"Nope."
"K.I.S.S.?"
"Uh-uh"
"Insane Clown Posse?"
"You're batting zero, Shade."
"At least tell me you know who Linkin' Park is."
"I think I do..." I trailed off as I scrunched up my face. "Yeah I do know who they are. I only really do because there's always that one guy who screams in the background," I built up a big breath of air. "CRAAAAWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIN! THESE WOUNDS, THEY WIIILL NOT HEAAAAAAAALL!!"
Simpsons clamped a Flood claw over his ears. "Dude, be quiet! You're driving me crazy!" When I didn't stop, he yelled, "Shut—"
"UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!" I screeched as "Brandy" got to the chorus (THEY SAY, THEY SAY, BRANDY, YOU'RE A FINE GIRL! WHAT A GOOOOOOOD WIIIIIFE YOU WOULD BE!).
Agent Shade's hand went to his pistol holster, and I would've stopped on my own, but I was forced to as the chapter name appeared in the middle of the cabin, spun around and knocked me down. "Truth and Reconciliation," I muttered from my prone position as the others laughed. How original was the naming ability of the Bungie team? I didn't have long to ponder because the Pelican was suddenly knocked on its ear. I flew to the back of the cabin and slammed into the ramp as the dropship rolled and dove. My mouth spewed incomprehensible gibberish. As my face was smashed against the ramp, I heard a tone, and (Though it was slightly belated) the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign appeared in my HUD.
"What the heck is this!?"
"Beats me!" Steele grunted because of the g-forces. "This is way to rough for regular old turbulence!" The bird snap-rolled and rocketed for the moon in an attempt to regain control and lost altitude. My cheeks suddenly had the substance of jello, and made a phbwickickickickick! sound as the gees overwhelmed me. The worst was yet to come, however, as the pilot over controlled the dropship at the top; the Pelican hung in one location in space for about three seconds before going into a hammerhead stall and a sustained tail slide.
For those of you that don't know what these two maneuvers are, I'll explain it. A Hammerhead stall is where an aircraft is pointing straight up and just hangs in the air without going up or down. A sustained tail slide is where an aircraft stalls during a climb...and then proceeds to fly (backwards) towards the ground.
I was peeled off of the unopened ramp, thrown across the troop compartment and slammed into the cockpit door like it was a gong. From my horizontal spread eagle position, I could see that the others were laughing at me. Simpsons was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down his Flood face, and Steele looked like he was about to pass out.
Through judicious use of the Pelican's ability to vector its thrust, the dropship pitched forward again, and I finally dropped to the cabin floor as the pilot finally regained control.
"One minute until dirt! And, for those of you who lost bowel and/or bladder control during out little bit of maneuvering, there are adult-diapers in the overhead bins," the pilot yelled. I sighed, sat up, and performed one last weapons check. My auto-shotgun was in prime condition. I pulled the slide back and the ammo indicator on my helmet's HUD switched over to little groups of seven grenades. I slung the weapon of mass destruction over my back and unslung my MA5B-M90 crossbreed. It was a shotgun made to look like an AR, but had an AR sized clip and rate of fire...all with shotgun rounds. Whatever Covie that decided to take me on would get a nasty surprise.
I slung my MA5B-M90 over my shoulder and prepped the auto-shotgun as a screech exploded behind me. I clamped my hands over my ears and glanced back over my shoulder. Simpsons was grinning like a drunk and bobbed his head along to the beat of the music he had put in. The screen read: "Blink182, Red Skies".
"I'm dropping the ramp!" the pilot hollered. "Shoot some of them for me!" I turned and the ramped dropped to reveal absolute chaos. There were barely any patches of ground visible. Most of the turf seemed to be covered with dead Covenant. My jaw dropped down. It was unbelievable. CoLd moved in front of me and waved at H_K. H_K waved back, but I saw his brow crease in confusion when I stepped in front of CoLd.
About 20 feet from the earth, the Pelican dropped a Hog that we had been carrying. Wait...when did we pick up a Hog? I shook my head. Boll must've teleported it directly onto the back of the bird. It had probably been the cause of that Pelican's imitation of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".
He was going to pay for that.
Naturally, the mind-blowing possibilities came to my mind. If a Hog could be teleported, what else could? Weapons, ammo, health packs...the possibilities were endless.
I raised my shotgun, switched over to grenade-spread and let loose at a small group of Grunts and Jackals that were racing to intercept us. The spread of grenades landed smack dab in the middle of the group. The grenades detonated and killed all but one red Grunt, which flew up past us and was fried in the jet wash. "Weird way to kill a Grunt," Simpsons muttered as he jumped off the bird. Shade jogged past me, but I grabbed his pistol from out of its holster. I swung the unhacked pistol into line with the computer, which was blaring, "ALL THESE OBSCURE ANIMALS AREN'T EVEN IN THEIR PEN!" The pistol kicked against my hand as I pulled the trigger, and the screen exploded in a shower of sparks. I handed the pistol back to Shade. He rolled his eyes and leaped off of the Pelican; I followed him. The Pelican lifted off and rocked its wings in a gesture of good luck.
As soon as I hit the ground, I headed for the Warthog, but Shade stopped me. "No way," he yelled over the roar of combat.
"Why not?" I yelled back.
"Because you're never driving again, remember?!"
"Look, a Bumblebee and a Warthog are completely different! One's a car, one's a highly sophisticated aircraft!" I screeched. A group of Grunts noticed both Shade and I standing around and blathering like idiots in the middle of a combat zone. They all possessed overcharged plasma pistols and they began to run towards us. A few even ignited plasma grenades.
"And the Ghost!" Shade yelled. "Don't forget the Ghost! You nearly got us blown to bits by Steele and his napalm!" The Grunts were getting close.
"Uh, Shade--" I tried to warn him, but he cut me off.
"And before that, the Marines in the Ghosts nearly killed us! I mean, Marines are bad drivers, but it was like you were trying to get into their crosshairs!"
I finally yelled, "Grunts!" Without looking around, Shade pointed the pistol over his shoulder and nailed all of them with headshots. They flew in a half-dozen different directions and then exploded as the grenades went off. Incredibly, they all took out four Elites with their stupidity.
Shade looked like he was going to continue yelling at me, but his eyes got wide and he dove to my right. I turned around.
Simpsons, in his Flood body with a giant claw, was barreling towards us in the Hog. At first I wasn't worried. He looked like he was keeping it under good control. I did, however, get worried when he suddenly threw it into third gear with his claw and swung a donut.
Then I noticed the steering wheel, bouncing in the air, about twenty feet behind the car.
The lummox had lopped it off with his claw and he now had no control!
A Series of Wierd Events - Sequel, Part Six [STERFRYE]
Date: 26 July 2004, 7:12 PM
Slayer Boi
i read it. kool!
i never get mentioned. i can't even be put in as cannon fodder, let alone 1 of the main characters ;(
Oh well, damn
Gr8 story man
Slayer Boi commenting on "A Series of Weird Events - Part Five [STERFRYE]
"Holy crap!" I yelled as Simpsonsrule bore down on me in the Warthog. The steering wheel was bouncing in the air behind due to the fact that he had accidentally lopped it off with his (Now Flood) body's claw.
I dove to the right after Agent Shade, and Simpsons passed so close, I was actually splattered with the blood soaked ground. Simpsons slammed on the brakes and quickly ground to a halt twenty feet away.
"You!" I screamed. "Out of the 'Hog! I'm driving!"
"How?" Simpsons shot back. "The steering wheel's gone!"
I yelled at him again and he switched over to the passenger's seat with an exasperated look on his convoluted face. Shade climbed onto the turret in the back, and cycled the receiver. I walked Sergeant Stacker's body (I was in it, you know) over and hopped into the driver's seat. Shade didn't argue. Apparently, nearly getting run over had more of an effect on him than nearly getting blown up.
I was caught by surprise as floating 1's and 0's appeared at the base of the steering wheel column and quickly formed into the shape of the wheel. It solidified with a little placard on it that read:
Courtesy of BOLL Hacking Services Inc. Hacking so that you don't have to! Down at the bottom of the placard, in an angry, handwritten scrawl were the words: "I'm still going to kill you for not telling us that you don't own an XBOX." SIGNED: BOLL
I rolled my eyes, grabbed hold of the wheel and slammed on the gas.
Nothing.
I reached behind the wheel and found what I was looking for: the key. Simpsons had turned it off when he switched over to the passenger side, so I turned it.
Once more, nothing happened. I tried again.
Still nothing.
"What's taking so long?" Shade asked. "I've got a Hunter about ninety yards away and closing fast; hurry it up, man!" I heard the LAGG spin up and begin to fire behind me. I took a quick glance backwards to see that none of the rounds were hitting the Hunter; it was too far away for the chain gun to be accurate.
I gave a frustrated grunt and looked on the dashboard. There was a small plunger that had the word "choke" on it. I pulled on it and held it there for a full three seconds to give the engine plenty of gas.
I turned the key and the engine roared to life; I slammed on the gas pedal. The 'Hog went nowhere. What the heck was with this Jeep? Then the most obvious solution came to mind: it had to be in neutral. I looked at the several sticks that branched off of the steering column. There was only one stick there, and it was unlabeled. I yanked it in several dimensions in a desperate attempt to shift, and the windshield wipers came on. Nope, definitely not the shifter. I looked down and to my right and fully expected to see the shifter there. The only problem was, I expected it to be automatic.
"What idiot designed this thing!?" I screamed. "It's got a bad engine, and manual transmission! What's next? Has it got--" I muttered as I threw the 'Hog into first gear. It lurched forward, suddenly stopped, and stalled. Both Simpsons and my head slammed into the windshield. Shade swore. I looked down at my feet as I rubbed my nose to see that I had been right.
It had a clutch.
I screamed, restarted the jeep, slammed the clutch down, forced it into gear, and then slammed on the pedal once more. It crawled forward at a grand speed of twelve miles an hour, but it would have to do.
By the by, has anyone ever actually noticed how bumpy it is on this level? Even at twelve miles an hour, it felt like we were rocketing along at lightspeed. The Hunter that Shade had mentioned earlier was catching up; it was about seventy yards away when I started the car. Even at twelve miles an hour, that Hunter had closed the gap quickly. We were now only fifty or so away.
Simpsons took a chance, stood halfway up in his seat, lifted his Jackhammer rocket launcher, and fired one rocket. It overshot. This time Simpsons swore, and I silently agreed. I made a successful attempt and shifted straight to third gear; our speed increased to seventy in about four seconds.
Regrettably, I had been looking behind us while driving. I realized my mistake and snapped my head back around...to find the Hunter's twin directly in front of us. It smacked an HBOer wearing Mjolnir mark V armor and Marine down with its shield, I slammed on the brakes.
Unfortunately, as any math major could imagine, several thousand pounds of metal and flesh need several hundred feet to stop. We had about fifty. So I yanked the steering wheel to the right...and the car turned all of two inches. I couldn't believe it.
It didn't have power steering
The Jeep slammed into the Hunter and sent the Covie sprawling for several yards. Our 'Hog ground to a stop. The sudden deceleration caused Shade to accidentally swing the LAAG around and rake the prone Hunter's weak spot (And nuts) with dozens of rounds. It died painfully.
I struggled to restart the Warthog and glanced into the side mirror; it read: Warning: Flaming balls of plasma may be closer than they appear. Unfortunately, the Hunter that had been chasing us had given up and fired its Fuel Rod Gun. There was a flaming ball of plasma heading directly towards us. Also regrettable was the fact that the Marine had had four plasma and frag grenades at his death, which meant we were sitting squarely atop of eight grenades. Also, the fact that CoLd BlooDed had fired two Jackhammers at the dead Hunter (Before it died) meant that those rockets were heading right for us.
And there was no time to get out.
The explosion was ear shattering. From what I can remember, we were launched far above the T&R, along with the dead HBOer, and half of the Hunter's carcass. When I asked CoLd BlooDed later, I found out that our total flight time had surpassed thirty seconds. Sometime during the descent, Simpsons's second rocket fired off. It apparently slammed into the top of the grav-lift just as a bunch of Covies generated. The rocket immediately killed them, and instead of falling like they should have, they got jammed at the spawn point. Only a few more Covies could respawn.
The 'Hog, HBOer and Hunter slammed into the ground like comets and bounced like giant beach balls. My head slammed into the steering wheel and set off the horn, which stuck. The 'Hog flipped in the air and finally came to a rest near the grav-pad, which had stopped dropping Covies.
Everyone was breathing heavily. Simpsons had a dark spot on his chair, and Shade wouldn't let go of the stupid fire button for the LAAG. I was hovering in and out of shock when I heard a voice say, "Apples and cougars..." Slowly, I lowered my head and glanced to my left, out of the Jeep.
The HBOer was somehow still alive. Badly wounded, but still alive.
Wordlessly, I reached over, opened the glove compartment, and found what I had been looking for: a medkit. I grabbed it and began to hop over the side when the airbag suddenly inflated, sent a short, sharp shock to my little, limber loins and sent me flying. I landed two feet away from the guy, so I rolled over and opened the medkit. It contained a total of two items: Pepto-Bismal and Aloe Vera.
I groaned, and in frustration, dumped the contents of the Pepto-Bismal onto the poor guy. The pink liquid hissed, bubbled, disappeared, and the guy immediately got up with full armor.
"How'd you know how to do that?" he asked incredulously.
"Truthfully?" I said. "I didn't."
"Oh." We stared at each other for a moment, and then, "Slayer Boi."
"Sterfrye."
"Who?" I sighed and crawled over to a clump of bushes to administer the Aloe Vera to my butt. Did you know it was possible to get sunburn from grenades exploding less than a yard from you, even if you've got several feet of titanium between you an the explosion?
Believe me, it is.
The Aloe Vera was ice cold, and I had to keep from gasping as I applied the unpleasantly moist cream. Then, just as I was putting the cap back on the bottle, I heard, "Freeze Human!" I looked up and felt the air leave my lungs in disbelief.
Not two inches from my face was a Grunt with a plasma pistol, and I still had my pants down.
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