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HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER 1: FEET FIRST INTO HELL
Date: 4 September 2002, 12:25 am

As our pelican dropship accelerated toward the LZ, I loaded an extended clip into my sniper rifle. I looked over at my teammate, Rob. We were Black One and Two, 229th Special Operations Group (S.O.G), Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Our unit did not officially exist. Rob and I had officially died in action on Reach two years ago. Unofficially, we had escorted the famous Dr. Hasley off Reach and to Chi Ceti 4, where project: MJOLNIR had begun. The Covenant had not glassed the planet because the only ship in that sector was destroyed by the SPARTANS before they could send out a distress call. Its whereabouts are still unknown to the Covenant. After our little escapade, we were recruited by the 229th. All members of all Special Operations Groups are officially KIA. After the fall of Reach, we were deployed to HALO installation 001 to root out the covenant infestation and glean any secrets we could out of the enigmatic installation.
Rob and I had known each other since high school. We enlisted together when the Covenant threat became publicly known. We were always assigned missions together because we have always worked as a perfect team. Even in the 229th we were considered the best team amongst our comrades. Rob is unusually small for an ODST. But what he lacks in size he more than makes up for in brute strength and bravery. He is not much for battlefield tactics, but he can sneak up on any opposition and kill them with a cold efficiency that rivals even the genetically enhanced SPARTANS.
The dropship did not slow as we reached the drop zone. It hauled ass a foot or so over the ground as I readied myself. I did not have to check if rob was ready. As we screamed over the drop zone, the pilot came over the intercom: "30 seconds till launch boys. Good luck." I counted down and we jumped. I tucked my body into a ball and hit the ground rolling, sniper rifle in my hands. I rolled to a stop more or less inside a thick bush. I didn't move a muscle as I surveyed my surroundings with my night vision glasses. Technology and miniaturization has come a long way since the 21st century. The once bulky NV goggles had been compacted into glasses. We S.O.G. types could choose the style of glasses in which the night vision equipment would be installed. Rob and I both chose the "aviator" type glasses. There was another major improvement. The surroundings were still green, but enemies were displayed in artificial color enhancement, making it almost impossible to miss even a small grunt hidden in the foliage. As I looked around I caught sight of Rob, sitting by a tree, checking his equipment. I disengaged myself from the bush and strolled on over to him. He looked up at me and smiled. "You ready?" he asked.
"Yep. Lets get goin." We gave our gear another check before starting off. Tonight we were off on another intelligence gathering mission. We were to infiltrate a sizable covenant base and hack into their BattleNet and intelligence gathering network. For the job tonight, I had brought along my trusty sniper rifle. I had an Oracle scope attached, by my unit's armorer, which also gives a 30x magnification mode. Unlike most mainline models, this one had a sound suppressor. The bullets I use still have the usual anti-matter tips, but they don't leave vapor trails, which would give my position away. I always use extended clips to keep up my rate of fire in prolonged engagements. My secondary gun is a silenced MA5B assault rifle. The only modifications that I made to this particular weapon is that it has a variable magnification option, 2x to 10x. I also carry a silenced antique pistol, a 9mm Ruger. It was a present from Dr. Hasley. In addition to the guns, I also brought two combat knives (they don't weigh much so why not bring two?) that were also balanced for throwing, extra ammo clips for each gun, and a little glass cube that contained a hack AI, made specially for us by ONI. Rob packed much the same stuff as I did, except for weapons. His main weapon is an M-90 tactical shotgun, but since our whole mission is based off of stealth, he had to rearrange his priorities. So tonight he brought a silenced MA2B, a cut down version of the MA5B assault rifle, two silenced M6D pistols, and a pair of definitely non-regulation brass knuckles. He liked to get down and dirty with the Covenant, especially after they glassed our home planet. I couldn't agree more with him.
We set out at a fairly good pace, jogging along in the woods without making a sound. The covie base was set about a kilometer spinward. We had timed our arrival at the camp to be at about 2:30 in the morning, when all the grunts would be sleeping, and the elites and jackals senses would be dulled from lack of sleep. Although the covies had staggeringly superior weaponry, they were in actuality weaker than humans. Hit them in the right spot, and you had yourself a dead covie.
We slowed down when we reached the periphery of where the covie patrols should be, we slowed down and stopped near a tree. We checked our six and verified that there were no patrols around. We proceeded forward with extreme caution, checking all around us for any signs of a patrol. Rob and I split up and spread about a hundred yards apart. A few minutes later I heard a scuffle in the general direction of where Rob should be. I then heard two clicks on my radio. One covie patrol down. As we crept closer to the base, the foliage slowly thinned out. I subvocalized to Rob to put on active camouflage. I got an acknowledgement and got mine on also. We found these camouflage generators all over the place here on HALO. We took them whenever we could and stashed them back at our base for later use. We advanced to the outer wall of the base and regrouped. We found the entrance and we decided to proceed together. He took the left and I took the right. There were storage containers all over the place. They would provide good cover for us, but grunts like to sleep next to them. We had to watch our step. As we slowly advanced toward the main building, I saw a few grunts sleeping by a storage container. I smiled in spite of the dangerous situation and crept over to them. The first grunt got a face full of my combat boot as he sailed over the container. Some blood splashed on the other two grunts and they stirred slightly, as if they were about to wake up. I didn't give them the chance. I whacked one with the butt of my rifle and the other one impaled itself upon my razor-edged combat knife. I wiped the blade clean in the ground and continued on.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTERS 2 and 3
Date: 5 September 2002, 3:19 am

Hey, anyone who reads this, write me and tell me what you thought of it. Maybe you have some good ideas for more chapters? I have the next eight chapters already thought out, waiting for me to write them. Anyway, give me some feedback. snayperskaya@hotmail.com

CHAPTER 2: INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

As Rob and I neared the main building, we saw more sleeping grunts. We quickly and quietly dispatched them, all the time looking for any elites or jackals. They were kind of tricky to take out quietly. We reached the entrance to the building and stopped again. Intel said that the nearest AI slot was 26 floors down. We deactivated our active camo. They didn't work too well indoors. We proceeded quietly down a hall and turned left at the end. A group of jackals were quietly chittering in the corner with their backs to us. It would be impossible to kill them all without a weapon before they would raise the alarm. I knelt and told Rob to do the same. I raised my sniper rifle to my shoulder and took aim.

*THWIP*

Two jackals standing close together caught the same bullet. The other two looked around, confused, but before they could turn on their shields, they fell to the ground, minus their heads. I stood up and we dragged the bodies into a corner and continued down the hallway. We stopped at a door on the right. I readied my assault rifle, saw Rob do the same, and I touched a few keys on the keypad to the left of the door. The door softly chimed and slid open. We had entered a security room. The two elites in the room turned, surprised, as the doors opened. They saw us and reached for their weapons, but were dead before they got them. Two assault rifles on full auto with anti-matter rounds sliced through the two aliens. They fell, dead before they hit the ground. We policed the bodies, dragging them under the tables in the corner. At the far end of the room was an elevator. We got in and pushed the button that the intel report described that would take us to the 26th sublevel. The elevator beeped in acknowledgement and silently slid down into the depths of the facility.
The elevator reached the designated floor and the doors slid open to reveal a hallway. That is, a hall way with two behemoth hunters sleeping in it. Their backs were to us, so we crept up and I slammed the butt of my rifle into the orange flesh of the alien. Orange blood splattered on the walls. He groaned and fell. Rob did not have such good luck. He did not notice the grunt sleeping at the feet of the hunter. The falling hunter woke up the grunt, who saw us and let out a screech before he fell, a trio of bullets through his skull. He gurgled and fell. However, there were two more hunters around the corner that woke up because of the little grunt. They contracted into their battle stance and rushed us. One blow from those huge shields and we were done for. As they came at us, one of them abruptly fell, orange blood spewing from its neck. The other one fell shortly after. Rob and I looked at each other. We had not even raised our rifles, much less fired a shot. We looked at the hunters again, we cautiously crept up to examine them. They were dead all right.
"You're welcome."
I casually turned around. "You know we could have taken them down without a problem."
A huge figure in green iridescent armor appeared from the shadows. "I don't know. You ODST types are so unpredictable. I you could have freaked out and shot yourself in the foot."
"Thanks John. That means so much coming from you."
Rob and I had worked with John-117 over the two years that they had been with the 229th. Many ODSTs have had reservations over the SPARTAN II program. They saw it as a threat to their very survival, as the SPARTANS were so much more effective in fighting the covenant than the ODSTs. But Rob, John and I had worked up a pretty good friendship over that time. We went on a lot of ops together. John didn't deploy with us, but we always knew he was nearby if we got into trouble.
Rob broke in, "Hey guys, we need to keep moving if we want to get out of here before dawn."
"Yeah he's right. Lets keep moving." We continued down the hallway, and passed the air duct that John had come in through.
John said. "ok guys follow me, I got the control room secured already. I was waiting for you two slowpokes to come with the hack AI." He started jogging, and we followed. A few minutes later, we entered the control room. I saw an air duct with its access panel ripped open. Four elites and two of those scientists types lay shredded into bits on the floor. I had to watch my step, the floor was slick with covie blood. I strolled over to the control panel and found the AI insert slot. To my surprise, there was one already in there. A covenant AI? That has to be the greatest find of the war! We could get a ton of information from it. I popped the alien AI out and tossed it in my pack. I extracted the hack AI from a pocket in my vest and slid it onto the slot. A holomonitor flickered to life and a grim reaper floated into existence. "ok hack, do your thing."
"monitoring system... ok I have it. I have accessed and planted bugs into the covenant BattleNet and into their Intelligence Network. I have accessed their schematics and have found the fastest route out of here. Go down the hall past the elevator. There will be a door down the hall 200 meters and to the right. It opens into a hangar. From there, you can steal one of the new experimental Kayser light attack aircraft. Master Chief, I believe you are familiar enough with covenant craft to pilot it out of here. Once inside the aircraft, put me into the ship's AI slot. I will open the bay doors leading to the surface."
"Ok lets do it!" Rob said excitedly. It wasn't everyday that they got to steal experimental covie ships.
"all right lets get out of here.: I said as I pulled out the hack AI and slid him into my pocket.

CHAPTER 3: ESCAPE

We exited the control room and were almost immediately in trouble. Six purple elites had come by to see why the control room wasn't responding. They died as quick as they found out what the problem was. The Master Chief lashed out with the butt of his assault rifle catching the lead covie in the jaw with his shields down. Fluorescent blood splashed across the rest of the aliens just as Robs dual M6D pistols coughed, sending two more elites to the ground. I brought up my antique ruger and placed a bulled between the eyes of the next one. By that time the Master Chief had brought his rifle back into the firing position and gunned down the two remaining elites. The action had taken little over a second. We checked the hallways on both sides and then dragged the bodies into the control room and locked the door. We took the hallway back in the direction of the elevator, encountering no resistance. We jogged past the elevator and down the hall just like the AI instructed. We found the specified door and opened it cautiously. It opened into a cavernous room filled with banshees, ghosts, drop ships, seraphs and the new Kayser. No covies had spotted us yet, so I brought up my sniper rifle and took a look around.

*THWIP*THIP*THWIP*

Two elites and a jackal lost their heads. Two more shots and two sleeping grunts bit the dust. Rob and the Master Chief spread out, looking for more targets.

*THWIP**THWIP*
*THWIP*

A trio of shots to my left signified that Rob had found another alien. I heard some crunching bone to my right and knew that the Master Chief had killed some more covie bastards. Then I spotted three hunters that were moving toward the Master Chief. I pivoted and fired three times. Three splashes of blood and three less covenant to worry about. I raced forward toward some more cover and heard some more shots coming from Robs position. I saw a Kayser about 30 meters away from my position. I subvocalized to Rob to swing around to my position. I knew the Master Chief was listening in on our communications and that he would soon come also. While I was waiting for them, I saw a group of grunts in a corner. Seizing the opportunity, I hefted my sniper rifle and sighted in on the group. Five shots and five grunts went down with fatal head injuries. I reloaded and looked for more targets. I saw a jackal running for a door and let him almost get there. He died tired. Rob came up behind me and the Master Chief soon followed. They rushed the Kayser while I provided cover. I took out four more hunters regrouping behind a banshee and then got up and ran for the Kayser. After I was safely inside, I got out the AI and popped him into the proper slot. A miniature grim reaper floated above the control panel. He said nothing, but the bay doors started to open. The Master Chief started up the engines and we shot off through the angled tunnel towards the surface. We shot out like a bullet into the sky. Mission Accomplished.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER 4: ONCE MORE INTO THE BREECH
Date: 5 September 2002, 11:53 pm

      The base was bustling with activity. As Rob, the Master Chief and I exited the Kayser, several ONI spooks ran up to us, congratulated us on our success, and promptly took both the hack AI, and the covie AI, and left with the Kayser. Ungrateful bastards. The Master Chief told us that he would see us later, and jogged off. Idecided I was hungry, and headed to the cafeteria. Rob followed. Our base was set into a mountain top. Automated defenses had been set up, ringing the perimeter. Numerous anti-air batteries littered the base. Only a fraction of the base could be seen from the outside. The base descended well into the mountain. The base was situated in a tropical landscape. Dense jungle covered the mountain, making an ideal place to set up booby traps in random places for the covies. Human patrols did not have to worry about the traps. They were made specially to go off only in the faces of the covenant. The cafeteria was set in the center of the base. It was the one place where I could relax. Rob and I got a table and got some grub. I was starving. About halfway through our meal, a corporal came to us and told us to report for a debriefing in the commander's quarters. We slowly finished our meal and went. The commander's quarters was 60 floors down, deep inside the mountain. On the way down in the elevator, Rob remarked, "You know, fighting the covies for so long here, you would think that UNSC command would send more troops to help secure the ring."

      I replied, "Well, command has their heads so far up their asses, they probably don't even remember that we are here."

      The elevator chimed and came to a stop. The doors opened and we got out. Down a short hallway and we were in the Secretary's office. The commander's secretary looked up and said that we could got right on in. we went. Rob closed the door behind us and we sat down.

      Captain Perov swiveled around in his chair and looked at us. "You two did a fine job last night. The bugs that the hack AI planted into the system are working perfectly, and we now for once have accurate intel on their movements. As for the covie AI, the ONI spooks are working on getting some information out of it. And boy, is that Kayser some piece of work. Did you guys even look at the weapon systems on that thing?"

      Rob replied, "well sir, I messed around with the system a little bit on the way back. Basically I noticed upgraded pulse lasers, dual plasma launchers, and better shielding."

      "Well, there's a bit more to it than that." Said captain Perov, "it also has a primitive software system, in an attempt to mimic our own computer systems. The guys at ONI think that the covies are going to try to use the kayser to try to infiltrate our computer systems from a distance instead of boarding a ship to try a local tap. We are now updating our software to try to combat this new weapon. The covies can under no circumstances learn the location of any more human colonies. I understand that the UNSC is so far keeping the covie threat at bay. They haven't found any colonies for a while now, but I expect that to change."

      He paused, looking at us. "Gentlemen, I have just received new orders from command H.Q. Effective immediately, we are to go on the offensive to root out the covie infestation on this construct. We are getting reinforcements in the form of 6 armored divisions from the Epsilon system. You two and the rest of your S.O.G. are to engage in guerilla tactics against the enemy. No more intelligence missions. From now on your mission is to kill as many of those covie fuckers as you can. You two get a good nights sleep tonight. We go on the offensive tomorrow. Dismissed"

      "hell yeah, I'm gonna kill me some covies and hang 'em on my wall!" shouted Rob. I was pretty excited too. We left and went back up to the surface. I immediately noticed something different. Everybody had stopped what they were doing and were looking up As I looked up into the sky, I saw a battle raging. Twenty UNSC battlecruisers had jumped in system and had taken on the covenant ships in position above the construct. The battlecruisers were the newest addition to the UNSC arsenal. They were twice as big as the Marathon class cruiser currently in service. The battlecruisers were produced faster because they lacked one major compoment: armor plating. This made them both immensely cheaper to build, and much faster and more agile. Some smart people in high places noticed that the Titanium A battleplate did exactly jack shit against covie plasma. However, at the battle for Reach, witnesses to the destruction noticed that when the repair-refit stations were vaporized, the covie plasma coming later was dispersed by the titanium dust in the vicinity. By mistake, we had learned how to defeat the covenant plasma bombardments. Ships were now being fitted with a new defense system called the TADD (Titanium A Dust Dispenser). It was a weak name, but no one could come up with anything better. What the TADD does is eject large clouds of titanium dust into the trajectory of the oncoming plasma blast. The dust disperses the plasma, and no harm is done to the ship. The new battlecruisers now fired on the covenant fleet with impunity, hiding behind clouds of titanium. The battle was quickly over, with no human losses. The blackness of space was distorted and then a green light appeared, and another six human ships jumped in system, in perfect formation. So we can now navigate slipspace much more accurately now to, I thought. I noticed that these ships were huge troop transports. These were the six armored divisions coming to reinforce us. My mouth watered at the thought of the power we would now be able to unleash on the enemy. Each division boasted 600 Scorpion tanks, along with 300 Warthogs, and enough brave marines to man all of that equipment, plus logistics and support. The battlecruisers could now deploy their new Dagger interceptors and Longsword fighter-bombers for air support.

      While we were all watching this, Rob was talking to a junior lieutenant. When he finished, he came up to me and said, "Andreas, our next mission is already assigned. We are to find a suitable base camp for the newly arrived divisions. We can take one of the refitted Stealth Warthogs so we can get around faster. We should leave no later than 0500 tomorrow morning."

      "ok. We better get some sleep then." I headed for the elevator again and Rob and I went to our rooms.

      Rob smacked me hard in the head. "Get up you lazy old bastard." He shouted. Then he laughed. "It is almost impossible to wake you up sometimes. "Up and at 'em, shit and shave!"

      I gave him the finger and went to the bathroom. I came out feeling wide awake. I got dressed in my combat fatigues, gathered some throwing knives, slid them into sheathes in my boots and various other places about my person, strapped on my ruger, slung my sniper rifle, didn't bother with body armor, and turned to Rob. Ok lets go kick some covie ass.

      We went to the elevator and took it to sublevel 86, the garage. We got out and surveyed the place. We didn't use vehicles very often and every time we came down here, the place was rearranged.

      A technician ran up to us. "Excuse me, Sergeant, but I have your Warthog over here if you want to get going. Rob and I were both the same rank, but the people who needed to say something usually came to me because I am the biggest and most imposing. We followed the techie to a heavily refitted Warthog.

      "I trust that Captain Perov has give you the specs of this vehicle, but I will tell you again cause its my job." He continued, "this Warthog has heavily baffled engine. You can barely hear the thing at all." He started the engine, or at least I thought he did. He turned the key, but the ATV was completely silent. Impressive.

      "It also has an active camouflage generator, which will also cover the both of you, as long as you remain on the vehicle. The chain gun is no different, but the shells it fires are. They are the new anti-matter shells, like the ones for your rifles. This vehicle has also been stocked with an ample supply of active camo fuel cells for when you exit the vehicle."

      I thanked the techie and we clambered into the Warthog. I got the drivers seat, while Rob got the chain gun. Chain guns are notoriously hard to aim, but Rob could cut the air hoses off of a grunt's environmental suit at a hundred paces with sand blowing in his face, barreling down a bumpy road with a god that had no mercy. I turned the key, only to hear a horrific screeching sound. Startled, I remembered that the techie had already started the hog. Rob laughed at me, I gave him the finger again, and we were off, once more into the breech, my friends.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER 5: HUMANITY'S LAST HOPE
Date: 6 September 2002, 12:03 am

      As we sped through the dense jungle, I thought about my purpose here on HALO installation 001. After the Master Chief had destroyed installation 004, he returned to civilization and told UNSC HQ about all that he had been through. The decision was made then and there to see if humanity could harness the power of the HALO installation and use it against the covenant. All HALO installations had been found in this galaxy, and there was a sizable human force on each one. I wondered if each of the other ringworlds was being given the support that we were receiving right now. Maybe there was a two man team, just like Rob and I, speeding through the jungle, looking for a landing spot for reinforcements...

      I saw that the jungle growth was thinning out, changing to a different type of climate al together. So strange, the way all these climates coincided next to each other...

      We sped out into a clearing and I saw a broad mesa about two kilometers spinward. The top of the mesa was a good three kilometers in diameter. A good spot for a divisional headquarters. The slopes to each side looked to be easily defendable. I headed for it.

      When we reached the center of the mesa, I dropped a landing beacon for one of the transports to home in on. On contact with the soil, it activated and burrowed into the soil. I parked the hog and turned it off. I looked up and could see one of the troop transports break formation and head towards us. I turned off the active camo on the hog and waited. A few minutes later, we had to move out of the way as the transport landed, and promptly began disgorging hordes of troops and vehicles. A command vehicle headed for us and stopped nearby.

      A tall well built man wearing a rear admiral's insignia got out and I jumped out of the hog. He came up to us. "I am rear admiral James Carther. I am the overall commanding officer of the armored divisions that have come to take HALO from the covenant."

      Rob and I saluted in unison as he continued. "you have found an impressive base site for us here boys. Good work." He held out his hand and I shook it. "Thank you sir."

      Then he said, "Well, I have to be going now, you boys run along and find me some more sites to base my troops." He briskly turned and loped back to his vehicle. He must have spent a lot of tie in space to get that "space walk" as we called it. I felt that he was a good responsible commander.

      "Come on, we got a lot of ground to cover today." I said as I jumped back into the hog. I started the engine and spun up the active camo. I looked back at the admiral and saw his eyes widen and register shock at seeing us and our vehicle disappear.

      We covered all sorts of terrain. More than I could name. We found a good spot for the second transport on a wide hill covered with tundra about hundred and fifty kilometers from the first site. The ring construct is deceptively large, and so we had to stop for the first night with the second transport.

      The third transport we decided to put on a hill in a very cold climate. There was snow all around, but I wasn't worried about that. All divisions come with cold weather gear. The fourth landing site we chose was situated on the edge of a desert. It was there that we decided to stop for the second night. We got to sleep in the comfortable beds on the recently arrived troop transport.

      The fifth transport we assigned to a forested area of the ring, bordering on the edge of the swampy area. We decided not to place any divisions directly into the swampy area. There were just too many unknowns. And finally, the sixth division we decided to place on the hill neighboring our HQ. Who knew when we would need the extra support? The divisions split up into regimental bases and company outposts. When all was said and done, human military vehicles effectively controlled one third of the ring world. We could receive support whenever we needed it, but the Covenant forces were effectively cut off from outside support. Twenty battlecruisers patrol the deep black void outside, and we know exactly what they are planning, thanks to the bugs Rob and I planted in the covenant BattleNet. We are going to win this one. Many believe that the secrets that HALO contains will let humanity survive against the covenant onslaught. Maybe HALO really is Humanity's last hope. I don't know if they are right or not. But I do know that I am going to find out.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTERS 6-7
Date: 10 September 2002, 11:36 pm

      CHAPTER SIX: JOY RIDING
            Rob, Me and the other members of the 229th S.O.G. have been assigned to daily missions officially known as Search and Destroy missions. However, me and my Special Operations Group have generally call these missions joy riding. The object of the mission is to kill as many of the covie bastards as you possibly can. We had started a competition of sorts. There was now a kill board taking up one wall of my quarters. Every day after we got back to base, we all sat around in my room watching the mission recorders. Rob and I are still in first place, of course. We have tallied 126 kills over the course of two weeks. Fi bait, and the Anachronism (aliases of course. Rob and I are Skull and Crossbones) are in second place with 97 kills. Today we started out kind of late, around 0800 or so. Rob yells to me, "I see a few of them! Grunts! Slow down!" I hit the brakes and jump out. All of a sudden the grunts could see me; I was outside the protective cloak of the hog. I dodge to the side as a burst of plasma burns past me. I slip on an active camo unit and bring up my sniper rifle.

*THWIP*THWIP*THWIP*THWIP*

      Four little grunts go down gurgling, their throats torn wide open. Then the chain gun spins up and the bullets seem to appear from nowhere as they chew through the grunts. All of a sudden, it's over. I count up the dead, 8 grunts and a shitload of fluorescent blood. I get back in the hog and deactivate my personal cloaking device.
      Rob tells me to be more careful, I give him the finger, he laughs, and we continue.
      "I think we should go look for a base of some sort. All those little buggers seem to be hiding in those structures under the ground." Rob yells to me.
      "Yeah, that's a good idea." I yell back, and step on the gas. We head at top speed toward the nearest known covenant holdout. For the most part, the covies had gone under ground, when they realized that their supply line from space had been cut. We drove on for about an hour, when we came to a mountain rising up out of the jungle. Set in to the base of the mountain was what looked like a hangar door. Two gold armored elites guarded the entrance. Rob let out a low whistle. Not many bases were important enough to have gold elites guard the entrance. We couldn't get very close, because the sound of the massive tires crunching over the ground would alert the elites. Rob and I donned our active camouflage and exited the vehicle. We circled very carefully around the elites. Rob socked his elite in the head with a brass knuckle reinforced fist. My elite turned at the noise, but I viciously smashed the butt of my sniper rifle into its head before it could do anything else. Rob policed the bodies and I took the opportunity to get to the hog and radio in to HQ that we had found something of interest, and to have some backup in case we got into trouble. They acknowledged and I signed off.
      Rob had hid the bodies in a bush and was waiting for me by the entrance. The door seemed to be of Forerunner origin, not covenant. The door had a motion sensor and when we stepped toward it, it opened. We cautiously entered and readied our rifles. Around the corner there were five grunts and three elites patrolling inside a large chamber. Rob and I split up to far ends of the room. We still had the active camo, we were not seen. We each silently took out an elite. The other aliens noticed this and the grunts panicked and started firing in all directions. Two grunts shot themselves, and died in a pool of fluorescent blood. I sniped the elite, who fell and in its death throes, convulsively squeezed the trigger, taking out a grunt's legs. Rob had his M-90 shotgun out and was taking care of the other two grunts. Two blasts and two grunts flew across the room, no longer recognizable, the front of their bodies chewed away from the buckshot.
      We didn't bother with cleaning up the mess, the whole friggin base must've heard the commotion. I took out my assault rifle and motioned Rob forward to the next hallway. We took a few twists and turns, and through a door, and suddenly we were outside. Well, it sure looked like outside. But the climate was way different. Topside when we had entered, it was dense jungle. Here is was the middle of winter. Snow was falling heavily. We couldn't see the ceiling. We couldn't see the ground either. We were standing on a narrow bridge that spanned across the gaping cavernous space. I looked, but couldn't see the other side of the bridge. I took out my sniper rifle and took a look through the scope. Through the special 30x magnification, I could just barely make out a spire rising from the center of the bridge toward the sky. I handed the rifle to Rob so he could have a look see. He looked through the scope briefly and then stated simply, "Let's go."
      We trekked through the knee deep snow on the bridge toward the tower, thinking of what we would find when we got there. We were about halfway there when I noticed little humps in the snow. I stopped in front of one and brushed off some snow. It was a grunt. Funny how the cold temperatures sent them into a sort of hibernation. I called Rob over and we continued, occasionally bashing a sleeping grunt that happened to be in our way. As we got closer to the tower, I grew more and more astonished at the dimensions of the thing. It was roughly hexagonal with sweeping geometric shapes etched into it. I spotted six stationary guns protecting the entrance to the spire. I told Rob to go ahead, and that I would snipe off any opposition from here. He split to the side and continued on. I brought up my sniper rifle and sighted in on the entrance. There were ten elites, eight hunters and then six grunts manning the shade turrets. I radioed to Rob about this new development. He acknowledged and I began to pick off targets.

*THWIP*THWIP*

      Two hunters went down, spurting orange blood over the snowy landscape. Six of the elites ran around to the other side of the building. I watched, curious as to what they were doing, when three ghosts and three banshees suddenly appeared. Holy shit, I thought, this is gonna be tough. I told Rob to go for the Ghosts. He didn't say anything, but a few seconds later, I saw one of the ghosts start to smoke. It swerved and plowed into a low flying banshee, knocking both of them off of the bridge and into the abyss. I sighted in on a banshee and spied the elites head poking up from a view port, and gently squeezed the trigger. The banshee dove for the ground as the elite learned how to fly without a head.
      I lowered my rifle and raced forward, bringing up my assault rifle. Half a clip later, the last banshee twirled from the sky in a cloak of smoke and flame. I looked over to Rob in time to see him eliminate the last of the banshees. The grunts had recovered finally from the shock of losing their elites, and opened up on us. The hunters and remaining four elites charged while the grunts sprayed the area with suppressing fire. Purple streaks shot past me as I dove into the snow. I popped up and loosed a few rounds toward the nearest turret. The grunt screamed and gurgled on his own blood as a round got him in the chest. Rob fired from his prone position in the snow. Flakes of snow flurried around him from the muzzle blasts of his assault rifle. He picked off two elites with the extremely efficient anti-matter rounds.
      Snow was vaporized right next to me by another shade turret, and I decided it was time to move. I jumped up and raced another ten meters before plopping down again. I yanked my ruger free of its holster and sent a few round through the neck of the nearest hunter. Another hunter saw me; pivoted and raised its arm. I bolted from my spot as a huge green blast vaporized my previously occupied position. I loosed the rest of my clip at that hunter before he could recharge his fuel rod gun. He went down in a fiery green ball when one of my rounds found his gun's plasma cell. I turned in time to see a hunter in the action of bringing my shield down on my skull. I ducked and was splattered in the alien's fluorescent blood as his head toppled off its shoulders. I radioed Rob for a brief thank you and charged forward again. Rob had taken out the three remaining hunters and two more turrets. I sighted my assault rifle on the next turret and fired. I pivoted before I saw the grunt go down and emptied the rest of my clip at two elites coming from the side. They went down hard and I ran toward them. I picked up their grenades and lobbed two grenades at the last turrets. They disappeared in twin blue flashes.
       The firing died down and I stood up. Rob had advanced all the way to the entrance and had already sat down and was inspecting his gear. I jogged over to him, retrieving plasma grenades along the way that the deceased elites and grunts would no longer be needing.
      "That was fun! Let's do it again!" joked Rob as I approached. I gave him the finger and sat down next to him. "Which way you think we should go?" he asked. "Up or down?"
      "I am betting that whatever they covies are trying to protect is gonna be up. Harder to fight up than down. Easier to defend from the top too." I decided. I took out a ration bar and chewed thoughtfully. "you think we should invite the cavalry to join us?"
      "nah," Rod said. "they'll take all the credit if we find anything." He got up and shrugged on his backpack. I got up and did likewise. I finished my ration bar and we started up the stairs, Rob taking point.
      
      CHAPTER SEVEN: A NEW SUPERWEAPON
      
      We had been climbing the stairs for about and hour and a half when I began to wonder just how fucking long it would take us to get to the top. There were windows every hundred steps or so. I glanced out one of them and looked down. The bridge had faded from view. Damn we are high. A few minutes later we reached a landing with two grunts patrolling. Rob leaped on the far one and brutally snapped its neck. I unsheathed a knife and jammed it into my grunt's brain cavity, twisting savagely. It toppled to the ground. I was about to say something the Rob when he motioned for me to shut up. I shut up and listened. I could hear a faint humming coming from somewhere above us. I took point this time and we started again up the stairs, much more cautiously than before. Looking out the windows now only granted a look at a dense cloud bank. Gradually the humming got louder as we approached the next landing. I also heard a faint but unmistakable noise: an elite walking somewhere up ahead. I turned on my motion tracker and saw a dot moving slowly back and forth. I waited until the dot was moving away from me an then struck. I bolted onto the landing and spotted a gold elite walking away from me. I hefted a throwing knife and hurled it as hard as I could at the base of the elite's neck. It sank in up to its hilt and the alien fell. A grunt sleeping in the corner stood up, startled at the noise, but Rob was upon its neck before it could let out a squawk. I strode over to the elite and dislodged my knife from its neck. Seeing as we were in no immediate danger, I decided then and there to keep a tooth from every golden elite that I killed. I withdrew from my pack a pair of pliers and yanked out one of the dead elite's canine tooth. I slipped it into my pocked and then I also liberated its plasma sword. I studied the hilt of the device for any button that would activate the blade. Finding none, I decided it must be pressure activated, I squeezed the handle and eureka, I had myself a working plasma sword. I showed it to Rob, and then clipped it to my belt.
       We continued up the next set of stairs. The humming noise had turned into a steady drone. We sped up out pace. The noise would help conceal our footfalls to any enemy in the area. A few minutes later, I noticed that the walls were becoming gradually farther and farther apart. Suddenly, the stairs ended, and we found ourselves in a winding hallway. Moving right along, I almost tripped over another one of those damn grunts. I was about to kill it when I noticed that it had the black armor of the spec ops grunts. Its fuel rod gun lay at its side. Knowing full that the gun explodes when the grunt dies, I sidestepped and continued on, leaving a grenade under his gun. The moment he woke up would be his last moment alive. A few turns later, Rob and I saw something truly unprecedented. A hunter clad in black spec ops armor stood with its back to us. A spec ops hunter? No one had ever seen one of those before. How important is this place, I wondered. I Motioned Rob to stop. We had to take care of this situation flawlessly. The hunter's armor covered all of his body. There were no orange spots of flesh visible. The only option would be to shoot out one of his twin fuel rod guns. To do this, someone had to get his attention. I knelt in the firing position and readied my sniper rifle. Rob set a plasma grenade with a ten second fuse and sent it bouncing down the hallway. The hunter heard the noise and turned-

*THWIP*
      *CCRRRAAASSSHHH!!!*

      The anti-matter round hit the fuel rod's charging cell and ignited it. The hunter staggered, staring at his stump of an arm. Then the plasma grenade exploded and the hunter went down, thick orange blood welling out of its arm, congealing on the ground. We heard a grenade go off behind us. Spinning, we realized that the explosions had woken up the spec ops grunt with the grenade I had set under him.
      We continued forward, weapons at the ready. The droning sound had escalated to a deafening roar. We must be close. We turned a corner and stopped suddenly. The hall had opened into a cavernous room. At the far end of the room were two spec ops hunters, guarding a doorway.
      "Whatever they're guarding so jealously must be in that room." Rob subvocalized to me. I looked at him and nodded. I put a fresh battery cell into a slot in my belt and the active camo shimmered back on. The old battery had run out before we reached the snow covered bridge. Rob took the hint and activated his also. Those hunters had to be taken out quickly and quietly. We snuck up and I examined the Hunter from a few feet away. It looked like he had no weak spots besides the fuel rod charger cell. But looks can be deceiving. I knelt down and looked at the behemoth's underarms. Sure enough, its armpits had no armor. It would be impossible to hit the armpit in a fight, so the makers of the armor obviously never thought to put any there. I unclipped the plasma sword and held the base of it up to the exposed flesh. I tightened my grip and the blade flashed out, right into the behemoth hunter, piercing and flash burning internal organs. It collapsed. The other hunter began to turn and address this new threat. But they are ungainly and slow when it comes to addressing a new threat. Before it could do much more than turn, Rob had emptied the clip from his MA2B into the hunters exposed underarm. The second hunter fell next to the first. He looked at me and nodded. Or at least I think he did. Close up, you can kind of see the object wearing the camo. We turned to face the door. I strode over to a keypad set into the wall and pressed a few keys. The keys were inscribed in some sort of runic alien script. They were definitely not covenant letters. The door slid silently open.
      Inside were about a dozen of those floating scientists. They were hovering here and there, examining control panels at a furious pace. To regular hunters sat in the corner, keeping watch over a red box. The Master Chief had told Rob and I of his past experiences with the covenant. I recalled one story where he had been sent to a city of Cote de Azores and had seen much the same thing with the hunters in the corners. I knew that they were transmitting something to a ship in orbit somewhere. It had to be a stealth ship, or else the battlecruisers would have seen it and blown it out of the sky. I opened fire on the hunters, hitting their exposed flesh, felling them. Rob fired his assault rifle in controlled bursts, aiming for the scientists. I got about five of the scientists before the firing stopped.
      "Rob, you get on the horn pronto and get the cavalry here right away. We need this area secured now, before more covies run us over." I shouted at him. He pulled the long range radio out of his pack and called HQ. while he was doing this, I went over to where the two hunters lay. I picked up the red box and studied it. "and Rob, tell them that the covies have been transmitting some info, probably to a stealth ship in orbit."
      "Roger Black two, we copy all information. We are deploying the sixth armored division to your position immediately. Wait for reinforcements, the bug out of there and back to base for debriefing. Command out" I heard the radio say. Rob shut off the radio and we policed the bodies, lining them up in a corner. We were inspecting the control panels when six gold elites burst into the room. They were obviously a quick response team in case the control room was attacked. They were too late to save the scientists. They didn't se us in our active camo, but as soon as Rob opened fire, all hell broke loose. They converged on our position as two of the elites fell from Rob's guns, two more fell as I emption my assault rifle's clip into the mass. As they closed with us, plasma swords flashed on and jumped into the fray. I ignited my own plasma sword and slashed the head off of one of the two remaining elites. As Rob dispatched the last one, a horde of spec ops grunts entered the room. I lobbed two plasma grenades into the mass of grunts. Secondary explosions wracked the grunt's lines as the fuel rod guns detonated, a few fuel rod shots were loosed in our direction before the last of them bit the dust, courtesy of my assault rifle. The last fuel guns exploding was drowned out by the sound of a Pelican dropship's engines at full throttle. Evidently, some of the ships had found a way to fly to our position directly instead of taking the long way as we had done. The engines wound down outside and I could hear the eager shouts of the disembarking marines. Rob and I took a few trophy canine teeth from the elites. Rob also got a plasma sword of his own. We left the control room, and a large hangar door set into the side of the room where we had killed the two spec ops hunters opened. Three warthogs and four scorpion tanks rushed into the cavernous room. A corporal disembarked from the lead warthog and rushed inside the control room. I then realized that we still had our active camo on. I turned off my camo and shouted to the corporal. He jumped and turned around.
      "Where the hell did you come from!... Sir!" he nervously asked.
      "Sorry, we had our active camo on" I explained as Rob turned his camo off and shimmered into view.
      "Oh ok." Still looking uncertain, "Well sir, Sixth Armored division reporting as ordered sir. We have this entire complex and the surrounding area secure. The next wave of pelicans has the technicians and ONI spooks coming to examine the control room. You two can catch a ride back to base on a pelican outside. I have already sent someone to drive your warthog back."
      We saluted and Rob and I jogged outside and hopped on the next outgoing pelican. I told him to get us back to Command HQ. I then leaned back and promptly went to sleep.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER EIGHT: A PROLONGED WAR
Date: 10 September 2002, 11:36 pm

      "Well, you two sure kicked over a hornet's nest today." Captain Perov said. We were back again in his quarters after the flight back in the pelican. "it looks like the goddamn covenant scourge has beaten us to another superweapon. ONI is still not sure exactly what it does, but duplicate control rooms like the one you two just found have been found on all the other HALO constructs in the galaxy. Our troops have moved into and secured all of them, to prevent the covenant from getting to them. It also looks like the covenant have been moving troops in secretly using stealth ships. We destroyed the one that was hovering over you when you were in the control room."
      Rob and I just looked at each other.
      "Gentlemen, it looks like our little war here on HALO could be drastically lengthened if the reports we are getting are correct. Intel suggests that another five covenant divisions with armor support could have been moved in secretly using the stealth ships." The Captain paused, peering at us. "We are to receive additional support from the Beta Aquilae System. 5 additional light divisions are due to arrive in the next 48 to 72 hours. As you might have heard, our fleet is racking up successes against the covenant fleet. We have even taken a few of their worlds away from them and occupied them. Their sudden push for these superweapons on the HALO constructs suggests that they are desperate to regain the offensive. Not other constructs are due to receive this much support. We are to secure this godforsaken ring and learn all of its secrets."
      I could not contain my smile. After all this time, we are finally going to take the ring once and for all.
      "I have a special assignment for you two. There is a large covenant weapons depot located in sector 4, grid 3145. It is not patrolled by our forces at all, so the covenant will not be expecting you. You are to secure the area and call in the 345th Heavy Airlift Wing stationed on the UNSC Normandy to come and retrieve the captured weapons." He paused again, something he seemed to do a lot. "This is going to be a tough one, no doubt about it. For this mission you will receive special body armor"- that earned a groan from Rob- "that will help you out in getting through this mission alive. Head to the armory to get acquainted with your new armor. You ship out at 2300 hours. Dismissed."
      Rob and I left without a word. We both hated body armor. It was worse than useless, considering as how it restricted movement and did absolutely nothing against plasma fire. But maybe the good ol' captain had something cooked up for us, as he usually did.
      We took the elevator down to the 100th sublevel. The lowest floor of the base, it was also the main armory. Others were at various floors in case of attack. The elevator doors opened and we entered a room almost as big as the maintenance garage. This was where all the new weapons got tried out and calibrated before they saw combat. We headed for the armor section. A technician greeted us and led us to another smaller room. On two pedestals sat two vests and... nothing else.
      "Sergeants, meet your new body armor, BX_27J."
      "Those two combat vests over there?" asked Rob quizzically.
      "Yep. Fresh from research on Chi Ceti 4. Another of Dr. Hasley's wonder toys. She specifically requested that you two be the first to try them out."
      I wandered on over to the two vests as he was speaking.
      "Excuse me, sergeant? The one to the left is yours." I walked to it and put it on, zipping it up. I saw Rob put his on also.
      "Now if you two will come over to the charging stations, we could get them going."
      I stood between two white columns and they began spinning around me. A static charge filled the air and then a massive POP! And I was ready. I touched my left forearm, but felt nothing. "Is it working?" I asked.
      "Yes. Another major improvement that Dr. Hasley made was that the shield will only stop any incoming fast objects, such as plasma or bullets." I heard a gunshot and felt a thud on my back and turned around. The techie had shot me with a smoking pistol in his hand.
      "You see? It works perfectly." Rob had just finished charging up his shield, so I yanked the pistol away from the technician and shot Rob in the stomach. I laughed and he gave me the finger.
      "This latest adjustment was made so you can grip your weapons better, have better traction on the ground, and store weapons within the protective aura of the shield. You can also selectively harden parts of the shield if, for instance, an elite was about to hit you. You can do that manually, but in case you don't have time to, cringing alerts the vest to harden the entire shield instantly. Also unlike the SPARTAN'S suits, you don't get faster or stronger. All this shield is good for is a little extra protection in a hostile-rich environment."
      "Anything else we should know about the shield?" Rob asked
      "Nope, I think that just about covers it." Replied the technician.
      "Hey, did you guys get the new implosion rounds for the guns yet?" I asked eagerly
      "Yes, as a matter of fact, we did." He said, "Follow me."
      He led us to another room, this one stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes of ammunition. At the back of the room were a few hundred crated marked: IMPLOSION ROUNDS.
      "These are truly remarkable." The technician said. "It only takes a three round burst to take out an elite. Once the shell disintegrates on or inside a target, all the matter within a twenty centimeter diameter gets sucked into the shell. It is very efficient against any kind of target."
      My eyes caught a few crates at the back of the room and lit up. "No way. You guys made grenades too?"
      The technician followed my eyes and said excitedly, "Yeah, you toss one of those puppies in a group of hunters, it'll suck every one of them up, and spit them out. These grenades will suck up everything within a five meter diameter, so throw them far."
      Rob and I loaded up on all the implo grenades we could carry. I also got a double handful of clips for my assault rifle, and some more for my sniper rifle. I had to come back and make another trip for the pistol rounds. Some thoughtful person had thought to get a few crates of custom 9mm rounds for my ruger. I took a whole crate to my quarters.
      
      At 2100 hours, we got our stuff ready and made our way to the main hangar. We headed for our assigned drop ship and strapped in. before we lifted off, two airmen handed us parachute packs. So we were Para dropping in after all, I thought. Probably so the pelican could drop us from altitude so any covenant in the vicinity would not hear us coming. We shrugged on our parachute packs just as the dropship's engines lit up, shoving us into our seats as the pelican exploded into the sky.
      The jostling of the dropship woke me from a sound sleep. Being constantly in the combat zone, I rarely got enough sleep. So I slept every chance I got.
      "Get ready to jump boys, drop off point in 3." The pilot crackled over the intercom. I double checked my weapons and equipment and adjusted the straps on my parachute pack. I glanced over at Rob. He grinned at me, obviously eager to kick some covie ass.
      The pilot notified us that we were over the designated drop off point. I detached myself from my seat and approached the opening cargo bay door. As the jump light turned green, I shoved Rob out the cargo bay door and dove after him. Through my night vision glasses, I could make out the covie weapons depot far below. I checked the altimeter-25,000 meters- and decided I would yank the chute at 5,000 meters. The ground rushed up to meet me as I shot toward the earth. I maneuvered myself closer to Rob and let him know about my plans through subvocalization mikes. We would not land directly in the depot. Instead, we would land about a kilometer away, and make our way in, to avoid covie anti-air batteries and motion detectors.
      I glanced at my altimeter- 5,350 meters. Close enough. I signaled to Rob and opened my chute. I was brutally jerked upward as my downward momentum all but stopped. I pulled in the risers to glide into a desirable landing location. As I floated toward the ground, I saw a neat clearing and decided that would be too risky to land there. Too obvious a landing spot. I headed for a smaller patch of ground showing under a group of trees. Ten feet from the ground I unclipped my chute and dropped toward the ground. I landed lightly on my feet and rolled to absorb the impact. I rolled to a stop inside another goddamn bush. What is it with me and these fuckin bushes? I looked up in time to see Rob disengage from his chute and fall to the ground. Our chutes floated into a nearby group of trees. Perfect.
      I gave my equipment another check (its your own neck, see?) and headed off toward the weapons depot, Rob tagging along behind me. Ten meters down a path, my NVGs picked up a group of grunts huddled around something. I snuck up behind them and leapt for the one closest to me. Rob followed suit, and two grunts fell, knives through their necks, spitting up blood. Three left to deal with. I activated my trophy plasma sword and sliced through two more grunts, spilling their guts. Rob blurred forward and stiff armed the last grunt, cracking its environmental suit and sentencing it to a painful death. I turned to inspect what they were huddled around a few moments earlier. I spotted what looked to be a toothpaste tube filled with some foul smelling orange goop. Their food maybe? I dunno. The smell made me gag.
      We continued on for the depot at a cautious pace, alert for any possible danger. We soon spotted the purple glow given off by covenant energy shields. We were close. I lay prone and propped my sniper rifle up on a fallen tree and inspected the camp through the scope. What I saw was not encouraging: patrolling the area were fifteen of the golden elite types, thirty or so of the purple elites, several hunters, and about a hundred grunts. I let Rob take a look while I radioed command. We would need some backup in order to take this place. The rest of the 229th would do the job. I got patched through to command and requested backup. Captain Perov himself got on the line and told me that the rest of the 229th were currently mopping up a situation a few klicks spinward of our location. They were being called to our location immediately, and that they would be here in a few moments. I acknowledged and told them I would set up a welcoming committee. The captain signed off and I resumed my study of the enemy base.
      Ten minutes later, I heard the familiar rumble of a dropships engines. Enemy activity in the base increased dramatically. They were going to shoot down my backup. I wasn't about to let that happen. I sighted in on a covenant anti-air battery. It looked sorta like a shade turret, except it hovered on anti-grav pods and had twice as many barrels as a shade turret. I popped the grunt in the gunner's seat, taking off his head. Five more shots and the rest of the anti-air batteries were still operational, only lacking gunners. The dropship;s engines turned from a rumble into a whine as it slowed to a hover. Then I saw multiple elites fall off to the right. That fast? I thought? Then I remember we had just got the implo rounds. This was their first operational test. They worked wonders. I fixed my crosshairs in the neck of a hunter and stroked the trigger. The bullet impacted, sucking out a goodly portion of the hunter's head. Damn. Five more shots in quick succession, and five gold elites went down, gaping holes in their armor. I got up, slung my sniper rifle, got out my assault rifle, and charged forward into the fray.
      The pelican hovered ten feet above the ground, and started moving as the last hulking ODST jumped off and into the midst of the raging battle. My fellow troopers slid forward and found adequate cover with almost unimaginable speed. I saw the remainder of the hunters regrouping and donated a grenade to them. I watched, mesmerized almost, as the grenade went off. Instead if an explosion, there was a loud sucking sound as the hunters...disappeared, then reappeared in a million bite sized pieces. Impressive. My comrades moved forward, unrelenting, taking down grunts and elites by the dozen. I called for Rob over the squad frequency. He appeared at my side, an we advanced on the cowering covenant. Bursts from my assault rifle mowed down hordes of grunts, who fell, horribly disfigured by the implosion rounds. I saw a golden flash to my right. I looked, and saw Rob cloaked in a fiery golden glow. The shields, I remembered. They worked like a charm. I pushed Rob down out of the line of plasma reaching for him. As it burned by overhead, I jumped up, emptying the rest of my clip at a stationary gun I hadn't noticed before. I hit the dust and reloaded, as Rob hopped up and dodged his way over to another crate for cover. I finished reloading and rose, catching a stray plasma round in the chest. I didn't feel a thing; the vest is really a piece of work.
      The plasma fire slackened and I took the opportunity to look around. Groups of grunts were heading for the trees, screaming incoherently at the top of their lungs. I hunkered back down as a streak of purple streaked past. I radioed the Liberty, asking for air support to finish off the grunts in the woods. They acknowledged and I popped up gain for a look see. My men were advancing on the last pockets of resistance. The grunts might run, but the elites and hunters fought to the last. I jogged forward to see if I could be of assistance. I lobbed a grenade at some wounded elites, gaining on my men's positions. They had the last ten elites pinned down behind a downed dropship. I saw one of my men go down. His shields flickered and died, and a plasma blast burned across his left shoulder, nearly severing the arm. My neural implants told me it was Cummings, the newest addition to our unit. There was no bleeding; the intense heat of the plasma cauterized. I knew, however, that if he didn't get medical attention soon he would die from radiation poisoning. The covenant plasma is inherently radioactive, which is why most soldiers in the field who are wounded usually die without proper medical attention. I yelled for grenades, and several arced toward the opposition. I got behind cover, and when I got back up, the last few elites were mush on the ground, mingled with the remains of the dropship. I heard engines overhead and looked up to witness the longswords burning past, hot on the trails of the retreating grunts. I called everyone over and congratulated them on a job well done.
      "Sir, are we gonna blow this place, keep the little bastards from getting their weapons?" asked John. John was the unit's demolitions expert. He knew more about explosives than anyone I have even heard about.
      "nah, my instructions are to call in the 345th Heavy Airlift Wing to take this crap outta here." I replied, eying the man. You had to be careful around John. He got upset when he was denied a request to blow something to hell and gone. "but to keep you happy, you can blow any leftover enemy dropships into orbit."
      "Yes sir. Thank you sir." He eagerly left to set his charges.
      I radioed the Staten Island and had them send in the 345th. I then radioed HQ and requested immediate pickup. That all said and done, I wandered over to Mastion, the unit's SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) gunner. He always had a deck of cards and we would always play on breaks when we were on ops together. I set Fi Bait and Anachronism to guard duty, and settled down to wait for pickup and play some poker.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER 9: DAY PATROL
Date: 18 September 2002, 2:59 am

      As we sped through the forest, I thought about our debriefing earlier this morning. We had captured the covenant's equivalent of a division's worth of weapons and supplies. Thousands of plasma rifles, pistols, fuel cells, and spare parts. At least one covie division would be hurting very badly without the much needed supplies. The captain had also updated us on the ONI's work on the control room that we had found. Apparently, the control room has the capability to activate a laser defense system. The new covenant capital ships had such a weapon, one that lances out toward the target ship. at the speed of light and wreaks havoc on the target ship. This one on the ring, however, was much more powerful. I got the feeling that the covenant got the technology for such a weapon from the ring constructs. When activated, the system can direct a devastating attack on any object with in 25 light years, enough to destroy any target in the solar system we were now in.
      The hog jolted as we bounced over a fallen tree, bringing me back to the real world. With no real special assignments in the visible future, the 229th had been reduced once again to random search and destroy missions. Instead of groups of two, we now went out on patrol with three. My group was Rob, John, and I. I always wanted my demolition tech nearby incase we got into something nasty. For today, john had prepared something special for the enemy: blocks of C-12 imbedded with a few hundred heavy ball bearings. We sped by a covie patrol composed of five grunts and three jackals; john tossed out one of his "presents" with a ten second timer. We continued on until we heard a deafening roar. I hit the brakes and whipped the wheel around. We spun a quick 180 and headed for the blast site. The ground had blackened and most trees in a fifteen meter radius were completely splintered. We could find almost nothing of the patrol. Bits and pieces of charred grunt lay here and there. We climbed back in the hog, and continued on our patrol.
      We stopped for lunch on an open hilltop. John and I dismounted, but Rob opted to eat and rest by his trusty LAAG. We had lunch ordered special from the cafeteria. None of that high protein shit that the regulars got. We had turkey sandwiches, soda, and ice cream. We ate like kings. The turkey was actually stegosaurus meat. Stegosauruses, commonly called "steggies," were "indigenous" to the ring. The Forerunner had placed them here. If the rumors were true, then the steggies actually came originally from earth. Everything else in our meals was synthesized from the food synthesizers in the galley.
      While we were eating, another patrol rambled into the clearing, running from something. Rob spun up the LAAG and mowed them down. Then a huge stegosaurus broke into the clearing. They were normally docile animals, but they didn't like the covenant. I have seen countless grunts and jackals squashed flat in the bottom of their footprints. The huge animal stopped its charge and looked us over. We looked back. It eventually lost interest and started foraging in the tall trees.
      We finished our lunch and saddled up to finish our patrol. I was anxious to get back to base. I wanted to take a swim in the pool and take a nap. With that to look forward to, we set off. The huge all terrain tires spit up twin sports of dirt as we exited the clearing. We hadn't been going for more than an hour when we got a call over the radio.
"CCHHSS.... any UNSC ground forces in the vicinity of coordinates 20-13-12, immediately proceed to Hill 289 immediately. We have met fierce covenant resistance. We have taken heavy casualties and cannot hold out much longer at this position. I repeat, 3rd Armored division requesting immediate assistance from any UNSC ground forces in the vicinity of coordinates 20-13-12, immediately proceed to Hill 289 immediately..."
      I checked the holographic map set in between the driver and passenger seat and saw that our location was inside grid coordinates 20-13-13, the sector over from where the 3rd armored division was pinned down. I jerked the wheel around in the direction of the distress call, and notified Rob and John of where we were going. I floored the accelerator, and we hurtled through the forest at a good 100 km an hour to help out our fellow marines. The message repeated again, and I shut the radio off. I didn't need any distractions; I had to fully concentrate on the difficult task of keeping the hog from slamming into a tree.
      As we drew nearer, we began to make out the sounds of battle. Without the howl of a normal hog engine to contend with, we could hear most things a long way away from where we actually were. I could make out the throaty roar of the scorpion tanks firing, and the lighter staccato of warthog LAAGs firing. Mixed in was the unmistakable sound of plasma weaponry firing. Between heavy and light covenant weaponry, there was almost no change in pitch. Without seeing the battle, you couldn't tell with any real accuracy what the covenant force was comprised of. There could be three hundred ghosts and banshees attacking, or it could just as easily be three hundred grunts charging and firing with plasma pistols.
      We broke through the trees and undergrowth and onto a broad plain. The battlefield jumped into view. More scorpions and warthogs than I could count were lying immobile in the dust, little more than smashed and blackened framework. However , almost twice the number of banshees, ghosts, and wraith mortar tanks littered the landscape. But it wasn't over, thank god. The battle had now moved on to the other side of the plain. We were not too late. The 3rd division was stubbornly giving up ground. The covenant attackers paid in ghoulish fluorescent blood for every meter. Plasma flashed and bullets and shells filled the air. I heard a loud sound overhead and looked up. Several longsword interceptors screamed toward the covenant lines, they ejected several canisters each and swooped away. The canisters opened and ignited. Flaming napalm showered the enemy lines, scorching alien skin to a crisp. I watched as fifteen banshees made a desperate run for the interceptors. Ten dagger fighters screamed in just over the treetops, almost lost in the foliage. They popped up and loosed a salvo of ADCAP (advanced capability) Sidewinders at the banshees. The banshees tried to evade. Most failed, and they spiraled toward the ground, dead. A few got off shots at the new threat; even fewer landed hits. Two dagger interceptors fell toward the forest. Their cockpits exploded in twin orange fireballs as their pilots ejected from their stricken fighters.
      I swerved a stray plasma salvo and entered the forest again to pick up the airmen. I picked up their emergency beacons, and headed for them. I spotted a camouflage parachute snagged in the trees. A man was dangling from it, frantically trying to cut himself loose before any covenant came looking for him. His instincts were right on the money. Two spec ops elites appeared out of the foliage, and headed for the airman. They obviously wanted him alive for questioning. I wasn't going to let that happen. I steered the hog directly at the elites, intending to run them over and smear their guts all over the forest. However, the elites heard the tires, and although they could not see or hear us, they somehow knew we were there. They bounded out of the way of the speeding all terrain vehicle and dropped in behind us, firing at the sound of the spinning tires. A blast whizzed by my ear. Too close. I hit the brakes and spun the wheel, bringing us around I heard John moan and clutch his leg. A plasma bolt had hit the dashboard and sent molten metal slicing through his combat fatigues and into his thigh. He shrugged off the pain and brought up his rifle one handed and emptied the clip into the first elite. The elite dodged the first few rounds, and they blasted past him, gouging out large holes in the trees behind it. The elite was a blur trying to avoid the bullets. But no matter how fast it was, the volume of fire from john's gun was just too much. A few rounds clipped it, taking its shields down. The remainder of the clip slammed the elite into the ground and chewed out huge portions of its body.
      The second elite roared, enraged at seeing the death of its comrade. It bounced off of nearby trees, impossible to hit. Rob opened up with the chain gun, covering the area with suppressing fire. The elite fired also, spitting blue plasma from the end of its rifle. They plasma seemed to slow down, as it always did when it was directly at me. I hit the gas to try to get out of the way. There was no way that I could, but I had to try. Time had slowed to a crawl. The green orbs of fire floated into the side of the hog, disappearing under the protection of the cloak where they burned out sections of reactive armor. When the plasma hit, the first layer of titanium burst and vaporized outward, dispersing most of the energy. A shot streaked in at Rob and landed on his right arm. It seared the skin away, exposing muscle and bone. He didn't scream, only grunted in pain and kept firing. Hell of a tough bastard. The last shot landed on my headrest, melting the plastic. The plastic splattered onto my neck and the back of my head. It burned like hell, but I shut out the pain and stopped the hog. I jumped up in my seat and emptied my rifle at the moving elite. There was now was that it could evade the chain gun and the fire of my bullets. It got completely holed through, and collapsed to the ground, twitching.
      I sat down, shaking from the adrenaline rush. When I got all my faculties back, I put the hog in gear and headed for the airman, who by this time had cut himself loose and was crouching on the ground next to the tree he had been caught in. I hopped out and saluted.
      "You guys sure came at a good time. I was about to be fried when you showed up. Thank you. I owe you guys' big time. Again." He looked at me sheepishly. I just smiled. We had known each other for a pretty long time. I had saved his ass quite a few times. James was a great pilot, but somehow he always ended up on the ground. My reasoning was pretty simple though. Say there was a five percent chance of getting shot down on a mission. That is a very good percentage, considering he is up against machines hundreds of generations ahead of his own interceptor. But after ten missions, there is now a fifty percent chance of getting shot down. The percentages add up very quickly. There once was a saying that over time, everyone's survival rate drops to zero. This is very true. But James is the luckiest guy I know, besides me, of course. I doubt he will ever buy the farm during a combat mission. He's gonna die with his boots off, in his bed at a ripe old age. For now, he has to fight the covenant to guarantee that the bed will be there for him when he gets old.
      I told him to hop in the back next to the LAAG chaingun. I hopped in the front seat, and turned around to se how Rob was doing. Rob's right arm was charred black and some bone showed. He winced in pain as he sterilized the wound with a squeeze bottle of hydrogen peroxide plus. Then he unwrapped a second skin bandage and wrapped up the wound. The wound would be almost completely healed in a week because of the healing properties of the bandage. The bandage would meld with the skin to form a protective layer so the skin and muscle would heal. John was in pain but not in as bad shape as Rob. His leg was bloody from the passage of the superheated metal projectiles through his thigh. He to slapped on some second skin and glued a patch onto his torn fatigues. My neck hurt like hell from the liquidated plastic that had seared it, but otherwise I was in good condition. I revved the engine and we sped away to the other downed airman.
      When we reached the other pilot's landing site, we saw that he was on the ground and alive, he was busy constructing a hide so he could be concealed from any covenant patrols. I hoped out of the vehicle and narrowly missed being holed from a magnum bullet from the airman. He was startled from the sudden appearance of my figure from the cloaking device of the warthog. He slowly recovered and holstered his pistol.
"Sorry about that. I am a little jumpy. I have never had to eject over enemy territory before." The pilot explained.
      "You shouldn't have got your ass shot down, you bum." James happily exclaimed as he saw his downed partner      . "I thought you were dead for sure. I almost got roasted by a couple of spec ops covies before my pal here bailed me out...again"
      "ok, partys over, lets get the fuck outta here before any more covenant come to see what happened to you two." I said as I jumped back into the warthog. Igunned the engine and we sped away. I got on the radio and notified HQ that I had picked up two downed longsword pilots and that I was returning to base. I also told them to send air support to the 3rds location immediately because they were taking a real beating.
      "Roger Black One, air support is on the way. See you back at HQ. Command clear." The radio barked as the warthog hurtled silently through the jungle.

HELLJUMPERS CHAPTER 10: The Beginning of the End
Date: 8 October 2002, 12:11 am

Sorry about the delay. My friend said that he wanted to write the next chapter. The characters I have used in this story are real people. John, the demo tech, decided to write this chapter. It was so long we had to split it into two parts. Here is the first part. Enjoy!

"Sirs, Captain Perov requires your presence in his office immediately," the page frantically departed, not wanting to know what this was about. Rob and I hurriedly put on our field fatigues and ran toward H.Q. Since returning from our last assault, life had been pretty mellow. Now it was 1:00 am and we were being rushed to our posts.
"Gentlemen, I am going to make this short and sweet," the commander barked as we entered the room. "We have two marines on a recon mission in quadrant C reporting a host of Covenant troops gathering on a plain. We have never seen this kind of behavior before, and ultimately don't know what to expect. The marines are in grave danger, the armored units are tied up, and you are the best we've got. You two will be accompanied by John and the new guy, Richard. Save the marines and report back."
Bleary eyed and half asleep, we nodded our heads and sighed. "When do we leave?" I asked.
"Immediately," came the reply. "Oh, and by the way, eliminate as many of those bastards as you can. Now, get your guns and get the hell out of here!"
We jogged to the armory where Rob grabbed his shotgun and assault rifle, and I picked up my sniper rifle and a few extended clips. I slapped my knives in their sheathes, grabbed a few grenades, and ran for the drop ship already warming up on the dock. We entered to see Richard, clutching a cup of coffee in his trembling hands, looking anxiously around in anticipation. Richard had just been assigned to the 229th, and was not quite battle-hardened. He lacked in courage and strength, but was cunning and always obeyed orders.
On the other side of the ship was John, playing with some sort of contraption in his bag. John tended to make his own versions of ordinance, and it wasn't surprising to see him fiddling with another one. "You sure as hell better not drop that thing and blow up our asses before we even take off." Rob smirked. John subconsciously gave him the finger, never taking his eyes off of the silver disk in his hand.
"If I drop this thing, not only yours and mine will be blown to hell, but most of this compound will also be vaporized," John said coolly. "I don't recommend that you distract me." Robs face went white as he sat down, and Richard began to shake where he sat.
I laughed. "Don't worry Rich, if John were a klutz, this HALO base would have been incinerated long ago." He didn't look calmed.
With a lurch, we were in the air en-rout to our destination. At first it seemed like hours, then seconds when the pilots voice radioed that we were over our drop sight. We would have to parachute in under the cover of darkness, as we forgot our active camo in the rush to leave. We were going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. We all landed in a small clearing 3 kilometers from the signal beacon of the marines.
      The four of us gathered in a small clearing, donned our night-vision glasses, and started toward the signal. I was at point, with John bringing up the rear. John was packing an old-fashioned 308 hunting rifle, his munitions pack, and a modified flame-thrower that would incinerate anything within 200 meters. He was un-healthily obsessed with destruction, and loved to take out hordes of covies in a single blast. He's also renowned for his traps and tricks he plays with his explosives.
      We had traveled no more than 50 meters when I found a Marine helmet lying on the ground. I reached down to pick it up, and found two hallow eye sockets staring through me. I gasped and dropped it, the bloody stump of a head rolling away. It didn't look good as far as the rescue went. I took a step, and felt a string pop on my boot. "Hit the deck!" I screamed as the woods around us came alive.
      "Stay down!" was shouted from behind me, and a searing blast of heat flew over my head. For what seemed an eternity I hugged the ground, not daring to move. "Alright, it's clear," John stated. I looked around and saw that the forest was nothing more than burnt stumps, with the blackened forms and skeletons of almost 200 grunts on both sides of the path.
      "Looks like a welcoming party," Rob mumbled. "They know we are here. They were expecting us."
      "Alright, everybody listen up. Turn off your radios, beacons, and anything else that has a signal. We are going old-school this time." I knew that they didn't intend for that trap to stop us, but what king of a host can afford to throw away 10 score of grunts like that? I didn't like the looks of what we were getting into. Further, we could all see how they treated our marines. It was going to be tough, and we couldn't risk radioing for help.
      I sent Richard and Rob ahead to scout for a place to camp for the remainder of the night, while John and I tried to figure out our situation. We were deep in enemy territory, obviously filled with Covenant troops, with only four men. This was easy enough. What I couldn't get out of my head was the report of "something strange, something never seen before." We were rushing headlong into something, and I just hoped we could figure out what before it was too late.
      "Andreas, you better take a look at this!" gasped Rob as he came running into the clearing. "We found the other marine."
      John and I jumped up and ran up to where Richard was trying to compose himself, a pile of human refuse at his feet. "I meant, we found what was left of the other Marine." Rob sighed. Small bits of red flesh littered a bare patch of ground, stained red for about twenty feet in each direction. An occasional body part was recognizable, but the only identifying mark was a HALO unit patch pinned to a tree. Grey brain matter covered the base of the tree, with a hollow patch of skin stretched tight over a pair of genitalia, cut with holes to look like a face. It was too much to bear, and we all looked away.
      Richard pulled out his knife and moved to cut it down. "Stop!! Don't touch anything!" John screamed. "Its another trap, and I doubt we will be as lucky as last time. Lets just turn and walk away. Watch your step, and shout if anything happens." We proceeded slowly from the clearing. As we got back to our designated camp sight, John slipped away and began moving in the trees around the camp. We still had about three hours before daylight, and it was decided to take a little nap. I was about to take first watch, when John returned and said not to bother, we wouldn't need a watch. I gave him a sidelong glance, and he returned with an almost evil ear-to-ear grin. What the hell I thought, and propped my back against a tree for some sleep.

***CRACK***

      I was awake and on my feet in seconds, knife in hand. I looked around to see Rob turn on his night vision on his assault rifle. John and Richard both were still asleep. Richard was new, so he wasn't expected to be so alert, but John was battle-hardened and a veteran. I would have to have a talk with him in the morning.

***WHOOSH***
***BOOM***

      I was thrown to my feet by the force of the explosion, as a circle of flame erupted around the perimeter of our base. Rob recovered and started firing into the darkness, as I groped for my sniper rifle. "Save your ammo, there is nothing left to kill our there right now." John said from behind me. The explosion had roused John and had sent Richard into a panic, trying to load his gun.
      "Dammit boy, you didn't even have bullets in your gun? What the hell were you going to fight with? A fucking rock?" If there was one thing I hated, it was being un-prepared.
      "Sorry sir, I was just doing what they told us in training sir; never leave your gun loaded and unattended."
      "This isn't some fucking military compound you fool!! You better learn what to forget from boot camp real quick, or you're a dead mother!"
      "Yes, Sir! It won't happen again Sir!" If Richard looked scared before, he was in tears now. John and Rob had already started packing up our camp. We were done with any hope of rest for tonight. As we moved out, the perimeter of our camp was littered with body armor, unexploded munitions rounds, melted plasma guns, and small pieces of orange, green, and purple goop. John giggled with delight from behind as he saw how well his new little toy had worked.

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