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Halo Zero 2 /p1/ Attack on Nuuth
Date: 18 June 2003, 6:58 AM
1: Attack on Nuuth
You may remember, several months ago, a series of stories, Halo Zero plagued HBO. We promised a sequel in the next few weeks. It never came. But now, after what must be at least 3 months, Halo Zero 2 is on it's way. Those of you who haven't read the previous series, you should read them. If you can't be bothered to find out, I'll cut a long story short. Halo Zero become a real planet, and the Covenant were using it to destroy the universe. However, the Chief, with the help of the last remaining Forerunner, blew up the planet, just as he was killed. Well. It seemed that way...
It a small hospital on planet Nuuth, the Chief layed in a cryo tube. His life support systems had crashed a year ago, when he destroyed Halo Zero. Luckily, his body was pulled to safety as the Longsword left the planet, taking him with it. Captain Zenith, who had supervised the trip to Halo Zero, immediatly got the Chief into a hospital bay, to stop him from being destroyed. He somehow knew the Covenant weren't finished with the humans yet.
Suddenly, the Chief's visor flashed orange. Captain Zenith who was currently in the room, spun round and looked at the Chief. A series to buxxes came from his body. The visor turned black again. The Captain sighed and plugged a chip into the computer in the room. A hologram of a woman appeared. Cortana.
"Yes Captain?" asked Cortana. She glanced over to the Chief, then back to Captain Zenith.
"I'm afraid the Master Chief may not make it through. We've been trying a year, maybe we ought to power him down. After all, we can surely make more Spartans, right?" said Zenith.
"It is not recommended. You see, the planet the Spartans were developed on, Reach, was destroyed three years ago, in 2552, remember? To get the kind of equipment they had, well, that would take years! Plus, I don't think we should turn the Chief off just yet... Look," Cortana pointed to the Chief, smiling. His visor was orange and he was sitting up, looking at Zenith.
"Miss me?" he asked.
A red light flashed as people ran all over the space station. Transmissions were coming in from all over the planet as a huge armada of purple and red craft slowly moved towards Nuuth.
"Captain Zenith!" screamed a marine down the speaker. He was panicky. And this was not surprising- a huge Covenant armada were on their way to Earth! "Captain Zenith, Sir!"
"Yes Marine?" replied Captain Zenith.
"A huge armada of purple and red ships are flying on a collision course with Earth! They are bearing the Covenant symbol!"
"Please, calm down! Now, tell me, what is the approximate time the first contact will happen?"
"In about six hours, Sir!"
"Okay! Remain calm. Set the space station to evasive and defensive mode. Send your marines to the gunner turrets, and get the armour certified troops to take some CRAZEs! I'll send reinforcements! Captain Zenith out."
Captain Zenith sat in his seat. Then, he pressed a button for a speaker. "Master Chief!" he called.
The Master Chief stood in the space station, in the docking bay. The Covenant troops were only ten minutes away at most. Armed with some plasma grenades and a Battle Rifle, he was ready.
"Chief, this'll be your first combat since what happened on Halo Zero! Are you sure you're ready?" asked Cortana. He voice was full of concern.
"I'm ready," he said coolly. "I won't mess this up."
He stood for a few seconds longer, when the side of the docking bay ripped open. Ships poured inwards, but these were only small, like Banshees and Covenant Buses. Out of the smaller vehicles came Brutes, Elites, Jackals, Grunts. A Covenant Bus nearby shone blue, then exploded as two Hunters came bolting out. The marines immediatly opened fire, with the Covenant firing back.
The Chief doubled back, leading some Brutes and Elites round the edge of the docking bay, to some doors and tunnels leading to other areas. The Elites roared, as did the Brutes. The Chief turned around and sent out a burst of fire at the Elites. The Brutes moved towards the Chief, put he lobbed a plasma grenade and stuck it to his head. The Chief ducked as a wave of Brute and Elite bodies crashed over his head, hitting walls, dropping weapons all over the place.
The Chief span round, as an Elite activated it's sword. It roared at him and swung it's sword, hitting the Chief's hand, causing him to loose his Battle Rifle. The Elite stepped forwards, and the Master Chief began to step back. Without a weapon, he would be pretty much doomed.
As he stepped back further, something on the ground caught his eye. He looked down. An Elite Sword! It was still in it's little glowing canister, which meant the Elite hadn't activated it when it got blown to pieces. Maybe, just maybe there was a chance the Master CHief could use it.
The Elite swung his sword. The Chief ducked, and grabbed the Elite Sword on the floor. He hit a switch and it activated, a sky blue colour. A smile crept onto his face under his visor. The sword swung from the Elite again, but this time the Chief fought back, hitting it. A huge flash of green light appeared beneath the sword on the Elite's hand. The Elite looked down and roared.
The Chief grabbed this moment and swung his sword down. The Elite's hand and sword came crashing the to floor, charred. The sword shattered as it hit the ground, followed closely by the Elite, who had been killed almost instantly.
The Chief walked backwards and looked at his blackened Battle Rifle. It couldn't be used now.
As he turned back to head to the docking bay, the wall next to him caved in. A huge pile of rubble was where the Chief had been. A Grunt hopped out of the ship attatched to the wall and looked at the pile, a plasma gun in his hand. All that could be seen was a green hand.
However, when the Grunt spoke, the Chief heard the Grunt translator kick in. He wasn't dead! Under the rubble, he had limited moving space, so, using his right hand, he felt for the Elite Sword.
"Damn!" he whispered. The sword had shattered, and he had no weapon again, and no hopes of blasting his way out. "Cortana! Cortana, I need help!"
"Working on a way to escape, Chief," he heard her voice say. "I'm going to bypass all the power from your shields and transfer them to your strength. When I say, push upwards... Now!" The Chief pushed upwards and jumped up, back out into the open. The Grunt there shrieked in panic, and probably pain; a piece of metal had hit his face.
"Bye bye, Grunt!" yelled the Chief and landed a melee attack straight on the Grunt's nose. Dead.
"Now, get to the docking bay! The marines need some help!" yelled Cortana. The Chief nodded and picked up the Needler which the Grunt had dropped. He sprinted into the docking bay.
He stopped dead in his tracks. The docking bay was empty, all that was left were destroyed vehicles and machinary. Littered over the floor were human weapons and a few Covenant weapons. Blood spattered on the floor, all up the walls. Human bodies were scattered all over the floor, as well as Covenant bodies. However, where were the Hunters?
A clanking sound was heard behind the Chief. A light flickered. The Chief switched to a plasma grenade. More clanks. The Chief turned round and saw a flash of metal, before being hit in the head by a Hunter. Cortana hadn't turned the shields back on! He went flying through the busted wall, straight out into space, and shooting down towards Nuuth. Things did not look good...
Halo Zero 2 /p2/ The War Begins
Date: 19 June 2003, 6:03 PM
2: The War Begins
The Chief yelped as a huge metal arm punched him through the wall and out into the abyss. He hurtled towards the planet below, his shields completely turned off. If he hit something now, he would die.
"Cortana!" he yelled. "Turn my shields back on!" Cortana did not respond. "Cortana?" The Chief looked upwards towards the ship and saw a chip floating in space. The impact of him hitting the side of the wall must have knocked the chip out of his helmet! He reached up, but couldn't grab it, it was too far away.
"Think, Chief, think," he muttered to himself. Suddenly, an idea dawned upon him. Maybe he could get the chip back with something else. But what? Then, the Chief paused. "Grenade..."
As he floated further away from the chip, he grabbed himself a plasma grenade. He had to time his throw, and the strength, just right. Carefully, he aimed, then lobbed it full speed. It shot past the chip; it was going well so far. Now came the hard part... To see if it would explode.
A few seconds passed, but to the Chief it seemed like an eternity. But, then, the plasma grenade exploded in a blast of blue. The force of the explode echoed outwards and smashed into the chip, sending it spinning towards the Chief. He grabbed it and slotted it into his helmet.
"Chief! Chief, are you okay?" cried Cortana. The Chief smiled.
"I'm okay. Now turn my shields back on," said the Chief plainly. The Chief heard an energizing sound as his shields recharged to full strength. "But what now? If we keep falling like this, we'll burn up in Nuuth's atmosphere!"
"Working on it Chief!" said Cortana. Good old Cortana, always helpful in a jam. A few seconds later she spoke again. "I've sent for an Earth team. They'll be here in CRAZEs. In the meantime, we'll have to wait."
A few minutes later, a CRAZE pulled up. The Chief was surprised by the shape of a CRAZE, having never seen it before. The CRAZE was the shape of a Covenant Banshee, yet a lot larger. The main pod was now seperated into two pods, for two passengers. The landing sticks on the Banshee had been replaced by robotic arms, with hands the size of tables. These must help to land. Over the top of the second pod was a mountered cannon, a plasma cannon. On each side of the cannon was a smaller SMG, Sub Machine Gun.
The front pod opened, followed by the back. "Hop in Chief!" yelled the marine. The robot hands grabbed the Chief and popped him down in the second pod. It closed again, and the Chief looked out of the windows.
Suddenly, something on Nuuth caught his eye. "Cortana? What's that?" he asked, pointing.
Down on Nuuth, things were getting hectic. The Covenant Armada had arrived, in a place called Nwe Quarta. Nwe Quarta was a small country in charge of ammunition and weaponry. If they went down, Nuuth's supplies of weapons would be limited. The Chief's next job was to take out the Covenant air forces which were currently attacking warehouses that held many weapons, including weapons in their Aple Test stages.
The Chief hopped out of the Pelican and loaded up his Fuel Rod Gun. This was a Covenant weapon, but the people of Nuuth had translated it into a human compatible weapon. As well as the Fuel Rod Gun, the Chief had a Battle Rifle, fully loaded, plus as many plasma grenade as he could handle.
Straight away, the Chief ran up a road, which led to the top of a warehouse currently under attack. As he ran, explosions went on round him, and machinary went flying. "Come on marines!" yelled the Chief, with six marines following him.
Marines called back as they got onto the warehouse and spread out along it. A blast of plasma swept across the platform and two marines were scorched to death straight away. The Chief sighed, then hopped up into position, letting out his clip on a Banshee. The engine inside the Banshee let out a shredding sound, as pieces of the Banshee came off. An explosion was heard as a marine let out a shot from his rocket launcher; the Banshee exploded.
"Look out Chief!" yelled Cortana. The Chief spun round to get hit by an onslaught of needles by a group of cocky Grunts. The Chief lobbed a grenade and Grunts went flying. As they flew through the air, three Longsword Fighters came overhead. A Phantom met them and took out a Longsword with a blast from it's cannon.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Banshee crashed down onto the warehouse. The marines eyed it up. They looked at the Chief and nodded. He jumped into it; it was not badly damaged, and still had three tanks worth of shielding on it. The Banshee took off and began blasting the Phantom which was trailing the Longsword Fighters.
"Master Chief, Master Chief! This is Private Brumfield, from Longsword Fighter #078! Please, we are in dire need of assistance, we can't shake this Phantom off!" Brumfield yelled into the Chief's intercom. The Chief looked at the Longswords, the furthest away Longsword was #078. "ARGH!" The Longsword crashed to the ground, and exploded, ripping open buildings nearby. Flames engulfed it.
A flashing light appeared on the Banshee's screen; the Phantom had changed who it was targetting and had reduced the Banshee to one energy tank. The Chief swerved, but the Phantom had predicted it and landed another bolt of plasma right on target. One more hit and the Chief and the Banshee would be gone. The Chief spun round and then shot straight upwards, into the air. He passed Banshees, Phantoms, Longswords and CRAZEs battling it out. Hundreds, maybe thousands. However, the Phantom bolted upwards.
"Chief," said Cortana.
"Hang on!" the Chief cut across. A bolt of plasma shot upwards, towards the Banshee. It swerved to the side. Another bolt of plasma shot upwards, but the Banshee swerved to the other side.
Inside the Phantom, the Elite driving roared. It hit some buttons, and the Banshee was locked on. There was no way he would miss this time. He held his finger over the button, then roared as he slammed it down.
The Chief looked down. This was it. The plasma bolted up, and was now only metres away from the Chief. Suddenly, he jumped out, the plasma hitting the Banshee, ripping it to shreds. The Chief fell through the air, the Elite in the Phantom watching him the whole time. Another bolt of plasma was issued, shooting right towards the Chief.
He lobbed a plasma grenade, which hit the bolt of plasma. There was a huge explosion of blue and green, and the grenade and the bolt were destroyed.
The Chief was moving closer to the ground, and closer to the Phantom. Then, just before he broke even...
"ARGH!" yelled the Chief. The Phantom had moved forwards, and he had hit the top of it. The hatch on top opened and the Elite hopped out. It roared.
The Chief got up, cradling his arm. It was in a lot of pain. The Elite looked at it and activated his Sword. The Chief let go of his other arm and switched to his Fuel Rod Gun.
"Now... We can do it one of two eithers. Either you die, or you co-operate. What do you choose?" asked the Chief. He hit a button on his suit and a translator for the Elite activated.
"Say goodbye Spartan!" yelled the Elite. The Chief fired a burst of plasma on the Elite, and it fell backwards, over to the edge of the Phantom. He dropped his Sword, and it shattered. The Chief walked over and held a plasma grenade in his hand. The Elite looked down and saw the ground, a long way below. Around him, ships were crashin, and even the biggest ships, the CRAZEs were not surviving to tell the tale. He looked up at the Chief.
"Say goodnight..." said the Chief.
"No!" cried the Elite. "I will tell you... everything... Just please don't hurt me!" cried theElite. The Chief looked at him, then put the plasma grenade away.
"Okay then," he said. "Talk."
Halo Zero /p3/ Sniper Position 07
Date: 23 June 2003, 12:34 PM
3: Sniper Position 07
The Chief sat down as the Elite decided to put off his fate a long as possible. "Talk," said the Chief. The Elite grimaced, knowing he was betraying his fellow Covenant, and would surely be destroyed by the Prophets for this. But he would talk.
"It was long ago, on planet Covenant. We Elites were peaceful with other planets, and we did not think of war, or harming others. We had no powerful enough weapons to use in a war anyway! But then, then the Prophets came. They had highly sophisticated weapons, and launched a war against us. But they had mind powers too, and our only weapons, the Needlers got fired back at us!" The Elite talked quickly. "They took over our planet and made us all slaves, and we had to work for them."
On the top of a warehouse in Nwe Quarta, two Snipers looked up. The first Sniper, Private Sanders, shot up one bullet, and a Phantom crashed to the ground and exploded, ripping holes in everything. The other Sniper, Private Thomson, shot at a Ghost making towards the spilling stash of human weapons.
"Private Thomson, this is Private Chuck, do you read me? Over," came a voice from a cummicator.
"We read you loud and clear Chuck, proceed. Over," replied Thomson, taking out a Covenant Bus on the move.
"We are in dire need of reinforcements down here. The Covenant are killing our men, because they've been able to steal all of our high power weapons! Rocket Launchers, War Rifles, Dual Pistols, the lot! Over," came the voice again.
"We'll contact the head office and get reinforcements over as soon as possible. Over and out."
Thomson hit the button to switch over to call the head office. A voice came through. "This is Nick, of the head office, proceed."
"Hello sir. This is Private Thomson of Sniper Position 07. Ground forces are in dire need of reinforcements," Thomson said, not taking his eyes off the Sniper Rifle.
"How many is the request?"
"How about two hundreds?"
"I'll ready them now. They'll be over in twenty Pelicans. Best keep an eye on Covenant air troops, don't want any dropships being taken out before they hit the ground! Nick out," Private Thomson radioed over to Private Chuck again.
"Private Chuck, this is Private Thomson of Sniper Position 07. Reinforcements are one the way. Thomson out," he said coolly, taking out another Covenant Bus as he spoke.
"After the Prophets had given us highly powered weapons, they told us to find other planets, and to get their creatures to join us. They would not tell us why, and they said if we did not do it, they would kill us. So, we jetted off to far reaches of the galaxy, to find creatures.
"Then we found the Jackals. They were good for weilding weapons. We brought a few hundred to our planet, along with millions of frozen young and eggs. The Prophets told us we had done quite well. However, the Jackals were unable to fight well enough, as their body was weak and they could be killed easily by melee attacks. So, the Prophets gave them shields, plasma ones. These were excellent and defending attacks, and especially those with high powered Sniper Rifles, as we found out last year on Halo Zero."
The Chief listened to all this, taking it in. He didn't speak a word, but became unaware of the fact that he was needed on the ground.
"Sir, after an extensive search, we have been unable to locate Spartan John-117, the Master Chief. We have reason to believe he may have been destroyed in the chase earlier, in which a Phantom pursued him to the upper atmosphere," said Private Sanders. Thomson had taken care of the air forces and they had called in a third Sniper, Private Smith, to control ground forces. Sanders had been searching for the Chief.
"That's great... Look, the reinforcements are almost there. Maybe they'll find him. Nick out," came the voice. Private Thomson nudged Smith, and he left, and Sanders began to attack more targets.
On the ground it was like a nightmare! The huge city, was now in ruins, flaming, blackened, scorched, and ripped apart. Covenant forces were here and there, but there were less and less now. This was mainly because all the ships getting blown out of the sky were landing on troops, crushing them, and annihalating the ones which tried to run, but got caught in the explosion from the nuclear engines.
Suddenly, Private Chuck's attention was drawn upwards. "Oh no..." The Elites were arriving.
"Sniper Position 07, this is Private Chuck of the ground forces. There are a huge wave of Elites on their way to our area of the city, we're going to need additional Sniper support. We're low on air support too!" came Chuck's voice in the speaker.
"This is Private Thomson of Sniper Position 07. We can get three more snipers over here now, and many some more if we have a chance."
"That will do. Chuck out."
The pods hit the ground and ripped open. One hundred Elites came out, moving towards Chuck's troops, which was bad; he only had twenty people left.
"Later we began the attack on you, hoping to find your planet," said the Elite.
"But why did you attack us?" asked the Chief.
"There are supreme relics in the mountains of ice on this planet. Powerful enough to destroy any planet in seconds! We ae searching for them!"
"Sanders! I've found the Chief! He's on a Phantom in the lower atmosphere! And... an Elite is harassing him!" cried Private Thomson, aiming his Sniper Rifle upwards.
"Take him out!"
The Elite opened his mouth to speak. A bang filled the air. The Elite feel, a long smoke trail off of something. The Sniper Rifle bulleted ripped open and fell in pieces on the top of the Phantom. The Chief looked at the Elite and got up. He hadn't found out what it was... What the Covenant armada had wanted...
Halo Zero 2 /p4/ An Old Friend
Date: 5 July 2003, 5:13 PM
4: An Old Friend
The Chief touched the Elite's body with his foot. Dead. The impact of the bullet had ripped through his skull and destroyed it. The one time human weapons of mass destruction were not useful...
The Phantom had already begun to get down closer to the planet, as there was no pilot, it had not been able to hover. It was a wonder he hadn't hit the ground yet. It didn't matter though. He now new the mountains just north of Nwe Quarta had the rare relics... But he could bet his life the Covenant were making their way there now.
The Chief yelled something to Cortana, but she didn't catch it, he had jumped over the side of the Phantom and the air was rushing past them.
A nav point appeared on the Chief's visor, aiming at the ground. Straight down, of course. Only one hundred metres away. That gave him... three seconds to hit- A smash echoed through the air. The Chief had hit the ground, apparently not having been hurt a bit. He straightened up and ran forwards.
"This is the Master Chief, Spartan John-117, I need the co-ordinates of Private Chuck! His troops are in trouble!" cried the Master Chief through his speaker. Private Thomson answered.
"Chuck? I've sent the co-ordinates to Cortana, she'll put up a nav point!" cried Thomson. "But get there fast! There's hundreds of Sword Elites! We'll try to take out as many as we can from Sniper Position 07, but they've got some kind of armour that is making our bullets just fly off!" The Chief stopped in his footsteps. New armour?
"Analysing," said Cortana, reading the Chief mind. "This doesn't seem right... Only the Prophets had access to this kind of armour... How could Elites get ahold of it?"
"Prophets," said the Chief. He ran forwards. "This is how they're planning on getting the relics! The Elites get super powerful armour so human troops can't pentrate it! While the human are distracted, the Prophets and Brutes will be trying to get to the relics in the Ice Mountains!"
"Correct," said a familiar voice. The Chief spun round. 343 Guilty Spark.
"Spark?" asked Cortana. The orb flashed green quickly.
"Captain Zenith sent me to help you! He says he has seen the Elites and their new armour, but the human troops cannot attack them. So, I have been sent as a kind of weapon portal. Just tell me which weapon you need, and I will produce it," said 343 Guilty Spark. The Chief smiled slightly. Guilty Spark had been partly useful last year for destroying an onslaught of Elites. But this year, he was a weapon vendo, and the Chief would be able to kick some Elite butt properly now.
"Active Camouflage," he said. A triangular box came out and fell onto the floor. The Chief didn't pick it up yet. "And a heavy duty Sniper Rifle."
"Model 677. New from the market. Not available anywhere. Captain Zenith only just finished testing. The scope came reach x200 magnification," said 343, and a Sniper Rifle came out. Sleek blue, and smaller than the average Sniper Rifle. The scope had a nice design, and felt light in the Chief's hands. He looked it over quickly, then activated the Active Camouflage.
"Now keep quiet," he whispered.
They crept forwards slowly, 343 Guilty Spark hiding between buildings as they went. The light on him turned a grey colour, as night was approaching he was hard to see. The Chief liked his ideas for hiding away.
They were now only metres away from the Elites. The troops were putting up a major struggle. However, most of the troops had died. Luckily, air support had arrived and the ground support rushed in. Two hundred new marines. Seventy-nine Sword Elites. Still didn't look good.
The Chief crept round to a large pile of rubble, and kicked out the flames. He layed down and got into Sniper position. He aimed it and fired at the nearest Sword Elite. It went down. However, the attention of the nearest Elites went to his spot. They moved forwards, about six in total. The smoke stream was still there. The Chief, got up quietly and planted a fragmentation grenade. He pulled out a plasma grenade, but didn't pull the pin.
The Elites walked over to the spot, their swords poised for the attack. The Chief pulled the pin, but didn't throw. One second... The Elites heard the hiss... Two seconds... They began to mutter, slashing at whatever they could find... Three seconds... The Chief threw it. The plasma grenade blew up, and the fragmentation grenade exploded too. The six Elites went flying, the Elite Swords shattering, and others flying into buildings, slicing out great holes and shattering. One fell close to the Chief, but didn't shatter, the plasma blade retracted. He looked at it.
Cortana's voice whispered, "Pick it up... Use it."
The Chief grabbed the Sword, and turned it on. He put down the Battle Rifle he was holding. A new weapon for him to use...
"Hey! Elites!" cried the Chief. All the noises stopped and the Elites looked round. Only sixty of them left now, but less than 100 humans. The Chief reappeared with the Sword held high and paused. "RAR!" he yelled, running straight forwards, slashing at Elites. They immediatly fought back, slashing towards him, the Chief too quick, cutting off heads. A Sword fell next to him, he looked at it, then ducked. Another Sword had been thrown at him. His own shattered. Thinking fast, he picked up the nearest Sword and began to duel again.
"What's going on down there?" asked Private Sanders. Private Thomson zoomed in his Sniper Rifle.
"It's... The Master Chief! And he's using an Elite Sword! The Elites are rushing in, but he's surviving the hits!" cried Private Thomson. He let out four bullets, all of which bounced off the Elites. "Uh oh..."
"What?" asked Sanders. He zoomed in. The Elite were facing Sniper Position 07, roaring and swishing their Swords.
"They've spotted us..." said Private Thomson.
A huge rush ensued, as Private Sanders tried to hold the Elite back with the Dual Pistols he had, but to no success. The Elites were getting closer. Private Thomson meanwhile dialled in to the Command Centre.
"Command Centre, this is Sniper Position 07 of Nwe Quarta, repeat, this is Sniper Position 07! Come in!" cried Thomson.
"This is Nwe Quarta Command Centre, we are listening to your request," came a voice.
"Sir! We are about to be attack by a group of Sword Elites! Our Sniper Rifles have no effect on them!" cried Thomson. Behind him came the call of Sanders saying "400 hundred metres away,"
"They're only four hundred metres away!" cried Thomson. "We need pickup now!"
"Sending over two CRAZEs now!" came the voice from the Command Centre.
"Hurry!" There was panic in Thomson's voice now. He was quite obviously scared.
"200 hundreds metres," said Private Sanders.
"Hurry!"
Two CRAZEs shot overhead. They doubled round to pick up Sanders and Thomson. They left their weapons and clambered in. The CRAZEs began to move away, but the Elites had arrived. They roared and jumped onto the nearest CRAZE. This CRAZE held Sanders.
"Sanders!" cried Thomson, looking out of the window as his CRAZE flew off and the other one exploded into flames and hit the ground. The Elites, luckily, were killed too.
The Master Chief sliced again. The final ten Elites stood ahead of him, partly cowering. They had black armour. This armour was harder to penetrate.
"The human forces are all dead," said Cortana. 343 Guilty Spark shot around, distracting the Elites.
"I know..." said the Chief. His eyes went from the Elites to a building nearby. It was at least three storeys high, and was tottering madly. He had an idea. "Ungh!" he gasped as he flung the Elite Sword full speed at the building. The Elites spun around and roared, as the building toppled above them.
The Chief's Battle Rifle began to fire. The Elites were trying to get out from the rubble. Only 48 bullets left. He stopped. He now began to move away, however, the tottering building collapsed further and hit the building next to him. He yelled as it was brought down on him, rubble everywhere. 343 Guilty Spark flew about.
"Master Chief! Are you okay? Speak to me!" he yelled. He flew around and saw an almost destroyed Battle Rifle. He peered down at it. 48 bullets in the clip... "Oh no..." muttered 343 Guilty Spark and looked at the rubble sadly...
Halo Zero /p5/ Interrogating Private Sanders
Date: 5 July 2003, 7:18 PM
5: Interrogating Private Sanders
"Tell us!" cried the Grunt. The human in front of him refused again. The Grunt held the remote control.
"ARGH!" cried the human as the button on the remote was held down. His body was alive with plasma and pain, and his head span. The pain stopped, and he felt himself go limp, his head lolling from side to side. He coughed, and out of his mouth came blood. Once again, he lifted his head and looked defiantly at the Grunt, his eyes blood red and blood running slowly down his face. It was Private Sanders, of Sniper Position 07. He had not been killed at all...
"Now tell us where the relics are hidden!" cried the Grunt. Out of the shadows behind him, came an Elite and a Brute. "Or I will be forced to make you spill the beans."
Private Sanders stood there in the chains. The Covenant had taken him from his CRAZE and killed the pilot. The Elites had taken him to the Covenant base somewhere in the middle of the Vasta Desert, south of Nwe Quarta. The Prophets had planted something inside his brain, a chip or something. The chip could not be seen, or taken out with ease, as it was fairly small. However, when the Covenant pressed that red button, he was tortured with plasma. Already, his head was bleeding and cut, and now when he coughed, out came blood. However, he would not reply to what the Grunt said. He would be tortured to death before revealing where the relics were hidden...
"He's not going to talk... But maybe we can persuade him," said the Grunt. He nodded to the Elite and Brute, who moved in towards the wall. Sanders shouted in pain as kicks and punchs were thrown. "That's enough," said the Grunt again. The Elite and Brute moved away, to reveal a battered Sanders. He swayed, but he was chained to a wall, so he just fell backwards onto it.
'Ah, something to lean on...' thought Sanders. He looked at his arm, through his blood filled eyes. As far as he could see, it had been broken. He could feel a lot of pain in it.
"Now tell us where the relics are hidden!" cried the Grunt again. Sanders shook his head.
"The Chief is currently in a CryoTube, making a successful recovery. He should be out in the next two days. You can talk to him if you wish," said Captain Zenith. He opened the double doors to the CryoWard, and shut them again after Private Thomson had gone in.
"Hey Chief," said Private Thomson. He looked worried, but was also out of uniform. Probably on a day off or something.
"Hello Private Thomson," said Cortana. Thomson grinned.
"Hello," said the Chief. "I haven't been expecting any visitors. Especially after I was crushed by that building. But, then again, as the building came down, I didn't expect I'd visit anywhere again except under that pile of rubble," Private Thomson smiled faintly.
"I came to see how you were getting on..." he paused. He took a deep breath. "And I have something to tell you."
"Yes?" asked the Chief. "Proceed."
"Yes sir," said Thomson. He looked around the room quickly, as if looking for something, but none was found, so he began.
"Private Sanders and I were placed on Sniper Position 07 for a particular reason. Not because we were any good at sniping things out, because we're just average. It was, in fact, because we knew something, and had to control it getting out. So, we had to kill off any enemies we saw. You see, we know something... Something beneficial to the survival of Nuuth... We know where the relics are hidden."
The Chief sat up quickly. "What?"
"Private Sanders and I have known since we were young. We were told. There is a reason the Covenant are here, though only a select few know why they are invading. Anyways, the relics are the most powerful talismans in this quadrant of the universe. They can control the fate of the universe as we know it. However, they were hidden away, so the wrong hands couldn't find them accidently. However, the Covenant think they know where they are hidden... And are very close to the place they are hidden. So, I believe they had captured Private Sanders to interrogate him, there have been several distress calls from him."
The Chief took all this in. So the relics were hidden away, and the Covenant wanted them... If Sanders was being interrogated, he was obviously being tortured too. And if he spilt the beans on where they were... Thoughts like this raced across the Chief's mind.
"Then there's only one thing to do," said the Chief. Private Thomson looked at him anxiously.
"Tell us or I will be forced to hurt you again!" said the Grunt, holding a Needler. Several other Grunts were also there, the Needlers aimed at Private Sanders.
"No way..." muttered Private Sanders. We was growing very weak now. He had a broken armed, bruised body, couldn't feel his leg, his face was cut and bleeding and his eyes were filled with blood.
"We know you have the position of the relics in your knowledge, Private B. Sanders! Now tell us where they are!" screamed the Grunt. Sanders shook his head. "Fine... If you are unable to tell us, we will have to destroy you now! Grunts! Fir-"
An explosion rattled the room, throwing the Grunts to the ground. Methane tanks came off, and this caused two of the five Grunts to suffochate. The remaining three jumped up and looked at the roof, where there was a huge hole. The Master Chief jumped down, with Private Thomson.
"Take this!" yelled the Chief, grabbing a Needler on the floor and pumping a Grunt full of needles. It screeched and exploded, it's body hitting the ceiling and bouncing off. Another Grunt picked up it's own Needler and fired at the Chief. He ducked as the needles collided with a machine, exploding. Thomson yelled.
"Watch what you're doing Chief!"
"Sorry!"
The Chief switched to a plasma grenade and stuck it to the Grunt's head. He grabbed the other Grunt quickly and threw it. It hit the first Grunt and exploded as the plasma grenade went off. They paused. The room was on fire, but only small flames. A hissing noise had filled the air.
"Wait a second... Isn't methane flammable?" said the Chief. He turned round.
BOOM!
Halo Zero /p6/ Brute Force... Quite Literally
Date: 20 July 2003, 9:36 AM
6: Brute Force... Quite Literally
Up in the Icepak Mountains north-west of Nwe Quarta, a huge group of Covenant Elites and Brutes were gathered. Other Covenant members were also there, but there were few of those.
"Keep it up!" came the voice of a Prophet. He floated towards a group of Brutes. "And how are you getting on?"
The Brutes spoke another language, but the Prophets could understand them. "We are trying to mine away the ice, but our power is not quite enough! This ice is very well held together, and has been here for millions of years!" said a Brute. The others grunted; they agreed with this.
"Ah yes, well then... You're not working hard enough!" shouted the Prophet. He looked at them with an angry face and pulled an Elite Sword Module from his gliding chair. He activated it and used some kind of psychic ability. Whatever it was, the Sword sliced through the ice, and a huge chunk the size of a double decker bus smashed down from the side of the mountain, crashing onto the Brutes, squashing them. "Now let that be a lesson to you!" screamed the Prophet, looking at the others. "Now keep on working!!!" He glided away.
"He neds to lighten up," said an Elite. The Prophet appeared behind him.
"So do you," he said, and cut off the Elite's arms and legs. "Ah, you seem a lot lighter now! Hetcku, come here!" A Brute walked up, growling at the limbless Elite. "Throw him off the side of the mountain, would you?" The Elite shouted as the Brute picked him up and threw him full strength. The Elite hit a pillar of rock and a huge explosion was heard. "Wow..." continued the Prophet. "You've really been working out..."
"A smashed visor... Limp body... Burns everywhere... Broken body parts... Damage to brain... Expensive AI ruined... Humans obliterated... Covenant base ripped to pieces... High level of chemicals in Vasta Desert... I think that's all sir," said the Medic. He looked at the bodies. "Oh yes, one more things. MJOLNIR armour version 9 almost totally destroyed in the explosion..."
"This really does not look good," said Captain Zenith. The Master's Chief body was on a bench in front of him, the MJOLNIR armour smashed open and burnt. His visor was blackened and smashed, his arms and legs were broken. His brain was damaged too. "And you say the AI was destroyed too?" he asked. The Medic nodded and held up a tiny chip, bent into a strange shape.
"This is all that was left," he said. He threw the chip down onto the bench.
Captain Zenith sighed. "The most expensive AI ever made... Ruined because of methane tanks..." He scratched his chin in though. "Can we repair her?"
"I'm afraid not... She's dead."
The Medic let this sink in with Zenith who stared into space. "Okay... The Chief... What's happened to the Chief? Is he okay? Because he and Medula II are the only Spartans that made it out of Reach alive when it was attacked 3 years ago," Captain Zenith looked at the Medic's face. The Medic stood there silently, looking over the Chief's body on the table.
He sighed. "This is a tough one..." he muttered. He raised his eyebrows and looked to see if anything was alright. He looked back up at Captain Zenith. "I can't give you an answer right now. The Chief is severely damaged, and I can't even tell if he's alive or dead... His life support systems seem to be running on the lowest possible setting, but I can't find any life force of any kind... That explosion must have been really strong, this MJOLNIR armour looks like it's at least model XII. Am I right?"
"It's MJOLNIR Mark XIV," said Zenith quickly. "Medula II has MJOLNIR Mark IX, but that's insufficient for any kind of battle here on Nuuth. There must be at least 20 Covenant Elites to each human fighter here... And plus the fact, Medula II has been in a CryoTube for the last 4 years. I don't think we could fire her up if we tried..."
"Well, I suggest you try. We're going to stick the Chief into a CryoTube and begin fixing the life support systems. His armour needs a lot of repairing, maybe after he's fixed - if we can fix him - you could put him into a new MJOLNIR," explained the Medic. He grabbed the table, pressed a button and the legs withdrew and the tabletop hovered. He began to push it out of the room. "Thanks for your time Captain Zenith. We'll report back to you in a week on his condition. In the meantime, I would get this sorted," He threw the almost destroyed Cortona chip to Zenith, who put it into his pocket. "Goodbye sir," And with that, he left the room.
Meanwhile, in the IcePak Mountains, the Brutes stood together in a long line. The Prophet was behind them, commanding them.
"Now go!" he yelled. The Brutes turned round and ran top speed at the mountain of ice, and rammed themselves into it. The mountain gave a shudder. The Brutes stepped back and rammed against it again. The mountain creeked. The Brutes gave one final push and the ice cracked and slipped along a massive slope. The mountain have been completely ripped apart. It slipped away and fell into an icy crevasse, and exploded into a shining shower. The Brutes grunted, now it would be much easier finding the relics.
"Good! Now, we will be beginning the search for the first relic! All Brute forces will immediatly retreat and begin the second line of attack on Nwe Quarta! We've been given information that the Spartan II is seriously injured and held in Nwe Quarta. So Brutes, destroy everything in Nwe Quarta. The Elite forces will immediatly assist in the searching for the relics. All Grunts and Jackals will immediatly head towards Carlisse Island for invasion of the army forces there!" cried the Prophet. The Covenant members around him immediatly began to move into dropships waiting nearby. "I will be taking the Covenant Bus to the entrance of the desert, so I can go to the Facility we set up! The Prophets should all be there, and we will decide the next plan of action. Now get moving!"
The Prophet soared off in his levitating chair, ready to hold his Prophet Meeting.
Next time in Halo Zero 2:
7: The Prophet Meeting
The Prophets meet for a discussion on the invasion plans...
Medula II has a rude awakening...
And Nwe Quarta gets a bit of unfortunate attack...
Halo Zero /p7/ The Prophet Meeting
Date: 20 July 2003, 9:50 AM
7: The Prophet Meeting
South of Nwe Quarta lay the Vasta Desert, where the Chief, Private Thomson, Private Sanders and Cortona had been when a methane leak combined witth flames made the entire Facility explode, and causing problems to everything within 2 miles of it. The explosion had been that strong, and now the middle of the Vasta Desert looked more like it was a bomb testing zone. However, the Prophet did not care. He knew the Facility was still usuable, despite the pieces of Covenant dead bodies.
He glided swiftly across the desert, making for the Facility in the middle, now no longer a large building with long turrets, but a wreck, still only partly intact. Luckily, it still had 4 walls and a ceiling, so they would be safe to meet in here.
"Welcome to the Medula II Spartan II Testing Facility. You are required to run a test to make sure all of the joints in the Medula II Spartan II work in their correct fashion. Have a nice day," said a female computer voice from a speaker. Captain Zenith opened the door behind him, and in came a pale green Spartan II, with a Pistol in hand. She looked around at her testing bay.
"You woke me up from a 4 year sleep for this?" said Medula II. She had been woken up very suddenly, and was the only one who could help now. "Come on Captain, surely John-117 can handle the Covenant? Why can't I just sleep?"
"Because, Medula, the Master Chief is currently on the brink of death in a CryoWard. We need you. You two were the last Spartan IIs that made it off Reach, the Master Chief went along to Halo in the Pillar of Autumn, and you went off in the Reach Four, straight towards Nuuth for a safe home. Very few people know you still exist Medula. We want you to serve us well, as Nuuth is completely counting on you," said Zenith. He looked at Medula's orange visor sincerely.
She gave a sigh. "Fine. I'll help you," she said. Captain Zenith smiled and shook her hand. "Come on, we haven't got time for small things like shaking my hand! We've got to run the testing, then get out there and kick some Covenant butt!"
Soon, the computer voice echoed around the testing bay. "Joint testing and Movement testing complete and passed. You may now move onto the aiming bay. There you will require to check you can aim at things and lock on. This will help you when you begin Weapons testing. Thank you, and have a nice day," Medula II and Zenith walked into the next training room. Captain Zenith crossed his fingers behind his back; if they didn't pass the tests, Medula II could not go into battle. And they needed to pass, something was going to happen to Nwe Quarta very soon.
The army of Brutes were now only an hour away from Nwe Quarta. The troops in Nwe Quarta had been tipped off to them coming, so they had been called to the north gate of the city where the Brutes were coming from. They had Rocket Launchers, Battle Rifles, Shotguns and Fuel Rod Guns. They were ready for the Brutes. Above the troops, on the buildings were some Snipers, with a total of 8 positions. Sniper Position 03 was the major attacker for this fight, they had the latest model Sniper Rifle which would be able to hold off the Brutes, Brutes required more than three bullets to hit their skull from normal Sniper Rifles before they died. Private Sammy and Private Davey were worried about this, they could end up letting everyone down.
After a few minutes of silence, Private Davey looked through his scope. "They're closing in fast. I may be able to pick one or two off from here, but I can't be sure," he said. He looked up again.
"Best risk it. Better get some of them out of the way now, before they invade Nwe Quarta and destroy the troops," replied Private Sammy. Davey nodded and began to fire his Sniper Rifle. He grinned after a couple of shots.
"We can take them out from here. The Brutes aren't sure what's going on, but they know someone is firing at them. Either that or the Brutes just upped and died," He smiled. "Bye bye Brutes..."
"Ah... Nosii-Cee... So glad you could make it," said a Prophet. The Prophet from the IcePak Mountains, obviously this Nosii-Cee they mentioned, had just glided into the room.
"Quiet you," Nosii-Cee took his place at the table, right at the head of it. He looked down and saw it was littered with charts. "These are the charts?"
"Yes sir," said a Prophet further down the table. A chart flew up into the air and placed itself in front of Nosii-Cee. "These are the charts of Covenant wins and losses in Nwe Quara."
Nosii-Cee looked over the chart. "It says we've won nothing!" He looked up at the other Prophets at the table, who looking around uncertainly. "We've won nothing?"
A younger Prophet decided to pipe up. "No sir. Our Covenant forces are no longer what they used to be," he said. Nosii-Cee looked at him with pure hate.
"Then you will make them what they used to be."
The doors of the building opened. Out walked a Spartan II, along with Captain Zenith. Medula II had been awakened and was ready to fight.
"Now Medula, the world is counting on you. We need you to sort out the Brute forces on the way to the city, before they destroy it. Remember, we're counting on you. Expecially the Master Chief, if the Brutes find him, he'll be killed!" said Zenith, handing Medula II a Battle Rifle.
"Don't worry Captain, John's gonna be fine! Now run along, I don't want you getting in the way of things around here," said Medula II jokingly. Zenith smiled and entered the building again. Medula turned around and looked at the city. This did not look good... This did not look good at all...
"This is Sniper Position 03, repeat, this is Sniper Position 03, do you read me?" called Private Davey. Private Sammy looked through his rifle still and fired again.
"It's no use Davey! They have some kind of... something that's forcing our bullets back at our men!" he cried. Private Davey looked around anxiously. Suddenly, Captain Zenith's voice came through the speaker.
"Hello Sniper Position 03, this is Captain Zenith. I apologise for not picking up sooner, but I have had a lot of business to attend to," he said. Private Davey cut in before he could say anymore, he didn't have time for small talk.
"Sorry Captain, but there's no time! The Brutes have something which is deflecting all of our bullets onto the troops!" he cried.
"No! The Brutes have arrived!" An explosion rung round the city, along with terrified screams. "Oh no... They've totally annihilated the troops! The gateway to the city has been completely totalled!"
Captain Zenith came through again. "Can you get a look at whatever it is that is protecting them? Any kind of visual would be good."
"I'm on it," said Private Sammy. He looked through his Sniper Rifle at whatever the leading Brute was holding. He put his mouth towards the speaker. "It's a kind of purple thing, and it glows."
Captain Zenith froze in terror. His face was now white. He lifted the speaker slowly to his mouth and a small voice trickled out. "They have the relic..."
Next time in Halo Zero 2:
Medula II begins the fight
The Brute forces in Nwe Quarta begin the search for Master Chief
And the ION Cannon is ready to fire...
Halo Zero 2 /p8/ Medula's War
Date: 25 July 2003, 8:52 PM
8: Medula's War
"Argh! Don't kill me! Captain Zenith, come in! Come in, Captain Zen-" screamed Private Sammy. His voice cut out as a Brute threw him onto a pile of rubble. His back snapped and blood poured from his mouth and cut neck. Private Davey rushed over. He looked at Sammy's dead body and picked up a metal bar next to his arm.
"That's it! You're going down!" shouted Private Davey. He looked up at the Brute and swung the bar like a baseball bat. The Brute grunted as it hit him, and Private Davey laughed. "Yeah, you want some of thisssssssssss-" As he said his last word, the Brute punched him from the side, throwing him through the air and into a nearby skyscraper. The area which Davey hit smashed and broke apart, causing the skyscraper to totter on it's spot. The Brute roared and picked up the discarded Sniper Rifles and snapped them in half.
"Captain Zenith! This is not fun!" yelled Medula II through the intercom. She was moving through Nwe Quarta, but the Brutes there were not easy to beat.
"When I sent you out here, I didn't say it wasn't going to be easy or fun!" came Zenith's reply.
"You didn't say anything!" cried Medula as she threw a grenade at a nearby Brute, sending his corpse into a window nearby.
"Okay, Medula? We have a new weapon called an ION I Rifle! We'll be sending 343 Guilty Spark over to your position soon, and he will give you the weapon. Now, this weapon, if it hits a target, will initialize the ION Cannon we have circling the planet. A nuclear missile will home onto the target you hit and destroy them! Now just remember, be careful with this weapon! If it get's into the wrong hands, Nwe Quarta, as well as the whole of Nuuth, is lost!"
"Great," said Medula to herself. "I get thrown into a war, and I have a weapon which, in the wrong hands, can destroy this planet... Now I know how John felt!"
With Sniper Position 03 now gone, the other soldiers at the other positions were feeling uneasy. Sniper Position 06 was feeling lucky though....
"Captain Zenith, this is Private Mitch, of Sniper Position 06, with partner Private Woodman, of the same position," said Private Mitch. "We've lost all contact with Sniper Position 03. Private Davey and Private Sammy are no longer with us, due to an unfortunate attack,"
There was a slight pause. "Okay," said Captain Zenith calmly. "Okay, right, it's up to you what to do now. You can fight, or grab Warthog and get yourselves along to Pau Matar, where we'll set you up for something else. I'll send the message to the other Sniper Positions. No doubt Private Rick will want to hear about this..."
Private Mitch and Private Woodman looked at each other for a few seconds, then said at the same time: "We're staying!"
Straight away, the two got to picking off defenseless Brutes, which did not have the relic to protect themselves. After about ten minutes, Woodman looked up.
"What the hell is that?"
"Captain Zenith, we've had four hundred casaulties and fifty deaths! You have to cancel this war and let them win!" said Doctor Tiyuki. "You are letting all these innocent people die! How could you do such a thing?"
"Look Tiyuki, we have no choice!" cried Zenith. "We either end it now, or die trying!"
"Oh yes, and how are we going to end an endless race of alien scum? We'll end first, I know we will!"
"You may think that, but we will prevail if we believe!" cried Zenith.
"Oh yes? You think that, do you? Well, we believed we'd win on Reach. But everyone there died. I was lucky to escape to Nuuth. I was lucky to keep my life when others died. I don't want that to happen again," said Tiyuki. Zenith looked at him.
He took a deep breath. "Well I'm afraid, I cannot promise what you are asking of me. Good day," he said. Tiyuki looked at him and turned then left the room. Zenith sat silently, when suddenly, an SOS came in.
"This is Captain Zenith, what is it?"
"Sir? I'm... In a lot of trouble... Help me?" came Medula's pleaing voice.
"I'll send an evac right now!"
Over at Medula's position, things were looking bad. She was surrounded by at least 10 Brutes, all with rocket launchers they had picked up from somewhere. Medula looked on very afraid.
Suddenly, 343 Guilty Spark whizzed up next to her. "Hello Medula II!" he cried. Medula II looked around then up at 343. "Oh, right," A small looking gun appeared in Medula's hands. She looked at it happily.
"Say au revoir, Brutes!" she yelled and fired a small ball of light onto a nearby Brute. It hit, but the Brute chuckled at the useless attack. "Now!" cried Medula. A camo pick-up appeared on her, so she picked it up, causing her to become invisible. While the Brutes were confused, she ran away, 343 Guilty Spark floating high above her, tracking her every move.
"That thing is the ION Cannon I worked on in college..." said Mitch. Woodman and Mitch were looking at a large satellite with a huge cannon attatched. "I didn't think Captain Zenith would accept it, I didn't even know if it would work!"
"But wait a second... If it's up there, does that mean someone is about to use it?" asked Woodman. They were both free to look up now, the Brutes were pretty much all gone except forces more inside the city.
"Let me see," said Mitch. He grabbed the Sniper Rifle and propped it up. Using the twisted scope he had, he looked into it and saw the ION Cannon. "I think it's not being used..." Suddenly, the ION Cannon's red light turned green. It swivelled slightly, aimed the cannon a bit, then suddenly... A huge explosion ripped through the air as a nuclear missile shot towards the Brute which had been targetted. "Uh-oh..."
"What is it?" asked Woodman. Mitch held up a hand.
"This is bad!" He swivelled his Sniper Rifle downwards and looked at where the missile was headed. And going straight towards the collision point was a dropship. A human dropship, ready to evac Medula II. Mitch turned to face Woodman. "There's a dropship headed towards where the missile will impact! Everyone on board will die!"
Tiyuki sat on a chair in his office. "That's it!" he muttered. "I'm doing something about Zenith," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a glinting pistol. He held it gently in his hands and walked out of the room.
"Captain Zenith, I need to talk to you!" said Tiyuki from behind the door.
"Come in," said Zenith. Tiyuki held the gun behind his back and pushed the door open.
"I wanted to say- THIS!" he yelled. He pulled out his gun and fired a single shot right at Captain Zenith, hitting him in the chest. Zenith grabbed his chest, a look of shock on his face, and collapsed onto the desk he was sitting at.
"The nuclear missile s going to hit in minutes!" cried Mitch. He was at his laptop, attempting to hack into the systems and reroute where the missile was headed. He entered the username and password and logged into the ION Cannon network.
"Hurry up!" cried Woodman.
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" replied Mitch. He was panicking, but was still doing everything right on the computer. He hit buttons and clicked things, as the timer on his screen counting until the impact grew less and less. He hit another button and found himself at the missile's information. "I'm here!"
"Reroute it, quick! There's only a minute and 30 seconds left!" cried Woodman.
"Don't you think I know that?" Mitch cried. He typed in the password for the missile and entered it's homing system. The co-ordinates were set to the Brute. "Come on, come on..." He hit buttons quickly. Hacking into the system was hard... He hit the letter Y and it entered! He opened the co-rodinate editor and tried to find which one was the one he needed, but there were too many.
"10 seconds left!" cried Woodman. Mitch found what he thought was right, hit enter and typed in about 20 numbers. "5!" Mitch bit his lip, pressed one more button and hit enter. The timer hit 00:00 and a huge explosion was heard again. Mitch looked through the Sniper Rifle. "Well?"
He paused. "It hit the dropship... It's gone."
Next time in Halo Zero 2:
Is Zenith dead?
What happened to Medula, after failing to destroy the Brutes, but hitting her evac dropship instead?
And will the Master Chief be able to rejoin the war?
Find out in part 9 of Halo Zero 2! Coming soon!
from the editor:
I would just like to let you all know, Halo Zero 2 will be coming to you more often now, and in one part each time, instead of two. It will also have longer parts than before, and will also be running for a lot longer than Halo Zero, which had 10 parts. Hopefully Halo Zero 2 will have about 25 parts to it, and be finished by September. Thanks for reading guys, look forwards to part 9!
Halo Zero 2 / p9 / Lost Cause?
Date: 26 December 2003, 4:35 PM
9: Lost Cause?
"It hit the dropship... It's gone."
Woodman grabbed the Sniper Rifle on the floor and aimed up.
"What are you doing?" asked Mitch.
"Taking that thing out," replied Woodman, evening up the rifle.
"What the hell? Are you insane? That piece of equipment probably cost billions of dollars, and you want to blow it up? It destroyed a dropship, that's all!"
Woodman put the Sniper Rifle down. "But it killed innocent people."
"I know... I know," said Mitch. "Come on man. Come on. The ION Cannon will stay in the sky. Just... Just forget it," Mitch and Woodman packed up their gear silently and moved back into the city.
Tiyuki walked up to Captain Zenith's body, lying on the table. A buzzer was sounding in the loudspeaker; Tiyuki knew somehow the message had been sent out that he had shot Zenith. But he didn't care, Zenith was in a lot of pain at least, and maybe even dead.
The doors burst open as two marines and two medics rushed in.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" cried a guard. Tiyuki looked around, worried, when he felt an Assault Rifle to the back of his head. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to the floor, dead. Behind him, stood an annoyed Captain Zenith. The medics had revived him, luckily.
"We can't trust anyone now!" cried Zenith. "Already, we've lost buildings and buildings, and, oddly enough, a Pelican? Thaw out Master Chief!"
"But sir!" cried the medic, rushing forwards to him. "We can't thaw him out! He's not ready yet!"
"Look! We have no choice! He'll be ready, okay? He'll be ready."
The medic looked at him. "I hope you're right.... I sure do hope you're right..."
Medula ran through the burning city, in active camo. She had seen the Pelican being ripped to pieces, and felt the hot flakes of metal rain down upon her and the rest of the city. She wanted to escape; she couldn't win the war. She was as good as dead.
343 Guilty Spark trailed after Medula II. "Spartan, please slow down! Why are you attempting to escape this city?" he cried after her.
Medula stopped and spun round. 343 floated up to her, waiting patiently for her to answer his question. As he waited, Medula turned around again, facing the empty fields ahead of the city. It had started to rain.
"You want to know why I'm running?" cried Medula, as the rain grew stronger and the sky turned grey.
"That would be very helpful to me, yes."
"I'm running..... I'm running because I've failed! Everyone on this planet... I've failed them! Those Brutes in the city," Medula spun round and pointed towards the burning and broken city. "Those Brutes are going to get Master Chief... And then it's over for this planet!" Medula turned around and dropped her weapon. "It's over Guilty Spark... It's over."
Medula walked through the gate into the empty fields, and the pouring rain grew stronger, hiding her from site.
"Oh dear... This is very bad indeed!" exclaimed 343 Guilty Spark. He looked around, spun towards the city and flew back. He had to find Zenith.
"Are you sure the Captain is fully sane? What if the Chief isn't ready? We'll have lost our last Spartan II!" cried the first medic. The other medic shrugged.
"I got no idea, but we've got to follow orders... Now come on. Get to the computer."
Medula sat on a rock in the middle of the field. She was overlooking a valley, leading to the IcePak Mountains. Beneath her helmet, she was sobbing. Suddenly, as she sat their, she became aware of some noise above her. She looked up to see-
"Banshees!" she shouted, jumping off of the rock as a red Banshee swooped down in an effort to hit her. It flew back up into the air, doubled round, and swopped down for a second attempt. Medula rolled out of the way as the Banshee crashed into the ground, releasing burst after burst of plasma.
"This isn't good..." Medula cried, jumping up and running towards the edge of the valley. She looked down to see that it was deep; she couldn't see the bottom. Spinning round again, the red Banshee almost collided with Medula, however, she jumped out of the way in time.
Medula rolled sideways, uncontrollably, fumbling for a weapon. "Where is it?" she shouted, through the pouring rain. Already, the ground below her was turning to watery mud.
The Banshee spun in the air and came down for another attempt. It swept after the rolling Medula, who was slipping everywhere. The Elite inside the Banshee looked to see the valley, and the muddy slope leading to it. Medula was very close to the slope. He laughed.
"Wort wort wort!"
Medula fumbled for something to grab onto, but the ground was wet and muddy, and her hands slipped on anything they touched. She was slowly becoming aware of the fact that she was getting close to the slope into the valley.
Inside the Banshee, the Elite saw a huge hill above, covered with rocks. On top was a huge hollow area, and this would be filled with water. The Elite charged up the plasma cannon, took aim...
Medula heard an explosion ahead of her. She tried to look at what it was, but couldn't see. She didn't realise that the rocks had been destroyed, and a huge wave of water was rushing towards her.
BAM! Medula hit a rock and lay sprawled over the ground. She was dazed, but saw the red Banshee ahead of her. Below it was a huge wave of water, heading her way.
"If I go down, you're coming with me!" she cried, pulling out a grenade. She jumped up and threw it. In the air, it spun, ripping through the rain. It came towards the red Banshee and suddenly it clunked. It had smashed through the light at the front of the Banshee, and was caught inside the glass.
"Ye-" The wave of water swept into Medula. She slipped sideways, down the slope, into the valley. "No!" she cried, as the darkness below devoured her.
EDITORS NOTE:
Apologies for the long wait, but here it is... Pat 9. Enjoy!
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