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The Battle for Earth: 'Fight For Her' by Jeremy Stanley
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The Battle for Earth (Chapters One and Two)
Date: 22 May 2004, 12:32 AM
The Battle for Earth
By Jeremy Stanley
Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank my cousin, Rob, for getting me into the videogame Halo, by the finest videogame company in the world, Bungie. Also, I would like to acknowledge my schoolteachers, who, without them, I wouldn't know what I'm doing right now. Oh, and I can't forget Master Chief's Cousin for taking the time to write a painstakingly long critique on the novel.
Before you dive in to the novel, I would like to add that you can email for any misconceptions I might have made, or criticisms, or to spam me at jdman2289@msn.com.
Chapter One
Shell casings jumped one by one out of the Assault Rifle of SPARTAN-13. The Grunt who, with his other companions, charged at the Master Chief and took a lot of damage. A sky blue liquid squirted out of the Grunt, and he moaned as he stood on his feet, taking the damage, and then let gravity take over.
The MJOLNIR Mark IX armor hardly changed since the MJOLNIR Mark V armor was released. The shields had gone through a massive overhaul, as the shields could take large amounts of damage, especially from plasma fire. The Spartan, especially for this insertion, charged at the Covenant soldiers, and the humans fell back. The battle raged late into the night, and the Master Chief took many trips to the command post set up in a life-insurance building. You pick up a clip of ammo, the Master Chief thought, and insure $1,000,000 to your family. That's a good mix.
Master Chief saw the streets were empty, and the humans were taking care of the stragglers. However, within seconds he was blasted with Plasma Sniper fire, also known to the humans as the Carbine. The Spartan felt a shock in his chest, and he glowed with yellow electricity. He quickly made a jump to a nearby convertible. He breathed heavily, watching his shield indicator on the HUD, or the Heads-Up-Display. It flashed red, and a piercing beeping noise bounced off the inside of his helmet. Behind him, stood a gun turret, which fired countless rounds of rockets. He watched his shield indicator zoom back up to a blue state, or a stable state. He knew it was safe to move again. He moved about twenty yards back to the gun turret. When he turned around, he realized that Jackals had been advancing towards the convertible that stood there. They, realizing the Spartan had moved, moved quickly towards the Spartan. In a few seconds, he had chosen an area to fire. He chose to discharge the rocket right at the convertible, sending it 20 meters into the air, with a majority of the Jackals accompanying it. The car fell to the ground, taking the other live Jackals with it.
"Nice!" Autumn said in approval. Autumn was the A.I. in the MJOLNIR armor that knew almost anything and everything. In things she didn't know about, she used logic and reason to figure out what it was. Many other A.I. systems had its flaws. She was like her predecessor, Cortana, which was inexplicably deleted when inserted into The Master Chief.
"Many humans have been taken captive by the Covenant," Autumn continued. She changed the subject; "I wouldn't keep your mind focused on that, especially at a time of war."
She was clearly referencing the thoughts of Master Chief. He remembered his Spartan brothers, whom he had accidentally killed after being removed from a cryo-sleep prematurely.
The room was filled with cryogenic tubes. Somehow his dreams were not about him being a Spartan. He had seemed to forget everything he had once knew about himself. When he awoke, everything he knew, which he had determined as being real, was gone.
These looming, tall armored people stood around him, as he stood, for once after his 7-year sleep. He was unaware that he, too, was a scary, strong man, in the same frightening armor. A sidearm was holstered, which had become obsolete over the years, in his belt. That, along with a frag grenade, was in his possession. He pulled out the grenade activated it and threw it at the other Spartans
"What the hell are..." a Spartan, known as Spartan-9, yelled. But before he could speak another word, his shield was depleted. Spartan-13 fired his sidearm at the other Spartans. They fell to the ground, dead. All of a sudden, the Spartan-13's visor was blanked out. A voice rose in this darkness.
"What you may or may have not seen in your cryo-sleep was not true. This is your true identity." A picture of a Spartan showed on the screen.
"I'm doing that?" the Master Chief asked.
"I think so. Unless something I'm doing, or something that's happening is triggering that."
"Is there any way this thing can be deactivated?"
"How can I stop one from thinking?" Autumn
said, "I mean, I know I'm powerful, but I'm not that powerful.
The streets had been littered with human bodies as well as those of the Covenant. He went inside Alpha Base (a giant hotel), and went to room 767, showered and lay down in his bed. He got to sleep soon thereafter.
Chapter Two
Lights, screaming human voices, and gunfire awoke the Spartan-13 with a start.
The Spartan jumped up, and quickly noticed that his neural implants didn't inform him. But why? The Master Chief was perplexed. Of course I would be one of the first to know if we were under attack. He had no time to think however, and quickly set up a sniper rifle in the window of the makeshift headquarters. He put on his MJOLNIR armor and his helmet. He hastily switched to 2X zoom, which displayed in his helmet. The Covenant Drop ship quickly immersed the image displayed in the scope.
A Shade, a gun turret, was being manned by a Grunt, on the drop ship. It wasn't deadly to the Spartan, but to the humans, it is a very lethal weapon. The Master Chief was in a dilemma. He could choose to kill the grunt, drawing attention to the building. Moments were passing, and humans were dying, and the Spartan had to act fast. He activated a grenade and threw it at the Covenant stronghold. The grenade bounced, and the Spartan locked on to his target. An explosion rang out below, and The Master Chief squeezed the trigger.
A line of sniper smoke led directly to an empty Shade.
The Spartan jumped on the table and out the window, he was going to make his way to the roof, when he realized that the rooftops were taken over by Elites, Jackals, and Grunts. Rocket Cannon blasts pummeled the streets. A Gold Elite, who must have been in charge of the attack, pointed directly at the Master Chief.
Shortly, he was running down a hotel hallway, to a stairwell. Above, the murmuring of a Grunt and fellow Covenant descended towards the Spartan.
"Here, I've brought up a nav point," Autumn announced, "If you can get there quickly you should be able to pick off the Covenant as they go by."
Swiftly, but also stealthily, the Spartan moved down the stairs.
"This can't be possible. My dream was so vivid," Spartan-13 said after his rampage in the cryo-room.
"Maybe so, but this is your true identity," a gruff Sergeant spoke to the frightened person.
"You don't understand. I had a life in my dreams. A wife, two children, it was great. Then, I'm told this was just a dream?"
"Have you gotten a chance to realize who you are? You could wipe out any alien race you wanted single-handedly. Well, you used to be able to. You know, with your now diseased brothers."
The once terrifying man now was a confused man.
"I guess I'll have to prove it to you," said the Sergeant. "Autumn?"
"Yes Sarge?" Autumn, a hologram, said sitting at the center of a table.
"Can you bring up footage of the training the Master Chief went through?"
"I'm on it, sir. I have to access the history of Déjá, the A.I. who assisted in the training and instruction," moments passed and Autumn continued, "commencing the video feed."
The holographic woman morphed into a screen, showing a young Spartan trainer sweating as he pushed through a forest. Spartan-13, then known as Jake-13, was shown running, fighting through the brush.
One thing caught the Spartan's eyes, as he watched the training, was the sound of crackling guns. I was running for my life? The Spartan wondered, but he quickly retracted his thoughts. They probably just used stun fire.
The Spartan continued watching, but couldn't keep his mind off of whether it was live fire or not.
"That's enough, Autumn," Sarge's booming voice made the Spartan jump, "I see that something's eating at you. And I'm pretty sure I know your question."
"Was that live fire, sir?"
"Well, between me and you, it wasn't, but you sure as hell didn't know that back then."
The Spartan had reached his nav point, a dark opening in the wall. Tense moments passed, as he waited for the Covenant to pass. A substantial amount of the Covenant passed by the opening. The Master Chief knew he'd be able to take down some, but he would have trouble taking down all of them.
" Master Chief to Beta Base. Request for human forces at Alpha Base. The Covenant have created a stronghold here, over."
"Roger that, we have help on the way, over," a reassuring voice said over the radio.
The group of soldiers, who hadn't been sent out all day, finally got their call. This was 4th platoon. They were basically the equivalent to a 4th string grav ball line-up.
"All right fourth platoon! Let's move out!" The leader said, enthusiastically.
Members of the squad were also enthusiastic, getting each other fired up.
One soldier screamed, "I'm gonna kill me some covenant!"
Back at Alpha Base, the Master Chief realized he was wasting time. He knew that the Covenant were going to take prisoners if he didn't hurry up. He peaked around the corner, and took out his pistol. He turned on the 2X scope that was standard on pistols, and centered the targeting reticle on a Grunt. He squeezed the trigger, and a blast rang out in the silence.
The Battle For Earth (Chapter Three)
Date: 17 June 2004, 9:52 PM
Chapter Three
"Intelligence reports indicate that another string of attacks on Earth will be made by the Covenant in the near future," the Sergeant said. "We will need you, Spartan-13, to begin a series of training operations. As you can see, you are wearing the largest technological advancement of the thirtieth century. What you are about to see is the Heads-Up Display."
The Spartan marveled over what he saw inside his helmet. He first saw the shield indicator take its spot at the top right corner of the helmet. His radar soon after appeared, which showed an abundance of yellow pulsating dots.
"You can activate thermal, night, motion tracking, and methane substance tracking visions all through this suit. Methane tracking is very important for finding Grunts."
Confused, the Spartan stared quizzically at the Sergeant.
"Oh, you don't know about the Covenant."
The Sergeant briefed the cybernetic soldier about his alien opponents. He also told the Spartan about the series of battles that took place.
"As far as we know, we could be fighting the Covenant for the rest of our lives. Maybe even for the rest of Earth's life."
And from those words, the Spartan knew that it was his duty, along with the human forces, to be able to take down the Covenant, once and for all.
Later, the Spartan caught up with the Sergeant.
"I never did catch your name," the Spartan soldier said.
"Oh, I'm Forman. Sergeant Forman," he glanced down at his nametag, which clearly said "Forman," which was directly above a Purple Heart award. "Well, I'm sure your wondering, 'when am I going to be getting some action?'"
"Not exactly. I'm sort of wondering, 'how the hell did I get here?'"
"You've been here all the time. It's time for training. You're going to need to thrive quickly."
Moments later, they were out on a training course.
"Can I be killed?" Jake-13 asked.
"Why do you always worry?" Forman asked. "Yes. You can be killed. Just not here." Moments later, Forman said, "let's see what you can do."
Holograms zoomed out onto the training course, and moved swiftly, as if living. Jake, who was stunned by this display, was speechless. Bursts of green light came from the holograms, and the Spartan had to duck out of the way. He found a nook in the wall and took out his pistol. Using the scope, he opened fire, taking out the holograms. The battle was over in minutes.
There was no turning back now. The Master Chief, who had taken down the Grunts, had to face the Elites and Jackals. The human forces, as instructed by Master Chief, were to come in from behind the Elites and Jackals, working as a surprise attack. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes had passed when Master Chief realized that the humans might be in trouble. No radio transmissions had come in from the party that was supposed to arrive. Their post was a block away, and they should have been there in seconds, not minutes.
What is holding them up? the Spartan wondered. He heard stomping in the streets, a stomp that could only be associated with Hunters. The Chief took a look at his motion tracker that still had yellow pulsating dots for a moment. However, that moment was a mistake. He was pelted with plasma fire. A plasma grenade came from the back of the group of Covenant. The Spartan ducked out of the way, and moved forward to avoid the powerful explosion of the grenade.
Master Chief decided to counter that attack with a grenade of his own. It was a frag grenade, and he was sure it would affect some of the Covenant forces. The explosion blew some Jackals away and the Elites became angry. One Gold Elite got angry and ran straight at the Spartan, attempting to melee attack Master Chief.
"We are here Chief," the Beta Squad leader radioed, "we are engaging in battle."
Master Chief hesitated for a moment. He looked at his health indicator in the HUD. It showed 4 yellow bars. He decided to duck in the nook in which he had opened fire from. There, he loaded a fresh clip of ammo into his SMG, and waited for his shields to regenerate. An Elite took that moment of rest from the Spartan, who was startled by the Elite's appearance.
The Master Chief raised his SMG, and began to fire, and sparks flew from the end of the gun, and the Elite fell back. The Elite, however, still managed to rattle Master Chief with plasma bolts before the fierce alien fell to the ground.
"Covering fire!" yelled the humans, and the Spartan was relieved to hear their voices. Assault Rifles screamed in the hallway, and the Spartan drew his sidearm.
The Spartan turned on the 2x zoom in the pistol, and got a lock on a Jackal that was aggressively attacking a human. The bullet discharged from the rifle, and the shell casing popped into the air. The Jackal's head collapsed when the bullet hit, and it fell to the ground. An all-too-familiar gooey blood spewed out of the Jackal. The Spartan never saw that blood, as he was already focused on taking down the other targets.
The humans took care of the other aliens. The Chief exited the ruins of Alpha base, and stepped out onto the street. He looked at his health indicator, and decided to make a to the medical tent.
However, moments later, the Chief's thought was gone. He had to take care of Banshees.
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