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Transparent Shadow by Aaron
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Transparent Shadow: Episode I
Date: 8 September 2005, 5:43 pm
note from the author: I apologize in advance for any words that have a period right in the middle of them (my website automatically edits certain words like blood, dead, etc and i have to do that to fool the censor)
Time: 1330 hours./ September 23 2552:/
Location:: Wraith:/Third Moon of UNSC Space Colony:
"Transparent Shadow":/ :/lava run 25 kilometers
away from military base: "Zulu9":/
Omega System
The marines died because of a simple malfunction. An exhaust manifold
on the pelican dropship had been defective and jammed causing the crash
of the ship. The actual crash hadn't killed the ten UNSC soldiers, the
Covenant patrol had. As soon as the dropship had crashed the ten marines
had jumped out of the wreck into a barrage of plasma fire. The marines
would have been proud of themselves….if they had survived. Three ghost
recon vehicles, fifteen grunts, two elites, and about five jackals-the
total covenant patrol-lay around the crash site in numerous positions of
death. Bright iridescent alien bl.ood of various colors mingled with the
crimson red human bl.ood and stained the black lava rock.
There was one survivor to the crash and the ensuing skirmish. This
survivor knelt among the gore staring at the humans. Too many of
his race had died because of minor details. Bad commanders, bad
equipment, equipment malfunction, bad orders, corrupti…. "Chief."
Cortana's voice snapped Spartan117-Master Chief-out of his trance.
"I know it's hard, but you have to let them go." Cortana's digitalized
voice said inside his head.
"I know, I know, it just shouldn't have happened. Not when I was with
them. I was trained to protect them, and when the time comes, I'm
useless."
"Chief, you can't blame yourself for every casualty. Think about how
many you've saved."
Master Chief shook his helmeted head and started to take stock of his
surroundings. He hadn't had time to study the land after the crash
because of the instant Covenant attack. He and the marines had been sent
on a recon patrol to find and save a warthog patrol. Three marines had gone missing and Master Chief's patrol had
been sent to retrieve them. Currently Master Chief was stationed on the
moon called Wraith. Him and the remnant of his squad that had returned from the fight after Reach had been given the option of shore leave on Earth. Master Chief had opted for the outpost position. It was meant to be a little time off after his narrow escape from Reach, the fight on Halo, and the subsequent fighting, but Covenant troops had infiltrated the small moon and now were starting probing attacks on Zulu9. The Covenant seemed to be gaining footholds everywh….. "CHIEF!! You drifted again. You're going to have to focus if you want to get back to the base by nightfall."
"I'm sorry, it's just….the past few weeks have been…….tiring."
"I know, don't forget I was here most of the time."
The Spartan reached into one of his storage compartments in his armor
and touched a button that injected more adrenaline into his system. He
again shook his head and focused on studying the land. The black porous
rock stretched to the horizon with heat waves rising into the dusty air.
The dust was so dense that it was almost like a light black fog keeping
the heat of the sun in. The nearest star: Apollo 153 shone down and
heated the ground so hot that it would burn bare skin. Temperatures were
well above 120 and if it wasn't for Master Chief's Mjolnir suit and its
air conditioning unit, he would have been incapacitated with the heat.
He stood up and slowly walked towards the wreck of the pelican. He
stooped to pick up his pi.stol where he had dropped it in the dust.
Instantly when his glove touched the handle of the weapon, a HUD appeared
on the inside of his face plate showing a sighting reticule and the am.mo
count: 1. He was half way to the pelican when he stopped. He stood
there motionless and unmoving. The heat shimmered off his olive green
armor as he appeared to be in deep thought. Suddenly, to fast for the
eye to follow, he wheeled around and grabbed the red elite that had been
creeping up on him by the throat. The elite must have played possum during the battle. Master Chief's genetically and surgically enhanced strength along with his Mjolnir Suit's strength made his grip a grip of steel as he crushed the elite's throat. The red elite's eyes bulged as his throat was compressed, but his eyes registered something
much different when the barrel of the pi.stol was crushed through his
mandibles and into his mouth.
"Eat it you sonuvabi***!" The Spartan growled.
The report was loud in the airless heat as the high impact round tore
through the alien's mouth and blew its brains out. Master Chief wiped
the gore off his face plate and calmly walked over to the pelican where
he proceeded to reload his weapon.
"Hmmmm, very nice." Cortana chirped
Master Chief only grunted.
"I will place a nav marker on Zulu 9 and you can proceed to hoof it back
to base"
"No, I have a better idea, Spartans never leave a mission uncompleted;
put a marker on the last known coordinates of the hog patrol."
The orange/pink marker flashed up on Master Chiefs HUD reading:
3.75kilo. After recovering more for am.mo for his pi.stol, and salvaging a
Mark5 Sniper R.ifle from one of the marines, the Spartan began
walking over the barren wasteland.
Time: 1400 hrs ./ September 23 2552:/
Location: Wraith:/4.5 kilometers south of Pelican crash site.
Zang-Zay slowly scanned his scope over the barren terrain. He had
watched the rodent's airship crash land into the earth. Filthy beings
could not even get atmospheric flying down, let alone space travel.
Zang-Zay had listened to his intercom as his kill-brothers hunted down
the animals. He had watched and listened to the battle (or the two way
slaughter depending on your point of view.) He had not fired a single
shot out of his Covenant beam r.ifle however. He could have greatly lessened the loss
on his side if he had begun firing but he did not want to take such
ranged shots but even more importantly, he did not want to give away the
trap.
His scope again panned over the hog of the human patrol. All three of
the human creatures lay where his squad had left them. They had been
instructed by command to make it look like an accident…..and to lure
other humans in.
Zang-Zay raised his squinted eye away from the scope on his r.ifle and
looked right and left. There, a piece of air shimmered thirty lengths to
his left, a sign that Yun-to was keeping as silent a vigil as he was.
Zang-Zay spotted a movement twenty lengths to his right and smiled,
Xra-la was alert and ready. Zang-Zay's squad was made up of himself,
Yun-to and Xra-la, all of them were elites skilled enough in
assassination that they all had the honor of wearing black and silver
armor. They only worked by themselves, not for them a squad of annoying
lesser races (or "grunts" and "jackals" as the human creatures labeled
them.) No, they were honored and revered among their kind. Each of
Zang-Zay's squad including himself, were equipped with stealth
generators. But, even more dea.dly then the stealth, each of them were
given new assassin carbines. With these two things, Zang-Zay's squad was
silent, cloaked, and very de.adly.
His squad had been given one mission, find and kill the human deity.
The humans honored him, and with good purpose. This one human had been
the cause of more distress to the Honored Ones, then all the other rodent
forces combined. Zang-Zay had a healthy respect for this great warrior
that had killed countless of his kind. This was probably the only one of
the human race he respected in the least. Zang-Zay's toothed mandibles
clicked at the thought of what honor this human would bring him.
He had already discussed with his squad that when the time came, he would
get the honor of the kill. They had tracked this great human to this
back-water colony. The trap was ready.
Zang-Zay's eye returned to his scope and again focused on the crash
site. He jerked when he all of a sudden noticed movement. At first of because
the height he mistook the armor clad figure for one of his own kind. But
as the scope automatically zoomed and locked, Zang-Zay knew for
certain, this was his man. The gold visor reflected briefly the dying
sun and Zang-Zay noticed the human snip.er ri.fle slung on the warrior's back.
Would the sn.iper present a threat? No, Zang-Zay almost laughed at the
idea. He admired the confident stride and the familiarity that the human
handled his weapons. He thought about how this human was probably as
close to a kindred spirit as Zang-Zay would ever see in the human race.
He almost regretted ki.lling the warrior………….almost. Zang-Zay knew that
for his ri.fle to be at its most accurate, the human would have to come a
little closer. He centered the sight on the golden visor and inched his
claw towards the firing stud.
The trap, was about to be sprung……..
Time: 1410 hrs ./ September 23 2552:/
Location: Transparent Shadow;./UNSC Space colony #89567
The marine looked up at the clouded sky and swore to his partner.
"Dammit John, I told you I saw something!!!"
"Oh shut up and get in the barracks, if I miss chow because of you
you're gonna regret it!"
Both marines went muttering to each other into the building where their
platoon had just started dinner.
Overhead, the sky shimmered once, twice, and then it seemed like the light of Apollo 153 refracted, bent, and shattered into a thousand pieces. Where there was just moments
before been an empty sky, there was now scores of pink/purple Covenant
dropships all headed for the surface.
The invasion of Transparent Shadow had begun…..
Note from the author: Like this? This is the first episode in what is currently a 16 episode storyline (its growing constantly) See the rest at my halo clan site:
www.black-opsehc.com (go to the Fan Fiction pages, Book 1, etc.)
Transparent Shadow: Episode II
Date: 14 September 2005, 4:28 am
Continuation of Transparent Shadow Episode II
Time: 1415 hrs ./ September 23 2552
Location: Wraith:/lava flows
Zang-Zay centered his sight upon the warrior's face plate and slowly
depressed the firing stud…..he couldn't miss.
"Chief…" Cortana's voice sounded anxious inside Master Chief's head.
"I know, I feel it to….something is wrong."
Master Chief had spotted the hog five minutes before and focused on the
dead bodies. At first glance, it seemed like the hog had crashed. But a
double take quickly revealed the signs of a fight. The bodies lay close
to the vehicle. One of the two bodies was more mangled then what otherwise would be expected with a simple accident. After seeing this, everything seemed not right. The
situation reeked of a trap.
The hole in the lava flow saved Master Chief's life. His foot broke through the thin layer of cooled lava and fell just as a lance of super heated energy burned past his head.
The energy passed so close to his helmet that it left a dark burn mark
along the side.
Zang-Zay cursed. The warrior had survived by pure luck. He brought his
rifle back into line with the position (it had jumped with the recoil)
of the warrior and stared in dumb amazement…the warrior was gone.
Zang-Zay scanned the surrounding region….nothing. The warrior could not
have taken any cover, there was none! Zang-Zay cursed again and
continued to sweep frantically with his scope in search of his prey.
As soon as he hit the ground Master Chief burrowed into the rock. His armor's
weight and his muscle served to crush the fragile lava rock into black dust which
he rolled in. He was soon covered from head to toe in the dust. The coating
of dust served as excellent camouflage.
"The shot seems to have come from 300 yards south west."
Master Chief scanned the location Cortana had given him…nothing.
"Either they are doing what I am doing, or more likely, they have
stealth generators."
He slowly reached behind him, slipped the ri.fle off his shoulder, and
brought the scope to his eye. He went to 2X and panned his view over the
landscape. THERE! A slight shimmer in the air about seven feet off the
ground.
"I seeee you." Master Chief muttered as he slowly squeezed on the
trigger.
Yun-to's head exploded like an over-ripe fruit as the high velocity round sheared through his armored face-plate and erupted out the back of his skull. He never knew what hit him. Zang-Zay roared in surprise and anguish at seeing his blood-brother's lifeless corpse matieralize out of the air as his stealth generator self destructed. The body slowly toppled back and lay on the ground amidst the remnants of its brain. The warrior would pay for the death of his bl.ood-brother, no quick de.ath for him now. Zang-Zay ground his teeth together in helpless rage until bl.ood oosed out of his mouth and smeared on his chin. Zang-Zay returned the scope to his eye intent on making the warrior suffer.
Xra-la had watched the whole scene in shock and horror. He all of a sudden felt afraid for the first time in his life. Never had any of his squad been hurt by their prey let alone killed. And here inside of a few seconds he had watched his brother get butchered. He lowered his ri.fle and stepped back a few paces in shock. He kept on walking back till he turned around to run......right into the muzzle of a g.un. He screamed in horror until a single round ended his horror forever.
Zang-Zay watched his other bl.ood-brother get cut down by the warrior who seemed to have risen up from the ground as if he were a spirit of the under world. Zang-Zay roared, threw his carbine in the dust, deactivated his stealth generator, drew two plasma ri.fles from their storage case on the ground, and charged.
"Chief, a third one!!!!" Cortana shouted a warning. Master Chief dove out the line of fire just as the alien released a barrage of plasma fire from dual plasma ri.fles. The blue blobs of heat rushed past Master Chiefs head, close enough to cause his shields to flare, as he brought his weapon into line with the alien's face. Stealth generators require too much power to be in addition to a shield generator......One shot was all it took.
The alien stumbled stood a while and then slowly fell into a cloud of dust. "Chief, we better be going, you can use the hog over there to drive us back to base."
His armor shimmering and giving him a god like corona from the reflected sun, Master Chief rose and walked in the direction of the hog for the long drive back to base.
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