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The Machine Inside (Rewrite)
Posted By: AI_Construct<awmurphy05@yahoo.com>
Date: 16 July 2007, 3:41 pm
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1300 Hours:
Private Jonathan M. Ericson wasn't a huge man, so he shouldn't have been hungry. Jonathan, like many other proud patriots of Earth, was a thin man at around 5'11", with a head of thick black hair.
And, just like most of his friends, he had signed up for the Military. Now, a few months out of boot camp, and he was sitting in an M12 Warthog along side a few good friends from boot, on a giant alien construct known as a 'Halo'.
With him, on this most unimportant of scouting missions, was the egotistical and narcissistic Private William Henry. William was from England, and he was, for the most part, self absorbed. He want by the nickname Captain, because he wouldn't shut up about how he was going to be ours soon. Other than the need to be better than everyone else, he was an alright guy. Also with them was the lovable Gary Mitchels. Mitchels, like every large muscled man, was feared by many,but in reality, like so many large men in movies, he was just a caring man with a 6'5", 250 pound, well muscled body. He reminded me of those loving grandmas on all those old television shows, so I started calling him that.
As Captain drove along, I wandered off, looking at how beautiful the terrain was. As his mind wandered, he went over how they had gotten here on the Halo. After boot camp, a surprise assault by the Covenant had taken place. Captain, Grandma, and him had all been on the Malta to meet the famous Master Chief when the slip-space jump had been discovered. Soon, gunfighting and screaming could be heard all around. Then, just as fast as it started, it was over, and everyone who had a ship was ordered on it.
It was a mad house, jumping over dead human and Covenant, fighting what was left of the Covenant presence, and getting to the In Amber Clad before it took off. Pretty soon the IAC was on Earth, fighting the Covenant forces that had made it there, and right when the battle seemed to turn, the target Covenant ship was preparing to do a jump. The IAC jumped with it. And now he was here...
A flash of light woke me from my day dream.
"Hey Cap, did you see that?"
A confused look crossed his face, "See what?"
As we stopped, I told him about the flash of light.
"Well, this is a scouting mission, so we might as well check it out." Grandma said. Captain gave a quick shrug, and we turned toward where the light came from.
----
1320 Hours:
Grandma was behind what was left of the Warthog, and Captain was behind a rock with me.
Ten minutes after deciding to follow the light, we ran into a large group of Sentinels. Grandma took out a few with the turret, but we had to find some kind of shelter from their beam weapons. No sooner had we gotten out, the Warthog had caught fire and had a minor explosion.
The Sentinels were moving, and it was time to fight. Captain took a grenade and threw it, Grandma started shooting with his SMG, I rolled out from the rock and started aiming with my sniper rifle. With the first attack, we took our four or five.
The Sentinels, it seemed, had enough and charged Grandma. Captain and I took out as many as we could, but they were on him faster than we could take the out. As a final act, Grandma threw a grenade at his feet. It didn't do as much damage we thought it would have.
Captain and I let loose any grenades we had left, but the Sentinels still came. Captain was hit in the chest by one of the Sentinel's beams. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Suddenly I found myself alone against two Sentinels. I ditched my sniper and picked up Captains Battle Rifle. As the Sentinels got closer, I took one out, and damaged the other one's beam weapon. Then the Sentinel did something I did not think of.
The damn thing tackled me.
It knocked me clean out, and during that unconscious period, I felt extreme pain in my neck area, like it was on fire.
----
2000 Hours:
There was a faint light, then it got bigger and bigger until I could see where I was. Where I was, was a makeshift infirmary for the Military forces already on the wing.
"How you doing kid?" came a gruff voice from the corner of the tent. I tried to move, but I was strapped down.
"Don't move kid, you were pretty banged up when we found you. You're lucky to be alive as it is."
I tried to remember what had happened, but all I got was a headache.
"What happened sir?" I asked. The voice sighed, and a man came in to view.
He was tall, with the normal military short-cut. He was black, and muscular, not as muscular as Grandma....
It all flooded back in, and for a moment I was completely silent.
"They're all dead, aren't they...?" I asked. Another sigh, and the man shook his head in confirmation.
"There is no easy way to tell you this boy, but there is something else I must tell you." I was still in shock about Grandma and Captain, so a dull okay was all that came out of my mouth.
"When we found you, you were unconscious. You were badly bruised, with a few cuts and some broken bones. The most disturbing part, was that a Sentinel had attempted to connect with your neural interface. Unfortunately, it didn't work and it fused your interface with the machines connector. We were able to safely remove most of the metal outside your body, but we couldn't go inside without killing you..."
It took me a moment to go over what he said. At first I didn't understand, was it just physical damage, or had the Sentinel become a part of him? I wandered off again.
"...is going to give you a shot to put you to sleep for a while. Night kid." I felt a sharp prick in my arm, and the last thing I remember was that light going out.
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