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HALO: Combat Evolved - Chapter 2: I Love This Job
Posted By: Cameron Eades<masami_kun@hotmail.com>
Date: 25 November 2002, 2:35 pm
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"We're coming in too fast!" Cortana yelled.
"Airbrake failure! They blew too early! I'm losin' her.... Brace for impact!"
The airbrakes peeled off, allowing an extremely rough impact. Only luck could help them now. They plummeted toward the ground. What seemed like a long time passed before they landed. The lifeboat slammed into the ground, killing everyone but the Master Chief. He survived, of course, because he was a Spartan soldier.
"Chief! Chief! Can you hear me?" Cortana wasn't sure that he made it.
"I'm fine." The Master Chief calmly said as if they hadn't slammed into the ground at more that two hundred kilometers per hour.
The Chief exited the lifeboat. He looked around. He was on a beautiful, grassy region of the ring. The ring was artificial, but the creators, purpose, and location was unknown. He ran across a large pipe-like bridge.
"I'm reading thousands of types of flora. The ring's atmosphere is incredibly sophisticated." Said Cortana. "Alert! Covenant dropship inbound! I recommend immediate evasion."
The Covenant's U shaped dropships had small closet-like rooms on each side of the U. Near the base is most likely the cockpit and on the bottom is a small but powerful plasma turret.
The Master Chief ran up a small hill. As he was well over the hill, he saw a grunt's foot below a tree. He was at the end of a sloppy line of other grunts and one elite.
The elites began appearing more often during the attack on the Pillar of Autumn. They must have been closer to the Covenant home planet.
He didn't have time to think about it. He quietly followed Covenant. When they arrived at a turn, he decided that he needed to take the group of Covenant out. He started by hitting the grunts at the back of the group. He took some plasma grenades off of them. Only the elite was left. He never looked behind him so he never knew that his allies were gone.
The Master Chief lobbed the plasma grenade at the Covenant soldier. It hit him.
"siht rof eid lliw uoy !ON ?huH"
The elite turned and ran toward him. The Chief ran away from the elite as fast as he could, too fast for the elite. He turned and saw an explosian. He stayed along the path that the Covenant were taking.
"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors" Cortana was focused mainly on the surviving marines.
As the Master Chief rounded the next corner, he was staring right at a Covenant dropship. They were much larger than they seemed up close.
Behind it there was a large structure that shot a large beam into the sky. The Chief just noticed that he could see the other side of the ring when he looked up. That beam probably held the ring together.
There were about twenty marines fighting loads of Covenant that had come from the dropship. He lobbed three fragmentation grenades at the Covenant soldiers. It killed one elite and about ten grunts. One elite was left.
This one was different. It had dark crimson armor rather than the usual blue armor. This probably meant a higher rank.
It stood firing at the marines from long range. It was as good a marksman as the Master Chief. The Chief tried creeping up behind him and gun butting him in the back of the head, but it immediately turned around and loosely swung his arm at the Chief. One swing hit him. It instantly took down his shields. It was stronger than the others.
The Master Chief punched the plasma rifle out of the elite's hand, punched his face three times, and kicked his stomach. It fell over in pain. The Chief stomped on it's head and crushed it.
He turned to the sergeant of the squad of marines
"It's a mess sir", the sergeant said "We're scattered all over this valley, I called for evac but until you came, I thought we were cooked."
"Don't worry Sergeant, we'll stay here until evac arrives."
"Heads up! I got a Covenant dropship headin' in, over here!" a marine yelled over the radio.
The Master Chief ran up a side ramp of the high tech structure. As he reached the top, he saw the dropship. He lobbed three grenades that he had found on the structure at the dropship. He saw ten or so grunts fly over the trees. He looked into the trees and saw five or six jackals moving quickly toward the marine's position.
Jackals are like grunts... but stronger, skinnier, and a bit taller. They wielded shields that were attached to their wrists. It is said that their senses are much advanced compared to the other Covenant races. When they are in combat, it is hard to get a shot to them. Explosives are the most effective weapons against jackals. But the Master chief can usually get a shot into their few exposed areas.
He threw one grenade at the jackals making them dive out of the blast radius. Some didn't make it away from the explosions, but the surviving one dived far enough away from the explosion. The Master Chief took this time to fire at the parts of his body that had been exposed when he dived. He took out his pistol and shot right through the heart of the enemy.
"This is Pelican Echo 4-19." A female voice crackled over the radio. "Is anybody readin' me? Repeat, any UNSC personnel respond."
"Roger Echo 4-19. This is fire team Charlie. We read you 5-by-5. That you Foe Hammer?" Replied the sergeant.
"Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya." Said Foe Hammer.
The Pelican dropship began to gracefully circle the area and land in front of the structure. The Pelican is a slick looking dropship that carries troops in a hole near the back. It can also carry a Warthog jeep.
"I've hacked into the Covenant battlenet. They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels. We should show them who they're dealing with." Cortana said.
"If your not too busy, Foe Hammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the command shuttle." A marine requested over the radio.
Suddenly, a dozen or so lifeboats came into view over the hills.
"Look! More lifeboats! If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant will be right on top of them." Said Cortana. "Foe Hammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. The Master Chief and I are going to try and save some soldiers."
The Warthog made a sudden jerk and came loose from the dropship.
"Roger Cortana, ok Charlie team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give them hell." Foe Hammer replied.
The Master Chief got in the Warthog along with two marines. They drove towards a large hill. A depression in the ground came into view.
"What the hell is that, Chief?" The marine expected the Chief to know everything about this mysterious world.
"I don't know." He replied with the normal quiet voice.
A large cave with metallic walls came into view.
"This cave is not a natural formation. Someone built it, so it must lead somewhere." Said Cortana.
The Master Chief jumped out of the Warthog and walked over to inspect the cave.
"What are you doing now, Chief?" The marine was getting annoying. The Chief knew that this would continue as long as he was with them.
"Shut up James! It doesn't matter what he is doing! He knows what he is doing whatever it is!" Yelled the marine in the gunner seat.
Suddenly they heard a deep, low frequency rumbling sound. The rumble sounded closer every second. The sound changed. Now, it sounded shrill, like a Banshee flier. But a Banshee wouldn't make a low sound like that.
A gigantic blue fireball flew over the hill. It was moving slowly toward them. Before the Chief could do anything, the fireball hit the Warthog along with the marines. A large hovering vehicle appeared over the hill. It was a Covenant armor vehicle. Different from the others that he had seen. Two hunters appeared over the hill behind the Covenant tank.
The Hunter is a gigantic Covenant soldier. They are extremely powerful. They wield shields that can reflect any ballistic rounds. Implanted into their armor they have an extremely powerful fuel-rod gun.
He got into the Warthog and stomped on the pedal. Just as the fireball hit the ground, the Chief was already out of the blast radius of the plasma explosion.
He drove to the cave. The tank was incredibly fast He could hear it behind him the whole way.
"Look! Try and make that jump!" He nearly forgot that Cortana was even there.
There was an oddly placed ramp up ahead. He could still hear the tank behind them. The hunters were probably too far behind to take part in the chase. He knew he had to lose that tank. He made a sharp turn and went up the ramp. Behind them the tank was rounding the corner. It slammed up against the wall, slowing it down. It couldn't possibly make the ramp now.
The Warthog flew over the gap and barely made it across. He looked back to see what happed to the tank. It, as predicted, didn't make it. If it ever did, it would be too far behind to catch up.
"What was that Cortana?" asked the Master Chief.
"Few of them have been seen so far. They are one of the better Covenant tanks. They are much faster than our tanks, but aren't as strong. They go as fast as a Warthog and their plasma canons have as much punch as five plasma grenades. The Covenant seem to call them Wraiths."
"Excellent... more armor to worry about."
As the Master Chief put the Warthog back into gear, a fuel-rod flew past him. It was the hunters. He drove around the corner before the hunters had a chance to fire another fuel-rod.
The Chief maneuvered the Warthog around the corner and arrived in a gigantic cavern with a gap at least a mile deep in the center. He drove into the cavern very slowly. Suddenly, tons of Covenant soldiers popped out from behind large generator-like machines. He made a quick turn around the corner and splattered at least thirty Covenant soldiers including three elites. He jumped into the gunner seat of the Warthog and fired at the remaining enemies.
"There must be a some kind of mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a panel or switch." Said Cortana.
He looked around the cavern. He spotted a control panel near the top of the cavern. He looked for a way to get to it. He decided that he would try a small path in the wall that led upward. He walked into the passage and emerged at a small ledge with the panel at the end. He approached the panel and pressed a small holographic button on the panel. Two gigantic rods moved together. They somehow made a large bridge above it. He jumped from the ledge and landed near the Warthog. He jumped into the Warthog and maneuvered it across the bridge.
"More crew made it off the Autumn than I had predicted! The Captain really gave them hell! If we can find Captain Keyes and the other survivors, we have a chance to coordinate an effective resistance." Cortana informed the Master Chief.
The Master Chief found himself driving down a corridor that seemed like the one he took coming into the cavern. He emerged into the same environment that he went into the cave. He drove uphill along a small stream.
"I'm marking the lifeboat crash sites with a nav marker." Said Cortana.
The Master Chief spotted a path on the other side the river. A nav marker appeared next to it. He crossed the river and drove up the path. He emerged from the path. He could see Covenant that looked like little dots moving into a group of gigantic rocks and boulders. He could see sniper rifle bullet trails trying to keep as much away from the rocks.
He drove the Warthog toward the rocks and ran over the rest of the Covenant that were out in the open. He jumped out and eliminated any Covenant in his way to the marines. He arrived at a very elevated rock with ten or twenty marines.
"Thank God you're here Master Chief!"
"Help!"
"They're gonna kill us all!" A couple of panicking marines screamed.
He turned to guard the side of the rock while the other marines did their parts. Only a couple of grunts were left. He took out his pistol and shot the remaining enemies.
"Ahhhhhh! Get 'em off of me!" A marine yelled.
He turned to see what was wrong. There was a grunt clinging his jaws to a marine's waist. He raised his gun to shoot it. He took careful aim at the grunt.
"No! Ahhhhhhhhh!" The grunt bit a grenade on his belt.
"Ah! No!" The grenade exploded, killing the grunt and the marine.
No one said anything for a while.
Out of nowhere a marine said, "Well, I didn't know they even had teeth."
"Echo 4-19 to Cortana, come in." Foe Hammer said over the radio.
Cortana let out a sigh and said, "We read you Echo 4-19. We have survivors and need immediate dust-off."
"Roger, Cortana, I'm on my way."
The Pelican emerged from the trees above the hills. It did the stylish circle maneuver above the rocks and came to a mid-air stop. The Master Chief escorted the marines to the Pelican. They got inside the dropship and flew away.
He and two marines got back into the Warthog and moved toward the path that he used to get to the crash site. To the Chief's right was the largest waterfall he had ever seen. To his left he could see a small path with flashing lights near the entrance. Probably used to mark a path that led to a mechanism or building. He decided to follow it.
"There are marines hiding in the hills above that structure." Cortana said as they neared the structure.
Two or three dropships worth of Covenant were waiting for him along with the marines. "I love this job." The Master Chief thought as he drove right over the Covenant. He drove through the rocks and to the marines.
"You two" The Chief said to a couple of marines, "get between these rocks and shoot any Covenant soldier that comes up here. You, come up here with me. And you two, get behind us in an elevated spot and snipe for us." He got in the LAAG gun and waited.
They waited for the enemy to make their move. Finally, a group of grunts and an elite popped up and fired three shots into the Chief's shield. The familiar sound of tons of Covenant running toward him forced him to make the quick decision of evacuation. He got in the Warthog and the marines doubled up into the seats. Yep, six people crammed into one Warthog. The Warthog wasn't going very fast because of the added weight of the extra marines. He could see how many grunts where running toward them. Not just grunts, but six or seven elites also. As they drove to a good distance away from the Covenant, they got out.
"Why are we getting out Chief?"
"Throw your grenades. All of them." He relied.
Twenty-four fragmentation grenades and four plasma grenades of the Chiefs flew into the Covenant. None survived.
"Whoooo-hoooooooo!" A marine yelled in celebration.
"Cortana to Foe Hammer. We are ready for pick-up at our position." Cortana said.
Everyone got in the Pelican.
"Welcome aboard, Master Chief. Clad to have ya with us."
We should move out, lieutenant. Then we will need your help on a rescue mission." Said Cortana as the dropship lifted off.
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