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Wings of Death Part 19: Total Eclipse (Series Finale)
Posted By: el_halo_diablo<funkmonker3lite@hotmail.com>
Date: 25 January 2003, 3:35 am


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      A scanner analist sprinted towards Stanforth,"Sir! These reports were just picked up!"
The man handed Stanforth the handheld panel, that displayed a bunch or large red blobs on the map surrounding the installations perimeter, 10 miles away.
"What are those red marks on the map?" Stanforth asked.
"Sir...those 'red marks' are masses of Covenant troops, Just like we predicted, the numbers are up in the ten million area. Luckily, as we have said before, Our troop count is about one point five billion-"
"What kind of armor made it down?" Stanforth interrupted.
"well, the scanners show about one hundred and twenty-five Covenant Mortar Tanks made it down, along with probably three hundred Ghosts recon vehicles."
"Shit." Stanforth muttered under his breath.
"Any suggestions before they reach firing distance?" The man asked him.
"Yes, devide the sections of the installation perimeter defenses into four groups." Stanforth said.
"I'm ready sir."
"The Northern defenses will be Alpha D, the Southern Defenses will be Beta D, the Western defenses will be Charlie D, and the Eastern defenses will be Delta D." Stanforth told him.
"Sir." the man answered.
"I want all intel ops to refer to them as that." Stanforth said.
"Yes Sir, is that all?"
"A cup of coffie would be nice."



      Outside the installation, lie the 2 mile thick defense web of towers. Most of the soldiers sat patiently, and relaxed, ready for battle. The Tanks and Warthogs sat on Idle, waiting to be used, and soldiers that weren't in the 50 foot-tall towers stood on the ground in the masses of other soldiers, fingers ready on thier triggers.
"Ok ladies," One Seargent piped up,"Word came from HQ that the covenant are about 5 miles away from this area, right over that large sand dune."
Just then, that whole side of the planet dimmed, as the sun was blocked by something.
All the soldiers looked up into the sky to see that it wasn't an enemy, but it was one of Reach's largest moon's that began to cover the sun.
It started to feel like it was evening from the lack of light, but the visibility was still fine.
"Wow." One soldier remarked about the sun, but then a faint noise broke the awe of the soldiers.
"What the hell was that?" One Marine asked and tightened the grip on his rifle.
The sound became appearent to all the soldiers.
"It's like a screeching-whining noise..."
"Kinda like a crying"
"Sounds like a big bird or something"
"Does this suit make me look fat?"
The Marines turned their heads in the direction of the noise.
"No, it's comming from over there."
The Marines were confused, because now the noise was comming from all directions, right over the sand dune hills.
One person from the tower saw what it was, and screamed down to the crowds,"WRAITH MORTARS!"
Just then, hundreds of large blue balls of plasma careened over the hill and made their decent.
"BATTLE STATIONS!" One sharpshooter from a tower screamed.
The Wraith Mortars came from all directions of the installation. The Large balls of plasma finally made it to the ground, and exploded into the ranks. Towers crumpled from the force of the Wraith's weapon.
Like a dozen rivers, Ghosts came streaming down the sand dunes, following the ghosts were hoardes of Covenant ground troops.
"Get ready you son's of bitches!" One Corporal screamed to the stunned Privates.

      Explosions sounded off everywhere, and cries of men could be heard as towers were blown to rubble.
"Ground troops in firing range!" One sharpshoter shouted form his tower, and all the sharpshooters let loose on their magazines. Vapor trails zipped over the heads of the marines, and pounded into the ranks of Covenant that were charging down the large sand dune.
"Ready your weapons!" A leutenant screamed to his group, and they all raised their MA5B's to their eyes.
"AIM!"
The Ground began to rumble from the masses of covenant.
"FIRE!"
The ground exploded underneath the Marines, and their bodies were hurled everywhere. A group of five Covenant bombers flew overhead, and dropped their high explosive charges on the towers and marines.
The Anit-Aircraft batteries opened up from the ground, and threw volley after volley of missiles at the bombers. The Bombers immediatly turned to flaming scrap in no time, and the AA batteries turned towards a group of incoming Covenant fighters and bombers. The Underground hangars opened up, and sleek UNSC Class A Fighters blasted out of the hangars to engage the enemy aircraft.

       The Coveant ground troops came from every side, but the continuous fire from the Scorpion tanks, the Warthogs, the Marines, and the towers kept the covenant from getting to the perimeter of the defenses. The Bodies of Human and Covenant alike, piled up dead in the battlefield. The Covenant Wraiths contiued to fire their weapons from over the hill, and were inflicting great casualties and damage in the more interior part of the defenses.

      The Ghosts, with their plasma weapons blazing, attack from the North(Alpha) and defeat the peremeter defenses.
"Give them hell!" A seargent yelled, as the Elites broke into the rows of marines.
Te Marines pulled out explosive tipped knifes, and combat knifes, or any other close range weapon they had, and fought the covenant face-to-face. It was going to be a very bloody war.
"So it begins." Stanforth sternly mutters under his breath.




      Keys held onto a bar on the Pelican, as it hit a bit(hey that rhymes) of turbulance (knit, heh heh).
"How much longer until the reach the LZ?" Keys shouted over the roar of the engine.
"Navigational point shows about 2 more minutes before we touch down."
"Where are we landing?" Commander Mendez asked.
"We'll be touching down on the crest of the sand dune in front of the UNSC installation. We'll be carful and try to find a safe place to land."
"Safe place?" Keys hated to ask.
"Yes," The Pilot said looking into the cabin,"We've recieved a wave of transmissions reporting that the covenant made it down, and are sieging the installation by the millions! It's gunna be rough out there, so look out."

      Then, darkness fell over the small group of pelicans.
"What the hell?" One Marine said puzzled.
"What's goin on leutenant?" Keys asked to the pilot.
"Uh...It, looks like an eclipse...which is kind of odd, because there wasn't an ecplise plannned for today."
Keys was just as puzzled as everyone else. Keys heard a voice from somewhere that danced around in his head.
"Jacob..." The voice said.
"Huh?" Keys was perplexed.
Mendez looked over to Keys,"Somthing wrong J?"
"No...nothing." KEys said, shaking his head.
The voice came back,"...Open your right vest pocket..."
Keys curiosly opened his right vest pocket and pulled out a few bullet casings, and his audio player.
Keys put the casings back in his pocket, and held onto the audio player.
"...Yes..." The voice said.
Keys inserted the ear phones, and pressed the 'play' button.
The Audio came on at when Keys taped Stanforth's confession about the conspiracy with the mysterious superweapon:
Stanforth: "...There's a reason why I didn't activate the super weapon..."

Keys: "Care to explain?"

Stanforth: "When I tried to insert the keys in the hole, something strange appeared,"

Stanforth: "An enscription lit up on the key, and burt my hand. The enscription read 'When darkness blankets the wolrd, the time has come. Many will arrive, but only one will prevail'. After giving up on the meaning, I decided to keep it a secret. ONI never told you guys to keep it under wrap, I just told you and the others that. I figured since the whole 'Wings of Death' wanted a portion of the goods, I decided to break the key, and give the pieces to all the pilots, until I figured out the puzzle. Now I have all but one piece, yours."

</End Audio>



Keys sighed, then realised something. There was one sentence that he listened through all that one night: 'When darkness blankets the wolrd, the time has come. Many will arrive, but only one will prevail'

It all made since now, he looked outside to see that darkness had now blanketed the world, he heard the reports of many that will come, he now knew it was time. Keys clenched his side holsters, which holstered two identical 21st century 9mm Glocks on each side of his waist, one Glock with the key piece on it. Keys knew the Glock with the key piece was on the right holster, and he'd make sure he'd only use that one if nessesary.
"Holy moses..." The Pilot muttered on the comm.
"What is it?" Keys demanded.
"Take a look for yourself."
Keys walked to the cokpit, and looked out the glass.

      Up ahead of the group of DOC pelicans was a solid mesh of covenant and humans, along with towers that came up from the masses. Above the war on the ground, was a large dogfight. A few covenant dropships that got too close to the SAM batteries slowly decended in flames.
"This is DOC command!" Someone shouted over the comm.
"What the hell?" The pilot said.
"We are under heavy attack," The DOC officer came back on the comm,"north of the UNSC installation! Requesting assistance ASAP!"
"Rodger that! DOC command we're on our way!" A familar voice shouted over the comm.
"Master Chief!?!" Keys asked the person on the comm.
"Affirmitive!" Teh master Chief said over the comm. back to Keys,"ETA, DOC command, 30 seconds!"
Keys now saw a large group of Pelicans comming from the north, it was the rest of the DOC. Keys looked down on the ground to where the distress call was made to see a dozen landed Pelicans, along with a few Scorpions, Warthogs, and STDs, they were fighting a losing battle against an onslaught of covenant attackers.
Keys' group of Pelicans, along with the Master Chief's, both landed at about the same time, right from behind the Covenant. Marines poured-out, and let-loose on their weapons.

      The entire SPARTAN team sprinted out of one Pelican, and charged through the covenant, and ran to help the DOC command survivors. The other Marines continued to fire on the covenant from behind, until the attackers realised they were fighting a war on both sides, and they retreated over the sand dune.

      Keys and Mendez ran over the the survivors of the DOC command.
The SPARTANS were treating the severly wounded survivors, while the other survivors searched for other survivors that needed help. One survivor ran past Keys, and he grabbed the survivor that ran by.
"What happened up there?" Keys asked the stunned officer.
"Sir, there was a large covenant flagship, along with a dozen other capital ships, and a handful of cruisers that attacked us. We new that our fleet was going to be toast, so we issued an evac.

As our lifeboats exited our ships, the large unknown enemy ships came from the other side of us, and began to blast away at our evacuated ships. Before we were able to react, the Covenant flagship, along with it's others, attacked the remaining unkown enemy ships. Before we knew it, they were in an all-out war between eachother, and completly ignored us, allowing us to land on Reach without being noticed. Our communications were destroyed for our lifepods, so we couldn't communicate with anyone, all we had was a short range comm. device."

"So that explains why we thought DOC command was destroyed."

"Jacob!" The Master Chief saluted to Keys,"Those Covenant only retreated, to get re-enforcements, in a few minutes, they should be back here, full force."

"Great," Keys muttered, then looked into the Master Chief's visor,"We need to move out right now, we're going to have to infiltrate the installation."

"What!?" One DOC command officer screamed,"Are you crazy!?!"

"It's the only chance we have at saving all our lives!" Keys shouted back.

"We're with you all the way Keys," The MC said, and the other SPARTANS gathered behind the MC.
Keys smiled,"I don't know what I would do without you John."
"Listen up!" The Master Chief shouted to everyone,"You have two choices! Stay here, and die like a coward, or go on the offensive for once, and if you do die, you'll die knowing what you did, was right!"

      All the Marines Capable of fighting ran over to the Master Chief and Keys.

"LETS DO IT!" One Marine shouted, and they all charged up the sand dune, that would lead most, or all of them to their deaths.




"Sir! Alpha D is down to 65%"
"God we're all going to die!"
"Charlie D is down to 43% and failing quickly!"
"Delta D holding strong with 82% left, sir!"
"Sir, reports say that the Covenant are now concentrating on Beta D! Beta D just went from 90% to 68% in five minutes!"

Voices of the status reports clouded Stanforth's thoughts.
"uuUUH," Staforth strained,"tell the reserves to re-enforce Charlie D, and tell our bombers to get in there, and target a napalm strike on the enemy forces in Beta D!"
"Sir!" One report analist said to Stanforth," Our fighter squadron have defeated the most of the Covenant fighters!"
Stanforth thought for one second,"Tell them to direct course towards those damn Mortar Tanks that are hiting us from behind the dunes!"
"Yes sir!"
"Sir!," A comm officer rushed up to Stanforth,"We've intercepted a DOC transmission! A small group of about 750 men have made it down. They're expected to attack soon!"
"I want a report back, when anyone sees them," Stanforth said,"and tell them I want Keys' body brought back here no matter the cost. His body is worth more than 10 billion soldiers."
Stanforth now understood the incription, and now that all the key pieces except for Keys' and Stanforth's were in the Superweapon's keyhole, Stanforth was glad to see that Keys' made it this far.
"Sir!" The analist came back,"Our fighter sqadron was intercepted and destroyed!"
A few more analists ran back up to Stanforth.
"The front section Beta D has just been set ablaze from the napalm strike. An estimated million covenant were killed."
"Beta D is holding at 60%."
"Charlie D is still failing, current status, 28% left! re-enforcements are arriving as we speak."
"Sir, Delta D has just been hit with a series of anti-matter charges! It's now being sieged, and is left at 32%"
"Alpha D is holding at 64%-wait! We've just gotten a report of a sighting of the DOC in the Alpha D area!"

With a big breath Stanforth called out,"Send those Napalm bombers to strike the Mortar Tanks, and tell them to go as fast as they can, to avoid being killed on the way. Send any armor that's left, to Delta D. Kill any DOC soldier that you see, even if there are five covenant right in your face, and god damnit didn't I ask for Decalf!?!"





      Keys, Mendez, the SPARTANS and 750 other AMrines charged down the sand dunes, and were immediatly welcomed with a barrage of tank shells and gunfire.
The Covenant were all dead in the area that the DOC charged through, but it didn't make the task any easier. Men fell everywhere as they neared the broken peremeter of the defenses. The DOC army arrived to the peremeter, and took cover behind the broken and charred towers. Keys hugged the wall of one tower that was still upright.
Keys turned to the Master Chief,"Do you think you could get some of your men up in these towers to provide some cover fire?"
"Sure." The Master Chief said, and motioned for two SPARTANS with sniper rifles to run from their cover over to Keys tower that was still standing. The Master Chief made hand signals, and the SPARTANS acknowladged the signals, and got three more sharpshooters. One runner peeked from cover, then signaled for them to go. right when they came out of cover to run across, the ground around them was shredded in bullets. The dirt in front of them was thrusted into the air, form a tanks shell that exploded in their faces. Four(2 of them were SPARTANS) of the five sharpshooters managed to make it across alive, the other unfortunate one was left smoldering in a crater.

      The shapshooters wasted no time in rushing up the bullet-ridden tower, which was covered in blood, human and covenant alike. One SPARTAN peeked over the edge at the Master Chief, showing they were up there. And the Master Chief waited for the first gunshot.

      A shot from the tower sounded off, and a blood-curdling scream was heard form the enemy. The DOC army, now 690 soldiers remaining, charged towards the next row of towers. They made it to the next row of towers. The DOC army was still too far away to get accurate shots on the enemy, and the same went with the enemy.
      Vapor trails came one after the other from the tower, and more screams and shouts for medics could be heard.
"Where's the Rocket Launchers?" Keys demanded.
"Right here." One Marine said,"All of us are ready to fire them at the nearest tank when ready."
"Good, but this time when we charge," Keys said,"we aren't stopping at anymore towers, we're going all the way."
Keys gave the signal, and the men with the rocket launchers popped out from hiding, and launched a volley of rockets at the towers and tanks. A series of explosions sounded off, then it was quiet. Keys was just about to give the signal to charge, just when the tower that the DOC sharpshooters were in, exploded into flames and bits of rock.
"NOOOOO!" Keys screamed as the remainder of the tower came cascading down in flames.
Keys ran out of hiding, and so did the whole DOC army.




"Fire!" One of the UNSC corporals yelled.
The tanks fired their shells at the incoming enemies. The Warthog's engine's revved up, and they took off towards the DOC chargers. soldiers waited in the towers with stationary chainguns, rocket launchers, or sniper rifles.
      The DOC charged towards an onslaught of 10,000 men, it was unbarable, but they still charged.
The SPARTANS dodged every rocket or shell that was thrown at them, and approched the warthogs that were coming straight at them.

      The Warthogs weapons opened fire on the SPARTANS, and the SPARTANS swiflty straifed to the side, and threw a grenade into the speeding vehicle's. After about two seconds, the warthogs exploded, and yet another wave of Warthogs came after them. The SPARTANS aimed their guns at the driver's heads and fired a few bursts into the driver's skulls. The Warthogs either lost control and crashed, resulting in an explosion, or the passengers were shot dead by the wave of DOC soldiers.

      The waves of Warthogs finally ceased, as they realised the SPARTANS were out-maneuvering them, but there was one thing that the SPARTANS had trouble maneuvering: High velocity bullets. The UNSC sharpshooters fired at the SPARTANS, but they were just too quick to get a good shot on, even with the hundreds of snipers firing at them. Unfortunatly, you can't shake all bullets, and a few made their mark on two SPARTANS. Two bullets hit him in the chest, and puntured all the way through his armor. He stopped to lurch, but the stopping gave enough time for a few dozen sharpshooters to bring him along theior crosshairs. In a matter of seconds, dozens of vapor trails passed through his still-standing body.

      Keys heard a loud roar of a covenant bomber from behind him. The massive bomber rumbled past the DOC and flew towards the remainder of the UNSC defenses on Alpha D. The gargantuan bomber flew over the defenses, and dropped a large orb-like object from it's bombay. Keys realised what it was:an anti-matter charge,"GET DOWN!" He screamed.

      The DOC army dropped to the ground, and the charge went off, two feet from the ground. The bomb made a loud vibrating noise, like a gong, but a deeper noise. Keys looked up, to see the anti matter hit the soldiers, and they were ripped to pieces, the tanks and warthogs exploded in a flameless heap, and the towers were leveled. Just before the anti-matter wave hit the DOC, the MC jumped to the ground, and the anti matter wave hit the back of his armor. Since the charge set off two feet from the ground, and it has an axis explosion, Keys and the rest of the DOC soldiers were still alive,a nd the antimatter charge blew right over them.
"Well," Keys said,"Lets move!"
Everyone got up, and saw that the rest of the way to the installation was cleared out my the anti-matter charge. They cautiosly made their 1 1/2 mile run to the installation.




"Sir another anti-matter charge just hit us." Stanforth's adviser told him.
"Where!?" Stanforth screamed at the man.
"...Alpha D, the defense is down to about 9%, but the forces there are scattered."
"Delta D and Charlie D are falling!" Another analist told Stanforth.
"How much is left on the two?" Stanforth asked.
"Delta D has about 10% and Charlie D has 11%. but they wont last very long."
"How Beta D holding up?" Stanforth stammered.
"Just as before, they're holding at 60%."
"Send as many soldiers and armor as you can from Beta D to Charlie D and Delta D."
"What about the DOC in Alpha D?" One General asked Stanforth.
"There's no way they could've survived that blast." Stanforth smiled,"Send the forces from Alpha D over to back-up Chalie D and Delta D also. And send a search party to find Keys' key piece."
"Yes sir!"




      Keys and the others walked swiflty through the wrekage, trying to to pay attention to the bits and pieces of men.
"Keys!" MC wispered,"I got five men on my thermal scanner coming this way, they must be looking for your body."
"Right." Keys said, and motioned for the other DOC soldiers.




      The five UNSC soldiers stayed spread out, each equipped with a device that shows where the key piece is.
"Ok the nav point shows that the key piece is about twenty feet ahead." One soldier exclaimed.
The soldiers stumbled through the rubble, and the soldier in the back of the group kicked a rock. The place where the rock was kicked out of now revealed a bit of green armor. He heard a few rocks behiond him shift, but he didn't care. A figured walked up from behind him, and grabbed him, one green armored hand over his mouth, while the other pulled out a kinfe. The man squirmed, but it was no use, the knife swept across his neck, and he immediatly died of blood loos. none of the soldiers noticed this, and they kept walking forward. Two more UNSC soldiers were caught from behind, and lost their lives.

"Ok, the nav point says the key pice is right under this rubble-hey where did those three scrubs go?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Stupid Privates, they're always foolin' around, even at a time of crisis like this." The other answered.
"Yah they're probably playin' hide-and-go-seek." They both chuckled.
The soldier pulled the rubble off and retrived the Glock.
"Wow this thing is an antique!" One soldier remarked.
"Yah it sure is." A person from behind them remarked.
"Whaa-" They spun around, and were met face-to-face with a pistol.




      The Master Chief and Keys stood there with their pistols pointed at the two soldier's heads.
"p-p-please, don't kill us!" One soldier begged.
The DOC came out of hiding, and walked towards the two scared-out-of-their-minds soldiers.
"Radio in to your CO and tell him that you got the key piece."
Just then, the soldiers radio came alive,"Have you found the key piece yet?"
Keys shoved the radio in the soldier's face,"uh-uh yah we have the key piece, and we are making our way back."
Keys turned off the radio, and stuck it in his pocket.
Keys pulled out a sirenge loaded with a very strong tranquilizer, and injected it into the two soldiers, who came immediatly incapacitated.
"Why didn't we just kill them?" MC asked Keys
"There's already been too many deaths here." Keys said and began walking off towards the installation.
The MC motioned to everyone and they began to move on. This war was proof that SPARTANS are not invincable, the Master Chief only counted 6 SPARTANS were left, counting himself.

      Keys could now see the installation through all the smoke. There were still plenty of men left.
"Crap how are we going to do this?" Keys muttered to himself, and then saw the bodies of UNSC soldiers, and he had a crazy idea.




      The UNSC soldiers at Alpha D were waiting for some more action. Through the smoke, came a large group of men. The soldiers raised their guns towards the men that were walking though the smoke.
"Hold your fire!" One man yelled from the group of people,"You wouldn't want to shoot a UNSC leutenant would you?!"
The defenses lowered their weapons, and the men from the soke came up to them,"Where's the CO? We captured a bunch of these DOC bastards, where do you want them?" The leutenant said from the group holding the POW's.
"Im the Commanding Officer,"A man spoke up from the defenses,"Take them into the installation, they might have some information-are you alright?" The CO looked at the Leutenants uniform, which had a long tear across it and was soaked in blood.
"Oh yah im fine," The leutenant said,"My buddy died right in front of me, damn splatter marks."
The CO stared at the Leutenant suspiciously, then nodded,"yah tell me about it, look at him." He pointed over to a man that was completly covered in blood, but didn't have a single injury.
"uh-huh, riiight." Keys said in a Dr. Evil voice.
Suddenly, an explosion that covered all the other noises set off at the installation.
The radios came on,"Alert to all exterior forces! Teh covenant have just breeched the installation! Requesting immediate backup! I repeat, the Covenant have breeched the hangar door into the installation!"
"Copy that." The CO said, and the defenses mobilized.
The Alpha D began to pick up the pace as the covenant became visible through the smoke. The group that was guarding the DOC slowed down, and let Alpha D go ahead of them.

      The Group guarding the DOC aimed their guns at the Alpha D soldiers, and fired directly at them. The Leutenant took his helmet and sunglasses off revealing the face of Jacob Keys. The UNSC soldiers that were guarding the DOC threw off the UNSC uniforms showing that they were just also disguised. The Alpha D troops were slaughtered from behind.

      The Covenant began to surge through the hangar door, and all the remaining UNSC defenses converged on their location. The DOC waited back, and watched the ellusive battle. Most of the Covenant ignored the UNSC annoyance, and continued through into the hangar. Eventually, the entire UNSC defenses were defeated, despite the heavy loss of 2 million Covenant. The covenant force now only had less than a half million soldiers.

      The rest of the covenant forced their way into the large hangar, and there was another big blast.
"They've probably just broken into the installation now." Mendez told Keys.
Keys thought for a moment,"Follow me."




The Man standing next to Stanforth recieved an urgent message.
"Sir!" The man turned to Stanforth,"The Covenant have just breeched the installation. It's going to be questionable as to if they'll make it down here, through all the defenses."
"Destroy the elevators," Stanforth said,"and make them take the stairs."
"Yes sir, demolition teams will be on their way."
"Make sure that all the personell in this installation is battle ready."
"Yes sir!"
"And order our exterior defenses: ALpha D, Beta D, Charlie D, and Delta D, to move in for a counter-attack."
"Exterior forces?" The Man looked confused,"...sir, all the exterior forces were eliminated."




      Keys ran over to the wall of the installation, and motioned for the DOC army to follow. Keys peeked around the corner where the opening of the hangar was.
"crap,"Keys said, seeing covenant, guarding the entrance,"Ok it looks like there are three Hunters, a few Jackals, mabye 10 Elites, and a few dozen Grunts."

      One Marine looked up at Keys,"So we're just going to charge into a large group of well-armed covenant?"
Keys grinned,"You can say that..."
"Whats the plan?" The Master Chief asked Keys.
"Ok, since you SPARTANS are well armored, and equipped with shields, you can take the bulk of the damage. Teh Hunters are located in the rear of the group, and once they release their feul rod cannon, they're pretty hard to shake, except for if you're a SPARTAN. We're going to chrge right through the middle of the group, and fire at any superior enemy we see, until we get to the Hunters. Now, either the Hunters are dumb enough to fire into a crowd of their own men, or thier dumb enough to hold their fire, until we're right on their asses. If they start firing into the crowds, they'll kill thier own on accident, so if you see the cannon start to glow, get the hell out of where you are." Keys looked up at the marines and then pointed over to the 6 remaining SPARTANS,"Since you guys can take more damage, you will be at the head, and we wont be far behind. The First Covenant soldier is about 10 meters away."

      From around the corner, came the SPARTANS, with their weapons blazing on full-auto. The assult rifle rounds sunk into the crowd of Covenant. Right behind the SPARTANS came 50 DOC soldiers. The DOC and SPARTANS rushed into the large group of Covenant and fired into their ranks. Keys looked at the Hunters, and saw thier cannons start to glow.
"What the hell are they thinking?!" Keys screamed, as the hunters aimed their cannons at the group of fighting DOC and Covenant.
"FEUL ROD!" Keys screamed, and the Marines looked up, just as the feul rod projectiles were hurled into the air. One SPARTAN and six other Marines weren't able to avoid the feul rods, and were blasted to pieces. The DOC continued to evade the feul rod projectiles that were decimating the Covenant force.

      Once the Covenant force was dwindeled down to several Grunts, and a few eletes, Keys looked over to the corner of the Installation, and screamed,"Charge the hunters!"
Out from the corner of the installation carged the rest of the DOC army, 400 in all. The Hunters were overwhelmed, and weren't able to get a shot off, before their bodies were pummeled with hundreds of bullets. In mere seconds, the DOC neutralized the covenant guarding the installation.
"Come on," Keys said, and ran over to the door, that led into the actuall installation,"We need to get to Stanforth before the Covenant do."

      Keys ran into the corridor of the installation, and stopped dead in his tracks, the corridors split, one going left and one going right. Keys couldn't decide, but then suddenly, he remembered that dream, and the voice told him when he was in the installation, go right. But how could he know the voice was talking about this installation? He went with his gut and said,"lets take the corridor to the right.
"Are you insane?!" One DOC officer yelled at him,"The corridor to the right is loaded with Covenant bodies, and look at the path to the left, absolutly no bodies, the corridor to the left is obviously not hostile!"
"Someone hand me a MA5B magazine." Keys ordered, and a soldier gave him one. Keys threw the magazine into the left corridor, and it vasnished behind an invisible barrier. They could hear the magazine clank dozens of stories down.
"The corridor to the left is nothing but a hologram, in front of a 100 story drop. It's a nice trap but it didn't fool us."
The Officer looked embarrassed.
"You still want to go that way?" Keys asked the officer.
The officer looked at Keys,"nah, I think I'd rather take your way."
"Good choice,"Keys said, smiling,"Now this sign shows that there are stairs that will lead down to the war room. Stanforth should be in that room."
They ran down the corridor, sometimes tripping on the never-ending masses of Covenant bodies, slaughtered by rows of wall turrets, static laser grids, and wall-mounted flamethrowers. The DOC made is to the stairs, and everyone gave a groan. They were barely able to see the base of the stairs.
"Must be about 100 stories down!" One Soldier exclaimed.
"Yah and the war room is connected to the base of the stairs, so we better get going." Keys said, and began running down the stairs. The soldiers followed Keys down the stairs.
"...Jacob Keys..." The voice came back in Keys' head.
"Oh great..."Keys mumbled,"well thanks for the help on the corridor, but can you help me any more than that?"
"...I was told I can help you...but it can not interfere with your outcome..."
"Fine." Keys said.
"Verywell...untill then...." The voice said, and then faded away.




      The Battle in space insued with the forrunner warships, and the remaining Covenant warships. Teh Covenant Flagship 'The Beacon of Hope' was getting hit hard by forrunner weapons.
      The 'Beacon of Hope' returned fire with it's massive moon crusher device, which pulverized a large forrunner Capital ship, until it could hold no longer, and exploded, into tiny fragments.

      A light came from aside the battlefield and both the forrunner and Covenant warships shifted their attention over to this strange light in space. The light grew and grew, until it was as big as the 'Beacon of Hope'. Both Forunner and Covenant ships were extremly worried about this anomoly, and they fired upon it. All the weapons that were fired at it, penetrated through and into the large ball of light, but nothing happened. The ships continued to fire at it, until they realized, nothing was going to hurt it. The ball of light streaked through the 'Beacon of Hope' at light speed, and passes all the way through it and stops a few thousand kilometers away from the ship.

      When the Covenant crew on the 'Beacon of Hope' realised that the ball of light did absolutly nothing when it passed through the ship, they all broke out in laughter. But thier laughter soon ended when the ship's lights began to get unbarably bright. The weapon's on the ship overloaded, and circuts on the ship exploded.
"What in the God's is going on!" The leader of the covenant screamed at his advisor.
"Your majesty," The Advisor squinted at the bright light that was blinding the entire room,"It seems that when that thing passed through the ship, our ship is turning to pure energy! And eventually, when matter turns into energy, it will explode!"

      The other Covenant capital ships, watched as the 'Beacon of Hope', which contained their leader, began to glow brightly. A few seconds later, the ship began to break, and then, it exploded, in a bright, blinding flash.

      The Ball accelerated towards the other Covenant ships, which were now starting to flee into slipspace. Slipspace holes opened up, but the Light beat them to it, and those ships met the same fate As the 'Beacon of Hope'. The Forrunner ships were next, and the Light got them also. defeating every single one, except the great Forrunner vessel. The High Chief of the Forrunners was determined that his race will always be the most superior. The Light positioned itself right infront of the bridge, just so the High Chief, could see it...before he died.

      The Light slowly accelerated towards the Forrunner Flagship.
"Oh crap." The High Chief muttered just before the light passed throught their ships, and they exploded.
After the last piece of Founner ship was destroyed, the light shrunk, then faded away.




"...It is done..." The Voice echoed in Keys head.
"OK good but not right now!" Keys screamed, just as he dodged a feul rod blast that incenerated three soldiers behind him.

      While the strange Light was destroying the ships in space, Keys and the DOC Got to the bottom of the floor, to find a large remainder of covenant still alive, battling The Last UNSC soldiers in the very large and spacious war room. The DOC charged into the war room, killing hundreds of Covenant before they even knew it. The Covenant then turned their direction to the DOC, and went on a full offensive, killing over 200 DOC soldiers and 3 more SPARTANS so far.
"God damnit!" A soldier screamed,"We need to find some cover!" A feul rod exploded right next to him, and he saw that he now had no right arm.
"MY ARM! AAAHHGGG" The soldier screamed, and then was silenced by a volley of plasma.
"Keys saw that the soldier was right about the cover thing, but he knew that he couldn't order them to fall back, and give the Covenant a chance to get the superweapon. Keys made a quick decision, and screamed,"CHARGE THE FRONTLINES!"

      The DOC soldiers suprisingly obeyed, and they all charged at the long and thick row of Covenant, with their machine guns on full auto. As the DOC grew closer to the line of covenant that were returning fire, Covenant swordsmen came to the frontlines, and powered-up their plasma swords. The DOC were ten feet away, and the Covenant Swordsmen clashed with the DOC soldiers, slicing dozens of soldiers into segments. and Swordsmen, however, were met with accurate sniper rounds to their heads, and they were all killed at a great loss. The DOC snipers then turned their attention to the Hunters, and fired their armor piercing rounds into their tender flesh.

      The UNSC soldiers that were ducked in on the other side of the Covenant came out of hiding, and fired back at the Covenant. The Covenant were now caught in a crossfire, and the tides were shifting. The Master Chief had expended all his ammunition, and was now taking Covenant on hand-to-hand. The MC was fired on by Three Elites, so he kicked in the legs of one Elite, then another Elite's face felt the MC's cold armored fist drive into their skull, and the last one master chief sprung up at, and had it's neck snapped. The MC continued to chew through the rows of Covenant with the other two remaining SPARTANS following close behind. A Hunter jumped on one SPARTAN, and pinned him down. The SPARTAN, Kelly screamed for help, as the Hunter's shield arm rised into the air.
"HELP!!! I'm in need of assistance!" Kelley screamed. The Hunter brought his shield down with immense force, and the large shield smashed straight through her head, Kelly's body went limp.

      The Hunter laughed and pulled his shielded arm out of the hole he made in the metal floor. He looked up to the the Barrel of a shotgun pointed right at his head. It was the other SPARTAN: Sam.
"Here's to you Kelly." Sam muttered, and pulled the trigger on the shotgun. The blast from the shotgun splattered the Hunter's brain inside it's own skull.

      The War raged on for 20 more minutes, until every last covenant was killed. The DOC suffered a devestating loss, and now there were only about 50 soldiers remaining alive, including the Master Chief, Sam, Keys, and commander Mendez.
It was only a few seconds after they stopped shooting at the covenant and then realised the UNSC began to fire at them.
Keys and the others found some cover behind dozens of desks, and they returned fire.
"Demolition man on the run!" One DOC soldier yelled, as a UNSC soldier ran a fast as he could towards the DOC, carrying a massive bomb. All the DOC guns were directed over to this one soldier, and they all fired at him. His uniform was littered with bullets, and blood soaked his shirt. He kept trying to run, and the DOC kept shooting him.
Keys stopped shooting, he was amazed at how brave this one soldier was, he must have got shot about 100 times, before he couldn't take it anymore, and dropped to the ground, without the bomb going off. Keys felt sorry for that brave man.

      The DOC finished off every single last UNSC soldier, until one man, of older age, popped up from behind a desk,"I SURRENDER! DON'T SHOOT!"
The man droped his gun, and the DOC army cautiously walked towards him, and passed the dead man with the very large bomb.
"Don't kill me please." The man begged.
Keys now saw who it was,"Why shouldn't we, Stanforth?"
Stanforth bagan to laugh, he wouldn't stop laughing,"Because you're already dead."
Keys saw the remote detonator in Stanforths hand.
"TAKE COVER!!!" Keys screamed.
Keys, Mendez, and the Master Chief dove behind one desk. And the other Soldiers, and Sam went to take cover.
Stanforth smiled as he pressed the button, and the bomb on the dead soldier detonated. The explosion tore through most of the room, and the DOC soldiers were incenerated in the blast.
"Hahahaha, Fools." Stanforth smiled
From the rubble, Mendez came out,"God Damn you Stanforth!" Mendez went for his sidearm, but Stanforth fired five bullets into Mendez's chest. Mendez dropped to the ground.

      From the rubble, next to Mendez's body, appeared the only two other survivors: The Master Chief, and Keys. Keys saw Mendez's body,a nd screamed. Keys pulled out his left Glock, and fired eight times at Stanforth, all of which times he missed. Stanforth saw Keys and MC emerge from the rubble, and he bolted away.
"everyone..."Keys said silently.
"They're all dead." The Master Chief said solemnly.
They heard something shuffle from behind a desk, and they walked over to it. The master Chief flipped the office desk completly over, an saw the cowering Stanforth.
"Well well well." Keys said, and aimed his left Glock at Stanforth's forehead. MC followed suit, and also raised his MA5B to Stanforth's. Keys rememebred he had two bullets left in his left glock.
"wait-" Stanforth said,"Can I say something?"
Keys sighed through his nose,"Well I might as well do the right thing, so go ahead."
Stanforth slowly raised his hands, and slowly stood up,"There is somehting that you might want to know,"Stanforth said,"In Fact, Master CHief? why don't you tell him?"
"What's he talking about John?" Keys asked to him.
"I have no idea." The Master Chief responded.
"Oh comeon." Stanforth said,"Do you really think that he would join your side for nothing?"
Keys looked over to MC for a second,"Is there something you're not telling me Chief?"
"heh," Stanforth smirked,"The psycologists predicted this would happen."
"Shut the fuck up Stanforth!" The Master Chief sterly said, and pressed the barell of the MA5B Against Stanforth's forhead.
Stanforth smiled,"They figured that after a while, all those times for just being conisered my little toy soldiers, you guys would crack." Stanforth looked over to Keys,"He joined your side, because he thought there would be something in it for him. He was tired of being the superior one, but being ordered around like he was a child."
"Master chief?" Keys was getting suspicious.
Stanforth moved a little closer to Keys,"You do know, you're the only person standing in his way of total domination, the UNSC is finished, and so is your brave Commander Mendez."
"MASTER CHIEF!?!" Keys spun his pistol over to the Master Chief, but during this distraction, Stanforth moved out of the way,a nd grabbed the pistol out of Keys' hand. All in one movement, he slid to the ground, fireing one bullet into Keys' abdomen, and one into the visor of the Master Chief.

      Stanforth got up, and and stood over Keys, who lie on the ground, holding the spot where his wound was welling out blood.
"I was always better than you Keys,"Stanforth said, and pointed the pistol at Keys' head *click*,"Damnit!" Stanforth said, and then ran down the hallway that leads to the superweapon.

      Keys made an effort to roll over, and check the Master Chief,"Master Chief?" Keys shook the Master Chief, until he noticed the bloody hole that went through his visor, and out the back of the helmet.




      Stanforth knew that the Keys piece was on Keys' Glock, because everyone had theirs put in a Glock, on the butt of the gun. Stanforth came to the room, and disabled the defenses around it, and walked giddily over to it. Stanforth took the key piece from his secured vest pocket(he always thought it was an insecurity to put it on a gun), and inserted it into the key hole. There was now only one more pice of key, that would complete the entire Key, and unlock the superweapon. Keys happily, flipped the gun over, to extract the key piece, but his smile faded when he saw that the key piece wasn't on that gun.

      A gun fired from behind him, and Stanforth's chest spattered blood against the Omega Device. Stanforth looked down at the wound to see the bullet passed straight through his heart. He clasped his chest with one hand and tried to keep himself up by holding onto the large Device, but then he doubled over, and hit the ground without another movement.

      The Person that shot him came out of the shadows, it was Keys. He was holding his right hand Glock which (if you paid attention at the beginning) had the Key piece in it. Keys crawled over to Stanforth's body, and pulled A data module. Keys puled himself up to the Omega Device, with his blood leaving a trail from the hallway. With his last ounce of strength, his took the key piece out, and inserted it into the Omega Device, and he blacked out.





"...You have completed your goal...now...do what is right..."





*flash*




      Keys opens his eyes to find his pistol pointed at Dr. Hasley. Keys looked around, and he realized where he was. He had rememebred when he killed Dr. hasley for telling her about the WOD secret. now It was his time to do the right thing. Those unknown beings that built that device, built it for that exact reason, to re-do something, just like the voice said.
"Don't shoot!" Dr. Hasley screamed.
Keys lowered his pistol,"Sorry dr. Hasley, I don't know what I was thinking. All I know, is that we have some certain things to do."


~2 days later~



"Admiral Stanforth," A woman addressed over his office radio.
"What is it?" Stanforth asked.
"There are some men here to see you."

Just then, Stanforth's door is broken down, and several ONI special agents storm into his room, and knock him down on the ground. The agents hold him on the ground, and they take out some hand-cuffs.
"What is the meaning of this!?!" Stanforth screamed.
"You are hearby under arrest for High treason!"
"Under what account?!?" Stanforth spat out, as they hand-cuffed him.
"The command of the future destruction of Earth, and killing of many other civillians!" One Agent responded.
"I never did such a thing!" Stanforth screamed.
"Not yet you haven't," An agent said, and lifted him off the ground,"but a Captian, that goes by the name of Jacob Keys, gave us this recording of you, and it's dated almost a year later."
"That proposterous!" Staforth screamed.
"oh is it?" An agent said, and loaded the data chip into Stanforth's personal audio player, and pressed play:


"This is UNN corespondant Ashley Mohawn, Right now we are orbiting Earth, and it's a sad sight indeed. The whole Earth is completly wasted by a barrage of nuclear missiles that were ordered on the planet by the UNSC Admiral: Frank Stanforth. He has also atacked major cities, killing thousands of civillians, just so he can keep them from being swayed towards the rebels-"




The Agent cut the recording, and they dragegd Stanforth out of the office.
"I'm innocent! I swear!" Stanforth screamed, as he was dragegd past his generals, that just looked at him in disgust. Stanforth gabbed one of the generals,"Please, you ahve to help me!" he begged at the General he was holding onto, but the General just shoved him off and looked away.



      In the WOD barracks, were a few of the WOD memebrs including Leutenant Aspen, and Leutenant Watts. A group of ONI agents broke in through the windows of the barracks, and ran towards Watts.
"Leutenant Watts!" One agent yeled over to him,"You're wanted for high treason of starting a rebellious faction against the UNSC."
Watts was stunned,"h-h-how did you know!?"
"From a Captian Keys, do you know him?"
"Yah," Watts said, as he backed into a corner, and the agents walked towards him,"Do you have any proof?"
"He gave us enough information, on your future profile that shows that you are the rebel leader. Now put your hands on your head, and slowly come over here." One agent said, slowly reaching for his own sidearm.
Watts knew he was trapped,"NEVER! YOU'LL NEVER GET YOUR HANDS ON ME!" He screamed hysterically. He pulled his Glock from his holster, and shoved the barrel in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.




~1 Week Later~




*TV monior turns on*
"This is UNN correspondant Ashley Mohawn, and today is a glorious day! A UNSC Captain, with the name of Jacob Keys, has just revealed many astonoshing things. The Admiral of the UNSC was arresed today on accounts of high treason, they are saying the charges are confedential, and are not releasing any other information about it. Jacob Keys also released information that the Elite Fighter pilot organization: The Wings of Death, had a pilot in thier squad that was actually the leader of the rebel faction. This Jacob Keys is being hailed as a hero, because he released information from a data module that contains every recorded Covenant attack in the near future, along with schematics for superior weapons and vehicles that can be made to aid in the fight against the Covenant. Now that we have this information, we can predict any Covenant attack that they throw at us. And the Superweapon that was kept under wraps has been ordered to be sent into the sun."
*TV is turned off*



      Keys fumbles with the TV remote, and then sets it down. Someone is at his door, and he sneakily crawls up to the door, and grabs his pistol. He puts his hand on the doorknob and swings it open. He spins around to aim the gun at the person at the door and notices who it is, and drops the gun.
"Shara!" Keys yells in joy.
"Jacob!" Shara runs up to Keys, and they hug eachother.
"It's been so long, I was starting to worry about you." Shara said relieved and excited at the same time.
"It's allright, everythings fine."
"Where have you been?" Shara asks innocently.
Keys mind began to cloud and memories went flashing by: Aspen lie dead in his hands. When he killed his own team mates. When he had to reluctantly kill countless humans just to get where he had to. When they encountered those strange infectious creatures. When they stormed the great installation. When men would do anything just to do what's right. When all the men of the DOC and the men closest to him like the MC and Mendez died beside him...it was all too much. Keys' eyes got watery. He couldn't stand going through it again.

"Nothing,"He wispered,"Nothing at all..."



~~~:._<The End>_.:~~~





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