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Halo Installation 01, Chapter 2
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 10 February 2004, 3:30 AM
Read/Post Comments
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Halo Installation 01, Chapter 2
/start file/
I'mmmm baaaaacccckkkk!!!!!
Peace Out
-FOrunnER
/end file/
Unknown System, on Halo Installation 01
The two Halo Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark and 707 Righteous Guardian, were hovering around the massive cavernous room, used mainly for Sentinel storage. After 101,514 local Threshold years, about 1.2 million human years, of dormancy, the place was a hub of activity. Sentinel fighters and spider-like repair drones floated in in and out of rooms massive doorways by the hundreds. The hum of machinery filled the air.
707 Righteous Guardian addressed 343 Guilty Spark, "How could you let the Flood escape, and worse yet you let Installation 04 blow up, you incompetent fool. You do realize that the disabling of Installation 04 will prevent the rest of Halo's from firing, rendering this Galaxy completely vulnerable to infection!!!"
343 Guilty Spark felt the equivalent of a humans blood boiling. His personality sub-processors came complete with an ego. He resisted the urge to lash out at Righteous Guardian, he was a higher-ranking program. "Should we abandon this galaxy, fire the Halo systems around this one and limit flood exposure?"
"Of course not!! Have you lost your mind? Key installations are located in this Galaxy, the Great Temple included. Not to mention the Flood will come looking for the anti-Flood, and if the anti-Flood is released, things will escalate chaotically. Its all you fault, you should have been more prepared!! Honestly...", exploded Guardian.
Spark contained his rage, " The fault was not entirely mine. A rouge Reclaimer was certainly not expected. I predict a 99.998889% chance that not even you could have prepared for that".
"Ah yes, the rouge Reclaimer.....", Guardian started to drift off, " You say the Reclaimer donned a Class 2 armor suiting despite containment protocols and brought projectile weapons?"
"Yes. It was quite curious, however I believe I have a theory", replied Spark.
"Go on"
"Well the alien AI that the Reclaimer brought with him could quite possible have caused him to go rampant, rebelling against the Forerunners. The projectile weapons were also carried by the AI's home species, 'Humans', as evidence to support my theory", replied the AI, happy that he had though of something Righteous Guardian had not, "I have detailed files on there human history, shall you wish to view it".
Guardian replied, "Perhaps later. Your theory on the rouge Reclaimer is interesting to say the least, however I doubt an AI of such primitive race could hack into a biological organism. But I will file it as a possibility. In the meantime it does not change out current situation", he paused for a millisecond as he calculated the available options, "Our only practical option is to release our Sentinel armies and try to keep the infection at bay manually until we can find a way to make the anti-Flood less harmful"
He turned to Spark, " Go reset the Sentinel drone systems 1A through 100Z and begin resetting the other Installations Sentinel Systems by remote".
This was when 343 Guilty Spark nearly lost it. He was a highly sophisticated and highly competent Artificial Intelligence unit, not an errand runner!! That kind of work was what drones were for. He was in the process of seizing control of a nearby Sentinel and have him shoot the bastard, but he checked the motion. Not yet.
"Of course", he turned and sped of through one of the many maintenance tunnels. Inside he fumed, but he reassured himself that he would not be taking orders from 707 Righteous Guardian for long........
The Ninth Era, 540 units, Unknown System, Inside Gas Giant, Forerunner facility #7777777G
The inside of the structure looked just as gloomy as it did from the outside. This area had obviously been made as a ship bay. There were floors to the room, about four-dozen black circles were carved in each floor, green anti-gravity fields eminating from there centers. Hundreds of rooms like these had been found during the years of the Covenant investigating Forerunner ruins. The anti-gravity fields were low enough so that you ship would float far down enough so that you would be able to get back out. Every time a ship bay like this had been found the black circles, or the 'docking fields' were on. However not one Forerunner ship was every recovered from these areas. If fact a Forerunner ship had never been encountered at all. Not in the 3,000 year reign of the Covenant empire.
The doors instantly closed as soon as all the Phantoms had passed through and a hissing sound was heard, as the un-breathable hydrogen atmosphere was recycled with oxygen. The Phantoms bore down on the glowing green energy field and positioned themselves as close as possible to the exit-ways. They knew that The Key would not be found here. Nabamee's Phantom dropped its back hatch and immediately seven Elite honor guards and four Brutes jumped out, making a perimeter for there commander to step into. Nabamee looked around the massive room, the roof extended kilometers above his head, making him feel small and insignificant, as it should be.
Once all the Phantoms had unloaded there troops, a task force total of nearly 600 (20 troops for each of the 30 Phantoms), were about. " Unit's A & B will stay here and guard the docking bay. Units C & D will split into sub-groups and explore grids 1 by 100, the lower decks. Units E & F will split into sub groups explore grids 101 by 300, the upper decks", after the Units had been divided into the appropriate number of sub-groups they set off. 'Nabamee's personal sub-groups split off with F unit at junction #100.BA. His group consisted of himself, his 7 honor guard Elites, 4 Brute body guards, 8 SpecOps Jackals and 2 SpecOps Hunters. The corridors of the ship were huge, easily several meters wide and several tall, however there great numbers still restricted there mobility. The searched through the ship, going blind. They had encountered no enemy resistance.
Finally there progress was blocked by a large door, a holographic symbol was floating in front of it. At the side there was a data panel. With hand signals, he motioned one of the lesser Jackals to crack it. The Jackal knelt beside the panel and pulled out a blue, lumpy object, he pulled a cord from the side of it and attached it to the control panel. After a few minutes, the massive doors slowly groaned open....and immediately a dozen white-hot lasers shot out at the Covenant group. The Jackal by the door was first to go, he didn't even have his shield up. Two laser hit his chest and burned away at his heart, then made opposite horizontal slashes, separating the upper chest from the rest of the body.
The rest of the Jackals brought up there shields in time but it didn't make any difference, they didn't even get a shot off before there shields overloaded and lasers punctured there bodies. They returned fire, the honor guard Elite plasma rifles dissipated against the hovering robots shields. The Brutes opened up fire with there weapons and turned six of the machines into flaming hulks and damaged two others, however return laser fire cut two down before the other two could find cover. The honor guards were fairing well, they gracefully dodged laser shots and chipped away at there shields, and finally damaged one enough so that it retreated to the back of the pack. However two of there numbers were cut down, one caught a shot to the head which instantly fried his brains, the second one took a hit to the pelvis, a follow up shot to the neck finished him off. The only ones who were really safe from the blood bath were the Hunters, there shields were held up in front of them protecting there entire bodies. However it was only a temporary defense, the metal was glowing red hot and parts of it were dripping onto the floor. One raised his gun ever so slightly above his shield and fired. The fizzling green bolt slammed into the nearest Sentinel, completely vaporizing it and the splash damage engulfing three more. The second one followed suit and took down four, wounding a fourth, however at that point his shield gave way and a laser punctured him in the gut. An honor guard threw a grenade which clung to one of the machines and the Brutes jumped out of cover to open fire, one being wounded in the process, taking down more of the robotic creatures. This left 6.
Meanwhile, Nabamee had been shoved behind the safety of the Hunters by his honor guards as soon as the fighting had started. Now seeing his chance, he sprang into action, overcharged Plasma Pistol in one hand and Sword in the other. Using his double-jointed knee strength, he jumped strait onto the startled Hunters back, then eight meters into the air on top of a nearby Sentinel. Before it could even react, he had already fired his overcharged bolt at one of the wounded Sentinels nearby. The super-charged plasma burned through its layers of hardened circuitry and into its drive core, making it detonate in a ball of flame, the flaming husk crashed onto another below it, taking them both down.
By this point, the Sentinel was in a full-blown frenzy to get him off, it was shaking madly. Its friends tried to assist, however its constant motion didn't allow them a clear shot, and finally a laser sliced right through it. Nabamee jumped backwards off the now dead Sentinel and threw his sword at the Sentinel that bested its friend. The sword got lodged into the uppermost layers of its metallic skin. It was still operational, however not capable of more than sparking and spinning. Two left. Both Sentinels turned towards Nabamee and presented its backside to the rest of the force. Bad mistake, as immediately a Hunter salvo, Brute grenade blasts, and full auto spray from the honor Elites ripped them apart into so many droplets of molten metal.
Smiling at the carnage he had caused and the awed look of his surviving squad members, he turned to survey the area ahead of him...only to find his field encompassed by the view of a Sentinels optical-laser.
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