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ONI Black Ops Part Three
Posted By: Havok<Tactical_Havok@hotmail.com>
Date: 7 May 2003, 1:59 PM
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Vladimir stood behind the glass of the examination room and peered into the testing center. He looked on as a Spartan was fitted with the new armor. Vladimir had requested the best Spartan available, and he had not been denied. In his hand he held the soldiers CSV. This was the legendary Master Chief, John 117. The soldier stood perfectly immobile as three researchers put the suit together around him.
Vladimir flipped on a microphone. "Okay master chief. Depress the power reset switch now so the suit can accept regenerative power from the fusion pack."
The master chief did so and the air jumped as the shields came online. They glowed a brilliant gold as they stabilized. He moved off of the platform and turned to face Vladimir. "Systems normal. Shields charging."
"If you will kneel down, we can insert Cortana into your armor. I might add that the neural interface between you, Cortana, and the suit has been boosted to 99.9987% your reaction time will be as close to instantaneous as we can feasibly make it." Vladimir said as he gently slid the AI's core memory matrix into the master chief's helmet.
"Now. If you will follow me, we can get on with the test." Vladimir motioned for the Spartan to follow him out of the room. They proceeded down a labyrinth of winding passages, gradually leading to the surface. They went first to the testing range so the Master Chief could evaluate his new weaponry. On a table was an assortment of weapons, both new and old. An assault rifle, two pistols, sniper rifle, grenades, and shotgun.
"Master Chief, you will load these weapons onto your armor. You may choose to carry a combination of any two rifles. The two pistols go into the holsters on your thighs, and the grenades clip onto your belt as always." Vladimir paused. Then, "This will be a live fire exercise. You will be pitted against 50 mm auto guns, captured shade plasma turrets, and some live covenant. We have successfully captured a selection of grunts, jackals, and elites. No brutes or hunters were captured. You will have a grace period of thirty seconds before the covenant are let loose. The countdown begins the second I leave this area. Your objectives are to neutralize all covenant threats, and to "kill" the covenant prophet hidden in a chamber somewhere on this course. Good luck."
Vladimir left the test range, and hunkered down in a bunker with his fellow scientists to watch the action. Inside the bunker, there were twelve displays, each showing a picture of the master chief. The cameras would follow him through the course to evaluate his new armor. A timer at the edge of each screen dialed backwards toward zero.
John stood completely still in the slight morning breeze, weapons affixed and ready. A counter in his helmet display counted back towards zero, and Cortana's soothing presence in his head put him at ease. The new suit felt lighter, faster, and much stronger than his old suit. Maybe "old" wasn't the right word, considering he had only received it a month and a half ago, back on Reach...
John shook his head of the memory. Now was neither the place nor the time for sifting through memories.
"Ok master chief, you ready for this test?" Cortana inquired, obviously impatient, as she frequently was.
"Yeah, just thinking." John replied, his muscles tensing. The counter spiraled towards zero, and he zipped forward, into action. His motion sensor was suddenly alive with hostile indicators.
"Covenant on your six!" Cortana squawked as john whipped around, bringing his assault rifle to bear. A group of five grunts had been let loose right behind him. They were barking and growling, obviously angry at being imprisoned. They clutched plasma pistols and needlers. John didn't give them a chance to adjust their aim onto him. He leapt six meters sideways, all the while pivoting and spraying the grunts with anti matter tipped rounds. The bullets tore through the grunts spraying purple bone and gristle in an arc around their bodies. One grunt body spasmed in its death throes and squeezed off a charged plasma bolt. It struck the master chief in the side. Used to seeing his shield bar drop by half from such a blast, john was quite surprised when the shield status flickered a hair the other way, outside of the shield bar. So that scientist hadn't been kidding when he said the new shields would change everything.
John pivoted again to his right, searching for more targets. An elite rushed him, aiming to tackle him to the ground. With the speed of thought, john put away the assault rifle and drew his two pistols. He popped off six rounds before the elite took four steps. The new bullets did their job with perfection as they obliterated the elite's shields and tore its chest apart in a bloody spray.
His motion sensor had quieted slightly for the moment, and john took the opportunity to draw a grenade from his belt and prime it. A half dozen jackals were grouped in a shallow depression in the ground, trying to figure out what to do. John lobbed the grenade like a baseball at the group of shielded aliens. The grenade smashed into the side of one jackal's head, crushing it. The contact fuse detonated the grenade, which exploded into a thousand molten steel fragments which tore through the grouped aliens, thrashing vital organs and lopping off limbs.
"Nice work, john. Twelve covenant downed in a little less than fourteen seconds." Cortana praised the Spartan, sounding unusually cheerful. "A couple of grunts have found those plasma turrets and are turning to engage you."
John dove to the ground... just in time. Purple plasma flashed toward the spot where he had been a moment before, fusing the dirt into dirty glass. He rolled to his feet, turned his head and spotted one of the turrets. It was on top of grassy hill fifty meters away. John sprinted at full speed toward the turret, dodging volleys of flashing plasma. He reached the turret and knocked the grunt out of it with two rounds from his pistols. The master chief climbed into the gunner's seat and sought out the two 50 mm auto gun emplacements. They were situated on either side of a rough hewn tunnel into a rocky hillside. He fired sustained bursts of plasma fire at both guns, rendering them useless.
John hopped out of the shade turret as plasma rifle fire splashed across the barrels, melting them. He fell flat on his stomach, and unclipped the sniper rifle from his back. He raised the rifle and sighted in on the elite firing with startling accuracy on the now-empty turret. The scope's crosshairs spiraled in on the elite's head. A sharp crack shattered the morning air as the master chief fired. The elite slumped to the ground, beheaded.
"Just five more grunts and a jackal, huddling like frightened sheep just inside that cave entrance. That last shade turret is in that depression left of the cave. Better take him out now." Cortana intoned, apparently bored with the mission already.
John sighted in on the turret and aimed a shot at one of the barrels of the gun. The heavy round hit with a clang, bending the barrel almost ninety degrees to the side. The second shot tore the throat off of the jackal, forcing it to swallow its on blood.
He got up and jogged toward the cave entrance, unclipping another grenade as he went. He pulled the pin on this one and lobbed it inside the cave entrance. It bounced down the tunnel and exploded with a dull thud. John switched out his sniper rifle with the assault rifle, and entered the tunnel.
He thumbed a button on the side of his helmet and the darkness came alive with green light enhancement. He slowly surveyed the carnage. The grenade had done its job. Several arms and a head lay scattered around a black mark on the floor, surrounded by a thick pool of alien blood, fluorescent in the darkness. He advanced down the tunnel, gradually finding the rest of the aliens.
The tunnel opened up into a large antechamber. At the back of the room sat a life size model of a covenant prophet in a high throne. John advanced carefully, wary of any surprises that scientists were known for incorporating into their exercises. Nothing appeared. John walked up to the prophet, closed to point blank range, and emptied the assault rifle's clip into the alien. Bits of foam exploded into the air, accompanied by the staccato bite of the assault rifle, magnified by the confines of the chamber. John wiped away the last bits of the prophet and took its place on the throne. Mission completed.
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