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The Beginning of Sorrows
Posted By: John<Master_Bief@hotmail.com>
Date: 10 September 2003, 6:36 PM
Read/Post Comments
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......................Introduction.........................
: Prolouge :
In the year 2552 it all began. We found 'Halo'. A massive ring planet that was eerie yet splendid to look at. It orbited a class '9' gass giant on the outer reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. It was a big mouse trap from the start. We raced in a frenzy against the Covenant to find the clock that made the thing work, but instead, we found the Flood. That was humanities worst mistake in all history. The Flood were a collective of ferocious creatures that borrowed into your chest and took complete control of your body. The sight was undescribably greusome. But it wasn't the Spartan II project that destroyed 'Halo' that ended this whole sharade, It was the men and women who hit the Flood where it hurt them most....
.......................Chapter 1...........................
: Infriction :
//Mission Clock-06:00.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Ltn. Garret Asperso./.
Luitenant Asperso began his routine check up on the optics lab, He knew it was neccessarry to the stealth of the base, but it often seemed nagging to him. He checked the personnel for signs of Covenant infriction, and kept his Battle Rifle handy just in case. They all scanned clear, but that was one of ten sections he had to check before arriving at the command center of Enemy Battle Net Communitactions or EBNC. It was where the UNSC Decoded as much of the Covenant Battle Net as they were going to get. The only real reason he volunteered his recources as a Linguist and infriction expert was the fact that his nefew was taken to one of the sections he checked on frequently, the highly advanced SPARTAN II.V project laboratory. The boy was only five, and hardly knew his uncle well, but was the highest synaptic responder in the group. They hadn't yet begun his physical inauculation, a large easement to Luitenant Asperso. But they had already begun his hyper reflex and mental nanite enhancement therapy. That wasn't that bad, he thought. They were only making Daniel faster and smarter. Garret moved on to the next sectional facility via gate R-45. It was his favorite gate, cause when you looked through the eight foot cerami-glass, you could somewhat see part of what long ago was San Francisco Harbor. It was fantastic. An early 23rd cetury city, completely untouched by modern structures, technology or people. It lay buried five miles under the Pacific Ocean from the SF Bay Earthquake of 2210. Only a few hundred meters away cloaked the hidden UNSC base, "Pacificus 3" or Area 72 according to most UNSC Personnel.
Now finished with his daily check-up on the lower starboard sector of the base, Luitenant Asperso clutched his note pad that had all of his greatest linguistic discoveries in hope that today he would find another to add to his worn out journal. He entered the enormous atrium filled with Covenant Battle Net technology and equiptment looted from a captured small Covenant battle barge. It felt as if he had entered a Covenant Cruiser. The feeling was sickening. It felt as if death lurked everywhere. After five years he was somewhat used to the feeling, or had just learned to cope with it. He walked over to a large pillar of holographic information, a total of three entire decks beneath him were scientists - studying the same pillar. He was completely in charge of Deck C-5, a group of ten scientists were gathered, their eyes dazed from the extended night shift. They all stood and saluted, more of a salute of relief than anything else.
"I'll take it from here." Said Luitenant Asperso, patting a tense techie on the shoulder. Garret sat down in front of the monitor, took a sip of his coffee and began decoding the information that the man-made computer couldn't solve. Everything was utopia for about five minutes, then an arrangement of numbers and Covenant symbols shot to the screen. It was berzerk and malfunctioning - It had to be. What these readings were indicating were too frightening to be true.
//Covenant Battle Net//High Shrine//23 units till contact//appr.vec.19909013//Laza `Gutamee//High Counsel Present./.
Laza `Gutamee was one of the few Commando Elites to actually see the High Counsel of the Covenant. It was of the most honorable days of his life, yet the most frightening. One wrong move and it was his head. The 'High Shrine' was the largest, most well defended Covenant ship in the entire fleet of Covenant starships, which was why the High Counsel chose this ship to view the destruction of the humans' puny planet they called 'Earth'. It was truly an exellent day for him, and for every member of the Covenant forces and their High Counsel. `Gutamee was chosen to stand gaurd at the entrance of the High Counsels' chamber. He had once saved the life of a Major Prophet during a raid of human vessels onto the great ship, the 'Prophetess'. Many other Elite Commandos lined the walls of the High Chambers' hallway and would gladly kill for the place where `Gutamee stood gaurd, and for that he was proud. The humans had destroyed 'Halo' and all of its inhabitants, as well as the enriched knowledge the ring had stored. It was time for them to suffer and `Gutamee couldn't wait to score his first kill.
From the deck where the 'High Chamber' was located, the High Counsel could see all of the ship's Commando troops lining for battle, as well as the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of assault and stealth vehichles all eagerly prepared for battle. The Chamber that seated the High Counsel was enormous and easily spotable from the troops position, the loading bays at the ship's stern. It was completely brilliant - seeing the High Counsel directly above them was an honor, as well as an assurrance of blessed battles. Thought the Major Prophet. The Prophet felt blessed indeed to be the Battle Representative to the High Counsel, though it was very risky. If the High Counsel did not feel eased by the battle's outcome, his head would be removed by a lower Elite. That alone caused him to send a pair of fleet units to the Planet. There were to be so many armed Covenant forces on the planet, that the number of Commandos alone over trippled the population of Human residence on all continents. The Major Prophet had a special plan for the Lunar population as well.
"Majesties" Inquired the prophet.
"Request to present humbly the plan for the attack on the Lunar planet - as well as the Lunar Orbiter" Said the Major Prophet.
"Negative, you must first submit to us the strategies of the destruction of Earth itself - then we will consider your plan." Replied one of the members of the High Counsel tensly.
"Agreed. As you can see Majesties, for the first wave of attack, we have sent in 9000 Task Force units." The Prophet continued to explain the strategy that would eventually destroy Earth. Thousands of Covenant cruisers swarmed past a red planet to the bright blue dot in space.
//Mission Clock-06:30.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Ltn. Garret Asperso./.
The other nine scientists that Luitenant Asperso worked with began arriving at their stations simultaneosly but not that great of time intervals between them. Garret was so involved in proving to the computer that it was wrong, didn't even see his collegues join him. They all observed his intense concentration as they began to casually take their stations and warm up thier analog computers.
"Internet Spades aren't what they used to be, eh?" Asked Second Luitenant Smitt.
"No, Allen - look at these readings, do you think that they are ligitimate?" Inquired the un-easy Luitenant Asperso. Allen Smitt's complection dropped to a pale stare.
"Oh my... There is no time, contact Mars base now!"
//Mission Clock-04:31.hrs.//Mars Date-may.01.2552/_UNSC.A23//vec.19909014//Col. Jason Merrit./.
Col. Merrit fell out of his bunk from an earthquake force. His heart began immediately racing. He rolled forward and yanked his pistol out from under his rumbling pillow and quickly rubbed his eyes. He began frantically searching the room for what may have caused the force. Another large quake sent him to his knees. He quickly got back up and ran to the side of his door and activated the panel and peered out into the badly derranged hallway pistol first. The hall was empty as far as life was concerned, but broken and damaged equiptment was strewn everywhere. He sleepily began wandering to his command post to see what exactly was going on. He could hear explosions in the distance some far, some near, but they were timed too well and there were too many to be a Marsian dust storm. He tried one of the doors on Hangar Bay 1, it was locked. There was a crash sound, appearently the Longsword's feusaloge had blown. He heard human screams and gunfire as well as the screaching sound of plasma fire coming from inside. He began a frantic run to the next entrance to help his men. Now only a few meters from the door, a marine leaped through and hit the panic key on the keypad - later blown off of his feet by another explosion in the Hangar. The gunfire had ended inside. The Covenant had claimed the space as their own. Col. Merrit offered his hand to the fallen marine,
"Are you okay son? Will you make it?"
"Sir, I am not hurt, but we aren't going to make it." Replied the quivering marine.
"Suck it up, son. Leathernecks dont give up. We can hold them off once we can activate the base's defense systems."
"Sir, I don't think that will matter - look." The marine pointed out the rounded dust sharred window. Jason made out about a thousand Covenant battle vessels through the thin, transpearant atmosphere of the red planet - as well as human vehichles and troops loading onto dropships, later disposed of by Covenant air forces. He had a sickening feeling in his stomach as he watched his men drop like flies all around the base. He was either going to die saving his men, or die trying.
"Ok son, listen up. There is a loading bay of Fighter 'hogs in the Land transport facility, and it is not too far from here if we take the Main Transport Slip Gate. The slip gate is only three coridoors down, and there shouldn't be a whole lot of resistance."
"What would we do with a Warthog? That terrain is murder, not even mentioning the enemy count out there..."
"Just what are you suggesting son? That we sit here and wait for them to add us to their kill list so they can laugh it off later? Not while I am still breathing and kicking. We are going to make them remember our names weather they like it or not - is that understood marine?"
"Sir, yes sir." Replied the marine, and that was the last words out of his mouth for a while.
//Mission Clock-06:33.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Ltn. Garret Asperso./.
A marine skidded to a stop on command deck C-5 and reported the situation near out of breath.
"Sir, I cant contact Mars base. Their comm may be down, or they may be experiencing technical difficulties. Or it may be what we fear most, it may be the Covenant. The sensors from the Lunar orbiter picked up an enormous vessel fleet reading near the edge of our system shortly before they lost power - and from what I can see here, you guys have been a little more buisy with the CBN communications than usual. I also have word that code red alert alpha was raised two hours ago at the Galilieo IV base on Triton, along with flooded military frequencies reporting attack, moments later a complete loss of contact."
"Well dont just tell us about it marine, get on every horn you think of to contact Admiral Cole, requesting full military support on all civilian and millitary fronts, and for immediate civilian evac from the surface." Replied Ltn. Asperso - now frightened more than ever with the full load of information he had just recieved, and from the knowledge that the Covenant were filling their Battle Net with randomized junk, making it almost impossible to catch a command frequency.
//Mission Clock-06:33.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Sgt. Daniel Asperso./.
Daniel and his groupmates were beginning to grow weary from standing at attention over a long period of time - for the ST. 1 Training Master had barked at them all night for losing a simple 'Capture the Flag' match against the demolitions group of S II.Vs, and was topping it off with his general 'Cheat if you have to, kill if you have to, but never, ever lose' talk. ST. 1 was an A.I., and a mean one at that, but the boys respected him and respected eachother as the only relatives they would ever know. They were all part of the Stealth Fraction of the highly advanced Spartan II.V project - which more than made up for the failure of the Spartan II project on Reach. The project had started not too long after the Spartan II project, in case that one was to ever fail. Although similar in some ways, the II.V project had many more error proof and ability ranges than its predesessor had. For example, the original MJOLNIR battle suits featured armor and rechargable shield armor, and required many physical inauculations and neural implants to the Spartan himself, but most inauculations were needless. In the II.V project, there were four seperate fractions of MJOLNIR advanced battle suits. MJOLNIR Stealth, MJOLNIR Demolition, MJOLNIR Sniper, and MJOLNIR Assault. These new Spartans were trained in four seperate fractions for their specific armor, but had twice less the physical inaculations and three times more the abilities than the S IIs. In case they were ever caught without their armor, they had a flexi-cell plasma gradient system graphed into their skin cells which allowed them to change shape into a jackal for a few hours or turn completely invisible for a longer period of time. So since the gradient system was developed from the coolant system of an older model of a Covenant cruiser that had a plasma drive engine, it also caused their skin to be completely invulnerable to any plasma fire, including grenades - and helped develop the neurogen that is used throughout their body instead of the marrow and muscular inauculations as in the previous project.
The intercom crackled as the speaker interrupted S.1, causing a group wide silent sigh of relief.
"All civilians must prepare to evacuate immediately, and all military personell must man your stations and wait until further instructions." Another crackling tone was heard as the speaker switched over to a military frequency.
"We think the Covies may have found Earth, so start locking and loading those pea shooters and I will let you know what we hear from Admiral Cole." S.1 turned his semi-transpearant body to his fraction with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Ok, disgard everything I just said about the Demolitions Fraction and listen up. They are on your team now, and like any team, you will need to watch eachother's backs." He began a slightly different speech, including his possible awkward goodbyes - and lucky for him, he was an A.I. which meant he could give orders all day and still not have strept throat.
//Mission Clock-04:35.hrs.//Mars Date-may.01.2552/_UNSC.A23//vec.19909014//Col. Jason Merrit./.
They had little hastle reaching the slip gate, only a small pack of Grunts got in the way and slowed them down some. A few dead marine bodies lay in front of the glowing slip gate, appearantly obliterated before they could reach it. Jason whinced as he felt the cool static plasma transfer him to the other side of Crater Canyon in less than 3.5 seconds, ejecting him into the musky Transportation facility. Jason grabbed the marines' arm and pointed to a half worn sign on the wall that read 'Armory'.
"We had better load up on some heavy weapons and ammo before we risk it out there." Said Jason as he hurried the younger marine along. Once they reached the armory, most of the guns had been taken, as well as wasted ammo casings on the floor. After moving a few dead bodies and body parts here and there, they managed to gather a sack of twelve fragmentation, and three white fosfurous grenades - side arm ammo, an S6 covert sniper rifle, an AMS-45cal. energy rifle and a medkit.
On the way to the land transportation Warthog bay, two frantic marines were ejected through the slip gate they had just come through, but from another location on Mars. They saluted Col. Merrit when they gathered their posture, and noticed that by the heavy ammo he was carrying, he had a mission for them.
"Sir, Corporal Shnue and Seargent Yang reporting for duty sir."
"Excelent. Corporal, Sergent, I need your assistance on a covert mission. are you up for it?"
"Sir, yes sir." they both answered mechanically.
"Ok, grab a 'Hog, and lets gets this show on the road." He ordered, no real discussion of the mission itself. They walked through the battered ark, nearing the Warthog chamber.
"You gun, we are taking that one." He said, pointing to the Heavily armored atmospheric HA-52 attack 'hog. The younger marine grabbed an atmospheric suit out of the rear compartment and began throwing it on. The HA-52 had an 80 caliber hydrogen/napalm energy cannon mounted on the gun runners and twin guided rocket launchers mounted on the hood. The other marines got an HA 50.b Atmospheric Warthog with twin 54cal. LAAGs mounted on the hood, with one standard feild issue triple barrel speed rocket launcher mounted on the gun runners, but both marines chose to ride shotgun.
The driver door sealed airtight as Jason turned the permenant chilled chrome key until there was a constant satisfying roar of the warthog's engine. Seargent Yang pressurized the hangar's air field, before blasting the cerami-glass doors into tomorrow - and Before long, both 'hogs treads were tearing accross the roadless terrain to their destination.
//Mission Clock-06:47.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Ltn. Garret Asperso./.
Garret continued to fight with the Covenant over their command codes, but it was hardly much use. They just pushed deeper to hinder him. What information he decoded was at least two days old, and nothing that effected the present. The Covenant were also looking for something. Something they thought was in Earth's solar system - but that also was as much as Garret could gather from that matter as well. Looking at the holographic comm screen in front of him, Garret caught a waiting line on a command frequency and without pausing from his work, he opened the channel.
"This is Colonel Hinojos to comm central, over... Admiral Cole has autherized and ordered that all military bases in the system be on code red alert alpha. Prepare for full scale battles on all fronts. all Naval fleets are to reandevous and arrange formation..." Garret got the message and cut the signal. The only person around to yell orders at was Charlie.
"McShaw, go warm up the mob." He said, handing him the order pad.
.....
For now that is it - it will continue. Please go to http://haloharbor.cjb.net to see info on the comic and hopeful movie versions. It may not appear much to critics now, but it will grow more interesting. Do you want in on the movie? we need computer animation people, voice actors/actresses, artists, color artists, fans, and any thing else you can fathom - but not negative critics. This is still a work in progress. Feel free to send me an email at:
Master_Bief@hotmail.com
.....
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