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The Hall Of Echoes


................................. Introduction .................................
: Prologue :

The vessel's planetary diagnostic scans materialized into thin geometric holograms that floated in front of the control seat. The seat's occupant observed the readouts above him and notified the others that he had found what or who they were looking for. A lesser being, approximately 5 nics tall entered the shimmering, seamless, chrome covered chamber and addressed the control seat with greatest concern.
"Navigator, one requests permission to reveal one's thoughts." The seat's occupant turned slightly and elegantly from the holographic control sheet in order to return the addressor's comment properly.
"Permission is most definitely granted. It is important that we share as many thoughts as possible in this time of hope for a welcomed reappearance."
"That, dear navigator is my concern." Said the uneasy translator. The being pointed to the now orbiting hologram of the small blue planet below them.
"What if they have forgotten?"...



.................................... Chapter 1 ....................................
: Infraction :

//Mission Clock-06:00.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2552/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Ltn. Garret Asperso./.

Lieutenant Asperso began his routine check up on the optics lab, He knew it was necessary to the stealth of the base, but it often seemed nagging to him. He checked the personnel for signs of Covenant infraction, 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 Communications 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 recourses as a Linguist and infraction expert was the fact that his nephew 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 inauguration, a large easement to Lieutenant 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 ceramic-glass, you could somewhat see part of what long ago was San Francisco Harbor. It was fantastic. An early 23rd century 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, Lieutenant 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 equipment 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 Lieutenant 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 berserk 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 excellent day for him, and for every member of the Covenant forces and their High Counsel. `Gutamee was chosen to stand guard 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 guard, 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 vehicles 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 assurance 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 tripled 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 tensely.
"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 Lieutenant Asperso worked with began arriving at their stations simultaneously 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 colleagues join him. They all observed his intense concentration as they began to casually take their stations and warm up their analog computers.
"Internet Spades aren't what they used to be, eh?" Asked Second Lieutenant Smitt.
"No, Allen - look at these readings, do you think that they are legitimate?" Inquired the un-easy Lieutenant 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 Merritt./.

Col. Merritt 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 deranged hallway pistol first. The hall was empty as far as life was concerned, but broken and damaged equipment 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 Martian dust storm. He tried one of the doors on Hangar Bay 1, it was locked. There was a crash sound, apparently the Longsword's fuselage had blown. He heard human screams and gunfire as well as the screeching 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. Merritt 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 don't 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 charred window. Jason made out about a thousand Covenant battle vessels through the thin, transparent atmosphere of the red planet - as well as human vehicles and troops loading onto troopships, 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 corridors 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 busy with the CBN communications than usual. I also have word that code red alert alpha was raised two hours ago at the Galileo IV base on Triton, along with flooded military frequencies reporting attack, moments later a complete loss of contact."
"Well don't 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 military 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 received, 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 group mates 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 each other 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 predecessor had. For example, the original MJOLNIR battle suits featured armor and rechargeable shield armor, and required many physical inaugurations and neural implants to the Spartan himself, but most inaugurations were needless. In the II.V project, there were four separate fractions of MJOLNIR advanced battle suits. MJOLNIR Stealth, MJOLNIR Demolition, MJOLNIR Sniper, and MJOLNIR Assault. These new Spartans were trained in four separate fractions for their specific armor, but had twice less the physical inaugurations 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 inaugurations 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 personnel 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-transparent body to his fraction with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Ok, discard 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 each other'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 Merritt./.

They had little hassle 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, apparently obliterated before they could reach it. Jason winced 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 phosphorous grenades - side arm ammo, an S6 covert sniper rifle, an AMS-45cal. energy rifle and a med kit.
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. Merritt 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 Sergeant Yang reporting for duty sir."
"Excellent. Corporal, Sergeant, 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 field 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 permanent chilled chrome key until there was a constant satisfying roar of the warthog's engine. Sergeant Yang pressurized the hangar's air field, before blasting the ceramic-glass doors into tomorrow - and Before long, both 'hogs treads were tearing across the road less 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 Kimonos to comm central, over... Admiral Cole has authorized 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 rendezvous and arrange formation..." Garret got the message and cut the signal. The only person around to yell orders at was Charlie.
"Mishawka, go warm up the mob." He said, handing him the order pad.
Garret returned his attention to the EBNC control palette, expecting the utter confusion he was growing accustomed to, but found that the information flowed calm and usual as it had before - yet something still didn't feel right, and Garret hated those feelings. It was now easier to retrieve force deployment stats, and other battle specs, but the figures were too small. They were playing with him. He was curious as to what they were looking for, and dug deeper now that the EBNC was easier to penetrate. Taking advantage of 'The eye of the storm', he began searching their mission records for what it was that they were looking for on Earth. A few educated guesses here and there, as well as some heavy hacking got him into the system. He browsed the recent logs and began downloading them, then went straight to their big secret. The Covenant believed that the humans possessed an item that belonged to the forerunners of the ring world, Halo. An artifact that meant life or death to the high counsel, or so it seemed - the file was now being disrupted from an adverse location. Garret tried overriding it, but it was no use - he was out of the system. He by habit wrote the happening in his journal and went back to his screen to decode the downloaded files. When he tried opening the first one, the entire pillar shut down from A-deck, all the way to E-deck.
"Ghhhaa, how I hate dial-up!" He screamed and began shouting at Power Deck 3 over the intercom to get the power back up. They didn't respond, and moments later the entire facility began shutting down - starting with the Comm systems.

//Mission Clock-06:41.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2553/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Sgt. Daniel Asperso./.

ST.1 gave the boys 'the silent treatment'. In other words, it was a holographic training mission, and highly sophisticated in stealth - with live ammo (plasma of course) and enemies with the difficulty of legendary. This mission was in a jungle, and they had to clear their own drop zone, secure it as a rendezvous point, and do it in under 16 seconds - undetected. Then they had to penetrate the island jungle defense systems, and seize control of the enemy battle group's headquarters. Not as much as a lone enemy sentry would be alerted, or the mission would be a failure. The boys loved missions like this, they only thought strategically and it was like giving a cargo ship load of candy to a spoiled little girl. They armed themselves with tracers, and sniper/assault covert pistols or sac pistols as well as some flash bang grenades. Team Captain Rodney Brown began discussing a quick and easy way to win - until ST.1 interrupted.
"Ok brats, listen up. Those big wigs in the ONI have a warm up mission for you - a new mission." He grumbled - he always grumbled.
All team members sprang to attention - they hadn't had a new type of curveball since December of 2552.
"You wont be fighting the Demolitions, assault or sniper fractions today. You will be fighting with them - against pre-rendered Covenant AIs. The competition is greater, the team effort is more extraneous, and your weapons do less damage to the enemy - so I suggest you don't get cocky and screw this up, otherwise, you wont get any more missions for a very long while." The AI said, the room turning into the bay of a Pelican troopship - flying over a large lake to a medium sized island in the distance, lush with the artificial evening's jungle greenery. Frightened by what the instructor said, they became briefly acquainted with the other fractions, but a nod of their existence was all they could muster. They were in closing range of the island, and Daniel with his comrades squinted to spy out the drop zone for an enemy count and form brief take out plans. Rodney and his crew jumped as twenty rounds of sniper rifle bullets rang through their ears and echoed into the night. They turned a sloppy 'bout face and squinted obviously to the Sniper fraction who had taken their seats almost as quickly and quietly as they had getting into position and firing. The ship touched down on the banks of the lake and Daniel was as surprised as his comrades and the other fractions that twenty-two alien bodies lay equally scattered on the ground, forming a noticeable SF (for 'Sniper Fraction') embedded into the weathered structure behind the dead bodies' exit wound direction. Rodney tapped Daniel's jaw so it wouldn't seem that he was gawking, and whispered in shear disgust,
"They think they're tha bomb, heh, those sissies have a girl as their squad leader!" He chuckled then walked over to meet with the other three squad leaders, and formulate a plan. Each time each squad leader spoke to the other, it was mostly mixed with groupie lingo or tactic plans they weren't all familiar with. Rodney then spoke out,
"Ok, we aren't getting anywhere. I suggest that we go with the old time football style interception plans - we need to mix the pack of wolves lesson with the eagles, crocodiles and asp lessons." When he mentioned combining those lessons, they all caught on.
"We will be team Asp. We are the Silent Strikers of the outfit. We will designate ourselves as Green team - we fall out first." He said, the others quickly reporting to each other their code names and team names.
"Right, we will be the eagles, picking off the enemy before they can get a funny feeling about it. We will be Yellow team." Said the girl, Squad leader of The Sniper Fraction.
"Blue team, wolves, assault fraction falling in."
"Red team, crocs, pyro-maniacs falling in - taking position."
"Good, Green two through four, lets investigate that structure." Rodney waved a few signs to Daniel who was Green-two and he nodded with acknowledgement of the order. Daniel squinted as he allowed himself to turn invisible, oddly remembering a marine who took a few pot shots at him while in the state of a jackal - a previous mission, supposed of no allies and full enemy enforcements. They wormed their way to the 'porta potty' as his group called them, a portable diagnostics station used by the Covenant. They eased past the Elite guards by the entrance, and de-activated their shielding devices from behind them, then slipped a cord around their throat and flattened their esophagus, laying them behind a crate on the inside of the structure. They burrowed deeper until they reached the command and communications center, and decapitated forty two Covenant beings in 16 seconds, making up for the shoreline sniper barge. They radioed Red team and told them that they needed a warm touch down in the cold cellars of the Covenant structure. The beings in lead were brought back to the surface as POWs for debriefing later - when the extraction was made. Red team ran with excitement into the structure, and not too long after that, you could hear the muffled sound of equipment being brutally destroyed and mangled.

//Mission Clock-04:48.hrs.//Mars Date-may.01.2553/_UNSC.A23//vec.19909014//Col. Jason Merritt./.

The air was thick with red bloody dust, and the treaded tires grumbled beneath the vehicle. Jason pushed the 'hog deeper into the ravine of the canyon, and struggled to control it against the rocks. Sergeant Yang continuously watched the skies intently from the vehicle behind them, and initialized the gun runners to go into an auto targeting fire pattern towards hostile engaging forces. The ride seemed to last a rough eternity, and they finally began nearing a deserted military compound on a ledge - three hundred feet above the canyon floor. That is when Shnue and Yang's 'hog got trapped on a rock. Three 'Mosquitoes' (the only known flying vehicle driven by Grunts) weaved and swarmed around a falling longsword. It was falling fast, too fast and needed assistance. The auto cannon began firing on Yang's hog, and blew one of the blood suckers out of the sky. Only bad thing was, it began falling towards them when it blew. They shoved the gas pedal near through the floor, and attempted shooting the ground nearby with a rocket - to fling them out of harm's way. They just rolled back a little, it didn't do them any good. Jason winced as he watched two more of his men evaporate into flames and cursed the younger marine for being such a lousy shot. He drove the 'hog into the deserted base, and released his door hatch as the force fields took hold. He ran down a flight of stairs, the marine closely behind him. He uncovered a series of new high tech ONI equipment, and set up a comm screen - typed a few numbers into the comm pad as the marine behind him withered into the shape of an alien being.
"Colonel!" It shouted in a scratchy, unfriendly tone.
"Drop your armaments and tell me what I want to know." The alien demanded. Jason turned, shocked at first - then a grin of anger streaked across his face.
"Ah, a wolf in Black sheep's clothing, how original." He said.
"I am in no mood to take your amusements, pest. Tell me where you humans are hiding it."
The thing had to be on some kind of alien crack, cause Jason knew nothing of what the creature meant. All he knew was his mission. Alert base 113 at all costs to prepare themselves to evac the system Degu' immediately if anything was to go down.
"Look bastard, if I knew what the hell you are talking about I wouldn't tell you anyway." He yelled.
"Very well then." said the alien, raising the pistol, awkward in his hands. Colonel Merritt made his last mission a success as he backed up, hit three keys as fast as he could - sending the alert signal and wiping the data base clean of the location and encrypted message. Jason winked at the alien and smiled.
"If that was what you were looking for, it went that away." He said, pointing at the sky. The alien screamed with fierce anger and emptied the magazine of projectiles into the human's face. The alien knew that the High Counsel would have his head and other painful for removing body parts if he did not have the location of the 'Cradle of Life' by the end of this cycle, he therefore spent the rest of the cycle unsuccessfully discerning the whereabouts of the cradle through the human made communications chamber.

//Mission Clock-06:48.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2553/_UNSC.Ft.Bragg//vec.19909273//Ltn. Frank Merritt./.

The young pilot Frank struggled to keep his eyes open. He partied all night only two hours before, and thoroughly felt like crap. He walked up the ramp of 'The Betty Beater', his crew's favorite longsword rescue fighter. He leaned back in the pilot seat with one heavy dose of caffeine in his coffee, and made a horrible face as he downed it. The sun was coming up now, and the windshields were hardly transparent with the thick dew. Jeff's face appeared through the front right windshield and smiled. It was his turn to be the window washer. Frank half smiled then yawned. Five hundred other Longswords were fuelling up and packing their ammo full only inches of the wing's length between them. He eyed the small deck around him and remembered the many battles he had won from this very seat. He hated to leave Fort Bragg, the food was best there, not even mentioning the waitresses that worked in the mess hall, but he was sick of doing nothing, and a practice run on the Re-naïf 3 asteroid nebula sounded like a break. Nothing happened there, even the Covenant thought it was too small to mess with - but five hundred Longswords? There had to be something missing in the mission logs. Josh Peterson, his co-pilot came and took his seat next to him and pulled an apple out of his jacket pocket and tossed it up in the air and caught it about three times in his hand.
"Would you mind not making so much noise?" Grunted Frank as he reached for his forehead.
"Ah, hard night?" He asked taking a bite of the apple and grinning as he crunched it loudly.
"You could say that." Replied Frank, downing some pain relievers. Jessie shouted from the dock's podium that the Longsword was all green and go for take off. Frank waved a brief salute to her of his acknowledgement, and radioed all of his crew to report in and take their stations.
A voice on the comm made him order his crew to the bridge of the Longsword. It was on the hollow screen. As if a superior officer appeared on board, they all snapped to attention. The figure that appeared on the pad was Admiral Johansen. He made his appearance on all of the fighters.
"Hello gentlemen." He said then cleared his throat.
"I am going to have to be down to the point with all of you. This mission that has been assembled today will not leave this system. In fact, the mission will take place here. You see men, the Covenant have found Earth and will be here with full force in a matter of mere minutes. I am glad the diversion we gave you allowed you to work quickly and safely in preparing, and do so without mass hysteria. Now take those controls and get to the skies - we need you, Earth needs you." He said, leaving the men numb. Frank looked at each of his men in awe, then went back to getting his ship and crew out of the busiest port he had ever seen. Thousands of fighters already flew in the sky, mostly from nearby bases, and hundreds were leaving in rows on the runways in front of him.

//Mission Clock-06:55.hrs.//Earth Date-jun.12.2553/_UNSC.A72//vec.19909273//Sgt. Daniel Asperso./.

Daniel pushed his way silently through the thick branches of the jungle, and scouted out the area and enemy count ahead of the group. He held his fist up and motioned the group to hold position. He had almost walked into a commando squad of Elites - Gold Elite commandos. They were good enough to take out a Spartan II, and seeing as he was an SII.V, he knew he could take them all on - but he didn't want to start anything that could jeopardize his mission.
"Sir, they got the squad out there patrolling the area. Are the snipers ready?"
"Ready as we'll ever be Team Asp." The girl replied over the comm link. The comm crackled as she came back on the channel -
"Whew, its a good thing you boys told us about that squad before taking them on, there is more than just one squad. There is about fifty troop carriers on the other side of that ridge." She paused,
"I think we can get these nuggets, just be ready to drag them in the bushes." She said. And for once - the girl had some good advice.
"Roger that Eagle's nest..." Was all the words that left Rodney's mouth before eight dead Elite corpses lay lifeless on the ground in front of them. They heard a scuffle and quickly dragged the bodies in the bushes, preparing a plan of attack on the key compound only meters away. In less than 10 seconds, they were in the plasma transfer core channel, and were heading to the main facility. No human could enter the channel and live, but thanks to their plasma proof skin, they swam through the stream as if it were water. They scanned the outside of the channel walls every thirteen feet and finally located the power core. All in order, the young augmented marines grabbed the smooth textured walls and tore a gap in the access panel. Glowing plasma vented from the top and mist arose as the boys exited the channel at lightning fast speed. Three of them searched the room for enemies and trip bombs as the other jolted to the ceiling and disabled the lighting and scanning equipment. They gathered behind a crate and went through one of the ventilation systems as a 'Worker Covenant' being quickly reassembled the torn duct. It turned in curiosity as to what may have torn the channel, and was quickly put out of its misery with a silenced poisoned dart. The human responsible placed an H3 silence tech grenade under the power core and quickly vanished into the duct and continued on his way. Rodney looked out into a deserted hallway and gave the command.
"Ok group, make-up time." He said as they dumped their equipment into a Covenant diagnostics satchel case. They shifted shape into a group of light armored Jackals and walked down the hallway, completely unnoticed by the other groups of Covenant forces in the area. They entered the command comm systems lab and went to work. Three Grunts were stationed at the controls of the comm system, and two Brutes guarded the door. Rodney walked over to the wall and lifted an access duct, pretending to be working on something there. Garret went behind the Grunts and silently injected their methane breathers with morphine. The other two finished looking through the base for its other vital systems via the comm control deck, then shot a dart into the lungs of the Brutes - before they had time to alert anyone. They corrupted the comm systems with a downloadable virus and notified the others to take position. They shifted their shape again, but this time, they were Jackal commando special type guards. They got to the command station and took their places around the leaders as phony guards, bearing Plasma staves as their 'protective' weapons. Moments later, a rumble was vibrated throughout the base and the power went down. The boys put down the un-expecting commandos with the staves and held the leaders prisoner with the guarding weapons - until the others could provide a sufficient evacuation route from off the island.
The dark room flickered and changed. They were not in the training program anymore, they were in the training room with all 25 of the other Spartans. Daniel knew they had failed miserably, for the mission had been aborted. Chief Petty Officer Mendez, leader of the assault fraction walked into the room.
"Okay ladies and Gentlemen, I know what you are thinking. Your mission here was aborted due to loss of power on the Pacificus 3. It had nothing to do with your mission, but I think you all should know that our base's cloaking equipment has been damaged and since they are coming, we are sitting ducks."
"Which means," Added the training spook S.1.
"That you chimps have a job to do. And that would be to run. The last group were overwhelmed and too easily defeated when a surprise party was pulled. We just got word that one of them has in fact survived, and is heading in with the lunar orbiter's re-enforcement troops." Chief Mendez grinned to himself and paused for a moment. He then walked over to a duffle bag and opened it.
"Alright marines, in line on the double." He pulled out a glowing panel with straps on it. The children began strapping them to their left arm as he handed them to them. The bottoms were coated with green sticky gel, and two thin needles that made each kid wince as they put it on. The face of the plate turned from a bright blue to a bright yellow. Body diagnostics showed up in the center of the plate. The kids marveled at it, some flexing their arms to get the feel better.
"These, marines are in fact going to be your battle suits from now on. They are permanent. We weren't able to get your big clanky suits up and running this quickly..."
"So this is our back-up plan." Mendez glared at the training A.I. For interrupting him again.
"All the techs are busy shooting at the Covies so I have to brief you on this stuff. That wrist band contains a mini reactor that has the power needed to coat your body with seismic impulse projections. It is much more effective than rechargeable shields at defending your body, and that plasma stuff in your skin masks its heat signature. There is one drawback though. It easily overwhelms itself when too much fire is concentrated on it. This normally takes about fifteen seconds to overdo itself in normal situations, but when things get too hot, I'd give it five - tops... Example." He held a pistol out towards one of the kids who had just put one on. The child braced for the bullet, but when he fired, the bullet disintegrated two inches from his chest. The band hummed as the charge meter showed status of 85% operability. Garret hurried to get his, afraid the Chief was going to take a pot shot at him to. They all stood at attention once they were all situated, and the Chief walked in front of them, next to S.1. And the now joining D.1. Trainer.
"Your mission is as follows." Spoke the Demolitions trainer.
"You will leave the system and rendezvous at mark three vector zero. You will wait on Writhing base until notified otherwise by the ONI main headquarters. There, you will board a troopship and arrange for debriefing. The time estimated in contacting you has not yet been determined. But right now, your main goal is to get out of this system. Are these orders understood?" With unison, the young marines shouted,
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Good, now as you did before, get in line and get some of those weapons that the Chief is going to throw away. Now shake a leg marines, Go, Go, Go!" They all scrambled over each other to the weapons locker and grabbed a camouflage jump suit on the way - as well as a tactical helmet. When they got to the weapons locker near the door, Chief Mendez threw each one of them a battle rifle and combat knife - and screamed at them to move faster as he shoved them into the hallways. Daniel's heart raced with excitement and fear as he made his way towards the main lift. The gun felt different in his hands, perhaps easier to control with the new armband. He threw his helmet on and tried to run and put the jumpsuit on at the same time. It was important to the mission that they got out of the base before the Covenant got there, because fighting them in person was a whole lot different than fighting them in the VR training rooms. In real life, they were smarter and tougher.

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