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Halo 2: Revenge of a Spartan, Chapter 10
Posted By: LostRock<shadow@macfleet.com>
Date: 21 September 2003, 4:07 AM
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Private Gavin peered into his scope and cranked it up to 10x magnification.
A few blocks away stood his victims: two Elites, guarding the doors of the Empire State Building. They did not give any signs of noting his presence.
Better make this quick, Gavin thought, and held his breath.
He slowly moved his S2 AM sniper rifle so that it was targeted at the crown of the alien's skull...and pulled the trigger. Crack! Quickly, he turned to the other Elite, just as it looked, shocked, at its dead companion. Crack! He too was eliminated, his brains splattered against the wall.
Private Gavin let out a huge exhale, then turned and said, "Guards neutralized, sir."
Next to Gavin lay the Master Chief. They were just peering over the top of the stairwell of the subway station.
"Good work," said the Spartan. "Cover us as we approach the building. Once we give you the all clear sign, run up with us."
"Yes, sir."
Quietly, the two dozen other humans and the Grunts ran up the stairs. They had their weapons ready, their eyes scanning the windows of the beaten buildings for snipers. Running down the right side of the avenue, they came to the door of Satan's Tower and crouched by it but not in front of it.
"Move up, Private," John said over the comm channel.
Taking another quick look at the buildings around him, Private Gavin hung his sniper rifle on his back and took off in a somewhat panicked dash to his teammates. Suddenly, there was a sharp chirping sound and Gavin fell to the ground, a large hole in his head. He was dead.
"SNIPERS!" yelled a sergeant. "They know we're here! Get into the building, NOW!"
The fire team rounded into the smashed entrance of the Empire State Building, but of course, this was not such a safe place to be either. In the vast lobby, there were about three dozen Covenant soldiers of all types waiting patiently behind shield emplacements for their preplanned ambush. They opened fire immediately.
It was a horrible position for the Marines and Grunts, as they had no cover whatsoever, save the shield emplacements, but to use them was suicide because the enemy was no more than ten feet or less in front of them. Plasma rounds rattled the humans' bodies. A plasma grenade flew and stuck to one soldier, taking out him and two others. The Chief quickly jumped in front of as many of the now-panicky Grunts as possible to protect them and began pounding away at the Covenant with his SMGs. With their inaccuracy, he was able to take out many warriors.
"Use the fuel rods!" cried the Chief to the Grunts. The aliens quickly calmed down and brought up their heavy arms. Two well-placed shots took out a score of Covenant.
Amid the chaos, John noticed out of the corner of his eye a small cylindrical object on the ground. He quickly picked it up and examined it, and realized it was a plasma sword.
"Try pressing that small rectangular button," suggested Cortana.
John did, and the blade activated...three inches in front of his face. Startled, he drew the sword into a safer position. Quickly thinking back to his brief fencing lessons and watching holovideos of medieval battles, John charged the remaining Covenant with his newfound weapon at his side. He stabbed viciously at a Brute, piercing his skull. The Spartan heard an Elite approaching him from behind and turned to lash out—only to find that the Elite also had a plasma sword. The Covenant blocked the blow, and struck back. The Master Chief parried, and separated the alien's head and left arm from the rest of his body.
The firefight continued for another minute, and finally the ambushers were all dead. John evaluated his losses. He had lost almost half of his men, and five of his Grunts were KIA. Not pretty, but the mission could still be accomplished.
Cortana spoke over the long-range comm channel. "Command, this is Cortana. Fire Team Easy is close to neutralizing target. Make sure that means of escape is en route." She then ended the transmission.
"We should try the elevators. We don't know for sure if the Covenant knew how to turn them off. The logical place for the explosive would be on the top floor."
The Master Chief pushed the Up button by the two elevator shafts and, miraculously, the doors opened. The remainder of the fire team filed into two of the elevators, and hit the 102nd floor button on the large panel.
The soldiers shifted nervously around inside their cage, thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong when they stepped out of the shaft. Had the Covenant mined the shaft? Was there going to be another ambush? They couldn't know.
They kept their eyes on the floor indicator, counting down to their arrival.
88...89...90...91...92...93...94...95...96—
BOOM!
The humans and Grunts were flung back from the sudden explosion that smashed open the doors. The elevators' automated emergency brakes brought the lifts to a halt.
The smoke cleared, and there before the fire team were two Hunters. One colossal alien charged a lift with its massive shield raised to crush its victims. However, the stupid oaf did not realize that the elevator's door did not take up the whole height of the wall. The Hunter's melee weapon banged against the two feet of wall that was over the entrance of the lift, and the awkward impact caused the alien to stagger back. The occupants of the elevator used this to their advantage, and turned the beast into Swiss cheese with their ammo.
When the other Hunter saw his bond brother fall and ran to avenge him, the other lift's passengers (including the Master Chief) rushed out of the shaft and nailed the alien in his soft, orange backside, and he collapsed by his friend.
"Hurry, we have to get to the stairs!" urged Cortana.
Making sure there were no more Covenant around, the fire team rushed to the door labeled "Stairwell." Quietly, they made their way up six flights of stairs, to make sure that none of the building's foreign inhabitants did not hear them.
Finally, they reached a door that read "102nd floor."
John holstered his SMGs and brought up his battle rifle, to insure that he did not run of out much-needed ammo for the battle that was sure to ensue. He then turned to his crew and whispered, "Get ready."
The Spartan flung open the door.
Staring back at him were about sixty flabbergasted Covenant.
He opened fire and rolled out of the entrance to make way for the other soldiers.
About ten Covenant perished before they began firing back.
A little more than a dozen humans and Grunts had come out of the stairwell when suddenly there was a "beep" and the stairs exploded killing the remaining part of the soldiers. The Covenant had apparently wired the stairs.
The fire team was stunned for a second, then returned fire back at the aliens.
"You sonsa' bitches!" screamed a Marine.
The Covenant were not protected like those were back at the entrance of the building. However, there were more of them and they gave plenty of hell back to the fire team. More and more warriors fell to the ground from both sides, until finally there were only six living creatures left in the room: The Chief and two of his Grunt techs, and an Elite with two Jackals, standing twenty feet in front of the bomb in the corner of the room.
Time seemed to slow down. The win was on the line.
One Grunt, with his overcharged plasma pistol, took out a Jackal's shield. The Chief finished him with his own lead. The other Jackal took out the first Grunt with a shot to the skull. John turned and began pounding away with his battle rifle at the Jackal.
The Elite, realizing all was lost, began running towards the bomb. The second Grunt, his pistol overcharged, shot at the Elite, dropping his shields and causing the alien to stagger. The Elite then got back up and shot at the Grunt with his plasma rifle.
Just as John killed the Jackal, he saw how things were unfolding between the two other warriors. Panicked, he tried to jump in front of Elite's plasma, but it caught the Grunt in the head, and the small alien collapsed.
"No!" John cried, his last means of disabling the bomb gone. He fired in rage at the Elite.
The Elite took the bullets and kept on running. He was ten feet from the bomb...then five...two...one...
One of John's bullets caught the alien in the throat. He collapsed, but not before his claw fell on a large button on the bomb, and it emitted an ominous beeping noise.
Time came to a screeching halt.
TO BE CONTINUED
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