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John 117 pwnage part 1
Posted By: seagoat<woodenplastic@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 February 2005, 4:29 AM
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Spartan 117 sprinted up to the arched, yet angular doorway. He put his back against the wall to the right of the door, and peered through the arch, into the next room. Purple boxes of weapons and ammunition lined the walls, plasma rifles emerging from their open hatches. Two Hunters guarded the next doorway. One paced back and forth, while the other stood with his long-spined back to the wall. The creatures stood twelve feet tall when standing upright, but they always fought in a hunched position, bringing their towering figure down to eight feet. They wielded fuel rod cannons or particle cannons attached directly to the armor on their right arms, that could easily punch a hole the size of a basketball through the Master Chief's armor, regardless of his energy shields. On their left arms, they carried shields made of an unknown metal alloy that could stop a barrage armor piercing rounds from the anti-aircraft chain gun mounted on a warthog as if they were nothing more than light drops of rain.
The Master Chief, having dealt with the behemoths before, knew that he had to engage them similar to how he would engage a hostile armored vehicle. If he was not careful, the twelve-foot titans would slaughter him with a single fuel rod or blow from their massive shields. He had seen the creatures brutally mutilate the bodies of fallen marines after there were no apparent enemies in sight. He put away his standard issue BR55 rifle, and brandished his M19 SSM rocket launcher. He shouldered the double barreled weapon, and performed a swat roll from one side of the door to the other, pausing in between to take aim at one of the beasts. The Hunter sighted the Spartan and heard the hollow sound of the rocket streaking from the tube, and instinctively threw out his massive shield to the left, hoping that the momentum would quicken his movement, allowing him to avoid the lethal charge that sped towards him in a fury of sparks and flame. The Hunter was unable to move quickly enough, and the movement of his shield allowed the shaped charge to plunge into its exposed underbelly with a sickening thud. The rocket had not detonated as it hit the Hunter, and instead lodged in the thick, leathery, orange flesh around the creature's stomach. Phosphorescent orange blood bubbled out of the wound in large blobs as the rocket continued to spit fire and smoke. The Hunter doubled over, the fire and smoke spraying from the rocket sputtered and died, and the beast fell to the ground with its limbs sprawled across the ground. As the Hunter hit the ground, the rocket was pushed further into the creature's stomach with a sudden jolt, causing the tip of the rocket to strike its spine. The rocket detonated, ripping through the Hunter, and separating its legs from its upper body. The Hunter's partner wailed in agony as his comrade was destroyed, and thick droplets of orange, gelatinous blood sprayed the entire room. Pieces of orange leathery flesh hurtled through the angular archway that the Master Chief took cover behind. Dark green intestines writhed on the ground, as if they had a life of their own that was slowly being stolen from them.
The deceased warrior's comrade agonized over the death of his brother. Hunter's, although lacking in intelligence and brutal towards their enemies, were extremely compassionate towards their own kind. From "birth" they mentally bonded with another of their own species. If one Hunter's bond brother were killed, the Hunter would do everything in its power to avenge the his brother's death, and throw itself at its enemy disregarding its own life.
The Master Chief knew that the Hunter's partner would soon rush him, and put away his rocket launcher, for it was useless in tight quarters. He withdrew his BR55 rifle again, and was knocked to the ground as the Hunter slammed through the arched doorway, breaking the stone/metal alloy that formed it and causing chunks to fall to the ground. The Hunter's strength was so terrifying to the Chief that he lay stunned momentarily, for he had never seen the stone/metal alloy of the Forerunner structures that badly damaged. He had missed targets with rockets before, and seen them inflict little more than black scarring to the alloy as they struck the wall. The Hunter preceded to raise its massive shield, preparing to crush the Chief under the devastating combination of its weight and the Hunter's strength. The Chief recovered from his shock as Cortana yelled "Watch it!" through the speakers in his helmet, and he quickly rolled to the left. The Hunter, surprised that the shield had not cleaved his enemy in two, paused. The Chief took initiative and leapt to his feet, and put a burst of three armor piercing bullets from his BR55 into the Hunter's exposed back. The creature howled as orange drops of blood spritzed the Chief's visor. The Chief did not wait to see whether the shots were lethal, and fired three more bursts into the creature's back. The Hunter fell, causing an ear shattering clash of metal on metal that reverberated off the metal walls of the room.
Regret that the lives of the creatures had to be
taken so violently grasped the Chief, and pitied them momentarily, and then brushed aside his feelings. He was designed and perfected from age seven to perform tasks such as these, and he had been trained to remove all emotion from combat situations. If the Chief dwelled on the horrors of war, it could compromise his mission, end his life, or even indirectly lead to the extinction of the Human race. Instead he scolded himself for letting his guard down as the Hunter smashed the doorway. It was unlike him to be stunned by something so meaningless.
As the Chief moved through the room flooded with gore from the mutilated Hunter, he stopped to grab a needler and discard his BR55, for he had only six rounds left. The Chief preferred the projectile weapons used by the Humans, but he had no other choice. The needler offered the most similarity to the Human weapons, since it was one of the very few used by the Covenant that was not plasma based. It fired incredibly sharp needles that exploded a second after impact at a high rate of fire. The needles moved at a slow speed compared to the bullets fired from a Human weapon, but it made up for this negative with the fact that the needles zeroed in on their targets to a small degree. They appeared to detect the radiating heat energy levels of most life forms, and were somehow magnetically attracted to their targets. The weapon was oddly shaped, and it seemed that the gun had to use a small scale teleportation grid to eject the needles out of the "barrel," since their was no other obvious path through the weapon. The Chief picked up a couple of egg-shaped ammunition crystals for the weapon. When the crystal was pushed into a certain area in the back of the gun, needles emerged from the holes in the top of the weapon as the crystal evaporated and disappeared from sight.
When the Chief entered the hallway leading out of the room containing the unorganized Covenant weapons cache and the deceased Hunters, he noticed several red dots had appeared on his HUD. He ducked behind a shining purple communications device, similar in size to the boxes of Covenant weapons. From around the next bend emerged a squad of Covenant Grunts led by a single veteran Elite. The Chief knew from experience that a single Elite leading a squad of Grunts could be as deadly as a pair of Hunters. The Elite warriors stood eight feet tall, were nearly as strong as the Chief even with his strength amplifying armor and his physical augmentations, and were brilliant on the battlefield. Their elongated heads and small black eyes gave them a threatening appearance. This particular Elite's face seemed to scowl in disapproval of the Grunts he was currently in command of, and his four mandibles spread loosely outward from his face, bristling with shark like teeth. A single veteran Elite could hold his own against ten Human Marines, and when leading a squad of Jackals or Grunts, could overwhelm enemies with extremely superior numbers. The Grunts on the other hand were relatively weak, stood four feet tall, and would panic if their leader were killed. The Grunts tended to fight in large groups of hundreds or thousands on the battlefield to overwhelm their enemies, or fought in small squads lead by an Elite.
The Chief knew that a firefight was inevitable, and once more pitied the Covenant soldiers he was up against. He sprung from his cover, and threw an armed plasma grenade with as much force as he could summon using his enhanced muscles and his MJOLNIR armor system. The grenade struck the Elite leader, knocking him back two feet before he regained balance, and slightly damaged his personal energy shields. The grenade adhered to the Elite by recognizing the heat given off by his body, and exploded shortly after. The Elite flipped over backwards, sending him flying through the air and planting him firmly on another Covenant weapon crate. Purple grime dripped from the body, and the armor on his backed smoked due to the destroyed shield generator. The Grunts whimpered and barked, running in every direction. The Chief's translation software was only able to translate a few of the noises that sputtered from the Grunts rebreathers. The Master Chief heard "Elite dead!" "RUN!" and "We're all gunna die!" through the speakers on the inside of his helmet. The Chief watched them scatter in every direction, and figured it would be a waste of time and ammo to track them down, since they posed no real threat in this state, and there were no other Marines around for them to bother.
The bent hallway led the Chief to the next room. A large beam of white/blue light shot up from a depression in the floor, and penetrated the ceiling. A metal structure formed around the beam dominated the center of the chamber. The Chief could feel the static charges build up inside of him through his armor as the deep rumble of the beam sounded throughout the room. Surprisingly, the area was clear, and he had no time to stop and marvel at the beam's strangely frightening beauty. He pressed on, and entered the next bent hallway.
The Chief looked into the next room, obeying the threat warnings indicated by his motion sensor, and saw a large beetle fly across the length of the chamber. He quickly noticed a dozen more of the creatures, and pondered what his next move would be. The creatures were Drones, and preferred to fight only among their own kind. They wielded glowing plasma pistols, and were incredibly intelligent, although they suffer from a lack of short term memory storage. They could fly for half a mile without stopping, and were excellent shots. The Chief was unfortunate to test their accuracy earlier than expected, for the creatures had noticed him.
The Chief took three splashes of green plasma to the chest, but his shield absorbed the damage, and he ducked to the side of the doorway and threw a plasma grenade. He waited for the explosion, keeping out of sight to avoid the small round blobs of superheated plasma that flew through the doorway. He heard the flutter of wings and loud bang rebounded off the walls, followed by the crackle of the scorched ground and the sudden transfer of heat to the surrounding air. A squealing sound came from the room followed by a rapid clicking. The noise notified the Chief that he had at least wounded one of the beetles, and cued his attack. He ran in, purple needles glowing as they slid out of his weapon. The beetles were pierced and torn by the explosive needles, resulting in one more victory for the Chief.
The next door led him outside of the ancient Forerunner structure, and brought him into contact with two Jackals. Their birdlike appearance made them one of the strangest looking soldiers recruited into the Covenant's army. The Chief noticed their large red eyes, and ear holes on the Jackal lacking a helmet. They boasted the soldier's superior senses. This one had green skin, dotted with spots of gray. It carried a glowing white/blue energy shield on its right wrist, and a plasma pistol in the other. The other Jackal was armed in the same manner, but it had blood red skin, dotted with dark orange spots. Its helmet concealed its beak, and its extremely sensitive nostrils. Their heads darted from one position to the next in a twitchy, raptor-like manner as they gazed into the jungle that lay ahead of the Chief. He leaped forward, bringing the top side of the needler into the green Jackal's unprotected back. Once the gun had been ripped away from the creature's bleeding body, the needles began to glow red, and exploded all at once, laying waste to the beast. The next creature went down before it could comprehend what had just happened to its partner. The Chief threw the empty needler at the back of the Jackal's head, crushing the gray metal helmet and the creature's skull. The Chief briefly looked at the bleeding red Jackal, and then to the crushed, gore covered rib cage that remained of the green Jackal. The route to the landing zone where a Pelican dropship awaited him would present a relatively low level of enemy resistance, so the Chief relaxed slightly as he made his way through the thick, wet foliage of the alien forest. The Pelican had been sent to pick him up because a UNSC controlled structure was under siege by the Covenant, and they needed all the reinforcements they could get. He had to abandon his current mission and immediately engage a massive army of Covenant soldiers, and the Chief needed all the relaxation that time would allow.
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