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Halo: A Novelization Chapter 2: AIs and Cyborgs First!
Posted By: strategyfreak<strategyfreak2002@yahoo.com>
Date: 19 September 2002, 8:50 pm
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“Captain Keyes…”
“Good to see you, Master Chief.” replied Captain Keyes. He turned to Cortana. “Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance.”
Cortana pointed to a tactical display. “A dozen Covenant ships versus a single Halcyon-class cruiser. With those odds, 3 or 4 kills would be a miracle, but this is one of the best ships the UNSC has,” She turned and looked at the Master Chief. “Sleep well?”
“No thanks you your driving, yes.” The Chief answered.
“So you did miss me-“ Cortana’s sentence was cut short as a powerful explosion rocked the ship.
“Damage report!” yelled the Captain.
“Sir, it seems as if the explosion was planted by a Covenant boarding party. Maybe an antimatter charge! We’ve lost control of the MAC gun! Hull breaches on decks D, C, and G! Sealing those areas now,” A lieutenant tapped furiously on a keypad while checking the main view screen.
“Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option!” Cortana began looking anxiously at the Captain.
“Alright, that’s enough. I’m initiating Cole Protocol Article 2. We’re abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana.” The Captain began to press buttons on a keypad near the AI hologram pedestal.
“What are going to do, go down with the ship?” Cortana asked sarcastically.
The Captain did not catch the sarcasm in Cortana’s voice. “In a matter of speaking. This ring we found. I’m going to try to land the ship on it,” He pointed toward Halo. “Cortana, see if it can sustain human life and focus the long range cameras on it.”
“Refocusing cameras now. Scanning atmosphere and environment,” Cortana paused in concentration for a moment, and then spoke again. “The atmosphere seems to be hospitable, and the temperatures are also within acceptable limits. Care to take a look?”
The Chief watched as a giant portion of Halo appeared on the main view screen. He saw rivers, lakes, and mountains. However, on the other side of the ring, there were symbols and other markings. To him, it was completely artificial, and from the way the Covenant tried to prevent the Humans from landing on it, contained something as dangerous as the Covenant. After a while, Cortana spoke.
“With all due respect, Captain, this war has enough dead heroes. Going down there with the ship is suicide.”
The Captain knew that. However, the capture of Cortana was unacceptable. “I appreciate your concern, but the Cole Protocol states that the capture of an AI is not allowed, and it is for the safety of Earth. I want you to scan for possible landing areas, and upload them to my neural interface. Then shut down and prepare for transfer to the Master Chief’s suit.”
“Yes sir,” The holographic image faded from the pedestal. Before Keyes could pull the memory cube out, Cortana spoke again. “The Autumn will continue automatic evasion maneuvers until you take manual control of the ship.”
“Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you.” The Captain pushed a button on the AI pedestal and pulled the memory cube out. He handed the cube to the Chief, who quickly put it in his helmet. When the cube was in his helmet, the Chief felt a strange presence in the back of his mind. It felt as if Cortana was actually inside his head.
So, your suit’s architecture isn’t too different from the Autumn’s. Cortana’s voice was not coming from the suit’s speakers, but from his mind itself. It was odd, and quite surprising the first time it had happen to him. However, he knew that he would be working with Cortana much more, so he had to get used to it. He knew Cortana couldn’t control his suit, but she could do some strange things to him, so he had to make sure that he was the one in charge.
“Don’t get any funny ideas, Cortana.”
Keyes pulled out his pistol and handed it to the Master Chief. “I know that you need a weapon, so this will have to do for now. I don’t keep it loaded for safety’s sake, so you’ll have to find rounds as you go.” The Captain turned to an officer to hear the details of the fight to save the Autumn. From what the Chief heard, the fight was not going well and the Covenant would soon be in control of the ship. If that happened, the Captain’s plan would fail.
The Chief walked off the bridge, and found a pistol from a dead Marine. He continued down the hallway. When he rounded a corner, he found several grunts standing over a dead Marine.
“What is it? If it’s dead, I get its helmet!” A grunt reached for the helmet.
Another grunt grabbed the helmet away. “No, no, I want the helmet! You get the gun!”
The first grunt reached for the Marine’s gun, and it looked at the shotgun, the barrel pointed at the Grunt’s head. “Ooooooh! Look at the nice and shiny gun!” yelled the Grunt, obviously satisfied by the weapon. The Master Chief, who was disgusted by the Grunts, ran completely around the corner, surprising the Grunts.
“Bad Cyborg!” the Grunt with the helmet began to run down the hallway while the other grunt, quite interested in staring down the barrel of the shotgun, continued to admire its newly acquired weapon. The Chief pulled the trigger on the shotgun, killing the Grunt. The other Grunt was still running in circles, screaming for help. He pulled out the pistol Keyes had given him, and with a quick headshot, he gave the Grunt .45 caliber brain surgery. After walking further down the hallway, he entered the Cafeteria, where there were two Marines fighting off several Elites and Grunts.
“Covering fire! Watch out for those Elites.”
“I know, I know! Grenaaaade!”
There was a sudden wave of chatter on the COM system as a squad of Marines chased two Elites into the Cafeteria. The Chief dove behind a table when a Grunt threw a grenade into the air. It bounced once, and then landed on the ground. The three-second fuse burned down, until a plasma explosion flipped a table into the air, landing on the unsuspecting Master Chief. The table weighed over 60 kilograms, but with the MJOLNIR armor, the table could be lifted easily. He grabbed the table with his hands, and used it as a melee weapon, swinging it at the Covenant forces. The Grunts ducked the swing, but the Elites, all being well over eight feet, could not get out of the way in time. Their shields flicked out, allowing the next swing to smash them to the ground, killing most of the Elites, and the ones that survived were wounded, allowing a grenade put them to rest.
The Grunts, being the cowardly aliens they were, began to run around in circles, screaming and yelling. The Chief pulled out a plasma grenade, stuck it to one of the Grunts, and then ran out the other side of the Cafeteria.
What was that for? That grenade could have killed you! Grunts aren’t that stupid, you know. You really should be more careful about those things. Cortana muttered, quite angry with the Chief.
“Well, my idea of combat is not about hiding. If I didn’t stick a grenade to that Grunt, we would have been stuck in the Cafeteria for a very long time. Now, I need to know whether to go right or left. I don’t know this ship too well.” The Chief asked when they had come to a split in a hallway.
Going right will lead to some airlocks. Its possible there still are some life pods left. The Chief followed Cortana’s idea, only to find several Marines standing near the empty airlocks. Suddenly, one of the airlocks started to shake, as if something was trying to get though the sealed doors. The airlock collapsed in as a plasma grenade went off, killing the Marines and throwing parts of the door all over the airlock area. Covenant Grunts streamed out of the airlock and followed by an Elite. They immediately opened fire on the Master Chief, spraying a huge wave of plasma. His shields flared yellow as most of plasma impacted immediately. He ran behind corner, and pulled out his pistol. He slowly looked around the corner, and saw the distinctive armor of the Elite. He fired once, twice, and a third time. The first two rounds bounced off the shield and the third hit the head, killing the alien instantly.
“They got Elite! Run!” A Grunt screeched out its fear in a high-pitched voice, causing a scene of mass panic and chaos. They all ran back into the boarding craft from where they entered the Pillar of Autumn, and then all of the Grunts stood in the boarding craft while quivering with fear. The Chief carefully walked around the corner only to be surprised by the fact that nothing was in the corridor. Then he heard the panicked squeal of a Grunt from the boarding craft, and he quickly tossed a grenade into the airlock. The shockwave of the explosion killed the Grunts, and the Master Chief, fascinated by the Covenant ship, entered the boarding craft.
The ship was mostly empty, except for two clear cubes with a red sphere in the center that sat in a small corner of the ship. They were about 30 centimeters wide and high, and each had what had looked like an energy transfer device. The Chief, confused about the purpose of these cubes, decided to ask Cortana. “What are these things?”
I don’t really know what they are, but I’ll try to find more data on them, Cortana paused as she checked her knowledge on the Covenant. They seem to be an overshield, which will supercharge you shields to 300%. They don’t affect the shield generator, so they will not cause an overload. However, since they don’t affect the generator, the shield cannot be increased back to 300% after the overshield is drained. I suggest you try one of them.
The Chief moved to one of the overshields and picked it up. When he touched it, he heard a strange noise in his helmet and his shield indicator went from blue to red to green. “What was that?” He asked Cortana.
I’ve adjusted your shields indicators for the overshields. Cortana replied.
“Yeah, well tell me what you’re doing next time, I thought the suit had been damaged.” The Chief didn’t like having his suit modified by an AI that was based on a civilian brain. Since the airlocks did not have any lifeboats left, he backtracked to the split in the hallway and took the left. After a short walk, he found an open door and several Marines fighting a large group of Covenant. On the floor was an arrow that pointed into the door and said: “stairs”. The Chief thought that there would be a better chance of finding lifeboats on the upper deck, so he continued into the door. Two Elites noticed him, and shook their fists at the Chief. The rest of the aliens all turned and pointed their plasma weapons at him. There was no way to run, and the narrow hallway provided almost no cover at all. The Chief was trapped. The Covenant opened fire, sending a deadly stream of plasma at the Chief. He was thankful to Cortana for her recommendation to take the overshield. If he hadn’t taken it, he would be dead. His shield indicator was completely empty, and his armor was beginning to take damage. At that moment, two marines appeared behind him, and they began to open fire on the Covenant. The Covenant turned their attention to the Marine, allowing the Chief to take out his assault rifle.
A Grunt was next to the Master Chief, so he kicked it with all the strength he had, sending it flying down the hallway. His heads up display showed that he still had about 180 rounds left in assault rifle ammunition, so he pulled the trigger down completely for 6 seconds, hosing down an Elite and two Grunts. The clip in his assault rifle was empty, but he had no time to reload, so he dropped the assault rifle and pulled out his pistol. He aimed carefully for an Elite’s head, and decapitated it with three shots. He picked up the assault rifle again, and smashed it down on a Grunt, killing it instantly. The rest of the Grunts ran screaming down the hallway, giving the Chief a short moment of respite. He checked his health indicator and it showed 4 yellow bars. He could see some of his blood on the floor and certain parts of his armor was cracked. It was not the best skirmish with the Covenant he had fought, but he didn’t have many options.
He continued down the hallway, only to find more Covenant troops. They were all Grunts, so the Chief easily put them to rest. There was a health pack hanging on a wall, so he stopped for a moment to patch up a gash on his leg that was left from plasma. It was only a quick solution, so he had needed have more serious medical attention when he got to the ring. He proceeded around a corner and heard the sounds of gunfire and talk on the COM system.
I hear the bullets of 7.62-mm armor piercing 12 MA5B assault rifles, and I detect the 150-kilowatt electric discharge from about 20 plasma weapons. Scanning for known Covenant body heat signatures. There are about 3 aliens that have an internal body heat of 30 degrees centigrade. I also detect 17 aliens with a cold area of about à65 degrees centigrade. Cortana said matter-of-factly.
The Chief was thoroughly confused by the AI’s speech. “What do you mean?”
That means that there are 12 Marines, 20 Covenant in total, 3 Elites, and 17 Grunts in the stairwell that’s down this hallway. She announced.
“Cortana, I want you to increase shield strength in front of me. I’m going to try to charge in throw a grenade, and then I will try to make my way up the stairs.”
Yes sir. Do you want an assault rifle with that too? Cortana mumbled sarcastically.
Ignoring the remark, the Chief ran down the hallway, all the while setting the timer on a fragmentation grenade. He had the grenade in his hand and was ready to pull the pin until he saw that the Covenant were on the upper floor, and the Marines were on the lower floor. He quickly skidded to a stop and redirected the throw so that it would not bounce dangerously on the stairwell. It dropped right next to an Elite and exploded, killing the Elite and throwing purple blood on the Master Chief.
Covenant! They are on the landing above us! Cortana reported, albeit too late to help the Chief.
The Chief pulled out his assault rifle and ducked behind a computer console to reload. While pulling out a fresh clip, he asked Cortana a question. “Can you find some lifeboats? Make sure that they are still there this time. I’m not looking forward to be trapped on a doomed ship.”
I’m accessing the ship’s schematics now. There are some airlocks directly to the left of that door up there. There is only one lifepod left there, however. There is another bank of airlocks about 130 meters away. There only way to access those airlocks however, is to use the ship’s maintenance system. The doorway to the system is about 30 meters away. The airlocks are completely surrounded by about 5 Grunts and 2 Elites. Those airlocks still have 3 or 4 lifeboats left there, though. Any fighting will be worth it. I’m putting up two nav points for your information.
“Easy for you to say,” the Chief replied. “I still have to get past these Covenant,” The Chief rolled out from behind the computer terminal and fired at the Grunts, knocking a few from the higher landing. He slung his rifle on his back. “Cortana, I want you to put all shielding to my hands on my mark.”
Ok, just make sure your plan works. The AI seemed skeptical of the Master Chief’s bold idea.
The Chief sprinted up the stairs. “Now!” There was some resistance from the shield as he reached out to the nearest Elite, and grabbed the still firing plasma rifle out of its hands. The shield flicked yellow, but held. He punched with his left arm at the Elite, kicked the remaining Grunts off the platform with his feet, and used his right arm to grab another Elite’s burning plasma rifle. He knocked the Elite out with a blow to the skull, and with some difficulty due to the shield’s resistance, hurled a plasma grenade into a group of Grunts.
“Cortana, adjust the shield back to normal.” The Chief was pleased with the outcome of the battle. When he checked his shield indicator bar, it still read half full. He proceeded down a hallway and though an area splattered with blood. While walking quickly down the hallway, he saw a wide window where there was a clear view of the airlocks near by. Outside of the window, he saw several large explosions as the lifeboats began to blast away from the ship. Two huge blue pulse lasers started to rake the airlock area, scorching the ship and destroying many of the lifepods.
Cortana was surprised at the number of measures the Covenant were taking to keep the humans from landing on the ring. The Covenant really don’t want us on that ring! They had sent huge boarding parties and now they are destroying our lifepods! I suggest that you take the route through the maintenance tunnels to the other airlock. It’s pretty confusing in there, so I’ll turn on your motion tracker to help to give a general idea of where enemies are. However, it won’t detect anything that’s sleeping or standing still, so you’ll still have to be careful. A blue circle appeared on the Master Chief’s HUD. He looked at it and it was mostly clear, except for some marines that were marked yellow. He turned on his built-in flashlight on his suit and stepped into the maintenance tunnels.
The Chief was about 6 feet 5 inches tall and was about 400 pounds with his armor, so he had a hard time walking in the tunnels. He walked as fast as he could down the narrow tunnel, only to find a blocked door with Covenant on the other side.
“Enemy!” A Grunt that had seen the Chief in the tunnels warned its friends. The door was mostly blocked with a broken computer terminal, so the thick metal of the computer absorbed most of the plasma the Grunts shot at him. The Chief aimed carefully through one of the holes in the door, and pulled out his pistol. He waited until the Grunts had forgotten about him, them opened fire with the pistol on full automatic. A stream of bullets pierced a Grunt’s skull, passing straight through and hitting a Grunt behind it, killing both. Taking advantage of the other Grunts’ cowardliness, he looked around the tunnels, trying to find another way out. He spotted an exit about 10 meters to the right, so he hurried to the door and walked out, taking cover behind a corner. When he checked the nav point indicator, it read: 110.23 meters.
A trio of Marines was also standing at the corner, so they started to fire at the Grunts. The Chief grabbed his own assault rifle and finished them off easily. An Elite caught the Marines from behind, smashing its plasma rifle onto the Marine armor. It hit with a clang and forced the Marine onto the floor. The other Marines shot their guns at the Elite, but it was too close. With another powerful swipe, the Elite killed the Marines. The Chief was still about 4 meters away and still checking the Grunts for weaponry when he heard the screams of the Marines. He quickly turned to face the new threat. There was no way he could take it down with an assault rifle in time, so he threw a plasma grenade, and he sprinted right past the alien. The Elite leapt aside, but the grenade was only a distraction. The Chief, with all his superhuman strength, smashed his fist through the shielding, and snapped its spine.
The next area was burned and scorched by multiple explosions. The Chief realized that he was near the Cryo-2 observations deck. There was an Elite and more Grunts standing near several flaming barrels. The Chief had his pistol out when one of the barrels exploded, shaking the ship. The aliens were thrown into the flaming barrels, and they caught on fire. Another barrel exploded, throwing the dead bodies onto a bulkhead. A pair of blast doors closed, containing the fire but trapping the Chief with the still-burning barrels. He saw a maintenance tunnel entrance and not wanting to be fried Spartan, stepped into the tunnels once again.
The trip was mostly uneventful, until his loud boots woke up several Grunts that were sleeping in the maintenance tunnels. “What?” one Grunt looked up, and saw the Master Chief. “Cyborg! Bad Cyborg! Wake up, bad guys-“
The Grunt was stopped in mid-speech when the Chief pulled the methane mask off the Grunt, depriving it of its vital atmospheric element. However, the other grunts had heard the noise, so they ran screaming from the maintenance tunnels, heading for several Elites. Sensing the perfect time for a grenade, he slapped one onto a screaming Grunt and from the yells of pain the Chief heard, the others were all dead.
The Chief exited the tunnels and checked his motion tracker. It read all clear, so he took some time to try and locate his position. He was in a small maintenance area, and on the left wall there was a door that said: “Cryo-2”. The nav point showed that he was about 30 meters away from the nearest lifeboats. The door to Cryo-2 was jammed, so he grabbed his assault rifle and threw the gun at the door. It quickly collapsed, and he walked through the doorway to the other side. As he picked up the gun, he noticed that several Elites were standing near a cryo tube below the observation deck, the exact one he had been in only two hours ago.
Looks like they wanted to catch you napping. Cortana mentioned out loud the Chief’s exact thoughts.
The Chief took a quick glance at the Elites, and then hurried through the other door on the cryo bay. The hallway was empty of Covenant, but when he went around a corner, several Grunts were waiting around, and most were almost half asleep. With a quick sweep of his gun, the Chief knocked the Grunts off their feet. As the struggled to get back up, he fired at the Grunts on full automatic, sending body parts and blue blood everywhere. Two Elites appeared, and once seeing the dead Grunts, checked the area thoroughly for what could have killed them.
The Chief had hidden in a service niche when the Elites began to check the dead Grunts, but when his flashlight turned on, the Elites saw the Chief. The two Elites growled, and they turned, aiming their plasma rifles straight at him. The Chief had his assault rifle out, and he pulled the trigger. He had expected the Elites to be cut down quickly by the assault rifle, but nothing happened. In fact, the only thing Chief heard was a hollow click from his gun before the plasma from the Elites started to slam into his shields. He ducked to avoid a few blasts, and reached into his bandolier of grenades to grab one. To his surprise, it was empty also. The Chief’s pistol still had ammo, but it was molded into a large ball of metal when he had the earlier fight with the Elite. With no weapons, he was not completely helpless, but when he was caught by surprise by the Elites, he had lost more that half of his shield. A frontal attack would be suicidal, but the Elites would kill him if he didn’t do anything anyway. He was sure to die when he realized that the Elite’s shields had vulnerability: plasma pistols.
“Cortana, can a plasma pistol remove an Elite’s shield with an overcharged shot?”
Yes, Chief. The shield generator is temporarily overloaded by the radiation from the plasma-
“That’s all I needed to hear.” The Chief stopped Cortana in mid-sentence and picked up two plasma pistols from several dead Grunts. Holding one in each hand, he increased the power until he began to feel the heat through his gloves. His shield bar was almost empty, and the Chief fired the plasma pistols, each bolt tracking its target. The plasma hit each Elite, and their shield flared momentarily, and went out.
Now, Chief! You only have 20 seconds! Cortana’s voice blasted through his brain, and the Chief fired the plasma pistols as fast as he could, each shot hitting an Elite. With every shot impact, purple blood flew, coating the walls with a disgusting slime. Finally, the Chief charged, punching each Elite, knocking them to the ground. He checked the bodies for grenades and dropped one of the plasma pistols. The Chief kept the other pistol, as he did not have any other working weapons. Besides, he had just seen what they could do to Elites, and he was fascinated by their workings.
When the Chief finished restocking his assault rifle from ammunition from a dead Marine, he remembered that before the fight, his flashlight had turned on. Quite confused, he ordered Cortana to check his suit. “My flashlight had turned on without any explanation. Can you check the wiring of the suit?”
Running diagnostic. It seems as if your suit had taken more damage that I had thought. Certain sections of wiring are damaged. I’ll reroute the system, but you’ll need to have the suit looked over by a technician for further damage. The symbols on his HUD flickered, and then disappeared. After about 10 seconds, the symbols returned, but there was a red warning symbol on the bottom left of the HUD. Don’t worry about that, its only indicating that the control electrical system has lost power, but I just rerouted it.
The Chief found himself about 10 meters away from the airlocks. He heard gunfire and the sound of plasma flying through the air. On one of the airlock doors, he spotted one last lifeboat.
“Chief! Help us get to the lifeboat!” A Marine screamed as the Covenant closed in. The Chief leapt over the Covenant and to the lifeboat doors. He fired the plasma pistol straight at an Elite, stunning it and giving the Marines a chance to hurry to him. The Chief scanned the area, and then prepared to jump into the lifeboat.
“No, don’t hurt me!” The Chief spotted a Marine cornered by three Grunts. He kicked a Grunt out of the way, and grabbed the Marine. He sprayed the area with plasma as he dove into the lifeboat. Two Elites closed in on the pod, each holding a plasma grenade.
“Punch it.” The Chief ordered the pilot. The lifepod blasted away from the ship, leaving the Elites behind.
“We’re disengaged from the ship. Going for minimum safe distance.” The pilot reported.
“Chief, we’re going to make it, right? We’re not going to die out here!” The Marine the Chief had saved apparently had lost his wits, and now was freaking out. The Chief patted him on the shoulder, and moved to the front of the lifepod. Halo appeared, and all the Marines gasped when they saw the giant ringworld.
“What the hell is that thing?” A Marine asked.
“I don’t know what that piece of crap is. What I do know is that we’re landing that thing.” The pilot replied.
The Chief looked out the cockpit window at the Pillar of Autumn. Frequent explosions erupted along her hull, and plasma streaked toward it, with each shot boiling more and more sections of the ship. It was surprising that the ship had made it this far, even more so that it was still intact after the current attacks. There were no more lifeboats coming from the Pillar of Autumn anymore, it was apparent that the Covenant had destroyed all of them.
“The Autumn’s been hit!” The Marine yelled.
“Heads up, everyone. We’re entering the atmosphere in five!” The pilot stared straight ahead at the fast approaching ringworld.
Wouldn’t you take a seat? Cortana asked.
“We’ll be fine.” The Chief answered.
If I still had fingers, they’d be crossed. The lifeboat increased speed as its sides began to glow red-hot. The Chief took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and prepared for a rough landing.
“We’re going in…”
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