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Halo 2: Chapter 2: The 909th
Posted By: Shadowrunner<dg_shadowrunner@hotmail.com>
Date: 21 June 2003, 1:42 AM
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Previously on Halo 2:
"...the door opened, on the other side he saw a giant ball of floating plasma, it was held in place by 3 gigantic magnetic towers. Cortana analyzed the scenario:
"now, if you place charges on one of the towers, the core collapses. But to be sure of a good show, i'd say three towers blowing up was a good beginning?"
"then we agree" Chief replied."
Halo 2: Chapter 2: The 909th
Master Chief carefully placed 1 charge on each of the towers' boltings, in the meantime he thought about his escape... The walls of the ship was too massive for him to remotely detonate the charges so he had to go with timed charges, he set the timers to syncronise at 15 minutes when he activated them. Cortana was a step ahead in the planning:
"Chief, i think i got us a ride... The internal maglev systems are down, so we'll have to use some hallways..."
"just say it, i guess this isn't my day of happy news" Chief said in an ironic voice
"I show one small corridor leading almost to the outer hull. If we can get there and eliminate the nearby gunner positions, we should be able to have a fighter pick us up, when we get on the outside using a rescue hatch located nearby the end of the corridor."
"that's a big tip..."
"I can't find any easier routes, unless, of course, you want to go through the main hangars swarming with Hunters and Elites in this battle situation."
"I was right, this aint my day of happy news" He said while grabbing his stolen Plasma Rifle and activating the charges. They beeped as a result, and Master Chief was already on his way out.
His NAV Pointer showed him to a floor vent, Cortana already had the details
"I'm going to drain your ability to recharge shields and your HUD, while emposing a serious standby mode on the computer system in the suit to boost your strength. Unfortunently that means i'll go on standby, i've set the system to auto wake-up if you call my name. You will have to go left when through the vent and then run a good mile until you're out"
"Allright, do it." Chief said in a faintly uncertain voice. His HUD locked down and cortana went on standby... He gave the floor vent a good kick.The kick was of tremendeous force, so strong, that the vent flew into the opposite wall and made a hole in it. Chief crawled through. He turned left and ran, Cortana had thought of everything; now the extra strength given to him was put to good use in the suits legs... He ran so fast, that he was past the 1 mile in less than 6 minutes.
"Cortana, wake up!"
"System rebooting... Reading recent memory into RAM storage... Flushing caches... System rebooted normally."
"Slept well?"
"No thanks to your driving but yes..."
"Hey that's my line!"
"Sorry, he he, couldn't resist it. My scanners currently show you in the vecinity of at least 3 gunposts, you will have to take care of them before i can call in transport"
"Time?"
"you still have 7:43 left, after that period only emergency light will be on, and life sustaining systems will be cut to a minimum. Nothing we can't handle. But approximately 2-3 minutes thereafter the ship will tear itself apart, because of the loose plasma from the core" Cortana said in a remarkably calm voice. His HUD came online again, and his strength was once again at normal levels. Chief didn't waste any time chattering, he hurried to the first gunpost pointed out by Cortana's NAV Pointer.It was only lightly guarded; 3 Grunts and 2 Jackals were guarding the room with a Blue Elite in the gunnery position. He pulled out his Plasma Grenades and readied one of them, he threw it onto the Elite controlling the cannon from a computer interface. The explosion not only killed the elite, it also rendered the controls completely useless. The big explosion alerted the Jackals and Grunts, but too late, Chief already was on his way slaughtering them with his Plasma Rifle.
The second gunnery position appeared to be an HQ of some kind, multiple Red Elites was walking around the hall, and the air shimmered with many invisible enemies. At least 20 Blue Elites were sitting at the controls, coordinating other gunneries to maximise their effect. Of course there was also an ample support of grunts and Jackals, and a single Hunter.
"So many guards? What could possibly be more important than their own Core?... What's our time limit?" the Chief asked
"4:58, we don't have the time or resources to attack them... Hmmm..."
"What now?"
".. Oh? Nothing i just got a foolish idea..."
"Anything is more clever than fighting these guys"
"Ok, well, i think the reason of these guards is that this is some kind of patrol headquarters... Remember when we first got in? We were jumped so quick i didn't even catch them coming... I believe their defense is very hard at the edge, but very soft and chewy in the center..."
"..."
"I belive this is due to the fact that their strategy is
to counter a bigger boarding party, not a singular indevidual. In any other cases than the present, it would have been a very effective strategy."
"And all of this means?"
"If we blow a hole through their hull, they will think they're under attack and dispatch a large number of guards to that area."
"I'm outta charges, how much firepower do we need?"
"An energy crate blowing up should do it... They will have a stock of them somewhere near such an important installation... Ah, here!" Master Chief, realizing time was falling short, ran all he could onto Cortanas NAV pointer. He never got there... In a corridor short from the patrol post, he met 2 of the monkey creatures, they were carrying two energy packs each. Cortana noted: "Oh, this must be how they move their energy crates about, These hulks must be some kind of workhorse in their infrastructure..."
"Well they save me the for the job of getting those packs here" Master Chief said as he crept into some shadows, waiting to ambush them... They went past him without noticing his faint silhouette. He pulled the trigger but instead of a powerfull plasma blast, it let of some light and a sound telling Chief that he had already used the weapons battery supply. But the 2 monkeys quickly understood something was wrong, and turned around just as he let go of the Plasma rifle and picked up his Battle Rifle. They quickly dumped their packs and rushed for Master Chief. He had a plan... a vague plan, but still a plan. He rushed onto them as well while firing off half a clip of his rifle. Clearly confused by this being who rather than fleeing rushed towards them, Chief was able to dodge their blows, while running between the 2 apes. He quickly turned around and performed a 3-punch combo with his gun, smashing the first one's face into something rather unfamiliar. Seeing his freind slain with such ease brought fear into the heart, if it even had one, of the creature as Chief slowly rised his rifle to aim at it's head. It lay down flat and talked in a strange grunting language.
"I'm afraid i can't translate Chief, that vocabulary is unknown to me..." Master Chief slowly walked around to it's back, asking:
"Can you understand what i am saying to you right now?". The monster made a series of yes-gestures.
"Then go tell the patrol station that a large force of Humans have penetrated your hull in an attempt to board you... I won't shoot you in your back, but you must do exactly as i say, understood?" It showed it's agreement by carefully standing up, turning around and running at full speed towards the HQ.
Chief went behind a corner, and found a place he could hang on to when air was going to be pulled out through the would-be hole. "Timelimit now?"
"1:06... this is gonna be close, what about that final gun station?"
"The person trying to get to us had better be lucky" Chief threw a Plasma Grenade at the energy packs and sought out his place of cover. The blow of the four packs was enough to blow away not just a little part of the wall, but also break into several other floors and make the hull breach there too. "Ok, we better get outta here. In a moment it'll be swarming with covenants in spacesuits" said Cortana. But Chief was already moving to the hatch so he could get out on the hull a little distance from the hole. "Cortana to all fighters in vecinity of the covenant cruiser codenamed the 'Sound Of Silence', need immidiate exfil from succesfull infiltration of the cruisers core!"
It took a while but eventually the radio woke up: "Roger Cortana, wing Alpha-8 of 909th Space Assault Squadron, we're inbound with 4 fighters as soon as the shield is down, over."
"Thanks 909th, i will hack the shield now, by the time their security is up again, the core will be broken, commence your pickup, but be advised: there is an active gunnery post close by."
"Can't you hack the gun as well?" The flight leader asked in a hopefull voice
"No it's using an enclosed system, you will need to rescue us under fire!"
"Negative Cortana, regulation denies that pickup, we can't pick you up until the gun is down..."
"But... This is the last SPARTAN-II! You can't let him die because of a regulation?!?"
"Cortana, what makes you think i believe even a single one of those SPARTAN-II's made it off Reach alive? I was there myself you know!"
Master Chief was getting nerveous: "what's the remaining time untill detonation?"
"Only 12 seconds now... but estimated destruction of the ship will happen in about 2 minutes" Cortana replied, clearly in frustration of the denied pickup.
"What's the average rate of fire on that type of cannon?"Chief sounded a little too optimistic for Cortanas liking
"17,4 seconds, but why would you...?"
"Give me a NAV... NOW"
The NAV popped up in his HUD, the magnetic boots activated, and Master Chief headed for the cannon. Just before he got to it he felt a slight shaking in the ship, and light went out instantly in the windows ahead of him. The core had detonated. Master Chief reached the cannon, and waited untill it fired off a round. He then took all of his Plasma and Frag Grenades and dumped them into the barrel of the cannon. Precisely 17,4 seconds later that part of the ship was raked by a big explosion. "That's it flight leader, the gun is down! ready for immidiate pickup! HURRY!"
"Roger Cortana, we're going in full throttle!"
"Land on the hull of the ship, we will get in through your air lock" Cortana sounded reliefed beyond belief. Less than 40 seconds later the fighter made a harsh touch-down on the purple plankets of the cruiser. Master Chief jumped onto the ship, and ran to the airlock. Safely inside the pilot started the engines and took off at a speed even he didn't think possible, behind the fighter 'Sound Of Silence' was ripped apart by an orange bloom. "Cortana to Admiral Smets, come in Admiral Smets!"
"Yes Cortana?... What is it private? Well if we didn't hit it, someone else must have... What? from the inside?"
"Admiral?"
"Yes?"
"THAT was my rienforcement"
--To be continued
Story by: Shadowrunner
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