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Chapter 2-Explanation/Touchdown
Posted By: Ultra Sonic 007
Date: 8 March 2003, 3:05 PM
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Master Chief nearly froze at Cortana's exclamation. Another life form similar to the Flood?
Great. Just great.
He managed to get a look through Samus' visor, and he saw a hint of curiosity on her face. Not surprising. She was probably curious as to what the Flood were.
Adam's computerized 'eye' blinked several times before the hologram of a Metroid in its first form appeared in front of Master Chief and Samus.
The green upper carapace looked like goop to him, but the mandibles jutting down from the creature looked more menacing.
Adam began explaining.
"The Metroid is a life-form that has the distinct ability of draining an organism's energy merely by attaching itself to said organism with its large, razor-sharp mandibles. How it absorbs energy from the organism is unknown, but it is known that it can kill you within a matter of seconds upon attaching itself to you."
Master Chief could see more connections between Metroids and the Flood with every second that passed by.
"Despite the fact its natural energy producing capabilities represent a great opportunity for peaceful projects, it is possible to use the Metroids as incredibly dangerous weapons of mass destruction. They have several forms of metamorphosis, and it only takes one Metroid to annihilate approximately twenty-four armed soldiers before being defeated."
Like the Flood. Master Chief could find them similar in just about everyway except appearance. And even then, they still looked eerily similar.
"But what are these Flood you speak of?"
Samus could have asked the same question. She was curious as to what kind of connection the artificial intelligence had made between them and the Metroids.
Cortana's figure concentrated for a few seconds as she said, "Hold on. I'm uploading data to your ship's databanks. Give me a second..."
After several seconds passed, Adam's computer eye blinked repeatedly as he brought up a hologram of the Flood infection form.
Samus eyed the balloon-like creature with some worry. The mere sight of it hinted toward it being a heartless creature, much akin to the X parasite.
"According to the data the AI construct uploaded-"
"Hey. I have a name you know. It's Cortana."
"...right. According to the data Cortana uploaded to the Gunship's main computers, the Flood are a parasitic life form capable of mutating sentient bio-forms into warriors and fighters. They spread the spores into your bloodstream upon infecting you, and it turns you into a warrior or worker-class Flood within hours."
Samus was a tad worried by this. It was fortunate these creatures weren't existent in her own galaxy, otherwise the Space Pirates would've most likely have gotten their hands on them by now.
"Worrisome. Apparently, they have been found only on a ring-world known as 'Halo'."
"Bingo. And there's several. One of them is down there."
Samus looked out one of the Gunship's side portholes to see a massive metallic ring. Even more impressive was the fact that a miniature world was on the inside of it.
Of course, she had seen Space Pirates transform the innards of an entire planet into a fortress, so this wasn't something new.
"Whose ships are those?" Adam was curious as to whom they belonged to after he picked them up on his scanners.
"Allow me to answer. Those ships belong to an alien group known as the Covenant. They're in a holy war with humans. However, they've stopped attacking us so they could focus on destroying the Flood. The Flood are a greater threat to them than anything the humans can come up with."
"Interesting. And why are you here?"
Master Chief cocked his MA5B Assault Rifle before saying, "We're here to destroy Halo."
"We can't risk letting the Flood getting a hold of a Covenant cruiser and escaping the ring. That's why the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, has given to us commands to find all of the ring-worlds in the galaxy, then destroy each and every one of them. Plus, with the Covenant down there, it'll not only ease the pressure on the UNSC, but they'll be destroyed when the ring is annihilated as well. Killing two birds with one stone."
Samus nodded. The plan definitely had merit. Although, the Covenant ships would present a big problem if they were found.
There was no choice.
"You're going to have to leave your ship behind in orbit."
John-117 turned and glared at Samus. "And why is that?"
"If we land on the other side of the ring, our ship's will have a 47.5% chance of evading their sensors."
Adam's voice immediately interrupted. "However, this Gunship has highly advanced cloaking technology. Compute the power of the cloaking shields on this Gunship, then factor those in to the equation."
Cortana remained silent as she went over the calculations. Then her shocked eyes revealed that she had been defeated in this computational battle. "After factoring in this ship, our chances of being found drop to a measly 4%..."
Master Chief was impressed. This ship must've had extremely powerful cloaking shields to lower the odds so dramatically.
"What do you say...Master Chief, is it?"
The Chief looked at the computer eye of Adam before nodding. "Let Cortana and me get back to the my ship and hide it."
"Fair enough."
The Spartan II pulled Cortana's core chip out of the Gunship's terminal and prepared to head for the hatch as he gave a piercing glare at Samus.
At the point, it was almost as if they both read each other's minds.
"She doesn't trust me."
----
"He doesn't trust me."
Samus watched as the Master Chief quietly descended through the entry hatch, and it wasn't too long until she could see his figure bounding off the front windshield.
"His battle armor is not too dissimilar to your Fusion suit Lady."
Samus nodded as she clicked a small button on the side of her helmet, switching to her Scan Visor.
She quickly scanned the ship before it moved out of range as it went to hide.
The Flawless Cowboy
This is an old Necron-Class scouting ship, but it has been recently re-armed with technology seen on more recent ships with the United Nations Space Command Fleet. It's underside has been armed with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC), which launches a super-charged projectile, capable of piercing cruisers and frigates. It also has twelve missile ports on its sides, allowing it to hold its own against not only capital ships, but small fighters.
An interesting ship. It seemed quite a large ship to handle by himself.
On the other hand, that AI construct seemed quite capable. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a large task.
She checked over her suit as Adam directed the ship towards the Flawless Cowboy, which had hidden on the surface of a desolate moon.
The Gunship hovered over the surface of the crater-laden moon as the Master Chief made his across the rocky ground, placing himself under the Gunship when its gravity lift pulled him in.
Well. Time to get going.
----
John-117 didn't need to hold himself down as the Gunship quickly and quietly lifted off from the moon, setting its direction to the upper-left portion of the ring.
"According to my scanners, enemy activity is the lowest in that sector."
Cortana had quite a knack for knowing where to go next. Although her rambling would occasionally get on Master Chief's nerves, she was a huge help in foreign territory.
Hopefully, this ring wouldn't be any different from the Halo he was on last time.
As he looked out the right sideport, he could see that unlike the last thing, which was mostly coastal, inland, and arctic environments, this ring-world was more desert-like. There were more islands, and the ocean carved a web through what land mass there was.
Whoever controlled the seas controlled the planet.
That's what it would be like in conventional warfare.
"But this isn't a conventional war." The Spartan II checked the readings on his MJOLNIR battle armor. Shields were at max.
He placed a new clip into his MA5B Assault Rifle as the Gunship began to descend through the atmosphere.
----
The palm fronds rustled with the wind rushing away as the Gunship slowly set down in a small clearing in the oasis. It finally came to a stop, landing on the ground with its retractable landing apparatus.
Samus and the Master Chief were set down upon the sandy ground. Samus began scanning the area while the Chief looked around for any Covenant.
"Covenant activity detected about 35 kilometers eastward. The coordinates on this ring aren't identical to the other one near Threshold. We're going to have to find the control room by accessing the Covenant Battle-net...and unfortunately, I can't access it at the moment. We're going to have to board a Covenant ship and download the data ourselves."
Figures. The Chief sighed as Samus walked up beside him.
"I guess we get going."
Samus nodded as she kept her left hand firmly on her Arm Cannon. "I guess so."
"Well you two, let's set in for the long haul."
The wind began picking up sand and dust as they walked into desert.
----
Adam's computer eye watched with a curious kind of glee. He was very eager to see how Master Chief and Samus would work out.
Yes, if only he could find a way to watch them cooperating against the enemy.
He would find a way. He had to.
To be continued....
In the next chapter, Samus scans the intricacies of Halo while the Master Chief scouts ahead. How will the SPARTAN II and the Bounty Hunter do in their first encounter with a Covenant recon group?
And what exactly does Adam Malkovich gonna do?
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