Prologue :The Storm
Lieutenant Corporal Ian Brewster drove the warthog down the broken road of the Tsavo Highway. The M831 TT carried himself, Staff Sergeant Corey Jenkins, Private Barnes, and Corporal Ashley Hikowa. Jenkins had shotgun, Barnes and Hikowa were in the back. They all held MA5's besides Brewster who held a BR55. He was an expert marksman, and at 31 was probably the most skilled on the planet. He pulled up in an area where a crashed pelican was located. The Master Chief strode away from the corpse of a Brute Chieftain. There were three dead marines by a crashed pelican. The Master Chief took their before he engaged the Chieftain.
Commander Miranda Keyes was in a pelican above. She dropped a warthog, as did an additional pelican. The Chief took shotgun as a Lieutenant named Dickson drove. This warthog had the fifty mm chain gun on the back so only one marine could go in back as opposed to the two and two other seats in Brewster's hog.
The Chief's hog took rear as Brewsters was in the middle and another driven by Gunnery Sergeant Benson took 'point'. The warthogs pulled into what used to be a parking lot. The paint and the pavement was still there but marines lay scattered around, dead. The Chief went up a ramp and pushed a button to open the door. In the sky banshees and hornets flew around trying to shoot each other down into a fiery ball of death.
"Go on Chief open the door." Ian said to him. The chief put his hand on a green switch and pushed down. His hand came off it and it melted to yellow. The door opened and the chief looked back.
"Let's do this."he said, then entered.
"Ian!" a voice came from the rear. It was Martin, Ian's little brother. He ran up to Ian and struck up a salute. Martin looked up to his brother, he had ever since Ian saved his life from a group of bullies. Ian was sixteen and Martin was fourteen. Ian stomped out all five of Martins Bullies.
"At ease brother." Brewster said.
"Sir. Yes sir."he said. They went inside to hear gun and plasma fire already. The Chief was on the other side of the door. Jenkins yelled up through an opening, "Alright Chief open up, so we can roll on through."
The Chief reached out to another green button. It also changed colors to yellow, and another door opened. Ian drove and his brother took gunner. Jenkins was at shotgun. Martin opened up fire and tore into the group of grunts ahead. A mass of blue blood erupted from the trio and the all fell to the floor, their beady red eyes turned black. Martin turned to look up at the walkway. Jackals with blue shields, and one with a purple shield were up top. He reigned fire upon the four jackals and one without its shield covering its mid-section was raped with bullets. Purple blood spattered across the wall behind it. One blue-shielded Jackal and the Purple shielded jackal made a run for it. Jenkins tossed a grenade in front of them and before they had time to react they were rag-dolling it to the floor. The last jackal had snuck away at the distraction of his brethren' death. It snuck around the side and took the first human casualty of the engagement. A private named Principe took a plasma bolt to the side of the head. It fused his over-length hair to his face and ears. He clawed at the mortal wound but to no avail. Eventually Principe crumpled to the floor, dead.
The Chief put an M6 pistol to the back of the murdering jackals head and put a bullet cleanly through its skull. Then he opened a second set of doors. There was a brute standing over three civilians, they had black spikes sticking out of their backs. They wore green jumpsuits and yellow helmets. But they were dead. Four jackals ran towards the aliens and four plasma bolts streaked through the crowd of marines. Two marines fell, and the warthog was temporarily disabled. A plasma grenade from an overanxious grunt landed on the furthest jackal. The marines fell back shooting at the new threat. It stumbled forward and then was engulfed in a magnificent explosion of white and blue light. The other jackals and a marine named Allen were also engulfed.
The warthog started up again and it tore into the crunchy group of grunts. They were hit and throttled to death. Then only two brutes remained. Brewster opened up upon the two focusing on the captain. Its brute shot sent three grenades into the ceiling and it fell to the ground and drowned in a pool of its own blood. Then the chain gun picked on the brute minor. Its armor failed and the brute ripped it off. Then it went berserk, and jumped on the warthog, and grabbed and pulled Jenkins out and threw him out towards the pair of ghosts lined up on the far wall. He leaned against the ghost. He crawled up it as he watched the brute do a number on the hog, smashing in the hood and whatnot. Jenkins slid into the pilots seat and hit the accelerator button. The ghost rose and sped toward the newly grounded brute. He hit it full force and sent it flying into the wall. The Master Chief looked to him and gave him a nod of the head and a Spartan smile.
He then walked over to the door and opened it, and then mounted up on the other ghost.
"Think you can do that again?"he asked Jenkins.
"No problem sir,"Jenkins replied. "Just give me cover." He hit the accelerator button again after pulling out into the open. He saw two targets ahead. A gold armored brute captain and an orange armored grunt. He once again went full speed into the pair. The brute immediately hit the ground incapacitated, but the grunts methane tank loosened and came off. Jenkins was immediately hit with a rush of cold air. It was the methane. The corpse went flying in the air and landed on top of a crate. They went between a pair of crates and onto a dock. There were marines retreating from a building on the dock. A phantom loomed overhead shooting at the fleeing humans. A brute with a brute shot repeatedly projecting grenades. Of the seven marines that retreated, two remained. They were Corporal Ashley Hikowa, and Private Tyler Courtney. They rushed to take cover behind the warthog. The Master Chief went to the building, and jumped up. He stuck the brute with a plasma grenade. It put the brute shot on its back and jumped in the air, berserk. But it was too late as a splash of blue and white light took its life. The brute flew through the air and landed on the hood of the warthog. The two survivors that weren't eaten up by the brute shots pulled the carcass off. It hit the ground and purplish-red blood squirted out.
"Eww."Hikowa said. Her sister was a lieutenant under the great Captain Keyes, she was onboard the Pillar of Autumn when it crashed. When the Master Chief came back he said everything was obliterated. So all active crew members on the Autumn were flagged K.I.A. and that meant Ashley's sister. She mourned for all of a week but then signed up for the corps to redeem her family name.
She had been in the marines for about four months now, since October 2552. Now it was February 2553. The escape from the Crow's Nest was a horror for her. She lost all in her platoon besides Private Courtney, and they had survived again. She walked over to Courtney, and gave him a big hug.
"Don't die on me."she said.
"You can bet on that."was his reply. By that time the Chief had destroyed all non-human life on the building. The Brewster brothers and Jenkins went into the ground area for a fight with the covenant ghosts. The rest went to the top of the dock building. They stood on top while the Chief sniped out the gunners of both wraiths. The regular wraith wasn't too fond of this and it retaliated. A giant mortar bomb soared to the building and there wasn't much cover. Courtney was stunned, and to save his life Hikowa jumped and tackled him down the stairs. This was just as the bomb hit. A pair of marines flew out of the dock area into the muddy ground below, one had no limbs, and one had all his limbs melted together.
"What are you doing?" Hikowa asked Courtney
"What?"he asked back.
"When something like that is coming, you move and fast. Do you understand me?"she asked.
"Y..Yes ma'am."he said. She stared him down for some time and then picked him up. They went back up. A Lieutenant named Benson had been splashed on the leg, and it fused his pant leg to his shin. He groaned in pain until Hikowa revealed she was a medic. She tried to help but the cloth was melted under his skin.
"I think it's touching bone!"he said.
"We can't do anything until evac arrives." Hikowa told him. Below a miniature war was going on. A warthog and a ghost versus two wraiths and multiple ghosts, being provided by phantoms.
Jenkins hit the accelerator and slammed into a fallen grunt, it jumped out of its ghost in time before it exploded. Jenkins pinned it against a wall. The two Brewsters moved the warthog gracefully. They downed half a dozen ghosts and took the anti-aircraft wraith's pilot as well, which opened the door for the chief to end its reign of terror.
Another explosion up top on the dock sent a mixture of marines, jackals and grunts flying through the air. Hikowa and Courtney were okay as was Benson. They had taken refuge in the building code-named Alpha Base. There was a whole lot of BR55's in a dispersal container, and it didn't only hold the rifles but it made a very good blockade for the door. Along with the temporary blockade, they found some deployable cover shields, from brutes previously fallen. They set them up against the windows and the roof. There were twelve, so they put them in the most logical places after the windows.
Jenkins went up to the door following the Chief and Lt. Corp. Brewster and Pv. Brewster. He looked on as the Chief quickly killed everything in his path. They trio followed, and quickly they were cut down from three to one as a stealthy brute took both Brewsters and incapacitated them by choking them out. He dragged the siblings up the stairs and tossed them in an empty room where they stayed with three others. POW's, prisoners of war.
"You are being kept alive at the blessing of the Prophets. If but one of you leave this room, we will lock it and set the jackals on you." The Chieftain said. He walked out and the door shut.
Jenkins pushed through up the back stairs, and saw that same Chieftain had stood its ground against the Master Chief, and failed. It lay slain upon the cold metal floor. Other Brutes were propped up against the wall. All had bullet holes in their heads. Jenkins stared in pure veneration at how the Chief had accomplished this almost impossible task.
"How?" he asked.
"The life of a Spartan."MC replied, and they moved on, and also released the prisoners. The Chief led them through another death-trap in which all but a Staff Sergeant Kevin Rabozza had survived. They had been hiding in a building on the dock, then a wraith sent a mortar round, which eight of the nine marines presently stationed there were burned into nothing.
Lance Corporal Ashley Hikowa emptied her MA5 Assault rifle into the nearest grunt and then kicked a jackal back, immediately after she sent a bullet into its skull. The energy shield that was protecting it failed, probably connected to a heart rate monitor or something. She walked over to a lot of barrels, and saw a marine cowering behind them.
"What are you doing?"she asked him. He was a Private, first class.
"Hiding, duh."he said.
"Who are you marine?"
"Tim Barnes private first class,"he said. He held out his hand "A little help?" He asked
"Gladly."she stuck out her arm and he grabbed it. Then, they departed. They got to an open room, with many mongooses. Hikowa jumped on the back of one and hit the ignition. Barnes grabbed a rocket launcher and hopped on back. A man with dark skin approached. He had orange glasses, and a radio on his back.
"Alright marines, it is time to show our true colors. There is a pair of anti-air craft wraiths out there and they are cruising for a bruising am I right?"Staff Sergeant Kevin Rabozza asked
"Sir, yes sir!"all replied.
"Alright then, it will be a priority to aim at the rear of them, if you get back there, it is an easy one hit kill." he said.
"One more thing marines, this one... THIS ONE'S FOR EARTH!!"he cheered and all the rest cheered with him. The Master Chief approached and they began their attack. Master Chief drove the Staff Sergeant around. He aimed steadily and achieved the one-hit kill he had previously talked about. The gold-brown wraith erupted into the blue flames of plasma.
"One wraith down."Rabozza yelled.
"Way to go Rabozza, when we get some downtime I'm getting you a drink."Echoed the voice of Lieutenant Joseph Porrier.
"I'm holding you to that."Rabozza said. They moved on to the flaming wreckage of the second anti-aircraft wraith. Then the voice of Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson rang through the microphones on the Master Chief's armor.
"Good work Chief. Both anti-aircrafts destroyed... Hold on Chief, got something big moving towards your location."
"What is coming?" Rabozza asked the Chief.
"I'm not sure, but if it's that big on my motion tracker I'd have to assume it's a Scarab."John said. Rabozza knew all about scarabs. He was stationed in New Mombasa, during the Battle for Mombasa, which only ended through the destruction of one. He hoped if they could destroy this scarab, then the war would end.
"Scarab inbound!" A man with an Aussie accent yelled.
"Lets do this Chief." he said. Then a giant purple machine crept over the building tops. It crashed down destroying a flipped warthog. Missile pods launched multiple projectiles at the scarab. They impacted all around and killed off most of the grunts.
The Chief went up a ramp to where the Missile pods were located. He was at the far end, around where they had entered. The scarab spotted and identified the Chief and sent a beam of hot green plasma his way. He revved the engine and took off at thirty miles an hour. They went through a patch of cover, the beam followed, and wiped out the marines posted up there. Rabozza looked back and saw the men behind him burn and melt. The Chief hit the brakes and slid sideways to a lift.
"Do you trust me?" he asked Rabozza.
"Sir. Yes sir!" Rabozza said. He snapped a salute.
"Then lets down that giant."
"The bigger they are the harder they fall." Rabozza flashed a smile. The Chief pulled over to the lift. He took his hand off the acceleration handle, and hit a green button. The green faded to yellow and they began their ascent.
They rose to the top, and the Chief turned to face Rabozza.
"Give me your launcher, take that sniper rifle and give me cover."the Chief said.
"Yes sir, but what are you planning on doing?" he asked.
"Just watch me." the Chief said. Rabozza took cover and aimed. He took out some Jackals that were on the scarab, then he watched the Chief.
Once again he revved the engine, and took off. He went off the crane, just as the scarab fired at him. He jumped off the mongoose a second before it exploded in a fury of green light. He looked at his "LZ". There was a brute right beneath it. He kicked it and it flew off the scarab waving its arms as it fell to its gruesome death.
The Chief ran to where the core of the scarab was. Rabozza put his finger on the trigger. The Chief saw two brutes. He ran and kick one, then jumped backwards. The brute fell to its knees. The Chief took this opportunity to run off the back of the fallen brute. He jumped high in the air and spun around to face the enormous threat. He fired one shot, and it soared right into the core. It exploded, and the Chief landed. He stood and then ran as fast as he could.
He jumped again, just as a blue and white explosion absorbed everything in a ten meter diameter. It was a huge explosion. Marines hid in exposed pipes and prayed not to be killed. The Chief lay on the ground. Rabozza approached him, and took a knee next to him.
"Chief?" he asked the unmoving Spartan.
"I'm good,"he said "That was a huge explosion."
"I know, I saw. Good dodge."Rabozza said.
"Let's move, Phantoms are going to be here any minute, we have to take cover." the Chief said. They went up the ramp. The burnt corpses of marines fallen smelled terrible. They hurried toward the door, where Lance Corporal Hikowa stood at the door waving comrades through.
Staff Sergeant Jeremy Hutchings and Corporal John Gibbs were ODST to the bone, but there were no operations in need of ODST help so they donned regular marine attire and stood by the chief. They were on an upper walkway when the brutes came. There were two, a gold armored brute, and a lower ranked- teal armored brute. The Captain(Gold) had a brute shot and let grenade after grenade fly. Hutchings dodged each while Gibbs took cover.
Hutchings ran up to the brute and delivered a swift kick to its knee. This did no good though as the brute just picked him up and tossed him to the floor below.
"Ahh! Shit!" Hutchings yelled.
"Hutchings!" Gibbs yelled. He put his sidearm on the holster on his leg. Then he pulled out a shotgun. He put three shells in and pumped it. He ran up to the brute captain and fired one shot directly into the chest. It's armor shattered and fell off. It smacked him and he flew into the railing, his shotgun sliding just out of reach.
The brute slowly walked up and went face to face with him. He almost had a breakdown, but remembered the M6 pistol on his leg. The brute had poor eye-sight, and couldn't see the pitiful human reaching for its weapon.
"Listen here mother fucker, you will never take earth and you will never kill me." he said. The brute's translation system was still active and he snorted out a laugh.
"Vile scum, you will die today, and earth will fall." the brute lifted his head and let out a howl.
"That's what you think you dumb fucking ape." he put the gun under it s chin and pulled the trigger three times, and purple-red blood spattered out of the brute's head, and it collapsed. Gibbs rolled away just in time so he wouldn't be crushed.
He grabbed the shotgun and saw the other brute dead on the ground. The Master Chief standing over the body. He smiled half-heartedly. He disliked the UNSC for creating the Spartans, he thought it was wrong., They could have abducted his cousin for all he knows, since his cousin died of a disease that weakened his immune system, then killed him. He wasn't sure what exactly killed his cousin, but he didn't really care at the moment. So he moved on and approached the chief.
"Nice one Chief!" He yelled. The Chief looked over to the big doorway about thirty meters ahead and saw two marines running for their lives. It was Hutchings and a private . Behind them were a pack of brutes. The Captain ran up behind the private and hit him with the brute shot. He crumpled to the floor and slid, still keeping up with Hutchings. He looked down to see and then back and saw the Captain in pursuit.
"Chief, watch and learn." Gibbs said. He jumped over the railing and landed on the brute. Hutchings turned around and saw the other brutes readying their weapons.
"Gibbs, take cover!" Hutchings yelled. Gibbs grabbed the helmet and swung around breaking the brute's neck. He stood pushing against the brutes weight, using him as a shield. Spiker rounds tore into the carcass, and when they stopped, Gibbs sprinted for the stairs. He ran up them to see the Chief dive off the catwalk and wreak havoc unto the enemy.
He dove off and rolled into a landing. A brute ran up but the chief grabbed his arms and took the spiker. He put it to the head off the brute and then fired non-stop. It fell to the floor and then the chief dropped the spiker.
He ran into the next room to see a brute captain punch a civilian in the head so hard, that his head detached from his neck. The Arbiter came up from behind.
"Those damn brutes, when will it end?"the Arbiter said
"When its over." The Chief said. He ran in and put his assault rifle to shredder rounds. Twenty-five rounds a second tore into the captain and in about three seconds it fell. The Chief reloaded and then saw out of the corner of his eye a pair of brutes on top of a traxus container. They began firing upon the marines. One poor guy took five consecutive spiker rounds to the face and neck. The Chief then proceeded to toss a frag grenade up top to the brutes and it exploded blowing off their armor and then the shrapnel took them out.
He charged into the next part of the warehouse just in time to see the Hunters fuel rod cannon destroy some fusion cores and kill about seven or eight fleeing civilians. The Chief ran up to one and stuck it with a plasma grenade. It exploded and the back of the hunters armor blew off. He took out his assault rifle and began to shred through the worms that made a hunter up.
The other hunter was preoccupied with Gibbs and Hutchings. Gibbs fired his shotgun once to no avail, it was stopped by the massive shield on the hunters arm. All of a sudden, Staff Sergeant Rabozza came up with a frag grenade and stuck it inside the beast. He ran and ducked behind a crate, and orange blood went everywhere. The armor lay on the floor empty of any life. The Chief was smashed against a traxus container by the mighty hunter, he was cornered he couldn't do anything. He was screwed.
The fuel rod cannon on its arm glowed bright green and then it faded as the hunter dropped. Gibbs and Rabozza stood behind it with their shotguns smoking from the kill.
"Thank you both." The Master Chief said.
"No problem Chief anytime."Rabozza said.
"Let's get that gun men!" Hutchings yelled. The marines and surviving civilians lined up in the door way. The Covenant had put three brutes, two brutes with carbines and a chieftain armed with a gravity bending hammer. The cannon-fodder grunts lined up for the charge.
"Get ready men!" Gibbs yelled. The humans lined up firearms at hand. The Master Chief, Hutchings and Jenkins stayed behind and armed themselves with battle rifles.
"Charge!" Gibbs yelled. Brute shots fired killing a large percentage of the marines, Gibbs dove away behind a cement roadblock. The Carbine brutes also downed a handful of marines. The trio of battle rifle wielders fired through killing the grunts and two brutes with brute shots. One remained, and the Chief noticed that Gibbs disappeared. Suddenly two shots rang out and both brute snipers fell. They were downed by Gibbs who found a Sniper rifle. Two more shots rang out and the last brute fell leaving the chieftain to hold his own.
There were three civilians left and the chieftain charged and swung the hammer, bending the gravity around the men. One's head exploded as the other two twisted into odd shapes before all went flying in different directions. The Chieftain then charged, John quickly took out his assault rifle, it was previously set to shredder rounds and he kept it that way. His weapon tore through the chieftains armor causing it to fail.
"Jenkins! Now!" the Chief yelled and Jenkins fired off a three round burst into the chieftains skull. It collapsed and blood began to drain from its head. The group ran and took cover behind roadblocks. The remaining brutes were disgruntled at the fact that thier leader had been killed. There were two up front and three in the rear. The front brutes had carbines, and the back brutes had spikers and one brute shot.
Gibbs peered over the top of the roadblock and spiker rounds immidiatley flooded toward him. He ducked just in time and rolled off to the side, primed a grenade and tossed it at the brutes. They dove off the the side and Rabozza filled one with a full round of assault rifle rounds. It's shields flicked and failed. Refusing to reload, Rabozza took out his pistol and shot the brute three times in the chest as it rose. It got down on one knee. Then stood. The beast roared in anger, pain, and sorrow and threw itself in the air at Rabozza. He filled it with the rest of the magnum clip. By the time it reached him it was dead.
The back brutes stormed the front as the three marines fell back to a couple of dumpsters. They looked around but couldn't spot the Chief. Then Gibbs saw it. He saw the Master Chief. He jumped down behind the brutes with the chieftains hammer. John swung the hammer, and three brutes went flying in the air. After that the remaining brute snarled and began to retreat... Right towards Gibbs, Jenkins and Rabozza. They opened fire. The brute crumpled to the ground.
"Chief, we are gonna fall back for ammunition and other things." Gibbs said.
"Affirmative, good luck marines." The Chief said.
The marines went back through the door, carefully stepping over the corpses of the hunters and brutes that they had felled. They began to strip ammunition from all their fallen comrades. They turned a corner to find Staff Sergeant in a struggle with a jackal. They were in hand to hand combat, and at this point the jackal was winning, Gibbs aimed his battle rifle at the jackal's head. Purple gore spattered Hutchings face and body.
"Aw, C'mon I was winning guys." Hutchings said.
"Crazy son of a bitch." Gibbs said. The two stared at each other, and then at the jackal. They both broke out into laughter. Rabozza and Jenkins also looked at each other. But this was in confusion.
"I don't want to know." Jenkins said.
"I know you wouldn't." Gibbs replied.
The group moved on and eventually found Hikowa, and the Brewsters. Then they made their way over to the dead scarab. They walked down to it and began to scavange further. Until they came across a mongoose skeleton and a trio of fallen marines, skin burned and blood everwhere.
"Jesus," Hutchings said.
"I hope they were already dead," Hikowa said. "That would be horrific." In the distance they saw the BFG explode.
"Well, the Chief just won." Rabozza said. The following moments showed many UNSC frigates firing upon the Dreadnought in the distance. After that, a portal opened.
"This doesn't look too good." Lieutenant Brewster said.
"You know it, look at that." Hikowa said. A portal opened up in the sky and a covenant cruiser tore out of the sky.
"Oh, shit. That's coming right for us!" Private Brewster yelled. The group began running for the top of the hill. The cruiser crashed right into the remains of the scarab. That's where they were right before. The explosion shook the canyon to kingdom come, and when Rabozza turned around he saw the outlines of Hikowa and Lieutenant Brewster flash away, and disappear.
"Report!" Rabozza yelled.
"Jeremy!" Gibbs looked around.
"Gibbs! Help me! I'm hanging on the edge!" Gibbs ran over to see Hutchings dangling on the edge. He reached an arm down and pulled him up.
"So then, casualties include Lieutenant Brewster, Corporal Hikowa and almost Staff Sergeant Hutchings." Rabozza said.
"Yeah, so then...What's next?" Gibbs asked.
"Just look over there and see." Hutchings said.
"The flood..." Brewster said.
A-N
I was Originally Barrick, so don't think im copying his story. The Original was a bit weak to me so i whipped this puppy up and now i'm making changes to the other chapters that were published then. This is pretty much about after the Human-Covenant War, besides Prologues Part I and II. Part Two Soon to Come.
