Chapter 1: The Assault
Master Chief P.O.V.
"Cheif?" the voice asks.
I open my eyes slightly, and am blinded by the light shining upon me.
"Cheif, get up, we're being attacked" says the familiar voice of Cortana.
"Attacked?" I mumble, "By who?, the covenant?" I ask.
"No... we have no idea who it is, even the Arbiter doesn't recognize them" she answers.
"Fuck..." I mumble.
I get up, out of the cold sleep unit, we are on the vessel known as 'The Pillar of Autumn II'
"Chief, look out the window, and you'll see whats attacking" Cortana says.
I nod and walk up to the window and see at least 10 grayish-white, titanic sized ships shooting green lasers at us.
"do we even know if they're human?" I question.
"No... they haven't boarded us yet, although it looks like they're going to try to, thats why we woke you up, we have no idea what they have or what they can do" she answers.
"Best to be prepared" I mutter, and look around.
"So, what do you guys have for me?" I ask.
She smiles, "Well, we updated your armor so the shields are stronger, and it absorbs much more impact, we also updated your helmet with a new targeting system, oh, we also get the old assault rifle back" she says cheerfully.
I smile, then I notice my helmet was off, "Cortana, where's my helmet?"
"Over there" her hologram points to the metal end table beside my cold sleep pod.
I shake my head, feeling somewhat stupid for not realizing it was beside me the whole time, I pick it up, and look at it, it seems they updated the design again.
"We took it off, because we thought your face needed light, you shouldn't saw it, it was pale as snow"
I shrugged and put it on, and it made a clicking sound as I did so. Then my my radar, energy shield level, and targeting system axis appeared before my eyes, they all seemed to be upgraded.
"Wow...nice..." I muttered. Then we heard a gigantic boom echo through the ship and felt the impact of something hit us. They were already here. Cortana and I looked at each other.
"Me in your head, now!" she commanded. She went back into the system, and her hologram turned off, I picked up the disk drive she was in and inserted it to the back of my helmet.
"Good Chief, now go down the hall and to the right should be a weapons locker, grab what you need and go" she commanded.
I did as I was told and went to the locker and got an assault rifle and shotgun.
"Okay, now lets go to the bridge-" "ALL HANDS REPORT TO THE DOCKING BAY TO EVACUATE TO EARTH"
"On second thought, maybe we should go to Earth" she sighed.
I put on the assault rifle onto my back, and wielded the shot gun.
"Chief, I'm getting reports of hostiles closing in on us" warns Cortana
"We'd better go then" I mutter.
I started down the dark hall, only lit up by the bright red coming off the alarm system lights. I continue down the hall, going to the docking area where the the escape pods are. Then, seemingly out of no where, came two soldiers completely dressed in white armor, in helmets that had a skull-like design. They noticed me, and started firing what looked like red lasers at me, I dodged them with ease and took cover against the corner.
"Cortana, after I fry these two assholes, scan them" I said
"No prob Cheif" she answered.
I stayed in my cover, I wasn't going to reveal myself, I wanted to see how intelligent they were in battle. So far they seemed pretty stupid. They haven't even tried to attack me, they just seemed to forget about me and move on. I heard them coming down the hall, they were about to turn the corner where I was at and then I jumped out, and with one clean shot with my shotgun, I plastered them against the wall opposite wall of me.
"Damn, Chief, whatever the hell they were, their armor sucks" Cortana chuckles
"I'd say" I mutter in response as I remove their helmets.
They appear to be human... or at least they resemble humans, but strangely they look like twins. Thats when it hit me, they were clones, bred for battle. That would mean that there will be much more of these guys up ahead.
"Cortana, what the hell are these guys?" I ask.
"Well... at first I thought they were human, but when I scan them, I got negative results, so that means that they're neither human, or anything we or anybody else has ever confronted before... these two are also are clones, they share the same blood type, I found this by examining the blood" she explains.
I nod in response, and examine one of their helmets, it had words on the back of it: 'STORMTROOPER-7432 v3'
"They are clones, on here it says they are called Storm Troopers, they are numbered on these also" I note.
"Either way, I'm adding them to my archive for future reference, the more I find out about these guys, the archive will update automatically" she says.
I nod in response and continue down the hallway. We are not far from the docking room now, it is just down the hallway, then I start hearing talking. I freeze.
"Cortana, how many hostiles are in the area?" I ask.
"Hold on Chief, let me check... holy shit... about 300 hostiles are in the area" she says, dumbfounded.
I sigh.
"Oh wait, most of them are these Storm trooper people we found, so you could easily plow through them" she says, trying to sound cheerful.
"True, but I still want to see the area before I enter" I say, as I open the door a crack to see hundreds of storm troopers standing in a circle, facing the center of the room, apparently listening to someone.
The speaker has a very low, growly voice, we come in while he's in the middle of explaining something, "...and after we take control of this ship, we must get to Earth before Skywalker can warn them of our arrival, remember the main task at hand is to capture this planet so we can use their special beings for the civil war against the Rebellion"
"Damn Chief, did you hear that?" asks Cortana.
I nod, even though their planned attack on Earth did concern me, I was mainly worried on how we didn't know of their existence until just now, and who was Skywalker?, was it a codename? I sneak into the room silently, and climb the on top of the door to get a better view, the speaker was dressed in all black, wearing a full face mask, with what looked like a control panel on his chest, and a cape that reminded me of Dracula.
I was about to get the jump on the crowd, until the man began speaking again.
"You all do know why we took over this ship first, right?" asked the dark man.
"we took over this ship first, because I wanted to get my hands on a super soldier that was reported to be on this ship, in cold sleep, thats why I sent two troops to get him when we first boarded, I hope they weren't too late..." he finishes.
"They were" I say aloud, as I back flip through off the door, with my assault rifle in one hand, and my shot gun in the other.
I start shooting rapidly, everything seemed to be in slow motion, except me. Their bodies were going down really fast, I swear I must've took out at least one third of them while I was in the air. When I landed on the ground, I continued my spree with the shotgun, flipping it around every which way just to kill everyone of them around me.
"Hold your fire!" the man shouted at his troops, and they obeyed.
I looked around, they all did stop shooting at me, then I turn to the area where they were stepping to the side so the man could come through, I saw him coming, and I had both my guns aiming at his face. As he got closer, I felt a strange sense of evil steaming off him, it was odd, even stranger was the sound emitting from his head, it sounded like the oxygen thing scuba divers breath into, then I realized that his suit was a life support system.
"Greetings, my name is Darth Vader" he says, nodding his head slightly.
I nod in response, and he speaks again, "I assume you must've heard much of my plan"
"Yes, Ive heard enough" I mumble.
"Good, then I wont have to explain anything. So, will you come with us quietly, or will I have to get you myself" he says, with a little more evil tone on the last sentence.
I smile, and shoot towards his face, but I stop abruptly to see nothing has happened, I didn't hear any impact with the mask or see him move. But I do see my bullets hit the ground in front of me. Did he just stop the bullets with his mind? I ask myself. I look up at him.
"Are you done?, good, my turn" he says with a growl.
He lazily lifts up his hand, and some invisible force hits me on the side and throws me across the room. I pull myself up, somewhat dazed, and I see him already closing in on me, I draw my assault rifle, ready to shoot. Instantly, without any warning, I see half my gun on the ground, red hot on the edge where it got cut. I look up at Vader, and see his weapon, it is a blade made of red light, and apparently had similar abilities to our energy sword. I am at his mercy, I wouldn't have enough time to reach my shot gun, with reflexes like his.
"Smart man, now lets go to my personal ship" he says as I put my hands up.
I start walking with him until he quickly turns around to stop an attack from the Arbiter, who has an energy sword. He looks at me briefly, but returns to battling Vader.
"Go!, ill keep him busy while you escape" commands the Arbiter.
I nod, and wield my shotgun, and start plowing through all the groups of troops in my way. We finally reach the escape pod, and I look back to see Arbiter and Vader fighting.
"This one has great faith in what he believes, much like I, what makes you do what you do?" Vader asks Arbiter.
"The idea of a better future for my people, I feel hate in you, what do you hate so much?" the Arbiter says.
Darth Vader backs off for moment, and replies "Myself", then he continues to fight Arbiter. I reluctantly get into the pod and lock the door. I fear this might be the last time I see the Elite that has saved my life more than once.
"Cheif, he'll be fine, trust me" Cortana says comforting.
"I know he will, I just hope he comes back in one piece" I say
"Judging by the coordinates, we are going to land somewhere in Michigan, I think in Detroit" she informs me.
I nod, and look out the window, and see more of their ships coming down to earth, they're going to have an invasion. Then my mind wanders back to that Skywalker person Vader brought up, I hope he did manage to warn Earth. I sit down, and buckle myself in the pod, preparing for impact. We should be on Earth in about 5 minutes, plenty of time.
