by Rex Rodentium Prologue:
4 Grunts, 2 Jackals, and an Elite
"Master Chief, I am getting readings of human life signs aboard a small Covenant ship." Cortana said, her voice filling the room where a man sat in his green armor.
Beneath his helmet, eyebrows rose in half suspicion, and half amazement, "Life signs?" he asked.
"Yes. They are fairly weak, but I am guessing from malnurishment."
"The Covenant don't take prisoners."
"Seems this is a bit different. There seems to be MJOLNIR armor on board."
"That makes a bit more sense. Maybe they captured one a scientist to explain the technology to them. The real question is how they got a hold of the armor in the first place."
Cortana didn't reply, leaving a short silence.
"How many aboard?"
"4 Grunts, 2 Jackals, and an Elite."
"That's a bit unusual."
"It's a small ship. A quite a bit smaller than this Longsword."
"Get the ship ready for slip space."
"But, Master Chief..."
"That's an order, Cortana. After I retrieve the prisoner we will need to leave fast. Who knows how many other ships will be near by." The AI gave a sound of approval as she readied the Pelican for use.
"I have cracked the encryption codes for a map of the ship. I am feeding it into your monitor right now. The orange triangle is the prisoner."
"All right." the Master Chief replied, moving slowly along. He heard the high pitched sounds of Grunts as they were moving down the corridor. Moving to the corner, he waited for a Grunt to pass by. When the first passed, he slammed the butt of his assault rifle into the life support it carried. The machinery instantly gave out and the Grunt was dead in seconds. Screeching, the other three began to retreat, one screaming, "RUN AWAY!"
A few rounds from his rifle silenced them, leaving the cyan liquid on the halls steel floor. His HUD screen showed the prisoner was only thirty meters (about 90 ft.) away. Two Jackals ran towards him, having heard the screams of their cowardly fallen comrads. Squeezing the trigger he unloaded rounds on the two shielded warriors, and took out one before it had a chance to react. The rest of his ammunition was deflected by the shield.
The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. If the Jackal would shoot, he would have to lower his shield a bit giving his enemy a chance to kill him. However, if he didn't, they might be stuck in the same positions for hours. As the Jackal was contemplating his options, the Spartan grabbed one of the dead Grunt's plasma rifles, powered it up, and shot his shield down.
Its eyes widened as the shield temporarily disappeared. This gave the Master Chief just enough time to unload half of his rifle clip on the Jackal. With one last grunt, the Covenant warrior fell to the ground dead. Looking at the ammunition reading on his HUD he figured it was enough to take out an Elite, even without a headshot.
"Six down, one big one to go," he muttered.
In truth he was glad he didn't have to face a Hunter. They were more deadly in combat than Elites and had few weak points. It didn't help that one shot of their weapons would knock his shield into the red, meaning he'd need to recharge. One was bad enough by itself, but many times if there was one, there was another close by. Luckily, this would be close to a training mission for them.
The Master Chief was drawing closer to his target as he walked at as brisk step down the narrow corridor. Orange numbers next to the orange marking triangle on his helmet were quickly scrolling down. In minutes he would be on top of the human they had discovered. Unfortunately, the MJOLNIR armor would be useless. Only Spartans could wear the armor without it crushing every last bone in their body. It would be best to let it be destroyed with the Covenant ship.
"Cortana, I want you to try and hack into the ship's main frame so it will self-destruct. I am almost sure with the Elite's attitudes toward dying in battle that they would have that on their ships if they can take more of us out."
"I'll work on that right now," the feminine voice replied through the intercom in his helmet.
As soon as she had finished speaking, the super soldier found himself at the bridge. It seemed to consist of some type of floating light bridge surrounded by monitors. The last alien left on the ship seemed to be reading something on the screen. It obviously hadn't heard the screams of the six other Covenant, which were now all dead and continued to read the information as if nothing had happened. Of course, to the Elite, nothing had happened to cause concern. Taking careful aim at the Covenant's head, he squeezed the trigger, letting the rest of the armor piercing bullets to fly into an obvious weak spot of the Elite. Roaring in pain, the alien sunk to the floor dead on contact.
"All Covenant are down," he said, a bit less of an edge on his voice than usual.
"Good. The human prisoner should be 4 meters (about 12 ft.)to your right."
Turning, Spartan 117 noticed a lump of what looked like some kind of makeshift blankets. The prisoner was under the blankets. "Hmm... I guess even the Covenant get cold once in a while," he thought to himself.
Picking up the pile of blankets, he noticed that the weight was more than that of a normal human, much more. Figuring it was the blankets weighing it down, he carefully hoisted the bundle over his shoulder, with which side he assumed to be the head, facing forward. A pair of dark violet boots stuck out in back of him from under the blankets. Picking up weapons as he passed them, he quickly made his way back to the Pelican.
"Did you find the MJOLNIR armor?" Cortana asked curiously as the Pelican had been secured into the larger spacecraft.
"No. Start the self-destruct sequence on the Covenant ship. It would be better if it ends up being destroyed."
"I am on it."
Slowly, placing the bundle on the floor, he began to unwrap it. Lost in his own little world, he did not really pay any attention to neither what he was doing nor what was in front of him. It wasn't until Cortana said something that he awoke from his dream like state.
"Master Chief! I think you found the MJOLNIR armor."
His eyes finally saw what they had been staring at as his brain began to quickly comprehend the figure that lay in front of him. Whoever it was, the person appeared wear identical armor to his, except for one aspect: the color. It was a dark violet color, almost black instead of the normal green. On top right of the chest plate there was a number and two words engraved, "116 - Shadow Wolf".
"Another Spartan? But how?"
"We should worry about that later. There is no telling how long he's gone without food and water."
Master Chief pulled off Spartan 116's helmet to reveal a woman's face surrounded by a little longer than chin length brown that curled under at the bottom.
"Cortana, I believe it is a she."
[So did you like it? I know it's a cliffy, but most prologues are! Hehe! I'm so evil! w Don't ya love it? Don't worry though! I'm going to work on this quite a bit! Vale, peeps! And review! The more reviews the faster I get 'Chapter 1: Spartan 116 - Shadow Wolf' posted!]