I : Projected Enemy
John Sat up wide-awake in his cot. The room was pitch black but his eyes were genetically enhanced and so he walked with ease into a dull, slightly uninviting washroom. He turned the knob over a faucet and water poured into the stainless steel sink. He let the water run over his face for a minute and then turned it back off. After drying his face, he walked back into the room. The Chief put on heavier clothes, his MJOLNIR and picked a shotgun up off the table in the far corner of the room. He then walked out of the room and turned left down the hall, the door shutting behind him. When he reached the end of the hall, he stopped in front of a large interlocking door. On it was a label with CTS 02 engraved into it, which stood for Combat Training Simulator 02. After a short pause, a blue holographic image of a woman appeared on a ledge to the left of the door.
"Hello Chief." She replied with a certain lifelike impression.
"Hello Cortana. Load a level 4 program." John responded.
"And who would you like to challenge today?" She queried lightheartedly.
"5 Elites, 15 Grunts and... 10 Jackals. Add in a Brute too." He instructed.
"Program ready. Go get 'em Chief."
The doors slid apart and he stepped inside. The room revealed an Earth city, perhaps mid 21st century. The buildings appeared sooty and in mediocre condition. The Chief took a quick glance around, ran to the right and stopped in the middle of a road. He looked down it, and there were 5 Elites, about half of the Jackals and a rather large pack of Grunts. For a moment, the nemeses stood and stared at each other, and then the Grunts started firing plasma pistols and rifles. The Chief dove to the left and evaded their fire. He then jumped back out into the road and another hail of plasma bullets came flying at him. He again dodged most of them and began running and strafing towards the group. He fired the shotgun and sent three Grunts hauling through the air and into the Jackals behind them. When he was nearly up in their faces, he fired more shots and flattened multiple Grunts and Jackals. He then dove to the right behind an overturned car as the hail of plasma narrowly missed him. For a moment all fire stopped. The Elites sent a group of Grunts to search around the corner of the car. They surprisingly all came back intact and looked puzzled as they found nothing. As they turned back to report their findings, they watched an Elite fall to its knees, and then on the ground, followed by the one next to it. As that one fell an armored soldier replaced its image. The Chief fired the shotgun again and sent three more Elites stumbling backwards. He fired again, and they fell, purple blood now forming a large puddle on the ground. At this site, the Grunts turned from courageous to terrified and scattered in all directions until another shot blew them back and onto the ground. The Jackals then turned around and backed up, all the while firing behind their shields. The Chief quickly meleed a Grunt and grabbed its plasma pistol. He waited for a second as it charged up, and then released the bolt. It slammed into ne of the Jackals' shields, instantly rendering it inoperable. He repeated this again until all of the Jackals were then defenseless. The Chief dropped the pistol, picked up the shotgun, and ran at the Jackals, his own shields now critical. A quick shot put two of them on the ground, and he dove to the side behind a cargo container. The last Jackal, now standing alone, looked wearily around for him. The Chief swept silently up behind, and bashed its head in with the butt of the gun.
During all of the fighting, he had almost forgot about the Brute. He looked quickly around but did not see anything. He also took this moment to reload, seeing as he had only two shots left. When he finished reloading, he started walking towards a building, searching all around him for the Brute. He walked through an open doorway, and suddenly felt a slash across his back. He whipped around and saw the hulking figure, part bear, part ape and all killing machine. He was no more than three feet from it, which was good and bad. It was good because the Brute wouldn't be stupid enough to use its grenade launcher at such close range. It was bad because it would be smart enough to use the blade on the end of it. However, the Chief ducked at just the right moment and narrowly missed the razor sharp metal. He then drew a plasma grenade and stuck it to the Brute's grenade launcher. Once he had seen it stick, he got up and started running towards an overturned truck, but couldn't get to it in time and was blown onto the ground by the blast of the grenade. He got up a few seconds later, picked up his gun and, when he looked back, found nothing but pieces of the Brute strewn across the ground. As he walked towards the door, he threw one last frag grenade over his shoulder and heard the scream of a Grunt a few seconds later.