Halo: Our Way
Chapter 1-Beginning
"Come on man, we're about to start!" Quinn called.
"One sec, just getting something to drink!" Brad called back.
"O.K., just stay away from the Mountain Dew!" Quinn said before sitting down on the couch.
"Man, will he ever actually sit down?" Jordan asked.
"So, why are we playing Halo 1?" Tyler asked, somewhat annoyed.
"Because Brad knows nothing about the story." Quinn replied back.
"So which two get to play?" Jordan asked.
"We'll start with some multiplayer, then two will do the first level, then the other two do the second, then more multiplayer, and repeat that." Quinn explained.
"Sounds fair." Tyler said agreeingly.
"I'm here!" Brad said entering the room.
"Finally!" Jordan said, picking up his controller.
Brad walked over holding a glass of green soda.
"Brad!" Quinn said annoyed, "I told you to stay away from the Mountain Dew!"
"I did," said Brad, putting an innocent look on his face, "this is Mountain Burst."
"Fine, just plug your controller in." Quinn said, annoyed.
"Okay." Brad said grabbing the controller and walking towards the Xbox.
It was then, that Brad tripped over the cord of a controller and the Mountain D-…Burst spilled directly into the fourth controller socket, right before Brad plugged the controller in. Then, everything went white.
* * *
Quinn awoke. Everything was black. He tried to open his eyes, to find he didn't have any.
What the- He was suddenly cut from his train of thought as a new thought, not his, entered his mind. Please create an avatar for human visibility.
What? He thought. Actually him this time. Suddenly, he could see an area with statistics projected around a square of black. Hmmm… He thought. He thought of a stickman, and a stickman appeared in the field of black. Cool. He thought, completely forgetting his dilemma. He then thought of himself. Wait…I can make myself look however I want. He then thought of himself wearing a fedora. Theeere we go. Now what was I thinking about? Then those 'other thoughts' intruded his mind. Would you like to accept this avatar? He then remembered. What? Oh, yeah, I guess. The voice came back. Avatar confirmed, you may now assume your duties. The voice then disappeared. Wait, what? Suddenly, it hit him. Wait, this is a lot like-Whoa. He then felt a feeling of…everywhereness… and saw from hundreds of angles all across what looked exactly like the corridors of the Pillar of Autumn. Holy crap!
* * *
Jordan awoke, not in Quinn's house, but in a strange tube, and he felt like he was in some type of Halloween costume and had a horrible taste in his mouth.
"What the?" he said just before a guy in a weird suit walked over.
"Sorry for the quick thaw Chief, things are a bit hectic right now. The disorientation should pass quickly." the strange man said.
Wait, did he just call me Chief? And this is exactly like the beginning of… HOLY
SHIT!
The weird guy that he now recognized as one of the techs from Halo 1 then said something he didn't pay attention to, focusing more on the questions fogging his mind.
He then looked up at the plexi-glass window at the other guy up in the observation.
The guy behind the glass then said, "I'm bringing the health monitors online now."
Jordan then saw the old, Halo 1 style health bars come up and his mind was instantly cleared of all but one thought. HO-LY SHIT!
* * *
Tyler awoke in a tube feeling, weird. He then realized why when he looked down and saw that he was completely naked! WHAT THE HELL!?! The tube then opened and he saw a bunch of other people that he'd never seen before all stepping out of other tubes. He decided to climb out too, and then immediately recognized one of the people in the crowd as Brad.
"Hey, Brad!" Tyler yelled out to his friend.
Brad looked around, seeing who called his name.
"Over here!" Tyler called out again.
Brad then realized where Tyler was and jogged over.
"Okay, what the hell is going on, and why am I all naked, but there's nobody around but naked men?" Brad asked, starting to get a little worried.
"I dunno," Tyler said, looking around the room, "but this place looks reeeaaly familiar."
"Let's just follow the crowd and see where it takes us." Brad said with a sigh.
So they followed the crowd down a short hallway but Tyler just couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity. Where have I seen this place before? Tyler thought as he racked his brain, trying to find a memory of being in or seeing a picture of a place like this before. He immediately stopped thinking of that though when he looked out a window.
"Brad…" Tyler said, zoned out of the real world.
"Wha-" Brad cut off when he looked out the window, "Whoa."
It all came to Tyler then. He remembered where he had seen this place before. The first level of Halo 1, The Pillar of Autumn.
"Brad," Tyler said, still taking it all in "you're about to play Halo, for real."
* * *
"Ho-oah!" Jordan chuckled, just finishing off his first taste of real grunts.
"Never thought capping grunts would be this fun, huh?" Quinn said through the speakers in Jordan's helmet, where he was now inserted.
"Never thought capping anything would be this fun!" Jordan said.
"Just be careful, there's two of us in here now, remember?" Quinn said.
"You just had to use that line."
"What? It's true isn't it?"
Jordan's reply to this was a little chuckle and three more shots as he headshotted three more grunts.
"Hey, shouldn't we be meeting an Elite soon?" Quinn said, just realizing.
"Yeah, should be in one of the next fire fights where we meet some more marines." Jordan said.
"Oh yeah, the marines."
"You're telling me that you forgot about the marines?"
"Well excuse me Mr. Actually-has-eyes!"
"Can't you like, link up to a camera in my helmet or something?"
"Oh, yeah. He-he"
They then entered the doorway to the cafeteria fight, and then went over to share some cover with a pair of marines.
"Hey look, it's the Chief!" one said excitedly.
"No way!" the other said, just looking over.
"Wait," Jordan said a little confused, "they sound a lot like…"
"Jordan?" one asked in disbelief.
"Tyler!" Jordan said back.
"Jordan!" Brad then said, joining in.
"Bradley!" Quinn said through the external speakers.
"Quinn?" Tyler then said, looking around.
"WRAAAAH!" An Elite that recently jumped around the corner just yelled into Jordan's ear.
"Alien!" Brad said, "Wait."
Jordan sprung into action, giving the intruder a sock to the gut, lowering it's shields to zero, then jammed the pistol into it's mouth and firing three shots, all of which proceeded to wound, then kill, a Grunt across the room.
"Quinn ended up replacing Cortana." Jordan explained.
"Does that mean?" Tyler said getting a bit excited.
"No, I got to choose what I look like" Quinn said, knowing what Tyler was thinking.
"Come on," Jordan said looking around the corner, "it's clear."
The trio moved through the cafeteria and proceeded to push through the hallways beyond.
* * *
A quick burst from Jordan's assault rifle ended the most recent fire fight, and started a quick break.
"What's the matter Brad?" Jordan asked, "You haven't fired a shot."
"It's just that I never wanted to kill anything in my life." Brad opened up, "Not for real, who am I to end their life?"
"Dude, I have an idea," Quinn offered, "just pretend that they're all Cordell."
"Who?" Brad asked.
"You know, little queer, in the fourth grade, super hyper." Quinn described.
"Oh," Brad remembered, "him. Yeah I'll give it a try."
A Grunt then began to walk through the T-intersection that lay ahead of them, not realizing they were there.
"DIE BASTARD!!!" Brad yelled at the unsuspecting Grunt who then turned and let out a small yelp followed by a whimper as Brad charged at him. The two were soon in a very one-sided brawl on the floor as Brad jumped on top of the alien and proceeded to rip it's arm off and remove the methane mask, before jamming it's own arm down it's throat.
"EAT IT! EAT IT!" Brad yelled at the grunt now choking on the floor, before he pulped it's head with a long burst from his assault rifle.
"Wow…" Tyler said, now a little frightened of his friend.
"Thanks Quinn," Brad said as if nothing had happened, even though the blue-green blood was all across his armor, "that really works."
* * *
The group had now picked up a fire team of marines and was looking for lifeboat to get off the ship.
"Wait hold up." Quinn said into Jordan's internal speakers.
"Guys, get back here." He then said over a private com channel to Tyler and Brad.
"What?" Tyler asked once he and Brad met them.
"Guys, don't you remember how the end of this level works out?" Quinn asked over the sounds of the marines ahead of them finishing off Grunts.
"Oh, right," Tyler said after realizing what Quinn meant, "all of the marines on the Chief's lifeboat die in the crash."
"Right, so you two have to get on a different lifeboat and get picked up by us later." Jordan said.
"Yeah, but all of the other lifeboats leave, remember?" Quinn said, "Chief takes the last one."
"Shit, so how are we going to get off?" Bradley said.
"Weeeeeeell," Quinn said, "there is one way."
"What?" asked Tyler, eager to save his life.
"Welcome to the Helljumpers," Quinn said sounding like some guy on a commercial, "report to Major Silva and prepare to go feet first into hell!"
Quinn brought up Tyler and Brad's files, now bearing the ODST symbol, on everyone's helmets and navpoints for Tyler and Brad.
"Hurry!" Quinn said, "They aren't going to wait up for you!", also closing Brad and Tyler's files.
* * *
The friends had now split up, and according to what Quinn overheard from Tyler and Brad's com-lines, they had met up with the rest of the ODST's, and Jordan was at the point where he was squeezing through the maintenance passages.
"Man," Jordan said, "this really sucks."
"What?" Quinn asked, trying to pass the time.
"How freakin' small these damn things are." Jordan said in a pissed-off tone.
"It's just because of your armor," Quinn said, "these passages weren't meant for half-ton, biogenetically-enhanced, seven foot super armor wearing super-soldiers, were they?"
* * *
"So," Brad asked on a private com-line to Tyler, "what's the difference between these guys and regular marines again?"
"They're better trained than marines and don't get to the ground the same way." Tyler answered, for the fifth time.
"And, how is it so different?
"Marines go in riding in Pelicans and ODST's fall from the sky in drop-pods, which we're in right now."
"And they're launching in-" Brad was cut off by the sound of hydraulics.
"Now."
The drop-pods fell, speeding towards the ring world, though the private com-line was left open and wall each other heard was:
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
The entire way down.
* * *
Jordan was now running towards the last lifeboat and started the rememberable seen with the fallen marine, but instead of grabbing him like the Chief did, he gave him a firm kick to the ass that propelled him right into the lifeboat. Jordan was now aboard and hurtling towards Halo.
Author's note
How'd you like the first chapter? I know it's an overused subject of self-involvement in a game, but I couldn't help myself. Think I'm a crappy writer? Think I'd be better writing something else? Think I'm good but are tired of this subject? Please say so in a review.
Disclaimer-I own nothing of the Halo franchise, which belongs to my favorite video game developing company, Bungie.