Firefight
Z117
Blinking his eyes, John awoke to the sound of crackling electricity, fires, and the hissing of the gases in his cryochamber. "Cortana" he mumbled. "Are you still there?" he said, hoping to get a response from the AI he knew for so long. A blue light shone on the wall, making John's eyes focus to the left.
"Did you miss me?" came a voice as the AI appeared on the holo-pad. "I thought you went rampant" he said, with a hint of surprise in his words. "No, I am still functional, and besides, I have a good life span for another two or three years." She replied, giving a sense of melancholy to the situation.
"We seem to have crashed." The AI added, only showing the obviousness of the situation. "I managed to shut myself down to halt my 'aging' process" Cortana said, slowly using whatever power remained in the bulk of the ship to free John, and unseal the hushed casket.
He asked her a question on both their minds –
"How long has it been?"
Cortana stood still, and a second later looked at him. "Only two months since your cryogenic freezing" She looked into the gold plated visor. "Yank me, Chief" she said with a smile as John rose from the frozen chamber. The fully armored Spartan walked to the hologram, and he pulled the data chip from the holo-pad, and slid it into his helmet. He felt the familiar feeling of ice and vertigo as Cortana entered his neuro-interface and cherished the sensation of having her back in his helmet. "It's good to be home" she joked, as she ran a diagnostics check on his armor. "Is everything still functional?" he questioned. The answer came soon enough, as he saw the familiar shield bar slowly fill, along with his HUD coming back online. He unlatched the assault rifle from the rack, checking his ammunition as he went on. The Chief unholstered his M6G, and inspected the remains of the Dawn - it had burned mostly on reentering, but for the most part, survived. He had been in luck - again. "Cortana, where are we?" he asked as he studied the dirt, noticing it was similar to burnt glass. "Chief" she said, voice riddled with confusion. "We're on Reach" she added, and chose to stay silent afterwards. "Reach?" John replied, equally confused and surprised as the AI, looked around his surroundings again. The last time he had come to Reach was immediately after the destruction of installation 04, to find out if any Spartans had survived the glassing. He found Fred, Linda, Grace, and the frozen Spartan, Kelly during that time. He managed to find Dr Halsey, creator of the SPARTAN - 11 program.
He was shaken from his thoughts by Cortana yelling into his ears. "Chief, I'm picking up FOF signals" she said. "I really recommend you take cover this time" she said, taking into note that when they had crashed on the first Halo, and she recommended to take cover, he leapt out of a nearby tree and obliterated the patrol with a loud burst of gunfire, letting anyone in the five mile radius nearby know of their location.
This time, however, he complied, and found a sizable boulder, and grabbed his MA5C – As he cocked it, the bolt made a satisfying Clack as it slid back, the sound of the first round being chambered. He checked his sidearm – eight individual high damage, semi explosive armor-penetrating rounds chambered in his magazine. He peered over the boulder, checking for any contacts. There was nothing, until something on the motion sensor caught his attention.
A red dot appeared to the east of his location, and he saw a Covenant grunt emerge from the bushes and grass, getting closer to the wreckage of the Dawn. Its fugly ass face in the direct sunlight. "What are the covenant doing on Reach?" he whispered. "I thought they glassed the planet and moved on" he added, asking the AI.
"Maybe they want to set a base here or patrol" she replied, trying to "think" about the reasons why the Covenant had returned to Reach. The Ungoy was just walking inside the ship when the Master Chief decided to sneak up on it and snap it's neck. As he stood ready to run, a Brute major appeared from the same place the grunt had emerged from, and following it was a pack of grunts. The Chief darted behind a boulder and slowly moved through gravel, rocks, and trees until he was close enough to the Brute. He saw the Brute Major point a hairy ass finger at the inside to the ship, and the grunts moved in, leaving the brute by itself. With it's back turned, John lunged out of hiding, and clasped his hands on the alien's neck and began to force him to the ground. It began to yell, and before it could signal the pack of grunts, john used one hand to grab it's spiker, clasp it's mouth, and choke him while he forced the bayonet into a crack in the brute's helmet.
With a slash, Chief ripped out the brute's skull with the spiker and mercilessly
BEAT HIM TO DEATH WITH HIS OWN SKULL.
Wait, What?
John let the body fall, and picked up the spiker and ammunition for it, deciding not to use his own weapons or waste ammo for his MA5C and M6G. "Watch out, they might charge their weapons" Cortana advised before John stepped inside. He activated his helmet lights, and found a pair of grunts examining his cryochamber.
They turned, and their distorted, fugly ass faces glared into his helmet, eyes lit up like Christmas lights….
John leapt out of cover, firing spikes at the pair of infantry, spikes finding their marks on the group of cannon fodder. One grunt let out a cry of pain before landing in a pool of his own luminescent blood, while other spikes struck the other grunt's methane pack, causing him to be propelled through the air, only to crash to the floor seconds later. He was dying, but the last thing he saw was the Master Chief's boot come down on his face, felt a sickening crunch, and waited to see his first glimpse of paradise. John moved on, and eased back to the opening of the Dawn, but not before hearing the squeaking noises of the flock of grunts he saw earlier. "Maybe we should let them lead us back to their camp" Cortana said. She "saw" the look on his face when she said that. "Or we can just mow them down now" She added, a hint of boredom in her voice.
"Let's follow them" John replied, and he got to the outside of the ship, and hid behind a large tree. He looked down, and saw a medium sized rock at his foot. His battle scared gauntleted glove gently grasped it in his palm. He saw the pack of grunts walk out into the open, and he hurled the fist-sized stone at the unggoy and hid again. The rock mashed into the head of a grunt, and it gave a cry of pain, while the other two whipped around, and unholstered their plasma pistols and needlers. The Unggoy pointed their weapons in the direction the rock came from, and they moved to the tree, plasma pistols charging. John sidestepped, and moved around the tree as the grunts did. One saw him, screamed in nothing but gibberish, (although the Spartan could make out "Holy Fuck, it's the goddamn demon") and a charged plasma shot whizzed past John's head, just barely missing the golden visor. The Spartan opened fire with the brute spiker, and seven glowing spikes found their marks between the eyes of two of the three unggoy's heads. The lone grunt lost all courage, shit himself, and tried to run, but not before John casually walked up behind him, and grabbed him by the methane pack on his back. He twisted the cowering unggoy around, and looked him in the eye.
"Listen. I will let you live if you run back to your base, and you don't say a word. Got it?" John said, tightening the grip on the creature's head. "Y-eeEeS" it said, English garbled, and he allowed it to run, and he slowly followed. "You're just going to shoot him afterwards, will we" Cortana said, finally speaking up after watching the scene unfold in front of her. "Naturally" John replied, and he let a small grin materialize on his face.
He followed the grunt to it's base, and he saw a large, typical, bulbous, purple covenant structure, merged with a metallic human structure, discarded when Reach had been glassed. He slowly made his way to the entrance, and stayed out of sight. He saw the grunt do something to a pattern of glowing symbols on the structure, and a oval shaped opening appeared. He saw the unggoy go inside, and he followed. There were grunts, some jackals without shields, and brutes training, or working at controls. Weapons were being inspected on tables, while platforms had odd protrusions in them, which appeared to be broadcasting something, while in the middle of the room appeared to be a hologram of a prophet. John moved to the unggoy, grabbed his "grenades" (And his real ones), and threw him aside as he let out a cry of surprise. "Don't let me catch you here again" he grumbled, and the unggoy rushed outside, running away. John looked down at the covenant army training below. "Cortana, see if you can get into their networks, and find out what they're doing" he said. "With pleasure" she replied, and she began to sort through various databases as she went, picking useful information from the battlenet. "It looks like they want to set up a colony on Reach" she said. "To try and assault Earth again." She added, with worry in her voice. "Try see if you can hail the UNSC" John replied. "Don't get caught" he added, hoping his luck wouldn't run out. Cortana scanned signals, various COM links between the Covenant and any reinforcements.
"I've got something!"
The helmet began transmitting a radio frequency into his speakers. "This is the UNSC IN AMBER CLAD who are you – how did you get into this network?" came the voice of a female officer.
Commander Keyes.
"This is Sierra 117" he said. There was silence on the other side.
"I saw you die" he said with surprise. "Well, I will tell you about this later" Keyes spoke.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Keyes said. "Or is this really you, Chief?" she added after a moment. "It is" Cortana replied, confirming that it was not a joke or false alarm. "Chief, where are you?" Miranda asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" he replied. " Where?" she repeated. John buzzed the intercom.
"Reach"
It was Miranda's turn to talk. "I thought it was glassed and destroyed" she responded, genuinely puzzled. "It appears to have recovered" he said back.
"Send some backup please." Cortana said.
"I'll do whatever I can for you" Miranda said back. "I'll get Lord Hood and tell him you're alive" she paused. "wait for a little while." She said. John moved from his hiding spot, and raised his spiker. He hid behind a pillar, hoping he wouldn't get caught.
Over the intercom, footsteps could be heard getting louder.
"John" panted the voice of Lord Hood. "Is it you?"
"Yes" the armored Spartan replied. "The Arbiter was right – you truly don't die." He said. "Neither does Johnson" he mumbled.
"Sir," John said. "Can you send a backup and rescue team?" he said. "Yes." Hood said quickly. "We will get ready for battle, but you will have to hold out for seven hours before we can get there." Hood replied. "Thank you sir" Cortana said. "We'll be at Reach soon, Spartan. Just. Hold. Out." and with that, the COM line went dead. "John" Cortana said, happy. "We'll make it" she said. "Yes. We will survive." The Spartan replied. He stood, heard a surprised yell, gibberish again, turned to the right and saw a group of covenant.
He dove to the right as just as a volley of plasma and spikes impacted his communication spot, and destroyed the spot he had just been in.
John rolled, raised his Spiker, and fired at the grunts first. They fell quickly, hitting the floor as each spike penetrated heads or torsos, causing blue and purple blood to spill everywhere. The Jackals made a grab for their portable shields, but the Spartan was faster, and wielded his magnum. The .55 mil. Rounds were spent as John pulled the trigger eight times, and the last Jackal fell before the first one hit the ground. The Chief moved for cover as plasma impacted and splashed on his shields, and he felt the heat as they drained the shield bar. He dropped the spiker and slapped a fresh eight-round magazine into the pistol, and returned fire to the closest brute. The warrior fell as the explosive rounds hit him dead on, and his helmet cracked, failing to shield him, and with that, a lone bullet did the job of spreading his brains on his fellow brutes.
The chief turned to his right as spikes smashed into his shielding, vaporizing as they hit. There was enough spikes, however, to take his shields down, and he heard the audible alarm go off. A lone shard penetrated his knee joint and just scraped his skin and ripped muscle. He grunted in pain and almost fell. He darted behind a pillar as plasma and spikes flew past the pillar, burning the ground around him as he let his shields fill, and in one fluid motion, ran towards the brute while dodging most of the shots, plasma still managing to splash against his shields, draining his shield bar, and smashed the covenant soldier's face.
The half ton, heavy armored fist shattered the alien's helmet, and the force of the blow still managed to smash the skull of the alien. John used the dead body to protect himself from spikes and needles as his shields replenished. He launched the dead brute at a grunt, effectively pulverizing every bone in it's body while he unslung his assault rifle, and fired upon a group of Jackals. A few short, controlled bursts hit the hands of the jackals with the shields, and the chief primed a plasma grenade, glowing angry with blue plasma. The jackals were still recovering when the grenade hit the ground next to them, and the last thing they saw was the grenade split in two, while blue plasma flowed out of it, and exploded.
The Master Chief continued on until he saw a door open, and a pack of brutes charged in, along with a Chieftain wielding a hammer. John checked his ammo counter for the MA5C.
21 rounds.
Would it be enough?
He jumped out of cover, dual wielding his pistol, and used the assault rifle to weaken a Majors' shielding, while he focused his pistol on the Chieftain, and with success, gained a headshot. Seeing the chieftain dead, the other brutes went berserk, dropping their weapons and charging at John. He fired the assault rifle in combination with the magnum, but not before he heard the "Dead man's click" and slung his rifle. The Master Chief planted headshots while coming close to being struck down by berserkers, and he rolled and ducked to avoid these beasts. Finally, a lone brute stood between him and victory.
The final brute charged at the Chief, and he didn't have time to load the pistol. He rolled to the left, and the brute flew past him, and crashed into a wall, blood coming from it's mouth. It's eyes glowed red, and it lunged at the green armored human. John bent his armored knees, and braced for the oncoming hunk of flesh and hair.
He caught the soldiers' fist with his armored glove, and he was met with equal strength. The brute roared with anger and tried to crush John, but failed as he was swung into the wall with massive force when 117 twisted. He got up, and grabbed the helmet of his opponent. "YOU DIE WHERE YOU STAND, DEMON." It growled. John felt the hairy fist tighten, and he saw flashes of light as his vision failed.
The Spartan coughed blood – this reminded him of his first fight with a brute – It almost turned John into canned hamburger. He was fainting when he faintly (not a pun) heard Cortana screaming into his ears to get up. With all his strength, he grunted and raised his left leg, and kicked hard.
His foot was now planted into the Brute's groin.
The Brute let out a scream of pain, and let go of John. "Are you okay?" Cortana was panicking, and John shook his head at the feeling of blood flowing into his head again.
The brute was roaring in pain when he heard a click and saw the human load his pistol.
He made a grab for his spiker, when John's boot smashed into his hand. With that, the Jiralahae looked up and saw the black hole in the Spartan's gun, and seemingly, in slow motion, a beautiful flower of fire emerged from it, and it was the last thing he saw as the bullet entered his eyeball and came out of his head through the back of his skull, bringing a splatter of brains and meat chunks with it.
John stepped on the Brute's smashed face, and he crouched up and down. "What the hell are you doing?" Cortana demanded. "I am only stretching" he replied. "That brute tore a few muscles, and I am trying to relieve that pain." John said.
"Ummmm… Chief, I don't think rubbing your crotch plate on the brute's body is stretching"
"Haters are gonna Hate" he replied, and stepped all over the rotting corpses of Covenant soldiers, and grabbed two grenades from a dead grunt. (No, not those grenades) "That was close" he remarked.
"You're just lucky there wasn't that many covenant in this room to begin with." Cortana replied. Immediately after the AI's comment, an announcement was blared thorough the base. "The Demon is alive and in the base! Do not let him escape or destroy anything! Find him and bring me his head." The announcement ended. The Covenant would probably come here in a mass group looking for him. John ran to the exit, and the door parted to reveal a surprised grunt, and before he could realize who he was staring at, the Master chief caved in the infantry's skull with the butt of the Assault rifle.
Chief felt nausea as the Unggoy's body 'dumped' before he died.
He looked at the LED display –
No rounds left.
He had 264 rounds left in AR rounds, and 26 rounds for his magnum, with one frag, and two plasma grenades. He smashed a clip into his assault rifle, and the total ammunition display dropped to 232.
Cortana, how much longer must we hold out until the UNSC arrive?" he said, putting the sidearm away. "Four hours, and twenty five minutes." She said. "Pick up a new weapon if you have to." she suggested. John took the AI's advice, and saw a plasma pistol on the ground, with a spiker not too far away. Based on what he had seen in battle, an overcharged plasma pistol could drain shields, while a burst from his battle or assault rifle could finish the job on any shielded enemy. He still decided to conserve AR and Magnum ammo, especially his AR, since it was his favorite weapon. He packed the magnum away, for use as a precision weapon, landing easy headshots and sending the enemy to the grave. He continued on, and came to a purple, blinking octagonal door. "Cortana" he said. "Look for an entry slot" she said, and with that, John found a small slot for a data chip on the side of the door. He took Cortana out, and the feeling of loneliness filled his head where she had once been. A moment passed, and all doors, including the one he was standing in front of, opened. "That should do it." She said. John responded by taking the chip out and putting it into his helmet. He felt ice fill his brain, and jogged on.
He finally came to a UNSC door, a section of the discarded UNSC base that the Covenant decided to scavenge for materials. He stepped through, and although the place was dark, he activated his helmet lights and looked around. He saw some computers and technical equipment, with a coffee mug, inside were brown spots from coffee that had evaporated and dried months ago. "Cortana" he asked the AI. "What room is this?" he said. "Chief, try to find an electrical switch, because I can't find one, and I need power to search here." John moved around, and found a terminal with a gray switch on the side. He flicked it, and just by luck, the terminal lit up, and so did other pieces of equipment, including monitors. "Looks like you have the magic touch" Cortana jokingly said. "No" he replied . "Just being the luckiest Spartan" he said, sliding her out, and into a data slot in the terminal. She appeared on the display, and John moved closer. "This seems to be the control room for this area" she said, and John nodded to her to continue. "It seems the Covenant are using the resources here, and studying data as well.." she paused for a moment.
"They went through the navigation data" she said, horrified. "They'll find the other colonies unless we do something." She looked at the golden visor with despair. "Try erasing the data" the Spartan replied. The AI turned pink as she erased whatever NAV data there was left. "Done, but they have already made a copy" she said. "we have to find it and destroy it" she added, a new look of determination on her face. John raised his assault rifle in response. "Let's find that core. Kill every. single. Covenant. Bastard we can find" he said, and yanked her before she could say it.
John didn't focus on the 'brain freeze' he just got, and made his way to the exit. As he was moving, he almost tripped on a large, metallic olive-colored box. He opened the container, and smiled. He pulled out a MA5B, with a M6D, including 500 rounds for the MA5B, and 10 magazines for the M6D, and as a bonus, two frag grenades and a ammo belt were found tucked in the upper left side of the box. "I haven't seen these in a while" he said to Cortana. "You just keep getting luckier and luckier." Cortana mentioned as he strapped the belt on, added the M6D and magazines, the two frags, and ammunition boxes for his assault rifle. John activated the new assault rifle and pistol, and found a full magazine inside each weapon. The reticule appeared, and now the Master Chief was fully armed, frag and plasma grenades, with two assault rifles, and two pistols.
The green Spartan came out of the control room and saw a brute investigating the mysteriously opened doors farther in the corridor. John grinned, and sprinted towards him. The brute turned around only with enough time to feel the barrel stabbing through his shields and into his mouth, before a hail of lead blew chunks of meat and spinal cord over the corridor. John pulled the rifle out of the brute, and heard a squeal, and instinctively ducked, only to have a plasma grenade pass through the spot his head would have been through only a half second earlier.
He turned to his right, and a plasma pistol shot splashed over his helmet's shields. Sure enough, a pair of grunts and a jackal had appeared, and were running towards him. He pulled up the assault rifle and fired controlled bursts at his new enemies. The rifle was inaccurate at that range, but with four round bursts, bullets struck grunts in the head, and simply 'painted' the floor blue. The lone jackal overcharged the pistol and fired it, and the bolt flew as the Master chief rolled to the side, and it smashed into the wall, melting pieces of metal shower his shields and disappear. The Chief noticed a plasma grenade on the ground, having been dropped by the dead grunts, and shot at it as the jackal began charging the pistol. With lucky aim, the grenade detonated, and the EMP burst dissolved the jackal's shield and vaporizing it, burning away his body into black ashes.
John stepped on the bodies as he continued, and finally came to a large door. "looks like this is the training facility" Cortana said. John forced the door open, and found himself staring at Unngoy with needlers and plasma pistols, jackals with shields, and brutes with spikers, rifles, and gravity hammers. At the very mass of the room, a prophet hovered in his chair. "Ah" he said. "The Demon" and with that, the army of covenant opened fire with everything.
John acted faster, and his AR barked, bringing down a group of grunts and a jackal. Plasma, needles, and spikes scorched the hallway, and John dove into the room, away from the enemy. "Watch it!" Cortana screamed. "There's two of us in here, remember?" John stayed silent as his shield bar gave out, and his helmet's alarm went off. He hurled a frag grenade behind him, and he rolled to cover under a ramp. The grenade went off with a thump, and blew chucks of covenant meat over the Chief's hiding spot and ripped apart brute armor and flesh. John saw the bar recover, and he came out of cover, and sprayed the soldiers with lead. Brutes fell as bullets carved holes into their heads, while grunts threw grenades, some accidentally sticking fellow unngoy, and resulting in collateral damage. John ran from his ramp as a spike grenade flew over the ramp, and landed in front of him. It exploded, and shards of white, hot material blanketed the immediate area. Two spikes caught the Chief in the back, and his shield bar drained by a quarter. John readied the AR, and used the remaining 30 bullets to strip the armor on three brute captains, while a plasma grenade melted away whatever remained of them.
The Master Chief simultaneously ran while sliding a fresh magazine into his rifle, and pulling the bolt. Plasma fire seemed to chase John as he ducked, rolled, and sprinted his way to cover. While taking cover at a desk, john switched to the M6G, and stood up, a plasma grenade flew past his head so close that he could hear the crackle of the grenade. It exploded behind him, but he paid no attention as he unloaded his last clip into a pair of grunts and a brute. He reloaded, and a charged plasma pistol sounded off, and he was about to duck when it hit him in the arm, and broke the protective shielding like a popped condom. Without the shields, the heat from the shot prompted him to scream as his skin received first degree burns. He managed to run though, and hurled a grenade. That was hopeless, however, as the Brutes he intended the grenade to hit rolled their way out of the radius of the blast.
This gave John the time he needed, and forced himself into the cover of a metal door. The all too familiar siren in his helmet kept blaring.
Something was wrong.
"Cortana" he said grimly. "My shields aren't recovering"
"Let me try and fix it" she said. As he waited, he saw the covenant looking everywhere for him. He heard a 'beep' and saw the familiar blue bar fill, but his expression turned to surprise as the bar had only filled 3/4th of the total shielding. "There seems to be something wrong with the generator" Cortana said, sincerely worried for John. "I recommend you take a lot of caution" she replied, before he paused for a moment, and stepped out. As soon as he did, he heard a small cry, and a grunt seemed surprised that the Demon had stepped out in front of him. John just used his fist to mash the grunt's head into a pulp with one punch, and grabbed its' plasma pistol.
Author's note – it gets a little funny here. If you read this Mike, you might hit me for using a lot of our humor in this.
A Brute Chieftain was waiting for the results on the search for that cursed Spartan, when he suddenly heard a buzzing sound, and was struck in the back with an EMP shot. He turned around to face the attacker, when a lone round found it's mark on his unshielded helmet, and his head exploded into fire, blood and gore. A brute ran over to the fallen Chieftain and examined the mess.
What happened next was unexpected.
The leader of the brutes took one look, and his eyes widened and he SHIT himself.
Through the translation device in John's helmet, he could understand what came out of the brute leader's mouth….
"BY THE PROPHET'S HAIRY TESTICLES" he screamed. "HE HAS THE HALO ONE PISTOL!"
With that, John activated his 2x scope, and fired rapidly.
The screaming brute only had time to turn around before two shots crushed his armor, and a final shot to his abdomen brought him to his knees.
But the round didn't kill him just yet.
Lodged in-between his organs, the explosive round detonated, and the brute was blown apart, dying as he gurgled on his own blood. The other brutes, seeing what The Pistol could do, ran before closing a door, but leaving a space big enough to fit a grenade or fist. The leftover grunts didn't stand a chance as each one only required one round to turn them into processed meat. The brutes thought they were safe until John wedged his pistol into the crack, and turned it sideways, and spammed the pistol until he heard fleshy explosions and screams until all seven rounds had been used. He pulled out his pistol, covered with brute gore and blood, reloaded, and began to walk away
"I hope he's gone"
John heard that and went into the main lobby, then found a plasma grenade. He jammed the grenade into the door's five inch opening, and heard a brute scream as it realized what it was. He kicked the grenade, unintentionally activating it as it finally fit in, and it exploded, blowing the brutes to kingdom come. John was just about to holster the pistol when a door opened in the firefight room, and four hunters barged in. He loaded the M6D, and grabbed another plasma grenade. As the Hunters got closer, he noticed there was a large amount of grenades to their right. Thinking smart, he activated the scope, and fired a round at a hunter's unshielded neck.
The behemoth wailed, and fell in a pile of his own worms and gore. The others turned around, and a lone hunter cried in sadness. "You killed his pack mate!" Cortana said. "Look out, they're really pissed when that happens." John remembered his shoulder being stabbed by a hunter's spike on Installation 04, and agreed. He moved in the direction of the grenades, and the hunters charged, firing their green cannons of death. One shot scored a hit on John's chest, and he felt the heat as the one shot alone drained his shielding to 1/16th of the maximum amount. John ran, and used the pistol as the hunters rained fire on his position (particularly the angry one.) John activated the scope, and fired at a grenade as a hunter stepped close to it. The grenade caused a chain reaction, and all three hunters were caught in a spread of explosions.
The Legaloko were trying to recollect themselves, but John leapt down, and shoved the barrel into the neck of a dying hunter. A single shot sounded, and a .55 caliber round burst out of the barrel, spiraling into the neck of the behemoth. He met the same fate as the first one, but the second hunter suffered worse – John took his bloody boot and brought it down on the exposed and charred back of the second hunter, crushing the delicate body underneath the armor. He attempted to scream, but instead vomited chunky red blood instead. The last hunter had the Spartan land on him, and tried to shake him loose. The Spartan unlatched a frag grenade, and grabbed the charred worms that made the mighty warrior. John punched the grenade inside, and the creature screamed in pain. John activated the grenade before jumping off.
"This time" John said as he hit the ground and rolled. "Stay down." The hunter exploded, in a messy charred and fiery blast, showering the large room with dead wormlike creatures, red blood, sending armored bits into the walls. John saw his shield spark and flare as tiny pieces of the spikes smashed into his protective barrier and disintegrated.
Meanwhile, the Prophet, Revelations, had escaped to a different structure, and was calling for reinforcements. Less than five seconds later, over the orbit of Reach, slipspace ruptures tore open holes in the planet's atmosphere, and brute warships entered the atmosphere of the planet. John felt rumbling, and he unslung his MA5B. "What was that?" he whispered, taking extra caution now that his shielding was weaker than before. "I'm detecting multiple slipspace ruptures" Cortana said. "The prophet" she said, "He called for help, they're going to glass the base! Get us out of here!" she yelled, and John thought the plan of not dying was the best plan. He sprinted out, and rested as he found a hallway with three doors. "Cortana" he groaned. "Pick the one on the right" she replied. John shot through the corridors, not caring that he was tired, and found the familiar bluish sky. He slowly jogged out, heart thundering from running out of the base. John took cover in a pair of rocks on the side of a mountain, and saw a brute occupied carrier appear to the right of his position. Plasma built up in the sides of the ship, and red hot plasma laced out to the structure, immediately melting the metal, while burning and liquefying the covenant section of the base, and it simply melted and gave away. The surrounding areas were burnt, and just the heat given off by the excavation beam managed to take the shields down by a small amount.
The landscape lit up with fire, and the grass nearby exploded into a fiery blaze, with the heat wave even managing to reach Master Chief's position, and he began to run like mad as the heat waves scorched the hill John was hiding on, and he moved to the other side, watching by shifting his helmeted head above the peak of the mountain. John moved up around the side of the mountain, and John saw a Phantom drop Covenant soldiers and a wraith on the unscorched side of the landscape. They spotted Master chief, and the Wraith opened fire on his position.
John ran to avoid the blue plasma blast that flew past him, and carved a hole of melting glass and rock into the ground behind him. John unlatched his pistol, and sighted the nearest Covenant soldier.
He did not like what he saw, and a narrow beam of blue plasma flashed past his helmet as he rolled to the ground.
Skirmishers with beam rifles.
John opened fire with his pistol, and the skirmisher he was shooting at rolled lightning fast to the left, and the round simply flew into the dirt and exploded. John took cover at a near tree, and he activated the scope, and peeked around a corner.
His shields broke as a shot of plasma ripped a hole through the tree, sending splinters into his shield, and the shot came so close, that it scraped a line of molten metal through his armor. John immediately ducked behind the tree as shot after shot literally sliced the tree apart at the stump, and the tree toppled. John unlatched his final fragmentation grenade, and an idea burst open in his helmet.
It was more like Cortana's voice.
"Why don't you throw a rock at the enemy, and hurl a cooked grenade at them when they dodge the rock?" she suggested. Chief thought it was a great idea, and grabbed a larger rock.
John primed the frag, and flung the rock in the general direction of the covenant, and as Cortana said, they jumped to avoid the projectile. John launched the grenade, and the skirmishers were just recovering as the frag detonated in mid air, and flying metal, fire, and red hot shrapnel sped out, and cut into the bodies of the grunts and skirmishers, beginning with their eyes. John leapt out of cover, and fired his M6D two times, and the Skirmishers' heads exploded in flesh and flame. The wraith began hauling mortars and the plasma bombs struck around John just as he dove away, his shields barely existing as the heat stripped them down. Master Chief unloaded the pistol into the wraith, and the rounds smashed into the vehicle and exploded, leaving a large hole in the side of the vehicle and damaging the pilot. John slapped another clip in while a plasma mortar flew overhead, his protective shields tearing away. John jumped on the Wraith, and dug his hand into a crack on the side of the metal. He ripped out the brute with Brute Force,
Ha, Ha.
And John grabbed the Brute's jaw. He tried to slash at the Demon's helmet with his hairy fist, but pain filled him as John wrenched his entire jaw off. The Brute tried to scream, so Chief stuffed the pistol into the gaping hole that was his throat.
Seconds later, his head popped as the bullet exploded.
The grunts were suffering from the earlier grenade, so John let them suffer.
"You're a Sadistic guy." Cortana whispered as John left the mess behind.
Meanwhile, Banshees were doing check runs, while phantoms had plasma cannons searching around the area, looking for the "Demon". A banshee spotted him however, and fired a fuel rod shot in his direction.
John rolled, and the cannon shot struck, burning grass, while melting through rock and burning trees. "Try distracting it and using your pistol to knock it out of the sky." His AI suggested. John pulled the plasma pistol from his belt, and charged the weapon as the banshee made another round over the mountain, and laced John's position with plasma. John waited for it to come closer, as plasma splashed and drained his shielding. His reticule turned red, and he let go of the trigger. The bolt raced out as the banshee attempted to dodge it, but the tracking bolt struck the aircraft, and it began twirling to the ground. It hit the trees and fractured one into deadly splinters, and came to a stop. John ran up to it, and grabbed the brute by it's leg, and ripped him out. The brute packed a spiker, and swung madly, the bayonet smashed into the Chief's shields, and drained them, the alarm beeping madly. John grabbed the brute's arm, and wrestled him as he groaned – It was similar to fighting an elite, and he didn't like it at all, having earned a energy sword slash on his shoulder. He twisted the brute's wrist, and he growled in pain as John used a uppercut kick to it's head, breaking off his helmet. He knocked the brute aside, and filled the warrior with lead from his MA5B. The Chief got into the banshee, and flew toward a structure on the horizon…
"Now, if I am correct, which I should be, the Prophet has fled to the wreckage of the base on the horizon" Cortana said. John sped toward the structure, and the fuel light blinked on low.
Above, UNSC ships and Pelicans appeared on the horizon, and the last Human – Covenant fight was connected in the skies….
The prophet was awaiting backup, and heard whizzing, just before a banshee smashed in through the base's exterior, tearing it apart like wet tissues. John jumped out, raised his MA5C, but not before the Prophet's chair began to light up, and fired a beam at the Chief. It caught John 117, and he was blown to the side be the force of the laser. He crashed into a few computers, and his vision blackened. He woke up to the blinking of the suit's alarm, and the hovering of the prophet. John attempted to stand, and the prophet fired at him again, and John let out a cry of pain as the laser stripped his shields and struck him directly in the armor, burning the armor covering his abdomen and fading the olive color of his armor. John groaned and put the pain aside as the in-suit systems worked hard to spray the open wound with antibiotics and biofoam, stopping the bleeding and speeding the healing. "John" Cortana's voice began to fade as the Chief lost consciousness.
The prophet slowly smiled and moved toward the fallen soldier, and prepared to finish the final Spartan.
"You may have been strong to fight us" he said, kicking the helmeted head, until the visor faced the prophet's testicle - chinned face.
"But you were not a God, and You are pathetic"
"And you will, along with your heretic humans, be put down into the dirt, and your pitiful home planet you call "Earth", burned to glass and ashes, until each and every one of you humans are dead, all under my command."
John heard these words, and he slowly moved his hand toward his assault rifle.
The prophet did not see this, and keyed a button on his chair. "Come to retrive me" he said, triumphantly. "I have killed the Demon" he smiled. "Excellent work. We will….."
The voice on the other side cut to screams, then followed by static, and he prophet kept mashing the controls. "Why are you not responding?" he yelled frantically, more static coming from the other side. Although his appearance made him appear to be old, his ears were sensitive enough to hear a piece of metal fall.
He heard a small gust of wind.
He turned around, and the Demon was gone.
Outside the Base, Surface of Reach.
"This is Sierra 117" he spoke into the intercom. "I am at the base three clicks to the glassed structure – do not bomb the outpost" He waited for a reply outside of the base.
"Understood, Chief" Miranda said. John stepped inside the base again, and he noticed the lights had gone out. "Where is the prophet?" Cortana said, anticipating something dreadful. "I don't know, I jus…" Master Chief noticed a gleam to his left, and instinctively ducked as a plasma laser burned the wall where he had been, melting metal from the area where the plasma struck, and exposing the wires and beams that it protected. John dual wielded his M6G with his MA5C, and his eyes darted around the room, unknown where the prophet had moved to. He barely had time to move as a blast of energy flew out of the darkness, and gleamed off of his shielding, reducing it to ½ of his incomplete shielding. John fired in the general direction, and the bullets glanced off of a shield. He remembered, that the way he dealt with the prophet of Regret, was grabbing on to him, and beating his hand through the shield, until he had been reduced to a corpse. This meant John had to think of a way to get close enough to grab him and kill him.
The prophet was at a standstill with the Spartan – if he activated his helmet lights, he would be found, while if the prophet fired his laser, he would surely be found. He pressed a button, and shielding recovered. He bumped into something and turned around, only to discover a computer screen. Assuring himself he was safe, he let down his defense and slumped in his floating chair. An armored hand came from the shadows, and grabbed him by the mouth. The prophet panicked, and squirmed, and John raised his MA5C, and thrust the barrel into the leader's chest. "Demon" it whispered, as he pulled the trigger, and unloaded the entire clip into the body. He checked to make sure it had died, and dragged it outside.
But not before he sneezed in his helmet.
"Gross" Cortana whined. "It's everywh-..", and Chief smacked his helmet.
Forty grunts had responded to the prophet's cry for help, and waited outside of the structure. What happened next scarred the grunts for life (although they weren't going to live much longer) – out of the dark came the war torn Master chief, visor gleaming in the sun, carrying the prophet's body, ridden with bullet holes. He threw the body onto the pack of grunts, some were crushed by the body, and stared at it for a second before screaming.
John pulled out his MA5C.
The grunts ran away, tripping over each other before falling to a hail of assault rifle fire and eleven bullets from the pistol.
"Chief" Cortana said, "I'm detecting FOF tags to the west". John looked to his right, and over a burnt hill, he saw ODSTS battling brutes, grunts, and Jackals. He slapped a fresh clip into the gun, ran to the battle, and slid to a Helljumper behind a rock.
They fall in line,
One at a time,
Ready to play….
I can't see them anyways…
The Helljumper dodged a white – hot spiker round and saw the Spartan. He was surprised as he looked the Chief's war torn armor and golden visor up and down. "You…You…but, you're dead" he stuttered. John assured him he wasn't, and a plasma bolt smashed into his shielding. John returned fire to a jackal, taking out his shield while a magnum bullet from a fellow ODST finished the infantry and sent him into the next world with a hole in his brain.
No time to lose,
We've got to move,
Steady your helm…
I am losing sight again…
A charged shot struck John, and He was about to dive for cover when someone with two SMG's jumped in front of him.
It was Miranda.
She blew apart what remained of the grunt who fired the shot, and moved to helping John up. They ran to cover. "What are you doing here?" Chief thundered at the commander. "You'll be killed!" he yelled. Keyes stood and began firing while she talked. "I was in charge of leading the attack, and I insisted to Hood that I wouldn't sit in my ship like a coward!" she shouted. She ran out of ammo, and flung her empty mag at a jackal, who hit the ground. She raised her second gun, and shattered his skull with .55 blank range rounds. A Brute appeared from the left, and the Commander didn't see him, while the Spartan did.
Fire your guns, it's time to run,
Blow me away…
I will stay in the mess I made..
After the fall, We'll shake it off,
Show me the way…
Cortana screamed. "Commander Keyes! Look out!"
Too late, the brute fired, and a hail of spikes sliced the air, only to smash into Miranda's chest and abdomen. She fell backwards in slow motion, coughing blood.
Now the Spartan knew how Johnson felt.
"NO!" John screamed, and the Commander collapsed to the ground. John whipped the assault rifle out, and unloaded his clip into the brute's head, even after he'd reduced it to bloody hamburger meat. He dropped down to Keyes, kneeling in a pool of her own blood. "Commander!" he panicked.
She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow "What?"
Only the strongest will survive, Lead me to Heaven when we die…
I am the shadow on the wall,
I'll be the one to save us all..
"Wait, What? You aren't dead?" he was genuinely surprised. The Commander just grunted and ripped out the spikes from her body one by one, and within seconds, her WOUNDS HEALED SHUT.
There's nothing left, so save your breath, lying in wait…
Caught inside this tidal wave..
You're cover's blown, nowhere to go, holding your fate!
Loaded I will walk alone..
"What? WHAT? WHA-" Cortana went berserk with disbelief. "What the hell…" John said. A few ODSTS saw this, and they gaped in astonishment. However, one Helljumper was standing when a needler round burrowed through his brain, his eyes glassed over, and his head popped open with needle shards. The Helljumpers forgot about John and Miranda, and went back to work. "What…What are you…" He said questionably to Keyes, who looked very offended when he doubted her humanity. "I'll explain to you later" she said, sounding angered. A lone grunt popped out of nearby rubble, and shot Keyes with it's plasma pistol. She yelled in pain, and shot the grunt in the head with an SMG. John's jaw dropped to the bottom of his helmet upon seeing her wound heal, only leaving a bare patch of skin where her uniform had covered it. "Let's finish this fight" she said, and John jumped back into seriousness. Miranda left the green Spartan, and John got back to filling covenant soldiers with lead. "What the hell was that?" Cortana swore, referring to Commander Keyes' immortality. "I have no idea what I just saw" he grabbed the head of a nearby Jackal, and crushed it. "But I think Johnson has it too" he finished.
FIRE YOUR GUNS, IT'S TIME TO RUN, BLOW ME AWAY…
I will stay in the mess I made, after the fall we'll shake it off,
SHOW ME THE WAY
Only the strongest will survive, lead me to heaven when we die….
I am the shadow on the wall,
I'll be the one to save us all….
It would explain why the pimp wouldn't stay dead after two Halo rings.
John decided to reload, and almost didn't see a brute, until it's shadow fell over the Spartan.
I wanted it back…..
DON'T FIGHT ME NOW!
John rolled out of harm's way as a gravity hammer obliterated the ground he had just reloaded on. Grunts fired at John as he avoided getting liquefied by the hammer.
HERE I COME!
The ODSTS fought hard, and shot at the grunts and pulverized Jackals while John dealt with the chieftain. The Spartan unlatched a sticky, and dropped it to the floor. The Chieftain didn't see the grenade, and swung his hammer, the gravity waves activating the plasma explosive, and it detonated in the brute's face. With a flash of blue plasma, the brute stumbled back, with fur burnt off revealing exposed muscle, and charred armor. John just pulled out the M6D and planted a headshot on the Chieftain. He saw two grunts scream, abandon their weapons, and pull out two plasma grenades, and charge at the Helljumpers, too distracted by the battle to notice.
DIIIIIEEEEEEEE!
"Suicide grunts, take them down!" he yelled at them. One ODST was too busy using her battle rifle's scope, that she didn't see the grunt coming. John acted quickly and shot the grunt dead, and the plasma grenades fell backward, killing two of it's companions that happened to be too close. One ODST wasn't lucky, and had no time to swear when a suicide grunt found him, charged at him, and exploded, burning away the Helljumper's suit and inflicting two – degree burns to his back. John grabbed him and ran to cover, and put him down, letting a fellow ODST spray him with Biofoam, before wrapping the wounds.
John fired the last AR clip into a Jackal's shield, and the forced caused him to stumble, the shield knocked out of his hand. He grabbed it just as Master Chief punched his fist through the chest of the Jackal, and ripped out his spine, skull, and heart.
Only the strongest will survive, lead me to heaven when we die…
I am the shadow on the wall,
I'll be the one to save usss alllll….
SAVE US ALL..
The remaining survivors of the firefight, John, the ODSTS, and Keyes stood behind a group of boulders, a few Helljumpers backing away upon seeing Miranda and what she did on the battlefield. Cortana, as always, broke the silence over the Helmet speakers. "Commander, we have two phantoms coming in hot, we need a pelican to pick up the wounded" Cortana said. Keyes nodded, and she spoke into a small device. "Echo Two One fourteen, we need a lift out of here" she said, and with that, a pelican came, two minutes later.
The Chief helped load the wounded ODSTS on board, and grabbed more clips for his rifle. Miranda got onboard last, but as the commander did, the few ODST's who saw her heal edged away from her as she sat down with the SMG. She glared at them with green eyes. "John" she yelled. "Get on board!". The Spartan jumped on, grabbed ammunition, leapt off, and the pelican moved. "What are you doing, Chief?" she yelled at John. "There are two phantoms inbound" he replied. "We will be shot down if I can't create a distraction for you all to escape." He ended. Miranda was about to say something, when an ODST spoke up. "You're nuts!" he hollered. "No. It is only logical I distract them while you escape. I will create a window of opportunity for the ground team to evacuate." He turned toward Miranda. "Please Commander, stay onboard this time. I know you want to help, but even with that 'ability' of yours" she slanted her eyes at him. "I still want you to stay safe." He finished.
"Alright, Sierra 117, you may stay. However, within five minutes, I will come to pick you up. Understood?" she said. John nodded. The Pelican rose, blowing dust and debris over Chief's shielding. It rose into the air, but not before dropping off it's warthog just as the Spartan's motion sensor picked up two enemy aircraft. "Two phantoms, coming from the Northeast!" Cortana yelled. A pair of small dots appeared over the horizon and quickly closed the gap between the two aircraft. John drove the Warthog to a hidden spot, unlatched the fuel rod cannon, placed it in the front seat, and then took cover behind a nearby tree. The two phantoms fired concussion rounds at the pelicans, but John thought quickly and drew their fire by shooting the intruders with his pistol. The shots carved messy holes into the metal and exploded, and the Phantoms turned their guns at the Chief. The cannons laced his position with fire, and he dove as the ground was turned into molten liquid, burning anything in close range.
The ODST controlled pelicans used this distraction to escape.
"John, I have fixed your shields." Cortana said, and he looked at his HUD, watching the shield bar recover to it's maximum protection. Thinking fast, he scavenged grenades and placed them strategically on the battle field. "You're crazy" Cortana chimed. John just stared at the phantoms.
"And I like crazy"
The phantoms touched down, and seven brutes, three grunts, and two hunters jumped out of each transport craft. John saw the hunters, and wished he had an explosive weapon. He saw a fuel rod cannon by a grunt's dead body, and grabbed it, loaded it, and hid it. The first brute entered the battlefield, and John pulled out his M6D and shot the first grenade. It began a chain reaction, when the fragmentation grenade exploded, it threw up dust, smoke, and deadly metal particles that cut holes in grunts, while it shredded the skin of brutes and bounced off hunter shields.
That caused a plasma grenade to explode, with another fragmentation, and the covenant had walked into John's minefield, loose grenades ripping the infantry apart. One hunter spotted John, growled, and it's fuel rod cannon began to grow a sickly green, and seconds later, the cover John was hiding behind was struck with plasma, and burned into the metal. He leapt out as the surrounding area was laced with plasma and spike grenades, and he fired at the remaining brutes as they fell, bullet ridden corpses tainted with blood and copper. John found a spike grenade, and dodged a spiker as a nearby brute lunged at him, trying to force the bayonet into John's skull. The Spartan rolled, and thumbed the switch on the deadly explosive, and stabbed the brute in the abdomen with the sharp side of a spike. It howled in pain as John leapt aside, and the grenade detonated, tearing the brute apart and sending bloody spikes into the shields and armor of nearby brutes.
Sierra 117 pulled up his assault rifle and focused on shredding the armor of brutes, and getting the attention of a hunter. The master chief primed a frag, and threw it into the crowd of enemies, who didn't see it coming. Within a 15 – meter radius, dirt, fire, shrapnel, and particles of flesh were thrown around when the fist – sized device detonated, and finished what was left of the brutes. The hunters began advancing, arm shields raised, and firing. John was caught in the leg by a fuel cannon blast, and the suit's temperature rose, along with the beeping of the alarm, followed by a crimson red as the blast smashed into his shielding, completely draining it, and letting him crash to the ground. John coughed up blood in his helmet, and he slowly got up, only to see a hunter raise it's shield above it's head, over his position. He rolled, and barely missed being turned into canned meat as the shield struck the ground, and threw up clouds of dirt on impact, and covered the Chief's visor with dust. He stood and ran for cover when a energy blast struck his back. Luckily, his MA5C was on his back, and absorbed most of the blow, with hardly any damage done, due to it's durability. John sprinted to the hidden fuel rod cannon, and grabbed it. "Give them a taste of their own medicine" Cortana said with enthusiasm, and at that particular moment, John could imagine the smile on her face. He dove toward the hidden Warthog, and revved the engines.
The hunters heard a roving sound, and a warthog flew from a hill above. The Chief mashed the brakes, and drove into a hunter, and blowing him apart. John saw a green flash, and a fuel rod blast struck his hog, and superheated the metal and popped one of the wheels. Using his momentum, he crashed into a hunter and rolled out, Fuel rod in hand. He fired, and a deadly green canister of glowing hot gas shot across the battlefield, and struck the first hunter as he raised his shield. Too late, however, as the flammable liquids were ignited by the impact, and the canister shattered, splashing the hunter with green flames, and burning away the blue armor it wore, along with burning the exposed worms to black crisps. The weakened hunter barely managed to stand as the structure of worms barely held, and the armor began to crack and fall away. John hurled a plasma grenade, and it stuck to the hunter's cannon, and exploded, burning whatever lived in a blue flash, while showering the rocks with smoking chunks of hunter meat. The other hunters regained formation and began unleashing hell on the Spartan. He returned fire with the cannon, but each of the armored creatures dodged and rolled their way to safety, getting closer to him each time. John checked his ammunition, and found he had one round left. He loaded it as the canister chambered, and the beeping noise confirmed that the deadly launcher was loaded. He waited for a hunter to lunge at him, and ran at one. It fired, and the shot smashed into his helmet, but being shielded, he didn't care, but when the suit's warning came on, he dodged shots in one fluid movement, and fired the last shot at the oncoming behemoth. It screamed as it didn't have time to protect itself, and was swallowed in a green, fiery death. A hunter wailed and fired just as John's shields began to charge, and he instinctively dove as the energy passed just a centimeter above his body, the heat being enough to set off the alarm and wipe out his shields. As John groaned and stood, the leftover hunters charged with all they had, firing all the way. John did the best he could to avoid the oncoming fire, but a stream of the energy had made contact with his boot, and melted away the paint, while heating up the metal. The suit's gel layer and cooling systems absorbed most of the heat, but still, some managed to blister his skin, and he screamed as the sensation of his foot being lit on fire filled his mind. He saw a hunter stand over him, and he knew it was over for him…
As John could only watch the cannon warm up, he saw a small laser designator appear on the hunter's head, and he found the power to roll to the side as a red burst of light flashed, and the monster's head was disintegrated clean by the laser. The body fell to the ground, still sizzling, and the other hunter turned, just as the small beam found it's mark on the beast's chest, and a beam burst from the rocks to burn a hole through the hunter, dematerializing the torso as it flashed through, and the Legaloko was sliced neatly in half. John looked around, and a hand appeared to help him up. "Chocolate Bear? Is it you?" he said, and Johnson gave the Petty Officer a scowl. "CHOCOLATE BEAR!" he screamed at the armored solider. "I JUST SAVED YOUR ASS, AND YOU CALL ME 'CHOCOLATE BEAR'?" he glared at the wounded John. However, he broke into a laugh. "Very funny, you bastard, you never knew your…"
The Spartan's foot found itself in the black man's groin.
John twisted his foot, getting a grunt out of Johnson. His face twisted into one he'd use when he'd take a shit.
Being Immortal however, his ballsack healed faster than a black guy being chased by racist white cops.
"Good to see you're still alive" he said, nervously chewing his cigar. "You saved my life, as well as the Commander's" he added with a grin. John just nodded. "You just two don't seem to die either." He mumbled, and with that, a pelican arrived to pick up the two heroes. John watched as UNSC ships entered the atmosphere, raining MAC rounds onto the Brute-occupied covenant ships. The rounds slammed into the enemy ships at unfathomable speed, and broke through hulls, decks, and covenant infantry, only to emerge out of the opposite side of the ship, causing it to implode in a fiery bouquet of flames and metal.
The brutes returned fire, and their plasma cannons warmed up, and plasma shot out, laced towards a UNSC ship, and burned through air and cloud as it shot toward the human ship and struck. John could only watch as the red plasma laced towards the ship, and collided with it, burning through entire decks and floors of the ship, and destroying whatever it touched, while gases vented from the breached hull. Other ships fired at the remaining covenant ships, MAC rounds launching from the ships, smashing through entire sections and splattering brute bodies as it exited though the opposite side of the ship, causing it to explode in a fiery bouquet of flame and shrapnel.
Two hours later…
UNSC IN AMBER CLAD
"John, the Commander wants to see you" Johnson said, pointing at the door to his left. John walked in, and found Keyes at her desk. She motioned for him to sit, and as he did, he noticed a picture of Jacob Keyes and Catherine Elizabeth Halsey on her desk. "My mother and father" she said, noticing he was eyeing the image. "Halsey never told me she had a daughter" he replied, surprised. Keyes changed the subject and pulled out a medal. "John" she announced. "You are awarded this medal, for sticking through to the end, and stopping the Covenant in their plans to attack Earth once again." She said, and John took the medal out of her hand as she gave it to him. "Tell me" Keyes looked up at John. "What the hell was that 'healing' you did back there? How did you survive? Besides, I saw you – you were dead in Johnson's hands." John asked. "Ah" she blushed. "Johnson, as my mother discovered, had Boren's syndrome, a genetic syndrome that caused the Flood to reject him as a host, but altered his DNA to give him somewhat regenerative properties when the flood attempted to infect him, which is possibly how he survived his multiple deaths." She looked away from the chief at the next part. "Johnson saw my dying body, and in the pelican, he landed in a safe place, and began a blood transfusion, using my spiker wounds"
Flashback
"Oh god, stay alive Keyes" Johnson uttered. He violently landed his pelican into a mountainside range. The entire aircraft shook, and the Commander's body slumped and smashed into the dashboard. "Dammit, stay with me!" he cut himself, and turned her over until the spikes sticking out of her spine were visible. He hesitated, and pulled spikes out. Her body twitched. He saw his cut beginning to heal, and sliced himself again.
"Oh, I hope this works" he let the blood drip into the wound for a half – minute, and turned her over. "Sorry commander, but I gotta do this, or you'll stay dead" he pushed on her chest, and attempted to pump the blood around her corpse.
"Gahhh… Come on!"
The healing agents in his blood that was now in her body began to rebuild the cells and body. Knowing that a body would not fully shut down for a full ten minutes, he hoped he had made it. He looked to see any change. Suddenly, he saw her grey – blue eyes turn green again, and her wounds began to seal shut, leaving no scar. Avery let out a chuckle, and watched as the Commander blinked rapidly. "Welcome back" he helped the young Keyes up, and she gripped her back. Out of surprise, she let out a small gasp upon feeling an absence of spikes, and looked at him. "But I was dead" she mumbled. "How did I heal?" she asked. Johnson smiled, and he began a long-ass boring story about his Flood encounter, and the "gift" he'd accidentally received from it. .
Flashback ends.
" And that is how I survived." She finished. John just looked at her eyes. He saw Captain Keyes in them, as well as Halsey's face, and some of Cortana. He engaged in a conversation. "You were very lucky Johnson had this strength, and passed it to you" he said. "speaking of luck" she began, "My mother was right" John looked at her again. "You truly are the luckiest Spartan" she said. John thought for a second, and remembered Dr. Halsey telling him about his luck after the coin toss.
Flashback – 25 years ago
Twenty – five years ago
Reach
"John, I think you're in trouble" Sam said, and pointed at a pregnant Doctor Catherine Halsey. He slowly made his way to her, and avoided the stares of children standing nearby. Halsey was holding her enlarged stomach with one hand, and her other hand behind her back. "Alright John, let's see just how skilled you are" She said. Catherine held out her hand from behind her back. "What is that?" he inquired with interest. She had pulled out a twentieth century coin, and showed it to the six year old Spartan. "This is the currency of the past, also known as a quarter" she said, and flipped the coin in the air. "We will play heads and tails, you will guess heads or tails, and if you are correct, you may keep it." She added. "Let's do this!" he said, and he watched the scientist flip the coin in the air, but for him, it seemed to fall in slow motion. The coin finally fell into her hands, and she slapped down on it. "Heads" she stopped and looked at her hand. "Or tails" she added. John closed his eyes for a few seconds, and opened them again. "Heads!" he exclaimed, and flashed a toothy smile. Halsey smiled, and revealed a heads up quarter in the palm of her hand. "Congratulations" she said. "You win" she finished. John took the coin from her hand as she gave it to him, and he began to run to the other children and show off his latest award. Catherine stopped him as he was about to run off, and motioned for him to come closer. "Did I ever tell You?" she asked him. "About what" John said. Catherine looked over at the other children. "You have something they don't have." She motioned to the other Spartan candidates with her eyes. "Luck" she said, and turned him loose. John just ran forward, and as the kids moved closer, he looked back at Halsey. There was a man with pepper colored hair, dressed in a gray suit, and chest covered with medals. He advanced towards Halsey. He looked closer, and saw a name close to his neck.
Keyes.
He would remember that name. He watched as he said a few words to the scientist, and lightly kissed her on the cheek, and put a hand on her bulging stomach. They both looked at John, and said a few words he didn't understand, before Sam's voice brought him back to reality.
Flashback ends
"I remember Halsey telling me that." He said, clutching the medal in his armored fist. "It's good seeing you again." The commander said, and held out a hand. "John" she said as he stood. "Thanks for your help – Humanity would be gone without you" she finished. Her hand sticking out, John shook it, and turned to leave. John left Keyes' office, and quickly remembered something. He grabbed a sniper and a extra clip on his way to the hangar. As the In Amber Clad was about to take off, John looked at the landscape of Reach. It was painted by a mixture of browns, the faded green of burnt grass, speckled with metal and fragments made from the brute ships, while being kissed by flames from the excavation glassing. John slapped the clip into the weapon, jumped in the air, and spun around completely without scoping in, and fired the armor-piercing .50 caliber round into the horizon. After five seconds, he felt fatigue take him, and he put down the sniper rifle, and swapped it for an assault rifle. He drowsily walked to his quarters, and before long, he put the rifle on the side of the wall, and fell asleep.
The UNSC In Amber Clad made the slipspace jump as Commander Keyes activated the Shaw – Fujikawa drive, and the ship left Reach, and began it's multi-hour journey back to Earth.
Two minutes earlier…..
Surface of Reach
Payap the grunt was running away from whatever had remained of the base. His covenant friends would have him executed for giving away their location, and that was classified as betrayal. He had a close brush with death, and been followed by the Demon. He had let him live however, and on the account of never seeing him again. Payap was determined to never let that happen by abandoning his courage, and leaving behind the base he had trained at for months. As he reached a hill, he looked back at the mess – a burnt pool of metal and glass, burning and creating a pillar of smoke that ever stretched into the sky. The sun was close to setting, and the grunt relaxed for the first time in the past few hours. He closed his eyes, and as he did, he heard a whistling sound. His brain didn't even have time to process the command to open his eyes, when John's .50 caliber round smashed through the unngoy's head and carved through alien blood, skull, and brains, before exiting on the other side of the alien's head. The blood didn't even have time to leak out of the hole in the dead grunt's head before his head exploded into chunks of fleshy gore, and misted a five meter radius with glowing blood. Reach was finally rid of the Covenant forever. In the fiery red sky, the last of the UNSC ships left Reach orbit, with the job being thoroughly completed.
End.