Chapter 1: Happy Landings
0120 hours, October 20 2552 (Military Calendar)/ Skies above Toronto: Ground Zero, Earth.
A grey aircraft soared above the smoking city. The Pelican transport kept a safe altitude above the war torn metropolis since the city was crawling with the enemy, the Covenant. From above the pilot could see the green glow of plasma bolts and the red tracer rounds streaking through the streets like a deadly light show.
"This Echo 56 to central command, requesting permission to land, over." The pilot of the Pelican said through his com link. The Pelican patrolled the city diligently while waiting for a response from central command.
"That's a negative, Echo 56. We are under heavy fire in the east sector and the rest of the city is under cove controlled, it isn't worth it, over." A voice over the radio responded. The pilot looked back into his Pelican's troop bay. Seven Marines, armed with an assortment of weapons, sat in the seats lining the wall. One figure, however, stood near the opened back, looking down upon the city. This man, though he had been augmented to the point where one would say he was more machine then human, wore green MJOLNIR armor which could withstand intense fire. He had greater reflexes then any normal human in existence. He had the eyes of the hawk and he could hear a pin drop in the harshest conditions such as a sandstorm. He was Master Chief.
"Sir?" The Pelican pilot asked Master Chief, "We can't land, what should we do?
"We land, Sergeant Connor, we land." Master Chief replied.
"No offense Chief, but Covenant Anti-Air defenses will rip this bird to pieces." A female voice said over Master Chief's com channel.
"Cortana, if we can't reinforce the General's troops, we'll lose the city." Master Chief responded to Cortana. Cortana was the AI construct aboard the Pillar of Autumn, but now she joined with Chief via his suit's architecture which allowed her to be transported with him. She had proved very useful during battle on Halo, accessing the Covenant battle net, hacking into Halo's control room, and had her hand in saving the galaxy from the Flood. Without her, Chief may have been stuck on Halo or worse he could have activated Halo's final weapon.
"Let me access the Covenant battle net," she said, "Hmm, it seems that they're defending that ship over there, I'll mark it with a nav point."
On Chief's HUD display, a small arrow marked the location of a ship as well as the distance from him to the ship. At that moment they were three kilometers away and that distance was increasing with every second that past. Chief peered out the Pelican; he could see the massive tear drop shaped cruiser in the distance. Great plumes of black smoke bled from the ship where it had been hit by the powerful orbital MAC guns.
"It seems that the ship, the Righteous Wrath, had been carrying a team to establish a base of operations here, but after being shot down; they changed their mission to their regular tactics." Cortana announced, "According the information at hand, the covenant dropped another group with same mission near New York City, but it seems that there is no information on that team on the battle net."
"So what should we do, Cortana?" The pilot asked.
"I suggest getting out of here, but those men need are help," replied Cortana, "We need to hot drop Chief into battle. Though we don't have parachutes, his shields will take most of the damage."
"Most?" Chief asked suspiciously.
"Well uh, let's say..." She answered.
"Never mind." He interrupted.
"Sir, I can get you in near our forces' rear flank." The pilot told Master Chief. The Pelican increased its speed to get to the battle. Below them, Shade plasma turrets and Wraith tanks began to fire at them, but the Pelican's altitude kept the soldiers safe from the anti-aircraft fire. As they got closer to the battle, the air became thick with smoke, and explosions could be heard from every direction. As the Pelican rounded around a building the troops and Master Chief could see the Covenant and Human forces firing upon each other, hundreds of human and covenant bodies strewed like leaves in October and several Scorpion Tanks protecting the Humans' rear flank. The Pelican got to the back of the battle and began to land.
"Okay Marines, go go go!" shouted the pilot as the Marines and Master Chief jumped out the Pelican and rushed to the front line. Master Chief looked up as the Pelican took off after dropping them off. As the Pelican climbed to a safe height, it was hit by a plasma cannon blast. A twisted flaming ball of metal fell to earth, but Master Chief didn't think twice about it. He had seen so much death and destruction through out this damn war that it didn't really matter any more. Chief loaded his battle rifle and ran to the front lines.
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, or have any affiliation with Microsoft or Bungie. I am just using their characters for my story.