HALO: THROUGH THE EYES OF ANDREW FITZGERALD
First Class Private Matthew Durham walked around the Cairo Station, a magnum as his sidearm. He was near the armory; it always made him feel more comfortable. He felt he would be ready for any Covenant attacks on the station. Little did he know, he would not be prepared for what was just about to happen.
El Tee Spade was dressed up in his best clothing. He was going to be present to watch Admiral Stanforth award two very special marines. The Master Chief, Spartan 117. The one who destroyed Halo single-handedly. Or so he had been told. There was a lot of dirt talked about 117. He wanted to punish those who had.
Suddenly, his watch beeped. He swore, the show had just started. He ran out of the large-windowed room and double timed himself to get to the award show on time. He was just about to enter a room, a large blast door led into a small area, which would lead him to the presentation. The door was locked. He swore again, and turned around when suddenly, the door exploded.
Private First Class Andrew Fitzgerald was awoken from his sleep by a large explosion. He looked pale, he hadn't slept in three days because of jetlag. This was the first time he had slept in a long while and he was angry. He didn't feel like going outside his room to check where the explosion came from. Then, a waling siren came over the ship's COM, and Admiral Stanforth's voice came over the COM.
"This is not a drill! I repeat, this is NOT a drill!" said Stanforth, with urgency in his voice. Andrew shook with fear. This was going to be his second time fighting the Covenant, and he was scared. He already had his marine suit on, all he did was grab his Battle Rifle, two fragmentation grenades and a magnum. He quickly applied all this to his body. Then, he ran out to be greeted by several grunts, four foot tall creatures with grey, scaly skin, and colored 'humps' on their back, it would be a different color, depending on their rank. A red armored grunt, a veteran, withdrew is plasma pistol. It was a small weapon, it pulsed green where the barrel was. Andrew saw it, and opened fire. A three –round blast hit the grunt in the hand, knocking the plasma pistol from his reach, then two more blasts hit the grunt in the chest. Cobalt-colored blood sprayed the bulkhead, and two more grunts appeared from the side. They were new, and pretty much had no combat experience besides the VR simulation they were given on humans.
"That what they look like?" asked a grunt, with broken English. Andrew fired one burst into the grunts head, and cobalt blood splattered the carpeting. The last one, noticing there were no more of his squad mates left, squealed and ran down the hall. Andrew came out of his room, and shot the grunt in the orange colored hump on his back, which came through the other side of his body. The grunt gasped for more methane in his tanks of it, but could not breathe and slowly died. Andrew breathed heavily, knowing that he had survived another battle against the Covenant. His thought was proven incorrect, as a loud roar came from the end of the corridor. Andrew turned his head to see a meter tall creature, armed with a navy blue gun glowing a sky blue at the end. He saw Andrew and raised his sidearm to somewhere about rib level, and opened fire. A long, blue streak of plasma was headed right for Andrew's body. It impacted, and he saw his own red blood hit the floor without a sound. He wanted to scream, but couldn't. Everything went blurry and he almost blacked out, when he heard a marine yell, "Firing!" and a large number of bullets hit the elite, and it's special shield generator flickered, then died. Two more bursts hit the elite, and it fell into a puddle of its own purple blood. Andrew quickly forgot about the wound, and saw the marines turn a corridor, about five of them. He waved, and they ran over to him.
"Hey man, are you okay?" asked a marine with a thick Spanish accent. "You look like you took a pretty nasty plasma wound there."
"I guess so. This is only my second time fighting the Covenant, I guess I'm not used to the pain." Andrew replied, flatly. Suddenly, an Anzac marine screamed in pain, fired three sustained bursts into the air and fell down. A gold-armored elite shone bright in the fluorescently lit halls over the station, a meter long bluish object glowed in his right hand. A marine swore, quite loudly, and opened fire with his tactical SMG, sub machine gun. It was a handheld machine gun that fired just like a thirty caliber turret, except it shot 5 millimeter bullets, and was meant for close corridors. The marine wasted the whole clip into the elite warrior, and didn't have time to reload. He paid dearly for not thinking ahead. There was a lot of red blood on the carpeting of the station, so much that Andrew almost vomited. One of the marines, obviously a commander, had armed himself with a shotgun and fired three shells into the large creature. The first shell had killed the shield generator, the second shell blew a hole with the diameter of 12 inches, and the third was just for good measure. The commander led the way forward toward a blast door. He heard banging on one side of the door, then there was a large spark from a welding tool. The commander screamed, "Get away from here! They're going to bust through the door! I'll stay here and hold them off, get going and find a way out of here!"
"Sir, you can come with us! If they see…" Andrew was cut off by a grab from behind by the Spanish marine. He ran with the marine down the hall, trying to get out. Andrew looked back one last time, then heard the explosion and turned back to see the end of the hall. They ran through the door and heard the final words of the commander:
"I'll kill you all! Bring it on you…" and the words were cut off by the sound of the door shutting. Andrew and the other marine entered another room, fires set all around and a dead elite, along with two dead grunts. The saw a flight of stairs, then ran up them and the heard shouts from beyond a door. It opened, and they were on a raised platform. There were two other marines nearby, one on a thirty caliber turret, the other, a well dressed marine with a magnum. He was taking cover behind a titanium bulwalk. The Mexican marine, Diego, cried out as about twenty plasma bolts hit him all over. Blood splattered all over the walls and on the stairs. He dropped his SMG, and two fragmentation grenades dropped to the floor. Andrew ripped the dog tag off of him, stuffed it in his chest pocket and ran toward the two marines. Three plasma bolts hit the marine on the thirty caliber turret in the head, each penetrating the dark-green helmet on his head, all the skin melted away revealing flesh and bone. Andrew quickly took his place on the turret and began firing onto the Covenant on the floor. Two grunts dropped to the titanium-a deck plating and he killed his first elite, it was cobalt colored. The marine behind bulwalk fired three shots at a grunt, two of them hitting a grunt, the last hitting the floor harmlessly. Andrew was keeping a steady fire on the Covenant coming from the purple ship sticking through one of the large windows in the Cairo. The door opened again, and a seven foot tall monstrosity with bright green armor and a BR-55 Battle Rifle walked through. It was Spartan 117, the last one of them. The failed project, known as SPARTAN-II. He ran toward the two marines, and picked up the two fragmentation grenades that had once belonged to the greenhorn known as Diego. He also picked up four plasma grenades on the way. He began firing down onto the Covenant, when he saw a grunt light up a plasma grenade and throw it across the floor. It stuck to a very young marine, who ran forward and shouted right before he died, "Tell my mom I love her!" His lifeless corpse flew into the air, and his weapon hit the ground along with a grenade. An anger Andrew had never felt before flew through his veins after seeing that marine die. He began firing a lot faster at the aliens now, killing them faster now. A large smirk grew across his face and he cried, "Hey, aliens! Why don't you turn down the suck!" He killed a few more, then growled, "Here's something to remember me by!" and fired three more shots into a dead elite. Suddenly, the flow of aliens stopped. Covenant blood streaked the floor, the bulkheads and the windows. He lifted himself off the turret, and walked over to the end of the raised platform. Outside, he saw Covenant boarding crafts leaving another station, known as the Malta.
"Hey, check it out. The Malta's fending off the boarders." Said a young marine on the floor of the docking bay. Cortana, an Artificial Intelligence in Spartan 117's armor said over FLEETCOM, "Malta, what is your status? Over."
The Admiral of the Malta replied excitedly, "I…don't believe it! They're retreating, we won!"
As soon as the Admiral of the Malta finished that sentence, the Malta station exploded in a ball of orange and yellow flame, and there was a loud burst of static as the COM conversation was suddenly cut.
"Good Lord…" said the marine dressed in the white suit as he witnessed the explosion of the Malta. There were hundreds of thousands of marines, both young and old, on that ship. They were all gone now. They were gone, and never coming back. A marine with a downed look on his face walked toward the blast door, and lay his head on it. He moaned, depressed. He might have had a friend on the Malta. He might have had a family member on the Malta. It was scary nonetheless. Suddenly, the blast doors disappeared in a blue light. The blue light absorbed the marine, he was pushed back about five meters, blood streaked across the floor. There were two cobalt armored elites, along with several grunt, one of which was a veteran were there. They opened fire on a marine who was trying to hide near a docked 'Pelican', a human drop ship. Plasma blasts engulfed him, and he fell back into a puddle of his own blood. He screamed as the plasma sunk into his body. The Spartan jumped down, and began to fire on the Covenant troops. Andrew could barely see any of the action, he only knew that two marines were KIA at the moment. He ran over to another section of the raised platform, he was right on top of the Covenant. He saw blood spray into the air, and he threw a fragmentation grenade into the middle of the formation of the Covenant. It was very well placed, and it finished off the last of the Covenant here. The Master Chief ran through the opening in the docking bay, Andrew climbed down a ladder and followed. He ran through a hall, and saw a man who had a white suit, covered in soot, blood and dust now. There were sections of a blast door around him. He crouched near the man, and removed his dog tag. It read:
LT. PETER SPADE, CAIRO STATION, ROOM 0122
He tucked it into his pocket, and ran forth. There was a freckle faced youngster, missing a helmet and covered in blood. He had an SMG in his hands, and was shaking badly. There was a Mexican marine, taking cover behind a wall, without any injuries. The Spartan ran out into the open and from what Andrew could see, there were two grunts on plasma turrets, firing non-stop leaving the marines pinned down. There was a boarding craft on the other side, pouring out Covenant troops onto the other side. They were planning on moving forward to kill the marines there. The Spartan killed the two grunts by shooting them in the head. The three remaining marines ran forward and began firing short, sustained bursts at the Covenant boarding parties. They would fire about two bullets, then would duck behind one of the large supply boxes. The Spartan sprinted toward the destroyed blast door to the right of them. Andrew fired three bursts, killed two grunts and reloaded. He took the second clip out of his ammo pack, there was one clip left after this one. The Spartan reappeared on the raised structure, and fired down as the marines became more confident, and began to push the boarding party back. Soon after, there were none left. The Spartan jumped down, and ran through a door leading down somewhere. Andrew heard an order over the COM to return to the first Pelican docking bay. He, and the other two marines ran back into the docking bay where the Pelican was located. They jumped into the side seats of the Pelican, along with three other marines and a commanding officer. The two Pelican pilots closed the open door of the Pelican in the back, and they flew out of the Cairo station. The officer soon briefed them on what had happened.
"Marines, the Covenant have located Earth, and landed successfully in New Mombassa, and we're going down there to take out the trash. Make ready for anything. Oh, and whatever your name is that's missing a helmet? Here's a medical kit." Said the officer, and he threw a white, octagon shaped box with a red cross hastily painted on top to the freckle faced youngster who opened it like a child getting a gift and used all the supplies in it. He soon looked a lot better.
New Mombassa, 4 hours ago.
Michael Watson patrolled an apartment complex in New Mombassa, it was a boring routine. Everyday, every floor making sure no Covie got through. He decided to go out of the complex, and visited some other marines taking a break from patrolling. They began chatting, and talking about how much their job sucked. They saw a young man yell something in a different language at them. It was a direct insult, and Michael fired a two round burst at the guy who was yelling at them from a balcony. The bullets broke the railing of the balcony, and the young man whimpered, then ran back inside. The marines laughed and they decided to explore the city. The eight of them went to an area where some stairs were located. It was a restaurant they went to daily. Right before Michael opened the door, the sky blackened, grunts and elites dressed in black armor and special explosive weapons charged toward the marines. The marines tried fighting back, but there were too many Covenant. The marines were all slaughtered, brutally. Red blood was all over the place as more Covenant troops advanced throughout the city, destroying everything in their path.
Next Chapter: Outskirts
