Legal disclaimer:
I do not own Sierra, Valve, Half-life, Bungie, Gearbox, Microsoft and/or Halo and other related companies whatsoever. I wish I did, anyway.
Hidden Mantis: Sorry guys. I'm getting too busy and lazy at the same time. We're gonna stop focusing on Master Chief and go on with Freeman for a while.
Date: September 29, 2552
Gordon turned a corner. Just then, he heard sounds coming from outside the Autumn's bridge. Barking?
Gordon stepped back and made sure whatever caused the sounds couldn't hear him.
"Those barking aliens in our vicinity are Grunts," said Cortana. They're the lowest ranking ones in the Covenant, a large group of alien races bent on destroying mankind."
"They're cowardly alone, but strong in packs, so don't be careless. I'd recommend shooting the methane tanks on their backs with your M6D. The armor-piercing explosive slugs will take care of the rest."
Remembering his pistol, Gordon examined it more closely. It was a large, recoil-operated, magazine-fed magnum and had a scope where the front iron sights should have been.
Gordon thought this technology was too simplistic for anything that came 500 years in the future. Then again, this technology was pretty much fail-proof.
Freeman ejected the magazine. He saw the .50 caliber bullets. Semi-Armor Piercing, High Explosive. And there were 12 of them if it were in full capacity. There were currently 6.
He understood the outcome.
Date: May 2002
Kent followed John around. Being near an intimidating man in a metal suit wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but being the only one to walk with in Black Mesa, he couldn't be picky.
After picking off a few other zombies, they walked through what was left of the lab's hallways. Kent backtracked to the cafeteria to search for survivors, but to no avail. He only saw a trail of blood that led to the bathrooms, and then to nowhere.
"I'm sorry this happened," the Chief said.
"This ain't your fault. Something else did this. Or someone. At least I think so," Kent replied.
Walking back to the guard station at the entrance of the facility, a headcrab was lying there waiting for prey.
It lunged at Kent and tried to reach its target. He whacked it with his pistol to try and fend it off, making it miss, but not before it stabbed him on the shoulder with one of its mandibles.
"Guahh!" Kent screamed in pain.
The Chief picked up Kent's fallen Glock and fired at the alien, yellow blood oozing out of its wounds. Two rounds and it was a goner.
"Thanks man. It would've killed me if you weren't here," Kent muttered only loud enough for John to hear.
"You need medical attention," said the Chief. "Sit here and I'll go find a first-aid kit."
"Nah, you go on without me," Kent replied, trying to sound valiant. "I'll hold on from here. There's a med kit underneath that desk over there. Can you go get it for me?"
The Chief scooted over to the desk, grabbed the first-aid and gave it to Kent.
"Let me patch you up."
"I don't think so. I'm just slowing you down. I'll do it myself. You need to save others, if there are any. Go. Find them."
John then left Kent. It would've been a while until he found other security guards.
He punched a vent shaft open and crawled through it.
Cortana already took note of the fact that Gordon's HEV suit assisted his aiming. She speculated that it would integrate to the pistol's scope. She was right. Gordon had an easier time aiming with its 2x scope, but it felt kind of awkward looking at his surroundings using his extended arms.
Gordon aimed at the Grunts' orange backs. He pulled the trigger. He felt a hard kick against his palm even though he wore protective armor. The shot caused a small explosion in the Autumn's hallways. Blue-green blood remained on the walls. The stench of scorched methane and skin filled the hallway. Gordon was lucky the helmet filtered most of the smell, but a faint odor remained.
Freeman walked towards the closest door, right into a firefight in the ship's cafeteria. A dead Marine was lying near his feet. An MA5B Assault Rifle was beside him. Gordon picked up the bloodied gun.
The rifle was light. Probably a polymer of some sort. It was pretty sturdy; it got partially burnt by a plasma slug but was still functional and intact.
The rifle had a full magazine capacity of 60 7.62x51 bullets, but this one carried 14. Gordon knew it was best to reload for a full burst.
"The Marines in the mess hall are skirmishing against an Elite, a stronger race in the Covenant army," Cortana said. "They're as tall and strong as they are proud."
The Elite was daunting. It carried a gun that was too large to be carried with one human hand, but looked like a pistol when the alien carried it; the same type of gun that killed Samuel Marcus. It warbled as it entered the mess hall, its mandibles opening and vibrating. Two Grunts followed it in.
Gordon shot it from where he entered, hitting its shielded frame. Some of his controlled bursts bounced off from the edges of its protective bubble. Four Marines who were much closer to the alien joined him in a symphony of lead.
Within a few seconds, the Elite dropped down in a bloody and blistered mess. Gordon thought of shooting the Grunts' backs again, but it wasn't safe for the Marines close to them. He shot with pinpoint accuracy at their necks while jogging up to the party of men.
The Grunts and Elite only barely scorched one Marine with their plasma weapons. Regrouping, the Marines spied the man who shot over their backs.
"You're that stowaway in the Cryobay, right? You made us lose the Chief!" said one Marine.
"Shut it, soldier! We need all the hands we can get in this situation!" a Corporal snapped.
"Happy to have you aboard mister–,"
"Freeman. Gordon Freeman," said the radio strapped to his front, right where a breast pocket should be.
"Ma'am!" said the Corporal. He saluted.
The rest of the Marines followed suit.
"Please treat the good doctor with utmost care," barked the Corporal to his squad. "He is carrying precious cargo! Without him, our Earth might already be in the hands of the enemy."
"Yes sir!" said the rest of the Marines.
Just then, doors down the end of the cafeteria opened to reveal two squads of Elites and Grunts entering. The larger aliens growled a couple of orders. The Grunts started shooting.
The green blobs of plasma were easily seen, but the projectiles were too fast to dodge at this close range. Marine armor plate melted against the alien bullets. A human dropped on the floor without as much as a whimper.
Gordon knew his training at the Hazard Course would come in handy. Strafing while shooting was a fairly good tactic in this situation. Even though his accuracy would significantly decrease, it would be compensated with the HEV's aiming reticule assistance and the fact that he could easily dodge the floating bolts.
He bought two Grunts down with his assault rifle without getting himself shot at while the rest of the Marines killed the others. The Elites continued shooting at them with blue bolts.
Everyone in the party followed Gordon's tactics. Strafing the Elites in circles and making sure not to hit their allies; it was a dance of death.
The two Covenant squads were downed, but a Marine was lost. "This is the cycle of death that the Covenant wants to continue," Cortana radioed Gordon discreetly. "This is why we have to stop them."
Gordon nodded to himself.
Spying some first-aid kits, Gordon grabbed some. "These kits have biofoam, a special kind of medicine that is a coagulant, antibacterial, and heals your wounds at a faster rate than normal regeneration," Cortana informed. "You should apply some on your wounds."
But Gordon had a better idea. He dumped the biofoam into the HEV's extra medicinal canister. He, then, fiddled with the suit a bit (removing the back, reprogramming it, then attaching it back again), then after activating his suit, made sure all systems were operational.
"Wait! Before you apply the biofoam, there's gonna be a-." But before Cortana could finish, Gordon already started the administering of first-aid. It stung. Probably even more than the Cryo tube. It felt like burning ants crawling all around his fracture. If the morphine hadn't numbed most of the pain, it would've been more painful.
"Stinging sensation," Cortana finished too late.
Gordon's vision blurred for a bit. Everything was white. After what seemed to be an eternity of pain, the stinging subsided. He checked his health monitor. 100.
It worked. Gordon felt better in no time, but for the price of excruciating pain.
John found his first-ever houndeye. The dog-alien screamed at him. If a normal human was standing there now, their bones would've been broken. Spartans had their bodies augmented in such ways that they were virtually invincible. John's bones were unbreakable.
He shot the creature in the face, in what seems to be its eye. The houndeye toppled and died.
Soon, more houndeyes came.
"This is gonna be a long day," the Master Chief said to himself.
Being a scientist, he never had real military training. He only did the shooting. So, he did something that he always wanted to do. He signaled the Marines to go ahead with his forefinger and middle finger extended, flicking it in a certain way. Gordon was surprised when the Marines followed the order.
"I'm giving you the rank of Sergeant Major from here-on," Cortana said. "You ARE my personal bodyguard, right?" She giggled to herself.
Gordon raised an eyebrow, but it was pretty much useless since no one else could see in the helmet.
A crash was felt while walking down one of the hallways.
"What the hell! Did something just hit us?" a Marine asked aloud.
"Move in! Back to the airlock!" the Corporal issued an order.
They continued down the hallway until they stopped near some space lifeboats. Two Marines were stationed near the entrance of one of them. Something was wrong. Why would they examine a used lifeboat dock?
A blue explosion rocked the hallway. What was left of the Marines were around the docking area. A Grunt poked his head out of the explosion's epicenter. Gordon aimed and fired. Blue-green blood splattered behind the Grunt's head.
Another batch of Covenant forces were moving in. A few orange Grunts, an Elite, and a red Grunt came out of the hatch. The Marines made short work of the group, but Gordon was surprised due to the fact that the red Grunt lasted longer in battle than their orange companions.
"The Covenant has a hierarchy system that is not only interracial, but also applies in every race," said Cortana. "Probably."
Gordon hit his visor, as if to hit his forehead. Why did Cortana give information in the first place if she wasn't even sure?
"What?" Cortana complained. "So you think you know everything about the Covenant, eh? We haven't even researched then thoroughly!"
"But there are probably other races of the Covenant out there," said Cortana as she calmed down.
Gordon nodded.
"The red Grunts are similar to the human Sergeant rank. They've been trained better than their orange companions, but they're still relatively weak alone."
Gordon nodded.
During Cortana's lecture, Gordon picked up some ammo for his pistol and rifle near the dock. They were in convenient plastic coverings, ready to rip up and use.
Before going on to the next skirmish, Gordon investigated inside the lifeboat dock. A covenant boarding craft was there.
"They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft. We go out and they come in! Clever bastards…"
"We'll stay here and make sure no more Covenant get through these docks, ma'am," said the Corporal.
"Thank you. I appreciate that," replied Cortana.
Going back out of the alien craft, Gordon continued down the hallway.
Outside the ship, battles were going on.
The Pillar of Autumn wasn't going to last if this onslaught continued. The human Longsword fighters furiously fought with smaller and faster Covenant fighters. Besides these dogfights, the Autumn was desperately trying to dodge the huge plasma torpedoes that enemy battlecruisers were throwing at them. Captain Keyes was dodging all the way. Evasive maneuvers didn't affect the crew inside due to the artificial gravity.
Captain Keyes was no slacker when it came to evasive maneuvers. During the battle at Sigma Octanus IV in the UNSC Iroquois, Keyes performed an attack involving what, at first, seemed to be a ramming maneuver against a Covenant destroyer, right after being chased by a plasma torpedo. But at the last minute, he "looped" around the enemy, "grazing" two meters of hull with the Covenant ship's shields, but destroying the enemy with its own torpedo. But that was the past. The Iroquois was a destroyer, which is smaller, faster, and more maneuverable than the Halcyon class UNSC Pillar of Autumn. This meant trouble.
Another plasma torpedo hit the Pillar of Autumn.
"Damn. I don't know how long this bird can take," muttered Captain Keyes to himself.
Hidden Mantis: Heh. Cliffhanger for desired effect. The Pillar of Autumn level is taking too long. So, I promise even more action in the next chapter.
Symphony of lead. I like that. Lol...
College is approaching fast, and I have really great news. For me.
I'm applying at Full Sail University at Florida. And I'm going for BS Game Development, which means I might be making stuff like Halo sooner or later!
Tuition is such a drag.
Well, I hope you liked this chapter.
R&R please!
Fact: Polar bears are pink inside. Their fur isn't white; each individual hair is hollow.