Disclaimer: I don't own this and that.
FNG: Not much of a disclaimer.
Me: It's redundant after the first chapter.
FNG: Well EXCUSE ME for trying to save your financial future!
Me: (hands FNG a food nipple)
FNG: Um, screw your financial future, I'm gonna eat.
Me: By the way, like anything Halo related, this chapter of this Fan fiction will contain a reference to the PC game "Marathon" Still not much digimon in this chapter but rest assured that there will be in the next one, plus a small scene at the end. (looks around) has anyone seen Floodmon?
(Right on cue, the room floods and once the water is knee deep, it's attracted to the center of the room and becomes a pillar that then forms into Floodmon.)
FNG: Hey! You ruined my food-nipple! Now it's all soggy! (cries)
Floodmon: Oh shut up you little grunty bastard! You Grunts whine about everything!
FNG: Hey, I came from a bigoted society and at the bottom of the totem pole too!
Floodmon: HA! Shows what you know, the creature at the bottom of the totem pole is the most revered! So by your logic, the Hunters, Brutes, Elites, Jackals and Prophets should be YOUR lap dogs. Which they aren't! BECAUSE YOU ARE!
FNG: Oh yeah! Well...um... THERE IS NO GOD!
Floodmon: Like I care, if I die, I just get reformatted!
FNG: Well...er... YOU TOUCH YOURSELF AT NIGHT!
Floodmon: Doesn't everybody technically?
FNG: Grr!
Me: Guys please stop before someone gets their feelings-
FNG: (Interrupting) YOU'RE AFRAID TO TELL YOUR TAMER THAT YOU LOVE HER BECAUSE YOUR OF A DIFFERENT SPECIES AND YOUR AFRAID OF THE WAY SHE'LL REACT!
Floodmon: (Pins FNG against the wall by his neck with his trident) YOU LEAVE LINDA OUT OF THIS!!!
Me:........
FNG:!!!!!!
Floodmon:.....
The World:.....
Me: (Continues typing while pretending this isn't happening)
In one of the 23 boarding ships on en route to the Pillar of Autumn, there were 6 Black armored Veteran ranked Grunts as well as two Senior ranked black Elites, plus a Minor (blue) Elite piloting the dropship. One of the Grunts named Yayap was fortunate enough to be in the very back, away from the entrance where the 2 Elites named Zelvo 'Somamee and Ramo 'Dumolee stood with pride and fearlessness. The other Grunts; Gagaw, Pakyat, Liblud, Fartuk, and Taito were quite nervous, but anxious. There were no windows in the soldiers compartment, but the pilot had already explained that they just 20 units away from the human ship. Yayap quickly took one last look at the charge on his plasma pistol, (which was strange since Black Grunts rarely use pistols); it was at 100% charge as it was before.
"Heads up!" Cackled the pilots voice in the speaker.
The passengers, even the Elites nearly fell over at the sudden shift in direction, what the pilot never brought up is that he made that maneuver to avoid an escape pod that exploded out of the side of the ship and flew towards the planet of Data ahead.
As everyone regained their footing, they were about to give the pilot a headache with their screams of anger when he cackled over the radio again.
"Beginning docking process! Activate your weapons men!"
'Dumolee turned to the Grunt nearest to him.
"Taito, go up to the front of the room and use that plasma charge we gave you back on the ship!"
"Yes excellency! I have already set the clock for 5 units. Would you be so kind to step back?"
Without a verbal response, 'Dumolee pressed his back to the wall to allow Taito to pass to the front of the drop ship and open it's hatch. With that chore done, he went to the door of the human vessel and plant the charge, he turned around and leapt right to 'Dumolee's feet, getting clear of the upcoming blast with three units to spare.
BAM!
Chunks of molten metal and glass flew out into the connecting hallway, flung by the charge's spray of super-heated hydrogen gas. The heat in the drop ship rose to a hundred units for 3 seconds and almost immediately came back to room temperature.
As the glow on the floor cooled, 'Dumolee turned back to Taito and issued him another order.
"Scout ahead, check to see if the area is clear. We'll be right behind you."
Now Taito knew from many first-hand experiences that Elites rarely kept their word to Grunts on the battlefield but knew better than to disobey a direct order from a species 4 steps higher than his own.
"Affirmative Excellency." He complied.
Taito peered around the corner of the door, looking to his left to see an empty corridor with a bend around it going further into the ship. He then turned his right to find another turn, only there were several metallic structures in the bend that didn't seem to be nailed down to the floor. He cautiously walked into the hallway in a hunched over position and stopped in the center of the hallway and quickly turned to his cohorts.
"All clear, you can-."
Taito was cut off by his own screams of agony as tiny lead pellets destroyed his left elbow joint. But those too were cut off when 3 tracers entered his skull and since it was so small and fragile, the top left side of the Grunt's head came off like a pop-top lid spraying blue-white goop on the deck a unit and a half away. The bullets needed to go somewhere so they exited through the right side of his head where his breathing mask was, spraying methane out so hard that the Grunt, who had begun falling to his right was blown to his left into the pool of blood he made. It took only 2 units for him to go from a healthy excited warrior to a lifeless empty shell whose soul had entered paradise.
"Let's go!" Thundered 'Somamee as he left the boarding ship and randomly fired his Plasma Rifle in the direction of the bullets. His shields had flickered white the moment he had left the drop ship. As the rest of the collective poured out of the drop ship to aid the Elite, Yayap stayed behind a moment making a last minute prayer to Jjaro, the King of the Gods, and Phfor, the Covenant war God before going into Hell.
"Come on we got to get the hell out of here!" Shouted Ensign Thomas Corothers to the Green Giant before him, the male one, the one that was the undisputed leader of all Spartan-II's, or rather the remaining Spartan- II's: The Master Chief. As far as Jason knew, there were only 5 Spartans that were still alive, 2 of them were on this ship and 3 somewhere out at the frontlines, safely away from Reach. Sam took one last look at the observation theater where a red Elite had busted in and killed his best friend Sam.
"Ensign, I feel just helpless as you do now, but I need you to escort me to the bridge ASAP!"
"UH...AH...Right sir!" Thom stuttered. He turned around and ran out the door into the connecting hall "This way!"
The Ensign ran forward to the door out of the Cryo area and hit the code panel, once he had gotten the door to open about 4 inches, an explosion caused by a Banshee's fuel Rod Gun from hitting the already crippled Starboard side of the ship hurled him backwards slamming the Ensign against the Master Chief and to an early grave. He had hit the Chief so hard; his shields flickered a golden yellow and dropped a bit. He looked down upon the sailor, rendered lifeless in just a second's notice. He ran forward to open the door with his hands and effortlessly opened it another 3 feet before a second explosion cut his shields so low that had it lost any more power, the early warning alarms would have gone off.
The Noncom concluded it was a good idea NOT to go through that door.
The Chief had spent most of the time before the ambush at Reach studying the schematics of Halcyon class Cruisers (The class that The Autumn happened to be). He ran a few steps back and jump over two coolant pipes into the neighboring corridor. He then ran down the hall and through a pair of doors and ducked beneath a half closed blast door. On his way he passed 4 firefights between The Marines/crew and Covenant forces, which had boarded the ship. With the seemingly endless flow of luck he tended to have, since the Chief was unarmed at the moment, was that all the Covenant he encountered were held off by closing blast doors and barricades set up by the crew. He also helped occasionally by using himself and his shields (Which despite being new technology was slightly stronger than the shields Elites use) to draw fire away from allies. He made it to the bridge in only 90 seconds of all this.
The Chief looked around the Chaos that was the Bridge, Lieutenant Hikowa was venting sealed off areas to suffocate any Covenant before they could break out and wreak more atrocities against the crew, Ensign Lovell was hastily trying to come up with another Slipstream route, and The MAC operator screamed a loud "woo-hoo" when the now repaired MAC gun had scored a hit against a Cruiser that wandered into the battle. The First shot had severely damaged the shields, the second broke through them and punctured the hull, but when the third slab of super-heated tungsten arrived, the ship reacted and moved out of the way, barely grazing it's starboard engine. The Gunner was satisfied with his work.
The Chief saw something behind the Corvette that had passed in front of the bridge. He noticed a formation of rocks. It must be an asteroid field, a dangerous place to fight with such a big, over-damaged ship. The Chief scowled at the thought before taking a look at the formation. Why was it so green and blue? There aren't asteroids with atmosphere's or vegetation. He noticed how the rocks seemed to curve superbly, like a grav-ball, or maybe... A planet?
Maybe the Captain could tell him, he was a few feet from him but he didn't seem to notice.
"Captain Keyes."
The Captain turned around "That you Master Chief?"
"What does my armor say?" replied the Spartan.
"I'm sorry, it's nothing." Keyes said, a little reluctant to bring up Linda at a time like this. Besides, he had sent her on the first escape pod off the ship and therefore nothing to prove to the other Spartan.
"I'll give you full permission to leave but I'm going to need you around for a few minutes." The Captain said turning to the now visible hologram of Cortana.
"A dozen Covenant Superior Battleships against a single modified Halcyon class cruiser? With those odds, I'm content with three..." She paused in mid-sentence. "Make that four kills."
She turned to The Chief. "Sleep well?"
"No thanks to your driving yes." He responded
"So you did miss me!" She said with a grin.
Before The Master Chief formulated a reply, The Bridge shuttered almost knocking The Chief and the Captain on to all fours.
"REPORT!" Barked the Captain.
Cortana sounded panicked "It was a fighter, a Seraph, and it hit something important."
"MA'AM, THE MAC CANNON IS DISABLED, WE LOST IT!"
"Captain the cannon was my last defensive option!"
"Alright then, I'm initiating Cole Protocol article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn, that means you too Cortana!"
"While you do what? Go down with the ship?" She seemed worried.
"In a manner of speaking." He pointed at the world ahead. "The Planet we found, I'm gonna land the Autumn on it."
"With all due respect sir, this war already has enough dead heroes."
"I appreciate your concern Cortana but it's not up to me. The Protocol is clear, destruction or capture of shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of landing coordinates, then sort yourself for hard transport."
"Aye-Aye Captain." Cortana said before disappearing.
Keyes turned to the Master Chief
"This is where you come in Chief, get Cortana off this ship, keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her they'll learn everything, force deployment weapons research....... Earth."
"I understand."
Once Cortana had explained the Captain on how to work her subroutines, her chip was removed from the AI computer and into the Chief's helmet. The Captain handed a pistol to the Chief and the Spartan and the AI were on their merry way to an escape pod. At the entrance, he could here three guttural squeaks and barking, a sound the Chief had familiarized Grunts with. On his motion tracker, 3 red blips appeared, he raised his new M6D pistol and activated the 2x scope, a red armored "Major" ranked Grunt darted around the corner and it's skull deflated like a rock filled balloon at the sound of a miniscule explosion. The Grunt's two orange armored "Minors" panicked only to run unfortunately into the same scope their brother-in-arms had. It was the beginning of 15 minutes of Assault rifle bursts and bludgeoning of Grunts, Elites, and even the abnormally rare Jackal...
Yayap lead the fivesome of his fellow Grunts into a stairway area splattered with red, blue, and purple blood. He noticed in an unsurprised manor that the majority of the dead were his own species. It was depressing how the Prophets had used his people for gun fodder but what the Prophets say goes and to complain about their decrees, even if you were of a blessed race, was equal to the sin of a thousand murders. He was scared of himself and for his companions. His two Elite cohorts had perished when an unusually powerful human grenade detonated at their feet, shredding through their shields and skewering their body from the legs down... Serves them right.
"Ugh...mmm."
"You hear that? Someone's alive in here!" Exclaimed Yayap "Split up and search for others Liblud, stay at the entrance as a lookout." He said as he and Gagaw followed the source of the noise.
While the duo headed into the slaughterhouse of a room, and Liblud made sure no other humans wandered by, Pakyat and Fartuk heard a weak moan come from a Jackal lying in the corner of the second floor across from where they entered. It had several long gashes in it's back from some kind of fragmentation grenade. Pakyat and Fartuk weren't particularly fond of the idea of saving his life since Jackals were known to frequently pick on the "gas-suckers" however they could interrogate the fallen warrior to clues as to this unusually notorious defeat.
"Can you hear me?" Pakyat asked the Jackal.
It coughed up a few drops of blood before answering "Gas...screwed." Before coughing again.
"What happened here, who did this? What did this?" queried Fartuk.
"Ar...mored... Huma..." He trailed off before his breathing stopped.
"That was very informative, thank you!" Fartuk said sarcastically.
Pakyat looked around with an awkward expression under his mask "Um...is there anyone else here who's almost dead?"
During the Jackals interrogation, Yayap and Gagaw had both found the source of the moan, it was a middle aged Black armored (Senior) Elite. His helmet was cracked from a bullet to the face but he seemed to be perfectly fine. Yayap concluded the bullet must have lodged in his helmet and the force of it hitting him knocked him out.
"Let's leave him here, that's what he would do if it was one of us lying there." Said Gagaw.
"Indeed, there'd be one less of them to push us around... but..." Yayap trailed off.
"What? Why'd you want to save him now?"
"It would take all five of us to get him back to the boarding ship, once they see a superior is wounded, they'd have to get him off."
"I love the way you think Yayap!" Said Gagaw knowing what direction Yayap was going with this.
"Alright people, let's get back to the drop ship, here's are ticket, grab one of his limbs and hold on tight." In what only seemed like a unit, the Elite was suspended a couple units from the ground and the fivesome of Grunts carrying him to the drop ship and to their own safety, they smiled under their breathing masks for a job well done.
"Oh God, Oh no!" Said Private Cory Bachman as an explosion knocked him face flat on the floor, and just 3 feet away from salvation...an escape pod. He was reciting a bible passage when he seemed to hover of the floor. He thought he had died until the force that lifted him thrusted him into the lifepod, he crawled for a moment and once he had climbed into an empty seat, he turned his head to see the God of all soldiers pressing the button to close the escape pod doors.
"Punch it." Said the Chief.
"Aye-Aye sir." Said Lieutenant Eileen Harland as she pressed the launched button. In a second, the pod shook as it exploded out of its launch bay and into the black of space.
"We've cleared the Autumn, moving for minimum safety distance."
"We're gonna make it aren't we sir? I don't wanna die out here."
The Master Chief didn't respond but put a comforting hand on the Marines shoulder.
"Hey Chief, have a look outside." Cortana said
The Chief looked over Lieutenant Harland's shoulder to see the "holey" planet he had seen on the bridge of The Pillar of Autumn earlier.
"What is that thing Lieutenant!?" Shouted Bachman.
"Hell if I know, but we're landing on it!"
"THE AUTUMN! SHE'S BEEN HIT!" Shouted Private Cletus MacCrowe from his seat as he saw the flaming ship enter the atmosphere.
"I knew it, Keyes is going in manually! He's not stupid, so I'm assuming that he made it to the designated escape pod, or boarding it right now." Surmised Cortana.
'Or maybe they got to him first.' Thought the Master Chief.
"That's strange, we're in the planet's atmosphere and we ain't burning up." Harland said stated the obvious. "And except all the damage, the Autumn ain't frying neither."
She was right, although fires were trailing from holes in the hull, the ship was already the size of a hot-wheels car agains the planet but still refused to glow as it fell closer and closer to the planet's surface.
"What the hell's wrong with this place?" MacCrowe said.
"Yeah Cortana, what's going on?" Inquired the noncom.
"Well, I've been searching through the Covenant Battle Network, they seem to call this place "The Digital world" of course whatever that means. Your guess is probably as good as mine."
"I don't have one."
"You just find a seat Chief, we'll worry about it on the way down." Cortana advised
"What seat? This pod is full, I'm standing all the way down." He responded.
"Uh...Are you kidding?" said Cortana with an obvious hint of worry in her voice
"No."
"....." That was all Cortana said on the way down.
Meanwhile, Planetside...
"Shooting Stars, how beautiful! It would have been a pity had they shown up a few days from now or there'd be nowhere to land" Shouted a snobby feminine voice.
"Enough stargazing Crusadermon." Shouted an even snobbier male voice. "This world will not bring itself a new world order. The sooner we move into steel town, the sooner we can retrieve its fractal code and send it to Lord Lucemon!"
"Very well Dynasmon." The voice sighed "It's going to be more beautiful than this pathetic meteor shower anyway." Responded the feminine voice.
Off the top of a small hill, two well-armored figures flew away from the scene laughing at the thought of their current agenda.
Me: (sarcastic) gee I wonder who those two could be. Oh right, I'm the author, I DO KNOW! By the way, I know the name of Crusadermon's attacks, but not Dynasmon's, please tell me. I also need to know the name of two digimon, the robotic fly digimon that were enslaved in that one episode by the Goblinmon as well as that ape digimon with the boomerang and the ridiculously large mask that wouldn't leave Bokomon and Neemon alone because they wouldn't be his friends. That's all.
(Meanwhile FNG is running away from Floodmon who has taken form of a Tsunami, right now he is in the middle of screaming about his Food-Nipple and how he's got such a Grunty thirst.)
Floodmon: I'M GONNA DRAG YOU SO DEEP IN THE SEA, YOU'LL NEVER SEE LAND AGAIN!
FNG: HIDE!HIDE!HIIIDE!
(Floodmon tries to swallow FNG, but FNG has a bottomless supply of everything in his armor, so he straps on a jet pack and flies away from Floodmon's watery maw.)
Floodmon: COME BACK HERE YOU DAMN MONKEY!
FNG pulls out of a cell-phone and dials an unknown number.
FNG: Hey Royal Knights? It's FNG. I'm being chased by a Floodmon because I probed too far into his love life and he's trying to kill me. A little help here please.
After 3 seconds Dynasmon and Crusadermon appear in midair on either side of FNG.
Crusadermon: It was SO wonderful to be involved with the man whose beautiful writing talent is greater than the glory of Lord Lucemon!
Dynasmon: For your inability to tolerate your fellow muse you shall be punished!
Floodmon: Bring it on Grandpa!
(Big Fight scene)
Me: While I find someone to save Floodmon I'll leave you with this list of my "official" ranking system for the Covenant, it might come in handy later on. You never know. (gets on phone to find someone stronger than Dynasmon and Crusadermon.
Covenant rank titles
Hunters
Don't have any, they all wear the same blue armor and spikes.
Grunts
Orange=Minor
Red=Major
Black=Veteran
Jackals
Green skin with blue shields=Minor
Red skin with yellow shields=Major
Elites
Blue=Minor
Red=Major
Silver with stealth camo and weird symbol on back=Major(Ossoona or "Eye of the Prophet)
Silver without camo and weird symbol=Veteran (A/N: Have you ever noticed that all of the "pre-killed elites you find in the game have silver armor, but no symbols on their backs, this is them.)
Black (with symbol)=Senior
Gold=Field or Ship Master
FNG: Not much of a disclaimer.
Me: It's redundant after the first chapter.
FNG: Well EXCUSE ME for trying to save your financial future!
Me: (hands FNG a food nipple)
FNG: Um, screw your financial future, I'm gonna eat.
Me: By the way, like anything Halo related, this chapter of this Fan fiction will contain a reference to the PC game "Marathon" Still not much digimon in this chapter but rest assured that there will be in the next one, plus a small scene at the end. (looks around) has anyone seen Floodmon?
(Right on cue, the room floods and once the water is knee deep, it's attracted to the center of the room and becomes a pillar that then forms into Floodmon.)
FNG: Hey! You ruined my food-nipple! Now it's all soggy! (cries)
Floodmon: Oh shut up you little grunty bastard! You Grunts whine about everything!
FNG: Hey, I came from a bigoted society and at the bottom of the totem pole too!
Floodmon: HA! Shows what you know, the creature at the bottom of the totem pole is the most revered! So by your logic, the Hunters, Brutes, Elites, Jackals and Prophets should be YOUR lap dogs. Which they aren't! BECAUSE YOU ARE!
FNG: Oh yeah! Well...um... THERE IS NO GOD!
Floodmon: Like I care, if I die, I just get reformatted!
FNG: Well...er... YOU TOUCH YOURSELF AT NIGHT!
Floodmon: Doesn't everybody technically?
FNG: Grr!
Me: Guys please stop before someone gets their feelings-
FNG: (Interrupting) YOU'RE AFRAID TO TELL YOUR TAMER THAT YOU LOVE HER BECAUSE YOUR OF A DIFFERENT SPECIES AND YOUR AFRAID OF THE WAY SHE'LL REACT!
Floodmon: (Pins FNG against the wall by his neck with his trident) YOU LEAVE LINDA OUT OF THIS!!!
Me:........
FNG:!!!!!!
Floodmon:.....
The World:.....
Me: (Continues typing while pretending this isn't happening)
In one of the 23 boarding ships on en route to the Pillar of Autumn, there were 6 Black armored Veteran ranked Grunts as well as two Senior ranked black Elites, plus a Minor (blue) Elite piloting the dropship. One of the Grunts named Yayap was fortunate enough to be in the very back, away from the entrance where the 2 Elites named Zelvo 'Somamee and Ramo 'Dumolee stood with pride and fearlessness. The other Grunts; Gagaw, Pakyat, Liblud, Fartuk, and Taito were quite nervous, but anxious. There were no windows in the soldiers compartment, but the pilot had already explained that they just 20 units away from the human ship. Yayap quickly took one last look at the charge on his plasma pistol, (which was strange since Black Grunts rarely use pistols); it was at 100% charge as it was before.
"Heads up!" Cackled the pilots voice in the speaker.
The passengers, even the Elites nearly fell over at the sudden shift in direction, what the pilot never brought up is that he made that maneuver to avoid an escape pod that exploded out of the side of the ship and flew towards the planet of Data ahead.
As everyone regained their footing, they were about to give the pilot a headache with their screams of anger when he cackled over the radio again.
"Beginning docking process! Activate your weapons men!"
'Dumolee turned to the Grunt nearest to him.
"Taito, go up to the front of the room and use that plasma charge we gave you back on the ship!"
"Yes excellency! I have already set the clock for 5 units. Would you be so kind to step back?"
Without a verbal response, 'Dumolee pressed his back to the wall to allow Taito to pass to the front of the drop ship and open it's hatch. With that chore done, he went to the door of the human vessel and plant the charge, he turned around and leapt right to 'Dumolee's feet, getting clear of the upcoming blast with three units to spare.
BAM!
Chunks of molten metal and glass flew out into the connecting hallway, flung by the charge's spray of super-heated hydrogen gas. The heat in the drop ship rose to a hundred units for 3 seconds and almost immediately came back to room temperature.
As the glow on the floor cooled, 'Dumolee turned back to Taito and issued him another order.
"Scout ahead, check to see if the area is clear. We'll be right behind you."
Now Taito knew from many first-hand experiences that Elites rarely kept their word to Grunts on the battlefield but knew better than to disobey a direct order from a species 4 steps higher than his own.
"Affirmative Excellency." He complied.
Taito peered around the corner of the door, looking to his left to see an empty corridor with a bend around it going further into the ship. He then turned his right to find another turn, only there were several metallic structures in the bend that didn't seem to be nailed down to the floor. He cautiously walked into the hallway in a hunched over position and stopped in the center of the hallway and quickly turned to his cohorts.
"All clear, you can-."
Taito was cut off by his own screams of agony as tiny lead pellets destroyed his left elbow joint. But those too were cut off when 3 tracers entered his skull and since it was so small and fragile, the top left side of the Grunt's head came off like a pop-top lid spraying blue-white goop on the deck a unit and a half away. The bullets needed to go somewhere so they exited through the right side of his head where his breathing mask was, spraying methane out so hard that the Grunt, who had begun falling to his right was blown to his left into the pool of blood he made. It took only 2 units for him to go from a healthy excited warrior to a lifeless empty shell whose soul had entered paradise.
"Let's go!" Thundered 'Somamee as he left the boarding ship and randomly fired his Plasma Rifle in the direction of the bullets. His shields had flickered white the moment he had left the drop ship. As the rest of the collective poured out of the drop ship to aid the Elite, Yayap stayed behind a moment making a last minute prayer to Jjaro, the King of the Gods, and Phfor, the Covenant war God before going into Hell.
"Come on we got to get the hell out of here!" Shouted Ensign Thomas Corothers to the Green Giant before him, the male one, the one that was the undisputed leader of all Spartan-II's, or rather the remaining Spartan- II's: The Master Chief. As far as Jason knew, there were only 5 Spartans that were still alive, 2 of them were on this ship and 3 somewhere out at the frontlines, safely away from Reach. Sam took one last look at the observation theater where a red Elite had busted in and killed his best friend Sam.
"Ensign, I feel just helpless as you do now, but I need you to escort me to the bridge ASAP!"
"UH...AH...Right sir!" Thom stuttered. He turned around and ran out the door into the connecting hall "This way!"
The Ensign ran forward to the door out of the Cryo area and hit the code panel, once he had gotten the door to open about 4 inches, an explosion caused by a Banshee's fuel Rod Gun from hitting the already crippled Starboard side of the ship hurled him backwards slamming the Ensign against the Master Chief and to an early grave. He had hit the Chief so hard; his shields flickered a golden yellow and dropped a bit. He looked down upon the sailor, rendered lifeless in just a second's notice. He ran forward to open the door with his hands and effortlessly opened it another 3 feet before a second explosion cut his shields so low that had it lost any more power, the early warning alarms would have gone off.
The Noncom concluded it was a good idea NOT to go through that door.
The Chief had spent most of the time before the ambush at Reach studying the schematics of Halcyon class Cruisers (The class that The Autumn happened to be). He ran a few steps back and jump over two coolant pipes into the neighboring corridor. He then ran down the hall and through a pair of doors and ducked beneath a half closed blast door. On his way he passed 4 firefights between The Marines/crew and Covenant forces, which had boarded the ship. With the seemingly endless flow of luck he tended to have, since the Chief was unarmed at the moment, was that all the Covenant he encountered were held off by closing blast doors and barricades set up by the crew. He also helped occasionally by using himself and his shields (Which despite being new technology was slightly stronger than the shields Elites use) to draw fire away from allies. He made it to the bridge in only 90 seconds of all this.
The Chief looked around the Chaos that was the Bridge, Lieutenant Hikowa was venting sealed off areas to suffocate any Covenant before they could break out and wreak more atrocities against the crew, Ensign Lovell was hastily trying to come up with another Slipstream route, and The MAC operator screamed a loud "woo-hoo" when the now repaired MAC gun had scored a hit against a Cruiser that wandered into the battle. The First shot had severely damaged the shields, the second broke through them and punctured the hull, but when the third slab of super-heated tungsten arrived, the ship reacted and moved out of the way, barely grazing it's starboard engine. The Gunner was satisfied with his work.
The Chief saw something behind the Corvette that had passed in front of the bridge. He noticed a formation of rocks. It must be an asteroid field, a dangerous place to fight with such a big, over-damaged ship. The Chief scowled at the thought before taking a look at the formation. Why was it so green and blue? There aren't asteroids with atmosphere's or vegetation. He noticed how the rocks seemed to curve superbly, like a grav-ball, or maybe... A planet?
Maybe the Captain could tell him, he was a few feet from him but he didn't seem to notice.
"Captain Keyes."
The Captain turned around "That you Master Chief?"
"What does my armor say?" replied the Spartan.
"I'm sorry, it's nothing." Keyes said, a little reluctant to bring up Linda at a time like this. Besides, he had sent her on the first escape pod off the ship and therefore nothing to prove to the other Spartan.
"I'll give you full permission to leave but I'm going to need you around for a few minutes." The Captain said turning to the now visible hologram of Cortana.
"A dozen Covenant Superior Battleships against a single modified Halcyon class cruiser? With those odds, I'm content with three..." She paused in mid-sentence. "Make that four kills."
She turned to The Chief. "Sleep well?"
"No thanks to your driving yes." He responded
"So you did miss me!" She said with a grin.
Before The Master Chief formulated a reply, The Bridge shuttered almost knocking The Chief and the Captain on to all fours.
"REPORT!" Barked the Captain.
Cortana sounded panicked "It was a fighter, a Seraph, and it hit something important."
"MA'AM, THE MAC CANNON IS DISABLED, WE LOST IT!"
"Captain the cannon was my last defensive option!"
"Alright then, I'm initiating Cole Protocol article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn, that means you too Cortana!"
"While you do what? Go down with the ship?" She seemed worried.
"In a manner of speaking." He pointed at the world ahead. "The Planet we found, I'm gonna land the Autumn on it."
"With all due respect sir, this war already has enough dead heroes."
"I appreciate your concern Cortana but it's not up to me. The Protocol is clear, destruction or capture of shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of landing coordinates, then sort yourself for hard transport."
"Aye-Aye Captain." Cortana said before disappearing.
Keyes turned to the Master Chief
"This is where you come in Chief, get Cortana off this ship, keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her they'll learn everything, force deployment weapons research....... Earth."
"I understand."
Once Cortana had explained the Captain on how to work her subroutines, her chip was removed from the AI computer and into the Chief's helmet. The Captain handed a pistol to the Chief and the Spartan and the AI were on their merry way to an escape pod. At the entrance, he could here three guttural squeaks and barking, a sound the Chief had familiarized Grunts with. On his motion tracker, 3 red blips appeared, he raised his new M6D pistol and activated the 2x scope, a red armored "Major" ranked Grunt darted around the corner and it's skull deflated like a rock filled balloon at the sound of a miniscule explosion. The Grunt's two orange armored "Minors" panicked only to run unfortunately into the same scope their brother-in-arms had. It was the beginning of 15 minutes of Assault rifle bursts and bludgeoning of Grunts, Elites, and even the abnormally rare Jackal...
Yayap lead the fivesome of his fellow Grunts into a stairway area splattered with red, blue, and purple blood. He noticed in an unsurprised manor that the majority of the dead were his own species. It was depressing how the Prophets had used his people for gun fodder but what the Prophets say goes and to complain about their decrees, even if you were of a blessed race, was equal to the sin of a thousand murders. He was scared of himself and for his companions. His two Elite cohorts had perished when an unusually powerful human grenade detonated at their feet, shredding through their shields and skewering their body from the legs down... Serves them right.
"Ugh...mmm."
"You hear that? Someone's alive in here!" Exclaimed Yayap "Split up and search for others Liblud, stay at the entrance as a lookout." He said as he and Gagaw followed the source of the noise.
While the duo headed into the slaughterhouse of a room, and Liblud made sure no other humans wandered by, Pakyat and Fartuk heard a weak moan come from a Jackal lying in the corner of the second floor across from where they entered. It had several long gashes in it's back from some kind of fragmentation grenade. Pakyat and Fartuk weren't particularly fond of the idea of saving his life since Jackals were known to frequently pick on the "gas-suckers" however they could interrogate the fallen warrior to clues as to this unusually notorious defeat.
"Can you hear me?" Pakyat asked the Jackal.
It coughed up a few drops of blood before answering "Gas...screwed." Before coughing again.
"What happened here, who did this? What did this?" queried Fartuk.
"Ar...mored... Huma..." He trailed off before his breathing stopped.
"That was very informative, thank you!" Fartuk said sarcastically.
Pakyat looked around with an awkward expression under his mask "Um...is there anyone else here who's almost dead?"
During the Jackals interrogation, Yayap and Gagaw had both found the source of the moan, it was a middle aged Black armored (Senior) Elite. His helmet was cracked from a bullet to the face but he seemed to be perfectly fine. Yayap concluded the bullet must have lodged in his helmet and the force of it hitting him knocked him out.
"Let's leave him here, that's what he would do if it was one of us lying there." Said Gagaw.
"Indeed, there'd be one less of them to push us around... but..." Yayap trailed off.
"What? Why'd you want to save him now?"
"It would take all five of us to get him back to the boarding ship, once they see a superior is wounded, they'd have to get him off."
"I love the way you think Yayap!" Said Gagaw knowing what direction Yayap was going with this.
"Alright people, let's get back to the drop ship, here's are ticket, grab one of his limbs and hold on tight." In what only seemed like a unit, the Elite was suspended a couple units from the ground and the fivesome of Grunts carrying him to the drop ship and to their own safety, they smiled under their breathing masks for a job well done.
"Oh God, Oh no!" Said Private Cory Bachman as an explosion knocked him face flat on the floor, and just 3 feet away from salvation...an escape pod. He was reciting a bible passage when he seemed to hover of the floor. He thought he had died until the force that lifted him thrusted him into the lifepod, he crawled for a moment and once he had climbed into an empty seat, he turned his head to see the God of all soldiers pressing the button to close the escape pod doors.
"Punch it." Said the Chief.
"Aye-Aye sir." Said Lieutenant Eileen Harland as she pressed the launched button. In a second, the pod shook as it exploded out of its launch bay and into the black of space.
"We've cleared the Autumn, moving for minimum safety distance."
"We're gonna make it aren't we sir? I don't wanna die out here."
The Master Chief didn't respond but put a comforting hand on the Marines shoulder.
"Hey Chief, have a look outside." Cortana said
The Chief looked over Lieutenant Harland's shoulder to see the "holey" planet he had seen on the bridge of The Pillar of Autumn earlier.
"What is that thing Lieutenant!?" Shouted Bachman.
"Hell if I know, but we're landing on it!"
"THE AUTUMN! SHE'S BEEN HIT!" Shouted Private Cletus MacCrowe from his seat as he saw the flaming ship enter the atmosphere.
"I knew it, Keyes is going in manually! He's not stupid, so I'm assuming that he made it to the designated escape pod, or boarding it right now." Surmised Cortana.
'Or maybe they got to him first.' Thought the Master Chief.
"That's strange, we're in the planet's atmosphere and we ain't burning up." Harland said stated the obvious. "And except all the damage, the Autumn ain't frying neither."
She was right, although fires were trailing from holes in the hull, the ship was already the size of a hot-wheels car agains the planet but still refused to glow as it fell closer and closer to the planet's surface.
"What the hell's wrong with this place?" MacCrowe said.
"Yeah Cortana, what's going on?" Inquired the noncom.
"Well, I've been searching through the Covenant Battle Network, they seem to call this place "The Digital world" of course whatever that means. Your guess is probably as good as mine."
"I don't have one."
"You just find a seat Chief, we'll worry about it on the way down." Cortana advised
"What seat? This pod is full, I'm standing all the way down." He responded.
"Uh...Are you kidding?" said Cortana with an obvious hint of worry in her voice
"No."
"....." That was all Cortana said on the way down.
Meanwhile, Planetside...
"Shooting Stars, how beautiful! It would have been a pity had they shown up a few days from now or there'd be nowhere to land" Shouted a snobby feminine voice.
"Enough stargazing Crusadermon." Shouted an even snobbier male voice. "This world will not bring itself a new world order. The sooner we move into steel town, the sooner we can retrieve its fractal code and send it to Lord Lucemon!"
"Very well Dynasmon." The voice sighed "It's going to be more beautiful than this pathetic meteor shower anyway." Responded the feminine voice.
Off the top of a small hill, two well-armored figures flew away from the scene laughing at the thought of their current agenda.
Me: (sarcastic) gee I wonder who those two could be. Oh right, I'm the author, I DO KNOW! By the way, I know the name of Crusadermon's attacks, but not Dynasmon's, please tell me. I also need to know the name of two digimon, the robotic fly digimon that were enslaved in that one episode by the Goblinmon as well as that ape digimon with the boomerang and the ridiculously large mask that wouldn't leave Bokomon and Neemon alone because they wouldn't be his friends. That's all.
(Meanwhile FNG is running away from Floodmon who has taken form of a Tsunami, right now he is in the middle of screaming about his Food-Nipple and how he's got such a Grunty thirst.)
Floodmon: I'M GONNA DRAG YOU SO DEEP IN THE SEA, YOU'LL NEVER SEE LAND AGAIN!
FNG: HIDE!HIDE!HIIIDE!
(Floodmon tries to swallow FNG, but FNG has a bottomless supply of everything in his armor, so he straps on a jet pack and flies away from Floodmon's watery maw.)
Floodmon: COME BACK HERE YOU DAMN MONKEY!
FNG pulls out of a cell-phone and dials an unknown number.
FNG: Hey Royal Knights? It's FNG. I'm being chased by a Floodmon because I probed too far into his love life and he's trying to kill me. A little help here please.
After 3 seconds Dynasmon and Crusadermon appear in midair on either side of FNG.
Crusadermon: It was SO wonderful to be involved with the man whose beautiful writing talent is greater than the glory of Lord Lucemon!
Dynasmon: For your inability to tolerate your fellow muse you shall be punished!
Floodmon: Bring it on Grandpa!
(Big Fight scene)
Me: While I find someone to save Floodmon I'll leave you with this list of my "official" ranking system for the Covenant, it might come in handy later on. You never know. (gets on phone to find someone stronger than Dynasmon and Crusadermon.
Covenant rank titles
Hunters
Don't have any, they all wear the same blue armor and spikes.
Grunts
Orange=Minor
Red=Major
Black=Veteran
Jackals
Green skin with blue shields=Minor
Red skin with yellow shields=Major
Elites
Blue=Minor
Red=Major
Silver with stealth camo and weird symbol on back=Major(Ossoona or "Eye of the Prophet)
Silver without camo and weird symbol=Veteran (A/N: Have you ever noticed that all of the "pre-killed elites you find in the game have silver armor, but no symbols on their backs, this is them.)
Black (with symbol)=Senior
Gold=Field or Ship Master