Chapter 4
"You couldn't have chosen a better time to arrive Master Chief." Said Admiral Stevenson. He was a tall man, over six feet with a silvery white mane of hair far longer than regulation length. The Chief guessed that being admiral of the fleet allowed you to bend the rules here and there.
Before replying he took a quick glance around the bridge. Over twenty UNSC soldiers were busy at their stations, some grouped round large holographic projection maps displaying the locations of the fleet, others communicating with different sections of the space station and Earth. Not one soul was idle and the hum of conversation was everywhere.
"What's the situation Admiral?" replied Master Chief, he had downloaded Cortana so she could get updated. Now it was his turn.
The Admiral looked grim "Well son, its bad. One of our scout ships was boarded during essential work on the engines and the A.I was hacked. Luckily while they were busy hacking her she was doing the same to them. She managed to get off a coded message warning us and also sent us the latest Covenant battle map. Our boys have been looking at it and they believe the Covvies will amass their fleet at a planet named Felour."
Master Chief nodded "How long have we got?"
"Well, that's a difficult question. Travel time from Felour to Earth is about a week for the Covvies and from the battle map we got it would take at least 3 weeks for them to get together a large enough attack force to consider sufficient."
"A month at the worst then, when did we receive the warning from the A.I?" Master Chief spoke slowly dreading the answer.
"Just over a month today"
Both men stood in silence for a few seconds, the battle for the entire human race could begin at any minute.
"We're not done yet son, not by a long shot. I want you to get down to the armoury, there's a few new toys the tech boys have come up with and there's someone down there I'm sure you'll want to see again."
Chief began to ask who but the Admiral cut him off. "You'll see soon enough son, now get moving, time is against us. Once you're done down there we'll organise a meeting to discuss our strategic options."
"Yes Sir." Chief snapped a salute and headed for the door. Just as he reached it, it slid open and a young soldier, maybe only nineteen, walked straight into him. Data tablets scattered everywhere. "WHY DON'T YOU L...!" Started the young man before looking up into the Chiefs' mirrored visor. "Oh shit! Umm I mean err." Finally getting his act together he snapped to attention. "Sorry Sir, my fault entirely." Getting down on his knees he started gathering the wayward tablets.
Master Chief looked down at this young man, barely out of childhood, many thousands of miles from home, waiting for a superior enemy, but there none the less.
"What's your name marine?"
The lad looked up in surprise, not sure if the question was meant for him. Recovering quickly he stood up and froze, his face inches away Chiefs' visor. Seeing his reflection warped, like the House of Mirrors at the fairground, damn near freaked him out.
What Master Chief did next almost put him on his back.
Taking a step back, Chief reached up to his neck and released the seal on his helmet. With a quiet hiss as the pressure equalised, he lifted the helmet clear and held it under one arm.
The teenage soldier, expecting some half metal monster was shocked at the calm handsome face before him. Brown eyes with matching short brown hair and a square chin. He just stood there staring for at least five second until he realised he'd been asked a question.
"Urm, Private Dyane Cole. Registration 043..."
"I'm John, Spartan Master Chief, here let me help you" said John kneeling down and picking up the last few tablets. As he handed them to Dyane the lad stuttered a thank you sir and entered the bridge.
John made his way to the armoury thinking about the encounter. All his friends, actually his brothers he supposed, as they were bred from the same genetic stock, were annihilated on Reach. He was alone, maybe his only friend was Cortana and she wasn't even human. Then again he wasn't strictly human either.
Looking up he realised he was at the armoury, he'd been walking pretty much on autopilot. The door slid open and he went inside. Onboard the Pillar of Autumn the armoury was just a single long corridor, onboard the Protector it was more like a warehouse. Seeing what looked like offices at the opposite side of the room Chief headed towards them. Passing rack upon rack of weapons, M6D Pistols, MA5B Assault Rifles, S2 AM Sniper Rifles, M90 Shotguns (His personal favourite) and M19 SSM Rocket Launchers.
He was so engrossed with the tools of his trade he didn't notice the approaching man in a lab coat.
The man cleared his throat and John turned to face him. He was the stereotypical mad scientist, maybe sixty years old, barely five feet tall with a shock of bright white curly hair and thick glasses that magnified his eyes to monstrous proportions.
"Master Chief I presume?" Said the scientist in a deep baritone voice that didn't sound like it belonged to someone so small. "I'm Dr. Isaac Heinlien, head scientific and weapon researcher for the UNSC, pleased to meet you." The small man extended his hand and John shook it.
"It an honour to meet you Dr. Heinlien, didn't you design the first MJOLNIR armour and the M41 Light Anti-Aircraft gun fitted on most Warthogs?"
"Ahh yes, my reputation proceeds me." Replied Isaac, a smile forming on his wrinkled face. "As does yours Master Chief, I've just been looking at Cortana's report on your last mission. I would be very interested to hear about it in more detail, especially the Halo weapon and the A.I monitor, now what was it called? Oh yes 343 Guilty Spark. Yes very interesting indeed. But we have other matters to deal with first, follow me."
The Scientist walked towards a large blast door with yellow and black diagonal warning stripes on. Leaning towards the retinal scanner activated it and after a second the doors slide open with a quiet hiss. Inside was a sealed rack of weapons, some of which John didn't recognise, a two-meter tall metal cylinder, and a long wide corridor, a firing range judging by the scorch marks and bullet holes along the walls.
"Right first thing first, as you said before I designed the first MJOLNIR armour, what you are wearing now was the second generation of the battle suit." As he spoke he moved to the large cylinder, tapped in a key code and activated another retinal scanner. The front of the cylinder slid round to reveal a MJOLNIR suit, almost exactly the same as the one John was wearing, as far as he could tell anyway.
"Now this is the latest battle suit, one of only two in existence, its shield has been upgraded, in tests it has taken nearly double the amount of damage than your suit before collapsing. But that's not all. The motor servos have been upgraded making you far stronger and the basic armour and targeting systems have been given an overhaul as well. I'll give you a few minutes to get changed" With that Isaac walked down the firing range and began to calibrate the targets.
John inspected his new suit for a second, it was slightly bulkier than the old one but that was about it. Placing his helmet on the floor the he disengaged his suits locking clamps and set about removing it, feeling a slight twinge as the neural interface disconnected. Picking up the new suit was quite a chore, without the increased strength from his suit the new one felt like it weighed a ton, and he was damn strong without his suit. In a few minutes he was in the new armour and testing the joints, it was a lot better than the old one. It didn't even feel like he was wearing armour the freedom of movement he had.
"You've out done yourself Dr. Heinlien, this is amazing"
"Thank you, I'm quite proud of it myself." replied the Isaac with a smug smile. "If you put your helmet on you will find a couple of extra vision modes, Night vision and thermal imaging."
John did so and cycled to night vision, everything went bright green. As the Dr. turned off the lights he could make out the room as if it was daylight, all be it green daylight. When he switched to thermal mode it all went blue apart from the Dr. who stood out as an orangey red humanoid. Switching back to normal view it was pitch black until Isaac turned the lights back on. Very handy thought John.
Isaac approached the sealed weapons rack. "Now, onto the weapons. You'll have to help me with these it's a two man job to carry them without suit on. The first section slid up and John picked up the weapon. No wonder the Dr. needed help, the gun was as long as he was tall. Resembling the LAAGs on Warthogs but with five extra barrels bringing the total to eight. The weight was negligible with his suits augmentation.
"Now this is my kind of weapon!" exclaimed John.
"Yes, the Minigun, its very similar to the Warthog mounted LAAG but fires smaller calibre armour penetrating slugs at a rate of over 1000 per minute. The small calibre of the bullets allows 4000 rounds to fit inside. The bullets are also made of a titanium alloy meaning they will penetrate even the thickest armour. In tests it obliterated a Scorpion Main Battle Tank in just under a minute."
John took the Minigun over to the range. Aiming at a Hunter shaped target as he pulled the trigger, the eight barrels span into action. Within a second they were at optimum speed and the firing mechanism kicked in. The noise was incredible as hundreds of rounds were thrown at the target, the bright red tracer fire almost forming a continuous stream. After ten seconds the Chief eased off the trigger and the barrels slowed to a stop with a metallic clicking. A grin spread across his face as he watched the target fall into pieces.
John walked back to the weapons case. "What else have you got?"
The next half hour was spent trying a number of new weapons, a chemical flamethrower that could shoot a long thin steam of fire or launch a huge fireball that would burn for hours, a new type of rocket launcher that Chief could control once fired via his targeting computer and a small wrist laser that acquired its charge from the suit's shield generator.
He was just zooming in on a distant target with a modified sniper rifle with increased zoom, barrel stabiliser and an improved rate of fire, when voice he thought he would never hear again spoke.
"You couldn't have chosen a better time to arrive Master Chief." Said Admiral Stevenson. He was a tall man, over six feet with a silvery white mane of hair far longer than regulation length. The Chief guessed that being admiral of the fleet allowed you to bend the rules here and there.
Before replying he took a quick glance around the bridge. Over twenty UNSC soldiers were busy at their stations, some grouped round large holographic projection maps displaying the locations of the fleet, others communicating with different sections of the space station and Earth. Not one soul was idle and the hum of conversation was everywhere.
"What's the situation Admiral?" replied Master Chief, he had downloaded Cortana so she could get updated. Now it was his turn.
The Admiral looked grim "Well son, its bad. One of our scout ships was boarded during essential work on the engines and the A.I was hacked. Luckily while they were busy hacking her she was doing the same to them. She managed to get off a coded message warning us and also sent us the latest Covenant battle map. Our boys have been looking at it and they believe the Covvies will amass their fleet at a planet named Felour."
Master Chief nodded "How long have we got?"
"Well, that's a difficult question. Travel time from Felour to Earth is about a week for the Covvies and from the battle map we got it would take at least 3 weeks for them to get together a large enough attack force to consider sufficient."
"A month at the worst then, when did we receive the warning from the A.I?" Master Chief spoke slowly dreading the answer.
"Just over a month today"
Both men stood in silence for a few seconds, the battle for the entire human race could begin at any minute.
"We're not done yet son, not by a long shot. I want you to get down to the armoury, there's a few new toys the tech boys have come up with and there's someone down there I'm sure you'll want to see again."
Chief began to ask who but the Admiral cut him off. "You'll see soon enough son, now get moving, time is against us. Once you're done down there we'll organise a meeting to discuss our strategic options."
"Yes Sir." Chief snapped a salute and headed for the door. Just as he reached it, it slid open and a young soldier, maybe only nineteen, walked straight into him. Data tablets scattered everywhere. "WHY DON'T YOU L...!" Started the young man before looking up into the Chiefs' mirrored visor. "Oh shit! Umm I mean err." Finally getting his act together he snapped to attention. "Sorry Sir, my fault entirely." Getting down on his knees he started gathering the wayward tablets.
Master Chief looked down at this young man, barely out of childhood, many thousands of miles from home, waiting for a superior enemy, but there none the less.
"What's your name marine?"
The lad looked up in surprise, not sure if the question was meant for him. Recovering quickly he stood up and froze, his face inches away Chiefs' visor. Seeing his reflection warped, like the House of Mirrors at the fairground, damn near freaked him out.
What Master Chief did next almost put him on his back.
Taking a step back, Chief reached up to his neck and released the seal on his helmet. With a quiet hiss as the pressure equalised, he lifted the helmet clear and held it under one arm.
The teenage soldier, expecting some half metal monster was shocked at the calm handsome face before him. Brown eyes with matching short brown hair and a square chin. He just stood there staring for at least five second until he realised he'd been asked a question.
"Urm, Private Dyane Cole. Registration 043..."
"I'm John, Spartan Master Chief, here let me help you" said John kneeling down and picking up the last few tablets. As he handed them to Dyane the lad stuttered a thank you sir and entered the bridge.
John made his way to the armoury thinking about the encounter. All his friends, actually his brothers he supposed, as they were bred from the same genetic stock, were annihilated on Reach. He was alone, maybe his only friend was Cortana and she wasn't even human. Then again he wasn't strictly human either.
Looking up he realised he was at the armoury, he'd been walking pretty much on autopilot. The door slid open and he went inside. Onboard the Pillar of Autumn the armoury was just a single long corridor, onboard the Protector it was more like a warehouse. Seeing what looked like offices at the opposite side of the room Chief headed towards them. Passing rack upon rack of weapons, M6D Pistols, MA5B Assault Rifles, S2 AM Sniper Rifles, M90 Shotguns (His personal favourite) and M19 SSM Rocket Launchers.
He was so engrossed with the tools of his trade he didn't notice the approaching man in a lab coat.
The man cleared his throat and John turned to face him. He was the stereotypical mad scientist, maybe sixty years old, barely five feet tall with a shock of bright white curly hair and thick glasses that magnified his eyes to monstrous proportions.
"Master Chief I presume?" Said the scientist in a deep baritone voice that didn't sound like it belonged to someone so small. "I'm Dr. Isaac Heinlien, head scientific and weapon researcher for the UNSC, pleased to meet you." The small man extended his hand and John shook it.
"It an honour to meet you Dr. Heinlien, didn't you design the first MJOLNIR armour and the M41 Light Anti-Aircraft gun fitted on most Warthogs?"
"Ahh yes, my reputation proceeds me." Replied Isaac, a smile forming on his wrinkled face. "As does yours Master Chief, I've just been looking at Cortana's report on your last mission. I would be very interested to hear about it in more detail, especially the Halo weapon and the A.I monitor, now what was it called? Oh yes 343 Guilty Spark. Yes very interesting indeed. But we have other matters to deal with first, follow me."
The Scientist walked towards a large blast door with yellow and black diagonal warning stripes on. Leaning towards the retinal scanner activated it and after a second the doors slide open with a quiet hiss. Inside was a sealed rack of weapons, some of which John didn't recognise, a two-meter tall metal cylinder, and a long wide corridor, a firing range judging by the scorch marks and bullet holes along the walls.
"Right first thing first, as you said before I designed the first MJOLNIR armour, what you are wearing now was the second generation of the battle suit." As he spoke he moved to the large cylinder, tapped in a key code and activated another retinal scanner. The front of the cylinder slid round to reveal a MJOLNIR suit, almost exactly the same as the one John was wearing, as far as he could tell anyway.
"Now this is the latest battle suit, one of only two in existence, its shield has been upgraded, in tests it has taken nearly double the amount of damage than your suit before collapsing. But that's not all. The motor servos have been upgraded making you far stronger and the basic armour and targeting systems have been given an overhaul as well. I'll give you a few minutes to get changed" With that Isaac walked down the firing range and began to calibrate the targets.
John inspected his new suit for a second, it was slightly bulkier than the old one but that was about it. Placing his helmet on the floor the he disengaged his suits locking clamps and set about removing it, feeling a slight twinge as the neural interface disconnected. Picking up the new suit was quite a chore, without the increased strength from his suit the new one felt like it weighed a ton, and he was damn strong without his suit. In a few minutes he was in the new armour and testing the joints, it was a lot better than the old one. It didn't even feel like he was wearing armour the freedom of movement he had.
"You've out done yourself Dr. Heinlien, this is amazing"
"Thank you, I'm quite proud of it myself." replied the Isaac with a smug smile. "If you put your helmet on you will find a couple of extra vision modes, Night vision and thermal imaging."
John did so and cycled to night vision, everything went bright green. As the Dr. turned off the lights he could make out the room as if it was daylight, all be it green daylight. When he switched to thermal mode it all went blue apart from the Dr. who stood out as an orangey red humanoid. Switching back to normal view it was pitch black until Isaac turned the lights back on. Very handy thought John.
Isaac approached the sealed weapons rack. "Now, onto the weapons. You'll have to help me with these it's a two man job to carry them without suit on. The first section slid up and John picked up the weapon. No wonder the Dr. needed help, the gun was as long as he was tall. Resembling the LAAGs on Warthogs but with five extra barrels bringing the total to eight. The weight was negligible with his suits augmentation.
"Now this is my kind of weapon!" exclaimed John.
"Yes, the Minigun, its very similar to the Warthog mounted LAAG but fires smaller calibre armour penetrating slugs at a rate of over 1000 per minute. The small calibre of the bullets allows 4000 rounds to fit inside. The bullets are also made of a titanium alloy meaning they will penetrate even the thickest armour. In tests it obliterated a Scorpion Main Battle Tank in just under a minute."
John took the Minigun over to the range. Aiming at a Hunter shaped target as he pulled the trigger, the eight barrels span into action. Within a second they were at optimum speed and the firing mechanism kicked in. The noise was incredible as hundreds of rounds were thrown at the target, the bright red tracer fire almost forming a continuous stream. After ten seconds the Chief eased off the trigger and the barrels slowed to a stop with a metallic clicking. A grin spread across his face as he watched the target fall into pieces.
John walked back to the weapons case. "What else have you got?"
The next half hour was spent trying a number of new weapons, a chemical flamethrower that could shoot a long thin steam of fire or launch a huge fireball that would burn for hours, a new type of rocket launcher that Chief could control once fired via his targeting computer and a small wrist laser that acquired its charge from the suit's shield generator.
He was just zooming in on a distant target with a modified sniper rifle with increased zoom, barrel stabiliser and an improved rate of fire, when voice he thought he would never hear again spoke.