Berryler, Last Refuge
Chapter One: Arrival
The sky was clear above Berryler. A Covenant Elite struggled to stay awake on the seat of the Shade gun turret. He was a tired after the long, overnight watch. Suddenly, he was stirred by a strange sound. He gazed upwards and saw a shadow on the sky. Unable to recognize it, he called over the leader of the watch.
"What is it?" the leader asked.
"Do you know what that is?" The Elite pointed at the shadow. The leader pondered a moment, and then replied.
"It is not Covenant, it is not one of them, so it is humans. Shoot it down!" With pleasure, the Elite aimed at the shadow with his turret, and fired.
"Chief! We're being fired at!" Cortana shrieked.
"Oh gee, I didn't notice," Chief replied dryly as he performed evasive maneuvers. All but one shot went past, hitting the ship's motors. This sent the ship into a steady course towards ground. Before Chief could fix the course, more shots took out two more motors, leaving Chief with one.
"Cortana, direct all the expendable powers to the front shields and belly shields." Cortana performed the tasks quickly.
"Chief, eject yourself on my mark." Cortana ordered. The ship kept falling steadily at Berryler's surface.
"Now!" Cortana shouted, and Chief struck the 'Seat Ejection' button, sending him to the sky. He looked down just to see as the ship exploded as it hit the ground.
"Why did you want the shields activated?" Cortana asked.
"Simple. I hoped to salvage something to help us reach the nearest human settlement, as this is a planet completely unknown to us."
"Well, your plan failed, and we are screwed."
"Screwed? What do you mean?""Look down." Chief looked.
"What? It's just a Covenant base bordering the status of stronghold by the looks of it," Chief replied as he shot the Elite at the gun turret. He landed and ran behind a structure. Chief looked at the surroundings. It was an open and rather flat -save some hills and cliffs- area, judging by what he'd seen from the air, for an hundred kilometer area. There was a large Covenant structure surrounded by other smaller ones Chief believed to be storages.
"Are we getting a little cocky, are we?" Cortana asked.
"Come on! I stormed the way to the Control Room on Halo myself!"
"The marines helped you!"
"Only around the transition over the second chasm!"
"Whatever. Get busy," Cortana ended the conversation. Chief readied his and jumped from his cover to immediately face an Elite. The Elite fired at him with a plasma rifle, but Chief evaded the shots and fired back. A bullet penetrated the Elite's skull and the Elite collapsed on a Jackal who had been creeping up to help finish Chief. The Jackal pulled himself up, muttering something in his native tongue. Chief used his pistol to kill the Jackal. A group of Grunts issued a bunch of plasma shots at Chief, and he just managed to pull himself away from the line of fire. He pulled his last plasma grenade from Halo from his waist and threw it at the Grunts. It stuck on one's side, sending the little creature frantically trying to pry it off. These attempts proved futile and useless as the grenade exploded, sending the Grunts to air."Bad, bad cyborg!" a Grunt from nearby shouted. Chief ignored the comment and killed the Grunt. The grenade had awakened and sent the whole base at him.
"Want to know the odds?" Cortana asked.
"Never." Chief took a plasma pistol and opened fire on the approaching group of Grunts. They evaded the shots, save one who got hit on his leg and lost balance. Chief ran at him and hit the Grunt's skull with a well-placed punch. Chief turned around and shot the approaching Elite with a full-charged shot. The Elite's energy shield flickered for a moment, and then vanished. The Elite roared and issued plasma fire at Chief, who just barely evaded them. The Elite fired again, and three shots hit Chief. Chief turned to fire, but the Elite was nowhere to be found. Chief heard a low grunt behind a corner, and ran behind it to see the Elite waiting for his shields to recharge. Chief shot the Elite. Chief checked his HUD display and saw that the plasma pistol's battery was almost up, so he took the Elite's plasma rifle. He checked the surroundings.
"I don't pick up any movement," Cortana announced. Chief was about to reply, when an explosion sounded in the distance.
"I didn't cause that." Chief muttered and ran at the place where the explosion sounded from. He peered over a nearby corner. There was a group of Elites and Grunts firing at something Chief didn't see. He peered around the corner more to see the Covenant warriors' target.
"I don't believe it!" Cortana exclaimed! "Marines!" There truly was a group of marines, positioned at the top of a cliff. They were constantly firing at the Grunts and Elites with assault rifles. Chief spotted one sniper and a rocket launcher.
"Let's make them know we're here too," Chief decided. He jumped at the Covenant.
Private Jenkins fired again at an Elite, then withdrew to reload. He started to aim, but was distracted by plasma fire that took down few Grunts.
"What the--?" his wondering was brought to an end as a green shape came to view and kept firing at the Covenant troops.
"Boys!" Jenkins called to his fellow soldiers. "It's Master Chief!" Other soldiers stared at Jenkins in disbelief, and then they looked at the Covenant group.
"He's right! It's Master Chief!" other marines shouted. With boosted morale, they began to push harder at the Covenant.
"Well, they noticed us," Cortana stated. Chief just fired down another Grunt. As the rifle's battery lowered, Chief switched to the assault rifle. He fired again, and ducked as Grunts fired at him. Chief spotted and Elite who was firing at the marines. As the Grunts fired again, Chief threw a plasma grenade that jammed itself on the Elite's neck. The tall creature ran around, and as the grenade exploded it obliterated a few other Elites with it. The Covenant numbers began to grow thin, and finally zero. A marine ran down the hill at Chief, but his journey was cut short by a green explosion.
"Hunters!" Cortana cried. "Chief, get out of here!" Chief didn't need to be told twice. He ran to the marines, barely evading two other shots from the Hunters at the Covenant fortress.
"Boys, I truly hope you have a ride," Chief said as he reached the marines.
"How did you--?"
"No time for questions, let's get out before those Hunters fry us!" One marine spoke something over the comlink.
"A dropship's coming to pick us. Meanwhile, let's head out from the Hunters' range." The marines and Chief headed down the hill. Soon they heard the familiar sound of a Pelican dropship and climbed aboard.
En route to the marines' base, one of them started talking.
"How did you get here Chief?" Chief put his rifle aside.
"That's a long story."
"We have time. It's a long way to the base."
"Okay." Chief took a more comfortable position. "It all began when the Pillar of Autumn jumped randomly away from Earth."