I'm very pleased with the reviews I got last chapter, so therefore... I'm continuing (Obviously)! I can't believe I missed the whole master chief thing... even after I read all three books. Anywayz, here is chapter 2...
Chapter 2
Both Cortana and John were still red as they walked in to the small room. They didn't really say a whole lot to each other. In fact, they simply walked in and went to bed.
That was last night though. It was the morning after the gym incident and it was still fresh on their minds. As they both got up they didn't really say anything. They changed, went down to the cafeteria and ate the disgusting food the UNSC provided them. Afterwards, they went up and got their Spartan suits on (Cortana got hers after training yesterday) to go down to training. As John got ready to put his helmet on, he found himself staring at Cortana, and was surprised to see her staring back. John started,
"Cortana... we need to talk."
She looked away and blushed.
"John I-"Before she could finish, a loud buzzer came on overhead. The Major came on the loudspeaker.
"All UNSC forces, this is Major Eisley. Report to the hangar. We have received reports that the Covenant are moving up their fronts." It repeated a few times.
"Come on," John began, "let's get down there." They made their way down to the huge, open room where more than a dozen Pelicans were parked. Sergeant Johnson ran over to him.
"Pleasure to see you sir. Those Covenant bastards are comin' this way, and we are goin' to greet 'em." He turned around at a few ODST behind him.
"Ain't that right ladies?" he yelled.
"Sir yes sir!" Johnson just smiled, idly chewing on half a cigar, before turning around and running towards the nearest Pelican. John and Cortana just looked at each other and ran after him. Once aboard the small craft and seated, it took lift off straight towards New Mombassa. (Note: The next few parts of this will be quite similar to the E3 demo if you've ever seen it.)
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Pvt. Polo and Lt. Snyder sat, sprawled out on their stomachs, on the largest building of new Mombassa. 30 floors below them, random plasma fire blew windows out, and marines screamed for their lives. Large globs of bluish plasma exploded in the air like fireworks and the streets were covered with blood of Humans and Covenant.
The Pvt. Looked at the scene through binoculars while the Lt. fired with a sniper rifle. He began radioing a message to the pelican John and Cortana were in.
"The LZ looks hot, you should find a new landing zone."
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After receiving the message, the pilot turned to Johnson.
"You heard Lt. Snyder. It's your call Sarge."
Sergeant Johnson just smiled and pointed to the LZ.
"We're going in."
The Pelican dipped towards the LZ (a small landing pad with a ramp going to the streets). It slowly landed with a scraping sound. John and Cortana were the first ones out. They ran down the small ramp, past a tent with a few wounded Marines. They then proceeded to walk into a house and up the stairs, where a few marines fired out of a whole that had been blown into it, yelling curses at the aliens below. Finally, walking down the hole, they came to another hole big enough for them to fit though. They crawled in, out onto a large porch right above the street. A few grunts were down below. John was the first to pull out his battle rifle and pop a few of them in the head. He jumped down off of the patio and continued to eliminate a few Jackals who got in his way. Cortana came up behind him, finishing off the stragglers. Even the training from yesterday hadn't prepared her for this (This is where it stops being like the demo). After the area was relatively secure, a marine drove up in a warthog.
"Cortana, Chief, get aboard. We need to get to the Covenant cruiser that's dropping off all these forces."
Cortana got in the passenger seat and John got on the chain gun on the back. The Marine continued on, John taking out a few Grunts and Jackals on the street. They got to a wider street where a phantom dropship locked on above them. A Brute, which looked like a cross of a gorilla and a rhino, jumped on the hood from it. He roared and grabbed the marine by the neck, hurling him into a wall. Cortana tried to reach for her pistol strapped to her leg, but the Brute was faster. He punched her, knocking her off. The warthog smashed into a nearby wall seconds after John rolled off the back. He smacked the Brute a couple times with the rifle and finished him with 3 quick shots. Turning around, he saw 3 more Brutes approaching him next to a car. He quickly shot the engine, blowing it up, and eviscerating the Brutes. He ran up to Cortana and yanked off her helmet. A trickle of blood ran down her jaw and her eyes were closed. He checked her pulse. She was just unconscious, but her arm seemed to be at a strange angle. Broken. He called up the only marine that survived the encounter.
"Get her back to the CP and have her evaced out of here."
The marine gave a quick nod and set her into the passenger seat of a badly damaged warthog. After getting into the driver seat he drove off, leaving John alone. He glanced over to his right and saw a ghost and quickly jumped onto it. He was about to leave when he heard a whirring sound coming from behind him. 3 Brutes on ghosts were riding straight towards him. He pulled the throttle back and the ghost came to life, nearly instantly reaching a speed of fifty miles per hour. He began driving away from them, straight into a highway tunnel, not noticing the sign that read, 'Auto-shutdown in progress.
As he continued on he could hear the ghosts right on his tail. He looked ahead. The blast door was closing at the end of the tunnel. He leaned to the right. He would never make it with the ghost. It rammed straight into the wall when there was about 2 feet left to close. He flew through it from the impact as the ghost exploded into a puff of blue. His shield flickered against the pavement he was skidding against. He came to a stop, and looked up. There was the Covenant Cruiser. He needed to destroy it in order to stop the reinforcements. It was then he inwardly realized something,
"Where are the Elites?"
Like clockwork, blue cocoon-like shuttles began coming down from the sky. 5 of them encircled John, stabbing into the hard concrete all around him. The closest one Hissed open, steam coming from inside. The front blew off, and he saw a Spec. Op. Elite standing in front of him. The other four did the same. They circled him, barking things to each other and walking around him like they were toying with him. He pulled out his 2 SMGs and stood waiting.
The apparent leader barked out a battle cry and pulled out an energy sword. The others followed suit. John put away 1 SMG and pulled out a plasma grenade, flicking the switch as it began to glow. He jumped towards the nearest Elite, slammed the grenade into his face. The Elite screamed out of fear and ran towards another, blowing them both up. A quick swerve behind him showed another charging at him. He shot a burst into his shoulder, stunning him. He ran up to him and grabbed the Elite's arm, twisting it with a snap and breaking it. He ripped the sword from his hand and cleanly cut his stomach open. He turned around, and stared at the other two. He threw the sword at one Elite. Not thinking quickly enough, the Elite stood as it flew through him. He stammered back, and fell over with a thump. The final Elite charged towards him so bluntly like the rest of them. John tried to fire a burst into him and realized he had no ammo in his clip. There was no time to reload. At the last minute he yanked out a combat knife and stabbed it into his neck. He dropped the sword and died. He again looked up at the cruiser. He was about to continue to the gravity lift when he saw an explosion rip through the hull, annihilating it. He looked in disbelief. The last remaining orbital cannon had just blown it to pieces. All he had done was for nothing. It was only a matter of time now before the marines wiped up the remaining Covenant forces. He sighed and began walking in the relative direction of a pelican about 100 yards away. He needed to go see Cortana. He also needed to have a long talk with the Major as to why he was dispatched in the first place.
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The pelican John had gotten into slowly pulled back into the hangar. He quickly walked over to the blast door leading inside the main building. In no time he was in the infirmary. He quickly talked to a marine to see where Cortana got brought in. Walking over to the room, he opened the door. A doctor finished touching up a few cuts on her body, the most serious on her neck where the Brutes claws pierces her skin. The doctor, after seeing John, swiftly left the room. John walked over and sat on her bed, taking his helmet off.
"Hey." He said with a smirk.
She just smiled.
"Shouldn't you be off in that cruiser?" she asked.
"That god damned Eisley dispatched me for no reason. The orbital guns had already taken it out."
"Apparently he didn't think all this through huh?" she responded.
"No..." he said. They sat like that for a few minutes. John finally broke it.
"What were you saying?"
"What do you mean?" she asked questioningly.
"You began to say something, before we left. What was it?" She stared at him for a few seconds before motioning him closed. She whispered,
"Maybe it would be better if I showed you..." she leaned in and kissed him on the lips softly. He relaxed into it. After 10 seconds or so she broke it.
"I love you John."
He gave that smirk she loved so much to see.
"I love you too, Cortana."
They kissed each other again, uninterrupted this time. Wrapping his arm around her waist, careful of her arm, John lay down next to her and set his chin down on her head. And they fell asleep like that, dreaming of each other.
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I'm really sorry guys. Short chapter but I was tired. What can I say? And besides, you got to see John and Cortana admit their love to each other! That's worth like 10 chapters.
Seriously, with Halo two coming out on Tuesday (I'm going to midnight madness tomorrow so I'm sort of getting it tomorrow) I won't have as much time to write since I'll be glued to my TV. Also since it's the week now I have school too. Sigh That's why I got this chapter out today yet. Besides, I was inspired by all the reviews :). Expect another chapter by Wednesday. Anywayz, see ya later guys.
PS: Ignore the PS from chapter 1.