Chapter 8: Enter The Lion
Date: April 06, 2554 / 1453 Hours Location: Aboard UNSC Cruiser "Iceberg" / The Bowels Of The Ship
The object glistened in the now rising light to reveal a sculpture like object. The closer it got, the more the Master Chief began to realize that it was not an enemy, merely a metallic reflection of himself. The object finally broke the threshold between the outside, and the room itself to reveal another Spartan suit. This one bounced back rays of light, shining brightly in the light. The armor was gold.
The Master Chief looked at it for one second and frowned. "This won't work. The gold armor will make me like a lantern to anyone looking my way." He said. "Indeed, it will, if you allow it to." The Master Chief spun around to see who had spoken those words. It was General Blake Stanforth. "I allowed them to see the technicalities of your suit so they could make upgrades. This was my idea. I thought that since we were headed to the Covenant homeworld, you might have a score to settle with them since your Halo adventure. This will, needless to say, give you exponentially more than you can expect."
The Master Chief eased himself, and cocked his head. "So, what comes with the new package?" he asked. "Well, for starters, your shields are much more powerful. Whenever a plasma rifle or pistol is shot at you, the shield recognizes it and absorbs the energy from the blasts. This, in turn, charges another new feature, called overdrive, also called OD for short. This injects a specially formulated, super charged DNA-Electrolytic fused mixture. It makes you over 100 times more powerful in physical strength and smarter than 6 Cortana's combined. Pardon me Cortana. When you initiate OD, it changes your armor to red, and sparks fly everywhere, as if you were a lightning rod. To add to all that, when you are in Overdrive, the plasma absorber supercharges your shield in a way so that you are able to fire another new weapon built into the shield. This weapon is a combination of both human technology, and Eternal technology. We call it the EXP-4K. It fires an EMP blast that can disable any electronic device in over a 5-mile radius. The other feature of this weapon is the twist the eternals have thrown into this weapon. If you so choose to do this, when you fire it, it will not only disable the electronics, but also will reboot the devices and put you in charge. In other words, you could detonate this weapon of mass destruction inside a Covenant ship, for example, and make the enemy AI work for you. This weapon can only be fired during Overdrive, but all this firepower comes at a price." He finished
"What price is this?" "You. Your mind. You see, the human mind can only process so much information and carry so much stress. That's what OD does. When OD runs out, and you are returned to your normal form, you're strength drops dramatically for an instant, and you, to say the least, snap. You go crazy. This may not last long, but it is dangerous, as you cannot only not recognize friend from foe, you may have suicidal thoughts, and try to injure yourself. Hopefully that's where Cortana will route control of the suit to us, and your suit will be deadlocked, allowing the surge if insanity to pass. Afterward, you will not know what has happened during the OD. Altogether, it's a worthy weapon, and should be treated as one.
"Understood. Anything else I should know about?" asked the Master Chief. "A few more. OD only lasts for about 4 minutes, and the aftereffects last for about 2 and ½ to 3 minutes. Plasma grenades are no longer a problem either, unless they land next to you. If they land on you, your suit detects it, shuts it down, and uses it's own source of plasma to move the grenade to wherever you may want it." Stated the General.
"Wait just a second. You keep saying 'If I So Choose'. What do you mean by that?" The Chief Interjected.
"Good question, Sir. There is no really simple way of putting this, so I'll say it the best I can. You know how when Cortana is inserted into your suit, you have a feeling of pacified unity?"
"Yes, I know what you're talking about."
"Well, this is very much the same way. From the moment you step inside that suit you become one being. You thought that your other suit was simply another limp attached onto your body that you were able to control. This suit, however, you will not even know it's there. Your mind is directly linked with the suit to allow these features to be thought about. Sounds complicated, huh." The general said.
"No. I've heard worse. Sounds like fu..." the Master Chief tried to say.
"Wait just a second, here! What about me?!" Cortana interrupted.
"Don't worry about anything Cortana. You'll still be connected with him the same way you always have been."
"Crap. I, I mean great. Never better." The Master Chief blurted out.
"Oh yeah, I'm happy to be with you to." She retorted back.
"Ok, ok you two. Cool it down. We need to get the Master Chief oriented with his new armor."
And with that, the Master Chief and the General proceeded to fit the suit. Meanwhile, deep inside the machinery of the ancient MJOLNIR suit, a voice spoke. "Soon... very soon... the, the power will be... be mine. Wait. Stop. get out. Leave me alone! I don't need you!" A spark ignited inside the helmet. After a moment, the voice spoke again. "Soon."
Two days later...
"Sir, the forces are ready to depart. Shall I give the order?" Cortana spoke with a certain glee in her voice.
"Yes, give the order. Lets go and get those bastards." Replied the general.
The master chief stood in the back corner of the control room watching the tears in space appear, and the ships travel inside. He knew that the time had come to give the Covenant a taste of their own medicine, and he intended to give then his fair share.
Slowly but surely, they were on their way to the Covenant homeworld. "ETA 3 hours and 27 minutes, sir." Cortana replied.
The master chief walked out of the room, and into the common area of the ship. Hundreds upon hundreds of soilders were waiting for their big shot to get back at the Covenant for many reasons. For killing their family, for killing fellow soilders, for destroying entire planets, it was all justified, and they awaited for the grim reapers revenge against the one tyrant that had so successfully pushed them back to the brink of extinction.
The master chief finished his brief trip to the commons area, and returned to the bridge. His brand new armor glistened against any metallic surface, as if it were poised to pounce.
He returned to the bridge, and stared out the window once more. Off in the distance, arguing voices could be heard.
"NO! I won't do it! It's suicide for my men, and this is the last bulk of the UNSC's military." Said the general.
"You must trust us. You have faithfully trusted us when we said we were your friends, when we said we would help you defeat your enemy, but now you resist one of our plans that could mean the collapse of the entire operation?" the Dom barked back.
"Whats going on here?" the master chief interjected.
"I have ASKED that the remaining human forces be used as a diversion in 2 ways. First, the majority of the forces will make a small land incision on the planets surface. Their main goal is one of their 3 main shield generators. The Covenant homeworld has a shield barrier that prevents any and all fire from a ship to enter their atmosphere. However, their weakness is that this shield can be passed through with ships. The plan was to destroy one of these generators. When this happens, a part of the shield will weaken and ultimately collapse momentarily while the other two generators try to compensate, which they can. If we destroy the enemy shield generator, we can continue with our operation as planned. With me so far?" he paused.
"So far so good." Replied the master chief. "Continue"
"Ok, but if they fail to destroy the first generator...", "That's where the problem is," interrupted the General," There will be no failing. And if there is a failure in operation, then our men would retreat and fall back. If they were to fail and not complete their mission, then one of you..." "One of OUR ships will have to do a drastic move and self destruct just above the generator, killing anything for a good 10 miles in the shockwave."finished the Dom.
"Hmmm... why send human troops to take out such a vital pulseline when they can be used to fight on the front line, where they would want?"
"Because we are not capable of entering the atmosphere in such a small ship. In the time it would take to land a carrier down their, we'd be cooked." Said the dom.
The Master Chief pondered the situation for a minute and gave his reply. "Fine, but I have a better plan."
"What is it?"
"Let me go. I will take out the generator. This lets the soldiers fight where they want, and me a chance to test out my new digs." He said.
They both thought about it for a moment, and agreed.
"Fine then. It's all settled. When are we going to..." He stopped.
A violent movement rattled through the ship, and they stopped mid conversation and ran to the bridge. Upon reaching it, they found the bridge in total chaos. On the front viewscreen, there was a Covenant Battle Cruiser. "Capitan, what should we do?" asked the pilot.
The Capitan mashed a small red button on the side of his chair and said, "All hands, battle stations."
"Pilot, drop us out of slipstream. Radio to the other ships and tell them of our delay. We're going to take care of these guys before they can tell their HQ that we're coming."
"Yes sir!" said the pilot, and he turned around and fiddled with the controls. Soon, the ship saw the slipstream decay, and the space around them return to normal. The Covenant ship followed as if to test how far they were going to go.
"Weapons, attack pattern Omega." barked the captain who was giving orders. Small green bolts of light ejected from the sides of the ship, and swam toward the other ship. The weapons landed a direct hit on the covenant ship, but wasn't enough to knock their shields out. The Covenant retaliated by firing their plasma. Huge purple blasts streamed toward the Eternal's vessel.
"Hehe" laughed the crew. "Wait till they find out who they are dealing with." The weapons operator messed with the controls a bit more and soon was ready. When the plasma was 10 miles from the ship, he fired it. The shield exploded and engulfed the plasma and stopped it dead in it's tracks. The two ships stood in a stand off. Then the Covenant ship's engines engaged and thrusted the ship into full reverse. They were running away.
"Nah ah ah" said the captain. The plasma from the covenants ship moved together in one massive ball, and was fired back at the other ship. The shield blast from the eternals ship had disabled the ships on the other ship as well, so when the plasma struck, it melted through the hull like butter and destroyed the ship.
"Now that's more like it. Pilot, return us to slipstream. And do try to make up for our lost time." The pilot mashed a few more buttons and another slipstream tear formed for them to inter. A moment later, they were on their way again.
A few hours later, the ships exited slipsteam. Hundreds of tiny tears in space appeared just enough for each ship to enter normal space, then closed again. The master chief stood at the front viewscreen, and had his helmet not been in the way, people would have seen his jaw hanging open. The Dom floated in a chair beside him. He spoke
"She's a wonder isn't she?" He was speaking of what was on the screen. An endless purple shield was separating the sides, and clearly marked the entrance into Covenant space.
"Yes, we could go through the front door, announced with a clear trumpet of war, and get annoyed all the way to their homeworld, but we have a better idea. We're going through our own back door. Watch and you'll see what I mean." He said. Then he began to speak in his native language to the weapons station, and the two spoke for nearly a minute. He then turned back around and settled in his chair as if he was going to take a nap.
The Master Chief wondered what he said, but he knew that he would find out soon enough. "Hmmm, I didn't know they could do that. This should be an interesting sight." Said Cortana.
On the screen, 4 ships could be seen moving closer to the barrier. They were lined up as if they were the corners of a box. All was quiet in the control room, and the 4 ships halted just a few hundred yards from the shield. Then the Master Chief felt his body move, and the ship rattle. The ship he was on was now beginning to move forward. About halfway to the shield, the other 4 ships began to emit sparks of lightning around themselves. The weapons master fiddled with the controls violently, and very swiftly. After another slow minute, the Dom's ship was in the center of the other 4 ships. They each spat a beam of light at the center, creating an X of energy. The room dimmed, and turned red. The Master Chief could no longer see out of the front viewscreen, so he turned to look at the weapons station panel. Upon walking there, he saw a diagram of the pattern the ships had formed. A circle was growing around the Dom's ship, and when it reached the other ships, it stopped. Then another surge of movement was felt, and as suddenly as it started, it ended. The room lit up abruptly and then dimmed again. The Master Chief turned and looked again at the front viewscreen. The 5 ships combined had created an anti-Covenant shield disruptor of some sort and had created a square hole in the shield. He could see the hundreds of ships moving to squeeze trough the hole. After about 10 minutes of emerging, the ships finally finished their crossing, and the 5 ships holding the door open crossed into Covenant space. The hole closed almost instantly. The Covenant were in for a real surprise now. Hundreds of ships on an attack vector were in their own space and willing to wage war, and they didn't even know it. The Dom spoke again something in his own language, and Cortana translated
"He told them to bring their cloak online. Apparently they won't be able to see us until they want them too. This is very exciting wouldn't you say." The Master Chief just nodded.
Another hour had passed and the fleet were coming up on the homeworld. The planet was huge, at least 6 times larger than earth. It was covered by the enormous purple shield, and the generators could be seen as they were in brighter areas. The Master Chief looked out of the front viewscreen at the task ahead of him. The eternals had given him something for his suit to make him look like an elite, and a translator so he could speak Covenant. Should his cover be blow, he was ready to fight. In fact, he was counting on it. An eternal walked into the room and grabbed the Master Chief by the arm and said something in his language. Cortana once again translated. "He said that it's time to go and do our job." With that, the Master Chief turned and walked out of the control room, headed for the weapons locker.
There was a plethora of weapons to choose from, and he did so easily. Covenant, Human, and Eternal weapons lined the sides of the walls. Plasma rifles, Grenades of all shapes, sizes and uses, Pistols, field generators, and many other interesting items. He decided to go hog wild and loaded up with as much weaponry as possible. He made several trips between the docking bay and the weapons locker. If he ever ran out of ammo or weapons, he could always return to his ship to restock. Or so he hoped. He took 3 Rocket launchers with 4 crates of rockets, 2 assault rifles with 60 clips of ammo, 10 plasma rifles with a recharge center in the middle of his shuttle, Frag, Toxic, EMP and Plasma grenades, 12 pistols with enough ammo to shape a new Mt. Rushmore, and a few new weapons and gadgets as well. One was the field generator, that set up a protective field 10 feet high from one of the generators to another. Another was a plasma turret. These shot bullets of plasma that could burn a whole in anything. The occasional soldier that he would encounter between trips would look at him and give 1 of 2 reactions. One was to salute him, and wish him the best of luck. These men did not doubt him, for they considered him a god. The others would look at him as if he was suicidal, and was hauling his own cross. The Master Chief ignored most all of them, and finished his loading.
He didn't know what to think. The time had come to make the Covenant pay for their insulting rage against humanity. Yet something felt amiss. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he had a big and near impossible task for anyone except him in front of him. His muscles twitched with anxiety as he stepped aboard a small 1 way shuttle to the surface.
Date: April 06, 2554 / 1453 Hours Location: Aboard UNSC Cruiser "Iceberg" / The Bowels Of The Ship
The object glistened in the now rising light to reveal a sculpture like object. The closer it got, the more the Master Chief began to realize that it was not an enemy, merely a metallic reflection of himself. The object finally broke the threshold between the outside, and the room itself to reveal another Spartan suit. This one bounced back rays of light, shining brightly in the light. The armor was gold.
The Master Chief looked at it for one second and frowned. "This won't work. The gold armor will make me like a lantern to anyone looking my way." He said. "Indeed, it will, if you allow it to." The Master Chief spun around to see who had spoken those words. It was General Blake Stanforth. "I allowed them to see the technicalities of your suit so they could make upgrades. This was my idea. I thought that since we were headed to the Covenant homeworld, you might have a score to settle with them since your Halo adventure. This will, needless to say, give you exponentially more than you can expect."
The Master Chief eased himself, and cocked his head. "So, what comes with the new package?" he asked. "Well, for starters, your shields are much more powerful. Whenever a plasma rifle or pistol is shot at you, the shield recognizes it and absorbs the energy from the blasts. This, in turn, charges another new feature, called overdrive, also called OD for short. This injects a specially formulated, super charged DNA-Electrolytic fused mixture. It makes you over 100 times more powerful in physical strength and smarter than 6 Cortana's combined. Pardon me Cortana. When you initiate OD, it changes your armor to red, and sparks fly everywhere, as if you were a lightning rod. To add to all that, when you are in Overdrive, the plasma absorber supercharges your shield in a way so that you are able to fire another new weapon built into the shield. This weapon is a combination of both human technology, and Eternal technology. We call it the EXP-4K. It fires an EMP blast that can disable any electronic device in over a 5-mile radius. The other feature of this weapon is the twist the eternals have thrown into this weapon. If you so choose to do this, when you fire it, it will not only disable the electronics, but also will reboot the devices and put you in charge. In other words, you could detonate this weapon of mass destruction inside a Covenant ship, for example, and make the enemy AI work for you. This weapon can only be fired during Overdrive, but all this firepower comes at a price." He finished
"What price is this?" "You. Your mind. You see, the human mind can only process so much information and carry so much stress. That's what OD does. When OD runs out, and you are returned to your normal form, you're strength drops dramatically for an instant, and you, to say the least, snap. You go crazy. This may not last long, but it is dangerous, as you cannot only not recognize friend from foe, you may have suicidal thoughts, and try to injure yourself. Hopefully that's where Cortana will route control of the suit to us, and your suit will be deadlocked, allowing the surge if insanity to pass. Afterward, you will not know what has happened during the OD. Altogether, it's a worthy weapon, and should be treated as one.
"Understood. Anything else I should know about?" asked the Master Chief. "A few more. OD only lasts for about 4 minutes, and the aftereffects last for about 2 and ½ to 3 minutes. Plasma grenades are no longer a problem either, unless they land next to you. If they land on you, your suit detects it, shuts it down, and uses it's own source of plasma to move the grenade to wherever you may want it." Stated the General.
"Wait just a second. You keep saying 'If I So Choose'. What do you mean by that?" The Chief Interjected.
"Good question, Sir. There is no really simple way of putting this, so I'll say it the best I can. You know how when Cortana is inserted into your suit, you have a feeling of pacified unity?"
"Yes, I know what you're talking about."
"Well, this is very much the same way. From the moment you step inside that suit you become one being. You thought that your other suit was simply another limp attached onto your body that you were able to control. This suit, however, you will not even know it's there. Your mind is directly linked with the suit to allow these features to be thought about. Sounds complicated, huh." The general said.
"No. I've heard worse. Sounds like fu..." the Master Chief tried to say.
"Wait just a second, here! What about me?!" Cortana interrupted.
"Don't worry about anything Cortana. You'll still be connected with him the same way you always have been."
"Crap. I, I mean great. Never better." The Master Chief blurted out.
"Oh yeah, I'm happy to be with you to." She retorted back.
"Ok, ok you two. Cool it down. We need to get the Master Chief oriented with his new armor."
And with that, the Master Chief and the General proceeded to fit the suit. Meanwhile, deep inside the machinery of the ancient MJOLNIR suit, a voice spoke. "Soon... very soon... the, the power will be... be mine. Wait. Stop. get out. Leave me alone! I don't need you!" A spark ignited inside the helmet. After a moment, the voice spoke again. "Soon."
Two days later...
"Sir, the forces are ready to depart. Shall I give the order?" Cortana spoke with a certain glee in her voice.
"Yes, give the order. Lets go and get those bastards." Replied the general.
The master chief stood in the back corner of the control room watching the tears in space appear, and the ships travel inside. He knew that the time had come to give the Covenant a taste of their own medicine, and he intended to give then his fair share.
Slowly but surely, they were on their way to the Covenant homeworld. "ETA 3 hours and 27 minutes, sir." Cortana replied.
The master chief walked out of the room, and into the common area of the ship. Hundreds upon hundreds of soilders were waiting for their big shot to get back at the Covenant for many reasons. For killing their family, for killing fellow soilders, for destroying entire planets, it was all justified, and they awaited for the grim reapers revenge against the one tyrant that had so successfully pushed them back to the brink of extinction.
The master chief finished his brief trip to the commons area, and returned to the bridge. His brand new armor glistened against any metallic surface, as if it were poised to pounce.
He returned to the bridge, and stared out the window once more. Off in the distance, arguing voices could be heard.
"NO! I won't do it! It's suicide for my men, and this is the last bulk of the UNSC's military." Said the general.
"You must trust us. You have faithfully trusted us when we said we were your friends, when we said we would help you defeat your enemy, but now you resist one of our plans that could mean the collapse of the entire operation?" the Dom barked back.
"Whats going on here?" the master chief interjected.
"I have ASKED that the remaining human forces be used as a diversion in 2 ways. First, the majority of the forces will make a small land incision on the planets surface. Their main goal is one of their 3 main shield generators. The Covenant homeworld has a shield barrier that prevents any and all fire from a ship to enter their atmosphere. However, their weakness is that this shield can be passed through with ships. The plan was to destroy one of these generators. When this happens, a part of the shield will weaken and ultimately collapse momentarily while the other two generators try to compensate, which they can. If we destroy the enemy shield generator, we can continue with our operation as planned. With me so far?" he paused.
"So far so good." Replied the master chief. "Continue"
"Ok, but if they fail to destroy the first generator...", "That's where the problem is," interrupted the General," There will be no failing. And if there is a failure in operation, then our men would retreat and fall back. If they were to fail and not complete their mission, then one of you..." "One of OUR ships will have to do a drastic move and self destruct just above the generator, killing anything for a good 10 miles in the shockwave."finished the Dom.
"Hmmm... why send human troops to take out such a vital pulseline when they can be used to fight on the front line, where they would want?"
"Because we are not capable of entering the atmosphere in such a small ship. In the time it would take to land a carrier down their, we'd be cooked." Said the dom.
The Master Chief pondered the situation for a minute and gave his reply. "Fine, but I have a better plan."
"What is it?"
"Let me go. I will take out the generator. This lets the soldiers fight where they want, and me a chance to test out my new digs." He said.
They both thought about it for a moment, and agreed.
"Fine then. It's all settled. When are we going to..." He stopped.
A violent movement rattled through the ship, and they stopped mid conversation and ran to the bridge. Upon reaching it, they found the bridge in total chaos. On the front viewscreen, there was a Covenant Battle Cruiser. "Capitan, what should we do?" asked the pilot.
The Capitan mashed a small red button on the side of his chair and said, "All hands, battle stations."
"Pilot, drop us out of slipstream. Radio to the other ships and tell them of our delay. We're going to take care of these guys before they can tell their HQ that we're coming."
"Yes sir!" said the pilot, and he turned around and fiddled with the controls. Soon, the ship saw the slipstream decay, and the space around them return to normal. The Covenant ship followed as if to test how far they were going to go.
"Weapons, attack pattern Omega." barked the captain who was giving orders. Small green bolts of light ejected from the sides of the ship, and swam toward the other ship. The weapons landed a direct hit on the covenant ship, but wasn't enough to knock their shields out. The Covenant retaliated by firing their plasma. Huge purple blasts streamed toward the Eternal's vessel.
"Hehe" laughed the crew. "Wait till they find out who they are dealing with." The weapons operator messed with the controls a bit more and soon was ready. When the plasma was 10 miles from the ship, he fired it. The shield exploded and engulfed the plasma and stopped it dead in it's tracks. The two ships stood in a stand off. Then the Covenant ship's engines engaged and thrusted the ship into full reverse. They were running away.
"Nah ah ah" said the captain. The plasma from the covenants ship moved together in one massive ball, and was fired back at the other ship. The shield blast from the eternals ship had disabled the ships on the other ship as well, so when the plasma struck, it melted through the hull like butter and destroyed the ship.
"Now that's more like it. Pilot, return us to slipstream. And do try to make up for our lost time." The pilot mashed a few more buttons and another slipstream tear formed for them to inter. A moment later, they were on their way again.
A few hours later, the ships exited slipsteam. Hundreds of tiny tears in space appeared just enough for each ship to enter normal space, then closed again. The master chief stood at the front viewscreen, and had his helmet not been in the way, people would have seen his jaw hanging open. The Dom floated in a chair beside him. He spoke
"She's a wonder isn't she?" He was speaking of what was on the screen. An endless purple shield was separating the sides, and clearly marked the entrance into Covenant space.
"Yes, we could go through the front door, announced with a clear trumpet of war, and get annoyed all the way to their homeworld, but we have a better idea. We're going through our own back door. Watch and you'll see what I mean." He said. Then he began to speak in his native language to the weapons station, and the two spoke for nearly a minute. He then turned back around and settled in his chair as if he was going to take a nap.
The Master Chief wondered what he said, but he knew that he would find out soon enough. "Hmmm, I didn't know they could do that. This should be an interesting sight." Said Cortana.
On the screen, 4 ships could be seen moving closer to the barrier. They were lined up as if they were the corners of a box. All was quiet in the control room, and the 4 ships halted just a few hundred yards from the shield. Then the Master Chief felt his body move, and the ship rattle. The ship he was on was now beginning to move forward. About halfway to the shield, the other 4 ships began to emit sparks of lightning around themselves. The weapons master fiddled with the controls violently, and very swiftly. After another slow minute, the Dom's ship was in the center of the other 4 ships. They each spat a beam of light at the center, creating an X of energy. The room dimmed, and turned red. The Master Chief could no longer see out of the front viewscreen, so he turned to look at the weapons station panel. Upon walking there, he saw a diagram of the pattern the ships had formed. A circle was growing around the Dom's ship, and when it reached the other ships, it stopped. Then another surge of movement was felt, and as suddenly as it started, it ended. The room lit up abruptly and then dimmed again. The Master Chief turned and looked again at the front viewscreen. The 5 ships combined had created an anti-Covenant shield disruptor of some sort and had created a square hole in the shield. He could see the hundreds of ships moving to squeeze trough the hole. After about 10 minutes of emerging, the ships finally finished their crossing, and the 5 ships holding the door open crossed into Covenant space. The hole closed almost instantly. The Covenant were in for a real surprise now. Hundreds of ships on an attack vector were in their own space and willing to wage war, and they didn't even know it. The Dom spoke again something in his own language, and Cortana translated
"He told them to bring their cloak online. Apparently they won't be able to see us until they want them too. This is very exciting wouldn't you say." The Master Chief just nodded.
Another hour had passed and the fleet were coming up on the homeworld. The planet was huge, at least 6 times larger than earth. It was covered by the enormous purple shield, and the generators could be seen as they were in brighter areas. The Master Chief looked out of the front viewscreen at the task ahead of him. The eternals had given him something for his suit to make him look like an elite, and a translator so he could speak Covenant. Should his cover be blow, he was ready to fight. In fact, he was counting on it. An eternal walked into the room and grabbed the Master Chief by the arm and said something in his language. Cortana once again translated. "He said that it's time to go and do our job." With that, the Master Chief turned and walked out of the control room, headed for the weapons locker.
There was a plethora of weapons to choose from, and he did so easily. Covenant, Human, and Eternal weapons lined the sides of the walls. Plasma rifles, Grenades of all shapes, sizes and uses, Pistols, field generators, and many other interesting items. He decided to go hog wild and loaded up with as much weaponry as possible. He made several trips between the docking bay and the weapons locker. If he ever ran out of ammo or weapons, he could always return to his ship to restock. Or so he hoped. He took 3 Rocket launchers with 4 crates of rockets, 2 assault rifles with 60 clips of ammo, 10 plasma rifles with a recharge center in the middle of his shuttle, Frag, Toxic, EMP and Plasma grenades, 12 pistols with enough ammo to shape a new Mt. Rushmore, and a few new weapons and gadgets as well. One was the field generator, that set up a protective field 10 feet high from one of the generators to another. Another was a plasma turret. These shot bullets of plasma that could burn a whole in anything. The occasional soldier that he would encounter between trips would look at him and give 1 of 2 reactions. One was to salute him, and wish him the best of luck. These men did not doubt him, for they considered him a god. The others would look at him as if he was suicidal, and was hauling his own cross. The Master Chief ignored most all of them, and finished his loading.
He didn't know what to think. The time had come to make the Covenant pay for their insulting rage against humanity. Yet something felt amiss. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he had a big and near impossible task for anyone except him in front of him. His muscles twitched with anxiety as he stepped aboard a small 1 way shuttle to the surface.