Authors Note: I wrote this about 6 months ago, when Halo 2 first came out, I got about halfway through the 2nd chapter and kinda hit a rut. I'm still stuck there, trying to make the transition from a Medical Ship to the events of Halo 2. If you haevn't guessed by now, this story was intended to be something more like a book version of Halo 2(much like the flood, except better... but probably not). It assumes that the books took place so I threw in Linda and Fred into this chapter. I don't think I captured Eric Nyluds version of them whatsoever, so the characters are completly different. This chapter is of course an introduction chapter which sets up the events of the 2nd chapter, which will get everyone into the correct position for the start of the game. If you have read any of my other stories you may notice my writing style has changed considerably over the years I've been here. It's gone from complete insanity not proofread in the least, attempting to be funny, to a poorly written fantasy universe involving many people dying by the exact same description(dagger slits a throat... about 5 times in that first chapter) to this. I feel this is my best written work so far. Of course since this is just a fic of a game, It's not really creative in any way. I feel that Psria is my most original work(this was actually a game I made and I decided to flesh out the story for a more book approach than a small RPG). So tell me what you think of my most recent work. So if you actually read through the whole thing, here's chapter one of Halo 2: Ark.
Aftermath's Setup
10.19.2552
Space Platform Cairo
Miranda Keyes
Miranda had looked over the document dozens of times, she was to be given a medal tomorrow for something her father, Jacob had done. "What exactly did you do dad? What's so important that they have to give me the medal instead of putting it with your body?". Sighing, she pushed her long brown hair back and started to read the document again.
EDITED VERSION, ADDRESSED TO PERSONS WITH SATURN ACCESS IN REGARD TO THE ACTIONS OF JACOB KEYES.
After the Covenant destroyed Reach, Captain Keyes fled the system with his crew, attempting to regroup to complete their assigned mission, Missing, Keyes ship arrived in a system with a Missing known as Halo to the Covenant. Keyes Followed Cole Protocol and gave the ships onboard AI, Cortana, to the best solider on board, Spartan 117. Keyes Landed the Pillar of Autumn on Halo where he was captured, and then rescued by Cortana and Spartan 117. Keyes went on a mission to reach a weapons Cache before the Covenant could reach it and he was KIA by Missing. Due to severe losses the only two survivors of this incident, Spartan 117 and Sergeant Avery Johnson were not able to recover Keyes body.
She just couldn't figure it out. She had looked for Cortanas report on this Halo incident and just about all that was left in for her to read was "We have been to hell and back". Most of the report seemed to focus on Spartan 117, or the Master Chief, as that was a word not edited out. "Jeez, I could stand to have a better rank", she was a ship commander, but not a very high ranking one. Her ship was one of the new ones churned out in a hurry to try to have some numbers against the massive covenant fleet. Her ship was small, and poorly armed, but it was a pretty fast little guy. She had been promoted from a more behind the scenes battle planner position to Commander in a hurry due to the need for them. "I probably only got this job cuz my dad was the best commander this fleet had." She looked over to her left, there sat Avery Johnson, snoring loudly. Now a member of her crew since the Halo incident. She had asked him what happened and his response had simply been "Sorry, It's classified."
She gave up for the night and decided to go get some sleep.
9th age of Reclamation
En route to Covenant City High Charity
Unknown Elite
He sat there in his prison. Looking at the faces staring at him. They had all committed crimes, he had just failed to protect something. They looked at him as though he was some sort of devil. He stared back through the eye slots of his no longer respectful gold armor. These were disturbed individuals, not fit to be part of society, murderers, rapists, all thought of him as the scum of the Covenant. He had failed to protect the most important thing to the beginning of the great journey, which all save heretics believed in. These Elites, they looked at him as though he was a heretic. One of them spoke up. "You let them destroy it. How else could one human ship do so much damage?" The gold plated Elite just sat there watching him. Another Elite spoke, "He's right you know, what you did, it's heresy."
"That is for the Council to decide Murderer". Responded The gold plated Elite.
"It's already been decided, you are the cause of the potential ruin of the entire Covenant, you will die a horrible death to give something back for the heresy you have committed".
"Hey, no talking between the prisoners! It's distracting me from piloting this ship! Do you wish to die before your time?". Shouted the pilot of the Phantom transport. In reality, he hoped they would continue, he wanted to get a free hit or two in on the heretic before the Council had its way with him. He got exactly what he wanted.
"You don't seem to have a problem, and you don't even have to fly this ship until docking anyhow! Trying to take a nap are you?" Shouted the gold plated elite. There was slight chuckling amongst some of the prisoners. This Elite may be a heretic, but it was still found amusing that a tainted solider could point out the errors of a lifelong pilot.
"I will not have any prisoners talking back to me Heretic!" The pilot rose from his seat, grabbed the shock pole and walked up to the gold plated elite. The prisoner gave him a look of defiance. That look was shortly met with a series of swings at his face. The last thing the Gold Plated Elite heard before losing conscious was the cheers of the other prisoners as the pilot pulled back for one last mighty swing.
10.19.2552
Space Platform Cairo
Sergeant Johnson
Johnson awoke slowly, he heard a door closing behind him ah damn it! He thought, he was supposed to be checking in on Miranda, making sure she wasn't going crazy cooping herself up in her quarters all day. "And look what you did, you decided the best way to make sure she was fine was to make yourself comfortable, a bit too comfortable". Johnson said with a sarcastic tone to no one in particular. He got up, stretched out a bit, and figured he may as well head over to see what was going on in the new experimental training center.
As He walked through the station, there were hushed whispers and people just plain staring at him as he walked past. They had heard the rumors. He was one of the survivors of an incident that caused tremendous loss of Covenant military. Hell, these reports say I'm a survivor, I'm no survivor, I'm a HERO DAMMIT!. He smiled to himself as this thought crossed his mind. As he walked through the monotonous steel gray corridors, he couldn't help but continue thinking. Hey, If I'm some kind of a hero, then Master Chief and Cortana have to be some sort of… well, Savior! This one caused him to raise an eyebrow as he walked.
Deciding not to think too heavily, Sarge looked out into space. From here he could see many of the orbital MAC platforms, the sheer scale of this defense grid, over 300 guns shooting rounds of electric balls so powerful they could take out a covenant capital ship with a single well placed shot. This would appear to be impenetrable to anyone he told about that, but he knew Reach had had more guns, and it had fallen. Earth was humanities final stronghold. The only thing the fine marines had going for them is that this time, they'd be prepared.
All of Johnson's thoughts were drowned out as the elevator he just entered started up. Its geared whined as it dragged the heavy piece of metal and its cargo upward. Sarge couldn't help but wince slightly as the constant shriek of the gears hurt his ears. Soon it stopped though and as he exited the lift he was greeted by the sight of a seven foot tall mass of green.
"Hey, Master Chief! How's it going!" Called out Sarge as he walked over to the Spartan.
10.19.2552
Space Platform Cairo
Master Chief
Master Chief couldn't help but smile under his helmet as Sarge approached. Sarge had by far made the quickest recovery from Halo and the hell they had faced returning to Earth from the far reaches of space.
"I'm fine". Stated Master Chief. Sarge waited a moment for Master Chief to ask him the same question. Master Chief turned and started walking, and motioned for Johnson to follow.
"By the way Chief, I'm fine. Anyhow, So where ya headed?"
"New VR training ground, pretty realistic they say".
"Oh yeah, I heard all about it, pretty amazing stuff, what I'd do to give that thing a twirl, but hey, I'm just a marine, not someone with special privileges like you".
"I'm being tested by the commanders for combat effectiveness at the time. After what we went through, they want to see if I need some time off".
"Just you?".
"No, they're testing Fred and Linda too".
Sarge had been wondering what the higher ups were gonna do with the other two Spartans. Master Chief was a hero in the eyes of all for his actions on Halo, Fred and Linda had done their part and survived, barely. Fred was suffering from multiple fractures and torn muscles, and Linda was still recovering from being brought back from the dead.
"So what'cha up against Chief?"
"10 ODST's".
Sarge winced at that one. Damn! ODST's? Helljumpers? That's a hell of a test for a beat up team.
"So can I watch or something?"
"I want you to lead the ODSTs"
"Well hot damn Chief, thanks for giving me the opportunity!"
5 minutes later
10.19.2552
Space Platform Cairo
Master Chief
"Okay, now that you're all here, I'll explain what's going on", said the female operator apparently in charge of the testing center. "What this machine is, is something that's going to simulate a battle. I won't bore you with the technical details but it is very realistic. The rules are simple, it's a basic game of capture the flag. Spartans, you will be the attackers, Marines, you'll be on the Defense".
"Care to give us some info on the battlefield?" Fred asked.
"Of course, this battlefield is a recreation of a late 24th century wind power station, number 7 to be exact. It was codenamed Zanzibar". She then pressed a button on a nearby panel which brought up a 3D image of the location. "Marines, this will be the facility you will defend". The image showed the flag at the bottom floor of the inside of the plant, slowly turning there were multiple ways to get in. There appeared to be two small doors from the outside, a staircase in-between the two leading to an upper floor, and across from this was a ramp leading to the 2nd story. Master Chief also made note of the closed gate. Got to be a way to get that open. The Camera moved up to the 2nd story, from there you could see two sniper spots right above the gate, perfect for seeing most of the enemies movements. Going around, there were three entrances on one side of the 2nd story, two of which led to machine gun placements. On another side there was a broken wall. The camera then moved to the outside, where a rotating fan could be seen, as well as two smaller concrete buildings to the side. Nearby there was a seawall with holes and stairs scattered across it. This would be the entrance point for the Spartans.
"Any Questions?"
"Yeah", One of the Marines piped up, "We got a time limit or do actually have to 'kill' these guys?"
"Excellent question marine, there will be a 10 minute time limit to the battle, if neither side can come out victorious, we'll just have find a new squad of hell jumpers and start this again".
Linda took this moment to ask the question that had been nagging at her, "What gear are we being given?" Master Chief and Fred immediately understood just how important that was to Linda, as she was at her best with a Sniper Rifle firmly gripped in her hands.
"Another excellent question Spartan, each of you will be given a M7 with one clip already in the gun and two spares. You will each be given two frag grenades and we have scattered other gear across the battlefield to pick up along the way". Master Chief nodded at this, we'll need to start by scavenging, a Sub Machine Gun isn't gonna do us much good here. Master Chief began to formulate a plan in his head on how to win this game.
"Okay, please follow me into the next room and we'll suit ya'll up". Everyone slowly rose and followed her. Ten minutes later, the game was on.
10.19.2552
"Zanzibar VR training"
Master Chief
The game began, and the first thing Master Chief noticed was that his team had been inserted onto the beach. Looking ahead he saw two ghosts and a M12G1 Warthog in front of him. He was surprised, he wasn't expecting covenant equipment here, and he also wasn't expecting a warthog with the new gauss rifle on it.
The Gauss rifle was basically a cannon. It would use linear acceleration to fire a 2.5 Cm round at hypersonic speeds, Basically tearing through anything it hit. Great for vehicles, not so great for troops. The military had always seemed to have something against making things easy for a Spartan so he assumed he was given this because they had no vehicles of their own.
A timer appeared at the bottom of his HUD, it displayed 9:50. The amount of time left to finish this job. Master Chief looked around and began to scavenge for weapons. Fred waved his arms as the "Get over here" symbol and Master Chief complied. Fred had found two M6C pistols.
"These guns are small enough we can hold one in each hand". Remarked Fred as he showed Master Chief. Master Chief bent over, grabbed one, took a stab at reloading them with one hand while Fred explained his plan.
"Okay Chief, the plan I've got in my head here is that with something like this the ghosts and Warthogs makes us too obvious. We have Linda cover all the entrances with sniper fire if she can find a rifle-". Almost on cue Linda's voice came over the radio, "Hey guys, I found S2 sniper, there's also a few BR55 Battle Rifles here if you want me to bring them down".
"Do it". Responded Master Chief, now finished with an experimental one handed reload.
"Anyway", Fred was now on the radio so Linda could hear, "While Linda snipes we both go in covering each other, and once one of us grabs the flag the other covers while we make a quick getaway with our speedy little green feet".
"Won't work, you know how the brass is, they like to make things hard. The flag's probably gonna be heavy, and by heavy I mean heavy for us, we'll probably be barely able to walk. I have one change to your plan. Once we enter the base, Linda brings the hog around, whoever has the flag gets in, the other gets in the turret and covers as we take the flag back to insertion". Linda walked up at this point, she was carrying a rocket launcher as well as the two battle rifles for Fred and John.
"One question Chief, where do I pull the hog up?" Linda asked, handing Fred and John their battle rifles and a few fresh clips.
"We're gonna open that gate". Said Master Chief, "Get in the hog when we enter the base and drive up when you see the gate open".
"Okay, sounds good, lets go for it". Linda went and jumped into the warthog driver seat, slowly driving it around the wall and keeping it well hidden behind the fan so she could get out and into position on time. Just as she got into position she could see Fred and Master Chief coming through one of the gaps in the seawall. Her timer read six minutes.
Fred and Master Chief looked around the corner, crouched and began to move forward. Fred noticed one marine coming outside to man the machine gun, once he looked downrange, they would be seen, Fred stood and used the fans blades as cover as he ran for one of the fans metal walls. Master Chief saw him get up so he followed and took up position at a wall ten feet away.
Both Spartans looked around the corner, only exposing their shielded heads to see what the marine had done. He had manned the machine gun turret and was now looking for them.
"Linda, can you take the turret out?" Asked Fred
"Negative, I cannot see the turret that's got you pinned from where I am".
"Roger that Linda, Chief, distract him". Said Fred expecting Chief to do something instantly. Master Chief looked at the timer, five minutes, he had to comply with Fred here. Master Chief came out into open view and squeezed off a few rounds from his battle rifle in the direction of the marine. Two three round bursts and the marine opened fire on him. Master Chief began to dance around a little, trying to dodge what he could but his shields were flaring and losing power fast. Fred took this opportunity of distraction to jump out from his corner, get the marines head in the crosshairs off his scope and squeeze a three round burst into his skull. The marine fell back from the gun with one last scream before his virtual character died.
The Spartans could all hear one of the Marines shout "They got Lee!" The marines now knew the Spartans were on the move. Another Marine ran out from the building to man the other machine gun turret. As he ran out Linda fired a rocket at the turret, destroying it and blowing the now stunned marine back inside. Master Chief and Fred both began to charge toward the bottom entrances of the base. Realizing the broken wall 2nd story entrance would be better than the ground floor one they were headed for Master Chief pointed to it with his battle rifle and started heading for it, Fred followed.
Linda watched as Master Chief and Fred approached the building gaping 2nd story hole, decided they could handle themselves and started looking around the other entry points. She saw two men coming out right above the gate, each was holding a sniper rifle. She steadied herself and began to figure out how to get them both without being seen.
Master Chief took the lead, now holding his SMG and Pistol with the battle rifle slung over his back, while Fred followed still holding his Battle Rifle. Master Chief turned the corner to enter the base and saw one marine standing there cradling his SMG at waist level. Master Chief raised his SMG, not wanting to have two guns low on ammo, and held down the trigger for 2 seconds, putting 20 rounds into the marine and spraying a fountain of blood on the floor behind him, the marines now knew where they were, this would be the true test.
Linda watched them go inside, she knew she needed to get in the hog and drive in to follow plan, but those snipers were worrying her too much. She thought she had a shot figured out though and took her chance as soon as she heard gunfire inside. The first shot sailed just over the first marines head, right into the intended target, the wood plank holding the steel cover for the windows the two snipers had come out of. The wood shattered causing the steel to fall back into the window, it hit the marine in the face, stunning him and knocking him into the building. She quickly lowered the rifle an inch and pulled the trigger as the remaining marine began to react, before he could get his eyes in the scope his head exploded from the impact of the sniper round. Smiling, Linda jumped down from her position and got in the warthog, driving to the gated opening as quickly as the car would take her.
Knowing there would be marines at the bottom guarding the flag, Master Chief began to shoot out the windows near the corpse of the marine, raining glass down upon the marines near the flag, as the marines shielded their eyes Master Chief threw one of his frag grenades down there, a second later he heard two screams of agony as two more marines were removed from the game. As the remaining marines down below tried to find cover and recover from the ferocity of the assault, Fred ran out past Master Chief and made a dash for the command console to open the gate. As he did this Master Chief heard two sharp cracks that could only be sniper rounds, much to his surprise, one of the shots resulted in a marine being thrown back inside on his back within perfect range of Master Chief's pistol. Taking the opportunity to easily remove another opponent from the game, Master Chief raised his pistol and put a bullet in between the eyes of the marine as Fred pressed the button to open the gate.
The four remaining marines took cover in the side entrances to the building trying to get out of the two Spartans range of fire. As the two Spartans dropped down to get the flag, two marines, one in each hiding spot, jumped out and began to fire at Master Chief. Master Chief's shields flared up and began to wail around him. Slowly being driven back by the force of the bullets, Master Chief began to walk backwards towards Fred and lifted his SMG at one marine and the pistol at the other. As he began to pull the trigger on both guns his shields began to give him all sorts of warnings. The alarm in his suit blared as round after round hit the shield, it wouldn't last much longer. Luckily for Master Chief though, the marines dropped after just a few hits from each gun.
Fred had lifted the incredibly heavy flag and was now trying to walk away towards the gate. He could hear Master Chief firing controlled bursts from his SMG at the two holes where the marines were cooped up, keeping them hidden. Where the hell is Linda? he thought. On cue with his thoughts Linda drove into the base swinging the hog around so that she wouldn't have to back out.
"Come on! Hurry up!" Shouted Linda while she waved one arm at Fred and Master Chief. Master Chief ran up to the turret seat and jumped up, resting the gun against his shoulders he turned to put the gun between the two entrance points where the two remaining marines were holed up. Fred lifted himself slowly into the side seat and just as he was finishing, one of the marines jumped out right next to Linda. In his hands he cradled a shotgun.
"DIE YA SON OF A BITCH!" He shouted as he put the gun to Linda's shields as she turned to look in horror at man pulling the trigger. A spray of blood hit both the flag and Fred's armor as he looked on in shock at Linda's body slumping into the seat. Good thing she didn't fall onto the accelerator. Master Chief quickly turned the turret to the marine and fired a round at the marine. His chest exploded with a messy gaping hole in it as he collapsed to the ground. Master Chief Jumped down from the turret seat, fired a few more SMG rounds at the hole where the last marine was pent up, stepped carefully over the rocket launcher Linda's corpse had dropped, climbed into the drivers seat and punched it.
10.19.2552
"Zanzibar VR training"
Sergeant Avery Johnson
As soon as he heard the tires of the hog squealing, Johnson jumped out from hiding and began to fire his Battle Rifle at the warthog as he ran. As he neared the gate he saw he that it was hopeless. Looking down in defeat he noticed a present for him on the ground. Linda's dropped rocket launcher. Quickly hefting it up to his shoulders, Johnson put his aim on the hog and waited for the target lock to kick in.
10.19.2552
"Zanzibar VR training"
Master Chief
Master Chief was trying to maneuver the hog as best he could but it was proving difficult with all the extra weight Fred was carrying. He looked briefly over to Fred who was checking behind him to see why the last marine had stopped firing.
"Chief, we got problems, he's got a rocket," Fred said. Master Chief grimaced and tried to swerve the hog to the right, but it was too late, the locked rocket from Johnson's rocket launcher impacted the back of the vehicle. Master Chief felt bones break and a severe burning feeling as he was thrown from the hog. As he hit the ground his screen went black. Ripping off the visor for the game, he was greeted by a black room with a moving floor to keep him in the center while he moved. Master Chief threw the visor to the ground and screamed. For the first time since he was a child, SPARTAN 117, the Master Chief, had lost.