Dontsueme-Productions proudly presents… THE DISCLAIMER! (Be afraid, be very afraid)
One man tried to use something that didn't belong to him.
They found out.
He was sentenced to MANY years in prison for copyright intrusion.
After fifty years he is free… "Stupid disclaimer… mumble…forgot once… mumble… destroy… mumble…
So what do you learn of this?
"That the series/movies/games/books displayed within this fan-fic doesn't belong to me… HONEST!
THE DISCLAIMER will come to a cinema near you this fall.
The Halo of the Hero
Chapter 9 Halo
The damaged form of the Pillar of Autumn was slowly gliding through space, numerous longsword interceptors swarming around it. In the distance a huge ring-like structure was floating in space. On the inside they could see blue seas and green forests. Whatever it was it wasn't made by the Covenant.
"Cortana all I need to know is did we lose them." Captain Keyes was stressed, but didn't let it show, the only evidence was that he was fidgeting with his grandfathers' pipe. He didn't smoke, it would be against every major UNSC-regulation to do so.
"I think we both know the answer to that." Cortana said with a sigh.
"We made a blind jump, how did they…" The stress was now evident in his voice.
"Get here first? The Covenant ships have always been faster. And as for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light-speed my manoeuvring options where limited." Cortana completed the sentence with shrug.
"So we where a running duck, yes?" Captain Keyes asked the AI.
Captain Keyes walked away from the main view screen and looked over the shoulder of one of the ensigns.
"Until we decelerated, no one could have missed the hole we tore in sub-space. They where waiting on the far side of the planet." Cortana answered.
Captain Keyes sighed, he had hoped that the Covenant wouldn't follow once they left Reach.
"So where do we stand?" Captain Keyes asked, he knew that they where in some serious trouble.
"Our fighter are mopping up the last of their recon-ticket now, nothing serious, but I have isolated the approach signature of multiple CCS-class battle groups, make that three capital ships per group, and in about ninety second they will be all over us."
"Well that's it then, bring the ship back to combat alert alpha, I want everyone at their stations." The stress was gone, replaced by determination.
"Everyone sir?" Cortana asked.
"Everyone, and Cortana…"
"Yes?"
"Let's give our old friends a warm welcome." Keyes closed his eyes dangerously.
"I've already begun" Was Cortanas simple answer.
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Hangar bay-7
"All combat personnel please report to your action station. Cortanas calm voice filled the bay from the speakers.
The bay was filled with activity, numerous pelican drop ships where loading up soldiers and vehicles, and then flew into their airlocks.
"This is not I drill, I repeat this is not a drill, thirty seconds until Covenant contact, to all UNSC-combat personnel we are reengaging the enemy."
Sergeant Avery J. Johnson walked towards the group of marines, weapon safety off and fully loaded clip inserted.
"Twenty-second tactical rendezvous with fourteenth platoon at bulkhead Charlie-13.
"You heard the lady, move like you got a purpose!" He yelled in an angry voice.
The thirty or so marines stood in two rows facing each other. Johnson walked in the middle of the two rows.
"Men, we led those dumb bugs out into the middle of nowhere to keep them from getting their FILTHY claws on Earth, but we stumbled on to something their so hot for they will scramble over you eggheads to get it. Well I don't care if its gods own Anti-Sonuva-Bitch-Machine or a giant hula-hoop, we will not let them have it, what we will let them have is a belly full of lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in."
Johnson made a pause in his pep-talk.
"AM I RIGHT MARINES?"
"SIR YES SIR" Came the vicious yell from the marines.
"Hmm… Damn right I am, now move along, DOUBLE TIME!"
The marines nodded and then took off, running towards the pelicans.
"Warning external and internal contact is imminent." Cortanas voice was calm and collected as always.
"For all you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up close… this is going to be your lucky day."
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Alpha clearance Cortana to Cryo-crew Unseal the hushed casket
"Sir?" Ensign Harris asked as he saw the message.
The commanding officer looked over the ensigns' shoulder and read the message.
"Alright let's thaw him up." He said and began to type on a key board.
"Low level systems online, cracking the case in thirty seconds."
The four security seals on the cryo-tube opened and an audible hiss was heard as the pressure in the tube and in the bay equalised.
"He is hot, health monitors are green, no freezer-burns."
A thick spray of mist was shot out of the tube as it opened, making it impossible to see the armoured body of the last Spartan-II.
An armoured gauntlet came out of the mist, followed closely be the entire 7,5 feet, 680 kilo Spartan-II.
"Cryo-2, this is Captain Keyes, send the Master Chief to the bridge immediately"
"Better hurry, the skipper seems choppy."
-----------------------
A group of three marines was guarding the entrance to the bridge, their rifles trained on him as he entered their line of sight. They stared in awe for a couple of seconds, before realising that they were standing in the way of him. They quickly parted, they didn't want to piss of a Spartan.
"Master Chief, the Captain is waiting for you sir."
He only nodded, walking down the corridor and into the bridge.
He could se as the bridge crew took a quick look at him before returning to their work. UNSC-propaganda had elevated the Spartans to godlike status, telling about their 100% mission success.
He walked up to the main screen where he saw Captain Keyes survey the battle. Out the windows he could see a ring-shaped construct floating around.
"Captain Keyes" He said with a deep, emotionless voice.
"Good to see you Master Chief, things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance.
"Three dozen superior Covenant battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. With those odds I am content with three… make that four kills. Sleep well?" Cortana was calm, and you could hear the pride in her voice.
"No thanks to your driving, yes" He said with a hint of humour that only the AI detected.
"So you did miss me?" She said with a smirk.
He didn't get the time to answer because an explosion rocked the ship. Captain Keyes grabbed onto the main screen for support.
"Report!" He yelled as he stood back up.
"It must have been one of their boarding parties, my guess is an anti-matter charge." Cortana said, the calm in her voice gone.
The fire control officer turned towards Cortanas hologram.
"Maam, fire control for the main cannon is offline."
A frown appeared on her face.
"Sir the cannon was my last defensive option."
Keyes looked out on the ring, and sighed.
"All right, I am initiating Cole protocol, Article Two. We are abandoning the Autumn. That means you too Cortana."
"While you do what, go down with the ship?" Cortana shot back.
Keyes turned towards the window and pointed at the ring.
"In a manner of speaking. The object we found I am, I am going to try and land the Autumn on it.
"With all due respect, this war has enough dead heroes."
Keyes turned towards Cortana.
"I appreciate your concern Cortana but it's not up to me. The protocol is clear. The destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable. That means you are abandoning the Autumn. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones and upload them to my neural lace."
The Ai was silent for three seconds.
"Aye aye sir."
"Which is where you come in Chief. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her they will learn everything, force deployments, weapons research…"
Keyes made a pause.
"…Earth."
"I understand" He said simply.
Keyes looked at Cortana.
"Are you ready?"
Cortana looked around on the bridge. She didn't like the fact that she was leaving the Autumn, because it was her physical body. She sighed.
"Yank me."
Keyes nodded and pressed a couple of controls. Cortanas hologram disappeared, and a small data-disk ejected from the panel. Keyes handed the disk to Ranma.
"Good luck Master Chief."
Ranma picked up Cortanas disk and placed it in the slot on the back of his neck. He felt a quick stab of pain in his head and then a cold liquid feeling as if someone had dumped a glass of cold water in his head.
He could feel as the liquid coldness began to spread out in head. Soon he could hear Cortana speak, but it came from inside his mind.
"Hmm… Your inner architecture isn't that much different from the Autumns.
"Don't get any funny ideas." Ranma said as he turned and left the bridge.
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"This is the Captain speaking, all hands abandon ship. Will all personnel please proceed to nearest lifeboat. Keyes out."
"You heard the man, pull back your lazy asses." Johnson yelled as he fired of another burst towards the Covenant. He could hear the battle cry of an elite.
Johnson calmly pulled out the pin of a M9-HE-DP grenade. He rolled it under the shield of a Jackal and took great joy in seeing it, the Jackal and the furious elite explode.
He took of in a sprint towards the lifeboats, plasma searing through the air.
He dove into the small bumblebee lifeboat and could hear the hiss as the airlock closed. He quickly strapped himself in a seat and half a second later the pod ejected from the ship at high speed. The small pod took of towards the huge ring like structure.
"What is it sarge?" A marine said and pointed at it.
Johnson took a good look at ring. He wasn't a tech-goon, but one thing he could tell, it wasn't Covenant. Whatever it was, the Covenant seemed to guard it like hawks.
"Trouble." He said simply and ejected the almost empty clip and injected a new.
An audible Ka-Ching was heard as a cartridge was loaded into the barrel.
"Big trouble."
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"There is one last lifeboat, quickly get aboard before it launches." Cortana said in worry.
He took off towards the lifeboat, letting lose on full auto at the Covenant that threatened to enter the craft. He could see a marine run and fall as an explosion rocked the ship. He was lying on the deck, too scared to get up.
"Now would be a very good time to leave." Cortana almost screamed.
Holding the rifle in one hand and shooting at the Covenant, he grabbed the fallen marine by the belt, lifted him up and threw him into the pod. He backed into the pod, still shooting.
"Punch it" He said as his final clip went dry.
"Aye aye sir." The pilot said as she started the engines.
The hatch closed and a couple of flames were seen as the thrusters went into overdrive. Ranma stood, one hand holding onto a steal pipe.
"Sure you don't rather take a seat?" Cortana said a little worried.
"We will be fine." Ranma said emotionless as ever, doing nothing to ease the AI fears.
The pilot triggered the launch sequence, and the pod blasted away from the cruiser, flying on column of fire. The boat flew past the Autumn, plasma blasts and pulse lasers slammed into the hull of the cruiser.
"We are disengaged, going for minimum sight distance.
The boat fell away from the Autumn, heading for the ring.
"The Autumn!" Came a terrified yell from one of the marines.
Ranma looked back and could see the huge ship speed up and fly past them.
"I knew it, the Autumn she's accelerating. Keyes is going in manual."
"We can't do anything about it now Cortana." Ranma said with the same emotionless voice.
He could see as the Autumn began to enter the atmosphere, the underside of the hull glowing red. Soon it disappeared from sight, the only thing seen was the huge ringworld
"What the hell is that thing lieutenant?" A marine asked as he pointed to the ring.
"Hell if I know, but we are landing on it." The pilot said.
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Noselee Isnae stood in a shadow on the human-bridge, his active camouflage making him completely invisible.
He had been ordered by the mighty prophets to work as a "Gods Eye", a task he didn't like.
They where supposed to monitor a battle without interfering, trying to gain intelligence from the primitive human.
He had forfeited the chance of killing over a dozen of those lesser beings, losing much honour, by following the will of the prophets. But they told him he had their blessings and that he would gain much honour so he didn't question their commands.
He wished he could complete his mission so he could return to his battle brothers. His mission was to find either the senior members of the crew or their AI.
That inferior race had been successful in hiding their data from their blessed AI, so finding the humans pathetic AI was of the utter importance.
They would then be able to find the humans home world "errt" and destroy the source of those vermin. If he found the location of their AI he would gain much honour, maybe even so to be elevated to the status of "battle master".
He looked as a human he had identified as their ship master, a man named "Keez" said something in their guttural language. His armours translator cracked to life and talked in the blessed voice of the prophets.
"Begin to land the vessel on the ring world."
"Yes shipmaster."
Noselee felt the anger boil up within him. How dare the lowly vermin defile the sacred grounds with their unclean machinery. He levelled his plasma rifle and pointed it towards one of the many humans littering the place. He would kill the crew and capture the ship master, and in the process gain much honour.
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"Entering ring atmosphere in five!" The pilot yelled as small flames began to appear on the window.
"We are going to make it sir? I don't wanna die out here." A scared marine said as he held his hands tight over the straps on his seat.
Ranma just patted the man on the shoulder, intending to ease his fears.
The small flames turned into a burning inferno.
"If I still had fingers they would be crossed!" Cortana said, and Ranma got the impression she closed her eyes or the AI version of eyes.
"Damn I blew to early, WE ARE COMING IN TO FAST." The pilot yelled the last part as she tried to get the craft to slow down.
"PREPARE FOR IMPACT!" The pilot said and covered her face with her hands.
He could feel as the craft hit the ground and then everything went black.
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"Sergeant we have incoming!" Private Mendoza yelled and opened fire. Numerous plasma bolts flew through the air, but miraculously none hit a marine.
"Pull back into the compound." Johnson said and opened fire on a pack of grunts sticking their head up from behind a rock.
The pod had crashed in a valley, and as soon as they stepped foot outside the emergency pod Covenant dropships had appeared. The purple crafts had unloaded a good dozen or so troops each.
They had been badly outnumbered so they began to run, and so they had done for the last three hours, until they came across some strange tower. Everyone was exhausted, beyond imagination, but if the slowed down the Covenant would surely catch up.
Johnson was just glad they didn't have any banshees after them or this run would have been over a long time ago.
He flung a grenade over his shoulder, in hope of slowing down the Covenant. He stopped as he came near the structure, the building was perhaps 20 feet tall, and the only way up on the top was with a staircase on the outside of the building.
"PULL BACK" he yelled as he opened fire towards an elite. The thing roared and charged, intending to end his life with a swift blow with the plasma rifle.
Johnson backed away, still shooting against the alien, but the bullets was just absorbed by the shields. His rifle went dry, and he dropped it and reached for his pistol.
The alien tried to club him with his rifle, but the years of experience made him throw himself backwards. The alien missed only with an inch. The alien stepped back and was about to fire his plasma rifle when his head exploded in a purple cloud. Johnson, still lying on the ground, could see as a Spartan-II emerged from some bushes. In his hands a S2AM Sniper rifle.
The Spartan fired once again, and Johnson could see as another elite dropped.
Another round and this time a jackal bit the grass.
The final round in the clip was fired on an elite that was about to throw an ignited plasma grenade at a couple of marines. Well he didn't get the chance, he dropped with the ignited plasma grenade still in his claw. It exploded and incinerated two grunts that go to close.
Ranma dropped the sniper rifle and picked up a MA5B assault rifle from a dead marine.
By now the UNSC-personnel had managed to get atop the building, providing covering fire from their elevated position.
Two elites shifted their aim from the humans defending the building towards the Master Chief.
Ranma tried to avoid so many of the plasma blasts as possible, seeming to flow around them while shooting with his newly acquired MA5B-assualt rifle.
Together with the fire coming from the building the two elites, and the half dozen grunts following them, were dealt with quite effectively.
Sergeant Johnson walked over to the Ranma.
"Thanks for your help Chief, until you showed up I thought we where cocked."
Ranma didn't get time to reply because his radio crackled to life.
"This is pelican Echo-Four-Nineteen, does anyone hear me? Any UNSC-personnel please respond."
"Is that you Foehammer? This is the fourteenth-platoon, or what left of it." Johnson said into his microphone.
"Good to hear from you fourteenth, I am inbound."
Ranma could hear the whining of engines, but once they passed over there heads they could see that it wasn't a pelican. It was three bumblebee escape pods.
"Warning Chief, I have multiply Covenant dropships trailing the pods. When they land the Covenant will be right on top of them."
Another whining of engines that was stronger alerted them to the arrival of E-419.
"Foehammer we need you to disengage your warthog. The Chief and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers.
"I copy that"
Johnson looked as the armoured craft hovered in the air before him. He looked down, in his hands where the dog-tags of 18 soldiers that hadn't made it. They where 26 six when they had left the Autumn.
Johnson could see as the Chief climbed aboard the jeep and started up the engine. He handed the pouch with the dog-tags to an ensign that was climbing aboard the pelican.
He ejected the almost empty clip in his rifle and then injected a new one. He ran up to the jeep as it was beginning to roll away and jumped into the back, manning the M41-LAAG.
"Thanks for the help sergeant." Cortana said over the comm-channel.
"Hey, you pulled my ass out of the fire, I intend to pay you back." He said as he scanned the surrounding area for hostiles.
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"That's the last of them. Good work marines." Cortanas voice came once again over the comm.-channels.
Sergeant Johnson released the trigger on the M41-LAAG, but continued to scan the area after potential hostiles.
"This is E-419, I hear you and I am on my way."
Ranma could see as the rest of the marines visibly relaxed, but he still kept his sharp. The end of a mission was probably the most dangerous, it was when you became relaxed and sloppy, and if the Covenant attacked now the marines wouldn't know what hit them.
During his time in the ODST, he had seen as an elite had snuck upon a landing pelican dropship, and had thrown in a plasma grenade that killed everyone in it. That happened just because the marines didn't pay attention.
"Sir?" Cortana said in his mind.
He cut all external communication.
"Yes Cortana." Ranma said as he surveyed the area on last time before jumping into the waiting pelican.
"I have located the Pillar of Autumns crash site, it crashed eight-hundred kilometres up-spin."
"Understood." Ranma said.
"Wait incoming Covenant transmission… Can't believe those Covenant fools, they aren't using any encryption."
Ranma looked out of the pelicans rear hatch, making sure there weren't any Covenant snipers around.
"The Covenant has located it and… they captured Captain Keyes." Cortana said a little worried.
Ranma didn't say anything, without a high ranking officer there would be considerable problems in the resistance against the Covenant.
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"The Covenant has captured Captain Keyes and brought him to their cruiser the Truth and Reconciliation. The ship was damaged during the fight above the ring and it is holding position above a desert plateau." Cortana said as she briefed the marines on their coming mission.
Ranma just sat silent and thought back. After the crash he had found out he was the only survivor, and numerous Covenant dropships where inbound. He had managed to avoid the patrols until he had stumbled over a squad of marines defending against some Covenant.
After he helped the marines he had fought for over twelve hours to get to the other emergency pods. After he got back to HQ he had gotten three hours of rest before they send him out on this mission.
"So how are we getting inside the ship? Unless they had issued us rifles with wings I think that will become a problem."
"There is a gravity lift that will lead us to the middle of the ship." Cortana said.
--------------------------------
Ranma looked over the cliff. It wasn't hard to spot the gravity lift, a ten meter metal disk that emitted a purple beam up to the Covenant cruiser hovering two-hundred metres into the air kind of gave it away.
Surrounding the lift was a three shade plasma guns, and a good thirty Covenant. He looked back on the marines, they were 12 left from the 20 that had landed.
"Sergeant tell your men to spread out and aim for the turrets, I will take care of the elites."
The lift was located in a small valley a hundred metres across, to the north there was a cliff with a 40 meter drop, both the west and the east side was a step wall that went together and formed a small path to the south. Two of the turrets were located at the small entrance to the south and the other was overlooking the small camp from the north.
They had thought that if an attack would come, it would come from the easy accessible path, not from the hard climbed mountain walls.
Ranma moved into a position so he could fire. The S2AM sniper rifle was one of the few weapons, except explosives, that could take out a shielded elite with one round. The rifle was from the beginning meant to take out lightly armoured vehicles, but was soon adopted as sniper rifle by the marines. Being almost double the length of the MA5B assault rifle it looked more like a small cannon then anything else.
Right now Ranma wished he had a BIG cannon for his disposal.
He placed the cross slightly over the eye of a red armoured elite, the highest ranking Covenant present.
Even trough the Mjolnir armour he could feel the recoil from the weapon. The head of the elite exploded in blue cloud of gore, the body falling limply to the sandy ground.
After half a second he could hear the rattle of automatic weapons firing, tearing apart all grunts near the turrets. The sustained fire made one of the turrets explode in a purple plasma ball.
He shifted his aim, blowing of the head of another elite.
The Covenant had begun to shoot blindly around, more often then not killing their own soldiers.
He fired another round, but this one was sloppy compared to the rest, the elite falling to the ground clutching his stomach.
His last round he aimed at a jackal, which had fired dangerously close to some of the marines positions.
Ranma slammed a new clip into his rifle, aiming at one of the last elites. Half a second later the beheaded elite fell to the sandy ground, a pool of blue blood forming around the corpse.
Ranma scanned the area for enemies, his motion tracker was clear but that didn't mean there weren't any more enemies.
Making sure it was clear, Ranma jumped the ten metres down and despite the heavy armour landed gracefully.
The marines used ropes to make it down. They were nine now, three had died during the brief fire-fight. The soldiers formed a circle around the lift, making sure the Covenant didn't drop some nasty surprises.
"This is Cortana, we have captured the lift and request reinforcements."
"I copy that Cortana, Foehammer out."
Three minutes later the pelican arrived unloaded the ten marine's reinforcement, and the other marines had time to refill on ammunition.
They were going into close quarter's battle so Ranma changed his sniper rifle to a MA5B assault rifle.
The marines walked into the beam and stood in a full circle, weapons pointing outwards, they prepared to fight the first thing they did when arriving.
Ranma could see as one of the marines began to hover a couple of inches over the ground, then another and another. They shot upwards with high speed, heading towards the covenant cruiser.
"Yahoo!" Was the enthusiastic yell from one of the marines.
----------------------
Ranma scanned the area, but didn't find anything, which bothered him. Why didn't the Covenant have any personnel guarding the bay?
"Looks like no ones home." Said a marine.
One of the bay doors opened. Everyone turned around, but no Covenant was in sight. Something moved at the field of his view. He turned around but couldn't see anything.
"Something isn't right, where the hell is the Covenant?" A marine said.
Everyone could feel it, the mood was tense. The marines were a little freaked out, no Covenant inside a Covenant cruiser? Just the thought was absurd.
Yet again something moved outside his view, but this time he didn't hesitate. The rattle of his assault rifle filled the air and the marines lifted their rifles and aimed towards Ranma.
"Why the hell did you sh…"
A loud clung was heard as something hit the floor, a second later a dead elite in sky-blue armour materialized on the floor.
"Heads up, we have assassins in here. Form a circle NOW!" The last word was barked out by Ranma, as he quickly scanned the area.
Assassins were probably the most feared Covenant ground troop. Using a stealth generator instead of the standard shield they infiltrated the UNSC-positions and silently killed the soldiers. The few soldiers that had lived through an attack by assassins often said that they rather pick a fight with a pissed off hunter than with an assassin, them you could at least see.
"No ones home my ass. Just keep your mouth shut next time Christiansen."
"Noted for future reference sir." The marine in question said.
Ranma didn't care about the soldiers antics, he was concentrating on finding the other assassins, they NEVER worked alone.
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Nosolee Isnae looked in horror on what used to be the blessed eye squad. Pools off blue and purple blood was scattered everywhere, the corpses of his fellow soldiers were strewn around the gravity lift. Over thirty Covenant dead and no human corpses in sight.
He roared in rage at the human vermin. He had severely underestimated their strength. He walked towards the gravity lift, closely followed by the purity of soul squad and the purity of mind squad. He would find and end those lower life-forms existence.
The gravity lift bay wasn't much better, the corpses of four assassins littered the floor. Once again there were no human corpses. He walked down numerous corridors, following the trail of blood and bodies. As he wandered deeper into the ship his anger was replaced with sorrow for his fallen brethren. They had found 8 human bodies, but the sheer amount of dead Covenant was amazing. The humans had killed at least ten Covenant soldiers for every human that had died.
The humans shouldn't… COULDN'T fight this good. His mind began to fill with doubts, how could this happen, the prophets had blessed them. The doors to the hangar bay opened…
--------------------------------------------
Ranma sidestepped the angry hunter, slamming the muzzle of the rifle into the hunter's weak spot on the backside of their armour. A three round burst silenced the giant, but its brood mate roared in anger and charged up its massive fuel-rod gun. He tried to dodge but the blast caught up with him, sending him to the floor.
His shield was almost empty, and they wouldn't get time to recharge before the hunter fired again. The hunter didn't shoot, but instead walked up and pressed his body against the bulkhead. Both arms were pressing against the hunter who tried to crush him. He could feel as the bulkhead began to sink in, the immense pressure from the hunter pushing his armoured body into it. Ranma didn't manage to get a good grip on the hunter so he tried to reach his pistol lying on the floor next to him, his right hand still trying to get the alien off him.
He touched the pistol with his fingers but didn't get close enough to grab it. The beast was now strangling him and Ranma vision began to fade. With his last bit of strength he managed to grab the pistol and press it inside the beast's helm. A suppressed thud,thud,thud was heard as he fired the pistol point blank into the aliens forehead.
The alien fell backwards, orange blood spilling from the wound.
He stood up and searched for his rifle, and he found it a second later.
Half of the rifle was gone, melted away and the edge was still glowing red. He threw it away and picked up the nearest weapon, a Covenant plasma rifle. He looked around and could see a couple of grunts run around a corner. Half a second later rifles firing was heard. Three marines came around and scanned the area and when they spotted the Chief they walked over to him.
"How many casualties?" Ranma said.
"We are the last sir" The marine said, her nametag identified her as Samantha J. Denton, sorrow was evident in his voice but also determination.
Ranma nodded and made a gesture for them to follow him. He pushed open a damaged door and walked inside, away from the hangar bay.
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The bay was covered in blood, at least a hundred Covenant lay around, and only a few humans. The walls were covered in blue purple blood and plasma scoring. On some places the bodies of the Covenant was lying in piles, the floor was a carpet of corpses. The blood was flowing out off the open hangar doors. He walked around in the bay without an aim. Now the sorrow was replaced with despair, the humans hadn't fought like this before. How could this be?
His anger returned, a loud battle cry left his throat. I didn't matter how the humans did it, the important was to avenge his fallen brethren.
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A loud scream was heard as the final elite dropped from the combined fire of three marines and a Spartan. He scanned the area and made sure it was empty, and then walked up to the panel standing in the centre of the room. With the help of Cortana he managed to disable the fields surrounding the prison cells. A good fifty marines and navy personnel stumbled out of their cells, some marines picking up weapons from dead Covenant.
Ranma walked up to the cell where Keyes was lying. He helped the Captain to stand and then saluted him.
"Coming here was reckless." Keyes said his voice harsh. "Thanks" he continued and his face broke into a smile.
"Any time, sir" Ranma said as emotionless as ever.
"Gentlemen lets get out of here and signal for a ride." Cortana said.
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Cortana and Keyes were holding a quick council of war.
"While the Covenant had us locked up in here I heard them talk about the ringworld… and its destructive capabilities." Keyes said.
"One moment sir. I am accessing the Covenant … If I am interpreting this correctly, the Covenant believe that Halo is some kind of weapon with vast unimaginable power" Cortana said
"Yes, the aliens who interrogated me kept saying that whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe" Keyes said with a growl.
"Now I see. I intercepted a number of messages about a Covenant search-team scouting for a control room. I thought they searched for the bridge of a cruiser damaged in the fight above, but the must be looking for Halos control room." Cortana said thoughtfully.
"That's bad news. If Halo is a weapon, and the Covenant gain control over it, they will use it against us. Who knows what power that will give them?" Keyes said a little stressed.
"Chief, Cortana, I have a new mission for you, we will need to beat the Covenant to the control room."
"No offence sir, but it might be a good idea to finish this mission first before we start another."
Keyes offered a tired grin.
"Good point Chief. Marines lets move!"
They took of towards the hangar bay, meeting only minor resistance.
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"Major, we have incoming Covenant dropship." The tech manning the radar said.
"How many?" Major Alex "Silver" Silvia asked.
"One maam, but… it is escorted by a pelican, identified as E-419." The tech looked at the radar again to be sure.
"Hail them." She said to the comm.-officer.
"This is alpha base to pelican Echo-Four-Nineteen, do you copy?"
"I hear you loud and clear. Got good news we have the Captain, he is in the other dropship."
"In the Covenant?" The tech asked.
"Yes, we didn't have enough room for everyone, so the Captain "borrowed" it from the Covenant."
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Major Silvia looked as the dropship took ground, the back hatch opening and a Spartan climbing out, followed by a group of armed marines. Alpha base was located in a forerunner structure on the top a butte. During the first three hours after the evacuation of the ship a group of sixty ODST had taken the butte from the Covenant, establishing a command post for the UNSC-forces.
Both human and Covenant supply crates filled the area. Eight shade plasma guns taken from the Covenant guarded the perimeter, and ten captured banshee rapid attack ships were ready to take of on a minutes notice. Four pelican dropships was standing and waiting for the time they would be needed, and another five was up in the air, picking up supplies from the Pillar of Autumns wreck. All in all they would be able to put up a good fight if the Covenant tried to take the base back.
The hatch to the Covenant dropship opened and a rag-tag assortment of UNSC personnel jumped out, engineers, kitchen personnel, regular marines and even a few ODST.
Last but no least the Captain jumped out. His clothes were dirty and torn, a tendril of dried blood ran down his left cheek, but all in all he seemed fine.
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The Master Chief, Keyes and Major Silvia were inside the forerunner building, the Captain and Major sitting while Ranma was silently standing hands behind his back.
"When we where on the cruiser I monitored some of the Covenants communications. A Covenant digging team has found some interesting structures on an island 1500 kilometres down spin. They talked about some kind of silent cartographer, my guess is that it is map leading to the control room. Numerous Covenant dropships was on route to reinforce the small digging team, they really don't us to find the control room. Later another digging team was on route towards some swamp lands 800 kilometres up spin, looking for a weapons case. The nature of the weapon is unknown to me." Cortana said.
Captain Keyes looked up from were he was sitting.
"Chief we can't let the Covenant get the control room, we will send you in with a strike team to get the silent cartographer."
"Yes sir." Ranma answered emotionless as ever.
"I will take a group of marines and check out the other digging site." Keyes continued and then looked at Silvia.
"What will I do, sir?" She asked and looked at Keyes.
"You will stay here and keep your marines on alert, once the Chief finds the location of the control room you will dust off and capture it."
"Yes sir."
"Now move out marines." Keyes said.
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Ranma could see as the other pelican trailed closely behind. They flew over the crystal-clear ocean, an ocean that reminded him of the ones back home on Reach. He quickly killed that train of thought, he couldn't afford to become emotional and unfocused during a mission.
"The Covenant are holding the beach, the DZ is going to be hot!" He could hear the pilot say over the speakers.
Ranma was the first to leave the pelican, he could feel as his feet sunk down in the sand. He lobbed a grenade at a pack of grunts and then opened fire on an elite. Keeping a steady aim he could hear as his grenade exploded and could see three grunts fly through the air. Some plasma hit around him, turning the sand into glass.
The fire-fight on the beach was short, the Covenant had been too surprised to form an effective defence, and the UNSC-casualties were small.
"This is Foehammer, I am bringing in a warthog." Came the voice over the comm. channels.
"Didn't know you made house calls Foehammer." A sergeant said jokingly.
"You know our motto, we deliver." She said as she appeared in the distance.
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Cathy "Foehammer" Rawley made a quick fly-by around the island, trying to see what kind of resistance the marines could expect.
"This is Foehammer, I have multiply hunters and a good lot of elites as well, surrounding a structure to your north. Cant find any other source of access to the interior of the buildings."
"I copy that Foehammer." Came the sergeant's voice again.
Rawley made a U-turn and headed back towards the marines position, hovering five metres over the ground. Down below she could see twenty or so marines and one figure that towered over the rest with a full head. The figure was clad in olive-green armour with black under-layer, his face concealed by a golden visor.
Rawley pressed the release button on the magnets that held the warthog attached to the pelican.
"See you later Foehammer." The sergeant said.
"Rodger that."
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Ranma shouldered the M19 SSM Rocket Launcher, and aimed it at a hunter. To his side three other marines did the same, everyone aiming at a different hunter.
A loud swoosh announced the humans presence. The rockets slammed into the hunters, two died immediately but the two others just staggered back as the rockets hit them. The launchers cycled the firing tube and a new rocket was ready. This time two rockets hit each hunter, killing time. Ranma dropped his launcher and picked up his assault rifle and began to open fire on the remaining.
Around him another twenty marines did the same, the sheer amount of bullets mowing down the Covenant squads.
Five minutes later every last Covenant was dead, the human losses being only four.
"First team guard the entrance, second team follow me." Ranma said as he ejected the almost empty clip and inserted a new one.
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Rawley made another fly-by, seeing the marines dragging some Covenant supply crates and building a hastily defence perimeter.
Behind her the Bravo-twenty-two and Charlie-zero-eleven where following her in a standard V-formation.
Flying over the beach again she could see as a group of Covenant began to make there way towards the newly conquered building.
"Heads up everyone, Covenant are inbound."
"Roger that Foehammer."
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Major Alex Silver ran over towards the small hut where they had placed the radar equipment. Inside five techs were standing around a screen.
"What happened, why did you raise the alarm?" She asked but she already knew the answer.
"We have seven Covenant dropships inbound from our south. They are heading straight towards us."
Silvia cursed, they expected to pull out towards the control room in less then three hours, and now they would be preoccupied by this. At least all marines were in their combat gear and armed and ready.
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Ranma sidestepped the charge of the elite and slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of the aliens head. The room was filled with a wet snap as the neck of the alien bent into an un-natural angle.
"Chief the holo-panel to your right, that's the cartographer. Give me a second to interact with the system and I will give you the location of the control room." Cortana said.
The panel flashed a second and then went still again.
"Done, now let's get out of here."
Ranma looked like around, there was only four marines left of the eight he had entered with, and only one was in fighting condition.
Getting everyone out fast would become a problem.
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"Sergeant we have wounded down here, can you offer assistance?" Came Chiefs voice over the comm.
"Negative on that sir, we have Covenant here, lot of them. Cant hold them of much longer" Sergeant Harris answered as he fired another round into a grunt.
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"Chief tell the marines to evacuate now, I have a plan."
"Hope you know what you are doing." Ranma said and helped a wounded marine to his feet.
They where over five hundred metres below the island, the Cartographer was located at the bottom of the building.
"Sergeant, tell your men to pull back to the pelicans." Ranma said over the comm.
"But sir…"
"Just do it." Ranma really hoped that Cortana knew what she was doing.
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Rawley was about to follow the two other pelicans to pick up the marines when her comm. crackled to life.
"Foehammer, this is Cortana, proceed to these coordinates." She heard Cortana say.
Half a second later her screen pepped and the coordinates appeared. Her eyes bugged out, Cortana couldn't be serious.
"Cortana these coordinates are underground!"
"I know, Halo has a massive underground tunnel system going through the entire ring. I have hacked into the system control and opened the hatch."
She flew over the island and could see as a massive, round hatch in the ground opened.
"Just hope you know what you are talking about, because this is one pelican that belongs above ground."
"See it this way Foehammer, the last thing the Covenant would suspect would be an aerial attack… from underground."
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The fight for alpha base had been going on for over eighteen hours. The first wave had been successfully blasted out of the sky with the shade guns. The Covenant had then deployed ground troops and tried to take the base by foot.
They had managed to fight off the first wave without a problem. The second wave had managed to breach the perimeter, but the UNSC-forces had managed to stop the Covenants advance. The two forces were soon involved in a trench war, where the UNSC seemed to win with only a small margin.
They would need reinforcements to take alpha base back.
This just wasn't her day Major Alex Silvia thought as she blew apart a grunt with a well aimed burst.
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Ranma jumped out of the pelican raising his rifle and scanning for enemies.
"Chief I will return to alpha base with the wounded. I will be back as soon as possible.
"I copy that."
He could see as E-419 took off and flew away.
He shock his head to clear it and the turned around. He was in a huge underground chamber and if Cortana was right the control room would be 18 clicks to the south. He walked up to the only exit and then fell into a fast jog towards the control room.
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"This is fire team Zulu, we need immediate assistance from any UNSC-personnel!" The comm. crackled to life as he left the huge underground tunnel network.
"This is strange, there shouldn't be any marine forces in this area." Cortana said over his internal comm.
"This is Master Chief-117, I am on my way."
"Chief? Thank god you're here, we haven't heard anything from anyone since we left the Autumn." The voice over the comm. sounded relieved.
The marines had put up positions around the wreck of a downed pelican, foxholes and trenches surrounding the entire area. Over to the north of the canyon a large group of dead Covenant was seen.
A marine wearing the cap of a sergeant looked out from his foxhole. After making sure it wasn't a Covenant he climbed out and walked over to him. The marine saluted him.
"The Covenant has had us pinned down here and we haven't been able to get in contact with anyone. Until you showed up Chief I thought we where the only survivors from the Autumn."
Twenty or so marines had left their foxholes and walked over to great the Chief, after being stuck here for days the armoured Spartan was a gift from the heavens.
"We will need to move now sergeant, twelve clicks south there is an important installation and from there we can call in an evac."
"You heard him men, lets move!" The sergeant yelled as he turned around towards the marines.
"Sir yes sir!" Came the enthusiastic yell from the marines. Finally they could get out off this hellhole.
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"Chief, that was the last Covenant. They didn't get farther then this." Cortana said as they opened the third of the massive blast doors."
"What the hell is this place, sir?" One of the marines asked as the doors began to open.
"It's the rings control room." Cortana answered simply.
The final door opened slowly. The chamber was huge, at least four hundred metres from floor to ceiling. A small walkway let into the middle of the chamber where a hologram of the ring floated in the air. The hologram was at least a hundred metres in diameter.
"That terminal… try there." Cortana said.
He reached out and touched the panel, and he could feel the cold presence in the back of his head disappear.
"Cortana, are you okay?" Ranma asked as he looked on the AI holographic body.
"Never been better. You can't imagine the wealth of information. So much, so fast. It's glorious." She said with an excited voice.
"So, what sort of weapon is it?" Ranma asked
"What are you talking about?" Cortana asked surprised.
"Let's stay focused. Halo. How do we use it against the Covenant?" Ranma asked.
The image of Cortana frowned.
"The ring isn't a cudgel you barbarian, its something else. Something much more important. The Covenant were right, this ring…" Cortana paused, and her eyes moved back and forth like she was reading a book.
"Forerunner. Give me a moment to access" Cortana said.
"The Forerunner built this place, what they called a fortress, in order to…"
Ranma had never heard the AI talk like that before, didn't like being referred to as "barbarian" and was about to cut her down in size a when she spoke again.
Plainly alarmed, her voice had a hesitant quality.
"No that can't be… Oh, those Covenant fools, they must have known, there must have been signs."
"Slow down, you're losing me." Ranma said to the AI.
Her eyes widened in horror.
"The Covenant found something, buried in this ring, something horrible. And now they are afraid.
"Something buried?" Ranma asked the AI.
Cortana looked over Ranma, like she was looking at something in the distance.
"Captain… We got to stop the Captain. The weapons case he's looking for, it's not really…. We can't let him get inside!" Her voice was hysteric.
"I don't understand." Ranma said again calmly.
"There is no time. I have to remain here. Go out, find Keyes, and stop him before it's too late!
Ranma nodded and then took off toward the exit.
He meet the marines standing guard and the yelled toward them.
"Get to the pelican ASAP!"
The nodded and began to follow him. The meet up with the rest of the marines outside and was surprised at the urgency in the Spartans voice.
Thirty seconds later and everyone was inside the E-419 and had and was heading towards the Captains last location.
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Authors Notes:
Finally done with this chapter.
Q: Wasn't there moresurvivors?
A: No, the other two took another pelican and never made it back to the Autumn.
Q: Ground troops?
A: The reason the Covenant sent in ground troops was to destroy the planetary reactor powering the Super MACs. Without the MACs Reach would be glassed within minutes.
Xerxez signing off
