Chapter 5: The Lost Hope
"Master Chief, the captain wants you on the bride A.S.A.P!" a marine shouted over the clattering of gunfire on the Pillar of Autumn. It was an old Halcyon class cruiser the smallest of its kind but it still packed a punch. With titanium plating of 50 inches it was a very stable ship. It was a couple of days since the fall of Reach and they had made a blind jump to escape.
"Better follow me!" he continued running through a door. Calmly, Master Chief followed him looking at the wounded marines moaning as medics attended them. He wore a pretty large green suit with a helmet which prevented no one to see his face. He followed the marine silently his ears seeming deaf to the screams of pain around him.
"He's over there sir!" the marine shouted in military form. Master Chief jogged across the room towards Captain Jacob Keyes.
"Nice to see you Master Chief," he said shaking Master Chief's bigger and armored hand.
"Cortana tried everything she knew but we didn't have a chance anyway," Jacob indicated to a holographic figure which was the AI of the Pillar of Autumn. BOOM! A huge explosion rocked the ship dangerously.
"Damage report!" Keyes ordered as he held on to the metal railing on the ship.
"Our last MAC cannon has been blown off. It was our last defensive option, sir," Cortana notified the captain.
"I'm initiating Cole Protocol 2. We're abandoning ship. That means you Cortana," Keyes demanded as he spoke into the microphone as he informed the crew of the Pillar of Autumn.
"Master Chief, I'm relying on you to get Cortana off this ship," Captain Keyes told Master Chief grimly as Cortana deleted the precious files that were the location of Earth.
"I don't keep it loaded," Jacob said as he gave a silver and gleaming pistol to Master Chief. Master Chief took Cortana's chip out of the display and slipped it into the slot on the right side of his helmet. He ran out of the bridge hurriedly looking for ammo while Cortana commented on his suit. Master Chief stealthily sneaked into the corridor knowing that he was vulnerable for he had no weapon. Suddenly he found ten clips for his pistol. Putting a clip into the pistol and turning the safety off he charged into the cafeteria where marines were fighting a well armed group of Covenant.
"Fire in the hole!" a marine shouted as he threw a fragmentation grenade. BOOM! Its three second fuse expired and bloody Covenant bodies flew everywhere. The rattles of gunfire engulfed the room as another squad of Covenant entered the room. Master Chief picked up the standard MA5B rifle at the entrance and fired a whole, deadly clip on an Elite which moaned loudly and lay down dead, admitting defeat. Pulling out his pistol he fired three rounds which burst the heads of two grunts. The heartened marines mopped up the rest of the squad while Master Chief picked up some grenades. I don't know how long its going to take until I get off this piece of junk he thought as he ran out of the room to do battle with another group of blood thirsty Covenant.
Jeffrey had been cramped in the small crate for hours. Jeffrey had tried playing chess using his HUD as a board with Kelsey but he was suspicious that she had used his neural implants to predict his moves for she had won all the time. He then ate some high nutritional salmon flavoured meal that really was tasteless to fill his stomach (Kelsey had teased that the Covenant would hear his stomach growling). Then Jeffrey had fallen into an uneasy sleep hoping to sleep the hours away.
"Jeffrey," Kelsey said urgently as he stifled a yawn. It had been six hours since he had left Alpha II Checking his weapons he had he heard the distinctive sound of the engine as the barge entered Enigma II's atmosphere. After the engine had distinctively began to slow down Jeffrey knew that they were almost at its destination.
Thump.
It's landed Jeffrey thought as the orders of the Elites were heard. The hatch to the supply store opened and a group of Covenant began unloading the crates.
Thud.
Jeffrey's crate was dumped near a door while the grunts went to pick up another crate. Slowly Jeffrey climbed out of the crate and quietly and slowly escaped through the alley door.
"Whew," Jeffrey sighed as he lay back on the wall of the facility.
How am I going to get to the facility without being noticed while in the middle of a city?
"Use the sewer system," Kelsey suggested using the neural implants inside Jeffrey's helmet to read his thoughts.
"Okay than," Jeffrey agreed as he leaned against a wall and started to formulate a plan of how he was going to get into the sewer without being noticed. There was a sewage hole in the middle of the road but how Jeffrey was going to get in was going to be hard.
"Ah ha!" Jeffrey shouted after ten minutes of formulating a plan.
"What?" Kelsey inquired but Jeffrey ignored her and picked up a small bin in the alley. Silently, Jeffrey dumped the very disgusting contents of the bin and rushed back into the alley. Then, a rubbish truck stopped next to the pile of rubbish.
"That's original, dump a piece of rubbish to cause a distraction," Kelsey commented sarcastically as Jeffrey ran to the sewage hole and jumped into the sewage system.
"What's that smell?" Jeffrey asked as he wrinkled up his nose at the unbearable stink.
"Luckily I haven't been installed with smell sensors but I guess you're standing in some waste from Hunters," Kelsey said with a touch of mischievous.
"Don't tell me anymore!" Jeffrey yelled as he ploughed on through the revolting waste.
Thank the fates that my suit doesn't have leaks.
"It's a mess sir, we're scattered all over the place," Sergeant George told Master Chief. Most of the crew of the Pillar of Autumn had escaped and landed on a nearby, mysterious halo shaped planet. Master Chief's lifeboat had crashed and he was the only survivor. He began to search for marines before he met Sergeant George and his squad of men.
"We've got a bogie coming in fast!" a marine shouted as a purple Covenant drop ship came into view. Its purple streamlined body coming to a stop. The unusual ship was shaped like a slingshot but with a blue force field spanning the middle of its body. Master Chief instinctively knew what to do so he ran towards the drop ship. Turning the safety off on his MA5B rifle he fired a fatal magazine of bullets which tore through the panicking aliens who were afraid of this new threat. Blazing, hot plasma followed Master Chief as he wrecked havoc upon the doomed aliens their feeble shots doing unnoticeable damage to him. Elites fell, Jackals ripped apart and Grunts were slaughtered by the marines. The defiant group of marines and Master Chief held out against the waves of Covenant until evac arrived and took the battle tired marines to base camp. Master Chief took a Warthog and began to look for more human survivors.
