Halo:
Snowflakes
He stood amidst the carnage in the hallway, breathing heavily from exertion. The last body of his enemy lay at his feet, the soldier's skull crushed. The Master Chief, SPARTAN 117, one of the last survivors of Reach, pointed his rifle at the ground and stood tall. His motion tracker registered no enemy contacts, and he allowed himself this last moment to relax. The defense of Reach, the escape to Halo, and the last five days of fighting the Covenant had taken a lot out of him. He was a SPARTAN II super soldier, faster, stronger, and overall, better than the average human…but that's all he was. He was still human.
He walked forward, past the seven slain Covenant Grunts, cannon fodder of the force that sought to bring down humanity. They stood at about five feet tall, and were physically weak individually. However, they were rarely alone, working in packs and in tandem with their Elite masters. That's what made Grunts so deadly; they were incompetent fighters, compared to the Master Chief, but they had the advantage of numbers. While there were an unknown number of Grunts to throw themselves into the sights of the Chief, the Master Chief was the last of his kind. His team, the SPARTANS, were all dead.
The SPARTANS had been raised as soldiers since they were young, abducted from their homes to protect humanity against civil war. Of the seventy-five SPARTANS that had begun the project, only one remained. John 117, the Master Chief. His best friends, Sam and Kelly, were both dead. Sam had died in their first encounter with the Covenant, sacrificing himself to destroy a Covenant space cruiser. Kelly, however, and the rest of John's team, for that matter, had died because of the Chief.
He was the one that had sent them groundside on Reach. He should have known better; the Covenant bombarded every world their conquered from the air with plasma, obliterating any life on the surface. Nothing survived a steady barrage of plasma. Every world the Covenant attacked had eventually fallen, turned into floating spheres of glass. John had sent them groundside to defend Reach from the Covenant invaders, even though he knew it was an impossible fight.
But his SPARTANS were designed to handle impossible mission. Outnumbered one hundred to one, he and his team had still come out on top.
But not that time.
"Nice work, Master Chief" came a cool female voice in John's head. It was Cortana, a UNSC AI designed for one of John's impossible missions; capture a Covenant leader and bring it to Earth. His mission, however, was in limbo, considering John was stranded on this Halo ring without any way off. Cortana was a handy asset, able to crack almost any code, Human or Covenant, in existence. She was also a very reassuring voice of confidence for John, helping him through problems he might not have walked away from. She was a very capable piece of software.
Or was she just a piece of software? John snapped himself away from his thoughts; they couldn't think like that at a time like this. He had a mission to attend to.
He had reached the end of the corridor. A large door hissed open as John approached, expanding to reveal a large chasm covered with snow. He readied his rifle, staring downrange intently.
A Covenant Elite was the first to appear in his sights. Before it had spotted the blur of green zipping across the field of white, John was on top of the creature. He grabbed the tall alien's throat and slammed it into the ground. It wailed in surprise, hands grabbing for the weapon at its belt. John never gave it the chance as he pressed his rifle to the screaming alien's chest and pulled the trigger.
A shimmering white energy barrier flickered once, twice, and then vanished over the alien's chest as the bullets found their marks. Purple blood splattered into the air, coating the Chief's visor. The Elite slumped backwards, dead.
The gunshots had alerted the rest of the Covenant force, though. Dozens of Covenant Grunts swarmed the Chief, snarling and chattering as they fired their weapons. John rolled out of the way as boiling plasma sailed past him, melting a great portion of the metal framework of the door behind him. Taking cover behind a rock, he popped out from behind his cover and fired his rifle, the thumping beat of the assault rifle drowning out the pained screams of the Grunts as they fell.
More Grunts and two more Elites advanced slowly, firing their weapons with deadly precision at the Chief. His own shields flickered and pulsed red as they fell, and the Chief was forced onto the defensive, falling back near the door. A few Covenant even possessed Needler guns, firing purple needles. John knew the power of these weapons; if enough needles were embedded into one target, they would combine their power and explode in a brilliant pink explosion. A slightly silly weapon, it was not to be underestimated.
The Master Chief's shields pulsed blue as they popped back up. Ready to fight again, he rolled out from behind his rock and threw a grenade into the enemy ranks. The elites scattered, knowing the devastating power of the human grenade. The Grunts were too slow to react, and the explosive power of the grenade tore through their ranks. Two were even blasted off the side of the precipice, screaming as they fell.
As the Elites slowly stood and surveyed the battlefield after the blast of the human's weapon faded, they were surprised to see that the green human was gone. Their surprise was suddenly compounded with pain as John appeared, smashing the butt of his rifle into the face of the face of the first alien. Its head snapped backwards, and John followed with a swift kick to the midsection, which propelled the alien off the edge of the cliff.
The second alien roared a challenge, and shot a trio of burning plasma at the Chief. His shields blinked at one fourth strength, but John didn't give the alien chance to fire again. A blue Covenant Plasma Grenade soon found itself lodged inside of the elite's mandibles. The poor alien tried to scream, but the grenade never gave it the chance.
John surveyed the carnage. Dozens of dead grunts and several dead grunts were scattered across the battlefield. A shadow passed overhead, and John instinctively jumped up and ran out of the way. A purple Covenant Banshee, a light aerial assault craft, swooped past the Chief, plasma cannons blazing. The Chief fired his weapon at it, to no avail. The attack craft looped high into the air, preparing for another pass.
This gave the Chief a moment to spare. He dropped the rifle and took a knee, disengaging the magnetic locks on his armor to pull out his final weapon. The SPNKr anti-armor rocket launcher detatched from the Chief's armor, coming up and around to rest on his armored shoulder. Taking a moment to aim, the Chief let the rocket fly.
The Elite pilot tried to evade the incoming projectile, but he was too slow. The rocket hit his flyer dead on, piercing the outer covering and detonating brilliantly. The attack vehicle was then nothing more than a twisted lump of smoldering metal as it plunged back down to the ground in a heap.
Letting the weapon drop, John sat back onto his haunches, panting inside of his helmet. The banshee had almost killed him. He was losing his edge.
"No contacts detected. Nice work, Master Chief" Cortana piped. He smiled slightly as he rested against the rock.
John stared out at the snow-covered bridge and the peaks beyond. The mountains and pure white snow dazzled the veteran warrior for reasons he couldn't explain. He vaguely remembered training in snow during his time on Reach, with his fellow SPARTANS. They had snowball fights and constructed snowmen, just like normal children. They had been normal for one day out of their lives, lives which many considered unnatural.
He loved the snow.
"Chief, we have to hurry. The Control Center can't be far…and we don't know how many Covenant are inside" Cortana urged.
"Just a…moment, Cortana" he replied. She voiced her consent, and withdrew from his mind for a moment.
As John relaxed, he let his mind wander to the snow falling around him. Falling. John sighed. As he watched the white particles fall, he imagined each was a Covenant soldier. They tried to overwhelm the Chief by force of numbers, but melted and withered in the presence of humanity's last hope.
The snow had already begun to cover the bodies of the slain Covenant. Their outlines were tinged white, and John was reminded of his comrades that had died fighting the Covenant. The Covenant had overwhelmed the strongest of his friends, and the weight of the other Covenant were slowly burying them under, along with the salvation of the human race. If John fell, humanity could still win, but they would have to without the SPARTANS.
The snow was pretty, though. If he focused, John could see the tiny crystals inside of the snowflakes as they passed his helmet. Shining as the sun above Halo filled them with light, and with that light, a hope for humanity. Or maybe it was John's enhanced vision that allowed him to see these things. He watched as the snowflakes danced and floated in the air, and he reached his hand out to catch some. He was amazed at how delicate they were as they melted upon contact with his shields. John sorely wished he could feel the snow falling on his hair, on his face, and down his suit.
"Come on, Master Chief. I've located the Control Room; its at the bottom of this canyon" Cortana's presence invaded his mind once more.
"Alright, Cortana" John said, standing slowly and retrieving his rocket launcher and rifle.
"Are you alright?" Cortana asked as John walked down the path leading into the next structure.
"Sorry, Cortana. I was…just remembering. I forgot what we were doing" John replied.
"It's alright, Master Chief. Let's go. We can't keep the Captain waiting"
John turned, wiping the snow from his visor. Now was not the time for laments. For now, it was time to make sure the sacrifice of his fellow SPARTANS would make a difference. John held his rifle and walked off the battlefield, not looking back. He had a job to do.
Author's Note: Yes, a sentimental Master Chief. Go ahead and flame me. Reviews, as always, are appreciated.