okay, maybe NOT next weekend…
I feel special! more reviews!
Sage-Doomhunter: thanks for the review! getting reviews at all is really great for me. not many people write serious Halo fics, and the funky ones get a lot of reviews, I've noticed.
PMOHWinters: well, yes, I suppose it is sort of like that, but that's not what it's all about. I've also read THE FLOOD and I'm trying to not copy it exactly without straying too far from the whole line of plot. besides, they gotta get off the ring, right? don't worry, just stick with me and I'll show some more originality as I get farther along.
writer51: fast enough? probably not. I'm the slowest person on earth sometimes, but then a speed demon another time. I'm so weird like that. hope I'm not too extremely slow, though. glad you're liking it!
Ghost1800- am glad that you don't find many (if any) mistakes. grammar is not my best subject. look at that. an author with bad spelling and grammar. --'
Dark Dragoon 22- thank you! don't mind if I do!
thanks again for the reviews! 18 is a big number for me. this is the most reviews I've ever gotten (along with the 16 I have for a JSRF fic, but some of ya'll might not know what that game is…). I think I got about 8 reviews on the fic that this is a remake of… and I had… about 10 or 12 chapters… yeah, well, I'm obviously doing better this time! :P
MC only had to give the door a few good hits and a grenade to realize that it wasn't going to open for him. Gina leaned against the wall next the installation's door, giving a couple of grunts a few more rounds to the head before reloading her riffle, satisfied.
"What's the problem?" she asked, examining the door.
"We can't get the door open. The Covenant must have rigged a security system." Cortana replied over the Chief's speakers.
"Wouldn't put it past 'em." Gina replied before locating a hand pad near the door. "I wonder…" she muttered, placing her hand over the pad. A beam flashed and scanned her hand. There were a few beeps and the computer hummed for a moment. The pad finally chimed and the door slid open. "Ha! Idiots." she laughed. "They haven't taken a full count of all dead on the Truth yet. My DNA is still in their system." She laughed internally for a moment. Covenant losses were normally counted up pretty quickly and the dead were identified just as fast. If they hadn't figured out she was missing, then they must not be having a very easy time with all the dead bodies the group of Marines had left behind with their success.
Gina thought she heard MC chuckle, but she couldn't count on it. The two of them and the other Marine began to search the building the Silent Cartographer was supposed to be located. Down into the depths of the installation they went, finding little resistance until they got to what might have been the third or fourth level down, but Gina had lost count awhile back.
"Movement up ahead." MC hushed through their com links. Gina's own motion tracker was dotted in red. She watched their movement, then said,
"Two hunters in the back. A few grunts, maybe a Jackal or two." MC acknowledged this with a quick check of his ammunition and a quick reload to his pistol.
"Try and save your bullets. Head and chest shots only. We don't know how far down this goes and how many Covenant are waiting for us as we go." he said. Gina gave the ammo on her belt a quick check before following MC around the corner.
Gina found a good hiding spot behind a couple of Covenant crates that were lying sideways. She crouched low and used the scope on the pistol to more accurately pick off the grunts. The two Jackals that occupied the room were both well protected behind their energy shields and Gina didn't think it wise to try and bring them down with the few bullets it would take. Activating a plasma grenade, she tossed it high.
The grenade found a resting place on the top of one energy shield. Surprised, the Jackal tried to shake it loose, though Gina thought it should be smarter than that. The plasma exploded, sending the two Jackals sprawling. Only one got back to its feet. As the Jackal staggered to stand, Gina took the shot and it fell back down, twitching once before dying.
MC, who had been dealing with the one Elite that Gina had failed to predict, switched to his assault riffle without reloading his pistol. He turned sideways to see that the Marine had met the Hunters. Although he was fighting more wisely than another of the Marines that had met a Hunter with MC that day, he didn't think he'd have been able to survive the firefight without having the Spartan there.
MC unloaded half a round into one of the Hunter's heads, which was enough to silence the beast since the Marine had already down a considerable amount of damage. The two humans turned together on the second Hunter, who let out a war cry and charged. The Chief made a fast sidestep and tried to get as many bullets into the Covenant alien as possible. The Marine, however, wasn't fast enough. Half way through jumping away, the Hunter's large shield came in contact with his upper thighs and back. He slammed into the wall, coughing blood as he sunk to the ground.
Suddenly, Gina opened fire on the Hunter, who turned away from the Marine and charged to fire. MC emptied the rest of his clip into the alien, catching it in crossfire. The Hunter roared, letting the plasma from his cannon of a gun loose. Gina dived out of the way and rolled behind the corner of the hall. The Master Chief then found himself faced with a Hunter and an empty gun. He shoved another clip into the assault riffle as fast as possible and raised to fire again when the Hunter roared and crumpled.
The Marine, leaning against the wall, shakily stood straighter and managed a grin. Gina was also smiling, her eyes downcast as she shook her head and reloaded both her weapons.
"Get yourself topside and get a Pelican back to Alpha Base." MC ordered. The Marine nodded, looking slightly grateful and disappointed at the same time.
"Yes sir." he said. The Marine limped away. The Master Chief reloaded his pistol, then motioned for Gina to follow.
The two continued down to what Gina hoped to be the bottom level. There were multiple Jackals patrolling the area. Gina crouched down and sighted a few with her pistol. She took the shots, taking them down, but also alerting the other Covenant around the fallen patrol. The Chief ran around Gina and into a group of Grunts, who hardly had time to give their guns a lot of charge before the Spartan pulled the trigger on them.
"Elites on your three." Gina told him over the COM. "I'll see what I can do from here." A few shots rang out as MC turned to face the oncoming Elites. One of the Elite's shields flickered once and died, allowing the second shot to penetrate its elongated skull. The second elite roared and charged, firing plasma at the Chief, who unleashed his own wave of fire. The Elite's shields held for a few seconds, then died. Half a clip of ammunition was unleashed into the Elite's middle section and Gina provided a shot to the neck. The Elite crumpled and lay in a pool of its own blood. Gina run down the ramp the Chief had come down, grabbing her assault riffle. She halted pulling the trigger on another Elite that had been coming up behind him. The Chief grabbed his pistol and shot. The Elite gagged blood and fell over.
Gina tried not to grin, but she couldn't help not to think how good they were working together. Gina reloaded her pistol and gave her ammunition a quick check.
"We're here." Cortana said over the Chief's speakers as the two entered a small room. "This is it." A holographic image of Halo appeared, splitting off into sections and enlarging. "There." Part of the map flashed. "This is where the control center is."
"Then lets hop to it." Gina said, looking past the map.
"Problem?" Chief asked. Gina fired four shots.
"Not any more, sir." she replied, reloading her pistol. The Chief's mouth twitched into a small smile, but Gina didn't see that behind his visor. The two soldiers ran up the ramps leading back up to the top of the installation. They encountered less resistance on the way up than down. The occasional Jackal pair would try to stop them, but they never had a chance.
"Echo 419, we are ready for immediate pickup." Cortana announced over the COM.
"Roger, Cortana. Echo 419 inbound." Foehammer replied. The COM clicked off.
"Almost to the top again, sir. Sensors read all clear." Gina said calmly as they started down a dark hall. The Chief grabbed her arm and shook his head. Gina cocked an eyebrow, but nodded and crouched low, inching along the hall. The Master Chief took the other side of the hall, also inching along slowly.
MC nodded ever slightly, so slightly that Gina wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been looking at him for some sort of sign. He was crouched in a corner, assault riffle pointed at something on the other side of the wall Gina was using as cover.
The Spartan stood and opened fire, backing away towards Gina as the Elite ran out, activating its beam sword. Gina pulled the trigger on her pistol, driving a few rounds into the Field Commander's chest. The gold armored Elite took a swing at her and Gina had to take a giant leap backward to avoid getting hit. She landed on her back with a thump, but she didn't feel any pain, besides the slight burn she felt from the swords near contact with her.
The Elite let out a mighty roar and ran at her. Still on the ground, she sat up and continued shooting. MC stood a little ways behind her, a continuing stream of bullets coming from his assault riffle. Gina ran out of ammo. Closing on eye, she aimed and threw the spent weapon at the Elite. The Elite attempted to dodge, but Gina had aimed off, so that when the Elite did dodge, the human weapon hit it on its helmet just above the eyes. Momentarily stunned, the Elite staggered, giving Gina time to jump onto her feet and grab her assault riffle. There was no real need, though, because the Chief emptied the last of his assault riffle ammo into the Elite's chest. With a final roar, it fell onto the ground. Gina kicked it to make sure it stayed on the ground.
"We should get to the Pelican before they send more troops." Cortana suggested, sounding both eager and impatient.
"Right." Gina replied, grabbing the Elite's side arm, just in case.
"Let's move." the Master Chief said, leading the way back down the hall.
The two emerged from the installation a minute later. Foehammer was already waiting for them, firing the guns attached to its belly at the group of Grunts and Jackals heading towards the installation. Gina climbed in across from MC and closed her eyes. She suddenly realized how tired she was, not getting any sleep the night before. Giving the Master Chief one last glance, she closed her eyes for a well-deserved nap.
"This is as far as I can go!" Foehammer's voice awakened Gina. She carefully leaned out of the drop ship to see where they were. She pulled her head back in like a tortoise into its shell when she saw the long drop below.
"How are we- never mind." Gina muttered, figuring that if the Chief hadn't woken her up, then how the hell they got into an installation with a Pelican wasn't important.
The Pelican touched down on the ledge and MC and Gina jumped out. Just as they were walking away, Foehammer asked,
"What was the point of that tunnel, Cortana?" Cortana chuckled over the COM.
"Just think of it this way, Foehammer. The Covenant wouldn't expect and aerial assault from under ground." Gina had to chuckle at that logic.
"Take a Shade. I saw some Grunts retreat through that door." the Chief said, head jerking in the direction of the door. "They might be coming back with friends." Gina jumped into the Shade and grabbed the controls, swiveling the movable turret in the direction of the door. The Chief had run to the other side of the door and took the controls of the other Shade. Just as he swiveled the turret's guns towards the door, it opened and a group of Grunts ran out. The two turrets opened fire and the Grunts, along with the second wave, a group of three Jackals, were fried. One Elite ran out, much to his mistake, and only got three shots off before, it too, fell. One plasma bolt hit her shoulder. She cringed slightly, but her armor took most of the damage.
When nobody else came out of the door, Gina climbed out of the turret. The Chief jumped out as well and jogged over to the door. Satisfied that there was no one else behind the door, he led the way down the hall.
After a long hour and a half of riding, walking, and continuous fire, Gina dropped to one knee in the snow. Four or five marines stood in scattered formation, all of them looking slightly worn out. Their Pelican had crashed back where the Chief and Gina had exited out of the installation leading to the underground tunnel.
Gina caught her breath, then stared up at the structure before them. It looked like a great big temple with many ramps leading up to the top, where the control room was. Whether the ramps were all separate or if they were all one, Gina couldn't tell.
A Pelican landed near by and the battle tired marines looked quite a bit relieved. Most of them had already begun making their way to the drop ship before the Chief ordered,
"All Marines, get to Alpha Base." There was a short pause. Gina stood, biting her lip, before deciding that order pertained her as well. "Gina, you're with me." Much more satisfied with this order, Gina followed MC towards the Control Center. She felt much more comfortable on the battlefield than back with a bunch of Marines who she didn't know.
"Yes sir!" she exclaimed, picking up the pace so she could catch up.
The canyon was scattered with a few patrols, who were already making their way to the advancing pair. A Wraith tank was off to one side of the canyon, but the rocket launcher on the Chief's back gave her reassurance.
"Take care of the ground troops. I've got the tank." MC said, almost reading her mind. Gina placed her assault riffle gingerly on the ground and swung her sniper riffle in front of her. She adjusted her hold on it until the stock felt comfortable enough against her shoulder.
She magnified the scope x2 and scanned the ground, taking out the on coming Elites first, then the two Jackals that were coming up behind those. She stopped to reload.
"Move." The command was calm, yet demanding. Gina jogged a few meters away from where she had originally been standing. The ground shook slightly as the large ball of plasma hit the ground. MC, who had run in the opposite direction, unleashed two rockets. The Wraith shuddered and smoked, but released another plasma bomb.
Gina shouldered the sniper again and found four more targets. She reloaded again, her last four shots, and scanned the ramps up, hoping to make it an easier 'climb'.
The marine jogged up to the Master Chief, who gave his last shot to a group of Grunts and Jackals. Bodies flew in all directions and blood splattered the white snow.
"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Gina joked as the two of them made their way up. It didn't take long before they reached the top.
Gina dived and MC rolled behind a Covenant crate as two Shades opened up on them. Hot plasma soared over Gina's head. Grunting, she crouched low and ran for better cover than the gunner's bad aim.
Gina primed and threw a grenade at one turret, watching it over turn and dump its dead gunner to the ground. A few Jackals around it dived away, and only half of them got back up. Seeing that the Master Chief had taken care of the other Shade, Gina ran out from behind the overturned crate and helped take care of the remaining Covenant.
The Chief and Gina both reloaded their weapons, Gina exchanging her spent sniper riffle for a plasma riffle. The Chief punched a door command and the large blast door groaned open.
The two soldiers once again found themselves in a firefight. Gina threw a plasma grenade into a group of Grunts. Squealing and barking they began to scatter, but not before the grenade detonated. Gina focused her attention on the two 'rookie' Elites, their blue armor glinting. Gina threw her last plasma grenade, which stuck to on Elite's shoulder. The Elite quickly began to peel it off and was about to throw it back when it exploded in its hands.
The second Elite roared for its fallen comrade and charged at Gina, firing plasma. Gina pulled the trigger of her own plasma riffle and let it overheat. She tossed the hot riffle at the Elite. Its shields had fallen and the plasma bolts scarred its armor. The gun knocked into the Elite's chest, knocking it backwards. The Chief opened fire on the winded Elite and the warrior fell.
"You have a think for throwing guns around, don't you?" MC asked, tossing her riffle back. Gina caught it, grinning.
"That was an accident. I'd forgotten how hot these things get." she said, following the Spartan down the wide halls.
The Control Room was a large, round room. The ceiling was high above their heads and the floor was a long drop below them. The platform that they were on led out to a round circular platform with a single console on it. Their footsteps echoed as they approached.
"There." Cortana said. "That slot." The Chief yanked a ship from his helmet and carefully sliding it into the slot.
Cortana's image appeared before them. She turned red, yellow, then green, before changing to her normal purple. Blue codes scrolled down her body. Gina, who was seeing her for the first time, was slightly amazed.
"Amazing!" the AI exclaimed.
"What is?" Gina asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"So much, so fast! It's wonderful!" Cortana, not really replying.
"Is there anything about using Halo there?" the Chief asked. "How do we use it against the Covenant?"
"What are you talking about?" Cortana snapped, placing her hands on her hips.
"Umm…" Gina would have scratched her head, had her helmet not been in the way. "Where have you been the past few hours?"
"Lets try and stay on task here." MC said, trying to be patient. "Is the ring a weapon? How do we use it?"
"It's not just a weapon, it's much more than that." Cortana said, her voice sounding slightly annoyed. "Give me a second to access something. Yes… Those Covenant fools!" she exclaimed. Gina was now even more confused. "They must have known, there must have been signs!"
"Slow down, now. Your loosing us." the Chief said, sounding as equally confused as Gina felt.
"Captain Keyes! You've got to stop the Captain!" Cortana yelled. Gina blinked. Keyes? What about Keyes?
"What?" MC and Gina said in unison.
"There's no time!" the AI yelled. "The weapon cache he's looking for… You've got to find Keyes and stop him!" MC reached for Cortana's chip."No. I've got to stay here. Now go!" The Chief turned and ran back to the hallway. Still confused, Gina followed.
"Before it's too late!" Cortana called after them. Gina heard MC click on the COM.
"This is Spartan one-one-seven to Echo 419. Requesting pickup, on the double."
it's been too long…. hopefully I can use this three day weekend to my advantage. hopefully I'll see you all again sooner than last time…
flaminchica