Chapter 3: John

Ya, I'll put in ol' Johnny boy for all you Chief fans. He's cool, so I like to type about him.

0800 Hours October 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Aboard Forerunner Ship

Sol System

Master Chief braced himself against the wall. He heard Admiral Hood say, "It isn't one of ours, take it out." He quickly keyed on the FLEETCOM. "This is Spartan 117. Can anyone hear me, over?" "Isolate that signal! Master Chief! You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?"

John stood up straight. "Sir, finishing this fight." He proceeded deeper into the ship, checking his munitions. His M90 had only seven rounds left in it. He still had plenty of ammo for the Magnums, and his BR55 still had three and a half reloads left. He slung the scatter gun and held his battle rifle.

He had one fragmentation grenade left, and three captured plasmas, along with a combat knife. He paid close attention to his motion tracker.

"Chief, what are your intentions?" asked the Admiral. "There is one last Prophet on this ship. I intend to kill it, sir." He continued slowly. "Sir, I don't recommend that we stay on the COMM system; the Covenant could be triangulating on my signal.

"Roger that. I'll send some Marine support. Be careful Chief. " The Spartan clicked off his COMM system.

A large red blip appeared on the tracker. Two large blips that could only be Hunters. Moving towards the door in front of him. He ducked and rolled out of the way, crouching behind a corner. The door opened, and the two massive aliens moved through, not even noticing him. He quietly pulled out a plasma grenade, primed it, and stuck it to the orange area on the first Hunter's back.

It blew the alien in half, and orange blood sprayed its partner. The remaining Hunter howled in rage and spun. It lunged forward and swiped upward with its shield. He quickly sidestepped and unsheathed the knife. He jammed it into the alien's back, and dragged it out the side.

The alien screamed and tumbled into a pool of its own blood. He made sure it was dead by slicing its neck as well.

Suddenly a very loud explosion went off; shaking the room he was in as he started to proceed onward. The Chief kept his balance, and shook his head. The Marines probably. Using C4 on the nose of the Pelican dropship, straight into the ship. The Spartan could hear the muffled yells of a Sergeant giving rapid fire orders. Going back, he found the crashed Pelican. There were black armored ODSTs crawling out of the wreckage.

He hurried over to help them out. Two had died in the crash, and one was wounded. The others were reasonably fine, seven in all. They were heavily armed-as one would expect if they were on a recon mission such as this.

Carefully and regretfully he stripped the dead Marines of ammo, grenades, and a rocket launcher. As he reloaded his shotgun and pumped it, he paced over to the SFC, who was checking the other Helljumpers. The noncom immediately snapped to when he saw the Master Chief. "At ease." he said. "We better get moving Marines. There's a lot to be done if we want to take this ship. Hand signals from now on." They nodded in affirmation.

He suspected under those black visors, however, they were probably terrified. But these were ODSTs, the best in the UNSC. Rock solid, and green to the core. But they still had their limits. He was about to reach his own, but he set his exhaustion aside. He had a duty to fulfill.

He slung the shotgun, and held his battle rifle at the ready. Carefully he looked left and right as he walked into what was undoubtedly enemy territory. The Covenant didn't know he was aboard the ship yet, else they would be on high alert. He intended to use this advantage as long as possible. They did however, know about the Marines. Unless they assumed the Pelican crashing into the Forerunner ship had simply been a MAC round.

The Chief passed through yet another door and was plunged into darkness. He briefly considered using his flashlight, but instead chose to use the infrared filters in his HUD. Quietly he stopped the Helljumpers with an upraised fist. There were Brute patrol teams moving silently about, moving away this time, either out of luck, or coincidence. Either way, he intended to use this momentary opportunity to creep up, draw his knife, and was about to plunge it into the Brute's thick fur, when it jumped and started to run forward at a steady lope. He heard a sudden roar, and another of the beasts was screaming as it flew through the air with its body broken.

The Brute in front of him howled in rage and threw its plasma rifle to the floor. It lunged forward, flew around a corner, and jabbed lightning fast at the unseen Hunter. It obviously was successful in the swift frontal attack, because a loud thud was heard, and the larger beast fell to the ground.

So they were still at war with each other. A beam rifle shot was heard, and the Brute fell. He slowly approached the corner to take a look. He saw a squad of Elites, SpecOps mostly, with veterans and rookies thrown in. A white councilor type was leading the group, along with a lone Hunter. It was obviously enraged about its dead bond brother. The councilor was holding an energy sword, and the others were heavily armed, one even with a fuel rod gun. All in all, there were about eleven in the squad, excluding the Hunter. Add about five Grunts, and they were very powerful opposition. He felt confident that he and the ODSTs could take them out though.

He shouldered the M41, and rolled around the corner. Quickly he took aim at the white. About to pull the trigger when it held out its hand and barked, "Wait!" Only curiosity kept him from doing it anyway. That, and all the guns aimed at his head.

Ooh, cliffhanger, don't you hate me? Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and please review!