Halo: The Beginning of the End

By Chief Ratchet

Disclaimer: I do not own Bungie or Halo or anything associated with it

(A.N: Yes, I know that there isn't much Halo 3 yet, but very soon it will)

Sierrkoi: Thanks for the tip. Anonymous reviews are now enabled. To answer your question, this would be a John/Linda one. Keep R&R!

Infinite Inferno: Thank you. All hail Chief Ratchet!

Chapter 3: ONI Section Negative


Spartan-084, or otherwise known as Fhajad, moved his wheelchair down a corridor in ONI's Zero base. Located many kilometers underground on Earth, here was where all of ONI's most secretive projects were stored. Most of the technologies born here were used in the fight against the Covenant.

Now, most people knew that there were 'official' three sections of ONI: Section 1, Section 2 and Section 3. A few lucky individuals knew of ONI Section Zero, one of the most secretive sections of ONI. However, only three people in the whole of the UNSC knew of another ONI section: ONI Section Negative.

ONI Section Negative was made up of the Spartans that were deemed unsuitable for combat when they were augmented. There were only five of them, but they could handle a section that might have hundreds, especially with their enhanced thinking. It was easier to handle a section when people didn't know it even existed. This made the job easier for the five Spartan twos in the section.

Fhajad turned a corner, and with a shaking hand tapped into the keypad the password for accessing the main room of Section Negative. The section's multiple labs and rooms were heavily defended by a series of automated defences, namely the miniaturized chain guns mounted in hidden roof and wall panels. Not to mention that there was a Lotus anti-tank mine around each corner. Anyone who didn't have the right password was ordered by the security AI to halt and retype the password. If the password wasn't correct again, then a security team was alerted. The most annoying thing about typing the password was that it was changed everyday.

Fhajad waited impatiently as the machine ran the password through to make sure it was correct. Finally the thick, heavy blast doors slowly groaned open. Wheeling his chair down the hallway, he soon reached where he wanted to go. The door said Lab PXG 173. It was the one lab where he was dedicating most of his time to.

As he entered, the first thing he did was to order the AI here to shut and lock the door behind him. Fhajad let out a deep sigh of content. Here was where he was most content. Fiddling away with machinery, in a lab. Fhajad moved to a computer terminal. He opened the files labeled Experimental Plasma Defence Grid. He scanned through the files. It was filed to the brim with information and schematics on the Covenant plasma weapons like the standard Plasma Rifle or Pistol. No other ONI section had any luck reverse engineering the plasma weapons, let alone figure it out. Today, he might just change that.


Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood stood at the bridge of the Cairo. It was currently undergoing adjustments to its main barrel. It was twice in two weeks that the Cairo was upgraded from a Mk.V to a Mk.VII. It must have been the fastest development time for these upgrades, thought Hood. Each one of the upgrades were small, but they helped the Cairo, anyway.

The Mk.VI was an upgrade to the shells the gigantic MAC gun fired. The shells were only 500 pounds heavier, but the shell was almost twice as dense as the previous shells. It was a miracle how the Section Negative Spartans had done it. Most other people thought it came from Section 3. From what he knew, they must have fused the tungsten and the depleted uranium together at extremely high temperatures. From the test firing simulations, the new shell could punch through a Covenant Carrier and still have enough force to turn the ship behind it into space atoms.

Currently, the upgrade it was undergoing was a special Magnetic Depolarizing Field. Like the new shell, it too was developed by Section Negative. From what they had told him, the new Magnetic Depolarizing Field, or MDF, allowed the detonation of a nuke near the station outside the blast radius. Normally, such a detonation would have burnt out the coils of the MAC due to the EMP. However, the MDF generated a field around the station that depolarizes the magnetic field holding the EMP together, and the EMP would fall apart, into small pockets of harmless magnetic pulses.

First a shell that can punch through multiple Covenant ships, then a device that disables EMP, what next? Thought Hood. They were probably working on a device or a defence grid for Earth, or devising a plan to destroy the next Covenant patrol. Little did Hood know that one of his ideas was correct.


Fhajad examined the information that Cortana had brought back from her time on the Ascendant Justice. Although there was a good deal of information on the multiple systems, he was more interested in the plasma weapons. It seemed that the plasma systems that the Covenant used, though effective, it was highly reliant on the survival of the ship that fired the bolt to be intact. Fhajad pondered the implications of a defence grid that fired the plasma beam that Cortana had developed. Its only downside was that the plasma would have regenerate before firing again.

Another problem would be the plasma. Where would he get the plasma? Then a thought struck him. What if he made the plasma? Plasma was essentially superheated gas that was held together by a magnetic field. While the Covenant used a different gas, what if he used a mixture of hydrogen and high octane fuel? The fuel would normally explode under direct contact with heat, but what he span the mixture around with the heat applied in small amounts? The results could devastating for the Covenant.

Then he thought about the heat necessary for the plasma. Where would he get it? The fusion generators were already working to the limit with keeping over three hundred MAC stations working. Then he thought about other options. What about another generator? No, that would take too much time to build. Nuclear? Fhajad shook his head with amusement. A hit on the power station would set the whole thing off like a bomb. Geothermal? He thought quickly. If a line was hooked up to the mantle, where it would send the heat back up and a small station would convert it, it could generate a lot of power very quickly. The mantle was about three to four thousand Celsius, and that would provide a great amount of power.

Suddenly, the miniature holotank mounted on his wheelchair hummed to life. "What is it, Athena?" he demanded to know, irritation in his voice.

The AI's figure appeared on the tank. "Colonel Ackerson has demanded a meeting with you."

Fhajad grumbled under his breath. "Did he say when?"

"Now."

Fhajad sighed, and wheeled his chair to the elevator. He waited for it, and then moved on it and rode it to level 4D, where all meetings for the facility took place. The elevator grinded to a halt, and then stopped. He wheeled the chair outside and into the room. Inside the room was Colonel Ackerson. Fhajad saw the Colonel, and sighed. The man was staring at him with hate-filled eyes. "What is it, Colonel?" Fhajad asked.

"You freaks are up to something. Three of my men were reassigned to this outpost."

"Whatever we do Colonel, is our business and only our business. You are part of ONI Section Three. We are Section Negative. You officially exist. We don't. The only people who know we exist are Dr. Halsey, Admiral Hood and you."

Ackerson was mad. Extremely mad. "Where are my men?" he demanded.

"They are no longer your men, Ackerson. They were reassigned to this outpost, and are now under the command infrastructure of this base. Is this all you have to say, Ackerson? Because if there is no more, then I will be on my way."

With that, Fhajad left the room.


As Fhajad entered the lab once more, he quickly got back to work on the defence grid. Although the protection of Earth was important, he knew that the three hundred Mk.VII MAC stations in orbit could hold off a large assault for some time, and there would not be enough time to construct three hundred of those. However, there should be enough time to hopefully complete about ten of the turrets. "Athena? Open up a 360o holographic image of the planet, please." The holoprojector sprung to life as a three dimensional image of Earth opened up.

Fhajad traced a line across the equator. "Athena? Place a marker where I touch." Fhajad touched ten places, all along the equator. "Yes, that should do quite nicely," he murmured. "All of them can track a target on their side of the globe." He straightened up.

He then moved to a table with the terminal. He opened up the schematic construction program, and then proceeded to draw a schematic of the turrets that they were hopefully, going to build. Within the hour, he had the plan drawn up, though it was tricky with his hands shaking for most of the drawing. Suddenly, the video communicator off to his right started to beep. He moved to the terminal, and turned it on. The face of Admiral Hood showed up on screen. "Admiral, sir!" Fhajad snapped off a shaky salute.

"At ease, son." Fhajad dropped his arm. "I'm curious. Tell me, was it your group that developed the Depolarizer?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now tell me, is there anything else going on at the place you are holed up in? Any secret weapons that will help us win the war?"

"Well, sir, we have the schematics for an experimental plasma defence grid. I was going to send a message to you for approval of the defence grid."

Hood chuckled. "Well, that was fast. You get me those plans and schematics, and I have the grid up and running within ten days."

"Sir, I was just going to send them to you. The plans will have everything sorted out. Power source, materials, everything. In fact, I have just sent them, and they should be in your computer folder by now."

"Good work son. I'll have the grid up and running before you can blink." And with that, the screen winked off.


Admiral Hood walked away from the screen after he had cut the link. He went to his personal files, and found the plans as well as the schematics for the defence grid. Everything was well thought out and planned for. Fhajad had obviously known that the fusion generators couldn't take the strain of having to supply power to over three hundred MAC platforms, as well as generating enough heat to prepare the plasma turrets ready. After reading through the whole thing, he made a copy of it and sent it to the ground engineers. "Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Get to your stations and test the new MDF!"

The crew onboard the bridge scrambled for their stations. Soon, when the Covenant attacks, they would get a nasty surprise in the form of the plasma turrets on the surface.


A.N: Another chapter done! Thanks for waiting for this chapter. One more chapter, and then we are onto the real thing you are here for: Halo 3 works. Soon I will be starting my ShadowDome fic, so it will interfere with this fic. Sorry, and when I start the ShadowDome, please R&R it. Oh, and R&R this chapter as well! Thanks to all the reviewers so far!