Chapter Five
Recruitment
John signaled three troops ahead to the eastern flank, and another three to the western one. He and the other eleven troops took to the south and waited. And sure enough, as John had predicted, a squad of Jackals paraded through the canyon, wary of their surroundings. John held up his hand and then, slowly, lowered it. The SMGs, Battle Rifles, and Assault Rifles the Marines had (all equipped with silencers) opened fire on the Jackals. Before all by a third of them could react, silent bullets were flying everywhere. John had taken down more than his fair share of them before it was done. "Good work, men," Sergeant Mendoza said, who had tried desperately to keep the troops together in one group.
They moved toward the Covenant prison camp, very small even for one of those. And, of course, it was surrounded by Brutes. "Great!" A French Marine said. "Our grandiose plan is ruined!" "Put a lid on it," John said, "I have an idea." John looked over the hill to see a legion of Warthogs upright in the dirt. With dual rocket launchers replacing their machine guns…
Arxle, the captain of the guard, looked toward the hills surrounding the base. He was sure he'd heard voices along them, but he dismissed it. Perhaps the sun of the human's planet was getting to him, perhaps not. Until something happened, Arxle believed it didn't concern him. However, it did concern him when a group of human vehicles sped over the hills and started pummeling the gate of the camp with rocket launchers…
John grinned cockily as he let loose two more rockets. Soon, an opening was made that was big enough for the group to go through two at a time. On the other side, Covenant were everywhere! But, unfortunately for the Covenant, there were at least four times as many Humans, who immediately began revolting against their captors at the sight of the Master Chief. Soon, all the Covenant in the base were dead (or so it was believed) and John had an adequately armed group to fight. It was time to take Earth back…
Truth's pod slowly descended to the Covenant Outpost near the occupied Covenant base. The Prophet came out, now in a newer version of his lost hover-chair. The Brute at the command post walked over to him and dropped to one knee. "Welcome to the Unworthy Race's Planet, Noble Prophet of Truth." Truth was not up for pleasantries. "Rise Acheron, we have not the time for it." The Brute Commander rose and was about to apologies when Truth said, "What is our situation?" "Most of the humans have been forced into prison camps, as you ordered," Acheron said, leading Truth over to the railing, "but it seems that they are fighting back again." The Brute pointed into the distance and showed a prison camp on fire. Truth uttered the worst swear word in the Covenant language before telling Acheron to start bring the base up to standard.
John smiled. They had just taken down eighty-three Covenant soldiers and had not only lost no troops, but had gained at least three hundred thirty troops in the process. John realized that this might be the foothold he needed to start his campaign against Truth. Though the fight ahead would be hard and many would die, John was sure that they would prevail. They had to.
In Chapter 7, Master Chief and his troops will continue their fight against the Covenant. In Chapter 6, however, Arbiter, Johnson, and Miranda/Cortana are headed for the mysterious "Main Cartographer" mentioned by the Monitor in Chapter 2. Stay tuned!