Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.

A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 8: Mjolnir Mark VII.

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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant

Chapter 8

Mjolnir Mark VII

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The Master Chief arrived at his personal Pelican without any serious opposition. The only thing that blocked his way was a lone Jackal, which the marine ran over with his Warthog, before they moved on. When he arrived at his Pelican, he immediately identified himself and went aboard. Fifteen minutes later, he was talking to Admiral Hood and filling him in on what happened in the last few days on Halo, High Charity, and the Forerunner ship. After giving the Admiral a full report he requested that a medic check out his arm. Hood agreed and led John to his own quarters and told him that medical personnel would be along shortly to check out his arm.

A doctor came along a few minutes later and took a look at his arm and told him that his radius was cracked and that a few days of rest should be able to fix it, since he was an augmented Spartan-II.

Following the doctor's instructions, he rested for about forty-eight hours. That's to say that he didn't board a Covenant ship and blow it up with explosives. Instead, he got briefed on Earth's current situation and discussed what to do next.

Shortly after being briefed by Admiral Hood on Earth's currant situation, he was called down to the armory. John was puzzled by this order but he was a soldier, and a soldier had to learn to obey orders without questions, so he proceeded to the armory. When he got there, he found Admiral Terrence Hood and a few others people, including Colonel James Ackerson. The others included Sergeant Richard Hills, Sergeant Henry Summers, and a Private Andrew Kirke, according to his HUD. Then, Sergeant Hills spoke.

"Well, I guess that we're all here then," he said, then he turned towards Hood, "Lord Hood. Would you like to do the honours?"

"Gladly," Hood replied. He then turned towards the Master Chief, "Chief, while you were away, we captured a Covenant active camouflage capsule. We studied it and we came up with a way to integrate it into the MJOLNIR armour. The camouflage will not last for a very long time, only ten seconds in fact, but it recharges every fifteen seconds. Also, when you fire your weapon, the camouflage will automatically deactivate and it will take another fifteen seconds to recharge. Your speed and reflex times are dramatically increased as well. Those are the major enhancements. There are minor changes that you should know about as well. The shield system is now a tiny bit stronger and your HUD now has stronger built in binoculars; 2x and 5x. The 'backpack' is also slightly smaller. I think that's it. You there, will be so kind to bring the new MJOLNIR Mark VII armour to us?" He pointed at a nearby technician and then at the new MJOLNIR Mark VII suit.

"Yes sir," said the man as he walked across the room to the modified cryo tube that held the Chief's new armour. Although cryo tubes were meant to store people while they were in slipspace, this particular one was modified so it became an impressive carrying case for the Chief's new armour.

The technician was lucky that the tube has wheels on the bottom or he wouldn't have been able to bring it over. He pushed the tube back to where the rest of them were waiting. "Here you go Admiral."

"Thank you," replied Hood. He then turned to the remaining technicians in the room and addressed them. "Would you three help the Chief with his new armour?"

"Yes sir," they replied in unison as they went over to the Chief. "Chief, I need you the stand still while we take off your armour."

The Master Chief grunted, but said nothing. He took off his helmet while the technicians took off the rest of his armour. The rest of the room averted their eyes since the Spartans don't wear any clothing underneath their armour. The technicians then put on his new armour. When they were done, everyone looked back at the newly equipped Spartan. After a moment of silence, Admiral Hood spoke again.

"Chief. We have an obstacle course set up for you in one of the larger derelict rooms on the Cairo. The purpose of this test is to see how efficient your new armour is. It will also tell us if anything malfunctions with your armour. Anyway, if you would follow me please," said Hood as he turned to leave.

"Yes sir," said Chief as he followed him. The rest of them then filed out after the Chief without speaking.

It took them a while to get to the room but they got there nonetheless. The room was very large, to say at the very least. It was at least three hundred meters by a kilometre. The ceiling was about fifteen meters high. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were made of pure titanium-A, giving the room a shiny grey colour. The room was lighted by thousands of lights attached to the ceiling and there were many doors and windows in the room. There were many obstacles in the room such as cars, barbed wire, and some seemingly random titanium plates sticking out from the ground. Some of these things offered plenty of cover that can be used to John's advantage, while other didn't, and would only slow him down. At the other end of the room, there was a large maze filled with hidden traps that John couldn't see. There were also many Marines and ODST's in the many bunkers and windows.

"So what do you think Chief? You think you can handle it?" asked Hood. "These Marines and ODST's will be using live rounds against you. Your job is to neutralize anything or anyone that threatens you and get to the middle of that maze at the other end of the room. There will be a large red button there and when you press it, it will sound an alarm and inform everyone that you have accomplished your task."

"Yes sir," replied John.

"We'll be observing you from the observation room." Hood pointed to a large window behind him. "We'll be safer there considering there will be live rounds flying everywhere. Don't worry, the glass is coated with energy shielding strong enough to withstand an HV shell fired from a Scorpion's main cannon," then he grinned. "Another piece of technology we've stolen from the Covenant, soon we'll be using shields like these on our ships. Anyway, you just wait here until we tell you to start." He turned to leave but then he turned around and looked Master Chief again and said, "Good luck."

The Chief stood there for a few minutes, listening intently for the signal Lord Hood promised him, but that proved to be unnecessary. Lord Hood's voice came through the loudspeaker and his helmet's speaker simultaneously.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes sir," John replied.

"Good. You may start in ten seconds. The Marines will start shooting as soon as you move. You may use anything you can to your advantage and there are weapons scattered all over the place. Good luck," said Hood.

A countdown timer appeared on the Chief's HUD and it started counting down.

10...

"Okay, this isn't anything you haven't-"

9...

"-done before, and this time-"

8...

"-you have better armour. Except-"

7...

"-this time you-"

6...

"-don't have-"

5...

"-Cortana."

4...

"Okay John, you can do-"

3...

"-this. Don't worry about-"

2...

"-the past; concentrate-"

1...

"-on what's happening-"

0...

"-now!"

The Chief activated his active camo and sprinted towards the closest available cover. The marines and ODST's sprayed wildly with their submachine guns and assault rifles, hoping to hit the Chief and deactivate his camo. The Chief found two throwing knives and a M6C Pistol at the base of the titanium-A plate he was hiding behind. He waited fifteen seconds for his active camo to recharge and reactivated it again. He came out from behind his cover and threw the two knives in quick succession. Two Marines slumped to the ground, one with a knife in his chest, gasping for breath, and the other one with a knife through his neck. The loud crack of a sniper rifle was heard and the Chief's shields dropped to a quarter.

"Damn, that was sloppy," thought the Chief as he ducked behind his cover again. The air was suddenly alive with gunfire now that everyone knew where the Chief was. Slowly but surely, the titanium-A was starting to erode from the hail of bullets that was hitting it. There was a break in the gunfire due to the fact everyone had to reload because they all started firing at the same time.

"Lucky break..." he thought as he grabbed the pistol, activated his camo, and ran towards the nearest bunker, which was about a hundred meters to his right. He sprinted there and kicked in the door. Unfortunately, the impact deactivated his camo. The five Marines inside the bunker turned in surprise and fired their weapons at the Chief, the combined fire of the assault rifles, SMGs, and battle rifles quickly brought the Chief's shields down to zero. The shield indicator blinked red on the Chief's HUD to show that he was vulnerable to attack. He clicked the safety off the pistol with his thumb and fired five shots rapidly, but with deadly accuracy. Two of the five Marines were dead before they hit the ground from headshots while the remaining marines screamed in pain when the bullets impacted upon their bodies. John didn't want to kill them so he punched their helmet in. The marines' eyes glazed over as they stopped screaming and fell to the ground one after another, unconscious.

He then noticed eleven dots on his motion tracker, and all of them were coming his way. He discarded his nearly spent pistol and picked up a battle rifle. He found a bag of ammunition and he reloaded the weapon. He checked his motion tracker again and noticed that the dots on the motion tracker were still relatively far away from his position. He picked up two SMGs and reloaded them one after another, and glanced at his motion tracker again. If the red dots were this close on his old MJOLNIR VI armour, they would be within ten metres of him. He activated his active camo again and stood up and looked outside. The marines approaching him were still twenty-five meters away. He deactivated his camo to let it recharge and dropped the SMGs. He picked up the battle rifle, crouch-walked to the left of the door, and waited for the marines to come in. One of the marines looked into the bunker just as John activated his camo again. He then motioned for the others to follow. When all of the marines came in, John's camo ran out.

One of the marines saw him and let out a startled yelp. Before he could do anything however, John jumped from his crouched position and rammed the Marine with his shoulder. The man's body flew into another marine and the momentum carried both of them into a wall. The remaining marines saw two of their fellow soldiers fly into a wall in surprise. It took a second for their brains to register what had just happened but by then, it was too late. Three more marines were unconscious by the time they turned around and two more were down before they started firing.

The four remaining marines pelted the Chief with bullets from their rifles but the Chief had his battle rifle ready. He nailed two of them straight in the face with two bursts from his rifle. The two remaining soldiers shot at him like crazy but they failed at draining all of his shields. The Chief dived, rolled, picked up the pistol he dropped earlier, threw it, and was back on his feet in one smooth motion. The pistol sailed through the air and hit one of the remaining marines in the forehead. His eyes glazed over and he collapsed like a rag doll.

The Chief turned around and found that the last marine stood frozen in place, unable to act. The Chief didn't give the man any time to recover as he grabbed his rifle, and kicked him in the chest. The soldier's ribs caved in and he crashed into a wall with a grunt. His body crumpled on the ground as blood started flowing from his mouth and nose.

Damn. I shouldn't have killed them. The UNSC needs every man we can get to fight the Covenant...

John looked around the bunker to see if he could find a useful long range weapon or some ammo. He was lucky because he found both. A S2 AM Sniper Rifle rested on a wall and a bag of ammo was right beside it. He picked up the sniper rifle and loaded it, then he looked out the door, searching for any other available cover. He found some more titanium-A plates jutting out of the ground and a Warthog, but he'd be in trouble if he was surrounded. When out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow move in one of the numerous windows bordering the room.

"That window would be an ideal sniping position. Let's see what's in it," thought John as he aimed his S2 AM Sniper Rifle at the window. He zoomed in with the scope and activated the night vision. He immediately saw the silhouette of a man with a sniper rifle. He aimed for the man's shoulder and fired a single shot. The sniper screamed so loud that the Master Chief could've probably heard him even if he didn't have his MJOLNIR armour amplifying the sound for him.

"Target neutralized." John scanned the other windows within his sight, and disabled three more snipers, but didn't kill any of them. He reloaded the sniper rifle and grabbed four clips of extra ammo for it. He also picked the battle rifle he dropped earlier, reloaded it, and picked up seven clips of extra ammo for it. He looked out the door and saw that the Warthog was still there. He took aim and threw his battle rifle. The gun landed in the passenger seat and stayed there. He then took one of the SMGs that he dropped earlier and tossed it onto the Warthog as well. He also took four clips of ammo for it. As he exited the bunker, two ODST's spotted him from behind a titanium plate and shot at him with three round bursts from his battle rifle, the Chief ignored them at first but the shots just kept on coming, chipping his shields away little by little. He finally got tired of them after his shields have been drained by three quarters. John turned around, aimed, and fired his sniper rifle in about two seconds. The bullet went right through the first ODST's chest. The Master Chief tried to not kill him, but unfortunately, the bullet went through the man's heart.

The Chief turned to shoot at the other one, but he was already behind a nearby titanium-A plate. The Chief crouched down to make himself a smaller target and waited for the ODST to pop back out. After a while, the ODST's head peeked out to see if the coast was clear. It wasn't. A sniper bullet caught him right between the eyes. He crumpled to the ground without making a sound.

The Chief ran to the Warthog and got in the driver seat. He drove with one hand and held his SMG in the other so that he wasn't completely helpless when he encountered more resistance. After a few seconds of driving, he encountered another bunker. Since he didn't sneak up on them, a hail of bullets greeted him as he drove by, most of them missed but some shots hit their mark. The attackers didn't escape unscathed however. When the Master Chief drove by, most of them didn't realize that he held a submachine gun in his left hand until it was too late. Bullets pelted them and half of them got hit. Fortunately, only one person died. The Warthog was pretty beaten up in the process but it still worked. The Chief discarded his SMG, picked up his S2 AM Sniper Rifle, activated his active camo, and jumped out of the car. The Marines were confused as to where he went and made crude jokes to keep themselves from being too nervous. The Chief stealthily snuck behind his Warthog and kept only a bit of his head exposed so he could see. He took aim with his sniper rifle and fired. One of the marines was busy making a joke about how cowardly the Chief was when he suddenly stopped talking and toppled over. His friends didn't notice the hole in the side of his head until blood started seeping out. They gasped in surprise and looked around for their attacker but by then, another two were down.

One of the remaining marines spotted the Master Chief and threw a grenade at him. The grenade landed right underneath the Warthog and exploded. The Chief flinched back from the flames as it drained all of his shields. With the Warthog out of the way, the Marines now sighted their target with ease. John ran behind a titanium plate, hoping to get some cover from the hail of bullets, and he did, but not before three shots penetrated his leg. Pain seared up his leg, but he shrugged it off – pain was nothing to a Spartan like him. He waited till his shields and camo were recharged before he peaked out the side with his sniper rifle ready. A marine saw him poke his head out and pulled the pin of out a grenade and threw it at him. John, with his enhanced reflexes and aim, shot at the explosive with his rifle. The sniper round easily penetrated the grenade as it exploded in the face of the marine who threw it, killing him instantly. Everyone in the bunker was caught in the blast as well. Some died, some didn't, but either way they were all neutralized.

The Chief came out of his hiding position and ran towards the bunker. Luckily, no one tried to intercept him on the way there. Once inside, he found additional rounds for his sniper rifle. He also found some grenades, some battle rifles, assault rifles, and a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher loaded with a single shot. He tried to find some more ammo for the rocket launcher but he failed. Finally, he decided to leave the rocket launcher behind because it wasn't very practical to run around with a gun with only one shot in it. He took an MA7B Assault Rifle and four grenades instead. He exited the building and found another Warthog about a hundred and fifty metres to his left. He activated his camo, just in case there were snipers, and ran for it. When he was about twenty-five metres away from the Warthog, he suddenly heard a loud boom followed by a flash of light, and he instinctively looked away. Luckily, his helmet's auto-dampening system kicked in and dimmed the flash. Otherwise he would've been blinded for at least thirty seconds. When he turned around again, the Warthog was a smouldering ruin. He glanced to his right and his heart skipped a beat at what he saw.

It was a Scorpion tank.

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A/N: In case you've forgotten, the M19 SSM Rocket Launcher is the non-tracking Rocket Launcher with the huge blast radius (similar to the Halo 1 rockets). The M41 SSR Rocket Launchers are the tracking rockets with the smaller blast radius.

Another A/N: The radius is a bone in a person's arm.

Yet Another A/N: A friend of mine, Emily, read this and fixed some spelling errors. Thanks Emily!