Chapter 10- Hard Landing
Author's Notes- Holy crap, I've already done 10 chapters! I never thought the book would get this long and successful! At last check, the book had about 1900 views. Thank you all so much for supporting this book. Without you guys, I don't think the book would have continued past the 5th chapter. I would have lost interest because there would have been too few readers. I admit, I did not think the book would go even this far. Again thank you all for your support. As you may have read before, I decided to expand the story to the end of Halo 4 instead of just the end of 3. The story just has so much potential in H4. I just need more reviews. Also, I have started a forum for your ideas, but I am going to need moderators, as I do not have an internet connection all the time. Who do you want to go with Arby and who do you want to go with the Chief? What minor characters do you want to see in the book? Do you want me to pull characters from the grave like Jorge and the ODST's from Halo: The Flood like Lieutenant McKay and Major Silva? Do you want me to bring back things from previous entries in the series like the UNSC Spirit of Fire? Post your ideas on the forum. This is your book; I'm merely writing it for you. "Your enjoyment of this book is the will of the Gods. And I… I am their instrument." Enjoy the sort of novelization of Delta Halo. Also, do you think I'm being racist against Grunts? I would very much like to know.
As the Prophet of Regret's carrier came out of Slipspace, so did a lot of debris, including another ship, the UNSC In Amber Clad. The ship was silent, and for all intents and purposes, permanently disabled. Inside, the Spartans of Bravo Team and their marine and ODST allies were recovering from such a quick jump, when the commander of the ship contacted Cortana with an interesting question. "Cortana, what exactly am I looking at?" Cortana used the ship's cameras to determine what Commander Keyes was talking about. "That… is another Halo." Sgt. Johnson, who was also in on the transmission, was so astonished that he lost his cigar that he had lit moments before, and the Chief audibly gasped.
The rest of the Spartans looked at the Chief. Six walked over. "Chief, what's a Halo?" The Chief looked up at him, but Cortana answered first. "Halo is a ring-like structure built by a species long extinct, known to the Covenant as Forerunners. The rings are, when activated, designed to kill off the food source of a virulent parasite known as the Flood." "And that is?" "Sentient life. Humans, Covenant, whatever." "Oh… that's not good." "But, the rings can only be activated using a key called the Activation Index." The Chief cut in. "Cortana, do you still have the one from the first Halo?" "Of course I do." She addressed Six again. "The rings can only be activated by what the Forerunners call 'Reclaimers', as far as I know, that term encompasses humans. The rings are attended to by constructs called Monitors. The one on the first Halo was called 343 Guilty Spark. The rings are known to house large samples of Flood, and on the first Halo, the Covenant accidentally released them. Guilty Spark convinced the Chief to get the Index and travel to the control room, where we had already visited before I knew it was a weapon to wipe out all life in the galaxy, and stopped them from activating the rings." Chief cut in again. "In my defense, I thought the rings would destroy the Flood, not every other living thing. Spark never told me the true nature of the rings." "That doesn't matter now, Chief, we blew up the ring months ago." Cortana addressed Six again. "The Covenant believe that firing the rings will begin their Great Journey and make them all gods." "Okay, I think I got it. Thanks."
Commander Keyes came over the comm. "Cortana, I want all the data you've got on the first Halo: schematics, topography whatever, I don't care if I have the clearance or not." "Yes ma'am." "Spartans: take 1st Platoon, hard drop. Sergeant: load up 2 flights of Pelicans and follow them in." "Aye aye, ma'am. "Until I can move and fight, I'm going to keep a low profile, so once you leave the ship, you're on your own." The Spartans each heard two thumps on their pods, and responded with one thud of their own. "Understood." After about a minute of waiting, the pods dropped, sending the Spartans and their ODST allies down toward the ring. (Cue the song "I Believe I Can Fly.)
On the ground of the ring, a Jackal was admiring the clouds when it saw streaks of fire coming down out of the sky. It motioned to a nearby Grunt, who jumped onto a nearby plasma turret, but lost its footing, and slipped back down onto the ground. The second time it jumped up, it succeeded, and along with its companions opened fire on the streaks which they now identified as human drop pods. (End Song)
When the orbital drop pods hit the ground, the door was supposed to immediately fly off, allowing its occupant to quickly engage the enemy. This was not the case for Six, whose door was stuck. "Just my luck." He stiff-armed it and it still would not open. That's when he noticed the red buttons on the inside. He determined that these were for manually opening the door. After he had pushed all four, the door blew open. He quickly grabbed his MA5B Assault Rifle, slung his M392 DMR over his back for later, and ran to join the fight.
When Six found the other Spartans, all the enemies were already dead, save for a Major trying to sneak up on the Chief. Six ran up to it, jumped on its back and snapped its neck. Its dying screams alerted the other Spartans, who spun around, weapons at the ready. Six looked up at them after making sure the Major was dead. "You're welcome, Chief." "Thanks, but I could have handled it myself." "Not after it had stabbed you in the back and killed you."
The Pelicans came shortly afterwards, dropping 2 Warthogs and a company of ODSTs to keep the LZ secure. One of the ODSTs got in the gunners seat, while the Chief drove and Six sat in the side seat. As they rolled along, the ODST spoke up. "Wow. It looks just like the postcard: Dear Sarge; kicking ass in outer space. Wish you were here." Johnson came over the comm. "I heard that, jackass. Also I'm seeing a large building in the middle of this island." Cortana told him that she had seen it too. "If I were a megalomaniac, and I'm not, that is where I would be."
The group moved on until they came to a bridge that would have spanned the gap between where they were and where they needed to be, had the Covenant not retracted the bridge. Six noticed an entrance into the structure where the bridge had retracted and jumped out of the Warthog. He activated his stolen Energy Sword and ran in. The Chief went after him, only to find every Covenant being inside dead, and Six taking his Sword out of the gut of a Major. The Major fell down, deader than a box of doornails. Chief went back out, and saw a dead ODST near the entrance. "Well, that explains that."
He jumped back into the Warthog, and Six joined him moments later, after lowering the bridge into position. That was when they all noticed the Wraith tank waiting on the other side. It shot a round at the Warthog that Emile, Carter and Jun were in, and the Warthog couldn't move because it was caught between a pair of rocks. The round impacted, destroying the 'Hog and throwing all three Spartans into the air. A Pelican came in and dropped a Scorpion tank next to the destroyed Warthog. Sgt. Johnson was in the passenger bay. "One heavily armored death machine, as ordered. Thank you for shopping Air Kick-Ass." He tossed down a can of some sort. "And here's your complimentary can of whoop-ass." Jun spoke up for the first time in a while. "When did we place an order there?" "When I saw that Wraith that just destroyed your Warthog," was the Chief's response. He hopped into the driver's seat, while Six manned the machine gun, and the rest hopped onto the sides. Carter pulled out his Rocket Launcher, loaded a fresh magazine, and used both tubes to destroy the Wraith.
The team moved on until they found an area of ruins thick with Covenant. The Chief shot one round into a group of 5 Grunts and 2 Elite Majors, killing all of them. Six opened fire at one of the plasma turrets around the perimeter. Emile loaded the "can of whoop-ass" into a Grenade Launcher he had found, and fired at one of the other turrets. The explosion was 5 times the size and strength of a normal grenade, completely obliterating the turret and the lowly Grunt operating it, plus 4 nearby Elites, one of them an Ultra. The Chief looked at Emile. "How did you know that was for the GL?" "I didn't. It just fit right, so I used it."
They moved on, eventually coming to a temple-like structure in the middle of the lake. Cortana spoke up. "Good, still no word of In Amber Clad on the Covenant Battlenet. It's strange: The Covenant know we landed, yet they don't see us as much of a threat. Boy, are they in for a surprise." A Pelican flew overhead and dropped off 6 pods, each containing a different weapon. Emile notice in one there was a pair grenade with a note tied to one that said, "Dear Spartans, make that damn Prophet regret ever messing with humanity. From Johnson." "Hey guys, we got another present from Johnson." Six looked at him. "Tell me it isn't another one of his 'cans of whoop-ass'." "I think they are." "Perfect." "Do you want it?" "No, I just think it's a little overpowered." Johnson came over the comm. "I heard that, and I must say, Six, that that…" He fake-cried a little. "…That hurt my feelings. NOT! Get over it and put the damn thing to a good cause, soldier!" Emile keyed his comm. "Abso-frickin-lutely, Sergeant."
They all got as much ammo as they wanted to carry, including the "can of whoop-ass" for Emile, and moved into the structure, expecting to find the Prophet. What they found was a holo-image of him, and 4 Elite Honor Guards around it, 2 wielding Energy Swords, the other 2 dual-wielding Plasma Rifles. Six and the Chief drew their Swords, (Chief had found one a little while back), and lunged at the sword-wielding Guards, while the other Spartans exchanged fire with the other Guards.
Emile contemplated using one of the grenades, but since he only had two, and it would probably kill everyone in the room, he decided against it. So he rushed one of the Guards with his shotgun, and blew it into whatever it called oblivion, while the other joined it as a pair of 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round flew through its head.
On the other side of the room, Six and the Chief were having a bit of trouble with the two Sword- wielding Honor Guards. Six had been thrown on the floor and was trying to stop the Elite from ending his life, and the Chief, having lost his sword, was trying to stab the Guard with his combat knife. Emile threw his kukri at the Guard that Six was fighting, stabbing it through the eye and into its brain, killing it instantly, while Carter, having snuck around the back of the other, jumped on its back and snapped its neck. Emile helped Six up and retrieved his kukri from the Elite's eye.
As the group moved out, Cortana stopped them. "Wait, go back." Chief put her chip down near the holo-image of the Prophet. "That's what I thought he said." She turned to the Spartans. "The Prophet of Regret is planning to activate Halo!"
