Chapter 3- Cairo Station
-Johnson, ceremony room in 5 minutes. –says Chips
-Yeah, I know.
Johnson grabs a kind of robotic arm. He places this robotic arm in his missing arm place. He grabs a tobacco with his normal hand and light it up with his robotic arm. He says to himself:
-This is robotic arm isn't that bad after all. I think that in a short period of time, I'll get used to it.
Johnson wears a white suit and a commander's hat. He puts his pistol on his belt and gets out of the room. He walks to the ceremony room. When he gets there, he sits on his chair and wait for the ceremony. Lord Hood shows up in the stage, Johnson and the Marines applaud for him. Lord Hood looks to everyone and starts talking:
- Tonight, I want to honor some of the people that were important to us. Those people gave their lives to destroy the Halo. To honor one of the most important of all of them, I'm going to call three people to the stage: Miranda Keyes, Chips Dubbo and Sergeant Johnson.
Johnson stands up and walk to the stage, while the Marines applaud for him. He stands next to Chips and Miranda in the stage, waiting for his medal. Lord Hood look to Miranda and says:
- Miranda, your father, Captain Keyes, was a key part on this. Without him, Chief would not have survived and the Halo would have been activated. You'll receive this medal for him. He was important to us, I'm sure he was important to you.
Lord Hood gives a medal to Miranda. He gets near to Chips and starts talking:
- Your great strategies in combat saved the galaxy from termination. You may not have a high class in the UNSC, but that doesn't make you less important. You are important, you will always be important.
He gives a medal to Chips, which starts crying. Johnson thinks to himself:
"What a fagot. Ok Johnson, your turn. You are looking nice, there is no way this can go wrong. Don't cry, you're not a fagot like Chips. You can do this, Johnson. I'm so awesome"
Lord Hood gets close to Johnson and says:
- Johnson, you led your team with honor. You have seen lots of friends dying, but you've never gave up. This medal is nothing compared to your importance to the whole world.
He gives a medal to Johnson, all the Marines applaud and get out of the room. Johnson thinks to himself:
"Was that it? I was the most important guy on this mission and he just said a few words? This can't be possible! Something isn't right…but what is it?"
Lord Hood gets out of the room with an ODST squad. Miranda leave the room with a friend of her father. Chips and Johnson leave the room, where there are a lot of Marines applauding and some cameras. Chips gets uncomfortable with these cameras and says to Johnson:
-You told me that wouldn't be any cameras.
Johnson looks to Chips horrible marine suit and says:
-And you told me you were gonna wear something nice! Folks need heroes, Chips. To give them hope.
Johnson takes off his hat to adjust his hair and then put it back. He says to Chips:
-So smile, would ya? While we still got something to smile about!
Suddenly, the station starts shaking and the lights start flashing. When the shaking is over, a minute of silence happens and a voice can be heard through all the station, saying:
-WARNING! WARNING! Move to your defense positions. This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!
Red lights start flashing and despair takes control of the station. Johnson and Chips run to a window and see lots of Covenant cruisers coming in their way. Johnson looks to Chips and says:
-Now things got tense.
They run to the armory and grab some weapons. Johnson grabs a battle rifle and Chips grab two SMG. Another shaking happens in the station, the Covenant cruisers hit the station and now they are getting in. Chips says to Johnson:
-We have to find a pelican and get the hell out of here! This station is compromised!
-A pelican? The hangar is all the way across the station! There is no way in hell that we are going to get in there alive.
-Let us die trying if that is the case.
-That's how you have to think, son. Let's do it!
They get in a dark room, where they see dead human bodies. They turn on their flashlights and they hear something. Two Grunts show up and start shooting them. Johnson hide behind a pillar and Chips hide behind a chair. The Grunts are waiting for the humans to show up. Chips appears and shoots one of the Grunts. When the other Grunt is ready to shoot Chips, Johnson shows up and punch the Grunt with his robotic arm. The Grunt flies away across the room. Johnson looks to his robotic arm and say:
-Holy cow! This arm is awesome, I'm going to chop my other arm off, and then I can have two awesome arms.
Chips points to Johnson's normal arm and ask:
-Who is calling you?
Johnson looks to his normal arm and there is a communicator. A classified number is calling Johnson, which picks up the call and ask:
-What do you want, Cortana?
-How did you…whatever, I need you to do something.
-I'm trying to get my ass out of this station. What do you want?
-You need to activate the station's cannons. Lord Hood already left and forgot about the cannons. I'm not in the station, I'm in Reach with some ODSTs.
-You are making things worse for me, lady.
-If you don't activate those cannons, things will be worse to everyone in the planet. I'm losing my signal, Johnson.
-Cortana, I don't know, what if don't work?
-Just do it!
He loses Cortana's signal, look to Chips and say:
-Change of plans. Now we have to go on the control station and we need to activate those goddamn cannons. After this, we go to the hangar and get out of here. Are you okay with it?
-What the hell? Of course I'm not okay with it! We're going to die if we do this! This is madness!
-Look here, boy. If we don't activate those cannons, Earth will suffer even more. Those cannons will destroy at least one Covenant cruiser. Earth is more important than us, so shut the hell up and deal with it. Are you okay with it?
-Yes…sir.
They keep running through the station and they stop near to a courtyard. They see 5 Elites and 3 Brutes in this courtyard. Chips whispers to Johnson:
-There is no way that we are going to get through this!
-Oh boy, there is.
Johnson and Chips throw grenades next to them. They wait and the grenades blow up. They look in the courtyard and there is only one Brute left. This Brute gets angry and starts running to Johnson and Chips. He punches Chips in the face, Johnson punches the Brute with his robotic arm. He stops, looks to Johnson and laugh. He grabs Johnson's left leg and throw him all the way across the courtyard. When he is about to faint, he stands up and shoots right in the Brute's head, killing him. Johnson walks to the fainted body of Chips and sit next to it. Johnson is all sweat. He breathes for a moment, stands up and kicks Chip's body, waking him up. Johnson says:
-Wake up, lady. We have a lot of work to do yet.
-What happened?
-A Brute punched you right in the face, K.O. You felled in the ground like a bomb.
-What did you do?
-I punched that bastard with my robotic arm, didn't knock him down like you, but the mark is still in his face.
-Alright, Rocky Balboa. I know that you shot him down, just wanted to see how idiot you are.
-Chips…shut the hell up.
-You know is true.
-Yeah, it's true. Are you happy? Asshole…Although, I liked the Rocky Balboa reference, that movie was fantastic. Can you believe that this movie is a reboot from another movie of the 20st century?
-Are you serious?
-Yeah. Let's focus on the mission, alright?
-Yes, sir!
-Now keep your feet moving!
They get out of this courtyard and walk until they get in the dormitories. All the lights are off, there is a lot of dead human bodies. They can see some Elites and some Jackals in the dormitories. Johnson whispers to Chips:
-Don't turn on your flashlight!
-Why not?
-Because they will see us. We need to go through this dormitory without them seeing us. Now, stay down and be as quiet as you can be!
They stay down and start walking through this dormitory. The Elites start smelling something they start walking on the dormitory, looking for something that they are smelling. Chips stumbles on a dead human body and make a lot of noise. All the Covenant in the room hear it and run to the place where the sound came from. A sniper Jackal puts Covenant night vision goggles and starts walking through the room. Johnson quickly pulls Chips out of the dead body. He whispers to Chips:
-Run, you idiot, just run.
Both Chips and Johnson starts running, the Elites aren't fast enough to reach them. The sniper Jackal shoots Chip's belly, hurting him badly. They get out of the room and hide behind a pillar. No one comes out of the dormitory room and they get relief. Chips looks to Johnson and says:
-We almost died, thank god we esca- he is interrupted by Johnson, which punches him in the face with the normal arm
-That was for you being stupid. –says Johnson
Chips puts his hand on his face. Johnson looks to Chip's belly and see a lot of blood coming out of it. He says:
-Chips, your belly! What happened?
-I don't know, I think they shot me. Oh god, now I'm starting to feel the pain.
-Alright, alright. Let's go to the control room and then we find something to help you.
-Go to the control room? Are you nuts? I'm going to die, there isn't much time, and we have to go to the hangar. Look, the hangar is close to us, there is time to help me.
-Chips, I care for you, but I care even more for Earth. If we don't activate those cannons, Earth isn't going to stand a chance. Now let's go, you selfish idiot.
-You know what? Go to hell, Johnson. I'm sick of you calling me an "idiot", a "retard" and an "asshole". I'm finding my own pelican, because I want to survive. Goodbye, asshole.
Johnson sees Chips going to the hangar through other corridor. Johnson says:
-Alright, you asshole. I don't need you anyway. You either die as a hero or you live enough to become the villain. I'm going to die with honor and distinction, while you are going to live as a coward and an asshole.
Johnson walks through the control room's corridor. When he is in front of the control room's door, he says to himself:
-You don't need him, Johnson. He is just a selfish asshole. You can do this alone, you know that.
He puts a red headphone in his head and starts playing "Blow me away". He smiles, put a tobacco on his mouth and say:
-Showtime.
He lights up the tobacco, reload his battle rifle and open the control room's door. There is five Grunts, two Sniper Jackals, three Brutes and a Chieftain Elite, which becomes invisible. Johnson shoots the Jackals and gets shot by one of the Grunts. He throws a grenade next to the Grunts, blowing them up. Johnson gets some cover behind some controls, while the Brutes look for him through the room. He quickly shoots one of the Brutes and get some cover again. He check his ammo and there is one shot left. He aims in the second Brute's head and shoot it, killing him. Johnson throws his weapon away and shout to the last Brute:
-Hey, ugly monkey, I'm right over here.
The Brute turns around and shout to Johnson. Both of them start running to each other, both of them shouting. Johnson punches the Brute with his robotic arm and dodge the Brute's attack. He pulls out a plasma grenade and plant it on the Brute. Confused, he looks to Johnson, which is laughing at the monster's disgrace. The Brute blow up, Johnson takes off his headphone and go to the central control. He starts pressing some buttons, then a voice can be heard:
"Station cannons will start working in 1 minute. Countdown can be manually stopped."
Johnson hears a strange noise behind him. He turns around and don't see anything. Suddenly, an Elite shows up and he holds Johnson. The Elite puts his energy sword next to Johnson's neck. Johnson says to the Elite:
-Do it. Kill me, I'll die with honor at least. Do you have the balls to do it or you are to coward to do it so?
When the Elite is going to cut Johnson's neck, a shot noise can be heard and the Elite's body fall on the ground, dead. Johnson looks behind the Elite and sees Chips with a shotgun. Johnson hugs Chips and says:
-Chips, I…know that you missed me, that's why you came back.
-Yeah, I kind of get used to you calling me a "stupid idiot".
-You are my favorite stupid idiot.
The control room's voice says:
"Cannons will be activated in 30 seconds."
Johnson starts running and says to Chips:
-Let's go, I think that there is still time to get out of here.
They run through the hangar's corridor. When they get there, they see only one pelican, which is being guarded by a group of Elites. Chips throw a grenade in the other side. The Elites hear the noise and they run to the place where the grenade blew up. Johnson and Chips quickly run to the pelican. Johnson goes on the front seat and Chips goes on the back seat. They turn on the pelican and they get out of the station through the hangar. They see the Covenant ships being shot by the cannons. Johnson flies through a spaceship battlefield. He receives a call in his communicator. He answers it and say:
-What do you want, Miranda? I'm in the middle of this spaceship battlefield!
-Johnson, you have to land at New Mombasa. The Covenant is destroying the city! Load your guns and prepare for battle!
-New Mombasa? Aren't they creative at all? There are other big cities, but they chose New Mombasa? They have a really bad taste in cities.
-Johnson, shut up.
-I love you too, Miranda. What should I do at New Mombasa?
-Clean the city, kill every hostile you see. Good Luck, Miranda out.
She shuts the call down before Johnson could say anything. He looks to Chips and say:
-She finished the call in my face, can you believe that?
-How could someone do that with Rocky Balboa?!
-Chips, go to hell.
-Where are we going?
-New Mombasa.
-Why?
-To give a message to the Covenant.
-Message? Which message?
-The message is like this: Get the hell out of our planet or we kick your ass. You chose the option "get kicked in the ass".
Chips laugh a little bit and say:
-Let's deliver this message.
