The Key That Unlocked The Door
(Sucked Into The Campaign: Part II)
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo 2.
0929 EST (Suit's time)/
17 October (Military calendar)/
Milky Way system/ Earth space/
Status: Fucked
The ship angled slightly, which was just enough to save Alex's life.
Alex was recorded on one of the camera's at the back, and, when the tape was later viewed by a technician, was so fast that he wasn't even visible. Alex smashed into the hull at an angle of 70 degrees, and went right through it! He smashed through the 2 meters of Titanium class 'A' armour plating as if it were paper, then hit the top deck, crashing through it as well. He shouted in pain as his shields cut out immediately, and he was going so fast he literally couldn't see anything. He smashed through 46 more floors in less than a second, before he finally bounced off one of the floors, leaving a massive dint 3 meters in diameter. He shot up 5 meters and hit the roof, coming back down and hitting the floor again, crashing through doors and walls, finally coming to a stop at the other end of the ship.
He couldn't move; couldn't see; couldn't breathe; couldn't hear; couldn't feel. Was he dead?
Then, without warning, pain shot through every square millimeter of his body, and he screamed, which only brought on a hell of a lot more. His body refused to fall unconscious, as it would take a lot of effort, which forced him to deal with all the pain awake. When he finally recovered his vision, it hurt when he blinked, and all he saw was red, which was a mix of the blood rushing to his head, the blood over his eyes, and the blood that covered his entire visor. He didn't move, and soon, he heard someone yell out something like:
"Oh my fucking god!"
He felt someone pick him up, and it hurt. A lot. He was carried to a medical room, where he heard someone call for the Commander on board the ship. He felt his armour being taken off, which hurt as well, although they did it very slowly. When it was all off about 20 minutes later, he saw a dark outline of red lean close to his face, and he felt pain across his face as the blood was wiped from his eyes.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
Alex realized that he wasn't moving at all, and he slowly, and painfully, gave a slight nod.
"Can you speak?"
A small shake of the head.
"Okay… just wait here then," The outline quickly disappeared from view, and then there was silence.
Alex breathed very, very slowly, and when his chest rose and fell with each breath, it hurt. Hell, even thinking hurt. He felt a slight acceleration in the ship, and saw the outline come back, and then the painful procedure of wiping his eyes continued.
"So, who are you?"
Alex would have glared at the man, but he could hardly see him, his entire body would hurt, and glaring would hurt.
"Well, you've done a fare bit here, mate." The man continued, and Alex could almost see him, when a fresh wave of blood came from his eyes and head.
"You've done something to basically every bone in your body! And, well…" the voice trailed off, and Alex felt his arm painfully being moved to his stomach. When his hand touched something metal, that wasn't part of his armour, he stopped.
"There's a Plasma rifle embedded in your stomach."
Commander Miranda Keyes and Spartan-117 watched the painful procedure from the doorway: the doctor injected the other Spartan with something, and a few seconds later, placed his hands on the Plasma rifle's handle, which was basically the only thing that wasn't inside the naked Spartan's stomach. Well, naked isn't really the word, as most of the crippled Spartan's body was covered in his own blood.
"How did this happen?" asked the Master Chief.
Keyes shrugged.
"Apparently, Hood sent him to the Pious Inquisitor to sabotage it. We got word that he did, in the nick of time, as it was about to gut us. And, as you can see, he made it back. In one piece."
"Only just." muttered the Master Chief.
"One," the doctor said to himself.
"Two, three."
He squeezed his eyes shut, and then pulled.
The scream would have been able to have been heard for kilometers, and the doctor stumbled back, horrified by the scream, and the sickening RIPSQUESH! That had taken place less than a second before it. Bits of bloody, loose flesh hung limply from the main wound, and the Plasma rifle, so the doctor quickly dropped it.
Doctors and other people came rushing in at the scream, and took in the situation instantly, after gaping at the wounds. All of them got to work on healing the wounds and injuries, and soon, there was as much biofoam as Alex.
Both of his legs were bent at sick angles, one of his arms had bent around his entire back, and then looped around to his chest. His other arm had been bent backwards at the elbow, and many of his ribs had been severed.
The damage was astonishing.
"What's the damage to the punctured decks?" Miranda Keyes asked on the bridge of In Amber Clad.
"We've sealed them, Ma'am!" one officer said.
"They ain't causing anyone any harm no more!"
3 hours earlier, the new Spartan had crashed through the hull of the ship, coming to a stop about 50 levels lower. His injuries were horrifying, and he would have a set of scars now, but he had miraculously survived. He was now fully recovered, and he was in the Pelican bay, inside one of the 3 Pelican's that were going to the surface in the first wave.
"Johnson?" she asked into her bridge communicator.
"Ma'am?"
"How are our Spartan's?"
"They're fine, Ma'am, and we're ready to kick some serious Covenant ass!"
"Then get ready – you're going down now."
Andrew and the others plugged in Alex's cordless control again, into the Player 1 slot, and started up the campaign. Andrew grasped the control very tightly, watching as the mode select came on, and was confused when he could only pick Legendary mode.
"Just pick it," said Jonno.
"We'll all get more turns,"
"Alright,"
He selected it, and the cut-scene appeared, showing 3 Pelican's flying down towards Earth.
Zap!
"Ow!"
"What?"
"The controller zapped me!"
Suddenly, all the power in the house came back on, lighting it up.
Xbox computer:
Power on; electrical source no longer needed.
Error: Found secondary electrical source, attempting to connect both.
Success: Drawing out main electrical source in 50 minutes.
1232 EST (Suit's time)/
17 October (Military Calendar)/
Milky Way system/ Earth/
Old Mombassa/
Status: Ready to kick some
serious Covenant ass.
Alex looked at the Master Chief, standing emotionlessly looking out the back of the Pelican.
"The message just repeats," said the AI Cortana, who was inside the Chief's helmet, and neurally linked to his brain.
"Regret. Regret. Regret."
""Catchy," replied Miranda Keyes from her position on board In Amber Clad.
"Any idea what it means?"
"Dear Humanity," Sergeant Johnson said.
"We regret being alien bastards; we regret coming to Earth, and we most definitely regret that the corps. just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"
"Hoo-rah!" the pilots shouted in unison, and Alex managed to snuffle a laugh.
"Regret is a name, Sergeant," said Cortana, not affected by his comment.
"A name of a Covenant religious leader – a Prophet – he's on that carrier and he's calling for help!"
Alex reviewed their mission on his HUD, something which surprised him, because he didn't know how to bring things up on his HUD. They were supposed to board a Covenant carrier and capture this Prophet, without killing him.
Alex closed the orders and pulled the bolt back on his Battle rifle; then let it go with a clack! Marines around him did the same, putting on their helmets, loading their weapons, and then the pilot let them all know that they only had 30 seconds to the LZ, and then they would have to travel the rest of the way in Warthog's.
"Whoa..."
The pilot trailed off, and Alex's adrenaline immediately spiked.
Something was wrong. Already.
He stood up quickly and looked through the cockpit window.
"Son of a bitch," he breathed.
In front of the 3 Pelican's was a large machine that resembled a spider and the front of it opened up to reveal a large charging beam, kind of like the charge from a Hunter's Fuel rod gun. This was a Scarab, according to Cortana. A large green beam fired from the front, and it smashed into the middle Pelican.
There was an explosion, glass shattered, and the soldiers that weren't already dead were screaming as the Pelican went down. Alex grabbed onto the Master Chief and hauled him into a seat, but there was no time to fasten him in. The pilot pulled the Pelican into a hard left to stop them from crashing into the Scarab, and the Pelican turned over, receiving hits from a purple turret. The Pelican's roof scraped along the roof of a building, sparks flying, and skidded. The roof supports gave way, and the Pelican fell into the building.
Alex unfastened his seatbelt straight away, falling onto his head as he did, and then helped the marines out of their seats. The Master Chief was lying on the ground a few feet away from the Pelican, and slowly stood up, shaking his head and picking up his Battle rifle.
"Sir," Alex said to him, and the Chief turned to look at him.
"We should keep moving – the Covenant will be all over us any second.
The Master Chief nodded, and Johnson jumped up on top of the Pelican.
"Clear the crash site!" he yelled, and the group of marines ran to the door in the corner. Alex stepped inside after the Chief, and watched as he shot a Grunt in the head.
"We should try to punch when necessary," Alex said to him.
"Sick!" Andrew said.
"The bot is in the campaign as well!"
"And he giving us directions," Jonno added. "We should try to do what they say,"
"Fuck that!"
Alex stood at the doorway leading out into a courtyard, and he motioned for one of the marine's to do the same on the other side. Alex got the marine's attention, then pointed at himself; nodded at the doorway; pointed at the marine, and nodded at the doorway. The marine nodded, understanding.
Alex took a deep breath, and then charged out into the courtyard with his Battle rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder. He fired 3 bursts, and 3 Grunt's fell to the ground in a pool of their own blood. To his right, underneath the balcony of the small building that occupied the corner, there were 2 Jackals, turning around to look at him. Alex quickly took aim and fired, the 3 bullets smashing into the first Jackal's head. The Jackal's head snapped backwards, and its hand-held shield disappeared, then the second Jackal raised its shield to deflect Alex's second burst. The bullets pinged away and hit the ground, and he yelled into the team COM channel for the marines to get up behind it. A plasma charge hit Alex's shields, and the alarm blared as they disappeared, and he ducked behind one of the various plants in the courtyard. A sniper shot boomed, and Alex heard the Jackal hit the ground. He got back up and ran into the building's interior, aiming at the floor above him while advancing up a set of steps. Suddenly, before he got to the top, an Elite appeared, roaring and charging at him.
Alex fired twice before the Elite reached him, and then the Elite swung the butt of its Plasma rifle down on Alex's head. Alex moved away just in time, ducking under the blow and standing up behind the Elite, holding his Battle rifle in his left hand. Watching the Elite, he pulled the trigger twice, and both missed the Elite, entering, intentionally, the Grunt's to his left, killing them. His foot thundered into the Elite's back, and a massive Crack was heard as its spine snapped, and it fell down the steps. Alex turned to his left and saw an exit, going for it. He came out on the balcony just as a Phantom thundered overhead, zooming in between tall buildings.
"Yeah! We got 'em!" His brother's voice came through his helmet's speakers, and Alex realized that the sound must have been transmitted through the TVs speakers.
"I need you to get on the turret, sir!" he said approaching the Master Chief.
The Master Chief didn't get on the turret, and Alex was pretty pissed.
"Marines!" he yelled over the COM.
"Take up defensive positions!"
"Yes, sir!"
He approached the corner of the balcony where the portable turret was, and the Master Chief stood beside him. He was looking over the courtyard, when a large green beam hit the Master Chief in the chest.
"Shit!" a group of Covenant troops came out of the same door that they had, and 3 Jackals accompanied 2 Grunt's and an Elite.
Alex raised his Battle rifle once more and fired, but it was no use, as the Jackals already had their shields up and firing at the two Spartan's. They were surprisingly accurate, and plasma bombarded Alex's shields. One of the plasma bursts from the Elite hit the Master Chief in the arm.
And that's when everything was taken to a whole new level.
Andrew moved left and right, in real life, as one does, while he was shooting at the Elite. The Elite returned fire at Andrew, who no longer had any shields on the game, and 3 plasma bolts hit his character's right arm.
"ARGH!"
Tears immediately came to his eyes, and he dropped to the control, rolling on the floor wildly while clutching his right arm.
"Holy shit!" Jonno exclaimed.
"Are you alright?" Kiel and Harry asked at the same time.
Andrew wasn't paying attention.
"Oh God it hurts! IT FUCKING HURTS! Make it STOP! OHHH FU-HUH-HUCK!"
They inspected his arm as he screamed and rolled on the floor, and what they saw horrified them.
"Andrew – there's nothing there!"
Xbox computer:
Link established. Link source:
Human emotion:
Pain.
A/N: Sorry this tok so long, but I was sick in the last week of school, so I didn't feel up to writing this, but now I'm better, so, yeah. Please R&R.