5 Star: Hotel Zanzibar.
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo 2; I am just a fan of the soon-to-be trilogy.
1330 (Suits time)/
17 October (Military Calendar)/
Milky Way System/Earth/
Old Mombassa/
Status: Ready to kick some ass.
Alex pulled the bolt on his Battle rifle back and let it go, hearing a satisfying, metallic, clack 3 rounds slid into the 3 separate chambers. The other marines were ready. Good.
"Okay marines," he said while stepping over to the corner and peering around.
"We got 2 Elites, 3 Grunts."
"That's it?" one bewildered marine asked.
"Yes, but they're spec ops. Elites."
"Oh, fuck me!"
Alex crouched at the corner.
"Jonno! Get up here!"
The Master Chief joined him at the corner.
"You go around the back – we'll distract them."
Alex watched as Jonno ran around the back of the building, and then he turned his attention back to the front of the hotel, where he saw one of the Elite's crouching behind a small, portable Plasma turret, which was facing the inside of the building, where he saw more Covenant.
And Second squad was on the other side of the building.
"Marines, form up!" he barked, and the marines crouched beside him, leaning around the corner.
"Grenades on my mark and then find cover."
"He drew his own grenade, and counted down.
"3, 2, 1, mark!"
5 grenades were lobbed towards the Covenant defence emplacement, and the marines ran for cover, ducking behind 'dead' cars and rubble from buildings.
The first grenade hit the ground, bounced twice, and rolled to the feet of two Grunts, who were startled, until the grenade exploded.
"Yee-ha!" One marine yelled. "That's two for me!"
2 grenades had landed next to the Elite that was patrolling, and he had been smart enough to dive, but he was thrown into a wall, and then fell to the ground, alive, but badly wounded.
The last 2 grenades were thrown too far, and they bounced past the remaining Covenant troops, but served as a distraction – Alex and the marines moved from cover long enough to fire about half a clip each.
The last Grunt fell, but the Elite refused to go down. The first Elite joined the second, and together they fired a barrage of plasma bolts. Alex and the marines resumed firing for a nano-second more, before ducking back behind their cover. Plasma zoomed over Alex's head, and then the Plasma rifle's over-heated. Alex leapt out from behind his cover, firing his Battle rifle in the general direction of the white armoured Elite's, whilst running towards them. He pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, but the Elite's stood still – letting their shields take the hits – patiently waiting for their Plasma rifle's to cool.
They did, and the Elite's opened fire straight away. Alex roared in defiance, not willing to accept the fact that this might be the wave of plasma that would kill him.
It wasn't.
Suddenly, the plasma moved slow – very slow, and his run slowed to a walk, then he stopped.
He heard dampened sounds of human, and Covenant, weapons firing, and he turned around to see bullets slowly moving towards the Elite's. The air behind the bullets was distorted, and he moved closer to look at the bullets themselves. He plucked one out of the air, just like that, and examined it – it was real.
Alex let the bullet drop, and it slowly floated down to the ground, as if it was underwater. He turned back around to the Elite's, and stepped out the way of incoming plasma bolts.
This must be… Spartan reflexes, he thought.
Combined with my own.
The realisation hit him – nobody was slowing down – he was speeding up.
He grinned inside his helmet, and ran towards the first Elite. It tried to shoot him, but he easily side-stepped all of the bolts. The Elite's moves were sluggish, and he dropped his Battle rifle before reaching it, stopping right in front of it. He punched it, over and over, and each time it reacted extremely slowly. His fists pounded its chest, and its shields failed.
Wham!
He spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick to the Elite, and it – slowly – flew backwards through the air. Alex turned to deal with the second Elite, picking up his Battle rifle at the same time, and raised it to the Elite's head, pulling the trigger. The Elite's shields failed immediately, due to the closeness of the Battle rifle.
Suddenly, everything became louder, and noise gradually returned, along with the speed of everything else.
"No!" he said to himself, pulling the trigger again.
No dice. The Battle rifle emitted a loud click as the clip ran dry, and the bolt remained open. By now, everything had returned to normal, and the marines ceased fire, afraid to hit Alex, whom the Elite roared at. Alex roared back, and the Elite clubbed him over the head with its Plasma rifle.
Alex stumbled back and fell, landing on the road with a thud, and saw that his shields were almost fully drained. The Elite levelled its Plasma rifle at Alex without hesitation.
Alex didn't need it to display any anyway.
His feet lashed up at batted the Plasma rifle away, but still moved, swinging around and bringing him onto his knees with the momentum. He stood up quickly, and kicked the Elite in the shin. The Elite flinched, but punched Alex in the chest in response, twice.
The first punch brought his already weakened shield down, and the second left him gasping for breath. He quickly got it back, and regained his focus, using the butt of his Battle rifle to punch the Elite in return. The armour dinted inwards, but the Elite hardly doubled over. Alex did it again, but the Elite's hands caught it halfway, and they pushed against it.
They pushed against each other, and then everything started to slow down again.
Alex heard himself panting, and was only oriented enough to see what happened inside his helmet, which was enough.
A single bullet, followed by two more, shattered a tiny amount of the glass on the right side of his visor, and tiny shards of glass lazily flew around inside his helmet. The bullets slowly made their way over to the other side of his helmet, and exited the same way.
Sound returned, and Alex regained focus, once again, and saw the Elite' head snap up, looking to Alex's right – where the shot came from. There was another shot, and Alex saw three holes appear inside the Elite's stomach plate, before it roared, and then simply disappeared.
Alex began to breathe slowly, but was confused.
"Where the fuck did it go?" he asked
The Elite was no where to be found.
"Fuck!" Jonno shouted.
"Where'd he go?! I had him!"
"Bullshit you had him!"
"More Covenant!"
"I know, goddamn it! Take 'em out!"
"Fire!"
Alex looked to his right, and saw the Master Chief crouching in the middle of the road, with his Battle rifle pointed towards Alex. Alex looked back towards the hotel, and saw a team of Grunt's stream out, followed by the marines' voices.
"More Covenant!"
"I know, goddamn it! Take 'em out!"
"Fire!"
He rolled over and kept his head down as hundreds of bullets zoomed over his head, entering, and in some cases exiting, the Grunt's. They screamed and squealed, toppling over, with some trying to run. They only got bullets in the back.
The Grunts were dead; the bodies left to drown in their own blue blood, but more and more piled out, closely followed by Jackals as well. The first of the Grunts went down quickly, but more replaced them, and the Jackals crouched in front of the Grunts with their shields acting as a barricade.
Slowly, however, some of the Jackals and Grunts disappeared, one by one, into thin air. Alex cocked an eyebrow, and reloaded his Battle rifle, rolling over to fire in the gaps that were created. A Jackal went down to three bursts from his Battle rifle, and Jonno took down some as well.
Hawkins lobbed a grenade into the middle of the Jackal line, and it exploded, flinging Jackal's away, and leaving the remaining ones confused and scattered. They finished them off, and advanced to the door. Two marines remained stationary the two rectangular windows either side of the front door, while Hawkins, the fourth marine, Alex and Jonno crouched beside the front door.
"Lobby looks clear," one marine said from his position at the window.
"Okay, Master Chief – what's the plan?" Alex asked Jonno.
"Uhh… run in, and then check the hall, and any open doors?"
Alex sighed inwardly. Jonno was hardly the person to count on when it came to leadership.
"Well you heard him." Hawkins said to the other marine at the door.
"Go, go, go!"
They ran through the open door, sweeping every square centimetre with their weapons, watching for any sign of movement.
Suddenly, all the lights went dead, and Alex stiffened – they were in the perfect position to receive an attack.
"Marines, turn on your helmet lights," he said over the comm – no point in talking out loud when the lights were out, was there?
Jonno's light clicked on, and then Hawkins', the other marine's, and Alex's.
"Sir," Hawkins whispered, moving closer.
"Back there – you were moving so fast – how did you do that?"
Alex was about to answer, when there was a menacing growl to his right. He spun to face his right flank, with his Battle rifle raised, but his helmet light showed nothing.
He turned back to face the hallway up ahead.
"Marines," he heard Hawkins say.
"Move in, but watch our six."
"Yes, sir…"
Whack!
Alex's Battle rifle was swatted aside by an invisible force, and he felt a wave of adrenaline course through him. He raised his Battle rifle again, holding it still.
But there was nothing in front of him.
Then, a plasma grenade materialised in the air a few metres ahead of him, and it sailed through the air. He was so stunned that he didn't move, and then it attached itself to his Battle rifle.
"Agh!" He threw the Battle rifle down the hall, and threw himself back.
The grenade detonated, taking the Battle rifle to the abyss, and nearly consuming Alex. What it also did was fuck up the camouflage generator of the Elite's in front of them, revealing 5 Elite's.
"Contact!" Hawkins screamed, snapping up his Battle rifle and pulling the trigger.
"12 'o clock!" Alex shouted confirmed, lying on his back and struggling with the 2 SMG's attached to his thighs.
He finally managed to unclip them, and he stood up, aiming both of them at the barely see-able black Elite's, who returned fire. He jammed his fingers on the two separate triggers, and then moved his arms left and right, spraying bullets all over the hallway. The SMG's started to rise, so he stopped firing, steadied them, and then resumed. The SMG's stopped firing, and they clicked. Alex shook them, smashed the sides against his thigh's once, and the clips popped out.
There was a scream as one of the marines went down, a burning hole in his chest. Alex pushed the empty receivers against one new clip on both of the SMG's, and they stayed in the receiver. He aimed up again and resumed his firing. His shields started to drop rapidly as he started to take hits, but he just kept firing.
Plasma and projectiles zoomed back and forth in the tight hallway. One Elite went down, another marine went down, and Hawkins went prone, avoiding numerous bolts of plasma that lashed over his head. Jonno stayed at the back of the group, lobbing a grenade or two, careful not to let his shields deplete.
"Get clear!" a voice shouted over the comm and, almost straight after it, there was an almighty explosion, and the Elite's were engulfed by smoke and flames. They roared and became almost invisible in the smoke.
There were the sounds of Battle rifle's, SMG's, and a shotgun being fired, and then the screaming of the Elite's subsided. When the smoke cleared, 11 ODST's emerged, stepping over the bodies of the dead Elite's.
"Second squad, reporting in." the lead ODST said, standing with his back straight.
Alex exhaled deeply.
The battle for Hotel Zanzibar was over.
Xbox computer:
Warning: Error in drawing
out source.
Problem: Too many electrical
components.
Attempting to find secondary source used.
Stand by.
A/N: Hey all, I know that I haven't covered much ground in the last few chapters, but from about chapter 12 and on will probably be the best.
Please review on your way out.
And has anybody got Ghosts of Onyx yet? That book is awesome.