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Halo: Protect the Homestead by Steven Crowley
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Halo: Protect the Homestead Chapter 1
Date: 23 March 2002, 10:30 pm
BEGINNING
Earth was a quite place. It was filled with many things however. Mother earth where all known human civilization had began, time had started here, this for so many was "home". It had been approximately 5 years since what UNSC marines called the "shattered ring." Everyone on earth too remembered that day, when the UNSC ship "The pillar of autumn" was over run by the alien forces known as the covenant. The one man who could stop the covenant was one of the few survivors on the planet HALO. He went through the planet with fellow UNSC marines to search out and kill the covenant, as that had been there mission.
The time came when the had the chance to destroy the planet and its inhibants. They had succeeded, or so they thought--.
Section one, chapter one: "All that's good is good-until it is found-."
The sun shined bright in John's eyes as he awoke, he was at the UNSC headquarters still undergoing debriefing after his time on the ring-world halo. He had not been in a single mission since the mission on halo. After he escaped the halo, he was sent to a remote planet in the star system, "rt-58w". There was hardly anything on this rock, it was a UNSC testing ground for new weaponry in there battle to fight the covenant. John had gone to debriefing and testing sessions for 2 years and 3 months for nine hours a day, it was horrible. Just then the A.I. Podium turned on in his cell.
"Good Morning Master Chief." Said Cortana.
"Ah- I hate it when you do that Cortana" Said the Chief.
"Well chief, I don't think it would be very good for you to miss your final day of de briefing before leaving the system." Said Cortana.
"Your right, Let me get ready to go down." Said John.
John Arouse out of his bed, which was especially made for him, he needed extra support because of wearing the MJOLNIR armor, it took its toll on his body.
John quickly went into his room's, "Hygiene chamber" everyone one on the planet had one, it was a simple five second pulse the rid the human body of any harmful germs. John did this, and got out and then put on his UNSC uniform, he was very proud to put this on because of all of the medals he had received, he had received almost every UNSC medal for his work on Halo and protecting planet reach in the Sigma Ocatnus star system.
John left his chamber and left Cortana, she would begin planning for there meeting with the UNSC president, Jacob Keyes, the former captain of the "Pillar of Autumn"
As John reached the outside he was met by the HumAI, Garrick. A HumAI was a special kind of AI that the UNSC technology labs had created. These "Smart" AI's were life size, they stood six feet, two inches. HumAI's had replaced many UNSC personal since the HALO incident, they work on everything from ship piloting, to combat simulation, Garrick, John's HumAI was his Chauffer for the day.
Garrick met John in John's specially equip warthog vehicle. It did not have the chain gun in the back, it was replaced by a canopy that could be folded over to protect against shrapnel that could be falling from the weapons experiments on the planet.
"Good Morning, Master chief" Said Garrick
"Good Morning, Garrick" replied the chief.
It was a five-minute ride to UNSC central, where John was to undergo his final day of debriefing. He arrived, as he passed through the front doors, he was saluted by two military personal, John returned there salute.
It was a long walk through all of he checkpoints of security, retinal scans, and intense voice tests were given. After John was granted clearance he arrived in a octagonal shaped room, where on the far corner was the desk holding the debriefing team, John snapped in attention to salute the team,
"Good Morning, 117" said one man
"Good morning sir!" replied John.
"Well, at ease soldier, we will make this brief, the UNSC has been working very hard since Sigma ocatnus four from halo to now, we have created many new technologies, such as new weaponry and our HumAI's. And the UNSC has yet to have won the war with the covenant, we have received intercepted transmissions between covenant leaders that there is a plan to attack earth-.."
John cringed at the word "earth", earth, this was the home to the human race, this wasn't where he was born but it still had a special meaning to him.
"-What we have heard so far is that the covenant was not eliminated as we thought after the destruction of halo. They have been breeding there army of Jackals, Grunts and Elites and it seems they have created a new language which our translation software cannot yet infiltrate, we are still working on it." Said one of the Panel members.
"How old is the intercept, sir" John asked.
"Well, 117 this is the scary thing, it has been in our knowledge for about 1 and a half years, we never acted because we never felt this was a credible threat. But now it seems as this is true, as we have received new classified information."
"In the original threat, what was there means of attack on earth?" asked john.
"It seems 117, that the covenant have been adding to there arsenal of MAC guns that were used on there carriers during the old days of Jacob keys incredible job with the ship the "Iquarious". The MAC gun's there are building are about 100 times more powerful then the original, the plasma is that hot, it will decimate earth to dust."
" I anticipate that you are asking of me to go and stop the covenant?" Said John.
"Yes, you are to go to your cell, and gather all of your belongings, and of course Cortana, we will have a Pelican waiting for you in approx. four hours, in that time you will be brought to the Cuzax star system right outside of the milky way galaxy, from there you will board the UNSC carrier, Starlight where you will have a meeting with UNSC president Jacob Keyes. From there he will give you further instruction, dismissed!"
John snapped into a salute, ready to get his things, the covenant had found mother earth, and with no doubt would try to do the exact same thing to it as he did to halo, destroy it.
Halo: Protect the Homestead Chapter 2/3
Date: 26 March 2002, 11:39 pm
Section one: Chapter 2: "Get on your high horse and let's move out, Marines."
This would be the first meeting with captain keys after he had been found on the planet BU41A after the destruction of HALO. Keyes had stolen a Covenant spacecraft and piloted it to a friendly planet filled with humans, the planet even had a UNSC embassy.
John sat on the cold bench in the back of the Pelican. He looked around, it was cold. He took our his AI pod and turned it on, to appear Cortana,
"Well looks like were going to have to save there buts again, huh." Said Cortana Jokingly.
"Were just going to meet President Keyes, he will give us further instruction, I am not really sure of his means of operation to save earth, I mean we have no tactical training what so ever for this- and it has been well over two months since I have been in MJOLNIR, it would take a little time for me to get acquainted with it." Said John
"Don't worry chief" Said Cortana, "I will help you remember all of the things you need to become reacquainted with things."
It would take Another 30 hours to reach the Starlight, Luckily the Pelican was a new model the UNSC lab. Had created recently, the ship was equip with a sleeping chamber, even a cryo sleep chamber.
As hours were passing The Master Chief was having intense conversation's with Cortana. They were discussing the first time that they had met, when they were at the UNSC "training camp" and the master chief was being tested with the new MJOLNIR armor. He recalled there first mission together, an obstacle course-. Chief was almost killed in that day but it was a test just to see how strong the MJOLNIR armor was.
All of the talking of the old days reminded the chief of when he was awaken from cryo sleep on the pillar of autmn as the ship was being invaded by the covenant, he remember how, "fun" that was for him, defending the ship against the covenant. He remembers when Keyes told him to get off of the ship, he was alerted to see the grunts standing right outside of the Bridge. He also recalled to Cortana how weird the stint on Halo was when he met the flood, that was something john wanted to forget, he hated just the sound of the word, flood it was just creepy. John asked Cortana to allow him to Cryo sleep for the remainder of the time, he didn't want to wait any longer to reunite with his old friend, his mentor, Jacob Keys.
Section one: Chapter 3: "Hey, where have you been."
The cryo chamber sounded, then the hatch rose up, the master chief was awakening, they were inbound on the starlight. He got up and was greeted by Cortana,
"I see you've awaken, chief" Said Cortana
"How long till we arrive" replied john .
"T-minus 3 minutes, get ready chief."
"Yes Cortana."
The shipped docked to the massive UNSC carrier starlight, it was easily twice the size of the ship he had been on when he was a halo, this ship that he was on now was at least 4 kilometers long, this was the biggest and best ship that the UNSC had had.
There shipped docked, the hatch to the back of the pelican opened, and to greet the chief was A rather tall HumAI.
"Greeting, Master Chief, please proceed to the observation deck, you will find President Keyes awaiting your arrive." Said the HumAI
John made his way through the ship, he found it very difficult to navigate, cortana was able to pull up a map she had found in the UNSC ship database list and navitagated to the correct spot, she told the master chief to keep walking.
As they were going up through the ship all of the passing crew would salute, it wasn't every day that you got to see the master chief.
The walked, and walked passing numerous windows, the reached the top floor, the observation deck, as they found the room they were greeted by yet another HumAI, he instructed the master chief to proceed to the conference room down the hall, he would find the President there. He proceed to walk down the very wide hall way, as he was walking he found many electronic billboards promoting the UNSC and there members, this was a proud organization.
The chief found the doors and opened them, he walked into a large dome shaped room, with a large hexagon shaped table in the center of the room, to his left there was an enormous observation window where you could see anything and everything in space, as john looked out the window, he could see the milky way galaxy, the home to planet earth, he was dazing in the reminder why he was here when all of a sudden from double doors at the far end o the room,
"Ahh Hello again, John." Said Keyes.
John snapped into a salute,
"Hello sir!" Said John
"Long time no see, have have you been doing?"
"I have been fine sir, but I really think your story is more courageous then mine, how did you manage to escape the covenant and return--."
John was interrupted.
"117 that is not why you are here. You have been briefed on everything that that UNSC has been working on since halo ,intellienge and even weapons building. I know that on your final day of briefing you received the word about the credible plot against mother earth--"
John glanced at the milky way galaxy.
"- You know john, we destroyed halo, the covenants home world, they are prepared to do the same to us, you must realize this."
"Sir I understand, but what I do not understand is how you expect me to win this war for the UNSC." Said john
"I was just getting to the 117, you see every since the HALO incident the UNSC has been working on our new project "Spartan" III. We are trying to recreate the Spartan team as we had on your days on the planet reach. We have assembled the top three Spartans, who are equipped with the old version of the MJOLNIR armor, to help create a squad that you will lead to protect earth from the covenant. I will bring your squad members in now."
Keyes went over to the intercom on the conference table, he said-
"ALL SPARTAN III CODE 88aakk MEMBERS PLEASE REPORT TO KEYES OBSERVATION CONFRENCE ROOM, HES HERE."
From there until the members of the Spartan III got to the room there was silence between the two men, no talking, chief was looking out of the window, at earth-. He knew what he had to do.
Just then 3 people, john's size walked in, two men, one women. They snapped to attention and saluted.
"Hello Sir" They all said. There attention quickly shifted to Master Chief.
"Sir, it is an honor to meet you sir, we have all looked up to you since we were starting our training, I remember that one time when -.."
"That's quite enough, Lewis." Said Keyes. "Now, John these are the members of your Spartan 3 team, I would like to introduce you to them-" He pointed to the first one in the line, the one who had spoken. "Here is Lewis Blackwell, he is a computer specialist, he will crack into the covenant's computer systems once the computer system is back up. He also has been working on decoding the new covenant language, he is very intelligent."
"Thank you, sir" Said Lewis.
"Next up is Horrace Smith, he is the specialist we like to call, "banger". In the field he can do just about it all, sniper, rush and even flank, he is a valuable asset to the UNSC".
Horrace nodded.
"And last but not least we have, Jennifer Sanders. She is the best sniper you will find in the universe, and I do mean that, she is also the perfect scout to this team."
"Thanks" said Jennifer.
As all of the saluting and nodding and saying hi, the chief was wondering what three greenhorns in there twenties could really do to help him, He thought to himself that wasn't he supposed to be the best that there was?
"Now, you four will be Spartan III, you are headed by Master Chief. In the recent events against the world, you're job will be to protect it at all costs. Now for your first assignment you are to sneak aboard a covenant carrier, and steal all of the intelligence you can about the plot on planet ear-.."
Just then there was a loud crash, and the ship shook. Keyes stumbled to the table, and Jennifer fell straight to the ground. Three Elites rushed the room, through where john had entered before, they fired three plasma rounds and Lewis and Horrace each, as john headed for cover. The Elites stood eight feet six inches tall, the saw john run behind the table and ran over to him. The first Elite went to smack him, john quickly darted out of the way and managed to actually smack the elite over the head knocking it down. John ran to the plasma weapon that the creature had drooped, he grabbed it and began fireing on the fallen elite until there was a coat of purple blood all over the rooms walls. The next elite opened fire on john, he hid behind the dead Elite and returned the fire. The Elite was wicked accurate, one round clipped john in the arm, he would be ok however. John looked around for something to use, he saw that keyes, was awakening of off the floor, keyes said "Look out!" Just then the eliete turned to the helpless keyes, the Elite took his fist brought it high and smashed it completely through Keyes head, automatically killing him. John was mad, real mad. He got up and simply punched his hand right through the Elite, he killed it with a loud scream. John turned around as the final elite was going after him, just then three grunts rushed in, they had needlers, they pelted the room, and the SPARTAN III team, they all fell time the ground motionless.
The aliens picked up the four members of SPARTAN 3, and ran out, down the ramps and stairs, they brought them into there version of the UNSC's pelican. The ship had a dozen covenant in it. The elite laid the bodies on the floor, they all began to sound in some religious ceremony, the covenant aliens were praying, but to what?
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