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Master Chief Returns by Switchback
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Master Chief Returns, Part 1: Longsword
Date: 27 June 2003, 8:09 PM
"Chief, wake up," Spartan 117 was awakened by Cortana's voice from the Longsword's computer console, "Chief, we're not alone in here..." The Spartan sprung to action immediatly, grabbing his shotgun off of the co-pilot's seat. He flipped the flashlight on the shotgun's underside on, wishing he had the protection of the MJOLNIR armor he had removed after escaping from Halo.
He heard a familiar sound and was afraid, the Flood. He remembered a tendril penetrating his armor, touching his spine, he had thought it was over until Cortana had run an electric shock through his armor. Now the battle suit was in pieces next to the pilot's seat he had been sleeping in, he didn't have time to don it.
He swept the light on the shotgun over the interior of the fighter, he didn't see anything but the grey metal. Then he saw a flash of sickly yellow green, he aimed the shotgun at the six spores and fired, destroying four of them with a single shot from the powerful M8, the other two lept for his neck. He tracked them into the air and fired, eliminating them just a hairsbreadth from his face. Flaps of yellow-white skin splattered across his face.
"That was close, you scared me for a minute there, John." The Chief paused, that was the first time Cortana had ever called him by his name, she must have really been frightened. The Spartan didn't blame her.
"Thanks for not letting them catch me napping."
"Anytime."
Lieutenant Alan Taggart had been nervous ever since news had come of the fall of Reach, FLEETCOM HQ. He was manning the most important early warning station there was, and now that the Covenant were within a stone's throw of Earth he had thought he'd be reassigned, that command would give a more experianced officer this post. But that hadn't happened, and now he was the only one who could warn the fleet of an impending invasion.
After the news had come the stations complement of probes and drones, already double the norm, had been tripled so that it could maintain an almost constant watch over the region of slipspace around Sol. Taggart had always kept a close eye on the screens, but now the task consumed his full attention; if he made a mistake what remained of the human race might be vaporized.
Probe Beta 1 was now returning, and Taggart heard his board ping. He immediatly scanned his screens, looking for any sign of a Covenant ship's silhouette, but what he saw was a single small dot, he zoomed in as probe Beta 2 cycled. It looked like a single Longsword interceptor. Its trajectory was on a heading for Earth.
Taggart wasn't going to take any chances, "Ensign, get HQ on the line, tell them we have a single unexpected Longsword on the scope heading for Earth."
"Aye, sir," his communications officer opened communications with Earth as Beta 3 cycled back, the Beta drones were already headed for pickup, the Alpha drones returning with the fiirst set of probes. "HQ has acknowledged, sir." The Lieutenant nodded and sighed with relief, it was out of his hands now.
Probe Gamma 1 cycled.
"Five minutes to normal space." The Chief was irritable, and it seemed like Cortana was too. They had been cooped up in the Longsword for eight months, with nothing but the darkness of slipspace outside the windows. Even though he hated the freezer, the Spartan now wished the Longsword was equipped with a cryo bay.
He sat down at the controls in his battered power armor, ever since the incident with the Flood stowaways three days into the journey he hadn't taken it off, he remembered the argument he'd had with Cortana about it, "You're being paranoid," she had said.
"I prefer being paranoid to sprouting feelers from my neck."
"I told you, I haven't detected anymore of them on the ship," Cortana was irritated, her "skin" glowed red.
"Just like you didn't detect anything on the ship the when we entered slipspace?" Cortana had looked at him, crossed her arms, then disappeared. She didn't speak to him for nearly a week after that.
"Thirty seonds to normal space," the AI's voice brought him back to the present. He performed a quick check of all the fighter's systems to make sure they were in working order. "Five seconds... four.. three... two... one..." There was a flash of green light then millions of stars rushed into view. A human cruiser loomed in front of them.
The Longsword's consoles started flashing warnings, "Cortana, what the hell is going on?"
"Approximately 200 Archer missiles just locked onto us," Cortana tsked, "somehow I don't think we're getting the hero's welcome."
Probe Epsilon 1 cycled. Lieutenant Taggart stared at his boards, two contacts in under an hour, but this one was much bigger. It read at 100000 tons and it looked like a large, bulbous asteroid. He knew from earlier records exactly what it was.
"Dear god, Ensign, get HQ on the line, right now."
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