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Sequel to Ghosts Of Onyx by Max Kosobutsky
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Spartan Assault
Date: 1 January 2007, 3:40 am
Spartan Assault
Max Kosobutsky
Prologue
9th cycle, 14 units, January 22 2552
Aboard Reactor Carrier Igneous Cataclysm
Admiral Y'akmaar stood abroad in his newly built carrier. Everything was going just as planned. Small higher ranked Unggoy walked up and down the isles, making sure everybody was on task, just as the admiral ordered, but they were also careful not to get in the way of anybody. The admiral stood on the main platform, gazing his sights into the deep abyss of star clusters.
"Status of the ship, Lafw'at" said Y'akmaar calmly, waited for his precious answer. The Lieutenant for the sixth time, rechecked all the cameras, docking bays, platforms, and reactors. "All systems in perfect working order, your Excellency." Y'akmaar paused and gave orders again.
"Make sure the destination is set to seven-point-oh-eight by five-five-seven-nine." Lafw'at looked at the coordinate display chart, thousands of star systems and safe routes enveloped the worn out planet.
"Sir, the route you have chosen to take has a direct point leading to the human planet" Y'akmaar gave him an ugly stare. "We had direct orders from the Hierarchs not to invade until they gave the proper command." The admiral walked toward Lafw'at's seat, he could feel the breath from his captain enraging his body.
"Did you hear what I said?" Y'akmaar smirked and walked back to the main platform observing the blackness surrounding the mass of the titanium-A structure. Thoughts echoed through his mind. Y'akmaar was angry, all these years he searched for nothing but glory, yet he still needed revenge for his fallen brethren.
Y'akmaar flushed his hand past holographic panels floating by the complex structures of the inner ship walls, making the invisible pictures of the ships' data shimmer and flash. Stress and doubt struck his senses.
"The Hierarchs betrayed us, brothers. With only the Brutes at their sides, they will fall." He slammed his fist against a rock hard panel, denting it.
"The Demons. There are more of them, not just one. Soon they will not only succeed in defending their own planet. But they will succeed in overthrowing the whole Covenant armada." More workers from the ship appeared, Lekgolo, Shanghelli, confused and not knowing what's going to happen next. Lafw'at slowly walked to a nearby control panel, setting the new course, and at the same time asking:
"What are you trying to tell us, Excellency?"
Y'akmaar removed his silver lined chest plate, remembering the time the prophets offered him his suit, also his life back. He turned to face the crowd.
Grunts let out a small scream, anticipating some sort of danger, but all they saw a clean mark engraved on their master's skin.
"The Mark of Shame was given to me a little over a month ago." He said
"This showed that I have failed to defend one of our sacred holy rings, pretty soon we wont have any chance of stopping the demon again. The time when the demon used the Pillar of Autumn to detonate the construct, we were left hopeless."
The Lekgolo growled under their alloy masks at the sound of "demon". They had enough of this, but showed no disrespect to their higher leader.
"But through time, those holy rings meant nothing to me anymore. If we don't do something, the activation of the rings in the holy realm is at hand.
"I am saying that as a group, and as your leader, we will help those humans fight off whatever stands in the way, and we will fight all as one, as brothers, because we cannot and shall not risk ourselves by fighting alone. We have made the wrong choice to fight with them at first."
Deep in the furious crowd, a Shanghelli held up a fist, yelling:
"If its life we're defending, then its Earth we're going to!"
The crowd all held up fists. Y'akmaar put his chest armor on again and erected his sizzling plasma sword from its sheath, showing the symbol of life and glory for everybody. Their path was now clear and a new great journey is yet to come for them.
"Brothers, let us finish this fight!
Chapter 1
October 9, 2449
1800 hours (military time)
Planet Sobaseki, Area in unknown Covenant Campsite
Max stood lonesome waiting in a shadow and glanced at Dmitry.
"You loaded?"
Without hesitating, Dmitry pulled a D-73 tritium-charged shotgun from his back and without saying anything, went out to search for anything that moves.
"James, what do you got?"
James checked his supply pack and found 2 fragmentation grenades and an Assault Rifle with 14 mags.
"The usual" he replied. "Let's go."
The bulk of Max's suit forcefully extorted in between the branches before they all broke off with a loud racket. Lights within the deep vegetation reacted with a quick 3 blinks and then faded; a warning signal used by Spartans
"Everything's fine, keep moving". Three seven foot tall gladiators swiftly merged to the incoming facility.
"Meet up behind the wall over there" acknowledgment lights winked from their visors
"Two-hundred meters left, let's not give away our position." Soft foot steps frenzied into heavy pounding ones. The blur from all the night vision made the scene all worse for them.
"Twenty meters, there it is… wait a minute, since when do the covenant abandon their own territories?" James said. "Something must have stirred them out of here."
A thick coating of fog slid past their dark alloy. Max motioned to James to keep moving cautiously, and did a double take. Even in their helmets, he knew who was worried, and who wasn't.
James stopped suddenly.
"Something isn't right. This place. There's something about it that I don't like."
"Dmitry, report back to our home station, and see if anyone can give us a schematics update on this place."
"There's no signal, reported Dmitry. "Damn! I guess we'll have to enter this shithole."
The Spartans walked in with the heavy might of the glossy doors sealed shut behind them. No source of light or energy anywhere. Dmitry's built in automatic flashlight in his shotgun kicked in, puncturing a hole in the dark haze around them.
"What's that over their?" Looking over his shoulder, Max knew something was their. He quickly turned around as if he was to grab something. But his arm hit nothing but thin air.
"It can't be." he thought to himself. James felt a rush of adrenaline down his spine. "Flood" he whispered to himself.
"Listen, I have a very bad and familiar feeling about all of this."
Max looked from James to Dmitry. "You doing fine over their?"
"Better than ever, never had more fun than this mission. Couldn't they find anyone else to do this for us?" James nudged Dmitry from the back, warning him not to lose his mind. "Four words: shut up, look ahead." The flash from the Spartans' helmet lights illuminated the deserted rooms. They moved from one dark corridor to another, their fluorescent beacons searching for any clue that may be around. Nothing.
"Radar shows no signs of an enemy or object" Max whispered.
"There's nothing anywhere, can it get any worse?" A faint whizzing sound approached them quickly from the sky, followed by a glowing hovering bulb-like droid. Surprisingly, this thing actually spoke.
"Greeting's , I am thirty- three- o- seven- Carbal, monitor of installation zero. Reclaimers, how thoughtful! Max felt discomfort when the monitor called this place "installation zero" He was sure that it made some kind of mistake.
The monitors' words were sudden. It spoke perfect English and was well aware of who the intruders were.
"Please make yourselves at home; I'm sure the flood won't be a problem for you. The monitor drifted spontaneously through a hatch in the ceiling, humming short tunes while leaving the Spartans' hopeless.
"C'mon, let's get out of here" Dmitry exclaimed. "Follow me."
Max pulled out his M7 assault rifle and balanced it on his hand with appreciation. For him, havoc is what it was all about.
The rifle's flashlight went on. Looking behind him once more, he finally realized the true meaning of Flood. There stood at point blank range, five disfigured parasite forms that had once ranged all the way from covenant Elites, to Hunters.
These pieces of shit will do anything possible to stop you in your tracks. There was no choice but to fight them off.
Max swung his assault rifle in front of the face of the Flood, his trigger finger instantly reacting. Like a bullet hose, the rifle had torn through their limp bodies like rocks against tissue paper, cutting off arms, legs, limbs.
The Flood dropped on the cold tiles, squirming and trying to get back up.
Max's foot came down upon them and the noise ceased. He took cover to look and find where the flood were coming from.
He turned on the TeamCom. "Stay together, keep 'em down." James and Dmitry crouched at attention back to back, speculating every single corner of their HUD.
As diamond-coated projectiles ejected from their weapons on countless oncoming beasts, Max found an open hatch in the wall that concealed the entire Flood.
He checked his belt. 1 plasma grenade. He unclipped it and activated it. He reached his hand into the hole, and propelled it up. The glowing grenade hissed through the canal, fighting the pull of gravity. The sound dimmed immediately, with the largest Flood form pushing itself out through the opening. Max saw the grenade fall back down onto the creatures' lifeless corpse.
The Flood hurled itself at the Spartan as the plasma shimmered. Max fell backwards and let his last rounds leave the barrel. He thought it was the end of him.
As the beast came down, it was instantly blown back a few feet by a clean hit to the head with James's shotgun.
They struggled to run away, while the thirty foot radius blast shook the ground and melted the floor, along with hundreds of gathered Flood.
Dmitry came out of nowhere. His visor had shattered and plasma burns enveloped his Mark-V armor.
"I gave em' hell, lets get outta here." Max shifted uneasily, and slid a fresh clip into his rifle with a satisfying click.
"This way, c'mon". The three of them found it harder to find the exit walking over the dead corpses that had infiltrated the whole facility. They found a door that unfortunately was opened.
"This isn't the way we came in." Said Dmitry. He knew their was no choice, he needed medical attention, but he ignored his wounds.
James slung his gun over his shoulder.
"But it's the way we're coming out."
A wave of relief and fear washed over the Spartans' as they entered a whole new atmosphere. In the distance they saw what they came here for. They had found the center of the most dangerous place ever to be seen by man.
______________________________________________________________________________
1900 HOURS OCTOBER 9, 2449 (MILITARY CALENDER)
PLANET SOBASEKI, AREA OUTSIDE OF PARASITE PROCESSING PLANT
A violent eruption of a radioactive downpour pattered the ground.
"Shields up to one-hundred-seventy-five percent!" Max yelled. "This is only the beginning!" The three Spartans increased their shield power that made each of their exo-skeletons glow and shimmer from the rain.
The acid trying to break the magnetic force simply could not beat the power of the Mark-V armor. As the tallest of the three, James lifted himself on a boulder and looked around.
"Dim the tint on your visors, there is some sort of unusual architecture in the fog." "Distance?" Dmitry said. "Bout 2 kilos away, I say we start moving."
Max's Com-link channel flushed to static. A troubled mans voice crackled.
"Hello, Hello? Is this Spartan group beta? If you three can hear me and if you've already found the processing plant do not go near it! I repea-…"
An enormous ball of green gas plumed from the horizon, followed by another explosive nuclear obliterating heat wave. The ground started rumbling which caused James to slip off of the rock. All three Spartans raised their shields to their maximum. In a quarter of a minute the flames echoed through the swamps and cremated the ground where the Spartans last stood.
James and Dmitry sprinted through the forest following Max, who had no Idea where to go next. He heard a deafening scream run past his helmet in the sky.
A pelican soared through the darkness, unbothered by the hellish scene surrounding the soldiers. The chaos wouldn't stop behind them, as it was going to rip Sobaseki apart.
The pelican couldn't stop and wait for them; it kept a fair speed and lowered itself. Max kept his pace; he knew what the pilot was doing. He ran up and jumped with all his might. Success.
He got to one knee and motioned for Dmitry and James to jump. They both boarded without breaking a sweat. James lay there, almost unconscious on his back.
"So much for all this eh?" Max took his helmet off and tried to clear his mind, but at the same time couldn't resist watching the planet being annihilated by such a dramatic explosion from whatever the thing was. He couldn't find any explanation to why all this happened so sudden. Dmitry took hold of a metal bar. The Hatch closed and the Pelican rose up to the heavens.
"How are you all doing this fine evening? A female voice broke into the room.
"Very unexpected, wasn't it?" The pilot compartment door opened slowly. The nearly dead Spartans looked with fascination at the pilot's seat. There was nobody there. Just an empty cabin remodeled to a very adequate size.
"What's this?" Max glanced in awe. The same female voice responded gently:
"Why I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself, my name is Jenny. I am your welcoming pilot for the day." Max looked unsatisfied.
An AI doing all of the flying? he murmured to himself. A small pedestal appeared from the wall of the pilots' seat. A holographic image appeared of a woman's face. Her slender eyes made her all too happy-looking.
"Actually, I'm only operating these kinds of types, since they all acquire AI-accepted modules." Max was impressed with technology these days. All of this AI piloting business may have been new to him, but using a real human being to pilot a bird all the way to get his or her ass fried, is understandable.
"Well...Um...Thank you Jenny" Max said. The face smiled then the pedestal slipped back inside.
The familiar feeling of zero-gee filled each of the Spartans' individual bodies, each of them looking out the front of the pelican rethinking all of their moments being out on the battlefield, also rethinking what happened 5 minutes ago. The thought of something else still boiled in all of their minds. What if part of this was a trap?
There was nothing that could have caused that explosion. Something or someone wanted them to hurry up and leave. Jenny's voice came up:
"Stand by for-… An unpleasant view sprang in front of their ship. More ships. Dozens of Flag carriers materialized out of a warp bubble.
It was time to rethink about how they were going to escape an emerging fleet of covenant carriers.
Jenny's voice sounded pleased:
"Hold on to something."
Chapter 2
1300 hours, November 4, 2552 (military time)
Undetermined location within Onyx known as Shield World
As her restless eyes surveyed through layers of communication codes on her laptop during their 2 mile walk, Dr. Halsey sat up, straightened her skirt, and pushed her glasses higher up her nose bridge once more. She knew she had given herself one hell of a time trying to decode the transition sequence from where they were now, and where this paradise would take them. Only she knew what was happening all the way from the beginning.
"All failsafe protocols active" she told the remaining Spartans'. Linda unpacked beloved sniper rifle, observing the horizon with her scope for anything that could lead them to answers. She knew they would eventually come across something.
Mendez was the only one paying attention to the doctors' words. He felt as though he had shrunk, and a whole world was collapsing beneath him. He didn't stop asking Dr. Halsey for more information to calm himself.
"Umm doctor? What sort of Failsafe Protocols are we talking about here?"
Dr. Halsey nervously bit her top lip. She sat up straight and looked for the right words to tell him.
"Well, Officer Mendez, many stations have some kind of protocols, right? Ships have them, computers have them. The passage that we've walked through was built in one of the most sacred and most advanced places anyone has ever seen"
"Yeah I guess you could call it that" Mendez said.
"Let me give you a slight overview of what this is all about. Just imagine a standard three-Dee pyramid made out of glass, as you surely would have known, when a white ray of light passes through this object at the same angle, the light splits using the dimensions of the shape, thus creating a variety of colors."
"So this place is like a triangle or something?"
"Since we are actually still inside of Onyx, the interior of it acts like a multidimensional shape, just like the pyramid, only to be more exact, we are in more of a sphere than anything else, located in very, very small gap between both the planet, and the dimension. What we see here is not real, but is an image that our retinal organs' receive, because they cannot tell the difference but instead they just fall for the illusion. Yes, think of this as an illusion. I'm trying to tell you that we are the white light that is being pulled apart by gravitational forces caused by the slipspace sphere.
As I said earlier, the forerunners have created something magnificent that we have just discovered and took over.
"But how did we actually take over this…this sphere?"
"Remember Mendez, this is still just a room. A room that for now we can call our home. Since we just happened to arrive here at the precise time, there is nothing that stands in our way anymore. This room was also shielded at the time before it was closed, and was the only safe haven for us at the time. But don't get me wrong, this was our goal."
Chief Mendez showed much appreciation to the Doctor with a fashionable salute after she had explained step by step where they were, but he felt like a child, asking her over and over again.
"Thank you Doctor, but, if you found something to get us out of here, where exactly would we be heading next?"
Doctor Halsey situated herself back on her feet. She didn't feel explaining herself the second time with what she was about to say. She disregarded holding all the secrets to herself. She didn't want to do the exact same thing she did to Kurt.
"We would go to Earth" she said calmly.
______________________________________________________________________________
1300 hours November 4 2552 (military Calendar)
Undetermined location within transitioning Shield world
Ash and Fred ceased trying to push the Cryopods to a nearby hill for safety. They were going find a way to open the pods no matter what. Those Spartans deserve to be active on the battlefield. They both looked towards the direction of the doctors work area and jogged up to her along with the rest of the Spartans, each of them with their helmets at their sides, revealing their animated and strategic facial features.
"It's complicated. But I need you to trust me and listen." She said to Mendez.
The enormous size of the world they were all in reminded each of the soldiers of their own planet that they trained on, Reach. A creek ran down a little peak in the foothills, surrounded by a wide open mountainous range that hid a gleaming sun; a perfect day for combat.
The difference was barely noticeable. It was an exact replica of the land they fought to protect. The land they all lost in the end.
Linda's thoughts focused on John, Spartan 117.
I wonder if he's still out there, she thought. I wonder if we still have any chance. Fred already seemed quiet sure about him. He told her he was the only one left on Earth that held hope.
Dr. Halsey lifted her head and observed each of the Spartans; almost half she had known since they were six years old. And with the Spartan III's at their sides, the whole lot of them could actually be described as "invincible".
She noticed the patience everyone had because she heard nothing from the group, yet she still knew they wanted to hear the whole thing.
"You may not feel it, but this place is highly unstable at the moment. This shield word is currently communicating with the most unlikely planet, which would be Earth. This surprises me too, because it must mean that there is something stirring beneath its crust, something Forerunner."
She paused, exhaled, and went on.
"When my laptop started intercepting unusual signals from this place, I immediately started seeking where the follow-up might have been. This instantly altered my knowledge based on signal communication strength, going through slipspace streams, into theoretically assuming that there is an "invisible" slip-stream that these signals are traveling through in order to get to Earth. Let's just say I'm on the right track."
Ash was always fond of Dr. Halsey's knowledge of such peripheral things. It surprised him how advanced these forerunners were, being able to use slipspace to send out signals without anyone knowing, except her of course.
Mendez's question came in:
"So do you know where exactly these signals are coming from, and where on Earth are they going?"
"No, but if we do find something, such as a base or complex, I'm pretty aware that the source will come from it. I highly doubt the forerunners built anything other than what we are searching for, according to my sources; they wanted to hide this place, nothing more than that. As for the answer to your Earth question, I have absolutely no idea."
Dr. Halsey forced herself off of the grass, and closed her laptop, readying herself for the big mysteries ahead.
A childlike voice articulated behind the band of Spartans.
"No worries Doctor, we know exactly where on Earth these signals are traveling to, what they are doing, and how we're going to get their."
Dr. Halsey's mind became twisted when she heard those words, they didn't have time to register through her until she turned around to see even more Spartan III's. She, along with the other Spartan's II's immediately recognized who it was; the most bravest and youngest team of them all. Ash stepped up to embrace whoever it was. With proper manners, he held out his firm hand to greet his best friends.
"Welcome back Team Katana! Welcome back."
1300 hours November 4 2552 (military Calendar)
Undetermined location within Shield World
Fred carefully walked back to where him and Ash had left the Cryopods and found each of them with their translucent lids opened, this time he took the time to realize their were more than he though their were. He didn't think the pods would just go and open up by themselves for no reason, but he was wrong. He really thought that there wasn't a way to open them back up again. He stepped up to one of the egg shaped containers.
There were all sorts of buttons and screens that showed nothing but writing, which unlike the Covenant language, there were more varieties of letters and symbols. He carefully put his helmet down and glanced inside to get a closer look at where team Katana was enveloped in. At the very bottom of a display screen was a paragraph written in English. Fred figured some of the unknown writing was translated into English, so he leaned over more, and read it:
"O holy warriors who seek thy truth upon this universe,
Do not feel hatred as the best is yet to come to you,
May all suffering coincide and peace regain its strength.
Thy Brethren shall bring forth their strong,
For a new fate has found thy self through shadow.
Hierarchs with their unfaithful minds shall fall into the abyss,
Faithful Reclaimers, keepers of the Sacred Ark,
thou shall not feel hatred for us, nor us for you,
Put forth your power, to combine with ours,
For we shall stop our enemies in their tracks."
-----------------------------------------------------------
"That which must be protected…behind the sharpened edge of the shield…beyond the reach of the swords…for the reclaimed."
The writing had ended, which left Fred staring into the open and thinking.
"That's how they found all of this out." he thought to himself. "These pods were communicating with them. Teaching them about the present, leading them to answers."
Fred ran back to join the others. They were all discussing the matter about how the pods opened up automatically, releasing the Spartans with loads of top secret information.
"So tell me" Mendez said
"Why would these ancient cryopods tell you all of this…and…and how the hell did you get out?"
Doctor Halsey answered almost at once instead:
"The pods might have mistaken them for someone else, or they wanted them to be in their, its like we've seen earlier, the inscription on the top of the lid mentioned reclaimers."
Fred walked foreword to the doctor.
"Speaking of inscriptions m'am, I happened to go look again at the opened pods. When I glanced inside, I found lots of writing, It might be Covenant, it might be something else, but on the bottom I found a small English-written inscription."
"I think I know the meaning to the inscription, Fred" Olivia said.
"The Covenant have decided to join with the reclaimers, which probably means us. They want to go and destroy those who betrayed them. Thus, they want our help. And Officer, how and when we got out of those pods shouldn't be concerning you right now. I thought you might want to know the answers to your other questions."
"Alright" Mendez's face turned slightly red.
"How do ge-…"
"No" said Doctor Halsey.
"What we want to know first is where the signals are coming from here. Can you tell us where they are located? I know the place must be here somewhere."
Olivia turned around and pointed in the direction of the Spartans. They felt uneasy, and looked behind them. Fred had a strong feeling that the Cryopods they were in had more in them then they look. She left Dr. Halsey speechless.
"Unbelievable" She thought to herself, and showed the OK sign to Mendez
"Go ahead."
Chief Mendez looked once more at the pods, and then back at Olivia.
"No need to ask her again. Why would she want to repeat herself?"
Chapter 3
1800 Hours October 9 2552 (military calendar)
Aboard UNSC MAC Station Cairo/ Orbiting Planet Earth
Admiral Richard Hood's eyes were deceived with what he saw. He crept back with his motionless body at the full spectrum view of the end of life itself. Only his ears processed the great deafening sounds and explosions that had come from the emptying of oversized shells screaming through the MAC gun.
He was speechless looking at Earth with his eyes for the last time before it was over. The station shook thunderously, absorbing the Superheated salvos of plasma, using the last of its energy to hold itself together.
He heard yells from the lower decks, telling the others to aim at the massive super carriers that kept on appearing like invisible water.
He blinked once, and shook the disorder out of him. Looking beside him, a stationed marine pointed at an overview grid of the planet, along with dozens of floating UNSC metal scraps from the stations.
"Sir, Sir! Dozens of Unclassified fighters inbound approaching the Earth's atmosphere at super luminous speeds! Except they look more like escape pods to me."
"More of them? Are you sure marine?"
"Positive, sir"
"Don't worry lieutenant, those pods will surely burn up traveling that fast."
"But they aren't, not a single flame is around them sir."
Admiral Hood was in rage.
"Then what the hell are they, if they aren't normal escape pods, then what are they here for?"
"Sir, look!"
The whole crew on the main deck watched with fear as a Covenant flag ship soared past their station.
"Woah!, they flew right past us!"
Another Marine sitting at the Weapons station yelled:
"What the hell are they doing not killing us?"
"Keep the gun fixed on it" Admiral Hood said.
The whole station watched as the carrier activated its glowing shield, and opened up its monstrous bomb compartments. 3 dozen nuclear warheads erupted through the hinges.
They flew with minimal effort towards 2 Covenant super carriers, using massive amounts of plasma to try to glass the Earth. The missiles detonated upon their layered shields, evaporating them in order to dent and trigger the whole ship which let out a devastating fusion reaction between the two.
Both ships collided with one another creating a pulse wave that eased right when it got to the Cairo's main deck window.
Thunderous applause shook the main platform as the marines cheered and wondered who it could've been.
A weak transmission leaked through the main Com Radio. The words that were coming from the channel were in an alien language no one could understand.
The short message ended which left everybody holding their breath. Admiral Hood with uncertainty started replaying the same words.
"Activate the translation device, I want this cute little message to be translated ASAP." he said.
"Inform the Chief on the com-link. Tell him that the Covenant are on our side now."
______________________________________________________________________________
1820 hours October 9 2552 (military Calendar)
Makindu City in Voi, Kenya, 150 miles north of Mombasa City
Fred opened up the TEAMCOM to everyone for safety checks. He had to make sure that he wasn't the only one that made it that far, that fast.
The cryopod that carried him a whole astronomical unit through an invisible tunnel still kept on ripping through quantum threads in space. The speed didn't decrease until he had found his destination. It was as though the autopilot sequence or whatever was controlling the thing had some kind of sensor indicating it had reached its goal.
He tried to speak through the radio in his helmet, but no words would come out of his mouth. It seemed that while he was flying at hyper speeds, his vocal chords couldn't produce any vibrating frequencies.
Fred took a deep breath and checked his altitude scanner. It showed that he had just begun transitioning from the Ionosphere into the Mesosphere.
He felt the pod ease into a thermo-shielded state, tearing through the beautifully woven clouds, keeping him safe for only a matter of minutes from the intense boiling surroundings. At least that's what he thought.
Fred could only guess what this piece of material is capable of doing.
His TEAMCOM radio hissed, but he couldn't make out any sort of voice. He maybe thought that he was the first one who made it and all the others just started experiencing vocal problems.
A wave of zero gee stormed through his insides. His Spartan self was used to transitioning often between space and land, but being on real gravity soothed him and he anticipated walking on it.
The top of the lid began to automatically de-fog, leaving Fred watching only where he already came from, keeping him from looking down and praying for a happy landing.
"Alpha team, report!"
Fred spotted an incoming pod following his exact trail, diffusing the heavy amounts of heat forming at the tail. The voice that came from the radio clearly sounded like Dr. Halsey's. He knew she couldn't respond, yet.
"Fred here, on your twelve, experiencing loads of wind resistance. I don't know how this things' gonna land."
"Keep in touch" Dr. Halsey said. "I'm calculating thirty thousand meters left. Prepare yourself."
Fred's HUD showed 3 green flashes indicating his teammates were nearby. "Thank god" he thought to himself.
"Alpha team, status" he said.
Ash's shaky voice shot out:
"Damn it, something hit me!"
"We need you, Ash." Said Linda
"There's something big down there, no doubt."
"My pod's shield is currently charging up."
"We gotta land these things first to get to it, and while we're doing that, that things already gonna blast us"
"Then we'll see you in hell."
Fred switched his radio off, getting ready to do what he does best: An ejection sequence
He checked his altitude. An instant flash of light projected and burned through his retinas. The last thing he saw was his scanner reading: 10.497 ft.
Chapter 4
0200 hours December 1 2512
"Get us the hell out of here!"
Max held on as tight as he could to a nearby steady handrail, his muscle pulsing with pain every time the pelican created sharp turns and dives.
Dmitry never turned his gaze from the floor, as if trying to figure out if the ship was taking any damage at all.
The compartment door slowly slid apart, revealing the empty pilot seat, along with the view of the treacherous outside.
Jenny's voice sounded thin as her voice projected through the small radio in the ceiling.
"According to my knowledge, these ships aren't here to destroy us. I have intercepted heavy amounts of radio traffic from these ships, and the messages are all the same. It seems that they are broadcasting something very important. I haven't got a chance to listen to them yet. Hopefully I can try and sneak through and find out what they are talking about."
"I knew it" Dmitry said.
"I knew the covenant was always one step ahead of us."
"Then what are they here for? Where are they going?" Max said.
James entered the conversation while laying on the floor in his armor. It surprised both Max and Dmitry how he could just lay there all comfortably when they were in a life or death situation.
"Dmitry is right, the Covenant have found an activation device located on Earth. They have already been looking for it for some time now in order to activate all of the sacred rings we call Halo's. I don't even remember how I got through to all of this information, but all I know is that while we were out on our own missions on Sobaseki, we missed out on a whole lot"
Max has never been so full of questions in his life. He knew he wasn't the only one to be.
"I also know that John, Spartan 117 has already destroyed one of the rings, making the Covenant much more angrier and defenseless. And now I don't know what they are up to. Its either they want to go to Earth and activate the rings themselves, or they are trying to stop someone from doing it."
A thousand voices filled up Max's head, one of them was Jenny's asking him if he was doing okay over and over again. His vision blurred.
"Max! Stay with us!"
Max began to sweat. He felt the need to kill somebody.
"What!!!"
______________________________________________________________________________
Max woke up hysterically, his body felt numb and as though he had gone through the augmentation process once again. He shook everything off. He also noticed his helmet was long gone from his head already, leaving him vulnerable
He counted numerous bodies standing over him, inspecting him if he was alive or not.
"Max, how you doin'?" A very familiar face closed in on his.
8 helmetless super soldiers stood tall over a bombarded battlefield. Large clusters of plasma shot up over the horizon, followed by sounds of heavy machinery excavating the ground demolishing the structures of buildings and mountains.
"L..L…Linda?" He coughed.
Max looked to all of the rest of the Spartans', among them one was carrying a civilian dressed as though she was some kind nurse or doctor.
"Whatever you wanna call me buddy." She answered.
"How did I…?"
"Well, apparently you fell from the sky the same way we did" Linda said
"Except you were in a pelican being tossed around like a ragdoll"
"Yeah, I don't remember a thing back there" Max said, trying to stand back on his feet.
He always considered the famous saying that everyone said when they got hurt: "If you're hurt, walk It off, cause you wont get anywhere laying down."
He saw four other Spartans that he hasn't seen before, they were also very young, but probably no different from any of the others.
One of the younger Spartans threw out her hand to meet Max.
"My name is Stacey"
She pointed to her other three friends.
"This is Ash, Olivia, and Mark. Please don't be shocked, you might have never seen our kind before, but we are the new group of Spartans; Spartan three's."
"Nice to meet you" Max kindly said.
He felt a nudge in his back. He turned around and was pleased.
"Good to see you alive" James said.
"You too"
An old mans voice was diffused behind all of the armor in front of him.
"Can we please break up the reunion celebration here? We've got work to do, by the way, welcome to the crew Max, James."
The two beat up Spartans orderly saluted Officer Mendez.
Kelly hefted over 50 kilos of ammunition and supplies and set them by the downed pelican where Max James and Dmitry fell from, followed by Ash, who carried the exact same load, along with a weapon only designed for one of them in the team.
"By the way," James said. "Where is Dmitry?"
Linda dropped her head down.
"We found a body by the pelican, not moving. We tried everything, but we lost him almost instantly. We soon found out that we could not find Fred anywhere near our zone either."
"Shit!" Max cried.
None of the Spartans let out any sort of grief, as they have lost too many already.
"Lets supply ourselves fast" Mendez said.
"Hell, I'm still wondering how I even made it without dying."
Kelly and Ash had laid out all of the weapons on the ground, the only source of firepower they had left from Onyx. They helped themselves to M6 pistols and MA5K assault rifles.
The others followed, taking everything they could to keep themselves well prepared for whatever they were going to face.
The last remaining weapon was still laying in it's fire-proof case. Linda silently propped it open and unlatched the sniper rifle from the supports.
"Perfect" she inhaled.
Mark reloaded his rifle with Dr. Halsey resting herself on his shoulder. He felt her move uncomfortably on his armor, but he didn't think she'd mind her, especially if she was unconscious.
"Umm, do you mind, soldier?
Dr. Halsey jumped with full force down from the tall Spartan, surprising him like never before. Her pale eyes gave her a frightening and awakening look. Kelly sensed that she was completely revived and ready to help her companions out.
"Well?" she said,
"Can anyone please give me my laptop so I can at least identify our location? Because whatever this place is, we gotta get out of here fast!
She looked around towards the steaming horizon and to the endless arrays of colors of plasma in the sky.
"So this is how the world ends"
Spartan Assault- Chapter 1 (Part 1 out of 2)
Date: 25 February 2007, 10:37 pm
Chapter 1
1800 hours October 9 2449 (military time)\
Planet Sobaseki, Area in unknown Covenant Campsite
Max offered himself a short break to examine his flimsy and out of date Mark V Mjolnir Spartan Armor.
"You all filled up?" He asked his comrades.
Without hesitating, Dmitry pulled a D-73 tritium-charged shotgun from his back and without saying anything, he went out to scout ahead for safety checks.
"James, what do you got?"
James checked his supply pack and found 2 fragmentation grenades and an Assault Rifle with 14 mags.
"The usual," he replied. "Let's go!"
The bulk of Max's suit forcefully extorted in between the branches before they all broke off with a loud racket. Lights within the deep vegetation reacted with a quick 3 blinks and then faded; a warning signal used by Spartans.
"Everything's fine, keep moving," Three seven foot tall gladiators swiftly merged to the incoming facility.
"Meet up behind the wall over there," acknowledgment lights winked from their visors.
"Two-hundred meters left, let's not give away our position," Soft foot steps frenzied into heavy pounding ones. The blur from all the night vision made the scene all worse for them.
"Twenty meters, there it is… wait a minute, since when do the covenant abandon their own territories?" James said. "Something must have stirred them out of here."
A thick coating of fog slid past their dark alloy. Max motioned to James to keep moving cautiously, and did a double take. Even in their helmets, he knew who was worried, and who wasn't.
James stopped suddenly.
"Something isn't right. This place. There's something about it that I don't like,"
"Dmitry, report back to our home station, and see if anyone can give us a schematics update on this damn place,"
"There's no signal," reported Dmitry.
"Damn it, I guess we'll have to enter this mess!"
The Spartan's walked in with the heavy might of the glossy doors sealed shut behind them. No source of light or energy anywhere. Dmitry's built in automatic flashlight in his shotgun kicked in, puncturing a hole in the dark haze around them.
"What's that over their?" Looking over his shoulder, Max knew something was their. He quickly turned around as if he was to grab something. But his arm hit nothing but thin air.
"It can't be," he thought to himself. James felt a rush of adrenaline down his spine. "Flood," he whispered to himself.
"Listen, I have a very bad and familiar feeling about all of this,"
Max looked from James to Dmitry. "You doing fine over their?"
"Better than ever, never had more fun than this mission. Couldn't they find anyone else to do this for us?" James nudged Dmitry from the back, warning him not to lose his mind. "Four words: shut up, look ahead." The flash from the Spartans' helmet lights illuminated the deserted rooms. They moved from one dark corridor to another, their fluorescent beacons searching for any clue that may be around;
Nothing.
"Radar shows no signs of an enemy or object," Max whispered.
"There's nothing anywhere, can it get any worse?" A faint whizzing sound approached them quickly from the sky, followed by a glowing hovering bulb-like droid. Surprisingly, this thing actually spoke.
"Greeting's, I am thirty-three-o-seven-Reconciliation, monitor of installation zero. Reclaimers, how thoughtful! Max felt discomfort when the monitor called this place "installation zero", he was sure that it made some kind of mistake.
The monitors' words were sudden. It spoke perfect English and was well aware of who the intruders were.
"Please make yourselves at home; I'm sure the flood won't be a problem for you!" The monitor drifted spontaneously through a hatch in the ceiling, humming short tunes while leaving the Spartans' hopeless.
"C'mon, let's get out of here," Dmitry exclaimed. "Follow me."
Max pulled out his M7 assault rifle and balanced it on his hand with appreciation. For him, havoc is what it was all about.
The rifle's flashlight went on. Looking behind him once more, he finally realized the true meaning of Flood. There stood at point blank range, five disfigured parasite forms that had once ranged all the way from covenant Elites, to Hunters, waved tentacle-like arms that released a acidic-type juice that smelt of burning rubber and heavy amounts of pure Chlorine.
"These pieces of shit will do anything possible to stop you in your tracks!" Max told his partners. "There is no choice but to fight them off."
Max swung his MA5B assault rifle in front of the face of the Flood, his trigger finger instantly reacting. Like a bullet hose, the rifle had torn through their limp bodies like rocks against tissue paper, amputating arms, legs, and dried limbs.
The Flood dropped on the cold tiles, squirming and struggled to get back up.
Max's foot came down upon them and the noise ceased. He took cover to look and found where the flood were coming from.
He turned on the TeamCom. "Stay together, keep 'em down." James and Dmitry crouched at attention back to back, speculating every single corner of their HUD.
As diamond-coated projectiles ejected from their weapons on countless oncoming beasts, Max ran towards an open hatch in the wall that concealed hundreds of them.
He checked his belt; One plasma grenade. He unclipped it and activated it. He reached his hand into the hole, and propelled it up the short tunnel. The glowing grenade hissed through the canal, fighting the gravitational pull. The sound dimmed immediately, with the largest Flood form pushing itself out through the opening. Max saw the grenade fall back down onto the creatures' lifeless corpse.
The Flood hurled itself at the Spartan as the plasma shimmered on its flesh. Max fell backwards and let his last rounds leave the barrel. He thought it was the end of him.
As the beast came down, it was instantly blown back a few feet by a clean hit to the head with James's Tritium rounds.
They struggled to run away, while the thirty foot radius blast shook the ground and melted the floor, along with hundreds of gathered Flood.
Dmitry came out of nowhere. His visor had shattered and plasma burns enveloped his Mark-V armor.
"I gave em' hell, lets get outta here,"
Max shifted uneasily, and slid a fresh clip into his rifle with a satisfying click.
"This way, c'mon." The three of them found it harder to find the exit walking over the dead corpses that had infiltrated the whole facility. They found a door that unfortunately was opened.
"This isn't the way we came in!" said Dmitry. He knew there was no choice, he needed medical attention, but he ignored his wounds.
James slung his gun over his shoulder.
"But it's the way we're going out."
A wave of relief and fear washed over the Spartans' as they entered a whole new atmosphere. In the distance they saw what they came here for. They had found the center of the most dangerous place ever to be seen by a soldier.
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