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The Halo by Epsilon Squadron
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A Halo Part 1
Date: 7 August 2007, 3:03 pm
*ZAP* The Spartan fell on the ground, and got up, shaking his head. "Where am I?" he thought. He stumbled around dizzily and then looked around at his surroundings. Behind him was a concrete structure, with a blue flag picture on one of the sides. The building seemed old and had bullet dents. The soldier looked around and saw he was in some kind of canyon. The walls were made or red rocks, and the sun shone on most of the canyon. It was a relatively small area. He looked farther and saw the other side of the canyon. There, he spotted another base, and he saw a blue flag on the building. "How the hell did I get here?" he thought.
"Hey you! Get in here right now!" He heard a voice calling from the building. It sounded like a man. "Why? Who are you?" the Spartan called back.
"Duck!"
The Spartan quickly threw himself on the floor, and heard a bullet zing past him and hit the dirt ground. "Snipers!" he thought as he quickly got up and sprinted around the building and found an entrance.
Inside, it was dark except for a few lamps on the walls. "You almost got popped out there. Who are you?"
"I was about to ask the same thing." Replied the Spartan.
The man walked around him and turned on the lights. The small room lit up brightly, and the Spartan looked around.
It was a small HQ with computers and monitors on all the sides of the wall. The ceiling was not too far from his head, and the room was very dusty. "Not much, but enough to live. Hey. You look like one of those blue Spartans, with your armor. What do you want here?" asked the man. The Spartan sensed a bit of fear in his voice.
"I don't know how I got here, sir. I don't recall anything…"
The man looked up him and nodded. "Well I would appreciate it if you didn't kill me. In fact, I need some help. It's hard enough just trying to live."
The Spartan took a long look at the man. He was about 30 cm. shorter than himself, and his hair was white. He looked like he was in his 50's. Surprisingly, he looked very strong and able to defend himself.
"What do you need help with?"
The man went over to a computer, and started pressing the keys. A map showed up on the monitor. It was an overview of the whole canyon. On it, there were the two bases. "We are here," the man pointed at the red base. "The blue base is our goal. We have to kill all of the soldiers in there. Have you had any previous combat experience?"
"I know a thing or two. Just give me a weapon, and I can use it. Wait, why did you say the enemy looked like me?"
"They have the same armor as you."
The Spartan looked down at his armor. He remembered it was a green color, but now it was red.
"Are they good?" asked the Spartan.
"Good? Heck, they're great. If I didn't have computer operated guns, I'd be long dead right now. They can fight."
"Well, I'd like to try fighting one of them."
The man looked at the Spartan, and then looked outside. "You'll get your chance… now."
"You'll need some weapons though. I have this assault rifle here." The man pointed to the rifle. "There's that, and I have three clips for it. Also, I have a combat knife with me. You'll need it more than I will." The man sighed, then gave the knife to the Spartan. "Hey, what's your name, boy?"
"Just call me 267. That's what I remember. What should I address you by?"
"Jacob. Now let's go over your mission."
The man led 267 to the other side of the room. Jacob turned on another monitor and it showed the canyon again, except it had it in real-time. "You see that ramp leading up towards the top of the canyon?" The man pointed at it. "You can see one of them with a sniper rifle. Damn good shots, these guys. Oh yes, I forgot to mention. There are only four of them, but I haven't been able to kill any of them." Jacob then pointed at the blue base. "One of them is on the top of the base, and the other two are inside the building." 267 nodded and examined the Spartan on the top of the ramp on the side of the canyon.
"I think I have a plan of how to get him."
"Really? Explain."
"I just need to get him to waste all his ammo trying to shoot me. I'll then charge him, and with luck, I'll kill him."
Jacob looked surprised. "Are you really sure you won't get shot out there? He's not blind you know!"
267 thought about it and then said, " You see that place with trees at the side of the canyon? I'll run towards there, and when I get there, it'll be easy to run out and then run back in again. That time will allow my shields to regenerate. All I have to worry about is getting there. Leave that to me."
Jacob thought to himself, sighed, then replied, "Alright. Good luck, you're my last and only hope."
267 gathered up the assault rifle and clips, and walked out of the entrance. As he did that, a sniper shot hit the dirt in front of him, and he backed up back into the entrance. "Damn, he's better than I thought." 267 then sprinted to the trees at top speed.
Along the whole way, the sniper shots followed him. One of them hit 267, and he saw his shield bar fall to half. He then started to run even faster.
267 finally arrived at the miniature forest. His shield bar slowly regenerated, and he looked at himself. No damage. He then looked at the place the sniper was. He was still there. 267 then looked at the top of the enemy base. That soldier wasn't there anymore!
267 quickly turned around to see a blue Spartan with a pistol aimed at his face. "Who are you and who are you fighting for?" The blue Spartan asked.
"That's none of your business. All I know is you want somebody dead. I believe he's in that red base." 267 pointed at the base.
As the blue Spartan turned and nodded, 267 unslung his assault rifle from his back, and emptied a clip into the Spartan in one fluid motion. 267 then started walking backwards, still facing the blue Spartan while reloading. The Spartan then sidestepped, and started shooting with his pistol. All of his shots hit 267 in his helmet. 267's shield bar went down rapidly, and he went behind a large rock in the forest. He reloaded, and without waiting for his shield bar to regenerate, he stood up and fired at the Spartan. The blue Spartan started shooting him again, and ran forward at the same time. The assault rifle took down the rest of the blue Spartan's shields, and he started taking hits. The blue Spartan got right next to 267, and smacked him in the head with the pistol. The force of the hit was enough to break through the shield of 267. 267 felt a sharp pain in his head, and he felt dizzy. He then swung his assault rifle at the blue Spartan. It connected with his head, and he fell, unconscious. 267 pulled out the combat knife, and finished the blue Spartan with a stab to his head. It went through his head, and 267 pulled it out, covered with blood.
267 sighed and then sat against a tree. His shield slowly recharged. His head still hurt, and he felt blood trickling down his head. "Three more to go." He said softly.
267 picked up the blue Spartan's dead body and threw it out of the forest toward the sniper. Before it hit the ground, it was shot three times. Two in the head, and one in the chest. "Holy crap. I think he's out of ammo now though." 267 thought.
He took the pistol lying on the ground and ran out of the forest to the sniper. The sniper was running down to the ground of the canyon, still with his sniper rifle out. 267 got his assault rifle ready and braced himself. He saw the Spartan running towards him while pulling a plasma pistol out.
267 started firing on the Spartan. The Spartan sidestepped while charging the pistol. 267 continued to fire, some of the shots hitting the other Spartan. The Spartan then released the fully charged plasma from his pistol, and it flew towards 267. 267 sidestepped quickly, but the ball of plasma arced and hit him. His shield bar went immediately empty. The Spartan then charged toward 267. 267 jumped backwards and shot at the enemy Spartan, depleting his shields. Right after the Spartan's shields emptied, he swung out at 267 with his plasma pistol, hitting him on the chest. 267 felt the wind being knocked out of him, and he fell backwards on his back. "Game over, soldier," the blue Spartan said calmly. The Spartan pulled out his knife, and stabbed at 267's head. 267 rolled to the left, pulled out his combat knife, and stabbed the blue Spartan. Blood came out, and the blue Spartan cried out. 267 got up and charged at the Spartan with his knife. "I think not!" the blue Spartan yelled, pulling out a plasma grenade. He then tossed it directly at 267. 267 then sidestepped, and swung at the plasma grenade with the flat of his knife. It hit the grenade, and it flew directly at the blue Spartan. It stuck to the Spartan's leg, and in a desperate attempt, he ran at 267. 267 pulled out his pistol and shot the Spartan's other leg, disabling him. The grenade then exploded, and a shower of gore came out of the Spartan's body.
267 looked around and spotted two plasma grenades near the dead body. He picked them up, and then waited for his shields to recharge. He gathered up his assault rifle, and then headed off toward the blue base.
As he neared the base, 267 heard a vehicle. He looked around as saw a Warthog heading directly toward him. In it were the last two Spartans, one driving, and one on the turret. The turret then began to fire. 267 ran to the left, and pulled out a plasma grenade as the Warthog began to charge at him. 267 tossed it at the Warthog, but the driver predicted it and made a sharp turn to the left. The plasma grenade landed on the ground and exploded harmlessly. The Warthog turned again and drove directly at 267. The turret continued to fire at him, and 267's shields went down quickly. 267 then pulled another plasma grenade, and right before the Warthog attempted to run him over, he jumped and threw the grenade directly down. It stuck to the Warthog, and both Spartans began to jump out. Before that though, the grenade exploded with a blue flash, and the driver's body was knocked a few meters into the air, and hit the ground with a loud crunch. The Spartan manning the turret was launched back and when he landed, his leg cracked. 267 landed on the ground, dazed. He shook his head and gathered himself. He looked at the Warthog, the dead driver, and then the injured blue Spartan. 267 pulled his pistol out, and walked over to the blue Spartan on the floor with his pistol trained on the Spartan's head. "What did you want with that man? What did he do to you?" asked 267.
The blue Spartan groaned in pain, sighed, and then said, "He knows too much. We had to kill him, but those guns were hard to deactivate." The Spartan's voice was female.
"What? You mean that the guns are deactivated now?"
"Yeah. We were about to charge in there and kill him, but you showed up. Now we're screwed. Argh! God damn it!"
The blue Spartan's leg was broken, and if it wasn't treated soon, she would die. "What does that man know?" 267 asked the blue Spartan. "If you tell me, maybe I'll consider healing that leg of yours."
"He was a threat to the Spartan project. We Spartans are here to protect humanity. He knows about the whole project, and how we are trained. If he manages to use the secret and find a way to inform people, the Spartan project would be shut down forever. We cannot allow that. The Spartans are very effective, and are the last and only hope humanity has against the… the Covenant. Now heal me alrea…"
The blue Spartan then passed out. 267 carefully picked her body and took her into the blue base. There, a similar setup of computers and monitors were there. 267 got a first aid kit, and he pulled out his combat knife. He then sliced open where her leg broke. The leg was severely bruised, and the bone was cracked, but he figured that wearing a cast would heal it. 267 decided to use anesthetic, and injected it into the Spartan's body from her leg. 267 then examined the rest of the armor. The armor was black, and it was dented in many places. "This armor is useless now. It can't move to her will anymore." 267 then began the long process of cutting away at the armor until it opened up like a nut. The armor was very hard, and it took at least five minutes of stabbing and sawing to get through one part of the armor. After almost an hour, he got the armor open. He pulled her body out of the armor and laid her out on the ground next to the armor. She had red hair that was tucked tightly behind her ears. She was quite a beautiful girl. She didn't have any clothing on besides the armor, so 267 found a blanket to cover her body with. 267 then looked around for hospital materials, and found many things, including a leg cast. He put the leg cast on her leg, and let her sleep.
267 then stood up and looked around for weapons. He found a sniper rifle, a few plasma grenades, and ammo for his assault rifle. He packed up and headed for the red base. He was going to kill Jacob.
Halfway there, 267 pulled out his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. He saw Jacob standing on top of the base with binoculars. Jacob immediately ran down the ramp back to the ground, and went into the entrance of the base. 267 pulled out his assault rifle, and sprinted to the base.
267 walked in the entrance, and saw the man. Jacob said, "I was scared that you were going to shoot me with that sniper rifle! So, how did the mission go, did you kill them all?"
267 paused, then said, "Yeah, they're all dead. So, what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to call down a Pelican, and I'm gonna get the hell out of here. Now that they're dead, they won't shoot down the plane."
"Hey, what about me?" asked 267 quickly.
"Heh. I have some special plans for you." Jacob whipped out a pistol and pointed to 267's head. As he did that, 267 also pointed his assault rifle towards Jacob. "Looks like your plans are over." 267 said slowly.
Jacob then fired his pistol. With his lightning fast reflexes, 267 ducked and tackled Jacob to the floor. 267 quickly got up and kicked Jacob in the ribs. Because of his Spartan armor, the kick had enough force to break his ribs. Jacob coughed up blood, stopped breathing, and then promptly died.
267 sighed, and sat down in a rolling chair. "Mission accomplished," he said out loud. He then headed back towards the blue base.
When he arrived, the girl was still on the floor. When he walked in, she woke up. "Wha? Where am I?" she said.
"You're in your base. You're safe. I decided not to kill you." 267 sat down in a chair. "By the way, I got that armor off of you. It's dead now." 267 pointed at the armor besides her.
She felt around her body and touched her leg. "Hey, you put a cast on. Let me guess, you also got anesthetic in?"
"Yeah, that's why it doesn't hurt that bad. That'll change soon though. I still got more."
"Well, thanks, but you're still the one who did this all. And my mission is a failure."
267 laughed and said, "Well, not quite. I killed Jacob."
The girl sighed and replied, "Well, that's a relief. But why did you do that? I thought you were working for him?"
"I had a change of heart. Just be glad I didn't kill you. Or do anything else."
"I'm glad, I'm glad. Just let me rest. You're on my side now, right?"
267 thought for a while, and then replied, "If your side protects humanity, then yes, yes I am."
The next day, after some sleep, 267 got up. He went over to the computer and started working on it. Nothing on it besides a map of the canyon. He stood up and walked to another computer. "Hey, you're awake," a voice sounded from behind him.
"Yeah. I have some questions for you."
"Like what?"
"First of all, what's your name?"
She paused and said, "My name? It's Halsey. What's your name?"
"People call me 267, but my real name? It's John."
John sat down at the other computer, and turned it's monitor on. Still only the map of the canyon. "Hey Halsey, do all of these computers only have a map of the canyon."
"Affirmative. I think the computers in that man's base have communications though," She replied quickly. "Hey, can you get me my uniform? It's over there." She pointed at a wall.
John got up and on the other side of the wall, was a uniform hanging. He got it and brought it to her. John helped her up and she put on her uniform. To get her pants to fit, John made a rip with his knife through the front side of her pants to the bottom.
"Thanks John. Don't worry about the uniform though. I can sew it up later."
John examined Halsey's uniform. It was white colored, with a button up shirt, and dress pants similar to the dress uniform of a marine. "I should have one of those somewhere," John thought to himself.
"I saw some crutches lying around somewhere. Let me get them for you." John went and got the crutches, and gave them to Halsey. She used them and tried walking around. "Thanks. These will work for now."
John sat down in the chair again. "Our next order of business is to get to the red base and use the computer to contact people to get us off of this planet."
Halsey sat down in another chair and laid her crutches on the floor. "There's a problem with that though. Let me explain it to you after we get there. I believe he has a computer that has the information to explain everything to you."
They both got up, Halsey got her crutches, and they set out for the red base. She walked slowly, so John had to slow down for her to keep up. He never got the chance to really look at the sky, and on the horizon he noticed something. He was on some kind of giant ring with a natural environment built into it. He looked above him and saw nothing but sky, but he assumed the rest of the ring was there. "Now do you realize where we are?" Halsey said to him while he was staring. "It's quite mystical, if you think about it. Such a giant ring…"
They arrived at the red base and went inside. Halsey sat down in a chair at a computer, and turned it on. Then, she pressed buttons and keys and made a hologram of a ring appear. "We know a bit about this ring. It's ten thousand kilometers in diameter, and about twenty two kilometers thick. We're located right here." Halsey pointed at a part of the ring. The area was a large desert, and had canyons dotting the area.
John stared and pondered the statistics of the ring. "Who made this thing?"
"Well it definitely wasn't the Convenant. We believe it was another race. We call it a Halo. We've found another one just like it."
"Well, let's worry about getting off of this thing. Who can we contact?"
Halsey paused, and frowned. "Well, here's the problem. We were dropped off here about a week ago. After the UNSC forces dropped us off, we lost contact with then for some reason. We tried everything to contact them, but we failed, so we just attempted to complete our mission. We figured that this guy would have something able to contact them, but…" She then typed and clicked away very quickly. "Nope. Nothing. According to this, there aren't any friendly forces around here for quite a distance. Maybe something happened to them." She said sadly.
"Well, looks like we have to get off of the Halo ourselves then. First, we'll have to get out of this canyon though. Maybe there are some other forces on the Halo that just don't have communication devices. They might have a Pelican."
"It's worth a shot. We can't stay here forever and hope somebody saves us."
John thought, and then said, "Hey. Your armor doesn't work anymore. You won't be safe."
"Hey! I'm a Spartan just like you! I can handle myself! Besides, I can salvage some things from the armor to make them work. It's not that hard." Halsey replied angrily.
"Ok, ok. Let's get back to blue base then."
They then headed back to the blue base, and then John watched Halsey work on the armor. She took the knife and cut parts off of the armor. She took the leg, arm, chest, and back plates. Halsey then got a bottle of sticky liquid, and attached the plates to uniform. She picked up the helmet and put it on. "Let's gather up our weapons and go."
"Nice work with the armor. I got my assault rifle and grenades." Halsey walked over to the desk with a drawer and pulled it out. In it, was a sniper rifle? "Heh, my weapon of choice. Give me half of your grenades, and let's roll.
John gave two grenades to Halsey. "Ready to climb the side of that canyon?" John then looked at Halsey, and then at her leg. "Oh. That's a problem. We'll just have to wait until it heals."
"It won't take so long to heal. I'm a Spartan."
"I know. I also need to rest for a while. By the way, is there anyway you can get the shields back on your armor?"
Halsey examined the plates and the original armor. "I think I can find a way to fix it. This kind of thing is my specialty. It'll take a while, but now I'll have something to do while my leg heals."
John laughed and then said, "Yeah. Sorry about that. I'll help you as much as I can."
After John said that, there was a faint noise like an engine. It was getting louder. "Hmm. I'm going to go check it out." John said.
"Hey, I'm coming too."
"Nobody's stopping you."
They both walked out and saw some kind of Covenant dropship. "Oh crap. You ready for some action?" John asked.
"I'm not. You are."
John went back into the concrete base and got his assault rifle, and Halsey's sniper rifle. When he got back outside he said, "Hey Halsey. Any way you can sit somewhere and snipe some of those Covenant? I want to see your aim."
"No problem, chief. I'll be on top of the base. They won't know what hit them."
John then headed towards the dropship. It was almost right next to the red base. He could see the dropship dropping off some small creatures that looked like dogs. They were all equipped with plasma pistols. John counted twelve. "Hmm… I remember those things. They were called… Grunts. They're weak as hell."
John waited until the Grunts situated themselves. Six of them went inside the base, while the other six took patrol in a tight group around the building. John charged directly at the group, spraying them with bullet fire. The Grunts turned around and started shooting. John managed to dodge the majority of them, since they flew slowly compared to bullets. He managed to take down two before he got into melee range. They shot him a couple times since he was such an easy target up close, but then John took one down by swinging his assault rifle. The last three started to scatter and run, and John shot them down one by one. John looked at his shield bar, which was half full. "That was sloppy. I can't do that again." John thought to himself.
John went up the ramp to the top of the base. There was a hole from the ceiling directly into the base. There, the Grunts were on the computers doing something, probably getting information. John couldn't let them do that.
John pulled out a plasma grenade and threw it directly into the hole. It stuck to one of the Grunts, and it panicked, letting out dog like barks and whimpers. It ran around, and then blew up. The explosion killed two of the Grunts. John then jumped through the hole and fired. He killed one on the way down, and shot another when he landed. The last Grunt ran away. John followed, and when he caught up, he swung his assault rifle at its back, and its spine cracked. It fell forward and died.
John went back into the base. The floor was covered with dead Grunts and their blue blood. He picked two of their plasma pistols, and headed back to the blue base.
When he got there, he went to the top and saw Halsey. "Heh, sorry. I killed them all before you could snipe any."
"Don't worry. I forgive you. But I need to warm up on my sniper rifle aim."
Then, they heard another noise, like an engine. John turned around, and saw two Covenant fliers flying over the red base and towards them. They were purple colored, and their armor was tough. On the edge of their meter long wings, were small anti-grav pods. "Those are… Banshees! Covenant air combat fliers!" yelled John. "We don't have any good anti-air weapons. Give me your plasma grenades!"
The Banshees began to fire plasma at them and fly directly toward them. John ducked and rolled toward Halsey. He pushed Halsey down, and the plasma went right over their heads. The Banshees then flew past them toward the canyon wall. In one fluid motion, Halsey picked up her sniper rifle, and shot at the small gap where the alien flying the Banshee was exposed. It connected, and the bipedal alien fell out and hit the ground, along with the Banshee. "One more! I'll handle it. You get into the base." John told Halsey.
She got up, and went down the ramp. The remaining Banshee turned around and charged again. He sidestepped and dodged some of the shots, but most of them hit. His shield bar was at twenty five percent. Right before the Banshee connected with his body, he sidestepped, pulled out a plasma grenade, and stuck it to the Banshee. Right after he did that, the alien inside got out, and the Banshee fell to the bottom of the base, where it exploded. The alien landed on the top of the base where John was, and it stood up with a plasma rifle in hand.
Quickly, John shot at the alien, and managed to shoot the plasma rifle out of the alien's hands. He then pointed the gun at the alien. It froze, staring into John's visor. John examined the alien. It was almost as tall as him, except it was slouching forward a bit. Its limbs were thin, and it was wearing some kind of metal plates on its limbs. Its mouth looked like four tentacles and a hole in the middle. "I remember these. Elites! These were hard to kill!" John thought.
After standing for a few seconds, the alien suddenly lunged at John. John tried to shoot the Elite, but he got to John too fast. The Elite punched the rifle out of John's hands and wrestled John down. "Halsey, get up here and help me!" John yelled while trying to get the Elite off.
John landed a punch on the Elite's helmet. It flickered. The Elite also had shields. The blow pushed the Elite off of John. John scrambled for the assault rifle, but the Elite got to his plasma rifle first. The Elite stood up quickly, and was about to shoot when John heard a loud thunk and the sound of the Elite's back cracking. The Elite then fell forward, dead. Behind him was Halsey with her sniper rifle, smiling.
"Hey, looks like we're even now. You "saved" my life, and I saved yours!" Halsey said, smirking.
"I could have gotten out of that myself, but thanks anyway." John said.
They both headed back to the ground. "Let's go check out that Banshee. Maybe we can work it," said Halsey.
They headed to the barely damaged Banshee. Near it was the dead Elite's body. Halsey went into the hatch of the Banshee and the top closed. Then, the Banshee rose into the air and did a back flip. It then continued to fly near the ground before it stopped, and Halsey came out, staggering. "I have a faint idea of how to work it. It's like an airplane, except it can hover. It'll be helpful to patrol this place. Hey! Too bad you destroyed that other one, or we could just fly right out of this canyon!" Halsey said.
"Damn. You're right. That would have been helpful. Well, at least we're still alive," John said regretfully. "Let's just get that rest we deserve."
They both went back into the base, along with the two plasma rifles from the Elites, and the two plasma pistols John gathered from the dead Grunts. Halsey got on the floor, pulled out a pillow with her blanket and slept. John took out his assault rifle, cleaned it, polished it, and tested it outside. Everything was ok. He wiped the blood off of his knife, and put it away.
John got out his own pillow and blanket. He then looked at the sleeping Halsey. After looking for a while, he shook his head, sighed, and sat down on the rolling chair. He covered himself with a blanket, used the pillow, and went into a long, dreamless sleep.
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