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Visions of Purity by xitWOUND117
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Visions of Purity Part 1: The Spartan
Date: 19 February 2004, 11:25 PM
0835 Hours, September 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/[LOCATION CLASSIFIED]
John, his back against the wall, slowly walked forward. He set his foot down as quietly as he could, but there was still a slight metallic clang at every step. A red dot blinked to life on his motion sensor. John stopped moving and put his MA5B against his shoulder. A blue-armored Elite walked through a nearby doorway ten feet away from John. The Covenant warrior looked at the Spartan pressed against the wall and roared. John jumped into the air, set his feet against the metal wall, and launched himself at the Elite. The Elite hastily tried to fire at the human, but John's armored fist impacted with the alien's face. The Elite crumpled to the ground. Bones jutted out of his mutilated face at odd angles. John stepped over the body and walked through the doorway.
Purple, blue, and red lights from holopanels filled the room John was now in. Code written in weird symbols scrolled across the walls; three-dimensional displays of Covenant ships were scattered around the room, made entirely of light.
Aside from the light given off by the holopanels, the room was extremely dark. John cautiously stepped further into the room, his rifle aimed straight ahead. Suddenly a series of footsteps thudded across the room. John spotted an Elite emerge from the dark corner of the room. The Spartan tightened his grip on the assualt rifle and watched to see if the Elite had spotted him. The Covenant soldier, clad in yellow armor, stopped at a holopanel and began sorting the code into divisions of light, oblivious. John slowly crept up behind the Elite and pulled out his M6D pistol. Stopping a few feet behind the massive alien, John raised his sidearm and held it a few inchs away from the Elite's neck. Two flashes of light lit up the room and a loud scream echoed off the silent walls.
John clicked on his COM channel. "I'm in."
"Good," replied a voice, "Look at the walls. There should be some Covenant code projected onto them."
"I see them," said John.
"Find the source of the light. There should be some form of a memory card inserted into the source," instructed the voice.
John looked around and saw a large purple machine projecting the code onto the walls. The Spartan walked over to the machine and searched for something that looked like a memory card. A small rectangular object was barely protruding out of the code-projector. John carefully pulled the object out and looked at it. It sure looked like a data storage device.
Suddenly the machine emitted a loud noise as the parts of the projector folded into itself. With a loud metallic bang it reduced itself to an oddly shaped metal rectangular box; what looked like a keyboard and display panel stuck out of the front of the box.
John turned around and surveyed the room. The code no longer scrolled across the walls, making the area darker than before. He walked out of the room and over the dead Elite's body, then climbed up a nearby ladder. Pushing the hatch at the top open, John looked at the area beyond. Mostly Grunts and Jackals patrolled the large docking bay; a few Elites could be seen commanding the lesser aliens.
John pulled out a plasma grenade and hit the activation button. He quickly determined the distance to his target and threw the grenade at an angle. The grenade hissed as it came down on an Elite's head. The Covenant warrior shook his head as hard as he could, screaming, trying to get the grenade off while the Grunts and Jackals around him dove for cover. The glowing blue grenade exploded in a bright blue flash of plasma. Purple blood spurted everywhere as the Elite's body was ripped apart by the force of the explosion. John jumped out of the ladder-well and aimed his assualt rifle at a group of neaby Covenant, squeezing the trigger. Grunts screamed and ran while Jackals desperatly tried to mount a counter-offensive while hiding behind their shields. John stopped firing once all the Grunts had been massacred and aimed his rifle at the feet of the Jackals. The slightly exposed flesh was enough to doom the aliens. John lightly pulled the trigger of his rifle and two rounds tore through a Jackals foot. The alien put his shield over his head and tried to run, but John mowed him down with a hail of bullets.
Two other Jackals panicked and ran. John whipped out his M6D and put a round into each of the Covenants' heads. Their bodies dropped to the metal floor and their shields shut off. A single Grunt remained, who ran around in circles; frightened. John walked over to the screaming alien and grabbed him by the shoulder. Picking him up, John brought the Grunt face to face with himself. "I am going to let you live," said the Spartan. The methane-breathing animal just growled and threw his pistol at the human, then started reaching for a plasma grenade. John slammed his fist into the Grunt's chest, sending it flying into a nearby wall. A fleshy 'thud' echoed around the docking bay as John wiped the light blue blood off of his armor.
The sound of a Pelican engine broke the silence in the bay. A Pelican dropship set down on the bay floor near where John stood. The Spartan jumped into a seat, buckled himself in, and the dropship took off again.
Ano 'Ikamamee walked into the bridge of the Herald of Justice. The gold-armored Elite a few yards away looked at him. "You summoned me, Excellency?" said 'Ikamamee.
"I did," answered the gold Elite, who was in command of the entire ship. 'Ikamamee had always marveled at the unimaginable lengths one had to take to gain command of such a ship as the Herald of Justice. The Herald of Justice was an impressive ship, not including the fact that it now carried the newest weapon of the Covenant.
"'Ikamamee, yesterday I ordered you to slaughter the "shipments". Why are they not dead?" the Elite demanded.
"I ordered a great deal of our warriors to kill the new filth, as you wished. Every soldier of ours was murdered without a single loss to the disgusting rats, Excelleny," 'Ikamamee replied.
"Very well," said the commanding Elite.
"Shall I order more of our warriors to exterminate the filth?" asked 'Ikamamee.
"No. I will consult with the higher ones. These new humans may prove very useful..." answered the Elite.
"Will you have me do anything else, Excellency?"
"No, return to your post, 'Ikamamee."
"Right away, Excellency." 'Ikamamee spun around on one foot and walked off the bridge.
John felt the tug on his harness as the Pelican landed in the UNSC Kahldana's docking bay. He released his harness and stepped out of the dropship onto the docking bay's gray metal floor. A private walked up to him and saluted. John returned the salute.
"Captain Hollbright wants you on the bridge right away, sir!" said the Marine. John nodded.
"Thank you, private," John said.
"Of course, sir!" The Marine walked off to return to his post. John walked over to a nearby elevator and stepped in. He hit a button and the doors closed. The elevator lifted him to the bridge of the Kahldana without John noticably feeling the movement. Soon the doors reopened and John stepped out. He marched over to the doors leading to the bridge. The doors slid open and John walked past the officer stations to where the captain stood.
"Captain Hollbright," said the Spartan, saluting the grizzled old soldier. Hollbright turned around and returned John's salute. An eyepatch covered the Captain's left eye, partly covering up a scar that ran down his forehead and onto his cheek.
"Spartan-117," said the Captain, nodding.
"Good work. Give me the memory card," ordered Hollbright. John took out the card and handed it to his superior.
"Yes, the Colonel will be very pleased with this," Hollbright smiled. The Lieutenant in charge of the COM station suddenly whispered, "Good god," and got out of his seat, walking over to the Captain.
"What is it Lieutenant?" asked Hollbright.
"New orders have arrived for the Spartan, sir. And... they are pretty unbelievable," answered the officer. Captain Hollbright walked over to the Lieutenant's computer and surveyed the screen. Hollbright's eyes widened suddenly.
"Spartan, come 'ere," said the Captain. John walked over to the COM station.
"Does this make any sense to you?" the Captain asked, pointing at the screen. John leaned over to see the screen and read the new orders. They read:
United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 09973A-20
Encryption Code: Red
Public Key: file/ackerson/colonel/siireachorder/
From: James Ackerson, Colonel (UNSC Service Number: 09361-22478-JA)
To: Captain Hollbright, Commanding officer UNSC Kahldana/ (UNSC Service Number: 17508-20737-LH)
Subject: NEW ORDERS/J-117
Classification: SECRET (BGX Directive)
/start file/
Captain,
Much information about the Spartan's next mission is classified, and will remain so, so I will make this brief. Reach has fallen into the hands of the Covenant and they have glassed almost the entire planet. A small portion of Reach has been left untouched and they are currently landing troops onto the surface. All of the human forces on the planet are presumed dead. Spartan J-117 must be secretly dropped onto the surface and detonate the prototype bombs named "Novas". Arming procedures and satellite photographs showing the location of the bombs are attached.
Colonel Ackerson
/end file/
"Not really, sir," said John, "I had no idea Reach had fallen."
"This information is very grave. If what he says is true, humanity has little time left," said the Captain.
"Well, let's see how many of those bastards we can take down." Hollbright turned to the NAV officer.
"Lieutenant Evenka, set a course for the Reach System," he ordered. "Lieutenant Brevins," he said to the COM officer, "send a transmission to Colonel Ackerson that the Spartan will be dropped onto the planet's surface as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir," said the Lieutenant.
"Get yourself to the cryobay, Master Chief," said the Captain.
"Yes sir," said John, saluting, and he walked off the bridge.
Thanks for reading this, and please give me some feedback. But please do not tell me my date is messed up, and that there is no way John was doing these things. There is an explanation that will come in the later parts of this story. Also, I'm sorry its so short, but the next parts will be longer. This is just my first time returning to writing in a few months.
Visions of Purity Part 2: The Colonel
Date: 23 February 2004, 5:33 PM
0650 Hours, September 23, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Pelican dropship, near the planet Reach
John loaded his shotgun and pumped a round into the chamber, then set it on the metal Pelican deck, next to his sniper rifle. He was still confused about his mission, but, after the Kahldana had docked for repairs, he had no choice but to go ahead and drop down to Reach's surface.
The pilot turned around and looked at John. "The descent is going to be easier than we thought. All the Covenant ships are clustered around one area, so we should be able to land without being detected," he said.
John nodded and the pilot returned to his controls. Soon the Pelican began to shake as it entered Reach's atmosphere. John grabbed his shotgun and rifle and held on to them.
A few minutes later the Pelican came to a halt a few feet above Reach's surface. John got out of his harness, slung his shotgun over his back, and jumped onto the ground.
"As soon as you contact the captain and tell him you've completed your mission we'll come back to pick you up," said the pilot over John's COM channel as the Pelican began to lift off. John turned off his sniper rifle's safety and ran towards a nearby hill.
Suddenly Cortana said, "I'm putting a NAV point over the Novas storage facility." John was not able to bring her on his last mission, but he was glad to have her on this one. He was going to need her help. An orange arrow popped onto his HUD over the location of the storage facility holding the Nova bombs.
John broke into a sprint. Soon he was on a hill overlooking the storage building. He brought his sniper rifle up to his shoulder and scanned the entrance looking for some sort of Covenant force. He was sure the Covenant would have taken such an obvious structure such as the storage building. He quickly spotted an Elite using the rifle's 10x zoom, but the Elite was dead, his head partly blown off. John spotted at least another twenty Covenant bodies, Grunts, Jackals, and Elites, all showing signs of combat. If all the human forces on Reach were presumed to be dead, then what killed all these Covenant? John wondered. He unslung his shotgun and slung his sniper rifle then set off down the hill.
Reaching the bottom of the hill, John spotted something peculiar. Several sets of footprints leading towards the building were plainly displayed in the dirt. John inspected them and not only recognized them all as human, but he also determined that most of them had been made by Spartan boots. John was now very puzzled. All of his teammates had died several months ago, so who made these footprints?
He continued on towards the storage facility, passing bodies of Covenant, some missing limbs, some missing their legs, others missing their heads, but all were full of bullet holes. Indeed, humans had been here, even after the invasion of the Covenant, John thought. Soon he came to the building's huge doors. They were twenty feet tall and half a foot thick, so there was no way John could force them open by himself. He looked around; there had to be another way besides finding another entrance. Suddenly he got an idea.
The Spartan walked over to the body of an Elite and searched it for grenades. He found three; pocketing them he moved onto the next body. Quickly he had about ten plasma grenades. He walked back over to the storage facility's doors and piled the grenades in front of them. Then he pulled out a fragmentation grenade, pulled the pin, tossed near the pile, and ran behind a tree. Several seconds later came the deep 'THUD' of the frag grenade's explosion, quickly followed by multiple plasma grenade explosions. The ground shook as it was beaten by the pure force of the explosions while glowing hot metal shrapnel whipped past John. The explosions subsided as quickly as they started and John got up. He looked at the doors; a good portion of them had been blown away, and there was a small crater where the grenades had detonated.
Walking over to the broken doors, he got on his stomach and crawled through the crudely made opening.
"Primitive," Cortana remarked. John paid no attention to her as he strode over to the main control panel. He glanced over the computer displays. One display caught his eye: Countdown to Detonation: 17:42.13.
"Damn," muttered John.
"This doesn't make sense," Cortana whispered.
"You're telling me," John replied. He switched on the COM and radioed the Kahldana.
"Captain, the timers on the bombs have already started," he said.
"Alright son, we'll send the dropship to pick you up," Captain Hollbright answered.
"But who started the timers?" John asked.
"No idea, but at least your mission's over."
"Yes, sir." John was still puzzled, but he wasn't one to question things. He turned around, exited the building, and made his way back to the pickup.
Ano 'Ikamamee marched down the hallway. He clicked his mandibles in disgust. 'Ikamamee did not like what was happening late. Then, the vermin slaughtered the execution team. And, the most enraging of all, the ship master declared that the humans were not to be harmed, by order of the High Ones. Although 'Ikamamee's hatred for the humans was strong, he could not disobey the decree of the Prophets.
The Elite stopped near a set of doors. Two humans in olive armor stood in front of the doors, guarding. 'Ikamamee spoke to the humans, asking for entrance in his own language. He could hear the sound of the translation software in their helmets working. The guards nodded and motioned their guns toward the doors. 'Ikamamee thought the having to ask for entry into a section of a his own ship was ridiculous. He jerked his head in frustration, then continued through the doors.
Past the doors was a large docking bay. Close to a hundred of the green-armored humans filled the bay, patrolling, unloading supplies from human dropships, and guarding various important elements. 'Ikamamee walked over to a cluster of humans.
"Where is your leader?" he asked in his own language. One of the humans looked up and pointed to one of the larger humans. 'Ikamamee strode over to the human.
"The High Ones demand proof of your worthiness to the Covenant. You and your team must take this asteroid, held by human rebels," 'Ikamamee said to the human leader, handing him a datachip holding the information on the whereabouts of the asteroid.
"You must have complete control of it within the next forty-eight hours," he continued, wincing at his obligatory use of the filth's' time. The human nodded and continued overseeing various tasks. 'Ikamamee turned around and walked back out the doors he had entered the room through. He, for one, hoped that the humans would not return.
John stormed onto the bridge. Captain Hollbright stepped in front of him.
"What is the meaning of this, soldier?!" shouted Hollbright. "I told you to report to the cryobay! We're going to jump soon!"
"Captain, there are still men down there!" John answered, frustrated and confused.
"What, on Reach?" the Captain asked.
"Yes, sir. I saw their tracks in the dirt. They must have been the ones who set set the timers for the Novas."
"Son, this isn't my business. Colonel Ackerson told us to pull out and jump back to the Earth system, so that is what I'm going to do."
"We can't just leave them down there!" John yelled.
"Watch it Master Chief! You do not tell me what I can or cannot do!"
"Sir, there are men on the surface. Why are we just going to abandon them?!"
"I don't know, but we have orders. Now get to the cryobay!"
John whipped out his M6D pistol and pointed it at the captain's head.
"No."
"Men, draw your-" Hollbright started, looking towards the bridge officers.
"Don't take out your weapons. All of you know as well as I do that I could kill every single one of you without getting scratched. I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I must know what is going on," John said grimly.
"So what do you want?" Hollbright asked, his face twisted with anger.
"I want to talk with Colonel Ackerson."
"Alright," said the captain, "Lieutenant Brevins, establish a video and audio feed with Colonel Ackerson."
"Y-Yes sir!" the Lieutenant said. The captain glared at John while the Lieutenant set up the connection, anger burning in his eye.
"Video a-and audio feed connection established, s-sir!" Brevins said a few minutes later.
Colonel Ackerson stood before John on the main view screen, his back to the Spartan.
"Captain, I'm assuming you have an explanation for this interrupt-" Ackerson started as he turned around. He halted when he saw John pointing his pistol at Hollbright's head. The Colonel stared in shock for a few seconds.
"Master Chief! What are you doing?!" demanded Ackerson.
"Colonel, there are men still alive on Reach, including Spartans. We must send them help!" John replied. Surprise flashed over Ackerson's face, then quickly changed to anger.
"How do you know this?!" said Ackerson.
"There were footprints in the dirt near the Nova storage facility, most made by Spartan boots. It was obvious there were people still alive, the Covenant guarding the building were all killed by bullets and the Novas were set to blow by someone."
"That is not evidence enough. You have orders to pull out, now do it!"
"Sir, my men are down there!"
Ackerson laughed. "John, you have proven yourself most useful in the work I needed done. Indeed, this last piece of information is very interesting, and will need further investigation. But not only has your usefulness come to an end, you have now made a nuisance of yourself. Those are not your men, despite what you may think, but you will not find out anything about them."
Suddenly Ackerson's voice was audible over the Kahldana's intercom, allowing every Marine on the ship to hear.
"Soldiers of the Kahldana," said Ackerson, "this is Colonel Ackerson. I order every one of you to stop at nothing to kill the Spartan John-117! This is imperative; he threatens to hinder our efforts to defeat the Covenant! Kill him, or all of you will be court marshaled."
With that Ackerson disappeared from the view screen. The bridge officers stared at the Spartan in fear, not daring to reach for their sidearms. John had no idea what Ackerson was up to, but he knew it wasn't in the best interests of the UNSC. Ackerson must have his own agenda, he thought. He wanted to find out what was going on, but for now he had to get off the Kahldana and get to Earth...somehow.
Keeping his gun aimed at the captain's head, John backed out of the bridge. Once he was out of sight he ran down the hallway towards the lifepods. Two Marines stood guard near the first lifepod. They jumped in surprise when they saw him running towards them and they pointed their assault rifles at him. John holstered his pistol and raised his hands.
"Don't shoot and let me pass and I won't hurt you," John said. The Marines looked at each other, nodded, and lowered their weapons. John ran past them and opened the lifepod doors. After they slid open he walked in and punched the button that closed the doors. Then he threw himself into the pilot's seat and launched the lifepod.
A large figure stood before Ackerson on his holographic projector.
"You did not inform me that there were still survivors on Reach," said Ackerson. The figure laughed.
"You did not ask," it answered. "And besides, they are being hunted as we speak. But now it is our turn to ask why information was withheld. You did not tell us one of your ships was heading for one of the ring worlds. One of your super-troops has destroyed one of our most holy structures."
"Hmmm... I did not send any ship or troops to any of your ring worlds," replied Ackerson. "It probably wasn't under my command. I'll look into it; I'm just as interested as you are as to who destroyed the structure."
"See that you do, human."
"How are my soldiers doing?" Ackerson asked.
"The Ship Master of the Herald of Justice, Ydu 'Rulalemee, has reported that none of them have been harmed and they are about to embark on the Holy Ones' mission."
"Good. You will not be dissapointed by their performance."
"We shall see," the figure finished. The view screen snapped to black as the video and audio feed was severed. Ackerson stood up and stretched.
"How did it go?" a voice asked behind him.
"Perfectly. He doesn't suspect a thing," Ackerson answered without turning around.
"And what of the prototype?"
"He will be dead soon enough."
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