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The Final Meeting - Part 2
Posted By: Bluestone<bluestone@343gs.com>
Date: 17 January 2004, 3:04 PM
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CHAPTER 3
15th July 2560
Aboard Captured Covenant Dropship in Covenant Controlled Space
"This is John reporting successful launch, over" Chief said.
"Roger that, Chief" Stenman replied. The captured Covenant dropship was filled with the three Spartans and around 10 Marines. Kia manovered the dropship towards the Ring, trying to avoid any close contact with nearby ships. Since the discovery of the Halo in the system, the plan had changed. The focus was now on the Ring itself and not the planet. After long speculation, it had become clear that if they got into the Halo's Control Centre, they could try to 'aim' it at the Covenant planet. Due to John's memory, they worked out that no Human settlements would be hit, as they were well over 25,000 light-years away from Earth.
It was a long time since the adventures he had on Halo. He remembered all, 343 Guilty Spark, the fact that he was extremely lucky to escape, and The Flood. It was seen to be preposterous that that The Flood would exist on this Halo. It was presumed by the team that because it was so close to the planet, the Covenant would have wiped out any traces of The Flood long ago.
"The Covenant Control has just requested codes. Strange dialect doesn't seem to be like their usual language. Sending codes now…" Kia spoke out-loud on Chief's suit speakers. Chief was in charge here. Normally this was true anyway, but because of his firsthand experience on Halo 04, this made him especially important.
"Interesting. A scan on the Ring shows that it is identical to Halo 04… Even to the positions of the Control Room. We'll be entering the atmosphere of the Ring shortly, but before then we'll find out if these codes have worked" Kia reported. She liked being a newscaster, keeping everyone updated.
Suddenly the dropship shuddered. It started swinging out of control and barrel-rolled twisting erratically.
"We've started entering the Ring's atmosphere earlier than I thought… Hold on!" Kia screamed. As the dropship plummeted into the atmosphere it heated… Fire licked around as the nose of the small ship lit up, it was white-hot. The air suddenly hitting the craft, coupled with the sound of the engines made a deafening roar.
"I can't control it… The trajectory is too deep!" Kia shouted
"Hold on!" Chief said, trying to keep hopes up. They all gritted their teeth, shaking in their seats due to the un-controllable motions of the dropship.
"30 seconds till impact… We're too fast!" Kia screamed. The dropship was falling like a rock, Kia battled with the ship, trying to bring it under control.
"Brace!" Chief shouted. Everyone in the cabin anchored themselves to their seats. The engines roared as Kia tried to bring the trajectory to something realistic. To the team's amazement, it started to level. The massive G-Forces pulled on the craft as it cleared the cloud layer. Now the ground was visible and the extent of the problem was now clear. The Engines were screaming as the dropship started to level.
"This isn't going to be pretty team, hold tight!" Chief shouted.
"Damn right!" An ODST muttered.
"Impact in 5 seconds!" Kia said. There was a huge explosion followed by several seconds of massive bombardment. Then there was silence.
CHAPTER 4
15th July 2560
Unknown Location on Halo's Surface, Inside Crashed Covenant Dropship
"Wake up… Can you hear me?" Chief could make out the voice… It was Linda. That meant he was alive. The blackness cleared and he opened his eyes. John's shield bar was completely drained and he couldn't feel his legs. He could see the dropship's roof, and new that he was lying on the floor.
"Finally, are you OK?" Linda and Kia seemed to ask at the same time.
"Yeah, I think so" Chief grunted. He got to his feet. The pain in his legs throbbed, but he ignored it.
"So, what's the situation?" He asked anyone who was listening. Kia spoke first through his helmet.
"8 losses… all ODST's" Kia said, with a quiet voice.
"So that leaves five of us" Chief said. Fred and two ODST's walked around from the side of the wrecked dropship, and Chief saw that Kia's grim statistics were actually true.
"Comm's are out, so is just about everything else" Fred remarked
"More good news" Chief said sarcastically. His vision had started to return. And he saw it… The unmistakable image of the Ring's landscape going up from the horizon and reaching over their heads 10,000 kilometres away. He suddenly remembered his adventures on Halo 04 8 years ago. Now was different however, Chief and his team knew what they had to do.
Unlike Halo 04, This Halo's Control Centre had 'good' weather. The caverns were still the same, but because the Ring was facing the sun at a different angle the weather was reversed. Where the team where on this Ring, there were mostly rocky desolate areas but there were a few plants and trees. On Halo 04, Halo was not visible in the sky, but here it was different. Chief could see how tall the giant cavern walls were, and see the blue sky beyond.
"How far too the Control Room?" Chief asked.
"Scan shows it's 0.632 kilometres away. However, the codes we used to get past Control didn't work. The Covenant knows we're here, and they're coming to get us. Using the Covenant satellites I've discovered there is a huge population of Covenant forces at the Control Centre." Kia answered. Almost as soon as Kia had finished speaking. The rumbling sound of dropship engines became apparent. The team looked up. At first there were one, two, five. But then the numbers got worrying.
"Detecting thousands of dropships entering atmosphere. Intercepting radio messages…" Kia said. There was a long pause. "They're coming for us, now!"
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