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Archaic Incursion: Prologue Pt. 1: False Advertising
Posted By: CoLd BlooDed and Nick Kang<broken_lizard12@hotmail.com>
Date: 12 August 2004, 8:12 PM
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0800 hours, September 23, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC High Command (HighCom) Facility Bravo-3,
Venice, Italy, Earth.
"...Reports from the AI Cortana indicate that these ancient 'Ring-Worlds' house an extremely old technology far superior to our own...and even the to the Covenant's." The man shrouded in darkness had a voice that was monotonous and droning, like a humming machine. His speech echoed hollowly in Captain Jim Prollis's ears. It was Colonel Ackerson, Prollis could tell by the deep, boring voice. Frankly, Prollis didn't care what the Colonel said...he had never cared about anything the man had ever spoken of. He was an outright lunatic. The Captain was having a hard enough time staying awake, let alone caring about anything the maniac said. Ackerson' boring way of talking wasn't helping much, either.
Prollis looked around at the other two ship Captains seated in front of the crescent-shaped ONI briefing desk. They were sitting up straight, their eyes focused solely on Ackerson. Suck ups. Prollis turned back to the Colonel, who was seated between Fleet Admiral Hood and General Strauss. Admiral Stanforth sat to the left of Hood, his hands folded calmly on the desk.
Ackerson had become so excited that spittle was starting to spray from his mouth, glittering like diamonds in the small amount of light. Prollis scooted slightly backward to avoid the malignant spray.
"This technology would be very valuable could we get our hands on it. It may mean turning the tide against the Covenant!" Ackerson held up his silhouetted fist and clenched it, as if mentally smashing the Covenant Empire. "Those alien bastards would get a run for their money once they see we have the better weapons and defenses! They would be forced to surrender or die retrea—" Admiral Hood cut off Ackerson's mumbling.
"What the good Colonel is trying to say," he eyed Ackerson, "is that if we got that technology from these 'Halos', we could boost our defenses at least three hundred percent. That should be more than enough to fight off the Covenant when they attack." His voice wavered with excitement. "It could mean the difference between defeating the Covenant...or the eradication of the Human race."
"Which is where you come in." General Strauss, who had been silent since the beginning of the meeting, suddenly piped up. "You three Captains will lead a search team for a new Halo, and extract technology from the ring-world. You will take this tech and load as much of it as you can onto your ships, taking it back to Earth for immediate and thorough implementation into our weapon systems. But be aware, strong Covenant presence is to be expected around these Halos, as the Covenant believes Gods built them. We, on the other hand, know better. Cortana downloaded a number of important files from Halo 04's Control Room stating that the rings were built by an ancient race called..." he flipped through a few notes on a clipboard, "the 'Forerunner'. Although we believe that the Forerunner are extinct, extraction of a live, or even intact non-living specimen would be greatly appreciated." He finished.
"Going back to the subject of Covenant presence in the area," Admiral Stanforth, the fourth and last ONI member seated behind the desk, growled, "we have integrated Prowler stealth technology into ordinary battle ships, making it much harder for Covenant radar to detect these vessels. Captain DeBlank?"
One of the two other Captains, a burly, barrel-chested man with big ears, stood. "Sir?" Was his only reply.
"You will be commanding the Prowler-class Destroyer Blitzkrieg. It will be your job to distract Covenant forces if the three of you get in a fight with them.
"Yes, sir."
"Captain Prollis?"
Prollis stood, his legs screaming in protest as they took on the unexpected weight. He said, "Sir?"
"You will be commanding the Prowler-class Carrier Sanction, which will carry ninety percent of the research team as well as a division of Marines lead by Lieutenant Colonel Kligovich," he gestured toward the back wall, where a tall muscular man stood straight and saluted.
"Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Golovki Kligovich, commander of Second Division, Marine Corps." His voice was heavily laden with a Russian accent. Prollis had a hard time understanding him.
"At ease, soldier," Stanforth said to Kligovich before turning to the third Captain. "Captain McDonald, you will be commanding the Prowler-class Cruiser Hiroshima. It will be your job to cover Prollis should the three of you come under fire.
The third Captain responded, "Yes, sir."
Admiral Hood began talking now. "However, Covenant vacuum presence is not the only threat. There is expected to be Alien ground forces that will do anything to stop you from extracting artifacts from the Ring. Your orders are to terminate these hostile forces on sight. But that is not the only threat." Hood's voice became grave. "Please turn you attention to the video display."
Prollis looked past the ONI members at the wall behind them, where a video screen had activated. It blurred, pixilated, and grew into focus. It seemed to be a video record from the cameras mounted on standard Marine ballistic helmets. The top back of a rifle took up almost the entire lower right-hand quarter of the screen. Prollis recognized it as an MA5B assault rifle. The ammo counter read: 60. At the bottom of the screen, in small yellow writing, were the words,
DIRECT VIDEO FEED: SPARTAN - 117: MASTER CHIEF PETTY OFFICER, 2347 HOURS, 9/9/2552
Prollis noticed that Ackerson cringed when he read the name. So this was video feed from the Master Chief on 04...interesting to say the least.
The screen showed a small rectangular chamber made of some metal. A large pillar had been erected in the center, and a small passageway took up half the wall on the far said of the room. It slanted upward into another room beyond. As the SPARTAN walked forward, a surge of yellow-green shapes rushed past the other side of the passage. The Chief stopped walking, looked around for a moment, and continued on.
Prollis leaned forward in his chair, resting his chin in his hands, eager to see what type of Covenant had just run past the doorway.
The Master Chief entered the tiny passage, and walked into the room beyond.
Prollis's heart quickly leapt into his throat.
Three Elites, one Blue armored, one Scarlet, and one Gold, presumably a Field Master, fired at a tide of writhing, pulsing creatures. Some of the beasts were large and bulky, resembling Elites, while others were lanky and thin, bearing more of a resemblance to Humans. They all had yellow-green, rotting flesh, and had batches of tentacles sprouting from random places on their bodies. Some of them held weapons: an assault rifle, and M6D, even a combat shotgun and a plasma pistol. The rest struck out at the Covenant with long appendages that had sprouted from their wrists.
The Elites fought bravely, killing three of the creatures, but they were soon overwhelmed. Having killed the Covenant, the monsters turned towards the Chief. He reacted quickly, and yellow fire sprouted from the muzzle of the MA5B, the ammo counter rapidly dropping. The hail of lead did little to slow the creatures. They charged, flailing their arms wildly, jerking from every bullet impact, and leaking vomit green blood. Two of them fell and the SPARTAN had already reloaded twice by the time they reached him. They lashed out with red-tipped tentacles, the camera jerking and shaking with each hit. The Chief fired blindly into the mob, the bullets cutting through flesh and shredding body parts. The creatures didn't seem to care. Finally, after several seconds of abuse, the Chief primed and dropped a frag grenade, sprinting back into the small chamber. There was a loud WHUMP! And the camera shook slightly. When the Chief turned around, the bodies of a dozen monsters were spread out from the black scorch mark in the floor where the grenade had gone off. The video feed abruptly ended.
Admiral Hood turned around in his chair to face the three Captains.
"That is an ancient race of aliens called the Flood. They are intelligent, parasitic, and extremely dangerous. They must be riddled with bullets before they fall. They have been known to play dead, so each 'dead' Flood must have at least half a magazine put into them. This wastes ammo, I know, but it is much better than having one of these bastards sneak up on you."
The meeting progressed for another hour, with the four ONI members explaining the tactics, strengths, weaknesses, anatomy, and reproduction. Finally, General Strauss ended the briefing with a simple,
"You leave within the hour.
1000 hours, September 25, 2552 (Military
Calendar)/Aboard UNSC Carrier, Sanction,
In Slipstream Space,
Guard Quarters C-5.
Two Days Later.
He awoke from his quiet sleep, suddenly and quickly sitting bolt upright on his cot. There was a sudden, loud CLANG! And pain shot through his forehead. He opened his eyes, and realized that he had hit his head on the support beam for the cot above him. Corporal Gregory Stanisforth rubbed his head and wondered what had made him wake up. He vaguely remembered a nightmare, though he couldn't remember what it had been of. Something of a horrible terror.
He looked around at the dark quarters, seeing the blurry shapes of bunks. The steady flow of breathing populated the air. Luckily, none of his four other teammates, or the other eight Marines in the quarters, had been awakened.
He looked down at his glowing watch, and was just about to register that it was his fire team's turn to go on patrol when the lights snapped on and a small klaxon sounded, the signal to wake. The dorm was immediately alive, as men and women hopped out of their bunks and donned their Titanium-A armor. Stanisforth shrugged his battleplate on and followed the rest of his team out towards the armory. First Sergeant Toni "Godfather" Fanguchi lead the team, a muscular, resilient, and good commander, Godfather had gotten the team out of many tight situations by using good leadership skills.
Godfather picked up an MA7B Battle Rifle, his favorite weapon, along with an M6D sidearm. Normally Godfather would carry a battle rifle and a shotgun, usually with one or the other strapped across his back, but a simple patrol didn't call for that much firepower.
Stanisforth itched to get his hands on one of the four S2AM Sniper's Rifles, but a ships corridor was too small to use such a long-range weapon. Stanisforth was the team sniper, a lanky individual who had a knack for headshots. He was smarter than the average Marine, but was terrified of death. The way he always hoisted his rifle up on its steadying bipod had earned him the call sign 'Props'.
He spotted an MA7B sitting in one of the rifle slots, and was reaching for it when a slender arm came out of nowhere and grabbed it off the rack before he could wrap his fingers around the handle. He turned, looking for the one who had stolen it from him, and found himself looking down into a pair of sparkling eyes.
"You expect to be a good sniper with speed like that?" Private Jessica "Sissy" Daniels gave him a playful smirk. "Gotta be quicker on the draw here, Props."
Daniels was a beautiful woman with a slender body and deep blue eyes. Her call sign 'Sissy' had come from when she had joined the group a year ago. Everyone, including Stanisforth, had though she would be too soft. She, however, had proven them wrong. She was a tough individual who would never let a teammate down.
Stanisforth was left speechless by her flirt and left to wallow in his own stupidity as she walked off to collect a magnum. He cleared his mind and picked up a Sub-Machine Gun, making sure a loaded magazine was in it before collecting an M6D. By then the rest of the team had gotten their weapons and were already waiting in the hallway. Stanisforth quickly grabbed an extra clip for the SMG before walking out to join them.
Jim Prollis kept his eyes on the bridge window, letting nothing escape his sight. The only blind spot he had was the area that the Hiroshima, about a mile ahead, covered. The pulsing blue glow of the cruisers thrusters cast eerie light into the Sanction's bridge. They had been traveling for almost three days in slip space, and the sensors hadn't yet picked anything up. Prollis was beginning to wonder how long it would take to find another Halo.
As if waiting for him to think on the subject, an alarm went off and bathed the bridge in red light. It indicated that a large object, roughly five billion miles in circumference, was about thirty trillion kilometers ahead of them. It would take approximately ten minutes to reach it in slipspace.
"I want a visual. Release a Clarion." Prollis said to no one in particular. Within seconds, the holo-tank next to the main view screen activated, and a dozen green squares of all sizes appeared in the air. They quickly formed into an old man wearing a light gray cloak with a knotty white beard that extended six inches below his chin. In one hand, he held a stone tablet. In the other, a knarled wooden staff. It was Damocles, the Sanction's AI.
"Clarion away, Captain. ETA to object is about six minutes. Scanners indicate high energy levels radiating from the site. Use caution when approaching." A timer appeared in the upper left corner of the view screen, counting down from six minutes. While he waited, Prollis toyed with the idea of destroying the Halo when he was done with it. It would wipe out the Covenant armada, not to mention the ships around it. He would just have to pull his people out of there fast.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, a soft buzz reverberated through the room, announcing the Clarion's arrival at the object. The screen snapped on, but it didn't display a Ring-World.
It was a planet.
It was covered almost entirely by water, or at least something that resembled water from space. Only about five percent of the planet was land. Small, perhaps twenty-mile islands broke the surface here and there. Bu what really caught Prollis's attention was the ships. His eyes widened. Dozens of ships. Covenant ships. Destroyers, Cruisers, Carriers, Frigates, Corvettes, and a single, huge Flagship orbited the planet. The Captain's mouth hung open when he saw the swarms of Seraphs endlessly patrolling the mass of water and land.
He was so captivated by it that he didn't notice that the UNSC ship had reached the planet. He was so caught up in its beauty that he didn't notice the two Covenant corvettes bearing down upon them. He didn't notice, that is, until the boarding alarm went off.
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