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New strength (Halo 2: Chapter 7)
Posted By: Shadowrunner<mortenthenerd@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 July 2003, 12:06 AM
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Origin of Shadow Ops: Agent Shade has originally invented the Shadow Ops. During his work with the series, i asked him if i was allowed to use them myself. He agreed, so please don't bother posting i "stole" them from him...
Btw, this time is the last appearence of Shadow Ops for some time...
Master Chief froze. His face twisted and his ears ringed, all he could see was a black cloud. He started yelling, and soon he fell backwards... Shadow Ops team 2 stood besides him and looked helpless at the scenario. His body twisted and curved as he lay on the floor. Suddenly he stopped moving completely, and silence filled the Berlin Airport.
He woke up moments later as the familiar voice of Cortana went through his ears: "Hey... Wake up..."
Master Chief was still not fully concius, but he catched the hint and soon he was able to control his body again. "Cortana? You're back?"
"Yes... And i'm lucky to be so, that mastermind-AI, Ji'Shuu, had assimilated me into itself. But it seems the covenant haven't got the best idea of how capable i am of self-defence"
"Wait a minute... The covenant? It actually helped me fight them..."
"Think; How much did it really help you to do?"
"Uh... But..." Master Chief got up again.
"It kept silent everytime you fought the covenant, am i right?"
"Yes, but it scared the living shit out of a prophet"
"Hmm... What did it say?"
"Something about that their time was over and the 4th era was about to start" Master Chief looked nerveously at Shadow Ops team 2
"I see... That doesn't make sense? Why would a covenant AI help you fight them?"
"How do you even know it was of covenant origin?"
"Among other things, it's name... In the language of the Elites it means 'False Guide'... Besides that it actually managed to hack your brain. You thought you knew the name Korrhra because of the prophecy? It was most likely a memory inserted in your brain by Ji'Shuu. Furthermore 'Korrhra' means devil in the Elites' language"
Master Chief slowly memorized his past experiences in detail. "How, then, will you explain my feeling that saved Katanas life? And the sword that could have killed me?"
"I haven't got a clue on the Katana thing, but your suit automatically relays info on the sorrounding situation to your brain. It took a while for the system to calibrate into your brainwave-pattern, but it seems it did it at that time... Just soon enough"
Master Chief stopped, to call in a dropship with perimiter forces and to exfiltrate him and Shadow Ops. It arrived 37 minutes later with a Scorpion Tank and 23 marines. They got out while Sargeant Henderson shouted orders at them. Shadow Ops boarded the transport, Master Chief stopped for a second but then got into the dropship too. Nobody spoke a single word on the entire trip, with exception of Master Chief, but he deactiveted the loudspeaker other persons could hear as his voice. "But what was this solution Ji'Shuu kept talking about?"
"I'm not 100% sure, but i think it was the solution to the problem of the SPARTANs... From what i can piece together from Ji'Shuu's base on the 'Illuminated Path' it was meant to gain your trust so you would follow it's every directive without thinking... And then issuing an order that would get you killed"
They arrived aboard the 'Excalibur' and Chief got out. He and Shadow Ops deserved some relaxation time.
After a calm sleep Chief quickly woke up, Cortana had analyzed the data of Ji'Shuu in detail by now. "It looks like this Ji'Shuu AI was actually built upon another, original, AI... I can't retrieve the name or any specific data. Maybe we can find something on another covenant cruiser... Maybe..."
"Where do we go now? The forces of Earth and their reinforcements can easily take out the remaining covenant forces in the Sol system..."
On the bridge of the 'Mammoth', wich was a Knossos class Large Cannon Cruiser, A true dreadnought. Admiral Smets was standing and looked out in the empty void of space. One might note he looked like Captain Keyes in the 'Pillar Of Autumn's last moments. A scanner sargeant suddenly yelled: "SIR! Picking up incoming subspace signatures!.. Origin unknown, class unknown, configuration unknown... Ah hell, EVERYTHING unknown!"
A scanner private added: "Picking up 3 more dead ahead, what the hell is this?!"
"Combat alert DOUBLE Alpha! To your stations!" The loudspeakers almost popped out of the wall with the strength this order was issued.
The space was filled with hundreds of bright dots marking subspace openings where ships unknown to mankind now came through. The scanner sargeant noted to the admiral: "Sir, their weapon systems are powering down... I've got a single large fighter coming out of one of them, it's headed towards us!"
"See to it that, whoever they are, gets the king of welcomings here" Admiral Smets said to a lieutenant commander
"Yes sir!" He clicked his heels and ran over to a microphone "This is Lieutenant Commander Cordova! I want every expendable crewmember and marine into the main landing bay, standing in attention, as fast as humanly possible!"
12 minutes later the amassed forces of all of the 'Mammoth' was assembled in the main landing bay. It was so huge an entire Halcyon Cruiser could fit into it. Yet as big as it was the assembled marines and crew filled it almost completely. And many were still on their way there. Cordova estimated no less than 800.000 marines and 400.000 crew were gathered here. The Knossos class of spaceship was the largest human battleship to ever exist. Only 2 were ever built.
The fighter from the unknown spaceship was purple-gray, it looked a little like covenant design. But it was far more sophisticated. Out stepped a strange looking creature; it was 8 feet tall and carried green armor. The head was slim, tall, and almost completely black. 4 bright marble-balls marked the eyes, on top of it's forehead. The legs almost made out 2/3 of it's height. Admiral Smets walked down the lines of marines, all standing in attention.
Master Chief followed Smets until they were a couple of meters from it. Smets kept going forward and reached out his hand towards the creature. At first the creature didn't understand. But then it too reached out. Smets lightened up into a smile. Then it looked at Master Chief, walked towards him and greeted him by swinging it's hand in a circle and landing it on Chief's right shoulder. Then it bagan to talk with a deep voice: "Greetings... I am Elceelar of the Gridi'n. Our 2 societies have both attracted the wrath of the covenant of the lesser races. We are here to request an alliance, for we have lost many brethren as have you. Our homeworld is in ruins, and we hope to help you avoid the same destiny. The tides will turn! With our technology and your numbers, we have a chance to overcome the brutality of those with a closed mind"
Master Chief answered: "We accept your alliance with raised head, and healed wounds. Our societites, though weak apart, will be strong together. We thank you, and bid you welcome."
"Attention!" Smets yelled, and 1.200.000 men and women saluted Elceelar. Smets stepped up to Chief and Elceelar: "You couldn't have come at a better time, much of our fleet is gone... And our numbers continue to decrease. Hopefully, this will be the turning point..."
While looking intensely on Master Chief, Elceelar reassured him: "It will be... If all is true"
Master Chief went into the armory. He had a feeling he would be called away soon and it didn't hurt to be prepared. Lucifer was also there, he stepped closer. "Master Chief, sir."
"Yes, what is it?"
"I'm afraid i have to inform you that we have been pulled out of your command"
Master Chief turned around and looked at him. "So i will be going alone now?"
"I- i don't know sir... We've been assigned to protect Earth from possible future attacks..."
"I don't know my orders yet but i'll be shipping out, i'm sure"
"Well, then... God speed Master Chief" He saluted and turned around on his heels.
Master Chief felt his desperation, as he realized he was alone again. "Cortana, why would they seperate me from the Shadow Ops?"
"I believe it is due to the fact that it is a waste of resources... You know, overkill. So i guess that... Wait i'm just recieving a communiqué from one of the Gridi'n vessels... Good news Chief, They saw fit to pair you up with a small group of elite forces... From these reports it looks like they have got armor very similar to your suit..."
"So i will be operating with soldiers of SPARTAN-II caliber?"
"Yes, looks like 2 indeviduals were placed under your command"
"Goodie" He picked up the prototype M6D-T pistol and the MA4-SPARTAN custom assault rifle, with the MG206 20mm grenade launcher, He loaded the pistol with .58 HE ammunition and took 12 AT 20mm grenades.
Especially the MA4-SPARTAN was worth noticing: The direct dirivaty of the ancient M4A1 assault rifle. The original weapon was far from flawless however; It's short barrel led to low stopping power and reduced accuracy. It's reliability was less than ideal, even by 20th century standards. But in this new incarnation of the weapon the length of the barrel was no longer an issue, since the SPARTAN soldiers had strength surpassing most weight lifters in the world. The weapons chamber was changed from the original 5.56mm to fire 9.12mm rifle bullets, with flachette warhead (containing several small sabot fragments around the center bullet. Everything neatly sealed in plaststeel casings). Advancements in material complexity and durability since 2008, when the rifle was outphased by the XM-8 lightweight assault rifle, made it as reliable as the MA5B. Night vision scope with 12x zoom was standard issue, just as the bipod and detachable silencer. The large bullet initially decreased the number of rounds in a magazine to 20, but then the BETA-C dual drum mag was made standard issue, holding 60 rounds there was enough power in this rifle to wage a one man war against the worst odds imaginable.
As Master Chief got aboard the transport to the Gridi'n vessels, he looked back at the hangar... Although he had been living his entire life seeing these, they felt equally alien as the covenant ships. But these new ships... He was familiar with them in some way. Even his type of armor strangely resembled theirs. He arrived at the light assault frigate 'Pride of Ok'sha'... Elceelar and another Gridi'n, slightly smaller, were waiting for him. "Greetings, human" Elceelar said. They both kneeled and swore an oath to him in alien tongues. From what Chief heard it sounded like this: "Gridiâ jeesku furo liaqû Korrhra hiednéi... Kle sido liaqûdo nusaar''n" He recognized the word Korrhra, but decided not to ask about it. They got on their feet again and moved their hands in a circle, before placing them on either of his shoulders. "Please, follow us" the other Gridi'n said. They got into a fighter 3 times the size of a normal one, and departed the ship.
13 hours later, they arrived in a binary solar system, with a mars-sized planet circling the larger sun. Farther away was a saturn-like planet, with a clearly distinguishable shape orbiting around it: Another Halo. At first Master Chief was almost falling out of his chair, but then he remembered 343's words: "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective range of 25.000 lightyears... But once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life" He checked the sights of his M6D-T one last time before they flew into the atmosphere of installation 01.
But this experience would prove to be quite different from what happened at 04...
--To be continued
By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing"
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