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The Death of Earth:Guilt of a Spartan
Posted By: Sim McGaulkin<w2658@msn.com>
Date: 25 September 2003, 1:09 AM


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The air was cold, the night dark. Master Chief scanned the horizon for the enemy he knew will come by the morning, the enemy he had now fought countless times. He had killed hundreds, thousands; survivor of a thousand battles, victor of a hundred. But as he won, and survived, the Earth died,
dragging Humanity with it. The first attempts at sending colony ships had finaled; the Covenant eliminated them without a blink, and thousands died before it was cancelled.

All efforts now went to survival; and they were losing. The Covenant were winning, slowly but surely. and Humanity
now hung at the edge of extinction.

* * *

"ugh!" The marine fell back, his chest blown open by the
Brute; it roared in it's triumph, and ran across to the nearest group of marines, and died as it roared, shot through the head three times by Master Chief.
Master Chief reloaded his sniper rifle, and slowly peered across the battlefield; he noticed that there were much fewer marines than there was a mere thirty minutes ago. The Covenant were now mopping up the rest, and soon would get to the final defenses.
"Private! Man the tanks! Get ready!" The young man nodded, and ran to comply with the orders. Master Chief
shook his head, knowing that the young man would probably die by the end of the day. But they had to defend this base; the Cave, as it was called, they had isolated the rampant AI Guilty Spark, and was now extraction valuable information, information that might figure directly in thier survival. Than he heard a distant explosion, deep wition the base. He froze. Had the Covenant made it?
Then, he saw... a insertion pod. Many of them. Thousands of them. Pods, with a elite in each, dropping down now,
and that was when he knew that it was time to retreat.
"Corporal! Time for extraction!"
A Elite jumped out; The Chief blew it's shield off, then it's head. A second one. Ditching his rifle, he drew his
shotgun, and shot it twice as it ran for him with it's sword. It fell, body split in half. Then another. And screams of dying marines. "No..." He shot another one, then crushed it's head in with the butt of the gun, and it died with a satisfying groan. He then ran for the Pelicans,
hovering above the ground, and jumped in, providing cover fire for more marines. He then saw...

A Flood.

"How?..." He then saw the attention of the Elites had shifted from the marines to the Flood. More jumped out of the base, all wearing the tattered coats of white, with the insignia of the ONI plain across it's back. They jumped out, with rifles small and big, sniper and assault. They opened fire uncoordinatedly, but they more than made up for it with numbers. The Elites fell back under the assault.
"Come on, pilot. Let's get out of here." The pilot nodded;
and in moments the Pelican lifted off, leaving behind it's wake a thousand Covenant and Flood fighting for life, or in the case of the Flood, food.
'How did the Flood get to Earth...'

* * *
"John-117, are you telling us that the Flood are back? On Earth? But how? We blew Halo to hell and back-" Chief interrupted Cortana.
"Cortana, the Flood are back. And you have to tell General Levy that. I'm not high-ranked enough."
Cortana nodded, her small hologram more than enough to convey the image.
"Fine. But chief, sorry to tell you this, but I had already expected this."
"What?"
"The scientists on Designation 153 were actually examining the Flood germs we had found on the Longsword. My guess is that they were less than careful with it."
"Or disturbed."
"Yup."
"Does the general know this?"
"I'm pretty sure."
"Then what will they do?"
"Well, my guess would be that they would send YOU in, chief.
After all, you are the one with the most experience. And I will be along for the ride." Chief shook his head.
"To make sure I don't cause too much damage?"
" They ARE still angry that you didn't recover any artifacts from Halo."
"Contingencys of War."
"Yeah, I know. But try explaining that to the lab."

* * *
Chief drove the Warthog across the desert, heading for the
Cave. Sent by the General Levy, of the Earth Directorate of Defense, he was to investigate what had happened. Or, as Cortana put it, try to kill as many of the enemy as he can.
"Chief, after around fifteen minutes, wake me."
"What?"
"I'm going to search out the Covenant battle net. They STILL don't lock it, you know."
"Fine."
"Remember, fifteen minutes." Then the presence in his mind, Cortana, was smaller, and he acutally missed it.
'unwanted advices...'
setting the 'hog into auto-drive, he checked his weaponry;
battle rifle, shotgun, and some grenades. He was to trave light. And of course, a SPNKR rocket launcher, in case of emergencies. And since he was expendable, at least in the eyes of ONI, he had no spare medpacks. Bastards.
"Tut, tut, tut. Such bad language."
"Back already?"
"Yeah. The Covenant finally started putting up some defenses. Just popped into to tell you that."
"Fine. Still want a wake-up bell?"
"Nah. Just cue me when we get there."
"Fine." Cortana was gone again.

to be continued... hopefully





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