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The Megg: The Escape
Posted By: Simpsons Rule
Date: 5 May 2003, 1:13 AM


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The Megg Story: The Escape           



      Here the Chief stood, just a wall separating him from what seemed to be an unstoppable force. He had to think of some way to get the hell out of the ship, but how? Normally, he wouldn't consider killing his fellow soldiers, as the UNSC needed every one of them they could get. At this moment, however, that idea seemed fine. The only problem was, as far as he could tell, they wouldn't die. He asked Cortana again "Are you sure I can't kill them?"
      "I don't see how you could with those augmentations." she replied. "There may be an alternative to killing them, however. This is the security team, designed to save everyone on the bridge so the Covenant can't take control of it. If a new threat were to come into play, at least some of them would have to engage that enemy."
      "You want me to wait here until some Covenant manage to gain access to the bridge?" The Master Chief asked puzzled.
      "No, we just need them to think that." she replied. "See that control module against the wall there? Put me in there." The Chief walked over to the control module and placed Cortana inside it. He still had no idea how she could distract the security team without there actually being any Covenant, but he had faith in her.
      Cortana easily regained control of the ship, since Captain Keyes was relying on her to run the ship and didn't have time to initialize the Pillar of Autumn's A.I. She quickly accessed the ships monitors and looked for a plausible attack point. There, right outside of the bridge. The blast door had been closed but not locked just like the door leading out of the bridge. Every technician knew the security code and chances were that the security team would too. Over the bridge COM system, she activated another recorded message and made it look like the ship's censors from the bridge triggered it. It said "Security to the bridge, Covenant forces detected in close vicinity to the bridge. Rally at blast door number 024 for an expected Covenant attack." After a moments pause it said "Number of hostiles are predicted to be from 20-30."
      No one questioned the fact that the ship's censors were useless without an A.I. to trigger them. Especially since they all thought Cortana was still inside the Master Chief's suit. Someone could have been monitoring them but everyone had their own station to take care of and since the security team was running about, everyone felt very secure. So without any second thoughts, the security team gathered around the front of the bridge to get instructions from Sergeant Marvin Mobuto.
      The Chief could hear everything, even from the end of the hallway. Sergeant Mobuto said "All right you lazy bastards, we got inbound Covenant troops and we need to make em' wish they were never born."
      "But that armored freak is still around here somewhere," a marine protested. "He's just as big of a threat as the Covenant are."
      "I'll take care of him," a rugged looking marine said. "I have very personal issues with that son of a bitch. Don't worry, he'll not only die, he'll suffer."
      "Good, everyone else follow me, we're not going to wait for those bastards to blast there way in." The Sergeant barked. "We're going to have a nice little surprise waiting for them."
      Sergeant Mobuto came across the door at the end of the hallway and saw it was closed. The light however was green which not only meant it wasn't permanently sealed, it also meant he could get it open with the security code. He reached for the pad mounted to the door and typed in 7-49-343-2401. The door slid open and the marines emptied out into the hallway. They immediately took a left and saw the blast door was closed. Again, just like the previous door, the Sergeant realized he could open it and re-entered the security code. The blast door slowly opened, revealing the second "layer" of the blast door. This too had to be given the security code before it would open. All the marines emptied into the hallway, past support structures, only to see another blast door, this one however was "permanently sealed."
      The marines thought nothing of seeing the blast door they had just opened begin to close again. It made perfect sense. This way the threat of the Covenant making it to the bridge was dramatically reduced. They wouldn't think anything was wrong until about ten minutes from then when no Covenant would come. For the moment however, each person was focused on having the very first kill.
      A low voice came out of the module. "All but one of the marines has been taken care of Chief. I've locked the rest within a corridor. They won't be able to escape until the doors open, twenty minutes from now. That should give us enough time to get to a life pod and get the hell out of here."
      "So there's still one marine left?" the Chief asked.
      "I'm afraid so. He was supposed to take care of you and he's in the process of searching the bridge right now. It won't be long until he searches in here. My work is done, take me out of here and place me back into your suit."
      "I think I know how to take care of him, it won't be pretty though."
      "How?" asked Cortana.
      The Chief walked into the short hallway where he had his first battle with a member of the security team. "Look there," he said. "that marine I shot lost a lot of blood. Augmentations or no augmentations, if he loses enough blood, he will die."
      The Master Chief hesitated. What he was about to do would be the most inhumane thing he could think of. He now realized why some people hated the Spartan program. They were afraid of his Spartans acting like this. An unstoppable force that could turn on you in a heart beat. The only problem was that the Spartans knew their duty and would never betray those who they were sworn to protect. No, the Master Chief would try to talk to this marine before going through with his plan.
      He waited as the marine eventually began to look for him in the hallway he was in. The marine entered the room and saw the Chief standing at the end of the corridor.
      "Wait." the Master Chief called out. "I had to kill the Captain, it was the only way to guarantee the Covenant wouldn't find the location of Earth. You don't need to do this; I'm not your enemy. "
      The marine gave a short chuckle at the idea and responded by saying, "Did you let my brother go free? Remember my brother huh Master Chief. Or maybe you've killed too many to possibly remember one out of the thousands."
      The Master Chief was genuinely puzzled. How could he have killed his brother? Could it have been that his brother was on the rebel base that he destroyed? Maybe, but unlikely considering the marine is a helljumper and his brother wouldn't likely go against the UNSC. Helljumper. Of course, his brother must have been one of the helljumpers he killed in the gym after his augmentations were done.
      The marine continued. "You left him lying in a pool of his own blood in a boxing ring. No, Master Chief, I am going to kill you just like you killed my brother."
      With that the marine opened fire. The Master Chief had to act quickly. He couldn't feel those bullets, not yet anyway, because of his shields. The marine, however, would feel every bullet as it entered his body. No one had the mental capabilities to ignore a full automatic spray of 7.62 mm armor-piercing rounds. As soon as the Master Chief opened fire, the marine stopped. Cursing and trying to stumble out of range, he felt everything. The Master Chief didn't give him a full automatic spray however. Short controlled bursts were not only more accurate but they also prevented the marine from returning fire for a more extended amount of time. By the time the Master Chief had unloaded an entire clip, his shields had recharged. The marine immediately resumed shooting. Just as the Chief's shields went down too low, his gun was reloaded and he returned fire.
      There wasn't any place for the marine to go except for the bridge. There was no cover anywhere in sight and so the pattern continued. Blood was everywhere. It was by far the most disgusting thing the Master Chief had ever seen. The marine was becoming very weak and couldn't maintain his balance. He began to lean against a corner, unable to think straight.
      "I can stop right now. We can get some medics in here. I don't want to hurt you."
      "I'll make you pay for what you did to my brother!" the marine screamed.
      The marine got up and with his last bits of energy, began to re-engage the Chief. With little choice, the Master Chief fired his assault rifle. The marine just lay there, looking at the lights above. He slowly closed his eyes and bled to death. The Master Chief wanted to explain to the bridge crew everything that had happened but there was simply no time. He had to get out of the ship before it was completely overrun by Covenant. He had already wasted ten minutes killing that one marine and besides, no one was likely to believe him.
      As he ran outside, he could hear the other marines locked away demanding to be let out. No doubt, they had heard the gunshots and wanted a piece of the action. As the Chief ran out of the bridge, he saw the door to the cafeteria had been locked as well. He thought that it might have locked at the same time the door to the bridge did. As it turns out, Cortana closed it and she was easily able to open it. Inside the cafeteria, the Master Chief saw the three marines that he helped out before. They were very confused as to what the hell had been going on.
      Sergeant Jack Daniels approached the Chief, about to ask what had happened. Before he could say anything the Chief said, "Hostiles were located around the bridge. I took care of them, no worries."
      The Chief continued on down a hallway and paused. He asked Cortana, "What if more Covenant find there way to the bridge before the security team is free? We can't let that happen."
      Sharing those concerns with the Chief, Cortana devised her own little plan. "First, I'll lock the doors every time you clear an area. This will minimize the likelihood of any Covenant troops reaching the bridge. Also, I'll disable radio transmissions to other troops from the security team and the bridge. The automated recordings of Captain Keyes' evacuation procedure will go on as normal so no one will suspect a thing. No one will get the word you've gone "rampant" so the marines will be glad to see you.
      This was soon realized when the Master Chief ran down a corridor and saw an elite with his back turned to him. A quick slap to his back with the butt of his assault rifle and it quickly went down. The marines who were busy trying to fight him were very glad to see the Chief. And so the Master Chief went on, fighting his way through the hordes of Covenant and finally making his way to a lifeboat. As the Master Chief's lifeboat was falling through the sky one thing became clear. If and when he left this "ring," one thing was for sure. The Covenant wouldn't find Earth, not this way at least. This didn't justify what he had done but it made the Chief able to put it in the back of his mind. Survival was his next step.



-Simpsons Rule





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