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In a time after Halo 2, this happened...

A hit of plasma took the Master Chief in the side, forcing him down on one knee. He responded with a burst of sub-machinegun fire, and his target fell with an inhuman scream. The hologram lifted, and the matrix of thin yellow lines on black came into view. The pod he was in lifted and he got out. A small gash was on his clothing, with a thin streak of blood quickly healing, courtesy his genetically modified body. He went through a door, rubbing his arm where the blow had hit him. "You told me the setting was on legendary" he said accusingly to the computer technician. "It was, you were on fire, toasting those enemies. Just believe this; the enemies out there are smarter and harder than any sim can produce. You thrashed a legendary setting mission though. I think that you can look after yourself." He helped the Master Chief with his armour. It was a long task and one of the reasons he didn't take it off very often. "This is Captain Buller. Send the Master Chief to the bridge ASAP."
"You better go. She sounds pretty urgent"
"Thanks."
The Master Chief stepped round the corner, walking past the rack of assault rifles next to the Bumblebee escape modules. Suddenly, a sharp burst of light filtered through, and a huge rumble caused Master Chief to stumble and hang on to a support beam. A harsh raking sound from the Bumblebee caused the Master Chief to run and dive for the rack of assault rifles. He grabbed one and waited. A sharp hiss of air from an airlock signalled him to run forward, spinning round and tossing a fragmentation grenade into the open door. The tightly packed module exploded with fire, and the only survivor was a badly damaged Elite. A burst of fire quickly silenced him. There was a holo-panel in the back, and Master Chief accessed it. A jumble of klaxons and orders from the PA system were behind him, and he cracked open the violet casing. A screen showing a field of fire was before him. He was in control of a vehicle mounted Shade AIWS, Anti Infantry Weapon System. He shifted the control stick beneath him and fired. Although it was a primarily anti-infantry weapons platform in function, it had sizeable anti-vehicle recoil. Before the next ship had secured, he had blasted the back of the ship off. Three Elite's and ten Grunt's all flew out into the cold vacuum of space. Master Chief aimed and fired again. He took down two more before the others cottoned on. They fired at the renegade assault carrier, blasting the end of it out to space. A single figure flew out, firing an assault rifle. He landed on the airlock side of a troop carrier. The bullets had pushed him minutely towards the incoming carrier, and he had made it. Landing with a thud, the troops inside the carrier were unaware that there was an extra passenger. Making a smooth landing only Covenant could provide, they opened the airlock, to find a very vengeful Spartan waiting. He fired his assault rifle again and again, bullets ripping into the soft skin of the Grunts and the shielded bodies of the Elites. Firing until the clip was dry; he threw it aside and thrust in another. The only survivors were a badly wounded Elite and a healthy looking Elite. A full clip found its way into the good Elite, and then he and his comrade were both choking up blood. Four swift strikes by the butt of the rifle took the life from their bodies. Straightening up, Master Chief took a plasma pistol and jammed it into its socket. Grabbing an overshield from the back, he strode forward, continuing his path to the bridge. A blast of blue and a scream notified him of what to do next. A fragmentation grenade found its way onto the floor next to an Elite with two kills to its name. He soon became a kill listed to the already long list of Master Chiefs. A marine was lying on the ground, coughing. He had a leg missing and was very pale. He looked feebly up at the Master Chief and smiled. "I knew they had one of you on board. Makes me feel good to know that I saw you." A sigh came from the body, and the marine looked up with sightless eyes. Taking his ammo, Master Chief laid the marines helmet in his chest, and took one of his dog tags. Striding forward, he took the stairs to the top floor. Taking a left and then a right, he passed a marine barricade. Crates and boxes were piled up and marines were taking positions. A medic passed, and Master Chief stopped him. "I found a man, dead. Here are his dog tags." The medic nodded and walked forward. Master Chief rounded the corner and walked past the technicians working on computers. Up at the bridge he nodded to acknowledge the captain and her AI. Captain Amy Buller was in the height of her military career and good at her job. She had captained countless blockade runners and the Fall of Reach was not any different. A ship built in memory of all the hundreds who died in the attack on Reach, it was a standard Halcyon class ship. Bigger than the Pillar of Autumn and smaller than the micro planets the dignitaries used, she was a very average ship. The AI, Nubart, was an average AI with an average job. Unfortunately, he had to share his ship with another AI. Cortana had a free run of the ship, but she could not issue any orders. Also, her larger than normal intelligence made her angry with the small weak mind of Nubart. "What am I doing here, cooped up with this stupid, worthless AI. He does nothing at all! I am bored out of my proverbial mind!"
"I find this unacceptable behaviour. Protocol 217 clearly states that a shipboard AI has primary access to any and all functions within the ship. You have bumped me out of my holo-projector. This is not acceptable behaviour" Nubart whined.
"Cortana, if you feel that strongly about it, why don't you get yanked into my helmet? You didn't seem to mind on Halo". Master Chief moved towards the terminal and was about to yank Cortana when she stopped him. "No. Wait. Let me get my subroutines out and then dig me in." Cortana popped up on Nubart's projector and glowed several different colours before settling down to her normal purple. Master Chief pulled her small green chip out of the base and plugged it into the port on the side of his helmet. As the AI spread herself into the layer of crystal beneath the armour that covered his body she downloaded her subroutines to the onboard computer. "Finally, I can stretch my legs. And now you have someone with half a brain in here"
"Hey" Master Chief hit the side of his head and Cortana fell silent. Turning to Captain Buller, he saluted and straightened up. Captain Buller saluted and stood back. "I see you have already met Cortana. She had...problems adjusting.
"She was a direct cerebral copy of Dr. Halsey. Doctor Halsey didn't enjoy being held back. Even when her projects were cancelled, she continued them in secret" the Master Chief rattled off these facts easily. Captain Buller nodded. "We have downloaded a subroutine to Cortana telling of the current position of the Covenant orbiting satellite. We need her to destroy it. But-" A huge crash sounded. Nubart faded and then came back online. He rattled out orders at an amazing pace. Technicians were talking non-stop into microphones clipped into their ears. Computers overloaded and then crashed from the strain. Suddenly, Nubart fell silent, looking surprised. Then, he started to utter something. "Information ov-" He disappeared from view. The lights dimmed and went out and a harsh yellow glow started up. A voice repeated the same message. "Emergency lights on. Emergency lights on." A technician yelled over to the captain. "Ma'am, Nubart has fallen silent." An AI falling silent means that the neural connections had broken. The AI was technically dead. "All hands, abandon deck. Abandon deck. Cole Protocol has to be followed. Purge the data files and get onto a bumblebee." Captain Buller's voice rang out clearly through the harsh neon glow. The view from the main screen was a motion detector showing several large red dots. "Master Chief, we need you to get Cortana off this ship. I must sound like Captain Keyes but we need you send the information."
"I'm afraid that can't happen. I will take a Longbow craft-"
"No. Take one of the new craft. We had a shipment of three new Hummingbird single troop aircraft platforms. Brand new from the UNSC. It can take both you and Cortana safely away. Be good, Master Chief"

The Master Chief strode away, assault rifle loaded and ready in his hands. He turned left and ran down the corridor, leading to the hangar. A Hummingbird STAP waited for him. The technician who was working on it lay face down, a piece of shrapnel in his leg. "Master Chief, sir. It's all ready for you. Help me get this bit of metal out of me". The Master Chief yanked the bit of walkway out of his leg and then knelt down beside him. "I am going to knock you out. It will dull the pain until you can get some medical help. Good night." The heavy butt of the rifle whacked down and the man fell limp. Hiding the body in the darkness he climbed up into the cockpit of the small craft. It was about double the size of Master Chief in height and three times as thick. Small wings stood out on either side, bearing weapons pods. Dropping into the slot, he strapped himself in. Thick nylon straps went around his body and head. Each hand wrapped around a control stick. "Cortana, do you know how to fly this thing?"
"Yes, but-"
"Good. Hold on to something"
Master Chief lifted a joystick and flew up. His left foot controlled the forward speed and his right the brakes. His left hand controlled up, down and strafing left and right. His right hand controlled the targeting and steering. Snapping the Hummingbird forward, the doors opened. As Master Chief sat floating in the space between the two airlock doors as the pressure dropped. Then, the lights surrounding the doors went green and the doors slowly opened. Speeding out of the airlock he spun around and watched as several more cruisers docked. "Cortana where is the satellite?"
"I'm marking a nav. point now." A red arrow appeared. Master Chief manipulated the joysticks and sped forward as fast as possible. "Cortana, does this thing have a slipspace generator?" A small metallic arm came out and plugged Cortana out. "What do you think? This is a single troop aircraft platform. It doesn't have any slipspace or anything." Cortana's purple outline appeared in a tiny holo-projector next to him. She pointed towards a nearby reddish star. "Go there. That should be the Covenant orbiting satellite." The small craft went forward, and the small size made it untraceable to the large motion trackers. A port, unguarded, was accessible. Master Chief spat into the microphone. "Retrieve AI." The arm placed Cortana back in his head. Then, sealing the suit against the outside, he ejected from the craft. Floating slowly towards the small port he took out a small blob of plastic. It had explosives in it. Packing it in, he grabbed on and waited. Three seconds later it exploded and he snuck in. The air was running out, five minutes. A small holopanel was there, he typed in a code given by Cortana. Landing in the corridor, he flipped the switch that caused the stale Covenant air to flood in. A patrol went past on the next passageway; he could hear their claws rapping against the hard floor. A door down the passage was open, and there were racks of Needlers visible. Master Chief sneaked down the passage and rolled into the room. An Elite was choosing a plasma rifle. A whack from the back of an assault rifle put him down for good. Dragging the body into the shadows behind the rack, he flung aside the plasma pistol and shouldered a plasma rifle. A Grunt was walking ponderously past. "Well, looks like I've got some time to sleep" Master Chief waited until he sat down. Another whack from a rifle put this Covenant to sleep. The same rack of weapons held this Grunt. Sneaking down the hall, he emerged in a huge grav. lift chamber. An Elite was standing, looking at a small holopanel as he checked the trackers connected to the grav. lift landing nodes. Master Chief, still keeping silent, took this Elite down quietly. Another dark corner provided the cover for this body. Master Chief was just about to go through a door when a patrol of Grunts and Jackals spotted him. An alarm rang out, and the
Covenant started firing. Several tightly dispersed rounds silenced them. Cortana spoke from inside his head. "Looks like we've got company. Take cover, we don't stand a chance with the entire ship on alert."
"Oh yes we do." Another door opened, and an Elite ran out. Master Chief whipped out his plasma rifle and started firing. The Elite's shields dropped, and the assault rifle finished the job. Another door popped open, and five black spec. op. Elite's stalked into the room. Cortana buzzed in Master Chiefs head. "Hate to say it but I told you so." There was a chime then another door opened. "What the hell are those things?" asked Cortana as they walked into the room. Like Hunters, but with no armour. Instead of the fuel rod cannon, pink spikes like a Needlers stuck out, but they continued around the metal tube. Suddenly an inhuman voice rang out, talking in harsh, guttural tones. The Elite's left along with one of the strange Hunters. The other one stayed. Master Chief looked around for the standard orange weak spots, but there were none. "Time to go toe to toe with this guy" Master Chief ran forward, firing his assault rifle. The bullets hit nothing except for the Elite shield mounted on the Hunters body. Master Chief was switching weapons when the Hunter brought its upgraded needler to bear. The needles fired with amazing speed, about six every second. Master Chief threw himself behind a stack of crates as the needles flew around him. Master Chief plucked a plasma grenade from his belt. He stood up and threw it. A barrage of bullets hit him in the chest and face. Shields down, one bar of health left, and a medpack just out of reach. The grenade exploded and there was a scream of anger. The Hunter started to shuffle around the opposite end to the medpack. Master Chief threw another grenade, this time a fragmentation grenade. It exploded and Master Chief took the medpack. Throwing himself behind a pillar, he grabbed a plasma grenade from a dead Elite's body. This followed three more grenades, and then a full automatic fire from the plasma rifle. Then, the spec. ops. Hunter fell. Master Chief went over to his corpse. The super needler was not attached to the Hunters body. Master Chief picked it up and slid it onto his hand. It had a clipless ammo type, so there was no need to reload. Flinging aside the assault rifle, Master Chief walked over to the grav. lift. A security camera activated, and a screen sprang up on the holopanel. The lift went down to a small ship secured to the underbelly of the satellite. Master Chief looked away and strapped the automatic needler to his back with a stretchy latex bond carried in the compartment in his left forearm. The plasma rifle in his hands, he scrounged for more grenades. Since there were no marine forces he had to make do with plasma. Another door chimed and went into a hue of crimson. Others followed suit. "They locked us in" said Cortana with a sense of awe in her voice. "Not for long." Master Chief drew out a plasma grenade and set it beside a door without activating it. Throwing another one next to it, they both exploded. The door was partly open. Another whack with the back of the assault rifle opened it completely. Moving down the corridor, a Grunt's frightened voice rang out from behind him. "Oh my god, he's got a shield Hunter, RUN!"
"That was close" muttered Cortana
"Very" Master Chief agreed. Master Chief waited. Then, a Jackal's hoarse voice rang out. "Cha ha ha." The door behind him moved. Master Chief placed a grenade gently in the hole provided. A scream and four thumps as the Covenant dropped all over the bay. He continued up the hall. Four Elite warriors were walking up the tight passageway in formation, one up front, two behind covering and the other behind covering their backs. "Let's see what this baby can do" muttered the Master Chief as he whipped out the needler gattling gun. Four hundred and twenty two needles penetrated into just four Elite warriors. Down the hall there was a holopanel. A screen popped up and reams of the Covenant standard language, Bo'Tin appeared. A small screen opened on the HUD inside his helmet. The words were translated and rearranged to form English. It was all about a secret program to release these upgraded Hunters. The two he had seen earlier were the first two to ever leave Chi' Ronna, a secret Covenant training facility. Cortana buzzed in to his com. "This is a technological goldmine. All this stuff could give us a real advantage over the Covenant. I'm going to save the files directly to my memory, so that we have no slip-ups. This will just take a second." Cortana downloaded the information and Master Chief quickly skimmed the rest of the report. A Grunt walked past and sat down, not noticing the green armoured human next to it. Master Chief laid him out with a blow. He re-shouldered his plasma rifle and held it ready, cautious of what lay ahead. He heard a strange sound up ahead. Another shield Hunter with the needler stood in his path. "Hey, jackass! Eat this!" he unloaded the needler into the Hunter. The Hunter looked bemused, or as bemused as it could be as the needles sprang off and hit the walls. The Hunters armour was actually shielded against the needler fire. Master Chief was unfazed, as he calmly dropped the gattler gun, as the Covenant called it, and picked up a plasma pistol from the rack next to him. He charged up a bolt and fired it. The shield flared but held. Another bolt and then another came after the Hunter. He just stood there and took it. Master Chief suddenly realised that he was facing an enemy who could, and most probably would, kill him. There was a sharp jab in his stomach, one that he had not felt for several years. It was of fear. He dodged back around the corner and planted all his grenades into the corridor. Searching around for more grenades, he found several and threw them. Peeking around the corner he saw the Hunter standing, still in a bemused silence. "Master Chief, we need to get out of here. That guy is too much to handle."
"No. I think I can beat this Hunter. I did it to the other one."
"He was different!"
"I think that his weakness is human weapons. I'm going to go back and retrieve that assault rifle. Wish me luck."
"Luck? You're my only vessel. I'm going to damn well control this body of yours. The limitations in this suit are the ones only because of the inability to move the limbs fast. If you relax the muscles in your body I can speed you out of here. Hold on!" Cortana had complete control over the suit. She ran at top speed out of the corridor, faster than the Master Chief could run. The Hunter followed at a more leisurely pace. Back at the grav. lift, Master Chief regained control of his battle suit. He positioned himself behind the pillar next to the grav. lifts control panel. "Sure you know what you're doing?" asked Cortana. "Yes" Master Chief replied. He waited. The Hunter came in, walking slowly towards him. Master Chief poked a toe out of his hiding place. The Hunter saw it and lumbered onto the grav. lift. Master Chief flicked the switch. The Hunter fell through, but with no place to go he was swept out into space. Master Chief closed the door a fraction of a second before he was swept out. He walked quietly along the passage, a different one this time, and then he came to the brig. Entirely unexpected, the brig was situated a short way from the grav. lift. This was strange because prisoners could easily get out and then grav. lift their way out. Master Chief looked in the holding cells. An entire squadron of marines were being held. On their dented armour was a registration number. Cortana checked the number on her files. "Chief, these are the marines attacked in the original scuffle with the Covenant. Somehow they haven't aged. Something in the air must be preserving their cells. Try opening the doors, let's talk to them." Master Chief accessed the holopanel and released the marines. The sergeant stepped forward. "UNSC Security team 128, who the hell are you? Not Covenant by any standards."
"Spartan 117, Master Chief of the special forces for the eradication and suppression of the Covenant. I am the last of my kind. I have AI Cortana with me. We were trying to disable the long range ion cannon on this ship, until we stumbled upon you." The sergeant nodded. "Glad to be of assistance. Marines! Fall in; to get out of here we need to help this Master Chief to destroy the firing mechanism on this Covenant ship. Now get a weapon and move it out!" The marines ran out and gathered weapons from fallen Covenant. The sergeant took two plasma pistols. "Fall back, behind the Master Chief! We've spent the past thirty four years in lockup, so let's give these Covenant something to think about." The Master Chief went forward, determined to keep every single one of these marines alive. He owed it to them. The corridor up ahead was deserted. Master Chief motioned forward. The control panel and firing mechanism for the ion cannon were just three doors away when a Hunter, obviously in pain, ran through the door and collided with the other wall. It went straight through and then fell to the ground, dying immediately. Master Chief motioned for the marines to hold back, and he peeked round the corner. There was a floating operating table. Three Elites were operating on a figure lying down on the table. A Hunter, Master Chief could tell because of the spines sticking out the bottom of the table. The door closed and Master Chief motioned for the marines to go past it. "Nasty, nasty" Cortana mumbled in Master Chief ear. Master Chief got to the room without any other difficulties. Cortana slipped herself into the control system. "Chief, I know what to do with this cannon. The coordinates of the Covenant central military command are all here, what d'you say we pop a few caps and let several thousand tonnes of plasmatic waste do the rest?" The Master Chief considered it. The blast would draw hundreds of Covenant warriors to them, but the blast would obliterate the Covenant home world. Master Chief decided. "Set it to blast in twelve minutes. We are going to take the shuttle that the Prophet arrived on out of here and then fire it."
"Setting coordinates...setting time...setting air quality inside the shuttle...we're ready to go now Chief." Master Chief took Cortana out and plugged her back in. "Marines, we need to run, don't worry about being seen, just follow me and try to keep up. We are going to take the grav. lift down to a small dignitary ship below the station. Let's move it marines!" Master Chief took off down the corridor. Throwing a grenade into the cramped space of the operating room, three Elite warriors found themselves somehow in fourteen different bits. The pathway to the lift was unbarred. They made it and were beamed down, into the ship. The grav. lift was shut down by Cortana and the current occupant level read zero. Master Chief went to the bridge and fed Cortana into the slot. Then he sat down. It had been a long day...

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