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HALO: Combat Evolved by Cameron Eades



HALO: Combat Evolved - Pillar of Autumn
Date: 17 September 2002, 2:16 am

      "Cortana... all I need to know is, did we lose them?" asked Captain Jacob Keyes with a trembling voice. "I think we both know the answer to that."
       Cortana is a holographic AI. Unlike most other AI's knowledge systems, Cortana's was extremely complex.
      "We maid a blind jump.... How did they- Get here first?" Cortana interrupted.
      "The Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light speed my maneuvering options were limited."
      The Covenant was an alien race that waged a holy war with the humans for unknown reasons.
      "We were running dark, yes?" Keyes asked as he checked to make sure the pilots were doing all right.
      "Until we decelerated. No one could have missed the hole we tore in subspace." There was a slight pause. For a second it was unusually quiet in the Pillar of Autumn's bridge. "They were waiting for us on the other side of the planet." Cortana finished.
      "So, where do we stand?"
      "Our fighters are mopping up the rest of their Recon picket now, nothing serious. But I've isolated approach signatures from multiple CCS- class battle groups. Make it three capital ships per group. And in about Ninety seconds, they'll be all over us."
      Even after hearing this, Captain Keyes remained calm. For that is how he was trained, to stay calm in bad situations. "Well, that's it then. Bring the ship back up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their station."
      "Everyone sir?" Cortana asked with doubt.
      "Everyone" He replied. "and Cortana...." He added. "hmm?" "Let's give our old friends a warm welcome."
"I've already begun."

      "Attention all combat personnel. Please report to your action stations." Said a female voice over the loudspeaker.
      "Fifth Platoon, secure airlocks on Deck Eleven. Fourteenth Platoon, rendezvous with 22nd Tactical at Bulkhead Charlie Fourteen. This is NOT a drill."

      "Whoa... sir?"
      "Right let's thaw him out"
      "Okay, bringing low-level systems online. Cracking the case in thirty seconds... He's hot! Blowing the pins in five!"
      "Tube shows green, cycle complete."
      "Sorry for the quick thaw master chief. Things are a little hectic right now. The disorientation should pass quickly."
      "We'll have you battle-ready stat"
      The chief didn't say much. He didn't have to. His job was to obey orders and win.
      "Chief, please look around the room. I need to get a calibration reading from your suit's diagnostics."
      He looked around at the fifty or so cryo tubes. He looked up at the two technicians that opened the tube.
      "I'm bringing your health monitors online, sir."
      "Vital signs look normal. No freezer burn. Okay, sir go ahead and climb out of the cryo tube."
      The master chief wasn't too crazy about cryo-genic sleep, but he didn't have a choice.
      "I gave you a double dose of the wakeup stem. Take a quick walk around the cryo bay and meet me at the diagnostics station when you are ready."
      The master chief was no ordinary UNSC soldier. He was part of a project code named Spartan-II. He was taken to the military at the age of six. He is nearly invincible. His MJOLNIR armor grants him rechargeable shields, a HUD or heads up display, and other things useful for combat such as the ability for a "smart" AI such as Cortana to literally get inside his head and give him useful tips while in battle. His bones are reinforced. He has been genetically enhanced. He can run at speeds up to 70 kilometers per hour. He is technically a cyborg.
      "Stand on the red square please. I know the ordinance techs usually take care of your targeting sensors, but we're short of time Chief. Just look at each of the glowing flashing panels to target them. When you lock on, it'll target them.
      He locked on to each one. Each changed colors and the Chief know his HUD was online.
      "Ok Chief follow me to the energy shield test station"

      Fire teams: sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders.

      "Ok bring his energy shields online."
      "Alright, shields read as fully charged."
      "Ok sir, take them down to test the automatic recharge please."
      "Recharge normal, It's showing green across the board."

      Bridge to Cryo two. We need the Master Chief at the bridge immediately.

      "Captain, we'll have to skip the weapons diagnostics and- On the double crewman." Keyes interrupted.
      "Aye aye sir.... The skipper seems jumpy, we better get moving. We'll find ya some weapons later. Hey Sam you had better get to your evac group."
      "Affirmative. I just have to shut the computer down and I'm outta here!
      Suddenly there was banging on the door to the technician's room.
      "Oh god! They're trying to get through the door!"
       There was an explosion and the door opened and two of the "elites" came through the door. The elites are a Covenant race that is almost as strong as the Master Chief. They have a very deep voice that somehow, the translation software cannot translate.
      "Security! Intruders in cryo two! No please don't shoot! Ahhhhhhhhh!"
      "Sam? Sam! No. C'mon we've got to get out of here. This way!
      The master chief followed the technician through a hall. But just as the technician was about to open the door, it exploded, killing him. The master chief jumped over a few pipes and found another way around. He ran through multiple hallways to get to the bridge. Marines were everywhere, some dead, some hiding, and some battling the Covenant.
      "Chief! The Captain needs you on the bridge ASAP! You better follow me."
      He followed the marine to the bridge.
      "Captain Keyes is waiting for you, sir."
      The master chief approached Keyes slowly and calmly.
      "Captain Keyes" said the Chief with quiet and cool voice.
"Good to see you master chief. Things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance."
      Cortana appeared next to Keyes.
      "A dozen superior battleships against one halcyon- class cruiser. Given those odds, I'm content with three... make that four kills." She turned to the Chief. "Sleep well?"
      "No thanks to your driving, yes."
      "So you did miss me."
      Suddenly there was a large explosian, and a shrill scraping sound.
      "Report!" The Captain yelled.
      "It must have been one of their boarding parties. I'd guess an anti-matter charge." Cortana said unsurely.
      "Ma'am fire control for the main cannon is offline!" A crewman yelled.
      "Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option!"
      "Alright, that's enough. I'm initiating Cole Protocol Two. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana."
      "While you do what go down with the ship?" Cortana asked sarcastically.
      "In a manner of speaking, yes. That object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it."
      "With all due respect, sir. This war has enough dead heroes."
      "I appreciate your concern, Cortana. But, it's not up to me. The Protocol is clear. The destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, and that means you are leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of landing zones, upload them into my neural lace, and sort yourself for a hard transfer."
      "Aye, aye sir." Cortana was obviously worried.
      "Which is where you come in, Chief. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her away from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything: force deployment, weapons research.... Earth."
      The Covenant had already destroyed many planets that had been colonized by humans. But, if they found Earth, they would either glass it right away, or they would do what they did to Sigma Octanus IV. They were looking for something on Sigma Octanus IV. But they eventually glassed it too.
      "I understand" The master chief knew how important Earth was to any human living on Earth or not.
      "The Pillar pf Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you would listen, but I would suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach."
      "Excellent work Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?"
      There was a pause.
      Cortana sighed and said, "yank me."
      Captain Keyes bent down and pulled out Cortana's chip and placed it inside the Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor.
      "Hey, your architecture isn't much different from the Autumn's...."
      "Don't get any funny ideas." Cortana tends to get strange ideas when inside the Chief's head.
      Captain Keyes handed the Master Chief a pistol.
      "I don't keep it loaded, so you'll have to find ammo as you go."
      The Master Chief left the room. He kept an eye open for ammo for his pistol. He found some in a hall, loaded his gun, and continued. He tried to hurry, but didn't want to draw attention. He came to a room with three grunts.
      The Grunt, the weakest Covenant race. They stand about a meter tall. Even with translation software, they sounded like a mixture of mice and dogs. Their battle strategy mainly consists of fight, run, hide, and then eventually, die. They are only a large threat when in large groups.
      He quietly got behind one and pistol whipped him in the back of the head. He Quickly shot the other's life support system. The grunt grabbed his throat and fell to the ground. Just as the third grunt even acknowledged that someone was there, he punched the grunts chest. The grunt fell to the floor. He picked up a couple of plasma grenades that the grunts dropped.
      The Chief quickly proceeded. As he approached a door he heard plasma shots. The Covenant used this for their weapons. He ran into the room to help the marines. There was a wounded marine next to him.
      "Here Chief... Use this..." The marine grunted and struggled to speak.
The marine handed the Master Chief an MA5B assault rifle. The Chief ran towards the Marines that were having the battle with the Covenant.
      "Those marines could use some help, Chief. Do what you do best." Said Cortana.
There were two elites battling five marines... The marines were losing. The Chief wasn't used to handling elites. He has had multiple hand-to-hand fights with them. He thought that he would try and get behind them while they fought the marines. But two grunts appeared and warned the elites of him. So he stood back and fired on the elites. Two more of the marines had been injured. The Chief ducked down to avoid fire directed at him. A grunt appeared behind him and fired three shots at him. All three hit him. His HUD began to flash... His shields were down.
      "Keep your head down, there's two of us in here, remember!" Cortana yelled.
      "Die devil!" The grunt yelled angrily at the Master Chief.
      He fired two shots of which pierced the grunt's skin. He yelled in pain and fell to the floor. He turned his attention back to the elites... and the two grunts. The Master Chief remembered the plasma grenades he had picked up off the grunts.
      "Fire in the hole!" The Master Chief yelled as he threw one at the easier target, one of the grunts. It hit him in the chest, and stuck to the grunt.
      "Get it off! Get it off!" The grunt yelled and ran towards the two elites and the other grunt.
      The Master Chief ducked down to avoid debris. Then there was an explosion. When the Master Chief looked up, there were no grunts or elites.
      The marines stayed behind to aid the wounded marines. The Master Chief proceeded. There was a very loud scraping sound. It hurt his ears even with the advanced ear protection. He approached two marines in front of an empty lifeboat bay. Then there was an explosian. Killing them both. Then a group of Covenant came through the bay, one elite and two grunts.
      "I'm gonna take 'em up close!" A grunt said confidently.
      "reidlos , ti yrt neve t'noD" An elite calmly said.
      The Master Chief wandered why the translation software wouldn't translate it. He didn't have time to battle them. He ran as fast as he could right past them, went through a blast door, closed it, and locked it so they couldn't follow him.
      "How did they get in through that lifeboat airlock, Cortana?" The Master Chief asked.
      "They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding crafts. We go out and they come in." Cortana replied.

      Combat teams on decks five through nine, fall back to secondary defense options.

      The Master Chief resumed. He heard gunfire from a room down the hall. He hurried. He figured that the more time he wasted the less marines would make it. He rushed into the room. Ten or Fifteen marines were fighting tons of Covenant.
      "Covenant! On the landing above us!" Cortana warned the Master Chief.
      The Master Chief signaled for six marines to follow him up the stairs and once they got up the stairs for five marines to move around the other side while one marine followed him. He and the marine ran up the starboard side taking out any Covenant they saw. They encountered an elite. Master chief signaled for him to fire at the elite, full automatic. The Chief put one finger up, kicked the plasma rifle out of the elite's hand, punched him, and put up to fingers. They both fired at the same time doubling the normal damage to the elite. It then fell over on the ground, dead. He and the marine approach the blast door and met the other team of marines.

      All hands. This is the Captain. Prepare to abandon ship. Combat teams: repel boarders until the Ops personnel are away. Good luck. Keyes out.

      The Chief and the marines ran down a hall and came to a window. He looked at the exterior of the ship being clobbered by Covenant plasma torpedoes.
      "The Covenant are destroying the lifepods.... They really don't want us on that ring.... Warning blast doors closing! We have to use the maintenance access ways. Follow the nav point on your HUD, it will lead you to an opening." Cortana was like a talking blueprint of the Pillar of Autumn. She knew every single detail of the ship.
      The Master Chief followed the nav point to a maintenance access way. He crept into the long hallway. It was too dark in there. He turned on the flashlight installed on this helmet. He looked for an exit that was clear of Covenant activity. He approached another exit.
      "Motion trackers show all clear."
      The Chief moved up into the room. Nothing was in there, so he proceeded.

      Combat teams Sierra through victor. Prepare for evac.

      The Chief arrived in a hall with twenty or so Covenant soldiers. He tossed the other plasma grenade at an unsuspecting grunt.
      "Nooooo ho hoooooo!!" the grunt yelled and did the usual, he ran toward the other Covenant. Killing them all. He went into the hall.
      "There's one last lifeboat!" Cortana shouted. "Quickly get aboard!"
      The Master Chief ran into the lifeboat.
      "Now would be a very good time to leave!"
      "Punch it." The Master chief said calmly.
      "Aye aye, sir" The lifeboat pilot replied. "We're disengaged. Goin' for minimum safe distance."
      The ring-like object came into view.
      "What is that thing Lieutenant?" Asked a marine.
"Heck if I know, but we're landin' on it."
      The Pillar of Autumn came into view. It was taking multiple hits from Covenant plasma torpedoes.
      "I knew it! The Autumn is accelerating, Keyes is going in manually!" Cortana said angrily.
      "Heads up everyone, this is it. We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five..." The pilot warned everyone.
      "Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana asked the Master Chief.
      "We'll be fine." He assured her.
      "If I had fingers, they'd be crossed."



HALO: Combat Evolved - Chapter 2: I Love This Job
Date: 25 November 2002, 2:35 pm

      "We're coming in too fast!" Cortana yelled.
      "Airbrake failure! They blew too early! I'm losin' her.... Brace for impact!"
      The airbrakes peeled off, allowing an extremely rough impact. Only luck could help them now. They plummeted toward the ground. What seemed like a long time passed before they landed. The lifeboat slammed into the ground, killing everyone but the Master Chief. He survived, of course, because he was a Spartan soldier.
      "Chief! Chief! Can you hear me?" Cortana wasn't sure that he made it.
      "I'm fine." The Master Chief calmly said as if they hadn't slammed into the ground at more that two hundred kilometers per hour.
      The Chief exited the lifeboat. He looked around. He was on a beautiful, grassy region of the ring. The ring was artificial, but the creators, purpose, and location was unknown. He ran across a large pipe-like bridge.
      "I'm reading thousands of types of flora. The ring's atmosphere is incredibly sophisticated." Said Cortana. "Alert! Covenant dropship inbound! I recommend immediate evasion."
      The Covenant's U shaped dropships had small closet-like rooms on each side of the U. Near the base is most likely the cockpit and on the bottom is a small but powerful plasma turret.
      The Master Chief ran up a small hill. As he was well over the hill, he saw a grunt's foot below a tree. He was at the end of a sloppy line of other grunts and one elite.
      The elites began appearing more often during the attack on the Pillar of Autumn. They must have been closer to the Covenant home planet.
      He didn't have time to think about it. He quietly followed Covenant. When they arrived at a turn, he decided that he needed to take the group of Covenant out. He started by hitting the grunts at the back of the group. He took some plasma grenades off of them. Only the elite was left. He never looked behind him so he never knew that his allies were gone.
      The Master Chief lobbed the plasma grenade at the Covenant soldier. It hit him.
      "siht rof eid lliw uoy !ON ?huH"
      The elite turned and ran toward him. The Chief ran away from the elite as fast as he could, too fast for the elite. He turned and saw an explosian. He stayed along the path that the Covenant were taking.
      "I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors" Cortana was focused mainly on the surviving marines.
      As the Master Chief rounded the next corner, he was staring right at a Covenant dropship. They were much larger than they seemed up close.
      Behind it there was a large structure that shot a large beam into the sky. The Chief just noticed that he could see the other side of the ring when he looked up. That beam probably held the ring together.
      There were about twenty marines fighting loads of Covenant that had come from the dropship. He lobbed three fragmentation grenades at the Covenant soldiers. It killed one elite and about ten grunts. One elite was left.
      This one was different. It had dark crimson armor rather than the usual blue armor. This probably meant a higher rank.
      It stood firing at the marines from long range. It was as good a marksman as the Master Chief. The Chief tried creeping up behind him and gun butting him in the back of the head, but it immediately turned around and loosely swung his arm at the Chief. One swing hit him. It instantly took down his shields. It was stronger than the others.
      The Master Chief punched the plasma rifle out of the elite's hand, punched his face three times, and kicked his stomach. It fell over in pain. The Chief stomped on it's head and crushed it.
      He turned to the sergeant of the squad of marines
      "It's a mess sir", the sergeant said "We're scattered all over this valley, I called for evac but until you came, I thought we were cooked."
      "Don't worry Sergeant, we'll stay here until evac arrives."
      "Heads up! I got a Covenant dropship headin' in, over here!" a marine yelled over the radio.
      The Master Chief ran up a side ramp of the high tech structure. As he reached the top, he saw the dropship. He lobbed three grenades that he had found on the structure at the dropship. He saw ten or so grunts fly over the trees. He looked into the trees and saw five or six jackals moving quickly toward the marine's position.
      Jackals are like grunts... but stronger, skinnier, and a bit taller. They wielded shields that were attached to their wrists. It is said that their senses are much advanced compared to the other Covenant races. When they are in combat, it is hard to get a shot to them. Explosives are the most effective weapons against jackals. But the Master chief can usually get a shot into their few exposed areas.
      He threw one grenade at the jackals making them dive out of the blast radius. Some didn't make it away from the explosions, but the surviving one dived far enough away from the explosion. The Master Chief took this time to fire at the parts of his body that had been exposed when he dived. He took out his pistol and shot right through the heart of the enemy.
      "This is Pelican Echo 4-19." A female voice crackled over the radio. "Is anybody readin' me? Repeat, any UNSC personnel respond."
      "Roger Echo 4-19. This is fire team Charlie. We read you 5-by-5. That you Foe Hammer?" Replied the sergeant.
      "Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya." Said Foe Hammer.
      The Pelican dropship began to gracefully circle the area and land in front of the structure. The Pelican is a slick looking dropship that carries troops in a hole near the back. It can also carry a Warthog jeep.
      "I've hacked into the Covenant battlenet. They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels. We should show them who they're dealing with." Cortana said.
      "If your not too busy, Foe Hammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the command shuttle." A marine requested over the radio.
      Suddenly, a dozen or so lifeboats came into view over the hills.
      "Look! More lifeboats! If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant will be right on top of them." Said Cortana. "Foe Hammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. The Master Chief and I are going to try and save some soldiers."
      The Warthog made a sudden jerk and came loose from the dropship.
      "Roger Cortana, ok Charlie team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give them hell." Foe Hammer replied.
      The Master Chief got in the Warthog along with two marines. They drove towards a large hill. A depression in the ground came into view.
      "What the hell is that, Chief?" The marine expected the Chief to know everything about this mysterious world.
      "I don't know." He replied with the normal quiet voice.
      A large cave with metallic walls came into view.
      "This cave is not a natural formation. Someone built it, so it must lead somewhere." Said Cortana.
      The Master Chief jumped out of the Warthog and walked over to inspect the cave.
      "What are you doing now, Chief?" The marine was getting annoying. The Chief knew that this would continue as long as he was with them.
      "Shut up James! It doesn't matter what he is doing! He knows what he is doing whatever it is!" Yelled the marine in the gunner seat.
      Suddenly they heard a deep, low frequency rumbling sound. The rumble sounded closer every second. The sound changed. Now, it sounded shrill, like a Banshee flier. But a Banshee wouldn't make a low sound like that.
      A gigantic blue fireball flew over the hill. It was moving slowly toward them. Before the Chief could do anything, the fireball hit the Warthog along with the marines. A large hovering vehicle appeared over the hill. It was a Covenant armor vehicle. Different from the others that he had seen. Two hunters appeared over the hill behind the Covenant tank.
      The Hunter is a gigantic Covenant soldier. They are extremely powerful. They wield shields that can reflect any ballistic rounds. Implanted into their armor they have an extremely powerful fuel-rod gun.
      He got into the Warthog and stomped on the pedal. Just as the fireball hit the ground, the Chief was already out of the blast radius of the plasma explosion.
      He drove to the cave. The tank was incredibly fast He could hear it behind him the whole way.
      "Look! Try and make that jump!" He nearly forgot that Cortana was even there.
      There was an oddly placed ramp up ahead. He could still hear the tank behind them. The hunters were probably too far behind to take part in the chase. He knew he had to lose that tank. He made a sharp turn and went up the ramp. Behind them the tank was rounding the corner. It slammed up against the wall, slowing it down. It couldn't possibly make the ramp now.
      The Warthog flew over the gap and barely made it across. He looked back to see what happed to the tank. It, as predicted, didn't make it. If it ever did, it would be too far behind to catch up.
      "What was that Cortana?" asked the Master Chief.
      "Few of them have been seen so far. They are one of the better Covenant tanks. They are much faster than our tanks, but aren't as strong. They go as fast as a Warthog and their plasma canons have as much punch as five plasma grenades. The Covenant seem to call them Wraiths."
      "Excellent... more armor to worry about."
      As the Master Chief put the Warthog back into gear, a fuel-rod flew past him. It was the hunters. He drove around the corner before the hunters had a chance to fire another fuel-rod.
      The Chief maneuvered the Warthog around the corner and arrived in a gigantic cavern with a gap at least a mile deep in the center. He drove into the cavern very slowly. Suddenly, tons of Covenant soldiers popped out from behind large generator-like machines. He made a quick turn around the corner and splattered at least thirty Covenant soldiers including three elites. He jumped into the gunner seat of the Warthog and fired at the remaining enemies.
      "There must be a some kind of mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a panel or switch." Said Cortana.
      He looked around the cavern. He spotted a control panel near the top of the cavern. He looked for a way to get to it. He decided that he would try a small path in the wall that led upward. He walked into the passage and emerged at a small ledge with the panel at the end. He approached the panel and pressed a small holographic button on the panel. Two gigantic rods moved together. They somehow made a large bridge above it. He jumped from the ledge and landed near the Warthog. He jumped into the Warthog and maneuvered it across the bridge.
      "More crew made it off the Autumn than I had predicted! The Captain really gave them hell! If we can find Captain Keyes and the other survivors, we have a chance to coordinate an effective resistance." Cortana informed the Master Chief.
      The Master Chief found himself driving down a corridor that seemed like the one he took coming into the cavern. He emerged into the same environment that he went into the cave. He drove uphill along a small stream.
      "I'm marking the lifeboat crash sites with a nav marker." Said Cortana.
      The Master Chief spotted a path on the other side the river. A nav marker appeared next to it. He crossed the river and drove up the path. He emerged from the path. He could see Covenant that looked like little dots moving into a group of gigantic rocks and boulders. He could see sniper rifle bullet trails trying to keep as much away from the rocks.
      He drove the Warthog toward the rocks and ran over the rest of the Covenant that were out in the open. He jumped out and eliminated any Covenant in his way to the marines. He arrived at a very elevated rock with ten or twenty marines.
      "Thank God you're here Master Chief!"
      "Help!"
      "They're gonna kill us all!" A couple of panicking marines screamed.
      He turned to guard the side of the rock while the other marines did their parts. Only a couple of grunts were left. He took out his pistol and shot the remaining enemies.
      "Ahhhhhh! Get 'em off of me!" A marine yelled.
      He turned to see what was wrong. There was a grunt clinging his jaws to a marine's waist. He raised his gun to shoot it. He took careful aim at the grunt.
      "No! Ahhhhhhhhh!" The grunt bit a grenade on his belt.
      "Ah! No!" The grenade exploded, killing the grunt and the marine.
      No one said anything for a while.
      Out of nowhere a marine said, "Well, I didn't know they even had teeth."
      "Echo 4-19 to Cortana, come in." Foe Hammer said over the radio.
      Cortana let out a sigh and said, "We read you Echo 4-19. We have survivors and need immediate dust-off."
      "Roger, Cortana, I'm on my way."
      The Pelican emerged from the trees above the hills. It did the stylish circle maneuver above the rocks and came to a mid-air stop. The Master Chief escorted the marines to the Pelican. They got inside the dropship and flew away.
      He and two marines got back into the Warthog and moved toward the path that he used to get to the crash site. To the Chief's right was the largest waterfall he had ever seen. To his left he could see a small path with flashing lights near the entrance. Probably used to mark a path that led to a mechanism or building. He decided to follow it.
      "There are marines hiding in the hills above that structure." Cortana said as they neared the structure.
      Two or three dropships worth of Covenant were waiting for him along with the marines. "I love this job." The Master Chief thought as he drove right over the Covenant. He drove through the rocks and to the marines.
      "You two" The Chief said to a couple of marines, "get between these rocks and shoot any Covenant soldier that comes up here. You, come up here with me. And you two, get behind us in an elevated spot and snipe for us." He got in the LAAG gun and waited.
      They waited for the enemy to make their move. Finally, a group of grunts and an elite popped up and fired three shots into the Chief's shield. The familiar sound of tons of Covenant running toward him forced him to make the quick decision of evacuation. He got in the Warthog and the marines doubled up into the seats. Yep, six people crammed into one Warthog. The Warthog wasn't going very fast because of the added weight of the extra marines. He could see how many grunts where running toward them. Not just grunts, but six or seven elites also. As they drove to a good distance away from the Covenant, they got out.
      "Why are we getting out Chief?"
      "Throw your grenades. All of them." He relied.
      Twenty-four fragmentation grenades and four plasma grenades of the Chiefs flew into the Covenant. None survived.
      "Whoooo-hoooooooo!" A marine yelled in celebration.
      "Cortana to Foe Hammer. We are ready for pick-up at our position." Cortana said.
      Everyone got in the Pelican.
      "Welcome aboard, Master Chief. Clad to have ya with us."
      We should move out, lieutenant. Then we will need your help on a rescue mission." Said Cortana as the dropship lifted off.





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