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Halo: Infinity by Frightener
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Halo: Infinity I: Arrival
Date: 8 March 2004, 11:46 PM
Arrival
The ship's hull creaked as it descended through the thin atmosphere. From the outside of the giant ship, the Praetorian, one could see a figure standing at the bridge window. He wore heavy, olive-green armor. John, the Master Chief, couldn't believe it was happening all over again: He was going back to Halo. There were, of course, some differences between this visit and his last one. For one, he was going to a different Halo, which may or may not be a good thing, considering that this one might also hold Flood specimens. The Chief was also in the company of roughly thirty-two thousand other marines, along with a few hundred other Spartans.
Linda was the only other Spartan-II to survive the battle at Earth, while the other Spartans in the invasion force were Colonel Ackerson's Spartan-IIIs. John shuddered to look at them, not because of the many grotesque changes to their DNA sequence, which showed up clearly on the outside, no, John was disgusted because they all had been cloned from the original Spartan-IIs, and bore a stunning resemblance to the Spartan-IIs, John's friends. They wore heavier, more powerful, yet lighter armor than John and Linda, courtesy of Colonel Ackerson himself. This made John get a strange feeling he had never had before: Inferiority.
"Cortana," John's raspy voice choked on the aftertaste bronchial surfactant he had just removed from his mouth, after a few days' cryosleep. It had only been a few months back that the UNSC techs had added what might be called "flavor" to the vile-tasting slime. A somewhat mint-like taste remained in John's mouth. He walked to the lavatory, and washed his mouth out with the water from the sink. "Cortana!" he called again.
Cortana's lithe figure appeared on the pedestal in front of John, ever since the data from the original Halo had been taken out of her, she seemed more relaxed, very cheery, and her inherent quirkiness was amplified greatly. "What is it John?"
That took the Chief aback. He had almost never been called by his first name, except when talking to Doctor Halsey, which didn't happen a lot. "Are the other ships in the system? Did the others make it alright?" His growing nervousness of the Halo made him jumpy. The tens of thousands of marines on this mission were not just in the Praetorian; five other ships had been called on this mission.
"Of course," Cortana said cheerfully. "The Carriers Tyrant and Pacifica are in system and safe." Cortana concentrated for a second, "And the destroyers Messiah, Washington, and the Ascension are safe and in system." Cortana then got a shocked look, then smirked, "I'm. . . Also picking up a prowler, not registered on this mission, ONI's Pride." She sighed, "I guess it wouldn't be an important mission if the Office of Naval Intelligence wasn't along for the ride."
"Good," John's response confused Cortana. Unlike Doctor Halsey and the AI modeled after her, John respected the Office of Naval Intelligence. Their elite forces surpassed even the prestigious ODST force. The exploits of their spies were known to all. John figured it would be good to have ONI on their side in the upcoming conflict.
The Praetorian's Captain, Silas Archer, stood at his station. He was ready to open fire should any Covenant ships arrive in system. The UNSC battle fleet had upgraded their new ships. The Praetorian, a Supercarrier-class vessel, was the most powerful ship in the fleet. It had twenty MACs, a thousand autocannons, and even a few Plasma torpedo launchers the humans had plundered from Covenant ships. The Praetorian also carried eight Super-MAC orbitals that it had placed in orbit of the Halo. The orbitals would help hold off Covenant ships while the Humans were able to find a good location for a base and dig themselves in. The basic plan was for the Praetorian to do a quick run inside the ring's inner circle, pick out a good base location, and drop off its troops. The other ships would also drop off their soldiers and return to orbit to supplement the MAC orbitals. They would then try and destroy any Covenant ship that came in system. The troops on the ground would try and accomplish several objectives: 1. Find and secure a base; 2. Find, capture, and study the Monitor of this particular Halo; 3. Establish a lockdown facility and, during a combat situation, secure prisoners, a few of each Covenant race; and 4, use Cortana and the other AIs in the fleet to try and fix the ring so that it can fire more precisely: i.e. killing only the Covenant races, while sparing the humans.
So far, they had chosen a base location, the MAC orbitals had been set, and the ships were ready to disembark their soldiers. Chief spun on his heel, and walked off the bridge. He caught up with Linda, who was busy piling weapons into a sack, and they both went to the launch bay.
* * * *
Linda and John sat in the Raven heavy gunship. Ravens are the new generation of drop ships, slowly replacing the Pelican with their dual missile racks, two 107mm cannons, and eight autocannons bolted onto the side. It could hold 20 soldiers and still have plenty of room, and can store three LRVs or 2 heavy tanks on its tail boom. The Raven was also coated with the same Stealth material that the UNSC used on Longsword Interceptors. John nodded to Linda, and touched his finger to his faceplate, the Spartan-II's signal for a smile. The rest of the Raven was filled with a little over a dozen Spartan-IIIs. They all looked at Linda and John with both awe and contempt. The John? They would think, John-117? The one who single-handedly destroyed Halo 04? The one to first see a Covenant up close? They also began to think protectively of him and Linda. They were, after all, stronger, faster, and had a much higher endurance rate than the older Spartans. Between the duo of SPARTAN-IIs and the dozens of SPARTAN-IIIs, one man on board stood out. He was not a Spartan. He wore a black military dress suit, etched with Kevlar and carbon threads. He had at his side a new generation Plasma pistol. He also had a small pack on his hip that allowed him to stay invisible for hours at a time. He was with the Office of Naval Intelligence.
"John," Linda's voice was smooth and calm, "Are you ready? Do you think you can handle another encounter with the Flood? Or the Covenant?" She knew what the Chief had gone through. She was very protective of John as well, he was all she had left.
"There is nothing anyone can do to keep me from jumping into this fight, Linda, I'll be fine."
Linda sighed, she remembered her young days, growing up in Dublin, on Earth. Her father was a priest, one who held a lot of power in his province of Ireland. Linda vaguely tried to remember her father's teachings. One prayer stood out in her head, one she had not forgotten in the decades it had been since she had last seen her family. O Father, who art in heaven.
Covenant anti-aircraft fire, coming from the small base on the ring, rocked the Raven gunship. Out of the back entrance, Linda could see a Longsword escorting the formation take a hit and begin to belch smoke.
Hallowed be thy name.
The roar of an Elite, the screams of Grunts, and the cawing of Jackals could clearly be heard from the ground below. Thumps reverberated through the ship as it opened fire with its 107mm cannons. A hissing sound emanated from the sides of the ship as it unloaded its payload of missiles upon the small garrison below.
Thy kingdom come.
Linda took a deep breath, she could see the smoking craters of land behind the dropship. Twisted purple metal covered the ground where the Covenant instillation used to be. Dying screams of the aliens filled the ears of the Spartans, a Longsword pilot whose ship was crashing yelled through the COMM.
Thy will be done.
John couldn't help but think: he had fought in a thousand battles, over several decades. He had watched countless soldiers die fighting for the Human race. John wondered how many more good men and women would die for the UNSC. After all, Earth still remained, new shipyards had been quickly established and were cranking out more defenses should the Covenant come back.
On Earth, as it is in Heaven
Halo: Infinity Part II: Control
Date: 21 March 2004, 10:39 PM
John recognized the holographic display that showed the Halo surrounding the nearby planets. Several parts of the ring's geography were pointed out and unintelligible script perpetually hovered near them. The circular catwalk wrapped itself around the holograms, then extended back to the large hallway John had just came out of. He had been in a room like this before, a few weeks earlier, on Halo 04. A lot of weird stuff had happened there. John hoped to God that the Flood weren't here as well. Dozens of marines lined the catwalk, and snapped to attention as John walked by. This was the heart of their base. It had only been properly established a few minutes before. John saw several High Command Brass members conversing near the control console for the Halo. Something over there was making a lot of noise.
"What's going on?" John asked, he picked up his pace and ran toward the Brass. Whatever it was, it couldn't be too dangerous, as the High Command was standing right next to it.
"Ah, Spartan 117," the voice belonged to Admiral Preston Cole, he was standing in the huddle. "Glad you could join us, we found this little guy floating around here when we came in, we managed to get him in a steel net." The group of officers parted, revealing a small floating orb, it had a bright blue light in its center.
"I demand that you remove me from this entrapment at once!" It screamed, "You shall be brought before the Council upon their return and slaughtered for your betrayal."
John instantly recognized this as a Monitor.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there," John lowered his weapon. "Tell me what's going on."
"The entire Alliance has failed, fallen apart, it truly has." The AI was much like 343 Guilty Spark, babbling incoherently. "First the Masters are gone, then the humans betray us, then the. . ." John cut him off.
"Slow down, please, start from the beginning." John implored.
"The Masters left on some mission, they said that me and my fellow AIs were to watch over the Alliance. . ." John interrupted again.
"No, no. Start from the beginning of, uh," John searched for the right word, "Your Master's time."
"Pardon me? We do not have time for this. You must let me go!"
"We will, once you tell us what is going on."
"Why? Is it not something you already know?" The AI was clearly confused.
John shrugged, "Tell me."
The AI's light blinked, then it settled and began speaking; "All right, fi--" It was cut off as the gargantuan doors leading into the room were opened, and a dark-haired man dressed in black uniform entered. He scowled when he saw John, and looked upon the other Brass with contempt. He had five golden bands on his sleeve, his chest was adorned with honorary medals. This man was Colonel James Ackerson.
* * * *
Linda stood atop the snowy hill. She looked out over the canyon and into the fog beyond. Even with her enhanced vision, she couldn't see more than maybe one hundred yards. Maybe the Spartan IIIs could see a little farther. Maybe. The human base existed outside of the Halo's control room. It was at the middle of a winding canyon, mostly inside the pyramidal building that housed the entrance to the control center. For roughly a mile down the canyon, the Humans had made that land into a base. Longsword fighters, Pelicans, Ravens, Warthogs, and other vehicles had been put in garages that had been dug out of the side of the canyon. They were well defended. The Covenant wouldn't use heavy ordinance in the canyon, i.e., plasma bombs from their space vessels, and a large chasm in the canyon itself helped the UNSC forces keep a tightly-knit base. Linda inspected the defenses. MAC turrets, clusters of towering Autocannon emplacements, and fixed Artillery platforms would ensure that it would take a lot more than a Covenant army to root out the humans.
Their only weakness was a large tunnel system that ran under their base. It was garrisoned by many troops, tanks, and LRVs, but it did provide relatively easy access to the base, as compared to the army on the ground level above. If the Humans were lucky, the Covenant wouldn't know that the tunnel even existed.
A dozen Scorpion Tanks were dug in, four on the "east" side, or what had been designated east, of the mountain that was the center of the base, four on the "west" side, and four on the pyramidal structure itself. They could take care of any threat up to and including three miles away. Except the fog was obscuring their vision. They would have to wait for the enemy to get closer, if it ever came at all, before firing on them.
Fleet Admiral Preston Cole was about to say something to Ackerson when his radio hissed on. It was a COMM officer from the Tyrant. "Uh, sirs, prepare for some serious action."
"What is it?" Preston Cole asked.
"We've got about a thousand Covie warships in system."
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