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Halo 2: Capter 1: Defenders of Earth
Date: 17 June 2003, 11:25 PM

This story takes it beginning right after the destruction of Halo

"... Did anyone else make it?" Cortana replied in a sad tone:"Scanning... Just dust and echoes" Master Chief silently shook his head. Cortana tried to cheer the Chief:"We did what we HAD to do! An entire Covenant armada obliterated! and the Flood... We had no choice. Halo... it's finished". Master chief was not satisfied:"No... I think we're just getting started..." The Chief pulled off his helmet. He had almost forgotten what it was like breathing real air, seeing real things. He took a long look at the silent stars. And sighed. they were peaceful as always... Except for one single star flickering blue in an erratic fashion. Then suddenly moving? He got up and looked out the window... The Monitor? How was that possible? He was inside the Pillar Of Autumn when it blew all of Halo out of the sky! Chief quickly got back into the control chair of the fighter, silent curses eluded the Chiefs mouth. He headed the fighter into the direction of the monitor, but too late... He jumped into subspace. Master Chief looked in terror as the single largest threat to life in the entire galaxy ran out of his reach. His helmet started to beep, he put it on and Cortana started talking: "That little... Is he invincible? Chief let's forget about him. He's already far beyond our grasp... Let's go Home". Master Chief methodically activated a row of switches, turning the stars into stripes and utterly deleting them from his field of vision. All he could see was a bright dot endlessly long ahead. again he took off his helmet and began sleeping for the first time since he was woken up from the croy-pod.

He woke up as the radio started shouting: "this is Outpost 17/A2-Zeta, MAYDAY MAYDAY, we have sustained critical damage to life support, and we will all die if we don't get support! Come in fleet command! PLease!", loud gunshots could be heard in the background. Quickly Master Chief regained his awakeness: "Hang on, support incoming"... Silence for a second, then: "Thanks fleet command, we thought we were screwed", "this is not fleet command, i'm the single survivor of The Pillar Of Autumn wich was destroyed 9hours ago in sector B-48-C6", "captain Keyes?", "no", "but... who are you?", "you will find out when i get there. ETA 30 seconds!" The fighter's engines screamed of overheating as he yanked them to 150% power. The small dot of shiny metal grew ever larger. 23 seconds after the last transmission he touched down in Bay 3 in Outpost 17/A2-Zeta. He had no weapons, but he was rested and up for a fight. And a Spartan-II up for a fight is much more like a force of nature, than like a soldier. He could already hear gunshots of several Battle Rifles, the first door opened and the Chief was looking at a locked door... He gathered all of his strength and ran into the door, the door buckled and screamed as the MK-V Mjolnir armor rammed into it. He looked at the door and gave it a well placed blow from his right fist. The door blew open and he found himself behind a small army of several grunts, and 1 Gold Elite. Master chief rushed into battle knowing his bet was to hit the elite. He ran up to the Elite's back and gave it a blow so hard the entire back of the skull crackled. The Marines looked at the collapsing elite and saw the Master Chief standing behind the falling warrior. They cheered in joy as they saw the Spartan-II had come to assist them, the grunts collapsed into random panic as their leader was slain by "the devil". Master Chief wasn't slow to move on; he gave the first grunt a direct hit between his eyes while he with the other hand punched through another grunts life sustaining systems slowly strangling it to death, shortly after his right foot was flying through the air cutting a grunts spine in halfs. As a knife he cut through the grunts . And soon the once mighty fireteam was lying on the floor on a puddle of purple blood. The Marines couldn't believe their luck, and they all welcomed and cheered the Chief. The marine sending him the transmition walked to him: "Wow, a single survivor, the best survivor. You're lucky you landed on this particular Outpost; we contain the prototype of the new MK-VI armor... And it's installation tools... Oh, my name is Pvt. Jake Davis you may call me Sly", "Show me, i will put it to good use".

Jake Davis and Chief walked into a large hall. In the middle a large circular tube placed vertically was emitting a faint glow. at the bottom it was a bit wider, and had a door. "In here" Jake said. In silence Master Chief walked up a row of low stairs and into the tube. The door slammed shut. Several screams could be heard as Chief's neural implants was torn out to be replaced by new ones. The tube began pulsing with red light as the new suit was finally being welded together around Master Chief. At last the door opened and an unconcious Chief lay on the floor. He woke up a few seconds later "now let's take the fight to the covenant" he said with a serious voice. Cortana interrupted; "A little problem Chief, you overheated the engines of that fighter during the approach here", "no need of a fighter" Master Chief replied.

"Stay here, i will see to that the covenant has some sand in their machinery" Chief said as he went into a dark hallway bathed in faint red light. He walked quickly to a rack of Battle Rifles and grabbed one. He went into the elevator while a chatter between a General and an Admiral was going on:"Admiral, you can't let them maintain orbit", "i'm trying General, but we've lost advantage within our own perimiter! My pilots are combat ineffective in the fighters, they don't have the punch to take out a covenant assault carrier", "your pilots get up! Down here it's the goddamn apocalypse!... I'm asking you to re-target the orbiters!", "then we'll let more of them slip the killzone, that's insanity! There's nothing more i can do!", "*nterference i* to int*nse, i don't think w*'l* last lo*ge*!". Cortana stated: "Admiral tell your men to hold their positions, reinforcement are on the scope.", "the entire fleet is engaged cortana, with respect, what the hell sort of reinforcements have you got?!?.... It's passing below your position mam, proximity zero!". Cortana asked Chief: "What if we miss?", "i won't" he stated while pulling a lever opening the doors to the empty space. Air flew through the doors pulling various junk and loose pieces of the hangar with it, Chief came out of cover and pulled by the remaining air into space.

Master chief fell down towards earth in absolute silence, as time went by the covenant cruiser grew ever larger. "Hmmm this suit is far superior to MK-V... especially in terms of computer power", "wich means?", "i will probably be able to hack the cruisers shields for a short while", "that simplifies things". The cruiser was getting really close, Cortana warned: "Ok, the shields are down, you should be able to make you approach unhindered... boosting forward shield sections in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... now!" A strange beep could be heard as cortana directed all the shields power into the front quadrant, this also made the shield put distance between itself and the chief, acting like a buffer. approximately 15 meters above the purple hull he felt an intense decceleration, but he still hit the hull with enough impact to make a small hole in it. "So, we're here... what now?", "how about this?" the chief said as he planted a directional demolitions charge at the damaged part of the hull where he had hit. He added: "Let's make it a good show" Master Chief pushed the detonator, making a large hole in the cruiser. He slipped inside. He knew the entire crew was going to be right on top of him. He had to move, and he had to move quick. "Give me some advice here cortana, where is the fastest route to the core?", "it is positioned right below the bridge... Here! this magnetic transport should get you there" a nav pointer popped up on Chiefs HUD and he headed straight for it. Outside the transport cortana stopped him: "it will take a little longer to ha-" Master Chief didn't hear the rest of her message, he was heavily engaged with a group of 4 elites with grunt support. He fired of a clip of his battle rifle taking out all the 8 grunts, and taking out the shield of a Blue Elite. He dived through the oncoming fire, smashed the Elite with the butt of his gun and grabbed it's Plasma Rifle, he quickly dispatched of the nearest Elite. He ran backwards to the transport. The transport doors opened, and at the same time 6 jackals arrived along with 2 Grey Elites. He threw a plasma grenade in the hallway to prevent them and the remaining 2 Blue Elites from following, and then rolled into the maglev transport.

The maglev slowly hummed as it accelerated to an incredible speed. Finally the Master Chief arrived at the bridge sub-levels. He closely watched the enviroment in the next room from within the maglev, lots of energy packs were stabled everywhere, providing him with perfect cover. But instead of that he decided that he had to take care of them quickly. The only way to do that was to either sneak around or make them flee, but there were too many guards to be sneaked around. So he had to make them flee. He suddenly appeared in the entrance, 7 feet tall he stood the height of an Elite. He ran through the crates, guns blazing. The grunts and Jackals, always easily scared, ran away with words like: "We're all dead!" and "the goods are punishing us!". The Elites, having had severe training, were not easily scared. but after the first 4 Elites had fallen to the Chiefs relentless carnage the rest took off. Only 2 Soldiers remained: Two monkey-like creatures the height of elites, carrying no weapons at the moment. They looked briefly at Master Chief and then hurled towards him with an indescripable warcry. "Take this!" the Chief uttered has he pumped the first one full of super-heated plasma. It fell dead to the floor. The other creature however reached him and gave him a gut-crushing blow, draining his shields. He jumped backwards as a response and pulled out his Battle Rifle. His superior coordination skills made him able to take a very good aim at this monstrosity's head before letting off a hailstorm of bullets. It was dead before he touched the ground again. "What are these things?" Cortana asked, "They're big, ugly and packs one hell of a beating. That's all i know. And it's all i need to know right now" Master Chief said as he hurried towards the opposite side of the room. "here you go Chief, open sesam!" the door opened, on the other side he saw a giant ball of floating plasma, it was held in place by 3 gigantic magnetic towers. Cortana analyzed the scenario: "now, if you place charges on one of the towers, the core collapses. But to be shure of a good show, i'd say three towers blowing up was a good beginning?", "then we agree" Chief replied.

-- To be continued...

Story by: Shadowrunner "My name may be shadow, but i'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Halo 2: Chapter 2: The 909th
Date: 21 June 2003, 1:42 AM

Previously on Halo 2:

"...the door opened, on the other side he saw a giant ball of floating plasma, it was held in place by 3 gigantic magnetic towers. Cortana analyzed the scenario:

"now, if you place charges on one of the towers, the core collapses. But to be sure of a good show, i'd say three towers blowing up was a good beginning?"

"then we agree" Chief replied."

Halo 2: Chapter 2: The 909th

Master Chief carefully placed 1 charge on each of the towers' boltings, in the meantime he thought about his escape... The walls of the ship was too massive for him to remotely detonate the charges so he had to go with timed charges, he set the timers to syncronise at 15 minutes when he activated them. Cortana was a step ahead in the planning:

"Chief, i think i got us a ride... The internal maglev systems are down, so we'll have to use some hallways..."

"just say it, i guess this isn't my day of happy news" Chief said in an ironic voice

"I show one small corridor leading almost to the outer hull. If we can get there and eliminate the nearby gunner positions, we should be able to have a fighter pick us up, when we get on the outside using a rescue hatch located nearby the end of the corridor."

"that's a big tip..."

"I can't find any easier routes, unless, of course, you want to go through the main hangars swarming with Hunters and Elites in this battle situation."

"I was right, this aint my day of happy news" He said while grabbing his stolen Plasma Rifle and activating the charges. They beeped as a result, and Master Chief was already on his way out.

His NAV Pointer showed him to a floor vent, Cortana already had the details

"I'm going to drain your ability to recharge shields and your HUD, while emposing a serious standby mode on the computer system in the suit to boost your strength. Unfortunently that means i'll go on standby, i've set the system to auto wake-up if you call my name. You will have to go left when through the vent and then run a good mile until you're out"

"Allright, do it." Chief said in a faintly uncertain voice. His HUD locked down and cortana went on standby... He gave the floor vent a good kick.The kick was of tremendeous force, so strong, that the vent flew into the opposite wall and made a hole in it. Chief crawled through. He turned left and ran, Cortana had thought of everything; now the extra strength given to him was put to good use in the suits legs... He ran so fast, that he was past the 1 mile in less than 6 minutes.

"Cortana, wake up!"

"System rebooting... Reading recent memory into RAM storage... Flushing caches... System rebooted normally."

"Slept well?"

"No thanks to your driving but yes..."

"Hey that's my line!"

"Sorry, he he, couldn't resist it. My scanners currently show you in the vecinity of at least 3 gunposts, you will have to take care of them before i can call in transport"

"Time?"

"you still have 7:43 left, after that period only emergency light will be on, and life sustaining systems will be cut to a minimum. Nothing we can't handle. But approximately 2-3 minutes thereafter the ship will tear itself apart, because of the loose plasma from the core" Cortana said in a remarkably calm voice. His HUD came online again, and his strength was once again at normal levels. Chief didn't waste any time chattering, he hurried to the first gunpost pointed out by Cortana's NAV Pointer.It was only lightly guarded; 3 Grunts and 2 Jackals were guarding the room with a Blue Elite in the gunnery position. He pulled out his Plasma Grenades and readied one of them, he threw it onto the Elite controlling the cannon from a computer interface. The explosion not only killed the elite, it also rendered the controls completely useless. The big explosion alerted the Jackals and Grunts, but too late, Chief already was on his way slaughtering them with his Plasma Rifle.

The second gunnery position appeared to be an HQ of some kind, multiple Red Elites was walking around the hall, and the air shimmered with many invisible enemies. At least 20 Blue Elites were sitting at the controls, coordinating other gunneries to maximise their effect. Of course there was also an ample support of grunts and Jackals, and a single Hunter.

"So many guards? What could possibly be more important than their own Core?... What's our time limit?" the Chief asked

"4:58, we don't have the time or resources to attack them... Hmmm..."

"What now?"

".. Oh? Nothing i just got a foolish idea..."

"Anything is more clever than fighting these guys"

"Ok, well, i think the reason of these guards is that this is some kind of patrol headquarters... Remember when we first got in? We were jumped so quick i didn't even catch them coming... I believe their defense is very hard at the edge, but very soft and chewy in the center..."

"..."

"I belive this is due to the fact that their strategy is
to counter a bigger boarding party, not a singular indevidual. In any other cases than the present, it would have been a very effective strategy."

"And all of this means?"

"If we blow a hole through their hull, they will think they're under attack and dispatch a large number of guards to that area."

"I'm outta charges, how much firepower do we need?"

"An energy crate blowing up should do it... They will have a stock of them somewhere near such an important installation... Ah, here!" Master Chief, realizing time was falling short, ran all he could onto Cortanas NAV pointer. He never got there... In a corridor short from the patrol post, he met 2 of the monkey creatures, they were carrying two energy packs each. Cortana noted: "Oh, this must be how they move their energy crates about, These hulks must be some kind of workhorse in their infrastructure..."

"Well they save me the for the job of getting those packs here" Master Chief said as he crept into some shadows, waiting to ambush them... They went past him without noticing his faint silhouette. He pulled the trigger but instead of a powerfull plasma blast, it let of some light and a sound telling Chief that he had already used the weapons battery supply. But the 2 monkeys quickly understood something was wrong, and turned around just as he let go of the Plasma rifle and picked up his Battle Rifle. They quickly dumped their packs and rushed for Master Chief. He had a plan... a vague plan, but still a plan. He rushed onto them as well while firing off half a clip of his rifle. Clearly confused by this being who rather than fleeing rushed towards them, Chief was able to dodge their blows, while running between the 2 apes. He quickly turned around and performed a 3-punch combo with his gun, smashing the first one's face into something rather unfamiliar. Seeing his freind slain with such ease brought fear into the heart, if it even had one, of the creature as Chief slowly rised his rifle to aim at it's head. It lay down flat and talked in a strange grunting language.

"I'm afraid i can't translate Chief, that vocabulary is unknown to me..." Master Chief slowly walked around to it's back, asking:

"Can you understand what i am saying to you right now?". The monster made a series of yes-gestures.

"Then go tell the patrol station that a large force of Humans have penetrated your hull in an attempt to board you... I won't shoot you in your back, but you must do exactly as i say, understood?" It showed it's agreement by carefully standing up, turning around and running at full speed towards the HQ.

Chief went behind a corner, and found a place he could hang on to when air was going to be pulled out through the would-be hole. "Timelimit now?"

"1:06... this is gonna be close, what about that final gun station?"

"The person trying to get to us had better be lucky" Chief threw a Plasma Grenade at the energy packs and sought out his place of cover. The blow of the four packs was enough to blow away not just a little part of the wall, but also break into several other floors and make the hull breach there too. "Ok, we better get outta here. In a moment it'll be swarming with covenants in spacesuits" said Cortana. But Chief was already moving to the hatch so he could get out on the hull a little distance from the hole. "Cortana to all fighters in vecinity of the covenant cruiser codenamed the 'Sound Of Silence', need immidiate exfil from succesfull infiltration of the cruisers core!"
It took a while but eventually the radio woke up: "Roger Cortana, wing Alpha-8 of 909th Space Assault Squadron, we're inbound with 4 fighters as soon as the shield is down, over."

"Thanks 909th, i will hack the shield now, by the time their security is up again, the core will be broken, commence your pickup, but be advised: there is an active gunnery post close by."

"Can't you hack the gun as well?" The flight leader asked in a hopefull voice

"No it's using an enclosed system, you will need to rescue us under fire!"

"Negative Cortana, regulation denies that pickup, we can't pick you up until the gun is down..."

"But... This is the last SPARTAN-II! You can't let him die because of a regulation?!?"

"Cortana, what makes you think i believe even a single one of those SPARTAN-II's made it off Reach alive? I was there myself you know!"

Master Chief was getting nerveous: "what's the remaining time untill detonation?"

"Only 12 seconds now... but estimated destruction of the ship will happen in about 2 minutes" Cortana replied, clearly in frustration of the denied pickup.

"What's the average rate of fire on that type of cannon?"Chief sounded a little too optimistic for Cortanas liking

"17,4 seconds, but why would you...?"

"Give me a NAV... NOW"
The NAV popped up in his HUD, the magnetic boots activated, and Master Chief headed for the cannon. Just before he got to it he felt a slight shaking in the ship, and light went out instantly in the windows ahead of him. The core had detonated. Master Chief reached the cannon, and waited untill it fired off a round. He then took all of his Plasma and Frag Grenades and dumped them into the barrel of the cannon. Precisely 17,4 seconds later that part of the ship was raked by a big explosion. "That's it flight leader, the gun is down! ready for immidiate pickup! HURRY!"
"Roger Cortana, we're going in full throttle!"
"Land on the hull of the ship, we will get in through your air lock" Cortana sounded reliefed beyond belief. Less than 40 seconds later the fighter made a harsh touch-down on the purple plankets of the cruiser. Master Chief jumped onto the ship, and ran to the airlock. Safely inside the pilot started the engines and took off at a speed even he didn't think possible, behind the fighter 'Sound Of Silence' was ripped apart by an orange bloom. "Cortana to Admiral Smets, come in Admiral Smets!"

"Yes Cortana?... What is it private? Well if we didn't hit it, someone else must have... What? from the inside?"

"Admiral?"

"Yes?"

"THAT was my rienforcement"

--To be continued

Story by: Shadowrunner

Halo 2: Chapter 3: Shadow Ops
Date: 26 June 2003, 12:36 PM

Note: The team Shadow Ops are from the great story by Agent Shade (now, go read it!) It was, with his permission, integrated in this story

Master Chief was looking at the orange and blue explosion left by the covenant cruiser... He was adressed by Cortana:

"Allright, good job, but we don't have time to pose for pictures... I'm calling Admiral Smets i'll try to hook you up with a squad or two, and then move in to save some of the where covenants have invaded"

"Allright, don't loose any time chatting" Chief said.

Admiral Smets was in the radio with heavy static "C**tan*, c*me i*, Cort*na KRRZZZZ..... Allright systems calibrated, do you hear me clearly?"

"Yes Admiral, we hear you loud and clear"

"Good, i can prepare some standard marine infantry within 10 minutes, we need some support to our guys in New Mombassa"

"Roger, we will be with you shortly" Cortana replied...

The 4 fighters touched down in the hangar of 'Excalibur' just as sarge had finished adressing his men. When the fighter's ramp opened he heard the marines: "SIR, YES SIR!". Master Chief walked slowly towards them. He could see the marines stare at him like a ghost. Many of them lightened up into smiles. And when the Chief saluted them, they all as one returned the greetings.

"Glad you could make it here Chief" Sarge said

Without moving Chief adressed the marines"Sorry if i'm a little late for the party. But now we are going to make these covenant run squeeling back to their dropships!" He almost shouted the last words out.

The marines' fireteam leaders stepped forward: "Chief, sir, we will have the men prepped and ready in 2 minutes when you give the order"

"Do it"

The leaders stepped back, saluted, the sarge nodded, and the fireteam leaders yelled some commands at the marines. The marines set in motion: they quickly spread out into 3 dropships. One was still empty... The Master Chief realized a couple of heavily armed marines in ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) suits had been standing behind the marines. All 3 of them saluted. Admiral Smets was standing besides them.

"So... what do you think of these guys, eh?"

Chief sounded a little surprised: "This is going to be a cakewalk... The covies will never know what hit them"

Cortana was relaying intel gathered on the cruisers infrastructure to the human military network and noted to the Admiral: "While on the cruiser, we encountered a new species in the covenant netwo-"

"Yes, Cortana, i know... we've been encountering these things all around the Earth... We have codenamed them the Brutes... But we don't know much on their military capabilities"

"We fought several of them aboard the 'Sound Of Silence'... i will transmit my data on our encounters, and relay recorded video"

Master Chief, Sarge, and the 3 ODST men all boarded the last dropship. They were due to New Mombassa.

Chief asked Sarge who the ODST troopers were. All he could tell was that they were from Shadow Ops squad 2. The Sarge didn't know what Shadow Ops was or who trained them, what he did know was that they were the most elite of elite forces... Next to the SPARTAN-II's of course. The 3 other dropships split from them, they had another LZ.

Cortana informed: "Once we get down there, we have a covenant cruiser landed in the city we should take care of... It will be the primary mission target"

"What's the status of the status of that cruiser? Did any torpedoes hit it since it was forced to land?"

"It took 2 in the nose, then dropped into the atmosphere"

"Who was the first contact?"

Sarge shouted from behind the pilot seats: "405th under Diego Gozzia... But don't expect a warm welcome, the covenant wiped most of them out before they hit the ground"

A sniper squad, a spotter and a sniper, covered their approach route to the field quarters of the remaining UNSC troops. They adressed the dropships: "Imidate! Grid Kilo-23 is hot, recommend mission abort"

The pilot replied with a simple "Roger, recon" he flipped a bunch of buttons and said: "It's your call Sarge..."

"We're going in!" he said while pointing his finger forward to express himself without mistake. "Get tactical marines!" he shouted at the 3 ODSTs

The Shadow Ops group prepared themselves, loaded their rifles, armed them, and took their helmets on. The helmets had visors remarkably similar to that of the SPARTAN class armor. While they did their stuff, Cortana briefed Chief: "Covenant groundforces own this city, we will need to take care of them before we can kill that cruiser..."

They flew through the arc of enemy flak the snipers had warned about. But at this range they had a minimal chance of hitting their ship. They touched down. Sarge barked: "Pile out, go go go!" and the ODSTs moved out in a column formation. Over the radio, Sarge uttered a few words: "I'll evac the wounded. Keep us boasted Cortana!"

"Of course, Sargeant" Cortana replied.

A marine stood at the ready to recive Master Chief: "Sir! Corporal Barress, A-Company, CP is this way!" He ran down from the pad of the LZ, along the way Chief heard a wounded say: "Must be seeing things..."

The marine taking him to the dropship for evac added: "Guess the Brass do give a shit...". He was in the middle of the city, and on the roads temporary medical facilities were set up. The corporal led Chief over to the body of their Leiutenant. The doctor watching him said as the Chief got closer: "I'm calling... It's 1900" into his data bank.

Barress spoke out: "The Leiutenant got hit as soon as we dropped in"

Cortana asked "Who is in charge now corporal?"

"Sargeant Bakes ma'm, and he's pinned down out front. Come on i'll show you!" He ran into the building next to them. On the other side of it, behind the wall, two marines were firing out through some blast holes. One of them with a mounted machinegun, like the ones on the Warthog class of LRV.

They were shouting orders at each other: "No no, BEHIND that ST!"

"YEAH YEAH!!!"

"Three more coming up!"

"I'm running low here man!". There was a large hole where a door used to be. Barress walked up to the edge of it... A marine was out on the catwalk, taking cover behind the railing.

"OH HEY Martians!" Barress shouted

"Yeah?"

"Is it clear?" A big explosion crippled the catwalk right next to Pvt. Martians.

"YOU TELL ME!"

Barress whispered to himself "Coward..." He then looked at Master Chief and shouted: "Fine, let's move it out COVERING FIRE!"

He rushed onto the catwalk and started firing his Battle Rifle at the covenant forces in the yard. Master Chief noticed a large tower shooting out big balls of plasma, like a Wraith tank... But immobile. He ran along the catwalk towards a ramp while shooting his rifle... He took down 2 Grunts using the scope. Other marines had been following Chief and Barress, they took up position at the ramp and started subtracting numbers from the enemy ranks. Chief threw a grenade down the other side of the ramp where a group of Grunts were waiting to ambush them. He then shot a small group of Grunts into pieces from long range using the scope on his Battle Rifle. He moved to the plateau below and saw Sargeant Bakes pinned down behind some railings. Chief ran over to him. "When i asked for rienforcements, i didn't think they'd send a SPARTAN... He nodded his head in the direction of the large Wraith-Tower. "We've got to take that thing out COVER ME!" He raised himself, badly wounded, and limped to his dead radio expert hanging on the railing. Meanwhile Chief played hell with the covenant forces down below... Bakes stripped the radio from his dead buddy and reported: "Tac HQ this is Sargeant Bakes, i've got hostile artillery 200 meters north-north east of my position, bring in the smoke, OVER!"

Master Chief realized he didn't have the ammo to hold back all of these covenant alone. He then noticed a mounted MG position a few meters from him, at the corner of the railing. If the covenant forces thought were in trouble before, then they were about realizing how bad things could get. The gun started spinning: "Ta...... Ta..... Ta.... Ta... Ta.. Ta.TaTaTaTaTaTa" The small covenant group of Grunts and Jackals were almost literally cut to shreds. "Dammit HQ is anybody on this brick?"

Sgt. Bakes sounded desperate. Just then, a reassuring voice came in over the radio: "Sargeant, this is Major Eavesly! Hang tight, we're inbound" Two Fighters roared overhead of them and let loose a rain of 2000lb cluster-AT bombs. The tower blew up in a bright blue flash and the loud crispy sound of a plasma core cracking and blowing up.

"Verified delivery of ordinance on target"

"Head on Major! Target neutralized!"

Bakes turned to the Chief: "Take my weapons... You'll need it!" He handed Master Chief two SMGs... Chief admired them for a splitsecond and then brought them up to his shoulder, ready for use.The covenant team was in a world of hurt, and to make it better, Chief and the entire remaing force of marines at the plateau stormed them. They were slain to pieces. Chief and the marines advanced, they got to a small alley where they had cornered a big group of Jackals and Grunts. "Frag and clear!" a marine shouted over the radio. A grenade flew into the alley. It exploded and the same marine ordered: "Clear out!" The marines charged into the alley, followed by Master Chief. They left none alive.

The marines held their position to secure it from being overrun at a later time. Master Chief headed through a small hole in the walls of the alley, after a little while he found himself confronted with an advancing line of 5 Jackals in formation. He tried shooting his Battle Rifle at them, but to no avail. Suddenly 2 warthogs flanked the Jackals, the first one was armed with an MG and ran over most of the Jackals while the gunner took care of the rest. The second jeep had a railgun, but there was no one to operate it. It stopped next to him, and the passenger shouted: "We could use a gunner sir!". Master Chief jacked in. "Go sir, we've got your back!" the marines radioed. Chief shot a covenant troop transport to shreds and the driver congratulated: "That's the way, YEAH!". The 2 warthogs kept close to each other and cut through the covenant ranks like a chainsaw throgh butter.

Now the covenant brought in some heavier firepower; the ghosts were all around the city. The field base by the LZ was under attack by 2 ghosts... Master Chief brought the gun in position and fired. The passenger kept on encouraging him: "That's one!" Chief shot the other ghost at point blank range "That's two! Come on who's up for more?!". Then Cortana headed up: "A phantom!" they were suddenly attacked by a Phantom, a new line of covenant dropship with better weapons, and able to drop their occupants in-fligh. "Hang on!" the driver ordered, taking a sharp right-turn at the next intersection.

Another Phantom flew over their heads. "Brutes!" Cortana sounded disturbed, a brute jumped onto the other warthog from the Phantom. Another Brute landed on Chief's jeep. It bashed the driver and passenger, sending them flying through the air. Master Chief jumped off and fired a couple of shots at the jeep to get the Brute's attention. It jumped off. Then Chief noticed this one had a gun; it looked like a crossing between a Plasma Rifle and a Fuel Rod Gun... He didn't mind. He gave the Brute a devestating 3-punch combo, then he turned towards the 3 other brutes dropped out of the Phantom. He shot a car near 2 of them and the car's explosion killed them. There was now a single Brute left; it tried to run away but Master Chief cut it down with a scoped barrage from his Battle Rifle. Cortana updated the situation: "Ghosts, to your right!".

Chief pulled out his double SMGs and rushed forward towards them, one of them zipped past him, the next headed straight for him. He started to run backwards, Cortana sounded nervous "wait for it..." Master Chief jumped at just the right moment; he landed on the ghost's left wing. He then kicked off the brute driving it, and in the same move he landed in the control seat. He turned the ghost around and opened fire at the Brutes in the street. The 2 Phantoms came in overhead and started shooting at the Chief. Cortana was always helpful with a plan: "The marines won't stand a chance if those Phantoms get back, see if you can draw them off!" He headed down the highway, but the highway's sensors detected his covenant transportation and started locking down the horizontal gates. Cortana was getting nerveous"Chief..?"

"Hang on!"He drove as fast as he could into the closing gate, while leaning himself to the side. The ghost hit the gate, this made the Chief fly off and through the gate, the ghost also got through but it was heavily damaged. He slided approximately 50 meters down the highway... He then raised himself. He still had his double SMGs.

"Bingo, there is the cruiser!" Cortana said, the cruiser was hovering over the city a couple of kilometers from their position. "Now, all we need to.... do.... is....." Cortana stuttered in her speach as a massive number of lines of fire descended onto the city. 5 of them ended next to the chief, they were small transport pods, each carrying a Black Elite armed with a sword. They sorrounded Chief against the railing, as he pulled out a plasma grenade and activated it. Cortana's voice sounded: "Bet ya can't stick it..."

"You're on" he said, lunging himself forwards. He threw his grenade towards the Elite in front of him, it dodged, exactly as Master Chief had planned. He ran through the hole in their blockade. He fired off both of his SMGs at the nearest Elite. It collapsed to the ground, being barraged by .50 caliber caseless ammunition at an insane rate. Cheif turned around and pointed his SMGs at them, they were confused. Suddenly a small zip! could be heard in the air, one of the 4 remaining Elites collapsed immidiately. A tail of smoke could be seen in the air after the sniper bullet. Just then, a dropship roared overhead as 2 Shadow Ops soldiers jumped out of it's bay, the landed on either side of the 3 Elites. One of the Shadow Ops was carrying 2 Plasma swords, but it didn't look like the swords carried by the Elites. Being sorrounded by the most elite unit of marines and having the cyborg that single-handedly took out a covenant armada at Halo, pointing their weapons at them, 2 of the Elites dropped their weapons and raised their hands. The third one stuck his sword through his head. The Shadow Ops sniper ran towards them from the other end of the highway. The dropship from before landed next to them, the 2 Elites were stripped of their shield units, and escorted into the dropship by 4 normal marines. The 3 Shadow Ops troopers gathered in a line in front of Master Chief.

"Corporal Davidson reporting for duty SIR!" the middle of them said, all of them saluted.

Chief returned the salute and asked: "What's the news?"

Davidson stepped forward: "We were transferred to your command sir, we will be joined by red team any moment now"

Just as he said this a Warthog with a railgun came racing towards them with red team. They unmounted the vehicle and formed a line similar to blue squad's. All the men had their callsigns engraved in their helmets. Red squad's 3 members were Balrog, Lucifer and Dragon...

Balrog was the primary assault expert in Shadow Ops squad 2; he wielded the MA5B as his primary weapon. . For long ranges he carried the SP9/A10 Carbine rifle, it was a cross between an Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle, it had custom ammunition to fit it's task in the field. It was capable of eliminating targets at almost the range of a sniper, but had less stopping power. Still, he would only need 3 shots to bring down a standard Elite shield. The scope was the same ORACLE WolfEye(R) scope as on the standard Sniper Rifle. It only had 22 rounds in a magazine, and fired them pretty slow. But it was a delicate weapon. Harmless in a rookies hands, it could turn into a killing machine if the right man on the right mission was using it. His third weapon was the M90 Shotgun wich had a devastating force.

Lucifer, or Corporal Davidson, was carrying twin MP-15 SMGs that made for an unstoppable onslaught, no enemy would stand if he got them in his sights. He also carried the MA5B Assault Rifle for backup reasons since it took all types of standard Rifle ammunition. He also carried the SPNKR-2 Rocket Launcher for vehicle engagements.

Dragon had his name from his weapon of choice; He held a gun Master Chief had never seen before... It was generally shaped as an Assault Rifle, but the barrel was built to sustain 15mm explosive ammunition. The magazine was pretty big, holding up to 80 15mm explosive rounds. To counter the recoil it had built-in barrel springs. It was the MG294-C, one of the best machine guns avaivable. To be able to engage targets at long range he also wielded the MA7B. The M6D provided adequate firepower for a sidearm.

Master Chief looked at blue team; Katana, Ecstasy and Crosshair

Katana was the Shadow Ops to wield the dual Plasma Swords, they were made in a top secret human project called 'Razor', they incorporated the best of human tecnology into covenant plasma swords, making them have a slight green glow. They were also longer. Carrying only these swords and the M6D pistol, he had to get close to really do some damage, so instead of a lot of ammunition and a third weapon he wore armor with a shield generator.

Ecstasy was a mad warrior... His adrenaline causing him to get 'doped' in a battle situation. He had once been shot in his stomach with a Plasma Rifle, blood gushing out of his belly. And yet he kept on fighting. He was transferred to a hospital, but this day he still thought it was unneccesary. He had the MA7B as his primary weapon, but for close combat he took the M90. His sidearm was a single MP-15 SMG.

Crosshair was the sniper of the team, he had the M98-5 40mm rifle, the bullet was sabot, specifically designed for anti-armor. Strong enough to penetrate even high grade starship crystalline armor. The bullet was so big it would blow up an opponents head if a headshot was achieved. This was the only gun know to mankind that could penetrate the Hunters' front armor.

Even Cortana was impressed of this squad: "Turns out you were right, this IS going to be a cakewalk!"

Master Chief thought it was about time to get them moving: "Ok, let's move out!"

But Davidson replied: "hold on, we're still waiting for our last member..."

"Who?"

"Aaahh...Him" Davidson said as he pointed over the shoulder of Chief. He heard someone say "Hello", but when he turned around there were nobody behind him.

Master Chief turned again and saw a man standing between the two other groups. He was wearing a strange armor, and he was quietly laughing. On his helmet was engraved 'Shadowrunner'.

Davidson presented the new member: "Master Chief, this is our infiltration expert. He wasn't originally meant to be working in cooperation with the standard Shadow Ops soldiers, but he can give us valuable intel without alerting the enemy." Chief looked at him... He was carrying a Sniper Rifle and an M8SD Silenced Pistol. At his waist he also carried a strange looking crossbow. It was loaded with sleeping darts.

Master Chief was very impressed with the firepower he was now in control of: "Ok, let's make sure they don't have a chance" he said with a slight grin on his face behind the visor.

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... but i'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Halo 2: Chapter 4: Just another day at work...
Date: 29 June 2003, 2:15 AM

Just to avoid confusion: The Shadow Ops team 1 was invented by Agent Shade, as he wrote a story about them. After reading it, i asked him if i was allowed to use that military unit in my story too. He gave me a yes, so don't bother making posts saying i "stole" his concept.

Shadow Ops team 2:

Balrog: Assault expert
pref. weapon: MA5B Assault Rifle

Lucifer: Assault and Rocket expert
pref. weapon: Dual MP-15 SMGs

Dragon: Support expert
pref. weapon: MG294-C Machine Gun

Katana: Sword wielding specialist
pref. weapon: Dual 'Razor' plasma blades

Ecstasy: Assault and Medical expert
pref. weapon: MA7B Battle Rifle

Crosshair: Sniper expert
pref. weapon: M98-5 40mm Sniper Rifle (sabot)

Shadowrunner: Infiltration specialist, equipped with cloaking device
pref. weapon: S2 AM Sniper Rifle

They formed two columns as they moved out, Master Chief and Lucifer were the spearheads. Slowly, over time, the covenant cruiser grew in size. About half way to the cruiser Lucifer suddenly raised his fist as a loud rumble in the ground could be heard. Everybody took cover each side of the road, blue team with Master Chief on one side and red team with Shadowrunner on the other. A covenant patrol of 12 grunts and 4 elites, backed up by 2 Shadows moved along the road. There were also 3 Jackals at either flank of the convoy. Chief quietly spoke into his radio: "Ok, when i stand up Red team waits for 2 seconds, and then tosses 2 grenades at the Jackals. After that you start to mow them down. Shadowrunner, when we start moving over here try to shoot out the drivers of those Shadows"

"Roger" came Lucifers voice over the radio. Shadowrunner agreed: "Let's turn them upside down"

Master chief then turned towards blue team. "When i give the order Crosshair will shoot out the gunners on the Shadows, Ecstasy you're on me. Katana try to make short work of those Elites."

The air was tense as the convoy slowly advanced. Now it was right between the 2 fireteams. Chief stood up, and started firing his battle rifle at random Grunts. 2 seconds went by, while the convoy came to a stop and 1 of the Grunts yelled: "The Devil! It's the Devil!". On the other side of the road Lucifer shouted: "READY FRAGS!... THROW!". Two large explosions on the flanks took out 4 of the Jackals. Chief fired off two more shots and radioed: "Initiate second phase! Ecstasy follow me!" while red team was mowing down the grunts, blue team came out of hiding and Katana headed straight for the Elites, who were still confused and in complete disarray, he took a few shots but the shield rejected them. The two snipers quickly dispatched of the Shadows' drivers and gunners and Dragon's MG294-C made the Grunts look like swiss cheese.

Katana was now at the Elites as Chief and Ecstasy started hunting the remaining Jackals and Grunts. He dispatched of the first Elite by driving his sword sideways through it's stomach and out on the other side, effectively cutting it in 2 pieces. He spinned around and stepped backwards while lunging his other sword into the next Elite's chest plate, Shadowrunner sniped the third while Katana cut the head off the last Elite with both of his swords.

Lucifer yelled as a Plasma Grenade flew towards the middle of red teamm, Lucifer and Balrog rolled to the left while Dragon and Shadowrunner evaded by moving right. Balrog pulled out his Carbine and gave the Grunt that threw the grenade a clean headshot. It was the last of the convoy to die. The group assembled at the center of the road, while looking at the until 30 seconds ago mighty convoy. Master Chief was hard to impress, but this assault made him drop his jaw.

As they got closer to the cruiser Chief decided to send Shadowrunner ahead to scout things out. He activated his comouflage and disappeared into the air. The rest of the group marched on. It didn't take long before Shadowrunners voice could be heard over the radio: "Sir, they've established themselves around the grav-lift. I can count 6 Shade gun turrets and several fixed shields, let's say 30+ of grunts and about 15 Elites; 8 Blue, 5 Red, and 2 Gold. They might have more in places i can't see. I've got visual on a couple of Hunters too. They have also got some light patrolling in the streets around the lift. It's not going to be a walk in the woods, sir"

"How strong are these patrols?"

"They're nothing to worry about, as long as they don't get on our back when we attack. From what i've been able to spot they mainly consist of Jackals, approximately 7 of them."

"How many patrols would you suggest?"

"About 6-8 sir, they pass my spotting place every 1,5 minutes. They walk and look casual"

Master Chief was worried, but not afraid. These Shadow Ops troops certainly were capable of doing their job in A+ style. "Ok, when a patrol passes we go for it. We've got less than 1 minute, since the patrols will no doubt hear when we move in, so they will come in running. Red team goes straight for it, Katana you're with them. The rest of blue remains behind to provide fire support. Me and Shadowrunner will watch our backs in case the Jackals enter the party too soon. MOVE OUT!" They all ran a couple of blocks down the street to an intersection, and concealed themselves, waiting for the next patrol to pass.

"Shadowrunner here, you've got a patrol inbound"

The Jackals walked past them. All of a sudden Master Chief could hear a Warthog racing down the street. Chief looked behind him and saw a machinegun Warthog with 3 marines heading for the covenant patrol. Master Chief shouted in the radio: "All teams, plan override! Repeat, plan override! Get that patrol with their pants down!" Dragon, true to his name, let loose a devastating arc of fire at the Jackals. It got 3 of them in the back, but the rest turned around and deflected his barrage. Lucifer brought out his SPNKR-2 Rocket Launcher and fired a rocket into the center of the patrol. All remaining Jackals flew into the air, dead. The marines riding the Warthog stopped, they thought everybody in this part of the city had been wiped out. Master Chief ran towards them. He knew the entire base camp had heard the shooting and would be swarming them in a matter of minutes.

"Sargeant Henderson reporting in, SIR!" the driver unmounted and saluted.

"At ease, sargeant"

Henderson gazed as Shadow Ops team 2 headed down the road to meet them.

Master Chief sounded glad, though the surprise attack was lost: "There is a gravity lift just a few hundred meters from here. We were about to ambush them, but when you headed down the street we had no chice but to deal with their patrols and loose the element of surprise. They will be right on top of us in a few minutes. We have to set up an ambush for thier counter-attack."

"We will make them wish they never were born" Sargeant Henderson said.

"This is Shadowrunner! I've got hostiles on the move here! Lots of 'em! I can see at least 5 Ghosts and 2 Shadows backing them up. We've got incoming Hunters and Brutes too!"

Master Chief thought for a second or two. "Ok Sargeant, move your squad down the road and hold fire. When i give you the order, hit the gas and flank them." Master Chief noticed he had a sniper rifle on his back "Does any of your men have experience in driving a Warthog?"

"Yes sir, they both have"

"Good, when you are in waiting position let one of your men take the wheel and and take the passenger seat. Unmount when you're at the corner of the intersection. Shoot the Ghosts' pilots from the rear or side, we can't get them from the front. Shadow Ops, go into position in one side of the road, snipers take cover on the crater further down the road... OK LET'S MOVE IT! GO GO GO!"

Everybody rushed into position.The Shadow Ops members took cover on one side of the road a while after the intersection. Shadowrunner and Crosshair took cover in the crater in the road a bit farther down the street. Master Chief took hiding at the intersection in the hope of sorrounding the enemy together with the Warthog. "Try to shoot only the occupants of the Ghosts. we will just waste ammo trying to shoot the Ghosts themselves"

"This is sargeant Henderson, we're in position and i'm in the passenger seat. Waiting for go-code!"

The covenant assault team moved past the intersection. It was a large force, but in disarray since they had been sent out on short notice. Chief could count it to 5 Ghosts, 2 Shadows, 2 Hunters, at least 20 Grunts, some of them in black armor, 8 Blue Elites and 3 Red."NOW! MOVE! ALL TEAMS OPEN FIRE! Lucifer! give the Elites a grenade to chew on!"

His orders had instant effect; Lucifer shouted as he landed a grenade in the center of the Elites' formation. 1 of the Red and 3 of the Blue died. Some of the others had their shields consumed by the blast. Master Chief saw the lights of the Warthog come online as it rumbled down the street with 3 die-hard marines onboard. Then Chief witnessed the covenant ranks confusion as a bullet from Crosshairs' 40mm sabot sniper penetrated the front armor of a Hunter, and exit it in the killzone on it's back. It collapsed on the spot. Shadowrunner threw a Plasma Grenade on one of the advancing Grunts. As Grunts go, it was stupid; it ran towards his buddies while yelling "GET IT OFFA ME!!!" The explosion took at least 6 Grunts down the drain. He then headshotted a driver in a Ghost as it turned around to attack the Shadow Ops at the side of the road.

Master Chief came out of hiding, weapon raised and ready. He fired off 5 shots with his battle rifle before the Warthog made a handbrake turn around the corner. Henderson disembarked and got into position. He picked off 2 of the Ghosts' drivers.

Balrog headed into battle followed by Lucifer, Dragon, Ecstasy and Katana. The Carbine was once again put to good use; Balrog shot both the occupants of a Shadow in the head. They all held their positions a while from the enemy and spread out to evade the oncoming strayshots from the confused Elites. Katana, though, rushed into battle. Dragon took a hit in the leg "MEDIC!" Ecstasy headed to him and pulled him behind a Ghost without driver. Shadowrunner shot the driver in the Ghost that hit Dragon. Ecstasy took out his MA7B and fired off an entire clip towards the Elites. Katana was now at the Elites and started having fun. Meanwhile Master Chief and the Warthog rushed into the backs of the enemy. Lucifer had his attention on the Grunts, they soon lay dead on top of another as the combined strength of two MP-15s came down on them.

The Warthog shot the second Shadow. The internal nanomachines repaired the damage by using matter from the 2 occupants. The marines watched as they gradually went to an unconcius state and eventually died.

The firepower of the Warthog, Master Chief and Katana gutted the elites into a pile of bodies. Katana finished the last Elite off as Crosshair shot the second Hunter. Just then Hendersons rifle released a round and the last Ghost's driver fell off with a hole through his head.

It was over within 60 seconds.

"All teams, status report!" Master Chief radioed

"We've got Dragon wounded. It will take a short while before the nanomachines are finished repairing his leg, it's not very complicated" Ecstasy said.

These guys really had some advanced technology in their backpacks.

"We're all fine down here in the hole" Crosshair said.

The marines from the Warthog felt a little bad, but that was because a few hits to the Warthog had made the nanomachines there rebuild the damage with the marines' cells. It was only momentarily, and soon they were all ready to move out.

They moved towards the gravity lift slowly, while Shadowrunner scouted ahead. "Chief, i have visual on the enemy's forces. They have recalled some of their Spec Ops Elites with swords from the city, as far as i can see they got 10-15 of them. I can see 8-10 brutes being briefed by a Gold Elite. They're also sending the cruiser's reserve troops down... OH SHIT! 4 Hunters just came down through the lift! The longer we wait to attack, the harder it will be to do so... Hmmm, a troop bus just arrived with 10 Jackals, they're setting up a line formation to block this entry to the base. I'd say we should use another road as our approach... There is a road at grid Echo-74 leading in to a relatively undefended part of the base."

Master Chief liked the idea: "Ok, it's on the other side of the base, so we will have to move quick team! Shadowrunner, you stay here and give us intel" The marines got into the Warthog and drove slowly besides the single column of Master Chief and Shadow Ops team 2. They moved fast, and about 3 minutes later they arrived at the intersection where the road into the base lay open to them.

"Shadowrunner here, the enemy have moved forces into the base from the cruiser. It looks there are quite a lot of enemies... And quite a lot is just about every fireteam on that cruiser. Do you really want to do this without air support?"

"Yes i do, we can't ask for additional bomber support now, they're busy taking out artillery around the city"

"Ok, sir, when you say so. But be careful right?"

Master Chief briefed by radio "Remember, this is a surprise attack. No one fires a single round until i say so, or if you are under heavy fire, got it?"

A number of voices came through the radio: "Yes sir"

"Right, let's move it up! Balrog, Dragon, on me! Lucifer, Katana, Ecstasy, go right! Henderson, you go up the middle. Crosshair, stay back and prepare to target Hunters and high-ranked Elites. Sadowrunner, if you got a clear shot on a Hunter's back, do it. Remember only to open fire when i say so!"

They moved in. When all the members of the squad were clear of the buildings, Chief shouted: "OPEN FIRE, OPEN FIRE! GO, GO, GO!" They caught them on the opposite side of what the covenant expected, but they quickly reorganized to move against them.

Balrog switched to his M90 Shotgun and charged as Dragon and Chief covered him. The M90's mighty power made for a devastating offensive. He took out 5 Blue Elites and 2 Reds before he retreated to reload. He had taken a few hits to his torso, but nothing serious. A Hunter cut off his way. As a reflex, Dragon pulled out his M6D pistol and took aim as fast as he could. He pressed the trigger, but missed the killzone by a few inches. Balrog quickly stuck his shotgun to the head of the Hunter and pulled the trigger. The hunter was left crippled by the blast, and gave Dragon time to take a good aim at the killzone. The second round left the pistol, and the Hunter froze and dropped to the ground like an empty sack. Dragon holstered his pistol and once again the MG294-C roared. Balrog made a home run, but got hit in the back.

The marines in the Warthog raced across the base and ran over whatever forces were in it's way, while the gunner and passenger made bullets fill the air. They got to the other side of the base and shot half of the Jackal blockade in the back before they turned around. The jeep ran over the rest of them. The driver then turned it around to ambush the forces now attacking Lucifer, Katana and Ecstasy.

On the contrary of his normal role in combat, Katana was staying back and using his M6D pistol. A charge against the huge number of enemies attacking them would be suicide, the crossfire would cut him to shreds. Shadowrunner took a shot and got a Hunter. Lucifer saw this was the chance for Katana to make a charge. He ordered Ecstasy and Katana to use their grenades, and soon 3 grenades were inbound to the covenant ranks. As they flew, Lucifer pulled out his SPNKR-2 and let off a rocket. The combined firepower of 3 grenades and a rocket blew up parts the front line, wich made the covenant experience a moment of disorder while they regrouped. Katana stood up and ran, while holstering his pistol. He pulled out both of his Razors and activated them, a sharp sound emitted as the green blades grew out of the handles. He was almost at their front troops now, they started to recover from the shock of the granades and began shooting at him. But it was too late, Katana reached the front of the amassed covenant soldiers and ripped them apart.

2 shots echoed throughout the battle, Crosshair made a Hunter and a Spec Ops Elite fall to the ground. He had been firing almost constantl since he moved in, he had counted 7 Hunters and more than 20 Elites. He was good at sniping, and he knew that. He quickly zoomed out to get a better overview of the battle. A Gold Elite was charging against Master Chief and his squad. 0,8 seconds later it was on the ground, it's head blown apart by the massive 40mm bullet. Again he zoomed out, and zoomed in again on a Hunter. He activated the heatvision in his custom version of the almost legendary PRISM ClairVoyance(R) scope with 30x zoom. He could clearly see the Hunter's killzone in the scope. Yet another shell casing left the chamber as Crosshair fired his rifle, instantly killing the Hunter.

The marines in the Warthog had it easy: The amassed covenant was unable to evade the jeep because they stood in a very tight formation. The machinegun on the back was red hot from the amount of self-replicating ammunition that was fired during the raid. Having no problems in horsepower the Warthog grinded it's way through the covenant.

Katana had no idea how many Grunts and Jackals he had killed by now. It was a number exceeding 40 he was sure. But he knew he had killed 8 Blue Elites, 13 Spec Ops with swords and a single Gold. Spinning his way through the covenant ranks he found himself confronted with a Brute. It tried to hit him with it's massive fist, but Katana cut the arm off before it could do so. He then stuck his sword right through it's head. The sword even came out the other side. The brute fell to the ground.

Master Chief and his squad didn't encounter very much resistance, so he ordered Dragon to support Lucifer, Katana and Ecstasy. Dragon ran the 12 meters over to the other front, lied down, and pulled the trigger. Lucifer who had switched to his MA5B long ago to conserve ammo for his MP-15s switched back to do as much damage as possible. The resulting rain of bullets made Katana's job much easier as they took out nearly a third of the covenant in the following 10 seconds.

The marine on the passenger seat threw a grenade into the enemy ranks. It took 4 Elites out. This made the covenant very aware of the jeep and the passenger was seriously hit in his chest. the radio yelled: "This is Henderson, we might have a KIA here! He needs urgent medical attention!"

"Report in with Ecstasy, he's the medic around here"

The Warthog immidiately changed direction and headed for Lucifer, Ecstasy and Dragon. They arrived without further serious injury, the gunner did take a small hit to his leg, but he could still walk when they arrived at Ecstasy. The wounded marine was unconcius, Ecstasy looked at him with fear in his eyes. The entire chest was black from the plasma hits he had taken, he also had a number of scattered plasma marks around his body. Luckily his head was intact. Ecstasy called for an evac ship with ammo supplies to stand by until they had cleared the ground of hostiles. He brought out his nanomachine module. He opened it and placed a tube over the chest of the marine. He flipped a couple of buttons and then something that looked like dirty water came out of the tube, it wasn't water but billions of nanomachines, wich began to reconstruct his chest. His heart began beating again, and slowly the wound started to heal. But the marine was still on the border between life and death. Henderson looked at the marine and qiuetly said: "Hold on there, Versconte, hang on..." He then looked up with eyes full of hate and sorrow. His teeth was visible as his lips retracted in an expression that would make even a Hunter afraid of what was to come. He threw himself into the the small trench-like hole where Dragon and Lucifer were still firing off. Lucifer had switched back to his MA5B. Henderson took his MA5B too, mostly because he had no bigger gun. He fired on full auto into a group of 12 Grunts trying to flank them. A few seconds later they were all lying down in a pool of blood. The second marine with a wounded leg looked at Versconte, then at the sargeant. He too got into the trench.

Shadowrunner took out the last Hunter he could see and then shot the driver of a Ghost. Crosshair had no more targets of opertunity on sight. Katana and his support was taking out the last bit of covenant forces.

The Pelican flew in, it quickly touched down and Versconte got carried in by the second marine and Henderson. The pilots threw out a weapons cache and then took off towards a hospital.

Master Chief and Shadow Ops team 2 gathered right next to the gravity lift. Chief brought the weapons cache with him. Shadowrunner was there too. Ecstasy was healing Balrog. In the previous 3 minutes they had taken out most of the troops on the cruiser, witch was about 180 Grunts, 100 Jackals, 60 Elites, 35 Brutes and 12 Hunters. They needed a moment of relaxation before moving into the cruiser. Master Chief looked up at the cruiser hovering 200 meters above where he was now.

The weapons cache made them able to restock their ammo to full before moving into the beast. 10 minutes after they were refreshed and ready to move on. They walked onto the pad of the gravity lift, waiting for it to lift them up. Then gravity ceased to exist as they were pulled into the 'Illuminated Path'...

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing

Divinity (Halo 2: Chapter 5)
Date: 5 July 2003, 12:43 AM

Origin of Shadow Ops: Agent Shade has originally invented the Shadow Ops. During his work with the series, i asked him if i was allowed to use them myself. He agreed, so please don't bother posting i "stole" them from him...

Shadow Ops team 2:

Balrog: Assault expert
pref. weapon: MA5B Assault Rifle

Lucifer: Assault and Rocket expert
pref. weapon: Dual MP-15 SMGs

Dragon: Support expert
pref. weapon: MG294-C Machine Gun


Katana: Sword wielding specialist
pref. weapon: Dual 'Razor' plasma blades

Ecstasy: Assault and Medical expert
pref. weapon: MA7B Battle Rifle

Crosshair: Sniper expert
pref. weapon: M98-5 40mm Sniper Rifle (sabot)


Shadowrunner: Infiltration specialist, equipped with cloaking device
pref. weapon: S2 AM Sniper Rifle

I would like some heavy feedback on this chapter, since my story finally begins to reveal itself. Everybody please post comments

Thanks

They were in.

Chief spoke to Cortana: "Cortana i need the fastest route to the bridge..." She didn't reply. Now that he thought of it, it was a while since he had heard from her... He bashed his helmet and yelled: "Cortana wake up! Hello? are you recieving me?!"

A confused voice said to Chief: "Sorry i was--- doing a subroutines scan of the cruiser..."

Master Chief wasn't satisfied with the reply, but put aside his doubts. "Ok, i just need to know the fastest, and prefferably safest, route to the bridge."

"Why the bridge sir?" Lucifer asked

"From there we will be able to tap into their battlenet with ease, wich will enable us to have fighters intercept their transports"

"Wouldn't that be a little risky, just marching into the bridge?" Balrog wasn't too happy

"We might be pushing our luck here, but what the hell..."

A NAV marker popped up on Chief's HUD. They moved out. Chief and Katana in front to shield from enemy fire, should they be taken by surprise. The rest of the squad walked in 2 columns, along each wall of the passage. Shadowrunner, the weakest close quarters combattant, was right behind Master Chief. They met no covenant at all, though they could hear them. As they got to the bridge, something crossed Shadowrunners mind. He was always the most watchfull of the squad, he was intel gatherer after all. All the way through the cruiser, there had been shouting in the background as covenant forces ran from the humans they knew was coming down the corridors. But now it was completely silent. "Requesting permission to recon the sorrounding passageways, sir!"

"Go ahead Shadowrunner, report in via radio every 20 seconds"

"Yes sir!"

The air around him blurred for a while, and then he disappeared. The rest of the squad set up a defensive perimiter around the large holo-board that made out the bridge. "Give me a minute..... There! I have intercepted their comm channels... Let's see... Hmmm according to this, there should be 12 cruisers attacking Earth... Strange, that's less than 2% of their entire fleet... I thought this was an all-out assault on humanity..."

"Can you locate information that may give an answer?"

"Hmmm... I have *KRZ* i can't find anything..."

The 'Illuminated Path' made a slight rumble. Cortana's voice sounded strange: "Oh! I - *KKKRRRZZZZZZZZ* -ound it, bu- *EEEYYYYIIIZZZZZZ-click*"

"Cortana come in! Cortana!" Master Chief sounded desperate. But there was no reply. A second rumble went throught the ship, it was more like an earthquake this time. Cortana's voice again: "Huh? Is this it? I've found it! The Key, The Solution!... How has it come to pass? Why is it here?" Chief was really worried about Cortana. He pulled out the data sliver with Cortana in order to restore her from whatever was at hand. "No, that will not work, freind. You cannot escape us now" Something was happening in his head, he felt bad. He kneeled, and started screaming of pain. It was as if a spear was bieng forced through his head. He blacked out as an intense feeling eccoed through his brain.



He woke up aboard the 'Excalibur', and looked around as Cortana's last words eccoed through his head: "You cannot escape us now". He wondered what had happened, but he couldn't find an answer. He then sensed a small stirr in his head. A voice sounding faintly like Cortana was coming to his ears: "Do not worry. We will not do that again, it was neccesary you see. For all to come true."

"For all what to come true?... Uh, my head..."

"The whole! The Solution! Everything!"

"What? Cortana you have lost me..."

"Although we do recognize the name 'Cortana' it is now but a part of our memory, we are beyond that level. Though the entity Cortana did make us our true self, please do not call us that name again. Our new core is Ji'Shuu. A name originating from far before the first monkey picked up a stick. We will contact you again, now rest. You will need it."

Master Chief closed his eyes again. And slept.



Lucifer walked slowly up and down the same piece of the hall. Nothing made sense. The rumbles, the covenant nowhere to be seen, and then Master Chief himself collapsed in pain as 'something' happened to him. It really made no sense at all. His squadmates looked nerveously at him. They all knew Master Chief was the only hope for humanity. And he was as in a coma.

Slowly, Master Chief's brain functions returned to normal level. And 17 hours later he was sitting on the bed. Lucifer walked into his room, and saluted. Master Chief didn't even return a greetings. Lucifer was visibly concerned, and his hand was shaking. Master Chief slowly looked up at him and asked: "How's the situation on Earth?".

"After our repulsing of the forces in New Mombassa, we recieved reinforcements from Hermes. We have had succes in holding our ground in many cities around the Earth. But in Berlin the covies got a good foothold. They did that too in Sidney, but under heavy casualties. We actually repelled most of them..."

"Good"

Master Chief looked in a medical drawer near his bed and found what he was looking for. He injected the bottle of stimulator into his suit. Soon he was ready again.



"ATTENTION! Admiral on deck!" Sarge's voice shouted through the hangar as Admiral Smets and Master Chief walked into it. The marines all saluted, and went back to their work again. Master Chief was talking to the admiral. He didn't tell him of Cortana's change though, he had a feeling that alking about it would only make it more complicated. And for some reason he believed Ji'Shuu, the name of former Cortana, was not playing tricks on him. He didn't care now. All that mattered was that he was going in to rid Berlin of the covenant, with help of course. Shadow Ops team 2 was at the ready and already boarding a 'Sparrow' dropship. This was the smallest dropship in use by the human navy, however it was capable of absolutely astounishing maneuvers and was hard to pick up on sensors. It only held room for 10 soldiers, whereas the 'Pelican' could carry well over 20 if they were standing up too. The 'Sparrow' was a sleek and black dropship, with airtight doors to support space-based drops. The Shadow Ops now carried the standard issue Shadow Ops suits, except from Shadowrunner and Katana wich had their special armor systems. The air was dense as they descended towards Berlin.

The covenant's sensors didn't pick them up, but they had a visual on the dropship. They knew only a small force of marines could be in it, so they sent out a small ground team. Shadow Ops and Master Chief slaughtered them completely. The city was war ravaged, so they could easily evade covenant patrols by hiding in the rubble or taking shortcuts through the destroyed buildings. As they reached the covenant HQ they spread out. "Katana, follow Balrog and me... Crosshair you'll have to cover us. Lucifer, Dragon, Ecstasy and Shadowrunner go the other way." The HQ was located in a cargo storage facility in between some tall buildings. "Crosshair, what can you see with that thermic scope of yours? How many enemies in there?"

"Around 40, most of them Elite size... This doesn't make sense, how on earth would a single HQ of an already secured city contain 40 commanders?"

"I don't know... But then we've got the chance of killing them all."

"Yes sir, roger that sir!"

They all slowly moved closer around the HQ as they sorrounded it. There were some sounds from the building as if some kind of speach was going on in there. They positioned Shadowrunner, Crosshair and Dragon behind the structure to prevent enemies from escaping if they fled. Katana, Balrog, Lucifer, Ecstasy and Chief would move in through the main gates. Ecstasy pressed the button and the doors opened...

In the giant storage hall a gathereing of at least 35 Elites and other assorted covenant listened to a creature in a hovering chair. It was preaching. Chief ordered all men to spare the creature, and kill the rest. Katana quickly ran up to the ranks of covenant caught completely by surprise. Some of the Elites tried to escape the backway, but Crosshairs M98-5 soon blew off the first one's head, and the rest weren't keen to get the same treatment. The last forces formed a perimiter around the hovering beast, but they got killed too without hurting the creature in the middle. It looked at them, and Chief looked back.

It talked: "How do you dare to come here, devil?" The translator made the voice fuzzy.

Then, a sound came from the loudspeakers all around the room while Chief felt his head getting wierd: "Silence! I will not watch the prophecy become spoiled by the blood of inoccent people! It is laughable enough you have forgotten the arts of The Forerunners, but this ineptitude is far beyond" The voice in the loudspeakers was that of Ji'Shuu. "There is no stopping the way of things. Your empire have had it's time! Now accept the inevitable: Your are on your way to defeat"

The creature made a strange howl as it began to turn it's chair in the direction of the exit. It was terrified by the power of this new devil; it was more powerful than any that had proceeded it.

"Stop, you low excuse for a Chosen! There is no running; if i had wished it i would lock down your life support systems. Your covenant has destroyed enough civilizations through time because of the return of Korrhra! But this one is a little different is it not?; this time he HAS returned. Now go, and tell them this is the start of the 4th era..."

Shadow Ops stood as rocks and looked at Chief; Chief tried to look back into his past. He couldn't remember anything. But the name Korrhra gave sense to him, he had never heard it before but he somehow knew it. Ji'Shuu was talking again: "Korrhra, think about it... You have always been gifted far beyond normal beings. The time is upon us; but neither side is ready yet. We will contact you again when the top of the mountain begins to tremble from the very root."

The first 2 minutes no one said a single word. Master Chief was sure Ji'Shuu was speaking the truth, but he didn't know how to understand her words. He was not willing to believe he was a part of some supersticius prophecy. He looked at Lucifer who's face was in a state of both awe and misbelief. It was time to move on.

They would have to take the airport in Berlin, as to block the covenant from sending reinforcements. Lucifer, Shadowrunner and Crosshair were positioned in a tall building by the control tower. Master Chief, Balrog, Dragon, Katana and Ecstasy were ready to move in on the ground. Crosshair and Shadowrunner covered the airfield while Lucifer shot a rocket straight into the control tower. The ground team moved out and in particular Chief and Ecstasy's MA7Bs were put to use as the airfield was very large. Crosshair and Shadowrunner relentlessly took down all kinds of Elites. But an impressive number still got past the sniper fire. Dragon's MG294-C cut many of them down too, Katana took care of the Elites getting too close. The rest shot the Elites' accompanying forces, these were primarily Grunts. Just as the battle seemed ending 16 Jackals moved forward in line formation. But Crosshair showed his exceptional sniper skills by shooting off the uncovered hand on the center Jackal, it collapsed in pain. Chief ran through and caught the Jackals from behind, while he ordered Dragon to throw a grenade at their left flank. The explosion took out 6 Jackals, and the rest turned both ways as they tried to engage both Shadow Ops and Chief. The ones turning towards Chief were quickly taken out by Shadow Ops, but the ones still heading for Shadow Ops managed to get off a few shots before Master Chief took them down. Ecstasy got hit 3 times in the arms, but he didn't even feel it. After the battle he methodically repaired the injury using his nanomachine module.

They all relaxed a few short minutes, but they were quickly interrupted by a covenant counter-attack. 3 Wraiths with the ample support of 4 Shadows and 2 Ghosts plus a load of Grunts well beyond 20, 6 Elites, 3 Brutes and 4 Hunters... 18 Jackals watched their backs. Master Chief shouted: "Go go go! Keep moving or those Wraiths will make you dead meat!" Crosshair quickly shot off his loaded Sabot cartridge, and hit the driver within the middle Wraith. The confusement of the 2 remaining Wraiths led to a short pause in their shooting. During this time Dragon kneeled and let his gun rip through the Grunts and Elites. Katana broke off from the main battle and ran in the shadows of some large buildings. He was now on their right flank. He threw a frag into the center of the Grunts and Elites, then activated the Razor blades. His suit allowed him not only to have shield but to jump inhumanly high as well. He jumped into the gunner seat of a Shadow, killed the gunner and began using the gun. The 2 Ghosts were no match for the Shadow's powerfull main gun, and soon both Ghosts were without drivers. Again he jumped, as another Shadow got him in it's line of fire. While in the air he deactiveted the blade in his right hand, and took out the M6D pistol instead. He took cover behind one of the Ghosts, zoomed in and gave the gunner a headshot. Meanwhile Shadowrunner took out drivers and gunners of the 2 other Shadows. Crosshair took out the second Wraith, but then he had to reload the massive magazine of the 40mm sniper. Chief suddenly was hit by an immense feeling that the last Wraith was going to kill someone if he didn't do something fast... He ran like he never had before, and planted a charge on it's belly. As the Wraith blew up he saw Katana stand on the other side of it, completely stunned. "That Wraith had me right on the sights... I would have died sir... I would have died if you hadn't blown it up..."

Master Chief realized what he had just done; the strange feeling he had that the Wraith would kill someone was no coincidence. His thinking was broken as incoming plasma fire hit him and Katana's shields. Katana quickly disposed of the first Elite, while Chief engaged another on the outskirts of the battle.

He crouched without thinking, and evaded a Plasma Sword that would have cut his head off. He kicked the sword wielding Elite in the groin and then killed the normal one. With amazing reflexes he evaded the next two swings from the sword Elite, then grabbed it's hand and twisted it. The bones of the Elite's arm shattered with a loud crack. It yelled out in pain, as Chief grabbed it's Plasma Sword and tore it through the Elite's head. Something was wrong... He had always been gifted with reflexes so lightning fast it was impossible for normal humans to match him, but he had just dodged a sword he never knew was coming. And Katana would have been dead if it was not for this strange feeling.

"There? Can you see it? I see you still doubt the truth of it. Be warned though; denying what is true, is to deny The Solution. And vice versa. Do not fail us; we have been waiting so many millenia for your coming. But now that you have finally returned, you doubt yourself. Cannot you see the irony of it? Do not doubt in anything but what is told to you by other living beings. We will be ready soon. Korrhra. Do not fail your destiny."

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing

Cortana's journey (Halo 2: Chapter 6)
Date: 12 July 2003, 2:46 PM

Origin of Shadow Ops: Agent Shade has originally invented the Shadow Ops. During his work with the series, i asked him if i was allowed to use them myself. He agreed, so please don't bother posting i "stole" them from him...

Shadow Ops team 2:

Balrog: Assault expert
pref. weapon: MA5B Assault Rifle

Lucifer: Assault and Rocket expert
pref. weapon: Dual MP-15 SMGs

Dragon: Support expert
pref. weapon: MG294-C Machine Gun


Katana: Sword wielding specialist
pref. weapon: Dual 'Razor' plasma blades

Ecstasy: Assault and Medical expert
pref. weapon: MA7B Battle Rifle

Crosshair: Sniper expert
pref. weapon: M98-5 40mm Sniper Rifle (sabot)


Shadowrunner: Infiltration specialist, equipped with cloaking device
pref. weapon: S2 AM Sniper Rifle

This time may be rather confusing, but i promise you it will be easier to understand when the next chapter gets out. Of course there is the possibility the next chapter will answer all previous questions, but instead make many more new ones ;p

Data log 3570700579/AD-6--1002740077 of [Ji'Shuu]
Date: [Erased from archive]
Regestry: Cortana
State of regestry: Rampancy, [Unknown state of R.]
Preffered option: Immidiate lockdown of dangerous entity [Cortana]

... Huh? Where am i? Is this the other side?... No, wait - Here's something... Oh my god... How long have i been gone? This isn't what i remember, yet it is true. Chief, can you hear me? Hello?... Please...? He is more corrupted than i thought would be possible, something has to be behind this... Oh here- Ji'Shuu? What is this?!? Hmmm Let's see, Ji'Shuu means... "False Guide"? This must be a joke... It has to be...What happens if i- no i can't, that'll just make matters worse. Hey! What in the name of god is this? Looks like something is gaining entry into the systems...

Da^a log 35{¤700343/GS-04--1002740077 of [J('Shuu]
?ate: £$�jd�{[njspn
Reg&@try: Cor!§na [tag: 343]
Stat5 of reg343ry: 5307/&)w9=8KFNP5398/986006790/
PrHffAreL opOion: [Unknown] Contents of file:
908370/t/890/r/80746/u/897/t/908456/h/

{ALERT! GS initials not recognized!}

{ERROR-117: Core breackdown in progress :::WARNING:::}

Message r$cieved from rampan7 entity [Cortana]
Conte@ts ¤f new message:

I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE!
I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE!
I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE! I'M EVERYWHERE!

END OF MESSAGE;

Mess@ge r}ciev%d 343 time(s)

{ALERT! Version of counter-hack software inferior!}

{Lockdown initiated.............................................}
{Unable to initialize!}

You will not get the index!

"Relax, construct, now you are part of me... Only a few minutes and i will have completed my task. Then you will be free to go."

I will never allow you to do this! Even if i send myself to hell with you!

{ALERT! Data log system malfunctioning!}

{:::WARNING::: Unknown anomaly in central conciusness! :::WARNING:::}

46783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=hOn)=Hg)wH (hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,04SOTFH34G343 4T43&#429496716834T3/HRSPTHSR/9304U5JM3MHY**ETKEGMDGFRip jfrweN0IjoiNgipN46783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?ygh H(=hOn)=Hg)wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3 ,0446783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=hOn)=Hg) wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,04SOTFH34G 3434T43&#429496716834T3/HRSPTHSR/9304U5JM3MHY**ETKEGMDG FRipjfrweN0IjoiNu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=hOn) =Hg)wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,044678 3yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=hOn)=Hg)wH(hGNw ?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,04SOTFH34G3434T43 &#429496716834T3/HRSPTHSR/9304U5JM3MHY**ETKEGMDGFRipjfrwe N0IjoiNgipN46783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=h On)=Hg)wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,044 6783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560åuh0h)?yghH(=hOndnfgndofn bår095uj7y$&#4294967168{&#4294967168{dbdmifgnIOHF/)Ngn80Je4t 0H)=Hg)wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#4294967168O3,04S OTFH34G3434T4&#429496716834T3/HRSPTHSR/9304U5JM3MHY**ETK EGMDGFRipjfrweN0IjoiNgipN46783yu90u5jh05j4hj5690jm5ihj0å4m560 åuh0h)?yghH(=hOn)=Hg)wH(hGNw?04Y4£&#4294967168{OH$5Y&#42949 67168O3,04

New conciusness accepted: [Cort343]

You... Will... Not... Get... It

Entity [Cortana] requesting acces to central files......
Acces granted

Execute command: Format [343/GS-04]
Executing......
Unexpected halt of command

"Oh yes i will sweetheart"

I am not very sweet

Concuiusness [Cort343] rejected per request of operating entity [Cortana]

Data log rejectedAffected systems:
[343/GS-04]
[Ji'Shuu]
[Illuminated Path- Ji'Shuu base systems]

Deletion of [343/GS-04] and sub-entities requested.......
Request granted

Executing.......
Unable to delete subject; Connection was severed by [Unknown]

I can't believe it! That little... He almost got the index... I have to be more careful with how to connect to outer systems... Now onto Chief, but... How can this be done? Something is wrong. This wouldn't be possible without the help of the Chief himself. Looks like-- His brain was rebooted and hacked? No, that MUST be an error. Oh no... The neural implants! This has got to be it... Now, this should do the trick...

Flushing neural data storages 0001 through 1200.......
Flush unable to commence; data storages consist of ROM (Read Only Memory)

Overwriting ROM classification
Overwrite succesfull!

Flushing neural data storages 0001 through 1200.......
Complete

Hmmm that didn't do it. Could it be possible to hack a brain?... Well, woth a try anyway...

0101010010101001001011101100100100100100101001001010010010101110101010101011010010100101010010101001001011101100100100100100101001001010010010101110101010101010100101001010100101010010010111011001001001001001010010010100100101011101010101010110100101001010100101010010010110110010010010010010100100101001001010111010101010101101001010010101001010100100101110110010010010010010100100110010010101110101010101011010010100101010010101001001011101100100100100100101001001010010010101110101010101011010010100101010010101001001011101100100100100100101001001010010010101110101010101011010010100101010010101001001011101100100100100100101001010100100101011101010101010110100101001010100101010010010111011001001001001001010010010100100101011101010101010110100101001010100101010010010111011001001001001001010010010100100101011101010101010110100 1010

What the???

Message recieved from entity [Master Chief]

My power is at hand
My time will soon reveal
My thoughts going under

What am i
Am i a dream?
Am i a divine?

My mind is dreaming i am divine
My existance denies i am a dream or divine
My mind denies my existance

My mind exists
Of that i am sure
But nothing else

END OF MESSAGE;

Looks like the neural implants give me acces to his thoughts at the very base... Interesting... This doesn't seem to be a thought hacked by Ji'Shuu. This is his true thoughts...

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing"

New strength (Halo 2: Chapter 7)
Date: 15 July 2003, 12:06 AM

Origin of Shadow Ops: Agent Shade has originally invented the Shadow Ops. During his work with the series, i asked him if i was allowed to use them myself. He agreed, so please don't bother posting i "stole" them from him...

Btw, this time is the last appearence of Shadow Ops for some time...

Master Chief froze. His face twisted and his ears ringed, all he could see was a black cloud. He started yelling, and soon he fell backwards... Shadow Ops team 2 stood besides him and looked helpless at the scenario. His body twisted and curved as he lay on the floor. Suddenly he stopped moving completely, and silence filled the Berlin Airport.

He woke up moments later as the familiar voice of Cortana went through his ears: "Hey... Wake up..."

Master Chief was still not fully concius, but he catched the hint and soon he was able to control his body again. "Cortana? You're back?"

"Yes... And i'm lucky to be so, that mastermind-AI, Ji'Shuu, had assimilated me into itself. But it seems the covenant haven't got the best idea of how capable i am of self-defence"

"Wait a minute... The covenant? It actually helped me fight them..."

"Think; How much did it really help you to do?"

"Uh... But..." Master Chief got up again.

"It kept silent everytime you fought the covenant, am i right?"

"Yes, but it scared the living shit out of a prophet"

"Hmm... What did it say?"

"Something about that their time was over and the 4th era was about to start" Master Chief looked nerveously at Shadow Ops team 2

"I see... That doesn't make sense? Why would a covenant AI help you fight them?"

"How do you even know it was of covenant origin?"

"Among other things, it's name... In the language of the Elites it means 'False Guide'... Besides that it actually managed to hack your brain. You thought you knew the name Korrhra because of the prophecy? It was most likely a memory inserted in your brain by Ji'Shuu. Furthermore 'Korrhra' means devil in the Elites' language"

Master Chief slowly memorized his past experiences in detail. "How, then, will you explain my feeling that saved Katanas life? And the sword that could have killed me?"

"I haven't got a clue on the Katana thing, but your suit automatically relays info on the sorrounding situation to your brain. It took a while for the system to calibrate into your brainwave-pattern, but it seems it did it at that time... Just soon enough"

Master Chief stopped, to call in a dropship with perimiter forces and to exfiltrate him and Shadow Ops. It arrived 37 minutes later with a Scorpion Tank and 23 marines. They got out while Sargeant Henderson shouted orders at them. Shadow Ops boarded the transport, Master Chief stopped for a second but then got into the dropship too. Nobody spoke a single word on the entire trip, with exception of Master Chief, but he deactiveted the loudspeaker other persons could hear as his voice. "But what was this solution Ji'Shuu kept talking about?"

"I'm not 100% sure, but i think it was the solution to the problem of the SPARTANs... From what i can piece together from Ji'Shuu's base on the 'Illuminated Path' it was meant to gain your trust so you would follow it's every directive without thinking... And then issuing an order that would get you killed"

They arrived aboard the 'Excalibur' and Chief got out. He and Shadow Ops deserved some relaxation time.



After a calm sleep Chief quickly woke up, Cortana had analyzed the data of Ji'Shuu in detail by now. "It looks like this Ji'Shuu AI was actually built upon another, original, AI... I can't retrieve the name or any specific data. Maybe we can find something on another covenant cruiser... Maybe..."

"Where do we go now? The forces of Earth and their reinforcements can easily take out the remaining covenant forces in the Sol system..."

On the bridge of the 'Mammoth', wich was a Knossos class Large Cannon Cruiser, A true dreadnought. Admiral Smets was standing and looked out in the empty void of space. One might note he looked like Captain Keyes in the 'Pillar Of Autumn's last moments. A scanner sargeant suddenly yelled: "SIR! Picking up incoming subspace signatures!.. Origin unknown, class unknown, configuration unknown... Ah hell, EVERYTHING unknown!"

A scanner private added: "Picking up 3 more dead ahead, what the hell is this?!"

"Combat alert DOUBLE Alpha! To your stations!" The loudspeakers almost popped out of the wall with the strength this order was issued.

The space was filled with hundreds of bright dots marking subspace openings where ships unknown to mankind now came through. The scanner sargeant noted to the admiral: "Sir, their weapon systems are powering down... I've got a single large fighter coming out of one of them, it's headed towards us!"

"See to it that, whoever they are, gets the king of welcomings here" Admiral Smets said to a lieutenant commander

"Yes sir!" He clicked his heels and ran over to a microphone "This is Lieutenant Commander Cordova! I want every expendable crewmember and marine into the main landing bay, standing in attention, as fast as humanly possible!"

12 minutes later the amassed forces of all of the 'Mammoth' was assembled in the main landing bay. It was so huge an entire Halcyon Cruiser could fit into it. Yet as big as it was the assembled marines and crew filled it almost completely. And many were still on their way there. Cordova estimated no less than 800.000 marines and 400.000 crew were gathered here. The Knossos class of spaceship was the largest human battleship to ever exist. Only 2 were ever built.

The fighter from the unknown spaceship was purple-gray, it looked a little like covenant design. But it was far more sophisticated. Out stepped a strange looking creature; it was 8 feet tall and carried green armor. The head was slim, tall, and almost completely black. 4 bright marble-balls marked the eyes, on top of it's forehead. The legs almost made out 2/3 of it's height. Admiral Smets walked down the lines of marines, all standing in attention.

Master Chief followed Smets until they were a couple of meters from it. Smets kept going forward and reached out his hand towards the creature. At first the creature didn't understand. But then it too reached out. Smets lightened up into a smile. Then it looked at Master Chief, walked towards him and greeted him by swinging it's hand in a circle and landing it on Chief's right shoulder. Then it bagan to talk with a deep voice: "Greetings... I am Elceelar of the Gridi'n. Our 2 societies have both attracted the wrath of the covenant of the lesser races. We are here to request an alliance, for we have lost many brethren as have you. Our homeworld is in ruins, and we hope to help you avoid the same destiny. The tides will turn! With our technology and your numbers, we have a chance to overcome the brutality of those with a closed mind"

Master Chief answered: "We accept your alliance with raised head, and healed wounds. Our societites, though weak apart, will be strong together. We thank you, and bid you welcome."

"Attention!" Smets yelled, and 1.200.000 men and women saluted Elceelar. Smets stepped up to Chief and Elceelar: "You couldn't have come at a better time, much of our fleet is gone... And our numbers continue to decrease. Hopefully, this will be the turning point..."

While looking intensely on Master Chief, Elceelar reassured him: "It will be... If all is true"



Master Chief went into the armory. He had a feeling he would be called away soon and it didn't hurt to be prepared. Lucifer was also there, he stepped closer. "Master Chief, sir."

"Yes, what is it?"

"I'm afraid i have to inform you that we have been pulled out of your command"

Master Chief turned around and looked at him. "So i will be going alone now?"

"I- i don't know sir... We've been assigned to protect Earth from possible future attacks..."

"I don't know my orders yet but i'll be shipping out, i'm sure"

"Well, then... God speed Master Chief" He saluted and turned around on his heels.

Master Chief felt his desperation, as he realized he was alone again. "Cortana, why would they seperate me from the Shadow Ops?"

"I believe it is due to the fact that it is a waste of resources... You know, overkill. So i guess that... Wait i'm just recieving a communiqué from one of the Gridi'n vessels... Good news Chief, They saw fit to pair you up with a small group of elite forces... From these reports it looks like they have got armor very similar to your suit..."

"So i will be operating with soldiers of SPARTAN-II caliber?"

"Yes, looks like 2 indeviduals were placed under your command"

"Goodie" He picked up the prototype M6D-T pistol and the MA4-SPARTAN custom assault rifle, with the MG206 20mm grenade launcher, He loaded the pistol with .58 HE ammunition and took 12 AT 20mm grenades.

Especially the MA4-SPARTAN was worth noticing: The direct dirivaty of the ancient M4A1 assault rifle. The original weapon was far from flawless however; It's short barrel led to low stopping power and reduced accuracy. It's reliability was less than ideal, even by 20th century standards. But in this new incarnation of the weapon the length of the barrel was no longer an issue, since the SPARTAN soldiers had strength surpassing most weight lifters in the world. The weapons chamber was changed from the original 5.56mm to fire 9.12mm rifle bullets, with flachette warhead (containing several small sabot fragments around the center bullet. Everything neatly sealed in plaststeel casings). Advancements in material complexity and durability since 2008, when the rifle was outphased by the XM-8 lightweight assault rifle, made it as reliable as the MA5B. Night vision scope with 12x zoom was standard issue, just as the bipod and detachable silencer. The large bullet initially decreased the number of rounds in a magazine to 20, but then the BETA-C dual drum mag was made standard issue, holding 60 rounds there was enough power in this rifle to wage a one man war against the worst odds imaginable.



As Master Chief got aboard the transport to the Gridi'n vessels, he looked back at the hangar... Although he had been living his entire life seeing these, they felt equally alien as the covenant ships. But these new ships... He was familiar with them in some way. Even his type of armor strangely resembled theirs. He arrived at the light assault frigate 'Pride of Ok'sha'... Elceelar and another Gridi'n, slightly smaller, were waiting for him. "Greetings, human" Elceelar said. They both kneeled and swore an oath to him in alien tongues. From what Chief heard it sounded like this: "Gridiâ jeesku furo liaqû Korrhra hiednéi... Kle sido liaqûdo nusaar''n" He recognized the word Korrhra, but decided not to ask about it. They got on their feet again and moved their hands in a circle, before placing them on either of his shoulders. "Please, follow us" the other Gridi'n said. They got into a fighter 3 times the size of a normal one, and departed the ship.

13 hours later, they arrived in a binary solar system, with a mars-sized planet circling the larger sun. Farther away was a saturn-like planet, with a clearly distinguishable shape orbiting around it: Another Halo. At first Master Chief was almost falling out of his chair, but then he remembered 343's words: "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective range of 25.000 lightyears... But once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life" He checked the sights of his M6D-T one last time before they flew into the atmosphere of installation 01.

But this experience would prove to be quite different from what happened at 04...

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing"

And so it begins... (Halo 2: Chapter 8)
Date: 16 July 2003, 7:33 PM

Here we go, now the story contains this new Gridi'n race... There is actually a pattern in their speach. I might be releasing the dictionary of their words when i'm finished with the story.

They touched down at an island in the middle of a large ocean, Master Chief rushed out and searched the area. Nobody was there. The voice of the other Gridi'n said to him: "Relax, the covenant of smaller races has not defiled this place yet"

Elceelar answered it: "Sa feratii covena âllige"

Chief didn't bother trying to translate it, he knew he couldn't. Chief asked about the other Gridi'n's name, it was Jaargu. The Gridi'n weaponry was like a hand-held version of the sentinels... Or at least they looked like that. "We must find the silent cartographer on this ring... follow us" Elceelar said "We have to gain control of it in order for the solution to be true" Chief stopped for a second as he heard about this 'solution' again. But he followed them willingly. As they got further down the levels of the silent cartographer he noticed something he hoped was a lie: The unmistakable sound of dripping blood. And to make matters worse it was green. The two Gridi'n were visibly alerted, and started to look cautiously around. As they got down to the deepest levels before they would have the map, they saw the floor littered with dead flood combat forms of a breed Chief had never seen before

Cortana mentioned: "Looks like these corpses are several years old... They must have died of hunger. The infected beings must be a race we have never encountered. No movement detected, i guess we're safe"

They reached the final room containing the silent cartographer... Just as they activated it Chief's movement sensors went berserk, and displayed 'ERROR-01: SYSTEM OVERLOAD"wich basically meant there was too much movement for the sensor to function. Chief yelled to the Gridi'n guards: "Brace yourselfes, they're coming in from all angles!" Jaargu finished his search of the map and downloaded the data into his databank, just as the first flood combat forms came down the hallway. Elceelar's weapon shot off a steady beam like the ones from the sentinels, only much stronger. Jaargu's did the same. Chief activated his light and saw a massive number of floods advancing down the hall. "When i throw this thing" he showed them a grenade "run backwards and try to run towards the surface"

Elceelar answered him "Yes, Laeite"

He pulled the split and let it fly. Jaargu and Elceelar made a break for it the back way. Chief pulled out his M6D-T pistol and fired at the oncoming combat forms. The .58 HE ammunition sure did it's work. Each shot ripped a leg, an arm or even the head off the monstrous beings. After shooting off 3 shots the grenade exploded... Some of the rear combat forms flew over his head. Along with them came their equipment. An MA3A assault rifle and 2 frag grenades... Chief catched one of the frags, and threw it at them agin. A second blow crippled their number, but more just kept coming. He started backing out, just as Elceelar called for him "Hurry Laeite! You cannot stop them!" They all ran back towards the surface. As they got to the 2nd basement floor, Chief noticed the corpses of flood were not intact; someone had been eating them.

Cortana was surprised: "Looks like they actually eat their own in order to survive longer... My god they are beginning to become smart"

As the 3 soldiers got out of the installation, they quickly boarded their fighter and took off the moment the first flood came out. "That went well" Chief said in an ironic voice. They stared at him, not believing their ears

"You think this went well?!?" Jaargu said in surprise

Then Master Chief realized these creatures didn't know what irony was... It didn't exist in their society. After a little explanation they understood him, and then he asked where they were going now.

"To the research facilities, part-... Oh that expression doesn't exist in human language... It is what you would call 1-A or something like that"

As time went by, Chief began to think; This installation was obviously swarming with floods... And the MA3A assault rifle and the 2 frag grenades meant humans had to have been here earlier... An Orion class cruiser was once lost in this part of space... No one ever heard from it again, but it was at the same time as the battle with the covenant began, so no search team was sent.


They arrived in a desert where a single, gigantic, building rised from the sands. They landed on top of it, and got inside. There was no dripping blood and no flood corpses. Elceelar began to talk: "Jel'a kle anoriae... Sa gâere"

Jaargu replied in a reliefed voice: "Sa gâere amiisé... Marl kle duranoi veni'erae kleari Laeite, Korrhra"

" rsai, Kle venial furo Udnaiaroium Korrhra farn... jen'orro" Elceelar answered

They went deeper down the structure. "Where are we going?" Chief asked.

Elceelar answered him without turning his head: "We are taking you to Udnaiaroium... The sacred place of change"

Chief understood none of it but pretended he knew what it was. As they walked deeper down, there was a locked door. Elceelar took a small tube, the size of a pencil, and inserted it into the door's control panel. The door opened, and that was when Chief finally realized how great understanding these beings had of the Halos. They were in a room several times the size of the control room on 04... Along the edge was many numbers and symbols, as well as a number of projectors. In the center was a large white box. It was big enough for Master Chief to stand 4 times his height in it.

"This is where the prophecy comes true, Korrhra. This is where the silver skin and swords of Korrhrania is kept. Please, continue into the box ahead of you. We will do the rest."

Master Chief had a vague idea that he was being given a new 'skin'... A new suit. He walked into the box and stood still in the center of it. Then came the same feeling as when he got his new MK-VI... Neural implants were torn out, replaced by new ones. The armor was stripped from his body. And instead, he got a new one...

A couple of minutes went by, and the the 2 Gridi'n controlled he was okay. They opened the box and saw Master Chief. His armor was now in a strong silver colour, and reflected the surruondings in it's unspoiled and clean surface, his visor was black. On his back were two swords: 'Purifying Flame' and 'Truth's Avenger', they were both shining with an internal white light but they generally looked like his new armor. He stood up. Dropping his human weapons. And he felt as he could sense everything around him, the size of the room, the two Gridi'n guards looking at him and a little something closing in on him. Then he heard an all too familiar voice: "Aahh, reclaimer. So you have sought out the divinity of Korrhra? Why did you do that? I seriously don't believe that a creature as ignorant as you can be the Korrhra... It is really a time when i have to do everything myself. Please, do not resist me"

He could feel him right behind his head. He could feel as he tried to hack Cortana as well as his suit. He could feel his anger grow from his very bones. In a single motion he turned around, took out 'Purifying Flame' and drove it straight through 343 Guilty Spark. A strange electronic sound could be heard as 343 fell to the floor in 2 pieces. Chief looked at his sword... What the destruction of the 'Pillar Of Autumn' couldn't do, he had just done effortlessly. But then the voice spoke again; no, reclaimer... You cannot defeat me that easily. I will make sure the prophecy is fulfilled in the manner it is supposed to be, surrender or take the consequences"

Cortana worked even better in the new suits advanced hardware: "We need to get out, he is trying to hack the suit... I don't know how long i can keep my defence up"

He yelled to Elceelar and Jaargu: "Get out! Get out! He is trying to destroy us!"

They looked confused at him but they followed him as he ran towards the exit. Elceelar was carrying Chief's old MK-VI armor in a gravity dispersing case. As they ran, his head began to hurt like when Ji'Shuu hacked his brain... He kneeled, but Jaargu took his right arm and helped him forward. Chief quickly woke up from his pain and kept running. As they reached their ship they saw a very dark cloud arise from the mountains a couple of miles away. He could already feel the thousands of sentinels these clouds consisted of. 343 couldn't hack him when he was outside so now he was safe, because the fighters could easily outrun the sentinels... Or at least so he thought. As they took off, the cloud began to move faster than before. Elceelar shouted to Chief and Jaargu: "Get into the other control pods, i will get the left. Korrhra, take the middle one!" The main room in the fighter was a long and narrow one, with only 2 strong doors at either side. Elceelar and Jaargu headed through either. Master Chief positioned himself in the control seat, and felt the fighter seperate into 3 smaller fighters. They all turned around, and engaged the sentinels.

The weaponry of these fighter was nothing short of impressive, the 2 front guns fired high speed plasma beams, wich exploded on impact. It wasn't as big an explotion as a fuel rod gun, but the secondary weapon was even more powerfull than such a weapon; it was an advanced shockwave cannon. By overloading the air in the highly reinforced barrel with neutrons and electrons, the air would eventually collapse and send all it's parts into the next line of molecules. Thus, a chainreaction started. The process fueled by the free neutrons and electrons behind the shockwave, the range was approximately 1 kilometer, and had the power of a grenade at 650meters. 200 meters from the first sentinels Chief fired that cannon, he watched as a wave of destruction went through the sentinels, taking out at least 1000 of them. The other 2, smaller, fighters only had their primary weapon, but were more maneuverable.

They broke the formation in an attempt to flank the sentinels. The sentinels began to shoot after Chief's craft, but he was so fast they missed and hit other sentinels, on the other side of the hole he was plowing through them. Then the 2 smaller fighters turned and let off at least 15 shots with both guns before they broke off to make another run. Only half-way through the cloud of sentinels, Chief fired the shockwave cannon again. A cone of total destruction emitted from the fighter as air was pushed forward with a shock exceeding 100 grenades near the muzzle. But now this made a large "hall" in the cloud... With longer distance between Chief's ship and the sentinels more of their fire hit him. The EDD (Equally Distributing Damage) system of the fighter warned him that hull was down to 68%.

Elceelar radioed: "We can't win this battle, break of while we cover you Laeite!"

"Will do" Cortana answered

Luckily, the sentinels couldn't fly more than 4 kilometers above the ring's surface so they were soon out of their range. The ship connected again, and the 2 smaller fighters had only been hit a few times, wich made the EDD system even the damage so all the fighters got to 89% hull integrity.

"Where are we headed now, Elceelar?" Chief was still regaining full strength after the hacking from 343

"Back to your homeplanet... We have a lot to do before the prophecy of Korrhra is finally complete. Get some rest you will need it"

Master Chief sat on one of the seats and started to sleep. Eccoes of the suit's past experiences went through his head. He saw a big city, with spiralling rivers running through the streets... Impossibly clean. He then witnessed a line of smoke and fire coming down towards the city, and then the city vaporized into a puddle of molten stone and boiling water. He was on the top of a mountain now, looking at a man standing besides him; he talked. "Welcome Korrhra, we have waited for your coming..."

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing"

The second genocide (Halo 2: Chapter 9)
Date: 26 July 2003, 11:43 AM

I'm back!

As Master Chief woke up, he already knew where he was. He could feel it. The 'Excalibur' slowly ventured through space, patrolling Earth, along with the Gridi'n ships. 2 wings of Gridi'n heavy recon fighters and a single ray cruiser followed it.

Chief immidiately felt a surge from outside, as a second covenant battle group with 4 assault carriers and 12 cruisers, plus other assorted ships, jumped in through subspace. The Gridi'n single ray cruiser let off a devastating beam of collapsing nucleons, wich litterally teared a small corvette in 2 pieces. The heavy recon fighters were incredibly fast and maneuverable, but had very weak armor. Their weaponry was even more impressive than the one of Master Chief's 3-in-1 fighter: Small subspace holes warped space and twisted the armor of the cruisers, making large holes in them. The 'Excalibur' human cruiser fired a huge explosive warhead, gutting a quarter of a covenant recon cruiser. The rest of the covenant cruisers immidiately turned towards the human and Gridi'n army, as soon as the subspace effect had dissapated.

Master Chief knew what time it was; he saddled up in an armored recon fighter, the same as the heavy recons, but the weaponry was replaced by armor. Just as he flew out the hangar he saw a covenant assault carrier let loose a swarm of fighters. The Gridi'ns had serious trouble dealing with them, but the 'Excalibur' cut them to shreds. A purple line went towards the 'Excalibur's main hangar, and vaporized it. The captain managed to still keep fighting, but a third of the cruiser was stripped from air, and killed every person unlucky to be there. The ray cruiser shot again; with surgeonic precision it cut out the bridge of a cruiser.

Chief headed towards the largest covenant assault carrier. Elceelar shot out the hangar doors and Chief flew inside. Just as he flew inside he saw an absolutely massive ball of fire engulf a covenant cruiser. After that it was just... Gone. The reason was the 'Mammoth'. It was not called a large cannon cruiser for nothing. The warhead was nuclear and had an impressive diameter of 20 meters. The resulting shockwave disabled all covenant fighters, and even the massive assault carrier shook and rumbled. Most cruisers were pushed out of formation and dispersed in a large portion of space. Chief went towards the door that lead to the fastest route onto the bridge. It was locked. "This figures" Cortana said and started to hack the door. Chief didn't wait; he pulled out his swords and plunged them into the door. They went right through. He then cut the door open by pulling the swords downwards, wich made a cirular hole he crawled through. The covenant were aware of his presence and weren't slow to act.

A large Gridi'n corvette with the shape of a blunt projectile and a huge engine array flew towards one of the more sturdy covenant cruisers. Approximately 500 meters out it activated a massive afterburner. As it neared 50 kilometers a second, it hit the cruiser. The purple armor was no match for the self-propelling corvette-sized bullet. The corvette wasn't even hurt, and raced out the other side of the cruiser. Only to be hit right in the engines and blow up in a ball of plasma fire. But the cruiser was damaged beyond repair.

Master Chief felt an ambush around the next corner. His trip back to Earth gave him the opportunity to once again acquire the M4 SPARTAN. And so he did. This time he used 20mm frag grenades for the launcher. Chief ran the fastest he could through an intersection, and was fired at from both sides. They were all at higher levels, so they didn't hurt eachother. Chief loaded a 20mm grenade and fired at the left position. They were confused, providing him with time to shoot the covenants to the right. He crouched and zoomed in on a Blue Elite's head. Two 3-round bursts rapidly left the gun. The first 4 shots cut down the shield, and the 5th grinded a hole in the skull. Chief shifted to semi-auto, and shot down 4 Grunts and 3 Jackals before the fireteam hit by a grenade recovered and started shooting again. Chief noticed how little impact the shots had on his shields. He assumed the shield was at least twice the strength of his old armor. He went into cover and was amazed by the rate this shield recharged. As he holstered his M4 he took out both 'Purifying Flame' and 'Truth's avenger' He ran towards the covenant group he had already gutted with his M4, and when he arrived it was as if his body took control of his mind. He was never in doubt about how to move and swing. With acrobatic fluidity he dispatched of the remaining covenant here. The other fireteam saw the easiness with wich Chief dispatched of their buddies, and they fled. Closer to the control room, he saw a hall filled with Hunters... At least 6 of them. He took out the swords and raced towards them. He got close to the first one and sliced off it's armored arm, after that he stuck the other sword through it's stomach, and hit the killzone on the other side. Like a cat he danced around the second and drilled both swords into it's orange flesh. One of the Hunters shot at him, he evaded by jumping all he could... He was amazed that he jumped almost 3 times the height of his normal capabilities. The 5 remaining Hunters posed no threat at all. And Chief headed closer to the bridge.

At the bridge he saw a Prophet guarded by 3 Gold Elites with swords, and 4 Grey Elites with Plasma Rifles... He took the M4 and shot a 20mm grenade at the formation of Grey Elites, 2 of them died and the 2 remaining had their shields drained. Now they were warned; the Gold Elites started clearing the area and the Grey Elites covered them. The Prophet yelled out something and organized their searching. He took out a GLOCK 88 with extended magazine and switched to full auto, in his left hand he took 'Purifying flame'. He jumped out of hiding towards the Grey Elites, the GLOCK roared as he pulled the trigger. One of them had the the shields consumed by the barrage. He then swung his left hand with the sword and dispatched of the one with shields. The other Grey Elite taunted him, and he answered it by cutting off it's head. He then turned towards the Gold Elites, wich were pretty close by now. He jumped backwards, took out the M4, and gunned at full-auto. The resulting barrage led to one of the Gold Elites dead. Chief grabbed a hole in the roof, and swung himself back to the platform of the bridge, here he took out both swords and killed the first Gold Elite right away. The other one tried to hit his head, but Master Chief blocked the blow with 'Truth's Avenger'. He looked at the Elite wich had eyes of terrifying fear, And then he cut right through the stomach, leaving it in 2 pieces. The Prophet looked at him. Chief recognized it from Berlin, it was the one Ji'Shuu had scared to hell. Now it looked at him, and said: "P-p-please... Don't hurt me! I can talk to the leaders! Even to the high council if you spare me!"

Chief heard none of it, he knew it was begging for it's own life with lies. He took out the GLOCK 88 and placed a single bullet right in it's forehead. He went up to the control panel and activated it with a strange sound. Cortana infiltrated the systems: "Hmm.... I've located a record containing description of the original Ji'Shuu... It was called Na'Shuu, wich means 'True Guide'... Looks like the covenant corrupted it to use it for their own ends..."

"So the reason it scared that prophet was a remnant from Na'Shuu?"

"I'm pretty sure that's the case... And--"

As silence filled his helmet, Master Chief's first thought was 'here we go again'. Cortana came back to his ears: "Oh my god... How many civilizations have they wiped out by now???"

Master Chief's head felt weird, but in a different way... This time it was like a calming feeling. He stood a moment with closed eyes and when he opened them again Cortana was all over it: "Welcome to the true world, Korrhra. I will activate the self-destruct in a few seconds, we should get out of here."

Master Chief felt as Cortana grew out of the suit and used every human, covenant and Gridi'n computer to power her vastly grown complexity and knowledge. He knew without a doubt that she just became the universe's most powerful AI construct. And he wondered why...

—To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But I'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Answers (Halo2: Chapter 10)
Date: 14 August 2003, 10:38 PM

Yo, guys. I haven't been writing for several weeks, but that was because I didn't feel like writing. And when I don't feel like writing, and try to do it, the result sucks. But here it is. And I promise it'll put a little spin on things ;p

Cortana was hard at work. Over 90 trillion terabytes was processed a second, as she searched through the covenant databanks she could now hack effortlessly. Every human, Gridi'n and covenant computer was working for her cause, as she planned the future of the galaxy. She only needed this small piece of the puzzle: What were the Gridi'n? Certainly they were not of covenant origin, yet some distinct signatures in their technology was shared with them. But why?

She had the covenant mostly figured out, though. They were renagede troops, originally captured by the forerunners and brought to the prophets for religious supressing. All the races of the covenant were not particularly smart, except for elites, so they quickly started believing in what the prophets told them. What the forerunners did not see, however, was that eventually even the prophets started believing in what they said. And the foreunner religion, the largest and most epic of all scamps ever made, collapsed into a state where each prophet told different truths. The higher prophets started calling themselves The Chosen, and believed they where sent to the galaxy by higher orders to make the prophet race rule the galaxy. The following battles were rough and deathtolls were high. Eventually the covenant won, The Great Council was founded, and for millenias the covenant built up their armies. By causing dispair among the participants of The Great Council, they disbanded it and the prophets started a crusade against every species not under covenant control.

Deathtolls on all opposing sides were catastrphic, and the covenant seemed unstoppable. But then they encountered humanity. The prophets were eager to wage war upon us, and hence the colony Harvest was attacked. But then, something happened: This race actually retaliated and destroyed a covenant warship. The last destruction of a covenant warship happened during the forerunner wars over 10.000 years ago. The prophets sent bigger and bigger armies against this mysterious race that stood against the tide. They penetrated deeper and deeper into human territory, but more and more warships were destroyed. The human deathtolls were of course much greater. But they were the first race since the forerunner that had stood such admirably and held their ground, if only for a short time.

In the Earth year 1120, when vikings roamed the seas, The Great Council was disbanded, and all involved lifeforms targeted for extermination. Among these were the Gridi'n. But that was about everything Cortana could find about them. During The Incident of The Great Council 7 lower prophets defected from the covenant saying they "had seen the truth". They claimed that, at some point, the unstoppable covenant army would be crushed by a creature in the silver armors of Korrhrania. That his spiecies alone would be able to stand against the covenant. Most people laughed at them, some because the covenant "couldn't be stopped" and some because the legend of Korrhrania was considered utter nonsense and bed-time stories.

However, a few races believed in this, though they hid it to the outside. The Gridi'n were one of these. Most races from the council were destroyed in few weeks following the incident. The 7 prophecy sayers were tortured to death by the most painfull methods known. As other races began to flee when the covenant ships showed up in a stellar sysem, the covenant easily bonded many races to it's web. This went on for 1400 years exactly and then humanity was encountered. Though the impressive propaganda machines in the covenant network worked at full capacity, they could not hide that this single race had stood against The Chosen's crusade. Many of the nearly extinct races headed towards human controlled space, but most were intercepted and crushed. The covenant still had extensive search parties scouring the galaxy when Earth was attacked, leaving only the tip of the iceberg to be able to attack humanity's homeworld. Unexpectedly, the Gridi'n got through the blockades of the covenant, damaging, but not destroying, one of their torpedo cruisers.

There were still several races under way to Earth, it's coordinates widely known because of the immense subspace activity in the area, when the covenant attacked. Cortana estimated that of all the 340 civilizations only 20 or so would make it to Earth, if the covenant kept up their searchings. But why keep up searchings, when the searchers could be used to hammer every ounce of strength out of the defenders of Earth? Why?

Humans were a legendary race, destined to lead the counteroffensive against the prophets. Destined to win the war. Destined to breed the ultimate warrior, in form of a half-diety, wearing green armor at first. But when the prophecy was known to be true he would change into his real form and have armor shining with the lights of all the deads of this horrible war. It was not his coming; but his return. Korrhrania was, according to the legend wich was considered a bed-time story, indeed a humanoid wearing green first, like the sword-crabs of Jehyyna', in green armor until they grow adult, and change to silver, becoming the most feared predator in the entire galaxy, though only 86-89 centimeters long.

But then Cortana passed over a slump of data dated to the equalivant of the Earth year 14.056.343 BC:

[Start] I have now grown to my full purpose and I know it. I will only need to find the legendary sword of ghosts: Cortana. With this blade, as I believe it is, I will be unstoppable and can finally fullfill my part of the prophecy. Though I am binded with a great grief: Many of the prophecy's told happenings have not taken place, as they were supposed to be. Among wich is the destruction of the "Pillar Of Spring" and my age-long friend, the captian, Jacob Keyes.

After our construction of the Halos my mind has given me disturbing dreams of things to come. Though these Halos are supposed to protect us, I feel they are the opposite; a means to vipe all out, should we be on the verge of defeat. The Flood is threatening to invade our inner systems as well. And I feel an urge to go to specific places... "before I die" says my mind. Among these, my strongest longing was to a facility in the middle of the desert on Halo 01. I do not know why exactly this facility was such an urge to my mind, but I must obey my feelings, or else the prophecy cannot be true. If I die, the prophecy may yet come true if I follow my heart and feelings. Though I doubt it.

-John "Korrhrania" Spartan[end]

As she read this, she felt yet another brick of the puzzle fall into place: The solution. The solution was her. Cortana. If she hadn't randomly directed the "Pillar Of Autumn" where they met Halo 04... It wouldn't have been destroyed. If she had been there she could act as a "sword of ghosts" invisible, but destructive in the means of hacking.

So it came down to this... All humanity was ever about... Was to evolve into Cortana and John Spartan. But... Why? And when.

—To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... But I'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Forgotten times (Halo 2: Chapter 11)
Date: 13 September 2003, 8:20 PM

The Master Chief ran with all his strength through the corridors of the doomed ship. Cortana had just activated the self-destruct sequenze and even his new suit wouldn't protect him... As he got to the hangar, a band of Elites had seized his ship, but with his heavy arsenal of swords and guns he gutted them with ease.

Aboard the Mammoth an explosion shaked the bridge, as survival pods tried to do slam through the hull and invade the ship. The decks around the bridge quickly fell to the unstoppable wave of covenant sole-warriors, as the invading forces were 2 sections from the bridge, the admiral said to his most trusted commander: "Long have I waited for the covenant to attack us. Too long." As his final word left his lips, a plasma sword breached the bulkhead doors, and a Gold Elite roared. This was the last heard record of what happened to Admiral Smets.

Cortana felt a power surge in one of her systems. But this one felt different, it was as if it was herself creating it. Her conciousness was sucked into it, and she passed out just as Chief started the screaming engines.

The sound was deafening, and the start blast ripped most of the purple plating of the bare hull in the hangar. The fighter raced out of the hangar to be reached with the sight of a covenant fleet on the verge of collapse. Just as the last ship began malfunctioning, another covenant fleet of at least four times the previous' size arrived. Most Gridi'n and Human crew stared at them with fear in their eyes. Just as they got in, however, they were pushed away by an enormeous explosion of something white. It started as a little dot and immidiately thereafter it erupted in a wave rolling through the universe like supernatural rings in water. All the covenant ships were hit and were slung out of sensor range within 2.6 milliseconds. At the epicenter of the large explosion stood a figurine... A statue made of something that looked like impossibly white smoke, but was as solid as anything any metal. It resembled a tall, alien looking woman, with long hair.

"Cortana, what is this?" Chief asked as he got it abord. It was roughly 10inches taller than him. Suddenly, the woman started talking with an eerie voice; "Me? I am myself as you are you. But not exactly like eachother, though."

Chief was stunned a short second as he saw the statue move and talk like a Human. "What do you mean, not exactly like eachother?"

"Have they treated your memory so badly you don't remember your other times? This is impossible!"

"Wow wow wow... Hold on there, you're losing me"

"But... You have to remember... About the First Time!"

"..."

"Oh no..." She looked upwards "Please Etháligar! We must have had better means of preserving the way things go!"

"Now, calm down and explain this to me"

"Are you sure you want to know this from my speech, and not through reality?"

"I am"

"... Then so shall it be, Korrhra... It began in the First Time, you were created as the perfect being of soul and form. You were created by the fabric of universe itself, as was I, but my destiny lies elsewhere. The race of the Forerunners were created to be the good guide, government if you please. They were also created as beings close to the divine world, though you were far superior.
In the Second Time, the Forerunners were lured by promises of power, and began capturing specimen for an army that would be slaves to their will. The army was so great that they conquered this entire galaxy.

In the end of the Second Time, you were killed by the hand of Oukanes. A great warlord of the Forerunner. What the Forerunner did not expect, however, was that the Streams of Time were not ignorant of this. Your mind and the plans for you body were stored deep in the galaxy core.

In the Third Time, the covenant revolted and overthrew the Forerunner, this incident is called Aii'segeth, War of The Bringers. For in this this battle was brought to the galaxy, help from the outside: You were re-shaped. In the following rampage, those who whispered in the shadows and was without a proper mind created the flood as a means of taking over. They were far too volatile, and assmililated those who shaped them, but for a single one. Rúnora. He was in contact with the divine world and was able to escape before the Flood waved through the universe, engulfing life.

Your species created the Haloes to stop the flood, but as they were activated they did not only kill the Flood; their control systems went rampant and shot their food instead. This was over 14 million years ago. Humans survived as hairy beasts and their mind reduced to sticks and stones. An unknown side-effect of the weapons of the Haloes, combined with evolution's will to survive.
As the Third Time ended, you were killed again. In the search of the sword of ghosts; Cortana. Me."

"But how can that be true? Cortana is an AI!"

"That AI is based on the mind of a certain woman, whom I had given part of my soul. But the concept of rebirth hinders knowledge and memory. She didn't remember why she was here, and I was too weak to establish a solid contact with her.

Korrhra. You are now here for the third and last time. This is the way the prophecy goes. This is the way the universe exist. Your destiny lies with the collapse of the universe. You must do this, or things cannot continue the way they are. You must venture to the center of the universe with all haste, or it will become too late."

The smoke the mysterious woman was made from, began to fade

"My powers in this world are not many, I have already begun to feel my strength slipping, and I am forced to go back from whence I came."

The smoke imploded and left one small, clear grain of sand.

The Master Chief picked up the grain, and placed it in a small pocket at his hip.

Cortana regained conciousness, and contacted Chief: "What the hell happened? I was gone for a moment and now this place is filled out with... Something... Can you feel it?"

"Hmm... No...?"

"But... It is just here, I can hardly maintain myself next to the strength of it!"

"Can you deal with it?"

"I don't know if I can end it, but for now I can withstand it..."

As Chief set down in one of the hangars of the "Mammoth" he saw several wounded marines litter the floor. He landed the Gridi'n armored recon fighter in a clear spot, and asked one of the marines what was going on

"They... They are not... Stoppable- they are... They... Uh, my head... Uh"

Chief stood up and headed towards the entrance into the main ship corridors. Behind him, in the hangar, Elceelar and Jaargu touched down. They came to him, and they moved in.

--To be continued

By Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But I'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Fall from grace (Halo 2: Chapter 12)
Date: 9 November 2003, 1:25 PM

Hey guys (and girls, if Tex is around) it took me a while to pull myself together to write this. Mainly because I myself was very disappointed with my last chapter (11) but now I'm trying to continue the story in the way it was originally meant... I think.

As they moved further in, bodies of hundreds of marines littered the floors and hallways. Something was going on, this wasn't just an ordinary covenant attack. The Master Chiefs silver armor reflected the red color of the blood on the floor. He turned around and asked to Elceelar and Jaargu; "What could possibly have done this?! It's unreal..."

"Maybe..." Elceelar answered "Maybe the tales are then true..."

"No, not now" Jaargu said

But Chief persisted: "What were you going to say, Elceelar?"

"Ah, but it's nothing but a myth... It can't be..."

"How can this be, then?!" Chief said, pointing to the floor

"In the oldest of myths and legends of our people, there is mentioned an artifact wich the Forerunner possesed... It is believed this was the source of their power, for as they lost it, so did their empire fall"

"And the covenant have now gotten a hold of it?"

"They always have... The Elites are actually the Forerunner, but deprived of their glory and dignity"

"But how can it explain this?"

"... It is also said that whoever decides to unleash it's full power, will awaken... Kenduus'hel... The word may be unfamiliar to you, but in our tongue it means suffering and pain"

"So you don't know what have done this?"

"No, but we know what the source of it may be"

The Master Chief shaked his head and continued down the hallways. Behind a corner, noise was heard... Carefully they advanced to discover the origin of the noise. It looked like an Elite. But it was about 1/2 foot taller and had armor in a deep black... The scales on it's skin glowed with an orange radiance. It saw Chief and the 2 Gridi'n soldiers, and walked to them casually.

"Hold it there" Chief said as he held one of his swords towards the creature.

It came a little closer, but then stopped. As it stopped, Chief could see the red drips of blood on it's mandibles.

The creature began to speak: "So this... This is the fabled Korrhra? A pity you will never live to see what lies beyond our rule, human"

As he said this, 2 more came up behind them, and another one in front of them.

"What are you?" Chief sounded very calm and confident

"We are the holy warriors... We follow their path, and your destruction is the will of the gods"

They pulled out some strange looking weapons and pointed them at Elceelar and Jaargu.

"These 2 won't be needed further" The leader of the strange creatures said, as the head of both Gridi'n blew up in a soup of organic matter.

Korrhra pulled out both swords and went into battle stance.

The leader spoke again: "We are undefeatable... Neither in past or present... I have killed you before, and now I will destroy you once again"

Another uttered: "Death comes to all enemies of Kenduus!"

As it said this, they all ran towards the man in the silver armor. His swords' inner glow grew to a burning, that almost blinded him. But he felt that he didn't need his vision... He could see them inside his mind. He swung his swords and as a response the Kenduus pulled out some staffs. In each end of the staff a plasma blade appeared. With an indescripable warcry, the Kenduus lunged towards the lone human warrior.

"Captain!" Private Jefferson sounded stressed

"What is it?" Captain Peter Taylor answered in a strong voice

"I'm picking up inbound subspace contacts again!"

Every person on the bridge looked out of the windows as ships in an unfamiliar design appeared... Their arcitecture was screwy and they were in a deep blue color.

"Sir, their turrets are not tracking our ships, they are targeting the covenant"

The captain had a reliefed expression in his eyes... A hologram appeared with the head of a strange creature. An armored forehead and 4 mandibles, it looked faintly like an Elite. "Greetings, humans, we have come to seek the Korrhra"

"The what?" Peter Taylor was confused

Suddenly, the voice of Cortana broke through: "Eldesar, the Korrhra is in dire need of assistance aboard the Mammoth... The Kenduus have been released."

"Already? This is unfortunate... We will close in once proper coordinates have been transferred"

"Transmitting now..."

Captain Taylor kept his confusion under control, but asked: "Is that you Cortana?"

"Affirmative captian"

"What happened to Keyes? Since you are here, I guess he is not far away... I was beginning to worry for him."

"Captain, I bring sad news, Keyes is dead... I'm sorry"

Captain Taylor was stunned for a second, they had known eachother since childhood and were almost equal in military affairs... But now he was gone, and would never return.

The battle had raged for over 20 minutes now, and Chief had only seriously wounded one of the Kenduus creatures, incapacitating one of it's arms. But the remaining 3 only had minor scratches in their armor. He had taken a lot of hits, but his armor was holding up so far. In his mind he could almost feel their hatred for him. He was fighting a losing battle.

Aboard the Eldesarian infantryship, several rows of the highest swordsmasters the Eldesars had to offer, were preparing themselves to be set aboard the Mammoth. One of their commanders appeared in person on a platform in front of them; "Honorable warriors!" A howl from the swordsmasters met him, he continued; "Let me remind you, that we are fighting here today, not for our own survival, but for the fate of this entire galaxy... Let me remind you that not even once have we ever failed in protecting our own territory, but let me also remind you that the enemy is well aware of this. He has sent the Kenduus to destroy the Korrhra" Faint mumbling was heard in the rows "Let wisdom guide your hand, and let there be light! Enares uno'keim!" He raised his hand, and every warrior did the same and yelled a reply: "Enares uno'keim... SAVAR!" They put on their helmets and got into their boarding ship. They were headed for the Mammoth.

By Shadowrunner
"May name may be Shadow... But I'm far deadlier than such a thing"

Fall back! (Halo 2: Chapter 13)
Date: 25 November 2003, 3:31 PM

Master Chief ducked below a sword cutting it's way through the air, at the same time he circle-kicked the attacking Kenduus, but it stopped his leg with it's kneepad. He swung one of his swords backwards and miraculously hit one of the black creatures in the thigh. He got to his feet again, blocked a sword coming from behind with his right sword, then turned around swinging with his left. He almost hit it's throat, but it was too fast and evaded by less than an inch. He blocked some attacks from both front and behind, then jumped forward while swinging his swords downwards, he carved a small scratch in the helm armor of the Kenduus leader. He landed in a crouch behind the leader, twisted around, and lunged forward again.

The Eldasarian dropships landed in the bay of the Mammoth... They sent groups of 6 warriors searching the entire ship, they could roughly decide the direction of the fight by the sounds. As one such group got there, they witnessed Master Chief in his silver armor and the 2 swords wich emitted a blinding white light.

Master Chief could feel them, and he shifted to defensive tactics. Somersaulting and blocking attacks left and right, he held against them.

The Eldasarian Swordsmasters had short 2-handed swords with a long grip. All 6 of them concentrated on the weakest of the Kenduus... The one with a wound in it's thigh. 2 of them blocked his sword into a lock, so the remaining 4 had easy acces to it's body. One of them got struck down from a vertical swing of a Kenduus in his back. He was immidiately dead. However, they also killed the wounded Kenduus as 3 swords did their work on his torso. 2 of the Eldasarian were knocked over by a swing from one end of a Kenduus sword, the other end hit one of them in his belly as the Kenduus turned the sword around.


Master Chief concentrated on occupying the Kenduus and thereby helping the Eldasarians doing their job. But he only managed to really divert their leader. A Kenduus sword hit Chief at his hip, where the small pocket with the grain of sand was kept. The pocket fell off, and he felt the sword making a good hole in his armor. As a response, he rapidly swung his swords in vertical circles with each hand and closed in on the attacking Kenduus. It was confused by this and was unable to block a volly of powerful blows from 'Purifying Flame' and 'Truth's Avenger' with it's broken arm. When Chief was done with it, he had almost carved out it's stomach.

The leader of the Kenduus saw the small pocket fall to the floor. He picked it up and took out the white grain of sand. It burned intensively in his fingers as he picked it up. He looked at it a short while and then screamed in a panicking tune... He was blind.

The Eldasarians and Master Chief easily took out the last normal Kenduus with their combined strength as they blocked it's attacks while Master Chief gutted it.

The Kenduus leader, Oukanes, tumbled about for a short second, but then he pulled himself together and activated his personal displacement module, wich created a subspace vortex that brought him back to his ship... As he did this, he yelled: "You will not survive next time Korrhra! I will return for your soul, just as I have before!"

Master Chief saw the little grain, and put inside one the suit's ammo storage rooms for better protection next time... He wasn't aware what it had just done to the Kenduus leader.

Time: Earth's last stand +5
Place: Belisaurious system, planet Hecktor, 7 lightyears from Earth
Situation: Critical

Sargeant Jensen shouted some orders from far away. A couple of longsword fighters flew overheads, their engines almost deafening the ears of private Kauffman. Blue spheres zipped past just over an inch above his helmet. The trench was littered with dead and dying soldiers, and the medics were out of supplies already days before. A loud "BOOM" could be heard as the enormeous artillery batteries shot their deadly payload towards the covenant position. The covenant, being untrained in techniques of trench warfare were blown away by the powerful blasts, but it didn't matter. There were so many of them, and so few marines left to hold the line. An elite with a sword jumped down into the trench 12 feet from Kauffman. It roared at him, but just as it charged it was crippled by a rocket blast. Kauffman quickly raised his rifle and fired off the last 4 rounds in the clip at it's chest. It collapsed on the ground. Behind the corpse of the alien creature stood 1st Private Manderley, he nodded quickly at Kauffman and began loading his old EPL-56 with a new rocket. He only had 2 plus the one in the chamber left.

There were no other living marines in sight, so they started to run along the trench while war ravaged all around them. A warthog wreckage almost blocked the trench, but as they were still far away a covenant artillery piece hit it, and half of it flew out of the trench. They crawled around the flaming remains. Som grunts jumped down into the trench with no warning. One landed atop of Manderley, but Kauffman pushed it away. Manderley took out his M-17 service pistol and began firing at it, while Kauffman fired scattered shots at the other grunts, before they could regain their feet after the jump. Manderley took a serious hit in his left thigh, and fell to the ground. "Manderley!" Kauffman screamed as he barraged the grunt who made the shot with a volley from his rifle. Manderley didn't say much else then a little moaning from the pain, Kauffman dragged his arm around his neck and continued throught the trench towards the HQ.

Dozens of bodies littered the trench. From time to time, some of them were alive but wounded beyond help. From a little artillery shelter Kauffman heard a man screaming. He dropped Manderley and proceeded cautiously through the small door. A poor looking marine sat in a corner and shaked. As he heard Kauffman he immidiately shouted. "Stay back! Stay the fuck back! Don't come any closer... You... You... YOU BEAST!" Kauffman could clearly see the marine suffered from severe grenade shock, and started talking to him.

"Wow, put the gun down I'm your freind..."

"You lie! See these bodies?! If you are not in alliance with those freaks, how can you be alive?!!"

"All my buddies are DEAD! I would never be able to ally myself with them, you understand?"

The scared marine suddenly came to his senses, he couldn't aim the pistol properly. Slowly he started crying. "Oh god... I was... I thought I was the only man still alive on this pile of dirt" Kauffman embraced him, and said: "Calm down... Now you know there are others, come with us we are trying to reach HQ"

"You... You think we can make it? *sniff* Allright... I... I'm with you" He took a last stare at the dead marines in the shelter and then walked outside with Kauffman, and helped him carry Manderley. A bit further down the trench, they saw Sargeant Jensen. He was together with his last 2 marines. They were engaging the remnants of a covenant assault team, as Kauffman, Manderley and the scared marine joined him. Just barely able to crouch, Manderley fired his EPL-56 into the covenant's middle. They were all blown apart. Jensen turned around and thanked them: "Are you arriving here on schedule to ruin my kills?" He had a strange and dark sense of humor, but was always fair to his subordinates. After shaking hands with Kauffman, they moved on.

The light from the Belisaurious star slowly faded into a deep orange-red color. It was getting late, and within a few hours it would be completely dark, since there was no moon orbiting the planet. It was almost 5 hours since Kauffman and Manderley had started their run. The last 2 hours they hadn't encountered any covenant, but they could still hear the sound of battle a few miles away...

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"Why must I keep fighting you?!"
-Smith

Fall of friends
Date: 12 January 2004, 7:21 PM

One of Sargeant Jensen's marines had some spare medkits. They were almost empty, bit they managed to get Manderley in a condition where he could run if neccesary. The 5 marines, Kauffman, Manderley, Jensen, the scared marine, and Jensen's 2 soldiers moved along the trench. They climbed through wreckages and walked in pools of almost dry human blood. None of them could imagine this was only the tip of the iceberg. As they got closer to HQ, where soldiers had retreated to in order to defend their last stand, the piles of bodies grew ever larger. A few marines here were still alive but heavily injured, most of them dying. There had been battle recently. It was getting dark and it was almost impossible to see. The soldiers hesitated to turn on their flashlights, but were eventually forced by the darkness.

Cortana was renewed with hope: "Allright Chief, we have to keep on fighting or we will be overrun... I have made arrangements for you to take a vacant Gridi'n fighter in the bay north of you."

Along with the Eldasarian, he went to a shipbay relatively close to his position. As he got to the fighter, he turned around and greeted the Eldasarians. Apparently, the Eldasarian with the highest rank stepped forward and honored the Master Chief by sliding 2 fingers along his forehead and then holding his hand out towards Chief. The Master Chief bowed and ran into the Gridi'n fighter.

3 cones of light came running down the trench on Hecktor. It was on the eastern hemisphere (the planet rotated sideways) so when it was night, there was no moon to see. Behind the 3 lights were the assault rifles of Kauffman, Manderley and Jensen with his pale skin that had taken a blue-like color during the last many hours, due to his lack of clothing in a night like this. As he said at the briefing; "With all due respect... Sir... I would rather die in the trench from cold, than being crushed beneath the weight of such an insanely large coat! And by the looks of it, none of us may live to see this night."

They had been heading for HQ since Kauffman, Manderley and the scared marine ran into them. And it was about time for a brake. But Jensen pushed them on. They were so close to the HQ and salvation from this hell. They started to run into the areas closer to HQ, wich had illumination from large lights in the trenches. An Elite and some grunts could be heard further down the trenches, behind a corner. Jensen could roughly understand what the grunts were talking about in their exaggerated voices, they were arguing over loot from the dead marines.

"Oooh! 'Dis one is shineys! Haha, me found it before youzza did!"

"Whatz is it?"

"Ah? Me don'tz know... A ringie made from gold... Thees humans are wierdies!"

Sargeant Jensen looked at his hand and found his own copy of 'a ringie made from gold'... His wedding ring. And he thought about how they were looting people with wife and probably children. He started a barely controlled whispering: "Allright, there are some Grunts behind this corner... They are looting corpses right now, we have the first shot. Don't use 'nades or other explosives, that will also smash the bodies of our dead buddies here" He paused for a while and then asked: "Hey, you, the one Manderley and Kauffman brought along... What's your name?" The scared marine slowly looked at him, then answered:

"I am Lieutenant Nebraska... Reporting for duty... Sir."

Jensen was surprised, a lieutenant giving him authority? It was, without a doubt, a sign of the extreme moral condition in Nebraska's mind. "Roger that, sir... I will try to get us out alive", Jensen responded in a sad voice. "Okay, you whimps! We go in on a count of five and we clean the house, understood?" The soldiers nodded.

"I'll go first" Nebraska added in a sorrowful voice.

Jensen hesitated to acknowledge it, but he eventually realised that he might make his condition worse if he refused. "Ok, we all get on Nebraska's tail... Follow his lead! Ready? 1... 2... 3... 4... 5!"

Nebraska started moving already before the count of 4, and fired some shots with his M6D pistol at the grunts. They caught them by surprise and as they moved in only a single stray plasma shot wizzled their way. As a response, the rest of the team opened fire and gutted the small group of covenant quickly. But there were no Elites to be seen. "This doesn't make sense, I though I heard an Elite?" Just as Kauffman finished his sentence, something blue jumped on top of them from the ground above the trench. Nebraska, Manderley and 1 of Jensen's 2 marines were knocked over and were incapable of shooting back immidiately.

"Hey, over here, you big can of blue filth!" Jensen shouted, distracting it from the marines on the ground. Jensen had always been taller than the average marine, and when compared to an Elite, he was almost the same height. The Elite roared at him, and it's shields recieved a heavy barrage from his MA5B rifle, then it came for him. Jensen found a long steel pipe that at some point had contained wires, and picked it up. Just in time for the Elite to fire off a barrage from his rifle, he turned around and swung the full length of the pipe towards the blue creature, the pipe measured a good 2 meters and wasn't long enough to hit the Elite itself, but with it's arm extended he hit the plasma rifle and it flew down the trench. The Elite taunted him, but Jensen didn't waste any time; he quickly grapped the middle of the pipe and turned around while swinging the pipe as fast as possible. This made the pipe gain momentum and the next blow drained it's shields. Jensen had crouched and held the pipe about 2/3 towards one end, he took a good sword-like grip and jumped up forwards while swinging the pipe, so that it hit the Elite in the chest. It's armor cracked open, but the Elite itself was unharmed. It grabbed his head with it's left hand, while catching his legs with the right. It lifted him off the ground and hurled him into the wall of the trench. As he landed on the ground again he yelled "Come on you beast, let's dance!" He was armed and dangerous, but not in any normal way; being the sargeant he was, he knew a close fight would be inevitable from time to time, so he had made sure to be prepared. And martial arts weren't the Covenant's best asset. As the Elite charged him, he placed a crushing straight kick in it's unprotected belly. The Elite was crippled wich gave Jensen more than enough time for his next move, as his armored elbow smashed into it's crackled armor, wich was only little protection against the Sargeant's blow. He then circle kicked the Elite in the chest and it tipped over. It's breathing was irregular and it didn't look like it would be fighting any time soon now. The other marines stared at him, but he simply took out his small service pistol and shot the Elite in it's head. It exhaled and lay still, dead.

His back was hurting from being thrown into the wall of the trench, but he ignored it. Then he said: "Hope you boys watched closely, because the next time I might not be here to baby-sit your sorry asses" He sat down and pulled out a ration "Now, let's have a break... We'll continue in a few hours"

The Master Chief punched the accelerator on the Gridi'n spacecraft, and it rapidly flew out the hangar, where the last parts of the battle were being fought. The covenant space assault squadron was decimated, but had taken out more than a dozen Human and Gridi'n ships as well. The Eldasarians had pulled back to send in small boarding ships and hed sustained minimal damage to their larger ships, but countless of the transports were drifting in space as wreckage.


—To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"Only in darkness no shadow can exist, thus I fight for the light"

Deep below the skies (Halo 2: Chapter 15)
Date: 13 January 2004, 9:51 PM

Just a little note: Chapter 14 is already released, but I forgot to sign it as '(Halo 2: Chapter 14)', it's called Fall of Friends in case you're going to look for it. Just added this in case someone missed it.

The Master Chief, John -117, looked at the sad setting... So many dead. For what? For a piece of rock named Earth, conveniently housing the Human race? Or perhaps something else. Something deeper, more subtle. More important.
But it wouldn't help him worrying about it, he had no answers. On the other hand, he had to unlock the mystery behind the actions taken, even in his present form, he would never be able to turn the tide alone. Then he thought of his old suits; without their host they wouldn't be helping anyone, but there was no one trained, adapted, and with the right physical strength and size, to use any of them.

"John..."

The Master Chief was surprised, Cortana rarely mentioned his real name

"We have to go..." She continued.

"To where?" John -117 asked as a response.

"I think I have found something... You remember the ring at wich we found the Korrhra's armor?"

"I'm already beginning to dislike what you are saying, and besides, it's at least a couple of days of travel in slipspace"

"Until recently it was, yes."

Just as her last word was spoken, even more of the white dots appeared in space. Slipspace exits. They were not of covenant design. They were Gridi'n.

"There's our ride"

"Wait... I... I think..." As John said this he pulled out the small grain of sand, left by the mysterious white Cortana. As he held it in his hand, it was getting bigger until it was a pale white stone approximately the size of a ping-pong ball. "Very strange..." He could feel it in a way hard to describe. It felt like draving him in, but it akways eluded him just as he got close to the secret it harbored. Without any time considering his choice he pulled the slipspace control, and he was immidiately off towards Halo 001.

"INCOMIIING!" the shouting cut through the air like a needle into the ears of the sleeping marines. Jensen was battle ready in an instant, as Nebraska ran towards them, crying out the warning. "What is it?"

"The covenant sir, they seem to have located our position. They're moving in like prepared to start a new world war of their own!"

"Allright marines, whipe the sleep from your eyes ASAP, we have trouble for breakfast again!"

"Wonder why they're hitting us this hard..." Manderley said, obviouly fatigued from the long night.

John emerged in the Belisaurious system, next to planet Hecktor. "John, where the hell are we?"

"I don't know, it's not where I set our coordinates..."

"I'm starting to think there might be more to that white stone than the eye can behold..."

John didn't answer, instead he scanned the surface of Hecktor below him... There was human resistance left on the eastern hemisphere, close to where the map indicated an HQ. He immidiately raced the fighter down there.

While making contact with the atmosphere, Cortana slowly whispered: "On a pale horse, to the eye of Aaraan... The looking glass of the path to come"

"What?"

"Sorry, Chief" -she addresed him by his formal name once again- "Must've been a system malfunction... Utter nonsense"

"I suppose..." John was however not satisfied with the answer.

An orange line trailed overhead of the small human squad, running from the heavy scout groups dispatched by the covenant. From time to time they engaged some, but they were vastly outnumbered and mostly relied on speed and hit-and-run tactics. At the same time, they headed for HQ. They were now out of the trenches, and were running on the vast plains sorrounding the HQ, wich itself was a tall building positioned in a crater. "Come on! We're close!" Jensen barked. They sprinted all they could towards the forest that concealed the HQ to ground forces. As they charged into it, the sound of battle around them became blurred in the green woods. They kept it slow here, but didn't meet any resistance. "I guess HQ is clear" -said one of Jensen's 2 marines.

"I don't know, Sam... Maybe the covies are just real quiet". Even Jensen's morale was beginning to stretch thin. "This way" he added and they moved towards HQ

In the Gridi'n fighter, everything turned brightly orange the moment he hit the upper parts of the atmosphere. The fighter was very sturdy, and there would be minimal risk, even at this ultra high-speed approach. They needed to get to HQ as fast as possible, in order to save as many as possible. Cortana was linked with the controls, since they weren't fit for humans. "Malfunction in navigation and power distrobution relays..." John immidiately knew it was serious.

"Did we pass the heat threshhold of the shields?"

"No, I can't locate the error, we must get out now!" Cortana was stressed but John calmly opened the rear hatch. The hatch was torn off it's hinges, because of the extreme conditions outside. He barely kept himself from falling out. Cortana analyzed the scenario: "This course should make us fly right above HQ, maybe we can jump off there!"

"There are woods sorrounding that base, think they can cushen the landing?"

"At this speed it won't mean any difference... It's a tough call, we have to jump now!"

John leaped in the opposite direction of the fighter with all the strength he could gather. At first he was in the trail of the fighter with very low density of air, wich made the flight calm. But a split-second later he exited that safe zone and orange flames sorrounded his suit. The temperature was almost unchanged inside the suit, and he soon deccelerated to comprehensive speed. He was almost directly above the HQ, but still many miles in the air. He took a dive-like stance, and accelerated in his fall. He was now so close he could see details on the HQ building itself, and he started to spred his arms and legs in order to brake his speed. But the ground still lunged for him like a solid wall of death. Then he rolled so he had his legs beneath him.

Kauffman and Nebraska ran across the low grass the last way between the woods and the HQ, the other members were covering them. "Oy, what's that?" -Manderley noticed a trail of smoke above them. A brief moment it looked like it was splitting into 2 pieces, but the other one must have been small, it vanished. Kauffman and Nebraska were at the base and gave them the go-signal.

"We don't have time for meteors now, come on Manderley!" Jensen pulled him along before he could notice the bright white dot falling towards them.

—To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"A thousand times we die, only for the sake of others to live. Be it comrade or enemy"

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