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The Lost by A Halo Fan...natic
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The Lost (prologue)
Date: 22 October 2004, 11:16 PM
I'm sorry it took me so long to write this. I've been grounded from the computer and... yeah. Anyways, Hope you enjoy!
Srg. Williams ducked under a plasma bolt as it whizzed by his head. Tanj! He couldn't afford to get hit now! The Pelican was only two hundred meters away! He dodged another shot, this time, much closer. He spun around to fire his strakkaker. A burst of glass and Teflon needles issued from the gun. The grunt he had been aiming for ducked and a nearby boulder became suddenly sandblast smooth as the hyper velocity rounds struck it.
He turned back around and suddenly felt a burning agony in his left arm. He fell to his knees and looked up. A hideous creature in golden armor stood over him holding a glowing blade, and a low laugh came from it.
The Sergeant heard voices as if from a long way away, but he didn't care. Pain and the eight-foot creature standing over him took up his entire world. The thing raised the sword again, this time lining it up with his head. He knew he was going to die. He closed his eyes, waiting for the glowing blade to end his existence. But the blow never came. Instead, there was a loud bang and the sergeant opened his eyes. The elite was bent over double with the remnants of a vapor trail going through its stomach. There was another bang and the creature suddenly stiffened and fell to the ground.
Sergeant Williams knew he should be relieved that he didn't die, but he couldn't. His vision was going black and he could feel his mind going. The pain in the remnants of his arm was increasing, and he started to fall forward. He could hear cries of "He needs a tourniquet!" and "Get a him a stim shot!" but those voices were fading.
Suddenly he was back to full awareness. He could feel a stim hypo being removed from his neck. He sat up and saw the faces of his fellow marines. Pvt. Edwards, Corporal Richard with the sniper rifle, Pvt. Thompson, Lt. Emerson... Suddenly he felt a burning up his spine and he fell on his face with green plasma crystallizing on his back, and all faded to darkness and chaos...
But chaos was not empty. Out of the dark, a fleet of ships appeared. Slowly, a blue and green planet orbiting a yellow star also came into focus. The fleet converged on the planet and...
* * *
Former marine sergeant Ryan Andrew Williams woke up sweating. He'd been having that dream for seven years now and it still scared the shit out of him. He stretched his right arm out until it cracked, and then pressed a tiny button and his motorized prosthetic arm came to life.
Williams was forty-two years old, and well past his prime. He was 7' 8" raised in belter gravity, and had hazel eyes, and brown hair that was starting to go a little gray around the edges.
Seven years earlier the Covenant attacked the colony at Fomalhaut. Williams had been a guard on one of the larger asteroid mining facilities, and when the Covenant landed, Williams had been sent planetside to try and stop them. He had been drafted into a squad of eleven other soldiers. After three months of fighting, it became clear that the Covenant were going to win. All marine forces were ordered to evacuate the system
When he was wounded, the rest of the squad had been able to get him to an autodoc soon enough to save his life; but the plasma sword had cauterized as it cut, and the limb couldn't be replaced without damaging much of his torso. The doctors had given Williams a choice: receive a prosthetic arm to replace the limb, or undergo an operation that might damage his lungs. He chose the former.
Williams yawned and stood up out of bed. He walked over to the coffee maker and put in some Folger instant mix. Amazing that that company still existed... He sighed and turned on the radio. He winced at the loud rap blasting out of the thing and changed the station. He stopped when he heard the opening part to Rhapsody in Blue.
Ryan closed his eyes and let a wave of blissful non-thought wash over him. Suddenly, instead of Gershwin's masterpiece coming over the radio, there was burst of static and white noise. He reached over to turn it off when the signal stabilized.
"- report to your duty stations now! Repeat: all civilians to the emergency bunkers immediately! All active, reserve, and former military personnel report to your duty stations now! If you do not have an assigned station then report to the nearest UNSC outpost to-"
The broadcast suddenly cut off and more static ensued, but Williams didn't need to hear the rest. He new that the emergency override would only be activated in extreme emergencies. And only one emergency would call out all military forces. He reached under the bed and took out the case with his old strakkaker. He then went over to the closet and took out some magazines for the heavy weapon as well as a 9mm parabellum. He didn't have his old armor anymore but that couldn't be helped.
The newly reinstated sergeant raced down the steps of his apartment building and outside. He looked up in the direction of nearby Cincinnati. There were great plumes of smoke going up and every now and then an explosion would go up. Williams stood and stared at the destruction. Even as he watched, a familiar shape was illuminated against an explosion.
Oh my god, he thought, they're really here... He watched the covenant dropship disappear then shook out of his reverie. He needed to get to the city. That was where he was needed. He could see other people coming outside now. Going to the bunkers, but those won't stand up to the covenant. If they want to get in, then... He shook his head to clear his thoughts, then walked over to his civilian warthog. I have a purpose again... he thought as he started up the car, that's why I've been feeling so empty recently. But my god... this...
He looked at the city again as he pulled out of the driveway. He knew what his purpose was now. To kick ass until he couldn't kick it any more. And then to charge into battle and die in one last blaze of glory. He slammed the accelerator and headed for the city. Cincinnati, here I come...
The Lost - part 1
Date: 25 November 2004, 2:28 AM
I hope you like this story. It's a lot different from what I thought it would turn out to be like. I noticed that there were a lot of people who didn't know what a strakkaker was. I'll bet that after this, you'll definitely want one. Anyways, as usual, I hope you enjoy it.
Sergeant Ryan Williams cursed himself for being so stupid. About five minutes after leaving his apt he noticed that he hadn't brought spare energy cells for his heavy strakkaker. Ammunition for the gun was no problem - it could fire broken glass if need be - but it devoured energy like crazy. Without spare energy units the gun could only be used for a couple of hours at a time.
As he drove back to his apt he listened to the reports coming over the radio. From what he had been able to piece together a damaged Covenant cruiser had landed approximately two miles away from the center of the city. UNSC forces had apparently tried to board the cruiser but so far they had had no success.
Williams rounded the curve and floored the brake pedal. There was a phantom lifting off from just in front of the apartment complex where he lived. The phantom jerked slightly and one of the turrets started to fire at him. He immediately grabbed his strakkaker out of the passenger seat and jumped out of the stopped car. He landed in a tight combat roll with his prosthetic arm scraping on the asphalt. He came to his feet and ran behind one of those useless signs that tell you when you're entering a neighborhood or apt complex (as if you couldn't already tell).
The sergeant looked around the edge of the sign. The phantom was still firing at the now smoking warthog. Good, it hadn't noticed him. Williams looked around for the infantry he knew it had probably brought. After about fifteen seconds he spotted the Covenant going up the first series of steps.
"Oh my god..." he whispered. Four Grunts, two Jackals, and two Elites. Not good odds for a single marine armed only with a strakkaker and a 9mm sidearm. Especially when that marine was forty-two years old. He looked down at the clothes he wore. Jeans and a button up shirt. With his armor he might have stood a chance but not in this. He sat in thought for a moment when there was a tremendous noise and he looked around the edge of the sign again. The civilian warthog was in flame: its molecular distortion battery must have finally gone.
Well, this is just great , he thought to himself, here I am, hiding behind a big plastic sign, pinned down by a Covenant phantom with my only means of escape destroyed. Well there was no hope for it. His only option was to fight. He slowly lifted the strakkaker up over the top of the sign and sighted on one of the phantom's turrets. He lined it up as precisely as he could and took a deep breath. He pulled the trigger. There was a loud whine as circuitry and mechanics that had laid dormant for seven years suddenly kicked into action. The strange metal that the Covenant used peeled back as the hyper-velocity rounds impacted into the outer shell of the craft. The covenant infantry looked up as their ship reeled under the force of the gun. An Elite with a carbine started firing randomly into the surrounding area. The other Covenant copied his actions.
Williams laid off his fire on the phantom, which was now listing dangerously and starting to fly off. He targeted the Elite with the carbine and opened fire. The creature's shields flared for about a second before giving in to the barrage. The thing let out a cry that cut off suddenly as its armor gave way. Its chest cavity was suddenly nothing more than pink bone that collapsed as the weight of the rest of its armor pulled it down. The sergeant took his attention off of the now dead elite and sprayed the rest of the platform with fire. He saw the other elite for a second before it ducked out of sight. Two grunts collapsed as dozens of tiny glass shards slammed into them in speeds of excess of eight hundred miles per hour.
The marine jumped from around the sign and raced for the building. The complex was a five-story structure with a series of platforms going up the center with apartments coming off it from two sides. Multiple staircases connected the platforms and there was a fire escape on each side of the building. Williams ran up one of the staircases to the first platform with the strakkaker in his left hand and the parabellum in his right. As he reached the first landing he saw a grunt tending one of the ones he had hit from the ground with the strakkaker. He was about to fire when he remembered that it was against the laws of war to kill wounded or a medic without good reason. The grunt looked up and gave a surprised yelp. It picked up its needler, which was lying on the ground. It got no further. The sergeant quickly fired a round from the parabellum straight throught its head. Williams scoffed himself for forgetting that the Covenant didn't follow the laws of war either.
The sergeant started to go up the next staircase to the second level when he looked up and saw the business end of a Covenant beam rifle pointed straight at his face. He looked up from the gun to see one of the Jackals standing three steps above him.
"Damn...", he muttered under his breath. He'd been reinstated as a marine sergeant only fifteen minutes ago and now he was about to die. He was pretty sure it was called irony. He had been so pumped up and now here he was with the barrel of a beam rifle centered directly on his forehead from only two feet away. "Well?" he said as he noticed that he had been standing there for nearly a minute, "Aren't you going to kill me?" The Jackal adjusted its aim and its finger tightened on the trigger.
Suddenly there was a growling from behind Williams. He slowly looked back over his shoulder. There, at the foot of the steps was his neighbor's German Shepard. The big dog was standing menacingly and growling deep in its throat. He looked back at the Jackal. Its face was a frozen mask. Williams started to feel a headache. Things really weren't working out today. There was a sudden flash in his mind and he threw himself flat just as the dog jumped. The animal landed on the Jackal and started to tear at its throat. There was a sudden burst of blue plasma and the dog fell to the ground lifeless. The remaining Elite slowly stepped around the corner and stared down the stairs.
The Elite let out a low laugh and started to raise its plasma rifle. So this is how it ends for me, Williams thought to himself, An Elite took my parents, an Elite took my arm, and now and Elite is going to take my life. The Elite slowly raised the plasma rifle and...
The Lost - part 2
Date: 28 November 2004, 6:59 PM
This is my sixth submission to the HBO Fanfic section and, although some of the others were bad, I intend to make this series different. Enjoy.
"I got a hostile at 3.2 hectometers north-northwest of my position" specialist Chris Slone said into his radio, "Permission to fire? I've got a clear shot."
"Negative corporal" came the reply from his CO; Lieutenant Scott Sutter, "Ascertain whether there are any other hostile units in the area. We don't want to have a slip up like last time." Chris grinned at that. He could clearly remember what happened the last time he had killed a target without locating all of the enemy first. And that Hunter wasn't easy to take down either..., he thought to himself.
He zoomed back out to 5x magnification on his sniper rifle. The target was an Elite standing on the second floor staircase of an apartment complex. The complex was a five-story structure with a series of platforms going up the center with apartments coming off it from two sides. Multiple staircases connected the platforms and there was a fire escape on each side of the building. The concrete was chipped as if hit by a thousand bullets but it was probably just from the natural effects of weathering. There was a large parking lot in front of it that showed signs being hit by plasma. There was a small driveway attaching the lot to the main road. There was a severely scorched warthog lying in the driveway. The area around it was particularly burned. Chris was lying prone on the roof of a similar structure about three hundred and fifty meters to the southeast. Nearly every building in sight was almost identical to the one Chris was lying on top of.
The corporal scanned the other floors of the complex but he couldn't see anything else. He zoomed back in on the Elite. He spoke into his radio again: "Sir, the area appears to be clear. Permission to fire?"
"Negative. Killing a single Elite isn't worth the trouble it would cause if you miss."
Chris sighed. The Lieutenant was too cautious. Several times, Chris had had a target and had been denied permission to eliminate it. He glanced back through the scope as he prepared to pack up the rifle when he saw something that almost gave him a heart attack.
"Sir! I've got a civilian lying on the stairs in front of the Elite! Permission to fire!?!" he yelled into the radio.
There was a pause. "Are you sure?" came the reply.
"Yes, I'm sure!" he yelled back, "Goddamnit! There's no time!" He sighted on the Elite and pulled the trigger.
* * *
Sergeant Williams lay on the staircase in front of the Elite. The creature's mandibles were pulled up in a grotesque expression that the sergeant guessed was an alien version of a grin. Its plasma rifle was leveled at his head. He had a strakkaker and a 9mm parabellum in his hands but if he knew that if he tried to raise them the Elite would fire. He knew he was going to die. There was no question about it. There was nothing that could get him out of this situation. He closed his eyes and relaxed. Might as well die with a little dignity, he thought. There was an enormous bang and he opened his eyes.
The Elite's mandibles were completely torn off and he could just barely pick out a vapor trail. The sergeant felt a sudden wave of Déjà vu. What the hell?, he thought to himself, This is almost exactly like on Fomalhaut. There was another bang and a round went straight through the Elite's head. It fell to the floor lifeless.
Williams gave a sigh of relief and stood up, waving his right hand in the air.
* * *
Chris Slone stared at the civilian with the strakkaker standing in front of him. There was something odd about him. He wasn't sure what though. It wasn't the fact that he was two feet taller than him (He was probably a belter: people raised in low gravity tended to be taller than average humans). It wasn't the fact that his left arm was mechanical. It probably had something to do with the fact that - according to his story - this single forty-two year old retired Marine sergeant had taken out an Elite, three Grunts, and a Jackal all on his own. With only a strakkaker and a sidearm.
"So, let me get this straight" Chris said, "You killed nearly an entire squad of Covenant with that old piece of shit?". The sergeant nodded affirmatively. "But they stopped making those ten years ago."
"Fomalhaut was an outer colony world. We didn't receive the shipments of MA5Bs until it was too late."
"Well, you still don't hold rank yet. We'll need to get you to an outpost so that you can be officially reinstated."
Williams' face looked pained. "Is this really necessary?" he asked.
"Yes, now let's get back to the rest of my squad..."
* * *
Open file: Fleet_statistics/Locations.dat
ACESS DENIED. Incorrect password.
Run program: Pass_search.prg
Searching...
Searching...
Found.
Enter: WhAt_Do_YoU_gEt_WhEn_YoU_mUlTiPlY_sEvEn_By_NiNe?? FoRtY-tWo.
ACESS GRANTED
Security test failed. Information secure for: 4.7 miliseconds. Unaceptable. Reassessing detection programs. Run defense diagnostics...
Subroutine 67.a45B run question: "Who the Hell came up with that shitty password?" through main search engine...
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