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The Megg by Simpsons Rule



The Megg Story
Date: 30 April 2003, 1:15 AM

The Master Chief felt very alone. As far as he knew, all his fellow teammates were dead. Even though Linda might still be resuscitated, the chief didn't hold out much hope. He considered all of them to be his brothers and sisters. It pained him so to lose them. The Pillar of Autumn had already made the jump into slipspace and the chief was beginning to realize his mission was more important now than ever. He realized he may be Earth's only hope to fight these bastards and he had to do whatever it took to save Earth and its colonies. Of course he'd been trained this way and would give his own life in a heartbeat to save the lives of everyone who depended on him. The attack on Reach proved that the Covenant may attack at any moment and mankind may only have weeks to survive. For now however, the Master Chief knew all he could do was go into cryo sleep until The Pillar of Autumn came out of slipspace. He didn't like doing this. Relying on machines for oxygen and even gravity made him feel helpless. He couldn't even remove his MJOLNIR battle suit. In case he was needed ASAP, every second would count. Having his suit already on would make sure he could be of assistance faster.

A blinding light filled the Master Chief's eyes but it quickly faded. He saw the eagerness in the cryo technicians face and immediately climbed out of the cryo tube. No sooner had the Master Chief's feet touched the ground that the technician said "come on, we've got to get the hell outta here." He ran to the door and said "this way." The Master Chief was about to follow but realized he had to make sure his MJOLNIR battle suit was in working order. The Master Chief treated all of his weapons with the care and respect they deserved. Before and after each mission, he would clean and inspect all of his weapons. His battle suit was probably the most powerful weapon he had so he had to make sure it was working. Usually, he would undergo a series of tests for this. He realized that the lack of these tests must mean that time was of the essence. He couldn't go into battle however unless he knew it was working so he began to undergo his own little series of tests. First he ran around the cryo bay. He was a little disoriented from coming out of cryo sleep but he was satisfied his reflexes were normal. Normal for him anyway. Next he needed to make sure he had the strength. He jumped on top of the nearest cryo tube that was against the wall and made it to the catwalk above. He ran from one end of the catwalk to the other and jumped on top of a striped barrel. He remained on top of that barrel and stretched best he could inside the suit. Satisfied the suit was in working order, he jumped down and saw the technician. There was a look of amazement on his face. Probably due to the speed at which the Master Chief had preformed the tasks.

As the Master Chief went closer the technician ran to unlock a door. Unfortunately, an explosion occurred just as was opening the door and his body flew backwards. The Master Chief examined the door and considered prying it open so he could go through. Just as he was considering doing this, a second explosion occurred. The chief realized he needed to get to the bridge and hauled ass to try and reach the bridge where he could be briefed on his next mission. He jumped over some power conduits and ran through doors and watched an explosion from the adjacent corridor almost catch him. He crouched under an airlock door only to see plasma flying through the air. He stopped and heard the alarm as the air lock doors were closing to trap the Covenant. He watched helplessly as explosions killed the under trained technicians trying to fight the ruthless Covenant. He was about to offer any assistance he could when a technician said, "Master Chief, the situation is secure here. You're probably needed somewhere else." He was right, the Master Chief needed to get to the bridge. He passed through a short dark corridor and continued down another one and was faced with more technicians fighting the Covenant. This time there was a marine helping them. The Master Chief was in a dead run, careful so no plasma would hit him. He jumped straight over the marine standing in the doorway, barely looking at him. The marine was the best trained there to fight the Covenant and the chief didn't want to get in his way. He passed a room that used to be full of weapons and ammunition. He was hopeful that he might find a weapon but the room was bare. What he did find however, was a bunch of bloody, injured marines. Some were too injured to battle, others were too afraid. He went on, helpless to aid them. Yet another air lock was being defended by technicians. "Where were the damn marines?!" the Master Chief thought. The technicians couldn't hold out against the Covenant. He finally made it to the bridge, hopeful he would finally receive a weapon and be of some use. He saw Captain Keyes in the middle of the bridge. He approached and the Captain gave him his orders. He was to get Cortana off the ship and protect her. The chief knew how important that task was. If the Covenant got her, Earth would be doomed.

Although the Master Chief was handed a gun, it was out of ammo. As he walked out of the bridge he saw a dead ensign. He closed her eyelids and obtained her ammo for the pistol he had. He walked out and heard the translation software for the Grunts kick in. He zoomed in and shot each Grunt in the head, instantly killing them. "Three down, hundreds to go" the Master Chief thought to himself. Just then Cortana opened the door leading into the cafeteria. He picked up an MA5B assault rifle and Cortana told the chief that he had better help out the marines ahead. He killed the Grunts and Elites he saw a group of marines struggling with. Fortunately, the Master Chief saw more marines come out of the previously locked door behind them. More and more groups of Covenant came and the chief did the best he could. When it was over, the chief saw that only three marines remained. He saw that they just couldn't handle the Covenant and he paused. "What's wrong chief?" Cortana asked. "The Covenant were right outside the bridge," he said. "But you killed them" Cortana replied. "Yes but it was lucky I was there. If they had gotten there a few minutes sooner they would've killed the bridge crew or captured them for interrogation. The Captain didn't even have any ammo for the pistol. If he was caught, the Covenant could've learned everything." "What do you want to do?" Cortana inquired. "I have to find a way to make sure the Covenant don't capture Captain Keyes, but how?" The chief already knew the answer. He had to do the unthinkable and kill the Captain. His Alpha level priority was to keep Earth safe. His Beta level priority was to save himself and his fellow soldiers. Even though it was the hardest thing he would have to do, he must do it. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Cortana asked as the chief made his way back to the bridge. "There is a security team stationed just outside the bridge in case of an emergency." The chief remembered how badly the marines had done against the Covenant in the cafeteria. "I'm sure," he said. "This is the only way to make sure the Covenant don't get their hands on Earth." A shot to the head would do it. Painless and quick. The Master Chief drew his pistol and aimed at the Captain's head. The Captain had no idea he was there as his head was turned toward the front view screen. A single tear ran down his cheek as he pulled the trigger. No sooner had the Captain's body hit the ground than he heard Cortana's voice. Not "in his mind" as he normally did but in the speakers on the bridge. It said "Security to the bridge, the Master Chief has gone rampant, take him out boys." "What the hell is that?" the chief asked. "Someone on the bridge must've triggered the security team to go in" Cortana replied. The chief ran and tried to get out of the bridge ASAP. He ran to the corridor he came from but the door was closed. "That recording is part of the security measures to make sure you don't jeopardize the mission. It was Colonel Ackerson's idea." "Figures" replied the Master Chief. On his motion tracker the chief saw the marines coming. He waited in the corridor. He didn't want to kill any marines he didn't have to. "Cortana, can you open this damn door" "Negative chief. The door is unlocked but it won't seem to open." The chief saw as the marines unloaded into the bridge looking for a target. He ran for where the marines had come from, looking for a way out. He ran passed two open doors and took a sharp right and felt his heart sink as he saw no way out. He approached the end of the hallway to see a blood stain on the ceiling with an outline of an "M" shot in it with a pistol. "What's that?" the chief asked. "I don't know," Cortana said, "maybe a marine got bored." "But the blood?" asked the chief. "Chief, Colonel Ackerson was never a fan of the Spartan program. The security team is a group of special elite helljumpers. They've been augmented in a similar way you have but in a way they are better than you. The Colonel tried to keep this a secret and although he didn't approve of the augmenting, he would do anything to show you up. Especially since these were his helljumpers." Cortana replied. "Why wasn't I given this augmentation?" The chief asked. "This kind of augmentation has only been newly discovered and it hasn't been perfected yet. These marines won't live more than a week and are also prone to going insane." Cortana said with a hint of hopelessness in her voice. The Chief began to approach the door and saw a single marine waiting surprised to see he had slipped by him. The Chief shot him in the head and was so surprised he didn't die that he almost froze. Instead, the marine said, "is that all you got?" and began to return fire. The chief's shields dropped dramatically. He ran for cover and saw the marine didn't follow. After his shields returned he turned to his MA5B and put an entire clip into the marine. He obviously felt the pain and didn't attack while the chief's finger was on the trigger. As soon as the chief paused to reload, the marines gave the chief everything he had. The chief again fell back. "How am I suppose to kill him?" he asked. "I don't know," replied Cortana.

The end of the Chief?



The Megg: The Escape
Date: 5 May 2003, 1:13 AM

The Megg Story: The Escape           



      Here the Chief stood, just a wall separating him from what seemed to be an unstoppable force. He had to think of some way to get the hell out of the ship, but how? Normally, he wouldn't consider killing his fellow soldiers, as the UNSC needed every one of them they could get. At this moment, however, that idea seemed fine. The only problem was, as far as he could tell, they wouldn't die. He asked Cortana again "Are you sure I can't kill them?"
      "I don't see how you could with those augmentations." she replied. "There may be an alternative to killing them, however. This is the security team, designed to save everyone on the bridge so the Covenant can't take control of it. If a new threat were to come into play, at least some of them would have to engage that enemy."
      "You want me to wait here until some Covenant manage to gain access to the bridge?" The Master Chief asked puzzled.
      "No, we just need them to think that." she replied. "See that control module against the wall there? Put me in there." The Chief walked over to the control module and placed Cortana inside it. He still had no idea how she could distract the security team without there actually being any Covenant, but he had faith in her.
      Cortana easily regained control of the ship, since Captain Keyes was relying on her to run the ship and didn't have time to initialize the Pillar of Autumn's A.I. She quickly accessed the ships monitors and looked for a plausible attack point. There, right outside of the bridge. The blast door had been closed but not locked just like the door leading out of the bridge. Every technician knew the security code and chances were that the security team would too. Over the bridge COM system, she activated another recorded message and made it look like the ship's censors from the bridge triggered it. It said "Security to the bridge, Covenant forces detected in close vicinity to the bridge. Rally at blast door number 024 for an expected Covenant attack." After a moments pause it said "Number of hostiles are predicted to be from 20-30."
      No one questioned the fact that the ship's censors were useless without an A.I. to trigger them. Especially since they all thought Cortana was still inside the Master Chief's suit. Someone could have been monitoring them but everyone had their own station to take care of and since the security team was running about, everyone felt very secure. So without any second thoughts, the security team gathered around the front of the bridge to get instructions from Sergeant Marvin Mobuto.
      The Chief could hear everything, even from the end of the hallway. Sergeant Mobuto said "All right you lazy bastards, we got inbound Covenant troops and we need to make em' wish they were never born."
      "But that armored freak is still around here somewhere," a marine protested. "He's just as big of a threat as the Covenant are."
      "I'll take care of him," a rugged looking marine said. "I have very personal issues with that son of a bitch. Don't worry, he'll not only die, he'll suffer."
      "Good, everyone else follow me, we're not going to wait for those bastards to blast there way in." The Sergeant barked. "We're going to have a nice little surprise waiting for them."
      Sergeant Mobuto came across the door at the end of the hallway and saw it was closed. The light however was green which not only meant it wasn't permanently sealed, it also meant he could get it open with the security code. He reached for the pad mounted to the door and typed in 7-49-343-2401. The door slid open and the marines emptied out into the hallway. They immediately took a left and saw the blast door was closed. Again, just like the previous door, the Sergeant realized he could open it and re-entered the security code. The blast door slowly opened, revealing the second "layer" of the blast door. This too had to be given the security code before it would open. All the marines emptied into the hallway, past support structures, only to see another blast door, this one however was "permanently sealed."
      The marines thought nothing of seeing the blast door they had just opened begin to close again. It made perfect sense. This way the threat of the Covenant making it to the bridge was dramatically reduced. They wouldn't think anything was wrong until about ten minutes from then when no Covenant would come. For the moment however, each person was focused on having the very first kill.
      A low voice came out of the module. "All but one of the marines has been taken care of Chief. I've locked the rest within a corridor. They won't be able to escape until the doors open, twenty minutes from now. That should give us enough time to get to a life pod and get the hell out of here."
      "So there's still one marine left?" the Chief asked.
      "I'm afraid so. He was supposed to take care of you and he's in the process of searching the bridge right now. It won't be long until he searches in here. My work is done, take me out of here and place me back into your suit."
      "I think I know how to take care of him, it won't be pretty though."
      "How?" asked Cortana.
      The Chief walked into the short hallway where he had his first battle with a member of the security team. "Look there," he said. "that marine I shot lost a lot of blood. Augmentations or no augmentations, if he loses enough blood, he will die."
      The Master Chief hesitated. What he was about to do would be the most inhumane thing he could think of. He now realized why some people hated the Spartan program. They were afraid of his Spartans acting like this. An unstoppable force that could turn on you in a heart beat. The only problem was that the Spartans knew their duty and would never betray those who they were sworn to protect. No, the Master Chief would try to talk to this marine before going through with his plan.
      He waited as the marine eventually began to look for him in the hallway he was in. The marine entered the room and saw the Chief standing at the end of the corridor.
      "Wait." the Master Chief called out. "I had to kill the Captain, it was the only way to guarantee the Covenant wouldn't find the location of Earth. You don't need to do this; I'm not your enemy. "
      The marine gave a short chuckle at the idea and responded by saying, "Did you let my brother go free? Remember my brother huh Master Chief. Or maybe you've killed too many to possibly remember one out of the thousands."
      The Master Chief was genuinely puzzled. How could he have killed his brother? Could it have been that his brother was on the rebel base that he destroyed? Maybe, but unlikely considering the marine is a helljumper and his brother wouldn't likely go against the UNSC. Helljumper. Of course, his brother must have been one of the helljumpers he killed in the gym after his augmentations were done.
      The marine continued. "You left him lying in a pool of his own blood in a boxing ring. No, Master Chief, I am going to kill you just like you killed my brother."
      With that the marine opened fire. The Master Chief had to act quickly. He couldn't feel those bullets, not yet anyway, because of his shields. The marine, however, would feel every bullet as it entered his body. No one had the mental capabilities to ignore a full automatic spray of 7.62 mm armor-piercing rounds. As soon as the Master Chief opened fire, the marine stopped. Cursing and trying to stumble out of range, he felt everything. The Master Chief didn't give him a full automatic spray however. Short controlled bursts were not only more accurate but they also prevented the marine from returning fire for a more extended amount of time. By the time the Master Chief had unloaded an entire clip, his shields had recharged. The marine immediately resumed shooting. Just as the Chief's shields went down too low, his gun was reloaded and he returned fire.
      There wasn't any place for the marine to go except for the bridge. There was no cover anywhere in sight and so the pattern continued. Blood was everywhere. It was by far the most disgusting thing the Master Chief had ever seen. The marine was becoming very weak and couldn't maintain his balance. He began to lean against a corner, unable to think straight.
      "I can stop right now. We can get some medics in here. I don't want to hurt you."
      "I'll make you pay for what you did to my brother!" the marine screamed.
      The marine got up and with his last bits of energy, began to re-engage the Chief. With little choice, the Master Chief fired his assault rifle. The marine just lay there, looking at the lights above. He slowly closed his eyes and bled to death. The Master Chief wanted to explain to the bridge crew everything that had happened but there was simply no time. He had to get out of the ship before it was completely overrun by Covenant. He had already wasted ten minutes killing that one marine and besides, no one was likely to believe him.
      As he ran outside, he could hear the other marines locked away demanding to be let out. No doubt, they had heard the gunshots and wanted a piece of the action. As the Chief ran out of the bridge, he saw the door to the cafeteria had been locked as well. He thought that it might have locked at the same time the door to the bridge did. As it turns out, Cortana closed it and she was easily able to open it. Inside the cafeteria, the Master Chief saw the three marines that he helped out before. They were very confused as to what the hell had been going on.
      Sergeant Jack Daniels approached the Chief, about to ask what had happened. Before he could say anything the Chief said, "Hostiles were located around the bridge. I took care of them, no worries."
      The Chief continued on down a hallway and paused. He asked Cortana, "What if more Covenant find there way to the bridge before the security team is free? We can't let that happen."
      Sharing those concerns with the Chief, Cortana devised her own little plan. "First, I'll lock the doors every time you clear an area. This will minimize the likelihood of any Covenant troops reaching the bridge. Also, I'll disable radio transmissions to other troops from the security team and the bridge. The automated recordings of Captain Keyes' evacuation procedure will go on as normal so no one will suspect a thing. No one will get the word you've gone "rampant" so the marines will be glad to see you.
      This was soon realized when the Master Chief ran down a corridor and saw an elite with his back turned to him. A quick slap to his back with the butt of his assault rifle and it quickly went down. The marines who were busy trying to fight him were very glad to see the Chief. And so the Master Chief went on, fighting his way through the hordes of Covenant and finally making his way to a lifeboat. As the Master Chief's lifeboat was falling through the sky one thing became clear. If and when he left this "ring," one thing was for sure. The Covenant wouldn't find Earth, not this way at least. This didn't justify what he had done but it made the Chief able to put it in the back of his mind. Survival was his next step.



-Simpsons Rule





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