About This Site Daily Musings News News Archive Site Resources Concept Art Halo Bulletins Interviews Movies Music Miscellaneous Mailbag HBO PAL Game Fun The Halo Story Tips and Tricks Fan Creations Wallpaper Misc. Art Fan Fiction Comics Logos Banners Press Coverage Halo Reviews Halo 2 Previews Press Scans Community HBO Forum Clan HBO Forum ARG Forum Links Admin Submissions Uploads Contact

Wings of Death by el_halo_diablo Wings of Death Part 1: life as a 'Fly Boy' Date: 10 September 2002, 3:58 am Authors note: Ok this is my next fan fic, I think I'm giving up on trying to make a co-op fan fic with someone, but mabye, if someone REALLY wants to do one with me, just email me. Ok I hope you enjoy my new series.       Space seems so silent, yet so many things are going on in the endless vacume: new stars are born, ships wizzing around, sun's are giving off large wisps of flames, and though all this commotion, you can never hear a thing. Thats the bad thing about space, you never know if an enemy is creeping up on you.       The bright stars twinkle, and set a nice calm mood to space, as a planet comes into view, and gives off its nice red color to it. Two normal UNSC C class fighters zoom by the planet, at emminse speeds. Both the fighters are different colors: one's gray, and the other is black. The Black Fighter moves in behind the gray ship, and fires it's dual pulse lasers directly at the other. The Gray colored interceptor goes sideways, so the right wingtip was pointing north, The laser blasts zoom past the ship, unharming it. The Black Ship fires a volley of pulse lasers at the gray one, while it weaves in and out of the blasts.       "Ha ha gotcha there," An anonomous pilot hoots out over the comm. as the grey ship is singed by a laser blast.       "Oh just you wait!" that other pilot remarks, as he turns on the afterburners, and makes a sharp turn, to get behind the other fighter.       The grey pilot flips the switch in his stick, and holds down on the button. The button opens two small bay doors, and two oversized Gatling Guns are revealed. The grey pilot pulls the trigger, and mass amounts of bullets are loaded into the Black pilot. The Black pilot attempts to evade, but the hail of bullets are too much. In desperation, the Black pilot jettisons his external armor, and the plates are sent right in the direction of the Grey Pilot. The Pilot in the grey fires a continuous round of bullets at the armor, before it hits him, he then unlocks two archer missles, and fires at the large amount of scrap heading his way. The contrails are noticed, and they head toward the fast approaching metal. The missles explode on impact, and desinigrate the metal that was in the vicinity, but there was still more, but the pilot in grey was too late, The metal slammed into his right wing, which was immediatly torn off from the contact of the fast moving obects. The grey pilot spun around, until he finally maintained balance.       "Too late bro." Said the pilot in black to Ensign Keys, the one in the grey craft.       "Damnit..." the young Jacob Keys muttered, as a salvo of missles headed his way from the black ship that was waiting for him on the other side of the armor debris. The missles hit Keys' small fighter, and blew it to pieces.       Then, the space all around disentigrated, and all the other objects dissapeared, and revealed just white ground. A few technicians walked up to the two simulators that both the pilots were in. A few Pilots watching the training clapped, and got up off their seats, to talk to the two pilots that just ended their training.       "Good Job Jacob." The pilot that was combating with him said to him, saking his hand.       "It always is, Stanforth." Keys commented back to the man.       "Nice flying Jake, mabye next time you should fly AROUND that jettisoned armor, all you needed was a good laser to his hull, and you would have blasted him to bits," One of his friend pilots said to him,"Next time, don't try any of that flawless cowboy crap, it'll get you killed."       "CADETS! ENSIGNS!" The Chief yelled to the pilots," Get your stuff and head to the mess hall!"       They all made their way slowly to the mess hall for dinner. Everybody was enjoying themselfs and and talking amongst eachother, not knowing of the things to come. <Next part: Keys is My Name, Flying is My Game> Wings of Death Part 2: Keys is My Name, Flying is My Game Date: 11 September 2002, 11:24 pm       The Chief walked to the bunks early in the morning, while it was still dark. He walked down the small hallway, past the rows of bunks until he got to the center of the room. He raised a pistol, and shot it into the air, the loud crak of the sidearm, in the enclosed area pierced everyones ears, and all the pilots sprung out of bed, and stood at attention. "Get robed boys, we're going on a little trip." The chief said, and walked out of the room. All the men got dressed into their suits, and headed out to the 'Sky-skipper', which is used for fast troop transport to shipyards and such. Keys, along with 16 others, climbed in the small 20 man craft, and took a seat, buckleing themselfs up in the process. The 'Sky-skipper' immediatle accelerated, and took the senses out of them, as it went from 0 to Mach 1 in 10 seconds.       They soon came to a launching pad, which had 20 B class Longsword Bombers lined up on the long run-way. Keys looked down the line of bombers in awe, since he has never flown a B class bomber before, that meant that this training had to be important. The Chief came up to the row of pilots that were standing at attention,"Finally," he said,"Your years of training have payed off." All the pilots smiled, but kept stance. "The neighboring planet, Nervana IX, has sent out a distress beacon to our planet, It is our duty to serve the people of that planet. There will be no assistance from any UNSC division, because there are no other forces in the area to aid you. Reports are that Rebels led by thier leader Gen. Corge have attacked the installation, Fort Gammoth, and have captured it. Do whatever means neccesary to take out that fort, even if that means burning that place to hell." Everyone stood there un-moving, until the Chief broke the silence,"That means GO!" Everyone ran to each of the 1 man ships, and fired-up the engines. Keys ran to the cockpit, and sat in the seat. To him, and the others, the controlls were much alike the other fighter/bombers that they have flown before. "Holy shit! These babies are armed with Thremal Bombs!" One Pilot remarked. "Ok listen up scrubs" The chief said in his own bomber,"the armaments on these ships are pretty much up to date: you have dual burst lasers, quad automattic targeting gatling guns, 6 archer missles, and yes, you have plenty of thermal bombs to BBQ those rebel bastards." "Who's leading this shindig?" Stanforth asked. The chief replied in his A-class fighter,"I will lead the Fox Red low altitude raid, while you, Stanforth lead Fox Blue high altitude bombing, and fighting." "Gotchya" Stanforth remarked.       Keys felt jealous because every time there was a training mission, Stanforth was always chosen to lead it. "Ok lets head out!" The Chief yelled. They all blasted out of the hanger, and out of the planet towards Nervana IX. Thier nieghboring planet was impressivly close, so it wouldn't take them a very long time to get there. Keys looked to the side window, and saw a lone UNSC Medium sized cruiser, servieling the planet, but doing nothing else. Keys didn't mention anything about it, but kept it in his mind. Eventually, they reached the planet, and were about to come into thier atmosphere. "Ok Fox Red, follow my lead, while Fox Blue continues en route."The Chief said over the comm. Keys noticed a small red light, signifiying that he was with Fox Red. Keys turned into the direction the Chief was going, along with nine other pilots. "Ok boys, delta formation, I'm picking up three radar signatures from the sky, heading inbound towards Fort Gammoth, proceed to intercept and destroy." Fox Red all made a sharp right, and headed towards the enemy fighters. I was close to the front of the formation, and on my panel, the number Red-004 popped up on my screen, meaning that that is who Keys was for the mission. We came out of the atmosphere, and saw the three fighters just going past them. "Ok...Red-001 through 005, brake off from formation, and engage from the left."       Keys pulled out of the formation, and pushed a little more on the trottle, to speed his ship up a little more. There were three friendlies in front of him, and one behind, as they enclosed on the enemies. "Arm your weapons!" Red-001 said "Hey where did the rest of Fox Red go?" Red-003 asked "Don't worry about that right now! Arm your weapons damnit! we're closing in fast!" 001 replied       Keys opened the bay doors for His Gatling guns, and found that the automattic targeting system only targets stationary targets, which mean that he would have to manually target the enemies. "What the...SHIT!" one of the enemies said on an open comm. channel. 001 said,"ENGAGE!"       001 and 003 broke off towards bogey 1 , while Keys and 005 went after Bogey 2, and 002 went after Bogey 3.       The fighter that Keys and 005 were chasing, turned on the afterburners, and tried to lose them. they also pushed the trottle all the way up, and immediatly caught up to Bogey 2. Keys and 005 unleashed the raw power of their quad gatling gun upon Bogey 2. Bogey 2 tried to shake the unberable amount of lead being hurled at him, but he couldn't. Bogey 2's armor was holding up well to the fire, and he made an unexpected downwards drop.       001 and 003 Chased after Bogey 1, and began to fire their burst lasers at the fighter. The talented pilot easily shook all of the shots, and did a loop above them, while speeding up, and got behind them. "Shit! Where is he?!?" 001 screamed, tring to look out the window, behind him. "I see him, he's on our Six and opening his machine gun bays, prepare for heavy fire!" 003 yelled. "003! try to flank left, while I maintain course!" Just then, Bogey 1 fired a hail of bullets into 001's fighter,"HA-HA! How you like it now?" the rebel laughed over his comm. "Where's that flank 003? HURRY YOUR ASS UP!" 001 screamed,"This ship can't hold up forever!" 003 veered off to the side, and shot straight under Bogey 3, damaging his own ship. He pulled off to the side just before 002 blasts past him, in pursuit of Bogey 3. 003 regains flight controll, and catches up to the back of Bogey 1, which was still firing at 001. "Where's that support 003?!?" 001 impatiently yelled. "Right here!" 003 said, as he unlocked two archer missiles, and fired them in the direction of Bogey 1. Bogey 1 attempted to evade, but the missles slammed into his wing and the side of the ship. The wing exploded into splinters, and the ship exploded into flames, as it plumeted to the ground.       Bogey 3 found a way behind 002, and held the pursuit. "DAMNIT SOMEONE HELP ME HERE!" He screamed. "Sorry no-can-do!" Someone replied. Bogey 3's missile bay's opened, and he launched six swarmer missiles at 002. "OH FU-" The missiles raced up to 002 and made thousands of explosions all around the ship, causing many breeches in the ships hull. Explosions lit up all around the cockpit, and the glass started to crack. 002's ship survived the assult, but still, Bogey maintained pursuit. Bogey 3 loaded his artillery cannon, while 002 tried to shake him. Bogey 3 shot the shell at 002, and narrowly missed him. "SHIT THAT WAS TOO CLOSE!" 002 said gasping for air. Bogey 3 loaded up another shell, and aimed it at 002, it was very hard for Bogey3's pilot to hit him, because he was jumping around everywhere. Bogey 3's pilot smiled as he got a straight shot on 002, he tightened his grip on the trigger, but was suddenly engulfed in flames. 001 and 003 blasted past the place where Bogey 3 used to be, with their gun bays smoking. "WHOO HOOO!!!" 003 shouted,"Hey you said you needed help!" "Yah thanks guys." 002 said relieved,"hey where the hell is 004, 005 and the last bogey?"       Keys and 005 continued their pursuit of the plummeting Bogey 2. The Bogey finally pulled up right at the end, about 500 feet from the ground. Keys and 005 barely missed the ground by about 150 feet. Thier ships roared over the people on the ground, as Bogey 2 kept low to the ground. Keys charged his burst lasers, while 005 kept his Gatling guns on. "FIRE!" 005 yelled, and we both fired at the same time. the lasers burned at the metal at the ship, as the bullets from the Gatling guns churned the armor. "This isn't going to help much." Keys said, as he went full throttle, completly passsing both 005 and Bogey 2, and went into some low clouds that were straight ahead.       005 continued to fire his guns at Bogey 2, as it tried to stay alive. Bogey 2 went into the clouds also as 005 followed him. Bogey 2 didn't go very far when he saw Keys turned around, facing him. Keys shot an archer missile straight into the cockpit of Bogey 2, and the whole nose of the ship was incernerated. "All Bogeys have been cleaned up!" 005 shouted over the comm. A familiar voice came over the comm,"Good work 001, 002, 003, 004, and 005,"It turned out to be the Chief,"we assistance at Fort Gammoth, stat! Things are a bit more hectic than we thought! Charlie Victor, over and out." the five fighters re-grouped, and headed over to Fort Gammoth, in delta formation. <Next part, Part 3: Raid at Fort Gammoth> Wings of Death Part 3: Raid at Fort Gammoth Date: 14 September 2002, 12:36 am       "Carlie Victor! This is Nova Alpha! MAYDAY MADAY!" The comm channels were filled with screams of help from the squad fighting at Fort Gammoth, as Keys and the other four pilots tuned into the frequency. They were a little ways away from the fort, but saw a great firefight, as large plumes of fire shot into the air, from thermal bombs. Keys' small squad went full throttle all the way to the base, to find that all hell was breaking lose on and above the fort. UNSC personell from the fort defened the masses of rebels invadeing the base, as numbers dropped from the UNSC's ranks. Ther was a large fire fight in the air between the UNSC ensign pilots, and the rebels. Keys and the others broke off formation and joined the fire fight. "Looks like you guys could use some help." Keys said over the comm. just as he blasted a rebel ship out of the sky. "SHIT I GOT 2 ENEMY BOGEYS ON MY SIX!" "Rodger that!" "I read you!" Keys said, and turned towards the chase. Keys, and another pilot trailed the two enemy ships, and fired their archer missles at the rebel's ships. Both ships exploded into splinters. "Thanks guys!" the releaved Pilot said over the comm.,"but it's not over yet!" Keys found one rebel tactical fighter zooming around, firing its six syncronized burst lasers at another UNSC bomber. "HOLY CRAP I CAN'T SHAKE THIS MOTHER-"the pilot's transmission was ended when it exploded, and the chassis plummeted to the ground. "Oh you're gunna die for that." Keys muttered, and made a direct path for the tactical fighter, that already headed for another soon-to-be victim. Keys came up behind it, and opened fire upon the tac. fighter with the quad gatling guns. The Tac. noticed he was being fired upon, and made a sharp and immediate right, inbetween two fighting war planes. Keys looked out the window, as the agile fighter easily, out maneuvered his ship, and was now behind him. "All UNSC forces be advised that the fort has been breeched, and we are cominsing bombing strike!" The Chief said from up high, with the other bombers. The Tac. fired it's burst lasers at me, and the lasers lit up all around me. Keys tried to dodge, and out-maneuver the agile Tac., but Keys was in a bomber, and those Tac's were made for these kind of things. A laser form the Tac. made a direct hit on one of the ships circuts that ran along the chassis, and one panel lit up in flames, and sparked radically. Keys grabbed the flame retardent spray, and put out the fire. He noticed the panel was his navigation system. suddenly, dozens of bombes showed up on his radar, as they dropped past him. The fort was ignited in greatly devestating plumes of fire. The heat waves sent Keys, the Tac. and many others spinning out of controll from the great thermals.       The Tac. fighter pilot, accidentally fell forward on the throttle, and the Tac. sped towards Keys' bomber. Keys didn't notcie the Tac. speeding towards him at great speeds, until, the collision warning went on. Keys looked back to see the Tac. slam straight into his right wing. the fragile Tac. exploded on impact, blasting Keys' right wing apart. Keys now spun madly towards the ground. He tried to even the decent, by putting the air brakes on full. Thermal explosions shot hunders of feet into the air. as Keys' pushed through the larger plumes of flame. "Warning! Air brake failiure!" the onboard computer said. "Oh crap." "Air brakes have reached critical." the computer said. "uuuhh. what do I do?" Keys asked confused. "Eject you pitiful excuse for a pilot." the computer said, braking a controll fuse "Hey you're just angry cause you're going to die, heh heh. Oh by the way, BYE!" Keys said, as he pressed the eject button. "I hate you! you bastar..." and the comuters voice went out of range of hearing. Keys was ejected out of the ship, strapped onto his seat. the seat floated downwards, and right below him was Fort Gammoth. "Oh crap.." He muttered. Keys puled out a small panel, and opened the weapons locker on the seat. a standard MA2B slowly came out of the side of the seat, and he snatched it, along with some extra clips, and two grenades. Keys didn't have much training in the way of firearms except for a few training sessions. As Keys neared the ground, emmense heat radiated off of the grond from the thermal bombs.       Keys hit the ground, and saw that there were no people on the ground that were still alive. He ran quickly to a door that was blasted open, that seemed to lead to a place further into the ground. he walked in the dooway, just before a thermal bomb exploded behind him. The great force of the bomb threw him on the ground. He layed there sprawled acroos the floor, until he heard gun-fire down the corridor. He sprung up and went to investigate.       "This is Echo Victor niner, This fort is swamped with rebels, we can't let them tak the base." The Chief replied,"rodger that Echo Victor. Any plans?" "Chief I suggest we drop a HAVOK nuclear device, from up here, and blow all those rebels to the scum that they are." "..Alright, I'm unlocking bay doors for nuclear drop. If anyones still down there, get out quickly. Drop will be in ten minutes."       Unfortunatly for Ensign Keys, his Comm. radio was knocked out from that last thermal blast, leaving him unknowing of the suprise to come. <next: Part 4: Countdown> Wings of Death part 4: Countdown Date: 16 September 2002, 9:41 pm "This is Charlie Victor to all air faring pilots, be advised drop is in ten minutes." "Rodger that Chief" "Man I can't wait for the firworks!" "Aww man lets drop it now!" The pilots were in a frenzy of radio transmissions. The Chief radioed back,"everyone can wait, besides, this gives us time to mop up the rest of the enemy fighters." "Rodger that, lets kick some ass!" The Pilots all desended upon the rest of the remaining enemy fighter.       Down inside Fort Gammoth, Keys walked slowly down the hall towards the explosions, gunfire, and cries for help. he rounded a corner, and kept his rifle leveled. The sound of gunfire was getting closer. He came up to a corner, and a few bullets zinged in front of his face. He spun around the corner, to find a large cafeteria, only most of the tables were turned on their sides, for berricades for the men firing at eachother. Uniformed UNSC personell from the other side of the cafeteria fired upon what seemed to be a small group of rebels, on Keys' side of the room.       Keys decided to take the initiative. and raised his gun to the back of an unsuspecting rebel, and fired. The man's back exploded from a small concentation of bullets, and the other 5 rebels turned around. Keys ran at them, with his finger on the trigger. Three men succomed to the fate of the gun, while the other two men charged at him with combat knifes. Keys pulled the trigger, and heard a chinking noise, signifying that he was out of bullets. Rebel 1 kicked the gun out of his hand, while the other, Rebel 2 took a swipe with his knife, and made a gash in Keys' arm. Blood poured out of his wound, as Keys reached for his sidearm. Rebel 1 saw his movement, and took a slice at the back of the hand that was reaching for the sidearm. Keys drew back his hand, and grasped it in pain. He watched as Rebel 2 drew his hand back, ready to take another swipe. He brought the knife forward, at deadly speed, but his swing was interrupted, when a hole was blasted out of his chest. Keys looked past Rebel 2, to see that one of the UNSC paersonell had fired a pistol into the rebel. Rebel 1 charged with his knife, but his life was ended by an entire clip from an MA5B assult rifle.       The rebels were all dead, and the UNSC came out of hiding, and rushed over to Keys. One soldier had some basic medical supplies, and administered them to Keys' wounds. They taped up Keys' hand and arm, and they all gathered their stuff. "Who are you? By the way, my name's Ptv. Michel" one UNSC soldier said. "Pvt. Michel, I am Ensign Jacob Keys, and have crash landed on your fort during a bombing raid." "Well we need to get out of here, because I fear that they'll send more troops into our base, were're running out of supplies, so we got to hurry." Ptv. Michel said. There were about six UNSC all together, they and Keys headed out the door that he came in. They went down a ways before they turned a corner, and went down a hallway. "Umm, Keys said confused,"where are we going?" "You can fly," Michels said,"so you're gunna fly us the hell out of here." "Ah" He replied.       They came to an opening where there were a large amount of rebels and UNSC soldiers fighting. The UNSC were guarding a door at the other end, and once again, the rebels were on keys' side of the opening. They all fired upon the rebels, and thier bodies dropped to the ground. The UNSC guards rushed the remaining rebels and slaughtered them. There were now about fifty UNSC soldiers, all lowly armed.       Everyone went down the hallway towards the underground hangar. They came to the Hangar to find it swamped with rebels. Somehow, the rebels found the surface entrance to the hangar. "Ok everyone, fireworks in two." The Chief said, just as he dodged an archer missle, and fired two locker missiles at the ship behind him. "Hey watch out for the Bogey on your four!" "I got 'em!" "Thanks" "No problem. Heads up Bogey at twelve o'clock!" "I got him!" "NO!...I got him" The Pilots ravaged the air, fighting like children over candy.       Everyone snuck up around the walls of the hangar, and awaited he shout for everyone to go full force. Then, out of nowhere, a man ran out of the hallway, and towards one of the two sky skippers. The rebels looked at him and did absolutly nothing. Keys and the UNSC troops stood up and revealed themselfs, confused. One rebel pointed at them, and raised his gun. All the UNSC soldiers fired at the rebels, and the rebels fired back. Bodies fell everywhere, in the full force of dozens of guns. Keys crawled to the hatch of the sky skipper that that man walked into. He slowly inched towards the man in the pilot's seat. He got to the back of the chair, and the man spun around. "KEYS!?!" Said the terrified man that looked familiar. "...Ensign Watts?" Keys said shocked. "Did you hear?" He said quickly,"Their going to nuke this place very soon!" He put a gun to Keys' head "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WATTS!?!" I screamed at him. "Get out." he said in a monotone voice. "What?" "I said, GET OUT!!!" he pushed Keys towards the exit, and kicked him out of the sky skipper. "Damnit Watts, I got men here that need evac!" Keys screamed to him, as he fired up the engines. He gave Keys the middle finger out the window, and accelerated out of the hangar, into the sky at an incredible speed. Keys looked around to see that the fire fight was almost over, and the UNSC were dispatching the rest of the Rebel stragglers. Keys ignored all this, and ran to the remaining sky skipper, and tuned it to the UNSC comm. channel frequency: "One minute until nuclear drop boys!" "WHOOHOO!" Keys rushed out of the sky skipper and ran up to the troops. "Everyone gather wounded and get in the sky skipper! NOW!" Keys said franticly. Everyone ran up to shot soldiers and checked for life signs. All in all, there were thirty surivors, and everyone crammed into the sky skipper, while Keys brought the engines to life. There were only twenty seats, which was a problem. "Damnit Watts..." Keys wispered, and then spoke up,"Ok, strap all wounded into seats, and if anyone thinks they can hold onto something and stay upright at mach 5, please do so, because there will be 10 extra people."       Ten brave soldiers took up places in the sky skipper, taking hold of whatever they could find. Keys knew that the Sky Skipper could not exactly fly; it could only be in more than a hover for about one minute. "Hold on!" Keys yelled to them, and pressed the throttle forward. The Sky Skipper blasted out of the hangar at tremendous speeds. Keys continued to press the throttle forward, and he started to hear the ship wine from the speed. they were now at mach 4, and the soldiers that were standing were having trouble screaming from the pressure. Com link: This is Charlie Victor, drop in 30 seconds! Keys body was sucked to the seat, but he kept his hand on the throttle, and pressed it evn more forward. The Sky Skipper reached mach 5, and started to lift more off the ground, with the help of its small wings. The Whining came to be an ear splitting whine, as it got faster. Com Link: 10 seconds to drop... Keys clenched from the mass amout of G's as it reached Mach 7. Red lights in the cockpit lit up, and there was a continuous beeping noise signifiying that the ship would break up at the speed it was going. Com link:Time for some firworks! Nuke deployed! Keys hit the landing thrusters and pushed the main thruster throttle all the way forward, and the Sky Skipper leaped into the air, and made its accent. Warning went up all over the ship, as it started to break-up mid-flight. The Sky Skipper went up in the air at a tremendous angle, while he kept his arm on the stick, pulling up. A blinging flash passed the ship, and then after that, there was silence. They were just out of the way of the blast, and eventually, the great sound of the explosion caught up to them.       Keys landed the Sky Skipper, and he sent out a distress beacon. After he did that, he then slumped in his pilot's chair for some much needed R and R. <Next part: Part 5: Revalation> Wings of Death Part 5: Revalation Date: 22 September 2002, 6:36 am       ~The pilots found out that the whole ordeal at Fort Gammoth was actually a real life training exercise. The UNSC cruiser that Keys saw, was surveying the entire fight. The whole group of pilots that Keys were in was recruited to an elite training program with other skilled pilots, where they spent many years in training and warfare exercizes. Keys also moved up in the ranks along with most of his collieugs that were still alive. Keys is now about 30 years old, and has seen much war. They were put into a top secret fighter group called "The Wings of Death". The present time is about 2 years before the attacks at Harvest. "So what are we doing this time?" Jester asked from the cockpit of his Class A fighter. "It seems that We've recieved a distress signal Alpha priortiy, from the Frigate 'Wado's Fate'." Chief Stanforth said. "Do we know anything else?" "Nope, so be prepared for anything." The 30 fighters came face to face with a large planet that seemed to be black with smoke. "What the hell happened there?" Aspen asked. "Mabye an annual waste burning fest?"       They came around the other side of the planet, and saw something in the distance, orbiting around the planet. "Well it looks like we've found the Frigate." Jester pointed out. "No..." Keys said, and used his ship lenses to zoom in on the distant object,"take a closer look." "Hey," Jester said,"when did the UNSC allow full paint jobs on thier ships?" "They didn't..." Stanforth said,"Ok everyone, unlock your weapons! We're going in for a closer look."       Keys pushed the trottle forward, as they all sped towards the large craft. "Hey Keys, looks like we have a little energy drain on the right engine. We should get that checked when we get back," Shark said to Keys. "Remember Shark, you're my navigator, not my mom." Keys remarked. "Yes but might I reming you, if a leak comes in contact with the sensors and circuts, we're dead suckers." Shark said, tapping on Keys head from behind.       As the ships came closer, they began to notice the un-human shape of the craft. "uh, visual, I repeat I have visual, what is this thing?" Aspen said. "Probably some hoak." Jester said. "Hold on, scan for anything." Stanforth said. "...well, Im picking up massive heat signatures, which means that there are people abord the ship, but what puzzles me is, I'm picking up high ion concentrations around the vicinity." Raven said. "Wow Ion concentratins that high must mean there's a plasma build-up." Aspen replied uneasily. "No...a plasma build-up that high is impossible!" Shark said to everyone. "Weapons ready!" "What?" Jester said confused       A blue light flased from the large craft, and a large blue beam impacted into Jesters ship, which was immediatly incenerated. "HOLY SHIT! EAVASIVE MANEUVERS!" Aspen screamed, as all the ships scattered. "FIRE AT WILL MEN!" Stanforth ordered. All the fighters gathered back in formation, and charged at the strange enemy, as it shot at the incoming fighters. Fighters were being destroyed everywhere, one exploded in front of Keys, and he angled off just in time to avoid collision. "Ok! Enemy craft in firing range! Prepare to fire all Anvil II missles on my mark!" Stanforth said. Just after those words were uddered, dozens of strange enemy fighters swarmed out of an exit out of the ship, and made a direct path towards us. "Scratch that, engage enemy fighters!" Stanforth yelled.       The Fighters approched us at incredible speeds, and began to fire weapons similar to the large enemy cruiser, but smaller, and less affective. "Pick a man!" "Rodger that!" "Lets do it!" All the UNSC fighter broke up, and went after a certain target. "Ok Shark, find me one!" Keys yelled. "..there one approaching at your 11!" Keys angled off a bit, and came from the side of the fighter. "Eat lead." Keys said as he fired upon the fighter with 6 gatling guns. Something glistened around the ship, and it was unharmed. "uhh, Shark?" Keys said confused. "Working on it!" Keys commensed his spray of bullets, and the glistening grew faint, and then, it flashed. The fighter was now beginning to take the fire. "It has some kind of shielding." Shark said. "A little late to tell me that Shark!" Keys stammered, as he veered off to avoid a volly of plasma fire from another enemy. Keys re-directed himself, and fired an Anvil II missle at the fighter he was pursuing. The ship imploded on impact of the missile, and Keys went off to another enemy.       Stanforth had eight enemies in front of him, and two behind him. "It would be a great time to help Aspen!" Stanforth Screamed to his navigator. "Do your work, I'll do mine!" Aspen yelled back. Stanforth unlocked a HAVOK nuclear missile, and launched it in front of him. "HAVOK out!" He yelled over the comm. The entire war zone lit-up when the nuclear device triggered in a large explosion, destroying all the fighters in front of him, and a few others. The lerge enemy carrier continued to fire its weapon of mass destruction upon all the UNSC fighters, killing them, and sometimes some of their own.       A team of five UNSC fighters took on a group of thirteen enemy fighters. They all swarmed eachother, weaving in and out of each others paths. The fight lit up in plasma, burst lasers, and missile fire. The enemy cruiser fired once again, but this time, it was upon the entire group that was fighting. The plasma incenerated all five UNSC fighters, and all the enemy fighters.       The remaining enemy fighters withdrew from the attacks, and went back into the great cruiser. The criuser floated silent, not firing it's large cannons anymore. The comm. channels automatticly came to life, and an omnious voice came on: Comm link(unknown): We are by the will of our gods, we are their instrument. Comm link(Stanforth): Who the hell are you, and what do you want? Comm link(unknown): You will know us as the Covenant, and our duty is to exterminate your race known as the humans. Comm. link(Stanforth):Never... The comm. channel went dead after that, and the pilots couldn't communticate with them anymore. "Aww crap! I'm picking up mass ion concentrations again!" Aspen yelled over the comm. The ship's sides lit-up, and plasma pierced past them. All the UNSC fighters went full-throttle towards the Covenant cruiser. There was only fourteen UNSC fighters left, and their numbers were decreasing. The cruiser kept up a continuous fire of its cannons, and it was getting tricky for the pilots to avoid the blasts. "In firing range!" Stanforth yelled,"FIRE!" All the pilots expended all their Archer, Anvil II, and proximity missles all at the same time. As they charged forward, they watched the missiles travel forward. They were getting closer and closer by the minute. "100 Yards and closing!" The first missiles which were the Archers, hit the ship's shields, and the outer part of the ship lit into brilliant colors. Next was the proximity missiles, which had a uniqe extra punch to them, hit the ship's shields. The shields held, until the Anvil II missiles reached the shield. The Anvil II's hit the dying shields, then made their way through, and smashed into the exterrior of the ship. The salvo of Anvil II's had enough power to tear a gaping hole in the ship's hull. "Ok everyone!" Aspen screamed out,"I have the final calculations! The covenant shields will only be out for about twenty seconds, before they come back on, and the ship will be once again inpeneraturable." "So what if we were to plant something big past the shields, and detonate them when it comes back on!" Stanforth suggested. "Will a Nuke do?" Keys asked. "Yah, but I already used mine!" Stanforth added. Two Fighters were reduced to ashes in mere seconds from another blast from the covenant cruiser. "...I'll do it." Keys said. "Are you crazy?!?" Shark screamed at him. "SHARK!" Keys yelled,"this is our chance to make a difference in peoples lifes. Just recently, we lost many of our teammates because of the actions of these creatures. Now," Keys looked up at the massive cruiser that was starting to fill up his entire view,"It's time for us to sine." Shark sighed,"Why do you always get me into this kinda crap?" "heh heh...Lets do it!" Keys said, as he sped towards the cruiser, and the others retreated to a further distance. "Ok heads up! incoming fighters!" Shark informed Keys. "Shark take controll of the weapons contolls while I postition the nuke." Keys said, as he pointed the targeting reticule towards the Covenant bastard cruiser. "Bye-bye now." Keys said casually as he launched the nuke towards the covenant ship,"Ok Shark lets get outta here!" "You don't have to tell me twice Ke-" Shark said but was interrupted by a warning on the ship's panel. "What did I tell you Keys!" Shark screamed at Keys,"Engine leak on right engine!" "shut down the right engine, and transfer all the power to the left engine!" "It's too late! The engine has already leaked fluids onto the vital circuts of the ship!" "FULL THROTTLE DAMNIT!" Keys screamed at Shark. "We'll blow to pieces if we heat the engines!" He replied franticly. "Hold on boys!" Stanforth yelled, as he came back for Keys and Shark, and shot down the fighters behind them. Stanforth lowered grapple cables, and attached them to the ship that Keys and Shark were in. "Now lets get the hell out of here!" Aspen said. They blasted away, out of the range of the nuke, and watched from a safe distance, with the Covenant fighter way behind. "ok shields should be back on." Aspen said. Keys presssed the button on his panel, and they watched the ship inside the shield turn into a blinding oval of light. The shields finally gave-way, and the energy from the nuke and the cruiser poured outwards, destroying all the ships in its path that weren't fortunate enough to get far away.       At the end of the ordeal, there were only ten fighters left, and the planet was found to be charred from the attacks of the Covenant. All the pilots rushed to the mess hall for some food. They opened the doors to find a group of ONI spooks waiting for them. They were told that the information about the covenant, or anything relating with it would be kept top secret, and was never to be told to anyone. Stanforth claimed all the glory saying he risked his life to destroy the cruiser, killed most of the fighter single handedly, and saved many other people from death. The CO believed this bs andStanforth was considered a hero, for really what Keys and the other pilots did.       Stanforth was eventually promoted to admiral after that incedent, and many others where he claimed fame for more than he did. A little while after that, the planet Harvest was atacked, and the intelligence of the Covenant was revealed publicly, after being held a secret for over two years.~ "So wait," Dr. Hasly says to Keys,"You mean to tell me that you were friends with Watts, who is now a rebel commander, Stanforth, who is now Admiral, and the knowladge of the Covenant was actually kept under wraps?" "Dr. Hasley, the info is true." Keys said to Dr. Hasley as they sat alone on the bridge of a small UNSC cruiser. "I can't belive it," Dr. Hasley said,"My Spartans are dying out there fighting the Covenant, and this incedent could have been diverted if we would have known about this!" "Dr. Hasley," Keys said, letting his hand travel down his side,"Do you know that best way for two people to keep a secret?" "Huh?" She said confused. "like I said: The best way to keep a secret, between two people is,"Keys reached for the Old fasioned 9mm Glock that was in his holster, and put the gun to her head,"Is if there's only one person to keep it..." <next part: Part 6: Life as a Fugitive> Wings of Death Part 6: Life as a Fugitive Date: 24 September 2002, 2:56 am       A single smoking casing dropped to the ground, as Keys sat in a chair and looked down at the floor with regret. "What the hell did you do that for?!?" Cortana screamed at Keys. "Cortana, did you ever hear about the truce that the Wings of Death made?" "No..." We made a truce that we would never tell the secret about the Covenant finding and belongings." "Belongings?" Cortana said with a confused expression on her face. "Yes, after we destroyed the Covenant cruiser, there were certain...treasures that survived the blast." Keys said while he spun the glock around. "Like what?" "It's interesting that you ask that Cortana, because I don't know myself...only Stanforth does. When we went to the place where the desolated cassis of the covenant crusier was, there was a certain case that seemed to be heavily armored for some reason. Stanforth said there was only one treasure within the strange looking crate, so he thought it would anly be fair if the last Hell Angel would obtain it." "So you mean the last suriving member of the Wings of Death would have the treasure to himself?" Cortana asked. "Percisly, in fact this treasure seemed to be so great that, stanforth insisted that we'd have a way for the last survivor to access it." Keys said, reminising. "How?" "The key to the practicly unbreakable crate was made of the same alloy as the crate. There was only 20 of us pilots and navigators left in the Wings of Death, so Stanforth used a percision asteriod laser to cut the cyndrical piece into twenty pieces." Stanforth made a hole in the key piece, and burrowed a tracking device in it, that way, if a pilot was killed in space, or anywhere else in that matter, someone would retrieve that piece, and insert the piece into the crate key implacement. We were all issued these 9mm Glocks from sometime around the 21st century, and the key piece is embedded on the hammer of the gun." "Interesting story." "It's not yet over,"Keys said,"The truce we made was if we told anyone of this secret, we would have to kill them, and anyone that heard it. If the word of someone leaking the secret got to a Hell Angel, they would have to kill the person that was rumored to be leaking information." "So that means..."Cortana started to say. "Yes Cortana, I can't let you obtain the secret." "Well too late, I just blew your cover." Cortana said evily. "You didn't," Keys said with a shocked expression on his face,"just comm. the Wings of Death." "It looks like your friends are going to pay you a visit pretty soon." "DAMNIT CORTANA!" Keys screamed. Keys puled the hammer back on his Glock, and fired into the panel that was harboring Cortana. He then pulled out the chip, and smashed it with his boot.       A blinking light went on on the view screen, and Keys pressed the button, and the screen came to life, to show a pilot in his cockpit. "Good to see you again Keys." Said a pilot that turned out to be Shark, his former navigator,"too bad it will be the last...sorry bud, but a truce cannont be broken...Im sorry I have to do this," The screen went dead, and the entire bridge went red, as red sirens spun around. "What the hell?" Keys said, then noticed the 5 Class B bombers heading directly towards him. "Ok what kind of weapons does this ship have?" he said to himself. "Warning! missile lock!" the computer voice toned. "Defensive weapons online!" Keys shouted to the computer, and dozens of gatling guns emerged from the hull of the ship, and began to fire upon the incoming missiles. "Ok that should buy me some time." He said to himself. He ran down the empty corridors following the arrows to the docking bay. A few times the ship rumbeled as themissiles hit their mark. "Don't resist Keys! If you surrender, we promise to give you an honorable death." Shark said. Keys came to the loading bay, and checke out the small array of out dated ships, he needed something fast. There was a small one man UNSC corvett(named the firefly) docked, and had one anvil II missile below its small hull, and two gatling gun turrets. "That will do." Keys said. "Halt your attacks Keys!" the comm. channel boomed over the ship's radio.       Keys hopped into the cockpit, and closed it quickly. He activated the docking bay door to open, and fired up the Firefly's dual engines. "Have it your way Keys...it's been nice knowing ya," Aspen said.       Keys knew what was going to happen: a HAVOK missile. He jetted out of the small ship, and headed towards Sigma Octanus II, which was very near. Keys happened to look back just in time to see the ship light up on the other side, rupture with craks of light, and then finally explode into a million pieces. Keys put his ship on full throttle, on a direct path towards Sigma Octanus II. <Next part: part 7: When the Whole Universe Becomes an Enemy> Wings of Death Part 7: When the Whole Universe Becomes an Enemy Date: 28 September 2002, 4:10 am Wings of Death Part 7: When the Whole Universe Becomes an Enemy Posted By: el_halo_diablo <funkmonker3lite@hotmail.com> Date: 28 September 2002, 4:10 am

      Keys Sped towards the planet of Sigma Octanus II while the pilots were convinced that he was killed.

"Ok guys, we may have lost a good friend, but we did what we had to do," Shark said over the comm,"...so lets retrieve the key piece, and add it to the treasure key hole."
"Scanning for the piece...wow we better get it quick, cause its hurdleing towards that planet!" Shark said.
"Wait I see something...Am I seeing what you guys are seeing?"
"Yah..I think so, lets find out."
"Ok set coordinates to traking device number 004."

      Keys heard the entire thing over the open comm channel, and knew they were coming over to his ship, so he turned off the engines, and the blue glow faded away to match the omnious color of space. Keys turned off all systems, even the life support, and inertia dampeners. Keys found some metal plates behind the seat, and covered the cockpit windows with them.

"Well the signal is coming from that object over there," Aspen said,"It looks like an old one man ship."
"but the scanner shows no sign of life, no heat signatures, electronics...nothing."

      Keys sat in the ship, enduring extreme cold from not having life support, and not having any source of heat, meaning that the ship must have been 100 degrees below zero, and his external body temperature was down to nothing. Keys held his breath, knowing that they were scanning for heat signatures. Keys, quickly let the hot air, and took a very large gulp of painfully cold air.

"Wait,"Aspen said,"did you see that heat signature?"
"What? Where?" A different pilot by the nickname of Stinky asked.
"Well it was there for about a second, and then was just engulfed by cold." Aspen said perplexed.

Keys saw the steam of his hot breath dissapear quickly. He peeked through the window to see that they were powering down their engines, to see what was going on. Keys saw several grappling cables fire out of all the ships onto his own ship. The engines were now completly powered down, by the look of black in their thrusters. Keys reached for the thruster with his shaking hand, and slammed it forward. The lights, life support, and all electronics came to life immediatly. Keys ripped the metal panels covering the windows, and threw them behind him.

"What the hell?!?"
"what is it?"
"All its systems are coming to life...And there seems to be a person in there...HE HAS THE KEY PIECE!" Aspen screamed in disbelief.
"KEYS?!? BUT HOW!" Stinky yelled in frustration.
"He must have escaped!" Shark said, with a small grin on his face.

      Keys' small ship engines came to life immediatly, and the corvett shot off yet again, towards Sigma Octanus II, leaving the Hell Angels in the dust, as the grappleing cords snapped, making the fighters spin madly in space. Keys neared the planet, and searched for a city, and found many lights coming from a certain area, so he headed towards it.

      Meanwhile, the Wings of Death finally maintained course, and headed towards Sigma Octanus II in pursuit of Keys, and most of all, the piece.
"Ok boys It looks like we'll have to take this off the air, and onto the ground."
"I'm sure Keys wont tell anyone else, besides, I think this is going to turn out to be a very bloody fight."
"Are you qestioning rules of the truce?"
"I just don't think we should kill Keys..."
"If we don't kill Keys, then it will be ok for you to tell people and not be killed, and then soon everyone will tell everyone, and we will all be executed for treason!"
"Teason?!?"
"We could have saved humanity if we told the UNSC about our discovery of the covenant two years before they really attacked! But instead,"Aspen said regreting what he did in the past,"we were told not to say anything, and damned the only hope for the human race."
"Fine I will go along with this," shark said glumly,"but I will never do anything to harm Keys, He's my old pilot, and I can't do something like that to someone that was so close. He was my closest thing to a family."
"Don't worry," Aspen said,"We'll take care of him."
The Wings of Death sped into the planet's atmosphere, still following the traking device's nav. point.

      Keys landed the ship away from the city, and opened the cockpit door. Hot air made its way into the ship, as the thermometer displayed 103 degrees. Keys still had the chills from the 20 to 30 seconds he spent in the coldness of space. Keys grabbed what he could find in the ship: 2 fragmentation grenades, two MA5B's, and one MD6. He stepped out of the ship, and landed on soft sand. The world of Sigma Octanus II was an entire desert, or at least this part of the planet was. Keys ran towards the city which was about 100 yards away, and ran into a bar with his weapons strapped to himself. Keys pulled out a seat, and sat in front of the bar table. The bar tender walked over to Keys, eyeing him.
"What do you want?" The bartender asked Keys.
"uuh," keys reached in his pocket for his credit card,"I guess I'll take a shot."
"Just one? you look terrible." The bartender said to Keys.
"You're right...I'll take five." Keys said to him.
"Coming right up." the bartender said, and went off in the back room.
      Keys rested his arms on the table, and looked up at the news monitor, which all of a sudden went to a speacial report.
"The UNSC is looking for a traitor that is loose, He is considered very dangerous, and there is a reward on the capture of this man." The news reporter said. Keys picture came up on the screen, and he reached over the counter to turn it off.
      The bartender came back with the drinks, and Keys took them all, but didn't drink them. Keys gave the man the card to scann, and then handed the bartender the Glock.
"Whats this for?" The bartender asked.
"You're a great man." Keys said, and smiled, and walked further into the tavern. As he walked away from the counter, Disturbed's song: "Prayer" started to play loudly in the bar.

      The Hell Angels landed on the planet next to Keys craft, and walked towards the bar, following the traking device. The Hell Angels cocked their assult rifles, and walked to the front of the bar.
"Ok, on the count of three," Aspen said,"were just going to immediatly shoot keys, and get the hell out of here."
The most intense part of the song began to play.
"one.." Aspen raised his silenced MD7 pistol,"two...THREE!"
They all kicked open the door, as the music played loudly. Aspen fired treee shots into the back of the bartender who was holding the gun with the traking device.
"WHAT?!?" Aspen screamed as the bartenders dead body dropped to the ground.
Keys jumped out from a table, screaming, with both his MA5B's in each hand, and shot a full round in the direction of the Hell Angels.
The music drowened out the firefight, as buttlets spattered holes all over the wall. Shark was in the way of the fire, and took several bullets to the chest. Keys threw a grenade, and made a run for the Glock that was on the ground behind the counter. The grenade went off at the entrance of the bar where the Hell Angels were. The were able to jump back in time, but were blinded by the explosion. Keys took advantage of this, and pried the gun from the grip of the dead bartender, and made his way quickly towards the door, but someone on the ground grabbed his leg. Keys looked down to find out it was Shark in a puddle of his own blood.
"...I'm not going to stop you Keys..." Shark said.
"I'm sorry you got in the way Shark..." Keys said, and heaved shark onto his shoulder, and proceeded to carry him out the door.
      Keys looked at the Hell Angels rolling on the ground, holding their faces in pain. Keys ran down the street, while people started to look at him suspiciously. One man with a MD6 blocked his path.
"HE'S THE TRAITOR! HE'S MINE!" The man screamed, as he leveled his gun.
"Is that?" another man said,"it is, HEY GUYS, ITS THE TRAITOR!" The man motioned for ten men to run out of the Starbucks that they were in. They all jumped onto air-bikes and puled out their pistols. Many other people walking down the streets noticed who he was, and ran after him.
Keys looked around at everyone, and smacked the pistol out of the guys hand, and ran as fast as he could. Keys ran to his ship, and pressed in the secrurity codes. The Biker gang caught up to him, and fired their pistols at him. The bullets borred themselves into Shark's limbs. He screamed out in pain. Keys ran around the other side of the ship, and layed Shark down in the sand, and spun around the corner with his pistol. Keys fired five bullets into the biker in the front, and watched his body be torn to pieces. The other bikers saw this, and all split up toward Keys. Keys ducked back to where Shark lie, and picked up both MA5B's. Keys sprug up, and straifed, while keeping his finger on both triggers. One biker was shot, and slammed into another biker, and both of the air-bikes exploded into flames. Another two bikers were killed by the mass amount of bullets flying into them. Keys made a run back to the ship as the other people from the city ran towards him. Keys checked the pulse on Shark before he got in: 0 pulse.
"soory Shark," keys said as he jumped into his ship, and fired up his engines, and blasted away from the place.


"Sir?" a uniformed man walked into the office of Stanforth's,"It appears that Leutenant Jacob Keys, a former member of the Wings of Death has leaked the secret to a civillian, and has already killed several people on his rampage."
Stanforth got up from his chair,"We can not alow him to tell the secret to anyone, or my career would be ruined...he must be stopped immediatly!"
"What do you suggest sir?" the man asked the Admiral Stanforth.
Stanforth leaned into his intercom,"Martha?"
"Yes sir?" the voice came over the intercom.
"Establish a comm link with the Spartans, I have another mission for them."



<Next part: part 8: For Better or for Worse>

Wings of Death Part 8: For Better or for Worse
Date: 2 October 2002, 1:18 am

      Keys has escaped Sigma Octanus II and is now in space, trying to establish a vid-phone connect with His wife Shara. Yes thats right, his wife. They've been married for probably 5 years now. She is a modest person: long brown hair, brown eyes, light skin, but one day, when Keys and her were going to a taco bell, a fat person that weighed about 400 pounds named Cortana rolled her over in the parking lot. Shara survived, but got a scar on the palm of her right hand. Anyways, back to the present time:

      Keys finally matched the frequency of the phone, and immediatly called it. Shara picked up the phone, to see the face of Keys. Her face broke out in a smile.
"Hey honey it's me."
"It's been a few months without seeing you! Im so glad to see your face again!"
Keys sighed and looked at the ground, his smile fading away,"This is hard to say...but this might be the last time I see you."
Her smile disssapeared,"What? What's going on?"
"Turn to UNN." Keys said
Shara turned on the TV, and stared at it,"this can't be..."
"Shara, It's not all true."
"No..."
"SHARA!" Keys shouted.
      Shara turned off the monitor on the phone, and hang up. Keys sat back in the seat, and put his hands on his face, tears welled on the sides of his eyes.
"No..." he said silently, and closed his eyes.

*BOOM!!!*

The Ship shook from the explosive power from outside. Keys sat up immediatly, and opened his eyes. He swiveled his head to look behind the ship, and saw four Wings of Death(the fith pilot was Shark) zooming towards him.
"Oh shit." Keys muttered, as he turned on all the controls.
He looked quickly behind the ship again to see the noses light up, and then release a volley of burst laser fire. Keys ignited the engines, and swirved just in time before the molten red laser blasts hit the ship. Keys sped in the opposite direction of the Wings of Death towards the asteriod belt surrounding Sigma Octanus II.
"Give it up Keys!" Stinky ordered,"It's over."
"Not until that fat bitch Cortana sings!" Keys yelled as he swirved into the ateriod belt.
"aww shit," another pilot nicknamed Sythe remarked at Keys' maneuver into the asteriod belt,"do we have to go in also?"
"No of course not!" Aspen screamed at Sythe sarcasticly.
      All the Wings of Death made a path towards the asteriod belt.
"Ok people, keep scanners on ofr any incoming objects." Aspen said.
"HOLY SH-" Sythe's ship was struck by a large asteriod, and his ship exploded into pieces.
Aspen sighed,"continue!"
Keys was going the opposite direction the asteriods were orbiting, so it was a hard task to avoid all the major rocks. He knew that the small corvett he was driving wouldn't hold up for very long, but he had to stay in the belt. While Keys made an effort to avoid every single piece of asteroid, the remaining tree Wings of Death blasted away at incoming asteriods with gatling guns and burst lasers.
"Ok," Aspen said,"delta formation!"
"Aye aye sir!" the pilot on the left nicknamed Bronco remarked.
"Rodger that!" the pilot on the right nicknamed Trigger replied.
They went in delta formation, occasionally avoiding big asteriods, but blasting the rest.
"Enemy Corvett 1000 meters and closing!" Bronco advised the other two.
      Sweat was pouring down Keys' face,"Crash damnit, CRASH!" He screamed to them not over the comm. The fighters continued to swerve in and out of the ateriods. Keys opened the controls on the gatling gun turrets, and swiveld them around to fire at Bronco. Keys pulled the trigger, and fired a continuous round at Bronco's ship, not much of the fire made it to the ship, due to all the debris, so he figured he'd have to get closer, but that would be a bad idea, due to them having the advantage. A million strategies raced through his head, but the only true option was to stay alive.

"Ok enemy in fire range," Trigger said,"comminsing fire!"
"rodger that." Aspen said, and unlocked two archer missiles,"Fox one, fire 2!"
"I hear ya man!" Bronco shouted,"Fox 3 fire 2!" And he also fired two archer missiles.

      Keys looked at the warning panel that was flashing red, It told him that four missiles were heading towards him, with minimal locking. The two first missiles came in front, and caught up with Keys, Keys turned around a massive ateriod, and both missiles slammed into the asteriod. The next two had a better lock on Keys, and stayed on him. Keys maneuvered madly amogst the packed asteriod belt. Keys had a familiar last resort idea, and turned directly around, now he was going in the direction of the asteriods. The asteriods were still faster than his ship, so he had to contantly look at his scanner for oncoming objects. He looked behind himself to see the two archer missiles getting back together to maintain a good lock.


"What the hell is Keys doing?" Aspen wondered as he saw him coming back around, and was now headed towards him,"Ok ready all guns for firing!"

Keys approached them, and turned the dual gatling guns around to face Bronco's ship. Keys got a clear shot, and headed towards him. Keys pulled the trigger, and unleashed a stream of bullets on Bronco's ship. The bullets chipped away at the cockpit, making it hard to see out the front window. Teh three Wings of Death all fired their quad gatling guns, and bullets gouged the exterior of the small corvett. Keys made sure the missiles were right behind him, and keys went straight under Bronco's incoming ship, barely missing him by feet. Bronco looked back at Keys, then looked forward at the missiles coming right at him.

"AAAHHHH!" Bronco screamed, and swirved. One missile smashed through his wing as it passed, and the other missile continued on with the other, towards Keys. Bronco let out a sigh of relief,"phew." An asteriod then slammed into the hull of Bronco's ship, and punctured it. The cabin depressurized, and Bronco was sucked out into the Vacum of space.
"NOOOOO!" Trigger screamed, and put the after-burners on and made a U turn towards Keys who was already getting away.
"Don't follow Trigger!" Aspen screamed at him.
"So we're going to just let him get away?!?"
"No." Aspen said, as he looked through the speacial inventory file on the ships computer,"if you didn't know, we have sizemic charges on the ships bay doors. These sizemic charges have thrusters on them, so with the orbit combined with the thrusters, they should be able to detonate near Keys.
"..Rodger that." Trigger said.
"Ok we have plenty of sizemic charges," Aspen said,"so we'll fire one every two seconds."
"Ready..Fire!...Fire!..." Aspen ordered, as they both shot sizemic charges towards Keys.


      The missiles have caught up with Keys, and he was now trying to out-maneuver them yet again. Keys turned the gatling guns behid him, and fired. The missiles weren't usually directly behind him, but sometimes, they recieved a spray of bullets. Keys found three large asteriods lined up in front of him, so he swirved in and out of them, like they were driving cones. On missile cut the turn, and slammed into one of the asteriods, while the other kept persuit. Keys went for a minute veering in and out of asteriods large and small, but still, the missile kept on him. Sweat poured down his face, and got in his eyes, he tried vigorously to wipe the stinging liquid out as his eyes burned. The warning light went full-on when it displayed that the missile had aquired a definate lock, which meant that there was no reason to try and dodge it. As the missile came within 200 yards, Keys let go of the controls, and closed his eyes- he was done for.


<Next part: Part 9: Friend or foe?>

Wings of Death Part 9: Friend or Foe?
Date: 7 October 2002, 9:43 pm

      Ah the joys Keys had dog fighting his colligues in the simulator, It seemed so innocent back then, ah the good old days. Yes the good old days of weekends when he was able to run through the open amber fields to get to his small secluded cottage. His wife always gretted him at the door, and he ate the most wonderful home cooked meal.

      Theese were one of the many things that Keys was admireing on his last few seconds of his life, before the missile hit him. He didn't want to look back at the missile, or look at the radar, so he just sat back, and relaxed himself. A large explosion that sent a shockwave throught the tiny corvett set off behind him. Keys slowly opened his eyes to see that the missile was off the radar.
"It must have been a miracle!" Keys shouted, seeing that he had lived.
Another explosion went off, forcing Keys to grab hold of a handle. He checked the radar to see dozens of sesmic charges coming towards him.
"Oh nevermind..." Keys said,"Those dumbasses just saved my life with one of their weapons against another!"
Keys put his hands back on the controls and the stick, and continued to fly.
      The asteriod belt was now being littered with sesmic charges. Each charge that went off obliterated any asteriod that was in range of its 100 meter blast. The entire side of the belt Keys was on was now just a big fireworks show, as great balls of blue exlplosions lit the surrounding area for a second, then faded. Blasts were going off every second, as Aspen and Trigger sat back, continueing to deploy the charges.

      Keys immediatly began to speed up as the charges became dangerously close to the ship, constantly knocking Keys off of the controls. Keys did every effort to get away from the great explosions and shockwaves. He knew that if he'd exit the asteriod belt, Aspen and Trigger would hunt him down, and he would be easy prey. Keys zooms by an open stretch where there are no asteriods in the center. Right be hind him are a set of charges that set off one every second, each one explodes closer and closer to Keys' ship. Keys looks back at the sesmic charges detonating closer and closer. everytime one went off, the shockwave got stronger and stronger. The external armor was showing fatigue from the constant blasts shaking the ship. Keys hands started to shake on the stick as the explosions start to knock pieces of armor off the speeding craft.

"...crap I'm all out." Aspen said looking at the inventory displays, showing and empty for the sesmic charges.
"Me too, Aspen." Trigger said,"but it will still be a while before the rest detonate."

      Explosions sent Keys' ship bouncing all over the place. Another warning went off, this time it was missile lock malfuntion. The Anvil II missile below the ship, began to sway in the evasive maneuvers. A charge detonated to the side of the ship, and the ships hull crumpled a bit from the impact. The charges were within 100 meters now, and keys head slammed on the front panel. Keys wiped the blood that was seeping from above his eyebrow, and cursed under his breath, trying to keep a steady course dispite all the wrenching explosions.

      The figures of ten perfectly built men and wemen walked down a dimly lit corridor, and walked through a door.

      A sesmic charge sped ahead of Keys, and Keys put on the emergency retro rockets to slow down. The charge went off about 110 meters ahead of him, and the ship faced a wall of pure kenetic energy, and the ship came almost to an abrupt stop, as it slammed into the shockwave. The structure of the ship stressed to keep intact. The Anvil II became detached, and dissapeared behind Keys, because it was going at a slower speed than him.

      The ten figures suited up in armor that only the famous SPARTANS II wore. They then continued into another room, securing the head pieces, and hiding their identity to anyone that would come across them.

      Keys looked back at his only good firepower which was now in the distance, and was out of reach. Another explosion hit close within the 100 meters, The right side of the ship's exterior armor melted a little, and the sensors showed that the next close hit would breech the hull, which wasn't good news. More explosions hit in al directions, and the protectant viewing glass infront of him started to get a strange inward angle to it, and began to crack at the sides. A sesmic charge exploded directly behind the corvett about 50 meters away, and one engine blew apart, and the other was severly damaged. The corvett was now going at a deadly pace. Keys saw another charge drift to his left side. It was too close, and he knew it would detonate any second.

      The Armored soldeirs walked in unison, grabbing their armorments like assult rifles, grenades, shotguns, and other assorted weapons. A door opened ahead of them in the corridor, and an emmense light radiated from the dorrway, lighting the dark corridor.

      "Ok Trigger, ready all your missiles." Aspen said as they accelerated down the asteriod belt.
"Oh why are you so cocky Aspen, there's no way he could have survived that."
"Don't underestimate Trigger, We've already lost too many doing that."
"uugh...yes sir, all Archer missiles unlocked."
"Thats more like it soldier." Aspen said as they sped down the asteriod.
      Aspen turned on the motion sensors to long range to pick up anything in a 5000 meter(about 3 miles) distance.
"Ok I'm picking up motion over in that direction." Aspen said squinting at the large object.
"Don't be paranoid Aspen," Trigger said,"It's just that large asteriod."
"mmhmm, yah you're right, lets continue." Aspen said. Aspen saw something drift in front of him at a very fast speed.
"THERE!" Aspen screamed, and fired all six of his archer missiles. The Archers obtained a lock on the USO. The missiles all hit the target and blew it to particles.
"Good Job Aspen!" Trigger said.
"Hmm, we should check the rest of the belt anyways."
The two pilots passed the large asteriod, which was one of the only left on that side of the belt because of all the sesmic charges.
"So uh after this, do we get victory cigars?" Trigger asked comicly.
Aspen chuckeled,"Heh heh, yah sure...but you're buying"
Trigger smiled,"fine but you're paying for the hookers."
"Aww you know what happened last time I picked them." Aspen laughed out.
They both broke out in laughter, and Trigger pounded on the controls. Trigger accedentally fired a laser into Aspen's ship when he was laughing, and the laser punched a hole into Aspen's fusion generator.
"Oh good one Trigger!" Aspen screamed to him as the power faded and the comm. channel went dead. Aspen maintained course without power, and Trigger kept pace with him.
      Aspen got out of his chair, and turned around to head to the back room to make repairs to the generator. As Aspen turned around, he looked out the window, too see the asteriod that was now behind him. He saw something glisten on the asteroid, and his eyes widened. Aspen ran to the comm.
"TRIGGER! IT'S KEYS! HE'S BEHIND US!" Aspen screamed, but the power was completly gone, and the transmission didn't get through. Aspen pounded on the glass to get Triggers attention who was on the right side of Aspen's ship.
      Trigger looked over at Aspens attempt to communicate through the window, bu didn't understand what he was trying to say. Trigger motioned back to Aspen who had a shocked face. Aspen made a picture of a gun with his hands, and pointed behind himself. Trigger jumped up out of his chair, and spun his body around to look behind his ship. His Eyes also widened when he saw what it was.


      Key's bloody face grimaced as he put his finger on the trigger of the dual gatling guns. Keys went to a accurate focused reticule, and aimed at the thrusters of Triggers ship. Keys pulled the trigger, and a mass of led rushed towards Trigger's back thrusters. The rounds of ammunition went throught the back thrusters, through the engines, and caused a breech in Trigger's ship. Trigger screamed as the ship and his body imploded.
"Aspen Aspen Aspen," Keys said to himself as he shook his head,"looks like you're the only one left."


      Aspen made the necissary repairs and rushed back to the cockpit, and establish a comm. channel with Trigger, only to find the remnants of his crumpled ship. He Shivered from fear, and turned to see Key's battered ship,
"one well placed bullet would destroy his ship." He thought to himself.
"Surrender Aspen, I don't want to kill you." Keys said over the comm.
The ship was still offline, but Aspen could turn it on now, but if he did, he would be killed, unless he had an advantage.
"Yes sir..." Aspen grinded his teeth at those words,"you may board my ship, I surrender."
"Verywell." Keys said.


      Keys made his way over to Aspen's ship, he thought of how lucky he was to have Aspens ship offline. He was almost killed by that last sesmic charge, but he fired his single thruster to use underside of the ship(Which was the only side that still ahd formitable armor on it) to take the damage. Keys' ship barely survived, and he found a huge asteriod to hide behind.

      Aspen waited for the perfect moment to make his move. He saw Keys slow down to a stop right behind him, and open up the bay doors for the grappling hooks. This was the perfect moment, and Aspen gunned the engines, turning on all the systems in the process. Aspen immeditaly sped behind Keys, and fired two pin-point shots of his laser, which melted both of Keys' Gatling guns.

"Shit." Keys said. The Gatling guns were his last defensive option, and now he had no weapons. He looked past Aspen at the large asteriod that was just about to pass them, but something else caught his eye. His eyes traveled over to the metallic shine of something approaching from the distance. Keys secretly scanned it while Aspen tried to establish a comm. link. The results on his scanner came up: It read that the object was an armed Anvil II missile. Keys thought why there would be a missile just floating around, but then he remembered when the sesmic charges hit, the missile became un-attached. The missile was approaching fast, so Keys fighured out its trajectory and moved into it's path.
Aspen got the comm. link through,"What the hell are you doing?" Aspen yelled at him, and moved into the path of the missile,"don't try to get away, you don't stand a chance."
      Keys now had Aspen where he wanted him, but had to stall for time before the misile arrived,"Ok, ok, before you kill me, I have one thing to tell you."



      The armored SPARTANS came into a large room filled with Pelicans, and other assorted vehichles. They all went straight for two pelicans, and loaded up in both of them. The Pelicans lifted up, and the hangar doors opened. The pelicans sped out of the hangar and into the sky.
One SPARTAN broke the silence,"So uh, what job are we doing for Stanforth today?"
A voice that would sound familiar to Keys answered the question,"We have an old friend to visit." The SPARTAN said, cocking his assult rifle.
"Rodger that, Master Chief" The other spartan replied, and the back hatch closed as they went off into space.


"What?" Aspen asked Keys,"Whatever you want to say, say it now."
"..." Keys just kept the lines open, and didn't answer.
"WELL?!?" Aspen screamed impatiently.
"Ok...I want you to tell Shara that I love her...and that her husband died..." Keys said, but kinda chuckled.
"What, what's so funny?" Aspen asked.
"umm..." Keys said noticing that the missile was about 100 meters behind Aspen,"there's missile behind you."
"ha, that fooled me once on training, but not again..I'm much smarter now." Aspen said admireing his intelligence.
Keys saw the missile five feet away from the ship before a briliant light erupted, tearing Aspen's ship to shreds.


      Keys gunned out of the asteriod belt, and set course to the closest world which had no name due to it being an outlaw world, and was out of the UNSC's jurisdiction.


      out in the vastness of space, floated Trigger's dead body. Next to his body was his demolished Glock. The only thing that remained in good condition on the gun was the key piece. A robotic arm reaces for the gun, and grabs the piece.
"Ok I've got it." One SPARTAN said.
"Ok It looks like there is one more piece floating in that asteriod belt, and another heading for that planet, it must be Keys."
"Yes well we'd better pick up that piece in the asteriod belt first." Master Chief said.
"You Don't want to kill Keys, do you? You want to give him a chance." One SPARTAN asked him.
"In my Heart, I will never kill Keys, but in my mind, I must." Master Chief said.
"SO are we gunna kill him or what?"

The Master Chief did not answer the question.


<Next Part: Part 10 Judgement>

Wings of Death Part 10: Justification
Date: 12 October 2002, 1:23 am

      Back on Reach, in a secret underground facility, sat Admiral Stanforth, leaning back in his chair, smoking a fine cigar, admiring all the medals that decorated his walls. Someone knocked on his door, and he sat forward.
"Come in." Stanforth said relaxed.
The same uniformed man that came into his office before, appeared from the door.
"What is it?" Stanforth asked.
The man had no expression on his face, and set a heavily armored suticase on Stanforth's desk. On the front of the case had the Wings of Death insignia on it, which was a ancient greek figure with wings, and lightning bolts in his hands reaching towards the sky. Stanforth has only seen a suitcase like this when there was a key piece in it, which meant that there was a dead memeber. He hoped it was Keys.
      Stanforth pressed in the code, and opened the briefcase. He stared in awe at the row of key pieces. He jaw dropped, and the cirgar fell out of his mouth. Stanforth flipped one piece: it was inscribed RIP 'Sythe'. Stanfoth cursed, and went to the next Key piece: RIP 'Shark',"comeon where's Keys?" he said frustrated, and flipped another over: RIP 'Bronco',"DAMMIT!" He said, and quikly flipped another: RIP 'Trigger',"The next one has to be Keys." He told himself. The uniformed soldier just looked at the ground, and shook his head.
      Sweat poured down Stanforth's face, and he flipped the piece over: RIP 'Aspen'. Stanforth jumped out of his chair, and threw the suitcase across the room. His face was red as a cherry, and he screamed at the man inthe room,"HOW CAN THIS BE?!?"
"Don't worry sir, our SPARTANS are on the job right now, in fact they retrieved these pieces. Stanforth cooled down, and loaded the pieces back up in the suitcase.
"Ok..lets go and add these to the crate." Stanforth said, holding the suitcase close to himself.
"Right sir." The soldier said, and they walked out of the room.
      The two men walked to a lift, and they were taken down hundreds of stories down into the installation, until they came to a stop. The room holding the crate had a very low celing(about 7 feet) and was comletely dark, except for four small beams of light that shone on the crate that was in the middile of the room. The crate was about 20 feet away from the lift, and the man stepped out of the lift, but Stanforth grabbed his the man's uniform, and pulled him back.
"You think that people would be able to get to the crate without surpassing deadly security grids and defenses?" Stanfroth said, and accessed a panel on the wall, and walked across the pitch dark floor to the crate. The Large metallic crate was about the height of the celing, and had a circular indentation where the key would go. there was already a large amount of key pieces alrady in the slot.
      Stanforth sighed, and inserted each piece into the slots. There was now only ten remaining Wings of Death that held pieces.
Stanforth looked down at the ground, and made a small prayer for the friends he had just lost, and remained looking at the ground.
The Uniformed soldier put his hand on Stanforth's shoulder,"Don't worry sir...we'll get him."




      Keys exited his beaten corvett, and looked for a nearby shipyard. Keys new this panet had a bad reputation for robbers, and other scum, so he kept all his weapons close to himself. Keys walked into another bar, and asked where the nearest shipyard was. The grungy bartender looked at him, and pointed over across the dirt street. Keys turned around, and walked out of the door, but bumped into a man. The man turned to keys,"Why you bumpin into me boy?" He asked with yellow teeth, and pushed Keys backwards. Keys went up to him, and the man pulled out his MD5, and Keys drew his Glock, Keys fired 4 shots into the mans chest, and he fell to the ground with blood pouring out of his wounds. Everybody in the entire bar heard the gunfire, and stopped what they were doing, and looked over to Keys. Keys looked around at them, and put his pistol away. All the people just shruged, and went back to their gambling and drinking. Keys smirked, and walked out the door to the shipyard.



      The SPARTANS were still en route to the outlaw world, And ever since they picked up the key pieces, the Master Chief hadn't said a single word. It has been about an hour so far ever since they left the asteriod belt, and it would take another hour to reach the planet, so the Master Chief would have plenty of time to plot his actions.



      Keys got a hold on a stolen UNSC class A Tactical fighter, unfortunatly, last time it was used, it was hot down, and needed repairs. The man at the desk told him it would take a day before it was repiared. The man charged him an incredible amount of money, but Keys had to pay up.
      Keys found a wreak of a hotel but walked inside and ordered a room. He sat on the broken bed, and looked at the celing. Keys dozed-off and thought of how much he'd like to get off this planet.



      An hour later, the two pelicans carrying all ten SPARTANS landed, and the armored soldiers marched out onto the streets. One man walking out of the bar saw the army of SPARTANS, and ran back into the bar yelling to everyone,"THE SPARTANS ARE HERE! THEY MUST BE HERE TO ARREST US! I WONT LET THEM ARREST ME!" He screamed(remember, practicly everyone on this world is an outlaw wanted for their crimes). The mob of 50 gun toting men ran out of the bar, and began to fire at the SPARTANS.
"Everyone, take cover!" The Master Chief yelled to his men, while he straifed with his assult rifle blazing. The spartans roudned around corners of buildings, and awaited the Master Chief's orders.
"NOW!" The MC barked, and his men and wemen knew what to do. The first to jump out from the corner threw one fragmentation grenade each. The grenades went off, and shrapnel flew into the eyes of some unlucky outlaws. seven SPARTANS straifed with their assult rifles, while two picked off targets with their sniper rifles, and one SPARTAN stayed back with a rocket launcher. The seven SPARTANS including the MC moved forward, pushing back the outlaws. some more people charged out of the bar, and one threw a grenade.
"FRAG OUT SPARTANS!" MC yelled out.
Two SPARTANS jumped out of the way of the blast while firing their assult rifles, killing the men at the door. There was still 10 SPARTANS and 30 cmiminals the SPARTAN with the Rokct launcher finally acted, and fired a rocket through the window of the bar. the explosion pounded out all the walls, as flames shot outwards, and the building was decimated, along with the people inside.
      The SPARTANS moved back to the pelicans where they recieved two Warthogs, and they loaded up in them. both of the passengers heaved a rocket launcher onto thier shoulders, and took the saftey off them. The Warthogs were completly loaded up, and the SPARTANS waited back until they heard the roar of many Warthogs from the criminals.
      Six Warthogs completly loaded up with people came around the corner at the way end of the town. The two snipers got in the back of each pelican and the pelicans began to takeoff. The SPARTAN controled Warthogs gunned thier engines, and peeled out in the gravel. as they sped towards the two enemy Warthogs in the front, the passengers aimed their RL's at the warthogs. Both of them smiled just before they fired their weapons. The RL's raced forward, and the enemy warthogs tried to avoid the rockets, but the explosions hit the ground next to both of them, and the Warthogs went flying into the air, throwing the passengers out to their deaths. The next pair of Warthogs fired their chain guns. the bulets hit the ground, and raced towards the SPARTAN'S Warhogs, and hit thier vehicles, causeing dents in the metal. The SPARTAN gunners fired back with deadly accuracy, and killed the two gunners. One SPARTAN driver pulled out his pistol, and readied it. The warthogs approached, and right when they passed, the driver fired a bullet into the head of the enemy driver. The other Warthog was destroyed by another rocket.
      A loud crak was heard, and the armor on one of the SPARTAN gunner's arm ruptured, and blood poured out. HE screamed out in pain, as he looked on the rooftop of a building to see a sniper. The gunner swiveled his chain gun over to the roof, and fired at him, shredding the wall of the building.



      leaning over the back in the one of the UNS'sC Pelicans, a SPARTAN sniper finds his target: the sharpshooter from the roof top.
"Target located!" The sniper yells over the comm., as he brings the crosshairs over to the man's head.
"Fire at will" MC orders him.
The sniper fires a single shot, which blows a hole through the sharpshooter's head.
Both the Pelicans race to the end of the ratty city, to find the remainder of the convicts sitting back.
Both of the snipers from both Pelicans rain death upon the the men below. The Pelicans circle like vultures over a dead animal, while the snipers take out as many men as they could.



      Back on the ground, the SPARTAN Warthogs go against the last set of enemy Warthogs. One enemy Warthog fires it's chain gun, and completly obliterates the left tire of a SPARTAN Warthog. The driver tries to maintain control, but he knows that it is no use.
"BAIL!" He screams to the passengers, and pulls a grenade. They jump out, and the driver leaves the live grenade in the warthog. The enemy warthog zooms by the broken Warthog, just as the grenade explodes. The enemy warthog tips over, and sends the passengers rolling on the ground, one SPARTAN that bailed, launched a rocket at the three enemy survivors, blasting their limbs across the walls of buildings.
The last enemy warthog speeds towards the other, now it sems this is a game of chicken. The passenger of the enemy Warthog fires a rocket that hits directly in front of the SPARTAN warthog. The SPARTANS hold on as their Warthog turns backwards in the air. The enemy warthog passes under them. The Warthog does a complete backflip, but while it is up-side down, the gunner fires a stream of armor piercing bullets froim the chain gun at the enemy warthog, hitting the engine, and causing it to explode. The SPARTAN occupied Warthog continues to turn vertically, and lands on the ground perfectly. The Warthog comes to a screeching halt, and the SPARTANS look back to see all the wreakage. There were bits of flaming metal strewn all across the street. Bodies of dead men lie everywhere, and the whole place got quiet all of a sudden. The only thing that was making a noise, was the whoosing sound of small fires. The SPARTANS all slowly walked to the middle of the street, with their guns and heads lowered. Both Pelicans decended, and the snipers jumped out of the back, leaving empty cases of sniper rounds behind. They all gathered together, one SPARTAN had removed the sniper shell out of his arm and injected bio-foam into his wounded arm, and stodd next to the others,"What's the friendly body count?" he asked the Master Chief.
"0 casualties" He replied.
"What about enemy casualties?" The wounded SPARTAN asked.
The Master Chief sighed and said in a low voice," 100% casualties."
"Anyway," one SPARTAN interjected,"We've got to find that Jacob Keys."
The Master Chief remembered about Keys, and saw that the building he was in was just right in front of them.
"Lets move Spartans! double time!"
The SPARTANS all knew thier role in this infiltration, and they began to carry it out.




      Keys saw the commotion outside, explosions aren't really something that you could sleep through. Keys was covering the door with a shelf, and he put his beadspread up against the window. Keys checked all his weapons. If he was going to get killed, he was going to take out some SPARTANS along with him. Keys rigged the door with a grenade, and laoded his Glock up with a new magazine of armor piercing rounds. Keys could hear loud thumps on the stairs outside, which sounded like armored boots coming up the stairs. Keys aimed the gun straight at the door. The thudding came closer, and right to the front door, and everything was silent. Keys kept his pistol raised at the door, and was triying not to lose his cool. He then heard something above him: more thudding. Keys raised his pistol to the celing. Keys dropped his pistol, and picked up his MA5B, and checked to see it had shredder rounds. He rasied it up to the celing, and puled the trigger. The shredder rounds fired into the celing, splinters of wood fell everywhere, and the celing finally collapsed, sending two SPARTANS down in a heap of heavy white dust. The beadspread that was covering the window exploded into pieces, and two SPARTANS came from above the window, and glided in using ropes. The front door started to bang really hard, and it was finally busted. The pin on the grenade came off, and detonated in the faces of six SPARTANS. Amazingly, all of them survived, and one tackled Keys. All the SPARTANS gathered around Keys. Keys looked around wondering what they would do to him. The SPARTAN that was on top of him had a pistol rubbed in his forhead.
"Well Keys," A familar voice said through the visor,"It's good to see you again."
The Master Chief let go of his gun, and let it dangle on his pointer finger, butt-up. He got off of Keys, and stuck out his hand towards Keys.
"Wha? Is that you John?"
"Keys.."The Master Chief struggled to say,"I can't do this."
Keys grabbed The Master Chiefs hand, and He pulled him off of the ground.
"Thanks John." Keys said and shook Master Chiefs hand,"I think we have some buisness to do."



<Next Part: Part 11: 15 Minutes of Fame>

Wings of Death Part 11: 15 Minutes of Fame
Date: 19 October 2002, 3:49 am

      Keys looked out of the window of the pelican, as they sped through space. Keys said he owed the Master Chief a big time for saving his life back on that planet, but he just told Keys that it was payback for the times he had saved his butt in space.
Now that the SPARTANS disobeyed Stanforths order, they will now also be branded as traitors. The SPARTANS have never liked Stanforth, because he didn't care whether or not they'd die in battle.
One SPARTAN broke the omnious silence on the ship,"So what are we gunna do now..I mean we ARE defectors."
The MC lifted his head up,"The only thing we can do is fight back."
"Oh great," another SPARTAN said,"just what the UNSC needs, another enemy."
"No," The Master Chief said smiling behind his visor,"We use the UNSC to get us the crate."
One SPARTAN chuckled,"Oh yah? And how are we going to do that?"
Everyone went silent.
Keys turned around from the window to face the SPARTANS,"Blackmail."
"Heh and how is that going to work?" The pilot asked over the comm.
Keys looked over at the news monitor that was broadcasting the carnage that happened down at the planet:
"This is UNN: Universal News Network correspondent Kathy Lee reporting. Sources say that SPARTANS came after a fugitive know as Jacob Keys, and left catastrophy in their wake! Thier are many dead and wounded here."The news reporter looks around in disgust at the bodies and wrecked buildings,"The whereabouts of the criminal Jacob Keys and the SPARTANS are still unknown."
Keys walked up to the cockpit,"Pilot, set a course for the planet we were just at...we need to visit the UNN."
The Pilot turned around to look at him like he was crazy, "...uh, aye aye sir. Everyone! hold on we're making a U-turn!"
      The Pelican made an abrupt turn that threw Keys to the side. Keys smiled, he was finally going to get back at all the things Stanforth has done to him in the past.



      Stanforth Went back into his office, to find the vid-phone light blinking. he sat down in his chair, and relaxed, and pressed the button. The screen came to life to show a uniformed man that seemed to be under a little stress.
"What is it?" Stanforth asked.
"Sir we have a situation with the SPARTANS." The man sighed
"Well what is it? Did my boys catch Keys?" He asked anxiosly.
The man had beads of sweat on his forhead,"...no sir."
Stanforth stared at the image of the man,"Why not..." he said in a quiet shaky voice.
"Sir...we have many therories as to what-"
"DAMMIT I DON'T WANT THERORIES! I WANT ANSWERS TO WHAT HAPPENED!" Stanforth screamed at the monitor.
"Sir...we think the SPARTANS...might have, defected."
Stanforth roughly vented air through his nostrils in frustration,"Fine it's time to move to plan B."
"Anything I could to do to assist you sir?" The man asked.
"Yes as a matter of fact." Stanforth said smiling,"Get me the location of the Keys' residence."
"Yes sir, right away sir." The man said, and ended the transmission.
Keys turned off the monitor, and sat back in his chair and lit another cigar and took a puff of it,"He'll never know what hit him," he said, and smiled again.




      After an hour of flying directly back from where they came, they finally landed on the planet. Keys hesitated before he jumped out.
"Something wrong? Well...besides the fact that you will have to hide the rest of your life" The Master Chief chuckled.
Jacob Keys sighed,"Before I jump out of this plane, and get myself into this...I want to get in touch with Shara."
The Master Chief jumped out of the Pelican,"verywell, but hurry it up, I don't know how long it will be until people start noticing us."
Keys ran to the front of the Pelican, and picked up the vid-phone, and turned it to the frequency of their house. The signal was sent, but no one replied.
"Damnit.."Keys muttered,"She must not be around."
Keys turned the vid-phone off, and slowly walked to the back of the Pelican, and jumped out.
      The wind hit his face immediatly as he jumped out. Sand blasted in his face, and made it really hard to see the surrounding. Keys had told the SPARTANS to capture the broadcasting station. Keys walked blindly, until he bumbed into someone who was held at gun-point. It was a crewman for the news station. Keys walked further, until he saw the massive news ship, that was about the size of ten pelicans. Keys walked up into the ship, and found more personell held at gun-point by the SPARTANS.
"Please don't shoot me." The news reporter begged.
The Master Chief asked,"Who can control the news broadcasting here?"
One man that was laying on the floor slowly stood up with his hands in the air,"I can, just don't hurt me."
"What's your name?" One SPARTAN asked.
"Thomas, why?" The, confused man asked.
"Well Thomas," The Master chief said,"you're going to help us send a transmission to the UNSC headquarters."
Thomas looked up at the Master Chief,"Are you crazy? I don't have the authorization for that!"
"Well then, who does?" Keys asked, entering the room.
No one answered his question.
Master chief swung his pistol over to Thomas,"Goodbye Thomas." The Master Chief pulled the trigger, and Thomas' body slumped to the ground,"If I don't get any answers, then another person is going to die!" The Master Chief screamed.
"I know who can do that," The reporter said, while crying,"just...please don't kill me."
"Fine, who is it?" Keys asked
"Our boss!" Another man spoke up.
"Oh? and who's your boss?"
Everyone pointed over to a man sitting in the corner.
"Get up." Master chief said.
The man just stayed in a bundle.
"GET UP!" Master Chief ordered, and fired a bulet that shaved a hole through the mans hair. The man sprung up.
"Fowllow me sir." The man said, and went into another corridor. They ended up in a large communications room, with a news desk, and a few large cameras. Put me on a line directly to UNSC high command Keys told him, and sat down behind the desk, looking at the camera.
The man, with a gun to his head pressed in a secret frequency, and flipped a few switches.
"Rolling in five..." The man said.
Keys prepared to give his blackmail to Stanforth.
"Two."
Keys wiped the sweat off his forhead, which was a sign of weakness that he did not want to show.
The man poited to the camera, and a red light went on.




      The UNSC high command all sat around a large rectangular table, discussing political and economical isssues. The vid-phone at the end of the table lit up. Stanforth uneasily went over to the phone, and picked it up. Keys was on the other side of the transmission, sittng behind the UNN news desk.
Stanforth sighed,"Oh Keys, it's you."
"Good to see you again Stanforth." Keys admireingly said,"What do you want? It must be important seeing you hijacked the UNN's broadcasting vessel."
"As a matter of fact," Keys said, and leaned back on his chair,"I do."
"Then hurry it up son. What do you want?"
"I want the chest and all key pieces." Keys casually said.
Stanforth and all the other administrators laughed.
The camera turned to show all ten SPARTANS pointing guns at the news crew.
      All the people in the UNSC conference room were stripped of their smiles.
"So you have the SPARTANS on your side, so?" Stanforth said,"What, you think you can just overtake the greatest defenses of Reach with those puny toy soldiers?"
"Yes and no." Keys said,"See, if you don't agree to my conditions, then I will simply give away your secrets of how you cheated yourself into that position by taking credit for others, and of how we kept this crate a secret. And I will also tell of the cover-up on the Covenant, many years before they became publicly known...and I'm sure most people wont be happy with that. With most the population on my side, you don't stand a chance, so you might as well hand the crate over to me."
"Oh? And how is that going to help you?" Stanforth said with a smirk.
"Well," Keys leaned forward,"I've just matched the frequeny to all vid-phones and monitors, and tell every existing person in the universe about all the things you've done. It's called the universal frequency, because anyting can pick it up, even the curious Covenant."
Stanfoth's face turned red with rage, but tried to play it off.
"Bring her in,"Stanforth said to someone off-camera,"See Keys, in Chess, whenever you move your king, always keep an eye out for your queen." Just then, a woman was pushed into the view of the camera.
Keys knew who it was,"Shara..."
Shara looked desperatly at Keys,"Please don't let them harm me."
"Stanforth! She has nothing to do with this!" Keys screamed.
"Too bad!" Stanfother stood up and raised his pistol to her head.
Shara looked to the screen,"Keys don't say anything,"she hesitated as her eyes wandered off to something behind the camera,"...If you do, they'll kill me! Just don't say anything!" Shara screamed and tears streamed down her face.
Keys noticed something strange about the fact she kept looking tosomething behind the camera everytime she paused.
"Shara," Keys said, feeling suspicious,"Can I see your hand?"
Shara slowly lifted her right hand, palm showing. Tears streamed down her face.
"There's something wrong with your hand Shara..."Keys said, getting out of his chair, and leaning closer to the screen.
Shara looked confused,"What are you talking about sweety? My hand is perfectly fine..."
"That's whats wrong Shara." Keys said concetrated on the appearence of her palm.
Stanforth interjected,"What are you talking about Keys?!?"
Keys paused and his jaw dropped,"Checkmate...Thats not Shara."
"WHAT!!!" Stanforth screamed as spit flew from his red face.
"Nice try Stanforth," Keys said pointing at her hand,"She's supposed to have a scar on her right palm FROM HER ACCEDENT!!!"
"KEYS THIS IS HER! I SWEAR I WILL KILL HER!!!" Stanforth barked at Keys.
"Stanfoth, you FUCKING PILE OF BULLSHIT, and you're now going to pay for your consequences,"Keys flipped the monitor off, and broke the transmission with them,"Ok I want that universal frequency set up in five!"




<Next Part: Part 12: Gaining Allies, and Enemies>

Wings of Death part 12: gaining allies and enemies
Date: 15 November 2002, 1:51 am

      The red light on the camera went on, and keys cleared his throat, and began his speech that the whole human race would see,"Good day to everyone, this is former UNSC pilot of the Wings of Death Jacob Keys. What are the Wings of Death you ask? The Wings of Death were an elite flying ops. team. Whats so speacial about the Wings of Death you ask? We hold the most important secret to human life: years before the "discovery" of the Covenant, we came across them, they were hostile, and destroyed an entire planet. I know you think that this never happened...but it did. The whole thing was kept as a secret, by the UNSC's own: Admiral Stanforth. This crisis with the Covenant could have been averted if Stanforth told the UNSC...but he didn't. Also, there is a special weapon that we recovered from the first contact, that he's also kept a secret. He's now holding the weapon on the planet Reach. How can we trust the UNSC, when they are working against us?!"

      Billions of families watched in horror of the new development. Mixed emotions coarsed through everyones veins: confusion, dis-belief, and most of all, anger.

      Keys continued on, "I'm calling for a new reform! To put Stanforth and his right hand men out of office!," Keys looked proudly into the screen,"A new government." Keys motioned for the camera to go off, and the red light dimmed out, ending the transmission.
      Keys sat-back silently in the chair, wondering to himself what would happen next, not anticipating anything, because of so many variables.
"Master chief," Keys said spinning around to face the armored hero,"let the men go."
The Master chief motioned for the other SPARTANS to release their hostages, and they all let go. Keys looked around at the UNN personell, none were moving.
"Well,"keys said to the former hostages, "you can go now."
Still no one moved. One UNN camera man spoke up, "Uh so all those things that you said are true?"
Keys looked at the man with sorrow,"...yes"
"I'm staying," the camera man said.
"Me too," an engineer piped in.
"Well you could use some help on flying this heap...so i'm with you guys." the pilot said smiling.
Ok," Keys said with a feeling of hope, "if anyone doesn't want to go with this, leave."
Keys looked around, and no one left.
"Well then we should probably get the hell out of here before the UNSC arrive." Keys said.
"Too late." the pilot said looking at the radar screen, "It appears that the UNSC is quick on their word."

      Up from the sky, through the red clouds, 5 D class bombers dropped from the sky.
"Ok, this is toad 1," the leader bombers said to the other decending pilots, "delta formation, we're going to take these bastards out quickly, and effeciently."
"You heard the CO! delta formation!" Toad 3 barked.
The bombers hurdled from the sky at emense speeds, and people could hear the roar in the air from the ground.

      Keys swung around to the pilot, "Get this ship up! NOW! Judging by the poor engine noise, and speed on the radar, they are probably low class bombers, if we could get in the air, we should be able to coordinate an effective resistance."
"Aye aye sir!" The pilot said, and the engines hummed to life.

      The bombers now had the ship in sight. One volley of explosives would tear the UNN cruiser apart. the bombers got in range, and they all brought down the targeting reticules to their eyes.

"GOD DAMNIT! GET THIS SHIP OFF THE GROUND!" Keys franticly screamed.
"Sir dust must have overwhelmed the engines, it will take a few more seconds for it to clear the dust out!"

      The reticules turned red, signaling it was now time for the drop.
"Toad 1 to all bombers, objective is in range! Procede with drop!"

      The roar of the bombers became so loud that it began to shake the cruiser.
"Warning! ship targeted by enemy vessels!" the computer alarmed.
Keys closed his eyes, and clenched his teeth. He opened one eye, trying to stay upright from all the shaking. The engines on the bombers gave off an extra boom, and soared over the cruiser. Keys looked out the front viewscreen, to see the bombers fly past the cruiser, without dropping a single bomb.

"Damnit! Those damn technicians forgot to take the saftey off the bomb bays! lets go around for another pass!" Toad 1 said frustrated.

      All the poeple in the ship opened their eyes slowly, to see that they were still in one piece.
"Sir! Engines heated!" The pilot said with relief, "ready for takeoff."
"Good, get us off the ground, and set coordinates for the nearest mountain chain!" Keys said.
The pilot looked at him confused, but then nodded his head.
The lumbering ship took-off, and tried to escape from the bombers.

"So they want to play a game of cat and mouse eh?" Toad 1 snickered, "Well then they'll get it."
"Sir!" Toad 2 said, "I scanned their ship for weapons, and found that they have none at all."
"Excellent, then we should board their aircraft, and capture them! Do you have any idea how much money we would get if we captured Keys?"
       The Bombers went around for another swing, but the ship was nowhere to bee seen on the ground.
"Look!" Toad 4 exclaimed, and the pilots saw the massive ship jetting away.
"Pursue them!" Toad 1 ordered, and they all threw their throttle's into afterburn.
      Keys held tightly onto the railing on the bridge,"What kind of weapons are on this thing by the way?"
The pilot gave a blank expression,"There are no weapons sir...it's supposed to be a news broadcaster, not a war machine."
"Well does this thing have anything? any weapons at all?"
"I can show you where that kind of stuff is," A middle-aged man stepped forward,"follow me."
Keys followed the man down the corridors.
"Where are you taking me?" Keys asked.
"well sometimes we are stuck in some pretty hostile situations, and are forced to defend ourselfs," The man opened a door that read 'authorized personell',"Thats why we carry this."
The door swung open, to show racks of weapons, and armaments. Keys strolled down the row, eyeing the array of weapons.
"Where do we start?" Keys asked the man, and luaghed to himself.


      The Bombers sped towards the ship,"ok men I want all fire directed to the engines," Toad 1 informed them,"We can't let them get away."


      A man my the name of Mendez strolled down the corridors towards his office on the planet, Aroura. He walked down the corridors cursing under his breath. The commander came into his office, and turned on the vid phone.
"Did you hear what happened?" Commander Mendez asked the man on the other line in frustation.

      The other man sighed,"Yes I heard everything. Citizens are uproared about this incedent, and there is universal unrest. Did you hear what the civillians demand? They demand an overthrow of the UNSC, and a new reform."

      Commander Mendez began to sweat,"What are we going to do Commander Picket? Stay loyal to the UNSC?"

      Picket let out a loud breath of air, and shook his head,"No."



      On the Bridge of the UNN cruiser, the SPARTANS waited patiently for Keys' return. They heard a noise from behind, and they al spun around with their guns raised. Keys and the man came out from the corridor, with the racks of weapons.
"It's a little early for chirstmas i know." Keys said smiling,"Take all you can."
The SPARTANS giddily snatched the heavy weapons, and assult rifles. The man that got the weapons with Keys returned with some weird looking circular pads,"Here put these on," The man instructed, and threw them to all the SPARTANS and Keys,"They're magnetic movement pads. They go on your feet, so you can run across any metal object that may be hard to stay on. The magnets will de-activate when you try to pull your leg up, but wil immediatly re-activate once you begin to put your foot down, allowing movement across the object."
"Thats great," The Master Chief said,"But why do we need them?"
"Because," the man said,"we have no external weapons, so that's where you guys come in. You and your squad will attempt to destroy the bombers from the roof of the ship."
The master chief hesitated, something he usually doesn't do, but then just answered calmly,"When do we start?"
      The ship slowed down a little bit to allow the people to open the door, and run out onto the ship. Seven SPARTANS carried rocket launchers, one heaved a chain-gun that he had ripped from a mount, and two other SPARTANS carried sniper rifles packed with high density rounds. Keys checked his machine gun, which was practicly a smaller version of a chair gun, that had a long string of armor piercing bullets that wrapped around his neck and shoulders several times.
One SPARTAN gave the 3-2-1 signal, and they swumg open the doors, and jumped out of the plane. Keys was the last to jump out. He leaped from the plane, and began to fall,"Holy shi-" He began, but then activated the pads, and he was immediately attached to the bottom of the ship. Keys tried to heave the string of bullets, while running up the side of the ship.


      "Toad 1 to sqad! Are you getting this also? It appears to be multiple life signatures on the roof of that UNN ship!"
"I copy that Toad 1, They look like the SPARTANS, lets take 'em out!" Toad 2 yelled.
"Rodger that."
"I copy that."
"rrRodger rogder."
"Unlock all archer misiles and fire upon those bastards!" Toad 1 ordered.
The Bombers were now in range of the ship, and the missle bays opened on the bombers. Unfortunatly, the SPARTANS had no idea the bombers were close.
Toad 1 tok in a breath then ordered,"FIRE!"

      In the depths of space, lied a covenant armada waiting to siege the newly discovered planet, Reach.
A Grunt ran down the corridors with a holo panel in his hand. He franticly pushed the other loitering covenant out of the way. The grunt stopped at a door that was guarded by two large Hunters.
"Urgent news" The Grunt panted.
The Hunters moved aside, and the door opened.
The Grunt ran into the room, and stopped at a large throne.
"My liege." The Grunt panted.
"What is it?" The decorated Elite spoke from the throne.
"Communications picked up a strange news broadcast from the humans."
The Grunt handed the elite the holo panel, and the elite viwed what was on the screen.
"Hmmm very interesting." The Elite said, transfixed on the screen,"This human seems to be working against the others. Most of the things he says do not matter, but what he means by the super weapon...does he mean-"
"Yes sire. The mysterious weapon that we found from the arcaidian galaxy, the one that fortells the end of all wars."
The elite sighs and then raises his head,"We cannot allow the humans to have posession of this grand device. We must crush them and re-take what is ours. Commander Wappie?"
"Yes sir?" The grunt asked.
"I want all posssible ships to rally here, i want every single ship in the fleet here to participate in this glorious moment."
"Yes sir! Right away sir!" The Grunt barked, and then ran out of the room.





      In the corner of the universe lies the most superior beings, unknown to man or covenant: The Forunner.
One Forunner sits in the shadows,"Alchemiedia?"
"Yes your highness?"
"It appears that our humans have found our Omega device, and are threatening to tamper with it."
"What do you say we do then?" Alchemiedia asks the Forunner in the shadows.
"...I want for you to awaken the monitors within the HALO devices. I want transports ready to carry our experiments out of the HALO's. And then after that, we will prepare for departure."
"But Sire, last time we unleased the creatures, they overran us, and almost elliminated us. And also i don't think now is the time we reveal ourselvs to the covenant and humans. They aren't ready to know we created them."
"They will be ready," The Preator from behind the shadows remarked,"call in all our vessels in the known universe, we're going to punish the beings who have stolen from the ones who gave them life."



<Next Part: wings of death part 12: A new Dominion>

Wings of Death part 13: A New Dominion
Date: 21 November 2002, 11:04 pm

      Keys sprinted up the side of the ship, trying to keep the chians bullets from falling off him. He continued to run, but then stopped, as he began to hear screams and shouts along with gun fire. The air around him filled with noise. The gunfire was constant, but then there was a series of loud explosions coming from the top of the ship, and all was silent. Keys looked at the plumes of fire that shot up from the roof, and he went in a full sprint to the top. He rounded the corner, and looked upon the roof of the ship. the entire top of the ship was black and charred, with many craters. The SPARTANS crawled,thier armor black and tattered, limbs tore to shreds. Lukily all the SPARTANS seemed to be alive, barely.
      Keys became enraged, and looked behind the ship to see the five bombers closing in on their position. Red molten fire from the bomber's burst lasers errupted all around Keys as he tried to carry the injured SPARTANS to a safe area. Keys threw the SPARTAN he was carrying behind a protruding part of the ship, and turned his heavy machine gun towards the bombers. He fired continuously, screaming in rage, as the string of bullets quickly vanished off his shoulders. The Ship was now entering the mountain chain, and the ship swirved around lrage peaks, and attempted to move closer to the ground.


      Toad 3 caught most of the fire from the machine gun.
"IM HIT IM HIT! LOSING ALTITUDE! CABIN DEPRESSURIZING!"
A few more armor pieceing rounds hit the cockpit glass, and the glass exploded into pieces. The ship caught the sudden chage in areodynamics, and swirved off, and slammed into the mountainside.
"Add machine gun bursts in between screens of laser fire!" Toad 1 barked to the other pilots.
"Yes sir I'l-" There was a loud explosion to the left of Toad 1, and he saw another one of his pilots go down with a rocket crater in the nose, it was Toad 4.


      The Master Chief stood pointing towards the bombers, one of his rocket launcher tubes was smoking.
"Nice shot chief!" An injured SPARTAN yelled.
"It's not over yet soldier," The Master Chief said,"see if you can patch into the bridge, and tell them to rise in elivation ASAP."
"Yes sir!" The SPARTAN confirmed, and then told the pilot what to do,"Ok Chief, He's ready when you are."
"Tell him to go ahead." Master Chief said.
There was a loud boom of an engine, and the ship qickly rose.
"Come with me," The Master chief told Keys,"my SPARTANS are in no shape to do what we're about to do."
The master chief ran to the back edge of the ship, and peered over.
"Ok, one bogey is at exactly 12 o'clock, the other two are at 1 and 2 o'clock. They're all about 500 meters still below us. Set your boots to the highest density level."
Keys set the boots to the highest level, and he could barely pick his feet up.
"Ok there is an entrance hatch on the right side of those bombers."
Keys looked confused,"Yah so what are we-" The master Chief pushed him off the ship, and then jumped off himself. They both sped downwards, belley-down, with their arms and legs out-stretched, to catch the air to make turns. They quickly spun downwards, and the Bombers were almost directly below them. Keys started to feel a pulling coming from his boots, and his legs pointed in the direction of the nearest bomber. He began to fall towards the closest bomber(Toad 2), at an angle. He was able to open his eyes just a little, and noticed the plane was aboutdangerously close to him, but he had already lost too much altitude. He kept fallling, and the bomber came straight at him, he the bomber passed right over him, and continued it's path.
"Oh shit." Keys said cause he knew what was going to happen next. The magnets reacted in this chage of direction, and he legs swiveled 180 degrees, to the new direction of the bomber, and Keys was now yanked int he direction of the bomber.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!" Keys screamed as he flew through the air, now rising in elevation to match that of the bomber's.

Toad 2 saw something behind him on the radar, and he quickly stood up to look out the window behind him. He saw the strangest thing. There was a man somehow flying in the air towards him.
"Oh fuck-oh fuck-oh fuck!" He freaked out from the strange situation. He went into a nose dive to try to lose the man that was trailing him. The man also took a nose dive. the pilot wove in and out of rock spires, and so did the man.
"I CAN'T SHAKE THIS GUY!!!" He screamed hysterically into the comm.
"Who?" Taod 1 asked over the comm.
"There's a frikin man chasing me!" he screamed.
Toad 1 let out an angry sigh,"How many fucking times have I told you not to take those pills!"
"It's not the pills I swear!" Toad 2 screamed desperatly,"He's getting closer!"
"TOAD 2!" Toad 1 barked,"Get back on course god damnit!"
There was a loud thud on the exterior of Toad 2's bomber, and then toad 2 put the ship on auto-pilot, and grabbed his sidearm. His hands were shaking, and he was wet from all the sweat.
There were a few more thuds, then a loud sliding noise.
"Ok it's just the pills, it's just the pills." Toad 2 crazily told himself.
A man came from the back of the ship, and appeared at the open door of the cockpit.
"IT'S JUST THE PILLS!" The pilot screamed to himself,looking at the blurry appearence of the figure standing at the door,"YOU'RE NOT REAL!"
A flash, and then a loud crack came from the man standing at the door.
Toad 2 dropped dead on the floor, and blood seeped out of the hole in his neck.
"Guess again," Keys said, standing at the cockpit doorway with a smoking pistol.
Keys ran to the control panels, and one panel exploded, and sparks went everywhere. Keys shielded his eyes, and looked down on the ground to see the pilot, smiling with blood gushing out of his mouth. The pilot tried to raise his pistol once more, but Keys smahed his hand with his boot, and kicked his face, until the man moved no more. Keys spun around, and sat in the pilot's seat, to find the pilot had shot the auxillary controls, and the plane was in-operable. Keys looked ahead, to see about 15 miles ahead was a moutian, and if he didn't find a way to fly the plane some other way, he would be screwed.



      A uniformed UNSC personell ran down the hallways of the secret underground base in Reach, yelling for people to get out of his way. The man came into the office that was labeled 'Stanforth'.
"Sir! permission to enter!"The man said.
"Go ahead. What is it son?" Stanfoth spun his chair around to face the man at the door.
"Sir read the statistics." The man said, and handed him a stack of papers.
"What is this?" Admiral Stanforth asked the man.
"Read sir."
The Admiral put on his glasses, and smoked his cigar, scanning through the stacks of papers.
He murmered while he read,"UNSC munition fires...urban revolts...massacres...government takeover...treason..."Stanforth looked up at the man,"What is all this leutenant?"
"Sir for every page, that is a different world sending out distress calls. It seems that from the speech that Keys man gave has caused mass uprisings. They're calling for a new government!"
"Is it containable?" Stanfoth asked, now feeling parinoid.
"Sir there are civil uprisings in about every single planet. Should we encourage martial law?"
"No. It must be worse than that to show that we the military is in control."
"What are you calling for then sir?" The Leutenant asked confused.
"I want a nuclear strike on...Earth." The Admiral leaned back in his chair.
The leutenant looked at him,"Are you insane?! Call a nuclear strike on Earth and wipe out billions of innocent lives!?!"
"It must be done!" The Admiral pounded his fist on the desk,"sacrifices must be made."
The leutenant stared at the Admiral,"...yes sir. I'll call for a military evac of Earth."
"Good..."The admiral said,"now, on your way" he wisked the man out the door.
Stanforth smuged his cigar out, and lowered his head to the desk. He knew that billions of peoples dead bodies were going to be on his hands.




      Keys struggled to work the stick, but there was no response. He tried every button on the plane, but it didn't respond.
"Damnit!" Keys stammered.
"hey!" A familar voice broke through the comm.(one of the only working devices),"it looks like you could use some help!"
"Master Chief? Is that you? I need some help, my controls aren't working." Keys asked flabbergasted.
"Correct, it is me. My plan worked, but I see yours didn't go well"
Another bomber (Toad 5's) flew infront of him.
"I'm just going to try to fly as near as I can, and you jump off onto my plane, ok?" The Master Chief informed Keys.
Keys ran to the back of the plane, and came to the door from which he came from. Keys re-activated his boots, opened the door, and lept out. Keys fell a ways before the Master Chief swooped under him, and Keys was attached to the bomber that the Master Chief was piloting.
"Ok we need to head back over to our ship, and see if it still needs help." The Master Chief told Keys.
      Keys climbed in the ship, and secured the hatch. He then walked the 20 feet to the cockpit, in where the corner layed a man with his body crumpled.
"Come in" The Master chief delightfully said,"take a seat."
Keys sat down, and analized the panels and radars.
"It appears that the Cruiser is raising in elevation darasticly." Keys noted, and pointed to the three dimensional radar,"and the last enemy bomber is right behind it."
"What is the cruiser doing? It should stay in the mountains where there is cover." The Master Chief said confused.
"I have no idea, but we'd better go take out that last bomber." Keys said
"Right," The Master Chief,"lets shoot it down."
      Their Bomber sped towards the ascending cruiser, when suddenly, the cruiser's thruster exploded. The explosion ripped through to the engines, and blew the entire back of the ship apart.
"Holy Shit!" Keys yelled, shocked.
"The Cruiser is firing it's landing thrusters," The Master Chief turned to Keys,"but it wont be enough to stop it from crashing, It will just slow it's fall."
Keys looked at the radar,"Hey Chief check this out."Keys pointed to the radar, to show the enemy bomber signature going in a differnet direction,"He's fleeing?"
"We can't let him get away." The Master chief said, and put the throttle all the way forward. The engines screamed as they got closer to the enemy Bomber (Toad 1).
"Ok Im going to drop you off on this enemy's ship, and I'll try to evac those people and my SPARTANS off that cruiser."
Keys looked at him like he was crazy, but then nodded his head,"Stay focused when you drop me, this guy is gunna do some evasive maneuvers most likely."
The Master Chief looked at him and said in a monotone voice,"I'm always focused."
Their bomber approached Toad 1, and The Master Chief fired a single shot from 100 yards away that hit taod 1's engine. the fighter slowed down a bit, but Keys knew that the Master Chief wouldn't be able to shoot the fighter down and save the passengers inside the cruiser.
"Go." The Master Chief said to him,"Now!"
Keys ran down the cramped corridor, activated his boots, opened the door, and sighed,"Here I go again." Keys jumped out of the bomber, and was immediatly tugged towards Toad 1's bomber.



      Toad 1 checked his rear-view monitor, to see a man suspended in the air, flying towards him, and that the bomber had changed course.
"Haha,"Toad 1 said to himself,"He thinks he's the only one with Hi-tech equipment."
Toad 1 put the plane on auto pilot, and stood up,"He's in for a real treat." Toad 1 smiled and heaved an oversized handgun, and grabbed the same kind of magnetic boots Keys had. Toad 1 chuckled, and made his way to the back hatch.



      Through the clouds of cigar smoke sat a very depressed man. The light from the overhead lamp barely penetrated through the smoke. The new news developments were in: Earth was decimated by a large amount of nuclear explosives. Billions of people died in mere seconds. Billions upon Billions of innocent beings slaughtered as a demonstaration of the UNSC's might.
A tear ran down the man's face. In the inside, he knew what he did, and he knew it was wrong. But on the outside, he didn't care, and he would stop at nothing until the entire human population came back to being loyal to the UNSC.
The man spun his large cair around, to face another man that was standing in front of his desk.
"Any word?" The man in the chair asked.
"Sir, all this demonstration did was make the populous even more angered." The man standing said, and took another puff of a cigar,"What do we do now, Admiral?"
Stanforth thought long and hard,"The Reports say that the officer, Commander Mendez has defected, and influenced the entire planet of Aroura. They say that he is heading this rebel insurrecton."
"Do you want me to send my boys?" The man standing asked.
"No Vice Admiral Cole, I want an ODST drop on their location, and when the ODST's secure an LZ, We'll drop the 24th armored batallion."
"Sir this is exremly dangerous," The Vice admiral warned him,"The 24th is one of our only armored batallions left."
"Yes,"Stanforth said,"but they've never been defeated either."
"So," The Vice Admiral began,"once the 24th and others neutralize the enemy-"
Stanforth broke in,"Kill anyone who gets in your way, anyone but Mendez, I want him alive."
VA Cole put his hand to his ear, listening to a voice that was being transmitted through his earpiece,"Sir I have more news." VA cole said to Stanforth.
"What is it this time?" Stanforth asked, and smuged his cigar in the ash tray.
"The rebels now have an organized government already, they call themselves 'The Dominion of Commoners'."
"What does this change?" Stanforth asked.
"Sir. After the announcement of a new anti-UNSC government, billions-and I'm serious when I say billions sir-of people are going with the Dominion of Commoners. The people wont stop protesting and voilence against the UNSC until it is brought down. There are rumors that they will even attack Reach, and kill us all!"
"Calm down for God's sake!" Stanforth said,"I sensed this was going to happen, and that is why we must capture Commander Mendez. Without a leader, their collaberation, and makeshit government will fall."
Yes Sir!" VA Cole said, saluted, turned around, and began walking towards the door.
"Oh and Cole?" The Admiral said to the Vice Admiral.
"Yes sir?"
"Just in case they will try to attack Reach,"Stanforth said,"I want you to ask for re-enforcements to the Reach system."
"Sir! What kind of re-enforcements?" The VA stood at attention.
"I want all the UNSC ships in the known universe to rally at reach, double the funding on defensive weapons manufacturing. I want as many orbital MAC cannons, Havok launchers, and Anti-matter charges as possible. The Rebel's don't stand a chance infiltrating Reach."
"Sir the threat of Covenant is at it's highest level." VA Cole warned him.
"Goodbye Vice Admiral." Admiral Stanforth told him.
"...Yes sir" The Vice admiral said, and left the room, closing the door behind him.
(camera view slowly zooms out from his desk as he lights another cigar).



<next part: Part 14: Downfall of the UNSC?>

Wings of Death part 14: A Short-lived Dominion?
Date: 4 December 2002, 3:13 am

      The Planet of Aroura was a peaceful planet that was known for not having much military involvment. There was one UNSC base on the planet named Fort Sacramento, but nothing else. The planet had a mere population of about 2,000,000,000 civillians, and was about the size of the well known planet, Earth. Fort Sacramento was the base of operations for the newly established dominion. It was was getting dark, as the sun went behind the mountians, and a brisk breeze wistled through the trees. The fort had a basic shape to it: It was 3 stories above ground, had a sqruare shape to the complex, and had a large guard tower on each corner of the complex. There was a sizable chaingun mounted in each of the towers, and there were also a few guards in each tower also. Guards patrolled the parimeter of the roof, and the parimenter of the base, looking out for any UNSC invaders. All-in-all, there were about 50 guards outside, and about tiwce as many inside the installation.
      Rebel Guard's Pvt. jamenson and Pvt. Focker patrolled around the west side of the builing, and watched the sun's light shimmer and fade away as it crept behind the mountains.
"Man what a great day." Pvt. Jamenson told Focker.
"Yah, but it's a bit chilly." Pvt. Focker said and hunched over a bit.
      A lone guard couldn't wait to take a smoke break, so he walked over into the woods that encased the building, leaving a space of about 50 feet inbetween the trees and the builing. The man saw a Warthog that was un-manned, and then he decided instead to sit behind it. He sat against the wheel, and let his legs spread out, and he let out a breath. He lit the cigarette, and closed his lighter, as he looked up to the sky. he saw a few bright flashes in the sky, and he squinted. There were more small bright flashed, about 20 in all. The flashes toned out to a continuous bright light. The guard knew he should report the strange sight, but he knew he would be cited for smoking when it wasn't his break, so he just sat and watched. The lights were getting bigger, like they were geting closer. one of the lights let out a bright flash, and the guard jolted, then dropped his cigarette, and his read slumped to his shoulder, as a fine bullet hole in his head seeped blood.

      25 men known as ODST's sped downwards, usng thier thrusters to keep themselfs stable. One ODST re-loaded his sniper rifle.
"Ok men stay in stealth, they haven't seen us yet."
acknowladgements came from all the men.
"We need those towers neutralized quick. I want deployment across the west and east points of the base. Our orders are to secure the surface and allow the 24th a clean LZ."
Half of the squad moved away from the other group so they could land on the west side.
The ODST's quickly decended, and touched-down. The guards were didn't expect the ODST's presense, and were caught off-guard.
The west ODST squad opened fire on the ground troops.
"Watch out Focker!" Pvt. Jamenson screamed to the other Private.
"What did you just call me?!?" The private screamed back to him, and then his body was shattered by bullets.

The ODST's overtook the guards, as more of them dropped down from the sky.
The towers turned their chain-guns towards the ODST's. One ODST hugged the wall, and activated a large pack, and lobbed it up into one of the towers. The tower made a mass explosion, and fire shot out all sides. The other towers met the same fate as large plumes of fire mushroomed into the air. Sirens went off all around the exterior of the building. the guards lept into Warthogs, and drove towards the ODST's fireing the Chain-guns. Another ODST threw his pack into the tire of the warthog, and when it exploded, the vehicle, along with the people inside were torn to shreds. One ODST carried a plasma torch, and errupted fire upon a group of attackers, and they were burned to death in a few seconds. DOC(Dominion of commoners)troops fired from the roof, taking cover from the ledges. A group of ODST's took flight with their thrusters, and jumped onto the ledges, mowing down all the attackers.
      The remainder of the DOC guards fled into the forest. The outside of the installaton was in ruins and flames.
"Call in FLEETCOM, and tell them the LZ is clear and awaiting the 24th."

      In the orbit of Aroura sat the huge UNSC Transport vessles that carried the 24th Armored Division.
Men ran to their Pelicans, and even larger transports were loading up vehicles like Scorpion tanks, warthogs, heavy machine guns, batlle suits, and mobile supersonic tremor devices.
      The troop and suppply transports left the large transports that carried them, and made their way towards the planets surface.

      Comander Mendez and the other officials of the DOC sat around a large table, discussing what they should do.
"I say we surrender." One man said.
"There is no way we can surrender now, after what we've pulled together."
Commander Mendez said,"We should send a distress beacon to any of the outlying planets of this system, and tell them to relay the message until the message reaches Earth."
"Verywell sir." The man said.
"Oh,a nd I want all the avaliable men we have in this installation armed, and ready to fight, I want the entrance and all other halls that aren't manned, mined with loutus tank mines. We need to put up a good fight to stall them."
"Yes sir." The man said then motioned for the rest of the men out of the room. After the men left the room, the man turned to face Mendez,"With all due respect sir, this is scuicide."
The Commander stared at him wsith his cold grey eyes,"We have nothing to lose leutenant."

      Keys landed hard on the bomber's roof, and clumsily made his way towards the hatch. He noticed the Bomber was going exceedingly fast. he struggled to move his legs forward, and get to the hatch. Keys got to the door, and reached out to grab the handle, when suddenly it blasted out, and knocked keys down onto the roof of the bomber. The pilot came out with an oversized handgun, heaved it in Keys' direction, and fired. A large flash came from the barrel, and the shell exploded on the armor of the ship, next to Keys' arm. Keys sprung up, and reached for his assult rifle. The pilot cocked his handgun, and blasted Keys' MA5B to pieces. Keys looked down at his mangled gun, and then charged at the pilot. Keys grabbed both ofthe man's hands, and twisted the pilot's wrist until he heard it crunch. The man dropped the gun, which was immediatly attached to Key's magnetic pad. The Pilot came back with a swoop of his knee to Keys' stomach, and Keys flinched in pain. The pilot grabbed Keys' vest, and threw him across the ship. Keys got back up, and pulled the Glock out, and fired a round into the man's knee-cap, and the Pilot screamed in pain. Keys sprinted towards the man, and kicked the pilots injured knee inwards, and heard the bones snap. The pilot fell to the armor of the bomber, and saw his gun on Keys foot. The Pilot reached for his gun, and fired a few rounds into Key's left foot pad. The magnetic pad exploded into sparks, and Keys winced in pain as the explosion singed his foot. The pilot hoisted his gun, and fired at Keys' abdomen. Keys jumped out of the way of the blast, and the stray round hit the bombers' protective plates, as flames poured out of the gaping holes in it's armor. Keys immediatly got back up, and charged again, this time, landing a plated fist into the Pilots faceplate. The protective glass of the Pilots helmet shattered under the force, and large shards cut into the mans face. Keys grabbed the mans nack, and continued to puch the mans face. The Pilot's screams could be head inbetween the volleys of punches. Keys didn't notice the man's hand travel down his leg to grab a combat knife. Key continued to batter the man's blood-soaked face, until the pilot plunged the knife into Keys' thigh. Keys' cursed and pulled the knife out, and swung it towards the man's heart. The pilot stopped the knife, by grabbing Key's hand, but Keys kept pressing. The pilot, with hsi other hand, pulled out yet another Combat knife, and rushed it towards Keys' chest. Keys also stopped this knife. Keys' kicked the man's good leg in, and the man collapsed. Keys was now on top of the pilot, trying to press the knife into the mans chest while the pilot tried the same. It was a battle of strength as the kept eachother from pressing their knifes closer to their body.
Keys had an Idea, and looked past the pilot saying,"Look! it's Nsync!" "WHERE!?!?!?" The pilot screamed happily.
The pilot looked around, distracted, and Keys forced the knife into the man's heart. The Pilot jolted around a bit, then went limp. Keys slowly got up, with blood gushing out of his thigh, and looked over at the horizon to see the massive UNN cruiser explode on the ground. Keys heard a whining noise from below the bomber he was standing on. Keys looked over the edge to see the Master Chief's bomber rise next to Keys.
Keys Heard the Master Chief over the Comm.
"Mission accomplished Keys, we managed to rescue all of the passengers aboard the Cruiser, and it seems that you have...uh, neutralized the pilot.
Good work Keys."
"Yeah..." Keys said as his vision started to fade,"...Great." Keys vision went black, and he fell to the cold armored roof of the bomber.


      Down on the surface of Aroura, the ODST's were relaxing and waiting for the 24th Armored Division to arrive. The men sat on pices of vehicles, smoking cigarettes, and conversing with teammates, you know, having a good time.
The ODST's commander sat against the wall, and listened to his comm device:
"This is 24th armored division drop team, do you copy?"
The ODST responded,"I hear ya, the LZ is clear, go ahead and land."
"Rodger that."

      The men on the ground looked up to the roar in the sky to see a mass of pelicans and larger transports decend from the clouds. The ODST's made-way for the entourage, and cleared the landing zone. The Transports fired their landing thrusters, and the trees fluttered madly from the force. The dropships landed, and their engines came to a dead silence. The ODST's lined up in front of the lead pelican and saluted. The hatches opened, and men spilled out. There was one certain uniformed soldier that strolled out of the lead pelican, and walked pass the saluting soldiers, to the ODST CO.
"Good evening." The Uniformed man said to the CO,"I am Leutenant LT Smash,"(ok ok I got that anme from the Simpsons),"I am taking charge here."
"Yes sir." The ODST said.
"Your men are ordered to leave,"The leutenant pointed over to an empty dropship,"go on."
The ODST's quickly left the officer, and got in the departing pelican.
The UNSC soldiers of the 24th(50 in all) marched over to the large transports, and opened the containment hatches. The hatches opened and a row of battle suits came out. The Battle suits were bulky armored suits that went around the entire body. There was a thick faceplate that was conjoined with the rest of the armor, and left no weakspots in the suit, except for the joint areas.
All the soldiers put their suits on, and marched to the entrace of the installation and awaited orders.
      The Massive transports unloaded Scopion tanks, Mobile supersonic tremor devices, and warthogs. Snipers patrolled the rooftop, and more suited up soldiers stood outside on guard.
"Listen up!" The leutenant said,"Our objective is to infiltrate this installation, and capture the defector that goes by the name of Commander Mendez, he needs to be alive."
The soldiers at the door nodded.
The Leutenant looked over at a man carrying a large case,"Corporal Cooper!"
"Yes sir!" The Corporal replied.
"Get this door open!" The leutenant barked.
"Yes sir, right away sir!" the corporal said, and strapped the case to the door. Everyone turned their backs to the wall, and put their hands over their heads, and the door blasted open with so much force, that the titanium door was ripped to shreds.
"Go go go!" The Leutenant yelled at his group of 50 soldiers, and they all clambered down the long corridor.

"I think he's coming back." A voice echoed in Keys' head.
"hmm, he lost quite a bit of blood from that wound, but he looks fine now. the re-construction of his damaged bones and ligaments seemed to do just the thing."
"mmm...huh?" Keys sqinted his eyes, and looked around, to see the Master Chief, and some other SPAARTANS standing around him.
Keys looked around to see they were still in the stolen UNSC bomber, and the ship jolted.
Keys looked at the Master Chief,"Where are we going?"
"We just recieved word of a new anti-UNSC government run by my old CO in training, Commander Mendez."
"Great." Keys said.
"The only problem is, we've recieved a distress beacon from their Base of Operations, and they are under siege by the UNSC, so we have to rescue them before they get to Mendez."
"Why do you love him or something?" Keys asked him confused.
The Master Chief quickly responded,"yes-but thats not the point."
There was a long silence in the ship.
The middle aged man that brought the weapons out before, brought just a bundle of short barreled rifles that looked like assult rifles with scopes on them, and larger clips.
"These,"said the man,"Are called MASP8's, or as the marines call 'em: Armor busters."
"Care to tell us why?" Keys asked.
"This MASP8 has the firing rate of an MA5B, and has an explosive tipped round, to allow the bullet to pierce through normal battle plate, or a marines armor."
Keys sat up, and held one in his hand,"It's pretty heavy."
"Yes well-" The man began, but then loked at the master chief, who was flipping them in the air,"mabye just for you mr. Keys."
The pilot radioed back to the group of people,"We're entering Aroura's orbit, and are being hailed by one of the fleet's commander's. Keys ran to the cockpit, just as the pilot accepted the trasmission.
"This is UNSC transport command, this airspace is restricted for the time being, turn your ship, or you will be fired upon!"
Keys said off-camera,"Sir we are carrying the new SPARTAN v2's to Aroura for testing."
The commander leaned off camera, and then came back,"Sorry there is no authorization, or any record of SPARTAN v2's being tested here. Now turn your ship."
"Sir," Keys said, not revealing his face,"This is a top secret ONI priority A test, we must continue."
The commander grew suspicious,"Let me have a glance at this new project, then I'll let you through."
The Master Chief walked in, and showed his face to the camera.
"Oh my." The man said, looking at the Master Chief's figure,"You have permission to continue."
Their bomber sped down into Aroura, and found the co-ordinates of Fort Sacramento, and sped towards it. The pilot flew the ship down in the trees, 1 kilometer from the fort, and the SPARTANS, along with Keys marched their way towards Fort Sacramento, and their enemies.

      Guarding the fort was the most tedious job Ptv. Yapper has ever been assinged to, usually, he's on the front fighting covies, but no, he's stuck on guard duty, with 20 other men and heavy artillery. Ptv. Yapper was so tired from the job, he didn't hear a crack from a gun, and the gasp from his fellow soldier, that had a newly opened hole in his throut. "INCOMING!" A guard scremed, just before a tank exploded into pices. Ptv. Yapper piped up, and held his gun ready. There was gunfire from the trees, and he could see figures moving swiftly through the trees, firing in mid-air, and slamming rounds of bullets into his fellow men. He cautiously moved back faced towards the trees, and fired a few times into the trees. Someone tapped on his shoulder, and he swiveled around to see a masculine man in green armor, slam his fist through Yappers faceplate, straight into his head. Yapper fell on the ground, half of his face pounded in.

      The SPARTANS jumped wildly from tree to tree, causeing panic in the ranks.
The person who was in command on the surface screamed out,"Concentrate artillery fire in the trees!"
The Tanks and Tremor devices swiveled towards the trees, and unleashed hell upon the forest. Row of trees were leveled in flames and shattered into splinters by the STD's(Supersonic Tremor Device), but the SPARTANS stayed in the trees. One SPARTAN threw a grenade into the barrel of one STD, and it's operators dove for cover, as the cannon lit-up the dark sky, and incenerated the operators. The four snipers on the roof were having trouble keeping their crosshairs on the unknown enemies. One sniper found an un-armored man sneek out of the trees, it was Keys. The sniper moved his crosshairs over to Keys, and held a tighter grip on the rifle. The sniper smirked, and pulled the trigger.
(A loud crack is heard, and everything goes black)

<Next Part: The Fall of the UNSC?>

Wings of Death part 15: The Fall of the UNSC?
Date: 10 December 2002, 11:07 pm

Authors note: hmm I guess I kinda left the story on a cliffhanger ending. Well, lets rewind the story a bit, and start from before the shot was fired.

>>Rewinding...

~MC finished kissing Chief Mendez, as the wedding song continued, Nic-Nac's body tumbled out of the casket onto Mendez-~

What the hell?!?! woops! Wrong story people...jeese I almost gave away the next part of Mis-adventures of Master Chief...

>>sorry

You better be, now play track two, I think part 15 of Wings of Death is in there.

>>changing to Track two...

~"UUHG UHHG, YES! YES! HARDER! HARDER! OH YES! YES!"-~

STOP THE TRACK! uh heh heh, kids I'm sorry you saw that.

>>cover your pants El_Halo_Diablo

Heh heh...you didn't see that either...ok, track three HAS to be the right one!

>>Whatever..switching to track 3...

Good it's the right one...uh where were we? ah yes.

      The Sniper focused on Keys chest, it was going to be a quick and effective killshot. He peered down the scope, and tightened his grip, he put his finger on the trigger, and began to pull it.
A crack sounded off, and the blood shot out the other side of the scope. The sniper dropped to the ground with a massive hole that went through the back of his head, and out the scope. The SPARTAN that shot him turned his MASP8, and fired at another sniper. The sniper was easily killed with two body shots, and one limb shot. The other two rooftop snipers noticed this action, and turned their guns towards The SPARTAN, which was 300 feet away, and fired. One bullet impacted the shields, which flickered, and depleted. The other sniper's bullet was an awful rushed shot, and punctured through the SPARTAN's left arm. The Spartan ran sideways, and peered through the scope, and fired five shots at the sniper to the right. The right wing sniper grasped his throut, as it sprayed blood all across the rooftop. The SPARTAN jumped around, and avoided the sniper's next three shots. The SPARTAN knew the sniper had to reload, so the SPARTAN charged at the sniper. The sniper saw the charging, and pulled out his pistol, but it was too late, the SPARTAN spun into the air, and swiped him in the face with a kick. The SPARTAN turned the man's pistol around towards him, and fired the entire clip into his abdomen. The man crumpled under the pain, and the SPARTAN moved onto the next victim.
The UNSC gunners were geting more accurate with their weapons. The SPARTANS all rushed out of the trees at the same time, from all directions, and tried to overtake the artillery. The UNSC personell turned a STD(Supersonic Tremor Device) towards one spartan and fired the massive charge. The supersonic wave made a bulb-shaped ripple in the air, and made large dust trails in their wake. One UNSC soldier got too close to one charge, and the vacume ripped his arm off. The SPARTANS ran by the walls, and the STD charges collided with the fort walls, leaving massive craters in the walls. Scorpion Tanks moved their turrets to the enemies, and fired. Not even a tank shell could hit the out-maneuvering SPARTANS. One SPARTAN snuck behind one tank, opened the hatch, and fired upon the operator. The SPARTAN threw the mutulated body out of the tank, ond hopped in it. The new driver pointed the cannon over to one of the STD's and pulled the trigger. teh shell raced over to the STD, and blew it to pieces. The tank then fired it's machine gun, and killed a few soldiers. The UNSC STD operators saw this tank, and turned their cannons towards it, and discharged their weapons, all three STD bolts raced towards the tank, and the SPARTAN jumped out of the tank,a nd dove to the ground, just before the STD charges hit the tank and tore three fine 6 foot(in diameter) holes in the tank, leaving it a flaming hunk of junk.
      The Master Chief caled a "retreat", and everyone fled to the trees, and met up at the bomber, where the 6 UNN personell sat waiting for their return.
"We heard alot of ruckus, did you guys win? where's your lover Chief?" The man smirked and laughed.
"Your humor does not amuse me,"The MC said," but anyway, no we didn't even get in, but this is where you people come in handy."He pointed to the UNN personell,"Do you think you can jam any communications going in or out from this planet?"
The UNN camera man stood up,"Of course, that's all we do is communications, and broadcasting."
"Get working on it," the MC said, and opened a fresh case of ammunition, and handed extra rounds to everyone,"We're going back."

      The Commander of UNSC transports sat in his chair on the bridge of the UNSC Transport Crusier 'Big Bertha'.
An Ensign calmly walked up to the commander, and informed him of the broken communications between the surface, and their ship.
"What?" The commander looked at the Ensign, and grabbed his neck,"get working on that communications bug Ensign, or I'll have you thrown in the waste disposal."
The commander let go of the Ensign, and he gasped for air,"Yes sir..."

      The group of SPARTANS and Keys walked through the wooded forest, on their way back to Fort Sacramento. The MC put his right hand to his head, and nodded, then put his hand down,"They've succesfully blocked all communications, We're good to go."
      The Group came within 50 feet of the clearing where the fort lay, and the MC pointed up to the trees, and everyone started to make their way up them. Keys found a tree with alot of foothold, seeing that he wasn't as strong as the SPARTANS. everyone got into positions, and they sat above most of the tree in the forest, giving clear shots to any object around the base. Keys hoisted his rifle up to firing position, and waited the Master Cief's order, as all the other SPARTANS got in position on other trees. Keys peered down the scope, and found a target: A soldier that was manning a STD. There were still about 15 soldiers plus 3 manned tanks and 2 STDs. The Master Chief waved his hand, and everyone fired their first rounds. Keys fired shot all around the operator, but nailed him a few times, as blood poured out of holes in his lungs and heart. He fell to the ground, and Keys shifted to another target through the scope: A frantic soldier. Keys readied his rifle, and then saw the explosive tipped rounds rip through his body, someone got to him before Keys could, so he then switched to two men, who were luckily evading the SPARTANS fire, but were then caught in a Fragmentation grenade's blast. keys moved over to a Tank that just started up, and Keys fired the entire magazine at the tank, in hopes of shooting through the hole int he hatch. Keys quickly took the magazine out, and fumbled for another, magaizing in his pack. Keys found a magazine, and snapped it in. Keys looked through the scope, to see the tank's cannon pointed straight at him. Keys cursed, and watched the tank fire it's shell. The shell zoomed over towards Keys, and Keys jumped, just before the tree exploded,a nd fell the the ground in flames. Keys plummeted to the ground, and began to smash through the branches of another tree. The Branches wouldn't stop Keys, as they kept breaking, but Keys grabbed hold of the trunk, as he sped downwards, his gloves started to smoke, and eventually slowed down to a stop. Keys threw his gloves of because they were smoldering from the friction. "Phew" He uttered, just before an STD charge slamemd into the tree he was on, right below him. The tree fell over, and Keys tumbled to the ground. The tree kept falling, and it was going to crush him, in a matter of milliseconds, so he stayed flat on the ground,and the tree slammed into the ground, but him being right next to the base of the tree, the tree didn't fall on him. now that Keys was on the ground, he stayed as low as possible, in one place, and looked through the scope at the STD operator that shot at him. The STD was now faced in a different directon, leaving the operator open for attacks from behind. Keys put his hand on the trigger, but then thought for a second, and got up, and ran towards the operator. Keys ran int the opening, and a soldier saw him, and raised his gun, but then his head exploded from a surge of bullets from the trees.

"Cover Keys," The MC said,"He's going for the STD."

Two more soldiers ran towards Keys, but they also met the same fate as the one before, and dropped lifelessly to the ground. Keys came up to the STD, and grabbed the operator by the neck, and tiwsted the mans head, until he heard a snap, the man chocked, then fell to the ground. Keys looked at the panel, there weren't that many controls, there was a charge button, a charge ready light, and a fire trigger. Keys charged the STD, and the reactors hummed, and the air around him grew warm. Keys pushed the STD, and the wheels moved, and Keys pointed it towards two soldiers that were hiding from sniper fire. The Charge ready light went on, and Keys pulled the trigger. The recoil from the STD almost knocked Keys onto the ground. The charge raced towards the men, and when it hit them, all their limbs and body parts were immediatly seperated from the rest of their body. Keys pressed the charge button again, and pointed it over towards an enemy STD. The enemy STD also saw Keys, and fired it's charge towards him. The STD's have re-enforced armor that are specialized for STD rounds, so when the charge hit, the charge ripped half of the armor off Keys' STD, and pushed the weapon back five feet, almost crushing Keys. Keys saw the Charge ready light go up, and he crawled towards it, hoping that the SPARTANS would take the enemy STD out before he shot again, but it seems they were pre-occupied. Keys heard the STD start to rumble, and Keys hoisted himself up, to fire. He put his hand on the trigger, but pulled his hand back in pain. The STD was over-charging, and the entire device was getting hot. Keys faced the pain and pulled the trigger at the other STD. The forse was 10 times stronger than usual, and the recoil sent Keys off his feet, and knocked him unconcious. The device surged, and made a loud boom when the charge was released, temporarly deafining Keys. The Charge was no longer a ripple in the air, it was a red-hot bulb of hell, and when it crashed into the enemy STD, it tore it to pieces, and left nothing but smoldering boots of the operator. Keys turned to the last tank, just before it exploded into flames by a barrage of rockets. The surrounding area became dead silent, and the SPARTANS came out of the wrecked forest. It Seemed that all the SPARTANS had made it out alive, but a few had minor injuries, but they've been through worse. All the hostiles on the exterior had been elliminated, now it was time to move inside. The injured SPARTANS were treated, and they were ready to rock. Keys woke up, and grabbed his gear, he was still a little dis-oriented, but he was ok.
      Keys and the SPARTANS quickly moved inside, running down the winding and decending corridors. They came around one corner to see a black crater in the side of the wall, with a few dead UNSC soldiers. Keys walked over to the crater,"Smells like there was a bunch of sulfer."
"Lotus Anti-tank mines," The MC said,"they use a high concentation of sulfer. Those clever bastards planted mines in this place to keep the UNSC from getting in."
Keys picked up a charred hand,"looks like they did a good job."
They continued down the hallways, watching out for more mines. Every once in a while, they'd find a dead DOC personell, chewed up by bullets.
"We gotta hurry," Keys felt one of the dead persons' cold and stiff hand,"this guy's been dead for a while."
They all hurried down the cooridors, in hope of beating the UNSC to Mendez.

      Commander Mendez sat at the round table, in one office,"Are they still proceeding in?"
"Yes sir,"one official said, now checking his handgun,"they've had about 20% of their squad killed by those mines, that was good planning sir."
"Ok,"Mendez said,"I want every person left in this installation, battle-ready."
"Sir,"The official said, and looked around at the 10 officials in the room,"We're all that's left."
Mendez took a big breath,"Well then we're gunna put up a hell of a fight then."

      LT Smash was getting a little worried, due to his losses from the hidden mines. LT SMASH came to a corner, and peered around it, he saw a door that said 'Chain of Command: authorized personell only'. LT smash head voces coming from the doorway, and ran back to the group of about 30 men,"Ok Privates Walsh, Jamenshron, Georga, Denger, Uman, and Wu, I want you guys to stay on spot, and guard this corridor, while we go in. make sure you alert us if there are any intruders.
Wu remarked,"domo origato mr. roboto"
"Wu, shut up with your chineese remarks!" Smash said.
The 6 privates walked back a to the previous hall, and sat down, to keep watch, while the others stormed that room.
The 6 privates sat down and relaxed, streching out their legs. They all slid open their faceplates, and lit cigarettes.
"Hey," PTV. Walsh said, losening up the crowd,"what has two thumbs and likes blow-jobs?"
"What?" The 6 privates asked.
Walsh stuck his thumbs up,"meee!"
The 6 privates all laughed, and relaxed, trying to blow smoke rings.
      LT smash signaled for three men to sneak up towards the wall, one bumped the wall a little to hard.

Mendez looked up,"Did you hear that?"
One official grabbed his assult rifle, and nodded.
"Grasaid." Mendez wispered to another official,"go peek outside, and see whats happening."
Grasaid nodded, and ran to the door. He put his hand on the doornob, and the door exploded, slamming Grasaid to the wall. 20 armored men stormed into the room, and fired their guns, ripping up the chairs and table with the bullets. The officials went for their guns, but were then hailed by a spray of 15mm bullets, and they all dropped dead, except for Mendez. Mendez reached for an ancient sword that he recieved when he was promoted, and threw it at the nearest soldier. The sword, which was made with pricision, sliced through the soldier's abdomen, and he wrenched to the ground. One soldier pulled out his pistol, and charged Mendez. The soldier knocked him down, and hit him with the butt of the gun, rendering Mendez unconcious. The soldier picked up Mendez, and slung him over his shoulder,"Leutnenant!
We've got the leader!" The soldier said proudly.
The leutenant came in, and grabbed Mendez,"Good work soldier, now lets get out of here, and call for extraction."
All the soldiers happly strode out of the office and down the corridor that they came from, the leutenant in front.
They came down the corridor, to see the off-guard privates, sitting against the wall, about twenty feet away.
"God damnit!"The leutenant barked at the lazy Privates, and set Mendez down on the floor,"Get your asses off the ground!"
No reply.
"I said,"The leutnant walked closer to them, and the soldiers followed right behind him,"Get your asses off the ground-ah-and no smoking while on guard!" The private closest to the leutenant had his arm resting on the floor, with the cigarette lit, rolled out of his hand.
"Privates!"The leutenant barked again,"Get you asses of the damn floor!" He screamed, and kicked the private nearest to him. the Private just toppled right over, and didn't move. The leutenant's jaw dropped, he moved to the side to take a look at the privates face, and there was a fine hole that was punched straight through his forehead, a bit of blood had leaked across his dead pale face.
"Oh my god,"Another soldier ran up from behind the leutenant, to check on Walsh,"Holy shit! His whole fucking face is smashed to a pulp!" The soldier screamed.
All the other soldiers ran to check the other guards, to find them all dead, with their cigarettes lying on the ground, or in their mouths still. "Hey I think I found something!" One soldier said, and pushed Ptv. Wu's dead body over,"It's an Anti-tank mine! Placed on the wall right behind him!-and there's another!"
Other guards began to notice hidden mines surrounding the dead bodies. "And that means..."The leutnant slowly looks over to the figure of the Master Chief at the end of the corridor,"This was all a-"
"Trap." The master chief said, and fired a single bullet into the mine next to Ptv. Wu. The explosion incenterated the soldier next to him, and set off the other twenty mines strategicly placed in that corridor. The cooridor voilently shook from the force off the explosions. A few charred survivors stumbled out from the flames, but were immediatly mowed-down by the entire SPARTAN team, and Keys.
When the flames died down, the Master chief ran through the hellish corridor, and retrieved Mendez, who was just fine(the leutenant had put him down before he came in the proximity of the blast to check up on the guards). The SPARTAN team and Keys quickly moved outside, and noticed smoke in the distance.
"Wait."The master chief said and raised his hand,"Thats where our bomber was, we can't go back there."
Keys went onto the roof of the tattered installation, and looked down his scope to survey the site where they landed the bomber. There were several 6 foot wide craters, along with what seemed to be burst laser fire, that littered their LZ. All that was left of the bomber were a few pieces of metal. Keys surveyed the site harder, and noticed there were no ground troops. Keys looked at the pattern of craters and other marks and found it to be familiar. It seemed like dejavu to him, and kept reminding him of flight training when he was with the Wings of Death. He then hesitated, and his eyes opened wide: The four corner maneuver.
The four corner maneuver was a basic atack formation that was used only by the Wings of Death, to take out armored stationary objects. Keys froze, if the Wings of Death were here, they were here to elimminate keys and the SPARTANS.
Keys ran down the steps onto the ground, where the others waited,"Get inside!" Keys screamed at everyone, and they all filed inside. Keys heard a wistle noise that came from above, and four sleek Class A bombers rained bombs on the fort.

"We're going to get this bastard, the other ones failed, but we won't!" Fox 1 said over his comm. to the other Wings Of Death.

      Keys peeked outside, and saw the bombers swoop overhead, and continue on, until they turned around, for another punch.
"Chief!" Keys pointed to the MC,"You and four others need to make a run for the trees, and fire from there once the bombers pass you, that way, you will be able to get away from the area you shot at, before they come back." "Right." MC said. Him and four others sprinted for the trees. The bombers turned for another swoop at the base, so Keys and the others ran down the corridor, to avoid being hit by an explosive.       The bombers roared over MC's head, and they all concentated fire on one bomber. The bullets penetrated through the battle plate like a knife through melted butter.

"Damnit!" Fox 3 screamed, as his cockpit errupted in flames, "I'm hit I'm hit!"
The SPARTANS finished off their round, and the bomber exploded into shrapnel.

"Lets move!" MC told the other 4 SPARTANS, and they quickly moved to another spot. The bomber sped by where the MC used to be, and dropped a few napalm bombs, and the vicinity was completely incenerated.
Keys felt that the bombers were about to fly over them, so he ordered for everyone to take up positions at the doorway. The Bombers flew over head, and they all pulled the triggers on their MASP8's, and a wall or explosive tipped shells impacted into the three bombers, and two lost altitude, and slammed into the ground, at a deadly speed.

Fox 1 had just had 3 of his last comrades die on his hands. These were the last members of the Wings of Death, and he was all that was left of the group that was still in action. Rage engulfed him, and he spun the bomber around quickly, and charged at the building, with emmense speeds.

"What the hell is he doing?!?" Keys screamed. They all ran for the exit of the building, before the bomber could smash into it.

Fox 1 had to avenge all his friends that have fallen to the hands of the Covenant, the rebels, and most of all, that piece of scum, the traitor Keys, and his SPARTANS. He pressed the throttle, until it could be pressed no more, he clenched at the pressure, but his life was over anyway. He was going to sacrifice his own life for the UNSC, and knew it was for the better. He saw the poeple try to escape his scuicidal charge, but it wouldn't make a difference, they were going to die. He set all the weapons to proximity detonate, and closed his eyes...it was over.

Keys saw the bomber about 1 mile away from the building, and he knew the blast was going to kill him, so he stopped, and aimed his gun.
"Keys we got to get the hell out of here!" One SPARTAN screamed. Keys shook his head,"I can't run fast enough to avoid the blast like you, go on, I'll try to destroy it!"
Keys clipped in a new magazine, and pulled the trigger, to unleash the deadly rounds. The bullets flew aimlessly at the bomber, and a few found their mark. The gun clicked, and keys reloaded, and proceeded to fire. The whole ground around Keys was filling up with bullets, and the Bomber was closing in. Keys screamed a battle cry, and so did the pilot, who now flew straight at Keys. Keys fired until he had to reload again, but then found no more magazines: he was out.
Keys stood there, and knew he could do nothing.
The bomber closed in to 200 yards, and Keys heard another MASP8 fire from the forest, and then another, and then he heard all the SPARTANS firing their MASP8's. Keys looked around, and smiled.
The bomber couldn't take the damage it was recieving, and it exploded. The payload of bombs it was carrying also exploded, and the explosion emitted a large firework display in the night sky.

      Keys ran over to one of the Bombers(Fox 2), and checked to see if the communications still worked, and they did.
"How lucky are we."Keys mumbled to himself, and set the frequency to the UNN headquarters.
A man picked up the vid phone on the other line,"what do you want?" I have big news, I want you to relay this message to all your viewers in the entire universe, It's about the war on the Dominion of Commoners." The man looked at him,"verywell." he then pressed a button,"you may relay your message."
Keys took a big breath and began his speech,"Today there was an assasination attempt on the DOC leader, Commander Mendez. We succeeded in rescuing him, but payed a high price. The UNSC will stop at nothing until they have complete controll of the citizens, they even murdered 5 UNN personell along with many others that resided in the fort of Fort Sacramento. I want to say something about the assasination attempt on our leader, you may kill our leader, but that will not kill our hopes of freedom. The harder you try to fight us, UNSC, the tighter the rope gets around your necks." Keys paused,"Yes you may have a better army, and yes you may have better weapons,
but you can't deny the fact that this is your downfall!"

After that message was relayed to every home in the universe, the hope of freedom grew, and the hearts of the citizens grew stronger, no weapon would stop them.

<Next part: Wings of Death Part 16: Esacape, Plan, Destroy>

Wings of Death Part 16: Escape, Plan, Destroy
Date: 15 December 2002, 9:40 pm

      The forunner High Chief sat in his throne and awaited the status of the newly assembled fleet of forunner vessles. There were only about 1,200 in all, but the chief knew their force would be stronger once they loaded their infectious creatures that they made, onto their massive transports.
      A ball of light emmitted itself infront of the Chief's throne, and a voice came from it,"Your highness, we have run into complications."
"Please do tell." The Chief spoke boldly.
"There was a slight problem when we activated the monitor on Halo installation 001." The voice sounded from the small ball of light.
"Repair it then, anything else?"
"Your highness,"The voice paused,"The monitor, Code 343, took control of the transports we sent there, and stole the specimen's we were going to unleash upon The human world of Reach. The Monitor 343 then moved to the other two halo installations, and ravaged them., stealing the rest of our creatures."
The Chief thought hard,"Where is the monitor's next destination?"
The voice hesitated, then answered,"Reach sir. The Monitor sent us this message before he entered slipspace."
343 Guily Spark's voice appeared,"I can't thank you enough for giving me the co-ordinates to the planet that holds the Omega Device. I also thank you for giving me access to enough of, what I call, 'The Flood', to ravage the entire planet. Once I destroy every living thing on that planet, I am taking that device for myself. I bid you farewell!"The monitor chuckled a few times, then the transmission was cut.
      The normal voice from the light came back,"What do you suggest we do Your Highness?"
"We need not wait any longer. Tell all the ships to prepare to enter slipspace. It appears that 343 will do the dirty work for us, and when he finishes the job, we will annihilate him and our specimins he calls the Flood."
A hole in slipspace, the size of a sun, ripped open, and all the Forunner entered, destination: Reach.

      The UNSC ships orbiting Aroura just regained communication with the suface. They'd sent in the Last team of WOD's down to the surface and investigate why their communications were being jammed. The WOD's found that a hijacked bomber was jamming the comunications, so they destroyed it.
The command Bridge was in a frenzy now, they just lost contact of all the bombers one by one.
"here the status sir,"An ensign handed the fleet comander the status,"They were shot down."
"Great,"The commander said, looking out the view glass, at the beautiful bright planet of Aroura,"And now I'm supposed to call up Stanforth, and tell him that we just lost the finest pilots, to a bunch of rebels? Tell him that we are sending whatever we have left down to the surface to elliminate those pices of scum."
"Yes sir." The ensign saluted, and paced out of the bridge.
      Five Pelicans in the loading bay fired up their engines. Normal armored marines ran into the ship's and took their seats. The Pelicans quickly accelerated out of the loading bay, and zoomed down towards the planet's surface. Even with 50 marines, they were still nervous, because whatever was down there, it elliminated a portion of the 24th Armored Division plus four Wings of Death. The Marines all clutched their assultrifles tightly, as the pelicans fired their landing thrusters.
      The sun was just starting to show it's light behind the mountians, as it began it's slow acent into the sky.
The Pelicans all lowered to the ground, and the hatches opened. The Marines checked to see if the coast was clear, then they all cautiously crept out of the pelicans, and stayed low, while they ran across the open area, and hugged the wall. They ran around the other sides of the bulidings, and then proceeded inside. The Pelicans were instructed to stay and wait for the marines, so they let the landing thrusters stay on, allowing them to hover there, until they had to leave. The grassnext to one pelican moved a little, then the whole patch of grass around one Pelican errupted, and the SPARTANS and Keys sprung out from it, and ran into the back hatch of the pelican, and opened the cockpit door.
The Pilot spun around"What the-"MC kneed him in the face and drug his body outside. The other pelican pilots noticed this, and franticly caled for the Marines inside. Keys grabbed the controls of their newly acquired pelican, and it began to fire it's main thrusters. The two SPARTANS in the back fired their MASP 8's on full auto at the other Pelicans and two of them exploded, as large chunks of the Transports tumbled everywhere.
Their Pelican lifted from where they hovered, and unexpectedly accelerated quickly out from the area.
"Where now?" Keys asked.
Mendez woke up,"huh? Oh my god, I can't belive it's you guys. I heard you guys defected," Mendez sat up and shook MC's hand,"it's good to see you again 117-and everyone else."
"We can save hello's for later,"The Master chief impatiently said,"We need to find a place to go, before te UNSC know what the hell is going on.
They were now a planet away from Aroura, and were hoping the UNSC were still looking at their feet.
Keys saw a comm light blink on the vid phone panel. Keys answered it, and it was Stanforth.
"How's it goin Stanforth?" Keys said, and shut the door,"How's the news these days?"
"I want to speak to you personally." Stanforth calmly said.
Keys nodded, and locked the cockpit door, he then grabbed a disk, and put it in the vid phone port, a recording light came on,"what do you want?"
"We know where you are, thats how I contacted you." Stanforth commented proudly.
"So why aren't your men chasing us?" Keys asked him.
Stanforth sighed,"...There's a reason why I didn't activate the super weapon..."
"Care to explain?" Keys gravely asked, looking over at the recording light.
"When I tried to insert the keys in the hole, something strange appeared,"Stanforth paused to recollect,"An enscription lit up on the key, and burt my hand. The enscription read 'When darkness blankets the wolrd, the time has come. Many will arrive, but only one will prevail'. After giving up on the meaning, I decided to keep it a secret. ONI never told you guys to keep it under wrap, I just told you and the others that. I figured since the whole Wings of Death wanted a portion of the goods, I decided to break the key, and give the pieces to all the pilots, until I figured out the puzzle. Now I have all but one piece, yours."
Keys had heard all he needed to hear,"Have a nice day Stanforth." Keys blocked his number from ever talking to him on that certain channel.
Keys pulled out the disk, and stuck it in his vest pocket, and unlocked the door.
The MC came in,"Mendez needs to use the vid phone to call in a few important officers."
Keys got up,"Ok, I'm done here." Keys walked down to the place where the SPARTANS were. A few SPARTANS had their armor taken off to have better medical care done to their wounds. Keys didn't like watching poeple get their arms pryed open to remove bullet and shrapnel fragments, so he sat down closer to the front of the ship, and slid the disk into his personal audio player, and listened to the facts that Stanforth had just revealed. He knew it was a great significance, but he couldn't figure out what the riddle meant either. He played the riddle on a continuous loop, until he fell asleep.


The Great war room in reach was bustling with commotion. Stanforth squuezed through flocks of commanders and generals, and other officials carrying status reports, and answering phones.
One man came out from the masses poeple and saluted Stanforth,"Sir!"The Man tried to yell over all the noises in the room,"Your new shipment has arrived!" The man handed Stanforth the parcel which listed off a few weapons he requested for backup on reach, just in case there was an attack by the DOC.
Stanforth looked-over the parcel, and it's equipment:
Orbital Super MAC's: 60
Orbital Nuclear Silos: 25
Anti-Matter Dispersers: 5
Defense satellites(Armaments:30 Archer Missil pods, 15 Anvil-2 missile pods: 200
Capital Ships: 20
Nuclear frigates: 15
Class A Cruisers: 150
Estimate of additional men drafted: 8,250,000,000


"Looks just about right." Stanforth said, and took his eyes from the parcel,"Tell the workers they can go home, and enjoy their day. I can't belive they did that much work in such a short time, remarkable!"
"Well sir if I was payed 30,000 dollars a day to finish that task, I would work my ass off that hard also." The man said, and snatched the parcel back,"You'll get the first shipment of orbital weaponry tomorrow. The rest of the stuff should come a little later, like the ships, we're loading the new recruts in them. They should be a few hours behind the first shipment."
"That's fine. See you later." Stanforth happily said. He knew the DOC was going to attack, but they'd never get past their new defenses. The DOC wouldn't probably get past the defenses that already occupied Reach's orbit he thought, but just in case.
Of course, Stanforth didn't know of the Forunner and Covnenant invasion on Reach.

In the Covenant Flagship 'Beacon of hope' sat the leader of the Covenant race.
A purple armored elite approached the leader,"Your majesty, the armada is ready for departure."
"How many in total?" The Great Elite sitting in his throne asked.
"10,000 Battle ready ships ranging from destroyers to capital ships are participating in this glorious endeavor, your majesty." He answered.
"Have our probes discovered any information about the defenses?"
"We have intercepted a message that they are re-enforcing the target. They are ordering all their ships to the target. This leaves all of their colonies open for attack."
"That does not matter,"The elite said from his throne,"we are going for the weapon, and the weapon only. No distractions." We will crush the humans and their primitive weapons, and prevail. After we've extraced the weapon from their planet, glass it."
"Yes Sire, anything else?"
"No, that is all,"The Leader wove his hand,"we leave in two minutes."


       Keys woke up from his rest, he must have fallen asleep from listening to the audio. He sat up and realized eveything was black, he wasn't in the pelican anymore. He was puzzeled, because it was like nothing was below him either.
"Welcome Jacob." A voice silently echoed around him.
"What?" he said, yawning.
"I brought you here to tell you something, so you must listen closely." The voice danced around in his head.
"Who are you? Where is everyone else?" He spun around, but all he saw was darkness.
"That does not matter. What does matter, is that your fate and every other being's fate in the universe lies in the hands of evil."
"Who?"
"Your race calls him Admiral." The voice trailed on,"Anyway, After doing something completely wrong that they felt they could be able to do better, every being has wished they could go back and do-over what they did. They feel that if they knew when some certain even was going to occur, they could have saved many lives, or won a game. The 'weapon' that your admiral holds in his clutches is called the Omega Device. The Omega device was feuled by the passion of wanting to do something over again. I know that you have wanted to re-do many things in your past, Jacob."
"Your not making much sense." Keys said feeling dizzy.
"It will make sense in time. I know I will be seeing you later. Good bye for now Jacob Keys."
"Uh...bye." Keys said as he got more dizzy.
"Oh, and when you're in the installation, take the hallway to the right." The voice said as it became faint, and distant.
"What hallway?" Keys asked, and everything went blank.


"Keys..."
"Keys."
"KEYS!!!"
Keys spring out of his little niche on the pelican.
"You ok?" The Figure of the Master Chief appeared in Keys blurry vision.
"Yah...yah I'm fine, just a little headache I guess." Keys rubbed his head, and heard that the engines were off,"Did we land somewhere?"
"Yah about ten hours ago, you were asleep for about 18 hours, I was starting to worry, so I came back in here, to see if you were still alive." The Master Chief chuckled,"I think there's some poeple that want to see you."
The hatch of the pelican opened up, to reveal hundreds of millions of people stading before the ship, as far as the eye could see. Keys stepped out into the light, and the crowds roared with happiness.
"Where did all these people come from?" Keys asked astonished.
"This,"The Master Chief said,"Is the Dominon of Commoners.
"Woah." Keys uttered.
"Theres about 12 billion people devoted to the DOC that are battle ready." The Master Chief proclaimed,"And about 750 stolen UNSC cruisers, along with 50 scorpion tanks 25 STD's and 75 warthogs, and a hell of alot of ammunition."
"It's just a guess," Keys said, scratching his chin,"but are we leading an assult on Reach?"
"Affirmative,"MC said,"ETD is in 3 hours."
"How far are we from Reach?" Keys asked.
"Heh, right up their nose, we're on their neighbor planet."

>>3 hours later.


"Go go go! move it! get in your assigned transports!" One DOC seargent barked at his troops,"EDT 5 minutes!"
Most of the ships already lifted off the ground, and awaited the others to follow suit.
The large DOC transports sat with their hatches open, while tanks and warthogs zoomed into the cargo bays.
Keys and the other officials were directed to a stolen Capital ship called, Ares(named after the Ancient Greek god of war), and it's engines also fired up.
The rest of the DOC's shipd lifted off the ground, and Keys pronouced over the comm."Here today, we make history. Let it be a good lesson to the people to come!"
From those words, the DOC fleet took-off, and exited the planets atmosphere.

"Excellent." Stanforth muttered, as the entire shipment of ships, and planetary defenses arrived.
The ships set all the orbital weapons in orbit, and the new ships joined in with the large UNSC armada that were ordered to be there.
      Technicians Turned the newly acqired defenses online, and set up a network of the defenses, leaving no weakspots.
"SIR!" An analist yelled over to Stanforth,"We spotted multiple signatures coming from out nighbor planet, Hapsberry. It appears to be a large number of unregistered UNSC attack cruisers, that are just coming out of the planets atmosphere!"
"Ready the planetary defenses!" Stanforth barked," And tell the fleet to guard the MAC cannons!"
"Yes sir!"


The Space became apparent now to the DOC fleet. Just about an hour away lied at the least of 30,000 ships, and more than 500 planetary defenses lined the planet's figure.
"Keys grip on the rail thightened."
Anyone who was talking all-of-a-suddenly stopped, to stare at their unbeatable foe.
"Sir,"One of keys advisers said timidly,"Other commanders are suggesting retreat."
Keys new there was something unexpected that was going to happen, he felt it in his gut,"No."
"What?"
Keys turned to the man, letting his syes draw off of the armada,"We will continue en route, tell your fighters to prep for launch. any ship that carries a MAC cannon should start warming it, any one that has control of a nuke, they should unlock the saftey." Keys looked back at the force,"Anyone who wants to admit defeat to these tyants, then so be it."
No one broke off from the fleet.
"Verywell then, continue to objective."
DOC soldiers in the holing bay could only wait, and grasp their guns tightly, watching the main view screen, and hoping that they would make it to solid ground. They knew if they didn't die in space, they'd probably die on the ground, but they had Iron will, and were willing to die for the right cause.
Most of the crew prayed under their breaths, apologizing for the things they've done in the past.


The adviser spun around to Stanforth,"10,000 kilometers until they reach the firing radius of our defenses!"

Keys kept his eyes on the planet, he knew he would get there somehow.

"6,000 Kilometers! And closing!"

"Sir!" A man cried to Keys,"This is our last chance to retreat!"

"4,000 Kilometers, Admiral!"

"We will never retreat!" Keys yelled

"1,000 Kilometers!"

"Full speed ahead!" Keys ordered.

"100 Kilometers Sir!" The adviser shouted to Stanforth.


(music tightens)
Keys clenched his fist, and closed his eyes.

<Next Part: Wings of Death Part 17: Mexican standoff>

Wings of Death Part 17: Mexican Standoff
Date: 19 December 2002, 11:12 pm

"Sir!" The analist yelled to Stanforth,"Enemy ships are in range! Permission to fire sir!"
Stanforth pulled out a cigar,"Fir-"
"SIR! Slipscpace openings detected!" The analist interrupted Stanforth.
"What? from where?"
"Uh lets see...sir, holes are opening up from INSIDE our defenses! Holy crap, thats a lucky jump!"
"No ones ever been able to get a jump in that accuratly, besides the Covenant." Stanforth said with a grim look.
"You don't mean?"
"Direct all the defenses that are in range of those slipspace openings to fire at them! I want those anti-matter dispersers ready to fire!"




      The large orbital anti-matter dispersers swiveled over towards one of the holes that was opening up. The Dispersers unleashed hundreds of small anti-matter mines, that immediatly set themselves around the slipspace openings.
Everyone waited for something to come out of the holes.
"somehtings not right..." one person said, looking at the hole.
Hundred of slipspace holes suddenly opened up on the other side of the planet, outside the defenses, and thousands of covenant fighters poured out, and swarmed the first UNSC cruisers.
"Tell all crews to fire at will!"Stanforth stammered.
From the holes that the fighters came out of, many large carriers and cruisers jumped into normal space and unloaded their plasma upon the unsuspecting humans.
The 10 UNSC nuclear frigates fired nuke after nuke at the hordes of fighters. The fighters were immediatly turned to dust, along with 5 UNSC cruisers. The UNSC carriers deployed all their fighters, and the longswords streamed after the Covenatn fighters.
Defense satallites aimed their turrets at some medium sized cruisers, and fired all their salvos of archer missiles.
Then finally, a few massive capital ships emerged from the distraction holes from inside the defenses. The capital ships were battered with wave after wave of anti-matter charges. The first two capital ships were torn to fragments, and their flaming pieces rained down on the atmosphere. The 'Beacon of Hope' arrived with an escort of 15 capital ships and 20 cruisers a little way away from the firefight.
The Super MACs heated up, and fired at the Covenant Cruisers, diminishing their shields and tearing gigantic holes in the body of the ships.
Three orbital nuclear stations(ONS) targeted one certain Covenant battle grounp, and fired their nuclear misiles which brightened space for a second, and left only but dead hulls of the ships.
Battle group Charlie consisted of 2 Capital ships, 3 carriers, 8 cruisers, and 5 destroyers.
"Move to engage from the left wing of their force!" The Charlie commander ordered,"Charge the MACs!"
A few cruisers and the capital ships had MAC cannons and they fired at one group of Covenant crusiers, and a few were rendered useless. The rest of the CC's turned their attention to the battle group, and rained large plasma bursts on their ships.
"Report!" Charlie command screamed, while he held onto the rail.
"Covenant to human kill ratio for us is....3:2 so far sir!"
The Capital ships turned their side to the CC's and fired their salvo's of Archer and Anvil 2 missils at the enemy. The missiles streamed towards the enemy, but most of them were shot down, this missile fire was just to buy time to charge the MAC's again.
The CC's continued to fire their dozens of plasma cannons, and a few more cruisers met their fate.
"MAC cannons charged sir!"
"Tell the battle group to fire on my mark!"
"Yes sir!"
"Mark!"
The remaining cruisers and capital ships fired their volley of MACs which tore through the front line of CC's and hit a few behind them.
"Ready the Nukes!"Charlie Command ordered the ensign.
"They're ready sir!" The ensign squelched.
"Fire all of them!"
Both of the capital ships fired their nukes, 6 in all. They were all destined to detonate in a different area, dishing out the damage.
The 6 nuclear missiles sped towrds their targets, and detonated all at the same time. The Poeple watching had to shield their eyes from the bright flashes.
The charlie Battle group looked out to see that all the CC's were destroyed. They all got up and cheered, but then they heard a screeching noise, and the hundreds of men of charlie team's heads exploded. The Capital ships along with the other ships of charlie team imploded, and were crushed to a third of their original size. Large figures of ships loomed over the defeated charlie battle group, and set a shadow over the entire planet. The Forunners have arrived.




"What the hell are those?!?"A pilot next to Keys remarked.
"I have no idea, but they're big." Keys stared at the monstrotious ships coming out of slipspace.
"A new covenant battletype?" One Ensign asked.
"No, look they're attacking the Covenant also!" Keys said suprised,"Steer clear of those strange warships, we don't want to get in their way."
The DOC fleet continued towards the large battle taking place between the 10,000 covenant ships, the 25,000 UNSC ships, and the estimated 1,000 strange unknown ships.
Keys watched the large ships fire strange pulses that crushed any cruiser, or orbital defense, like it was exposed to a vacume.
"Sir! Incoming carriers!" One ensign yelled over to Keys.
"They're going for the planet also. The covenant usually don't send in ground troops when they have an advantage like this." One person said.
"They must be going for the weapon also. Shoot them down!"
The DOC fleet fired their archer missiles at the group of five carriers that hurdled past them. The hundreds of Archer missiles from the DOC ships hit their targets, and two carriers were torn apart, and threw dropships out of their cargo bays wildly.
"Deploy the fighters to mop up the dropships that are already out." Keys ordered, and watched the small force of 200 fighters fired missile after misile, pummeling the dropships until they were nothing more than shrapnel.
The Super MACs defense satalites, and ONS's were concentrated on the new enemy that loomed over them. The covenant left the fighting of the humans, and charged at the Forunner vessels. When the CC's got close, the forunner vessels opened smallhatches in their hull, and in each hole, popped out a laser turret. The lasers seemed to be constant, as hundreds of them streamed down from each ship, and cut-away at the covenant ships. The Covenant fired their plasma bolts, plasma lasers, and even plutonium moon crushers. The Forunner ships had no shields, but their armor was extremly thick. The ONS's turned their silo's towards the closeest forunner ships, and fired their oversized nuclear missiles. Morale was boosted when the first forunner ship exploded into particles when a volley of 15 nuclear explosives and dozens of plasma bolts hit it.
The UNSC mobilized all it's space units to fight the forunner, and so did the covenant. The super MACs punched holes in the ships, and the archer missiles were directed through the holes to detonate inside the ship, causing more damage. Fighters covnenant and UNSC alike, wove in and out of the forunner behemoths, unloading their weapons on the un-shielded armor.
All of the UNSC Capital ships aligned themselves, a little ways away from the firefight, and told the UNSC to withdraw from the vicinity of the forunners ships. Once the UNSC vessels cleared out, and left the Covenant to fight them, the Capital ships, 30 in all, and the 15 ONS's unlocked all their nuclear missils and fired them at the battlezone.
"Oh my god." One Marine said as he watched from the viewscreen in one of the cruisers. The missiles streamed from the ships, and the planetary ONS's, and when the misiles reached their destination, there was a series of bright flashes followed by a rumble that knocked a few soldiers off their feet. The flashes continued, as more missiles made their mark. After about 30 seconds, the flashes stopped, and people un-covered their eyes, to see what was left. There were pieces of debris that floated everywhere, along with a few dozen Forunner capital ships. The entire Covnenant armada was elliminated.
      The remaining forunner ships turned their noses towards the capital ships, who were now fleeing to the other side of the planet. Large cannons opened from the noses of the remaining ships. Red light glowed from the barrel of the cannon and got brighter.
"They're about to fire on us!" One pilot screamed from one of the capital ships.
Teh commander of that capital ship ordered,"Tell the cruisers, and fighters to hold their postiton or attack, to provide a distraction for us."
The cannons sayed trained on the UNSC capital ships.
"SIR! They're targeting us!"
"Tell The remaiining UNSC warships to atatck!"
The remaining Cruisers, 2,000 in all attacked the forunner ships, while performing evasive maneuvers.
A few forunner ships pointed over to the annoying cruisers, but most kept their cannons pointed towards the retreating capital ships. The forunner cannons now entirely glowed red, and without warning, they all fired. Large balls of pure positivly charged atomsfired out of each of the ships. The large balls or energy hit a cruiser, and blew it to fragments. The protronium weapons that were pointed towards the UNSC capital ships, fired. The first protronium charge hit one capital ship, and blew half of the large ship apart. The other charges hit many other capital ships with deadly accuracy. Now, 10 Capital ships floated lifelessly in space, to join the other millions of space junk now polluting the space around Reach. The forunner ships opened fire on them with their pop-up lasers, and eventually defeated the UNSC distraction force. The surviving capital ships were safe for now, thye had reached the other side of the planet, hiding from enemy fire. The orbital defenses on that side of the planet managed to destroy two more Forunner Ships, before they were completly annihilated.




      Keys ordered his fleet to pursue the covenant carriers, and now the carriers stopped, near the atmosphere of the planet.
"Tell the fleet to halt!" Keys ordered, and the whole DOC fleet came to an abrupt stop. The Covenant carriers powered down their engines, and sat there, doing nothing. Keys saw the holding bay shields start to power down.
"Ready your weapons!"Keys yelled, and sure enough, out each holding bay came out more than a hundred dropships.
All three carriers were deploying all their dropships, which quickly accelerated towards the surface of the planet.
Keys made a quick dicision,"Ok tell the Attack fleet to stay in orbit, and destroy the carriers, or any other attackers, while the drop-fleet and any other able-bodied marine gets into a Pelican. Looks like some of us are going to have a chance to fight on solid ground."
Keys grabbed his eqquipment vest, and headed out of the bridge.
"Keys! where are you going?" Mendez asked him.
"Mendez, they need me down there, I have to go, you stay here, and take command of the fleet."
"No. I'm coming to," Mendez said, and ran up to Keys.
"Well we'd better hurry." Keys said, and they ran down the hallways, and reached the loading zone, which was a ruckus of MArines scrambling for their dropships, vehicles being loaded up, and personell trying to direct the ships out of the bay, and into space.
"Right here." Keys pointed over to a pelican with a warthog being hoisted onto it. Keys saluted to the pilot,"Permission to enter this vehicle."
"Anything for you Keys and Commander Mendez." The pilot said, and ran to the cockpit.
Keys and Mendez took a seat in the Pelican, and looked around at the soldiers. A few of them had commisioned gear from when they were in the UNSC, and some of the others just had stolen armor from the UNSC munitions plant.
The Pelican lifted off, and exited the Capital ship 'Ares'. The Pelican joined up with 800 other Pelicans , and they began their decent, in pursuit of the Covenant invaders.
"Ok drop-point had been set for us." Their Pilot said to the marines, keys and Mendez,"Our LZ is a UNSC fortified lookout post, along with a small city that surronds it. One branch of covenant dropships reportedly headed in that direction. Our drop will be assisted with about 80 other pelicans. The Pelicans, besides the ones heading in our direction, are either following Covenant drop-parties, or dropping near the UNSC HQ. An estimated 600 Pelicans are dropping near the HQ, so we should have pretty good ground support. Once we reach contact with the other teams near the UNSC HQ, Commander Mendez is going to call in for air support."
"Got it." Keys confermed
"Ok, our team has just passed through the atmospere, and I have visual of the city-what the hell?!?" The pilot screamed.
"Whats wrong Pilot?!" Keys asked.
"The Covenant drop party just sped right pat us! It's like they're running away fromt he place!"
The soldiers in Keys dropship looked at eachother.
"Did any make a drop?" Keys asked the pilot.
"...yah about half of the drop squad did, but they look wrecked."
"What's goin on..."Keys asked himself.
Commander Mendez looked up,"Did the UNSC destroy them?"
The Pilot paused, to look down at the city, while the Pelican raced down to the surface,"Well that's strange..."
"What?"
The Pilot answered,"Uh it appears that the UNSc have been defeated, there's broken smoking tanks, the entire outpost is rubble."
The Pelican fired it's landing thrusters, and n there were no shots fired at the ship, as they thouched-down on the flat desert sand, just outside the city.
The Soldiers jumped out of the Pelicans, and ran to evade any fire...but there was none.
Mendez, and Keys slowly walked out of the Pelican, shielding their eyes from the dust being kicked up by the Pelicans. Keys walked over to an officer, tripped on somthing, and fell down.
"So,"One officer said,"The covenant dropped down, killed all the men here, and made a hurried rush out of here?"
Keys looked at what he tripped on: it was a bump in the sand, and a bit of clothing showed form the bump. Keys brushed the sand off the bump to find a mutleated human body, His throut was completly ripped out of his neck, and his insides were bowled out.
The officer squinted at the ugly sight.
"No,"Keys said,"Because there had to have been enough time for the sand to blow over this body, there was an atatck before the covenant...something that spooked them enough to run like hell out of this city.
"Mabye a few soldiers went mad?" Mendez offered his opinion.
"I don't know."Keys said looking at the wounds,"Look."Keys pointed to the dozens of slashes on the soldier's body,"No bullet holes. so if it was a person, they used knifes and other sharp objects like-"
"Teeth?" Mendez said loking up at Keys.
Keys grabbed his assult rifle tightly,"Whatever it is, we're going to find it, tell our men to fan out, and comb this small city, and tell them to stay in groups.
"Yes sir,"The officer said, drawing his eyes away from the mangled body.
Keys took a big gulp, trying to hold back the vomit.
Keys motioned for six men to come along with him, and they immediatly rushed over.
The groups of people began to take step after step into the city. The large buildings left darkness in the city. the only noise was the -click click- of boots as they slowly walked into the city, with their guns at ready. Keys saw a pile of something, and he ran over to it. He couldn't hold it back, and barfed. The pile was a pile of bodies, and body parts. The dead was a combination of soldiers and civillians. Keys looked down the street to find piles of dead people packed on the corners of streets. Keys felt something drip on him from above, and he looked up to find a few dead civillians hanging by their spinal cords, as blood dripped from their slit throuts. Keys head glass break from ahead of him, his shaking hand directed the gun in the direction of the noise. Keys' group caught up with him, and they all looked away fromt he pile he stood next to.
"Who would do something like this?" A soldier asked.
Keys rounded the corner of the building and saw the glass shards laying on the ground,"not who...what."
Keys looked inside and saw a civillian that was barly alive, hanging out of the window.
The man had his eyes gouged, and his arms ripped to shreds,"p-p-ple-please, just-just-just kill me."The man struggled to say,"D-D-Don't torture me like the others!"
"Shh shh!" Keys said, running over to the man, and got bandage out, to bandage his face, and arms,"Who did this?"
The man rabmled on,"we heard a rumble in the sky, and when we came outside to look, small creatures engulfed the city, k-k-killed everyone I presume. Your not safe here, I've been hiding for an hour, and I hear them walk by this place once in a while. It's strange. They we like small creatures...kinda like fat nasty squid, but now I hear footsteps, like they have evolved. I ahve no idea what they are, but I hear Covenant dropships earlier, and for once, I was glad to have them here, but they we soon also killed, the survivors fled, and thats when I heard you."
"When was the last time you heard these creatures pass by?" Keys asked the man.
"About a half a minute before I heard you guys. They must be really close, you have to tell your sqad to get out of here, before they die also. Keys heard something outside, and motioned for everyone to get inside the building. Keys dragged the man inside, and they all waited behind the wall, next to the door. They all sat with their backs against the wall, waiting for what ever it was to pass by. Keys heart raced, along with everyone else.
Keys looked at the faint sunlight coming through the window. Keys suddenly froze, as he saw three shadows the size of men, start to pass by the window. The language somming out of their mouths was definatly not human. One soldier took a wiff of the dusty air, and drew in a big breath to sneeze.
"No no no." Keys lipped to the soldier about to sneeze.
The soldier held back the sneeze, and then relaxed, he had stopped the sneeze from occuring. Keys silently sighed, and watched the shadows slowly walk past the windows.
The soldier immediatly put his hand over his mouth,"AAACHOOOO!"
The shadows stopped in their tracks.
Keys could only lip one word before they were all discovered,"fuck."


<Next part: Wings of Death Part 18: Get Us the Hell Outta Here!>

Wings of Death Part 18: Get Us the Hell Outta Here!
Date: 24 December 2002, 5:14 am

      Stanforth was in a panic, Rumors came in that various outposts have been crushed by unknown eneimies, The Covenant landing parties are invading the nearby cities, the DOC have reached the planet's surface, and to top it all off, word has just came in that the superior unknown ships have destroyed the last of the orbital defenses, and any other enemy in Reach's orbit.
"How many men do we have near this installation?" Stanforth sternly asked his Right-wing man.
"Sir, we have an aproximate of 1,500,000,000."
"Is that enough" Stanforth asked rubbing his head.
"Reports estimate that about 1,000,000 covenant dropships made it down to Reach, ten troops in each dropship brings our total to 10,000,000 enemy troops, we don't even know how much of their artillery made it down to the surface, but we're pretty sure they prepared for this fight."
"Tell our men to get to their postitons. Are the towers finished yet?"
"Yes sir."The man answered,"all the towers are done. There's about one per sqare 500 feet encompasing the entire installation. The rows of towers begin ten feet away from this installation and reach out about 2 miles. It's going to be one hell of a gauntlet for those bastards if they want inside." The man chuckled,"Each tower fits 10 people, preferably sharpshooters, or any other heavy weaponry."
Teh Rec alert sounded off outside the installation, and the masses of soldiers ran to their postitons, up in the towers, to various vehicles, and to make a solid wall of armed men around the peremeter of the fortified area, in the sandy dunes of Reach.





      Keys heard the clanking of the footsteps get louder and louder, keys had to do something quick. Keys looked at a piece of glass from the broken window that caught his eye,"thats it!" he silently exclaimed, and snatched the piece of glass before the creatures mad eit to the window. Keys held the piece of glass in his hand, and then threw it out the door. The glass made a loud crash as it broke into shards in the street. The creatures noticed the distraction, and ran over to where the glass broke. Keys rolled out in front of the door when the creatures weren't looking, and pulled the trigger on his MA5B. The Armor Piercing rounds shredded through the three atrocious looking monsters that appeared to be rotting humans. Limbs and body parts were torn off, but the creatures seemd to stay alive. Keys kept his finger on the trigegr with adrinaline speeding through his viens. The magazine was expended, and Keys puled out the empty clip and to get another. Two of the creatures turned to Keys with their mutated faces, and lept into the air at him. Keys went to take a step back, but tripped. The two creatures came down fromt the air, and were just about to land on him, but there was a blast from a shotgun from behind him. Another blast finished off the other one. The hypervinalating Keys looked behind him, and saw one pritave poised with his smoking shotgun barrel aimed at the dead monsters.
"Good job Private."Keys said taking in a breath,"When we get back, I'm recommending you for a medal."
Keys looked over at the decimated bodies and chuckled a little bit, and pointed at them,"see, they aren't invincible."
The Privates shotgun went off again, and the Same creature that Keys thought was dead, just dropped back down on the ground.
"Ok, we're calling for an evac." Keys said.
One private tossed him the comm. device,"Alpha team, this is Jabba Kappa, do you copy?"
Someone replied,"Rodger Kappa, what is your status?"
"Requsting immediate evac! I repreat immediate evac! Once we are evacuated, I want a napalm strike targeted on this city!"
"Sir," The was a bunch of static and noises in the background,"We'll see what we can do."
"Get me in touch with the commanding ship of the fleet, 'Ares'."
"...No can do sir." The voice on the other side of the comm said.
"Why not!?" Keys screamed into the radio.
"Haven't you heard!?" The person on the comm. screamed back at him,"There is no 'Ares' or any DOC fleet left. You're lucky we made it off, with a few fighters and bombers."
keys dropped the comm. device on the ground.
"What's a matter?" The private with the shotgun asked Keys.
Keys silenly made a prayer to all the brave soldiers who lost their lives on those ships,"...nothing. Evac is on it's way."
"Alright!" The Privatesin his group of 10 jumped with joy, but were then silenced by a horrible scream from a few blocks down, followed by continuois gunfire.
"Get to the roof!" Keys screamed at the men.
"This building wont do sir, entrance to the stairs is caved in."
"Damnit!" Pick up that civillian!" Keys quickly ordered, and checked to see if the coast was clear outside,"We're going to have to make it to the highest building in this city,a nd it apears to be the one 3 blocks away!"
"Sir the civillian is dead." Commander Mendez said.
"Strap a grenade to his mouth,"Keys said, as the Privates moved outside,"if anything moves his body, it's toast. now lets go!" Keys screamed, and they all ran down the street.
(ok by now you should know that these creatures are the flood, so im gunna call them the flood from now on, ok?)
Keys' group stayed in a tight pack as they ran down the street. Flood jumped out form the windows of buildings, and the group hailed bullets at them before they were able to reach the group. One flood combat form jumped onto one of the privates, and began to tear him to pieces, as blood sprayed everywhere.
Keys had to shut out the gurgling screams of the private, and focusing on blasting the rest of the hellish minions. They passed by one street to find scattered remnants of groups of DOC soldiers fighting flood.
"FOLLOW ME!!!" Keys screamed over to the soldiers, and they quickly tried to out-run the flood, and join in with Keys now growing group. Gunfire was now constant, and so was the volume of flood that poured out of every door and window imaginable. The Soldiers couldn't keep up with the flood being thrown at them, and many of them perished. A large croup of DOC combatants were holding their ground at the entrance of the tall building Keys was trying to get to.
      Keys and their group of now 150 soldiers layed down the welcoming mat, and flattened the flood. Keys quickly saluted to the officer he saw before that was holding the entrance with about 60 other soldiers.
"We need to get to the roof of this building for extraction!" Keys said.
"Are you insane?!?!" The Officer screamed at him,"we already tried that, and lost half our men trying to get up to the roof in that god-forsaken dark building!"
"Look," Keys said,"if we stay down here, we're going to die! these things never stop coming!"
The officer quickly nodded, and signaled for the forces to move inside.
The masses of troops hurried inside, and the whole place got quiet. The building was dark, and the soldiers looked on the celings to find dead bodies hanging from lights and fans.
Teh officer wispered to Keys,"It was jsut like this the first time when we came in here." The officer pointed with a shaking hand, over to a closed double door, that had a stair symbol on it,"Right when we opened the doors, They jumped down on us, and slaughtered us. We tried to make it up to the top, but the casualties were so high, that I ordered a retreat."
Keys looked at the doors, and saw blood that began to seep from under the door.
Keys wispered back to the officer,"What about the-"
"The elevator shaft is even worse. They pounced on a group of soldiers that tried that way up, none of them made it back."
Keys swayed his head back and fourth,"Then we'll just have to take the stairs."
Keys turned to the group of soldeirs,"Who will volunteer to go in first?"
Two soldiers stepped forward. One of soldiers held out a necklace with a picture on it,"I'll do it, but can you give this to my wife?"
Keys nodded, and put the neclace in his vest pocket.
The entire group of soldiers lined up 2 soldiers wide.
Keys looked around at the brave group of soldiers, and nodded,"Ready...GO!"
The first two soldiers kicked open the doors and charged through, and a pack of flood jumped on them. The Soldiers kept running through, shooting any flood in sight, trampling any who fell down, and keeping the pace up, as they winded up the stairs. Teh flood poured down the staircase, and met a solid wall of bullets that tore them to shreds.
      Floor 50/100: Soldiers were having to reload, and the running up the stairs started to take affect on them, but it didn't slow them down. The Flood warriors broke down doors, and engulfed the soldiers in their wake. The soldiers fiercly fired at anything that was moving. The group of soldiers was now down to 120.
      Floor 80/100: A few soldiers couldn't keep up with the group, so they provided cover fire for the rest of the group that could still have a chance to make it. The soldiers that were left behind were soon defeated by the flood in the darkness, their screams deafened by gunfire.
      Floor 90/100: The pace or the group was slowing down, and only 97 soldiers were left. The flood from behind them began to catch-up to the humans that were still busy fighting-off every wave of flood soldier.
"We only have a few more floros to go!" Keys screamed over the gunfire,"Just keep it up for a few more floors!"
The encouragement raised their spirits, and they all picked up the pace.
      Keys came to a level area, and fired at a door in front of him, and light came through the holes. Keys ran full speed towards the door, and rammed the door out of it's hinges. The remaining soldiers, 79 in all mad eit to the roof. Keys sqinted at the bright sunlight that now shown on him.
"Once all the soldiers have made it up, keep you guns trained on that door, and fire at anything that tries to get through!"
Keys looked over the edge of the building, to look at the building where they found the live civillian. Keys saw a group of ten Flood combat forms rush into the building where the man was, and then a few seconds later that certain room exploded from the fragmentation grenade set my Mendez.
Keys smiled a bit, at his cleverness, but his smile faded, when he watched the groups of DOC soldiers that were still on the ground, trying to fight off the flood. He felt so sorry for the men that had to perish under his order.
Keys went into thining about all the men that have died under his command but his train of thought was broken by the comm. device.
"This is Victor Charlie Victor! I heard you guys needed an evac?" The Comm. said.
Keys filled with happiness when we saw the group of Pelican decend from the sky. Kesy reached in his vest to grab a smoke canister. Keys pulled the pin, and let it roll to the surface of the roof. The Pelicans re-directed towards the rooftop.
"Rodger that Victor Charlie Victor. We are ready for evac."
"I copy that." VCV affirmed.
The Pelicans were like a miracle from the events which had just occured.
As the Pelicans rested their ends on the edges of the roof, VCV Asked Keys,"Where's everyone else? We left you with 500, and this looks like about 100 made it! What happened?"
Keys climbed into a Pelican with Mendez, and answered,"...Just make sure this place is completly wiped out..."
"...Rodger that," VCV slowly said,"we'd managed to get five napalm bombers just as you ordered, they should be here pretty soon."
Keys watched the last of the DOC soldier with their guns pointed to the doorway slowly back away from the door, shooting at the waves to flod that kept trying to get out, and th esoldier turned and jumped into the Pelicans which immediatly lifted from the rooftop. The flood warriors sawrmed the rooftop, and watched the pelicans zoom out of sight. The Flood then heard another noise, a screeching noise comming from the same direction as the pelicans. Teh Five bomber sped downwards from the clouds, and opened their bombays. The Flood looked up at the Bombers and watched them get closer. The bombers streaked over the buildings and each of the bombers dropped a 50 megaton Napalm Bomb. The Bombs decended from the sky, and just when they reched the level of the buildings, they deontaed. The force of the bombs toppled buildings in fire. The streets were engulfed in 1,000, 000 degree flames. Anything that got in the path of thses bombs were either knocked over, or was immediatly incenerated. The Bomber swooped overhead to see the entire city burn. Buildings toppled, and enemies were turned to ash. The tallest building that the DOC escaped from began to collapse. And with the building, fell the remaining flood. The flood screamed as they plummeted down and disappeared in the flames.
"Good work men" The Lead pilot told his team mates.



Just outside the city was a mark where a piece of metal from a building had been blasted from the napalm and had slid into the side of the sand dune. The piece of metal was 343 Guilty Spark. The light on him flickered, and then went dead.





<Next Part:Wings of Death Part 19: Total Eclipse(Series Finalie)>

Wings of Death Part 19: Total Eclipse (Series Finale)
Date: 25 January 2003, 3:35 am

      A scanner analist sprinted towards Stanforth,"Sir! These reports were just picked up!"
The man handed Stanforth the handheld panel, that displayed a bunch or large red blobs on the map surrounding the installations perimeter, 10 miles away.
"What are those red marks on the map?" Stanforth asked.
"Sir...those 'red marks' are masses of Covenant troops, Just like we predicted, the numbers are up in the ten million area. Luckily, as we have said before, Our troop count is about one point five billion-"
"What kind of armor made it down?" Stanforth interrupted.
"well, the scanners show about one hundred and twenty-five Covenant Mortar Tanks made it down, along with probably three hundred Ghosts recon vehicles."
"Shit." Stanforth muttered under his breath.
"Any suggestions before they reach firing distance?" The man asked him.
"Yes, devide the sections of the installation perimeter defenses into four groups." Stanforth said.
"I'm ready sir."
"The Northern defenses will be Alpha D, the Southern Defenses will be Beta D, the Western defenses will be Charlie D, and the Eastern defenses will be Delta D." Stanforth told him.
"Sir." the man answered.
"I want all intel ops to refer to them as that." Stanforth said.
"Yes Sir, is that all?"
"A cup of coffie would be nice."



      Outside the installation, lie the 2 mile thick defense web of towers. Most of the soldiers sat patiently, and relaxed, ready for battle. The Tanks and Warthogs sat on Idle, waiting to be used, and soldiers that weren't in the 50 foot-tall towers stood on the ground in the masses of other soldiers, fingers ready on thier triggers.
"Ok ladies," One Seargent piped up,"Word came from HQ that the covenant are about 5 miles away from this area, right over that large sand dune."
Just then, that whole side of the planet dimmed, as the sun was blocked by something.
All the soldiers looked up into the sky to see that it wasn't an enemy, but it was one of Reach's largest moon's that began to cover the sun.
It started to feel like it was evening from the lack of light, but the visibility was still fine.
"Wow." One soldier remarked about the sun, but then a faint noise broke the awe of the soldiers.
"What the hell was that?" One Marine asked and tightened the grip on his rifle.
The sound became appearent to all the soldiers.
"It's like a screeching-whining noise..."
"Kinda like a crying"
"Sounds like a big bird or something"
"Does this suit make me look fat?"
The Marines turned their heads in the direction of the noise.
"No, it's comming from over there."
The Marines were confused, because now the noise was comming from all directions, right over the sand dune hills.
One person from the tower saw what it was, and screamed down to the crowds,"WRAITH MORTARS!"
Just then, hundreds of large blue balls of plasma careened over the hill and made their decent.
"BATTLE STATIONS!" One sharpshooter from a tower screamed.
The Wraith Mortars came from all directions of the installation. The Large balls of plasma finally made it to the ground, and exploded into the ranks. Towers crumpled from the force of the Wraith's weapon.
Like a dozen rivers, Ghosts came streaming down the sand dunes, following the ghosts were hoardes of Covenant ground troops.
"Get ready you son's of bitches!" One Corporal screamed to the stunned Privates.

      Explosions sounded off everywhere, and cries of men could be heard as towers were blown to rubble.
"Ground troops in firing range!" One sharpshoter shouted form his tower, and all the sharpshooters let loose on their magazines. Vapor trails zipped over the heads of the marines, and pounded into the ranks of Covenant that were charging down the large sand dune.
"Ready your weapons!" A leutenant screamed to his group, and they all raised their MA5B's to their eyes.
"AIM!"
The Ground began to rumble from the masses of covenant.
"FIRE!"
The ground exploded underneath the Marines, and their bodies were hurled everywhere. A group of five Covenant bombers flew overhead, and dropped their high explosive charges on the towers and marines.
The Anit-Aircraft batteries opened up from the ground, and threw volley after volley of missiles at the bombers. The Bombers immediatly turned to flaming scrap in no time, and the AA batteries turned towards a group of incoming Covenant fighters and bombers. The Underground hangars opened up, and sleek UNSC Class A Fighters blasted out of the hangars to engage the enemy aircraft.

       The Coveant ground troops came from every side, but the continuous fire from the Scorpion tanks, the Warthogs, the Marines, and the towers kept the covenant from getting to the perimeter of the defenses. The Bodies of Human and Covenant alike, piled up dead in the battlefield. The Covenant Wraiths contiued to fire their weapons from over the hill, and were inflicting great casualties and damage in the more interior part of the defenses.

      The Ghosts, with their plasma weapons blazing, attack from the North(Alpha) and defeat the peremeter defenses.
"Give them hell!" A seargent yelled, as the Elites broke into the rows of marines.
Te Marines pulled out explosive tipped knifes, and combat knifes, or any other close range weapon they had, and fought the covenant face-to-face. It was going to be a very bloody war.
"So it begins." Stanforth sternly mutters under his breath.




      Keys held onto a bar on the Pelican, as it hit a bit(hey that rhymes) of turbulance (knit, heh heh).
"How much longer until the reach the LZ?" Keys shouted over the roar of the engine.
"Navigational point shows about 2 more minutes before we touch down."
"Where are we landing?" Commander Mendez asked.
"We'll be touching down on the crest of the sand dune in front of the UNSC installation. We'll be carful and try to find a safe place to land."
"Safe place?" Keys hated to ask.
"Yes," The Pilot said looking into the cabin,"We've recieved a wave of transmissions reporting that the covenant made it down, and are sieging the installation by the millions! It's gunna be rough out there, so look out."

      Then, darkness fell over the small group of pelicans.
"What the hell?" One Marine said puzzled.
"What's goin on leutenant?" Keys asked to the pilot.
"Uh...It, looks like an eclipse...which is kind of odd, because there wasn't an ecplise plannned for today."
Keys was just as puzzled as everyone else. Keys heard a voice from somewhere that danced around in his head.
"Jacob..." The voice said.
"Huh?" Keys was perplexed.
Mendez looked over to Keys,"Somthing wrong J?"
"No...nothing." KEys said, shaking his head.
The voice came back,"...Open your right vest pocket..."
Keys curiosly opened his right vest pocket and pulled out a few bullet casings, and his audio player.
Keys put the casings back in his pocket, and held onto the audio player.
"...Yes..." The voice said.
Keys inserted the ear phones, and pressed the 'play' button.
The Audio came on at when Keys taped Stanforth's confession about the conspiracy with the mysterious superweapon:
Stanforth: "...There's a reason why I didn't activate the super weapon..."

Keys: "Care to explain?"

Stanforth: "When I tried to insert the keys in the hole, something strange appeared,"

Stanforth: "An enscription lit up on the key, and burt my hand. The enscription read 'When darkness blankets the wolrd, the time has come. Many will arrive, but only one will prevail'. After giving up on the meaning, I decided to keep it a secret. ONI never told you guys to keep it under wrap, I just told you and the others that. I figured since the whole 'Wings of Death' wanted a portion of the goods, I decided to break the key, and give the pieces to all the pilots, until I figured out the puzzle. Now I have all but one piece, yours."

</End Audio>



Keys sighed, then realised something. There was one sentence that he listened through all that one night: 'When darkness blankets the wolrd, the time has come. Many will arrive, but only one will prevail'

It all made since now, he looked outside to see that darkness had now blanketed the world, he heard the reports of many that will come, he now knew it was time. Keys clenched his side holsters, which holstered two identical 21st century 9mm Glocks on each side of his waist, one Glock with the key piece on it. Keys knew the Glock with the key piece was on the right holster, and he'd make sure he'd only use that one if nessesary.
"Holy moses..." The Pilot muttered on the comm.
"What is it?" Keys demanded.
"Take a look for yourself."
Keys walked to the cokpit, and looked out the glass.

      Up ahead of the group of DOC pelicans was a solid mesh of covenant and humans, along with towers that came up from the masses. Above the war on the ground, was a large dogfight. A few covenant dropships that got too close to the SAM batteries slowly decended in flames.
"This is DOC command!" Someone shouted over the comm.
"What the hell?" The pilot said.
"We are under heavy attack," The DOC officer came back on the comm,"north of the UNSC installation! Requesting assistance ASAP!"
"Rodger that! DOC command we're on our way!" A familar voice shouted over the comm.
"Master Chief!?!" Keys asked the person on the comm.
"Affirmitive!" Teh master Chief said over the comm. back to Keys,"ETA, DOC command, 30 seconds!"
Keys now saw a large group of Pelicans comming from the north, it was the rest of the DOC. Keys looked down on the ground to where the distress call was made to see a dozen landed Pelicans, along with a few Scorpions, Warthogs, and STDs, they were fighting a losing battle against an onslaught of covenant attackers.
Keys' group of Pelicans, along with the Master Chief's, both landed at about the same time, right from behind the Covenant. Marines poured-out, and let-loose on their weapons.

      The entire SPARTAN team sprinted out of one Pelican, and charged through the covenant, and ran to help the DOC command survivors. The other Marines continued to fire on the covenant from behind, until the attackers realised they were fighting a war on both sides, and they retreated over the sand dune.

      Keys and Mendez ran over the the survivors of the DOC command.
The SPARTANS were treating the severly wounded survivors, while the other survivors searched for other survivors that needed help. One survivor ran past Keys, and he grabbed the survivor that ran by.
"What happened up there?" Keys asked the stunned officer.
"Sir, there was a large covenant flagship, along with a dozen other capital ships, and a handful of cruisers that attacked us. We new that our fleet was going to be toast, so we issued an evac.

As our lifeboats exited our ships, the large unknown enemy ships came from the other side of us, and began to blast away at our evacuated ships. Before we were able to react, the Covenant flagship, along with it's others, attacked the remaining unkown enemy ships. Before we knew it, they were in an all-out war between eachother, and completly ignored us, allowing us to land on Reach without being noticed. Our communications were destroyed for our lifepods, so we couldn't communicate with anyone, all we had was a short range comm. device."

"So that explains why we thought DOC command was destroyed."

"Jacob!" The Master Chief saluted to Keys,"Those Covenant only retreated, to get re-enforcements, in a few minutes, they should be back here, full force."

"Great," Keys muttered, then looked into the Master Chief's visor,"We need to move out right now, we're going to have to infiltrate the installation."

"What!?" One DOC command officer screamed,"Are you crazy!?!"

"It's the only chance we have at saving all our lives!" Keys shouted back.

"We're with you all the way Keys," The MC said, and the other SPARTANS gathered behind the MC.
Keys smiled,"I don't know what I would do without you John."
"Listen up!" The Master Chief shouted to everyone,"You have two choices! Stay here, and die like a coward, or go on the offensive for once, and if you do die, you'll die knowing what you did, was right!"

      All the Marines Capable of fighting ran over to the Master Chief and Keys.

"LETS DO IT!" One Marine shouted, and they all charged up the sand dune, that would lead most, or all of them to their deaths.




"Sir! Alpha D is down to 65%"
"God we're all going to die!"
"Charlie D is down to 43% and failing quickly!"
"Delta D holding strong with 82% left, sir!"
"Sir, reports say that the Covenant are now concentrating on Beta D! Beta D just went from 90% to 68% in five minutes!"

Voices of the status reports clouded Stanforth's thoughts.
"uuUUH," Staforth strained,"tell the reserves to re-enforce Charlie D, and tell our bombers to get in there, and target a napalm strike on the enemy forces in Beta D!"
"Sir!" One report analist said to Stanforth," Our fighter squadron have defeated the most of the Covenant fighters!"
Stanforth thought for one second,"Tell them to direct course towards those damn Mortar Tanks that are hiting us from behind the dunes!"
"Yes sir!"
"Sir!," A comm officer rushed up to Stanforth,"We've intercepted a DOC transmission! A small group of about 750 men have made it down. They're expected to attack soon!"
"I want a report back, when anyone sees them," Stanforth said,"and tell them I want Keys' body brought back here no matter the cost. His body is worth more than 10 billion soldiers."
Stanforth now understood the incription, and now that all the key pieces except for Keys' and Stanforth's were in the Superweapon's keyhole, Stanforth was glad to see that Keys' made it this far.
"Sir!" The analist came back,"Our fighter sqadron was intercepted and destroyed!"
A few more analists ran back up to Stanforth.
"The front section Beta D has just been set ablaze from the napalm strike. An estimated million covenant were killed."
"Beta D is holding at 60%."
"Charlie D is still failing, current status, 28% left! re-enforcements are arriving as we speak."
"Sir, Delta D has just been hit with a series of anti-matter charges! It's now being sieged, and is left at 32%"
"Alpha D is holding at 64%-wait! We've just gotten a report of a sighting of the DOC in the Alpha D area!"

With a big breath Stanforth called out,"Send those Napalm bombers to strike the Mortar Tanks, and tell them to go as fast as they can, to avoid being killed on the way. Send any armor that's left, to Delta D. Kill any DOC soldier that you see, even if there are five covenant right in your face, and god damnit didn't I ask for Decalf!?!"





      Keys, Mendez, the SPARTANS and 750 other AMrines charged down the sand dunes, and were immediatly welcomed with a barrage of tank shells and gunfire.
The Covenant were all dead in the area that the DOC charged through, but it didn't make the task any easier. Men fell everywhere as they neared the broken peremeter of the defenses. The DOC army arrived to the peremeter, and took cover behind the broken and charred towers. Keys hugged the wall of one tower that was still upright.
Keys turned to the Master Chief,"Do you think you could get some of your men up in these towers to provide some cover fire?"
"Sure." The Master Chief said, and motioned for two SPARTANS with sniper rifles to run from their cover over to Keys tower that was still standing. The Master Chief made hand signals, and the SPARTANS acknowladged the signals, and got three more sharpshooters. One runner peeked from cover, then signaled for them to go. right when they came out of cover to run across, the ground around them was shredded in bullets. The dirt in front of them was thrusted into the air, form a tanks shell that exploded in their faces. Four(2 of them were SPARTANS) of the five sharpshooters managed to make it across alive, the other unfortunate one was left smoldering in a crater.

      The shapshooters wasted no time in rushing up the bullet-ridden tower, which was covered in blood, human and covenant alike. One SPARTAN peeked over the edge at the Master Chief, showing they were up there. And the Master Chief waited for the first gunshot.

      A shot from the tower sounded off, and a blood-curdling scream was heard form the enemy. The DOC army, now 690 soldiers remaining, charged towards the next row of towers. They made it to the next row of towers. The DOC army was still too far away to get accurate shots on the enemy, and the same went with the enemy.
      Vapor trails came one after the other from the tower, and more screams and shouts for medics could be heard.
"Where's the Rocket Launchers?" Keys demanded.
"Right here." One Marine said,"All of us are ready to fire them at the nearest tank when ready."
"Good, but this time when we charge," Keys said,"we aren't stopping at anymore towers, we're going all the way."
Keys gave the signal, and the men with the rocket launchers popped out from hiding, and launched a volley of rockets at the towers and tanks. A series of explosions sounded off, then it was quiet. Keys was just about to give the signal to charge, just when the tower that the DOC sharpshooters were in, exploded into flames and bits of rock.
"NOOOOO!" Keys screamed as the remainder of the tower came cascading down in flames.
Keys ran out of hiding, and so did the whole DOC army.




"Fire!" One of the UNSC corporals yelled.
The tanks fired their shells at the incoming enemies. The Warthog's engine's revved up, and they took off towards the DOC chargers. soldiers waited in the towers with stationary chainguns, rocket launchers, or sniper rifles.
      The DOC charged towards an onslaught of 10,000 men, it was unbarable, but they still charged.
The SPARTANS dodged every rocket or shell that was thrown at them, and approched the warthogs that were coming straight at them.

      The Warthogs weapons opened fire on the SPARTANS, and the SPARTANS swiflty straifed to the side, and threw a grenade into the speeding vehicle's. After about two seconds, the warthogs exploded, and yet another wave of Warthogs came after them. The SPARTANS aimed their guns at the driver's heads and fired a few bursts into the driver's skulls. The Warthogs either lost control and crashed, resulting in an explosion, or the passengers were shot dead by the wave of DOC soldiers.

      The waves of Warthogs finally ceased, as they realised the SPARTANS were out-maneuvering them, but there was one thing that the SPARTANS had trouble maneuvering: High velocity bullets. The UNSC sharpshooters fired at the SPARTANS, but they were just too quick to get a good shot on, even with the hundreds of snipers firing at them. Unfortunatly, you can't shake all bullets, and a few made their mark on two SPARTANS. Two bullets hit him in the chest, and puntured all the way through his armor. He stopped to lurch, but the stopping gave enough time for a few dozen sharpshooters to bring him along theior crosshairs. In a matter of seconds, dozens of vapor trails passed through his still-standing body.

      Keys heard a loud roar of a covenant bomber from behind him. The massive bomber rumbled past the DOC and flew towards the remainder of the UNSC defenses on Alpha D. The gargantuan bomber flew over the defenses, and dropped a large orb-like object from it's bombay. Keys realised what it was:an anti-matter charge,"GET DOWN!" He screamed.

      The DOC army dropped to the ground, and the charge went off, two feet from the ground. The bomb made a loud vibrating noise, like a gong, but a deeper noise. Keys looked up, to see the anti matter hit the soldiers, and they were ripped to pieces, the tanks and warthogs exploded in a flameless heap, and the towers were leveled. Just before the anti-matter wave hit the DOC, the MC jumped to the ground, and the anti matter wave hit the back of his armor. Since the charge set off two feet from the ground, and it has an axis explosion, Keys and the rest of the DOC soldiers were still alive,a nd the antimatter charge blew right over them.
"Well," Keys said,"Lets move!"
Everyone got up, and saw that the rest of the way to the installation was cleared out my the anti-matter charge. They cautiosly made their 1 1/2 mile run to the installation.




"Sir another anti-matter charge just hit us." Stanforth's adviser told him.
"Where!?" Stanforth screamed at the man.
"...Alpha D, the defense is down to about 9%, but the forces there are scattered."
"Delta D and Charlie D are falling!" Another analist told Stanforth.
"How much is left on the two?" Stanforth asked.
"Delta D has about 10% and Charlie D has 11%. but they wont last very long."
"How Beta D holding up?" Stanforth stammered.
"Just as before, they're holding at 60%."
"Send as many soldiers and armor as you can from Beta D to Charlie D and Delta D."
"What about the DOC in Alpha D?" One General asked Stanforth.
"There's no way they could've survived that blast." Stanforth smiled,"Send the forces from Alpha D over to back-up Chalie D and Delta D also. And send a search party to find Keys' key piece."
"Yes sir!"




      Keys and the others walked swiflty through the wrekage, trying to to pay attention to the bits and pieces of men.
"Keys!" MC wispered,"I got five men on my thermal scanner coming this way, they must be looking for your body."
"Right." Keys said, and motioned for the other DOC soldiers.




      The five UNSC soldiers stayed spread out, each equipped with a device that shows where the key piece is.
"Ok the nav point shows that the key piece is about twenty feet ahead." One soldier exclaimed.
The soldiers stumbled through the rubble, and the soldier in the back of the group kicked a rock. The place where the rock was kicked out of now revealed a bit of green armor. He heard a few rocks behiond him shift, but he didn't care. A figured walked up from behind him, and grabbed him, one green armored hand over his mouth, while the other pulled out a kinfe. The man squirmed, but it was no use, the knife swept across his neck, and he immediatly died of blood loos. none of the soldiers noticed this, and they kept walking forward. Two more UNSC soldiers were caught from behind, and lost their lives.

"Ok, the nav point says the key pice is right under this rubble-hey where did those three scrubs go?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Stupid Privates, they're always foolin' around, even at a time of crisis like this." The other answered.
"Yah they're probably playin' hide-and-go-seek." They both chuckled.
The soldier pulled the rubble off and retrived the Glock.
"Wow this thing is an antique!" One soldier remarked.
"Yah it sure is." A person from behind them remarked.
"Whaa-" They spun around, and were met face-to-face with a pistol.




      The Master Chief and Keys stood there with their pistols pointed at the two soldier's heads.
"p-p-please, don't kill us!" One soldier begged.
The DOC came out of hiding, and walked towards the two scared-out-of-their-minds soldiers.
"Radio in to your CO and tell him that you got the key piece."
Just then, the soldiers radio came alive,"Have you found the key piece yet?"
Keys shoved the radio in the soldier's face,"uh-uh yah we have the key piece, and we are making our way back."
Keys turned off the radio, and stuck it in his pocket.
Keys pulled out a sirenge loaded with a very strong tranquilizer, and injected it into the two soldiers, who came immediatly incapacitated.
"Why didn't we just kill them?" MC asked Keys
"There's already been too many deaths here." Keys said and began walking off towards the installation.
The MC motioned to everyone and they began to move on. This war was proof that SPARTANS are not invincable, the Master Chief only counted 6 SPARTANS were left, counting himself.

      Keys could now see the installation through all the smoke. There were still plenty of men left.
"Crap how are we going to do this?" Keys muttered to himself, and then saw the bodies of UNSC soldiers, and he had a crazy idea.




      The UNSC soldiers at Alpha D were waiting for some more action. Through the smoke, came a large group of men. The soldiers raised their guns towards the men that were walking though the smoke.
"Hold your fire!" One man yelled from the group of people,"You wouldn't want to shoot a UNSC leutenant would you?!"
The defenses lowered their weapons, and the men from the soke came up to them,"Where's the CO? We captured a bunch of these DOC bastards, where do you want them?" The leutenant said from the group holding the POW's.
"Im the Commanding Officer,"A man spoke up from the defenses,"Take them into the installation, they might have some information-are you alright?" The CO looked at the Leutenants uniform, which had a long tear across it and was soaked in blood.
"Oh yah im fine," The leutenant said,"My buddy died right in front of me, damn splatter marks."
The CO stared at the Leutenant suspiciously, then nodded,"yah tell me about it, look at him." He pointed over to a man that was completly covered in blood, but didn't have a single injury.
"uh-huh, riiight." Keys said in a Dr. Evil voice.
Suddenly, an explosion that covered all the other noises set off at the installation.
The radios came on,"Alert to all exterior forces! Teh covenant have just breeched the installation! Requesting immediate backup! I repeat, the Covenant have breeched the hangar door into the installation!"
"Copy that." The CO said, and the defenses mobilized.
The Alpha D began to pick up the pace as the covenant became visible through the smoke. The group that was guarding the DOC slowed down, and let Alpha D go ahead of them.

      The Group guarding the DOC aimed their guns at the Alpha D soldiers, and fired directly at them. The Leutenant took his helmet and sunglasses off revealing the face of Jacob Keys. The UNSC soldiers that were guarding the DOC threw off the UNSC uniforms showing that they were just also disguised. The Alpha D troops were slaughtered from behind.

      The Covenant began to surge through the hangar door, and all the remaining UNSC defenses converged on their location. The DOC waited back, and watched the ellusive battle. Most of the Covenant ignored the UNSC annoyance, and continued through into the hangar. Eventually, the entire UNSC defenses were defeated, despite the heavy loss of 2 million Covenant. The covenant force now only had less than a half million soldiers.

      The rest of the covenant forced their way into the large hangar, and there was another big blast.
"They've probably just broken into the installation now." Mendez told Keys.
Keys thought for a moment,"Follow me."




The Man standing next to Stanforth recieved an urgent message.
"Sir!" The man turned to Stanforth,"The Covenant have just breeched the installation. It's going to be questionable as to if they'll make it down here, through all the defenses."
"Destroy the elevators," Stanforth said,"and make them take the stairs."
"Yes sir, demolition teams will be on their way."
"Make sure that all the personell in this installation is battle ready."
"Yes sir!"
"And order our exterior defenses: ALpha D, Beta D, Charlie D, and Delta D, to move in for a counter-attack."
"Exterior forces?" The Man looked confused,"...sir, all the exterior forces were eliminated."




      Keys ran over to the wall of the installation, and motioned for the DOC army to follow. Keys peeked around the corner where the opening of the hangar was.
"crap,"Keys said, seeing covenant, guarding the entrance,"Ok it looks like there are three Hunters, a few Jackals, mabye 10 Elites, and a few dozen Grunts."

      One Marine looked up at Keys,"So we're just going to charge into a large group of well-armed covenant?"
Keys grinned,"You can say that..."
"Whats the plan?" The Master Chief asked Keys.
"Ok, since you SPARTANS are well armored, and equipped with shields, you can take the bulk of the damage. Teh Hunters are located in the rear of the group, and once they release their feul rod cannon, they're pretty hard to shake, except for if you're a SPARTAN. We're going to chrge right through the middle of the group, and fire at any superior enemy we see, until we get to the Hunters. Now, either the Hunters are dumb enough to fire into a crowd of their own men, or thier dumb enough to hold their fire, until we're right on their asses. If they start firing into the crowds, they'll kill thier own on accident, so if you see the cannon start to glow, get the hell out of where you are." Keys looked up at the marines and then pointed over to the 6 remaining SPARTANS,"Since you guys can take more damage, you will be at the head, and we wont be far behind. The First Covenant soldier is about 10 meters away."

      From around the corner, came the SPARTANS, with their weapons blazing on full-auto. The assult rifle rounds sunk into the crowd of Covenant. Right behind the SPARTANS came 50 DOC soldiers. The DOC and SPARTANS rushed into the large group of Covenant and fired into their ranks. Keys looked at the Hunters, and saw thier cannons start to glow.
"What the hell are they thinking?!" Keys screamed, as the hunters aimed their cannons at the group of fighting DOC and Covenant.
"FEUL ROD!" Keys screamed, and the Marines looked up, just as the feul rod projectiles were hurled into the air. One SPARTAN and six other Marines weren't able to avoid the feul rods, and were blasted to pieces. The DOC continued to evade the feul rod projectiles that were decimating the Covenant force.

      Once the Covenant force was dwindeled down to several Grunts, and a few eletes, Keys looked over to the corner of the Installation, and screamed,"Charge the hunters!"
Out from the corner of the installation carged the rest of the DOC army, 400 in all. The Hunters were overwhelmed, and weren't able to get a shot off, before their bodies were pummeled with hundreds of bullets. In mere seconds, the DOC neutralized the covenant guarding the installation.
"Come on," Keys said, and ran over to the door, that led into the actuall installation,"We need to get to Stanforth before the Covenant do."

      Keys ran into the corridor of the installation, and stopped dead in his tracks, the corridors split, one going left and one going right. Keys couldn't decide, but then suddenly, he remembered that dream, and the voice told him when he was in the installation, go right. But how could he know the voice was talking about this installation? He went with his gut and said,"lets take the corridor to the right.
"Are you insane?!" One DOC officer yelled at him,"The corridor to the right is loaded with Covenant bodies, and look at the path to the left, absolutly no bodies, the corridor to the left is obviously not hostile!"
"Someone hand me a MA5B magazine." Keys ordered, and a soldier gave him one. Keys threw the magazine into the left corridor, and it vasnished behind an invisible barrier. They could hear the magazine clank dozens of stories down.
"The corridor to the left is nothing but a hologram, in front of a 100 story drop. It's a nice trap but it didn't fool us."
The Officer looked embarrassed.
"You still want to go that way?" Keys asked the officer.
The officer looked at Keys,"nah, I think I'd rather take your way."
"Good choice,"Keys said, smiling,"Now this sign shows that there are stairs that will lead down to the war room. Stanforth should be in that room."
They ran down the corridor, sometimes tripping on the never-ending masses of Covenant bodies, slaughtered by rows of wall turrets, static laser grids, and wall-mounted flamethrowers. The DOC made is to the stairs, and everyone gave a groan. They were barely able to see the base of the stairs.
"Must be about 100 stories down!" One Soldier exclaimed.
"Yah and the war room is connected to the base of the stairs, so we better get going." Keys said, and began running down the stairs. The soldiers followed Keys down the stairs.
"...Jacob Keys..." The voice came back in Keys' head.
"Oh great..."Keys mumbled,"well thanks for the help on the corridor, but can you help me any more than that?"
"...I was told I can help you...but it can not interfere with your outcome..."
"Fine." Keys said.
"Verywell...untill then...." The voice said, and then faded away.




      The Battle in space insued with the forrunner warships, and the remaining Covenant warships. Teh Covenant Flagship 'The Beacon of Hope' was getting hit hard by forrunner weapons.
      The 'Beacon of Hope' returned fire with it's massive moon crusher device, which pulverized a large forrunner Capital ship, until it could hold no longer, and exploded, into tiny fragments.

      A light came from aside the battlefield and both the forrunner and Covenant warships shifted their attention over to this strange light in space. The light grew and grew, until it was as big as the 'Beacon of Hope'. Both Forunner and Covenant ships were extremly worried about this anomoly, and they fired upon it. All the weapons that were fired at it, penetrated through and into the large ball of light, but nothing happened. The ships continued to fire at it, until they realized, nothing was going to hurt it. The ball of light streaked through the 'Beacon of Hope' at light speed, and passes all the way through it and stops a few thousand kilometers away from the ship.

      When the Covenant crew on the 'Beacon of Hope' realised that the ball of light did absolutly nothing when it passed through the ship, they all broke out in laughter. But thier laughter soon ended when the ship's lights began to get unbarably bright. The weapon's on the ship overloaded, and circuts on the ship exploded.
"What in the God's is going on!" The leader of the covenant screamed at his advisor.
"Your majesty," The Advisor squinted at the bright light that was blinding the entire room,"It seems that when that thing passed through the ship, our ship is turning to pure energy! And eventually, when matter turns into energy, it will explode!"

      The other Covenant capital ships, watched as the 'Beacon of Hope', which contained their leader, began to glow brightly. A few seconds later, the ship began to break, and then, it exploded, in a bright, blinding flash.

      The Ball accelerated towards the other Covenant ships, which were now starting to flee into slipspace. Slipspace holes opened up, but the Light beat them to it, and those ships met the same fate As the 'Beacon of Hope'. The Forrunner ships were next, and the Light got them also. defeating every single one, except the great Forrunner vessel. The High Chief of the Forrunners was determined that his race will always be the most superior. The Light positioned itself right infront of the bridge, just so the High Chief, could see it...before he died.

      The Light slowly accelerated towards the Forrunner Flagship.
"Oh crap." The High Chief muttered just before the light passed throught their ships, and they exploded.
After the last piece of Founner ship was destroyed, the light shrunk, then faded away.




"...It is done..." The Voice echoed in Keys head.
"OK good but not right now!" Keys screamed, just as he dodged a feul rod blast that incenerated three soldiers behind him.

      While the strange Light was destroying the ships in space, Keys and the DOC Got to the bottom of the floor, to find a large remainder of covenant still alive, battling The Last UNSC soldiers in the very large and spacious war room. The DOC charged into the war room, killing hundreds of Covenant before they even knew it. The Covenant then turned their direction to the DOC, and went on a full offensive, killing over 200 DOC soldiers and 3 more SPARTANS so far.
"God damnit!" A soldier screamed,"We need to find some cover!" A feul rod exploded right next to him, and he saw that he now had no right arm.
"MY ARM! AAAHHGGG" The soldier screamed, and then was silenced by a volley of plasma.
"Keys saw that the soldier was right about the cover thing, but he knew that he couldn't order them to fall back, and give the Covenant a chance to get the superweapon. Keys made a quick decision, and screamed,"CHARGE THE FRONTLINES!"

      The DOC soldiers suprisingly obeyed, and they all charged at the long and thick row of Covenant, with their machine guns on full auto. As the DOC grew closer to the line of covenant that were returning fire, Covenant swordsmen came to the frontlines, and powered-up their plasma swords. The DOC were ten feet away, and the Covenant Swordsmen clashed with the DOC soldiers, slicing dozens of soldiers into segments. and Swordsmen, however, were met with accurate sniper rounds to their heads, and they were all killed at a great loss. The DOC snipers then turned their attention to the Hunters, and fired their armor piercing rounds into their tender flesh.

      The UNSC soldiers that were ducked in on the other side of the Covenant came out of hiding, and fired back at the Covenant. The Covenant were now caught in a crossfire, and the tides were shifting. The Master Chief had expended all his ammunition, and was now taking Covenant on hand-to-hand. The MC was fired on by Three Elites, so he kicked in the legs of one Elite, then another Elite's face felt the MC's cold armored fist drive into their skull, and the last one master chief sprung up at, and had it's neck snapped. The MC continued to chew through the rows of Covenant with the other two remaining SPARTANS following close behind. A Hunter jumped on one SPARTAN, and pinned him down. The SPARTAN, Kelly screamed for help, as the Hunter's shield arm rised into the air.
"HELP!!! I'm in need of assistance!" Kelley screamed. The Hunter brought his shield down with immense force, and the large shield smashed straight through her head, Kelly's body went limp.

      The Hunter laughed and pulled his shielded arm out of the hole he made in the metal floor. He looked up to the the Barrel of a shotgun pointed right at his head. It was the other SPARTAN: Sam.
"Here's to you Kelly." Sam muttered, and pulled the trigger on the shotgun. The blast from the shotgun splattered the Hunter's brain inside it's own skull.

      The War raged on for 20 more minutes, until every last covenant was killed. The DOC suffered a devestating loss, and now there were only about 50 soldiers remaining alive, including the Master Chief, Sam, Keys, and commander Mendez.
It was only a few seconds after they stopped shooting at the covenant and then realised the UNSC began to fire at them.
Keys and the others found some cover behind dozens of desks, and they returned fire.
"Demolition man on the run!" One DOC soldier yelled, as a UNSC soldier ran a fast as he could towards the DOC, carrying a massive bomb. All the DOC guns were directed over to this one soldier, and they all fired at him. His uniform was littered with bullets, and blood soaked his shirt. He kept trying to run, and the DOC kept shooting him.
Keys stopped shooting, he was amazed at how brave this one soldier was, he must have got shot about 100 times, before he couldn't take it anymore, and dropped to the ground, without the bomb going off. Keys felt sorry for that brave man.

      The DOC finished off every single last UNSC soldier, until one man, of older age, popped up from behind a desk,"I SURRENDER! DON'T SHOOT!"
The man droped his gun, and the DOC army cautiously walked towards him, and passed the dead man with the very large bomb.
"Don't kill me please." The man begged.
Keys now saw who it was,"Why shouldn't we, Stanforth?"
Stanforth bagan to laugh, he wouldn't stop laughing,"Because you're already dead."
Keys saw the remote detonator in Stanforths hand.
"TAKE COVER!!!" Keys screamed.
Keys, Mendez, and the Master Chief dove behind one desk. And the other Soldiers, and Sam went to take cover.
Stanforth smiled as he pressed the button, and the bomb on the dead soldier detonated. The explosion tore through most of the room, and the DOC soldiers were incenerated in the blast.
"Hahahaha, Fools." Stanforth smiled
From the rubble, Mendez came out,"God Damn you Stanforth!" Mendez went for his sidearm, but Stanforth fired five bullets into Mendez's chest. Mendez dropped to the ground.

      From the rubble, next to Mendez's body, appeared the only two other survivors: The Master Chief, and Keys. Keys saw Mendez's body,a nd screamed. Keys pulled out his left Glock, and fired eight times at Stanforth, all of which times he missed. Stanforth saw Keys and MC emerge from the rubble, and he bolted away.
"everyone..."Keys said silently.
"They're all dead." The Master Chief said solemnly.
They heard something shuffle from behind a desk, and they walked over to it. The master Chief flipped the office desk completly over, an saw the cowering Stanforth.
"Well well well." Keys said, and aimed his left Glock at Stanforth's forehead. MC followed suit, and also raised his MA5B to Stanforth's. Keys rememebred he had two bullets left in his left glock.
"wait-" Stanforth said,"Can I say something?"
Keys sighed through his nose,"Well I might as well do the right thing, so go ahead."
Stanforth slowly raised his hands, and slowly stood up,"There is somehting that you might want to know,"Stanforth said,"In Fact, Master CHief? why don't you tell him?"
"What's he talking about John?" Keys asked to him.
"I have no idea." The Master Chief responded.
"Oh comeon." Stanforth said,"Do you really think that he would join your side for nothing?"
Keys looked over to MC for a second,"Is there something you're not telling me Chief?"
"heh," Stanforth smirked,"The psycologists predicted this would happen."
"Shut the fuck up Stanforth!" The Master Chief sterly said, and pressed the barell of the MA5B Against Stanforth's forhead.
Stanforth smiled,"They figured that after a while, all those times for just being conisered my little toy soldiers, you guys would crack." Stanforth looked over to Keys,"He joined your side, because he thought there would be something in it for him. He was tired of being the superior one, but being ordered around like he was a child."
"Master chief?" Keys was getting suspicious.
Stanforth moved a little closer to Keys,"You do know, you're the only person standing in his way of total domination, the UNSC is finished, and so is your brave Commander Mendez."
"MASTER CHIEF!?!" Keys spun his pistol over to the Master Chief, but during this distraction, Stanforth moved out of the way,a nd grabbed the pistol out of Keys' hand. All in one movement, he slid to the ground, fireing one bullet into Keys' abdomen, and one into the visor of the Master Chief.

      Stanforth got up, and and stood over Keys, who lie on the ground, holding the spot where his wound was welling out blood.
"I was always better than you Keys,"Stanforth said, and pointed the pistol at Keys' head *click*,"Damnit!" Stanforth said, and then ran down the hallway that leads to the superweapon.

      Keys made an effort to roll over, and check the Master Chief,"Master Chief?" Keys shook the Master Chief, until he noticed the bloody hole that went through his visor, and out the back of the helmet.




      Stanforth knew that the Keys piece was on Keys' Glock, because everyone had theirs put in a Glock, on the butt of the gun. Stanforth came to the room, and disabled the defenses around it, and walked giddily over to it. Stanforth took the key piece from his secured vest pocket(he always thought it was an insecurity to put it on a gun), and inserted it into the key hole. There was now only one more pice of key, that would complete the entire Key, and unlock the superweapon. Keys happily, flipped the gun over, to extract the key piece, but his smile faded when he saw that the key piece wasn't on that gun.

      A gun fired from behind him, and Stanforth's chest spattered blood against the Omega Device. Stanforth looked down at the wound to see the bullet passed straight through his heart. He clasped his chest with one hand and tried to keep himself up by holding onto the large Device, but then he doubled over, and hit the ground without another movement.

      The Person that shot him came out of the shadows, it was Keys. He was holding his right hand Glock which (if you paid attention at the beginning) had the Key piece in it. Keys crawled over to Stanforth's body, and pulled A data module. Keys puled himself up to the Omega Device, with his blood leaving a trail from the hallway. With his last ounce of strength, his took the key piece out, and inserted it into the Omega Device, and he blacked out.





"...You have completed your goal...now...do what is right..."





*flash*




      Keys opens his eyes to find his pistol pointed at Dr. Hasley. Keys looked around, and he realized where he was. He had rememebred when he killed Dr. hasley for telling her about the WOD secret. now It was his time to do the right thing. Those unknown beings that built that device, built it for that exact reason, to re-do something, just like the voice said.
"Don't shoot!" Dr. Hasley screamed.
Keys lowered his pistol,"Sorry dr. Hasley, I don't know what I was thinking. All I know, is that we have some certain things to do."


~2 days later~



"Admiral Stanforth," A woman addressed over his office radio.
"What is it?" Stanforth asked.
"There are some men here to see you."

Just then, Stanforth's door is broken down, and several ONI special agents storm into his room, and knock him down on the ground. The agents hold him on the ground, and they take out some hand-cuffs.
"What is the meaning of this!?!" Stanforth screamed.
"You are hearby under arrest for High treason!"
"Under what account?!?" Stanforth spat out, as they hand-cuffed him.
"The command of the future destruction of Earth, and killing of many other civillians!" One Agent responded.
"I never did such a thing!" Stanforth screamed.
"Not yet you haven't," An agent said, and lifted him off the ground,"but a Captian, that goes by the name of Jacob Keys, gave us this recording of you, and it's dated almost a year later."
"That proposterous!" Staforth screamed.
"oh is it?" An agent said, and loaded the data chip into Stanforth's personal audio player, and pressed play:


"This is UNN corespondant Ashley Mohawn, Right now we are orbiting Earth, and it's a sad sight indeed. The whole Earth is completly wasted by a barrage of nuclear missiles that were ordered on the planet by the UNSC Admiral: Frank Stanforth. He has also atacked major cities, killing thousands of civillians, just so he can keep them from being swayed towards the rebels-"




The Agent cut the recording, and they dragegd Stanforth out of the office.
"I'm innocent! I swear!" Stanforth screamed, as he was dragegd past his generals, that just looked at him in disgust. Stanforth gabbed one of the generals,"Please, you ahve to help me!" he begged at the General he was holding onto, but the General just shoved him off and looked away.



      In the WOD barracks, were a few of the WOD memebrs including Leutenant Aspen, and Leutenant Watts. A group of ONI agents broke in through the windows of the barracks, and ran towards Watts.
"Leutenant Watts!" One agent yeled over to him,"You're wanted for high treason of starting a rebellious faction against the UNSC."
Watts was stunned,"h-h-how did you know!?"
"From a Captian Keys, do you know him?"
"Yah," Watts said, as he backed into a corner, and the agents walked towards him,"Do you have any proof?"
"He gave us enough information, on your future profile that shows that you are the rebel leader. Now put your hands on your head, and slowly come over here." One agent said, slowly reaching for his own sidearm.
Watts knew he was trapped,"NEVER! YOU'LL NEVER GET YOUR HANDS ON ME!" He screamed hysterically. He pulled his Glock from his holster, and shoved the barrel in his mouth, and pulled the trigger.




~1 Week Later~




*TV monior turns on*
"This is UNN correspondant Ashley Mohawn, and today is a glorious day! A UNSC Captain, with the name of Jacob Keys, has just revealed many astonoshing things. The Admiral of the UNSC was arresed today on accounts of high treason, they are saying the charges are confedential, and are not releasing any other information about it. Jacob Keys also released information that the Elite Fighter pilot organization: The Wings of Death, had a pilot in thier squad that was actually the leader of the rebel faction. This Jacob Keys is being hailed as a hero, because he released information from a data module that contains every recorded Covenant attack in the near future, along with schematics for superior weapons and vehicles that can be made to aid in the fight against the Covenant. Now that we have this information, we can predict any Covenant attack that they throw at us. And the Superweapon that was kept under wraps has been ordered to be sent into the sun."
*TV is turned off*



      Keys fumbles with the TV remote, and then sets it down. Someone is at his door, and he sneakily crawls up to the door, and grabs his pistol. He puts his hand on the doorknob and swings it open. He spins around to aim the gun at the person at the door and notices who it is, and drops the gun.
"Shara!" Keys yells in joy.
"Jacob!" Shara runs up to Keys, and they hug eachother.
"It's been so long, I was starting to worry about you." Shara said relieved and excited at the same time.
"It's allright, everythings fine."
"Where have you been?" Shara asks innocently.
Keys mind began to cloud and memories went flashing by: Aspen lie dead in his hands. When he killed his own team mates. When he had to reluctantly kill countless humans just to get where he had to. When they encountered those strange infectious creatures. When they stormed the great installation. When men would do anything just to do what's right. When all the men of the DOC and the men closest to him like the MC and Mendez died beside him...it was all too much. Keys' eyes got watery. He couldn't stand going through it again.

"Nothing,"He wispered,"Nothing at all..."



~~~:._<The End>_.:~~~

We are NOT Bungie, Inc.! Bungie Inc. are bungie.net! Halo © Bungie Inc., 1999-2012, Microsoft 2012-2024 Intellectual © halo.bungie.org, 1999-2024