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Alien Brethren: Split Ends: Part 2
Posted By: Alex L (Greek Elite)<yoshi64y@aol.com>
Date: 7 November 2005, 1:13 am


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I hope you still have Chapter 9: Split Ends: Part 1 fresh in your mind because Part 2 starts off exactly from the spot where Part 1 left off. In order to get a full grasp on Chapter 9, you're going to have to keep these Parts of the chapter fresh in your mind. I apolgize if some of you are groaning and hurting because I had to break Chapter 9 into various parts but Quarentine Zone is a decently large level/mission.
Just another thing before you read: There was a meeting of the minds over XBox Live with me and Skyler (Author name known as Gammamee). There was lots of discussion on fan fiction. We discussed primarily Alien Brethren, Heretic Hero, and a new story that may begin called "Seeds of Revenge" or something like that. It's going to be hush-hush from now on and now I give you PART 2...of Chapter 9...Alien Brethren


Chapter 9: Split Ends: Part 2

Two Pelicans had descended to the rendezvous area where Keyes, Alei, Kaskut, the Hunters, Baxter, and a number of other Marines waited for it patiently. One Pelican had dropped a Scorpion in the area.

"Why'd they send a tank?" Baxter asked.

"In case any of the other Marines make it this far, hell they might not even choose to proceed this far," Johnson said.

Miranda Keyes, Johnson, and a group of Marines got on board one of the birds while Alei, Baxter, Kaskut, and the monitor got on another. The Hunters were attached to the bottom of each Pelicans to be carried to the gondola. The monitor went into the cockpit to inform the pilots where to go while Baxter rested his trusty Sniper Rifle in his lap and slid his helmet over his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Alei asked.

"Sleeping, ever heard of it?" Baxter replied with a smirk.

"Sounds like good idea for Kaskut!" Kaskut squeaked to himself and then curled up against Baxter's leg and fell asleep.

"How can you rest on such a mission?" Alei asked.

"Why don't you sleep? Nothing's stopping you," Baxter replied. Little did Baxter know, there was something stopping Alei from sleeping, and it was a nightmare he feared he'd have to dream about. The fear of having to witness the massacre on the research ship was enough to keep Alei from sleeping now.

Baxter easily went to sleep and began to dream about home, Earth that was, not the painful life that he endured with his father. He dreamt about all his friends whom signed up with him to join the Marines. Whelski, Parker, Muller, Harley, and Foster. He hadn't seen Muller, Harley, and Foster for a while however. Whelski and Parker were his true friends that he'd seen a lot. He remembered they'd used to go paintball shooting and played video games before they signed up. Then there was Hailey. He missed her so much and hadn't heard from her ever since he departed to Zanzibar. It felt like an eternity since he last read one of her letters. He could still smell her sweet fragrance perfume and shampoo, in vision her soft blonde hair, and feel her warmth.

He snapped out of his dream and became wide awake as the Pelican abruptly shook. The sound of Fuel Rod Cannons firing off thundered through the chilled air. Baxter peeked through the tail of the Pelican to see what was going on.

A squadron of multiple Sentinels had been engaging the birds. The next thing Baxter heard was the sound of a turret shooting off suppressing fire from another Pelican. Guessing this was a Marine that was engaging with the Pelican's turret, Baxter assumed the position of the turret on his bird. He began suppressing fire at the persistent machines, taking down a number of Sentinels.

The hellfire continued on and the enemy continued to engage the enemy as if there was an infinite amount of them. "This is bullshit!" Hollered Sergeant Johnson over the radio, his voice muffled by the turret he manned, "Pilots settle down on the gondola below. We're going in now and that's final!"

The Pelican descended towards a large, deserted gondola below, Sentinels still following and engaging. The Marines and Covenant allies all departed the Pelicans and took defensive positions on the gondola. Once everyone was on the Gondola, Miranda Keyes barked an order to the pilots, "I want one of you pilots to start this thing and the other to leave ASAP. Once whoever is done starting the gondola, I'll want you to retreat as well."

"Aye, aye Mam!" Both pilots acknowledged simultaneously, and flew off in different paths. The Enforcer began pelting the Marines with explosive mortars on their position, they all scattered for cover.

Alei quickly engaged his active camo, not having to hide now. He looked off to his right and saw Baxter hiding behind a structure, SMG in hand. Baxter was in place for Alei's quick attack. He lobbed a plasma grenade onto the Enforcer. His active camo depleted and the grenade hissed menacingly. It exploded in a frenzy, taking out other, smaller Sentinels that were nearby the goliath machine.

The enforcer followed Alei on it's sensors as he took off for cover. Alei knew his grenade and running was only a distraction for what would happen next. Baxter quickly jumped from his hiding spot and used suppressive fire on the enemy. Confused and bewildered, the machine twitched and buzzed in demise and soon it fell in defeat. As it fell in defeat the gondola shook nervously before his feet and proceeded forward. As the gondola crawled forward, a couple more enforcers and a flock of minor Sentinels engaged.

Baxter took notice of the Tebo Hunter brothers were goofing off and kicking around a minor, damaged Sentinel that beeped and whirred in pain. "Kalno, Ralna, concentrate fire on the bigger Sentinels," Baxter ordered.

Both of the walking tanks turned, shields and Fuel Rod Cannons raised now. As the enforcers began closing in and began shooting redish, pink darts at the Hunters shield's, the Hunters struck back with immense beams of energy into their shields. Now with the Hunters concentrating with the larger threat, he could easily peg off the smaller machines.

He raised his Sniper Rifle and began pegging off the laughably weak Sentinels. Though the machines weren't concentrating on quality, they were now using quantity. Baxter had to fire faster and become more precise in addition to reloading faster. He felt the pressure that the Sentinels were putting on him, knowing that in numbers he was weak.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! After taking down four of them he reloaded and heard buzzing of more Sentinels behind him. However he couldn't turn and leave the pack of Sentinels alone that were going to engage him from the front. Before the Sentinels from the rear could fire, the sound of a Covenant Carbine made him feel much safer.

Alei 'Limoto back peddled to Baxter's position, firing upon the Sentinels coming at his rear. The sound of a few Sentinels falling from the Carbine bursts was music to Baxter's ears. "Do you need a hand?" Alei questioned rhetorically. Baxter smirked, "Any help from you, Alei, is much appreciated."


"What's our destination pilot?" Questioned Lieutenant K. Woodword.

"Well sir, I received two incoming transmissions," Whelski began, "The first transmission received was from Miranda Keyes. Sounds like she's going to find something called the index. By the looks if it she's got lots of men with her, but may need some help. The other transmission I heard was coming from a fairly large squad of Marines whom landed on some snowy canyon. They're currently on a base they designated as red base. They were supposed to overthrow and capture another base run by the Covenant, designated as blue base, but by the sounds of it, the Flood already did that for them. It would be a nice place to land and lend a helping hand."

"Then that's where we're headed. Set course for this red base and inform them of our arrival." Whelski began setting a course for the base while Woodword headed into the tail of the Pelican where a bunch of Marines were talking amongst themselves. They all became dead silent when they realized Woodword had joined them in the tail, and he took a seat next to Parker. He began to examine his Rocket Launcher and informed the crew of their destination.


"ME KILL ONE! YOU SEE? YOU SEE?" Squeaked Kaskut in victory as his plasma pistol hissed from overheating plasma and the remains of a Sentinel lie before the Grunt. His celebrating was quickly interrupted as a team of Sentinels began engaging on him and shooting their extremely hot beams into his armor. He staggered and twitched from the beams and let out a howl in pain.

As he ran around in a cowardly manner, three Marines, Mackenzie, LaDash, and Johnson began engaging on the team of Sentinels and took them out fairly easily. Baxter had just finished taking down two other minor Sentinels while one blew up off to his near right from Alei's sword. The impact of the sword caused an explosion to take out his shield, and he quickly activated his active camo and waited for his shields to return.

"How much further is the Library?" Alei asked, feeling a bit irritated at the moment.

"We're very close, just keep holding your ground!" Miranda hollered as she finished taking down a Sentinel with another Marine's help, Corporal Parez.

The Hunters were having no trouble at all with the Enforcers. Their explosive, minor mortars were inefficient to their immense armor and their irritating red like needles were easily deflected off their giant shields. The only trouble the Hunter Tebo brothers ran into were individual Sentinels that struck from behind, at their weak spots. Kaskut and the Marines tended to watch for the sneaky Sentinels that did strike from behind the Hunters, knowing that if they protected the Hunters, the Hunters would eagerly protect them.

Alei 'Limoto's shields came back and his active camo depleted. He switched to his Carbine and both Baxter and the Elite teamed up against a fairly large squadron of Sentinels.

"How unfortunate to see my mechanical brothers go down. You must understand, reclaimers, that they only do what they're programmed to do," Remorseful Incentive said as he hovered past Baxter's shoulder.

"Gee, that sounds reasonable. Hey guys, maybe we should just stop fighting because, you know, they're ONLY programmed to kill us," Baxter said with utter most sarcasm.

Baxter and Alei were giving their all to defend the gondola and for that they had acquired the highest kill count. With Baxter's deadly Sniping abilities, and Alei's fierce combat tactics, the two were unstoppable.

The machines had little chance of surviving or wiping out the soldier and warrior. Both had taken limited damage that was easily forgotten as they continued fighting. As the gondola proceeded onward, the Sentinels slowly grew less aggressive and hesitated on attacking those on the gondola. Alei found this very odd and began wondering why the Sentinels would become less persistent in eliminating them.

The Elite's pondering was interrupted unexpectedly when Kaskut came running towards Baxter, leapt onto his back, and held on tightly to the Sergeant.

"What's wrong Kaskut?" Alei asked, finding the Grunt's shivering very alarming.

"They here! THEY HERE!" The Grunt squeaked nervously.

"Slow down, buddy. Who's here?" John asked, wondering what could make Kaskut shiver so much.

Then the answer became quite obvious as a hideous roaring moan sounded the gondola and everything went into a raging hellfire. The nightmarish howl was unmistakable to Alei.

"WARRIORS, PREPARE FOR THE FLOOD!" Cried out Alei who now pulled out his Energy Sword.

His warning came late to one Marine whom was pinned down by a Flood Human Combat form that pounced on top of him and began lashing at him with its tentacle like arm. With speed and grace, Alei sprinted to the pinned down Marine, took aim at the hideous beast, and plunged himself at it. The Combat Form's was turned into remnants by Alei's mighty blade, and more Flood came to challenge those onboard the gondola.





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