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Arrival at Earth Parts 1-4
Posted By: KaoS KnitE
Date: 13 September 2006, 5:04 am
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Part 1
The strange feeling that accompanied the transition from slipspace to normal space didn't
exist this time as the Gettysburg jumped from slipspace with the Covenant slipspace technology. The Master Chief looked through the viewport as Fred remarked :
"Earth......it has been a while since I have seen it." And got a reply from Linda "You were born here, right?"
"Yes, but that is ancient history now that we are a squad, but this is the jewel that we are protecting and this time around I feel as though our days are numbered before the Covenant find it, but then we will pound their ugly faces into the ground." Fred was rewarded with laughter.
Sergeant Johnson stepped off the lift and onto the bridge. "No one told me that there was a party here. While I was working my ass off, you are all sitting here sipping wine and laughing your heads off." After the brief laughter the Master Chief opened a channel on the UNSC channel and reported in with a status report.
"This is Master Chief Spartan-117 aboard the UNSC destroyer Gettysburg, we are in need of a tow and immediate debriefing." Static hissed and then a voice came through the speakers.
"This is Lord Hood of the Cairo Orbital MAC station, what the hell is going on? Where is Captain Keyes and the Pillar of Autumn? What happened there on Reach? Where did you jump off to?"
"Sir, there is there is too much to debrief over channels, we need extraction on the double." John replied, with respect yet mildly.
:Roger that, a team is on the way. R&R wouldn't come fast, especially since ONI would debrief the hell out of all of them. Now, everyone onboard wished that they were up against the Covenant. Even the Spartans fell short against ONI. The sergeant new the importance of the debrief, but still cursed under his breath, then aloud.
"That is unbelievable. Halo? Keyes dead? The flood? A whole ship and crew wrecked? Reach excavation? Two dead officials? Halsley kidnaping a Spartan? The destruction of a command and control station and 500 covenant ships? THE COVENANT KNOWS THE LOCATION OF EARTH?" An alarmed general yelled.
"Yes sir, and so much more data that it would take several months to tell it all." Cortana replied with Dr. Halsley's tone.
"We must take action immediately, section III will handle the matter of debriefing cortana and extracting information. Right now we have a matter of crisis. We must raise the invasion alarm, gather all ships in all systems, formiate a defense strategy. The new MJOLNIR mark VI must be shipped from Songhnam on the double." This last command by a female general sent Ackerson on his heels in madness over the mention of the Spartans but was shut up instantaneously. "Notify all UNSC personnel on the double and get ready for immediate evacuation measures."
The Spartans had been stripped of their worn out Mark Vs and were getting ready for some immediate transport and debriefing. The Spartans were being split to help effectuate strategies. After being towed to the nearest station: the Cairo, the Gettysburg was taken to a shipyard to Mars for study. All types of UNSC ships were arriving on and off through the days. The ONI debriefing occurred after several hours of rest, sleep, and eating. After the torture of interrogation, the Spartans were headed for an immediate assembly in the assembly hall of the Cairo station. There many UNSC officials stood waiting for the Spartans in their Campaign Medal happy suits. They were all uncomfortable outside the MJOLNIR. Out of all, John was the most tired after the holocaust of halo and the trip to Earth.
"Officers on deck, ATTENTION!" John barked as the whole squad snapped into crisp salutes.
"At ease Spartans." Lord Hood said. "As you know the Covenant could be on their way towards Earth any time now. As much as we would love to give you more R&R, this isn't the best time. Unfortunately, you Spartans will be split up to help spread out your strengths. Master Chief, you will stay aboard the Cairo for defense and further debriefing regarding Halo. The rest of the Spartans will be sent to Earth to receive "special gifts" and spread to do ground defense."
"As for you Master Chief, you have a special gift coming in sometime within tomorrow's parameters. If there are no more questions, move out." Admiral Insoanti added in.
"Sir no sir, Spartans move out to transports double time!" John barked.
"This will be one hell of a ride, in fact, humanity is at the tip of the iceberg now and it only needs one small push to send it falling into the deep icy waters of extinction. If we only had more time. More ships. More Spartans." This last remark by General Insoanti was inaudible to the Spartan's position, but with their augmentation, they all heard perfectly clear.
Part 2
The Master Chief had said his goodbye to his team, no his family, and hoped that he would reunite with them again. He knew that this last major battle with the Covenant would decide the fate of humanity. Basically, if they lost then all humans would cease to exist. But if they won they would then have to eventually deal with the flood and the other Halos, but he knew well that a human reclaimer was needed to activate Halo. This left a possibility for the Covenant to take prisoners. Right now, his main concern was to complete the task at hand. He would have to wait for the new armor to arrive and then test it out and make sure he was ready to use it right. His old armor was completely fried and impossible to reuse in the future; he had grown incredibly attached to it. Things like this were unacceptable.
The armor was arriving from Songhnam, which he knew well because of a certain Spartan. During the missions with his surviving squad of Spartans, one of his team members, Maria, had severally received plasma burns and could not continue to serve duty. She was shipped off to Songhnam to oversee further Spartan-II research and Spartan-III research while she healed. The Spartan-III program was the shrouded in so much secrecy. All he knew about it is that Chief Mendez was training a new batch of Spartans and that after the covenant attacks, the program was moved to Earth. That was all he knew. Maybe, just maybe, they might get Maria's help as another Spartan and the help of a new army of Spartans. If some thing like that happened, they might have a chance at beating the Covenant. He wondered how much longer humanity had before extinction.
He finally arrived at the small cabin that belonged to him. He walked inside and walked over to his small desk which had the copy of his mission log (ONI took the original and gave him the copy). He had requested this copy to help peace together some information on Covenant strategies and other such doo-daas in the middle. He also wasn't paying to much to what was happening so he needed to review some of the events that happened on Halo. He spent the rest of the day reviewing information and resting up as much as he can because he knew soon he would not get any rest in a long time after this.
Sergeant Johnson walked into the armory depot. He walked over to his "private corner." Here, his equipment had been flown in. He had his gear, armor, weapons, comm packs, and so on. He had just began to take apart his S2, when a marine walked in and said "Hey sarge, you are wanted in Hood's office."
"Damn, what the hell did I do to deserve chastising after what I have been through. Maybe it's a promotion." With excited jeer, Sergeant left his stuff and marched to the tram car that ran round the whole station. He got off at the "Lounge of Snobbies" by all the lower ranks (oblivious of course to the admirality who cornered there). He walked into the office and was offered a seat after the "salute-at-ease" ceremony that had been engraved into every UNSC member to date. He was offered a seat and a drink.
"Sergeant, we need to give people some hope as not to fear the Covenant. Therefor we will air live the awards ceremony happening tomorrow. You and the Master Chief will be awarded the proper awards for your service." Lord Hood explained to Johnson.
"That sounds like a date. But what if we are interrupted by the Covenant during our party?" Johnson inquired attentivley.
"That is the second matter I need to speak with you about. Several distant probes in the Alanti and Por Vala sysems have picked up slipspace chatter. According to the information, a Covenant force is on their way to Earth as we speak–" he was cut off by Johnson who spit out the drink he was given.
"–the hell? Already? Damn I was just getting accustomed to living, and humanity."
"According to the info, they should arrive by midday tomorrow. Which means we don't have time to play around. All military need to be informed of this and must be suited up and ready for immediate action. Also, inform the chief. That will be all." Lord Hood played with his drink before he drank it down.
"Yes sir immediatley." Johnson replied and walked away. He went to the main PA console and contacted all Marine channels. He then made his way to the bunkers where all the marines slept. He hit the on button and maxed out some volume and yelled into his mic "Alright you lazy-assed marines. R&R is over. Its time to suit up. Tomorrow humanity is about to have its work cut out, and you are the only hope for it. The covenant are coming to tear down our most precious sand castles that took us thousands of years to built, so let us kick sand into their faces till they go cry home to their mommies. Leave the toy destroyers to play hide-and-go-kill in space while we do the real work. All marines are to get up, gear up, shove corks in their asses, say their last prayers, and get ready for the show. If you have questions or complaints, make them out to your teddy bears. NOW MOVE DOUBLE TIME!"
After his speech, laughter, and moaning replies, he made his way to the Chief's private quarters. He walked in and saw the chief sleeping on the chair while a mission log was running. The screen displayed a reticule and a lot of HUD junk as well as an assault rifle as the chief blasted unlimited amounts of flood to smitherins. He jerked at the nightmare and ignored it as he woke the chief with a little joke. It was surprising how cool he was even though he knew deep down that this may be humanity's last moments. He put his earphones around the chief and turned out an ancient classic of "flip music" or metal. It was one of his favorites: "Master of Puppets." The Spartan awoke spun on his heels and almost sent a fatal blow to Johnson.
"Damn, you trying to kill me or something." Johnson said in a hysteria of horror. That was the last time he played a prank on a Spartan, EVER, or at least if he still wanted his head on his shoulders."Sorry 'bout that chief, I just wanted to relieve some stress by a joke." Master Chief took It lightly and laughed. He had never heard a Spartan laugh before, it was a landmark. He then pointed at the mission log screen of him fighting swarms of flood and Covenant. "We all need it after the hell we have been through."
"Anyway, we have serious business." Johnson then explained the whole story of the upcoming invasion. The master chief took it as if he was old news.
"Aknowledged, I will move out immediatley." he replied as he shut his mission log and got his stuff together.
"Oh, and chief...where something nice." Johnson said this last words in humor and walked off then said "This will be the greatest ride of our lives, and a package has arrived in armor testing section." He walked off.
Part 3
John double-timed his way to the armor section. He made his way to the armor testing section. The room was a big rectangle and a space window viewed the rest of the station in back. On the wall were racks that folded out and held SMGs. Master Gunnes was waiting for him and said "Welcome chief, long time no see. A beautiful package was shipped via express mail just a while ago. Sorry, they opened it for you. Dressing room is that way, you will find help there. I am pretty sure you will fall in love....and not wreck it." he gestured towards some fried parts of his old armor.
"The Covenant are just jealous." John replied as he made his way to the "dressing room."
"Good to hear some humor." Gunnes joked. "100% human authentic." It took the better part of half an hour to fit it on, another hour to upload all systems, and another to polish the specs. Afterwards the technicians walked away as he was left with gunnes for final uploading.
The Regretful and the small 15 squad of destroyers, cruisers, and carriers plowed through the other dimension. Regret, one of the three hierarch of the Covenant, had jumped the gun by launching too early. But he knew this would be no problem. They would reach "Earth," possibly encounter heavy resistance in space, then his troops would make their way to the surface and search for and hold the ark. Soon the Great Journey would begin, and Regret would be leading the way, not Truth.
Fred had his armor fitted out and got his systems checked. Afterwards he tested it out. It was quick and speedy and far more effective than that of the Mark V. He was in love. The system worked extremely effectively. Technically only John would receive the VI, the rest only had a remodeled version of the VI with upgrades to the V. But he still loved it. He wondered how the rest of his squad was doing, he hated to be split up. He would be given a squad of helljumpers and make drop to the point of Earth where the Covenant would hit. They would evacuated, mop up, and secure. If the Covenant only hit one sector, then there would be a high possibility that he would meet up with some of his squad. After all the checks he made his way to the armory. There he chose his gear. The new BR55 battle rifle was a great improvement. It fired 1 to 3 shot bursts and was equipped with a 2x scope. The magnum was a huge downgrade from the M6D. This one was literally garbage. Instead he chose a couple Sub Machine Guns and equipped extra ammo. He then grabbed grenades (2 grabs of 4) and a MP pack, or Multi-purpose pack. The pack included a med kit, explosives, comm equipment, and several handy nik naks.
Fred imagined Linda putting together an S2 AM with custom attachments, and the rest of his squad gearing up. He gathered his helljumper platoon and formulated a strategy and plan. Of course it would change once Intel was given. After they were done, he headed toward a screen and watched the award ceremony as the Master Chief, Johnson, and others were on camera. He knew the morale boost the people would get, but he also knew it would be short lived as soon as the Covenant invade.
After some paperwork was done, Maria geared up in the MJOLNIR and was ready for re-enlistment to fight once again. Afterwards she gathered gear and waited in the hangar. She got onboard the transport pelican and had a long ride towards Songhnam station in space. She hated space combat but new that soon she would be fighting on ground. As soon as she arrived she found a communications station and contacted John. Unfortunatley he was busy with the awards ceremony. She instead reached Fred.
"Re-enlistment, great to have you back on the team." Fred replied to the news.
"How much did I miss?" Maria inquired.
"A lot, we are the few survivors."
"So I heard, so sad. Such good soldiers die at the hands of the Covenant."
"Anyway I gotta finish getting ready and don't forget to watch a little TV and see John's snob party." They laughed it out and cut the communications. As time passed, Maria knew that soon there would be the greatest challenge of all time.
"Onyx? This could turn the tide of the war. What more information do you have on the Forerunners Cortana?"
"A lot more." Cortana replied.
"Mercy's council awaits you behind the doors." The honor guards led the sangheili in after waiting for a forever lasting units that brought him closer to his death. He had failed to stop the humans and Halo was destroyed. Death was the least of penalties he could receive. As the golden bright commander walked in to the small theater, he got his story ready. On the left and right, councils of Sangheili and Hesians sat and cheered his death. He walked up to the podium and stood before the 3 hierarch: Truth, Mercy, and Regret (who was in hologram form).
"What happened through your eyes, commander." Mercy spoke out after silencing the council. The sangheili shivered as he began to re-account his story.
"I need a weapon." the Master Chief said.
"Right this way." Johnson replied.....
The rest of the story takes place as Halo 2. This is entirely made up and is of my account. This ties the small gap between First Strike and Halo 2. All the information I have collected from the games, the graphic novel, and the novels. The onyx part was a guess I got from bungie.net's picture of the 4th novel. For a true story, wait for the next novel to come out.
Part 4
The alarm sounded and the HEV drop pods began to disengage and drop towards Earth. The target that was chosen was the Mombasa sector of Africa, but none other. Only one carrier was able to break through the formation and make it towards Earth, yet only one carrier was needed to take over an area. Surprisingly to everyone the Covenant did not glass anything, in fact they purposely sent an invasion force. Fred had remembered well that the same happened on Reach when the Covenant were searching for a relic. Maybe there was something on Earth that the Covenant wanted. But the force was comprised of 15 ships; a toddler army compared to the assault on Reach.
Fred disregarded the heat of the drop pod while he was lost in thought, wondering about the conundrum following the Covenant invasion force. Then he remembered that his duty wasn't to wonder (that was the duty of ONI) but to carry out his mission and protect Earth. The pods were aimed toward a beach off the coast of the old city. His squad would land there, regroup, and take the tunnel to the new city where they would assist on the evacuation and clear out the Covenant troops. Fred knew well that there would be many human civilian casualties, but he would still give it none less than his best.
Another alarm rang as the HEV pod neared the surface. He took the time to grab a weapon in hand and expect Covenant troops. This Acton was followed by an Earth-shattering thud that signaled the crash on the surface. He kicked open the hatch and swept the area with his battle rifle. Satisfied, he commed the squad and set up a rendezvous point near the tunnel and the highway that ran along the side. The beach wasn't a particularly beautiful one, in fact it wasn't that great. It was littered with garbage and old rock formation's of buildings. He ran his way along the tide and made his way to the rendezvous point, picking up stragglers on the way. He ran a roll call and found that two had landed in the deep water and could not make it. He cursed under his breath. Fred also noticed that three were too injured for duty, so he sent them to posts (with heavy weapons) along the beach for defense.
"No one is to come through this point, understood?" Fred said as he was rewarded with a "Hoorah!"
"The rest of the squad, come with me through the tunnel. We have several Warthogs inbound that we will drive through the maintenance hall in the tunnel." Following his words, seven Warthogs were dropped via pelicans. He got into the driver's seat of one and was accompanied by a Corporal and a PFC on gunner duty. He drove in the third spot of a line of Warthog into the traffic jammed tunnel. According to the speakers, everyone was to make their way to the old city. Soon Fred realized the maintenance tunnels were blocked off, so he chose the path going toward the new city. He drove through while now, followed by the six other Warthogs.
The long drive across the bridge led to yet another tunnel. After they passed the tunnel, a sergeant had ordered an immediate look-down of the tunnel that would prevent Covenant troops from coming past. The Warthogs made it through the main highways which were littered with abandoned cars and people running for their lives. Up head he saw Phantom dropships dropping mortar batteries, Wraith mortar tanks, Shadow troop carriers, and other such targets. Eventually, they drove towards a building that was taking heavy fire. He stopped to of the Warthogs to handle the defense and ordered the Gauss Warthogs to fire at the gun emplacements and Mortar emplacements. Fred drove the Humvees ahead through highways, one by one clearing any troops in site.
The sniper cracked as Linda hit another target in the head. The Phantoms had delivered troops all throughout the old city leaving her on clean-up duty. She soon realized that now the Jackals were using Covenant Beam Rifle's that shut a jewel purple laser that was more deadly then the human snipers. They were amateurs to Linda. Her position on the building had a clear shot of a lot of the west sector of the city. She did her job right while other marines fought the battles in the front lines. After a while she looked up to see a carrier being blown up and crashing towards the atmosphere to be engulfed in flames. After she had cleaned up the troops near the market district a strange heat shot the small marine bunker in the streets. A blazing blue-white beam a meter thick cut through the air and left a huge crater where the bunker used to be and blew the sides off a building.
"What the hell is that?" Linda said out loud in shock. Out of the corner a huge quadropeded walker came out of the building it had crushed. It stampeded through the streets in a clumsy manner. The juggernaut quickly shot at positions around here with plasma batteries on the tail and on the back. The machine resembled a spider with four legs, or a scarab maybe. It made its way toward her and fire. She quickly rolled out of proning position and jumped off the building to several balconies down and finally made it to the ground, nearly missing the plasma.
A long chase of exchanged plasma and artillery fire followed. The scarab chased and destroyed many marine sites throughout the city. The battle raged on and the mech was unharmed every time after it was shot. Eventually, almost all the marine outposts in the market and business district were eliminated. Linda made her way through the allies of a turf and rounded the corner of a warehouse. She was closely followed by the alien walker. The scarab rounded the corner and followed her through the buildings. She turned around and was surprised by what followed next.
The idiot pilots stumbled over the tight fit and caused the scarab to tumble over and crash on its side, halfway through a building. One of its monstrous legs landed on another building. She seized the opportunity and ran up the downed walkers legs. She made a corner on its top and went inside the walker. Many Covenant troops had survived. She primed several grenades and chucked them. A loud thud followed and littered blue and purple gore. She stepped back in and cleaned up the rest. She then set up a satchel charge at the control station and dashed out of the machine. Moments later, half of it exploded and left the walker permanently disabled. She caught her breath and made her way towards a medical tent off to the main street.
A few hours, which seemed like an eternity to Fred, had passed as New Mombasa was evacuated via boats and planes. Fighting had swelled for hours as the marines gave hell to the endless invasion force. One carrier flagship, that's all. His troops were beginning to show exhaustion already. They had stationed a huge makeshift weapons cache over by a body of water from sewage carried the water to the ocean and another part of the city. He had taken sever troops and left Sergeant Banks in charge of the rest of the squad. Fred and the troops fought their way to the center of the city where the flagship was deploying the troops via the gravlift. Eventually he had stalked up upon the dome buildings and was going to board the carrier. He had heard that John had already landed in the old city and was giving them hell. He also heard about the leader, Regret, who was aboard the flagship. He was interrupted of his work by an incoming frequency.
"Green leader come in, this is the Congo station."
"This is green leader ready to make my advance on the flagship." Fred returned on the D band.
"Negative, repeat, negative. We are going to destroy the ship from above now that the city is evacuated. You are to report for extraction on the double." This last message annoyed him since he was so close to the target,
"Acknowledged Congo station, Green Team out." he then said via his team's freq. "Sorry guys, party's over. We are being extracted. At grid kilo 114."He was Acknowledged with sighs of relief. This was because this mission was suicide. He ran up the side and off the building, followed by his troops. Once at extraction point they were picked up. Inside the dropship he met up with Linda. "Looks like we have a mission accomplished." Fred said towards Linda. Maybe, just maybe, they had a fighting chance against the Covenant...
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