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Diaries of a Marine
Posted By: Sam Bracken<balltaken123@yahoo.com>
Date: 1 August 2008, 12:22 am


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December 12, 2551

My Name, is Nathan Mars, I am a marine of the United Nations Space Command. Over the past decade, I was commisioned to go to war against the alien race "The Covenant". I have been stationed on a planet colony called Autumn. Autumn is the most least populated planet colony that earth controls. At least now it is. When Autumn was first founded, it thrived with life. Many people came for its natural resources. However, Autumn ran out quickly and people began to leave. Autumn still was very well populated, until that horrible day. The day the Covenant attacked Autumn was the day that woke me up from the Illusion of peace and tranquility. That day stained my skin with the blood of my men and troops, forever. They swept in, in there dropships they call "Phantoms". They dropped like rain drops out of clouds. Next thing i knew, blue forces of pulsing energy flew by my face, and swept people of their feet like a giant fist. I saw my friends fighting back, but it was no use. Five minutes later, they were all on the ground, dead and their flesh burnt and smoking from the burning plasma. I tryed to make some sort of effort to fight back. But only ran after a few rounds. I picked up a 50 cal from one of my fallen men and took to the hills. Everyone was slaughtered. I was the only survivor of my troop and on the planet, that i know of. about an hour after the slaughter, i got into position and adjusted my scope. Im no sniper, but i guess it was adrenaline that aided me that day... or it was God almighty who laid his hand on mine and kept them steady, because i picked off covenant troops so fast before they even knew what was happening. They never found me, and when they finallygave up on finding me, they left some patrols on Autumn and the rest boarded there phantoms and flew to their frigate docked high above Autumn. I caught the last ride to their frigate, "The Lineage" and when we boarded, i snuck off into the shadows. I didn't know what i was doing, but i had to get off the abandoned planet somehow. I spent the next two days eating nothing. The only thing i drank was two filled cantines i had before the attack. On day three, they found me. They threw me in the brig of the ship. Where i saw bodies of fallen men of my kind, and fallen men of other worlds. They tortured me with some sort of plasma stinger, and left a mark on me they call "The Mark of Shame". The fifth day i managed to find a plasma knife from a guards belt. I plunged it into his back. He cried with a roar of pain, and fell. I caught him, and put him in front of the beams of plasma blocking my way out of the prison cell. I managed to get through, with a couple of burns, because the guard didnt work well as a shield. I was sneaking through the corridors of the frigate, i wasn't sure where i was going. The strange purple metal was quite beautiful in the reflection of my flashlight. I found a plasma rifle on a weapon vendor parked near a wall. I picked it up and suddenly heard a high pitched noise of a covenant door opening. A patrol was coming down the corridor. A "bug" as we call em. He was an elite. Tall. Fast. And strong as hell. I kept hidden behind the gun vendor. When the elite turned his back, i went and bashed him down. He fell but wasn't dead. I looked down thinking he was dead, but his body suddenly dissapeared. I was oblivous for a few seconds, trying to figure out what happened and figure out if this was possible. My mind immediatly clicked when i hear a rough noise behind me. It was sort of a static sound, with distortion. That sound made my skin chill. I figured out that the bug had activated his camoflauge. And snuck around and drew his sword. He swung for me, and i ducked. I punched his stomach, and pointed the plasma rifle directly in his grubby little face. I pulled the trigger, and continuous blasts of pulsing energy struck the bug's face. His face became messed up, and smoking. I hid his body behind a weapon vendor, and moved out. I stayed in the shadows for the next few hours, and next thing i knew the frigate jerked. I wasn't sure at first but then realized we had docked. I found a nearby window and look out. I didn't see anything at first but when i looked directly down i saw land and water. It looked similiar to what was back on Earth. I moved my head slowly up, and found that the planet was actually a revolving ring. I had heard the stories of troops crash landing on it from a sudden abandon ship off a frigate call "The Pillar of Autumn", but had never actually seen it. I guess this was my chance. Yes this was it. This was the place the covenant called, Halo. I rushed to the docking bay of the Lineage, boarded a phantom secretly and kept quiet the whole way down. When we landed, i dropped out of the anti gravity chute, and bashed a "Grunt" in the back. Luckily he didn't make a sound, so i didn't stir the other covenant in front of the little bastard. I ran swiftly through the tall grass, and when i saw a covenant look back I dived into the brush. I stayed there for a long time. I thought about how this all started. About forty years ago. When the covenant attacked "Harvest", the first Earth planet colony to be attacked by the covenant. We immediatly took charge. Thirty years later, I was commisioned to Autumn and work as patrol. Nothing ever happened until the day of the slaughter. When i finally got up there was no bugs around. I got up. It was dark. I turned on my helmet flashlight and began moving. I came to a ridge and stopped. I looked over a field and saw several covenant patrols, they were all circling a huge structure that seemed to be shooting a beam of blue energy into the sky. I wasn't sure what it was for but i thought it was some sort of religous practice by them. Suddenly a floating creature came out of the structure. He seemed to not be floating himself, but seated on a floating throne. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but knew he was important. He wore a crown that had a circling ring on the front of it. This must have simbolized the ring I was sitting on. I thought I should take a shot at him, being that he was a figure of importrant. I began adjusting my scope. I flipped off my flashlight and turned on night vision. i had a clear view on his head. Just as i took the shot, he moved and i missed. Immediatly the covenant were alarmed. They sent patrols to all four corners of the field. I saw some coming my way. I picked up my 50 cal and ran. Just as i was coming to the pass i came through, I saw a flying figure in the sky. It looked like a drop ship of some kind. It didnt have the phantom shape. So I guessed it to be a friendly. At that moment, i realized i wasn't alone on this ring. Other people were here. Of my kind. I remembered the Pillar of Autumn and how there may have been survivors. I knew for sure now that I saw one of our own. I followed the pelican's path and traveled all night. I collapsed in the middle of some brush waiting for some grubs to go by. I was surprised i wasn't found. Unfortunetly, I was shortly after. They caught me and threw me into one of their ground vehicles called a "Spectre". I guessed it was a fairly new vehicle or prototype in the covenant's society being as it was the first one i've seen. Also it malfunctioned, so i ended up riding in another phantom. They beat me on the way to where were going, wherever it was we were going. Finally, we landed, and i found myself in a desolate plateau. The sun had gone down, so it was freezing. The covenant led me to another phantom who was about to fly to a frigate. They threw me on and I felt the sting of a needle penatrating my back. It shattered and made the pain worse. I fell over and was picked up by the neck. When we got to the frigate I was thrown in the brig once more. I heard guards talking, and figured out a lot. The ship i was on was called "Truth and Reconciliation". I also figured out that "Halo" was a religious icon built by the "Forerunners" as the guards called it. The point of Halo was to make it's followers Gods. The covenant had a strong belief about this, which was the reason I was in the brig at that moment. I also figured out that the creature on the throne i saw earlier was named "The Prophet of Mercy", and he had just finished a ritual inside the structure. I figured out also that there were two more prophets as well. The prophets of Truth, and Regret. I was the only one with this information, so I had to find a way out and report right away. Several hours after I had heard the guards talking, I was surprised to see more marines being thrown in the brig. One of the marines among them was a very important man in the U.N.S.C. None other than Captain Jacob Keyes. He was the captan of the Autumn. He must've been captured when he crashed. I saw him get thrown in. I began to try and talk to him but I was hit in the face, and knocked out. When i awoke the guards were dead, and laying on the ground. They had bullet holes in them. The brig doors were open, and I was the last to be freed. I couldn't believe my eyes when an armored soldier walked past my cell. He made a following motion, and I leaped to my feet and hurried out of the cell. I picked up a plasma rifle from the ground and was ready to listen to orders. Captain Keyes picked up a needler and gave us instructions. He told us that Halo was a super weapon, not a religious icon. It was built by the forerunners to destroy every living thing in the universe. I tryed to inform him of the prophets, but never had the chance to. When he was finished I looked at the armored soldier. He held his Assault Rifle on his shoulder, and walked out of the brig. This was the Master Chief. The survivor of the Spartan II Project. I followed the pack of freed prisoners. Captain Keyes planned to get us all the hell outta there, using a covenant drop ship, standard, not a phantom, because phantoms were fairly new as well. We saw a lot of combat. The Master Chief had the most action as i could tell. He was the hero of that mission, and everyone knew it. We were almost to the docking bay when the worms came. "Hunters" as we call em, big nasty things, huge cannons on one arm, big ass blade on the other. Thats where we had casulties. The Chief took care of those fools, and we moved on. When we made it to the docking bay, we boarded an empty covenant drop ship. More hunters came, but the captain rammed em with the ship. Next thing i knew we were flying over the desolate plateau, and i was with friendlys. I was safe again, and was ready to kick ass once more. Not just kick ass. But kick ass with a legend. About a week later, I was on a pelican to an island that seemed to have some sort of map of Halo. I heard Cortana, our AI construct, call it a cartographer. The covenant called it the "Silent Cartographer". This was because it was underground. I was only there as support. It was the Master Chief's mission to find the cartographer and find the coordinates of the control room of Halo. Our plan was to shut the ring down and save us all from mass destruction. The covenant's plan was to light the ring. "The Great Journey" as they called it, and blow us all to hell. When we landed, we went straight into the fight. The covenant had barriers set up and were hiding behind them. It was a heated battle. I saw men get shot down, but we had no casulties luckily. I began to gain more courage, and i moved up and shot a few bugs down. It was good to have an A.R. in my hands again. We overpowered them about ten miniutes after landing. We secured the LZ and had Echo 419 "Foehammer" drop a hog. The Chief got in the drivers seat and looked over at me. "Get in". He said to me. I followed orders and hopped into the passenger's seat. The Chief slammed the pedal and the hog jerked. I never went so fast in my life. We saw covenant patrols and i threw some nades at them. I laughed as they flew over my explosions, arms crazily flying in the air. We kept driving and shooting up covenant until we came to a structure. We went into another heated battle and was victorious again. The chief said, "Watch the hog." I nodded and said. "No parking tickets." I smiled. I looked around and put a cig in my mouth. Lit it up. I looked around again. Something was making my view all hazy and distorted. "What the hell?" An elite apeared in front of me and threw a punch. I was knocked out. I awoke on a pellican. Seargent Johnson sitting beside me. "Your up." He said. "Maybe you should sit this one out." I shook my head. "Im good to go!". He handed me an A.R. I locked and loaded. All of a sudden a stinging pain went up my spine, and the bird shook. We went diving toward the frozen earth below. We crashed, and the surviving marines hobbled out of the wreck. We had been hit by a wraith, the covenant answer to a scorpion tank. We became cornered, and were under seige. We finally were reinforced by the chief, and we started moving toward the control room. We then were attacked once more, and we were seperated from the chief. We fought a long battle. Cold, tired, and stuck in the midst of a desperate war. We were rescued by a bird, and were flown to a swamp, to enforce troops that had been with the captain. Apparently he had gone missing. We started encountering strange, strange things. Before we knew it, a few of our men had gone missing as well. I found a shotgun and picked it up, cocked it and aimed down a stream of swamp water. We had lost contact with our bird a few minutes later. Before I knew it... I was scared shitless. The attacks from the hideous flood came at about 2100 hours. My men all either died, or became infected. I killed all i could, but more and more kept coming. I found myself wounded, and most likely infected. Then, a sound defened me. The ground shook, and fire swept across its face. I was engulfed, i rolled in agony until I was put out, then i passed out once more. I open my eyes, and find myself in a desolate burning field. I found this diary not to far away, pages caught on fire. As I lay dying, my final writings tell you that this war will end. Our desperation will be no more. The Master Chief will prevail. The fight, will foward unto dawn.

~Nathan Mars (May 23, 2534-December 12 2551)'

I, am Lord Hood. I am writing this entry in this diary, to let all of you know, that this book, is history and will be cherished for years to come as a piece of the great war. We honor all the heroes who fell on Halo's face, and all who fell on Earth. We will never forget you. The dark is light now. We only wish you could see it.
~ Writings of Lord Hood on June 27, 2553.





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