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THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM Chapter 2 Memories of Reach
Posted By: ThASuPaMaN8<ThASuPaMaN8@aol.com>
Date: 4 October 2002, 3:29 am


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      AUTHORS NOTE: for those who like pure action novels will not like this series, this series will display the human side of the Master Chief.  A lot of questions will be answered, weather you want them to or not.  But don't count this novel out, its still going to have plenty of action. :)

Kelly ran with all her might from a hurricane of plasma shots.  The heat of the shots zooming by her head was singeing her hair.  She looked back and twenty elites were on her tail but she was gaining ground.  Her quickness was unlike any other.  She looked ahead and saw a human bunker about 200 meters away.  She started to sprint even harder trying like hell to get to the bunker.  When she was about a football field away the bunker opened and streams of bullets were aiming at the elites, but they easily dodged them.  John opened up the front door and tried to lay down suppressing fire.  She was so close to the bunker John could easily make out the whites of her eyes.  Then a plasma shot got her right in the back of the head and she collapsed at John's feet.

      John sprang out of his cot, tense as a praying mantis ready to feed.  Beads of sweat were forming on his brow, he wiped it off and he looked around and saw the dark rooms and halls of Alpha Base.  He sighed deeply as he sat back down, his chin buried in his hands.  All he could think of was, "I should have been there, I should have been there to lead my men." 
He punched the cot and the supporting pole snapped.  The sound of the bed falling woke up a couple of the neighboring marines, but they shunned it off and passed back out with deafening snores.
  He went into the mess hall and sat down at a table to have some coffee.  He checked the clock, 3:00 A.M.  John sighed and drank some more coffee.  He sat there in silence for a bit thinking about how it used to be, with Sam, and Kelly, and everybody else from the SPARTAN program. 
Then, John saw a dark figure on crutches come from the infirmary.  It passed through the soft moonlight and John recognized his face.  The face reminded John back when he was young.
  He sat down across from John and yawned, "Can't sleep either huh?"
"No," said John and took another sip from his coffee.  He had a blank stare on his face and sighed.
"What's wrong," said the man.
"Nothing"
"There's something wrong.  Was it a bad dream?"
"Something like that yeah," replied John.
"What happened?" asked the man.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"It was those SPARTANs that went MIA in Reach huh," inquired the man.  John looked down at his cup of coffee and nodded.
"If it is any constellation, I once lost my older brother.  I wasn't even born, but I never got to meet him," said the man.
"What happened to him?" asked John.
"My parents don't know, he went to sleep one night and they woke up and found him missing.  We think he was kidnapped, we don't know.  But chances are he's dead now..."
"I'm sorry to hear that," John said in response to the story.  "By the way, what's your name?  You saved my ass from that ghost and I never even got a chance to thank you."
"Nathan Jebbonah, but people call me Jebbs for short.  It's a weird name to most people, but I can't help it if I'm Eridanian.  Anyways, I need to get back to my bed, my ankle is killin' me."
"Goodnight then Nathan."
"Goodnight Master Chief," Nathan said as he got up and walked back into the infirmary and disappeared into the shadows.
John sighed again and remembered his first training exercise, with Sam and Kelley.  He didn't get dinner cause his whole team didn't make it.  He smiled a bit, and finished off his coffee.  He then got up and went back to his broken cot; he laid back down and went to sleep.

The ritualistic morning horn sounded and all the marines got up from their cots.  John got dressed and went into the briefing room where Captain Johnson and a new Admiral were.  A little surprised, John asked about the new Admiral.
"I'm Admiral Millen, I'm sorry to say my predecessor was killed by a Covenant mercenary ship a week ago," said Admiral Millen. "It is good to see you back, but we must proceed to the task at hand."
John sat down while some ONI advisors came in and turned on the hologram projector.  In the hologram was overhead view of the rebuilt Roman Cathedral.  It was the ground post of the Covenant and it seemed to be rather busy.  Around it were about a hundred elites at guard.  Inside there were about a thousand Covenant, grunts, elites, jackals, hunters, and one big Covenant in the middle with a huge head-dress on.  It seemed to be holding something but it couldn't be revealed.
Then the entrance door opened and Dr. Halsey walked in with Cortana in her hand.  She greeted John, and then said, "This, Master Chief, is not your usual mission.  See that big alien in the middle?  That's that we call a Prophet, it's supposed to be a leader of spiritual guidance and religion.  What he is holding are the last two parts of the jewel you found yesterday.  All three parts connected are labeled the Jewel of Isaiah.  When they interlink with each other, iy creates an event, we don't know entirely sure, but the Covenant want it bad.  We think it would be some kind of destruction device, we don't know.  But you HAVE to get those remaining parts so we can study it.  It's absolutely imperative to the human race that we get that.  You again will be doing this job with Cortana, and with the help of Eagle Platoon.  You ship out at 1600."
The hologram turned off and everyone exited except for Dr. Halsey.
She walked over to him, "I know how you feel John...  I feel the same way you do.  You lost your brothers and sisters while I lost my sons and daughters.  It's going to be ok though," said Dr. Halsey.  She hugged him and smiled, "I'm just glad I didn't lose all my children."
"Well if all the SPARTANs didn't die, the surviving ones would still have to defend Earth wouldn't they.  I'm not done yet Dr. Halsey, we'll win this war."
"I just hope that's true..." said Dr. Halsey.  She hugged him once more and then walked out the door.





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