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The Homecoming - Part 1
Posted By: Tim Ricciardello<TimRicciardello@hotmail.com>
Date: 17 July 2003, 6:43 PM


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The Return

Somewhere deep in space trying to navigate their way back Earth, the Master Chief and Cortana search desperately through their Longsword's computer database.

Cortana:
Master Chief we need to find an alternate route to back to Earth. The Covenant cut the direct route off. Here are the coordinates I found in the system.

Master Chief and Cortana are on their way back to the home planet to inform the rest of the UNSC of what has happened. Dangerously low on fuel they spot Earth.

General Lockes:
What the hell is that?! Look, on the radar, it looks like a Longsword. Send a transmission to it.

Lieutenant Jennings:
Aircraft identification T4689 Longsword do you read me.

Master Chief:
Loud and clear. What is happening down there?

Lieutenant Jennings:
Please state your name and rank.

Master Chief:
John, Spartan 117, Master Chief.

Lieutenant Jennings:
Sir, the pilot claims to be a Spartan. I thought they were all destroyed.

General Lockes:
No, we received word the day Reach fell that a ship escaped with the only remaining Spartan. We all thought the Covenant caught up with the ship and destroyed it and the crew.

General Lockes:
Son, this is General Lockes, we need your help down here right away. I'll explain everything when you get here. On the double soldier.

Cortana:
We're on our way.




A Pleasant Welcome

Cortana:
Chief bring her in steady. It looks like the Covenant made it to Earth. We're going to be taking a lot of fire.

The Master Chief flies into the atmosphere. Just when their ship gets struck by a plasma beam scorching the right wing making it unsuitable for proper landing and flying.

Cortana:
Chief, Chief! You need to find a safe place to crash land.

Master Chief:
I'll do my best.

Decreasing in altitude quickly. Chief scurries around looking for a safe place to land. Luckily, he
sees an open field just to the east of a major battle between the humans and the vicious Covenant.
He brings down the aircraft with minimum damage. Unfortunately, the fighter ship was only equipped with a M6D pistol, S2 AM sniper rifle, and a MA5B assault rifle with only half of the total ammunition capacity. With Covenant flocking around the ship to see what has happened, the Chief needs a quick plan.

Cortana:
Chief, make your way toward the battle. There must be an infirmary where we can get you patched up. Then you can talk to the General about what the situation is.

John picked up the sniper rifle and quickly dispatched two elites and three jackals. He dropped the smoking gun and picked up the pistol and the assault rifle and quickly headed to the cover of the trees just behind where he had crashed.
He easily picks off a group of grunts sleeping in a pack with his pistol. Then he darts directly toward the remaining enemies and assassinates the remaining commander elite. With only three jackals between him and safety he becomes furious with rage and adrenaline because of all they have taken from him. He punches one in the back and immediately neutralizes a second with a spray of bullets. They third however put up a fight. Burning holes in his armor, he becomes a challenge. The Chief dashes toward him and rolls behind the barricaded alien and finishes him off with a bullet in the forehead.

Cortana:
We should be heading to HQ. They could use some of what you just did back there.

Master Chief:
I wish I could take on all the bastards. Let's go meet up with the General and some marines for some backup incase I need it.




Stealth is a Priority

At Firebird HQ the Chief meets up with General Lockes. After the Master Chief explained what had happened on the mysterious ring world, the General jumped right into their current situation.

General Lockes:
We'll deal with what happened to you later, but we have a much bigger problem. It's been hell here ever since about a month after the fall of Reach. With Reach right on our doorstep and out last military strong hold, the Covenant were bound to find us and we had little protection when they did. They came swiftly and out of nowhere. About six destroyers cleared some land for the rest of them to come which was at least twenty ships, it was such chaos I didn't notice all of them. We rounded up as many troops as we could and even got some from other planetary systems but it still wasn't enough. The Covenant are just too strong. Am I glad you showed up or the human race was done for. This is our last military base in this area and those scum are closing in on us. If we're going to defeat them, we have to push them back. There are hundreds of them a few kilometers north with scout teams all over the place. They also set up their own base that we have yet to find the location of. We need you to flank them from the west and capture a commanding elite. That elite could reveal the location of their base. I'll call in air support to give you a little advantage. You'll be in command of one hundred marines. Stay undetected for as long as possible. When you accomplish your mission meet up at the rendezvous point at one kilometer northeast from this point.

Cortana:
General, don't you think that is a little overwhelming for what we just went through.

Master Chief:
This is what I was born to do.

About five minutes after departure they came along a scout group. With five grunts, three jackals, and an elite. Master Chief snuck around behind and took out the elite silently. Then one of the jackals was hit in the side with a pistol bullet and fell flat. Then three marines surrounded the other two jackals and surprised one with a barrage of bullets to the skull. The remaining one killed two of the marines and injured a third which pulled out a combat knife and stabbed him through his heart. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough. A grunt landed a grenade on the hip of the injured marine and took out six others with their needlers and grenades. The Chief threw a frag grenade blowing up four grunts and a marine finished off the terrified, screaming little bastard.

The Master Chief and his marines came upon the Covenant centered in a valley with about sixty grunts, fifty jackals, twenty elites, and ten hunters. The two commanding elites were walking around the camp giving orders glimmering in their golden armor.

Master Chief:
I need the ten best snipers to come with me. We will circle around the perimeter of the valley. Wait until I shoot first then fire at will. Take out as many aliens as you can and when your out of ammo fall back to the rest of the marines. The rest of you stay fifty meters outside the valley and when I shoot a tracer rocket charge in. Don't forget, keep one of the high-ranking officers alive.

The Chief and the other snipers lined up. Master Chief fired taking an unsuspecting elite's head clean off. One sniper shot and hit and elite in the leg. This gave his location away and the elite starting shooting at him and landed one straight shot right through his neck. The Chief managed to snipe that elite in the stomach before he did any more damage. A corporal, named Tyler Houtsan, was the best marksman besides John. He nailed two jackals through the head with one bullet. He also killed three elites and seven grunts. The Chief, however, sniped four hunters. The other snipers didn't know where to shoot but the Chief pierced the four hunters in the soft spots. He got one in the back, one in the stomach, and got two right through their neck which shot about ten grunts and a few jackals while desperately firing their fuel rod cannons in a hope to extinguish the humans whose mercy they were at. At that the last Spartan fired a tracer rocket which killed a group of organizing enemies planning an attack on their pursuers.

Master Chief:
Marines move out! Show no mercy. You won't get any!

The marines filed out into the valley and plowed through the grunts who ran helplessly in fear of death. Some resisted to only be trampled and shot by the vicious humans. A few strangling grunts took out about twenty marines. The jackals put up a bigger problem. The only really effective weapons against the plasma shields of the assassins are their own weaponry. The Master Chief stormed into the valley bashing his way through the front line. He dropped his sniper rifle and picked up a plasma pistol which he rapidly fired at the nearest aliens not stopping to they perished. Finally, They killed everyone except for the hunters and elites. The Chief launched a grenade blowing up four elites. The hunters stood barricading the battlefield commanders. Private Morrison charged in and stuck a grenade to two hunters and shot one in the back with a pistol when he was blind sided with the metal shield of one of the remaining two hunters which slowly expired from the constant gun fire of the marines. One elite was hit from behind from a careless marine who was knocked down by another elite and shot repeatedly. Three elites left, one commander, out of the three who, they were supposed to apprehend. Master Chief shot one with a charged plasma beam and quickly hit him on the top of the head. The last one hit him to the ground and aimed at his head. Just as the enemy was about to shoot the Chief flipped the invader over him and shot him between the eyes with a high explosive round from a pistol. He then spun around and uppercut the commanding officer right under the chin knocking him flat out on the ground. Then private Deasy loaded a tranquilizer bullet into his pistol and shot the officer in the neck just as he was getting up and he was out cold on the ground unconscious.

Cortana:
Good work marines! Now we have to meet up with General Lockes and some other troops for reorganization.

The marines trudged along until they reached the rendezvous where they were met with a lot of reinforcements which included, tons of troop, scorpions, warthogs, hot food, and a good place to sleep.

General Lockes:
Sir, great work! Put the elite in a holding sell and set up a translator for interrogation. What is the casualty level?

Cortana:
Compared to their losses it was very minimal. We lost about sixty-five marines.

General Lockes:
That's incredible considering how many of them there were. Now all of you did well so get yourself a hot meal and shower and hit the barracks.





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