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The Beginning of the End Part 1
Posted By: Wonga<jruppel@cox.net>
Date: 24 August 2002, 6:50 pm


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"Halo, its finished"

"No, I think were just getting started."

İİİİİİIt had been hours since the Chief had uttered these words. He was now locked in a deep sleep, his head drooping slightly as he sat in the pilot's seat of the longsword. He had plugged Cortana into the longsword's computer before he had drifted off to sleep. She thought for many cycles about the events that had that had occured on Halo. She began to sort through the information she had flash transferred onto her memory cube. She had been forced to overwrite a considerable amount of her computer cracking programs, but was compensated as she found infiltration software hundreds of years ahead of Oni's newest software. The Cheif stirred, and Cortana noticed a consideable spike in his adrenaline levels. He must be having a bad dream. She didnt blame him, she even pitied him for having to sleep. She sometimes envied humans for the ability to sleep, but times like this made her happy of this inability. "NOOOOOO!!!!" The yell resounded through the cabin, and faster then Cortana's visual probes could track him, he was on his feet with his M-90 in hand. He slowly realized that their was no-one there. He sat down and looked at Cortana's image hovering over the panel. As she looked into his eyes, she saw a flash of the tortured soul inside of him, she saw the innocent child, the witness of a thousand deaths, but only for a breif moment. His eyes resumed the solid, steel blue look. "Cortana, are the engines ready to use again?" She was surprised by his resilience. He had only slept for six hours, and was ready to begin all over again. " Engines are T - minus 3 minutes till safe engine operation temperature." she replied. "Scan for any Covenant ships, then set a course for Reach." he said. "Cheif, while in Halo's computer, I learned how the covenant navigate slipspace so accurately. They actually stole the technique from the Forerunner. Instead of having both of the terminals in the Shaw-Fujikawa generators charged negatively, one is charged positively, and the other is charged negatively. Both terminals are charged to critical capacity, then are discharged at precisely the same moment. The resulting charge nuetralizes each other, along with the ship. In "Neutral Space", the laws of phisics are negated, and the ship is able to be in two places at once. This only lasts for a few moments, then the ship returns to normal space, in the new location. This requires a rather conseq-" He hit the terminal that Cortana's memory crystal resided in. "Sorry" she said, in an annoyed tone of voice. "Cortana, all I want to know is if we can do this in this ship." he demanded. "I'll need you to make a few modifications, but yes."

İİİİİİ20 minutes later, they were ready. Cortana began charging the generator. The Cheif could feel the ship begin to vibrate, slowly at first, but then extremely fast. " Energy levels reaching critical ! " reported Cortana. All of a sudden, the ship became transparent. But then The Cheif realized, that he could see the inside and the outside. He could also see the different layers of Titanium - A around the ship. He could see everything, at every angle, in any way. Then, everything snapped back together. His perception was back to normal. "Cortana, did it work? Cortana? Cortana?!!" The ship was black. There were no lights, no humming of the terminal, no lights flashing. They were dead in space. The Cheif recognized what was happening. He remembered the ships in the battle for Reach when they came out of slipspace, they would also be dead in space. Suddenly, the ship came back to life. The artificial gravity came back on, causing the Cheif, who had been floating near the roof, to plummet down to the ground. He got up, rubbing his head. "Cortana, pinpoint the spot where CASTLE used to be." "Sheesh, I just came back online and you're already giving me jobs." she replied. "Alright, got it. It's on the main veiw screen." "Cortana, scan for any life underground." the Cheif said. His breath caught in his chest. The question that had been tormenting him every minute of every day since he left Reach was about to be answered. Cortana's hologram flickerd back to life in front of him. "Cheif, I've detected life - signs, but their faint and are buried under 300 meters of honeycomed glass." "Land us down there. I'm getting them out." "Cheif, I'm detecting less than 4 percent than thr regular amount of oxygen below the surface. Amazingly, there is still a breathable atmosphere down there, even after the covenant galssed the planet." "Cortana! Just land!!" The Cheif yelled. Cortana was surprised. She had never seen the Cheif get angry like this before. She didn't blame him though, he had been through alot. She brought the ship in, and the Cheif walked over and ripped the doors off the weapon's locker. Pure Titanium - A battle plate doors ripped off like paper. He got out an assualt rifle, full ammo, and got for ammo for his shotgun. "Cortana, how much armaments does this ship have left?" "None Cheif." she replied. "They didn't have time to restock her after the battle." "Damn!" He said. Before they had even landed, he kicked the back hatch off and jumped out. straight down 10 meters. He hit the ground, and smashed through a meter of the glass. He took out the MA5B he had grabbed an began firing at the ground. Then bullets pounded into the ground, foot after foot of the glass shattered as it was hit by the bullets. He exhausted the AR ammo, and threw it aside. He took out the shotgun, and fired round after round. He depleted that ammo source also. "Cortana, how much glass is left?" "100 meters" she replied. He threw aside the shotgun, and in his desperation, began smashing through the glass with his fists. Even with the armor, the Cheif's fists began to get bloody. After what seemed like eons had passed, he sruck something hard. 3 ft of Battle plate separated him from his goal. He ran up the shaft he had carved through the glass, and got all the grenades from the armory, along with the two pounds of C-12. He stuck all 18 of the grenades he had gotten into the C-12. He set a 10-second timer, and ran. Even from the end of the shaft, The Master Chief was thrown back, then, there was an intense suction coming from the hole as the atmospheres equalized. Then, there was silence.





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