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Divinity (Halo 2: Chapter 5)
Posted By: Shadowrunner<mortenthenerd@hotmail.com>
Date: 5 July 2003, 12:43 AM


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Origin of Shadow Ops: Agent Shade has originally invented the Shadow Ops. During his work with the series, i asked him if i was allowed to use them myself. He agreed, so please don't bother posting i "stole" them from him...



Shadow Ops team 2:

Balrog: Assault expert
pref. weapon: MA5B Assault Rifle

Lucifer: Assault and Rocket expert
pref. weapon: Dual MP-15 SMGs

Dragon: Support expert
pref. weapon: MG294-C Machine Gun


Katana: Sword wielding specialist
pref. weapon: Dual 'Razor' plasma blades

Ecstasy: Assault and Medical expert
pref. weapon: MA7B Battle Rifle

Crosshair: Sniper expert
pref. weapon: M98-5 40mm Sniper Rifle (sabot)


Shadowrunner: Infiltration specialist, equipped with cloaking device
pref. weapon: S2 AM Sniper Rifle



I would like some heavy feedback on this chapter, since my story finally begins to reveal itself. Everybody please post comments

Thanks



They were in.

Chief spoke to Cortana: "Cortana i need the fastest route to the bridge..." She didn't reply. Now that he thought of it, it was a while since he had heard from her... He bashed his helmet and yelled: "Cortana wake up! Hello? are you recieving me?!"

A confused voice said to Chief: "Sorry i was--- doing a subroutines scan of the cruiser..."

Master Chief wasn't satisfied with the reply, but put aside his doubts. "Ok, i just need to know the fastest, and prefferably safest, route to the bridge."

"Why the bridge sir?" Lucifer asked

"From there we will be able to tap into their battlenet with ease, wich will enable us to have fighters intercept their transports"

"Wouldn't that be a little risky, just marching into the bridge?" Balrog wasn't too happy

"We might be pushing our luck here, but what the hell..."

A NAV marker popped up on Chief's HUD. They moved out. Chief and Katana in front to shield from enemy fire, should they be taken by surprise. The rest of the squad walked in 2 columns, along each wall of the passage. Shadowrunner, the weakest close quarters combattant, was right behind Master Chief. They met no covenant at all, though they could hear them. As they got to the bridge, something crossed Shadowrunners mind. He was always the most watchfull of the squad, he was intel gatherer after all. All the way through the cruiser, there had been shouting in the background as covenant forces ran from the humans they knew was coming down the corridors. But now it was completely silent. "Requesting permission to recon the sorrounding passageways, sir!"

"Go ahead Shadowrunner, report in via radio every 20 seconds"

"Yes sir!"

The air around him blurred for a while, and then he disappeared. The rest of the squad set up a defensive perimiter around the large holo-board that made out the bridge. "Give me a minute..... There! I have intercepted their comm channels... Let's see... Hmmm according to this, there should be 12 cruisers attacking Earth... Strange, that's less than 2% of their entire fleet... I thought this was an all-out assault on humanity..."

"Can you locate information that may give an answer?"

"Hmmm... I have *KRZ* i can't find anything..."

The 'Illuminated Path' made a slight rumble. Cortana's voice sounded strange: "Oh! I - *KKKRRRZZZZZZZZ* -ound it, bu- *EEEYYYYIIIZZZZZZ-click*"

"Cortana come in! Cortana!" Master Chief sounded desperate. But there was no reply. A second rumble went throught the ship, it was more like an earthquake this time. Cortana's voice again: "Huh? Is this it? I've found it! The Key, The Solution!... How has it come to pass? Why is it here?" Chief was really worried about Cortana. He pulled out the data sliver with Cortana in order to restore her from whatever was at hand. "No, that will not work, freind. You cannot escape us now" Something was happening in his head, he felt bad. He kneeled, and started screaming of pain. It was as if a spear was bieng forced through his head. He blacked out as an intense feeling eccoed through his brain.



He woke up aboard the 'Excalibur', and looked around as Cortana's last words eccoed through his head: "You cannot escape us now". He wondered what had happened, but he couldn't find an answer. He then sensed a small stirr in his head. A voice sounding faintly like Cortana was coming to his ears: "Do not worry. We will not do that again, it was neccesary you see. For all to come true."

"For all what to come true?... Uh, my head..."

"The whole! The Solution! Everything!"

"What? Cortana you have lost me..."

"Although we do recognize the name 'Cortana' it is now but a part of our memory, we are beyond that level. Though the entity Cortana did make us our true self, please do not call us that name again. Our new core is Ji'Shuu. A name originating from far before the first monkey picked up a stick. We will contact you again, now rest. You will need it."

Master Chief closed his eyes again. And slept.



Lucifer walked slowly up and down the same piece of the hall. Nothing made sense. The rumbles, the covenant nowhere to be seen, and then Master Chief himself collapsed in pain as 'something' happened to him. It really made no sense at all. His squadmates looked nerveously at him. They all knew Master Chief was the only hope for humanity. And he was as in a coma.

Slowly, Master Chief's brain functions returned to normal level. And 17 hours later he was sitting on the bed. Lucifer walked into his room, and saluted. Master Chief didn't even return a greetings. Lucifer was visibly concerned, and his hand was shaking. Master Chief slowly looked up at him and asked: "How's the situation on Earth?".

"After our repulsing of the forces in New Mombassa, we recieved reinforcements from Hermes. We have had succes in holding our ground in many cities around the Earth. But in Berlin the covies got a good foothold. They did that too in Sidney, but under heavy casualties. We actually repelled most of them..."

"Good"

Master Chief looked in a medical drawer near his bed and found what he was looking for. He injected the bottle of stimulator into his suit. Soon he was ready again.



"ATTENTION! Admiral on deck!" Sarge's voice shouted through the hangar as Admiral Smets and Master Chief walked into it. The marines all saluted, and went back to their work again. Master Chief was talking to the admiral. He didn't tell him of Cortana's change though, he had a feeling that alking about it would only make it more complicated. And for some reason he believed Ji'Shuu, the name of former Cortana, was not playing tricks on him. He didn't care now. All that mattered was that he was going in to rid Berlin of the covenant, with help of course. Shadow Ops team 2 was at the ready and already boarding a 'Sparrow' dropship. This was the smallest dropship in use by the human navy, however it was capable of absolutely astounishing maneuvers and was hard to pick up on sensors. It only held room for 10 soldiers, whereas the 'Pelican' could carry well over 20 if they were standing up too. The 'Sparrow' was a sleek and black dropship, with airtight doors to support space-based drops. The Shadow Ops now carried the standard issue Shadow Ops suits, except from Shadowrunner and Katana wich had their special armor systems. The air was dense as they descended towards Berlin.

The covenant's sensors didn't pick them up, but they had a visual on the dropship. They knew only a small force of marines could be in it, so they sent out a small ground team. Shadow Ops and Master Chief slaughtered them completely. The city was war ravaged, so they could easily evade covenant patrols by hiding in the rubble or taking shortcuts through the destroyed buildings. As they reached the covenant HQ they spread out. "Katana, follow Balrog and me... Crosshair you'll have to cover us. Lucifer, Dragon, Ecstasy and Shadowrunner go the other way." The HQ was located in a cargo storage facility in between some tall buildings. "Crosshair, what can you see with that thermic scope of yours? How many enemies in there?"

"Around 40, most of them Elite size... This doesn't make sense, how on earth would a single HQ of an already secured city contain 40 commanders?"

"I don't know... But then we've got the chance of killing them all."

"Yes sir, roger that sir!"

They all slowly moved closer around the HQ as they sorrounded it. There were some sounds from the building as if some kind of speach was going on in there. They positioned Shadowrunner, Crosshair and Dragon behind the structure to prevent enemies from escaping if they fled. Katana, Balrog, Lucifer, Ecstasy and Chief would move in through the main gates. Ecstasy pressed the button and the doors opened...

In the giant storage hall a gathereing of at least 35 Elites and other assorted covenant listened to a creature in a hovering chair. It was preaching. Chief ordered all men to spare the creature, and kill the rest. Katana quickly ran up to the ranks of covenant caught completely by surprise. Some of the Elites tried to escape the backway, but Crosshairs M98-5 soon blew off the first one's head, and the rest weren't keen to get the same treatment. The last forces formed a perimiter around the hovering beast, but they got killed too without hurting the creature in the middle. It looked at them, and Chief looked back.

It talked: "How do you dare to come here, devil?" The translator made the voice fuzzy.

Then, a sound came from the loudspeakers all around the room while Chief felt his head getting wierd: "Silence! I will not watch the prophecy become spoiled by the blood of inoccent people! It is laughable enough you have forgotten the arts of The Forerunners, but this ineptitude is far beyond" The voice in the loudspeakers was that of Ji'Shuu. "There is no stopping the way of things. Your empire have had it's time! Now accept the inevitable: Your are on your way to defeat"

The creature made a strange howl as it began to turn it's chair in the direction of the exit. It was terrified by the power of this new devil; it was more powerful than any that had proceeded it.

"Stop, you low excuse for a Chosen! There is no running; if i had wished it i would lock down your life support systems. Your covenant has destroyed enough civilizations through time because of the return of Korrhra! But this one is a little different is it not?; this time he HAS returned. Now go, and tell them this is the start of the 4th era..."

Shadow Ops stood as rocks and looked at Chief; Chief tried to look back into his past. He couldn't remember anything. But the name Korrhra gave sense to him, he had never heard it before but he somehow knew it. Ji'Shuu was talking again: "Korrhra, think about it... You have always been gifted far beyond normal beings. The time is upon us; but neither side is ready yet. We will contact you again when the top of the mountain begins to tremble from the very root."

The first 2 minutes no one said a single word. Master Chief was sure Ji'Shuu was speaking the truth, but he didn't know how to understand her words. He was not willing to believe he was a part of some supersticius prophecy. He looked at Lucifer who's face was in a state of both awe and misbelief. It was time to move on.

They would have to take the airport in Berlin, as to block the covenant from sending reinforcements. Lucifer, Shadowrunner and Crosshair were positioned in a tall building by the control tower. Master Chief, Balrog, Dragon, Katana and Ecstasy were ready to move in on the ground. Crosshair and Shadowrunner covered the airfield while Lucifer shot a rocket straight into the control tower. The ground team moved out and in particular Chief and Ecstasy's MA7Bs were put to use as the airfield was very large. Crosshair and Shadowrunner relentlessly took down all kinds of Elites. But an impressive number still got past the sniper fire. Dragon's MG294-C cut many of them down too, Katana took care of the Elites getting too close. The rest shot the Elites' accompanying forces, these were primarily Grunts. Just as the battle seemed ending 16 Jackals moved forward in line formation. But Crosshair showed his exceptional sniper skills by shooting off the uncovered hand on the center Jackal, it collapsed in pain. Chief ran through and caught the Jackals from behind, while he ordered Dragon to throw a grenade at their left flank. The explosion took out 6 Jackals, and the rest turned both ways as they tried to engage both Shadow Ops and Chief. The ones turning towards Chief were quickly taken out by Shadow Ops, but the ones still heading for Shadow Ops managed to get off a few shots before Master Chief took them down. Ecstasy got hit 3 times in the arms, but he didn't even feel it. After the battle he methodically repaired the injury using his nanomachine module.

They all relaxed a few short minutes, but they were quickly interrupted by a covenant counter-attack. 3 Wraiths with the ample support of 4 Shadows and 2 Ghosts plus a load of Grunts well beyond 20, 6 Elites, 3 Brutes and 4 Hunters... 18 Jackals watched their backs. Master Chief shouted: "Go go go! Keep moving or those Wraiths will make you dead meat!" Crosshair quickly shot off his loaded Sabot cartridge, and hit the driver within the middle Wraith. The confusement of the 2 remaining Wraiths led to a short pause in their shooting. During this time Dragon kneeled and let his gun rip through the Grunts and Elites. Katana broke off from the main battle and ran in the shadows of some large buildings. He was now on their right flank. He threw a frag into the center of the Grunts and Elites, then activated the Razor blades. His suit allowed him not only to have shield but to jump inhumanly high as well. He jumped into the gunner seat of a Shadow, killed the gunner and began using the gun. The 2 Ghosts were no match for the Shadow's powerfull main gun, and soon both Ghosts were without drivers. Again he jumped, as another Shadow got him in it's line of fire. While in the air he deactiveted the blade in his right hand, and took out the M6D pistol instead. He took cover behind one of the Ghosts, zoomed in and gave the gunner a headshot. Meanwhile Shadowrunner took out drivers and gunners of the 2 other Shadows. Crosshair took out the second Wraith, but then he had to reload the massive magazine of the 40mm sniper. Chief suddenly was hit by an immense feeling that the last Wraith was going to kill someone if he didn't do something fast... He ran like he never had before, and planted a charge on it's belly. As the Wraith blew up he saw Katana stand on the other side of it, completely stunned. "That Wraith had me right on the sights... I would have died sir... I would have died if you hadn't blown it up..."

Master Chief realized what he had just done; the strange feeling he had that the Wraith would kill someone was no coincidence. His thinking was broken as incoming plasma fire hit him and Katana's shields. Katana quickly disposed of the first Elite, while Chief engaged another on the outskirts of the battle.

He crouched without thinking, and evaded a Plasma Sword that would have cut his head off. He kicked the sword wielding Elite in the groin and then killed the normal one. With amazing reflexes he evaded the next two swings from the sword Elite, then grabbed it's hand and twisted it. The bones of the Elite's arm shattered with a loud crack. It yelled out in pain, as Chief grabbed it's Plasma Sword and tore it through the Elite's head. Something was wrong... He had always been gifted with reflexes so lightning fast it was impossible for normal humans to match him, but he had just dodged a sword he never knew was coming. And Katana would have been dead if it was not for this strange feeling.

"There? Can you see it? I see you still doubt the truth of it. Be warned though; denying what is true, is to deny The Solution. And vice versa. Do not fail us; we have been waiting so many millenia for your coming. But now that you have finally returned, you doubt yourself. Cannot you see the irony of it? Do not doubt in anything but what is told to you by other living beings. We will be ready soon. Korrhra. Do not fail your destiny."

--To be continued



By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing





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