Halo - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Finishing This Fight ❯ Amidst It All ( Chapter 1 )

Draknal: Hey! This is my first shot at makin a Halo fic. I wondered to myself, how will Halo 3 turn out? Well, using my extensive Halo knowledge, I think I may have some idea. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor!

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or any of the characters that Bungie and Microsoft own the rights to. I only own what I have made up.

 

Amidst it All

 

“Master Chief? You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?” the admiral asked.

 

After taking a second to ponder what he should tell the man, he responded, “Sir, finishing this fight.”

 

And with that said, the transmission was ended.

 

“Sir, we've lost the link, what are your orders as far as the new arrival?” a lieutenant inquired while trying to pinpoint the Chief's exact location.

 

He was of course referring to the Forerunner ship that had just appeared out of slipstream space. The very same ship that the Master Chief had said that he was on.

 

Not knowing what kind of threat the new ship posed or what it was capable of made it hard for the commanding officer to come to a decision. Thinking of possible outcomes that could occur from certain orders, he made a choice.

 

`If the Chief is on that ship, he must have good reason for it…'

 

“No ships are to engage the new contact. Leave it be, but monitor its course.”

 

The lieutenant acknowledged him with a simple nod, then sent the order not to engage to the human battleships.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Alarms blared in the London military branch. All personnel were being summoned to combat status.

 

Captain Jon Rappart had been on day two of his two-week military leave when his break was interrupted. Grumbling, he made his way to the command center, where he was to be debriefed.

 

After being informed of the latest Covenant action, he went to inform his men of their orders. Apparently Covenant troops were taking up residence in several areas of the earth. One of which, happened to be located approximately 40 kilometers east of their base.

 

He entered the locker room where his men were suiting up. Most of them, if not all, were looking very disturbed and angry, as much so as he was when his vacation was so rudely brought to a grinding halt.

 

Of course, being ODST's, or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, they weren't ever found in what was to be considered a “good” mood.

 

One of the Helljumpers turned to the now entering officer. “Hey Captain, what the hell is going on? I thought we had two weeks, not two days.”

 

Other chatter began to circulate around the room about how this was the last straw for the military, and how unfair it was for their break to be cut short.

 

“Quit the whining ladies! I'll let you know exactly what's going on after I get a hold of the situation myself. For now we have orders to suit up and prep for immediate launch.”

 

The Helljumpers, knowing better than to question orders, followed as they were told. Within fifteen minutes they were completely packed, armed, and ready for deployment.

 

They reported to the cruiser that was on standby. It was a newer model, practically the same as In-Amber-Clad. However, it was slightly smaller, as it was meant to be a support ship rather than a direct combat one. The name that had been given to this particular ship was Warhorse V.

 

Knowing that the Covenant weren't going to wait around and do nothing, they launched as soon as they were able. Warhorse V was soon airborne in Earth's stratosphere.

 

Captain Rappart figured that now was as good a time as any to give his men the details of their assignment. He made his way to the front of his squad and waited for them to quiet down.

 

“Shut the hell up and pay attention you lousy sacks of crap!” he yelled after noticing that no one was paying attention to him.

 

“Are we finally gonna know what this is about Captain?” one marine asked.

 

“I was getting to that. Now watch the screen.”

 

Said screen, located behind the captain, began glowing. Images of ground force deployments and enemy gun turrets appeared, along with maps of the surrounding area.

 

“From what we can gather, the Covenant bastards are looking into some real estate here on Earth. Several locations have been chosen, but this one seems to have been fortified the most. It's our job to convince these fuckers that we aren't planning on selling this piece of land any time soon, by any means necessary.”

 

Turning his attention to the screen, he continued on. “Now, I suppose we could try and be diplomatic and ask them nicely to just leave. But where's the fun in that?”

 

Several chuckles could be heard from marines in the room.

 

“Do we ask nicely for what we want from Covenant shitbags?”

 

He was greeted with the response of “Hell no!” from his troops.

 

“Or are we gonna beat them senseless and take what we want?” he asked.

 

“Hell yes sir!” the marines yelled.

 

One marine was puzzled. “Sir, this location doesn't look more than thirty to fifty kilometers away from our base. Why didn't we just take some Pelicans or some Warthogs?”

 

The captain had been waiting for someone to ask that question. “Good question marine. Why indeed? We could have just strolled on into this fortified location with a few LRV's,” he answered gruffly.

 

“Oh, but wait. Maybe we didn't give you a good enough picture of the encampment,” he continued sarcastically. Punching a button on the console next to the monitor, he magnified the image of the enemy fortification.

 

Several marines gasped, while others whistled, impressed with the Covenant's efforts.

 

The magnified image gave a clear view of the enemy opposition. No less than twenty Shade gun turrets were found on the perimeter of the base, as well as on upper levels of the occupied area. Sniper nests were everywhere, and the map was anything but void of vehicles. Three gates led into the enemies' outpost, and each had a multitude of Wraith tanks and several squads of Ghosts. Air cover was extremely thick with multiple groups of Banshees roaring overhead the enemy outpost.

 

Phantoms were parked everywhere on the interior of the fortification, Shadows circled the encampment, and units of Spectres accompanied them.

 

“Sure marine, we could stroll on in past their ground troops with ease,” Rappart went on, his voice dripping with lethal sarcasm. “Or wait, even better. We could use a squad of Pelicans. I'm sure those Banshees and Shades wouldn't even consider shooting at us. We could just go on in, do our thing and walk out. A stroll in the park when you think about it.”

 

The marine that had originally asked about taking Warthogs was utterly stunned at the enemy resistance in the base and didn't say another word.

 

“We need a way to get in without them having much time to respond. Our dropships are our best bet. We can drop in directly from overhead and they won't have much time to mount an offense. We'll be aiming for… here,” Rappart went on.

 

The screen closed in on a tall hill in the middle of the base. It could only be accessed from one side, which was a rather steep incline from the rear. The entire front, and sides of the hill were steep cliffs. There was no chance of an enemy scaling these walls without them noticing.

 

“With this hill in our possession, we'll have easy sniping access to the rest of the base. A perfect bird's eye view of everything that's going on. Only problem is…” he continued. Small red dots appeared on the picture of the hill.

 

“The Covenant have fortified this location pretty damn well. They're thinking the same thing we are. So it's our job to get down there and take this away from them. They've had it long enough.”

 

An alarm panged three times, signaling that their drop zone was approaching.

 

“We're Helljumpers and it's our duty to get in there before the other troops arrive and soften up the defenses… Now the question is, how will we go?”

 

“FEET FIRST SIR!” the marines yelled.

 

“You're damn right!” Rappart shouted back. “Now get to your drop pods and get ready for a bumpy ride.”

 

The troops dispersed and went to their assigned pods. Rappart grabbed some weapons from his locker, namely his favored Twelve Gauge AP (anti-personnel) Shotgun, his M6D 2x scope Pistol, and a few fragmentation grenades. With these in hand, he went to his own drop pod, locked down, and awaited the hell that was to be lain before him.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

The Master Chief checked his surroundings and took a moment to think up his best course of action. Had Cortana still been with him, she probably would have already come up with a plan. It wasn't until now that he realized what a luxury it was to have the AI with him.

 

After checking his motion sensors the Spartan made his way to what looked like an entrance to the interior of the Forerunner ship. Seeing as how the Covenant that took control of the ship had sealed it up tight, and he didn't have an AI with him to hack into the system, he'd have to open the door his own way.

 

After priming a Plasma grenade, he attached the glowing explosive to the door and took a few steps back. Seconds later an explosion sounded, and there was one less door on the ship to worry about.

 

Master Chief slipped inside the new opening and adjusted himself for the change in gravity. Behind him, where he entered, he heard a swish and a clang of metal. Emergency doors had sealed off the opening he had made. It looked as though there was no going back now.

 

The Spartan hadn't brought any weapons with him when he made his daring boarding of the ship, save for a few grenades, so it seemed that he'd have to fend for himself with what he could find.

 

The interior of the ship was much different than that of a Covenant Capital ship. It was metallic, but not the same kind of metal that was commonly found on Covenant technology. It was a sleek black chrome almost. And the doors were different as well. Instead of being motion sensor activated, it appeared that they were opened via hand print scanning.

 

`Well, so much for this being easy,' the Spartan thought. But then again, when was anything ever easy for him? Destroying the first Halo, annihilating a fleet of Covenant, was that easy? With help from a certain AI, it was easier, but not easy. This was just another mission to the Master Chief, not something that needed to be contemplated, just something that had to be done, period.

 

Making his way down the hall, the Spartan kept an eye on his motion tracker. Up around a corner, there were three blips moving towards him. The familiar clanking of foot plates, and barking told the Master Chief that it was just a group of grunts, so there was little to worry about.

 

He pressed himself up against the very edge of the corner, waiting for his prey. Right as the grunts were about to round the corner he leapt out and threw his fist into the closest grunt's face. The grunt tumbled backwards, dropping its weapon in the process, which the Master Chief quickly picked up and made good use of.

 

When the first grunt went down, its two buddies freaked. The one to its left began running in circles screaming, “It's the demon! Run!”

 

The second grunt ran back down the hallway from which it came.

 

Seizing the opportunity he had, Spartan 117 deposited three plasma shots into the retreating grunt, then smashed the other grunt in the head with the butt of the plasma pistol he had picked up.

 

With the patrol taken care of, the Master Chief continued making his way through the Forerunner ship.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“Damn Covenant, just don't know when to give it a rest, do they?” First Lieutenant Mike McCroft mumbled.

 

At first it had seemed as though it was going to be another boring day of training exercises and weapons inspections, but not today.

 

Covenant had taken up heavy residence in Europe. The military branch in London had already begun to mount an offensive, but there was only one problem… they didn't have the firepower needed to take out the fortification.

 

That is where McCroft and his marines came in. They were instructed to assist the attack by bringing in support weapons and heavy artillery. The troops would be airlifted in and dropped off two miles outside of the base's defenses.

 

From there they would mow through any Covenant son-of-a-bitch dumb enough to get in their way.

 

`Covenant bastards just had to make a base over in Europe… now I have to sit through this boring ass flight…' McCroft thought to himself.

 

He looked to the weapons rack that was before him. They said to be sure to pack plenty of firepower, and if there were weapons he liked, they were ones that went `Boom'.

 

McCroft grabbed a Jackhammer rocket launcher and secured it to his back. Looking back to the other weapons available to him, he couldn't make up his mind on what else to take. Battle Rifles, Magnums, Shotguns, all strewn before him… What to take?

 

Not being able to make up his mind, he figured `All good things come in pairs,' grabbed another Jackhammer and slung it over his right shoulder. He was ready now, and headed to his Pelican for dust-off.

 

Amidst the cargo of grumbling marines, McCroft heard various questions such as, `Why are the Covenant here of all places? Where else did they land?' and `Do you think we can win this time `round?'

 

From what the Lieutenant had been told, the Covenant were searching for something on Earth. They didn't have any details on what they were looking for, just that it was on Earth. Ever since they discovered Earth, the Covenant had been setting up bases in areas that had some sort of importance.

 

Different locations in different regions of the world… what significance do those places have? Why would the Covenant go through so much trouble to take those areas?

 

It didn't matter to him, just as long as he got to blow up some Covenant sons' of bitches.

 

The Lieutenant strapped himself in and braced as the Pelican took off. His Pelican had the honor of carrying one of four Scorpion tanks. The other seven of the eleven Pelicans were carrying various Warthogs.

 

The Pelican McCroft was in was located at the center of the formation of airships, as were the other three pelicans with Scorpions. If they went down, it would be a heavy loss as opposed to losing one Warthog. Of course, losing any Pelican would be a terrible loss, but the destruction of a Scorpion would severely lower their chances of taking out the Covenant outpost.

 

`As long as those ODST's aren't dead by the time we get there…'

 

He put the thought behind him and concentrated on passing the time.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Looking from hall to hall, the Master Chief made an attempt to determine where on the Forerunner ship he was. Checking the sensors in his MJOLNIR armor, the Spartan was able to conclude that he was near the power source for the ship, as enormous energy signatures were detected behind one of the doors down the hallway he had entered.

 

He had prepared to blow the door open when he noticed a faint blip on his motion sensor. Rounding on his heel, the Spartan managed to get a view of his approaching enemy. Apparently when the patrol of grunts hadn't logged in, a few Brutes had been sent out to see what was keeping the inferior creatures from responding.

 

Sure enough, a massive Brute was charging straight for him. There wasn't much he could do with a Plasma Pistol, but he improvised. Holding down the trigger, he began to overcharge the weapon. Full overload would take a few seconds though, which the Master Chief didn't have.

 

Leaping to the side, the Spartan evaded the creature's first charge, but that quickly change as the beast spun around and caught him by the throat. Its hand was an inch away from his actual throat, thanks to the shields built into the Spartan's armor. However, the shield gauge began to drop at an alarming rate.

 

An alarm began to whine as the last of the shield depleted. The Brute's iron grip now tightened around the Chief's throat. His titanium armor and carbon-enhanced bones would only hold for so long.

 

A loud whirring sound was issuing forth from his right hand, which held the Plasma Pistol. It was finally charged. Using all the strength he had, the Chief raised his weapon to the Brute's face and released the trigger. He followed up by using his legs and pushing the Brute off of him with a kick to the chest.

 

The smell of seared flesh made the air smell foul and sickening. Fortunately, the Chief's suit filtered the air that came into his suit. He stayed focused on the task at hand, dispatching his opponent.

 

The Brute, although severely injured and in a great deal of pain, began swinging its arms violently and recklessly. It was hoping to hit something, anything, so long as it could vent its anger and rage.

 

Quickly priming his last Plasma Grenade, the Spartan leapt at the Brute and pressed the grenade to its throat, where it stuck in place. Once again pushing off from the Brute with his legs, the Chief managed to shove the Brute into a nearby door, which the Brute rebounded from and fell to the floor.

 

Using what speed he had, the Master Chief dove around the corner of the hallway. He was rewarded a second later with the sound of a loud explosion and a spray of red blood that coated the nearby wall.

 

Poking his head around the corner, the Spartan saw the mangled corpse of the unfortunate Brute, and the now-open door it had been shoved against. After checking his motion sensors and determining that it was clear, he entered what he assumed was the power room.

 

Two massive pillars of bluish white light streaked through the center of the circular room. The perimeter of the room was decorated with hundreds of computers and consoles.

 

`Cortana would be in heaven right now if she were here.'

 

He recalled the time on the first Halo when the AI had interfaced with the control room. She had taken in so much information that she nearly forgot about their primary objective.

 

The Master Chief walked over to the largest computer console and began typing away, trying to see what he could find. For not being as efficient as an AI, he made good time. He discovered that there was an AI memory block in the room. But what sense would that make? Every ship was required to keeps its main AI on the command deck, for express safety purposes.

 

Nonetheless, he located the spot on the console that he had been looking for. Pressing the activation switch, the small clear cube ejected from the computer. Being careful not to damage it, the Chief figured it a good idea to see what he could learn from it.

 

With the AI slot in his suit currently empty, he slipped the new memory block into the vacant spot. For a moment, he wondered if the block was empty, as nothing happened. As he was about to remove it, a cold feeling splashed his consciousness, and the familiar pain of another being merging with his mind overcame him.

 

`Hello. I am an Alpha class AI, whose designated duty is...' a female voice started.

 

`Great, just a standard AI...'

 

He knew that Cortana was by far unique, being one of the only AI's able to think for themselves, learn, and develop.

 

“And what is that supposed to mean? `Just a standard AI?' I'm insulted…” the voice answered with an indignant tone.

 

`Calm down,' the Chief thought. `I didn't think many AI's out there had unique personalities.'

 

“Well I'm not just any AI, now am I?”

 

The Chief knew this was going to be a problem. A female AI with her own personality… If only he had known beforehand, he wouldn't have made such a comment. Women tend to get a bit testy when “insulted”.

 

`Listen, I didn't mean it, okay? I'm sorry, just a misunderstanding.' He hadn't known the AI for more thank five minutes and here he was apologizing to her already.

 

“Hmph, maybe I don't feel like talking to someone so rude right now,” the AI went on.

 

“You know what, I'm tired of this. I don't have time to waste arguing right now, or trying to make up for an honest mistake. I'll just put you back into the terminal,” the Spartan spoke roughly in a commanding tone.

 

He reached back and prepared to eject the AI memory block.

 

“Whoa! Don't get hasty here. I don't want to go back into that system.”

 

“Then would you mind telling me exactly who you are?” the Chief questioned.

 

After letting out a sigh, the AI started from the beginning. “I am an Alpha class AI designed to handle several processing requests of any class. An all purpose AI you might say. My designated name was Xandria.”

 

“What is an AI of your level doing down here in the power center? Shouldn't you be in the command center, running this ship?”

 

“For the longest time I was on the command bridge, monitoring this dormant ship. Then those `Covenant' guys came and replaced me with one of their AI's. They said something about it being easier to take command with one of their AI's. They put me down in the power center and cut off my access to the rest of the ship.”

 

“But now that you're here, I can finally get out of this place. Ya know, this is my first time interfacing with a human directly. I didn't know anyone had this kind of technology. Even the `Forerunners' as you call them, didn't have that capability.”

 

“Glad you're impressed, but we have other matters to attend to. Do you have the schematics for this ship?”

 

After processing the request the AI responded with, “Yeah, just brought em up. What do you need them for, um… what am I supposed to call you?”

 

“Master Chief is fine. Chief for short,” he answered simply.

 

“Right, well Chief where do you need to get on this ship?”

 

“The command deck. I have some issues to discuss with a certain Prophet...”

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“Commencing drop in three… two… one…”

 

`Here we go,' Rappart thought as he braced for release.

 

The pod he was in suddenly lurched, then began to fall smoothly through the Earth's skies.

 

The AI that had been assigned to the group, Heinrich, briefed the troopers on the status as they descended.

 

“So far we can determine that only half of the enemy occupants are on alert. We seem to have caught them at a bad time, which is good for you. You have yet to be detected, but that will only last for a few more seconds.”

 

“You wanna stick to giving us good news?” Rappart gruffly asked the AI.

 

Being the smart-ass that the AI was, it responded with, “Sure, with the current enemy deployments set against the number of our troops dropping in, at least one fifth of you should survive.”

 

Silence reigned for a second, before the Heinrich started to chuckle.

 

“Don't worry sir, I only broadcasted that to your pod. Besides, your odds for survival are much better than that, by at least another eighth.”

 

The Captain felt no need to respond to that.

 

`Well, looks like we'll have to be at the top of our game then.'

 

“Hmm… that's rather strange,” the AI noted.

 

“What?”

 

“From what I can detect, there don't seem to be any Elites anywhere among their ranks.”

 

“Yeah, that is pretty strange. Usually those prong-mouthed bastards are leading the fight. Well, that'll make our job that much easier.”

 

The pods began to shudder as they encountered greater air resistance from reaching terminal velocity. It would only be a matter of time until the chutes deployed.

 

After sitting through what seemed like hours of bumpy freefall, the pods lurched once again as the primary parachutes deployed.

 

“We will hit ground in twenty seconds and counting,” Heinrich announced.

 

No sooner had the AI made his announcement, the enemy reacted. A red light in each pod went off, signaling that enemy fire was coming their way.

 

Sure enough, the Shade gun emplacements were firing at the oncoming pods. However, since there were only Grunts manning them, the shots were terrible. At the rate the pods were moving, the shots were too slow to hit them at the right moment.

 

Although when the pods hit the ground it would be a different story. Those turrets would rip the troopers to shreds if they weren't dealt with immediately.

 

“Ten seconds until landfall,” Heinrich informed the troopers.

 

Each Helljumper had been trained for the worst, yet none of them could shake the feeling that this would be a hell of a different fight. Each person was nervous, but ready to fight to the death nonetheless.

 

“Landfall in three… two… one… impact!”

 

-End Chapter-

 

Draknal: Well, I figured I'd start us out with a cliffy! Please don't have me for that. I'd appreciate it if I could get a few reviews on this, as it would encourage me to work harder.

 

R&R PLEASE!!

 

The next chapter should be out in a max of 2 weeks!