- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Hi ppl, I wrote a story relating to the events of the level 343 Guilty Spark. It's kind of a modified version (the story has Cortana in it). Please read and give me some comments on it. Thanks. : ) Oh, and the _____'s stand for Tab marks, I don't know how to indent on this thing.lol
_____As the Pelican descended towards the dank, smelly swamp, the Master Chief leapt off the dropship and landed onto the cold, mushy surface of the wetland. The Pelican then activated its thrusters, elevated above the dense and tall trees of the marsh, and sped off into the misty night sky.
_____“We should immediately proceed with the mission,” reported Cortana, an extremely advanced AI that assisted the Master Chief. “We have to search and rescue the captured Marines along with Captain Keyes.”
_____The soldier acknowledged the command with a nod, and quickly dashed down a path that led him deeper into the foggy swamp.
_____The Master Chief, a technologically and biologically advanced soldier, was part of a special training program, the Spartan-II project, who donned the Mark V MJOLNIR suit, a remarkable piece of armor that represented the breakthroughs of science in military combat. The protective covering included an astounding element that the human race has just currently created, a reflective shielding system, made up of a concentration of electromagnetic particles in specific areas to support its structure, that surrounded the Master Chief’s entire body in order to defend the wearer from lethal attacks. Another aspect that made this Spartan warrior unique from the rest of the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) Marines was that there was a specially-designed chip that was inserted into his helmet. By using the features of his headgear, devices such as that particular chip are able to connect to the neurons in his brain. As a result of this, the chip, which deposits the artificial intelligence constructs known as Cortana, greatly enhances the Master Chief’s movements, reaction time, and thoughts. Another advantage that this combatant gained from this development is that Cortana is able to support him in combat situations. For instance, she can use the armor’s motion tracker to help the soldier by telling him the location of nearby enemies and allies.
_____A few moments later, the path that the soldier took became so thick full of trees that he had to crawl and climb his way through them to finally reach his destination, which was an abnormally-shaped structure that had an upside-down “V” formation for its entrance. During his expedition, the Master Chief encountered a group of Grunts as well as a couple of Jackals. The Grunts were considered to be “cannon fodder” by the humans because of their cowardly nature, along with their lack of speed, which helped to make them even easier targets. Jackals, on the other hand, were much more intelligent and fought more bravely in battle than the Grunts. They were also armed with a special shield, made up of electricity, that was connected to a bracelet-like piece of metal, which was worn around their wrists. As the two types of aliens advanced upon the Master Chief, he whipped out his dark, metallic assault rifle, slammed a new clip of ammunition into it, and hid behind a rock, devising a strategy to attack the newcomers. The Grunts seemed to be off-duty since some of them were sleeping, while others were lazily strolling around. The Jackals, however, were watchful and alert as they patrolled around their encampment, which was surrounded with plasma turrets.
_____“I advise that you neutralize the Jackals first,” spoke Cortana. “They seem to be much more of a threat than the Grunts.”
_____“Acknowledged,” the Chief replied.
_____Using his motion tracker, the high-tech soldier detected a Jackal that was wandering away from the rest of the group, and was coming towards him.
_____Perfect, thought the Chief. Then he leapt from his hideout and tackled the Covenant creature. He later hid the corpse in some bushes to avoid his discovery. Once he had reached the base, which was positioned right in front of the structure, the warrior quickly dashed towards the remaining aliens, and, with the rifle in his hands, gunned them down. The Jackals, unaware of the attack, screamed in surprise and tried to flee from the attack, realizing that they would not survive the onslaught made by the intruder. After he had disposed of the Jackals, the Spartan hurriedly took out his Magnum pistol and shot each one of the frantic, cowering Grunts, including the ones manning the turret, with it.
_____Five minutes later, the Master Chief finished salvaging the enemies’ plasma pistols along with their shields for later use, and then he entered the dark, mysterious building. Once he arrived at the middle region of the floor, a large platform rose up from below and screeched to a halt right by the soldier’s feet.
_____“I assume that we should use this elevator to continue on deeper inside of this construct,” said the AI.
_____“Elevator?” questioned the Spartan, who was suspicious about the machine. He stepped onto the transparent floor and looked beneath him; it seemed to go on down forever. The strange mechanism immediately descended below, and, after arriving at its destination, it deactivated without a sound.
_____The environment that the Chief had just entered seemed to be completely different from the previous room. In this chamber, there was still the same odd, mystifying feel that something strange had just occurred. To confirm the warrior’s suspicions, there were puzzling symbols that were labeled on the walls of the room. There was also blood splattered throughout the floor and walls, meaning that there had been a battle recently. As the warrior entered into each new room, there were even more signs of the dead Covenant troops.
_____The Marines couldn’t have done this, he speculated. During the past thirty years, the human race had been fighting in a losing war against the Covenant race, which consisted of several different types of alien species, including the methane-breathing Grunts and the scout-like Jackals, so that meant that the UNSC soldiers couldn’t have caused all of this destruction and still survive during the process.
_____After traveling inside of the structure for what seemed to have been almost an hour, the Spartan combatant finally arrived at a door that was locked.
_____“Insert me into the lock and I can break open the entry point,” Cortana told the Chief. The expert fighter did what she commanded, and a few seconds later, the AI exclaimed, “Got it! We should immediately proceed into this area before the entrance is closed again.”
_____Once he had entered through the automatic door, it instantly shut, locking the Spartan inside of the vacant, gray chamber. The Master Chief took a few moments to explore his surroundings. There were tons of empty shells for assault rifles that were littered all over the surface, as well as the guns themselves. Marine clothing that had been severely damaged and destroyed, such as armor, helmets, and dog tags, was also laid all over the floor.
_____“Cortana, what happened here?” the soldier demanded.
_____“I’m not sure. Plug me into the control center and I can access the database to find out more about this situation.”
_____The Spartan quickly sprinted towards a device on one of the walls with an input jack, and inserted Cortana into it. The mechanism buzzed to life and a hologram emerged above the dome, showing a virtual-reality image of the AI.
_____“OK, Chief, I’m going to hack into the mainframe’s database,” she explained, as her body changed colors from red to blue, and then to purple. There were math algorithms scattered all over her body while she was processing the data. “Finally!” she remarked, with a slight hint of satisfaction in the tone of her voice. “This structure was created by a race known as the Forerunner. According to this information, they lived on this ring-world thousands of years ago. They were also the designers of Halo, using it as a ‘fortress world.’”
_____“Why would they want to create this ring though?” the Chief interrogated. “Were they attacked?”
_____“Give me a sec,” she replied, analyzing the newfound information. “Hmm, it seems that this ring-world known as Halo was designed to stop something.”
_____“I’m getting a bad feeling about this….”
_____“Oh my God!” Cortana exclaimed. “The Marines who arrived here before us…they couldn’t have survived the attack!”
_____“What?!”
_____“No…they’re gone!” she bellowed, examining the figures that she was managing. “This structure…the building that we are inside is not a prison bay. It’s a containment facility for something else! We have to get out of here now!” shouted the AI, as she pointed a finger at the door.
_____“I don’t understand…” said the soldier, as he stared at the hologram, pondering about what to do next. “Are you positive that all of the soldiers have been murdered?”
_____“I am 99% sure,” she retorted. “However, it is possible that they may have survived while fighting against their new adversaries.”
_____“Then who, or what, exactly did they battle with?”
_____Suddenly, as if to respond to the Master Chief’s question, the door that he had just recently entered burst apart, revealing a brownish-gray mass of humanoid life forms, each one armed with weapons, belonging to both Covenant and human.
_____“That is what they fought against.”
[Edited on 10/10/2004 4:14:33 PM]