User:Spartan 501/Installation 04: What If/Chapter Four: The Silent Cartographer

September 20, 0450 Hours, 2552

Threshold System, Over Ocean #013 on “Halo” installation

The Master Chief stared out over the water and into the horizon as the Pelican dropship Bravo-22 roared over the ocean. In the distance, the sun was rising, and the Master Chief had a hard time believing that it had been more than a day since he’d bailed out of the Pillar of Autumn. It felt like a few hours, tops. The chief looked out at the sky, noting it’s dull orange color. The sunrise here was even more vivid then before, at the cliff edge, turning the entire sky orange and red.

Turning his view away from the background, the Chief turned his gaze to the interior of the bay. A single marine was the only non-SPARTAN inside the troop cab—and he crewed a turret on the Pelican’s “Blood tray”. Inside the troop bay were eight SPARTANs, not including the Chief. Most carried BR55-M45 Battle Rifles, but a few carried MA5B/S-II Assault Rifles. Chief noted each one on his roster, and absentmindedly marked Linda as WIA. She had escaped and was back with the Captain, recovering from her wounds, and was almost combat ready. It would only take one, maybe two hours, and she would be fit for duty.

On his HUD, he highlighted each SPARTAN with him and moved them to an additional category. Fred-104, Grace-093, Kelly-087, Ajax-013, Mike-028, Elise-070, Will-043, and Isaac-039 where all present in the troop bay of his pelican. In addition, Vinh-030, Joshua-029, Edward-077, and James-074 were present inside a second Pelican, which was trailing theirs. Inside his Pelican, the SPARTANs were utterly silent, ready for the soon to be conducted assault. After escaping from the Truth and Reconciliation, Chief and his team had met up with the SPARTANs Cortana had contacted aboard the ship, as well as others. Chief knew that even more of his people were inbound—they would arrive sometime within the next few hours on the island.

Chief mentally went over the plan in his head. The pelicans would drop the SPARTANs off on the beachhead, which the SPARTAN force would then secure. Chief had asked Cortana what the defenses were that they required thirteen SPARTANs to secure, but she had been unusually short on the matter, telling him only that they were “Quite strong.”, which had left him more than a little worried. After the beach was secured, Foehammer would move in and drop off a hog for them to use. The majority of the SPARTANs would keep the beach secure, while Chief took two and moved out to view the cartographer. After this, they would escape and mount up on Pelicans and move to the Control Room

But as Bravo-22 and it’s trailing sister ship Echo 206 turned and flew parallel to the beach, and the defenses came into sight, the Master Chief’s stomach plummeted.

“We're approaching the LZ. It's gonna be hot. Get set to come out swinging.” Said Foehammer as the Pelican came in on the final approach.

Near the landing zone, on a hill, one of the Covenant Needler turrets sat. Past this, three more turrets were placed, underneath an arch created by one of the many engraved structures of the ring. They were arranged in a line, with a needler turret in the middle of the line and two other turrets on either side. These turrets looked like normal “Shade” turrets, but as they approached, Chief saw one of them shoot a burning pink orb of plasma—the same shot by the Heavy Spirit’s main gun. Also, on top of the structure, a needler turret stood high above the battlefield with a commanding field of fire. On the field itself, numerous Grunts, Elites, and Jackals stood guard, with the main groups laying in front of the hill turret in a patch of rocks, next to the hill turret, and underneath the arch. In addition, a pair of Hunters lumbered around ahead of the hill turret. Chief thought of calling off the mission, from the sheer amount of firepower. But he knew they had to press on—with heavy casualties if need be—to secure the cartographer, and then the control room, to keep the Covenant from taking control of Halo and using it.

The Pelican dipped and fell to a meter above the ground. “Touchdown! Hit it, Marines!” yelled Foehammer

The Chief slid from the Pelican’s seat and brought his BR55-M45 up to chest level. Over the comm, Fred yelled “Go go go!”, and the SPARTANs piled out.

The first target, the Chief knew, was the Hunters. Even as the Chief sprinted up the beach, the marine in the gun turret open fired—sending a wall of slugs downrange at the behemoths. Chief fired a grenade launcher M10 at one of the Hunters, but it didn’t do much damage.

The chief was still thirty meters away but was running top speed towards cover. The hunters were invincible to anything he had. He wondered how the SPARTANs were going to take the beasts at mid range—when a rocket from the Pelican carrying James and the others slammed into one of the Hunters, flattening it. More rockets flashed forward, and the remaining Hunter fell.

The air filled with the sound of battle rifle fire as the SPARTANs rushed up the beach. Grunts and jackals fell under and onslaught of bullets. The chief spotted two marine bodies in the sand, and saw one of them had a rocket launcher next to it. He ran for it, and dropped his secondary weapon, a MA5B/S-II, for it. Meanwhile, James and Vinh advanced along the flank, hitting the Covenant turret up on the structure with a dozen rounds to the weak center. The other turret fell under a pair of M10 grenades from launchers, and the SPARTANs rushed forward, over the hill, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.

The SPARTANs crossed over the hill—and emerged into a hailstorm of fire. The turrets opened up, needler turret spraying blue explosives, and the other two firing pink orange orbs of plasma, which detonated and sent plumes of dirt spraying upwards. Chief didn’t know what was happening to his squad, but heard someone scream, and knew he had to take out the turrets. The launcher he had picked up had three rockets, two in the tube and one spare—enough to take out the two biggest threats quickly, the pair of plasma orb spewing shades. The Chief dropped to a knee and fired two rockets in quick succession, pausing only to swing his launcher around and retarget.

Orange fireballs consumed the turrets, throwing them to the side, as well as their elite gunners. The needler turret’s shield was overwhelmed with 9.5mm battle rifle rounds. Its gunner, a green armored grunt, slumped over, dead at the controls, with a dozen whistling holes in him. There were still a large amount of Covenant in the area—but the SPARTANs rushed in, taking advantage in the hole in the defense, and overwhelmed them. Shields flashed orange as the last defenders, a pair of camouflaged elites and half a dozen jackals, held firm and fired. The SPARTANs let loose salvos of grenades and followed with bursts of battle rifle fire. The Covenant troops finally fell, splashing purple gore into the sand.

“Area clear, all hostiles have been eliminated.” Said Ajax, and the Chief wondered why it wasn’t Fred or Joshua weren’t talking, as they were the designated second and third commands. Then he realized the ugly truth.

On his HUD, Fred’s vital signs had flat lined. Next to his, Joshua’s were also stopped. The chief ran to the hill, and saw Fred’s body lying facedown in the sand. A hole stretched from his groin to his chest—a gaping gap where a needler turret had penetrated and detonated, killing him instantly. His battle rifle lay close at hand, still clutched in his MJOLNIR armor’s gauntlets. Joshua was nearby, but he had been hit by one of the heavy shades—his armor was melted and blackened, and thin trails of smoke curled up from holes in his armor. Boiling hydrostatic gel flowed from holes in the suit.

The chief stepped away from the bodies, and returned to the arch of the structure. He highlighted Will on his HUD, and put a marker on Fred and Joshua’s bodies.

“Recover them.” He told Will shakily. A green acknowledgment light burned his HUD and Will jogged off.

The comm crackled, and Foehammer’s voice snapped him back to reality, and to the plan. They needed to move in and secure the cartographer. “Echo-419 inbound. Someone need a Warthog?” the pilot asked

“Could use one, sure.” Said Kelly with a joking tone. “Come on down Foehammer.”

Foehammer swooped in low to the beach, and Chief noted a hog trailing her. It was black, and coated with yellow stripes, but it wasn’t the M12A1 LAAV, a variant of the hog with a triple barreled rocket launcher and the same paint job. This hog had a single tube, vaguely similar to the Gauss hog. His HUD highlighted it as the M12A2 LAAV, the updated version of the so called “Rocket Hog”. The chief stepped into the driver’s seat and saw Kelly and Isaac clamber in to the gunner and side seat, respectively.

“Lets move out. Lets go find the map room that will show us the location of Halo’s control center.” Cortana told the three of them, and Chief stomped on the accelerator.

The hog surged forward, sand spraying in it’s wake. The chief followed the coastline, skimming close to the high walls—a shear cliff on his left that was easily seventy meters high. The hog rounded a slight corner, then the coast and high walls dipped inward fifty meters, creating a much larger space. In this space, Chief spotted a slope leading upwards to a hill directly in front of him, which clung to the cliff and turned left. Directly on Chief’s left, a ten meter tall hill with shear sides sat, with a single jackal atop it. Next to it, on the ground, was another jackal.

Neither saw what was coming as the Master Chief slammed the hog into the one on the ground and Kelly nailed the top one with a rocket from the turret. The hog kept moving forward, and the Chief spotted a Covenant group ahead, a trio of Grunts commanded by an elite. As the hog approached, the elite spotted them, and faded suddenly from view, engaging a cloaking device. The grunts however, didn’t spot the SPARTAN loaded hog, and the Chief slammed the hog through their midst, sending two sprawling, dead. The other tried to run, but in the side seat, Isaac put a hole in his head.

The cloaked elite fired—a bad move. Kelly pinpointed the source of the shot and let loose a rocket, turning the elite to pieces of warm meat and blood. Chief sent the hog up the hill, moving fast—then slammed on the brakes as a Covenant dropship flew by on the left, humming loudly. Kelly and Isaac both tracked it…but they didn’t dare fire, lest they attract its attention and make it open fire. The dropship passed without firing however, and the Chief exhaled and kept driving. He steered the hog up the hill and around a fork in the road, taking a left. Ahead was a metal structure which extended from the wall. It was elevated, on the same height of their hill, and was a shiny engraved silver metal. It featured a platform which extended outward and was quite large, easily big enough for the hog to move around. It also had a smaller, narrower section which went straight into the wall and looked like an entrance. In front of this, in the center, was a needler turret, and on the platform, half a dozen grunts milled around, loosely directed by an elite.

“There, in the cliff wall!” cried Cortana “I bet the Silent Cartographer is somewhere inside that facility.”

The chief revved the hog, and Kelly fired a rocket in front of the turret. The blast caught both the turret and a group of Grunts, sending bodies flying everywhere. The chief sent the hog flying forward, and mowed down an elite and a group of grunts with the front end of the vehicle. Two elites emerged from the structure, but Kelly put a rocket imbetween them and burned them away. The firing stopped, and the Chief jumped out of his hog.

“Watch the six.” He told Kelly and Isaac.

Green lights burned his HUD and the chief moved into the facility, his BR55-M45 ready. As he entered, he felt heat glance his side—so he spun and rolled, leveling his battle rifle at a green armored grunt. He shot it in the head and it fell, mashing on its plasma rifle’s trigger and sending blue plasma to the floor, singing but not melting it. Over the SPARTAN channel, Cortana’s voice crackled, audible for chief, the SPARTANs in the hog, and everyone at the beach.

“The Covenant are putting up a real fight! The Cartographer must be here. My analysis indicates that the map room should be at the bottom floor of this facility. Let's keep going inside.” She said

The chief turned and ran down a short hallway, which and took a right down a ramp. He noted the many intricately carved geometric symbols embedded on the walls, which covered every metallic surface in view. When he reached the bottom of the ramp, he turned left, through a short tunnel that sloped downward. He stepped into an open area, turned right, and addressed his situation.

He was in a small room, which sloped down from his position then leveled out at the bottom. A doorway was at the opposite end of him. In the room, an elite and half a dozen grunts looked startled and angry to see him, but beyond them, in the doorway, a single elite with an energy sword growled. The chief didn’t want to take on this many Covenant at once in such a confined space, so he unlimbered his rocket launcher. As he did this, Cortana spoke to him.

“Don’t let them lock the doors!” she yelled.

The chief didn’t have time to react to her order and fired the rocket he had just loaded into the center of the Covenant troops. Bodies went flying, and the entire enemy force went down in a single blast. But beyond, in the door, the elite emitted a startled roar and slapped his hand against a control panel. The chief dove for the door, but it was too late. It slid shut.

“Interesting.” Said Cortana, sounding annoyed as Chief settled at the bottom, next to the door. It was vaguely translucent, and Chief caught sight of the sword wielding elite on the other side. “I underestimated the Covenant’s understanding of Halo’s subsystems. They’ve locked the doors, and we don’t have the firepower to get through.”

Cortana opened a channel to someone off the island. It hissed with static. Chief noted the details and saw the transmission was being recorded and played back to everyone on the beach and in the hog.

“Cortana to Keyes.” She said

“Go ahead Cortana. Have you found the control center?” asked Keyes

“Negative Captain.” Said Cortana “The Covenant have impeeded our progres; we can’t proceed until we can disable this installation’s security system.”

“Understood. I’m just now leaving for the objective. I may be out of contact when we get there.” Said Keyes “Here are your orders. I want you to use any means necessary to force your way into the facility and find Halo's control center. We have to get to the center before the Covenant, and failure, people, is not an option.”

The comm crackled, and Foehammer’s voice chimed. “Echo-419 to ground teams, I’ll stay on station and keep and eye out for Covenant bogies.”

Kelly’s voice quickly followed, adding to what now was somewhat akin to a head check. “Hog is ready to roll, soon as your topside Chief.” She told him

Ajax, acting in charge of the beachhead, quickly added his comment to hers. “LZ looks secure sir…nothing moving.”

“Good luck people.” Said Keyes. “Keyes out.”

The chief turned away from the door and headed the way he had come.

“We need to find the security override to get this door open.” Cortana told him.

The chief jogged up the tunnel and then up the ramp, emerging into the passageway. He ran down this, and moved to the hog. In it, Kelly tossed him a quick “smile” two finger swipe. He returned it as he hopped in the hog. The chief spun the hog around and raced over to the hill, then turned left, down it, but away from the LZ beachhead. Down the hill, on flat ground, three jackals patrolled, arm shields activated but at their sides. They moved nonchalantly—until the roar of the M12A2’s engine alerted them to the SPARTAN presence.

But the chief accelerated the hog as fast as it could go and sent it crashing into the commanding jackal before the enemy could respond. Snapping sounds filled the hog’s cockpit as the creature’s arms and legs snapped like twigs, and then body slammed into the windshield then bounced off, flying past Kelly and Isaac. The chief kept the hog moving forward, and set a Jackal in his sights. He gunned it for the creature—and it dived away—only to have the chief swing the bumper around and slam the three ton LRV into it’s chest—crushing its thin bird like rib bones and flattening it’s entire chest. The third jackal turned tail and tried to run, holding it’s shield high next to its head. Kelly wasn’t keen on letting it escape however—she let loose a rocket towards the fleeing alien.

The high explosive non-guided missile slammed into the jackal and detonated in a cloud of fire and smoke. With a roar of thunder, the alien went tumbling, burned and charred from the detonation. The chief turned the hog and left the mangled bodies of the Jackals far behind—headed straight past them and through a stone arch. The arch was huge, a hundred meters tall, and thirty or forty meters wide, and the sun shined brightly in the Master Chief’s face, making his visor polarized automatically. The chief drove for almost a minute under the orange sky and in the heat of the sun, before he headed right, onto the beach surf, and roared past a flipped hog next to a pair of boulders. Bodies of marines, soaked with red blood, lay in the sand and surf, and weapons and ammo lay scattered. The chief craned his neck left, and saw a cluster of trees, a fallen log, and a cluster of Jackals. Behind them, elites and grunts sat and stared out at the beach, and at the SPARTAN hog, roaring with alarm.

The chief cursed and spun the hog around the way they had came as plasma scorched the air near him. Kelly launched a rocket, but it hit a tree and detonated harmlessly, spraying splinters of wood. The chief passed out of sight of the Covenant troops, then spun the hog again, reorienting toward the enemy group. Blocking his view of the enemy was a large hill…which looked a lot like a ramp of dirt.

An idea suddenly blossomed in the Chief’s mind, and he smiled beneath his visor. He had just the plan to flush out the Covenant forces—and knew how to implement it.

“Hang on!” he called back at Kelly and Isaac, then floored the hog towards the hill.

The vehicle raced forward, and climbed the hill in the blink of an eye. Then they were flying forward and falling—straight towards the tightly clustered jackals, who had their eyes locked on the last position of the hog and weren’t watching. The jeep like LRV slammed into the cluster of jackals and sent them sprawling, bones broken. Grunts and a red elite rushed from a opening in the rock walls, and Kelly fired on them with rockets as fast as the chamber would recycle. Detonations rocked the ground and sent plumes of dirt up in the air—the elite turned to chunks of meat, and it’s fleeing grunt charges soon followed.

Finally, when all was silent, Cortana spoke to the three SPARTANs.

“It looks like there is a path into the interior of the island.” She said

The chief clambered out of the hog. He opened a comm channel to his team, and gave quick orders.

“Kelly, stay here, watch our six. Isaac, your with me—lets move inland.” He told them

Isaac and Kelly both flashed acknowledgement lights and Isaac jumped out of the hog. He leveled his BR55-M45 at the path to the interior, and gave the ready hand signal. Chief returned it with a “move in” hand signal. The two of them moved to the entrance to the path, and took cover behind a tree in the middle of the way. Ahead of them was a single grunt, but their motion trackers were filled with activity—there was obviously more Covenant than a single grunt here.

The chief leveled his rifle but let Isaac take the shot. His BR55-M45 let loose a single triple crack, and the grunts head disappeared in a shower of blue. The headless creature toppled over onto the ground and began bleeding profusely onto the ground.

From beside the grunt, two of it’s comrades emerged from behind a rock, where they had hidden from the SPARTAN’s crosshairs. They ran around a corner to the right, screaming their heads off.

“Move in.” Ordered the chief “Clean em up.”

The two of them ran past the tree and after the grunts, but as they emerged around the corner, they saw almost a dozen grunts and a pair of elites waiting for them, weapons glowing and charged.

“Ambush!” cried Isaac

“Move!” the Chief barked

The two of them dove for cover as the Covenant troops open fired, sending a wall of heat downrange. Luminescent bolts of green and blue heat flashed past them slamming into rocks and trees. Bark and wood caught fire and burned, while rock superheated and shattered, raining red hot fragments onto the SPARTANs and heating their shields. But from behind cover, the SPARTANs were shielded from most of the destructive effects.

The chief looked Isaac in the eyes and twirled his hand, four fingers up, thumb out. The two of them stood from a crouch and fired, toppling a pair of grunts in a shower of alien gore. The chief held back as Isaac leaped over the rock they hid behind and flew into the midst of the Covenant. Inside, he was a blur of motion, snapping his rifle out and slamming it into an elite, then launching a closed fist strike on another.

While Isaac distracted the elites, the Chief fired on the grunts. He drained his battle rifle mag and brought down almost ten of the bastards, down to the last grunt. Isaac meanwhile slid back out of the elite pair’s hitting range and leveled his battle rifle at the elongated skulls of the two mandibled aliens. The elites’ shields had been brought down by his close quarters hand-to-hand attacks, and Isaac delivered a single burst to each elites head. The eight foot tall hunched aliens crumpled and fell.

The chief reached into his ammo pouch and found he had no more spare clips for his rifle. Isaac tossed him an M7S, which he caught with one hand and accepted happily. The chief waved Isaac forward, and the two of them advanced up the hill. They walked up it, and found themselves in a large open, almost courtyard like space.

High walls encircled them, creating a circular area, roughly. In the center, a circular hatch like strucuture stood on a silver metal base, and Covenant supply crates had been piled on this base. The land sloped down from the SPARTAN position to the center, then rose again at the opposite side, where the chief spotted an exit, along with a clump of Jackals.

Next to the supply crates was a pair of Hunters. The twin beasts growled deeply as they spotted the SPARTANs, and the Chief heard the hum of their weapons charging.

“Isaac, take the one on the left, I’ll take right.” Said the Chief

The SPARTANs ran down the slope, hoping to draw the hunters away from mid ranged combat, where they were practically invincible. Isaac primed a frag grenade and tossed it at his hunter, and it landed imbetween it’s shield and armor plates. The grenade detonated and the hunter roared, angry and hurt but not dead. Meanwhile the Chief sprinted at his and dodged a sustained beam of boiling plasma, which sliced past him, raising the ambient temperature. The beam slammed into a tree and cut straight through it, sending it toppling to the ground.

Isaac closed the distance to his hunter and waited for it to raise it’s shield in an attempt to crash it into his MJOLNIR helmet. It did, and Isaac punched straight into the Hunter, an armed plasma grenade in hand. The beast roared and Isaac slipped away, as the grenade detonated. Burning orange eels slid from open joints of the armor, writhing and slivering on the ground as they burned alive. The chief meanwhile let his Hunter lunge at him, then dodged behind it. He emptied his M7S clip into it’s back, then slammed the butt of the gun into the open joint. The Hunter roared and fell.

Burning emerald plasma fell near the SPARTAN duo and warmed the deck plates next to them. From higher ground, the group of jackals fired their plasma pistols as fast as possible, and Chief saw his shields drop to a quarter. He had to move.

Isaac fired at the slot of the Jackal’s shield as the Chief dodged behind cover. Then, once Chief was safe, Isaac took cover on the other side of the structure. The chief slipped around the side and broke from cover, sprinting to the left diagonally forward. In his hands, he armed a M9 HE-DP frag grenade and tossed it at the line of Jackals. The grenade landed in the dirt with a muffled thump, then detonated with bone-rattling force. The explosion tossed the bodies of three jackals skyward, and sent another one flopping to the ground. Two remaining Jackals were too stunned to move, and Isaac darted from cover and fired his battle rifle twice, hitting each in the skull and turning their heads to fountains of purple gore.

Isaac and the Chief moved forward, sweeping the area with long glances. When the Chief was satisfied, he waved Isaac forward. They jogged over a low hill, and spotted an open area in front of them. The area to the left and far back was dominated by a patch of trees, and rocks were strewn over the landscape. Off to the right, an engraved metal structure loomed, and a path wound out of sight. An Elite commanded a covenant group of jackals and grunts—and the group looked angry.

Plasma bolts hissed up the slope to the SPARTAN pair. The chief and Isaac moved left, into the trees, and marginally better cover, firing while they advanced. The chief hosed down a pair of grunts with SMG bullets, while Isaac let a grenade launcher loose into a cluster of two jackals then retargeted and elite. The shields of the creature dropped under an M10 grenade, then the SPARTAN finished it off with a burst to the chest as the chief moved in and dropped two grunts with lightening strikes of his M7S’s butt plate.

The chief pasued to catch his breath, and saw Isaac move towards the metal structure, and the path. The chief followed Isaac forward, eyes peeled. They followed the path for a few moments, before emerging into an open space. They were on the side of a cliff, and Chief saw the structure extend out in a disk shape in front of them, high in the air. Their only exit was a corner to the right, and a platform that it lead to. On his HUD, chief saw the entrance to the structure. On the ledge in front of them, a group of five grunts milled around near the ledge. In front of them, a Covenant turret sat on it’s three footed triangular stand, it’s bloated main gun glowing.

The turret spotted them and fired.

The chief dove to the right as heat washed over him, draining his shields. To his left, Isaac disappeared in a flash of heat and light, the blast of superheated purple and pink plasma enveloping him. Fire raged and burned Isaac alive, leaving not a trace of him. On the Master Chief’s HUD, Isaacs bio-signs weren’t even flat lined—they were gone entirely.

A rare uncontrolled burst of anger coursed through the Chief. He yelled into his comm and rolled from the side of the structure, then leaped onto the turret. He grabbed the elite manning it by his overly large head plate, lifted him into the air, and armed a plasma grenade. He shoved it in between the elites mandibled mouth, then withdrew, as a titanic explosion of blue-white light filled the air behind him, casting moody shadows on the rocks.

The chief’s eyes blurred and he fired his M7S wildly, cutting down the five grunts, who ran in terror from him. When all was said and done, he was the only one standing on the platform, panting with anger.

Cold realization flooded through the Chief, drowning out the anger. He realized that outbursts like that were dangerous—he could not hope to succeed unless he kept a level head in combat. He shook his head, and moved into the structure, through a central doorway. The chief ran down an engraved ramp, and turned left through a doorway into a large chamber. It was filled with Covenant cargo modules, hampering his line of sight. The too still air seemed to speak to the Chief, telling him something wasn’t right. No matter what he did…he couldn’t shake the feeling.

The chief slowly advanced into the room—when two large red blips appeared on his motion tracker. He heard a telltale whine of a charging plasma weapon—and flattened himself against a wall.

A searing stream of green heat hissed past him, so close that his suit’s internal temperature spiked. He rolled from cover, to see two hunters charging from opposite ends of the room—intent on cracking the Chiefs head open.

The chief reached to his belt and withdrew his four plasma grenades, his only explosives. Without hesitation, he armed them all and tossed them onto the hunters armor. The grenades pulsed and whined as they stuck and meshed with the alien metal—then they roared with blue fire. The hunter was consumed, leaving the other to roar in grief and charge the Chief.

But the chief, enlightened from his experience from moments ago, was ready for the anger filled attack. While the alien was blinded by rage, he slipped behind it, emptied his entire clip of M7S into it’s back, then jammed the weapon into it’s cluster of orange eels. The beast roared in it’s death throes, wobbled once, then toppled to the ground.

The chief stood over the corpse and gave it a good kick to make sure it was down, then withdrew his M6D sidearm. He advanced warily around a corner and into the next chamber. He ran down a long segmented hallway, then into a circular chamber with pillars spaced evenly around the side, dominated in the middle by a spinning hologram of some complex facility, which chief quickly identified as the cartographer.

“Use the holo-panel to shut down the security system.” Said Cortana.

The chief moved to the panel she had spoken of, and pressed one of the buttons. The hologram sparked and changed color, from blue to red. Small holographic symbols that had darted around the hologram faded.

“Good.” Said Cortana. “That should open the door that leads into the main shaft.” The chief turned and jogged back down the hallway, leaving the security station behind him. But as he emerged into the chamber filled with crates, his motion tracker pinged a ghost. It could have been a malfunction…or it could have been an elite in camouflage. But before the chief could make a move, his comm crackled with a panicked voice.

“Mayday, Mayday! This is dropship Bravo-022 taking enemy fire! I repeat, we are under heavy fire and are losing altitude—.” Cried the voice, before it abruptly shattered into static.

The chief eased behind cover as Cortana explained the dropship even still being here. He had thought it had left after depositing his team on the beach.

“Chief, Bravo-022 was bringing us some heavy weapons. After I saw we were up against Hunters I thought we could use them.” She said

The chief realized that he needed to go secure the crash site—see if anything had survived. He eased out of his cover and moved into the open, eyes scanning the chamber. As he moved into the open, a pair of plasma rifles crackled—exactly what he had wanted. Even as his shields blazed a brilliant gold, he brought his pistol up to his shoulder and squeezed off three consecutive rounds. An elite toppled over, and Chief sprinted forward and retrieved it’s plasma rifle. He then hosed what looked like empty air with the weapon, and saw an elite fall to the ground, armor melted away and skin fried.

The chief confirmed the area was clear then exited the chamber, into the sunlight. He looked out from on top of the cliff—and spotted the wreckage of Bravo-022 laying on it’s side, propped up against an elevated dirt mound with a ramp leading up to it and sheer walls. Jackals patrolled on the ground, while a group of grunts was stationed at the top.

“Lets double back and move down the beach.” Said Cortana “Keep an eye out for any cargo we can salvage.”

The chief knew that would take too long. If they didn’t act fast, the Covenant would destroy whatever was left over from the crash. On the far right side, the Chief saw the ground was higher, and the slope less steep. He ran over to it and prepared to pumped up his hydrostatic gel layer to maximum safe value. He activated the shielding on his feet and enhanced it. It felt like he was skating across the metal. Then, he jumped.

The chief slid on the rock wall, then landed in a crouch. He sprinted for a nearby tree and slid behind it, shielding him from the gaze of a nearby pair of Jackals. He eased out from cover, zoomed in with his pistol’s scope, and rapidly took the shot. The nearest Jackals head exploded in a fountain of purple gore, and before the other one knew what was happening, it had a cluster of rounds in it’s chest.

On top of the ridge, the grunts looked alarmed. The chief rapidly fired with his pistol, reloading twice but dropping all the grunts on the elevated surface. Then, the Chief moved out into the open, sprinting towards his last foes, a pair of Jackals to the left of the dropship. The Chief dodged an overcharged plasma bolt, returned fire, hit one of the Jackals in it’s shield slot, then hit it twice in the chest as it recoiled. The other turned tail and ran, but turned it’s shield with it. The chief shot it square between the shoulders three times. It crumpled.

The chief jogged over to the Pelican and inspected it. Bodies lay sprawled on the ground—smoking from executionairy plasma shots. Supplies had spilled everywhere, and the Master Chief was able to procure a rocket launcher for his plasma rifle, along with an M7S, plus extra ammunition for both. After loading up with as much as he dared to carry (lest he lose combat speed), the Master Chief headed towards the sun, and the passage to the interior of the island, where Kelly waited.

It took a few minutes for the Master Chief to make his way across the shoreline. While he encountered no resistance, it was a long walk, and he was in full combat gear. He ran along the waters edge, letting the sea lap at his boots as he ran. Distant memories came to mind—water training on reach, a scuba diving exercise on Emerald Cove.

After a few minutes, the Chief spotted the hog and Kelly and ran to it. She swiveled the gun turret at the sudden motion—then halted when she identified him as a friendly. As chief ran up the slope however, he noticed several charred craters and burnt bodies that hadn’t been there when he left. She had been a busy girl.

“Sir, all ready.” Said Kelly over a single beam “What’s the cartographer status?”

The chief walked up to the hog and briefly checked it out.

“Security system is down and out.” He told her “Ripe for the taking.”

Kelly nodded. “Good to hear it.” She said

The chief clambered into the hog and hit the ignition switch. The all terrain vehicle rumbled, and chief steered it out of the clump of trees, back to the beachhead LZ. They passed by the downed wreckage of Bravo-022, and the large metal security structure. Eventually, they cruised into the secured LZ.

The SPARTANs had their weapons trained on the hog as soon as it entered, as a safety precaution. While they lacked the proper tools to set up a real perimeter with trenches and mines, his team had taken positions behind cover, and dragged the turrets that had been used to defend the beach into good firing positions. When the SPARTAN laden hog finally came to a halt, Vinh climbed aboard the side seat. The chief bid farewell to the rest of the team, and set off towards the cartographer.

The chief and his team met no resistance as they approached the hill and then climbed it, but Chief saw a painful looking defensive perimeter around the cartographer itself. Three jackals were close by, not even on the structure’s platform itself, a sentry group. Past them, on the platform itself, two hunters lumbered around, and were supported by a turret.

The chief sent the hog through the line of Jackals as Kelly and Vinh open fired on the hunters. The hog’s massive front end plowed through the Jackals formation, killing all three of the aliens. But by that time, it was too late to slow down—all they could do was keep going. Vinh fired his battle rifle through the center of the turret shield, and the grunt gunner fell onto the controls—and fired. A single blue blast detonated under the hog, and sent them flying into the air in a dizzying tumble.

Oddly, the blast proved to save them. Blistering heat from the Hunter’s cannon filled the air where the hog had been, blasts that would have heated the hogs armor and detonated it’s fuel cells. Still, they were in the air, and that meant things weren’t good.

But miraculously, as they were flipping, Kelly fired and managed to hit a Hunter with the rocket turret dead center. The rocket slammed into the tank like creature and detonated in a flash of smoke and thunder.

Then, they were no longer airborne. The hog smacked into the ground, near one of the edges, and threatened to roll off. The chief rolled from the hog as Vinh ran forward, towards the Hunter, shields blazing. Kelly seemed to still be recovering, taking cover behind the hog, even as a plasma stream meant for Vinh hit her cover.

The chief tried to yell for Vinh to pull back, but it was too late. Vinh charged the Hunter straight on and drew its fire. The Hunter, pleased at a target, did not relent with it’s energy beams, and pummeled Vinh’s chest with a full stream of heat. The shields on Vinh’s armor sparked and died, and the front plates of his MJOLNIR slagged and melted. His body fell to the ground, steaming. The intense heat had cooked him alive inside.

The chief once again felt anger at the death of so many squad mates since coming to the ring, but this time he controlled it, more to his nature. He dropped to a crouch and held his M19 rocket launcher steady, and finally released a SPNKr missile.

The rocket flew straight and true, and slammed full force into the Hunter. It detonated, ripped open the back armor of the beast with the force of it’s blast, and sprayed the hunter’s blood and guts all over the rocks behind it, before finally making the Hunter rock and fall over, without even a sound.

The chief stood panting, and glanced over at Kelly, while replacing the rocket tube. She glanced at him, as she came up from hiding. Her body language spoke volumes of how surprised she was.

The chief glanced back at Vinh’s body, still smoking.

“Recover him.” He ordered Kelly, and she moved in, set a timer on his armor’s power pack for a detonation, then climbed aboard the rocket turret. .

The Chief wondered if Kelly was as rattled as he was over Vinh’s death. He guessed she was, but pushed past the thought, knowing he had to focus on the mission. He slung his rocket launcher, got his SMG to an easy thigh reach, and climbed into the hog.

The chief drove the hog towards the door, and looked at it for a moment. It looked big enough to fit the LRV, and thinking back, he knew that the other parts probably were too. The chief carefully drove the Warthog inside, wincing as metal scraped on metal, but being flooded with relief as the vehicle squeezed through and fit.

The chief drove down the ramps and such until he stopped at the doorway where the Covenant troops had locked him out. He stared at it. No way the hog was going through it.

The Chief maneuvered the hog around and gave Kelly a good firing angle, inside the room. Then, he opened a comm to her.

“Stay here and cover my six.” He told her, and an acknowledgment LED flashed on his HUD.

The chief climbed out of the hog and walked through the doorway. He was at an intersection, and turned right. Ahead was a huge room, with an abyss stretching on below him. The chief walked out onto a small platform, and kicked a small stone off the edge. It fell for a while, and the Chief never heard it clank. He looked up, at the ceiling, mind grappling with the huge size of the chamber.

The chief turned back and headed this time to the left. He jogged around a corner, before emerging into a well lit room. In front of him, an elite manned a communications crate with it’s back turned to the Chief. Beyond, in what Chief assumed was the next room over, more contacts patrolled idly.

The chief quietly approached the elite and snapped it’s neck. He then moved to the right, onto an elevated walkway. He move through the door, and snuck along the wall, then moved left. He open fired and cut two grunts down, then open fired on three more, stuck and elite with a plasma grenade, and finally killed another with a swift strike of his rifle.

The Chief spotted an doorway, but his motion tracker pinged contacts on the other side. Instead of facing these enemies, the Chief elected to try and find an alternate route. He moved to the back of the room, and found a passageway. He entered, took a right, and found himself in a small room brimming with holographic displays, but also with a hole in the floor. The chief glanced down it. From what he could see, all clear.

The chief jumped down, fell for a moment, and landed in a crouch in a darkened corner. His motion tracker showed a contact moving along slowly from his back towards in front of him, and Chief waited and let the adversary come into view. When it finally did, he gunned it down. When the Jackals was not seen by it’s comrades again, one of them came to investigate. The chief took down this one as well, and waited and eliminated to more jackals in the same manner.

Slightly satisfied, the Chief slipped from cover. He moved forward, and into a better lit section of the room, only to look to his right and see a hunter pair, growling, cannons charging.

The Chief rolled as the two beasts open fired, this time with the burst projectiles. Green explosions heated the air behind him, and the Chief drew his rocket launcher. He steadied for a moment, then let a rocket loose into each hunter.

Twin detonations rocked the chamber, and each hunter groaned and finally laid still. The chief exhaled with relief, loaded a new tube, and drew his SMG. He jogged past the two hunter corpses, and onto a ramp leading downward. He descended the spiral ramp, and exited into a pair of corridors, which wound into a small room. As the chief entered this room, the voice of Echo-419 filled his helmet.

“Foehammer to ground teams, you’ve got two enemy dropships coming in fast, along with ten more on route!” said the pilot

“Damn it.” Said Ajax “Alright SPARTANs, hostiles inbound. Let’s set the table, engage enemy forces on sight.”

“It’ll be easier to hold them off from inside the structure, can you get inside, over?” asked Cortana

“Negative, their closing in too fast, negative!” yelled Ajax “Chief, you and Kelly have to find the cartographer. We’ll hold off the first few waves and lay low, by you some time, and wait for the others to arrive.”

“Give em hell SPARTAN.” Said the Chief to Ajax. He cut the comm line.

“We’ll be in a tight spot if we don’t get out of here before the second wave arrives.” Cortana told him. “Lets find that map.”

The Chief moved farther into the chamber, and found he was on the third story of a room. He ran down a ramp, across a platform, turned left, and emerged into a separate area, bordering the chasm. He ran down another ramp as his motion tracker signaled contacts to the right of him, and kept his eyes peeled for the enemies. The chief took a right around a corner, and found himself on the lowest level of the room. He ran across it, and found a doorway. He moved through this door, and ran down another spiral ramp. Two grunts spotted him, tried to call for help—and received a faceful of led for their troubles.

Thanks to the silenced nature of the M7S, the other covenant had not been alerted to the danger. The chief ran into the room, across a platform, and tossed a grenade into a cluster of Covenant. A grunt was consumed by the explosion, and an elite lost it’s shields. The Chief hosed it and a pair of grunts down with M7S fire, then sprinted down a ramp and took a left, into a new room. The chief fired off his remaining M7S rounds, taking down two grunts, ran down a ramp, and took a right, emerging into a room that reminded him of the security station.

Inside, two elites stood guard. They roared, and chief resorted to his last offensive weapons—grenades. He tossed two in with the elites, then rushed one, punching it square in the face and grabbing it’s plasma rifle.

The hammer blow killed the alien instantly, and Chief spun and hosed the remaining elite with fire. It burned and roared, before finally succumbing to its wounds. The Chief waited for a moment, seeing if anyone besides himself was left—then turned, satisfied, to the cartographer. It was a much simpler hologram than the one in the security station, a ring that looked vaguely similar to the installation they were on.

“There.” Said Cortana “That holo-panel should activate the map.”

The chief slowly approached the device. He looked at it, and found himself drawn to some of the buttons, then a single one in particular. He pressed this down, and watched as the hologram in front of him began to move.

The ring spun twice in the air, then began to separate, growing larger as each section was drawn from the ring. Eventually, these larger sections connected, and made an even rougher image of the ring. On it, a single holographic symbol blinked rapidly.

“Analyzing.” Said Cortana “Halo’s control center is located there. That structure seems to be some sort of temple or shrine, if I’m interpreting this correctly…interesting actually. A shrine is an unlikely place to put such a important installation.”

The chief moved away from the cartographer, anxious to get topside. He had an objective—and he now knew how to reach it. The Chief ran out of the room, plasma rifle cradled, ready to take down any Covenant soldiers who tried to stop him from escaping.

As the chief ran out of the room, Cortana opened a channel to Keyes, via Echo-419.

“Cortana to Captain Keyes.” She said

However, instead of Keyes’ voice, Foehammer was the one who contacted them.

“The Captain has dropped out of contact Cortana.” Said Echo-419 “His ship may be out of range or having equipment problems.”

"Keep trying.” Cortana told her “Let me know when you've reestablished contact, and then tell him that the Master Chief and I have determined the location of the control center. We'll be heading there as soon as we're topside.”

“Affirmative. Foehammer out.” Replied Echo-419.

The chief ran up the ramp, across the platform where he had killed the grunt pair, and onto the staircase. Three jackals were waiting for him, and he let them eat plasma. He killed one, then tossed a frag grenade at the other two and slid behind cover. One of the jackals jumped and dodged, but the other was killed instantly as the grenade detonated and shook the floor. The chief popped from cover and open fired on the other, burning it’s back armor away.

The chief sprinted up the ramp, and into the open three story room. Two jackals were off to the Chief’s right, and the Master Chief sprinted at them and killed the leader with a pair of melee strikes, before burning the other away with blue heat.

The chief began taking fire from across the room, on an elevated platform. He eased behind cover, let his damaged shields recharge, then popped out and ran at the enemies who were trying to suppress him. He rushed the jackal, gunned it down, ran up a ramp, and grabbed it’s fresh plasma rifle. He sprinted around a corner, and came face to face with another jackal. The chief sent an open handed blow towards the jackal, and it plummeted off the abyss edge.

The Chief ran across the platform and rounded another corner. He encountered four enemies—a single elite and a batch of grunts. The chief slipped behind the cover of the wall, tossed in a plasma grenade, and then spun out and hosed the survivors of the blue-white detonation.

The chief ran past the smoking bodies, around a corner, and dispatched three jackals with plasma fire. He ascended a spiral ramp to where he had killed the hunters, then moved to the left. He caught a jackal off guard and burned away at it’s unprotected armor, then slid around a corner and open fired, burning away two grunts and forcing an elite into cover.

As he did this, the master chief noticed the bodies of marines strewn over to the side of him—along with their weapons, MA5B/S-II assault rifles. The chief attacked and drove away the remaining covenant, then fell back, retrieved an assault rifle and 320 rounds of extra ammo, and ran through a nearby door.

The only opposition was a pair of jackals, which fell quickly under an onslaught of 7.62mm rounds. The chief stepped past the bodies, now filled with holes, and ran up another spiral ramp. He emerged into the first area, with the elevated walkway.

Two jackals took positions on the walkway, while grunts resided underneath them. To his side, the Chief saw an elite, and he decided to first hit it. He tossed a plasma grenade, which fused to the leg armor of the alien, then detonated and made the creature into purple spray. The Chief then fired at the jackals, gunning them down with the automatically shrinking reticule’s improved accuracy. Then, as the grunts tried to run, the Chief advanced and mowed them down.

The chief left the area behind and ran into where he had stealthily killed the elite. He turned into the tunnel, ran to where the door was—and came face to face with the sword wielding black armored elite that had locked him out.

The chief dove backwards—and was glad he did. A pair of rocket’s from Kelly, on the turret, slammed into the sword wielding monster and killed it. The chief flashed his acknowledgment light to signal “friendly approaching”, and ducked out of the tunnel. Kelly was still there, unharmed, and the Chief was filled with relief to see her. The chief climbed into the hog, and sent them back the way they came. As the came up the ramp, Cortana radioed Foehammer.

“Cortana to Echo-419. The chief and I are topside, requesting pickup.” She asked

“Roger. On my way.” Said the pilot coolly, and the Chief drove the hog up into the tunnel.

Just ahead, a Covenant dropship loomed—and in front of them, a dozen elites in cloaking open fired. Kelly fired back, and quickly turned them into pieces, sending them to their deaths in fiery detonations of heat and thunder. The dropship, seeing it’s ground forces gone and Echo-419 inbound, rapidly left the area. The chief drove the hog forward, out onto the platform, and saw Foehammer land on the platform. The chief spotted a blackened crater where Vinh had fallen—his suit’s detonation.

The chief disembarked from the hog, and opened a radio channel to Ajax.

“Status?” he asked

Ajax’s voice on the other end was rough.

“In combat sir! Second group isn’t here yet—but we’ve got casualties!”

The chief knew he had to secure the control center, and get away, but he also had a second responsibility—make sure his team got out in one piece. So, he made several rapid orders.

“Ajax, hold position until the second group arrives. Kelly, get over there and help them out. Once its clear and second group gets here, follow Foehammer’s route. I’ll go on ahead.” He said

A chorus of acknowledgments whined over his comm, and the Chief watched as Kelly climbed out of the hog turret, and into the drivers seat. She sped off towards the drop-zone…and into the fray. The chief climbed aboard Echo-419’s troop bay even as the sound of Kelly’s hog faded. The craft lifted off the ground, and the Chief heard Cortana begin speaking to Foehammer.

“Let's get moving. Foehammer.” She said “Here are coordinates and a flight plan I've worked out."

"But, Cortana...these coordinates are underground." The pilot complained, clearly worried.

"The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan.” Said Cortana “My analysis shows that Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels, which circle the whole ring."

The pelican jetted away from the platform during the exchange, and came to a halt above the metal hatch where the Chief and Isaac had fought the hunters. It slowly slid open in response to the aircraft’s presence, and Foehammer lowered her Pelican towards the opening. When the hatch slid open completely, it exposed a deep abyss, barely big enough to accommodate the Pelican.

“I hope your analysis is on the money Cortana, this Pelican won’t turn on a dime!” called Foehammer, worried.

“Look on the bright side Foehammer.” Reasoned Cortana “The last thing the Covenant will expect, is an aerial insertion, from underground!”

The pelican cleared the hatch and continued lowering, even as the hatch began to slide shut above them. Finally, with a clunk, it slammed shut, and the whole tunnel was thrown into darkness.