//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Halo: Memories. // by badassgrunt //------------------------------// It's a routine mission. Just a smash and grab. Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 thought as the Pelican flew through the air. Then why does it feel like something is going to go wrong? Indeed, their mission was to attack the rebel Covenant base that was stockpiling Forerunner tech. The rebels, known as the simply as the Covenant Remnant, still sought Humanities destruction, even after the ceasefire. After killing all hostile contacts inside the base they would then commandeer the Forerunner tech. The Chief sighed, and looked down to check his trusty MA5B assault rifle once again. He then looked up at the full Pelican crew, fifteen soldiers in all. Two of them were medics, in case one fell in battle. That, more or less, seemed to be the case recently, as the Elites they faced seemed to be the most fanatical. "We've got about a minute 'till reaching the LZ," the pilot said over the intercom. The Chief took a breath and-- "We're approaching the LZ, it's gonna be hot! Get set to come out swingin'. Touchdown! Hit it, Marines!" --released it, shaking his head violently, before looking at the Marines again. One of them was looking at him worried. "You ok, sir?" said the Marine. "I'm fine," he replied curtly. The Marine winced at the tone before quickly nodding. "Thirty seconds!" the pilot yelled over the intercom. The Master Chief once again checked his rifle before the Pelican rocked violently after an explosion sounded below the craft. "Shit! They got a Wraith. Sorry boys and girls, but we gotta change the current LZ. This place is way too hot," The Chief sighed; the prospect of facing down a Wraith tank didn't exactly appeal to him. He watched as the scenery flew by as the Pelican rapidly changed directions. After a few minutes of flight, the intercom crackled to life. "Okay you guys, this should be far enough. I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that we're not dead. The bad news is that the bad guys know we're here, and know we're coming. You'll also have to hoof it from here. Sorry I couldn't get us any closer with that damn Wraith and all. Single me when you've completed the mission. Good luck." The Chief nodded to himself and filed out with the rest of the Marines and took the time to reflect on the topography quickly. The Covenant base was located in a large forest with trees thick and big enough to provide a man, even a Spartan, with ample cover. There was a hill next to the base overlooking it. The Marines and Spartan landed on the other side of the hill. The Chief then made a quick status check of his armor. While most new Spartans now receives either MJONIR GEN2 or the rare and early design of the Mark VII, the Master Chief received an extremely experimental suit of armor, known to the engineers as the Mark VIII. One of the Prototype's main experimental features was an internal latch system that allowed the suit to be disassembled by hand, or rather by mind when used by the neural interface. With a command the latches would unlock, and separate pieces of the suit could be taken off by hand. The other feature was an basic AI integrated with the suit itself. A VERY basic AI. Basic enough that it had no personality whatsoever, although it was set to a basic female voice. Its only job was to help with the suit mechanics. The suit also has various multi-purpous antitoxins and antivenomes. Coupled with the improved sensory system it would automatically administer these as soon as it was detected in the wearer's system. It could also administer morphine at a moments notice. It could also seal up the suit air tight when it detects poisonous materials automatically. Then there were the defensive capabilities. All the armor plates were strengthened to withstand at least twice as much damage as before. The titanium nano composite bodysuit as well. Both the hydro static gel and the reactive metal liquid crystal layer was improved. The helmet was made to better withstand G's. All in all, it was just better. The energy shields were redesigned. On the plus side, the new energy shields was redesigned to withstand thrice times more damage and recharge faster. They encountered a glitch, though. Not a fatal one, just enough to focus some time on it. They discovered that if one got close enough, they could bypass the shields altogether. That is, only if they originate close enough. Fortunately the range was half a foot. All in all, it only left him vulnerable to knife attacks and extremely close gunshots. They also added an armor overshield system to the suit itself.* It could overcharge the shields enough to be able to withstand anything ground battles could throw at him. The Chief wasn't an engineer, but with that many zeroes, he personally though the team went overboard with this feature. He could even boost the power even more, although it would cause his shields to go down and recharge for a while. He doubted he would find a situation where it call for that . On the cosmetic side, it was nearly identical to the previous versions. The only major change was a big "117" was painted on the left breast plate in white. Seeing everything was in order, the Chief went to the side of the Pelican. The side of the Pelican had various armaments. Clipping the assualt rifle to his back, he picked up a SRS99D-S2 Anti-Matériel sniper rifle. The Chief looked around and thumped on the side of the Pelican, signaling the pilot was cleared for take off. Th Chief quickly thought out a plan of attack, and activated his comms system. "Snipers, go to the top of the hill and wait for orders. One of the medics will accompany you. The rest of you will go around the side and flank the enemy," "What about you, sir?" asked one of the Marines. The Chief thought of where he would be needed most. "I will be acompaning the flanking team," Most of the Marines nodded, and the sniper team, who numbered five men including a medic, started to hike up the hill. The Chief made a signal to for the rest to form up on him. They proceeded to make their way around the hill with Chief in the lead. A few minutes into the journey his motion sensor flashed, a red dot moving across it up a ways. His eyes narrowed. He crouched and held out his fist. Before anyone could react the tell tale sound of a needler rifle rang out in the relative silence of the forest and a Marine dropped to the ground. "Shit, take cover!" one Marine yelled as the rest did so. "Oh hell, it's an ambush!" another one said, only for another shot to ring out. The Marine tumbled to the ground with a needle sticking out of his back. The Chief, however, did not move for he had already found where the shots were coming from. He had already activated the zoom for his HUD and lined up a shot with his sniper rifle at the culprit's head. A split second later, the Elite's head exploded in blood, bone, and brains, dropping to the ground without a sound. The Chief lowered his arms and ran to the nearest tree just as Grunts and Jackals appeared from their hiding spots. Switching to his assault rifle, he keyed his comms system. "Sniper team, we're under fire," he said as plasma bolts hit his tree. The Chief peeked out of cover and let out a burst at the Grunt who shot at him. As the Grunt fell with new holes in his body, he continued. "Can you assist?" "Sure thing Chief-- SHIT! LOOK OUT!" an explosion sounded over the radio. "Everybody alright? Scratch that, Chief. The Wraith found us. Can't do a thing until it's gone." The Chief nodded. "Understood." He peeked around the tree and fired at a Jackal who had his flank exposed. The Jackal fell with a gurgle as most of the rounds passed through his neck. He switched targets to an Elite who was suppressing a Marine with his plasma rifle. The Elite was caught off guard and had his shields brought down when his weapon ran dry. The Elite turned and roared at the Chief before being caught in a hail of bullets from the Marine previously suppressed. The Elite fell to the ground twitching, bleeding to death. The Marine saluted at the Chief. The Chief was about to return the favor with a nod with his head when an energy sword appeared and cleanly decapitated the Marines head off. The body fell to the ground as blood leaked through the cauterized flesh in sync with the dying heartbeat. The Elite de-cloaked as the Chief quickly switched to his sniper rifle. He quickly dispatched of the Elite and switched to his assault rifle, beginning to reload it. Just as the Chief started putting the magazine into the slot when his motion tracker flashed red. He turned his head and his eyes widened. He ducked as a Hunter's bladed shield arm slammed into the tree, nearly cutting it in two. The Chief ran off to the side before shouting, "Focus fire!" Many of the Marines' eyes widened before switching targets. The Hunter was caught in a hailstorm of lead. The Hunter wrenched its shield arm free and brought it down in front of itself. This led to most of the damage nullified; a lucky few reached the soft parts in between the armor plating, but this wasn't nearly enough to put it down. Master Chief was about to go around and flank when a blast of green light nearly took his head off. Another Hunter came charging through smoldering bushes. The Chief glanced quickly to the side to see the other Hunter was preoccupied. He quickly tried to think of a plan before one of them got the idea that they would have a better chance in killing him if they teamed up. He eyed his grenade counter and grimaced. This plan, while extremely risky, would dispatch the Hunter quickly. But first... The Master Chief threw grenade at the Hunter he was squaring off. The Hunter, in return, put down its shield arm and hunkered down. As soon as the grenade exploded he dashed at full speed, using the armor to increase his speed even more. The Hunter sensed vibrations in the ground that could only be foot falls. The Hunter looked up to see the Spartan in a dead sprint towards it. The Hunter readied its shield arm and swung it horizontally, aiming to cleave the Spartan in two, or at least cause massive damage. Master Chief's reflexes were faster, however. The Spartan bowed his head and jumped. Master Chief leaped cleanly over the shield arm and body slammed the Hunter. The Hunter lost its balance at the sudden attack and toppled over with the Chief on top. Sensing the Spartan would do something detrimental to its health, the Hunter attempted to shake him off. It was no use, however, the Chief reached behind his back. He allowed himself a little smile as pulled another grenade from the magnetic clip on his belt. He then jammed the grenade in the Hunter's "neck", pulled the pin, and quickly jumped off. The Hunter's "head" region exploded in a cloud of orange mist with pieces of Lekgolo worms sent flying. The Chief readied his assault rifle when he heard a wail. He quickly turned to see the other Hunter charging at him. Behind it the Chief saw a Marine ready his rocket launcher. He briefly wondered why the Marine hadn't already used it before realizing the tree the Marine was behind was all but embers. A flash of light sent the rocket flying. The Hunter had started to turn at the sound when it connected. The explosion tore the Hunter in two, sending the upper half flying up into the air. Seeing the Hunter dealt with, the Chief went to switch targets. The remaining Covenant forces, however, were nowhere to be seen. He surmised they had retreated back to their base. He motioned the squad to keep moving, they could mourn their dead later. Now it was time to press the advantage. And so they continued onward, meeting no resistance. That fact put the Spartan off. It felt like he was leading his men into a trap. He probably was, but their was no other way but forward. At least, none that he could think of. Eventually the base was in sight. He motioned the others to stop. He activated the suit's built in zoom. The base wasn't something of grandeur. It consisted of a barracks, some barricades, and a central building that no doubt held the Forerunner tech. The barricades were aimed at the advancing Humans. There was also a sniper nest. Standing in the middle of it all was the Wraith, which was currently firing. His first job was to take out the snipers, there was two of them. They would be the first ones to see them. Of course, taking them out would draw attention, as the sniper rifle Chief had wasn't exactly silent. Still, stealth wasn't really an option here. He centered his crosshair to one of the Jackals. He steadied himself and squeezed the trigger. The top part of the Jackal's head disappeared in a cloud of purple mist. The other Jackal was unfortunate to be close enough to be painted with blood. With practiced ease, the Master Chief switched targets. The Jackal met its fate with a hole in its throat. It fell, clutching at the gurgling mess. The aliens, mostly the Elites, had dove for cover by the time the second shot rang out. One was unfortunate enough to stick his head out of cover, and was subjected to the Chief's next shot. Another Elite dashed for the Wraith, which had its turret unoccupied. As the Elite settled down, Master Chief fired the last round in the magazine. The Elite's shields did nothing to deter the 14.5 mm round from blasting a large hole in his head. He reloaded as the Elite slumped in his seat. The Wraith turned toward him and fired. The blazing plasma shot arced in the sky. At this range the Wraith's shot would be easy to avoid. He jumped back, his shields flaring at the intense heat as the shot landed in front of him. He charged through the smoldering grass to the nearest Covenant cover. He quickly switched to his assault rifle and fired a burst at the Elite using the cover on the other side. Sparks flew as the Elite was suppressed by Chief's fire. Master Chief jumped over the barrier and managed to get a choke hold on the Elite. He quickly turned the struggling Elite towards the incoming plasma fire barrage. Using the Elite as a shield, the Chief focused on the smaller targets, picking off most of the Grunts with ease. He heard the tell-tale sound of a Wraith firing and quickly tossed the charred corpse aside, ignoring the smell of burnt flesh and armor. Time seemed to slow down the Chief stared down the big ball of plasma, glowing like a miniature sun. The Chief activated his armor lock and was pleasantly surprised when the only thing that told him the plasma shot hit its mark was the flash of light. The armor lock did its job well. Out of the corner of his eye, the Chief saw and Elite fell with a hole it its head, signaling that the sniper team had recovered. The main concern now was the Wraith. He briefly regretted not bringing a rocket launcher so his grenades would have to do. He did see a Marine carrying one. He pinged the soldiers private comm. "Yeah, Chief?" "Distract the Wraith for me." "Will do." Moments later a rocket narrowly missed the Wraith, and exploded beside it. The Wraith operator made the mistake of taking the rocket-wielding marine as a bigger threat than the Master Chief, and left him an opening. The Chief made haste, running as fast as he could ignoring the enemy fire, towards the Wraith that had it's backside to him. By the time he reached the tank, he had his shields down to half-strength. He jumped on the back and un-clipped a grenade from his belt. The Elite piloting the Wraith noticed the shift in weight near the back, but it was too late. Master Chief jammed the grenade into the alien engine and jumped off. Master Chief activated his armor lock once more. The Wraith exploded spectacularly in a brilliant flash of light and plasma. A piece of shrapnel bounced off harmlessly against his locked up armor. After the explosion dissipated, he dashed to the nearest cover. There were still Covenant soldier to worry about. Unfortunately it was already occupied by an Elite. He had to fix that. He body-checked the Elite to the ground, and finished it off with rounds to its head. He leaped over the barrier just as the Covenant forces recovered. An Elite roared at him while he just sneered at the alien, unloading his magazine into it. A sniper from the hill top finished the job. He reloaded and started the beginning of the end for the Covenant forces. The Marines, seeing the Wraith destroyed, rejoined the fight with gusto. Some of them even let out a war cry. The Covenant forces fought to the last alien, defiant to the end. It was all for naught, as the Chief scored the last kill. As some of the Marines checked the bodies to make sure they were dead, Master Chief reloaded one last time and moved to secure the central building. He pointed to a random Marine. "You. On me." "Yes sir, Master Chief, sir!" The Marine nodded, gripping his DMR. Chief quickly walked toward the building. Keeping his assault rifle to his shoulder he activated the door, already been briefed on basic Covenant symbols. The door slid open, revealing pitch blackness. He activated his flashlight on his helmet. Į̵̨̥͕̬̹̯͙̭ͥ̒ͫͥ̈ͩ̾̓̿̏̈ͧ̈́͢͝ͅ ̶̖͓̣̻̳̺͓̱͍͖̳́ͪ̄ͭ͆̓͛̓ͧ̀͜s̵̨̞̦̲̝̅̆ͥͣ̍ͮ͠e̵̷͛̅̌̈ͩͯ̔̊̾̋͛͢҉͈͍͍̯̳̮̩̦̞̬̺͖̼͎̪ͅȩ̛̲̞̣̗͕͕͈̦̗̗͚̳̺͇̫̜͕̦̇͂ͩͪͮ̾́͐́ͬ̏̏́̀ ͧ́ͧ͊̊͛̌ͭ҉̵̧̯͇̭̣̤̮͉̯͖̣̮̣͎̠̭̣͉̬̕y̷͚̝͚͔͉̘̤̼̮͍̹̠ͨ̒̈̈́̀͘o̞̼͇̣̲̺͕͚͔̗̻̗̖͙͈̅̔͑̇ͬͪ̽͊̿̔͢ṳ̴͉̘̐̂ͬ̐ͫ̔ͮ͑ͬ̒͐ͥͩͫ̈́̑͛̚͢ͅ.̧̻̥͚͕͔͎͉ͯ̉̊ͫ͋̿̒̔͜ Master Chief blinked at the ethereal voice that suddenly spoke. The Marine noticed his pause and spoke up. "You, uh, you ok, sir?" The Chief blinked again and turned to nod at him. He decided not to tell the Marine about the voice he had just heard. The voice had sounded...wrong. It made him feel off. Almost felt like he was being watched. Deciding to dwell on it later, if at all, he pressed on into the darkness. His eyes scanned the room. He couldn't tell much in the pressing darkness other than there was a hallway in front of him. At the end, he could see it splitting in two directions. Light was coming off on the left side. Deciding to go in the that direction, the Chief quickly crossed the room, the Marine following close behind. As he made his way through the passage way heard a voice. Not like the one he had heard before, this one was chanting in an alien language. As he came into the next room, he immediately saw three Elites, one of them a Zealot, the other two Generals. The three of them were positioned in a triangle formation, with an object in the center. The object was obviously Forerunner. It was cubed shaped and had a glowing indent in it. It was floating in a glowing circle on the floor. The room was filled with various Covenant crates that no doubtfully contained Forerunner artifacts. The Zealot, who was facing away from the Chief turned around, pointed, howled. All three activated their energy swords and charged. The Zealot swung his sword horizontally. Master Chief ducked and countered with a blow to its head with his assault rifle. It staggered the Zealot, which allowed the two Generals to make their move. Each moved to either side of the reeling Zealot. The one on the left stabbed at the Chief, while the other swung overhand. Master Chief dodged both the stab and swing. He dropped his assault rifle; it wouldn't be useful at this range. One of the Generals charged at him with a roar. As the Elite lunged, the Chief sidestepped and grabbed the sword arm. He turned the alien around just in time for it to catch the other General's sword to the gut. Master Chief shoved the dying Elite forward, causing both of them to tumble to the ground. Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, he ducked just in time to have the sword pass overhead. This left the Zealot open for a hard shove. Despite being bigger than the Master Chief, Chief's powered armor allowed him to body-check the Elite into the wall. He saw one of the Elite's energy swords lying on the ground and picked it up. He silently moved behind the General who had gotten back up and had its back turned to him. Master Chief simply shoved the sword into the upper back of the Elite at an angle, piercing the heart and one of the lungs at the same time. Wrenching the sword free, he turned just in time to barely block the sword coming at him from the now recovered Zealot. They both held their positions, their energy swords sparking at each other, before both stepped back. Both of them started to circle each other. The Zealot made the first move, swinging the sword diagonally. Chief clumsily blocked, not being specifically trained in swordplay. The Zealot made multiple strikes at the Chief, pushing him back. One particularity vicious blow knocked the sword out of Master Chief's hand. Reacting fast, the Master Chief tackled the Elite to the ground, managing to knock the sword out of the alien's hand, too. The Chief then proceeded to wail on the Zealot. His first few punches broke the Zealot's shield, which also stunned said Zealot. After a few more punches, the Chief got up from the Elite. Walking over to the head of the Elite, he roughly stomped on its head, crushing it. He ignored the purple gore. He turned to the Marine, who was staring at him with his mouth wide open. "Room clear. Tell the rest of the Marines." This snapped the Marine out of his shocked state, nodded, and went out the way they came in. He went over to his assault rifle and checked it for any damage. Seeing none, he clipped it on his back. He sighed. Today had been a long day. And yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that something else was going to happen today. He looked at the floating cube in greater detail. It bobbed up and down and was glowing blue. The light pulsed like a heartbeat. He narrowed his eyes. Something about it was...off, yet he couldn't tell exactly what. He shook his head. Whatever it was, it didn't really concern him. His job was to clear out the Covenant forces here, and he had accomplished that. A faint roar reached his ears, signaling that the Pelican had come back. He stole one last look at the floating cube before leaving the room. Coming outside he saw the Pelican had landed in the center of the base. He made his way to the flying vehicle and got in the back. He waited there while the Marines shifted through the Forerunner tech. Eventually some of Marines approached the Pelican. One of them were carrying something while the two others hauled a crate. As they came closer, The Chief could see that the Marine was carrying the cube. The cube was was contained in what looked like a high-tech clear jar. They were also bringing the crate into the Pelican. Some more Marines went and settled down in the Pelican. The container and crate fit snugly in the Pelican, due to there being less people. Chief grimaced at that notion. Master Chief got up and squeezed around the crate to get to the cockpit door. He opened the door and poked his head in. "Plan?" he asked. The pilot glanced back at him. "We're taking most of the Marines and some of the loot back to home base. Then we'll come back for the rest of the stuff and Marines." Master Chief nodded, and sat back down. Once the gear was secured, the Pelican took off. The ride back was quiet, most of the Marines thinking about those who were lost during the raid. They were half-way to the base when something odd happened. Suddenly, a sweet smell flowed throughout the Pelican. One Marine sniffed rather hard, and spoke. "Do any of you smell anything?" Another sniffed the air also. "Yeah, smells like...chocolate?" Meanwhile in the cockpit, the pilot noticed something else odd. Most of the dials on board the ship were going haywire. "What the Hell?" Back in the troop area of the Pelican, the smell only grew stronger. Suddenly there was a loud POP and a Marine was gone in a flash of light. The Marine sitting next to him jumped. "What the fu-" Suddenly another flash of light and sound, only this time the sound was an old camera flashing. More flashes, and more sounds, each different than the last. Soon Master Chief found himself alone in the Pelican. He got up as fast as he dared to get to cockpit, hearing a cat meow from it. He found the cockpit empty. He reached for the control stick before stopping. The controls were glowing. He hesitated for a moment before reaching for them again. He tried to move them. Nothing happened, they didn't even budge. He gave it more strength. Again, they didn't even move an inch. Most people at this point would panic, but his SPARTAN training kept him from doing that. This allowed him to notice that the Pelican was headed towards a giant glowing pink portal. Before he could do anything the Pelican had already pasted the portal. As soon as he exited out the other side, the ship immediately listed downward. Master Chief was thrown back and crashed into the crate of Forerunner tech. Surprisingly, he didn't crush it. There were a series of loud crunches and the Pelican ran into trees. He felt himself sliding backwards, along with the container containing the cube whizzing by his head. He ignored it, locking up his armor was more important. Just in time, too, as he felt relatively weightless, signaling that he had fallen off the Pelican. He landed on the ground with a thud. Strangely, he felt tired. Very tired. Darkness crept around the edge of his vision. He tried to fight to stay awake, but it was all for naught. Unconscious claimed him. "Whut do ya think was that?" asked Applebloom. "I don't know. A dragon, maybe?" replied Scootaloo. "It didn't look like any dragon I've ever seen," put in Sweetie Belle. "Do you think we should tell somepony?" Scootaloo and Applebloom looked at each other, both coming up with the same idea. "Naw, not yet. Let's see whut it is first." "Won't that be dangerous?" said Sweetie Belle. "We'll be real sneaky. Heck, we may even get our Cutie Marks in stealth!" said Scootaloo. At this prospect, Sweetie Belle visibly brightened and nodded. She put her hoof out to the others. The others put theirs to her's. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS STEALTH BUDDIES, YAY!" They then proceeded into the Whitetail Woods.