Post by David on Nov 12, 2012 10:57:02 GMT -6
"Chief. Wake up" Whispered Cortana.
The banging and pinging of the hull was getting worse. Her sensors had picked up a scanning beam while she was in standby. The first beam had washed through the hull, causing her to activate her holographic pedestal, While the second had caused her to make a snap decision to activate the chiefs pod.
More insistently, Cortana looked the chiefs pod again and then in a more normal voice said "Chief. Wake up!"
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As the chiefs pod warmed up, The Master Chief had entered that twilight zone between full consciousness and dream. At first it was pleasant. Recalling childhood dreams, The satisfaction of winning. But soon it morphed into nightmares involving the flood, watching as Captain Keyes was taken, then encountering his body, horribly mutilated, on the covenant ship.
Soon however, his nightmares and visions faded away and he was soon aware of a stinging sensation, the after affects of cryo stasis. Skin never reacted well with anything on it, but he had had no choice.
Banishing the pain to another part of his mind, he soon became aware that he was still on the Dawn. One of his first thoughts was that they had been found and that he was being re-awoken in UNSC space. But that thought quickly dissipated as he didn't see any other UNSC personnel.
"Chief! Can you hear me?" whispered Cortana's voice over the comm.
"Yes. Where are we" asked the Chief, not wanting to believe they were still drifting out in the middle of nowhere.
"Still on the dawn Chief." replied Cortana, her holographic fingers flying frantically over interfaces. "Chief, you need to hit that manual release, the pods systems are not responding."
Flexing his fingers and quelling his disappointment, The Chief craned his neck and saw the manual release handle. Yanking the handle, The Chief pushed out his arms, and bolted out of the pod as a jolt hit the ship.
"What was that" Asked John, looking around the bay for a weapon. It was natural instinct. When in a situation, make sure your armed. It had been beaten into him time and time again by CPO Mendez.
"Unknown Chief, Still scanning." replied Cortana, distracted.
John noticed with a frown that her voice had an odd distortion to it. Slight, but noticeable. But he decided it was still an after effect of the cryo freezing, which brought his attention to a more haunting thought.
"How long have I been frozen?" Asked John. He knew it had been a while.
"Four Years." was Cortana's still distracted reply, her fingers flying over a console.
Four years. It hit John like a sledgehammer in the stomach. Four years since he had destroyed the new halo, destroyed the ark. Four years adrift in space. Presumably counted as dead, but would never be allowed to die. John then had a fleeting thought about his fellow Spartans. Were they alive? Did they ever find Kelly? What about Linda and Fred? He missed them, But he would never show it.
Bringing himself back into the present, He then saw a MA5B assault rifle. He snatched it up and noticed that his HUD still made contact with the weapon, but his HUD was changed.
Almost as if Cortana read his mind, she said "I've made a few changes to your HUD while you were out."
Noticing the shield bar was now at the top of his HUD, and the motion tracker was now a little more sensitive and accurate. John approved. It made his life a little less hectic, now being able to distinct between vehicles, infantry or aircraft. It was extremely efficient.
Noting that there were spare clips in the locker adjacent the weapons rack, He snatched a few and put them into his ammo sack. They would come in handy later if he met hostile force. As he made his way forward, floating, Cortana had just then re-engaged artificial gravity, causing John to drop to the deck, as well as other misc. garbage and items.
Nodding, John strode towards Cortana's holographic pedestal, and was about halfway when the ship gave another lurch.
"Report!" Snapped John, gripping the bulkhead near the pods.
"I… I don't know. Analyzing." replied Cortana, her image shifting from cool blue to purple.
Frowning, John took note. Cortana hadn't shown any other instability since being rescued from the gravemind… But he took his doubt and stuffed it in the back of his head. Doubts would have to wait. He knew Cortana would get it done.
"There! Have it. Covenant Boarding parties!" replied Cortana, sounding almost out of breath.
Nodding, John tapped a few controls at Cortanas pedestal and downloaded her to her chip. Taking out the chip, he reached behind him and put the chip into the back of his helmet, feeling the familiar sensation of mercury and ice. However, this time, it felt like it was warming up and then cooling down.
Shaking his head out of his reverie, John bounded towards the open door and said "Cortana, give me a waypoint."
As soon as he said this, a waypoint showed up on his HUD, pointing to an area some 60 meters away, except it was up 2 decks.
Sprinting towards a door, John wedged his fingers into the door seam and used his might to coax the door apart. Suddenly there was a giant whoosh and incredible suction pulled at John and forced him into the elevator shaft. Frantically, John reached with his hand and grabbed onto a hand hold. It squealed and bent under his weight but it held. Swinging his other arm, he grabbed another hand hold and pulled himself up.
"I forgot to mention that some parts of the ship aren't pressurized." quipped Cortana, her face showing up on the HUD, looking apologetic.
"Something to remember for next time" replied John sarcastically as he scrabbled up the elevator shaft wall.
Suddenly, a blast rocked the ship and caused debris to start raining down.
"CHIEF" shouted Cortana through the COMM as debris came hurtling at John. Looking to his right, he quickly swung himself over to the opposite side of the shaft and dug in, his fingers catching and slipping until they finally caught a groove in the wall.
"That was damn close" grunted John as he pulled himself up and started climbing. This continued on for a good 10 minutes as John would pull himself up, and then leap to the other side of the shaft as debris rained down, smaller chunks pinging off his shields, larger chunks narrowly missing.
Finally he reached the top, and noticed an elite standing at the precipice, back towards John. It had been a while since he was forced to kill an elite, but something told him that this elite would not take too kindly to his presence. That and the translation software kicked in with "Find any survivors. and execute."
Taking that as a que, the Chief slowly pulled himself up, drew out his combat knife from his back holster, and jabbed it into the back of the elites neck, yanking the knife down and out, while throwing the elite forward. This proved to be effective as it cut the spinal column and caused the elite to die almost instantaneously.
"Effective" quipped Cortana as John quietly wiped his blade off and resheathed it. Quips aside, it was comforting to John that she seemed to have regained her quirky sense of humour. Perhaps he had just imagined Cortana's odd behaviour. He was likely still suffering after effects of being frozen for so long.
Unclipping his rifle from his back, John proceeded forward to the waypoint, which was 20 meters in front of him up a ramp. As he walked up, his motion tracker pinged multiple contacts. Some larger, some smaller.
Grunts and Elites then. Possibly Jackals. Thought John as he silently walked up to the pedestal.
"Slot me in John." whispered Cortana.
Reaching back, he pulled the data chip containing Cortana, feeling her presence fade from his, his mind now alone with his thoughts. Watching, he saw Cortana's figure rise up.
"Accessing external sensors…. Done. We have multiple ships Chief!" Cortana whispered into his COMM. She sounded almost.. afraid. Which was also unusual.
Nodding, John then yanked her from the console and reinserted her into the slot on the back of his helmet, and was just starting to make his way back down the ramp silently when he heard the cry of a Jackal split the air. Ok, the second option then Thought John as he racked the lever on his rifle, and sighted down at the Jackal and delivered a pinpoint burst through the jackals exposed neck, bullets ripping through flesh and sinew and effectively dropped the jackal.
Dropping down onto one knee, John narrowly avoided a plasma bolt that went flying towards him, barely missing him, dropping his shields by a quarter from the heat alone. Raising his rifle, he returned fire into the crowd, mowing down a couple of grunts that were careless and igniting the tank on a third, causing the grunt to run around, screaming and flailing its arms in pain, flames gouting from his mask.
Annoyed, one of the elites backhanded the flaming grunt, causing the grunt to go flying backwards into a wall and watched in annoyance as it slumped. Looking back at John, the elite raised his plasma repeater and opened fire on John.
Diving down the ramp, John landed and rolled to his feet, spraying the elite full auto, dropping its shields and dropping the elite with a spray of bullets to the face.
"JOHN, YOUR LEFT" shouted Cortana through his COMM.
"I see them" John replied calmly, as he dove to his left behind a console. Two jackals had advanced on him while he was dropping the elite. Grabbing a grenade he had pilfered from the dead elite, he activated grenade and stuck it to the ceiling above the jackals. It detonated 5 seconds later, splattering the deck with Jackal.
Suddenly Johns shields flared, the 2nd elite had managed to sneak around and open fire on John. Facing the elite, John launched himself at the elite, and grabbed the elites hand, locked his glove into position, and swung the elite around, snapping the arm on the elite, causing the plasma pistol it was holding to drop to the floor with a clatter. Reaching behind to his knife, John whipped it out of his holster and drove it through the elites shield into its neck, twisting and grinding as John ripped it out again. John then released the elite and let the elite sink to the deck, grabbing wildly at the gaping wound in its neck, until finally he stopped and fell still.
Calmly, John got up and reloaded his MA5B, scrounged the deck for ammo and grenades, and decided on his MA5B as well as a plasma pistol. Clipping them to his belt, he carried onto the next waypoint.
The banging and pinging of the hull was getting worse. Her sensors had picked up a scanning beam while she was in standby. The first beam had washed through the hull, causing her to activate her holographic pedestal, While the second had caused her to make a snap decision to activate the chiefs pod.
More insistently, Cortana looked the chiefs pod again and then in a more normal voice said "Chief. Wake up!"
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As the chiefs pod warmed up, The Master Chief had entered that twilight zone between full consciousness and dream. At first it was pleasant. Recalling childhood dreams, The satisfaction of winning. But soon it morphed into nightmares involving the flood, watching as Captain Keyes was taken, then encountering his body, horribly mutilated, on the covenant ship.
Soon however, his nightmares and visions faded away and he was soon aware of a stinging sensation, the after affects of cryo stasis. Skin never reacted well with anything on it, but he had had no choice.
Banishing the pain to another part of his mind, he soon became aware that he was still on the Dawn. One of his first thoughts was that they had been found and that he was being re-awoken in UNSC space. But that thought quickly dissipated as he didn't see any other UNSC personnel.
"Chief! Can you hear me?" whispered Cortana's voice over the comm.
"Yes. Where are we" asked the Chief, not wanting to believe they were still drifting out in the middle of nowhere.
"Still on the dawn Chief." replied Cortana, her holographic fingers flying frantically over interfaces. "Chief, you need to hit that manual release, the pods systems are not responding."
Flexing his fingers and quelling his disappointment, The Chief craned his neck and saw the manual release handle. Yanking the handle, The Chief pushed out his arms, and bolted out of the pod as a jolt hit the ship.
"What was that" Asked John, looking around the bay for a weapon. It was natural instinct. When in a situation, make sure your armed. It had been beaten into him time and time again by CPO Mendez.
"Unknown Chief, Still scanning." replied Cortana, distracted.
John noticed with a frown that her voice had an odd distortion to it. Slight, but noticeable. But he decided it was still an after effect of the cryo freezing, which brought his attention to a more haunting thought.
"How long have I been frozen?" Asked John. He knew it had been a while.
"Four Years." was Cortana's still distracted reply, her fingers flying over a console.
Four years. It hit John like a sledgehammer in the stomach. Four years since he had destroyed the new halo, destroyed the ark. Four years adrift in space. Presumably counted as dead, but would never be allowed to die. John then had a fleeting thought about his fellow Spartans. Were they alive? Did they ever find Kelly? What about Linda and Fred? He missed them, But he would never show it.
Bringing himself back into the present, He then saw a MA5B assault rifle. He snatched it up and noticed that his HUD still made contact with the weapon, but his HUD was changed.
Almost as if Cortana read his mind, she said "I've made a few changes to your HUD while you were out."
Noticing the shield bar was now at the top of his HUD, and the motion tracker was now a little more sensitive and accurate. John approved. It made his life a little less hectic, now being able to distinct between vehicles, infantry or aircraft. It was extremely efficient.
Noting that there were spare clips in the locker adjacent the weapons rack, He snatched a few and put them into his ammo sack. They would come in handy later if he met hostile force. As he made his way forward, floating, Cortana had just then re-engaged artificial gravity, causing John to drop to the deck, as well as other misc. garbage and items.
Nodding, John strode towards Cortana's holographic pedestal, and was about halfway when the ship gave another lurch.
"Report!" Snapped John, gripping the bulkhead near the pods.
"I… I don't know. Analyzing." replied Cortana, her image shifting from cool blue to purple.
Frowning, John took note. Cortana hadn't shown any other instability since being rescued from the gravemind… But he took his doubt and stuffed it in the back of his head. Doubts would have to wait. He knew Cortana would get it done.
"There! Have it. Covenant Boarding parties!" replied Cortana, sounding almost out of breath.
Nodding, John tapped a few controls at Cortanas pedestal and downloaded her to her chip. Taking out the chip, he reached behind him and put the chip into the back of his helmet, feeling the familiar sensation of mercury and ice. However, this time, it felt like it was warming up and then cooling down.
Shaking his head out of his reverie, John bounded towards the open door and said "Cortana, give me a waypoint."
As soon as he said this, a waypoint showed up on his HUD, pointing to an area some 60 meters away, except it was up 2 decks.
Sprinting towards a door, John wedged his fingers into the door seam and used his might to coax the door apart. Suddenly there was a giant whoosh and incredible suction pulled at John and forced him into the elevator shaft. Frantically, John reached with his hand and grabbed onto a hand hold. It squealed and bent under his weight but it held. Swinging his other arm, he grabbed another hand hold and pulled himself up.
"I forgot to mention that some parts of the ship aren't pressurized." quipped Cortana, her face showing up on the HUD, looking apologetic.
"Something to remember for next time" replied John sarcastically as he scrabbled up the elevator shaft wall.
Suddenly, a blast rocked the ship and caused debris to start raining down.
"CHIEF" shouted Cortana through the COMM as debris came hurtling at John. Looking to his right, he quickly swung himself over to the opposite side of the shaft and dug in, his fingers catching and slipping until they finally caught a groove in the wall.
"That was damn close" grunted John as he pulled himself up and started climbing. This continued on for a good 10 minutes as John would pull himself up, and then leap to the other side of the shaft as debris rained down, smaller chunks pinging off his shields, larger chunks narrowly missing.
Finally he reached the top, and noticed an elite standing at the precipice, back towards John. It had been a while since he was forced to kill an elite, but something told him that this elite would not take too kindly to his presence. That and the translation software kicked in with "Find any survivors. and execute."
Taking that as a que, the Chief slowly pulled himself up, drew out his combat knife from his back holster, and jabbed it into the back of the elites neck, yanking the knife down and out, while throwing the elite forward. This proved to be effective as it cut the spinal column and caused the elite to die almost instantaneously.
"Effective" quipped Cortana as John quietly wiped his blade off and resheathed it. Quips aside, it was comforting to John that she seemed to have regained her quirky sense of humour. Perhaps he had just imagined Cortana's odd behaviour. He was likely still suffering after effects of being frozen for so long.
Unclipping his rifle from his back, John proceeded forward to the waypoint, which was 20 meters in front of him up a ramp. As he walked up, his motion tracker pinged multiple contacts. Some larger, some smaller.
Grunts and Elites then. Possibly Jackals. Thought John as he silently walked up to the pedestal.
"Slot me in John." whispered Cortana.
Reaching back, he pulled the data chip containing Cortana, feeling her presence fade from his, his mind now alone with his thoughts. Watching, he saw Cortana's figure rise up.
"Accessing external sensors…. Done. We have multiple ships Chief!" Cortana whispered into his COMM. She sounded almost.. afraid. Which was also unusual.
Nodding, John then yanked her from the console and reinserted her into the slot on the back of his helmet, and was just starting to make his way back down the ramp silently when he heard the cry of a Jackal split the air. Ok, the second option then Thought John as he racked the lever on his rifle, and sighted down at the Jackal and delivered a pinpoint burst through the jackals exposed neck, bullets ripping through flesh and sinew and effectively dropped the jackal.
Dropping down onto one knee, John narrowly avoided a plasma bolt that went flying towards him, barely missing him, dropping his shields by a quarter from the heat alone. Raising his rifle, he returned fire into the crowd, mowing down a couple of grunts that were careless and igniting the tank on a third, causing the grunt to run around, screaming and flailing its arms in pain, flames gouting from his mask.
Annoyed, one of the elites backhanded the flaming grunt, causing the grunt to go flying backwards into a wall and watched in annoyance as it slumped. Looking back at John, the elite raised his plasma repeater and opened fire on John.
Diving down the ramp, John landed and rolled to his feet, spraying the elite full auto, dropping its shields and dropping the elite with a spray of bullets to the face.
"JOHN, YOUR LEFT" shouted Cortana through his COMM.
"I see them" John replied calmly, as he dove to his left behind a console. Two jackals had advanced on him while he was dropping the elite. Grabbing a grenade he had pilfered from the dead elite, he activated grenade and stuck it to the ceiling above the jackals. It detonated 5 seconds later, splattering the deck with Jackal.
Suddenly Johns shields flared, the 2nd elite had managed to sneak around and open fire on John. Facing the elite, John launched himself at the elite, and grabbed the elites hand, locked his glove into position, and swung the elite around, snapping the arm on the elite, causing the plasma pistol it was holding to drop to the floor with a clatter. Reaching behind to his knife, John whipped it out of his holster and drove it through the elites shield into its neck, twisting and grinding as John ripped it out again. John then released the elite and let the elite sink to the deck, grabbing wildly at the gaping wound in its neck, until finally he stopped and fell still.
Calmly, John got up and reloaded his MA5B, scrounged the deck for ammo and grenades, and decided on his MA5B as well as a plasma pistol. Clipping them to his belt, he carried onto the next waypoint.
