Virtual Reality: Halo

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fieryjen
fieryjen
188 Followers

I considered what lay ahead. I had watched Toby play this chapter countless times, and played through it at least three or four times myself. I knew that we would have to fight our way to a gravlift, which would take us right into the Covenant spaceship. Once there..."

I looked up, suddenly alarmed.

"We won't be able to make it without Cortana," I blurted out. The AI had stayed behind in the Master Chief's armor, and without her, we would be unable to hack into the Truth and Reconciliation's computer system.

The Master Chief simply raised his hand, in which he held some sort of a computer chip. I raised my eyebrows. "That's Cortana?"

He nodded and stowed the chip away. I was relieved. Even though we weren't able to interact with the AI right now, we would be able to have her access the spaceship's computer system and aid us in our search for the captain. If we found him, I might be able to warn him from the Flood and thereby save his life, and the Master Chief a lot of trouble.

I frowned when the Master Chief handed me a Sniper Rifle and instructed me how to use it in two short sentences. He couldn't possibly think that I would be any help to him with this thing? I wasn't about to argue though, because at this moment I could feel the Pelican starting to drop rather quickly.

The Master Chief simply nodded towards the ramp when it started to lower, giving us a view of the ground below. While we were not very high and it seemed possible to jump to the ground without sustaining a major injury, the ground was still moving quite fast beneath us and made me dizzy. I paled and stepped back. The Master Chief did not seem to have any patience for my reluctance, however, and simply grabbed me around the waist with one arm and took me with him.

The impact was not as big a deal as I had believed. The Master Chief simply landed on his feet, set me down, and off we went. There were enough rocks to take cover behind, me staying back while the Master Chief scouted the area. When he finally returned, he commanded my attention by touching my shoulder with one arm, clenching the other into a fist before my eyes.

"This," he said, "means stop."

"Okay," I said.

He showed me more signals. "Retreat. Sneak. This indicates direction. This indicates location of enemies."

I tried to memorize them all, which I found difficult.

"Okay," I said again after several seconds.

"I'm going to lift you up onto a ledge overlooking a Covenant controlled territory. There should be enough rock cover for you to remain unseen. Find a sniping position and take out what you can. Do not come down until I get you."

I nodded, and we moved forward, ducking behind rocks as we approached the ledge the Master Chief had talked about. He lifted me, and I crawled onto it a bit clumsily, but managed not to make too much noise. There was indeed sufficient rock cover for me here, and I moved further along the ledge until I was able to find an opening from which I could see the Covenant forces the Master Chief had spotted.

They guarded the open spot below the ledge rather well. I remembered that there were two stationary gun turrets around here somewhere, and I raised the sniper rifle and magnified my vision, looking around. Right away, I was able to spot two Grunts, and next to them a Jackal, all three patrolling the area. Then the Jackal dropped and I stared dumbly at the spot where it had been for several seconds. Then I got a grip on myself, zoomed in further, focused on the Grunt, exhaled, waited until my heart was in between beats, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle kicked against my shoulder and bruised it, but I ignored the pain.

"Whoa," I whispered when the Grunt actually fell. I had always been decent at sniping in the game, but somehow, I hadn't thought that this would translate since I was in the game for real. But it was still a computer game, I supposed, its rules simplified from those of the real world.

The second Grunt dropped as well, shot by the Master Chief before he could panic, and I searched around for new targets. When I shifted to the right, I could just see one of the gun turrets behind the rock wall. This time, the shot was more difficult, since the Grunt inside was partially obscured by the turret's seat, but when he turned slightly, I was able to kill him with a well-placed shot.

I felt quite proud of finally being something other than an annoyance, and enthusiastically kept peering through the scope. Now, however, the aliens were alarmed, and I ducked and rolled sideways when the remaining turret shot a stream of hot plasma in my general direction. Plasma splatters narrowly avoided me. Once the plasma stopped coming, I dared to lift my head again, and discovered that the Master Chief had taken out the second turret's gunner. I could see him move beneath, seeking cover in between the rocks. I searched for more targets with the sniper rifle's scope and found one, an arm sticking out from behind a rock. Sloppy, on the alien's part, but I wouldn't be able to kill the alien by hitting his arm, only scare him and possibly wound him slightly. It wasn't worth wasting a bullet, especially since I hadn't a clue how to reload the rifle, or even any additional ammo.

I hoped, however, that the Master Chief was aware of the alien.

I nervously tapped my fingers, then stopped quickly when I reminded myself that I still held a rifle in my hands. Two shots left, if I hadn't miscounted. Below, the Master Chief finally moved, and the Elite I had spied behind the rock opened fire on him. As the Master Chief dove away, I squeezed the trigger and promptly missed. Damn. I concentrated once more as the Elite advanced, projecting its path, then fired again. This time, the Elite dropped soundlessly to the ground. I lay the rifle aside and took out the pistol, just in case I was attacked up here, which didn't seem likely. The Master Chief fired six more rounds with his pistol at various targets before jumping up onto the ledge next to me. He looked approving.

"You need to show me how to reload that thing," I said, gesturing at the sniper rifle. He took out four rounds from his ammunition sack and inserted them, the movement deliberately slow so I could follow it. He pressed the rifle back into my hands and I slung it over my shoulder as I straightened up. He helped me off the ledge, and once we were on the ground, he bent and picked up a strange-looking wristband from one of the Jackals. When he clamped it to his own wrist, I understood. Those were the Jackals' energy-shield generators. I took one of them myself after making sure it was still functioning.

We kept going at the same pace, me sniping and generally covering the Master Chief's back as we went up the rocky hills. He was wearing two energy shields now, activating the second whenever the first one failed. I hadn't had to use my shield yet, only lying, waiting and sniping. Our progress was much slower than I remembered from playing the game, but then again, the Master Chief I had played had also always worn his MJOLNIR battle armor. This one was many times more vulnerable, therefore we had to proceed with more care.

Finally, we reached the small pass that I knew lead to the area where the gravlift was located. I told the Master Chief as much when we moved onto a small ledge on the right side of the pass to try and get a look at the end of the pass. He only nodded and stepped off the ledge, motioning for me to stay put, but I held him back by holding on to his wrist. Had he not wanted me to do that, he could have pulled away without any effort at all, but instead he turned back towards me, eyebrows raised.

"There are going to be hunters," I told him, remembering the part of the level that usually freaked me out quite a bit. There wasn't an effective sniping tactic against hunters -- and once they discovered you, it was very difficult to get away from them. I was worried about the Master Chief almost more than myself, knowing if was difficult for him to handle a pair of hunters even when he was in his armor. Without, it was going to be madness.

"I'll be fine," he told me, but I didn't let go of his wrist yet. Instead, I looked into his dark eyes, concerned.

"Wait. There are four gun turrets, you'll have to take them out first. I'll try to help you with the sniper rifle. The ship will sent reinforcements down the gravlift as well."

He stared, taken aback by my sudden flood of information about the upcoming area, and largely without thinking, I got onto my tiptoes and kissed him.

I hadn't planned on it, and I certainly hadn't planned on it happening right here or lasting so long. Once my lips touched his, I was too inclined to keep them here than to stop. But I was also aware that we couldn't afford to be careless when there were alien forces behind the next bend. After several long seconds, I finally broke the kiss and stepped back.

The Master Chief looked strangely serene, but also completely dumbfounded. For two or three seconds he simply looked at me. Then he blinked slowly, and without a word or change of expression continued up the rocky path to the gravlift.

I was a bit shaky on my feet when I finally followed him. After the bend, I found him crouched on the floor and spying through his sniper rifle. He waved me down next to him and silently pointed out the location of one of the gun turrets. I understood that as soon as we fired a shot, we had to move from this spot, otherwise the plasma turrets would fry us. The Master Chief continued to give hand signals, counting down. I readied my rifle and found my target; the little Grunt sitting in the turret's seat. I concentrated on my breathing and on the target, and finally fired on the Master Chief's command.

Two Grunts fell, and the Master Chief dove sideways and drew his pistol. I knew he was going for the third turret, but didn't stay to watch. Instead, I kept low and made my way backwards and further down as fast as I could. A plasma salvo went over my head and blackened the rock above me.

There was more plasma spraying through the air, then it stopped and I knew the Master Chief had destroyed the remaining turret. I got to my feet again and sprinted up the slope, then went even further up the hill and took cover behind the turret whose Grunt I had just sniped down. The Master Chief had already crossed the area and was now approaching the Covenant dropship that was just landing, deploying Grunts and two Elites. The Master Chief threw two Grenades. I sighed and sniped some more, aiding him. When both of the Elites dropped with my next two shots, I felt immensely helpful.

I jerked around when I saw movement in the gravlift. More aliens were descending, and I couldn't kill all of them by sniping. Instead, I climbed into the seat of the gun turret I had been hiding behind. A look at the controls told me absolutely nothing, so I pressed random buttons in a flurry until I had found the one that fired, and a way to move the turret and direct the plasma fire.

I started shooting wildly at the gravlift platform. The aliens looked rather surprised to have fire coming from their own turret, and before they could move against me, I had already gunned most of them down, simply drowning them in plasma fire. When the Master Chief was finished with the aliens from the dropship, he joined me in bombarding everything that dared come out of the gravlift, and I shook my head in disbelief that we were indeed this lucky.

"I must be playing on easy," I whispered.

Finally, the hunters that I had warned the Master Chief about came floating down the gravlift. I shuddered involuntarily at their gigantic, armor plated bodies and moved behind the turret again, readying my sniper rifle. If they exposed their backs to me at all, I would snipe them down like nobody's business. I knew that the exposed piece of orange flesh was pretty much the only weak spot they possessed, and I knew the Master Chief knew it too. As expected, he started to fire at the Hunters and lured them on a straight route away from me, while trying to stay out of my line of fire himself. My window of opportunity was only as long as it would take him to reach the rock wall on the other side of the clearing, after that he would have to change direction.

I concentrated on one of the hunters and finally fired twice in rapid succession. The first shot hit the orange skin, but the second pinged off a piece of armor, and the Hunter roared in pain, turned and ran towards my hiding spot at amazing speed. The second Hunter continued to pursue the Master Chief, which suddenly put the both of us in a tight spot. I ran when I saw the Hunter's built-in cannon charge and release a blast of glowing green plasma. Behind me, the gun turret exploded into tiny pieces.

I ran back down the slope and all the way back to the previous clearing. I didn't even know if the Hunter was still behind me, but I was so dead scared by this point, I just ran, hearing continuous fire behind me as I did. Right after the wall to my left had opened up into the clearing, I sidestepped and clung to the hope that if the Hunter was indeed still behind me, I might be able to shoot it before it turned around. I did not like the idea of being so close to it, however, because I knew that it could slice me open with its armor without any effort on its part. On the other hand, I had wounded it and it was possibly weakened.

My fingers clamped around the pistol when I heard the stomping of heavy metal armor on rock coming rapidly closer. I made sure the safety was off and lifted the pistol, then waited. It didn't take long.

The beast, blinded by pain, charged right past me. I did not hesitate and fired into its back, squeezing the trigger until I heard the click of an empty chamber. The hunter turned towards me as if surprised, stepped forward and then slowly collapsed.

For a good minute I stood there shaking uncontrollably. It took a while for me to notice that my hands were covered with splattered alien blood, and I wiped them on my clothes mechanically. Finally, I was able to click the safety back onto my weapon, and after that I forced myself to take a step back towards the area with the gravlift.

Halfway up the slope, I started to run, my concern for the Master Chief only slowly overruling my shock. Him and what was left of the hunter were both laying on the opposite side of the clearing, but while the hunter was very obviously dead, the Spartan was breathing and administering something to his arm. There were no more Covenant forces coming down the gravlift now, but we weren't yet ready to enter the ship.

As if that thought had been a cue, I could hear the sound of approaching engines and saw a Pelican dropship in the distance. Finally, reinforcements. But they would be useless without the Master Chief.

I crossed the clearing as quickly as I could. When I got close, I saw that the Master Chief must have come in contact with the Hunter's spiked armor at least twice. There was a deep gash over his chest and arm, and deep stabbing wounds on his back, as I saw when he turned over slowly, pushing the spraying can he had been holding towards me.

"Put that in the deeper wounds."

I plucked his shirt away from the skin of his back and applied the grey foam to the wounds, where it clung, entered the torn flesh and almost immediately formed a protective layer. I watched, fascinated, as the foam sealed the wounds one by one as I sprayed them, and stopped most of the bleeding.

"That will need to hold for the time being," the Master Chief said, pulling himself into a sitting position and watching as the Pelican approached. He inspected me for wounds as well, but I had been extraordinarily lucky, and I would not allow him to waste the foam on the minor scratches I had sustained.

"Nice work," he finally said, nodding respectfully in my direction. I promptly blushed under his gaze.

"Likewise," I said, nodding at the pieces of Hunter lying around. "How did that happen?"

"I ran out of ammunition after wounding it. A grenade was all I had to work with."

"But..." It took me a few seconds to understand. "You stuck that grenade in the Hunter?"

"Into a wound in its back."

"That's, that's..." I couldn't find the right words. "...disgusting," I finally finished, and I could see a tiny flicker of a smile on his lips.

He looked terribly cute as he did that. I swallowed, lowering my head. The Pelican had landed by now, and Marines were running towards us. The Master Chief got onto his feet and brushed himself off as if he'd simply fallen down and not just battled a Hunter and a bunch of other Covenant aliens. The Marines saluted as they approached, to which the Master Chief responded likewise, and I once more got a number of strange looks I was fast getting used to.

We entered the gravlift without delay, getting sucked up into the Covenant ship. Some idiot screamed "Yeehaw!" as we floated upwards. It was a strange feeling to be in the lift and suddenly feel weightless, and I was glad when it stopped. I hovered by the ceiling for a few long seconds, then I was dropped onto the floor of the cargo bay we had just entered. The Marines around me dropped as well; they were taking positions and looking around nervously. Finally, the Master Chief arrived in the bay.

I moved next to him at once.

"The doors are proximity-triggered," I told him, whispering. "There are Covenant on the other side, but I don't think they are fully aware of us yet. Be ready for them."

Most of the Marines gave me surprised looks, but the Master Chief simply nodded. "You heard her," he said over the COM.

I was ready when the doors opened, and took cover behind one of the crates that littered the cargo bay as soon as the plasma started flying. I switched my energy shield on as well, holding it protectively out in front of me. Twice, Grunts ran past me in the ensuing firefight, and twice I killed them with the plasma pistol I still had.

The Master Chief took the brunt of the attacks, switching out shields occasionally and generally just killing everything in his way. When the cargo bay finally fell silent, only one Marine was down. The Master Chief's arm had caught the edge of a plasma beam, and he was fixing up the wound with more of the spray foam. The rest of the Marines looked a bit shaken, but ready to continue.

We made our way through the first door, next to which the Master Chief found a port he could connect Cortana's memory chip to. Seconds later, we had the AI's voice in our ears, guiding us through the confusing hallways and unlocking doors for us. When we finally did get to a door whose opening mechanism she could not override, I was prepared for the conversation that followed.

"I'll go with you," I told the Master Chief firmly, when the Marines decided that they would wait by the door, and the Master Chief volunteered to find a way around. Cortana was confident that there had to be a control panel for the door on the other side, and so was I.

The Master Chief did not argue. He waved me to follow him and doubled back to the last intersection, then took a new route. The green light of the doors Cortana unlocked for us guided the way.

During the firefights that ensued, I stayed wisely in the background. Now and then, I killed a Grunt who had managed to slip past the Master Chief's fire, but more often I was busy sidestepping the purple plasma needles that the covenant liked to shoot at us and that exploded upon impact. Twice, I was put to sniping duty when we entered a new room, while the Master Chief created a distraction. When we finally arrived on the other side of the door the Marines were waiting by, I sniped half a roomful of Covenant aliens while the Master Chief went to open the door so we could get supporting fire. My ammunition finally ran out, and I slung the rifle over my shoulder and took out my plasma pistol once again.

fieryjen
fieryjen
188 Followers