<div align=center></div> CHAPTER ONE // Time: 0200 Hours; Date: January 27, 2559; Calendar: Military // Location: Aboard unknown Covenant cruiser, orbiting the remnants of Earth // The Master Chief crept around the corner and heard the muffled voices of Grunts just on the other side of the wall that separated the two adjacent hallways. The translator inside his MJOLNIR Mark VI battle armor’s helmet worked as fast as an AI, translating the speech of the Grunts within a second of the speech leaving their mouths. He heard them say something about the Brutes and the Elites. As far as the Chief could tell, the Grunts mentioned something about the Elites defecting away from the Covenant. However, he knew that he couldn’t trust anything that a lesser class of the Covenant caste said – though he did make note of the fact that it was possible that the Elites would defect. His motion tracker indicated that there were six Grunts in the adjacent hallway, as well as one Jackal. There were no others in the hallway with them. The Chief grabbed a plasma grenade from his side and activated it. The hallway around him lit up with a faint, blue glow, and it alerted the Grunts. One of them walked toward that glow, and the Chief tossed it right at him. The grenade attached right to the Grunts’ chest, and it sent the Grunt stumbling backward – right into the group. The grenade detonated and killed all of the Grunts, and disabled the Jackal’s plasma shield attached to its arm. The Chief darted around the corner and slammed the butt of his battle rifle into the skull of the Jackal and crushed it, immediately killing his bird-like adversary. The Chief then clicked over to a private comm channel on his radio. “Blue-Two, this is Blue-One. You can advance your position,” the Chief said. “Roger that, Chief,” replied a voice. Then, around the same corner the Chief had just darted around, three Spartans clad in the same battle armor as the Master Chief crept around the corner. Spartan-104, Fred, and Spartan-043, Will, appeared before the Chief with their battle rifles ready. “Blue-Two,” the Chief said, “where exactly are we?” “Well, sir,” Fred started, “we’re about five hundred meters from the bridge at this point, give or take. I can’t quite tell. The schematics that Cortana uploaded to my HUD are very hard to read.” “I see,” the Chief replied. “Are there any shortcuts we can take?” “Like I said, Chief, these schematics are hard to read, and I can’t tell.” “I understand. Upload the schematics to my HUD, and I’ll see if I can make anything out,” the Chief said. “Roger that, processing now,” Fred acknowledged. He then transferred the schematics of the Covenant cruiser to the Master Chief’s HUD via the radio. “Wow,” the Chief said with a hint of surprise in his voice. “You were right, Fred. These schematics are very hard to read. This isn’t like any Covenant ship I’ve ever been on. These are nothing like the Truth and Reconciliation or the Ascendant Justice.” “The what?” Will asked curiously. “The Truth and Reconciliation was a ship that I had to fight on during two separate missions when I was on Halo in 2552,” the Chief said, “The Ascendant Justice was a ship that Sergeant Johnson and I, as well as a couple other Marines, captured after the destruction of Halo.” “Ah, that’s right. I didn’t realize that ship was called Ascendant Justice,” Will replied. “I do remember the battle on the Unyielding Hierophant, though.” “Indeed,” Fred replied. “Well, Chief, what have you figured out?” “It looks like we’re going to just have to search the ship until we find the bridge,” the Chief said, “because I can’t make anything out.” “Roger that,” Will and Fred said simultaneously. The Chief hated to leave the other Spartans on the Freedom and Independence, but he had no choice. He also hated to leave Cortana on the ship, but he was a Spartan and he was determined to reach his objective with or without an AI. He was also determined to complete his objective that he had to ditch so many years ago – his objective to capture a Covenant cruiser in tact. This was his chance to complete that mission, and he was going to do it. The Chief took point, and led Fred and Will throughout many corridors. They came upon a brig, and they ventured inside. They destroyed the Elites clad in active camouflage with ease, and the Chief took down the gold Elite wielding a plasma sword with one well-placed shot from his sniper rifle. They deactivated the holding cells and checked each one. Inside several of the cells, they found Grunts without their masks on – all died from suffocation. Two cells held dead Elites, and a final cell held an unconscious Brute and a mangled Jackal. “What do you think these guys are in here for?” Will asked. “I don’t know, but the Grunts seemed to have had their masked ripped off before they were thrown into these cells,” Fred replied. “They can’t breathe anything but methane, right?” “Right,” the Chief said. “These Elites don’t have a mark on them, though,” Will said, observantly. “You’re right,” Fred said. He flipped one over and checked it for plasma scoring or any marks that would tell how it died. He found nothing. The Chief walked over to the cell with the Brute and kicked it in the side. It belted out a wickedly terrifying howl and started to wake up. The Chief quickly bashed the skull of the Brute with the butt of his battle rifle and killed it. He then confiscated the large gun still slung around the Brute’s back, and picked up a couple plasma grenades that the Jackal had dropped when it was, assumingly, mangled by the Brute. “Well, I can’t tell what killed these Elites,” Fred said. “Roger,” the Chief replied. “John,” Will yelled to the Master Chief. “Come take a look at this.” Will was standing on the platform overlooking the brig, and there was a holopanel. It had a symbol that resembled the UNSC’s logo. “What do you think this is?” Will asked. “I’ve not got a clue, but that’s really, really interesting.” Fred said as he approached. “The Covenant are imitative, not innovative,” the Chief said. “I don’t know what this means, but it could possibly mean that they’ve got a hold of some of our technology.” “Right,” Fred said. “We’re really going to need to keep our eyes peeled until we can get full control of this ship.” “Roger that,” Will and the Chief replied simultaneously.
I'm going to read it now, while I have time. [Edit] It's really interesting so far. Keep up the good work.