The Very Beggining: Halo

"When will he be finished?"
"Soon. Give it time, we need to make sure there aren’t going to be any malfunctions."
"All right, but I need to give the President an update on our situation."
[Two months go by.]
"We have finished him," says Bill to General Bryant on the phone."
"Excellent! I will let President Freeman know right away."
"President Freeman, we have finished the Cyborg. When shall we demonstrate his power?"
"Figure out a date, General, I want this done as quickly as possible. We need to figure out what has been flying around Earth for the last few days.
The General calls up Bill and asks, "When can we get a demonstration of the Cyborg?"
"When do you want it?"
"Tomorrow."
" Yes, tomorrow will be fine, make it noon."
"Ok, I’ll see you at noon."
[11:45, New Mexico Desert.]
At 11:45 AM, General Bryant arrives with other United States military commanders and soldiers. The other commanders go and sit down but the other marines stand all over the demonstration zone just in case anything gets out of hand. General Bryant and Captain Keyes go over to Bill and let him know that the president will not be joining them because the Cyborg has never been tested thoroughly.
At 12:00 PM the demonstration begins. Bill walks over to the table where the Cyborg is lying down on and turns him on. Bill explains that his outer shell is a solar panel and that is what gives him his energy. Then Bill turns on the Cyborg’s shied and asks the Cyborg to stand up. It does, and then the Cyborg began to talk. "Where am I?"
"You are in a desert in the middle of New Mexico. What I need you to do is give the General and his men a demonstration of your power," said Bill to the Cyborg.
"All right, tell me what you would like to see."
"Can we see how accurate he is?" said Captain Keyes
"Set up three pennies one dime and a target board."
A soldier went one hundred and fifty meters out and put up the coins and the target so the Cyborg could shoot at it. For five minutes he shot a pistol and a rifle, and never missed. He hit each penny and the dime right in the middle. The target was an image of a person and he was able to shoot around the person and basically cut it out. "Ok, lets see some moving target practice."
"What do you want me to shoot at?" said the Cyborg.
"How about my men? Just pick things up and throw them out into the sand, that will work, right."
"That is fine," says the Cyborg. He began to shoot down every object that got thrown. Then a soldier fired his weapon in the air and the Cyborg was able to shoot the bullet out of the air.
Bill asked the General, "Is that enough?"
"For artillery yes, but how fast is he and does he have any special features that we should know about?"
"We’ll start with his mobility. We have set up an extremely hard obstacle course that not even a standard Marine could handle," said Bill.
"Captain Keyes, could you send the best Marines to go and attempt to get through the obstacle course?"
"Yes, Bravo group, you heard the man. Now get to it!" Bravo group went over to the obstacle course and attempted to do it but only one of them could do it. While Bravo team is trying to do the course, the Cyborg ran by them and finished the course with no effort whatsoever. The Marines were in shock when the Cyborg was finished.
"What are his special features?"
"He has a rechargeable shield, which can be used for electrical pulses," said Bill to the General. "That is it. Unless you include his impeccable aim."
"Are we going to be able to see his shield work? Or is it not working yet?" said General Bryant.
"No, you can test it. Do you have a pistol?" asked Bill.
"Private, give me your pistol!" said the General.
"Yes, Sir." Bill told the Cyborg that the General wanted to see how his shield worked, and he was going to fire a round of pistol at him. The Cyborg stood twenty-five meters away and the general fired six shoots at its chest.
"Wow! I wish I had a shield like that," said a private.
"Is there anything else you and your soldiers would like to see?"
"No, I will inform the president about what I have seen."
* * *
"So Mr. President what do you think about what I have told you?"
"You never told me how well he was able to move."
"His capabilities in running and walking were better then a human."
"He will be a very resourceful weapon if we encounter any problems."
"Yes Mr. President, what shall we do about the ship that is flying in orbit around the planet?"
"Send a ship right away and figure it out. Also, have Bill make more of those Cyborgs."
"We need give the Cyborg a name. Maybe Brian or John."
"How about we just call him Master Chief?"
"Umm, why not a real name?" asked the General.
"Master Chief is his name. No questions asked."
"All right, I will inform Bill about what the Cyborg’s name is."
"Use his name."
"Sorry sir, I will not call Master Chief a Cyborg again."
"One more thing General."
"Sir?"
"I need you to find your best Captain and put Master Chief under his command.
"Yes sir!"
Before the General made the call to Bill, he called his best captain and told him to figure out what was flying around the planet. After that, he called up Bill and told him what the Cyborg had been named. Bill was ok with this and after the call was over he went to the cyborg and told him he will now be referred to as "Master chief."
* * *
Six hours later. In space, over Russia.
"When do we figure out the powers of these things?" said a Grunt.
<"When do we figure out the powers of these things?">
"Soon, very soon," said an Elite.
<"Soon, very soon.">
"They are not very intelligent compared to us, so we do not have to worry for a while. I doubt that they even know that we are here," said the Grunt.
<"They are not very intelligent compared to us, so we don’t have to worry for a while. I doubt that they even know that we are here.">

* * *
[At the same time, in New Mexico.]
"Is Master Chief ready to do his first mission?" said General Bryant.
"Yes he is, who is going to be his Captain?"
"Captain Keyes." said the General. "He is very reliable, and will be able to take care of Master Chief."
"I was not questioning his skills, sir, but when will I be able to equip his ship with the necessary equipment so that he will thrive at one hundred percent?" asked Bill.
"Tomorrow we need you to put in the equipment in because we are going on a mission. It is highly classified, but you will need to be briefed because we are giving you a higher rank, so that you can continue your work with Master Chief. You will be known as the head mechanical engineer of the Pillar of Autumn. Your papers have been sent to Captain Keyes and you will be reporting to him tomorrow at 1100 hours. Is that understood?"
"Yes General Bryant. Perfectly understood, tomorrow at 1100 hour at what base sir?"
"The ship will arrive at area 51 at 0800 hour, so you won’t have to move all of your equipment to another base. Work hard and quickly because we need to start the mission as soon as possible."
"All right, I will have all of the equipment ready to be brought aboard the ship tomorrow. I will need full a size room to work in," said Bill.
"Do not worry, you will have plenty of room to use in the ship," said the General.
* * *
Early the next morning Master Chief is walking around and he sees Bill. Bill then tells him what is about to happen. Master Chief is excited that he is going to be put on a real ship. After he speaks with Bill, he notices that he is moving things and then begins to lend a hand. It only took them thirty minutes to get all of the machinery to the bay where the ship is supposedly going to land. A few minutes go by and Bill decides to go back to his shop and make sure that he has everything that Master Chief will need to survive aboard the ship. He went back into his room and realized that he forgot some of the weapons and artillery that Master Chief will use in battle. When Bill came back with some of his weapons he noticed that his things were being moved outside the hanger where the ship was. Bill went outside and noticed a massive ship with marines walking in and out with his things. A Marine came over to him and said "Sir, would you like me to take the things that you are carrying to your room."
"Yes, please. When you are finished would you please send someone to come and get me? I am doing some last minute checks to make sure I have everything."
"Yes sir."
"Thank you," said Bill
* * *
[One hour later]
"Sir all of your things have been delivered to the room you will be working in. You are in Working Bay Two."
"Will you please show me where that room is? Also I did not catch your name Marine."
"I am Sergeant Scarlet, here is a map of the ship. You are to report to the bridge as soon as you are aboard the ship. Captain Keyes will be waiting for you and Master Chief. Do you understand all of this?"
"I understand. Tell Captain Keyes that Master Chief and I will be aboard in thirty minutes." Sergeant Scarlett leaves and goes aboard the craft. Bill leaves and finds Master Chief grabbing more weapons for himself.
"I already got your weapons. You don’t need anymore."
"Bill you got the bad weapons. These weapons are my favorites. The sniper and the pistol are very effective."
"Master Chief, I have not programmed the sniper weapon as one of your selection of weapons."
"No you didn’t," said Master Chief. "I decided to teach my self because it looked like it would be very handy weapon to pick off enemies."
"Wow, I did not program you to do that either."
"Do what, pick people off or train myself in artillery."
"Train yourself in artillery, I did not program that attribute into you. You seem to be able to do many different things. You have your own personality, think on your own, and are able to learn on your own. I did not except that you would be able to do all this. I created you without knowing what you would be capable of but you surprised me and I am glad that I left the designs to my apprentice and some other scientists."
"Was that wise?"
"I hope so, the people that I left the designs with are very smart people, I trust all of them with my designs. "
"Ok, well can I still have the weapons that I am taking right now?"
"Yes, right now they need to see us at the bridge to discuss how much time we will need to get set up. We also need you to get acquainted with Captain Keyes."
Master Chief and Bill leave the old workshop and head towards their new room. They drop off the guns in their weapons closet and then they continue toward the bridge. When they reach the bridge, a marine tells them to wait one minute so he could tell the Captain that they were there. Captain Keyes sends out a soldier to tell them to come in and get ready for a meeting. There were many people around the table, all of them the best of their professions. One of who was Co-Hammar, a fighter pilot, who was perfectly able to fly one of the new ships, named the pelican. There were other marines but Co-hammar was the only one who came up to introduce herself to us. The other people that were there were not fans of the new technology. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen"
"Good afternoon," they all said in unison.
"Here’s the scoop. There is an unidentified flying object that has passed over the United States a few days ago. At this time it is currently holding position over Russia. Our mission is to figure out who or what this object is. We will have over five hundred thousand marines with us, plus we will have a crew of ten thousand men. If you say this sounds like a lot for an object, it isn’t. At this time we believe that there is an alien species above us. We believe that they will try to destroy us or become allies with us, and we are taking all precautions. All Marines must carry a rifle that is loaded as well as an extra six hundred rounds. All of the men working on the ship will carry a loaded pistol along with one hundred and twenty extra rounds. The safety on your weapon must be on at all times, unless I direct other wise. Is this fully understood by the high commanders."
"Yes Sir."
"Go and tell your men right away, and gentleman, this is Master Chief. He is second in command to me. So if he tells you to do something it better be done, and I do not have to ask if that is understood, do I?"
"No, Sir."
"Master Chief and Bill, will you stay for another ten minutes? The rest of you are dismissed."
[All of the men leave including Bill and Master Chief]
Bill and Master Chief leave the bridge and begin to walk toward Working Bay Two as Sergeant Scarlet marches towards them. Bill is wondering why he is coming over, but as soon as the Sergeant stopped in front of him he said, "If you need any help putting up your things, some of my men and I are available to help you. We are fairly interested about how Master Chief works without someone commanding him with a controller."
"I am too, wondering how he learns on his own with out anyone teaching him. He is very smart and he may be too smart, but as long as he stays loyal to us then we are going to be fine. Sergeant, the help would be appreciated whenever you and your men could come by it would be great."
"All right, my men and I will stop by as soon as we can."
[It took Master Chief and Bill twenty minutes to find Working Bay Two and they began to work. It has been two hours since they began to work and still none of the soldiers have shown up.]
"Bill I have finished installing the shield generator and the view finder. I don’t know if they work yet, but they are put in. Should we test them?"
"Yes, do you have enough energy to take a direct hit on you at this moment."
"Yes, let us try the view finder first."
The viewfinder worked and so did the shield generator. They had one thing left to do. They had to install the hibernation capsule. This was very important because it was the only way that Master Chief could sleep. Because he is a Cyborg, you have to either knock him unconscious or put him to sleep in the capsule. [In about two hours they finished making the capsule.]
"Master Chief, finish putting your weapons in the closet and when you are done go to the Bridge and tell Captain Keyes that we are almost done. We just will need one more hour."
"Ok Bill, I will be finished in less than five minutes and then I will be able to go and see Captain Keyes."
Master Chief finished and then walks towards the Bridge. He sees Sergeant Scarlett and asks him, "Sergeant you said you and some of you men were going to come and help, but you did not, why is this?"
"We had other orders from the Captain send Bill our apologies."
Master Chief makes it to the Bridge and Captain Keyes calls him over before he even tells him that they are almost done. "Master Chief, I want to introduce you to someone that is going to be of some use to you. Cortana I am going to introduce you to Master Chief, so I am going to have to take you out of the computer."
"Alright Captain Keyes I am ready to be unplugged." Captain Keyes takes the chip out of the computer then has Master Chief put the chip inside his computer. "Wow this is the most complex thing or what ever it is I have ever seen. Well, hello I am Cortana and I run the Pillar of Autumn when we are under attack or we are in autopilot. Now I am going to help you when we leave this ship on a mission. I am programmed with everything you can imagine, and I can be programmed with more."
"Cortana is a very helpful woman. She will take you through your briefings and other things like that, but for now I need her here on the Bridge. Another thing what is it that you needed to tell me?"
"Bill says that he is almost complete and we need about one more hour."
"Master Chief let Bill know that his hard work is appreciated and that he has six hours to complete what he is doing, tell him he does not need to rush for my sake."
"Yes, sir." Master Chief goes back and tells Bill what happened and they finish their work in the hour they said they needed. Bill put Master Chief in the hibernation capsule so he could regain his energy so that they will be able to complete the mission that they were going on."
When Bill comes back, there are marines waiting for him because they were supposed to leave ten minutes ago. "Captain Keyes is not very happy with you Bill. He wants to see you right away in his chamber."
"Will you please bring me there? I am afraid I do not know where his chamber is."
"Yes, right this way."
Bill speaks with Captain Keyes. Captain Keyes makes sure that Bill understands that they have to have things done right so that they can get this mission accomplished. Bill understands and leaves. When he gets back to Working Bay Two, a voice comes over the loud speaker; < Attention all personnel. We are going to take off in T minus ten minutes. Please go to your designated areas and buckle up. If you do not know who I am, my name is Cortana.> Bill sits in his seat and gets ready for take off. [Eighteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds go by] <T minus one minute> Bill is getting nervous because he has never flown before. He is not sure what to expect, so he begins to get very jumpy. <T minus 10 seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one: take off> [The whole ship begins to shake and all of a sudden with a huge lurch they begin to take off into space.]
* * *
Once they reach space, they are allowed to get out of their seats. Bill decides it would be best if he let Master Chief sleep while they are closing in on their objective. Bill leaves the room because he has not figured out the ship yet. While walking around, Cortana comes on the loud speaker <Men we are twenty minutes from the unidentified flying aircraft. Also, Bill you need to wake up Master Chief as soon as possible.> As Bill begins to run back towards Working Bay two, when he sees a man being scolded for putting together something wrong. Bill stops and breaks up the argument. "Hey, what is the problem here?" asks Bill.
"Nothing sir, Private Brown here did not clean my weapon correctly."
"That’s not something to yell at someone for. Private Brown, I am looking for an assistant. Would you like to come and join me."
"Yes, I would like to come and work with you sir," said Private Brown
"I will send the paperwork to Captain Keyes when we are done waking up Master Chief, Let’s go." Private Brown begins running with Bill. When they get to the room, Bill tells Private Brown to watch and learn. Private Brown learns quickly and in no time at all he is already helping Bill. This cuts the time that is needed to wake up Master Chief in half. Bill introduces Master Chief to Private Brown and then tells Master Chief to report to the Bridge.
* * *
[At the Bridge five minutes later.]
"All right men, we are closing in on our objective and are waiting for all of your men to assemble in the Main Bay. We are only going to take a fourth of our forces. All of the men should be properly equipped with the standard weapons, A rifle, four grandees, and extra ammo. This should be sufficient to complete our mission and go home. Let’s get this over with boys. See you on the Main Bay."
[Main bay, with all of the men ready and waiting. Master Chief only one missing.]
"Where is Master Chief?" Keyes asks Bill.
"He will be here. He said he had to get his weapons." Master Chief walks in to the room with a shotgun and a pistol. Captain Keyes calls him over and asks him why he is late. He responds that he was getting his weapons ready for battle: if there is one. Then Master Chief went down to the men and stood in front of them.
"Men, this mission may be an easy one or a very difficult one, but we are hoping for the best. We are one minute from making contact with this ship. We will board the ship if there is any hostile movement. We do not fire on the enemy unless an enemy fires upon us. If the enemy fires one shot, he better is pumped full of lead. Now let’s get this over with." [Less then one minute goes by and there is a small shot fired upon the Pillar of Autumn.] Men get ready to board that ship. Fire at anything that moves. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir" one hundred and twenty five thousand men answered.
The Pillar of Autumn began it’s boarding procedures, as the ships moved closer to each other, the Alien spacecraft sent out a long structure that looked like a pathway. <Sir there is a giant pathway coming out of the ship.>
<"What? Where are they going to attach themselves to?">
<I am trying to position the ship so that they come through the south wall.> Replied Cortana.
"Men! Get ready. Destroy anything that comes through that wall. I want them all dead! Master Chief!" said Captain Keyes.
"Yes sir!"
"Go get five hundred more men ready for combat. We may need better weapons, so have them equip themselves with shotguns and rocket launchers."
As soon as Master Chief leaves, there was a large explosion and the wall had a hole in it that is twenty by twenty feet. Alien fire filled the room "Marines fire your weapons!" More marines then aliens were dying. <Cortana, get mechanics ready to fix this hole, and where the hell is Master Chief?"
Out of now where ten rockets came flying over the heads of the marines and loud explosions could be heard all over the ship. "Cortana have those mechanics ready."
Shotgun and Assault Rifle fire filled the room. The aliens were retreating back into their ship. "You five throw in a grenade now," said Master Chief. As soon as the grenades exploded, the aliens retreated.
<Cortana, send in all the mechanics now.> "Marines, protect the repair crew. Get the hole fixed before they take off," said Captain Keyes. While the crew was repairing the hole there were loud cracking and screeching noises. "Men grab the sheet metal so that the repair crew only has to weld them together." The hole was closed up then there was another crack and then, an explosion.
<Sir, instead of releasing themselves from us, they blew their pathway in half. We still have a huge chunk attached to us. Should I send out a crew to make it space trash?>
<No, Cortana. I want to bring it to be examined by crews back on Earth. Will you be able to land with that attached?>
<Yes but it will be very difficult. I would like to send out a few men to take a chunk of the structure inside. Preferably something that will be of some use to me. Also, just in case it burns off as we reenter Earth’s atmosphere. Is that all right sir? >
<Affirmative Cortana.>
While the men were working to make the wall safe for reentry; the rest of the medical staff came in. There were dead and aliens every where in the room "Sir it will take a few hours to get that hole ready for reentry." said the head repairman.
"Alright, but hurry up. The longer we take, the more of those injured men will die."
* * *
[Six hours later they completed the repair and landed back on Earth, back at area 51 so that they could repair the ship. 12:20.]
Five minutes after they landed Captain Keyes called President Morgan Freeman. "Good afternoon Mr. President. How are you today."
"I am fine, stalling cut to the chase and tell me what happened up there."
"Sir every thing was going to plan until they fired on us. We began are boarding procedure but they made the move quicker. They sent out a walkway and attached them selves to us. Luckily Cortana was able to readjust the ship so they would come threw the wall right where we were. They had one advantage they had the better weapons sir." Replied Captain Keyes.
"How were their Weapons better then ours?" Asked the President.
"Sir, the weapons were not projectile like ours, they had some sort of energy pulse weapon. I have men inspecting the weapon and the piece of the walkway that was attached to our ship."
"WAIT A MINUTE. You never said anything about them leaving a piece of their ship behind." Interrupted the president.
"I am sorry sir, I thought you knew. Well when they took off they blew the walkway in half and part of it stayed on our ship. Sir, Cortana is trying to figure out what they call them selves and as soon as she figures it out I will call General Bryant. Is that all right sir?"
"Yes it is." Answered the President. "One more thing Captain, what was the casualty count?"
"Sir, we lost one hundred and thirty three men, forty injured. They lost fifty-four, that we can count sir. Master Chief was injured my there weapons so bill is creating a shield that can not be penetrated by either man or alien weapons. Master Chief only had minor repairs so he will be all right."
"Keep up the good work, I will send you a grant of money so you can build up your ship and get better help. I have already taken the liberty in sending you warthogs, Scorpion Tanks and a lot of ammo and weaponry. I am going to send you on a mission in the next year or so, to make sure are space area is not being patrolled by those aliens."
"Thank you sir." Captain Keyes said.
* * *
[Months go by and Cortana is beginning to decode the language of the Aliens]
"Cortana you sent for me?" Asked Captain Keys. " They said it was important."
"Yes sir it is highly important. I have figured out the language. They call them selves the Covenant. Their language is not as complex as I thought it was, because some of them can actually speak English. They are four different civilizations that have learned how to live together and fight together. They are the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and the hunters. They are defiantly more advanced then we are, sir," explained Cortana.
"What races did we see?" asked Captain Keyes
"We saw too races, the Elites and the Grunts. The Grunts were the little menaces that were running and screaming. The Elites had shields like Master Chief."
"Thank you, Cortana."
"Sir, before you go I would like to ask you a question. Why are they building another boarding walkway on the ship?"
"We are only taking precautions Cortana. That is all I need to tell you because I know you will figure it out on your own." Captain Keyes left to call President Freeman. He told the president every thing that he new and then the president gave him some good news. The president had found a new spacecraft called a Long Sword. This plane could do ever thing a larger spacecraft could do. Except one thing, it was about 1/1000 of the size of a normal ship. The ship was supposedly very useful in air-to-air combat.
* * *
[Meanwhile, somewhere around Jupiter. The Covenant are repairing their ship.]
"They were more advanced then we thought they were," said a Grunt.
"Do not worry," said an Elite. "They did not stand up to our strength and weaponry. We will crush them in he next battle."
"There was one soldier that came into the fight towards the end that was quite strong. We will have to watch out for him. Also, repairs on the ship will be done in less then a month. After that we shall be back at full strength except for one thing," said the same Grunt.
A grunt came back and told the hunter in the room that they were not going to be able to repair the communications center. "We are going to have to do this on our own because they were able to take out our communications room."
* * *
TO BE CONTINUED