Virtual Reality: Halo

"Stay back," the Master Chief ordered me once again. I had lost track of how many times he had left me behind in order to clear the path for me, and I was starting to be pretty embarrassed about it. I was probably slowing him down by about a factor of six. Still, I followed his command and took cover behind a rock, pistol at the ready. So far, I hadn't had to use it, but when I saw the Hunters emerge from the hills among the Elites, Jackals and Grunts, I had a feeling that this was about to change. I pressed myself closer against the rock, heart racing, and hoping that the fearsome creatures with spiked armor weren't about to come anywhere near me. They had made me more than nervous when I'd been on the other side of the TV screen. Now, my knees threatened to buckle.

The Master Chief cleared much of the field with a few well-placed grenades. During that time, I tried to calm my breathing and clicked the safety off my pistol. When the Master Chief charged the first of the hunters, I saw the Jackals spilling past him and realized that if they kept going in that very direction, they would eventually discover me.

The thought didn't do much to cheer me up. The Master Chief would be occupied with the Hunters for a while, and until he had killed them, I was on my own. My hands shook when I actually raised the pistol and aimed, ready to defend myself from the first creature that dared peek around the rock.

The first Jackal was just as surprised as I was. I shot him reflexively when I saw a flash of movement, feeling the weapon's kick acutely as it went off. Then my eyes widened and I lowered the pistol. The Jackal fell to the side, making a noise somewhat like a deflating balloon. His shield switched off as he fell.

"This is so much easier when you just have to push a button," I whispered.

When no further Jackals came around the rock, I dared to peek. Most of them had fled further to the left, where a canal was running along marking the edge of the level. They were camped out behind their shields and took turns blasting their laser weapons into the direction of the Master Chief, who had already dispatched one of the Hunters and was now athletically avoiding the other one. I watched his progress for a moment, before I noticed that the continuous fire from the Jackals had to wreak havoc on his built-in energy shield. I needed to find a way to assist him.

My gaze fell downward and onto the dead Jackal at my feet. The alien carried plasma grenades, like most of the covenant forces, and in my experience they were useful against the Jackals, overpowering their shields easily. With shaking hands, I reached out and grabbed one of the shiny metal devices, turning it slowly to figure out its mechanism. It seemed simple, since the pin and the button were the only thing sticking out slightly.

I sent out a short prayer that I wouldn't blow myself up, which seemed to have become a habit of mine, pushed the button, removed the pin, and threw the grenade. My throw was rather short, but the grenade continued to roll downhill for a few more seconds, stopping right at the feet of the unsuspecting Jackals. This was the first stroke of luck I'd been granted in this game.

The explosion that followed a couple of seconds later wiped out almost the entire group. All of the jackals were catapulted into the air, and the Master Chief used the remaining Hunter's moment of surprise to fire three shots right into the creature's vulnerable back. I smiled when the beast went down, and stood up to join the Master Chief again.

A moment later, everything simply went black.

***

When I came to again, I saw nothing but water. My mouth tasted faintly salty. My entire body was numb, and a few seconds after awakening, I started to shiver painfully. I could feel movement beneath me and, looking down, discovered that the Master Chief had simply slung me over his shoulder and was now making his way through the canal, the cold water reaching as high as his chest. Most of my lower body was submerged in the water, which explained why I was so damn numb. For a few minutes, I simply stared ahead blankly, unable to process my situation.

"We've arrived," the Master Chief's deep voice finally informed me, and a moment later, he half climbed, half jumped out of the channel in one swift movement. When I weakly raised my head, I could see an alien-looking structure on a hill to our left, on top of and on the side of which a number of plastic cubicles had been erected. There were warthogs standing around on the lower level of the structure, and carefully guarded packs of weapons and ammunition on the upper level. I lowered my head again and tried to ignore the suddenly much stronger spasms of pain of my muscles.

As we climbed the hill and our arrival was noticed, several of the Marines came running towards us. There was a constant stream of chatter and questions, and I could only make out fragments.

"...happened to you?" "Who in the world...?" "We've tried to... and use the Warthogs, but the..." "... and Captain Keyes..."

"Oh, crap," I muttered under my breath when I heard the captain's name. He was a pretty central figure in the game, although most of what he did seemed to include getting everyone involved in a lot of trouble. Not that it was his fault. But it seemed too late to stop the course of the game.

The Master Chief continued walking until he reached one of the largest cubicles. While he looked around for something, or someone, I could hear Cortana's voice coming through his helmet's loudspeakers again.

"We need to get her warm as soon as possible," the AI informed the Master Chief. "Her temperature is starting to drop. I've also run an analysis on your MJOLNIR armor, and it appears that the salt water damaged the suit's reactor. You are going to have to take it off and let one of the technicians work on it. Maybe you should get some rest as well."

The Master Chief didn't answer her. He entered the cubicle instead, setting me down in the middle of the floor right in front of the two Marines that had been working in there. They stared at me quite blankly.

Painfully aware of the fact that except for the vest, my clothes had basically disintegrated by this point, I tried to ask them for a bit of privacy, but my lips were shaking too badly to speak. After several seconds, they seemed to get over their surprise at seeing an almost naked civilian being dragged in by their local Spartan Supersoldier, and left the cubicle, exchanging glances.

The Master Chief had meanwhile found me a blanket and was now draping it around me. I grabbed the edges thankfully, finally able to cover myself. Before I could utter a word of thanks, however, the Master Chief left the cubicle, and I was completely alone and at rest for the first time since I'd come to Halo.

Holy shit.

That was the first thing that came to my mind as I tried to get a grasp of what had happened, along with a number of other expletives expressing utter astonishment. This was crazy. Apart from the fact that what had happened was completely impossible, I was well aware that I was also in mortal danger, but the fact didn't seem to bother me much at this point. I briefly wondered whether it was even possible for me to die in the game, considering that I had lived through a number of potentially fatal incidents during my short time here. But every time, the world had simply gone black for a while, and I had awoken to live another day. It was strange indeed.

My short contemplation was interrupted by the aching spasms of my muscles, still trying to bring my body back to its normal temperature. Shaking, I finally managed to pull off the wet vest, albeit with some difficulty. I discovered another blanket, spread out along the side of the cubicle, and decided not to care who might have been sleeping there before. I was exhausted. I crawled to reach the blanket and dropped onto it, closing my eyes. Maybe if I voluntarily fell asleep, I would wake up in my own house again and decide that all this had just been a dream.

***

I blinked sleepily when I awoke, taking a while to orient myself. My eyes stared to the side, taking in the plastic walls and ceiling, and with nothing but mild surprise I realized that I had to be still on Halo.

Then, with something more of a shock, I suddenly realized that there was a warm body lying next to me, closely pressed to mine, and an arm holding me by the waist. I could feel my heartbeat accelerate and hoped I wouldn't panic. Most likely, some random Marine has stumbled into the cubicle and mistaken me for someone else, or the previous occupant of the blanket had returned, too tired to care there was someone else sleeping in his spot. I swallowed nervously, not liking any of these ideas, and slowly turned my head up and to the left.

A man was indeed lying there. He was possibly the single most ghostly pale individual I had ever seen, and I wondered when he'd last enjoyed sunlight. He was massive though, I noticed while glancing down -- his arm looked like he could break me in half. His chest was like a huge wall of solid muscle that I was pressed up against, and he was very tall as well, probably well over six feet.

As I processed this information, something in my mind clicked in realization.

"I told you you'd be kinda hot, once you're out of that armor," I whispered.

The Master Chief didn't react to this, obviously asleep, and I used the opportunity to sneak a closer look at him. His face was a strange kind of handsome, I noticed, and he had something slightly animalistic about him. He had surprisingly full, dark eyelashes that, together with the mouth relaxed in sleep, gave the illusion of vulnerability. He had a large amount of scars distributed over the entirety of his body, from slightly raised, silver welts that marked his shoulder and chest to the darkened patches on his arm. His face too had seen its share of injuries, and I resisted the temptation to trace the faint white line that ran halfway along his cheekbone.

Instead, I lowered my head to the blanket again and closed my eyes. I was still exhausted. I wasn't sure how long I had slept, but it felt like no more than an hour or so. At least my body was comfortably warm now, sharing in the heat of the Master Chief's internal furnace, but I could still acutely feel the abuse my body had taken since I'd been sucked into Halo.

I shifted, trying to get more comfortable on the blanket. The Master Chief's arm tightened around me instinctively as I moved, and I was pressed against him even more, his chest to my back, my thigh touching his massive one. I held my breath as it happened, then my eyes suddenly popped open again.

I suppose it was kind of silly of me to think he'd be wearing underwear beneath that armor of his, I thought.

My breath was coming a bit short by this point. I was being held by a hot, naked guy, after all, and my instinct didn't seem to care that said guy happened to be the main character of a videogame. I shifted again, this time arching my back just the slightest bit. I could feel him there, clearly, half aroused in his sleep.

The sound of a single gunshot made me jump, and I sat up rapidly. Fast as lightning, a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back onto the blanket. I stared, stupidly, as I heard more shots being fired. The Master Chief was still lying next to me, his dark eyes wide open and completely alert.

"Have you been awake this entire time?" I whispered, and he simply gave a short nod before shifting his attention to what was going on outside the cubicle. The sound of battle was there, but it seemed to lessen, and the Master Chief did not seem to think that we were in immediate danger. He finally let go of my shoulder and rolled over, grabbing the clothes that had been lying by his side of the blanket. Fatigues, I noticed.

"Stay low," he instructed me and handed me a set of fatigues as well. I put them on, which was complicated by my sitting on the floor, but I didn't want to ignore the Master Chief's instructions and accidentally end up with a stray bullet in my torso. He was dressed long before I was, moved to the opposite wall of the cubicle and collected a belt and a small pack that lay there. When I had put the somewhat large clothes on, I lay there with my arms wrapped around my knees, watching him. For the first time, I wondered if my being here had actually affected the game in a major way. As far as I recalled, the Master Chief wasn't supposed to be at Alpha Base at all. There was no alpha base mentioned in the game. If he wasn't in the right place at the right time, there were possibly dire consequences, and I would be right in the middle of them.

When the Master Chief grabbed a rifle and moved to the cubicle's doorway, I jumped to my feet, warning forgotten.

"Where are you going?"

He turned only briefly.

"To assess the situation and help defend the base. Stay here. You will be reasonably safe until we find a way to get off this structure."

This sounded eerily like he wasn't expecting to see me again any time soon, and I wasn't having any of it. "No way. You're not going without me."

It was a relief to finally be able to see his facial expression, even though at the moment I couldn't read any more than a hint of annoyance into it. I understood that if he wanted me to stay here, there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it, but I also realized that my admittedly limited knowledge about the game might be beneficial to him. While he simply shook his head and turned, walking away from me, I wrecked my brain for something that could prove to him that I had more knowledge of the situation than I had let on so far. Finally, when he was almost out of earshot, I remembered a bit of information I must have retained from one of Toby's rants about the long backstory of the game, and hoped that this would be sufficient.

"John!" I called.

The Master Chief froze. He stood still as a rock for a good ten seconds, with the gunfire outside continuing undisturbed. I rose from the blanket and stood, awaiting his reaction when he finally turned to face me.

His facial expression when he walked back towards me was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. His eyes kept darting over my body, probably trying to figure out if he had met me before.

"How do you know that name?" he asked, voice quiet but dangerous.

I looked up into his eyes. "I can't really explain that," I said, licking my dry lips nervously. "But... but I know more things. I think I might be able to help you."

His face was completely blank for a few seconds. He didn't show one emotion as he stood and stared at me, but finally, his arm went to his side and he removed his pistol. He handed it to me.

"What information do you have?" he asked when we were descending from the hill, far to the right of where the battle was going on. I took a deep breath and considered where to start, going through all of the information that had stuck from the game itself and from Toby's long-winded talks, and hoping that I hadn't forgotten the most important details.

"Okay, first of all," I started, "we have to destroy the Halo."

The Master Chief remained silent at this revelation, so I continued.

"There is a parasitic.. well, parasite inside the Halo, called the Flood. The Covenant has accidentally released it, or they will soon. It needs to be stopped."

I paused, as it occurred to me that I might be screwing things up further by telling him what was about to happen. The Master Chief didn't react to any of my words, however, but simply continued down the hill.

"So where are we going?" I asked him.

He nodded towards the ongoing battle. "We need to clear the area so the Pelican can land. Cortana discovered Captain Keyes' location when she hacked into the Covenant COM channels earlier, but we need the dropship to get to him."

"Where is he?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable. Captain Keyes got himself kidnapped quite a lot during Halo, and the first rescue attempt was a lot simpler than the ones later in the game. "Is he on the Truth and Reconciliation?"

I kept my fingers crossed, proud to have remembered the name of the Covenant spaceship from the game, and I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding when the Master Chief nodded and looked mildly impressed. He wasn't questioning how I knew the ship's name, and I had a feeling he was starting to be convinced I could indeed be useful.

And I could be, considering that I knew a heck of a lot more about the early levels of the game than the later ones. I wrecked my brain for information while struggling to keep up with the Master Chief's pace. Finally, he dropped me off behind a cluster of rocks and went to flank the enemy. I took cover and waited.

For a while, all I did was to watch the battle that was rapidly turning as soon as the Master Chief joined it. He shot the Grunts with his assault rifle and tossed grenades at the Jackals, amazingly speedy even without his armor. He was assisted by the Marines. When a single Grunt fled the battle in my direction without seeing me, I braced the pistol and clicked off the safety.

I killed the little guy with two shots. Trying to quelch my emotions, I stared at the dead body, reminding myself that the Grunt probably would have killed me had I not acted. I had always considered the Grunts the cutest characters in Halo, and killing them for real was not pleasant. The killing itself was getting easier though; I felt less of the terror that had overcome me when I had killed the Jackal much earlier. Still, my hands shook when I finally lowered the weapon and clicked the safety back on.

The battle didn't take long after that. The Master Chief and the Marines were simply mopping up the leftovers, and soon after, the Master Chief sprinted back up the hill. I wasn't sure if he had forgotten about me, but the Marines were still in the area and stripping the dead aliens of their weapons, so I felt safe.

Curiosity made me pick up the weapon the Grunt had dropped when he had died. I recognized a plasma pistol, warm to the touch, and carefully pointed it towards the ground. I wasn't stupid enough to think it might not go off. After a few seconds of examination, I actually gripped the pistol and tried to fire it. It was a bit unwieldy, but I finally managed. A bolt of plasma shot out and into the ground where it singed the grass, and the Marines turned towards me, alarmed. I simply pocketed the weapon and raised my hands, indicating that I wasn't an enemy. They gave me confused looks.

I could finally make out the sound of engines as the Pelican dropship approached the landing zone, and, displaying perfect timing, the Master Chief was on his way down the hill again. He was carrying several more things in his hands and waved me to follow him to the Pelican, which I did.

There was a ramp leading into the belly of the dropship, and after the Master Chief and I had climbed it, it closed under us. I barely had time to sit down on one of the benches before the dropship left the ground again, and I paled when I noticed something.

"We're going alone? No Marines?"

The Master Chief shook his head. "They're needed at Alpha Base."

Now I knew I had screwed up. The Marines were supposed to be coming with us, covering our backs and assisting us in getting to Captain Keyes. Without them, this part of the game would be much more difficult.

"Alright," I said more to myself than to him, checking for my weapons. The pistol was still there, as was the plasma pistol I had picked up. The Master Chief handed me an earpiece, presumably so I could hear the humans' transmissions as well. I put it into my ear. It felt odd, and I hoped it wouldn't fall out again.

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