It's been a long time since I've posted anything, I've been pretty busy, and when I wasn't working I've been pretty lazy. I've actually started a prequel to Necessary Costs, it explains how Miller became a sniper and I think so far it's a lot better than my previous writings. There are a few problems however, I wanted to tell a story that takes place after Halo3 and I changed his spotter's name, but I only did these things because I'm going to rewrite NC somewhere down the line because I'm really unhappy with how it ends. I must have been a lot more tired than I thought when I finished that story.

There's a new Halo short film out (IF you don't care about Halo, you may want to skip the next few paragraphs), actually it's been out for a while but only recently in glorious HD and not off some crappy phone camera. The first one, Arms Race, was really good too and you can find it on the same site.

I really like Combat (the name of the new Halo short), it does a really good job of bringing Halo to life in a new way but there are some things that really bug me about it. The first is the ODSTs look too bulky to me; I didn't even recognize them for what they are until I saw ODST written in large letters across their backs. Also, the BRs that they are using don't sound right. They sound realistic, but they don't sound anything like the BR in the games. The special effects were pretty good, except for the Fuel Rod shots from the Banshees, which weren't horrible just low budget. Finally I thought it was pretty annoying how the camera kept cutting to different angles every three seconds. All in all it's pretty neat, and if the actual movie is something like that but on a much higher budget and longer post production times I'll be happy.

In other movie news I was over at IGN a few days ago and noticed trailers for Hitman and AvP: Requiem. My only response to both those videos is, WTF?

Let's begin with Hitman. In the games you play as Agent 47, a badass European with absolutely no hair who is in his forties. Incase you couldn't decipher from that sentence the five most important qualities Agent 47 possesses; I've made a nice convenient bulleted list.

• He's a badass
• He's European, with some sort of European accent
• He is bald and doesn't shave his head
• He's Forty
• He has a barcode tattoo on the back of his head

"But," you say, "That list is obvious to anyone who's seen the cover of a Hitman game much less played one! Why are you telling me this?" Well, let's examine what Fox got right about Agent 47 in the upcoming movie:

• He has a barcode tattoo on the back of his head

They couldn't even get the guy to fake a European accent? I could go on about how horrible this movie will be, but instead I'll just post what it says on IGN.

"Agent 47 has been educated to become a professional assassin for hire, whose most powerful weapons are his nerve and a resolute pride in his work. 47 is both the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the nape of his neck, and his only name. The hunter becomes the hunted when 47 gets caught up in a political takeover. Both Interpol and the Russian military chase the Hitman across Eastern Europe as he tries to find out who set him up and why they're trying to take him out of the game. But the greatest threat to 47's survival may be the stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a beautiful, damaged girl."

Wow, I'm amazed at Fox's loyalty to the source material. [/sarcasm]

But, I'm not even a fan of Hitman really, so that movie doesn't bug me. What does bug me is that other festering pile of human refuse, AvP: Requiem. Allow me to utilize the ever popular bulleted list once again to show the three most important parts of the AvP universe:

• Aliens
• Predators
• Space Marines

Well two out of three isn't bad. Some might even argue they got the most important two. However I must argue, Space Marines are infinitely cooler than rednecks and swat teams. The first AvP movie was a total letdown with its overly simple story, poorly written dialogue, and lame action scenes. On top of that, the first movie was rated PG-13! That's just insulting to anyone who is a fan of the Alien or Predator franchises.

Well, it seems they won't be making the PG-13 mistake again, but is it really worth getting excited over a movie just because of blood and violence? The 300 would make that seem like a yes, but in 300 they had excellent blood and violence which is something AvP: Requiem seems to be missing. If you can't make a guy getting his face melted off by acid cool, you fail as a director.

I have more to say about those movies, but I'm going to post my opinions of the AvP franchise as a whole later.

I've played Bioshock, and it's as good as people keep telling you. My only complaints so far are that the game isn't scary at all, and it's so unrelenting bleak and dystopic that the effect quickly wears off and it feels like just another shooter after about an hour or two. Also, the water effects are horrible. Water looks pretty at first glance, but watch what happens as you walk through it, or watch the way it DOSN'T flow around objects. Maybe I'm being too picky.

There's a new HaloWars video that started floating around the internet yesterday (I think you can find it here on Gamespot). I love Halo and I love RTS games so HW is something of a perfect storm for me, but I'll need to see more before I really decide if I'm going to preorder or wait until reviews start coming in. The sad thing is I'm going to buy that game even if it's review scores average out to 1/10 because I'm so thoroughly addicted to Halo I'll find a way to justify it.

And finally, I would like to take a moment to thank EA for making Medal of Honor: Airborne. Because of this game, I will now be able to enjoy Halo3, Bioshock, F.E.A.R.2 (whatever they're naming it) and CoD4 better. Yes, it's that bad. Controls are only adequate, combat is a snooze, you can't skip cutscenes or briefings, Skydiving is kinda boring (which I didn't think would be possible). The graphics are about what I've come to expect by any UE3 game not made by Epic, amazing lighting and horrible textures. The only redeeming things about the game in my opinion are the cover system (I tried explaining it, but you have to play with it just to see how awesome it is) and the fact that all the reviews I've read so far say the multiplayer is more fun than the singleplayer. The game will make a decent rental, but I'd advise you not to buy it unless you're already a fan of the series.

I've decided to write another short story loosely based on Necessary Costs.  If I don't have too much going on I might have the first chapter up next week.

Update: Yeah, I've been swamped with homework recently, I'll have it up this weekend:)

When he woke, he thought he was dead. Everything was numb, except his tongue, which he could distinctly taste copper on. Slowly as he laid there covered in darkness other senses started to return. His limbs started to tingle and come alive. His ears began to hear the wind blowing outside. He could smell smoke and ozone. Collin tried to stand, and was met with a wave of nausea. Darkness overcame him again.

When Collin awoke for the second time, he was instantly aware of his physical situation. This came as both a blessing and a curse, as his entire left side felt like a solid wall of pain. Still unable to see he reached up and pulled off his scorched helmet. He threw up a hand to block out the sunlight that was filtering through the gaping hole in his HEV. Collin unstrapped himself, cursing the pain and the army. He got off his back and stood up the best he could and surveyed his surroundings. He had landed in an open field, tall grass and rolling hills surrounded him as far as he could see. His HEV was a wreck and most of his equipment was missing, but he was just thankful to be alive.

A brief search of the pod yielded a med kit, a grenade, and his sniper rifle; his pistol and survival gear were nowhere to be found. He moved around a bit and when he was sure nothing was broken, just bruised, swallowed a few pain killers and an energy tablet. He sat down on the edge of the wreckage and checked his helmet, only to find that it was now useless. The built in radio was smashed and the visor was so scorched he couldn’t see out of it. Not to mention there was a huge crack in the side. He made sure his rifle was ok and set off for a particularly high hill that was covered in trees when it hit him. He was supposed to be in a desert. He quickly ran through the events in his mind, the strange explosion during the drop, the uncontrolled tumbling during the fall. He realized he was lucky not to have drifted into space, let alone be alive. Collin stopped dead in his tracks, a wave of fear washing over him. He had no idea where he was on the planet or how to contact anyone for retrieval if he did. He had no idea how long he had been out, the others might have already left without him.

His thoughts were cut short however when the ground two meters away exploded. Collin whipped around, rifle ready. Standing three hundred meters away was a pair of hunters. Collin smiled at the alien’s misfortune of missing its first shot. Then he dropped to his knee and pulled the trigger. The first round bounced off the hunter’s thick blue armor, reflected harmlessly into the air. The second shot flew true and penetrated just below its ‘head’, killing it instantly.

The second hunter howled in rage and charged forward, charging up a shot. It died quickly; two bullets ripping threw its neck in rapid succession. Collin barely had time to change clips when four ghosts came over the hill, an elite in each of them.

Adrenaline surged through Collin. Pain and fatigue long forgotten; he ran as fast as he could, forward towards the ghosts. He wasn’t going to survive and knew it. He just wanted to take as many enemies as he could with him.

The leader of the elites gave a hearty laugh at the human’s foolish bravery. He didn’t bother using his vehicles weapons, instead just boosting to run his soft-skinned prey over. It wasn’t a mistake, but it was the last thing he’d ever do. Collin rolled to his side at the last second, firing off a wild shot in the elite’s direction. He took that shot knowing that there was only a one in a thousand chance of making it; he felt a surge of pride when the bullet blew a hole in the side of the alien’s skull.

Collin shouted, raising a fist in the air to celebrate the kill. Then a plasma bolt caught the side of his arm. Collin dropped his rifle and clutched his arm. He turned around and stared into the eyes of the stealth elite that had just decloaked behind him. Both warriors grinned. Collin spread out his arms and simply said, “It was worth it.”

The elite didn’t see the pin-less grenade until it was too late.

The official reports stated that the mission had been a resounding success. The marines had raided an important Covenant facility with almost no casualties, the only fatality being one ODST who had gone missing and was presumed dead. What the reports left out was that the facility had turned out to be an abandoned training ground and the planet only had a token defense in place. Nothing valuable had been gained in the planet's capture, and a Covenant fleet had forced the humans to flee soon after. It boosted the public's morale, however.

“Listen up! You already heard the mission plan, but because some of you have short memories, were going over it again.” He looked around the room, his dark brown eyes missing nothing. “We will be dropping out of slip space momentarily. If the navy flyboys manage to get us in the right place for once, we will drop down and kill any bastard that is either under five feet, or has more than two jaws before they know we’re there!”

A cheer rose up among the marines. Collins looked over at Jordon who had worked his way to where Collin was standing and whispered, “Maybe you should sit this one out, you didn’t make the height requirement.”

Jordon laughed and replied sarcastically, “Yeah, well with your shooting I don’t have much to worry about.” Kelly slapped him in the back of the head, bringing his attention back to the Major.

“We are dropping onto the southern hemisphere of the planet SV2-131N, otherwise known as ‘Newdawn’. We will be joined by a second battalion from the cruiser Paladin. Our mission is to clear the anti-air defenses and secure a staging area in the desert for an attack on a Covenant facility that will be nearby. When we finish the hard part, our comrades in arms will kindly decide to join us. We don’t have very good Intel. so we're going to have to do one of the things we’re best at, improvising. We know that there are anti-air defenses, and we know the covenant don’t have any ships within one standard days distance.” He paused for a moment, leaving unsaid the fact that Covenant ships had a tendency to move faster than expected and show up where you didn’t expect them. “We know they have some kind of facility down there. Our mission is to kill or capture the defenders, capture the facility, take anything valuable, and get the hell out of there. As I stated before, we are going in first. No surprises there. While we’re down there playing with the spit-chins and grunts and getting dirty, our friends will be flying down first class, sipping champagne and eating expensive cheeses. Not us. Tell me, how will we be going down?”

Everyone in the room shouted in unison, “WE GO FEET FIRST SIR!!” It was the time honored mantra of the Helljumpers.

As soon as they finished the captain’s voice came over the com. “Attention all hands! We’ve come out of slip space and are in position to begin force deployment in three minutes.” He paused for a second; Collin could feel the usual pre-drop adrenaline spike. “There are no Covenant ships in the area, just like we predicted. The drop timer has started; good luck.”

Lieutenant Pierce stepped forward and shouted, “Alright, you heard Captain Whitticker. Into the pods!”

Collin turned to Kelly. “See you on the ground.” She made a three fingered salute, a private joke between the two of them, and then turned to find her pod. Collin returned the salute to her back, and then turned to his HEV; or Human Entry Vehicle. He pulled a grease pencil from his pocket, the kind mechanics use to mark what they’re working on. He laughed inwardly at the stupidity of his pre-drop ritual of writing the name of the ship he was dropping from on his pod every time for good luck. He reached his arm forward to write ‘Templar’ on the vehicles ceramic skin, only to be bumped from behind by a careless trooper. The pencil fell to the ground, landing in a crack in the floor. Collin swore colorfully and jumped into the pod, closing the door behind him. Claustrophobia immediately set in, but he did a quick breathing exercise he had taught himself and got over it within seconds. He quickly stowed his gear and strapped in, and then ran through a checklist to make sure none of the systems were malfunctioning.

Collin glanced at the small count down timer, four inches away from his nose on the opposite wall. One minute left.
The HEVs are disposable one man pods ODSTs use to drop into unfriendly territory. The idea is that they go down ahead of the main forces, and secure an area for the drop ships to land, carrying the main forces and heavier vehicles. The HEVs are covered in a ceramic coating to deflect heat, however the coating has a habit of melting off making it extremely hot inside, giving the ODSTs their nickname, Helljumpers.

Collin was thinking about that while he stared at the count. His mind raced as he sat strapped in his chair. “What if the parachute doesn’t deploy? What if I land separated from the main force?” He was plagued with self doubt and worry until the last agonizing second passed and the timer reached zero.

There was a loud bang, like someone had set off explosives in his skull. He slammed against the restraints, bruising his ribs. Collin knew something was wrong instantly. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He could vaguely sense that he was being spun head over heel, faster and faster until he passed out.

I wrote this a little over a year ago for a fanfiction contest.  It's pretty rought since I wrote it mostly from 10pm right to the deadline at 2am.  I had orginally meant for it to be much longer, but I ran out of time and had to cut it off.  Also I had to split it up into sections since I couldn't post it here all at once.  Anyway here it is:

Necessary Costs

Lance Corporal Collin Miller was trying not to think about the upcoming mission. There was about half an hour until the drop and he had too many other things to think about, most importantly at the moment he had to clean his S2 AM rifle. He looked around the almost empty armory. There were three other marines there, and it was no coincidence that all of them were snipers. It was a common joke among the UNSC forces that snipers loved their rifles more than they did their family and friends. Collin smiled. It was almost true.

“Hey Collin, what do you think about the mission?”

Damn it. Collin scowled and wiped a greasy hand on his pants as he turned to look at the short man who had just walked in. “I was trying to take my mind off it. The last thing I need to think about right now is a pointless suicide mission.”

“I thought you were into the whole ‘I’d rather die in a fight than in my bed’ thing. In fact that’s an exact quote I believe. Here’s your big chance to prove it.” Jordon smiled. He loved arguing about things even if he agreed with them. Jordon was about five and a half feet tall and was well built, bordering on looking like a professional weightlifter. That along with his dark skin contrasted sharply with Collin. Collin was six-two and had a wiry build.

“I would. But this mission is just stupid. When I buy it I want it to be for a reason, not because the brass thinks the public needs a moral boost.”

“Hey, I hear you.” Jordon walked over to one of the gun cabinets and pulled out one of the new BR55, or “battle”, rifles. He inspected the weapon, a look approval upon his face. “But I doubt this is just a photo op with guns. They try not to let us know, but it’s pretty obvious that we’re getting spread thin. If the rumors that Reach fell are true, I doubt they’d tie up this many resources on a raid like this.” He replaced the rifle and walked over to his personal locker. He opened it and pulled out his MA5B assault rifle and started to inspect it to make sure it was ready.

“That makes sense,” Collin said slowly, “especially since they’re sending down an ONI team with us.”

Jordon was about to respond, but instead said, “Look I’d love to finish this conversation with you, but we really need to hurry. We drop back into real space in fifteen minutes and drop in twenty.” He grabbed the rest of his gear and left. Collin finished putting his rifle back together and then grabbed his other gear from his locker. He always carried a M6D pistol along with his rifle and plenty of ammo for both weapons, plus several combat knives. Collin was already in most of his armor, clad in the dark blacks and grays of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, or ODST. He put on his helmet and stowed his gear, then raced to “Hell’s waiting room”. The long room was full of Helljumpers; most of whom were either talking loudly or checking each other’s gear. Collin found his spotter; a medium sized woman named Kelly, next his drop capsule. She was having a heated debate with several other soldiers about the Spartan project that Collin was about to jump into when someone shouted “Officer on deck!”

Everyone suddenly snapped to attention and silently turned to the door. Major Zachariah walked in the room, followed closely by Lieutenants Hollander and Pierce. Zachariah nodded at the assembled marines. He smiled, distorting the long pale scar that ran from the top of his ear down to his jaw, making him look anything but friendly. That scar was the object of much rumor, mostly among the new members of the unit. Theories ranged from it being a present from a fight with a Spartan; to he got it shaving. Collin knew the truth; anyone who had made three drops with the battalion was informed. During his first drop with the ODSTs he had taken on an elite with an energy sword. He blew off the spit-chin’s head, but not before it got a swing in.