- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Dr. Halsey’s last words suddenly came to him, and he felt they justified his decision. Joining together and fighting the Covenant would save far more lives than the alternative.
Another question arose in his mind. If the discarded Covenant members and humanity joined forces, even under the best of circumstances how long could that alliance last? John’s eyes fell upon the Arbiter once more as his mind stewed over that question.
Despite the overzealous nature of theirs, the Elites are honorable. They hold their pride above all else, and follow the code of the warrior. To be cast aside and killed like dogs by orders of the Prophets will be a huge blow to the mindset of the Elites. Their efforts will be focused on revenge. Even if they wanted humanity’s assistance, their pride might make them refuse to accept it.
The sound of the back doors opening caught John’s attention, and he turned his head lightly. Commander Miranda Keyes stepped quietly into the room, closing the door behind herself as she moved to stand next to the Spartan.
“How’s it going?” she whispered. Her eyes didn’t fall on the Arbiter, but looked past him to the shadows where the ONI officials sat.
“Ma’am, the officers requested the Arbiter recount his experiences on Delta Halo and High Charity,” John said smartly, his hand twitching slightly from the effort he exerted to not snap a salute. Commander Keyes sighed quietly, running a hand over her face briefly.
“They’re just trying to wear him down,” she explained. “Once he’s finished they’ll hit him with questions from all around, and try to throw him off-balance.”
“Ma’am?” John asked, confused.
“ONI’s looking for some scapegoats, Chief,” Keyes clarified. “The civilian masses are cowering in their homes, just waiting for the first waves of plasma bombardment to start raining down from the skies.”
“The Covenant fleet has been taken care of,” John interjected. Keyes shot him a brief look before smiling to herself.
“That’s not too terribly important right now,” she said. “Sure the fleets been destroyed, but there will certainly be another one, and most people can place a safe bet that they’ll arrive much sooner than the time it’ll take to fix up the orbital defense grid.”
“Right now ONI’s main concern is keeping the public from panicking. They want control over the public, either through propaganda or by holding a fake trial for an ex-Covenant member. This is the type of stuff they usually deal with. Its this kind of garbage that makes it so we can’t even list the Spartans as killed in action.”
John winced slightly at that. The news that Fred, Linda, and Will had survived somehow earlier had lessened the blow, but it was still another reminder of how much he had failed his team over the course of his fighting career.
“Having a public execution of a high-ranking Elite would be just the thing to get the public back on their side,” Keyes continued.
“But if they aren’t in the Covenant anymore, than executing them would be pointless,” John pointed out.
“Exactly,” Keyes nodded. “That’s precisely why we’re going to have to make sure these scavengers don’t do something that stupid.”
Before John could reply, Commander Keyes had pushed off the wall and was walking towards the Arbiter. He followed, dimly aware that the room was somewhat silent, signifying that the Elite must have finished relating his story.
There was a moment of silence before someone seated near the head of the room spoke up.
“I will put but one question before you, Arbiter,” the gruff voice said. “If you have indeed been cut off from the Covenant, along with the rest of your kind, than what would you have us do?”
John stopped a few paces behind the Arbiter, next to where Commander Keyes stood. The Arbiter cast a look to the ground for a moment before looking back up.
“I would have you do nothing, but I am aware as well as you that the humans need as much help as you can get in this war.”
“And whose fault is that?” a new voice demanded. “You’ve led the campaign from planet to planet, murdering all who inhabit them. You commit genocide upon us for no reason other than our existence offends you, and then you come asking for our assistance!”
That heated outburst seemed to spark something among the others seated around the room, as angry retorts began firing at the Elite from all directions.
“Be silent,” the original gruff voice ordered, and immediately the noise ended. “You can understand our position can’t you? Why the concept of working with you would seem so unappealing?”
The Arbiter answered softly, and John was sure that if the Elite had eyes in the back of his head he would be focused on the Spartan.
“I understand it better than you’d think.”
“We are wasting our time speaking to this creature,” another voice chimed in. “A public execution of such a high-ranking Covenant member would surely get a high approval rating from the public.”
“That would be a foolish mistake, and you know it,” Commander Keyes interjected. She shot a scornful glare towards the owner of the voice, and John surmised that despite the inability to see who had spoken, Keyes knew exactly who it was.
“Be silent Commander,” the man barked. “This bastard, by his own admission, led the fleet that destroyed Reach. He was a tool of the Covenant, and you want us to turn around and forgive him?”
“If you are perhaps deaf than I suppose you missed the explanation in mine and Cortana’s report where we detailed how the Prophets deceived the Elites. Along with the Hunters and the Grunts, the Elites were pushed into believing they were acting on the behalf of the Forerunners, who were revered as Gods.”
John could almost swear that he could see the officer Keyes was speaking too, from the redness that had flooded onto his face. Before the angry retort could be fired off, John stepped forward, standing beside the Arbiter.
“Commander Keyes is correct. As Cortana and I traveled through High Charity, we were witness to the beginning of the extermination of the Elites, Hunters, and Grunts.”
Silence greeted his response, and it was a moment before the same officer from before snorted indignantly.
“You, you expect us to take your word?” the officer asked scornfully. “The first chance you get you befriend our enemy. Aren’t these the same creatures that killed off the majority of your team? Didn’t Dr. Halsey bother to program a sense of loyalty into you freaks?”
John felt his temper spark, but before he could respond a fist slammed down upon the table that the ONI officers were gathered around.
“That is quite enough Colonel. Step out of line again and you will be sent to work as a maintenance crewman aboard one of the MAC guns.”
There was a moment of tense apprehension before there was the sound of a muted apology and the sound of the officer sitting back down into his chair.
“Turn the Goddamn lights on,” the same officer that had just issued the reprimand ordered. “If we want to intimidate someone lets try and do it to someone that actually needs it.”
The lights came up immediately, and the other occupants of the room were finally brought into perspective. John immediately recognized the officer that had come to his defense as General Strauss. The general had pinned many medals onto him in the past.
“Alright, Arbiter, lets cut the bull-blam!- and get down to the facts,” General Strauss said. “Before we can even begin to negotiate some kind of truce, or partnership between us, there has to be some kind of show of grace. Information maybe, anything that would show us that you truly intend to do this.”
For the first time in a long moment the Arbiter spoke.
“I am afraid my knowledge of what has been going on in the Covenant has been severely limited. As a commander of a fleet I rarely returned to our home planet, and as such the most I possess is information on where our fleets have been deployed.”
“A home world you say?” Strauss questioned. “I’ll need you to divulge some more information on that as well. Maybe you could enlighten us to just why the Covenant is so intent on worshipping the Forerunner, and exterminating all of mankind.”
A ghost of a smile seemed to pass over the Arbiter’s face for a moment, and John cast a worried glance at the Elite.
“Every member of the Covenant knows of how we were formed, and what our purpose is.”
“Could you elaborate on that?” Strauss asked.
The Arbiter took a deep breath, glancing briefly at John.
“Alright, then I shall tell you, how the Covenant came to be.”
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Author’s Notes: Wow, that chapter was quite interesting. Its one of the longest so far, so that’s good, I stayed up far too late writing, so I hope you all like it.
This chapter is going to be the lead in for something I’m sure some of you can see coming now. I’m betting some people may not like it, but it has to be done.
Just to elaborate on a few things, I know the Arbiter may seem to be a tad out of character in this story, but you’ve really got to take into consideration that the guy’s been through a hell of a shock. I know I wouldn’t want to spend my life devoted to a task, carrying out the systematic genocide of an entire race and then find out its all been a lie. I couldn’t imagine what I’d do in that situation.
Anyways, thanks to everyone that’s been reviewing. If you didn’t believe me when I said reviews are like shots of caffeine into my blood stream, than perhaps the quickness of this chapter’s release will have convinced you.