- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
Prologue
The Sangheili, with some small trace of remorse, plunged his energy sword into the near-dead and groaning human, ending its pitifully weak life. A culmination of similar corpses lay scattered around him.
The alliance between Sangheili and humans had broken down. Of course it had. A human Insurrectionist movement was the cause of it all. The Sangheili, thinking they were doing their new allies a favour had taken the liberty of exterminating the uprising. Humanity had not been pleased. Rioting mobs and even soldiers began attacking Sangheili.
They had tried diplomacy at first, asking the human leader, the late Lord Hood, to issue a declaration stating any human who killed a Sangheili would be treated like they would if they had killed one of the fellows.
But the fool wouldn't do it. Age had obviously addled his mind, for he said that he could sympathise with the killers of the Sangheili who had fallen to vengeful intent. Hood had never truly forgiven the Sangheili for their part in the Great War.
R'tas Vadum', the exalted leader of their people, had attempted to reason further with Hood, and eventually resorted to threats when the human refused to accept his terms.
Even those hadn't worked, and in anger, R'tas had unsheathed his sword and drove it into the guts of the traitor.
The alliance quickly broke up there and then, angry at the loss of their leader, the humans retaliated even more so, declaring all out war on the Sangheili, and R'tas was nearly killed in the ensuing escape. But he had escaped, and was greeted as a hero. By all except the Arbiter.
He had greeted R'tas not with warm feelings but with a fist in the face. He'd been of the opinion that R'tas had acted foolishly. R'tas had not responded aggressively to the Arbiter's taunts, but instead pleaded with his long time friend to help them through the troubled time. The Arbiter had spurned his wishes, claiming he wanted no part in this "insurrection."
And with that, the Arbiter had boarded a Spirit drop ship, and left without looking back.
The Sangheili sighed, brought back to the present. Both sides had sustained heavy losses. But it was too late to call a treaty now. Both races were waist deep in the others blood, and could not climb out.
To end this fighting, they would need a miracle.
Part One - Awakening
"Chief, Chief can you hear me? Dammit John, wake up!" Cortana's voice shouted, echoing in the Master Chief's mind. He could feel the temperature getting hotter, his limbs loosening as they unfroze.
He felt that same feeling he did every time he emerged out of a cryo sleep, stiff, annoyed, and tired.
"What's the situation?" He asked, climbing out of the pod.
"We're about to crash into a planet of some kind, I just thought you should know. Anyway, it may be a good idea for us to leave. Now."
He assessed the situation, his artificially accelerated mind racing through numerous problems and solutions.
"Can you not bring the Dawn in slowly?"
"I would, but the thrusters are in bad shape. If I activated them, there's a 80% chance they could blow."
"Do we have any Pelicans, or a HEV pod?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"Nope, we're totally out, and we don't have a parachute on board either, no way getting off the ship, or what's left of it anyway."
John could feel the surge as they entered the Planet's atmosphere, and knew they had to get off now, or die.
"There's always a way" He said, walking over to the shattered edge of the broken ship.
"Please don't tell me that you're....oh, you are, excellent."
"It's the only way Cortana, besides, it went well last time; well, sort of."
"Last time? And what do you mean 'sort of'?"
"Brace yourself" He said. Two simple words, then, he jumped.
**********
The Elite approached the Zealot, Z'thanee with no little apprehension, he was known to take his anger out on anything in the nearby vicinity when given bad news.
"Noble Zealot, my scouts have just reported seeing something in the sky, a burning comet of sorts, rushing down to the surface."
"You interrupted me for this?" Z'thanee was tired of managing the outpost he had been appointed to govern, and as a result had developed a short temper. The smaller Sangheili Minor gave a noticeable flinch, something which pleased Z'thanee.
"I thought it may be important, after all, the Humans use such methods to quickly deploy their troops."
The Zealot paused, and leaned forward in his gravity defying chair.
"You could be right there, for once. Take a lance of five and investigate the crash site, if you discover anything of worth, report it to me at once."
The Minor lowered his head respectfully.
"Yes, noble Zealot, it shall be done."
**********
"Aim for that body of water!" Cortana shouted, indicating on his heads up display the ocean in question.
Swerving to the side slightly, John snapped his arms to his side, and prepared himself for what would come. With a huge crash, the Spartan cut through the water and sank several dozen metres below. Luckily the water was very deep, so he avoided major injury.
He swam up to the surface, and crawled onto the rocky shore.
"See? No problem." John said, collapsing onto the floor.
He looked up into the ruby red sky. He could see no trace of the Dawn, it must have disintergrated in the atmosphere.
"So, how long was I under ice for?"
"I'd say about two months, give or take."
Two months? It wasn't as bad as he had been expecting, but it was still quite a long time.
"Any idea where the hell we are?" He asked, surveying the scenery around them. The vegetation in the area was tall, and strange birds could be seen up in the sky.
"Your guess is as good as mine. No where near Earth, but we're still in it's galaxy."
That was a relief. John had been worried they might have been sent to a dark, unknown corner at the edge of the universe.
"We'd best set up camp." John said, already snapping branches of trees to start a fire.
"Agreed, tomorrow we can do some scouting around, see if this planet has any advanced life on...wait."
"What is it?" The Chief said, slowly drawing out his weapon.
He was still carrying the Spartan laser Johnson had used before his death, the one John had used to kill the Monitor. Johnson had made a few modifications on it, placing a nuclear battery inside; expensive, but effective. The laser's charge would last a long time, he could fire a hundred shots and not even waste one percent of the battery.
"I'm picking up multiple figures heading this way, odd, my sensors are showing them as Elites."
"Really? That's a relief then." John lowered his weapon, things were turning out perfectly, if Elites were here then he'd have a way to contact Earth, and Lord Hood.
"Chief, I wouldn't relax just yet, I've hacked into their com chatter and they seem to be on the offensive."
How strange, thought John, surely their HUDs would show him as human. He raised the weapon again, finger resting upon the large, black trigger of the Spartan laser.
Suddenly, six Elites burst into his small camp, all holding Covenant Energy swords, adapted from Forerunner technology.
"Demon..." One of them growled, advancing upon him in a menacing manner. John slowly backed away. He could only see five Elites now, hadn't there been six before?
"Whoa, easy there. I'm human!"
The Elites began to laugh, a deep, intimidating one.
"You have been gone a long time Demon, things have changed."
"What the hell are you talking about? Where's the Arbiter?" John challenged, hands gripping ever tighter upon the laser.
"All will be explained shortly Demon, but for now, I grow tired of this talk," he turned to face the others. "Take him".
John didn't care if they still had an alliance or not, all he knew now was that he was in danger, and so was Cortana. His combat instincts kicked in, and he readied himself for action.
Four of the Elites charged as one, the one who had done the talking hanging back, with a sneer upon his sharp face.
The Chief held down the trigger, and the Spartan laser's end glowed a deep, vibrant red, then discharged. A beam of concentrated light hit one of them square in the chest, burning a hole through the alien flesh. With a whisper, the Elite silently fell to the ground.
The remaining ones cried out at the loss of their 'brother', and one lunged directly at John, aiming for his heart. Reacting quickly, John hit the ground and rolled away from the lunge, ending up directly behind the attacker. With a grunt, he crashed the butt of the Spartan laser into the Elites chest, puncturing the thick lungs inside. Wheezing, and crawling desperately along the ground, the Elite began to move around in circles, frantically trying to draw breath. As one final attempt to do so failed, the Elite collapsed, and moved no more.
John was confident he could win, the Elites were of a low rank, and only two, not including who he assumed to be the leader, remained. He still couldn't see the sixth Elite who had mysteriously vanished earlier though.
He charged his laser, and another beam came forth, this time burning into the side of one of the Elite's head, killing him instantly. The remaining one was backing away now, fear present on his face, and the leader's confident sneer had vanished, to be replaced by a uncertain scowl.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of an active camouflage deactivating behind him, and before he could retaliate, the strong fist of the sixth Elite hammered into the side of John's head, knocking him to the ground in a daze.
The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the sight of two Elite's rushing towards him, victory clear in their expressions.
"Welcome to Sanghelios Demon," he heard one faintly say, then, darkness.
[Edited on 09.13.2010 3:31 PM PDT]