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  • Subject: The Halo 3 Epilogue (Please Lock Thread)
Subject: The Halo 3 Epilogue (Please Lock Thread)

It was suggested that I may have to start afresh, due to the error that prevent's me from updating the title section of the thread with the next part. So What I will do is add all 21 parts in order so it's a bit easier to read. I'll also add an index showing which parts are on what page.


Part 4 of the Finale is now up.


Page 1 Parts 1-16
Page 2 Parts 17-22
Page 3 Part 23
Page 4 Part 24
Page 5 Chat
Page 6 Part 25
Page 9 Part 26 & Final part


Parts 22, 23, 24 and 25 are all parts of the 5 part Finale to the Epilogue. Part 26 is the final part to this story.



[Edited on 09.02.2009 11:58 PM PDT]

  • 03.17.2009 1:14 AM PDT
Subject: The Halo 3 Epilogue Parts 1-21 (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Prologue

Mist and distant stars swirled and danced in a dazzling display of colour. In the distance he could make out the faces of those he had lost, many of them friends, but all were heroes determined to ensure the survival of mankind.
But unlike them he had prevailed where they had not and against all the odds he had defeated countless enemies on countless worlds. He had survived and was now the last of his kind in a universe full of uncertainty.

As he continued to drift in his new found peace the distant mist changed colour once more to a fiery red, which radiated with blinding beauty in the dark and empty void. His name was whispered amongst the stars over and over again, but then the whispering became louder until a deafening roar filled his already ringing ears.

"John, wake up!" screamed Cortana.

John quickly opened his eyes only to see the shattered and broken section of the frigate around him.
He opened the stasis chamber and pulled his weightless body from its inviting warmth.
Around him the hull of the ship seemed to warp and shudder as a series of bright red flares cascaded around the bulkheads at the far end of the corridor.
"Status," Barked john
"Re-entry Chief, we're about to make an emergency crash landing." Explained Cortana
"Where?" asked John
"I don't know, but wherever we are it's nowhere near Earth." Replied Cortana
John moved to the far end of the deck to see what Cortana was talking about.
Below the broken UNSC ship was a large planet shrouded in darkness, the only visible light was on the horizon from the now rising sun.
"Firing emergency thrusters!" stated Cortana
Despite only having half the ship to use, the robust structure and redundant back-up systems were still capable of manoeuvring the hulk in the planets atmosphere. The ungainly shape of the UNSC frigate would provide maximum surface for slowing their descent.
The only thing they had to worry about was the landing itself.

  • 03.17.2009 1:15 AM PDT

Part One

"What are our options?" asked John
"I could crash-land the Forward Unto Dawn, but I doubt that even you would survive chief. Our only other option is for you to get to one of the ships' hangar bays, and try and fly a Pelican to the surface. Once there, I'll land the Dawn as best as I can." explained Cortana with a daunting look on her blue face.
"I'm not leaving you behind, not again." Stated John
"Chief you don't have a choice; if you stay you'll die. Falling from the sky is one thing, but falling from the sky in 600,000 metric tones of frigate is another. Flying a Pelican to the surface is your only option."
John stared at Cortana as he weighed the possible options.
No doubt every conceivable plan that he was going through in his head had already been examined, summarized and discounted by Cortana along with another ten thousand options within the blink of an eye. Her calculating abilities were only matched by his stubbornness, something which Sgt Johnson had remarked on more than one occasion.
But deep down, he knew that she was right and reluctantly agreed.
"Where's the nearest hangar bay?" he asked.
"Two decks down, the damaged lift shaft is your best way of getting there. Once there I'll try and steady the ship long enough for you to fly out, but once your out it'll be one hell of a ride." Replied Cortana
"I can handle it." Stated John with a confident tone

John grabbed the assault rifle and attached it to his armoured back before boosting himself off the stasis chamber, and towards the darker section of the ship.
Cortana had activated several way-points on his NAV computer, all of which illuminated a small section of his display like a trail of proverbial breadcrumbs.
Further ahead the hull shuddered under the increasing stress of re-entry. Although they were still some way out before the ship would start to burn, John knew that the most time he had was around seventeen minutes. Then as if by some form of telepathy, Cortana activated a small timer display in the upper left section of his helmet which read: 17:28 before it began to count down.
"This is how much time you have chief before the Dawn becomes too unstable for you to leave, so I suggest that you hurry." She insisted.
John glided towards the lift shaft ahead of him, and placed an armour encased hand on the twisted door.
John planted his feet on the floor before exerting some pressure on the broken doorway. After several seconds of pulling, the metal gave way, and the door glided slowly away from him, revealing a dark lift shaft that almost seemed to descend into infinity.

After increasing the power to his helmet mounted lamp and boosting the gain on his night vision sensors, John quickly dived into the bowels of the Dawn.
All around him shapes and shadows fleeted and warped in the changing light, giving the illusion that he was traveling with company. John only wished that were true. He would have given anything to be with his old team again.
Cortana snapped John back to reality with a progress report on their re-entry; he was surprised to discover that almost five minutes had passed since he left the upper deck. John once again focused on his lonely descent just as the hangar lift doors came into view.
Unlike the ones that he had left behind these doors were untouched, which presented more than just one problem. As there was no damage to the doors it left John with very little to hold onto.
"Cortana can you spare any power for the doors at the hangar level?" asked John
"Not at the moment chief, I'm using all I have just to keep us pointing the right way. You'll just have to use your head." Replied Cortana
"Good idea." John whispered to himself
John pushed gently away from the hangar entrance and towards the opposing wall of the lift shaft where the magnetic guide rails for the lift carriage were located. After slowing and positioning himself properly; John pushed as hard as he could towards the lift doors and smacked into them with the force of a small tank.
The impact sent stars swirling around his head, and momentarily lowered his shield strength to 76% before recharging.
Cortana immediately noticed the change in his status and asked what was happening, John replied with his usual sense of wit, "Just following your advice."
The encounter with the lift door had left it bent and buckled with enough surface gain for John to twist the metal into a more appropriate doorway.

After passing through the gap John found himself in a large room that barely resembled any sort of hangar. All him around were various and untidy piles of logistical containers that had either been left unsecured, or had been shaken from their mountings.
Ahead of him were six Pelicans; four were clearly damaged to the extent that flight was not an option, and two of those had been ripped from their ceiling mounted transit clamps. The other two seemed intact, and were still fixed to the large mechanical clamps on the hangar ceiling, but as John glided closer he noticed that one of them was covered in a series of large, deep gouges that meant re-entry would be more than a little warm.
The last remaining Pelican, apart from a couple of dents, was still perfectly flight-worthy, and the automated release system for that particular clamp was still working. It seemed that John's unusual run of good luck was still with him.

John swam in the zero gravity towards the working Pelican and hauled himself inside through its rear deployment ramp.
Despite the outward appearance of the drop ship its interior was anything but calm as John made his way to the cockpit across an internal sea of scattered weapons and ammunition cases. The cockpit was a welcome sight, and despite his bulk john managed to secure himself in the small pilot's chair and activated the controls.
Lights and display screens flickered into life giving the cockpit a strange glow that was more reminiscent of a Covenant cruiser.
It had been a while since he had flown himself, but he had a huge area to land on; the planet below. So getting down would not be a problem.
John glanced at the timer display in his SPARTAN helmet where it read 4:09; the trip had taken longer than expected.
In a series of quick stabs at the control panel the engines erupted into life and John released the Pelican from its transit clamp and turned the ship around before stabilizing the drop ship in a small hover.
"Cortana, status!" bellowed John
"The Dawn's a little sluggish but I think I've managed to stabilise her trajectory. I see that you finally got yourself a means of transport," Answered Cortana "Opening outer doors."
As Cortana opened the hangar doors John was greeted with a blaze of light from the rising sun on the planets' horizon. His faceplate polarized to compensate for the intense glare, allowing John to see the interior of the frigate around him once more.
"Chief you've got less than three minutes, get out!" commanded Cortana
John answered with a light push on the engines thrusters, which sent the Pelican towards the illuminated opening.
The Dawn shuddered several times in the increasing turbulence before Cortana regained control long enough for John to activate the afterburners on the drop ship, sending it hurtling outwards and into the violent atmosphere.
The Pelican jerked suddenly as it came into contact with the rushing air, sending Johns head down with the g-force.
After a couple of seconds John regained his control on the nauseating dive, and turned to follow the descending frigate just as the Dawn's forward hull began to glow red from the re-entry manoeuvre.
John fired the afterburners a second time and sped towards the falling frigate.
"Cortana what's your status?" shouted John
"I still have control of the descent and expect impact in twenty two minutes, after I have made a series of --..." Cortana's conversation was cut short as the antenna array was ripped from the Dawn in the glaring inferno.
John followed closely behind in the Pelican trying to raise an answer from his artificial comrade.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 1:17 AM PDT

Part Two

Like its namesake the Dawn began to flare like a rising star. The leading edge of the frigate was not designed to re-enter the atmosphere of a planet backwards, let alone in half. Large sections of metal began to tear from the main structure and damaged Archer missile pods were exploding with the buffeting and overwhelming heat.
John pushed the engines of the Pelican to beyond their operational maximum in an effort to keep up with the remains of the Dawn. But the situation seemed to conspire against him.
The planets' gravity and the already excessive momentum gripping the Dawn meant that he was gradually falling behind without the ability to talk to his trusted guide. Despite years together, fighting against the best the Covenant could offer there was little he could do except follow the broken frigate.
This was where John hated being. In a situation that was not subject to his physical strength, endurance or speed.
He was more at home on the ground, where he could move faster and hit harder than anyone else in the UNSC, and most probably the majority of his former enemy; the Covenant.
In the air though he was like a fish out of water, and all of his survival instincts were relying on the mechanical movements of a dented drop ship. He preferred solid ground, a good rifle and a team that he could no longer call upon.
John was immediately tempted to think back to a time when SPARTANS were the last best hope for the survival of Humanity, but gradually their numbers had dwindled to just a handful of skilled individuals. Even now he was unsure of whether any of them were still alive.
Deep down though, he hoped they were.

The Pelican jerked suddenly, bringing John back to reality.
The frigate had now pushed itself into a 12 kilometre lead, and even with his faceplate fully polarized and at maximum magnification there was little detail that he could make out.
Captain Keys had been able to land the Pillar of Autumn on the first Halo, but then he had an entire ship to utilise not a collection of damaged and broken deck plates with half a MAC gun.
Suddenly the Dawn began to move slowly to the left and then the whole ship rolled over to expose the more intact dorsal section to the ferocious heat.
Cortana was still in control.
John followed as best as he could behind the Dawn for the next twenty minutes, and managed to make up some ground as the large twisted frigate performed a series of S-turns in order to slow its descent.
Then John heard a sound he did not expect.
"Chiefis Cortanaantenna non functionalam usingships sensor array platingyou hear me?" said a distant and distorted Cortana
John could only make out parts of the transmission, but it was enough to reassure him of Cortana's status.
"Barely Cortana, I'm just behind you. I'll follow you in." he replied.
Nothing further came from frigate except a wash of static.
John continued to follow the burning ship as far as he could, and then slowly pulled back on the control column to bring the nose of the Pelican level with the horizon, and watched as the ship sliced a fiery scar into the grass covered surface of the planet beneath.
Even before the battered UNSC frigate come to a stop John was already landing.

Once down John punched the ramp release switch so hard that the control surface crumpled under his strength, but the welfare of the Pelican was the least of his concerns.
He raced from the ramp and towards the Dawn with a speed that even Kelly would have been proud of, but he was greeted with a searing wave of heat that blistered and bubbled the remaining layer of his already scarred colour scheme. Pale green paint fell from his armour in thin scorched flakes upon the ground as he pushed his suit of Mjolnir armour beyond its advised limit.
The main hangar bay that had provided John with the means to escape was now a shattered mess and even the remaining Pelicans, although already damaged, were now an unrecognisable sight.
John carried on running to the far end of the ship where the engines were located and climbed in through one of the few intact deck hatches.
John continued to race throughout the remaining sections of the ship until he reached the area where he had left Cortana.
"Cortana, Cortana can you hear me!" shouted John
He stood next to the cracked holo plate that had served as Cortana's command cell, and waited for her to appear as though afraid to remove her chip, either through concern of more damage or through the fading hope that she was still functioning.
"Cortana?" Whispered John
John began to reach for the chip housing below the holo-plinth when it suddenly illuminated to reveal the familiar image of his companion.
"What took you so long?" asked Cortana
"Funny, real funny next time lets do something harder." joked John
John placed the chip back in its portable housing in his armour, where it belonged and then collected a few supplies before heading back to the Pelican.
It was good to have her back in his head.
"Chief there's something I need to tell you," Cortana paused before continuing "You were in stasis for quite a while."
"How long?" asked John
"Longer than you think." Replied Cortana

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 1:18 AM PDT

Part Three

John continued walking towards the Pelican expecting Cortana to say that he had been in stasis for 3 or 4 months, but her hesitation in coming forward with a definitive timescale only heightened his already overwhelming concern.
"Exactly how long have I been in stasis Cortana?" asked John
Cortana paused extensively before coming back with an answer.
"You're not going to like it," replied Cortana
"How long!" asked John with a raised tone
"314 years, 8 months and 3 days." Said Cortana with a sympathetic tone
John immediately stopped walking and dropped the supplies on the ground, for the first time in his life as a Spartan he was shocked.
"I'm sorry John." Said Cortana
John made a vain attempt to recover his composure but he knew why Cortana was so sympathetic. She had been his guide and confidant for years and knew him probably better than he knew himself. It no longer mattered if all of the Spartans had survived the war, which he knew was impossible, they would all be dead by now. Not even a Spartan can live that long.
"Damn." He whispered
"Chief I know that this probably won't make up for anything but you stopped Truth and saved Humanity from extinction, you've achieved your mission." Said Cortana
"I know, but I never expected to win this war on my own or without another Spartan in sight." Replied John
It was more than just that, John had hoped to see at least one of them again but the three centuries that had passed ensured that would never happen, even Kelly was unable to outrun time.
John was indeed the last surviving Spartan, and his luck had held out where the others had succumbed to fate and destiny.
Another dread filled thought suddenly entered his head. Even though Cortana was the most advanced of her kind, she was still limited by an unforgiving life expectancy of seven years. Under normal circumstances she would only have a couple of those years left at best, but they had been drifting in space for centuries.
"How are you still functioning after all this time?" enquired John
"You weren't the only one sleeping up there you know," answered Cortana "After I dropped off the beacon and assessed our situation, I wrote a program for the environmental and navigation systems that would allow both of us to rest until we were picked up. I was only alerted when the Dawn approached this planet."
John remained quiet, thinking of his possible options. He hoped that Cortana would live forever or that if they were rescued there would be some advancement in technology that would allow her to remain his companion well into old age. Three hundred years had past since he was last on Earth; AI's were probably living to all kinds of ages. He hoped so.
"We'd better get moving chief; we have a lot of ground to cover." Said Cortana softly
John quietly nodded in agreement before picking up the discarded supplies and making his way to the waiting Pelican.

The exterior of the UNSC drop ship was covered in scrapes and scratches from the heated pursuit of the Dawn. The starboard wing was slightly damaged from a near encounter with a semi-molten Warthog, but besides that she was fine, and was all that John and Cortana could utilise in their exploration of this mysterious world.
After making himself comfortable John inserted Cortana's chip into the small Pelican holo-plinth besides the navigation console, she quickly appeared; bathing the cockpit in blue light from her illuminated female form.
"So where to?" asked John
"Take us up to two thousand metres chief and I'll try and use what's left of the on-board sensors to scan the terrain around us." explained Cortana
John replied with the engine ignition sequence before taking them up into the marble-blue and white sky above.
As they ascended in the Pelican, the observable surface of the planet seemed to stretch outwards in all directions. Even with the new advantage in height there was little change in the terrain.
The rolling blanket of dense-green woodland seemed to grow in size as they reached the 2,000 metre mark.
The interior of the cockpit seemed to flare as shafts of bright sunlight reflected on the control console and cascaded onto the fields and forests below. In another setting John would have enjoyed the scenery before him; it was similar in appearance to the green expanse of Reach. Except here everything was flat and without anything that resembled a hill or a mountain. It was a stark contrast in that respect to the varied terrain of his former Spartan home.
Reach was filled with every conceivable environment type; snow capped mountain ranges, rolling green woodland and arid-deserts. It was the ideal place to train a Spartan unlike this new world where nothing seemed to be out of place.
The one thing that did seem odd in this sea of green was a small section of what appeared to be desert like terrain far off to the West.
Cortana spent several seconds analysing the sensor data before reporting back to John.
"There are basic life form readings in and around the vegetation and the only area of interest is 87 miles to the West. There is a small desert and some kind of object but I'm experiencing a great deal of difficulty in trying to get a more precise reading of it from the sensors." Reported Cortana
"Any power readings?" asked John
"No nothing at all, in fact there's a distinct lack of even background radiation from the object. We should approach with caution." Replied Cortana
John agreed and dropped the Pelican down towards the tree-tops to avoid presenting an obvious radar-silhouette to any potential inhabitant.
For all John knew the structure could be a distant Covenant loyalist outpost, housing an untold number of brutes, Grunts and Jackals. All supported by squadrons of Banshees. Three hundred years of knowing defeat would mean any former adversary would be unwelcome, especially a demon.
Despite having the Pelican to use, John dropped the speed down to half in an effort to conserve fuel. He had no idea how long he would be here or what he and Cortana would encounter on the planet. The last thing he wanted to do was reduce their traveling speed to a lengthy sprint on foot.

The distant object filled with eye-catching detail as they approached, even though they were still over thirty miles out the unusual building began to fill most of the horizon. Its size was breath taking.
Cortana gazed at the sight before them and a series of symbols flashed across her glowing exterior. There was obviously something of interest that John had not seen.
"What is it?" enquired John "Or need I ask?"
"The design is of Forerunner origin but it's somehow different." Answered Cortana
"Different, how?" asked John
"All of the other structures and ships that we encountered before were all made with a similar design theme, and they all utilised the same materials and energy output even when dormant. But this design deviates from everything else that I've seen before." explained Cortana
"In what way?" asked John with a raised tone
"I can't detect it. The sensors on the Pelican could pick up a large indentation in the desert floor and I could see it from the crash-site, but there's no structure according to the sensor log." She replied
"You mean it's a hologram?" suggested John
"No I think it's some kind of camouflage technology. We can see it visually but besides that it's undetectable." Said Cortana "But it's not just the structure, there are various areas of this planet that are phasing in and out of the sensor scans. I think the whole planet has some kind of stealth field around it, but obviously over the years since the Forerunners were here the power in some areas has started to degrade."
John nodded and continued their approach in the Pelican; he was tempted to fire the forward chain gun at the structure just to see if the armour-piercing rounds would interact with a solid object and not a hologram, but he knew better than that.
For once in his experience with Forerunner technology John wanted to know where he stood, but that was never the case.

  • 03.17.2009 1:20 AM PDT

The unusual Forerunner structure in front of him was indeed different to the rest that he had seen. The metal almost seemed to harbor feelings of hostility towards him. Instead of the usual clean silver lines and highlights of blue light on every conduit and bulkhead there was a deep, dark metal almost black in colour covering the entire structure. But despite its darkness the building, if that is what it was, still managed to shine and glimmer like glass. Covering the dark skin were thin lines of bright red and orange, John felt as though was looking at some deadly creature that was covered in bright scales designed to ward off potential predators.
The main bulk of the structure consisted of several large towers that stretched upwards into the sky, their thick capital-ship sized bases ascended vertically until they came to a fine sharp point that was coated in several red slashes. The tall spires were accompanied by several smaller spires and a large dark building shaped like a pyramid sliced vertically in half. Unlike previous Forerunner technology there was no observable place to set down. It almost seemed like the structure was designed to prevent a nearby landing in combination with the lack of obvious doorways.
"I could shoot my way in," suggested John "for a change."
"I think that in this case chief, firing any form of weaponry would bring us down a lot quicker than we would wish," Replied Cortana "I think I know what this planet is..."
"Go on." Stated John
"Everything else that we have seen, the halo structures, Flood containment units and the Ark they were all part of a large system designed to defeat the Flood. Whereas this seems to be a world designed to keep those that controlled the Halo's safe from its effects and from any uninvited guest; such as a Flood infested ship." Explained Cortana
"You mean a shield." Replied John
"A shield world to be more precise, this is where a whole population could reside in safety free from the effects of the Halo's." said Cortana
"I remember you mentioning this before." Replied John
"This is different chief. These structures aren't here for decoration, or to power the stealth shield, they're weapons designed for destroying one enemy in particular; the Flood.
"Then let's find a place to set down and take a look." Announced John

To be continued...

  • 03.17.2009 1:24 AM PDT

Part Four

November 6th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

Kelly casually walked from the small stream back towards their makeshift camp at the base of one of the many rolling hills. Despite the vast area available for them to explore, she felt trapped by a world that was designed to keep its inhabitants safe from danger. But at the moment it was prison, with no guards, no windows and no obvious way out.
Her first impressions of this shield world had been positive despite their losses, but after only two days of walking and setting up camp on a daily basis with no clear objective, Kelly had become somewhat disheartened.
She had resorted to running around the local area in order to maintain her high level of fitness. But she was fortunate.
Linda and Mark on the other hand only had a limited supply of ammunition, which meant that their exceptional abilities were being used for small scouting runs into the surrounding valleys, whilst Olivia was constantly tracking a herd of cattle that vaguely resembled the common cow on Earth.
Fred and Chief Mendez were probably the most optimistic in Kelly's eyes, as they were doing everything in their power to aid Dr. Halsey in her research. So far they had set up a series of small solar panels to help power the doctor's equipment, but it was a far cry from fighting the Covenant.
Dr. Halsey was the only member of this unofficial and unwilling group of explorers that seemed to move with any real purpose, but then safeguarding the Spartans had always been her intention. That was why she was here in the first place.

Kelly looked over at the isolated cryo-tubes. Ash and Tom had remained with them since they had arrived, as though on a constant religious vigil. But there was little that could be achieved within two days. Even Dr. Halsey was at a loss as to how to free them.
In all the years of the war, Humanity at large had made little progress with the technology that they had gleaned from their encounters with the Covenant, so how were they to crack the seemingly impossible Forerunner puzzles that were scattered around the galaxy. Even the Covenant had been unable to achieve that.

Kelly reached the small encampment and handed out several water canteens to Fred and the chief, each of whom took a series of long gulps of the fresh cold water from the stream.
Dr. Halsey briefly looked up at Kelly and the others before burying herself in her work once again. Although the doctor was the one that wanted them all here she was still extremely anxious when it came to the members of team Katana and the whereabouts of John and Cortana. Despite the fact that all of the Spartans were all extremely proficient in the art of warfare, she still viewed them all in the same way as a surrogate mother pines for the children that are no longer hers. To her they were still children, even John.
"Are you any further forward doctor?" asked Kelly
Doctor Halsey sighed before removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes with the palm of her hands.
"Unfortunately not," she said with a smile "But don't worry Kelly, there must be a way to open the cryo-tubes, I just have to find out how."
Kelly tried to force a smile herself, but ended up pulling a face that better resembled a child receiving an injection with a needle meant for a horse.
As all of the Spartans, new and old, had removed their helmets so they no longer had the luxury of hiding their emotions from Dr. Halsey, but she refrained from letting the Spartans know that she could see their concern. But unknown to them, she also had concerns of her own.
There was no way to know for sure if the Covenant had another way to reach the interior of the shield world, or if Kurt had actually succeeded in detonating the Fenris warheads.
Unlike the waiting Spartans, she had a mission, an objective, a target. Above all else she had to unlock the cryo-tubes holding team Katana. If she succeeded she would have more Spartans to look after and more Spartans to help defeat the Covenant once and for all, when the time was right.
Except this time they would be fighting with Forerunner weapons, and against that the Covenant would have no defence. They would be the ones on the back-foot instead of Humanity. They would be the ones losing.



May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)

John walked cautiously towards the nearest spire, its imposing presence made him deeply uncomfortable.
His Mjolnir armour was designed to withstand excessive concussive force, projectile weapons and certain Covenant energy weapons. In combination with energy shields and a body hardened to withstand warfare, and endure countless environments that would ordinarily kill a man, he was a force to be reckoned with. Even the Covenant had realised that.
But whenever he was around a Forerunner structure his abilities paled in comparison to their accomplishments. He could understand Cortana's fascination with them along with his former mentor Dr. Catherine Halsey. Here in front of him was probably one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe, designed to fight one of the most deadly creations in the universe: the Flood.
If the Covenant had gained any of this technology before their arrival on Earth, then no ship or Spartan would have been able to stop them and Mankind would have been condemned to death, or a state of existence that they would never recover from.

John pushed the thought from his mind, Cortana was right, the war with the Covenant had ended and Humanity had been saved. Despite this John was still troubled by his new-found isolation, even with Cortana.
He was, as far as he or Cortana knew, the last surviving Spartan and the only human on this strange new world.
As he walked towards the nearest spire he began to recognise the familiar sight of the Forerunner doorway that Cortana had seen, but this one was big enough for Scarab to walk through.
Taking the Pelican all the way to the entrance had been tempting, as traveling around or through any Forerunner structure by foot always took a lot longer than any first impression would indicate. But they had both agreed that any such action might activate whatever dormant defence system was lying in wait.
John stopped several feet away from the large heavy looking doors, looking for anything that might resemble a threat whilst Cortana went over the security system guarding the door.
Although she was not in direct contact with the access terminal Cortana could still breach the security settings of the antiquated entrance.
"I've got it." Cortana informed

John took a couple of steps backwards as the huge dark doors slowly heaved open; there was a hiss of air, indicating that the seal was airtight but surprisingly there was a thin trail of sand running into the vast cathedral sized interior.
Cortana utilised the internal sensors to scan the vast complex, but only some of them were working and only on some of the levels. Of which there were dozens.
"I'm picking up a power source several levels below chief; it could be a control chamber, I suggest we investigate."
John agreed and started to walk further into the structure until Cortana jumped onto the secure COM channel.
"Wait chief I've got a life-form, very weak but it's definitely a life-form!" exclaimed Cortana
John detached the assault rifle from the magnetic armour-plating on his back before continuing into the Forerunner structure.
"Let's go and introduce ourselves then." Answered John

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:00 AM PDT

Part Five

November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)


The thick woodland that covered most of the local area gradually began to thin, as Olivia moved silently in her stealthy pursuit. The Forerunners, as advanced as they were, had the wisdom to include a plentiful supply of cattle. But unlike their counterparts on Earth, these Cows were evasive and more intelligent. Even for a Spartan III like Olivia, they were a challenge which seemed odd to her in a way.
She had spent years in training and had fought against the Covenant on many occasions, but here she was having to use all of her skills just to ensure the rest of the team had a reliable food supply.
There were no natural predators that they had seen, and yet the initial presence of Spartans had alarmed the cattle herds. If there was nothing to prey on them, then seeing several Spartans should not have bothered them at all but instead they were keen to stay out of reach of any Human contact.

Fred and Chief Mendez were still going about their usual daily routine of helping out Dr. Halsey, whilst the members of team Sabre were examining some of the removable panels of Kelly's armour. Although they were more agile than the Spartan II's their fight against the Forerunner sentinels taught them that additional protection is a must, even Ash and Tom had peeled themselves away from the Cryo-tubes for a more detailed look at her armour.
Kelly went through the main systems of her valuable armour, which was decorated with the scars of war. Kelly had seen a great deal of combat and her armour reflected that. Some of the deep gouges caused by a Covenant plasma rifle were the main areas of interest for the younger Spartans especially as their armour was designed for stealth and not close quarter battle.
"Are there any more Spartans left?" asked Tom
Kelly looked away as though deep in thought or remembering fallen comrades from years that had long since past.
"When the Covenant attacked Reach, blue team was tasked with defending one of the many orbital instillations that made Reach the fortress world that it was, but John our team leader became separated from the rest of us." Kelly's eyes glazed-over with the mounting emotion and she paused briefly to compose herself.
Dr. Halsey walked up and seeing the look on Kelly's face, continued with the account of John's history. She spoke of the many battles that John had been involved in including the destruction of the first Halo structure and the initial defence of Earth.
"He must have killed thousands of Covenant troops," interrupted Ash
"Probably more than you think, but he'll have saved many more lives," answered Dr. Halsey

Olivia suddenly appeared from a small wood nearby, but instead of her predatory stalk she had an alarmed look upon her face and was running as fast as she could towards the group. The other Spartans immediately changed to state of combat readiness all of them with weapons raised, looking for any possible threat behind Olivia.
Fred was the nearest and he ran to meet her. Kelly was too far away to hear what they were saying but Olivia was pointing over towards an area of the surrounding woodland that seemed to be far denser than the rest.
Fred quickly came over towards the rest of the group before briefing them on the situation.
"Olivia has found a small structure hidden within the wood over to the East; it looks like it could be a doorway of some kind."
Dr. Halsey's eyes were suddenly filled with excitement and she immediately started to pack her things in anticipation of some great exploration, but Fred stopped her before she could power-down her portable terminal.
"We need to check it out first doctor."
Her look of excitement briefly changed to frustration, but she quickly accepted the situation and allowed her Spartans to do their job.
Linda, Fred and Olivia quietly moved off towards the densely packed woodland for a look at the structure, whilst the others gathered the remaining weapons and ammunition.
"Now we all have a mission." Catherine whispered to herself


May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)

John walked silently towards the next doorway, hugging the shadows between the countless huge bulkheads in a corridor that better resembled a never-ending hangar bay.
Cortana had concluded that the faint life-form reading was about 4 levels down and had remained stationary since they entered, but beyond that there was little she could find out.
Her attempts at finding out more about this ancient structure had been blocked at every occasion, despite the ease at which she had hacked her way into other Forerunner systems this one was proving to be a much harder nut to crack.
The only hypothesis that she had developed was that the structure was part of a much larger network on the planet, and was designed to help shield the world through a form of camouflage technology. In addition to this there were several weapons pylons scattered in and around the various structures and each one was probably more than capable of destroying a Covenant capital ship with a single hit.
The energy source for all of this firepower was buried deep below the surface, and besides a few isolated pockets of exposed camouflage on the surface it was functioning perfectly, even after all of this time.
All along the vast corridor were dozens of the familiar Forerunner styled doorway's, and rows of sentinel ports all of which appeared to be sealed.
After several minutes of walking the corridor came to an abrupt end where a single lift shaft was located, Cortana indicated that the only way down was via the lift so John activated the control panel and they were quickly plunged into a huge subterranean cavern that was bathed entirely in blue light.
The route down took them past three other levels all of which vaguely resembled the underground structures in the first Halo, the only difference, as John pointed out, was that they seemed better designed for a defensive fight. Instead of a single winding level there was a multitude of steadily ascending floors for each level and dozens of bulkheads and doorways, all of which could probably be sealed and defended with heavy weaponry.
The ring-like halos were a thing of beauty whereas this structure had been designed with the single purpose of exterminating the Flood, without killing all other sentient life in the galaxy. It seemed that this planet was the prototype in a war with an enemy that could literally devour whole worlds.

The fourth level was almost identical to the other three above it but with subtle differences. Instead of several defensive floors this level had two main floors and was filled with sentinel ports.
"It would seem that this is a command level of some kind, responsible for the floors above it in case of a breach." Surmised Cortana
"If that's the case then who's been left in charge?" enquired John
The lift came to a stop but from the transparent floor, John could see countless levels below that eventually vanished into the distant shadow.
"The life-form readings are about 200 metres ahead chief," Informed Cortana
John slowly walked from the lift towards the faint reading in the next chamber; rifle at the ready.
After following the waypoints in his helmet display, John entered a single large chamber. Flowing from the surrounding walls were a multitude of cables and pipes that all lead to a centrally located chair. Sat within the chair was a humanoid figure that appeared older than the structure itself.
The figure appeared to be male and was around six and a half feet tall with a slender build and a pale complexion.
John suddenly realised what he might be looking at, but Cortana had already drawn up her own conclusions as soon as they had entered the chamber.
"A Forerunner!" gasped Cortana


November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

Linda and Fred crawled along the ground towards the area that Olivia had indicated but all they could see was more trees.
Fred opened the secure COM channel "Where is it?" he whispered
"Over there," replied Olivia with a pointed finger
"I don't see anything," said Fred "there's just trees."
"Exactly, I wouldn't have seen it either until I walked into it. It seems to use some kind of camouflage technology." Said Olivia

Fred crept closer to the group of trees ahead and then suddenly found himself inside a sheltered doorway. He glanced behind and saw Olivia and Linda looking at him, even with their helmets back on he could tell they were puzzled.
To those outside of the camouflage it appeared as though Fred had no torso but his legs were still visible, something which made Linda cringe at the sight of.

Fred stood up and then walked out of the camouflage field and indicated to Olivia and Linda to come forward.
Olivia walked forward first followed by a more hesitant Linda. All of her Spartan training told her not to walk in, but this unusual doorway was the best hope of finding a way out.
The doorway itself was in keeping with the rest of the Forerunner technology that Fred had seen on Onyx, its cool metallic facing was highlighted with wisps of iridescent blue light. To the right of the doorway was a single control panel that was illuminated by a single red light, it did not take much imagination for Fred to figure out that the door was locked.
"Linda, go and get Dr. Halsey. We'll have to see if she knows a way to bypass the security system."
Linda acknowledged the order and darted off towards the camp as fast as she could.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:13 AM PDT

Part 6

May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)

John stood silent for several minutes, staring at the ancient figure before him. Cortana was the first to overcome her own amazement and asked the chief to move forward towards one of the many panels that were located around the chamber.
Once they were close enough, Cortana moved from the relative safety of John's armour and into the Forerunner computer. From here she was able to fully appreciate the technology involved.
Unlike her previous attempts to circumvent the running software, she was now able to access almost every area of the computer. The only area that eluded her curious grasp was the impressive weapon system that both Reach and Earth could have used in their defence. Instead Reach had fallen and had taken many Human and Covenant lives in the process, and Earth had been saved after good fortune had broken the Covenant in two providing the UNSC with a valuable ally.
But that was why Cortana chose John as her operations platform, because of his good fortune.
Cortana suddenly appeared on the computer console as a hologram.
"Chief don't go anywhere, I'm going to have a look at the data stored in the Forerunner system," said Cortana
"And here was me, planning a vacation." Replied John with a sarcastic tone
Cortana tilted her illuminated head and stared at John with a small smile on her face. "Funny chief, very funny,"

John carefully walked around the chamber, avoiding the many cables that lead to the Forerunner sat in the throne like chair. He was unsure if the figure was encased within some form of stasis field or if the cables were ferrying a level of energy that would fry his Mjonir armour.
It seemed odd to John that this ancient being was so exposed. There was no sign of a monitor, and none of the sentinels were active. The events on the previous Halo's and the Ark should have initiated or activated something here. The presence of the Flood on the Ark and Earth should have done something, but instead a Forerunner shield world was here in plain sight with a dormant or inactive defence system.
But then John remembered. Forerunner technology and the puzzles and questions associated with them were never a simple thing that you could explain away at random. There was always something around the corner that you had not taken into account.
"Chief!" shouted Cortana
John quickly moved back to where the computer console and Cortana were.
"What is it?"
"I've found the Library in the system," she replied
"Like the one from the Halo's?"
"Yes, but I can access this one remotely and there is more information here than anyone could ever imagine." Cortana explained
"Like what?" enquired John
"All of their history, and I mean everything." Said Cortana with an excited tone


November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

Linda returned to the camouflaged doorway with the doctor in tow, her heavy technical case was being carried by Kelly.
Despite the weight of the case, her speed had not in anyway been affected. It was as though she was carrying a box full of air.
Dr. Halsey stopped at the edge of the field and placed her hands on her hips until she caught her breath. Even when her Spartans moved slower than usual it was still hard to keep up with them.
The area in front of her was noticeably different, but only because she knew where to look and what it was.
The Covenant version of the active camouflage system was very similar to this Forerunner version and it was possible that the Covenant had probably adapted the alien technology at point in the past.
Catherine had seen its deadly effectiveness from the surveillance footage taken by her Spartans on operational deployments, and the terrified first-hand accounts of survivors. But this version just seemed more polished than the Covenant version; the spatial distortion around the edge of the field was not as great as that on the Covenant system. If her Spartans were to be equipped with this kind of technology they would be even more deadly.

After a brief look at the surrounding area, Catherine slowly walked into the camouflaged field and was immediately greeted with the Forerunner doorway and a pair of inquisitive Spartans, in this case Fred and Olivia.
The door was typical of the type of the technology that she had seen before. The switch to the right of the entrance was illuminated by a single red light, an obvious indication that it was locked.
Kelly set down the technical case next to Dr. Halsey and backed away slowly so she could watch her work. The Spartans were faster and stronger than any other Human but they were always dumbfounded when watching the doctor perform technical miracles.
Catherine pulled three, multi-coloured coax cables from the case and attached them to face of the switch. After several minutes of adjustments and a flurry of command inputs on her data pad, the light changed from red to green.
The Spartans quickly moved Catherine and her equipment away from the entrance and readied themselves for some much needed exploration.
Fred pressed the switch and the two sections of the door silently parted, before they cautiously entered the shell of the Dyson-sphere.


May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)

John cautiously waited as Cortana trawled through the immense wealth of information that was now available. Her glowing skin was covered in the usual collection of unrecognisable hieroglyphs, except this time they were racing across her at an unbelievable speed.
John quickly realised that the amount of information that she was processing was far greater than he had initially imagined.

"Cortana." Asked John
No answer came from her as she increased the speed of her processing until her blue body became a mind-numbing blur.
"Cortana!" bellowed John
Cortana rapidly shifted from her previous pace of processing to a more familiar gentle glide of blue lines and shapes. The expression on her face conveyed the depth of data that was now available to her.
"What have you found?" asked John in a relaxed tone
Cortana's eyes repeatedly darted left and right, as though reading some invisible lexicon of information. Eventually she refocused on John, who was standing expectantly in front of the main Forerunner console.
"The amount of data here chief is beyond imagining," Cortana struggled to convey the information she was now in possession of. "I know everything about the Forerunners. Their history, the Flood and the wars they fought."
"Wars?" enquired John "How many times did they fight the Flood?"
"They weren't at war with just the Flood there was another enemy, before the Flood. It was because of this old enemy that they created the Flood, to fight for the Forerunners not against them." She explained
"I think you should start at the beginning."

"Over three million years ago the Forerunners were at war with an equally advanced species that they simply called "The Enemy".
But this enemy was different to the Forerunners, even though both sides possessed advanced technology, The Enemy had the ability to partially adapt to possible threats. Their bodies and the armour they wore were capable of absorbing or deflecting some forms of energy, kinetic force and even deadly viral infections."
Cortana paused briefly as though catching her breath, even though she had no need for oxygen.
"The Forerunners didn't create the Flood by accident they made them to fight. The Flood are capable of killing and infecting even the hardiest of defenders, and they proved to be too much for this enemy."
"So what happened to this enemy?" John asked
"I don't know. A lot of the entries that are present in the library have been corrupted by the amount of time that has passed since this planet was constructed, and there other areas that I can't access because of this. The same goes for the sensor systems and the camouflage technology."
"So what's this planet for?"
"At first I thought that this world was a prototype, designed to fight the Flood, but it's not. This planet was designed and built as a defence platform, to be used against the Forerunners old enemy, a good old fashioned fortress or outpost. But instead of a world surrounded by ships and orbital platforms, the Forerunners have gone a step further and enveloped the entire planet in a kind of camouflage so that it wouldn't be found in the first place."

John began to think of the possibilities of the technology available here. If Humanity had discovered a world like this during the war, then a lot of lives would have been saved.
"If this was a world built to fight thisenemy, then does that mean the Flood won't be contained here?"
"I'm not sure chief; they were present on every other Forerunner structure. But then the Halo's were designed with the Flood in mind and their research program was continued until the very last moment. Then the rings were fired all those years ago." Replied Cortana

  • 03.17.2009 3:16 AM PDT

John looked over at the pale faced Forerunner at the centre of the room, his stillness made John somewhat uneasy.
"What about him?"
"Before they used autonomous monitors, the Forerunners facilities were guarded and maintained by live members of their society. At the time it was the most reliable method of ensuring the operational status of wherever they were." She explained
"So how do we wake him up?"
"We can't chief, he's in some kind of temporal stasis field. By all accounts he's not even in this room; he's separated from us by a bubble of slip-space. However, if the computer system was running properly I could probably access his monitoring directive, and speak to him.
"If the systems on this world are so corrupted, why has the monitor not dispatched a couple of sentinels to fix them?" John enquired
"I don't know, he either doesn't want to or he's unable." Replied Cortana

Cortana closed her eyes and went into another blur of processing, her skin made for a dizzying sight. After several minutes passed she returned with a way to solve their dilemma.
"I could re-boot the whole system that should fix most of the glitches and reset the security and sensor directives."
"You want to re-boot a planet?" said John with a hint of sarcasm
"I know it sounds extreme, but it may be our best way of finding out where we are."
"Do it." Stated John
Cortana closed her eyes again and then the lights suddenly dimmed. A faint vibration emanated from beneath Johns feet, but it was nothing of concern. Then everything suddenly went dark.

John activated his night vision and he could see the rest of the room again, but Cortana had vanished from sight. He was suddenly filled with concern once again.
But as quickly as the darkness had descended it was immediately lifted and room was illuminated once again and Cortana reappeared at the computer console.
"Re-boot completeall systems onlinedefence program activesensors activearchive active. Everything's back on chief now we can find out exactly where we-" Cortana cut off in mid conversation and looked around as though scanning the massive data files once more.
"What is it?" asked John
"The whole planet wasn't just shielded by a camouflage field; it was immersed in a form of slip-space as well. But the faults that were present in both enabled us to see and land on the planet. But there were rips and tears in the field that distorted everything. That was why I was only activated at the last minute instead of from a safe distance. The sensors that I had working on the Forward unto Dawn were unable to detect the planet, but we entered through one of the slip-space gaps. After that everything was distorted, time, space everything." Explained Cortana with a tone of excitement
"So what does that mean?"
"We weren't drifting in space for 314 years chief. We were only out there for twenty four days." Replied Cortana
John felt something that he had not felt for a long time, happiness. Earth would still be there and there was hope once more for his team to be alive.

"What about our location?" asked John
"Scanning," Cortana moved a flurry of speed again before continuing "There is a vast network of levels and chambers all over the planet, but each weapons platform is separate from the rest and is independently powered. We are four levels down but this chamber goes down another thirty levels."
"How far is Earth?"
"Unfortunately Earth is over sixty thousand light years from here, but if we can find a ship there should be no reason why we can't get back in good time, especially with Forerunner technology."
"Then let's get going. We have a ship to find." Replied John
"Wait chief, there's an alarm in the system-the internal sensors have detected something,"
"What?" said John
"Us!" replied Cortana
Cortana activated the display screen at the end of the chamber which showed the corridor where the sentinel hatches were located. All of them were open and hundreds of the single-eyed drones were hurtling in their direction.
"Let's prepare a worthy welcome for our guests then." Stated John as he readied his assault rifle and pulled out the last of his grenades.

To be continued...

  • 03.17.2009 3:17 AM PDT

Part 7

November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)


Fred took a few cautious steps forward into the interior of the doorway. He half expected to be struck down with some ancient weapon from a waiting sentinel, but instead there was nothing but silence.
The doorway opened onto a small platform which had a solid wall on the right, and what appeared to be a single large pane of glass on the left. The route ahead moved from the small platform and steadily descended down a ramp and round to the left.
Behind him Dr. Halsey was attempting to squeeze through the wall of Spartans in an effort to see what lay beyond the doorway, but none of the Spartans, new or old, would let her past. Her curiosity was getting the better of her and she needed answers quickly, if she was to open the Cryo-tubes.

Fred was in two minds as to who should take point. Olivia was quick and as stealthy as a cat, but Fred's Mjolnir armour was able to withstand more punishment, should they run into trouble. In the end he took on the responsibility himself and pushed ahead, following the ramp down into the interior of the Dyson sphere.
Linda and Olivia cautiously followed him in, weapons at the ready, whilst Kelly and the doctor were told to wait at the entrance, in case they needed any assistance.
The corridor descended steadily for several levels and it appeared no different to the bowels of Onyx that they had explored only a few days earlier. The unusual glass-like material gave way to another solid wall as they reached another sub-level, where the corridor ended, blocked by another door. But this time it was unlocked.
"Obviously the Forerunners thought that no one would penetrate the outer door." Fred whispered to himself
Fred felt more comfortable with their progress and was now happy to send Olivia forward to investigate the area beyond the door. She acknowledged with a simple nod, and quietly crept towards the end of the corridor.
Olivia was more than familiar by now with the motion sensors on the Forerunner doorways. She knew where the sensing area was and remained just beyond its detection. The last thing that she wanted to do was bound into the next room only to be confronted by a Covenant army or something worse.

In the time that they had spent on this shield world, Olivia, along with the rest of the Spartans, had been privy to a wealth of information that Dr. Halsey had divulged with them. During her transit towards Onyx, the doctor had procured an updated intelligence report on their war with the Covenant, which she later shared with the rest of the stranded group. But it was the report on John's encounter with the ring-like structure that had created the greatest amount of interest, especially with the newer Spartans.
To them, John seemed to be twice as big and twice as fast as the rest of the SPARTAN II's, but Kelly often reminded them it was her that was the fastest, although she couldn't deny that John was indeed an exceptional soldier.
His previous actions had no doubt caused serious problems within the Covenant, and their relentless march of conquest had faltered as a result. But now they were on Earth, attempting to destroy the very heart of Humanity.
For Olivia the Invasion of Earth was literally light-years away, and the Covenant had never overly concerned her, despite her age. Even the Hunters were just another target.
It was the other species from the ring that had made her skin crawl. The Flood, they were different to the Covenant and Humanity in every way. To them it did not matter whose side you were on. You were just food, just another host to an organism with an unending appetite for all who stood in their way.

Olivia slowly moved into the sensor range, and the door silently opened.
Inside was an empty chamber, about fifty metres in diameter and at the centre of the room were a control panel and a holographic plinth. The surrounding walls were arched in towards the centre point of the ceiling, where a small inverted dome was located.
Olivia moved further inside, followed by Fred and Linda. They quickly checked the area and surmised that the room was empty, save for the control panel and an isolated lift at the far end of the chamber.
Fred walked up to the panel and gazed at the alien symbols floating across its display. He was compelled to press one of the symbols, but without a good understanding of the language, he could accidentally activate some sort of self-destruct sequence.
Fred activated the secure COM channel and selected Kelly's ID on the network menu.
"Kelly, bring Dr. Halsey down, I have something she needs to see."


May 18th 2866 (Location Unknown)


John dived out of the way of the nearest sentinel beam, which scorched the metal floor where he was stood only seconds before. He rolled to the side, rose up on one knee and fired a short burst from his assault rifle. The sentinel exploded, showering half a dozen of the Forerunner automatons with shrapnel, which in turn fell from the air, damaged by the explosion of their comrade.
These older sentinels were proving an easier target, as they were not equipped with any form of shielding. They were also less maneuverable than their more up to date counterparts from the halo structures, but there hundreds of them and they were all after a single target, John.
John glanced over at Cortana, who by now was busily sifting through the security directive in an effort to stall or stop the attack.
Another glaring beam struck out at John, but he rolled back behind the cover of the Main computer console.
"Cortana any time is good, but now would be better!" yelled John
Another wave of sentinels fired their beam weapons at the console, causing significant damage. John returned fire and another three sentinels fell to the floor in a broken heap.
John grabbed his last grenade and set the fuse to 1 second, pulled the pin and threw it at the mass of hovering sentinels, causing a chain reaction of explosions as it detonated. The sentinels, as though startled by this display of determination, cautiously back away from the chamber before re-grouping and attacking in pairs, in an attempt to outflank the target.
John replied with another thunderous volley of weapons fire from his assault rifle, downing the first two pairs.
The third and fourth pair continued their advance, firing as they moved.
John darted left then right, narrowly avoiding the superheated beams as they carved a smouldering scar in the floor and nearby wall.

"Got it!" shouted Cortana
All of the sentinels suddenly stopped firing, and then slowly glided off towards the large corridor where their hatches were located.
John carefully rose up from behind the damaged computer console, watching the sentinels as they disappeared from view.
"I take it you found the security directive," said John
"It wasn't easy chief, the Forerunner was trying everything to stop me from overriding the system." Replied Cortana
John looked back at the Forerunner in the chair; his pale, comatose appearance had been replaced by a face filled with life and activity. Somehow he looked younger than before.
"What did you do to him?" asked John
"Nothing serious, I just demoted him to monitoring a non-essential system on one of the deeper sub-levels. But he now knows that we're not here to harm him or the facility."
"How did you convince him?
"I just told him the truth, that you were a Reclaimer."
John looked back at Cortana with interest. "I've heard this title over and over from the monitors of Halo, but what does it mean?"
"When the Forerunners were at war with "The Enemy", they created numerous different species in an effort to continue their legacy, should things go horribly wrong. Humanity was one of those species, and the structure on Earth was there as a reminder of the Forerunners history, along with a library, so that Humanity would be able to take their place when the time was right." Explained Cortana
John moved closer to Cortana before asking another question.
"So what about the Covenant?" John enquired.
"Just the same, but with different DNA." replied Cortana
"So Humanity and the Covenant are just like two children from the same family, fighting for recognition." Stated John
"In a way." Replied Cortana with a surprised expression, as though stunned by John's take on the whole situation. "I suppose that's one way you could put it."

Suddenly the lights dimmed again and the pale-blue lines throughout the room changed to a striking red.
"Cortana?" asked John
Cortana spoke briefly before a look of shock filled her blue face, "Nothing to do with me chief, the systems just wentoh my,"
"What is it?"
"The whole planet has just gone into some kind of lockdown, and the weapon systems are now online," Cortana glared at a blank area of space in front of her, as though she was scanning the system again. "I thought that's what I saw."
"Saw what Cortana?" said John loudly
"There's an enemy ship in orbit, it arrived only a few seconds ago."
"Which enemy?" asked John with a curious tone
Cortana came back with an answer that he did not expect, "The Enemy, the Forerunners enemy!"

To be continued



  • 03.17.2009 3:19 AM PDT

Part 8


November 7th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

Catherine ran down the ramp with so much enthusiasm that she almost fell flat on her face, her arms and legs seemed to cartwheel in an uncoordinated fashion as the gradient of the ramp took hold. Even Kelly was surprised by the doctors sudden burst of speed.
The open chamber where Fred, Olivia and Linda were located was illuminated by a single soft light, emanating from a small dome at the centre of the ceiling. Everything else in the chamber seemed unusually dark apart from the computer console which was covered by the bright alien symbols.
Fred had maintained his distance from the console, so as not to be tempted by curiosity to press anything and accidentally activate some archaic system or thousands of Forerunner sentinels. The last thing they needed was an active threat especially with the doctor around.
Catherine bounded into the chamber with Kelly not far behind, the doctors eyes suddenly widened with barely subdued excitement. Kelly had thought that the whole planet should have been under a giant Forerunner Christmas tree, wrapped in a large red ribbon.

Catherine gazed around the chamber in amazement as though it was her first endeavor into a Forerunner structure, but she was always in awe of the technological feats that were performed by them. They could create whole worlds that would dwarf anything made by the Covenant and their ships could withstand unbelievable damage. Something that Humanity could do with.
Fred snapped the doctor back from her daydream, "Doctor, here's the console."
Catherine cleared her throat with a small cough, trying to regain some of her composure, but her childlike enthusiasm was proving difficult to contain.
"Of course Fred," replied Catherine "Kelly could you bring my case down from the entrance please?"
Kelly nodded and then ran up the slope with her familiar teeth-jarring speed, returning with the heavy carry-case before the doctor had even reached the console.
Catherine stood silently at the console for several minutes before pressing one of the floating symbols on the small holographic display.
The room seemed to dim slightly before a large holographic sphere appeared at the centre of the chamber. To the left of the sphere were eight glowing orbs.
The uppermost orb was brighter than the rest and had a slightly more ornate appearance, whilst the fourth one down glowed less than all the others and was pale red in colour, whereas the remaining ones were all illuminated with a light wash of amber.

Catherine steadily rotated the large sphere and then magnified the image; it quickly became apparent that the sphere was a graphical representation of the world that they were on.
"What are those?" pointed Linda at the smaller orbs.
Catherine reduced the magnification and switched the view to the vertical line of orbs, focusing on the fourth one down. She zoomed in to the orb and then realised that it was not an orb at all, but an illuminated ring.
"It's Halo," stated Catherine "well, it's the one that John destroyed anyway the other orbs must be different Halo's."
"Is this some kind of control room?" interrupted Fred
"No it seems to be more of a map room or navigation chamber, this must be how the Forerunners on this construct monitored or coordinated their planned survival against the Flood."
"But they didn't survive doctor." coughed Olivia.
"No, no they didn't." replied Catherine with a disappointed tone.
"But we will." Voiced Fred

Catherine continued her exploration of the hologram, concentrating on the Dyson-Sphere. So far her venture had only succeeded in locating the sections responsible for the power grid, and the artificial star at the centre. The system and the planet were vast in size and a lot of time would be wasted looking for a control room or something similar, even a maintenance room would have sufficed, but Catherine was have no luck in finding either.
"I sure wish Cortana was here." Catherine whispered to herself.



March 27th 2553 (Location unknown)

John was thrown onto the floor as the structure seemed to lurch and heave beneath his feet. Cortana activated the view screen at the end of the chamber and the image of an unfamiliar ship appeared.
Unlike all of the Forerunner designs that John had seen before, this craft was more angular in appearance with a series of sharp angled facets on its exposed ventral side. It looked dark and heavily armoured, as though Humans had attempted to build a Covenant capital ship with the UNSC's entire collection of Titanium, but this was much, much bigger.
Along each side of the ship were a series of pylons and pod like structures, all arrayed on something faintly reminiscent of a delta wing, which gave the ship an eerie but deadly appearance.
"That's the Forerunners enemy?" shouted John in the drowning noise.
"Yes, it must have been alerted to the planet's location when I reactivated the systems. All of the nearside weapons platforms are preparing to fire at the alien vessel."
John regained his balance only to be thrown to the floor a second time when the Forerunner weapons fired. He glanced at the display which showed the alien ship rolling to the side, narrowly avoiding the initial barrage. It returned fire with bright lances of green fire, striking a weapons pylon only 20 miles away.
The ground heaved again with another volley, but this time the barrage found its mark.
Six streaks of blue lightning impacted on the belly of the alien ship, causing its hull to ripple with a series of cascading explosions. Amazingly the ship was still functioning and replied with another deadly lance of green fire, but this time it was much closer to the structure where John and Cortana were.
John thought that the thunderous sound of the blast and the immense vibrations shooting beneath his feet foretold of his imminent death, but somehow the structure survived the detonation. But as they view the carnage outside on the view screen both Cortana and John could see that the surrounding mountains of sand were now molten shapes of glittering glass, and there was no sign of the Pelican.

The Forerunner weapons fired a third time, but this time there was no reply from the alien vessel. Instead its damaged shape started to list violently before slowly succumbing to the gravity well of the planet.
Cortana maintained her observation of the mammoth-sized ship as it plunged through the atmosphere, on a dreadfully close trajectory towards the ground.
"Chief, I'd hold on to something!" yelped Cortana
John ran over to an area near the dormant Forerunner in the throne-like chair and wedged his armoured shape into a gap between the consoles, where his maintained an iron-like grip on the opposing bench.
John watched with gritted teeth as the ship pulled up at the last moment from its steep descent, but the momentum proved too much and the ship's great belly splashed on the surface, before rolling over a dozen times in a corkscrew effect until it came to rest with a broken back.
The resulting impact had shaken the chamber they were in and the empty cases that were scattered around on the metal floor had been forced to dance and skip with the vibration. In any other situation the sound of the spent cases jumping around on the floor would have been deafening, but the crashing ship was doing a much better job of destroying John's eardrums.
The sound filtering system in his Mjolnir armour was doing its best to drown out the sound, but the intensity of volume being emitted was too much.

  • 03.17.2009 3:21 AM PDT

Once the dust and molten glass had settled, Cortana magnified the image of the broken vessel. She was amazed that the battered ship had survived the crash relatively intact, save for the huge tear across its dorsal section. Cortana knew that a ship of that size and mass with the damage inflicted by the Forerunner weapon system should have been shattered, but here she was looking at a shape that still resembled a space faring vessel.
Cortana expected to see nothing further from the smoldering hulk, but she was alarmed when she saw movement.
At first it was difficult to make out, but then the familiar shape of something humanoid became increasingly apparent. And then she saw another and another, until there were twelve dark figures moving slowly but menacingly towards the facility.
John shook his dazed and spinning head and then slowly pulled himself up, propping himself against one of the consoles until he regained his balance.
Cortana followed the slow deliberate approach of the dark figures until they were at the entrance where they had previously entered. Immediately several antenna-like protrusions extended from around the doorway before striking out at the figures with bright blue arcs of fire.
The light display was immense and Cortana was forced to reduce the brightness of the screen so she could still she what was happening.
Only one of the figures had fallen from the fire, smoke rising from its seared torso, but the rest continued on into the doorway before silencing the Forerunner security system with their own weapons.
Several seconds later an explosion ripped open the large heavy door and the remaining eleven humanoids walked steadily inside.
It was only here that both she and John were able to make out enough detail of the walking figures, they were all wearing some kind power armour similar to John's but obviously capable of receiving a great deal more damage than any form of Mjolnir suit.
Cortana strained at the image, "I'm sending in the sentinels."
John glanced over at Cortana and then back at the dark figures, several seconds later hundreds of sentinels opened fire at the strolling aliens.
Unlike John's initial fight with the automated guardians in the narrow entrance way to the chamber, where he could channel them, these aliens were in a much wider corridor.
John could probably have parked two or three Scorpion tanks sided by side and still have room to walk around them.
There was no cover, not that the aliens sought any. It was as though they were oblivious to the threat of the sentinels.
Then one of the figures fell to the storm of fire, and then another and another, before the aliens returned fire at the metallic swarm. In one single retaliatory blast over a hundred sentinels dropped from the air, damaged beyond repair by a zigzagging streak of green lightning.
One after the other the rest of the aliens opened fire at the sentinels until all of them were lying in a smoldering heap on the scorched metal floor.

Cortana immediately looked over at John, "I think you better go chief."
"And go where exactly?" he replied
A faint wash of panic and then frustration covered Cortana's glowing face, "Damn you're stubborn," Muttered Cortana "very well I'm securing all of the doors and walkways on this level and the ones above, it should buy us some time."
John collected all of his weapons and ammunition that he had left from his battle with the sentinels.
In all he had 83 rounds from his assault rifle, 97 rounds for the battle rifle, 1 Lotus anti-tank mine, an M6C magnum with 18 rounds and an M19 SSM rocket launcher with 2 rockets.
On any other day and against any other enemy john would have had a field day, even against the Covenant. But here he had to admit it, these aliens, this enemy of the Forerunners was something entirely different.
John laid all of his weapons on the floor behind the consoles that were in the middle of the room, and placed the Lotus mine near the locked doorway. If he was to inflict any significant damage he had to make sure that the majority of the aliens were well inside the chamber before he could remotely detonate the mine.
A dull explosion sounded from above them, "Hurry chief!" warned Cortana.

John glanced around the chamber at the walls and the floor, trying to think of some way to slow the aliens down. There were several of the damaged sentinels lying on the floor
"What sort of power source do these sentinels have?" asked John
"A form of plasma fusion, why?"
John smiled inside his helmet, "I think I've just found some more mines."
As fast as he could, John carefully extracted the fusion cores from the fallen sentinels and connected them all to a damaged power conduit in the wall.
Once he was ready he stood behind the nearest row of computer terminals and consoles. In his hand he held the rocket launcher, with his battle rifle secured on his back and the pistol on his mag-plated thigh.
Another explosion echoed inside the structure, but this one was much closer. John double checked his weapons a fourth time and waited.

A further explosion sounded, but this one ripped open the chamber door, sending broken sections of the door in all directions. John ducked just in time as the main bulk of the fragmented door flew just over his head.
John quickly recovered and aimed at the nearest alien, before squeezing the firing trigger on the M19 rocket launcher.

To be continued...

  • 03.17.2009 3:22 AM PDT

Part 9


March 27th 2553 (Location unknown)


A deep pop echoed from the front of the rocket launcher as the solid propellant was ignited, and the four retaining pins were released.
For a split second it seemed as though the launcher was faulty, until the quiet pop was replaced by a deafening roar as the rocket screamed towards the nearest alien.
The rocket hit the alien square in the face, and exploded with enough force to destroy a Warthog. As a result it was thrown against the nearest wall, landing with a bone shattering crunch.
Despite the direct hit to the face, which was now a semi-molten blob, the main bulk of the alien had somehow remained intact.
John had previously turned Covenant Wraith tanks and the lumbering Hunters into smouldering wrecks in his encounters, with successive hits from a rocket launcher. But here was an alien no bigger than himself, clad in some kind of power armour that, despite being dead, still had all of its limbs attached after being hit by an M19.

Just as the launcher had completed its automatic re-load of the second and last rocket, John turned to the next alien in line and squeezed the trigger.
Even with knowledge of the outcome, the alien made no attempt to evade its impending demise, and as a result it was thrown against the wall, knocking two of its comrades onto the floor that fell directly on top of the string of fusion cores.
John dived to the floor, behind the Forerunner computer terminal just as Cortana activated a power surge in the damaged conduit. The line of sentinel cores exploded in a blinding display of light, sending two more of the aliens to their deaths, but that still left another four.

John popped his head above the computer terminal to see where they were stood, but this time they had stopped, as though assessing the effectiveness of their new threat. All John needed was for them walk forward another metre or so and they would be directly next to the LOTUS anti-tank mine.
John frowned in his helmet, staring at the dark figures. "What are they doing?"
"I think they're trying to figure you out, see how much of a threat you are. Three hundred sentinels couldn't stop them but one Spartan seems to be more of a handful." Examined Cortana
Just as Cortana finished her sentence, one of the aliens raised its black gauntlet at John and a strange fizzing sound filled the chamber.
"Get down!" warned Cortana.
John fired a quick burst from his BR55 Battle rifle as he dived for cover, but the brief storm of bullets did little to deter the alien.
A second later and the room was filled with cascading bolts of iridescent green light. The computer terminal took most of the blast, but the alien energy seemed to worm and slither its way around as though looking for its target. Several smaller strands of lightning sprang from the smoking computer console, striking John and the surrounding area.
His Mjolnir armour seemed to flex in the flowing energy, as if it was being slowly pulled apart and then he heard a distinctive pop as his shields failed.
Bright pin-pricks of pain surged from his legs and arms, followed by waves of intense heat and nausea. John thought he was physically on fire until he managed to open his stinging eyes to see the energy finally dissipating.
"Chief!" yelled Cortana "The mine!"
John pulled his aching head up and around the computer terminal to see the remaining aliens slowly lumbering forward, into the killing radius of the anti-tank mine.

With his body still reeling from the energy weapon, John reached over and grabbed the LOTUS remote firing trigger. The pistol grip sized device was illuminated by a single display that read "SAFE" in bright green letters.
John toggled the switch and the previous display was changed to "ARMED" in a menacing red glow, before he pressed the spring loaded trigger.
The anti-tank mine shattered like glass before exploding, sending three of the aliens in all directions, one of which was struck by the shaped charge. The fourth was thrown against the nearest terminal followed by a storm of fist sized mine fragments.
John slowly pulled himself upright and then felt a warm wet trickle on his top lip, he tasted blood. The alien attack and the succession of explosions without his shields had caused several small blood vessels to burst, it was nothing serious but his head was aching and his limbs felt as though they had be pulled off and re-attached by a blind field surgeon.
The chamber that was previously immaculate and quiet was now covered in small fragments of metal and debris. Along the floor and walls near the entrance were several charred blast marks where the fusion cores and the LOTUS mine had been.
The darkly armoured figures were spread around the room in a varying degree of rag-doll poses, as though a giant hand had just thrown them around.
The nearest alien, slumped against the terminal, was the only one that still looked completely intact, save for a small pot-marked area on its back.
John was taking no chances and levelled his Battle rifle at the aliens head.
The alien suddenly turned to face John, arms raised, knocking the weapon from his hands. Now that he was closer John could make out far more detail of the dark armour than before.
The head was a series of angled plates or panels with two red slit-shaped eyes that were devoid of pupils or anything similar, but it looked as though this was part of the armour and not the aliens' eyes.
The mouth area was another collection of angled plates as was the majority of the armour, but unlike the rest of its bulkier body, the arms seemed thinner almost insect like in nature with a single row of small jagged barbs where each elbow was located.
John had seen enough, and powered a single fist as hard as he could into the aliens' angled face.
Initially the dark material that covered the helmet seemed to absorb the impact like sponge, but then he felt resistance and the alien helmet crumpled, sending the alien sliding along the hard metal floor before coming to a stop next to the rest of its dead comrades.
John surveyed the scene before him and silently counted his blessings.
When he had fought against the Covenant and even the Flood, John had simply done what was required to achieve his mission and to survive, and even though his experience with the Flood was somewhat unpleasant he always saw them as an opponent that could be defeated.
But this enemy of the Forerunners was something else entirely. They had easily destroyed hundreds of sentinels and breached the armoured exterior of the facility in a matter of minutes.
He had been lucky this time, exceptionally lucky. A few more of the aliens and the situation would have quickly become more than difficult.
John thought about Cortana's warning for him to escape before the aliens reached the chamber, he could understand her concern. If anything happened to him she would be stranded here, without the ability to physically move around, but worse than that she would be alone.
John looked over at her and Cortana turned to meet his gaze, her usually calm appearance had changed to something else. Her eyes, despite being a holographic projection based on the interpretation of data from her core, showed more emotion than usual, they showed relief.
She had gone from his friend and guide to an electronic surrogate, concerned for her distant child. But John recognised this look; it was the same anxious stare that Dr Halsey had displayed when he returned from his first combat mission.
"Cortana, you remember when I said next time let's try something harder?"
"Yes."
"I was joking." Replied John

  • 03.17.2009 3:25 AM PDT

November 10th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

Catherine peered over the rim her glasses at the large revolving hologram; her eyes were dry and stinging with fatigue.
She had spent three long days searching the schematics of the sphere for something that would help them, anything that would provide them with the proverbial key for unlocking the Cryo-tubes. But that was not their only concern.
Despite the apparent safety from the Covenant and anyone else they were still stranded, without a means of transport they would be staying here for the rest of their lives.
With that in mind Catherine had included anything that resembled a ship or hangar bay along with another slip-space portal.
Kelly walked up and handed over a steaming cup of coffee, "Here doctor, drink this."
The ration-pack coffee was the only thing that was keeping her awake at the moment, along with the occasional nudge from Chief Mendez.

The chief had made his way inside after Catherine's' first day of searching had turned up nothing of interest; the only thing that peaked her enthusiasm was the environmental controls for the Dyson sphere. Here she could change the temperature and weather of the habitable area to suit their needs. This was presumably for accelerating the growth of the vegetation that covered all that they could see.
Mendez glanced up at the doctor as she hugged the hot cup in her hands, his eyes stood out in the pale light, "You should take a rest."
Catherine slowly stood up with a jaw-dislocating yawn and removed her glasses, folding them away into her lab coat.
She briefly rubbed her eyes before joining Chief Mendez at the other end of the room, where the lift shaft was located.

The decision to place a sentry at the lift had been Fred's idea, but everyone knew it was just another way of giving a group of hardened soldiers something to do, to keep their minds focused as much as possible.
Catherine sat down on one of the small logistical cases.
She lifted the hot cup to her nose, smelling the coffee.
The strong smell was a welcomed break from the surgically sterilized environment that was now their home. Even the flowers outside were almost odourless.
The Forerunners had been the most advanced species in the known universe at one time, and they had achieved what the Covenant could only dream of.
They could create entire planets, build moon-sized ring-worlds and had the ability manipulate space-time. "If only they had mastered the coffee bean," Thought Catherine.
She took a small sip, savoring the strong taste.
Despite originally being a tea drinker Catherine had acquired a taste for coffee, or that's what she kept telling herself.
Her research work on Reach, including the SPARTAN II program had required long hours of work and constant confrontations with the military, especially those that wanted to shut her work down, Ackerson being the primary pain in the ass. So coffee became the main source of fuel in her work.
She took another sip of the dark liquid, closing her eyes.
"Doctor," started Mendez "I thought that you had one of those portable AI's with you?"
Catherine looked over at her laptop, where a small pea-sized object was sitting.
"You mean Jerrod? Yes, but unfortunately his matrix is extremely fragile and his power source is limited. I was hoping to save him for a rainy day." Sighed Catherine
Mendez looked around the room, as if looking at their current options, "Begging your pardon ma'am but this seems like a pretty wet day to me."
After a brief pause Catherine agreed, saving Jerrod wouldn't matter if they had no way to get off the Dyson sphere.
She reached over and activated the small pod.
"Good afternoon doctor," said a familiar English accent "How may I be of assistance?"

To be continued...

  • 03.17.2009 3:26 AM PDT

Part 10

March 27th 2553 (Location unknown)


John grabbed the last alien corpse by the leg and dragged it over to the corner of the chamber, where the rest of them were piled like firewood.
The armour again seemed to soften slightly with his grip before hardening. Even when these aliens were dead their armour was still active, as though trying to protect its dead wearer from further harm.

Despite the carnage within the chamber, the Forerunner was completely unharmed, a testament to Cortana's theory that he was not really here in the physical sense. But this did nothing to help John's situation, he was still stranded on an ancient monument to advanced warfare, and although he was not completely certain, John had the distinct feeling that his dark suited opponents would be back and in greater numbers, and that was a problem.
The destruction of the Pelican and his encounter with both the sentinels and the aliens had left him with a severe ammunition and weapon shortage, which meant that his options in dealing with the aliens again would be limited.
"Chief I've been going over your previous engagement, and I think I've found a weakness."
"Go on," prompted John.
"The aliens seem to demonstrate an amazing resilience to energy weapons, such as the ones used by the Forerunners and the sentinels, but they were less protected by your attack," Explained Cortana "That's probably why they were assessing you before they attacked."
"So their armour is specifically designed to repel energy weapons, if so then why were they still in one piece when I used the M19?"
"Their power armour seems to be aimed at protecting them from Forerunner weapons in particular, but they will obviously have some inherent resistance to kinetic-based combat or weaponry," said Cortana looking at the dead aliens "That's why the M19 was more effective than the sentinel attack, and it's probably the same reason why your close encounter with the remaining alien was also more effective, they have a weakness to kinetic attacks." Stated Cortana with a smile
"But that means one thing"
"I know chief, every encounter with them, unless you have something more powerful than a Battle rifle, will mean hand to hand combat." Interrupted Cortana

John looked around the already familiar chamber, trying to think of the next step that they should take. Whatever he was going to do it would have to incorporate a method of fighting a technologically superior enemy, and a means to reach Earth.
In hindsight, the one positive aspect to fighting the Covenant had been that although they were more advanced than Humanity, they could still be killed with a rifle and a handful of grenades. Failing that John could still tackle them in hand to hand combat, even the Elites were not as skilled or as quick as a Spartan.
But the encounter with the alien's weaponry had left John with some serious doubts. In one attack a single energy weapon had completely depleted his shields and it had severely tested his Mjolnir armour, and his own physical endurance. And that was with the computer terminal taking most of the attack. A direct would surely kill or permanently injure him. It was then that the memory of an old friend surged back into his thoughts.
John cast his mind back to his training on Reach, and to one of his most promising scouts, Fhajad.
Fhajad was naturally adept at tracking any individual regardless of the conditions, and he was an excellent scout. John had hoped to utilise his skills after they were fully trained, but unfortunately he never got the chance. Unlike the majority of the trainees Fhajad's body rejected the augmentation process and shortly after he succumbed to the onset of Parkinson's disease.
It was the image of Fhajad in a wheel chair that disturbed John the most, something he wanted to avoid, but he had to admit, these aliens were far more formidable than the Covenant had ever been.

The memory of Fhajad set off a sequence of memories of his other friends; some had been killed in action and were long gone. But the fates of some Spartans in particular were simply a mystery to him.
Fred, Will, Kelly and Linda had become the closest thing to a family that he had, but it had been months since he last saw them, and John's return to Reach after the Covenant had taken the planet seemed more like years. Even his brief reunion with Dr Halsey was a distant memory.
It seemed to John, now more than ever, that Cortana was probably the only thing keeping him sane, in a time of madness and overwhelming uncertainty.

John glanced over at Cortana who, by now, had returned to trawling the vast library at her disposal. "Cortana can you detect any more ships?"
She briefly glanced at the ceiling of the chamber before coming back with an answer, "No, according to the sensors there's nothing within a radius of thirty four thousand light years, and even then all I'm seeing is a distant Covenant outpost, less than four hundred personnel."
John stared in amazement, "You can see that?"
"I can see a lot of things, but the further out I go the less detail I can see." Replied Cortana
John suddenly realised the opportunities available to them, "What about Earth?"
Cortana's calm face turned to a look of extreme concentration, the lights in the chamber dimmed as she did everything in her power to see Earth in as much detail as possible.
Her skin became a blur.
"I can only see small areas at a time in detail, there are several vessels in orbit both UNSC and Covenant."
"Brute or Elite?" asked John.
"I can't be certain from this range, but judging from the lack of weapons fire I'd say they're Elite controlled vessels. They appear to be carrying out repairs on several orbital facilities including the few remaining MAC stations." Cortana suddenly smiled "It looks like the Elites are trying to make up for things."
"What about the Arbiter?"
"There's no sign of his ship the Shadow of Intent, it's possible that he may have returned to his home world or that he's simply overseeing the rebuilding phase on a different planet."

Cortana continued to search around, looking at different locations within the Sol system. For the first time in over 30 years all looked well with Humanity.
Inside John was smiling, Cortana had rerouted several systems and the display screen was now showing what she could see. John could finally see for himself that the war was truly over, and that Mankind was rebuilding again.
With that in mind John had to create another mission for himself, he needed something to do, something to strive for, something to achieve. And the aliens that he had encountered were the answer.
"Cortana we need to get to Earth, is there anything on this planet that looks like a ship?"
Cortana shifted her gaze from the deep space search to a more thorough sift inside the vast library database.
She was tempted to copy herself again, to speed up the search process but that would only quicken her advance into rampancy. So instead she opted for a slow laborious search. She had to preserve the few years that she had.
Three and a half minutes passed by before she answered.
"There's a large hangar bay another six levels down, but it's on the other side of this continent. We can reach it by a series of teleporters along the way."
"How long will it take for us to reach Earth?" said John with a hint of anxiety, the last thing he needed was some more time in stasis.
"Just over six hours" came her reply.
"Six hours!" coughed John, "Is that all?"
Cortana quickly realised that John was not able to see what she could see, "The ships that are in the hangar are not designed for long periods of spaceflight, instead they utilise the Forerunner portal system to travel around. We simply activate the portal when we have the ship and fly through. It'll take us directly to Earth."

John looked over at the Forerunner and the pile of aliens on the floor nearby, he wanted to speak directly to the Forerunner and to the aliens, but the situation, as per usual, was conspiring against him. There was simply no time for talking.
Mankind had another problem to deal with, one that they were not yet aware of. John's return would no doubt be a thing of celebration, but he would soon deliver the bad news. The only good thing would be that they would have a Forerunner vessel at their disposal.
"We'd better go."
Cortana nodded and disappeared into her chip before John inserted it back into his armour.
A series of waypoints appeared on his HUD.
After collecting what supplies he had left he steadily jogged out of the chamber, heading for the nearest waypoint.
After his small marathon, John's next stop would be Earth.

  • 03.17.2009 3:28 AM PDT

November 10th 2552 (Forerunner shield world)

It had only taken Jarrod twenty one minutes to locate everything that they needed, but time was short. His matrix and power source only had another seventeen hours of operational life left before they would degrade and eventually fail.
Catherine knew that if the situation was different and she was back in her office on Reach, a simple maintenance session would clear up the problem. Jarrod's matrix was not as refined as Cortana's, and he was not designed with field use in mind. He was a supporting and administrative AI, not a hardened creation intended for long periods of combat.
Despite his shortfalls, Jarrod was still more than capable of carrying out calculations beyond the speed of any human.

Their first stop would be a large chamber eight levels down, where they could finally make a real attempt at opening the Cryo-tubes. After that though, things became far more difficult.
The Forerunners had designed the Dyson-sphere with their final escape in mind. They would not simply turn up on foot; they would instead arrive through a series of much larger portals designed to take any vessel up to the size of a capital ship. After that they would travel around using smaller craft from the hangar that Jarrod had found.
The distance between the chamber and the hanger was over 1100 miles, and despite the presence of several teleporters and automated tram networks in between that would halve the journey, they would still need to cover 584 miles on foot.
For the Spartans this was probably nothing, they could no doubt cover it in a matter of days, but Catherine was no soldier.

After collecting all that they could carry, including the Cryo-tubes Catherine, Chief Mendez and the rest of the Spartans headed for the chamber eight levels below them.
The journey would be long, but as far as Catherine was concerned time was short.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:32 AM PDT

Part 11

The New Age of Truth, following the Great Schism. (In orbit of Suban)

The Arbiter cast his eye over the hard crust of the moon, its small size and cracked surface gave the impression that at any moment, the Shadow of Intent would be engulfed in a storm of debris. But despite its appearance, Suban was a sturdy rock that had withstood several millennia of warfare.
Thousands of years ago Suban had been one of the main focal points for combat. Unlike its more distant partner Quikost, Suban's close elliptical orbit around Sanghelios made it a point of strategic interest, and a scene of some of the fiercest fighting in Sangheili history had ensued as a result.
This of course, as all Sangheili knew, came to be known as The First Age of Conflict, a bitter and destructive war between the Sangheili and the devout San 'Shyuum, who later became the most influential species on the now disbanded council.

A lone Jiralhanae cruiser had maintained a commanding position in the shadow of Suban throughout the Great Schism, but its fortune was now at an end as the shadow of Intent and twelve other ships of various classes, were closing on the heavily damaged vessel.
The cruiser had remained undetected for several hundred cycles, but a single impatient call for assistance from the Jiralhanae commander had alerted several nearby Sangheili warships of its presence, which then proceeded to bombard the cruiser as it sat silently in one of the many craters that covered the surface of Suban.
Only an order from Rtas Vadum to cease fire had prolonged the inevitable.
Although the Shadow of Intent was smaller than most of the other vessels in pursuit, Rtas wanted the kill for himself as did the Arbiter.

For years they had fiercely defended the path of the Great Journey, enforcing the will of the Prophets whenever it was needed.
But now things were different, now the lies were gone and poisonous stench of the Prophets had been driven away.
"Helm get us closer, I want to see the defeat in their eyes." Bellowed Rtas Vadum

The Arbiter looked silently on as his friend and ally pushed the will of his ship and crew in an effort to seek revenge. "No, not revenge," he thought "Justice."
Revenge would solve nothing here, the Arbiter knew that. Although as soon as the conflict had been won on Earth he was tempted to lay in a course for the Jiralhanae home world of Doisac and glass the planet beyond recognition, but his first concern was his people.
Each Arbiter that was chosen rarely survived to see the end of any war. They were instead chosen for exactly the same reason as he was, for suicide missions, a chance to reclaim honour.
He thought it odd that the Prophets could even use such a word as a reason for his current position, but then of course the Prophets had lied. They had lied since the start of the war against the Humans; they had lied about the Forerunner technology and its origin. It seemed that all the Prophets had been good at was lying.
As a result the Covenant had been thrown into turmoil, millions had been killed. Not to mention the cost of fighting the humans.

"Prepare to fire!" ordered Rtas

The Arbiter thought of his old enemy.
They were an odd species but a courageous one, even in defeat they continued to fight. Even when all appeared lost they stood their ground against an enemy that was far greater, both in numbers and firepower.
They were a worthy adversary and were even more valuable as allies, if any species deserved a place in the Covenant and a seat on the council, it was they.
But there was one comrade in particular that was in his thoughts, one soldier who had consistently caused the Covenant the most trouble throughout the conflict, the Spartan that the humans called "Master Chief".

In the early days of the war, Mankind had little to offer in terms of interest, but the stories of "Demons" soon became a topic of conversation among many Sangheili.
At first it was rumored that the Demons were living machines much like the lumbering hulk of a Mgalekgolo. Humanities' own heavy armour.
And for years these stories seemed unfounded, escalating into myth and legend. But then one day a blurred wash of reconnaissance footage was circulated throughout the higher caste members of the Sangheili council. In the short burst of imagery was the now unmistakable shape of a Spartan warrior.
Unlike the many previous encounters with Humans, these soldiers were more resilient in combat and far more effective.
In every documented case given to the council came the same result of every battle involving these Demons, the Covenant lost.
More and more footage surfaced, showing them sweeping aside hordes of Unggoy and Kig-yar. And more alarmingly even Sangheili warriors were being defeated.
The council deemed these Demons a level of heresy above that of a regular Human that they were not to be captured and used for intelligence, examination or sport.
They were to be killed on sight, preferably vaporised.
In all of his time the Arbiter had only seen one Demon, the Master Chief, but previous intelligence reports had suggested that there was more than just one Spartan.

The Arbiter was disturbed from his thoughts as Rtas gave the order to fire, but he only wanted the engines and weapons to be targeted. No doubt so he could board the vessel and seek out his enemy in person.
In the time that he had spent with Rtas, the Arbiter had seen a dramatic change in his behavior.
When the Covenant had invaded Earth and during other encounters with Humans, Rtas had been an ambitious and ruthless warrior.
Many Humans had died at his skillful hands, but the alliance had changed that much to his surprise. He went from a brash and eager commander to a more assured and patient leader.
Since the Great Schism though, many of his old habits had returned, something which was now evident through his half-jawed grin.

The shadow of Intent gently shuddered as a precise volley of plasma was launched at the escaping cruiser, its surface rippled with the impact as the failing shields gave way.
The engines and weapons were hit with ease and the ship suddenly slewed to one side as the previous momentum of its now dead engine room carried it forward.
The ship started to roll.
"Status of the Jiralhanae vessel." Ordered Rtas
"Their weapons and engines are destroyed, but they have minimal life support and the majority of their gravity plating is intact." informed Kelic Til, the Operations officer.

Like many of the crew Kelic was young, but his actions in several previous battles had seen him promoted in rank more than once in just a short space of time.
He was a reliable and steadfast warrior who had been more than happy to help end the reign of the Jiralhanae.
"Good," Gleamed Rtas "I'm not one for floating around in combat, but they won't need their life support for much longer."
A quiet murmur of approval sounded around Rtas.
Rtas turned to face the Arbiter, "I would be honoured if you would join me in boarding the cruiser Arbiter."
The Arbiter looked at the twisted form of the cruiser on the display screen, several large chunks of metal and even some of the superstructure was floating away from the hull, she was heavily damaged.
Even though not a single escape pod was launched, evidence that they were still eager to fight.
"No Rtas, the honour is mine." Smiled the Arbiter as he activated his energy sword

The light of the blade filled the bridge with a deceptively soothing wash of Cyan.
"Then let us finish this war." Replied Rtas
The Arbiter followed Rtas and several other Sangheili out of the bridge, towards the hangar decks.

The hangar bay of the Shadow of Intent was filled with Soldiers all wearing their full armour. There were even several Sangheili warriors dressed in honour guard uniforms.
The hall of warriors roared and cheered as Rtas and the Arbiter entered, immediately the Arbiter felt a rush of pride and excitement in his chest.
All along the far end of the bay were more than twenty boarding craft. The Arbiter thought at first that this number of craft was overkill, but then the Jiralhanae had given no quarter nor showed any respect when they came to power to do the bidding of the Prophets.
The only sight in the hangar that was different was a small group of loyal Unggoy and a single Huragok that was floating around one of the damaged Spirit drop ships, making repairs.

"To war!" shouted Rtas
The crowd of warriors erupted with a deafening roar causing the Unggoy to move back slightly. But the Huragok carried on oblivious, busying itself in its duties of maintenance and repair.
Rtas and the Arbiter boarded the nearest craft followed by three squads of Sangheili warriors, all brandishing plasma rifles and Carbines.
The remaining soldiers then filled the remaining boarding craft before they floated from the deck and then headed out through the energy barrier, towards the crippled Jiralhanae cruiser.
The boarding craft would smash into the enemy vessel and they would fill it honourable Sangheili warriors.
Then they would show the Jiralhanae the true path of the Great Journey.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:33 AM PDT

Part 12

After a brief journey from the Shadow of Intent, the first wave of boarding craft slammed into the Jiralhanae vessel. The impact should have been enough to throw every assaulting Sangheili onto the floor, but the on-board inertia field had reduced the impact to nothing more than a faint shudder.

The Arbiter stared at illuminated forward section of the boarding craft; the energy field was already cutting through the hull of the ship, providing them with an access point and an air-tight seal.
In previous wars with the races in the Covenant, boarding craft had rarely been used, even against the San 'Shyuum. Ship to ship combat had been the preferred method of fighting. But the war with the Humans had seen an increase in the use of boarding actions, in an effort to gain intelligence. Even Humans had secrets that the Covenant wanted to know, mentions of Forerunner technology and the origin of the various demons that were encountered in the last few decades were among the main areas of interest to the council.
But here they were boarding another covenant ship; they were here to remind the Jiralhanae what honour and loyalty were and what they meant. Since the Jiralhanae had joined the Covenant, they had employed their ancient pack like attitude to those around them. Their grasp of technology was limited and they showed general discomfort towards any form of authority, including the council.
This had not gone unnoticed though; the council deemed that any Jiralhanae ship would not be allowed the use of her plasma batteries or certain ship functions that required the use of advanced Covenant technology. And for a time it remained that way.
Then the war with the Humans started, and the Covenant mustered all of its members, including the Jiralhanae against this new threat, this new abomination. Humans were declared a heresy to all that represented the great journey, and for that they were to be wiped from the face of the universe.
This dramatic shift in the council's attitude evoked a change of procedure for new arrivals into the Covenant. Instead of waiting decades or even centuries till their loyalty was assured, the Jiralhanae were presented with a fleet of fully functional cruisers and capital ships, and the means to maintain them. They were given too much too soon.
The ambitions of the Prophets matched that of the Jiralhanae, and once that was recognised by each side, then the integrity of the Covenant was doomed. But the Sangheili were different, for them loyalty and honour were of paramount importance, they were the foundations of their society.
"Prepare for deployment!" growled Rtas
All around the Arbiter were hordes of eager and honourable warriors; some were veterans of a thousand battles whilst others had only experienced a taste of things to come. But in this case the only thing that mattered was the destruction of their enemy.

The front of the boarding craft grew dark and silent. They were secure.
The energy barrier sprang into life as the forward section opened like the petals of a flower. Through the shimmering field, the Arbiter could make out the familiar sight of the dorsal command corridor, a long shaft that stretched almost the entire length of the cruiser. This would give them greater access to the other areas of the dying ship.
"This is it warriors, take the life from our enemy and give them no quarter, make them regret the mistakes that they have made in life so they can think hard in death." Bellowed Rtas, before charging through the energy barrier and into the corridor of the cruiser
The Arbiter and the remaining Sangheili warriors quickly followed, all of them roaring in anticipation of the coming battle.
Rtas and the Arbiter turned right from the boarding craft and headed down the corridor towards one of the many junctions that littered the ship. Several of the other warriors turned left towards the cruisers engine section, whilst the remaining Sangheili followed the Arbiter and their determined Ship Master.
The junction was devoid of any Jiralhanae and their Kig-yar sidekicks, so they moved on to the next corridor.

The walls of the corridor that had once been covered in a gleaming blue-purple sheen were now adorned in a series of small dents, and a thin layer of dirt and a thick black greasy liquid.
Several of the lighting orbs within the walls were not functional as was a computer interface along the wall of the second corridor.
"Obviously the Jiralhanae care nothing for maintenance, or the daily labours of crewing a Covenant cruiser," muttered Rtas "They live like the primitives we know them to be."
"And they will die like them." Voiced the Arbiter

Around the next corner was their first sight of the enemy, four Kig-yar and Two Jiralhanae soldiers stood half way towards the main assembly and council chamber on the ship.
The Kig-yar were equipped with an assortment of Beam rifles and plasma pistols, whilst the two Jiralhanae soldiers were holding a typical choice of Spike rifles.
They looked fatigued and disorderly, and were slow to react to the sight of the twenty five Sangheili warriors that were now rushing towards them.
The four Kig-yar were quickly cut down by a rapid volley of Carbine fire, whilst the two Jiralhanae succumbed to several shots from the Arbiters plasma rifle and then a finishing lunge with a crackling energy sword.
Rtas swept passed the small pile of dead soldiers and onwards to a small corridor that moved away from the main access way. As he rounded the corner he was greeted by Jiralhanae captain in gold armour. His rank was unimportant as Rtas fired his plasma rifle at the bulky figure.
The alien officer attempted to recover from this unexpected encounter but Rtas followed up with several swift strikes with the butt of his plasma rifle. The Jiralhanae captain tried in vain to parry the attack, but Rtas was too fast for his opponent and knocked him to the ground before rendering his face unrecognisable with another shot of superheated plasma.
The Arbiter and the rest of the boarding party quickly followed, moving into the next corridor.
Ahead of them this time was a sizable squad of Kig-yar, Unggoy and Jiralhanae, all assembled around a makeshift barricade.
A Captain-Major was leading this pack and they seemed to be more organised than the previous group. The Kig-yar were all equipped with shield gauntlets, and on seeing the approaching threat, they were immediately activated.
The Unggoy laid down an uncoordinated volley of fire from their plasma pistols, causing Rtas and the Arbiter to dive for cover. Several of their following Sangheili warriors immediately returned fire, downing three of the squat aliens with their carbines.
The residing Jiralhanae opened fire with spikers and maulers, but their aim was off and their pattern of fire was ineffective.
"Grenades!" ordered the Arbiter
Six Sangheili warriors in blue armour immediately stepped forward and threw a handful of grenades at the barricade. Most of them landed in or around the makeshift position but one grenade stuck to the Methane tank of an exposed Unggoy, who promptly panicked and ran towards the Jiralhanae captain. Another grenade stuck to the arm of an overconfident Kig-yar in the middle of the group, both exploded in a cloud of blue fire, sending body parts in all directions.
The only survivor was a lone Jiralhanae stalker, but he was injured and dazed by the huge explosion that had just occurred, the Arbiter quickly put him out of his misery with a lightning fast slash with his energy sword, the stalkers chest armour crumpled and his rib-cage exploded in a shower of gore.
With the current threat neutralised, the Arbiter and Rtas carried on with their squad towards the bridge which was now only three corridors away. Any further resistance that they would encounter would no doubt be far more determined, and with the boarding action well under way, far more prepared.

  • 03.17.2009 3:35 AM PDT

The Arbiters concerns of stiffer resistance the closer they came to the bridge, was more than justified. The next corridor was filled with three separate squads, all laid out in a more thought out and effective manner. The first squad was a mass of thirty or so Unggoy along with several Kig-yar and a single Jiralhanae stalker.
The second squad was a mix of twenty shield bearing Kig-yar and a dozen Jiralhanae minors and several stalkers lead by a lone captain.
The third squad although smaller than the first two presented its own problems, four stalkers and ten bodyguards surrounding a blue suited Ultra ranked Captain were a formidable force, but a flanking pair of loyalist Mgelekgolo brandishing fuel rod cannons were the main cause of concern. Their heavy armour and imposing size would be problematic as the boarding action had been swift and probably carried out with too much eagerness and impatience. As a result they had no heavy weapons to use on the Mgelekgolo at the end of the corridor.
"Warriors, target the Unggoy," Instructed Rtas "Rapid fire!"
Two squads of blue suited Sangheili moved forward into a better position and fired at the squabbling horde of aliens.
"Specialists, target the second squad. Keep their foul heads down and their weapons silent!" instructed Rtas
A further squad of Sangheili in dark armour moved to the right of the first and opened fire on the wall of Kig-yar shields and Jiralhanae. Some of them found their mark before the loyalist soldiers ducked behind the shields for cover.
"Carbines fire on the third squad!"
The remaining Sangheili fired at the more distant third group of Jiralhanae, there was little chance of removing the Ultra Captain's entire bodyguard at this distance with the amount of barricades and bulkheads in the way, but they could at least keep them in position, giving the Arbiter and Rtas time to formulate a plan of action.

The first squad was relatively easy to deal with, those Unggoy that were stupid enough to charge were quickly killed while the ones that retreated were mown down by their Jiralhanae masters. The lone stalker in the first squad was the first to be targeted followed by his slow short soldiers.
Rtas and the Arbiter moved forward to the now vacant barricade, narrowly avoiding a determined volley of plasma from a pair of Kig-yar in the next squad. The arbiter responded with his own rifle and one of the ugly creatures fell to the floor, clutching the area where its left leg used to be.
The rest of the Sangheili moved forward, several were caught out and fell to the floor with gaping holes in their armour, and another two were hit by spiker fire.
The second position was too well defended and they had to reserve their grenades for the Mgelekgolo, the only way to shift them would be a head on charge to smash the shield wall apart and then engage the Jiralhanae in hand to hand combat.
"Prepare to charge this vermin!" The Arbiter informed
Rtas glanced back at the Arbiter with look that most of the other squad was now displaying, excitement.
The Arbiter readied himself for the engagement before giving the order to charge.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:35 AM PDT

Part 13


Inside the Loyalist cruiser of Malicious Intent.

Grek a prominent and distinguished Ultra ranked Captain, was one of many Jiralhanae that had achieved their position through the deposition of others. Sometimes these "Others" were similarly ranked soldiers with an equal share of determination and ambition, but most of the time it was an unwitting warrior of senior rank with little knowledge of their impending retirement from command.
Some other races in the Covenant had deemed their way of promotion something more akin to treachery or deception: the Sangheili in particular. But Grek knew his own position was far from an assured means of commanding those around him. Since the Great Schism no less than nine of his own bodyguard had personally challenged him. All of them were now floating somewhere deep inside covenant space; minus their own heads. It was not so much command. It was more like control.
Grek peered from the safety of his armoured bulk at the separatists at the far end of the corridor, who were now charging into the wall of shields on the second position.
At the forefront of their advance was the unmistakable silhouette of the Arbiter.
The very sight of the Sangheili warrior caused Grek's matted fur on the back of his neck to stand on end. He felt like charging the insubordinate scum from where he stood, but another few volleys of carbine fire changed his now agitated mind.
Grek turned in foolish anger towards the nearest Mgelekgolo and ordered the armoured monster to target the second position. "Don't stop firing until everything there is on fire!"
Several of his own bodyguard shot him a look of distaste before resuming their own chorus of fire on the second position.
The second Mgelekgolo also joined in on the carnage, targeting the broad band of shields and charging Sangheili.
The first giant bolt of green iridescent fire was slightly wide of its mark. Several of the Kig-yar turned around in shock and panic, realising that they had quickly become expendable. The Jiralhanae Captain of the group turned sharply towards Grek, a look of disbelief and anger on his face. He immediately began cursing through the thunderous fire around, oblivious of the situation or simply unconcerned.
The second round from the fuel rod cannon hit the barricade dead square in the centre of the line of squabbling Kig-yar, incinerating half of them and throwing the rest across the corridor.
Grek suddenly realised that he had made a serious tactical error by succumbing to his own impatience.

With the shield wall in disarray the Arbiter, Rtas and the rest of the boarding party swept into the despondent line of Jiralhanae. Several of the lower ranked minors were killed with their backs turned, looking at their own Captain Ultra in betrayed disbelief. The rest attempted to fight back before they were overwhelmed.
Rtas killed two minors and a wounded stalker whilst the Arbiter killed a further three minors and squared up against the captain.
The Jiralhanae captain was filled with rage; his recent betrayal by the commanding Ultra in addition to the boarding action had only infuriated him further. The Arbiter fired his plasma rifle at the captain, several of the shots penetrated the armour and the captain reeled and snorted in both pain and anger.
The Arbiter stepped back; sensing what was coming.
The captain swung his fist at the Arbiter but he was too slow; the Arbiter simply ducked beneath the captain's sluggish attack.
The captain kicked out at his Sangheili opponent, but he could only manage a glancing blow on the Arbiters thigh before he opened up once again with his plasma rifle.
The captain stepped back again raising his arms for protection before roaring loudly at the Arbiter. Then he charged.
The Arbiter sidestepped the attack and waited till the captain had past before re-activating his energy sword, striking the Jiralhanae in the back with a single thrust. The large lifeless body slumped to the floor with a heavy thud.
The Arbiter glanced around to see how the rest of the battle was going. All of the loyalist soldiers were dead, and lying about the floor in a variety of odd poses. Three of his fellow warriors had been slain by the enemy, but the Arbiter was more concerned by the glowing fuel rod cannons of the Mgelekgolo at the end of the corridor. One of them fired directly at the Arbiter, but he moved swiftly out of the way of the flaring bolt. The second one also fired, but this time at the mass of Sangheili among the barricades. Two of them were instantly vaporized, while another four were thrown back by the explosion.
The Arbiter along with the remainder of the boarding party dived behind the protective screen of weapon racks and plasma chargers, which fortunately for the Arbiter were designed to withstand a wide range of climates and atmospheres, along with a resilience to direct weapons fire.
Attacking the third position would be a mistake; they would all be cut down before they even reached the enemy. The carbine equipped Sangheili had achieved a total of four kills, all of them the Ultra's bodyguard. But even they were now pinned down by the thunderous cannon fire.
They were rapidly loosing the momentum of the attack and the upper hand, and that was something that the Arbiter had to change quickly.
Then the firing stopped.
The Arbiter peered over the barricade to see the Ultra shouting at the two Mgelekgolo, he had obviously not ordered them to do so. Instead they seemed to have taken matters into their own hands, or in this case their huge metal shields.
One of the stalkers decided to fire a single shot from his spiker at the Mgelekgolo nearest to him. The creature shrieked, but not from pain and raised itself up, as if accepting or issuing a challenge.
The stalker took several steps back before charging towards the Mgelekgolo he had fired at. The large blue creature simply swatted the stalker aside like an annoying insect before firing on the rest of the group.
The Arbiter glanced at Rtas and pulled a pleasing grin with his multi-jawed mouth. Rtas replied the silent conversation with a simple nod.
"Warriors rise up and together we'll sweep this foulness aside!" roared the Arbiter "Charge!"
The Arbiter and the rest of the Sangheili charged towards the final position in the corridor. The two Mgelekgolo were now wading into the group of Jiralhanae, swinging their huge shields as they did so. After a short sprint they reached the remainder of the enemy position and fought them hand to hand. The opposing Ultra, seeing the Arbiter within reach, charged forward, arms outstretched as if he was going to crush the Sangheili in his armour. But he never reached him. Instead he was killed with a single shot from a fuel rod cannon.
The Arbiter span round to see what the Mgelekgolo had fired at, but all he could see was the smouldering remains of the Ultra's armour.

After the ship was taken the Arbiter approached the two Mgelekgolo. On seeing him approach they bowed as low as they could, and uttered three simple words. "We are sorry."
"Apology accepted friends," replied the Arbiter "Now is the time for peace, not war."
The two walking tanks appeared to nod in unison and then took their rightful place at the main entrance to the bridge, which was littered with bodies.
"Today we have finally ended this conflict Rtas, but much is still to be done."
"Agreed Arbiter." Said Rtas
"Helm, take this ship home where it will be returned to its former glory as a covenant cruiser." Ordered the Arbiter
Suddenly the collision alarm sounded, filling the bridge with a high pitched whine.
"Status!" demanded Rtas
"A vessel of unknown origin has just emerged from slip-space. Closing fast." Informed Kelic
"On screen." Said the Arbiter
The main view screen displayed a craft smaller than the cruiser itself, but the shape was unmistakably familiar. It was a Forerunner vessel.
"Hail them." Ordered Rtas
"No need sir; they are hailing us." Answered Kelic

To be continued


  • 03.17.2009 3:37 AM PDT

Part 14

March 28th 2552, Forerunner defensive world

John casually jogged the last mile inside the extensive structure.
His previous encounters with Forerunner technology had been extremely useful as most of the route had utilised teleporters and light bridges that spanned huge chasms that descended into an abyss of infinity.
Cortana had spent most of the journey remotely monitoring the immediate space surrounding the planet, and trawling yet more of the vast library of data that was stored here. Humanity could learn a lot from the secrets that were kept here.
"There it is chief." Announced Cortana
John looked ahead and saw another door, similar to the one that secured the external part of the structure, but this one was even bigger than that one. This doorway was big enough for a Covenant cruiser.
"Can you open it?" John enquired
"Just a secondwhere is it? Ah there it isopen sesame!" barked Cortana
As John neared the doorway the giant frame shuddered and the doors began to part, revealing the darkened interior.
John slowed to a walk and cautiously paused at the entrance to the massive hangar bay.
"It's Okay chief, its safe."
John nodded but still proceeded with caution. There was every chance that a significant threat might lay just beyond the entrance. One that Cortana had not detected.
Inside was the largest hangar that John had ever laid eyes on. In the nearest section over half a kilometre away were several small vessels of Forerunner design, but another object, barely in sight, caught John's attention.
"It's a Forerunner battleship." Announced Cortana
John tilted his head in amazement, "How do you know?"
"I've just gained access to the hangar inventory. There is quite a collection here chief, but only one warship still remains, the rest are supply and support craft along with a couple of shuttles."
John stared again at the distant craft, "You said still remains. Does that mean you know what was here previously?
"The inventory lists a number of ships that were taken only a few days before we arrived, although I'm not sure by who, or how they arrived here." Cortana continued looking in the database of ship movements. Some of the records dated back to before the dawn of mankind. "They took three warships, a multi-role vessel of some description and a handful of smaller support craft and shuttles."
"Any idea on where they went?"
"No, none, but it's possible that the movement of the Forerunner vessels was what alerted the other species to the planet's location, and not the re-initialisation of the planetary systems." Cortana surmised
"Can we take the battleship?" asked John
"I'm afraid it's not that straight forward chief. The ship uses several different sub-systems to pilot, maintain and fire the weapons. It was obviously designed to be used by more than one monitor. The system that controls the vessel is extensive, and even though I could probably operate it, I would need to make several copies of myself and that would reduce my life-span to just a few months or even weeks."

John was disappointed to hear that, but the last thing he wanted was to reduce Cortana's existence to just a few weeks. He would need her help for more than that, a lot more if those aliens returned again. "Then we'll go for one of the shuttles instead. I presume they have just one system to operate?"
"Yes." Answered Cortana
John ran over to the nearest shuttle-like vessel. In a way it was similar to sections of the structures on halo.
It had two angled sections that looked like wings, but john doubted that the Forerunners used anything as basic as aerodynamics to keep a ship in the air.
A third angled section jutted into the air like the tail plane section of a short- sword close support aircraft and then the whole craft angled to a blunt point at the nose. Despite being a shuttle, it was more than capable of carrying a whole Pelican in its cargo hold.

As John approached the shuttle a seamless doorway opened as if operated instinctively. John stepped inside, and the doorway closed behind him.
Inside were a series of almost irregularly placed chairs, all facing the forward section of the ship. A central chair stood out among the others, surrounded by more cabling and power conduits. Obviously a living monitor could pilot this ship for millennia.
John placed his armoured hand on the back of the chair, "I take it a monitor can pilot this thing whilst in stasis?"
"Not just that chief, the whole ship can be placed in a form of stasis. There's even a directed energy system that can form slip-space bubbles around other objects. I presume for cargo or ejected life pods."
John sat in one of the more forward positioned chairs, and was immediately secured without the use of a harness into the seat. Despite his body being locked into the chair he could still move his arms and head without any trouble. "I presume this is a safety feature Cortana?"
"Sorry chief, I'll give you a little more warning next time." Chuckled Cortana

Seeing that John was safely secured Cortana jumped from the comfort of his armour and into the ships systems appearing as a hologram again on the central console.
"Take us out Cortana." Ordered John
Cortana replied with the activation of the advanced gravity drive that the ship used. Unlike Covenant and Human vessels the shuttle could bend space and time with ease, creating slip-space openings of virtually any size and shape.
"Opening slip-space." Cortana informed

Just beyond the shuttle a small pin prick of light appeared before growing in size. Its presence twisted and warped the nearby space into a thin rushing whirlpool of air. Cortana moved the ship forward just as the warped area before them reached the required size.
The nose of the ship seemed to stretch and a dull shudder resounded throughout the deck before settling into silence. There was a bust of light, then dark and then the twisted marble of slip-space. They were through.
John loosened his helmet before removing it. "How long before we reach Earth?" said John scratching his matted hair.
"I'm not taking us to Earth chief; I'm heading for the Elite home world."
"Why?" frowned John
"If this new threat is going to return, then we need to make sure that what remains of the Covenant is going to help us. It'll also give us a chance to warn them before returning to Earth."
"The more advanced technology we have the better I presume."
"Exactly" replied Cortana
"How long till we reach them?" asked John
"We're just approaching the system now chief."
John's chin almost hit the floor; they had only been in slip-space for about six or seven minutes.

His face gradually went from a look of shock and disbelief to one of respect for the power and technology at their disposal, but despite this new found speed, there was little doubt in John's mind that the enemy of the Forerunner also had this level of technology. His encounter with them had proved that they were more than just another bull's eye painted figure in his sights.
They were advanced, highly advanced and extremely dangerous, more so than the Covenant had been during the war.
"Dropping out of slip-space." Announced Cortana
On the single view screen in front the display of the twisted space around them changed to a glittering star field with countless diamonds of pure white light.
In the image were two ships of Covenant design. One was a standard attack cruiser which was heavily damaged, and was impaled with several boarding craft, whilst the other was an assault carrier. Beyond them were another dozen or so ships all in working order.
"The undamaged ship is the Shadow of Intent-the Arbiters flagship chief."
"Good, hail them."

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:39 AM PDT

Part 15


Ventral Hangar Bay onboard the Covenant Cruiser Malicious Intent


The Arbiter rushed along the ventral corridor of the ship along with Rtas and a handful of well armed Sangheili.
The message from the Forerunner vessel had indicated the return of the Spartan. But there was no way of knowing the truth until the vessel arrived in the hangar bay, and unloaded its mysterious cargo.
Secretly he hoped that the message was true. The Spartan had become a trusted ally, and a good friend. The Master Chief had saved his hide many times, but he had taken this with humility and respect, repaying the debt in their fight with the Prophets lies.

Whilst the war was being fought, and the fate of the galaxy was in balance, the Spartan had given Humanity a voice with which to answer the deafening wave of terror that was the Flood.
He had seen countless honorable Sangheili swept aside by the parasite, engulfed to become host to the monster. But the Master Chief, the Demon, and bane of the Covenant had razed infected hives to the ground, swept a path of destruction through the parasite, and to its single minded intelligence that was the Gravemind.
The Master Chief was if anything deserved of the Covenant name that he was given. He was a juggernaut of fighting skill, cunning and brute strength. He was indeed a Demon.

The Arbiter arrived at the doorway to the ventral hangar bay, and opened the main door.
Before him was a disorganised and embarrassing mess as the Jiralhanae had done little to maintain their ship, or the craft that were carried within its hold. Inside the large bay were six Spirit drop ships.
These graceful and respected craft had been all but replaced at the Jiralhanae's insistence, and the greed driven council, sensing an opportunity had happily obliged. Of the six craft four of them were damaged beyond repair, whereas the remaining two could be brought back to operational status with some simple maintenance. The Arbiter knew that any form of maintenance would be long and difficult as the previous Captain had disposed of his Huragok through the airlock in a fit of anger.
Further along the hangar wall were four Phantoms. One was outfitted in a heavy anti-armour role, whilst another was modified for ground support. The remaining two were in their original troop transport role.
Ever since the Jiralhanae had gained favor with the Prophets, these unconventional and distasteful craft had become the main mode of transport for Covenant ground troops.
The Arbiter smirked under his helmet, knowing that the Spirit drop ship would soon be returned to its rightful role.

The Arbiter slowly walked in plasma rifle at the ready. He was hopeful, but still cautious of the alien ship, which was now waiting patiently outside the energy barrier. He doubted that the barrier, locked or not would be capable of stopping a Forerunner ship, but he noted the pilot's cooperation.
The Arbiter had insisted on a strict adherence to Covenant boarding protocol, and so far it was being followed.
Several of his warriors took up positions along the upper gantry level, including the overlooking plasma turrets that littered the walkway. Each one was trained on the Forerunner vessel. If there was any sign of deception then they would unleash a stream of intense plasma fire.

The Arbiter walked over to the main landing area, and slowly lowered his plasma rifle before ordering the deactivation of the red illuminated security field on the hangar entrance.
Rtas moved to the side of the Arbiter, next to a pile of logistical containers where he maintained his vigilant aim on the alien vessel.
Very slowly and with careful precision, the vessel inched its way into the hangar.

It was an unusual vessel but also familiar and in keeping with the single theme of engineering that the Forerunners used. It was a single flowing design that gave the impression of a thin triangular frame with three larger bulkhead or buttress like wings or stabilizers. All of these widened to a large hold at the rear, whilst the front narrowed to a dull point. Its metal skin was a calm grey with strokes of blue lighting along the hull and the three protruding struts.
There was little noise from the vessel as it pushed its way through the now blue energy barrier.
The Arbiter moved slowly to side of the forerunner ship, looking for any sign of a doorway or hatch, but the hull of the craft was smooth and seamless.
Rtas indicated to the vessel to stop with a raised hand.
The craft immediately responded by stopping dead and lowering to meet the hangar floor.
A shimmer of light rippled over a small section of the side and a doorway appeared. Both Rtas and the Arbiter raised their plasma rifles again, in anticipation of the disembarkation.

The door silently slid out of view inside the craft, revealing the interior. The Arbiter blinked several times to ensure he was not hallucinating, but the there was definitely a familiar figure at the doorway. He motioned the science officer forward to scan the individual in front of him.
"Scans confirm Arbiter, it is him." sounded the science officer
Upon hearing the news the Arbiter lowered his rifle, followed by Rtas and the others.
"Welcome back Spartan, it is good to see you again." He said with a fanged smile.
John stepped forward and grasped the Arbiters hand in a firm but friendly handshake. "It's good to be back," Said John, as he glanced around the cluttered hangar bay, "I see you've been busy."
"Please accept my apologies Spartan, but theBrutes as you call them are unworthy of such prized possessions."
John returned his gaze to the Arbiter, "The spoils of war."
"Indeed," the Arbiter motioned for Rtas to come forward, "I believe you already know Rtas."
Rtas extended a clawed hand to John, who took it without hesitation before giving it a firm shake. Rtas gave a crooked smile before John nodded in response.

"I'd hate to interrupt this delightful reunion of the old and bold, but we have a lot to do chief." Came a familiar female voice
"I believe you know Cortana," Uttered John as she appeared on a doorway holo-plinth nearby - bathing the nearby area in blue light.
"Ah the artificial intelligence, I trust you are well?"
"I will be when we've dealt with our problem." Replied Cortana
The Arbiter cocked his head, part in curiosity and part in apprehension, "What problem?"
"Show them." Interrupted John
Cortana activated an overhead display screen and opened her log entries from the last few days. Slowly and steadily she went through their arrival on the Forerunner world and the encounter with the Forerunners enemy. She gave detailed accounts of each event and displayed mouth-watering footage of the interior of the structure, including the living Forerunner in the sub-level chamber.
Each of the Elites stared in amazement at Cortana's account of the past few days. Even the warriors on the overhead gantry had come down for a closer look.

The Arbiter almost cringed at the sight of John fighting these new and deadly aliens, "I am pleased that you were not killed by these aliens Spartan."
"We were lucky to survive at all; they have a level of technology that by far surpasses anything that Humanity or the Covenant possesses." Voiced Cortana
"Believe mefriend," muttered the Arbiter, looking at John "It is not good fortune that guides you Spartan, but destiny."
All of the other Elites nodded and snarled in approval. They had seen first hand what John was capable of, including the encounter with the aliens. In their eyes he had gone from a hated enemy to a respected and revered comrade.
"What should we do?" asked Rtas
Cortana looked up at the now gathering crowd of Elites. "We should fortify what we have and warn everyone we know. Then we need to get to Earth and formulate a plan of action."
The Arbiter nodded, "Agreed, Rtas ready the fleet and tell our home defence to prepare for a possible attack. Then we will return to my flagship and depart for Earth at our best possible speed."
Rtas bounded out of the hangar and headed for the bridge.

"I had hoped Spartan, that when you returned you would be the first Human to set foot on my world, that you would be a symbol of hope and victory to my people." Said the Arbiter "But now it seems that that will have to wait."
Cortana stared inquisitively at the Arbiter "You said 'when' he returned not 'if'. What if the chief had been killed?"
The Arbiter smiled, showing his long fangs "Ah my blue friend, were it so easy."

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:41 AM PDT

Part 16


March 28th 2552 Onboard the Covenant Flagship: The Shadow of Intent

John paced back and forth in his newfound crew quarters, but it was clearly not designed for a human. In fact it was more like a maintenance room of some kind.
At the Arbiters insistence, John had tried to get some rest, but the current situation was constantly rushing through his mind, and he found himself going over his new opponents again and again.

The Forerunners enemy was more deadly than the Flood, and far more advanced than the Covenant. He began to doubt that even the alliance with the Elites would be enough to stop them.
In addition to the superior technology that was against them and the resilience of the enemy, John needed one more thing: intelligence. He had no idea as to how many of these almost unstoppable aliens were left, or where they came from. Even the ships were a complete mystery to him.
He almost shuddered at the thought that the one ship that he and Cortana had seen may just have been the equivalent of a frigate.
He needed answers, and fast.

John eventually admitted defeat and sat on the oddly shaped bed.
It was curved like a kidney, and covered in a strange iridescent material, which as far as John could tell, was some form of blanket.
The room was also unusual, with a sloping ceiling and two curved walls that tapered round the room and into an angled slant from floor to ceiling.
Along the walls were six different coloured orbs. The furthest orb on the left was a dragon-yolk yellow, whilst the next two were a cold blue crystal. The remaining three were trio of various shades of red.
Directly below the orbs were a small opaque screen and a series of angled sockets set parallel into the wall. John noticed that the sockets were about the same size as the plasma pistol charger units that he regularly found scattered around the battlefield. They were near indestructible, and had provided him with cover on countless occasions.
Gradually his mind began to relax and he carefully laid himself down on the bed. At first he was unsure if the Covenant furniture would take the weight of his armour, but it quickly became apparent that the bed was intended for someone of a similar size; probably the Arbiter. Even Elites had to sleep at some point.
John eventually began to drift, but it was far from the calm and serene slumber that he had hoped for. Instead it was a restless and haunted sleep.
Despite the presence of the Arbiter and Cortana only a corridor away, and a ship full of loyal and trusted allies, John felt intolerably lonely. Now he remembered why he had always resisted sleep so much. It was the absence of old friends.

Suddenly the single amber coloured orb on the wall bleeped and pulsed, yanking John back into the conscious world.
John jumped out of bed with a thud, and quickly rushed over to the orb and pressed it. There was a short high pitched whine before the Arbiters voice sounded through the wall. "Spartan, your presence is required on the bridge. There is something that you need to see."
John ran out of the small room and headed for the bridge, dodging several Elites who all turned and looked at their new addition to the ships crew.
It seemed odd to John to be racing through a Covenant assault carrier without a hail of plasma fire stinging at his heels. Instead, all of the crew were going about their daily ritual of maintenance, security and preparation.
John quickly arrived at the bridge. The two polished, armoured doors slid silently apart.
John slowed to a walk, and entered.

Inside the bridge were a multitude of screens and consoles, all dressed in a familiar tone of turquoise and purple.
The interior of any Covenant vessel always surprised John, regardless of the number of times he was in one. They were such a stark contrast to the continuous lines of grey of a UNSC ship. They looked alive almost.

The far end of the bridge had a main view screen, and a small conference table that was equipped with a holo-projector. Cortana was stood, bathed in her blue light, on the top of the table with her hands on her hips, staring at the image on the main screen.
The Arbiter and Rtas were also stood at the table, looking at the same image with an unusual expression on their faces. It looked as though they were both deeply troubled and strained with excitement.
Cortana was the first to notice John's arrival. "Chief, we've received a surveillance recording from an Elite reconnaissance probe. What it shows is somewhat disturbing."
John joined them at the table and saw for himself what they were looking at.
In the image was a world unfamiliar to him. Its atmosphere was a dark and murky brown with spots of orange as thousands of fires raged on the surface.
John then moved his attention to the upper atmosphere of the planet, where a storm of debris was caught in the planets gravity. "What are we looking at?" he gasped.
The Arbiter turned. "This, Spartan, is the home world of the Brutes Doisac."
John moved closer to the screen. "What happened?"
Cortana responded by rewinding and playing the footage.
The previous view of a broken and shattered world was now replaced by a more prosperous and flourishing planet. Wisps' of white cloud were scattered around the atmosphere, and a jigsaw of deep blue seas provided a much healthier view to the one before.
The image slowly zoomed out before panning to the right, revealing a trio of Covenant cruisers. The probe followed them as they moved towards a more distant, and as yet unrecognisable, object.
As they neared the object a bright lance of green fire struck out, cleaving one of the cruisers in half in a single deadly beam.
The lights on the butchered ship flickered and fluttered before giving up, and a series of small explosions rocked the decapitated sections as they slowly floated away from the other two ships.
The other two cruisers immediately opened fire, stabbing at the dark and distant vessel with volleys of blue plasma. The surface of the unfamiliar ship rippled as though absorbing the impact of the weapons fire.
The cruisers fired again, this time with torpedoes.
The dark vessel turned, exposing its starboard side to the storm of small suns that were racing towards it.
Another bolt of green energy extended from the hull of the ship, which jumped from torpedo to torpedo, extinguishing each orb of fire as it went.
It was then that John realised he had seen this before, "The enemy." He muttered.

Despite the overwhelming firepower displayed by the enemy ship, one of the plasma torpedoes managed to get through, smashing into the hull of the alien vessel. The surface rippled once again as the torpedo exploded in a bright glare before settling back to its standard shape.
Sensing defeat against a superior enemy, the two brute cruisers turned and fled, heading back to the planet where a much larger fleet now waited.
The probe followed the pursuit of the alien vessel as it reached the Brutes home world. Almost immediately, the fleet of brute ships fired at the approaching intruder.
The hull of the ship rippled and rolled as each torpedo and lance of plasma was absorbed.
Occasionally a small burst of iridescent fire erupted from the alien ship, but John was unsure whether this was from the amassed firepower of the Brute fleet, or a form of exhaust that was venting the incredible energy that was being absorbed.
Then the alien ship fired.
The green claw of energy jumped from the hull of each ship, destroying each one in turn before following up with a lance of fire that scythed its way through the fleet.
Only a Brute capital ship remained intact, its shield shimmering in the storm.
The Brute ship replied with everything it had, but, as before, each attack fell harmlessly on the alien vessel like the sparks of a furnace splashing on the ground.
The alien vessel returned fire once more. This time the shields wavered and then collapsed before the capital ship exploded.
The alien vessel simply moved on towards the planet before bombarding the surface, and then leaving the system.

  • 03.17.2009 3:43 AM PDT

"Though it may please me to see the brutes destroyed," began the Arbiter "It disturbs me to see this level of firepower, laying waste to the very ships that we have, and the worlds that we hold dear."
"I know what you mean," Replied John sympathetically. "Cortana show me the ship again."
Cortana flashed a magnified and enhanced shot of the alien vessel on the main screen. Its characteristics were almost identical to the vessel they had seen orbiting the Forerunner world, but it was not the same ship.
Cortana voiced the collective thought of the group, "As you can see they have more than one ship."
"Let us assume then," began Rtas "That they have a fleet of such craft. All of similar design and intent."
They all agreed.
"Were there any survivors?" John enquired.
Every Elite including the Arbiter and Rtas turned to face John, as though puzzled by his concern.
"We need to know the extent of the damage, and the possible limits of the alien's weaponry." Interrupted Cortana
"Of course; we'll send the probe in for a closer look." Offered the Arbiter

They waited for over an hour as the probes telemetry was relayed to the Shadow of Intent.
One of the bridge consoles bleeped, announcing its arrival.
Rtas activated the console and studied the information. Even with his half jaw, the look portrayed by Rtas was obvious, it was shock and surprise.
"The probe has detected around 1.2 million Jiralhanae," he announced "of the 12.5 billion that once existed."
"My god." Remarked Cortana
Cortana was not the only one in shock at the announcement. The room was filled with quiet chatter from the residing bridge crew, all of them voicing their concern.
"Silence!" barked Rtas
"We need a solution, and we need it fast." Voiced John
"I agree Spartan." replied the Arbiter, strolling around the bridge in thought. "I think it is time that we departed for your Home world. Your species has a talent for defeating those more advanced than yourselves. Let us hope that that is the same in this case."
John nodded.
"What do you think chief?" whispered Cortana on the secure COM channel. "Do you think they'll be able to come up with a plan back home?"
"I don't know," Replied John as he stared at the frozen image of the alien vessel "but I think we could use a few more Spartans right now."

John sat back in one of the bridge chairs as the Arbiter ordered the ship to Earth. For once in his life he was apprehensive and uncertain of the road ahead.
The Covenant was split in two, and humanity was still rebuilding its shattered empire.
Of all the encounters and experiences in his life, the next forty-eight hours would prove the most important.

John relaxed in the chair before falling into a semi-conscious sleep. He was exhausted, and needed all the sleep he could get. He was unsure as to when he would be able to rest again.

The assault carrier plunged into slipspace, and disappeared.

To be continued

  • 03.17.2009 3:44 AM PDT