- soulguard
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- Exalted Mythic Member
All of the elites in the room began to mumble amongst themselves. This was not what the prophets had taught them, nor was it the information passed down to them by their ancestors.
“During the Age of Reconciliation, the prophets found it harder and harder to fight; they were thinkers not warriors. And with the full might of the covenant, the hierarchs new that they could not… end… their union, the Covenant, by force. They wanted to be the true rulers of the galaxy, much like the forerunners were, but they new that if the elites and the other covenant members turned on them they would not be able to resist. They needed a trump card. They found it within the species known as the Jiralhanae, the brutes. They observed the brute race for many years before inviting them into the covenant. This explains why the brutes were not mentioned during any of the records or data from the Age of Reconciliation.
“The brutes did not have any forerunner technology upon their world but during the Age of Discovery, the brutes suddenly make an appearance within the prophet’s databanks. I searched hundreds of ships over the past several hours and discovered that the prophets constantly compared the elites and brutes, and found the elites as more powerful, but the brutes were easier to control. When the high council was formed, the brutes took their places as prophet body guards, and this is when the prophets began to fill the brute’s minds with doubt; making them feel lower then the elites. This naturally started an inner dispute between the brutes and elites.
“During the Ages of Conversion and Doubt, the covenant fell into several small disputes. Many heretics began to rise up against the prophets, and they were all elites. It was difficult to discern the truth from the lies, but I discovered that this was mostly due to the activities of the Mirratord.” Elder Bortello stood quickly to his feet and glared at Siren sternly.
“Speak no more, construct!” The elder bellowed. “The Mirratord are but a legend.”
“Forgive me, elder, but this must be stated.” Siren returned. “The prophets are more involved then you may believe. The High Prophet, Truth, new of the elite high council’s secret. He discovered the Mirratord many years ago but did not discuss it amongst the prophets, only the hierarchs knew.”
“There are no more secrets amongst us, elder.” Domadree stated. “Everything has changed. Allow the construct to speak.”
“How did Truth discover the Mirratord?” Bortello questioned cautiously, affirming to the other elites in the room that the Mirratord indeed existed.
“A spy.” Siren stated.
“The Mirratord would not betray their own.” Bortello stated. “They would rather die then give up their oath.”
“I do not know when or who the spy was, elder Bortello, but what I can say is that it was during the first years of the Mirratord. Because the hierarchs discovered the Mirratord secret, they understood that they could not completely control the elites. They had the brutes completely loyal to them, but the Mirratord was a threat that the hierarchs couldn’t control.
“Eventually the covenant, as it was, discovered Halo Instillation 04, but the elites were slowly making discoveries of their own. The elites were learning more and more about the purpose of Halo and the great journey, but they still believed… but the rise of more and more heretics was proof that the truth about the great journey was spreading. These heretics were not Mirratord mission failures, they were scientists, honor guards, special operations soldiers, leaders, civilians… there was little that could be done. The heretics new the truth, and they knew that the great journey was not what the elites had been taught. Also, with the discovery of the Oracle more confusion was created within the prophets. The prophets had always taught the elites to revere the Halo installation and the forerunners as the gods, at least this is what most of the covenant species were taught. This was not the case for the brutes. The brutes were taught that the prophets themselves were to be revered, not as gods but as superiors. Somehow the prophets convinced the brutes that the great journey is the only goal worth seeking, and that there was little information to be learned from the forerunner technology. This way, the brutes would not need to understand or care about the forerunner technology. It makes perfect sense, if you think about it. The brutes are deaf and dumb to the prophets will, while the elites are more curious. The elites pose a threat.
“The prophets new they needed something to keep the elites occupied, distracted. In 2525 the hierarchs discovered an artifact on one of the Halo ring worlds, it lead them to a human colony world.”
“Harvest.” Eric stated coldly, while staring at the elite ship master across from him.
Siren continued, “The prophets found that humanity was an adequate distraction. A war was needed in order to keep the elites from discovering the truth. It was then that the hierarchs discovered that the humans were the reclaimers, the only creatures that could fire Halo.”
“What?” Domadree shouted. “We were told that we were the promised!”
“As I said, the prophets have lied to you. They lied to all of you. It would appear that humans are the chosen of Halo ring worlds created by the forerunners; not the prophets. Whether it is good or bad to be a reclaimer, I am uncertain. The idea of standing at ground zero when a galactic weapon is fired doesn’t sound like a good thing, but none the less it was a human that fired the Halo the first time, and only a human can fire it again. The true question is how life continues to exist if the Halo’s have fired once before?”
“Then the holy cleansing of humans, the creatures that are our sworn enemies and an affront to our gods; was all a lie?” Domadree roared. “How can we believe this? How can we be sure that you are not falsifying your discoveries?”
“You said so yourself.” Rose spoke up. Domadree turned to the human and listened. “You said you wanted to know why, she just told you. You were used!”
“I also believe that the hierarchs did not discover that humans were reclaimers until after they discovered Halo 04.” Siren added. “The ring in which Cortana and Spartan 117 destroyed. This could be the reason why the war against humanity never stopped. Surely the hierarchs would have attempted to make peace with humanity, had they not used humanity to distract the elites.”
“Makes sense.” Eric added. He rubbed his chin in deep thought. “The covenant hated us, but then after thirty years of fighting, the prophets discover that they need us to fire Halo. You can’t just walk up to us and say, let’s be friends. But why fire Halo? It would kill the prophets as well.”
“Already ahead of you, sergeant.” Siren quickly added. “The prophets needed a way to escape Halo’s activation. Human’s survived, somehow, and the prophets need to figure that out. The High Prophet of Regret, the one that nearly killed you in New Mombasa, fallowed a signal to Earth, but wasn’t aware that it was our home planet. He found the Earth crystal and then left. That brings us up to date. My thoughts on this, is that if humanity survived the first Halo activation, then humanity’s home planet has a secret to surviving the Halo purge.”
“Which is why the covenant has yet to glass Earth.” Eric stated. “This changes everything.”
“Now you see why I had to alter our plans, sergeant.” Siren added. “The covenant isn’t just brutal beasts without a purpose. They are smart and honorable creatures that were fooled into thinking that humans were enemies of their Gods. The war, to them, is a holy crusade. We can’t hope to defeat the covenant alone; we need to destroy them from the inside out. A civil war would surely create turmoil if we can prove the prophets are lying, and we need the Elites to complete this mission.”
“What mission?” Domadree replied.
“Our original mission was to seek out the Covenant home world and nuke it.” Eric stated bluntly. “But I’m assuming that Siren here has another idea.” Domadree nodded in response. He understood that eventually the humans would try to seek out a covenant world. The humans had lost countless lives from covenant bombardments on their colonies, and this was clearly the only option they had left.
“Yes.” Siren sighed. “If you haven’t noticed, humanity isn’t the only species in existence. The elites, brutes, prophets, grunts, jackals and countless other species are still thriving, even though the Halo’s fired. Somehow, life continued. There must be a way to survive. We need to find it. I decided that the Spartans were not necessary for this mission because if Earth has a secret, then they would be needed there. But there is someone else we must find.”
“Let me guess.” Eric mumbled. “Doctor Catherine Halsey.”
“She’s out there, sergeant.” Siren added. “And she’s most likely doing the same thing we need to do.”
“According to Cortana and the Spartans’ reports, she went AWOL.” Eric added. “No matter how we look at it, we don’t know what she’s doing. Space is infinite, how the hell would we find her?”