- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Chapter 1
Say Your Prayers...
Guilty Sparks was confused. The reclaimers should have known this by now, why would his creators make the reclaimers unaware of the Ark? Turning his floating spherical body at a horizontal angle, the moaning of some metal echoed from above.
"The Ark? Shouldn't you know this by now?" He said confused.
"Well we don't blue bell, so tell us where the Ark is," Avery Johnson said in a stubborn tone.
"The Ark is on-"
Before 343 could finish, a large chunk of metal, cracked by Tartarus’s hammer when he smashed an elite, collapsed onto Guilty Spark. His alloy crushed under the forerunner metal and was destroyed in seconds. Miranda was almost thrown back in shock. Taking everyone by surprise, as bright blue sparks crackled out from under the metal. In seconds the dome-shaped room stood in complete silence.
"-blam!-, now how in all hell will we find the Ark?" Sgt. Johnson broke the silence in his frustration.
The Arbiter shook his head in disbelief, along with the other elites spread out around the platform. "The Oracle....is gone..." One said in shock. All the elites, even the Arbiter, fell to their knees praying that their Oracle will have a glorious afterlife. All the elites were still humble and pray for the dead, much like any other race with a heart. Bowing their heads down, the two humans, Miranda and Johnson, looked around to see the elites in a different way, Not the angry and devilish creatures they thought they were, but saw them as a human... a very, very ugly human with a humble spirit.
"Ok, can we stop the praying and go find a way to find out where the Ark is," Johnson rudely interrupted the elites.
The Arbiter was the first to stand, waving to the elites to follow him out of the control room. Sgt. Johnson almost gave out a smile but yanked it out of sight as they made their way out of the large room. Satisfied with the covenant’s plan being thwarted, Johnson left the room first escorting Commander Miranda Keyes out of the room. Quickly followed by the remaining elites, the Arbiter proceeded after Miranda. Commander Keyes turned her head back to see the elite that was in front of all the others, the one referred to as the Arbiter. What really caught her attention was the armor he donned. Nothing like she'd ever seen, an elite with that armor had never managed to get into the UNSC records.
Johnson reached the room that was slightly after the corridor that he blasted with the scarab. Without warning, three elites marched into the room their plasma rifles pointed at Miranda and Johnson. He became quite annoyed about having plasma rifles pointed at him from the very race he just saved.
"Halt human! Where is the Arbiter?" The middle elite pronounced bearing the white armor of high ranked elites.
"Settle down ugly, your precious elite is coming," he replied in an angry tone.
The Arbiter walked into the room, seeing the three elites, he ordered them to lower their weapons. As they did, he continued walking toward them. As they began to chatter, Miranda got curious.
"Johnson," She said.
"Yes, ma'am?" He replied, looking toward her.
"Why have we never seen that kind of armor before?" Miranda turned her head to look at the Arbiter who was talking to the elite in white armor. Her knowledge on the "Arbiter" was completely blank.
"The Arbiter?" Johnson asked.
Miranda replied with a nod and Johnson started explaining, "His armor gives off the sign that he is 'The Arbiter', some weird special elite that does difficult tasks for the prophets." He continued, "every elite around here acts like he's almighty, and from what I've heard from the brutes, all the Arbiters die from their duties that the prophets order." Miranda nodded and replied, "So he's like the Master Chief of the elites?"
Johnson shrugged, and rolled his eyes. Their maybe really powerful elites, but he knew not one could stand up against the Master Chief. Taking a good inhale from one of his famous cigars, He saw the Arbiter pivot and faced him and Miranda. The Arbiter marched up toward him and looked right into his eyes.
"A phantom will come to take us off the Holy Ring, and then we will board one of our cruisers," The Arbiter announced as he turned around and walked toward the hall that was blown to bits by the scarab. Everyone followed outside to be greeted by a phantom towering over the control room. The gravity lift was right on the platform, and the Arbiter stepped in first followed by three elites donning the council armor. Johnson stopped before he stepped into the lift. Turning to face the commander he raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you coming?"
"No, I will stay behind and round up as many grunts, hunters, and elites as possible," The commander replied watching the female human step bravely into the lift. Looking back at the human, he almost gave out a smile as he folded his arms behind is back.
"Ok, suit yourself, more kills for me."
Sergeant Johnson stepped into the gravity lift and was carried up into the phantom. As he cleared the gravity lift, he stepped into the bulk of the phantom. The hole where the lift was was covered by a moving plate of metal. Elites where positioned around the ship and Johnson spotted Commander Keyes sitting in a quite large seat. Since the phantoms were not designed for humans, most of the seats where either for an elite or a hunter. Meaning their sizes were extra large and huge. Johnson took another whiff out of his cigar and took seat next to Keyes, folding his legs. His attention finally fell onto the Chief.
"Where's our brick of a soldier?" He said.
Miranda wasn't in the mood for a laugh or two, she just simply replied that she doesn't know. With all the commotion that went around her mind set faded away from the Chief and settled with the activation of the Halo. Johnson nodding to her reply, seeing the Arbiter take a seat directly across from him. Over hearing their talk he began to answer Johnson.
"The demon was with me when we met the flood leader, he-"
"Hold up, those ugly little bastards have a leader?" Johnson said surprised. Out of all species those things have to have a leader.
Damn, guess we’ll have to deal with him, too! Johnson thought.
The Arbiter nodded and continued talking, "The demon and I were separated then, I came here, and the demon was sent to High Charity."
"So, Master Chief is on that giant piece of -blam!- you call your holy city?" Johnson said, as he heard a growl come from every single elite on the ship. Even though they were out of the covenant, they didn't like their previous home being called a piece of -blam!-. The Arbiter continued nonetheless.
"Yes he is, but probably dead by now," As he said those words Miranda and Johnson both were looking at the Arbiter oddly, "we got word that High Charity was taken over by the parasite." Miranda and Johnson were shaken now, the thought of the Master Chief dead wouldn't come through their head. "No, he's not dead, he can't be!" Miranda yelled out. The Arbiter turned his head away from the two humans, he sighed.
"I'd like to believe you human, but I can't," The Arbiter said, with the elites looking strangely at their holy symbol. It's not like the elites to hope for a human to live, especially not the demon that destroyed an ancient Holy Ring. "Then we must go there and find the Master Chief," Miranda pleaded. The Arbiter nodded and stood to his feet. "After we board the command cruiser we will go to High Charity," The Arbiter replied.
Johnson and Miranda both nodded and lay back in their seat. "We still have to find the Ark, y'know," Johnson remarked to Keyes, turning his head toward her. Miranda made a small frown and knew Johnson was right. The real problem was making sure the Ark wouldn't activate, but finding Chief was their number one priority at the moment.
[Edited on 7/26/2006]