Halo: Freedom from Evil

"Dr. Halsey looked one last time at Number 117-at John. He was having so much fun, running and laughing. For a moment she envied the boy's innocence; hers was long dead. Life or death, lucky or not, she was condemning this boy to a great deal of pain and suffering. But it had to be done." Halo: The Fall of Reach

Part I: Sinners and Believers

Inside the Forerunner ship, the Prophet of Truth stands in the control center before a hologram pad. On the pad is the image of another Prophet, Apathy. Truth is surrounded by Jackals piloting the ship as it heads towards Earth but all of the Prophet's attention is towards Apathy: "Apathy, we are closing in on the human's home world and will be annihilating it shortly."

"Why the haste, brother? I wasn't even aware the Council knew of the location to the human's home planet let alone was planning an attack on it."

"Regret accidentally found the planet and has forced us to attack prematurely."

"I hope the attack will go smoothly. The recent transmission I have received that tells of civil war within the Covenant are not pleasing, brother."

"Everything is under control. Tartarus is activating the newly discovered ring and once the humans are extinct nothing will stand in our way."

"Good. Good. Brother, there is something I have to tell you."

"What is it?"

"The Ark…something is going on inside of it."

"What do you speak of?"

"Well, I'm not sure. None of us are sure. It is…"

Just then the prophet is cut off by an alarm going off through the hologram. Truth sits up in his hover-chair: "Apathy, is everything all right?"

The prophet in the hologram looks around: "I don't know. There seems to be an invasion but our defenses…how could we not have noticed this?"

Another sound comes through the hologram, this time an explosion. Apathy looks up as if someone is walking towards him: "Oh no. It's you. Please, show mercy."

"Brother! What is going on?!"

Apathy puts his arms in front of his face as if he is shielding himself from something: "Nooooo!"

The hologram is cut off. Truth looks around the room as the Jackals stare in shock at the hologram pad. Truth snaps at them: "What are you looking at?! We are on the brink of a full scale battle. Get back to work."

The Jackals turn back around and fiddle with the controls of the ship. Truth floats by them while pondering what has just happened to his fellow Prophet.

As the Forerunner ship plummets towards Earth, the Master Chief grabs onto a railing and braces for impact. The ship came directly from the Covenant holy city, High Charity, and was carrying the Prophet of Truth, the last Covenant Hierarchs of High Charity. The gigantic ship is surrounded by a Covenant armada just a little bit smaller than the one that attacked Reach.

Lord Hood assumes that the Covenant rushed an attack and didn't have enough time to gather a large enough force. The truth is that the civil war raging within the Covenant has forced an all out assault on Earth. This attack is out of desperation, one last chance to take out Earth before the entire Covenant crumbles.

Hood, who has just received a signal from Spartan 117 aboard the Forerunner ship, tries to understand what is going on: "Chief, how you plan on stopping them?"

"There is a Prophet aboard this ship. We capture him alive and their fleet will surrender. Lord Hood, there is an uprising within the Covenant. We have a chance to end this war now."

"Ok Chief. I'm going to coordinate the fleet to keep our MAC guns online. You get that Prophet."

The Covenant Cruisers and Seraph fighters battle the UNSC defenses as the Forerunner ship enters Earth's atmosphere. Flames begin to form all around the ship as it speeds up towards the surface and eventually slams into the city streets.

The landing bay of the Forerunner ship opens and a horde of Brutes, Drones and Jackals run out with their weapons firing. An army of Marines are there to meet them and return fire. A wave of bullets and plasma cross back and forth as the two sides fire non-stop. The buildings all around them crumble and fall as they are hit. One after another the gigantic army of humans fall until their numbers are cut in half.

The Covenant forces pound their front line forward, deeper into the city and closer to UNSC Command Post located in the center of the city. The Marines start to retreat as they notice they are greatly overwhelmed.

Just when all hope is lost, an angel falls from the sky. The Master Chief drops down onto the battlefield and immediately the forward progress of the Drones and Jackals is halted by fear. One of them yelps out in shock: "The demon!"

Spartan 117 doesn't even respond. Instead he punches the Jackal and pounds every one after that with fury and rage. He knows this battle can shift the tide of the war completely and is determined to win. One human sees a bunch Drones start to jump all over the Master Chief and yells out: "It's the Mater Chief. He needs our help. Let's get those bastards!"

All at once the army of Marines runs full speed at the entire Covenant line. They scream a battle cry and meet the front row of Jackals with a bang. The battle has turned from a fire fight to an all out brawl with two of the largest armies any side has ever seen. Like a battle from the Middle Ages, the humans fight their foes barbarically and relentlessly leaving none alive. Even the Brutes, who are known for their rage and sheer power, show signs of fear at the madness and brutality of the "pathetic" humans.

The Master Chief grabs a plasma pistol from Drones and kicks the puny alien in the head. Afterwards he charges it up, takes down a Jackal's shield and smashes the alien's skull with the butt of the weapon.

As the Spartan takes on Drone after Drone and Jackal after Jackal he sees, out of the corner of his eye, a Brute charging at him full speed. Right before the Brute is about to tackle him, the Chief bends down in a stance and catches the Brute right where he stands. He looks the beast straight in its eyes: "Not today."

He knees the Brute in its stomach and then tosses it across the battlefield. The Master Chief sees the landing bay of the ship closing and knows the Prophet is going to try and make a cowardly escape. He runs at the ship's doors and dives in just as it was closing.

He quickly runs to the command post slaughtering any Drone or Jackal in his path. He has to stop the ship before it takes off, otherwise Truth will be impossible to get to. There is no time to spare; no time to breathe.

He sees a Jackal with a beam rifle down a long hallway and uses his super-human reflexes to dodge every shot until he is face to face with the alien. The Jackal trembles in fear before tossing the rifle to the Chief and running away.

The Spartan is done playing around. He grabs the Jackal by the head and drags him through the door in front of him. On the other side are two Brutes dressed in royal uniforms. They are guarding the entrance to the control center.

The Master Chief tosses the absolutely frightened Jackal high in the air towards the two Brutes. The confused Brutes stare in confusion at the Jackal as he flies through the air. While they are distracted, the Master Chief aims the rifle and puts two back to back beam shots through their throats.

After hitting the ground with a thud, the Jackal tries to crawl towards the door but it's no use. The Master Chief tosses aside the overheated rifle and stomps on the Jackal's skull. He then grabs the handle of an energy sword at the side of the door and walks into the control center without fear.

All the Jackals stop their preparations for launch and turn to face the Chief with their guns drawn. The Spartan doesn't even flinch. Instead he snaps the energy sword out, holds it right at the throat of the Prophet of Truth and says three words: "This war's over."

Aboard a UNSC ship headed to Earth, the Elite known as the Arbiter sits in the cargo bay along with several other Elites, Grunts and Hunters that were betrayed by the rest of the Covenant. The Arbiter stares at the ground in shame and humiliation. He thinks about all that he has done in the name of the Covenant and how he wishes he could take it all back. Commander Miranda Keyes slowly walks over to him: "Hello Arbiter."

"Arbiter was the name given to me by the megalomaniacs that fed me lies of hope. You can call me Proditor."

"Ok Proditor. How are you feeling?"

"How do you think I am feeling? Betrayed."

"This is not over. You can still make up for what you have done."

"How? The Oracle would not give us the location of the Ark and I'm sure even if we found it, infiltrating it would surely be impossible."

"Fortunately we have men and women that deal with the impossible."

"You speak of the demons. I will not fight along side one of them."

"The Spartans are not demons. They bring us hope in times of desperation. They have hearts bigger than anyone I have ever met and will fight the rest of the Covenant to the end. Will you join us?"

Proditor, stands up leans on a railing and looks around at the Elites and Grunts who had fought by his side for years. They always charged into battle blindly for the lies of the Prophets: "I remember the day when the ships carrying the Prophets first came to our home world. Our planet was filled with war and chaos. The Prophets gave us a faith. Gave us a name: Elite. Gave us purpose. But most importantly: they gave us a journey. We fell right into their lies and deceit for hopes of being part of something greater: The Covenant. We were fools."

Commander Keyes walks up to him and puts her hand on his shoulder: "In human history there were many times when desperate people would believe lies and follow deceitful leaders with dreams of salvation. But they learned of their wrongdoings and made up for them. There can be redemption, Proditor."

The Elite turns and looks the Commander dead in her eyes: "My troops have suffered enough and been fighting for the Prophet's lies too long. They are going back to their home planets. However, I have been manipulated by the Hierarchs too much to let my vendetta end here. If you find the Ark I will help you...and finish this war."

The Prophet of Truth sits quietly in a cold, dark interrogation room and looks around curiously. It is much different than the accommodations he was used to and he was beginning to finally feel afraid.

The room looks straight out of an old cop movie. The room is bland and empty except for the table and chair across from the Prophet. Truth turns his head and looks intensely at his reflection in the one way glass on the wall.

His concentration is broken by an interrogation specialist from the Office of Naval Intelligence walking into the room. He has a briefcase in his hand and sits on the opposite side of the table than Truth. Once the man is seated he takes a pen, paper, and an earpiece translator out of his briefcase. He sets the pen and paper down on the table and puts the earpiece in right before he pushes a button on the side of the table. Cortana's slick and gorgeous figure pops up from a hologram pad. The Prophet rubs his chin in curiosity: "So you are the human's artificial intelligence that has been giving us so much trouble. I almost admire your ability to be a nuisance."

Cortana barely smirks: "I'll take that as a compliment (I think). But listen, we know who you are Truth and we know of your 'Great Journey.' "

"Oh really? You know nothing of the Great Journey."

"We know a lot more than you do."

"Do you? Do you truly believe that?"

"Halo is a weapon. Activating it would have killed you, us, everyone and everything in its path. Is that you're 'Great Journey?' Mass suicide?"

The Prophet simply chuckles and leans back slightly in his chair: "You humans are so pathetic. I could never understand how you could ever make it as far as they did."

Cortana looks at the interrogator as he makes a note of that comment. She makes a mental note of it as well. She then focuses her attention back to the Prophet: "What are you talking about?"

"Your species always looks at the problem right in front of your faces, but always fails to notice the questions all around you."

"What questions, Truth?"

"For instance, why we want to destroy humanity."

Cortana completely turns around and looks through the one way glass behind her. On the other side of the glass Admiral Jacobson and Admiral Henson stand side by side watching the interrogation. Jacobson turns to Henson with a look of uncertainty: "I don't like this once bit."

"I know what you mean. Winning that battle was a big step but there are way too many variables right now. Has Dr. Roberts finished her physical report on the Prophet?"

"I don't think so. I told her to let us know whenever she does. Also, Keyes, Johnson, and the rest of the humans from the newly discovered ring are being debriefed. And from what I've heard so far things are only going to get worse. I am especially worried about the information we are gathering from the Monitor they brought back. He keeps speaking in riddles and calling us reclaimers, but from what we have already discovered it is quite disturbing."

"What of the Covenant that came with them? If word got out we were harboring Covenant forces inside an ONI space station there will be chaos."

"I have faith it will be kept hush for now. We will deal with that problem when we have time. Right now the top priority is Mendez's failure. When is he coming in for questioning?"

"Tonight. What are we going to do with him?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is we need to do it soon. If not…it could mean the end of the human race as we know it."

As he finishes his sentence, the interrogation specialist that was taking notes on the Prophet's behavior walks into the room: "I don't get it."

Jacobson is curious as to his findings: "What don't you get?"

"These beings are regarded as prophets and administrative thinkers to the other members of the Covenant, yet I find no forms of thinking different than that of any normal human being."

"What are you talking about?"

"This being is not smarter than any man. If anything, there are humans that probably have IQ's that surpass his."

"Could he be faking his true intelligence?"

"I doubt it. Cortana is riding him pretty hard. It would be difficult for him to out think her as fast as she is spitting out questions. My only assumption is that he is not actually a real prophet, just faking it."

Jacobson and Henson turn towards each other as they both smile at the interrogator's newest findings.

As Spartan 117 quietly stands in the launch bay of a UNSC orbital defense station, he watches as about a dozen ships take off with a whole Covenant squadron to take them back to their home worlds. The Chief stands with his crisp, bright uniform on and stands out like a bright light among all others. Commander Miranda Keyes walks over to him and stands by him watching the ships take off.: "Hey, Chief. I see you are done being debriefed."

"Yes. Just making sure every last one of them gets off this station."

"It doesn't seem right does it?"

"Letting them go home? Why not? They don't want to fight us anymore. Don't need to."

"Yeah I guess so. Ending the war is what matters, but all those humans that died. Do they not deserve justice?"

"I stood by their side as many of them perished, Spartans included. But they did not die for themselves. They died for humanity. As long as the human race lives on then their deaths were not in vain."

Just then a voice echoes from behind the two: "But what about my people? When do they see justice?"

Keyes and the Chief turn around and see Proditor walking towards them: "I am not your enemy any longer demon, but make no mistake: I am not your ally."

"The feeling is mutual."

Proditor stops in front of the Chief and points his long slender Elite finger on the soldier's clean, white uniform: "As long as we share a common enemy I will uphold this alliance, but once that enemy is gone I want nothing to do with you."

He turns his head towards Keyes: "Any of you."

The proud Elite turns back around and heads into the ship. Keyes and the Chief look at each other but neither says a word.

Later that night, the Chief was going for a walk around the defense station when he came across an old friend. Chief Petty Officer Mendez's head was down when he passed by the Spartan and didn't even notice him.

Mendez was the drill instructor of the Spartan II project and taught them how to be soldiers but more importantly, how to be a squad. He turned them from kids to warriors and John will always respect him for that. Spartan 117 barely recognized his old C.O. He always remembered Mendez as a hard ass that never took any of their shit, but now he walked with a limp and hid his face in what the Chief could only think of as shame.

The Chief stops right in front of Mendez's path and salutes: "It's good to see you, sir?"

Mendez stops and slowly looks up: "What the…117? Is that you? God damn, it's been a while."

"Yes it has and a lot has happened since then. I see you've seen some fire." "Yeah. I took a bullet in the leg. Nothing compared to the massacre on Reach from what I've heard. I'm terribly sorry about the others. I always considered it the greatest honor I've ever had being able to have trained them."

"And you did one hell of a job. Speaking of which, I heard rumors of what you've been up. Is it true? Should we be expecting more Spartans soon?"

"I really can't talk about that. In fact…"

A booming voice from inside a room breaks his sentence: "Mendez! I wanted you in here five minutes ago! I hear you out there!"

Mendez yells over his shoulder: "Sorry, sir. I have to go, Chief. It's been good seeing you."

As Spartan 117 watches his former instructor limp away he feels sympathy for whatever is bringing Mendez's spirits down so much.

Admiral Henson walks into a room and sees the Prophet of Truth strapped to a chair with his head locked firmly against the headrest. There are wires attached to the back of the chair and the wires lead to a control panel against the far wall of the room. Sitting at the control panel is a routine naval technician. Henson makes sure the technician has no translator in his ear to hear their conversation. He then puts a translator in his own ear and turns towards the Prophet: "Greetings. My name is Admiral Tom Henson. I hope our accommodations are to your liking."

"You will pay for this human. The Gods will not rest until the blood of you and your entire race flows like a river through the stars."

"You can drop the biblical act. Our doctors who studied you concluded that you have no prophetic powers. We have scam artist palm readers on our planet that are more psychic than you. So what's the deal? Why convince several races that you are prophets? Why gather followers? And why start a war with us?!"

"You want to know the answers to so many questions but I continue to ask myself: if you know the answers will it make any difference."

Henson nods his head towards the technician who then flips a switch. An electrical current runs through the Prophet's chair shocking him. The Prophet squirms in his seat and yells out in pain. After several seconds, the technician flips the switch off and the electrocution stops. Henson stands tall and doesn't even move as the Prophet continues to whine in pain: "Our doctors also told us that your bodies are even weaker than ours. This is a torture chair. What you believe and what you want doesn't matter. All that matters is that you will feel pain until we get the information we desire."

"You don't understand. I can't let you know…"

"Fine by me."

Henson nods at the technician. The technician nods back but stops when he hears the alien yell something out. He doesn't understand the word the Prophet said so he turns to the Admiral who signals him not to flip the switch. Admiral Henson walks slowly towards Truth: "You ready to talk?"

"I can't tell you of the horrors I know. What I can do though is make a deal."

"We don't make deals."

"This is a very simple deal. It will work out greatly in your favor."

"Ok. What is it?"

"One of my fellow Prophets was attacked shortly before we touchdown on your planet. I do not know by what. He was on a planet I believe you will find quite interesting."

Henson is curious: "Go on."

"The deal is: you go to the planet and find whatever attacked my brothers, and in return I will give you the location to the Prophet's home world."

"As intriguing as that does sound, it doesn't answer any of my questions."

"You will find the answers you are looking for there...including the Ark."

"The Ark is there?"

"Yes. But tread with caution human, the knowledge found there can do more damage to your pathetic race than the Covenant ever could."