Chapter One
I Always Get My Prophet…
John (otherwise known as SPARTAN-117, or by his rank, Master Chief Petty Officer) crouched down low on a bundle of piping and cables over the catwalk. This Forerunner ship had a series of catwalks along it's sides, and several patrols of Brutes wandered by in fifteen minute intervals, just in case.
"Always two-by-two." John whispered inaudibly, aiming his Beam Rifle at the head of a passing Brute. He fired, without hesitation. After all, he was trained to be merciless against them.
"There, Noble Prophet of Truth, do you not see?" Cerberus, son of Tartarus protested, pointing his thick, furry finger at the viewscreen. Truth, sitting comfortably in his extravagant hover-chair, nodded curtly. If the demon was aboard-as Truth knew he was-the entire mission was in jeopardy.
"Cerberus," Truth said at length, not positive of his decision, "I shall give you the task of destroying the Master Chief. You must not fail me." The young Brute growled happily. "I shall make a trophy of his skull." He assured the Prophet. Truth thought the boy to be quite overzealous, but decided to see if the boy could do what he had promised. Who knew? Perhaps Cerberus would stop the Master Chief and thereby end the determent of his mission. Of course, the betrayal of the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters had yet to be dealt with, but all in good time, Truth supposed. After all, their betrayal would leave them behind once the Great Journey began.
Cerberus, confident in himself and in his squad of Brutes, proceeded onto the series of catwalks to locate the demon. Little did they know that a certain predator in green armor was sneaking about on the piping above them, poised to pounce. John smiled, though it couldn't be seen, as he tossed a frag grenade and sent two of the Brutes scattering. The third, tall and muscular for even a Brute, stood there, unscathed. In both of it's furry hands were energy swords, each glowing a bright red instead of the usual blue. "Now, you may die, demon!" The Brute roared, charging at him.
John side-stepped a great side sweep of the left sword, then the other. He rammed the blunt of his shotgun into the Brute's side, then shot three shells into it's thick, furry chest. Cerberus roared, not in pain but in fury, and charged at John once again. Using a maneuver he'd learned while training on Reach, John kicked an energy sword out of the Brute's grip and slashed him across the ribs.
Truth, watching the fight from the safety of the bridge, was mildly amused. It would take the ship several cycles to enter the planet's atmosphere, and this was more than enough compensation for his boredom. The demon…the Master Chief fighting Cerberus, one of the best fighters of the Prophets' Guard. However, it was clear that the demon had the upperhand. Cerberus was too outraged to notice that the blade of the demon's laser sword was getting too close to his heart. And then…wonk…he was dead before he knew it. "Pity," Truth said, "the duel was most enjoyable." He returned to the cycles of the ship.
John stepped over the dead body of Cerberus with an unapologetic shrug. He proceeded to the door where the Brute squad had come out of, and found it to be locked. If John had had Cortana with him, he could've been through the door within seconds. Unfortunately, Cortana had stayed behind on Delta Halo, so he was out of luck. Fortunately, John had learned a bit of hacking himself and squatted down at the control paneling to re-wire the door.
Truth licked his lips, watching the Master Chief re-wiring the panel. This demon had done far enough, and the Prophet absolutely not tolerate failure-no matter the cost to prevent it. Truth smiled devilishly as he turned to a Jackal at the controls. "Activate procedure 11786543, pilot." He said to the Jackal. The pilot nodded in response and it's long, twig-like fingers began manipulating the controls in a way faster than Truth could follow. A viewscreen popped out and showed a time, in Covenant glyphs, reading thirty-five minutes. "Initiate," Truth ordered. The Jackal slapped a bright blue button and the timer started going down. "Open command frequency omega," The Prophet snapped, then spoke, "All troops, go to the nearest escape ship and abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship, now!" Truth turned to the Jackal. "Prepare my shuttle for immediate takeoff. The Jackal scurried off in a hurry.
John heard the alarm beacon just as he hacked through the door and into the hallway. Brutes, Jackals, and Drones ran about in great panic, hardly noticing him. This gave John the perfect advantage to pick up a camouflage and sneak through the chaos. He made it to a set of door marked with the Covenant word for "bridge." Luckily for John, the doors were easily opened with a simple smack of his shotgun. There stood, or rather hovered, the Prophet of Truth. Before the Covenant leader had turned to face him, John had already leapt at him, planning to jump onto his hover-chair and beat the Prophet to death. However, he was knocked back to the wall by a force field.
"Perhaps you are not as smart as we believed, demon," Truth taunted him. John aimed his gun and fired three shells from the barrel. Two hit the force field, and the third went through Truth's chair and knocked the Prophet to the ground. As the Prophet struggled to his feet, John approached him. The force field, though seemingly deactivated, was still strong enough to knock him to his legs. Truth scrambled to the escape pod, and laughed maniacally as he sealed it and ejected. "Damn!" John yelled as he ran to the controls. The fuel reserves had been dumped and the auto-destruct sequence had been activated. He would have to work fast, he knew, to at least stop the sequence. He ripped away some panels and started to re-wire it.
When he finally got the sequence stopped, John had to grin with happiness. Then he looked up to the viewscreen, he saw that the surface of the Earth was about fifty thousand meters downward…and getting closer. "Oh, crap…" John murmured. He ran out of the bridge and started running for as far as the back of the ship as he could go.