DAY 1
A wall of monitors lit up the room.
The room was concrete, and empty aside from a queen sized bed covered in black blankets, its one inhabitant, and a desk in front of a wall of that was covered in screens. A fan was blowing to the side of the desk, rotating 90 degrees for 15 seconds, then switching directions.
Everything in the room was tidy. The desk clean of dust and any junk, with a small garbage can sitting to the side. The bed was meticulously made, free of any wrinkles. A red, cylindrical laundry basket sat in one corner of room.
In front of the Desk, sat the one inhabitant of the room. He sat in a black leather desk chair, swivel wheels on its base. He wore a red, collared, short sleeve shirt, with the three buttons under his neck done up. He wore black gym shorts, stopping just enough to cover his knees. He was slightly overweight, but not too overweight to be called tubby. His black hair was hand brushed to the side. His face was unshaven, and bags were forming under his eyes. He fidgeted constantly, cracking his fingers and looking around everywhere, never focusing his eyes on one for too long spot.
His name was Todd.
Todd stared at the screens, watching them impatiently. The screens covered an entire wall, as if the entire wall itself was one big TV screen. Many of the screens showed empty rooms and corridors, with the exception of one room, shown in various angles. The room was like that of a small warehouse, and was filled with rows of...beings. It could not be said that they were just people, as they were extremely diverse.
Some wielded weapons, such as rifles and handguns or even swords. Many were covered in armor that was in every color imaginable. Some were wearing regular clothes. Some were wearing period clothes, and even futuristic clothes. Many were obviously not even human. Hoofs, armored skin, scaly skin, green skin, grey skin, and unnatural sizes gave hint that they were not exactly homo sapiens sapiens. They all stood frozen, not moving or even showing signs of breathing.
Todd was currently not focusing on them; he was more focused on the loading screen. The screen showed 97%, the bar almost reaching the end. Todd did not understand why we still had loading screens, as we should've advanced past all that in the current years.
Todd looked at the bag that was sitting on his desk; a bag of chocolate peanut-butter cups. He was going to save them for when they woke up, a sort of snack for the show, buuuuut he really wanted to start having them now. After much deliberation, he decided screw it and ripped the bag open, placing the ripped piece into the garbage can to side, as well as the cup wrapper, and popped the chocolate into his mouth, tasting the sweet taste mixing with the peanut taste.
...99%.
Todd pulled up a handheld vacuum, cleaning tiny bits of chocolate crums he got on his desk.
...100%.
After the bar reached the end, it cleared itself. Several other bars appeared, instantly loading themselves. Finally, the bars were done, and an icon that said 'Continue' and another that said 'cancel' appeared.
Before clicking on either, Todd opened one of the other windows, showing the status of the programs. personality, check... Memories, check...Language, check...skills, check...behavior...body language... Satisfied with his diagnostics, he opened the other window back up, and clicked continue.
The Arbiter grasped the fleet admiral's hand, a gesture of friendship among the humans, "Hard to believe he's dead."
He looked at the memorial. A green, metal shard stood out, surrounded by flowers, pictures of fallen soldiers, and rifles with green hats on top the barrels. Thel 'Vadam noticed the picture of the sergeant Johnson, an honorable man who died fighting the mad oracle. He looked away from the picture, at the metal shard it was adorned on. On it, written in the human language, were the words In Memory of Those Fallen in the Defense of Earth and her Colonies March 3, 2553.
Thel almost made a chuckle, reminiscing the irony of the situation. "Were it so easy." He said, in response to Hood's remark on the Demon being dead.
Vadam looked up, expecting to see the former Covenant ship, the Shadow of Intent...only to be met with a concrete ceiling.
"Wha-?" Arbiter, dumbfounded, looked to where the memorial was, only to see a group of beings standing in a line, and another line behind that line. He looked around, seeing a being of an unknown race standing to his left, and a human woman standing to his right.
The being to his left was about his height, was covered in red armor, had scaly skin, a large hump on his back, a forehead covered in a shell-like red armor plate, and had red eyes. The young human woman to his right had short black hair, a blue skirt that covered her knees, a white shirt with a blue and gold collar, and blue eyes. They both looked as equally confused as the arbiter.
The being to his left brought up a weapon, aiming it around, "Where the hell-?"
"Ellie," A bearded human in dirt covered clothes looked ready to kill something, "stay close!"
A young human woman in a red shirt with black sleeves pulled a handgun out, standing next to the bearded man.
The woman next to Thel 'Vadam heard the voice, and gasped, "Booker?"
Another human male in a blue jumpsuit covered with armor pieces noticed a woman dressed just like him, "...Nora?"
The blue clothed woman saw him and completely freaked out. She pulled up a rifle, aiming it at the blue man, "Stay back!"
"Don't move!" A group of armored men formed a circle, weapons pointing out. They wore white armor, with helmets that had T shaped visors, separately covered in red, orange, yellow, and green painting. The orange one seemed to be the leader.
"What the fuck!" A bald woman covered in tattoos glowed blue, a mist emanating from her body.
Chaos stuttered to bubble around the Arbiter. Many seemed to arm themselves, bringing out a whole plethora of various weapons. Guns, lasers, energy weapons, swords, bows, axes, and energy swords were all visible. He may have even noticed a tentacle in the mix.
All the chaos was halted, when a noise drew everyone's attention.
A mechanical noise. One of a motor. Everyone looked around for the source of the noise, eventually finding a large man. The man was bald, wore a black and grey vest with a red t-shirt underneath, and a bullet belt wrapped around his shoulder to the armpit opposite.
And in his hand...was the biggest mini-gun anyone had ever seen. And it was spinning.
His face contorted, as he let out a roar. Everyone in the direction of his gun jumped out of the way, avoiding the thunderous eruption. Those who were too slow were torn apart, crumpling into bloody messes. One of the white armored men, with red paint on his helmet, aimed his sniper rifle, and a blue laser struck the mini-gun, halting it.
The bald man looked at the melted metal on his gun in shocked surprise, "Sasha!" His face contorted in rage, as he charge at the armored men.
Everyone else began attacking each other as well.
The blue man and woman were now shooting at each other, and the man looked like he didn't want to fight. They took cover behind the bodies of massive beings that were caught in the bald ones rampage, with the woman firing her rifle and the man a handgun. Nora, if that was her name, was able to get a shot on the man's shoulder. The man clutched the wound, pulling out a syringe and injecting it into himself. The bullet slipped out of the wound, and it healed almost instantly.
The bearded man and red clothed girl were now shooting at everyone, choosing random targets. They were crouched down, firing shots out with their handguns, when a brown short-haired asian woman stalked up behind, raising a strange handgun at them. The handgun seemed to open, as if it was some kind of mouth, and had a teal glow. A voice sounded from the gun, "Crime Coefficient: 350. Enforcement Mode is Lethal Eliminator."
A blue beam fired from the gun, hitting the bearded man. At first nothing seemed to happen, then his arm bloated, and he exploded into a bloody mess, spraying blood on everyone around him. "Joel!" The woman, Ellie, stared wide eyed at where her partner used to be. She let out a shrieking scream.
Madness... Arbiter, who had ducked down to avoid being targeted, watched the horrific scenes around him unfold. Blood was everywhere, people were beating each other up, slamming whatever weapon they had into each other. Arbiter felt a presence behind him...
He whipped out the handle of his energy sword, the blade exploding out, and swung at his adversary. He stopped, when a familiar gold visor filled his sight. "...Demon?"
"Get down!" He grabbed my shoulder, forcing me down as something big swung over us. I looked behind me to see a white haired human, wearing a black leather mask that covered his mouth and right eye. The mask bore fake teeth along a zipper, and his eye was completely black, save for a red iris. Giant red tentacles were sticking out from his back.
A man in a white hood snuck up behind him, a tomahawk in one hand. He raised it, and threw it at the masked one's back. The tentacles intercepted the small axe, smashing the wooden handle into pieces, and impaled the hooded man. The hooded man crumpled to the floor, the tentacle leaving a giant wound in his body.
The tentacle swung at chief, which he blocked with his assault rifle. The tentacle actually broke the rifle in half, so the chief discarded the pieces. "Demon!" The arbiter got his attention, and took out a spare energy sword. He threw the sword at him, and arbiter swung his own up just in time to block a strike from a tentacle. His sword sliced it in half, with it falling to the floor, wiggling, and eventually disintegrating. He heard the sound of the chief's sword springing to life.
The monster human went full out. His tendrils began to strike excessively, trying to score a hit at their chests and heads. Arbiter and the Chief swung their swords, blocking the fast tendrils as they came towards them. The no-weight swords made it extremely easy to swing them, but dealing with a fast and multi armed opponent made the effort exhausting. But it was clear that he was also becoming exhausted.
It, seeing as how he was like some savage beast, pulled back, having lost a significant mass of it's tendrils to our blades. Arbiter took the time to look around.
The white armored were now all dead, and the bald giant was now trying to stand. That was hard, seeing as how his entire torso was covered in bloody holes. He tried to use his giant gun as a crutch to keep him standing, but eventually the blood loss got to him, and he took a tumble to the concrete floor.
Ellie, the woman in the red shirt, was sitting next to the bloody body of the asian woman who had killed her partner, Joel. She held a machete in one arm, her other arm having been blown off, and was beginning to lose consciousness from the blood loss.
The people in blue were now dead, having filled each other with enough bullet holes to kill a brute.
The bald, tattooed woman and the unknown armored creature were cornering an extremely pale human woman, who was wearing light armor and a red hood over her head. She looked badly wounded, but nothing fatal, and was on the ground with a pistol out.
"Give it up, bitch" The bald woman spat at her.
The red hooded woman pulled out a metal device, and it started to generate a beeping noise...
"Oh shit!" The bald woman erected a glowing shield around her.
The red hooded woman exploded. The blast stunned arbiter and the chief, and dust filled the room.
Arbiter looked around, trying to see through the dust. He saw the chief, standing up from where he fell to.
A red shape shot out, impaling chief in the chest."NO!"
The chief stared confusingly at the tendril sticking into his chest. The tendril lifted him up above the ground, and swung him off its tip, into the wall behind him. Blood poured out of the hole in his chest.
Arbiter angrily looked at the monster, "Why!?"
It didn't speak, it just released a guttural growl as it swung all its tendrils at the Arbiter. A tendril came to his right, and was sliced in half. Another to his left and front, both sliced. He jumped and rolled as three tendrils struck the empty concrete ground, springing up dust.
He got back his bearings just as he saw two tendrils coming at him. He raised his sword, slicing the other. But the other one was too close, and he tried to block it with his fist. The tendril struck his fist, breaking his shield instantly. The shot dazed him, and the monster took advantage of it.
Arbiter felt a numbness in his chest. He looked down.
Every tendril the monster had was sticking into his chest, indigo blood leaking from his wound. He looked up. The monster was looking right at him, his face inches away from his. The beastly human swiped the zipper on his mask, revealing his true mouth. Its tongue licked its lips.
Arbiter looked back to his fallen comrade. His body was on the ground, unmoving, a red pool around it. The arbiter summoned all the anger he had in his soul, pulled up his sword, and threw it at the beast. The blade embedded itself in the beasts chest, just below his neck.
The tendrils disintegrated, allowing the arbiter to fall to his knees. The beast stood, blade sticking from its chest. It's black eye changed, turning into the regular human white color, his iris a regular brown.
A tear streaked from his eye, "...Touka, I'm sorry." He fell to ground, his body making an audible thud on the concrete floor.
Arbiter looked around. Everyone was dead. The Red creature was a bloody mess. The bald woman had her neck broken. The woman in the blue skirt was riddled with bullets. Chief was lying near the wall, his lifeless body lying in a pool of blood.
Arbiter's head started to feel light, and a numbness began to spread through his body. One thought entered his mind...
...
...Where am I?
His vision began to blur, and he fell into an ocean of darkness.
The monitors showed that the room was now filled with pools of blood. Bodies were everywhere, guts sprayed onto the walls and ceiling, as well as bullet holes. A huge chunk of the wall was blown out, where echo had pulled the pin on her grenade. A screen showed the vital signs of everyone that was in the room; they were all flat lined.
A chocolate peanut-butter cup was halfway to Todd's open mouth, as he just about to have his second when the bloodbath began. He stared stared wide eyed at the screen. A light fixture seemed to fall from the ceiling.