Well, after a long break from writing, I'm decided to come back with this little post-Halo 3 fanfic. Excuse me if there are some things throughout any chapters that conflict with anything in the books, but it's been a long time since I read the books. Anyway, here goes, hope you enjoy.
Nearly 40 years after the conclusion of the great war between the Covenant and Humans, mankind felt safe, secure. They were confident that their troubles with alien species had come to an end. They were wrong.
Captain Richard Amartoh reclined in his seat on the bridge, watching the surrounding viewscreens with lazy interest, as they displayed the scan information on hundreds of pieces of floating debris. His ship, the Rising Dawn, had originally been a prototype warship, designed to take part in the war. However, the war ended before the Rising Dawn got to see action, and so was refitted to do routine work. Like this boring patrol work, Richard thought. His ship had been tasked to patrolling the space outside of Earth's radar range, which was a very small section near Mars. The crew didn't even have to do anything, just sit there and watch the monitors, and the onboard AI did all the work. After a full sixteen hours of uninterrupted boredom, Richard was ready to go to sleep. As he got up to go to his quarters for sleep, however, the AI spoke up.
"Captain, an unidentified object has just come out of slipspace. Scanning now, but we don't need that to tell us that this is big, and it's on course straight for us" the AI said. This roused Richard from his stupor, and he looked up at the screens.
"Bring it up on viewscreen three," he commanded. After a moment of waiting, during which Richard cursed the slow AI construct, the object appeared on the screen. Richard was stunned, as he stared up at the screen. It was nothing he'd seen with his own eyes, but the Captain had seen his share of Covenant ships in plenty of old combat reports. This must be a flagship, Richard thought, marveling at the sheer size of the vessel. Just like all the old photographs he'd seen, it was bulbous and elegantly curved, and a faint purple-ish color.
"Lieutenant Rivers, send out a hail, let's see if we can establish contact," Richard ordered the communications officer to his right. It was worrisome, having the Covenant back in their system, and it could mean serious trouble. There was a minute of total silence as everyone waited for some sort of response, then a face appeared on the main viewscreen. A few people recoiled at the sight of an Elite, living and breathing, with that permanent look of anger on it's face. Richard took a moment to compose himself before speaking, and even then his voice cracked with nervousness.
"This is Captain Richard Amartoh of the Rising Dawn. Please state your business in our system, Covenant," Richard said, making sure he properly emphasized the words 'our system'.
"I am the Arbiter," the on-screen Elite said, his voice garbling the human language horribly. "My business here? I come with a warning... one that may spare the humans of complete annihilation."
"A warning? Complete annihilation?" Richard repeated, feeling slightly threatened. "What do you mean, Arbiter?" he asked with a bit more force to his voice. The Elite paused for a moment, appearing to search Richard's face, and realization sunk in.
"No, no, we come in peace. We mean no further harm to the human race," the Arbiter paused, considering his words. "We come to warn you of a... different threat. Please, allow a small number of my crew aboard, I would prefer this to take place in person," the Arbiter said. Richard stood from his chair, considering his options. Any hostilities will be the end of this ship, but is it smart to let them in? If they wanted to harm us, they would've already, right? Richard could feel all eyes on him, and finally decided that they were in the same position whether he let the Elites onboard or not.
"Very well, you may bring a small number of men aboard. I will provide an entrance... when I find out which one we can open," Richard said, uncertainly. Then, turning to his crew, he ordered, "someone find a window we can open or something."
"Yes, sir, I'll prepare the docking chamber," a young Ensign said, leaving the room quickly.
"We will enter through there then?" the Arbiter asked.
"Yes," Richard replied, and the viewscreen went dark. Richard stared at it for a moment, then left the bridge as well, feeling as though he might very well be going to his death. Halfway there, a bright purple light seemed to envelop the Rising Dawn. Richard stopped for a moment, looking around in confusion, then remembered that the Covenant had some sort of gravity lift for moving their men on and off ships. As he got nearer to the chamber, he could hear it pressurizing. Too late to turn back now, he thought, with a flutter of fear nagging at him. The Elites stepped out into the hall, and any of Richard's crew quickly backed out of the way. The Arbiter, leading the group, turned to look at Richard.
He's older than the others, Richard noticed, seeing the Arbiter next to his fellow Elites. Approaching him boldly, Richard held out his hand. The Arbiter examined it for a moment, then grasped it with his own alien hand and shook, hard, making Richard wince with pain. There was a pause in which the Elite seemed to search Richard's face intently.
"My apologies... I had forgotten how fragile your race is," the Arbiter said. After taking a look around, he continued, "I assume we have a place to speak in private?"
"Yes, right this way," Richard replied, leading the Arbiter toward the meeting room while nursing his hand gently. The other four Elites followed behind, surveying the other humans with a look as though they were superior. None of them believed the stories of the great Demon, especially after meeting humans face-to-face. Richard led them into a fairly large room, although for the Elites the ceiling was quite low. It was a plain, sterile white with an equally white, large, rectangular table being the only object inside, sitting in the center of the room. As the Arbiter took a seat, Richard noticed something about the other Elites. Three of them wore the same color of armor, but one wore a golden armor and was giving orders to the other three. As for the Arbiter, Richard assumed he was wearing some sort of armor denoting his high command; it appeared almost ceremonious rather than for combat purposes.
"It is urgent that this message gets to important people within your military, do understand human?" the Arbiter asked, with the tone one would acquire when speaking down to someone.
"Yes, of course, this will be recorded and sent to HIGHCOM immediately," Richard replied, slightly affronted. As he took his seat at the head of the table, he thumbed a button on the end. Looking at the Arbiter with interest, he waited patiently as the alien seemed to be considering its words carefully.
"This threat... is something far more dangerous than we could have ever imagined. Granted, you race did in fact defeat us in many circumstances, and interrupted our intentions to activate the Halos. Your race did not, however, defeat us. Had it been a war to see who lived and who didn't, I feel strongly that your race would no longer exist and the Covenant would still stand strong," the Arbiter paused, realizing that he may have come off as a bit arrogant. Richard felt the same way.
"This new enemy... it is at least tenfold our own strength; and it grows in strength with every organism it encounters. We do not have a real name for them, and we have not stayed around long enough to find out what they call themselves. We call them the Sorunarik, for it means "shape-shifter" in our tongue. Their name is what they are, they can mimic the form of any enemy they encounter. Unfortunately this means that they adopted the form of many of our Mgalekgolo, known as Hunters to your species, and they have destroyed us.
"Of course, it wasn't by sheer power that they did it. These creatures... if they can come into close contact with an organism, they can assimilate their combat techniques, skills, and abilities; they defeated us with our own strategies. For our race, this does not mean much, but..." the Arbiter paused, looking up at Richard. With the look of someone swallowing his pride, he said, "your race is innovative, and your people are all individuals, free thinkers. If this race were to come into contact with your species, I fear they could gain the ability to think for themselves as well, or at least they could find a vast wealth of abilities, thoughts, techniques; enough perhaps to become unstoppable. For the moment, we have assumed that they are imitative, like ourselves... only they can see the full potential in anything without any knowledge of it...
"They are... monsters... and we come to you humans for help. They have destroyed our home world of Sanhelios, as well as the home worlds of many of the other Covenant races, and we have no place else to go. We submit ourselves to you." The Arbiter stopped there, and watched Richard as he thumbed off the recorder. For a moment, there was a tense silence, as Richard simply stared with disbelief. Then, regaining his composure, he stood from his chair.
"That is... quite a lot to take in, Arbiter. You may return to your vessel, and follow us to the nearest docking station. We must inform HIGHCOM immediately," he said, before exiting the room with a swift stride.