Halo: The Rise of the Covenant

by AvidWriter117

Since this was written not long after 'The Flood', much of the information in this story is incorrect. "Witness the Birth, The Rise, and the Fall of the Covenant."

Chapter 1: Prologue: The Forerunners

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Prologue: the Forerunners

Evolution.

A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.

An adaptation that will help an organism better suit its environment.

Over millennia, a species with an unknown name evolved into what would be the most known race in the galaxy. They developed high intelligence, but this did not keep them from being prey. Their extinction seemed inevitable.

While this species was on the brink of destruction, a single individual discovered an amazing way to leave the chaos of their doomed planet. That individual discovered slipspace: a way to travel great distances by entering an alternate dimension. By building a large spaceship that could the extreme pressures during the transitions through slipspace, the individual was able to convince others of his race that this journey would be profitable to their entire species. He, along with thousands of comrades, embarked on a journey to find other intelligent life.

They destroyed their old city, so as to prevent anyone from following them, then left their planet forever. For hundreds of years, their legion roamed space; discovering other species, and attacking them out of fear. With superior technology, this species slowly wiped out dozens of races in the galaxy. They called themselves 'Huragok', which meant 'Supreme Rulers' in their native tongue.

Evolution continued its sometimes destructive path. The Huragok searched for races that would be a true challenge to their power. In their lust for battle, they changed. They mutated, shrinking and abandoning their vital organs so they may use their prey's. Their physique changed, from their normal purple pod-like bodies, to small beige spongy bodies.

The un-mutated Huragok fought against this threat, but were soon overrun. They retreated to the outer rim of the galaxy. With nothing to curb their hunger, the Flood went into hibernation. Generation after Generation passed, and the Huragok forgot about their mutated brethren. They began their quest to conquer once more.

Their lust for battle called to the Flood.

They awoke, seeking blood.

This time, the Huragok did not run. In the millennia they had been away, they had changed once more. Evolution had once again taken place. They became incredibly smart creatures, able to take apart and rebuild anything they came across. Their immense brain now took up the majority of the Huragok's body.

The Huragok fought the Flood infestation. But they did not understand the true nature of their enemies. For every Huragok that was killed, it added another soldier to the Flood's ranks. The Flood killed, then controlled the Huragok forces. The Huragok retreated.

A descendent of the 'holy one', the individual who had first discovered slipspace, had an idea. Upon a planet long forgotten lived a race of intelligent, eel-like creatures. After studying the Floods anatomy and tactics, the Huragok deduced one fact: the Flood control hosts through the spine. An organism without a spinal cord would not be controlled. These eels were abducted and tortured into submission. They were placed in thick sets of armour, with weapons affective against the Flood.

The Flood Hunters were placed into service. A highly effective weapon against the infestation, the Hunters were sent from planet to planet, destroying the Flood and all possible hosts for them. But the Flood adapted to this new threat. They learned how to kill the Hunters…and use their weapons.

The Huragok retreated.

There was no choice. The only way to exterminate these monsters was to do the extreme. The Huragok built massive ring-worlds, with every type of environment. Here they attempted to quarantine the Flood. The Flood put up a resistance, but were eventually subdued.

Upon these ring worlds, called Halos, the Huragok constructed small machines. Installed in these machines were strong, energy beam weapons that were affective against the Flood. These machines were called Sentinels, and were placed in the Flood's quarantine to watch over them.

The Huragok left these Halos, confident that they could continue their journey in peace. They traveled throughout the galaxy, destroying dozens of planets, and billions of lives.

Huragok, lovers of riddles and puzzles, placed hundreds of clues leading around the galaxy and eventually to their Halos. One of the places they built these clues was on a planet called Earth. As they built upon this planet, they chanced upon Homo Neanderthalensis. The so far undeveloped species was strong and intelligent. The Huragok took this species and placed them upon the Halos, in hope that they would confront the Flood.

The Neanderthals adapted quickly and fought the Flood for many years. Confident that the Flood would soon be extinguished, the Huragok left Neanderthals for many millennia. After discovering many uninhabited, but habitable, planets the Huragok headed for their Rings once more, and took the Homo Neanderthalensis away. They split them up and placed them upon different planets.

Some went to Earth. They continued their normally planned evolution, and became Homo Sapiens.

The Huragok built Oxygen Breathers for the Neanderthals and placed them upon a Methane filled planet. The Methane was obsorbed into the skin over thousands of years, and the Neanderthals eventually adapted to living on the planet. They grew blubber and sharp teeth to hunt. They are called Monachus Sapiens.

Some went to a mildly cold planet. They did not abandon their thick hair, but instead grew more. They became Ferinus Sapiens.

Some went to an Earth-like planet, but an adaptation in speed was required of them. They evolved digitigrade legs, and became Canis Sapiens.

Some went to a docile planet. They developed intelligence, and deceit. They became Secuutus Sapiens.

The Huragok, confident that they had positively affected the galaxy, receded to the outer rim of the galaxy. Waiting for the day someone would come looking for them.

Year 0001 of Third age, Age of discovery, unknown location, home of the Forerunners/Prophets,

A young male of an unnamed species was digging for a new well in the mountains when his shovel hit what the male thought was a stone.

It was dozens of years later that the species discovered that it wasn't a stone. They found a giant technologically advanced city, which had been deserted by its former civilians.

In this city, they found an ancient legacy that told of an amazing race that traveled the galaxy on a journey of conquest.

They also found technology: the original prototype slipspace generator, primitive electric weapons that the Denarkine used before they found the Huragok, and schematics for a large spaceship.

After spending hundreds of years building spaceships and the slipspace generators, the species set out to follow their "Forerunners." The species thought that the forerunners had left their planet to embark upon a "great journey" to the "divine beyond," but the truth was that the forerunners had left to conquer the galaxy and died out in the process.

As the species was searching through the forerunners city, they found a structure that held all the information of Forerunner conquest and the halos. Although the structure only mention the Halos briefly, not noting their cause or what they looked like, the species interpreted the halos as Holy Constructs. Unfortunately for the species, but fortunately for all life in the galaxy, the structure did not house the locations for the halos.

The species left their home planet to follow the Forerunners, which they worshiped as gods. They searched for Halos, which they thought would send with the forerunners to the divine beyond.

But unforeseen complications arrived. A small group of the prophets; or will of the gods, which they called themselves; stumbled upon a giant ring which they could not identify. The ring had its own nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and gravity, but as the prophets landed upon the ring, half their number was captured by a terrifying parasite.

The prophets assumed that the parasite was put upon the rings to protect the forerunner secrets; but some thought that the parasite was on the ring by accident, and that activating the ring would send them into the divine beyond as well as destroying the parasite.

The non-parasitic prophets left the ring in a hurry, and set out to find a way to destroy the parasite, which they discovered was named Flood.

They settled on the idea of using deception finding other willing civilizations to use as a weapon that would land upon the sacred ring and clear a way, or rather, lead the Flood away from Prophets, so that the prophets could activate the ring and send themselves (but not necessarily the other species) to the divine beyond.

The prophets changed their names to "The Followers" and chose their most intelligent and respected spiritual leaders to govern their race, and lead them to the forerunners:

The Prophet of Truth

The Prophet of Mercy

The Prophet of regret

The Prophet of Wisdom

These four prophets commanded the Followers into scouring the galaxy looking for races that would do their work for them.

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Chapter 2: Section I Sangheili

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Section I: Sangheili

Year 0050, Age of Reconciliation, Sangheili home planet, High chamber of Sangheili council

"So what would be the reason for me and my Sangheili to join your alliance?" Zoneema said.

"Your citizens are oblivious, but I'm not. Your civilization is on the verge of collapse," Truth exclaimed.

"Our weapons are superior than yours!" Zoneema said, "I could wipe out your people in minutes, than no one would question my authority."

"You believe you are superior to my people?" Truth said, he kept a calm face, but his anger was conspicuous, "I have journeyed throughout the galaxy for decades gathering weapons. I could destroy your planet with a snap of my fingers." Truth snapped his fingers, and Zoneema flinched.

"I will not respond to your threats, I will not be deterred," Zoneema said, "let me think about your 'offer,' I will contact you within the hour."

"Understood, but don't keep me waiting. If you join my cause, your people will be revered with great honor and pride. You will be generals of a great army, conquering the galaxy." The Prophet of Truth said as he walked out of the hut, "Make the right choice!"

Zale Zoneema sat back in his raised chair and sighed, which was a difficult gesture through his split mandibles.

He was stuck in a sticky situation. If he and his Sangheili joined this group, many of his people would surely die in battle; but if he did not join the group, all his people would probably die.

Therefore, Zale chose the noble path.

He realized that he would much rather die fighting than die from orbital bombardment.

"Rona," Zale called out, "come!"

A young Sangheili came through the shallow doorway into Zale Zoneema's living quarters. He wore dark blue armor showing that his rank was of that lowest stature, in comparison to the white and black armor that Zale wore, showing that he was that supreme chancellor and leader of the whole Sangheili race.

"Rona," Zale said, "I would like you to contact the Elite council."

"Yes sir," Rona Manomee said, and then he backed out of the hut.

Zale had already made his decision, but he needed a little reassurance.

Rona sat outside the chamber listening to an intense argument between Zale and the rest of the Sangheili council.

Actually, there was no arguing; it was just everyone yelling at what Zale was saying. Zale had not raised his voice, but was just stating counterexamples to everything the council said.

Rona knew Zale would eventually win. Zale Always won.

Rona had served Zale for 36 years and had not received a single promotion. Everyone in the city honored Rona as though he were an Honor Guard, but it wasn't the same. Rona wanted and official promotion, but he couldn't bring up the courage to ask the supreme chancellor.

Blue armor was the lowest rank in the Sangheili society; it meant that he was a minor in the military. Next comes red armor, which would make him a major. Then cyan which meant Ranger; chrome which meant a stealth commander; grey or brown also meant stealth commander, but was of higher status; black armor meant that he would be a special operatives soldier; and so on and so forth.

Many different armor colors surrounded the Sangheili caste system; and Rona could not even raise one level, despite his "friendship" with Zale.

Rona snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that the "arguing" had stopped.

Zale had, undoubtedly, won the debate.

The council members walked out of the chamber, and Zale called Rona back in.

One of the councilors was still in the room. He wore the honorary shining white armor and white headpiece of people of his status.

"This is the only councilor that agreed with my decision," Zale said, "How do you think I should reward him?"

"Well sir, he has the highest rank in our society, bested only by yourself," Rona said, "so if you can find a way to give him a higher promotion, than that would be a good reward."

"That's a good idea, how about…I've got it. Rona, go in my wardrobe and retrieve a white headpiece with engraved markings on it," Zale said. Rona did as he was told, and retrieved the headpiece,

He handed it to Zale who bestowed it upon the Council member.

"You are now my Covenant Representative," Zale said.

"Thank you, I will not let you down," the Sangheili said.

"I expect you not to," Zale replied, "now leave us. I will summon you on the marrow."

Rona started to back out of the room as well, but Zale stopped him.

"No Rona," he said, "you stay."

Rona stepped forward, and Zale stood, paced a little, and then stopped in front of Rona.

"How many years have you been in my service? I have lost track," Zale said.

"36 years, sir," Rona said, lowering his head.

"Aah, I see you've been keeping track?" Zale said, "No doubt to see how long I keep you a Minor?"

"Sir, it's not"—

"No need to explain yourself. In the past years, you have been more than worthy than a few promotions. The truth is…I think your one of a kind. Most Sangheili will run into battle because they are told to, but you will run into battle to protect those beside you." For the first time in 36 years, Zale Zoneema looked straight into Rona's eyes. "You not only admire the courage of the elders that lead you from behind, you admire the courage of those petty soldiers that put their life on the line. I admire your integrity. So I'm scared to let you leave my service, for fear that one day you will lead me. You deserve a much higher rank, but now is not the time for that. You are now Major Rona Monamee and second in command of the Sangheili, although they may not respect such a low rank." Zale presented Rona with a shining ruby red full armor suit.

"I am honored beyond words," Rona said, dropping to one knee.

"Stand," Zale said, "I already have a mission for you."

Rona Monamee piloted the stealth class Prowler alone; an incredible feat, even for a Sangheili with as much training as himself.

He manned all the control stations, including weapons control, navigations systems, and communications.

This was the most dangerous mission he had ever faced, yet he wanted to prove himself alone.

The Prophet of Truth had discovered a species on an uncharted planet; a species that was said to be used, or possibly created, by the Forerunners.

Rona wasn't completely sure who the Forerunners were, but he had been told to obey the Prophets. All these new politics were really confusing him, but he knew that he should do what he was told, unless it was morally incorrect; which wasn't the case at the moment.

Rona hadn't gleaned much of what was happening, but he got a little. He had learned that that the Prophets were traveling across the galaxy gathering species to help them reach a race of "gods" called the Forerunners. So now the "Covenant" was going to travel the galaxy to find these Forerunners.

The Sangheili were pawns, and Rona knew that.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do; he had to follow directions.

Therefore, he was going on this errand.

After 26 days of traveling, he could finally see the planet in the distance; then after six more hours, he drifted into a deep rock filled crater.

Rona donned his pressure suit, walked out of the ship, and heard the suit slowly tighten…then loosen, showing that the atmosphere was oxygen-nitrogen.

"Rona," a voice over his comm. said.

"Sir?" he responded, "I thought you said that your communications relays can't reach this far."

"I have launched a navigational relay disc that will bounce my signal in your direction," Zale's voice said, "It is a very complex and expensive process, but I can't afford to lose you."

"Thank you, sir," Rona said.

"I have discovered that the species you are after was the greatest followers of the forerunners during their time, and the Forerunners did many things to protect them. There is no doubt that security systems are placed throughout the planet," Zale said, "Be careful."

"I will; thanks for the advice," Rona said. He grabbed an electric baton and four electric discharge grenades, which he attached to his belt. He then set out across a large black sandy desert, In search of something he wasn't even sure he would find.

Two small blips on his motion sensor…

Then four…

Then ten.

A bright orange blast turned the sand at his right into glass; Rona was propelled 6 feet into the air, and landed hard on his side. His vision blacked out for a split second, and then he scrambled quickly to his feet.

As he turned, a mechanism made of three floating beams surrounded a glowing orb. The mechanism then stopped glowing, and moved closer to Rona.

"Are you a Reclaimer?" a feminine robotic voice said, the voice resounded throughout the desert, making it impossible to determine the exact location.

"I do not understand what you mean," Rona replied.

Rona then realized that the voice was not coming from the mechanism in front of him, but rather from a red orb behind it. The orb resembled a large eye, but where the iris would be, a glowing ring took its place. Realizing that the ring was most likely the mechanism that the machine the looked out of, this was what Rona spoke to.

"Let me introduce myself," the orb said, "I am 542 Raging Ion. I am the monitor of installation zero one. Unfortunately I was separated from my objective, and I ended up coming here to protect the Holy Artifacts that litter this planet," the monitor inched forward, "have you come to activate the installations?"

"I do not know of what installations you speak, but I have been sent here to find a species of—."

Ooooh, you seek the Huragok!" the Ion cut him off, "I can only show them to you if you prove yourself to me."

"I am not your errand boy," Rona said, "if you will not help me, than I will find them myself."

"That would not be wise, Reclaimer,"

"I am not a 'Reclaimer',"

"Are you not a Homo-Sapien being? I would not know what you look, but we are supposed to look for a biped being with great armor and weaponry, and he must be able to pass our tests with ease," Ion said.

"I am not a Homo-Sapien,

The monitor let out an electronic gasp of anger and retreated.

"I was warned of the Sangheili treachery by my masters," the monitor said, the mechanism around him flew closer; "You and my masters were bitter enemies in times past. Sentinels, please dispose of him."

The mechanisms, apparently called Sentinels, sped towards Rona, their central orbs glowing.

Rona ran.

"Zale! We kind of have a problem here!" he said with gasping breath

"So I see, I have your heat signature on a satellite; the machines are right behind you, but you need to find the species anyway," Zale said.

"I understand, but I request that you send a squadron of fighters her as fast as possible," Rona said.

"If you find what you are looking for, they will have technologies that can get us there faster, but for now, your on your own," Zale said with regret.

"Understood," Rona replied, not having the energy or time to argue.

Rona's foot caught on a rock and he pitched forward, landing heavily on his stomach, and slamming his mandible together.

"Do not shoot! He is near the Holy Articles," the monitor said from high above.

As Rona looked up, the Sentinels flew backward away from Rona; then as he looked forward, he realized the reason why. Rona had fallen into a field of destroyed ships. 10,000 year old carcasses littered the ground, not decomposed due to the lack of bacteria.

"Rona, is everything okay there?" Zale asked, "Why did you and the machines stop?"

"I've stumbled upon an ancient battleground. There are hundreds of bodies and crashed ships," Rona said, "the machines said that this is a holy article, so they wont attack."

"Ships?!" Zale said, "Rona! You must find an intact engine for me! If you can send me the schematics for the engine, we can learn how to get places hundreds of times faster than usual."

"Yes, sir."

Rona slowly searched through each mountain of wreckage, looking for an intact engine. With each ship he searched through, he became more sure that he was getting closer.

Although, before he found an intact engine, he found its creator.

As Rona lifted a large metal beam from a pile of wreckage, he saw a cellar like door underneath. As he pulled it open, he noticed that al the Sentinels followed him, including the Monitor.

As he walked inside, the light from the monitor lit the passage in front of him.

"I hope that you do not mean to harm the Huragok, Human impersonator," the monitor said, "because if you do, I will use my Sentinels to slowly disintegrate your flesh."

"I mean them no harm, I would only like to talk to them," Rona said.

"Than I must act as a translator, so that I may keep you in order," Ion said and hovered somewhat faster.

With the monitor showing the path, the light above shrank away, and Rona descended into the darkness below.

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Chapter 3: Section II: The Flood

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Section II Huragok

"These are the Huragok?" Rona said skeptically.

"The Huragok are pacifists, they live for fixing things, and they feed off micro organisms. The 'Forerunners', as you call them, bred this species to build complex weapons for them, and for the past 10,000 years, that is what they have been doing," Ion said.

The Huragok were a deep shade of purple, with dozens of tentacles that, the monitor said, could split into hundreds of super fine cilia to manipulate objects. They floated around on air sacks, had six eyes, and could decipher how something works in 25 seconds.

"Ask them if I may see these weapons," Rona said.

"That is pointless impersonator," Ion said, "First of all, the Huragok do not give their technology to anyone except the Denar- um…the Forerunners," The monitor stuttered, then regained its cheery demeanor, "and second of all, if you wanted to take the products of 10,000 years of work, you would have to fill ten million of your puny starships to the brim. Ha-ha, my hilarity is only exceeded by me great intelligence. Ha-ha, I am a genius."

"Just ask them!" Rona said, his patience was waning, and he had a feeling that the monitor was superfluous to this part of his mission.

"Okay, but they will say no," The monitor said, he then hovered noisily over to the Huragok and started speaking in high squeals and clicks; to which the Huragok replied in kind.

"I…I don't believe it," Ion mumbled and started to hover back to Rona, "the Huragok have agreed to show you to the weapons cache. They say that they will need your help in the hours to come, yet I have never heard of an instance where the Huragok could foresee events, although I guess it is possible." He could later be heard saying 'I…I've never been wrong…am I going mad?'

"Good, show me the way; oh, wait, I should contact my master while I still have communications signal," Rona said, and he reached to his belt for his portable comm. System, "sir, I may drop out of signal soon. I have found the species we are looking for, and they have agreed to show me their technology. They are taking me there now. I will send you the schematics of the new engine as soon as I can," Rona said.

"…Understood…sorry…I…much signal…this part…galaxy," Zale said, Rona could barely hear him through static, but could understand what Zale meant.

"Okay, sir," Rona replied.

"Are you ready impersonator?" the monitor said, "We should go."

"Lead the way," Rona said.

With the monitor's light illuminating their path, and the Huragok leading the way, Rona descended down a marble staircase into the unyielding darkness, and the abyss below.

Rona waked for what seemed like an eternity. The only time he stopped was because the Huragok made the monitor turn off its light before entering the next room.

Unbeknownst to Rona, the reason for this was so as to not alert an organism in the room to their presence, but that was inevitable due to the organism's acute senses.

The instant the gateway into the room was opened, a fleshy yellow blob slipped out the door and scrambled up the stairs.

The blob slipped under a crowd of hovering Huragok and burst into sunlit freedom. The Sentinels hovering above were completely oblivious to the organism that they were created to destroy as it passed right below them.

The blob scrambled and bounced between the wreckage of crashed ships until he found a suitable host. The blob injected a large needle into the carcass' spine and began to control its motor functions and brainpower.

For the next hours, as Rona was underground, the now-blob-controlled being worked at reproducing to create more 'blobs'; which then took over the remaining bodies littering the crash site. These forms gained immense strength and intelligence due to the 'Denarkine' brain which they controlled.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Rona said.

"I believe so, you sentient life forms are so impatient, oh, we here now!" Ion said.

The Huragok opened a set of double doors into the biggest room Rona had ever seen. Wide open spaces that must have been dozens of square miles around. At all sides of the room there were double doors that opened into rooms of equal size.

The main room consisted of tables with plans for new weapons and devices. Millions of Huragok sat near these tables and worked on new prototypes and schematics.

In the room through doors to the east of the main hall, three million Huragok worked 31 out of 36 hours of the day building weapons called 'Plasma pistols' and 'plasma rifles'. With dozens of hyper sensitive tentacles, each Huragok could build about a dozen weapons per minute.

These weapons were carted to an attached room of equal size and were stacked on mile high shelves for storage.

The same thing happened in all other rooms. Millions of Huragok built dozens of types of weapons and put them away for storage to be used by the masters that they believed to still be alive.

Rona was led room to room, testing weapons, viewing plans for new ones, and taking prototypes. By the time Rona had finished the second to last room, he had filled three large sacks with weapons.

He had taken 10 of each weapon: plasma pistols; plasma rifles; plasma grenades; plasma turrets; a giant arm mounted fuel rod cannon that Rona could barely carry (of which he only took 2); and many others.

Rona was led to a room slightly smaller than the last and was told to receive the weapon that was stored there. He walked up to a tall shelf, and, confused, picked up a small baton that lay there. Once he pressed a button on the end, a bright blue-white blade materialized out of it.

The Huragok placed a large block of an unknown metal in front of Rona, and he swung the sword experimentally. The blade cut cleanly and swiftly through the block, dicing it in two.

"Take many of these," the monitor said, "The Huragok say that these swords have yet to be perfected and they will run out of energy after a specific amount of use. Hopefully in a few years, they shall perfect it."

"Thank you," Rona said.

"There are only a few more things the Huragok would like to show you," the monitor said.

"Show me."

Raging ion took Rona through three sets of double doors, and into a room which was only 20 meters length and width. About 30 Huragok hovered around the room, fiddling with electronics and copying down schematics. In the middle of the room was a suit of armor.

The darkest and most pure shade of black Rona had ever seen glistened on its skin, and shallow hieroglyphics were engraved upon its surface. The Huragok told Rona to put it on, to which he complied.

"The Huragok say that this is the most complex device they have ever created. They are saying that it has a skilled camouflage system, a built in motion and heat detector, as well as a sonar radar system, and a health regulator," the monitor translated for the Huragok, "It will amplify your strength and reaction systems, as well as your senses.

"That is amazing," Rona said truthfully.

"You are very lucky to be given this system, the Huragok are saying that they doubt that they could ever duplicate its skills. Its original maker was killed in a weapon malfunction and the schematics were burned in the resulting fire," the monitor said, "If you bear the name of the peacemaker of the Forerunners; THE ARBITER!"

"Thank you," Rona said.

"Now, there is last thing to give you," Ion said, and he hovered quickly away, "come!"

"What are these?" Rona said, after he had followed the monitor down a short hallway, which seemed to be unique for this structure.

"You're supposed to put them over your eyes like lenses, and they will help you see. There is manual, read it!" the monitor said, acting as though Rona were inept.

Rona picked up an electric manual that came with the lenses, and, not being able to read the awkward script, pushed a random button.

"Give me that!" Raging Ion said. A streak of electricity shot out of the small machine, and wrenched the device out of Rona's hands, "It says here that the lenses will link with the electronics in your armor, as well as your mental state. So if you think something, it will do it; as long as the action is within its capabilities. There are five setting capabilities: heat sensor, negative vision, night vision, and its main setting is 'informational' which will tell you about special objects or species. Its most advanced setting is a special x-ray vision, which will be able to see through solid objects, though not perfectly. It will make hidden weapons visible and show you the health of those around you; that is the extent of its capabilities," the Monitor concluded.

"That is amazing!" Rona said, testing out his new gear by looking at the monitor in the alternating views, "My leader says that the Huragok should have a special engine that can get our ships here in minutes, can you ask them about that?"

542 Raging Ion spoke to the Huragok in the unfamiliar language of clicks and squeals, then turned to Rona and said: "They say that they will show you what you ask."

"Zale, I am sending you the schematics of the engine you're looking for" Rona said, sending a satellite feed through a remote console in orbit around the planet.

"Amazing," Zale said, "This engine should be able to let us travel great distances almost instantaneously. I will order our mechanics to install this into our ships immediately; we should reach you within the day."

"Thank you, sir."

"Impersonator, come!" the monitor said, "I am receiving reports of my sentinels being attacked. Were you followed when you came to this planet?!"

"No!" Rona said, and he ran out of the room and up to the surface.

As Rona sprinted out of the cellar-like door to the exterior of the planet, he was met face to face by the most horrific thing he had ever seen.

In fact, he was met by hundreds of the most horrific things he had ever seen.

An orange-beige, sickly sponge-like body stood before him. Its neck was broken backward, and out of slits in its neck came thin tentacles of the same color; thin tentacles which stretched towards Rona. Its arm was bent at an appalling angle, and its chest was caved inward, showing grotesque, decaying insides. A dozen thin tentacles replaced what would normally be hands, and small sensory feelers stuck out of small holes over its whole body.

Behind this, hundreds more stood. They were mostly alike, save different angles at which the limbs were bent.

Dozens of sentinels spun around in the distance; doing their best to destroy this threat to their existence.

The…thing in front of Rona just stood there, as though it didn't notice him. Even though Rona's job was to offer a position in the "Covenant" to any willing species, he knew that this species was a threat; therefore, it had to be exterminated.

The organism in front of him twitched, and its neck broke a tiny bit more; a piece of bone broke its skin and spurted blood on Rona's new armor.

It did not even notice its new injury.

The organism did not acknowledge Rona, but rather stared 'through' him. The reason that it did not attack was one of extraordinary luck. It had recently awakened from its deep hibernation, and was not in tune with its new senses. That fact, and the fact that he was the leader of this particular group of organisms, saved Rona's life.

Rona knew that this slow reaction would not last long; therefore, he ran. As soon as he moved, the organisms reacted and swarmed after Rona in a tidal wave…in a flood.

Rona sprinted towards the nearest downed ship and scrambled inside. He heard the beasts assaulting the hull of the rusting ship. It splintered and cracked under the surprisingly vicious blows.

Rona continued running deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels that made up the interior of the ship. As he turned a tight corner, he came face to face once again with the first monster he had seen.

This actually was a false statement, since the monster's head was bent completely backward and indistinguishable against its deformed body, making Rona come face to tentacles with the beast.

The monster lashed out with a whip-like tentacle attack, throwing The Arbiter against the tunnel wall, cutting one of his mandibles and making his temple bleed.

As the monster ran towards the Arbiter, readying for another attack, he pulled his legs back and kicked it in the center of the chest. The soft spongy tissue gave way, and sick green ooze flowed from the wound; through the cavity came small yellow tentacles which extended towards the Arbiter.

Yet the monster pushed forward.

The Arbiter pretended to punch the monster in the stomach, and instead kicked him in the chest once more. Its ribs caved deeper into its chest, and there was a sharp popping sound. Green-beige powder sprayed out of the wound, making The Arbiter sick to his stomach. He fell squirming to the floor and moved no more.

As Rona kicked the body to make sure it was dead, the monitor rounded a corner and hovered towards him.

"There you are!" it said, "Quickly, the Flood has escaped! We must stop this infestation before it can spread."

"Wait, these things are called Flood?" Rona asked.

"Yes!"

"Well, I guess it's a fitting name," Rona said, remembering the way they 'flooded' towards him.

"You must find a way to defeat this threat!" Raging Ion said.

"I will kill them all, but first I need to find a place to think in peace," Rona said. He searched for a way to leave the downed ship besides the way he came in.

Rona had been sitting in the bridge of another downed ship for ten minutes. For the past six hours he had been running from place to place as the flood discovered and attacked him time after times. He had finally found what he thought was a safe place, and was having a conversation with the Monitor, who was hovering in front of him, and Zale, who was over the comm.

Zale had recently launched two dozen destroyers to Rona's location, and had employed 200 of the best engineers in the galaxy to work on the new engines in flight.

The Monitor had been explaining the history and anatomy of the Flood, so as to help Rona in his fight against them. The Monitor explained that the Flood were a parasite which infuses a needle into its hosts spinal cord and invades its nervous system, taking over all its motor functions. Once in control of an organism, it will scramble into its chest cavity for easier access.

They have 4 main forms†:

Infection Form: the original form of the Flood; small, bulbous, with tentacles used for motion and a needle used for parasitic activity.

Combat Form: the result of a Biped sentient with sufficient biomass being controlled by an infection form. Can hold most weapons and pilot most vehicles.

Carrier Form: the result of a biped sentient with slightly too little biomass being controlled by an infection form. Forms a bulbous head that carries up to six infection forms; Head bursts when it comes in contact with a suitable host for its carried infection forms.

Engineer Form: Rare; highly intelligent; normally pilots captured ships.

Forerunner Form: the result of an infection form capturing a Forerunner. A mix between the strength of a combat form, and the intelligence of the Denarkine.

The thought of these monsters scared Rona, and he was forced to avert his gaze from the holographic images that the Monitor produced. If he wasn't careful, he realized, he could end up as one of these things host.

His thoughts of the Flood were interrupted by the actual thing. Six combat forms ripped through the hull of the ship as if it was tissue paper. They immediately attacked the six sentinels that were guarding Rona. The Flood's teamwork helped them destroy all the Sentinels, while the Sentinels only destroyed two of the Flood.

The Flood forms then turned their attention towards Rona. They lashed out with whip attacks, and tried to pummel The Arbiter to death. One hit to the chest was enough to send Rona spiraling through the air. He landed against the main view screen of the bridge.

"Monitor," Rona said, "I need you to get me one of the weapons out of the duffel bags." The monitor sped towards the duffel bags at the other end of the room, and did its best to search through them with the absence of hands.

The Arbiter did his best to hold the flood off from getting to the weapons, but they were too strong. Every move he made, they evaded and counterattacked.

Although it was hard to see in such fast paced, close combat; he could tell that these Flood forms had made a plan of action. He knew that they were intelligent, and he wasn't going to take any chances.

The Monitor was soon able to bring the Arbiter a plasma sword, which he wielded unskillfully.

The Flood jumped, ducked, and rolled to avoid his blows. Eventually, he was able to cut off some limbs, which didn't hinder the Flood's mobility or dexterity. Once he scored a single major blow, he was able to finish one of them off by destroying its internal organs, which the monitor said they still rely on.

"Impersonator! You must hurry, I have received reports that the Flood are preparing to attack the Huragok to reach the Weapon cache," the Monitor said.

"Let me deal with the task at hand first," The Arbiter said, he punched one of the Flood forms in the 'face', which only made it bleed green ooze.

The Monitor's distraction made the Arbiter bring his guard down, and he took a vicious blow to the head. The force of the blow knocked The Arbiter's sword out of his hand, and it imbedded in one of the Flood forms chest. The infection form inside popped and the Combat form fell writhing to the Floor. The Arbiter pulled the sword out of the dead organism's body, and wielded it once more.

The two remaining flood forms attacked.

The arbiter lifted a long thin spear that, oddly enough, just happened to be next to him, and skewered the two Flood forms through the abdomen. The forms writhed and roared as they tried to determine how to get it out of them. Having a short moment of piece, the Arbiter stopped to think.

He then realized that he had done the most obtuse thing imaginable: He had forgotten to power on the skills system in his armor. But how do you power on this complex armor? HE didn't have the slightest idea!

The monitor seemed to read his mind and he quickly hovered over, and talked to him over the comm.

"On your hip there should be a small black casing," Ion said, "there should be a small black chip in that casing. Insert that into the slot in your wrist."

The arbiter did what he was told, and a small shiver ran up his arm. A small hum reverberated through his sound system, and then faded. His vision seemed to blur, then clear magnificently, and a heads up display appeared in his vision.

His increased vision magnified on the Flood forms trying to pull free, and The Arbiter acted quickly. He jumped behind one of the Flood forms, and snapped its neck. Four quarts of green ooze spurted from the wound and the flood writhed lazily. Due to the loss of blood, the flood form pulled free of the spear, walked lamely towards The Arbiter, and fell face first on the floor at his feet.

The Arbiter then simply gouged the remaining flood form through the chest and left him to die.

"Good job, impersonator," Raging Ion said, "Hurry, we must get to the Huragok."

Rona ran outside and climbed upon a large piece of shrapnel to get a better look at his surroundings.

"Should we get inside the weapons cache to save the Huragok, or attack the Flood on the ground front?" the Monitor said.

"I must protect the Huragok, but I believe that I would be more help on open ground," Rona said.

"Than hurry and do what you can," Ion said, "we haven't much time."

Rona sat with his back against a smooth metal plate. The Flood were about 600 yards behind this metal plate. Rona had inferred that they 'saw' by sensing changes in heat signatures, which would be why they did not attack themselves, and by hiding behind something cool, they wouldn't be able to sense him. So far, it had worked. Before him lay rows of weapons.

'Six plasma pistols, six plasma rifles, twenty energy swords, three dozen grenades, two fuel rod cannons, and beam rifles with sniper scopes and extra charges,' Rona thought, ' this will have to go without a hitch, I barely have enough weapons to kill 100 flood, now I have to kill 500."

"Impersonator," Ions voice sounded over the comm. "I have set up a communications relay in a hidden spot just outside the weapons cache. That way, I can maintain contact with you throughout the battle. My Sentinels and I have set up a defense grid inside the cache and are evacuating the Huragok through a secret passage. The rest is up to you, you are on your own."

"Understood," Rona said.

Rona lifted himself high enough to see over a ledge onto a group of Flood. He knew that if he actually shot one of them, they would be swarming over him in seconds. Therefore, he devised a plan.

He rigged a plasma grenade on a timer, and placed it on the other side of a Flood-filled gorge. Once the bomb was tripped, the Flood would be sent to investigate. Therefore, he rigged a second, much larger batch of grenades on a remote activation system that he had found in a destroyed ship. When the Flood investigate the first explosion, he would detonate the second batch of grenades, killing them all.

With a lot of luck, he could wipeout a whole mini-armada in ten seconds.

Unfortunately, his luck was just running out. Rona was in position to activate the fist explosion, when a small infection form snuck up upon him. He popped it easily with a single punch, but it broke his concentration.

He went back to his plan, and hastily activated the first explosion. Although, when it went off, only six flood forms were sent to investigate.

He quickly devised a simpler plan of picking them off one by one with a beam rifle. As he did so, more and more were sent to investigate, letting him kill the majority of them before any of the remaining forms realized what was happening.

As a last batch of Flood forms checked upon their fallen comrades, The Arbiter decided to detonate the second batch of grenades, letting him save his beam rifle ammunition. Rona became the first person to use a plasma grenade, and those Flood forms became the first people to die by one; although they ended up getting a lot less recognition.

"Impersonator," Raging Ion said over the comm. "finish what you are doing then come here, you are needed."

"I'm coming," Rona said.

"Please hurry," The monitor said and exited the comm. Channel.

As Rona walked through the desolate and carcass filled canyon, the air became thick with a yellow-green powder. This powder was called 'Flood spores', and was slowly being absorbed into Rona's bloodstream. An increased exposure to these Flood spores would be harmful, but Rona soon left the dust cloud and entered the cellar-like door to the weapon cache.

"I'm on my way," Rona said over the comm. "how much trouble are you having down there?"

"Flood… so many…" Ion said; breaking up over the static, but Rona could hear the gurgles and roars of the Flood attacking the Sentinels, "I'm evac…ing the… agok," the signal ended abruptly in static.

The cellar-like doors had been ripped of their hinges and thrown some yards away. A dozen Flood form bodies and 3 Sentinel frames lay smoldering next to the doors.

The darkness of the path ahead beckoned to him as he took a step once more into the abyss.

Sickening piles of beige slime coated the walls and walkway, making the path slippery. Rona continued forward, only for the survival of the Huragok as a race.

As Rona stepped into the main prototyping factory of the weapons cache, he slipped.

What he landed on was soft like a pillow, and as he looked down, fearing the worst, he looked into the blank white eyes of a dead Huragok. Dozens of them littered the floor, along with hundreds of Flood bodies, and a dozen sentinels.

Normally, this would be a great victory; except for the fact that if a single infection form was able to get into this room, all these Flood would be resurrected. Rona felt as if he had been fighting these demons forever, and he was exhausted.

At that moment, both sides of the room caved in explosively, and a conflict began.

Sentinels fought on one side, Flood fought on the other. The Flood severely outnumbered the sentinels and had an superior combat formation, but the sentinels soon gained the lead. Flood fell rapidly, but were soon reincarnated by an unoccupied infection form. Sentinels fell rarely, but were irreplaceable, leaving holes in their combat formation.

The Flood took advantage in these weak spots, and sent in saboteurs. The Sentinel's small attention span was now only focused on the Flood, and the Arbiter was left to deal with the sabotage.

The Flood severely underestimated the Arbiter's capabilities. He caught and incapacitated dozens of Flood forms, big and small, that were trying to fool the Sentinels.

Soon, the quantity of Flood forms increased, and he had to leave the fight. The Arbiter tried to help in any way possible, but was not able to get into the fight due to the Sentinels high-energy beams. The Sentinels attacked in a sweeping formation with their weapons that had as much of a chance of hitting him as it did hitting the Flood forms. Those weapons were effective, but they only killed the infection forms; a combat form would merely be incapacitated until an infection form was able to get to it.

He got his chance to help when a third wall was broken down, and thousands of Flood infection forms swarmed over the area looking for a host. The pods wobbled and hopped over the area; crawling into the dead bodies that littered the floor. The bodies gurgled and shook spastically as a needle was inserted into its spine.

The Arbiter went to work crushing the little blobs before they could accomplish their task of doubling the Flood forces. He randomly sprayed the ground with automatic gunfire from his plasma rifle, and then began crushing the remaining blobs with his feet.

Once the majority of the infection forms were dead, the Arbiter ran around the chamber crushing the dead Combat form's chest, so as to prevent the infection forms from crawling inside them.

A second wave of infection forms flooded the room, but they were short of bodies, so all they could do was back up the combat forms ranks. They developed an intelligent scheme; putting the infection forms in front of the combat forms, so that the combat forms would not be killed by the Sentinels beams.

As Rona ran out of ammunition, for his plasma pistol, he remembered that his new armor had a new camouflage system. With it, he could sneak up to the Flood ranks a wreak havoc on their forces.

When he did this, the Flood became instantly bewildered, and concentrated on their new attacker; giving the Sentinels the time they needed to attack.

Rona, feeling his job was done, walked stealthy out of the carnage. As he walked camouflaged around the tables of prototype weapons, he realized how well Ion and the Sentinels did in evacuating the Huragok. Out of the millions that had occupied these rooms, only a dozen had been killed.

A single infection form crossed his path; which he promptly stepped on.

"Impersonator, why are you not fighting the Flood?!" The Monitor said.

"I already did," Rona said lazily, "why do you call me 'Impersonator'?" He sat down upon a lone bench and crossed his arms in front of his chest. A single Huragok hovered out of a storage closet and attended to his damaged armor.

"I call you that because you pretended to be someone who are not, a Reclaimer," Ion said, "Therefore you are an impersonator."

"I did not pretend to be your Reclaimer," Rona said with a start, "you falsely named me one!"

"This conversation does not have anything to do with the task at hand," the monitor said, "We must protect the Huragok."

"I have already dealt with the Flood, they shall bother us no longer," Rona said proudly.

"That is not a wise thing to say," Raging Ion said, "Just because you have won the battle, it does not mean you have won the war," he came in close to Rona's face, the Monitor's light burned Rona's eyes, "They will come again."

"I shall gather my strength," Rona said, submitting to the monitor's penetrating 'stare'.

"Rona-… I am orb-… ing-… you…" Zale's voice was cut out as quickly as it began.

"Ion, can you give me a way to get a better connection," Rona said.

"Yes, I will set up a signal transmitter," The monitor said, he buzzed away, and then quickly came back, "It is ready, if you bounce your signal off of its antennae, you should get good reception."

"Thank you," Rona said, "Zale? Are you still there?"

"Yes," Zale said, "What I was saying was that I am orbiting the planet you are on right now. I have brought with me 56 Destroyers."

"Thank you, sir" Rona said, surprised by Zale's kindness, and the fact that Zale had come himself, "could you send a spec ops squad groundside?"

"I've sent you 200 majors and 50 spec ops. We will wipe this infestation from the face of the galaxy," Zale said, and Rona could imagine him slamming his fist upon the communications console.

"Thank you, sir."

"Impersonator! My Sentinels have discovered a second battlefield swarming with Flood. I hope you will procrastinate no longer than you already have!"

"I will set out when the Sangheili strike force arrives," Rona said.

"More Sangheili?!" Raging Ion raged, "How dare you bring more filth to this already forsaken land!"

"Please put your annoyances aside; we must work together if we want to abolish this threat," Rona said.

"Fine," The monitor said, he wandered of to observe the Sentinels battle formations.

"Zale, can you put me on Fleet WIDECOM?" Rona asked.

"Yes, why," Zale answered.

"I would like to brief the Sangheili," Rona said.

"You're on," Zale said.

Rona explained the biological makeup of the Flood, how they normally fought, and how they should be killed. His speech ended up being ten minutes long.

He concluded with: "Do not be frightened, Elites. These monsters can be horrifying, but the Huragok are counting on you." Rona finished with a wish of good luck.

"We are approaching your vector now. ETA five minutes," Zale said.

"Good," Rona said.

Once the Sangheili arrived, Rona got to work distributing weapons and placing each group in squads. He had decided to place gunners in front to deal with the assumed first wave of infection forms. Behind them would be the swordsmen; with the spec ops and snipers in the back. Rona had decided to equip each soldier with a plasma rifle and an energy sword, so that they could fend off attacks from infection and combat forms.

As soon as the Elites were in place, the Flood began their onslaught. Rona, standing in the front of the battalion, noticed the fear in the young one's faces. They had never seen the Flood before, and the decomposing faces would probably be the last things the poor men would ever see.

The Arbiter was the first person to charge at the monsters, and the Sangheili followed quickly after.

Rona was immediately knocked out by a tentacle blow to the face.

The fall of the Sangheili leader, made the Elites lose their nerve; their battle prowess was shunned, and their formation scattered.

It was at this time that Zale Zoneema arrived, and, despite his high status and irreplaceable leadership capabilities, led the Sangheili into battle.

The battle raged on for days.

Rona opened his eyes to the sight of dead Flood. He gasped, coughed, and spit up blood as he remembered where he was. One of his mandibles were bandaged, and another was missing multiple teeth. This saddened Rona, for he prided himself in his fierceness, and the lack of razor sharp teeth would lower his morale.

He swung his legs over the table he lay on and stood up. To his disgust, his foot came down on the face of a dead Flood. It crushed and leaked green ooze.

The room was littered with bodies and destroyed objects. Smashed and turned tables lay scattered around the room. A single Elite medic tended to the wounded, while another Elite ran throughout the room gathering fallen weapons from the carcasses.

Rona then remembered his comrades, and ran to help them.

As Rona burst through the cellar-like doors into the intense sunlight, a decapitated flood combat form fell on him. The Sangheili soldiers stood in an orderly formation fending of wave after wave of Flood. Zale stood among them, doing more than his equal share of fighting.

Rona withdrew two energy swords from his belt, and joined the battle. Unlike the rest of the Sangheili, the Arbiter ran to and fro fending off random attacks by the Flood. Ignoring battle clusters, he decapitated and de-limbed multiple flood forms. Fountains of blood spurted from hole throughout the Flood's bodies.

The whole battle was as if a dream, adrenaline pumped through the Arbiter's veins, making him near invincible. Every move he made, superb; every attack he executed, faultless.

Rona was at home in war.

That was the end of the Flood.

26

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Chapter 4: Section III: Unggoy

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Section IV Unggoy

Rona was put into a cryogenic sleep as his ship traversed the vast expanses of the galaxy. His ship personnel were the best in the galaxy; and they were all trained to protect him.

Rona had just finished a highly classified and potentially dangerous mission: executing a Heretic, or traitor to the Covenant, that was rumored to have and extremely dangerous weapon.

He had boarded the Heretic leader's Imperial-class cruiser, killed all Heretics on board, and planted a bomb on its stern. It wasn't a sure-fire solution, but Rona was confident that the Heretic leader was dead The weapon had turned out to be a false rumor; the heretic leader was executed nevertheless.

It had been two years since his first mission, and since his encounter with the Flood. Rona still had nightmares.

In the two years since the Sangheili had met the Huragok, they had reproduced rapidly. Rona had been sent out by Zale to find more oxygen-nitrogen atmospheric planets to inhabit. The elites had split into two factions and gone to 3 nearby planets. They remained as one government, but regarded each other with conspicuous negativity.

The Huragok had remained on the original Sangheili planet, created weapons and technology hundreds of years ahead of that of the Elites. They created single-seated anti-gravitational reconnaissance vehicles that had double-plasma weapons on its front. They also created a light single-seated aircraft that could shoot double bolts of plasma as well as a large fuel rod cannon.

Many different vehicles were added to the Sangheili arsenal.

After the victory over the Flood, the Prophets and Zale made a pact, and declared something they called the 'Writ of Union'. It swore their races into a truce and forced them to work together to reach their cause.

So Rona had been frozen after completing his Too-easy-to- be-real mission. The mission had been too easy to be real. But apparently it was, for nothing happened all the way to the Sangheili planet.

Rona was taken out his cryogenic sleep, and was brought instantly in front of Zale Zonamee.

"You have finished the task I have appointed to you, correct?" Zale said.

"Yes, sir," Rona replied.

"Good, you may resume your position as my second in command," Zale said, he seemed to smile as he said this, "I also have an apprentice for you. Although he isn't Sangheili, he has proven himself time and time again in battle," he beckoned to a nearby door, "Janaw, come!"

An Unggoy in red armor stepped out into the council chamber of the Sangheili Capital City. He had the eyes of one who had seen much bloodshed; or rather, the eye of one who had seen much blood shed. The other was scarred and white.

His left arm was scarred also. His right trigger finger twitched, aching for a fight.

Rona could see that this was a different kind of Unggoy. He had the taste of battle in his eye, while most Unggoy would run from such battle.

"I have seen that type of look before," the squeaky voice of Janaw spoke, "You inquire as to why I have seen so much battle? I come from a clan of Unggoy called the Martemis. We have a thirst for blood. I like the feel of battle, but it does not seem like I love it as much as my brothers, for they have exiled me."

"I am sorry to hear that," Rona said.

"I expect you to train him in your battle techniques," Zale said.

"My battle techniques?" Rona said, "They are not allowed to be taught to anyone outside the Sangheili council!"

"This is an exception," Zale said calmly, "He has saved a dozen Sangheili. And for that, he deserves and honor."

"I will train him well," Rona complied.

"I expect you to," Zale said, "Your first mission will be to find and recruit more civilizations for our covenant."

"Yes sir," Rona said, he turned to leave.

"Wait," Zale said, "I have something for you." He reached into a small chest next to his council chair and produced a piece of paper and a scrap of metal.

"It took six hours for me to gain the Sangheili Councils agreement to create this. We have created the official position in the Covenant. You are now officially the Arbiter, The Peacemaker, The Will of the Gods." He handed Rona the paper with his official designation, and gave him the scarp of metal. On it was a vertical black and white symbol of an Energy Sword. "You will be treated with more respect than you have ever dreamed of."

"Thank you sir," Rona said.

"Now go, fulfill your duty."

Rona's house had been fitted with a new room for Janaw, who was eager to prove himself.

The next day, after a good night's rest, Rona called Janaw to his room.

"Yes, sir," Janaw said eagerly.

"Go to your home planet, Ggoynall I believe it is called, and bring me a representative of your people," Rona said. He saw a flicker of fear on Janaw's face.

"But, um…sir," Janaw said, "I have been exiled."

"I am sorry, Janaw," Rona said, "I truly am, but this is a very important task. Maybe you shall regain your ranking with your people."

"Yes, sir," Janaw said with a frown, which was almost invisible under his methane breather mask. He sulked slowly out of the room.

Janaw pilot the dropship non-chalantly. He had driven these kinds of ships many times before, and this time was easier since no one was calling him names or saying he was pathetic.

His ship sensors flared as he entered the atmosphere of Ggoynall. The exterior surfaces heated, and made the inside swelter with heat. He touched down on a tall plateau just outside the main city. The ship cooled instantly as it came in contact with the subzero temperatures of the planet. It crackled as the metals contracted.

Janaw passed three gateways on his way into the city before coming up the main entrance. His hand quickly sprung to the plasma pistol on his belt as he observed his surroundings. Four Unggoy bodies lay sprawled along the ground; Their methane breather masks had been torn off and their eyes had been gouged out.

Bright blue blood splattered the walls, and a single grunt was nailed to a gate with four sharp sticks. In an Unggoy's hand was a grey electronic device. Janaw pried the device out of its hand and tested one of the two buttons it contained. A shimmering blue shield erupted from the small item.

Startled, Janaw dropped the machine. It hit the ground, bounced once, and shut off.

Janaw crawled along the ground, picking his brethren up out of the desecrating filth, and laying them in honored positions along a wall. Then he picked up the extra plasma grenades that littered the floor and pried the main gate open.

Janaw had taken four steps into the city when a plasma bolt sizzled by his head. He jumped back through the gate and shot in the estimated direction of the attack.

"Aaarrggg" a slow squeaky voice said.

Janaw jumped back through the gates and ran towards the voice.

"Argap?" Janaw asked.

"Janaw?" Argap said, he had been named after the first thing his father said after Argap had been born, "I thought everyone in this city was dead!"

"Well, I wasn't in the city when this happened," Janaw said, "Are you hurt?"

"No, you just singed my shoulder," Argap said.

"Who did this to our city?!" Janaw asked.

"I've never seen their race before," Argap said, "they had thin bird-like heads, and slim frail bodies," he closed his eyes and shivered at the thought of them, "They are weak, but they carry a shield that can deflect all our weapons. They are a fierce opponent."

"Well," Janaw said, "So are we."

Janaw and Argap crouched under a low overhang and watched their enemies. The creatures made high screeching sounds and constantly looked at the sky, as though waiting for an enemy to attack…

…But the enemy had already attacked.

Argap crawled to the opposite side of the clearing and charged his weapon. Despite the loud thrumming of Argap's charging weapon, the enemies didn't notice him. A single discharge flew into the throng of aliens. Shields went up, but for one it was too late. The animal screamed in pain as its flesh melted from its face.

All the remaining beasts turned to Argap and shot wildly at him with plasma pistols.

'Plasma pistols?' Janaw thought, 'They are only available to the Unggoy and Sangheili! How did they get any?'

Then Janaw realized that he didn't care! They were going to be dead soon anyway.

He threw a plasma grenade into the group and waited for the eventual 'Thud'. The group of aliens, believing that their enemy was dead, turned around. One noticed the grenade lying at its feet and kicked it across the courtyard. While this was happening, Argap thought quickly and threw another grenade into the group.

A Thud resounded throughout the courtyard and the walls were splattered with blue-black blood.

"I believe they are called Kig'yar," Argap said after they had wiped the brains from their blood splattered armour, "they are frail and weak, but they are excellent marksmen."

"We could probably use that skill in the Covenant, if it weren't for the fact that two of us can kill a whole battle group of them."

Rona Monamee paced the deck of the Ascendant Justice. The ship was brand new, and its class was the best in the galaxy. Even with these advancements, Rona was nervous.

He had just intercepted a chain of distress calls from Ggoynall, saying that an unknown species has infiltrated their main city and was killing the civilians. Even as a Sangheili, Rona liked the Unggoy race. This was what set him apart from others of his kind. They Unggoy followed orders, could handle many weapons (if their hands were big enough for the trigger), could pilot ships, and would follow a commanding officer anywhere; even if it meant to their death.

Rona had reason to believe that he was the only Sangheili that cared for the Grunts; or anyone else but themselves, for that matter.

That is why he was now on his way to Ggoynall.

He had a plan to land on the planet with a small squad of elites, eliminate the threat, and ensure the Unggoy's safety. He also had a backup plan, but it was doubtful that he could get the 'Okay' for it. He wanted to land upon Ggoynall, extract the remnants of the Unggoy, then bombard the planet from orbit. He, of course, would go with the first plan. The planet had resources necessary to conquering the galaxy. Not to mention its unnatural beauty.

His communications officer interrupted his thoughts, "Sir, Supreme Chancellor Zale is trying to contact you on a secure channel."

"Send it to my headset," Rona said, his anxiety to leave was steadily building, how had Zale found out about his plan? Rona had not told anyone. Not even his crew.

"Rona!" Zale's voice screamed into his ear, "How dare you go against my wishes to save these Unggoy!"

"I'm sorry, sir" Rona said, "but-."

"Sorry doesn't explain your actions," Zale said calmly, "I will act as if I don't know anything. Leave, and I will see what I can do to keep you from being punished."

"Thank you, sir," Rona said.

"Are you wearing your Arbiter armour, soldier?" Zale asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Go to the planet," Zale said, "Alone. I can not risk my Sangheili's lives for these Unggoy."

Rona kept his anger in check, and instead said "Understood."

The Single seated Seraph fighter tumbled end over end as it hit Goynalls atmosphere at six hundred miles an hour. At two hundred meter to the ground, Rona ejected his seat out of the cramped cockpit into the cool night air. Hit pilot jetpack, which he had customized himself, ignited and rapidly slowed his velocity; causing his head to slam into the back of his helmet.

His four mandibles reflexively slammed shut, so his mouth would not dry out due to the rush of air by his face. This would not be a problem, of course, because of the bulky blue breathing apparatus covering his mouth so that the extreme chilled methan would not kill him.

The small heating system in his armor buzzed to life and slightly swayed the frostbite that already bit at his exposed flesh.

The measurements on his positioning system showed that the snow was 26 feet deep; very shallow for the planet of solid ice that was Goynall.

As his feet hit the ground, a private comm. Opened up on his display. A short Unggoy, even for his race, with black armor stood at attention on his screen.

"Has the Arbiter been sent to rescue my people?!" the grunt said, "Maybe there is hope at last."

"What is the situation?" Rona asked.

"I am in a small shelter on the east side of the city with the remnants of my people," the grunt, who was apparently the Unggoy leader, said, "there are about 200 Kig'yar on in the clearing in front of us."

"Kig'yar?" Rona asked. The name sounded familiar.

There was no answer from the other side of the communications channel. The Screen went blank, and the sound of gun fire sounded through Rona's headset.

The air suddenly got colder. Rona's jetpack sputtered and died. He fell thirty feet into a snow drift, and sank up to his shoulders until he hit compacted ice beneath him. Ronas heating failed, and he fell unconscious.

When Rona woke up, 2 grunts were sitting beside him on the cool stone of the city entrance.

"Janaw," Rona asked faintly.

"Yes, its me sir. We have found a few living Unggoy in a small complex," Janaw said, "One of them is a medical specialist, we shall take you to him."

"No, Janaw," Rona said, standing up, "I need no medicine. I am just not adapted to the cold of your planet. I will survive. Is there less snow inside the city?"

"Well, its snowing…so it won't be much warmer," Janaw said. Then hearing Rona sigh he added, "I might be wrong though, its been a while since I've been here."

"What is your name, young one" Rona asked the other Unggoy beside him.

"I'm…my name is Argap…sir," the grunt said. He wore the red armor of an Unggoy Major.

"Please," Rona said, "skip the formalities, they are wasted on me."

The grunt named Argap seemed to loosen his shoulders slightly.

"Were are we going, sir?" Argap said, doig exactly what Rona had just told him not to do.

"We need to figure out a way to clear a large courtyard full of these beasts you call 'Kig'yar'" Rona said.

"Well, I know this city well," Janaw said in his distinctive squeaky voice, "There is a large layer of explosives planted beneath the city. It was put there for this exact purpose, since the central courtyard is the only area in the whole city to fit a platoon of soldiers."

"Then that's where were headed."

"We were ambushed."

"When?! What happened?!"

"Me…and the other Unggoy," The lone bloody grunt wheezed, Janaw could be heard saying 'Grunts and I' under his breath, "We were sitting down playing a little game, when…we heard some ice cracking outside. If that hadn't happened, I would be dead. About fifty Kig'yar were hoping to ambush us. We tried to turn the tables on them, but they are strong. We sacrificed our lives for the lives of our family underground."

"Underground?" Janaw asked.

"They are in the caves on the east side of the city, near the courtyard," the Spec Ops grunt said.

"By the gods, we will have to retrieve them before we detonate the courtyard." Rona said, "Argap, you go and evacuate the caves," Rona said, "they are our top priority. Try to avoid casualties, even of the Kig'yar."

"Yes, sir," Argap said. He sprinted out of the room, which wasn't much more than a fast waddle.

"Lets go," Rona said, the Weapons specialist followed him as he walkede out the door. Behind him, Janaw busied himself by gathering excess weapons off the Kig'yar and Unggoy carcasses. Rona picked up a bag that drifted past him and handed it to Janaw, who thanked him.

Continuing on, Janaw picked up all the weapons on the ground, tested them, and stuffed them into the bag. Even when some didn't work, he threw them in, saying they could be used to "Bash a head in or somethin'".

"Sir! We've reached the neutron technological laboratory," the weapons specialist said, "The detonator for the explosives is in there, but I think it would be guarded."

"That's where you come in," Rona said, "I want you to take out as many as you can, I'll take care of the rest," He withdrew an energy sword from his pocket and ignited it. He looked over a small barricade they sat behind. His face grew grim, and he turned back slowly, "Janaw, I don't want you to see what I'm seeing. Stay here and guard the weapons."

"Yes, sir," Janaw said. He was happy that he didn't have to face any more of those beasts.

As Rona walked away from him, Janaw had a sinking premonition of a death close at hand…

"The Explosives are placed, sir," The Wep Spec said, "If you can lure the Kig'yar to this location," a small dot appeared on Rona's HUD, "then we should be able to clear most of them from the face of this beautiful planet."

"Will a grenade set off the explosives?" Rona asked.

"No."

Rona retrieved a grenade from his belt, and crept around a corner to his destination. In front of him loomed what he wanted to keep Janaw from seeing. Dozens of scarred and burned corpses were being piled heartlessly upon each other and lit on fire to warm the Kig'yar.

The Kig'yar themselves were short, frail beasts with a stout head and thin arms.

"I have nothing to fear from these…these Jackals!" Rona said, the name stuck. He bounced the grenade off of the wall on the far side of the clearing, giving the impression that it came from that way. The grenade latched onto an unlucky Jackal, who ran around screaming, despite the fact that he didn't know what it was.

There was a loud 'thump' and a plume of dust shot into the air.

"The Bait has been laid," Rona said over his comm., "Get ready to spring the trap."

It was a simple matter of picking off the remaining Jackals afterwards. Once Rona had finished, he put away his energy sword and walked towards his ultimate destination. Out of the smoke and as, a tall figure emerged.

"Sangheili!" it said, "Why do you kill my men?"

"Have you doomed these Unggoy to slavely or extinction?" Rona asked, "Why do you do this?"

"I have come here to deplete your resources, and ruin your beloved 'Covenant'," the figure said.

"You ask me why I am killing your men, yet why are you killing mine?" Rona asked, "What do you have against the Unggoy?"

"I don't have anything against the Unggoy in particular, just the Unggoy that help the Covenant," the Elite named Sesa' Refumee said.

"Traitor!" Rona said, "Heretic!" He retrieved his energy sword once more from his belt, "You shall die where you stand for the crimes you have committed."

"Come, then," said the Heretic, "Battle me."

The Arbiter retrieved another energy sword from his belt and leapt towards the Heretic. Three swords collided in a shower of sparks and a splash of light. Rona spun away and turned to attack once again. Two consecutive uppercuts threw the Heretic backwards. From far behind The Arbiter, a loud explosion resonated through the clearing, but he was too enthralled in the battle to notice. The Heretic pulled his arm back, and made ready to throw his sword.

"Arbiter! Catch!" Janaw's voice said a few yards away. His hand caught the Kig'yar shield that was thrown to him. He quickly clicked it on, and just in time. The Heretic's sword crackled as it hit the shield. Both sword and shield sputtered and died.

The Arbiter lunged at the heretic, but before he reached him, an orange flash blurred his vision, and the Heretic appeared behind him.

"You are a fool, Arbiter," he said, "You are not worthy of the name that has been bestowed upon you. Do you know why your prophets wish to form an alliance with these races?" The heretic said.

"They wish for us to help each other along the path to wisdom and the Great Journey," The Arbiter said.

"No, brother," the Heretic said, "They will use you as bait to lure the Parasite away from the Prophets; so they may kill us all."

The Arbiter clicked a grenade out of his belt, ignited it, and tossed it over to the Heretic, who caught it reflexively. After noticing what it was, he turned around and sprinted away.

All the Arbiter heard was a dull thump In the distance.

"Is what that traitor said true, Arbiter?" Janaw asked as he walked toward Rona.

"No, don't listen to him," Rona lied. In his heart, he knew it to be true. Rona vowed to reveal the truth to everyone once he had proof.

"Sir, is everything alright?" Janaw asked, "You seem preoccupied."

"Yah, I'm fine," Rona said, "Lets go see if this is the activation room."

"I will go check on the Spec Ops, okay" Janaw said.

"Be careful," Rona said.

He walked slowly into the activation room, fearing a surprise attack. What he did find was worse: A single Unggoy was chained up by his wrists and ankles. The chains were attached to a wheel, which would pull his arms if he moved.

A torture device.

The thought sickened him.

As Rona unchained the body, it coughed.

"I'm not telling you anything, monster!" it said.

"It's okay, the traitor is gone, no one is going to hurt you," Rona said.

"Are…are you the Arbiter?" the grunt murmured.

"Yes, what is your name?" Rona asked.

"I am Fawnar," he said, "That…Heretic was asking where the first installation was. I have no idea how he found out, I haven't told anyone!"

"Wait, slow down. What installation?" Rona asked, "Where?"

"Well, it's called Halo I think," Fawnar said, "There are ten of them. I am unsure what they do, but I know its dangerous."

"Where are they?"

"I can't tell you, they're too dangerous," Fawnar said.

"I understand," Rona said, although he didn't truly understand their might. He walked behind Fawnar and searched through wrecked consoles for the detonator.

"Argap?" Rona said over the comm. channel.

"Yes, sir?" he said, "the caves are clear, but during the trip away from the caves, we were ambushed by a small squad of Kig'yar. Two Unggoy guards were killed, but we did it as silently as possible."

"Good."

"All clear to detonate the tech bomb," Argap said.

"Acknowledged."

A small creak on floor behind Rona roused him to his senses. It was too light to be an Unggoy footstep.

The Arbiter slowly clicked his plasma rifle off of his belt, and swung it around to a surprised Jackal's face. The Jackal squealed and shut its eyes before its head was blasted off.

"Sir, the Weapons specialist is dead," Janaw said, stepping over the body nonchalantly.

"Jackals?" Rona said.

"Yes, he put up one hell of a fight. There were dozens of them that were killed, most likely by his explosives, but about a dozen had bullet wounds. I think he was caught right in the middle of a platoon," Janaw said, lowering his head.

"He had a warriors death," Rona said, lowering his head for a second as well, "But we must keep moving. I am setting the activation on a delayed start, so I may watch the chaos."

"Why would you want to watch so much death?!" Janaw asked.

"So I may prevent anything from escaping," Rona said, and ran towards the Courtyard.

Behind him, Fawnar stumbled home.

Rona and Janaw ran for ten minutes, Janaw wheezing fitfully, before entering a building that looked out onto the Jackal filled clearing. Rona contacted the Unggoy leader, and told him to keep away, then blew the clearing. The Arbiter ran through into the courtyard, clearing, decapitating, and delimbing surviving jackals.

As the smoke began to settle, the silhouette of the Arbiter stood victorious upon a mound of dead Jackals; Striking, unintentionally, a heroic pose.

Not a single Jackal was left on the planet alive.

"Why did you come to our aid, Arbiter," The Unggoy leader said, once Rona had been invited to the council chambers.

"I have come to offer you Warmth," Rona said, "which you Unggoy so dearly covet, in exchange for service."

"What type of service…

---

Chapter 5: Section IV: The Arbiter's Exile

---

Section VII: The Arbiter's Exile

"I request an audience with the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, Regret, and Wisdom," Rona said.

"I'm sorry Arbiter," the Doorkeeper said, "But only the High Prophet of Wisdom is able to see you at the moment." He was of the same race as the prophets, but of much lower status. He held a shining dagger in one hand; although he would be useless in a fight. A gravity belt was slung loosely around his waist, for it had yet to be fitted, and he hovered lightly above the ground.

"That will suffice," Rona said.

The attention he had been receiving as the Arbiter had yet to affect him. Sangheili and Unggoy stood waiting in a small room while the Rona walked past. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see looks of disdain upon their faces; yet when he looked at them directly, they would smile and look upon him as if filled with awe.

The Doorkeeper escort Rona down a long hallway into a courtyard of stone. The Prophet of Wisdom sat upon what seemed to be a levitating throne; surrounded by bright red flowers.

"Holy One, I wish to speak with you," Rona said.

"Have you ever heard of the Florax flower, Rona Monamee?" Wisdom asked.

"No, sir, I can't say I have, but"-

"It is said that its nectar will drive one's self insane if drunk," Wisdom continued, "yet is also said that it will grant the meaning of the universe. I have yet to try it for myself, for I fear insanity. Of course, I could get lucky, but would you take that chance?"

"No, sir, I can't say I would," Rona said, preparing to be interrupted once more, "But I must talk to you."

"I believe you are talking right now," Wisdom said smoothly, "But, yes, you may talk."

"I must know the meaning of the Covenant," Rona said, "Its purpose."

"Why do you question the validity of our cause?" Wisdom inquired.

"I have conversed with a Heretic, he has…told me what I believe to be the truth," Rona said, "that we are simply pawns in you sick, twisted game to meet the Gods."

"A Heretic?" Wisdom asked, "I'm surprised that someone feels in it worthy enough to attempt to bring down our little…club."

"He was a young Sangheili by the name of…Sesa Refumee," Rona said, "I must know if what he said was true."

"Yes, it is true," Wisdom said, Rona was taken aback that he would hear the Truth, "My species has planned to recruit more races to act as a bait, of sorts, to lure the parasite away from the Holy Forerunner Artifacts."

"I have heard of many species you could use in your game," Rona said, "Why did you specifically pick the Sangheili, Huragok, and Unggoy?"

"Both your race, and the Unggoy, have an incredibly long life span. Of all the races which have been encountered by our covenant, you and the 'grunts', as you call them, live the longest. Approximately seven hundred years, by the count of the Forerunner converted calendar," Wisdom took a pause for breath, and, it seemed, for effect, "Of course, us prophets have an approximate life of about two thousand years, but that is to be expected of a race as close to the gods as ourselves. The problem with your race, is that you only tend to live for the approximate life of about one hundred years, due to your tendencies to leap into battle at the first chance. We have also chosen you, the Sangheili, for your battle prowess and your willingness to follow orders. The Unggoy, on the other hand, have been chosen simply as disposable soldiers."

"Why do you tell me this so willingly?" Rona asked.

"I do not agree with this plan," Wisdom answered, "I believe there are better ways to approach this plan, and I think the Sangheili and Unggoy are more valuable allies than the other prophets tend to realize."

"Then why do you help them?" Rona exclaimed.

"I wait to see what will happen in the future. Only then can I change it." Wisdom said, "I'm sorry, but right now we are being watched. I must kill you, so they know how I deal with traitors." There was a small clicking noise just beyond hearing behind the large wooden door through which Rona had walked. "In my chair," Wisdom continued, "there is an implanted Fuel Rod Gun. I also have a small teleportation device, which can transport me short distances. I will be able to reverse its function to teleport you out of this room. I shall make it look as if I am killing you with the gun."

"Once you are gone, you must take your friends, Janaw and Argap, and go into a temporary exile," Wisdom concluded and bowed his head.

"I understand," Rona said, and bowed his head in return.

"I only ask that you give your armor. I shall hold it for you till you return, and I will contact you when you can return. You must act as if you are someone else, even while in exile, so as to give the impression that the Arbiter is dead." Wisdom said.

Rona removed his armor and set it before the Prophet.

"Goodbye, Rona Monamee, gods speed with your companions." Wisdom pressed a small button on the arm of his chair, then turned a knob. Rona saw a bright flash of orange, then felt a cool breeze. He had been transported to the front door of his home. As he walked inside, Janaw and Argap lay a few feet away, sleeping curled upon small cushions. Rona had recently adopted Argap as a second apprentice, due to his lack of a home.

On a small stool next to the door was a not with a pair of keyes attached to the back.

Holy Arbiter,

I wish you luck on your journey. Your armour is to be set in a special case to be held for the next dire cause. Behind your home is a new stealth class ship, which has been outfitted for you and your company of Unggoy. I personally have set a new prototype artificial gravity device near its engine. Please tell me how it works when you return. In your ship I have put your old armour, along with a few new weapons.

Please hurry on your way, so no one will question your death.

Good luck,

High Prophet of Wisdom

"Janaw! Argap!" Rona yelled to wake them up. Janaw woke up with a start, pulled out his plasma pistol, and discharged into a wall by accident. The blast woke Argap up, who yelled and slipped off the cushion onto the hard floor with a grunt.

"What?!" Janaw yelled.

"Everyone calm down, we have a little situation," Rona said, "I need you two to help me pack everything in this house into the ship in the back."

"Why?" said the Unggoy in unison.

"I just need you to trust me. Once we are away from here, I will explain everything," Rona said.

"…okay,' Janaw moaned.

"Make sure to fill these bags with all the weapons in the house," Rona said. He got to work helping them, then climbed aboard the ship. It sparkled anew, and the controls dazzled his eyes.

"Where are we going?" Janaw asked, unimpressed by the beauty. The ship was packed to the brim. Rona sat at the controls, admiring their complexity, and trying to figure out how he would drive the thing. He had decided to store all his belongings on Ggoynall until his exile was over.

"We are being exiled. I have found the truth of the Covenant, and the Prophets don't want me to tell anyone…so they exile me," Rona answered.

"What is the 'truth' of the Covenant," Argap asked.

"What the Heretic said was…true, wasn't it?" Janaw said.

"What?" Argap squealed, "What did the Heretic say?! I'm so confused!"

Rona explained the situation in detail, including the conversation with the prophet of Wisdom. He then explained what he planned on doing during exile.

"I have to make sure the heretics don't do anything stupid," Rona said.

Janaw walked away thoughtfully. As he neared a corner, he tripped on his own foot and fell on a bag of weapons. A single plasma pistol discharged and hit the command console.

A small compartment in the back of the cockpit popped open, and a Huragok hovered out. It slipped between Rona and Argap and started fixing the damaged console. Attached to the back of the oblivious Huragok's head was a note. Zale often played little tricks on unsuspecting people. Rona was surprised it didn't say 'Kick Me'.

"Dear Arbiter," Rona read aloud.

"I believe that we will never see each other again, So I must put all my thoughts into this note. The Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret are horrible people, but you must not stop them outright. Discretion is the key to destroying the Covenant. If you confront them directly, you will be slaughtered."

"I was forced to join the Covenant by the Prophets, for they threatened to destroy the Sangheili Planet. Please do not think less of me, for I was only trying to protect my people."

"This Huragok has volunteered to travel with you. In the compartment which he came out of, there should be a few devices he has constructed to help you on your journey. Huragok don't have to be fed often, They feed on microscopic organisms that fill the air; though they do have to receive a shot every year. This is located in the back of the ship."

"I have also given you plenty of food for yourself and your companions."

Goodbye and Good Luck

-Zale Zoneema

Rona sighed.

His Mentor.

This exile will be way too long.

A quick Blast-like noise pulled Rona out of this trance-like state. He looked out of the cockpit window to see what had happened, and he realized he had not yet taken off from the ground. A dozen Sangheili and Followers burst into the yard that held the ship.

'So much for a quiet get away' Rona thought. He readied himself to lower the loading ramp and fight off invaders, but the attack was suddenly directed elsewhere. On the other side of the clearing marched only Half a dozen Sangheili, led by Zale Zoneema.

Although the Elites were outnumbered, they were special operatives. The best of the best.

A buzz came from the ships communication console, and Zale's voice resounded through the cockpit, "Rona, I've got your back. Start your engine and get out of here!"

"You will get punished for defying the Prophets!" Rona yelled into the comm.

"I shall be executed," Zale replied, "But the Arbiter's life is more important than mine."

"…And the others?" Rona asked, "The Sangheili helping you?"

"No, they are simply following orders," Zale said, "they will not be punished."

Rona wasn't even listening. He shut off the comm. and slammed down the button to lower the loading ramp. He slipped through the barely open door, and whipped out his energy sword. Zale did the same; dropping his plasma rifle and taking out a sword.

"Do not kill," Rona said, "Only disable."

"Understood," Zale replied.

Realizing what he just said, Rona put away his energy sword and chose to attack hand to hand. His first opponent raised a plasma rifle to Rona's face. The Arbiter grabbed his wrist and snapped the gun out of his hand. The Elite howled and grabbed his broken wrist. Rona put him down with an elbow to the face.

Another Elite ran out of the fray and pointed to Rona.

"The Arbiter!" he yelled, and tripped as he turned to run. Argap ran up to the fallen Elite and kicked him in the head. He instantly fell unconscious.

The following Elites were easier; especially with Zale at his side, and soon only Followers were left; which could be brought down with a single knock to the head.

"Rona, go! More will surely come to finish the job!" Zale said.

"You're coming with me, I'm not letting you die," Rona said.

"Than let us leave," Zale said and ran towards the ship; with Argap waddling quickly behind.

"So Rona…what do you plan to do?" Zale asked.

"Exactly what you said to do," Rona said, "I am going to stop the Heretics from destroying the Covenant."

"Good idea," Zale said, "I…have an idea where to go."

Janaw slept in the copilots chair beside Rona. Zale and Argap lay asleep in the crew quarters, and small squeaky snores could be heard from Argap's bunk. The slipspace generator hummed continuously, and the main view screen showed nothing but pure white scenery. They were in the emptiness of Slipspace.

As Rona watched, he remembered his childhood. Running in the fields of his home planet. Shooting his first Unggoy, though he resented it now.

Rona slowly drifted to sleep.

"What the hell is that?!" Rona yelled. Swearing was an unusual event for a Sangheili; especially in their main language, which game it extra emphasis. They had recently come out of slipspace. Rona knew this from the fading hum of the generator and the specks of white that faded out of view. Janaw, Argap, and Zale slept peacefully in their respective beds. Janaw dreamt vividly in the copilot's chair, occasionally growling as if he were chasing a small rodent.

As he had come out of slipspace, a giant red gas planet obstructed their view, almost pulling them into orbit. Rona had broken the orbit, but had remained in the same position; despite Zale's orders. Exactly between the ship and the gas giant lay a large…ring. It was thin in appearance, though only in comparison to the whole thing. The outer surface seemed to be made of a metallic substance, while the inside had a green, brown, and blue surface.

"Janaw, wake up," Rona said. Janaw jumped awake and accidentally hit his head on what constituted for a dashboard of the ship.

"What?" Janaw said sleepily, "Why didja wake me up?"

"Look at that," Rona said, pointing to the ring. Janaw stood upon his chair to be tall enough to see out of the cockpit window. He gasped and climbed onto the navigation console to get a better look.

"…By the Prophets! What is that?" Janaw said. He jumped off the console and ran to wake Zale and Argap.

"I know what it is," Zale said without even looking, "That is why I brought us here."

"I…have a bad feeling about this," Rona and Argap said in unison. Janaw remained silent, only looking at the ring as if dumbstruck.

Rona was the first to step upon the ice crusted surface of the ring. He wore a breathing mask, though he was sure that the atmosphere was suitable to his species. Ice crunched under his feet, and Janaw slowly stepped off the ship after him; taking care to step in Rona's footprints so as to not step on this ice. Zale and Argap followed, carrying supplies and weapons. Zale had offered, feeling that Janaw should not be treated as a pack mule.

The ship was locked remotely, and a laser defense system activated. The Huragok that was inside was left to repair any damage and tinker with machinery.

Rona had landed the ship on a small plateau, deciding that landing in a tropical atmosphere would most likely be more populated; If, that is, there are actually any people on this…planet in the first place.

As Rona walked through the ice-laden land, he noticed that the ice got thinner as he walked further. Occasionally, large areas of water would block his path, and he was forced to detour.

After walking for about two hours, in covenant standard time, Rona caught a glimpse of green. Spots of grass could be seen under the melting ice. With renewed vigor, Rona stepped up his walking speed and set out for the green oasis. Janaw and Argap lagged behind, trying to follow the long strides with short, stubby legs.

Rona, Zale, Janaw, and Argap arrived at the oasis, with the two Unggoy wheezing winded behind them. The Oasis in front of them took up all expanse of view to the left and right, and Rona started to think it was not an oasis at all, but rather a completely different climate than was a dozen feet behind them. Rona deduced that the atmosphere was maintained by machinery, and that the oasis was actually a forest.

As Rona stepped forward, the ground solidified and trees before them seemed to grow to magnificent heights.

"Shall we move forward?" Zale said.

"…Yes, we must," Rona answered, "I have a feeling we are heading in the right direction."

"I sure hope so," Janaw said, "but the 'right' direction doesn't necessarily mean it's a good direction. We may be heading to our deaths."

"Thanks for that joyful thought, Janaw," Argap said, "Lets go."

Rona and Zale stepped forward into the forest side by side, watching each other's backs; while Janaw and Argap did the same. After walking a while, a path opened up before them, leading into the distance. It was made of the same metallic substance as the core of the ring, with small hieroglyphics engraved upon its surface. Rona followed it, with his companions walking warily behind him.

With his legs starting to tire, Rona reached the end of the path and walked up to a giant structure, its architecture resembled a tall temple, and stone statues stood before the entrance. Rona stood back as he observed the statues. A small white blob with tentacles stood upon a pillar on one side, and a biped figure knelt on another pillar, as if bowing. The biped's head was broken backward, with pieces of bone jutting out of holes in its neck. It had long tentacles in place of its hands, which were placed upon the ground before it.

The figure was A Flood

Rona remembered the worst experience of his life as if it were yesterday.

"Have your weapons at the ready!" Rona said, "I know we are going to have to fight today."

He stepped forward and into the whatever horrors may lay below.

A mile long hallway descended into the heart of the ring. On each side of the hallway were metal cages, holding struggling flood infection and combat forms. Rona held back his fear and continued forward. Janaw and Argap, on the other hand, did not care to show their fear, and they formed a slow tight formation around Zale. As they reached the end of the hallway, a large set of metal doors opened automatically before them. They walked into a large room; almost as large as the rooms on the Huragok planet.

It was filled with Sentinels, and small machines fixing machinery. Upon the ground, walked Sangheili troops watching over the manufacturing of these goods. A familiar figure stood among them: The Heretic Leader that Rona had fought upon Ggoynall.

His armour had doubled in magnificence, and he ordered the Sangheili to work faster. An alarm sounded, and Rona raised his weapon; fearing it would signal their presence. The Sangheili stopped what they were doing and backed away from the center of the room. Out of small doors in the side of the room marched three dozen Unggoy in black armour. Their methane breather packs were modified and smaller, but were more noticeable and looked awkward. They marched through the lines of Sangheili and stood infront of the Heretic Leader.

Rona noticed an increased amount of respect towards them from the Sangheili, completely opposite of the way the Covenant treated the Grunts. Janaw and Argap looked on with a combined sense of anger and awe. Seeing their race treated with such respect gave them a feeling of pride, but they were traitors, and for that they would pay.

"Arbiter, I'm glad you came!" the Heretic Leader said, "Took you long enough."

"Like what you've done with the place," Rona decided to play along with the sincerity, "What is it you're manufacturing?"

"This ring world naturally produces a gel that acts as a medication for healing wounds," the Heretic said, pointing to a glass crate with blue liquid inside. There was a pause, then he added quietly: "as well as acting as a small explosive."

"Ah, that makes more sense," Rona said, "Why am I not surprised."

"Enough procrastination," Zale butted in, "Tell us what this place is!"

"Ah, Zale Zoneema…how glad to see you alive and well," the Heretic said, "This is the most…sacred of the Forerunner constructs," the Heretic said sarcastically, "It was built by the holy ones to contain the Parasite that you met upon the planet of the Huragok."

"I see, I noticed them on my way in," Rona said politely, "and what are you doing here?"

"This ring is a natural source of energy and resources. It contains almost every environment upon its surface; as well as a methane geyser," the Heretic leader said, "It was the perfect training ground for my troops."

"Unggoy?!" Janaw shouted to the soldiers, "Don't you feel terrible for betraying your own clan?"

"Why should they feel bad? They came here to seek a better life! What is the sin in that? They are treated with the respect they deserve!" The heretic leader said.

"Wait…" Janaw said, "you said 'This ring was a perfect training ground'…where are you going?"

"We have stored ample supplies, and have discovered more of these rings," the Heretic said, "We will destroy this ring…then find the others."

"I can not let you do that," Rona said, "The best way to destroy the Covenant is with discretion."

"It is too late for discretion! If the Covenant find one of these rings, they will kill us all!" The Heretic leader said, "Ah, I must leave you now, but I love a good game. I am opening to Flood gate. I am also leaving some of my guards in case the detonation sequence doesn't work. If you can steal their personal ships and board mine, I will let you stop the detonation sequence of this ring."

The guards walked out of the chamber, leaving only the Heretic leader and the Sentinels. When the Heretic had began his discussion of destroying the ring, the Sentinels above had stopped their work to listen.

"Arbiter, I believe you know 542 Raging Ion," the Heretic said, "I happen to have stumbled upon him after you left the Huragok planet. I returned him to his designated rind, and for that he seems quite grateful. He was about to tell me of the History of these rings, but then I heard that you were coming…so I decided to wait."

"Oh, Hello Impersonator!" Ion said. He hovered out of a hole high up in the wall, and looked Rona in the eye, "I was hoping I would get to see you again. How's your armour faring?"

"I…was relinquished of my armour," Rona said, then changed the subject, "Heretic, please reiterate what you plan to do with this ring. I would like to hear it again."

Rona had a plan.

"Oh, in due time, Arbiter," the Heretic leader said, "Ion, please describe in detail the history and function of this ring."

"Oh, I'd love to!" the Monitor began, "This ring was created by the Forerunners to house and study the Flood. Both the Flood's and Forerunner's survival depended upon the success of this structure. The Forerunners believed that the Flood were the antidote to their dying race, and the Flood would have gone extinct if the Forerunners had not sacrificed many of their own to be hosts for Flood Infection forms. The Forerunners built rings to house the Flood so they could study them with ease and determine how to unlock their secrets."

"After years of study," the Monitor continued after a brief pause, "The Forerunners concluded that the Flood held the key to eternal life. I have recently discovered that this statement is, in fact, false. The Flood are a race created by the Ancient Ones. The Forerunners worshipped these Ancient Ones as Gods. Much like the way you worship the Forerunners themselves, Arbiter. The Flood were created to conquer the Galaxy, but the Ancient Ones died out before succeeding. You are now the first people to ever hear that tale…Well, anyway, the Forerunners quarantined the Flood upon these rings so as to prevent anyone else from discovering their secrets."

"In the third century of the age you call the 'Age of Abandonment', the Forerunners divided. They all landed upon separate ring worlds and tried to rip immortality from the Flood. Their greed lead to their downfall, and they were consumed by those they thought of as pets," Raging Ion concluded.

"That is horrible," Rona said. Beside him, Janaw had sat down against a wall; listening intently to the story.

"Now I must leave you a small present," The Heretic leader said. He pressed a red button upon his belt, which beeped, "It has started."

"Before you leave, would you care to explain your plan once more?" Rona said smoothly.

"Of course!" the Heretic leader said, "I will leave upon my ship, leaving my men upon this ring with their own personal transports. They will have the task of preventing you from getting this ring. If you are able to kill my men and fly a small transport to my ship, I will not stop you from canceling the detonation sequence of this Ring."

"Detonation Sequence?!" the Monitor said, "I will not allow it!"

"Of course you will, stupid Machine!" The heretic said, "you cannot stop me!"

"I do not have a weapons system, but my Sentinels do!" Ion said, "Stop him!"

"You wont be able to do anything!" the Heretic leader said. He pulled out a small remote device and pointed it at the Monitor. Initiation sparked and fell to the ground. His light sputtered and died, and he shut off. The Sentinels at his command flew from above attacked the Heretic leader. He pulled out a small gun and pointed it at each sentinel in turn. They sparked and died as they where hit with a radio electricity signal. A single hit by a Sentinel was enough to knock the Heretic off his feet. He got up and ran out of the room.

Rona picked up the monitor and shoot it. A small rattle resounded through the inside of it, but nothing else happened. One of the remaining Sentinels hovered towards Rona and pried the Monitor out of his hands. When Ion had been placed on the ground, the Sentinel hovered over him and stopped moving. A jet of electricity shot from the Sentinel and into the Monitor. His light sputtered on, and he started to hover; but the Sentinel sputtered as his energy reserves died. It shut off and crashed to the ground.

"542 Raging Ion, are you functional?" Rona asked.

"…I am 542 Raging Ion. I am the Monitor of Installation zero seven. Are you a reclaimer?" Ion said.

"Do you not remember us?" Rona said.

"Remember you? I'm sure I would remember a Reclaimer if I met one!" The monitor said, "You underestimate my memory processors."

Rona sighed, "This isn't important, Ion! The Heretic leader is going to destroy this installation!"

The Monitor gave Rona the equivalent of a blank stare and remained silent.

"He's going to destroy the installation that you were designed to protect!" Rona continued, so did the Monitor's silence, "Installation Zero Seven!"

"Ha-ha-ha, no he is not!" the monitor replied, "Sentinels, stall him from getting off the ring. I will activate the rings close-range defense systems."

"Send Sentinels to guard the Flood gate. The Heretic leader is going to open it," Zale said.

"Ah, let me look at the schematics of this structure. It seems that I do not have the east wing in my memory processors," the Monitor said. He flew over to a blue console and tapped into it with a small jet of electricity, "Ha-ha-ha, my technological prowess is exceeded by no other! Ha-ha-ha, I am a genius!"

"Hurry up!" Zale said, "This place is going to be blown to pieces if you don't help us!"

"Oh, I've got it!" the Monitor said, "I shall send some of my Sentinels to the Flood gate."

"I guess I must participate in Sesa Refumee's little game…" Rona said, "I will incapacitate one of the Unggoy guards and steal a ship to shut off the detonation sequence."

"Its too late, Rona," Janaw said, coming out of his trance, "The Flood gate has opened."

Rona ran through tall beige corridors. Janaw waddled speedily beside him, carrying a bundle of weapons. Argap and Zale had gone with the Monitor to try and steal the Heretic's ship from taking off. Four dozen Sentinels hovered behind Rona and Janaw; easily keeping pace with the 'lesser life forms'.

So far, no Flood had been encountered, but Rona's HUD detected an increased amount of Spores in the air. These spores did not pose a threat yet, for their numbers were a minority in the atmosphere. But Rona knew that once they encountered a Flood Form, the amount of spores would increase.

Rona switched to heat sensor on his HUD lenses, and turned on the motion sensor in his armour. He realized that without his Arbiter Armour, he would have to rethink his Flood killing strategy. His motion sensor caught a small blip, and Rona readied his weapon. Sensing his leader's uneasiness, Janaw raised his weapon as well. The sentinel's weapons heated.

As the group came upon a small bend in the corridor, they saw a young dead Unggoy heretic. Its stomach had been torn open and the insides were scattered across the hallway. Blue blood spattered the walls. Janaw turned his head and prevented himself from vomiting.

"I guess the Flood destroyed him too much to be controlled," Rona said, nudging the body with his foot, "At least he does not have to feel the constant torture of being controlled."

"Can we move on please?" Janaw said, moving forward.

Rona continued forward through the bloodstained corridor. After a few feet, the blood fell behind him, and he stepped into a clean path. At the end of the corridor, was the bright light of sunshine. Rona felt overjoyed to see it once more. He walked forward into the sunshine, and noticed that it was not actually outside.

He had walked into a tall enclosure. The walls around him rose immeasurably high, and the ground before him was beaten and destroyed. The empty courtyard before him was a desolate wasteland.

"This was the Flood Gate," Rona said, "The Flood containment facility."

"We're in trouble," Janaw said as he looked into the now empty courtyard.

Zale Zoneema looked upon the wreckage of the Flood gate. The tall reinforced doors had been beaten open by the Flood, and the thick double-reinforced safequard doors had been opened by the heretic leader. Zale and Argap looked upon the empty courtyard in dismay.

"There is no way we are going to prevent this outbreak," Argap said, "We are completely and utterly screwed." Zale hid his surprise of Argap's choice of words. He personally felt like cursing, but did not want to show any sign of weakness to the Unggoy. Flood spores floated through the air and clouded Zale's vision.

"Let us go," he said, "We must find these flood and destroy them."

Zale knew that Argap was frightened; the look in his eyes confirmed this. The truth was, Argap had no idea what he was facing. He was not scared [ienough[/i. Zale had faced the Flood before, if only briefly, and he still had nightmares of their grotesque faces.

Zale was afraid. As they walked through the halls, doors seemed to open beside him. Shadows lurked in every corner. Zale's eyes darted back and forth.

Suddenly the air became thicker with flood spores and visibility lowered sharply. Argap's heartbeat flared and he raised his weapon. Out of a side passage ran an Elite flood combat form He lashed out with thick tentacles, throwing Zale back against a wall. The Flood form leapt onto Argap, and lashed out with whip-like tentacles. Argap fell to the floor, his weapon bag scattered away from him. He crawled over to the bag as the Flood relentlessly beat upon his back. His fingers tapped the bag, and a small plasma grenade rolled out. Argap activated it and shoved it into the Flood Form's gaping mouth. The Flood leapt away and screamed. The dark corridor was lit with a blue flash, then all was dark and silent.

Argap lay gasping on the ground. Zale stood up and limped over to his fallen comrade. Blood trailed from his foot.

"Are you okay, friend?" Zale said, helping Argap to his feet.

"Yes," Argap said, lost for words, "Lets go."

Rona, Janaw and the Sentinels descended into the lower recesses of the complex. They had recently found a tall passageway off the side of the main corridor and, following their instincts, walked along the unknown path. The number of Flood Spores increased largely the further they sank, and soon Rona's breathing became labored. This was not a problem for Janaw, due to his methane breather mask, but Rona had to survive on the air around him.

Soon the Flood spores blocked all vision within three feet, and Rona was gasping for air. Janaw urged him onward. As they reached the open air, Rona collapsed upon a grassy field, savoring the crispness of the air, and the grass between his fingers.

"Rona…get up." Janaw said. Rona sat up and looked at Janaw. His eyes were wide open with fright, and he was shaking. Rona followed his trail of sight, looked upon his worst nightmare. Dozens of Flood stood before him. They sat on their knees, with bowing towards Rona and Janaw.

But not [iat[/i Rona and Janaw. Rona turned to look at what they were bowing at, and saw the door which they had entered through. High above it…was a statue of a Prophet.

The Flood looked up at that moment, and took a step towards Rona.

"Lets go, Janaw," Rona said. He ran back through the door, pulling Janaw behind him, "Sentinels, Can you collapse the doorway?" The sentinels did as they were told and used their beams to tear apart the stone door.

We had better hurry, Rona," Janaw said, "You cannot survive in this air."

"Then let us go."

They ran up the passage, with the sounds of the Flood's roars behind the.

Zale returned to the main hall of the complex. His foot continued to bleed, and he had to walk with the aid of Argap. Argap had sustained minor injuries, and was able to move ahead occasionally to watch for enemies. Zale sat down upon the Heretic's chair and tended to his wounded foot.

"The Flood have been through here," Janaw said, sniffing the air, "but only briefly. I fear they will return."

"Our mission is to stall the Heretic from getting away!" Zale said, "We must do our mission."

"Where has that Electric…doohickey gone to?" Argap said, his temper was flaring.

"Electric Doohickey?" the monitor said as he flew threw a hold in the roof, "To think that you would insult something of higher function and purpose than you is… I'm shocked. Almost too shocked for words."

"Let's go! We must hurry if we want to catch the Heretic ship," Zale said. He stood upon his bandaged foot, grimaced, and led their trio in the most likely direction.

Rona emerged from the Flood spore-filled passage into the delicious oxygen. He surveyed his surroundings, and noticed the gore stained walls that were becoming all too familiar. Flood spores floated through the air, but considerably less than was in the passage behind him. Two dead Unggoy heretics lay against the wall opposite of him, surrounded by florescent blue blood.

There was a clatter down the hall, and a small grunt stumbled out of the fog. It squealed as it saw the Arbiter, and attempted to hide its face.

"Please don't kill me," the Grunt said; he seemed about 15 years old, a mere toddler to the Unggoy, "I only joined because I wanted to help."

"What do you mean?" Rona said.

"The Sangheili told me that the Covenant was only leading to doom, not salvation," the Grunt replied, "I only wanted to save them from a doomed existence." It began to shake uncontrollably. Its eyes watered, and Rona could sense the true fear in his eyes. The Arbiter had become an icon. All who went before his blade would see only death. "Are you going to kill me?"

"What is your name?" Rona said.

"…Z…Zawgar," the Grunt said.

"Come with us, we will help you," Janaw said, "The Arbiter is as honourable as he is strong."

Zawgar nodded, and slowly stood up.

"Have you seen the Flood?" Rona asked.

"Yes. They knocked me down and took my weapon," Zawgar said, "They were going to kill me, but I think you scared them off. Even the Flood are afraid of the Arbiter, these days."

"We are hunting them down. I believe that if we follow them, they will lead us to your brethren's ships."

"I hope you do not intend to play the Leader's game," Zawgar said, "It is a trap. All who step upon his ship will be murdered!"

Zale stepped upon the wide loading ramp of the Heretic Ship. It had been placed beneath ground in an enormous hangar. The ship was a Super Carrier, the largest of its kind. Grunts clad in white armour directed crates of supplies into the cargo hold as big as Zale's whole ship. Raging ion had flown into the rafters overhead, so as to not attract attention with his light. Zale and Argap crept behind a batch of crates in a secluded part of the hangar, and waited for the ship to close.

Zale Zoneema sat with his back against a large crate. Argap lay in an upright fetal position; normal sleeping behavior for grunts who had to survive harsh winters on their freezing home planet. A rumble was felt throughout the ship as the large engine started. Most of the lights in the cargo hold shut off, to preserve energy. No many people should be in there anyway, only grunts, and no one cared if a grunt slipped and broke its neck.

Despite how the Heretic said the Unggoy were treated.

At this point, Zale shook Argap awake, stifled his squeal, and crept from the hiding spot. Several white clad grunts could just be made out in the darkness, but were easily avoided. Zale slid from crate to crate, staying in the darker shadows and avoiding surveillance.

Zale and Argap slipped through an open door and into an unlit hallway. Behind them, the Monitor flew in as well and lit the passage. Out of a side hall, a white-clad grunt slid. It squealed as it saw them, and turned to run. In it's haste to get away, it turned too fast, and ran race-first into a wall. It fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious. Zale and Argap simply stood in amazement.

This wasn't how we had rehearsed it, the grunt thought when it woke up.

Fearing its punishment, it ran off and hid in an empty, reinforced fuel crate.

This eventually saved his life.

Zale ran through the corridors, laughing to himself at the Unggoy's stupidity. Argap waddled steadily behind him, carrying weapons like a pack mule. The duo walked into a bay of open escape pods. Zale stopped abruptly, making Argap cannon into him.

"Argap, place your weapons in this escape pod," Zale said, pointing to a specific one, "I have a feeling this is how we shall leave the ship."

"Yes, sir," Argap said, happy to be relieved of his burden. He placed the bundle of weapons under the seat, making sure they were out of plain site.

Zale stepped back into the hallway they had been in previously. A silhouette stood out against the light at the end of the tunnel. It raised its finger accusingly, and pointed it at the pair. Needles shot out from behind him, propelled by unseen attackers. A needle imbedded in Zale's leg, and exploded in a shower of purple blood. He fell onto his back, and lay panting on the ground. The silhouette walked slowly over him. The Lone face of Sesa Refumee stepped into view.

"Hello Zale," He said, "Been a while, hasn't it?"

Rona ran along the corridor in the assumed direction of the Heretic ship. The ground rumbled, and a blast of heat washed over his face. Rona stepped out onto a long stone balcony. The Super Carrier's Forward took up all his view.

"Arbiter," Zawgar said, "I'm sharing a shuttle with another Unggoy, but he has been taken by the Flood. I don't think Sesa Refumee estimated their numbers correctly. We must get to that ship!"

"Come."

Rona, Janaw, and Zawgar stepped onto the small launch pad. A pure white ship sat upon it. It had just enough room inside it carry their group into the air. As they left the ground, with Zawgar piloting the craft, Rona organized his weaponry.

Six plasma grenades divided among them; four plasma rifles; two plasma pistols.

It was enough to get through the mission, but not any more than that. The group would have stay quiet, so as to use the weapons minimally. Their Huragok better have some waiting for them when they come back to the ship.

The ship gave a lurch, and the weapons scattered. Rona retrieved them and stuffed them into the a small pack. Janaw sat bolt upright beside him. Claustrophobia.

Rona wasn't so sure how they were allowed to get so close without being spotted.

"We are five hundred meters from the Heretic ship and closing fast," Zawgar said, and pointed to the aft of their ship, "There should be a large case over there. Inside is a set of propulsion packs and atmospheric breathers for you."

Rona retrieved the items, noticing that they were very advanced compared to Covenant technology. He fitted all the items onto his armour and handed the rest of the gear to Janaw and Zawgar. Rona's adrenaline began pumping as the pressure in the ship was released, and he stepped into weightlessness. He looked upon the infinite of Space, and felt proud of what he had so far accomplished in his life. Saving the Unggoy race from the Kig'yar, saving the Huragok from the Flood, almost defeating the Heretic leader in battle twice.

He activated his propulsion pack, and started to move slowly for the Heretic ship. Janaw and Zawgar dropped out of the ship as well, much less gracefully than Rona had done.

They Collided with the ship soundlessly in the vacuum, but it hurt nonetheless. No shields, Rona realized as he pulled himself over the ship's surface. Making sure to stick together, the group glided slowly in the assumed direction of an airlock. They found a closing airlock, squeezed inside before it closed, and hunkered down waiting for someone to open the inner door.

The hatch opened, revealing a startled Unggoy. Rona quickly incapacitated him and threw him in a nearby escape pod. He then noticed a bundle of weapons underneath the seat he had put the grunt in. He reconsidered, and moved the grunt to another escape pod; fearing he will steal the weapons. Rona reached into the pack, and retrieved a single energy sword. It was unused. Perfect.

Rona then continued along the hallway until he noticed an oddity in the echoing of the walls. Everything was quieter. Less footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Janaw. Zawgar was gone.

Rona sighed. He knew something was funny about that Grunt.

He continued walking, feeling that one grunt couldn't undermine him too much. Occasionally, he would disappear up a vent to open a door or deactivate cameras. As they were led around the hallways, they stumbled upon the security room of the ship. He entered the room, knocking out 2 Sangheili and an Unggoy, and deactivated the security cameras.

Ironically, once the cameras were turned off, the Heretics seemed to be aware of their presence. One by one, Rona would bump into them, and knock them out with a few bunts to the head with is plasma rifle. Then, all of a sudden, the attacks stopped. All the Heretics stopped coming, and Rona had a minute of peace. The lights shut off in the hallway, and a siren sounded throughout the ship.

The Flood warning, Rona knew. The button had been in the security room.

The Lights sputtered on and off, creating a clichéd horror-like setting. At the end of the hallway, a disfigured form appeared. The lights sputtered, and when the figure became visible once more, there were eight of them. Janaw, acting on instinct, fired a single blast from his plasma pistol at the creatures. One screamed as it hit its face. It staggered backwards, then leapt towards Rona and Janaw. The Flood forms followed suit; leaping towards them with amazing strength.

Rona drew his energy sword and greeted the beasts with quick slashes. The sword sliced open one of the form's torsos, cutting it in two. A pile of intestines fell steaming onto the ground. Taking no heed of their brother's demise, the Flood Form's continued their attack. Janaw fired round after round of plasma into their faces, and while they screamed in agony, Rona cut them easily in two.

Soon, the air became thick with Flood spores. Rona's breath became labored, but not lethally so. A flood infection form snuck up on Rona and pierced the back of his neck. He yelled, and fell unconscious.

Janaw fought for his life, as more Flood combat and infection forms pushed towards him.

"I don't know anything," Zale said.

"Oh, I think you know more than you're telling me," the Heretic Leader said, "And I will pry this information from you."

"Let Argap go, he doesn't have anything to do with this," Zale said.

"Oh, I don't care about about Argap," the Heretic said, "He will be released eventually. Tell me the nature of the Flood, and I will let you go."

"I don't know anything!" Zale said.

"Than I'm sorry I have to do this."

Rona's vision blurred.

An invading presence entered his conscience. It pulled at his mind; wanting to feed. As it tapped into his nervous system, Rona's life flashed before his eyes. At the site of all the Planets Rona had been to, the presence became more excited, and dug for more.

Rona pushed the memories to the back of his mind, and hid them. The Presence became angry at his defiance and retaliated. It clawed at his memories, and pulled out thoughts of his childhood.

When Rona had been accepted into the Honor Guard, his parents had been so proud. Rona screamed as the memory was ripped from his mind.

When Rona met Zale, the Sangheili leader had rewarded him with his first weapon: a simple silver sword. It was tall and thin. The memory was quickly discarded.

Rona had proven his worth by preventing Zale's assassination.

As the memory was being discarded, the pressure Rona's mind ceased, The Presence disappeared, and Rona's memories flooded back to him.

His vision slowly came back. Around him, bodies lay smoldering with plasma fire. Rona lay in a pile of his own blood. Janaw stood beside him.

"You should be dead, sir," Janaw said, "That infection form was going crazy, and you were stepped on by a dozen combat forms. You're lucky Zawgar came back and popped that infection form, or you'd be gone."

Zawgar walked into view, carrying a small case of blue gel.

"Here, put this on your wounds," Zawgar said, "It is a natural resource on the rings. It shall re-grow your skin tissue."

"Thanks."

"Come," Zawgar said, "we must find your friends."

"I am glad you came to your senses," the Heretic said.

Zale spit blood into his eye.

"Don't worry Zale," the Heretic said, walking away, "I'll put this information to good use."

"Go to hell traitor," Zale said.

"If I'm going to hell, you're going down with me, brother."

Rona burst through the door of the torture chamber. Zale lay unconscious, tied to the table. Argap was deftly using a pin to pick the lock on Zale's chains.

"He knows you're here," Zale said to Rona, "He has gone to detonate the Ring!"

Explosives status: Inactive

…Salvo MineFeilds: Activated

…Plasma Stores: Heating

…Exterior Defense weaponry: 97 charge

[Press Execute

Beginning countdown…

Rona burst into the bridge of the Heretic ship. Hatred burned in his eyes; he had reached his limits, and his anger was boiling over.

"Hello Arbiter!" the Heretic said calmly, "I hope you've come to watch the fireworks!"

"Shut it off," Rona said. He retrieved the energy sword from his belt, activated it, and held it in front of him menacingly.

"Or you'll do what?" the Heretic said, "I have the detonator under lock and key. Kill me and you will only be making the explosion completely inevitable."

The Arbiter lunged at the Heretic.

The Heretic Lunged at the Arbiter.

Salvo Mines Fields: Activated.

Plasma Stores:Heated.

Exterior Defense Weaponry: 100 Charged.

…

…

…

35 seconds till detonation…

34…

33…

Rona's instincts kicked in.

He leapt aside as the Heretic Leader's energy sword came down upon him. It clipped his shoulder; shaving off a thin piece of the new Red Armour Prophet of Wisdom had given him. He yelled in anger; not pain. The Arbiter swung his sword at the Heretic, slicing the side of his face and scarring the tissue. The Heretic roared and clashed his sword with the Arbiter's.

They became interlocked in a vicious battle of strength.

10…

9…

8…

The swords pierced each other's torsos at the same time. Rona pulled his sword out of the Heretic and threw it aside. It cleanly sliced a nearby console in two.

The Countdown stopped.

Rona thought it was a miracle that his sword just happened to hit the console, but the truth was that Janaw had just turned it off.

Rona groaned.

The Heretic Leader groaned.

He pulled his sword out of Rona and tossed it aside; decapitating an innocent grunt standing there. But no one was innocent these days, are they?

Rona fainted.

"hmm… Ah ha ha ha… I am SO clever!" Raging Ion said, "Oh, there you are!" A single grunt cowered in a corner. The Sentinals around Ion glowed briefly and then there was nothing but a pile of ash before them.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Ion laughed. He was starting to enjoy his job. All the freedom he was experiencing had never been felt before. His rampancy was preventing him from seeing the cruelty in his actions.

Out of a high hole in the wall next to him, a Flood Combat form jumped. It gripped the Monitor around the sides and hung in the air, flailing as the Monitor tried to get him off. The Flood Form swung from the Monitor's frame, performed a Trapeze flip and re-gripped onto a nearby sentinel. The Sentinel whirred under the weight of the form. It trailed smoke and spun wildly. The Flood Form dropped easily from the Sentinel, who spun into another and erupted into a ball of fire.

The Lone Form turned slowly to face the Monitor. It leapt. The Monitor did not move an electronic muscle. As the Monster was coming down onto Ion, it defied physics and stopped in mid-air…

And burst into a hundred fleshy pieces.

A dozen sentinels joined the Monitor.

"Will he be okay?" a fuzzy voice said. It was high pitched and distant, as though it was being heard through a wall.

"Yah, I believe so," Another voice said calmly, "The Huragok are skilled Medics."

The ground seemed to rumble. Rona floated back into consciousness; but only in the mental sense. He could hear and he could feel the chair in which he sat, but not move. The Chair was metallic and cold, and g-forces pushed him strongly into it.

He was in a ship of some sort…

The Rumbling in the ship grew steadily. Rona's stomach dropped; he knew they had entered atmosphere.

Rona gained Command of his motor Functions. The only thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the ground coming up towards him.

Rona slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on a mound of dirt. Zargaw lay next to him; minus his head. Rona's legs were bleeding profusely. Behind him was the cracked frame of the escape pod. Zale lay next to him, seemingly unharmed. Blue blood surrounded Rona, most likely Zargaw's due to the color. Janaw and Argap were awake, but dazed, a few feet away.

Rona turned over and looked at the sky thoughtfully. Up above, the Arch of the Halo could be seen. A trail of smoke led up from his downed escape pod. It would be easy to track.

Far above, another trail of smoke and fire formed. Small dots of light burned across the sky. A dozen escape pods crashed into the river valley in which Rona lay. They were soon followed by single soldier pods carrying Commando Elites. As the Elites and Grunts ambled out of the smoking metal, Rona crawled to his knees and shook Zale awake. Overhead one last escape pod burst through the atmosphere and disappeared over a ridge.

Rona and Zale checked on Argap and Janaw and, feeling a pulse, started working on waking them up. The Surrounding Heretic soldiers payed them no attention. They gathered up their collective gear and separated into un-orderly squads. Janaw and Argap slowly came into consciousness. They noticed Zargaw's body and gave him a quick moment of silence.

They gathered their weapons, even searching Zargaw for supplies, and joined the Heretics. Janaw snuck away, against Rona's wishes.

High above, the Heretic Ship exploded.

Hunger.

Must Feed.

The Flood form limped onward. Forced towards the scent of life.

Hunger…

The life of the Sangheili it had possessed pushed at its mind. The two warring minds clawed at each other. The Flood form limped drowned the Elite in his own memories and continued on its journey.

Hunger.

I…Smell…Death.

All the beings in the River Valley looked upward in awe. The wreckage of the destroyed ship cascaded overhead and disappeared over the canyon ridge. Janaw walked back towards Rona. His walking was labored by a large sack over his shoulder. This was inconspicuous to the Heretics, since Grunts normally had to carry their stuff anyway.

Janaw reached Rona and unloaded the weight from his back with a large Thump. A multitude of weapons fell out of the sack at Rona's feet.

"Pickpocket," Janaw said.

"Ha-ha, this will come in handy," Rona said.

"How is your stomach," Janaw asked.

"I'm not sure if I will be useful with a sword for a while, but I can wield a gun," Rona said.

"May I take control of this mission due to your injury?" Zale asked.

"Be my guest," Rona replied.

"Good. I have a feeling we are going to have a problem really soon."

"Attention Sangheili and Unggoy!" Zale stood upon a large boulder and announced, "My name is Zale Zoneema. I was once considered your leader." There Heretics all growled and reached for their weapons. "I wish you no harm. I believe we are trapped in this canyon. We must work together if we want to leave this place alive."

A terrible screech was heard in the direction of the Canyon ridge. A dozen Flood Combat Forms stood up. Silhouettes in the night.

Rona knew the attack would begin soon.

He knelt on a tall rock, away from the main battle group. He loaded his weapon, and sited on the Flood forms.

Zale stood in front of the battle formation. Over a hundred Elites stood behind him with intermingled Grunts. The Elites were good soldiers, and could hold their own in a fight, but they were also filled with fear. The Grunts were cowards when fighting without a commander, but when one was present they would run at the enemy without a second's doubt.

The Heretic Grunts also knew from experience how to deal with these Flood; for they had lived on the Ring, no doubt, for quite a while. They would come in hand.

Zale hated to think about it, but these Sangheili were cowards. There was an excited murmur among the crowd. A grunt had seen a blur of movement along the canyon ridge. Zale looked to Rona, a small dot in the distance. His Beam Rifle was aimed at the canyon ridge.

The Flood were here.

The crowd took a leap back as the long line of beastly flood forms appeared over the top of the ridge. Only a thin outline was visible against the setting sun.

Zale's instincts took over him. He reached down, hefted a rather large rock, and hurled it…

Backwards.

A particularly small flood form collapsed as its chest was caved in.

"Smart Bastards," Zale said, "Get back into your formations, soldiers. This is going to be one hell-of-a night."

It was dark already. The Sangheili soldiers shuffled their feet and warmed their hands on their plasma heated weapons. A small quarrel had broken out in the middle of the squad, and a few Elites had scored some minor plasma burns. A few Huragok bandaged the wounds.

The Flood just stood there. Zale saw the hunger in their misshapen faces. They were shaking with the anticipation of fresh meat. Fresh Blood. Zale saw a tiny speck of shadow along the horizon between two trees. Rona was watching over them, protecting their flank. Zale looked up at the stars above.

Zale looked once again at the horizon. The Terrain of Halo rose above him. A twinkle of happiness filled his eye. This was where he belonged: the battlefield. Not sitting in some high chair being told what to do by traitorous bastards.

A small comet collided with the ocean on the topside of the rings surface.

The Flood attacked.

Rona was the first person to see the start of the battle. A trio of Flood forms leapt over the ridge and dropped down to the valley floor. Two of them were dead before they hit the ground. Rona heard a battle cry from Zale and he, Janaw, and Argap leapt towards the enemy. Rona picked them off gently; saving his energy for a long night that was undoubtedly ahead.

Zale wielded a plasma sword and leapt at the enemy. He and a somewhat small Flood form collided in mid-air. They fell to the ground interlocked in a battle of strengths.

Zale stood up.

The Flood form didn't.

Janaw slipped behind him and de-limbed a flood form that had been sneaking up on Zale. He then handed Zale the weapon he had just picked from its owners pocket. That was the first and last time a grunt would ever wield an energy sword. Zale grunted in approval and continued the battle. Beside him, Janaw and Argap worked side by side, covering each others flanks from the oncoming onslaught.

A tall, thick Flood form lashed out at a nearby Elite; who was knocked viciously to the ground. The Flood raised its arm for a finishing blow, and was skewered by two plasma swords. The Monsters slowly slid off the swords and fell gently over the legs of the fallen Elite.

"Come," Zale said, helping the Elite up, "The Battle rages on!"

Rona Monamee joyfully picked off the straggling Flood forms. He shot a form next to Zale and laughed when Zale was sprayed with yellow-green blood. Zale seemed to look at him and laugh as well.

This fight was too easy. Barely any soldiers had died yet, and the flood were expending their forces randomly.

Something was wrong.

Then Rona realized the problem. There were no infection forms. In previous Covenant-Flood battles in his lifetime he had always seem the same formation. Normally Flood forms and Infection forms would attack randomly. But this was orderly. The Flood had a plan, or they had a leader.

Over a back ridge of the canyon came a wave of yellow blobs. A Flood of Yellow blobs. They slowed down as they reached the floor of the canyon and proceeded cautiously towards the unsuspecting soldiers.

It was too much for Rona to handle alone. He tried to signal to Zale.

A small discharge of plasma crackled past Zale's face. He looked at where it had come from and saw Rona discharge another small ball of plasma. He followed its trail and saw a wall of yellow flowing towards the formation.

"Soldiers, Turn! Left Flank!" Zale yelled.

The Soldiers instantly turned and worked on the new threat. Zale, who was closest to this threat turned to help Argap and Janaw; who were having fun stomping on the little blobs.

"I need you to watch our frontlines," Zale said, "Just tell me if any more Combat forms come."

"Um…" Janaw said, "Some more Combat forms have come!"

"Squad 1!" Zale yelled, "Turn, Right flank!"

Half the soldiers turned about and fired upon the threat. A dozen heads spontaneously exploded as Rona helped as well. Zale picked up a Flare gun he had gotten off the escape pod and shot it into the air.

"Ouch! My computing strands seem to be malfunctioning." The Monitor of installation Zero-One hovered above the ground and observed the extermination of the Flood. His main function was actually to protect the flood, but rampancy was hard to overcome.

The Sentinels, despite their lack of a conscience, knew this. They could sense the insanity and were wary. The followed orders, for that was how they were programmed, but they were cautious. All sentinels looked up as a red ball of light streaked across the sky.

"Oh!" Ion said, "Lets go see what the problem is, shall we?"

Soldiers cheered as an army of Sentinels sped into the canyon. Rona could hear the yells from the other side of the valley. Then the Monitor crossed the ridge, not far from where Rona was laying.

"Deal with the Flood first," Ion said, "They are the threat right now. We will deal with the traitors later."

Rona turned his sight on the Monitor and let off a single shot from his beam rifle. The monitor fell to the ground with a loud 'crack' and moved no more.

"Bloody machine," Rona muttered under his breath. He turned his gaze back on the Flood and got to work.

The Sentinels had their uses. For now.

Janaw picked up a sharp rock and jammed It into an un suspecting Flood combat form. IT flailed and fell to the ground. Janaw proceeded to jump on the surrounding infection forms. Behind him, the Flood combat forms seemed to be having fun. They jumped out from behind frocks and jumped onto the backs of random Sangheili. One Unggoy was scared in such a way; he jumped, threw his arms in the air, and ran away screaming.

"Ah!!!!" it said, "Ah ooh ah! Run!"

Other Unggoy noticed their frightened comrade and panicked as well.

"No!" one said, "Run away!"

"Ahhhhh!" said another, "Not again!"

Janaw stopped a passing Unggoy, and yelled at him.

"Stop! Return to your ranks!"

Behind him, sentinels came streaming over the ridge of the canyon. He saw raging Ion, and realized he was now safe. Janaw smiled.

As he turned his back on the Monitor, he heard a crack. He turned back around in time to see the monitor fall to the ground. A stream of led from Rona's gun to where the Monitor had been.

"He…must've had a reason," Janaw thought. He turned around and continued popping infection forms.

Argap had climbed a tree. He sat on a thick branch among half a dozen other grunts dropping large Fruit and firing secretly upon the threat below.

"Ha-ha!" said a grunt beside him, "Your friend Janaw seems to be having fun."

Argap searched through the crowd until he found Janaw hopping around popping infection forms.

"Ha-ha!" Nice Job, Brother!" Argap yelled.

Argap heard a crack, and searched for the source of the noise. He saw Janaw turn about and look at the Monitor. Argap looked a bit too late, and only saw Ion rolling across the ground.

Argap knew instantly what had happened. He trusted the Arbiter completely.

Argap saw the Sentinels around him turn towards their leader. They shook, as if a great weight had been lifted off their metaphorical shoulders. They glowed red briefly, and a nearby grunt became a pile of smoke and ash. Argap acted quickly. He leapt from the branch he had been sitting on, and clung to a small grip on the side of a Sentinel. It dipped under his weight, righted himself, then attempted to shake Argap off.

The funniest site ever to be seen in the galaxy was of the Grunt being swung around and flailing, under the fear instilling machine.

Argap let go as the Sentinel crashed into another. Argap landed heavily on his feet, steadied himself on one hand, and ran tenaciously towards Zale.

"Sir!" Argap said once he had reached him. Zale stood, Energy sword in hand, and decapitated a trio of Flood combat forms in one swing.

"What, Argap?" Zale said with malice.

"Can't you see what's going on around you?" Argap yelled, "The Sentinels are turning on us!"

Zale turned about and finally noticed the carnage around him. Over a dozen mounds of ash littered the ground and clouded the air. A grunt ran wildly by him, closely followed by a glowing Sentinel.

"Do you have any idea how to destroy these things?" Zale asked Argap.

"Well," Argap said, "Lucky for you…"

This is a blood bath. That was the only way to describe it. Death, Carnage, Blood, Desolation.

Rona was tired. He knew that he should be thankful. He was lying down, away from the fight, simply shooting targets. But he was concentrating too hard. Shooting sentinels tended to be easier than shooting Flood. The Sentinels stayed on one level in the air; while the Flood constantly jumped and ducked. The Sentinels were also the current threat. No one knew how to destroy them.

Except Argap.

Argap had climbed trees and jumped on them as they flew past. The tactic seemed to work, but Rona had a feeling there was an easier way.

Hadn't the Heretic Leader just pointed something at them, and they exploded?

A Radio Electricity Signal. It jammed their primary functions causing them to overload. Rona stood, retrieved his weapons that lay beside him, and took a step forward.

He was hit over the head with a Rock.

"Where is Rona?" Zale said, once he realized the lack of exploding heads around him.

"I don't know, sir," Argap said, "I can't see him on the rocks."

"By the prophets, he gets too much leasure," Zale said, and continued fighting.

"Do you question the validity of my crusade?"

"What?" Rona said, "Why does it matter?"

"Do you even understand what this ring does?!" the Heretic Leader yelled, "This thing's a weapon! It will lead to the death of the galaxy!"

"And do you understand the importance of this ring?!" Rona countered, "This ring could hold the key to immortality!"

"Immortality, I believe, is overrated," the Heretic said quietly. He walked a few feet away, and picked a small device off of a rock, "Do you know what this is, Arbiter?"

"No," Rona said, without even looking.

"It…is a detonator."

This time, Rona did look. He recognized the device. It was no more than 5 inches across, made of black metal. It had a dozen buttons on its small surface.

"There is a minefield below ground," the Heretic said, "Coincidentally, it is right beneath your comrades' feet. It is strong enough to crack through a good chunk of this ring, destabilizing its artificial gravity, and causing it to tear itself to pieces. Eventually, this ring will be destroyed, and you shall be dead."

"Why do you do this?"

"I have scores to settle…"

Zale burst into the dark cavern. Water dripped off almost every surface, and the path was perfidious. Far away, along a shallow passage, he heard faint voices. Janaw and Argap lurked behind him. Their keen eyesight tore through the vale of darkness into what was before them. They whimpered slightly.

Without waiting for their assurance, Zale ran forward into the darkness.

"Come, Zale," the Heretic said, "No need to loiter in the shadows."

"Stop what you are doing, traitor," Zale said, coming out of the darkness, "and I may just let you live."

"Ha-ha!" the Heretic said, "You have always been so narcissistic." He whipped out an Energy sword, and ignited it. The Detonator fell to the ground with a click.

Ten Minutes till Detonation…

Zale parried the first attack with a quickly drawn sword. He counter attacked, but his swing was blocked as well.

The scene was becoming all to familiar to Rona. He watched the fight from his 'chair', apparently forgotten. The Movements of Zale and the Heretic were a blur, almost flawless. Zale parried and counterattacked rapidly; blue-white light illuminated the dark cave.

Rona relaxed slightly. No danger to him was apparent.

Rona knew Zale would eventually win. Zale Always won.

Janaw and Argap huddled in the shadows, not daring to get near the humming blades. Argap had black armour, but the paint was completely scraped off. He now looked like he wore ceremonial silver armour, due to the normal color of the metal beneath his fading paint. Janaw seemed to have taken better care of the armour, though it was still highly scraped and scuffed.

Rona heard a small beeping. Beside his feet, the detonator sat. Its read light flashed alarmingly.

Zale swung wildly, knocking a device off a platform; which hit Rona over the head and he fell unconscious.

When Rona 'came to' he was untied and lying on a table. He had a bandage around his head, and his stomach stitches were being resewn.

"What happened?" Rona asked in a daze.

"I guess you could call it a tie," Janaw said, "the Heretic ran off somewhere. Zale is attempting to track him down right now, but I know he's not going to catch him."

"Zale was badly injured in the fight," Argap muttered, "He shouldn't even be able to walk with that loss of blood."

"You do not give him enough credit," Rona said, "He knows his limits."

"Well, he messed up the Heretic Leader pretty bad as well," Janaw said, "He had to hold his stomach to keep his insides from falling out." Janaw cackled, did a small laughing snort, then got back to work arranging weapons in a sack.

Through the entrance of the cave came Zale. Behind him walked a dozen Heretic soldiers. They were no longer Heretics, now that they had learned the fallacies of their Leaders plan. Rona gasped as he looked upon Zale's wound. His two left mandibles had been severed. The bleeding had stopped, but it had stained Zale's armour and weapons. Zale had once prided himself on the state of his mandibles. Sharpness of teeth and strength of mandibles was something honored among the Sangheili. Zale had his filed to perfect points and polished.

"Are…are you alright, sir?" Rona asked.

"I'm alright Rona," Zale said. He spoke as he used to, but Rona could see the pain in his movements. The injury had also hurt his pride. "It was not the Heretic Leader that caused this injury. It was the Flood, who had attacked me as I searched for him."

"Um…Rona," Argap asked, "What's this?"

Three Minutes till Detonation…

Rona, Zale, Argap, Janaw, and a select group of 'Anti-heretics' sprinted towards the ship. The Rest of the surviving Heretics had run to their private ships. Rona's abdomen hurt him as he ran though the canyon, over tumbled rocks, and once again onto the snow. The Huragok on board was outside, fixing small burns in the ships hull. A dozen Flood Combat forms littered the Flood around it; the security system had worked.

The Group boarded the ship. Rona pulled the Huragok inside, regardless of its squeals. Soon the ship was lifting slowly from the ground. The Heat from the ships thrusters rapidly melted the ice around it, and the Survivors of Installation 07 left.

As the Ring shrank into the distance, Zale cackled. He reached into a pouch on his belt and produced a small chip. This was entered into the computer console onboard.

"Hello, Mano Solam," a Metallic voice said, "What is your command."

'Mano Solam…' Rona thought, 'the Heretic Leader?'

"Show all information related to project Halo on forward monitor," Zale said in a voice very much like the Heretic Leader. The Information popped onto the screen, and Zale cackled again.

"Where did you get this?" Rona asked.

"Do you know what this means?" Zale asked in amazement, "If 'Mano' made it off the Ring, we can know his next move before he makes it!"

"There are…8 of these Rings," Rona said, reading the monitor. A huge explosion rocked the ship. Zale gripped the controls, and steadied the ship carefully.

"7."

Rona, Zale, Argap, and Janaw followed the Heretic Leader on his crusade to destroy the Covenant. On his journey, Rona remember what the Prophet of Wisdom had said.

"Both your race, and the Unggoy, have an incredibly long life span. Of all the races which have been encountered by our covenant, you and the 'grunts', as you call them, live the longest. Approximately seven hundred years, by the count of the Forerunner converted calendar"

"I shall hold it for you till you return, and I will contact you when you can return"

"…The Arbiter is Dead."

It was 300 years that the group followed the Heretics. The Heretic Leader was able to recruit more on some backwater planet, and now had the numbers he did when Rona had first met him.

Eventually, the trail of Mano Solam was lost, and Rona convinced Zale to settle down on Ggoynall.

The Group waited for a sign that they could return to the Covenant…

27