Disclaimer: I do not own Game of Thrones or Halo. Game of Thrones is property of HBO and George RR Martin, while Halo is currently property of Microsoft and 343 Industries. Please support both franchises!
Initially, I thought that I couldn't drag my feet around much longer, and was thinking of just skipping over Cortana and Chief browning Ned and the boys' trousers over the Human-Covanant War in favor of actually getting around to the plot.
Instead, I've decided to actually humor you insatiable dudes and dudettes with more exposition, AND starting to put a soundtrack in! So be grateful! I do apologize for it's comparative shortness in relation to the previous chapters, but I'd like to just get it out of the way before you all rip me apart and finally get on with the plot. On a side note, if anyone knows a good fan-artist who I could request some sort of cover image for the fic, I'd appreciate it if you let me know!
The image of the great city of steel, marred by the terrible weapons used in the conflict Lady Cortana called the Insurrection, now seemed to be regaining some semblance of order, as the denizens slowly tried to rebuild from the fighting which had devastated it. Robb could see the figures of people trying to return to their lives before they warred with each other.
But, if what Lady Cortana had told them, that there was yet another enemy to face, it would not last. The nightmare of war would continue-and if the so-called Covenant were, as Jon suggested, as the Long Night was so long ago...
"Lady Cortana," Robb spoke then, finding himself strangely scared to ask what he was about to say. "What is this... Covenant, as you called them?"
The luminous figure looked intently at him, her strange, otherworldly eyes staring at him. "Before I answer your question, I'd like to ask you something. What is the Long Night Jon here just spoke of?"
Robb furrowed his brow at the remark, confused. Jon had cryptically concluded a moment before that the so-called Covenant was no threat from other men, much as the legendary War for the Dawn was in ages past. "What does that have to do with this matter?"
"It is the great irony of every given war in human history in that bloodshed and strife always reveal the true nature of those who fight," Cortana mused. "Through understanding your wars-your reasons to fight-we may be able to garner a further understanding between each other."
The words hung in the air like an icy wind, Robb, his father, Jon, and Theon all feeling affected by the words. It was no small secret their father had little love for war and destruction. He'd lost nearly his entire family as a result of one conflict. Yet the words seem to strike a cord for each and every single Westerosi in the room. Their land's very history was mired in war after war, struggle after struggle. A grim and depressing thought, in that such bloody business was so deeply ingrained to the ways of men. Certainly, peace was also known to men, and Robb had known nothing but peace in his life... But no peace, he knew, was ever eternal. It could last for a thousand years, but there would always be war to end the peace.
"Winter is Coming," Theon quipped. "Those are the words of your house, Lord Stark."
[BGM: Game of Thrones OST - The Wall]
Robb's father nodded towards his ward. "Aye, they are. They're meant to have a double meaning; as a grim portent of things to come, and a reminder of our family's beginning during the Long Night."
Robb looked back towards Lady Cortana, a grim look in his eyes. "Some eight-thousand years ago, when our ancestors, the First Men, and the mythical Children of the Forest lived side by side in Westeros, a terrible winter was said to have descended on the land, more cold and long and dark than any winter before or since. Through famine and terror, our lands were devastated and left desolate for an entire generation. The sun's light failed, and men were born, grew, lived, and died within the darkness of night. Kings froze in their castles, while mothers smothered their babes rather than see them starve, their tears turning to ice on their cheeks."
Robb's father continued the story. "In the midst of this terrible darkness, a race of icy demons, known as the White Walkers, emerged out of the utmost north from the Lands of Always Winter. Wielding razor-thin swords of ice, flanked by giant spiders, and commanding the power to raise the dead to do their bidding, they waged war against the First Men and the Children of the Forest. Our ancestors and the Children fought with great courage, but were nevertheless incapable of defeating them, and driven south by their advance. According to legend, the Others, as they were otherwise called, could not be slain by mortal means-steel and bronze and all manner of metals shattered against their frozen forms, and thus were made invulnerable to the arms of men.
"As the war against the White Walkers became ever more hopeless, it was said a man, known simply as the last hero, sought out the Children in hopes that their magic could aid what strength remained in men, in a desperate final resort to drive back the demons. The journey was fraught with peril, and cost this brave soul the lives of all his companions, even his faithful hound... but it was worth it. Narrowly escaping the wrath of the Others alone, he found an enclave of the Children, and discovered that their magic could turn the tide against the Others, but the Children had not the numbers to prevail against the Others and their hordes of wights alone."
Jon then chose to speak. "Armed with this knowledge, the last hero managed to unite the dispirited First Men and the Children in an alliance of nessecity, as mistrust of one another had made them fight alone, uncoordinated. It was said that the first brotherhood of the Night's Watch was founded at this time, perhaps led by the last hero himself; wielding dragonglass, fire, and steel, the two races rallied behind them. Through the Children's magic and the First Men's valor, they fought in the Battle for the Dawn, where they triumphed against the White Walkers, driving them back into the frozen wastes from whence they came. What became of the last hero is unknown, but after the war had been won, the Long Night finally came to an end, and spring came at last to free the land from the cold. Seeking to ensure that the Others would never again threaten their lands, the founder of House Stark and first King of Winter, Bran the Builder, oversaw the construction of a massive structure of ice and stone, inlaid with the magic of the Children's greenseers to bar the White Walkers passage south of the great structure. From that time forward, the Wall was manned by the Night's Watch, standing vigilant against all the threats from the far north."
Lady Cortana and the Spartan had been silent throughout the entire telling, and even as they finished, the two remained observantly quiet. The Master Chief's face was still encased beneath his helmet, so Robb could not see what he made of their tale. Cortana's eyes, however, were... calculating. Analytical. Almost unimpressed, in fact. Finally, after the long silence following Jon's account indicating their account of the Long Night was finished, she spoke. "So, at least in legend you understand what it is like to be the hunted. To fight for your right to live in your world. Is it really so difficult for you to work together, that you have to wait until something bigger than you starts bullying you?"
Her casual lambaste of their kind irked Robb greatly, but he kept his peace, as a pit grew in his stomach as to what Lady Cortana was getting at.
"If you understand war to be such a large part of our way of life," Theon spoke up, "Why do you chastise it? War, as you said, defines us. It makes us strong, thinning out the milk in our blood and leaves only hard iron. It gives men the chance to earn glory and renown-"
"There are only two kinds of people who find war to be glorious, honorable, or in anyway enjoyable," The luminescent lady interrupted cryptically. "Those who have not experienced war for themselves, or those who can hardly be called human to begin with. Chief here?" She turned her head to indicate her larger companion, "He never enjoyed war at all. The only reason he fought was because it was necessary. And even that necessity could do little more than justify what he and his comrades had to do. There was no glory or fame or fortune which could change the brutality of the war. And, in the end? It took the same thing to bring mankind together-the same unifying force which has echoed throughout human history. One call that will always unite you: the emergence of a common enemy. For us, the UNSC, that enemy... was the Covenant."
[BGM: Halo Legends OST - Machine and Might]
The same device which had shown the images of the great city of steel now showed a strange vessel suddenly hovering over the still wounded metropolis. Was it another great flying ship? It seemed utterly stranger than the Spartan's vessel, all grey and rigid, all too apparently wrought of steel and meant for war. But this vessel had a sleek, thoroughly strange design, seemingly violet or pink in color. Blue and green lights bloomed from their hulls, yet their brightness did not seem to comfort Robb. Then, all of a sudden, countless smaller shapes swarmed out from the ship, like hornets flying from their hive in a fury. They swarmed over the city, and soon blasts again filled the streets. The smaller flying machines were attacking indiscriminately, shooting what appeared to be light or fire or some other terrible thing Robb could scarcely describe, tearing through the heart of the great city of steel with almost contemptible ease. People ran in terror, screaming as their attackers-in an act of horrific inhumanity, loosing their terrible armaments against those innocent, helpless people. Robb could only watch, his blood running colder and colder, as men, woman, and children were torn apart in the explosions, or simply so utterly destroyed by the blasts of fire-light that there wasn't even ash left of them. Those that could escape were either being crushed beneath their own shattered architecture, or fleeing in a desperate mass.
But even they were not safe.
For from one of the streets, a wave of truly monstrous creatures swarmed upon them. They were horrid, ugly looking beasts of many different shapes and sizes, all wielding smaller but no less terrifying weapons which shot more light-fire. A great number of them were diminutive beasts on short, stubby legs, with gray skin and strange masks. Others were thin but taller creatures, seemingly part bird and part lizard, wielding shields seemingly wrought of light. Roaring in some dialect Robb had never even heard of, another, taller, far more imposing creature, perhaps a leader among those demons, ran forward with a strange, two-pronged sword made of light, which he used to mercilessly impale a helpless father as he and his two daughters tried to flee. When his children cried out to their fallen parent, the creature let out a horrible, cruel cackle, and Robb saw that the monster had not the jaw of a man-but a strange set of four toothed mandibles, two on each side of it's mouth. Without pity or mercy, it ruthlessly struck the first child; a girl no older than Bran, slicing the poor thing in half with one swing of it's terrible sword. Then, seemingly to relish as it did so, the creature plucked the smaller girl by the neck with it's long hand, roaring before it drove the two-bladed sword the small child's body, then callously tossing her beside the corpses of her father and sister, running off to cut down the next human it could kill.
Robb was horrified beyond all words. He fearfully turned his gaze, and he saw Theon's composure to be little better. Even his father and Jon, both usually grim and stoic, were wide-eyed and stunned at the monstrous butchery they watched.
This was no war. It was eradication.
"...Where are your soldiers?" Robb asked in a trembling voice. "Where were your warriors who shot thunder? Who rent the earth with their terrible weapons and had ships which could soar through the skies-why were they not their to defend those people?!"
"They were busy fighting for their lives," Cortana said simply. "As powerful as our armies may seem to you, even they were rendered overwhelmed by the Covenant. A single one of their warships would have taken three of our own, each equal in size to that one warship, to match it." The projector's image now changed, and more of those monsters were there, in another part of the city. But so too were the men, the soldiers clad in strange armor and wielding the weapons of lightening and death. The soldiers fought valiantly, with grim determination and bravery Robb did not know existed, but they were outmatched. The monsters' arms left even their might obsolete, as they lost more and more men to light-fire as they desperately tried to fight back these nightmares. In the clouds above the now-burning city, Robb saw several of the great gray, flying war-vessels of the UNSC surging through the sky, doubtlessly hoping to rescue those caught in the nightmarish crossfire below. But before they could approach and save their ground-bound allies, a terrible column of blue light flashed from far in the sky, striking at the great heart of one of the ships, and causing a violent explosion to rend the mighty vessel in two fiery pieces, falling to the earth. Then, with terrifying swiftness, another column of light hit a second ship, causing it to meet a similar fate.
"Our enemies were ruthless, swift, and unrelenting. The Covenant was an empire who had been traversing the stars for nearly three thousand years, and only grew stronger over time. When they became aware of our existence, they declared war against our entire race, vowing to exterminate us from the galaxy. There was no reason given, no warnings or declarations-only destruction, fire, and death. Wherever they found us, they left nothing but scorched earth and vast expanses of glass. They did this-all of this-for nearly thirty years."
"Thirty years?" Robb's father exclaimed. "How did your people survive? How is it your people managed to fight these things for so long a time?"
"You humans, as a general given, are a rather stubborn species," Cortana quipped. "You have a tendency to eventually overcome or get around whatever gets in your way. There were a multitude of reasons why we persisted for as long as we did despite our numerical and technological disadvantage, that tenacity of yours being a prime suspect... But, if you had to pin the blame on somebody, you need look no further than Chief here."
[BGM: Halo Legends - Halo]
For a moment, the four of them looked confusedly at the Spartan, but Jon spoke up, his eyes wide with realization. "You mean to say... you and your ilk were your people's champions."
"We did our duty," The Spartan said simply, "Nothing more."
"Jon, you say that as though there's more than one of the Spartan," Theon commented, looking between the two of them, before realization dawned on them all.
"There are... more like you, Spartan?" Robb gaped at the soldier. The Spartan alone was an imposing enough a fire. To think that there were others just as fearsome as he...
"The Spartan program Chief belonged to was originally meant to put down human rebellions," Cortana continued, "But when the Covenant began laying waste to our colonies, they took on a new mission-to act as the bulwark against the roaring tide. To be the sword and shield of humanity. And they embraced their new role with swiftness, courage, and strength. For they became all that stood between humanity and extinction."
The projector now showed another street within the city of steel, all aflame and filled with running, panicking people. A brave group of soldiers seemed to be trying to buy the civilians time, preparing a noble but hopeless stand to hold back an incoming horde of demons. He watched as more of their small flying machines were preparing to close in on those gallantly selfless soldiers, set to doom them to a fiery death-only for them to be suddenly shot out of the sky in a terrible explosion, it's charred frame crashing into it's own allies below. Robb saw, to his awe, great figures falling headlong to the earth. Armored and tall like the Spartan, they touched to the ground as though they were eagles, their heavy forms smashing into the stone pavement of the street, and all of them brandishing those strange thunder weapons. The soldiers who saw these armored titans land spared only a moment to gaze at the figures in awe, before they recomposed themselves, and they and the supposed Spartans each opened fire into the approaching horde of monsters. Light-fire and thunder rang and crashed as the battle raged all throughout the street, and Robb rejoiced as he saw the xenos tide held back, even breaking against the stalwart wall of men, and more of the UNSC warships appeared in the sky to fight the Covanant's own.
The silent, hulking figures stood like a wall against the monstrous tide, and the light-fire seemed to practically roll off of them as they continued to shoot their thunder weapons. For a few moments, he thought he saw a golden, yellow light flashing across the Spartans' strange yet undoubtedly heavy armor when they were hit, but whether it was a trick of his eyes or something else entirely, he could not say. The Covenant lines broke as soon as one such titan shot down the monster with the twin-pronged light-sword, the smaller creatures beginning to panic and rout as the armored soldiers and their lesser compatriots advanced with furious vengeance. Within but a few minutes, the men with thunder weapons had at last wiped out the last of the stragglers, and above, the xenos ship had at last been destroyed.
Throughout the scarred city, cheers arose from the soldiers as all became aware that the day was theirs.
"But," Lady Cortana relented, something between grimness and sorrow in her voice, "For all their selfless courage and fierce valor, even the Spartans could not turn the tide-only hold it back. Delay the inevitable. The Spartans did give mankind the hope that they could win; that through sacrifice, valor, and determination, mankind could survive. But it was not a turning point for us. For, each victory we claimed was costly, and each defeat crippled us further and further. And each blow the Covenant suffered were only temporary, to be quickly replaced by their superior war machine and overwhelming numbers. For every world we managed to save, two more were burned and turned to ash and glass."
The image of the city changed entirely again, and instead showed what Robb presumed was a different world. The first image of the great sphere was that of a foreign yet familiar planet, with blue seas and great continents spanning it's surface. But then, that image was replaced by more of the Covenant's vessels flying towards the surface, invading the planet's skies nearly unopposed. The humans fought bravely, but they were simply too outmatched and too outnumbered. Then, as their ships were still in orbit, the xenos ships massed together before great columns of blue, green, and red light erupted from the underbelly of each ship.
And when they touched to the earth, Robb became absolutely stunned, his horror just about giving way to terror.
For of all the destruction that Robb had seen the Covenant rend unto their foes, none could compare to what he saw. The columns of light rent terrible, burning gashes into the earth, the smouldering, white-hot trenches so deep that one would have easily engulfed Winterfell. Entire cities were turned to ash amidst the vast fires which raged, the skies turning dark and thick from the smoke and ash.
It looked like the end of the world had come to that place. That the gods had finally grown weary of the vices of men, and chose to put an end to all life in the world.
"Old gods keep us..." Robb uttered, trying desperately keep his composure. Theon, beside him, uttered not a word, though he did nothing to hide the fear in his eyes now, the bravado and cockiness gone. Jon's eyes also showed fear, but that fear was seasoned by the grimness framing his face. And their father... he looked far older in that moment than Robb had ever seen of him. The heir of Winterfell chose to speak after a long silence followed the terrible display, the young man barely managing to hold back the tremble threatening to stutter his speech. "But... if that is true... if those you called the Covenant were able to inflict such... monstrous power on you... what is there left for you to return to?"
"We didn't lose the war," The Spartan said resolutely, and for some reason, Robb could feel hope swelling in his chest at the soldier's words, driving back the feeling of helpless despair and terror. "I was there when the Covenant was finished."
"But... how?" Robb's father asked in a weak voice. "How could you have triumphed against such a terrible foe?"
"That, I'm afraid, is a story for another time," Cortana admitted. "You four look like you've heard enough for one day. You should head back to your castle and take some time to ponder on what you've learned here."
"But, what if they come here?" Theon asked, anger in his voice, "How exactly are we supposed to just go back to our lives fearing every day that those monsters might come for us?!"
"By knowing that if they could have found you," The Master Chief said plainly, "They'd have glassed your entire planet by now. And even if they do come here, I won't let that happen."
