NH3: This story has most of my time today. Anyway, R&R please.

HALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALO

1800 hours, March 25, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Seeker of Truth (Approaching Sanghelios),nearing Urs System, in Slipspace.

The Arbiter felt very weird being the new commander of the Seeker of Truth. It was the ship that replaced Ascendant Justice, his command before becoming the Arbiter. He remembered how he met John for the first time on hostile conditions. He had been thrown back into a lifeboat. The fact it was considered heresy no longer bothered him though.

He had just come to his new quarters and reviewed the debriefing. He told his story while the others told theirs. Apparently, the stowaway Brutes weren't the cause of the engine failure. A pocket in space had formed and the Shadow of Intent had been dumped into it, which disabled the Slipspace Drive. So they had appeared into this new dimension, where they had found Spartan-117, who was dumped into it by a malfunctioning portal that malfunctioned completely and gave a direct path to another Halo. That wasn't his concern right now, however.

His concern was the chip on a string around his neck. It held all the files of every member of the Shadow of Intent's crew. This included Nico's. The Arbiter had no way of knowing where he could be. He could be on another Halo, or he might have perished on a different part of the Halo they were on. The Arbiter slotted it into the personal computer by the bed and scanned through it, looking for Nico's name. He found it and marked him as MIA. Then, he used his own pass codes to enter his account.

"Wow," he whispered as he found everything with high security. He would need Cortana's help for this. He quickly typed up a message to her.

"Arbiter?" she asked.

"Cortana, bypass the security locks on Nico's files and open a door for me," he said.

"Done," Cortana immediately responded. The barriers fell away. But for all the security, there were only battle reports, personal letters—why would anyone put such a high security measure on this?

"Arbiter, I've read the files, and apparently, they all have a pattern. So it's a code to find a hidden file," the AI said.

"What is this code?" he asked.

"All together it says this," she said as she pulled up a file with the line on it.

"Your Truth is a lair. Find the eight activation points and the one shield," the Arbiter repeated. "Cortana, try using this as a key into all files, anything."

"Done. There are ten files unlocked in the system. I will pull them up," Cortana said. The Arbiter saw files with pictures of a Forerunner structure. He recognized it as the device used to generate the portal to the Ark. Somehow, Nico had gotten the chance to translate the symbols into a string of syllables. There was a beep as Cortana opened a star map and translated the first set of coordinates into a destination outside the galaxy. It had to belong to the Ark. The next seven files were translated into locations of the rings. The second-to-last one, which had to be the 'shield', pointed to a location that was held in the hands of both places, but there was still a lack of data. He would have to investigate this later.

The Arbiter opened the final file and gasped. He didn't know how he had done it, but Nico had found a way to contact the computer. The following message was displayed.

"Arbiter, if you are reading this, then you have went into my files and found out the locations of every other Halo in the galaxy. There was also a 'shield world' that I had no knowledge of, so it was left mostly blank. If you are wondering how I got this information, then I had gotten it after the Ark events. At sighting this, I had to keep it a secret. There was no way to destroy them without tremendous sacrifices, and the possibility of another huge war. However, the humans have created the NOVA bomb, a 'planet killer'. This is our best chance of destroying the Halos. I have figured out that I am on Installation 06, so find me there. Nico."

The Arbiter sat back for a moment, in a daze at the fact that Nico wasn't dead. Then, using the same data chip, dumped everything on it, loaded the hidden files he had found, and than laced it around his neck. He walked straight to the bridge.

"Officer, prepare a new course," he said upon entering.

"Excellency?" the officer said.

"Cortana, give him the coordinates," the Arbiter continued. The officer started to plot their new course. The door opened and the Master Chief walked onto the bridge.

"I felt a change in movement. Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Cortana, tell them," he said.

"Nico was several steps ahead of us. He had determined the location of the remaining Halos before he went MIA. He had also contacted the ship, saying which installation he was on. We are going after him, and we are going to try and destroy the Halos also," she said. There was a long silence.

"Let's bring him home, Sangheili!" the Arbiter yelled.

HALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALO

1100 hours, April 6, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Time), Seeker of Truth (Approaching Installation 06unnamed location, in Slipspace.

The entire journey had taken over a week to make, even with the Sangheili engines. They were almost upon the ring, and the Arbiter felt extremely jittery. He had considered Nico a real friend, and he wanted to see him again.

"Two minutes before dropping out of Slipspace, Excellency," the NAV officer said.

"Thank you," the Arbiter said. He leaned back in his chair, reviewing the Halo files. He had done that every day for a while now. Saving Nico wasn't the only task they had ahead. They had to also destroy the final installations, thus preventing an untimely future for the galaxy. It was a task that had been thrust into their hands. And they were going to complete it.

"Dropping out of Slipspace," the officer said. The Arbiter snapped out of his thoughts and looked on the view screen. There was the ring, in between a planet and a moon. But both were colonized by…

"Cyber Forms, on both worlds, over 9 billion of them" Cortana said.

"Plot a course toward the ring," the Arbiter said to Cortana. No response. "Cortana?"

"Increased activity near the rings!" she responded. On the view screen, a brilliant white light shined inside the ring's surfaces.

"Some one has activated it!" the Arbiter stated. They couldn't do anything about it. They could only hope that a miracle would happen. It did, and the white light shone even brighter and then blinked out. The ring started to glow from the inside.

"There was too much energy built up! It's going to blow itself up!" Cortana cried out. Readings went off the charts as the ring heated up, until finally, the ring tore itself to superhot pieces.

"Nico…" was all the Arbiter said.

"Excellency, I'm picking up something," the NAV officer said.

"Zoom in on it," the Arbiter said. The view screen jumped forward and they saw a Phantom, still purple. It was heavily damaged and it was heading for the moon.

"Don't crash there…pull up…pull up…" the Arbiter muttered as the Phantom continued its course. It didn't turn, and soared into the moon's atmosphere, churning up flames.

"We have to rescue them, before they find them," the Arbiter said.

HALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALOHALO

NH3: Ohhh, another cliffhanger! R&R please. I had to bargain for this chapter.