Halo: The Installation.
You at the barricade, listen to this! The rest of the Covenant sleep cause they're dead! You have no chance, no chance at all!
Okay, let's get serious now. This chapter will feature some more from the Arbiter's perspective. I think at the moment I've either started to get used to the combat being repetitive, or somehow it's been expanded, OR, I'm getting better at this. Hmm.
And thank god I can play multiplayer again without having a temper flare-up.
The Cartographer.
The Arbiter accepted the beam rifle from the Spartan. "My thanks," he said, nodding gratefully. The Spartan nodded back, and gripped his assault weapon.
They headed down a slope of gleaming steel, reaching the next door.
The Oracle started to open the door with his beam, but he seemed to have some trouble unlocking it.
"Hey, what gives?" asked ones of the human Marines in confusion.
"It seems I've...crossed a circuit," said the Oracle in surprise.
"Well, let me have a look," said the Marine, pulling out a device the Arbiter recognized as a "spoofer" and walking over to the door.
The Oracle swiveled to face the Marine and fired a blue laser at him. He yelped in pain and jumped back, dropping the spoofer.
"Oracle!" cried the Arbiter in alarm. He raised his weapon and walked around the Oracle cautiously.
"Little bastard stung me!" protested the Marine, rubbing his shoulder.
"I did not want you to come to any harm," replied the Oracle.
"You've got a funny way of showing it," muttered the Marine, attaching the spoofer to his belt and re-readying his assault weapon.
The Oracle got back to work, and this time, he succeeded in opening the door."Excellent! This way," he chimed.
Six Unggoy were sleeping in the next room, while a Jiralhanae Captain was urinating in a corner of the room.
The team decided to take the stealthy approach.
"Slothful runts," muttered the Arbiter in disgust. "Kill them as they sleep."
"Chief, tap 'em out," whispered a Marine. He pulled out a combat knife, and stabbed a Grunt Major in the neck, covering its mask. The Arbiter bashed another two over the head, caving their skulls in. The Spartan went for the, as he had heard the humans say – "old-fashioned" approach and bludgeoned two with his carbine in quick succession. The last had noticed the bloodshed, but the Spartan put him down with a quick burst.
That got the Captain's attention, and he turned around, and yanked out his brute shot – but the Arbiter had dodged behind him, and ran him through with his energy sword. The Brute roared in agony, the life draining out of him.
"Come, Reclaimer. All you seek is close at hand," said the Oracle to the Spartan.
The team quietly made their way down to the second part of the facility; the Arbiter encountered a Grunt walking next to a stack of plasma batteries. He killed the Grunt quietly with a single beam rifle shot.
They headed quietly into the next room where a bunch of Grunts were sleeping and a Brute Captain Major was patrolling on a ramp on the top of the room.
The Arbiter sighted the Brute down the sights of the beam rifle, and the two Marines and the Spartan began systematically assassinating the Grunts in their sleep. There were still two left when the Brute saw what they were up to, and he fired his brute shot. The Marines dodged just in time, but the Spartan took the full force of the grenade, flinging him backwards into the wall.
The Arbiter and the Marines all gaped in shock. "The Chief's dead!" one of them cried.
The Arbiter turned his attention back to the fight, and put the Jiralhanae down with two headshots from the beam rifle.
Then he heard a shifting sound, and the Arbiter looked as the Spartan picked himself up heavily, shaking his limbs and straightening his joints.
"Chief! Sir, you okay?" asked the Marines.
"Been better," replied the Spartan wryly. He picked up his assault weapon, and tossed aside the dead invincibility device that had saved his life. The Arbiter had seen its make before, used by the Chieftain of the Jiralhanae, Tartarus on the second Ring.
"Are you well, Spartan?" asked the Arbiter, in genuine concern, though it had been a short time since they had met, let alone begun to treat each other as allies.
"Your goal is just below!" said the Oracle happily, relieved that the Spartan was alive.
On the third level down, a Brute spotted them and the team was forced to engage the room full of Covenant as it came to life. The Arbiter gladly took the left route, throwing a plasma grenade at a Brute Minor and Ultra. The grenade stuck to the Major and detonated, killing him and badly wounding the Ultra, shattering his armor. The Arbiter brought up the beam rifle and fired, causing a mist of vaporized brain matter to shoot out of the Brute's ears. The Elite threw the beam rifle to a Marine, who caught it gratefully, and grabbed the dead Ultra's carbine. The Spartan threw his own across the room to the Arbiter, and drew out his assault weapon, pumping bullets into a Grunt and splattering blue blood across the floor, before whirling around to take care of a pair of Jackals with a spike grenade.
A Captain Ultra threw down a bubble shield down to shield himself after tossing a spike grenade at the Marines, and urged a trio of Grunts out into the open. The Arbiter picked them off with carbine fire, and activated his active camouflage. While the Spartan distracted the Captain Ultra with plasma rifle fire, the Arbiter stealthily stole behind the Captain Ultra, and ignited his energy sword. He slashed with the weapon, and the Jiralhanae turned in time for the weapon to spill his guts all over the floor. The Arbiter finished him off with an uppercut to the face.
With the room clear, they headed outside. A terminal to the Cartographer sat at the ledge.
"The Cartographer!" said the Oracle happily."Come, it awaits your approval."
The Arbiter kept watch, while the Spartan placed his hand on the terminal and activated the Cartographer.
The Chief and Guilty Spark approached the Cartographer, while the Arbiter, carbine at the ready, checked the balconies behind the hologram. Upon activating the Cartographer, a holographic projection of the Milky Way appeared above it.
Even the Master Chief was surprised at what the hologram showed. "That's...our galaxy," he said with a hint of awe. "We're beyond the rim."
"Two to the eighteenth light years from galactic center, to be precise," added 343 Guilty Spark.
The hologram changed to a map of the flower-shaped structure they were on.
"What is this place?" asked the Master Chief, looking around.
"The Ark," replied Spark.
That caught the Spartan off guard. "This is the Ark?" he asked in surprise.
Spark obviously shared this surprise. "I always assumed it was part of a... Shieldinstallation, but it seems I was mistaken."
"That's a first," remarked the Chief sarcastically.
Guilty Spark turned around and looked at the Master Chief."Not at all," he said."While I had a complete understanding of Installation 04, my makers wisely limited my knowledge of all other strategic facilities." The little AI moved up towards the center of the map."Compartmentalization - in case I was ever captured by the Flood," he added, turning back to the Chief.
The Master Chief saw the logic in that – it was a very real possibility. The Gravemind had captured 2401 Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of Delta Halo, and had been able to manipulate the teleportation grid after doing so. Even that was powerful knowledge, something only Cortana had been able to achieve.
The Spartan ignored the lump forming in his throat and got back to business. "Can you tell me where we are, exactly?" he asked.
"Here!" Spark replied, highlighting an area on the hologram.
"And Truth?" asked the Chief.
"Near one of the Ark's superluminal communication arrays, I'm afraid," admitted the Monitor."Unfortunate; the Meddler has triggered a barrier; a defensive perimeter around the Ark's core."
In the distance, two Covenant Banshees with a Phantom flew by the Cartographer.
The Arbiter gave the Chief a concerned glance.
Keeping his mind focused on the info at hand, the Master Chief walked further around the hologram.
"The barrier will be difficult to disable..." remarked Spark."How odd that my makers would place such a comprehensive defense around a single –" he paused in shock."Oh my."
"What is it?" asked the Master Chief, worried at the urgency in the Monitor's tone.
Before Spark could answer, the call of the Arbiter split the air.
"Phantom!"
A Loyalist Phantom approached the Cartographer – and it knew they were there.
The Arbiter and the Chief moved into position to fight the approaching Covenant ship, as 343 Guilty Spark continued to hover, deep in thought.
"Spark! Move!" called the Master Chief, dodging behind a ledge.
The Monitor finally noticed the Phantom, and flew towards the Chief as the Arbiter engaged the Covenant ship from the ground. The Phantom returned fire, but the Arbiter put one of the gunners out of commission with carbine fire quite quickly, evening the fight out a bit.
"We must get past that barrier! Or the Meddler will destroy it all!" cried Spark as he reached the Chief.
The Spartan's blood ran cold – the Monitors statement could only mean one thing.
"Chief, you got a whole mess of hostile air inbound," warned Sergeant Johnson over the COM."Get back inside while we take 'em out."
One of the Banshees made a slow attack run on the Arbiter, foolishly trying to get close and splatter him.
"Follow the Oracle, Spartan," said the Elite. The Arbiter boarded the Banshee, killed the Brute pilot and took control of the vehicle. "I will help your Sergeant clear the sky."
The Arbiter's Banshee intercepted the Phantom, which broke off and retreated, the Arbiter giving chase.
Chips Dubbo dashed into the room – more Marines had arrived. "Sir, Pelicans are gonna land...one level down!" he said.
As the Chief headed back into the room, the female Marine guarding the door was killed by a plasma grenade. The Chief and his fellow Marines headed into the room, where three Captains and several runts and Jackals were being led by a War Chieftain holding a strange oversized revolver – a mauler.
Dubbo had commandeered the beam rifle, and was picking through the Grunts easily, so the Master Chief focused on the Brutes, who were throwing down all manner of cover and bubble shields, along with a regenerator by the War Chieftain, all to protect themselves. The Chief picked up a brute shot and fired a belt in quick succession, killing one Captain, and wounding a Captain Major, staining his golden armor with blood. Dubbo finished him off with a few magnum shots.
Throwing aside the spent Brute shot, the Chief seized two spikers, and unloaded the clips into the War Chieftain, cutting down his shields and wearing through his armor. The regenerator shattered under the barrage, and the War Chieftain reeled, throwing a radar jammer, and caking the Spartan's motions sensor with red dots. He ignored them, placing his life in the hands of the Marines as he stayed close enough for the spikers to do their job, but far away enough that the Brute couldn't get at him with the mauler. The War Chieftain staggered, and toppled to the ground, dropping the mauler and a glowing orange cylinder.
The Chief scooped up the cylinder and the mauler, heading down to the next level where a Brute Major charged into the open from the door, firing his spiker. Before the Chief could return fire, he retreated back indoors.
The Spartan followed him down cautiously, took on step through the door, and the Brutes opened fire. The Chief threw himself backwards and away from a spike grenade, the explosion dropping his shields and causing the warning light to flare red. He threw the orange cylinder at the two closest Brutes, including the Major that had lured him in, and the cylinder exploded into flames that engulfed the Brutes in roaring flames. They screamed and writhed horribly as they were barbecued, and the rest of the Brutes charged with a roar.
The Master Chief would have appreciated another incendiary grenade, but that wasn't an option, so he made do with a plasma grenade, priming it and hitting a Captain dead center. The Captain roared, there was an explosion, and the Brutes behind him were painted with blue-spotted red blood.
As the Brutes closed in, the Chief switched to the mauler. It might have seemed like an oversized pistol, but it had stopping power almost equal to a shotgun, and the large slugs blew holes in the Brutes as they tried to get close to the Chief.
A pair of Grunts each primed plasma grenades, and charged at the Spartan, screaming, grenades bonded to their hands. The Chief pulled up the assault rifle, and put the lead Grunt down with a long burst to the head. The Grunt's grenades exploded, taking out the second Grunt with another explosion.
The Marines moved in, cutting down the Covenant with suppressed fire. A Brute Captain Ultra kept up brute shot fire, but he was torn between killing the Marines and keeping the Chief occupied – and sitting on the fence wouldn't do him any good. The Chief simply poured on the AR fire, and when the combination of the Master Chief's and the Marines firepower cracked his armor, Dubbo nailed him between the eyes with the beam rifle.
They scooped up weapons, grenades, ammunition and equipment, before charged down the incline to the lower level.
A Brute Chieftain with a gravity hammer was on the bottom floor of the lower level, apparently alone.
"Protocol dictates action," muttered Spark to himself as the Chieftain saw them."The Installation was my responsibility, if my suspicions are correct...no! I must not jump to conclusions."
"The pack will feast on you!" snarled the Chieftain, before running off outside.
The Marines cheered. "Bastard knows he's gonna die!" cheered Dubbo. "We've got 'em on the run!"
The Master Chief was still wary. For all their seeming stupidity, Brutes weren't complete idiots, especially their Chieftains.
His suspicions were proven when his enhanced eyes picked out a slight shift, almost like a heat-wave. His first thought was that the Arbiter had landed his Banshee below and was coming to rejoin them, but there would have been a warning, and the Elite would have likely stayed to take out the Brutes on the bottom.
He lined one of the moving patches up, and opened fire. A Brute's howl ripped through the air as the Chief's bullets took down his shields and shredded his flesh. He became visible as he fell to the ground, grey armored with a triangular helmet that had a red light in the center.
Red dots began to cloud the Master Chief's motion sensors, and he waved the Marines back.
Brute Stalkers, thought the Chief. The specialists weren't very durable, chosen for their stealth – or at least as stealthy as Brutes could get, but their techniques could overwhelm unprepared foes within minutes, using their active camouflage and radar jammers to conceal themselves.
An incendiary grenade hit the ground where the Chief had been standing seconds earlier, and the caesuim mix inside the grenade began to splash out and burn. Plasma bolts began to ripple through the air as the Stalkers fired the weapons at the Marines. All they could do was toss a few grenades and hope they hit something, as the Brutes were quite keen on keeping up the wall of fire on from of them.
The Spartan backed the Marines all the way up, and handed them a few grenades. "Stay here," he said.
"What's the plan sir?" asked Dubbo.
"Cover me," replied the Chief. "I'm going to jump that firewall."
"But what if you can't do it sir?" asked the Marine with the spoofer.
"I can," said the Chief, before the other Marines could chastise him.
Then the Master Chief sprinted down the ramp, and activated a regenerator. He held onto the device as he jumped over the flames, keeping his shields relatively unharmed, and hit the ground with a perfectly timed roll, springing forward and tackling an invisible Brute. He slammed the mauler into it, the small blade puncturing the Brute's armor and eventually, his throat. He scooped up the Brute's own mauler and fired at a blur, and another Stalker dropped into visibility with an agonized howl.
The last stupidly kept his position revealed by trying to hose the Chief's shields down with his plasma rifle, and the Spartan dodged the shots, closed in on him, and fired both maulers, tearing apart his chest.
The Marines headed down the ramp as Sergeant Johnson's voice crackled through the COM.
"Hang tight, Chief! We're on our way!" reassured Johnson.
Brute Bodyguards gathered around Brute Chieftain Herodotus as the Demon entered the room, followed by the Heretics and the Oracle.
"You must win this fight on your own," ordered the Prophet of Truth over the battlenet. "Failure will bring a fate worse than death - abandonment, as we speed forward on the Journey."
Herodotus nodded, and turned to the Demon as it walked down the ramp towards him, assault weapon raised.
"Fight me, I'm right here!" roared Herodotus, lifting his hammer and charging.
The Demon opened fire with his assault weapon, the bullets pinging harmlessly off Herodotus' shields. He allowed the Demon to bring his shields down, and then activated the invincibility device. Blue lightning surrounded him, and he charged for the Demon, swinging his hammer. The Demon cut away with fantastic speed, agilely dodging the Herodotus' swings. He ran towards the Brute and kicked off his face, backflipping several feet away from the Chieftain.
Herodotus cursed, and swung again. This time, though the blow did not kill him, it sent the Demon flying. Ignoring the shots from the humans, Herodotus charged again, and slammed, but again the Demon rolled away, just as the Chieftain's invincibility broke out.
Herodotus was about to charge again and stepped on a small section of floor that seemed different from the others. He looked down in shock to see that he had stepped on a trip mine, and leaped, the explosion dropping his shields and damaging his armor.
The Demon was there to meet him, grabbing the handle of Herodotus' gravity hammer and pushing back against the Brute. Herodotus snorted and resisted with his full strength, pushing the Demon back. Then the Demon swung around and behind the Brute, and Herodotus roared angrily as a beam rifle blast sizzled past his head. He raised the hammer – and then saw the plasma grenade bonded to the handle.
Herodotus roared as he realized he'd been suckered, and brought the hammer down. The Demon jumped out of the way again, and the grenade went off, almost knocking the weapon into the Brute's own face. The Demon now fired his assault weapon, and ran backwards to the ramp it had come down, and Herodotus' wounds were taking its toll. He nearly stumbled as he leapt up the ramp and slammed the gravity hammer down, missing the Demon, but killing one of the humans.
Herodotus licked his lips as he smelled blood, and swung again, knocking weapons cases into the humans. Then he realized that he couldn't see the Demon, and felt a powerful blow at the base of his spine. He bellowed in agony and swung with a backhand, missing the Demon by inches as it ducked with that fantastic speed. Its fist shot out, one of their own maulers in its grasp, and it fired two shots at the Brute's thick neck.
Herodotus saw darkness begin to claim him, and reached out and grabbed the Demon by the neck.
"Our Journey begins now!" he howled, tightening his fist as he collapsed.
The Master Chief pushed the Brute Chieftain's corpse off himself. These encounters were never fun, and he'd never felt so outmatched in terms of sheer physical power. As soon as the Chieftain had fallen, the other Brutes and two Jackal Snipers had sprung into action. With the Marines providing distant fire, the Chief grabbed a carbine and opened up, taking out a Sniper quickly, leaving the other one for Dubbo. Two Stalkers charged, fading into the background, while the Bodyguards opened fire with their spikers. The Chief emptied the rounds into one Bodyguard, knocking off his helmet and fatally poisoning him, and reloaded quickly. He heard a rushing sound as five Jump Pack Brutes soared into the fight, and tracked one with the carbine, blowing its pack to pieces and sending it plummeting.
The Marines took out a second Jump Pack Brute before focusing on the Stalkers, both armed with plasma rifles. The Chief kept moving, avoiding the carbine projectiles from the Jump Pack Brutes, and took out another with a few headshots. He caught the fourth one out with an excellent plasma grenade, the parts raining down on the harried Brute bodyguards, and seized the moment to throw a spike grenade at them. Spiker shots dropped his shields down, and the Chief dodged and weaved, expecting death to claim him at any second, but refusing to make it easy for them.
Finally, the last Bodyguard dropped to the ground in a heap, and the Chief and the three Marines that had survived regrouped.
"ETA: damn quick!" called Johnson."Standby for pickup!"
Upon meeting at the extraction point with Johnson, waiting in a Pelican, a massive flock of Sentinels rose up.
Alarmed, the Chief raised his weapon. "Commander!" he warned.
"Johnson! Look sharp!" warned Keyes.
"I got it!" Johnson reassured them, spinning the Pelican's machine gun.
"No, don't shoot! They mean us no harm!" protested 343 Guilty Spark."Those units have a priority task."
Slightly annoyed, Johnson replied. "Oh, yeah? And what might that be?"
"I really can't say... not for sure," admitted the Monitor as a Sentinel came tentatively up to the Master Chief and inspected him."But if you allow me to find a terminal closer to the Core-"
"No, Oracle," interrupted the Arbiter from his stolen Banshee."We must keep the Prophet of Truth firmly in our sights."
Meanwhile, the Sentinel closed back up and rejoined the flock.
Spark still protested. "But what about your construct? Her solution to the Flood? With more data, I-"
Keyes interjected. "The Arbiter's right. We have priorities too. Until we kill Truth, stop the Rings from firing..." she paused as the Chief entered the Pelican bay. "...nothing else matters."
The flock of Sentinels sped off, with the Pelicans in trail.
That battle between the Chief and Herodotus was partially inspired by the clash shown between a Spartan II and a Brute Chieftain in the opening of Halo 4.
Writing this short section took a long time, as I was a bit fuzzy on the memories of these bits. So just imagine how long the Covenant levels would take. I shudder at the thought.
Nah, of course I don't.
Please review, everyone!
