On with the show.

Chapter 10: Things keep getting weird around here…

Okay, I've seen some odd things in my life. Flying skeleton horses, people that can turn into animals at will, books that try to eat you. Magic in general is chaotic and strange. But the sight below me… I'd never seen something quite so weird and beautiful at the same time.

The flood had found its way to the surface, dozens of them poured out of some kind of crater that took up most of an open field. "Looks like the flood brought the building down on top of themselves, not that they care."

"Those machines that guilty spark used, they're fighting back."

I estimated some eighty sentinels had lined up and were criss-crossing beams of plasma across the field, creating a ceiling of death for the flood. Geometric patterns emerged soon enough, the beams bright enough to leave shadows across my vision. First acid trip I'd ever had while sober. I blinked, eyes watering from the sight, even from under my helmet, and turned to John.

"How the hell are we supposed to get through that Big G?"

"We need to circle around, wait for a pause in the fire. My sensors are pinging operational terminals below the surface. Big G?"

I grinned even though he couldn't see it. "Yeah, for Big Green, cause you look like a moose, decorated for Christmas."

I laugh, I can't hold it in, I swear I even heard the pilot chuckling a bit. John just sits there, silent and seemingly dumbfounded.

"Man, it'd be nice if you got the joke every once and a while." The armored super soldier just shook his head at me and turned to face out the other side of the pelican. I think I hurt his feelings.

"Hey, I'm sorry buddy, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings by calling you a moose."

He was silent for a moment before speaking. "You joke doesn't offend me, I've been called far worse than moose. Its your behavior, and you inability to take any given situation seriously that bothers me. How do you do it and maintain focus?"

Well, that's a question I've never been asked before. Everyone back home in my own time just seemed to go with the crazy. What could I say? I did what worked…

"I've been fighting a war since I was eighteen months old. Routinely against opponents with fifty years of experience on me. I've just learned to thrive in chaos, I don't fight it, I ride the wave."

He didn't have a response to that. I looked down in the festering center of the crater, about everything was wriggling. The nasty membrane that made up the majority of the flood beat irregularly, like a millions hearts all hooked together haphazardly. I saw a flicker of blue rising above the mess, jutting out of a rectangular chunk that wasn't completely covered in flood biomass. Something that I realized was a computer terminal.

I pointed down toward the tiny hologram of Cortana. "Hot damn, there she is. Your girlfriend has balls bigger than yours pal." He looked at me for a moment, eyed the sentinels above, and acted. Quick like lightning, he threw two frag grenades downward toward the sentinels, timing in just perfectly to blow a hole in their ranks. At almost the same time, He gave me a quick kick in the side, sending me sprawling out of the pelican with an undignified squawk. Physics kicked in and I fell like a seven hundred pound super soldier, fast and hard. I watched as john jumped out himself and began free falling. He caught up to me, I was able to slow my fall some with magic.

I looked at him, flapping my arms in mid air, my physical rage rendered impotent from the laws of nature. I hailed him over the radio as we shot though the hole he'd made in the sentinels formation. "WHAT THE FUCK was that?!"

"Take your own advice, and ride the chaos of battle." The mother fucker had pranked me. Who knew he had it in him? I'm actually proud.

"Boy they grow up so fast!" I cackled into the headset after that and righted myself in midair, head pointed down toward the ground.

"400 meters, 350 meters, 300 meters, 200 meters, 75 meters..."

I swung myself around in midair and landed in a crouch. The shock wave from the impact destroyed several nearby infection forms. John landed less than ten feet from me, in an equally impressive shower of gore.

My shield, having been nearly depleted from the impact, tinged as it recharged in a flash of blue light. I was a bit jealous of that golden lightning effect John's suit produced. I'd have to see if I could add some much needed theatrics to my own.

I had little time to think about it. Between the reign of plasma from above, and the flood swarming around us, we had to move. John was already a step ahead, guns blazing. He began carving a path through the infection forms, making his way to Cortana. There weren't any combat forms in sight, dead pieces littered the ground, but none that were functioning. I had to wonder at that. The pulsating biomass was constantly being chopped down and regrowing, and it seemed to be moving, converging on the last remaining terminal, trying to get at Cortana.

My arms were engulfed with magic, green blades of energy formed as I charged ahead, hacking my way through the mass of flood. I saw no reason to waste ammunition. With the sentinels buzzing overhead, constantly nicking at my shields as I picked my way across the alien landscape, its not like the ring's A.I. didn't know where I was.

I stayed close behind Jon, covering our six while he plowed ahead like a bulldozer. Between the two of us, the sentinels, and the fragility of the infection forms, it didn't take long to reach her. I formed a bubble of magic around us and the terminal, stopping the flood momentarily. Jon rushed to the terminal, Cortana seemed to be in pain. The flood that had begun to creep up, seep inside to the electronics, was severed when I created my shield. It was withering now, dying separated from the main biomass.

Cortana's hologram stood, some subconscious show on her part… did A.I. have a subconscious?

"John… Harry. Thank you, I don't know how, but it was starting… to get inside me." She looked confused for a moment. "When the flood is separate, its an abomination, when it comes together, it becomes something entirely worse." The hologram grabbed her head again, and I had to wonder at that. Exactly how alive was she?

"Alright you two, kiss and make up later, John, grab her and lets get the hell out of here."

Cortana was gone in a flash of light, and safely tucked away in John's thick skull. He turned to me and gestured to the flood encasing my bubble. "Where exactly are we going? And how are we getting out?"

I'm flattered, he expects me to know what to do, luckily I've got it covered. "You've seen me teleport right? Well I'm currently tracking Keyes, and since we're above ground now..."

"You can just jump us back to him."

I nodded and grinned sticking out a hand. "Grab hold cowboy, we got some aliens to kill." He reached out with one gauntleted hand and grabbed hold of my hand.

I'm going to stop apparating, this little venture into the future has ruined it for me. I zapped us back to Keyes location, only to be nearly engulfed in plasma fire instantly. "The fuck is going on?!" I ducked under the roar of purple death, dived sideways to avoid a plasma grenade, and then was forced to apparate to avoid a barrage of explosive pink needles. Somehow, I'd managed to apparate right next to Keyes, but on the other side of a hastily constructed wall used as cover. John of course ended up on the right side of the wall. I narrowed my eyes, the world slowed slightly as my mind and body flooded with endorphins.

I slung magic lightning with my left hand, and fired bullets with my right. The covenant forces had been surprised by my appearance and I used that to my advantage. Grunts dropped like flies, and I killed a handful of jackels and fried an elite before I managed to get back into cover.

I slammed my back against the wall as I rounded the corner, narrowly avoiding more plasma fire. I turned to look at Keyes, noticing he had a split eyebrow now. "I can't leave you alone for five damned minutes, always getting captured, nearly eaten by alien fungus, enemies attacking your base. I'm gonna have to start charging you if I've got to bail you out anymore."

The captain of the Pillar of Autumn scowled at me, his smoking pipe clenched between his teeth. "Good to see you've maintained your sense of humor while you were gone."

I shrugged, popping my head up over the barrier to fire off a few rounds. "Just my sunny disposition." The covenant was panicking, whatever had caused them to attack now, they were disorganized, grunts running and screaming while the few elites tried to keep them in line. They didn't have much over to speak of, just a few portable pop up shields. "How did they get in?"

"There was a cavern we missed, it had collapsed at some point in the past, but it wasn't anything a plasma grenade couldn't fix. Not sure how they found our location."

"Oh that's easy, I'm sure that flying lightbulb had something to do with it. Keep both sides busy while he gets Silva to pull the trigger."

I maxed my shield, pooling my own internal magic into the suit and stood up fully from behind the barrier. Plasma pinged against my shields but they held strong. Ruthlessly, I formed spikes of rock from the earth and sent them upward, skewering the covenant where they stood. I felt the drain the little trick caused me. Going days without food, constantly having my mental shields battered by the strange intelligence of the ring, and pouring out massive amounts of energy were taking their toll. I swayed on my feet, willing my vision to clear. I placed one hand on the barrier to steady myself. I looked up and smiled, I'd 'missed' one.

Instead of being impaled, a single gold armored elite sat struggling, attempting to break the rock I'd cocooned him in. I walked out from behind the wall, feeling the last bits of life leave the aliens around me. Marines and other personnel began coming out from the small makeshift buildings and rock outcrops they'd taken cover in. I noticed a few injuries, but no one seemed to have died in this particular assault. Lucky us. I marched straight up to the elite and looked him dead in the eye.

"I know you can understand me, now tell me, how did you find this place? Who sent you here, and why?"

It snarled and spit at me. I reached out with an armored hand and slammed it hard across its… mandables?

"Answer my questions, this is your last chance, I've got no desire to be barbequed on this ring, and I doubt you really do either. So tell me what I want to know."

It laughed at me then, how that fucking mouth could make a laugh was beyond me, then again, I wasn't exactly sure how they managed to speak English either.

"You will learn nothing from me demon, the Great Journey is finally upon us, and soon you and your kind will reap what you've sown."

I sighed in frustration and released the lock on my helmet. The sound of escaping gas hissed outward as I lifted it over my head. The elite gave me a look of surprise, and respect. "You fight well to be so young."

"I've been killing monsters since before your grandfather was alive. Now, answer my questions or I'll pull the answers out of your head. It may or may not hurt, a lot."

It laughed. "What human nonsense is this, you have no technology that can-"

I cut him off, once our eyes locked, I had everything I needed to dive right in and take a peak. An elite's mind was a strange place, it seemed… bigger than a human mind, but at the same time, not nearly as intricate. Elites seemed to lack much in the imagination department. This was bad for them, imagination was the bases for occulmency. If you couldn't imagine the defenses in your mind, you couldn't build them. That being said, his thoughts, for it was male, were organized, almost mathematically, and I realized that elites might have near perfect memory.

I watched the conversation between 343 and the elite leaders. How it tricked them, feeding into their cult surrounding the forerunners. It wanted to activate the ring, thus beginning the great journey. The covenant was all for this, and were more than willing to step up and kill any humans left, after that it was only a matter of 343 giving them our location. I looked deeper, apparently this conversation had happened hours ago, a feeling of dread tickled my spine.

"We're too late. They've already activated the ring. Now its just building power." I let the elite's mind go. It looked around, confused and in pain.

"What, what did you do demon?" I stared at him, anger and pity warring in my mind. This creature, this alien, wasn't evil, just a victim of a lifetime of conditioning. He thought he was doing the right thing. I growled, locking eyes with him again, before feeding him my own memories. The process only took moments, but I saw that it had a distinct effect. The knowledge that humans were the only species to harness the mystical abilities of the Precursors went a long way to debunking the thought that humans were 'abominations.' After seeing John and mine's conversation with 343, I felt defeat well up inside him.

I let his mind go, a bit of blood dribbled from one of his eyes, perhaps I was a little harsher than I intended. He'd stopped struggling now, and had went limp in his rocky prison. He looked at me again, careful to avoid eye contact. "How?"

I shrugged. "No clue, all I know is that your prophets are lying to you, and have been. For centuries. Want a chance to make this right? Thel'Vadamee?" He jerked in surprise as I said his name. Never realizing I picked it up while I was rooting around in his head.

"What do you want me to do demon?" I realized how quiet it was, I glanced around, looking at the collection of marines stood in shocked silence, none of them had ever seen an elite give information away before, the few that had been captured in the past had only fought tooth and nail until they had to be put down.

I let go of my hold on the rocks, letting him fall to his knees. Everyone tensed, ready to fire at the alien at a moment's notice. "You see these people around you? Small, weak, squishy compared to your own race of warriors. Do you know what's really scary about humans? Other than our penchant for violence and killing things we don't understand? We never stop. Your kind lost this war the second you fired on us the first time. You might be bigger, might be stronger, but your people will never match the true ferocity that is the human mind. Keep killing us and eventually we'll destroy you all, we'll make better war machines, we'll make an army of millions of guys like me and the moose over there," I threw a thumb over my shoulder at John, "if that's what it takes, consequences be damned. We will destroy you, even if it kills every single one of us to do it, and we'll smile the entire time."

The elite Thel'Vamadee heard my words, his shoulders slumped slightly, but he lifted his head. "I do not wish to see the end of my people… and I no longer wish to see the end of yours."

I nodded, and watched as the marines relaxed infinitesimally. "Good, I don't want that either. Here's what you're going to do. Return to your ship, inform your people, the one's still alive, that things have changed, that your great journey is a lie, leading to nothing but death and damnation. And that the only way to make it out of this, is to work together, then I want you to come get these people, and take them off this damned ring." I cast a tracking charm on Thel for good measure.

"We do not have much time. We don't have time to argue, this has got to happen, and happen now. Othewise we're all dead."

"Convincing them will not be easy. We have lived our entire lives this way, and things have only taken a turn for the worse after we discovered the humans. How will they know I speak the truth?"

"Your people are honorable, at least they were once upon a time, its almost hardwired into their brains. You'll be sent back, armed and with human companions to help smooth things over." I turned to the crowd. "Need two volunteers, anybody ready?" Keyes stepped up.

"Now what a minute 13-7, this is my crew, and this plan of yours, no offense, sounds just as insane as everything else that's come out of your mouth since I met you."

I nodded. "Yep, I know, but guess what, I've been right since you've met me too. Don't forget that. If Thel here informs them that a Margus is alive and kicking, and human to boot, that will go a long way to convincing them. Many of them have seen it with their own eyes, just haven't put two and two together yet."

"Margus?" Keyes frowned.

"Yes, from what little I picked up from Thel's mind, it's sangheili for, breaker of reality. Their term for a wizard."

"Elites have magic users?" Keyes seemed extra alarmed, which was saying something, given that magic was myth and old family stories up until just hours ago.

"No, but the precursors were, and to an elite, the precursors are the Gods of the Gods."

Keyes sighed. "Okay, We need two volunteers, any takers?" A grin broke out on my face as two people in particular came forward.

"Johnson, Martinez, damn you two are hard to kill." I shook their hands as they came toward us. Johnson seemed to have acquired a spare sniper rifle, it was slung over his shoulder while he had an assault rifle clenched in his hands. Martinez wasn't quite as heavily armed, but he had an impressive grenade belt around his waist.

"Likewise Mage." I rolled my eyes at the nickname but grinned as I slid my helmet back into place.

"Alright you two, hold still." I felt my magic drain just a bit more as I encased them both in a shield of shimmering magic. "Just in case things go south. That and it will add of credence to Thel's story." I led them to the sangheili in question and made introductions.

"Thel, this is Johnson and Martinez, two of the least squishy humans I know. Guys, this is Thel, the elite with a heart of gold." The three eyed each other before Martinez stuck out a hand, god I loved this guy.

The elite, vaguely familiar with the human gesture, reached out hesitantly, and shook it. "Look at that, everybody is best friends now. Awesome."

John shook his head at me. "Brilliance or madness, which do you have?"

I grinned behind my helmet. "Goes back and forth, Keyes, if you'd be so kind to let these three borrow a pelican, I believe Johnson can fly one. Hopefully we can get everyone evacuated." He hesitated again before nodding. I clasped my hands together, rubbing them. "Excellent." I turned back to the three. "Now move your asses, this thing we're standing on is powering up to nuke most of the galaxy, we don't have a lot of time."

3.

I racked my brain, trying to think of some way to stop this thing from blowing. Could we bomb it from orbit? Does a covenant ship have weapons strong enough to effectively damage the ring? I asked the only person I could think of that would know.

"Cortana, could we bomb the ring from orbit? Damage it to the point that it couldn't fire?"

The AI took mere moments to reply. "No, while the plasma canons onboard a covenant warship are powerful, they're primarily for space combat. Glassing a planet barely penetrates the crust and would do little to the ring's weapon capabilities. If we blew up the ship, the result explosion would probably be large enough to crack the ring into several pieces."

"Well shit we can't do that, I don't know-"

"The Pillar of Autumn."

I turned to John, that would work.

"Would that do it?"

Cortana responded instantly. "Yes, the nuclear reactors on the Pillar of Autumn would do the trick. We'll have to get to the deck, I can set them to meltdown, and time it, giving us a chance to get away."

I clapped my hands together. "Okay, we have a plan. Now we just have to get there. Got any idea how long we have."

"I have no point of reference, energy readings from the ring are a bit higher than they have been, but they're rising slowly, I'd say a few hours as least."

"We'll have to hurry, can you teleport us there?" John was reloading his weapons, and had fashioned himself a holster for his axe out of a sniper rifle strap. Extra clips snapped around his waist and onto his sides, held in place magnetically.

I shook my head. "No, I haven't been to the Pillar of Autumn since before the crash, I don't know where it is, can't apparate there."

John merely nodded. Keyes, who'd been shouting orders moments ago stepped toward them again. "I can offer you a warthog, to get there and back. I'll make the dinosaurs wait as long as possible."

John muttered a quiet thank you toward Keyes before heading to where to warthogs were kept. The Captain eyed me for a moment before smiling. "Take care of yourself out there Harry."

I snapped off a crisp salute, "Caution is my middle name, I'll see you soon." I dropped the pose and trotted off toward John, wondering if I'd ever get to eat a thick chunk of treacle tart again.

To be continued…

Well now, where to begin. First of all I'd like to say I'm sorry for how long its been everyone. Life has been a bit rough on me. On June 23rd my family and I lost everything we owned, I don't know if any of you keep up with the news, but there was this thing called the thousand year flood that happened… yeah. I carried my daughter out of our house on my shoulders, and my son in my arms, as five feet of water came rushing into our house. Then I got to go back to get two dogs, one cat, four kittens, and two ferrets. We lost our house, our vehicles, I lost my job, the business was flooded as well. Suffice to say, I've had a bit of a hectic life here these last six months or so and haven't had much time, or desire to write. That being said, I've managed to muscle out another chapter, and I'm hoping this will help get my creative juices flowing, sorry if its not the best, but its all I've got right now.

Hope to be writing more and seeing you all soon,

Harkon