Author's note: More replies
Darth Red: No don't worry Darman's not dead, you find out what happens to him in this chapter.
Warrior of Virtue: You'll find out in this chapter what happens.
Bet you weren't expecting that one, huh? Yeah I told you updates would be faster, and this is the first chapter in a long time I haven't had to apologize for a long update XD. Well, enjoy the chapter.
Revelations
The Chief slowly opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness. The last thing he remembered was a bright flash of light and then falling. Was he dead? But when his eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized that if he was dead, he was surely in hell.
"What…is that?" asked Cortana from inside his helmet speakers. So he wasn't dead, not yet anyway. He stared at the huge form in front of him, its tentacles wrapped around the Chief's body and holding him in the air. He tried to break free but it was a useless gesture.
"I? I am a monument to all your sins," it replied, its voice deep and raspy, almost like a demon itself. Suddenly to his right he saw an elite be brought in, its hands and legs wrapped by what looked like a Flood form, maybe even its leader if it was even possible. The elite struggled to release itself before the Chief interrupted him,
"Relax, I'd rather not piss this thing off."
"Demon!" he said in surprise, finally noticing the Chief hanging next to him. Suddenly the Flood leader brought in another figure the Chief wasn't expecting to see.
"Darman?"
Darman saw him and yelled, "Chief! You're alive!" Then he saw the Flood leader and said, "Oh man."
Suddenly the Flood started speaking again, "This one is machine and nerve," and he wrapped a tentacle around the Chief's head, "And has its mind concluded." The Chief pulled the tentacle from his face in time too see the Flood address Darman.
"This one is but a copy, and its mind tempered with."
"What? How does he know I'm a clone?" asked Darman in disbelief. The Chief had no clue, had no clue how the Flood knew any of them. It must have been watching us, thought the Chief.
"This one is but flesh and faith," the leader said, now addressing the elite, "and is the more deluded."
"Kill me or release me parasite," the elite said boldly, "But do not waste my time with talk."
"There is much talk," replied the Flood, "and I have listened, through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen."
Suddenly the Flood brought up two different figures. One made the Chief's adrenaline spike as he saw a Monitor that looked a lot like 343 Guilty Spark from the first Halo, who had tried to kill him. The other he saw was the Prophet of Regret, which confused him since he had already killed him.
"Greetings!" said the Monitor cheerfully, "I am 2401 Penitent Tangent. I am the monitor of installation 05."
"And I am the Prophet of Regret," he said, "Councilor most high, Hierarch of the Covenant!"
Tangent then spotted the Chief. "A reclaimer? Here?" the Chief remembered the name Guilty Spark had given him on the first Halo, which made him immediately not trust the little robot, "At last. We have much to do. This facility must be activated if we are to control this outbreak."
"Stay where you are!" ordered Regret, "Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete!"
"Not true," said Tangent, "This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand."
Regret then turned to the elite, his voice harsh, "Of all the objects our lords left behind, there are none so worthless as these oracles! They know nothing of the Great Journey!"
"And you know nothing about containment," Tangent replied with an annoyed tone, "You have demonstrated complete disregard for even the most basic protocols."
"This one's containment," the Flood cut in, holding up Tangent, and then held up Regret and said, "and this one's Great Journey are the same."
Regret and the Monitor were then lowered where you could hear Regret screaming and the Chief didn't want to imagine what he just did to him.
Then the Flood leader looked directly at the elite, "Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought; do not mistake their intent or all will perish as they did before."
"This thing is right," said the Chief, deciding to cut in, "Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making a big mistake."
The elite turned to glare at him, "Your ignorance already destroyed one of the sacred rings, demon. It shall not harm another."
"If you will not hear the truth," said the Flood leader, giving in, "then I will show it to you." He lifted his head and spoke, "There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found." Then the Flood addressed the Chief and Darman, "You two will search one likely spot," then he turned to the elite, "and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us brothers." Suddenly, the Chief felt the familiar sensation of about to be transported and sure enough a moment later, all three of them were transported away from the Flood leader.
It had been an hour since the Attero had stopped and they had received the message from Miranda. They tried sending a message back, but it was no use since the other end wasn't receiving. They also hadn't found out what had been on the radar. It was still there, but yet it wasn't showing itself.
Now everyone in the room proceeded to keep themselves occupied, the commandos, Spartans, and Adams practicing moves in one corner while Etain, Obi-wan, and Gett sat aside, discussing something.
"Show me that again," said Boss, who was in the "rink" with Kelly. They had set up a square to be the boundary for the fights, and at the moment Boss and Kelly were going at it. Kelly showed him the move again, dropping down to kick him in the legs, as she did Boss tried to jump to avoid it but she quickly jumped up and whipped her leg around, catching Boss in the side of the head.
"I couldn't to that if I tried," said Fixer, watching them.
"As you can tell she's the fastest of the group, whenever she faces us she slows down just to give us a chance," said Fred.
"Let me do it," said Sev, getting up.
"Don't be stupid, Sev," said Adams, "You're half her speed." Boss smiled, Adams was right of course, Kelly would bring him down in a second. And also, he smiled about how much he fit into the group now. When they had first been in the Pelican, it had been kind of awkward and now he could make fun of a commando without getting a black eye in return. He was a lucky Marine.
"I can take her," said Sev, being headstrong as usual. Boss backed up to watch.
"This ought to be good," said Will.
"Don't go easy on me," said Sev, falling into the fighting stance.
"You sure?" asked Kelly, who copied his stance. They circled each other for a little bit then Kelly struck as fast as lightning, hitting him in the side of the head. Sev had no time to react and stumbled a little bit to the side.
"Good block there, Sev," said Scorch, laughing. Sev ignored him and went for a punch to the stomach. She sidestepped quickly, turned around and grabbed his neck from behind.
"That's not a good move to be in, Sev," pointed out Boss mildly, knowing well enough that would just get Sev's temper going. Sev grabbed her hand and pushed up on her elbow, making her let go where he spun around and tried to get a punch to the side of the head but she just ducked and got him in the stomach. Boss could tell from years of being around Sev that his temper was starting to get the best of him as he swung wildly at Kelly.
"Control you temper, Sev," said Boss.
Sev backed up a bit and took a deep breath, "Sorry." Kelly came after him and kicked him in chest. He grabbed her foot but she retaliated by doing a roundhouse kick to his head, forcing him to drop her foot. Shaking stars out of his head she rushed at him and kicked his legs, causing him to fall over and she put her foot on his neck, finishing the fight.
Sev held up his hands, "Alright, I admit it, you're fast and you beat me." Kelly removed her foot and helped him up.
"And don't forget it," she added, a trace of humor in her voice. Sev walked over and sat down beside Scorch, who patted his shoulder and said, "Nice try, Sev." The relaxing event was cut short when Captain Denello's voice came in over the speaker,
"Fred, Boss, Obi-wan, report to the bridge immediately."
Fred rushed over to the speaker and pressed the button, saying, "We're on our way, sir." The tension in the room rose as Boss and Obi-wan walked over to Fred and they all walked out of the room.
"Sir!" said Fred, and he and Boss saluted while Obi-wan bowed his head respectfully. Captain Denello turned around and saluted back, "At ease. As you could have probably guessed I called you three forward because we have figured out what it was we picked up on the radar."
"What is it, sir?" asked Fred and Boss saw Denello's face crease in worry for a brief moment before answering.
"It's a Covenant fleet," he replied, "We figured out that we came by their rendezvous point before they made the jump to Earth." His words were dragged out, as if he didn't want to admit what was happening.
"How big is it?" asked Obi-wan.
"Bigger then the fleet that attacked Reach," replied Denello regretfully.
"What?" said Fred in disbelief, "We don't possibly have the fire power to hold them off."
"I know," he replied, rubbing his forehead, "That is why we're making the jump to Earth immediately. We have already sent a transmission to Cairo Station, but we're not sure if they received it or not."
"Sir, coordinates are entered and the ship is ready to jump," a Lieutenant announced.
"Commence the jump," ordered Denello without hesitating. Boss felt the floor vibrate and the familiar lurch of the ship entering Slipspace. "Let's just hope to God that we get there before the Covenant." They stood there for a moment in awkward silence until he finally said, "You're dismissed." They saluted, besides Obi-wan, and walked out of the room, a new sense of dread forming in their minds.
"Do you think they noticed us?" asked Fred, "If we can see them on our sensors wouldn't they be able to see us?"
"Let's hope not," replied Boss, "We've got enough to worry about without a whole Covenant fleet breathing down our necks."
"We may be thrown into that situation," said Obi-wan, "Most likely we'll all be sent to Earth to hold back the assault."
"Not unless they glass the planet," muttered Fred, and Boss remembered the Chief mentioning that when they first met and he was telling them his story.
"Glass the planet?" asked Obi-wan.
"The Covenant have these weapons that can completely take out a planet. Not destroy it, but all the water is evaporated, plains burned, it literally looks like a planet of fire and everything melts to make what looks like a sheet of glass over the planet. Hence the term 'glass the planet'."
"How many planets have had this happened?" he asked.
"All except Earth," replied Fred, "It's our only remaining planet."
"Out of how many?"
"Imagine our galaxy having that happen," said Boss, "Every planet glassed except for Coruscant."
Obi-wan remained silent for a moment, the situation that was at hand hitting him at full force, and then replied, "I couldn't begin to imagine." They walked the rest of the way back to the room in silence. When they entered the room there had obviously been a conversation for when they saw them return they immediately went silent.
"What is it?" asked Fixer. As the three of them walked over Boss and Fred each removed their helmets to address their squads, revealing the horrible scar on the side of Boss's face once more.
"We've got some bad news," began Boss, "We figured out what the radar picked up."
"And?" asked Will.
"It's a Covenant fleet that is gathering up before making their next jump."
"Do you know where they're going?" asked Etain.
"Yes," replied Obi-wan, "to Earth."
"How big is the fleet?" asked Kelly.
"Bigger than the one that attacked Reach," said Fred, his voice cold. They all sat in silence, realizing how desperate the situation had become.
"We'll need help," said Linda, "We should call back the others."
"It's no use, remember?" said Fixer, "We can't reach them."
"The best we can do is call all forces to Earth and hold out from there," said Obi-wan.
"Nothing else we really can do," said Boss.
"You know Boss," said Scorch, speaking up, "You never told us where you got that scar from."
"Must have slipped my mind," he replied, and it really had. Being on Halo and fighting the Covenant he hadn't given it a second thought. But Scorch never let things go.
"So, what happened?" Scorch prompted. He thought about not telling them, and then figured there was no point keeping it a secret.
"Alright, I'll tell you," he said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "It's from Sidious's force lightning." There was a tense moment of silence before Obi-wan spoke.
"Darth Sidious was here?" he asked in disbelief.
"He was," replied Boss, "But I think he's gone for now."
"It worries me that he was here at all," said Obi-wan, "What did he ask you?"
"Nothing," said Boss, recalling the meeting between him and Sidious. In fact, Sidious hadn't asked him anything, not a single thing, just tortured him, "He didn't ask me anything."
"Odd," said Obi-wan, "It must have been an attempt at fear. If you hadn't escaped when you did I'm sure something more terrible would've happened." Boss thought about it and realized he was right, if they hadn't escaped Sidious may have carried out his threat of hurting his squad starting with Fixer.
"Well, whatever happens," said Fred, "Lets hope he doesn't come back."
The Chief landed on his feet with Darman landing beside him and figured out right away they were behind enemy lines.
There were Covenant everywhere, including two of the Prophets at the end of the room. They had obviously been transported into some sort of high council room. The Chief looked around and saw lone grunt staring at him, the fear apparent in its eyes.
"Boo," he said, and the grunt gave a scream and ran away. Darman gave a chuckle and the Chief saw the grunt drop a needler, which he quickly picked up and aimed at the Prophets, but then the Prophet of Truth yelled to the Covenant in the room,
"Kill the Demon!" He and Mercy then disappeared into a chamber in the floor and two brute guards came up to the Chief.
"Brutes!" said Cortana. The Chief brought up his needler and fired at one of the brutes, who was carrying what looked like a plasma rifle but red. The needles stuck in its side and exploded but it didn't do much as it returned fire and the Chief was forced to dodge it. He then let out a torrent of needles at the brute, which let off a huge explosion, killing the brute.
"They don't have shield generators, but take them out before," she paused as the brute dropped his gun and charged, "its beserking!"
"Fierfek!" yelled Darman as he rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming brute. The Chief leaped forward and hit the brute in the back of the head with the needler, but was surprised when it whirled around and struck him across the face with a strength he'd never felt before. As he struggled to gain his balance he saw Darman out of the corner of his eye pick up the plasma rifle and fire at the brute. The Chief quickly combined with it the needler and in a moment the brute lay on the ground, dead.
"I forgot how strong those things are," said the Chief.
"You've fought them before?" asked Darman.
"Yes, on a mission to take out a Covenant fleet that had been on its way to Earth. The brutes killed one of my Spartans."
"I'm sorry," said Darman, staring at the brute. Just then a voice, which sounded like a brutes, came over the loudspeaker.
"The demon has infiltrated the council chamber! Protect the Hierarchs! Seal the exits!"
"Oh I don't think so," replied Cortana, which the Chief knew that she'd be able to open the doors.
But he was surprised when Darman said, "Tartarus!"
"You know him?" asked the Chief.
"Yeah, he's the reason why I ended up with you guys," he replied, "I hope he didn't hurt the others."
"Who was with you?" asked the Chief as he started making his way toward the door.
"Atin, Fi, Johnson, and Commander Keyes," he said following the Chief, and then added, "And Kal and Ordo, but you don't know them."
"What about Delta Squad and Kelly?" he asked as he reached the door.
"The Spartans, Delta, and two of the Jedi went back to Cairo Station and Earth since Lord Hood needed reinforcements," Darman replied, coming up beside him.
"Wait, did you just say Spartans?" asked the Chief, looking at him.
"Oh yeah, you don't know, we found Fred, Will, and Linda all on Delta Halo with some people from our time. It was right after the structure was blown up."
The Chief couldn't believe it, his Spartans were still alive. He had no clue how but he would just have to ask them when he got the chance. He decided to ask him about the others.
"So you said Jedi, right? The people who can use the Force?"
"Yeah," he replied, "They were with the Spartans. There were three but one of them, Bardan Jusik, was wounded so he and Niner are still on In Amber Cl-" He then cut himself off.
"What? What is it?" asked the Chief.
"Niner and Jusik are stuck on In Amber Clad!" he said in horror, "They have no way to get off!"
As Niner woke up he felt better than he had since he arrived here, the wounds were obviously healing. He sat up and stretched, hoping for the umpteenth time that he was out with his squad in the Library. It was boring when you had nothing to do except lay in bed.
"Bored?" asked Jusik from the other bed, sitting pretzel style and leaning back on his hands. He had his shirt off and was bandaged across the stomach where he had been shot during Order 66.
"Yeah," he replied, "I've never been more bored in my life."
"It could be worse," he replied, and then grinned, "You could be dead."
"Don't remind me," he said, lying back down on the bed with his arm on his forehead, "I wonder what they're doing right now."
"Who, Omega?" when Niner nodded he said, "Probably out killing some Covenant."
"Wish I could be with em," he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up, "I feel fit enough to fight now."
"Maybe you should talk to the nurse and find out," said Jusik.
"Alright, I will, be back in a bit," he said and walked out of the room. He still didn't have this ship mapped out but he decided to go to the bridge and ask them where he could find the nurse, they'd probably help him. He followed the signs that said "To the Bridge" which was easy enough. But on the way he felt confused when the ship started moving. It shouldn't be unless the Commander was back, but he doubted it. He moved even quicker, almost running to the bridge. When he got there he opened the door where he stared wide eyed at the creatures that were in there
They were mutated beings that looked almost human, and the horrible thing was that none of the bridge crew were here. He tried to leave quietly but one of the three turned and saw him, letting out a bone-chilling screech.
"Fierfek!" he said and turned and ran, trying to reach him and Jusik's quarters. The creatures leaped in pursuit, they were fast, but not fast enough to catch him as he swerved through the hallways, causing them to run into walls. When he saw the door he dove in and instantly tried to slam it shut.
"What are you doing!" asked Jusik in alarm, but as Niner tried to shut the door one of the arms reached through the door, which was mutated with elongated fingers like whips. Jusik reacted immediately, activating his lightsaber and cutting the arm off so Niner could shut the door and lock it.
"What were those?" asked Jusik in alarm.
"I don't know," replied Niner, backing away from the door, "But I got to the bridge and they were all there, and I think they killed the crew."
"Are we all that's left?" he asked.
"There's gotta be someone," said Niner, hoping they weren't the only two left. Just then there was a loud banging on the door and it rattled violently. Whatever was on the other side was going to get through the door and soon.
"Jusik, I need a weapon," he said.
"Here," Jusik replied, walking to the counter they had in their room and opening a drawer. In it was a gun, "It's the battle rifle I picked up earlier, use it." He tossed it to Niner, who caught it and thumbed off the safety. He brought it up and aimed it at the door, ready for when the creatures broke through. Jusik already had his lightsaber activated and was holding in his fighter position, the lightsaber sticking up in a vertical position. There were a few more bangs on the door then it went quiet, as if they gave up, but Niner knew better and sure enough a moment later a thunderous bang echoed around the room and the door flew inward, clipping Niner in the side of the head a leaving a cut up his cheek. He shook it off and together he and Jusik rushed forward to fight the creatures that had just leaped through the door.
Author's note: Well, I finished this on my birthday so that's kinda funny. But other than that no announcements except thanks to B0baFett for the chapter title since I'm running out of ideas ;-).