Thanks to The Sithspawn, Bobboky, Ant Crown, Anime-Ronin, The Insane Immortal Dragon, tdk99992000, WBH21C, APS, sil, and Riye Link Reue for the reviews. I apologize for the long update time. I've been working a fair bit, and I went to Oshkosh for Airventure (btw for anyone interested it was amazing and Shaun Tucker makes all other pilots look like crap) but I think plain old laziness was the main contributing factor here. Anyways again apologies for the wait, and on with the story!
Chapter 12
Master Chief John 117 was tired. He had been fighting for quite literally, almost two days straight. He hadn't slept, hadn't eaten more than one MRE in the past two days, and had just left his friend and one of the best tools at his disposal on a Flood infested Covenant city with the knowledge that he would most likely never see her again. To say he was irked would be a bit of an understatement. Now standing in front of him was a Spartan, one who stood maybe six feet, when the average height was close to or above seven feet. John had been to hell and back with his brothers and sisters in arms and he knew that this was not one of them. Since he knew no ordinary human could wear Mjolnir armour, he came to two possible conclusions. Either this was a Covenant trick to slow him down, or he was beginning to lose his grip on his sanity. Either way, it seemed the best way to solve the problem was with a hot lead injection.
Xander, who had been dumped unceremoniously into unfamiliar surroundings and was still disoriented, did probably the one thing that could have saved his life. He used his thumb and forefinger to make a curved line in front of his visor. Though unrecognizable to most, this was the unofficial Spartan symbol for a smile.
John hesitated, then whistled a short tune.
Xander smiled inside his visor and replied with a short phrase. "Oly oly oxen free."
"All out in the free, we're all free." John added, then lowered his weapon. "Are you a Spartan III?"
"It's more complicated than that." Xander replied. "Let's leave it at I'm a friendly for now."
John hesitated for a second, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "You're here first. Can you give me a sit-rep?"
Xander snapped to a more rigid military posture he remembered from the Chief's training. "As you may have noticed, the Forerunner ship has disengaged from High Charity. It's headed to Earth. It is my belief that on Earth there is some kind of remote activation for the Halos."
"What is this belief based on?" John asked sharply.
"Call it an outside source," Cortana said. "Hello, John."
"Cortana? How?" John asked.
"Let's not get into the details now." Cortana said. "I need access to the ships mainframe. Xander, find a terminal. Chief, I know this is confusing but we need to stop whatever's going on here, I promise we'll answer questions later."
John looked at Xander for a moment, then turned and gestured down the corridor. "Let's move."
Xander and the Chief ran down the corridor, alternately using bulkheads as cover. One would advance while the other provided cover. Though neither soldier had ever actually met each other, they moved with the precision of a well-oiled machine, easily covering each other and matching speeds and actions perfectly. Though they worked very well together, it was a little bit pointless. The vast hall of the ship was empty. Xander guessed that thanks to the Flood infestation of High Charity, a sparse skeleton crew was all that manned the Forerunner ship.
At the end of the large corridor, a door opened into what appeared to be some kind of engineering station. After checking to make sure the room was clear, Xander rushed to the closest terminal and allowed Cortana to upload herself into the computer mainframe. After a second a small avatar appeared in front of Xander and John.
"This is incredible, this ship is so far beyond anything we have, or the Covenant for that matter. We're traveling in Slipspace almost four times faster than our ships are capable of. At this rate we'll reach Earth in under two hours."
"What are they going to do when we get there?" Xander asked.
"I don't know. There's something weird here. This ship has all kinds of systems that aren't complete." Cortana said.
"The ship was never finished?" John asked.
"No that's not what I mean. Whatever this ship is, it's designed to hook up to something much larger. And the power plant for this ship is excessively large, to the point of being bulky. It's almost as though this ship is designed to power another, larger ship." Cortana explained.
"It would explain how the Covenant were able to use it to power their city." Xander mused. "Well, whatever they're doing, it can't be good. How do we stop them?"
Cortana shook her head. "This ship has tight security protocols. It's recognized me as an outsider and is blocking off most key systems. You two will have to fight your way to the bridge and stop them by hand. I'll guide you as best I can. Start of by going through that door on the left. Then follow that hall to the third door on the right. I'll meet you again there."
Xander and John headed out through the door and into the quiet hallway, guns at the ready. Xander was beginning to feel really uneasy. Even with a small crew, they should have seen someone by now. He kept expecting Jackals or Brutes to jump out from behind the doors or bulkheads they passed. If John was in anyway nervous, it did not show in his movements.
The two of them entered the room, which appeared to be some kind of communal cafeteria or rec area. Once again there wasn't a single sign of life, save for the image of Cortana which appeared on a screen along one of the walls.
"Cortana where is everyone?" Xander asked.
"Unfortunately the two of you have been detected." Cortana replied. "The crew has set up several barricades between here and the bridge. They've set them up so that they are completely unavoidable, you'll have to pass a minimum of six to reach the bridge, assuming they don't move when your approach is detected."
"What makes up each barricade?" John asked.
"A minimum of five brutes, at least ten Jackals, and at least two fixed shielding emplacements and one fixed cannon."
Xander winced. "What about other critical areas? Can we hit the engine room?"
Cortana shook her head. "Negative. This ship seems to have all critical areas located right about in the middle. You would have to go through the bridge to get to the engine room."
Xander and the Chief looked at each other. "Only fifteen with cover per barricade?" John asked wryly.
Xander grinned under his helmet. "Piss poor odds for them."
Cortana sighed and shook her head. "I'm not sure which one of you is the more crazy."
Sergeant Johnson could not believe what was happening. At first he thought the Covenant would tear itself apart, but it seemed to only have torn in two. The lines were as clearly drawn as they could be. On one side, you had the Brutes, Jackals and Drones. On the other side, you had the Elites, Grunts, Hunters and most surprisingly, humans. After seeing firsthand what the Halos were going to do, the Elites were astonishingly quick to dispel their beliefs and take up arms alongside the humans they had fought so relentlessly to exterminate.
Currently Sergeant Johnson, along with Commander Keyes and a few marines stood on the bridge of the Covenant ship Everlasting Light along with the Arbiter and several other Elites. The marines looked around nervously, but Johnson was already starting to feel comfortable. He didn't like the Elites by any stretch of the imagination, but he had seen combat with them and nothing builds trust faster than having someone watch your back in a firefight.
The Arbiter turned from the Elite he was conversing with and approached the group of humans. "I have sent the message to all Sangheili controlled ships. They will not fire on human targets and are sending out messages of cease-fire requests."
"Even with the testimony of Sergeant Johnson and myself, I'm not sure how well this will go over." Commander Keyes warned.
"Hopefully the display of Sangheili ships firing on Jiralhanae ships will be testimony enough." The Arbiter replied. "As we speak the fleet is regrouping. The Jiralhanae ships seem to be gathering over an area over one of the continents, Africa I believe you call it."
"Ten to one odds they're running interference for the Forerunner ship." Johnson said.
The Arbiter nodded. "The Ancestors ship is incredibly advanced. It will reach Earth a considerable amount of time before we will. I've told our fleet to do as much as possible to slow it down, but I fear it will not be enough."
"That's okay, the Chief will slow them down." Johnson smiled.
"That's a big assumption, Sergeant." Commander Keyes said. "You're assuming that not only did he survive until now without being infected, but he also somehow managed to make his way onto the Forerunner ship. Then, by himself, he'd have to stop or slow the ship by a few hours."
Johnson harrumphed and looked at the Commander. "Will all due respect Commander, if you think those are long odds, you don't know shit about the Chief."
Xander ducked behind a bulkhead as an explosion rocked the hallway. Looking across the hallway, he saw John taking a similar action on the other side. He looked at Xander and nodded. The two Spartans each threw a grenade in a perfect arc, flying over the shields set up in the hallway and directly into the crowd of Jackals hunkered behind them. The grenades exploded, ripping apart the Jackals and temporarily knocking out the shields, as well as overturning the gun emplacement.
Seizing the moment of confusion, Xander and John emerged from their cover and opened fire with their battle rifles. Xander ripped into the three remaining Jackals before they could recover, while the Chief traded shots with the three huge Brutes. Two went down with bullets in the brain before they were able to bring their weapons to bear. The last one managed to get a badly aimed shot off with his grenade launcher. He missed both Xander and John, but the resulting concussion spoiled John's aim. Instead of hitting the Brute in the forehead, the triple shot of slugs tore into the Brute's shoulder, causing pain but doing little to slow the monster down.
Xander ran at the Brute and ignited his sword. With ease he quickly dissected the last remaining enemy.
From some kind of PA system, Cortana's voice rang out. "Good job boys, another four barricades to go. Unfortunately, you need to move faster. At this rate we'll reach Earth fourteen minutes before you reach the bridge."
"Isn't there anything you can do to slow them down?" Xander asked, already running down the hall indicated on his HUD.
An audible sigh came from the PA. "Believe me, I'm trying to find a way. The only thing I can think of will take time, and it's risky."
"We don't have a lot of options right now." John pointed out. "Whatever you can do, do it."
"Understood." Cortana replied. "The next barricade is through that set of doors. I've created sensor ghosts heading towards a different barricade so you should have the element of surprise."
Xander and John pressed themselves against the wall on either side of the door. They each primed a grenade.
"On my signal," John said. An acknowledgement light winked on his HUD. He opened the door and the two Spartans threw their grenades, then rolled through the door and came up firing.
As she watched while Xander and John tore through another barricade, she cursed. She knew they were doing their best but they simply were not going to get to the bridge quickly enough. They fought an uphill battle against an entrenched enemy at every barricade, and although they always won, it always took time. They still had another barricade to go and the ship was nearly in system. Cortana turned to her last ditch effort to slow the ship down. Although she couldn't access the Slipspace drive, she did have access to the thrusters. Like human ships, this Forerunner ship had emergency thrusters, two chemicals that were hypergolic, meaning that when they were mixed they immediately exploded, creating a huge force that could move the ship substantially. The UNSC ships had made regular use of them to avoid plasma blasts from Covenant ships.
Although regular thrusters would do next to nothing at the relative velocities of Slipspace, the emergency thrusters should have sufficient power to change the direction of the ship. Cortana was also hoping that the explosion would also disrupt the Slipspace field. However, it was possible that the stresses of changing attitude at that velocity could damage or destroy the ship. She checked the clock, noting that they were less than a minute away from Earth Orbit. Hacking into the system, she fired only the rearmost thrusters.
Xander and John were about to reach the sixth and final barricade to the bridge when Cortana said, "Chief, Xander, brace yourselves."
Suddenly the deck lurched sideways and began to tilt. Xander and John pressed up against a wall and waited.
The explosion of the emergency thrusters threw the ship sideways and slightly off axis. As the rear started to swing out, Cortana fired the foremost thrusters on the opposite, accelerated the drift and spinning the ship nearly sideways. The entire ship groaned as the stress of moving such a massive object at such a quick acceleration put a massive shearing load on the ship. After traveling sideways for a second or two, the fragile Slipspace field around the ship collapsed, and the Forerunner ship was dumped unceremoniously back into normal space, just beyond the orbit of Pluto.
"That's all I can do." Cortana reported to the Spartans. "It will take them a few more minutes to figure out what went wrong and repair the small damage done to the Slipspace engine, then they'll jump again. Go. Now."
Xander and John didn't need to be told more than once. They took off towards the last barricade, which was still in disarray thanks to the proverbial e-brake Cortana had pulled. The now overturned Shade turret had crushed two of the Jackals, while another was trapped inside the thing. The Jackals were attempting to help their comrades, while the final five Brutes that stood between the Spartans and the bridge stood tall and ready, awaiting the inevitable arrival of the Spartans.
Said Spartans wasted no time in giving them a welcome. John and Xander threw their last two grenades up and over the hastily erected barricades, waited three seconds then stepped into the enlarged corridor that led to the bridge. Rather than firing, Xander pulled out his sword and charged at full Spartan speed, nearly eighty kilometers an hour, towards the Brutes. Blue explosions of plasma tore apart the Jackals attempting to help their comrades, leaving only the now enraged Brutes to deal with.
Xander called on every bit of rage and hatred he and John felt towards the Covenant. They had killed billions of people, glassed dozens of worlds, destroyed John's family, and royally screwed up Xander's life, and now Xander was going to make them pay. Relying on John to attack any Brutes that attempted to get behind him, Xander slashed away at the nearest Brute, severing it's arm and taking its' plasma rifle with it. It roared in pain and rage, and Xander shoved the sword into its' gut all the way to the hilt, then twisted and yanked it free through the side of its' body. Brute blood and guts splashed across Xander's shields before falling to the floor, along with the Brute to whom they had belonged.
Xander spun away, leading with the sword. He caught another Brute in the throat as it tried to smash him into the floor with its' massive arms. Another Brute charged at him, head down, leading with his shoulder like the universe's largest hockey player. Xander sidestepped with inhuman agility and lashed out as the alien passed, bisecting the huge beast at the waist.
Before Xander could move again he felt a massive par of arms circle around him, locking his arms to his waist in a bear hug. He was lifted off the ground and felt the grip of the alien tightening, using his massive strength to break first through Xander's shields, then crush him inside his suit. Without thinking, Xander whipped his head backwards, smashing the back of his armoured helmet into the alien's face. Xander felt the grip loosed slightly, but not enough, so he rammed his head back again, and again, and again, until he could hear the smack of liquids every time he made contact with the monstrous creature's face. Still the Brute continued crushing him, fueled by rage or belief or the simple desire to kill. Xander was beginning to see spots, but continued to head butt the alien, refusing to give up. Finally the alien could no longer hold on, and Xander slipped free, then spun around and slashed into the Brute's gut with his sword. Looking at the creature for the first time, he could simply not believe how much punishment the Brute took before finally succumbing. It's face was a bloody mess of hair and broken bone, barely distinguishable even in shape.
As the Brute slumped to the floor Xander spun to face John, who was approaching from mopping up the Jackals. He handed Xander a Jackal shield generator. "Cortana, how much time is left?" John asked.
"We've just emerged from Slipspace in high Earth orbit." Cortana replied.
"This is Spartan 117, can anyone read me?" John broadcast.
"Isolate that signal! Master Chief this is Admiral Hood. Mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?"
"Sir. Finishing this fight.." John replied simply.
"Admiral this is Cortana. The Covenant has split into two factions."
"I know, the Elite controlled ships have been broadcasting cease-fire requests." The Admiral replied.
"Do not, I repeat do not fire on Elite controlled ships. Their request is genuine." Cortana urged. They may try to intercept this ship, assist them if possible. I don't know what this thing is going to do, but there's no way it can be good."
Xander and John approached the door to the bridge. "Any idea what's inside?" John asked.
"Detecting four lifesigns, no, make that three. A Prophet, I can only guess Truth, two Brutes, and one human, very recently deceased." Cortana replied.
"I don't understand," Xander said. "A human? For what reason?"
"A human bio sign seems to be required to activate the Halo's, maybe the same is true for whatever this shop does." Cortana replied. "However if that's the case…"
"Then whatever he was needed for is done." John finished. He popped his last clip into his rifle and cocked it. Xander activated his sword and Jackal shield, and John pressed the release for the door. Nothing happened.
"Cortana?" Xander asked.
"Hang on, I'll see what I can do." She replied. There was no sound save for the hum of the ship for ten seconds, then twenty, then thirty.
"Cortana, kinda running on a deadline here? Any time now would be good." Xander said.
There was no response.
Spartan-104, Frederic, emerged from the smoke of the crashed ship behind him and looked out over the edge of the cliff as whatever was buried in the ground began to open like the petals of some unbelievably massive metal flower. Covenant ships ringed the area, engaged by other Covenant ships as the two factions fought each other. Fred could only watch as the massive machine opened and white light began to pour out. It seemed unfair to him that after all his fighting, all him and his brothers and sisters had endured, the fate of the world was now entirely out of his hands. He could only watch.
Cortana had not replied to Xander because she had been locked in battle with the three Covenant AI's that had been hiding in the system. They had done a remarkable job of camouflaging themselves as part of the system and only now, when they realized it was not possible to do anything else, they had attempted to attack Cortana directly.
Covenant AI's were very strange, in many ways they seemed like a fractured, incomplete copy of a human AI, in fact perhaps they were. Even together, the three AI's were not a match for Cortana. However together, they could slow her down, tie her up so she couldn't access the door control. After a full minute of fighting them, she finally managed to catch each one and tear them apart, line by line. Immediately after doing so, she was granted access to the rest of the ships systems. She opened the door, then gasped in horror at what she saw. "So this is how the worlds ends," she murmured.
After a full minute the door opened and John and Xander stepped into the bridge. The two Brutes waiting for them were quickly dispatched, and the two soldiers advanced on the Prophet of Truth, who was hovering in his chair at the front of the room, which was dominated by a massive viewscreen. They were now only a couple thousand feet over the ground, fast approaching a giant metal hole in the ground that shone with a brilliant white light. Around in Elite ships and Brute ships engaged in battle. The Elites were making progress, but too slowly.
Without giving the Prophet time to speak or raise the shields on his chair, John snapped his rifle up and fired a burst, ripping all three shots perfectly into the alien's forehead. "Cortana, what do we do?" He asked. They were now only a few hundred feet above the hole.
'It's a key,' Xander thought. 'This ship is a giant version of the key that starts the Halos.'
"A console, behind the Prophet. There's a key just like the one's used for the Halos." Cortana snapped. "Grab it, now!"
Xander rushed forward and shoved the now dead Prophet out of the way. Hidden behind him was a pedestal with a key just like the Master Chief had retrieved from the library on the Halo construct embedded in it. Xander snatched it out, and the ship slowed to a stop. Below them, the massive petals that covered the lock that this ship opened began to close.
"Congratulations Xander," Cortana said. "You just saved the galaxy."
"I don't understand." John said. "Is Earth a Halo?"
"No, this was the one way to preserve life in this galaxy." Cortana explained. "This ship is the only place in the galaxy shielded from the effects of the Halos. What it also does is generate a field throughout the Earth that protects all single cell life-forms living more than one hundred feet underground."
"That's why this ship is called the Ark." Xander said, suddenly understanding.
"The last of the Forerunner race remained here, shielded from the Halos and the Flood." Cortana explained. "When the Flood had starved, the Forerunners retrieved samples of the last organisms left in the galaxy and, as their last act, re-seeded the galaxy with life."
"Are you saying that Earth is the birthplace of all life in the galaxy?" John asked.
"Pretty much." Cortana replied.
"Master Chief?" Admiral Hood suddenly asked over the radio. "Can you give me your situation?"
"We've stopped the weapon sir, the Forerunner ship is relatively secure." John replied.
"I'm taking us to one of the super MAC platforms, Admiral." Cortana added. "I'd suggest you get fire teams ready and sweep the ship, there is still mopping up to do."
"Understood. We've made contact with the Elite command ship. He's informed us re-enforcements are on the way, including the Elite's de facto leader. Working together we should be able drive off the Brute controlled ships."
"That's good news sir." John replied. "May I suggest we meet with the Arbiter as soon as he arrives. We have… other situations to deal with."
"Relax, Master Chief, It looks like this battle might be coming to an end." The Admiral replied.
"With all due respect sir, there are bigger things at stake than this battle, and they're just getting started." John replied.
End chap 12I seem to be addicted to cliffhangers. Hope you guys liked this chapter, it was one of my longer ones but again I apologize for the long update time. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!