John quickly ran through the halls towards the Acrisius, with Echelon floating behind him. He ran through the stormy weather and put his armour on in record time. He took a DMR and the spear and rushed back outside into the raging storm where he was met with Echelon and a small squadron of Sentinels.
"Can you sync up with my armour?" John asked.
"Let me see... There!" John Then began hearing Echelon through his helmet coms.
"I need you to do something... Take control of my prowler and move it into the facility. There should be enough space in the hallways to accommodate it."
"Okay...give me a moment." Echelon floated towards the prowler and after a few seconds, it turned on. It then took off and slowly hovered through the massive doors and into the facility itself. The monitor then floated back to John.
"Done... These Sentinels will assist you." Echelon said turning towards the small squadron of Sentinels. But John had something else in his mind.
"No. I have a better plan. I want all the Sentinels to station themselves behind every entrance of the Control Room. I'll deal with the Corrupted. Just make sure that nothing gets in; But if anything does get in, destroy the prowler." Echelon didn't reply for a few seconds.
"Are you sure you can do this?"
"100 per cent. I've been in worst situations. Trust me." John stated with a smirk, although no one could see it.
"Alright..." She replied, still sounding a little unsure.
"Good, because there a few other things you have to do. I want you to feed me data about everything that you are able to see from the control room directly to my CNI and into my optics. That includes their numbers, their positioning, et cetera. Also, are there any forerunner weapons here?" He asked.
"Yes, there is an entire armoury present here. Suppressors, Binary Rifles and other weapons."
"Great. I want you to send me ammo or weapons via a sentinel. Now, they'll be here any moment. Get inside, and close all the entrances."
"Good luck Reclaimer." Echelon entered the facility and all the doors and windows(?) were being blocked. First by a physical door, and then by a hard light barrier. He then felt a slight burning sensation behind his head, where the CNI was implanted. After which Echelon spoke.
"Reclaimer, I won't be able to feed you the information you asked for unless they come within range. I think this is due to the technological limitation of the CNI. I will, however, be able to tell you the direction from which they'll come from." An arrow then appeared on his HUD, which he followed accordingly.
"I will mark the Corrupted sentinels as red dots... they will appear once they are in range. Any friendly sentinel will appear as blue dots." She said as she cut the transmission.
John was soon left alone. The storm was raging and didn't seem like it would dissipate anytime soon. The sky was frequently lighting up due to the lightning, which was followed by thunder. John held the DMR tighter with every lighting strike, not because of getting startled by the lightning, but because of the anticipation of the battle ahead. It seemed as though nature itself was testing him. His heart rate was starting to increase. Then, a single red dot appeared, followed by ten, then twenty, then fifty, then one hundred. The number on his HUD kept climbing up until it stopped at four hundred and thirty.
The second he was able to make visual contact, he opened fire, destroying the first sentinel within four seconds. John knew he got their attention. The sentinel's original target was the control room, but now they were focusing on him. The fight had begun. John immediately began sprinting towards the sentinel's so as to dodge their plasma beams. When he got closer, he was able to see that the sentinel's usual blue color light had been replaced by a sickly green. It also looked like the sentinel's had some type of organic matter oozing out of them.
'Huh... so this is what flood corruption looks like.'
John thought while barely dodging a plasma beam.
'Now is not the time for deep analysis.'
He kept on shooting and destroying the Corrupted. The number on his HUD was decreasing. As he fought the sentinel, he noticed another thing. These sentinels, unlike the ones he fought before, were smart... very smart. Not only were they forming strategies; they were also learning his combat style and were exploiting the gaps in it. These sentinels were working in perfect synchrony to take him down.
'All of them seem to have the same brai-oh...'
John was lining up for a shot when
click, click, click.
He quickly reached down for another magazine but realised that he was all out.
He quickly activated his shield and ran towards a boulder to take cover.
"Echelon, I need a weapon." He said through the coms.
"Right! It's on the way!."
The Corrupted were closing in on him... he could sense them coming his way... John then realized that he had been using his 'sixth sense', i.e being able to detect disturbances of light, subconsciously during the fight.
'How did I not notice this... Now is definitely not the time' He told himself as right now, he needed to move. John detached the spear and activated its twin plasma prongs. The moment one of the sentinels floated over the boulder, John used the trident to pierce straight through it, destroying it immediately. He then jumped on top of the boulder and holding the end of the trident, swiped left to right, taking down three sentinels.
'Hah... damn.'
A blue arrow then appeared on his HUD prompting him to turn around. He knew what it was. John, with all the strength he could muster, threw the spear towards a large cluster of corrupted sentinels. He didn't bother to check how many it took out, but instead leapt from the boulder and ran towards the friendly sentinel. The friendly sentinel dropped a Suppressor and lots of ammo. He picked them up and resumed the battle, which became a vicious cycle of dodging, shooting and reloading. Under normal circumstances, the more he would kill, the easier the battle would become... This was not normal. The more he killed, the smarter they would become which in turn made it more difficult for him. Things were getting out of hand and John knew it. The Corrupted were making things tighter, giving him less breathing room as they were now predicting his every move. Slowly but surely, they were closing in on him until finally, John got hit by a plasma beam.
"Need... to be more random... more unpredictable." He growled.
There was one way to do that... Using pure brute force instead of perfected moves. It will take a toll on his body and stamina, but if he wanted to live, he would have to do it. So he did. With a battle cry, John charged straight towards the horde of sentinels, attacking anything that moves on random, with extremely sporadic movements. This continued on for three hours until finally, the counter on his HUD became zero. He had won.
"You... WON! This is amazing! The battle was amazing! I never thought I would see any of those vile sentinels defeated!"
"Don't celebrate yet. We still have the masterminds to deal with." He said with a slight chuckle.
"Yes! right. I'll open the door."
John looked around the scrapyard he had just made. Remains of sentinels, along with the organic matter littered the area around him.
"Echelon, send a few sentinels to clean this place... the Corrupted were carrying some type of organic matter. It would be wise to burn them."
"Right away."
The storm was gone by now. It was late afternoon when the battle began. But now the star was meeting the ring's horizon and night was approaching. John took one last glance around him and noticed the spear sticking out of a downed sentinel. After retrieving it, he went inside the structure. On his way, his thoughts drifted to the battle. He knew something was off about his body. He was tired, yes... But after fighting the way he did, he should have been completely exhausted. There were only two possible ways to explain his increased endurance. First was the possibility that he had underestimated himself, which was very unlikely. The second was that the 'dream' had altered his body. Which reminded him... was that even a dream? or something else entirely.
On top of apparently increasing his endurance, making his body feel and work better and improving his normal senses, the dream seems to have given him an extra sense. The ability to detect light disturbances. It was strange... The sense itself was like a combination of touch, sight and sound. John decided not to think about it anymore. Whatever happened didn't affect him negatively. That was enough, for now at least.
After walking for a few more minutes, he finally reached Echelon.
"That was amazing! Honestly, I was not sure if you would have been able to fight all of them by yourself. But you did! Speaking of which, what are the 'worse situations' that you've been in?" She asked.
"Well... Flood infested Installation 04, Flood infested satellite city, Flood infested Earth city and Flood infested Installation 00. " He replied.
"Wow."
"Speaking of which, I met a Gravemind six years ago, but he wasn't able to control the sentinels. Do you think that there is a reason why?"
"Six years..." She pondered for a few moments before speaking up.
"It was a theory that the Flood are able to access the Domain. But I guess it is a fact now. The Domain was inactive until not too long ago. After the Domain was reactivated, the Flood were able to access it, which in turn made them capable of corrupting the sentinels... Perhaps if the Domain was inactive, I would have been able to contain the outbreak." She explained.
"The Domain" John said while gritting his teeth.
"The source of the Galaxy's problems."
"Anyway, what's our next move?" Echelon asked, slightly alarmed by John's sudden mood change.
"We need more sentinels. Right now the Flood have the numbers advantage. Is there any way to produce more sentinels?"
"Yes. There are multiple fabrication facilities present on this installation. But you will have to do some work..."
"Go on"
"When I fled, I hard reset nearly all of the facilities present on this ring. To activate them, we would have to restart and reprogram the facilities." Echelon stated.
"Can't you just do all that from here?" John questioned.
"Unfortunately, it is against protocol for a monitor to reprogram any of the ring's facilities. Fortunately, a Reclaimer can reprogram." She said turning to fully face him.
"I... I'm not exactly a computer scientist." John said with slight embarrassment. Echelon slightly giggled after hearing this.
"Haha! you don't have to be. I'll write all codes and transfer them to a data chip. All you have to do is insert the chip into the station computer. The computer will recognise you as a Reclaimer and give you full access. The data chip will take care of everything from there. Besides, when the time comes and your Geas triggers, you will know everything."
"Well... that's good, I guess." Then, an idea struck him.
"Say... can these fabrication facilities only produce sentinels?" He asked.
"No, these are multipurpose fabrication facilities. But the monitors are restricted to fabricating sentinels only. This was a safety measure in case the monitors were corrupted by the Flood." She stated.
"Can you bypass these restrictions? Now that you are reprogramming the stations."
"I can... But I would need executive permission from a high ranking Forerunner or a high ranking Reclaimer. Which means I require your permission." She stated.
John was slightly taken aback by this statement.
"You mean to say that I am a high ranking Reclaimer?" He asked.
"You are not just 'a' high ranking Reclaimer." She paused, adding emphasis to 'a'.
"You are THE high ranking Reclaimer. Surely you must know." She added.
"I don't... What do you mean." He asked. For some reason, John's heart began to race. Perhaps it was nervousness.
"You carry the Geas of Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Iso Didact. You, or rather, your past self played a big role during the firing of the Halo array millennia ago. This means that you will have a lot more familiarity and accessibility of Forerunner technology than other reclaimers, with the exception of one."
The second he heard the name Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, John whited out for a split second.
"Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Iso Didact, Manipular of Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, The Ur-Didact... How do I know this?" John asked Echelon, clearly unnerved as this information came out of nowhere.
"Hmmm. Perhaps hearing the Iso Didact's name acted as a small trigger. Why the Genesong hasn't fully activated yet is still a mystery to me. According to what you have told me, this isn't the first time you've seen a Halo. Your Geas should have activated on the first Halo Installation you landed on." She explained. John then remembered a certain incident from Installation 04... Just a few seconds before he was unknowingly about to end all life in the galaxy.
He remembered that as brought the Index towards the activation port, he had this heavy feeling of Deja Vu. His vision was also beginning to whiten. Right then, he was interrupted first by 343 and then by Cortana.
"I had the feeling of 'I've done this before' on Installation 04, but I was interrupted. Twice." John stated.
"Right... Forget about those things for now. I remove all the fabrication restrictions." John spoke after a few seconds of silence.
"Alright. I'll start working on the new codes. I will also try and get the micro slipspace network to work. I recommend that you take some rest. This may take an estimated 6 hours. Your prowler is located at the left hallway next to central hallway." Echelon went towards the central console of the control room and John went to his prowler. After eating his food and taking off his armor, he went to the living quarters to get some shut-eye. But he was unable to, partly because of what he had endured the night before but mostly due the revelation of who he was. He then realized that he actually killed himself, metaphorically, when he 'killed' the Didact on Installation 03. After a few more minutes of pondering, he dozed off.
John slowly opened his eyes. He was laying in a foetal position on the ground. Unlike the last time however, it was day. The sun was shining. He forced himself to stand up. He was back on Hope, somehow. But he didn't question it.
'It was bad, but it didn't kill me... And what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger.' He mused. John turned towards the ocean and felt something very... childlike awake in him. He really wanted to play, which was very strange. John had seen the ocean multiple times, even when he was off duty. Not once did he have this urge.
'What the hell!'
He began running towards the ocean with glee, something he hadn't felt in ages. Although it took him some extra time due to his small body, he finally made it to the water, where he continued to swim and have fun for what seemed like hours.
John was floating on his back when suddenly,
growl
He was hungry; so he quickly came out of the water and ran towards the nearby jungle. He remembered eating exotic fruits he found while exploring. After filling up his stomach with berries and fruits, he went to the beach and laid down under one of the tall tropical trees. He then began feeling drowsy, minutes after which, he fell asleep.
John opened his eyes again, but this time he was back in the living quarters of the Acrisius. He got up and checked the clock. He slept for a little over six hours. John then ate some food, put on his armor, took his weapons and went to the control room.
"Echelon, is the data chip ready?" John asked.
"Yes. I have also managed to fix the micro slipspace network of the installation." She used her tractor beam to hand him the chip; which he promptly stored in one of his suit's compartments.
"These are the fabrication facilities." She said as fourteen green blips appeared on the large holographic Halo.
"I would recommend that you go to a facility with less Flood activity." She added as three of the blips became bigger in size.
"That would be best. Now, transport me to any one of these."
"Right... By the way, just as a precautionary measure, I will transport you close to facility and not directly in it. I don't know what could be lurking within." She informed. John simply nodded.
In a flash of light, John found himself in a forested area.
"Reclaimer, I have transported you one kilometer away from the facility, please follow the marker."
"Roger that." John began to walk towards the way point.
'At least there is daylight here in this section of the ring.' He mused.
After reaching the crest of a hill, he saw the facility in the distance, although, something else got his attention... A crashed CCS class cruiser.
'Looks like I'll have to take a little detour.'
"Echelon, slight change of plans. I want to investigate the crashed ship first."
"Got it."
John quickly made his way to the derelict ship and entered it. There was next to no power, with the exception of a few circuit boards.
MCPO John-117 is a man who is considered fearless by many, and he is fearless; but exploring the downed ship gave him the creeps. Not only was it dark, but it was also quiet... too quiet. Even the the circuits didn't make the humming noise. On top of that, there was threat of the Flood. He hadn't felt this creeped out since the time when first found the Flood, back in 04 while trying to save Jacob Keyes.
After walking through the labyrinth of dark hallways, John finally arrived at the command centre. Thankfully, there was still power in the central command console. By now, John was used to Covenant ships and consoles. Few button presses later, John found the command log and found one file. After converting the dates to human calendar, John saw the date was 3rd November, 2552. The day he left Cortana on High Charity.
'If only I had taken her with me...' He quickly pushed those thoughts aside and opened the file. and instantly recognised the face... It was Truth.
"To all the ship masters of the fleet of Holy Splendor, I send you on a great pilgrimage. The Pathfinder has shown me the location of another Holy ring. Find and light it. You are our last hope, if I am to fail at the Ark. Do not let anything happen to the Human prisoners. They are key to our salvation. Now go, and may the Gods guide your path."
John didn't know what to think... Should he be glad that the Flood broke out and stopped the rings from being fired? He then checked the date that the fleet arrived at the installation. 2557. It took the Covenant nearly five years to reach this ring.
Half an hour later, John had finally arrived at the Fabrication facility. The doors slowly opened, and seconds later, loud screeches were emanating from within the facility. John simply reached back and took his Suppressor.
'Time to get back to work.'