Chapter 30: Harbinger

Covenant Home World, Xenocide commencing by Forerunner military…

Will spun around as a blaring alarm started to go off.

"Shit, I think they know we've escaped," Kat said. She picked up a confiscated plasma pistol while Will grabbed his plasma rifle. They crouched for what seemed like hours before realizing the alarm wasn't about them.

"We need to move back inside, I think something is going on," Will said quietly. He stood up and ran over to the glass door but it didn't open. But it did open when his foot slammed through it, glass scattering to the floor in a spray of water. The two Spartans walked in and headed towards the blast door directly in front of them. This door did open and revealed a hallway illuminated by red flashing lights.

"Jeez, what's happening, do you think Linda and Chris could be causing hell?" Kat asked.

"No…" Will replied slowly. He saw Kat look over at him but he kept staring down the hallway.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, putting her arm around his shoulder. Will's legs started to fell weak and he started to get a sense of vertigo. Suddenly there was a flash of an image in his mind. A large black creature was standing in the rain and suddenly looked at him, its eyes the color of flames. He fell down but propped himself up with his plasma rifle.

"What's wrong, Will?" she asked softly, but Will didn't here it. Inside his head was a voice speaking to him as if next to him.

What is it that makes you fight for the Humans? They always told us that we were the best of the best. But you never saw them trust us. We were always freaks to them. They never thought that the Covenant would find Earth. They never thought this day would come. But what are they saying now? What? That it was bound to happen sooner or later. Maybe if we had one more week, one more day, one more hour thing would've been different. But think about it, even when we got that extra week, day, or hour, things were always the same. Well guess what, the Humans will now have a new enemy to fight. Not the Covenant, those weaklings were driven by false hopes and wishful thinking, but now they're gone and the Humans are all that are left. But unfortunately they have a power within them that has never been tapped. Until we were created. We are the most powerful soldiers in the galaxy. More so than the Forerunner soldiers. Once you learn that I will be waiting for you here. But one last word of wisdom: Why were you created? We are like a dam with leaks in it. We might be able to hold back the water for a long time, but not forever.

Will opened his eyes and saw that he was propped up against the stone walls with his helmet off. Kat was sitting against the opposite staring at him. Her eyes were red and sweat was covering her face.

"What did he say to you?" Will asked sternly.

"He? He didn't ask me anything. She asked me what I would do to save the Humans. She replied saying that it wasn't true and that there was one thing that I would do. But I don't want to do it." She cocked her head and gave a small smile. "Ever get the feeling that whatever the hell you do, no one gives a shit? Like all they care about is the god damned bottom line!" She screamed, throwing her helmet at the blast doors. Will let his head sink down to his chest plate and took a deep breath.

"I felt like that in the beginning. Like even if destroying a Covenant cruiser wasn't enough to get a real pat on the back, not one to make you feel good for five seconds until you saw their underlying motives. Let it pass, you'll start to see that death is the only way to see the full gratitude that you'll receive trust me. But I want to know what you're supposed to do to save the Humans."

"I don't know what; she said I knew what it is. I was told also that we are more powerful then we could ever imagine. But what the hell, did you know that there are more than us four Spartans? We haven't had the time but there is a whole company on their way from the training facility on Harvest II. We were sent ahead to try and hold them off before the Covenant attacked. They should be arriving there…assuming Earth is still there." Will only quickly lifted his eyebrows before looking down the hallway. Something caught his eye and he leaned out more trying to see what they were. He raised his rifle and was about to fire but stopped when he heard a six tone whistling sound.

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