The plot moves on… Who would ever think a first person shooter would have such a detailed plot? I guess the first game to really do it well was Half-Life. It really is the granddaddy of all the FPS that exist today, including Halo. Now, I'm not trying to offend any of the hardcore Halo defenders out there. Half-Life is one of the games that changed gaming forever, and Halo stands out as the first game to really revolutionize shooters for console.
I have nothing to say about the increase in anonymous criticism for my story, only that I probably will take action to block it. I might not have as much time to write during midterms, but I'll probably sneak in a chapter here or there.
I take no responsibility for that strange fanfiction that was posted under my nickname.
Chapter 4 – Conspiracy Theory
The pedestal that the creature sat on fluttered slightly as a breeze of wind whispered through the darkened room. In the dimmed light, the creature's enhanced senses could view the ornate decoration that hung from the walls of the room. The room was completely quiet except for the low level humming of machinery that was dulled from the vast space of the chamber. A gleaming precious metal coated the floor, creating a hollow echo to the voices of the strange aliens. Mysterious designs that ran the length of the thousand meter room were carved into the metal with great precision. To a human, it would resemble the mysterious Aztec language of the ancient peoples that inhabited Earth, but to this being, the strange symbols were ignored. There was something more important on its mind than the contemplation of strange languages.
For such an open chamber, there was little in it. The sole objects in it were several large holograph projectors that were nearly embedded in the floor at the center. Despite the size of the room, there were no sources of ambient light. Instead, the room was lit by the dim yellow glow of the metal that composed the patterns on the floor. The light scattered among the many crystals that were hung from the roof the circular command center. On the dome-shaped roof, the night sky of the plant was replicated with pinpoint accuracy. During the hours that passed, the crystals would rotate, creating the illusion of movement in the heavens.
The creature ignored the majestic scene around it and instead looked intently at a holographic pedestal. It projected the image of a ship leaving a giant asteroid and performing a Slipspace jump in miniature form. Unlike the primitive technology of the humans, this hologram was so perfect that one could almost reach out and touch the tiny figures moving about. The mysterious creature continued to stare at the scene with two beady eyes, its antennae quivering with anticipation.
From the seamless walls of the room, two blocks slide noiselessly aside and two more beings entered on anti-gravity daises. Behind them, light spilled in from the hallway beyond, illuminating a path in front the two figures. Two more of the same species sat at guard stations in front of the portal, armed with the laser beam rifles. One of the two that entered gestured to the guards, who nodded and pressed a control panel. The two thick slabs of alloy again glided into place, leaving no evidence of there ever having been an entranceway at that point. The first creature stopped its observation of the holographic replay and turned to converse with the new arrivals. It ignored the typical pleasantries and immediately addressed the situation at hand.
"The renegade has again changed his plans, fellow members of the Council. I bring the tidings of the escape of the great pestilence from our observers in the system. He has released it in his stupid blundering through the system. I fear that his actions will result in the largest crisis in many years." The creature's voice dropped to a whisper when addressing important situation, like the rest of his race. While barely audible, the two others easily understood the message.
"It is not time to intervene, for there are more pages to be written in this chapter of the history of the universe. Our time has not yet come, but we should be wary, lest this warmonger unleash forces beyond the control of any of us." This creature's cautiousness became evident as its voice grew in intensity
"No, brother. We can no longer hold back our forces. The preparations are all going according plan. A task force has been sent to the Holy Ring to investigate, and their commander is only waiting for our word to move in and take control. Our main fleet is preparing to depart from the homeworld to intervene at the Ark. We can wipe the pestilence from the Holy Rings and the renegade command center within one standard cycle," grumbled the third creature.
"Now is not the time to debate. I have further news to report. The Holy Ring has nearly been activated by the underlings of the renegades. Its systems have now been rerouted to the Ark in standby mode for activation. This means that the Ark is the final destination for all who wish to activate the Cleansing Light," the first creature rapped out.
"And after the Light is the Long Shadow, Councilor. We must stop the blinded deserter from achieving his goal. If not now, then it will be never. The life of the galaxy will be reset. No one, not even our great race can survive it. " The creature's persuasion was too much for the first being, who made was convinced that immediate action must be taken. Despite this, the second creature continued to stubbornly defend caution.
"The Great Dictate of the Divine Ones must not be disobeyed. We cannot break our word with them, no matter how much we would like to. They have forbid us from messing with lesser beings to prevent contamination of their culture and civilization. Remember that the renegades had broken the Great Dictate by creating the Covenant in order to increase their own power. You have seen what the result of intervention is," stated the second creature.
"I see your point. Yet in such circumstances, an exception must be made. We will confer with the Divine Ones themselves. Let us go to them." With only a thought, the leading creature moved his platform with cybernetic implants in its brain toward an area of the curved wall. It pressed a thin finger toward the wall. The wall lit up as it processed the creature's genetic code.
A loud beep of confirmation preceded the parting of the wall to reveal a darkened hallway beyond. The chilling air spilled into the room and sent the three creatures reaching for their ceremonial cloaks. Not a sound was audible as the beings floated quickly toward a lone door at the end. In contrast to the elegant conference room of the Council, the hallway was a simple metal tube that lacked any sort of decoration or even lighting.
Numerous laser beams crisscrossed the door, a security precaution against any potential rebels who dared to contact the Divine Ones without the permission of the government. The divide between the rebels and the beings true to the government had widened in the last thirty years of the Covenant-Human War, and there have been many coup plots as of late. In reaction to the growing threat, the creatures had reluctantly increased security around major religious and government buildings. This was a violation of their peaceful beliefs, but they regarded the protection of guards and systems as something that must be done for the preservation of the empire.
The first creature again pressed its finger toward a genetic scanner in the wall, which took a blood sample. In addition, a retinal scanner appeared in the wall and confirmed each of the creature's identities. Satisfied, the security system disarmed the laser beams and the one-ton metal door began to slowly slide apart.
Only one shadow sat center of the miniscule room on a bare block of metal, illuminated only by the glow from the daises of the creatures. Yet its imposing humanoid figure spoke volumes about the shadow's knowledge and power. Draped only in a full-body cloak, the shadow's features were shrouded in darkness. Before any of the three creatures could speak, it raised a single hand in the air, signaling silence. With a hushed gasp, the beings shrank back into cushions of their hoverchairs. The Divine Ones had never used such a commanding tone before. Such a gesture was even more surprising. Ignoring the confused looks on the faces of the creatures, the shadow began to speak with in a quiet and unimposing tone.
"You have come with a question, as your behavior reveals. Answers you will receive, but like them you may not. What you do with this answer has implications that concern both you and us. Speak, and tell of your concern," the shadow declared.
"O Divine One, we come to you in with a great quandary. The renegade has attempted to activate the Holy Rings. Now, after his failure, he heads towards the Ark. If that is not all, the consuming plague has been released by his blundering on the Holy Ring. We beg you to give us the permission to intervene and repair the damage he has done! It is our duty to remove such stains on our race. We only ask that you approve of this!" the leader of the creatures pleaded. It put its hands out in front of the shadow, indicating respect. The others followed his example.
"You will have your intervention. However, what you know is not all. There are many unexpected events that you will encounter and many more secrets to be uncovered. Do not underestimate the pestilence, nor do not put excessive confidence in your intelligence. You are only seeing through one eye. The other will opened, either by your understanding or your ignorance. That is all. This issue is concluded." The shadow sat motionless and did not speak anymore. Silence fell throughout the chamber and was only broken by the breaths of the three creatures.
"Thank you, Holy One. Your advice is highly valued." The three turned and left the chamber, still trying to decipher the shadow's cryptic command. For a moment, the shadow continued to sit, deep in thought. It rose from the block and opened a door in the back of the room that lead to a landing pad outside. A sliver of starlight entered the room, and the humid warm air characteristic to this planet gusted and swirled in. The figure threw off the hood of its cloak to expose its features in the dim glow of the night. Although it was difficult to tell the precise characteristics its face, it was easily recognizable to any who knew its species.
It was a Forerunner, the creator of the Halo Rings, and the technology that the Covenant longed to get their tentacles on. The race that was said to have died, but here was one that was as real as any other living organism. This particular Forerunner was not concerned with religious rhetoric or the false information spread by others. There was only one mission on it cared about. The Flood was released, and it must be contained. With a sense of purpose, the emissary of the Forerunners glided quickly across the landing platform and onto the waiting transport.
The ship began to engage its Slipspace engines from within the atmosphere of the planet. While some called it heresy and others lacked the technology to do so, the Forerunners had designed their ships to be the fastest possible. Not a sound was heard, even by the guards surrounding the landing pad, as the angular transport disappeared in a brilliant flash of green light.
The explosives for a new, deadlier confrontation were set. All needed now was a spark.
(Chapter Break)
Awake… Awake… The voices grew from within as the mind began its long defrosting period from the cryogenic imprisonment. After the long weeks in stasis, the neurons of the brain began to fire again, and the senses began to rush back. The sensation of awakening was not cold, but instead the feeling of lukewarm cryogenic fluid rushing across the body. Doctor Halsey sat up in the cramped tube to take a look around. On the right, two cryo pods sat in a neat row. One of them was activated, and its alert function beeped insistently on the control panel.
The Doctor was about to get out her cryotube when her mouth filled with the deplorable "nutritional" paste that was administered after a spending time in cryogenic tube. While she disliked the taste, she knew, having experience in the medical field, the paste was the closest thing to a meal she could get in a cryo tube. Doctor Halsey quickly swallowed the paste at the same time trying to ignore the mucous flavor. She brushed her graying hair out of the way and climbed onto the steel deck.
One of the smallest ships with a Slipspace drive ever constructed by the UNSC, the Chiroptera lacked many of the amenities of most faster-than-light starships. There were no showers, only a simple rinse station equipped with a small sink. Halsey strolled casually towards the rinse station and washed off her face with the cold, stale water. She looked at herself in the changing mirror. Her once young features now showed the weariness of years of research and development.
An insistent beep rang out again from the neighboring cyrotube. The Doctor ran over to the control panel and hastily scanned the details.
Cryogenics system failing… Temperature Rising. Crystallization of tissue and death will result.
Recommend immediate disengagement of cryogenics freezing and recovery of user.
Autorecovery in 10 minutes.
Proceed with recovery now? (y/n)
With no further use for the cryogenics system, Doctor Halsey confirmed the recovery procedure and the tube released a blast of steam with a hiss. The heating system within began to rapidly increase the subjects temperature to the normal human body temperature, 36 degrees.
The Doctor looked down into the transparent viewing window of the cryotube. Inside, her face was reflected back by a metallic visor and a gleaming green full body armor suit. This human, and a handful of others, was the project she had devoted her life for: SPARTAN II. She remembered the first time she traveled with Lieutenant Keyes, over forty years ago, to scout out these candidates for the program destined to save humanity. The risks were known, but she went ahead-and condemned seventy children to a life of suffering and pain. When she was still young and ambitious, she thought that it was for the best. Now, the doubts began to grow in her mind. Did they really change the course of the war? Was humanity doomed from the start? They were dead, all dead. Only four remained. All the battles, all the victories, were hollow. Delaying the inevitable. Keyes' words on that first mission surfaced to the top of her mind like a dead body floating to the surface of a lake.
To observe one child? What difference would a child make? Halsey had never doubted her answer for one second, until now.
Doctor Halsey stuffed her doubts into a corner of her mind. Whatever guilt she had, she could not let it get in front of her way. She had to find out what Colonel Ackerson, the man who had been the rival of the SPARTAN program, was up to. He had tried everything to "eliminate" his competition, including attacking the Master Chief with a fighter jet during a training exercise, manipulating the heads of ONI behind the scenes, and even withholding information that could have predicted the Covenant invasion of the Reach military installation.
That was not all. During her inspection of Ackerson's abandoned files in the bowels of the ONI complex deep within Reach, Doctor Halsey had found something even more alarming: the location of an unknown system and the letters CPOMZ. All of this was contained under a file named S-III, almost confirming her suspicions-Ackerson was training a new group of SPARTANs. She had heard the news circulating through the Security Council that Ackerson had something incredible, something on par with the SPARTAN IIs. But nobody, not even the members of the Security Council themselves, would dare go into Ackerson's office to raise the question for the fear of coming out in a body bag. He effectively had the entire United Nations eating out of the palm of his hand.
Politics be damned, she had to get to the bottom of this. Before it was too late for her… and mankind.
She gathered her resolve and walked to the clothing rack to get dressed. A frown gathered on her face as she looked at the same dress and shirt she had worn for the last three weeks. That's what this war does to you. Doctor Halsey finished dressing and walked up to the SPARTAN, who stood motionless in her MJONIR armor in front of the cryo pod. This SPARTAN named Kelly, an anachronism from their families before the children entered the project. Names, all they have left of a life they had lost.
Kelly snapped a quick salute. The motion was so natural, so deeply implanted in her mind that even the Doctor's insistence against military protocol could not stop her.
"You seem to be back to you normal self. The cryogenics system malfunctioned, so I apologize for the quick wakeup," said the Doctor, with her normal wittiness characterizing her tone.
"With all due respect, ma'm, where the hell am I? I thought you were administering medical treatment? What happened to me?" Although she greatly respected Doctor Halsey, Kelly could not resist asking about her current situation, especially after being drugged and then whisked away to a strange system.
"I don't know either, Kelly, but I do know that this place is of great importance to Colonel Ackerson. I know that you would have chosen to go with the Master Chief on his mission instead, but I need you to help me uncover what is really going on. There was no way you would have followed me otherwise, so I had to bring you under the cover of medical treatment. If Ackerson goes on unchecked he could be more dangerous to Earth than the entire Covenant fleet," explained Doctor Halsey.
"Yes… I understand, Doctor." Kelly knew that as long as she had a purpose, as long as she had a mankind she was ready to fulfill it. Her emotions for the rest of the team could wait. She could only remember once in her life the Doctor had addressed her in such an honest and open tone, and that was when she was indoctrinated into the SPARTAN program. That was when she was given her ultimate purpose as a protector of the UNSC. The Doctor was never wrong before, and she couldn't be wrong now…
Doctor Halsey strapped herself into the captain's chair of the Chiroptera spacecraft as it dropped from the black nothingness of Slipspace back to normal space. The ship groaned and shuddered in reaction, throwing both Kelly and her into the edge of the restraint harnesses. On the forward view screen, the stars again filled the background. A pair of yellow stars resided in center of the system.
The Doctor's hands tapped nimbly on the keyboard to initiate the scanning systems of the stealth ship. An interesting relic from ONI, the ship also had a very powerful sensor suite. It had atmospheric detection devices, allowing for human-friendly environments to be quickly and easily identified. The search lasted less than a minute before a small, azure planet appeared on the view screen. It contained an oxygen rich atmosphere, the only one of its kind in the system.
That's it. Halsey pushed the optical system to maximum magnification. It was difficult to identify any human buildings on the surface, but if the three orbital gun platforms were any clue, there were people living on that planet. Very well armed people, equipped with the best even the UNSC had to offer. She dared to move in a little closer for a better look. A large fleet orbited the planet, motionless for the time being. One of the ships looked very familiar to her, but she just couldn't remember exactly where she saw it.
Noise cracked on the UNSC A band. The encryption was a futile attempt at privacy because the Chiroptera had every known UNSC encryption scheme programmed into it by Cortana before the ship escaped from the rebel asteroid. It was foresight that would actually come into use this time.
Sir, there is a strange ship that just appeared on our sensors. It has no identification tag, but there is a silhouette match.
Well, tell me it, damn fool! Doctor Halsey easily recognized the angry, demanding voice. A voice that she had come to know all to well during her long years working at Section Three. The voice of the one who despised her.
I think its… it is a Chiroptera! I haven't seen these things in combat, only in museums!
Its working, isn't it? Why in hell is that ancient piece of shit here? How the fuck did it find us in the first place? Doctor Halsey allowed herself a rare grin at the utter confusion that erupted on the channels.
What should we do about it?
What do you think? Destroy it now! Nothing leaves alive!
She squelched the channel. She was waiting for this challenge all along. On the forward view screen, the three orbital guns began to glow orange and sparks ran along their magnetic coils. Doctor Halsey smiled to herself and raised the ship to flank speed. The reactor whined to break free of the inertia and shot the ship the sleek ship straight towards the planet.
"It begins, Kelly, it begins. I've lived through the invasion of Reach, a Slipspace battle, and if I don't survive Ackerson, well I'll be damned."