Chapter 5

'Pieces Mended.'

Aboard High Charity

2100 hours, October 12th, 2552

'You see brethren,' cried the Prophet of Truth. 'He is but flesh and bone, like the rest of his kind. They risk the completion of the great journey, they are heretics, and this ones treatment will be no different.'

The crowd cheered loudly as the mark of shame was branded onto the humans shoulder.

'Heretic!' chanted the crowd.

James, once again overcome by pain, succumbed to the blackness that had consumed him much of this past month. Once the ritual was complete, they dragged the bruised, bleeding Spartan back to his holding cell and roughly threw him in the door, activating the energy barrier before leaving.

James screamed as he awoke at the pain burning through his right shoulder, he felt as if he had been shot by hundreds of plasma rounds, the pain was like nothing he had felt before. He opened his swollen black eyes to notice his vision was blurry, from damage to his eyes or the pain wracking his body, he was not sure. His Armor was now completely gone, he was draped in a covenant rag, tied around his waste. The cells were freezing but his body had adapted to them.

'Any time now' James thought. 'Sooner or later the large 'brutes' would return and beat him once again, before dragging him away to his inevitable public execution. He thought of his fellow Spartans, the only family he had ever had. Were any still alive? Or was he the last of their kind? He had felt this feeling before, in the blackness of the Eridani system. Fate was out of his hands. With all his augmentations, superhuman strengths and senses, the feeling of helplessness once again flooded over him, chilling him to the bone. Two Brutes appeared at the door of his cell.

'You can have the fun this time,' one said, as the other nodded and advanced on James. He tried to put up a fight but noticed his arms had been tethered to the walls by ropes of pure energy. He was truly helpless. James doubled over as the first blow hit him in the stomach, he rose to his feet and looked the Brute in the eyes.

'How dare you face me, scum.' Said the Brute, disgusted, as he looked the human up and down. Rather then reply to the beast, the Spartan made a simple gesture, he spat in the Brutes face.

Rage came across the warrior as he wiped the saliva from his face.

'You will pay dearly for that, vermin.'

He pulled back and swung a right hook, aiming clear for the side of James's head. Using the little energy he had, James used his inhuman reflexes to dodge underneath the massive fist, which careened straight into the wall behind him, creating a large crater. James seized this moment, bringing his right foot into the creature's ribs with lightning speed. He heard the beast roar in pain before a monstrous blow to the side of the head knocked him to the ground.

'This is it,' he thought and his vision faded to black.

As the chiroptera class vessel exited slipspace, the blackness that had covered the viewports slowly became lighter, stars randomly dotting the sheet of darkness. A small planet was barely viewable from the distance of the cruiser, but the doctor knew what to look for.

'Isaac, set destination to Atlantis IV.' Said Halsey as she rose from the terminal she was working at.

'Affirmative ma'am,' replied the construct as the ship began to rotate in the direction of the planet. 'ETA 120 minutes ma'am.'

'Thankyou.' Said the Doctor quietly before returning to the computer panel she had previously been tending to. She pressed a few more buttons before opening up a comm. channel to the armoury of the ship, which had long since become the quarters of governor Jiles.

'Kelly, please suit up and report to the cockpit immediately.'

'Understood ma'am.' Replied Kelly in an unenthusiastic tone. Although this type of tone was uncharacteristic for a Spartan, especially towards The Doctor, Halsey found it quite justified. She new how much the Spartans needed each other, how they were all each other had and how the bonds grew closer and closer as less and less returned from battle. She had taken all of this into account before she had taken the sedated Spartan on board the governor's vessel and entered slipspace. But it had to be done. The covenant knew the location of Earth now, this was the last line of defence. They needed every capable soldier to return to Earth and prepare for its defence. That was why she was here. The contents of the S-III file had bought her here. She new these would be a new type of soldier, completely different to the Spartan II's. But who or how good they were did not matter as long as they could hold a gun.

The whoosh of air from an automatic door behind her told her that Kelly had reached the bridge.

'What seems to be the problem doctor?' asked the Spartan curiously, yet still unenthusiastically. Halsey ignored the tone and continued.

'You see that planet down there,' said Halsey, pointing to Atlantis IV. 'If my predictions are correct, that is the secret location of the Spartan III training program. I cannot know for sure until we get into the planets atmosphere but we must assume so. Your mission is to make contact with these new Spartans, and hopefully CPO Mendez who I suspect is training them. We must inform them of the peril that Earth is in and that they must leave for Earth at once, possibly cutting their training short.'

Kelly's helmeted head slowly nodded as she took all of the Doctors words in and a strange thought struck her. They would not be the best anymore. With these new Spartan III's, her and her family would no longer be mankinds finest.

'Is everything ok Kelly?' asked Halsey, almost as if she could read the Spartans mind.

'Yes ma'am.' Lied Kelly.

'Ok well I suggest you get prepped, we will be arriving shortly.'

Kelly nodded and began to leave the Bridge but stopped as Isaac spoke.

'Ma'am, unknown ships inbound on our position, they seem to be UNSC.'

'Can we make contact?' asked Halsey quickly.

'Yes ma'am, but they are demanding we shutdown all thrusters while they check the ship.'

'Roger that Isaac, shut them down.'

The ships grew closer and within 10 minutes, they were surrounded. Strange noises could be heard outside the ship, like probes examining the outer hull.

'How do they expect to check the entire inside of the ship?' asked Kelly as she slumped down into chair, removing her helmet.'

'Like this.' Said a deep voice behind her as 8 large figures disabled cloaking devices from different positions in the Cockpit. Eight guns were levelled at the two humans heads. They were surrounded.

Earth burned, there was nothing the Spartan could do. As he watched from the bridge of Cairo Station, the covenant fleet fired at the planet, glassing it bit by bit. He was a Spartan, an elite ground unit. There was nothing he could do but watch helplessly. The feeling of helplessness washed over him once again as he watched. He turned around to find a group of brutes advancing on him. He reached for his M6B pistol to find it was missing form its holster at his side. He stepped backwards and lost his footing, falling into the black depths of space. He could hear the covenant warships plasma as they fired onto the human home world. They had lost the war. He closed his eyes and welcomed death. When he opened them, the Spartan James was lying in a heap on the floor. His time was almost up, as was earths.

'Cover those doors!' screamed Commander Keyes as she unholstered her twin M6D's and began to fire into the swarm of infection forms.

'Drive them back!'

The wave of infection forms broke upon the plasma and lead scorching through their ranks. Soon, the only evidence of this small army was a large green pool, staining the ground of the shuttle bay.

'Damn critters,' said Johnson as he reloaded his SMG's. 'They're a god damn waste of ammo. What's the plan now Commander?'

'Johnson, you take point. We must travel through these service corridors and meet up with Cortana on the other side. The Arbiter tells me the Prophets quarters are nearby. We can use a holo-panel there to link up with Cortana.'

'Roger that ma'am lets move team.' Shouted Johnson.

'Wait,' called the Arbiter turning to the Commanders team of Elites. 'These humans are now your commanding officers, you will treat them as such. If I hear of any different, the punishments will be severe. Is that understood?'

'Yes Arbiter.' Said the Elites in unison.

'As you were Sergeant.'

'Ok team lets move out, the corridors are narrow so we will go 2 at a time.' Said the Sergeant as he paired up the Elites and took a partner himself.

There was a strange silence as Johnson entered the corridor. With his partner behind him, he made his way down the corridor, killing a few scattered infection forms. Within 5 minutes he came to a crossroads in the corridor.

'Which way Ma'am?' Shouted the Sergeant back down the line.

'Straight ahead,' she replied.

As Johnson and the first few Elites moved through the crossroads, flood began to gather in the darkness of the other corridors. The Commander jumped as she heard flood screams all around her. She was trapped.

'Fall back, Fall back!' she shouted to the Elites behind her.

The line was soon split in half as flood poured out through the middle. Several Elites fell to the sudden onslaught before the rest of the warriors gained composure, covering the flood with scores of plasma. But they just kept coming.

'Keep moving Sergeant' shouted Keyes. 'I will cover our six.'

'Roger that ma'am.'

Within minutes, the flood had stopped their pursuit of the group leaving them to lose themselves in the maze of service corridors. The two humans, along with 7 Elites had been split off from the rest of the column, forced by the attack at the crossroads to go on alone. They had to find Cortana and find out what the problem was. Why had she left in such a hurry?

Johnson looked straight ahead of him and then behind. The narrow passage was pitch black, save for his flashlight and the glow of the elites plasma weapons. Beyond his flashlights range was an impenetrable wall of blackness. The flood could pounce at any second. He had to move slowly. The group moved for what seemed like hours until finally, Johnson could see a faint light in front of him. They had reached the Prophets chambers.

'That was too easy,' Johnson thought to himself. 'Where had all the flood gone? High Charity was supposed to be overrun.'

'Johnson, what's going on?' shouted Keyes.

'We have reached the end of this corridor ma'am.' Replied Johnson.

'Good work Sergeant, proceed with caution.'

Johnson nodded at the Commanders words before slowly exiting the corridor. The room was dimly lit, a lone holo-pedestal glowing slightly in the centre of the large round chamber. He moved into the room and signalled for his team of Elites to enter as well. The moment the Commander had left the corridor, the group moved into the centre of the room, forming a defensive perimeter. Shrieks from flood combat forms were heard as they made their way to attack the group. They moved back into a wall and formed a semi-circle, waiting for the flood assault. Within seconds, a group of combat forms entered the room followed by a large crowd of infection forms. They spotted the group of trespassers and began a charge.

Johnson, let loose a fragmentation grenade before unleashing a hail of bullets into the wave of flood. The room lit up as the Elites let loose with their plasma rifles. The sound of twin magnums firing could be heard distinctly over the noise as the Commander fired at the relentless tide. More Combat forms entered the room along with carrier forms as the wave came closer and closer to the group.

'Johnson, aim for those carrier forms.' Shouted Commander Keyes over the noise of the battle. If Johnson did reply, it was not heard as more flood screams sounded from the service corridor they had just exited.

'Now we are really in trouble,' shouted Johnson.

He let loose another frag grenade before stopping to reload. As his weapons stopped firing, a combat form leaped onto him, lashing his chest with its tentacles. He screamed in pain as Commander Keyes killed the beast and provided Johnson with covering fire. She moved to see if he was alright but she knew the answer. His clothes were torn and bloodied and his body armor was cracked. He was not moving.

'Johnson!' Shouted Keyes. 'Can you hear me?'

He did not move. She prayed that he was only unconscious.

'We can't hold them off much longer.' Shouted an Elite as Flood poured from the service corridor.

Keyes returned her focus to the battle, there was no time to help Johnson. The group fired and retreated until their backs were against the wall. They could not go anywhere.

'Wort Wort Wort!' cried an Elite as he threw down his overheated weapon and unleashed a glowing plasma sword.

His fellow Elites did the same, screaming a battle cry as they charged into the oncoming army of flood. This was a last stand. Keyes turned to Johnson, using the time the Elites had bought her to see if he was alright. He was now awake, sitting up with his back against the wall. The Commander looked on in awe as he reloaded his weapons, still sitting, and fired into a group of infection forms. She looked at his chest and saw no marks from the hit he had taken.

'What on earth?' she said to herself as Johnson got to his feet and continued to fire.

'Ill teach these bastards to mess with Sergeant A.J. Johnson!' he shouted and ran into the battle, picking up a fallen Elites energy sword before hacking into the Combat forms, a sub-machinegun still in his off hand. He fought like this for 10 minutes, taking flood hits, getting back up time and time again. The Commander had never seen anything like it. Three of the Seven Elites had fallen and the others were slowly succumbing to the ruthless onslaught. They needed a miracle. Johnson slumped back against the wall, exhausted. Two Elites remained and they readied themselves for another wave. All ammo had been depleted, the Commander had picked up a plasma pistol from a dead combat from but knew it would not save her.

As the final wave rushed in, she fired the plasma pistol wildly until it overheated, throwing it away as plasma spewed out of it. She had no weapon, this was it. She bowed her head and sank to the floor, knowing that any minute now, the Elites would fall and the flood would advance on her. As a Combat form advanced on her, ready to maim her with its tentacled arm, she closed her eyes and awaited the final blow. But it never came. Battle Rifle rounds slammed into the combat form and it fell sideways, right in front of the Commander. She looked up and saw a silhouette through the darkness, a seven-foot tall, armor-clad human stood in a doorway, the light reflecting the sage colour of his armor. She watched dumbstruck as the Spartan gracefully pulled a grenade from his waist and threw it at the flood wave. With the Spartans help, the flood were destroyed within minutes. The Spartan shouldered his Battle rifle before extending an armoured hand to the Commander and helping her up.

'Thank you,' she said, coming to her senses.

'Thanks chief, but I could have taken them.' Said Johnson as he placed a cigar in his mouth and lit it.

'But Cortana said the Chief had left High Charity,' said the Commander, puzzled.

'Well obviously Cortana was wrong.' Said Johnson.

'When have you ever known me to be wrong?' said the holo-panel in the centre of the room as Cortanas figure appeared above it. 'Commander, Sergeant, I'd like you to meet Spartan 078, James.'