Chapter 9

Location: The Arc, Earth, Africa.

John woke up, his head was pounding. He looked around and saw winking lights flashing all around. He felt strange, like he was lighter. He then realised that both his arm armour joints were missing. He looked for them and saw them on a table. Funny? Why aren't there any guards? He thought to himself. He tried to move but he was bounded by energy beams. There was a tunnel that was glowing orange. He wondered where it led. If he got out he start to move that way. Just then there was movement, followed by the groan of a Brute through the tunnel. He pretended to be unconscious. He opened his eyes just a little so he could see and he saw sixteen Elites enter the chamber. One walked over to him and tapped a button. The energy barrier vanished. John opened his eyes and sat up. An Elite passed him one of his arms placements; he placed it over his arm and welded it on. He did the same with the other. It felt good to be back with his armour. He stood up and flexed his muscles. He was aching from head to toe. Everyone was looking at him,

"Where the hell am I and who are you?" he asked the closest one that had different armour than the others,

"I am The Arbiter. And we are near the portal that will lead the Covenant to The Arc. You must be the Demon?" he asked, John nodded.

"What's the situation?" he asked the tall creature that was stood in front of him.

"The Covenant have managed to dig down to the point where the Portal Du Humy lies. We need to enter the portal and fight off any Covenant that there may be there. Then I will call for reinforcements and we shall secure The Arc and defend it from any Covenant attackers. I have a group of six Hunters waiting through that tunnel. They will escort us to the portal and follow us in." He replied.

"Huh, I thought it would have been complicated." John mocked.

"We also have new data on the Covenants new recruits, they are called Scalers. They are spider like creatures that keep themselves alive by eating the insides of another being." He informed him. John was longing for a chance to crush one with his hands after seeing what they had done to one of the ODSTs. He looked around for a weapon and found his MA8B and two Dominators lying on the table next to him. He picked them up, checked if they were loaded and clicked the safety off. He levelled the two pistols and followed The Arbiter through the tunnel.

After meeting up with the six Hunters John felt comfortable. He had seen what these beasts could do and was glad that they were now on their side. He had seen them flip Warthogs and Scorpions out of their way. They did lack intelligence though. They seemed to charge at anything, whether it was a bigger threat than them. He just hoped that they could cope with the Brutes. He silently followed watching for movement. Grunts squealed and the Elites barked at them. After passing through endless amounts of tunnels they came to an archway and through it there was a bright room. John would have thought it pretty had it not been covered in Brutes, Scalers and Jackals. He turned around and looked at The Arbiter.

"What do we do?" John asked him.

"Hunters, you wait until I give the order and fire at anything that moves. Grunts, you set up the turrets. Elites, you will back the Grunts and pour continuous fire on their position. When they run, we will charge in and clean up. Any questions?" he whispered. "Good. Get into positions." He said and Grunts scuttled to their posts, Hunters crouched behind their shields and the Elites readied their rifles. John stood by The Arbiter and took out his MA8B; he pushed a grenade into the launcher and clipped it back. He put his sight on the commander looking Brute that was barking at the Drones through all of the commotion, boxes being moved and weapons being tested.

"FIRE!" The Arbiter yelled. John pushed the side button and his trigger. He felt the recoil and went temporarily deaf through all the noise. The Hunters cannons glowed green and emitted a charge of high temperature energy that burnt holes through Drones and Jackals. The turrets whined as they were pushed to the limits. Scalers burned on the floor, Brutes were grabbing at gaping holes in their stomachs and Jackals were screaming and falling like flies. The enemy returned fire and plasma burned the air by Johns head. He heard a Brute yell,

"They must not interfere with the Prophets holy work. Slay them!" he yelled. John pushed the release button and slammed a fresh clip into his weapon. He used up the clip and he put in a new one and a grenade. He fired at a group of Drones that were closing in. He cut them out of the air and their limp bodies fell to the floor. He then used the grenade on five Brutes that were hiding behind the wreckage of two exploded boxes. The whole battle lasted five and a half minutes.

When they had checked the room was clear they stationed three turrets looking over the door, and they left five Grunts and three Elites to watch the portal. The portal glowed a bright yellow, then it turned to red, then orange, then blue, then back again. On the side of it were some markings. It appeared to be Covenant language. Arbiter read it out,

"Those who step through this portal are destined to change the course of the future. The journey is dangerous and those who try it may never come back. You have been warned. Come on then." He said to the others, "lets go." And he walked into the portal. He disappeared into thin air. John followed him.

John felt as though he was being sucked into darkness. He couldn't see anything even with his torch on. He kept his arms tucked in close to his chest and his knees close to his chest as well. Then behind him he heard the roar of a hunter, then another, and another. He yelled and asked what had happened but no sound came out. Suddenly a motion of colours sped past him. He was almost blinded by the colour. Even with his filters on he had to squint. He still couldn't make out anything. Then a Grunt squealed. He couldn't ask what had happened so he tucked his legs and arms in closer. He then saw a bright white dot that got bigger. He braced himself for a rough landing but nothing happened. He just found himself standing on the ground.

He turned around for the Hunters and the Grunt that had screamed and found himself staring at something else. Nothing could have prepared him for this. They were hardly recognisable. There were three huge chunks of meat lying on the ground, they were orange and covered in blood. He could see ones shield sticking out from inside its body. The Grunt was still the same shape just inside out. He had to look away otherwise he would have thrown up. The smell of burning flesh hung in the air around the bodies.

"I shouldn't have bought the Hunters." The Arbiter said, "They are much too big and cumbersome to get through the portal. At least the others made it." And he walked to the other Hunters. John heard him say that he wanted two of them to wait by the portal incase any Covenant got through. Then he said the same to ten Grunts. We wouldn't have time to set up the turrets so they stayed here.

"Everyone, lets move." He barked and the remaining Hunter, twenty-six Grunts and thirteen Elites walked off into the nearest tunnel.

Truth sighed, he did not wish to flee the battle but he had no choice. It was go or be killed. That's why he told the pilot to set a slipspace route so that they exited directly above The Arc out of the range of their Orbital Gun Platforms. He couldn't see anything out of the view panel's except the black pf slipspace.

"Hierarch, we will arrive shortly." The pilot told him,

"Good work pilot. Girt, heat up our turrets for when we arrive." He said.

"Of course," Girt replied. He tapped a few buttons and the turrets became active.

"Load up all of our Phantoms and Seraph fighters Gref. Get me in one. When we arrive I want them all to be launched to Earth." Truth boomed down the speaker.

"Yes sir." Gref replied. Truth was then escorted to the nearest bay and was sucked into a Phantom.

"I want an escort to Earth, when we arrive your pilots can join the battle in space. I also want this ships GravLift to be activated when we arrive so as I can get back here quickly." He said nervously. He wasn't nervous because of the Demon or The Arbiter and his new race which had been called The Rogues. He was nervous because of the Flood. In the past few units he had received reports of Flood life forms on Earth. He needed to active The Arc quickly.

"Hierarch, arriving in five, four, three two, one, now" the pilot said and Earth came into view. The Phantom lurched out the bay and he felt its engines roar to life. They sped forward and in no time at all they had reached the Gazeeb Cover. The Phantoms unloaded onto what looked like a wasteland. Wrecked vehicles littered the ground, corpses lay everywhere along with the corpses of Flood. A green mist hung in the air along with a putrid smell. His chair hovered over the bodies as if they weren't there as he was taken to the entrance of The Arc. Rouge bodies were hanging over the top of the hole. Brutes and Jackals rushed forward to secure the top as Drones flew down to secure the pit. Truth was tied to a metal plate and was lowered into the hole and when he reached the bottom he was moving out of the way of the Brutes when there was a roar from the top. A Brute came falling down the hole and landed on his neck, it snapped and he went limp.

Then, a Jackal came falling down, then three more. Energy swords appeared at the top and cut the cables that were holding the Brutes up. They all fell in quick succession. Of the forty-seven Brutes that had landed on Earth, only twenty-one were left. The Drones were hissing at each other, arguing, talking, Truth could not understand their language. They pressed on further into the hole when they came to the portal. Truth read out the text and after he turned to his Covenant,

"My brothers. We have reached the portal. This day will be etched into your families' names. You shall live in honour and you will die with it. We shall now enter and activate The Arc. We shall emerge victorious." He waited for the response and was rewarded with the confident roars and screams from them. He waited at the portal and entered after his Brutes

Arbiter cautiously advanced into another tunnel. This place seemed to be full of them. Round every corner he had to keep checking for Truth and his Brutes but no-one was there. Then when he turned the next corner he stared upon a corridor littered with bodies of Brutes, Jackals and a few bodies that didn't look like Covenant or Flood. He then got an eerie feeling and he told everyone to watch out. As he progressed the feeling got worse. He dreaded it. Then, without warning, one of the unknown bodies off the floor rose up and floated up off the floor. It was silver and it glowed. Its design was angular, it had a lot of points on it and it was protected by what looked like the same material as the Hunters shields. There were two needle like guns on its side. Then, the rest of them rose. They made a whirring sound and when the first one squealed they all opened fire. Lasers shot out from their weapons. They burned The Arbiters armour and he had to activate his camouflage. Three Grunts and an Elite had already fallen because of the surprise. He fired at the nearest one and watched as his bullets bounced off its energy shield. He lobbed a Plasma Grenade underneath it and he saw it disappear under the smoke. He was satisfied until he saw it reappear unharmed. He ordered everyone to fall back when he saw the Demon standing over a flaming machine. He then launched a grenade out of his gun and it tore straight through the next one and it spiralled out of control and hit the one next to it. With only five left the Hunter joined in. He fired and fired until everyone was blown up.

"What are these things?" John asked.

"I don't know. They must be a form of guardian of The Arc." The Arbiter replied.

"Whatever they are, they are bloody dangerous." He said looking at one of the flaming machines, he saw a light that was still winking; he shot it until it went out and then he proceeded.

Tunnels were plentiful. According to his mission clock, John had been walking for 2 hours and 57 minutes. His legs were beginning to ache. He didn't say anything though. Partly because he didn't want to give away their position to any enemies, but it was mostly because he didn't want to moan in front of the Covenant. He had spent 3 years killing off their race and then they just decide to switch sides, just like that. It just didn't make any sense. But he had no reason to complain, they had new allies and that meant new technology. Their ships could be equipped with plasma turrets, their weapons could be made more lethal. They could now win this war. As John was away in thought there was a strange humming noise that filled the air. It echoed through the corridors and John felt his hairs stand on end. He levelled his rifle.

"Do you hear that?" John asked The Arbiter,

"What? I can't hear anything. Be quiet or you'll give us away." He replied back. John became puzzled. What was that noise? He tried not to pay any attention to it but he couldn't help it. After passing through more tunnels and more passageways they approached a room. After the Hunter had made sure it was clear they entered. As soon as John had stepped over the threshold the buzzing stopped. John surveyed the room. He didn't like it. T had plenty of places for Covenant to hide. There were boxes and corners and he cold have sworn he heard something move in the ceiling above them. When everyone had stepped into the room a stone slab fell and blocked the way out. A Grunt panicked and shot it with his Plasma Pistol. It left scorch marks where it had burnt.

"Stop it. What do you think you are doing?" a black armoured Elite yelled,

"I scared Excellency. Me wanna go home." He snivelled and he dropped to the floor shaking. Two orange Grunts walked over to him, sat him up and dumped him by the door. John then looked at the room again. It was lit by an unknown source. There did not seem to be any lights, or any windows. He couldn't see any. In the centre of the room there was a glowing orb. It was probably the source of light. An Elite stepped forward towards it and was a meter away from it. His face was aglow with curiosity. He reached a hand forward. The Arbiter noticed him,

"What are you doing, NO!" he yelled.

The buzzing noise filled John's ears again. He jumped behind the nearest box and was followed by The Arbiter, the Grunts ran about and the Hunter crouched behind his shield. The light went out and all went pitch black. The buzzing noise was giving John a headache. He was getting scared. The sound of a hatch opening frightened him and then it was followed by the screams of the Rogues. He tried to activate his torch but it wouldn't work. He told The Arbiter to remain as quiet as possible. A plasma bolt whizzed past his head and he almost jumped. After what was the most terrifying moment of his life, the light came back on. He edged himself around the corner. The room was crawling with Flood. They had completely desolated the Rogues. They were lying on the floor smouldering. The orb in the middle of the room was still glowing and was now spinning. The Flood seemed to be organized as they shifted bodies into piles and they stood guard around the slab. He was watching them to see what they would do to The Arc. He was then alerted by the sound of plasma fire. The noise was coming from behind the slab. The Flood gathered around there and readied themselves. Some piled bodies in front of it to try and stop the newcomers. John sat there next to The Arbiter waiting. His breath was making a loud noise so he calmed down. This could be the biggest thing he ever did. He could stop The Flood and Truth. He would save the ultimate prize… Earth. He had no time to think; he turned to The Arbiter and told him,

"In the distraction we run to the back of the room and wait till they have whittled each other down. Ok?" he asked. Arbiter nodded. John turned back to the door and wiped his visor, it was covered in grime and dust. The door was glowing a sickly orange. It suddenly burst into flames and was launched forward into a group of five Flood. They were smeared across the floor and the rest were pummelled by red plasma fire. Red plasma, which could only mean one thing. Brutes. He counted to three and both he and The Arbiter ran for cover behind the furthest box at the back of the room. They were lucky that they didn't get seen as they had ran into open ground. He launched himself for the box and skidded behind it. He was followed by the Arbiter. He looked round the corner and was shocked to see that the Covenant had already killed all The Flood. They were walking around checking if there were any survivors. One had just checked a body when it re-animated along with six others. Surprised by the attack the Covenant were quickly cut down. After the fight only eleven Brutes remained. After they had made sure they had killed everyone by shooting each body another five times, Truth entered the chamber along with thirty-two Jackals and forty-nine Drones. He screeched something and Jackals and Drones moved to secure the door. John checked how many grenades he had and how many The Arbiter had. In total they had seven. That wasn't enough. He looked around and noticed a pile where the Flood had placed dozens of Plasma Grenades and Fragmentation Grenades. He crawled stealthily to the pile and threw them back to The Arbiter. He caught them and made a pile. After they had all been thrown and carefully placed in a pile John crawled back.

"Right how many Plasma Grenades have we got... thirteen." He whispered. "And we have... sixteen Frag Grenades. What we must do is prime as many Plasma Grenades as possible and aim for Truth. Two at a time and if all goes well we should have enough ammo and Frags to finish off the rest. OK?" Arbiter nodded, "It's been a pleasure working with you if we don't make it." John said. He really meant it. The Arbiter was a skilled warrior with vast talents.

"Likewise" The Arbiter replied. John grabbed seven Plasma Grenades and The Arbiter grabbed the remaining six.

"3…2…1…NOW" he yelled and he primed two grenades and lobbed them at Truth. They latched on to him along with two of Arbiter's. Before they had chance to detonate he lobbed two more and Truth was blasted out of his chair. The Covenant, just figuring out what had happened, were caught by John's fire. John was forced to duck as they returned fire and plasma slashed at the air above him. He primed two Frag Grenades and lobbed them. There was a bang followed by the howls of Brutes and the screams of Jackals. The Arbiter fired both his Plasma Rifles until they overheated and he then threw a Frag Grenade under a group of Jackals and they scattered but were caught by the shrapnel. John turned back round the corner and unloaded a clip of his MA8B into a group of Brutes who were pinning the Arbiter down. After a few headshots they all went down. There weren't that many left now but he didn't let his guard down. After seven more minutes of continuous fire and ducking down behind cover the Covenant forces were all dead. John double checked every corpse as he walked through them. He looked at a suspicious Drone and it flew up and shot John in the chest. His shield was half gone but The Arbiter quickly put an end to him. John waited until his shield had recharged before carrying on. When he reached Truths body he ripped it from its chair and hauled it over his shoulder. He checked to see if he was still alive and found that he was unconscious. When they had checked all the bodies they John took some grenades and made a trap around the door and around the brightly glowing ball that was The Arc. There, that should keep them from getting near it until we get back, he thought. John checked his weapon and turned to The Arbiter,

"Right, when we get back to the surface I want you to get as many of your men as you can and get them down here, not Hunters. I will radio Lord Hood and get him to send down a lot of automated turrets. Ok?" John asked,

"I understand." He replied.

"Lets go then" he said and he turned and ran out the door. After the long journey back to the portal John stopped for a quick breather from the constant running. The portal glowed an eerie orange and it hurt John's eyes. The Arbiters armour was scratched and chipped. John looked at his own and it was no better. It had paint missing and hydrostatic gel was leaking from underneath one of his arm joints. The thick liquid emerged and then bubbled. His arm was hurt and he had a feeling that it was sprained and bruised. John stepped into the portal and was greeted by darkness.