The Ballad of Halo
By Kahchraine the Old, c.2938 CE(Old Earth Calendar)
Once, a long time ago,
Humanity sailed the stars.
But we were under attack by a brutal evil
When our story starts.
A cruiser, the Pillar of Autumn,
Fled a losing battle
By pure random chance, however,
It stumbled upon the ring world Halo.
A marvelous thing of beauty, Halo,
But coveted by the Devils of the Covenant, it was.
And thus, they attacked our brave starship
And boarded it to take it down.
A call to arms went up among our soldiers
But their efforts were to no avail.
So they played their last and final card
They released the SPARTAN-II.
John-117 was a Devil killing machine,
He ran through the invaders like swiss cheese.
But the ship had sustained too much damage,
And so the captain cried "Run! Flee!"
Alone of all aboard his lifepod to survive,
The SPARTAN landed barely alive.
He had barely set one foot upon the strange new world,
When the Devils attacked, their assault renewed.
Escaping the Devil's evil weapons
The SPARTAN found more survivors.
Encouraged by this new prospect
He set forth to save more soldiers.
In total he found nearly seventy men
But the most important one was missing.
For Captain Jacob Keyes was a prisoner;
The Devils wanted him to sing.
The marines mounted a rescue mission
And infiltrated the Devil's ship.
Against all odds they made it out,
And sorely did the Devils flip.
The SPARTAN's living computer Cortana
Had found out some valuable stuff.
Among them how to activate Halo
But finding out where was gonna be tough.
To an isle they went, named the Silent Cartographer,
To find the location of the Devil's impending doom.
Finally after much effort they found it
And thus began the assault on the control room..
How long they battled, only they knew.
But at last they found their activator.
But then, as Cortana entered it,
She found the Captain in danger.
The SPARTAN searched high and low
For the Captain and his team.
But what he found was even worse
Then the worst of his dreams.
The Flood they were named by their creators
And true to their name they were.
Mutant zombies of assimilated soldiers,
They were more than the SPARTAN could take.
But saved he was, when in the swamp,
Strange flying machines imparted
Destruction upon the Flood, and the words
"I am 343 Guilty Spark."
Spark took the SPARTAN to a place called the library,
Where he called him a Reclaimer.
It seemed that he had to find some Index
And activate the entire ring structure.
Find it, he did, and brought he was,
Back to his original position.
But there Cortana faced him and cried
"Chief, Halo is no weapon!"
Spark had lied-Halo could destroy all;
The humans, the Devils, maybe Spark as well.
The SPARTAN had to destroy it, but before he could,
Machines, Flood and Devils arrived, in a very bad mood.
He had to deactivate three pulse generators
That would activate the cruiser and destroy Halo.
After two exhausting battles, Cortana smiled and said
"Cheer up, only one to go!"
But after that, Cortana still frowned,
For they needed Keyes, and the implants he held.
They found him on the Covenant cruiser
Part of the Flood's growing power.
So the SPARTAN plunged his hand in,
And pulled out what was left of Keyes' brain.
Then he stole a Banshee and soared for freedom,
To the Pillar of Autumn's main.
Landing in the wreck, the SPARTAN found the Flood
And the monitor, Devils and more.
But never ceasing in his labors, he pressed on
To create a gaping maw.
Activating the engines, the SPARTAN ran.
Grabbing a jeep, he mowed down anything in his way,
To get to the single starfighter
And get out of the way.
With just seconds left to spare, he ran into the fighter
And soared into the sky with a single push.
Moments later, Halo exploded
But victory was lost in sadness' crush.
For two thousand marines were gone, snuffed out
In a single fiery stroke.
The SPARTAN bowed his head in remembrance,
And then began the long journey home.
THE END