Disclaimer: I do not own any products of the Halo franchise.
A/N: Just to let you know in advance, you might realize that some of my views were changed from the game in this prologue, mostly because I thought they would suit my story a little better. Please review.
Prologue
The battle raged on between the Jiralhanae and the combat forms of the Flood at the docking station of the Ark. Gratinus was the commanding officer of his Jiralhanae unit, which was ordered to protect the docking station until the ship took off. His unit had done a good job swatting away any Unngoy that tried to sneak onto the sacred ship, but they had not expected a swarm of Flood combat forms to crash a human dropship into the station and start to destroy his task force. The Jiralhanae under Gratinus' orders shot, smashed, and even cut the combat forms down but they kept getting back up as if nothing happened.
Gratinus saw one of the combat forms make a break for the grav lift leading to the Ark and quickly fumbled for a grenade on his belt. He finally got a hold of it, pressing the activation button almost immediately and then tossed it at the combat form. It stuck onto the back of the Flood specimen's head and Gratinus exhaled a sigh of relief as the combat form exploded, his human host's innards staining the fur of the Jiralhanae around the blast radius.
The Jiralhanae commander looked around the small battlefield and saw the numbers of his troops depleting. "Fall back to grav lift," barked Gratinus in English. His units were confused and Gratinus soon corrected himself and spoke in his native tongue to the rest of his squad. The Prophets had taken a liking to the despicable human language and had forced all the high ranking officers to learn it and soon they would make the whole population learn the language as well. Gratinus had often caught himself speaking in the demonic language in mistake for his own.
His squad understood his new orders and fell back to the grav lift, firing their weapons at the approaching Flood forces. Gratinus started to back up to the grav lift as well and noticed some ammo for his personal grenade launcher. He took the ammo from his fallen brethren and reloaded.
The combat forms continued to push on but their forces were finally winding down as well but the unthinkable happened in front of Gratinus' eyes. The grav lift at the far end of the docking station, coming from the Prophet's inner sanctum, spat out the Demon the Covenant feared so much.
The Demon didn't waste anytime as he started to fire his two weapons at an incredible rate. The ammo the humans used tore through the combat forms approaching the Jiralhanae and his units. The combat forms fell quickly. Gratinus was about to order his squad to kill the Demon but they had already started firing. It had become a sort of sixth sense for all covenant units to shoot at the Demon without orders, something that was favored by some commanding officers and hated by others.
The human, however, dodged the grenades and plasma bolts with ease and started to turn his attention to the Jiralhanae beside Gratinus. His units fell from the projectiles much quicker than Gratinus had expected but then he remembered that the combat forms might have shot his men a few times.
Gratinus charged the Demon with his bayonet attached to his grenade launcher but the human side-stepped and drew one of the Sangheili's famed energy swords and started to slash at Gratinus. The officer narrowly dodged the blade but he could feel some of his skin burn.
The Jiralhanae commander tried to hit the Demon with the blade on the underside of his weapon but the Demon was too fast. The human got behind Gratinus and plunged the energy sword through his back and out his chest.
The Jiralhanae looked down at the sword and saw the blood being evaporated by the plasma sword as it tried ooze down his chest. The human pulled the sword out of his body and then the blood started to flow through the two identical holes in Gratinus' back and chest. Gratinus fell to his knees and screamed his last words in resonating English, "Glory to the Prophets!" The commander fell down to his stomach and watched the Demon board the Ark.
The Arbiter had finally caught up to Tartarus in the control room, but the mad "Brute" Chieftain had started the sacred ring's weapon even after he heard what the monitor had to say.
Tartarus had leaped to the complex in the center of the room and left his Jiralhanae soldiers to combat the Arbiter. It mattered not to the scarred Sangheili because no matter what Tartarus left for him, he would make the Jiralhanae chieftain pay for his actions.
The Arbiter charged the Jiralhanae, activating his energy sword halfway to the enemy. The Jiralhnae fired their grenade launchers but the Sangheili's sword swatted the grenades away into the abyss to their sides. The Arbiter reached the units and slashed his sword diagonally down onto one of the Jiralhnae's chest. The smell of the burning hair penetrated the Arbiter's nose but he continued slashing the chieftain's soldier until he fell to the ground.
The Arbiter quickly turned around to fight another but saw that the Sangheili rebels had already joined the fray. The four Sangheili he first saw were decorated with gold armor and made quick work of the Jiralhanaes that tried to stop them from approaching. The Arbiter spoke to the other rebels, "My Sangheili brethren, I will fight Tartarus alone and I know this may sound suicidal but I have my own personal needs that have to be fulfilled here."
One of the Sangheili almost spoke up but was interrupted by the human named Johnson, "Well then, enough of that, go kill the damn monkey already."
The Arbiter nodded and then turned around and ran off the ledge. The Arbiter flowed through the air and rolled into his landing on the complex. He activated his sword again and this time heard the crackling noise louder than he ever had before. He ran around the barricade he was behind and moved into the center of the complex. There was a grav lift in the center of platform and there were four symmetrical barricades to the one he was just behind, and there was also some weapon containers spread out across the floor. He could now see Tartarus charging at him from the right with his hammer held up high.
Tartarus brought down his hammer onto the Arbiter but the Sangheili reacted just in time to roll out of the way. The hammer created some shockwaves of energy that brought his shield down halfway. It would have been a lot worse if I didn't move. "
The Jiralhnae chieftain didn't take a break though, and already had his hammer swinging sideways at the Arbiter's head before the Sangheili could even lift his weapon. He ducked this time and dodged all the plasma shockwaves and watched as his shield recharged.
Tartarus recovered from his swing and backed up a step and stood up straight. "Answer this for me Arbiter; How did you survive that fall?" asked the Jirahlnae with a smile spread across his face.
The Sangheili questioned in his mind why Tartarus would create small talk but then responded, "It seems someone besides the humans has a score to settle with the Prophets," said the Arbiter, raising his sword as he spoke, "I guess this someone had taken a liking to me and the Demon and thought we could stop the Prophets plan."
The chieftain's smile turned into a disgusted look. "You ally yourself with the Demon," said Tartarus, as he started to run for the Arbiter, hammer held up high, "You really are vermin!"
The Arbiter started to run as well readying his sword for a swing. The Arbiter was done with words and it seemed the same for the chieftain. They both screamed their battle cries and then swung their weapons at the same time. Tartarus swung his hammer from the side while the Arbiter swung his blade from the side as well.
Tartarus swatted the Arbiter away from him with his hammer and watched as the crumpled Sangheili, gasped for breath. He then felt something weird in his neck and felt it. He touched a gash and quickly pulled his hand back and looked at the blood on his fingers. The great chieftain cursed in his native tongue and then fell to the ground, dead.
The Arbiter slowly got up, coughing up blood and watched his shields recharge. He looked down at the dead chieftain and looked up to see the female human grab the icon. Maybe things were finally looking up.