A/N: I do not own Halo or any of it's products
Chapter 2
Guilty Spark had to think about the question for a second to answer. "My creators never encrypted such valuable information into my memory system." The monitor could read the facial expressions on the two humans as well as he could read data. The reclaimers were both disappointed in Guilty Spark.
"Excuse me oracle," said the Elite behind the reclaimers, "Is there anyplace where we find out where this 'Ark' is?"
Oracle. Spark had researched the definition of the word thousands of times, but he never understood why the Covenant kept calling him this. What also puzzled the monitor was that this particular Elite was wearing forerunner armor. Of course, it was modified to fit the Elite's body. Spark returned to the section of his memory that could answer the Elite's question.
"Actually," replied the monitor, "In the control room on installation 01, there is information on the Ark and where it is located."
"Then the Covenant's already got their slimy hands on that info," exclaimed Johnson. The frail reclaimer looked up at the Elite, "Sorry."
The Elite turned away from the reclaimer and faced Guilty Spark again. "Actually, our Covenant fleet had been ordered to find the ring," claimed the Elite, "We had no luck and then were ordered to…"
"Destroy Reach?" questioned Miranda. The female reclaimer, at times, had been much more masculine than the male reclaimer, but the monitor had noticed this trend with his experiences with the past reclaimer and his own monitor. Guilty Spark had looked through Miranda's neural implant and used it to look at the main database. He had been given resistance by similar monitors to the one he met on installation 04, but he quickly immobilized them. Spark found out that the monitors he had seen were actually made by a whole race of reclaimers on some planet called "Earth." The name had sounded familiar but he shrugged the idea off.
"Yes," responded the Elite, "But the thing I was trying to say was that that ring hasn't been found yet." Guilty Spark tried to prove what the Elite said was true, but he couldn't get enough information from the resources he had.
"Then you don't mind oh holy oracle, if you tell us where this ring is," said Johnson, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. The monitor was pleased that he could answer the reclaimer's question.
Corporal Alec Rines had been stuck in the damn scarab while the Sergeant and that Elite charged in guns a blazing. The stench of the methane coming from the grunts continuously playing with their tank nozzles was driving him mad. Alec cocked back his M6D and watched the grunts scramble for cover. They cursed at him and went to the upper level of the scarab. Alec smirked and headed upstairs as well.
"Where the hell are you going?" screamed the private manning the scarab. Alec hadn't known him before and with all honestly didn't care if he ever did.
"Upstairs," responded the Corporal, "Gotta check on those covenant bastards, private." The private looked away from Alec after the last comment and went back to his station.
While Alec walked, he saw his relfection in the small mirror. Someone must have brought it on. Alec tried to walk away, but he couldn't help looking at himself. He had definitely changed since he was at home. His old life was peaceful. He had lived in New York City. He was actually surprised at the few numbers there were at Earth boot camp. Of course, he did realize it wasn't exactly everyone's dream to fight aliens.
Killing aliens was always one of the Corporal's dreams. When he had heard of the invasion, he nearly fainted with excitement. The only problem was, the military didn't recruit assassins. Alec had to get a new identity to join the army, or else he was going to be hunted like the aliens he wanted to kill. Alec was actually lucky enough to find someone in New York that had his name and looked very similar to him. He quickly did away with this other Alec and made a few hair adjustments. Within one day, Alec had joined the military.
The Corporal shook himself out of his flashback and walked upstairs. He looked out into the sky and took a deep breath. The air was so clean on Delta Halo. A weird smell entered Alec's nose and looked around for the grunts. Then a Covenant Cruiser eclipsed the sun above Alec and engulfed the Scarab in shadows.