Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: The flashback section is directly copied from the book Halo: The Fall of Reach page 287 to page 291. It's not word for word but it's pretty darn close. I was going to write my own flashback...but then I realized that they already had one, so I just took that. Please don't flame me for it since I'm telling you right here and now that that part isn't my work. All I did was change the words a bit so it's not word for word, and cut out some parts.
Another A/N: Let's all assume the Chief knows the original names for the Covenant (and ex-Covenant) races (i.e. Sangheili, Lekgolo, Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, etc.). I mean, Cortana's probably told him sometime during his missions. Since I don't know the name for a Prophet, they'll just be called Prophets, by both the humans and the aliens.
Yet Another A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 2: The Sangheili Heretics.
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 2
The Sangheili Heretics
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"What happened? All I remember was the Brute beating me against a wall. Damn. I'd better contact Admiral Hood to let him know what's going on."
John-117 opened his eyes and found himself in a cell surrounded by walls on three sides and an energy barrier on the last. He knew, without checking, that the Brutes took all his weapons and grenades away from him. He was, however, glad that he still had his MJOLNIR armour with him.
He contacted Lord Hood immediately to let him know that he was still alive, but captured. The Admiral received this news quite calmly, despite the seriousness of the situation. He merely told the Chief to continue with his mission and to continue contacting the Cairo whenever something new came up. Once done, John closed the COM channel to the Cairo, and got up to survey his surroundings a bit more carefully.
"The Demon is awake!" squeaked a voice from beyond the energy barrier that's keeping him in.
John spun around as fast as he could and saw a Grunt. His first instinct was to charge at it and take it down before it could get its defences up. His charge went on for a full two seconds before he slammed into the energy barrier and it blasted him back into the back wall.
Alien laughter could be heard from outside of the cell and he felt himself lose control. He knew that he couldn't penetrate the barrier without some sort of weapon, however, so he used the wall to relieve him of his pent up frustration. Two seconds later, his fist slammed into the wall and a small crater appeared in it. All in all, after this little display of anger, he felt a bit better. Then he realized what he had done. He had never lost control like that before, and he was ashamed of doing it now.
"Demon," said another much more quieter voice, but from the same direction.
The Chief stood still, pretending that he didn't hear this new voice. Then an orange light on his helmet started flashing, telling him that someone was trying to contact him on his COM device. He answered it but as soon as the voice spoke, he wished that he hadn't.
"Demon, we do not wish to fight you," said the voice, "All we wish is revenge upon the Jiralhanae."
"Who are you? I know that your part of the Covenant and-" replied the Spartan.
"No! You are wrong! We are not!" the voice cut him off in an angry voice.
"Bullshit! You and those Brutes might be fighting each other, but you're still part of the Covenant, and I'll kill myself before I have any kind of dealings with you, unless it's watching you die by my hands, of course."
"Demon, you are more troublesome than we could've ever imagined. I think I'd rather face you in combat with no armour nor weapons than try to talk to you."
There was some laughter from the other end. The Chief stood there and didn't answer. After a brief pause, the voice spoke again.
"Let me explain. We were ejected from the Covenant. The Jiralhanae and the Sangheili have been enemies for years and it was only the Prophets that stopped us from slaughtering each other for all these years. Then everything changed. Ever since you Demons were first seen on the battlefield, we have made it one of our top priorities to destroy you. We sent wave after wave of Unggoy and Kig-Yar after you but you defeated then with ease. The Prophets then suggested that we were losing our skills and maybe that the Jiralhanae would be more efficient than us. We were enraged at this suggestion and we even sent Sangheili warriors after you, but one by one, they too, fell before you. Even the mighty Zealots and SpecOps Commanders died by your hands. We almost gave up hope, but then we found the Human military stronghold that we've been searching for for years."
"Reach..." whispered the Chief, his anger rising again, but he checked it, before he did something stupid or rash.
---Flashback---
The Master Chief, and the rest of his squad, were aboard the Pillar of Autumn, and were about to enter Slipspace, to carry out their top-secret mission when the Pillar of Autumn turned around slowly.
Kelly walked towards him. "Sir? I thought we were accelerating to enter Slipspace?"
"So did I. Have Fred and Joshua continue prepping the tubes. Have Linda get a team and secure our gear. I'll go find out what's going on," replied John.
He walked towards the intercom panel and pressed a button. "Cortana, we've changed course. Is there a problem?"
Instead of her voice, however, Captain Keyes spoke over the channel. "Captain Keyes to Spartan-117."
"Yes sir?" he replied.
"There has been a change of plans," There was a pause. "It'll be easier to explain face to face. I'm on my way down to brief you. Keyes out."
A few minutes later, the elevator doors opened and Captain Keyes stepped off the lift.
"Captain on the deck!" John shouted, and the Spartans stood at attention
"At ease," Keyes said, although the expression on his face suggested that ease was the last thing on his mind.
"There's something wrong. Very wrong," Keyes said to John after a moment of pause. "Let's talk in private."
"Sir, unless you'd like to leave the deck, the Spartans will hear everything we say," said the Master Chief.
Keyes turned around and looked at the Spartans. "I see. Very well then, your squad might as well hear this too." There was a pause before he continued. "I don't know how they did it, but they found Reach. They bypassed a dozen Inner Colony worlds to get here. It doesn't matter. They are here, and we have to do something.
"Sir? 'They'?"
"The Covenant," replied Keyes. He turned to the intercom. "Cortana, display the last priority Alpha transmission please."
A screen flickered on and the Master Chief, and the rest of the Spartans, read the transmission in silence.
"Cortana has picked up ship signatures on the Pillar of Autumn's sensors," said Captain Keyes. "She's not sure how many there are but there appears to be over a hundred Covenant ships heading towards Reach. We have to go. We have our orders. Section Three's mission is to be scrubbed."
"Scrubbed? Sir?" said John in surprise. He's never had a mission cancelled before.
"Yes Master Chief, if Reach falls, it'll be all over for us."
"Yes sir."
"Good, we'll be arriving at rally point Zulu in twenty minutes," said Captain Keyes as he turned to leave. "Oh, and Master Chief, when we get there, be prepared for anything."
"Sir! Yes sir!" John saluted.
Captain Keyes returned the salute and entered the elevator.
John turned to the rest of the Spartans and they stopped what they were doing.
"You all heard. This is it. Fred and James, I want you to refit one of our Pelicans. Get every scrap of C-12 and shape a charge on her nose. If Captain Keyes downs a Covenant shield, we may have to blast our way into the ship's hull."
Fred and James replied, "Aye sir."
"Linda, assemble a team and get into every crate ONI packed for us and distribute that gear ASAP. Make sure everyone gets a thrusters pack, plenty of ammo, grenades, and Jackhammer launchers if we have them. If we do get on board, we may encounter those armoured Covenant types again, and this time, I want the firepower to take them our."
"Yes sir!"
As the Spartans scrambled to make ready for the mission, the Master Chief approached Kelly. On a private COM channel, he told her, "Crate thirteen on the manifest has three HAVOK nuclear mines. Get them. I have the arming cards. Ready them for transport."
"Affirmative." She paused. "Sir, I know that this mission will be tough, but do you ever get the feeling that this is like one of CPO Mendez's missions? Like there's a trick or some twist that we've overlooked?"
"Yes," he replied. "And I'm waiting for it."
---End Flashback---
"The planet was called Reach I believe, and a number of Demons were defending the orbital guns' power systems. We eventually overpowered them and killed them, at the cost of thousands of Covenant lives."
"Shut it," growled the Master Chief in a deceptively quiet voice.
"My apologies. It was not my intention to open up old wounds."
The Master Chief relaxed a bit; the voice wasn't taunting him, it was merely speaking the truth. "So tell me. How did you find Reach? As I understand it, you passed dozens of Inner Colony worlds to get to it."
"Following the destruction of ships at one of your planets...Sigma Octanus IV, I believe. We launched a tiny probe and it latched onto one of your ships. The ship it latched on to was called the Iroquois I believe."
"The Iroquois! But that was Captain Keyes's ship before he was reassigned to the Pillar of Autumn!" The memory of Captain Jacob Keyes still haunted him; he had to kill the Captain after the Flood infected him.
"It was virtually undetectable, no bigger than your head, and it looked like any other piece of debris."
"Captain Keyes..."
"Anyway, after a few days, the probe ejected a memory crystal into slipspace and one of our receiver crafts caught it. We analyzed the data the probe collected, and it appeared that it has been to a large human military stronghold, and a sacred Forerunner installation, according to its sensors."
"I see." The memory of Reach haunted him still as well; he had sent most of his squad to their deaths there.
"While we were glassing Reach, a single human ship called the Pillar of Autumn escaped our purge. The Arbiter, although he wasn't the Arbiter back then, followed with all the ships in his command. He even followed you all the way to the first Sacred Ring."
"Halo..."
"When your ship crashed upon it, we were blamed for it. The Prophets said that we were too proud of ourselves to do our duty; that we were inefficient. They gave us another chance however. They said that if we can kill you, then they'd never say that we lacked loyalty or faith ever again."
"So is that what you're going to do now? You're going to kill me?" asked the Master Chief without a hint of fear.
The voice laughed. "No, we won't. As I've said before, we've been ejected from the Covenant and all we want is vengeance. We won't kill the thing that the Prophets despise and fear the most, the Demons. You are the best chance we have at destroying the Covenant."
"What about after? After we destroy the Covenant, then what happens?"
"We will have to see then. There will be no violence from us however, unless you start it. Peace might be the best thing after this war."
Peace with the Covenant? Unheard of. When we first tried to contact them they blew us right out of space. "I don't know...when we first contacted you, your ships blew ours up without even responding...except with 'Your destruction is the will of the Gods, and we are its instrument.'"
"The circumstances are different now," the voice said shortly.
Should I trust him? Can I trust him? "Before we get any farther, who are you?"
"My apologies. My name is Zek Lemanee. I hold the rank of a SpecOps commander. I come from-"
The Chief grunted and cut Lemanee off. "Let's swap stories of our past later. Let's think of a plan to get us out of here first."
"It is impossible. These energy barriers are almost impenetrable without some sort of weapon. These can be opened with ease from the outside...but not from the inside."
"Well, the Brutes will come to retrieve us and take us to some execution chamber or something right?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Good, we'll escape them. When I turn around and hit the first Brute, I want the rest of you to follow suit."
"There's almost no chance of us taking them down! My squad consists of a large number of Unggoy as well, and Unggoy don't stand a chance against the Jiralhanae!"
"Then do you have a plan?" asked the Chief irritably.
"No, I do not. I will think of somethi-"
The door at the end of the hallway opened and they all fell silent as fifty Brutes came through it, all armed with red plasma rifles, except for the one in the front, who was armed with a grenade launcher, also known as a brute shot. The Brutes neared and deactivated all of the energy cells, including the ones that held the ex-Covenant forces.
"There's no time! You just have to trust me," hissed the Chief. He then clicked off his COM device and waited.
"Come. The High Prophet of Truth demands your audience," said the Brute captain in a cruel voice, hinting about the vast violence in the ex-Covenant and the Spartan's futures if they failed to escape.
"Watch for my signal," said John quietly to Lemanee, using a private channel on his COM system. "If this is successful, then we all get weapons, seeing how there is the same number of Brutes as there are us. If this is unsuccessful, we'll at least take down a whole platoon of Brutes as we go down."
Lemanee gave an almost imperceptible nod as the Brutes put them in a line and escorted them towards what John guessed was the bridge of the Forerunner ship. When he saw that the Brutes were slightly more relaxed, confident that none of these "heretics" and the Demon would not attack, John struck. Before the Brutes knew what hit them, a handful of them were down. The Spartan and the Elites took care of most of the Brutes that were guarding them but the Grunts weren't so lucky. The Grunts were physically weak and without weapons, they were next to useless. When the Brutes saw the Demon and the Elites attack their brethren, they took revenge upon them by massacring the Grunts. The Elites that survived rushed to help their Grunt brethren as the Spartan kicked the Brute captain and sent him flying across the room. In about five minutes, all the Brutes were dead at their feet. Although all the Grunts they had with them were dead, except three. The Chief and Lemanee looked around the room and assessed their team. There were still three Grunts, five SpecOps Elites, five Zealots, three Elite Majors and two Elite Minors left.
"This does not look well for us Demon. We have lost more than half our troops and if we keep losing them at this rate, we will eventually be overwhelmed by the Jiralhanae," said Lemanee as he and the rest of his squad picked up weapons and grenades.
"But now we have weapons, enough for us to hold two brute plasma rifles each, and we have the element of surprise as well. Plus we have well trained warriors here. These Brutes won't defeat us," replied John.
"Very well, we shall rush into the Prophet's room, and annihilate their entire filthy race and make them sorry for ever deceiving the Sangheili!" cried a Zealot as many other Elites roared in agreement.
"No," said John and Lemanee simultaneously. They looked at each other and realized that they probably held the same rank. Each being a formidable warrior and an excellent tactician, they did not know who should lead.
"Go on. Your people are waiting to hear what you have to say," said John, after a moment of awkward silence.
Lemanee nodded with respect before he went on, "I suggest we should not just simply rush in because the Brutes will swarm us under eventually, even with our formidable skills and the Demon aiding us. I say we look for an armory and retrieve better weapons before going after the Jiralhanae and the High Prophet."
"I agree. A bit of stealth and some better weapons will be good," said the Master Chief. All the Elites and Grunts stared at John for a while before Lemanee spoke again.
"We're just wasting time here. You heard what the Demon said. Let's go," said Lemanee.
"I don't appreciate being called Demon. I have a name and a rank. Master Chief will do...or at least call me Spartan instead of Demon," John said.
"We will call you whatever we choose to call you," said an Elite Minor, offended by the fact that the Demon actually demanded for them to do something for him.
"Silence," said Lemanee, "Very well, we'll call you by one of those names...Master Chief, but our mission is more vital than what we call each other. We should go."
"Yes, you're right Lemanee. Let's go," agreed John.
They proceeded through the door the Brutes were going to go through but as soon as they last of their team went through, the door closed forcefully and an alarm rang. As soon as the alarm rang, three Jackal snipers appeared through a door on the far end of the hall. The Jackal snipers saw them and immediately felled the three Grunts in front with three deadly beams of purple. The SpecOps Elite standing directly behind the Grunts roared in anger and sprayed the birdlike Covenant members them with red plasma. The Master Chief primed one of the plasma grenades he took from the dead Brutes in the detention block and threw it. It sailed through the air and landed very close to where the Jackals were standing.
The three Jackals jumped in three different directions but one unlucky Jackal jumped straight towards the plasma grenade thrown by the Master Chief. The grenade exploded and the Jackal's body was immediately vaporized. The other two Jackals looked at their Jackal brother and screeched in anger. An Elite Minor laughed at the Jackal for his errors and he paid the ultimate price for it. Two purple beams rushed through the air and hit the Elite, one after the other. The first one impacted on the Elites shield and drained it. The Elite's laughter turned into a cry of anger. The second one hit the Elite right between the eyes and the roar of anger suddenly went up by an octave as the Elite dropped his gun and fell to the ground. His fellow Elites all roared in unison and started spraying the Jackals with red plasma while other the rest threw grenades at them, try to get a stick. The agile Jackals were too fast for the grenades but weren't fast enough for the plasma fire. After dodging a few volleys of plasma, a few lucky shots hit the Jackals and they started slowing down. Eventually the hail of plasma felled them.
The Elites then calmed down a bit. The Spartan was sure that the enemy wasn't defeated so easily. This had to be a trap. They had to be luring them into a sense of false security and hope before crushing them in an ambush. He was about to warn the cheering Elites when three Brutes crashed through the door behind them while five came from the door the Jackals came through earlier. Just when John thought that it couldn't get any worse, three Brutes rushed in through the door to his left. Worse yet, all the Brutes were using some sort of modified Energy Sword. The Brutes charged as the Elites and Spartan ran to meet them. The Elites shot madly at the Brutes but it didn't seem to do any good. Two Brutes charged at the Master Chief and two charged at the SpecOps leader, sensing that they were the biggest threat. The Chief fired his brute shot four times at a Brute. A gaping wound appeared in its midsection and its non-sword arm was blown right off. Despite these wounds, the Brute kept running at the Master Chief. Even though it was limping severely now and gasping for breath, it didn't slow down much.
Damn! Three of those high velocity grenades killed Grace, and four of them doesn't even slow this thing down? Damn, they're tough.
The Brute roared his rage and kept charging. When the Brute was about two feet away from John, he rolled to the side and jumped up in one smooth motion. The Brute looked around in confusion and wondering what kind of tactic the human supersoldier was using and it found out as the sharp end of Chief's brute shot pierced its face. It fell on its back, dead, and the red plasma blade it had in its hand dropped to the ground. Thankfully, it didn't have the permanent fail-safes some of the normal plasma swords had.
The other Brute naturally went berserk as it saw its comrade being slaughtered by the Demon. The apelike alien charged at the Spartan with nothing going on his mind but killing. The Spartan vaguely remembered the last time he was overwhelmed by this tactic but he smiled as he knelt down and picked up the red energy sword. The Brute took no notice and kept on charging. When it was about eight feet away from John, he threw the red sword he picked up and jumped out of the way. The Brute charged right into the sword and its head was neatly sliced off. The body kept on going as its momentum carried it into a wall. John turned around and saw that all of the Brutes lay dead except for one, who was berserk. The Brute charged at an Elite Minor. The Elite Minor tried to stand his ground but he had no chance against the Brute as he did not have the training nor the strength of the Brute. One of the surviving Zealots snarled , picked up a red energy sword, and charged at the Brute. One swing of the powerful sword was enough to cut through the Brute's tough hide and cut into its internal organs. The Brute roared in pain and fell limply to the ground. After a few seconds of thrashing around, it finally stopped moving.
"This Brute must've been weaker than the one I fought..."
John turned around to access the situation. Only five of them remained: himself, the SpecOps leader, a wounded SpecOps Elite, and two Zealots.
"The Jiralhanae must pay for their treachery. We shall slaughter every last one of them for the Sangheili blood they have spilled." noted the wounded SpecOps Elite.
"Yes they shall," said the SpecOps leader, "We shall fall upon them like a pack of ravenous Kig-Yar and rip them to shreds!"
The Chief sensed that this wasn't the way to do this mission. The Spartan had done these kinds of missions in the past and knew that they required a lot skill and a good plan. They had the skills, just not the plans.
"Lemanee," said John.
"What is it Spartan?" asked Lemanee.
"I think you've noticed that our tactic of destroying everything in sight isn't really working. We've lost ninety-five percent of our forces and Truth probably still control entire platoons of Jackals and Brutes just waiting for us," John said bluntly. Lemanee looked surprised, then angry.
"Do not tell me how to lead my warriors Demon," retorted a slightly angry Lemanee.
"I didn't mean to insult you but from most of the missions of this kind we do. We don't do it with brute force. We usually split up into teams each specializing in a special skill such as sniping, frontal assault, demolitions, or just all around good infantry," said John.
"Who is 'we'?" asked Lemanee.
"My Spartans. There used to be seventy-five of us. I'm the only one left now that can continue active duty on the battlefield," John replied with a trace of sadness.
"I see," said Lemanee, sensing the Spartan's sadness and changed the subject, "So how should be go on with this mission?"
"We should get some better weapons first. Most of these weapons are low on ammo or battery,"
"I see. Troops, let's go find an armory!" declared Lemanee.
"May I make another suggestion?" asked John.
"I'm listening," replied Lemanee.
"What are their names? And what are their special skills? Like sniping, hand to hand combat, and etcetera. " asked John, nodding at the other Elites.
He pointed at the wounded SpecOps Elite. "He is Lad Gemenee and he is the best sniper in my squad." He gestured at the two Zealots. "The one with the energy sword is Lek Melogee, and the one with the brute plasma rifles is Alka Ardonee. They're both good at the front and are excellent at hand to hand combat."
"All right. I think that you, Ardonee, and Melogee should go in front and take any frontal assaults while Gemenee and I stay a bit behind you to pick the Covenant troops off with our carbines and snipers," suggested John.
"Hmmm. Sounds reasonable. You heard the Spartan. Get to it!"
"Hang on," said the Chief as he paused to inform Hood about his situation. He quickly established a link with Cairo Station and was talking with the Admiral within seconds. He quickly explained his situation and informed the Admiral of how the Elites are now booted out of the Covenant and are now offering to help the humans.
"So let me get this straight. The Covenant booted the Grunts, Elites and Hunters out of their order and are killing them?" asked a surprised Admiral.
"Yes, and the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters offered to help us fight the Covenant," replied John, "Should we let them help us? The rest of the human population might not be very happy about fighting alongside a race that has slaughtered thousands of humans."
"I guess we should let them help...for now. We have no other option Chief. If we don't then the Covenant will destroy the human race," said Hood.
"That is all that I have to say. With all due respect sir, I'd like to resume my mission," replied John.
"Yes. Good luck Master Chief," said Hood.
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A/N: A slightly longer chapter but not as long as what the other people are putting out. I'm hoping to get to their calibre someday but…I'm not that good yet. R&R please! I turned off Anonymous Review by accident before so I apologize if you wanted to review but couldn't. Again, thank you Justin for editing this and getting rid of all those grammar errors!