Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.

A/N: No offence to you Arbiter fans out there, but I'm more interested in Master Chief's story than his. The Arbiter just came out of nowhere while the Chief already has a reputation and background. It's a lot easier to write about the Chief than about the Arbiter. Therefore, I think that the Chief chapters will be more interesting that the Arbiter chapters, although I will try my hardest to make the Arbiter chapters nice and interesting. Thanks for reading this and thanks for the support!

Another A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 3: Conflicting Purposes.

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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant

Chapter 3

Conflicting Purposes

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As the Phantom closed in on the abandoned city of High Charity, the Arbiter turned to the two humans and announced that they would be arriving at the docking bay where the Undefeated Glory was docked soon. The two humans nodded their acknowledgement and the Arbiter started to walk away. The two humans looked at each other but it was the Sergeant who spoke the unspoken question.

"What if the ship is filled with Flood when we get to it?" asked Johnson, "Are we gonna fight it?"

"Yes we will have to," replied the Arbiter, "If we don't, then we'll be stuck on High Charity forever; we will perish."

"Oh good, and here I thought we were running away from a perfectly good fight," grinned Sergeant Johnson.

"But we will have to be careful. One less fighter for us means one more for them," warned Keyes.

"You underestimate us, Human," said a nearby Elite, "We will cut through the parasite and they will burn until there's nothing left!"

"Tell that to all the Elite combat forms out there," growled Johnson. Everyone was speechless for a few minutes while Johnson and the Elite stared at each other with open hostility.

"Calm down you two, we're supposed to be friends remember?" said Keyes.

"Friends my ass," snorted Johnson. "I can accept that we have to work together as allies to destroy the Covenant and the Flood, but friends? I don't think so."

"Without us, you can not destroy the Covenant. We have all the ships with the plasma cannons! We have the superior slipspace drives! We have all the technology the Covenant have! Without us you wouldn't stand a chance again the Covenant, and you will die," boasted the arrogant Elite that spoke earlier.

"Shut the hell up, squid-face," retorted Johnson, although he know full well that the Elite is right.

The effects of those words were immediate. Commander Keyes gasped loudly while most of the Elites that were listening flexed their muscles threateningly. Most of them had taken a step or two towards Johnson, trying to intimidate him into backing off or apologizing. The Sergeant did neither.

"Johnson! Apologize to them right now!" ordered Keyes once she regained her composure.

"But ma'am..."

"Do it Johnson! That's an order!"

"Yes ma'am," sighed Johnson. He turned towards the Elites. "Sorry."

"Properly Johnson."

"That will not be necessary..." interrupted the Arbiter.

"Miranda Keyes," supplied Commander Keyes, sensing that the Arbiter didn't know what to call her. Then she stuck out her hand.

Luckily, the Arbiter had studied this sort of human behaviour and knew how to respond to it. He grasped the Commander's hand and shook it.

"Now to business. When we get to the Undefeated Glory, I want you all to be prepared for anything. There may be traps set but the Covenant, the Flood, or even the Demon, so I want you to look out for anything suspicious. Is that clear?"

"Yes Holy Arbiter," said almost everyone in unison.

"Good. We will discuss more of this once we retake that flagship."

"Holy Arbiter, we are approaching the Undefeated Glory. I estimate that we have about thirty seconds before we land," said the pilot of the Phantom.

"Warriors! Grab your gear and prepare for landing. Keep your eyes peeled for the parasite and any Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, and Yanme'e," commanded the Arbiter as the Phantom descended upon High Charity slowly.

"Yes Arbiter!" the Elites and Grunts aboard the Phantom said in unison. The Phantom touched down about a hundred metres away from the Undefeated Glory.

"Let's go and meet the ship captain and tell him of our current situation," said the Arbiter as he went down the gravity lift.

"I'll try to contact them on the Undefeated Glory's COMM system," said the Zealot that greeted the two humans back in the control room of Delta Halo. He pulled out a strange device that was unfamiliar to the two humans and pushed a button on it. Two strips of shiny purple material popped out and hovered slightly above the device as a holo-panel appeared between the two purple rods. The golden Elite talked in an alien tongue and pressed a few buttons button. After a few minutes, he tried again, which got the same result – a continuous static.

"It's no use Holy Arbiter, the ship's communications system must be down. Either that or there's no one on the other end," said the Zealot after a few more tries.

"Ready your weapons warriors, and be prepared for anything," said the Arbiter as he heard the high pitch sound of Phantoms approaching, "Who are they? Contact them and see if they're allies or enemies."

"It's no use Holy Arbiter! All we get is static and they refuse to give us visual confirmation so we can't see their faces!" the Zealot replied, "Look how many Phantoms there are, and look! There are human dropships as well!"

"We've got company!" yelled Johnson as five Phantoms crashed about two hundred metres behind them and Flood infection forms came out of them, flanked by combat forms, and with carrier forms bringing up the rear.

"Watch out! There's more here! They're trying to flank us!" cried Keyes as two more crashed to their left. Another Phantom, along with two Pelicans crashed to their right as the rest crashed all around High Charity. As soon as each dropship crashed, Flood infection forms started pouring out of them, followed closely by combat forms, and finally, bringing up the rear, were the grotesquely bloated carrier forms.

"Warriors, fire at will!" ordered the Arbiter as plasma rifle and carbine fire filled the air. The infection forms were easy to deal with considering most of the Elites had shielding and Keyes and Johnson both had automatic weapons. The combat forms presented a bit more of a problem. Even though all of the Elites that the Arbiter had with him had fought the Flood before, they inevitably made some mistakes. When the Arbiter's carbine ran out of ammo, he threw it as hard as he could and it hit a carrier form at the back, causing it to fall backwards and explode...right on top of a Elite Minor. The Elite gasped in surprise as the weight of the carrier form pinned him to the ground. His roar was cut short however, when the carrier exploded right on top of him, overloading its shields in an instant. Then the infection forms that just came out of it made quick work of the shieldless Elite. The Arbiter then closed his eyes and muttered an oath. He then drew his plasma sword and charged into battle.

The Arbiter's first victim was a human Flood combat form. It jumped at him, attempting to hit him with its tentacled fist, but at the last possible moment, the Arbiter sidestepped, causing the attack to miss him. The Flood warrior hit the metal ground and made a slight dent in the hard Covenant metal. He Arbiter then swiftly brought down his sword, neatly dissecting the Flood soldier. As soon as the combat form had split in half, something hit the Arbiter's shields, causing it to glow a blinding white for a split second. A small green puff of Flood spores landed on his back. He looked behind him and saw hundreds of infection forms...no more than ten meters away. It appeared that one lone infection form had hit his shields, and accidentally alerted the Arbiter about the danger that lurked behind him.

The Arbiter shuddered at the thought of what might've happened if he didn't notice the hoard of parasites behind him. He started to slowly back up as the parasitic creatures rushed at him – en masse. He ran backwards, and had his sword ready, slicing any infection forms that jumped at him. After chopping a few dozen of these little parasites to pieces, his sword made a hissing sound as it collapsed. He turned around to run back to the Phantom he came in, hoping to find a plasma rifle, since they were the best weapon to kill the infection forms. He turned back to see how far the Flood were from him and unluckily, he tripped over a dead Elite's body.

"May the Forerunners have mercy on my soul," thought the Arbiter as the seemingly endless way of infection forms rushed at him. He got into a crouched position, and got ready to fight the Flood, when he stepped on something metallic. It was a carbine. Although it wasn't as effective as a plasma rifle, it was at least better than fighting with his fist. He picked up the carbine and stood up. The infection forms directly in front of him jumped up and attempted to sink their tentacles into the Arbiter, but the Arbiter flicked his carbine at them. The impact of the butt of the carbine making contact with the parasites' soft bodies caused one to explode, which caused a chain reaction. Small pops followed one another before the chain stopped. Ten infection forms were killed. He recovered quickly from his melee position, levelled his carbine, and shot three times. Three infection forms exploded due to the radioactive energy projectiles. His shot seven more times when the ammo indicator on the carbine turned red, signifying that the pod had no more radioactive energy to shoot out.

There were still enough infection forms left to overload his shields and infect him though. He glanced left and right to find a weapon, and the closest weapon he found was a shotgun about forty metres away. He knew that the infection forms would overtake him before he got to the shotgun, so he stood his ground, accepting his fate.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Three infection forms exploded.

What is going on?

Thump! Thump! Thump! Three more exploded. He looked to his right, and saw the human male holding what looked like a battle rifle. The muzzle of the BR55 flashed three more times. Three thumps could be heard, and three infection forms blew up. He activated his suit's COM system and contacted Johnson.

"Thank you, human."

"No prob. Now get back here and help us kill these ugly freaks will ya?"

The Arbiter couldn't help but grin at the Sergeant's comment. He ran towards the shotgun he saw earlier, and found that he was in luck. The shotgun itself was empty but beside it rested two cartridges of twenty-four shells. He loaded the shotgun up, stored the rest of the shells in a compartment on his armour, and ran back towards the centre of the battle, just in time to see a red Elite sticking a plasma grenade to a combat form. The combat form took no notice of the blue explosive on his body as he kept charging. The Elite Major stared in horror as his grenade exploded and killing three of his brother Elites and draining all of his shields. Then, as if sensing that he was weak, dozens of infection forms swarmed him and consumed him, turning the once proud Sangheili warrior into a grotesquely mutated Flood form. The Arbiter watched in anger as his fellow warriors were consumed by the Flood and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

By the time he was physically beside his fellow warriors again, the Flood has already consumed fully half of his warriors, although the humans were somehow still alive. Although the Flood's casualties were ten times higher than the casualties of the Elites, the Flood warriors kept on coming.

A Zealot was being hard pressed by three combat forms when he ran out of energy for his sword, he muttered an oath under his breath as he pulled out a plasma rifle and sprayed his enemies with plasma. The combat form took no notice of the plasma as it burned off half of its flesh. As the combat form was about to strike, it suddenly received an eight gauge magnum buckshot in its arm, causing it to rip off completely. The three Flood forms turned around and looked at the one responsible, the Arbiter, and charged at him instead. Two of them were down before the reached the Arbiter but the third one had a lucky shot and knocked the shotgun out of the Arbiter's hands. The Flood warrior struck again and again while the Arbiter defended himself as best as he could without a weapon. The Zealot tried to help but he couldn't fire his rifle into the fray, afraid that he might hit the Arbiter. The Zealot tried to pry the combat form off of the Arbiter, but another infected Elite came up behind him and broke his spine. The Zealot fell limply to the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, the Arbiter continued to wrestle with his opponent, and before long, his shields were drained. Then Flood warrior pulled back its arm to deliver the finishing blow but as he swung it, the arm blew right off of its hinges as a beam of green energy hit it. The flesh melted the arm detached just below the elbow. Both the Sangheili and parasite warriors looked in surprise as another shot hit the infection form in its chest cavity. As the Flood warrior fell, the Arbiter look at where the shot came from and saw Sergeant Johnson grinning at him, holding a carbine.

"You've saved me again. Thank you," was all the Arbiter said before picking up his shotgun and returned to fighting the Flood.

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While the ex-Covenant and the two humans were busy fighting the Flood, a lone Longsword Fighter closes in on the Flood infested city of High Charity. Aboard the Longsword, three Spartans wearing MJOLNIR Mark IV armour watched the scene from above as they argued on what they should do.

"It looks like the enemy is fighting the Flood on down there," said the first Spartan, Stephen-072.

"We noticed, but what should we do about it? Should we let them fight it out and when one side's lost, we can go in and mop up the remaining forces?" said another Spartan, Charles-069.

"Or we can just leave and do nothing about it. It's their fight after all, and not ours," said the remaining Spartan, Jonathan-023.

"Let's bring the Longsword closer and get a closer view of what's going on. Then we can decide on what to do," suggested Stephen.

"Alright," said Charles as he pushed a series of buttons on the control panel. The Longsword Fighter's engines came to life as it started closing in on High Charity. When they were no more than two hundred metres above the city, Jonathan-023 noticed something.

"Hey, aren't those two humans? What are they doing fighting alongside the enemy?" asked Jonathan.

"Traitors! Goddam traitors!" roared Charles.

"Let's just shoot them all and be done with it," said Stephen.

"But shouldn't we at least take the two humans back so we can take them back to Earth? They could face the consequences of their actions there," said Jonathan.

"Alright fine, let's go," said Charles as he pushed some more buttons. The Longsword then unpacked its landing gear and slowly approached the ground. When they were no more than ten feet off the ground, a hail of plasma hit their exit hatch, fusing the metal on the hatch with the metal on the frame, effectively preventing them from getting out.

"Goddammit! I knew this was a bad idea! Now how the hell are we supposed to get out?" said Charles in rage.

"Chill out man, I got some cutting tools here," said Jonathan as he opened a bag and took out a high power laser.

"But then how are we supposed to escape one we're done?" inquired Stephen.

"We'll just hijack one of those Covenant cruisers or something. John's done it, why can't we? After we do that, then we'll fly that out. We were running out of fuel anyway on the Longsword," Jonathan said calmly.

"Alright, let's cut down this door and go kick some ass!" cried Stephen.

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After a few more minutes of intense fighting, the Sangheili warriors suffered more losses. Although it wasn't as bad as the beginning, their defences were crumbling quickly. When the Arbiter saw another human ship approaching them, he ordered his warriors to fire upon the hatch where troops would come out so that the Flood that was inside couldn't get out unless they broke the hatch. That way, they wouldn't be completely swarmed under until they broke the hatch. When a spark emitted from the hatch, the Arbiter knew that whatever was in the ship had some sort of cutting tool. When a large block me metal fell away from the human craft, the Arbiter let out a gasp of surprise at what he saw.

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"Alright, I almost have it!" said Jonathan as he cut through the metallic door with ease.

"Jon, Charles, take these," said Stephen as he picked up two fully loaded MA5B Assault Rifles and ten extra clips of ammo and tossed them to the two other Spartans. "Remember guys, we don't have energy shields like the rest of the Spartans do, so try not to get hit."

"Yes sir."

Stephen then turned and grabbed another MA5B Assault Rifle for himself. He then picked up about five clips of extra ammo for himself before he turned around. After a few more seconds of cutting, a large patch of metal fell away and landed with a loud clunk.

"Let's go," said Stephen as the three Spartans exited the Longsword Fighter.

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A/N: If you're wondering how come there are Spartans here, it's because according to Halo: Fall of Reach (the book), three Spartans were away on distant missions and couldn't return to protect Reach. These three are the Spartans that were away.

Another A/N: Jonathan, Stephen, and Charles don't have shields because they weren't there when the rest of the Spartans got the shielded MJOLNIR suits because they were "too far away to be easily recalled". That's why they have the MJOLNIR Mark IV armour instead of the MJOLNIR Mark V armour.