Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 4: Prophet's Demise.
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 4
Prophet's Demise
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The four Sangheili warriors and Spartan-117 snuck down the ancient halls of the Forerunner ship silently, not wanting to alert the guards of their presence or location. Every so often they'd meet a Brute or Jackal guard and they'd be put to sleep – permanently. Even though the Elites were satisfied that they were doing a good job of eliminating hostile forces quietly and with deadly efficiency, the Master Chief couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was about to happen. When they reached the armory, he finally said he had on his mind.
"Hey, Lemanee. Don't you think this is too easy? When I fought the Brutes on High Charity, I had trouble keeping myself alive. Do you think that they're trying to lure us into a false sense of security, so that they can ambush us later on?" said John, voicing his concern.
"Hahaha," chuckled Melogee. "Maybe you're not the warrior we thought you were. These Jiralhanae are a race of-"
Whatever else the Jiralhanae was, the Master Chief never found out because just then, a crate full of grenades that was in front of them exploded in a deafening blast. A torrent of plasma washed over them. The two Zealots, Melogee and Ardonee, were immediately vaporized as the plasma drained their shields and burnt through their flesh in about half a second. The SpecOps leader, Lemanee, who was slightly behind them, lost all of his shields. The force of the explosion also knocked him back into a wall, denting his armour. The two soldiers bringing up the rear only received minimal damage – only about one tenth of their shields drained.
"By the Forerunners! What was that?" exclaimed Lemanee, as he struggled to rise. His question was answered when two dozen Brutes charged out of a door on the other side of the armory.
"Open fire! Kill these filthy animals!" roared Lemanee as he activated the brute plasma sword he picked up earlier. John and Gemenee opened fire with their beam rifles while Lemanee activated his energy sword and charged. Four shots were fired from their beam rifles and four Brute bodies fell limp as the deadly purple beams penetrated the Brutes' helmets and fried their brains. Unfortunately, the beam rifles overheated, preventing them from firing for another five seconds. The Elite and Spartan then both discarded their sniper weapons and drew out their carbines.
Meanwhile, Lemanee was in there cutting up Brutes left and right as he wielded his sword with deadly efficiency. The Brutes that rushed in were dumbstruck by the ferocity of their attacks and did nothing but run around and fire aimlessly for a few precious seconds. By the time the Brutes realized that they were being slaughtered and started firing their red plasma rifles at their intended targests, most of their comrades were already dead. The remaining Brutes went berserk and charged recklessly at the closest available living thing it can beat up, and in this case it was Lemanee.
The SpecOps Commander heard the roars of the Brutes behind him and turned around just in time to get a hairy shoulder in his chest, the force of the charged drained all of his shields, which was slowly recharging, as he went flying across the armory and landed with a thud, dropping his plasma sword in the process. He groaned as he got up and tried to defend himself. The Master Chief and the Elite who accompanied him fired at the Brutes with their carbines but the Brutes seem to shrug off the painful radioactive energy burns as if they were mosquito bites.
The Brute that knocked Lemanee flying charged at him again but this time, Lemanee was ready. He neatly sidestepped the Brute's assault at the last moment and slammed his elbow into the back of the Brute's neck. The sound of breaking bones was drowned out by the Brute's roar of agony. When Lemanee turned around, he found that the Spartan and Gemenee were being hard pressed by three Brutes. He picked up the brute energy sword he had dropped earlier and leapt into the fray. The Brutes were caught off guard as a red blade of plasma came out came out of nowhere and neatly decapitated one of them. The other two turned to face Lemanee as Gemenee and John bashed them with the butt of their carbines. One of them died instantly from a broken spine but the other just turned towards Gemenee and landed a solid blow to his face. Gemenee's shields flared but it held while Lemanee sliced the Brute in half diagonally with his sword. The head, neck, and its left arm slid off of the rest of its body. It was still alive somehow and the head moaned with pain. John them came out of nowhere and stomped on its face with one armoured boot. The Brute's skull was crushed by five hundred pounds of pressure and was instantly silenced. The trio then turned around to survey the scene.
"Another two Elites gone," thought John. "At this rate we'll never survive long enough to kill Truth."
"Filthy animals. You deserved what you got," thought Gemenee.
"The Prophets and Jiralhanae will pay for this," said Lemanee.
"We should probably stock up on weapons, ammo, and grenades right now. Since we're in an armory, there should be plenty," John suggested as he ejected the nearly spent energy pod on his carbine and slapped in a new one. He then picked up six spare pods. He also picked up a plasma pistol, and a plasma rifle. He also grabbed a Covenant waist holster, since his human one didn't have enough space for a plasma rifle and pistol. He then counted out four grenades and pocketed them as well.
"Why are all these crates here?" asked Lemanee. "Last time I was here, there weren't any of these boxes here."
"Leader, should I check what's inside?" asked Gemenee.
"Yes, go ahead," said Lemanee.
"By the Forerunners! Look at this! Why do the Jiralhanae have all these here?" gasped Gemenee as he bashed open one of the closed crates.
"What is it?" said John and Lemanee simultaneously.
"Human weapons..." said Gemenee.
"Really? Let me see this," said John, with a hint of curiosity and excitement. John walked over to the crate that Gemenee bashed open and he saw every weapon that the UNSC used against the Covenant. There were M6C Pistols, BR55 Rifles, MA5B Assault Rifles, M90 Shotguns and even two M41 SSR Rocket Launchers.
"Interesting...let's see what are in the other boxes," said John, trying to contain his excitement. The Spartans were trained to adapt to whatever weapon they could find on the battlefield, whether it's a plasma rifle, or a rock. However, the Spartans always preferred fighting with human weapons. John walked over to another crate and ripped it open. Inside that crate, there were hundreds of grenades, plasma, frag, and some other unrecognizable ones, all mixed together.
"Leader, we'll need these!" said an excited Gemenee as he went and picked out a few plasma grenades. They had never seen nor used those other grenades before, so they decided not to take any.
"There are three other boxes here. Let's see what kind of things are in them," said John, as he bashed open another crate. Hundreds of clips of ammo of every variety, whether they be human or Covenant, came pouring out. There were needler ammo pods, MA5B ammo, battle rifle ammo, shotgun ammo, fuel rod rounds, and even a few rockets. John then walked over to another crate and smashed it open. This time, sentinel beams fell out of the crate. The Chief and the two Elites decided not to take any because they were pretty much useless against Jackals and Brutes. The trio then approached the last box.
"You want the honours?" the Chief asked Lemanee.
"Alright," as he bashed open the crate with a mighty blow. About ten Flood infection forms came pouring out of the hole Lemanee created and tried to consume the three warriors. Luckily, the Elites and Spartan had shields so the Infection Forms just popped with they came in contact with them.
"What are these Brute idiots thinking of?" exclaimed John in disgust. "Don't they know what the Flood do?"
"Why have they kept the parasite in stasis like that? The Prophets ordered them to destroy all of the parasites they come across," exclaimed Lemanee in outrage.
"Maybe these filthy animals are planning to betray the Prophets, so that they can be the rulers," suggested Gemenee.
"We have no time to speculate about this. We have to get out now. There could be more Flood aboard this ship. If the Flood reaches Earth, millions of people could be infected. Then the Flood would use our ships and invade your worlds and try to keep collecting soldiers. Eventually they would win and the galaxy would be devoid of sentient life. It would be the same as if we activate the Halos right now. Except worse," said John.
"No Spartan, the High Prophet of Truth is within our grasp! If I remember correctly, the control room for this vessel is down the hall to the left," said Lemanee.
"Alright, but as soon as we're done with Truth, we're getting out of here and we're going to blow this ship up. Alright?" said Chief.
"Deal," agreed Lemanee. "Why don't we get some fresh weapons and ammo now?"
The two Elites then went to the various racks that were in the armory to pick up the familiar Covenant weapons that they've used all their lives while the Spartan went over to the box where the UNSC weapons were. The Elites each grabbed two energy sword shafts and put them as back up weapons. Lemanee then took a carbine as his primary weapon while Gemenee took two needlers. They then stocked up on extra ammo and grenades and waited for the Spartan to finish rearming himself.
John walked over to the crate with the UNSC weapons. He picked up a M90 Shotgun and two extra boxes of shells. He then discarded his plasma pistol and picked up an M7 SMG. Finally, he picked up three clips of SMG ammo, picked up four frag grenades and announced that he was ready.
The trio exited the armory and walked silently to the control room of the ancient Forerunner ship. When they arrived, they found four dead Brute Honour Guards dead at the entrance of the control room.
"Something's amiss here. Why would the Prophets kill their own Honour Guards?" asked Lemanee.
"I don't know leader. We should check inside the control room. Then maybe we'll find out what happened," suggested Gemenee.
As the ex-Covenant soldiers and the Spartans approached the door, the doors, sensing movement, automatically opened. They two Elites gasped at what they saw. Even the Spartan shuddered inwards at the terrifying sight.
The Prophet of Truth was in the room all right, but he was dead on the floor. However, it wasn't the dead Prophet that caused the three warriors to gasp and shudder. It was what accompanied it.
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A/N: I just love cliffhangers. Don't you? Haha sorry. Anyway, I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit short but I finished this in a day…so it's good enough I guess. I think I should take more time to make longer chapters instead of doing a short chapter every two or three days. What do you think? Tell me in your reviews if you want me to keep writing a short chapter every couple of days, or write longer ones every couple of weeks. Keep in mind that no matter what you say, the final decision is still mine. Anyway, R&R please! Thanks!