Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 7: Old Friends and New Allies.
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 7
Old Friends and New Allies
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The group of surviving warriors followed the Arbiter to their destination, the control room of the massive Covenant Flagship, the Undefeated Glory. They passed through hallway after hallway, and periodically eliminating the Flood that lurked in the hallways. They also passed a couple groups of Brutes, which the Sangheili warriors terminated with great enthusiasm.
When they reached the control room, they found the shipmaster and most of the crew still alive. However, they were busy with a purple figure on one of the pedestals near the controls of the ship.
"Power down your defences so we can collect all the data you possess, construct, or we shall force it out of you," said the shipmaster, an Elite Ultra.
"I have three words for you mister. Kiss. My. Ass," retorted Cortana.
"Have it your way then…Zelemee, do what you do best," the Elite Ultra said with a grin as another Elite activated a holo-panel and started inputting instructions.
"Ahhh! Damn…" screamed Cortana as her colour changed from purple to a bright red. She then concentrated and countered the Covenant hacking system and her colour came back to her.
"Heh, is that the best you've got?" she scoffed.
"Hahaha, that's only the first step," said Zelemee as he raised his hand to input some more instructions into his holo-panel.
"Dammit. Arbiter, I'd appreciated a lot if they'd stop wreckin' Cortana over there," whisper Johnson as he nudged the Arbiter with his elbow.
"Zelemee! Put down your hand and leave the human Construct alone!" commanded the Arbiter as he stepped into the room, followed by the rest of the Elites, Johnson, and Keyes. When he said this, every Elite in the control room turned around to stare at the Arbiter.
"Arbiter! I thought you were dead!" said the shipmaster in surprise just as Cortana yelled, "Johnson! Keyes! What are you doing here?"
Then the two Spartans came through the door, much to the surprise of everyone in the control room, except for Johnson, Keyes, and the Arbiter.
"Demons!" growled an Elite Zealot as he activated his Plasma Sword.
"Stop!" commanded the Arbiter as he put himself between the sword and the Spartans. The Elite Zealot did as he was told but looked at the Arbiter in confusion.
"But Arbiter, why are-," asked the Zealot but he was silenced by a piercing look from the Arbiter.
"These humans, and Demons are with me. Anyone who threatens them will answer to me. Is that understood?" growled the Arbiter ominously.
"Yes Holy Arbiter," said the Zealot submissively.
"Before you start the reunion and get all teary, can you guys get me out of here? I think one of the Spartans should carry me," said Cortana.
"Agreed," replied the Arbiter before anyone objected.
"Oh good. Stephen-072, come pick me up," said Cortana.
"Sorry ma'am, but I don't have any room for you here," said Stephen.
"Why not?" asked Cortana. She crossed her arms.
"I don't have the extra memory-processor super-conductor in my helmet ma'am." He showed her the side of his helmet, which lacked a slot for Cortana's memory chip. "I can't slot you in with my MJOLNIR Mark IV. I've heard that they added an extra layer in the Mark V so that the wearers could slot in an AI." He shook his head. "Sorry."
"Damn. I guess I'll just stay in the ship for now. I'll be able to handle the jobs the Covenant AI would normally do...since I erased him because he tried to fight me."
"You do that. Anyway, Cortana, how did you end up with these split-chinned bastards?" asked Johnson. Several Elites growled and took a step towards Johnson but the Arbiter told them to lay off.
"Well, it's a long story," said Cortana. "You sure you want to hear it?"
"Yeah sure why not, in a minute though. Hey Arbiter, could we get this ship moving to Earth? Those dirty apes are probably already there," requested Johnson.
"Of course," said the Arbiter. Then he turned to the rest of the warriors in the control room and gave them their instructions.
"Warriors! When we get to the human home world, we will contact their leaders and we will make peace with these humans. The Great Journey was a sham-" several gasps could be heard but no one interrupted.
"-and these Prophets tried to use us to achieve a dream that did not exist! Well, the Prophets will fool us no more! We will annihilate them for betraying us and we shall burn their fleets as if they were no more than the lowliest vermin in the universe...because that's exactly what they are! The filthy Jiralhanae that guard the Prophets will die as well, for they have betrayed us and sided with the Prophets!" said the Arbiter as the rest of the Sangheili in the room roared in approval.
"These humans are innocent!" continued the Arbiter. "We have nothing against them! Our war isn't with the humans, but with the Prophets and Brutes and all who side with them! These humans proved again and again, that they are superb tacticians. They only fell before the onslaught of the Covenant because we had superior weaponry and numbers! I say we give these humans a chance to join our newfound alliance and we shall grind the Prophets and Jiralhanae into dust!"
The Arbiter's speech was broadcasted throughout the entire ship, as well as all the ships controlled by the Elites. There wasn't a single soul who disagreed with the Arbiter, although some wished that they didn't have to ally with humans.
"How touching," muttered Johnson.
"Shush Johnson," whispered Keyes before speaking up to the Elites before her. "I agree with what the Arbiter said and we could definitely use the extra firepower. This is my personal point of view though and I'm not sure how the rest of the human race would feel about having an alliance with a race that's slaughtered millions of ours."
"That is a tough problem, but our priority right now is to go to your home world. We can contact your leaders there and negotiate some sort of peace treaty," said the Arbiter.
"That might take a while since our superiors will probably be suspicious of us," replied Keyes. "They really have no reason to trust the Elites. I mean, we know better. They don't."
"Yes I see what you mean. There is no help for that however. If we want to save your home world and destroy the Prophets, we have to convince that we mean no harm," said the Arbiter. "Why are humans so stubborn?" added the Arbiter with a sigh.
"Well, if an alien race that has been trying to destroy yours for more than thirty years suddenly asked for peace, wouldn't you be suspicious too?"
"Yes, but we Sangheilis are an honourable race! We do not speak untruths about things like this,"
"We know that. You know that. But the rest of the human race doesn't know that. All they see is a race of murderous aliens that all deserve to die,"
"I see. We'll have to convince them otherwise. How many functional ships do we have?" the Arbiter asked the shipmaster.
"We have twenty ships here on High Charity, in addition to our own. We have more ships on the planets we have managed to seize from the Prophets and Jiralhanae," replied the shipmaster.
"Which planets have we taken control of?" inquired the Arbiter.
"Danaerun, Antraxia, Djydon, and Gyzame are ours while Iolone, Jinaeheili, and Morgawri belong to the Jiralhanae. All the other planets are still fighting for control," replied the shipmaster.
"They contacted you and told you this?" asked the Arbiter before he realized that the answer was obvious.
"Yes Holy Arbiter," replied the shipmaster overlooking the foolishness of the question.
"Good. Then tell the other ships that we are leaving High Charity. Tell them to accompany us to Danaerun, Antraxia, Djydon, and Gyzame to pick up all available forces so we may assist the humans in their attempts to repel the Covenant attacks at their home world," ordered the Arbiter.
"Yes Arbiter," said the shipmaster as he pressed a few holographic buttons to broadcast the Arbiter's orders.
"All ships. The Arbiter has given us an order. We are to go to Danaerun, Antraxia, Djydon, and Gyzame to pick up all the ships we can so we will have more strength when we fight the filthy Jiralhanae. Once we have picked up all the available forces, then we will go to the human homeworld to destroy them there! We will depart to Danaerun in one hour so everyone should warm up their slipspace engines sometime before then. Good luck," said the shipmaster over the ship's communications system. He turned off the communications system and turned to the Arbiter and said. "It's done. We will leave in one hour."
"Good," said the Arbiter. He then turned around to address the humans with an Elite's equivalent of a smile. "Would like anything to eat?"
"No thanks. I have some energy bars and water," replied Johnson.
"Suit yourself," replied the Arbiter before he turned to one of the lesser Elites. "Tell the chefs that we will be having the best food they can offer."
The Elite Minor nodded and hurried out of the control room. Fifteen minutes later, he came back with five other Elites clad in brown. They were all carrying large trays made of an alien metal with a large lid on it. The shipmaster then cleared a large table and the six tray bearing Elites put them down and opened their lids. What was inside made all the humans' mouths water, including the Spartans and it made the Elites' mandibles twitch. The Arbiter asked the humans again if they wanted to eat and this time, everyone said yes. Everyone sat down and the Arbiter led them all in a prayer for victory against the Prophets and then told them to enjoy their meal. Everyone started eating while Cortana explained what happened to her in the last few days. How the Master Chief followed Truth into the Forerunner ship in the middle of High Charity. How he had to leave her behind. The Spartans removed their helmets with a hiss, sniffed suspiciously at the food, then dug in.
"These Demons are not so different from the other humans. They look the same except that they are taller...and more pale...iInteresting," thought the Arbiter.
The meal only took thirty minutes so the Elites and humans discussed plans for the future and the upcoming battle. About ten minutes before the designated departure time, the shipmaster stood up and activated the slipspace engines to warm them up and about five minutes before departure, the shipmaster informed the other ships that they were leaving in five minutes, in case they forgot, and to start warming up their slipspace engines, if they haven't done so already. When the time arrived, twenty-one ships, big and small, rose from High Charity and activated their slipspace engines and were gone.
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A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long. I was on vacation and stuff. I think I should write larger chapters, don't you? Another question is whether I should put romance into the story. Some of my friends say yes and others say no…so…help me out here! Tell me what you think in the reviews and enjoy the chapter!
Another A/N: Since I haven't read Halo: The Flood or Halo: First Strike, I'm bound to make mistakes in this story and contradict the books a bit. I realize that the Covenant don't use minutes and hours and use Units or something but I have no clue how long a "Unit" is. Therefore, I'm going to stick to hours, minutes, days, etc. If you know anything really wrong with the storyline (i.e. contradicts many ideas from the Halo books/games), then please tell me and I will try to fix it. If it's just small things, I probably won't bother with it that much. Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think in your reviews!