Chapter 5: The Great Journey
Halo Installation 05, Vicinity of the Control Room
8th Cycle, 5th Division, 3rd Stage, 9th Age of Reclamation (Covenant Holy Calendar)
0910 hours, October 27, 2552 (UNSC Military Calendar)
"Mine will do," Akkudus heard the deep voice of Tartarus in his headset. "Kill the others!"
"Yes, Chieftain," Akkudus replied. He turned to the Jiralhanae next to him, "A days ration says I do this in one cut." The face of the Human kneeling in front of him turned white, and the two others standing near could do nothing to help.
"Two cuts at least!" said the other.
"Done!"
"Wait! Do you smell that?"
Akkudus sniffed the air for a moment. "Yes, it smells like Sangheili flesh."
They looked to the door at the other end of the platform and saw it open. What came through the door was the biggest surprise Akkudus had seen. A Sangheili dressed in unique ceremonial armor rushed in brandishing his bright energy sword.
"The Arbiter?" Akkudus exclaimed. "How is he still alive?"
However, he never got an answer, nor did he wait for one. Because as soon as Akkudus came to his senses, he dropped his weapons and sprinted at the Arbiter on all fours. Little did he know that the Arbiter had rescued a few prisoners before he assaulted the platform. Behind the Arbiter were two silver-armored Praetor Sangheili and two Lekgolo brothers. Despite Akkudus's efforts to take out the Arbiter quickly, he found himself in the midst of the Arbiter's entourage. Akkudus may have had incredible strength but the Arbiter's superior agility proved to be too fast for the bulky Jiralhanae. He flailed his huge fists wildly about when he found himself surrounded. He had hoped to knock one of the Praetors out, but before he could hit anything one of the Lekgolo brought his massive shield down on Akkudus's head successfully crushing it.
The five other Jiralhanae were slower to react to the new threat. They turned and fired their plasma rifles and grenade launchers in the general direction of the Arbiter and his warriors. As soon as the Jiralhanae were distracted, the Human that was kneeling got up and ran up onto the massive Scarab digger that was docked at the platform while the two other Humans ran for cover.
The Jiralhanae's efforts were useless as one by one they fell to the energy swords of the Sangheili and the Lekgolo's fuel rod cannons. The battle was over in a matter of seconds. When all of the Jiralhanae were dead, the Arbiter wondered where the Humans were. He greatly desired to kill some Humans because of their involvement in the destruction of the first Sacred Ring. It was because of them that he now wore the Mark of Shame. But then he came to when he saw that the Scarab had started to move.
"Listen," a gruff, Human voice came from the Scarab. The Arbiter turned to face the Scarab and the voice continued, "You don't like me, and I sure as hell don't like you. But if we don't do something, Mr. Mohawk's gonna activate this ring, and we're all gonna die."
"Tartarus has locked himself inside the control room," the Arbiter stated.
"Well, I just happened to have a key," replied the Human. As he said that, the Scarab's "eye" opened wide and revealed the main cannon.
The gigantic Scarab had enough firepower to blast its way through a mountain. The Covenant had deployed three Scarabs on the Human planet they recently attack called Earth. The Scarabs were originally sent to dig for a Forerunner artifact believed to be hidden underground on the planet, but when Earth was discovered to be the Human's home planet the Scarabs were used against the Human military forces. The diggers destroyed even the toughest of Human armor with ease and were themselves nearly impenetrable to the Human projectile weapons. They had wreaked havoc on the surface of Earth for hours until the Humans had figured out how to take one down by boarding it and killing its crew. This resulted in the withdrawal of the other two Scarabs. They were too valuable and too few to be used in war like that.
"Come on," the Human said. "Grab a Banshee and give me some cover. He's gonna know we're coming."
As if on cue, a pair of Banshees flew up to and landed on the platform.
"Take my Banshee, Arbiter!" said the zealous Sangheili who hopped out of the nearest craft. The Arbiter jumped in and pressed a few buttons on the holographic panel. The canopy closed and the Banshee took off.
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Sergeant Major Avery Johnson looked at the holographic controls inside of the Scarab and scratched his head. How the hell to I get this thing to move, he thought. Everything was written in the strange runes he had seen all over the place on both Halos. He still didn't know what any of them meant. He got lucky when he had opened the Scarab's eye. He picked a random holographic button and pressed his finger against it. The Scarab started to lower itself. There was a horrible grinding noise as the main cannon of the huge machine got caught on the platform. Johnson quickly pushed the button above the one he just pushed and the Scarab returned to its original position. Note to self: Never push that button again, Johnson said to himself. He finally found a little glowing strip of blue, and he pressed his finger on the bottom of it. The Scarab began to slowly move backwards. Johnson looked at rear viewscreen and saw that he was approaching a cliff. Uh oh, better figure out how to stop this thing. He put his finger on the bottom of the vertical blue strip again and moved his finger toward the middle. The four-legged behemoth slowed to a halt. He looked around and found a blue doughnut shape. He wondered if this worked the same way as the strip and he put his finger on the top and moved it around the circle ninety degrees to the right. To the Sergeants surprise, the Scarab rotated like his finger did. Alright! I think I'm getting the hang of this.
When the Scarab finished turning, Johnson looked at the forward viewscreen and saw three Wraith tanks preparing to fire at him. He looked around for the button to fire and decided that the big red one in the middle of the panel looked the most inviting. He pressed it. Johnson heard a loud whining sound as the Scarabs main cannon started to collect plasma. He saw tiny blue motes of light going towards the top of the viewscreen, and suddenly a blue stream of pure destruction burst forth from the main cannon and filled the viewscreen. The Sergeant had to look away because of the intensity of the light, but when he looked back after the noise stopped he saw a large crater in the cliff face in front of him and the indistinguishable remains of the three Covenant Wraith tanks.
"Ha!" Johnson said into the Scarabs microphone. "How do you like it?
Sergeant Johnson returned to the control panel and pressed his finger to the top of the vertical strip. The gigantic Scarab moved forward with a certain grace only seen in Covenant vehicles. He surprised himself at how well he was able to maneuver the massive bug-like machine through the narrow gorge with only meters to spare on either side. Johnson felt a sort of bloodlust now that he controlled an eight story tall machine of pure destruction.
In the forward viewscreen, Johnson saw the Banshee controlled by that ceremonially armored Elite engage three other Banshees controlled by Brutes. Damn, that guy's good, he thought as the Elite destroyed one of the enemy Banshees and successfully evaded fire from the other two. Johnson had seen the Elite from inside the Scarab take down two Brutes with relative ease. It's no wonder he had that special armor.
Johnson rounded a corner in the gorge and saw that it opened up to reveal a wide beach several hundred meters in front of him. A few hundred more meters off the beach was a large building. The building consisted of a large sphere with a ring around it and two tall triangular spikes that looked like the sails on a sailboat. Johnson concluded that this must be the control room where that Brute with the Mohawk was. He continued on down to the beach while trying to draw a bead on anything that moved, but that Elite in the Banshee always destroyed whatever Johnson had his sights on before he could fire. But he finally got a chance to destroy something when he reached the beach.
"Stay clear of the door," Johnson yelled into the microphone. "Hey, bastards! Knock-Knock!"
The Sergeant aimed at the door of the control room and pressed the big red fire button. The loud whine started up again and Johnson looked away as the blue beam shot forth again. When he looked back, the area of the wall of the building that used to hold the door was now only a smoldering hole. He saw the Elite's Banshee fly towards the hole and decided he better get out and find a Banshee for himself and follow the Elite inside.
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The Arbiter stood outside of a door in the control room building. He heard footsteps on the other side. He waited for a while to think. Several times during his flight to the control room building he had wanted to kill the Human in the Scarab. But as much as he hated to admit it, he needed the Human as an ally right now. He wouldn't let revenge get the best of him.
The Arbiter activated his camouflage and quietly entered the room. He snuck up behind a group of Jiralhanae standing together, and even though he was in plain site of a few of them they still didn't see him. He placed a plasma grenade on the back of one, and dove out of the way. The other Jiralhanae noticed the plasma grenade but it was too late. The blue explosion sent the six Jiralhanae flying several meters from where they were standing. When they landed, none of them moved. The sound of the explosion was heard in the next room and six more Jiralhanae entered the room, several of them wearing the armor of the Honor Guard. A moment before they entered, the Arbiter's camouflage generator overloaded and shut off. Perfect timing. Curse this old armor, he said to himself.
"Do not let the Arbiter enter the chamber!" one of the Honor Guards said as he saw the Arbiter. "The Chieftain must complete his holy work!"
The Arbiter immediately took out his energy sword and ran at the Jiralhanae. His first swipe took off the head of the first Jiralhanae and came down to cut another's right arm off. As he ran past the group his shields were being pelted by plasma fire. He rolled through the open door and down the ramp behind the group. His camouflage generator had enough time to cool down, so when the door closed he activated it once more. The door opened again and the four remaining Jiralhanae ran through. As they ran past the invisible Arbiter, he stuck a plasma grenade to the forehead of one of the Honor Guards and ducked in a corner. The guard with the grenade on his face screamed and ran madly about until the grenade exploded. Two more Jiralhanae were caught in the explosion and were sent headlong into a wall. And once again, the Arbiter's became visible because his camouflage generator overheated.
One last Honor Guard remained. He threw his plasma rifle down and charged the Arbiter like a huge gorilla. The Jiralhanae swung his fist at the Arbiter as he went past, but the Arbiter dodged. However, this particular beast was surprisingly agile for his size. He was able to stop himself, turn, and swing his fist over his head and hit the Arbiter in the shoulder before the Arbiter could dodge again. The Arbiter's shields hadn't had enough time to replenish themselves, so he felt the tremendous blow.
The Jiralhanae are some of the strongest creatures that exist in the known universe. Few species come close to matching their strength. In fact, they are so strong and their hides are so thick that they rarely every wear armor during battle. Even a mighty Lekgolo, who could easily take on a Jiralhanae in hand-to-hand combat, has to wear armor to protect the fragile creatures that live inside.
The Arbiter pulled his sword out and swung it around to cut off the Honor Guard's head, but the guard ducked and rolled out of the way. The Arbiter felt his knees buckle as the Jiralhanae swept his legs out from under him. The Arbiter landed on his back and rolled as the Jiralhanae's fists smashed the floor where he just lay. He rose to his feet and slashed his sword at the guard's belly. It lightly grazed the Jiralhanae as he jumped backwards. The guard tried to counterattack but the Arbiter again showed his superior agility and in a spinning move slashed at the Jiralhanae's stomach again and succeeded in slicing him in half.
Once the Arbiter had disposed of the Jiralhanae guards, he continued to the control room hoping he wasn't too late. The control room was truly a sight to behold. The huge spherical room was about two hundred fifty meters across and had a deep hole in the bottom. A large circular platform floated in the exact middle of the room and a glass walkway extended out towards the platform with a control panel at the end. The Arbiter could see Tartarus and four Jiralhanae Captains next to him. One of the Captains had the Oracle under his arm, and Tartarus had his hand on the shoulder of a small Human female. It looked like he was trying to get her to do something. The Arbiter could hear them arguing as he walked in.
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"Please! Use caution!" the Oracle exclaimed. "This Reclaimer is delicate."
Tartarus looked at the Oracle, "One more word, Oracle, and I'll rip your eye from its socket." Then he returned his gaze to the Human. He tightened his grip on her shoulder and she let out a sharp grunt of pain. "Which is nothing compared to what I'll do to you."
"Tartarus, stop!" the Arbiter shouted as he walked in. He stopped a good ten meters away for safety.
"Impossible!" Tartarus turned around to face the Arbiter… the same Arbiter he had killed several days before.
"Put down the Icon," the Arbiter demanded.
"Put it down? And disobey the Hierarchs?"
"There are some things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand."
This hit a nerve in Tartarus's guards. They growled loudly and stepped towards the Arbiter, but Tartarus put up a hand to stop them. "Take care, Arbiter," he said. "What you say is heresy."
"Is it?" the Arbiter asked. "Oracle! What is Halo's purpose?"
"Collectively," the Oracle started, "the seven-"
Tartarus grabbed the Oracle before it could continue and brought the blue glowing ball inches from his face as he growled.
"Not another word!" Tartarus ordered.
"Please!" everyone looked towards the owner of this new voice. The Arbiter turned his head to see the Human that drove the Scarab. "Don't shake the light bulb," the Human continued.
The Jiralhanae beside Tartarus growled and stepped forward again, but stopped short once more when the Human spoke again.
"If you wanna keep your brain inside your head, I'd tell those boys to chill."
Tartarus barked a quiet command to his warriors in his native tongue and they lowered their weapons. Once the Human was content, he continued again.
"Go ahead," he said to the Arbiter. "Do your thing."
"The Sacred Rings," the Arbiter tried again, "What are they?"
"Weapons of last resort," explained the Oracle, still in Tartarus's grip, "Built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless."
"And those who made the rings?" asked the Arbiter. "What happened to the Forerunners?"
"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center, died… as planned. Would you like to see the relevant data?"
"Tartarus," the Arbiter said gravely, "The Prophets have betrayed us."
Tartarus took a moment to think it over, but his stubborn mind wouldn't let anything sway his opinion. He threw the Oracle at the Human behind the Arbiter who flew backwards from the blow. He then took the Icon, placed it on the control panel in front of them and forced the other Human's hands to push the Icon into the slot in the panel. Tartarus turned around to face the Arbiter and grabbed his hammer that lay beside him.
"No, Arbiter!" Tartarus said triumphantly. "The Great Journey has begun! And the Jiralhanae, not the Sangheili, Shall be the Prophets' escort!"
And with that, an energy shield that looked like a blue-white flame erupted around Tartarus, and the clamps that held the platform in the middle of the room opened. The one platform separated into three tiers and a blue light shot up the middle of them. Two pairs of small rectangular platforms started to rotate in opposite directions around the outside of the middle platform.
Tartarus's guards opened fire. But to the Arbiter's surprise, they did not fire at him, but at the newly arrived Sangheili that charged past him. The mixture of gold armored Field and Ship Masters and black armored Commandos made quick work of the Jiralhanae Captains and followed Tartarus as he jumped the five meter wide gap between the glass walkway and the middle, and largest, platform.
"Arbiter!" the Arbiter turned to see another gold armored Sangheili. "By the Rings! We all thought you were dead! What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you the same. But there is no time for explanations. We have a very serious problem on our hands," said the Arbiter.
"Right, we have a foul beast to kill! Let's go, Arbiter!" the golden armored Sangheili unleashed his energy sword and sprinted toward the end of the walkway and jumped the gap to the platform. The Arbiter had no choice but to do the same.
When the Arbiter landed on the platform he saw that the Sangheili had already engaged Tartarus in the middle of the platform. They ran around him in circles firing their plasma rifles at him. However, his energy shield was impervious to the incoming fire. One of the Commandos finally pulled out a sword and charged Tartarus who in turn dodged the thrust and smashed the Sangheili with his hammer. The blow was so powerful that the Sangheili was thrown off the platform. After seeing this, the Arbiter thought it would be better to stay off to the sided and wait. But one by one, the other Sangheili were thrown off the edge by Tartarus's hammer. The Tartarus saw the Arbiter off to the side.
"What? Is the mighty Arbiter afraid?" taunted Tartarus.
The huge beast ran towards the Arbiter and prepared to swing his hammer but at the last second another wave of high-ranking Sangheili jumped to the circular platform. They landed next to the Arbiter and distracted Tartarus. All this was happening while the ring prepared to fire, and the Oracle dictated every step of the firing sequence.
"Charging sequence initiated," announced the Oracle. "Primary generators coming on-line."
"Well shut them down!" ordered the female Human. She and the Oracle were on one of the small rotating platforms.
"Apologies," replied the Oracle. "Protocol does not allow me to interfere with any aspect of the sequence."
"Then how do I stop it?" the Human sounded frantic.
"Well, it will take some time to go over the proper procedures. I-"
"Quit stalling!"
"Under more controlled circumstances, I would suggest the Reclaimer simply remove the Index."
"That's it? Johnson! I'm on it!"
"Hang tight ma'am!" the male human on the walkway said. "Not until the Brute is dead!"
When the second wave of Sangheili had been eliminated, Tartarus ran at the Arbiter again. The Arbiter, finally forming a plan, activated his camouflage and rolled out of the way of Tartarus's hammer. When the Arbiter got up, he saw three purple beams hit Tartarus in rapid succession. The glowing shield that surrounded Tartarus suddenly disappeared.
"Hey, Mohawk!" yelled the Human from the walkway. "How'd that feel?"
"A lucky hit," Tartarus yelled back. "You shall not land another."
Tartarus ran towards the center of the platform and floated up the beam of light to the top tier.
"Secondary generators charging," the Oracle continued his dictation. "All systems are performing well within operational parameters."
The Arbiter then saw three more Jiralhanae on the far side of the platform that must have come in from another entrance. He switched off his camouflage and put his sword away for the moment. He took his plasma rifle and exchanged fire with the nearest Jiralhanae. The Arbiter landed a few shots on the Jiralhanae's face eating through the thick hide. The first Jiralhanae fell to the ground and the other two hopped over him still coming towards the Arbiter. The Arbiter took a plasma grenade and threw it on the next one's chest. When it exploded, battle rage consumed the final Jiralhanae and he charged the Arbiter. But the Arbiter had a trick up his sleeve; he turned his camouflage on and jumped as high as he could. The incoming Jiralhanae was so confounded that he couldn't stop himself from running off the edge and falling nearly a hundred meters.
"Power generation phase complete," the Oracle continued again. "The installation is ready to fire. Starting final countdown…"
"Come on, Arbiter!" encouraged the Human called Johnson. "Kick that guy's ass!"
"And may I say, Reclaimers, it has been a pleasure to serve you both," the Oracle said regarding the two Humans. "Good bye…"
Tartarus finally jumped down from the small platform above and looked around for the Arbiter, his shield back to normal. He finally saw him and charged, hammer ready to swing. The Arbiter backed up while firing his fully automatic plasma rifle, but it was all to no avail. Tartarus's run didn't slow. When the Arbiter couldn't back up anymore he realized Tartarus was right on top of him. He dove to one side as Tartarus's hammer smote the floor. The Arbiter quickly recovered from his roll and ran for cover. He knew that if that hammer hit him, he was as good as dead.
"Just like the rest of your race: cowardly and weak," taunted Tartarus as he looked for the Arbiter.
Tartarus walked past a wall and found the Arbiter crouched in a corner. But suddenly Tartarus's shield disappeared.
"Got his shield!" yelled Johnson. "Hit 'im now!"
The Arbiter saw his chance and sprung at Tartarus while pulling his energy sword out. A blue flash erupted from the hilt as he swung it at Tartarus. The sword cut through Tartarus's hammer like a hot knife through butter. Tartarus jumped back in surprise, still holding the two halves of his hammer. He threw them to the ground and ran head first at the Arbiter hoping to push him off the side of the platform. The Arbiter dodged Tartarus's charge and swiped his sword as he passed. Tartarus skidded to a halt. He put his hand to his side and felt something sticky. He looked down and saw his purple blood oozing from a wide gash in his side. Tartarus became even more enraged and swung a massive fist at the Arbiter's face. His fist made contact and the Arbiter flipped backwards and landed on his stomach several meters away. The Arbiter got up just in time to dodge another charge from Tartarus and swing his sword again. Tartarus stopped and turned, his right arm hung limp and was nearly severed. He started to feel weak from the loss of blood, but still managed to roll out of the way of the Arbiter's counterattack. Unfortunately, the Arbiter was quick on his feet and grabbed onto Tartarus and rolled with him. When Tartarus rose to his feet, the Arbiter was right behind him already swinging his sword at Tartarus's neck. The blade was so quick that the head stayed in place until the body fell over.
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When Miranda Keyes had seen the Brute fall, she jumped from her rotating platform to one below going the opposite direction. She looked for an opportunity to jump to the middle platform, but didn't see another rotating platform only a meter above her until it was nearly on top of her. She ducked under it and then jumped to the middle platform. She ran towards the large blue beam of light in the middle. When she was closer she saw the Index floating in the middle of the beam. She reached in and snatched it out. The beam of light immediately disappeared and the entire building started to shake as if in an earthquake. Miranda looked up through the hole in the ceiling and saw a large ball of blue light gathering above the control room. The blue ball suddenly hurtled skyward toward an even larger ball of yellow light gathering in the exact center of the Halo. When the blue comet of light reached the center, the mass of light in the middle expanded to fill the whole sky and then dissipated moments after.