Chapter 4: Alpha Base

The Slayer trotted through the busy complex of Alpha Base, seeing plenty of familiar faces on his way to the briefing. Fireteam Raven, Johnson, Foehammer, everyone was there. The Slayer entered the briefing room, finding himself in the room with Captain Keyes himself, the highest ranking surviving UNSC officer on this installation.

"Now that everyone's here, we can begin." Keyes said. "We've been hit hard by these… creatures. They've taken both Charlie and Beta bases and burned them to the ground, so it's safe to assume that Alpha will be next. We're running low on firepower and we're running out of options, so our best hope is signing a truce with the Covenant forces on this installation to exterminate our common enemy, and if we're lucky, we might even be able to gain their trust and end this war peacefully."

"There's no guarantee that we'll be able to win their favor." Hayden pointed out. "A 27 year war doesn't give either side a reason to trust the other."

"I was being optimistic, son," Keyes replied.

"He does have a point." Cortana agreed. "If they disagree, there's nothing stopping them from simply executing everyone present."

"I suggest we attempt diplomacy, but if they disagree, we make them agree." Hayden suggested, quoting the Slayer's thoughts.

"That's a rather… aggressive, idea." Lieutenant Fosley pointed out.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. And we are desperate, yes?"

"Well, yes, but we do have rules."

"There are no rules in war. All of you especially should know that."

John glanced over at the Slayer from the other side of the room with a knowing yet discouraging look, advising him not to continue. The Slayer looked Keyes in the eyes, but he heard a distant sound. The all too familiar sound of the universe screaming in agony synonymous with the opening of a dimensional rift.

"They're here," Hayden announced.

"Who?" Keyes asked.

"Guess."

The Slayer exited the briefing room and looked off in the direction of the sound, finding a blood red tear in spacetime a few miles away from Alpha Base.

"Load everything you can onto the dropships!" Keyes announced. "Don't leave anyone behind! Master Chief, Taggart, hold 'em off until we can put more ordinance into the horde."

"We'll get it done, sir," John told Keyes. "We make our own luck."

"We'll come too," Ethan Graves of Fireteam Raven told Keyes and John.

"Fireteam Raven's got your back," Marcus Hudson added.

"Very well," Keyes said. "Gear up fast and buy our dropships some time."

The Slayer, John and the entirety of Fireteam Raven nodded and rushed to Alpha Base's armory. The Slayer got there first and summoned a slipgate and grabbed his Super Shotgun and a modified MA5B before he closed it as John and Fireteam Raven entered the armory. The Slayer tossed the MA5B to John, who caught it and inspected it.

"I made the modifications you asked for," Hayden told John. "It does not disappoint."

"Thanks," John replied.

"If we survive this, I wouldn't be opposed to some mods," Victor Ramos hinted.

"Noted," Hayden said.

The Slayer pulled down the barrels of his Super Shotgun, placed two 12 gauge shells inside and flipped the barrels back into place before stepping outside of the armory.


The Slayer looked out from the passenger side of the Troop Warthog, finding two demons waiting for them. A Marauder with a cybernetic left eye, right arm and legs and a Hell Knight three times as muscular as its brethren wearing armor inscribed with pentagrams and demonic runes. John parked the warthog, causing all six occupants to exit the vehicle and stand before the two demons. Ramos cocked his M7S and took aim at the Hell Knight Ultra's nose, ready to put rounds into its brain from the inside. The Slayer fired his Super Shotgun at the Cyber Marauder only for the buckshot from the weapon to disintegrate as it made contact with the Argent field surrounding the demon.

"I thought you would have learned after last time," The Marauder chuckled.

Ramos fired his M7S, sending .197 Caliber rounds spiraling towards the Knight Ultra's head, only for the Marauder to hold out a spherical device with his right arm and activate it, causing the rounds to freeze in place, millimeters from the Hell Knight's nose. The bullets suddenly lost all kinetic energy and fell to the ground when the Marauder relaxed his muscles and deactivated the device. The Slayer unsheathed his Doomblade and rushed the Marauder, causing him to flex his right arm once again, reactivating the device and surrounding all six of the humans in a yellow aura and raising them all into the air with their arms outstretched from their sides. Their hands were forced open, causing their weapons to drop to the ground. The Marauder chuckled and waved the device in front of the Slayer's visor, taunting him.

"This device was hand-crafted by one of the Makyr species, the Keepers, I believe. I acquired it from one of the regions of Urdak known as Agartha," The Marauder told the Slayer. "I was going to say that I fought you there, but I'm not sure that it was specifically you."

"Why are you telling us this?" Ava Lang questioned.

"I just wanted to make sure you were up to speed. I, the Indomitable Captain Vor of the true Night Sentinels, don't deserve an ignorant foe."

"Vore?" Hudson mocked. "Real appropriate name."

The Hell Knight Ultra growled at Hudson and Vor cocked his head to the side, confused.

"What's he talking about?"

"Vore is a form of sexual cannibalism."

"I've heard enough."

"Not exactly eating, just swallowing. It's not even physically possible."

"Tell the horde to burn their base to the ground," Vor told his subordinate, which nodded and waited for the rest of its orders. "Then I need you to pick up their pieces."

A blood red rift appeared a few meters behind Vor and the Hell Knight Ultra with its signature noise, the following demon rushing through and causing it to disappear. Vor's cybernetic arm split apart and ejected a metal rod, which was caught by his hand and the upgraded axe's Argent blades ignited. Vor held the weapon up to the Slayer's neck.

"-Starting with yours."

Vor swung back his weapon, moments away from swinging it back into the Slayer's neck. The Slayer smirked, knowing what will happen. The Marauder began to bring the axe back, but stopped mid swing when he heard multiple approaching aircrafts. He looked towards the sound to find three Type-52 Troop Carriers flying over Alpha Base and towards their location. The Heavy Plasma Cannon underneath the nose of each Phantom was aimed at Vor, who released the humans and formed a force field around himself, causing the Doom Slayer, John and Fireteam Raven to fall to the ground, grab their weapons and rush to cover. The cannons opened fire on Vor, causing the ripples created by the blasts to overlap on the surface of his field. The Slayer summoned his Crucible and stood up from cover, beginning to approach Vor as the Phantom's cannons overheated.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lang whispered.

The Slayer ignited the Crucible and approached Vor, ready to strike. Vor ignited his Argent axe and swung it at the Slayer, who countered the attack with the Crucible and the two began a duel of quick strikes, blocks and parries. The Slayer threw his knee into Vor's gut, causing his opponent to stagger backwards and growl aggressively at this. The sound synonymous with a rift in spacetime being opened echoed through the area dozens of times, each a rift being opened. One rift appeared behind Vor, and out stepped the Hell Knight Ultra accompanied by a Cyberdemon/Tyrant and Doom Hunter, each of their cybernetic modifications bearing the Mark of the Marauder, a symbol similar to the Slayer's own mark.

"You assembled your warriors," The Marauder said. "I assembled mine."

The Slayer looked back at John and then down at his rifle, sending him a secret signal. John aimed his MA5B at Vor and fired it, sending a burst of explosive rounds into the Marauder's chest. Vor flew backwards, losing his grip on his axe and the Makyr device in his other hand. The Knight Ultra grabbed the device and helped Vor to his feet as he regained his weapon. A rift appeared before Vor and he disappeared into its aura. The Hell Knight Ultra roared in the ancient language of the demons, signalling the hordes to burn Alpha base to the ground. The demon hordes rushed towards the encampment, Mancubi using their flamethrowers to increase their rather slow speed. Hayden tapped into the communication networks of the Covenant, figured out the language of the Sangheili in a microsecond and told them:

"Give the humans time to evacuate. Focus on the infantry. We will handle their leaders."

"We will give you as much time as we can." The captain agreed, obviously having their own reasons for agreeing.

The Phantoms flew off, each in the direction of a rift. They began to fire on the demons as the Slayer deactivated his Crucible and drew his Super Shotgun, returning his blade to his pocket dimension. He grabbed his Plasma Gun with Heat Blast and turned towards John and Fireteam Raven.

"117, you take the Hell Knight. Raven, you get the Tyrant. I'll take the Doom Hunter," Hayden told them before remembering that they didn't know the terminology. "Chief, brute. Raven, robot leg. I get the sled."

"Sounds simple enough." Graves said.

"Aim for the power core in its chest. You'll do the most damage that way."

Graves slapped a new mag into his MA5C and slapped the weapon, cocking it without touching the bolt. Hudson pumped his M90 Shotgun and Lang loaded rockets into her SPNKr rocket launcher before all of the humans rushed to their target. John fired explosive rounds into the Knight Ultra's chest, sending it staggering backwards but regaining its foothold quickly, having taken no damage. The Ultra grabbed John by the shoulder and threw its titanium-like skull into John's helmet, cracking his visor and breaking the section hanging over the visor from its base. The Slayer sent a large wall of overheated plasma into the Doom Hunter, deactivating the demon's shields and causing the Slayer to fire buckshot from both barrels of his Super Shotgun at the Hunter's head, only for its shield to reform and deflect the blast. A barrage of missiles were launched from the Doom Hunter's treads, moving like a bolt of lightning striking the earth. The missiles impacted on the Slayer's Praetor armor.

Fireteam Raven unloaded their magazines into the Cyberdemon, but it was protected by an Argent field from its Argent Accumulator. John looked back at Alpha Base and watched as the final ship flew from the base before the Hell Knight Ultra threw its fist into the side of his head. The three Phantoms returned to the area and hovered above the skirmish. The Slayer fired the Heat Blast on his Plasma Gun at the Doom Hunter, stunning it. He rushed into the Troop Warthog and pressed his foot down into the pedal and turned the wheel to maneuver towards his target. The vehicle rammed into John and the Knight Ultra, sending the latter sprawling over the vehicle and causing the former to grab onto the back of the frame around the passenger seat. The Slayer drove the vehicle into the mechanical leg of the Tyrant, causing it to collapse backwards. Fireteam Raven crowded into the back of the jeep and the Slayer pulled the gear into reverse and reversed away from the demons. The Gravity Lift in the middle phantom activated, collecting the vehicle. The occupants leapt from the vehicle as it neared the body of the dropship, abandoning the vehicle to get inside. The lift deactivated, dropping the Warthog and closing the entrance to the dropship. An elite wearing white armor approached John and offered to help him to his feet. John accepted the request and was helped to his feet before the Elite spoke to him in Sangheili, which Cortana was unable to translate.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand," John told the Elite. "Why am I even telling you this?You probably don't understand what I'm saying."

"He does," Hayden told John. "They have devices that translate what you're saying into their language for only them to hear. As for what he said, he was ordered to convince our highest ranking officer to participate in peace talks."

The Elite spoke again.

"He wants to know what your answer is. Get Keyes on the comm."

John pressed his index and middle fingers into the temple area of his helmet.

"117 to Keyes," John said.

"This is Keyes," Keyes answered over the comm. "Glad to hear you're still in one piece."

"We had help. Captain, you're going to like this."