This chapter contains content from the ending scene for the Halo: Escalation Issue 10 comic, just to say so you aren't confused with the current situation that will take place in the chapter.
The control room of Installation 03 sat in complete silence. The only sounds that was to be heard we're machines and computers sitting idle, waiting to be used by whoever. Although the machines that have been waiting to be used, haven't even been touched for over 100,000 years, and the last time they we're used, it was to activate this Halo ring. Although the ancient scene was suddenly disturbed by a tall bipedal being in highly technologically advanced armor laying on the floor groaning in pain.
The Didact had recently been through a lot. Only what seemed like a couple minutes ago, the Didact had engaged in direct combat with the human that is so called the "Master Chief" and his team of other warriors, which didn't stand a chance against him. It was only when in the beginning of the battle, he lost his right eye thanks to the Chief stabbing a knife right into the eye socket of his helmet, but the wound can easily be repaired. The Didact almost had them, it wasn't before his supposed "ally" 859 Static Carillon, the Keeper of Composers, betrayed him and shot him in the back with his energy beam and then teleported him, which brings him to this current moment. The Didact pushed him self up from laying on his stomach and then he realized where he was.
"The Control Room...?" The Didact spoke to no one in particular in shock, as he finished raising himself up now stood on his two legs.
The Didact walked over to the main control panel, which was used to activate Halo so long ago. "The Moniter pretends to aid the Humans, but advances my place instead?" The Didact asked himself rather surprised, but he knew something else was going on here.
"No...too simple." The Didact said, drawing his conclusion on the matter. "There is something I do not yet comprehend."
"You're right."
The Didact immediately turned around at the sound of the voice he very much came to hate. Right before him stood the human that had ruined all of his plans and pretty much everything recently, the Master Chief.
"Where are your brethren?" The Didact asked John curiously, as John began walking forward.
"They went ahead to our ship." John answered the Didact's question in a blank tone. "This is between me and you."
"You carry no weapon." The Didact pointed out the Chief's fatal error, as he stopped a couple feet away from the Didact.
The Chief's approach on the Didact caused him to back away from the control console, going around the Chief to create some distance between them.
"I carry your weapon." John answered his statement, as the Didact noticed the activation key for Halo in his hand. "I thought we might take a moment to talk."
"Diplomacy in your final hour?" The Didact scoffed at the Chief's absurd actions, he was going to kill him no matter what.
The Master Chief approached the holographic console, making the Didact slightly nervous. Surely he wouldn't dare to activate Halo, does he not know of it's power, only a fool would activate the ring, but why would he do such a thing? This conclusion calmed the Didact down as he then noticed the Chief turn towards him.
"You killed my friend." John stated with a calm anger, but the anger couldn't be heard in his voice, but only seen in his eyes, which the Didact looked straight into his left eye that was surrounded by his cracked visor, and the Didact saw such anger. "You killed millions of humans." The anger only seemed strengthen in John's eyes. "You tried to kill me."
"I've tried to end you with blades, with guns, with explosives, by knocking you into slipspace..." John explained dramatically to the Didact. "But none of it works." With that statement, John turn towards the the console and put the activation key above the insertion slot, in which if inserted, will activate Halo. The Chief then turned towards the Didact. "I bet this does." John states blankly, as he inserts the activation key into Halo.
The Didact's reminding good eye widens, as the Didact is absolutely shocked to the core at the Chief's actions. He would activate Halo, the most deadliest and destructive weapon ever created by the Forerunners, that will kill ALL sentient life within 25,000 light-years, JUST too kill him! He would sacrifice billions, if not trillions of innocent life's, just to see his downfall.
The Didact had seen many crazy people in his very long life time, but the Chief is probably the most insane person he has ever met.
"You would activate the Halo. Just to eliminate me?" The Didact spoke his thoughts out loud to the Chief, as he watched the activation sequence begin for Halo.
"Yes, but then the monitor reminded me that would also kill all life within twenty-five thousand light-years. So he suggested a better plan." John explained to the Didact, as he was walking towards the exit.
"What game are you playing human?" The Didact demanded an explanation as he followed John and let a very small tone of fear get into his voice by accident.
"Two-step process. First, I manually deactivate the safety protocols." John began to explain the first step of his plan, as he turned to face the Didact. "Second...Monitor ejects us right into the planet." The Chief finished his explanation to the Didact, as they then both felt the section of Halo they were on get ejected from the rest of the ring.
Only after at least ten seconds, they felt the section of the ring begin to enter the atmosphere of the planet below. The Didact looked around urgently for anyway he can escape his coming doom, but found nothing what so ever that would help him escape immediately. Was this how it would all end, everything the Didact had fought for, everything the Didact had ever done, is this where it all ends? The Didact questioned himself angrily, all he could do was stand there, and wait for his demise, and his mission to stop Humanity from achieving the Mantle of Responsibility, will fail, and everything the Forerunners did to ensure life in the galaxy would prosper, would only repeat with the galaxy in Humanity's hands. The Mantle of Responsibility, belongs to Forerunners, alone!
The Didact prepared to do the last thing he could do in his situation, and that was to kill John. The Didact prepared to run over to him and end his life right there, but then he thought of something, and what he thought of would very much safe his life, AND give him another chance at destroying Humanity. He would have to use it, a machine so deadly and unpredictable, that his kind took a oath to NEVER use it again...and this device, granted the ability to travel through time.
It was a Time Machine.
The Forerunners discovered the technology a very long time ago, the discovery was made when the Forerunners had only been using Slipspace travel for about 400 years, will over 10 million years ago. A Forerunner science ship had a major slipspace accident and caused it to travel through time, the damage they caused in the past was severe, it was only when the ship came back too there time and told the major government of the Forerunner homeworld, Ghibalb, that they discovered time travel and they screwed up much of Forerunner history and didn't know how to fix it. Nobody believed them at first, it was only then a single Forerunner scientist that knew a lot on time travel agreed to help them, but instead of making sure they were never deployed to survey star systems, they instead went back in time and helped the scientists escape the time period they were stranded in. This left the scientists with the technology of time travel, and with it they immediately took it back to the major government of Ghibalb, where they then sealed it away from the public for over 300,000 years before they announced that time travel was a reality and that it had catastrophic effects on there history, but they where lucky enough to fix it. When the public was given the story, they nicknamed the machine, "The Destroyer of History." It was never used again.
The only reason the Didact thought of this, was because on a certain part of this section of the ring that was plummeting towards the planet below, the Forerunner council agreed to install time machines on every ring, as a last resort just incase the rings didn't work, and the Lifeworkers would then warn the Forerunner council of the Flood, and then form an alliance with Humanity to destroy the Flood. The Didact will never understand why they didn't do that instead, perhaps they feared the results it would have on the galaxy, good or bad, it was nicknamed the Destroyer of History for a reason.
The Didact knew his plan, he would teleport out of the control room and get to the Time Machine quickly and transport to some time when Humanity was still stuck on Earth and would prove absolutely defenseless against him. This is a big risk the Didact is taking, but he will do anything to ensure Humanity does not get the Mantle, and save the future of the galaxy. The Didact smirked under his helmet, and let out a sinister chuckle, gaining the Chief's attention.
"Your plan will fail human, you and your kind will never reign victorious over the Forerunners, and you will never steal what is rightfully ours, the Mantle of Responsibility. You may think you have won, but this is only the beginning, John..." The Didact finished his speech and for the first time, said the Chief's real name. The Didact then disappeared before John's eyes.
The Didact suddenly appeared in a large room with a large device in the center of the room, as many energy sources feed into the large machine which glowed in immense power. The Didact had never seen one of these things with his own eyes before, he sat there and admired the machine that will finally allow him to destroy Humanity once and for all. He was knocked out of his trance by an explosion behind him, the section of the ring was collapsing under all the force the atmosphere was putting on it, he had to hurry. The Didact sprinted over to a control panel that had at least 20 glowing circular pads that were connected to the large machine. The Didact slowed himself down, as he approached the control panel that had many settings on it, the setting included Location, Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute. The settings had already been set to the date when the Forerunners declared war against Humanity over 107,000 years ago. The Didact wasn't interested in this time period, instead he began entering his desire options. The Didact knew Humanity achieved FTL travel near the end of the 23rd century, he found this out when he decided to search through some of the memories of the humans he composed on Earth only three days ago. So he figured he needed to go back somewhere when Humanity had not achieved FTL travel, and had not set up any colonies on there neighboring planets, and a time when they we're extremely vulnerable. A very large explosion erupted behind him and debris went flying across the room, some of it hitting the time machine, seeing that, the Didact figured it wouldn't be long before this thing crashed into the planet. In a panic he quickly entered a date and a location, he would be transported to the early 21st century in a Forerunner outpost on Earth that had been used for the Lifeworkers, and with the data inserted into the machine, the Didact confirmed it by pressing the confirm button.
The Didact waited in suspense as the machine calculated the data. Just as the Didact was about to yell at the machine to hurry up, it finished calculating.
"Calculations complete! Please confirm Forerunner identity before continuing." The panel asked the Didact in a calm voice.
"You absurd machine!" The Didact cursed the machine, before getting ready to announce his identity. "Ur-Didact, Promethean Warrior-Servant and Protector of the Ecumene!" The Didact shouted over the explosions
"Welcome Ur-Didact! Please confirm full name before continuing onward." The panel asked cheerfully, as if it was mocking him.
The Didact yelled in frustration and stress before continuing. "Shadow-of-Sundered-Star!" The Didact shouted urgently, feeling that he'll impact the planet any second now.
"Thank you for your cooperation! Please step onto the platform to continue, and to activate the Time Machine, give the command 'activate'." The panel announced cheerfully to the Didact once again.
Wasting no time, the Didact immediately jumped on to one of the glowing pads and prepared travel back in time. "ACTIVATE, NOW!" The Didact yelled his demands to the machine.
"Activating, good luck Warrior-Servant." The panel announced it's final message before beginning the transport.
Right as the Didact began teleporting, a massive explosion erupted everywhere around him as the section of the ring had finally hit the surface of the planet, and the Didact teleported right on time as the time machine exploded.
The Didact has just traveled back in time to attempt to destroy Humanity yet again, but this time they are much weaker. Will the Didact success in his plans? More to come, stay tuned.