Chapter 11- To Kill a Prophet
Authors Notes- Chapter 10 was one of the hardest so far to write, so I'm happy that's done. Now I just need to finish this part, and it's on to the Arbiter… FINALLY! I have waited so long to write for him. But, I digress. As always, Rate and Review, and check out the forum. It's there for your ideas for the book. I need moderators, so PM me if you're interested, because I don't have an internet connection all the time, and therefore can't moderate all on my own. I also need betareaders, so PM me if you're interested in that, just if you do betaread, DON"T SPOIL IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE! For now, though, enjoy the sort-of novelization of Regret.
"The Prophet of Regret is planning to activate Halo!" The Spartans all looked at Cortana, astounded at what she had just said. The Chief asked her if she was sure, so she snapped her fingers, and, like magic, the holo-image had audio. The Prophet of Regret's image said, "I shall light the holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!" Cortana snapped her fingers again, and the image stopped. "Pretty much." The Chief keyed his comm. "Commander, we have a problem." "So I hear, but from what I understand, the Prophet will need an object, the Index, to activate the ring. I've located a Library similar to the one you found on the first Halo. If the rings work the same way the index should be inside." Johnson joined the conversation. "I'll bet the Covenant are thinking the exact same thing." "Then we better beat them to it, Sergeant. Extract your men and meet me at the Library." "Yes ma'am." "We'll secure the Index, Spartans; you take care of the Prophet. He's given us all the intel we need."
The Chief picked up Cortana's data chip and put it back in his helmet, and the group moved out. Before they got out of the room, a group of Drones flew in. When the bugs were all swatted, the team moved out again, moving toward the center of the lake, where they believed Regret to be. Before they could get on a gondola to take them to the structure where Regret was, a Phantom dropped off a pair of Hunters. Six looked at Emile. "Now would be a very good time to use one of those 'Cans of whoop-ass'." The Hunters put a stop to that, barreling their way along and making it impossible to get a good shot without killing at least one of the Spartans. "I can't without killing at least one of us." "Perfect. Just hellishly perfect." Six grabbed a plasma grenade, primed it, and threw it at the back of one of the Hunters. It stuck right in an area of exposed flesh. It detonated, majorly injuring the Hunter it had stuck and pissing off both.
As they ran at Six, a grenade went off beside the Hunters, killing both. Six turned to the source, and saw Emile holding a smoking Grenade Launcher. "Thanks for the clear shot." "No problem. Next time, though, tell me when you're going to use one of those things." When the grenade had blown up, Six's shields had been completely drained due to his proximity to it. The Spartans got on the gondola, but before they could activate it, a Pelican flew in overhead and dropped off 6 pods, each filled with weapons, including a prototype Sticky Detonator(not like the one in H4, but similar. It does not have the monitor on the side to see what is around the explosive.) The Chief took that, while the others restocked on ammo for their weapons, or at least the ones that were dropped, as Emile could find no grenades for his Launcher, overpowered or not.
They reentered the gondola and activated it. They got no more than 50 yards before a group of Drones beset them. The Chief pulled out his SMG and rained bullets onto them, dropping 5, but leaving at least 10 unharmed. "Fuck this." The Chief dropped his SMG, and pulled up a Rocket Launcher from one of the three pods that had landed on the gondola, and fired both tubes, killing all the rest of the Drones. Six looked at the Chief. "Nice shots." The Chief ignored him and focused on seeing if there were any more threats up ahead. He saw another gondola approaching, carrying 4 Elite Rangers. The gondolas stopped next to each other, and the Elites all jumped into the air, using EVA packs to stay aloft.
After killing all of them, including one being shot through the head with a 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round, Six inspected one that had fallen onto the gondola. Emile walked up beside him. "What are you doing?" "Trying to find a way to detach this thruster pack, it may come in handy." "Okay, but when it blows up, don't come crying to me." "I won't. I'll just find another pack." He found a way to detach it, and slung it over his back. It didn't fit comfortably, due to it being made for Elites, but it fit tightly. "Stand back, everyone. I'm going to test this." His armor initiated an uplink to the pack, and he keyed the activation light. The pack activated and threw Six forward and into the ground. "Okay. Did not see that coming." Cortana spoke up. "Chief, hand me to him. I may be able to help." The Chief took her data chip out of his helmet and gave it to Six, who put it in his helmet. Cortana examined the schematics of the pack. "I see. Six, you need to turn the thrust level down if you want to use this like a jet pack. Otherwise, you can use this to get a quick burst of speed. Handy for getting away from Johnson's grenades. And Elites with swords. The only downside is that neither last forever. The Elites must have something to help them stay aloft indefinitely" "How can I control which direction I want the thrusters to push me?" "Simple, just lean that way." "Okay. Thanks."(Yes, Six just invented the thruster pack from H4.) He removed Cortana's data chip and gave it back to the Chief.
The gondola came to a stop at a tower on one of the sides of the lake. The group moved in, aware that this was not their final objective, but figuring that this would take them to it. They entered a room that had a hole in the middle, and a shitload of Jackals and Drones and Grunts (Oh, my!). The Drones took to the sky, or at least what constituted the "sky" in an enclosed space, and rained down plasma on the Spartans. Carter "pulled a Chief" and used both rockets from his launcher to kill all of them, while Six used his new thruster pack to close the distance between him and a Jackal. He slammed his fist into the Jackal's face, caving it in with his strength plus the added force of his thruster pack. He threw one of his plasma grenades, sticking it to the knee of one of the other Jackals. It freaked out, running towards its companions in a way that said: "Get this fucking thing the hell off me!" The grenade detonated, killing 4 of the 5 remaining Jackals. The last one suffered the same fate as so many Elites, taking a 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round through the head. Six turned to Jun. "I thought you only used that thing on Elites?" "I couldn't resist that great of a shot."
An elevator came up out of the hole in the middle of the room moments later. Cortana observed that the elevator would likely take them to another tower that would connect to their objective. "unless you guys would rather swim." Emile took a step back. "I'm not getting in that thing." Six turned to him. "Why? Scared." "No. Claustrophobia." "Come on, you rode in that drop pod just fine." The Chief turned to them. "Actually, he was freaking out the whole ride down. You just didn't hear it." Six turned back to Emile. "Would you rather just suck it up and get in, or let that son of a bitch Prophet activate the ring and kill us all. Worse, you'd be letting Johnson down by not putting those damned grenades to a good cause." "Okay, I'll get in. But only because I don't want to let Johnson down. And because I want to kill a Prophet."
They all got in the elevator, or whatever it was, and the Chief activated it. It dropped slowly, and then stopped for a moment before plunging into the lake. Cortana informed the group that she had intercepted a secure transmission from Regret's carrier to something called "High Charity". "It seems to be a formal apology to the Prophets of Truth and Mercy. Apparently, Regret jumped the gun when he attacked Earth. He's asking the other Prophets to 'forgive his premature arrival.' Claiming that 'no human presence was foretold'. That explains why there were so few ships in his fleet, but it's odd that a Prophet would have such bad intel on his enemy's homeworld."
The elevator started to ascend, and when it reached the top, Emile breathed a sigh of relief. The door stayed closed for a while. Six looked at the door. "Wasn't it supposed to open when we reached the top?" The Chief looked over at him. "Guess it must be stuck." Emile looked at the door, then at the Chief. "Oh no. I am not being in here one moment longer than I need to be. Clear a path. I'm going to break down the door." The others moved to the sides, and Emile kicked the door, but it didn't budge. He looked at Six. "Use your thruster pack to help bash the door open." "Why not just break the glass and go through there?" "That works." Emile kicked out the glass windows, and the team exited the elevator, now inoperable. They moved through, coming to a room with 5 Grunts in it. Carter and Six pulled out their DMRs and killed 4 with headshots. Six looked at the dead Grunts. "They should really make it so that the Grunts eject confetti and say 'Yay!' when they are shot in the head." Carter looked at him. "Why?" "I don't know, so that we know the difference between a headshot and a neck shot." They moved on, finding the last Grunt hiding behind the other staircase. Six threw his knife at it, sticking it in the Grunt's eye.
He retrieved his knife, and the group moved into another room, this one much larger. It hosted a pair of Hunters, a pair of sword-wielding Elite Honor Guards, 4 Jackal Snipers, and a few Drones. The Chief took out the prototype Sticky Detonator and fired it at the Hunters, killing one that it stuck and injuring and pissing off the other. Six stabbed one of the Honor Guards in the back and stole its Energy Sword, then charged at the other, wielding both Swords. Jun shot one of the Snipers through the eye, and another through its long, pointy nose. Emile stole Carter's Rocket Launcher and "pulled a Chief", using both rockets to kill the Drones, and Carter, taking his Rocket Launcher back, reloaded and shot the other Hunter, killing it and sending it flying about 5 feet back. Six, now dueling the other Honor Guard, lost one of his Swords, then used his thruster pack to punch the Guard in the face, which sent it reeling and allowed Six to stab it in the neck and kill it. He picked up his other Sword and joined the others as Emile tortured the last Jackal. "Emile, just kill it already." Emile stabbed his kukri into the Jackal's neck, then pulled it out and moved on with the group.
They came to another area like the one they entered just after they left the elevator-like thingy. This time though, there were no enemies, at least that they could see. A shot rang out and a Stealth Elite dropped and its camo module failed as a 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round flew through its head. Mysteriously, the Elite was missing part of its head. Carter turned to Jun. "How did you know that it was there?" "I saw a twitch of the light and blew its fucking head off." "Oh." Six drew his knife and threw it. It stuck right in the mouth of another Elite that then dropped dead. Carter pulled out his DMR and shot another Elite in the throat, which was one of the unshielded places on it. Emile ran up and shot a pair of Grunts in the head with his shotgun, while the Chief pulled out his Battle Rifle and shot three Grunts in the head. With one burst. Another Elite ran out of a door at the other end of the room, this one wielding an Energy Sword. Six activated one of his and threw it at the Elite. It stuck in the Elite's stomach. Six ran up and stabbed the Elite in the face with his other sword, then retrieved the Sword from its gut. "Damn, both are low on charge." He dropped both swords and picked up the Sword from the fallen Elite. Six's HUD showed that it had a 100% charge, enough for 10 kills. "Now then, that's better."
Six grabbed his knife from the first Elite he had killed, and the group moved on into a room… containing another elevator-like thingy. Emile, surprisingly, was the first to get in. Six went in next. "Finally got over your claustrophobia?" "No. I'm just imagining being in a big, open area." "Oh, okay. Good luck with that." The rest entered, and the Chief started the "elevator." As the group traversed the lake bottom, Cortana informed them that Regret's Carrier had received a response from High Charity. "A very well-encrypted message from the Prophet of Truth. Listen to this 'Your haste has jeopardized the fulfillment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy's wise counsel.' Truth, Mercy, Regret, three Prophet hierarchs. Killing Regret might shake up the Covenant leadership a bit, but frankly, it sounds like you may be doing Truth a favor."
The "elevator" reached the top, and this time, the door worked. Emile stepped out, and saw an Elite Honor Guard walking away from where they were. He walked up behind it and slit its throat with his kukri, then shot another with his shotgun. When he reloaded, he remarked, "Damn, only 12 shells left. Better find more soon. How's everyone else doing on ammo?" The Chief replied that he had one spare magazine for each of his SMG's, and 2 spare mags for his Battle Rifle. Carter had 1 spare mag for his DMR, and no more spare rockets. Jun had 1 spare clip for his Sniper Rifle and 2 spare mags for his SMG. Six had 2 spare clips for his DMR and a 60% charge on his plasma rifle, plus his fully charged Energy Sword. "I don't know what happened to my assault rifle, but I have 4 spare clips for that, too." Carter looked at him. "Those can be used in your DMR when you turn it to automatic fire, so save them." "Oh, never knew that." "You do now, Six. Let's get moving." Six thumbed the mag release on his DMR, slotted an assault rifle mag, thumbed the fire selector switch to "automatic", and joined the group.
They moved on, finally coming to the surface, which was beset by Jackals and Drones and Elites (Oh, my!). Jun shot one of the Elites, a Major, through the head with a 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round. Six blasted a group of Drones with his AR/DMR, killing about 15 before needing to reload. Emile blasted a Jackal with his shotgun, while the Chief pelted an Elite with his SMGs. Carter sniped 3 Drones with his DMR, leaving 2 alive, which the Chief shot with his SMGs. "Damn, last mags." Jun looked over at the Chief. "You can have my spares. It not like I'm going to use them." He handed the spare SMG mags to the Chief. "Thanks, Jun."
They made their way to the gondola that would take them to the structure where Regret was, and when they arrived, a Pelican pilot came over the comm. "This is going to be my last run. I'm almost out of fuel. Oh, by the way," he opened the hatch and dropped a box down to Emile. "the Sergeant wants you to have that." Emile opened the box, and found another one of Johnson's 'cans of whoop ass', this one with another note in it. "Spartans, this grenade is packed to the brim. I don't know how big of an explosion it will make, but I know it will be pretty fucking big. Make that son of a bitch Prophet regret ever declaring war with us. Johnson"
Emile looked at the others. "Johnson sent us a really big can of whoop ass." Cortana asked to examine the grenade, so Emile handed the grenade to the Chief. "This grenade will explode as soon as it is fired. The explosion will be about 10X the size and strength of one of his regular grenades." Emile looked at the group. "Does anyone have any duct tape and some rope?" Six pulled out a roll of duct tape and a bundle of string. "Sure do. Why?" "I'm going to use this thing to clear that platform." "You're nuts." "Probably, but at least none of us have to use it in our hands." "Good point. Just make sure you use the one he already gave you first." "Of course I will." He loaded the last of Johnson's regular grenades into his GL, and then grabbed as many shells for his shotgun as he thought he needed. This equaled about 60 shells.
The rest of the group loaded up on ammo and then moved to the gondola-type thingy. The Chief started it, and Emile moved to the front, waiting for the right time to use his last regular can of whoop ass. When the structure's Covenant defenders came into range, he fired, killing all of them and obliterating the turrets defending it. Emile loaded the big can of whoop ass, then ran to the entrance and taped it down and tied the string to the trigger. Just then, the group heard pops coming from above, and saw Covenant Super-Carriers, too many to count, coming out of Slipspace. They were followed by a gigantic city-like ship, which the group assumed to be High Charity. Cortana spoke up. "That's the largest Covenant fleet I've ever seen, the largest anyone's ever seen. Let's kill Regret before it can stop us."
Just then, a large group of Covenant easily comprised of 50 Grunts, 10 Jackals, and 5 Elites, came out of the Entrance to the structure. The Spartans all retired to a safe distance, and Emile pulled the string. "This is going to be one hell of a bang!" The grenade blew up, killing all of the hostiles, and blowing a hole in the structure that led directly to the center room, where the Spartans found the Prophet of Regret, surrounded by 5 Elite Honor Guards, all of which were still recovering from the blast. Six ran up and stabbed all 5 with his Energy Sword before they could recover, and was promptly blasted by a pulse laser from Regret's gravi-chair thingy, sending the III down to the floor. "Wow that hurt." The Chief pulled out his Sticky Detonator, reloaded it, and fired at Regret. The explosive stuck to the hierarch's chair, and when it went off, it killed the Prophet and destroyed his chair. Cortana warned the group that the carriers had launched a wave of Phantoms, too many for even her to count. Six said, "That's bad. Really bad. Let's get out of here. NOW!"
The group ran for the hole Emile had blown in the structure, and when they got out, they looked up and saw a carrier, quite low in orbit, start to charge its cleansing beam. Carter yelled, "Drop your weapons and ammo; they'll only slow you down!" The Spartans dropped everything, except Six, who kept his Sword and thruster pack. The Spartans took off just as the carrier began glassing the area in an attempt to kill them. They ran until the pathway dropped into the lake. The group jumped off the platform, into the waters below. The impact knocked all of them, except Six, who had used his thruster pack to slow his descent, out cold. Tentacles came out of the water and grabbed them all, pulling them down, and Six heard a deep voice say: "This is not your grave. But you are welcome in it."
