Disclaimer: I don't own Halo(I have the games though), just this story.
Time Unknown, November 2, 2552. Forerunner Ship, Sol System, above planet Earth.
Master Chief John-117 sighed after the COM channel went dead. The Spartan looked around the spacious docking bay and saw a door at the far end. John instinctively reached for his BR55 Battle Rifle that was usually slung behind his shoulder and felt nothing. He suddenly remembered that he had left behind all his weapons before jumping into the conduit connecting High Charity to the Forerunner Ship.
John popped a stim pack and felt it flow through his veins. The Spartan examined the docking bay and found some of the Covenant purple gun crates lined up near the door. John pried open one of the gun crates and found two pairs of Needlers and Plasma Rifles. The Master Chief frowned as he took one of each of the weapons. The Spartan preferred to have good old standard-issue UNSC weaponry, but the Covenant weapons would have to do. He clipped the Plasma Rifle to his belt and walked to the only door.
The silvery door pulsed green and silently opened as John neared it. Needler at the ready, the Spartan cautiously walked through the door and found himself in an empty hallway with a single door at the other end. The Master Chief had no choice but to approach the door and watch it open. Surprised at the lack of resistance, John only found a small circular room with a control panel in the middle. He slowly walked up to it and saw strange, Aztec-like symbols that were frustratingly familiar. Without thinking, John pressed one of them and felt himself being pulled upwards. He realized that it was a gravity lift, although without any of the purple ambient lighting that the Covenant gravity lifts had.
Two small red blobs appeared on the Master Chief's motion detector and his muscles tensed, ready to fight. The hatch above him opened with a hiss and the Spartan landed on the next floor. John came face-to-face with a Grunt and opened fire. The pink, crystalline needles impaled the diminutive alien and exploded, spilling its bluish blood on the floor. The other Grunt who was standing next to its dead friend, yelled in fright and starting running away. John put five of the razor-sharp needles into the Grunt's back, which concealed its methane tank, and ruptured it. The Grunt topped over, clutching its throat, gasping for the precious methane which kept it alive. The Spartan aimed the Needler at the alien's head and ended its misery.
John reloaded the alien weapon and stood tense, ready for action. Silence hung in the air, and no enemies came through the only door. The Spartan allowed himself to relax a fraction and he slowly approached the door. The silvery doors opened without a sound and revealed a large atrium with massive columns embedded with Forerunner symbols. The room was roughly rectangular and the columns formed a square around an empty area. A large dome with a flat surface on top lay in the middle, and many doors decorated the walls. John saw a pair of Brutes patrolling the area, and he silently slid back into the room. The Spartan realized that he didn't know where to go, and he suddenly missed the quirky AI, Cortana. Although annoying at times, Cortana always provided a way for him, and proved very useful. He briefly wondered what she was doing, but snapped back to the present. He had a mission to accomplish.
John stepped out of the door and ran to the nearest column. The two Brutes on patrol were at the other side of the room. The Spartan planned to take them out and go to the center and find out what that dome was. He lifted the Needler, took aim, waited a heartbeat, and fired at the Brutes. The two gorilla-like aliens rolled out of the way of the pink projectiles and returned fire. John turned behind the column, and saw the green energy beams of a Carbine flash by. The Spartan was about to reload the Needler when he heard the booms of a Brute Shot firing. The nearest column was too far away and the Master Chief couldn't make it in time. He braced himself and heard four explosions directly behind him. John opened his eyes, surprised. There was no vibration when the grenades impacted the column he was leaning against. He quickly reloaded the alien weapon and rolled out of cover, firing the crystalline needles at the two Brutes. Both of the aliens took cover behind the nearest column and the pink needles flew by harmlessly. John primed a plasma grenade, waited one second, and lobbed it. The glowing blue plasma grenade arched down toward the column that the two Brutes were taking cover behind. One Brute turned out of cover, its Brute Shot leveled at the Spartan, and the grenade landed directly on the ugly alien's face. The plasma grenade adhered to the Brute's face and vaporized it in a flash of deadly plasma. Its partner yelled in rage, dropped its weapon, and charged towards John. The Master Chief dropped the spent Needler and unclipped the Plasma Rifle from his belt. He pointed it at the Brute and opened fire. Plasma stuttered out from the rifle and struck the charging Brute straight in the chest. The monstrous alien growled in pain, but kept lumbering forward, intent on taking its enemy out. One of the blue bolts caught the Brute in the face, and it fell backwards, clawing at the air. Its body twitched once, and ceased. John cautiously walked toward the alien and fired once at its face, making sure it was dead. He picked up the dropped Carbine and policed the ammo from the Brute's dead body. Suddenly, a door to his right opened, and a swarm of Jackals carrying golden shields stepped out.
John's shield shimmered as he was hit by the Jackal's Plasma Pistols. The Spartan rolled to his right and fired the Carbine, aiming at the unprotected legs of the vulture-like aliens. The green energy projectiles tore through the Jackals' legs and they fell. John primed a plasma grenade and threw it directly in the middle of the group. The Jackals couldn't do a thing as the grenade exploded and engulfed them in a fiery blaze of blue plasma.
The Master Chief looked around, blood and adrenaline pumping through his body, waiting for more enemies to kill. He decided not to wait for reinforcements and ran over to the mutilated corpses of the Jackals. He found an arm shield generator, made sure it worked, and clipped it to his arm. The Master Chief reloaded the Carbine and walked up to the dome in the middle of the room. He stepped onto the platform in the middle and a control panel filled with Forerunner symbols appeared in front of him. The multi-colored Aztec-like symbols seemed tantalizingly familiar and John pressed one. Golden bands of light enveloped him and he felt the dizzying sensation of warping.
The Prophet of Truth sat in his hovering throne, staring out of the view screens, impatient. He had to get to the Forerunner construct called "the Ark." He looked around at the five brutes around him; two who were piloting the ship, the other three were Honor Guards standing below guarding the entrance to the bridge. The Prophet marveled at the Forerunner technology. The control center of the ship was a hovering platform connected to a bridge below by a gravity lift, all inside of a massive sphere deep in the center of the Forerunner Ship. The Prophet looked up at the wall of the sphere in front of him where the central view screen was, the surface of the human planet, "Earth" was coming into closer view. Suddenly, he heard the surprised grunt of a Brute and turned around. In a swivel of golden light on the slipspace teleportation pad, the only entrance, the Demon appeared.
John fell in a heap on the black pad, the golden lights fading from his vision. He wanted to throw up; the teleportation process felt like his stomach was ripped out from his body, mixed around, and randomly stuffed back in. He put away his feelings of nausea and looked up, an Honor Guard Brute, or in fact, three, were aiming their Brute Shots at him.
The Master Chief dove forward and three of the high-velocity Brute Shot grenades exploded behind him. The force from the explosion threw him even further and drained his shields by half. The Master Chief rolled to his feet, Carbine instantly aimed at the nearest Brute's head. He fired off three shots, two which tore through its tiny brain, while the other pierced its right eye. The massive alien howled in pain and fell backwards, dead. The next nearest Brute ran up to John and planned to hit him with the razor-sharp bayonet attached to the Brute Shot. John reacted and emptied the rest of the clip into the Brute's chest. The gorilla-like alien howled in pain and gave the Master Chief the time he needed. The Spartan leaped forward and tackled the Brute, knocking it down. The third Honor Guard was tracking the green-armored alien and fired three grenades. John heard the grenades, turned on the arm shield generator, and dove to the side. Two of the grenades impacted where he had been a second before, right where the other Brute lay on the ground. The Brute laying on the ground didn't even have time to scream before it was torn to pieces by the high-velocity grenades, killed by friendly fire. The Spartan was hit by the last grenade and the arm shield exploded, throwing him back a few meters. The Master Chief got up, switched to his Plasma Rifle and shot full-auto. The plasma weapon whined as it discharged deadly lances of blue energy. The Plasma Rifle overheated and John dropped it, his radiation counter almost at dangerous levels. The Brute, however, still stood, with patches of fur melted and seeped with blood. It growled, but then suddenly stopped, and fell forward, dead.
John was grateful for the sudden death of the massive alien, he took a quick moment to reload his Carbine and watch his shield fully charge. The Spartan ran to the gravity lift and felt himself slowly ascend. The Prophet of Truth heard the fighting below and decided to take actions into his own hands. The Prophet turned to the control panels and overloaded the engines, planning to take the Demon with him. The Master Chief landed on the floating platform, Carbine trained on the Prophet's head, while the other two Brutes stood, weaponless. John was about to say something when the whole ship rumbled and he fell to the deck, one of the Brutes lost his balance and fell off of the platform, where the ground below waited for his death. The other Brute was about to attack when two Carbine rounds pierced its head. The Master Chief had gotten back up and stepped closer to the Prophet, Carbine at the ready.
"Ahh, the Demon, or this 'Master Chief' that your own race calls you." The Prophet's voice filtered in from John's internal speakers. "You and your incompetent race will never survive our holy onslaught, and to think that the Forerunners favored such an inferior race!"
The Master Chief was puzzled and jabbed his gun at the Prophet. "What do you mean?" The ship rumbled again and the Prophet of Truth drew a Plasma Pistol that was concealed under his room and pointed it at the Master Chief. The Master Chief had no chance but to jump forward and snap the Prophet's neck. Truth's body lay limp, still hovering in his throne.
The engines overloaded and exploded, shaking the whole ship and sending it to the surface of the Earth. John looked around, emergency klaxons blared and he saw from the view screens that the ship was plummeting towards the surface. He wrapped his arm around the railing of the platform and locked his arm controls. The Spartan looked toward the central view screen and braced for impact. The Forerunner Ship shuddered and its hull rippled with stress as it collided with the ground. John felt the vibrations as the ship crashed and the whole control room went dark.