The New Threat

Chapter 5: Clarification

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The works of Halo (characters and weapons) go to Bungie, while KotOR (same thing) go to LucasArts. Some elements were used in compliance with Gipper 40's story, and that doesn't belong to me either.

It was silent in the Pelican. All eyes were trained on Revan waiting for him to speak. This is bad. All of these people are probably from Earth, Harvest, or Reach. And I don't know where any of them are... much less what they are anyway... Revan took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said. "You got me. Harkus isn't my real name, but I don't give out my real name to people. Harkus is my casual name, and not many know my real name anyway.

"But I can assure you I am no spy, but I had recently fought with the Covenant, until I got taken away by a slipspace rupture they created while jumping back to Forbidden Chalice. I understand the suspicion that you have for me for not recognizing any of your colonies, but I can only guarantee my allies are light years away."

"So I guess we won't be learning his real name anytime now," stated the cyborg-human while he lowered his gun. "I still recommend killing him to relieve ourselves of the trouble."

"He got our men out of Chalice. Much more, he helped us escape Chalice. We can give him our minimal trust, but only to the point until Hood says so. Then we'll see how we shall deal with him."

The Pelican touched ground, giving signal that it had landed. The loading ramp opened, showing a large metallic room filled with patrolling marines. A window showed an endless sea of stars.

Max got up from his seat, hefting his rifle. "Richardson, tell your men to update their status. You aren't MIA anymore, are you?"

"Yes, Max. Marines, move out!" The men got up, grasping their weapons as they exited the Pelican. Max held onto Revan's shoulder, causing him to turn around. "You're gonna follow me." Max released Revan's shoulder and walked out of the Pelican dropship. Revan followed Max through the metallic halls, his robes hiding his lightsabers from view and effectively drawing away attention. Max came up to a door, entered a string of digits on a keypad, opening a door.

Inside the room, rows of consoles were set up displaying maps, status reports, research databases, and change logs; each with an operator at the screens. A man in a white suit and headpiece stood at the front of the ship, facing a large window at the endless sea of stars. "Sergeant Max," he said as Max approached, "your mission was a success?"

"Yessir," Max replied, standing straight a setting the side of his flat right palm at his forehead. "Along the way, we have picked up a straggler, by the looks of it."

The man, whom Revan thought to be Hood, put a hand to his head, then swung his head back and forth. Regaining his composure, Hood turned around and looked at Revan, his hands behind his back. "Welcome to Accra Station," he said. "I'm Fleet Admiral Lord Hood." He outstretched a hand,

"Harkus Tonthald." Revan shook the man's hand.

"It has been a while since we've gotten any newcomers. Ever since the Elites had signed that treaty with us, everyone thought the war was over. But the Covenant's back, in which making that treaty dissolve." Hood looked up, his eyes piercing through Revan's. "I want to ask, how did you come to Forbidden Chalice anyway?"

"I was separated by a slipspace rupture," Revan said. "But there was even more before that. Things I was obligated not to tell."

"I'm sorry, Bastila."

Meetra had walked out of the Jedi Council room into the hall, and Bastile had been there waiting. When the news of Revan's disappearance reached her, she could only shake her head at the fact he was dead.

"Look, I've tried calling him, only to hear static; either he's gone somewhere very far away or dead. No one's gonna go into the Unknown Regions to look for him, and everyone's gonna say he's simply dead."

"He is not dead!" Bastila cried out, rage mixed into her voice. "He's lost... but I can feel he's still alive!" She shut her eyes tightly, feigning tears. "He can't be dead...!"

Meetra was at a loss for words. She couldn't find anything to say, so she just started to walk away. She claims Revan is still alive... but if he is, where is he? And why hasn't he tried contacting us? Meetra knocked her forehead with her fist, berating herself. I should have been able to cover him... but that would not have done any good. Then we wouldn't have gotten the fact he is now missing.

At least he's not missing because of his own intent.

"Lord Hood! Here are the results of Harkus's shooting session!" The marine handed Hood a document, listing off accuracy-timing graphs, and reload tests. Revan had gotten a glimpse of the document, being asked if he wanted to "try again."

"All excellent or perfect?" Hood hummed. "The last recruit we had whom could have done that was John."

"Well," Revan said. "The weapons were a bit bulkier that I thought, and I kinda use plasma shots better than lead bullets." He shrugged at his own comment.

"Nevertheless, you are an exceptional sharpshooter. Should we be able to put you on the field so early?"

"I am ready at any time," Revan said. It will also allow me to keep up on what the Covenant are up to.

"In that case, given by the results, he is eligible for our SPARTAN-III project. We cannot afford to lose him so easily, and so giving him the enhanced strength and energy shields will keep him alive." Hood turned, facing the sea of stars, which was drifting towards a planet, colored mostly orange with a few seas of green and blue.

"Is it possible to just implement energy shields?" Revan asked, stepping forward. "I do not wish to be injected with something that could have potential side effects."

"That's something else that concerns me, Commander," the test supervisor said. "The strength serum injection could kill one without enough muscle cells, and not to mention all the other implants and injections. Could we take the shield generator off the SPARTAN suit and implement it into Harkus's robes somehow? He's strong enough as is."

"Possibly," Hood said. "Ask Songnam to construct a shield generator, make it as flat as possible to accommodate light clothing." The technician nodded and saluted before leaving. Hood turned to Revan. "Now, Harkus, I've heard from Sergeant Max that you've just been caught up in the Second Human-Covenant War. Anyway, the Ha... uh, there's nothing for them to be after."

They're hiding something? "Perhaps there is another reason that they might want to take? Or may it be a kind of grudge?"

"Whispers say they're doing for a 'Great Rebirth.' Whatever it is, it was as vague as the Great Journey from a decade back. Can you fill us up on the details... Lisithea?"

Li... sith... ea?

A blue hologram of a woman in a human army admiral suit with a thigh-length dress materialized into view on the pedastal next to Hood. "Their battle-net from the last hack stated it was 'to finish what our predecessors could not," she said with crossed arms. "I would say that it is, if not exactly, similar to their first message." She looked at Revan. "A newcomer? You look someone who came from the movies."

Revan shrugged. "I guess I get that a lot. Can you explain their first message?"

"I'll just play it." She shrugged as a control board appeared in her hologram and she tapped a few controls. A screen appeared behind Lisithea, featuring a sound bar. The recording was scratchy, as if corrupted or old, but the message was clearly heard.

"The will of the gods are your destruction... and we are their instrument. We are... the Covenant."

The room became silent, compared to the liveliness just moments before the recording was played. The screen behind Lisithea disappeared along with the control board that was in front of her.

Revan played this message again in his head. His mind flashed back to his first encounter with the Covenant. "The Covenant... shall have... its revenge! And my... brethren will destroy you...! I may have failed... but you have lost... Your world... in smoke... For our Great Rebirth...!"

Then the Shipmaster Elite. "Your species will fall. The Covenant... shall reign!"

"I should have known," Revan said. "They are going to try eradicating all human life in the universe. But is their army enough to hurt us and our army?"

Hood closed his eyes. "We wished to keep this top-secret. So many have died to fight against this structure. Lisithea, fill him on the details."

Halo.

It's shape like a ring, and the shot fired is pure energy, giving off a resemblance of an angel's halo filled with the power of God. Any sentient life in its blast radius, three radii of a galactic center, dies. It is by this ring, or array of rings that the Covenant wish to destroy us with.

The UNSC have officially destroyed one Halo, named Installation Zero-Four, and, prematurely, its replacement, Zero-Four-B. We stopped the Halo named Installation Zero-Five from activating, which put the rings in standby, thus we ventured to the Ark to stop the rings' activations. But, as a result, the Master Chief, SPARTAN One-One-Seven, has gone missing, the first to go officially missing during battle.

But each time we approached a Halo, a virulent being known as the Flood attacked us, becoming more powerful as our forces died. Due to the losses of both the Covenant and the Humans, the Flood's supply of armymen are threefold that of the Humans' and the Covenant's... put together. They gain forces by assimilating our bodies with their nerve system, then mutating the host body with its own DNA, completely using the bodies against us all the while naturally enhancing the shell which was formerly alive.

And that is why the Halo was formed: to stop the Flood... by killing its food; all other sentient life. We have three objectives: to stop the Halos from firing, defeat the Covenant in war, and prevent the extinction of the Human race.

It has been done once by the Forerunners. Now it's our turn.

Revan withdrew himself from the video projection, then stood up from his seat. He stretched out his neck and limbs before taking the seat again. His knees were still to stiff for him to walk. "A Halo," Revan said. "That is what the Covenant are hoping to destroy us with?"

"Exactly," Lisithea replied. "And so we have to beat them to it and take the indexes. Then we'll put them in Cold Storage or snap them." Lisithea shrugged. "Otherwise, they want to go to the Ark, and so we'll have to colonize that area and build a ton of AA-towers and AG-towers. Then move our fleet there and make it suicide to even attempt to activate the Halos. Have the Sentinels contain the Flood containment. Make it impossible to activate the Halos."

"Why not just do what you just said?"

"It would take too long. To raise a city takes nearly years to accomplish. A nation takes decades and even centuries. Then to have resources takes a suitable planet, which the Ark has flora and fauna species we haven't been able to identify. Otherwise, we would have done so after the First Human-Covenant War."

Revan looked up. "Things change during and after wars... first, all goes well, then something screws it up."

"May Private Thonthald report to the bridge. Private Thonthald." There was a click ending the message.

"Duty calls... must mean they got the shield unit." Lisithea nodded as she dissipated to hologram bits. Revan stood up and exited out the door to his left and walked toward the bridge, which was, amazingly, the room next to the Archives room. Revan strolled down the central aisle and approached Hood. "We recieved the device from Songnam. If you could take this and press it against your robes, it would automatically adhere to the fabric. But careful, it could get a bit hot."

Revan thanked the Admiral before leaving to his quarters. He walked out of the bridge, down the platform stairs, and staged a left toward the Habitat wing. I was assigned to Habitat Gamma... wherever that is... Revan pushed a button and an elevator door opened. He stepped inside and pressed the symbol of an H for Habitat. The elevator took him downward, toward the Hangar Bays.

The overhead light at the top of the elevator shone on an H. The doors swung open to reveal two corridors. Revan looked for the Gamma symbol, something like an inverted L. The symbol was at Revan's forward right, and located the number seventy-seven as the room number. He reached an intersection after fifty, and rooms fifty-one through one-hundred were to his left.

His room door was metallic; like a blast door, except only was about half the blast door. There was a small slot, which Revan inserted his ID, marked as Harkus Tonthald. The slot shone green, and Revan removed the card before walking inside.

"Home," Revan said. He looked around the metallic room, only a bed and a small table taking up its space. In addition, it wasn't the smell of the durasteel he was used to. Could this be... steel?

Revan let himself drop onto the bed and removed his outer cloak. There were a few plasma burns on it, but thanks to the nanobots that repaired and refreshed the clothing, most of the burns were being slowly patched before his eyes. Revan turned it inside out before he used the Force to prevent any of the bots into an area of the generator, and pressed the generator against the cloak. There was a beep and a low hissing sound as the generator set itself. Revan's hand became hot from pressing against the metal and he was awarded with a small burn.

"Thanks for sharing," Revan said, sucking his burned thumb. The nanobots weaved over the metal and patched over the generator. Revan flipped it on, a low humming sound playing as a yellow shell seemed to charge against the fabric. Revan put his cloak on and saw the light rise before his eyes.

Shields... he thought. And not like the shield I have back at home; it's probably better than the Mandalorian Power Shield...! Revan clenched his fist, which movement wasn't rigid at all, like the shield was more of a bubble than a shell.

Revan got up from his bed and walked over to his desk, which beheld his personal computer. Revan was disappointed it wasn't like a datapad, but accessed the records. He was about to read more about the Humans he was acquainted to, but came a loud rumble, a shake like an earthquake, and a bursting red light.

"Boarders at Habitat Alpha!"

"Alpha?" Revan cried. He ran over to a hatch in the wall, which opened up to reveal an assortment of items; the M7-Caseless Submachine Gun, the M6G PDWS Magnum and the BR55 Battle Rifle. Originally, Revan kept a M392 DMR, short for Designated Marksman Rifle instead of the BR55. Instead, Revan merely stocked the Magnum into his thigh holster, and the Battle Rifle magnetically attached to his back by the shield generator. At a drawer, Revan armed himself with two fragmentation grenades and a combat knife. He neared the door, which sounds of fire could be heard, as well as the Covenant's rasping of Basic.

"Take down their defenses!" cried an Elite. "If we take down these stations, we shall have a straight shot at their planet!" Revan silently opened the door to reveal a small firefight between Covenant hiding behind the storage barrels at the front of the Gamma hallway, and at the door's threshold. Marines were fighting behind hastily put barricades.

Revan caught the attention of a marine, who inconspicuously saluted. Revan performed the gesture for closing the blast door, which the marine hesitantly did. Revan primed and threw a frag-grenade into the Covenant, sealing the explosion with a wall of Force. The shrapnel bounced off the Force wall, into the dying Covenant already wounded by the initial detonation. Revan walked out and stepped on a dying Grunt's head, smashing its skull.

Revan knocked on the blast door with an intricate tune, and the door almost immediately opened. He was met with Richardson, who bore a helmet and a DMR. "Sup," he said.

"Took me a while to suit up," Revan replied. "Hope that wasn't a problem."

"We got the job done. Marines, hold this position! More boarding craft will arrive shortly. Harkus, you come with me; the Fleet Admiral wishes to have an audience with you."

A/N: Sorry for the late update. There was a competition last weekend, and lots of family stuff before that one. I apologize for not updating for three weeks, but I hoped you enjoyed this chapter of TNF.

Reviews are nice to have too. :D

-Kai