The unexpected arrival of the flood made it hard for the Chief to link up with UNSC command. Fortunately having dealt with the flood before, he was able to kill all the flood in the way and save all the survivors. Most of them anyway…
As Chief continued to advance inside the corridor, he spotted a flamethrower left on the walkway. When he examined it closely, he was surprised to find it was made up of a turret body filled with spray deodorant and a lighter for ignition.
He picked it and advanced down the hallway. Flood creatures jumped out of corners and attempted to attack him, but the makeshift flamethrower burned their flesh off. After repeating this for a while. The weapon ran out of its fuel and Chief was forced to get rid of it.
Chief finally made it out of the building complex with the Arbiter only to watch as enormous covenant battle cruisers dropped Elite drop pods in the middle of the flood advancements. Elite warriors leaped out of the coffin like pods and attacked the flood ferociously.
'Hail humans and take heed' a voice projected from the radio, 'This is the carrier Shadow of Intent, clear this sector while we deal with the flood'. The radio cut.
Chief and the Arbiter looked at each other before racing to help the outnumbered warriors. With the help of Chief and the Arbiter, the flood laid dismembered and lifeless. The group continued on like an invincible force and attacked the flood relentlessly.
They progressed through the buildings slaughtering all the diseased and infected people and aliens. As they approached the wreckage, phantoms dropped more Elites to help combat the flood. Chief eyed the small opening inside the wrecked ship and sprinted towards it. He jumped into the small opening, only to discover rotting corpses and a flood hive that filled the entire ship.
As he traversed through the abomination the flood created, the Gravemind began speaking to him in telepathy, getting into his head and speaking things he would never do. The hallways began to lead into a clearing, where a large purple console sat in the midst of the fleshy biomass with a small memory unit on top of it. A hologram of Cortana appeared, "Chief!".
"Cortana?", he cautiously asked. "High Charity, the prophets' holy city is on its way..", she began speaking before the hologram stutters and shuts off. Chief goes to grab the module before hearing the familiar humming of a phantom in the air, hovering above Chief.
A silver orb with one blue eye hovers down to him, "Reclaimer!", it exclaims. A growl was heard behind Chief, but the orb acted quicker by shooting a bright laser out of it's eye at the flood form.
It quickly began to interact with the memory unit, using a similar looking beam from it's eye. "I must act before your construct suffers any further trauma".
Chief grabbed the unit with his left hand and held the orb in his right hand. "On Halo, you tried to kill Cortana. You tried to kill me", Chief said venomously.
"Protocol dictated my response! She had the Activation Index and you were going to destroy my Installation. You did destroy my installation. Now I only have one function, to help you Reclaimer, as I always should have done".
Chief glanced at the module before handing it over to the floating sphere. It took it without a word and floated back into the transport with the Chief following closely.
[Major Memory Sequence] (Play any music to get the mood) (Recommend either Jeopardy or Peril, Halo 2/Anniversary Soundtracks)
The pelican streaked through the arks' Earth like atmosphere, passing the monstrous alien ships fighting each other for control over the beautiful, yet deadly surface below. A desert biome loomed in front of the flying machine, and other biomes were scattered throughout the installation. Chief viewed the landing zone from the cockpit before walking back into the blood tray and pulling a sniper rifle from the weapons racks. The rear doors smoothly opened to reveal the desert he viewed from space, rocks and boulders littered the area with sand in between the cracks and covering the vast expanse like a tan sea.
The small squad of four he was leading trekked for a few minutes until they reached a clearing, with a sniper tower and holographic projector of the Prophet of Truth in it. The grunts slept in the grainy particles whilst the brutes lumbered around sniffing for any signs of human life.
Chief pulled the SRS-99 from his back and aimed through the scope on top of the rifle. He raised one hand to the marines and signalled them to prepare. Looking back through the scope, he aimed at the golden armoured brutes' head, before swiftly pulling the trigger. Choc! The loud noise of a sniper firing instantly alerted the Covenant loyalists but they were too late.
The ODST's assaulted relentlessly on the unprepared Covenant, covered by the Spartans superb sniping skills. By the time they were done, all the brutes, jackals and grunts laid still, with at least a hole on their body, most brutes had bullet holes through their heads. The Sniper Rifle was reattached to his back, and he strode into the cave with the squad following him confidently.
As they exited the cave, their eyes immediately picked up the construction of an AA-Battery, similar to the one they destroyed on Earth. A lone jackal sniper stood on the side of the partially built turret, gazing everywhere, except where the squad was. Chief aimed at the jackal instead with a battle rifle and proceeded to shoot it's brains. The small exchange went unnoticed by the other Covenant loitering underneath the structure.
The squad each pulled out a fragmentation grenade and tossed it to the unsuspecting aliens down below. Within seconds, the explosives scorched and killed most of the religious aliens. The squad and Chief charged out of their cover and proceeded to eliminate the rest of the ground forces.
A stray plasma shot hit one of the ODST's in the arm, forcing her to take cover until the skirmish was over. Chief pulled the bio-foam from one of his armour's containers and applied it to the woman. The sound of gritting teeth could be heard within the helmet, but died down after the medical tool was removed and placed back into one of the compartments in the Spartans armour.
Chief helped the woman up and heard the female murmur 'thanks'. They continued to proceed until they were at a pelican crash site, with survivors barely holding out. Chief spotted a broken warthog, but with it's turret looking operational. He sprinted towards the turret and powered on. The attacking forces only heard the whirring of a turret coming to life before being mowed down by the exceptional rate of fire created by the shooting machine.
"Hey look, it's a Spartan, we're gonna be alright", a marine cheered, looking motivated. They eliminated the rest of the Covenant there. One of the marines stood in front of Chief. "Corporal Higgins reporting", he saluted, with the gesture being returned more precisely. "How many of you are left?", Chief asked.
"Five of us are able to fight, but two privates have been injured by the crash and are unable to fight". John racked his brain to figure out how to transport all twelve of them to the objective when the roar of a brute vehicle came from over the sand dunes.
Chief instantly pulled out his sniper and shot the gunner in the head when he saw the turret on top of the unique vehicle. On the sides were brute minors in the side skis and a driver was positioned at the rear of the vehicle. The rest of the squad opened fire and managed to kill both the driver and one of the brute minors. The last one went into a berserker but was swiftly shot in the head courtesy of Chief's battle rifle. The Chief wasting no time hopped into the drivers seat and the marines boarded it, one on the turret and the others sitting loosely on the skis. The engines activated, creating a semi hovering effect on the vehicle, Chief jerked the small craft forward, making it jump across a large gap, that (thankfully) the small craft made across.
Unfortunately, the area was occupied by another prowler and two choppers. The choppers fired with their primitive cannons, missing the stolen prowler by metres. Chief used the prowlers fast speed to splatter the unprotected brutes on the choppers. The brutes on the other prowler were easily killed due to their unprotected bodies and the plasma cannon used more efficiently in human hands.
"Oooraaaahhh", the marines yelled whilst the ODST's were unimpressed. Chief glanced at the other prowler before motioning for the marines to take that prowler as well. The relief in their faces were present.
The current UNSC force now included two fully occupied prowlers that were wrecking the covenant anti-air vehicles. The plasma turrets were useful in melting the main armour of the AA-Wraiths, although two of the marines that travelled with them died from kig-yar snipers.
"Chief, I'm setting down the Dawn near your position, get ready"
The marines looked at each other confused, "Is the dawn rated for atmosphere?". Their question was answered when the 500 metre frigate swooped down with a rush of air. Dust flew up in the air and objects started flying due to the massive influx of air.
The rear of the frigate began to slowly lower platforms with Scorpion Tanks and a single gauss warthog being the cargo. As soon as the platforms touched the ground, the vehicles rolled off and began heading in the direction of the large forerunner structure spotted on the way there.
[Skip time]
After wrecking the scarab on the way to the cartographer, the accompanying marines, ODST's, MCPO-117 and 343 Guilty Sparks, infiltrated the metallic structure. They encountered grunts, jackals and a pack of brutes that sorely needed help in the art of sneaking. All the above were eliminated by the UNSC team. As they reached the top of the tower the monitor Guilty Sparks began to interact with the forerunner controls.
"Do you think we can actually win this?", asked an ODST. John faced the ODST, who happened to be the same one that he treated earlier.
"Not entirely sure, but there is a chance we can win this war for good", He replied. The female unpolarised her visor and smiled at him. His breath caught in his throat.
That face reminded him of someone so dear to him, the blond hair, the bright blue eyes and the clear Caucasian skin and those lips, Parisa… Chief cleared his mind and focused on the main objective ahead.
[Major Memory Sequence]
The view of the ring from the interior of the pelicans cockpit, brought back nostalgic and unforgettable memories as well as old grudges, specifically at the installations monitor.
His grip on the pelicans steering tightened, but not to the point where the metal bent. The Arbiter stood calmly beside John, gazing at the beautiful structure checking his energy sword every so often.
Suddenly alarms blared and a monitor on the pelican displayed the problem. It was the left wings engine that was malfunctioning. The surface of the ring grew larger and larger, the trio however were unconcerned about it.
The control room became visible, but the pelican couldn't land on the main area since it became uncontrollable. The transport glided through the tall, snowy cliffs before crashing into a mound of snow and lodging itself at the bottom.
The rear hatch burst open and out emerged John and the Arbiter. The pair glanced at each before taking out their weapons and headed to the control room.
[Skip time]
The control room was silent. Only the echoing of the two warriors footsteps could be heard within the chamber. 343 Guilty sparks floated down to them, the distinct whirring of the monitors propulsion systems alerted them to his presence.
Johnson strode out to the control panel, his trademark cap was missing from his head. But a red laser, similar to a Spartan Laser struck him in his back. John sprinted to Johnson but was stopped by another red laser striking him in the chest.
"You are the child of my makers, Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring…is mine."
The sinister tone heard in the monitors voice snapped John out of his stupor and he starts shooting at the monitor with the assault rifle in his hands.
The result is in vain, however as Guilty Sparks remained undamaged. "I have kept it safe. It belongs to me!", "Not for long light bulb", a weak yet determined voice spoke and a red laser struck the orb on his 'eye'. The monitor flew away from the battle temporarily.
John rushed to the downed Sergeants side, wanting to be there for his fallen friend. "Chief take this, kick…his…ass", Johnson then fell to unconsciousness. The Spartan took the laser weapon and shouldered it just before the forerunner AI appeared again, red with rage.
The battle between the augmented human and the advanced robot was ferocious, but the silver robot could only take a couple of hits before his power core overloaded and exploded in a bright blue flare.
John dropped the Spartan Laser and ran back to Johnson, not knowing what he can do to ease the black man's pain. "Don't…Don't ever let her go Chief" he rasped, "send me out with a bang", he smirked before closing his eyes and resting in peace.
He trembled slightly before getting up and looked away from the now dead sergeant. He walked over to the controls and numbly held Cortana's chip to the holographic display. Her avatar flickered as she jumped between the different systems. She jumped back only seconds later and Chief put her back in his helmet.
The door opened to reveal the Arbiter who had tried to get in to help but was prevented.
"Spartan, my condolences for your Sergeant's death", he said solemnly. John gave him a quick nod before they proceeded outside.
[Skip time]
The warthog jerked and bumped up and down on the surface of the ring. They had only minutes left before the ring would detonate and reduce everything around them to slag and gases. The vehicle roared violently as it was pushed to it's limits. Ramps and structures exploded and pieces fell from their path creating a deadly pathway.
Suddenly, a dark silhouette of a UNSC frigate was seen kilometres away, hovering over a chasm that was flowing with lava and other liquids. John steered to the frigate, hoping that he would have enough inertia to carry the warthog into the lower cargo bay. Just as they were three-quarters there, a explosion rocked the ground making it hard to keep the vehicle steady. John managed to make it straight and gunned the engine for the final jump.
Time seemed to slow down for the two warriors as the car leaped across the gap, giving them a glimpse of the destruction going on below them. Time sped up again, and they crashed into the hangar bay. Chief immediately got up and plugged Cortana into the ships systems whilst the Arbiter disappeared into the ship.
An unsecured scorpion tank flipped towards John and knocked him back. "Chief!", Cortana yelped in surprise, but the Chief smashed his fist into the floor and hung there before pulling himself up to the pedestal in the middle of the room.
A groaning noise filled the area before they heard a noticeable tear and something smashing. The blue slipspace field behind them disappeared and showed normal space. Chief pulled the AI from the pedestal and explored the damage.
It was frightening to see how close he was to dying from the ship tearing itself into two pieces. The once connected hallways were now exposed to the harsh temperatures of space. John knew they were stranded. "What happened?",
"I'm not sure, when Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn't sustain itself. We made throught just as it collapsed", Cortana explained. John drifted down the hallway to the cryo bay.
"You did it, Truth, the Covenant, the Flood", she said amazed, "It's finished"
"Yes, it's finished", he whispered. He climbed into the pod at the end of the room.
"I'll drop a beacon. But it'll be a while before anyone finds us". She turned to the Spartan, "I'll miss you".
"Wake me, when you need me", he spoke before shutting himself in the casket. The cryo functions activated and his vision began to grow dark.
[End of Memory Sequence]
The Didact woke up feeling different, his mind was clear of some of the mad thoughts that ran through his mind. The human's life he had explored was somewhat memorable and life changing. Hating humanity was a mistake and cost his race dearly.
But he realised as Shadow of Sundered Stars, that the Mantle of Responsiblity needed to be upheld. He couldn't be the sole guardian of the Mantle, he needed others that could be in his steed and take care of other problems.
But first he needed to wake up John and apologise for this brutal treatment.\
Hey to all my readers,
It was really tough trying to write that chapter and had almost no inspiration, so I took break. For those who read my other story, the next chapter won't come out until it has been finished, I haven't even started writing it. Hope you enjoy this chapter,
Xenongaf,