Spartan 058 - The Tale of a Sniper
Chapter 9 - ONI's Hive Base, Sydney Australia

The Pelican touched down on the concrete pad of ONI's HIVE Base, the four Spartans were guided into a nearby corridor where they were led to one of ONI's many meeting rooms. The four had come down to Earth on orders from Admiral Hood; it appeared as if Truth's ship and the rest of the remaining Covenant bugged out temporarily in an attempt to regroup their forces. Probes near the edge of the system had picked them up and were still continuing to monitor them. Above all, the strangest thing was the ship Honor Without Mercy; it had come in and announced itself as being under the command of Miranda Keyes. At first the Brass had thought of it as a trick but due to the other mysterious and odd things happening within the Covenant lately. Miranda had sent a message stating that she needed to land on Earth and explain some recent happenings; High Command had been a little reluctant but had decided to let the ship land near the ONI base under strict guard.

The Spartans were to be one of the first to step aboard the ship, or the first to welcome whatever came off. The Spartans stepped out of the complex into one of the many large ship landing pads. Honor Without Mercy was enormous, stretching nearly two kilometers long, around the pad was a mix and match group of UNSC Vehicles. Nearly thirty M808 tanks surrounded the pad along with several surface to air missile stations, two squadrons of Longswords flew around the ship in case a swarm of Seraphs flew out of the carriers shuttle bays. Honor Without Mercy stopped several hundred meters above the ground and produced a grav beam in the middle of the pad.

Linda could see three figures descended inside of the purplish light, she peered through the scope of her modified S2 and spotted Miranda and Johnson followed closely behind by an elite wearing some sort of odd armor. She immediately became alert at the sight of the Elite; she readied her rifle by putting a bolt in the chamber.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" shouted Keyes, "This Elite is unarmed and peaceful, please don't shoot, we need to speak with the council as soon as possible." The tension within the room loosened somewhat but didn't fully secede. Admiral Hood stepped out of the sliding doors to meet with the group of Spartans and the approaching group of three.

"Do you mind telling me what this Covenant is doing here Commander?" asked Hood.

"There is no more Covenant, at least not one consisting of Elites," stated Keyes.

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Two specially outfitted Warthogs approached the pad; they had been refurbished with rear seats to accommodate more personnel. Linda and John escorted the elite dubbed The Arbiter into one Warthog while Fred and Will took the other. The Marine in the front seat sat uneasy, the mere sight of the elite brought the marine into a bad mood, and he kept his M90 aimed at the Arbiter in case he made any wrong moves. They made their way around into a parking garage and into the some of the facilities inner sections. The four Spartans, the marines, and the Arbiter went through countless security checkpoints as they descended into the confines of the Hive. Linda knew they were meeting with the ONI Council to determine what was to become of this Arbiter, she noticed the elite shift in stature as they four removed their helmets to provide a retina scan. Perhaps he thought that they were not humans at all, perhaps he thought of them as simple killing machines. After all he did refer to the Chief as "The Demon". Security lessened as they went on deeper into the Hive's inner workings, they eventually came to a long hallway with two marines posted at the end; one on either side of a pair of oak doors.

The Chief stepped forward, "We're to meet with the council."

One marine muttered something into his mic, and a few seconds later came a response. The marine looked at the Chief, "They're ready for you Chief."

"Thank you private," said the Chief.

The group walked into a dimly lit room with a section of the floor illuminated, the Arbiter knew it was his place and walked forward, the Spartans moved off to the side into the shadows. They stood there for a moment before they snapped to attention as a figure cleared its throat. The Arbiter came to attention but didn't seem to show a change of emotion.

The detailed reports sent to us by Cortana and Commander Keyes have explained the events that occurred aboard the Covenant city of High Charity, as well as the ring world, said the figure. I would ask you to explain in your own words exactly what happened.

The Arbiter relaxed somewhat and kept his voice neutral, "As you wish, when we received word at High Charity about the Prophet of Regret..."

Linda could only sit and listen as the Arbiter retold the happenings of the past few days, she had gathered bits and pieces from the Chief, but not nearly as much as she could have hoped for in the elite's story. She wondered, could this possibly help end the war against the Covenant? Would the humans and the excommunicated members of the Covenant come together to defeat the Prophets and their allied Brutes? Or would the Council just do away with the elite to improve moral; as true as it was, she couldn't imagine the Brass passing up a chance to end this war for another not so bright looking option. It would be a risky move in trying to trust the elites and their story. It was times like these that Linda appreciated that all she had to do was her job and to leave these kinds of dilemmas up to the higher brass.

Commander Keyes walked into the room and approached the Chief; they seemed to talk in silence for some time as the Arbiter went on with his tale. There was silence within the room for sometime and it appeared that the Arbiter had finished with the recollection of the events. They sat in silence as the groups took in what the Arbiter had said.

After some time, one of the figures spoke. "Assuming that we believe your story about the Covenant no longer being together, what would you have us do in a situation like this?"

The Arbiter spoke in a low tone, "I would have you do nothing, but you know as well as I that the humans need as much help as they can get in this war."

Another voice chimed in with the rest, "And whose fault is that?! The Covenant have gone from planet to planet committing genocide for no reason other than that our existence offends you, and now you come asking for our assistance, and hope that you get it just as if nothing had happened between us!"

Several others threw comments much like this towards the elite as he stood helpless in the center of the room under the burning spotlight. "Silence!" said the original voice, "Surely you must understand our position, why working with you seems so unappealing?"

"I understand it more than you think."

"Perhaps we should do away with you, and get this over with." said another voice.

The Chief stepped forward, thinking this was a good time to interject. "That would be foolish and you all know it, this may be the one thing that we need to win this war. I've seen ten times as much combat as you, and this just may be crazy enough to work. Cortana and I have already witnessed the beginning of the excommunication of the Elites, Hunters, and Grunts."

Silence was in every corner of the room, the negative voice came in again, "And why should we believe you? The first chance you get to befriend your enemy. Aren't these the same creatures that wiped out the majority of your team! Didn't Dr. Hasley put any sense of loyalty into you freaks?"

Linda knew exactly what was running through John's mind, she was one of those freaks too, and she knew the speaker to be none other than Colonel Ackerson, the SPARTAN Projects main rival. She was angry at him, but couldn't help to agree with him on some points.

A fist slammed on the table bringing everyone to a silent stand still, "That is quite enough Colonel, step out of line again and I'll have you off this Council so fast you'd think you were hit by a warthog."

There was silence followed by a quiet apology. "Will you turn the darned lights on; if we're going to try and intimidate someone we might as well do it to their face." The lights turned on as the Spartans recognized the voice of General Strauss. "Now let's cut the crap Arbiter, even before we form some form of cooperation or peace agreement we need you to show us something as a sign of grace. Information maybe, anything that would show that you are willing to be with us."

For the first time in several minutes, the Arbiter spoke again, "I have little information about the Covenant's battle plan, I rarely returned to our homeworld and as a ship commander the extent of my knowledge is where our ships have been deployed."

"So there is a Covenant homeworld," Strauss questioned, "We'll need you to enlighten us more on that. Maybe you should tell us why the Covenant worship the Forerunner, and are so intent on wiping out all of mankind."

A small smile formed on the face of the Arbiter, "All members of the Covenant know how we came to be and what our intentions are."

"Perhaps you can elaborate on that for us?" asked Strauss.

The Arbiter took a breath and looked around at his onlookers. "Very well then, I shall tell you how the Covenant came to be."

Linda listened through it all. She was appalled at how much corruption and tragedy was mixed into such a powerful society. She also could see how hurt the Arbiter must be, how they went with the Prophets false truths and propaganda. It all made sense to her now, at least for the most part. As soon as the Arbiter was finished, she saw John risk a chance to talk to the Arbiter. She and the rest of the team quickly fell in step.

"So Arbiter, what do you have planned for us next?" said the Chief.

"We must gather more of my brethren and their ships if we are to stop the Prophets once and for all," said the ever mysterious Arbiter.

"And were do you suppose we are supposed to find them?" asked the Chief.

"Why, the home world of the Sangheili of course."

To be continued?