TIME FRAME: This level begins on the ending of the level Halo 2: The Great Journey and ends on the intro of Halo 3.
Chapter 14 Shape the Future
Miranda was held against her will as a brute tried to force her to insert the index.
"Come human, its easy." he placed the Index in her hand. "Take the Icon in your hands." he growled impatiently when she didn't budge. He slammed the Index on the panel. "And do as you're told!"
"Please," said 343 Guilty Spark earnestly "use caution! This reclaimer is delicate." Tartarus rounded on the Monitor,
"One more word, Oracle, and I'll rip your eye from its socket!" he growled.
Behind him Thel walked in.
"Tartarus, stop." he said calmly. Tartarus gasped and jerked his head in the Arbiter's direction.
"Impossible." he murmured.
"Put down the Icon." the Arbiter said to him. Tartarus turned to him fully
"Put it down, and disobey the Hierarchs?" he asked.
"There are things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand." Thel reasoned with Tartarus. His Brutes became angry at that statement and advanced, but Tartarus signaled them to stop.
"Take care, Arbiter, what you say is heresy!" Tartarus said to him.
Then the scene unfolded in front of him.
"Is it?" asked the Arbiter. He looked at 343 Guilty Spark
"Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?" he asked; without hesitation the 343 said,
"Collectively, the seven-" but Tartarus grabbed the robot and jerked him around,
"Not another word!" he roared.
"Please." said Johnson. The Brutes looked up to see Sergeant Johnson, and the rest of the gang entered.
"Don't shake the light bulb."
"If you want to keep your brains inside your head, I'd tell your boys to chill!" shouted Johnson back again. Tartarus raised his hand and barked a command to stop them. Johnson looked at the elite.
"Go ahead, do your thing." Thel turned again to Guilty Spark
"he Sacred Rings." he said to him. "What are they?"
"Weapons of last resort; built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless." the robot recited.
"Those who made the Halos, what happened to the Forerunners?" asked Thel
"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned." the Monitor continued.
Zen couldn't help but feel a strong sense of De Ja vu. He had seen this scene before and knew exactly what will happen next. He had to ready himself and try to take out the brute on the side of Tartarus, since he still didn't know the outcome properly. He discreetly made himself a sniper rifle and took aim. The others were still occupied, even the brutes, that they didn't notice Zen in the background.
There was silence and then one of the Brutes spoke.
"Chieftain?" it asked.
"He's… right." whispered the Chieftain in sorrow.
"You better believe it." said Stahn. The chieftain gave the Index to Miranda.
"Do what you like with it, save for inserting it into the computer." he said to her quietly.
"Fools!" roared another Brute, the one that had questioned the chieftain. He grabbed Miranda's wrist. Zen immediately knew what was about to happen and tried to stop the brute from pushing the Index to the control panel. He took aim for the kill. His finger was inches away from the trigger when there was a bang.
The Brute got hit with a headshot and his brains splattered. It fell onto the floor on a dead lump. Zen turned around to where the shot came from and was surprised. He literally saw himself holding a sniper rifle. But the Other Zen was somehow transparent and only a person who knew where to look and enough time could see him. Zen couldn't help but smile as his Other Self saved them all from possible extinction from the rings.
Just as quickly he saw himself, the Other Zen quickly dissipated into smoke.
"Nice shot Zen!" shouted Johnson.
"Thanks." he replied even though he wasn't the one that fired the shot.
The gang quickly rounded up the other brutes, as they declared themselves as heretics as well. Miranda got a hug from Johnson, as he helped her up.
Everyone was practically happy that they managed to stop the brute into activating the Halo. It was practically now over. Stahn approached Zen who was watching the happy scene.
"Very nice shot Zen." he complimented with a smile. Miranda and the others approached him as well.
"Nice going Zen." said Johnson. Miranda cleared her throat everyone looked at her.
"We can't celebrate here. We have to get out of this Flood infested ring." Everyone murmured agreement. The group now started walking out to the exit of the chamber and was surprised to see a carrier floating above them. At the bottom of the gravity lift stood Rtas Vadum.
"Nice to see you people are still alive." and then he noticed the brutes that were walking behind them.
"New heretics, I see." he smiled at them with his 2 mandibles. The group now stood at the gravity lift and was beginning to be beamed up. Rtas stood next to Zen and said to him,
"Zen your motorcycle is at the back." Zen looked at him and just smiled.
* * * * *
Orange light shined faintly from over the mountains and ridges of jungle covered Kenya. Morning birds sang their song, and crickets chirped their call. The leaves of the lush jungle swayed in the African morning breeze. Up in the sky flashing stars were seen, in the distance flaming objects plummeted to the ground. The war between the Covenant, UNSC, Heretics, and Separatists was waging above Earth. One of many ships evaded the battle and came down to the surface. Only this ship was not Covenant, UNSC, Heretic, or Separatist. It was the Forerunner Dreadnought. The ship passed over the jungle, but something fell from it, flaming in the friction of the atmosphere. It flashed through the jungle and crashed into the ground. Animals and birds screeched in fear, as the crickets in the grass hopped away. Then all was silent, the wildlife too afraid to make their calls again.
7 minutes ago, on the Forerunner Dreadnought
Master Chief stood in front of a porthole and saw that they were now above land. Master Chief felt his side pocket and checked if the precious cargo was still there. Luckily it was.
"Chief, I'm putting your shields on full power, are you sure you want to do this?" said an electronic voice in the Chief comlink. He completely followed Zen's orders with no question. He trusted him that he figured a way to the detonation. Cortana was reluctant to leave High Charity as she wasn't sure about Zen's plans. But the Master Chief made a promise, and he always keeps his promise.
So now they were practically on board the Forerunner Dreadnought, which was cruising on top of Kenya, Africa.
"Chief?" said Cortana noticing his silence. "Are you ok?"
"The chief snapped out of his thoughts and replied, "I'm fine."
The Master Chief opened the side doors and he could hear the wind rushing into the room they were in. The Chief hugged the metal door in front of him and was about to jump when Cortana asked,
"What if we die?" The Chief smirked behind his visor and replied confidently,
"We won't." He then jumped. He placed a deadlock grip on the metal door, holding on for dear life. The shield began to get hot and fire trailed behind him, but did not scorch him. The Chief's shield started to deplete but it was clearly enough. Then he was thrown into unconsciousness as he hit the ground, which formed a crater, in terminal velocity.
* * * * * *
Zen, Stahn, Thel and the 'Evanam siblings were walking along the forest floor. They had detected the Chief's transponder in the jungle after the Dreadnought passed. They were worried about but Zen was on edge. He was hoping that the Master Chief had survived his ordeal and came out with Cortana and the Remote, he gave to him.
Along with them was Seargent Avery Johnson who was worried for his old Spartan Friend. Tartarus was nowhere in sight as he was left in charge of one of the brute skirmishes.
Five other marines accompanied the war heroes to the Master Chief's location. Up ahead he could see the gauntlet hand of the infamous Demon sticking out of a crater.
"That doesn't look good." murmured a Marine as they approached. The Master Chief's arms were held out in an awkward position, the armor had locked up. And he was still and silent. The marines surrounded the seemingly dead Master Chief. Dread permeated the jungle as they were silent for a short moment. Zen removed his helmet as a sign of respect.
"This ain't good." said one Marine.
"How far did he fall?" asked another. Johnson took a worried toke of his cigar.
"Two kilometers, easy." said a third Marine. Johnson blew out the smoke and said,
"Stay sharp." some other Marines took their attention off the Spartan and scanned the area, MA5Cs ready.
"Doc?" asked Johnson. The Marine, Doc, crouched next to the Master Chief and started scanning him with a portable computer. He started explaining,
"His armor's locked up. Gel layer could have taken most of the impact." he tapped another command on his computer and the Chief's outstretched arms fell on his chest limply. A cold pit formed in Johnson's stomach. Doc then checked the cyborg's vitals. Not good.
"I don't know, Sergeant Major." Doc said to Johnson. Johnson knelt beside the Chief next and placed his hand on his armored chest, feeling for breath. When none came he sighed in sadness and stretched his hand forward. He reached behind the Chief's helmet and extracted Cortana's data chip. He stood and ordered,
"Radio for VTOL, heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here." All of a sudden the armor clad glove grabbed Johnson's shoulder. He jumped in surprise and turned his head back.
"Yeah. You're not." replied John as he sat up from his crater, a smile under his visor. Johnson gave a small sigh of relief.
"Crazy fool! Why do you always jump? One of these days, you're gonna land on somethin' as stubborn as you are! And I don't do bits and pieces!" Johnson said with a grin on his face. The Chief had stood by then and took Cortana's data chip from his hand.
"Where is she Chief? Where's Cortana?" asked Johnson. The Chief took the Data Chip from his hand and placed it back onto the slot.
"Right Here." said Cortana's voice through the comlink.
Zen stood up and approached the Master Chief and gave him a salute.
"Do you still have it sir?" asked Zen in a serious manner.
Everyone looked at the two, clearly unaware of what was going on but the rest of the people who were present when Zen gave the remote to Master Chief, quickly remembered.
"I told you, I always keep my promise." said Master Chief digging into his pocket and extracting the remote.
"What does that do anyway." asked Z'jo looking curiously at the remote. Zen answered his question by saying,
"This, my friends is a controller for a bomb." said Zen in a matter-of-fact- tone.
Everyone gave Zen ludicrous looks. They were clearly taken aback by this statement even the Master Chief tilted his head a little in confusion.
"Master Chief, do you remember that Cortana kept insisting that she should get left behind so that he could activate the necessary things to make High Charity explode?"
"Yes, how did you-"asked the Chief but Zen cut him off.
"I placed a bomb on High Charity and on the Forerunner Dreadnought, the ship where the Prophet of Truth, is currently on board. Don't ask me how I did it, I just did. Please." Everyone looked at Zen like he was crazy. Thel and his children were clearly taken aback because Zen had an airtight alibi in which they were together the entire time. How did he plant a bomb?
Thel was about to ask but kept his mouth shut. Everyone waited for Zen to continue.
"Now I'm going to show you how I kill the Prophet of Truth, destroy High Charity and kill hundreds of Covenant in a press of a button." With that Zen opened up the hatch for the bomb and began a countdown.
"5…4…3…2…1…" he pressed the button.
* * * * *
The Prophet of Truth was sitting on his throne chair on board the Forerunner Dreadnought. He was contemplating on how he should deal with the humans and the heretics with only a small army. They had been nearly wiped out as to the fact that even some of the brutes became heretics. He was deep in thought when all of a sudden he was snapped back in to reality when he heard a slight beeping sound.
He looked around and he saw that it came from a small round object. He took it and eyed it with curiosity. Suddenly the beeping became faster and faster. Then there was a bright flash…
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