Chapter 5- Heretic

-What would you have your Arbiter do?

-In the remains of the sacred ring, a "demon" created a Heretic Army. He deluded them with foolish lies. Now he leads an army against the Covenant and we must take it down as fast as possible. If we don't do it now, he will be as big as us. What's your plan, Arbiter?

-My plan is making this "demon" regret.

-Regret what? –asks Truth

-Regret living.

-Great. Tomorrow, there will be a phantom waiting for you.

Thel kneels for the prophets and says:

-I won't fail you this time.

-It's better you don't.

He stands up and leaves the room.

In the next day, Thel is waiting at the spaceport, where he gets in a red phantom. In there, he sees a lot of soldiers wearing white armors. There are Grunts, Elites and Jackals. They start whispering to each other, while Thel walks inside the phantom. He stops and sits in his seat, waiting for the trip to start. There is an Elite sitting next to him, surprised, this one asks:

-What are you doing here, heretic? You were supposed to be dead! You can only be a ghost!

-I am a ghost to every sin you have committed in your life. –answers Thel

The Elite is speechless, he doesn't know how to answer it. The phantom starts flying. After some hours, an Ultra Elite shows up in the soldier's area and starts talking:

-When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath!

All the soldiers say together:

-According to our station! All without exception!

This Ultra Elite starts walking among the Special Ops Soldiers. He says:

-On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons…we swore to uphold the Covenant!

-Even to our dying breath! –says all the soldiers

-Those who would break this oath are Heretics, worthy of neither pity, nor mercy! Even now they use our lords' creations to broadcast their lies! –says the Ultra Elite

-We shall grind them into dust! –says all the soldiers

-And continue our march to glorious salvation! –says the Ultra Elite

He walks among the soldiers and stops when he is front of Thel. They stare at each other and the Ultra Elite says:

-This armor suits you. But it cannot hide the mark of shame.

Thel remembers Tartarus hitting him with a hot iron hammer, creating a mark on Thel's chest. He says to the Ultra Elite:
-Nothing ever will.

-You are the Arbiter, the will of the Prophets. But these are my Elites. Their lives matter to me. Yours does not.

-That makes two of us.–says Thel.

The Ultra Elite looks with respect to Thel. He stops looking at him and hears what the pilot says:

-Leader, there is no doubt: the storm will strike the facility!

-We'll be long gone before it strikes the facility.

Thel looks to one of the Special Ops Elite soldier and asks:

-Who is he?

-He is Rtas 'Vadumee, our great and fair leader, something that you aren't and will never be.

-I know.

The Phantom door opens, all the soldiers stand up and grab their weapons. Thel stands up and grab a carbine and an energy sword. Rtas shouts to all the soldiers:

-Warriors, prepare for combat!

Everybody jumps off the phantom. They are in the back from a gigantic forerunner facility. They change their armor color to black. They run to a small door, where one of the Grunts pulls out a plasma battery and connects it to the door. Rtas gets close to Thel and says:

-We are the arm of the Prophets, Arbiter, and you are the blade. Be silent and swift, and we shall quell this heresy without incident.

After a couple of seconds, the door opens. They get inside the facility. They are in a small decontamination area. Rtas says to all the soldiers:
-The storm has masked our approach, and it should have their local Battle-net in disarray. We have the element of surprise...for now.

They hear the sound of decontamination. A robotic voice can be heard:

-initializing decontamination...No parasites detected. Removing any kinds of bacteria. Decontamination complete.

Another door opens, now leading to the facility. They see some Heretic Elites out there, talking to each other. Rtas whisper to all the soldiers:

-Engage active camouflage!

Everyone press a button in their armors and turn invisible. Rtas sees that the Arbiter didn't activate his camouflage, yet. He gets close to him and whispers:

-You may wish to do the same, Arbiter, but take heed: your armor's system is not as...new as ours. Your camouflage will not last forever. You may go first. We will attack as soon as you join the battle.

Thel press a button on his armor and he turns invisible. He quickly gets close to the Heretic Elites. He listens to them:

-…He thought our leader was dead. So he just left him there, with a hole in his belly.

-Are you serious? Did our leader really survived an energy sword attack?

-Yes, at least that is what I've heard.

Suddenly, Thel stabs one of the heretic Elites from behind with an energy sword. The other one pulls out a plasma rifle, but Thel quickly runs and stab this Elite. Thel makes a sign to Rtas and his group. They turn off their invisibility and start checking the area. They are in a blacksmithing room. There are Sentinels producing armors for the heretic warriors. Surprised, a Spec Ops Elite says:
-Why such holy instruments as the Sentinels are working with the heretics?

-Probably they found out a way to hack into Forerunner technology. The presence of the Sentinels give us an important information about them. –says Rtas

-What information? –asks Thel

-The heretics have forerunner technology on their side, they may have holy weapons such as the Sentinel Beam or a Forerunner energy sword. Their armors may contain forerunner technology as well, which will give them a slight advantage, but nothing we can't deal with. I have a plan. Wear those armors, we're disguising ourselves as heretics.

-I refuse to dress myself as a heretic, if I do this, I'll betray my own honor! –says a Spec Ops Soldier

-This is not an option, soldier! You either dress yourself as a heretic or you leave this building and die. Does anyone else have a complaint? –shouts Rtas

Nobody says anything

-As I guessed. H urry up you filthy maggots, are you Spec Ops Soldiers or Humans?

Rtas gets close to Thel and says to him:

-Thel, we have a mission that is a bit different from yours. That means that you won't need to take your armor off.

-Wait, you're telling me that your mission isn't murdering the heretic's leader?

-Yes, that's what I'm trying to say. Our mission is to cover your back while you accomplish your mission. You shall go first. Here, take this virtual map of this installation. Good luck, Arbiter, you'll need it.

Thel grabs this map and looks into the confusing maze that this installation is. He studies it and tries to decorate it. He asks to Rtas:

-Where is the heretic leader supposed to be? Which room?

-He's on a room called LB-5332.

-How do you know that?

-The Brutes decided to scan this place before we moved in. They found heat signatures all over the place, but he found a heat signature on this room that is always alone. It may be the leader, we don't know, but you should check it out.

-That's the first time a Brute uses his brain.

-Thel, do you smell this?

-What?!

-I don't know. It is a strong stench although.

-Oh no… I know what this smell is. Rtas, get your troops moving as fast they can.

-What is it? Why the hurry?

-Believe me, it will be better if I don't tell you.

Thel starts running. He uses the virtual map to walk through the installation, which is very similar to a maze. He is running in the shadows, he strategically used his invisible camouflage in order to get through heretic guards without calling their attention. Thel finally gets in front of the door that leads to the LB-5332. He looks behind and sees lots of dead heretic corpses, all over the floor, but the murderer isn't there to see what he has done. Thel opens the door that leads to the room and sees a strange figure sitting on a throne. This figure wears a hood that covers its face in black, it also wears a robe that extends itself through the room. It is a large room, with a big window that shows the remains of installation 04. There is a big spaceship in the room, is neither a pelican nor a phantom, it is something completely new. The room has two floors, in the first level there is the spaceship and the throne, in the second level, there is a kind of personal arsenal. The hooded figure says:

-The prophets found a new Arbiter? What kind of treason have you committed?

Thel, surprised, says:

-I spared a human's life.

-I'm guessing you were really important…a fleet commander maybe?

-How do you know about me? –asks Thel, angrily.

-Every Arbiter is a traitor, seeking an unreachable redemption. The prophets manipulate them in order to please their wishes, if they do it, their payment is their lives, if they don't do it, they die. Simple as that.

-Your lies won't manipulate me, heretic! Surrender now or you'll suffer the consequences!

-Heretic? Good joke. I'll tell you a secret. I am no heretic.

-What?!

-I have the same goals as the Covenant, but we see it in another way.

-Explain yourself, heretic.

-My main goal is to activate the Halo, activate your "sacred ring", but we see the Halo in a different way than you do. Your goal is to go to the "Great Journey", mine goal is to terminate the Flood, which is a disease that is spreading through the galaxy. The Covenant has a specific religion, but we don't, that's why I gathered up a lot of species, because I offered them freedom, they didn't have to follow a specific religion, they could believe in whatever they want. But as the prophets manipulate you, I manipulate my people, because I offer them freedom and a beautiful galaxy, but in the end there will be only ashes and dust.

-You are a monster.

-No Arbiter, the Flood is a monster, a monster that must be stopped at all cost.

-If you are no heretic, so why did the prophets send me to kill you?

-That's simple, Arbiter. You see, I'm bigger than the Covenant, my armies outnumber your armies and we have a technological advantage. The prophets can see that, so they've decided to throw their best warriors into a suicidal mission in order to take my group down. They have manipulated you, Arbiter, all they seek is power and nothing more. They'll do anything in order to gain more power.

-You disgust me with your heretic words, you either shut your mouth or I'll go there and shut it for you.

The hooded figure stands up and starts staring at the Arbiter. He takes off its hood and it is a known figure…it is Sam, the Spartan that tried to kill Master Chief inside the installation 04. He takes off his robe and he is wearing an advanced armor. His helmet shines as the sun does. He looks to Thel and says:

-Come and shut me up then.

Thel starts running and tries to punch Sam, but he quickly dodges this attack and laughs. He says:
-Is this the best you can do? If I wanted to, I would have already taken you down.

Thel punches him in the face, throwing all of his anger and disgust on that punch. Sam falls on the ground and starts getting up, slowly. He grabs Thel by the neck and throws him all the way across the room. He slowly walks to Thel's body. Sam starts throwing lots of punches in his face. Thel spits some blood and remains lying on the ground. Sam, feeling victorious, says:

-Do you smell that? That's the smell of victo…oh no.

-What is it, heretic?

-That stench…I've smelled it before.

Sam stands up, put his right foot on Thel's neck and grabs his Forerunner energy sword. There is a knocking on the front door, there are lots of things hitting the front door. Sam says:

-We must get out of here, Master.

Suddenly, from the second floor, 343 Guilty Spark shows up. He answers:

-Then let me do my package.

-There is no time, master. They have found us and they're on the other side of this door. Get inside the spaceship, we're leaving right now!

While Sam talks to 343 Guilty Spark, Thel grabs Sam's right leg and throw him next to the throne. He runs and start throwing punches at Sam's helmet. The Monitor gets inside the spaceship and watches the fight. Sam holds Thel's fists and throws a strong punch on his face. They get a little bit far from each other and both of them pull an energy sword, Thel pulls out a regular energy sword and Sam pulls out a Yellow Forerunner energy sword. They keep staring at each other. They start running to each other. Both of them try to attack each other, but their energy swords end up meeting each other. Sam quickly pulls out a plasma rifle and shoots Thel in the chest. He falls on the ground, feeling weak and dizzy. Sam quickly gets in the spaceship and turn it on. The big window opens and both Sam and the Monitor leave the facility in the spaceship. The storm is strong enough to push everything on the room. The front door where Thel came from, opens and an infected Elite comes out of it. It runs for Thel, who desperately tries to get up and fight. He is not fast enough and the Infected Elite throws him on the ground. Thel tries to pull the monster out, but it is stronger than him. The tentacles of the Flood parasite in the Infected Elite's head starts touching at Thel's face. Suddenly, he hears a plasma rifle sound and the monster goes silent. When he looks there is a giant hole at the Flood's chest. He looks to the front door and sees Rtas with a plasma rifle on the right hand and trying to reach out for Thel with the left hand. Confused, he asks to Rtas:

-Why you came here?

-You may be a heretic, but I leave no soldier behind. Come on, I planted a bomb at this installation's core, my team is waiting inside a phantom. We should hurry, otherwise the Flood will outnumber us.

-You lead the way.

They start moving to what seems to be a big maze. There are dead Elite bodies all over the ground and blood all over the walls. A green fog starts filling the area, they hear the sound of something moving, something big. While they keep moving, Rtas asks:

-So, have you killed him?

-No, he escaped. The Oracle is on his side. He is not just a heretic.

-The Oracle is on his side? Such holy device follows such blind demon. We have to find him and take him down. And what do you mean by "he is not just a heretic"?

-After Reach, we were told that only one has survived, the Master Chief demon.

-Yes, we were there, but we didn't kill any of them.

-It is a lie. There is one more and he is the heretic leader.

-Arbiter, don't play on service, this is serious.

-I've never been more serious. He has the holy energy sword, the support of the Oracle and he has the same goal as we have.

-So he is on our side?

-Not exactly. He doesn't understand our gods, he thinks that their creations are more significant then themselves.

The fog gets stronger and stronger. Thel sees a little green tentacle creeping around the floor. A deep voice can be heard saying:

"You are the only remains of this empty grave, join me or you will suffer the consequences."

Rtas, terrified, looks to Thel and asks:

-Tell me I'm crazy, but have you just heard a deep voice talking to us?

-This is definitively not good. Rtas…RUN!

A horde of Infected Elites and little Floods are following Thel and Rtas. Both start running as fast as possible. The deep voice keeps talking:

"Stop running, you won't find any light at the end of the tunnel you are following, you will only find certain death. The sooner you stop the faster and the painless you'll die."

The fogs gets so strong that they can barely see each other. They find themselves in a dead end. Thel looks to Rtas and says:

-Rtas, use all your guns and ammo to keep this horde away from us! And tell your team to pick us up were we are. I have a plan.

-On the way.

He pulls out a plasma rifle and starts shooting at the horde with the right hand, while he talks through a communication device with his team. Thel pulls out a plasma grenade and plants it at the dead end wall. It blows up and a beautiful sun can be seen. Rtas says:

-I'm running out of ammo!

Suddenly, from the way out opened by Thel, a phantom shows up with the Spec Ops Soldiers in it. Both Thel and Rtas quickly jump to the phantom and hold at the hands of the soldiers. They pull them both inside the phantom and leave the installation. A few seconds later, the Installation blows up. Rtas shouts for the soldiers:

-Today, we congratulate not only our survival, but our victory as well.

All the soldiers shout:

-HOORAY!

Thel keeps looking at the remains of the installation. Rtas gets close to him and says:

-Calm down my friend, it is over now.

-No. I think we're just getting started.