CHAPTER 10: SECOND SIGN OF ODYSSEY
Gravemind is no trick, he lives off the mistakes you cause and he has displayed me amongst heroes. I am not an ally to neither him nor heresy, I am amongst those who have been undecided, if I'm to keep in my head I need this mortal safe, but how to get them without any dramas will be hard. Earth holds many forms however to kidnap one of a whole fleet will be an easy slip; an attack with my minions will distract the audience as I snatch their main lead of action, preferably a captain or leader. My plan isn't as I was hoping; I wasn't going to make it up until I was in enemy territory, the one place Gravemind can't hear me think. I found the enemy and their leader it was only a matter of time. Jumping into the light grabbing their leader in a headlock threatening to harm is offended I spit the words "I only came to talk but if you wanted more out of this I am still happy to burn you all" "lower your weapons, let him speak" the commander spoke worriedly. Lowering their weapons they've agree to listen and I've agreed to let their leader go." My Gravemind can't hear me here and wants me to draw you closer to installation 14 or 'halo' however I need your leader as fake bait to make it look as if there is not plan behind this. Gravemind wants you as leverage to make you all stop as we turn the index, burn us all but no. as we have her you can find Gravemind's lair and burn him to the ground, I just happen to know where it is." "Hahaha is this some joke? It's clearly a trap men waste him" as all members of their platoon raise their weapons their commander steps forth. "Stop I gave you an order to lower your weapons!" she declared. "Installation 03 when you enter the library in attempt to capture the index it hovers above a large metallic trench, what lies below is what we seek it is no ordinary trench it was specifically designed for the Gravemind in his earlier years, a tunnel system. At the very heart of that tunnel you will find a pit of lost souls, bodies basically piled up, if you were to cause a catastrophic explosion to destroy the bodies it will bring him down." "Ok we'll get our battle plans sorted out but why are you doing this?" "my Gravemind is a great leader, you cannot defeat him without me, however he is leading us into a fate, a sacred journey to salvation, that is a lie he wants us to detonate halos ray to destroy us all, I can't let this happen, ending the war by killing you will only get me and my race killed as well so I need your help to stop it, do we have an agreement?" "You have our word..." "Penitent is my name". Diving out of the hanger bays of their battle cruiser refuelling I still am a vicious hunter to the humans so in my attempt to escape id have to avoid sentry guns and more to escape their military docking bays. I had the advantage of the night however I didn't have the advantage over their thermal sightings. Several patrols I waited as I finally managed to escape the base. Walking through the highlands of Africa i spot on open flatland on the side of the hills and towards the centre a stone like structure that goes by the name of a memorial in human terms. Looking at the tomb names that represented people who died in the 9rth age of reclamation remembered this was the time of the legendary war between the covenant and humans, when my precursor form once took his original form. I found the names 'Commander Keyes' and 'Sgt. Johnson', very familiar names however I wasn't exactly able to depict who they were but something that really did stand out to me was the initials '117' scratched into the side. With most of the human race depleted on this world the skies were more visible at night and the galaxy took form in the cleanliness of the atmosphere. An unusual quality I found I was struck, amazed at this particular sighting and an unusual presence overwhelmed me I was no longer afraid of the Gravemind I was happy, my depression had left me as I gazed deeply into the stars of the skies in amazement. I felt to doors of hope opening to this weak race, Humans it feels like a dream, a premonition of a time not so distant from now, a time where the forerunners chose this race out of all the mighty races this galaxy has to offer however it wasn't out of happiness it was out of grief. Suddenly i zoned out of this trance to the reality of the same female commander i threatened before.
"If you've come to reject the proposition I had set before don't waste my time with excuses, spit it out" i glanced angrily. "I'm sorry Penitent i just followed you to see if u were actually going to betray us or not when I noticed you in some kind of peaceful trance". Knowing humans habit of showing emotion i slumped back down on the memorial and gazed back up at the stars. The commander being 6 feet shorter than i am also slumped down next to me gazing at the sight of the Milky Way. The commander asked me "what are you?" I replied "well I'm supposed to be your worst nightmare. What is your name human?" She looks up at me as i look down at her and she smiles happily "my name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Keyes. I have the same blood as the one in scripted on that memorial just 8 generations after". I didn't understand how she didn't feel angry or depressed about the fact her hugely great grandmother was dead but instead she was happy, i don't understand how the human brain works or my own i just know they for their weaknesses. One of those things ill just never understand about how they work however i just have to admire and be jealous about the fact humans are able to produce all emotions, a feeling unlike any warlord such as myself could every experience. "I am Penitent Tangent, in the 9th age of reclamation which is a stage of warfare favoured and used by my people which resembles the time in which everyone on the memorial once lived i was what the covenant called 'oracles' or what you called 'monitors of the halos', however i am now resurrected, undead and posses a potentially flood-bound body". "Look Penitent I'm a commander, I've led men into battle and walked away with their body bags, I've seen my fair share of death to know when someone is upset about something. What is it? What is bothering you?" Keyes responds to me sorrowfully "what i thought my leader was; Gravemind, isn't who he really was, he was driven into warfare and lived through the 1st age of reclamation, the war between the flood and the forerunners, ten thousand years before our existence. He rises his army up from the grave. The reason he is a well kept leader is because his army share no emotion, when their best mate dies next to them they continue on fighting not even knowing he existed. They have no emotions but i think i am starting to feel some. I feel the suffering your race goes through the more i reflect upon my brother's death". I finally replied sorrowfully "who was your brother?" Jackie asked with a tear i her eye "Mandicant Bias, he was the prototype of me in forerunner structure; I was the flood he was the cyborg. An exact replica of me but part of the UNSC, I believe he felt emotion throughout his existence because as I watched him die he didn't do what all of us do which is ignore their existence. He looked at me and told me to change sides, to take his place upon the UNSC". I lost the trance and the clouds began to hide the skies so i dismissed myself thinking Jackie as I returned to my ship to make my way back to halo and confront my nemesis discretely.