Part 13
Inside the Loyalist cruiser of Malicious Intent.
Grek a prominent and distinguished Ultra ranked Captain, was one of many Jiralhanae that had achieved their position through the deposition of others. Sometimes these "Others" were similarly ranked soldiers with an equal share of determination and ambition, but most of the time it was an unwitting warrior of senior rank with little knowledge of their impending retirement from command.
Some other races in the Covenant had deemed their way of promotion something more akin to treachery or deception: the Sangheili in particular. But Grek knew his own position was far from an assured means of commanding those around him. Since the Great Schism no less than nine of his own bodyguard had personally challenged him. All of them were now floating somewhere deep inside covenant space; minus their own heads. It was not so much command. It was more like control.
Grek peered from the safety of his armoured bulk at the separatists at the far end of the corridor, who were now charging into the wall of shields on the second position. At the forefront of their advance was the unmistakable silhouette of the Arbiter. The very sight of the Sangheili warrior caused Grek's matted fur on the back of his neck to stand on end. He felt like charging the insubordinate scum from where he stood, but another few volleys of carbine fire changed his now agitated mind.
Grek turned in foolish anger towards the nearest Mgelekgolo and ordered the armoured monster to target the second position. "Don't stop firing until everything there is on fire!"
Several of his own bodyguard shot him a look of distaste before resuming their own chorus of fire on the second position. The second Mgelekgolo also joined in on the carnage, targeting the broad band of shields and charging Sangheili.
The first giant bolt of green iridescent fire was slightly wide of its mark. Several of the Kig-yar turned around in shock and panic, realising that they had quickly become expendable. The Jiralhanae Captain of the group turned sharply towards Grek, a look of disbelief and anger on his face. He immediately began cursing through the thunderous fire around, oblivious of the situation or simply unconcerned.
The second round from the fuel rod cannon hit the barricade dead square in the centre of the line of squabbling Kig-yar, incinerating half of them and throwing the rest across the corridor.
Grek suddenly realised that he had made a serious tactical error by succumbing to his own impatience.
With the shield wall in disarray the Arbiter, Rtas and the rest of the boarding party swept into the despondent line of Jiralhanae. Several of the lower ranked minors were killed with their backs turned, looking at their own Captain Ultra in betrayed disbelief. The rest attempted to fight back before they were overwhelmed. Rtas killed two minors and a wounded stalker whilst the Arbiter killed a further three minors and squared up against the captain.
The Jiralhanae captain was filled with rage; his recent betrayal by the commanding Ultra in addition to the boarding action had only infuriated him further. The Arbiter fired his plasma rifle at the captain, several of the shots penetrated the armour and the captain reeled and snorted in both pain and anger.
The Arbiter stepped back; sensing what was coming.
The captain swung his fist at the Arbiter but he was too slow; the Arbiter simply ducked beneath the captain's sluggish attack. The captain kicked out at his Sangheili opponent, but he could only manage a glancing blow on the Arbiters thigh before he opened up once again with his plasma rifle. The captain stepped back again raising his arms for protection before roaring loudly at the Arbiter.
Then he charged.
The Arbiter sidestepped the attack and waited till the captain had past before re-activating his energy sword, and striking the Jiralhanae in the back with a single thrust. The large lifeless body slumped to the floor with a heavy thud.
The Arbiter glanced around to see how the rest of the battle was going. All of the loyalist soldiers were dead, and lying about the floor in a variety of odd poses. Three of his fellow warriors had been slain by the enemy, but the Arbiter was more concerned by the glowing fuel rod cannons of the Mgelekgolo at the end of the corridor. One of them fired directly at the Arbiter, but he moved swiftly out of the way of the flaring bolt. The second one also fired, but this time at the mass of Sangheili among the barricades. Two of them were instantly vaporized, while another four were thrown back by the explosion.
The Arbiter along with the remainder of the boarding party dived behind the protective screen of weapon racks and plasma chargers, which fortunately for the Arbiter were designed to withstand a wide range of climates and atmospheres, along with resilience to direct weapons fire.
Attacking the third position would be a mistake; they would all be cut down before they even reached the enemy. The carbine equipped Sangheili had achieved a total of four kills, all of them the Ultra's bodyguard. But even they were now pinned down by the thunderous cannon fire.
They were rapidly loosing the momentum of the attack and the upper hand, and that was something that the Arbiter had to change quickly.
Then the firing stopped.
The Arbiter peered over the barricade to see the Ultra shouting at the two Mgelekgolo, he had obviously not ordered them to do so. Instead they seemed to have taken matters into their own hands, or in this case their huge metal shields.
One of the stalkers decided to fire a single shot from his spiker at the Mgelekgolo nearest to him. The creature shrieked, but not from pain and raised itself up, as if accepting or issuing a challenge. The stalker took several steps back before charging towards the Mgelekgolo he had fired at. The large blue creature simply swatted the stalker aside like an annoying insect before firing on the rest of the group.
The Arbiter glanced at Rtas and pulled a pleasing grin with his multi-jawed mouth. Rtas replied the silent conversation with a simple nod.
"Warriors rise up and together we'll sweep this foulness aside!" roared the Arbiter "Charge!"
The Arbiter and the rest of the Sangheili charged towards the final position in the corridor. The two Mgelekgolo were now wading into the group of Jiralhanae, swinging their huge shields as they did so. After a short sprint they reached the remainder of the enemy position and fought them hand to hand. The opposing Ultra, seeing the Arbiter within reach, charged forward, arms outstretched as if he was going to crush the Sangheili in his armour. But he never reached him. Instead he was killed with a single shot from a fuel rod cannon.
The Arbiter span round to see what the Mgelekgolo had fired at, but all he could see was the smouldering remains of the Ultra's armour.
After the ship was taken the Arbiter approached the two Mgelekgolo. On seeing him approach they bowed as low as they could, and uttered three simple words. "We are sorry."
"Apology accepted friends," replied the Arbiter "Now is the time for peace, not war."
The two walking tanks appeared to nod in unison and then took their rightful place at the main entrance to the bridge, which was littered with bodies.
"Today we have finally ended this conflict Rtas, but much is still to be done."
"Agreed Arbiter." Said Rtas
"Helm, take this ship home where it will be returned to its former glory as a covenant cruiser." Ordered the Arbiter
Suddenly the collision alarm sounded, filling the bridge with a high pitched whine.
"Status!" demanded Rtas
"A vessel of unknown origin has just emerged from slip-space. Closing fast." Informed Kelic
"On screen." Said the Arbiter
The main view screen displayed a craft smaller than the cruiser itself, but the shape was unmistakably familiar. It was a Forerunner vessel.
"Hail them." Ordered Rtas
"No need sir; they are hailing us." Answered Kelic
Part 14
March 28th 2552, Forerunner defensive world
John casually jogged the last mile inside the extensive structure. His previous encounters with Forerunner technology had been extremely useful as most of the route had utilised teleporters and light bridges that spanned huge chasms that descended into an abyss of infinity.
Cortana had spent most of the journey remotely monitoring the immediate space surrounding the planet, and trawling yet more of the vast library of data that was stored here. Humanity could learn a lot from the secrets that were kept here.
"There it is chief." Announced Cortana
John looked ahead and saw another door, similar to the one that secured the external part of the structure, but this one was even bigger than that one. This doorway was big enough for a Covenant cruiser.
"Can you open it?" John enquired
"Just a second…where is it? Ah there it is…open sesame!" barked Cortana
As John neared the doorway the giant frame shuddered and the doors began to part, revealing the darkened interior. John slowed to a walk and cautiously paused at the entrance to the massive hangar bay.
"It's Okay chief, its safe."
John nodded but still proceeded with caution. There was every chance that a significant threat might lay just beyond the entrance. One that Cortana had not detected.
Inside was the largest hangar that John had ever laid eyes on. In the nearest section over half a kilometre away were several small vessels of Forerunner design, but another object, barely in sight, caught John's attention.
"It's a Forerunner battleship." Announced Cortana
John tilted his head in amazement, "How do you know?"
"I've just gained access to the hangar inventory. There is quite a collection here chief, but only one warship still remains, the rest are supply and support craft along with a couple of shuttles."
John stared again at the distant craft, "You said still remains. Does that mean you know what was here previously?
"The inventory lists a number of ships that were taken only a few days before we arrived, although I'm not sure by who, or how they arrived here." Cortana continued looking in the database of ship movements. Some of the records dated back to before the dawn of mankind. "They took three warships, a multi-role vessel of some description and a handful of smaller support craft and shuttles."
"Any idea on where they went?"
"No, none, but it's possible that the movement of the Forerunner vessels was what alerted the other species to the planet's location, and not the re-initialisation of the planetary systems." Cortana surmised
"Can we take the battleship?" asked John
"I'm afraid it's not that straight forward chief. The ship uses several different sub-systems to pilot, maintain and fire the weapons. It was obviously designed to be used by more than one monitor. The system that controls the vessel is extensive, and even though I could probably operate it, I would need to make several copies of myself and that would reduce my life-span to just a few months or even weeks."
John was disappointed to hear that, but the last thing he wanted was to reduce Cortana's existence to just a few weeks. He would need her help for more than that, a lot more if those aliens returned again. "Then we'll go for one of the shuttles instead. I presume they have just one system to operate?"
"Yes." Answered Cortana
John ran over to the nearest shuttle-like vessel. In a way it was similar to sections of the structures on halo. Two angled sections looked like wings, but john doubted that the Forerunners used anything as basic as aerodynamics to keep a ship in the air. A third angled section jutted into the air like the tail plane section of a short- sword close support aircraft and then the whole craft angled to a blunt point at the nose. Despite being a shuttle, it was more than capable of carrying a whole Pelican in its cargo hold.
As John approached the shuttle a seamless doorway opened as if operated instinctively. John stepped inside, and the doorway closed behind him.
Inside were a series of almost irregularly placed chairs, all facing the forward section of the ship. A central chair stood out among the others, surrounded by more cabling and power conduits. Obviously a living monitor could pilot this ship for millennia.
John placed his armoured hand o the back of the chair, "I take it a monitor can pilot this thing whilst in stasis?"
"Not just that chief, the whole ship can be placed in a form of stasis. There's even a directed energy system that can form slip-space bubbles around other objects. I presume for cargo or ejected life pods."
John sat in one of the more forward positioned chairs, and was immediately secured without the use of a harness into the seat. Despite his body being locked into the chair he could still move his arms and head without any trouble. "I presume this is a safety feature Cortana?"
"Sorry chief, I'll give you a little more warning next time." Chuckled Cortana
Seeing that John was safely secured Cortana jumped from the comfort of his armour and into the ships systems – appearing as a hologram again on the central console.
"Take us out Cortana." Ordered John
Cortana replied with the activation of the advanced gravity drive that the ship used. Unlike Covenant and Human vessels the shuttle could bend space and time with ease, creating slip-space openings of virtually any size and shape.
"Opening slip-space." Cortana informed
Just beyond the shuttle a small pin prick of light appeared before growing in size. Its presence twisted and warped the nearby space into a thin rushing whirlpool of air. Cortana moved the ship forward just as the warped area before them reached the required size.
The nose of the ship seemed to stretch and a dull shudder resounded throughout the deck before settling into silence. There was a bust of light, then dark and then the twisted marble of slip-space. They were through.
John loosened his helmet before removing it. "How long before we reach Earth?" said John scratching his matted hair.
"I'm not taking us to Earth chief; I'm heading for the Elite home world."
"Why?" frowned John
"If this new threat is going to return, then we need to make sure that what remains of the Covenant is going to help us. It'll also give us a chance to warn them before returning to Earth."
"The more advanced technology we have the better I presume."
"Exactly" replied Cortana
"How long till we reach them?" asked John
"We're just approaching the system now chief."
John's chin almost hit the floor; they had only been in slip-space for about six or seven minutes. His faced gradually when from a look of shock and disbelief to one of respect for the power and technology at their disposal, but despite this new found speed, there was little doubt in John's mind that the enemy of the Forerunner also had this level of technology. His encounter with them had proved that they were more than just another bull's eye painted figure in his sights. They were advanced, highly advanced and extremely dangerous, more so than the Covenant had been during the war.
"Dropping out of slip-space." Announced Cortana
On the single view screen in front the display of the twisted space around them changed to a glittering star field with countless diamonds of pure white light.
In the image were two ships of Covenant design. One was a standard attack cruiser which was heavily damaged, and was impaled with several boarding craft, whilst the other was an assault carrier. Beyond them were another dozen or so ships all in working order.
"The undamaged ship is the Shadow of Intent-the Arbiters flagship chief."
"Good, hail them."