Chapter 1
year 2560 planet Terceira
The rain pattered against the windshield of the Pelican as Rook looked out over the shoulder of the pilot's seat, Terceira was one of the few planets where humanity was safe, undiscovered by both covenant and Banished.
Ever since the battle of Zeta halo more than 7 months ago, humanity had been in hiding, but they were all slowly getting pushed to this corner of the galaxy and surrounded.
The covenants were relentless and the banished were of anything even worse, but Rook kept himself steady, as the Spartan who proved that the legend of Spartans just go missing in action was true, at least to the public, he would keep himself steadfast for Morality sake.
"I hate the weather here" commented the pilot, "relax we're almost there" said the copilot, "good I need to get somewhere inside, somewhere else than here" the pilot said.
Rook remained silent, "just get us there in one piece" was all Rook said, this storm was threatening to tear them apart.
The facility had two sections, one above the water and looked like a giant oil rig where the vehicles docked. However under the surface was a main section of the base that floated 30 meters below the water and consisted of many other sub-levels such as living quarters, observation decks, weapons and resources warehouses. all connected by tubes and lifts.
The base was suctioned to the ocean floor by giant suction cup like structures.
They landed on one of the vehicle bays located on the rig, Rook stepped out into the full white lighting as the storm raged on outside. His Armor was a blue Mjolnir Gen 2 Recruit Armor with a white stripe down the middle, a white bird's head, like a tattoo, was imprinted on the right side of his chest Armor. His orange visor swept around the area as if examining everything.
Rook walked through the large corridors, until he came to where he was needed, the door opened and inside was a large room with holo tablets and maps and a large table in the center of it.
And among all this was a single elderly one armed woman, "Hello Jackie" she said to him with a smile, "hello Halsey" Jackie said in reply as he took his helmet off revealing his black hair in a ducktail and sideburns on his face and his two eyes, one brown the other blue. His skin was remarkably pale, all Spartans had pale skin due to wearing Armor for so much time.
The Armor required special tools in order to remove it.
The two looked at each other for a very long time, "it is good to see you" Halsey said first, "you to" Rook responded, "don't forget me" said a voice literally from the table. Appearing on the table was the figure of a very small humanoid female, she had wolf long hair that flowed down on her back and swayed as if it had its own wind.
"You to omniscient" Rook responded and then added, "you feeling okay?", Omniscient sighed, "yes I'm not suffering from Rampancy" she responded, Omniscient was one of the few A.I's to not go rogue when the guardian threat emerged.
She was the longest running A.I's that didn't suffer from rampancy, "while you were gone I gave her an update. Now we don't have to worry about her going rampant" Halsey explained, "It was one of my longer running projects. I am planning on giving it to cortana…" she let the sentence trail off, perhaps if she had completed it and given it to Cortana sooner then maybe all this could have been avoided.
"And…are you sure she won't suffer from Rampancy?" Rook asked, realizing he was in a delicate moment, "she shouldn't" Halsey responded, Rook was about to respond but Halsey waved it off, "nevermind that now, I have an assignment for you both" she said.
"Where?" Rook asked, "Sanghelios" Halsey replied giving Rook an A.I chip that belong to Omniscient, "you are to meet up with the Arbiter and he will give you the details of this mission"
"Can't you tell me now?" Rook asked, "it's complicated and it's better to show you" Omniscient explained a tad timidly, unlike Cortana she had a shy nature and was slightly timid, occasionally she had been known to stammer.
Rook sighed, "when do I deploy?" He asked, as he hovered the chip over Omniscient and a green orb formed in the circular whole of the chip as Omniscient digital dissipated into it and Rook placed the chip into the interface located in the back of his helmet "right now" Halsey replied.
Moments later Rook holstered his VK78 Commando rifle onto his back and placed his M6G magnum onto his thigh, the majority of the Magnums having been replaced by the sidekick but many Spartans preferred the heavy feel of the Magnum so kept it.
"So where are we heading?" Asked the pilot of the Prowler or as some called it, a "bat", due to Some confusion between brute prowlers and the one Rook was in, which was a type of Corvette. This one was a winter class stealth Corvette.
"Sangheilios" Rook responded, with the Bats stealth tech it would be able to pass under Banished or covenant Radar easily, "and get out I'm piloting" he added, "what?" The pilot demanded a double take.
Rook gave him a look that told him there was no argument, he sighed, "fine but you better bring it back in one piece" the pilot warned as he exited the seat, "we're low on ships as it is".
Rook hovered his hand over a screen and Omniscient's figure appeared on the controls next to him, in between both pilot seats. Normally 5 personnel were needed but with Omniscient he would be able to do without. All he had to do was steer.
The ship roared to life and lifted off the ground and Rook pushed the thruster forward and it shot out of the base, up through the atmosphere and finally into space.
"Wake me when we are there" Rook told her, a few minutes later "sweet dreams" Omniscient said back as Room made his way to the cryopod commonly used for Slipspace travel, Rook lay down and closed his eyes behind his visors and went to sleep as the Pods door closed and the window frosted up as it activated.
"Alright initiation slipspace" Omniscient told herself, A slipspace rupture appeared in space and the corvette flew right into the black hole as it closed behind them. Omniscient was always mesmerized by the sight of slipspace.
Rook however didn't dream well, he dreamed of war and battle, mud and blood, storms and steel, but most nights he dreamed of augmentation just like he was doing now.
He woke up halfway through the procedure, the scientists trying to hold him down as he thrashed in pain screaming in agony, he would hear more screaming, he would turn and see Jericho, another Spartan candidate. Thrashing in pain just like Rook.
Jericho would survive the operation but on the other side there was another Spartan candidate in the same condition as he and Jericho, screaming as operators and doctors held her down.
Later he would realize that it was Cloe who died during the operation. Then everything went blank as the sedatives kicked in and he fell asleep to finish the operation.
Rook jolted awake, his hands pressed against the cryopod, he breathed to calm himself down, they must have exited slipspace if he had woken up. If they hadn't then the pod would have kept him asleep.
"Bad dream?" Omnsicient's voice asked as the pod door opened and Rook stepped out, Rook didn't answer, Omniscient but her lip nervously when Rook was silent you know bad things had happened.
Luckily ahead of them was the planet Sanghelios, it was not good, banished cruisers and battleships surrounded the planet doing battle with the Sanghelios ships which in all honesty were just stolen and recoloured covenant ships.
Banished had more blocky design then the elegant and curved ships of the covenant and Sanghelios, their warships were that of their own design, everything else just had an extra layer of Armor and recoloured with the red and metallic coloring associated with the banished.
Warships had battering ram fronts, very useful when in close quarters combat between two ships.
"Initiate cloak" Rook said hurrying, the ship's light bending cloak activating turning the whole ship invisible. Hell quickly followed as they dove through the missiles and plasma shot of both sides as well as debree of destroyed ships flying past them as they exploded not to mention to phantoms and space banshees flying hither and thither around them.
One extremely alarming case of flying through the battle was when their ship was hit by a banshee interceptors fire, the shields held but the cloak frizzled out for a second before coming back online.
"It's getting a little hot in here" Omniscient said, her voice clearly laced with controlled panic, "where almost out hold on" Rook said as he maneuvered the ship into a barrel roll between two colliding ships, the ships exploded.
"Rook" Omniscient said in panic, but Rook expertly pushed the throttle to maximum and they escaped just as the fire from the resulting explosion caught up around them. But they flew out of it just as quickly.
Omniscient bent over breathing heavily in relief, though how she could be breathless was beyond Rook but he didn't question it. Continuing down the Bat continued descending until they had reached the lower atmosphere before leveling out.
"A-Alright we are supposed to meet up with Thel Vadam, t-the arbiter" Omniscient said, "location?" Rook asked, "nowhere good" Omniscient winced, and Rook knew that trouble was coming his way. Or rather he was heading for trouble.
The Bat shot through the air silently, invisible, and when Rook looked down, he could see why. The entirety of Sanghelios was a battlefield. Sangheilios had been freed from the grip of the covenant via the arbiter only for the Banished to now attack to subjugate resistance.
It was hard to believe that the end goal of the banished was to find a home, but according to the banished, to find a home they had to subjugate all resistance in order for no one to subjugate them.
Rook didn't comment on the enemy's reason, his job was to be the sword and shield of humanity, and being one of the last sword and shield it was extra important that he succeeded.
"Omniscient, where is the arbiter?" Rook asked, "in Vadam the home of the Vadam family" said Omniscient, of course, Rook wasn't surprised, Thel's ancestor was the one who founded the state in Yermo.
Flying over the battleground of Yermo, Rook passed 3 more battlefields, all of which were leading to Vadam, "there's a clearing that'll lead to a back entrance of the city" Omniscient informed, "set it to autopilot and set it down someone out of the way" Rook ordered standing up, "already done how are we departing?" Omniscient responded.
Rook responded by opening the entrance ramp, "w-w-wait, seriously?" Omniscient asked, "why am i surprised?", "hang on tight" Rook said and jumped skydiving down past the clouds and building up speed, "woah this is fun" whooped Omniscient, Rook gave an amused grunt as he reversed his position.
His feet towards the ground and activated the suits built in thrusters, this slowed his descent enough so that when he landed all he needed to do was roll to break his fall and land with one knee on the ground.
"And we have touch down" Omniscient quipped, "mark where we need to head" Rook said ignoring the quip, "marking now" Omniscient said regaining a professional composure, the pin came up on Rooks visor, he didn't waste time in sprinting briskly towards the location while navigating the sangheili forests.
Suddenly red dots appeared on his radar, red dots were enemy tags, slowing his pace Rook drew out his service rifle and trained it ahead of him, suddenly a plasma bolt shot out from ahead of him, his shields flared, "contact" Omniscient said, a second too late as he rolled out of the way of the banished fire and returned fire in short bursts.
They were all grunts.
Grunts also known as Unggoy were a species of squat bipedal aliens of the Covenant. They are the lowest-ranking species in the hierarchy, and are frequently mistreated by almost every higher-ranking race. They were commonly used as Cannon Fodder and were fairly intelligent, cowardly, and not very creative on the battlefield.
The Grunts varied in different colors from mainly orange to green, blue, and red with some new white armored grunts having shields like Spartans and elites. They were also horrible shots in terms of skill and were slow. Grunts breathe methane rather than oxygen. Their combat armor/harness has an integrated methane re-breather system which allows them to breathe methane gas.
The Grunts commonly wielded Plasma Pistols and Needlers or any one handed weapons and on occasion a fuel rod as a heavy weapon. These ones just had plasma pistols, needlers and disruptors. A Banished original design that shot electrified plasma that as its name suggested disrupted energy shields and shocked enemies.
Rook fired his weapon in bursts, it was only a squad of five and he quickly dispatched them as he continued on, however not long after he came to a dead end, "damn this is the quickest way to Vadam, we're going to have to find a way around" Omniscient said regretfully. "I have another plan" Rook informed Omniscient had forgotten about the grappleshot located on his left arm.
The grappleshot was a new spartan tool, it was strong enough to slingshot a spartan into the air, Rook shot the cable up at the top of the small drop and shot upwards, "wow" Omniscient exclaimed, she was not quite used to it yet. Rook landed on his feet as he recoiled the grappleshot rope.
"Still not used to that" Omniscient stated, "neither am i honestly" Rook admitted, "contacts" Omniscient alerted, Rook ducked in time as a hail of Plasma rained down from a phantom that stopped and allowed the occupants 6 grunts and 2 elites to disembark before flying off. Rook opened fire on them before they even hit the ground and 2 grunts already were dead the others lept to cover.
The elites were a bit more difficult. Elites also known as Sangheili were saurian species of strong, proud, and intelligent warriors, as well as skilled combat tacticians. The Sangheili were named after their home planet, Sanghelios.
Their bodies were muscular and tall. Their jaws are quadruple-hinged, with an upper jaw and four mandible-like lips. With few exceptions, these mandibles are generally shown with six teeth each.
Their hands were tetradactyl having four digits; two middle fingers, and two opposing thumbs on the outside for grasping. Their legs are digitigrade, with short upper and lower legs, and elongated tarsals, using the distal and intermediate phalanges to support their weight when walking.
This arrangement possibly allows them to run very quickly and jump large distances, compared to ordinary humans and other Covenant races. Their skin color and texture varies from light brown and scaly to black and smooth, most appear to have dark gray skin and the majority have either dark blue, black, or brown eyes.
The Elites display respect and admiration for honorable fighters, whether they are allies of the Sangheili or not. It is common for the Sangheili to have such admiration for their adversaries.
The Elites have many ranks when it comes to military terms. The most common rank of Elites were Minors in the covenant they would wear blue Armor but in the banished they wore red and metallic Armor as all the banished did.
The Elites were usually equipped with Plasma Rifles, Energy Swords, and occasionally Plasma Pistols or any other weapon that a human could.
One Elite had a plasma rifle while the other had a pulse carbine, Rook however threw a grenade, the remaining grunts had made the mistake of staying too close together for comfort and the grenade exploded taking them out and making the shields of the nearby elite flare.
firing the grappleshot it latched onto the elite with the flared shield Rook swung it around and into it's partner before he yanked it forward drawing out a standard UNSC combat knife.
With the elites shields broken Rook drew in the Elite and jammed the knife into it's exposed neck letting purple blood to flow down the body as the Elite gurgled and soon bled out, "you'll pay for that Spartan" said the other elite as it holstered it's pulse carbine and drew out and ignited it's blue energy sword.
Rook merely let a dry chuckle escape him as he holstered the knife and drew out the handle of a plasma blade, the Elite's eyes widened in shock, "challenge accepted" rook said as he ignited the blade. This plasma blade was special in two ways, the first was the fact that it was a trophy Rook had retrieved from the elite commander from the planet green hills.
The second was the actual blade itself, it was blood red and the blade itself immited a thick red mist giving the illusion of it being like fire, the name of the blade was Blood reaver, a well recognised blade especially among the elites.
The elite in front of Rook's eyes widened as he recognised the blade and the sight of the rook painted on the spartans armor made him realize just who he had challenged.
However the Elite decided to go out brave, he charged at Rook and Swung the sword, Rook mimicked the action and the two blades met, the Elite broke the stalemate and slashed again but Rook was faster.
Spartan 2's in general were so fast they could see in slow motion when they wanted to and Rook used this now, ducking under the slash he swung his blade and cut across the elite's torso. The elite fell to his knees and to the ground and bled out as Rook returned to seeing in normal time and deactivated his blade as he heard the elite gurgle and choke.
"A-all hostels eliminated i think" Omniscient said uncertainty, the radar beeped and two red dots appeared, they were more phantoms, "never mind" Omniscient said as the phantoms came closer, then two green projectiles hit both phantoms and the debris fell to the ground in fiery wrecks. All banished infantry were nothing more than smoldering crisps.
The shot had come from 4 orange banshee's and following them were 2 phantoms the same color, and with more smooth and angular features that belonged to the covenant and the Arbiter's Sanghelios forces.
One phantom descended and hovered above the ground in front of the rook, the doors opened, a Sangheili warrior leaned out and gestured the universal 'get in' sing.
Rook knew these were allies and obliged by quickly entering the phantom which hastily took off, the door still open with the plasma turret being moved left to right by the operator, "Rook" said one sanghelios the one who had beckoned him to get onto the phantom, "it is an honor to meet the one who bears the blood reaver".
"Thank you soldier" Rook said in the sangheili common tongue, he took up learning the language, as both a sign of respect and of helping to fight the covenant, this surprised some of the soldiers around him. "It is also an honor for me" said a familiar voice, Rook turned and found himself facing Thel 'Vadam, the arbiter himself, he was imposing with his golden armor which looked very royal indeed.
In one hand he held the handle for his famous sword, Prophets bane, "Arbiter. It's an honor".
A few minutes later
The phantoms landed inside the walls of the city of Vadam, wraiths from outside fired plasma bombardments at the walls but the walls held, "you have to rough" Rook commented as a Grunt fell right next to him from one of the high stone buildings, "i'm okay" the grunt groaned. "Indeed" the Arbiter said, "but I am glad you're here".
"I'm not here to win your war for you" Rook said, he said not in an unkind way but in a way that made it sound like he was stating a fact, "i am aware, an archeological mission" the Arbiter responded, "but this discovery could be what changes the war", "really h-how?" Omniscient asked.
"Once we are inside…" the Arbiter said then they all ducked as a wraith blast sailed and hit one of the buildings close to them, "i think i get the picture" Rook said, they double timed to the large temple in the center of the city.
"Hey it's the Rook" said a young sangheili warrior to his friend, "if he's anything as good as i hear he can practically win this war on his own", "If so then why isn't it won yet" said the two sangheili's third more bitter friend.
Running past the trio Rook followed Arbiter as another shot from a wraith nearly made the roof collapse, "how did a wraith manage to hit us all the way here?" asked an elite warrior, "they managed to breach the east walls and we have set up shields to hold them back." responded another warrior. "Damn" Arbiter cursed upon hearing this.
"Arbiter, what's so important to this war?" Omniscient asked, "we are almost to the artifact, once there i will explain" Arbiter replied as they took a short gravelift up to the edge of a destroyed bridge, and continued down the corridor till they came to a room.
"Here is the relic." Arbiter said as Rook entered the room, what he found was mildly unimpressive, it looked like a single dome shaped device with the dome consisting of small triangle shaped plates, "arbiter?" Rook asked, unsure, the artifact didn't look forerunner like he had expected, "what is this?"
Arbiter nodded to a scientist in the room who pressed a button on a device, the dome opened and revealed a single purple crystal and a small purple explosion appeared in mid air and a purple crack appeared, on the other side of the crack was multiple landscapes divided by a spider web of purple cracks.
"Wow" Omniscient breathed, "what is it?", "an artifact from the age of the forerunners, but not made of their design" Arbiter said, "then who made it?" Omniscient asked, "the acolytes. Their real name is lost to the ages, the covenant lord said that the acolytes served the forerunners, shared their technology with them." Arbiter responded, "if the banished, get this. They would have near unlimited teleportation technology"
"They could win the war" Rook agreed, "we need to get this to Halsey", "fast" the arbiter agreed, suddenly an Elites soldier ran in, breathing heavily, "A-arbiter, t-t-there is-is a…" he panted, he collected himself, "we have a problem" he finally said.
Getting to the edge of where the bridge used to be in the main hall, everyone looked up through the skylight ceiling and saw a massive, Banished cruiser overhead, it was nearly as big as the city, drop pods shot down in fireballs all across the city, pulverizing anything that got in their path as Brutes jumped out and began firing.
Brute also known as Jiralhanae were large, bipedal, giant, heavily muscled ape-like aliens that served in the Covenant. They have thick, gray skin that is extremely resilient to battle damage. They have three digits on each hand including opposable thumbs. Their feet have only two digits.
They were some of the main forces of the banished and were utterly ruthless, some were not very bright, others like Atriox were the very dangerous ones.
Warchief's used large gravity hammers, berserkers charged recklessly at their enemies unarmed except for claws mounted on their Armor and other various weapons, sometimes even using heavy weapons like skewers or even UNSC rocket launchers.
"They have breached the city and are making their way to our location" informed the Elite messenger who had told them of this problem, it was a big problem, "we are trapped", "the south and south west walls have been breached" informed another warrior near a holo tab.
"No way out" Omniscient said, this might be the end of the journey together, trapped like rats in a rat maze with a hunting cat after them, there was no exit to safety "all but one" Rook said as an idea came to his mind.
Arbiter and Rook returned to the room with the unusual device, "how will you get back?" Arbiter asked as Rook pressed the button that activated it, it must have been set to a default location as once again the fractured void laid before them through the crack in the air. "I'll find a way," Rook told him.
"Once we are through, turn it off" Rook said, the Arbiter shook his head at the ludicracy of this plan, but he relented and said "very well but take this".
The arbiter gave him something, it was a type-4 refraction dissonance modifier, or an active camouflage generator. A small device that allowed anyone wearing it to turn invisible and was of Elite origins and design in the covenant.
Rook took it and placed it on his lower back where it was supposed to be, before the entire temple shook so bad that both spartan and Sanghieli lost their balance and staggered, "they have breached the gate" said someone through the battlenet.
"Go spartan i will be here when you return" the Arbiter promised, the Rook nodded and with only a second's hesitation jumped through the crack, Arbiter pressed the button and it closed, if there was even a chance that it would be recovered by the humans then it was not worth destroying.
He made his way back to the main hall now swarming with plasma bolts and banished being held back by Arbiters forces, Arbiter ignited Prophets bane and leapt into combat possible for the last time.