Chapter 3- Hunt the Truth
-Were just some miles from Levely. I received a message from Lord Terrence Hood, I'm going to play it now. – says Lasky.
"Levely is being attacked! The Covenant, they discovered Arkansas. We need backup right now. I'm sending this message to all the UNSC personnel nearby."
Everyone start reloading their weapons and checking their ammo. Johnson lands the Pelican inside a paper factory. The Pelican's door opens, everyone gets out of it. Lasky starts talking:
-Ok everyone, here's the plan: we'll have to split up. Chief and Ender, you'll find Lord Hood. Me, Johnson and the Marines will look for more Marines and try to fight against The Covenant.
-I Think this plan is alright- says Cortana.
-Let's go Marines. Good luck, Spartans. – says Johnson
Chief and Ender get out of the paper factory and find themselves next to a Warthog. Ender says:
-Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking?
Chief goes to the front seat, while Ender goes in the back as the gunner. Ender starts talking about his past missions:
-Before I was a Spartan, I used to be an ODST. There was this time, as an ODST, that my squad found a Warthog. I obviously went in the gunner seat. We killed a lot of Insurrectionists bastards. Then, I got shot in the chest. My squad died by a rocket launcher. When another ODST squad found me lying in the ground, they took me to the nearest hospital. There, Halsey picked me up and transformed me in a Spartan, like you. Good times, before we even knew that the Covenant existed.
Chief finally turned the Warthog on and started driving through the streets. Levely remembers a lot of New Mombasa. The buildings, the streets, the atmosphere, Levely is Arkansas's New Mombasa. The streets are empty, there are damaged cars, human dead bodies and Covenant dead bodies. Chief and Ender follow up to the UNSC Central Base, where Lord Hood should be.
In the middle of their journey, they are hit by a Plasma cannon. The Warthog is destroyed, there is no time for fixing. A Covenant troop formed by 5 Elites, 3 Grunts, 4 Jackals and 2 Hunters, surround Chief and Ender. Ender says with a sarcastic voice:
-Who should I shoot? The ugly one or the ugly one?
Both them throw grenades and starts shooting. Chief says:
-I'll get the Hunters, you take care of the rest.
-Sir yes, Sir.
Chief jumps towards the first Hunter, he grabs his head. The second Hunter tries to do something and shoots the back of the first Hunter, killing it. Chief grabs his assault rifle and starts shooting the second Hunter's head. The Hunter protects his head with his shield and also attacks Chief with this same shield. Chief takes a plasma grenade, jump towards the Hunter's head and plant it on him. Chief runs away and the Hunter blows up. When he looks to Ender, he is fighting 2 Elites with an energy sword. Chief grabs an energy sword as well and start fighting the second Elite. Ender stab the first Elite in the chest and Chief cuts the second Elite's head. Both of them keep walking through the city. In a moment, when they are walking through an alley, something grabs Chief's leg. He gets his pistol, and shoot what's grabbing his leg. When he looks to see what it is, he immediately warns Ender:
-Hey Ender, we've got company
Ender looks to the ground and see a little-sized flood. He says:
-We have to go faster, if we still want to get out of here alive.
They finally get in front of the UNSC Central Base, but there is a war going on over there. The Marines on one side and the Covenant on the other.
-Chief! Ender! At last! Thank god you are alive. – says Lasky.
-Captain, we have tracked Lord Hood's signal, he is on that base, and we have to get in there. – says Cortana
- I'm sorry Cortana, but this is impossible. There is too many of them we can't do it.
-There is Flood coming, we don't have much time… I have a plan. – says Chief
There is one street, the left side is covered by Marines, and the right side is covered by Covenant. Chief and Ender go to the sewers. They go to the right side of the street, in the sewer, and plant bombs there. They get away from there and they activate the detonator. The Covenant blows up, some Elites survived, but they were killed by the Marines. Chief and Ender go up in the street and say:
-We have to find Lord Hood, now! The Flood is coming, we have to get out of here as quick as we can!
They get in the Control Base and right in the main hall they find something horrible. Lord Hood and other UNSC Leaders are being tortured by the Covenant. The torturers look to Chief, Ender, Lasky, Johnson and the other Marines. There is 6 Elites, 5 of them have an energy sword and the one of the middle, the bigger one, the leader, have no weapon. Chief says:
-Leave the big one to me.
The Elites shout and run to the Marines. They start to fight. Chief runs to the bigger one, which punches Chief right in the face. He stands up and kick the knee of the Leader, then Chief kneed the Leader in the face. Chief waits the Elite opens his mouth and he puts his arm inside the Leader's head, killing it. The other Elites are dead. All the Marines rescue the UNSC leaders, including Lord Hood. Lasky says:
-We need a cruiser to get out of here, now! We don't have much time. Lord Hood, where do we find a cruiser here in Levely?
-In the Arkansas UNSC Spaceship Port of course.
At the Central Base they find some Transport Warthogs, and use them to get at the Spaceship Port. The day is becoming night, what before was the sound of plasma guns, now is the sound of little-sized Flood walking through the city. The Covenant just disappeared, only their bodies. Levely is almost completely destroyed, the buildings are on fire and some of them are already destroyed. When they get to the Spaceship Port, they see lots of Marines getting in the last cruiser. The Warthogs get in the cruiser and everyone feels relieved. The door closes and the cruiser start working. Lord Hood, Chief, Ender and Lasky go to the control room. Chief asks:
-Lord Hood, where are we going?
-Chief, I know about your mission, so I took the liberty of changing our destination to Novalight. I heard that they have been spotted there. I'll leave you and Ender over there. It will take some hours till we get there. Get some rest, you fought a lot. Leave Cortana with us now, she will be a great company for us.
Chief gets the disk out of his helmet and give to Lord Hood. He gets out of the control room and try to find a bedroom. He passes in front of the loading area and hears a noise. He grabs his pistol and go check it out. It's a large room, with bright white lights. He doesn't see anything. But suddenly, all the lights of the ship turns off. Chief turns on his lantern and look again to the room, but this time, he see waves of little-sized Flood. Chief immediately closes the loading area's door. He sends a message to Lord Hood:
-Sir, there is Flood on this spaceship, use the slip-space, now!
-I'm working on it, Chief.
Chief sees little-sized Flood killing the Marines behind him. He grabs a shotgun from a dead Marine and start shooting the infected and the little-sized Flood. Chief falls in the ground, because Lord Hood activated the slip-space jump. When the slip-space travel ends, Chief stand up and keep killing the Flood. He runs to the Marines bedroom. When he get there, he shouts:
-Marines, wake up! We have hostile contact on this ship. Grab your weapons and find an escape pod.
All the Marines wake up, including Johnson and Ender. They follow Chief to the control room, where everyone is desperate, Lord Hood looks to Chief and say:
-Son, we have to abandon this cruiser, otherwise, we will die. This cruiser will blow up in some minutes, we have to find an escape pod. Chief, take Cortana with you. I and Lasky are just behind you.
Chief connects Cortana to his armor once again. She says:
-I don't know if you missed me, but I definitely missed you.
They get out of the control room and darkness took control of the cruiser. Silence makes this even worse. When everyone turns on their lantern, they see lots of infected Flood in front of them. Chief, Ender, Johnson, Lasky and Lord Hood starts shooting the infected. They kill some of them and run to the escape pods section. There, there is only 4 individual escape pods. Little-sized Flood enters Lasky's mouth and turn him into an infected. Johnson kills the infected Lasky with his pistol. Everyone that stills alive, enter in the escape pod and launch out of there. While they are falling to Novalight, they can see the cruiser blowing up. A piece of the cruiser hits Master Chief's escape pod, making him change his course. Ender's escape pod is also hit, changing his course as well.
Chief and Ender fall inside a UNSC Base. When they get out of their pods, they see dead bodies all over the place. They walk a little bit through the base and Cortana says:
-Chief, I'm tracking Spartan signals in this base, you two are not the only Spartans over here!
-Why would Group C come to this base? – asks Ender
-The teleporter… Group C is here for the teleporter! We have to stop them! – says Chief
- Teleporter? What are you talking about? – asks Ender
-There is a teleporter over here, a cancelled project, it consumed too much energy. Like Reach's destruction ray. If they use the teleporter, Novalight won't have energy for months. We have to find them.
Chief and Ender run to the teleporter area. When they get there, they see Group C, which is formed by 6 Spartans: Locki, a modified Spartan that can run faster than a cheetah; Diana, she is the mind of the group, the smartest one; Jackson, a giant Spartan, his armor is super resistant, but he is way too slow; Nova, a Spartan specialized in Covenant infantry; Damian, a Spartan specialized in transport infantry; Sam, the leader of the group, he have a yellow energy sword, it is bigger than the usual ones, he is agile and his suit is resistant.
Chief and Ender enter through the door and point their weapons at Group C, which is standing in the teleporter, but the teleporter is not activated. Group C has strange weapons, it is not Covenant, and it is not human. Chief realizes that he has no bullets in his gun. Ender says:
-Stop right there Group C! You are under arrest!
-No Ender. We are free, and you are being manipulated by the UNSC. You have no salvation, then, you shall DIE!
All the members of the Group C shoot their guns in Ender, until he is dead.
-ENDER! NO! – shouts Chief, that immediately run and check Ender's body.
Before anyone from the Group C could shoot Chief, Sam stops them and say:
-He still can be saved.
Sam's helmet is almost made completely of glass, but it is a resistant glass. He wears a black cape. Sam comes closer to Chief and say:
-He had no salvation, UNSC manipulated him.
Chief stands up and ask Ender:
-This weapons… they aren't human or Covenant. What are they?
-These are the weapons of our creators.
-Forerunner weapons… how did you get them?
-The ring of salvation gave to us. He showed us the way to find the key to salvation, but we need you Chief, you will bring the door lock, and we will use the key. Here Chief, take this.
Sam gives a video recorder to Chief and says:
-Hunt the truth, Chief. When you see the information of this video recorder, you will see that we were right. After listening it, come to the Halo, join us, and save the universe.
-Never. – says Chief
Chief punches Sam in the face and run to grab a regular energy sword. He says:
-I'll never join you, bastard.
Chief tries to stab Sam in the chest, but Sam blocks his attack with the yellow energy sword. Sam kicks Chief's face, but Chief don't fall in the ground. Sam says:
-It wasn't the Covenant that killed your group. It was us.
- You son of a…
Chief tries to cut Sam's head, but again, Sam blocks it. Sam punches Chief on the face and say:
-Group B begged for mercy… begged, like a bunch of dogs.
Chief tries to attack Sam, but Sam blocks it and disarm him. Sam kicks Chief's head, making Chief fall in the ground, making him faint. Sam says:
-You got balls, Chief. More than your group, I would say.
He gets in the teleporter and activate it. Chief is a little dazed and confused, but he can understand what Sam says:
-The video recorder also have my coordinates, if you still want to find me and "stop me". After you listen to it, you'll understand why we hate you humans.
A bunch of ODST's, Lord Hood and Johnson reach at the teleporter room, but it it's too late. They use the teleporter and the energy is drained. Chief stands up and say to Lord Hood:
-Let's find this Halo.