Finely crafted arches and pillars, beautiful murals and ornate runes and carvings. They didn't have time to admire any of these things. For the fellowship was running for its life, away from the cruel hordes of orcs bearing down on them.
A Spartan, a miracle of human physiology, can run at speeds that boggle the mind. Chief himself had often run at speeds easily in excess of 50kph. But he could not do this, he could not lose the fellowship. His mission was to protect them. Nothing else mattered right now. Humanity was counting on him, the people of this world, and he would give his life if it were asked.
He jogged behind them at the rear, crossbow ready, loaded and primed. If an orc came within 100 yards of his position, he would neutralise it. He glanced behind for a moment, and the sight that greeted him caused even his heart to quicken a little. A huge mass of the pale skinned creatures was running them down! "There are thousands of them!" Cortana gasped, her eyes wide with dread, "They're like termites! I've never seen anything like it!" Neither had John! Throughout all his years of war, he had seen some amazing sights. The Halo array, Covenant battle cruisers, elites and other remarkable alien species. He'd even seen the glassing and annihilation of continents, and most terrible of them all, the death of worlds themselves.
But this was something from an older era of war. More archaic, no less brutal. Seeing a horde of thousands of enemies coming at you was no less fearful than seeing any modern horror of war, and a blade was instinctively more frightening than a gun.
The fellowship was too slow, a dwarf in heavy armour, an old wizard and four tiny hobbits. The orcs however were nimble and fleet of foot, his comrades just weren't fast enough. The orcs were fast, and they were being run down. Chief considered halting, trying to hold the orcs back whilst the others escaped, fight them off, than escape and meet up with the others later. But as he saw new flashes of red on his motion tracker, and heard shrieks from vectors all around him, he knew that this wouldn't make a difference. Even Chief could only plug a single corridor.
In whatever direction he looked, Chief sees goblins pouring out of doorways, cracks and holes in the walls, through the floors, above him through the ceiling, hundreds scaling down the pillars and walls at incredible speeds. "Evil ghosts, walking cuttlefish, now spider-orcs? Is anything in this world fair?" His AI began to rant, in an effort to vent her fears.
Chief knew where she was coming from. She cared about everyone here, she was afraid that everyone was going to die. Chief was obviously as deadly as anything in this world, and he would kill hundreds of the hateful beings coming for them. But Cortana worried for the others. For the average man of this era? What could a man do against such monsters?
As the fellowship turn a corner, they stop dead. They were staring right into the sunken pits of manic, blazing orc eyes. "Frodo, get back, with me!" Chief yells in cold desperation. They are surrounded. There's no way out of this for the others, John knows it. Gandalf stands with Chief and the hobbits. They stare into each other's eyes, and even without seeing them, Gandalf knows what the Spartan is thinking. The wizard rolls his sword in a practice swipe. Chief swaps crossbow for claymore. "To whatever end" Gandalf sighs.
The orcs and their goblin cousins who stand amongst their ranks are snarling menacingly. They fear the free peoples, but they would hold their nerve. There was safety in numbers. Chief is silent, his face taunt and grim. He knows that there is no way out of this. There were enough orcs to fill the entire cavern, pressing shoulder to shoulder. And within their eyes was murder, nothing else, only hate and a desire to kill. The orcs were not going to take prisoners today.
"There's enough bodies here to crush you Chief, seven over. It's over, I'm so sorry John!" Cortana sighed, her eyes moist with tears. There was nothing they could do, powerless to prevent what was coming. Chief gripped his blades tightly. The orcs started tightening the circle, closing in. Chief would protect the hobbits till their dying breath, never give up, never! Perhaps he could steal the ring away from Frodo's corpse when it was over? "Spartan!" And there it was again! Was there no end to this wicked madness?
Then the roar came.
It sounded almost electric, digital and unnatural. Deep, so deep, so guttural. Purely primal, and above all else, utterly horrifying to hear. As if by command, the orcs became terrified, chattering and wailing like monkeys flitting through the trees, running, flying from some dreaded apex predator. And fly the goblins did. A second roar erupted from the darkness, just as terrible as the last, and sent them fleeing. Back through the rock, the nooks and tight little crannies, scampering and screaming, back up the sides of the walls and pillars, towards the roof, as quickly as they had first appeared.
Moria, was now empty...or was it? What was that glow, that roar, that terrible primal roar? A light, like the glow and aura only lava could produce. "What is this new devilry?" A wary Boromir asks, already fatigued, voicing everyone's thought. What was coming for them? What could have scared the orcs enough to run away in fear?
Then Chief noticed Gandalf's body language, incredibly tense, almost shaking, head bowed...it was dread, terrible powerful dread. Gandalf knows what is coming. "What the hell are we up against Gandalf?" Chief asked, sensing that they had to act immediately. Gandalf sighed, and regained his composure once more, just as another guttural bellow came there way. "It is a Balrog!" The wizard finally replied. The hate and contempt in his voice as obvious as the sun on a blue and cloudless day. "A demon, of the ancient world, the world beyond time!"
Cortana got to work immediately, she had copied the entire works of the mythology of middle earth into her database. When she pulled up the information on her CPU, she gasped in utter shock. She immediately pulled an image of the creature up. A sketch of a mural from one of the books, which she had filled with a false colour spectrum. "A picture speaks a thousand words Chief!" She said quietly, covered Chief's entire HUD with Balrog, and completely stunned her Spartan.
Chief was silent, who knew what he was really feeling at this point. It was as if something had been dragged out of the pits of hell itself. The demon was colossal, large as a covenant scarab, dwarfing the elven knight who stood before it on the image he was gazing at. Horned and spined, with terrible eyeless pits of red magma, a true monster, a creature worthy of such a title.
"Shadow and flame" He breathed in awe.
"The very same John" Gandalf replied, almost in a whisper. "This foe is beyond all of you...we must run...RUN!" And on his bellowing command, the entire fellowship sprant away, in the opposite direction of the light that was gradually filling the hall.
They followed Gandalf, fleeing from the Balrog, heading to only he knew where. Chief saw it up ahead, a small doorway, nearly identical to the one they had passed through into Balin's tomb. Gandalf stopped suddenly upon reaching, allowing the others to pass first. Only Chief and Aragorn stayed with him, refusing to follow the others, refusing to leave him behind. Exhaustion suddenly washes over the old wizard, who slumps against the archway of the door. Aragorn goes over to support him, helping him keep his feet.
The Grey Wizard knows what he must do. The flame of Udûn would peruse them to the ends of the earth. It was a creature of Morgoth, and it was drawn to the power of its allegianced master. The demon was following the power of the ring, a slave to its dark power, and it would follow the ring 'till the ends of the earth. He knew what he had to do.
"You two are the best hope for the fellowship now!" Gandalf began. Aragorn moves closer, deeply concerned. "Gandalf?" What was he saying? Gandalf, ignoring him, turned to Chief. "John, do you trust me?" He asked with vulnerability.
"Yes sir" Chief replied immediately. He had doubted the wizard, but now trusted him with his life. "And do you trust Aragorn?" Gandalf asked, voicing his second question. Chief glanced over quickly, and turning back to Gandalf replies, "With my life".
Aragorn was moved and shocked by this sudden admission. Did John truly hold him in such high regard? "Then you must guard him with your life Spartan, you must..." Chief saluted Gandalf, he knew the wizard understood the gesture.
Gandalf nods, and turns to Aragorn. "You must lead them on now Aragorn, the bridge is near!" He nods to the right, and the two men follow his gaze. They could see the bridge through the archway of the door. His mind is swimming, what is Gandalf implying? Then Aragorn realises.
"No, we're not leaving you!" Aragorn replies defiantly to the old wizard. Gandalf suddenly regaining his strength, grabbed hold of the two men, and pushed them through the doorway. "Do as I say! For I'm not going anywhere, not yet!" And on that, Aragorn and John followed him through the doorway, re-joining the waiting fellowship.
They were greeted by a very pale looking Boromir, who was sitting on the steps of the chamber. He had lost his torch, and had just been saved from a very long fall by an ever attentive Legolas. "Come on, forward!" Aragorn ordered, making everyone spring into action. With Gandalf at their head, they moved onwards, down the massive and twisting walkways of Moria.
The Balrog roars again in fury as the Fellowship descends, towards the base of the mountain, light and rising flame consuming the stone below. Would it affect the foundations of the pathways they were walking on? Chief and Legolas pull to the head of the group, but are quickly stopped by a large gap in the walkway. Legolas jumps across immediately, followed by Chief, casually hopping across the chasm.
With a shout from the Balrog, almost like a battle cry, it charged the entrance of the chamber, its massive bulk and strength putting colossal fractures into the already weakened masonry. "Come Gandalf!" Legolas calls out, Chief backing up to give him room. The old man prepared himself, jumped, and with a grunt of pain on his landing, made it to the other side.
A millisecond later, an arrow flew down from somewhere above them, and hits the stairway, just where Gandalf had been standing. Everyone looks up, Chief immediately drawing his crossbow, pointing at where it had come from. "Chief, there are orcs up there!" Cortana updated him, "They're trying to snipe us, take them out!"
Chief aimed at a target on the far left, a straightforward shot. He tightens his grip on the stock, holds his breath...than to his surprise, Legolas fired a shot, not even taking a second to aim. Distracted, Chief watches as the arrow sped towards one of the orc archers. To his complete astonishment, the missile struck one straight in the neck. The beast then keeled over, and shrieking, falls down into the depths below. How had he done that?
Shaking his surprise off, Chief looked back round at his target, and placed a steel bolt straight into another of the orcs chest. It was thrown away into the shadows by the heavy momentum of the bolt.
"Merry, pippin!" Boromir shouts, grabbing the two hobbits. With a masculine roar, he powered his way over the ravine, getting the three of them over safely. As he did so, large portions of the stairway collapse. Chief hadn't realised the stairway was this deteriorated! What had before been a long hop, was now a considerable jump to the other side. Yet the others still had to get over.
Chief considered jumping back himself, but didn't know if the platform could take his weight. The others had to organise themselves. Besides, with arrows raining down, he had other priorities. "Cover the fellowship Legolas, we have to keep them pinned down!" Chief ordered, picking off another orc, another clean hit to the chest. The Mirkwood sentinel did not speak, but when another orc was neutralised by a shot to the collar, Chief knew that the remarkable hunter had understood.
"Sam, quickly!" Aragorn yelled as he grabbed hold of the hobbit, throwing him over. Gandalf was waiting, successfully catching Sam, safe! Aragorn went to grab Gimli, but the dwarf's stubbornness and pride immediately got in the way.
"No one, tosses, a dwarf!" He bellows, before foolishly hurling himself at the gap. Chief and Legolas both looked round, they knew he wasn't going to make it. Legolas was closer, and he reacted quickly. He grabbed the dwarf before he went hurtling over the edge "Oi! No, mind the beard! Aaaaagh!" The dwarf screamed out in agony. But with a grunt, he manages to get to safety.
Only Frodo and Aragorn to go. Chief and Legolas had picked off the orcs. Things were looking up! Then the chamber shook again, the Balrog once again trying to break through to the other side. The stairway trembled, and more masonry sheered away, exactly where the two were standing.
Aragorn acts decisively, he grabs Frodo, and throws him back up the stairs. "Jesse, that was close!" Cortana gasps. Chief wished she would shut up, they now had a serious problem. It was too far, too far for either Aragorn or Frodo to get over the gap. Chief knew he couldn't get back over there in any conceivable way, not without risking another catastrophic collapse. "Shit!" John curses. The two were trapped. It had to be them two, didn't it!
Then, everything changed again. As Durin's Bane throws itself at the doorway once more, whole sections of masonry, the size of houses began to sheer away from the ceiling. Inevitably, one of the massive pieces of debris hit the stairway, fortunately behind where Aragorn and Frodo were standing. All that is supporting the platform that they stand on is a thin pillar of worn rock. Chief now knew for sure that he couldn't help them!
The Balrog throws itself at the chamber one final time, and as shockwaves tear through the ruined masonry, the support pillars finally gives out. Fragments begin to fall away from below them, and the unstable stairway begins to wobble and shake. "Frodo, hang on!" Aragorn screams at the terrified hobbit, grabbing his arm. The only thing Frodo could do was to stop himself from shaking. Things were desperate, the platform was about the collapse. When it did, Aragorn and Frodo would die.
"Cortana, please. Suggestions? Quickly!" They had seconds left. "Umm, I...umm, I don't know, I..." But then Aragorn took control of the situation. Feeling the centre of gravity shifting beneath him, he knew what to do. "Lean forward Frodo!" He suddenly ordered. "Yes! That will work! That will work! Brilliant!" She screams excitedly as soon as she hears him.
The platform began to fall, twisting, from Chief's perspective the back end falling away to the right, but forward they were slowly coming. "Common!" Legolas shouted, willing it to work, willing them to be safe. Finally the platform the other side with a mighty crash. It was the most relieving collision any of them had heard. Aragorn and Frodo fly forwards, but Chief and the others were ready to catch them. They were, after an incredibly tense few moments, safe!
"Not bad!" John says to Aragorn. "Thank you" He replies in earnest, banter hadn't yet been lost between the two warriors! As ten very relieved companions run down the rest of the stairway, Chief stops for a moment, watching as the platform disintegrates and disappears into the depths below. Thinking about how things could have gone. He then turns, and speeds after the rest of the fellowship. Re-joining Gandalf, Chief returns to the head of the column once more.
The ground beyond the chamber is choked with smoke and fire, white-hot flame rising above into the ceiling beyond, searingly hot. "Over the bridge!" A desperate Gandalf screams out, they were too late! "Fly!" Chief stays with him, wiling the fellowship on. "Keep going, move, move!" As the final member has passed him.
Gandalf was furious, he had given Chief orders. As a servant of the UNSC, why wasn't Chief following? Before he could say a word however, a guttural sound pulsed through the hallway. A single booming bass note, causing everything within many killometers to quake and tremble. The sound was indistinguishable from the roar of a full and burning furnace. The most unnerving sound Chief has heard in his whole life!
Chief turns slowly, the intense light of the flame flaring off of the reflective golden surface of his visor. Once he has moved all the way round, it is than when the Balrog finally leaps out of the flames. He stares at the monster before him, open mouthed. Nothing, nothing that he has experienced in his entire life preparing him for this! Multiple times the height of himself, muscular, if it even had muscles, and when it roared at them the heat coming from its jaws seared the face of Gandalf and caused Chiefs shield to flare dimly. There was nothing Chief could do here.
"Go Spartan! GO NOW!" And then the demon charged. As its feet shake the ground below them, the wizard and the Spartan, for one of the first times in both of their lives, turn and run. "Get to Frodo John! Leave me!" His order is so sincere and so compelling that Chief could not help but obey him. Chief accelerated, and moving as fast as his legs would allow, hurtles over the bridge, quickly re-joining the rest of the fellowship. When he finally reaches Frodo, he notices that everyone is still staring at the bridge. When he turns to look himself, he is horrified to see that Gandalf is confronting the Balrog.
"You cannot pass!" Gandalf roars, denying it passage, the authority and rage in his voice utterly remarkable. "GANDALF!" Frodo screams in distress, why is Gandalf not running? The creature, furious, and who full well knows its defiant enemy, rises up on demonic wings and burns with the intensity of a star, forcing everyone except John and Gandalf to look away.
"What is he doing?" Cortana shouts in protest. "Saving us" Chief replies. He understands completely. He knows the fellowship must move on. But even the Master Chief cannot bring himself to turn away from this!
"I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the Flame of Arnor!" Gandalf bellows, raising his staff above his head, just as the Balrog forms a fire wreathed sword from its very hand. Seemingly made from burning, molten metal. A white aura of pure light forms around the wizard, reminding Chief of a Spartan bubble-shield. Was that what he was actually looking at? "Dark fire will not avail you, flame ofUdûn!" Gandalf screamed defiantly, just as the massive avatar brings its sword down.
"Aaaaaagh!" Screaming with vindication! The light and fire meet. The sword stops, and both magical forms are annihilated. Chief was sure he could register shock and frustration on the face of the demon.
"Go back to the shadow!" Gandalf commands with contempt. But it is undeterred. It advances, and places a foot on the start of the bridge. It draws another weapon, a cruel looking whip. It immediately brings the weapon down with great velocity. Chief had seen ballistic missiles move more slowly. But Gandalf ducks, and the whip flies harmlessly over his head.
Gandalf draws his sword, he holds his staff high.
"YOU! SHALL NOT PASS!"
And slams the talisman down. A shockwave pushes the Balrog back, all the fellowship goes to hold their ears. Chief is stunned, amazed by what has basically been a flash-bang grenade go off, plus a shockwave that would give a landmine a run for its money.
The Balrog stares down at its adversary. Gandalf stands still, defiant 'till the last. Its patience gone, frustrated and mad after a millennia of hiding within the oppressive dwarven hold, it rushes forward. Weapon held high, ready to take to the air, drawing to its full height...but now the bridge it too weak. As soon as it brings its weight down, the bridge collapses, and the Balrog falls. Crying out in defeat, the monster disappears from view, and leaves a victorious Gandalf at the edge of the broken bridge of Khazad-dûm, defiant...and victorious.
A weary Gandalf, physically drained by his battle, exhales as the monster falls away. Chief spots something out of the corner of his eye, and in an instant, his heart felt admiration turns to chilling horror. The falling demon lashes out with its whip, and it wraps around the leg of the old wizard. Gandalf cries out, as the weapon bites and burns his flesh, then pulls him down as the full weight of the Balrog takes his legs out from under him. As the whip falls away into the darkness, Gandalf lets go of his weapons and grabs the edge of the broken bridge. He can feel a very part of himself disappear down into the depths below with the staff, and it drains him even further.
Chief accelerates and runs at Gandalf, moving as fast as he could. Frodo follows him, but is stopped quickly by Boromir, he sees the goblins advancing. He knows the Spartan is safe, he knows Frodo is vulnerable. "No! Don't!" Boromir yells, holding the hobbit in place.
"GAN-DAALF!" Frodo screams, trying to work his way free. Gandalf tries so hard to pull himself up, but he has no more strength left. His arms go weak, go limp, he slips again. He can barely hold on. John is about half way, if Gandalf can just hold a little longer!
Gandalf is finished, his strength has abandoned him. He can hear the song of the Valar, his lord is calling him home. He gazes once more into Frodo's eyes, a painful lump forming in his throat, knowing the way it has to be. Frodo falls still and stops struggling, realising what he has done. It was his decision to go into Moria...
"Fly you fools!" And with a sigh of defeat, knowing another chance would come, he lets go of the rock, and begins to fall. Chief jumps for him, grabbing out wildly. He misses.
"Noooooooooo!" Frodo calls out, wailing in sadness and in pain. Chief gazes helplessly at the old man as he falls, the sadness in his ancient eyes, falling into shadow...gone! "Nooooooooooo!"
"Aragorn!" John hears Boromir shout out. Aragorn finally tears his eyes away, and retreats from the arrows of the orcs and goblins. Chief remains, he is petrified to the spot, staring into the void where Gandalf disappeared. His shield flares as arrows begin to ping off of it. But Chief is completely oblivious to the outside world. It's happening to him all over again!
"Chief please, he's gone! You have to move. You have to move right now! The fellowship needs you...more than ever now!" And John was finally thrust back into the real world. With revenge in his mind he drew his crossbow, he primed a single steel bolt. He aimed, held, fired. Two orcs fell down dead. Then Chief stood, and holstering his weapon, finally running back out towards the light of the outside world.
When Chief immerged into daylight, into the outside world once more, he was greeted by the bleak and blasted rock of the misty mountains. The moss and wind, the cloudy sky. He took note of none of these things, for there in front of him, the fellowship was mourning. "Chief..." The saddened voice of Cortana floated over his internal speakers.
"Please, not now" Chief says simply. The others are distraught. Sam is closest. He is sitting, heaped over, his head in his hands, sobbing quietly. Merry, his face shocked and flushed, comforts his friend Pippin, who lies crying in his lap. Boromir holds onto Gimli, who is explosively venting his rage and sorrow in a sea of curses and empty vows of vengeance. Legolas stares out into the cloud covered early morning sky, a look of confusion and disbelief, seeming puzzled somehow. He is also struggling to come to terms with Gandalf's loss.
Chief is also taking it hard. Telling himself that he could never have reached Gandalf in time, but he still blames his death on himself. He understands why Gandalf had to do this, sacrifice himself, but this still isn't enough. After three decades of war, three decades of hardship and loss and heartbreak, Chief would never be able to get over the loss of a comrade, especially a friend...he kept his anger and sorrow supressed, he couldn't let the feelings overcome him, even though he felt just as much as they did.
Only Aragorn has kept his composure, he knows just as well as Chief why he can't let his feelings get the better of him. As their leader, he doesn't have the luxury of being able to mourn his passing, he has new responsibilities to for fill. "Legolas, get them up!" He orders, speaking finally. Legolas turns on Aragorn, shock in his eyes, appealing for him to let the others rest...but then he understands. Nodding softly, he heads over to the nearest hobbit.
Boromir meanwhile, is having none of it. "Give them a moment, for pity's sake!" He implores, always having believed in a kind of happy medium between the two needs. Aragorn wishes it also, but knows that it is not possible, "By nightfall Boromir, these hills will be swarming with orcs...we must reach sanctuary, we must reach the woods of Lothlorien, there we will be safe".
Boromir didn't agree with him, but he understood. Chief had regained control of himself once more, "Aragorn is right, we can't let grief overwhelm us. Gandalf's sacrifice will be for nothing if they catch up to us..." Boromir didn't want to hear it from John. Aragorn's insensitivity was one thing, but this Spartan! His lack of humanity, his complete lack of care!
"How can you deal with this so easily? Are you so ignorant, so dull, so inhuman Spartan that you cannot feel the pain of losing someone so close to you? Do you feel nothing? Can you not find empathy with the poor hobbits, and with the rest of us?"
Chief felt his anger returning to him. He would not strike him, but he walked very slowly over to Boromir, stopping when he was just a couple of inches away. Boromir almost went for his sword when he found the Spartan towering over him, and his hooded visor pressed against his face.
John is ready. With both of his fists clenched, he replies, "I know how it feels. I have felt, every single one of these emotions...just as I feel them now. I have felt them, every time I have watched one of my comrades die, watched my friends die, watched a member of my family, die. I fought in a war that lasted 27 years Boromir. From its beginning and until its end, I fought in it. Comrades, friends, brothers, I watched their deaths and watched as I was powerless to save them. I watched as my people were pushed back to our final stronghold, and when the entirety of my people had been executed by relentless foes. I saw men and women go home to their loved ones in body bags, ruining families, tearing them apart. I have felt the pain of losing people for 27 years, Boromir...!"
Upon hearing this, Boromir and the others felt nothing but empathy for him now...and felt ashamed. How many people had he lost? He had held the pain of those losses for nearly all his life? "Gandalf sacrificed his life...so that we could finish our mission" He continued, "So that we could save this world, and everyone who would suffer painful deaths at the hands of terrible people. It is our duty to make sure that Frodo destroys the ring, and Sauron with it. If we fail to protect Frodo, and we fail to complete our mission, Gandalf's death will have been for nothing. We keep moving. We finish what we've started!"
Finished, John then steps and turns away from the foolish Boromir, and looks out into the tumultuous clouds that hung in the sky. Clearing his mind. Wondering if they would bring rain, wondering if they would clear instead?
Aragorn, impressed with how Chief had defended himself, took control of the situation. "Come everyone, Boromir, Legolas...Gimli, calm yourself, help them up!" He runs over to the hobbits "On your feet Sam, you have to be strong!" The others were now helping each other. But, hang on, where was... "Frodo?" His voice was lost as it whispered and echoed across the empty mountain. Then he saw him "Frodo!" He yelled out.
Frodo stands grieving, staring out at the forests and dales below. He turns, he is weeping silently. He blames himself. As he turns towards Aragorn, a single tear trickles down his face. It was Frodo who loved Gandalf most of all. And now, because of him, Frodo knows that the kindly old wizard is gone...