Chapter 1 - The Sacred Ring

Ninth Cycle, 28 units (Covenant Battle Calendar) / Aboard Assault Carrier Seeker of Truth, Soell system

Halo was gone.

A tremendous flash of light erupted on the surface of the ring-shaped megastructure that was Installation 04. For a moment, it appeared as if a miniature star had ignited between the gas giant Threshold and its moon.

An enormous shockwave swept through the ringworld, compromising the structural integrity of the massive construct; a moment later the installation shattered into several large fragments. As the illumination from the explosion, silent in the vacuum of space, subsided, a massive chunk of the ring launched from the epicenter of the detonation was thrown across the expanse of space.

This fragment collided with another section of the megastructure, and the chunks shattered into smaller pieces that spiraled off into space. Silent explosions and flames continued to spread across the remains of the installation as they tumbled through the void.

A single human fighter zoomed away from the carnage; however, this sole survivor went unnoticed by those who watched in stunned silence as the Halo ring, the most sacred of all their gods' artifacts, and the means of their ascension, lay broken before them.

Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee watched the holographic display on the bridge of his assault carrier Seeker of Truth. The Sangheili's eyes were unblinking, and his mandibles hung slightly open as he watched the remnants of the lost Halo ring drift through space and his mind attempted to come to terms with the extent of the blasphemy that had been committed.

The large bridge, normally alive with noise, was unnaturally quiet as every being in the room gazed in stunned silence upon the sight of the greatest transgression ever committed against their Covenant.

The Covenant had stood on the cusp of achieving what they had sought out to do over a millennia ago, and it had been stolen from them at the last moment; the holy ring desecrated by the human filth. For almost thirty years the hegemony had embarked on a holy war against the humans, whose very existence had been declared an affront to their religion by the hierarchs for their vile destruction of holy Forerunner artifacts.

Thel's Fleet of Particular Justice had reduced countless human colonies to glass over the course of the conflict, but the creatures had infested unprecedented numbers of worlds. Despite this, Thel was certain that they were coming close to eradicating the human scourge once and for all.

His greatest victory had come at the human fortress world of "Reach". At the head of a massive, combined fleet of Covenant warships, Thel had led his forces against the might of the human fleet and orbital defense platforms protecting the planet. The battle had been glorious, and while the humans had put up more of a fight than was typical of their species, the Covenant's victory was assured. All resistance had been crushed in short order, and the Covenant moved to purify the planet's surface as they had done so many times before.

As most of the Covenant's ships carried out the planet's cleansing, Thel had moved the Fleet of Particular Justice to the system's periphery to prevent the escape of any fleeing human ships. When a single human cruiser was detected attempting to escape from the system, he had immediately initiated pursuit, following the human vessel into slipspace.

Due to their innate technological superiority, Thel's fleet had arrived at the Soell system before the human ship, and he had immediately recognized the massive ringworld suspended between the gas giant and its moon as one of the prophesied Sacred Rings. Thel had arranged his fleet in a defensive formation to prevent the human ship from touching down on the Halo.

Due to interference from the fleet's Minor Prophet, who had forbidden his ships from firing upon the aged vessel, the humans had been able to land on the sacred ring and take root, forcing the Covenant into a long ground-based conflict which had seen them sustain heavy losses. These casualties were largely caused by one of the human's armored demons, previously believed to have all perished on their fortress world.

For a moment, the Sangheili was drawn into a distant memory from many years prior, when he had faced a demon in personal combat and learned, to his horror, that he was evenly matched with a human. As quickly as the thought had manifested, he banished it, returning his mind to the present.

Following the release of the Flood, the situation had become unwinnable, and Thel had ordered the remnants of his fleet away from Halo. Knowing the grave threat that the parasite represented should it escape from the ring; he had focused his forces on halting its spread. Unfortunately, this meant that the human's demon had managed to overload their crashed vessel's reactor, which had destroyed Halo.

Stewardship.

It took the Supreme Commander all his power not to spit the word out as he pondered his current situation. So much of what had gone wrong during this conflict had been a result of the San'Shyuum's meddling. Were it not for the Prophet of Stewardship's interference, Thel was confident that the humans would never have survived to make landfall on the holy ring, thus preventing the whole chain of unfortunate events to follow.

The wretch had consistently demonstrated throughout the conflict that he was unfit to steward a single levy of Unggoy. How could he be the one to lead the Covenant on the path to transcendence?

The Sangheili felt a small pang of happiness despite his predicament: at least that meddlesome Prophet had perished during the battle.

Thel knew that his failure to safeguard the holy ring would be seen by the hierarchs as the gravest of all transgressions. He knew that his days were numbered. His death would be demanded by the entire Covenant, and his end was likely to be agonizingly painful and humiliating. The Vadam lineage would be wiped out; their thousands of years of accomplishments trampled upon and forgotten in the face of such a grand failure.

In truth, there was little he could do now save for scan the debris field for survivors, complete his report for the High Prophet of Truth, and await his punishment with as much honor as he could muster.

Unbeknownst to both the human and Covenant survivors of the destruction of Installation 04, another being had survived the events on the doomed ringworld.

This survivor slowly drifted through the void, moving past pieces of the once-grand piece of astroengineering, some smaller in size than itself and others as large as cities.

This entity was not a creature of flesh and blood, rather, it was an advanced artificial intelligence possessing knowledge that was far beyond the comprehension of most mortal organisms. A small spherical object concave on three sides, with an illuminated photoreceptor on the front of the orb which glowed a soft blue; the monitor propelled itself gently through the debris of the installation before turning around and observing the scene. The construct's eye glowed brighter as it spoke.

"Quite unacceptable".

343 Guilty Spark was still processing all that had occurred in the past revolution. He had been maintaining his installation as per his directives, keeping it safe and ensuring that the specimens of the virulent Flood parasite contained deep within remained contained. He had performed his duties to the letter for the last 100,000 years since the firing of the Array. A massive expanse of time spent without a single breach of quarantine.

This had all changed when the Reclaimers arrived at his installation. Although he had attempted to hail the human ship, it had unfortunately made a rather inelegant landing on the surface of his ring, evidently a result of the damage sustained by their enemy – a coalition of species calling themselves 'the Covenant'.

These interlopers seemed determined to interfere with the installation's systems. In their blatant ignorance of protocol, the meddlers had ended up releasing the Flood onto the surface of the ringworld.

Most of the interloper species had proven vulnerable to infection, and with access to new biomass and technology, the Flood had been able to overwhelm the installation's security systems.

Unfortunately, the armored Reclaimer that he had settled on had proven most uncooperative. Its construct had seized the installation's Activation Index, proceeded to destroy the phase pulse generators necessary to activate the ring, before concluding their gross defiance of protocol by destroying Halo by way of a reactor overload from their crippled vessel.

While baffled by the Reclaimer's disregard for protocol, the monitor was forced to admit that the human's inelegant solution had successfully stopped the Flood outbreak which had by that point spiraled well out of control.

Guilty Spark started to scan the area. He detected a single human fighter craft disappearing into the debris field; no doubt the suited Reclaimer himself. Several interloper ships were also still present in the system, evidently having used the gas giant Threshold as shelter to survive the ring's destruction.

His scan soon picked up a gas mining facility suspended in Threshold's upper atmosphere. One of several such facilities above the planet, 343 Guilty Spark had personally overseen the refitting of this particular installation into a Flood research facility by the Forerunners tens of thousands of years prior.

During the conflict on his installation, the monitor had observed the Covenant deploy a force to the gas mine that he intended to visit. Now very aware of the interlopers' meddlesome tendencies, he intended to visit the mine to ensure that the Flood specimens contained within had not broken quarantine as they had on Installation 04.

While he had failed to ensure the preservation of his greatest charge, the gas mine was still under his jurisdiction and so, after a small huff of indignance, 343 Guilty Spark made his way towards the gas mine.

Sesa 'Refumee watched the viewscreen impassively. While his body language did not betray his emotions, the Sangheili warrior was horrified by what he saw.

The long sought-after holy ring now lay in fragments scattered across space, forever denied to his people by the humans. With each piece of the former grand installation that drifted off into the void, Sesa felt as though a part of him was lost forever.

To stand on the precipice of the Great Journey and have it denied galled him to the core.

He had stood helpless, unable to act while his fellows perished on the surface of the ring due to the orders he had been given by the Minor Prophet of Stewardship. The San'Shyuum had commanded him to lead his team to the gas mine on which he now stood upon.

The platform was clearly of Forerunner origin, and the team were to document their findings and secure any artifacts of value to the Covenant. Despite this being a command from the Prophet, and its holy nature, Sesa had felt that his place was on the surface of the ring, fighting the human scourge that even in the face of their extinction still chose to fight back.

These dark thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of his second in command, Loka 'Bandolee, a warrior of whom Sesa had come to respect. A fearsome warrior, 'Bandolee had met Sesa many years ago and the two had grown close, forging a bond through a number of hard-fought battles. The Sangheili was not alone; beside him floated a small spherical construct with a glowing blue core. Sesa's eyes widened as he realized the significance of this newcomer.

"Glorious day!" He exclaimed. "The Prophets will be pleased that we have rescued an Oracle from the human's violation of the Holy Temple."

Sesa could scarcely believe their good fortune. Before him was an instrument left behind by the Forerunners, who had embarked on their Great Journey eons ago, elevating themselves to godhood. It was the goal of the Covenant to follow in their footsteps by finding and activating the seven sacred rings which would propel them on the Journey as their forefathers had done before.

The Oracles had been left behind to impart the knowledge of the Forerunners to the faithful, and through their teachings and sacred truths, the Covenant would acquire the knowledge of their forefathers and embark on their own Great Journey, joining the Forerunners in paradise.

Perhaps now, hope was not completely lost.

"Why do you keep calling it a 'temple?'" the Oracle's blue photoreceptor glowed as it spoke. "My installation was a weapon, and one which we needed very, very badly."

Sesa tensed with shock. He could not believe the words he was hearing. After a moment, he spoke, "But Oracle, I do not understand. We were told the rings are salvation; a gateway to paradise."

"Told? By whom?" The construct floating before Sesa sounded genuinely confused by his words. "Anyone who told you that is a fool or quite, quite mad. That installation was a beautiful tool, designed to destroy everything the Flood might feed on."

Sesa continued to stand in stunned silence. The words that met his ears would normally be considered the deepest of sacrilege. But this was a holy Oracle, created by the glorious Forerunners to shepherd the Covenant as they sought the Path. He was sure they would not lie. As he pondered this new information, the Sangheili warrior felt an icy cold grip his entire body.

"Everything?" He managed to say.

"Oh, quite everything," the Oracle continued. "And if even one Flood spore survived the destruction of my ring…"

"Communications: shut down all lines to the fleet," Sesa cut in, turning to one of his warriors who stood nearby. Every occupant in the chamber had been silent during his interaction with the Oracle. "We will not notify the Prophets of our discovery until I hear everything this Oracle has to say."

Sesa began to feel a distinct sense of dread. The Oracle's words ran completely counter to everything he, along with every other loyal subject of the Covenant, had been brought up to believe. The hierarchs preached of the Great Journey that all the Covenant's faithful would take upon the discovery of the holy rings. This belief was the core tenet of the entire empire. But now, with the words he had heard first-hand from one of the Forerunner's own creations…

He needed to hear more; needed to ascertain that the Oracle had not been tampered with in some way. If what it was saying was true, the entire purpose of his Covenant was now in doubt.

"Your actions do not make sense," the Oracle said, a hint of alarm in its robotic voice. "Proper protocol for a Flood outbreak is to establish immediate infection reporting! Communication must be maintained with all local forces in order to track any spread of the parasite."

As the machine spoke, Sesa nodded to 'Bandolee. The sub-commander moved past Sesa and walked over to the large window to glance at the foreboding clouds that swirled around outside the station.

"There are no local forces, Oracle." Sesa replied to the hovering orb, before turning to walk down the long corridor that branched off from the multiple-tiered room. "For now, all you have is me."

The Oracle drifted behind Sesa, emanating a slight hum as it moved through the air. "But I tracked multiple ships in orbit, including some remaining human presence!" The monitor chirped. "In light of the danger posed by the Flood, surely you can set aside this disagreement with the humans and-"

"No!" Sesa said, stopping suddenly and turning to face the Oracle, his firm tone causing a Sangheili manning a nearby terminal to turn his head. "Anything still alive in orbit is our enemy. The humans have very good cause to kill us on sight, and the knowledge you share with me casts doubt on the entire purpose of our Covenant."

The very notion that the Oracle even considered the idea of Sesa willingly contacting the humans was almost laughable to the Sangheili. The Covenant had spent dozens of annual cycles trying to wipe their species from existence, with the Sangheili leading the might of their forces on the crusade. It was less of a war and more of a genocidal cleansing in Sesa's eyes. There was no way the humans would ever entertain such a truce, even in the face of the Flood.

And he would not reach out to any Covenant forces not presently on the gas mine until he understood the complete truth of what he was being told.

Clearly, the Oracle had much to learn about the dynamics of the galaxy during their present time.

Sesa walked forward into a larger chamber with two raised walkways along both sides, and a large opening on the opposite side. He stopped several paces into the room.

"If any of our ships remain above us, they are not the help you seek."

"But why would they not provide assistance?" the monitor sounded genuinely bemused. "Because of this talk of 'prophecies' and 'journeys?' I learned a small amount about your Covenant before that Reclaimer blew up my installation. But my understanding is incomplete. The AI I encountered aboard one of your ships was less than forthcoming."

Sesa walked up the ramp onto the upper path on the left side of the chamber with the Oracle, passing another Sangheili manning a holographic console in front of the expansive viewport. The two paused to gaze out at the orange expanse beyond.

"What you need to know, Oracle, is that thousands of years ago, at the founding of our great Covenant, a bargain was struck between the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili." Sesa said as he watched a pair of Phantom dropships soar past the window.

"A bargain which I fear will be the end of us."

Over the next several units, Sesa divulged to the Oracle the earliest known history of his people, back when they had first made contact with the San'Shyuum Reformists who had fled from their own homeworld. He told the monitor of the mighty Vema 'Togad, an Arbiter who had led his people at the time, and how the fearsome warrior had ignited a conflict between the two species that had raged for almost one hundred solar cycles and would claim countless dead, only to cease upon the signing of the Writ of Union, a treaty that brought about peace between the two warring factions, and formed the cornerstone of the Covenant empire.

With a heavy heart, Sesa continued. "For generations our holy arrangement put the Prophets in charge of religion and technology. The Sangheili led our military forces to convert new species and find relics such as your Halo."

The Oracle turned, his bright photoreceptor eye now staring at Sesa. "And these relics you sought, the San'Shyuum, your 'Prophets' told you that they would lead you on this 'Great Journey?'

"Yes." Sesa took one of the plasma rifles mounted below his thruster pack and pressed a button on the top of its casing. The weapon's shell opened, revealing its internal mechanisms.

"Transcendence, eternal life, their promises were endless." Sesa said, absentmindedly examining the rifle's interior before closing it and returning it to its holstered position. "We gave up our old ways to follow the Prophets' lead on the Great Journey. Gave up all of our history, all of our traditions.

"Not all of your traditions, it seems," the monitor replied. "This 'Arbiter' you mentioned, hasn't that always been a position of power for your species?"

"Power?" Sesa repeated, momentarily confused by the Oracle's words. It had been a long time since he had ruminated on the role of Arbiter in Sangheili society. How it had once been a radically different position compared to the mantle it represented in contemporary times.

"It was, long ago. An Arbiter was once the pinnacle of our people, leader of the clans and master of the battlefield." Sesa paused, and then continued. "But then… an Arbiter committed heresy. And an example was made of him. He challenged the word of the Prophets. Challenged, and lost."

All Sangheili knew of Fal 'Chavamee, the Defiant One. A once-highly respected Sangheili Arbiter who had openly refuted the Covenant's own religion. He had declared to the High Prophet of Solemnity that the Great Journey was a lie, and as a result, had been branded a heretic. The following conflict would claim the lives of both 'Chavamee and the Prophet's own personal enforcer. Because of such a blasphemy, the role of Arbiter had been forever changed.

"So, the title of Arbiter became a badge of shame for our most spectacularly failed warriors.

"Hmm, yes," the Oracle said thoughtfully. "They were accomplished manipulators, back before the firing of the array. I see at least that hasn't changed."

Sesa once again found himself stunned by the monitor's words. His mind raced as he choked out a response. "Manipulators? What? And before? Before when?"

Surely, the Oracle did not mean to imply that the San'Shyuum had once co-existed with their gods. Back before their transcendence… how could it have been?

And further, that they had always been a species characterized by scheming and deceit. If this was true, the very nature of the formation of the Covenant could be called into question. Sesa's mind swam as he considered all the different ways that the Sangheili may have been unconsciously influenced by the scheming of their supposed "allies."

All of our history. All of our traditions…

The very mantle of Arbiter, changed at the behest of the leading Prophets following the supposed "heresy" of Fal 'Chavamee…

"I will explain later." The Oracle answered. The construct projected a holographic image of what Sesa recognized as the helmet of the Arbiter. He saw the old-fashioned curved plates that comprised the ancient and antiquated design, and notably, the large curved "beak" at the front of the helmet, which covered the wearer's face.

"Right now, I want you to tell me everything you can of these Arbiters."