Hey Folks, Grubkiller here.
Here's the latest chapter, covering the discovery of Delta Halo and the assassination of Regret
Hope you enjoy.
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1750 Hours (Ship's Time), November 3rd, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Frigate In Amber Clad, location unknown.
The In Amber Clad shuddered as her Titanium-A armor took a direct hit. Just another item in the Covenant's bottomless arsenal, Commander Miranda Keyes thought.
Not a plasma torpedo, or they'd already be free-floating molecules. The warship had taken a beating from Covenant forces over the last five years - two of them under her command - and it was a miracle that the hull remained intact as they made the jump into Slipspace. Or rather were dragged into Slipspace by another ship.
"Report!" Keyes called, gripping the arms of her chair. "What just hit us?"
"It wasn't Covenant, ma'am. It was debris, from New Mombasa," the navigator, Lt. Remi, called out. "Bastards took half the city with them in the jump."
He seemed to take the Covenant's actions at Mombasa personally, as many people probably would have, given the last 27 years of war.
"Ma'am, two Covenant sentry ships, bearing 0-7-0! Seraph-class!" One of the crewmen at sensors called out.
"Teach them a lesson, Lt. Pascal." Keyes ordered.
The crew got to work, and Weapons officer Pascal got to work directing several of the Frigates auto-cannons and point defense guns and unleashed a storm of lead on the two ships, which were shredded to pieces, followed by a cheer as the tiny alien ships transformed into a momentary pair of suns, and joined the rest of the debris their mothership carried over from Mombasa.
Keyes wiped a trickle of sweat from her forehead. She checked her display— they'd reverted back into real space twenty minutes ago. Twenty minutes, and the Covenant picket patrols had already found them and started shooting. She turned to the bridge's main viewport, a large transparent bubble sat just off the Frigate's portside. A massive blue-white ice giant - Substance - dominated the spectacular view.
She expected to see a Covenant ship in her viewport. But it wasn't anywhere to be seen, for now. They must not have realized that they were followed into slip space.
She activated her comm and spoke into it. "Sorry for the quick jump, Chief. You in one piece?" She asked.
"No thanks to your driving, yes." Chief said.
"We're fine," Cortana said, emphasizing in a snarky undertone, as the Chief's faceplate showed up on her screen.
A smile tugged at Miranda's lips.
"How about you Johnson?" She asked.
"I'm good," he said, as his face showed up on her display, right next to the Chief, half obscured by the smoke from a Sweet William's cigar he was puffing, like most other veteran soldiers like himself.
"Ma'am, there's an object, coming into view now." Lt. Remi said.
Keyes' eyes widened with surprise as the ship cleared the ice giant. She had expected to see Regret's carrier, Seraph fighters, or some other military threat. She hadn't expected to see the massive object floating in a Lagrange point between Substance and one of its moons.
The construct was enormous—a ring-shaped object that shimmered and glowed with reflected starlight, like a jewel lit from within. The outer surface was metallic and seemed to be engraved with deep geometric patterns.
"Cortana," Commander Keyes said. "What exactly am I looking?"
A foot-high hologram faded into view above a small holo-pad near the commander's station. Cortana, or at least her subroutine, frowned as she activated the ship's long-range detection gear. Long lines of digits scrolled across the sensor displays and rippled the length of Cortana's "body" as well.
"That... is another Halo."
Johnson's image on Keyes' display coughed out his cigar and spluttered. "Say what!?"
"The ring is ten thousand kilometers in diameter," Cortana continued, "and twenty-two point three kilometers thick. Spectroscopic analysis is indicates that this construct is of alien design, neither human nor covenant in origin."
The thought that the construct was beyond Covenant engineering held some small comfort. It also made her nervous.
"So this is what my father found... "She said under her breath as she continued to stare at the construct. "I thought Halo was some sort of super-weapon."
"It is." Cortana said matter-of-factly. "If activated, this ring will cause destruction on a galactic scale."
"I want all the information you've got on the first Halo. Schematics, topography, whatever. I don't care if I have the clearance or not." Keyes ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." Cortana said, and she faded away.
Keyes turned to her officers.
"Where's our target?"
"The enemy ship has stopped above the ring, ma'am. We're going to pass right over it." Lt. Pascal said.
"Perfect. Given what we know about this ring, it's even more important that we capture theProphet of Regret. Find out why he came toEarth, why he came here." She pressed the comm and spoke into it. "Chief, take first platoon. Hard drop, secure a landing zone." Chief nodded into the display camera. "Sergeant, load up two flights of Pelicans and follow them in."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
"Until I can move and fight, I'm going to keep a low profile. Once you leave the ship, you're on your own."
"Understood." Spartan 117 replied.
The In Amber Clad's contingent of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, also known as ODST, or "Helljumpers," were getting ready to jump on the strange alien world below.
"All right," GySgt. Marcus Stacker boomed as he strode out onto the center of the catwalk between the rows of pods. "Listen up! It's time for us to earn some hazard pay. Commander Keyes is tired of our company and is sending straight to hell. So tell me, boys, how will we get there?"
It was a time-honored ritual, and the ODST Marines roared the answer in unison. "WE GO FEET FIRST, SIR!"
"Damned right you do," Stacker barked. "Now let's get to those drop pods. Our target, some Covid bigshot, is holding a picnic down on the surface and every single one of you is invited. You have five minutes to strap in, hook up, and shove a cork in your ass."
It was an old joke, one of their favorites, and the Marines laughed as if they had just heard it for the first time. Then they formed into squads, and followed their noncoms out into a corridor that ran down the port side of the ship.
They pounded around a corner, and into what the Marines referred to as "Hell's waiting room." The troopers streamed down the center of a long narrow compartment that housed two rows of oval-shaped individual drop pods. Each pod bore the name of an individual trooper, and was poised over a tube that extended down through the ship's belly. Most combat landings were made via armed assault boats, but the boats were slow, and subject to antiaircraft fire. That was why the UNSC had invested the time and money necessary to create asecond way to deliver troops through an atmosphere: the HEV, or Human Entry Vehicle. Computer-controlled antiaircraft fire would nail some of the pods, but they made small targets, and each hit would result in one death rather than a dozen. There was just one problem. As the ceramic skins that covered the HEVs burned away, the air inside the pods became unbelievably hot, sometimes fatally so, which was why ODST personnel were referred to as "Helljumpers." It was an all-volunteer outfit, and it took a special kind of crazy to join up.
The Master Chief was still in the SOEIV pod he got in when the ship jumped away from Mombasa, looking at the display in front of him, staring at the ring that was on screen.
The Spartan winced. For some reason, he thought of Miranda's father, Captain Jacob Keyes, Lt. McKay, Foehammer, and all the rest of the men and women who fell during the battle of the first ring, and the horrors they endured.
And the Flood.
Were they on all the rings, or just the one they destroyed? What events would await them now that the Covenant were here as well, and knowing what this ring was capable of. There was only one way to find out, and that was by doing what Stacker said.
By going feet first.
Once the last pod door was slammed shut, SgtMaj. Johnson knocked his fist on the outside door. Chief knocked back once in response.
The Chief secured his harness, ran the obligatory systems check, removed a series of safeties, armed his ejection tube, and eyed the tiny screen mounted in front of him. The Frigate's fire control computer had already calculated the force required to blow the pod free and drop the HEV into the correct entry path. All he had to do was hang on, pray that the pod's ceramic skin would hold long enough for the chute to open, and try to ignore how fragile the vehicle actually was.
No sooner had the Spartan braced himself, and looked up at the countdown, than the last digit clicked from one to zero.
"Hang on to your helmet!" Cortana said.
The pod dropped, accelerated out of the ejection tube, and fell toward the ring-shaped world below, followed by twenty-three others. His stomach lurched and his heart rate spiked. Somebody popped a tiny disk into a data player, touched a button, and pushed the hyped-up strains of the Helljumpers' anthem out over the team freq. The regs made it clear that unauthorized use of UNSC communications facilities was wrong,very wrong, but Chief let it slide, and the platoon Sergeants must have agreed, because nothing came in over the command freq. The music pounded in his ears, the HEV shuddered as it hit the outer layer of the ring-construct's atmosphere.
"Mind the bump," Cortana said, and the Marines fell feet first through the ring.
Even Grunts had to be granted some rest once in a while. Which was why extra methane tanks and food pouches were transported to Halo's surface.
Having survived the nearly suicidal attack on the human homeworld, Gagaw had somehow managed to keep his life extended by at least a few days. The place they landed in was pretty as well. They had landed on a tropical island, and were setting up defensive positions in ancient ruins to protect the Prophet of Regret, and keep the ring secure for High Charity's arrival.
But this posting came with some drawbacks. Like the fact that the Grunts were very low in the Covenant hierarchy, and the Jackals were always in the mood to point it out.
As Gagaw was trying to catch some precious sleep that he hadn't had in a while, a trio of jackals came by and one of them snatched his stuffed toy from his grasp and began to laugh amongst themselves.
When the grunt got up, he tried to get it back, but the jackal who snatched dangled it up above the grunt just out of reach, and even shoved him back.
That's when the jackals, with their keen hearing and eyesight, looked up and saw two dozen of what looked like comets falling out of the sky, and directly towards them.
Gagaw didn't notice yet, and was able to snatch his doll back from the jackals. But then he realized that they were frozen and looking up. He did the same.
His eyes widened and he began to whimper.
The jackals activated their oval-shaped personal shields. Gagaw dropped his doll and climbed up into his shade turret, and aimed up high at the incoming objects and jammed down hard on the firing studs.
John-117 felt the SOEIV slam against him as it fired rockets to reach a sane velocity right before it slammed into the ground. The front popped off, and the Spartan stepped out onto the surface of Halo with his battle rifle up.
More pods slammed down around him on the beaches and cliffs on the edge of this island. Individual firefights broke out all around, as Helljumpers engaged the Covenant defenders.
"Could we possibly make anymore noise?" Cortana asked as four more pods slammed down around the Chief.
He reached into his pod and grabbed a M41 Jackhammer and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
"Never mind," she said, as the Chief lumbered down along the cliff and surveyed the terrain. Looking up, he saw a tropical beach, punctuated by groups of boulders, and the occasional stand of trees. The ODSTs stumbled out of the pods closest to the Chief and formed up on him.
They'd had a brutal launch from the ship and a rough journey down filled with Covenant antiaircraft fire picking them off. Now they were in enemy territory.
The rest of 1st Platoon was scattered all over the place, and were under fire from at least two Shades and assorted infantry, but putting up a good fight nonetheless.
The Master Chief paused to check his rocket launcher, but knew the range was extreme, and that it would pay to get closer. So he slung the launcher across his back, checked the load on his rifle, and moved up the beach.
A party of Grunts made a run at the Marines, and were pushed back even as the Spartan spotted a likely looking tree trunk. He moved up, killed the Jackal that lurked behind the tree cover, then brought the launcher up to his shoulder. The Shade winked blue light as he peered through the sight, increased the magnification, and saw the gun leap toward him.
Then, careful to hold the tube steady, he waited for the affirming beep, was locked on, and fired. There was an explosion on top of the rock, and the Shade toppled off the side of a cliff. The Marines cheered, but the Master Chief had already shifted priorities, destroying the other turret that was set up on top of the ruins built into the cliff wall up the beach.
The second rocket flew straight and true, demolishing the other shade turret and erasing a jackal sniper nest at the same time.
"Clear this LZ! The Pelicans are right behind us!" GySgt. Stacker called out over the comm.
The Chief and Marines advanced, gunning down any Covenant straggler they could get their hands on. Elites fired in every direction, and soon started to fall from the sustained fire provided by the Chief and the Marine fireteams that converged from all locations. The remaining jackals and grunts fell back into the weed-infested ruins that watched over the beach.
The Chief and the Marines stacked up on one of the entrances to the stone building, and one of them, PFC. Chips Dubbo, dropped an M9 HE-DP calling card into their midst, took a step back to avoid getting hit by the resulting fragments, and heard a loud wham! as the grenade detonated.
There were screams, followed by wild firing. The Spartan waited for the volume of fire to drop off and moved inside. A series of short controlled bursts was sufficient to silence the last Covenant soldiers.
As the Marines set up defensive positions inside building, they did a head count. Of the 24 pods that dropped, two were destroyed, and five pods landed too close to the Covenant positions and their occupants were cut down just as they had gotten out, and three were wounded.
That left the Spartan and thirteen marines still battle ready.
"Artillery disabled, Sergeant. Landing zone secure... for the moment." Cortana said.
"I hear ya. Starting our approach - hang tight." Sergeant Johnson responded.
"Easier said than done. Marines, I'm picking up three phantoms, inbound."
"Damnit!" Stacker cursed. "Okay people, let's roll out the welcome mat. Engage enemy forces on sight."
"Everyone, inside the building." Chief ordered.
As the Marines fell back inside the building, off in the distance, the phantoms came into view. When they were within range, the Chief and two other Marines with their own rocket launchers cut loose with a volley of rockets, and they all struck the closest dropships, which lost altitude and crashed into the rocky cliffs that overlooked the ocean.
With their rockets spent, the Spartan and the Helljumpers dug in.
The phantoms strafed the building with plasma fire and kept the Marines suppressed, while dropping off more Covenant troops. Elites, grunts, and jackals swarmed all over the beachhead and started to advance.
The Master Chief moved upstairs and ended up on the roof of the building, and raised his battle rifle once again. In seconds, a team of Marines poured fire into the Covenant LZ and flushed them out. As the aliens scattered and dove for cover, the Spartan put them down one by one with short controlled bursts.
The jackals formed up and raised their shields, and the grunts and elites formed up behind them, and they slowly advanced towards the structure as bullets ricocheted off the shields as the jackals stayed crouched behind them like medieval footmen. It was a good tactic, and they were still being covered by the Phantoms, which caused even the Spartan to keep behind cover, as his suit's shield alarm started going off.
But just then, a flight of UNSC pelicans swooped down out of no where, chin gun and missiles firing. Their missiles slammed into the phantoms and caused them both to go up in a pair of blue explosions. That left the Covies with no air cover, and between the Pelicans, the Marines and the Spartan, they were all soon cut down.
"Here comes our ride!" One of the Marines called put.
The Helljumpers let out a collective cheer, as their salvation arrived.
The Pelicans started to unload their warthogs, ammo capsules, and the rest of the ODSTs from 1st Platoon who couldn't drop with the rest of men.
As the Chief and the marines checked their weapons and prepared to move out, Johnson's voice came in over the comm.
"I got a good view comin' in. There's a big building in the middle of this island's lake."
"I saw it too. It looks like a temple. If I were a megalomaniac - and I'm not - that's where I'd be."
The Master Chief waited for the dropship to deposit the first of the LRVs in front of the ruins.
"Alright, saddle up, we're moving out!" One of the Marine sergeants called out to the rest of the men. Chief saw two ODSTs jump on board, and climbed up behind the wheel. The soldier riding shotgun nodded. "Ready when you are, Chief."
The Spartan put his foot on the accelerator, sand shot out from under the vehicle's tires, and the 'Hog left parallel tracks as it raced along the edge of the clearing. They rounded the headland in minutes, and entered the open area beyond. There was a scattering of trees, some weathered boulders, and a swath of green ground cover.
"Firing!" the gunner, Sergeant Stacker, called, and pulled his trigger. The petty officer saw Covenant troops scurry for cover, steered right to give the three-barreled weapon a better angle, and was soon rewarded with a batch of dead Grunts and a badly mangled Jackal. The Spartan drove the Warthog uphill, turning to avoid obstacles, careful to maintain the vehicle's traction. It wasn't long before the humans neared the top of the slope and came up on a cliff, which overlooked the lake.
"Whoa!" The Marine riding shotgun, PFC Dubbo, remarked. "It's like a postcard." The Aussie Marine mimed writing in midair. "Dear Sarge. Kicking ass in outer space. Wish you were here."
Stacker, while on the gun emplacement, managed to give Dubbo a kick in the shoulder. "Stow the BS," he growled. "Watch those trees . . . this ain't no picnic."
"It's odd, according to the Covenant battle-net, they know we made landfall here, but they don't seem to consider us a very serious threat."
"Well then they're in for a real surprise," Chief said, as he hit the accelerator.
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UNSC In Amber Clad, Delta Halo's atmosphere.
Ever since the ODSTs were deployed to the surface, Miranda and her crew were playing hide and seek with the Covenant recon pickets and the gunners of the stationary carrier in the atmosphere above the Ring's surface.
Keyes looked up as emergency klaxons went off.
"Covenant antiaircraft fire!" Lt. Remi shouted.
Teardrops of contained plasma rose to meet their ship. The pilots slammed on the main engines. All ahead full, Keyes thought with a grimace, as plasma grazed the sides of the ship.
They fired a volley of archer missiles at the carrier, which detonated harmlessly along the carrier's shields, but it kept them from firing for a few seconds. When Covenant ships fired, they had to open a section of their shields to let their rounds travel outwards, so firing on the frigate opened themselves up to the risk of being hit.
This gave the UNSC a few precious seconds to make for high orbit.
The In Amber Clad shuddered and clawed its way along, struggling to escape the ring's gravity and get back into orbit.
"Come on, girl," Keyes found himself muttering quietly to the ship. "You can do it."
Pursued by a dozen Covenant fighters, the Frigate's auto cannons chattered away as she accelerated above the ring, and around the the outer layer where they could no longer see the earth-like surface, making sure to keep it between themselves and Regret's carrier, which for some reason didn't fire on them with everything they had. They seemed hesitant to fire their main weapons when they were so close to the ring.
She would use that to her advantage.
As the last of the Covenant fighters were destroyed, the In Amber Clad held steady where the Covenant could no longer see them.
"Status!" Keyes called out.
"Hull abrasions, no serious structural damage." A junior officer responded.
"Archer pods are cold. I'll need to re-key the system." Pascal said.
"Do it, and let's run dark for a while. I think we've given them a big enough diversion for now."
As her crew continued working, she continued looking through the data that Cortana had sent her concerning the rings, looking for any bit of information that could work in her favor. Then she looked at the information concerning the activation index, which was used to activate Halo's primary weapons. If this ring could wipe out anything in a 25,000 light year radius, then making sure this device didn't fall into the wrong hands was they're top priority.
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Forerunner Temple, on the surface of the Ring.
The Prophet of Regret hunched forward, head bowed with the weight of his crown. The wrinkled wattle of his throat shook as he looked around the tall inner chamber that made up the bulk of the Temple, which stood above the very center of the lake.
An honor guard of Sangheili surrounded the Hierarch, ready to kill anything that moved to attack the hierarch.
Regret admired the Sangheili martial prowess, rumors said. While most of the San'Shyuum floated about the holy city of High Charity and focused on their lives, Regret traveled with Sangheili battle fleets to see them in action. It was rumored that the Hierarch carried a sidearm of his own underneath the silk robes draped over his lap, and had killed acolytes who dared ask too many questions on the spot.
There were rumors that the Prophet of Regret had come to his throne through machinations.
They were true of course.
Together, Prophets Regret, Truth, and Mercy had been aboard the massive Forerunner dreadnought that sat in the heart of High Charity, powering the entire moving world with just a fraction of its engines' power. The dreadnought had come to life as the Oracle at its heart had muttered blasphemous, world-changing accusations at the Prophets. All triggered by the Oracle encountering information about the humans. This machine had accused the Prophets of mistranslating Forerunner documents, and misunderstanding the Great Journey. It claimed the very tenets of their religion were false. And then the Oracle had attempted to launch the dreadnought.
They had disconnected it just in time. In that moment, Regret felt, they had saved the entire Covenant. Without the Halos to search for, the Path to walk, and the worship of the Forerunners who left their mark all over the galaxy, the Covenant would fall apart. And the Hierarchs would not let that happen. So they turned that conflict into the annihilation and genocide of the humans. There was no room for negotiation or settlement. Humanity would be the first species they had encountered that they hadn't tried to absorb into the Covenant, as it was the source of the Oracle's confusion. Destroy them, and the Covenant would be able to continue Its holy search to follow the Forerunners safely. Nothing could detract from that.
Not even the fact that one of the sacred rings had been destroyed by the humans, or that rumblings of discontent between the differing species of the Covenant were reaching a boiling point and leading to open rebellion in some cases.
Everything he did was for the good of the Covenant, he told himself.
Regret had only made one major mistake, he told himself. When the humans were first discovered Regret had assumed the world they'd been found on was their homeworld. But after destroying it, they'd found out that the humans had scattered across many worlds. It made destroying them all a lot more difficult, tiring, and time-consuming than Regret had anticipated. Then he managed to stumble onto their homeworld after 27 years of war.
He was worried about how the other prophets would react, but with the discovery of a new ring, and the human homeworld, he felt that he had provided a great service to the Covenant.
A hologram of the Solemn Penance's shipmaster appeared before him.
"Hierarch, a human warship has managed to follow us in the slip space event. It deployed their warriors to the surface and disappeared." He said.
"You are dismissed. Go. Weed out the human filth. Leave no stone unturned!"
The Sangheili shipmaster blinked, and then bowed in that sinuously graceful Sangheili way. "Your will be done, Hierarch," he said, before his hologram faded out of existence.
He would fully explain himself to the other hierarchs in due time. For now, he would begin his sermon, and do everything in his power to secure the Ring for High Charity's arrival.
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Finally, after battling their way over gorges, into jungles, and through more twisting caves and ancient, crumbling structures, the Master Chief and the platoon of helljumpers came upon still another ancient structure and peered outside. He saw the lake they saw earlier, and several buildings scattered over it, one of which was actually a cluster of towers that hung over the lake before him.
Wonder of wonders, this one was crawling with Covies as well.
"This structure appears to be apart of a large transportation system which connects the outlying towers around the lake," Cortana said. "Let's get inside."
"You read my mind." Chief said.
"It's my job," Cortana joked.
The Chief turned to the 30 Helljumpers behind him, giving them a series of hand signals. The squad leaders nodded, repeating their orders to their men. With, that, they spread out and took up positions on the riddling that looked over the lake, staying concealed in the rocks and bushes.
The Master Chief, armed with an S2 AM sniper's rifle, found a patch of cover next to a tree, raised the rifle, and used the scope's 2X optics setting to find targets of opportunity. Elites and grunts patrolled the bridges and platforms that connected the towers in front of him, while Jackal snipers were stationed on the roofs nearby, and Banshee fliers patrolled the skies above.
He hovered his sights over the rooftops and once he found all of the Shade gunners and snipers, the Spartan switched to the 10X setting, practiced the move from one target to the next, and tried it yet again. Once he was sure that he could switch targets quickly enough, he exhaled quietly, then held his breath. His hand squeezed the trigger and the rifle kicked against his shoulder.
Several shots rang out, and several jackals and sleeping grunts were put down.
At the same time, the Rocket-jockies in the platoon fired four rockets into the air.
Two of the four rockets fired at the Covenant aircraft missed their marks, but both Banshees took hits, and immediately exploded. Wreckage rained on the Covenant position.
The key was to neutralize the Banshees, turrets and snipers so quickly, so decisively, that the Spartan and ODST troopers would be able to cross the long stretch of open ground and reach the structure virtually unopposed.
The Covenant, now alerted to the UNSC's presence, returned fire.
They fired wildly into every direction, but could barely make out more than a few of the 30 Helljumpers in the trees and bushes before they were felled by concentrated UNSC projectiles until none remained standing.
"Helljumpers: move up!" The Chief barked into the radio.
In seconds, the ODSTs charged into the pit. As the lead soldiers entered, a swarm of Drones burst from hiding, shot one of the Marines in the face, and tried to scatter into the air to swarm the rest. The Helljumper's body hadn't even hit the ground before the Spartan and the rest of the ODSTs hosed the aliens with bullets, causing their wings to stop fluttering before they dropped into the lake below - lost in the glint of the reflecting sun - with a series of splashes.
The gunshots echoed through the twisting canyons, then faded. The Spartan frowned; there was no way the fracas would go unnoticed. The element of surprise was gone. There was no time to waste.
The Master Chief led the Helljumpers through the courtyard and down a narrow bridge, which took them straight into the main building in the first tower cluster.
When they got inside, they made sure that the room was secure, but there were no Covenant in the central chamber. But there was a hologram of an alien the Chief had never seen before, in person anyway
It was a hunchbacked creature with a long neck, and covered in glimmering robes and wearing a crown. It looked to be sitting in a hovering throne of some kind. He was speaking, or rather chanting, in a language that the Chief's audio receptors weren't able to translate into English.
"Isn't that our target?" One of the Marines asked.
"Yup. Gentlemen, I present to you the Prophet of Regret." Cortana announced.
"What's he doing? Giving a speech?" Another Marine asked.
"A sermon actually. I've been listening to it for a while. So far it's mostly been standard Covenant liturgy. But he's said some interesting things about Covenant history." Cortana said. "Wait, Chief. Put me down on the control panel."
The Chief walked up to a small column that stood in front of the Prophet's hologram. He put his hand on it, and Cortana faded into existence in front of them, looking at the Prophet.
"That's what I thought he said." She said, turning to the Chief. "The Prophet of Regret is planning to activate Halo."
The Chief stiffened, and so did the other Marines close to him.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
Cortana snapped her finger dramatically and Regret was suddenly speaking English.
"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond." Regret said.
"Pretty much," Cortana said, a little smugly.
Chief activated his comm. "Commander, we've got a problem."
"So I hear." Miranda responded. "But from what I understand, the Prophet will need an object, the Index, to activate the ring. I've located a Library similar to the one you found on the first Halo. If the rings work the same way, the Index should be inside."
"I'll bet the Covenant are thinkin' the exact same thing." Johnson said over the com network.
"Then, we'd better beat them to it, Sergeant. Extract your men, and meet me at the Library."
"Yes, ma'am." Johnson said, before he dropped out of the conversation.
"I'll secure the Index, Chief." The Commander continued, as Chief placed his hand over Cortana, and caused her to re-enter his armor. "You take out the Prophet. He's given us all the intel we need."
Suddenly, his motion sensor pinged two contacts and he waved the ODSTs to be alert.
Stacker gave a series of hand signals, and the ODSTs crept forward through the ancient corridors. The Covenant equivalent of gear crates—tapered rectangular boxes made from the shimmering, striated purple metal the aliens favored—were stacked nearby.
The Master Chief moved forward toward one of the metal doors that seemed out of place in this vine-infested stone structure. Stacker gave the all clear signal and the Marines relaxed a bit.
"There's no Covenant here," one of them whispered, "so where the hell are they?"
The doors were proximity activated, and as he neared the portal, it slid open and revealed a surprised Elite, wearing ornate red and golden armor. Without pause, the Spartan tackled the alien and slammed its armored head so hard into a stone wall that it actually cracked.
With luck, he'd finished the Elite quietly enough— Another set of doors flashed open on the other side of the central chamber, and Covenant troops boiled into the room.
The ceiling, or lack thereof, opened up to the skies above, allowing rays of sunlight, and a swarm of Drones, to enter the room.
A second Marine turned to the Corporal who'd just spoken. " 'No Covenant,' " he snarled, mocking his fellow trooper. "You just had to open your mouth, didn't you?"
Inside the Covenant-held ruins, chaos reigned. The Master Chief charged ahead, and the strike force, fought their way through a maze of interlocking corridors, rooms, and chambers, which eventually emerged out onto a two-leveled bridge that connected the building to large platform that looked out over the lake.
A Covenant dropship passed overhead and all hell broke loose. Fire stuttered down from its plasma cannons as it deposited reinforcements onto the platform.
A Marine took a flurry of needles in the chest and was torn in half by the ensuing explosion.
A Grunt dropped from above the level above and landed on a Corporal's shoulders. The Marine reached up, got a grip on the alien's methane rig, and jerked the device off. The Grunt started to wheeze, fell to the deck, and flopped around like a fish. Someone shot him.
A large gondola, which someone mistook for a tower, with anti-gravity capabilities that allowed it to sail across the water from a pair of buildings were nearby, docked with the platform, and additional Covenant troops poured out of it.
Stacker stood up and motioned his men forward. "It's party time!" he bellowed.
He spun and opened fire, and was soon joined by all the rest. Within a matter of seconds what seemed like a dozen different firefights had broken out. Wounded and dead—humans and Covenant alike—littered the stone ground.
The Master Chief was careful to keep his back to a Marine, a stone pillar, or the nearest bulkhead. His MJOLNIR armor, and the recharging shield it carried, provided the Spartan with an advantage that none of the Marines possessed, so he focused most of his attention on the Elites, leaving the Jackals and Grunts for others to handle. Cortana, meanwhile, was hard at work tapping into the Covenant battle-net and the Lake's transportation system in an attempt to find the best way out of the trap.
"We need a way off of this platform now," the Master Chief told her, "or there won't be anyone left to complete the mission." He ducked behind a crate, emptied his magazine into a charging Grunt who wielded a plasma grenade, then paused to reload.
A pair of Hunters appeared. One gave a blood curdling roar as it charged into the fray. The Spartan turned and saw a Marine fire at the massive alien. A trio of bullets spat from his battle rifle—the last three rounds in the weapon. He discarded the empty gun and backpedaled in an attempt to buy himself some time. His hand dipped for his sidearm. The Hunter sprang forward and the massive shield flew sideways and sent the Marine flying, with all of the bones in his body broken, into the lake below with a splash.
The Master Chief cursed under his breath, slapped a fresh clip into place, racked a round into the chamber and took aim on the Hunter. The alien was coming on fast, too fast, and the Spartan knew he wasn't going to get a kill shot in time. The Hunter's razor spines sprang into view, and it roared again as the Spartan sprayed it with gunfire, knowing the gesture was futile, but unwilling to let the enemy at his teammate's exposed flank. Without warning, the Hunter reared up, howled, and crashed to the ground.
The Master Chief was puzzled, until he saw the fist-sized holes punched into the Hunter's armor and flesh. He heard a roar of engines, and saw a pair of Pelicans flying overhead. The other Hunter disappeared under a volley of rockets.
Knowing that it was outnumbered, the phantom that had been providing cover for the Covenant infantry, tried to fly away, only for itself be downed by multiple rockets, before crashing into the lake like a glowing purple comet.
The Marines let out a cheer and started picking off the remaining Covenant troops.
Hovering overhead, the Pelicans dropped off several pill-shaped capsules, filled with weapons and ammo. As the Marines restocked, the Chief's comm system buzzed.
It was Commander Keyes
"Master Chief, the Covenant are getting nosy. I don't want to give away my position, so I'm rerouting a few stragglers back to you. I apologize; these Pelicans are all the support you're gonna get."
"Understood, ma'am." He responded.
After a few minutes, the ODSTs had secured the tower cluster and had restocked. There was no sign of any Covenant counter-attack.
"Local Covenant forces appear to be falling back to the nearby towers." Cortana said. "This last assault must have left them disorganized.
"Good, we need all the time we can get," Chief said, "how much longer before we can catch a ride?"
"Got it!" Cortana proclaimed exultantly. "This Gondola won't take us to the main temple, but it will get us close."
"Everyone, climb aboard!" the Chief barked.
Then he led the surviving Marines off the platform and onto the towering, multi-level Gondola.
"So who's driving this thing?" One marine asked.
"What's to drive? It comes here, it goes there." Another said in response.
The Chief looked around until he found a pair of small, glowing orbs that hung suspended above a roughly rectangular frame of blue matte metal. Floating within the frame were a series of pulsing, shifting displays— semitransparent, like Cortana's holographic appearance, though there was no visible projection device. The display's shimmering geometric patterns nagged at him, as if he should recognize them somehow.
He had seen many control panels like this all over the first Halo ring, so it was nice that they were similar in that regard. He reached a finger out to one of the symbols, a blue-green circle. The Spartan expected his finger to pass through nothing more than air. His finger met resistance—and the panel lights began to pulse more quickly.
There was a loud clunking sound, followed by a high-pitched whine, and the massive structure lurched as it started to move in reverse towards its destination.
The next fifteen minutes were like a slow-motion nightmare as the strike force held off Drone swarms, Elite rangers with jump-packs and even some Banshee fliers, as they slowly floated across the lake.
It felt strange how there was a massive Covenant carrier hovering in the skies far off in the distance, and a whole army stationed on the surface, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. But that was thanks to Cortana, and the Covenant technology that was captured during Operation First Strike. She was able to monitor their communications and she concocted an array of signals designed to trick the Covenant technicians into believing that any UNSC dropships were actually one of their own.
She could make UNSC signals appear where they weren't, and keep the actual forces cloaked in electronic camouflage. The Pelicans that Commander Keyes was able to spare were put to good use. Their signals were masked and they were able to launch a strafing run on a Covenant outpost and destroy all the banshees parked there. As the Covenant sent forces to respond to every single emergency, even false ones, the real strike force was given some breathing room and were able to make it to the tower without too much difficulty. When they secured it, they discovered a submerged section of tunnels and buildings that connected different structures across the lake.
They entered and fought their way through a maze of underwater corridors, up a series of narrow ramps, and through massive chambers. One of which contained another hologram of a chanting Prophet of Regret.
When the last Covenant soldier fell, some of the marines looked up curiously at the massive hologram, which was big and loud enough for everyone in the multi-level chamber to see and hear.
"And people say I've got a big head." Cortana said as she proceeded to translate another section of the Prophet's sermon.
"Most of those we encountered in our search were compelled to join our Union. To take part in moment of promise, Freedom for Allegiance, Salvation for Service! But some, like the Humans, chose to impede our progress. Block our access to sacred sites, damageHoly Relics! For their transgressions, the Humans shall be hunted until none remain alive!"
The Marines all started to laugh and applaud mockingly at the hologram.
"Oh man, he's so dead." One of them said.
"Let's keep moving. We need find our way back to the surface."
They continued.
With Cortana's guidance, they plunged deep into the lake's oppressive underwater passageways, and were eventually able to find a tower gondola that would take them directly to the main Temple.
Cortana never rested. Although based approximately on a human mind, AIs had no need to sleep or dream. The Chief and the Marines thought Cortana would stay occupied by checking the Covenant battle-net.
Their assumptions were incorrect. While Cortana was indeed assisting the Spartan and Helljumpers in battle, she was documenting the unique design and workings of the Forerunner installation. She was crammed full of information concerning the first ring's functions. But as they fought their way through the ruins, she was trying to put together a picture of Forerunner society.
She tried to decipher what these buildings could be. Whether they were temple or universities, she couldn't say, but either way, the Forerunners seemed to take great care in maintaining their infrastructure, even long after their disappearance.
There were, however, more important things to consider than digging up long-dead races; namely, trying to keep humanity from becoming one. She was performing a little reconnaissance into the Covenant battle-net . . . and a little revenge.
She dedicated the balance of her run time toward probing the Covenant's comms around the system for entry points.
There. A ping in the battle-net coordination signal. She broadcast a resonant carrier wave at that signal and piggybacked into the system. While she and the Master Chief had been making their way through the ruins, she had intercepted multiple communications between the Prophet of Regret's Carrier and something called 'High Charity'.
The first one seemed to be a formal apology to the Prophets of Truth and Mercy. Apparently, Regret jumped the gun when he attacked Earth. He was asking the other Prophets to forgive his premature arrival, arguing that no human presence was foretold.
Cortana was intrigued. This would certainly explain how there were so few ships in his fleet, but how could Regret not have known about Earth being his enemy's home-world? The Covenant had known of Earth's location for several weeks. How could one of their own leaders not have been informed.
A while later she intercepted the response from High Charity. From the Prophet of Truth specifically.
In it, Truth explained how Regret's haste in attacking Earth had threatened the grand design of prophets and the fulfillment of the Covenant, and was in real danger of facing a public execution, were it not for the Prophet of Mercy's intervention.
So, the Covenant leadership was divided. Truth, Mercy, Regret. Three hierarchs, and at least two with differing agendas, that were trying to undermine each other at every turn.
Killing Regret should shake up the Covenant leadership. But frankly, it sounded like they might be doing Truth a favor.
Knowing everything she needed to know, she closed all connections and returned to the battle.
As they fought off the latest Covenant counterattack, they secured the final set of towers and the LZ, the Chief stepped over several Covenant bodies - including a twitching Grunt that one of the Marines finished off with a burst - and was just about to board the gondola when he heard a loud whining sound followed by a CRACK!
Another.
And another still.
The Chief looked up and froze. The Marines did the same.
They saw hundreds of small flashing white lights blink in and out. They were slipspace ruptures. Hundreds of them, followed by an uncountable number of Covenant ships entering real space.
"That's the largest Covenant fleet I've ever seen..."Cortana said. "...the largest anyone's ever seen."
Then one final object exited slipspace. It was a part planetoid that just appeared out of nowhere, and began orbiting the ring.
"Man! Look at the size of that thing!" One Marine called out.
The Chief frowned.
This was taking too long. Every passing second made it that much less likely that any of the strike force would be able to kill Regret, let alone escape alive. The ODSTs were good fighters, but they were slowing him down. He turned to Sergeant Stacker and said, "Hold your men here and signal for evac. I'll be back soon—with the Prophet's crown."
The Marines started to protest, but then Stacker held up a hand. They stopped, then nodded.
"It's been fun Chief. Give that hunchbacked bastard a kicking from us," Stacker said.
"I will." The Master Chief said, and ran onto the Gondola, hit the switch and he was underway.
As few minutes later as they got closer to the Temple's docking area, Cortana was continuing to monitor the Covenant's battle-net.
"The Covenant fleet has launched multiple waves of phantoms. Too many for me to track. We need to get inside the Temple and kill Regret before they can stop us."
The Chief didn't even wait for the docking procedure. He stepped back, took a running start, and vaulted as high into the air as he could go, and stormed up the steps, killing everything in his way, going from door to door until one of them opened to reveal his target.
The Prophet's sermon came in over the Temple's loudspeaker, and Cortana translated the speech for the Chief.
"Every member of the Covenant shall walk the path. None will be left behind when our Great Journeybegins! That is the Prophets' age-old promise. And it shall be fulfilled!"
"'Great Journey'? Doesn't he know what these rings do?" Cortana asked.
"I don't intend to let him find out," Chief said, blasting a surprised Elite in the face. As he charged up a large ram, he tossed grenades over his back, wiping out a pair of Honor guards who were standing in wait.
The portal at the top of the ramp slid open to reveal a tall rectangular room with multiple levels, a Grunt yelled something the Master Chief couldn't understand, and ran away.
A plasma beam lashed past the human's helmet. The Master Chief opened fire, heard an alien voice yell from the other side of the room.
"You dare to interrupt my sermon, and befoul this holy place?!" Said the suit's translation software.
The Chief saw the alien in the throne-like hover device surrounded by several pissed off looking honor guards and knew he was in the right place. The Prophet's throne lit up, fired another energy beam, hit the Spartan in the chest, and triggered the armor's audible alarm.
He ducked behind a support column, just in time to see another energy beam slice through the spot he had just vacated. He scanned the room, looking for his assailant.
"Warriors! Attack! The Demon must die."
The Elites charged at the Chief, swords in hand. He tossed a pair of grenades at them, breaking up their formations and disrupting their shields. He gunned down several unshielded Elites with his Rifle, until his ammo counter read 00.
One Elite tried to lunge at him with his energy sword, only for the Chief to sidestep the Elite's strike, and tackle the Elite and get a hold of his sword arm. The Chief and the Elite struggled, rising to their feet. The Chief twisted the arm as hard as he could. The Elite's mouth opened, and it snapped at the Chief. It was angry or panicking now...
The Chief shoved his sidearm under its chin and pulled the trigger until it dropped.
He searched for the Prophet, found him, and advanced toward him, firing his pistol, only for the rounds to harmlessly bounce off an invisible force field surrounding the prophet.
He tossed his last grenades at him, and only got the same result.
"His throne is shielded! It's deflecting everything you throw at it. Get in close and do whatever you can!"
The Chief looked at his pistol, then at the Prophet. Then without a second's thought, he charged at the Prophet, going the full 40 mph that all Spartans were capable of. The Prophet tried to fire his beam weapon again, only for the Chief to tackle the prophet out of his throne, causing him to scream in surprise and terror, and then the Spartan wound back his fist and made an uppercut straight up into the Prophet's neck, snapping it back with a series of sickening pops.
In the middle of the room, covered in dead Covenant bodies, the Spartan stood tall over all of them.
"Cortana, what's the status of the enemy fleet's position?" Chief asked.
She responded.
"It's the same as always. We're in trouble."
The Master Chief stepped outside and looked out over the lake, and saw a massive Covenant Carrier hovering above it. Plasma energy began to collect underneath it, before a bean blasted down onto the Temple.
The plasma blasted over the ledge and approached him like a tidal wave of fire.
He ran. Ran as hard as he could towards the back of the Temple, trying to get away from the blast. But it wasn't enough. As he started to dive over the edge, blue-white light filled John's vision, and electrical discharges jolted his flesh and buzzed through his muscles and ligaments. Temperature warnings blared.
John fell into unconscious before he even hit the water.
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UNSC In Amber Clad.
Miranda Keyes was in the ship's hanger, having changed into a set of Marine Corps combat fatigues, before strapping on some armor plating, and tying her shoulder-length hair up into a bun. She was surrounded by Marines who were getting ready for action.
Johnson's pelicans had just returned and were being loaded up for deployment to the surface of the ring.
She could see out of the open hanger bay the very structure that they had marked as their destination. A massive structure, the base of which was a tall circular dome that was built into the top of a mountain, with massive wing-like arms that protruded from the sides and slanted upwards to resemble a hollowed out pyramid, probably for stability. Their purpose wasn't clear, but the same could be said for the entire structure's design.
Much of it was obscured by what appeared to be a blizzard, but it was clear that it stood high and imposing above a range of mountains amidst a snowy landscape.
The whole region was surrounded by a massive wall that must have been at least half a mile tall, maybe higher.
"Ma'am, there appear to be some kind of energy barrier around the entire site. We can't fly straight it." Lt. Remi said from the bridge comm.
She pressed her headset earpiece to speak. "Keep trying to find a way around it. We'll send a platoon on the ground to see if they can find a way through. You have the con for the duration of this mission."
"Yes ma'am."
Meanwhile Sergeant Johnson, cigar in hand, was directing his men and giving motivational pep talks for their next drop.
"All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I *love* the Corps! Oorah?"
"OORAH!" All of his men snapped off in unison.
Miranda smiled. She was about to go down to the surface like her father would have. It was good to have someone like Johnson by her side. But it would have been better to have the Chief and Cortana there as well.
She switched channels and tried her mike again.
"Chief, Cortana, how's it going you two?" She asked.
Static.
"Chief? Cortana?" She asked again, getting slightly nervous. "Sierra 117, this is In Amber Clad, what's your status?"
More static.
"Keyes to 1st platoon, does anybody read me?"
The Marines were starting to notice her become slightly more exasperated. Johnson noticed as well, and walked up to her.
She was about to give up hope, when she finally got a response.
"Commander, this is Sgt. Stacker." Came a resigned, somber voice. "Our mission was successful, but the Master Chief and Cortana are..." he paused, trying to find the right words. "...Missing in action."
She was taken aback by the news, but only slightly, trying to maintain her professionalism in front of her crew.
"What happened?"
"They told us to stay behind and guard the LZ and signal for evac, while they went into the Temple to kill the Prophet of Regret. But when we were about to come and extract them, the Covenant fleet leveled the entire structure. The Temple is gone, and we haven't heard from them."
Most of the other Marines heard what she was hearing. Most of them had stricken looks on their faces. They knew of the CHief's record, and heard the stories. Some of these men had survived tough situations thanks to the Chief.
And now he was... missing.
Spartans could never be labeled as killed in action. Only wounded or missing. So that it could be said that no Spartan had ever fallen in combat.
Spartans never die.
Miranda sighed. 'If only that were true.'
"I copy, Sergeant. Get airborne. You have a new mission and I'll brief you on your way."
"Yes ma'am."
She let go of the receiver and looked at her men. They were all speechless.
"Alright, we still have a mission to complete. We have to press on. He knew the risks and he gave humanity a fighting chance, and no we have to do the same. You all know your assignments."
"All right sweethearts, you heard the lady. Move like you've got a purpose."
And with that, the Marines carried out their duties and prepared to drop into their next mission. The fight to save humanity was going to continue with or without the Chief. It's what he would have wanted.
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John felt himself floating in a vacuum. A gauzy white haze clouded his vision, though he could occasionally make out images in lightning-fast bursts—a series of glassing beams raining down around him.
A bright white gleam of light shined down through the lake he could see in his dream.
In the distance, he could hear a booming, droning voice begin to form words in his mind.
'This is is not your grave... But you are welcome in it.'
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Well folks, that was the latest chapter.
Hope you enjoyed.
Until Next time, Grubkiller out.