Hey Folks, Grubkiller here.
Here is the latest chapter.
Enjoy.
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The Phantom's passenger bay was large enough to accommodate an entire lance of Covenant troops. But it held a Brute pack instead. Some hunched over workstations protruding from the cargo bay's reinforced inner hull. A couple were manning the plasma turrets on the side hatches, occasionally sprinkling the ground with plasma fire.
But most were standing tall, with holographic switches that flickered against the their blue armor. They were girded for a fight.
Tartarus stood before the cockpit's central holo-tank, his paws knuckled around the smooth metal of his gravity hammer. The Chieftain's armor was colored gold, but made of a much stronger alloy. Two other Jiralhanae flanked him, and their jutting shoulder plates filled in the path between the cockpit and the crew bay, keeping the rest of the pack from seeing whatever the tank had on display.
It showed an image of the massive, imposing library. The sight was humbling.
'If only Uncle Maccabeus were here to bear witness to the Library of the Great Ones.' He thought as he rubbed his thumb against the handle of the mighty Fist of Rukt.
He had challenged the elderly brute for control of the pack, and barely won, earning his place as head of the pack, and eventually to Chieftain of all Brutes. He had clawed and scraped his way to the top, and now he had the Prophets' favor. He had surpassed the incompetent and arrogant Sangheilli, and he was going to be the one who brought the Covenant into the Great Journey.
But many obstacles still remained. Such as the ancient parasite that had infested the entire region, the holy sentinels that protected the site from the unworthy, and the loathsome Humans who were no doubt skulking in the atmosphere just above.
'A pity we cannot merely cleanse the surface and burn our enemies all at once. But that would risk damaging the sacred ring.'
"Incredible, isn't it," Tartarus said.
"Yes, Chieftain. Incredible," one of the Brutes said, peering into the tank below its railing.
"Ah, such enthusiasm, Voridus." Tartarus adopted an ironic tone. "After all, this is only—-what?" He nodded toward the glowing representation of the Library and the image of the Sacred icon. "The Temple which holds the very key to unlocking he Great Journey?"
"My apologies, Chieftain. It's just that I'm raring for battle against the parasite. Why do we allow the Half-jaw and the Arbiter to have all the glory of battle on the surface?"
Tartarus cuffed the younger Brute on the back of the head with an open paw.
"We do as the Prophets' will." Tartarus boomed. "The time of the Sangheilli is coming to an end. The age of the Jiralhanae is fast approaching. Be patient. We will allow the Sangheili one last glorious fight, before we claim our prize."
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The Surface of Delta Halo, Quarantine Zone, near the Sentinel Wall.
The Arbiter jumped into the driver seat of an awaiting Spectre. The hover craft - named as it was for the soft wailing noise its engines made - had the driver and a gunner position, and a seat on either side for extra passengers.
Several of these patrol craft had been dropped off by the Phantoms that hovered above, in addition to several Ghosts. A lance of Sangheilli warriors hopped on board, along with their Commander, R'tas 'Vadumee.
He jumped onto the turret of the Arbiter's vehicle, before he called out to the rest of his warriors.
"Forward, warriors! And fear not pain nor death"
"FOR THOSE WHO FELL BEFORE US!" The rest of the Elites chanted in unison.
The rest of the Lance boarded their vehicles and powered them up, before lining up as a convoy, and beginning their mission to begin the Great Journey.
They travelled through debris strewn fields and snowy hills before coming up on a large tunnel entrance. It was huge was huge , plenty large enough to handle a Wraith Tank, or one of the large Sentinel enforcers, which meant that the Arbiter had little difficulty steering the patrol craft through the initial opening, and leading the convoy through.
Once inside, things became a little more difficult as the Arbiter and the other Elite drivers was forced to maneuver the their Specters up ramps, through a series of tight turns, and right to the very edge of a pit. A quick look confirmed that the gap was narrow enough to jump, assuming the craft had a running start.
The Arbiter backed away.
"Brace yourselves," he warned the passengers before he hit the accelerator.
The Specter raced up the ramp, sailed through air, and jounced to a hard landing on the other side before lifting back up off the ground. The rest of the column made the jump with little difficulty.
The metal floor dropped away to either side, and every surface was engraved with the strange geometric patterns that festooned Halo's mysterious architecture. Set well back from their position were a number of small structures, pillars, and support pylons.
It wasn't long before Flood forms emerged from the walls and metal cliffs like maggots spilling out of a rotting corpse. Plasma fire splashed across the Specter's windscreen. The Arbiter drove the vehicle through a pair of combat forms.
R'tas and the other gunners started hammering away at the patches of infection pods and combat forms that were appearing out of every crevice and around every corner they could conceivably appear from.
Many reanimated Elites and Brutes fell from the enemy fire, but the flood answered back in kind.
Flood forms with ranged weapons and turrets returned fire.
Other forms elected to board Covenant vehicles whenever they could.
One Ghost was fit by a Flood form with a fuel rod cannon. Another was boarded by an infected human, and ensuing chaos causing the driver to panic and drive his vehicle over the side of a cliff.
One flood form tried to board the Arbiter's vehicle. R'tas was engaging another form with the gun turret, and the other Elites were reloading, so he accelerated into a wall and smashed the flood form between it and the vehicle, nearly throwing them from their seats, before he moved on.
"Leader, my scanners are picking up multiple energy signatures. But I'm not reading any other Covenant communications."
"Be ready for anything."
Soon, the convoy emerged into a larger open area, where a full-fledged battle was underway between the Forerunner Sentinels and the many Covenant vehicles, whose drivers had succumbed to the flood infection.
"What? The parasite controls our vehicles?" One Elite gunner asked over the comm.
"Impossible. It has never done that before." A driver said.
"No matter, they will die all the same." Commander 'Vadumee said.
Flood-controlled Ghosts engaged the Covenant column. The Covenant Ghosts intercepted them and a dogfight on the ground commenced. Several Enforcers blanketed the area with showers of mortar fire, hammering the ground and wiping out many flood forms, and even a couple Covenant vehicles.
They also liked to use their large metal arms to pick up vehicles, flood-controlled or not, and crush them.
One Covenant specter was about to suffer this very fait. It's crew did everything in their power to free themselves. The gunner and passengers fired into the Sentinel's belly and arms, and the driver tried to accelerate out of the grasp.
But it was too late. The Vehicle was crushed, and exploded into hundreds of pieces, and the crew vanished with it.
The Arbiter and the other drivers did everything to avoid this fait, zigzagging and twisting through the area. They were able to take down a couple of the powerful Sentinels, but had to escape, as more Flood forms, including the massive juggernaughts, began to terrorize the area.
The sentinels continued to battle with them, but the Covenant, despite destroying many vehicles and Sentinels, were forced to move on. They didn't have time, as they soon discovered that they were in a race against the Humans.
Once on the other side, they followed the tunnel out into the valley beyond, where the Arbiter guided the Specter column up through a scattering of metal debris and rocks, to the top of a snowy rise. A sheer cliff threatened to block progress to the right, forcing them to stay to the left, as they headed toward a gap in the another ancient wall. The vehicles pressed on. They saw the mouth of a passageway off to the right, decided that it would be best to investigate, and guided the column up through another rocky pass. It was only a matter of minutes before they arrived on a ledge that looked out over a valley below.
It was filled with even more Covenant vehicles under Flood-control. They were dropping mortar fire down on what remained of a massive Sentinel forge, which was smashed and scattered across the mountains, belching fire from every single hull rupture. But that didn't stop Sentinels from continuing to pour out of its few remaining assembly forges to try in vain to subdue the Flood infestation.
A vaguely pyramidal structure rose to dominate the very center of the valley, and they realized it was the Library. The Arbiter saw rays of light connecting the Library with the sky, as if to touch the face of the Gods, as was the Covenant's intent.
But before they could really take in the image of the Library of the Great Ones, a loud screech echoed through the valley and started to fire on the Covenant troops.
They opened fire and the gunners replied in kind.
The Arbiter disembarked from his driver seat and joined in the defense of the re-supply zone.
He unslung his carbine and fired another sustained volley. A pair of combat forms dropped to his precise aim, and the infector pods rolled in opposite directions.
A squat, long-armed former-Jackal was cut in half by Vadumee's sword and the heavy-plasma blew divots out of the snowy ground beyond. Flood forces continued to make a run at the hill for several sustained minutes, but the approaching Phantoms made short work of them, and the slope was soon littered with their bodies.
Flights of banshees and seraphs screeched overhead, clearing the skies as best as they could of Sentinel resistance. But
"Once again, brothers, we are victorious!" Vadumee called out.
There was only a brief respite from the battle several human dropships and one of their Frigates, flying through the skies above, all guns blazing as it targeted some of the Covenant craft that got in their way. Covenant fighters tumbled out of the air, and the Human warship generated a powerful breeze that blew snow and debris about, and blasted a couple elites and their damaged vehicles over the nearby cliff. The rest of the Elites braced themselves against the wind and steeled themselves for more action, but the Humans completely ignored the Covenant ground forces and headed straight for the Library.
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UNSC Pelican dropship, above Forerunner Quarantine Zone.
Lt. Commander Miranda Keyes tried to ignore the incessant slam-bam beat of Sergeant Johnson's colonial flip music that pounded over the intercom as the pilot took the dropship over the wall that surrounded the the Library's exclusion zone. They passed over a massive tundra that had multiple battles going on at once.
The massive machines that Sergeant Stacker's men had reported seeing in the containment wall were hammering every square inch of land with their firepower, and Covenant vehicles were returning fire. But most of them weren't Covenant anymore.
Reanimated Flood forms threw themselves at whatever was keeping them from their next meal. More of the Ring's smaller metal guardians flew past their cockpit or past the open back hatch, to fulfill their prioritized tasks. But they didn't seem to bother with interfering with UNSC personnel.
At least something was going right for them. They had already lost several squads, and the Covenant were already setting their sights on this place, if their vehicles and assimilated warriors were anything to go off of.
The amount of Sentinels in the air was starting to thin out, ever since the massive floating factory that was anchored above the Library air space was brought down by Flood-controlled Wraiths, as witnessed by the Sergeant Stacker's men.
The Leathernecks on board were heavily armed and ready for action. But only one man on this dropship knew anything about what horrors they faced. Johnson was able to keep a lid on it. He had to remain locked in for the rest of his Marines.
About halfway between the wall and the library was a series of cliffs and mountains that looked over a massive chasm surrounding the Library. As the Pelicans approached, they were coming up on a massive structure that was spotted by the In Amber Clad's long range scanners. It was a large hexagonal tower, perhaps three stories tall, that stood imposing over the valley, and it had a boxlike structure behind it, which was built into the side of the cliff.
"Everything looks clear—I'm bringing her down." The Pelican's jets whipped the snow into a frenzy as the ramp was lowered and the cargo compartment was flooded with flurries of snow, and the sharp cold air, stabbed at their exposed flesh.
It carried the slight metallic tang typical of Halo itself.
"Go! Go! Go!" Sgt. Major Johnson shouted, and the Marines jumped down into the calf-deep snow.
"Buurrrr! Damn it's cold out here." One Marine complained.
"What's the matter private?" Johnson asked. "Want me to grab your mittens for you?"
"Gee Sarge, would you? That'd be super." The Marine responded sarcastically.
Johnson looked at the Private and extended his middle finger to pull down his eyelid. "Look into my eyes, Private."
The Marine and the others in the squad all laughed, and they carried on with their mission.
Johnson's squad went ahead to reconnoiter the structure. The rest of the men had begun setting up a perimeter when Keyes cleared the ramp. Freed from its burden, the dropship fired its jets, powered its way up out of the air, and started to climb.
Two of the other six dropships dropped off scorpion tanks, and the rest dropped off men and warthogs, and they flew off to collect more equipment from the In Amber Clad. They were setting up a base here to keep anyone from interfering with capturing the Index.
As her men set up defensive positions, Keyes consulted a small hand comp. "The structure we're looking for is supposed to be inside the cliff wall."
Johnson eyed the pointing finger and nodded. "Okay, you slackers, you heard the lady. Perez, take point."
The ebony snow topped their boots, and threatened to seep through to their socks, when it ended at a flat metallic floor with glyphs and symbols carved into it.
As the other three platoons set up and dug in, Keyes and Johnson's men pressed on, eventually finding the entrance to the rest of the structure, which was built into the mountains. They went through more corridors until they came across a causeway, which was still open to the outside.
Wind gusted through.
The station opened up outside to reveal the Library.
Keyes's men pushed deeper into the complex and see what they could find. Ten minutes had passed when a Marine said, "Whoa! Look at that."
They all formed up on him to see a large Anti-gravity gondola which would take them across the massive chasm.
"Right," Keyes said, as she examined the transport. "Let's get a move on."
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The Arbiter and the rest of the Covenant strike force continued to press on ahead, fighting their way across the valley through hordes of what used to be their Covenant brothers.
Sentinel resistance in the region had all but disappeared, thanks to the efforts of the Covenant banshees and seraphs that were starting to , and the Flood resistance was getting stronger the closer they got to the library.
The Arbiter's plasma cannon roared to life, along with several others, as they punched through the crowds of Flood.
R'tas 'Vadumee was on another Spectre that was running alongside the Arbiter's.
"Forward to the Icon! The parasite's ranks swell as we draw nearer to the Library. Steel your nerves, we're not turning back."
The Elites all roared a battle cry in unison as they pressed forward.
As they drew closer to the fortress, they passed large pits of bubbling, steaming, opaque, aquamarine liquid, which the flood tried to ram them into with their commandeered vehicles, which included a Human warthog. The assimilated gunner fired his chain turret haphazardly, but the driver was the biggest threat.
Every Spectre gunner trained their sights on the warthog and lit it up with a storm of plasma. The Flood driver was filled with so much plasma that it slumped over, and the warthog turned and crashed into the cliffside wall and exploded, taking the ex-humans with it.
Then, having followed the second valley to the point where it opened onto a third valley, they came upon the fortress that had been foretold to them by Tartarus's phantoms. But it also played host to an incredible scene. The Humans were battling the Flood with everything they had, including their machine guns, a brace of Warthogs, and two of their cumbersome tanks, which were very much active.
But the Flood had plenty of bodies and captured vehicles to throw back at them and didn't hesitate to do so.
Ghosts and warthogs chased each other around the valley. Flood bodies were cut down by heavy machine gun fire, and the two Scorpion tanks blasted away into the hordes of flood.
A juggernaught took a direct shell hit and it pierced right through its 'eye' and collapsed. A pair of wraiths took armor-piercing rounds and exploded brilliantly, taking packs of Flood forms with them.
But the humans were taking heavy casualties from the Flood's swarm tactics, and their dead and wounded were prime victims for the swarms of infectors pods that washed over them and turned them into Flood combat forms, which were then turned on their former comrades.
The Covenant hesitated to intervene, watching their enemies tear each other apart.
"Human fools." R'tas said as one of the human warthogs were knocked aside by a juggernaught, and its passengers dumped into a swarm of infector pods. "I almost feel sorry for them."
That's when a flight of banshees zoomed overhead and bombarded the area, destroying one of the Scorpions. The banshees flew up and away only to be cut to pieces by the human warship's automated gun emplacements.
With the Flood forces in the area greatly thinned out, the Covenant strike force chose this moment to strike. They split up and attacked the remaining Human tank with storms of plasma and volleys of fuel rod rounds.
The Scorpion took two of the Spectres down, before eventually succumbing to the onslaught. Secondary explosions covered the vehicle before a much bigger explosions ripped through the hull and sent the turret flying off.
As soon as They were near the entrance, the Covenant Elites jumped out of their vehicles and made their approach, only for hails of bullets to punch through their armor and cut several of them down.
Ambush.
More bullets bounced off Forerunner metal as they approached the doorway. The Arbiter dive-rolled left and spun to see two human turrets on a platform overlooking them, with a dozen of their Marines providing support, and several more on the ground with the Elites.
One human spun to bring his rifle to bear on the Arbiter, point blank. The Arbiter was too close to shoot him: so he snapped the butt of the energy rifle into the short alien's face and watched it slump to the floor.
Weak, very weak. The human's insubstantial ballistic plate armor and olive clothing did little to protect it.
R'tas barreled through two Marines, sword high, and cut a third marine in half, but not before taking several high-caliber rounds to his shields, causing him to stumble.
The Arbiter and three other Elites threw grenades up onto the corner, angry. They waited for the panicked screams and the bright blue explosions to dissipate.
When it was over, nearly twenty more Marines lay dead.
"Once again, brothers, we are victorious!" One Elite exclaimed.
"Not yet. We must retrieve the icon, and then we shall purge this ring of all our enemies." R'tas said.
The Elites called back in unison.
"HONORING THOSE WHO BUILT IT!"
The Arbiter turned through the doorway and charged into the corridor that led into the cliffside fortress, with the remains of the strike force in tow. Several flood forms were inside, and the Elites fired at anything that moved.
At the end of the path, they found themselves facing a metal canyon lined with gondolas far below the high ceiling of the large, dimly lit structure.
He stepped up to the controls of the nearest gondola. Just before he could activate the switch, another gondola further along was activated. It began gliding away across the chasm below.
"More humans!" R'tas exclaimed.
"They must be after the Icon." Arbiter said.
As that moment, an ear-splitting guttural shriek ripped through the air.
Everyone turned back to the corridor they came through, and saw more flood forms spilling out of every corner and shadow that they could.
R'tas drew his energy sword.
"On your way, Arbiter. Retrieve the Icon. We'll deal with these beasts."
The Spec Ops commander, along with half of the Elites charged down the ramp and prepared to cut and blast their way through the horde. The Arbiter and the remaining Elites stayed, hesitating to leave.
But eventually, the Arbiter activated the gondola switch and it began to glide across the chasm, just as the human-controlled gondola had made it through the first layer of the Library's outer wall.
Behind them, the human frigate hovered over the Gondola facility, its auto cannons chattering away at several unseen targets, and soon enough he saw several Covenant aircraft, including some Phantoms, tumbling out of control and crashing into the chasm below.
But soon, the seraphs were able to keep the warship busy long enough for a trio of Phantoms to follow closely behind the Arbiter's gondola and fly as escorts.
"I see that coward didn't join you," Tartarus boomed from the safety of his dropship, referring to Rtas' departure. "I'll do what I can to keep the Flood off your back."
"What courage! Nice and safe in his Phantom!" One Elite said sarcastically.
But the Arbiter was taken aback by something.
The Chieftain must have seen something the Elites couldn't, and sure enough, Flood Combat Forms started gathering on the platforms that hung over the gondola's path.
"Look, up ahead. The parasite gathers for an attack." The Arbiter called out.
"Good. I grow restless without a target." One of the Elites said.
With long ranged weapons, they started to pick off any flood form they could with their carbines, and several forms dropped before they could ever harm them. But now all of them, as more of them were soon dropping down onto the gondola from above, or climbing from below.
The Arbiter and his Elites used their energy swords, slashing and stabbing any flood form that got too close. They also had to take cover from Tartarus' phantoms as they sprayed the gondola with plasma fire.
They danced between red Shade bolts as they carelessly hit the Flood around them. All the while, the gondola passed through layers of openings further into the Library. Once the Combat Forms had been killed, The Arbiter looked for the human-operated gondola further across, but it had disappeared from his view sometime during the fight.
But then he looked up at the Phantom for an answer, as it tore off in the direction of the human gondola and disappeared from his view.
"I see the Human gondola. I will thin their ranks. We cannot let them capture the Icon. The hierarchs do not look kindly on failure."
"That fool! He'll alert them to our presence!" On Elite said as Tartarus' Phantom zoomed off into the darkness, leaving The Elites with no air cover.
"Look on the bright side, maybe they'll shoot him down!" Another responded.
"Ignore the braggart, ready yourselves." The Arbiter called out.
And soon enough, they were ambushed by another wave of Flood forms.
It became a repetitive pattern of the Elites clearing out Combat Forms, which dropped from unseen places within the brooding facility. Fortunately, their numbers were not overwhelming. The Flood was unable to pit their greatest numbers against Thel now that he was inside the facility. It was either that or the Parasite was underestimating the Arbiter's abilities to defend himself, and they paid the price as their body parts fell back down the bottomless trench from which they arose from.
Finally, after a lifetime of combat, the gondola was coming up on the facility's interior.
"Behold, my brothers. The Library of our lords!" The Arbiter exclaimed as the gondola locked itself into the heart of the Library.
They saw the phantom finally reappear after being gone for an eternity.
"The humans are already inside, Arbiter! After them! I'll watch the perimeter." Tartarus said over the comm.
The Arbiter walked up to the docking ramp, but turned back to his brother one last time.
"Stay here and protect this vessel. It may be our only means of escape." He said.
They saluted him.
"Retrieve the Icon, Arbiter, for the Covenant, and the Journey!" One of them called after him.
He nodded, and engaged his active camouflage before entering the facility.
The Arbiter stepped off into what appeared to be the inner-most layer of the fortress. Walls of medium height curved around a circular room in the centre of the Library's heart.
The Human gondola was nearby. Human bodies lay dead across the floor. But even more flood bodies lay dead. For everyone one normal human, two or three of the parasite's bodies lay motionless on the floor, and pools and crimson and dark green-brown covered the floor.
He followed the curved wall until he heard the barking sounds of automatic weapons fire nearby. So he followed the sound all the way to the central chamber.
Library, central chamber.
The chamber had a massive bottomless pit in its centre with eight thick planks pointing over it from around the edge. The broken bodies of destroyed Sentinel Enforcers lay around the hole. A short bridge led to a flat, ring-shaped platform that was suspended over the pit.
There, over the hole, in the centre of the platform floated the activation index.
Sgt. Major Johnson and two of his men were watching the perimeter, mopping up the remaining flood forms that had been dogging them since they left the gondola.
The artifact that hung suspended over the pit glowed lime green; it was shaped like the letter T. It slowly rose from the top of the cylindrical tube in which it had been kept for so many millennia. A series of metal blocks that encircled the device rotated and spun, releasing their protective grip on the Index.
It beckoned for Miranda Keyes, who stood on the edge of the pit, wondering how she was going to retrieve it without falling down for eternity.
It seemed the ring-shaped platform was an elevator of some kind, but it appeared broken and off-centre. Its position meant that Miranda could not reach to grasp the Icon, which was too far over the hole.
Miranda looked around for a way to safely retrieve the index. Then something in the sentinel bodies caught her eye. It looked like a long rope, or cord, imbedded in the Sentinel's body, and which was long enough to reach the index. She gave it a thoughtful tug, and satisfied that it wouldn't snap from her weight and drop her, she unravelled part of the root from the machine and dragged it over to the centre hole.
With one hand on the root, she leant forwards and stretched her other arm towards the Index.
Johnson saw this. He turned to his two Marines, pointed to his eyes with his index and pinky fingers and then pointed at the entrance with the same hand.
They both nodded and headed out the door and into the shadows.
Johnson then turned to see if his CO needed assistance.
"Gotcha!" She exclaimed. Then there was a loud snap and she gasped.
Suddenly, just as she grasped her small fingers around the Index, the cord snapped and unravelled completely from the Enforcer, and she nearly fell into the pit below. But Johnson was able to grab a hold of the cable before that could happen. She only fell a few meters before she stopped. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Ya' know, your father never asked me for help either."
She nodded her thanks.
"The Index is secure," she said as she fastened the artifact to the utility belt of her combat fatigues, opposite of her SMG holster. Then Johnson started to help pull her up.
When she was safely back on the platform, Johnson looked over his shoulder at the entrance.
"McKenzie, Perez, how's our exit?"
There was no response.
"You hear me, Marines?!" He asked again as he turned towards the exit.
Still no response.
Johnson pulled his BR55 off his back and looked back at Keyes.
"We got trouble."
Keyes unholstered her M7 SMG and stayed close behind Johnson, who had his rifle trained forward, flashlight on, as he crept forward slowly, watching for any sign of the aforementioned trouble.
He looked closely at every shadow, behind every piece of debris, keeping his ears open for any signs of slithering and squelching. But then he heard footsteps rushing towards him.
He shifted right and caught a glimpse of bending light.
"Damn!" He said as he fired several bursts from his BR. Purple light flared before him, and whatever he fired at started to take shape. It was a big split-chin bastard.
Too close to train his rifle, he used his rifle as a club and bashed the sucker in the faceplate. He turned to swing again, but the Elite bashed the rifle out of his grasp and grabbed him by the forearms, slamming him against a wall before lifting him back up to pin him against it.
The two were now eye level.
"How you doing?" Johnson asked as he smiled nervously.
The alien growled in his face and head-butted the veteran Sergeant, smashing the front of its helmet against his unprotected face, and knocking him our cold.
The Elite tossed him to the ground only to be hit by a stream of bullets from Keyes.
"Sergeant, stay down!" she yelled as she fired her SMG and advanced toward the Elite.
The point-blank range at which she fired caused the Elite's shields to flare and fail before he dove behind cover. She could have sworn that a bit of purple lashed out and splattered the floor, so he was wounded.
Keyes halted for a moment.
"Johnson, are you alright?" She called out to Johnson.
She didn't get a response.
"Johnson!"
She turned towards him for just a second.
It was one second too many.
Something came jumping from the shadows and slammed down on the ground in front of her.
She turned and fired her SMG point blank at the Elite in front of her, only for the massive creature, that was about three feet taller than her, merely grabbed the barrel and forced her to aim up and empty her magazine into the ceiling, before he wrenched it from her hands with such force that she was thrown to the floor.
The Arbiter tossed the primitive weapon from his grasp and began to walk towards the Human female.
She started crawling towards the other human on the ground, who was still unconscious. Then he saw the the lit up torch and realized she was crawling towards his discarded rifle.
But before he could reach out for her, a ball of blue energy erupted around her. Involuntarily, she froze in place, wincing as she struggled against the force of the field, and was suddenly flown back into the back corner of the room.
Tartarus emerged from the shadows, carrying the unconscious human over his right shoulder, the Fist of Rukt in his left hand, having just used the anti-gravity system within the war-hammer to capture the human.
A number of Jiralhanae warriors stepped out from the shadows behind Tartarus.
"Excellent work, Arbiter," Tartarus said. "The Hierarchs will be pleased."
"The Icon is my responsibility," The Arbiter reminded, still clutching the tiny breech in his armor with his purple-stained palm.
"Was your responsibility," Tartarus mocked as he ripped the T- shaped artifact from the human's belt. "Now it is mine."
Three of the Jiralhanae stepped forwards. One of them grabbed the male human's body from the floor.
The other two Jiralhanae raised their weapons and pointed them at the Arbiter. They were crude, grey weapons with a tubed barrel and a curved blade along the bottom. The
Tartarus tossed the human female onto the shoulder of the Jiralhanae holding the male, and carried them both out of the room.
"A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race," Tartarus declared as he pointed his hammer at the Arbiter. "And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes, will send you to it!"
The Arbiter growled.
"When the Prophets learn of this," He began, with his teeth bared with fury. "They will take your head!"
"When they learn?" Tartarus scoffed at the Arbiter's declaration before his face turned stone cold. "Fool. They ordered me to do it."
The Arbiter was taken aback by this information, his expression going from anger to confusion in an instant. His eyes widened in horror. The Prophets had kept him from prison. They sent him on their most dangerous missions. Why would they choose now to get rid of him?
Still rooted to the spot he stood, he could do nothing to dodge the blue energy sphere that rushed forwards from Tartarus' hammer, but with the Jiralhanae closing in and the bottomless pit behind him, he had nowhere to go.
The sphere sucked him up and spat him out over the edge of the platform, and he fell into the darkness. The light at the top of the hole grew further away as he was swallowed by the blackness, submerging him deep into a world of nothingness.
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