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Halo: Last Stand by Draganos
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Halo: Last Stand
Date: 30 June 2005, 7:15 pm
Halo : Final Stand
- Prologue -
Halo Control Room
Installation 05/Delta Halo
The burning sizzle of plasma energy searing though bear flesh buzzed as the disgraced, but undefeated Elite, The Aribter, thrusted his bluish-white energy sword into the chest cavity of the Brute Chieftain, Tartarus. Red liquid slowly began to run down from the mortal wound between the beast's two pecks as the energy sword was pulled out in a swift motion, stunning both the Arbiter and Tartarus.
"This… ca-cannot….b-b-be!" the massive brute grunted as he dropped to his knees, his mighty gravitational hammer fell to the ancient metallic Forerunner floor, creating a warping effect and sending shards of metal flying in every direction. The white and grey haired ape-like creature clutched his wound tightly, as if trying to somehow stop the unstoppable follow of his own blood. He was used to seeing the blood of his enemies splatter to the floor below, not his own. Tartarus' brilliant tall-standing mohawk had been reduced to nothing more than a white sag of matted hair. His breathing went from steady grunts and whistles, not a gasping struggle for air, as a result of a popped lung. Sensing unbeatable odds, he released the grip on his wound and let the blood rush out.
"Tartarus," the silver armored Elite spoke as he stood over the fallen brute, "You would not believe me or the Oracle when we told you that the Prophets have lead us down a path of lies and misbeliefs. The Prophets all along have known of the powers of these rings, and they have told us otherwise of their capabilities. They have betrayed us, Chieftain, and you failed to see this. All along, their goal has been to eliminate every race but themselves. Halo was meant to kill every being in the universe so that the flood would starve, the Great Journey was a path into death. Thanks to you transgression, you have betrayed every race in the universe just as the Prophets did. You've shown ruthlessness and absolute disregard to our Covenant as the Prophets have. You will suffer the same fate as those who have broken our Covenant and betrayed our universe will receive.
With that, the Elite raised his energy sword in the air as the Chieftain looked up in shock. He tried to yell, "NO!" but the words would not come out. His last feeling was an unpleasant burning as his spirit made transcendence to the life beyond.
Tartarus' detached head bounced off the metallic floor that the Arbiter stood on, and the hard –clank!- Tartarus' steel like skull made with the floor sent a slight tremor of echoes inside the gigantic control room. The echo caused the Arbiter to look up at the massive structure, and he gasped in awe. As soon as his eyes met the large facility in the middle that he was standing under and saw a bright blue beam of light, he remembered.
"No! The key must be stopped from turning!" the Arbiter bellowed, remembering the flood leader Gravemind, as he turned to see the human female rush past him to the control center and rip the green and black Index from pedestal in which it was inserted. She grabbed it and examined it for a moment, before smirking and tossing it over the edge of the platform under which they stood, and the key-like objected tumbled down into the darkness below.
Suddenly, the blue light that had been ignited from the center of the control room was cut off. A huge earthquake-like sensation shook the massive control room and knocked both the human female and the Arbiter off their feet. Suddenly, a blinding light burst through the open top of the control room, causing all to cover their eyes or risk blindness After several sections, the shaking abruptly stopped as did the bright light and left an odd feeling of complete silence.
The Arbiter released an exasperating sigh, as Halo's firing sequence had been stopped and all life in the galaxy had been saved. His relief of the situation turned to sadness and remorse as he looked around at the area where he sat and beyond. As the Arbiter rose to his feet he saw the brutality of his latest battle. Purple and red blood soaked the floor of the control room; the bodies of his fallen brother Elites and Brutes lay scattered amongst each other.
'This did not have to happen,' the Arbiter thought to himself, 'If it were not for the Prophets, then no one, humans or covenant alike would have lost their lives.'
The Arbiter's moment of remorse was cut short from the high pitched voice of the human female, Commander Miranda Keyes, as she called out, "Sergeant! Come Quick!"
The Arbiter rushed over to see the human female greeted by a short black man, with a straight black mustache, a heavily scared face from extreme plasma burns and a short-stubbed cigar in his mouth. The man came in riding the spherical Forerunner AI, The Oracle, or by his terms, 343 Guilty Spark. He wore full camouflage gear including a cap with a slightly bent beak. He was known as Sergeant Johnson, and his reputation was unmatched by almost anyone in the Marine Corps. He had escaped Installation 04 when the Demon, as the Arbiter called him, set fire to the ring by detonating his ship's fusion reactors. Covenant Intelligence reports had also indicated that due to a run-in with a box of plasma grenades, Johnson had suffered 3rd degree burns all over his body and was diagnosed with a mysterious disease known as Boren's Syndrome. This syndrome came in handy however, according to reports that he was immune to the infectious parasite, The Flood, that had claimed the lives of hundreds amongst the human and covenant side. This human, however, had survived it and was considered a major threat by the High Counsil, but not as much of a threat as the green-armored Demon. The Sergeant, with a Covenant beam rifle in hand, saluted the Commander.
"What can I do for you ma'am?" the Sergeant said while grinning at the defeat of the Brutes. Miranda Keys did not respond, as she was fixated on the 7 foot high lizard-like being that stood before the. The Elite looks at Miranda, who took a step back, and then to Sergeant Johnson and titled his head. "Nothing to be afraid of ma'am," Johnson said reassuringly, "He's on our side."
"I see," Keys said unsurelingly.
"I assure you human, I have given up my will to harm humans," the Arbiter said, nodding his head, "I have only recently been made seen that my Prophets have told nothing but lies to myself and my fellow brothers of the Covenant. Together, the Elites, Grunts and Hunters have broken from the Covenant and we now wage war against the Prophets and their followers. We may have started as enemies, but this new war has made us allies."
"Then so be it," Keys said, extending her hand to the Elite.
"Let us defeat the Prophets and bring order to the universe," The Arbiter responded and took the human's hand and shook it, while nodding in approval.
Suddenly, a spherical shaped hologram appeared in front of Keyes that had a denser object in the middle. Puuzzled Keyes asked, "What's that?"
343 Guilty Spark humbling replied, "A beacon." The large, round construct of Forerunner metal with a blue orb of light at the center was quite an odd personality to the Arbiter. He remembered the AI from the human ship, The Pillar of Autumn. He had fled before the fusion reactors had been set ablaze, but he remembered the constant arrogance of it always gloating about it's intellect. It must have survived the detonation of the first Halo, because it was recovered when he killed the Heretic leader. That was something the Arbiter regretted immediately as soon as the thought crossed his mind. He was blinded by the Prophets false promises. First he thought of the Oracle as a holy object, now it was a valuable source of information. Ether way, the Arbiter felt he needed the Oracle.
"What's it doing?" Miranda replied.
"Communicating," the spherical AI replied, it's blue light flickering with each syllable, "At super luminous speeds with the frequency of-"
Keys cut 343 off, "Communicating with what?"
"The…other installations," 343 replied, puzzled that he had to release this information.
"Show me."
"Failsafe protocol," 343 explained as the dense center of the hologram broke up into six diagrams of Halos as Guilty Spark continued, "In the event of unexpected shutdown, the entire system will move to standby status. All remaining platforms are ready for remote activation."
"Remote activation?" Keyes replied in disbelief, "From here?"
"Don't be ridiculous"
"Listen Tinkerbell," Sergeant Johnson interrupted, "Don't make me-"
"Then where?" Keyes interjected, "Where would someone go to activate the other rings?"
343 Guilty Spark paused a moment, looked at all three standing there and replied, "Why the Ark, of course."
The Arbiter decided it was his time to step forward,
"And where, Oracle, is that?"
Halo: Last Stand - Chapter 1 -
Date: 1 July 2005, 8:08 pm
Halo: Last Stand
- Chapter 1 -
Earth Space Territory/Combat Zone
Aboard Ancient Forerunner Ship
10.23.2552 (Military Calendar)
A blinding white light opened in a rift through space, lighting up the ongoing space battlefield amongst Planet Earth space territory. The Covenant invasion on Planet Earth had started, the war had reached it's climax. A silver construct appeared from the bright light and powered into the outskirts of the battle zone. The oddly looking spaceship looked similar to a bare boned triangle, as it had giant beams of unidentified metallic material protruding from above the triangular prism-like core of the ship where the inhabitant's worked and resided. Three other metallic beams shot out from each of the bottom vertexes of the core prism in the middle of the ship. The area of ignition that propelled the ship through both Slipspace and in normal space was located at the base of the prism, directly in the middle. To look at the bottom of the massive craft, the three aft "wings" and engine core could be seen.
The Prophet of Truth, the last of the Noble Hierarchs of the once mighty Covenant looked at the Plant Earth in awe.
"So long, I have waited for this day," he said to himself, "And they said it would never come."
The Covenant leader was dressed in a red robe with blue markings, with a golden "crown" like object resting behind his serpent like neck and head. On his oval shaped head, donned a actual golden crown, that was built to feature a vertically high head piece that was shaped like a diamond but the center of the diamond from the middle portion up was missing, leaving two sharp "tower-like" pieces that curved inward. At the very center of his headpiece was a black circle that was highlighted by a greenish-blue holographic image of the holy construct, Halo. He sat on a grey floating chair that hummed as it hovered over the ground.
The first Halo had been desecrated by the green armored Demon, known by the humans as the Master Chief. He destroyed his ship's reactors and severed the ring in several areas. He arrived at the second Halo that the Covenant had found, landed his filthy boots upon and, and then boarded the Covenant Holy City, High Charity. Truth closed his eyes and grimaced at the loss of the city that he had called his own for decades, that is, until the parasite invested it. The flood had done so much damage to his city and he swore vengeance upon them, but his first task was to eliminate the humans. Truth knew what the humans were truly capable of, and Halo was the only way to stop them.
"All the time spent looking," Truth said as he looked at an odd shaped crystal on the pedestal beside him, "and here we are, at the doorstep of the Great Journey." Truth knew that the crystal could bend the physics of Slipspace, increasing speed and giving the Covenant a distinct advantage over the humans. The Prophet of Truth looked towards one of his brute's at the navigational controls. "Set a course for orbit around the planet."
The brute grunted affirmatively and tapped on a holographic panel, causing the ship to accelerate. The bridge was a massive room covered by silver walls with odd inscriptions arising from every panel. The inscriptions seemed to be similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. There were pictures of objects and figures with human features, there was even a number of large circular rings . Truth tried to resist looking at the inscriptions for he knew the story they told.
The bridge consisted of upper, lower, and middle deck. Looking at the upper deck, the left side was dedicated to the ship's communications, the right side consisted of long and short range radar systems, and the center of the upper deck was tactical command. All three stations were operated by blue and orange holographic panels that were physically touchable. The lower deck was quite small and was situated in front of a view screen, and it was there that navigation control was accessed. It had two holographic panels, and one seats behind each of them.. The middle deck had small steps to the left and right of the center to provide access to each of the three levels of the bridge. In the center were two grey seats of some material that resembled leather, that would be used for the captain of the vessel, and his first officer. On the armrest of each chair was a similar holographic panel, but much more condensed with less controls. All stations were controlled by brutes.
The Prophet of Truth hovered from side to side along the middle deck as he watched vessel after vessel of the Covenant destroy numerous human vessels before being destroyed itself. Truth smiled to himself, as he thought he was a genius for putting each Prophet of the Covenant; of course minor, in command of the capital ships that dominated the battle against the humans. The rest of the ships were controlled by high ranking Brute Captains, making them equally as deadly.
Truth's train of thought was cut off by the barking of a Brute at Communications, "Noble Prophet Truth, I am intercepting a transmission from on of the human defense stations!"
"Where is the communication being transmitted?" Truth replied, partly stunned by this threatening detail.
"From just inside the ship's hull," the Brute, "What do I do Noble Hierarch?"
"Put it through,"
Despite some slight interference the sound quality of the transmission,
"This is Spartan 117, can anyone hear me? Over," a deep, rough voice blasted through the ship's speakers.
"Isolate that signal," ordered the other side of the communication, "Master Chief? Do you mind telling me what you are doing on that ship?"
The Prophet's eyes widened as he heard, "Sir, Finishing this Fight!"
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"Lord Hood, sir, the remaining high Prophet is aboard this ship, and my mission is to take him out, Over!" the voice replied in a determined manner.
"Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be a chance in hell I'd like you do that, Chief. Earth is at the brink of annihilation, and we need every advantage we can get," the obvious higher ranking official tensely replied, "Green Light! Go kill us a Prophet! When you've eliminated all hostiles, contact Cairo. But you've only got 15 minutes, Chief, or else I have no choice but to fire, Over"
"Affirmative, sir"
"And Chief?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Good Luck!"
The transmission ended, leaving the bridge in silence. The Brute Captain, Torus, growled, "The Demon! He must be eliminated!" Torus was a rather large Brute, but with a few features that set him apart from others. Instead of brown fur, Torus donned a brilliant green coat. The reasons for this colour were unknown, but it made the Prophet of Truth more attracted to this young prospect so much that he was promoted to Captain within 3 weeks of joining the covenant armed forces. Also, he donned an massive scare that formed an "X" on his forehead, running from the right side of his skill to the left in a diagonal motion, as well as another than ran from the left side of his skull to the right. He received these two marks from a fight with two Brutes with brute shots when he was younger. The two assaulted him, beat him with the sharp sickles on the back of their weapons. But Torus, with an advanced skill set in the area of hand to hand combat, defeated the two primates and left their corpses in a crumpled heap. Amongst his colleges, he was often called the X-Factor mainly from his scar, but also because of his ability to make the difference in several battles against the humans.
"NO!" the Prophet of Truth said, raising one hand in the air to call order, "We may need him, I want the Demon alive."
Torus growled, but nodded in response and keyed the comm., "All Brutes report to the bridge immediately! NOW!"
The Prophet of Truth gazed out into the view screen, awaiting fate.
___________________________________________________________
John 117, the Master Chief, cut the communication link with Lord Hood on the Cairo defense station and slid down a slope to the ground below. He had just made it onto the ship, and now his mission was to kill the Prophet of Truth. As John slid, he recalled the events of the day. His encounter with the Gravemind, the flood invested High Charity, and leaving Cortona. Cortona was the closest friend that the Chief had ever since he had been separated from his fellow brothers and sisters of the SPARTAN II program. She had let the Chief go so that she could stop the flood if they tried to activate High Charity's Slipspace engines. It was the ultimate sacrifice, but the Chief understood what she had to do. He did promise that he would come back to her after Truth was killed, and he held out hope that she would still be alive.
The green armored mammoth's boots hit the forerunner ground with an affirmative –clank!- and he walked towards a door situated in front of him. He stopped on his way however, to check his ammo supply. In his hand he held an Battle Rifle with 3 magazines left, and with three quarters of a magazine left. He had a shotgun with 20 rounds left. He had 3 fragmentation grenades and 4 plasma grenades. Overall he felt pretty good, but he knew by taking on a whole ship of enemies, he'd have to scavenge some other weapons once his ammunition was low.
John walked towards the door in front of him and noticed its features. It was a double panel door that extended 14 feet high and resembled a diamond except the top and bottom vertexes were flat. The door was mainly silver metallic with a black portion in the middle extending to both sides with green arrows pointing inwards. They looked almost identical to the doors that John passed through on the first Halo that he landed on. As he stepped towards the door, a light flickered and with a hum, the doors opened.
John then preceded down a number of corridors, checking his Heads Up Display (HUD), mainly his motion tracker for any hostile movement. He found none, strangely. He continued through hallways, and while cautiously looking for enemies, he marveled in the awe of the Forerunner ship. The architecture of mainly triangle like constructs were both impressive and a wondrous site to look at. The Chief shook is head, and remembered that he only had 15 minutes to take control of the ship. His plan was to make his way to the bridge and eliminate all the hostiles in that area, take out the Prophet of Truth, and lock himself in. It was a flawless plan in John's view, he knew he would win, because he always won.
As John made round after round around corners and doors, he began to get suspicious. Why were there no hostiles? Had Truth taken the ship alone? It didn't seem likely in theory, but it soon became a reality when he finally spotted one contact on his radar that was beyond a larger version of the door that he first passed through. The door hissed open and John stepped onto the Forerunner bridge to see the highly golden shackled Prophet of Truth sitting on his hover chair, staring out into the space beyond through the view screen.
The Master Chief put his Battle Rifle into combat mode as he brought it to his head and aimed for the slight portion of the Prophet's head that was exposed to his targeting reticule.
"Alas, Demon we meet again," Truth said calmly.
"You're Great Journey is over Truth," the Master Chief responded as he stepped forward, "The war is over!"
Truth then paused and chuckled quietly, "Unfortunately for you, Demon, the Great Journey has just begun!"
With that, the sound of doors sliding open and grunts of Brutes echoed in the huge bridge. John looked behind him, and to the left and saw that each of the doors had opened and hundreds of Brutes began piling out, armed with brute shots, brute plasma rifles, and covenant carbines. They began to form a circle around him, lead by a large Brute Captain with green fur. John frantically looked all around him, above and below. Along the ceiling several of the bug-like drones stuck, holding plasma pistols and chirping in their own tongue. Along the newly seen balconies, three dozen of the vulture-like Jackels were situated along every few feet, all with beam rifles pointed directly at John's head.
"Demon, you have failed," the Prophet of Truth said as his chair hovered towards the captured Spartan, "You have failed to delay the inevitable demise of your human race and just to make matters more interesting, you are going to be their murderer! Torus, take him to the brig and I am assigning you to personally guard him, make sure he says in his cell!"
"With pleasure Noble Prophet Truth," Torus replied, and he grabbed the Chief's arm with a forcible grip and his Brutes stripped him of all his weapons. Torus led John and his fellow Brutes out of the bridge and down the corridor as the Prophet of Truth laughed in an evil and sadistic manner.
All John could think as he walk down the corridor was of the way he had failed all of his fellow Spartans, Dr. Hasley, CPO Mendez, Captain Keyes, and the entire human race.
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