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Ring Of The Forerunners Part I
Date: 24 December 2002, 11:01 pm

Author's note: This is my first time publishing something on HBO. I would appreciate feedback.

Location: Earth
Year: 2025
Time: 0585

      A huge asteroid was on a supposed collision course with earth. The United States government decided to keep the asteroid a secret to keep earth calm, even though they knew it would annihilate all life on earth within 2 hours and 35 minutes.

      The Spacefront Guild and NASA were given permission to fund the "Noah Project". A select group of volunteers were to be put in a large ship, created on little notice, using experimental space travel technology, and a hibernation device that had only been tested on monkeys. The ship was then to be launched to a solar system where life might exist, and land in a strange world. The journey would take an estimated time of 502 years. 502 years of having their bodies perfectly preserved. It was a risk that might spare 100 or so humans- if it worked.

      The impact day came, and the ship was launched. The 2 crewmembers set a course for the system and then went into hibernation. They had only traveled so far when the asteroid reached its destination. Almost... It missed Earth. All those people were put on a very risky 500-year journey for nothing.

The government could never tell anyone the terrible thing they had done.

Location: Halo
Year: 2525
Time: 0600 hours

       The two Forerunners stood in the center of the massive, rotating hologram. The hologram was a map, really. A map of the amazing ring world called HALO, something ancient forerunners had built 1,000 years ago. But now these forerunners would complete their work. Halo would serve as a cage for the experimental "perfect" species: The Flood. After a millennium of interference by the Ascendants, Halo's purpose could now be fulfilled. After the first Ascendant attack on halo billions of years ago, the ascendants had been temporarily defeated.

      One of the Forerunners, Shang-Zaer, motioned to an area of the huge hologram. Red lights were flashing all over the hologram. A battle was raging on in one of the valleys. A hive of Flood had escaped their lab. Shang-Zaer smiled, and the other Forerunner seemed angry. <The visiting ambassadors will not be pleased with your ability to control the Flood!>.<Oh, that's where you're wrong!> said Shang-Zaer. <The rebel Flood has just given me an opportunity to kill two spores with one blaster shot! I'll impress the visiting ambassadors and test out all 300-monitor prototypes! >. <Spores? Monitor Prototypes?> Shang-Zaer frowned. <You obviously don't know much about the Flood!> <And you do? I thought you were only the robotics engineer here!>

Shang-Zaer lifted a small device with several buttons. He pressed some of the buttons, and a blue force field appeared around the two Forerunners. A cage door slid open on the other side of the room, and out stumbled a yellowish-mutated creature. It had thin legs, and a HUGE head, about 4 feet wide starting at the forehead. Pulsing veins could be seen all around the head. The Inspection Forerunner shivered in disgust. <What is it? > <Their reproductive cycle. A number of spores can fuse into this strain of Flood that we call a carrier. The carrier can then spawn more spores, which can grow into carriers or infest hosts>. <Please don't tell me they reproduce by-> the head of the carrier burst open like a garbage bag. Remains of the head spattered against the force field. Five squid like creatures burst out of the head, and began running around on the floor. The force field de-activated. <AWWW! THAT'S DISGUSTING!> <Beautiful isn't it? That's why they multiply and spread so fast! And that's also why we designed the monitor prototypes. We need a "monitor" droid that can oversee the progress of the Flood on HALO, and keep our experiment from infesting the galaxy. We built 300 prototypes to find the perfect one- and this battle is the perfect time to do just that>.

<Why are you so cautious about controlling a non-sentient species? > <Ah! I thought you'd ask! The chosen droid must also be able to activate Halo's built-in super weapon if the Flood gets too powerful>. <And the super weapon would be...? > One of the monitor prototypes drifted up to Shang-Zaer. He spoke with a butler-sounding accent. "Sir, all monitor prototypes are mobilized and ready to begin the test. The Flood has already infested 31 of our own forerunners". Shang-Zaer motioned his hand toward the other forerunner. <Ah- that's my call to the battlefield>.

The inspector would never know what the super weapon was.

Meanwhile:
Covonet cruiser above the Ice planet Thor

Light from the star reflected of the sleek, purple, cruiser. A fleet of banshees descended from the hangar, approaching the hapless planet, a white marble in space. The planet was home to a semi-intelligent race with no technology, but good aim with native spears. Prophet Arnaka had foreseen that this race would make perfect "cannon fodder" for the alliance of species known as the Covonet. Once armies of this race were rounded up in the approaching cruisers, the Covonet would finally have enough troops to attack the forerunner structure known as Halo.

Surface of the ice planet Thor

Four small creatures holding spears leapt swiftly out of the cave. Just outside was a very rare geographical feature: a crack in the ice. A large, fury, walrus like creature, was using its trunk to drink from the water in the ice crack. The small creatures ducked down and advanced on their prey. The ice crack was no big deal, it was the walrus creature they were after. The grunts were starving.

One grew tired of waiting to receive the precious pile of food that lay ahead. He jumped out from behind the snowdrift and threw his spear at the walrus creature. The spear stabbed him in the back, and the creature let out a long moan of pain. The corpse suddenly began slipping and sliding across the ice. All four grunts jumped forward, racing to the food. The massive corpse slid off the ice into the freezing water. Startled, the grunt that had thrown the spear jumped into the freezing water to retrieve the meat, killing him instantly.
      The three remaining grunts curiously stepped up to the crack and looked down into the freezing water, cocking their heads to one side. Suddenly a purple scout banshee streaked through the white misty sky and began descending. The grunts looked up just in time to see a plasma missile hit the ground just behind them. The explosion threw them all forward into the crack of ice.
      Several grunts ran howling out of the cave to avenge their friends. They soon spotted a large number of purple dots approaching in a line. Covonet ghosts. While the grunts with arrows and spears made a hopeless effort against the banshee, others swarmed together to combat the incoming ghosts, running down the side of a snowy hill to meet the attackers. When the ghosts arrived and saw the armed grunts, they immediately began firing away. One grunt threw his spear directly into the motor of a ghost owned by Captain Salivar, the elite leader of this squad. A huge fireball flared up from engine. The Jackal driving it disintegrated, And the two passengers were throw backward onto the ice as what was left of the ghost flipped over. Captain Salivar found his balance, and drawing his rifle, he barked orders to his squadron. "Use the ghosts as fire cover! I want all these grunts cleared out of here in 5 minutes so the lieutenant commander can land!" He ducked behind the crashed ghost, armed his rifle, and began firing off a round of shots at the incoming grunts, hitting their feet so they flipped over and landed on their backs.
      Another wave of grunts with spears and clubs advanced down the hill like a swarm moving in unison. Ghosts were flipping and blowing up everywhere, because the grunts had finally realized the needed to target the engines. Elites and Jackals were firing away at the incoming wave of grunts as a wind of spears flew down from the hilltop. Suddenly, a small communicator's device on Salivar's armor began beeping. He ducked his head down behind the fallen ghost, exposing only one hand and the weapon. He continued to fire randomly into the wave of grunts as he pressed a button on the communicator.
      The face of a disgusting, blue snail like creature appeared on the communicator: Lieutenant commander Nahara. The Covonet usually used this species as engineers, but Nahara was too good for that. He had an excellent, strategic mind. The creature spoke in a disgusting, slurred voice. "Captain Salivar! I have been informed that you have attacked the grunts! You were strictly told not to-" "Nahara! They resisted, so I had to give my men the order to fire!" "I see! We will have to send our priests to make a treaty with a different tribe! But we cannot let word of our attack on a friendly tribe spread to the other grunts! You must annihilate all the grunts you find here! And hurry up and clear them out. The next tribe we find is to be armed and launched right away! We'll come back for the rest later!" "What's the hurry?" Asked Salivar as he blasted a grunt's head off without even noticing. "Some prophet rescheduled the attack date. We need as many troops as we can in the shortest time possible. I guess he thought the Forerunners would interfere!" "That's just what we need!" said Salivar in a mocking voice. Nahara interrupted before Salivar could continue his complaints. "Is my landing ground clear yet?" "Almost" Answered Salivar as he watched the only banshee rain missiles down upon the grunt village. "Excellent. I'll be arriving in three minutes! Oh, and Salivar, radar detected another vessel approaching Halo. Large, and pointy. The species that built it could not be identified. We're not alone Salivar".

Ring Of The Forerunners Part II
Date: 29 December 2002, 9:00 pm

Author's note: Keep that feedback coming! Also, I'm sorry this part took so long to get here. Like most HBO authors, I was busy with the holidays.

Location: Halo
Valley near the Forerunner lab ANIM

The sleek, teal Forerunner craft hovered at about 90 or so feet above the bloodbath below. The swarm of escaped Flood swarmed across the valley, infesting and slaughtering innocent Forerunner scientists. Carriers were blowing up, spores leaping at fleeing forerunners, bedlam and chaos everywhere. The ambassador who was on the craft gazed down at destruction below him, as a small rocket pounded the bottom of the ship's hull. He made a deep, angry frown as anger and rage swelled up inside him. Shang-Zaer stepped up to the ambassador, resting his hand on the ambassador's shoulder. The ambassador did not turn around. He continued to gaze down at the battlefield as he yelled at Shang-Zaer. <Why do you allow this to continue? You could give the order any second and end this! How can you just calmly watch the destruction of your own people?>
       He motioned to the many soldiers that stood around the balcony of the roofed "hover" craft. Each soldier was wearing armor and holding powerful handheld plasma cannons. The armor was shielded, and it looked like Spartan armor except it was silver, and slightly larger to fit the Forerunner body. The soldiers to, seemed unable to watch the destruction of fellow Forerunners without blasting the Flood to smoldering bits. Still, they had been given an order not to shoot, and they were completely loyal to all orders.
       <If I let the soldiers fire, ambassador, there will be no Flood left to use for the test. It's not like me to give up such an opportunity to accomplish so much! I was hoping that impressing you with the test would be one of those accomplishments. I already spoke with the other 2 ambassadors, and they are very pleased with my progress! > <I should cut of all progress of the Flood creation right now! I want for at least SOME good to come out of sacrificing our own scientists! These so called monitor-prototypes better get here soon enough to save some of our scientists! > A wave of floating, shinny-blue orbs suddenly appeared on the horizon of the left hill. They began descending like a swarm, a cloud of them swooping over packs of Flood warriors. Laser fire from the Monitor Prototypes swept across the ground like searchlights, eradicating packs of Flood warriors, and even hitting some of the fleeing scientists. One of them obviously hadn't been equipped with a laser weapon. It just floated in the same position above the battlefield. It didn't seem to be paying attention to the battle; it was just staring off in some other direction. The ambassador turned to Shang-Zaer, a look of fierce anger on his face. He couldn't bear to watch innocent Forerunners carelessly slaughtered by some stupid experimental droids. Shang-Zaer spoke quickly, but in a calm, wise sounding voice. But Shang-Zaer was not wise, they both new he was just some greedy Forerunner engineer. <The purpose of this test is to select the perfect Monitor Droid for Halo, not defend individuals>.
       The ambassador could no longer control his overwhelming anger. He turned swiftly, startling Shang-Zaer, and then slugged the engineer in the face. Shang-Zaer had been wearing a helmet, but the punch shattered the golden visor. He was just beginning to regain his balance, when a second punch drove him through the glass and onto the observation balcony. The support rail was shattered as he flew off the edge and vanished below. Standing on the balcony, the satisfied ambassador looked up just in time to see an inch-thick, controlled beam of red energy shoot up from below the ship. The energy beam was not like a regular blaster shot or a bullet; it continued to go on, like light from a flashlight. It penetrated the shield and armor of a nearby Forerunner soldier, and then, very swiftly, streaked through his torso, and burst out of his back. The soldier stumbled to one side, and the stream of energy stopped. No further damage was done to the soldier, the hit was completely clean. No one really bothered to analyze the damage though, as the corpse slipped over the edge of the balcony and stumbled downward into the valley. The ambassador looked away just in time to see a severely wounded Shang-Zaer climbing up the hull of the ship towards the balcony. He grabbed a post on the balcony, and tried to stumble back onto the ship. The ambassador leveled a large weapon at his head as he started to yell. <YOU TRAI-> In a sudden rain of energy, streaks of red streaked through the torsos of every soldier onboard, along with the ambassador. Corpses began slipping off the balcony that surrounded the ship, making a 90-foot fall into the battle below. It was definitely a bad idea to position all the guards on the balcony.
      Shang-Zaer stumbled back on board, gazing at the piles of corpses around him. He ripped off his destroyed helmet and carelessly tossed itbehind his back. The ship was vibrating rapidly and shaking. Apparently, one of those energy streams had streaked through the hull and hit the engine. A female sounding mechanical voice echoed across the deck. "WARNING! HULL HAS TAKEN CRITICAL DAMAGE! HOVER ENGINE IS SHUTTING DOWN! WARNING!" A 90-foot fall would not be long once it began. Shang-Zaer didn't have much time to make a jump, and so he instantly ran toward the balcony and dove off the edge. A piece of the hovercraft blew up behind him in a clash of metal and a burst of flames. Shang-Zaer didn't have much time to think as he fell, but he did. That laser fire was sentinel weaponry! I thought those prototypes were still being built! Someone must have hacked into the computer system and activated them! He glanced up at the monitor who still hovered motionless above the battle, watching the sentinels eradicate everything. You did it! You activated the sentinels! Of course! You didn't use you laser fire, and never will, because you have a much greater power!

Meanwhile
Covonet stronghold on the ice planet Thor

2 ghosts were escorting a large Covonet pig across the snowy landscape toward a large valley. A Covonet pig is a sleek purple, hover vehicle with 2 seats up front and a gunner seat in the back. Pigs also have 2 plasma cannons on both sides of the front, near the bottom. You could say it was the Covonet version of a "warthog". The vehicles descended into the valley, where a large Covonet stalker ship was "parked". A banshee had landed on either side of the stalker, and a blue armored elite stood next to each one. Wearing a bulky environmental suit, the elite captain Salivar jumped out of the passenger seat of the pig, as the vehicle slowed to stop. Salivar moved to the front of the Stalker and waited patiently. Slowly, a sliding door opened in the front, and a large ramp slid down. 2 sword elites in gold armor walked to the bottom of the ramp and saluted the captain. Then they turned as a large, blue, snail like creature slithered down the ramp. He was hovering at least 3 inches above the ramp, and had semi-transparent, slimy blue skin. At the back of his "torso", near the bottom, was a large, pulsing, purplish bag. These were the very distinct features of Covonet Lieutenant Nahara. Both Salivar and the sword elites saluted him as he reached the bottom of the ramp. "Nahara, our drop ship is now en-route with the nearest primitive grunt colony, and we are moving the orbital cruiser into position to load them up once the treaty is formed!"
       Nahara responded in a deep, slurred voice. "Salivar, how many troops is the drop ship carrying? How many banshees are escorting it?" Salivar replied slowly in a confused voice: "Nahara, the drop ship only carries Covonet priests, and there are no banshee escorts! The mission of the drop ship is to make a treaty with this grunt tribe and send them Covonet missionaries! You even said-" "You weak minded fool!" The skin around Nahara's slimy head flared as he yelled angrily at Salivar. "I cautioned you about this in our last conversation! Did you not just finish a battle with a grunt tribe? These are not peaceful, treaty-making, intelligent beings we are dealing with here! It makes no difference to them if we are armed! Your forces are to be ready for grunt attacks at all times! In fact, I doubt these creatures are even as intelligent as the semi-sentient, aquatic Gabunkas on the planet Nash!"
      Salivar stumbled backwards, terrified. "Lieutenant, I did not know you were so concerned about the intelligence of these creatures! In fact, we dissected one of them, and they ARE less intelligent then the Gabunkas!" It was only after Salivar said this that he realized Nahara was only joking. He tried quickly to correct his mistake, but Nahara was too quick. "YOU CARELESS IMBECILE! YOU WILL PAY FOR ALL THIS!" Nahara motioned to the 2 sword elites, and before Salivar could flinch, he was hacked to bits by plasma swords. Nahara rotated his slug-like head, and looked down at the chunks of elite that lay on the ground, a look of pity on his face. He turned to the elite that had been driving the pig. "Captain Garsh, you will now take Salivar's place in command. I know you wont fail me Captain!" Startled, the newly appointed captain jumped out of the seat, and stumbled forward, saluting Nahara. "We must ensure that the missionaries have made that treaty!" Nahara barked to Garsh. "Get those ground vehicles onto-" Suddenly a grunt spear swooped out of nowhere and ricocheted off Garsh's head armor. "What the-" Garsh turned around, drew his plasma pistol, and rapidly began to fire into the wave of blue that was now swooping down the side of the hill.
      Garsh instantly took charge, barking orders to his men. "Grunt survivors of the last battle! Fire at will!" Both sword elites charged into the wave, and the ghosts charged forward as the drivers released a rain of plasma. There was no longer a driver in the pig, so the elite gunner rotated the automatic plasma turret and fired a stream of plasma into the wave. He swayed the turret back and forth, killing any grunts that stumbled into his line of fire. A group of grunts holding clubs surrounded a sword elite and pounced. One of the grunts managed to jump up and whack the elite in the head, killing him. As the elite fell over, a grunt snatched his plasma sword and began waving it aimlessly over his head as he charged towards one of the ghosts. Without noticing, the grunt sliced the elite who was driving it in half, and whacked the engine of the ghost. The ghost blew up and the grunt was thrown backward by the impact. Captain Garsh stopped firing and ran forward, hopping into the driver's seat of the pig. He slowly rotated the hover vehicle, and activated the plasma cannons on the front. A grunt slinger threw some kind of rock into the left cannon. The energy flow was clogged, and the cannon blew up, leaving only the right cannon, the gunner, and Garsh's plasma pistol. For once it seemed like the rebel grunts might win!
       Nahara turned and hovered back up the ramp into the stalker as the ramp began to close. Both banshees had already taken off and were now raining plasma upon the incoming grunt wave. " Tell those banshees to get back over here and escort us to the objective point!" Nahara barked to the pilot as the door behind him closed. "We'll leave Garsh and his men behind to distract the grunts! I'll appoint a new captain when we get back to the fortress!" The stalker took off, and the 2 banshees quickly joined it as it vanished over the horizon, stranding Garsh and his men in the icy valley. Salivar had carelessly dropped his communicator before he was hacked to bits. Garsh was still battling the grunts when the communicator device turned on. An elite appeared on the screen. "Captain Salivar! Excellent news! The missionaries you sent finally made a treaty with a tribe of those weird blue things! All the males in the tribe are being armed and loaded onto the corvette as we speak!" The elite stared at the white he saw on the screen, waiting for Salivar to pop up and reply. "Salivar? ... Salivar?"

Back on HALO
Remains of the Forerunner lab ANIM

Shang-Zaer sat in a large control room, wearing a life-support suit. This was the last functional control room in ANIM to be precise! The control room and the few remaining functional labs were controlled by a single power core in the interior of Halo, and intelligence reported a large number of Flood had infested the interior bellow Halo and waves of Flood Warriors were heading towards the power core. Forerunner technicians were trying to figure out: did the Flood actually KNOW it would easy to take ANIM once the power core was destroyed? Or was this unusual migration a coincidence? At one end of the room, a captain was rallying what was left of his troops. This squad was originally used to control the Flood on ANIM, but now they were just being sent into the interior of Halo to eradicate all the Flood. The flood was to powerful now for the Forerunner to make any efforts to control it. The Flood was now considered a failed creation, and the new plan was to contain what was left of the Flood once most of the Flood had been eradicated. The chosen monitor would then be left behind with a group of sentinels to make sure the contained Flood did not escape. The Forerunners would never annihilate a WHOLE species, and they wanted to keep their reputation as "elder, peaceful beings".
      A forerunner soldier approached Shang-Zaer. A monitor prototype hovered next to him. "Shang-Zaer, this is the prototype you requested to speak to!" The soldier left, and Shang-Zaer turned to the Monitor. "Don't act innocent, monitor, I know you activated those sentinels. How did you do it? And why?" Just like all the other monitors, this one spoke in a butler-sounding accent. "The security firewall was poorly programmed! I could so easily hack through and activate the sentinels! I would never give up such an opportunity to accomplish so much!" Shang-Zaer realized the monitor was quoting HIM! How does he know this? Shang-Zaer thought. And then, suddenly, he realized why it was this particular monitor that had activated the sentinels. If the firewall was so poorly programmed, ANY of the droids could have hacked in and activated the sentinels! But then again, they were all ORDERED not to do that! That's it! That's the greater power this droid has! He has something none of the other ones do! Free will! Not ARTIFICIAL intelligence, TRUE intelligence! He continued to speak to the monitor as if he had not just discovered the droids secret, but he had a feeling the monitor could see right through him. "You cost me a lot of men! And that ambassador! I had to burn what was left of that ship, and then make up some excuse about how flood warriors blew it up! You almost cost me my job!" He acted frustrated, but deep inside he was really thinking: I've found it! I've found the perfect monitor! This is such a happy moment its unreal! "I apologize." The monitor answered in a calm voice. Then there was sort of a long, awkward pause. "Monitor!" Shang-Zaer interrupted the silence. "What is you name?" The monitor looked upward slightly and spoke in a proud voice, as if reciting a poem.
"I am 343-GuiltySpark"

Meanwhile
Elsewhere on Halo

The large, human ship began to lower itself to the ground. Three metallic legs unfolded with a swish and touched the ground. This was the ship that had been launched in 2025, the ship that carried a small number of Human passengers that had been in hibernation for 500 years. All the passengers stepped out of the vessel and looked around. THESE were truly the first humans to set foot on Halo. The master chief would not arrive for many, many years. Only the pilot, who had awakened an hour in advance to land the craft, had seen the huge ring world. He could not possibly explain it to the passengers. He was about to make a hopeless attempt do just that, when all the passengers saw what looked like a huge, sloping, tower in the distance. Mountains, oceans, and plains covered the side of the huge structure. In fact, there was one on both sides of them. "What is that thing?" asked one of the passengers. It was the pilot who replied. "I don't know but we're standing on it".

TO BE CONTINUED

Ring Of The Forerunners Part III
Date: 17 January 2003, 9:54 pm

Author's note: Thanks to Velker for coming up with the idea for a Covonet "pig" vehicle, which I used in part 2. If you haven't already read any of Velker's work, you should. Also, I should say not to expect any more of Demosethnes work for a while, because I have been informed that he moved on the 15th. His series, 5-way-war, has a character named Locke!

Covonet cruiser: Trime
"Missionary" fleet
High orbit around the ice world Thor

Nahara sat in his throne in the center of the huge ship-control room, and I mean HUGE! You could probably fit a Covonet Cathedral in here! The room was shaped like a giant circle, with lots of observation balconies and control computers everywhere. The wall on the front half of the room was a huge, purple, semi-transparent window. All the balconies faced this window, and it was out the window the Nahara gazed. He looked out longingly at the void of space, imagining the Covonet fleet spreading across the universe, uniting all races and finally ruling with peace and order, living together as ONE race, and ONE people. With his persuasive speaking, he would work his way up through the Covonet ranks, until his name was known as much as the names of the great prophets! He, then, would take charge of the TRUE objective of the Covonet. Of course, in his quest for peace, he would face the occasional obstacle that would have to be eradicated. Suddenly, a purple dot appeared off in the void of space. As it grew, Nahara could see it was a large, Covonet cruiser.

"Cruiser! Identify yourself at once! This is Admiral Nahara of the Trime!"
He said his new rank with pride. He had convinced the prophets to give him credit for the work Salivar had really done, and made up some story about how Salivar died in battle. Luckily, he thought to himself, all the men who saw me destroy Salivar were eradicated by the grunts. These rebel grunts have proven to be useful after all! Suddenly, a jackal appeared on the huge screen in front of his thrown. The Jackal was obviously sitting in front of a control panel of some kind.

"This is the Deliverer, commander Nahara! The grunt army has been fully loaded up and armed!"

Obviously, the Jackal had been given a script of what to say to Nahara.

"More excellent news as well! Commander Garsh survived! He docked recently in Hangar5 and has been given control of the ship".

A look of horror crossed Admiral Nahara's face. Had Garsh told the prophets what he had done? Still, he knew he had to play along with this Jackal.

"Excellent, Private! Tell Garsh to pull the Deliverer up next to the Trime! We'll proceed to Domicile from there!"
Domicile is the Covonet "home" planet. It was not really a home planet because none of the Covonet races originated on Domicile. It was more of a "headquarters" planet.

"Also, before you tell your commander, may I see the..."

The Jackal pressed a button before Garsh could finish talking. Either this was one smart Jackal or some earpiece was telling him what to do.

An amazing sight suddenly appeared on every screen on the Trime. It was an overhead view of what looked like a sea of blue and orange. It was actually the Grand Grunt Army, marching in a proud formation across a cathedral sized room. They held plasma rifles and pistols up to their chests as they walked, some just looked confused, and others glanced around the massive room with aw and wonder. There were several steel balconies around the top of the room, where scaly-skinned prophets looked down with pride at what "Nahara" had accomplished. Now they could accomplish the Covonet dream of making sure the Forerunner did not interfere with their uniting the universe by peace and force. They would invade Halo at the next "sunrise".

Covonet Cruiser "Deliverer"
Onboard citadel of mourning

Garsh knelt before the alter in the huge, red-walled citadel. The alter was covered by a thin, red cloth, and a large "urn" sat in the center of the alter, containing Salivar's body parts. Blue candle-like devices were on either side of the urn. This was the citadel of loss and mourning, and so it was red to represent the blood of both triumph and loss in battle. Tears streamed down the sides of Garsh's head and neck. He could not see at all, his eyes were watery, and more water would continue to come. He now knelt alone in the citadel, kneeling in the middle of a large puddle.
             I know you were my brother by blood, Salivar, but if you were not, I would mourn this much for your loss still, for you were truly my brother by heart. You were always with me in times of grief, and I for you. I truly can never be happy in the mortal world without you by my side as a brother of heart, but I will stay here and avenge you, and then fulfill your dream in your name. Nahara did not know we were brothers when he slaughtered you, but it would make no difference if we were not, and so he will learn in time. I can only be slightly happy, only go for a day without crying for your loss, when I have avenged you. And then, and I can only be truly happy when I have fulfilled your dreams, for this will truly reserve a place of a honor for me among the gods, so I can re-join you and live eternally in your presence when I have passed on.
       He stood and walked out of the citadel, leaving a trail of water as he walked. He didn't care anymore. Only Salivar mattered now.
             The first of my promises will be accomplished immediately, my brother. Nahara will die this day!

Back in the Trime control room

Nahara stared at the cruiser. It was almost next to them now. Covonet cruisers were very massive ships. There were so many hangars on them; they looked like flashing bright lines moving across the ship. Suddenly, a large purple cloud burst out of the side of the ship, coming from one of the bright lines. The cloud began moving toward the Trime, expanding, and getting denser. Nahara was about to contact the Deliverer and ask them if they were insane, but the image of a gold-armored elite appeared on the screen. It was Garsh.

"Greetings Nahara. I only pretended to be happy when you appointed me captain back on Thor. Everyone calls me commodore here!"

"What is the meaning of this Garsh!? You can't just deploy whatever that thing is without clearance!"

"Nahara you fool! Salivar was my brother!"

A smile of satisfaction appeared on Garsh's face and the screen shut off. Only then did Nahara realize what was happening. "Private!" He barked to a Jackal. Get on radar and tell me what that that purple cloud is!" The muffled voice of the Jackal sounded confused.. "There must be a virus implanted in the computer! According to this, its 10,000 banshees moving in thousands of perfect little formations". Nahara cursed (In his language). He suddenly barked orders to everyone on deck. "Launch all plasma torpedoes at the Deliverer! NOW!" Before they could respond to his orders, a massive green beam of energy shot out of the side of the Deliverer, aimed directly at the window of the bridge. Some Covonet launched the torpedoes, but most ducked for cover or grabbed air helmets. The cloud of banshees eradicated most of the few torpedoes before they could reach the Deliverer. Only 3 torpedoes struck the ship. One did no damage, it was hit earlier and was flying off course, and another failed to penetrate the shield and exploded in a flash of blue. One penetrated the shield. The huge, green, beam however, had penetrated the shield so easily you could barely tell one was there. Most of the window shattered. Shards flew everywhere, things exploded, and the entire Trime shook violently.
       In all this time, the growing cloud of banshees split up into thousands of formations, and the biggest formation was beginning to pour into the Bridge like water flooding a damaged submarine. Some of the bridge survivors hopped swiftly into plasma turrets and stationary guns, and fired away at the wave. Elites and Jackals threw plasma grenades that stuck to the banshees and caused a chain reaction. The Deliverer suddenly deployed a fleet of stalkers. They moved toward various spots on the Trime, intending to slice them open and make way to deploy troops. Some elites on a distant part of the cruiser realized what was happening and released a rain of plasma torpedoes that killed several banshees and inflicted considerable damage upon the Deliverer. Still, this was a bad choice. In the split second that the Trime lowered its shields to fire, the Deliverer launched another green beam that made a clean slice through the hull of the Trime. This was not as strong, because the first one used so much energy. It would not have made it through the shield if it weren't for the elite's mistake. All of the stalkers moved now towards the huge gash In the Trime, except one, that moved towards the bridge of the Trime. Its mission was to capture Nahara and bring him to the Deliverer.       Nahara tuned around, and hovered across the balcony to a huge steel door that separated the bridge from the rest of the cruiser. When he reached the other side, he commanded the computer to seal off the bridge. Several Elites and Jackals were still fighting the incoming fleet back on the bridge, but they would not die in vain. The huge door slammed shut behind him, just as a rain of missiles struck the bridge, finishing it off. The whole cruiser shook as the bridge broke away from the rest of the cruiser, or what was left of it. It began drifting away in space, and then it burst like a huge bubble, and shards bounced of both cruisers. Fortunately, the steel door was air tight, but unfortunately, the Covonet stalker was coming up to the area were the bridge once was, and it had plasma cutters that could easily slice through that door.

Later
Onboard a Covonet stalker

Nahara looked out the window of his cell on the stalker. The Trime was slowly blowing up behind him. Flares and fireballs were flashing everywhere, and chunks of the ship were crumbling off and floating away into the void. Garsh's stalkers and drop ships were in full retreat, leaving Nahara's troops to burn in the doomed ship. It was a glorious thing to watch, not in a good way, but still amazing, exciting. But that window had been sealed off, and another had opened. Garsh wanted him to see something other than his entire army burning in the void of space. What could be worse? Nahara knew he wouldn't want to see, but he turned anyway. Another cloud had burst out of one of the hangars on the Deliverer, and more clouds continued to burst out like an ongoing stream. It was a fleet of cargo ships; drop ships, and several Covonet corvettes. What is he... then Nahara realized. The grunt army is ready! He's attacking Halo ahead of schedule! Nahara's thoughts ended when the stalker docked with the Deliverer. Garsh would no doubt want to face him alone. "I am ready!" he said to nobody.



Interior of Halo, below the lab ANIM
Sometime after the next "sunrise"

The squad of Forerunner infantry stood in the center of the huge metallic chamber. These to, were wearing silver armor that was shaped like Spartan armor. Several halls branched off from the main chamber. The commander of the squad began to yell out orders to his infantry. A large number of Flood spores had apparently taken shelter in Halo's interior, and it was their job to clean them out. The Forerunners split up, each one running down a different tunnel. When they had almost finished splitting up, the commander stopped one of the soldiers. <Anar, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news, you have the hardest assignment, the bad news, your brother died>. <When did he die? > <2 minutes ago. He was guarding an observation ship near ANIM. Some Flood had escaped there>. Anar cursed (in Forerunner). He hated the Flood. He never could understand why Forerunners had even created them in the first place. <How did he die?> <Some engineer named Shang-Zaer survived and gave a report. He says Flood warriors eradicated the whole ship. I really don't trust that guy. I think he's hiding something>. Anar was startled. High-ranking commanders never shared their personal opinions with a soldier, unless it was about the enemy. Another part of him felt like mourning for his brother, but he wouldn't do that in front of a commander. He could grieve later. <What's my assignment? > Anar noticed all the other soldiers had already left. The commander motioned to a tunnel to his right. <We detected a large number of Flood down that passageway. I know you can take them all alone. Just slaughter them before they do any damage to the main power core. Go avenge your brother>. The commander started to walk away, and pressed a button on the side of his helmet, activating his com-link. <Lieutenant, get me a transport, I'm heading out>.

* * *

      Anar continued to walk down the endless hall. His weapon was leveled in a defensive position. He had not seen any enemies for six minutes. He was un-able to relax at the thought that more flood stalked him. His weapon swerved from left to right. Once he even tossed a grenade at a massive pillar. Shaking, he realized there was nothing there. Why didn't the commander come with me? He thought. He knew he was giving me a hard assignment, but he left anyway! He could have helped! Anar knew he had given him this assignment so he could have revenge, but it was only then that he realized he would only be satisfied if he avenged his brother on his own. The commander had known this, and Anar had not. He knows me better than I do! Anar realized.

Later

<NASTY! > Anar looked down at the thing lying on the ground that he had tripped over. It was a mutated, zombie like creature holding Forerunner weaponry. An infested Forerunner. Or at least, it used to be. The Flood were so ugly that Anar couldn't even tell if this corpse has started to rot yet! Soon he saw more Flood corpses. He even saw the headless corpse of Flood carrier. <There was a battle here! > Anar said aloud. But who could've killed these Flood? The commander had said he was the first person down this passageway! Someone else must have gotten here first! Anar looked down and saw the corpse of a Flood warrior. The corpse was holding some kind of plasma weapon that definitely was not built by Forerunners. Some other species had landed on Halo!
      The farther Anar walked, the more Flood corpses there were. Soon there were piles of corpses in every direction. Green blood had splashed against the steel floor and stained the metallic walls. Arms and legs and heads were piled up in every direction. The floor was practically made of dead Flood!
      Suddenly, Anar heard what sounded like a high-pitched laughing in the distance, then a squeal, and faint plasma fire for about 3 seconds. Startled, Anar raised his rifle and looked through the scope, glancing around. When he found nothing, he followed the sound. It lead him to a smaller hall that branched off the main one, which was a relief because it was hard to spot enemies in that cathedral-sized hall. However, here there were even MORE Flood corpses. Carrier's body parts, infested Forerunners, and other corpses he had never seen where piled up or stacked along side the wall. Whatever had killed all these Flood, it had moved this way. Soon he saw strange plasma weaponry, too. Some were fully charged, and lying randomly on the ground. All the empty ones were tossed carelessly into huge piles. There was even more green blood, and singes covered the walls, along with huge black dents and craters all over the metal floor.
      There was another turn up ahead, and the noises were even louder now. He could hear high-pitched voices arguing, and plasma fire every now and then. It was strange; the arguing seemed to have nothing to do with the plasma fire! With his rifle held in a defensive position, he jumped swiftly around the corner and saw... 3 small creatures with orange armor and plasma weapons, shooting the giant, yellowish body of a flood corpse. Anar ducked behind a pillar as he watched. The creatures stood about 5 feet away, and continued to fire upon the dead corpse. They talked in annoying, high-pitched voices. "OOOOOOOH! Look at the big gun he's holding!" "I get the gun!" Anar jumped out from behind the pillar and leveled his rifle at the grunts. They instantly turned and noticed him as they stopped firing. "Look! Another Flood!" "I get his gun!" One of the grunts dropped his weapon and began running towards Anar, eyed fixed on his gun. Anar shot him in the head, and then quickly leveled his weapon at one of the other 2 grunts. <Don't move, and nobody gets hurt!> The grunts froze, and he blasted one's head off in a quick, clean shot. The head bounced off the wall and hit the other grunt in the back, knocking him over. Anar leveled his weapon at the fallen grunt as he walked toward him. "NYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOO! DONTSHOOTSONTSHOOTDONTSHOOOOOOOOT!"

Anar dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air, sarcastically. Unfortunately, most grunts can't sense sarcasm.

"That's better!" said the grunt, regaining his balance. He spoke in a terrible, high-pitched version of the elite language, which sounded to Anar like WHOOO-WHOMP- WHYOO. Luckily, Anar's helmet solved the translation problems.
Anar walked up to the grunt and kicked the weapon out of his hand. He grabbed the grunt by the neck and lifted him to eye level.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" yelled the grunt "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SPECIES YOU ARE!"

<Don't be dumb!> said Anar. <I know what happened from looking at hours of flood corpses! It would take a billion of whatever you are and probably some other species to take out an entire hive of flood! Therefore, your army must be clearing a path to the central ANIM power core, and you're probably the intentional left behinds who stayed back to look at all the cool toys! IS that it? >

"I can't tell you anything!" The grunt screamed, and wailed his arms around.

Anar silently took several pictures of the grunt and his weapon, as well as the surrounding flood corpses, then he sent them all to his captain. His helmet did all this in 2 seconds. He returned to his "conversation" with the grunt.

<The only thing you need to tell me is where you're pathetic strike force is now. If it gets to the ANIM power core, the fortress will be helpless, your army will invade it easily, and you'll know everything there is to know about Halo. You're forces must be planning an invasion!>

Anar thought for a minute. These creatures were much to dumb too build plasma weapons or plan invasions. They must be in an alliance with another species. Several species, in fact!

"I don't know anything about a power core or an invasion! All I can say is the big blue machines were carrying lots of prefab something missile silos or something like that!"

A look of horror crossed Anar's face. <Enough said! You're coming with me! >

Meanwhile
Back in the NOAH landing site on Halo

The sentinel regiment moved like a cloud, only 343guiltyspark flew in front of the cloud. Shang-Zaer had re-programmed them, and they were now perfectly obedient to all of 343guiltyspark's orders. Suddenly one of the sentinels that was scouting ahead beamed an image to 343guiltyspark. It was the image of a tall cone-shaped spacecraft that was landed in a face up position in the hills below. With one command from the monitor, the cloud broke apart, and all the sentinels descended in a ring formation around the craft, and began spinning around it, lasers pointing at the vessel, waiting for their next order, which they would obey unquestionably.

Ring Of The Forerunners Part IV
Date: 25 January 2003, 8:23 pm

Author's note: Whoops I forgot to put TO BE CONTINUED on that last part. I hope nobody was dumb enough to think that was the end of the series. Also if you're wondering how long this series will be, I think I've settled on 6 parts. I want to give more of a background for the Forerunner and Covenant, and make people see things from the Covenant point of view as well. If you too see the Covenant as fellow sentient life, and not just mindless murders, read Gasmask's From The Enemy's Eyes. It is very inspiring, and reflects the Covenant as good and the Humans as evil. It's funny however; that it seems to give a completely different view of the Covenant than the Covenant interviews, also written by Gasmask.

Halo
The landed vessel NOA

The sentinels searched the ship and found nothing. Whoever had landed this thing had moved on. One thing was for sure; this had been flown by a very primitive race. Each floor was about 10 feet wide and lined with hibernation equipment, all empty. Most of it covered with mold. There were 5 floors in all, the vessel was very tall, but obviously last minute even for a primitive race. The vessel must have been a last minute attempt to evacuate some primitive planet, and they had come to Halo, being that the nearest habitable planets were light-years away. The Forerunner had noticed a recent spreading of an un-identified race however. Some primitive species that had, for a while, lived only on one planet, had begun to spread to other planets in the sector. The species still had not discovered any other sentient races though, and they did clearly not build this vessel. It was far too old.
      The monitor had taken memories from the main ANIM computer, and remembered when the Forerunner first discovered this nomadic race. They had not studied them though, had not even found out what they looked like. They were too busy concentrating on their creations, the many underlings that had come fourth from the Forerunner. This primitive race that has landed on Halo must be destroyed, the monitor thought, for the Forerunner could not control 2 lesser species on Halo at once, even the Food had gotten out of hand. 343guiltyspark quickly sent a virus to a Forerunner cruiser orbiting the planet Threshold. The ship was taken under his control, and he quickly took command of the all the empty fighters onboard the ship and deployed all of them, setting them on a direct course for Halo. He told all the sentinels to track down the new race, and follow them silently until the fleet arrived to take the newcomers captive and kill the rest. The monitor laughed as the massive cloud of sentinels swarmed over the horizon. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

Still on Halo
Forerunner held (?) fortress/lab ANIM

Anar stared in horror at the screen before him, frozen. Forerunner technicians that had been running around franticly because of the loud sirens had just begun to realize the answer to their confusion was revealed on this screen. An enormous, sleek, purple spacecraft the size of large city had emerged swiftly from relativity into orbit around the planet Threshold and was on a direct slingshot course toward Halo. An ongoing stream of escape pods, cargo modules, and drop ships were swarming out of the sides of the spacecraft and flocking in large attack formation toward Halo. Landing vessels were deploying homing beacons and Corvettes were preparing their fighters and super weapons. This unidentified fleet was huge, and the invaders were making no efforts to conceal their attack. To make matters worse, a final flood wave had collected once again in the interior of Halo and was moving toward the ANIM power core. Prefab turrets and troops had now been set up around the power core, but this flood wave extended beyond range on every side of the screen. Plus, they had lost contact with all Forerunner cruisers and a huge fleet of their own star fighters, apparently empty, was moving towards Halo. It was the beginning of huge 4-way war, the Unidentified Invaders, the Forerunner, the Flood, and the Mysterious "empty" Threshold fleet that was already being referred to as the "Ghost Fleet".

<Anar, bad news> Came his commander's voice in his helmet. <The grunt you captured died in interrogation. All we could get out of him was that he is part of an alliance called the 'covenant' and that the force that wiped out that Flood hive was only a small army, and they landed in a single corvette, a kind of ship>.

Without responding, Anar sent the image on the screen to his commander.

<By the gods, what terrible curse has come upon us?>

<We can't live through a war this big. If that attack force was only a single corvette, imagine what this fleet could do>.

<We have to leave>.

<Alert all the troops. We have to secure ANIM, contain the Flood, and leave>.

The alarm blared louder. Drop ships and Cargo modules had landed on either side of the rim around the ANIM valley. The Cargo Module crews were setting up prefab buildings, and Drop Ships and some Corvettes had deployed a plethora of tanks, shock troops, and a vast array of artillery. Wraith Tanks and Pigs were gathering in large numbers all around the valley. The mother ship, now identified as the deliverer, was moving into the center of Halo to enjoy the show.

<Commander> said Anar <Rally what troops we have left. I have a plan>.

2 minutes later in the ANIM control room.

<All right Soldiers! > Anar barked to his men. He had advanced in rank slightly after explaining his plan to the Commander. < As you know, in addition to the Covenant force, a huge flood wave bigger than we can calculate is moving underground toward ANIM, and they're right under the Covenant force. We need someone to get in those tunnels, and rig the tops with explosives. When the covenant force moves over the tunnels as they come down the valley and surround ANIM, we'll set off the explosives. The Flood will be drawn toward the light, and will engage the Covenant Force in combat, eradicating them. While they're busy fighting the flood, we'll get on top of ANIM and set up cutter turrets on top of ANIM. Cutters are the weapons we put on the sentinels. When the Covs are dead, the Flood will begin to advance on ANIM from above ground. We'll use the cutter turrets to rip through what's left of the Flood wave and get everyone to the evac fleet we have waiting in the GARDUM sector. The Ghost Fleet might interfere, but their intentions still are not obvious, unlike the Covenant>.
       He turned to the demolitions officer, a young Forerunner named Azaiki-Agron. He used the half name Azaiki just like Anar used Anar instead of Anar-Xarnin.

<I'll provide you with explosives, but how will we rig the tunnels with all those floodies down there? >

<You have new armor with climbing equipment and cloaking devices. The chosen soldiers will climb across the tunnels ceilings with a single particle duplicator bomb that can stick to the ceiling. When everyone gets back we'll set them off>.

The soldiers cheered at the sight of there armor. Only Anar, Azaiki, and a specialist trooper named Zaf however were chosen to take the three separate tunnels above the Flood and below the Covenant, and set the bombs. Anar's commander, Gazital, was given the pleasure of remote-detonating the bombs. Seconds later they were all dispatched swiftly into there tunnels to make the last minute strike both upon their creation, and their invaders. But that was not what they feared as they clung to the surface of the massive tunnels, it was the ghost fleet. And it was this fear alone that drove the will of 343guiltyspark. He could do whatever he wanted with the ghost fleet and Shang-Zaer would never suspect it was him pulling the strings.

Later
In the Interior of Halo
Above the Creation, Below the Invaders

That was what this last minute operation had been named. Above the Creation, below the Invaders. Azaiki though about the name as he crawled silently across the ceiling, thinking about it to keep his mind off the fact that a bomb was strapped to his back, controlled by his reckless commander Gazital in another building, and the disturbing fact that the floor below him was made of live flood, marching across the floor. What if he fell? What if they saw him? Suddenly, the sticking system on his right hand shut off and he lost grip. Fumbling, realized only his legs were stuck he whacked at the buttons on the sides of his armor with no control, shutting down the cloaking system. Quickly, he got his hands stuck on the wall again and began to crawl forward quietly. Any noise, and the Flood would look up and see Azaiki. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling from above, and the tunnel shook. It was the Covenant force coming down the side of the valley. Naturally, hearing the noise, the Flood looked up. Some of the Infested Elites and Forerunner looked up at him and began firing both plasma pistols and cutter rifles. <Oh Crap!> Azaiki yelled and darted forward as a plasma beam hit the bomb on his back. He ripped it off. He was doomed now. The Flood Wave was like a moving floor, and soon they would all see him. He held the bomb in his hands, and prepared to detach from the ceiling and dive into the Flood. Swimming in a Flood he thought funny. They were all firing at him now. One hit and shattered his helmet. Quickly he shouted his last words. < DIE ALL YOU FREAKING INSECTS>! He detached from the ceiling.
       Metal cracked around him as the bomb went off, and the tunnel around him began to collapse squashing all the Flood below. A huge Wraith tank fell through the ceiling and landed on several flood corpses, exploding in billion shards of steel and plasma. The tunnel collapse began to extend both ways, spreading through the covenant force. Grunts fell screaming into the wave of flood, and spores crawled into the light, jumping all over Covenant. Most of the flood that still had a ceiling above them were firing into the light, running up into the battle to help their brethren.

Anar heard the explosion and the tunnel shook. The Flood below him looked around the tunnel, but did not see him. When the shaking was over, he switched on his com-link. The Flood stopped wondering and moved on like nothing had happened. <Gazital, Zaf, what was that?> <Azaiki activated his bomb early!> Zaf yelled in surprise. < I though he was supposed to arm it and leave, not commit suicide! > <Azaiki come in! This is commander Anar!> There was no reply. <This is not good! > Said Anar. <We were supposed to set off all the bombs at the same time! Now the Covs will be more prepared when we open the other 2 tunnels! > <Zaf, Anar, it's not too late! > Came commander Gazital's voice in their com-links. <Stick and arm your bombs now, regardless of where you are then get out of there, NOW! > <Aye commander> came Zaf's voice. <We'll have the cutter turrets set up when you get back! >

Later
The top of ANIM

Anar, Zaf, Gazital, Shang-Zaer, and several other Forerunners were standing on top of ANIM. With the press of a button, the ground collapsed and ripped open in perfect lines below a large group of Wraiths, Pigs, and Ghosts. Forerunner soldiers were standing at all the turrets, ready to rip through the flood on command. Flood were now flocking out of all the trenches, infesting and slaughtering all the Covenant. The Covenant force was now so obviously doomed, and some of the Flood were leaving the valley to attack the Covenant prefab bases. Gazital looked at the carnage below with pride. <Well done, men. Well done>.

Meanwhile
Covenant cruiser: The Deliverer

Every large Covenant cruiser has 3 onboard citadels. Mourning, Worship, and War. Mourning was the citadel where Salivar's Urn was kept. Worship was where Covenant priests mediated and asked Dannook and the other gods for help in battle and living by the word of the Gods. War was where the 3 scrolls of Dannook were kept. Every major cruiser had a copy of each of the 3 scrolls. The scrolls said the words of Dannook, and the Covenant believed that the scrolls would guide them in combat. A copy of the scrolls had been given to the grunt tribes the Covenant had made a treaty with, and since the Grunt soldiers could not memorize the oath of the scrolls, they had to go through a "self-purifying meditation" in which they all had to stare at the scrolls for 10 hours. The Grunts would do anything for Dannook, as they looked up to and trusted the Covenant. Grunts looked up to the Elites the way a young child looks up to and trusts in their parents.
      Having asked Dannook for help in the Halo attack, Garsh moved on to the Citadel of War. The Covenant did not think of the Halo attack as "Invading Halo", they thought of it as freeing Halo from the evil Forerunners that are a threat to Dannook, and must be destroyed. They think they are so powerful, those Forerunners. Creating their own races like Dannook had created the Covenant races. But the Forerunner races were different; they were monstrous, terrible, and evil. And possessed no respect for the sanctity of life, just like their Forerunner creators.
      Garsh looked at the first scroll, the words given to the Covenant a million years ago when they had first united the Jackals, Elites, and Hunters under one elder species: The Prophets. It was the Prophets who had given them these words.

Awaken my children,
And behold the glory that is in your birthright
For you have found the race
That I have given to you to unite you and show you the truth and the way
So that you may go fourth, and behold your greater purpose
You shall go forth, and unite my creations in peace
And crush my enemies in violence


Then you shall rule the land I have given you in peace and order
And this race, my prophets, my eyes and ears and hands and arms in the universe,
They will show you the way


There lies a structure, a ring of life, near the planet Threshold
It is meant for you and only you
Go fourth, my children, for your light of existence shines upon this place
Take it forcibly from the monstrosity that holds it from me
And with it you shall unite all creation


But yet, besides the demons who hold it now,
Another race has arrived there
You will find them
And they alone are the greatest threat to me
For I am peace, and they are the anti-peace
The warlike
The monsters
The Demons
They are all that is evil
And they stand in the way of your purpose


Their destruction is my will
And you are my tool

This ended the first scroll. This scroll alone was Salivar's dream, and Garsh would do everything it said in his name. The scroll was really a purple tablet, written in the Prophet language, which highly resembles Ancient Sumerian Cuneiform. Putting the tablet down, Garsh walked out of the citadel and saw a Jackal running towards him. "Commodore Garsh!" the Jackal yelled. "The Forerunners have eradicated the first invasion Force! They captured and interrogated one our Grunts, and they may know about the missile silos!"
      Garsh yawned. "Send down a Regiment of Hunters and give them some banshee escorts". Another quick attack in response to this will make them think we are concentrating on capturing ANIM and they won't wonder why we have stalled. That will decrease the chance that they will find out about the missile silos". Garsh pressed some buttons on a wall panel and a hologram of Halo appeared. "I need to see which silos are ready for launch" he said to the grunt. "Begin simulation" he spoke to the computer. A missile flew across the hologram of Halo and hit another part of it. More of them flew across Halo, hitting opposite sides, like the ring was blowing up from the inside. The Jackal seemed shocked. "Won't that damage the ring?" "No way!" Garsh replied as if the Jackal was the stupidest person in the universe. "They're biological missiles! They'll only hurt the Forerunner and their Flood children".

TO BE CONTINUED

Ring Of The Forerunners Part V
Date: 8 February 2003, 8:47 pm

Author's Note: Unless I find something I need to squeeze in, I think that the next part will be the last for this series. And yes, this being my first series, I do plan to write more.

Halo
Forerunner held (?) Fortress/Lab ANIM

With a mere wave of Gazital's hand, the cutter turrets positioned around the top of ANIM hummed to life and rained down cutter beams upon the surviving Flood. Gazital had been informed that the ANIM power core was perfectly secure, and that the remaining Flood in the ANIM sector had retreated to attack the GARDUM power core.

ANIM was safe and entire regiments of Flood and Covenant had been wiped out in the previous battle of ANIM. Forerunner transports would soon arrive at ANIM, and relocate the Forerunner survivors to the GARDUM sector.

Yet Halo was far from safe. Billions of Flood still remained, the Ghost fleet was en-route to Halo and the Gazital had discovered that the Covenant had set up missile silos all over Halo and planned to bombard the structure with biological bombs, from the inside.

The Forerunner knew it. Guiltyspark knew it. Even the Flood knew it. Halo was doomed.

Later
ANIM control room

343guiltyspark approached Shang-Zaer, escorted by a group of sentinels. "Shang-Zaer, an unknown species has landed on Halo, and I believe they are preparing for an attack!"
Shang-Zaer sighed. <There is nothing more we can do, 343. We can't even control our own creation>. "I may be wrong, but I think you are mistaken. But I can't trust to you to know my secret..." <WHAT? DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DESTROY THEM? > "I control the Ghost fleet. Of course I can destroy them, with your order of course. If you agree to protect my secret of controlling the Ghost fleet, I will use it to destroy the humans on Halo and contain the Flood". <Can you use it to destroy the Covenant missile silos? > Shang-Zaer asked impatiently. "Sadly, no. They are protected by individual force fields. But once you order Gazital's forces to take care of the silos, I can do everything I just explained". <But he doesn't have enough troops to destroy the silos! There to many of them! > "That's not entirely true. Just as ANIM is controlled by a single, remote power core, the missile silos are controlled by a single power core onboard the mother ship. I can provide you with the boarding shuttles necessary to get on the mother ship, and the rest is up to Gazital". Shang-Zaer sighed again. <What would I be without you? Alert Gazital. Tell him to load his troops and attack right away, and get those boarding shuttles down here now!>

Later
The ANIM valley

Anar, Zaf, Gazital, and about 30 other Forerunner soldiers trudged through piles of dead Covenant and Flood to get to the place where the boarding shuttles had landed. Gazital took charge as soon as they reached the takeoff ground. <Alright men, your objective is to take out the power core generating the protective shields around the missile silos. It should be somewhere in the center of the ship>. <Thanks for being so specific> said Zaf sarcastically. Gazital ignored him. <Let's move out. I'll remain here with a smaller regiment, and the rest of you get on the boarding shuttles you were assigned earlier when you were briefed! > All 32 soldiers hopped into action, loading their weapons and jumping into one of the three boarding shuttles as they took off.

Later
Covenant cruiser, the Deliverer

Garsh sat in his throne, anger pulsing through every limb and joint of his body. The two sword elites standing guard at the door looked at him nervously as the huge, steel door slid open. Some Jackals and Elites were forcing Nahara into the throne room, ready for execution. It was time to avenge the death of Garsh's brother. Nahara did not fight back as he was forced into the room. He came in willingly. But he did, however, whack a few Jackals and Elites with his slug-like tail on the way in. Nahara stopped in front of Garsh's throne. Garsh waved his hand, and all his guards stumbled out of the room, looking back nervously. The steel door closed behind them, leaving Garsh alone with Nahara in the throne room.

"I'm glad you could join me, Nahara."

"Just get it over with Garsh".

Garsh looked surprised. "I thought you'd be impressed that I wanted to face you alone".

Nahara snarled. "I knew you'd want to play fair". He raised his tentacles mockingly.

"Fair?" said Garsh, confused. "I said alone, not fair! When you killed my brother, unsuspecting and unarmed, was that fair?"
Garsh pulled out a huge plasma weapon five times as thick as his own head. He fired a single shot. The front half of Nahara's body exploded into blobs of blue slime that splattered against the walls of the throne room. Nahara was killed instantly. Garsh dropped the weapon and walked up to what was left of the corpse. He kicked it. He kicked it again. He kicked it tens of thousands of times. Suddenly a Jackal walked in, interrupting. 'I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE!" He picked the weapon back up, leveling it at the Jackal's head, and prepared to fire. 'Wait!" The Jackal stammered. "A group of Forerunner soldiers have just boarded the Deliverer through the rear hangar. They're heading towards the shield power core!" Garsh began sweating again, shaking like a madman. He fired the weapon. The Jackal screamed, and where he once stood there was a crater on the floor. A group of elite captains heard the Jackal scream and came running. Garsh pointed a shaking finger at the captains, as he prepared to make the loudest yell ever heard in recorded covenant history. "KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" The order echoed throughout the cruiser. "NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Anar and Zaf heard the yell as they took out a cloaked elite. <Someone knows we're home>. Zaf said. <All the more reason to move faster!> Anar barked. The troops moaned. Suddenly there was plasma fire all around them. Four men were shot and killed. <AMBUSH!> yelled Zaf. The Forerunner soldiers returned fire at the group of cloaked elites surrounding them. Anar and Zaf spotted a hall that seemed clear ahead, and ran toward it. Ten other soldiers followed, as the Elites shot down the rest. Zaf slammed his fist into a button on the wall and a steel door slammed shut behind him. The Elites started whacking the door with plasma swords, denting the steel. <Forward!> Anar barked. They turned a corner as a door nobody had seen slid open. Grunts flooded into the hall and opened fire instantly. Anar shot one and kicked the head of another in one swift, motion. The head knocked another over which he shot. Zaf glanced into the room the grunts had come from as the rest of the soldiers started open firing. It was a vehicle hangar of some sort, containing three Pigs and walls lined with Ghosts. He kicked his way through the grunts and into the room. Another group of Jackals and Grunts that were hiding in a corner spotted him and started shooting and tossing grenades. One stuck to one of the Ghosts and caused a chain reaction destroying other ghosts nearby. Zaf dodged the plasma fire and hopped into the gunner seat of a Pig, where a plasma turret waited for him. He started firing and swinging the turret back and fourth, taking out all the Covenant that were huddled in the corner, shooting at him. Zaf called to Anar and Anar and eight other soldiers ran into the hangar. They were still shooting at the Grunts
      Anar slammed his fist on another door-close button. The steel door slammed shut, slicing two grunts in half and trapping all but one outside. Zaf quickly cut through the remaining grunt with the plasma turret. <Everyone get in a Pig or a Ghost!> Zaf yelled as the grunts began banging on the outside of the door and throwing plasma grenades at it. Soldiers started calling dibs on the Pigs gunner seats, and soon everyone was in a vehicle. The pigs were full and there were two empty ghosts left over. Everyone aimed their weapons at the door, and prepared for the impending attack. Suddenly the cloaked elites from earlier arrived and they started whacking the door with plasma swords. Weakened by the grenades, the door ripped open like a piece of paper being stabbed by scissors. Clouds of plasma grenades poured through the cracks and started sticking to pigs and ghosts. One of the Pigs lost it's gunner turret, and the gunner was thrown backwards into the wall at sonic speed, snapping all his backbone instantly. The remaining Pig gunners opened fire on the steel door, finishing it off. At least 30 Grunts, more than had been whacking the door before, swarmed into the room, followed by the cloaked sword Elites they had seen earlier and a plethora of Jackals with shields. <Ghosts! Move into defense and protect the Pig gunners!> Anar yelled to the surviving men. The Ghosts moved in a defensive position in front of the pigs, as the pig drivers activated the plasma cannons on the front of the pigs, taking down at least ten grunts at once. The ghosts opened fire on the Jackals, and the pig gunners took down most of the cloaked elites. Another wave moved in through the former door to assist the covenant survivors. Three Forerunner soldiers who had been riding shotgun in the pigs ran forward and dodged plasma fire as they started picking up Jackal shields and plasma weapons, tossing them to the other soldiers who where still in ghosts and pigs. They used the Jackal shields to protect themselves as they picked up more weapons, but one was shot down, as he was about to toss a pile of shields to Zaf. Zaf grabbed a shield from a fallen soldier who had been piloting a ghost before it was destroyed by a plasma grenade. The two soldiers ran back to the pigs, and hopped in shotgun, now with their own Jackal shields and plasma weapons. Finaly, the 2nd wave of Covenant was destroyed. <Bad idea to let them corner us in this hangar, but at least we got all these pigs and ghosts! > Said Zaf triumphantly. <We need to get to that power core before they send out another attack wave! > Yelled Anar. <The power core should be somewhere down the hall to our left, near the ship's main reactor>. He didn't have to tell anyone to "move out". The remaining three pigs and 4 ghosts moved out of the hangar door and turned left. The ghosts moved back in a defense position in front of the pigs, and they started moving forward as fast as possible.
       At last, they encountered a door that was obviously the entrance to the power core chamber. A whole group of black armored elites stood guard at the entrance, and the door was probably strong enough to resist 1,000 plasma grenades. They took down the elite guards rather easily, that is, right after the guards took down 2 of the ghosts. Quickly, Anar devised a plan to get through the door. It was a sliding door, like all the other covenant doors they had encountered, and this one slid up and down to close or open. The ghosts remained motionless as the remaining 2 pig gunners started blasting away at the door, which of course, only singed it slightly. Quickly, the door slid open, and plasma grenades were tossed out at them as troops flocked out and the door started closing again. Quickly, Anar raised his stolen plasma weapon and "caught" the grenade. It stuck to the very tip of the gun, and he quickly jumped backward, and flung his arm over the back of the pig. The grenade remained stuck to the gun, but it also stuck to the back of the pig. Quickly, everyone in the pig jumped out as the grenade exploded and the pig flipped over, spinning forward in the air. It landed horizontally right beneath the closing door. The door screeched as the remaining 2 ghosts slipped under the door, which was now beginning to crush the pig. Anar, and 2 other soldiers darted under the door along with the pig Zaf was in. The last pig was crushed, as it slipped under the door right when the door managed to close. The door had squashed 2 pigs like aluminum cans in a trash compactor.
       The door being the only entrance into the room, there was no escape for any of the soldiers now. They were armed and dangerous, nothing to lose. As soon as Anar ran into the room, he saw the power core; it was huge, and towered over everything as in the room. The room was about as wide and tall as a cathedral, and the power core went from floor to ceiling. At the top and bottom, were thick disks of gleaming, purple metal with computer chip patterns all over them. Other than that, the power core was a wide column of pulsing orange energy, waves of electricity zapping from top to bottom. But the most noticeable thing was that all around the foot of the power core was a wall of plasma turrets and stationary guns. The pigs took out a couple of them creating a gap between them and the power core. Anar was just begging to think of a possible way out of this, when a single Grunt, against his orders, jumped out of his stationary gun and ran forward, a plasma grenade in his hand. If it wasn't for this Grunt, halo would be controlled by the Covenant, the Humans would become wiped out, and the Halo story as we know it would never have taken place. What did the Grunt do that changed history? He threw a grenade. The grenade stuck to the helmet of a nameless Forerunner soldier, who instantly knew what he had to do. He ran forward, dodging the plasma fire, and ran right into the flowing energy of the power core. The grenade blew up, causing a chain reaction of plasma energy that spread to the top and bottom of the power core. The remains of the soldier disintegrated as 2 huge shockwaves traveled to both ends of the energy flow. The computers at the top and bottom of the power core deteriorated as the energy in between literally ripped apart. Blots of electricity and a series of shockwaves spread throughout the room along with a plethora of orange energy waves. The remaining pigs and ghosts were tossed backward by the first shockwave, and slammed against the wall just after the soldiers inside were swept out of them. The plasma turrets and stationary guns disintegrated into clouds of dust, and the Grunt, well, there was no trace of him.
Anar had seen the brave soldier run in to the power core, but he stopped thinking about that as he was knocked senseless by the first shockwave that swept him backwards 10 feet and slammed him against the wall. Half of a pig crashed down in front of him as he blacked out completely.

* * *

Anar woke up, and crawled up over the top of the crashed pig in front of him. He had a really bad headache, and his back was nearly broken. <Zaf? > he called out. There was no answer. But no, he would not call again. He cared about only one thing at the moment, and one thing only. He extended his hand, and it was very painful. Every bone in his body ached as he stretched his hand over the top of the crashed pig, and struggled to the top, glancing over the edge with his last bit of strength. Anar smiled weakly. There was no trace that the power core had ever existed.

Meanwhile
Throne Room

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
This cry, once more, echoed throughout the whole cruiser, but the Forerunner soldier's ears were to damaged to hear it. Had they heard it, they would have been pleased. Garsh collapsed to his knees at the foot of his own throne. "My brother..." he whispered silently. "I have failed you. I am unworthy to dwell with you in the afterlife. But while I remain here, I shall not fail you again. The Forerunner, The Flood, and the race of monsters the prophets call humans, they shall all die, in your name. My brother, I promise you, my loss here will not be in vain".

ANIM control room

343guiltyspark didn't need to be told of what had happened. His sentinels told him immediately, that all covenant force fields on Halo had been shut down. Laughing to himself, he ordered the ghost fleet to free the surviving Forerunner soldiers, and destroy all the covenant missile silos. He had changed his plans; he would not betray the Forerunner. No, not yet.

TO BE CONTINUED

Ring Of The Forerunners Part VI
Date: 1 March 2003, 10:59 pm

Author’s note: Well, this is the end of this series. I guess this is the time when I most need feedback, so I can see what people thought about the whole series, collectively, so I can look for changes to make in my next series: The Entar Chronicles.

Covenant cruiser
The Deliverer

Thousands of cutter beams ripped through the ceiling as thin sheets of metal fell down, crumpled by cutter fire. A massive fleet of Forerunner fighters swarmed swiftly into the room, ripping away the entire ceiling as they rushed in. With a whoosh, the air was drained out of the room into the vacuum of space. The Forerunner soldiers woke up, and looked at the horror scene above. Forerunners grabbed onto anything, trying not to get sucked out into the void. Banshees were swarming into the room from the new hole to battle Forerunner fighters, as three large Forerunner escape ships neared the gaping hole in ceiling. Anar had no idea what was happening, only that he couldn’t breathe. Gasping for air, he clutched his neck and stumbled towards the airlock. He lifted one hand away from his neck, and the air was sucked out of the lungs. Gasping, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, no air. The blood was draining from his head. He banged his open fist against keypad on the door. Nothing, it was locked. He could feel his lungs contracting, no air to fill back up with. Plasma and cutter fire rained down around him, then he began to loose consciousness. Where were the other soldiers? Were they hurt? Were they alive? Suddenly the airlock door swooshed open. Air rushed into his lungs. He saw tons of black armored Elites, firing at him. The closer ones were being sucked toward the door and out into space. Behind all the Elites, was one gold armored Elite. Stumbling across the hall, huge weapons in his hands, drooling, snarling, a determination to kill in his eyes as he gazed at Anar. Garsh: the ruler of the covenant, more respected then the highest prophet. Garsh fired a single shot with a plasma rifle as he raised his larger weapon. The shot from the rifle penetrated Anar’s armor and hit him in the torso. Garsh’s hand reached for the trigger on his larger weapon. He pulled it as the last bit of air was sucked out of the hall. The shot missed it’s mark, as Garsh flew forward with the rushing air. Anar grabbed on to the side arch of the door. Elites flew past him, then up into the void. Garsh reached the arch, and desperately grabbed on to it with one hand. Anar raised his weapon to hit Garsh, but he fumbled as it was sucked out of his hand and he almost lost his grip on the arch. Garsh barked into his com link: “Seal off the doors so I can send these sacrilegious idiots to burn in Hades!” A door further down the hall sealed shut instantly, and the rushing of the air stopped as a final shockwave rushed down the hall. Anar and Garsh both lost their grips, and flew across the room with no roof. They slammed into the wall, both breaking several bones. The air once more drained out of their lungs, as the plasma and cutter fire continues to rain down around him. A cutter beam came from nowhere and sliced off Garsh’s arm, a second one took his leg. Blood flew out into the air. Garsh screamed and went into shock, and then stopped moving completely. He flinched a few times as the air was once again drained out of both Anar and Garsh’s lungs. Anar thought to himself as he blacked out: Victory, Anar, you won, Garsh is defeated. The power core is destroyed, and the Forerunner will get off Halo safely, and that’s all that matters. What is the life of one individual compared to all the Forerunner species? You did what you needed to do.

Later

Anar awoke. He was lying in some kind of tube, purple metal glowed all around him. There was only enough space for him, as if he was lying in some closed empty barrel. He kicked his legs out. Metal. He tried to sit up. More metal. What was this? He banged on the metal. Had he been found and captured by the Covenant? Suddenly the top of the tube swished open. Anar glanced around. He was in a medical facility. There were more purple revivification tubes all around him. He looked down at his torso, and saw that he was wearing new armor, his wounds healed, and his lungs back in full air-pumping condition. Suddenly he saw Gazital standing next to him. He was smiling. <Anar, you are a hero. The entire Forerunner species now know the name of both you and Zaf. And they will always honor you for your sacrifice>. <Where is Zaf? > Anar demanded. The smile was gone from Gazital’s face. < Follow me>. He said. He lead Anar to another chamber. Medical technicians were running everywhere, tending to the many revivification tubes. Anar and Gazital walked into a second revivification facility. Most of the tubes here were empty. Gazital placed his hand on a pad at the end of one of the tubes.
      There was a ping, and a bio scan result appeared on a small screen at the end of the tubes. <He’s still in stasis> Said Gazital. <He’s recovering>. <Just open the revivification cell! > Anar demanded. Gazital looked confused. Anar seemed mad, yet everything was going along fine. <Very Well! > Gazital sighed. He entered a code. The top half of the tube collapsed and slid into different sides of the tube. Zaf stirred in the tube, and began recovering from the stasis effects. His face was burned in many places, and he was scarred on the arm. Zaf looked around, and instantly new he had been awakened early. The first words out of his mouth were <Are there any other survivors? > <I’m afraid not> Gazital sighed again. <Just you and Anar>. <But... the other cells? Many of them are full! > <I know> said Gazital. These soldiers were injured defending the evac ships at the GARDUM sector, and we need to get there fast. The same fleet that recovered you destroyed the Covenant missile silos, but many Covenant and Flood still rage across halo, which is why we’ve got to leave fast. Luckily, we’ve dispatched what’s left of our army to contain the Flood and leave later on a second ship>. <What fleet recovered us? > Asked Zaf. <Uh... that’s classified information> said Gazital. <Even I don’t even know the fleet>. <We can’t even know who saved our lives? > Yelled Anar. Gazital rubbed his chin, searching his memory. <It’s someone named 343guiltyspark>.

Later

Guiltyspark and Shang-Zaer stood in the center of the huge, rotating, hologram of Halo. They could see the small pack of Humans walking across the surface, now in a dessert region. They were battling the Flood. This was not good, they new about the Flood! <The missile silos are down, and I myself need to get to an evac ship soon. What is stopping you from destroying the Humans? > “Be patient Zaer. We must wait untill Gazital objects, then, the time will be right. <WHAT? GAZITAL? He doesn’t even know about the Humans! > “Oh, he does, he knows much more about them then you do. In fact, he knows who they really are”.

Later
The GARDUM sector

A hover vehicle carried Anar and several other Forerunner male and female civilians. Other hover vehicles were all around them, heading in the same direction, towards the launch pad. The launch pad was about _ a mile wide, and contained several escape vehicles called colony ships. Each colony ship contained 4 massive modules, a nuclear engine at the bottom, capable of slipstream travel, then 3 modules hooked above that for storage and chyro hibernation cells. Large hover trucks were loading supplies and hibernation equipment onto the various modules. The most noticeable feature was the giant, perfectly round, “snowball” on top of each ark. The snowball was made of frozen gas, harvested from the planet threshold. This was actually a fuel sphere, at least 4 times as large as any of the modules that were hooked together in a line. A tube connected the center of the fuel sphere to the nuclear engine module, allowing fast relativity-enabled speeds, along with slipstream space. The fuel sphere shrunk as it was used up, making the colony ships several tons lighter when the unknown destination was reached.
      The hover transports docked at the launch pad star port as the first of the colony ships took off, blue gas spreading everywhere. “Colony1, launched. Second launch in 3 minutes” came the computers voice. Cheers erupted from the crowd of Forerunner. <Get us on one of those things!> Gazital demanded to the hover pilot. <#9 I reserved for this group, commander>. The pilot replied. The Hover ship finally halted. More colonies were already loaded. Some panicked Forerunner had started the second launch early, and a ship blasted off. Suddenly, a blue cloud appeared on the distant horizon. It was banshees and ghosts. “EMERGENCY!” The computer responded instantly. “Main Star port is under siege, primary launch schedule has been terminated”. That was the last straw. People were jumping off hover transports, running to the nearest colony ship. Colony ships started taking off without clearance, many at a time. Shockwaves spread across the launch pad, destroying equipment and knocking down panicking Forerunner. Gazital cursed. <Soldiers!> he barked into his com-link. <Hold them off!> There was various cutter fire from turrets on the launch pad, firing into the cloud of covenant fighters. The covenant formation broke up. Banshees launched an array of guided plasma missiles, hitting the fuel spheres of several colony ships. One colony ship had just gotten off the ground as it’s fuel sphere was pelted with missiles. The giant white ball exploded, causing a chain reaction and destroying the other modules.
      Pieces of flaming ship metal rained down on the launch pad. <Zaf, Gazital, lets get on one of those things, fast!> The hovercraft pilot was hit in the chest with a plasma beam. Civilians were diving off of the doomed hover crafts, running towards the remaining colony ships. “REPEAT” the female sounding computer announced, in a very loud voice. “REPEAT, primary launch schedule has been terminated. All colony ships have automatic launch clearance!” Gazital, Zaf, and Anar dove off the side of the hovercraft, landing on their feet. The Hovercraft exploded behind them. Anar and Zaf had their weapons out and started firing at the banshees and ghosts that were now circling the launch pad. Suddenly something inside Gazital’s head clicked. <Get on a ship! I’ll leave after you; I have something to take care of! > Before either of them could object, Gazital was gone. <We follow orders! > Anar yelled to Zaf. They ran across the battlefield, and boarded a half empty colony ship, shoving people aside. Inside the command module, second from the bottom, people were running around panicking, confused. <Why haven’t you taken off? > Zaf yelled to one of the female civilians. <The pilot!> She cried. <We can’t find him! > Anar ran to the control room door. He entered a code, and it swung open, the room was empty. Anar ran up to one of the control stations, flipping a single switch. The nuclear engines hummed, and the slipstream generators started charging. Anar felt the ship shake as it started to lift off. Slowly, Anar and Zaf walked to the window, and took their last look at Halo.

Later

Anar watched as Zaf entered one of the many hibernation cells on the ship. They were in space now. Slowly, the green-transparent lid of the tube sealed shut. Zaf placed a helmet on his head, and slowly fell into a very long sleep. Anar walked into the next tube, the lid closed automatically, and he held the helmet in his hand. But before he put it on, he thought the last thought he would think in a VERY, VERY, VERY long time. Were alive, Garsh is dead, the Flood is contained, and the ghost fleet seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

                  We won.


1 hour later
Covenant cruiser: The deliverer

The Prophet, Aknar stepped into the vast room, accompanied by 2 priests. The room looked like some kind of scientific lab. In the very center of the room, held in midair by various wires, was what looked like an orange egg, pulsing with bright light. It was transparent, and a large amount of orange liquid could be seen on the inside. A multitude of twisted pipes, tubes, and wires, were attached to it, and attached to every corner of the room. They also connected to various computers and sensors built into the walls. The prophet opened both of his double eyelids, and raised his hand to shield his eyes from the pulsing light. Leaning forward, he gazed into the object high above him. Inside, floating in the orange liquid, was the outline of what could have been a torso, the only body part remaining attached to it was the head. “What is this monstrosity?” The Prophet asked the priests. <FOOOL!> A voice echoed throughout the room. The orange egg lit up brightly, and the tubes, computers, and sensors around the room began to glow. In the bright light, the prophet could clearly see the head in the tank: it was the head of a gold armored elite. His eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping, actually, he looked dead. The head remained attached to the limbless torso as it floated aimlessly in the tank. The light dimmed. <YOU KNOW WHO I AM. > The voice echoed. Where was it coming from? It couldn’t possibly be the dead body that was speaking to him! <DO NOT TAKE THE TIME TO QUESTION ME, YOU SO-CALLED INTELEGENT PROPHET! ANY HALF-WIT COULD TELL YOU MY NAME! I AM GARSH, AND I AM FORERVER TO BE HONORED AMOUNG THE GODS, HIGHER THAN GREAT DANOOK! I AM TO BE WORSHIPPED AND SACRIFICED UNDER, FOR I HAVE GIVEN UP DEATH! I HAVE SENTENCED MYSELF TO FOREVER DWELL IN THIS LIFE, SO I CAN GUIDE YOU PUNY MORTALS TO FULFILL YOUR DESTINIES! > Aknar felt his brain slowing, as if some part of his mind were falling under the control of this wretched creature that called himself a god. Then he said something he would have killed himself for saying. “Yes, great Garsh, god of destiny. You are to be honored as a god, among the highest gods, and to be obeyed for all eternity! What are your wishes, oh great one?” <THERE IS A SPECIES WHO IS A GREAT AFFRONT TO ME, A SPECIES SPOKEN OF IN THE SCROLLS OF DANNOOK! THEY ARE CALLED HUMANS! WIPE THEM OUT, KILL THEM ALL! > One part of the prophet was confused. This creature was telling him to wipe out an entire species! To commit Xenocide! That part of the scroll had never been taken very seriously, and this evil creature wanted to base their religion around it. But another part of him was a mindless drone, desperate to serve the demon. “Yes, oh great one. I will give your word to the people, your orders will be carried out”. Then Aknar came to his senses. This demon was controlling his speech, and some of his thoughts, even his movements, right in front of the priests! No! He cried silently. Get out of me; get out of me you demon, you cadaver! My body is mine and mine alone to control! But he heard an evil voice in his head, his other half, the part that could talk and move, the part owned by the demon. Do not resist me! I cannot get rid of you completely, but your body is mine now, and I will use you to make the covenant worship me! With you, I will fulfill my dreams! For a moment, Aknar felt a flicker of strength, a flicker of control. But then it was gone. NO! Aknar wanted to cry to the priests. Do not sacrifice under this evil creature! Do not preach his word to the people! Do not commit xenocide in his name! But alas, his body was not his to control, instead he said this: “There are some of these humans on Halo, but I trust the remaining Forerunner will take care of them. Instead we must focus on the Human-colonized worlds!” A hologram appeared in front of him, of a human planet. The evil half of him told him what this planet was called by the Humans. It was called Harvest. “We start here.” Aknar said calmly. The priests bowed and left. Fools! Aknar thought. Don’t you know your own, wise prophet enough to know that he would not calmly tell you to commit xenocide! Then, thinking this, he turned and bowed to the evil creature.

Halo

Guiltyspark finally turned to Shang-Zaer, who had fallen asleep. “The time is right, now, master Zaer”. <Wha-huh? > Zaer said as he woke up. “The time is right. My fleet is heading towards the humans to destroy them”. The halo hologram showed the ghost fleet crossing Halo, preparing to swoop down and destroy the pack of humans. <But, I thought you said you would wait until Gazital objected! > Suddenly, the sliding door on the wall swung open. Gazital ran in. <WAIT! STOP! > Sentinels were on him in a second, surrounding him from every direction. <It’s too late, Gazital. The Ghost fleet is on the way to wipe them out>. Zaer smiled when he said this, even though he didn’t really know why they wanted to wipe out the Humans anymore. <NO! You don’t understand! > Yelled Gazital. <You can’t do this! The Humans are really- > Cutter fire sliced through Gazital from all different directions. <WHAT WAS HE ABOUT TO SAY? > Zaer demanded to 343. “That’s not your concern, now leave before the next covenant force arrives!” Confused, Zaer walked out of the room. He would never know the answer to his question. Finally, the door sealed shut. Guiltyspark was alone with his sentinels. He turned to the hologram quickly, and it went into a “zoom out” mode. It showed the Halo coordinates along with the rest of the galaxy. “Begin simulation” guiltyspark said happily. On the hologram, an expanding ring of energy shot out from the dot, representing Halo. It spread across the far reaches of the galaxy, slicing through planets, destroying any life it crossed. Finaly, there was a giant explosion. A ball of energy grew from Halo, and spread, covering the void of space. It was the ultimate biological bomb. All sentient life in the galaxy was wiped out. Guiltyspark looked at the hologram, for a minute, he was motionless. This was his goal. But he would need a living creature to accomplish it. To fulfill his goal, he would need to access Halo’s defenses, and that, he could not do. He turned to another hologram. It showed a Human battle cruiser, called The Pillar of Autumn. He scanned its mapping coordinates. It would eventually encounter Halo. Guiltyspark stared at the picture. Then he laughed.

NO, NOT THE END.

THE BEGENING.

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