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The final war: Chapter one: The forming of an alliance
Date: 13 October 2003, 1:56 PM

The first attack wave against Earth has been eliminated, and another covenant fleet is approaching the now unpopulated planet Reach. UNSC decides to send Master Chief there and meet up with the covenant fleet.

"Chief, we have docked with the covenant cruiser and you'll need to get going!" Cortanas familiar voice reminded him what he was here for. Master Chief walked slowly to the docking platform, prepairing for another one man war. The door opened and a really large room was exposed to the Chief. It came a small group of covenant through a large door. But this time it felt different, MC doubted for the first time in his life about opening fire against covenant. When thinking about his strange feelings he decides to just shoot a grunt in the arm with the pistol. Master Chief thereafter heard: "Why did you shoot me? I don't even know who or what you are and I don't even have a weapon!" said by a common "gruntish" voice. Everything that the grunt had said was probably true; there was almost thirty covenant in that room, all with a questioning but angry face expression. Another thing was strange too, none of them had weapons. In the very moment that the Chief reallizied that they was defenceless, a big wall sank down in the floor, and he heard a low, calm and commanding voice saying:
"Calm down, this thing doesn't want to hurt us, he has mistaken us for the others he call "covenant"."
"Others? Aren't you covenant?" the Chief says to the mysterius creature that haven't showed up yet.
"We are covenant, but we don't share the same religion as the fanatic bastards that you have fought endless times." The voice now reveals itself by coming around a corner, showing to be a prophet. He again talks:
"Come closer and I'll explain everything to you."
MC: "Wait just a second. MEDIC!! Report, we have a wounded grunt here. Dont ask any questions, just do as I say!" Master Chief thereafter wlaks away with the prophet.
MC: "What did you mean when you said that you dont share religion with our enemies?"
Prophet: "Your enemies are a fanatic, military faction of the Species Covenant. They have changed their way of thinking about our religion, seeng it as a way to justify jihad against half of the universe. GSG, or Gathered Species Government, have been trying to stop the faction, called the Blood Faction which you have been fighting. Shamefully, we can all se the results of their efforts."
MC: "But why haven't the GSG succeeded? You must, all gathered, be capable of taking out a single faction."
Prophet: "Little human, that faction is like a bunch of bandits. Give them inside information and they escape before you can say "search"."
MC: "Do you mean that the Blood Faction have insiders at the GSG?"
Prophet: "Yes, but thats not the only thing that stops us from attacking them. The Blood Faction have started to clone forerunners, our ancient enemy. The forerunners were extinct by us almost 500000 years ago in your way of counting time. Both the forerunners and we were at the brink of extiction when we finally won "The Eternal War". Now the Blood Faction has cloned more than a million forerunners, and they rioted against their creators. The riot caused more than a billion casualties among the Blood Faction, and two dead forerunners. Yet, there are many forerunners that are loyal to the faction."
Cortana: "But when did the riot start?"
Prophet: "It started exactly three months ago. All the surviving faction members escaped in fear of the forerunners."
MC: "This planet that have us in orbit was once populated by humans but three months ago it was attacked by the Blood Faction. Cortana and I escaped together with a lot of other humans. Then we too were attacked and cortana and I came out as only survivors. Can you tell me if we were attacked in the name of the jihad or were we just in their path of escape?"
Prophet: "The most accurate thing to believe is that it was both. Not even forerunners can make them stop making their "holy" sacrifices. But tell me, to what location did you escape?"
Cortana: "We made a blind jump to a gas giant planet that we called Threshold. Anyway, we landed on a big, forerunner made ring called Halo." The prophet looks extremely surprised, saying:
"You have been in contact with one of the Halos, that changes everything. Let me give you a short history lesson.

Near the end of the war against us, the forerunners came up with two new weapons. Both of them weren't finished when they had to be. One of them was biological, a parasite that would take over the hosts body and mind but keep its knowledge's. The forerunners thought that this creature would do significantly more damage to us than to them and named it after the anticipated result. This lifeform, the flood, was ment to be like a flooding over us. But the flood caused equal damage to both parts and during the research work we were more capable to strike at them, hard.
The second one was a large machine with only one purpose, to eliminate all covenant in an enormous range. Seven of those machines was created before we stopped them. Shortly after that they were finished all the forerunners moved to those weapons, knowing that the only thing they had to do to erase us from the history of the universe was to push a few buttons. Later, the forerunners found out that even this weapon would not be at the hand of one side. They also found out that the only thing capable of surviving the danger was the flood, but that they also soon would die, with no hosts to live in. The forerunners collected all of the flood to those machines and concealed them within certain cambers. They hoped that any civilization capable of releasing the flood would also have technologies to undo them. Shortly after the collection, we won the war. End of history lesson."

Prophet: "Do you get that another name for those "machines" are "Halos"?" Master Chief nods.
Prophet: "At first, when the faction members saw where you were heading, they were probably scared and wanted you out of there.
"Liar!! The covenant we met on Halo was only focused to get to the control room FIRST; there was no focus on getting us out of there. And when I was in the control panel, the only part of the story I got was the flood-keeping part." says Cortana, seeming very irritated.
Prophet: "Calm down. I understand why you think that I'm a lyer, but let me explain. The faction members didn't understand Halos powers, trying to control it is a way of misunderstanding its true powers. I assume that they haven't yet found out, they see the Halos as a tool of the gods, giving them a chance of completing their jihad. About the story, did you look at the hard drive chips motive?"
Cortana: "Yes, but what does that have to do with the story?"
Prophet: "If I'm not mistaking, the motive was a Halo with warning red edges with a big star and a gas giant in the background?"
Cortana: "Yes, it actually looked that way, but how do you know that?"
Prophet: "Our species destroyed a Halo almost a decade ago. In the control panel was two hard drive chips, one with the described motive and one with a Halo surrounding a planetary sized elite skull. I have a copy here if you want it."
Cortana:"yes, I do want a look at it. Hm...the arcitecture is exactly the same as the one in Halos control panel and the code breaking key is exactly the same too. Sorry that I didn't believe in you."
Prophet: "That's okay, now I have a question for you humans. I am ready to, in order to save my people, form an alliance with you humans against the Blood Faction and the forerunners. Will you join it?"
MC: "Yes, but there is still a problem. How do we recognize you? And can you haelp us convice the other humans that you are friendly?"
Prophet: "You will have two proofs that we are friendly. One is this conversation, that I hope is properly stored within you, Cortana. The second proof is the two hard drive chips that I hereby will give to you. Enough?"
Cortana: "Yes, that will have to be enough, but how do we recognize you?"
Prophet: "We will send this whole conversation to any human vessel that is close enough to attack us. Now, take these coordinates, they will show you to a planet where the next GSG meeting will be held in three days. We would be honored if you gather a human strike team and meet us there."
MC: "We will be there, goodbye." Master Chief and Cortana walks away. Then they suddenly hears:
"Thanks for helping me. You humans are actually REALLY nice. If I wasn't shot in the arm I would hug you." The grunt seems to be really happy and Master Chief gives him a clap on the shoulder before he walks away.

To Be Continued...

Chapter two: Old friends saying goodbye
Date: 18 October 2003, 8:34 PM

Time: 50 hours after the birth of the alliance

Cortana: "Master Chief, brace yourself, we are approaching the gravity-zone of Earth. Stabilizing artificial gravity...we're in orbit...opening com-channel."
"Cortana, is that you?
Cortana: "Yes Admiral, that's us in orbit. We are okay and we...have news."
Admiral: "Why are you here so early? What about the covenant? Was any crew-men hurt?"
Cortana: "No, tha crew have got the thruth...explained, they're allright."
Admiral: "What truth, what are you talking about?"
Cortana: "The covenant we engaged weren't hostile. They told us that our enemies are a military, religiosly fanatic faction, and that they've been trying to stop the faction. However, they told us that there is another race-pact out there, the forerunners. That alliance is strong enough to wipe us, and the friendly covenant out of the history of the universe. We agreed to form an alliance, in order to protect both parts. I hav the story here if you want it."
"No, why would I want it? I don't want anything from the covenant." the Admiral says, very harshly.
MC: "Admiral, Cortana and I are just trying to help here, you don't hav eto be so aggressive. And as an anwer to your question, all allies we can get is a little help in this war."
Admiral: "No, I can't work with those as allied."
Cortana: "Admiral, you must get that all evidence proofs that our allies are friendly, we must joun them to survive."
Admiral: "No, you mustn't, in fact, if you do you will break the Cole-protocol."
MC: "This doesn't have anything with the Cole-protocol to do. The only thing our allies have in common with our enemies is race belongings. Why do you think that they are hostile? Admiral, are you just to much of a coward to save humanity together with strange allies?"
Admiral: "If they are covenant they are hostile. And I'm ready to save humanity anytime but enemies don't fool me, and they are enemies!"
MC: "Then Cortana and I will have tosave the universe together with our, so called, enemies."
Admiral: "You wouldn't dare to do it!"
MC: "Dare to do what? In fact, I would be very surprised if you had the courage to stop us!" These words MC puts much of arrogance in.
Admiral: "Really, then watch me do this!" The Admiral opens another com-channel.
"Hello Admiral Edwards. News from Cortana?"
Admiral: "Yes, Sergeant Jones, they have allied with the covenant. From now on, they're wanted dead or alive. Goodbye Sergeant."
Cortana: "You aren't very good at picking your enemies, are you?"
MC: "No, he's not. Goodbye, admiral Edwards, and good luck, you'll need it." The sound of a "click" fills the room that the Chief stands in when he closes the com-channel.
Cortana: "Sad, but there's nothing we can do now. We'll just have to return to the covenant and tell them of our faliure..."

27 hours later:
"Hello, Master Chief, good to see you." The voice of the prophet eases Master Chiefs heavy mind a bit.
"Hi." says MC, with a dark low voice.
Prophet: "The other humans weren't very enthusiastic about the alliance, were they?"
Cortana: "No, they weren't, they have decided to oppose us."
Prophet: "It's a shame but focus your minds on something else, we have a universe to save! By the way, now follow me to the GSG-meeting."

Shortly thereafter, MC and the prophet stand before a giant gate with five huge alien letters on it.
Prophet: "Chief, it's here. Take this chip, it will translate all the languages spoken in the meeting, you will need it."
MC: "Thanks." The gate thereafter opens with a thunder-like sound. The room that now is before the Chief is enormous, with the shape of an indoor stadium that has the galleries full of covenant.
Prophet: "Chief, you will have to stand i the middle of the room, the circle shaped pit area in front of you."
MC slowly and nervously walks to the area that he has been directed to while the covenant opens the meeting. Suddenly, an elite enters the area that MC stands in, and says:
"Report from the battlefield!" The dark, loud voice caught all attention in the room.
"The force that was sent to Halo, Installation 02 didn't make it. They managed to get past a few solar systems before the Blood Faction appeared. Reports tell us that they outnumbered us 3:1" A hunter decides to speak:
"What do you suggest as the best cause of action, Awacar?"
Awacar (the elite in the middle circle):"The best cause of action is probably to gather one strike force per ring. Those who are recruited should all be capable of using a fuel rod gun. The most important ring to take control over is Installation 02, so the infantry that is sent there will be a 20% larger force than other strike forces. A grunt speaks:
"Awacar, that green thing that is next to you, what is it? Another war-project of the Blood Faction? Or, a new type of cannon fodder mayb..."
Awacar: "Shut it, Gibash. This thing is what the humans call a SPARTAN II. This one, called Master Chief, alone completed the index test of a flood keeping Halo. He destroyed the same ring and came out as only survivor. On the way, he killed half a Blood Faction armada and the other half was killed int the destruction of the ring. And Gibash, that thing about cannon fodder, if I got to decide, you would be lucky to have that role one day." Silece fills the room and after seconds a hunter breaks it:
"This SPARTAN's merits are stunning, Awacar. But he doesn't know our tactics in combat and might be a weak link that others will have to adapt to."
Awacar: "Good point, Hurumb'ah, but Master Chief's first priority wont be to fire his guns. He will give us information about the flaws of human tactics. Of course, the Chief will have to be where the humans are. Oh, I almost forgot, all of this is okay with you, Master Chief?"
MC: "Yes it is. Wether I want it or not, I will have to kill humans." At the end of MC's sentence, the room is filled by loud applauses. But only seconds thereafter an elite enters the room and runs towards Awacar. He slows down just in time to avoid a collision and then bows to Awacar saying:
"Great Awacar, I came here as fast as I could, you must forgive me. The guards didn't let me in at first and..."
Awacar: "Get to the point! I won't hurt you!"
Elite: "Oh thanks, great Awacar. This reporter will tell you of the battlefield reports, and a Blood Faction warning message."
Awacar: "Well then, give it to me, please." The elite gives Awacar something that looks like a cylinder halved on the length, with strange alien letters running over the flat side. Awacar reads these letters carefully when the elite stands up and runs away.
Awacar: "The humans have set course at installation 02 and will reach it in three days. The forerunners are chasing the Blood Faction to the Halos. 05 will be reached first, 07 then, 02 later, and 06 after that and finally 03"
Cortana: "I'm sorry to interrupt, but why would anyone want the Blood Faction at the Halos?"
Awacar: "That's a very good question, actually. The forerunners doesn't have the equipment needed to locate the control rooms, the Blood Faction does, but they need time. If the forerunners kill the faction members on the Halos, they have the equipment there already."
Hunter Hurumb'ah: "When will our enemies be there?"
Awacar: "We will be there in 53 hours, other information is irrelevant." A brute decides to speak:
"This is suicide! To attack the forerunners on their arena is nothing but stupid! We are strong enough to defend our home planets. Others may commit suicide but we brutes won't follow!"
Awacar: "So, you'd rather sit on your backs and get a Halo-blast in your faces? The only way I would leave you brutes out of battle would be if you had to pass a IQ test to get there. Luckily, others can do the thinking for you brutes. And K'eygaht, you won't be able to defend your home planets. This threat is larger than your mouth, so if you keep it shut and obey ordes we might have a chance of winning this war. A final word of warning: As you know, the Halos have a blast radius of 25000-100000 lightyears.
One of the following things can happen with the Halos: The forerunners find a way to survive a Halo blast and fires them of after that or the Blood Faction just fires them of to complete the jihad. The third possibility is that we destroys them. I prefer the last one, what about you, K'eygaht?" K'eygaht anwers with a low tone:
"I too prefer the last one...and I'll obey your orders, against my own will,"
Awacar: "Good. Oh, the last thing in the reporter is a warning message from the Blood Faction. Lets listen here!"
Awacar puts the reporter on the floor and shortly thereafter it starts to show a hologram of a prophet.
Hologram prophet: "These words are words of warning, so listen carefully. We will soon land our troops at the Halos, where we will retrieve the indexes and activate their weapons. To help with the sacrifice to Tsirana and Gnassar the dactyls have decided to join us. Your bodies may burn in the bellies of the Arkenrooht." The hologram disappears and everybody, exept MC and Awacar starts to laugh.
Awacar: "SILENCE! Why do you always havet o take news like this this way? Do you remember what happened when the report about the forerunners came?"
Hunter Aul: "Yes, we do remember, Awacar, but our enemies cloned the forerunners from ancient rests of the same. I strongly doubt that they have found rests of fantasies."
Awacar: "Aul, your words are, sadly, the most logical. Though, if you had seen what I've seen the mouth of nothing but an idiot would speak your words."
MC: "Excuse me, but who is Tsirana and Gnassar that the prophet spoke of?"
Awacar: "Tsirana is the goddess of life in our belief and Gnassar is the god of peace. The Blood Faction members believe that Tsirana is the goddess of death and that Gnassar is the god of war. They too believe that they must sacrifice their enemies to Tsirana to remain alive. For success in war they think that they have to conquer certain planets in the name of Gnassar. Unluckily, your planets have been conquer-worthy."
Cortana: "But Awacar, what is so funny with the dactyls?"
Awacar: "The dactyls are mythical beasts, much like your dragons. Here, I'll show you a holographic projection of a dactyl." The hologram shows a strange creature, a snake like beast with wings, arms and a dragon-like face. This creature is all covered in scales and is approximately 13 meters long.
Cortana: "Is the creature pictured in 1:1 scale?"
Awacar: "Yes."
Cortana: "It doesn't look fly-capable so why does it have wings?"
Awacar: "The dactyl is said to be fly-capable, you see, the air where the dactyl lives is 5-7 times thicker than the athmosphere on human populated planets. No remarkable gravity differences. Still, it will take a lot of power to get that massive body into air. If they exist we will have the proof soon enough, we're going to get real..."

To be continued with "Chapter three: Getting real..."

The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part One: The landing
Date: 2 November 2003, 11:29 AM

The covenant drop ship goes down for landing, together with nine others. The scenery for now is a beatiful bay surrounded by high mountains and ocean. The drop ship lands and open their side hatches. Forty elites, fifty grunts and a couple of jackals step down in the sand, together with Master Chief. MC's eyes carefully study the bay. There is nothing remarkable here, sand, larger rocks, trees and a few large piles of stones. The mountains a few hundred meters away are covered with thick forest.

The grunt Karcarak speaks:
"Where are our enemies?"

Awacar: "This place should be swarming with enemies by now but both forerunners and the Blood Faction have got technical problems. Cortana?"

Cortana: "The human forces have started to understand the size of the threat. They made a little stop to change tactics, but they should be here by now.

Five minutes passes...

A jackal speaks:
"Awacar, where is the resistance? We aren't here to enjoy the... view, are we?"

Awacar: "No, Scica'al, certainly not. I've too started to think these ways but this is, after all Installation 02. We must keep our guard up, for soon hell will be all over us."

Karcarak: "I don't like the way you speak of hell, Awacar. Are you sure that we won't be smacked like flies?"

Awacar: "I can't be sure of anything in this war, but we'll have to come out of this battle alive, for all of our races. Our mission here is to keep the bay clean for a strike team to land. It will pick up the survivors and fight their way through the forests. We landed here because we can sneak up the mountains where a safe ride to the control room awaits."

Scicha'al waves Master Chief to him and says:
"You do now that the short name for Blood Faction members is "betrayers", don't you?"

MC: "No, I didn't know that, thanks."

Cortana: "I'm picking up some signals here, is it the forerunners?"

Awacar: "Probably. For how long do we need to hold them off?"

Cortana: "I'm calculating for 89.3 seconds, add or withdraw a quarter of a second."

Awacar gets something empty in his face, looking extremely frightened. He starts to speak slowly:
"Ninety seconds, the longest ninety seconds of my life."

Awacar hasty switches to faster, commanding talk:
"You grunts with fuel rod guns, report!"

Twelve grunts approaches Awacar in a line and says:
"We're ready!"

Awacar: "Good, your mission will be to focus all of your firepower at the forerunner drop ships. If we're going to survive you'll have to do the same. You jackals, you wil have to keep these grunts alive at all costs! Understood?"

Jackals: "Yes, great Awacar!"

Awacar: "Good. Elites, we won't be able to give the forerunners a warm welcome, but we'll give them some action when they reach the sand. Chief?"

MC: "I haven't been threatened for a week and I need some heat so I'll join you."

Cortana: "Red alert! The forerunners are coming in!"

Three giant discs approach the bay. When they got within firing distance, a cascade of fuel rod gun shots arose, and every single shot hitted its target.

Awacar: "Grunts, keep on going! The rest, take cover until the forerunners show us their ugly faces, then, it's fire at will!"

Despite the massive hail of green shots two of the drop ships make it to the ground, and the third lands in shallow water. Three types of creatures emerge from the drop ships. One is a skinny and thin creature armed with a plasma sniper rifle. Another is sitting in a hovercraft and holds something that is proven to be a grenade launcher. This enemy looks almost like an elite. The last beast is looking like a very musculus velociraptor covered with thick armor and holding a huge, three-barreled weapon. The only thing that combines the forerunners is that they're all under heavy fire and immmediately fire back.

MC: "What kind of rounds is it in the three-barreled weapons that some forerunners have?"

Awacar: "You don't want to find out."

Awacar activates his com-channel:
"Thunder team, units 1-8, drop your morgawrs!"

Eight of the drop ships return to the bay while the battle begins. Then they drop a Jet Ski vehicle each in the water. The battle intensifies and the forerunners start to lob grenades over the rocks that give the covenant protection. This causes great regroupings and a few losses among the covenant.

Awacar: "Master Chief, wait a minute! Do you see?"

MC continues to fire his assault rifle and says:
"I won't wait, but what is it that I'm not seeing?"

Awacar: "The snipers and the engineers (the ones in the hovercrafts) are heading for the water. That leaves me with the bio-tanks."

MC: "You?"

Awacar doesn't take notice and instead screams out:
"I need seven volunteers for the morgawrs! The last one is yours, Chief. Bur first, move to my rock."

MC: "It's fifteen meters away from mine and it's further into the land!"

Awacar: "Do you prefer to die next to yours?"

These words convinces MC and he starts to run, but when he's almost there his previous rock is blasted apart and the chock-wave throws MC to Awacars rock. The collision causes MC's shields to go off and makes him lose half of his health.

MC: "What was that?"

Awacar: "The first barrel, keep close to the rock!"

A swarm of blue shots comes around the rock and homes in at MC and Awacar, who are forced to sidestep to avoid them.

Awacar: "Now quickly, move!"

Master Chief starts to run towards the Jet Skis and reaches them without any trouble, but he has to evade a lot of fire on his way to the sea battle. Now the water war has started.

Cortana: "Watch out, if you don't turn you're going to be hit by a torpedo!"

MC then turns the morgawr very quick, simultaneously with hitting a smaller wave. The special conditions cause the morgawr to make a corkscrew roll and land perfectly in the water.

Cortana: "Whoa! Where did you learn that?"

MC: "I haven't learned that."

Chief now fires a torpedo at a nearby engineer who evades the projectile. MC fires one more, hitting this time but not killing the creature. The forerunner fires a stream of plasma shots against MC, who was hit by several of them. The Chiefs counter-attack, a launched "blob" of plasma finally takes down the engineer. Though, Master Chief didn't come out of battle undamaged; the got his shields taken down and the morgawr was smoking.

Awacar: "Chief, get out of there now, quicker than immediately, on the double or whatever you humans say. The betrayers have launced a new project, called Carybdis, which is a giant, floating battleship armed with super-cavity torpedoes."

MC takes ground near the rest of the friendly forces. The looks back towards the ocean and sees two giant ships, around 30 dropships and 25 dactyls. The battleships quickly sink a couple of engineers and chases the rest of the forerunners to land.

MC: "We must have held out for more than ninety seconds."

Cortana: "Calculations tell me that our tactics would have enabled us to hold out for two and a half minute, the timer shows two."

Awacar: "Don't make this tempo a bad habit. The forerunners are sending reinforcements and the humans are flying in."

The battle with the forerunners aren't that intense now when the betrayers have joined, and the humans are on their way. The humans have one problem: the dactyls have decided to bury the pelicans at the ocean floor. They succeed, and the surviving humans starts to swim towards the land. Chief runs out in the water to shoot them with AR and SMG shots.

Awacar: "Don't waste your ammo, they won't make it anyway."

MC sees four missiles fly in a bow and land near the humans. Four six-meter deep and twelve-meter wide craters are blown in the water. The explosives instantly kills the marines that was in the craters, and the powerful streams created when the water fills the gaps drown the rest of the marines.

Cortana: "Don't worry, there'll be more. Now, get going!"

The forerunners are landing more troops, approximately 75 creatures carried in five drop ships.

MC: "I thought that there would be more!"

Awacar: "Me to, there must be more troops near, but for now, entertain the ones that are here."

The bio-tanks have started to group, and their leader points at Awacar, orders his troops to fire and starts to run towards his enemy.

Awacar: "Eat this, creep!" He starts to run too and picks up a plasma grenade that he activates. When they get dangerously close the forerunner roars and begins to turn its body, in order to swing the heavy tail into Awacar. Instead, Awacar throws his grenade, which "silences" the bio-tank before it has twisted 90 degrees. The thrower dive-jumps to evade the tail and lands side down in the sand. He stopped in the right moment to, with pleasure, listen to the detonation.

Awacar: "Go on Chief, the arena is yours! Here, take this, I'll cover you!"

Awacar throws another grenade that makes a plasma pistol fly and land next to MC when it explodes.

MC: "Thanks."

Master Chief begins to run towards the betrayers that have landed. He kills an elite with the plasma pistol, switches his SMG for the elites needler and kills five grunts with it. Chief now throws a grenade at a lesser wall of jackals, taking out every member. MC now feels the pounding heat of plasma rifle shots in his back, reallizing that his shields are down. Chief turns around, fires two needler shots against the attacking elite and then sees a ray of plasma penetrate the elites chest. Master Chief looks to the right, towards Awacar who lies in the sand, holding a smoking plasma sniper.

Awacar: "Said that I'd cover you!"

Cortana: "Thanks, now listen carefully. The humans are landing warthogs to assist the infantry."

Awacar: "I don't know what a "warthog" is. What does this mean for the battle?"

Cortana: "It means..."

MC: "... that we have the advantage."

The human pelicans go down for landing in the forerunner-controled area of the bay. This time, they succeed in landing twenty pelicans unnoticed. They now have close to hundred marines and four warthogs in the battle.
The Chief and Awacar goes on "as usual", taking out a lot of grunts and jackals, a couple of elites and a few brutes together with a few forerunners.

Cortana: "Watch out Chief!"

A warthog is coming to fishtail MC, who jumps up, kicks out the gunner and puts the driver and passenger to sleep. Just a second thereafter Master Chief discovers a plasma grenade attached to the vehicle. He jumps out of the warthog but is still tossed further away. He lands behind a tree and sees Awacar take cover behind the vehicle he just jumped out of.

Now they're very close and Awacar starts to talk:
"Status?"

MC: "Wouldn't say no to an over shield."

Awacar: "Well then, take this." Awacar throws an over shield over to MC who says:
"If I drive the warthog and you go in the side seat you'll need these." while unloading his needler magazine and giving the three remaining to Awacar, and goes on saying:
"Your sword?"

Awacar: "35,72 %."

MC: "Good enough for me."

Awacar: "Do you see that the betrayers take cover behind the pile of stones over there?" He then throws his sword over. The Chief turns his head, looks and nods.

Awacar: "I know that it is a long distance but if you could..." Awacar looks at MC who again nods and makes Awacar smile. Master Chief then throws a remote grenade into the stone pile.

Awacar: "Await my signal!" He then screams out:
"Take cover!" and after that lets three seconds pass.

Awacar: "Now Chief!" The grenade explodes, shatters the stones and throws the sharp fragments away in all directions.

MC: "Cortana, the rate of fatality?"

Cortana: "85.4 %, 100 % of the remaining betrayers in that area are wounded."

MC takes control of the warthog and Awacar gets into the side seat. Now they're driving towards the betrayers with Awacar firing needles.

Awacar: "Look upwards!"

MC: "Damn!"

The cause of their reactions is a dactyl that have decided to mix human and elite flesh in one bite. MC turns the warthog just in time to evade the majestic creatures attack.

Awacar: "Amazing. If you drive and evade I'll fire at it."

MC: "You don't have any idea about what I can do with a 'hog, do you?"

The flying beast approaches them again and the Chief starts to drive in a wide circle which he makes small turns within. When he sees that the dactyl attacks he makes a quick turn towards the centre of the circle. The dactyl bashes its head into the ground and the moment after, the Chief makes a turn outwards so quick that the jeep slide turns 270 degrees, beating the back of the vehicle into the creatures skull, crushing it.

Awacar: "Extraordinary, but we're not through yet. When I've cleaned the area of Blood Faction members I'll need a new weapon."

MC: "Okay, unload!" The Chief gives Awacar a chance to pull the needler-trigger. A few seconds later the opposition is undone and the needler empty.

Awacar: "Drive towards the foreunner group!"

MC looks at Awacar, surprised about the brave order but obeys without question. Awacar switches to a plasma rifle and when they get really close he starts to throw grenades.

Awacar: "Out of grenades!"

MC: "Take mine!"

Awacar: "Thanks."

Awacar goes on throwing, thinning the forerunner line out. MC then, under rapid bio-tank fire (second barrel), kills the remaining forerunners with the warthog. Though, there is one left.

MC: "He's yours!"

Awacar starts firing his plasma rifle at the lonely engineer. When the rifle is nearly overheated Chief follows the given order; to drive closer to the forerunner. They get very close and Awacar overheats his weapon, draws his arm back and says:
"For my friends, bastard!" Afterwards he melee-attacks the forerunner in the throat with the hot rifle. Master Chief stops the warthog and lets Awacar get out and pick up the fallen engineers grenade launcher.

MC: "Hurry on, we've got a bird on our necks!"

Awacar gets in and says:
"Roll, I'm going to cut its wings!"

The dactyl roars and starts hunting the warthog while Awacar shoots a grenade and misses. The beast starts to fire his rod gun.

Cortana: "You didn't kill it, you made it more mad!"

Awacar: "Chief, drive straight, I can't shoot!"

MC: "Okay, but you will only get a second!"

The dactyl rises in the air and prepares to dive-attack its prey. Awacar shoots two grenades, each hitting where the wings combine with the body. The grenades detonate and paralyze the dactyl, causing it to crash from approximately 50 meters height. When it reaches the ground a great cloud of sand and dust is created.

Awacar: "It is dead now, nothing but dead..."

The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part Two: Hunting
Date: 13 November 2003, 4:00 PM

      Master Chief drives the warthog up on a dune to take the vehicle for a fly. He then sees another warthog that drives below him. The passenger gets his eyes on MC and says:
      "Chief, stop and obey our orders, or we'll have to send you to heaven!" while the warthog takes ground.

MC:
      "If you doesn't believe that I makes the right choises, and tries to change my mind with your firearms, I'll have to let you practice opening the gates for me."

Human:
      "Sad Chief, but we have orders."

Awacar:
      "Unfortunately, you won't live to follow them!"

Awacar fires off the last plasma grenade in his grenade launcher. The grenade fullfills its purpose and kills the Humans.

Awacar:
      "Not too good!"

      Shortly thereafter a forerunner Bio-tank fires off a first-barrel shot that lands and brutally detonates, tossing MC and his warthog away, spinning sideways in the air. When they stop, MC says:
      "I agree!"

Awacar:
      "Lets not cry for spilled blood, I'm going to end that smiling Bio-tanks life!"

MC:
      "With what, your harsh language? You don't have any weapons, remember?"

Awacar:
      "Hmpff! Very funny, but when I've digged myself out of here, you'll watch a mastermind in action."

They digs themselves out and takes cover with the warthog. The Bio-tank that got them in this situation gets closer with heavy, proud steps, holding his tail high. It looks pleased for having damaged the vehicle, and thinks that he has killed MC and Awacar. The creature walked as if it was a king, letting its shimmering, sapphire-blue shields dimly reflect the rays from two glassing suns.
Awacar leaves his cover, and you could see the joy in the Forerunners' eyes, getting a chance to chase a wounded prey. The Bio-tank fires something very similar to plasma rifle shots, but these explodes upon contact. Awacar succeeds to evade almost evey shot, but the ones that hits him makes serious damage. Eventually, his opponent switches to targeting fire in order to kill Awacar. The Bio-tank fires swarm after swarm of these shots that forms as a tail that follows Awacar. He is forced to make really evasive moves while approaching the Forerunner. He gets face to face, melee distance, and says:
      "You have attacked a weaponless Elite, for that mistake you'll have to fall by your own weapon!"
The Forerunner tenses every last muscle in its body; tightening the yellow skin around it, raises his arm and prepares to give the Elite the punishment for, in his ears, insulting him. He makes the move, and Awacar uses his last powers to make a quick step to the left. The Forerunner melees nothing but air, and is united with the swarms of shots that he fired earlier. The rounds passes through him, and leaves a lifeless body, bleeding in the sand.

MC:
      "I'm impressed!"

Awacar:
      "We've got no time for such details, help me up!"

MC carries Awacar to a morgawr, where he picks out a health pack that he gives to Awacar.

Awacar:
      "Thanks, I feel better now. Look, the Forerunners and Humans are dead, and the betrayers are fleeing into the mountains."

Awacar activates his com-channel:
      "Team Lightning, the beach is cleared, awaiting reinforcement!"

Six drop ships, larger version, comes in and hover over the sand, let their floor hatches down, using them as ramps to land ghosts, wraiths and shades together with a lot of infantry. Twelve Hunters, thirty black Elites, the same amount of Brutes and a lot of Grunts.

Awacar:
      "Wraiths, shades, your job will be to guard the bay, no hostile forces should be able of flanking us from here! The rest, follow me!" Awacar then runs into the forest with the rest of the troops following. They fight a few Elites and when the forces have got 500 meters into the forest, Cortana informates:
      "I'm reading betrayer lifesigns 200 meters up the mountain, not sure how much longer some of them have got.

Awacar opens his com-channel:
      "Team Thunder, at positions 250, 300 and 400 meters up the mountain, mow the grass, it's invaded by bugs!"

Leader of Team Thunder:
      "Aye Awacar, just keep our infantry safe."

Awacar:
      "You know I will, out. Every one that wants to live, take cover!"

All of the troops hide behind trees before three massive shockwaves passes.

Awacar:
      "Get moving!" the force then starts to run, and when they've got 50 meters they are in a big frontier caused by the blasts. They walk through it, seeing bodies of betrayers lying dead on the ground. They've got to the other side of the frontier, and MC notices a plasma rifle shot, passing next to his head and he yells out:
      "Ambush!"

Awacar turns his head and sees a great force of betrayers.

Awacar:
      "How did they get here?"

Cortana:
      "They must have been outside my scanning range."

MC:
      "Do we have time to fight them?"

Awacar:
      "Better spend the time on them than on death."

      Awacar faces a sword-bearing Elite, knocks it out with his fist and takes his sword. While awacar does this, MC stabs a Hunter in the back with his sword and kills three Jackals.

Awacar:
      "I'm picking up a message here, the Forerunners... are locating us right now. They landed the rest of their troops on the mountain, giving them time to group and attack us at an unexpected point of time. I estimate that we won't need to wait for them more than a minute, but until that, we'll need to keep the betrayers alive."

MC:
      "No good news, but I suggest that the troops in the front backs off and leaves place for fresh fighters." As soon as MC has stopped talking the Grunts and Jackals leaves place for Hunters. A circle of the heavily shielded creatures surrounds the forces and creates a perfect barricade. Chief and Awacar takes the job of shooting down hostile greandes. This goes on for half a minute and then the Jackal Scicha'al gets a word with Master Chief:
      "The hunters are exhausted, they won't hold out much longer!"

MC:
      "They won't need to. Hunters, fall back and let the Brutes have their share of the battle! And you Brutes, if you want to live after this, use your fists. Sharp shooting is only allowed at the sight of Forerunners!"

      The Brutes advances and the battle continues. Suddenly, the Brutes storm forwards and the fight with the Forerunners is on. The betrayer forces starts to focus on the Forerunner threat, and strangely, no Covenant shoot at each other any more.

MC:
      "We can't go on like this forever, the Forerunners can just shoot through the trees and fighting them on an open battlefield isn't an option."

Awacar:
      "Ghosts, give the Forerunners a close look at your wings! I want you to make it in flash attacks while we tries to pack them closer together. And if it gets dangerous, crash the ghosts and join the ground party!"

When the ghosts have formed, Awacar commands:
      "Hunters, get into the forest and flank the Forerunners from the right side. Grunts, do the same but flank from the left. I want you to pack the forerunners closer by firing your fuel rods. The rest of the infantry will have to split up equaly on both sides, giving the necessary support!"

An enourmous regrouping is set in motion. Later, the massive bombardment of the Forerunners brings them closer together, becoming targets of ghosts.

Awacar:
      "Its working! The forerunners are dead! Master Chief, I'll need you to lead the troop that will attack the betrayers when I lead the wounded to a quiet place in the woods for recovery."

MC:
      "Those who feel that they can take another fight, join me! We're going to show the betrayers how to make war!"

      The force moves into the frontier to engage the opposition. A betrayer Grunt, shield coded red, sees MC and yells:
      "The devil, the devil! He's here!"

MC sticks a plasma greande to that grunt, who runs to his friends and takes them with him into death. The battle has begun. MC encounters two Hunters and gets a bit of trouble. For one of them, he uses his last SMG shots, and has to face the other one with a picked up needler. He fires tree magazines into the beast before getting a plasma grenade to end the poor creatures suffering with. After this, MC attacks an Elite, who starts to run towards him while he unleashes the rest of the needler rounds on it and activates his sword. The enemy gets closer, barely damaged by the few shots that hit him and the Chief turns him his back. The surprising action irritates the Elite, but it quickly gets out of astonishment. It roars, and raises its hand. MC hears when it has stopped to roar, jumps diagonally backwards at that point of time and swings his sword into the neck of the Elite, that a moment before meleed nothing but air.

      A team of friendly Covenant comes by, and MC joins them. They encounter a few Brutes and Elites, protected by ten Jackals. The Chief uses two grenades to blow the Jackals away and gives the rest of the team an easy path into fight. The battle is short but intense and afterwards MC looks at his health-indicator, which flashes red. He lets his eyes spawn over the battlefield, seeing that the fight is over.

MC:
      "Everybody, lets get to Awacar and have our piece of rest!"

To Be Continued...

The Final War: Chapter Three: Getting real... Part Three: Awaiting a ride
Date: 16 November 2003, 8:40 PM

      "Reports?" Awacar gently asked Master Chief and Cortana.

      "Very few losses, but many wounded. When we get to you, keep water, food, healthpacks and shield powerups ready." MC informated.

Awacar:
      "Okay, our position is 470 meters up the mountain at half past twelve. You'll find us on a tiny hill. Do you copy?"

      "Acknowledged, out." Chief said as he ended the conversation.
He leads the force to the tiny hill, and the supplies there are split up equaly.

Awacar:
      "We'll need to get going soon."

      "Target?" Cortana wondered.

      "A plateau at the top of the mountain where the Forerunners have started to use Blood Faction equipment to locate the control room. They don't know that our scouts have allready located the control centre. Our job will be to destroy the equipment and take control of the area, before we defend the plateau until the drop ships pick us up." Awacar informed.

      "But why doesn't Team Thunder take the Forerunners out?" Chief's AI friend wondered.

      "Team Thunder do no longer exist. They fought the Forerunners in the air... and lost. Team Lightning is fighting them right now, beeing our only hope." a sad Awacar said.

      Master Chief picks up a health pack and they get going afterwards.
The plateau is nearly reached, and they start to shape their tactics.

Awacar:
      "I'll need the ghosts in front, Brutes and Master Chief following, Grunts and Jackals thereafter and the Elites before the Hunters. We'll have to give the Forerunners height advantage at first, but once we get over the edge, run quickly to the middle and expand the force slowly. Get going!"

The orders are followed, and the surprise attack against the Forerunners is initiated. The ghosts make way, while the Brutes backs them up greatly. An unknown threat is the Forerunner Snipers that have positioned themselves along the edge of the plateau. Master Chief decides to engage them in close combat. He fires the plasma rifle at the slow-moving creatures and he takes out one of them quite instantly. One down - six to go! Master Chief closes up to one of them and uses it as a shield for other Snipers. The encountered one doesn't have another weapon, and the plasma sniper isn't the easiest one to use at short-range. MC repositions himself frequently to get behind the Forerunner. He starts to lob grenades over it and after a while he just evades the purple ray of plasma that was shot into the creatures back, tearing shards of bone and black skin away from its belly. MC now reallizes that the Forerunners, if needed, will sacrifice their own without doubt in the amounts necessary to achieve their objective; be the one and only alliance at the top of the mountain.
      Chief grabs the dead creature's weapon, and starts firing randomly at the Forerunners. He kills one, and wounds two. He felt tired and fell backwards, lied there and awaited his destiny. All of a sudden, Chief felt that something powerfull hitted the ground. He got on his legs and saw green smoke arise from the place where the Snipers had been located.

      "We saw that you were in trouble, but you'll get into more if you don't get going soon." the leader of the Hunters told him.

      "Ghosts, the equipment is yours to have, including the infantry that gets in your way. Brutes, Hunters, the Bio-tanks are yours, you need some challenges. For the rest, it is a bufé, your choice, in other words." Awacar ordered.

      "I know that it's going to be more than "some challenge" but I appreciate the pep-talk!" the Hunter-leader replied before giving a Bio-tank a ton of dirt that he blasted away with his firearm.

MC takes a position a bit away from the battle, getting to use his sniper properly. He takes out three Engineers, some Snipers but no Bio-tank. He finds his selected weapon empty, and goes for an Engineer. He picks his sword out, heads for the Forerunner, makes a swing with the sword and misses. But yet the vehicle explodes.

      "I didn't hit, did somebody else?" Chief wondered.

      "No, but the magnetic fields created by your sword is apparently enough to disturb the electric functions in the Forerunners vehicles." Cortana said, with a sort of questioning thinking about the Forerunner way of making things.

      "Cortana, you don't know where the grenade launcer landed?" asked MC.

      "Ah, pick a new one, but keep your sword down, please." MC doesn't get near another Engineer for a while, but he takes out a few Snipers when waiting. After this, he gets to an Engineer. He closes up to his opponent, pulls out the plasma sniper and bashes it into the Forerunners forehead.

      MC gets his grenade laucher, and now feels a lot more of freedom. He fires a grenade at a Bio-tank, hitting it in the side, taking it out. A group of Enginners have located themselves near a little rock, using it as an insurance for incoming fire. MC gets his eyes on them, and shoots three grenades that is very well placed, because they wound the most Forerunners in the group, and cause them to shatter a little, beeing easier to target. Thereafter he gets help from a crew of Elites that all have plasma rifles, and a blue stream of shots is fired, and is continued to be as long as there is resistance remaining in the specified area. Suddenly, a lot of larger-scale explosions is heard, and Awacar says:
      "Primary objective achieved. Now the work begins. Spread out and guard the edge! We'll need to keep this position for some time."

      "That's not a particularly good idea right now, we have a group of betrayers at four o' clock!" an Elite said.

      "Keep it close, everybody, group of objects at eight, three... six, eleven, two, nine... twelve, lets just say that we are surrounded!" Awacar said, getting more and more desperate.

      "Orders?" Cortana asked.

      "Brutes, you'll go for the betrayer Hunters, ghosts for the Grunts and Jackals. Elites, Grunts, Jackals, we'll go for the rest. Hunters, their ghosts are yours! Chief, you will have the wraiths." ordered Awacar.

      MC was thinking about his next action, to run out of the messy battlefield and give fire, or stay within the fight and take the wraiths out from there. He took the decision to stay. Before him was a battle between ghosts, but MC knew that he was ordered to do a special thing, and kept his focus to it. The wraiths started their massive attack on the forces, and Master Chief could, without getting much of attention, take the mortar tanks out, one by one. MC looked around, and didn't see any targets.

      "Hey, lazy one, do your job, seven o' clock!" a Brute told MC, who looked at the location, and saw a couple of big, blue shots rise and slowly be affected by gravity, to turn and enclose him.

      "Evacuate!" he said, before running away from the future dangerous area. The fight goes on, and MC finally takes the wraiths out. He picks a new target, two ghosts closing in at a few Hunters. He attaches a plasma grenade to one of the ghosts, and both drivers are killed.

      "May I join?" MC asked the Hunters.

      "You're very welcome." one of the Hunters replied. They took out a few other ghosts, a couple of Brutes and Elites, and three Hunters.

      "Keep close, there will be more Forerunners soon." Awacar said, getting everyone to understand that they mustn't let their guard down.

The Forerunners get over the edge and storm forward to reclaim the piece of ground that they see as theirs. MC gets his chance to engage a Bio-tank at close range, and takes it. He has grabbed a plasma pistol, and uses its charged shots. They aren't very effective, because they just home in at the creatures shields. MC is therefore forced to use it without charging, just pushing the trigger frequently. This way of shooting works excellently, and the Forerunner is getting more and more damaged. But the batteries of the pistol is unloaded before the Bio-tank is dead, and MC goes for a plasma rifle. he finds one, and continues to battle his enemy, but even the rifle hasn't got enough of energy to kill the creature. MC is hit by a few of the targeting missiles, and can't engage te Forerunner for much longer. He gets a fuel rod gun, and fires it twice on the Bio-tank, putting it to its final sleep. Chief now sees four Engineers, and decides to attack them. He pulls the rod gun trigger three times, killing one of the Forerunners and damaging the others. They evade the green shots with great skill, and only one more faces his death.The rate of firing from the attacked Forerunners is increased and Master Chief puts a fragmentation grenade between the two remaining, blowing them to hell.
The drop ships from Team Lightning reach ground, and the forces are getting into them.

      "Hey Chief, want to miss a ride? Hurry on, we can't wait for the next attack-wave!" Awacar said loudly, getting a ride for Master Chief.

To Be Continued...

The Final War: Chapter Four: Battle for Installation 02 Part One: Operation: Firestorm
Date: 23 November 2003, 9:55 AM

-Cortana recordings: Loading...

-Time: Year 2553, January 13th, 0053 hours
-Location: Aboard a Covenant drop ship heading towards Halo: Installation 02's control room.
- Information about the recent past: After the Blood Faction strike against Earth, the Master Chief and I were sent to fight another force, who turned out to be friendly. They see themselves as the real Covenant, and are going to stop the Forerunners from firing the Halos.
      The enemy that we have fought for more than thirty years, the Blood Faction (codename:Betrayers), is a religiously fanatic, military resistance group of the real Covenant, and their highest goal is to eliminate all the "unfaithfull" life in the universe.
      The Forerunners, cloned by our enemy, are highly advanced at the technical side, and clearly the most dangerous resistance that can be found in this galaxy. The Forerunners created the Halos, and the Flood was a genetical experiment of theirs, created to eliminate the Covenant in a war fought more than 500 000 years ago.
      Our own race, the Humans, doesn't believe in the above explained, and have decided that we are a threat to them. They don't reallize the significance, or the power, of the Halos. Their objective is to use the rings and kill all the Covenant and Forerunners, but they don't see that it will be their own demise.
-Information about the current situation: We are now sent out to Halo: Installation 02 by the Gathered Species Government (GSG) to disable the control-centre. The GSG is the highest friendly Covenant organisation, and have sent a great amount of infantry to the Installations, infantry that we, for the moment, belong to.
-Mission: To make Installation 02 dysfunctional, starting with the destruction of the control room and the pulse generators.

      "Description of the target area?" MC asked Awacar as he got himself a rod gun.

      "Volcano, active. We'll have to fight our way through the tunnels shaped by the lava." Awacar responded.

      "Couldn't the Forerunners have found a worse place to locate the control room?" Cortana asked.

      "There was a control room 15 291 meters below the sea-surface in Installation 01." answered Awacar.

      "Don't tell me any more!" Cortana screamed desperately.

      "We're landing, get ready!" the speakers said and the forces took ordered positions.

      Seventeen drop ships touched the ground, and let the forces out. The sky was dark, and only enlightened by the very distant stars. The only sound heard was the machinery of the drop ships, together with a dove roar, coming from the volcano.

Cortana:
      "Battelfield information?"

      "Forerunners and Humans are awaiting us and the Blood Faction will be here soon. The control room is located in the centre of the mountain, and it is our primary goal. Since the Forerunners are the strongest alliance here I recommend an assault in order to weaken them." Awacar answered as he pointed at a tunnel into the mountain and by hand-moves ordered the infantry to enter.

They get to a big river of lava, see the Forerunners on the other side and fire.

      "Our chances of winning this battle is equal to zero, take the advise of making a temporal retreat, Awacar" Cortana recommended with a lot of panic in her voice.

      "People, you heard the lady, I couldn't have said it better myself. Retreat!" Awacar ordered.

      The forces get themselves behind a turn in the tunnel and they start to talk.

      "I wonder how much lava a rod gun or grenade can blow away." MC hummed silently.

Cortana:
      "I'm calculating for a maximum of hundred kilos if you talk rod guns, 120 for grenades. Why?"

      "If that amount is large enough to kill 90 percent of the Forerunners in the area of the splash, it's worth a try." MC answered.

      "It's definately worth a try, I think that it'll be a quite good way of using your weapons." Cortana said, beeing impressed.

Once again they approach the lava-stream, and now they throw all the grenades they have into the melted rock, while the ones with usual weapons fired as if nothing had happened. A layer of lava could be seen covering the ground, and some Forerunners on the other side of the "river". They, at last, backed off, seeming as if it was the first time they ever tasted the bitter fruit named "retreat".

      "Good job everyone, but it's a long way to the target. There will be a party there soon, don't be late!" Awacar said with the purpose of cheering the forces up a little bit. He succeeds, and the force gets moving.
      Later, they get to a big, sphere shaped room having a stone path next to the side seven meters up the wall, just below a tunnel in the mountain. The Forerunners come out of the tunnel, line up on the path and start to use their weapons. Now it's Snipers, Engineers and some new kind of Forerunner that make the opposition. The new type of creatures look almost like Master Chief, just a little broader shoulders and more masculine body. They're holding firearms that enable them to fire detonating, fast and massive shots with a low rate of fire. The height-advantage is tremendous, and Awacar sees that something needs to be done.

      "Take 'em down, and we will show them the meaning of the word "fight"!" ordered Awacar. The Grunts with rod guns start to fire at the downside of the path, together with the Chief. Finally, the path collapses, and the enemies can now fight each other on the same conditions. The needlers play a good role in the battle, making the slower Engineers become walking bombs. Grenade launchers are always a good thing for the side that controls the majority of them, but the Covenant forces have the avantage of the rod guns. The exposive battle comes to an end, and MC sees one of the "new" Forerunners, grabs the unarmed creature around the throat and pushes it up the wall.

      "What do you call yourself? ... ... Answer me!" the Chief says while pushing the Forerunner harder up the wall.

      "I am Ra'shaal, Forerunner Commando at the grade of Reclaimer, didn't think that you needed to know, copycat." the Forerunner Commando answers.

      "You're not in a position to use that kind of words, Forerunner. Tell us everything you know of, and join us, then I might let you live!" MC replies aggresively.

      "Ha, I'd rather die than help un-sentient lifefoms such as you, or the Covenant. You may look like me but the similarities between us end there!" Ra'shaal says, turning the opportunity to live away.

      "You've asked for it, scum!" Master Chief says before giving the Commando a fist that breakes the bones in his face, and kills him.

      "Cortana, can you figure a way out to get the forces up and into the tunnel?" Awacar asked.

      "I don't think that you want to get up there, the tunnel will be filled with lava in less then a minute, and guess where it'll be hot! I see an immediate escape as the best cause of action!" Cortana answered.

      The forces evacuate the area, and later get to a place where the tunnels go two ways.

MC:
      "Which way will lead us to the control room?"

Cortana:
      "The right way, choose the right way."

      "Lets hope that you're not being wrong." Awacar says when he gets into the tunnel.

They get through it and thereafter come to a bridge, and carefully get over it.

      "The next passage won't be as easy, the bridge there has been destroyed, we'll have to take a way around. Take the left here, it will lead you into two fights, but we aren't here to flee, so I see it as a risk worth taking." informated Cortana as they walked along the passages that lava had formed in the past.

Awacar:
      "Acknowledged, can you tell me about our resistance?"

Cortana:
      "The first will be the easiest, a team of fifteen Humans will pose the threat at first. The second is Betrayer based, but I estimate that the Forerunners have engaged them by then."

MC:
      "Sounds good, are there any catches?"

      "Afraid so, the Forerunners should be in the control centre before us, so if we don't hurry they will be in control of Halo before we can stop them."

      "Well then, let's not be lazy, move your legs faster, your lives are depending on it!" Awacar said, and the tempo was doubled.

They reach the Human infantry, and the battle is short, because of the grenades used and the huge numerous advantage given to the Covenant.
The forces pick up whatever grenades could be found and then leave for the Betrayers.

Awacar:
      "Distance to the next fight?"

Cortana:
      "163 meters."

      Forerunner and Blood Faction forces have started to engage each other, and the battlefield is a caotic mess when the Covenant gets there. A Bio-tank engages two Hunters all alone, and skillfully kills them, almost as if he was playing with their lives. There's a constant firing of fuel rod gun shots and grenades going on, making a continous thunder that, together with the sound of bubbling lava-masses smashing into the wall of the volcano, causes an ear damaging sound volume.

Master Chief decides to attack a Commando, and finds it very difficult. The Forerunner is a master in firing his weapon, and hits MC once in the chest. The SPARTAN is heavily wounded, but sees a Grunt throw his grenade, attaching it to the Forerunner Commando, not killing it.

      "Hey, we've got resistance, or what do you think? Will they be worth the time?" the Forerunner says. More Forerunner and Betrayer forces are coming in, and the grenade-blasts are heard even more clearly.

MC gets himself back to the forces, and a serious change of tactics are under discussion. One of the walls in the room is suddenly destroyed by a rod gun blast, and lava is flowing in. But the floor is sloping, so the lava flows into the side of the tunnel that the Covenant forces came from.

Awacar:
      "We're forced to evacuate!"

Cortana:
      "No way! The Forerunners are coming with more reinforcements, the same with the Betrayers... and we're in the middle. The worst thing is that we can't get through the lava flow, it's eliminating the choise of engaging the Betrayer resistance. You can't take us out!"

To Be Continued...

Authors note:I want to thank Zombie Boy for having the patience to read through this story (read: crap) and giving me grammar and spelling correction. Thanks!

The Final War: Battle for Installation 02 [4:2]
Date: 29 November 2003, 7:05 PM

Chapter Four, Part Two: Taking Control

      "Any advises? Can we succesfully blow the lava away?" Awacar asked as the fight became worse.

      "Blowing the flow away might work, but it's a high risk operation. I think that we shall try to stick as close as we can to the walls, and try to get away from the heat, if you know what I mean." Cortana replied in panic.

Awacar:
      "Lets split up in two forces, each one keeping to their wall, and tries to get to the tunnel that leads to the control centre!"

      The maneuvers are made and now the Covenant are having two fronts in the caotic fight, not good, but better than the alternatives. MC and Awacar lead one force each, and they do it well.
MC encounters a Bio-tank, fires two grenades at it, but doesn't kill it. The Chief feel forced to not fire his weapons, since the ammo is getting more and more rare. He takes the decision to melee the Forerunner and uses his grenade launcher for the purpose. The heavy weapon is slammed into the forehead of the creature, but another melee-attack is needed to finish the job.

      Meanwhile, Awacar and the forces following him engage a few Commandos and Engineers. The Hunters take care of the Engineers, constantly firing the rod guns at their enemies. A few shots don't hit their targets, but the shock-waves created by them almost disable the attacked Forerunners from moving at all. It takes time, but eventually the Forerunners have been defeated. Awacar and a team of Brutes and Elites engage the Forerunner Commandos, and the opponents get very close to each other. At the start, weapons firing is usual, but later the forces get so mixed up that the advantage of weapon-weight is better than rate of fire.
      The Elites switch to plasma rifles, and the fight becomes more heated, an incredibly bad thing for the Commandos. Plasma shots rip through the bodies of the hostile creatures, leaving death on the cold stones that make the floor.

      Both of the friendly Covenant forces fight their way toward the tunnel that leads to the controls of Halo. The resistance is mostly given by the Blood Faction, but a few Forerunner Snipers are also encountered. MCs force is the one closest to the tunnel, and the Forerunners get more and more frequently engaged.

Cortana:
      "We're nearly there, keep it up eveybody!"

      "We'll have to await Awacar and his team, we can't fight the Forerunners on our own, can we?" Master Chief wondered.

      "No, but we can't wait too long either, the Forerunners are approaching the control room, I'll tell you when we will need to go." Cortana replied while the Chief fired a grenade at a team of Elites and Grunts.

      The forces reach the tunnel entrance, and starts to fight the neverending stream Forerunners while Awacars forces fight their way to the tunnel. Awacar grabs a sword and slams it into the belly of the enemy, a Brute.

Awacar:
      "Hunters, Elites, I'll need your rod guns and grenades in front of us, we need to push us through the resistance much faster!"

      The Elites and Hunters follow the advises, blowing the Forerunner opposition away. The forces reunite, and are now having one front where the Forerunners are engaged.

MC:
      "Lets move on, the Forerunners aren't waiting for us!"

Awacar:
      "Okay, lets go! I'll go in the back and see to it that no hostile forces will attack us."

      The force moves into the tunnel which once again it splits up.

      "Cortana?" Master Chief asked.

      "Straight ahead, you'll get to the party that way." Cortana answered.

      MC and Cortana lead the troops through the tunnels while Awacar watches their backs. Any betrayers or Forerunners that is stupid enough to approach get a strife with the sword through their throats. But when Awacar gets to the split of the tunnel he picks the wrong way.

Awacar:
      "Where are you? Master Chief? Cortana? Do you hear me?"

At the same moment:

      "Where's Awacar? Did he choose the wrong way?" MC asks Cortana

      "Yes, probably. I'll try to get a comm-link to him." Cortana replies, activates the comm-link and only hears a sparkling as response to her questions.

      "Should we turn back for him?" MC asked.

      "No, it's too risky, we'll need to save in at every second available. Lets just hope that he corrects his mistake." Cortana answered.

      They approached the control room, and the forces of Forerunners grew larger. When they moved in the tunnel, they had to make some quick advances, as well as quick, small retreats in order to avoid and use the power of the grenades. Since the Forerunners have the launchers on their side MC orders the rod guns and plasma rifles to be more frequently used. The odds are evened out but the fight goes on for minutes.

      While this goes on Awacar faces some resistance in the form of a few Elites. He takes them out quite easy and takes the sword from one of the fallen enemies.

      "You!" Awacar heard suddenly, said by the voice of an Elite. He turns his head and sees the speaker.

      "Gaurough! If I know you and your father right, the ones that I killed before were under your command." Awacar says, with a tone that is supposed to be insulting Gaurough.

Gaurough:
      "Did you... take them out all alone?"

Awacar:
      "Off course, they were under your command."

      "Sad to see that you didn't stay under service of the Truth, A'acar." Gaurough says when picking out a sword.

      "I'm surprised that a coward such as you dare to call me that. And, you should be lucky that the Truth only is a name, I know that it's based on lies!" Awacar replies while activating his sword.

      "I've always known that you and your parents were joiners, the evidences were too obvious." Gaurough says when he swings his sword towards Awacar.

      "Ha! Do you think that anyone with some sort of intelligence would join the Blood Faction without being threatened? We weren't joiners, we were leavers!" Awacar said when he evaded the swing. He continued speaking, "By the way, when we're talking parents, what about your father? Do he still by you everythink that you want? Remember the days when he bought you top grades?"

      "If you need to know, he died in an accident ten years ago. I got the most of his money, and now I'm the commander for the entire squad that has been sent here." Gaurough says before making another swing. Awacar swings his sword, hits the opponent sword and a pure sword fight is being fought.

Awacar:
      "It wasn't an accident, I know you far too well to believe your exact words."

Gaurough:
      "You don't know me at all!"

Awacar:
      "I know that you killed Icod and Febuluc. That is enough to never ever believe you again. It was thirtyfive ears ago, but you're that kind of person that never changes."

      "You're right about that, but I'm a high commander now, the Gaurough you knew weren't capable of getting himself to this type of position. Infact, even Queterie have become a high commander in the Faction." Gaurough says when he tries to stick Awacar in the stomach, a move that is easily evaded.

      The fighters have got themselves to another big room where the lava can be heard to flow beneath their feet. When they get inside it another talk is initiated.

Awacar
      "You haven't changed, money can get you anywhere if you have it in the quantities that you, apparently, have got. It doesn't even surprise me that Queterie became a high command, he doesn't even know what free will means. It seems that everyone that survived your treachery have got themselves in more or less great positions, but I'm the one that have got myself a conscience together with my occupation, you seem to have lost yours when you sticked to the Blood Faction after our little adventure, 35 years ago."

      "You know that the Truth is right, the gods will not be merciful with you." Gaurough said when he evaded a well-aimed blade from Awacar.

      "Religion is only a way for failed civilizations to keep their hope, or a way for the elite that has the power to increase their own position and enslave the whole society from which they were created. The Blood Faction definately sticks to the last one." Awacar said as he sweeped the sword along the floor.

      "How dare you, A'acar?" said Gaurough as he evaded the swing by jumping.

      "I've seen the lies of the Blood Faction from both the inside and the outside, and as you know I've never been afraid of insulting my enemies." Awacar replied while he held his sword in the air, waiting for a strike against it.

      Meanwhile, near the control panel...

MC:
      "Keep on going, the Forerunner line is thinning out!"

      The Covenant forces break through the Forerunner defence, and the path to the control room is now relatively clear. MC takes the lead and the others follow. The Chief picks up a needler, and empties it on the two Engineers in front of him while the rest of the forces attack a couple of Commandos. Afterwards the forces move themselves into the control room, which is torus-shaped with the control panel in the middle.

Cortana:
      "Look! The Forerunners are all over the control panel, if we don't disturb them they'll have Halo in their command!"

MC:
      "Rod guns! I want rod guns near the panel, not on, but near. Anyone with a few grenades, back 'em up! The rest will engage the Forerunners that act as backup for the ones on the panel. For other Forerunners, only return fire!"

      The battle for the control room is started, and quickly becomes one of the most spectacular fights ever. The Covenant with rod guns somehow manages to get their shots where they should be; next to the Forerunners near the control panel. Bio-tanks have started to get a hold on the situation, and now they fire against the large forces of resistance. The Covenant that gets treated this way has to spread out into the Forerunner mass, becoming more voulnerable. The shattering of Covenant goes on for a few seconds, and then they recollect to use the power of a group. But they only do it for as long as it feels relatively safe, if they didn't, the Bio-tanks would have spotted them fast. Hunters go "berserk" on the opposition, meleeing to wherever resistance could be found. For the Covenant, the Hunters almost works as snowblowers, just that they "blow" Forerunners away. The fronts that may be created are quickly used by the Covenant, that has to take every chance they can to make a kill.
      The battle looks this way for an eternity in the eyes of the infantry, but in real time it does for a coulpe of minutes.

      Back to Awacar and Gaurough...

      "I'm surprised by the fact that you kept to the Faction after our attemt to escape from it. Don't you remember all the truths about the Blood Faction that we revealed?" Awacar said when he stepped aside, evading a blow from above.

      "It wasn't truths! The information we got was from unholy believers that wanted the Faction to face it's defeat. These people were killed shortly thereafter." said Gaurough as he prepared for another swing.

      "They weren't! They were just renamed and given top jobs afterwards. And you still believe that everything that we got was just nothing? It was as a handfull of water in an ocean!" Awacar said while he made a counter-swing.

      "Well then, is your part of the alliance so much better? It has slaughtered billions of innocent!" replied Gaurough as he jumped.

      A quake spread through the volcano, and all activity was made more difficult. Awacar fell, and Gaurough saw his chance to win the fight. Awacar turned around on the floor, held his weapon up and let it be hit by Gauroughs blade. He got on his feet, and they continued their struggle.

      In the battle for Halos controls, the tides of war has changed as a result of the quake. Almost all of the Covenant lost their balance, and an advance was made from the Forerunners. MC's enemies of choise, the Engineers, are now even more important to kill in order to get access to their grenade launchers. The Covenant now outnumbers the Forerunners 3:2, but the advantage of numbers will have to be far greater.
At least the Covenant manages to keep the control panel clear, and they start to make small progresses. Master Chief fires a rod gun shot into the vehicle of an Engineer, and the creature is killed instantly. The vehicle detonates, and takes another Engineer into death. MC gets his hands on one of the grenade launchers and see to it that the other one gets in Covenant control.
A fight between Bio-tanks and Hunters have started, and off course it is the most loud of them all, with rod gun- and first barrel shots detonating continuously. The Bio-tanks have the advantage, simply because of the raw power in their weapons.
      Another quake shakes the ground, and it unleashes an eruption. But this time, the Covenant doesn't make the same mistake, and they gain the control of the area. When they have almost all the grenade launchers and rod guns on their side, the Forerunners can't really make any kind of opposition, and they are quickly killed.

Cortana:
      "Get me into the panel so that I can screw it."

      Back to Awacar...

Awacar:
      "How could they be innocent? Born in the Blood Faction, raised to despise everything that doesn't belong to the Faction, and to do everything to kill non-belongers. There are some that is held as prisoners and have resisted the brainwash, I know that we've killed some of them, but it isn't many parts per million of those that we've killed among you."

Gaurough:
      "They believe in the one and only religion, that makes them innocent."

Awacar:
      "It seems as if your fathers money have bought you away from the real world."

      The tunnel beneath them is now nearly filled with lava that weakens the rock, and the floor is suddenly broken appart. Awacar and Gaurough land on one piece of floating rock each, giving them a little larger chance of living through this day.
They start to jump from one piece of rock to another, and swing their swords towards each other when they meet. Awacar gets his sword a bit into the leg of Gaurough, who falls to his rock, screaming in pain.

      "There is a few things that no money in the universe can by away from you, your enormous sensitivity to pain, and your almost non-existing will to achieve your objective." Awacar said.

Gaurough got on his feet, jumped to Awacars rock while raising his weapon, and roaring at the top of his lungs.

      "I almost forgot, your total lack of intelligence!" Awacar said before swinging his sword into the stomach of Gaurough who was in the air, causing him to lose his balance, and land in the melted rock. But Awacars problems aren't over yet, his rock is melting and sinking deeper and deeper into the lava-stream. But further down the stream is a bridge that Awacar gets on.

Awacar:
      "How convenient!"

Master Chief puts Cortana into a terminal of the control panel, and she starts to destroy the information and the functions of the panel.

      "Hurry, I don't want the Forerunners up my face again!" the Chief said.

      "Let me do my job here, you'll have the Forerunners here soon anyway. I'm destroying the last function here... ... ... ... ... Done! Now, get us out of here!"

      MC leads the troops toward the tunnels, where they meet Awacar.

Awacar:
      "Mission status?"

Cortana:
      "Control panel dysfunctional, pulse generators still going, they're our next goal."

To Be Continued...

The Final War: Battle for Installation 02 [4:3]
Date: 12 December 2003, 9:26 PM

Chapter Four: Part Three: To Disarm

      "There are five pulse generators located on this Installation, which is capable of producing a 296% stronger blast than Installation 04. Awacar, I'll give you the exact locations of the generators." Cortana said.

      "Please tell me." Awacar replied.

Cortana:
      "Move through this tunnel, go left at the second place where it splits up and we'll be where the first pulse generator is."

      At the first place where the tunnel splitted, they encountered betrayers, and a fight was on. The opposition, made of Brutes and Elites, was not easy. Awacar threw a punch at the nearest Brute, broke its jaw and emptied a clip of needles in the flesh of the masculine primate. MC had picked up a plasma pistol, used it to cover Awacar, and launched a grenade at his enemies. An Elite came to attack the Chief, who turned around and started to fire plasma pistol shots rapidly, making his opponent become as paralyzed. A few Hunters took the responsibility to fire at a group of Brutes. The sound of fuel rod cells detonating in unison seemed as music in the ears of Awacar, and he felt ease when the resistance ceased to exist.
      The Covenant moved on, coming to yet another tunnel-split. They chooses the left, just as Cortana had told them. The Covenant forces entered a small room with an architecture that Master Chief knew from the countless ones he had passed on his way to the control room in Installation 04. This one was guarded by a few Commandos who was attacking like on instinct, having no remarkable flaws in their defence, they seemed as a wall, no one would pass them. They made a ring that prevented their opponents from getting near the pulse generator.

      "Press at one point of their front, I want a breakthrough!" Awacar ordered.

      The Covenant follow the given orders, and after a while a breakthrough has been made.

Cortana:
      "I've been scanning the shields of the Forerunner Commandos, and I've been able to see that they are the same type as yours, Chief. If we take them into the pulse generators, we'll destroy the generator and make the Forerunners more vulnerable. Lets give it a try."

Awacar:
      "Lets get the Commandos near the generator, they seem to like it pretty much!"

      The Forerunners see that the Covenant moves themselves out of the ring, and start to push harder at its outside, pressing the Forerunner resistance closes and closer to the shining, blue pillar. After a while, the Covenant use their grenades to push the opposition into the generator. Eventually, it succeeds and a blast is clearing the area of resistance for MC and the forces that he belongs to.

      "That was easy enough." Awacar said in relief. He continued, "I'm getting reports here! Installations 03 and 06 destroyed, we haven't got reports from the rest."

Cortana:
      "Follow the tunnel on the other side of the room, it'll get you to a river of lava with a bridge over it. I think that the Forerunners are on the bridge, I am not sure but the chance is high. After the river there'll be a big room, cross it and enter the tunnel on the other side and we'll be there."

Awacar:
      "Well then, what are we waiting for? Get moving!"

      The Covenant get to the place where the river is, and as Cortana had predicted there was Forerunners there, mostly Bio-tanks and Commandos, but even some Engineers. The Commandos goes in the lead, followed by Bio-tanks who are backed up by the Engineers and their grenade launchers. Awacar and a few Hunters tries to take control of the bridge, seeing it as the most important step for getting to the next pulse generator. The resistance is not willing to lose the bridge to the enemy, and puts every available unit at the job of defending it. The fight gets rough, with Forerunners that constantly crosses the river, and Covenant who tries to stop them by throwing grenades into the river, causing lava to fly all over the place, along with weapons fire. The Forerunners quickly takes control of the "riverbank" where the Covenant are, but are decimated to nearly nothing when the Hunters start to use their fuel rod cannons. The lava is splashed everywhere, and the Covenant can use the Forerunners as protection from the destruction caused by melted rock.

Awacar:
      "Good, now I want a few rod gun cells at the other riverbank, can you make it, Hunters?"

Leader of the Hunters:
      "Off course, we're on it!"

      The Forerunners gather in the tunnel that they came from, and they have their Bio-tanks in front. The Bio-tanks fire explosive rounds, mixed with their targeting swarms of shots.

      "Everyone, keep in motion, I don't want casualties here!" Awacar ordered, and the forces obeyed.

      Engineers and Commandos start to emerge from the tunnel once again, this time with a little more respect for their enemies. No forces dare to get close to the bridge; they just keep shooting across the lava stream. The Forerunner Commandos advances, but are in a matter of seconds forced back by the massive amount of lava, thrown away by grenades that had detonated brutally. The Forerunners back off, and the Covenant take control of the riverbanks.

      "Brutes! I want you to make our way!" ordered Awacar as he threw a grenade into the tunnel, clearing the first part of the tunnel.

      The Brutes follow their orders, kill some of the Commandos and take their weapons. Now they stand there, blocking the tunnel and blowing their opposition down. A few Commandos get in front of the Forerunner attack, and the Covenant put an end to their lives, and thereafter grab weapons from the fallen enemies. The Forerunners feel the heat from the lighted shots of their own weapons and hear the screams caused by them, but still they press on, falling one by one. They cease to live, letting their bodies leave a terrible stench of burned blood.

Awacar:
      "The path is clear! Move it! We'll reach the next pulse generator in a few minutes."

      They march through long sections of tunnel, it almost seems as if they never end. They get to their target, which is standing in an area free of resistance.

MC:
      "My shields will bring the generator down. Keep away."

      He slowly walks through the strong magnetic fields that is produced by the generator, and feels the blast that causes its destruction and takes his shields offline. He asks for cover, but before he even gets a chance to take it, the Forerunners enter the room, all with a desire for fight. They shoot at the Chief, slowly making his health-indicator go from blue to yellow, from yellow to red. He evades a shot that would have taken him out and thereafter finds his cover. All the Elites - with Awacar leading them - pull their swords out, having a demand for Forerunner blood to be shed, a demand burning hotter than lava in their hearts. They take parts of the opposition down, but lose great amounts of their own. Now they're torn between their desire to kill in short distance, enabling them to see fright in the eyes of their opponents, or fight wisely at a safe distance. They realize that losses can't be made, and therefore back off. The MC joins them, using his plasma rifle.

      "You'll not retrieve your Installations, Forerunners, we'll be in command soon." Awacar said as he fired his plasma sniper rifle. A lesser army of Hunters advance through the Covenant force, and place themselves in the frontline. They are acting as shields for the forces that they belong to, and sometimes a green flashes can be seen by the Covenant, followed by the sound of a detonation, together with death howls of Forerunners.

Hunter:
      "Awacar, they're breaking through!

      A flow of resistance overwhelms the Covenant, who seem to be in shock. They get closer to their attackers, but that doesn't really help. The horrible stench of blood, and the burning smell of plasma filled the room after a while, and smoke of different kinds accompanied the smells. MC slayed a Sniper by putting his rod gun into the creatures back, using his strength. The Chief thereafter uses the firepower of his weapon a few times, along with anyone who still was on his feet.
      Later, a great loss of infantry has become a fact among the Covenant, but the Forerunners are put out of action for now.

Awacar:
      "I want a report of our status and an advise about our next cause of action."

Cortana:
      "We're down to 25% of the crew that was directed to destroy the control centre, and we were fifty before the last battle. I recommend a little rest, five minutes or so, used for recovery. There in no one here that is healthy enough to fight. Afterwards, go back through the tunnel that we came from, take left after 300 meters, walk for 180 more meters and we'll be able to destroy the next pulse generator."

Awacar:
      "Sounds good, we all need some rest. I'm getting a report, Installation 05 is shattered, no Flood seem to be out there. Then it's just 07 and our Halo that still is dependant of the Covenant success. Another pulse generator is out of function, an Elite seem to have walked through it by mistake."

Five minutes later...

      "Awacar, get us out of here, the Betrayers are approaching, and I don't think that we need more rest." Cortana said.

      "Lets move, I don't want to get my hands dirty by fighting Betrayers for nothing!" Awacar ordered.

      The next pulse generator they got to were heavily guarded by the Blood Faction, and a fight for the generator - naturally - breaks out. The Master Chief and a couple of Brutes push themselves past the Betrayer defence, made by Hunters and Brutes. The sound of big metal pieces smashing each other is heard when the Brutes start to melee the Hunters, and a chaos of infantry and shots have been created. The rest of the betrayers join the battle, as well as the Covenant that hasn't been in it from the start. Awacar uses his weapon of choice - a plasma sword - to bring some resistance down, and fights an Elite that also uses the sword. The Chief grabs a plasma pistol, and fires an overheated shot towards Awacars opponent, nearly killing it, but Awacar thereafter put his sword in the belly of the Betrayer Elite. MC positions himself in the front, using a rod cannon to clear the rest of the tunnel. Screams are heard throughout the tunnels, the screams of Betrayers that that soon faces their destiny.

Awacar:
      "I want some Elites to back the Chief up! I know that it's not very much of resistance remaining, but I don't want to pick his dead body off the floor."

      A shining blue stream of plasma rifle shots enlighten the tunnel, and drills itself through the Betrayers as the Elites back MC up. The Betrayers die, and the forces move into the room that holds the generator. Awacar slowly walks through it, making it dysfunctional.

Cortana:
      "We've got a generator remaining, if we follow the tunnel on the other side of the room we'll be there, just walk straight ahead, no turns. Still, please hurry, the Forerunners are about to take control of the aerospace above the volcano, if they succeed, we will be locked inhere."

Awacar:
      "A ride out of here is taking ground right now, I'd like to see that everyone takes that ride, Master Chief and I will take another flight, I can't risk more losses."

      The troops obey Awacars wish, find themselves out of the volcano and take their seats at drop ships hovering a few centimeters above the grey ash.

      "Okay, it won't be any problem to get to the pulse generator, but to get away from it may be more difficult. Forerunners and Betrayers are approaching the location as we speak, but we'll reach it before them." Cortana informated.

      They move for the generator, get to it, and stop.

MC:
      "How do we destroy it?"

Cortana:
      "You can't take your own shields down, you won't make it fore the next battle else way. The only option we have is to trick an enemy into the generator."

Awacar:
      "If it's Betrayers that get here first, they'll go for me, so if they do, just do as I say."

      Luckily, the Betrayers get first to the generator.

Awacar:
      "Give them the picture of your back, as I'll do."

      MC obeys, and soon he hears that Elites are in the room, simply because he hears the words "Wort wort wort!" to be said, followed by heavy steps.
      An Elite is humiliated by the fact that Awacar, as his enemy, turns him his back. He runs towards his enemy, holding his weapon up, preparing to make a melee-attack against the skull of his enemy. Awacar leans backwards when he realizes that his opponent will make the blow, catches the arm of the attacking Elite with his hands, holds it and makes his enemy lose his firearm.

Awacar:
      "Chief, throw a plasma grenade at us!"

      Master Chief does as he has been told, though he doubts this time. At the time he picks the grenade out, the Elite gets angry and starts to beat his fist into Awacars shoulder.

Awacar:
      "That's it, you bastard!"

      Awacar swings his opponent around himself one and a half time while MC finally decides to throw the grenade. Before Awacar lets go of the Elite, the grenade hits it. Awacar lets go, and lets the poor Elite fly trough the magnetic field of the pulse generator, and land in the other side of the room. The pulse generator is destroyed with a loud blast, and two seconds later, the plasma grenade detonates, creating a blue cloud of plasma and clearing the area of hostiles.

Cortana:
      "Now hurry, we've got no time to lose!"

      They run out of the room, and face some Forerunner Commandos. Awacar and Master Chief start to walk backwards slowly, firing their plasma rifles.

Awacar activates a comm.-link:
      "I want a ride that leads off this Installation, and thirty tonnes of hydrogen, heated into fusion here, three minutes after my departure!"

      MC fires off the last rod cannon shot, and thereafter they start to run. They get out of the tunnel, and see a rising sun, the immediate sign that morning has come to Installation 02, a morning that soon is to be followed by a dawn. The Chief and the Elite that accompanies him take a place on a drop ship that quickly goes back to a battle cruiser. The enormous ship sends a bomb towards the surface of Installation 02, destroying it and everything on it.

To Be Continued..

The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:1]
Date: 24 December 2003, 2:22 AM

Chapter Five: Part One: Joining a Party

Aboard the Covenant battle cruiser Agony and Retaliation, heading for planet 25O311bx, nicknamed Perambulate.
Year 2553, January 15th, 2015 hours.

      "What's the status at Perambulate?" Cortana asked.

      "From the messages that we have picked up from the Forerunners, it seems as if something that can match Halo in power exists there. They've been searching for it a long time, but haven't found it. The Blood Faction has shown some interest in the planet, and has been fighting the Forerunners for nearly a day, trying to reveal the source of power. We'll have to take control of the area, and see to it that this unknown power remains unused." Awacar answered.

      "How many fighters are down there?" the Master Chief wondered.

Awacar:
      "I've got reports that tell me that there is more that 50 000 Betrayers on the surface, where we will land there are almost 7 000 betrayers that are capable of attacking us within half an hour. I haven't got any reports about the number of Forerunners in the area, but they're clearly many enough to keep the Blood Faction away."

      The Covenant battle cruiser went down into the atmosphere of Perambulate, flyed over the planets surface and let the drop ships fly the infantry down to ground. It was cold here, with snowflakes that - in extreme amounts - slowly singled down through the air and made the field of sight smaller, much smaller.

      Since this was the south pole of the planet, a snowfall might not have been too strange here, but there was one thing that was: the Humans had landed on Perambulate too, probably trying to use the source of power instead of the now destroyed Halos, which the Humans must have felt that they've been cheated at. Apparently, the Betrayers was totally unknowing of the fact that the Humans knew of this source of power, and seemed to not be on their alert when MC heard that a wave of attack washed over them.

      Covenant forces had now taken ground, and had to walk approximately five hundred meters on the snowy field to get into firing range. There was a thing that heavily slowed them down: a cover of snow, two feet thick. Master Chief could imagine that the Betrayer Grunts must have been easy targets, and from the frequently heard sounds of Human screams, it almost seemed as if the Elites didn't take notice of the thick, white mass, and just ran through the snow. The battle must have been impressive, and from an intense yellow light, MC could tell that the Humans attacked Banshees with their Scorpions.

      They walked through the snow, and suddenly, the Banshees were on their way. Awacar pulled out a rod cannon and took two of them out, but there was still five remaining. In a desperated attempt, one of the Grunts threw a grenade at the Banshees. Of course, it didn't hit, but it was near. A few Hunters stood there and fired as fast as they could, but they did only take out two more of the purple terrors that attacked from the air.

      The Banshees turned away, just to return, and get an advantage of distance. The three Banshees, all of them firing their plasma cannons, created a V-formaition. As they got closer, they fired their fuel rods, and when they were above the army of Covenant, they split up, each one flying solo and firing at will. Thousands of plasma rifle shots were fired at the Banshees, which were shot down before they had a chance to escape the messy battlefield that they created. Finally, the sky was cleared of enemies, and the Covenant could continue, having losses from the beginning already.

      "Shhh! Keep it quiet." Awacar said harshly.

      All the forces obeyed, and not a single sound was heard.

Awacar:
      "Are all the Betrayers gone? Is there any other explanation to the fact that I don't hear anything?"

      "No, there isn't. They must have walked on after they won over the Humans. They're probably prioritasing the Forerunners and their source of power higher." Cortana replied.

      Again, the infantry was on the move, and when they got to the former battleground, the snow was colored red, almost more clearly than the dusk that was turning into night. Black tracks and darkly colored craters were also seen in the snow, evidences that proved the heavy advantage that the Betrayers had, despite the Humans good use of grenades. MC manned a Warthog, and five others were manned by the Covenant. Somehow, the Scorpions must have been transported away, and the Chief suspected that they were in use of the Betrayers.

      "Master Chief! You'll lead the Warthogs, but you aren't allowed to get out of my sight. Defend us at the ground and take out heavy infantry! By the way, I want volunteers at the cannons and in the side seats, you'll do more good there that on ground." Awacar ordered before they walked on, passing a narrow passage, and getting to a valley where the Blood Faction fought the Forerunners. Four Scorpion tanks had been commandeered by the Betrayers, as well as ten Warthogs. A small valley had a big, white bridge of stone that went to one side of the valley to another was displayed to the Covenant forces, but doon the snowfall increased in intensity, and not even the bridge could be seen.

      There was Forerunners on the bridge, covering their own that was fighting on the ground. To keep the Forerunners up there busy, a team of Banshees had been ordered to fire at them constantly, but since the heavy snowfall decimated the sight so heavily, they almost never hit. Still, no forces had the ability to watch trough the snow, resulting in numerous detonations placed on the wrong place from both sides. The battlefield was ready for an advancement from the Covenant.

      It started off great; the Warthogs drove down from one edge of the valley, supported by rod cannons. The massacre of Betrayers started.

      At first, it went pretty good, when tons of Betrayers fell by the chain guns mounted to the warthogs, or were smashed by the same vehicles. Awacar frequently got reports from the battlefield, and felt that it was time for Covenant infantry to move in on foot. The forces slaughtered the pieces of resistance that could be found. It started very good, but this was about to change.

      Report after report came in to Awacar, who slowly started to realize what was happening.

      "I want everyone to retreat, and I want you to do it ASAP!" Awacar ordered, and lowly thereafter, the reports of losses reached him more frequently.

      "Abort the previous order, just keep in motion, never stop, and never move in the same direction for more than three seconds. Warthog drivers, floor it, and hit as many Betrayers possible when you're at it. You that have manned the chain guns, please, point them at the heaven and fire, doesn't matter if you don't see anythin else than falling snow, keep shooting anyway." Awacar ordered.

      Suddenly, no more reports of losses were coming in, the fight went on and the mysterious disappearing of forces stopped.

      Out on the battlefield it was horrible, no one saw more than fifteen meters away, and the ones that drove the warthogs drove at random, and when the Betrayers was heard all the 'hogs were there to smash some resistance. MC had killed a Hunter this way, three Elites and eight Brutes. The metal on the Warthog was now covered with blood in three different colours, and the Master Chief got wounded when he got it there. Now, there were no Betrayers near that was still alive.

      "Are we going for the Forerunners now?", Master Chief asked via comm. link.

      "No, get back here, but don't move straight, the Dactyls are still in the air." Awacar said as an answer.

Master Chief:
      "Expect us to be there within two minutes."

      As Master Chief had said, they were back before the two minutes. All the Covenant forces now picked up their plasma sniper rifles and started to shoot Dactyls and Forerunners, who could sometimes be seen through the falling snow. Three Dactyls fell by the rays of the plasma snipers, but the Covenant knew that it wasn't enough; they had to take more Dactyls out of action.

      "The Master Chief and I will act as decoy and try to bring some of those beasts to ground. Is anyone with us?" Awacar asked before twelve Hunters and eighteen Brutes approached him.

      The team of thirty two might not be seen as decoy by Human eyes, but in the opinion of two, co-operating Dactyls it is barely worth the time. A Dactyl attacked on his own, and approached in gliding flight. As it got closer, it tried to attack with its jaws, and the Dactyl kept them as far apart as it could. Before its attack would fall, the Dactyl uttered a roar, which was noticed by two Hunters, who turned around, saw the flying beast and fired. They both hit perfectly, right at the palate. The killed creature crashed into the ground and didn't kill anything.

Awacar:
      "A small step, but still a step in the right direction. I estimate that there are five more Dactyls somewhere above us, and we need all of them at ground before we can continue."

      "Sorry to disappoint you, Awacar, but there are only four Dactyls in the area. There were five, but we shot one down recently." an Elite told Awacar via comm. link.

      "Thanks, but focus your firepower at the bridge for now, we'll be having more trouble with them later." Awacar said in gratefulness.

      "Aye, copy. Lets meet here when the threat from above is neutralized." the Elite said.

Awacar:
      "Yes, out."

      Now, two Dactyls worked together to reach their goal: to clean the area of hostiles. They flew above the Covenant, and fired their rod cannons, forcing the Covenant to get away. As the Dactyls continued, their decoy was forced closer and closer to the mountain walls that limited the valley. They got to the wall, and when the two beasts fired their rod cannons as they flew closer, and the Covenant was trapped.

      "What are we waiting for? A hit? Return fire!" Awacar ordered.

      A hail of plasma shots was fired at the location from which the fuel rod cells approached. The Chief used a grenade launcher and shot three grenades, one towards one of them, and two at the other. None of these hit their targets, since he only saw the snow. Suddenly, a large but vague figure appeared in the front of Master Chief, he knew that it was one of the Dactyls. He shot his last grenade at it, but the creature easily saw the blue-glowing grenade and evaded it almost easier.

      "I'm out of grenades! Hunters, you have a target at ten o' clock." Master Chief said as he switched his now worthless grenade launcher to a plasma rifle.

Awacar:
      "Don't shoot straight at it, shoot somewhere near it, else way, it'll just evade the shots."

      All of the Hunters looked up to see their enemy, charged their weapons and fired twice without aiming. The result was a spread swarm of fuel rod gun shots that approached the Dactyl, a swarm that he couldn't evade. Four shots hit him, one at a wing, one at the neck, and two at its snake-like body. A second later, it was on ground, colouring the snow blue with its blood.

      The other Dactyl was spotted, and shortly thereafter, a massive using of plasma rifles were started. Glowing shots were fired from Awacar, Master chief, and all of the Brutes. The chosen enemy escaped the shots and flew away for a few seconds, returning thereafter, using its firearm as mad.

      "Keep in motion, never stop, and fire at will! I want that thing dead before he gets another try to attack us!" Awacar demanded.

      Every last member of the team fired their weapon, but very few shots hit what they should have hit. A Hunter and three Brutes fell by the rod gun of their opponent, but after that Awacar - with all of his power - threw a grenade towards the Dactyl, and the grenade attached to the belly of the beast. It detonated, but the Dactyl was just wounded, but it had so much trouble to fly that it became an easy target. As several hundred plasma shots burned their way through the creatures flesh, it lost its capability to live, and smashed lifeless into the ground.

      "Awacar to sniping team, Awacar to sniping team, do you copy?" Awacar yelled into the comm. link.

      "Loud and clear, repeat, loud and clear. What's the status down there?" the leader of the team asked.

      "Four lost, ten wounded. We took out two Dactyls. Do you have any status on the two remaining? Over." Awacar wondered.

      "We have status on one of them, it was killed by the Forerunners as it flew over the bridge. The other one was spotted half a minute ago at twelve o' clock, four hundred and seventy meters from your position. It is very difficult to determine where it is now, though. By the way, the Forerunners have made a few Banshees into garbage, and we've took out several Engineers and Commandos. We'd like to ask you to take out a Banshee or three, since we've got serious problem with those bastards here." the team leader said.

Awacar:
      "We're on it, out."

      "Thanks, out." the sniper team leader replied.

      A move to the middle of the valley was initiated by the decoy-force, and on the way, a Banshee that was off its guard was simply shot down.
      When they reached the target location, another Banshee appeared, but now it was the vehicle that attacked first. Two Hunters were killed, and two Brutes were wounded when the flying vehicle attacked. Awacar saw a grenade launcher, picked it up and fired two grenades at the Banshee. They exploded, and so did the purple thing they were attached to.

Sniper team leader:
      "Awacar, we're asking for permission to join you. There isn't any Banshee in the air, the Forerunners handled that thing for us. We took the last Dactyl out ourselves. How's your status?"

      "We've got two new losses on our hands, but we will make it. You have your permission to join." Awacar replied.

      "We've got reports that the Forerunners will appear in the other end of the valley in a minute, and that more Betrayers are being sent here." the team leader informed.

      "We'll take care of the problem when it appears, and we welcome our reuniting. Out." Awacar told the Elite at the other end of the comm. link.

      The two teams became one, half a minute later, and now they were on the move for the other end of the valley. They could see the light of weapons firing as they got closer to the location where the Forerunners where. Apparently, a few Betrayer drop ships were trying to take ground, without any obvious result. Two of them were shot down, and the remaining three had to fly away in order to temporarily escape the faith of their likes. They decided to take control of a little hill nearly hundred meters away.

      An attack on the Forerunners was started by the Covenant. Master Chief engaged a Commando, fired sixteen rounds towards the throat of its enemy, but he had to fire eleven more to kill it. At the same time, a vast number of Engineers attacked Awacar and a lot of other Elites.

Master Chief:
      "Show them how your swords looks at close range, nothing else needs to be done, just show your swords."

      Many Engineers came forth in a wave of destruction, firing their grenade launchers frequently. When the Elites got their eyes on the grenades, they skllfully evaded them, almost without losing any speed. They were as some sort of liquid, just graciously flowing aside when a plasma charge appeared. They approached the Engineers, and as they ran, one sword per Elite was activated. The swords started to glow brightly as you - in a fissure between the massive clouds - could see the sun set below the horizon, and the shadow of night devouring the landscape. The Elites swinged their swords, and many of the Engineers vehicles detonated, but sadly, they took many enemies with them. Awacar decided to bring more of them down, and he began to run, raised his fist, jumped, and when he nearly touched ground, smashed his fist into the cheek of an Engineer. It lost its balance, fell sideways and landed gently in the snow. Awacar activated his sword, and slowly pushed it through the throat of his fallen enemy.
      He picked the grenade launcher that belonged to the Engineer up, and fired a shot at two enemies that were close to each other. A detonation was heard, and two screams followed.

      A sound that couldn't be mistaken - the sound of a Betrayer drop ship - was getting closer, and Awacar kept an eye on it. Exactly when it opened its hatches, he fired a grenade off. It hit at the right arm of an Elite, and the detonation brought another Elite and a Grunt to their deaths. While he let a team of Grunts take care of the remaining Betrayers, he wondered how to use his last grenade. Yet an Engineer approached him, but wasn't close enough to fire. Awacar looked at the battleground when a really high-risk operation was being formed in his mind. If he could just get on the other side of those two drop ships it would work. Now he ran, fast, nothing would stop him from making it. The two drop ships started to sink down as he passed them, it wasn't difficult, he didn't thought that it would be. It almost went to easy, now Awacar was forced to run even further. On his way, Elites stood and tried to stop him, and he was forced to activate the sword while holding the launcher in one hand. He ran, sliced Elites apart on the middle, and finally he could get to a place where he was able to shoot. The Engineer that followed him was under the drop ships when it was exposed to heavy fire from Blood Faction members already on ground.
      A night that was darker than the deepest holes, and tons of falling snow in the way of sight didn't make the job of aiming easier for Awacar, but somehow he would get his fired grenade in the little space that was between the drop ships. Shot after shot found its way to the Engineer, but he died when the fired grenade was in the air, Awacar knew this, it was a part of his plan. The grenade attached to the belly of the creature, and as it exploded, so did the other five grenades that the Engineer wore, plus a vehicle. This happened as the drop ships tried to land their troops, but they were thrown away by the chain reaction, and all the infanrty that they carried fell precipitately to the ground, and could easily be handled by Covenant and Forerunner forces.

      Awacar picked up grenades as he walked through the area later, but while he was on this, Master Chief and a quite big team of Hunters engaged a trio of Bio-tanks on a somehow large distance. A discharge made out of fuel rod cells from the Covenant and Bio-tanks using the second barrel of their weapon. One of the Forerunners changed its type of fire to the slower, but way heavier first barrel shots, that in power stand unmatched on the battlefield. A change of tactics was needed among the Chief and the Hunters, so he went for a Sniper. Master Chief quickly took one out with his rod cannon, and used the plasma sniper that the creature had to make one of the Bio-tanks weapons unusable. It showed that Master Chief made it more than unusable, he made it detonate, taking one of his enemies out, and wounding another one. The one that used first barrel shots was still unharmed, and it sent three Hunters to their deaths. Fuel rod cells now streamed out of the rod cannons that the Hunters had, killing the wounded Bio-tank.
      Colours now changed on the weapon of the Bio-tank, and the Chief could tell that it switched shots type, but he didn't know to what type of shots. Soonly, he would get his answer, the Forerunner changed to quick shots. It hit two Hunters in their orange zones, and they were instantly taken out. Master Chief thereafter shot the creature in its ankle with the sniper rifle, wounding it and decreasing its ability to move, but not killing it. Instead, a Hunter got to avenge his fallen comrades, and put a rod cell right at the chest of the Forerunner.

      "The battlefield reports are getting critical, I expect that the status here won't get better when the Forerunners become more, reinforcements are on their way to the Forerunners. The Betrayers are flying in constantly, and we're becoming decimated here. Awacar, get reinforcements here!" Cortana informated in panic, as she saw enormous blasts in the Covenant controlled are of the valley.

      "To beam reinforcements down here isn't physicaly possible, since the ground is sloping everywhere. Flying infantry down here via drop ships can't be made without 95% losses, the aerospace above us is totally controlled by the Forerunners, we'll just have to wait until we get to the next area and hope that it gets better there." Awacar replied as he drew his sword through the belly of a Commando, and thereafter saw five betrayer drop ships fly in a straight line, going down for landing between him and hundreds of Forerunners.

To Be Continued...

The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:2]
Date: 24 December 2003, 2:32 AM

Chapter Five: Part Two: Awaiting Reinforcements

      Five drop ships took ground, but the Betrayers in there wasn't need to bee shot at, the Forerunners handled the Betrayers properly. But for now, the Covenant had to encounter the Forerunners. Five Brutes stormed forward, got to the Forerunner resistance and crushed the skulls of eight Engineers and ten Commandos, before they were killed. Now, Awacar asked for a more structured wave of attack, and ten golden Elites that wielded swords gathered around him as well as a group of seven Hunters.

      "I want to have a volley over our heads, landing in the opposing force. Hunters, you'll do it, right?" Awacar said.

      "Of course, we're on it." they replied in unison.

      "Good, I then want you Elites to engage the few Forerunners that will be alive, poor unlucky suckers." Awacar ordered the Elites as a stream of fuel rod cells started to fly above his head.

      Master Chief led a team of Grunts, Jackals and Elites. An attack on a Betrayer force was initiated in that team, and the Betrayer force was now in great trouble, as they were squeezed in between the Covenant team and a Forerunner force. Ten Covenant Grunts tried to bring two Brutes down, but the result could only be a slaughter of the ten. Still, one Brute fell, and the other was killed shortly after as an immediate result of a swarm of plasma rifle shots that burned his throat.
      A little later, an Elite shot the Chief with a plasma rifle, and MC's shields was about to go off line. The Chief charged his plasma pistol, and unleashed a big, green shot at the Elite. Red armour was exposed to the green ball of energy before the electro-magnetic shields were able to do anything, and the Elite stepped back because of the pain. Master Chief now had a little time to think about his next action. Grenades weren't an option, and the indicator on the plasma pistol showed a low-battery level. He decided to take a chance, and therefore picked up some snow, formed it into a formless... something and threw it in the face of the Elite when it looked towards the Chief. The Elite was extremely annoyed about the strange, cold mass that covered his eyes, and tried to scrub it away. It didn't succeed; instead, the snow was rubbed even harder into his eyes. At last, he understood that he could shake his head to get it off his face, but by then it was too late: the next thing that he got to see was a green fist that quickly approached his face. A bump was heard when the Elite fell dead to the snow-covered ground.

      Some Hunters at one side of the Betrayer force and a group of Bio-tanks at the other had now started to blast the Betrayers away. It worked, and now the Forerunner and Covenant stood face to face.

      At the other long side of the valley, Awacar and his team made great progress against the Forerunners, as the Hunters blew the way, and Brutes killed the poor survivors. They continued, and the last resistance, a few Bio-tanks, appeared. Shot after shot was fired towards the Covenant, and they made an advancement. Fuel rod cells, plasma rifle shots, and Bio-tank fire filled the air and enlightened the place, and the snow glimmered beautifully in green, blue and red as the shots crossed each other in the snowy, blowing air. Moves were made between the Covenant, but their opposition stood still, ignoring the continuous detonations of rod cells. After a while fighting like this, the Brutes became tired of it, and advanced further in order to get close combat. Since the Hunters couldn't shoot the Forerunners with Brutes between them; they were forced to join in the closer battle.
      This new tactics didn't change the tides of war before the Hunters came, and now, it was a fight at the same conditions. Strength, manoeuvrability and weight of weapons would be the qualities needed to get out of this alive, and suddenly the Bio-tanks had to realize that they weren't having the upper hand, the Hunters dominated this fight, simply because of the massive weight in their shields. The Forerunners had to find themselves in a position on the ground, after they had been thrown away by the Hunters, and was quickly killed as the Brutes moved in to increase their kill-ratio, firing the plasma rifles. The advantage of numbers given to the Covenant was huge, but Awacar still didn't expect that it wouldn't be harder to kill the Forerunners.

      "We are asking for reinforcements, are you able to deliver it?" Cortana asked Awacar through the now very important comm. link.

      "We'll be there, just do us a favour and keep alive, would you?" Awacar replied.

Cortana:
      "We'll do ourselves the favour to keep alive, out."

      As she ended the dialogue, Master Chief commanded a few Jackals to make a barrier, and a couple of Elites to get behind them and fire at their enemies. He hoped that it would hold until Awacar got there. A fierce fight took place at the hill to which the Jackals had been ordered to be at, and plasma pistols were fired as well as the weapons that the Commandos held. Master Chief pushed a few Elites aside, so that he could fire on his own. Together with Jackals and Elites, he fired plasma pistol shots at the Engineers and Snipers below him, and the Grunts shot needles and threw their grenades.
      The Covenant managed to get the Forerunners off the hill, making them easier targets. A hail of green shots was seen, and it landed between the many Forerunners, taking their focus off the on the hill. Covenant troops swarmed down to face the different kinds of Forerunners, and a real battle was on. Awacar and his team pushed the resistance together, and the Master Chief unleashed shot after shot from his plasma pistol. A Commando tried to melee the Chief, who walked backwards to evade the blow, charged his weapon, rushed forth, released the shot and let it hit the head of the Forerunner, and thereafter smashed his fist at the wounded area. The enemy fell face down, lifeless, into the thick cover of snow.

      Chief now encountered a Forerunner Sniper, fired some shots at it but changed, and instead threw a grenade at it. Awacar attacked one of the last enemies that were here, an Engineer. His chosen enemy spotted Awacar just as he started to run, and the creature used its grenade launcher. Awacar jumped away just as he saw a grenade that was about to attach to his face. Luckily, it missed, and he could continue. Awacar had no sword available, he just had to settle with putting a couple dozens of needles in the Forerunner Engineer. While he evaded another launched grenade, he saw two clips full with needles that he picked up.
      Now he just pulled the trigger, and kept it in for as long as it was needed. His shields decreased in strength, but he didn't care, he knew that he would win, that the plasma rifle that the Engineer had taken control of wouldn't shoot through his shields, that he would fix the situation that was created when he needed to change clips in his weapon. Evading by sidestepping wasn't anything that was difficult for Awacar, and he did so at random when he had to reload. He started to empty his second clip as three shots rapidly hit him, and his shields would only take one more after that. The needler sent out a message to him, that he should reload once again. A few purple shots left his weapon last of all, and he choosed to not do anything, just dive into the snow, awaiting the sound of twenty needles that would explode almost in unison. Before he was completely covered by the snow, two plasma rifle shots hit his chest, so therefore he was wounded.

Awacar:
      "I suggest a temporal break, just see to it that we keep ourselves at the top of our capability."

      His orders were welcome; they all knew that they would face their deaths if they continued. Depending on health remaining, the supplies were split up.

      "Agony and Retaliation, do you read me? Repeat, do you read me?" Awacar asked.

      "Yes, we copy. What do you need?" the commander of the ship asked via comm. link.

      "Reinforcements and supplies for later use." Awacar replied.

      "It's impossible to land anything in your area, you know it. You'll have to make your way to the next area and keep guard there, so that we can send a gravity-lift down. Please hurry, the Forerunners are on their way to that area, and the Humans will be taking ground there too, I think." the commander said.

Awacar:
      "In that case, I want what you have up there, there's no other way that we'll make it."

Commander:
      "You'll have what we've got, I promise you that, but first you'll have to secure their way down."

      "We're on it!" Awacar ended.

      "Okay people, here's the status. No reinforcements can reach us here, so we'll need to get to the next valley, where the ground is plainer, but where resistance will swarm over us as Flood would swarm over a corpse. We'll have to fight until reinforcements arrive, that's our only chance." Awacar informed, and a sound could be heard, only indicating disappointment among the forces.

      They get on the move, and follow a path into a valley with a plain ground, and a big hill at the other end. To the right side of them, at twenty meters distance, there was another passage, but they didn't go for it. Everyone directly saw that the hill was perfect as a place to land extra troops.
      The Covenant ran to, and took control of the hill, without any resistance. As they took their individual positions, eight Pelicans slowly sank down through the air, and finally took ground in the middle of the area. But the Humans weren't going for the hill all alone, the Forerunners flowed in to the valley too.

      "Awacar to Anger and Retaliation, please hurry, we have a situation here!" Awacar said before throwing a grenade at a Human.

      Everyone that took part of the following fight knew that the ones in control of the hill were probably the ones that had the best chance to landing reinforcements. The king of the hill would win this battle.

      As unbelievable amounts of MA5B shots were flying through the air, seemingly for nothing, the Forerunners came close, and their weapons were fired at the Human group, which was forced to evacuate. Now, all the eyes of the Forerunners had only one thing to concentrate on; the hill. They closed in, and as they did, the Agony and Retaliation flew over the valley, locked its position, and sent down a gravity-lift.
      Master Chief kicked an UNSC solider unconscious, and took his grenades, but he let the Human live, after all, he was still a Human. After this, he used a grenade to get a free passage back to the Covenant forces by throwing it at an Engineer. He was lucky; the Forerunner had already been damaged, and was therefore killed by the detonation, as well as three of his companions. After a fast rush, he was back with the Covenant.

Awacar:
      "Agony and Retaliation, what are you doing up there, send us the reinforcements sometime!"

      "We're sorry Awacar, but we'll have to secure the gravity platform into the ground, else way it will slide on the snow then we send the people down. The platform will automatically secure itself, but it will take a few minutes." the commander informed.

      "We don't have minutes, send the forces now!" Awacar barked.

      "I'm sorry, but you know what happens if the connection between ship and platform breaks, it equals a hell lot of lost infantry. I'll do you the favour of not securing the platform to 100%, it will be secured to 90%, keeping the time down to three minutes instead of five. That's all I can do." the commander informed.

      "I know that you can do more than that, you have some drop ships." Awacar pointed out.

Commander:
      "Okay, you'll get four drop ships at your command, fully loaded with infantry. I'll order the ships to back you up until all of the extra forces are down there. I can also inform you that the Betrayers are flying in, so if you can keep the Forerunners away until that, your job will be easier."

      "Great Commander, thanks. Out." Awacar said to end the dialogue.

      The pressure at the front grew larger, and the Forerunner Bio-tanks backed off to get an easier shot. All of the remaining Hunters, they were ten, was ordered to fire at the Bio-tanks while the rest of the Covenant did what they could to stay in control of the hill. As Awacar drew his sword through the throats of two Commandos, he saw a lot of drop ships that was about to land infantry. Awacar didn't dare to hope that it was the reinforcements that he had sent for, and it wasn't, but it was okay, if the Forerunners could relax their itchy trigger fingers on something else than his forces, he was happy.

      Hunters, Elites and Brutes in masses had been sent down to fight for the Blood Faction, and they did it really good. This was the first time that Awacar was glad about the fact that the Betrayers could fight. Green shots were fired from the Betrayers, looking as falling stars in small scale, that sent out green light over the Forerunners, but also sent them to their deaths. The Brutes were seen advancing through the opposing force, Elites shot everything that filled the criteria of being resistance to the Blood Faction, and the Hunters fired their shots into the large groups of Forerunners that still remained. Awacar ordered an attack, and got it in the form of fifteen Brutes, who made way by using their plasma rifles. Engineers, Commandos and Snipers fell when hit, just because of the pain, and afterwards, they were killed.
      Meanwhile, the Master Chief returned the fire of a Human, killing it. He picked up the rocket launcher that belonged to the fallen solider. When the Chief lifted his eyes from the Human, he saw tens of drop ships that slowly went down, fighting in the air, but he couldn't decide which were Covenant and which were Betrayer drop ships.

      "Can you tell me which drop ships that carry our reinforcements?" he asked an Elite.

      "Two of those at the other side of the fighting group is Covenant, as well as the one closest to us. There are two drop ships between the one I just described and the last one. The last one is in the middle." the Elite replied.

      Now, MC knew what he would use his newly conquered rocket launcher, and shot two drop ships down before he had to go looking fore more rockets. The source of rockets, the Humans, suddenly attacked him. Together with a few Brutes, he took them out. As the situation calmed down, Master Chief looked for rockets, and they were there. It was a stash that laid on the ground, and he used it properly.
      Three more Betrayer drop ships had to feel the hardness of ground, and because of that, they went up in flames. The rest of the infantry kept the remaining drop ships busy, and had them making contact with the ground, the wrong way. When the last pieces of airborne resistance had to face defeat, the Covenant were reinforced by the infantry that were carried in flying ships.

Awacar:
      "I know that a welcoming is appropriate here, but we don't have the time. Can you give us a hand here?"

      They followed his will, and when they got to join the force, a smile could be seen in their faces, because they had the chance to kill several Forerunners, a chance that they, of course, took.

      "It's two minutes remaining before the gravity-lift is fixed. We'll just have to keep up." Awacar told the forces.

      An increasing in the intensity of the attacks were made from the Covenant. This was a sign of desperacy, since everyone knew what the odds for surviving in two more minutes were. It helped and the Covenant made some advancement, simply because of the more relaxed feeling in the force, nobody really cared if they missed or hit, if they were winning or losing, they just shot. The only feeling that found its way to their careless minds was hatred, pure hatred against the Forerunners and Betrayers. Awacar knew all of this would happen if he told them that two minutes remained, and therefore lied. Only one minute was differing the Covenant from their reinforcements, and that little lie helped the forces to hold out for one last minute.
      When the first Covenant were on their way down, more Forerunners entered the valley. They weren't able to fire at such a distance, and empowered by their rage they stormed forwards. In their eyes, it was a humiliation to them as an alliance when the Covenant dared to take place at the hill, as they saw as their rightful property, and the Forerunners was about to take it back from the ones that had stolen it from them.
      With a burning desire, they fought their way towards the hill, never even looking on the ones that they killed, the Forerunners only kept focus on the hill and the ones on it. From above, it looked like an arrow that cut through soft flesh when the Forerunners, with Bio-tanks in the lead, advanced through the resistance.

      "Hit the ground running! They wish you dead, see to it that they will be. Everyone of us should have a kill when this battle is over, the one that hasn't gets punished." Awacar said as he tried to encourage the ones that had joined.

      The Forerunner arrow hit the bone of the resistance; the Covenant force. Two Bio-tanks had been given orders to put the one that seemed to be the Commander here out of action. As their eyes swept through the battlefield, they saw an Elite in yellow shields, wielding a sword, and with fierce pride, bring his resistance to its death. It didn't get better when the Forerunners saw that their comrades that was put under the edge of the sword. Their enemy of choice was Awacar. They approached him, and he was just about to slice a Commander in two. When he did, quick fire was launched, and the one shot that hit him bringed his shields off line. Awacar returned the fire with a burning, blue grenade, and a volley of needles. But these explosives were spread at the Forerunners, and none was taken out. He was forced to back off, and call for reinforcements.

      "I'd like to see ten fuel rod cells twenty-five meters north of my position. Will you do it, Hunters?" Awacar ordered.

      "They're in the air!" a Hunter said, and when he stopped speaking, ten detonations in quick order, seeming as one big, leaved green, glowing gas, and the Forerunners were torn to shreds by them.

      Master Chief encountered a Hunter and two Elites, and had to do it with an AR. This wouldn't work, so he shot a needler out of the hands of one Elite. He fired two clips from his weapon at each of the two black Elites that he engaged and one of them was without weapon. As he did this, the Elite that still could fire did so with his plasma rifle before facing his death. Wisely enough, MC choosed to hold his fire against the Hunter that closed in, the Chiefs health indicator shined yellow for the moment. He let his shields recharge, got on his feet and looked for a pistol, and one lied there, hundred feet from him. He made a rush for it, but had to change direction, the Hunter tried to stop him. Just before the Chief would make a jump to reach the gun, a blast blew it away, as well as taking his shields down, and making a special area of his HUD to change colour into red. Panic started to spread through his body; he needed a weapon. He desperately looked for it, but only saw Forerunners fighting Covenant; the Humans had been killed long ago. The pistol appeared as his only option, and he made it. Without having to evade any rod gun shots, he rushed for the pistol and picked it up. The Hunter came closer, and it was about to melee the MC when the Human started falling backwards, and before his head was caught by the snow, he was exposed to the orange area on the Hunter, and shot at it from below.

Awacar:
      "Hey, Chief, give us a helping hand here. By the way, what have you been doing?"

      "I've flied solo for a while." Master Chief replied.

Cortana:
      "Ahemm..."

Master Chief:
      "Sorry Cortana, but you don't shoot for me, right?"

      "Okay, I can take that, but 'flied solo'... hmpff..." Cortana said while feeling disgraced.

      "Well, you'll have to lay your little dispute on a shelf for now, help us with the Forerunners." Awacar ordered.

      Awacar and the Master Chief went for the Engineers at the other side of the hill, since a massive shooting of grenades took place from there, slowly tearing the Covenant force down.

      They got to the other side, and watched the team of five Engineers stand there and try to defend themselves the best they could. Awacar ordered a team of Brutes to take them out.

      "Please, great Awacar, let us handle them." It was a Grunt who spoke.

      "Why?" Awacar asked.

      "We've been waiting for a battle of our own a very long time. We think that the time has come; we will win. Besides, the Forerunners have been pushing us down a lot of times, acting like they rule the universe. Sure, we'll have a great numerous advantage, and the meaning will just be symbolic, but to see the infused fear in their eyes, as they have seen in ours countless times, would have a great symbolic value to us. And to know that we, Grunts, bringed down a team of Forerunners, that is big, and the most harsh humiliation of them that we can ever make." the Grunt leader said.

      "Okay, they're yours." Awacar said, with proudness in his voice, he liked the initiative from the Grunts, and liked them a lot.

      Nearly thirty Grunts ran down the hill, throwing all of their grenades and firing plasma pistol shots and needler rounds. The Engineers didn't like facing the feeling of not being in control, or facing their deaths. Literally, a bomb-carpet was created by grenades, and a needle wall approached the Forerunners, that soon had to realize the fact that they've lost to Grunts.

Awacar:
      "Now when we all had a little fun, shall we go on?"

To Be Continued...

Authors note:If I changed the name of the ship from Anger and Retaliation to Agony and Retaliation, I'm sorry, I can't find any "Anger" when I read through it quickly, but it is "Agony".

The Final War: Enemy Battleground[5:3]
Date: 24 December 2003, 2:36 AM

Chapter Five: Part Three: Disappointment

      "Wait, we'll make a stop here. We got some supplies from the Agony and Retaliation, lets use them before leaving. The ones with the greatest need of health supplies are prioritised first, and when all of the wounded have got their share, we'll split the rest up between us and keep it for future use. It's the same with other supplies, the ones that are in greatest need gets first, and when everybody has got their share, we'll split the rest up." Awacar ordered.

      A break was taken before the force moved on. At the other side of the valley were two passages, the one that they came from and another one, where they would have to walk upwards in a 40-degree slope.
      They knew the risk if any resistance showed up, but still choosed the one with the slope. The passage frequently changed direction, so the way they walked was much more strenuous than if it had been straight. At the end of the passage was a gate, one of those Forerunners made, which split up into three pieces that withdrew themselves, but in large scale. Awacar prepared himself for a wave of attack that would wash over him when the gate opened, but there was just the noise originating from the door that was heard, the view of a hallway that was seen, and the feeling of air flowing around your face that was felt when the force entered the hallway behind the gate.

      "Cortana, can you check if there are any enemies around here?" Awacar asked carefully.

Cortana:
      "I read some sort of life signs when you follow the paths that are shown to you at the end of the hallway, but its a hundred meters away or more. The thing I can say about the lifeforms is that they're not human, but more than that I can't say because the thick walls here stop clear signals from getting to me."

      "Okay then, lets walk on, and if you can identify the life forms before we get there, you're welcome to say something about it." Awacar said in fear of the unknown; he didn't want to have another enemy, he thought that he had his hands full.

      The Covenant walked the only path that could be walked, and after a while when the forces had walked through the winding tunnels and through tens of smaller gates, Cortana could read what type of life forms it were, the readings clearly indicated: Forerunner presence. She told this to Awacar, and the forced gathered close to the next metal door, before they stormed in. And as Cortana thought, there were Forerunners, Engineers in the room, a large, round room with pillars rising from the floor, and strange lights were sitting along their sides. The lights, shape of the room, pillars and mirrors on the walls created optical illusions, making it very hard to determine where the Forerunners were located.

Awacar:
      "Since the Forerunners don't want us to know where they are, shoot at the mirrors and make them angry."

      Glass that broke apart, grenades that detonated, and screams of Engineers in fear was heard as a fight broke out. The Forerunners couldn't really put up with a fight, and they were quickly killed. Green blood had been sprayed over the floor, and the Covenant stood in it as they tasted the sweetness of a small victory.

      "Move, we aren't here on a vacation!" said Awacar as he ordered his force to continue.

      They got to yet another gate, and the Hunters used their powerful weapons to break it. Suddenly, a cracking sound could be heard between the explosions of fuel rod cells, and after a chilly wind blew into the room, as a majestic scenario could be seen. On the other side of the broken gate, there was an enormous bridge reaching to the opposite side of the area, where another gate was. Above the middle of this bridge, there was another, running at right angles to the one that the Covenant was about to get on.
      A lot of Forerunners fought masses of Betrayers at the other bridge, but they also had time to fire a couple of shots towards the Covenant. Master Chief was given a plasma sniper, and an order to take out as many enemies as possible. Rays of plasma hit chests and heads of Engineers, Commandos, Elites and Brutes, who were the fighters at the bridge above. The Chief felt a slight joy as he shot Forerunner after Forerunner that was about to fire anything against his comrades. Covenant ran over the giant bridge and fired at random, while Master Chief covered them, and when all of the Covenant was below the other bridge, the Chief had to make a rush to get to the Covenant.
      It was harder than he thought, and he started to realize the importance he made when the troops were running on the bridge. He dodged, jumped, sidestepped, even rolled on his side when he ran for cover. He got wounded, his evasiness couldn't completely save him from the horrors of grenades. His shield went down, as so many times before, and he lost two of the marks in his health indicator.

Awacar:
      "Cortana, what will the rate of survival be if we all run towards the other gate at the same time?"

      "10% at most, more realistic calculations tell me that 5% is believable." Cortana informed.

      "That's unacceptable, do you have any suggestions about what we can do?" Awacar asked, feeling worried.

      Before Cortana even had the chance to say "No.", he asked her another thing.

      "Where's the Forerunners on the bridge above us located?"

Cortana:
      "On the west side of the bridge. We were moving from east to west, so they get that we want to get to the west. When we run out there, they'll shoot at us. Why do you ask this? I thought that you, if anyone, would know."

      "Yes I know, just wanted to make sure that I was right. You see, they won't shoot at us when we run out there." Awacar said with self-confidence that was bigger than a galaxy.

      "Why wouldn't they shoot at us?" Cortana asked.

Awacar:
      "By then, I and two more dozens of Elites have been firing our rod cannons from the east gate for a few seconds, and after the start of this, Master Chief will be standing next to the west gate, sniping at Forerunners that might check to see if any Covenant will run over the bridge and use the chaos created. And we will, people, when the Chief is at place, make the run. Grunts, those of you that have rod guns, switch them for needlers, and give the rod guns to the Elites."

      "We will follow you, Awacar. We can be a great supplement with our weapons." a Hunter said.

      "You'll have to be with those who go on, and you'll be returning fire if any Forerunners attack you. Besides, we'll have to sneak to the east gate, your foot shields will make too much noise." Awacar informed

      Twenty-five Elites carefully walked to the place that they came from, and when they reached their target location, a massive volley was sent towards the bridge where the Forerunners were. As Awacar thought, the Forerunners returned fire, and after a while the Master Chief was on the move. He took sniping position, and the Covenant ran to the west gate. MC did get to shoot a few Forerunners down, but not enough, and fortunately, the Hunters did their job well, the Forerunners that went for Covenant forces didn't get many shots, but still a few, which killed several Covenant.
      Now, all of the infantry had got to safety, and only Awacar and the twenty-four Elites remained out there.

      "Awacar, you'll need to get back here now, to stay there doesn't serve you any purpose." Cortana informed via comm. link.

      "Comprende, when we're under the bridge, cover us!" Awacar replied.

      "You know that we will." Master Chief told Awacar.

      All of the Elites started to move towards the other side of the bridge, a mission that would have been suicide if they hadn't used their rod guns as frequently as they did, or if Master Chief wouldn't cover them. Now they got over without a single loss.

      "Lets walk on." Awacar said when he got through the gate.

      Heavy footsteps could be heard by the Chief, and they were accompanied by explosives that tried to break the gate that an Elite had put effort in sealing. When the troops moved on, they engaged a team of Grunts, Jackals and Brutes.
      As Master Chief aimed at a Brute, a Hunter put his shield in front of the gun, and the Chief understood that the Hunter would take care of the Brute, whether he shot or not. Eyes in fear could be seen if you looked at the Betrayer, the heavy creature that moved towards him scared him. One hundred and twenty kilos of shield was smashed into the Brute, but the Hunter had to run to a wall and bash his enemy into it, with an incredible effort, and the Brute died.
      The Jackals were under heavy pressure from the Elites, and of course, they were killed quite quickly. A Covenant Elite lead the chase for the Brutes, and found what he was looking for. Blue light travelled the room when the Elite threw a grenade, and it continued to glow even after it had attached to the shoulder of the Betrayer. Explosion-like sounds ringed in the ears of the Elite, but he only enjoyed it, and when he looked closer, he became happier, the grenade had brought another Brute to hell.
      While this happened, Covenant Jackals faced Grunts, and plasma pistols were the only appropriate weapon here. Three Jackals lost their shields, and one of them also lost his life, together with the Grunt he killed by aiming at the poor creatures mask. After the Jackals started to organize, they took the command. They pinpointed their attacks at single Grunts and killed them before firing at anyone else.

      "We're done here, lets move!" Awacar ordered.

      The sound of metal that clashed together as the winning force moved was barely heard, with different body fluids on their feet. Sounds of the footsteps still echoed unfriendly, until the end of the path was reached, and a gate opened. They were back in the second area they were in at Perambulate, but now, they could only walk on the bridge made of rock, and had a thick layer of packed snow on it. Awacar ordered them to cross it, and Forerunners took the bridge as a target. Incredible trembles shook the bridge as grenades hit it, and detonated.

      "Why is it shaking so much? It is made by stone, right?" Awacar asked while worry rushed through his mind.

      "I'm not completely sure, it might be a trap made by the Forerunners, the possibility occurs to me when I examine it at this range. ... ... Damn! Get of this thing ASAP! It's just pieces of ice that was painted so it looked like stone, and somehow they managed to mess with it, so that all the signs indicates solid stone when examined." Cortana said, being in, and causing panic.

Awacar:
      "The one that stands still here to long will be dead! Get out of here!"

      When they started running, Banshees spotted them, and tried to kill them.

      "If a Banshee gets in firing range, get so far away from it as you can. If you are near the edges of this bridge, a miss will be more easy t do, and a hit won't do as much as a hit at the thickest place." Awacar said, trying to minimize the chances for a bridge collapse.

      Banshees approached from all directions and the infantry was forced to move from side to side as a snake. Two Hunters managed to get a vehicle to the ground, not landing it, and a few Brutes took out two. As every one knew, this wasn't enough, especially when the Covenant suffered so many casualties as they did.

      "Cortana, how many have we lost?" Awacar wondered.

      "We've lost thirty percent of the crew that lived from the crossing bridges." Cortana informed.

Awacar:
      "Okay everyone, make a last run to the land at the other end of this thing, I don't care if you get in the line of fire, you will anyway if you don't increase your speed!"

      They knew that they might have to pay with their lives for not following that order, so they did follow. Another ten percent of the crew that got of the last bridge was killed due to banshee shots made from the darkness in the snowy night. Shortly after the forces got off the bridge, it was no longer. A shot from a Bio-tank had hit it, and it collapsed.

      The infantry moved through the passage that they had got into by crossing the former bridge, and the passage slowly got wider, to at last become a big, round area where you could get into two more paths, walk up to the top of a huge, cone shaped temple building with the architecture that looked as the temple near the control room of Installation 04, or go snowboarding down the hill that the Covenant were at now.

Awacar carefully looked himself around, before he spoke:
      "This planet should not be called Perambulate, its name is Destiny."

      "What do you mean? Have you been here before? No, wait, you can't be, this is an unexplored piece of the universe for both Human and Covenant. How come that you recognize it?" Cortana asked.

      "I don't know what the planed does here, but I've been here before, the Blood Faction used it as a place to send unholy people to, this was the place where you could be free if you reached the gravity-lift in time, or be killed by the Dactyls. Together with Gaurough and Queterie, I was the only one that managed to get out of here alive. Gaurough killed my best friends, Icod and Febuluc, here, I'm sure. About the name of the planet, any prisoners that were sent here had made the worst crime in the eyes of the Faction, to be a non-believer, and they were said to face their Destiny." Awacar said, as he looked extremely sad.

Master Chief:
      "You can release your anger at the Betrayers down there."

      "Sure that's a good idea? The Forerunners are charging their weapons against the Betrayers, and I don't want to be close when that happens." Cortana interrupted.

      A big cannon, absolutely enormous, was activated, and inside it blue, heated gas flowed. It almost looked as a giant cement mixer, but a one that instead was filled with rotating plasma. A shot was fired at the Blood Faction members that planned for their attack. The plasma flew out of the cannon, formed as a completely round ball, containing almost hundred plasma grenades. Before it landed, it threw plasma charges away, spreading them all over the Betrayers. When the plasma itself landed, it flowed along the ground, killing the Betrayers that found themselves in it.

      "We must storm the place now!" Awacar said determinedly

      "Are you out of your mind? The Forerunners are guarding that place as Betrayers would guard a Halo!" Master Chief said in protest.

      "That is right, but that is also why we're going to get up there. I haven't ever seen the Forerunners being so active about anything. This must be where the unknown power itself must be hidden." Awacar said.

Master Chief:
      "But how are we going to make it?"

      "That's a question for the gods, and I hope that they have an answer." Awacar replied quickly.

      As the many individuals moved at the same time, a cloud of whirling snow was created, and it looked almost as an avalanche. A rush was made to the foot of the temple cone, and a move up it was initiated. Awacar ordered Hunters to go in the lead, and they did so. Whenever the resistance showed its ugly face, a volley of rod cells was sent to it, causing the ones that formed it to die. Engineers, Commandos and Snipers were killed in masses, but no Bio-tanks were there. Everyone thought the same thought, they were guarding the source of power, and make the life short for the ones that tried to use it.
      Half the way up, Covenant had to face losses for the first time on this 'cone', and it was a Hunter, shortly thereafter followed by another, and they were both victims of Commandos using their weapons the best way they could. Ten more pieces of Forerunner infantry was encountered before the ones in front had to be covered by someone. The chief and Awacar took the position, and used grenade launchers together with plasma pistols. MC paralyzed several Commandos when he rapidly shot out plasma pistol shots, and it succeeded, he fired until the weapon was nearly overloaded, and before that he had put himself near the Forerunner, and raised a fist to smash it to its death.

      After many fights against Forerunners that were alone, they got to the top of the temple, and as they thought, the Bio-tanks were located there.
      Hunters were ordered to the left, Brutes to the right, and the remaining infantry had to split up by own judgement. Awacar had planted a grenade between two of his enemies, but had to put one grenade at each individually to kill them. Before he launched the last grenade, he sidestepped in the wrong direction, and was hit by a quick shot. Chief used all the battery he had remaining in his current weapon, and used two grenades to no good, since they were blown away by the Bio-tanks. These creatures didn't seem to care as much as they did before, which was strange, since the rest of the forces had defended this location with their lives. MC got a grenade launcher, and could finish the enemy with a grenade placed at the creatures tail. Two Hunters were seen cooperating, chasing an opponent towards the wall, and they thereafter moved fastly towards it, hitting at the same time, crushing the Forerunner to its death.

      Scenes were played to the eyes of Awacar, great, and horrible, after he had bashed his rod gun into the neck of his enemy. Master Chief picked up a plasma rifle from a fallen Elite, fired it at the closest Bio-tank, got the rifle overloaded and attached a grenade to his weapon. He threw the package to his opponent, it got stuck and detonated powerful enough to kill the creature. At the same time, he saw masses of Covenant that had been slain. They were now down to 20% of the ones that had left the crossing bridges.

      After all of this, the remaining Bio-tanks apparently got orders to clean the area, and did so, while a smile filled their faces.

Awacar:
      "Odd indeed, very odd."

      There was a gate close, and Awacar got to it, and it opened automatically. Inside the gate was a strange, eight cornered room. It had a path along its sides, but also a big hole, where something different toned grey hovered. It was large, so Awacar jumped onto this thing to see if it was the source of power. He had a bingo! This was it. He knew the bomb type, so he only had to cut a few wires and the electricity wouldn't get to the hydrogen that was supposed to create fusion.

      "Haha, the Forerunners has overestimated this source of power, it was just a simple fusion bomb." Awacar said in pride. A few seconds later, a hologram showed up above the bomb. Cortana translated the language spoken.

Hologram of an Engineer:
      "It has been funny to watch you, fighting to escape your destiny, but triggering it yourself. Too long ago, we Forerunners had this planet in possession, it flourished and was nicknamed 'Eden01'. Periods of freezing cold arrived, but we could still live here, before the filthy, evil Covenant took it from us and spoiled it. Now they seem to call it 'Destiny', a very appropriate name, very appropriate. This entire planet is a decoy, to gather as many enemies on as possible, and as watchers see you trigger your own death. The present bomb cannot nearly match any of the Halos in strength, but it can make an entire planet disinterigate. It is an anti-matter bomb, and you have just cut the wires that feed electricity to the magnetic fields, making them sustainable, the fields holds this thing up. The fields will weaken in time, and I'm not talking long time here. If it hits the floor, so does the anti-matter, and you... can face your destiny."

      "We have thirty to seventy-five minutes to get out of here, Cortana, set the timer for forty-five minutes, it's the least amount of time that I think this will keep hovering. Now, run!" Awacar said in panic.

      They got out of the building and the troops were ordered to evacuate.

Awacar:
      "Agony and Retaliation, we want you here ASAP!"

44.39.10...

To Be Continued...

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