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Halo: The Rise of the Covenant by Jacob Grodman
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Prologue: The Forerunners
Date: 10 March 2007, 10:55 pm
Prologue: The Forerunners
Year 0001 of the first age, Age of Abandonment, unknown location, home of the Forerunners/Prophets.
Evolution always takes place.
The small insignificant Grolfalo species changed into what would be one most known race in the galaxy. Their frail and weak bodies made them easy prey, but their extreme sentient intelligence kept their extinction at bay.
Unfortunately, everything evolves sooner or later. This time, it was sooner. Another species evolved a few hundred years after the Grolfalo. This species gained opposite attributes of their older rivals. Brute strength was their strong suit, and they quickly multiplied and started to wipe out the Grolfalo.
While the Grolfalo were on the brink of extinction, a single one of their kind discovered an amazing way to leave the chaos of their planet. That individual discovered slipspace, a way to travel vast distances in a rapid amount of time by entering an alternate dimension.
By building a large spaceship that could withstand the extreme pressure during the transition from slipspace to normal space, he was able to convince others of his race that his journey would be profitable for the entire planet.
He soon embarked, with thousands of his comrades, on the journey to find other intelligent life forms.
They destroyed their old city so as to prevent others from finding where they had gone, and then they left their planet forever.
For hundreds of years, their legion roamed space, discovered other species, and out of fear, attacked them.
With their superior technology, this species called them selves Denarkine, which in their language meant "great gods".
At an unknown time, though it is presumed to be about 200,000 B.C.E., the Denarkine landed on Earth. There they built the first Denarkine constructs, which are now called "Forerunner" constructs.
In these constructs, they buried all their knowledge, teachings, and locations across the galaxy.
When the Denarkine left earth, they left a small bacterium, which eventually killed all life forms on the planet at the time.
The Denarkine traveled for a long time before landing on an unknown planet on the outer rim of the galaxy. The planet was desolate and barren, and they soon discovered why: a parasitic life form lay dormant on the planets surface.
A single Denarkine ship was unfortunate enough to travel too close. The parasite boarded the vehicle, destroyed it, and infected its crew.
The great intelligence of the Denarkine mixed with the strength and malice of the parasite, created a monster that destroyed half of the galaxy. Thousands of the parasite, which the Denarkine called "flood," scoured the galaxy, controlling life forms and destroying their bodies due to their sick feeding process.
No life forms though became quite as terrible as when the Denarkine were controlled. It took a strike force larger than any in past or present to capture the parasite and quarantine them on an unmapped planet.
But thousands of years later, after the Denarkine had conquered the galaxy and developed an empire, the parasite escaped once more.
This time the Denarkine were ready. They had found a simple organism that was lacking a nervous system, thus depriving the Flood of its way to control a host. They put this organism in large suits of armor, and gave it large weapons and shields with which to fight the Flood. These "Flood Hunters" had the desired effect on their enemies, slowly wiping out the infestation.
But the Flood was underestimated, and all beings can adapt to their surroundings. The parasite discovered ways to defeat their hunters, so the Denarkine were forced to relinquish them of their duty temporarily.
Out of options, the Denarkine built giant metal rings to house and quarantine the Flood. They also installed a great weapon in these rings as a last resort. In the situation of the flood escaping once again, the weapon could be activated, and would kill all possible hosts for the flood.
10 of these rings were made, so as to cover the vast distance of the galaxy with the range of their weapon. They called these rings Halos.
The Denarkine then traveled the galaxy, leaving complex structures that gave clues to the locations of the rings.
Year 0001 of the Second Age, Age of Conflict, Ggoynall
One such structure was on the planet that would later be called Reach. This building was put under the highest security possible, and hidden from anyone besides those who know what to look for, or those with extreme luck. In this construct they placed crystalline artifact with the power to bend time and space. There is no record of how the Denarkine came upon this item. They sealed the entrance to the structure, and left; never to return again. The Denarkine continued to conquer the galaxy, destroying planets relentlessly; but there were those who fought back.
On a giant planet with super-chilled methane atmosphere lived a small pig-like sentient beasts which are now called Unggoy. The Denarkine studied these animals and realized their fighting habits. When in a large group, the Unggoy will throw themselves relentlessly, almost as if to prove themselves to their peers; but when alone, or in a small group, cowardice would take over, and they would run.
Trillions of the small animals populated the giant planet, creating a formidable force of which the Denarkine were afraid to attack.
The Denarkine then left the planet and found a world not far away from the Unggoy.
They were immediately attacked by a tall biped creature with great strength and intelligence. Scores of vehicles with attached weapons patrolled the planet and put fear in the hearts of the Denarkine. Therefore, they devised a scheme to conquer the planet.
They sent spies onto the surface to kidnap young children and bring them back to their ships. Their plan went flawlessly, and when the children were kidnapped, an unsuspected bonus occurred. When the bipeds found that 62 of their children had been taken, they blamed each other, causing a civil war.
During the confusion, the Denarkine infiltrated the bipeds' ranks and stole hundreds of their vehicles. Then they attacked the major cities with those vehicles, but were only able to conquer one city by the time that the bipeds formulated a resistance. The bipeds amazing battle prowess soon defeated the Denarkine, leaving their civilization severely wounded. Not being able to accept their loss, the Denarkine called upon their Flood Hunters to deal with their new-found enemies. The Hunters annihilated all threats that passed them, quickly and flawlessly. But the bipeds were never conquered
Eventually, the Denarkine were forced to forfeit and leave the planet, not accepting defeat, but not winning either.
The Denarkine then resumed their search for intelligent life. They found a planet filled with purple skinned beings that floated in the air on large gas bladders. Once the Denarkine landed their ships on the planet, the weird animals immediately boarded their ships and started to repair the damage that they had taken during their battle with the bipeds. The Denarkine decided to call the animal "Huragok," which in their language meant engineer. The Denarkine stayed many years on that planet, learned the animal's language, and later convinced them to come on their ships.
The Huragok became excited when they heard that they could learn about the Denarkine's highly advanced technology.
The Denarkine learned that the Huragok were pacifists, and hardly interfered with galactic affairs. Their life's ambition was to learn about and fix technology. The Huragok helped the Denarkine build advanced weapons, which later were called "plasma weapons", despite their lack of actually plasma. With these new weapons, the Denarkine traveled through the galaxy and conquered planets.
Later they landed back on their home planet, and left a record of "legacy" there. Then they left, never to return again.
Remembering the beauty of the planet Earth, the Denarkine traveled there once more in hopes of ending their journey at last. Unfortunately, the Denarkine found that the planet was already populated by a race of biped sentients called Humans. Although, the humans were very undeveloped, the Denarkine found them an interesting, smart, and very strong race; and they eventually became friends.
The Denarkine decided to make the humans the "Reclaimers" of the 10 Halos that they had created. Being the Reclaimer of Halo meant that only the Humans could activate their constructs. They also built a large mechanism that can activate all the rings remotely on Earth. They called this device "the ark" and then left earth to finish their galactic conquest.
he last things that the Denarkine built were machines with a plasma laser type weapon that was effective in fighting the Flood, should they ever escape their quarantine. They called these machines "sentinels." Then they built a globe like machine to command these others flood weapons. In these globes they put all their knowledge and history of conquests. Then, leaving their halos for the last time, they found the planet on which they had originally found the Huragok. On this planet, the flood gathered for an attack.
Fearing that the flood could escape the planet eventually, the Denarkine gathered up all their forces, including the Flood Hunters, Sentinels, and all weapons built by the Huragok; and the second greatest battle in the history of the galaxy ensued.
Although when the battle turned in favor of the Flood, a single Denarkine panicked, and activated the weapon of a nearby Halo. The radius of the Halo wiped out 1/10th of the galaxy, luckily not including Earth, Reach, Ggoynall* or any other major populated planets.
The Denarkine were no more.
But in the thousands of years that they had been journeying, the Denarkine had forgotten those of their species that they had left behind before leaving their home planet.
Year 0001 of Third age, Age of discovery, unknown location, home of the Forerunners/Prophets.
A young male of an unnamed species was digging for a new well in the mountains when his shovel hit what the male thought was a stone.
It was dozens of years later that the species discovered that it wasn't a stone. They found a giant technologically advanced city, which had been deserted by its former civilians.
In this city, they found an ancient legacy that told of an amazing race that traveled the galaxy on a journey of conquest.
They also found technology: the original prototype slipspace generator, primitive electric weapons that the Denarkine used before they found the Huragok, and schematics for a large spaceship.
After spending hundreds of years building spaceships and the slipspace generators, the species set out to follow their "Forerunners." The species thought that the forerunners had left their planet to embark upon a "great journey" to the "divine beyond," but the truth was that the forerunners had left to conquer the galaxy and died out in the process.
As the species was searching through the forerunners city, they found a structure that held all the information of Forerunner conquest and the halos.
Although the structure only mention the Halos briefly, not noting their cause or what they looked like, the species interpreted the halos as Holy Constructs. Unfortunately for the species, but fortunately for all life in the galaxy, the structure did not house the locations for the halos.
The species left their home planet to follow the Forerunners, which they worshiped as gods. They searched for Halos, which they thought would send with the forerunners to the divine beyond.
But unforeseen complications arrived. A small group of the prophets; or will of the gods, which they called themselves; stumbled upon a giant ring which they could not identify. The ring had its own nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and gravity, but as the prophets landed upon the ring, half their number was captured by a terrifying parasite.
The prophets assumed that the parasite was put upon the rings to protect the forerunner secrets; but some thought that the parasite was on the ring by accident, and that activating the ring would send them into the divine beyond as well as destroying the parasite.
The non-parasitic prophets left the ring in a hurry, and set out to find a way to destroy the parasite, which they discovered was named Flood.
They settled on the idea of using deception finding other willing civilizations to use as a weapon that would land upon the sacred ring and clear a way, or rather, lead the Flood away from Prophets, so that the prophets could activate the ring and send themselves (but not necessarily the other species) to the divine beyond.
The prophets changed their names to "The Followers" and chose their most intelligent and respected spiritual leaders to govern their race, and lead them to the forerunners:
The Prophet of Truth
The Prophet of Mercy
The Prophet of regret
The Prophet of Wisdom
These four prophets commanded the Followers into scouring the galaxy looking for races that would do their work for them.
Section I: Sangheili
Date: 18 March 2007, 7:42 pm
Here is the next section, thanks to your comments.
I understand that there are Canon inconsistencies (spelled that wrong) within the prologue. I did that on purpose. I tried to stick as close to the truth as I could, but I had to make the story so it would fit with what I had planned.
There are things in this section also that do not follow canon. Please do not comment on things that falsify the covenant timeline, but anything else is okay.
Year 0050, Age of Reconciliation, Sangheili home planet, High chamber of Sangheili council
"So what would be the reason for me and my Sangheili to join your alliance?" Zoneema said.
"Your citizens are oblivious, but I'm not. Your civilization is on the verge of collapse," Truth exclaimed.
"Our weapons are much more superior than yours!" Zoneema said, "I could wipe out your people in minutes, than no one would question my authority."
"You believe you are superior to my people?" Truth said, he kept a calm face, but his anger was conspicuous, "I have journeyed throughout the galaxy for decades gathering weapons. I could destroy your planet with a snap of my fingers." Truth snapped his fingers, and Zoneema flinched.
"I will not respond to your threats, I will not be deterred," Zoneema said, "let me think about your 'offer,' I will contact you within the hour."
"Understood, but don't keep me waiting. If you join my cause, your people will be revered with great honor and pride. You will be generals of a great army, conquering the galaxy." The Prophet of Truth said as he walked out of the hut, "Make the right choice!"
Zale Zoneema sat back in his raised chair and sighed, which was a difficult gesture through his split mandibles.
He was stuck in a sticky situation. If he and his Sangheili joined this group, many of his people would surely die in battle; but if he did not join the group, all his people would probably die.
Therefore, Zale chose the noble path.
He realized that he would much rather die fighting than die from orbital bombardment.
"Rona," Zale called out, "come!"
A young Sangheili came through the shallow doorway into Zale Zoneema's living quarters. He wore dark blue armor showing that his rank was of that lowest stature, in comparison to the white and black armor that Zale wore, showing that he was that supreme chancellor and leader of the whole Sangheili race.
"Rona," Zale said, "I would like you to contact the Elite council.
"Yes sir," Rona Manomee said, and then he backed out of the hut.
Zale had already made his decision, but he needed a little reassurance.
Rona sat outside the chamber listening to an intense argument between Zale and the rest of the Sangheili council.
Actually, there was no arguing; it was just everyone yelling at what Zale was saying. Zale had not raised his voice, but was just stating counterexamples to everything the council said.
Rona knew Zale would eventually win. Zale Always won.
Rona had served Zale for 36 years and had not received a single promotion. Everyone in the city honored Rona as though he were an Honor Guard, but it wasn't the same. Rona wanted and official promotion, but he couldn't bring up the courage to ask the supreme chancellor.
Blue armor was the lowest rank in the Sangheili society; it meant that he was a minor in the military. Next comes red armor, which would make him a major. Then cyan which meant Ranger; chrome which meant a stealth commander; grey or brown also meant stealth commander, but was of higher status; black armor meant that he would be a special operatives soldier; and so on and so forth.
Many different armor colors surrounded the Sangheili caste system; and Rona could not even raise one level, despite his "friendship" with Zale.
Rona snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that the "arguing" had stopped.
ale had, undoubtedly, won the debate.
The council members walked out of the chamber, and Zale called Rona back in.
One of the councilors was still in the room. He wore the honorary shining white armor and white headpiece of people of his status.
"This is the only councilor that agreed with my decision," Zale said, "How do you think I should reward him?"
"Well sir, he has the highest rank in our society, bested only by yourself," Rona said, "so if you can find a way to give him a higher promotion, than that would be a good reward."
"That's a good idea, how about…I've got it. Rona, go in my wardrobe and retrieve a white headpiece with engraved markings on it," Zale said. Rona did as he was told, and retrieved the headpiece,
He handed it to Zale who bestowed it upon the Council member.
"You are now my Covenant Representative," Zale said.
"Thank you, I will not let you down," the Sangheili said.
"I expect you not to," Zale replied, "now leave us. I will summon you on the marrow."
Rona started to back out of the room as well, but Zale stopped him.
"No Rona," he said, "you stay."
Rona stepped forward, and Zale stood, paced a little, and then stopped in front of Rona.
"How many years have you been in my service? I have lost track," Zale said.
"36 years, sir," Rona said, lowering his head.
"Aah, I see you've been keeping track?" Zale said, "No doubt to see how long I keep you a Minor?"
"Sir, it's not-"
"No need to explain yourself. In the past years, you have been more than worthy than a few promotions. The truth is…I think your one of a kind. Most Sangheili will run into battle because they are told to, but you will run into battle to protect those beside you." For the first time in 36 years, Zale Zoneema looked straight into Rona's eyes. "You not only admire the courage of the elders that lead you from behind, you admire the courage of those petty soldiers that put their life on the line. I admire your integrity. So I'm scared to let you leave my service, for fear that one day you will lead me. You deserve a much higher rank, but now is not the time for that. You are now Major Rona Monamee and second in command of the Sangheili, although they may not respect such a low rank." Zale presented Rona with a shining ruby red full armor suit.
"I am honored beyond words," Rona said, dropping to one knee.
"Stand," Zale said, "I already have a mission for you."
Rona Monamee piloted the stealth class Prowler alone; an incredible feat, even for a Sangheili with as much training as himself.
He manned all the control stations, including weapons control, navigations systems, and communications.
This was the most dangerous mission he had ever faced, yet he wanted to prove himself alone.
The Prophet of Truth had discovered a species on an uncharted planet; a species that was said to be used, or possibly created, by the Forerunners.
Rona wasn't completely sure who the Forerunners were, but he had been told to obey the Prophets. All these new politics were really confusing him, but he knew that he should do what he was told, unless it was morally incorrect; which wasn't the case at the moment.
Rona hadn't gleaned much of what was happening, but he got a little. He had learned that that the Prophets were traveling across the galaxy gathering species to help them reach a race of "gods" called the Forerunners. So now the "Covenant" was going to travel the galaxy to find these Forerunners.
The Sangheili were pawns, and Rona knew that.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do; he had to follow directions.
Therefore, he was going on this errand.
After 26 days of traveling, he could finally see the planet in the distance; then after six more hours, he drifted into a deep rock filled crater.
Rona donned his pressure suit, walked out of the ship, and heard the suit slowly tighten…then loosen, showing that the atmosphere was oxygen-nitrogen.
"Rona," a voice over his comm. said.
"Sir?" he responded, "I thought you said that your communications relays can't reach this far."
"I have launched a navigational relay disc that will bounce my signal in your direction," Zale's voice said, "It is a very complex and expensive process, but I can't afford to lose you."
"Thank you, sir," Rona said.
"I have discovered that the species you are after was the greatest followers of the forerunners during their time, and the Forerunners did many things to protect them. There is no doubt that security systems are placed throughout the planet," Zale said, "Be careful."
"I will; thanks for the advice," Rona said. He grabbed an electric baton and four electric discharge grenades, which he attached to his belt. He then set out across a large black sandy desert, In search of something he wasn't even sure he would find.
Two small blips on his motion sensor…
Then four…
Then ten.
A bright orange blast turned the sand at his right into glass; Rona was propelled 6 feet into the air, and landed hard on his side. His vision blacked out for a split second, and he scrambled quickly to his feet.
As he turned, a mechanism made of three floating beams surrounded a glowing orb. The mechanism then stopped glowing, and moved closer to Rona.
"Are you a Reclaimer?" a feminine robotic voice said, the voice resounded throughout the desert, making it impossible to determine the exact location.
"I do not understand what you mean," Rona replied.
Rona then realized that the voice was not coming from the mechanism in front of him, but rather from a red orb behind it. The orb resembled a large eye, but where the iris would be, a glowing ring took its place. Realizing that the ring was most likely the mechanism that the machine the looked out of, this was what Rona spoke to.
"Let me introduce myself," the orb said, "I am 542 Raging Ion. I am the monitor of installation zero one. Unfortunately I was separated from my objective, and I ended up coming here to protect the Holy Artifacts that litter this planet," the monitor inched forward, "have you come to activate the installations?"
"I do not know of what installations you speak, but I have been sent here to find a species of—."
Ooooh, you seek the Huragok!" the Ion cut him off, "I can only show them to you if you prove yourself to me."
"I am not your errand boy," Rona said, "if you will not help me, than I will find them myself."
"That would not be wise, Reclaimer,"
"I am not a 'Reclaimer',"
"Are you not a Homo-Sapien being? I would not know what you look, but we are supposed to look for a biped being with great armor and weaponry, and he must be able to pass our tests with ease," Ion said.
"I am not a Homo-Sapien, I am of the race called Sangheleili"
The monitor let out an electronic gasp of anger and retreated.
"I was warned of the Sangheili treachery by my masters," the monitor said, the mechanism around him flew closer; "You and my masters were bitter enemies in times past. Sentinels, please dispose of him."
The mechanisms, apparently called Sentinels, sped towards Rona, their central orbs glowing.
Rona ran.
"Zale! We kind of have a problem here!" he said with gasping breath
"So I see, I have your heat signature on a satellite; the machines are right behind you, but you need to find the species anyway," Zale said.
"I understand, but I request that you send a squadron of fighters her as fast as possible," Rona said.
"If you find what you are looking for, they will have technologies that can get us there faster, but for now, your on your own," Zale said with regret.
"Understood," Rona replied, not having the energy or time to argue.
Rona's foot caught on a rock and he pitched forward, landing heavily on his stomach, and slamming his mandible together.
"Do not shoot! He is near the Holy Articles," the monitor said from high above.
As Rona looked up, the Sentinels flew backward away from Rona; then as he looked forward, he realized the reason why. Rona had fallen into a field of destroyed ships. 10,000 year old carcasses littered the ground, not decomposed due to the lack of bacteria.
"Rona, is everything okay there?" Zale asked, "Why did you and the machines stop?"
"I've stumbled upon an ancient battleground. There are hundreds of bodies and crashed ships," Rona said, "the machines said that this is a holy article, so they wont attack."
"Ships?!" Zale said, "Rona! You must find an intact engine for me! If you can send me the schematics for the engine, we can learn how to get places hundreds of times faster than usual."
"Yes, sir."
Rona slowly searched through each mountain of wreckage, looking for an intact engine. With each ship he searched through, he became more sure that he was getting closer.
Although, before he found an intact engine, he found its creator.
As Rona lifted a large metal beam from a pile of wreckage, he saw a cellar like door underneath. As he pulled it open, he noticed that al the Sentinels followed him, including the Monitor.
As he walked inside, the light from the monitor lit the passage in front of him.
"I hope that you do not mean to harm the Huragok, Human impersonator," the monitor said, "because if you do, I will use my Sentinels to slowly disintegrate your flesh."
"I mean them no harm, I would only like to talk to them," Rona said.
"Than I must act as a translator, so that I may keep you in order," Ion said and hovered somewhat faster.
With the monitor showing the path, the light above shrank away, and Rona descended into the darkness below...
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