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Grunt power
Date: 23 September 2007, 4:53 am

Dirt flew out from behind the Warthog as it raced across the battlefield. The Light Reconnaissance Vehicle swerved left and right taking out as many enemy troops as possible.
"Brute Captain at three o'clock!" yelled the jeeps' driver to the gunner who was using the Heavy machine gun mounted on the back of the vehicle.
Bullets poured out of the machine gun, puncturing the hairy alien's ornate helmet causing black blood to spray out of its large head.
"Yeehaw!" crowed the gunner.
The Warthog finally pulled up to the large metal gates of Alpha Base. The meter thick Titanium-A armor creaked open allowing the jeep full of Marines to drive through.

General M. Dawkins surveyed the surviving Marines of Blue team.
"Now, what on Earth are you doing back?" asked the tired General.
The head scout Marine, Lieutenant Pete Riley, stepped forward and gave a quick salute.
"We were doing our routine patrol when a large beam of plasma from a Scarab directly hit the Captains' Hog," replied the Marine "so we hightailed our way back here."
A Scarab, here? Thought the general.
"Sir, should we call for reinforcements? That Scarab can and most likely will cause lots of damage if we don't take it down soon." suggested the Marine Lieutenant.
"True, Comms officer, get me reinforcements on the double," ordered the General "and make sure the reinforcements have a Spartan with them."

Jozz the Grunt waddled through the halls of Alpha base on his way to the mess hall for some food. Two tall Elites lumbered past chatting to each other.
"I heard a Scarab has been spotted." said one.
"Yes, the General has sent for reinforcements, including a Spartan" replied the other.
Nathan thought that a Spartan would have to do all the hard work in the battles, which was perfectly fine with Jozz. Jozz hated fighting, not that he hated killing those that he despised, but he was more concerned about his own survival.
"All Grunts report to the Landing Bay immediately, the Master Chief Petty Officer will be arriving momentarily." said a voice over the loudspeaker.
That didn't sound good to Jozz at all.

The Pelicans' ramp slowly descended allowing Master Chief Petty Officer Adam-042 to step down onto the metal floor of Alpha Base; twenty or so Grunts were standing in the landing bay before him. Little did they know was that two of them were going to aid him in the destruction of the Covenant Loyalists' Scarab.
I'll get straight to the point he thought.
"You two," he said, pointing to two random Grunts "stay here the rest of you, back to your posts."
Eighteen Grunts filed out of the landing bay with sighs of relief, leaving two very nervous comrades trembling in the bay with the powerful Spartan.
"You there, come over here." beckoned Adam.
Both Grunts took careful steps forward.
"You boys are going to aid me in destroying a Scarab," informed Adam "you two will carry a detonation device into the Scarab's cockpit while I cover you, once it's placed we'll get the hell out of there, any questions?"
The shorter of the two slowly raised his hand.
"How do we get in the Scarab Sir?" the diminutive alien asked.
"You'll see." answered Adam with a non visible grin.

On a high cliff overlooking a large valley sat three camouflaged figures, a bulky Spartan and two Grunts named Jozz and Kimla. They were waiting for a giant killing machine. A Scarab.
They had just finished running through the plan when Kimla realized something.
"WHAT!" he squeaked "you're going to make us jump? That's suicide!"
"Do you have any suggestions?" queried Adam.
The small alien went silent.
"I'll jump first and take out most of the guards as quickly as I can," Adam explained "then when I give the all clear signal you guys jump on and get inside that cockpit, Got that?"
Before the Grunts could reply the ground began to rumble. A huge pale purple behemoth lurched into the valley. Jozz suppressed a yelp of fear; Kimla almost fainted, whereas Adam didn't even flinch.
The giant Scarab slowly walked past right under the small attack groups' position. Adam leaped onto the top of the huge machine, landing without a sound; Adam crept around the side of the veranda like structure on the top of the Scarab. He snuck up behind a Brute Minor and broke its neck. The remaining guards under the veranda came over to investigate; they were quickly disposed of by a fragmentation grenade.
Wow, thought Jozz, I'm glad he's on our side.
Adam gave a thumbs up to the two Grunts, the all clear signal, and the short aliens leaped onto the Scarab, taking their detonation device with them.

While Adam readied the detonation device, Kimla drew Jozz aside to talk to him.
"This guy is crazy!" Kimla exclaimed "we are gonna die!"
"I know," Jozz replied "but if we don't help him he'll probably kill us anyway."
The two Grunts waddled back to Adam to check if he'd finished with the bomb.
"You boys ready?" asked Adam.
"Yeah." answered Jozz with a gulp.
Adam directed for the Grunts to walk down into the cockpit and check for enemies. The Grunts obeyed.

Kimla peeked around the corner, having a look for enemies. He gave Jozz the all clear. Jozz motioned for Adam to take the lead and double check the area, Adam carefully stepped around the corner.
Out from a hidden alcove Brute chieftain wielding a gravity hammer bounded for Adam, swing its hammer.
The hammer struck Adam full in the chest, disabling his shield and crushing his ribs as well as his organs. The Spartan went straight into a wall, dead, the bomb rolled away from him. Jozz quickly ducked around the corner, he turned to Jabez.
"Kiml…" he couldn't finish his sentence because Kimla was nowhere to be seen.
That coward, thought Jozz.
A bellow came from around the corner. Jozz quickly peered around the corner and what he couldn't believe what he saw.

The mighty Brute chieftain swung around in circles trying to reach a lone Grunt that had latched onto its back. The Grunt screeched at the hairy beast, taunting it. The large creature picked its gravity hammer up from the ground and swung it attempting to strike the Grunt on its back, the Grunt leaped of just in time as the gravity hammer struck the Brute in the back crushing its own spine and organs. It fell to the floor with a loud thump.
"Kimla?" asked Nathan in disbelief.
"Don't ever let me do that again." said Kimla panting.
"Well seeing as leader is dead, lets blow this thing up ourselves." suggested Jozz.
The Grunts picked up the fallen bomb and attached it to the main controls. They primed it and ran for their lives.

Jozz and Kimla reached the top of the Scarab; they looked for a way off. They saw a few jungle vines hanging from a cliff face a little to their left. They leaped with all their strength, only just making it. They grabbed the vines and climbed up the cliff face.
Just as they reached the top, the bomb inside the Scarab exploded destroying the mighty behemoth and sending shrapnel everywhere.
"Well that's that," said Kimla proudly, but then slumped "oh great now we have to walk all the way back to base."
"Oh well," replied Jozz, Kimla glanced at him with surprise "at least there will be food when we get there."

Every troop in the base had turned up to the ceremony to see two Grunts who had actually been brave.
Jozz and Kimla, two little Grunts had just destroyed a mighty Scarab.
General M. Dawkins gave them each a medal and promoted them to Grunt Ultra for their extreme bravery.
Kimla leaned closer to Jozz.
"You said there would be food as soon as we got back," he whispered "but instead they have promoted us, which means more battles and less likelihood of a long and painless life."
All Jozz could think of was the ceremonial feast after the ceremony.

Hunter vengence: part 1
Date: 29 September 2007, 6:52 am

The thump of large blue boots echoed through the corridor as Jasa Huri Kane the Hunter lurched down toward Alpha Bases entry gate. He had been ordered to help pickup the Scarab pieces in the valley that had now been named Grunt valley, due to the fact that two grunts had destroyed a mighty Scarab in the valley.
"You, Hunter!" growled a gravelly voice from behind him.
The already aggravated Hunter turned around to face his follower. It was an Elite Zealot.
"Where do you think you are going Hunter?" asked the Zealot.
Hoping to scare the Elite, Jasa stood up to his full height and flexed his back spines. It worked; the brave soldier took an almost unnoticeable step backward, but still didn't leave.
"Answer me." ordered the Elite with a slight shake in his voice.
"Going to clean up the Scarab wreckage." Jasa replied with his voice enhancer, which allowed him to speak normally.
"I don't think so," smirked the Elite warrior "follow me."
With a huff of irritation Jasa followed.

Bright light shone in Htas Nathm's eyes as he entered Alpha bases control room, General M. Dawkins was waiting for him and his large and powerful accompaniment.
"Sir." said Htas with a bow. Jasa merely stood right where he was.
"You seem in a particularly fine mood Hunter," said the General with a chuckle "now you boys are here because I want you to do something for me."
"Get to the point." growled Jasa. Htas shot him a glance of shock.
The General looked equally surprised.
"Ok, I want you two boys to investigate a large area of uncharted land." Dawkins explained "it is suspected that a large group of Covenant loyalists have set up camp in the area."
Htas was excited at the news of enemy troops; it had been a long time since he had shown his abilities.
"We shall complete our mission sir." answered Htas with another bow.
"Oh yes, you must also take along with you another Elite, she has a slightly higher rank than you Zealot," added General Dawkins. "You should know her very well."

Jasa was sick and tired of going on scouting missions, although the General hadn't said that he couldn't kill any enemies. He allowed himself a small chuckle.
"What was that Hunter?" asked Lana Karal, the female mate of Htas, who was an Elite Zealot with slightly more power than Htas.
"Nothing ma'am." Jasa lied.
The Phantom slowed down as the troops arrived at a location close to their mission area. The Covenant troops jumped out of the drop ship and the drop ship flew off.
No sooner had the troops landed, a blast from a Wraith tank landed twenty meters away. Jasa couldn't wait to blow those Brute bastards all the way back to High Charity.
"Take cover!" yelled Htas.
Take cover? Thought Jasa, I'll kill these Brutes weather you want me to or not.
Another blob of plasma from the unseen Wraith tank came soaring towards Jasa with great speed. Out from the trees Nathan leaped as fast as the plasma blob soared, Htas tackled Jasa to the ground, moving him away from the plasma blob. The blob struck the ground where Jasa had been a moment ago, Htas and Jasa ran towards the trees where Lana was hiding.
"What were you trying to prove Hunter?" bellowed Htas over the din of more plasma blobs hitting the ground "that you're body made good target practice?"
No one had ever spoken to Jasa like that, even his superiors thought twice before yelling at him.
Stopping the fight, Lana interjected.
"Listen, there's a Wraith out there and all you two can do is try to kill each other!" she said with a glare "now we're going to work like a team and take that Wraith down."
Htas and Jasa nodded.
"Nathan," Laura began "you and I shall distract the Wraith while Hunter you blow it to hell."
They nodded again. Htas and Lana ran beyond the trees where the tank was while Jasa snuck around to the back of the tank. Htas and Lana attracted the tanks attention by firing short precise shots from their plasma rifles.
"Die!" roared Jasa as he charged and fired his fuel rod cannon.
The bright green beam hit the Wraith in the back, its armor held for a second but then crumpled in destroying the Wraith. Shrapnel flew everywhere; one razor edged piece flew straight towards Jasa. This time there was no Htas to push him out of the way so the piece of shrapnel plunged into his unguarded stomach area.
His vision went black.

Jasa awoke. Jungle trees loomed overhead, he tried to sit up but pain shot through him.
"You shouldn't move too much Jasa," spoke a familiar gravelly voice "that wound is pretty big."
It was Htas, Htas was sitting on top of a rock off to Jasa' left next to Lana.
"I'll be fine…….wait, how did you know my name?" asked Jasa puzzled.
"I've just been looking through your military record, that stunt you pulled off on Harvest was pretty risky." Htas replied.
"I was angry," Jasa growled "my bond brother was killed by a Brute Chieftain called Gazton, he got away."
"You may be tough, but that wound will keep you down for awhile." said Lana changing the subject.
Jasa stood up, ignoring the pain. He began too walk off into the jungle to think when suddenly five Brutes, four minors and one captain, leaped out from the foliage.
"Take out the Elites," the captain ordered "I'll eliminate the Hunter."
The captain bounded for Jasa. In no mood for trouble Jasa swung his heavy shield straight at the captain. The metal shield made contact with the Brutes' midsection, with great force the Brute went sprawling. Jasa turned and bought his fuel rod cannon to bear. He charged it and fired, sending the plasma straight through minors' legs; letting black blood spill over the jungle floor.
The remaining three Brutes, seeing their captain down, began to run. Jasa picked up the fallen captain and threw it at the runaways. They toppled down, and then were finished off by a plasma grenade from Lana.
"Well done Jasa," congratulated Laura "now lets finish this mission."

Lana was sneaking from tree to avoid any more Brute ambushes, Htas was keeping up but Jasa was having a little trouble with his wound.
"Try to keep up." she said.
Jasa growled in irritation.
The group reached the edge of the jungle, and spread out over the clearing a head of them were thousands of brutes surrounding a large temple. For some reason they were unarmed.
"Ok team," Lana began "we'll have to take all of them out if we want to find out what that temple is."
Jasa chuckled out the idea of mass killing Brutes.
"Are we going to go in guns blazing?" asked Htas "or take them out one by one?"
"In a way both." Lana answered. Jasa looked at her in confusion.
"Htas and I will concentrate on one Brute at a time, whereas Jasa you'll blow your way through anything that gets in your way."
Jasa chuckled again.

The group lunged out of the jungle, plasma rifles blazing. Plus one very trigger happy Hunter.
Three ghosts came screaming around the temple towards the group. Htas and Lana dodged the speeding vehicles, but Jasa put his shield down and braced himself. The Ghost smashed into the shield and its driver flew out of its seat; head over heels. Jasa picked up the ghost and threw it at two advancing Brutes, a sharp edge of one of their armor pads scraped against the fuel tank and the Ghost exploded in a fiery blast.
Htas and Lana had boarded a Ghost each and began to mow down more Brutes with their new, stronger weapons.
A Brute chieftain emerged from the temple and surveyed the destruction which was being brought upon his troops; it gave a great roar of rage which made Jasa stop in his tracks.
"What are you stopping for?" asked Htas over the comm. channel as the Brute ran back into the temple.
"That was……." Jasa paused then continued "was Gazton!"

To be continued.

Hunters vengenge: part 2
Date: 7 October 2007, 5:33 am

Jasa lumbered with surprising speed towards the temple doors.
"Stop!" growled Htas over the comm. "Get back here!"
Jasa reluctantly stopped; he spun around to see if there was a good reason for Htas stopping him.
Htas was surrounded by five Brute minors who were unarmed but closing in fast. Jasa charged his fuel rod cannon and sent a green beam of destruction towards the Brutes. Two of the hairy aliens were vaporized immediately; the remaining three whirled around and charged towards Jasa.
Jasa reached out with one arm and wrapped his claws around the closet Brutes throat, a loud snap was heard; and then the Brute went limp. A plasma grenade came soaring towards Jasa' position, Jasa rolled to his right and the grenade detonated harmlessly.
The still remaining Brutes tried to overwhelm Jasa, pounding their fists upon his dark blue amour.
"Nice try." Jasa muttered, he swung his razor sharp back spines which cut the Brutes in two.
Once the Brutes were down he started towards the temple again. Htas and Lana stepped in front of Jasa, blocking his path.
"Out of the way Elites, I must avenge my brother." growled Jasa.
"We don't know what's in there," said Lana "And you want to just barge in and expect to win?"
Jasa merely emitted a long frustrated growl. He knew that Lana was right; he had wanted to avenge his bond brother so badly that he had almost run into enemy territory with no Intel.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" asked Jasa giving in.
"We go in," Lana replied, then chuckled "but we do it assassin style."

Three camouflaged figures crept through the front doors of the temple. The Brute guards were quickly disposed of; the bodies were shoved inside a weapons crate.
"Camo's about to wear off." whispered Jasa over the comm. with a little relief in his voice; he didn't like all this sneaking around.
"Okay, take cover." ordered Htas.
They hid behind a large ornate gravity pedestal. The active camo wore off and the three soldier's forms became visible.
"Where are the guards?" came a deep official voice from atop the pedestal. It was a Prophet.
"I do not know High Prophet of Power, but I shall find out." answered the screechy tone of Jackal.
Five Jackals leaped off of the gravity pedestal, they landed a meter in front of Jasa, Lana and Htas but didn't see them.

"Even so I'm calling for pickup, the Holy artifact cannot be kept her much longer." stated the Prophet.
The sound of the gravity lift activating filled the chamber as the Prophet rose up into a higher room. The Jackals began to walk forward in search of the Brute guards. Htas nodded to Jasa.
Jasa lifted his shield so he could crush the Jackal search party. One of the Jackals saw the hulky Hunters shadow and screeched; the other Jackals immediately turned around and fired clumsy shots.
Htas and Lana answered back with a salvo of plasma rifle fire; two of the five Jackals fell. The rest screamed and spun around to run away, they were instantly vaporized by a shot from Jasa.
"So now there's a Prophet here?" queried Htas "what's next, a Drinol?"
"We need to get up there and take him out before he can escape." suggested Jasa.
"Are you talking about the Prophet or Gazton?" asked Htas with a hint of suspicion in his tone.
"Either suits me." Jasa answered coldly.

Fleet Admiral Alicia looked out through the view port of her UNSC Flagship Thors' Hammer. Seven battle clusters of Super Orbital MAC guns orbited the planet below. Alicia had just received word that a small strike team had been sent to a likely enemy base down on the planet surface and was told to expect Covenant reinforcements to arrive to aid the planet side troops.
"Ma'am" said Admiral Jesse Hannam "a Covenant message has been intercepted from the planets surface, it asks for a Prophet to be picked up and for some 'Holy artifact' to be moved to a more secure location."
"Well then I suggest we get ready for a space battle," replied Alicia "Admiral, I want this ship ready to fight five minutes ago!"
"Yes ma'am!" Jesse saluted then ran to his station.

Jasa, Htas and Lana ascended into the higher chambers of the temple using the gravity pedestal. Some Brute guards awaited them but were easily gotten rid of. They made their way through cramped hallways and large chambers, encountering large resistance including twelve Brute Captains on shielded plasma turrets.
They approached a large metal door at the end of a long corridor. It automatically opened as they strode towards it.
Bright light shone through, but it wasn't natural light. The light was emitted from eight giant lamps suspended from the ceiling. In the center of the room sitting on his Imperial Throne was the High Prophet of Power.
"Intruder?" yelled the surprised Prophet "guards! Kill them immediately, I shall go to the platform and await pickup."
Twenty Brutes in Honor Guard uniforms immediately fired their weapons at the two Elites and their Hunter friend.
"Fire at will!" ordered Lana.
Htas and Jasa happily obliged.
Plasma fire echoed throughout the chamber, scorching the ground with hundreds of marks. Jasa fired another salvo of cannon fire straight at a Brutes head, the hairy alien fell headless to the ground.
Htas and Lana ducked and dodged incoming fire, and in return sent grenade after grenade into enemy lines. One particular grenade landed on the muzzle of a brute shot, the Brute roared with rage but was quickly silenced. The nineteenth Brute was killed by a crushing blow from Jasa' shield. The last Honor guard dropped its rifle, roared with rage and charged towards Htas in blind rage.
"Bring it on!" growled Htas.
At the last moment Htas rolled to his left. The charging Brute didn't stop and connected with the chamber wall, it crushed its own skull on the thick wall.
"Well well well, what have we here?" asked a deep, booming voice from the end of the chamber.
Jasa looked up and was instantly filled with rage. It was Gazton.

Htas looked up from the kamikaze Brute to see who had spoken. It was a Brute in shining gold armor and wielded a large gravity hammer.
"You look familiar," the Brute pointed to Jasa, and then laughed.
"What's so funny?" asked Jasa with malice in his voice.
"I remember you," The Brute answered "you're that Hunter that was on Harvest, the one that tried to avenge your pathetic bond brother."
Jasa flexed his back spines in obvious anger.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you." warned Htas "This Hunter has been waiting a long time to exact his revenge, don't push him.'
"Stay out of this Htas," roared Jasa "this is for you brother!!!"
Jasa lunged towards Gazton, the floor shook with each step. Gazton merely laughed and sidestepped out of the way, Jasa gave a roar of rage and began another charge.
"If your going to try and kill me," taunted Gazton "at least use more skill than your pathetic bond brother did!"
Htas thought that if Jasa' wasn't so angry he could easily take Gazton down, but he was to full of rage. Jasa jumped through the air and landed directly in front of Gazton, Gazton looked genuinely surprised because Hunters have never been known to take giant leaps through the air.
Jasa landed with a loud thump, the ground shook from Jasa' tremendous weight. He swung his shield but Gazton caught it with his mighty hand and threw Jasa across the chamber into a wall. The wall cracked.
Htas brought his rifle to bear.
"No!" screamed Jasa "he's mine!"
Htas reluctantly lowered his rifle and continued to watch the fight.
Gazton gave a roar and began to charge towards Jasa' prone form.
Jasa lifted his shield to defend himself; Gazton connected with the heavy alloy and was momentarily stunned.
Jasa saw his opening and opened fire on the stunned Brute Chieftain. The plasma beam ate straight through Gazton's armor and burned his lower torso off.
"Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" he roared.
Jasa walked over to the dying alien and placed his boot upon the Brutes head.
"Victory is mine." Jasa whispered. He lifted his boot a centimeter up then brought it crashing down upon Gazton's head; the helmet held for a few seconds then turned to dust, as well as Gazton's skull.

Power floated through the temple halls towards the landing platform. He came upon the platform doors, they silently slid open. The platform was completely deserted aside from a few Engineers working on a damaged Banshee.
'Where is my ship?" he mused.

"Ma'am, multiple slipspace ruptures off our starboard side!" exclaimed Admiral Jesse Hannam.
Fleet Admiral Alicia turned towards the comm. officer.
"Bring the Ares and Athena around and have them fire their MAC rounds towards their lead Capitol ship." she ordered.
"Yes ma'am," the officer obeyed "Ares and Athena firing Mac rounds in ten."
Alicia looked out the view port and saw ten Covenant Loyalist Cruisers appear in orbit around the planet. Two immediately peeled off towards the surface, before Alicia could order an attack the rest of the Covenant fleet fired a salvo of plasma torpedoes.
The torpedoes struck the lower half of the Ares, however the shielding on the powerful UNSC ship held. Then both the Ares and Athena fired their MAC rounds at what appeared to be the lead ship. The huge heavy rounds connected with the Covenant ships bow, the shielding shimmed silver then faded. The rest of the rounds hit the bare metal of the ship and sent the ship spinning, dead in space.
"Fire all our Archer missile pods from our first and second cannons; I want those other Covvie ships shields gone before they can go planetside!" Alicia ordered.
"But ma'am," Jesse advised "that'll leave us with no ammo for at least five minutes."
Alicia shot him a piercing look.
"If you don't start the firing mechanism I'll personally replace your seat cushion with a Lotus Antitank mine," she threatened "besides the Orbital MAC guns will keep them busy until we can reload."
Jesse rapidly typed commands into his stations computer.
Muffled thumps came from outside Thors Hammer; the Archer missile pods firing. Leaving white trails of smoke behind them, the missiles flew in groups towards the enemy ships. Enemy Seraph fighters tried to defend their capitol ships by using themselves as shields, but the missiles had been programmed to evade anything smaller than a drop ship.
The missiles impacted on several Capitol ships. The sheer number of missiles forced all of the shields to disappear. The orbital MAC rounds fired their first salvo into the battle, five of the enemy ships were decimated instantly.
"Keep it up; I don't want a single ship getting through!" Alicia yelled.
"Too late," corrected one of the bridge crew "one just destroyed one of the orbital MAC guns and has made a landing in a small area on the planet."
Alicia cursed under her breath.
"When it gets back up here I want it given a one way ticket to Hell!"

Jasa wiped the bottom of his boot on the breastplate of Gaztons armor.
"Okay what now?" asked Lana.
"We need to find that Prophet and take him out." suggested Htas.
"Okay, let's move," commanded Lana "Jasa you take point and take out whatever gets in your way."
"With pleasure." answered Jasa already making his way towards the door.
The squad moved through the temple towards the platform as quickly as possible. Surprisingly the encountered only a few Jackal patrols and Engineers, the Jackals were easily dispatched.
They arrived at the platform doors. They carefully approached the metal doors, it opened.
They were immediately under attack from several Brute Minors, the group dove behind a recently fixed Banshee. Lana primed a grenade and threw it up and over the Banshee. It exploded, killing all seven Brutes in a blinding flash.
They came out form their cover just as the Prophet of Power was about to board the only docked Phantom which was about to take off and go to a Covenant cruiser a few miles away. Htas sprinted across the platform and blocked the Prophets path. He pulled out an energy sword and pointed it towards the Prophets throat.
"Care to give us a ride?" Htas asked with a grin.

Spartan, Holy Writings: part 1
Date: 13 October 2007, 12:56 am

The staccato sound of an automatic weapons fire echoed over the large clearing.
"Three Brutes on our six!" exclaimed SPARTAN-099 Marina.
"They're surrounding us!" added SPARTAN-006 Nathan.
SPARTAN-025 Jabez spun around and fired his MA5C assault rifle at three very ugly aliens; purple-black blood spattered the clearings ground as the 7.2mm rounds penetrated armor, flesh and bone.
A bright pink crystalline needle round came out of nowhere and bounced off Marina's shields, Marina turned to her left and fired a controlled burst of bullets into the shadow of a twisted tree and was rewarded by a cry of pain form a vulture like Jackal. There was only five enemies left in the valley, but even so the enemies were heavily armed with fuel rod cannons. A large green blob of plasma soared through the air towards the three Spartans position; the Spartans rolled in three different directions.
Nathan stood up from his roll and fired his sniper rifle at the lead Brutes' forehead, the high velocity 14mm round made the hairy aliens head explode in a gory spectacle.
"The leader is dead!?" announced a shocked Brute minor.
The lead Brutes' fallen cannon exploded from an assault rifle bullet; sending the remaining Brutes to their deaths.
Jabez activated his comm. device "General Dawkins?"
"Let's here it son, have you found the squad we sent in earlier?" the general asked.
"No sir," replied Jabez "but we have found traces of a battle in the jungle and outside a temple which we've located."
"Hmm…inspect that temple, they might be inside."
"Yes sir," Jabez turned to his team "you heard the general, let's move!"

The Spartans made their inside the temple, they found numerous blood splatters but no bodies.
Over the comm. a gravelly voice spoke "General Dawkins?"
"Yes?" replied Dawkins, Jabez and his team of Spartans were very interested to find out who this new person was.
"This is Htas Nathm, my team and I have located Power and are about to hitch a ride to his nearby cruiser, permission to proceed."
A full five seconds past until General Dawkins replied "Allow the team of Spartans in your vicinity to catch up to you then you may proceed."
"Yes sir." obeyed Htas with slight irritation in his voice.
The Spartans made their way to the landing platform with speed and stealth in case of any remaining Brutes, but the carnage left behind by the previous team allowed no interruptions. They reached the landing platform and were greeted by two golden armored Elites and a very impatient looking Hunter, a robed Prophet floated on his chair beside the alien team with a sword to his throat.
"This scum has let us borrow his Phantom back to the cruiser," informed the male Elite "it'll be a tight fit with all of us in there so Jasa, watch where your spines are going."

The Covenant Loyalist Phantom pulled away from the platform with Lana at the controls, Jabez was inspecting a strange object that Htas had taken from the now hog tied Prophet of Power.
"What is this thing?" asked Jabez looking in Powers' direction. The Prophet spat out the gag in his mouth and began to speak.
"Something that would've helped me rid the galaxy of you vermin." he said with a snarl.
Marina jabbed the barrel of her weapon into Powers' forehead and said "How about being a little more specific."
"It would have allowed us to upgrade our technology ten fold, but now in the hands of you barbarians it will have little use." the Prophet glared at the Spartans and aliens in the cargo hold of the Phantom.
"I doubt that," said Nathan "our ONI spooks should find some use for it."
Over the ships intercom Lana's' voice announced that ships soon arrival to the cruiser. "ETA two minutes."
"Get ready boys and girls they'll have a warm reception for us." Jabez exclaimed.

Daz the Jackal lazily made his patrol of the cruisers landing bay.
"The High Prophets' Phantom is on its way, make ready for arrival." boomed a voice over the cruisers intercom.
Daz saw fifty Brute Honor guards line up in two separate rows in the bay followed by sixty of his fellow Jackals in shiny armor. A purple Phantom with ornate patterns on it flew smoothly into the bay. Daz was astonished to see the Phantoms plasma turrets turn toward the lines of troops, cutting down Brutes and jackals alike.
Daz made a mad dash towards the alarm but was quickly cut down by a hail of bullets.

"That little bastard almost sounded the alarm," Jabez sighed "good shooting Marina."
Marina made the 'Spartan smile' on her faceplate, and then Jasa and Htas burned through the last few enemies in the hanger bay. Jasa kicked a dead jackal in the head.
'Lana, think you can keep the ship warm for us in case we need a quick escape?" asked Htas over the comm.
"Can do." she replied.
"Nathan and Jasa you two stay here and make sure that Power doesn't try to escape."
Jasa lumbered back towards the ship followed by Nathan. Jabez lead his team to the hanger bay entry door, he motioned Htas to open it. The door silently slid open to reveal a search-and-destroy-party of Brutes, one of them roared an order then the rest of the pack opened fire.
Jabez returned fire and took out a Brute who was still a little surprised to find a team of enemies beyond the door. Lana, still watching in the Phantom, fired the plasma turrets on the belly of her ship and cut down the rest of the Brutes.
"Thanks Lana." said Jabez waving back to the ship.
The team continued through the purple corridors of the cruiser to get to the bridge. The ship suddenly shook with tremendous force and Htas was knocked off his feet.
"What the hell was that?" asked Htas, Marina helped him off the floor. Jabez had a pretty good idea what it was.
"Contacting any UNSC ships in the area this is Spartan oh-two-five," announced Jabez over the comm. "cease all fire on the cruiser, my team and I are aboard, I repeat cease fire!"
A burst of static came over the comm. but the other voice was still clear, a sweet but official female voice said "This is Fleet Admiral Alicia, don't worry Spartan, it was just an EMP charge to shut down their engines so the Covvie bastards can't run off; Dawkins let me know of your little expedition."
"Okay ma'am." answered Jabez, the team continued towards the bridge.
The bridge door came into view when they turned around a corner after a quick firefight. The bridge doors slid open to reveal very poorly defended bridge, five Brutes and several Engineers making repairs to damaged instrument panels. But standing on the elevated pad overlooking the rest of the bridge was a Brute clad in jet black armor and wielding a large gravity hammer.
Marina and Htas opened fire on the Brutes and instantly killed three of the surprised beasts. The black armored Brute jumped down from the pad and swung his hammer at Marina, she rolled off to the side but the hammer sent a pulse of energy at her and sent her smashing into a wall. She lay on the floor unconscious.
"No!" yelled Jabez.
He leaped across the room and landed next to the large alien. In rage he swung his fist at the Brutes chest, it connected and made a loud clang but the Brute merely laughed and sent his armored knee into Jabez's stomach.
Jabez keeled over and felt like he was about to be sick when he saw the large shadow of the brute loom over him. It lifted its foot about to crush the Spartan but Jabez rolled to the side just in time to avoid being turned into a bloody mess on the floor. He stood up and dodged another blow from the amused alien.
Htas had finished disposing of the other Brutes and brought his plasma rifle to bear on the black clad Brutes' large form, plasma fire spewed out of the alien weapon and splashed over the Brutes' shields. With his attention elsewhere Jabez grabbed the distracted Brutes' gravity hammer and swung it straight into the aliens' midsection, its shields flickered then failed. Jabez swung again but this time at its head, the large helmet cracked then shattered then the large ugly head of the Brute disconnected from its shoulders and flew to the other end of the room. The decapitated body fell to the floor with a loud thump.
"Htas go to the navigation controls and find out where this ships has been, maybe we'll find out where the main base for these guys is located," he ordered, then added "I'll see to marina."
Htas went to work and Jabez checked Marina's vital signs. She was fine, unconscious but fine. He lifted her up and put her up on his shoulders then looked over to Htas.
"Any luck?" he asked.
"One moment please," replied Htas, moments later he let out a roar of triumph "I've found the location of the main base, not sure where these coordinates are but I found them."
"Excellent, HIGHCOM will be happy to get these findings including the artifact we got from Power," Jabez exclaimed "load those coordinates to a data crystal then we'll take this entire load of stuff home."
The bridge door opened and five Brute captains filed in with brute shots in the large hands.
Jabez opened fire.

7.2mm rounds found their targets but bounced off thick armor, in return brute shot grenades flew towards the Spartan and his still unconscious teammate. Htas pulled out his energy sword, leaped across the room and plunged his weapon into a captains' torso. The mighty alien fell in an instant. The other captains turned to the Elite and sent a hail of grenades in his direction, but Htas was two quick. He dodged the grenades and swung his sword at the nearest Brute, cutting it in two and littering the floor with intestines.
Meanwhile Jabez had put Marina gently down behind a weapons crate, picked up her fallen rifle and charged towards the enemies. He held a rifle in each hand and sent a wave of bullets into a Brutes unguarded throat sending blood squirting into another Brutes' eyes; stunning it. Both Jabez and Nathan took the advantage and took down the Brute with bullets and plasma fire.
The final brute dropped his weapon and charged at Htas. Htas jumped over the Brute and simultaneously ignited a plasma grenade. He dropped it on the Brute and it fused to its hairy body then exploded; vaporizing the Brute.
Jabez picked up Marina and motioned Htas to take point. Htas lead the way back to the hanger.

The three reached the hanger and found the Phantom with a few plasma scorches on it and several dead Brutes around it. Nathan walked out of the cargo hold holding his arm where a stray needler round had got through his shields.
"Have fun?" he joked, then saw Marina on Jabez' shoulder "is she ok?"
"She'll be fine, just unconscious," Jabez replied "now let's get outta here."

On the way back to Thors Hammer Jabez explained to the rest of the team and, over the comm., to the Fleet Admiral of Htas' find of the Covenant Loyalists main bases coordinates.
"Excellent." exclaimed Fleet Admiral Alicia.
"That's what I said." said Jabez with a laugh.
Jasa looked at Jabez then asked "So, we're going to go there and blow it up?"
"That's basically the plan." answered Alicia over the comm.
"Sounds like fun." replied Jasa with a chuckle.
The now conscious Marina gave Jabez a 'Spartan smile', which he returned a rare bare smile because his helmet was off.
"Okay, get yourselves back here and get ready for your next mission," ordered Alicia "I think you're going to like it."
"What will it be?" asked Lana.
"Exactly what we were discussing before," she answered "destroying the Covenant Loyalist main base."
The team let out a yell of excitement.

To be continued

Spartan Holy Writings: part 2
Date: 20 October 2007, 5:49 am

The captured Phantom landed in the UNSC's flagship Thors Hammer within minutes of leaving the Covenant Loyalist cruiser. On the bridge stood six troops each standing at rigid attention, except for a large dark blue armored armor.
"Spartans, Elites and Hunter," began Fleet Admiral Alicia "your recent mission has proven you worthy of an even more difficult mission."
"You and a team of your choice will take two frigates back to the enemies' home base then report back on its defenses."
"Yes ma'am!" answered the irregular team.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" barked Alicia "Get ready!"
The team made their way to the armory for equipment.

Before he got to the armory Jabez bumped into an ONI officer, who dropped his data pad that he was looking at.
"Watch where you're…..oh a Spartan." stammered the young officer.
The heavily armored Spartan stared blankly at the ONI officer.
"Are you SPARTAN-025?" asked the officer suddenly.
"Yes, that's me." replied Jabez.
"Ah then this is for you," the officer handed the data pad to Jabez "I was ordered to give it to you so you can record everything you find at the enemies' home base."
"Okay then." Jabez continued his walk down to the armory.
He accessed the panel on the doorway and walked into the armory, he found the rest of his team picking up weapons and ammo for the upcoming mission. But what caught his eye was that a newcomer was sitting in the corner cleaning a sniper with a rag.
"What's your name soldier?" asked Jabez.
"Sorry Jabez forgot to tell you," said Nathan walking up to him "this is Laura I requested her to come on this mission; she's a better shot than me with a sniper."
"I'll need to see it to believe it, welcome to the team Laura." said Jabez extending his hand for a handshake. She took his hand and shook it.
"Status report." asked Jabez once he'd finished the handshake.
"Everyone is just about ready," answered Marina "only I can't find the rocket launcher, damn it where has it gone?"
Htas walked over, lifted the lid of a crate and pulled out a launcher and handed it to Marina.
"Oh, there it is."

Jabez was grabbing some spare ammo when his comm. device activated.
"SPARTAN-025 here." he spoke into the comm..
"This is Admiral Jesse here," spoke the voice on the other voice "HIGHCOM has just told us that because of the artifact that you took from Power, they want you and your team of Spartans to go down into the enemy base and find any other artifacts that they plan to use."
"Yes, but what about the rest of my team, Htas and the others?"
"They'll stay back and pilot the Frigates and cover your entry into the enemy base." the Admiral replied.
"Okay."

The two Frigates, Eagles Talon and Black Diamond, separated themselves from the Fleet and began Slipspace preparations; piloted each by an Elite Zealot named Lana and Htas.
In one of the landing bays a Pelican dropship was being loaded up with ammo and supplies for four Spartans. Each Spartan was carrying the weapon that they were greatest skill in using.
Marina held a Jackhammer rocket launcher and put spare rockets into the Pelicans cargo hold.
Nathan carried a Beam rifle which had been given to him by a Spec ops Elite before their departure.
The newest member Laura carried her precious sniper rifle and put an entire crate of 14mm rounds into the ship.
Jabez carried a standard MA5C assault rifle and on his back a battle rifle for long range attacks.
"Slipspace transition in five minutes, so hold on." said Htas over the ships comm.
The Spartans secured their supplies into the Pelican then grabbed a handhold.

A blue light appeared in front of both Frigates and widened so the two ships could pass thorough. Each ship slowly went through the holes and into the realm of nothingness called Slipspace.

"ETA to enemy base ten minutes." said Htas over the Frigates intercom.

Ten minutes later the two Frigates pulled out of Slipspace over a large grey planet, but it was the fifteen Covenant Loyalist Super Carriers that caught Htas' eyes.
"Take evasive action!" he barked to the navigation officer, and then he turned to the weapons officer "fire the MAC gun at the lead Super Carrier."
"Yes shipmaster!" the two Elite officers obeyed and went to their tasks.
Htas activated his ship to ship comm. and said "Lana, I'm going for the lead Carrier you take out anything that get within range."
Htas looked out his viewport and saw Lana's' ship, the Eagles Talon, launch three MAC rounds from the under belly of the ship. Each round connected with a different Super Carrier and their shields flickered and failed. Lana luached another three rounds and each MAC round found its target. All three ships span out, dead in space.
Htas felt a rumble from his ship and saw three MAC rounds from his ship and connect with the lead Super Carrier; all three rounds connected with the ships bow and sent it spinning off into space. Htas activated the ships intercom.
"Spartans take your pelican and some Longsword escorts and get down to the planets surface!" he barked.
"Okay," Jabez replied, then added to his team "okay let's mosey!"

The Pelican piloted by Nathan lifted out of the Black Diamonds landing bay followed by four Longsword bombers. The Pelican dolled to the left as a beam of plasma from a nearby Super Carrier flew past, the beam took out one of the Longswords in a fiery explosion.
"Get a move on Nathan," Jabez ordered "we're losing fighters!"
"Yes sir." Nathan replied and the ship lurched to the right as another beam of plasma attempted to destroy their craft. Three Seraph fighters zoomed out of a Super Carriers' bay straight towards the Pelican and its escorts.
"We'll take them out," barked the Longswords' lead pilot "you Spartans haul ass down to the surface!"
"Thanks marine," Jabez replied to the pilot "Nathan, you heard the man haul ass!"
The Pelican dove towards the surface of the planet and within minutes the Pelican touched down on the rocky surface about a mile away from a large structure which Nathan had guessed to be the main base.
The team of Spartans picked up their gear and made their way to the large structure. Laura was on point, she suddenly held up her hand, motioning for the team to stop.
Each Spartan hid behind a large boulder each; waiting for Laura to give the all clear. The sound from a silenced sniper was only just heard, a moment later Laura gave the all clear.
The Spartans made their way down a slope and saw three Jackals lying on their sides with a hole in their temples.
Jabez whispered to Nathan "You were right, three headshots with one bullet is good."
"Told you so." Nathan replied with a chuckle.
A few patrols were encountered but were expertly taken out by Laura's sniping.
They came upon a large gate made of an unknown alloy and was guarded by three Wraiths. Jabez had to make a plan quickly before he and his team were vaporized.
"Laura and Nathan, take out the secondary gunners sitting on top of the Wraiths," he began "Marina blow holes in them with a few jackhammer rockets while I sneak up on one and give him a frag grenade up his tailpipe."
Laura and Nathan moved off to the left so that they could get a better angle on the gunners, Marina kneeled down and loaded two rockets into her launcher while Jabez moved off to the right so he could give the Wraith his gift.

Laura aimed carefully with her sniper. She had to make her first shot count otherwise the other Wraith gunners would quickly spot her and fire.
She rested her forefinger on the trigger, carefully aimed at a Brutes temple and fired. The bullet flew straight and true, it penetrated the Brutes armor and then its skull; killing it instantly.
Nathan fired his weapon and destroyed a Brutes power armor; he followed up with a second shot and finished the Brute off. The final Brute gunner was still blissfully unaware of his comrades' deaths; he paid for his ignorance with a bullet from Laura's and Nathan's weapon. He slumped into his seat; dead.

Marina saw the final Brute die and then she opened fire. One rocket connected with A Wraiths mortar gun making it unable to return fire. The second rocket connected with the Wraiths cockpit. The Wraith exploded sending enough shrapnel into the second Wraith to make it explode.
"Damn I'm good." whispered Marina.

Jabez silently crept up behind the third Wraith; he pulled himself up onto the back of the Wraith. An explosion went off to his right. Marina he thought.
He pulled his arm back, and then punched the back armor of the purple behemoth; the armor dented.
The pilot was now aware off the Spartan on its back. The Wraith spun in circles in a vain attempt to shake Jabez off. Jabez punched the Wraith a few more times until the back armor had a hole in it. He primed a grenade and shoved it through the hole he had just made. He leaped off the machine and rolled, the alien tank exploded from within. Jabez called the rest of his team over and congratulated them on their work. After the congratulatory session the Spartans made their way around the wall until they found an entrance into the structure.
"I wonder why the Covenant doesn't have as much defenses as you'd think they'd have." said Marina.
"Yeah," agreed Nathan "for a Home Base its pretty badly defended."
A large explosion went off behind the team. They rolled close to the wall.
"What was that?" asked Jabez looking around for where the explosion had come from.
Another explosion went off to their right. Jabez saw in the distance five anti aircraft Wraiths.
"Find and entrance!" ordered Jabez "we can't take on that many Wraiths!"
The Spartans ran as quickly as they could, explosions going off behind them. The soon found a large metal gate, a control panel was mounted on the wall next to it.
"How are we going to get in?" asked Nathan.
"Like this." replied Laura.
Laura stood directly in front of the panel and stared defiantly at the Wraiths. The Anti aircraft Wraiths turned to her and let loose a barrage of plasma. At the last moment Laura rolled out of the way, allowing the plasma blasts to smash into the panel.
The plasma made the panel short circuit, making the gates slowly swing open.
"Well done." said Jabez as he and his team ran through the gates and into the enemy stronghold.

Brute Chieftain Huktan kneeled before the High Prophet of Vengeance.
"My lord," said the Chieftain "four intruders have made their way inside the base, what should we do?"
"Send all of your troops to engage them," replied the the Prophet who was sitting atop his floating chair "they mustn't be allowed to attain the Holy Writings."
"Of course my lord." answered Huktan, with a bow he left to amass his army.

The large structure lay ahead of the Spartans, a large spire almost blocked out the sunlight.
"Where is everybody?" asked Marina "where's our welcome party?"
"I don't know," answered Jabez while looking around for any other movement "but be careful you never know when they'll strike."
Just as he finished his sentence the ground began to rumble. Jabez looked at the structure before him. A large door at its base opened and let out a flood of Ghosts, Prowlers and Wraiths.
"Oh shit!" exclaimed Nathan.
The oncoming wave of vehicles opened fire.

To be continued

Spartan Holy Writings: part 3
Date: 20 October 2007, 5:52 am

The wave of vehicles charged forward. Jabez and his team took cover behind some nearby rocks and reloaded their weapons.
"Marina!" yelled Jabez over the din of the Covenant vehicles "give them rockets in their faces!'
"Yes sir." she answered. Two 100mm rockets flew toward a line of Ghosts.
The lead Ghost attempted to swerve to the right but was too slow; the rockets connected with the fuel tank on the side of the Ghost; the Ghost exploded in a blue flame and took out a few others with it.
"Jabez," said Nathan "Marina is going to run out of rockets soon, we need to take out the Wraiths."
"Okay," replied Jabez "Nathan kill the secondary gunners like last time, Laura use your sniper to hit the fuel tanks on the Ghosts while Marina and I give the Wraiths a hail of bullets which will hopefully make them retreat a little, then I'll call for reinforcements."
The Spartans acted immediately. Nathan shot down gunner after gunner and Laura destroyed a whole line of Ghost by shooting their fuel tanks. Jabez handed Marina his battle rifle so that she didn't wastes her rockets then she and Jabez sent hundreds of 7.2mm armor piercing rounds at the Wraith tanks.
The tanks backed up enough so that the Marina and Jabez were out of range.
Jabez activated his comm. and spoke directly Lana.
"Lana, could you send a few Longswords down and get them to bomb the area, I'll send the coordinates."
"Okay," said Lana after a minute "they'll be there in five minutes."

After five minutes of keeping the Prowlers, Wraiths and the few remaining Ghosts at bay; three Longsword bombers descended from the sky and dropped twenty highly deadly bombs onto the Covenant troops.
After one more pass the bombers flew up into the sky and the battle field went silent. Jabez peeked around his cover and saw a very welcomed view.
Hundreds of Ghosts, Prowlers and Wraiths lay in pieces across the field. Brute corpses littered the ground; some where still twitching and missing half their bodies.
"Thanks Lana." said Jabez over the comm. "let's go team, into that building."

Brute captain Tazdal dropped the head of Huktan before the High Prophet of Vengeance.
"My lord," boomed the Brute "Huktan has failed."
"Hmm…" mused Vengeance "then you shall defend the Holy Writings, Chieftain."
"It will be an honor my lord." replied Tazdal with a grin.

The entryway was heavily defended by ten Brutes and six Jackals.
"Laura?" asked Jabez.
"Yes Jabez." answered Laura getting Jabez' hint.
Laura sighted through her scope and swiftly killed all but one of the guards; the last Brute looked around to find the killer of his comrades. He was soon gunned down by Jabez' assault rifle.
The Spartans opened the door and walked into the immense building. The main hall was large and ornate, ancient carvings of battles covered the wall. The Spartans crept quietly to the elevator at the end of the hall, the walked into the elevator and the lift immediately ascended into the higher reaches of the building.
The lift came to a stop and the door opened to reveal six Brutes with portable plasma turrets and led by a Brute Chieftain carrying a gravity hammer.

Tazdal roared a battle cry then ordered his Brutes to attack; plasma fire flew into the elevator, the enemies dodged to the sides, out a harms way.
"Plasma grenades," bellowed Tazdal "vaporize their pitiful bodies!"
The Brutes under his command dropped their weapons and threw blue grenades into the elevator.

Jabez and his Spartans pushed their hands against the walls so that they could stay 'on' the ceiling. Six plasma grenades landed on the floor below and detonated harmlessly.
"We need a plan; we can't sit up here forever." Jabez whispered to himself.
"Watch this." Marina said with a chuckle.

Tazdal gripped his hammer and waited for four armored bosies to collapse in the elevator. Instead one enemie dropped down from the ceiling of the elevator, it primed a spike grenade, most likely commandeered from the bodie of one of Tazdals bodies, and threw it towards Tazdal. The sharp spikes stuck into Tazdals armor.
Moments later it exploded and Tazdal was sent to the same place as his predecessor.

Marina saw the Brute Chieftain explode and send armor fragments fly into the heads of the other Brutes; they fell to the floor bleeding from their scalps.
Marina called up to the rest of the Spartans "Okay, that's that, lets go."

Further into the building the Spartans went until they came upon a huge ornate door. A control panel was sitting on a pedestal to the right of the door. Nathan walked over to it and activated it, the doors opened slowly and silently.
When the door had finished opening the Spartans walked through into a room which was decorated with bright lights and large tapestries displaying pictures of a woman showing her palm which had inscriptions on it.
Jabez felt a stinging pain on his back on he fell to the floor.
"Demons," said a low voice from the back of the room "you dare to enter the sanctuary of the Holy Writings?"
The voice had originated from a crimson robed Prophet, its large headdress just barely staying on its head and the plasma cannon on its floating chair was smoking from its recent blast.
"The what?" asked Jabez, blood trickling in the corner of his mouth.
"Insolent fool," the Prophet replied "only a barbarian like you would not have knowledge of the Holy Writings."
A private comm. channel opened between Jabez and Nathan "That must be an Artifact that we were sent down here to find."
"Before I end your worthless existence I may as well inform you of what shall happen once I unlock the secrets of the writings," growled the Prophet "once I have decoded the Holy Writings the Covenant shall be lead to the hiding place of the Great Destroyer who will exterminate your pitiful race."
"So without the 'writings' you'll lose the war?" asked Jabez.
"The Great Destroyer would aid us, without it although I hate to admit it the Covenant would fail," exclaimed Vengeance "now I shall…..AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
The pompous aliens' speech was abruptly cut short by Laura firing a 14mm high velocity round into the Prophets chest. Jabez walked up to the dying creature and activated a grenade which he shoved into Vengeances mouth.
A moment later it exploded; sending blood and gore across the room. Jabez walked over to the center of the room where a giant crate-like object sat. There was a panel on the side which only had one glowing button on it.
Jabez pressed it. Lines appeared on the object, the object began to 'fold out' to reveal an alien version of a cryotube.
Jabez approached the cryotube; he wiped the fog off of the glass and saw something he didn't expect. Inside the cryotube lay a woman with one palm facing up. Inscribed on the palm were ancient writings.
This could only be the Hoy Writings, but what were they doing on the palm of a human?

To be continued

Spartan Holy Writings: part 4
Date: 20 October 2007, 5:55 am

The cryotube hissed and the edges began to lift. Steam leaked out of the cryotubes' side; Jabez covered his visor from the hot steam. The cryotube had fully opened; the top half was completely vertical. Jabez peered inside and saw that the beautiful woman looked about his age, about twenty, and wearing a long gown decorated with rare jewels. Without warning the womans eyes opened and Jabez was so surprised that he took a step back.
The woman climbed out of the cryotube and instantly looked towards the Spartans.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"We are Spartans who have been sent here to recover any Artifacts owned by the enemy." answered Nathan.
The woman looked confused.
"I thought I would only be released when those aliens 'need me'." she said.
"Yes, those aliens were going to use those writings on your palm there to lead them to something that would have destroyed the human race" explained Jabez "but we're here to rescue you, not take you as some alien Artifact."
"Sir we should get moving," interrupted Marina "several contacts are coming this way and we still have to blow this place up."
"Yes, but first," he turned to the woman "you should take cover behind me ma'am."
"My name is Ellie." the woman replied.
Jabez smiled under his helmet "OK then, Ellie you should take cover behind me."

Jabez, his team and Ellie walked into the corridor opposite the way they came in. Four Brutes came running up the corridor.
"Spartans! Fire!" yelled Jabez.
All the Spartans opened fire, Ellie grabbed Jabez' arms and hid behind him and his bulky armor. The Brutes returned fire; a single spike round broke through Jabez' armor on his left arm, Jabez grimaced in pain but kept shooting. The four Brutes quickly fell.
"Here, let me take a look at that." said Ellie.
Jabez removed the armor from his arm, taking care not to move the spike.
"Does anyone have a med kit?" asked Ellie. Laura reached into her pack and pulled out a field med kit.
"Do you take pain well?" asked Ellie to Jabez "because this will hurt."
Jabez nodded. Ellie removed the spike from Jabez' arm; Jabez flinched. Ellie quickly cleaned and bandaged the wound, and then Jabez put his armor back on. Ellie handed back the med kit back to Laura and began to walk down the corridor following Nathan and Marina.
Jabez grabbed her arm, gently, and pulled her to him.
"Thanks, Ellie." he said.
"Your welcome." she replied with a smile.

"Sir, we need to make our way to the reactor room, it controls the communications systems and temperature control in the structure I'm guessing," said Nathan after a small skirmish with some Jackals "we need to set some sort of explosives near it and set the timer for long enough for us to get out of here."
"Yes, we must be quick, these skirmishes are getting to frequent." Jabez said as he kicked a dead Jackal in the head.
The Spartans and Ellie found the reactor room without much trouble; they locked onto the strongest energy source and went there.
Inside the reactor room were three half asleep Brutes, who were soon made permanently sleeping. They walked over to the main reactor; Jabez turned to Marina.
"Marina do you have any explosives left that we can time for an explosion?"
She searched in her ammo packs for a few minutes "Sorry sir, all my explosives seem to have been used, even my plasma grenades."
'Damn," said Jabez "anyone have any ideas?"
Nathan was aiming his weapon at the door in case of enemy attacks, but turned his head towards Jabez.
"Well, our armor has a small reactor in it," he said still with his weapon aimed at the doorway "we could set it down by the Covvie reactor then set it to blow in about ten minutes."
Jabez nodded "Whose armor will we use?" He looked around at the other Spartans.
Laura and Marina couldn't take their armor off for obvious reasons, so it was either Nathan or Jabez who'd have to remove the upper half of their armor. Nathan didn't take his off so Jabez took off; he lay it down next to the generator.
"Marina, think you can set that thing to blow in ten minutes?" asked Jabez.
"Yes sir, just a minute." she answered then began to tinker with the armors' reactor.
Jabez opened a private comm. channel to Nathan "I won't be able to give full protection for Ellie because of me not having my top armor, so protect her with your life."
Nathan nodded then Jabez added "I'll still use my whole body as a shield for her if need be though."
"Sir," Marina said from across the room "this thing will blow in just under ten minutes so I suggest we go, now."
Jabez walked over to Ellie and scooped her up in his strong arms.
"Ellie, if I don't hold you like this you might not be able to keep up with us."
She lay her head against his chest "It's ok," she said "I don't mind it here."
Jabez nodded to his team to run as fast as they could.

Four Spartans and Ellie, held securely in Jabez' arms, went speeding through the corridors of the Covenant Main base, leaving boot marks where there large boots hit the floor.
They turned a corner to find two Brutes who were mounting a Ball turret each; they swiveled towards the Spartans and fired. The Spartans ducked behind the corner.
"We don't have time for this." exclaimed Marina.
Jabez knew this as well.
"Nathan and Laura use your sniper and fire through the gaps in the turrets." Jabez ordered.
Nathan and Laura peeked around the corner and fired two shots each; two roars were heard, then the turrets went silent. The Spartans continued their sprint through the base.

Jabez, Ellie and the other Spartans came running out of the buildings' front door only to be met by ten Brutes and five Ghosts. The enemies opened fire as soon as the Spartans came out of the door. The group split into two directions; Marina, Jabez and Ellie to the left and Laura and Nathan to the right. They took cover behind some Wraith wreckages.
"That building will explode in about five minutes' sir." said Laura over the comm.
"We'll sneak around them," said Jabez "quick and quiet."
The two separate groups crept around their respective cover and made a wide circle. The small minded brutes were easily outsmarted, so the Spartans and Ellie successfully made it around the Brutes and Ghosts without trouble.

Outside the entrance gate sat five anti air Wraiths who had previously missed their intended targets, but this time intended to vaporize their enemies.
Captain Yawnat sat atop his Wraith and stared intently at the gates, awaiting his prey. He was soon rewarded with the sight of three fully armored figures and one half armored figure carrying someone in his arms.
Yawnat ordered his troops to fire at the group below. Ten blobs of green plasma launched from his tanks straight towards the enemy troops. Yawnat snarled when he saw his enemies jump out of harms way and run for the forest.
I'm going to burn the entire forest if I have to; he thought then ordered his troops to fire continuous blobs of plasma.

Jabez and his team sprinted through the forest at full speed. Green explosions went off around them but their strides did not falter. Jabez held one hand out in front of him to push branches out of the way so they wouldn't hit Ellie.
The Pelican wasn't far ahead.
A giant rumble shook the ground with tremendous force and nearly made Jabez fall but he regained his balance.
"I guess our little surprise just went off." said Marina with a laugh.
The explosions stopped.
"Huh?" said Jabez in confusion "oh, the explosion of the main reactor must've drawn their attention, lets use that as an advantage."
Suddenly a loose stick from a previous explosion flew straight towards Ellie. Jabez spun around so that his bare back was facing the flying stick. The sharp edge plunged into his back and he let out a yell of pain. He managed to put Ellie safely to the ground before he collapsed from the pain.
His vision went dark.

Fleet Admiral Alicia was observing small ships remove the wreckage from the recent space battle, when suddenly two badly damaged Covenant Super Carriers appeared in the area of space close to Alicia. The Super Carrier immediately opened fire on Alicia's Flagship, the ship shook with the blow.
"Return fire!" ordered Alicia.
Admiral Jesse carried out the order; sending three super heavy MAC rounds towards the already damaged Super Carrier.
The Super Carrier shuddered as three rounds hit home, it exploded soon after. The second Super Carrier however sent three waves of plasma torpedoes at the flagship. The Thors Hammers' shields were known for their strength but even they could not hold against the overwhelming force. The Super carrier sent another two waves of torpedoes at they smashed against the Flagships hull, peeling away thick armor plates and starting fires on several decks.
"Fire back!" ordered Alicia.
"Can't ma'am, all Archer missiles are gone and the MAC gun needs time to reload." replied Jesse looking away from his station.
Alicia thought for a few seconds, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of fifty Covenant ships of every class appearing at the opposite side of the battle.
"I'm going to take down as many of those bastards as possible," she whispered then added with a louder voice "Admiral Jesse steer us toward those fifty ships then accelerate to ramming speed."
Jesse understood "Yes ma'am," answered Jesse, then into the intercom "all personnel use shipboard escape pods and get down to the surface."
Hundreds of 'Bumblebee' escape pods launched from the docks and hundreds of single ships exited the landing bays. The Flagships was close to the Covenant armada.
"Take this suckers." whispered Alicia to herself.
Thors hammer smashed into the lead ships bow and sent it, Thors Hammer and several other Covenant ships into a flaming oblivion.

Jabez wandered through the blackness of unconsciousness when suddenly he saw a bridge from a UNSC Flagship, on the bridge was the expected crew but instead of the usual Captain rank there was Fleet Admiral Alicia staring out of the view port.
She spotted something out of Jabez' view and ordered something to an Admiral who swiftly followed the directions. Jabez saw a part of an explosion out of the view port and guessed an enemy had just met its fate.
The bridge then suddenly shook and Alicia yelled some more orders but was told something bad by the Admiral. Then fifty Covenant ships appeared on the other side of the view port, Alicia paused then gave some orders and the ship started to race towards the new threat. Alicia told the Admiral something but Jabez couldn't hear her, and then the Admiral replied then spoke into the ships intercom. The Covenant was much closer now. The UNSC ship didn't change course and soon the bridge became a fiery inferno.
Then Jabez woke up.

Jabez awoke with a start, he tried to sit up but couldn't because he was lying on his stomach.
"Don't try to get up," said the sweet voice of Ellie "that wound will hurt if you try to move."
"I'll be fine." Jabez said disagreeing, he attempted to sit up but pain lanced through his back; so he fell back to the floor with a thump.
"Told you so," Ellie said "so keep as still as you can."
She began to run her hand across Jabez' back, which made Jabez feel a lot better.
"Ok," he replied "but can you tell me what you were doing in that base? I mean how did you get there?"
Ellie looked up at the ceiling of the Pelican which Jabez just realized he was in.
"My family and I were on holiday on Sigma Octanus three when an alien ship landed in the park where we were having lunch and grabbed my family and me."
She paused then continued.
"Then that Prophet came out and said that I was to be the holder of the 'Holy Writings' and threatened to kill everyone if I didn't agree, I asked them why they needed me to hold the writings, then he answered that a thousand of years ago in a dream of his a human female gave the 'Holy Writings' to him and said that 'when the time comes in one thousand years you will give a human these writings onto their palm and seek out the Great Destroyer so he may destroy the enemy', so he wanted another human female like the one in his so called dream to fulfill his search for the Great Destroyer. I went with him so that he wouldn't kill my family."
Jabez absorbed this then spoke.
"Well, your safe now and I'll make sure to keep it that way." he said then realized that Ellie was smiling at him.
She kissed him lightly on the cheek and said "Thanks."

The Pelican reached the Black Diamond because it was closer and was easier to get to because the Eagles Talon was surrounded by debris.
Jabez explained to Lana about his dream and she thought for a few minutes. She finally looked up and spoke.
"That must mean that a Covenant armada is either on its way here or has taken over our newest base."
Their question was soon answered when forty three Covenant Loyalist ships appeared from Slipspace just out of range.
"Well that's that question answered." exclaimed Nathan.

To be continued.

Spartan Holy Writings part 5
Date: 28 October 2007, 4:14 am

"Hard to port!" ordered Lana to a blue armored Elite.
The frigate, Black Diamond, veered left away from a salvo of plasma which had been fired from the Covenant armada. Every shot missed; thankfully Brutes weren't great marksmen.
"This is to much," exclaimed Htas over the comm. "even for us, we need to pull back to our base."
Lana nodded "Agreed, we'll see you there." she turned to a maroon armored Elite "engage Slipspace drive and take to our base."
"Yes ma'am." the younger Elite replied and clicked buttons on his station.
A blue line appeared in front of the Frigate and began to open to the empty blackness of Slipspace. Black Diamond flew straight into the gaping hole.
A plasma torpedo streaked towards the Eagles Talon, and before Htas could steer his ship away the super heated ball of plasma struck the Frigates starboard side.
"Lana," came Htas' voice over the comm. "get to the base don't wait for me I'll…." he was cut off because another plasma torpedo struck the ship; in cut through deck after deck then found the core, Eagles Talon exploded in a fiery spectacle sending debris in every direction.
"Htas!" screamed Lana.
"Ma'am," said the maroon Elite "if we don't leave now we'll end up like that."
With a tear in her eye Lana spoke "take us through."
The Black Diamond soared through into Slipspace.

Jabez wasn't sure how to comfort a sad alien but the maroon Elite walked up to Lana and put his four fingered hand on her shoulder.
"He died honorably, no Sanghelli could ask for anything more." he said then went back to his station.
The words had a good effect on Lana; she lifted her head high and strode to her Captains chair with proud strides.
Jabez looked at his team; each had scratches on their armor, whereas Jasa bore no scratches but instead had blood on his enormous boot from when he killed his arch enemy Gazton.
He inspected his own armor by looking at his reflection in the highly polished floor; and it had more scratches and dents than all of the others even though he didn't have the top half of his armor, he saw two bandages. One on his arm from a stray spike round and another on his back from a sharp piece of wood that had come from an explosion.
He remembered who had tended to both of the wounds, he looked over to Ellie whose elegant gown now had a few stains of dirt on it but the jewels still glowed brilliantly. He smiled at her then realized that he was very cold, he turned to Lana.
"Anywhere I can get a shirt?" he asked.
"Not that I know of," Lana answered not looking in his direction "you'll just have to wait till we get to the base."
Jabez involuntarily shivered, he walked off the bridge; he'd go find a shirt even if it was Elite armor because he was freezing. He went to though storage bay to look for any crates that might contain some sort of shirt.
He walked over to a random crate and lifted the lid off; inside was form fitting black body suits that the Elites wear under their armor. He pulled one out and tore it neatly in half to make a shirt for him. He pulled it on and it automatically fitted itself to his torso.
"Not bad." he mused.
His comm. crackled to life. "Jabez get up to the bridge ASAP," ordered Lana "we have a situation."

Jabez ran to the bridge and burst through the doors.
"SPARTAN-025 as ordered." he exclaimed.
He looked out the viewport and saw twenty Covenant cruisers orbiting the planet. They immediately turned in the Black Diamonds direction.
"Spartan, I need you to lead a squadron of fighters to distract them while I give them MAC rounds in their faces."
Jabez nodded then sprinted to the landing bay.

Pilot Josh Hill smoked his contraband cigar and lent on his Shortsword fighter but quickly put it out when a Spartan came running into the landing bay. The Spartan called a few other pilots over to his spot then told them his plan.

Jabez surveyed the group of rugged pilots, one of them had just recently put out his cigar; but all of them had tattoos on their left arm of their squadron insignia.
"Alright boys, you and me are going out there to distract them while the Ship Master fires MAC rounds at them, got that?" explained Jabez.
"With all due respect sir," spoke the one who had until recently been smoking "isn't that suicide?"
"That maybe," answered Jabez "but if we don't go out there those Brutes will fire at us and we'll die anyway."
The pilots looked at one another then shrugged. They all ran off to their respective fighters. A pilot with a broad scar on his right cheek led him to a spare fighter.

Josh buckled himself into his fighters' cockpit and prepared for lift off. He saw his fellow pilots jump into their ships and prep for battle.
"Bravo-94 ready for lift off, lets go boys, if the Ship master wants a decoy then we'll give to 'em!" said the squad leader.
Twenty six Shortsword fighters lifted out of the bay and soared toward the enemy. Plasma torpedoes flew towards their ships. Josh banked his ship into a barrel roll to dodge a ball of plasma.
He was now close enough to give a Covenant cruiser a piece of his mind. He pressed the trigger on the back of his throttle, 50mm rounds bounced off the shields of the immense craft. The cruisers plasma turrets swiveled towards his position and fired.
"Oh shit!' Josh pulled the throttle hard to the right; super heated plasma zoomed past his small craft.
A different fighter caught a plasma blast straight in the cockpit and the small ship boiled away into nothing.
"Concentrate on the cruiser engines at the back, you never know, one good shot may be the ticket." ordered the Spartan over the comm..
Josh flew his ship towards the back of the cruiser and fired his missiles.
The shields abruptly flicked off so that the ship wouldn't fire its turrets into its own shields. Josh's was pure luck; as the shields flicked off his missiles smashed into the engines and caused them to sputter then die. The cruiser stopped then three MAC rounds burst from the Black Diamond and smashed into the stationary cruiser. The alloy bent then buckled and then suddenly the ship exploded sending josh sprawling into space.
He struggled but regained control. Another cruiser loomed before him.
"Well, that worked let's keep up the tactic." Ship Master Lana said over the comm..
Josh armed his missiles and flew for the next cruiser.

Cruiser after cruiser fell; debris littered the area and fourteen Shortsword fighters returned to the Black Diamond.
Jabez pulled himself out of the cockpit of his ship then made his way to the bridge. When he got there Lana turned towards him.
"We just received a message from General Dawkins," she informed "I'll put it on screen."
Lana turned to a panel and activated the message. General Dawkins appeared on the viewport; his face was soaked with sweat.
"Troops," he began; he swallowed "please report down here on your mission immediately." the message abruptly ended.
Jabez knew that something wasn't right about this; the general was obviously acting different.
"Take us down," Lana ordered she paused then continued "but be ready for anything."

The Great Destroyer
Date: 11 November 2007, 3:15 am

Jabez carefully aimed through his sniper scope; looking for the leader of the Brute pack. He finally found his target, the Brute pack chieftain stood proudly on top of a hill of grass.
Jabez fired at the hairy aliens' forehead; the Brutes helmet dented and then fell of. The Brute reeled back from the surprise of the attack. Jabez fired another shot and it struck home; purple black blood sprayed onto a Brute minor behind him.
Jabez stood up and moved to a different position so that he wouldn't be spotted. He found a good spot then lay down flat on his stomach; he once again looked into his scope and saw the rest of the Brutes wandering around in a daze; stunned that their leader was just killed.
Two grenade explosions went off on either side of the pack. Nathan and Marina were working on the second stage of the attack.
Three Brutes were instantly downed due to being too close to the explosions; their heavy bodies fell to the ground missing a limb or two. The remaining two fired in random directions hoping to his their assailants. Their desperate attacks never found their targets for two bursts of MA5C fire cut them down.
Jabez made the all clear signal and three other Spartans walked out onto the hill and policed weapons and grenades. Laura reloaded her weapon then walked over to Jabez.
"Sir, we'd better get to Alpha base soon so that we can find what has happened." she suggested.
Jabez nodded "Sounds good to me, although I think that Brutes have occupied the planet." he replied "let's hope some of our troops are still alive down here."
He kicked the dead chieftains' head in disgust.

Jozz peeked around the corner and saw General Dawkins being threatened by a Brute in golden armor. Jozz ducked around the corner. Kimla and another two Grunts were also there.
Jozz didn't know what he and his brethren would do; he and three other Grunts against Brutes would not be easy. They'd need some sort of leader to guide them, well to hide behind.
Jozz hoped the 'leader' would come soon.

Jabez lead his team to Alpha base through the jungle. Finally the metal gates of Alpha base appeared. Tire tracks lead through the gates into Alpha base.
"The gates can only be opened from the inside; we'll have to climb over." Jabez ordered.
The team activated the magnetic bottoms on their boots and began to scale the wall. Their boots clung to the metal with ease allowing them to climb to high wall.
They reached the top then leapt down to the bottom making large boot prints in the dirt. They were immediately greeted with a hail of plasma fire. Jabez and his team sent return fire in the general direction of the attack; a pained roar came from the attackers' position.
The battle was shortly over and two Brute corpses lay on the ground, the Spartans proceeded towards the base.

Jozz carefully walked through a bloodstained hall with his three brothers.
Jozz," asked Kimla "where are we going?"
"Hopefully to find a way out of here." answered Jozz.
They rounded a corner and found two Jackals; asleep at their posts as usual. Jozz gave the order for Kimla to break their thin necks. Kimla waddled over to the Jackals and used his surprisingly strong arms to snap the Jackals flimsy necks. Jozz ordered the other two Grunts to take the dead creatures weapons.
The group slowly walked down the hallway. They finally came upon the entranceway to the base. Without thinking of what may be beyond the group ram through the door and nearly bumped into four armored Spartans

Jabez stared in amazement at the four short aliens in front of him. He was amazed because he didn't expect to see Grunts as survivors; instead he expected to at least see an Elite or two. These Grunts must've hid when the trouble came.
The Grunts stared back at him in equal amazement, obviously not expecting to see three heavily armored Spartans and one Spartan missing his top half of armor.
"What happened hear?" asked Jabez breaking the silence.
"Those smelly Brutes stomped down here and took the General captive and killed most of the personnel." explained a white armored Grunt.
"Hmm," mused Jabez, he then activated has comm. "Lana we need reinforcements, the base has been taken, I repeat we need reinforcements."
"I'll be there myself with a few more Elites, we shall crush these Brutes with ease." the communication ended.

Lana ran down the hallway towards the HEV pods followed by half the bridge crew. Halfway there she ran past Ellie who looked shocked. Lana stopped.
"What's wrong?" asked Lana.
Ellie held up her hand to show that the symbols that were on her hand were glowing red then blue. Lana knew that this had to mean something.
"Come with us." Lana ordered.
They continued down the hallway but this time to the landing bay to use a Pelican instead of the HEV's. The team got there and quickly boarded a Pelican and one of the Elites hopped into the pilots' seat. The drop ship lifted off and flew out of the bay into the blackness of space.

Ellie looked around the area in which she was, almost completely surrounded by the tough Elites and a few Marines.
She looked down at her palm and stared in wonder and the glowing symbols that now glowed a brilliant red which pulsed continuously. She guessed that something big was going to happen soon

Fleet Admiral Alicia opened her eyes and was pleasantly surprised to see that she wasn't dead. Her surprise turned to confusion when she realized that she was completely surrounded by a bright blue sphere, she also seemed to be floating in the centre of the sphere.
On the edges of the sphere were pieces of machinery; circuits sparking behind them. But most interestingly was that Admiral Jesse was floating at the far left of the sphere his left leg was missing, but the stub that was left wasn't bleeding; instead was perfectly sealed off allowing no blood to flow.
"Admiral?" she asked "Admiral can you here me?"
The Admiral twitched once then opened his eyes, looked around then opened his mouth to speak but Alicia interrupted him.
"Admiral, do you know where we are?"
Jesse looked around then replied in a shaky voice "No ma'am I'm afraid not."
A hole began to open in the sphere and an image appeared of four Spartans attacking three Wraith tanks near a large wall. The image quickly disappeared but was soon replaced by another.
This time the image was of the four Spartans running through a forest although this time the lead Spartan was missing the top half of his armor and was carrying a young woman. Once again the image disappeared and was replaced by another. This time the image showed the inside of a Pelican and sitting in one of the crash chairs was the young woman, the woman was staring at her hand which had glowing symbols on it.
The image grew larger and larger.

Ellie continued to stare at her hand which still glowing. Without warning the symbols began to glow gold; illuminating the entire Pelican bay.
Two humanoid figures began to materialize in the centre of the bay.

Alicia was opened her eyes and saw eleven amazed faces staring at her. Straight ahead of her was the young woman who had the glowing hand.
"Where am I and where are we going?" Alicia asked.
An Elite off to her left spoke into his comm. and then a gold armored Elite walked out of the cockpit.
"Who are you?" ordered the alien.
"I am Fleet Admiral Alicia and I assume you are Shipmaster Lana, now where is this ship going?" answered Alicia.
Shipmaster Lana's mandibles gaped.
"I asked you a question and I expect you to answer." said Alicia a little bit irritated.
"We're on our way to Alpha base which has been overrun with Brutes," said a maroon armored Elite "we will be meeting up with four Spartans when we arrive."
Alicia nodded then sat down to the young woman in front of her while Admiral Jesse limped off to talk to the Marines.
"So, what's your name and what are you doing here?" asked Alicia "I have a feeling it's to do with me coming back to life."
"My name is Ellie I have these glowing symbols which were meant to lead to 'The Great Destroyer' and ..." she stopped mid-sentence.
Alicia looked at Ellies' hand but the symbols were no longer glowing and weren't in alien script. Alicia's jaw dropped as she read the now easily readable human writings.

The End
Date: 16 December 2007, 10:42 am

Jabez told the grunts to guard the front entrance and his Spartans to secure the surrounding area while he used the comm.
"SPARTAN – 025 here, do you copy? Where are those reinforcements?" asked Jabez.
"Calm down Spartan we're on our way." replied Lana "by the way some how Fleet Admiral survived, don't ask how because we don't know."
The comm. shut off and the sound of Lana's voice was replaced with the roar of engines.
"Finally," said Nathan walking over "I hope they have food with them I'm starving."
Ten Brute Choppers zoomed over a pile of rubble and opened fire on the vulnerable group. The squad of Grunts ran screaming into the building and closed the door shut behind them.
"I have a small feeling that we're in trouble." whispered Jabez.

"Mow them down brothers!" bellowed Brute captain Ettue.
Ettue led his troops straight towards the armoured demons. One of them barked an order and each demon rolled in different direction; and out of harms way. Ettue screeched past the least armoured demons and saw the surprise in his eyes. Ettue laughed at the petty human.
The laughter quickly stopped as he felt small metal objects pinged off his armor and vehicle; he did a sudden hairpin turn and began shooting explosive ammo at the armoured freaks. The demon with the half suit dodged each shot. Ettue drove past and stuck out his mighty arm and grabbed the demon by the throat.
The demon squirmed in his demon powerful grip, the demon reached for Ettues' spiker attached to his hip. Ettue flung the human behind him and was satisfied by the sound of bones cracking.
He spun his Chopper around for another pass and saw the half armoured demon standing up holding a weapon and with one arm limp. The demon fired his weapon and the projectiles bounced harmlessly off the Choppers' plating, but one projectile found its mark, a tiny gap in a vent for cooling the engine. The bullet struck the engine and sent the Chopper careening out of control.
Ettue attempted to regain control but to no avail, he swerved straight into another Chopper and they exploded in a fiery spectacle.

Jabez grabbed his arm and shoved his dislocated shoulder back into place. He turned his attention to the other Choppers who were momentarily stunned by the death of the captain.
Jabez primed and threw a grenade and it managed to lodge itself between the driver and controls of one stunned Chopper pilot. It and a close by chopper exploded; sending shrapnel into a third Chopper causing it to explode as well. Marina rolled in front of Jabez and threw her own grenade which exploded and sent a rather large rock into the helmet of a Brute causing the startled pilot to drive straight into another Chopper.
The surviving Brutes realised that they were not going to triumph so they drove off into the distance yelping in fear.
"Well, hopefully that's the last we'll see of them." panted Nathan, walking up to Marina and Jabez.
"How's your arm?" asked Laura joining the group.
"More intact than those Grunts bravery." joked Marina.
The roar of engines once again filled the air
"That better not be Choppers." growled Nathan.
A Pelican descended from above, blowing dust and rocks in all directions. The dropship landed and several Elites walked out followed by three Marines. After the troops had exited the Pelican three more figures strode out. Lana, Ellie and Fleet Admiral Alicia.
Jabez' jaw almost fell at the sight of seeing the Fleet Admiral; alive.
"Surprised to see me?" asked Alicia "I don't now how but I managed to survive my ship explosion, the Admiral also survived but he's injured in the ship."
Lana walked up to Jabez.
"Sit report Spartan." she ordered.
"The Brutes have taken the planet and are presumably holding General Dawkins inside, I suggest we take half of us inside and the rest remain out here and stop any Brutes gaining entrance." answered Jabez with a salute to end.
Lana thought about it for a moment "Sounds good, Ok people lets move!"

Alicia walked up to Jabez and whispered to him.
"Spartan you may want to have a look at the 'Holy Writings'?"
Jabez and Alicia walked towards Ellie who was grasping her hand. When Alicia and Jabez reached her position she held up her hand with the Holy Writings on it.
It said.

The Great Destroyer shall only be revealed when the time is perfect for the enemy to be destroyed and there will be no signs of immense power prior to the revealing.
The Great Destroyer shall eliminate the enemy with her enormous power, allowing she and her kin to rule the universe with peace.
All who oppose the Great Destroyer and her kin shall be powerless against the mighty power of the Great Destroyer.


Jabez read the writings then looked to Alicia then to Ellie and then back to the rest of his team.
"Any thoughts of who it might be?" asked Alicia.
"Not a clue ma'am, I guess we'll have to wait until 'the time is perfect' and pray that we stop them before this 'Great Destroyer' kills everyone we know." he replied.
Jabez walked back to his team and told them his plan. They'd go in, save the General and somehow find out who knows about the Great Destroyer.

Jozz was curled up into a ball with fear surging through him. He had heard explosions and engines roaring outside just a few minutes ago.
The doors began to slide open and Jozz nearly wet himself but then saw who was standing in the doorway. It was the Spartans and some reinforcements including two Elites and two Marines. Also there was a woman wearing the uniform of a high ranking officer.
"Excuse me," whimpered Jozz to the tall people "may we go with you because we feel safe when you and you big guns are near."
"Sure," answered the head Spartan "as long as you don't run away again."
Jozz and his brothers followed the heavily armed squad through the metal halls of Alpha Base. They walked through a large door into an eerily quiet courtyard. Jozz sniffed, thinking that that he smelt an odorous Brute nearby. Kimla was shaking behind him obviously petrified.
Jozz sniffed again then saw the tip of a Brutes helmet over a guard railing.
"Brute ambush!" screeched Jozz and pointed to where he saw the helmet.
A plasma grenade flew through the air towards the squad and everyone rolled out of the way. Two of the grunts weren't as lucky as the extreme heat from the blast lit their methane tanks forcing the Grunts to meet an unfortunate end.
The rest of the squad returned the favour with a volley of grenades. Each grenade exploded behind the railing and hairy limbs and blood soared into the air.
Ten Brutes leapt out of their cover bellowing battle cries and brandishing Brutes shots. The squad opened fire and three of the Brutes fell from the overwhelming amount of metal projectiles in their faces. The other Brutes sent their explosive ammunition into the squad.
The quickest of the squad dove behind cover, but the less speedy of them were instantly killed.
"We're losing troops fast!" yelled Nathan over the din "wait a minute where is Laura?"
Jozz peeked out from behind his cover and saw the female Spartan sneaking up behind a Brute, who was completely oblivious about her. Laura pulled out a combat knife and sliced the Brutes jugular wide open, the Brute fell to the ground. Laura continued to sneak around until all the Brutes lay dead in a puddle of their own blood.
Nathan walked over to Laura and gave her a hug, which was very difficult with their bulky armor. Jozz walked over to the remains of his fallen brothers and wrote their names down so he could notify their true family's kin. The lead Spartan collected the dead Marine and Elites' identification tags.
The Spartan motioned for the remaining troops.
"Let's keep moving."

Nathan led the group into the next hall. The group eventually came upon the main control room doors.
"Be ready for anything." ordered Jabez over the comm.
Nathan activated the door controls and the inch thick doors slide apart with a hiss. Inside there was only one light on and it focused on General Dawkins who was bound and gagged on the floor.
Two massive feet which carried a hulking body walked into the light. A Brute the size of a Hunter stood above the General with a weapon that Brutes would only ever use for torture. A five foot long Great Sword with runes engraved on its side.
"Looky here boys," said the massive Brute with a chuckle "it seems these petty humans are going to try and rescue their general."
Several Brute chieftains became suddenly visible as the rest of the lights came on, each hefted a fuel rod cannon. The leader stepped closer to the General, tore out the gag and asked him.
"Do you fear me human?"
Dawkins nodded.
"Good, then order your subordinates to hand over the Holy writings or you shall witness death first hand."
Jabez motioned for Laura to sneak away and try to slice some throats again. Laura disappeared.
"Spartans hand the 'Holy Writings to him." ordered Dawkins.
The Spartans stood with their weapons aimed at the lead Brute.
"Do it!" yelled the general who was obviously filled with fear.
"Sorry sir," replied Jabez "we can't risk them finding out where the Great Destroyer is."
"Do i…" Dawkins was literally 'cut off' by the Brute leaders' sword.
"Such a pity," the brute said "I was hoping we could do this the easy way, but you have opted for the painful option."
Laura leapt out and placed her knife under the lead Brutes throat. The Brute chucked under reached over its head and threw Laura onto the ground in front of him, he lifted his sword and was about to bring it down to end Laura's' life.
"NO!" yelled Nathan with rage.
Nathan sprinted across the room and, with amazing strength, tackled the Brute to the floor and began using his fists to punch the Brutes face. Dents began to appear in the Brutes' helmet.
The Brute swatted Nathan aside and stood up. He picked up his sword and strode over to the floor where Nathan lay.
"A valiant effort I must say" jeered the Brute "but it was in vain, goodbye."
Before anyone could stop him, the Brute sliced Nathan cleanly in two with his giant sword. The Brute laughed and then wiped his sword clean from the blood.
Jabez opened fire and the Brute staggered back and dropped his sword, before he could recover the rest of the squad unloaded bullets into the Brute. The chieftains all dropped there weapons and went into berserk mode and charged. Laura ran over to Nathan's side and pulled off his helmet and closed the lids of his eyes. She then stood up and picked up the lead Brutes sword and began to wildly swing it around cleaving anything that it hit into pieces.
One Chieftain fell to her rage filled swings, then another and another. Two Brutes fell to gunfire and two more from melee attacks. Laura walked over to the lead Brutes who was bleeding profusely from his stomach.
"Die." she muttered and plunged the sword into the Brutes' head. The size of the sword sliced the thick skull in two even halves.
Jabez walked over to Laura and put his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry." he said.

Jozz picked up the dead Brute weapons and put them in a pile. He turned around and looked at the three Spartans standing over a makeshift coffin, they were saluting. The dead Spartans' helmet sat atop the coffin.
"Goodbye Nathan." Jozz heard the lead Spartan say.
The Spartans stood back and saluted once more, and then the Fleet Admiral laid a medal by the helmet then saluted.
"We'll be back later once we're done to take him back home and tell his family." said the lead Spartan "we will wipe out the enemy for what they have done."
Jozz followed the Spartans and the Fleet admiral to the large control desk at the end of the room. Jozz started to access any communications as he had been ordered to do earlier.
"Incoming communication." Jozz exclaimed.
"Put in on screen." ordered the Fleet Admiral.
On the large screen in front of them appeared the image of a Prophets head.
"You are all vermin, thinking what I wonder, that you will stop me?" it chuckled "no, you shall all burn by the mighty power of the Great Destroyer; we shall find the Great Destroyer and you, the enemy. Will burn!"
"We have the writings, and it says that the Great Destroyer shall only be revealed when it is the perfect time for the enemy to be destroyed." exclaimed Jabez.
The Prophet snickered.
"You think I don't know this? What time could be more perfect for your destruction? None other than now" it proclaimed "every single Covenant soldier is here awaiting my command, none of shall survive."
The communication ended.
"Sir, what are going to do?" asked Jozz "the whole enemy is here and is about to kill us!"
"No," said Alicia calmly "they shall be destroyed."
Everyone turned around and saw that Alicia's eyes were glowing a golden light, illuminating the control room.
"Spartan-025, Ellies' hand is glowing again." said Lana over the comm.
"What colour?" asked Jabez in a whisper.
"Golden, why?" she answered.
"You'll see." replied Jabez.
Alicia began to float; she floated to the centre of the room and spoke in a mystical voice.
"I the Great Destroyer shall burn the enemy to a cinder, the prophecy shall be fulfilled." she said "the vision which was given to the now deceased Prophet of - did not mean that the Covenants enemy would be destroyed because it was a human female in the vision who foretold my coming. The Humans shall have their enemy destroyed."
Alicia tilted her head back and a beam of light so bright that everyone had to shield their eyes, shot out of her mouth and smashed through the roof into space, towards the Covenant armada.

The prophet gave a smug grin as he terminated the communication. He turned to a hairy brute shipmaster.
"The moment of triumph is at hand my friend." he said with a victorious tone to his voice.
"Yes my lord," replied the Brute "I can already hear their screams of pain."
A minor Brute turned from his station and spoke with alarm.
"My lords, a beam of pure energy is approaching extremely fast towards the armada."
"Avoid it." ordered the shipmaster.
"Let me see it." said the Prophet.
The minor complied and the viewport opened to reveal a golden beam speeding towards the armada. The beam stopped abruptly and a giant orb formed on the tip of the beam.
An image of a female humans face appeared and spoke.
"Covenant, you have killed and maimed human kind for many years and now it shall end, for I am the Great destroyer."
"No that cannot be possible!" the Prophet exclaimed "the prophecy said that you would destroy our enemy!"
"No, the prophecy was foretold by a human therefore the enemy meant the enemy of the humans, meaning you." the woman explained.
"Not possible!" screamed the Prophet "All ships fire!"
"It ends now." the orb exploded and sent the entire Covenant to oblivion.

"Sirs," squeaked Jozz with joy "sensors show all Covenant ships destroyed!"
Jabez ran to the middle of the room and caught Alicia as she fell.
"What happened?" she asked in a daze.
"It doesn't matter." Jabez replied "it's done, the war is over."

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