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The Key to the Apocalypse by Silent Hunter
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The Key to the Apocalypse: New Alliances
Date: 8 May 2005, 4:05 PM
0100 hours, November 17, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Uncharted System, Halo Instillation 05 Control Room
"Then where?" Commander Keyes responded. "Where would someone go to activate the other rings?" Guilty Spark was puzzled at this question. Surely the Reclaimer knew the answer to such a simple question...maybe this was a test. He still followed his core program to answer any and all questions.
"Why, the ark, of course." Guilty Spark continued to contemplate why the reclaimers seemed to have no knowledge of even the simplest of things. He was so deep in thought, that he almost missed another question.
"And where, oracle, is that?" The Arbiter inquired.
"Planet Alpha-Eta-3, Satellite-1" Guilty Spark Replied. He was still astounded that these people have no idea about any protocols...or even a basic idea of how these rings worked
"Show me" said Commander Keyes. Guilty spark turned to the holographic projector, and the Milky Way galaxy appeared. It quickly 'zoomed in' to a star system all too familiar to Miranda and Johnson.
"Earth's moon?!" Miranda said in disbelief. "So that's where the fleet went...Earth doesn't stand a chance..."
"Not if we can help it," said an elite Councilor, stepping from the shadows. He opened a communications channel to the Commander. "Commander, we must stop the Jiralhanae from activating the other rings."
"Councilor? What? How..."
"Come to the control room, I'll explain everything there."
"And that's it..." The councilor said, "We must travel to the Earth System, to prevent the ring from being activated." The commander lowered his head. He felt drained in the last few days of fighting. Naturally, being a special operations commander, he has gone on much longer periods without rest, but this time was different...we was drained not only physically, but mentally, as well. Everything that he has been taught since his very birth was now in serious doubt. The Prophets have betrayed him and his entire race, the Covenant is practically broken, and worst of all, the Great Journey, which every Sangheili has fought for since joining the Covenant, was in fact, just a galactic Death Sentence. He just wanted to sit down and think, but he banished all thoughts from his head. He still had a job to do.
"So how do we stop them?" asked the commander.
"The ark can only be activated once the failsafe protocol has been initiated, which it has. Once this happens, one must bring the 3 keys to Alpha-Eta-3-1. Or, the instillation can activate without the keys, if it detects an excess of flood DNA inside of it." He kept wondering why no one knew how this all worked. He would dedicate more processing power toward his categorization of his data on human history he got from the Pillar of Autumn, hoping to find some answers.
"So...if we can get one of the keys..." Miranda said thoughtfully.
"Where are these 'keys'?" the sergeant asked.
"2 of the 3 are not where they are supposed to be. One appears to be on Alpha-Eta-3...the planet you call Earth. And the other two seem to be en-route to Earth.
"This isn't good" Miranda said, with a worried tone.
"Well, I'm not sitting here, and waiting for doom's day. Let's get the hell off this giant hula-hoop." Said Johnson, with a hint of anger in his voice.
"There is a cruiser, not too far from here. If we can take it from the brutes, we can use it to get to Earth." Said the elite commander.
"I have several squads of warriors I can get here within the hour." Said the commander.
"And I still have a platoon of marines back there." Said Johnson.
"Perfect!" Miranda said. "Guilty Spark, can you redirect some sentinels to that cruiser? We could use any help we can get."
"Why yes, reclaimer. I can spare 256 sentinels, and 10 enforcers without compromising the quarantine zones. They will arrive at any time you wish." He replied.
"Good that will be more than enough, thank you."
"You're very welcome, reclaimer."
0150 hours, November 17, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Uncharted System, Halo Instillation 05, Near Control Room
The sky was a blazing orange as the sun began to 'set' behind the ring. The waves lapping on the shore, and the serene control room in the background made it a spectacular scene. 3 pelicans, and two phantoms were preparing to launch. The Arbiter knelt down, and said a prayer for the fallen. He then stepped into the gravity lift of one of the phantoms, and was pulled upwards. Miranda, Johnson, and a platoon of marines jumped into the three pelican dropships.
"Okay, here's the plan once more. We are going to sneak aboard, and disable the power." Said the special operations commander. "The Arbiter is to Infiltrate the bridge, and prevent them from taking off. Once the power is down-"
"We and about 300 of those machines fly into one of the launch bays, and blast our way up and down the ship." Finished Johnson, eagerly.
"If everything goes to plan, we'll have control of the ship in just under 20 minutes." The ships lifted from the ground, and started for the cruiser.
"Go!" the commander shouted under his breath. The group of 5 spec-ops elites silently rushed through a door into a hallway, a pile of dead brutes barely visible in a dark corner. "Engage active camouflage" The commander ordered. The 6 elites became nearly invisible. In the darkness of the ship, it was almost impossible to see them. The door in front of them opened, and they pressed their bodies against the wall. 3 brutes passed them, oblivious to their presence. They rushed through the open door, their footsteps completely silent. 3 brutes were having a conversation.
The commander, and another elite, Nysc 'Tonodee, creeped up behind two of them. Their large bodies made reaching the third impossible. An elite instinctively pulled a sort of knife out. The commander reached for the brute's neck, as did 'Tonodee. Another elite, Kesc 'Lawuree, tapped both elites once, twice, and then a third time. Both brutes' heads spun 180 degrees. A split second later, a knife flew through the air, and hit home in the third brute's face. All three fell to the floor. 'Tonodee pulled a panel out of the wall, and the squad packed the bodies in the tight space. They replaced the panel, and continued down the hall.
The commander pushed a button on his wrist. A blue holographic symbol appeared on his HUD. "We've got 2 minutes, let's move!" The squad became invisible again, and rushed down the hall, and through another door. The reactor control room was awe-inspiring. It was a circular room, about 100 feet in diameter, with a structure in the center. The structure looked like an hourglass with a bright blue light emanating from the center. The structure had a pair of large rods rotating around it. It made a loud humming noise, so it wouldn't be hard to stay silent. The bright light made the camo practically useless. The squad hid in the large shadow cast by the rotating rods. They ran with the shadow. They took out their carbines. 13 grunts and 5 brutes monitored the power supply consoles at the end of the room.
The squad stopped, and knelt. As the pillar's shadow past, one of the brutes spotted the bending of light caused by the camouflage out of the corner of his eye. Before he could warn his comrades, 4 rounds penetrated his skull, as did the other 4 brutes. The grunts were startled, and ran in circles, until one of them noticed where the shots were coming from. "Commander! You kill nasty brute who threaten to kill Rarah! You our savior!"
"Shut the reactors down, kill all the power in the ship." The commander replied sternly.
"Yes sir commander sir!" The grunt pushed several buttons on the console, and the room fell dark. The commander opened communications link with the Arbiter.
"Arbiter, our mission is accomplished. How goes your mission?"
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