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Prologue:

10/23/2552 1500 Hours
Covenant Flagship/ Forerunner Ship

The seven foot tall Master Chief sprinted down the grey-purple hall. He had a pack of 5 Brutes on his tail, but he knew if he didn't get to the Prophet before this ship landed on Earth he would have failed his mission and it would cost millions of lives. He charged down the last passageway into a small square room with a view screen at the very front and a control center under it. John paused, exhaled and saw his target. The Prophet of Truth sat upon his throne which elevated his nearly half a meter of the ground. It gave him a sense of majesty.
The Chief not being one to ask questions first, primed a sticky blue plasma grenade and tossed it at the back of the Prophet, it stuck with out noise. By the time the Prophet or his four Brute Honor Guards could turn around, the room was filled with a white-blue light and the Prophet, the Brutes and the control panel went up in flames.
SPARTAN-117 turned around immediately with a second grenade in hand. The brutes that had been chasing him were stunned; their leader the Prophet of Truth had just been killed. They had no one to lead them, except their own instincts, their instincts to kill.
They charged toward the Chief, he primed the plasma grenade, threw at the Brute in the middle of the pack and dove out of the way just in time. The Brutes let out cries and were burned to death by the plasma. One Brute remained standing, with his hand on his chest he continued slowly towards John. The Chief took one good look at the Brute picked up the ceremonial spear that one of the Honor Guards had been carrying, and cracked it over the Brutes head, killing him instantly.
"This is SPARTAN-117, on E-Band to Cairo Station, does anyone copy?" The Chief said over the COM. He stared at the view screen, or what was left of it. Both UNSC and Covenant ships floated dully in space. News traveled fast though, he saw three Mid-Size Covenant cruisers head towards him and the ancient Forerunner ship. Then he heard it, faint but it was there, he was receiving a response from Cairo Station, one of the 298 orbital MAC gun stations in orbit around Earth. John wondered how many would make it through this battle, if any.
"I read you SPARTAN-117, this is Admiral Hood, did you or did you not get the Prophet?"
"Sir, target neutralized, I am currently in control of this ship and requesting help from any UNSC ship in my area, I have three Covenant ships coming on me. They must have known what went on here. In about fifty seconds, they will be right on top of me. Requesting permission to land on the Cairo, sir."
"Go ahead; the Imo is on its way to cover you"
The UNSC destroyer Imo slowly came into view on the charred screen. Both its MAC guns were burning hot, it was preparing to fire. The Chief saw the MAC guns explode as they sent the magnetic pulse through space and into the Covenant cruiser in the middle of the pack. The ship capsized from the force of the blow, shuddered and then exploded into a wave of blue and white flames that burned through the shields of the other cruisers. He saw a hundred little pins fly threw the air followed by smoke, the Imo had fired its Archer missiles. The cruiser on the right managed to destroy a few of them before they impacted but there was too many and they overtook the huge ship, sending it spinning into the final cruiser. There was a huge white flash, and the Chief was knocked off his feet as both cruisers exploded.
John heard something; he turned around to see a Covenant. A floating alien with tentacles, an Engineer. He knew that it was no threat and it would be able to get him to Cairo station safely. He beckoned to it and pointed to the damaged control console. It hovered over to the panel quickly ran its tentacles over it then swiftly went to work. Within a few seconds the panel was fixed. He pointed to it again, then pointed to the Cairo and motioned towards it. The Engineer quickly moved its tentacles about the control panel and the Chief felt the ship slowly start to accelerate towards the Cairo.



Section 1: Rejuvenation


Chapter 1:

10/23/2552 1600 Hours
Cairo Orbital MAC Gun Station in Orbit Around Earth

The Chief walked down the ramp and into the control center of the Cairo orbital MAC station. Much was on fire, only a few Lieutenants and the Admiral were left.
"Where's the welcoming party?" The Chief said.
"In the flames" Admiral Hood said smoothly. "And we will be too if this battle doesn't change momentum soon. Most of the Cairo has been evacuated like the rest of the MAC stations. Only important personnel are to stay onboard. There hasn't been much action down on the ground, but we're not talking any chances. We sent the other Spartans and every available Marine groundside to make sure the Covenant have a big welcoming committee ready for when they arrive. Our COM channels are a mess. The Covenant are using our channels to broadcast threats at us, they're saying that "The Great Journey" and "The Gods" will soon consume us all".
The Chief and the Admiral watched as UNSC and Covenant ships alike exploded. The Admiral spotted a few covenant ships that were staying back and seemed to be watching the battle. He quickly sent off firing solutions to some of the other stations and watched as in seconds the ships were obliterated.
The Imo and the frigate the Mont-Blanc passed overhead of the station, chasing after a wounded Covenant destroyer. They looked like toys compared to the UNSC cruiser the Citadel . It was armed with four MAC guns and hundreds of Archer missile pods; it was literally a moving tub of weaponry. It slowly passed by the Cairo on its way to pack of Covenant frigates. The Chief watched as its four MAC guns unloaded and fried two of the frigates, the other two frigates turned and fired upon the Citadel with plasma torpedoes, but shockingly the torpedoes were absorbed by a yellow and white light that soon surrounded the whole ship. It was the UNSC's first ship with shields installed, the AI Cortana had copied blueprints to much of the Covenant technology while aboard a high-jacked Covenant ship, the Ascendant Justice, and this was no exception.
The COM buzzed as a Lieutenant yelled from the other side of the room "We've won! The Covenant are in full retreat, sir! They're jumping to Slipspace now!
The Chief and the Admiral along with all other UNSC personnel watched as the Covenant ships slowly turned away and disappeared into space. What really got their attention was that one single UNSC ship, the Gettysburg jumped to Slipspace with them, it was planning on following them.

***

The Gettysburg shuddered as it entered Slipspace; it was the only UNSC ship to be fitted with the new Slipspace fusion reactors. Actually, they weren't UNSC fusion reactors; they were stolen off of the Covenant flagship the Ascendant Justice only a month ago.
Captain Carl J. Bungler paced up and down the square room that was the small bridge of his ship. He looked out the main view screen, but knew he would see nothing but darkness while they were in Slipspace. It had been a stupid move to follow three hundred covenant ships into an unknown vector in a beat-up old frigate, but it wasn't the ships status that he was worried about it; no it was his younger officer's statuses. They would all most likely die when they came out of Slipspace but maybe, just maybe he could alert the rest of the UNSC of where the Covenant are hiding.
"Shut down all systems the minute we come out of Slipspace. I don't want the Covenant to know that we're here or that we followed them. If they do, we will have three hundred Covenant ships on us before you can yell 'Run'." He whispered to a nearby Lieutenant, not wanting to scare his young bridge crew anymore than they already were.

Chapter 2:

10/24/2552 1400 Hours
Aboard UNSC Cruiser Citadel

The Admiral watched as mechanics hurried about the reactors installing new parts, many unfamiliar as they had been salvaged from the destroyed Covenant ships. From his estimation, nearly eighty-eight UNSC ships would be refitted with the Covenants own Slipspace reactors and would be sent out after the Gettysburg to help it. All ships were expected to be ready in two days time, in which they would head out after the Gettysburg. The other three hundred ships would be repaired, rearmed, and some would even get their own energy shields, compliments of the Covenant. They would stay to protect Earth in case of another attack. Of 298 MAC gun station 76 remained, the Covenant had them as a priority and attacked them before engaging the fleet. Only 69 were operational, the others like the Cairo simply floated in orbit. Its MAC gun had been knocked out fairly early in the fight, lucky for the Admiral it was only the MAC gun that had been hit and not the whole station.
The Admiral would be leading the charge after the Gettysburg. He would stay on board the Citadel, the largest cruiser in the United Nations Space Commands' armada. With its energy shields, its missile pods and its four MAC guns it could take and dish out a lot of damage.

The Chief took off his helmet and breathed in the fresh air. He jumped down from the back of the hovering Pelican dropship to be met by the cheers of hundreds of Marines. It was only his second time on Earth, his first had been rather short and he wasn't given much time to enjoy the scenery as he had plasma coming at him from every direction. This time he would be able to enjoy himself, with two days of R&R. He'd be able to get a shower, a good meal and lots of sleep.
He walked through a crowd of cheering Marines, still celebrating the victory from the day before. Like most of the UNSCs' victories, this was a weird one; you could even call it a fluke. No one knew why the Covenant would just get up and leave a winning battle, even if their leader had been killed. Right now though, everyone was saying it was because of the Chief killing the Prophet, that they had defeated the Covenant.
John was surprised that there had been hardly any ground assaults, that the Covenant were unable to land on Earth. Maybe it was by choice or maybe it was because of the fight the UNSC put up but no one really knew. Nor did they care; leave the thinking to the High Command and the fighting to the leathernecks.
The Chief's heart jumped as three other Spartans approached him, SPARTAN-085, Linda, SPARTAN-043, Will and SPARTAN-104, Fred. John always felt more comfortable around his teammates; they had trained together since the age of six, to him they were his family. He smiled at them, and they did the same back, it had been awhile since he had gotten to take off any of his armor. He liked his armor a lot, it was a second skin to him, but after being in it for so long he needed a little fresh air.
John and his teammates started walking along a tree lined path towards a small building which would serve as their quarters for the next two days. No one talked; it was more of a peaceful moment, a lull in the storm that was this war. The Chief felt at peace and was content to just keep walking down the path towards his quarters. He was with his family again.

***

The schooner, Bluenose slowly detached from the refitting station Cradle II, which was named after the first which was lost in a heroic battle over Sigma Octanus IV. The Bluenose had been refitted with a new MAC gun; it was the smallest UNSC ship to have a MAC gun installed. It wasn't a very tall ship and it was only a little shorter than the smallest frigate, but its size was made up by its speed, with the new Slipspace reactors installed and it being lighter than any other UNSC ship it was much more agile than any other ship in the fleet.
It had been out of service since 2525, the year contact with the planet Harvest was lost. It along with many other ships had been sent to eliminate the threat at Harvest, and recapture the planet. It was one of the few ships that managed to survive. It had been the first battle the UNSC had had with the Covenant, a battle that no one would ever forget though.
The Bluenose squealed as its newly-installed engines started up. It swiftly turned and then headed towards the rest of the battle group who were preparing for the Slipspace jump, which was only two days away. They were to be completely prepared for when it came, because once they started to follow the Gettysburg, there would be no turning back.

Chapter 3:

10/24/2552 1500 Hours
Chiroptera Class Vessel en Route to Delta Halo (Installation 05)

The small black Chiroptera Class stealth vessel materialized out of nowhere. The Slipspace drive was fairly old on the ship, but still in working condition. It slowly glided toward the huge alien artifact that is Delta Halo. The huge spinning ring was miniature compared to the red planet, Hetero located next to it.
Dr. Halsey and SPARTAN-087, Kelly peered out of the main window. What they saw took their breath away. Next to the ring, the Covenant holy city, High Charity had started to lean over dangerously and it was starting to descend upon the ring. It appeared as if it was going to fall right on a part of the ring and crush it.
Dr. Halsey pointed towards the ring and then brought up a map of the ring, she showed Kelly a small island, then said: "If my calculations are right, the Control Center should be there, I want you to go there and see what you can find, human or Covenant, we need some information if we are going to save anyone's life".
The stealth vessel slowly descended through the atmosphere of the ring, the cockpit of the ship got very hot under the pressure. When they came out of the atmosphere, the two marveled at the beauty of the area. The grass, the water, the orange sun setting in the west, it was so much like Earth, but yet still so very different.
Dr. Halsey slowly maneuvered the vessel toward the small island. It had a huge tower-like building on it; that was the Control Center. She lined up the vessel so that the portside hatch would be level with the walkway leading into the Control Center.
Kelly jumped down and continued down the short walkway and through the destroyed doors and into a room that was full of fire, it looked as if it could collapse at any minute. She went down another hallway, stopped to pick up a brute's plasma rifle and continued out into a huge circular room with a platform in the middle of a huge pit. She looked down at the platform and noted that there were both Elites and Humans there, but what shocked her most was that she didn't here any gun shots.
She knew she had to get down there, but how? Then she saw it, a rotating rectangular platform that spun around the outer rim of the middle platform. If she could jump onto it, then she could jump down to the middle platform. She backed up a bit, knowing she would need to go at this in a run; she waited until the platform was right in front of her, and then did a running jump onto the platform. She quickly jumped down off the platform and onto the circular platform. She then slowly walked up to the humans, looking back and forth, making sure that no Elite tried to jump her while she was walking.
"What's going on here, Sergeant?" She said to the nearby man. He had dark skin, and riveting cold eyes. She knew he was all business, she had met him before, and he was a good soldier.
"Ma'am, we've just been talking with ours new friends" he said coolly. "We stopped this ring from firing, but now were in trouble."
"How?" Kelly asked.
"Wow, you haven't been around long have you? The Flood are spreading, they've taken over High Charity and have infested the ring. The Master Chief was in High Charity, I'm not sure were he is now though. The Elites and many others have broken off from the Covenant; their Prophets have led them astray. When they found out that Halo was a weapon that could be used to destroy all life, they turned on the Prophets." Sergeant Johnson exclaimed.
Kelly turned and looked at the woman next to Johnson; she had shining black hair and dark green eyes. She wore a grey UNSC suit, Kelly eyed her declarations, she was a Commander. Her name was Miranda Keyes.
"Ma'am, you must be in charge here?" Kelly said to the young woman.
"No. He is." The young Commander said and pointed towards an Elite in ceremonial grey and blue armor.
Kelly slowly walked over towards him, not wanting to show any disrespect to the Elites as they outnumber her and the other two humans nearly three to one. She didn't fully trust these Elites, but she knew she had to.
The Elite turned and spoke to her. "I am the Arbiter, the leader of the Elites, now that we have broken away from the Prophets and their heresy. They will pay as will all who follow their teachings. What brings you here, Demon?"
"Give the lady some respect mister, or I'll knock it into you!" Johnson yelled, with his Covenant particle beam rifle at the ready.
Some Elites growled in the distance. "Enough!" Kelly yelled. "Let's get off this ring now; if we don't hurry we could all be dead. That city, High Charity is slowly falling down towards this ring; if we don't leave soon this ring will crack apart with us on it".
"Alright." the Arbiter said knowing that what she said was true. "I have nearly fifty-six ships in my command; they're all that survived the battle over High Charity. We will leave and get revenge on the Prophets for their actions." He turned towards the rest of the Elites. "The humans are no longer our enemies, the Prophets are; in fact I would even like to call the humans our allies."

Chapter 4:

10/24/2552 1613 Hours
Aboard Chiroptera Class Vessel

Kelly was the last to get on board the stealth ship, she checked behind her to make sure that no one would be left behind. The vessel continued past the island and back through a valley towards a platform that protruded from the side of the mountain. Down on the ground underneath the platform, the Flood walked freely.
"There's where I left my squad" Johnson said, pointing towards the platform. The ship gradually came to a halt and hovered near the platform. Five Marines made their way up to the ship's portside hatch and hopped aboard, the hatch slammed shut behind the Marines.
The ship rose and continued upwards. The vessel made its way back through the atmosphere; Kelly sensed that the Elites were uneasy about what they would see in space.
The ship buckled under the heat of the atmosphere, Kelly held onto the railing that went along the side of the cockpit. Even with her suits venting system, she was still very warm. The ship let out a sigh as it finally cracked through the atmosphere and back into space. From the time they had descended down into Delta Halo until now, High Charity and gotten much closer to the top end of the ring.
"Arrr!" the Arbiter growled, "High Charity will crush Halo and destroy it, but it will not guarantee that all the flood will be destroyed, we must find another way to destroy Halo completely."
"I will go to High Charity" Kelly said "and from there I will find a way to destroy this ring, and hopefully save the Master Chief. I believe though that this will be our parting Arbiter, I wish you good luck on your quest."
"And the same to you, my friend" The Arbiter said, patting Kelly on the back as gently as he could.
The stealth vessel moved towards the ex-Covenant battle group that had gathered near the other side of Delta Halo, they had been waiting for the Arbiter to return to them. One of the ships moved towards the small vessel it lined up its purple portside with the small vessel and turned down the shields over its shuttle bay. The stealth vessel slowed down and landed inside the bay. The Arbiter and his Elites hopped down from the portside hatch of the ship, and onto the shuttle bay's floor.
"Thank you humans, for helping us in our time of need, we will not let you down when in yours." The Arbiter said softly, then turned and marched off, followed by the rest of his Elites.
The Chiroptera Class vessel then turned around and head back out the shuttle bay and towards the falling city of High Charity. The engines flared as the vessel passed through debris of where the Elites had fought against the rest of the Covenant, ships hung at odd angles as blue and white plasma seeped from every part of them.
The vessel closed in on the floating city and soon entered its small atmospheric layer. When they came through the atmosphere, what they say shocked them the whole city was engulfed in a greenish mist and a lot of the buildings had been covered by strange green and beige spores and blobs.
Kelly stated the obvious: "That must be the effect the Flood has had on this city"
"Yes, it is" Dr. Halsey returned "Commander, prepare to drop off Kelly at that building over there" she said while pointing to the largest building around. "Knowing the Covenant, the bigger something is, the more important it is."
The vessel lined up to a small passage way and Kelly jumped out of the hatch. She checked her MA5B Assault Rifle again; making sure it was fully loaded. She crouched down and slowly started through the doors and the passageway beyond.
So far, so good, Kelly thought. The floor was littered with bodies, both flood and Covenant. Some were so badly mutilated it was hard to tell what they had been. She paused to pick up two stray plasma grenades, which had been lying on the floor. When she turned her head back up from the floor, what she saw scared her beyond anything else. It was the first time she had ever been genuinely scared. She opened fire with her assault rifle at the oncoming hoard of mutated green Covenant soldiers. Empty casings hit the floor as she filled the bodies with burning hot lead.
The bodies dropped to the floor, one tried to get back up, but Kelly smacked it back down with the butt of her rifle. She slapped a new clip into her rifle and continued down the hallway, now even faster. She didn't want to have to fight thousands of those things and this place was probably swarming with them.
She hurried down the hallway and into a long, rectangular room. There was a huge hole in the floor at the far end of the room. She went up to a nearby computer panel to try and see if there was any surveillance technology in the area so she could see what had gone on here, but to her surprise when she got close to the console a blue and purple hologram of a woman appeared. It was the AI, Cortana.

"We need to get out of here now!" Cortana whispered, her holographic head glancing back and forth in each direction. She slowly disintegrated and a small blue chip came out of the console's side.
Kelly snatched it, and slapped it into the neural interface on the side of her helmet. A cold feeling, then numbness came over her brain as Cortana began to talk. "I'm in. We should get out of here now. The Master Chief has already left and is probably at Earth now, as for the rest of the crew from In Amber Clad, I presume they are dead."
The Spartan kneeled down relieved a dead Flood combat form of a shotgun, and slowly made her way back through the doors. Using the shotgun, she gunned her way through wave after wave of Flood combat forms and infection forms. One of the little buggers latched onto her MJOLNIR armor while her shields were down and tried to burrow its way inside. She grabbed it and popped like a balloon.
"In Amber Clad's reactors are giving off a lot of heat; I think the Flood are actually trying to repair the ship. If they do, they will be able to escape this city and the ring, we can't allow that. I've set the reactors to overheat and explode in twenty minutes. We should make as much room between us and this city as we can." Cortana said with almost nervousness in her voice.
Kelly sprinted through the hallways, gunning anything that got in her way. She dropped the shotgun and shouldered her assault rifle. She filled the oncoming group of combat forms with the armor piercing rounds of the assault rifle, then continued to run through the maze of hallways and rooms that was this structure. She got on the COM and signaled to Keyes to bring the ship in and pick her up. The timer on her HUD (Heads Up Display) read 16:30, she would have to hurry.
Flood seemed to jump out at her from every direction, she gunned them down with speed and accuracy. She started to remember where she was, and knew that she was close to the same passageway that she had been dropped off at.
One last room she thought to herself. She hurried through the doors, rounded a corner and saw a huge bulbous creature, a Flood carrier form. She shot it and it exploded, but the explosion made more of the little infection forms. She filled the little floating blobs with the last of her ammo and then put away her assault rifle. She snatched a plasma pistol from a dead grunts claw and went through the final set of doors.
The ship was waiting for her, she jogged towards it. A small round metal orb dropped through the air and landed right in front of her. It had a metal casing and one single red light that looked like an eye. A red ring of light pulsated from its sides.
"Grab it" Cortana said quickly. "It could be of use, it could answer some of our questions". Kelly grabbed it and continued towards the ship.
"Wait, I'm picking up motion all around us!" Cortana yelled. Seven bird-like machines hovered over top of the ship. "Sentinels, take them out!" Cortana screamed.
They opened fire with orange lasers, Kelly charged up her plasma pistol and unloaded it onto the Sentinel in the middle of the pack, it exploded and fell out of the sky. The others flew towards her, she primed one of her grenades and threw at one. It latched onto its side and exploded, taking out three of the Sentinels. Three remained, she primed her last grenade, stuck it to one of the Sentinels, and watched as two of them exploded. She finished the third one off with a short burst of fire from her plasma pistol and jumped aboard the stealth vessel.
The ship started to rise; it slowly made it way through the sky, picking up speed. Out of nowhere, a huge set of tentacles wrapped around the ship and threatened to pull the ship out of the sky.
"Gravemind" Cortana said. "Full speed ahead! Don't let that thing pull us down, this city is going to blow!" She said using Kelly's external COM system.
The ship rose at full speed, it tore through the sky, trying to lose the set of tentacles that had firmly wrapped themselves around the ship. The ships structure buckled from the tremendous pressure being put on it.
The vessel hit top speed and started through the atmosphere, everyone aboard watched through the windows as the tentacles were disintegrated by the heat of the atmosphere.
The ship continued at full speed away from the doomed city and the ring. When they were far enough away, they shut down the engines and turned to watch what would happen next.
High Charity fell upon the top side of the ring, crippling it. The ring shuddered under the immense pressure and slowly started to crack in places. Before the ring could fall apart, High Charity exploded into a blinding light and the whole ring was consumed by flames.
When everything had calmed down, everyone onboard the vessel were shocked. Where the ring had been, there was nothing but small shards and debris of the ring, it had been completely destroyed.
Kelly placed Cortana's chip into the main console in the cockpit. Cortana's small holographic body appeared in front of everyone.
"It's good to see you again Doctor." Cortana said with a smile on her face.
"You too" Dr. Halsey replied. She had always liked Cortana. Maybe it was because Cortana was a copy of herself.
"Scanning" Cortana said. "Interesting, it appears the Chief was successful, and that the defenders at Earth have won. What's more interesting though, is that the UNSC is planning on following the Covenant. If I'm correct, already one ship has gone after them and the rest will soon follow to meet this ship, at this location" She said, showing the coordinates to everyone.
"Then it's final, we shall go there too." Dr. Halsey announced. "Cortana, how long will it take us to get there?"
"Two days, it's not very far from our position, it's not on any of my maps, which means that it's in uncharted territory. If we were to head to Earth, it would take nearly two weeks. So if we want to reconnect with the UNSC this would be the quickest way to." Cortana exclaimed, while numbers and data floated across her body.
The small stealth vessel changed direction and started to enter Slipspace. The bow, then the stern disappeared into the invisible streams of Slipspace.


Chapter 5:

10/26/2552 0600 Hours
Onboard UNSC Destroyer Imo

John felt the ship rumble as it and the other eighty-eight UNSC ships slowly entered Slipspace in an attempt to drive the Covenant back further away from Earth and to save the frigate Gettysburg and her crew. The Gettysburg had sent out the coordinates of the Covenants hiding place two days ago. From what the AI of the Imo was saying, in its estimation it would take twenty-two hours to arrive at the Gettysburg's position. If the Gettysburg was even still in one piece.
The problem with this plan though, was while the UNSC lacked many veteran officers, what they lacked even more were AIs. Only four of the eighty-eight ships going on this mission had AIs, the Imo, Mont-Blanc, Bluenose, and the Citadel were the only ones with AIs. The Commanders and Captains of every other ship would have to get to this location manually. That normally wouldn't be a problem, but with the new Slipspace reactors installed, they would move much faster and the Captains and Commanders would have to adapt very quickly to the reactors new power. Every ship would make to the location, that wasn't the problem; the problem was when every ship would make it.

***

Captain Jack Morse walked the length of the bridge of the Imo and back, checked his watch then signaled over to a nearby Lieutenant to give him control of the COM channels inside the ship.
"Ok, listen ladies, this ship will enter regular space in fifteen minutes. I want everyone ready for action, get to your battle stations, secure all objects, and prepare for a fight, over".
He checked his watch again, 0345 hours, he was exactly on time, and his AIs estimation had been correct, exactly correct. It took them exactly twenty-two hours to get there; he hoped the same for the other ships.
"Bring the ship up to Combat Alert Delta". He said to the small hologram next to the control screen. This hologram was in the shape of the Greek god of war, Ares. It had a miniature sword and shield along with a helmet that covered its 'head'. The AI's hologram quickly disappeared as it went back to its work, controlling the ship. Moments later, alarms sounded and red flood lights came on in every hallway and corridor in the ship.
The Imo slowly started to materialize back into regular space; gradually its engines died and let gravity do the rest of the work. As the rest of the ship came back into regular space, the whole bridge crew marveled at what they saw in front of them. A huge lush green planet lay in their midst, it was still a little ways off but because of its size it seemed so close that they could touch it. Then, they noticed debris and parts of ships floating in orbit around this planet, and finally every eye onboard the Imo turned towards a large black outline of a UNSC ship in front of them.

The Gettysburg hung in space, suspended by invisible strings. It had a large burn mark on its starboard side, and one to match it on its port side. Had it not have been for the ships AI or Captain Bungler the ship would have been crippled. Thanks to their maneuvering, the hits they took were only minor ones. While they appeared severe from the outside, the Gettysburg was in good shape. It had taken out fourteen Covenant cruisers and frigates and scared the twenty-six others so much that they retreated to the far side of the planet.
They had had surprise on their side; they had snuck up nice and close to a group of nearly forty Covenant ships. The ships had appeared to be sleeping, they had had their shields down and none were moving. It was if they were waiting for someone, someone coming from the other direction.
The Gettysburg had seized the opportunity; they used their MAC gun and Archer missiles to target individual ships, while using their only Shiva nuclear warhead to inflict damage on every other ship, the force of the blow they dealt the Covenant battle group scared the rest away to the other side of the planet. They must have thought a whole fleet was attacking them for that much damage to be done in one blow, fourteen ships destroyed, the rest crippled or badly damaged. Even though twenty-six had got away, this was still a major victory for the crew of the Gettysburg.
Something wasn't right though, the Covenant wouldn't just retreat out of a potential battle, and they especially wouldn't run away from one ship. Something was up; something was going on, on the other side of the planet and the Captain wanted to know what.

Chapter 6:
10/27/2552 / First Age of Rejuvenation / 0350 Units
Onboard Covenant Station Rejuvenation

The large purple rectangular room had bleachers lining each of its sides. Seated on these bleachers were the leaders of every Covenant race. The leaders of the Brutes, the Grunts, the Hunters, the Drones, the Jackals and the Engineers sat waiting for what would happen next. Nearly a hundred Prophets lined the floor below. They were all vying to be the leader of the Covenant.
One of the Prophets, the Prophet of Rejuvenation rose above the others and started to speak: "With the loss of the Elites, our Covenant has been weakened, but I will rebuild the Covenant and bring it back to its old prosperity."
A Brute, wearing dark green armor stood up out of his seat in the crowd and yelled: "With the loss of brother Truth, we must choose a new leader. I for one have my faith in brother Revenge".
Another Prophet hovered above the crowd, his crown glistening in the light. "I will lead the Covenant back into battle, to seek revenge for our brothers. The Great Journey will not be stopped again."
There was a huge cheer throughout the room as the other Prophets left the floor of the room. Meaning, that they gave their respect to the Prophet of Revenge, and that he would be their new leader.
"I will destroy of the Humans, and the deserters. Together the Covenant shall become mighty again and the Great Journey will begin. Brother Rejuvenation, I would ask you to help me lead the Covenant, you will rebuild this failing empire back into what is once was."
A single Prophet, the Prophet of Rejuvenation hovered out back into the middle of the room. Hundreds of cheers of approval went out as he made his closing statements: "The Covenant shall be strong once more, and together we will fulfill our destiny and the callings of the Gods, nothing will stop the Great Journey!"
A Jackal came sprinting through the doors and ran up to the Prophet of Revenge, to give its report. The Prophet looked shocked, he turned towards the crowd and announced: "It appears the Humans have arrived, prepare for revenge!"
Every creature in the crowd let out a growl, and then made its way out of the room and back onto their ships. The Prophet of Revenge immediately made his way to his own personal flagship, Revenge and jumped to Slipspace, away from the station.
The moment the Revenge had left; fifty-six other ships came out of Slipspace, heading towards the station. The glare from the lush green planet shimmered off their silver bows.
The ships opened fire upon the Covenant fleet heading towards the Human's position. The ships turned towards where the fire had come from. The deserters had returned.

The Arbiter growled as he watched one of his own ships go up in flames. He ordered half of his fleet to destroy of the station, while the other half dealt with the fleet. They were outnumbered badly, it was nearly five-hundred against fifty-five but they weren't there to stay and fight, no they were there to make sure that station was destroyed.
He watched the starboard view screen as his ships opened fire on the station, the station was strong, but his ships were stronger. Soon the station caught fire, and escape pods, dropships and carriers launched away from the station, abandoning it. He ordered his Seraph fighters to engage the carriers and dropships and destroy them before they could land on the planet or on any other ship.
The dropships and carriers exploded from the barrage of plasma coming from the Seraph fighters. Only a few carriers made it down onto the planet below, the rest were destroyed.
The station started to crack, and then blew up, sending thousands of pieces of metal and glass flying. The explosion consumed all of the life pods, and sent their remains hurdling into a nearby ship, causing the ships shields to flicker, then die. Immediately like vultures, four of the Arbiter's ships moved in and opened fire upon the ship with their plasma torpedoes. The ship let out a loud screeching sound as it fell apart and exploded.
The Arbiter pointed his claw towards a nearby Elite and beckoned to him. The Elite marched over to him and waited for orders. "Was Revenge's ship destroyed?" the Arbiter inquired.
"No" The Elite returned. "It must have fled before we came, but why?"
"Because the Humans are here also." The Arbiter answered.
The Arbiter signaled to one of his deck crew Elites, to give him control over the Covenant battle net channels. It was time he announced his presence.
"The Prophets have led you wrong, and if you continue to follow them, they will lead you down a path of which there is no return. The Great Journey is not how it appears. It would have you sacrificing all of your lives to please the Gods." The Arbiter stated over the Covenant channels.
The Covenant ships all tracked the source of the message and turned to face the Arbiter's ship, preparing to fire. The Arbiter signaled to all the crew on deck to prepare for a charge.
"It is the Age of Judgment for the Prophets, and the Arbitration shall be the ones to make it. The Prophets will suffer for their actions. We will bring them in front of us and judge them for their wrong-doings. Nothing will stop the Judgment or the Arbitration." The Arbiter roared over the Covenant's battle net as his remaining fifty ships charged at full speed towards the Covenant's armada with their plasma cannons aglow.

Chapter 7:

10/27/2552 0400 Hours
Onboard UNSC Destroyer Imo

The Chief waited as the elevator slowly descended, down towards the Cryo chambers. What could be more important than him getting a weapon, he thought to himself. The Captain had told him there would be a surprise down here for him and he should go to it immediately.
The service elevator came to a halt and the doors slid apart. The Chief marched down a small corridor punched in a five-digit code and waited for the doors to Cryo Chamber D to open.
The doors slid apart and he stepped inside. He scanned the room, the room was occupied by nearly forty empty-cryo tubes and a bunch of Tech specialists who were huddled around a closed tube.
A Tech Officer came running over towards the Chief. "The Captain said you were on your way, come and see this." The Chief follow the officer towards the occupied cryo tube.
"We picked him up during the battle for Reach. We had been too late to engage the enemy but one of our Longsword fighters picked him up on its way back to the ship. He's been in this cryo-tube for over a month, we didn't want to disturb him. We've fixed him up as best as we could." The officer told the Chief.
The tube popped open, and a person could be seen inside. This person was covered in the green MJOLNIR armor of the Spartans.
"James?" Master Chief whispered near the helmet of the Spartan.
The Spartan rose up out of the tube and planted its feet firmly on the ground. It turned its head towards the Chief and stated: "Yes, it is. It's good to be back Chief, I was lucky enough to have been picked up by this ship during my vacation in space".
The Tech Officer quickly ran some tests on the Spartan, he checked to make sure that the Spartan still had his sense of direction, that the Spartan was in good health and that his armor was fully operational.
James stepped onto a small square and waited as rings of light went over his armor. His shields were being brought back online. He waited as they charged back up, and then finally stepped out of the square.
The room shuddered and tools went flying. The force of the blow knocked everyone off of their feet. The COM buzzed as the Captain roared "We've been hit, enemy boarding craft inbound, prepare to repel boarders."
"We've got to get out of here now" the Chief yelled. "James, lets get some weapons, and haul ass back up to the bridge."
The Tech Officer and his Tech crew scattered and ran out of the room, heading towards another service elevator that would take them to the lifeboats. The Chief and SPARTAN-113, James, followed them down the hall and jumped on a different elevator.
The elevator shook, and continued to descend, down towards the armory. The elevator dropped three decks and finally came to a screeching halt. The Chief and James exited the elevator with speed and made their way through a large set of doors.
The Master Chief swiped a M6D pistol and thirty rounds from a nearby shelf, and attached it to his holster. He grabbed a M90 Shotgun and twenty cartridges, and made his way back to the elevator. James quickly grabbed a M7 SMG and a BR55 Battle Rifle and jumped back onto the elevator.
The Chief slammed his finger into the top button on the panel near the door. The door slid shut and the elevator rose up and started on its way to the bridge. The COM inside of his helmet buzzed as the Captain's voice crackled in his ear: "Chief, get to the Bridge ASAP. The Covenant are trying to get in the Bridge" he yelled. The Chief could hear gun shots and screams in the background.
The elevator finally stopped and the two Spartans ran through the doors and down the corridor towards the bridge. Up ahead, they could hear plasma fire and the familiar staccato sound of SMG fire. They cautiously inched their way toward a score of unsuspecting Grunts and Jackals. They appeared to be guarding the exit from the bridge.
The two Spartans waded into the shadows, waiting to strike. The Chief slowly approached; his shotgun at the ready. He squeezed the trigger and a Jackal went flying away, with its skull broken in.
James opened fire with his Battle Rifle, killing four Grunts and a Jackal with well placed shots to the back of their heads. He charged out of the shadows and beat down two more Grunts with the butt of his rifle.
The Chief unloaded on two Jackals, sending their carcasses flying across the room with the force of his shotgun. The remaining five Jackals and six Grunts hurried down the hall towards the Bridge. A squad of six Marines came out of hiding at the end of the hall, and filled the group with led. Only two Jackals remained standing. They stood with their shields at the ready and their plasma pistols aglow in the middle of the hall.
The Chief signaled to the Marines to open fire. The Jackals turned their shields towards the Marines; the Chief grabbed his pistol and fired two rounds, one in the skull of each Jackal.
The Chief and James made their way down the hall and through the busy Marines and Bridge crew, towards the Captain. He turned and faced them, his face was sweaty and his hair was a mess. "Chief, the other ships are late. The Citadel, Mont-Blanc and the Bluenose are here, but they have made a defensive grid around the Gettysburg and are protecting it until the rest of the battle group arrives. The Covenant have boarded the ship and are trying to take this ship down from the inside. As for the Covenant fleet, they have yet to fully engage us. I count thirty ships en route to our position as we speak. Make your way to a lifeboat, and prepare to abandon ship." The Captain instructed.
"And you sir?" The Chief questioned.
"I'm going to detonate this ship's reactors, and then jump in a life boat and get off this rig before it blows. Take the ship's AI, Ares with you. Once in the lifeboats, he will set a landing zone for the boats, so that we don't end up being scattered when we land on that planet." The Captain replied, taking a blue and green chip from the control console and handing it to the Chief.
The Chief took it and placed it in his armor's neural interface. A slight numbness came over his mind, making him feel relaxed. He shouldered his weapon, wished the Captain good luck, and then went on his way back out of the Bridge.
James slapped a new clip into his Battle Rifle and ran after the Chief. Together they made their way through corridor after corridor. Something wasn't right though, the Covenant were nowhere to be seen, nor the Marines.
Then the heard it, footsteps, human footsteps coming towards them from their right. They turned and saw a Sergeant, he stopped and saluted them. He had blood on his forehead and had a bandage around his left hand.
"Sir, we could use your help." The Sergeant told the Chief. "I'm Sergeant Burns; my men are pinned down in Engineering and I got cut off from them. The minute the Covenant arrived, they went straight to the Engine Room, we could use your help to get rid of them and clear a path to the lifeboats."
"Alright Sergeant, lead the way" The Chief said, while handing the Marine his pistol. The Chief and James followed the Marine down a set of stairs, a ramp and a long corridor until they arrived at the Engineering corridor that led to the Engine Room.
The corridor was filled with around fifty Covenant, Grunt, Jackals, Brutes and even a set of Hunters waited outside the Engine Room door. The Marine grabbed two fragmentation grenades off his belt and handed them to the Chief.
The Chief threw one up and into the unsuspecting crowd of Grunts and Jackals, in front of the Engine Room doors. The explosion rang through the corridor, causing fire everywhere and killing a score of creatures.
The Chief let the second grenade fly, and watched as it detonated, killing one of the Hunters and sending five Brutes flying. James and the Sergeant moved in, opening fire upon the remaining group of creatures, taking them down to only a score. James went back behind a corner, as the Hunter opened fire upon his old position.
The Chief took James's SMG and gave him his shotgun, knowing that the shotgun would be of no use from that distance. The three of them came back out from hiding, and ran straight at the remaining Covenant. The Chief filled the Hunter with a full clip from his SMG; the Hunter shuddered under the oncoming assault. The Sergeant opened fire at a group of Grunts, killing them all. Then he jumped behind a small pillar and reloaded his pistol.
James finished the Hunter off with a three round burst from his Battle Rifle, then moved onto the remaining group of twelve Jackals. The Jackals scattered, and ran in all directions as the fire from the Chief, James and the Sergeant engulfed them.
Finally, the corridor was clear and the doors to the Engine Room opened. More than a hundred Marines, Engineers and other personnel ran through the door. They continued down the corridor and towards the hallway that led to the lifeboats.
The Chief checked the Engine Room to make sure that no one would be left behind and finally left the body-filled room. He, James and the Sergeant ran through the next corridor and jumped into a lifeboat. The hatch shut behind them, and the lifeboat launched away from the ship towards the mysterious Covenant planet.

The Captain was the last onboard his lifeboat. He turned and made sure no one had been forgotten. Then when he was satisfied, he shut the hatch and took a seat as the lifeboat launched away from the ship.
Ten Covenant cruisers surrounded the Imo; they were all sending boarding crafts towards the Imo. Another five frigates surrounded the group of cruisers, protecting them from any sort of attack. The Covenant had wanted to capture his ship, the Captain thought, but why? Then it hit him, their first boarding parties must have notified them that there were Spartans aboard.
The lifeboat shuddered as it entered the hot atmosphere surrounding the planet. The Captain held onto the side of his seat as the craft shook wildly in the pressure. Finally, the craft broke through the atmosphere and continued down towards the planet's surface.

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