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Shadows of Archon II (part 7) - What the Heck Happened
Posted By: Wado<wyamauchi@msn.com>
Date: 30 August 2002, 9:42 am
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The Jukan are mighty warriors. Their training passed down one hundred ninety generations from the time of the Shadowguard Lawgivers. Warriors in ability and experience, but not of heart. The Jukan are a peaceful race. They believe that life is precious. So it is that they risk their own lives to save the lives of others.
There are only a few thousand Jukan left from a society that once thrived in the millions. The killing must stop.
------------------------------------------------
What the Heck Happened
Three hours of heavy marching through jungle has passed. The group finds themselves at the foot of a 50-meter high waterfall hidden away on three sides by great rock cliffs. They have been on forced march because earlier that day the battle between the group and snipers ended in two large explosions. The smoke and fire from the battle was sure to bring more enemies or other curious creatures to the area. Instead of staying there or moving on their previous course, they opted to move out in a random direction to confuse any trackers.
The group is smaller now. In the battle with the snipers, six Jukan were lost. Two Jukan died by sniper fire trying to save Lt. Valerie Sinclair, a human. Two Jukan died in an explosion when they took out one of the sniper positions. Two more Jukan died in an explosion when they were on their way to take out the other sniper position, which John took out. John survived the second explosion, transforming in its fires before the remaining three Jukan from a Covenant Elite into a Spartan.
John is known as the Lawgiver to the Jukan now. In his MJOLNIR battle suit he resembles the great lawgivers of long ago, the Shadowguard. The rest of the group consisting of twenty humans and one Nomdian all refer to John as John and sometimes as Spartan or the Master Chief.
John says, "We stop and rest here."
The group is tired and the water of this hidden place feels so refreshing. This place is a tranquil paradise. The water comes down from high above quietly as there are many smooth ledges that it traverses. There is an abundance of fruits and seeds to eat. For once, life seems normal again.
John washes the soot off of his armor while near by Lt. Valerie Sinclair showers in the waterfall.
Valerie speaks to John, "So there I was lying on the ground dying with two big bleeding holes in me. I reached out to one of the fallen Jukan next to me and felt a vile of golden healing solution. It's like magic, healed my wounds fully, even got rid of my sore neck. What I didn't tell you before though is that I noticed four of the Jukan were gone. They were on their way to take out the snipers. The two dead ones sacrificed their lives to reveal the sniper positions."
John says, "So Lieutenant..."
Valerie interrupts John, "Please call me Valerie, sir. I'll call you Master Chief, your highness, whatever you want, but just call me Valerie or Val for short. Lt. Sinclair, she died a long time ago."
"Alright Val, you can call me John, but we may have to resurrect Lt. Sinclair if we want to ever get back and save Earth." John continues, "So, Val, you said to me earlier that many of the humans took the portal at Reach and came here when the Covenant attacked."
Valerie comes out of the water; she places her wet clothes on a rock to dry in the sun. She lies next to them wearing only her skivvies; her years of captivity have taken any modesty she might have had away.
She says, "Yes, but we found signs that other humans had been here a long time before then. That's still a mystery to us."
John tries not to stare too much at Valerie. Valerie is telling him that he should take that big hard and restraining armor off and lie down next to her. Wow chicks sure do dig the Master Chief. Just then water splashes over his visor. "Huh?"
Valerie splashes some more water on him and says, "Wake up will you. Are you daydreaming? Well take a look who's here."
John looks up to see the Lady coming out of the water with a fish in her mouth. She has been underwater for the last 20 minutes doing some hunting and has come up with lunch.
The Lady approaches, gliding above the water. In one large crunch and suck, the fish is gone from her mouth. The Lady speaks, "John, would it surprise you to know that Nomdians were aquatic creatures long ago before we were forced to live in dark underground tunnels. Speaking of tunnels, I found one that will interest you. Come with me and bring Valerie and Garridor." The Lady then disappears under the water.
John, Valerie and Garridor follow her under the water and down a tunnel that leads behind the waterfall. They arrive in a much larger tunnel above water that is lit by glowing lichens. Various items of technology are scattered about, some large, some small.
"What is this place my Lady," John asks.
The Lady looks about and says, "The last tomb of the Chosen perhaps. Here is the record book that I found the most interesting. All of these record books were written by an Elite named Gregorius more than a thousand years ago."
The group looks at the record book, it starts with some hand drawn pictures of humans. Only these humans stand in front of other alien races who are kneeling before them. The translated writing says, "God."
The first entry after the drawings says:
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Journal Entry 8141.1
We took the mysterious portal found on Anterach 4. It led to the world I have called Jukan after the race of intelligent white apes that live here. Coming out of the portal the first time, the Jukan met us with plasma tipped spears. They took us to a great city where we spoke to their leaders, a council of forty-two. We explained that we were explorers but they started to worship us as gods.
All of this is explained in books 3 and 4 of my journeys. I mention it here because I now understand why they treat us like gods and call us the Chosen Ones. I have found records with pictures of Elites. We are the children of God to them. But what I also found is quite disturbing. We are not the Chosen Ones; this is a mistake on the Jukan's part.
These records are amazing from the days of the forerunners. The first ones, called God, on all accounts resemble humans. Of all things that barbaric race that does nothing more than run naked on their green and blue worlds.
The records do show that the Covenant races were created by God. To us was bestowed the power of reincarnation. However, God grew angry with us for our pride and created the humans in God's own image. Humans would have souls that could bring them to the world of God after death.
This all seems like an elaborate hoax to me.
-------------
The Lady then instructs John to skip to the last entry in the book; it reads:
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Journal Entry 8341.13
We have been betrayed! I narrowly escaped from Anterach 4 through the portal back to here. I shut down the portal right behind me when I took the flux key. The Covenant leaders have ordered the murder of all of our families. They call all my findings a lie and seek to punish us. The Religious Order is keeping my findings a secret but deep inside they are jealous that the humans were given souls that can be with God.
I found out that the human worlds, all six of them, have been destroyed.
There is nothing more for us here; tomorrow we depart through the portal. I believe the next stop will lead us closer to the truth if we travel by way of the purple energies. It is this path that will take us toward the world that came before the forerunners.
-------------
John looks to the Lady, "What does this all mean?"
The Lady speaks, "Apparently the Covenant Leaders are jealous that humans possess a soul that allows your kind to be with God. The Covenant can never be with God, for their souls just come back to this world... By the way, none of this really concerns we Nomdians. The Covenant and human visions of God suit your kind, not ours. We do believe in a higher power, the creator, but our visions of divinity your kind can only imagine in your insanity. However, there is something to the souls of humans that is not quite explainable. Why else would the Archons have hidden away the location of Earth so long ago from the rest of the forerunner races. Of all races the Archons chose to protect the humans of Earth for their great experiment. Earth is the hidden seventh world of humans that only was known about by a few forerunner races. The Covenant did not know it ever existed until they met up with space-faring Terrans."
Cortana speaks from John's armor, "My Lady, did you know all this before? Why did you not tell us?"
The Lady replies, "Some of it I knew and chose not to tell, but the rest I have discovered from these records that I read while John and the others were basking in the sun. It could be all lies, misinformation to hide some other secret or just the rambling of a mad Elite, but I sense that it was no coincident that John led us here today. His random path was not as random as we thought."
Garridor speaks, "This Elite Gregorius was a Chosen One. Some since him have come through the portal and some before him too. He not understand what Chosen One means. We Jukan do not worship Chosen Ones as gods; we show our deepest respect to them. Chosen Ones are the Great Protectors. Long ago the Lawgivers came and saved us from evil. They went away, but when evil came again, the Chosen Ones came again as Elites. They protected us from the evil and then left."
"Elites protecting anyone but the Covenant, that makes no sense." Valerie says.
The Lady speaks, "Elites weren't always part of the Covenant. It wasn't until after the Elite Religious Leaders became high officials in the Covenant that it was honorable to be a Covenant. Before then, many of the Covenant races were constantly fighting amongst themselves. So I understand."
John slowly starts to speak, the sleeper within awakes for a moment, "No, this is not all true. I feel there is some lies in Gregorius' writings. It is all too easy an explanation. Targeted specifically for the eyes of humans. We must avoid the purple energies of the portal at all costs; they will lead us astray. I feel poor Gregorius did not know this and met a most horrible doom. Nothing the Old Ones ever built was so easy to figure out. We must find more clues."
As the group looks for more clues, back at the site where the fight took place earlier in the day, there is a large group of Covenant grunts. A silver grunt is speaking to a shiny golden grunt.
Silver grunt says, "Supreme Commander we have snipers watching the path to the Spirit City and the path back to the portal. They report nothing."
Golden grunt says, "Second Commander, we lost four of our best grunts today and you are telling me that their murders have disappeared without a trace? Show me the last transmission from them again, just maybe we can find out where they are going."
The last transmission is viewed. A dialog caught by their surveillance equipment between an Elite and a human.
After viewing the transmission again, the golden grunt says, "What is this pervert the human speaks of?"
Silver grunt replies, "Supreme Commander, it would appear as though the Elite is trying to seduce the human."
"This time the Chosen Ones have gone too far." The golden grunt says in disgust as he takes out a scanner. There is nothing unusual on the scanner at first, but then a blinking light the shape of a person appears. "Ah good, right on time. Second Commander, gather our forces, we have a Chosen One to catch."
"What do we do with this one sir?" says the silver grunt.
The golden grunt replies, "Kill him like all the rest. Hopefully this will be the last one I'll ever have to deal with Second Commander. In seven days and 6 hours my ride off this hot and humid rock will arrive. My tour of duty on the fringes of nowhere will be done. Let the next Supreme Commander take care of things. It's such a shame that we just can't level this rock and be done with it. Very inconvenient that the forerunners built a defensive system around the entire planet. No weapons of mass destruction allowed. I wish I knew why. Maybe there's something really valuable here that I could take with me, make all these years I rotted away here worth while. Ah but Second Commander, don't worry, I won't forget about you. Bring me the head of this Chosen One and I'll make sure you get off of this rock too."
More than a hundred grunts gather about the golden grunt. No grunt salutes a commander out here, but over the comm they chant, "All hail Supreme Commander Imperius."
More than a dozen drop ships arrive and the forces load up and head due east.
-- Next, Imperius the Destroyer --
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