High Charity
It has been a few days since Master Chief escaped the explosion. Installation 04 is still in flames, in pieces as a large group of Covenant CCS-class Battlecruisers fly near the destroyed Halo. In the distance a massive ship hovers. It is the Covenant Holy City called High Charity. The Covenant are currently in the Ninth Age of Reclamation. This "Age" is when the true search for Halo began. Around High Charity there are hundreds of CCS-class Battlecruisers, Assault Carriers and Super Carriers are protecting the Holy City. Several Banshees patrol the inside of High Charity. In the Council Chamber, a Sangheili Zealot stands in the middle while two rows of Sangheili Honor Guards stand throughout the room. There are several High Council San 'Shyuum or Lesser Prophets on one side of the room, while on the other side of the room there are High Council Sangheili. In the front end of the room two High San 'Shyuum or High Prophets float in the middle and one is a hologram. Two Sangheili Honor Guards stand on both sides of the High Prophets. The Sangheili Zealot Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee explains to the High Prophets that there was only one ship. One of the High San 'Shyuum asks if he is his sure. Thel says that it was called Pillar of Autumn. The High Council Sangheili along with the Lesser Prophets mutter amongst themselves. One of the High Prophets named Prophet of Mercy asks why it wasn't destroyed with the rest of "their fleet." Thel replies that the ship fled as they Covenant fleet set fire to "their planet."
Thel remembering the planet Reach as the Pillar of Autumn escapes his grasp. He then says that he followed the ship with all the ships in his command. He now remembers his fleet heading toward Installation 04 while several ships were already in orbit. Another High Prophet with a familiar voice asks Thel if he was blinded by Halo's "majesty" when he first saw it. Thel was confused when the Prophet of Regret asked him the question. The Prophet of Regret asked if he was paralyzed or dumbstruck. Thel says no. Then from his hologram, the Prophet of Regret angrily says to Thel that one human ship evaded him landed on the "Sacred Ring" and the humans desecrated it with their footsteps. Thel was now trying to convince the holographic Prophet of Regret and Prophet of Mercy that he was being attacked by the "parasite," but he was interrupted by the Lesser Prophets when they were yelling at him. The Prophet of Mercy demanded that there would be order in the Council while banging his fist on his anti-gravity throne.
Another Prophet floats in and puts up his hands and the room went into dead silence. This Prophet's name was the Prophet of Truth. He says that Thel was correct on focusing on the Flood. But then he asks about the "Demon" and referred to him the Master Chief. Thel replied that when he learned of Master Chief's intention that he was too late. The crowd starts roaring, the Prophet Councilors stand up and yell while the Sangheili Councilors whisper and glare at each other. One on side of the room there was a Jiralhanae (Brute) Chieftain named Tartarus being unnoticed and laughs softly to himself. The Prophet of Regret made his hologram approach the Prophet of Truth and whispered that the event has gone on long enough. The Prophet of Regret also whispered to him to make an example of this "bungler" because the Council demands it. But the Prophet of Truth put up his hand silencing him. He tells Thel that he is a "treasured instrument" and that he held his fleet with honor and distinction. But his inability to safeguard Halo was a colossal failure. But the Prophet Councilor, Prophet of Objection stands up and yells that it was heresy. The Councilors start yelling again. Thel is getting angry and yells that he will continue his campaign against the humans. But the Prophet of Truth was quick to respond to that he will not. He looks at Tartarus and gives him a slight nod. He barks at some other Brutes. Two Brutes walk over and try to grab him. But Thel shakes them off. He walks away to face his fate and the Brutes walk with him. The Prophet of Truth said'
"Soon the Great Journey shall begin. But when it does, the weight of your heresy will stay your feet. And you shall be left behind."
Thel walks through High Charity, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Hunters are gathered up on sides. The Brutes walk him over to a ledge where there are two Sangheili Honor Guards. Everyone is shouting "Heretic" towards Thel. The Brutes put him on floating handcuffs. There are large crowds on the levels below cheering and screaming. Tartarus says that he summoned a large crowd. But Thel replies that if everyone came to hear him beg that they will be disappointed. Tartarus asks him if he is sure about that. The cuffs light up with energy and cause him serious pain. His armor turns black. Tartarus yells at the crowd that there can be no greater Heresy and to let him be an example for all who try to break the Covenant. He barks at the other two Brutes and they take off his damaged black armor. then they take off his helmet. Thel is now naked in pain. A glowing hot brand rises from the ground and Tartarus grabs it and walks toward Thel. Tartarus presses it against his chest and Thel resists the pain at first but then he starts screaming. The glowing hot brand is leaving a mark on his chest. A mark that he will have forever.
Thel remembering the planet Reach as the Pillar of Autumn escapes his grasp. He then says that he followed the ship with all the ships in his command. He now remembers his fleet heading toward Installation 04 while several ships were already in orbit. Another High Prophet with a familiar voice asks Thel if he was blinded by Halo's "majesty" when he first saw it. Thel was confused when the Prophet of Regret asked him the question. The Prophet of Regret asked if he was paralyzed or dumbstruck. Thel says no. Then from his hologram, the Prophet of Regret angrily says to Thel that one human ship evaded him landed on the "Sacred Ring" and the humans desecrated it with their footsteps. Thel was now trying to convince the holographic Prophet of Regret and Prophet of Mercy that he was being attacked by the "parasite," but he was interrupted by the Lesser Prophets when they were yelling at him. The Prophet of Mercy demanded that there would be order in the Council while banging his fist on his anti-gravity throne.
Another Prophet floats in and puts up his hands and the room went into dead silence. This Prophet's name was the Prophet of Truth. He says that Thel was correct on focusing on the Flood. But then he asks about the "Demon" and referred to him the Master Chief. Thel replied that when he learned of Master Chief's intention that he was too late. The crowd starts roaring, the Prophet Councilors stand up and yell while the Sangheili Councilors whisper and glare at each other. One on side of the room there was a Jiralhanae (Brute) Chieftain named Tartarus being unnoticed and laughs softly to himself. The Prophet of Regret made his hologram approach the Prophet of Truth and whispered that the event has gone on long enough. The Prophet of Regret also whispered to him to make an example of this "bungler" because the Council demands it. But the Prophet of Truth put up his hand silencing him. He tells Thel that he is a "treasured instrument" and that he held his fleet with honor and distinction. But his inability to safeguard Halo was a colossal failure. But the Prophet Councilor, Prophet of Objection stands up and yells that it was heresy. The Councilors start yelling again. Thel is getting angry and yells that he will continue his campaign against the humans. But the Prophet of Truth was quick to respond to that he will not. He looks at Tartarus and gives him a slight nod. He barks at some other Brutes. Two Brutes walk over and try to grab him. But Thel shakes them off. He walks away to face his fate and the Brutes walk with him. The Prophet of Truth said'
"Soon the Great Journey shall begin. But when it does, the weight of your heresy will stay your feet. And you shall be left behind."
Thel walks through High Charity, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Hunters are gathered up on sides. The Brutes walk him over to a ledge where there are two Sangheili Honor Guards. Everyone is shouting "Heretic" towards Thel. The Brutes put him on floating handcuffs. There are large crowds on the levels below cheering and screaming. Tartarus says that he summoned a large crowd. But Thel replies that if everyone came to hear him beg that they will be disappointed. Tartarus asks him if he is sure about that. The cuffs light up with energy and cause him serious pain. His armor turns black. Tartarus yells at the crowd that there can be no greater Heresy and to let him be an example for all who try to break the Covenant. He barks at the other two Brutes and they take off his damaged black armor. then they take off his helmet. Thel is now naked in pain. A glowing hot brand rises from the ground and Tartarus grabs it and walks toward Thel. Tartarus presses it against his chest and Thel resists the pain at first but then he starts screaming. The glowing hot brand is leaving a mark on his chest. A mark that he will have forever.
Upgrade to Mark VI armor
Earth. A secret that the humans have been keeping for so long. Happening at the same time as Thel's trial, three MAC stations are in orbit around the planet. Several UNSC ships patrol the stations and the planet. One of the MAC stations is the Cario. The Master Chief is on this ship. The Master Gunnery Sergeant complains to John about how expensive his Mark V armor was. Master Chief puts on his helmet and says to the Master Gunnery Sergeant to tell the Covenant what he told Master Chief. The Master Gunnery Sergeant gives up and says says to take it easy because of the upgrade. The Sergeant tests his shields. Master Chief shields charge a lot faster then his Mark V armor. An elevator door opens and Sergeant Johnson walks in. Master Chief and Johnson walk in the elevator. The Gunnery Sergeant asks how he got back. Johnson replies that it is classified. The elevator rises and eventually stops. Master Chief and Johnson get in a tram. Johnson says that he hasn't seen Earth in years. He also states that the Cario is one of three hundred "geo-sync" stations. Johnson exaggerates that a MAC gun can destroy a Covenant capital ship. He also exaggerates that nothing is going to get past the Cario, Athens and the Malta easily. The tram stops and marines cheer for Master Chief and Johnson. Cameras surround the both of them. Master Chief quietly told Johnson that he thought was going be cameras. Johnson replied in a louder voice that he thought Master Chief was going to wear something nice. They go through large blast doors open and they go through. A few dozen Naval officers stand up and cheer as Johnson and Master Chief walk up to a lone figure on the other end of the bridge. They meet Lord Terrence Hood, the current leader of the UNSC. Master Chief and Johnson salute to to Lord Hood. An officer whispers something to him and lets Cortana step in. She says that there is a another whisper near Io one of Jupiter's moons. Lord Hood apologies and says that they make it quick. Cortana says that he looks nice and both Johnson and Master Chief thank her. Lord Hood gently picks up a Colonial Cross. He walks over to Johnson and carefully pins it on his uniform. He tells Johnson that the award was given to him for acts singular daring and devotion. He compliments Johnson some more and walks over to Miranda Keyes. He hands the metal to Miranda and says,
"Commander Miranda Keyes. Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit, upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best."
Cortana now detects slipspace ruptures off of their battle cluster. She then shows an image of Covenant ships. Cortana says that there are fifteen Covenant capital ships outside of their kill zone. Fleet Admiral Harper contacts Lord Hood saying that his fleet is engaging the enemy. Lord Hood orders him to fall back and to form a defensive perimeter around their star cluster. He then turns to Commander Keyes and orders her to get to her ship and link with the fleet. Lord Hood gives Cortana permission to use the MAC gun. Lord Hood says that the fleet that glassed Reach was fifty times larger. Another officer detects multiple boarding craft. Lord Hood says out loud that they are going to try to take out the MAC guns to give the rest of the fleet a clear shot at Earth. He looks at Master Chief who has been quiet this whole time. Lord Hood orders him to defend the station. He simply obeys and turns to Johnson and told him that he needs a weapon. Master Chief moves down some stairs and picks up a battle rifle and two SMGs. He runs through some hallways along with Johnson and a squad of marines. A Covenant Boarding Craft attaches itself onto the ship. The ship shakes and firepower is heard. Johnson sets up a turret. In the large door, there was a small light in the middle of the door. Sort of like a welding tool. The crackling stops and the light dies away. The door suddenly explodes and two squads of Covenant pour out. The Master Chief did most of the work by killing the Sangheili and the Unggoy.
Lord Hood contacts Master Chief and tells him to cut off the Covenant by stopping them at their point of access. Master Chief makes his way to Hangar Bay One. A Covenant boarding craft has impacted the station. Waves of Covenant climb out and attack the marines and Master Chief. Master Chief eventually kills them all. Through the window he spots several Covenant Boarding Craft suspiciously leaving the Malta. The Malta explodes and pieces fly everywhere. Master Chief heads to the next Hangar Bay and fights off much more Covenant. When he kills them all he sees Covenant Boarding Craft leave the Athens in the same way. The Athens explodes suffering the exact same fate the Malta faced. Cortana says that the explosions came from inside the stations. She says that they brought bombs and that they probably brought one on the Cairo as well. Lord Hood orders Master Chief to find the bomb. A door opens a level below and a squad of Covenant rush through. Master Chief kills the squad and moves through the hallway and a Special Operations Sangheili comes through the door and attacks him. But Master Chief quickly kills the Sangheili. A large door opens to reveal the Master Gunnery Sergeant. The Master Gunnery Sergeant screams at the Sangheili that are shooting at him. He then lets out a dying scream as the Sangheili brutally kill him. Master Chief couldn't save him because of the door opening too slowly. But he does avenge the Master Gunnery Sergeant's death by killing the Sangheili. Master Chief grabs a shotgun and some ammo for the battle rifle. As soon as he walks in the next room several squads of Covenant attack him but to no avail. When he moves on another squad tried to assist the already demolished Covenant squads. He kills them and runs up some stairs. When he goes through the room overlooking the Armory a door suddenly opens and a large squad of Unggoy and Sangheili go through. John throws a Grenade and kills most of them. He kills the others with the shotgun. Master Chief goes through several more empty rooms and hallways.
He finally hears firepower from the UNSC and the Covenant. Master Chief quickly moves in. Commander Miranda Keyes and Johnson along with several officers are cut off from their escape ship In Amber Clad. Master Chief and Johnson kills most of the Covenant while the officers kill some Unggoy. When the area was clear Commander Keyes, Johnson along with the officers run off into the ship. Master Chief exits through the stations airlock and a small squad of Sangheili Rangers (with jet-packs) attack him. John has to move faster because Cortana needs his help to make contact with the bomb so she can diffuse it. When he enters the station several marines wait for him. But soon they are all attacked by Yanme'e. Master Chief has difficulty killing all of them. Shortly after a cargo lift sends a squad of Covenant reinforcements to help the Yanme'e. Master Chief clears the area and heads down the lift. When he reaches the bottom he exits another airlock. A Assault Carrier flies right over the station and rocks the ship. Master Chief has to deal with another squad of Sangheili Rangers along with the MAC guns recoil arm. He eventually kills the Sangheili and goes through the airlock. Cortana says that there are a lot of Sangheili guarding the bomb. Another Assault Carrier flies overhead and rocks the ship. When he finally get there, Master Chief has to fight off a few squads of Sangheili. The bomb looks like it has a lot of spikes. Cortana desperately says that she needs to be inside John's helmet. He walks over to the pedestal and touches the pedestal with the palm of his hand. Master Chief walks over to the bomb. The bomb's high-pitched sound getting higher and higher. He touches the flashing red light on the bomb and it suddenly turns blue. Master Chief asks Cortana how much time was left on the bomb. Cortana replied that he didn't want to know. Commander Keyes contacted Lord Hood that one of the Carriers shields was down. But Lord Hood orders her not to go against the ship "that size." Master Chief contacts Lord Hood asking permission to leave the station. Lord Hood, confused calmly asks why. John replied
"To give the Covenant back their bomb."
Lord Hood granted him permission to do so.
"Commander Miranda Keyes. Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit, upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best."
Cortana now detects slipspace ruptures off of their battle cluster. She then shows an image of Covenant ships. Cortana says that there are fifteen Covenant capital ships outside of their kill zone. Fleet Admiral Harper contacts Lord Hood saying that his fleet is engaging the enemy. Lord Hood orders him to fall back and to form a defensive perimeter around their star cluster. He then turns to Commander Keyes and orders her to get to her ship and link with the fleet. Lord Hood gives Cortana permission to use the MAC gun. Lord Hood says that the fleet that glassed Reach was fifty times larger. Another officer detects multiple boarding craft. Lord Hood says out loud that they are going to try to take out the MAC guns to give the rest of the fleet a clear shot at Earth. He looks at Master Chief who has been quiet this whole time. Lord Hood orders him to defend the station. He simply obeys and turns to Johnson and told him that he needs a weapon. Master Chief moves down some stairs and picks up a battle rifle and two SMGs. He runs through some hallways along with Johnson and a squad of marines. A Covenant Boarding Craft attaches itself onto the ship. The ship shakes and firepower is heard. Johnson sets up a turret. In the large door, there was a small light in the middle of the door. Sort of like a welding tool. The crackling stops and the light dies away. The door suddenly explodes and two squads of Covenant pour out. The Master Chief did most of the work by killing the Sangheili and the Unggoy.
Lord Hood contacts Master Chief and tells him to cut off the Covenant by stopping them at their point of access. Master Chief makes his way to Hangar Bay One. A Covenant boarding craft has impacted the station. Waves of Covenant climb out and attack the marines and Master Chief. Master Chief eventually kills them all. Through the window he spots several Covenant Boarding Craft suspiciously leaving the Malta. The Malta explodes and pieces fly everywhere. Master Chief heads to the next Hangar Bay and fights off much more Covenant. When he kills them all he sees Covenant Boarding Craft leave the Athens in the same way. The Athens explodes suffering the exact same fate the Malta faced. Cortana says that the explosions came from inside the stations. She says that they brought bombs and that they probably brought one on the Cairo as well. Lord Hood orders Master Chief to find the bomb. A door opens a level below and a squad of Covenant rush through. Master Chief kills the squad and moves through the hallway and a Special Operations Sangheili comes through the door and attacks him. But Master Chief quickly kills the Sangheili. A large door opens to reveal the Master Gunnery Sergeant. The Master Gunnery Sergeant screams at the Sangheili that are shooting at him. He then lets out a dying scream as the Sangheili brutally kill him. Master Chief couldn't save him because of the door opening too slowly. But he does avenge the Master Gunnery Sergeant's death by killing the Sangheili. Master Chief grabs a shotgun and some ammo for the battle rifle. As soon as he walks in the next room several squads of Covenant attack him but to no avail. When he moves on another squad tried to assist the already demolished Covenant squads. He kills them and runs up some stairs. When he goes through the room overlooking the Armory a door suddenly opens and a large squad of Unggoy and Sangheili go through. John throws a Grenade and kills most of them. He kills the others with the shotgun. Master Chief goes through several more empty rooms and hallways.
He finally hears firepower from the UNSC and the Covenant. Master Chief quickly moves in. Commander Miranda Keyes and Johnson along with several officers are cut off from their escape ship In Amber Clad. Master Chief and Johnson kills most of the Covenant while the officers kill some Unggoy. When the area was clear Commander Keyes, Johnson along with the officers run off into the ship. Master Chief exits through the stations airlock and a small squad of Sangheili Rangers (with jet-packs) attack him. John has to move faster because Cortana needs his help to make contact with the bomb so she can diffuse it. When he enters the station several marines wait for him. But soon they are all attacked by Yanme'e. Master Chief has difficulty killing all of them. Shortly after a cargo lift sends a squad of Covenant reinforcements to help the Yanme'e. Master Chief clears the area and heads down the lift. When he reaches the bottom he exits another airlock. A Assault Carrier flies right over the station and rocks the ship. Master Chief has to deal with another squad of Sangheili Rangers along with the MAC guns recoil arm. He eventually kills the Sangheili and goes through the airlock. Cortana says that there are a lot of Sangheili guarding the bomb. Another Assault Carrier flies overhead and rocks the ship. When he finally get there, Master Chief has to fight off a few squads of Sangheili. The bomb looks like it has a lot of spikes. Cortana desperately says that she needs to be inside John's helmet. He walks over to the pedestal and touches the pedestal with the palm of his hand. Master Chief walks over to the bomb. The bomb's high-pitched sound getting higher and higher. He touches the flashing red light on the bomb and it suddenly turns blue. Master Chief asks Cortana how much time was left on the bomb. Cortana replied that he didn't want to know. Commander Keyes contacted Lord Hood that one of the Carriers shields was down. But Lord Hood orders her not to go against the ship "that size." Master Chief contacts Lord Hood asking permission to leave the station. Lord Hood, confused calmly asks why. John replied
"To give the Covenant back their bomb."
Lord Hood granted him permission to do so.
Covenant core of the Assault Carrier.
Master Chief grabs the bomb by the spikes as handles and drags it to an elevator. As he drags the bomb, sparks fly off the ground and leave gashes on the ground. When he finally reaches the elevator it rises. Cortana says she knows what John is thinking, and what he is thinking is crazy. Master Chief suggests that she stays on the station. Cortana says that she likes crazy. It stops at a launch bay and he effortlessly drags into the room. There is a massive space battle out of the window. He walks over to the door's release handle which comes from above. He leans himself against the wall. Cortana asked one question, she asked "what if he missed." Master Chief calmly assured her that he won't. He pulls the lever and the outside airlock opened and pieces of debris got sucked into oblivion. Then the bomb started to slowly move, then started to fly away. Just before the bomb escaped the airlock Master Chief grabbed on to it and flew into the space battle. Master Chief was in free fall. He could hear sound because there is oxygen in his helmet and he is in the outer atmosphere. Master Chief is above Africa. He spots one Assault Carrier but he would have missed it. A second Carrier glides below him and starts shooting it's Energy Projector. Then a UNSC cruiser flies in front of him. The Energy Projector destroys the ship and Master Chief watches as it tries to ignite it's engines. Soon after two Long Sword Fighters speed past John. The Fighters make a bombing run on the ship and leave a hole large enough to get Master Chief and the bomb through. He enters the core of the ship. A large fusion reactor while a bright light emits from the center. The core's exterior has taken heavy damage. Master Chief slowly crawls to the activation panel and activates it. He pushes himself hard off the bomb making the bomb go the opposite direction. John aims for a split in the Carrier. He jumps through and falls for Earth. Behind him there is a massive blue and white explosion that tears the ship apart. Luckily In Amber Clad was on the same trajectory as John was. Master Chief lands hard on the ship. He is contacted by Commander Keyes to get inside the ship because they are taking the fight to the surface. The ship flies to a large city which looks partly on fire.
Assault Carrier Solemn Penance
Three Pelicans fly out the In Amber Clad. All three head for the city called New Mombasa. Cortana says that a message repeats with, "Regret" several times. Master Chief is in one of the Pelicans listening. Then Sergeant Johnson makes up these fake message saying the the Covenant was regretting to invade Earth. They pass over several Warthogs as this happens. Cortana states that Regret is a name, which is the name of a "religious leader." Or more commonly known as a Prophet. Several Marines lock and load their weapons. Master Chief is just standing there observing the city below him. Lord Hood contacts Master Chief and orders him to board the Assault Carrier. He asked was anticipating asking the Prophet of Regret why he landed on New Mombasa. Suddenly a Scarab (type of Scarab without the "head.") comes in view. It fires it's main gun at the Pelican that was in the lead. The other two Pelicans take evasive action. It fires its plasma turret and hits the pelican with Master Chief and Johnson. It crashes into the ground, overturns and violently slides into a building.
A minute or two later Master Chief wakes up along with a few marines. Sergeant Johnson is already awake. They quickly collect their weapons and move away from the crash site. They run through a few hallways, Master Chief takes point. He encounters a large squad of Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Sangheili. Master Chief and Johnson moves inside the building in the middle of the courtyard. Several Kig-Yar snipers attack the squad of marines and Master Chief. Johnson picks up a sniper and takes them out. When they clear the area, the marines voices echo throughout the courtyard. Then another squad of Kig-Yar and Unggoy move in quietly down the street. Shortly Yanme'e fly over the rooftops to attack them. Master Chief does most of the work at this point. After the Yanme'e a Phantom drop a squad of Sangheili, Kig-Yar and Unggoy.. Master Chief kills them all with the greatest of ease. The Phantom flees after Master Chief's onslaught. A Pelican arrives soon after. But the pilot says that he can't land because the Pelican is too big. But he spotted a landing zone on the other side of the buildings. It flies off and Johnson orders one of the marines to put a satchel on the gate. But something starts pounding on the door. The marines back off slowly. The pounding gets louder all of a suddenly the pounding stops. Everyone is watching the gate. The door suddenly explodes and a pair of Hunters charge through. Johnson order the marines to stand down and watch the Master Chief kill the Hunters. Master Chief once again kills the Hunters with ease and they all move through the gate. They head into the second courtyard where Kig-Yar snipers shoot them. They are supported by a squad of Kig-Yar Minors and Majors. Master Chief destroys them all. A Pelican drops by to pick up Sergeant Johnson. Johnson was needed for escort of airlifting armor throughout the city. In the next area John fights off several Kig-Yar Snipers.
They run through several building filled with Covenant. They finally reach Stacker's position. The hotel they are about to enter is very dark. Master Chief uses this to his advantage. He runs through darkness and kills several Sangheili silently. Some Unggoy start fleeing. Master Chief kills them as well. They finally head out of the hotel. Master Chief spots a Phantom dropping off a squad of Unggoy. The Master Chief takes care of them easily. A Warthog drives by and stops. Master Chief gets in the drivers seat. Several Ghosts attack. The marines destroy them. Cortana says that the highest concentration of Covenant was directly below the Super Carrier. John drives along the beach attacking more Covenant as he goes. Several Ghosts attack as well as a Phantom. The Phantom escapes. Master Chief spots a large tunnel. As he heads near the tunnel entrance multiple Orbital Insertion Pods drop all around him. Sangheili attack from all directions. Master Chief threw a few Plasma Grenades and killed them all. He gets back in the Warthog and moves through the tunnel. They drive for miles and fight off more Covenant. After a few miles several Shadows which carry Ghosts and infantry speed through the tunnel. He quickly follows and destroys the Shadows. He finally reaches a Covenant defensive position. Suddenly the Scarab fires straight through the roof. It stops firing and walks away. Master Chief kills the rest of the infantry and walks up a large hill. When he gets outside a marine is panicking while a female marine is watching the Scarab walk away all the way across the bridge. She said that nothing worked against it. Suddenly a Pelican arrives with a Scorpion tank a Sergeant Johnson.
A minute or two later Master Chief wakes up along with a few marines. Sergeant Johnson is already awake. They quickly collect their weapons and move away from the crash site. They run through a few hallways, Master Chief takes point. He encounters a large squad of Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Sangheili. Master Chief and Johnson moves inside the building in the middle of the courtyard. Several Kig-Yar snipers attack the squad of marines and Master Chief. Johnson picks up a sniper and takes them out. When they clear the area, the marines voices echo throughout the courtyard. Then another squad of Kig-Yar and Unggoy move in quietly down the street. Shortly Yanme'e fly over the rooftops to attack them. Master Chief does most of the work at this point. After the Yanme'e a Phantom drop a squad of Sangheili, Kig-Yar and Unggoy.. Master Chief kills them all with the greatest of ease. The Phantom flees after Master Chief's onslaught. A Pelican arrives soon after. But the pilot says that he can't land because the Pelican is too big. But he spotted a landing zone on the other side of the buildings. It flies off and Johnson orders one of the marines to put a satchel on the gate. But something starts pounding on the door. The marines back off slowly. The pounding gets louder all of a suddenly the pounding stops. Everyone is watching the gate. The door suddenly explodes and a pair of Hunters charge through. Johnson order the marines to stand down and watch the Master Chief kill the Hunters. Master Chief once again kills the Hunters with ease and they all move through the gate. They head into the second courtyard where Kig-Yar snipers shoot them. They are supported by a squad of Kig-Yar Minors and Majors. Master Chief destroys them all. A Pelican drops by to pick up Sergeant Johnson. Johnson was needed for escort of airlifting armor throughout the city. In the next area John fights off several Kig-Yar Snipers.
They run through several building filled with Covenant. They finally reach Stacker's position. The hotel they are about to enter is very dark. Master Chief uses this to his advantage. He runs through darkness and kills several Sangheili silently. Some Unggoy start fleeing. Master Chief kills them as well. They finally head out of the hotel. Master Chief spots a Phantom dropping off a squad of Unggoy. The Master Chief takes care of them easily. A Warthog drives by and stops. Master Chief gets in the drivers seat. Several Ghosts attack. The marines destroy them. Cortana says that the highest concentration of Covenant was directly below the Super Carrier. John drives along the beach attacking more Covenant as he goes. Several Ghosts attack as well as a Phantom. The Phantom escapes. Master Chief spots a large tunnel. As he heads near the tunnel entrance multiple Orbital Insertion Pods drop all around him. Sangheili attack from all directions. Master Chief threw a few Plasma Grenades and killed them all. He gets back in the Warthog and moves through the tunnel. They drive for miles and fight off more Covenant. After a few miles several Shadows which carry Ghosts and infantry speed through the tunnel. He quickly follows and destroys the Shadows. He finally reaches a Covenant defensive position. Suddenly the Scarab fires straight through the roof. It stops firing and walks away. Master Chief kills the rest of the infantry and walks up a large hill. When he gets outside a marine is panicking while a female marine is watching the Scarab walk away all the way across the bridge. She said that nothing worked against it. Suddenly a Pelican arrives with a Scorpion tank a Sergeant Johnson.
Objective: Destroy the Scarab
A Pelican arrives with Scorpion attached to it. The Scorpion drops and Sergeant Johnson drops with it. Johnson asks the female marine where the rest of her platoon is. She replies that they been destroyed. Then the marine who was panicking started to walk toward the landed Pelican. He said if they don't get out of there then they will be destroyed as well. Johnson resists him and explains that when he was in the army that they didn't have tanks. So therefore these marines are lucky. He orders them to stay with the Master Chief. The Master Chief gets in the Scorpion and drives onto a large bridge floating on the water. Hundreds of crashed cars, trucks and buses are on the bridge. A few dozen Ghosts try to destroy the Scorpion tank but fail. Banshees try to kill John as well. Even some Wraiths try to attack as well. Several Phantoms fly past him and land troops including a pair of Wraiths. He finally drives across the bridge and destroys the Wraiths and a few Banshees. Master Chief barley fits the Scorpion into the tunnel ahead. There is overturned Warthog ahead in the dark tunnel. A few marines are hiding behind the Warthog. John blows up a few Sangheili and some Kig-Yar. He drives through the tunnel and kills a lot of Unggoy and Kig-Yar. But the ledge is too high and too small for the Scorpion (even though you can glitch it and drive through) and runs the rest of the way killing the remaining Covenant. He goes through a smaller tunnel and eventually comes outside. A Kig-Yar sniper is sniping the marines in an open field. Master Chief calmly walks up to it and assassinates him. John spots the Scarab in the distance but it quickly moves away from his view. A large squad of Covenant is shooting a Sergeant Stacker who is in a Gauss Warthog. Master Chief picks up the Kig-Yar's Beam Rifle and starts sniping the Sangheili first, then kills the other Kig-Yar snipers.
Master Chief jumps down from his vantage point and Stacker drives by. John gets in the gunner and kills the rest of the Covenant. Stacker drives into another courtyard and several Ghosts, Kig-Yar snipers, Sangheili, and a Wraith. John shoots the Ghosts first then the infantry. The Stacker circles around the Wraith as Master Chief destroys it. Stacker drives through a large room with a water fall and finds a small marine outpost. Some Ghosts are attacking the first area but Master Chief easily destroys them with the Gauss turret. They drive to the next area and find three Wraiths attacking the marines. When the Master Chief destroys one of them a Phantom drops a Ghost from above. The Phantom shoots it's three turrets at the master Chief. Stacker avoids them and the Phantom stays for a while but finally leaves. Stacker drives up to a large blast door. A marine leads Master Chief up stairs and takes him to Sergeant Banks. When he gets to him the squad of marines and John spots a large plasma beam from the Scarab. They spot a Scorpion shooting at the Scarab but is failing. The Scarab turns to their direction and slowly walks to the marines. The Scarab then aims at the Scorpion and destroys it easily. The Scarab keeps walking destroying the bridges with it's legs and walks over their position. The marines are now really frustrated with the Scarab. A marine spots where it is headed and moves up stairs in pursuit.
Master Chief enters a canal, and the Scarab is slowly moving through it. Several rocket launchers are scattered across the area. John picks up as much ammo as he can for the rocket launcher and picks up a shotgun. Several Unggoy and Sangheili are already on the Scarab's deck. Master Chief jumps from the walkway all the way into the Scarab and lands in the middle of the Covenant squad. He uses the Shotgun and takes them out first. Several more squads of Covenant come form inside the Scarab. Master Chief uses the rocket launcher to kill them. After he kills the Covenant on the deck he moves inside to where he finds Ultra Unggoy, a Sangheili Ultra and Sangheili Majors. Master Chief kills the Unggoy and the Sangheili Majors with the rocket launcher. He fires his last rocket at the Sangheili Ultra, but the Ultra dives out of the way just in time. John takes out his shotgun and starts shooting him. The Ultra evades him easily. Master Chief then throws a Plasma Grenade at the Sangheili. It sticks to him, but when it blew up it didn't kill him. The explosion knocks him on the ground with one knee on the ground. Master Chief walks up to him and aims his shotgun at his head. Just as he is about pull the trigger the Ultra evades. The Ultra made a mistake by taking out his Energy Sword. He charges for John. He swipes to Master Chief's right and swings again to his left. Master Chief backs away from it easily and kicks him away and picks up a Plasma Pistol. He charges it at the Ultra and fires. The Ultra's shields are down and he is on one knee again. He also dropped his Energy Sword. The Ultra tries to grab it but misses when Master Chief picks it up. The Ultra backs away but it cornered. The Ultra takes out another Energy Sword. He charges again. He swings, just like he did the first time. Master Chief was expecting this. When the Ultra swung to the Master Chief's right, John used his left leg and kicked the Sword out of his hand, spins around and with his right leg forcefully kicked the Sangheili to the wall. The Ultra was pinned to the wall. The Master Chief takes the sword that is in his hand and throws it straight for his face. The Sword spins in a forward motion and strikes the Ultra partly in the neck and the other half of the sword in his mouth. The Sangheili struggles, but the Master Chief ignores him. He is bleeding badly and his purple blood is spraying from his neck. (Not like a "sideways" motion. Notice the letter "I." It would look like that instead of the letter "I" sideways.) (For you Martial Artists out there it was a roundhouse kick followed by a back kick which is an effective move in sparring!) The Sangheili finally dies from shock and blood loss. Master Chief looks at him one last time before he activates the self-destruct on the Scarab. John holsters his shotgun and activates the Scarab's self-destruct.
He calmly walks out and a Pelican picks him up. Johnson yells at them to keep running and Commander Keyes orders to get aboard the In Amber Clad. She then contacts Lord Hood asking permission to attack the Assault Carrier, and to go after the Prophet of Regret. But he rejects her and and says that he will have reinforcements to destroy the ship. A marine detects a slipspace rupture off the ships bow. Lord Hood immediately gives her permission to engage. Master Chief's Pelican arrives and docks with In Amber Clad. Commander Keyes then orders the pilots to get close the Solemn Penance. A marine tries to warn her about not having a destination solution. But Commander Keyes didn't care and said that they will not lose the ship. The ship speed up next to the Assault Carrier. Suddenly a giant portal opens and the two ships go into slipspace, disappearing into the portal. A massive electromagnetic pulse goes through the entire mega city.
Master Chief jumps down from his vantage point and Stacker drives by. John gets in the gunner and kills the rest of the Covenant. Stacker drives into another courtyard and several Ghosts, Kig-Yar snipers, Sangheili, and a Wraith. John shoots the Ghosts first then the infantry. The Stacker circles around the Wraith as Master Chief destroys it. Stacker drives through a large room with a water fall and finds a small marine outpost. Some Ghosts are attacking the first area but Master Chief easily destroys them with the Gauss turret. They drive to the next area and find three Wraiths attacking the marines. When the Master Chief destroys one of them a Phantom drops a Ghost from above. The Phantom shoots it's three turrets at the master Chief. Stacker avoids them and the Phantom stays for a while but finally leaves. Stacker drives up to a large blast door. A marine leads Master Chief up stairs and takes him to Sergeant Banks. When he gets to him the squad of marines and John spots a large plasma beam from the Scarab. They spot a Scorpion shooting at the Scarab but is failing. The Scarab turns to their direction and slowly walks to the marines. The Scarab then aims at the Scorpion and destroys it easily. The Scarab keeps walking destroying the bridges with it's legs and walks over their position. The marines are now really frustrated with the Scarab. A marine spots where it is headed and moves up stairs in pursuit.
Master Chief enters a canal, and the Scarab is slowly moving through it. Several rocket launchers are scattered across the area. John picks up as much ammo as he can for the rocket launcher and picks up a shotgun. Several Unggoy and Sangheili are already on the Scarab's deck. Master Chief jumps from the walkway all the way into the Scarab and lands in the middle of the Covenant squad. He uses the Shotgun and takes them out first. Several more squads of Covenant come form inside the Scarab. Master Chief uses the rocket launcher to kill them. After he kills the Covenant on the deck he moves inside to where he finds Ultra Unggoy, a Sangheili Ultra and Sangheili Majors. Master Chief kills the Unggoy and the Sangheili Majors with the rocket launcher. He fires his last rocket at the Sangheili Ultra, but the Ultra dives out of the way just in time. John takes out his shotgun and starts shooting him. The Ultra evades him easily. Master Chief then throws a Plasma Grenade at the Sangheili. It sticks to him, but when it blew up it didn't kill him. The explosion knocks him on the ground with one knee on the ground. Master Chief walks up to him and aims his shotgun at his head. Just as he is about pull the trigger the Ultra evades. The Ultra made a mistake by taking out his Energy Sword. He charges for John. He swipes to Master Chief's right and swings again to his left. Master Chief backs away from it easily and kicks him away and picks up a Plasma Pistol. He charges it at the Ultra and fires. The Ultra's shields are down and he is on one knee again. He also dropped his Energy Sword. The Ultra tries to grab it but misses when Master Chief picks it up. The Ultra backs away but it cornered. The Ultra takes out another Energy Sword. He charges again. He swings, just like he did the first time. Master Chief was expecting this. When the Ultra swung to the Master Chief's right, John used his left leg and kicked the Sword out of his hand, spins around and with his right leg forcefully kicked the Sangheili to the wall. The Ultra was pinned to the wall. The Master Chief takes the sword that is in his hand and throws it straight for his face. The Sword spins in a forward motion and strikes the Ultra partly in the neck and the other half of the sword in his mouth. The Sangheili struggles, but the Master Chief ignores him. He is bleeding badly and his purple blood is spraying from his neck. (Not like a "sideways" motion. Notice the letter "I." It would look like that instead of the letter "I" sideways.) (For you Martial Artists out there it was a roundhouse kick followed by a back kick which is an effective move in sparring!) The Sangheili finally dies from shock and blood loss. Master Chief looks at him one last time before he activates the self-destruct on the Scarab. John holsters his shotgun and activates the Scarab's self-destruct.
He calmly walks out and a Pelican picks him up. Johnson yells at them to keep running and Commander Keyes orders to get aboard the In Amber Clad. She then contacts Lord Hood asking permission to attack the Assault Carrier, and to go after the Prophet of Regret. But he rejects her and and says that he will have reinforcements to destroy the ship. A marine detects a slipspace rupture off the ships bow. Lord Hood immediately gives her permission to engage. Master Chief's Pelican arrives and docks with In Amber Clad. Commander Keyes then orders the pilots to get close the Solemn Penance. A marine tries to warn her about not having a destination solution. But Commander Keyes didn't care and said that they will not lose the ship. The ship speed up next to the Assault Carrier. Suddenly a giant portal opens and the two ships go into slipspace, disappearing into the portal. A massive electromagnetic pulse goes through the entire mega city.
Thel's Execution: The Arbiter
Thel is being dragged by two Brutes. Tartarus is leading the Brutes to their destination, The Brutes dragging Thel are complaining about dragging him. One of them suggests to feed them to the Kig-Yar prisoners. The other one suggests to the other that they could use the meat. Tartarus silences them and says that the "Hierarchs have something special in mind. The three walk Thel over to a gravity lift and ride down overlooking a large room. They reach the walkway and dozens of Sangheili Honor Guards stand at attention when Tartarus passed by them. A large door opens and reveals the Prophet of Mercy and the Prophet of Truth waiting for them. Tartarus and his guards bow before the High Hierarchs. Tartarus said that he brought the incompetent. The Prophet of Truth calmly orders him to leave. He starts to talk but The Prophet of Truth says to take his Brutes with him. Tartarus bows again and obeys. The Brutes drop him and walk away. The Prophet of Truth says,
"The Council decided to have you hung by your entrails and your corpse paraded through the city. But ultimately, the terms of your execution are up to me." He says this as Prophet of Truth softly clenches his fist. Thel says that he is already dead. The Prophet of Truth agrees and asks him if Thel knew here he was. He replies that he is in the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. The Prophet of Truth replies,
"Quite so. Here rests the vanguard of the Great Journey. Every Arbiter, from first to last. Each one created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis." Thel looks around and observes hundreds of corpses in separate sarcophagi (sarcophaguses plural). The Prophet of Mercy explains the Taming of the Hunters and the Unggoy Rebellion. He also explains that if it weren't for the Arbiters the Covenant would have broken long ago. Thel explains to the Prophets that he would never belong in their presence. The Prophet of Truth says to Thel,
"Halo's destruction was your error, and you rightly bear the blame. But the Council was... overzealous. We know you are no heretic. This is the true face of heresy, one who would subvert our faith and incite rebellion against the High Council."He then shows a hologram showing a message of Sesa 'Refumee trying to convince the other Sangheili that that Halo's destroy everything and that the Great Journey is a fake. The Prophet of Truth turns off the message and says,
"This heretic, and those who follow him, must be silenced." The Prophet of Mercy says that this "slander" offends everyone who walks the Path to Salvation. But Thel replies that he can't command ships or troops into battle. The Prophet agrees, but says that id becomes the Arbiter then he "shall set loose against this heresy with their blessing." As the Prophet of Truth says that a large pod slowly floats down to the center of the room. It opens and reveals an ancient suit of armor. The Prophet of Mercy says that the mission he will embark on will be suicidal, He said that he will die as every Arbiter has. Therefore the Council will have their corpse. He gets up and walks to the armor. He pauses for a moment and looks at the other bodies surrounding him. He grabs the helmet and asks,
"What would you have your Arbiter do?"
"The Council decided to have you hung by your entrails and your corpse paraded through the city. But ultimately, the terms of your execution are up to me." He says this as Prophet of Truth softly clenches his fist. Thel says that he is already dead. The Prophet of Truth agrees and asks him if Thel knew here he was. He replies that he is in the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. The Prophet of Truth replies,
"Quite so. Here rests the vanguard of the Great Journey. Every Arbiter, from first to last. Each one created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis." Thel looks around and observes hundreds of corpses in separate sarcophagi (sarcophaguses plural). The Prophet of Mercy explains the Taming of the Hunters and the Unggoy Rebellion. He also explains that if it weren't for the Arbiters the Covenant would have broken long ago. Thel explains to the Prophets that he would never belong in their presence. The Prophet of Truth says to Thel,
"Halo's destruction was your error, and you rightly bear the blame. But the Council was... overzealous. We know you are no heretic. This is the true face of heresy, one who would subvert our faith and incite rebellion against the High Council."He then shows a hologram showing a message of Sesa 'Refumee trying to convince the other Sangheili that that Halo's destroy everything and that the Great Journey is a fake. The Prophet of Truth turns off the message and says,
"This heretic, and those who follow him, must be silenced." The Prophet of Mercy says that this "slander" offends everyone who walks the Path to Salvation. But Thel replies that he can't command ships or troops into battle. The Prophet agrees, but says that id becomes the Arbiter then he "shall set loose against this heresy with their blessing." As the Prophet of Truth says that a large pod slowly floats down to the center of the room. It opens and reveals an ancient suit of armor. The Prophet of Mercy says that the mission he will embark on will be suicidal, He said that he will die as every Arbiter has. Therefore the Council will have their corpse. He gets up and walks to the armor. He pauses for a moment and looks at the other bodies surrounding him. He grabs the helmet and asks,
"What would you have your Arbiter do?"
"This Heretic must be silenced."
High Charity is still in orbit above the gas giant Threshold. A large piece of Installation 04 is still floating around. Three Phantoms fly past the Halo shard and Rtas 'Vadumee walks among them as he talks about how their dying breath, they swore an oath. Reciting the Oath or Writ of Union the Sangheili in the Phantom chants parts of the Oath. Rtas raises his voice that they will march into Salvation. Thel in his new Arbiter armor is sitting in the shadows and Rtas walks up and they stare at each other. Rtas finally says that his new armor "suited" him, but didn't hide the Mark of Shame. The Arbiter replies that nothing will hide it. Rtas explains that Thel is the will of the Prophets, but his Sangheili are his to command. He also tells him that their lives matter to him, but Thel's life doesn't matter to him. Thel replies with, "That makes two of us." The Phantom pilot says that a storm will hit the station. The three Phantoms fly above a unknown alien platform and they fly to another one below hanging on a giant cable. A storm rages below the structure. The Phantoms drop Unggoy, several Sangheili, Rtas, and the Arbiter. The Arbiter activates his Energy Sword and glances at it while the Covenant forces head down a ramp. The Arbiter follows his allies down the ramp. The storm cloaked them from detection but they need to be silent. They have the element of surprise.
The squad moves through an airlock. Rtas orders his squad to engage active camouflage and suggests to the Arbiter to do the same. But the disadvantage is that the Arbiter's Armor is ancient and not "updated," therefore his camouflage will not last forever. When they engage cloaking an Unggoy brag that no one can see him. The Arbiter doesn't engage his cloaking yet. He moves into the next room quietly and listens in on a conversation of two Heretic Sangheili. One of them said that the Oracle will protect them but his Sentinels are too few in numbers. The Arbiter now cloaks himself and takes out some sleeping Heretic Unggoys. He then reactivates his cloaking and assassinates a Heretic Sangheili but another Sangheili is on the other side of him. The Sangheili notices Thel assassinating him and is just about to scream letting the other Heretics know that his ally is getting killed, but is silenced by Rtas. The Sangheili squad takes care of the rest silently as the Arbiter helps kill them.
They move through several hallways and rooms filled with Heretic Sangheili and Unggoy. The eventually reach an elevator and move downwards into a hangar. A Seraph is docked inside. The Covenant squad lets them know that they arrives. But a new alien species come out and shoots yellow lasers at the squad. The squad shoots a several of these unknown alien robots. Several Heretic Sangheili move through doorways and attack, but is killed by the Arbiter. One of the Sangheili squad members notices that they are Sentinels! He wonders why they sided with the Heretics. They clear the area and open the giant glass door. A Phantom flies inside and drops off a few Unggoy and a few Sangheili. More Heretics attack but are soon destroyed by the Arbiter. He runs through the facility and reaches a giant window separating the Heretic Leader and the Arbiter. Sesa, the Heretic Leader orders some Sangheili to kill the Arbiter and he will protect the Oracle. He jumps into a Banshee and flies away. Thel eventually reaches the Banshees and jumps in one and flies in the direction Sesa flew in. Rtas sends a Phantom to assist the Arbiter in their search for the Heretic leader. The Arbiter and the Phantom fights off several Banshees, and Unggoy with fuel rod guns, they also fly around the station until they find the final emplacement. Rtas has tracked the Heretic to this area. The Arbiter clears the area with his Banshee and gets inside the building. Followed by a squad of Covenant. Rtas 'Vadumee comes in last. Rtas notices the smell and Thel asks what he smelled. Rtas replies that he smelled the stench before. The Arbiter notices fish in a large tank. But the creatures don't look like fish, they look like something else. But he quickly ignores the creatures and moves on until he sees a lot of green blood all over the walls and all over the floor. Again he ignores it and keeps moving. The squad of Sangheili and Unggoy move quietly through several rooms, but it is too quiet...
The squad of Covenant enter a room with a giant glass floor. They see the shadows of heretics and strange creatures attacking each other. The screams of the creatures are very familiar to the Sangheili. The large squad of 15 Sangheili Heretics are killed very quickly. The dead bodies seem to get back up, but the glass was to hard to see through. The room suddenly goes quiet. But the Covenant has to move quickly so they can confirm their kill of the Heretic Leader. They rush through several more rooms and eventually enter a dark room filled with mist. The Arbiter takes point and jumps down a small ledge. There is mutilated remains of bodies every where, but the strange thing is that they looked similar to the structure of a Sangheili, but not the body parts it self. The Arbiter looks around and notices more green blood. A pair of Unggoy have bad feelings about this. The Sangheili wonder what had happened. They then hear a strange sound, after a few seconds a small blue orb floats in front of the squad and suddenly turns into Sesa 'Refumee. The Unggoy freak out and start shooting at the Heretic Leader, but the Sangheili notice that Sesa is a hologram. He notices the Arbiter and says he is flattered. Rtas says that he is close and turns to the hologram and tells him to come out so they can kill him. Sesa chuckles and says "Get in line."
The hologram disappears suddenly bulbous creatures start to attack them. Rtas states that the Flood is upon them. Then even more waves of the Flood start to attack, first it is Infection forms which is the bulbous forms, then the Combat Form which is when they can walk, talk, carry weapons, and even use the victims memories to do various things like shooting or driving a Warthog. They fended off several waves of the Flood. A Sangheili says that they should have brought weapons to burn the bodies. Rtas tells the Arbiter and the other Covenant forces to move on, and he will follow with reinforcements. The squad rides an elevator down a large shaft and as they move down Sentinels and Flood attack each other. The team enters a lab and more Flood and Sentinels attack each other along with Heretics. Since the door is locked they have to defend themselves until the door opens. After fighting several waves of Flood the door opens with a giant wave of Flood on the other side. The Flood on the other side of the door attacks and consumes the Sangheili and the Unggoy. The Arbiter destroys them all including his brothers. that were infected. But sadly he had to kill them. He hurries outside and there is a massive battle between the Flood and the Heretics. A Phantom flies in a joins the battle killing the Heretics and the Flood. The Phantom pilot says that the storm is about to hit, but Rtas told the pilot to get closer to the station and tells the Arbiter to hurry. The Phantom and the Arbiter clear the area of Heretics and the Flood and drops some Sangheili and Rtas. They progress into the heart of the station. The spot the Sesa fleeing from them. Thel sprints for him but the Heretic Leader gets behind a shield door before he can catch up to him. The Heretic Leader says "This will save me from the storm, but you will be consumed." The Arbiter pounds the shield door with his three finger fist and a metal door closes on the other side of the shield door.
Rtas finally catches up to the Arbiter says that they will never break through the door, however the Arbiter says that they will force him out. He then states that he will cut the cable and suggests to Rtas to get everyone back to the ships. Rtas orders the squad of Covenant to go back to the landing zone and tells them what the Arbiters going to do. Rtas notices that the Arbiter has an plasma rifle instead of a Energy Sword. Rtas stops him and gives him his Energy Sword. He said to the Arbiter that he will need it for cutting the cable. They all depart and the Arbiter moves up to an elevator while he is evading the Flood. He rides and locates the cables. Several waves of Flood and Sentinels start attacking each other and attack the Arbiter as well. The Arbiter ignores them and sprints for the first of three cables. When he reaches it he uses his Energy Sword to destroy the cable. When he cuts it the station seems to tip a little. The Arbiter cuts the another one and the ships seems to tip even more. Several more waves of Flood start to attack. The Arbiter runs for the final cable and cuts it with his energy sword. The Flood and Sentinels stop fighting suddenly and look up in the sky. A few seconds pass and suddenly the top of the station tears away and the station is in free fall. The Flood and Sentinels disappear, but the Arbiter suffers a small jump. He gets in the elevator in the middle of the room and descends. He fights through several waves of Flood and Heretics. After a few dozen rooms of the Flood the Arbiter finally spots the Heretic leader escape in a Banshee. The Arbiter follows him and flies into the sandstorm. The Arbiter after flying through the storm flies below the landing zone and jumps out of the Banshee just in time to grab the ledge and pulls himself up. He rushes through more rooms of Flood and Heretics and finally enters a room with Seraph.
The Heretic turns around right before he gets inside the Seraph. Sesa the Heretic leader says he would rather die by his hands then by the Prophets hands. The Arbiter asks Sesa who taught him the lies. Humming is heard by the two. 343 Guilty Spark floats in behind the Heretic leader and the Arbiter is in complete amazement. He refers to it as the Oracle. 343 Guilty Spark greets himself also telling the Arbiter that his is the Monitor of Installation of 04. Sesa tells the Arbiter to ask the Monitor about Halo and how it would destroy everything in the Galaxy. The Monitor then tells the Arbiter that he would be happy to assist him. Sesa fires at the Arbiter with two Plasma Rifles, and the Arbiter quickly moves behind cover. Sesa activates his jetpack and flies toward the Seraph and takes out two holodrones and throws them down the stairs. They activate and start firing at the Arbiter. Sesa told the Arbiter that the Sangheili are blind and Sesa will make the Arbiter see the truth. The Arbiter engages Active Camouflage and moves toward "one" of the Heretic Leaders. The Arbiter gets behind it but it disappears. The Arbiter yells because it was a holodrone. The other two fire at him but the Arbiter gets away. Sesa releases several more holodrones but this time the Arbiter knows which one it is. He engages Active Camouflage and sprints for the Heretic Leader. Thel disables his own Camouflage and first runs toward a holodrone. Thel takes out two Energy Swords and swing at two of the drones. He then jumps and lands on the back of another he stabs this one in the back and jumps on to another one. The last holodrone didn't fire this time so the Arbiter knew it was Sesa. Thel jumps off and kicks him in the face, knocking him to the ground. While the Arbiter was in the air he swing at the other holodrone making it disappear. Sesa takes out his Plasma Rifles and starts shooting the Arbiter. The Arbiter circles around him dodging Plasma Rounds. Thel then stopped, and dived for the Heretic leader and with both Energy Sword, destroyed the Plasma Rifles. The heretic jumps back and takes out two Energy Sword. But when he looks up the Arbiter wasn't there. He was behind him. The Heretic realized this and swung behind him. The swing almost cut the Arbiter at the belly. The swing hit one the Energy Swords the Arbiter was carrying and the Sword flew out of view. Sesa yelled and charged, swinging at the Arbiter multiple times. The Arbiter backs away while blocking most of the Heretics attack with one Energy Sword. Then Sesa swung at the Arbiters middle section. The Arbiter immediately jumps over the Sword and over Sesa. While in the air the Arbiter swings down and hits his head and does a front flip, lands on the ground and rolls forward a few times and lands on his feet with balance. He turns around and notices that he only cut his shoulder because the Heretic Leader move to the side a little. Thel puts his sword away. The Heretic charges again and the Arbiter does the same thing only this time he doesn't swing, instead he lands right behind the Heretic. With his left hand he grabbed Sesa's right shoulder. With the other hand grabbed the left side of Sesa's face with his right. The Arbiter twists his head to the right while at the same time twisting his shoulder to the Arbiter's left. The Arbiter twists but Sesa's neck doesn't break. Thel twists harder while Sesa yells and restrains and suddenly twists hard enough to where his neck creates a loud snap. When it snapped Sesa's head turned 180 degrees. The Arbiter lets go of the limp body. The Heretic's head still facing the Arbiter finally goes back to it's original position. The body falls to his knees. Somehow Sesa is still breathing. The Arbiter decides not to do anything. The Heretic finally falls to his face dying.
The Arbiter grabs the dead body by the neck and drags him to the hangar door. 343 Guilty Spark said that his "edification" was enjoyable. The Arbiter apologizes and told the Monitor that the Heretic would harm the "Great Journey." He also refers the Monitor as the "Oracle." The Monitor wonders why he called it "Great Journey" and wonders why the Arbiter called him "Oracle." The Monitor keeps talking and is suddenly sucked away. It attaches to the Fist of Rukt, Tartarus's Gravity Hammer. With disbelief yells at Tartarus. Tartarus told the Arbiter to get in the Phantom as he tosses the Monitor into the Gravity lift. Angry with Tartarus, he gets inside the Phantom and it flies toward High Charity.
The squad moves through an airlock. Rtas orders his squad to engage active camouflage and suggests to the Arbiter to do the same. But the disadvantage is that the Arbiter's Armor is ancient and not "updated," therefore his camouflage will not last forever. When they engage cloaking an Unggoy brag that no one can see him. The Arbiter doesn't engage his cloaking yet. He moves into the next room quietly and listens in on a conversation of two Heretic Sangheili. One of them said that the Oracle will protect them but his Sentinels are too few in numbers. The Arbiter now cloaks himself and takes out some sleeping Heretic Unggoys. He then reactivates his cloaking and assassinates a Heretic Sangheili but another Sangheili is on the other side of him. The Sangheili notices Thel assassinating him and is just about to scream letting the other Heretics know that his ally is getting killed, but is silenced by Rtas. The Sangheili squad takes care of the rest silently as the Arbiter helps kill them.
They move through several hallways and rooms filled with Heretic Sangheili and Unggoy. The eventually reach an elevator and move downwards into a hangar. A Seraph is docked inside. The Covenant squad lets them know that they arrives. But a new alien species come out and shoots yellow lasers at the squad. The squad shoots a several of these unknown alien robots. Several Heretic Sangheili move through doorways and attack, but is killed by the Arbiter. One of the Sangheili squad members notices that they are Sentinels! He wonders why they sided with the Heretics. They clear the area and open the giant glass door. A Phantom flies inside and drops off a few Unggoy and a few Sangheili. More Heretics attack but are soon destroyed by the Arbiter. He runs through the facility and reaches a giant window separating the Heretic Leader and the Arbiter. Sesa, the Heretic Leader orders some Sangheili to kill the Arbiter and he will protect the Oracle. He jumps into a Banshee and flies away. Thel eventually reaches the Banshees and jumps in one and flies in the direction Sesa flew in. Rtas sends a Phantom to assist the Arbiter in their search for the Heretic leader. The Arbiter and the Phantom fights off several Banshees, and Unggoy with fuel rod guns, they also fly around the station until they find the final emplacement. Rtas has tracked the Heretic to this area. The Arbiter clears the area with his Banshee and gets inside the building. Followed by a squad of Covenant. Rtas 'Vadumee comes in last. Rtas notices the smell and Thel asks what he smelled. Rtas replies that he smelled the stench before. The Arbiter notices fish in a large tank. But the creatures don't look like fish, they look like something else. But he quickly ignores the creatures and moves on until he sees a lot of green blood all over the walls and all over the floor. Again he ignores it and keeps moving. The squad of Sangheili and Unggoy move quietly through several rooms, but it is too quiet...
The squad of Covenant enter a room with a giant glass floor. They see the shadows of heretics and strange creatures attacking each other. The screams of the creatures are very familiar to the Sangheili. The large squad of 15 Sangheili Heretics are killed very quickly. The dead bodies seem to get back up, but the glass was to hard to see through. The room suddenly goes quiet. But the Covenant has to move quickly so they can confirm their kill of the Heretic Leader. They rush through several more rooms and eventually enter a dark room filled with mist. The Arbiter takes point and jumps down a small ledge. There is mutilated remains of bodies every where, but the strange thing is that they looked similar to the structure of a Sangheili, but not the body parts it self. The Arbiter looks around and notices more green blood. A pair of Unggoy have bad feelings about this. The Sangheili wonder what had happened. They then hear a strange sound, after a few seconds a small blue orb floats in front of the squad and suddenly turns into Sesa 'Refumee. The Unggoy freak out and start shooting at the Heretic Leader, but the Sangheili notice that Sesa is a hologram. He notices the Arbiter and says he is flattered. Rtas says that he is close and turns to the hologram and tells him to come out so they can kill him. Sesa chuckles and says "Get in line."
The hologram disappears suddenly bulbous creatures start to attack them. Rtas states that the Flood is upon them. Then even more waves of the Flood start to attack, first it is Infection forms which is the bulbous forms, then the Combat Form which is when they can walk, talk, carry weapons, and even use the victims memories to do various things like shooting or driving a Warthog. They fended off several waves of the Flood. A Sangheili says that they should have brought weapons to burn the bodies. Rtas tells the Arbiter and the other Covenant forces to move on, and he will follow with reinforcements. The squad rides an elevator down a large shaft and as they move down Sentinels and Flood attack each other. The team enters a lab and more Flood and Sentinels attack each other along with Heretics. Since the door is locked they have to defend themselves until the door opens. After fighting several waves of Flood the door opens with a giant wave of Flood on the other side. The Flood on the other side of the door attacks and consumes the Sangheili and the Unggoy. The Arbiter destroys them all including his brothers. that were infected. But sadly he had to kill them. He hurries outside and there is a massive battle between the Flood and the Heretics. A Phantom flies in a joins the battle killing the Heretics and the Flood. The Phantom pilot says that the storm is about to hit, but Rtas told the pilot to get closer to the station and tells the Arbiter to hurry. The Phantom and the Arbiter clear the area of Heretics and the Flood and drops some Sangheili and Rtas. They progress into the heart of the station. The spot the Sesa fleeing from them. Thel sprints for him but the Heretic Leader gets behind a shield door before he can catch up to him. The Heretic Leader says "This will save me from the storm, but you will be consumed." The Arbiter pounds the shield door with his three finger fist and a metal door closes on the other side of the shield door.
Rtas finally catches up to the Arbiter says that they will never break through the door, however the Arbiter says that they will force him out. He then states that he will cut the cable and suggests to Rtas to get everyone back to the ships. Rtas orders the squad of Covenant to go back to the landing zone and tells them what the Arbiters going to do. Rtas notices that the Arbiter has an plasma rifle instead of a Energy Sword. Rtas stops him and gives him his Energy Sword. He said to the Arbiter that he will need it for cutting the cable. They all depart and the Arbiter moves up to an elevator while he is evading the Flood. He rides and locates the cables. Several waves of Flood and Sentinels start attacking each other and attack the Arbiter as well. The Arbiter ignores them and sprints for the first of three cables. When he reaches it he uses his Energy Sword to destroy the cable. When he cuts it the station seems to tip a little. The Arbiter cuts the another one and the ships seems to tip even more. Several more waves of Flood start to attack. The Arbiter runs for the final cable and cuts it with his energy sword. The Flood and Sentinels stop fighting suddenly and look up in the sky. A few seconds pass and suddenly the top of the station tears away and the station is in free fall. The Flood and Sentinels disappear, but the Arbiter suffers a small jump. He gets in the elevator in the middle of the room and descends. He fights through several waves of Flood and Heretics. After a few dozen rooms of the Flood the Arbiter finally spots the Heretic leader escape in a Banshee. The Arbiter follows him and flies into the sandstorm. The Arbiter after flying through the storm flies below the landing zone and jumps out of the Banshee just in time to grab the ledge and pulls himself up. He rushes through more rooms of Flood and Heretics and finally enters a room with Seraph.
The Heretic turns around right before he gets inside the Seraph. Sesa the Heretic leader says he would rather die by his hands then by the Prophets hands. The Arbiter asks Sesa who taught him the lies. Humming is heard by the two. 343 Guilty Spark floats in behind the Heretic leader and the Arbiter is in complete amazement. He refers to it as the Oracle. 343 Guilty Spark greets himself also telling the Arbiter that his is the Monitor of Installation of 04. Sesa tells the Arbiter to ask the Monitor about Halo and how it would destroy everything in the Galaxy. The Monitor then tells the Arbiter that he would be happy to assist him. Sesa fires at the Arbiter with two Plasma Rifles, and the Arbiter quickly moves behind cover. Sesa activates his jetpack and flies toward the Seraph and takes out two holodrones and throws them down the stairs. They activate and start firing at the Arbiter. Sesa told the Arbiter that the Sangheili are blind and Sesa will make the Arbiter see the truth. The Arbiter engages Active Camouflage and moves toward "one" of the Heretic Leaders. The Arbiter gets behind it but it disappears. The Arbiter yells because it was a holodrone. The other two fire at him but the Arbiter gets away. Sesa releases several more holodrones but this time the Arbiter knows which one it is. He engages Active Camouflage and sprints for the Heretic Leader. Thel disables his own Camouflage and first runs toward a holodrone. Thel takes out two Energy Swords and swing at two of the drones. He then jumps and lands on the back of another he stabs this one in the back and jumps on to another one. The last holodrone didn't fire this time so the Arbiter knew it was Sesa. Thel jumps off and kicks him in the face, knocking him to the ground. While the Arbiter was in the air he swing at the other holodrone making it disappear. Sesa takes out his Plasma Rifles and starts shooting the Arbiter. The Arbiter circles around him dodging Plasma Rounds. Thel then stopped, and dived for the Heretic leader and with both Energy Sword, destroyed the Plasma Rifles. The heretic jumps back and takes out two Energy Sword. But when he looks up the Arbiter wasn't there. He was behind him. The Heretic realized this and swung behind him. The swing almost cut the Arbiter at the belly. The swing hit one the Energy Swords the Arbiter was carrying and the Sword flew out of view. Sesa yelled and charged, swinging at the Arbiter multiple times. The Arbiter backs away while blocking most of the Heretics attack with one Energy Sword. Then Sesa swung at the Arbiters middle section. The Arbiter immediately jumps over the Sword and over Sesa. While in the air the Arbiter swings down and hits his head and does a front flip, lands on the ground and rolls forward a few times and lands on his feet with balance. He turns around and notices that he only cut his shoulder because the Heretic Leader move to the side a little. Thel puts his sword away. The Heretic charges again and the Arbiter does the same thing only this time he doesn't swing, instead he lands right behind the Heretic. With his left hand he grabbed Sesa's right shoulder. With the other hand grabbed the left side of Sesa's face with his right. The Arbiter twists his head to the right while at the same time twisting his shoulder to the Arbiter's left. The Arbiter twists but Sesa's neck doesn't break. Thel twists harder while Sesa yells and restrains and suddenly twists hard enough to where his neck creates a loud snap. When it snapped Sesa's head turned 180 degrees. The Arbiter lets go of the limp body. The Heretic's head still facing the Arbiter finally goes back to it's original position. The body falls to his knees. Somehow Sesa is still breathing. The Arbiter decides not to do anything. The Heretic finally falls to his face dying.
The Arbiter grabs the dead body by the neck and drags him to the hangar door. 343 Guilty Spark said that his "edification" was enjoyable. The Arbiter apologizes and told the Monitor that the Heretic would harm the "Great Journey." He also refers the Monitor as the "Oracle." The Monitor wonders why he called it "Great Journey" and wonders why the Arbiter called him "Oracle." The Monitor keeps talking and is suddenly sucked away. It attaches to the Fist of Rukt, Tartarus's Gravity Hammer. With disbelief yells at Tartarus. Tartarus told the Arbiter to get in the Phantom as he tosses the Monitor into the Gravity lift. Angry with Tartarus, he gets inside the Phantom and it flies toward High Charity.
Another threat to the Universe...
Solemn Penance appears out of slipspace in what seems to be in the middle of unknown space. Moments later, In Amber Clad comes out of slipspace as well but is drifting. Debris follow the In Amber Clad through the slipspace rupture. Commander Keyes asks for a report. A officer says that the engine cores are down and they are drifting because of this. Commander Keyes asks Johnson, who is in a HEV (Human Entry Vehicle) if he is okay. He said he was and asks the Master Chief. Cortana answers for them that they are okay as well. Another officer notices an object in view. Commander Keyes asks what she is looking at. Cortana says it is another Halo. Sergeant Johnson chokes on his cigar in disbelief. Commander Keyes mutters to herself that this is what her father found the first time. Cortana explains that Halo is a super weapon that will cause destruction of all Sentient life on a galactic scale. Commander Keyes demands that she would be given all the information Master Chief and Cortana found on Installation 04. Even if she did not have clearance. Since In amber Clad is going to pass over Solemn Penance, they need to find out why The Prophet of Regret why he came to Earth and why he came to this Halo. Master Chief will take a platoon via drop pods and Sergeant Johnson will take Pelicans and follow them in. When In Amber Clad is over the target a squad of ODST drop pods fall from the ship including Master Chiefs pod. Parachutes deploy and suddenly a few shade turrets fire at them. The pods land near the turrets and John kicks the cover of the pod off. He gets out and takes out an SMG and Cortana asks him if he could be any louder. Without saying anything he reaches behind him and picks up a Rocket Launcher therefore answering Cortana's question with a "yes."
John puts the Rocket Launcher on his back and a marine tells the Master Chief that they have to destroy the turrets. Master Chief acknowledges and runs for the turrets killing squads of Kig-Yar and Unggoy on the way. When he kills destroys the Shade turrets he enters an ancient Forerunner structure. John kills a few squads of Covenant including a squad of Sangheili. The area is completely silent now that there is no gunshots. Cortana tells Johnson that he is clear to land. But as soon she says that a Phantom flies nearby and drops several squads of Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Sangheili. John hurries out of the structure and kills them all with ease. As soon as the Phantom leaves a second one drops more squads. A third Phantom drops reinforcements as well, but John quickly kills the squads and the area is finally clear. A Pelican flies above them and drops a Warthog. John gets in the drive seat and two ODSTs get in the passenger and the gunner. Sergeant Johnson also spotted a large structure in the middle of the islands lake. Cortana says it was a temple and concludes that the Prophet of Regret is probably there.
Master Chief drives up a large hill and a few Kig-Yar snipers spot them but the gunner of the Warthog quickly dispatches them. They drive around a corner and they see a large bridge that is drawing itself in. The Covenant inside of the structure was controlling the bridge. Cortana also detects Wraiths. Several Ghosts piloted by Sangheili attack them, but some are pushed off the edge of the cliff and the others are destroyed. Master Chief parks behind the structure which acted as a vantage point, so the marines could shoot the Covenant that come out of the structure and the ones that are above them. It also acted as a safe area from the Wraiths. Master Chief quietly moves inside the structure. He hears strange a voice in the middle of the structure. The voice seemed to be singing with a sad but serious voice. John moves to the entrance of the room and peeks his head in. All he sees is a squad of Covenant watching to what appears to be a hologram of the Prophet of Regret. Master Chief picks up a Plasma grenade a throws one at the closest Sangheili. He waits for it to blow up. When it blows up he moves in and kills the rest of the Covenant. John walks over to the hologram and Cortana says giving s sermon. The bridge controls are behind the hologram and Master Chief activates it. The Prophets is continuously "speaking" to the Covenant. Master Chief activates the bridge and it slowly moves down. Suddenly, Prophet of Regret is translated to English.
"The Forerunners, our most exalted lords, used the seven sacred rings to flee a doomed existence, to escape their endless struggle against the Flood. Long ago, the Prophets and Elites fought an equally fruitless war. Indeed, I suspect we would still be at each others throats had the Prophets not found evidence of the Forerunners and their Great Journey."
Master Chief moves on and when he gets out side a Scorpion is there waiting for his arrival. John jumps in and targets the Wraiths and destroys them. Through the smoke several Ghosts drive through and attack the Scorpion. Master Chief targets the one in the middle and fires, which resulted in two Ghosts flying off the cliff. The last one was destroyed by the Scorpion as well. Soon a few Banshees fly in to finally support the destroyed troops. But Master Chief aims at the Banshees and fires at one then the other, making them the air units fly off the cliff in flames. The Master Chief scans one more time for more air or ground units and finally moves on. Master Chief drives through a large Forerunner temple full of Ghosts and Sangheili. Master Chief didn't care. He eliminated the Ghosts and Sangheili quickly and easily. Master Chief keeps driving and finally gets outside. Several Sangheili patrol the area. Some spot the Master Chief and start firing at him. One runs for a Ghost so he can alert others of Master Chief presence. He drives away but almost gets destroyed by Master Chief. A few seconds minutes later a dozen Ghosts come from inside the structure and starts shooting John. Master Chief has some difficulty destroying them. They surround him. His shields go down. But finally he shoots a Ghost with the Scorpion. The other scatter, but are soon destroyed by Master Chief. He drives the Scorpion down a stone ramp and follow the fleeing Ghosts. John goes further into the Forerunner temple ruins. On the way he blows up Sangheili, Unggoy and Kig-Yar. A few of the Ghosts that were fleeing starts attacking as well, but once again Master Chief kills them. He keeps driving until he gets outside, this time all of the other Ghosts start to attack. Master Chief destroys the Ghosts with a few shots of his Scorpion. Covenant attack him on the ledges above him as well. But they are protected by pillars so the Master Chief can't shoot them as easy. John ignores them and works his way around them eventually getting to the ledge where he can shoot them. Of course in the time Master Chief took to get to the ledge the Covenant put up deployable shields. The Master Chief shoots at one, which destroys the shield. He keeps shooting and finally kills the Sangheili and the Kig-Yar.
When the area is clear a Pelican drops weapons next to John's Scorpion. Master Chief exits the tank and grabs ammo for the rocket launcher and picks up a battle rifle. A few marines jump off the Pelican and follow the Master Chief through another structure only to be greeted by more Covenant. Master Chief notices that the amount Covenant forces have increased since he landed. More Sangheili and Kig-Yar attack as well. When he kills them all he spots another hologram of Prophet of Regret. He walks over to it and it starts speaking English due to Cortana translating his voice.
"In a gesture of peace and reconciliation, the Prophets promised to find the means of the Forerunners' transcendence, and to share this knowledge with the Elites. The Elites promised to defend the Prophets as they searched. A simple arrangement, that has become our binding Covenant!"
Master Chief listens to the sermon and moves on. He heads up a ramp and encounters Kig-Yar and Unggoy. Master Chief quickly kills them and moves on to a waterfall leading to a creek. He spots a Kig-Yar armed with a Beam Rifle. Master Chief sneaks up behind it and assassinates by taking it's his head with one hand and throwing it on the ground, crushing his skull on the ground. John picks up the Kig-Yar body and throws it off the waterfall and picks up the Beam Rifle and looks around with it. Master Chief spots several Kig-Yar and Sangheili all over the place. He zooms in on the Sangheili Ultra first. The Ultra was talking to another Sangheili. This was Master Chief's perfect moment. He fires and the particle pierces both the Sangheili through their heads killing them. Master Chief aims for the other Sangheili and kills them as well. Several Kig-Yar snipers start shooting him soon after but quickly die because Master Chief snipes them. When the area seemed clear John jumped down the waterfall. When he landed safely on his feet he moves up the creek until he finds a cave. With caution, Master Chief slowly moves in. Another Sangheili attacks. Master Chief was caught by surprise but he maintained his focus. John threw a Plasma Grenade and stuck the Sangheili in the face. The grenade blew up and his head was gone. Master Chief progresses and suddenly squads of Yanme'e attack him. John takes them out with difficulty but eventually gets the job done. More Sangheili and Kig-Yar come out of a cave in the distance. John takes out his Rocket Launcher and blows them up and heads for the cave the Covenant came out of.
When he reaches the end of the cave he spots several ancient Forerunner ruins. On the platform ahead he sees some weapon pods. He only has a few shots of the Beam Rifle left and when he almost dropped it and picked up a human sniper he saw a reflection on one of the structures. Since he couldn't ignore it he takes his Beam Rifle and looks in the direction he saw a reflection. He targets a few Sangheili, Kig-Yar and Unggoy on the structures. He aims at the Kig-Yar snipers first in the middle structure, then he kills the Sangheili and finally the Unggoy. When Master Chief notices the area is clear he moves down a long ramp and into a room fill with something powerful inside. He enters the room quietly and goes around a corner barely popping his head through. John notices more "singing" from the Prophet of Regret giving his sermon. He also notices a squad of Sangheili Honor Guards each armed with two Energy Swords. Master Chief calmly walks in with the Rocket Launcher ready. The Sangheili notice him and order each other to surround John. Master Chief fires a rocket at one of the Honor Guards and kills him and the other four surround him. As one attacked so did the other one. Master Chief was evading Energy Swords left and right. One of the Sangheili hit him and made John lose control of his rocket launcher which was knocked out of his reach. As one Honor Guard attacks Master Chief grabs his arm and angles it at a 45 degree angle with the ground. With his leg he stomped on it breaking the bone in half. John picked up the injured Sangheili's sword and cut his head off with a single blow. The other three move in to attack from three different directions. Master Chief runs toward on of them and stabs a Sangheili's face. Another one knocks his Energy Sword out of his hand and begins to swing, but John was too quick. He got out of the way of the swinging Sword and punched the back of it's head knocking it unconscious. John picked up the Energy Sword that was in it's hand and swings behind him, which killed the other Sangheili who was just about to stab Master Chief. John then walks over to the unconscious body and stabs it in the chest. He looks around and starts to move on.
John puts the Rocket Launcher on his back and a marine tells the Master Chief that they have to destroy the turrets. Master Chief acknowledges and runs for the turrets killing squads of Kig-Yar and Unggoy on the way. When he kills destroys the Shade turrets he enters an ancient Forerunner structure. John kills a few squads of Covenant including a squad of Sangheili. The area is completely silent now that there is no gunshots. Cortana tells Johnson that he is clear to land. But as soon she says that a Phantom flies nearby and drops several squads of Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Sangheili. John hurries out of the structure and kills them all with ease. As soon as the Phantom leaves a second one drops more squads. A third Phantom drops reinforcements as well, but John quickly kills the squads and the area is finally clear. A Pelican flies above them and drops a Warthog. John gets in the drive seat and two ODSTs get in the passenger and the gunner. Sergeant Johnson also spotted a large structure in the middle of the islands lake. Cortana says it was a temple and concludes that the Prophet of Regret is probably there.
Master Chief drives up a large hill and a few Kig-Yar snipers spot them but the gunner of the Warthog quickly dispatches them. They drive around a corner and they see a large bridge that is drawing itself in. The Covenant inside of the structure was controlling the bridge. Cortana also detects Wraiths. Several Ghosts piloted by Sangheili attack them, but some are pushed off the edge of the cliff and the others are destroyed. Master Chief parks behind the structure which acted as a vantage point, so the marines could shoot the Covenant that come out of the structure and the ones that are above them. It also acted as a safe area from the Wraiths. Master Chief quietly moves inside the structure. He hears strange a voice in the middle of the structure. The voice seemed to be singing with a sad but serious voice. John moves to the entrance of the room and peeks his head in. All he sees is a squad of Covenant watching to what appears to be a hologram of the Prophet of Regret. Master Chief picks up a Plasma grenade a throws one at the closest Sangheili. He waits for it to blow up. When it blows up he moves in and kills the rest of the Covenant. John walks over to the hologram and Cortana says giving s sermon. The bridge controls are behind the hologram and Master Chief activates it. The Prophets is continuously "speaking" to the Covenant. Master Chief activates the bridge and it slowly moves down. Suddenly, Prophet of Regret is translated to English.
"The Forerunners, our most exalted lords, used the seven sacred rings to flee a doomed existence, to escape their endless struggle against the Flood. Long ago, the Prophets and Elites fought an equally fruitless war. Indeed, I suspect we would still be at each others throats had the Prophets not found evidence of the Forerunners and their Great Journey."
Master Chief moves on and when he gets out side a Scorpion is there waiting for his arrival. John jumps in and targets the Wraiths and destroys them. Through the smoke several Ghosts drive through and attack the Scorpion. Master Chief targets the one in the middle and fires, which resulted in two Ghosts flying off the cliff. The last one was destroyed by the Scorpion as well. Soon a few Banshees fly in to finally support the destroyed troops. But Master Chief aims at the Banshees and fires at one then the other, making them the air units fly off the cliff in flames. The Master Chief scans one more time for more air or ground units and finally moves on. Master Chief drives through a large Forerunner temple full of Ghosts and Sangheili. Master Chief didn't care. He eliminated the Ghosts and Sangheili quickly and easily. Master Chief keeps driving and finally gets outside. Several Sangheili patrol the area. Some spot the Master Chief and start firing at him. One runs for a Ghost so he can alert others of Master Chief presence. He drives away but almost gets destroyed by Master Chief. A few seconds minutes later a dozen Ghosts come from inside the structure and starts shooting John. Master Chief has some difficulty destroying them. They surround him. His shields go down. But finally he shoots a Ghost with the Scorpion. The other scatter, but are soon destroyed by Master Chief. He drives the Scorpion down a stone ramp and follow the fleeing Ghosts. John goes further into the Forerunner temple ruins. On the way he blows up Sangheili, Unggoy and Kig-Yar. A few of the Ghosts that were fleeing starts attacking as well, but once again Master Chief kills them. He keeps driving until he gets outside, this time all of the other Ghosts start to attack. Master Chief destroys the Ghosts with a few shots of his Scorpion. Covenant attack him on the ledges above him as well. But they are protected by pillars so the Master Chief can't shoot them as easy. John ignores them and works his way around them eventually getting to the ledge where he can shoot them. Of course in the time Master Chief took to get to the ledge the Covenant put up deployable shields. The Master Chief shoots at one, which destroys the shield. He keeps shooting and finally kills the Sangheili and the Kig-Yar.
When the area is clear a Pelican drops weapons next to John's Scorpion. Master Chief exits the tank and grabs ammo for the rocket launcher and picks up a battle rifle. A few marines jump off the Pelican and follow the Master Chief through another structure only to be greeted by more Covenant. Master Chief notices that the amount Covenant forces have increased since he landed. More Sangheili and Kig-Yar attack as well. When he kills them all he spots another hologram of Prophet of Regret. He walks over to it and it starts speaking English due to Cortana translating his voice.
"In a gesture of peace and reconciliation, the Prophets promised to find the means of the Forerunners' transcendence, and to share this knowledge with the Elites. The Elites promised to defend the Prophets as they searched. A simple arrangement, that has become our binding Covenant!"
Master Chief listens to the sermon and moves on. He heads up a ramp and encounters Kig-Yar and Unggoy. Master Chief quickly kills them and moves on to a waterfall leading to a creek. He spots a Kig-Yar armed with a Beam Rifle. Master Chief sneaks up behind it and assassinates by taking it's his head with one hand and throwing it on the ground, crushing his skull on the ground. John picks up the Kig-Yar body and throws it off the waterfall and picks up the Beam Rifle and looks around with it. Master Chief spots several Kig-Yar and Sangheili all over the place. He zooms in on the Sangheili Ultra first. The Ultra was talking to another Sangheili. This was Master Chief's perfect moment. He fires and the particle pierces both the Sangheili through their heads killing them. Master Chief aims for the other Sangheili and kills them as well. Several Kig-Yar snipers start shooting him soon after but quickly die because Master Chief snipes them. When the area seemed clear John jumped down the waterfall. When he landed safely on his feet he moves up the creek until he finds a cave. With caution, Master Chief slowly moves in. Another Sangheili attacks. Master Chief was caught by surprise but he maintained his focus. John threw a Plasma Grenade and stuck the Sangheili in the face. The grenade blew up and his head was gone. Master Chief progresses and suddenly squads of Yanme'e attack him. John takes them out with difficulty but eventually gets the job done. More Sangheili and Kig-Yar come out of a cave in the distance. John takes out his Rocket Launcher and blows them up and heads for the cave the Covenant came out of.
When he reaches the end of the cave he spots several ancient Forerunner ruins. On the platform ahead he sees some weapon pods. He only has a few shots of the Beam Rifle left and when he almost dropped it and picked up a human sniper he saw a reflection on one of the structures. Since he couldn't ignore it he takes his Beam Rifle and looks in the direction he saw a reflection. He targets a few Sangheili, Kig-Yar and Unggoy on the structures. He aims at the Kig-Yar snipers first in the middle structure, then he kills the Sangheili and finally the Unggoy. When Master Chief notices the area is clear he moves down a long ramp and into a room fill with something powerful inside. He enters the room quietly and goes around a corner barely popping his head through. John notices more "singing" from the Prophet of Regret giving his sermon. He also notices a squad of Sangheili Honor Guards each armed with two Energy Swords. Master Chief calmly walks in with the Rocket Launcher ready. The Sangheili notice him and order each other to surround John. Master Chief fires a rocket at one of the Honor Guards and kills him and the other four surround him. As one attacked so did the other one. Master Chief was evading Energy Swords left and right. One of the Sangheili hit him and made John lose control of his rocket launcher which was knocked out of his reach. As one Honor Guard attacks Master Chief grabs his arm and angles it at a 45 degree angle with the ground. With his leg he stomped on it breaking the bone in half. John picked up the injured Sangheili's sword and cut his head off with a single blow. The other three move in to attack from three different directions. Master Chief runs toward on of them and stabs a Sangheili's face. Another one knocks his Energy Sword out of his hand and begins to swing, but John was too quick. He got out of the way of the swinging Sword and punched the back of it's head knocking it unconscious. John picked up the Energy Sword that was in it's hand and swings behind him, which killed the other Sangheili who was just about to stab Master Chief. John then walks over to the unconscious body and stabs it in the chest. He looks around and starts to move on.
Regret
Master Chief starts walking to the next area but Cortana stops him and tells him to go back to Prophet of Regrets hologram. Regret is still singing and Cortana randomly confirms what the Prophet said. She explains to Master Chief that the Prophet of Regret plans to activate Halo! Master Chief asks if she was sure and right when he finishes his sentence Cortana snaps her fingers which translates the Prophet of Regret.
"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!"
Cortana snaps her fingers again cutting off the Prophet of Regret. Master Chief contacts Commander Keyes and tells her the problem. The Commander is studying a object on the computer. She says that the Prophet of Regret will need an object to activate the ring. This object is called the Index. She then pulls a picture a the Library and said to Master Chief and Cortana that Index should work in the same way. Therefore Master Chief should find the Index in the Library. Then Sergeant Johnson steps in and states that the Covenant are probably thinking the same thing. Commander Keyes orders to get some men and meet her in the Library and orders Master Chief to kill the Prophet of Truth. Master Chief acknowledges and moves on only to be attack by several squads of Yanme'e which swarm through a large hole in the roof of the structure. Master Chief kills them and the remaining flee from the area. Suddenly several Sangheili pour through a door and start attacking Master Chief, but Master Chief quickly eliminates them with ease. Cortana says to John that the Forerunners built the new structures over the new ones which was supposed to protect and honor them. Master Chief goes outside where more Sangheili await his arrival. Several Kig-Yar Snipers try to kill John but after Master Chief killed the Sangheili he used a Carbine to kill the snipers. John-117 hurries through several more structures filled with squads upon squads of Covenant. He eventually reaches an area to see a Gondola glide away with a single Sangheili on it. Master Chief clears the rest of the platform of Covenant forces. While Master Chief is standing there waiting for the Gondola to come, a Phantom drops a pair of Hunters down to keep the Master Chief busy. Master Chief easily kills them as the Gondola returns. Master Chief kills the Covenant inside the Gondola and looks around for any more hostiles. Soon a Pelican drops a few weapon pods down and a few Marines. Master Chief picks up a shotgun and a Battle Rifle.
The Marines hurry on the Gondola and Master Chief follows. Master Chief walks around inside the transport and finds a panel. He walks over to it and puts his hand to it. The Gondola activates and starts gliding towards a large structure. As they glide across the lake they are swarmed by several squads of Yanme'e. Two of them grab a Marine and throw him in the lake. Master Chief and the other marine fight them off as best they can. After a small firefight Master Chief holsters his weapons. Then suddenly a surviving Yanme'e takes the other marine by the head and pushes her of the ledge. Master Chief tries to rescue her but is too late, so he takes her pistol and shoots the last Yanme'e in the face and throws the body and the pistol into the lake.
Master Chief spots another Gondola heading towards him. The Gondola gets closer and Master Chief jumps and does a front flip in the air and does rolls forward when he lands. He finds squads of Covenant inside the Gondola. Then Master Chief takes out his shotgun and kills them all. When the area is clear he jumps back into the original Gondola and he activates it again. It glides towards the structure. When Master Chief finally reached the structure several turrets fire on him guarding the door under them. But Master Chief just sprints right under the turrets and kills a few Kig-Yar on the way. Master Chief clears the area inside and a transport comes from underwater. Cortana said that the elevators connected to the other structures. So Master Chief enters the elevator and activates it the same way he activated the Gondola. It moves down a shaft a pauses for a moment, then in moves under water moving through a secret passage.
Cortana says as the elevator was moving underwater that she intercepted a transmission from The Prophet of Regret to High Charity. She suggested that it was a "formal apology" to The Prophet of Mercy and the Prophet of Truth. She also suggested that the Prophet of Regret "jumped the gun" when he attacked Earth and that The Prophet of Regret asked the other Prophets to "forgive his premature" and that "no human presence was foretold." Cortana concluded that is the reason the Prophet of Regrets fleet was so small when he attacked Earth. She also wondered why a High Hierarch would have bad intelligence on his enemy's home world.
The elevator eventually reached the surface again inside a structure filled with Covenant. Master Chief walks up a few ramps and comes across this long hallway that seems clear. Master Chief doesn't takes the bait so he takes out his shotgun and slowly walks down the hallway. He looks around and notices some disturbances along the walls. He immediately fires on it and discovers it was a Unggoy. Then two squads of Unggoy and Sangheili disengage active camouflage and start attacking Master Chief. Master Chief was prepared for this however and he easily killed them all. Master Chief walks slowly up a few ramps and a spots several squads of Covenant in the room including Sangheili Honor Guards and Hunters. He quietly moves behind one of the Honor Guards and tackles it to the ground. The Sangheili drops his Energy Sword and Master Chief picks it up and stabs him in the throat silencing him before the Guard screamed. He now hears Prophet of Regrets hologram sing again. Master Chief walks over to a Kig-Yar sniper and assassinates it. Master Chief backs away into the darkness and uses the sniper to spot several more Honor Guards on the other side of the room. He looks up and spots a few squads of Yanme'e hanging from the ceiling. Master Chief thought it was going to be impossible to get to the other side of the room without being detected. Before he is about to snipe on of the Honor Guards he comes up with an idea. He takes a human grenade and throws it at the door where he came in from. The grenade blows up and attracts the attention of the Covenant forces. Master Chief sprints over to the other side and gets behind one of the Honor Guards who was ordered to stay where he was. Master Chief assassinated him as well and now heads for the other Covenant forces. John picks up the Energy Sword and walks behind a Sangheili Honor Guard and stabs him in the back and lifts him in the air. Master Chief let him scream. When the Sangheili does so he slammed the screaming body into the ground and threw the Energy Sword. The Sword flew over twenty feet and hit a Kig-Yar in the chest who was just about to snipe Master Chief in the head. With Master Chief's luck the Kig-Yar did a back flip and accidentally shoot his Beam Rifle into a Honor Guards head. The Sangheili next to the one that was killed turned around to see if the humans were flanking them, While the alien was doing this Master Chief ran up to it and stabbed it with his Energy Sword. The two Hunters and Yanme'e were still alive. John drops the Energy Sword and picks up a Carbine and starts shooting the Yanme'e. After they were killed Master Chief picked up another sniper and killed the Hunters. After the area was clear Master Chief inspects The Prophet of Regret. Then Cortana translates his singing.
"Most of those we encountered in our search were compelled to join our Union. To take part in moment of promise, Freedom for Allegiance, Salvation for Service! But some, like the Humans, chose to impede our progress. Block our access to sacred sites, damage Holy Relics! For their transgressions, the Humans shall be hunted until none remain alive!"
Master Chief moves on after listening to his broadcast and comes across more Covenant holed up in a large room. When Master Chief clears that area he moves into another hallway that seems empty. Again he takes out his shotgun and slowly walks inside the hallway expecting the same thing. Master Chief spots a Unggoy in active camouflage and sticks it with a Plasma Grenade. It tries to flee but as soon as the grenade sticks to him Master Chief walks in the hallway more. When he gets past the door way he seems to only spot several more squads ahead of him. Then suddenly two cloaked Sangheili grab him by the shoulders and pin him to the ground. Master Chief was caught by surprise, but he let them pin them to the ground. The Sangheili call to the other Covenant forces to assist. Several Sangheili walk towards Master Chief and take out Energy Swords. Right when the Sangheili is about to stab Master Chief in the stomach, once again by Master Chief's luck an explosion was heard in another room. The Sangheili loosen their grip and look around. Master Chief had the perfect chance to act. Because of their loosened grip Master Chief jumped up and took the Energy Swords from the Sangheili on his right and left and killed them both. The other Sangheili are aware of what happened now. They spring into action but are quickly killed by Master Chief. Another Sangheili with an Energy Sword tries to assist the already dead Covenant but fails. He walks down a few more ramps and comes across another elevator that goes underwater. Master Chief enters the elevator and activates it. The elevator goes down and into the water.
Cortana says that the Prophet of Regret Covenant Carrier just got a response from High Charity. It said
"Your haste has jeopardized the fulfillment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy and his wise counsel."
Cortana suggested that killing the Prophet of Regret should shake the Covenant leadership. She also said that Master Chief might doing the Prophet of Truth a favor. The elevator finally surfaces and Master Chief detects several hostiles in the room. Thankfully for Master Chief they couldn't see him because Master Chief had to run around a corner to do kill them. So John moved quietly around the corner and stabbed the Sangheili Honor Guard in the head. Another Sangheili walked around the corner and saw what happened. He alerts another Sangheili Honor Guard and some Unggoy. But Master Chief killed them all with a few blows of the Energy Sword. John encountered another hologram of The Prophet of Regret singing again. John also noticed that the level of Covenant forces have been steadily increasing by the minute. He once again listens to a translation of the hologram.
"Every member of the Covenant shall walk the path. None will be left behind when our Great Journey begins! That is the Prophets' age-old promise. And it shall be fulfilled!"
Master Chief moves on and quickly moves outside. More Yanme'e start attacking him and swarming his position. Master Chief picks up a Plasma Rifle from a Sangheili and starts shooting them and eventually kills them and a few other guards. The area is now too quiet for Master Chief''s comfort. He moves up the hill and a Pelican drops off some weapon pods and a few more marines. Then suddenly one of the marines gets sniped. Master Chief pushes the other one out of the way just in time for another sniper bullet to pass by the marines head. Master Chief quickly picks up ammo for his shotgun. He hurries to kill the Kig-Yar sniper and some Unggoy. The marine follows and snipes a few with his sniper. Then a squad of Sangheili attack at once and they go for the marine. Master Chief was already busy with another Sangheili with an Energy Sword. He hears the marine scream in anger as he kills one of the Sangheili. Master Chief finally kills the Sangheili with the Energy Sword and sprints towards the other Sangheili and kills them but finds out he is too late to save the marine. After killing the Sangheili a Phantom delivers more Sangheili to join the fight but fail due to their lack of intelligence of fighting a Spartan. John locates another Gondola with weapon pods all over it. Before he gets on he sees a rocket launcher on the ground that was out of the weapon pod. He picks up the Rocket Launcher and moves onto the Gondola. A few Unggoy were inside and once they saw Master Chief they screamed and ran off the Gondola. Master Chief activated the transport when they got off so they can explain their failure killing Master Chief.
The Gondola started moving toward the structure on the far side, while Master Chief was waiting patiently a squad of Banshees start attacking John. So John pulled out his Rocket Launcher and destroyed them all. While doing this several squads of Jetpack Sangheili starts attacking as well. When Master Chief finally kills them all the Gondola gets close to the platform where it is supposed to land. Several turrets and Kig-Yar snipers shoot at him. However Master Chief only had two shots of his rocket launcher left. He aims carefully then fires at the turrets on his level. He kills them, the Unggoy and the Kig-Yar. When he walks on to the platform he looks up into the sky and tens of thousands of Covenant Super Carriers exit Slip Space, including High Charity. Cortana said that the fleet was the largest she or anyone has ever seen before. Frantically she tells John to kill Regret. After walking in the temple Cortana detects hundreds of Phantoms en route to their position and she also detected Sangheili Honor Guards all over the temple. Master Chief heard the faint sound of singing again and again.
Master Chief takes out his shotgun and opens the main door to the throne room. He kills several Unggoy and Sangheili Honor Guards. The Prophet of Regret turns around but doesn't see anything. Then he sees Master Chief walk to the top of the platform over looking the area. He spots over 20 Honor Guards in the room. The Prophet of Regret yells at his Guards to attack. But Master Chief jumps down the platform and sprints for the Prophet. He takes the shotgun in one hand and the Energy Sword in another. Master Chief uses the Energy Sword to kills the Guards while the shotgun would be intended for Regrets head. John drops the sword and jumps for the Prophet. He aims the shotgun at his forehead and fires. Suddenly Master Chief falls down. The Prophet teleported! The prophet of Regret appeared behind him and fired a massive laser at John's back. Knocking him over again. Master Chief tried aiming at the gravity throne with the shotgun when he was close enough but to no avail. This time Master Chief dropped his weapons and sprinted once again for the Prophet of Regret. He jumps on him and takes his fist and punches a small hole in his gravity throne. The Prophet teleported once again. When he appeared the Prophet starts laughing due to Master Chief's failure. Now Master Chief charged the Prophet and put a sticky grenade inside the hole in the gravity throne. The Prophet once again started laughing because he thought John was trying to destroy the gravity throne. The Prophet for the third time disappeared and blew up in the large section of the room where he originally was when he met Master Chief. His body went flying into the wall and started screaming because of his guards. The guards started running away. Now the Prophet of Regret was pinned in a corner. Master Chief slowly walked up to it with his shotgun and aimed right at his head. The Prophet screamed "Demon!!" Master Chief pulled the trigger making several holes in Regrets face. Cortana says that the fleet is going to attack their position. Master Chief picks his energy sword and exits the building. He looks up and a Super Carrier is right over him just about to fire it's Energy Projector. Master Chief drops his weapons and runs around a corners and jumps several feet down. The ship fires and as the temple explodes Master Chief jumps off into the water. Since his armor was too heavy he started to sink all the way down. The suddenly tentacles grab Master Chief and pull him into darkness saying in a deep disembodied voice.
"This is not your grave... But you are welcome in it..."
"I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!"
Cortana snaps her fingers again cutting off the Prophet of Regret. Master Chief contacts Commander Keyes and tells her the problem. The Commander is studying a object on the computer. She says that the Prophet of Regret will need an object to activate the ring. This object is called the Index. She then pulls a picture a the Library and said to Master Chief and Cortana that Index should work in the same way. Therefore Master Chief should find the Index in the Library. Then Sergeant Johnson steps in and states that the Covenant are probably thinking the same thing. Commander Keyes orders to get some men and meet her in the Library and orders Master Chief to kill the Prophet of Truth. Master Chief acknowledges and moves on only to be attack by several squads of Yanme'e which swarm through a large hole in the roof of the structure. Master Chief kills them and the remaining flee from the area. Suddenly several Sangheili pour through a door and start attacking Master Chief, but Master Chief quickly eliminates them with ease. Cortana says to John that the Forerunners built the new structures over the new ones which was supposed to protect and honor them. Master Chief goes outside where more Sangheili await his arrival. Several Kig-Yar Snipers try to kill John but after Master Chief killed the Sangheili he used a Carbine to kill the snipers. John-117 hurries through several more structures filled with squads upon squads of Covenant. He eventually reaches an area to see a Gondola glide away with a single Sangheili on it. Master Chief clears the rest of the platform of Covenant forces. While Master Chief is standing there waiting for the Gondola to come, a Phantom drops a pair of Hunters down to keep the Master Chief busy. Master Chief easily kills them as the Gondola returns. Master Chief kills the Covenant inside the Gondola and looks around for any more hostiles. Soon a Pelican drops a few weapon pods down and a few Marines. Master Chief picks up a shotgun and a Battle Rifle.
The Marines hurry on the Gondola and Master Chief follows. Master Chief walks around inside the transport and finds a panel. He walks over to it and puts his hand to it. The Gondola activates and starts gliding towards a large structure. As they glide across the lake they are swarmed by several squads of Yanme'e. Two of them grab a Marine and throw him in the lake. Master Chief and the other marine fight them off as best they can. After a small firefight Master Chief holsters his weapons. Then suddenly a surviving Yanme'e takes the other marine by the head and pushes her of the ledge. Master Chief tries to rescue her but is too late, so he takes her pistol and shoots the last Yanme'e in the face and throws the body and the pistol into the lake.
Master Chief spots another Gondola heading towards him. The Gondola gets closer and Master Chief jumps and does a front flip in the air and does rolls forward when he lands. He finds squads of Covenant inside the Gondola. Then Master Chief takes out his shotgun and kills them all. When the area is clear he jumps back into the original Gondola and he activates it again. It glides towards the structure. When Master Chief finally reached the structure several turrets fire on him guarding the door under them. But Master Chief just sprints right under the turrets and kills a few Kig-Yar on the way. Master Chief clears the area inside and a transport comes from underwater. Cortana said that the elevators connected to the other structures. So Master Chief enters the elevator and activates it the same way he activated the Gondola. It moves down a shaft a pauses for a moment, then in moves under water moving through a secret passage.
Cortana says as the elevator was moving underwater that she intercepted a transmission from The Prophet of Regret to High Charity. She suggested that it was a "formal apology" to The Prophet of Mercy and the Prophet of Truth. She also suggested that the Prophet of Regret "jumped the gun" when he attacked Earth and that The Prophet of Regret asked the other Prophets to "forgive his premature" and that "no human presence was foretold." Cortana concluded that is the reason the Prophet of Regrets fleet was so small when he attacked Earth. She also wondered why a High Hierarch would have bad intelligence on his enemy's home world.
The elevator eventually reached the surface again inside a structure filled with Covenant. Master Chief walks up a few ramps and comes across this long hallway that seems clear. Master Chief doesn't takes the bait so he takes out his shotgun and slowly walks down the hallway. He looks around and notices some disturbances along the walls. He immediately fires on it and discovers it was a Unggoy. Then two squads of Unggoy and Sangheili disengage active camouflage and start attacking Master Chief. Master Chief was prepared for this however and he easily killed them all. Master Chief walks slowly up a few ramps and a spots several squads of Covenant in the room including Sangheili Honor Guards and Hunters. He quietly moves behind one of the Honor Guards and tackles it to the ground. The Sangheili drops his Energy Sword and Master Chief picks it up and stabs him in the throat silencing him before the Guard screamed. He now hears Prophet of Regrets hologram sing again. Master Chief walks over to a Kig-Yar sniper and assassinates it. Master Chief backs away into the darkness and uses the sniper to spot several more Honor Guards on the other side of the room. He looks up and spots a few squads of Yanme'e hanging from the ceiling. Master Chief thought it was going to be impossible to get to the other side of the room without being detected. Before he is about to snipe on of the Honor Guards he comes up with an idea. He takes a human grenade and throws it at the door where he came in from. The grenade blows up and attracts the attention of the Covenant forces. Master Chief sprints over to the other side and gets behind one of the Honor Guards who was ordered to stay where he was. Master Chief assassinated him as well and now heads for the other Covenant forces. John picks up the Energy Sword and walks behind a Sangheili Honor Guard and stabs him in the back and lifts him in the air. Master Chief let him scream. When the Sangheili does so he slammed the screaming body into the ground and threw the Energy Sword. The Sword flew over twenty feet and hit a Kig-Yar in the chest who was just about to snipe Master Chief in the head. With Master Chief's luck the Kig-Yar did a back flip and accidentally shoot his Beam Rifle into a Honor Guards head. The Sangheili next to the one that was killed turned around to see if the humans were flanking them, While the alien was doing this Master Chief ran up to it and stabbed it with his Energy Sword. The two Hunters and Yanme'e were still alive. John drops the Energy Sword and picks up a Carbine and starts shooting the Yanme'e. After they were killed Master Chief picked up another sniper and killed the Hunters. After the area was clear Master Chief inspects The Prophet of Regret. Then Cortana translates his singing.
"Most of those we encountered in our search were compelled to join our Union. To take part in moment of promise, Freedom for Allegiance, Salvation for Service! But some, like the Humans, chose to impede our progress. Block our access to sacred sites, damage Holy Relics! For their transgressions, the Humans shall be hunted until none remain alive!"
Master Chief moves on after listening to his broadcast and comes across more Covenant holed up in a large room. When Master Chief clears that area he moves into another hallway that seems empty. Again he takes out his shotgun and slowly walks inside the hallway expecting the same thing. Master Chief spots a Unggoy in active camouflage and sticks it with a Plasma Grenade. It tries to flee but as soon as the grenade sticks to him Master Chief walks in the hallway more. When he gets past the door way he seems to only spot several more squads ahead of him. Then suddenly two cloaked Sangheili grab him by the shoulders and pin him to the ground. Master Chief was caught by surprise, but he let them pin them to the ground. The Sangheili call to the other Covenant forces to assist. Several Sangheili walk towards Master Chief and take out Energy Swords. Right when the Sangheili is about to stab Master Chief in the stomach, once again by Master Chief's luck an explosion was heard in another room. The Sangheili loosen their grip and look around. Master Chief had the perfect chance to act. Because of their loosened grip Master Chief jumped up and took the Energy Swords from the Sangheili on his right and left and killed them both. The other Sangheili are aware of what happened now. They spring into action but are quickly killed by Master Chief. Another Sangheili with an Energy Sword tries to assist the already dead Covenant but fails. He walks down a few more ramps and comes across another elevator that goes underwater. Master Chief enters the elevator and activates it. The elevator goes down and into the water.
Cortana says that the Prophet of Regret Covenant Carrier just got a response from High Charity. It said
"Your haste has jeopardized the fulfillment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy and his wise counsel."
Cortana suggested that killing the Prophet of Regret should shake the Covenant leadership. She also said that Master Chief might doing the Prophet of Truth a favor. The elevator finally surfaces and Master Chief detects several hostiles in the room. Thankfully for Master Chief they couldn't see him because Master Chief had to run around a corner to do kill them. So John moved quietly around the corner and stabbed the Sangheili Honor Guard in the head. Another Sangheili walked around the corner and saw what happened. He alerts another Sangheili Honor Guard and some Unggoy. But Master Chief killed them all with a few blows of the Energy Sword. John encountered another hologram of The Prophet of Regret singing again. John also noticed that the level of Covenant forces have been steadily increasing by the minute. He once again listens to a translation of the hologram.
"Every member of the Covenant shall walk the path. None will be left behind when our Great Journey begins! That is the Prophets' age-old promise. And it shall be fulfilled!"
Master Chief moves on and quickly moves outside. More Yanme'e start attacking him and swarming his position. Master Chief picks up a Plasma Rifle from a Sangheili and starts shooting them and eventually kills them and a few other guards. The area is now too quiet for Master Chief''s comfort. He moves up the hill and a Pelican drops off some weapon pods and a few more marines. Then suddenly one of the marines gets sniped. Master Chief pushes the other one out of the way just in time for another sniper bullet to pass by the marines head. Master Chief quickly picks up ammo for his shotgun. He hurries to kill the Kig-Yar sniper and some Unggoy. The marine follows and snipes a few with his sniper. Then a squad of Sangheili attack at once and they go for the marine. Master Chief was already busy with another Sangheili with an Energy Sword. He hears the marine scream in anger as he kills one of the Sangheili. Master Chief finally kills the Sangheili with the Energy Sword and sprints towards the other Sangheili and kills them but finds out he is too late to save the marine. After killing the Sangheili a Phantom delivers more Sangheili to join the fight but fail due to their lack of intelligence of fighting a Spartan. John locates another Gondola with weapon pods all over it. Before he gets on he sees a rocket launcher on the ground that was out of the weapon pod. He picks up the Rocket Launcher and moves onto the Gondola. A few Unggoy were inside and once they saw Master Chief they screamed and ran off the Gondola. Master Chief activated the transport when they got off so they can explain their failure killing Master Chief.
The Gondola started moving toward the structure on the far side, while Master Chief was waiting patiently a squad of Banshees start attacking John. So John pulled out his Rocket Launcher and destroyed them all. While doing this several squads of Jetpack Sangheili starts attacking as well. When Master Chief finally kills them all the Gondola gets close to the platform where it is supposed to land. Several turrets and Kig-Yar snipers shoot at him. However Master Chief only had two shots of his rocket launcher left. He aims carefully then fires at the turrets on his level. He kills them, the Unggoy and the Kig-Yar. When he walks on to the platform he looks up into the sky and tens of thousands of Covenant Super Carriers exit Slip Space, including High Charity. Cortana said that the fleet was the largest she or anyone has ever seen before. Frantically she tells John to kill Regret. After walking in the temple Cortana detects hundreds of Phantoms en route to their position and she also detected Sangheili Honor Guards all over the temple. Master Chief heard the faint sound of singing again and again.
Master Chief takes out his shotgun and opens the main door to the throne room. He kills several Unggoy and Sangheili Honor Guards. The Prophet of Regret turns around but doesn't see anything. Then he sees Master Chief walk to the top of the platform over looking the area. He spots over 20 Honor Guards in the room. The Prophet of Regret yells at his Guards to attack. But Master Chief jumps down the platform and sprints for the Prophet. He takes the shotgun in one hand and the Energy Sword in another. Master Chief uses the Energy Sword to kills the Guards while the shotgun would be intended for Regrets head. John drops the sword and jumps for the Prophet. He aims the shotgun at his forehead and fires. Suddenly Master Chief falls down. The Prophet teleported! The prophet of Regret appeared behind him and fired a massive laser at John's back. Knocking him over again. Master Chief tried aiming at the gravity throne with the shotgun when he was close enough but to no avail. This time Master Chief dropped his weapons and sprinted once again for the Prophet of Regret. He jumps on him and takes his fist and punches a small hole in his gravity throne. The Prophet teleported once again. When he appeared the Prophet starts laughing due to Master Chief's failure. Now Master Chief charged the Prophet and put a sticky grenade inside the hole in the gravity throne. The Prophet once again started laughing because he thought John was trying to destroy the gravity throne. The Prophet for the third time disappeared and blew up in the large section of the room where he originally was when he met Master Chief. His body went flying into the wall and started screaming because of his guards. The guards started running away. Now the Prophet of Regret was pinned in a corner. Master Chief slowly walked up to it with his shotgun and aimed right at his head. The Prophet screamed "Demon!!" Master Chief pulled the trigger making several holes in Regrets face. Cortana says that the fleet is going to attack their position. Master Chief picks his energy sword and exits the building. He looks up and a Super Carrier is right over him just about to fire it's Energy Projector. Master Chief drops his weapons and runs around a corners and jumps several feet down. The ship fires and as the temple explodes Master Chief jumps off into the water. Since his armor was too heavy he started to sink all the way down. The suddenly tentacles grab Master Chief and pull him into darkness saying in a deep disembodied voice.
"This is not your grave... But you are welcome in it..."
The Key to Salvation!
Thel 'Vadamee walks through a large hallway filled with Sangheili Honor Guards. He looks over to his left and right and sees his brothers standing down. The Brutes were taking over the Honor Guard position, Brutes fight each other for their new armor as well. The Sangheili have no choice but to stand down by order of the High Hierarchs and the Brutes. Thel walks up some stairs and notices the Sangheili walking past him had Plasma Rifles instead of Energy Swords then a large door opens in front of the Arbiter and he walks toward the Prophet Truth and the Prophet of Mercy talking to Rtas 'Vadumee. Thel listens to Rtas say angrily to the Prophets that current event is unacceptable. The Prophet of Truth replies to him that a Hierarch is dead. Then Rtas becomes more angry and says to The Prophet of Truth that the murderer was in their grip and if the Prophets hadn't called them back to High Charity they could have killed him. The Prophet of Truth calmly asked Rtas if he was questioning his decisions. Rtas replied worriedly that doesn't question his decisions, but he wanted to express his concerns about the Brutes. The Prophet of Truth put is right hand up to silence Rtas and said,
"Re-commissioning the guard was a radical step. But recent events have made it abundantly clear that the Elites can no longer guarantee our safety."
Rtas told The Prophet of Truth that he would tell the Council of his decisions.
Rtas and his two Special Operation Sangheili walk out and Rtas notices Thel in the shadows and acknowledges him with a nod and Thel nods back to Rtas. Thel now walks over to the Prophet of Truth and Mercy and hears The Prophet of Truth complain about how tiresome politics are. Then he asks Thel that the Sangheili threatened to resign because of changing the Guards to Brutes. However Thel stands up for the Sangheili by saying that they have always been the San 'Shyuum's protectors. The Prophet of Truth states that these are troubling times. For everyone. The Prophet of Mercy now joins the conversation and says,
"Even as the humans' annihilation filled us with satisfaction, the loss of one of the Sacred Rings wracked our hearts with grief."
The Prophet of Truth said to Mercy giving an evil look,
"Putting aside our sorrow, we renewed our faith in the prophecy that other rings would be found. And see how our faith has been rewarded."
Then The Prophet of Mercy threw up is arms as if praying says,
"Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the Path to Salvation"
The Prophet of Truth adds to Mercy's statement asked how it could be activated. The question seemed to not be directed to no one. Then he said that they had searched for ages to find these answers. He pointed to 343 Guilty Spark who was suspended in a beam and referred to it as the Oracle. The Prophet of Mercy told the Arbiter that they questioned the Oracle and it has shown the Prophets the key. The Prophet of Truth pauses for a moment and orders the Arbiter to go on the Rings surface and recover the Sacred Icon. He also said that with the Sacred Icon they will fulfill their promise.
Prophet of Mercy: "Salvation for all!"
Prophet of Truth: "And begin the Great Journey."
"Re-commissioning the guard was a radical step. But recent events have made it abundantly clear that the Elites can no longer guarantee our safety."
Rtas told The Prophet of Truth that he would tell the Council of his decisions.
Rtas and his two Special Operation Sangheili walk out and Rtas notices Thel in the shadows and acknowledges him with a nod and Thel nods back to Rtas. Thel now walks over to the Prophet of Truth and Mercy and hears The Prophet of Truth complain about how tiresome politics are. Then he asks Thel that the Sangheili threatened to resign because of changing the Guards to Brutes. However Thel stands up for the Sangheili by saying that they have always been the San 'Shyuum's protectors. The Prophet of Truth states that these are troubling times. For everyone. The Prophet of Mercy now joins the conversation and says,
"Even as the humans' annihilation filled us with satisfaction, the loss of one of the Sacred Rings wracked our hearts with grief."
The Prophet of Truth said to Mercy giving an evil look,
"Putting aside our sorrow, we renewed our faith in the prophecy that other rings would be found. And see how our faith has been rewarded."
Then The Prophet of Mercy threw up is arms as if praying says,
"Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the Path to Salvation"
The Prophet of Truth adds to Mercy's statement asked how it could be activated. The question seemed to not be directed to no one. Then he said that they had searched for ages to find these answers. He pointed to 343 Guilty Spark who was suspended in a beam and referred to it as the Oracle. The Prophet of Mercy told the Arbiter that they questioned the Oracle and it has shown the Prophets the key. The Prophet of Truth pauses for a moment and orders the Arbiter to go on the Rings surface and recover the Sacred Icon. He also said that with the Sacred Icon they will fulfill their promise.
Prophet of Mercy: "Salvation for all!"
Prophet of Truth: "And begin the Great Journey."
The Search for the Sacred Icon...
As a Phantom flies toward Delta Halo Tartarus told the Arbiter that once the shield is down he will make his way to the Library. He also said in a firm voice that he does not want to keep the Hierarchs waiting. The Arbiter asks Tartarus who killed the Prophet of Regret. Tartarus scoffed and asked him who he thought it was. The Arbiter realized that the Demon was here! Tartarus asks him why and also asks him if he was looking for payback. The Arbiter says that getting the Sacred Icon to the Hierarchs is his top priority. The Phantom flies by a platform and drops him off and flies away. The Arbiter notices blood and destroyed machines all over the place. The blood is of Covenant origin. The Arbiter walks away from the edge and suddenly an Enforcer (giant Sentinel) appears behind him. The Arbiter turns around and shoots it but does no effect to it. The Phantom returns and shoots it knocking one of its legs off. The Phantom flies behind it and the Enforcer follows it. Tartarus tells the Arbiter to lower the shields and he will pick the Arbiter up when he is done.
The Arbiter notices that it is too quiet. Unusually quiet. The Arbiter sees some Constructor Drones (small Sentinels that repair things) fly around and fix the broken ground at the edge of the cliff. He walks up a small ramp and looks over to his left and spots a shivering Unggoy. The Arbiter thought he was unworthy and executed him by shooting him in the head. The Arbiter turns around and notices Constructor Drones around a Piston. Thel walks up to it and shoots it with his Plasma Rifle and the piston activates and moves up into the ceiling. The Arbiter looks down the shaft. It was pure darkness. The Arbiter jumps down and slides down several hundred feet and finally comes to a hard stop. He gets up and picks up his weapons and moves down a few hallways. The Arbiter activates more Pistons and jumps down more dark shafts. After some time, he finally hears gunfire. He hurries to assist. He figures out that a small squad of Kig-Yar and a few Unggoy were fighting Sentinels. The Arbiter arrives just in time to save them from the Sentinels. The Kig-Yar squawk to the Arbiter meaning they respect him and they are grateful for saving their lives. The Arbiter orders them to follow his lead. The squad travel through more hallways and dark shafts until they come across another hallway. Several Sentinels come out of the walls and start shooting the squad of Covenant. They eventually kill the Kig-Yar and the Unggoy leaving the Arbiter for last. But the Arbiter blows them up by shooting them with Plasma weapons. The Arbiter finally makes it into a large room with an Enforcer guarding the room. Tartarus tells him to hide in the shadows until it's back is turned. The Arbiter does so and eventually destroys the Enforcer. He realizes that the machine was guarding the shield generator. The Arbiter overloads four locks which reveals a holo-panel. He activates the panel and large doors open as the platform moves into open space. He looks up and spots a green shield protecting the Library disappear. Tartarus's Phantom passes the Arbiter and Tartarus said that he will pick the Arbiter up at the next platform. As soon as he says that the next set of doors open and reveals another Enforcer surrounded by Sentinels. Tartarus breaks away and tells the Arbiter that he will have to go to the Library himself. Sentinels and Sentinel Majors follow Tartarus while shooting their beams at him as he retreats.
The Arbiter heard familiar screams. Suddenly the Flood starts attacking him and the Sentinels. Thel retreats to the lower half of the platform and starts destroying the Flood and the Sentinels. One of the Flood Combat Forms had a shotgun and started attacking the Arbiter. The Arbiter killed it and took the shotgun. The gun was familiar in his hands because he used it before. He killed the Flood most of the Sentinels and the Enforcer with them. Finally a large door opened and the Arbiter escaped killing more Flood on the way. When he finally got inside the door closed behind him. He looked forward again and the room was completely silent and very dark. The Arbiter used this to his advantage and walks slowly and quietly down the hall. Suddenly he picks up a transmission from the humans. All he could make out from the transmission is that the marines are heading to an objective. He also heard that the enemy they were fighting wasn't Covenant. As Thel picks up a shotgun ammo he look out a window and spots humans firing at the Flood. The gunfire soon stops and the humans go silent. The Arbiter quickly moves on and comes across several waves of the Flood, several squads of Sentinels and an Enforcer. The Arbiter ignores them and hurries to the next shaft in the left half of the room. On his radar he notices several contacts coming from behind. He takes out his shotgun with a better understanding of how to use it. He gets up close and fires the shotgun at the Flood. He keeps firing the foreign weapon at the Flood until he is finally clear. The Arbiter activates the piston and jumps down the shaft landing on flat ground. Thel looks up and the room is foggy with a brown mist. He looks down the room and sees several waves of Flood patrolling the room. The Arbiter would never get past them all without being detected, however he remembered he had Active Camouflage. He used this to his advantage. He engaged active camouflage and quickly but quietly moves through the waves of Flood unnoticed. When he cleared the area he looked back and saw Infection forms infecting dead human bodies. When The Arbiter saw one of the infection forms enter and corrupt a body, it screamed and started to get up. Then he heard several more screams meaning several more bodies were possessed. Thel 'Vadamee hurries out of the room and runs down a hallway just to enter another room filled with Flood. He did the same thing as before but this time his camouflage ran out and the Flood started attacking the Arbiter. The Arbiter quickly kills the Flood in front of him and runs toward the exit of the room.
At the exit the Arbiter finds a piston. He activates it and jumps down and walks toward another piston. The Arbiter activates this one and jumps down into a large room with a view on the Library and Sentinel Production Facilities in the clouds. Strangely the room contained no Flood. The Arbiter finds some shotgun ammo and looks around the room for any more ammo. When he was done he activated another piston in the middle of the room. Before Thel 'Vadamee jumped down he looked down the shaft. The shaft was very dark and very quiet. The Arbiter finally got the nerve to jump down. He was sliding down the shaft for 30 seconds when he finally came to an abrupt stop. However he landed on a support beam, which avoiding the Arbiter from being detected. He heard a lot of gun fire so he rushed to join the carnage. The Arbiter couldn't see who was shooting at the Flood so he worked his way to find out who it was. When he cleared the area he barley saw a Phantom retreat from the Flood. The Arbiter turned around and saw several Flood combat form charge toward him so he quickly activated the piston behind him and jumped in and with enough luck the piston deactivated itself and wen back to its original position, which stopped the Flood form following him. He kept sliding for a few minutes down the long, dark shaft. The deeper he went down the shaft the darker it became. This time he didn't land. He kept sliding until he came to a stop, so the Arbiter got up and walked forward towards a door. When the door opened he appeared outside and it was snowing. The Arbiter spotted one of the Sentinel Production Facilities getting destroyed. The ship eventually crashed into the ground and several Sangheili Drop Pods land near him. The squad of Sangheili help the Arbiter destroy the Flood. When the Arbiter notices that no Flood is coming a Sangheilli walks up to him and says that the Quarantine Zone has be over run with Flood. He also said that their Commander has landed up ahead. The Arbiter and the Sangheili squad move through a small tunnel and eventually reach a camp being over run with Flood. After minutes of fighting they move out through a tunnel. Of course the tunnel is filled Flood which they dispatch easily. They spot another camp which is being over run with Flood. However one individual is killing them all. The Arbiter couldn't see who the Commander was so the squad hurry to assist. Once again they fight off several waves on Flood and the Commander speaks in a very familiar voice.
The Arbiter notices that it is too quiet. Unusually quiet. The Arbiter sees some Constructor Drones (small Sentinels that repair things) fly around and fix the broken ground at the edge of the cliff. He walks up a small ramp and looks over to his left and spots a shivering Unggoy. The Arbiter thought he was unworthy and executed him by shooting him in the head. The Arbiter turns around and notices Constructor Drones around a Piston. Thel walks up to it and shoots it with his Plasma Rifle and the piston activates and moves up into the ceiling. The Arbiter looks down the shaft. It was pure darkness. The Arbiter jumps down and slides down several hundred feet and finally comes to a hard stop. He gets up and picks up his weapons and moves down a few hallways. The Arbiter activates more Pistons and jumps down more dark shafts. After some time, he finally hears gunfire. He hurries to assist. He figures out that a small squad of Kig-Yar and a few Unggoy were fighting Sentinels. The Arbiter arrives just in time to save them from the Sentinels. The Kig-Yar squawk to the Arbiter meaning they respect him and they are grateful for saving their lives. The Arbiter orders them to follow his lead. The squad travel through more hallways and dark shafts until they come across another hallway. Several Sentinels come out of the walls and start shooting the squad of Covenant. They eventually kill the Kig-Yar and the Unggoy leaving the Arbiter for last. But the Arbiter blows them up by shooting them with Plasma weapons. The Arbiter finally makes it into a large room with an Enforcer guarding the room. Tartarus tells him to hide in the shadows until it's back is turned. The Arbiter does so and eventually destroys the Enforcer. He realizes that the machine was guarding the shield generator. The Arbiter overloads four locks which reveals a holo-panel. He activates the panel and large doors open as the platform moves into open space. He looks up and spots a green shield protecting the Library disappear. Tartarus's Phantom passes the Arbiter and Tartarus said that he will pick the Arbiter up at the next platform. As soon as he says that the next set of doors open and reveals another Enforcer surrounded by Sentinels. Tartarus breaks away and tells the Arbiter that he will have to go to the Library himself. Sentinels and Sentinel Majors follow Tartarus while shooting their beams at him as he retreats.
The Arbiter heard familiar screams. Suddenly the Flood starts attacking him and the Sentinels. Thel retreats to the lower half of the platform and starts destroying the Flood and the Sentinels. One of the Flood Combat Forms had a shotgun and started attacking the Arbiter. The Arbiter killed it and took the shotgun. The gun was familiar in his hands because he used it before. He killed the Flood most of the Sentinels and the Enforcer with them. Finally a large door opened and the Arbiter escaped killing more Flood on the way. When he finally got inside the door closed behind him. He looked forward again and the room was completely silent and very dark. The Arbiter used this to his advantage and walks slowly and quietly down the hall. Suddenly he picks up a transmission from the humans. All he could make out from the transmission is that the marines are heading to an objective. He also heard that the enemy they were fighting wasn't Covenant. As Thel picks up a shotgun ammo he look out a window and spots humans firing at the Flood. The gunfire soon stops and the humans go silent. The Arbiter quickly moves on and comes across several waves of the Flood, several squads of Sentinels and an Enforcer. The Arbiter ignores them and hurries to the next shaft in the left half of the room. On his radar he notices several contacts coming from behind. He takes out his shotgun with a better understanding of how to use it. He gets up close and fires the shotgun at the Flood. He keeps firing the foreign weapon at the Flood until he is finally clear. The Arbiter activates the piston and jumps down the shaft landing on flat ground. Thel looks up and the room is foggy with a brown mist. He looks down the room and sees several waves of Flood patrolling the room. The Arbiter would never get past them all without being detected, however he remembered he had Active Camouflage. He used this to his advantage. He engaged active camouflage and quickly but quietly moves through the waves of Flood unnoticed. When he cleared the area he looked back and saw Infection forms infecting dead human bodies. When The Arbiter saw one of the infection forms enter and corrupt a body, it screamed and started to get up. Then he heard several more screams meaning several more bodies were possessed. Thel 'Vadamee hurries out of the room and runs down a hallway just to enter another room filled with Flood. He did the same thing as before but this time his camouflage ran out and the Flood started attacking the Arbiter. The Arbiter quickly kills the Flood in front of him and runs toward the exit of the room.
At the exit the Arbiter finds a piston. He activates it and jumps down and walks toward another piston. The Arbiter activates this one and jumps down into a large room with a view on the Library and Sentinel Production Facilities in the clouds. Strangely the room contained no Flood. The Arbiter finds some shotgun ammo and looks around the room for any more ammo. When he was done he activated another piston in the middle of the room. Before Thel 'Vadamee jumped down he looked down the shaft. The shaft was very dark and very quiet. The Arbiter finally got the nerve to jump down. He was sliding down the shaft for 30 seconds when he finally came to an abrupt stop. However he landed on a support beam, which avoiding the Arbiter from being detected. He heard a lot of gun fire so he rushed to join the carnage. The Arbiter couldn't see who was shooting at the Flood so he worked his way to find out who it was. When he cleared the area he barley saw a Phantom retreat from the Flood. The Arbiter turned around and saw several Flood combat form charge toward him so he quickly activated the piston behind him and jumped in and with enough luck the piston deactivated itself and wen back to its original position, which stopped the Flood form following him. He kept sliding for a few minutes down the long, dark shaft. The deeper he went down the shaft the darker it became. This time he didn't land. He kept sliding until he came to a stop, so the Arbiter got up and walked forward towards a door. When the door opened he appeared outside and it was snowing. The Arbiter spotted one of the Sentinel Production Facilities getting destroyed. The ship eventually crashed into the ground and several Sangheili Drop Pods land near him. The squad of Sangheili help the Arbiter destroy the Flood. When the Arbiter notices that no Flood is coming a Sangheilli walks up to him and says that the Quarantine Zone has be over run with Flood. He also said that their Commander has landed up ahead. The Arbiter and the Sangheili squad move through a small tunnel and eventually reach a camp being over run with Flood. After minutes of fighting they move out through a tunnel. Of course the tunnel is filled Flood which they dispatch easily. They spot another camp which is being over run with Flood. However one individual is killing them all. The Arbiter couldn't see who the Commander was so the squad hurry to assist. Once again they fight off several waves on Flood and the Commander speaks in a very familiar voice.
"I hope you know what you are doing."
The Arbiter heard a very familiar voice ask why the Arbiter was there. The Arbiter turned around and realized who was talking. Rtas 'Vadumee was there with the Arbiter. When Rtas was about to talk he was rudely interrupted by the screams of the Flood. They hole up there and battle dozens of waves of Flood and the screaming and gunfire finally stopped. A Phantom flies above the Sangheili.The Arbiter and Rtas "Vadumee were talking below the Phantom. The Arbiter told Rtas that he needs to find Sacred Icon in the Quarantine Zone. Rtas pauses then says in a loud a loud voice
"We shall cut into the heart of this infestation, retrieve the Icon, and burn any Flood that stand in our way!"
The Sangheili roared in agreement to his statement and Rtas turned to the Arbiter and said that he hopes that the Arbiter knows what he is doing. The Sangheili spread out and get in vehicles. The Arbiter gets in the drivers seat of a Spectre. Rtas gets inside the turret and two other Sangheili get in the side seats and another Sangheili gets in a Ghost. A Enforcer and Sentinels starts to attack the squad. They soon destroy the Forerunner reinforcements and move on. The enter a tunnel and finally get inside a giant room where Enforcers and Sentinels are fighting Flood. The Arbiter drives forward and notices that human vehicles are in controlled by the Flood. The Arbiter has an idea, so he sped up next to a Scorpion and boards it. He uses the shotgun to destroy the Flood driving the Scorpion and pulls it out. The Arbiter gets in the drivers seat and lets the Sangheili get on the jumpseats. Then Rtas gets in the turret. However the Arbiter is confused on how to drive the tank but he eventually figured it out. He decimated the Flood with the Scorpion tank. He moves through several rooms filled with hordes of Flood. The Arbiter and the squad eventually make it to a platform. Rtas and the Arbiter walk toward the gondola's control panel and they are just about to activate it when they hear another gondola in the distance. Rtas said out loud that they could be more humans searching for the Sacred Icon. The squad hears more screaming indicating that there is more Flood on the way. Rtas activates his Energy Sword and tells the Arbiter that he will deal with them. The Arbiter activates the Gondola and it starts moving on a track. Up ahead there are several Flood Combat forms waiting to ambush the squad. The squad of Covenant keep fighting the Flood until the Gondola comes to a stop.
A Special Operations Sangheili tells the Arbiter that they have reached the Library. Tartarus says to the Arbiter to get inside and kill the humans and get the Sacred Icon. The Arbiter rushes inside by himself and notices two humans inside. One is near a ledge and the other looking about. Two other humans are near the exit. The Arbiter engages his active camouflage and silently kills the two guarding the exit. He notices the human female grabs a Flood tentacle and angles herself on the ledge and grabs the Sacred Icon. The tentacle slips and she almost fell over the ledge. But the humans male just so happened to be right behind her grabbing the tentacle which saved her. The male said to her that her father never asked for help. The female scoffs and puts the Sacred Icon on her belt and climbs up to safe ground. The female told the other male that the "Index" was secure. The Arbiter then hears the male call out two human names. When he heard no response he prepared himself for an attack. The female took out two weapons and the male took one weapon out. He started firing at the Arbiter but missed. The Arbiter grabbed him by the shoulders and forcefully put him on his feet. The human male said,
"How 'ya doin'?
The Arbiter stares at the human male and head butts him knocking him out. The female yelled at the male to stay down and she aimed her dual wield SMGs at the Arbiter. When she starts firing the Arbiter engages active camouflage and retreats. The Arbiter has a severe wound on his side.She yells at the human male to get up. She called him Johnson. Johnson didn't respond. The Arbiter jumped out from his cover and knocked the SMGs out of her hands. The Arbiter was just about to grab her by the neck when she was pulled away by an unknown force. The Arbiter quickly turns around and notices Tartarus had taken her. The Arbiter didn't want to see Tartarus at the time. He compliments the Arbiter and said that the Hierarchs will be pleased. The Arbiter replied with a lot of effort, said that the Sacred Icon is his duty to get to the Hierarchs. Tartarus chuckles and said that it was his responsbility to retrive the Sacred Icon. Then two Brutes aim their weapons at the Arbiter. The Arbiter was shocked but he stayed calm. Another Brute was dragging the bosy of Johnson toward Tartarus. Then Tartarus put the human female on another Brute's shoulder so he wouldn't have to carry the extra weight. He raised his voice and said,
"A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race. And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes will send you to it!"
The Arbiter tried to convince Tartarus that the Prophets will kill him for interfering with the Arbiter's work. Tartarus chuckled again and told the Arbiter that the Prophets ordered him to kill the Arbiter.
Tartarus aimed his Gravity Hammer at the Arbiter. He swong and sent the Arbiter falling down to the black pit below never to be seen again...
"We shall cut into the heart of this infestation, retrieve the Icon, and burn any Flood that stand in our way!"
The Sangheili roared in agreement to his statement and Rtas turned to the Arbiter and said that he hopes that the Arbiter knows what he is doing. The Sangheili spread out and get in vehicles. The Arbiter gets in the drivers seat of a Spectre. Rtas gets inside the turret and two other Sangheili get in the side seats and another Sangheili gets in a Ghost. A Enforcer and Sentinels starts to attack the squad. They soon destroy the Forerunner reinforcements and move on. The enter a tunnel and finally get inside a giant room where Enforcers and Sentinels are fighting Flood. The Arbiter drives forward and notices that human vehicles are in controlled by the Flood. The Arbiter has an idea, so he sped up next to a Scorpion and boards it. He uses the shotgun to destroy the Flood driving the Scorpion and pulls it out. The Arbiter gets in the drivers seat and lets the Sangheili get on the jumpseats. Then Rtas gets in the turret. However the Arbiter is confused on how to drive the tank but he eventually figured it out. He decimated the Flood with the Scorpion tank. He moves through several rooms filled with hordes of Flood. The Arbiter and the squad eventually make it to a platform. Rtas and the Arbiter walk toward the gondola's control panel and they are just about to activate it when they hear another gondola in the distance. Rtas said out loud that they could be more humans searching for the Sacred Icon. The squad hears more screaming indicating that there is more Flood on the way. Rtas activates his Energy Sword and tells the Arbiter that he will deal with them. The Arbiter activates the Gondola and it starts moving on a track. Up ahead there are several Flood Combat forms waiting to ambush the squad. The squad of Covenant keep fighting the Flood until the Gondola comes to a stop.
A Special Operations Sangheili tells the Arbiter that they have reached the Library. Tartarus says to the Arbiter to get inside and kill the humans and get the Sacred Icon. The Arbiter rushes inside by himself and notices two humans inside. One is near a ledge and the other looking about. Two other humans are near the exit. The Arbiter engages his active camouflage and silently kills the two guarding the exit. He notices the human female grabs a Flood tentacle and angles herself on the ledge and grabs the Sacred Icon. The tentacle slips and she almost fell over the ledge. But the humans male just so happened to be right behind her grabbing the tentacle which saved her. The male said to her that her father never asked for help. The female scoffs and puts the Sacred Icon on her belt and climbs up to safe ground. The female told the other male that the "Index" was secure. The Arbiter then hears the male call out two human names. When he heard no response he prepared himself for an attack. The female took out two weapons and the male took one weapon out. He started firing at the Arbiter but missed. The Arbiter grabbed him by the shoulders and forcefully put him on his feet. The human male said,
"How 'ya doin'?
The Arbiter stares at the human male and head butts him knocking him out. The female yelled at the male to stay down and she aimed her dual wield SMGs at the Arbiter. When she starts firing the Arbiter engages active camouflage and retreats. The Arbiter has a severe wound on his side.She yells at the human male to get up. She called him Johnson. Johnson didn't respond. The Arbiter jumped out from his cover and knocked the SMGs out of her hands. The Arbiter was just about to grab her by the neck when she was pulled away by an unknown force. The Arbiter quickly turns around and notices Tartarus had taken her. The Arbiter didn't want to see Tartarus at the time. He compliments the Arbiter and said that the Hierarchs will be pleased. The Arbiter replied with a lot of effort, said that the Sacred Icon is his duty to get to the Hierarchs. Tartarus chuckles and said that it was his responsbility to retrive the Sacred Icon. Then two Brutes aim their weapons at the Arbiter. The Arbiter was shocked but he stayed calm. Another Brute was dragging the bosy of Johnson toward Tartarus. Then Tartarus put the human female on another Brute's shoulder so he wouldn't have to carry the extra weight. He raised his voice and said,
"A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race. And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes will send you to it!"
The Arbiter tried to convince Tartarus that the Prophets will kill him for interfering with the Arbiter's work. Tartarus chuckled again and told the Arbiter that the Prophets ordered him to kill the Arbiter.
Tartarus aimed his Gravity Hammer at the Arbiter. He swong and sent the Arbiter falling down to the black pit below never to be seen again...
The Truth Revealed to Someone Who Doesn't Believe
Master Chief wakes up to see himself be held by tentacles. He looks up sees a large plant looking creature called a gravemind. Cortana was in disbelief at what she saw. The Gravemind spoke in a deep voice and told Master Chief that he was monument to all of his "sins." Then Master Chief heard someone else struggling against the grasp of the tentacles. Master Chief notices that it was a Sangheili with weird armor. The Sangheili finally met the Master Chief. He was Thel 'Vadamee, the Arbiter. The Master Chief softly talked to the Arbiter and said not to make the Gravemind angry. The Arbiter referred to Master Chief as a demon. Thel looked up and noticed that the Gravemond looked similar to a Sangheili head. The Gravemind had four "lips," but the "lips" were it's entire head. It didn't have any eyes, the body looked like a snake with multiple tentecales. The body was also green, and brown. The Gravemind moves his giant head toward Master Chief and says,
"This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded."Then the grave mind looks at the Arbiter.
"This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."
The Arbiter gets frustrated and says to the Gravemind to kill or release him. If does either one he doen't want to waste time talking. The Gravemind replies that there is a lot of talking that needs to get done. He also indicates that he has listened through rock, metal and time and that the Arbiter and the Master Chief should listen. Suddenly tentacle raises between them and it seems to be carrying a strange red light. The Arbiter and Master Chief look closer and notice that the red light is a monitor. The Monitor greets himself as 2401 Penitent Tangent and that he is the Monitor of Installation 05. Then another tentacle moves in front of them and it seems to be carrying a body. The body greets it self as the Prophet of Regret, Councilor of the most High Hierarch of the Covenant. The Arbiter and Master Chief both realize that the Gravemind brought the Prophet of Regret back from the dead. 2401 Penitent Tangent notices Master Chief and refers to him as a "Reclaimer." 2401 is also very surprised by his presence. He told John that they have a lot to do if they will control the Flood outbreak. The Prophet of Regret stepped in and said not to do so. He told Master Chief and Penitent Tangent that nothing can be done until his Sermon is fully complete. 2401 turns to the Prophet of Regret and told him that what the Prophet had said wasn't true.
"This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand."
The Prophet of Regret turned to the Arbiter and told him that the objects their "Lords" left behind aren't as worthless as the Oracles.
"They know nothing of the Great Journey!"
2401 replied to the Prophet of Regret that he knows nothing about containment and that he showed a disregard to the most basic protocols. The Gravemind finally stepped in and said to 2401 that his containment is similar to the Prophet of Regret's Great Journey. He gives a disgusted breath toward 2401 at first because he almost got destroyed because of the Monitor. The Gravemind lowers his tentacles holding Prophet of Regret and 2401 Penitent Tangent. The Prophet screams and dies. The Gravemind says to Thel 'Vadamee,
"Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before."
The Arbiter finally stopped resisting against the Gravemind's tentacles and turns toward Master Chief. Master Chief told the Arbiter that the Gravemind was right and that the High Prophets of Regret, Mercy, and Truth are making a huge mistake. The Arbiter got angry at John and told him that he was ignorant enough destroy one of the "Sacred Rings." The Arbiter also said that he will not harm another Sacred Ring. The Gravemind told the Arbiter and Master Chief,
If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot, and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us...brothers."
The Gravemind teleported the Arbiter and the Master Chief to two different places.
"This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded."Then the grave mind looks at the Arbiter.
"This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."
The Arbiter gets frustrated and says to the Gravemind to kill or release him. If does either one he doen't want to waste time talking. The Gravemind replies that there is a lot of talking that needs to get done. He also indicates that he has listened through rock, metal and time and that the Arbiter and the Master Chief should listen. Suddenly tentacle raises between them and it seems to be carrying a strange red light. The Arbiter and Master Chief look closer and notice that the red light is a monitor. The Monitor greets himself as 2401 Penitent Tangent and that he is the Monitor of Installation 05. Then another tentacle moves in front of them and it seems to be carrying a body. The body greets it self as the Prophet of Regret, Councilor of the most High Hierarch of the Covenant. The Arbiter and Master Chief both realize that the Gravemind brought the Prophet of Regret back from the dead. 2401 Penitent Tangent notices Master Chief and refers to him as a "Reclaimer." 2401 is also very surprised by his presence. He told John that they have a lot to do if they will control the Flood outbreak. The Prophet of Regret stepped in and said not to do so. He told Master Chief and Penitent Tangent that nothing can be done until his Sermon is fully complete. 2401 turns to the Prophet of Regret and told him that what the Prophet had said wasn't true.
"This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand."
The Prophet of Regret turned to the Arbiter and told him that the objects their "Lords" left behind aren't as worthless as the Oracles.
"They know nothing of the Great Journey!"
2401 replied to the Prophet of Regret that he knows nothing about containment and that he showed a disregard to the most basic protocols. The Gravemind finally stepped in and said to 2401 that his containment is similar to the Prophet of Regret's Great Journey. He gives a disgusted breath toward 2401 at first because he almost got destroyed because of the Monitor. The Gravemind lowers his tentacles holding Prophet of Regret and 2401 Penitent Tangent. The Prophet screams and dies. The Gravemind says to Thel 'Vadamee,
"Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before."
The Arbiter finally stopped resisting against the Gravemind's tentacles and turns toward Master Chief. Master Chief told the Arbiter that the Gravemind was right and that the High Prophets of Regret, Mercy, and Truth are making a huge mistake. The Arbiter got angry at John and told him that he was ignorant enough destroy one of the "Sacred Rings." The Arbiter also said that he will not harm another Sacred Ring. The Gravemind told the Arbiter and Master Chief,
If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot, and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us...brothers."
The Gravemind teleported the Arbiter and the Master Chief to two different places.
The Hunt For Truth and Mercy
In High Charity, the Prophet of Truth is giving a speech with The Prophet of Mercy at his side guarded by several Brute Honor Guards. Outside the massive Covenant Holy City explosions can be heard. Covenant ships are firing at each other because of conflict between the Brutes and the Sangheili. A few Brute Honor Guards beat down Unggoy and Kig-Yar rioters at the entrance to the Council Chamber.
"We are, all of us, gravely concerned. The release of the parasite was unexpected, unfortunate. But, there is no need to panic. In truth, this is a time to rejoice. A moment that all the Covenant should savor." (raises the Index) "For the Sacred Icon has been found. With it, our path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond guaranteed! The Great Journey is nigh and nothing, not even the Flood, can stop it!"
The two Prophets notice a strange yellow rings for a split second but ignore it. An Unggoy cameraman turns around and notices Master Chief right in front of him. The Master Chief quietly says' "Boo" to the Unggoy. The Unggoy freaks out and throws his needler in the air and runs away in fear. The Master Chief catches the needler in the air and walks up a dew steps noticing the Prophets. The Prophet of Mercy stays calm but Truth freaks out and orders his guards to kill him. The Prophets retreat via down a gravity lift along with a few guards. But some of the guards were left behind to deal with the Master Chief. Cortana tells Master Chief to quickly deal with the Brutes. The Master Chief listens and kills one. The other one drops his weapon and goes beserk. The Master Chief is then engaged by several enraged Brutes. John has to find a way to deal with these Brutes and fast. He uses his weapon to beat the Brutes but it doesn't seem to help. John finally finds a Carbine and shoots the Brutes in their heads which effectively killing them. Since the door is locked he has to fight more Brutes until the door is unlocked.
When the door was finally unlocked Master Chief walked up to a pedstal next to a door and transfered Cortana into it. She tells John that the Prophet of Truth will be easier to track if she stays in the Covenant Network. The Master Chief fights Unggoy and Brutes until he is in a large open area where Thel 'Vadamee was tortured for being a Heretic. Master Chief kills Unggoy and Kig-Yar on the sides and a few Brutes. Then as he walked toward the edge of the room a Brute with a Brute shot starts firing at John. But John charges toward him a tries to push him off the edge of the room. John grabs the ledge in time to save himself and the Brute starts to kick John's head to push him off. Master Chief pulls himself up and starts brawling the Brute. The Master Chief noticed that the Brute had a Brute shot which was sharp at the edges. Thankfully he noticed before the Brute began to swing like mad at the Master Chief. When John saw an opening he charged again and punched him in the head which made the Brute drop his weapon. John picked up the weapond and stabbed him in the chest with it and the Brute started to become weaker. John noticed he was backing up too far but the Brute hadd already noticed. By the Brutes mistake he looked back over the edge, stepped on the edge and saved himself. He turned around and noticed Master Chief right in front of him. John chuckled and punched him in the stomach and used the Brute shot to stab his face. The Brute was still standing on the edge. The Master Chief walked up to him and kicked him off the ledge, killing the Brute Captain. John heard his dying scream as the Brute descended into the abyss. Cortana said that said that she'd reverse the Gravity Lift. The Master Chief hesitated and stepped inside. The Lift took him down to a lower level. After fighting several waves of Brutes and Kig-Yar Cortana detected Marines in the lower levels. So Master Chief eventually finds a Gravity Lift and Cortana tells him to jump inside. The Gravity Lift takes him down several levels. When he reached his destination he notices several Brutes on guard duty. Somehow they don't realize that Master Chief is there. John sneaks behind one and takes out his Brute Shot and a Plasma Grenade. He throws the Plasma Grenade and sticks one of the Brutes and assassinates the other Brute. The Unggoy in the room start fleeing from Master Chief's wrath. He eventually finds all of them and moves down a level. Same as the first level but this time more Brutes.
Cortana said that a group of Marines are on the level Master Chief is one. So he searches some hallways and finally finds the stranded marines guarded by Brutes and Unggoy. When the guards are dead Cortana unlocks the cages and the marines grab Covenant weapons. Cortana announces that Master Chief is hunting a Prophet and they need their help. They aggree and get out of the brig. Cortana says that there is only one more group of marines to go on the lower level. John moves down a level via gravity lift and kills more Brutes, Unggoy and Kig-Yar quietly. Master Chief then looks on his motion tracker and notices that there are contacts moving on the top level of the room. Master Chief quickly hurries to free the other Marines. When he does the group of Marines follow Master Chief to meet up with the first group. The group of Marines follow Master Chief to the upper level. The UNSC forces are engaged in a firefight between Brutes and Unggoy. The Master Chief had no problem with the Covenant. Master Chief just cut every single Covenant infantry unit's heads off one by one. Master Chief walks up to the Gravity Lift from which he entered the room. The Marines step in and and lifted up. This moment reminded him off Truth and Reconicilation on Installation 04...
John finally stepped in and was taken up towards the marines. After several corridors of fighting more Covenant. Then on the loud speaker, The High Prophet of Truth speaks words of wisdom to the unsure and doubtful Covenant Empire. Cortana says that his brodcasting will make it easier for her to track the antagonist down and kill him.
"Fear not, my brothers! The Sacred Icon is secure. It was Tartarus and his Brutes who took the Icon from the Flood, and for that they have our thanks. The Elites have failed to protect the Prophets, and in doing so, have put all our lives at risk. Let no warrior forget his oath, 'Thou, in faith, shall keep us safe, whilst we find the Path. With my blessing, the Brutes now lead our fleets! They ask for your allegiance, and you shall give it."
Cortana noted that the Covenant destroyed two of their own ships! She aslo detected small arms fire around the ship. She also commented that the Covenant kill systems to prevent Cortana from getting into the Covenant Battle Net was terrible. As Master Chief was hurrying through the ship to get to The Prophet of Truth before he escapes he listens to more broadcasting,
"Creatures of the Covenant! The path is broad, and we shall walk it side by side."
Master Chief finally walks "outside" and notices a giant ship that is not of Covenat origin. Cortana detected a slipspace rupture. It was the In Amber Clad! Master Chief and Cortana were completely surprised by the ships appearance.
The Prophet of Truth gives more wisdom to the Covenant,
"Be glad! A reward for all your toil and all your sacrifices in the year at hand."
Cortana tries to contact In Amber Clad but gets no response. John and Cortana heard the ship crash in the distance. Coartana also detects no human vital signs in the ship.
Master Chief moves on and listens to more of the High Prophet of Truth's words of wisdom,
"At this moment, the Council is gathered on Halo, to see the Icon secured. There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now? I have listened to the Oracle, and it confirmed our deepest hope. The Great Journey begins with Halo. "Who would doubt the Prophets? What have they foretold that has not come to pass?"
Cortana said that if they are to hurry to catch Truth then they will have to go to the Mausolem of the Arbiter.
Master Chief finally enters the Mausolem of The Arbiter after killing several waves of Covenant. As soon as the door opens several Yanme'e scatter out. Master Chief looks up and notices a large firefight. John notices Hunters, Brutes, Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Yanme'e all fightng each other. He spots the door across the room. He looks carefully at it and notices that it is locked. Master Chief starts fighting the Covenant and after about five minutes of fighting several Honor Guard Sangheili runs inside the Mausolem. Master Chief gets in cover. The Guards investigate the area. One Guard walks next to Master Chief but doesn't realize he's there. Master Chief leaped out of his hiding spot and tackled the Sangheili. Master Chief stood up and stomped his foot into the Sangheili's skull, crushing it. Another Sangheili tries to retreat but Master Chief picks up an Energy Sword and Throws it at the Sangheils head. The sword went straight through it's face which killed it before the Sangheili fell to the ground. The Master Chief kills the other Sangheili after chasing them down. The fight in the Mausolem was finally over.
Cortana suddenly detects Sergeant Johnson and Commander Miranda Keyes closing in on the Prophet of Truth's position. Cortana suggests Master Chief to hurry because Johnson and Keyes might need help. Cortana also detected Flood inside In Amber Clad.
"We are, all of us, gravely concerned. The release of the parasite was unexpected, unfortunate. But, there is no need to panic. In truth, this is a time to rejoice. A moment that all the Covenant should savor." (raises the Index) "For the Sacred Icon has been found. With it, our path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond guaranteed! The Great Journey is nigh and nothing, not even the Flood, can stop it!"
The two Prophets notice a strange yellow rings for a split second but ignore it. An Unggoy cameraman turns around and notices Master Chief right in front of him. The Master Chief quietly says' "Boo" to the Unggoy. The Unggoy freaks out and throws his needler in the air and runs away in fear. The Master Chief catches the needler in the air and walks up a dew steps noticing the Prophets. The Prophet of Mercy stays calm but Truth freaks out and orders his guards to kill him. The Prophets retreat via down a gravity lift along with a few guards. But some of the guards were left behind to deal with the Master Chief. Cortana tells Master Chief to quickly deal with the Brutes. The Master Chief listens and kills one. The other one drops his weapon and goes beserk. The Master Chief is then engaged by several enraged Brutes. John has to find a way to deal with these Brutes and fast. He uses his weapon to beat the Brutes but it doesn't seem to help. John finally finds a Carbine and shoots the Brutes in their heads which effectively killing them. Since the door is locked he has to fight more Brutes until the door is unlocked.
When the door was finally unlocked Master Chief walked up to a pedstal next to a door and transfered Cortana into it. She tells John that the Prophet of Truth will be easier to track if she stays in the Covenant Network. The Master Chief fights Unggoy and Brutes until he is in a large open area where Thel 'Vadamee was tortured for being a Heretic. Master Chief kills Unggoy and Kig-Yar on the sides and a few Brutes. Then as he walked toward the edge of the room a Brute with a Brute shot starts firing at John. But John charges toward him a tries to push him off the edge of the room. John grabs the ledge in time to save himself and the Brute starts to kick John's head to push him off. Master Chief pulls himself up and starts brawling the Brute. The Master Chief noticed that the Brute had a Brute shot which was sharp at the edges. Thankfully he noticed before the Brute began to swing like mad at the Master Chief. When John saw an opening he charged again and punched him in the head which made the Brute drop his weapon. John picked up the weapond and stabbed him in the chest with it and the Brute started to become weaker. John noticed he was backing up too far but the Brute hadd already noticed. By the Brutes mistake he looked back over the edge, stepped on the edge and saved himself. He turned around and noticed Master Chief right in front of him. John chuckled and punched him in the stomach and used the Brute shot to stab his face. The Brute was still standing on the edge. The Master Chief walked up to him and kicked him off the ledge, killing the Brute Captain. John heard his dying scream as the Brute descended into the abyss. Cortana said that said that she'd reverse the Gravity Lift. The Master Chief hesitated and stepped inside. The Lift took him down to a lower level. After fighting several waves of Brutes and Kig-Yar Cortana detected Marines in the lower levels. So Master Chief eventually finds a Gravity Lift and Cortana tells him to jump inside. The Gravity Lift takes him down several levels. When he reached his destination he notices several Brutes on guard duty. Somehow they don't realize that Master Chief is there. John sneaks behind one and takes out his Brute Shot and a Plasma Grenade. He throws the Plasma Grenade and sticks one of the Brutes and assassinates the other Brute. The Unggoy in the room start fleeing from Master Chief's wrath. He eventually finds all of them and moves down a level. Same as the first level but this time more Brutes.
Cortana said that a group of Marines are on the level Master Chief is one. So he searches some hallways and finally finds the stranded marines guarded by Brutes and Unggoy. When the guards are dead Cortana unlocks the cages and the marines grab Covenant weapons. Cortana announces that Master Chief is hunting a Prophet and they need their help. They aggree and get out of the brig. Cortana says that there is only one more group of marines to go on the lower level. John moves down a level via gravity lift and kills more Brutes, Unggoy and Kig-Yar quietly. Master Chief then looks on his motion tracker and notices that there are contacts moving on the top level of the room. Master Chief quickly hurries to free the other Marines. When he does the group of Marines follow Master Chief to meet up with the first group. The group of Marines follow Master Chief to the upper level. The UNSC forces are engaged in a firefight between Brutes and Unggoy. The Master Chief had no problem with the Covenant. Master Chief just cut every single Covenant infantry unit's heads off one by one. Master Chief walks up to the Gravity Lift from which he entered the room. The Marines step in and and lifted up. This moment reminded him off Truth and Reconicilation on Installation 04...
John finally stepped in and was taken up towards the marines. After several corridors of fighting more Covenant. Then on the loud speaker, The High Prophet of Truth speaks words of wisdom to the unsure and doubtful Covenant Empire. Cortana says that his brodcasting will make it easier for her to track the antagonist down and kill him.
"Fear not, my brothers! The Sacred Icon is secure. It was Tartarus and his Brutes who took the Icon from the Flood, and for that they have our thanks. The Elites have failed to protect the Prophets, and in doing so, have put all our lives at risk. Let no warrior forget his oath, 'Thou, in faith, shall keep us safe, whilst we find the Path. With my blessing, the Brutes now lead our fleets! They ask for your allegiance, and you shall give it."
Cortana noted that the Covenant destroyed two of their own ships! She aslo detected small arms fire around the ship. She also commented that the Covenant kill systems to prevent Cortana from getting into the Covenant Battle Net was terrible. As Master Chief was hurrying through the ship to get to The Prophet of Truth before he escapes he listens to more broadcasting,
"Creatures of the Covenant! The path is broad, and we shall walk it side by side."
Master Chief finally walks "outside" and notices a giant ship that is not of Covenat origin. Cortana detected a slipspace rupture. It was the In Amber Clad! Master Chief and Cortana were completely surprised by the ships appearance.
The Prophet of Truth gives more wisdom to the Covenant,
"Be glad! A reward for all your toil and all your sacrifices in the year at hand."
Cortana tries to contact In Amber Clad but gets no response. John and Cortana heard the ship crash in the distance. Coartana also detects no human vital signs in the ship.
Master Chief moves on and listens to more of the High Prophet of Truth's words of wisdom,
"At this moment, the Council is gathered on Halo, to see the Icon secured. There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now? I have listened to the Oracle, and it confirmed our deepest hope. The Great Journey begins with Halo. "Who would doubt the Prophets? What have they foretold that has not come to pass?"
Cortana said that if they are to hurry to catch Truth then they will have to go to the Mausolem of the Arbiter.
Master Chief finally enters the Mausolem of The Arbiter after killing several waves of Covenant. As soon as the door opens several Yanme'e scatter out. Master Chief looks up and notices a large firefight. John notices Hunters, Brutes, Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Yanme'e all fightng each other. He spots the door across the room. He looks carefully at it and notices that it is locked. Master Chief starts fighting the Covenant and after about five minutes of fighting several Honor Guard Sangheili runs inside the Mausolem. Master Chief gets in cover. The Guards investigate the area. One Guard walks next to Master Chief but doesn't realize he's there. Master Chief leaped out of his hiding spot and tackled the Sangheili. Master Chief stood up and stomped his foot into the Sangheili's skull, crushing it. Another Sangheili tries to retreat but Master Chief picks up an Energy Sword and Throws it at the Sangheils head. The sword went straight through it's face which killed it before the Sangheili fell to the ground. The Master Chief kills the other Sangheili after chasing them down. The fight in the Mausolem was finally over.
Cortana suddenly detects Sergeant Johnson and Commander Miranda Keyes closing in on the Prophet of Truth's position. Cortana suggests Master Chief to hurry because Johnson and Keyes might need help. Cortana also detected Flood inside In Amber Clad.
"The Great Journey waits for no one, brother... Not even you..."
The Prophet of Truth, Mercy with Tartarus the Chieftain of the Brutes at their side with several Brute guards protecting them. Tartarus ordered to have the two humans in separate Phantoms. The Brutes do as they re ordered and escort Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes in different Phantoms.
Tartarus steps in front of the Prophets and kneels. The Prophet of Truth said,
"The hopes of all the Covenant rest on your shoulders, Chieftain."
Tartarus replied saying that his "faith" is strong and he will not fail the Prophets. Truth handed him the Index then several Flood Infection Forms start attacking them. The Brute Honor Guards and Tartarus start smashing them with their feet. Most of them are destroyed but one gets through and jumps on the Prophet of Mercy which knocked him of of his Throne. The Prophet of Mercy is screaming in pain and Tartarus walks up to the dying Prophet to grab the Infection form off of him.
Truth said to leave him be. Tartarus looked at the Prophet of Truth in suprise. Truth said,
"The Great Journey waits for no one, brother...not even you."
Prophet of Truth boards a Phantom and the Honor Guards follow. Tartarus stops. He looks at the Prophet of Mercy who is still screaming in pain then looks back at the Index. Tartarus turns away from the Prophet of Mercy and boards a Phantom carrying Miranda Keyes. He looks back and notices a door opening. Standing in the middle of the door way was Master Chief. All three Phantoms fly in three different directions abandoning High Charity.
Tartarus steps in front of the Prophets and kneels. The Prophet of Truth said,
"The hopes of all the Covenant rest on your shoulders, Chieftain."
Tartarus replied saying that his "faith" is strong and he will not fail the Prophets. Truth handed him the Index then several Flood Infection Forms start attacking them. The Brute Honor Guards and Tartarus start smashing them with their feet. Most of them are destroyed but one gets through and jumps on the Prophet of Mercy which knocked him of of his Throne. The Prophet of Mercy is screaming in pain and Tartarus walks up to the dying Prophet to grab the Infection form off of him.
Truth said to leave him be. Tartarus looked at the Prophet of Truth in suprise. Truth said,
"The Great Journey waits for no one, brother...not even you."
Prophet of Truth boards a Phantom and the Honor Guards follow. Tartarus stops. He looks at the Prophet of Mercy who is still screaming in pain then looks back at the Index. Tartarus turns away from the Prophet of Mercy and boards a Phantom carrying Miranda Keyes. He looks back and notices a door opening. Standing in the middle of the door way was Master Chief. All three Phantoms fly in three different directions abandoning High Charity.
Sangheili Uprising
The Arbiter looked at the Demon for the last time before they were teleported. The Arbiter was teleported a few miles away from Delta Halos Control Room. He was right next to a cliff when he was teleported. He sensed that Gravemind was going to teleport the Demon to High Charity so he can kill the Prophets. Thel ignored his thoughts and saw a Plasma Rifle that happened to be in front of him. Thel saw Brute Shots in the distance and saw a Plasma Rifle shoot in the air. The Arbiter notices an Energy Sword on the ground and picks it up. When he picks it up he looks over to his left to see a dying Sangheili Councilor. The dying Sangheili said that they have betrayed the Sangheili. The Councilors.
The Arbiter hears a Brute telling another Brute to throw the bodies over the edge of the cliff. Another Brute asked what sort of fun that would be. Then a third Brute runs toward the other two. The Arbiter finally decides to make his move. He engages active camouflage and runs toward them. The Arbiter went behind one and sliced his head off with the Energy Sword. Thel stabs another one in the chest. The third Brute went running to get reinforcements. Then The Arbiter ran up behind him and stabbed it in the chin. The sword penetrated the Brutes brain. The Arbiter brought the sword away from his face. The sword ripped his face off and before the Brute died he let out a dying scream which alerted the other Brutes. A Brute Captain started running toward him with a Brute Shot with five other Brutes behind him. The Arbiter went into Active Camouflage and disappeared. The Brutes started looking around, one was heading straight for him. The Arbiter had no choice but to reveal himself to the Brutes. He sprung out of his hiding spot and threw his Energy Sword toward the Captain. The Captain saw this coming so he easily evaded it. The Sword flew past the Captain and hit another Brute right next to him. The Brute died with the Energy Sword in his chest. The Arbiter sprinted toward the Energy Sword while shooting another Brute with a Plasma Rifle. The Arbiter killed him and dove for the sword and finally picked it up. He tossed a Plasma Grenade at a Brute to his right. The Brute wasn't expecting this so the grenade stuck him and killed him. The Arbiter was cornered by two Brutes now, and one of them was the Captain. Instead of going for the Captain he went for the other one next to him. The Arbiter jumped behind him and stabbed him in the back. Having cover from the Brutes body, the Arbiter took the Brute Plasma Rifle and started shooting the Captain. The Captain went behind cover from his own allies unintended friendly fire. The Arbiter decided to charge the Brute. The Arbiter swong his Sword at the Captain but his Energy Sword stopped unexpectly. The Brute had blocked the Sword with his Brute Shot. Thel noticed that the Brute Shot was sharp. The Brute started to go Beserk. He pushed Thel back a few feet and started to swing like mad towards the Arbiter. Thel tripped over a rock and landed on his back. The Brute was just about to kill the Arbiter when suddenly a Sangheili assassinated the Brute by stabbing it the back with an Energy Sword.
The Sangheili threw the Brute body to the side and helped the Arbiter up. He looked around and noticed that several Snagheili dead bodies were behind Thel 'Vadamee. The Spec Ops Sangheili was surprised at the destruction and downfall of the Sangheili. He turns to the Arbiter and clenches his fist and yelled that the Brutes will pay for the blood spilled. Then, several Insertion Drop Pods crash in revealing a Zealot and other Spec Ops Sangheili. The squad move behind the Arbiter and they head up a small ledge and into a structure. The move quietly through several hallways and they are suddenly engaged by several Brutes, Kig-Yar and Yanme'e. The Sangheili squad charges in anger toward the opposing Covenant forces. The squad dispatches the Brutes and Yanme'e but the Kig-YAr retreat to alert to gather Brute reinforcements. The Arbiter quickly rushes forward and tries to stop the Kig-Yar but fails. He is faced with several Brutes coming out of a doorway. Since the squads exit is blocked by the Covenant, they hurry to help the overruned Arbiter. Once the squad destroys them they quickly move on through the doorway. The Sangheili squad walks around a few crates and they spot their exit below. The Arbiter saw the door open with a squad of Kig-Yar and Brutes. The Arbiter takes out his Energy Sword and quickly takes them out. Thel waits for the rest of the squad to catch up and moves on.
When they enter the next room they see a glass floor near the edge of a small ledge. They look at the floor and notice that they are on the third floor. The other two floors below are filled with Covenant. The Arbiter signaled the other Sangheili to stay back while the Arbiter takes care of the Brutes below. The Sangheili agree and the Arbiter engages Active Camouflage and jumps down one floor. Thankfully the Brutes weren't facing each other. The Arbiter signaled the other the Sangheili to jump down. The watched the Arbiter's signal to assassinate the Brutes. When the Arbiter gave the signal the squad silently assassinated the Brutes. The Arbiter moves down another floor and does the same thing, but this time a Brute noticed him and fired at the Arbiter, alerting the other Covenant forces. Once he killed them he jumped down to the final floor. Several squads of Brutes pour through their exit. The other Sangheili support the Arbiter. The are almost overrun but they stay calm. Their anger for the Brutes led them to victctory.
They hurry out of the room before more Brute reinforcements arrive. The arrive in another room filled with Kig-Yar and a Shade Turret in the middle of the room which is guarding the door behind it. The Arbiter signals the Sangheili Squad forward and follows along. He throws a few grenades and kills the Kig-Yar and then he shoots the Shade Turret. Then several Brutes charge out of the door to attack. The squad assists the Arbiter by killing After the enemy forces are destroyed the Arbiter and his squad moves on. The go through a few empty hallways and finally get to a door that leads outside. The squad prepare to shoot and the Arbiter runs through the door. He takes an energy sword and charges a Brute and a Kig-Yar. The rest of the squad follows him and takes out the rest of the Covenant. When he kills the rest of the Covenant he orders the squad to follow him.
The Arbiter hears a Brute telling another Brute to throw the bodies over the edge of the cliff. Another Brute asked what sort of fun that would be. Then a third Brute runs toward the other two. The Arbiter finally decides to make his move. He engages active camouflage and runs toward them. The Arbiter went behind one and sliced his head off with the Energy Sword. Thel stabs another one in the chest. The third Brute went running to get reinforcements. Then The Arbiter ran up behind him and stabbed it in the chin. The sword penetrated the Brutes brain. The Arbiter brought the sword away from his face. The sword ripped his face off and before the Brute died he let out a dying scream which alerted the other Brutes. A Brute Captain started running toward him with a Brute Shot with five other Brutes behind him. The Arbiter went into Active Camouflage and disappeared. The Brutes started looking around, one was heading straight for him. The Arbiter had no choice but to reveal himself to the Brutes. He sprung out of his hiding spot and threw his Energy Sword toward the Captain. The Captain saw this coming so he easily evaded it. The Sword flew past the Captain and hit another Brute right next to him. The Brute died with the Energy Sword in his chest. The Arbiter sprinted toward the Energy Sword while shooting another Brute with a Plasma Rifle. The Arbiter killed him and dove for the sword and finally picked it up. He tossed a Plasma Grenade at a Brute to his right. The Brute wasn't expecting this so the grenade stuck him and killed him. The Arbiter was cornered by two Brutes now, and one of them was the Captain. Instead of going for the Captain he went for the other one next to him. The Arbiter jumped behind him and stabbed him in the back. Having cover from the Brutes body, the Arbiter took the Brute Plasma Rifle and started shooting the Captain. The Captain went behind cover from his own allies unintended friendly fire. The Arbiter decided to charge the Brute. The Arbiter swong his Sword at the Captain but his Energy Sword stopped unexpectly. The Brute had blocked the Sword with his Brute Shot. Thel noticed that the Brute Shot was sharp. The Brute started to go Beserk. He pushed Thel back a few feet and started to swing like mad towards the Arbiter. Thel tripped over a rock and landed on his back. The Brute was just about to kill the Arbiter when suddenly a Sangheili assassinated the Brute by stabbing it the back with an Energy Sword.
The Sangheili threw the Brute body to the side and helped the Arbiter up. He looked around and noticed that several Snagheili dead bodies were behind Thel 'Vadamee. The Spec Ops Sangheili was surprised at the destruction and downfall of the Sangheili. He turns to the Arbiter and clenches his fist and yelled that the Brutes will pay for the blood spilled. Then, several Insertion Drop Pods crash in revealing a Zealot and other Spec Ops Sangheili. The squad move behind the Arbiter and they head up a small ledge and into a structure. The move quietly through several hallways and they are suddenly engaged by several Brutes, Kig-Yar and Yanme'e. The Sangheili squad charges in anger toward the opposing Covenant forces. The squad dispatches the Brutes and Yanme'e but the Kig-YAr retreat to alert to gather Brute reinforcements. The Arbiter quickly rushes forward and tries to stop the Kig-Yar but fails. He is faced with several Brutes coming out of a doorway. Since the squads exit is blocked by the Covenant, they hurry to help the overruned Arbiter. Once the squad destroys them they quickly move on through the doorway. The Sangheili squad walks around a few crates and they spot their exit below. The Arbiter saw the door open with a squad of Kig-Yar and Brutes. The Arbiter takes out his Energy Sword and quickly takes them out. Thel waits for the rest of the squad to catch up and moves on.
When they enter the next room they see a glass floor near the edge of a small ledge. They look at the floor and notice that they are on the third floor. The other two floors below are filled with Covenant. The Arbiter signaled the other Sangheili to stay back while the Arbiter takes care of the Brutes below. The Sangheili agree and the Arbiter engages Active Camouflage and jumps down one floor. Thankfully the Brutes weren't facing each other. The Arbiter signaled the other the Sangheili to jump down. The watched the Arbiter's signal to assassinate the Brutes. When the Arbiter gave the signal the squad silently assassinated the Brutes. The Arbiter moves down another floor and does the same thing, but this time a Brute noticed him and fired at the Arbiter, alerting the other Covenant forces. Once he killed them he jumped down to the final floor. Several squads of Brutes pour through their exit. The other Sangheili support the Arbiter. The are almost overrun but they stay calm. Their anger for the Brutes led them to victctory.
They hurry out of the room before more Brute reinforcements arrive. The arrive in another room filled with Kig-Yar and a Shade Turret in the middle of the room which is guarding the door behind it. The Arbiter signals the Sangheili Squad forward and follows along. He throws a few grenades and kills the Kig-Yar and then he shoots the Shade Turret. Then several Brutes charge out of the door to attack. The squad assists the Arbiter by killing After the enemy forces are destroyed the Arbiter and his squad moves on. The go through a few empty hallways and finally get to a door that leads outside. The squad prepare to shoot and the Arbiter runs through the door. He takes an energy sword and charges a Brute and a Kig-Yar. The rest of the squad follows him and takes out the rest of the Covenant. When he kills the rest of the Covenant he orders the squad to follow him.