Prologue
For years I had sensed their presence, giving my species the ability to achieve the greatness it had. Almost as if they tried to prepare us, but we did not listen to their pleas, we simply indulged ourselves in arrogance and the obsession with our 'mantle'. We tried to stop them from coming but to no avail; they pushed taking everything we had created over the years. So we watched helplessly and we prepared for the final confrontation. Victory was impossible so we created the ultimate finisher to this war, something that would make our 'Precursors' proud. We stuck to our mantle, and we gathered everything we could from sentient life. Then we fired it, silencing the once loud galaxy, and rendering it lifeless. We thought we stopped it, and from within our safeworlds we waited, we knew they would rise again, but we could not help the rising species.
We tried to make it possible to stop the approaching darkness, we created the portal. This portal was our last hope. To try to end this before it cycled. But still there was something in the galaxy that was strange, the feeling that we were watched. The same feeling we had when we suspected their presence, some omniscient being. Did this go against all of our beliefs? Was their some being beyond ourselves? Again the arrogance grasps at us, we once thought we were gods, but as it was proven even gods can fall.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insight to a parasite...
Hunger...We must consume, we must expand, we must devour the warm life that we sense or we face extinction. We need organization, we need a central mind, a Gravemind, we have almost achieved it, our mass is close to critical. The foolish mortals don't see it, we are winning, yet they think they have the upper hand, we devour world after world and they still attempt to resist...immortality. We cannot be killed, as we feed we grow, as we grow we strengthen, as we strenghten we crush, and as we crush we laugh at those who resisted. There is no stopping immortality, death is destined to those who resist.
They attempt to make plans, guarding their most precious worlds, but it matters not, for we will still consume them all. We know not what occurs within that sphere they created but we will find out, the Maginot line is strong but not invincible. They know it too, they can sense their impending doom, and yet they do not flee like the others did, those before them; no they believe they can stop us...they have hope. What gives them hope when surrounded by death and despair; how do they see a light when enveloped by eternal darkness? It matters not, they attempt to save everyone, and this code they live by will be their downfall. There may have been a time...
No they are advanced but it is too late for them to run, they will be consumed, and once again we shall rule a galaxy, we are beyond their comprehension, we do not live or die, we leave and return, we are eternal. We are the life in the universe, our job is to purge these beings of their place, they believe they are gods, well we will show them that the only immortals here have already decided their fate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 1
Jake tightened the grip around his Battle Rifle, he stayed crouched behind a crate listening to the nonsensical proceedings of some evangelical 'Revitalist'. These were a new type of insurrection against the UNSC, they appeared shortly after Spartan-117 destroyed the Halo ring. They established many bases throughout the UNSC colonies, quickly overpowering local militia, and with military forces already weakened from the Covenant-Human war, these Revitalists quickly gained ground. They established a rather large base on Mars, which was a little too close to home for the UNSC. They decided to send a small strike team, to kill the leader and leave.
Jake, an ODST Commander, was the leader of this task force. Accomponied by 10 other ODSTs, they were sent to take out any leaders and gather information on any other leaders or bases. Jake listened to the leader, Charles Dorson, preach to a large crowd.
"Listen to me my brothers! These artifacts respond to humans, so they must be meant for us! We must reclaim what is rightfully ours rather than destroy it. The UNSC does not approve of our methods, but we will show them when we achieve the tech Tier of 1!"
With the last line the crowd cheered, Jake felt a tap on his back. It was Derek, his second in command, he simply raised a concussion grenade as a gesture. Jake nodded and raised his Battle Rifle, three concussion grenades flew out into the crowd. The crowd went from uproarious to silent in an instant. Dorson looked around in shock, 3 ODSTs ran out and pointed their guns at Dorson, who attempted to run. Jake walked out with his Battle Rifle up, Dorson glared at Jake with his hands raised.
"Charles Dorson, we have been ordered to kill you, you are a threat to the UNSC and you must be stopped.", Jake said.
Dorson started to laugh hysterically, he had a mencing look in his eyes. "You cannot stop me! I am immortal!", Dorson yelled. Jake pulled the trigger and the leader of the Revitalists fell dead, with a shot through his heart. "Check for any monitors, we're leaving in 5 minutes!", Jake shouted to his team. Jake checked the room, it was nothing special, just a large cargo hold, red dust covered the window, and the light that came in was tinted red from Mars' very small atmosphere. Jake looked at the unconscious crowd, they were normal citizens, plagued by the hope for survival. What did he tell them?, Jake thought.
"Hey Commander I think we got something!", Derek shouted into the Comm link. Jake came to the source of the signal, and saw what was so interesting, a partial sphere that is concave on three sides, with a blue light in the middle; was sitting on an elevated platform. "What is it?", Derek asked. Jake had no idea, it wasn't of human or Covenant design. Jake examined it, it was rather large, and seemed to have no weaponry. Jake reached his hand out, when it made contact with the blue light, the light flared and the sphere lifted off of the ground with some strange propulsion system. It's lens was focused on Jake, it seemed to be reading something, Jake stood with his Battle Rifle leveled with the sphere. Suddenly a low voice could be heard from the sphere, "Why hello Reclaimer.", the sphere said. "Did that lightbulb just talk?", some ODST said.
"I am sorry for my delayed response Reclaimer but I had to read your language for a little while.", the sphere said.
"Reclaimer? Why do you call me that?", Jake asked.
"Because you were meant to take the mantle of my creators, you are next in line to protect the sentient life in the galaxy, you are meant to reclaim my creators' place in the galaxy.", the sphere said.
Jake was speechless for a while, he didn't completely comprehend what that thing just said. "I am sorry if I have confused you Reclaimer, but we have much to do, I am 07 Sorrowful Ember, we must prepare for the infection."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whispers in the dark...
"Sir come quickly I think we found something!", the Lieutenant shouted across the Bridge the break the noise of hysteria.
"What? What is going on Lieutenant Grant? This better be important.", Commander Gray replied as he walked over to the comm console.
"We picked up some strange message, we're still trying to decode it, but we almost have it; it's cryptic sir, we don't fully understand it.", the lieutenant said as he played the recording.
Gray watched silently as the lights on the console flickered and a static noise could be heard, a voice broke through, speaking in a language he didn't know, and then it was transferred to his native tongue.
"Whispers are all we hear....echos of a remnant race...they have fallen, but still stand....there is much that lies ahead, the road is paved with danger and death, but at the end is a light that calls us but we do not know if it is friend or foe, all that is left is to follow it through the darkness, for what other choice is there in eternal silence?"
"What the hell was that Lieutenant?", Gray said deeply disturbed by the recording.
"Hold on sir, there is more coming in.", the Lieutenant replied weakly, as if he was afraid.
"As I had suspected! The infection has returned to eliminate us! We stand unguarded against the approaching menace, but our life still trickles on and we will stay. They will not move us this time, we will not fold in the face of our opponent, they are weaker now, after the great silence. WE WILL HOLD TO OUR MANTLE!"
The last lines echoed throughout the room, Gray was pale and shaking, something in the voice invoked fear in him, a primal type of fear he had not felt since he was in battle with the Covenant. After he calmed down he realized he feared for his life.
"Take us to the source of the message, we need to see what this is about."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 2
Location: UNSC Prowler: Hybrid, Unknown Star system.
Vice Admiral Howard King sat in a chair awaiting his approval to enter the Section III Office aboard the stealth ship. King was impatient, he had served many years in the naval forces and he thought he deserved more respect than he received. He removed his commander's hat and revealed the partially gray hair underneath, he wiped his forehead to remove the sweat. The inside of the ship was unusually hot, the lightbulbs were unusually bright, and everyone seemed to be keeping this a secret. Captain Zack Hughes accompanied King, Hughes was an ONI agent, he had been the one collecting information about their project for the last two years.
The door next to King opened and two armor-clad soldiers stepped out, "Sir, you may enter now.", one of the soldiers said.
"It's 'bout goddam time.", King replied.
King stepped into the curved room, it was sterile white, like most other rooms in the ship, something that King strongly disliked. In the middle of the room was a table with a console in the middle, chairs surrounded it. Three dark figures sat on the oposite end of the room. The door slammed shut after Hughes stumbled in. "Please take a seat Admiral, and Captain.", on of the dark figures said and gestured at the chairs. King qucikly pulled out the chair, Hughes however decided to get down to business, he put a folder in the middle of the table.
"Here are your results, from Project SIGMA.", Hughes said.
"You'll find some interesting things in there, the drug has not yet successfully been tested on humans, but in chimpanzees it responded very well, boosting their normal abilities tenfold, this project may surpass the Spartans.", Hughes said, obviously proud of his work.
One of the figures thumbed through the folder which contained various records and pictures. "So you accomplished genotypic mutation on a chromosomal level, congradulations Captain. This will help with our plan, we have already chosen candidates for the drug. They will be tested soon.", the dark figure said.
King shuddered at the ONI officer's complete lack of concern for human life. King scowled and cleared his throat to grab their attention, "The drug might be harmful to humans, we have not checked it on all 23 Chromosomes."
"In all due respect sir there's only a .01% chance of error.", Hughes replied, adament on starting the program.
"That's what they said about the Spartan 1's and most of them died during augmentation.", King said.
"This is different--", Hughes tried to say and then stop when he realized what the Admiral was doing.
"The biological augmentation in these subjects will be something that was never thought possible. They will be smarter, stronger, faster, and more durable. Maybe more so than the Spartan IIs. With this we have essentially taken a step up the ladder of evolution...", King said aiming it at the shadows in the back. "However there is something strange about this, it happened to quickly, I just don't have a good feeling about the start of a new type of super soldier."
"Well like it or not Admiral, we can not stop this project on a bad feeling.", one of the shadows said.
"I know sir, but there is just something strange about these processions.", King said.
"Well we are going to start testing next week, we will start of course with screening for the perfect candidates.", the ONI officer said.
"You two are dismissed.", Hughes and King walked out of the spherical room. King stared at the ground while he walked, What has he done?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Attempting to establish link...//
-Link established-
//Scanning signal source...//
WARNING. UNKNOWN AI ACTIVITY IN SECTOR 67538
//Reading possible threats...//
THREATS FOUND. AI ACTIVITY INCREASING.
//Reading message...//
//Opening archived files...//
-Complete-
{
We walk the path of those before us...
We ascend to places not yet known...
Is trans-sentient our goal?
}
-Message Relayed-
-Files Destroyed-
//ONI Agent Hughes Logging out...//
-Logged out-
-Session is now erased-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I apologize for the lack of progress tot hose who actually read this, but I am dry on ideas for the storyline, I have a beginning and end in mind, but the middle is what's killing me, so please do not allow this one to escape into the underworld of the Library. Of course plot ideas would be great as well. Just PM me with thoughts, that would be useful, just I might not use them because they might not fit the story.
CHAPTER 3
Derek's eyes itched from the blindfold he had worn for hours. The only light he saw was a bright red light that shined through the thin piece of fabric. He had been sitting in a Pelican for about half an hour, he could tell by the red docking light in the cargo hold and the distinct roar of the Pelicans engines. He was with others, and there were other Pelicans as well. They were heading to some classified facility, where they would receive 'special training'.
Derek pondered the events before he was taken tot his place. He had enlisted into the UNSC, to assist against the looming Covenant threat. During screening he was chosen to be an ODST, with about 50 others. Well during the psyche screening they took a blood sample, to check for disease or any disability that would impair their ability to fight. Well what they didn't tell him until just now was that he was a perfect match. At first Derek didn't understand, and of course the CPO just shoved him into the van and said, he said, "You'll understand soon enough.". Derek thought long and hard about this, he only came up with one solution, they had chosen him to be a Spartan. No surprise there though, the UNSC was desperate, and with the Spartan-II program public they received a lot of funding for the program.
The Pelican touched down, and it shoved Derek forward, but his straps caught him from slaming into the floor. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and his straps came undone, a deep voice said, "Get up.", Derek followed without question, he had been beaten enough during training to know never to mess with your superiors. He was led down the hatch of the Pelican, but didn't expect the sudden drop and fell, he twisted and landed on his back. Two sets of hands helped him up, he was embarrassed but he was slightly relieved when he heard three other similar thuds.
The recruits were led down a flight of stairs and into a large cargo elevator, the flashing lights is what gave this away to Derek. They stepped into a large open room. Derek was put into a line with the recruits. The blindfold he had on was taken off and Derek looked around, they were in a large underground base. Most of it open area but some doors and buildings were visible in the dim light. In front of them stood two people, a dark skinned woman in a labcoat, and a large man with camoflauge pants and a black shirt.
The woman spoke first, "Hello, I am Dr. Thorin, I am the leader of this operation.", the stern man went next, "I am Sarge, that's all you need to know." Dr.Thorin gave the Sergeant a dirty look and then addressed the group, "I will be supervising your biological augmentation, as your are the next generation of super-soldiers.", Sarge cleared his throat and went next, "What the fancy doctor is trying to say is that she will be pumping you with steroids, welcome to training Spartans."
Thorin scowled at him fiercly, "I am sorry there is a mistake, you are not Spartans, you are different. You will not be pumped with steroids as the Sergeant so bluntly put it, and you will not be receiving the same injections as Spartans, you are Project SIGMA, the next generation." The Sergeant laughed and then said, "Well, Spartans, I will make sure that by the time you leave here, you'll actually know how to shoot a gun and kill an alien. Should be simple enough, even for you guys." Again the Doctor scowled at the Sergeant and walked away. "These fine gentlemen will show you to your sleeping areas, hurry up training starts in 2 hours."
10 ODSTs moved to the front and motioned for the group to follow, Derek had no idea what was in store for him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 4
King watched as ONI implemented its new protocol for the restoration of glassed planets. It was tested on outer colonies first, because they were deemed the most suitable. It consisted of taking the glassed surface and crushing it with these massive machines, known as hammers, which are typically used for mining, but in this case they were refitted with a blunt tip to cover more surface area. The crushed 'glass' was then covered with lichen, a type of plant-fungus that helped break down minerals into organic and usable soil. They also constructed an aircraft that is able to takes ions left over from the glassing and use them for energy in a process that they refer to as 'reverse electrolysis', where they convert Hydrogen ions and Oxygen atoms back into Water. This creates a makeshift atmosphere, and there were multiple terra-forming factories, which pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so the lichen can undergo photosynthesis and return oxygen to the atmosphere.
The process was interesting, and it gave humanity a glimmer of hope for re-colonization of lost planets. Many people were against expanding, and with the war still raging on, humanity just wanted to restore its former glory, and regain the homes it had lost. King's fleet, or Battlegroup Omicron, was stationed to protect the Colonial vessels and the ONI Prowlers that were at Harvest for re-colonization. Hughes walked up to King as he stood stoic at the ship's viewport overlooking the blackened Harvest.
"Sir we have received the first results from Project SIGMA", Hughes said with obvious delight.
King gritted his teeth, he found Hughes to be abnoxious, and this Project SIGMA was a bad idea all in itself. "The 50 Candidates just received the injection, and so far there is a 100% survival rate."
This gave King a litlle happiness, he was upset that he took 50 men away from their families, but if some died upon injection with the mutualistic virus, he would have felt worse. "What's your point Captain?"
"But sir, you must be somewhat excited about the results.", Hughes said curious why King was still spiteful of the program.
"The results were expected right?", King asked without even turning towards the Captain.
"Yes, but--", Hughes started to say and King cut him off, "Why should I get excited over expected results Captain?"
"I am sorry I have disturbed you, sir.", Hughes left, and without the Captain the Bridge fell silent, the navigators had left to various parts of the ship and King was alone in peace. The chaos of this war was disturbing, a fight for survival on a semi-galatic scale. Recently the Covenant had attacked Earth with a small force, however Lord Hood managed to repel them. Spartan-117 and Cortana were in pursuit of the Covenant leader that started the assault. A sudden sense of curiosity touched King and he walked over to one of the consoles and logged in.
"Welcome, Vice-Admiral King.", a female voice came from the console.
"Now's not the time Sheila.", King said, annoyed at the curious smart AI, she appeared on the console behind him. She had long blonde hair with glasses, and a labcoat, apparently resembling a famous doctor. "What's wrong? Your not as happy as other days.", the AI said in a rhetorical remark. King ignored her and proceeded with his log in.
"Oh come on, if you tell me what you want I can have it up faster than you can type.", Sheila said, obviously trying to engage the Vice-Admiral in some type of strange conversation.
"I do not need your assistance right now Sheila.", King said as he typed his inquiry into the search box.
"Ugh, put in one of the largest ships in the UNSC Navy and there's nothing to do. Are you sure you don't need my help?", Sheila said starting to get on King's nerves.
"Yes, I'm sure, now leave me alone and go away.", King said harshly, but for the many years that he knew Sheila, he knew she wasn't easy to anger. She smiled at him and said, "You humans are interesting creatures, you complain things aren't fast enough, but when offered assistance you'd rather wait.", then the AI vanished from the console.
King was happy at the return of the silence, the page that he wanted opened and he viewed its contents, it was titled, "SPARTANS:"
He quickly scanned the list of the 33 Spartans,
"Kelly-087: MIA"
"Kurt-051: MIA"
"Fred-104: MIA"
...
"John-117: Active"
King figured, but he saw an option at the end of the page that he never saw before, it said, "Proper clearence detected, continue?"
King pressed the link and a new page, filled with hundreds of names was opened, at the top were three names that King knew very well.
"Tom-182: MIA"
"Nick-024: MIA"
"James-098: MIA"
King was slightly saddened by the sight of these Spartans on the MIA list. They once stopped a Covenant destroyer from boarding his ship back when the war started.
The list gained a new title as he scrolled down, "SPARTAN-III", King heard of recent success against Covenant ground assaults, and after seeing the amount of names he knew why. He kept going until he saw the title change once more, "SIGMA", King stared at the screen seeing the 50 names that were chosen, given tags from 1-50. Topping the list was the name, "Derek S-001: Active", King realized he had set this plan in motion and rubbed his temples.
He logged out of the console and sat in his chair, he watched the multiple flashes on the planets surface, situated lightning, to create an ozone layer once more. King sagged in his chair and pondered what the war would bring from this point on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 5
Jake fired a couple of rounds from his Battle Rifle into the air. He was bored, hey were stuck in an isolated space station, that was supposedly filled with Covenant. All they found were a couple of Grunt bodies and a few Humans, it looks like the rest were still alive. Jake sat in the commander's chair on the bridge of the station, he was tired of these nonsensical missions, when was he actually going to fight against the Covenant?
Jake's COM crackled and he heard a faint voice. "Sir, we found an injured Elite, the thing put a *** good fight but we knocked it out."
Jake jumped up without a second thought, he raced to where his men were, he needed to see this for himself. Jake walked into the Comm room, where his men were huddled around a large, dark figure. The Elite wore red armor, and Jake knew he was a decent rank, Jake looked the alien over. It was about 7 1/2 feet tall, its armor was riddled with bullet holes, but the holes were shallow, none appeared to pass through. On one of its legs there was a bullet hole, which was surrounded by purple blood. It twitched a little and Jake raised his Battle Rifle, "Don't worry sir, he'll be out for a while, I hit hit it in the head with a pipe.", the ODST said and nodded towards a bloodied and dented tube of metal.
"Come in, Sergeant.", a voice said in the COM link.
"Yes, sir?", Jake responded knowing he was speaking to a superior.
"Your EVAC will be there in 5 minutes."
The link disconnected, and Jake stared at the Elite once more, it made a couple of grunts, but was otherwise silent. Jake signaled his men to pick it up. "We're out of here."
Just when Jake was about to leave the Comm room where the signal was strongest he heard some static from one of the consoles, he turned to listen again, but this time he heard a voice. "He--, we need help!.....There's so many....here...We don't kno....what to do...anyone please...HELP!", Jake ran to the console but the link disconnected, he checked the source it was from the UNSC Destroyer Chiron, the voice was its commanding officer, Captain Gray.
Jake had no idea what that was, but he knew that he had to check what it was. It was in a nearby star system, most of the system was unexplored. Was it Covenant? Flood? Or possibly those Sentinels, that Jake had heard from various UNSC reports about Forerunner artifacts. Jake heard the ship that he was leaving in latch onto the docking bay, the ODSTs moved out towards the exit, with the Elite; Jake had the feeling that things were about to get interesting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 6
Derek stared at the Covenant Brutes through his scope, the hulking shadows they left stained the stainless steel wall behind them. The Covenant were on Odin, a largely temperate world with two massive ice caps, they were in a dense forest. Derek was on a large rock outcropping, his team postitioned to take out the Covenant here.
"Derek, we have confirmed sightings of 3 more groups, as well as Banshee patrols overhead.", Julie, one of Derek's group members, said over the COM link.
"You have the Missile Pods set up?", Derek asked, never taking his eyes off of the Brutes. He straightened the scope on his SRS99C-S2 AMB Sniper Rifle. His sights were centered on the Brute Chieftain in the middle of the pack, he had a large headdress and a Gravity Hammer on his back.
"Yes, I'll take out the Banshees on signal, is everyone in position?", she asked.
"Yes commence firing in 3...2...1", Derek returned, and when he hit one, four missiles shot up from a clearing in the forest, and streaked across the sky, each striking a different target. The Brutes took alarm to this, Derek took a deep breath and pumped 3 rounds straight through the Chieftain's head. The rest of Alpha Team jumped out into the clearing, there were 10 in his group. The 8 armor clad soldiers made quick work of the Brutes and Grunts there.
When SIGMA went operational they were given a prototype armor, it was a hybrid of human and contraband Covenant technology. It had stronger shields, and was more resistant to plasma than the MJOLNIR Mark VI. It was named the 'Achilles' armor, because of its effectiveness in battle. It was slim for the additions it had, with a more powerful reactor that powered the armor, and a more advanced neural interface, along with plasma powered joints, to enhance every motion to its peak performance. It resembled the SPI armor in some ways, such as the chestplates and the helmet, but in others it looked more like a mixture between Mark VI and Elite armor, with sleek curvatures and the undeniable bulk of UNSC design. This time ONI had outdone itself.
The soldiers of SIGMA were stronger than Spartan II's and much faster, but at a cost, their life expectancy dropped exponentially. So they were on their first test, a suicide mission to take out a Covenant stronghold on Odin's surface. It was providing the Covenant with a foothold against the UNSC, they were able to refuel their ships here, and they were producing massive amounts of weaponry. Team Alpha was supplied with 3 SHIVA warheads, to level this base. Derek watched his team through the scope, he decided it was time to join them. He stood up and jumped off the cliff outcropping, landing in a clearing about 30 feet below. Derek rolled as soon as he hit the ground, and he looked back and saw no trace of his fall. Good, Derek thought. The Achilles armor was also much lighter than the MJOLNIR armor, making it easier to use for stealth operations.
Derek ran at full speed, time was of the essence, this needed to be completed before the Covenant even had an idea of what the situation was. Derek stopped short when he heard the low growl of a Brute. He turned and saw a massive Brute in golden armor, "Demon!", it shouted. Derek did not hesitate, he charged the creature, the Brute gave a small growl and smirked, he still didn't know the power of Derek, but he would soon find out. The Brute threw his weapon and met Derek's challenge, Derek stopped only a foot from the creature and sidestepped quickly, getting out of reach of the Brute, which gave a furious growl at his failure to grab Derek. The Brute charged this time and Derek just straightened himself and put all of his weight into one good punch straight into the Brute's face. When the punch connected, Derek heard a crack, and the Brute fell limp. It only muttered an inaudible insult, and Derek looked at the dying animal. "For your information, I'm not a demon, I'm far worse."
Derek moved towards his team, leaving the dead Brute. He saw his team crouched by the wall. Derek crouched by Greg, one of his teammates and asked for the situation. "We need to get in, the entrance is slightly to the west, but we have a better idea.", Greg said, and Derek nodded for him to continue.
Greg raised a magnesium bomb, it was small but silent. Greg proceeded to plant the bomb, when it was set he pressed the detonator. The wall melted from the super heated magnesium, and produced a small hole that they could move through. On the inside there were massive structures, but they knew there target and ignore the curved, purple buildings. They headed for the middle, where there was a massive reactor, they moved quick and through the shadows to avoid detection. This base was enormous, it spanned about 2-3 miles in diameter, and there were multiple smaller reactors, but the main one was going to produce the biggest explosion.
They finally reached the core reactor, the light that was emitted from the reactor was so bright that even with the polarized faceplates, the group couldn't stare at it for long. Derek moved to the entrance, and it opened, "Huh, no lock, these aliens are dumber than they look."
The moved in and saw the main power source, a micro star, somehow able to undergo thermonuclear fusion. Derek signaled the Prowler they arrived in to drop the warheads at their position, the reactor had an open top to vent heat. The Prowler was unnoticed due to its reflective coat, it seemed invisible. The three warheads were lowered, and Derek heard the pilot over the COM, "We need to move back to te atmosphere, this reactor is overheating our engines. We'll wait for you at these coordinates.", Derek fixed the coordinates into a waypoint on his HUD.
They moved the warheads into place, noting the best areas to do it. Greg synced the three warheads to one detonator, "Once we're out of range we're blowing this thing to hell. They were going to leave when they heard chatter from a console in the reactor room. Derek moved towards the console and static was filtered through his translator, "...Listen all faithful members, our fleet will be touching down for fuel and resources in half an hour."
Derek smiled at this, he just kept moving however and they moved fast back through the hole they came through. Except they were spotted this time, and instead of facing the Covenant they just kept running to the Prowler. They looked back at the sky and saw the huge Covenant cruisers descending from Space. Derek moved from tree to tree dodging the boiling plasma as it singed the bark. They ran faster than the Covenant could follow and eventually lost them. The Prowler came into site and they wasted no time boarding it. When they were on, it immediately lifted off, ascending fast into the atmosphere, Derek looked out the viewport and saw 50 Covenant cruisers massing around one spot, Greg pressed the detonator and a large white flash erupted from the middle of the ships, and a blue wave of plasma followed the explosion, wiping out any remaining ships. Derek smiled again and said, "Mission accomplished."
The Prowler then made its jump into Slipspace.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 7
Jake walked through the lower part of the barracks, he was starting to get annoyed at this lightbulb that kept following him from that Mars base. "Reclaimer why are you ignoring me? There is much to be done."
"What do you want me to do about it? I can't just tell my Commanding Officer to just pop to these random coordinaes you keep giving me.", Jake said.
"Reclaimer we must go through the proper protocols to activate the array.", Sorrowful Ember said.
"King is one mean ***, I don't feel like getting yelled at right now, why don't you talk to one of the ONI agents?"
The blue orb just sat there and stared at him, "We must activate the array."
"What the hell kind of array are you talking about?", Jake said in displeasure.
The orb started to laugh, "You Reclaimers are so funny, why Halo of course."
Jake turned with haste and grabbed the orb, "Did you just say Halo?"
"Yes, we need to activate it."
"You're telling me that your purpose is destroy all life as we know it?"
"No, you see that is where you misunderstand."
Jake ignored the blabbering of the orb for the next couple of minutes, his mind was transfixed on Halo, the UNSC had recently discovered the Ark, and this had made the UNSC frantic. The Covenant had glassed a portion of Africa to unveil the Ark, and Truth along with Spartan-117 had recently arrived as well. UNSC was given a sligt glimmer of hope when the last of a line of super soldiers had arrived, but even the most hopeful realized that one man couldn't stop an army.
"We're going to talk to King.", Jake said, still in a daze.
"Good, if that means we can reach the nearest installation."
Jake walked back to the entrance of the Barracks, which was strangely empty, except a few marines. Jake didn't see even his own squad, he walked into the elevator. When they reached the top Jake realized where everyone was, in the top part of the Barracks, there was a huge crowd around some unseen object. Jake walked over to see the fascination. He gazed upon something that didn't seem real, he saw 10 huge, armored soldiers with golden faceplates and slim, curved armor. Jake's heart rate increased and he began to sweat for reasons unknown. He knew what he was staring at, because he had seen it many times before.
Before him were 10 Spartans, or at least that's what he thought at first. One of them stood up and stared at Jake obviously seeing his rank, the Spartan put his hand out. "Hello sir, I am Derek, I was wondering where Admiral King was."
"Follow me, I was heading there myself.", with Jake's words the large soldiers got up, ignoring the shocked crowd they shuffled through. Jake walked into the hall that led to the Bridge. They walked past a few officers all of which stopped and stared in awe. Jake reached the door to the Bridge and he turned to the Spartans, he saw that all of them were staring at Ember. Ember however was keeping its eye transfixed on Jake. Jake opened the door, and the large door unlocked and opened. On the inside it was empty, King sitting in the Commander's chair keeping an eye on the console in front of him.
King turned to face Jake and the Spartans, he got up and strolled over to them. "Hello Jake, what is it? I am busy at the moment."
"I am sorry to disturb you sir, but they wanted to see you, and I needed to discuss something with you.", Jake noticed how King didn't even look at the Spartans.
"I will deal with them in a second, what is it that you want?", King said, Jake was slightly shocked at how polite he was being, considering usually he was cynical.
"Well as you know this thing has been following me around", he said and pointed to Ember, "Well it mentioned Halo.."
This was all Jake needed to spark the attention of King, his eyes widened, "Ok, I'm glad you came to me with this, did it give you coordinates."
"Yea, uh, I think it will give them to you.", Jake said shocked that King had asked for that. Ember moved to one of the consoles and entered the Coordinates that it had been giving Jake for the past half-hour. "So are we going?"
"Yes, these ONI agents on Harvest can save themselves.", King said, "I don't really care if they die, they complain about everything; I think they would piss their pants if they didn't have a fleet to guard them at all times."
Jake watched as King examined the Spartans next, when he was opening his mouth, Captain Hughes came in. "What's going on sir?"
"Shut up Hughes.", King said blankly.
"What? I have a right to know what you are doing.", Hughes said angry at King always yelling at him.
"No you don't. Now shut up and get the hell off my bridge.", King said not even engaging Hughes.
"Wh--", Hughes started to say and Derek turned and looked at him, "I think your commanding officer just told you to get the hell out of here."
Hughes shut his mouth and left, obviously scared of the massive soldier. King chuckled and gave a nod of approval. "Well I assume your mission was a success."
"Yes sir.", Derek said.
"Good we have some more work to do, gear up.", King said, and Derek nodded and the Spartans left.
"You know those Spartans?", Jake asked.
"Well they aren't Spartans, and of course I know them I created them.", King said.
"So where shoud we go first?", King asked Ember.
"Well, to the Ark.", Ember said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER 8
"The Ark?", Derek said as he stared out the viewport onto a lush green world below.
"Not quite." Ember said, "This is the nearest portal to it, the Ark itself is too far to reach with your technology."
"Well how are supposed to activate this 'portal'?", King asked as he stared at the floating sphere.
Ember turned and stared at King, "We must activate it manually as we do not have the key." King looked at Derek who was still staring out the window, "Suit up soldier, we need to get this thing open."
Derek turned around, "What about the Covenant fleet we saw passing through here?"
"We haven't had any reports lately, so we need to act quickly." King said, Derek nodded and left the Bridge.
Derek walked down the hallway to the elevator, trying to ignore all of the Marines who stared in awe at him. He took the elevator to the Barracks, where his soldiers were stationed. He passed another group of Marines who stared in surprise and partly fear. The SIGMA Soldiers sat around, each checking their equipment. One of them saw Derek coming and tossed him his Sniper Rifle. "Thanks." Derek said.
"Alright we have a mission at hand, we are going down to the surface of that planet and securing it so Ember can activate a portal." Derek said loud enough for anyone else in the Barracks to hear. Many of the soldiers nodded in acknowledgement, some just stared at him, none however questioned him. They were ready for any mission, regardless of the dangers. "We're using long range drop pods to avoid detection, we are not sure if there is Covenant on the surface, but we don't want to get too close in case there is." Everyone knew the danger with these drop pods, they were resilient to atmospheric conditions, but could easily be shot out of the sky.
The SIGMA soldiers moved to the pod station, where each set themselves into a pod. Derek checked his TEAMBIO, and 9 Green lights went on. Alpha Squad was fine, and he was going to make sure of it on the ride down. The lights in the pod flickered on and the ready light flashed. Derek squeezed the handle in his pod and it fired out of the belly of the ship. Rockets propelled the pod, pushing it closer to the planet. The rockets shut off and gravity took over as the pods were dragged into the planet's atmosphere. Flames splashed the pod as it pushed through the atmosphere and gained momentum. The pods neared the ground, but a red flashing light appeared. "Dammit" Derek muttered, there were Anti-air turrets in the area. Derek held onto the handle as he was buffeted by the changing atmosphere, plasma shots boiled away the outer coating of the pod. The pod was knocked off course and smashed into a large rock. The pod was torn apart and Derek kicked it open, he rolled out ignoring any pain he felt and he quickly checked his TEAMBIO. All green lights, good. A sudden pain in his lower side caught him by surprise, he put his hand down there and felt a dent in his armor. Dammit the landing must have done more damage than I thought, Derek thought.
He rubbed his side and looked up at the sky. He watched horrified as the Anti-air turrets picked off multiple pods, it seems some of the soldiers wouldn't be as lucky as he was. Derek heard movement behind him and turned to meet the disturbance, he raised his Battle Rifle. To his relief it was two members of his squad. Greg moved forward and looked up at the sky. "We need to find survivors." Derek said, the other two soldiers nodded and gave an inaudible agreement, obviously in shock. They were trained for this, but they have never seen fellow SIGMA soldiers fall in combat, it was frightening. "Let's move out." The small team departed through the dense forest around them and the white sun in the sky bathed them in a terrible glow. The cover of the forest would help them find survivors without too much conflict.
"Die?"Kurt laughed."Didn't you know?"he told the Elite. "...Spartans never die."