The Ark-The end of it
Five pelicans and two phantoms colored green flew over the water, Shadow of Intent them, towards where Truth had been located. "We hit these three generators, and the barrier will fall?" Miranda asked Spark over the radio, the Monitor, by request, with Diamondback and Heretic in the left most pelican of the formation.
"A small section, yes," the monitor confirmed as Anti-air Wraith fire began to fire from the main area ahead of the seven transports.
"Good enough. Johnson, drop the Chief off at the first, then head to the third with Diamondback and Heretic. The arbiter's forces will punch right down the middle."
"Roger that," the Sergeant Major replied as the formation broke, three pelicans toward Tower three, the two phantoms toward Tower two, and the two Pelicans, one carrying the Chief, toward Tower one.
Over the radio, Diamondback and Heretic was able to hear the Tower one assault team. "Charlie foxtrot," the lead pilot exclaimed. "Tower one approach has active triple A!" A few seconds later, a different, panicked voice came over.
"Mayday, I can't control her," the voice said in fear a few seconds before an explosion was heard.
"Sounds like they're having hell," Jacob said.
"Makes you wonder why we aren't getting shot at," Twilight said.
"Perhaps because they know they need to take one of you alive," Spark said. "My makers made their technology to interface with themselves and humanity, not these meddlers. The armored Reclaimer's kind has proven to be. . . troublesome to subdue, and the Sangheili can not interface with the technology. Given that, as well as the third tower's location next to an easy entrance, it is likely they wish to ambush this group and take one human alive."
Josh laughed. "Good fucking luck with that one!" he exclaimed. "Given our squad make up, it'd be hard to sneak up on us, let alone take someone alive."
"Still, caution is best," Hades said. "The Stalker units of my kind have camouflage units on par with Ossoona Sangheili, and often have jammers to create false contacts on trackers."
"You forget we have good hearing," Rarity said. "Unless their units remove sound, they won't be able to sneak up on us." As she said this, the Pelican turned around, and the main door opened, revealing a Forerunner tower that, though having Covenant power cells, was empty.
"Let's move, people," Jacob said before the two squads jumped out of their Pelican, with Johnson and four other squads out of the other two, with Spark hovering out behind Ruso.
"Let's move, marines!" Johnson yelled, and the group made their way inside.
Just after entering, Nightmare said, "I hear something." Even though she wasn't Johnson's superior, this did make him stop.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Footsteps," she said as she scanned the room they were in with her weapon. "Heavy footsteps." A second later, she whipped around, aimed her Assault rifle next to a Marine's head, making him look in fear, and fired, the bullets ripping past the Marine's head, and revealing a Brute in black armor.
"Shit!" the Marine exclaimed a she jumped to the side before the dead Brute fell to the floor, and ten other Brutes revealed themselves, each with a Mauler or Spike,r if not both, pointed at the group.
"Surrender, filth," one said a deep voice. "And you may live."
"Hey, uh, Spark," Josh said as the group pointed their weapons at the Brutes, easily outgunning them. "What do you have to say about this?"
"Simply that these Jiralhanae are quite stupid," The Forerunner monitor said, catching the attention of the Brutes. "Now, you may notice these Reclaimers have, though primitive, more weapons, as well as your own. If any should be surrendering, it would be you."
"The oracle," one Brute. "What are you doing siding with these heretics, great one?"
"Because the one you serve misunderstands the array," Spark said. "It is not meant to bring salvation, but to destroy all life. The actual Great Journey was the Forerunners leaving the Galaxy after the first firing. The humans are trying to prevent an unneeded genocide, and i am helping them."
The Stalker Brutes looked at one another with glances, their weapons pointed still at the Marines and their allies, and spoke in their native tongue, which Hades easily understood.
"Major, the Oracle sides with this filth against the Prophets," one growled. "Should we not be standing with it?"
"I do not know," the leader replied. "It is because of Truth we hold the position we do now."
"And yet the Oracle says he is wrong. Do we believe the Oracle, or the High Prophet?"
"What are they saying, Hades?" Twilight whispered to the green Jiralhanae.
"They are dicussing what to do, given the Monitor's allegiance," Hades whispered back.
"The Oracle knows what the gods wish, and can not lie," the commander said. "If I had to choose, which it seems I must, I would follow the Oracle of the gods."
The Stalkers then turned to face the marines, making them tense up, before the leader spoke. "We will fight with you, but only because of the oracle, human. Nothing else."
"Splendid," Spark exclaimed. "Now if only I could contact the other meddlers."
"I swear, you all bring the weirdest things," Johnson muttered to Heretic and Diamondback.
"You may contact the others atop the tower," Spark told the Stalkers. "Though I recommend waiting until after the humans shut down the shields."
"But Oracle," a Stalker said, "If this attempt fails, Truth will label us as heretics."
"Is that not worth preventing genocide on a galactic scale?" The monitor asked, though his voice was. . .different somehow. To the ponies at least, who were adept at hearing emotions in a voice. They heard what they were able to identify as sadness and despair, though they could not hear why. That was before, on a frequency only they could hear, he said, "The gods know I couldn't prevent it last time." This caused the three to look at each other, but before they could say anything, they had to move up and onto an elevator in the center of the room-which was barely able to hold everyone-and the marines were understandably, tense around the Stalkers, but, as Johnson was at least able to look as if he wasn't bothered by it, they were able to somewhat relax. Not by much, but some.
Upon reaching the top, Johnson made his way to the front of the room, and pressed the holographic console there just as beams form the other two towers disappeared, and the barrier fell.
As it did, the Shadow of Intent came into view, and Vadum's voice rang out across the comms as the ventral beam charged over the Citadel. "Now, Prophet," he said, his voice filled with a particular, well earned pride. "Your end has come." As the lat syllable left his mouth, the beam fired, vaporizing any in the Citadel with a single, quick burst, and killing any nearby.
"Spark, you're up," Jacob said.
"Of course," the monitor replied before it accessed the Covenant battlenet via the Stalker's communication units. "To any and all Covenant units, this is the Forerunner Monitor three-four-three Guilty Spark, what you would call an Oracle of your gods. I am contacting all of you to say the supposed Prophet of Truth is-was-a false one. His kind were not the favored of the Forerunners, nor were they able to activate their artifacts with out tinkering with and quite possibly destroying them. The Great Journey, as you understand it, is false. Firing the Halo array will not bring salvation, but destruction, killing everything in the Galaxy, as they are meant to contain the Flood by killing their food source. If there any you should worship, it is Humanity, as they are those chosen to reclaim the mantle left by my makers. Your leaders are dead. Surrender now. There is nothing you can do now."
"That'll shake their faith up," Johnson said as he took a cigar, and lit it.
"All forces, new contact, slipping in!" a human voice exclaimed over the radio just before a slipspace exit portal appeared.
"High Charity?" R'tus said in confusion as the giant city appeared. "Brace for impact!" A large chunk of the infected city broke off, and hit the Sangheili ship, damaging it and making it have to pull away. As it did so, a dispersal pod made its way towards tower three, only to be burnt to a crisp by Twilight, Nightmare, and Rarity's magic before it got close.
"Shipmaster, are you alright?" Keyes asked.
"Yes, but weapons are disabled. "We will be unable to provide cleansing support against the infestation, and all of the ship's that were capable of it that were under Truth's command were destroyed. There is no way for us to remove it without heavy, if not total losses
Jacob and Twilight looked at one another, nodding, before looking at Spark, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Actually, shipmaster, there is one thing, but it requires a key." He sent the data.
"Another ring?" Vadum asked in shock.
"Yes. This is where they were built, after all," Spark replied. "And Reclaimer, I believe we both know where the key can be found," he said before looking out the window where High Charity had crashed.
"Are you sure, Spark?" Keyes asked over he radio.
"Quite, Commander," he replied back. "With your permission, I would like Diamondback and Heretic squads to accompany me to prepare the ring for firing." There was silence for a time before she replied.
"Go for it."
Spark bobbed up and down, his equivalent of a nod, before golden rings encircled the two squads, and they were teleported to the replacement Installation zero four's control room. "We do not have much time," Spark said. "The Gravemind will come for the ring to prevent its firing, and it must be ready before then."
"How long will take?" Pawas asked.
"For a safe firing, days," Spark replied. "But we do not have time for that. Even so, my old friend would rather a Halo destroyed if it meant removing the Flood than risk them having one."
"You had a friend?" Bishop asked. "But I thought you were a machine."
"To a degree, yes," Spark replied. "His name was Bornstellar-makes-Eternal-Lasting before he became a Didact." With that, he turned, and went to a nearby console, but, just as he reached it, he turned and said, "Oh, and please, do call me by my first name."
"Which is?" Nightmare asked.
"Chakas."
"What kind of name is that?" Rainbow asked.
"Said a pony whose name is that of color and speed," Jacob said. "And to answer the question, it's an old human name. We never got the full story until a few years later, but, essentially, he used to be an ancient human whose body was damaged to the point his mind had to be put into a machine. He had his mind erased as a contingency, as the Flood could corrupt just about anything, including A.I.s, and the Forerunners didn't want anything he knew to fall into their metaphorical hands. His entire human life was erased but stored deep in him, and, as far as we know, seeing Twi, Rares, and Nightmare awakened those memories, for some reason."
"All he said when we asked him next we saw him after the Ark was that it was put in by the Librarian, who was basically, the head Forerunner biologist," Twilight added. "There's a lot more to it, but that's the basics of it."
"Yeah, anyway, for the next hour or two, we helped him with what we could to get the thing ready to fire," Tony said.
"And we just barely did so before the Flood began to attack," Sawn said.
"At last, we're done," Spark-Chakas-said. "Now all we need is the activation index, which I detect to be enroute."
"Thank god," Tony said as he fell to the floor of the control room, panting. "I didn't think light could be they damned heavy."
"You and me both," Hades said, his hands on his legs.
"Anything we need to worry about?" Rarity asked, her and the other horned members of the group not out of breath.
"Unfortunately, yes," the Monitor replied. "Scanners also show multiple Flood dispersal pods on their way here, too many for the Sentinels to stop before arrival. The Spartan and his comrade will have to fight through much of it to reach here. Though they have faced worse, they may need support."
"Right," Twilight said. "You guys up for it?" she asked the others.
"Why not just teleport them in here upon arrival?" Sawn asked. "That would save time."
"No idea how that'd effect an A.I.," Twilight and Nightmare replied at the same time. "Or the Index, for that matter."
"If it will help eradicate the Flood, I would be willing to be the test subject," Chakas said. "I don't care what happens to me. I've lost years of my life, This way, at least, if I do die, I'll know it was helping."
Twilight looked at Nightmare and Rarity. Even though she had her helmet on, the other two could easily read her expression. "If you think it'll help, Twi," Rarity said.
"Right," she said. "Chakas, regardless of what happens, thanks."
"For what?" the Monitor inquired.
"For helping us out." With that, the armored, lavender alicorn lit her horn, the lavender magic aura encasing both the horn and the Forerunner Monitor before a small flash of light occurred where the Monitor was, causing it to disappear. A few feet away, and a second later, there was a second flash, and, oddly, this time, a bronze skinned human wearing simple robes colored steel and blue. Even though it was a different body, Twilight knew who it was due to the fact it had the same, familiar aura of a mind as Spark.
Chakas had been reborn.
"Uh, what?" Applejack asked. "How in tarnation did your magic turn a machine inta somethin' livin', Twi?"
She shrugged. "Right now, it's just guesses and theories, but the best one has to do with what Chakas called the Domain, which is essentially a repository for all Forerunner knowledge. "Far as we could tell, either all unicorn magic or just alicorn magic taps into it, and the teleportation spell I used on Chakas, for some reason, connected to the Domain directly, and used what the Foreruners called vacuum energy to create a body for him. The weird-well, weirder-part is that he somehow still had control over the Halo's systems and had the same capabilities as his Monitor form. Minus a laser eyes, that is."
"Which was replaced with a collapsible laser arm cannon," Josh muttered. "Somehow."
"I stopped questioning anything related to Twilight's magic a week after meeting her," Skana said. "I just put it under 'don't try to have answered unless you wish to go mad.'" This got chuckles out of the rest of the non-ponies, and even Twilight.
"Just like Pinkie Pie," the alicorn added through a chuckle.
"Anyways," Rarity said.
"Anyone else seeing what I am?" Tony asked.
"Yep," Twilight said. "Uh, Chakas?"
"Tell me later," he said. "Get the Reclaimer and his companions up here before the Flood gets here."
Twilight nodded. "Rarity, Nightmare, can you handle telling him while I get the Chief and the Arbiter up here with Cortana?"
"Yeah," the two unicorns replied before Twilight put a bubble shield around herself and left the room, and they made their way to Chakas.
"Chakas, you okay?" Rarity asked.
"Yes," he replied. "Though, to be honest, i do feel different."
"Yeah, that may be because of Twilight's spell," Nightmare commented before using her magic to create a mirror, showing Chakas he was once again human. At least in shape.
"Oh my," he said in a low gasp. "I did not expect this to happen."
"Any idea why?" Rarity asked.
"Not really, no," Chakas replied as he examined his hands. "My best guess would be the natural abilities of your kind are able to touch the Domain, the repository of Forerunner culture, and the teleportation she did somehow used Vacuum energy and the portions of my memory from within the Domain to unintentionally create a new, humanoid body for myself."
"Could that happen with Cortana?"
"The Reclaimer's construct?" Chakas asked. "It's possible, but uncertain, as it would be the second time that is used, with me being the first. It could very well be I got lucky."
"Still, lets hope we don't lose the activating Index for this thing," Nightmare said. "I'd rather not have the Flood take over the entire galaxy, our home world especially."
"Yes, I can sympathize with that," the Monitor turned human agreed. "I lost Earth multiple times before now, and I do not wish it lost again to anything but nature. The Flood is nothing more than an abomination."
"Then we just need to wait for Twilight to get here with Chief and the Arbiter," Nightmare said.
A minute later, the door opened, and Twilight came rushing, along with three others. Two were obviously Chief and Arbiter, while the other was a woman-wearing blue and black robes similar in design to Chakas'- was following close behind the three, a magnum pistol in hand, though she did have a look of fear and confusion on her face.
They did not have time to ponder it, though, as the roar of the Flood was heard just before the doors closed. "It seems that I still have control over the Installation," Chakas said. "Interesting."
"Think on it later," Nightmare said. "Looks like the same thing happened to Cortana."
"Meaning we're most likely screwed," Jacob muttered as he got up, rifle in hands. "Cover the doors, people. If those fuckers get in here, we take an many as we can with us."
"Copy that, boss," Josh said as he and the others passed the four arrivals, and took up a half circle formation in front of the door, with Twilight, Chief, Arbiter, and the now human Cortana making their way to where Chakas was, looking over the terminal.
"Before you all ask," Chakas said to the humans and Sangheili, "what happened to your companion construct, as well as myself, is a result of Twilight Sparkle's use of her teleport abilities on us, and, as far as I can tell, we have the same abilities as before this." He then turned around, and looked at Cortana as Chief and Arbiter, through habit and such, raised their weapons in caution. "That means, Cortana, you are still able to activate this Installation."
"Before you ask, sir," Jacob yelled from the door, "just go with magic! It'll save you a headache!"
"That is the simple answer, I suppose," Chakas said. "Are you still certain you wish to light the ring, Reclaimers?"
"But how?" Cortana aske,d speaking up for the first time since she had gotten a human body.
"Far as I am able to guess, simply focus," the former monitor replied. "That is how I handled the door as you walked in."
She nodded as the three ponies made their way to the defensive crescent. "This is going to be interesting," Josh muttered as the roar of the flood could be heard. "Anyone got a flamethrower?!"
"Does a flame spell count?" Twilight asked as she lit her horn, and levitated every single weapon she had on her at the moment, each pointed at the door.
"Long as it can incinerate them, I think it matters not," Ruso said, the roar now closer.
"Still, one of those would not hurt," Sawn said. "If we live, remind me to contact a few friends of mine to get us crates of them and the fuel they use. Should we encounter another infestation, that is."
"Yeah, well, if we don't," Tony said. "Actually, you know what, I'm not going that damned cliched route. We just need to hold these bastards off long enough for this thing to get ready to fire, then teleport onto the Intent."
"Then this should be fun," Hades said in a low growl before another roar could be heard, though this one was followed by a myriad of sounds, namely shotguns and maulers, as well as the occasional grenade and needler explosion.
"The hell?" Bishop asked in a whisper, as those sounds were often followed by the sound of Flood being destroyed.
"Well, that's interesting," Chakas said just as a pulse of energy erupted from behind him and toward the ceiling. "But it looks as if an extraction group is here for us."
As he said this, the door opened, revealing what was one of the more surprising things for Diamondback and Heretic-which would be saying something. That thing was a group of marines-led by Johnson-and a small group of Brutes, led by a chieftain wielding a Gravity hammer in one hand, a Mauler in the other.
"I reiterate: what the hell?"
"Well, what are you ladies waitin' for?" Johnson yelled. "We ain't got all day to get out of here. "Flood's comin', after all."
"I swear the shit we see just gets wierder," Jacob said. "Sir, why are you with the Brutes?"
"Because of the Oracle," the Chieftain replied. "Only a fool would believe a Prophet over the words directly from one of the Oracles. As much as my pack does not like it, we stand with your kind, human, simply because of our gods finding you more worthy than any of us."
"Take what you can, I guess," Josh muttered.
"Looks like we're leaving, people!" Jacob yelled to the back of the room just as a column fell down. "Let's move!"
"And from there, we were able to get to a waiting Phantom and Pelican," Twilight said, "get to the Intent, which also had the Dawn connected to it, and escape through the portal back to Earth."
"Yeah, and not that much happened for the next few months," Rarity said. "The first thing was Hood and the Arbiter formalizing the ceasefire, and Hood inviting the Arbiter to a memorial for those fallen."
On Earth, it was now March of twenty five fifty three, sunset over the plains of Voi. Ordinarily, there was nothing, no one, here. Today, though, it was different. On a spot, overlooking the portal that lead to the Ark, a portal now dead, there stood a small memorial-a pelican wing decorated with photos, medals, and other memorabilia of those dead but not forgotten- populated by a small group, with a Sangheili Cruiser hovering above the portal site, near where the portal itself once was.
Those at the Memorial were, for the most part, command staff of the UNSC, but there were a few odd ones there. For one, Arbiter was there, along with Brute Chieftain, as well as five Spartan twos and five Spartan Threes, each in dress uniform. The only group here that wasn't a part of any of these groups were those making sure no radicals would try to strike at leadership while here, and that group was Diamondback, Heretic now a a part of the squad. Shortly after the incident with the Arc, Hood had made the human portion of the group his personal guard, and offered it to the former Covenant and the ponies, each of who accepted it. "See anything?" Jacob, who was next to Hood, asked through the radio at the base of this throat, allowing him to whisper the question, as it read his vocal cords as he spoke.
"Negative," Bishop replied. "Other than ONI, nothing we need to worry about. Hey, Twi?"
"Yeah?" the lavnder alicorn replied from her position behind the memorial stand and invisible.
"Lord Hood asked if we had a way to track Kilo-five. He may trust them, but he wants to keep an eye on them so he can try to stop them from stopping any potential peace talks. You got a tracking spell?"
"One that allows for audio and visual," she replied. "Where's the Captain?"
"Next to Parangosky."
"Copy," Twilight whispered before her horn lit. "It's placed," she said as Hood removed his cap, and began his speech.
"For us, the storm has passed, the war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark, and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure, sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight-our fight- was elsewhere. As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten."
He put his cap on and saluted before Marine Sergeant yelled, "Present arms!", Seven marines, each with a battle rifle in hand, turned, brought their weapons to aim toward the sky, and fired three, single shots, one after the other, as a final memorial to the fallen of the war.
As the echo of the last shot faded away, Arbiter and the Brute Chieftain walked up to stand next to Hood. "I doubt any of us expected to be here now," Hood said. "As allies, anyway."
"Agreed," the Chieftain said before glancing at Hades, Tony, and Nightmare. "But I think it is safe to say that particular group had something to do with it. Perhaps it would be best to make them mediators in any meetings between our governments, or at least what counts as one for my people, given our Pack mentality."
"I'll keep that in mind, Cubbaus," Hood said. "I'll warn you both right now, the Intelligence part of my government doesn't care if we're allies; they'll try to stop a war before it begins by making it look like they had no part in it."
"A smart move," Arbiter said. "Why tell us this?"
"So you wouldn't think all of the UNSC had a part in it," Hood replied. "I already have a team to make sure they don't go too far."
"Who, if I may ask?" Cubbaus said.
Hood chuckled. "Who do you think?" he asked back.
"IF they are to help, then they have my permission to be on Sangheilios," Arbiter said.
"If they wish to be on my hoe world, they will need to not be seen, but will need to contact me," Cubbaus said. "After all, if it is the group I am thinking of, then my people would hunt three of them for their meat."
"I'll keep that in mind," Hood said before he turned around to look at the two. "Until next time, I suppose."
"Until next time," the Chieftain replied before he made his way to a purple phantom that his forces had brought that took off soon after he got on, and made its way to a Covenant cruiser."
"Admiral, before i go," Arbiter said, "I wish to extend an invitaion to the Spartan should he ever need somewhere to rest."
"I'll let him know."
"My thanks," Arbiter replied with a head bow. "Also, your group will be allowed to land on Sangheilios upon my return."
"You sure you don't need their help?" Hood asked. "I've heard that a rebellion is growing."
Thel was silent for a time before he replied. "If they wish to come, then tell them I and my ship will be in orbit for a planetary day," he said. "Until next time, Admiral." With that, he made his way to his phantom, one colored the green of the Sangheili separatists. As it left Hood turned to where Jacob stood. "So, Major, how do you feel about a little vacation?"
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Damn...
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I can't wait to see how you deal with the Thursday War book.
7267652 Oh, that's next, as well as completely removing Halo 4. Don't get me wrong, I like the 343 games, but still, with what I have planned with the sequel, the Reclaimer saga won't happen. Seriously, why do people not like 343 Halo without using the usual complaints of appealing to new players. I see nothing wrong with it. If it's the armors, I cite the Helioskrill armor.
7267672 I know I enjoy the games done by 343 but the way they went was really different to what most people's ideas were before they came out.
I feel Wired And a bit little disappointed. I can't understand why Part of Bear's the Forerunner SAGA are appeared like that, i want some explain spark's that early the Awaken of his past personality , i was known spark as both remnant of the ancient human empire and the lord admiral and chacas turn into monitor via useing the composer onto them which he was obsessed safe of his Installation then like firing ring to cleansing threat of the flood. Also I knowen the domain is actually creation of precursor whom return as form as the flood was destroyed by activation of ring array that reason why ur-didect is act as mad villain at halo 4 which he was mindrape by gravemind then gone as story of Halo 4 the terminal and he was supposed healed via meditation with the domain. I also guess that Cortana is gone mad with her reclaim thing are because the domain and that's creator and i believe that the warden is actually there's puppet to test humanity for the mantle of responsibility.
Anyway, feel like wired.
I apologize that i am some asian noob that trying to writing in English so i don't actually know my grammar are what terrible.
7271803 For now, hidden protocols are the answer. I can promise you it will be explained in the sequel, which will have more to do with the Forerunners. The most I can say is time travel is involved with Rainbow and Fluttershy.
Everyone doesn't know Chief and Cortona are alive! I bet they're gonna be surprised that he survived.