Chereads / Infinite Stratos: Operation BLAZE / Chapter 62 - chapter 62

Chapter 62 - chapter 62

One month later.

Thel 'Vadamee, once supreme commander of the Fleet of particular Justice, the very one that led the invasion of Reach, now stood trial for his failure to protect the divine ring left behind by the gods, thus hindering the great journey. Even though the destruction of the Halo ring was more of the Prophet of Stewardship's fault, he was blamed nonetheless. He was branded with the mark of shame and branded a heretic to the great journey.

As he was in the chopping block for his execution, he was saved by the prophet of mercy and truth, but only because he was to become an Arbiter. In times of great need the covenant would assigned a Sangheili warrior to lead them through troubled times. This was in short a grantee death sentence as they would undergo the utmost dangerous missions for the covenant. The council that sentenced Thel 'Vadamee would get their body, eventually.

October 20 2552 with Seth.

After the events that unfolded on installation 04 Cortana located three cryo sleep sleep pods, one of which contained Linda 058. With the surviving forces of the UNSC they hijacked a covenant ship called Ascendant Justice. They returned to reach where they found survivors of the brutal battle at castle base, along with DR. Catherine Halsey, Noble team and a few more Spartan twos. Eventually they made their way towards a UNSC ship called the Gettysburg and jumped back to earth. Now the duo were currently being awarded for their action the Reach and the halo ring and mourning the death of Captain Keyes with Miranda Keyes, his daughter, in attendance.

Seth was given the rank of Lieutenant commander for this action and received a more refined version of his grey armor after UNSC engineers got ahold of a mysterious data package to expand his armor. They followed it because it had all the credentials from ONI (that were faked). However during the celebrations a covenant fleet jumped out of slipspace. The prophet of regret and his fleet had arrived in Earth's orbital defense territory catching the UNSC off guard.

Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood order Cairo station to attack the covenant fleet and any nearby ships to engage the covenant forces. Including Seth and his exoskeleton suit.

While John and Noble Team was fighting inside the station to secure the [M.A.C.] gun and keep it firing on the covenant forces. While this was going on, Seth was to open fire with [F.L.A.M.E.]'s [M.A.C.] guns and eliminate any covenant forces that tried to get near the station. As Seth got into position, he noticed that the amount of ships the covenant brought was only about 1/50th of the amount they brought to destroy reach. Something was very off.

"This is Noble 6, I'm seeing boarding pods heading towards the station." Seth reported to the command center inside of the station.

"Understood Spartan, we'll send teams to deal with invaders, but you have to focus's your [M.A.C.] guns on the covenant warships." A female comms officer said.

"Roger, targeting escort ships first." Seth responded as [F.L.A.M.E.] began to take energy from the marker within Seth. As she charged her [M.A.C.] guns, Seth targeted a cruiser and once they were fully powered up, Seth unleashed [F.L.A.M.E.]'s full wrath on the ship. The rounds, traveling at near light speed, tore a hole in the cruiser hitting its internal reactor, causing the ship to explode. The station was forced to fire up its thrusters in order to readjust its orbit from the force of [F.L.A.M.E.]'s [M.A.C.] gun.

"Spartan, hold off your next round till the station returned to its original position." The female comms officer from earlier stated.

"Understood. I'm spotting several Banshees. I guess they didn't like me sinking their ship." Seth quickly swapped [F.L.A.M.E.]'s cannons to their particle beam mode and his arms up, charging up red spheres. He unleashed a barrage of energy beams, destroying several of the banshees. One had manage to survive the beams and fired a banshee bomb. The green plasma weapon flew towards the red exoskeleton suit, but before it made contact, it hit a red barrier. Seth immediately aimed his cannon at the banshee and destroyed it before it could flee.

"Noble six, the station had return to stable orbit. You may fire at will." The comms officer said as they were now able to adjust for the massive amounts of firepower [F.L.A.M.E.] would unleash when she fires her [M.A.C.] guns. Seth set his sights on another ship and began to charge up the [M.A.C.] guns.

Meanwhile with the Chief.

Master Chief was currently with a squadron of Marines as he was tasked with repelling the boarding parties the covenant sent. As he raised his rifle he heard the covenant cutting their way through the blast doors. Soon they came in and the UNSC forces open fired on the aliens. However as the firefight was going on, the whole station began to rumble from a combination of Seth's [M.A.C.] guns, the station's [M.A.C.] gun and several more boarding parties. While repelling the invaders, John learned of a bomb on the station and moved out to stop it. As he finally reached the bomb, after clearing out the room of elites cortana appeared in the room as a hologram.

"Me. Inside your head. Now." Cortana said with urgency clearly in her voice. John rushed over to the AI and brought her inside of his suit. He ran towards the bomb and Cortana worked her magic. The bomb was defused.

"How much time was left?"

"You don't want to know." Cortana responded. John heard Commander Keyes speak over the comm saying that she was ready to fire on the carrier that was taking a serious pounding from Seth's barrage. It had significant more powerful shielding than a standard carrier, and he was trying to slow down two carriers at once instead of focusing on one. Lord Hood denied that request.

"Sir... Permission to leave the station." John said over the comm link as he placed his hands over the Covenant bomb.

"For what purpose Master Chief?"

"To give the Covenant back their bomb." Lord Hood thought for a second.

"Permission granted." John began to move the Bomb towards the elevator and soon arrived at a longsword launching platform.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy." Cortana said.

"So, stay here."

"Unfortunately for us both... I like crazy." John hit the airlock open and was away. As he was flying with the bomb in his grasp, he saw a UNSC Marathon-class heavy cruiser, Feeling Lucky hit by the carrier Day of Jubilation particle energy projector. As he got closer to the carrier, two longswords arrived and fired on the carrier, opening up a hole for the chief. In the newly open hole, John let go of the bomb and used it to leap out of the reactor core.

"John!" A voice said over the comm-link and the Spartan looked towards the direction of Cairo station, and saw Seth inside of [B.L.A.Z.E.] heading towards him. John extended his arms and were soon grabbed by Seth. The two Spartans flew to a safe distance while watching the Covenant carrier explode. The regrouped with Commander Keyes and her ship In Amber Clad.

Earth, Kenya, Mombasa.

Seth was flying inside of [B.L.A.Z.E.] next to a trio of UNSC Pelicans and several warthogs all heading towards the Covenant carrier that broke through the defensive line. Seth was not allowed to use [F.L.A.M.E.]'s [M.A.C.] guns unless the situation got seriously out of hand. Cortana, Blaze and Flame kept intercepting a transmission from the carrier.

"The message just repeats. Regret, Regret, Regret." Cortana said.

"Catchy. Any idea what it means?"

"Dear Humanity...we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!" Avery Johnson said inspiring the pilots of the pelican he was in.

"Oo-rah!" The two pilots said in unison.

"Regret is a name, Sergeant. The name of one of the Covenant's religious leaders. A Prophet. He's on that carrier, and he's calling for help."

"Seth, detecting a tear in time and space!"

"What?! Is it the covenant?!" Seth said in pure shock. Blaze turned her head towards the source of the tear and soon the trio saw a small black sphere coming out of the portal, before it quickly closed.

"Seth, that machine is transmitting Imperial codes."

"It's one of ours?"

"Master in front! Look out!" Flame yelled as a Scarab appeared from behind several buildings and fired its main weapon.

"AT-field now!" Seth yelled in his mind, but Blaze was already ahead of him. She deployed the field, but this may have been a mistake, the beam was prevented from causing major damage to [B.L.A.Z.E.] but it was diffused when it made contact with the barrier. This caused two of the pelicans behind Seth get struck from the beams, and one of them was carrying the chief.

"Bastards!" Seth drew a Beam Magnum and fired at the main gun, taking it offline, but he was soon under fire from the anti-air guns the covenant weapon platform had and several hunters were also firing on him.

"Seth, one of the pelicans that went down is requesting immediate medical evac, and the covenant are beginning to swarm them." Now Seth had to choose between destroying the scarab then rescuing the injured marines or saving them first and letting the scarab get away. He chose to rescue the injured men and find out what this new sphere from him Empire was. He arrived at the downed pelican's location and notices that it was not the one that John and Avery were on. He cleared the zone of all Covenant forces with a massive barrage of plasma and missiles before he took two heavily injured marines back to In Amber Clad's medical bay. When he arrived he saw the black spherical machine waiting for him. Blaze and Flame when to work to install false data about the sphere into the UNSC and ONI databanks. And the black spherical machine had a message for Seth.

"Oh jeez, Tabane. You worry too much."

Moments Earlier, Lunar Palace.

"Sensei, I think you should run more test with the experimental device, before sending it through the portal gate." Dan Gotanda, Dr. Tabane Shinonono Fairs's star pupil stated with great caution.

"I agree with him, Mama. I think we need to run several more simulations to see if [VEDA] is able to handle such an immense amount of data from this other dimension father is in. Such a huge influx of data could fire the quantum computer." Chloe Chronicle, technically Seth's daughter-in-law said in support of the up and coming scientist.

"Oh, you two are worrying too much, I've run the simulation and this had a success rate of 23%. It will be fine."

"Wait, it has a 77% chance of failure?" Dan said with a slight amount of terror in his voice.

"Dan-kun, you're getting me upset. It still had a chance of working."

"But Sensei, if [VEDA] goes offline the Empire will be heavily crippled without it."

"I'm sure this is gonna work, [VEDA] is a relic and there are several aspect we still don't understand about it. This is gonna be fine. Now watch this." Tabane said as she fired up the spherical machine that has a Marker fragment as it's fuel source and turned on the dimensional gate. The machine launched itself from the lab and entered the void between time and space.

"It's working!" Tabane said with glee and she began to receive video from the machine, but suddenly the amount of data being transmitted was starting to get large very quickly. The simple fact that time flowed differently in the two dimensions meant that the drone, was sending data at a constant rate, but the time dilation meant it was coming as one big package. They soon watched as the data coming in was starting to get massive, and as it seems [VEDA] was about to be overload, the quantum computer seemed to expand its data limits exponentially.

"I didn't think [VEDA] was capable of this level of data processing." Chloe stated as the amount of data coming in would be normally impossible to process, but [VEDA] did, even as the data packets kept growing. Now the trio in the lab began to see a huge space battle take place over Africa and saw a familiar black IS with green GN wings fighting, but they soon saw an Alien quadruped machine attack [B.L.A.Z.E.] with a green energy beam. They saw the ensuing chaos and Seth returning to In Amber Clad with the injured machine, followed up by him checking out the special drone.

"Oh jeez, Tabane. You worry too much." They heard Seth said over the interdimensional video feed.

"A wife has to worry about their husband silly."

Back With Seth.

The Spartan began to read the message Tabane sent along with this new machine and couldn't help but feel a bit fuzzy.

'Hi Honey! I know you've been doing this trips for a while now, but now that you have a nation at your fingertips, you should be allowed to use it should the situation arise. This drone is currently transmitting a live feed from your dimension, and [VEDA] should be able to process the large influx of incoming data. If you any help, send a message via the drone and we'll get there as soon as we can. Love you ' Seth couldn't help but start to feel warm inside as he read the message, but he as a suspicious feeling inside his chest as he realize that they could watch all his actions. But given the fact their was such a large amount of time dilation, they would have to shift through hundreds of thousands of hours.

Seth launched from the Autumn and made his way towards New mombasa, where John and other members of the UNSC were fighting the covenant forces that had begun attacking the people still trapped inside the city. Also it appears that the Scarab that Seth damaged was back, however it's main gun was still offline. John was currently pursuing inside of a scorpion tank. The UNSC ordered Seth to clear the skies of New Mombasa and begin harassing the covenant carrier.

It didn't take long to clear the skies of New Mombasa and Seth began probing the carrier, but soon they detected a huge spike in radiation. Which meant one of two things. The carrier was starting up it plasma projector, or it was about to jump to slipspace from Earth's atmosphere. Both of which were bad.

"Permission to use [M.A.C.] rounds, ma'am?!" Seth didn't have much time before something bad would happen.

"Negative Spartan, reunite with In Amber Clad. Lt. Commander, we're following them and we're gonna need your firepower." Commander Keyes said to the IS user.

"Understood, heading back." Seth said as he flew back to the In Amber Clad and was soon joined by Avery and John who came in via Pelican.

The massive carrier made a slipspace jump from within New Mombasa causing massive damage to the surrounding buildings, but said carrier had gained a follower.

Meanwhile with the Arbiter, ruins of Installation 04

Thel was tasked by the prophets to hunt down a heretic that told lies about the Great Journey. He was tasked to support a strike group led by Rtas 'Vadum, who was now readying his men.

"When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath!" Rtas said.

"According to our station! All without exception!" The spec ops elites replied in unison.

"On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons...we swore to uphold the Covenant!"

"Even to our dying breath!"

"Those who would break this oath are Heretics, worthy of neither pity, nor mercy! Even now they use our lords' creations to broadcast their lies!"

"We shall grind them into dust!"

"And continue our march to glorious salvation!" Rtas turns towards the Arbiter and speaks once more to him. "This armor suits you. But it cannot hide that mark."

"Nothing ever will." Thel replied.

"You are the Arbiter, the will of the Prophets. But these are my Elites. Their lives matter to me. Yours does not."

"That makes two of us." Rtas looked at Thel with a slight amount of respect. Soon the Covenant strike team encountered the Heretics and firefight broke out. Thel prove to the other Elites that he was not some weakling. However they soon encountered something horrible. There were remnants of the flood and they were spreading, growing their numbers by the fallen heretics. To attempt to cut off the flood, Thel snapped the cable holding the gas refinery. It took Thel not too long to find the fleeing leader of the heretics Sesa 'Refumee.

"Turn, heretic."

"Arbiter. I would rather die by your hands than let the Prophets lead me to slaughter."

"Who has taught you these lies?" The Arbiter asked and he soon heard a soft humming. He looked up and saw a blue spherical machine descending.

"The Oracle!"

"Hello! I am 343 Guilty Spark . I am the Monitor of Installation 04." Guilty spark said as he introduced himself to the Arbiter.

"Ask the Oracle about Halo. How they would sacrifice us all for nothing!" Sesa said.

"More questions? Splendid! I would be happy to assist you." However any chance to ask questions was cut off as Sesa opened fire on Thel, the battle was quick as Sesa was outclassed by Thel as he was gunned down.

"Unfortunate. His edification was most enjoyable." Guilty spark said in regard to Sesa's death.

"I had no choice, Holy Oracle. This Heretic imperiled the Great Journey." Guilty spark turned towards the Arbiter.

"Oracle? Great Journey? Why do you meddlers insist on using such inaccurate verbiage-ohhhhh myyyyy!" Guilty Spark was pulled by an unseen force. Thel looked where he was dragged and saw Tartarus the brute chieftain and he was wielding the Fist of Rukt.

"That... is the Oracle!" Thel said in shock as Tartarus threw Guilty spark into a gravity lift.

"So it is. Come, we are leaving this system." Tartarus said as he boarded the lift.

13 days later, November 2, 2552, Installation 05.

In Amber Clad appeared from Slipspace after traveling in it for 13 days. Surrounding them was debris from New Mombasa that was sucked into the slipspace portal. Before they left slipspace, Miranda order the spartans into HEV (Human Entry vehicle) pods, along with several others. Avery included.

"Report!" Miranda Keyes barked out.

"Both engine cores have spun to zero. We're drifting." An officer stated.

"Archer pods are cold. I'll need to re-key the system." Another officer stated as their archer missiles were offline.

"Do it, and find out where we are." Miranda turned her attention towards those in the pods. "Sorry for the quick jump, Sergeant. You in one piece?" She asked.

"I'm good. Chief? Kid?" John said was he was smoking a smashed cigar.

"We're fine." Cortana stated for John and she.

"We're all good on our end." Blaze said.

"Ma'am, there's an object. Coming into view now." One of the bridge officer said.

"Cortana, what exactly am I looking at?" Miranda asked.

"That... is another Halo." The AI said to the shock of the members in the pods.

"Say what?!" Johnson sad as he dropped his cigar and choked a little.

"So this is what my father found... I thought Halo was some sort of superweapon?"

"It is. If activated, this ring will cause destruction on a galactic scale."

"I want all the information you've got on the first Halo. Schematics, topography, whatever. I don't care if I have the clearance or not." Miranda stated.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where's our target?"

"The enemy ship has stopped above the ring, ma'am. We're going to pass right over it."

"Perfect. Given what we know about this ring, it's even more important that we capture the Prophet of Regret. Find out why he came to Earth, why he came here. Seth, take charge of First Platoon. Hard drop, secure a landing zone. Chief you're going with him. Sergeant, load up two flights of Pelicans and follow them in." Seth was the second highest ranking officer on the ship, so he was given command by default.

"Aye, aye, ma'am." Johnson said as he left his pod. He pounded twice on the Master chief's pod, who returned a pound.

"Until I can move and fight I'm going to keep a low profile. Once you leave the ship, you're on your own."

"You got it ma'am. Spartan Seth Fairs ready for drop." Seth said inside of his HEV pod. The fake Spartan looked towards the left of his pod double checked his Battle rifle. On his right he had the small black pod that was now known as an ONI spartan Recon Drone or ORD by the UNSC.

"Understood." John said.

"Over the target in five..." Another bridge officer stated.

"Brace yourself Master." Flame said.

"Launch!" Commander Keyes said and the pods were away. They hell-jumped into the Halo Ring's atmosphere. As the pods raced towards the surface, Covenant anti air guns came to life, destroying one unlucky pods. Seth hit the ground hard, but he threw off the shock and popped open the pod. He came out with his Battle rifle at the ready. Soon the others joined him on the ground.

"Could we possibly make any more noise?!" Cortana ask. John responded by grabbing the rocket launcher in his pod and books it towards the nearby Covenant.

"I guess so."

Meanwhile At IS Academy.

"Now when using ballistic projectiles in IS combat, there are several factors to take in as such as speed, trajectory and the at some distance and altitudes the coriolis effect can come into play." Maya said as she was teaching the class. Samus was sitting in the back of the class, paying half attention at the lecture. She was more concerned with what Miss Sarashiki had in plans for her husband when he got back. She suddenly got a message from Tabane which was unusual.

'Heya Sammie! I got a surprise for ya. My experiment was a success today and we can now watch Seth while he goes on these interdimensional adventure. If you wanna see what he's up to, just use this new app. :)' Samus found a link at the bottom of the message and saw a link. She hit and and soon an app added itself to her device. She placed a wireless earbud in her right ear and tapped it and soon a video feed began to play.

"You got it ma'am. Spartan Seth Fairs ready for drop." Seth said in the video while he was wearing some unknown grey armor. She heard him press the button on the pod he was in and began to open fire on these aliens with a ballistic gun. She watched as Seth along with another man in similar green armor, and others in black armor, but were a little smaller compare to the Seth and the other man. She witness him mow the down dozens of aliens. She was so enthralled with the action, she didn't notice Chifuyu standing next to her.

"Care to tell me what's so entertaining that you brought out your electronic device in the middle of class?" Chifuyu was releasing a murderous aura and the season bounty hunter began to tremble.

"Ah, well I can explain."

"Please hand over your device. You can get it back after classes are over." Samus handed over the phone and Chifuyu could see what was on the screen. She nearly dropped the device when she saw [B.L.A.Z.E.] attacking these alien beings, and noticed at the corner of the screen it said 'Live feed'. She walked out the room with the device as she was going to lock it up in the teacher's office, but she soon found herself watching the video feed.

Back with Seth

The Spartans had cleared a landing zone for the Pelicans and they dropped off additional gear, and soldiers. Seth would take to the skies and offer air support. As he worked to clear the air, John got into a tank and the two made their way towards the Prophet of Regret. Soon they encountered Honor Guard elites, but these were quickly cut down by Seth's lightsabers.

They rode on a moving platform towards a temple of sorts, that were swarming with Covenant. As they arrived at the main temple, a massive fleet appeared from Slipspace. The likes of which hadn't been seen in the history of the war. But that wasn't was shock them, what shocked them was the massive structure known as High Charity.

"Man! Look at the size of that thing!" One of the marines stated.

"There's no time, Spartans. Get inside and take care of the Prophet." Cortana ordered. They fought hard through the seemingly endless amounts of the Covenant forces and soon entered the room where the Prophet of Regret. His chair offered some sort of strong shielding, but it quickly came down after Seth repeatedly stabbed him with his purple blades of plasma. With the prophet dead John and Seth made their outside, but than an energy plasma project fired on them. Seth activated [F.L.A.M.E.] and grabbed John. He raised a barrier, but the force of the attack forced them into the water. Suddenly they both heard a voice in their mind.

"This is not your grave..." The deep voice said, and several flood tentacles surround the two spartans.

"But you are welcome in it." The two were dragged away and brought before the Gravemind.

A day later with The Arbiter.

Thel was currently tasked with recovering some sort of holy relic by the Prophets, the icon. Before he was set out on his mission he witness the Prophets change the long standing tradition of the Sangheili guarding them, to the Jiralhanae. This action angered many of the Sangheili,but the Honor guards had failed in their mission to protect the Prophet of Regret from the two demons that slaughtered him. It was the will of the prophets, who were the voice of the Great Journey.

He led a team of Covenant forces through the storm of sentinel drones and flood throughout the ring, but he soon learned that the Humans were also after the sacred relic. However they had the oracle on their side, to guide them. He lost several men to the flood and encounter stiff resistance from the Humans forces, but he found the humans knew where the icon was. He soon entered the room where the icon and the humans were.

"Gotcha!" Commander Keyes said as she took possession of the Index, after using a cable of sorts to reach the Index. She was about to fall to her death as the cable suddenly became loose, but Avery Johnson grabbed in just in time.

"You know, your father never asked me for help either." Grunted out the seasoned sargent.

"The Index is secure." Keyes commented as Johnson helped her up.

"McKenzie, Perez, how's our exit?" Johnson got no answer. "You hear me Marines?!" Again no answer.

"We got trouble." Johnson said to Keyes as he got out his Battle Rifle. Keyes brought out her SMG and they walked slowly towards the exit, but Johnson soon heard a roar that was coming closer. Johnson fired a few rounds from his rifle, but the Elite's shielding took the hit with no damage. He attempted to engage the Elite in close quarters combat, but he was out matched by the elite's strength. Thel grabbed Johnson by the throat and pushed him by the nearby wall. He stared Johnson in the face with anger.

"How ya doin?" Johnson said in a casual tone which enraged the Arbiter and in response, thel threw him across the room. As Johnson was recovering, Thel walked slowly towards him, but soon came under fire from Keyes.

"Sergeant, stay down!" Commander Keyes said as she continued to fire on the Elite, who shield lit up in response to the bullets. He seemingly fled from the battle. Amanda looked towards the downed Sergeant and asked if he was alright.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Thel leaped from behind his cover and appeared in front of the UNSC commander. She pointed her SMG at the Elite, but before she could fire, Thel grabbed the gun and pointed it away from him, causing the bullets to miss. He then ripped the gun from her arms and smacked her towards the ground.

She was about to move, when her whole body was covered in electricity and was pulled away from Thel.

"Excellent work, Arbiter. The Hierarchs will be pleased." Tartarus said as he grabbed the unconscious commander.

"The Icon... is my responsibility." Thel said as he did not want his work to be in vain and allow this Brute to claim the honor.

Was your responsibility. Now it is mine." Tartarus said as he grabbed the Index from Keyes. Two Brutes appeared and pointed their weapons at Thel, who was in disbelief at the situation he was in. A third Brute took Johnson's unconscious body.

"A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race. And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes will send you to it!" Tartarus aimed his Hammer at Thel.

"When the Prophets learn of this, they will take your head!" Thel said.

"When they learn? Fool. They ordered me to do it." Tartarus said with a chuckle. Thel was shocked, and could react to Tartarus who blasted Thel away with an energy blast from the hammer, sending him down the pit Keyes nearly fell into. But he was saved by a tentacle.

Installation 05 Library.

John and Seth were finally regaining consciousness when they notice that they were being dragged by several tentacles. Seth suddenly remember what happened before he blacked out. They were blast by the Covenant energy projected and were in the water when they both heard a deep voice boomed out towards them. Suddenly they were surrounded by several tentacles. They crushed both of them till they blackout. Now they entered a room with a massive beast inside. It was a massive cluster of the flood.

"What...is that?" Cortana said for the group. Seth wanted to just begin blasting the thing, but Blaze and Flame told Seth to hold off.

"I...? I am a monument to all your sins." The massive creature said in a deep voice. As he spoke, he breathed out Flood Spores. The Gravemind now brought out two tentacles that were holding a struggling Elite.

"Hey! Don't do anything rash!" Seth shouted at the Elite who took notice of the armor John and he was wearing.

"Demons!" Thel shouted at the two Spartans. The Gravemind shifted his focus towards John.

"This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded." A tentacle wraps around John's head.

"This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded." The Gravemind turned Thel upside down.

"And this one is... not of this existence." John was wondering what the Gravemind was talking about, but Seth was visibly shocked behind his visor. He was wondering how this 'thing' knew about him.

"Kill me or release me, parasite. But do not waste my time with talk!" Thel said.

"There is much talk. And I have listened. Through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen." The Gravemind brought two being. One was a red Monitor and the second was the Prophet of Regret at was currently being infected by the flood.

"Greetings! I am 2401 Penitent Tangent. I am the Monitor of Installation 05." Penitent Tangent said in a cheery voice.

"And I am the Prophet of Regret, Councilor most High... Hierarch of the Covenant!" The Prophet said in a hoarse voice. The Monitor looked towards Seth and John and began to spoke with glee.

"Reclaimers? Here? At last! We have much to do. This facility must be activated if we are to control this outbreak!"

"Stay where you are! Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete!" The dying Prophet said.

"Not true. This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand." Stated the red Monitor.

"Of all the objects our Lords left behind, there are none so worthless as these Oracles! They know nothing of the Great Journey!"

"And you know nothing about containment! You have demonstrated complete disregard for even the most basic protocols!" The monitor said in what seemed like anger.

"This one's 'containment'... And this one's 'Great Journey'... are the same." The Gravemind put the Monitor and the Prophet away, while the Prophet of Regret shirked in terror.

"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 Gravemind stated to the Arbiter.

"This thing is right. Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making a big mistake." John said.

"Your entire religion is based on a weapon system." Seth added.

"You Humans ignorance already destroyed one of the sacred rings, Demons. It shall not harm another." The Arbiter said in defiance to the truth. Seth couldn't blame him. Hell if you told anyone their religion that they and their ancestors devoted their lives to, of course they would say you're lying.

"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 two will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us...brothers." Suddenly John, Seth and Thel were enveloped by a yellow aura and teleported away. John appeared in the room that the Prophets of Truth and Mercy. He scared nearby Grunt who tossed his needler in the air and John caught.

"Kill the Demon!" The Prophet of Truth said and John ready himself for one hell of a fight.

Meanwhile with Seth.

Seth found himself teleported to a cliff face, nearby he could see the Halo Ring's control room. But he wasn't alone. Thel quickly rushed towards a Plasma rifle that was laid on the ground nearby. He noticed that it was stained with the blood of a sangheili. He fired several rounds at the Spartan, but Seth brought out his purple lightsaber and deflected away the shots. Thel soon felt the plasma rifle being ripped from his hands an unseen force. He witness the rifle leave his hands and be cut by the purple blade of plasma. Before Seth could attack they heard a massive explosion nearby. They both looked towards the source of the explosion and could see both Sangheili forces fighting against Brute led covenant forces.

"Aren't you all supposed to be on the same side?" Seth said, but before Thel could give a reply, as he was in great shock, Seth sensed something through the force. There was a dying Elite nearby. To Thel shock, Seth left him and ran down a path. He gave chase, but when he found the Demon, he found him tending to an mortally wounded Sangheili.

"Hey, what happened to you?" Seth said in English and in broken Sangheili that he was able to pick up over the months. The Sangheili wasn't about to say anything to this human, but he saw the Arbiter appear and gave his final words.

"The Brutes have betrayed us... the Councillors..." The Elite died before he would give anymore information. These words made the Arbiter remember what Tartarus said before he blasted him into that pit.

"A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race. And I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes will send you to it!" It was now clear that the Covenant had turned its back on the Sangheili and by his honor he would not let this act go unpunished.

"Elite, it appears that the Covenant is no longer on your side. They will activate this ring and kill us all unless we can stop it."

"What are you proposing demon?"

"If we combine our forces, we may just live to see the next day, but we must act quickly. On earth there is a saying we have. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'. I propose we work together for the time being. At least until we're assure that we're all not gonna die in a horrible blast from this superweapon." The Arbiter looked at the Spartan with great caution, but he realized that he alone would most likely fail in trying to stop the activation of this ring, but that was if the ring was in fact a weapon.

"Are you certain this ring is a weapon?" The arbiter really didn't know what to believe at this point. His entire way of life had been shaken up these past few weeks, and now he was debting whether or not to assist a human, nay a Demon that had slaughter many of his comrades.

"One hundred percent."

"Very well, for the time being, I will offer my services, but should I detect the slightest of betrayal, I will kill you."

"Right back at ya uh?"

"A question?"

"What's your name? If we're going to work together, then calling you elite is going to sound off."

"You may call me Arbiter, I am not worthy of any other title." Seth was starting to get a little shocked at how big of a role honor played in Sangheili society, but he would observe that another time. They had a ring to stop from firing. He used the force to grab an energy sword off the ground and handed it to the Arbiter.

"Arbiter, you're going to need a weapon. Take this." The Arbiter took the sword and ignited it.

"Are all Demons able to perform such feats?" Thel asked in regards to the telekinetic ability he witness.

"Only the special ones. Let get a move on. I can feel the Brutes nearby." Thel then smelled them and they stunk.

The two reluctant allies began to fight against the army of brutes that stood in their way. When they encountered a group of Sangheili that were fighting against the Covenant, they tried to kill the Demon, but thankfully Thel stepped in and was able to convince them to hold off their anger for the time being as they would need all the help they could get in retrieving the index and gaining revenge on the Prophets.

While fighting alongside with the Sangheili, Seth was starting to gain a newfound respect for this warrior race. Did he forgive them of their genocide of innocent civilians on Reach and many other worlds over the past three decade? Of course not, but respecting thy enemy was far different from liking them.

Soon the small group of Sangheili and the lone Spartan regroup with Rtas main force. Who immediately tried to attack the Human, but once again Thel vouch for the Demon and they continued onward. As the continued towards the control room, Seth began to sense Johnson not to faraway.

"Arbiter, this way!" Seth shouted as he ran down a corridor. The Arbiter and several other Sangheili and a few Mgalekgolo. When they arrived they saw the Spartan chop down the last of the brutes that were holding Johnson and two Marines hostage. When Johnson saw the Sangheili he was about to start shot them with a nearby plasma I stole, but he was stopped by Seth.

"Hold on Sargent"

"What are you doing Marine? The enemy is right there!"

"We've decided to call a truce for the time being."

"You did what?!"

"Where's Keyes?" Seth asked.

"She's in there." Johnson said as he pointed to the control room.

"Sergeant as the highest ranking officer here, I'm ordering a rescue mission and you are not to fire on the elites. We're gonna play nice with them today. Is that alright with you Arbiter?" Seth asked.

"It will suffice, we must hurry, there is not much time left." Thel stated. They were ready to go and retrieve both the Index and Commander Keyes, but the found one issue. Tartarus had sealed away the entrance to the command center and forerunner tech was not something made cheaply.

However, Seth has a solution he activated [F.L.A.M.E.] and charged up his [M.A.C.] guns. They tore clean hole in the command center and the rescue team rushed forward.

Meanwhile with John.

Spartan 117 had been chasing the prophet of truth amidst the chaos of the beginning of the great schism. He had forced truth to flee to the forerunner dreadnought and wasn't about to give up. However that would mean leaving behind Cortana. He couldn't just do that.

"We're out of time, Chief! Into the conduit!" Cortana said. Reluctantly Chief enters the conduit and arrived before the Forerunner ship.

"Chief, when you get to Earth...good luck."

"After I'm through with Truth..."

"Don't make a girl a promise...if you know you can't keep it." Cortana said as the ship took off. Once it exited High Charity, it created a slip space portal and headed towards Earth.

Meanwhile With Keyes.

Amanda was being dragged towards the activation console of the ring and was being forced the index by Tartarus.

"Come, human, it is easy. Take the Icon in your hands... And do as you are told!"

"Please use caution! The Reclaimer is delicate.

"One more word, Oracle, and I'll rip your eye from its socket!" Keyes only stares him in silence, defiant to his wishes. She would rather die then activate the ring.

"Which is nothing compared to what I will do to you." Tartarus said to the tiny human.

"Tartarus! Stop!" Thel said much to the shock of the Brute Chieftain.

"Impossible."

"Step away from the lady." Johnson said as he and Seth and the rest of the strike team aimed their weapons at the Brute.

"Put down the Icon." Thel ordered much to the amusement of the brute.

"Put it down? And disobey the Hierarchs?"

"There are things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand."

"Take care, Arbiter. What you say is heresy!"

"Is it? Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?" Thel said shifting his focus onto Guilty spark.

"Collectively the seven-" Tartarus threw the monitor in anger and forced Amanda to activate the ring.

"Enough! I will tear you all limb from limb and feast on your-" Seeing a chance, Seth partially deployed [B.L.A.Z.E.] and quickly charged an energy Beam. He fired at the Brute vaporizing him. The beam had surprise many in the room as it seemingly came out of nowhere. They were able to shut down the activation sequence before it could finish, but doing so had some consequences. The room dimmed and appeared to be grinning on emergency power, followed by a hologram appearing.

"What's that?" Keyes asked.

"A beacon." Spark answered.

"What's it doing?" Keyes pressed on.

"Communicating. At superluminal speeds with a frequency of—"

"Communicating with what Spark?" Seth asked.

"The... other installations." Guilty Spark said with a slight amount of shock to his voice.

"Show me." Keyes said and the monitor changed the hologram.

"Fail-safe protocol: In the event of unexpected shutdown, the entire system will move to standby status. All remaining platforms are now ready for remote activation."

"Remote activation? The Entire array is ready to fire? From where?" Seth asked the floating ball.

"Why the Ark of course." The monitor said.

Meanwhile At IS academy.

As Chifuyu was watching Seth being interrogated by this weird mountain of flesh. Be he and the drone were teleported away. As she was watching someone entered the teacher lounge and she was a sight for sore eyes.

"Hey." Natasha said as she sat down by her teacher desk.

"Natasha, you're back. Is everything alright?" Chifuyu asked the tired looking teacher. She noticed that she wasn't alone. "I see you've brought a friend."

"Yeah, DC is in a real storm at the moment, thank to our little Emperor, I'm gonna give him a price of my mind when I see him. Oh this is my friend Iris Calling."

"Hello there brunhilda." Iris said to the former world champion.

"So why is one of the world's best pilots here all of a sudden?" Chifuyu asked the blonde woman.

"In light of the recent attacks on the school, the United States IS forces has offered to send one of its members to the school in order to protect it. I volunteered to come and protect the school should the situation arises." Iris said to the former world champion.

"More like so you can keep an eye on my brother." Chifuyu thought in her head.

"I look forward to working with ya." Iris said as she extended her hand.

"Likewise." Chifuyu returned the handshake.

"So is Seth in class right now?" Natasha said.

"He said he had to attend some business and had to miss class. He will suffer the consequences later." Chifuyu said as she was planning on making him attend her class.

"Oh, are you watching a movie? Ooh it's sci-fi!" Natasha started to look at the screen and saw a man along side several aliens fighting a different group of aliens. They were flabbergasted when they saw what appeared to be [B.L.A.Z.E.] on the screen.

"Chifuyu is this-"

"It's a movie my brother made. He wanted to show this to me before anyone else."

"Man this is a really high quality movie for a high schooler, it's so life like." Iris said as she looked at the small screen that was showing the live feed. Natasha looked at Chifuyu with eyes pleading one question and she got an answer from the teacher with her own eyes.

She wouldn't be speaking to Seth anytime soon.

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