Ch 1

The Brute had paced up and down the hallway for hours now. Sitting in the cell opposite Col. Schaeffer was Sgt. Johnson and Capt. Miranda Keys and a few cells down he could hear the surviving men of his squad coughing, snoring, or muttering. They had been caught on Delta Halo, while retrieving some God-forsaken “index”. Well, he thought to himself glumly, that plan turned out well. Losing over three-fourths of his men attempting to retrieve some ancient artifact whose purpose he didn’t even know put him in a particularly bad mood, being captured and put in a cell like an animal made it even worse.

My God, he thought to himself don’t these Brutes ever get tired? He had been watching the Brute walk up and down the corridor now for over an hour now non-stop. After another fifteen minutes of pacing around there was a sudden break in the silence by a sort of beeping noise and the swishing of the doors opening, followed by the scuffling of thick paws moving against the floor. The Brute’s suddenly rigid posture signified that the newcomers were either very important or dangerous enough to instill fear in the Brute guard, or it could mean both. Schaeffer saw the visitor’s party consisted of a pair of Honor Guard Brutes with another Brute in between them. The middle Brute caught Schaeffer’s attention, taller than the already massive Honor Guards, this Brute had white fur and a Mohawk, and from the way the guard stood at rigidly at attention Schaeffer figured that this was the Brutes’ equivalent to their leader. Whatever the Brute leader was here for, Schaeffer thought to himself, he wasn’t going to like it.

Sure enough within a few minutes of overhearing the two aliens’ guttural barks that passed for their language, the white haired Brute that he had heard the other Brutes refer to as Tartarus walked over to Capt. Keyes and Sgt. Johnson’s cell and grabbed them handing them over to his Honor Guards. Before being taken away Johnson turned to the Colonel and said, “Schaeffer, you’re in charge now, make sure that you take care of my boys”. All Schaeffer could say was “Yes sir Sarge”. With that, Tartarus left taking the Honor Guard and the prisoners with him leaving only Schaeffer and two Marines left occupying their cells. Soon the Brute was joined by a trio of Grunts who took up positions near the cells the Marines were occupying. At first they just sat there and watched as the Brute paced back and forth along the length of the corridor, but eventually, 5 minutes later, they fell asleep. Well Schaeffer thought to himself, suddenly feeling exhausted, these Grunts have the right idea, and Schaeffer quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.

Schaeffer jerked awake at the telltale noise of the door opening, the Brute guard seemed to take no notice whatsoever and continued with his pacing, not even bothering to take a glance at the door. This proved to be his undoing, a dozen green blurs whizzed past the cell and Schaeffer heard a muffled thump. Alarmed at the sudden attack the Grunts awoke screaming and Schaeffer could hear them screaming and shooting off their Plasma Pistols at anything that moved, the whole episode lasted all of fifteen seconds ending in the deaths of the entire Covenant Guard. At first Schaeffer thought that the Captain and Johnson had somehow escaped and come back for them but immediately dismissed the thought from his mind, escaping from those Brutes would have been impossible for someone who has been disarmed. As the cell doors opened, Schaeffer stepped out and saw his rescuer, over seven feet tall, wearing the dull green armor that he had long ago associated with the genetically enhanced super-soldiers of the Spartan II project, I wonder if Cortana, his AI with him Schaeffer thought to himself. As if responding to Schaeffer’s musings a feminine voice issued from the Spartan’s external speakers, “listen up marines, the Chief’s hunting a Prophet, and you’re going to help him kill it”. “And to think I volunteered for this” said the Private next to the Chief half-jokingly while wrestling a Plasma Pistol from a dead Grunt’s grasp, and with that they headed outwards toward freedom.

The corridor led into an atrium. It was somewhat U shaped; with about a five-meter wide walkway that ended with the wall on one side and a hundred-meter drop into the abyss on the other. The room had three levels that were accessible via small grav-lifts. There were crates scattered around on each floor creating a kind of maze that provided good cover should a firefight break out. On the highest level the walkways both met in the middle suspending a large platform that provided access to one of the main grav-lifts in the Covenant Holy City of High Charity.

Upon leaving the Marine’s former cellblock the Marines found dozens of Covenant bodies scattered throughout the winding maze that the crates created. “Chief” they all heard the female voice say, “There’s another group of Marines on the upper level.” So that’s where they must have taken the others, Schaeffer thought to himself. The Chief and Marines were wary of entering the prison block for the fact that it was almost certainly guarded, and upon entering very stealthily their caution was rewarded, they caught the guards completely by surprise. The Corridor, almost exactly as Schaeffer’s was instead guarded by a Brute and three Jackals. The Master Chief fired shot after shot of the lightning fast carbine shots into the back of the Brute’s head with pin-point accuracy while the Marines Plasma fire overloaded the Jackals shields and burned through flesh. The cell doors slid open and two Marines jumped out picking up weapons from the ground. To Schaeffer and the other Marines dismay neither Commander Keyes nor Sgt. Johnson were among them.

As the Marines walked out of the second cell block they noticed that their escape hadn’t gone unnoticed, hearing the grav-lift’s distinctive hum “Cortana” Schaeffer said suddenly, “Where in God’s name are we?” “You are in the High Charity, it’s what you would call the Covenant’s homeworld”, Cortana replied almost instantly. The Marine next to him started panicking and Schaeffer couldn’t blame him, they were all alone in the middle of the lion’s den, a Covenant Holy City, he couldn’t think of a more dangerous place. Nevertheless they had the Master Chief with them and that was enough to give him some hope of their chances of survival, but unless they kept their cool, not even the Chief would be able to save them, “Ok Marines, Keep it tight and pay attention, you may think we’re screwed, but we have the Chief, and as long as we keep our cool then we’ll all get outta this in one piece, do you copy Marines?” Schaeffer was awarded with cheers of acknowledgement, and renewed hope for their chances of survival.

The Marines had all made it to the uppermost level just as the enemy had started coming down the grav-lift, “All right Marines, take up defensive positions behind any cover you can, they’re gonna try to smoke us out with grenades so don’t get too comfy behind anything.” The Master Chief was on one side of the walkway while the Marines would cover the other in an attempt to keep the Covenant that came down the lift in a Bottleneck, as the grav-lift platform provided little cover. The Marines had all exchanged their Plasma Pistols for Carbines and Snipers so that they could take out the Covenant at a distance, still wary of getting too close after their last encounter with the aliens.

Right as the first Grunts touched the base of the grav-lift the Marines open fire, and the first pair of aliens jerked towards the ground each having been shot in a half-a-dozen places. The second pair of Grunts seeing the fate of their two predecessors tossed grenades down on the Marine line, one fell short and dropped into the dark pit illuminating it for a hundred or so meters where it exploded harmlessly while the second landed on the opposite side of a Marine who saw the explosive, jumped a little too late resulting in him being thrown against the wall with such force that he was knocked unconscious. By now there were Covenant everywhere on the platform, Schaeffer saw at least two Brutes at least a dozen Grunts, two of which had set up plasma turrets and were firing at an unbelievable rate, and a pair of Jackals. The entire horde was firing at the Marine’s position; plasma fire was wearing down their cover, the metal crates melting under the withering barrage. “Screw this!” Schaeffer muttered angrily, popping out from behind a half-melted crate to throw a grenade into the middle of the platform, the grenade detonated seconds after touching the platform; it’s blue/white flames engulfing a dozen grunts and wounding a Brute.

It was at this moment that the Chief struck, since the Covenant hadn’t been attacked from the other side of the platform they had assumed that it was unoccupied and given their attention to the task of eliminating the Marines, in so doing they had left their flank wide open to the most dangerous killing machine in the universe. They didn’t know what hit them, the Chief stuck a plasma grenade onto a Brute’s back and another to one of the Grunts operating a plasma turret, both of which exploded before either of it’s victims knew about their fate. The Chief snatched up a weapon from a nearby, one of the odd-looking grenade launchers with the blades attached to the end that the Brutes had used when his men had been ambushed, regardless of how unusual it was the Chief used it like he had trained with one all his life, Immediately he sliced Grunts down one by one until they were all gone then he tore into the Jackals. He cut the first Jackal down without it even knowing what happened, two gory halves falling to the floor, the other tried to get it’s shield up to block the blow and would have succeeded if it had been slashed at but instead a grenade ricoched off the ground exploding right inside of the Jackal’s shield transforming the Jackal into an unrecognizable mass off oozing flesh. The last Brute broke into an enraged charge and barreled into the Chief knocking them both onto the ground, the Brute started slamming his fists down in uncontrolled rage denting the Chief’s MJOLNIR armor, the Chief heard ribs crack knowing that even the his genetically altered muscles and reinforced bones couldn’t withstand the adrenaline fueled strength of the Brute for much longer. The Chief caught the Brute’s fists and struggled to keep them from pounding down again and within seconds his arms were shaking with the strain of keeping the Brute in check, just as he could hold the Brute no longer, he heard “How you feelin’ there Jackass?’ looking up he saw Col. Schaeffer standing next to the Brute, his carbine held to the beast’s head shooting round after round into the alien’s head. The Chief rolled out from under the Brute’s corpse picked up a carbine and checked on the knocked out Marine, within a few minutes they had him conscious and ready to fight, although he had severe pain in his back and possible broken bones the Marine was up with his weapon and in no time they were headed up the grav-lift, trusting Cortana to lead them to safety.