BOOK 1 CHAPTER 19 - TWO BETRAYALS
Halo Installation 04
Control Room
September 21st 2552
0420 hours
A trio of teleportation ring-sets appeared on the bridge that spanned the control room; from them appeared two armored figures and a chatty droid.
“…which means that any organism with sufficient mass and cognitive capability is a potential factor.”
John looked around. Where was Cortana?
“Is… something wrong?” the Monitor asked.
“…No. Nothing.”
“Splendid! Shall we?”
Guilty Spark hovered across the bridge and over to the terminal, humming all the while, and the two Spartans followed them, Teana still having Cross Mirage out and in Rifle Mode on the off chance that the Covenant had infiltrated and were hiding nearby. Her suspicion was unfounded, fortunately. Soon, they came to the terminal.
“Unfortunately,” Spark said, “my usefulness in this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units with my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimers.”
Spark handed John the Index, and he inserted it into the central terminal. A whirring sound could be heard rising in pitch, but then suddenly the flashing lights faded and the sound lowered and disappeared.
“Odd” Spark said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Cortana reemerged from the terminal, her multicolored hologram towering over them. And she looked furious. “Oh, really?”
There was a flash of violet light, and a thud as Guilty Spark dropped to the floor.
“Cortana? Wha-”
“I have spent the last three-and-a-half hours cooped up in here, watching you two traipse about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!”
“Hold on, now,” Teana said, “this guy may be a little unhinged, but he’s an ally.”
“Oh” the AI put a hand to her mouth, clearly sarcastic. “I didn’t realize. He’s your friend, is he? Your buddy? …DO YOU TWO HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT LITTLE BASTARD ALMOST MADE YOU DO?!”
“Yes” John replied, keeping calm. “Activate Halo’s defenses, and destroy the Flood. Which is why we brought the Index to the control center.”
“You mean this thing?” she held the Index up.
“A construct? In the core?” Spark seemed rather miffed. “That is absolutely unacceptable!”
“Fuck off!” Cortana responded.
“What impertinence! I shall purge you at once!”
“You sure that’s a good idea?” the Index disappeared, having been converted into data and absorbed by Cortana.
“…How… HOW DARE YOU?! I’LL-”
“You’ll what? I have the Index! You can just float and sputter!”
“Enough!” John finally shouted. Teana almost flinched; this was the first time she’d ever heard him raise his voice. He turned to Cortana.
“The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo’s defenses, we can wipe it out.”
Cortana shook her head and face-palmed. “You guys have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn’t kill the Flood. It kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever; we’re all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death, and that’s exactly what the Halos are designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sapient life! …You don't believe me? Ask him.”
The Spartans slowly turned to face the Monitor, looks of wide-eyed shock hidden behind their visors. “…Is this true?”
“…More or less”. Teana’s jaw dropped at this. How the fuck could he not tell us this? And how can he sound so fucking casual about it?
“Technically, this installation’s harmonic neuron nullification pulse has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light-years, but once the other six follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life. Or, at least, any life with sufficient biomass and developed central nervous system to sustain the Flood. But… you already knew that. I mean… how couldn’t you?”
“Left out that little detail, did he?” Cortana said flatly.
“We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis.”
“Guys…” Cortana said, sounding a little nervous. “I’m picking up movement…”
“Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?”
“Guys, seriously. We need to go. Right. Now.”
Four Sentinels hovered into view, and the Chief reached behind him and pulled Cortana out of the central terminal, slotting her into his helmet. He readied his assault rifle, and Teana switched Cross Mirage to one bullet-pistol and one plasma-bolt.
“The last Reclaimer to activate the Rings asked me: if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder his query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice; we must activate the ring.”
“Get. Us. The Hell. Out. Of here. Now.”
“If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your cons cut to me, or I will be forced to take her from you by force.”
“That’s not going to happen” John said, and he & Teana pointed their weapons at the Monitor.
“…So be it.” He turned to his Sentinels. “Kill her. Save his head. Dispose of the rest.”
Spark teleported out, and the Sentinels opened fire.
The Gun Pointed At The Head Of The Universe
The Sentinels struck. The Spartans ducked behind the nearby glass. Teana leaned out with her plasma gun, firing a barrage of blue bolts that burned through a Sentinel’s armor and brought it down. Another Sentinel tried to fly around the barrier and get a clear shot, only to be reduced to shrapnel by John’s shotgun. The third and fourth went down to Teana’s weapons.
“We can’t let the Monitor find a way to activate the ring” Cortana said. “We have to stop him. We have to destroy Halo. According to my analysis of available data, the best course of action is somewhat… risky. An explosion of sufficient power should destabilize the ring, and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a very large scale, however; a starship’s fusion reactors detonating should do the job. I’m going to search what’s left of the Covenant battle-net, and see if I can locate the Pillar of Autumn’s crash-site. If the ship’s reactors are still mostly intact, we can use them to destroy Halo. The blast should blow a big enough chunk out of Halo that the resulting weak point will make the ring’s own rotation and centripetal force tear it apart. Also, when the ring fragments, its environment systems will probably fail, and that will leave the Flood to freeze to death. We’ll kill two birds with one very big stone.”
The pair walked over to the door, and Teana hit the switch. In the hallway ahead, two Elites and four Grunts engaged four Sentinels in battle. One Grunt went down, but the Sentinels were quickly dispatched. They then saw the two Spartans and opened fire. I guess Chen’s group has already left the ring, John surmised. He threw a frag grenade, killing the Grunts, while Teana switched Mirage to Sniper Mode, using two particle-beam shots to blast the Elites through the head. Up ahead, a Jackal fired an overcharged plasma pistol shot, which Teana ducked under at the last second. The alien, thinking it was at a safe distance, lowered its shield-arm, and promptly took a particle beam through the eye. The Spartans move up, turning left and passing through a door into a small Covenant impromptu base. They opened the next door, leading outside, and Teana switched Mirage to Rifle Mode full-auto, while the Chief readied his assault rifle. The door raised, revealing a red-armored Elite and four Grunts. Focused AR fire took the Elite down, and a few more shots picked off the panicking Grunts.
“I haven’t located the crash site yet,” Cortana said, “but we need to buy some time, in case the Monitor or his Sentinels find a way to activate Halo without the Index. The machinery in these canyons are Halo’s primary firing mechanisms. They consist of three phase pulse generators that amplify Halo’s signal and allow it to fire deep into space. The power levels are enormous; I can’t even begin to calculate the pulse’s exact range. So, if we damage or destroy these generators, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. I’m marking the location of the nearest generator; we need to move in and neutralize it.”
The Spartan pair made their way down a level, killing another Elite Major, two Grunts, and a Jackal. They quickly made their way down the structure, killing more Elites, Grunts, Jackals, and a few Skirmishers. They reached the bottom, spotting a pair of Banshees waiting. Unfortunately, between them and the aircraft were several Elites & Grunts, including an Elite General, and a Wraith. They moved left, dodging a plasma mortar, and found two dead Flood Combat Forms… and a rocket launcher with eight extra rockets, which Teana grabbed. The Wraith took three hits to kill, the Elite General two more, and one last rocket killed the few Grunts who survived John’s attack. Teana kept the launcher and the two extra rockets, and they made their way over to the Banshees.
They flew almost straight up, quickly reaching the entrance to the generator. The door opened, and John fired a fuel-rod shot that killed the exiting Elite and two Grunts. They set down and got out of their flyers, heading through the door and into the generator room, Teana killing a lone Grunt guarding the machine. They found the generator, which was so bright that it hurt to look directly at.
“That’s the generator” Cortana said. “The central core is the signal amplifier. That’s what we need to shut down. We need to interrupt the pulse generator’s energy stream. I’ve adjusted your shield system, Chief, so that it will deliver an EMP to disrupt the generator, but you have to walk into the beam to trigger it.”
“I have to what?”
“Don’t worry; your shields will be drained by the burst, but they’ll recharge just like normal.”
He turned to the smaller Spartan. “Lanstar, cover me until my shields are back up.”
“Yessir”
John steeled himself and walked into the beam. There was a bang, a flash of light, and his shields were pulsing a low warning tone in his ear, informing them that they’d been completely downed.
“Objective accomplished” Cortana said. “Scanning… the generator’s central core is offline. Well done.”
Just as his shields recharged, a squad of Sentinels flew into the room. The Spartans opened fire, using shotgun blasts to quickly down the droids, and they then headed back outside to the Banshees.
Breaking Stuff To Look Tough
“The second pulse generator is located in the adjacent canyon” Cortana said as they got back in their Banshees. “Let’s move out, and I’ll mark the target with a NAV point when we get closer.”
The two craft flew down, launching fuel-rod shots at the Covenant on the bridge below. They spent a few minutes raining death until the bridge was clear, and then set down and got out of their Banshees, heading through the doorway on the left side. They passed counterclockwise through a room, clearing out a pair of Elites and a pack of Grunts (and a Jackal), and going through a small opening, killing two more Jackals and reaching a long hallway. At the other end emerged a blue-armored Elite, two orange-shielded Jackals, and a Grunt. A 40mm grenade from Mirage Rifle killed the little ones, and several shots from the Chief’s pistol killed the Elite. They reached the end of the hall and turned left, following a short hall that led to another larger room, where several Combat Forms exchanged fire with Covenant soldiers. After standing back and letting them fight it out a bit, the Spartans charged in, Teana with Mirage Shotgun and the Chief with his assault rifle, moving in to mop up the stragglers. They moved out, first going right to scavenge shotgun shells and frag grenades, and then starting to go left.
An Elite Zealot charged out to meet them, plasma sword blazing. Several shotgun rounds and two-thirds of an assault rifle clip took it down. They moved around the room, tossing a frag grenade to kill a few Skirmishers, and from the door ran a group of Combat Forms, who attacked and killed the Elite before turning their attention to the Spartans. Another frag killed most of them, with John stepping onto a legless fallen Combat Form and blasting it in the chest point-blank with his shotgun. Two Carrier Forms hobbled into the room, coming apart under AR fire and releasing their payload, which was also killed quickly. The Spartans moved through the door and hall, coming out on a bridge. On this bridge, a force of Covenant traded fire with Flood Combat Forms on the other bridge several meters to the left. A trio of Jackals fell as the Spartans began their crossing, followed soon after by an Elite General carrying a plasma launcher, whose death used up the last spare rockets Teana was carrying, leaving her with two shots left. As the Spartans continued across the bridge, however, they received unexpected company as several Combat Forms soared through the air, leaping several meters between bridges in a single bound and landing right in front of them. The duo charged through, shotguns blazing, until they finally reached the end of the bridge, passing through the door and following the hallway.
The next room was crawling with Combat Forms, and it took a few minutes to kill them all. A cluster of Infection Forms also came out to play, getting a frag grenade for their trouble. Around the corner up ahead, the sounds of combat announced the clash between a team of Elites and a ‘squad’ of Combat Forms. A Combat Form with a rocket launcher blew the Elites to bits, and a frag grenade from the Chief did the same to said Combat Form and all but one of its buddies. A few pistol shots took the survivor down, and Teana scavenged an extra pair of rockets. They went down the hallway and reached another room, again populated by Combat and Carrier Forms. A few minutes of exterminating, and the duo moved on, a short burst of the Chief’s assault rifle killing the Infection Forms waiting behind the next door.
Beyond this next hallway was the other bridge from earlier. Several Combat Forms traded fire with Covenant on the other bridge, and a Banshee flitted about, raining plasma on the Flood. The two moved forward, John tossing a frag grenade that shredded a few Combat Forms and sent a pair of Carriers flying over the edge. The Banshee took notice of the Spartans and tried to dive-bomb them, only to get a plasma grenade stuck to its canopy courtesy of Teana. The twisted remains of the craft plummeted to the ground far below, and the Spartans fought their way across the bridge, Teana grabbing four more rockets from a fallen Human Combat Form. They reached the end of the bridge, passing through a hallway into another circle room, where a group of Infection Forms were apparently trying to eat a dead Elite; a shotgun blast killed them. The room held a few Combat Forms and a large amount of Infection Forms; the Chief’s shotgun took out the latter, while a few dozen rounds from Mirage Rifle cleared out the latter. They passed through and reached an elevator, riding it down while being rained on by Infection Forms.
At the bottom, they fought through another room full of Combat Forms, shotguns tearing through the mutated beings that used to be a squad of UNSC marines. Through another hallway, they reached the outside. An Elite and four Grunts fired at a pair of Infection Forms, destroying them, and then popped the Infection Forms. They spotted the human pair and fired, and a 40mm rifle grenade killed the Grunts and drained the Elite’s shields, leaving it vulnerable to a rifle shot to the head.
“Okay,” Cortana said, “let’s take care of the next pulse generator”. A Banshee flew in, firing at the two while deliberately staying too high to be hijacked. A few particle-beam shots blew off its wings, and it slammed into a cliff wall. The Chief walked over to an overturned Ghost and flipped it right-side up, hopping in. Another Ghost, driven by a Grunt, drove in and opened fire. Teana shot the driver through the head and stole his ride. The two Spartans went down into the trench and looked inside the dead-end hallways at its bottom, finding a rocket launcher and many spare rocket packs. Teana loaded up, using Mirage’s subspace storage to hold the extra rockets, and then the pair drove their Ghosts up the slope. Over the snowdrift, they found two new-model Shade turrets and a Wraith, along with several Grunts and two red-armored Elites. They gunned down the Elites & Grunts and slagged the Shades, and then turned their fire on the Wraith, strafing around and peppering it with plasma fire. After nearly a solid minute, the tank finally erupted in flames. The two moved on, passing through a short tunnel, but soon encountered those narrow pillars from yesterday, and had to dismount and continue on foot. Nearby, the battered, burnt wreck of the Scorpion was pressed against the canyon wall.
They soon reached a fallen Warthog that was otherwise intact, and by some extraordinary stroke of luck it had an M68 Gauss Cannon for a turret. The Chief flipped it right-side-up and got in the driver’s seat, while Teana manned the gun. They drove up the curved rock-ramp, road-killing a quartet of Grunts, and drove through the canyon, reaching a large area with a huge tower in the middle, and the burnt carcass of the Wraith was still sitting on the large frozen lake as they rounded the corner. A Banshee flew in, firing a fuel-rod shot that missed, and a gauss shot obliterated it. They went right, encountering a Hunter pair that quickly fell to the hypersonic cannon shots. They then drove counterclockwise around the huge tower, soon encountering a Wraith. They dodged a plasma mortar and got behind it, and a shot from the big gun resulted in a gout of flame and a thoroughly mission-killed tank. Another Banshee met a similar fate seconds later. Ahead, two Elites guarded a pair of Banshees. The gauss cannon punched huge holes through their torsos, leaving a trail of semi-liquefied innards in the snow behind them. The Warthog drove up into the shadow of a nearby boulder, and the two Spartans dismounted and lowjacked the Banshees, flying up at a 75-degree angle.
At the top of the tower, there was a short two-on-one dogfight against an enemy Banshee, followed by a fuel-rod airstrike on the Covenant atop the tower, destroying their Shades and killing the Elite General. Another bombing took out the fuel-rod-gun-wielding Spec-Ops Grunts guarding the entrance to the generator, and the Banshees set down on the platform, the two Spartans heading inside. In the generator room, a horde of Combat Forms traded fire with Sentinels. A rocket from Teana’s launcher killed the former, and another took out three of the five Sentinels, the remaining two being brought down by three shots from the Master Chief’s shotgun. He carefully stepped into the beam of light, immediately triggering the EMP, and Teana moved to cover him. From the exit came a group of Combat Forms; she threw a frag grenade, and the CF holding a launcher pulled the trigger as it died, the explosion killing all but three of the Flood. The Chief rushed forward as his shield began to charge, killing two with the shotgun and punching into and through the chest of the third, ripping the Infection Form out and crushing it. The Spartan pair moved back out, stepping onto the platform and getting in their Banshees.
The Tunnels Below
They flew down, landing next to their Gauss Hog and getting in it. As they began to head for the tunnel, Cortana gave an update.
“I’ve located the Pillar of Autumn. She put down 1,200 kilometers up-spin. Energy readings show her fusion reactors are still powered up. The systems on the Pillar of Autumn have fail-safes that even I can’t override without authorization from the Captain. We’ll need to find him, or his neural implants, to start the fusion core detonation. One target remaining. Let’s take care of the final pulse generator.”
The Warthog entered the tunnel, coming across yet another Covenant vs. Flood battle. The Chief floored it as they blazed through, flattening an Elite and two Combat Forms, and reached the bottom of the slope. As they approached the turn, a rocket soared right over their heads; Teana’s return shot blew the Combat Form to bits, and they continued on. After a short drive through the tunnels, they reached a door. The Chief got out, hit the switch… and the door exploded. It managed to slide open just wide enough to let a person through, but there was no way the Warthog would fit. Teana used the cannon to kill the two Combat and two Carrier Forms that came through, and then dismounted. She & the Chief squeezed through the opening and headed right, moving toward the bridge. Halfway across, a swarm of Infection Forms came up over the edges, and a horde of Combat Forms popped up at the other end. The Chief dispatched the IFs with his assault rifle, and Teana fired several 40mm grenades at the Combat Forms, killing the launcher-wielding one and four others. The remaining six were close now, so she switched Mirage to Shotgun Mode, and she & John mowed them down. They crossed to the end, the Chief scavenging assault rifle ammo, and they then moved through the door. They followed the tunnels, eventually coming out to a snowy slope leading upward.
Final Run
They reached the top of the slope. Ahead, Grunts and Elites did battle with yet more Combat Forms, while a Banshee flitted about overhead. They went right, tossing a grenade to kill three Combat Forms and a Carrier Form. The Banshee killed the Infection Forms and then turned its attention to the Spartans. It passed low enough for a plasma grenade stick. Leaving the burning, twisted wreck to crash behind them, they moved toward the battle. A rocket from a Combat Form hit the Shade turret, destroying it, and then a plasma grenade thrown by an Elite stuck to said Combat Form, the blast destroying the launcher as well. The duo hung back, letting the two sides wear each other down, and then ran in and took down the few surviving Covenant, including the Elite Zealot with a concussion rifle. With the area clear, the Chief climbed aboard a Ghost, Teana jumping on and hanging onto the back. They moved on, reaching a frozen river and another Covenant vs. Flood fight, with a squad of Grunts and Jackals led by a red-armored Elite fighting a losing battle against a pack of Combat Forms. Another Flood, this one wielding a fuel rod gun, came out and slaughtered the Covenant team, and the Chief opened fire on it, taking it out of the equation first. The Ghost’s guns made quick work of the others, and the hovercraft moved on.
They reached the next large area and parked atop a boulder, peering through their scopes at what lay ahead between them and a pair of Banshees. Two dozen Grunts, 15 Jackals, seven Skirmishers, a dozen Elites (four of them white-armored), six Brute Captains, two Brute Chieftains, four Shade turrets, two Wraiths, two Hunter pairs, and three Elite Zealots, one of them a Field Marshal. They gave each other a look.
No way in hell.
The Chief hit the boost on the Ghost, going balls-to-the-wall top speed and racing past the confused Covenant and the dozen Flood Combat Forms, heading straight for the Banshees. Once next to them, the two Spartans hopped out, got in the Banshees, and broke for 100 meters up as fast as possible, who-knows-how-many plasma balls & bolts of various size flitting past them as they made their hasty retreat. They quickly outran the Covenant and flew through the canyon, soon reaching the final door. The Sentinels guarding it were quickly shot down. The Banshees landed, and the Spartans dismounted and headed inside, where they found a new surprise: the five Sentinels guarding the final generator had energy shields. Teana switched to dual plasma-bolt pistol/rifle and went to work, blasting three down, while the Chief used his shotgun to destroy the other two. Finally, nothing stood between them and their goal. The Chief walked into the beam, triggering the familiar bang and EMP.
“Final target neutralized” Cortana said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s find a ride and get to the Captain” John said.
“No, that’ll take too long” Cortana replied.
“You have a better idea.”
“There’s a teleportation grid that runs throughout Halo. That’s how the Monitor moves about so quickly. I learned how to tap into the grid while I was in the control center. Unfortunately, each jump requires a rather consequential expenditure of energy.”
“Something tells me I’m not gonna like this.”
“But I’m pretty sure I can pull the power from your suits without permanently damaging anything. And if I link up with Cross Mirage, he and I should be able to access some magic and use that to further stabilize the jump and lessen the energy cost needed to teleport you two. Needless to say, though, I think we should only try this once.”
John looked to Teana, who nodded. “Do it.”
The two AIs linked and began to weave the various energies. Golden rings encircled both Spartans, and a Midchildan magic circle flared to life beneath their feet. A flash of orange and golden light, and they were gone.