Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
Author's Note: This is first serious fanfic but I don't know how good it is so please R&R. Also, most of the chapters will be 1500 to 4000 words long. These are not the set limits; they are just the general guidelines. Thanks.
Warning: If you copy/plagiarize any part of my story, you will be prosecuted to the maximum legal extent. If I can't really do anything to you legally, I'll just flame you and/or report you, unless it was honestly a coincidence.
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Prologue
Party in the Control Room
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Tartarus swung his Fist of Rukt at the Arbiter but he quickly dodged the blow. Tartarus roared in rage and he swung again. A nearby Sangheili Ultra jumped in front of the hammer and shifted Tartarus's aim at the cost of his own life.
"For you, Arbiter. Finish this vermin," the Sangheili warrior gasped. A gush of blood erupted from his mouth and the once proud warrior passed away.
"You will be avenged my brother."
The Arbiter glared at Tartarus with hatred etched in every line of his face. Then Tartarus returned the scowl and leaped towards the last symbol of hope for the Elites, intent on destroying it; the Arbiter. The Brute Chieftain swung his legendary Fist of Rukt at the Arbiter, who jumped backwards, narrowly escaping his death. The Fist of Rukt passed no more than an inch away from his body and the waves of energy radiating from it snuffed out his shields. To escape further damage, the Arbiter jumped into the gravity lift in the center of the structure. A risky move, because if the installation fired at the moment, he would be fried.
Tartarus roared and followed the Arbiter up the lift. As Tartarus was going up, the Arbiter sprinted to a weapons canister conveniently placed against one of the pillars supporting the structure and pulled out two brute plasma rifles. He preferred the normal ones because, although the red rifles had a faster rate of fire, they were easy to overheat. The blue rifles had a slightly slower rate of fire, but could be fired for much longer before the gun ceased to function while it dumped waste heat and plasma.
While Tartarus was still in the air, the Arbiter sprayed the Brute Chieftain with wave after wave of plasma, squeezing the trigger of one rifle till it overheated, and while it was cooling down, he would fired the other, to make sure that there was a constant stream of plasma. The plasma had no noticeable effect on the Tartarus and he merely laughed at the Arbiter's futile attempts to kill him.
"Fool! You will never hurt me, for I am Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes! Remember that name well Arbiter, for I am the one that will put an end to your pitiful existence!" roared Tartarus.
He started to advance towards the Arbiter when suddenly, three bursts of pure energy impacted upon the Brute's near impervious energy shield. Tartarus flinched and, to everyone's surprise, the shield faded. Three Sangheili Zealots came up the gravity lift armed with energy swords. They ran at Tartarus at full speed and the first one sliced him right in the chest...a second too late. The shields reactivated and the blade of plasma bounced off of Tartarus's body. Tartarus, now angry, turned around and swung his massive hammer, taking out the warrior that tried to kill him. Then Tartarus tightened his grasp on the handle of his Fist of Rukt and lashed out at the second Zealot. The hammer made contact with the Zealot's head with such force that the head snapped off at the neck. The Sangheili's eyes widened before his head fell to the floor, and then it moved no more.
The Brute Chieftain then turned around to gaze at the third Zealot, whom the Arbiter could've sworn flinched just at the sight of the dreadful face of Tartarus. He did not however, run away, but instead, shouted a war cry and launched himself at Tartarus. Tartarus roared in reply, spit flying from his jaws. The Zealot lashed out with his blade, but it did nothing. The blade that was reputed to cut through anything failed to conquer Tartarus's personal shields. Tartarus however, didn't have that problem. Without warning, the Brute Chieftain swung his Fist of Rukt. He feinted one way with the hammer and the Sangheili warrior tried to dodge it. Then Tartarus charged the direction of the hammer in midswing. The unfortunate Sangheili couldn't move fast enough and the hammer hit him in the chest. Bones broke as the Elite howled in pain while flying back at the force of the blow. The cries of pain grew fainter and fainter as the Elite flew right over the edge of the platform and down to the bottomless chasm.
While Tartarus was killing the three Zealots, the Arbiter gazed around the structure, looking for the one responsible for the three superb shots. Then his gaze fell upon a dark skinned human male.
"What the hell are you staring at? Finish that Brute off!" he yelled.
Those words brought him back to reality. He looked up just as the last Zealot flew over the edge, howling. Then Tartarus turned around and ran towards the Arbiter at a frighteningly fast pace. Three more purple beams were fired from the beam rifle and all three shots impacted upon Tartarus's shield. The shield faded away as Tartarus roared in fury. The Arbiter saw his chance and squeezed the triggers for his red plasma rifles. The plasma hit Tartarus and fused fur and skin together. The Brute Chieftain cried out in pain and anger.Unfortunately, the plasma did nothing to keep the Brute from advancing towards his position, and worse yet, before his plasma rifles could cool down, Tartarus's shields recharged so he couldn't get another shot in.
"Oh no, I'm a goner."
Just then three more bursts of purple light hit Tartarus in rapid succession and the Brute's shield was gone once again. Tartarus was distracted for a split second, which allowed the Arbiter to get away. The Arbiter ran forwards in Tartarus's direction, which caught the Brute off guard. The least thing he expected the Arbiter to do was to lunge straight at him, since he was physically stronger than the Sangheili warrior.
The Arbiter's intent wasn't to attack Tartarus however. It was to pick up the energy sword dropped by one of his fallen brothers. He dived, grasped the hilt of one of the swords, rolled, and was back on his feet in a matter of seconds. Tartarus turned around, surprised at the fact that the Arbiter had gotten past him, and brought his hammer down on the Arbiter's head. The Sangheili jumped to one side and dodged the blow. He swung again and again, steadily forcing the Arbiter back until he had the Sangheili's back against a wall.
"May the Forerunners have mercy on my soul," prayed the Arbiter. Not a second after he finished his prayers, three more purple lasers hit Tartarus.
Tartarus's eyes widened in surprise and fury as his shields were disabled once again. He gave a great roar and swung the Fist of Rukt at the Arbiter with all his might. The Arbiter jumped up, causing the hammer to take out a large portion of the wall behind where his stomach was a second ago. He then kicked off the crumbling wall while still in the air, activated his sword, and buried it to the hilt into Tartarus's face while the Brute's shields were still disabled.
Tartarus realized what was happening just as he missed with his hammer, but couldn't do anything about it. He watched, wide eyed, as the Arbiter pulled off the move gracefully.
"I can't believe that this vermin has beaten me."
That was Tartarus's last thought before a sabre of plasma pierced through his tough hide and ended the Brute Chieftain's life. Tartarus made no noise as his blood rained down in fountains and splattered on the metallic floor. Then his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. The whole chamber was silent, save for the clank of machinery, as the Brute Chieftain fell.
Then someone grunted from behind the Arbiter, and he turned to see who it was. He was just in time to see the Human female jump from one of the higher platforms onto one of the rotating sections of the control room. She then ducked just in time as another rotating part almost knocked her off her feet. She then jumped down and yanked the sacred icon from the controls. She then held it to her chest like a child as the installation started to vibrate violently. A few seconds later, a bright ball of energy erupted from the bottomless chasm and burst through the top of the control room. He closed his eyes waited for the sacred ring to activate and to wipe every living being off the face of the galaxy, but that didn't happen. He opened his eyes a few seconds later just in time to see the human male let go of the Oracle after it lowered him down. Then realization started to sink in. I'm alive!
"What's that?" the Human female asked before the Arbiter could say anything.
"A beacon," 343 Guilty Spark replied.
"What's it doing?"
"Communicating, at super-luminal speeds with the frequency of-"
"Communicating with what?" interjected the Human female.
"The other installations," the Monitor replied calmly.
"Show me," she demanded.
"Fail-safe protocol. In the event of unexpected shutdown, the entire system moves to standby status. All remaining platforms are now ready for remote activation," said the Monitor. A holoscreen showed seven sacred rings drift into different parts of the screen. One of them was marked in red, which the Arbiter guessed was the one that was destroyed.
"Remote activation? From here?" asked the Human female in a worried voice.
"Don't be ridiculous!" scoffed the Monitor.
Sergeant Johnson, who was unusually quiet during this conversation suddenly cut in. "Now listen here tinkerbell, don't make me-".
"Then where, where would someone go to activate the other rings?" asked the Human female, cutting Johnson off.
There was a brief pause before the Monitor spoke. "Why, the Ark, of course!"
"And where, Oracle, is that?" inquired the Arbiter.
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The ancient Forerunner ship shuddered as it exited slipspace. John-117, otherwise known as the Master Chief, heard a Human voice on his COM say:
"We've got a new contact! Unknown classification!"
"If it isn't one of ours, take it out," he heard Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood say.
"This is Spartan-117. Can anybody read me? Over." John announced through his COM.
"Isolate that signal. Master Chief? You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?" asked a surprised Admiral.
"Sir, finishing this fight," responded the Spartan.
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A/N: This is a short chapter since this is the Prologue. The rest of the chapters will be longer and better. Trust me! Meanwhile, R&R please!
Another A/N: Yes I know, the prologue (this chapter) is just a recap of the Halo 2 ending. The rest of the chapters are all original though, so please read and review!