Return of the Covenant

Prologue

January 1st 2600

Fleet of Sorrowful Judgment

Covenant Holy City Undeniable Truth

Chamber of the Hierarchs

First Age of Redemption

The Prophet of Wisdom looked absentmindedly around the dimly light chamber. He ran his long fingers over the ancient hieroglyphic language of the Forerunners, their gods and saviors, which had been carved into the wall. He vaguely listened to the rambling of his two peers that sat to his left and right. The Prophets of Shadow and Life had been arguing for the better part of the past two cycles about the Covenant's plan of action.

"-, and that is why we must wait, and gather more numbers before we act so rashly, don't you agree Wisdom?" Life said, his head in his hands, obviously growing tired of this pointless quarrel.

Wisdom thought for a moment, trying to remember what Life had been talking about. Something around the lines of the humans locating and destroying the remaining halo rings and exterminating the surviving flood specimens. "Yes, after the destruction of the Ark and the Halos, our predecessors' plans for beginning the Great Journey do seem rather pointless don't they?" Wisdom said, still gazing at the peculiar hieroglyphs.

"It is no longer about the Great Journey!" Shadow shouted, his outburst attracting Wisdom's full attention. "It is about revenge! Those pathetic abominations, those humans, they disgraced out covenant and our predecessors!"

Life sighed, "And just how do you suggest we go about satisfying the revenge so crave so greatly?" He asked Shadow. "Our intelligence shows that the Humans and Sangheili have recently signed a permanent peace treaty, and with the desertion of the Unggoy and Lekgolo, we would be destroyed by the Humans and Sangheili."

This was a valid point, several years after their initial defeat, the Second Unggoy rebellion began. Unlike the first rebellion, where the Sangheili managed to put the rebellion down, the Jiralhanae proved to be powerless against the Unggoys' numbers. At the climax of the rebellion, the grunts fought their way through the holy city all the way to the Prophet's chambers. Threatened with destruction, the newly elected Hierarchs had no choice but to let them go. The Unggoy presumably returned to their home system, taking hundreds of covenant ships with them. In addition, soon after the Rebellion, the Lekgolo also left. They gave no reason, but no one, not even the cocky Jiralhanae, dared to stop them.

"True," Shadow admitted, "With out current numbers we would be no match for the humans." He finished, strangely, though the tone of defeat was absent in his voice.

"If you admit this then why do you insist that we attack?" Wisdom asked, becoming slightly agitated.

"Two reasons." Shadow said and smiled, "I received a report not five cycles ago that the alliance between the Humans and Sangheili is already shaky. There have been several assassination attempts against the Sangheili leader, our ex-arbiter. Moreover, the latest attempt on his life has left his severely wounded, and the Sangheili are threatening to attack the humans if he does not recover. If a war does begin between them, we could attack when both sides are weak."

"Even then, we would still be no match for either side!" Life countered. However, Wisdom was intrigued.

"You said there was two reasons, please continue." He told Shadow.

"It would be easier to show you." Shadow said, trying to contain his glee. His chair floated over to the projector in the center of the room. "Behold!" he shouted as the hologram came to life.

Both Wisdom and Life were speechless, staring at the Hologram wide-eyed. "This changes everything…" Life muttered.

"Indeed." Wisdom choked out. "This does change everything.

January 3rd, 2600

Highcom Command Center

"What's the Arbiter's status?" Admiral Richards asked his officers. Richards the heir to Admiral Hood's throne, leader of the Human's naval forces.

"His shuttle is departing Gamma Orbital Station and is en route to the Divine Wind." A lieutenant reported, his voice lowered to a whisper. Everyone in the room was understandably nervous. The fate of the human race was dependent on the Arbiter's shuttle reaching the Sangheili flag ship in one piece.

"Give me a visual." Richards ordered. The image snapped onto the main view screen in the command center. The shuttle and its escorts was just a spec of purple in a sea of cruisers and destroyers, all of which were ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Shuttle has reached the halfway point." a disembodied AI stated. Richards eased back into his seat. It looked like the underground was not going to rear its ugly head today.

The "Underground" was many of the military was starting to call the extremist members of the Anti-Sangheili movement. Many of the actions taken by the members had been non-violent protests, but some members, the "real" underground had taken more extreme measures. The Underground had been responsible for every assassination attempt, as well as several attacks on small Sangheili ships. Even though there was no abnormal activity, something felt…wrong to Richards.

"Patch me through to the arbiter." Richards told his communications operator.

"Aye sir" his officer responded. "Comm. link established."

The Arbiter's voice filled the speakers of Richards command chair. "What is it Richards?" he demanded. Richards noticed that the Arbiters voice was weak, he probably had not fully recovered yet.

"I trust everything is going well on your end Arbiter?" Richards asked with sincere concern in his voice.

"Everything is fine, I don't understand why you insist on checking up on me." The Arbiter said, sounding out of breath.

"Glad to hear it, I wish you a quick recovery." Richards said.

The Arbiter grunted before cutting off the link. Something still felt wrong though.

"Illya?" Richards said aloud. A figured appeared to his left.

"Yes Admiral?" The AI asked. Illya was from the newest generation of Smart AI, and was ten times smarter that any smart AI ever created.

"Scan around the perimeter of the shuttle, just to be sure." Richards ordered. In a recent raid, the Underground had captured a Prowler vehicle, and it was not below them to use it.

"Scanning." Illya's hauntingly soft voice said. She paused for a few seconds before responding, "The perimeter is clear."

"Good…very good" Richards said, relieved.

"One-hundred thousand kilometers to go admiral." Illya reported.

"Illya, order the escorts to report in." Richards ordered, still not fully convinced the coast was clear.

"Aye sire, message sent."

Several voices came over the comm. "Escort 1 reporting in."

"Escort 2, everything is ok here."

"Escort three, here."

A wave of static then came over the comm. "Escort four, report in." Richards ordered. Only static answered him.

"Escort four do you read me?" Richards said again, worry in is voice. Still, static answered him.

"Illya, scan that ship!" Richards shouted.

"Scanning." Illya, said. Seconds later she exclaimed, "Sir, all crew members on escort four are dead, save for one, and there appears to be a bomb onboard!"

"Shit" Richards said under his breath. "Patch me through to the Arbiter."

"Sir…look." Illya stated. Richards turned and stared at the view screen. What had once been the arbiter's shuttle was now a cloud of fire.

Every Sangheili ship in system turned towards the UNSC ships in orbit.