Twelve: The Devils' Victory Song

The Spartans didn't waste any more time. They didn't know exactly where this Halo was in relation to Earth, but either way if fired, it would devastate a significant section of the galaxy. They headed for a door set in one of the walls, which hissed open at their approach - right as a cluster of Drones dropped in through the ceiling and an Elite charged them through the door.

The Spartans moved to protect the Marines from the Sangheili, leaving the Drones to them for the time being, but once the alien went down, they turned back and took over, covering the Marines as they scuttled through the door. When the last of them went down, the warriors followed.

"You know," Cortana said as they passed through the hatch, "I think the Forerunners built these new structures around the old to protect them, honor them. Pure speculation, mind you; I'd need to make a thorough survey to be sure…" 'Or I could just ask a certain eavesdropper.'

[They're from Ghibalb. The ruins, they're originally from the Forerunners' homeworld of Ghibalb. An early stellar engineering accident left the whole system irradiated and uninhabitable, but later they went back and transplanted some of their old ruins here and covered them with the same style of building to absorb the radiation. There are a few complexes on each of the rings and even the Ark; some of the more sentimental Forerunners wanted to "take their ancestors with them into the stars". Even after everything that happened, the Master Builder kept up the tradition.]

'That's almost sweet.'

John hummed noncommittally.

The Spartans emerged onto something like a wrap-around porch, where wide bridges extended out to connect to other structures. One of them had collapsed, so they took the other, which was guarded by an Elite and some Grunts. The cowardly aliens had bunched up, so Linda launched a frag grenade at them. The rest of the Spartans focused their fire on the remaining alien, then all of them advanced along the bridge.

An Elite Minor charged them, wielding a plasma sword, and Fred dodged out of the way just enough to avoid the arc of the white-hot blade, then punched the alien in the face. It hadn't been expecting it and staggered under the blow, letting Kelly get in behind it and shove her combat knife up into its spine. It was dead before it hit the ground.

Water from a recent storm had pooled in the center of the bridge, and they splashed through it, following a Jackal and a line of Grunts back to their source. There was another doorway there, guarded by an Elite, though not for long. They entered the building and followed a short hall to a circular courtyard. The roof had long since fallen in, leaving the courtyard open to the sky, pillars of stone lining the walkway ringing the edge. The place was filled with more Jackals and Grunts, but their fear of the Demons was potent enough that even their leader's courage couldn't overcome it - especially not after the Demons killed him. Most ran, and were shot in the back for their troubles.

The humans followed the walkway around the edge of the room, heading through an arch into something they could only describe as a locker room. The Spartans exchanged glances, then kept moving through a concealed door that opened up nearby.

The door revealed another walkway around the outside of the building, which in turn led them to an open platform. There were raised portions ringing the small center structure, almost like the seats of an amphitheater. There were some Jackals there, but the bird-like aliens were hardly a challenge.

But someone somewhere seemed to have called for reinforcements, because a Phantom approached and dropped off a pair of Hunters. Fred immediately ordered the Marines to take cover, and they obeyed even as the Mgalekgolo charged the Spartans, swinging their massive shields.

Kelly raced forward to be the rabbit, getting the Hunters to pursue her. But because she was their sole focus, she couldn't really shoot back when they fired their fuel rod cannons at her, instead relying on her siblings to gun them down - which they did.

They only lost one Marine in the firefight; he wasn't fast enough to get away from one of the Hunters, which swatted him with its massive shield. His squad mates collected his dog tags as Miranda came over the line. "Cortana, the Covenant's getting nosy. I don't want to give away my position, so I'm rerouting some stragglers back to you. I apologize; these Pelicans are all the support you're going to get."

"Understood, ma'am." After the channel closed, Cortana spoke again. "A gondola's launching from the far tower. Big surprise, it's full of Covenant reinforcements."

Out on the lake, a pair of transports had been stopped, suspended over the water, but now they were moving again, one towards the station beyond, the other towards them. As it drew near, the Pelican with their reinforcements swooped in, dropped off its weapons canisters and Marines, and then rushed away right as the gondola came in range. The humans used battle rifles and sniper rifles to pick off all the Covenant they could before the transport docked.

As the clamps unfolded and locked into place, the aliens still alive came out of cover to attack, but they did no more damage to the Spartans than any of the ones that came before them.

"Well, they were nice enough to bring us a ride," Cortana said, and directed them to the gondola controls.

They started towards the "temple". Not long after, a swarm of Yam'ee buzzed over to make a nuisance of themselves. Their plasma pistols drove the Marines into cover, but the Spartans were harder to cow. As far as they knew, none of the Covenant really used their weapons to the fullest the way the humans did - never overcharged the pistols to take down energy shields in one shot, never unloaded half a clip of Needler rounds to get the simultaneous detonations that was so deadly to everything - so they had a bit of room to maneuver. Their shields held, and they gunned the bugs down.

Cortana murmured, "This lake couldn't have been formed by volcanic action. Did the Forerunners make it this way on purpose? Something from their home that they sought to emulate when they brought the ruins here? Or did something cataclysmic happen that they did not foresee?"

They ignored her in favor of the approaching second gondola. When they had launched from their side, it had left the temple - full of enemies, to no one's surprise. Yet since they were limited by their inability to fly, they were easier to dispatch than the Yam'ee, and when they were dead, their gondola resumed its course.

There were Covenant weapons emplacements close to the temple's docking station, and they started firing at the humans the moment they were in range. But they were in range as well, and what's more, they were in the open. Linda shot them all in an eyeblink, and let them disembark with ease.

The blast door in front of them slid open at their approach, letting more foes emerge from inside. All of them were Jackals, and all of them died just like those who stayed inside. They were up on crisscrossing walkways that led deeper into the building. There was also a deep shaft below, in the center of the room, plunging to the lake's surface and on down. "Ah, now I see," said Cortana, "There's a submerged section that connects these towers to the outlying structures. We must walk this path to our foe, unless you would rather drown."

"Full car coming up!" one of the Marines called in warning. Cortana directed the Spartans to the side with the door. When the doors slid open, knowing how resilient Forerunner technology was, Fred did the only logical thing he could: he threw a grenade into the car.

They all heaved the Jackal corpses out afterward, though there was nothing they could do about the blood smears. There wasn't enough room inside for everyone, so the Marines elected to head back and call for a Pelican to come pick them up, letting the Spartans continue on alone.

Fred activated the elevator, and the doors sealed shut before they dropped into the water below. There were lights in the dark, illuminating a hundred ruins below the surface, and even the Spartans couldn't resist peering out. As the lift continued forward, Cortana said, "I've intercepted a secure transmission from Regret's carrier to something called High Charity. It seems to be a formal apology to the Prophets of Truth and Mercy. Apparently, Regret jumped the gun when he attacked Earth. He's asking the other Prophets to 'forgive his premature arrival', arguing that 'no human presence was foretold'. That explains why there were so few ships in his fleet, but it's still odd that a Prophet would have such bad intel about his enemy's homeworld."

"Where are they even getting their intel, then?" Linda asked, "They don't seem to have anything like ONI if it's so bad they don't know that humanity's from Earth."

"Good question. We would be interested to hear the answer for ourselves."

But the Spartans noted that she did not seem surprised by the contents of the message. Perhaps it was just because she was the one who had intercepted it, but it seemed almost as if she had already known what it would say before it even arrived. Linda had asked where the Covenant was getting its intel, but now they were all interested to know where she was getting her own.

They didn't ask. She wouldn't have answered anyway.

The car halted below an opening identical to the one they had dropped through, and more docking clamps pulled them up into the main underwater complex. They came to a stop in a low-ceilinged room with a single exit, an intricately detailed doorway that led to a ramp up into the complex. They followed the path to a hall shaped like a triangular prism on its side, walled with transparent metal, ramps leading down to the center path from raised ones on either side. Three square, pylon-like constructs lined the center of the path.

The Spartans killed the Grunts there, who were probably supposed to be standing guard but were instead sleeping. Then they headed up the opposite ramp to the next antechamber. There were two exits from it, and the Spartans split up to cover them both. But there were no enemies, just more ramps leading up into the main hall.

It was also shaped like a horizontal triangular prism, though much, much larger than the first, with constructs of varying sizes throughout, making the hall into a labyrinth. There was also a massive hologram of Regret that earned a comment from Cortana, "And they say I have a big head."

There were aliens, of course, and the Spartans took cover behind the metal constructs as fire lanced between them. The Hunters and Sangheili Honor Guard were the biggest challenges; everything else was just small potatoes in comparison.

The Spartans fought their way through the room and the one that followed, which seemed to have sprung a leak somewhere; there was about a foot and a half of water at the bottom. But beyond that room was another lift chamber, and Blue Team piled inside, hoping that this lift would take them back to the surface.

As they descended, Cortana said, "Regret's carrier just received a response from High Charity. A very well encrypted message from the Prophet of Truth. Listen to this: 'Your haste has jeopardized the fulfillment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy and his wise counsel.' Truth, Mercy, Regret. Three Prophet Hierarchs. Killing Regret should shake up the Covenant leadership, but frankly, it sounds like you might be doing Truth a favor. - Oh my."

The Spartans looked ahead to see a Forerunner ship resting on the lakebed. It was huge, easily fifty kilometers long, and it threw a wide shadow over them as they approached, its windows glowing bright in their dim surroundings. There were submersibles swarming around it - and people, swimmers jetting through the water, wearing metallic green and black armor in various configurations. Some of them looked to be shaped roughly like humans and at least as tall as the Spartans, others more than twice that, and a few seemed to have long necks like the Sangheili - but also long tails. Many turned to look at them as the lift passed under it through a narrow canyon cut through the lakebed.

As they glided to the other side, the ship came alive, lights flashing on its sides, a faint rising hum reaching their ears through the water. The Spartans looked back as they passed it by and saw it start to ascend, the swimmers and submersibles heading for open cargo bays protected by energy fields, more aliens in identical armor running about within.

Though difficult to make out in the dim light, the name of the ship was written on the hull in several languages - including English.

"Ring of Winter," Cortana said, "Interesting."

"Friend or foe?"

"Well they didn't shoot at us as we went by, so I'm going to hazard a guess and say 'friend.' Still, they might not have had enough time to respond to our approach. I guess we'll know soon enough if they decide to chase us."

The Spartans weren't looking forward to the possibility. They looked to have Forerunner-level tech, which was leaps and bounds above Covenant, which humanity as a whole was barely holding its own against. But if they pursued, the humans wouldn't go down without a fight.

Their car docked with the next tower and was pulled up into it by the docking clamps, letting them out into another room. Even through the filters in their armor, the Spartans could smell the fresh air, and they sped up a little, intent upon reaching their goal as fast as possible. Regret couldn't be too far off; the Honor Guard defending the area made that readily apparent.

They emerged into the open and were immediately engaged by two Sangheili and another small swarm of Drones, which the warriors put down before topping the rise. There was another complex of ruins there, held by the Covenant, of course, though not for very much longer. Blue Team worked their way through it.

As they did so, Foehammer came over the line again. "This is my last run, Blue Team; I'm almost out of fuel. We've secured the first tower cluster, so I'll put her down there. Call me when you're ready for evac."

They flashed an affirmative and moved forward to meet the weapons canisters she dropped for them, and the reinforcements: Gray Team. They swiped Spartan smiles at each other right as Commander Keyes came over the line. "How's it going, Spartans?"

"So far so good," Cortana answered, "We're approaching the main temple now."

"Roger that. I'm as close to the Library as I can get; there's some sort of - barrier. We're trying to find a way around it; we'll keep you posted."

The two teams of Spartans boarded the gondola that would take them across to Regret's temple, slaying the Jackals and Grunts guarding it in the process. A pair of Banshees attempted to intercept them as they began the crossing, but Sam had picked up a heat-seeking rocket launcher and sent them both spinning toward the water below. It proved to be equally effective against the Elites with jetpacks who flew at them from the other gondola.

Linda and Jai focused on the Covenant holding the entryway to the temple, picking them off from a distance with their sniper rifles, trying to clear out as many aliens as they could before they actually arrived there. Most of them were dead by the time the gondola rolled up and docked. The Spartans stepped off-

-and heard the snap-bang of a Slipspace rupture high overhead. They looked up.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand - it was impossible to count the number of ships that emerged over the ring, followed closely by a huge construct that looked vaguely like a jellyfish with a single long tentacle.

"That's the largest Covenant fleet I've ever seen," Cortana whispered in amazement, "the largest anyone's ever seen. Get inside the temple and kill Regret before it can stop us. Run, organics! Seeing this fleet won't mean anything if we don't live to tell the tale!"

The two teams raced through the door just in time to surprise an Elite and his troop of Jackals as they came around the steel partition beyond. The aliens weren't able to react fast enough to stop from getting shot, and once they were sure the area was clear, they stopped to plan for just a moment.

"Who's killing Regret, and who's providing cover? I want us all in agreement for this," Fred said.

"You do it, Chief," said Adriana, "For all of us."

He looked at the others. One by one, they nodded in agreement, so he did as well.

On their way deeper inside, they encountered only three Elite Minors, coming to investigate the disturbance out front. The Spartans killed them and continued their advance, charging up the central ramp to the main chamber.

The room was spacious and elegant, ornate pillars lining the walls and twin rows of stone lanterns marking a path through the center of the room. Regret sat on a gravity throne before an immense waterfall on the far side of the room.

Fred didn't even bother with the ramps to the lower level; he vaulted over the railing and charged the Prophet, trusting his siblings to have his back. The sounds of gunfire and screams of aliens assured him that his faith in them was justified. Regret jerked his throne out of the way, but once his Honor Guards were dead, the other Spartans turned their fire on him instead, despite the energy shields protecting him. The distraction was enough.

Fred grabbed him and hauled him off the throne, combat knife already in hand. The blade bit so deep into the Prophet's neck that it nearly decapitated him, and he bled out in seconds - a quicker and more merciful death than many humans had suffered under his orders.

"Bad news," said Cortana, "The Phantoms are turning around; the fleet is preparing to fire on our position. We need to get out of here now!"

At her words, all of the Spartans holstered their weapons and flat-out ran back the way they had come. They exited the temple just in time to see one of the Covenant ships drop in close and start firing its plasma beam, preparing to destroy the temple. They bolted for the corner, Kelly already in the lead, and swung themselves around it, jumping down to a lower level. They sprinted along the platform, using every ounce of augmented speed to stay ahead of the plasma weapon, its heat licking at their backs.

"Not like this, not like this!" Cortana gasped, "John!"

They jumped off the edge and into the lake below, praying that the water would protect them from the energy stream.

They broke the surface and plunged dozens of meters at once, their armor weighing them down alongside chunks of new rubble. Yet as they drifted, stunned by the impact, something grasped them in the water and started pulling them deeper.

"This is not your grave… but you are welcome in it."