Fourteen: Explanation of the Truth

Fred came back to awareness slowly, with the realization that there were lights passing by overhead. He and his brothers and sisters were being dragged over the metal floor of a Forerunner structure, bound in strong tentacles. He shook his head, trying to orient himself despite the sharp bouncing of his body over the uneven floor, and struggled against his bonds, sensing that his brothers and sisters had begun to do the same. The tentacles only gripped them tighter before they were lifted up into the air.

"What… is that?" Cortana whispered over TEAMCOM.

The thing was very much like a snake, but its head was almost entirely mouth, with two long tendrils extending from its lower lip and no visible eyes. Many tentacles extended from its body, a handful of which bound the Spartans, and the body itself covered the entire floor of the cavernous space and spread partway up the walls, an impressive task in and of itself, but they could not discern its true color in the misty green light.

The thing pulled back slightly as if affronted. It had heard her. "I?" it said, leaning in again, "I... am a monument... to all your sins." It breathed green mist - Flood spores - over them as it spoke, but they also heard it inside their minds.

There were sounds from up above, and the Spartans looked over as the thing's tentacles carried a silver-armored Elite down into the chamber, holding him alongside them. He was struggling fiercely, but he couldn't overcome the thing's strength.

"Relax," Fred called to him, jerking his head toward the creature, "We'd rather not piss this thing off."

"Demons," the Elite hissed at them before focusing on the Gravemind.

"These ones are machine and nerve," it growled, lifting the Spartans closer and subtly shifting and tightening its grip, making them renew their struggles. It petted Fred's helmet with one tentacle, then curled it over his visor. "And have their minds concluded."

It let out a low rumbling noise deep in its throat as it turned its attention to the Arbiter. Fred yanked the tentacle away from his face and watched as it turned the Sangheili this way and that before finally tipping him upside down, seeming to examine him. "This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."

"Kill me or release me, Parasite," the Elite snarled, "but do not waste my time with talk!"

"There is much talk," it returned, "and I have listened - through rock and metal and time." Its immense head pulled away from them, more tentacles lifting up out of the darkness below them. "Now I shall talk, and you shall listen."

"Greetings!" the red Monitor said cheerfully, bound in the Gravemind's tentacles, "I am Twenty-Four-Oh-One Penitent Tangent. I am the Monitor of Installation Zero-Five."

"And I am the Prophet of Regret, councilor most high... Hierarch of the Covenant!" the San'Shyuum gasped from where he was fused with another tentacle.

Penitent Tangent took notice of the Spartans and zipped over to them despite the tentacle holding him tight. "Reclaimers?! Here?! At last! We have much to do. This facility must be activated if we are to control this outbreak!"

"S-stay where you are," Regret cried, "Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete!"

"Not true," the Monitor said indignantly, "This Installation has a successful utilization record of one-point-two trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on-demand."

Regret turned to the Arbiter. "Of all the objects our lords left behind, there are none so worthless as these Oracles! They know nothing of the Great Journey!"

"This one's containment," the Gravemind interrupted, shuddering as it hefted Penitent Tangent, then lifting Regret, "and this one's Great Journey are the same."

Both were returned to the darkness below, but they heard the Prophet howl in fear, something that sent a chill down their spines. What was this thing doing to them, and how?

"Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence," the Gravemind continued, its massive head swaying closer to the Arbiter, its spore-laden breath giving him the urge to cough, "but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish, as they did before."

Blue Team froze. They knew those words. One of Cortana's personality spikes had said them with the exact same inflection on approach to Alpha Halo.

Cortana covered for their lapse - by playing a recording of Sergeant Smith's voice from Sam's external speakers. "This thing is right. Halo is a weapon; your Prophets are making a big mistake."

"Your ignorance already destroyed one of the Sacred Rings, Demons," the Arbiter snapped, "It shall not harm another." But then he stopped, and stared at Sam in surprise.

"If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the Key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot," the Gravemind said to the Spartans before turning to the Arbiter, "and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us brothers."

It tapped into Halo's teleportation system, keying in the coordinates, then threw the humans and Sangheili away from itself, sending them away to different locations around - and on - Halo.

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The Great Schism had already begun by then. Sangheili and Jiralhanae were fighting all over, ship to ship and single combat anywhere they could be found, but the Elites were outnumbered. The Jiralhanae had the Kig-Yar, the Unggoy, and the Yam'ee at their backs; all but a few of the Huragok were largely ambivalent, and the Mgalekgolo were split amongst themselves, sometimes even within their own colonies.

Despite the ferocity of the fighting, Truth was broadcasting to the city via the Covenant equivalent of television. "We are all of us gravely concerned. The release of the Parasite was unexpected, unfortunate, but... there is no need to panic. In truth, this is a time to rejoice, a moment that all the Covenant should savor - for the Sacred Icon has been found." Truth held up the Index before the camera. "With it, our Path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond, guaranteed. The Great Journey is nigh, and nothing, not even the Flood, can stop it."

The Flood might not have been the ones to do the stopping, but they certainly sent their regards. Blue and Gray Teams materialized in the Council Chamber, seven fully-armored Spartans, unarmed for the moment but that meant nothing; they had been trained to be just as effective with their bare hands. But it seemed that the Gravemind had more invested in them than they realized; it had provided them with enough Covenant weapons for each to have one and at least two reloads for the Needlers and carbines.

As one, they leveled their weapons at the Prophets and their bodyguards as the Brutes stepped forward to protect them. "Kill the Demons!" Truth ordered and pushed a button on his throne, and the Prophets' platform sank down to a lower level.

Fred barely managed to stop Kelly from making a leap for them, instead ordering them all to turn their weapons on the two Brutes and the Grunts that had manned the cameras. The Spartans picked up their weapons as well; they were going to need all the firepower they could get in the heart of enemy territory.

"Put me down on one of the pedestals by the door," Cortana said, and the Spartans moved to do so. Fred laid his hand on the emitter for just long enough for her to jump, then pulled away. The AI appeared a second later and said, "That Prophet, Truth, he has the Index. You've got to take it from him. Let me get these doors. Go. It'll be easier to track Truth if I stay in the network."

The doors beeped and slid open, and the Spartans headed through. But as they went, Fred said, "Cortana, what was that?"

"A Gravemind, a Flood compound intelligence -"

"Not that," he interrupted, starting to shoot at the Covenant that appeared before them as they moved deeper into the city, "It said the same thing that you did on approach to Alpha Halo. 'Those who built this place.'"

"And the recording of Sergeant Smith," said Sam, "I know he never said any of that, not around us."

The AI was silent for a long moment. At last she said, "There's too much to explain in a single conversation. Just know that John and I have a long history, and we both know things that the laws of the universe and history itself say we shouldn't. Now keep moving, Spartans. You've got Prophets to kill."

Fred clenched his jaw, then nodded and shot a Grunt manning a plasma turret. The other Unggoy went down just as fast; the Jiralhanae leading them hadn't done much to stop the Spartans yet. They seemed even more ineffectual against them than the Sangheili, relying more on brute strength than any attempt at strategy or skill, so the Spartans just mowed right through them, following Cortana's directions through to a grav lift leading down deeper into the city.

"Truth is moving through the lower levels of the tower," she told them, "I'll reverse this grav lift; drop down, try to cut him off." When the Spartans peered dubiously down, she continued, "It's safe, really; just step in."

Fred sighed and jumped. The grav lift caught him and set him gently on the platform below. Sam landed next to him, and they moved forward to cover the others as they followed, firing on a group of Grunts that exited through a door ahead of them. When they were dead, the Spartans headed through the door.

So many of the halls in High Charity seemed all the same: violet walls with alcoves and holograms, partitions in front of the doors, alien plants in beds at the center. And the aliens themselves, of course. A trio of Jackals greeted them with heavy plasma fire as they headed through another door, but the warriors overwhelmed them and swept through the room, slaying the Brutes, Jackals, and Grunts that they found there.

The Cortana came over the COM again. "Wait a minute, I'm reading some Marine IFF transponders! They're originating somewhere below your position. I'll guide you to them."

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John wanted nothing more than to be down on the ring or in High Charity, personally fighting against Truth's forces and the enemy Flood. It was agony, knowing that he did and that this universe's Spartans were down there fighting and he couldn't go down to help them. But he was needed with the fleet; the enemy Gravemind's presence was like an ocean bearing down on them, seeking the smallest cracks in their defenses to overwhelm them all and make them true Flood, mindless beasts bent on consuming all life in the galaxy.

So he had to stay safe, stay focused. Even though he had a natural resistance to the enemy's will, it was still just resistance, not immunity. He still had to fight back.

But he still watched through the eyes of his Infected as the Spartans kept running through High Charity. [Guard them well.]

'Of course, Commander.'

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Kelly emptied half a magazine a piece from each of her Needlers into a Brute Captain. He had been standing guard outside the last of the Marine cell blocks, but the explosion from the crystalline quills sent him flying, letting Gray Team into the cell block. They killed the guards inside and freed the Marines inside. Cortana directed them back to the central grav lift with a warning that there were foes coming down. When they were dead, the Spartans headed back up.

As they alighted there, an Elite Major and three Minors chased by a flock of Yam'ee charged into the room. Startled, the humans all lifted their weapons and fired. The Drones were the bigger threat at the time, flying around shooting everything that wasn't them, so for the moment the humans worked together with the Sangheili to gun them down. Then they pointed their weapons at each other, both groups hesitating.

Finally Fred lowered his carbine. "Neither of us has the time for this. Let's just go our separate ways."

The Major hesitated, eyeing them all, then nodded and lowered his plasma rifle. He led his people through another door that Cortana opened for them, while the humans headed through a different one. As they went, the AI said, "Truth is turning on the Sangheili; they're being killed all over the city. It's... it's awful."

In the very next room, they encountered a pair of Hunters, but the humans had seven Spartans on their side and won handily, even without heavy weapons. They continued through the door behind the partition at the back of the hall and found themselves in what looked like a mostly dead garden. With birds - live birds! - on a spaceship with an already heavily-burdened oxygen supply.

All of the humans blinked.

Why.

"Nope," said Mike, and he turned and went back into the last hall. When the others followed, they found that he was now crouched in one of the alcoves on the side of the hall, helmet off, crunching his way through some energy bars. One by one the other humans joined him, letting some of the Covenant fight themselves out.

When they were done, they continued on. Cortana came over TEAMCOM. "Did you enjoy your snack time?"

"Maybe."

"Well, good, because the Covenant just destroyed two of their own ships because of a Flood infestation. Looks like it's out of containment now."

"Shit."

"My thoughts exactly; I'll keep you posted. But I've marked out the locations of all the Sangheili between you and Truth. With your permission, Master Chief, I'd like to tell them that it seems we now have a common enemy and if they stay out of your way, you'll leave them alone. Is that amendable?"

Fred thought for a second, then exchanged glances with the other Spartans. At last he said, "Do it. The Prophets and the Index are priority one; anything that gets us there faster is alright for now."

"Understood."

The Spartans continued their advance down a long, steeply-sloped hall, jogging ahead of the surviving Marines. There were no aliens in sight, so they headed through to the next area, where a gravity conveyor waited. They were about to step on when Cortana broke over the COM again. "Slipspace rupture - it's In Amber Clad!"

The frigate blasted overhead and just barely curved away from an inner wall, heading in the same direction they were. "Hailing… no response. She's crashed into another tower ahead of our position, and I'm not registering any human vital signs. I think she's been overrun by the Flood."

"Shit!"

Even as the Spartans started racing ahead, crossing the gravity conveyor, John's teams were on the move as well, covering the Sangheili's retreat and trying to contain the Flood, even as Winterspell infiltrated High Charity's PA systems and broadcasted evac orders to all the aliens.

Ahead of Blue and Gray Teams, a group of Jiralhanae chased some Sangheili along the path that curved around the side of the building ahead. The Elites seemed to have received Cortana's message, because they threw themselves out of the way to let the Spartans fire on the Brutes, then added their own to the fray. The Brutes went down, but not before they got their own licks in, killing the last two Marines that the Spartans had rescued.

Gray Team collected their dog tags as they had all the others. As they did so, the Sangheili murmured amongst themselves, not clearly enough for their suits to pick up and translate. Then one, a gold-armored Field Marshal, stepped forward. "The human female on the radio, she said that the Prophets ordered this, the Brutes killing us, and more besides. She said you seek to kill them." When Fred nodded, he clenched a fist and said, "She is right then; we have a common foe. May we join you, at least for now?"

Fred flicked a questioning amber light on the other Spartans' HUDs, and after a moment he received mixed responses, though there seemed to be a general consensus. They all knew that the Sangheili were strong and skilled, and now apparently very motivated. "Don't fall behind," he told them.

The Elites nodded and fell in with them, their long, powerful legs letting them match the Spartans' speed.

There were more foes ahead, mostly Grunts, and the warriors simply knocked them off the edge of the platform, rather than waste ammo; the end result was still the same. They all rounded the corner into another garden, this one with only a few plants but a tall waterfall and reflecting pond instead. As they prepared to fight, there was the crack of an alien rifle, and one of the Brutes fell, body dissolving in a swirl of golden flakes.

They looked up; there were two people in sleek green and black metallic armor above them. One of them wielded a long black rifle, the other a shorter one, and both of them were shooting at the Brutes and their allies.

"Forerunners!" one of the Elites cried.

"Hail, Spartans and Sangheili!" the spotter called down to them, "The Prophets are liars, and have been lying to all the Covenant for decades, ordering the unjust slaughter of humankind. Press on, and put an end to them!"

So they did. More surviving Sangheili joined up with the Spartans, and their band continued to grow as they fought their way through the gardens, the Forerunners effortlessly jumping from structure to structure to keep up with them. They were joined by two more Forerunners as well, another sniper and spotter pair, wielding the same weapons as their fellows, but they all broke away when the group went inside.

Each successive hall was virtually identical to the one before it; it was a wonder none of the aliens got lost patrolling the area. Or, that was what they thought until they reached the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. There was a battle in progress between a bunch of Brutes and a few Sangheili, who had a pair of Hunters on their side. The Brutes were killed by the now significant band of Spartans and Elites, even as Cortana said, "Hang on, I'm picking up two more transponders. It's the Commander and Johnson! They're closing on Truth's position - they'll need your help!"

"Advance, Demons, and kill the Betrayers!" the Field Marshal from before called to them, "We will seek a ship off High Charity, and await you if we can!"

Fred saluted them and led Blue and Gray Teams away. "Cortana, do what you can for them."

"Already on it. There's a CSS-class battlecruiser docked pretty much straight down from here; I'll lead them to it."

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There were three of them, easily eight feet tall, and one of them carried 343 Guilty Spark tucked under his arm like the Monitor was just a piece of equipment. "Split them," Tartarus growled to the other two, "One in each Phantom." Even as the other Brutes shoved their prisoners toward their respective Phantoms, he knelt before the two surviving Prophets.

"The hopes of all the Covenant rest on your shoulders, Chieftain," said Truth. He handed the Index to the Brute as if conferring an unspeakable honor.

"My faith is strong," Tartarus assured the Prophets, "I will not fail." He pressed the Index to his chest, then rose.

But a dozen Infection Pods climbed over one of the balustrades ringing the platform. They skittered toward the aliens, and the Brutes threw aside their weapons to smash the pods with their bare feet and hands. However, one managed to get through their line. It leaped at the Prophet of Mercy and bore him down off his throne, earning a cry of pain and fear.

Tartarus made to help him, but Truth called, "Let him be." To the other San'Shyuum, he said, "The Great Journey waits for no one, brother. Not even you."

One by one, the aliens moved away from the dying Prophet, leaving him to struggle against the Flood alone.