Nineteen: Answer from the Black Comet

The portal generator looked like an alien city, lit up by the energy flowing up out of the core and along the machinery that made up the generator, the power sustaining the deep navy portal that hung above Kenya's devastated landscape. Faint streams of blue energy were being emitted from the fourteen "arms" stretching skyward, sinking into the portal and giving its edges a wispy look as they maintained the hard light boundary.

In contrast to that beauty, there was a horror growing behind them. "The Flood," Miranda said urgently, "It's spreading all over the city."

Two massive Forerunner ships were moving at top speed to hover above the outskirts of the city. The instant they were in position, points of light appeared on their bellies, growing rapidly. From there it took less than a minute to throw down a massive hard light barrier over the city, rolling from the sky down to the ground in a wave of shimmering blue. They also started launching an enormous number of dropships and escort fighters, even as the Commander said, "Everyone inside the barrier, find yourselves a member of the Fleet and prepare for immediate evac."

"Well, that solves the problem of how we contain it," Lord Hood said gratefully, "Now how do we get rid of it?"

"Find the crashed Flood ship. Overload its engine core," Miranda advised, "We either destroy this city, or risk losing the entire planet."

"Seconded," said John.

Lord Hood didn't even hesitate. "Do it."

"Spartans, make your way to the crash site."

There were five teams of them - Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, and Jade - so they waited just long enough for a pair of Forerunner dropships and their escorts to come through the barrier and collect the surviving Marines and Traxus employees, as well as the tanks. Then they ran for the city, the allied aliens effortlessly keeping pace. They wove back through the Traxus storage facility and heard Sergeant Reynolds suddenly bark over the COM, "All squads, report!"

"Multiple contacts, unknown hostiles." It hit them then that the vast majority of the UNSC had no idea how to fight the Flood - hadn't even heard reports on them. They picked up the pace, racing to get to the unprepared Marines before the Flood did. "There, over there! We're surrounded, Sergeant!"

They rounded a corner and came upon Reynolds and his men outside the backdoor of the warehouse. As they drew near, a score of Infection pods fell from above, all of them aiming for the Marines, along with a handful of combat forms.

More than a few of the Fleet personnel shrieked battle cries that sounded eerily like the Flood's and suddenly called acid-green plasma swords from their armor, darting forward in blurs of motion to engage the Parasite. Another dropship swooped down overhead, and Green Team herded the Marines onto it even as the others continued into the warehouse. The aliens moved like lightning - even faster than Kelly - fanning out in a wave to protect the Marines within, but mostly to kill the Flood.

A third dropship shot out the roof to collect the humans, and the Spartans and the Arbiter kept moving deeper, following the others. "Never again!" Tande shrieked, charging a knot of infected Brutes and cutting them all down, even using her tail to crush one's torso, "You hear me, you worthless shit?! Not this planet - not these people! Never again! Your time is done - it's our turn now!"

The others were right behind her, similarly enraged, and even the Arbiter cried, "Accursed parasite! Rise up and I will kill you! Again and again!"

They followed Tande and Niken through the warehouse and up the stairwell on the far side, into a small white room on the upper floor. They bypassed the hole in the floor in favor of breaking the glass windows and jumping through. As they landed and continued on, a Cortana copy found them again. "Chief! I can't tell you everything; it's not safe. The Gravemind - it knows I'm..." it began, but it trailed off and died away before it could finish.

They wove through the partitions and mowed through the handful of Flood that had made it in before entering the field hospital.

Or what had been the field hospital. The room was empty, the Marines evacuated, but the Lifeworkers had remained behind and were now surrounded by what was left of at least twenty infected Brutes, perhaps more. They were wielding the same acid-green plasma swords as their brothers-in-arms, and they fell in with them, emerging back in the lakebed where the Scarab had been destroyed.

There wasn't much left of it now, the Scarab or the lakebed. As they watched, a hole opened up in the hard-light barrier, and a CAS-class cruiser and its escort CCS-class battlecruisers flew through, the hole closing behind them. "Hail, allies, and take heed," Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum said over the COM as drop pods hit what was left of the land, their covers bursting outward to release the SpecOps Sangheili amongst the Flood, "This is the carrier, Shadow of Intent. Finish clearing this sector, while we deal with the Flood."

The Spartans and Forerunners ran ahead along the boardwalk and jumped down to the lakebed to support the Sangheili, blowing a handful of combat forms to bits as they landed. The Sangheili saluted them and the Forerunners, and the Arbiter stepped forward. "My brothers, I fear you bring bad news."

"High Charity has fallen," the Major replied sadly, "become a dreaded hive."

"And the fleet?" the Arbiter asked as the Forerunners moved forward with the SpecOps Sangheili to block off the area to the Flood, "Has quarantine been broken?"

"A single ship broke through our line, and we gave chase."

"But we have a fleet of hundreds!"

"Alas, brother," the Major stated, shaking his head, "the Flood - it has evolved!"

The warriors pounded toward the ramp up from the lakebed, but as they went, a dozen combat forms jumped up from below. The Gultanr anticipated them, however, and were already turning to face them, the others following close behind. With such a large group - five teams of four Spartans each, six Sangheili, and nearly a dozen other assorted aliens - there was really no excuse for not finishing the Flood off quickly, which they did.

They continued on up the ramp ahead and into a melee of Brute and human combat forms, and fought for their lives. The Fleet of Shadows personnel had become quite vicious, even the Lifeworkers, and seemed more focused on ending the Flood than they were about defending themselves.

But, if what they had implied was true - that the members of the Fleet now were the same ones that had fought during the Forerunner-Flood War, as impossible as it seemed - then it was understandable that they were vindictive. The Spartans could see the virulence of the Flood, how quickly it spread out of control. It didn't take any great leaps of imagination to see the galaxy consumed by the Parasite, as must have been the case to justify the Halo Array and its firing.

They arrived in the second lakebed to see the crashed ship, spewing smoke and Flood spores with combat forms swarming all over it - and the same Pure Forms as Alpha Halo. They advanced up the boardwalk toward it, gunning down everything in their way.

Miranda chose that moment to come over the line. "Spartans, the Elites are looking for something. We didn't believe them when they told us."

"It's Cortana, Chief; she's on that ship!" Johnson growled, "Find her, get her out!"

"Is the rescue you meant?" Fred asked the Forerunners, hurling a grenade between two Ranged Forms.

"Negative," Niken growled, scything through two Tank Forms, one right after the other, "She is still with the Gravemind - she has sent us a message."

"It must be important, then," said Linda.

"One could argue that it's the most important one she's ever sent," the Gultanr replied cryptically, and kept moving, the others close behind. A Stalker lunged for him, but he dodged before it had even started its attack. Then he and Sharp each grabbed one of the creature's arms and pulled, ripping the thing in half before tossing away the pieces.

"Hurry, Demons!" the Sangheili Major roared as more Flood charged to kill them, "We seek the same prize. But our Shipmaster will sacrifice all to stop the Flood." He drew a plasma sword of his own to cut down a Tank form lumbering in his direction. There were Pure forms mutating all over the place, mostly into Tank and Ranged forms, which promptly attacked them with everything they had.

The ship had cracked open when it crashed, and they charged up a sloped section of hull to an opening into the heart of the ship. "We will stay here," said the Arbiter, "let nothing pass."

Blue Team hesitated on the edge, trying to peer down inside, before letting Linda take point and following her lead. They dropped from ledge to ledge after her until they reached the bottom, landing in Flood muck and schlucking forward through it. Scant seconds later, their HUDs darkened, but instead of Cortana's bright form, a terrible voice whispered in their ears and in their minds, "Do not be afraid. I am peace... I am salvation..."

"Don't tell me that thing is here!" Kelly cried.

"It's not," said Shields, "Or at least not the one from Zero-Five. There may be another trying to build here, though. You must hurry, so we can destroy it!"

They flashed an affirmative at her and kept going, passing some dead Elites before dropping through another opening. They landed on a bulkhead still free of Flood biomass, and splashed through a pool of cloudy white liquid before heading down another tunnel. Then the ship opened up, both literally and figuratively; they were now in a large chamber of sorts, and the upper hull had been torn open, leaving the chamber open to the sky. The room was cast in blue light from the hard light barrier beyond, and it was dominated by a console in the center, a small AI housing sitting atop it.

The Spartans ran for it, but once again, the Gravemind spoke to them. "I am a timeless chorus. Join your voice with mine and sing victory everlasting!"

They pushed through, and Fred approached the console while his siblings covered him. With a soft hiss, Cortana's hologram appeared over the housing and said, "Chief!"

"Cortana?" Had the Gultanr not seen truly? Was she actually here?

"High Charity, the Prophet's holy city, is on its way -"

Her hologram flickered and vanished suddenly, but the hum of a Phantom overhead pulled their attention away. Much to their surprise, 343 Guilty Spark glided down out of the Phantom. "Reclaimers," he said as the Spartans aimed at the Monitor, before he blasted a combat form that had been sneaking up on them from behind. "I must act quickly, before your construct suffers any further trauma!"

He picked up the matrix with some kind of tractor beam, but Fred grabbed him by a cowling and pulled the device out of reach. "Leave her alone," he growled.

"If we do not take this device to a safe location, somewhere I can make repairs-" Spark said, again grabbing for the matrix, but Fred broke the connection once more.

"On Halo," he snapped, "You tried to kill Cortana. You tried to kill us." He released the Monitor but held the matrix out of reach.

"Protocol dictated my response!" the Monitor insisted, "She had the activation Index, and you were trying to destroy my Installation. You did destroy my Installation. Now I have only one function: to help you, Reclaimers, as I always should have done."

He sounded genuinely remorseful. The Spartan eyed him a moment longer, then looked down at the matrix and at last held it out. Spark took it and ascended upwards into the Phantom, and the transport's grav beam picked up the Spartans one by one. The other Spartan teams were also picked up, and went through decontamination on one of the Forerunner supercarriers before meeting up with everyone else on the Shadow of Intent.

"Will it live, Oracle?" Shipmaster 'Vadum asked as the Monitor gently zapped the matrix, "Can it be saved?"

"Uncertain," Spark replied honestly, "This storage device has suffered considerable trauma. Its matrices are - highly unstable."

"Perhaps one of our technicians-" Lord Hood began, taking a step forward.

Rtas cut him off. "That will not be necessary."

The storage device seemed to reach a point where it was functional enough to resume playback, which it did. Cortana's hologram reappeared over the container. "Chief!"

"Success!" Spark said cheerfully.

"High Charity, the Prophet's holy city," she said again, "is on its way to Earth - with an army of Flood." The recording instantly had the complete and undivided attention of every sentient being in the room. "I can't tell you everything; it's not safe. The Gravemind - it knows I'm in the system." The recording began to skip, the damage its container had sustained interrupting the playback.

Fred settled back. "It is just a message."

"Let it play," said one of the Forerunners, a newcomer they didn't yet know.

Spark zapped it again, and the recording resumed. "But it doesn't know about the portal, where it leads. On the other side, there's a solution, a way to stop the Flood, without firing the remaining Halo rings."

She gasped sharply, then cried out in pain, collapsing to the "ground." Everyone tensed at that, and some of them reached out as if to help her before letting their hands fall. She took a moment to collect herself, then pushed herself up on one arm. "Hurry, Chief... The Ark - there isn't much time." The playback began to skip again, but it was clear that the message was finished.

"I'm... sorry," the Monitor said to the group.

"No matter, Oracle," Rtas said quietly, "we've heard enough." He turned to the Forerunners. "Do you know of what she speaks?"

But before the newcomer - clearly an officer, based on the deference from the others - could respond, another hologram appeared on the table. This ancilla was male-presenting and looked like he belonged in a Strongman competition, tall and burly, though he wore something like a Roman toga patterned with animated and hyper-realistic clouds and lightning. "Apologies for the interruption," said Stormwatch, turning to the Forerunner officer, "High Commander Nethalia, High Charity has just exited Slipspace near Mars."

Everyone inhaled sharply. "Show me," she ordered.

The ancilla brought up the visuals. "Distance estimates put it at just over a million kilometers from the planet."

"None of our ships will make it in time," she said, grief-stricken. Then, "Wait. What's it doing?"

"A moment. - It's jumping to Slipspace again," the ancilla answered, right before the massive station did exactly that, vanishing with a faintly purple fringe characteristic of Precursor jumps.

"Where's it going, Stormwatch? Give me a vector."

"Same place we are." The image vanished, replaced by a rendering of the galaxy. It zoomed in on the Sol System, a point appearing where High Charity had been and then an arrow raced out, following the path it had taken. It continued well past the edge of the star system, the image zooming out again, and it raced past the rest of the galaxy, finally coming to a stop on a point well beyond the rim.

The visual was replaced again, this time by a stylized rendering of a roughly star- or flower-shaped construction with eight rays, the main ones twice as long and wide as the "cross" rays. There was a hole through the center of the construct, and a planetoid suspended within.

"Installation Zero-Zero," said Nethalia, "The Ark."

"Why would it go there?" Hood demanded, "It was right here, it could have destroyed this entire system!"

"The Ark is out of range of all the active installations," she answered, "It was intended to be a safe haven against the Flood, and to fire the Array if it escaped containment."

"Then if it gets there," Miranda said with mounting horror, "there'll be no stopping it, not even with the rings. It can just keep coming. And with the Portal open right here…"

"Don't give into despair just yet, Commander," Niken returned with a razor-sharp grin, "Our Commander isn't finished."

Nethalia nodded. "The Ark didn't just fire the rings - it also built them in its Foundry. And in the event one is damaged or destroyed… it's programmed to rebuild them." She turned her gaze to Guilty Spark.

"Zero-Four's replacement is under construction there, and Cortana still has its Index," Fred caught on, "When the Flood arrives we can fire it, eradicate the Flood without killing the galaxy!"

"Along with Truth and his lot," the Forerunner spat, "Let them see where their 'Great Journey' really takes them."

"What exactly is the Great Journey?" the Arbiter asked, "Do we have time? Can you explain?"

Nethalia looked to the Gultanr. Both Tande and Niken joined hands and pressed their foreheads together. They zoned out for a moment, and everyone felt something like faint static electricity crackle over their skin, there and gone in an instant. The two blinked, parted, and then Tande said, "There is time, but not enough for the full telling. Be brief."

The High Commander nodded and turned to the rest. "Before the Flood came, Forerunners had ruled the galaxy for almost ten million years. We were the preeminent civilization - but that only meant that we had forced all others down. We had a teaching that said, 'Guardianship for all living things lies with those whose evolution is the most complete. The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all.' In theory, this Mantle allowed competition and conflict as long as it did not verge into genocide, but in practice - and in our arrogance - we believed it gave us the excuse – the right - to subjugate 'lesser' species, keep them disarmed and helpless before us, as we were clearly more 'evolved' and 'advanced' than they."

She shook her head. "We know better now, but that, more than anything, let the Flood dig in and sweep away everything in its path. No one but us could truly defend themselves against it, and far too many turned tail and ran at the first sign of trouble.

"After the firing of the Array, those few of us who remained felt that we had failed the galaxy and the Mantle, and that we should pay the ultimate price for it. They made plans for one more journey - our last and 'greatest' journey - to leave this galaxy behind and fade away. To go extinct and let life progress naturally, without our interference, for good or ill.

"But these plans were made before the Reseeding of the galaxy was complete, and the San'Shyuum - who were the last to be returned to their world - overheard. Over a hundred thousand local years, the tale grew and changed in the telling, becoming what it is today." She looked to the Arbiter. "The full story is considerably longer and more complex than that, but that is as much of it as can be told in a few minutes."

The Sangheili nodded his thanks.

Hood rubbed his chin. "All right. High Commander, what forces are you sending to the Ark?"

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The Forerunner ships glassed everything inside the hard-light barrier and left one of the supercarriers behind to filter the atmosphere within, leaving the other - the Gift of Life - to join with half the Fleet and depart for the Portal, and the Ark beyond.