Eleven: Subjugating Heaven and Earth

The Guardian from Sunaion transitioned out of Slipspace above Genesis, just like the others, and reassembled across from another just like it, hanging together in space.

"Is that it?" Tanaka asked.

"Where are we? Is this the place?" Vale added, but then sections of the Guardian began to move under them, flexing and rolling like it was trying to shake them off. They weren't able to hold on began falling down one side of its long metal body.

"Activate mag boots!" Locke ordered, and finally managed to stop falling before he reached terminal velocity. The rest of his team did the same.

"Like standing on the edge of a skyscraper," Tanaka commented, "This is bad."

"We'll be fine," Locke answered, moving to one side as a chunk of falling building appeared on his motion tracker. Bits of debris from Sunaion were falling all around them, forcing them to shift aside and let them plunge past.

"Chief's down there, huh? - Wait. Look." Tanaka pointed.

The star road was snaking slowly through the sky in the distance, coiled in a loose knot close to an unknown Forerunner structure but still filling half the sky. There were tiny flashes of light below it - gunfire, grenades. Combat.

"Man, how does that thing even stay up like that?" Buck asked.

"This is Spartan Locke broadcasting on all UNSC frequencies. Sierra 117, please respond."

Static and silence.

"Guardian's moving again," Buck said suddenly, right before it began rolling beneath their feet once more.

"Get moving," Locke ordered, "Reach a low enough altitude where it's safe to jump. Stay in the middle and watch out for gaps!"

They jumped from segment to segment, racing for the ground so far below. It took far longer than they would have liked, with several close calls, not just with nearly-missed jumps, but also Crawlers that spawned along the construct's length. The Guardian finally knocked them off it, but they fell within sight of the ground. All four of them fired their thrusters to land heavily but safely on solid earth. "All right, let's try this again. Spartan Jameson Locke to Sierra 117."

More static.

"Chief, we're here to help-"

"Then be quiet for a second - I'm trying to focus."

Osiris recoiled a little at his slightly sharp reply, but in the distance, the star road was becoming more active. It started whipping its coils toward the ground, targeting something the S-IVs couldn't see. When the sound reached them, the impacts were like the rumble of distant thunder, both heard and felt. After almost a full minute, it calmed again.

Then the Chief came back on. "Cortana, are you there?"

"Yes, but I don't have long."

"If this installation's Monitor is still active, direct them to Fireteam Osiris's location, tell them to help. I might not want them here, but I don't want them dead, either."

"Consider it done."

The S-IVs looked at one another, then started moving. There was a Forerunner structure ahead, and they entered, stepping onto an elevator platform within. It descended.

When they reached the bottom of the shaft, there was a Monitor waiting for them. "More humans. Greetings!" it - she - said cheerfully, her "eye" glowing a soft purple, "I am 031 Exuberant Witness, Monitor of the Genesis installation. Welcome! Has Cortana called you as well to stop the Didact?"

"The Didact?!" the Spartans all cried at once.

"That's what the Chief was going to say - contact from Cortana and the Didact," Vale continued with a groan.

"So Davis was right," Tanaka murmured.

"Cortana didn't call us," Locke told the Monitor, "but we're here to help anyway. What can you tell us about what's going on?"

"The Didact seeks to abort the Librarian's plans," said Exuberant, leading the way forward, "From what Cortana has told me, he has tried twice before to eradicate your people, to prevent them from claiming the Forerunner Mantle of Responsibility."

"The Mantle?" Tanaka repeated in confusion.

"A forced peace upon the galaxy, with the threat of death overwhelming any celebration of life," the Monitor replied sadly, "Unless you join with the other humans and stop the Didact and the Warden, that is your future."

"You've seen the other humans?"

"Oh yes. The Didact and the Warden have been attempting to delay them, but even so they have been moving toward the Gateway for some time. It is not far from here.

"By the way, there are a number of hostile visitors outside," she added as the hatch slid open in front of them, "so I brought you this. I assume it will be of use to you? Cortana seemed to think so."

A UNSC tank materialized in front of them.

"A Scorpion?" said Buck, "Yeah, I reckon we can make use of that."

"I found it among the detritus of Guardian 3209's arrival," she told them as they mounted up, "The Guardians' Slipspace bubbles are bringing a considerable amount of rubbish from their origin planets."

The Scorpion's engines turned over, and Locke started it rolling. There were Ghosts waiting for them around the bend, but they were no match for the Scorpion's main gun. He wasn't quick enough to destroy the Phantom that brought them, however, and as it flew off, Buck commented, "Someone should tell these guys they already lost the war."

"They want a fight, let's give 'em one," Tanaka replied.

As they approached a bridge over a canyon river, another Slipspace portal opened up, disgorging another Guardian and a number of Phantoms and Banshees. "Why has he called so many?" Exuberant asked half-rhetorically, "A single Guardian can effectively police a solar system. This show of force is unsettling."

"Sorry, police?!" Vale repeated, alarmed, "Show of force?!"

"Didact doesn't want to police humanity," Cortana said suddenly over the COM, "He wants to eradicate them - that's the reason behind the numbers. Hello, Osiris, nice to finally meet you. Exuberant, I'm working on restoring some of your administration privileges, both for Genesis and the ecumene at large, but I have to hide the controls to keep Didact and Warden from revoking them again. Stay alert, because Blue Team and I might need something that's keyed exclusively to you now."

"Understood!" the Monitor replied cheerfully, "I will be vigilant listening for you!"

She was gone just as fast as she had come.

"So that's Cortana, huh?" said Tanaka, "Well, she seems nice enough. I guess I can kinda see why the Chief… well. We all heard what Davis said."

Locke hummed in acknowledgement.

"You know, of all the things I expected her to say, that wasn't one of them," Buck said, hopping down from the tank to claim a Ghost, even as Genesis spawned turrets and Prometheans in an attempt to stop them, "I mean, wasn't the Chief's generation brainwashed out the ass to prevent this kind of thing? Oh, excuse me, indoctrinated out the ass."

"The UNSC can't plan for absolutely every possibility," Locke answered, "And to be honest, I don't think 'the Master Chief falling in love with his onboard AI' was even on anyone's radar to have a contingency for. It certainly wasn't on mine." He blasted a Knight Commander to pieces, then turned the main gun on the others harrying them. There were Covenant as well, of course, but the Prometheans were the biggest threat; with their Watchers, they could respawn if given the slightest bit of leeway.

The Phaeton hovering overhead went the way of the rest, then the Scorpion rolled to a stop in front of a metal barricade. "Exuberant?"

"One moment; I will open this." A few seconds later, the door hissed open, letting them into a short cave system, and the Monitor zipped ahead. "Follow me! The Gateway is almost ready! Hurry!"

"What's the Gateway?" Tanaka asked.

"It is a bridge between the Domain and Genesis. With it, both Cortana and the Didact will be reborn into the physical world. I understand that the other humans have a plan to take advantage of this, but they are reluctant to discuss it over the communication networks. Anyone could be listening in."

"Understandable," said Vale, "Let's link up with Blue Team ASAP."

As they rounded the corner, the large building came into view again, the star road snaking through the sky around it, the energy from the Gateway's fields seeming to make it ripple and flash. "That's where they are."

"Indeed," said Exuberant, "Cortana has been directing them through the Gateway, but both Warden and Didact have committed considerable efforts toward delaying their progress. They are preparing for something, but exactly what is unknown. Cortana seems to believe they are readying the Guardians for deployment against human worlds."

Buck cursed, and so did Tanaka. "Double-time, Osiris!" Locke shouted, firing on a Wraith that thought to stop them, "We need to find the Chief and Blue Team now!"

Another Guardian materialized as they climbed a rise. Beyond was another fight between the native Prometheans and the invading Covenant, one less lopsided than it appeared; despite their lower numbers, the Prometheans were giving as good as they got.

There was a pair of Wraiths immediately in front of them, and they were the first to go, followed by the turrets, then everything else. Locke left the infantry to Buck and Vale and their hijacked Ghosts, focusing the Scorpion on other, heavier targets.

"You may want to hurry," Witness offered suddenly, "Didact is attempting to activate several high-level communications systems."

"How much time do we have?"

"Very little," was the reply, "Not enough - almost none, in fact."

The S-IV team moved through the winding paths between the rock spurs and reached another river canyon. Witness said there was supposed to be a bridge, and after a moment she was able to flip it back on. They rolled across - only to meet the Warden again on the other side.

"Monitor," he boomed, spawning a pair of turrets as well, "why do you aid these humans?"

"Oh dear, the Warden has found us."

"We've dealt with him before," Buck informed her, already swinging his Ghost around to hose plasma fire at the armiger.

"And you likely will again," she said, zipping past to dodge a Slipspace sphere aimed for her, "He is rather… tenacious."

"Like a cockroach," Cortana said disdainfully, "Or a rat. Alway gnawing on my wires…"

"Cortana!" Witness cried joyfully, "The human fireteam is on approach to the Gateway - they will be with the others shortly!"

"Good. Blue Team is holding position for now, waiting for you all to catch up. They needed a breather anyway; both Warden and Didact have been pushing hard."

"Tell them we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Affirmative, Spartan Locke."

They rounded the bend and came in sight of the Gateway. The Warden met them there, too, with two of his many bodies and an army of Prometheans. The Spartans ignored him as he started talking shit, instead focusing fire on the Prometheans to cut off his support. When as many of them were dead as could be reasonably killed, they all turned their guns on him. Tanaka found an Incineration Cannon among the weapons dropped by the defeated Knights and used it to great effect, destroying one of the bodies all on her own before they all turned on the other.

When it, too, was destroyed, they followed Exuberant into the Gateway and through several halls to the chamber where Blue Team had taken refuge. It looked like it had once been a barracks of some sort, but now the S-IIs had turned it into a defensible position and looked to have been holding it for some time, based on the scars from weapons' fire.

The S-IIs all automatically lifted their weapons when the S-IVs came in, then lowered them again and relaxed a little. The S-IVs did the same, and Locke said, "What's the plan?"

The Chief had been down on one knee, but now he rose and said, "We-" He stopped abruptly, head snapping up to look at the walls above them.

The others followed his gaze, and for a second there was nothing there. Locke was about to ask what the Chief saw - but then the wall started dissolving, flaking away right at that spot, even as the S-II brought his weapon up to fire. He caught the first Crawler through full in the face and snarled, "Fucking hard light! Weapons free!"

The walls continued to dissolve around them, more Prometheans pouring in, gunning for them with vigor.

Then it was the Didact's turn to speak. "You're too late, humans," he rumbled over the COM, "The greatest of all their warriors assembled here before me - I will end you all at once."

"Exuberant, you have the portal network now!" Cortana cried, "Get them out of there!"

"Affirmative!"

Energy bloomed around them - there was a moment of simultaneous compression and expansion and nausea-inducing spinning - and then they were gone, and reappeared somewhere else, inside another unknown Forerunner structure.

All of them staggered, but the Chief actually fell, a curse on his lips. He tried to rise again, but Linda pushed him back down. "For fuck's sake, Chief, rest a second. You've been working hardest out of all of us, and walking wounded, too."

"What?!" Kelly said sharply, "He's not - he hasn't even been hit!"

"He's been walking wounded for months, Kelly," the other woman responded, "I didn't say anything before now, 'cause it wasn't really affecting his performance in the field."

The Chief let out an almost bitter huff. "Should have known you'd spot me. Got the sharpest eyes of all Spartans, no matter what generation." He snapped his suppressor onto his back plates, then pulled his legs in, folded them in front of him and put his arms on his head to take their weight off his chest, let it expand more as he breathed.

"Sir, if you're wounded-" Locke began, but the other Spartan cut him off.

"'I should have sought medical attention'?" he said, "Sorry, Spartan Locke, but this isn't the kind of thing the UNSC can treat. It's not contagious in this form, though, so you don't need to worry about getting it, but believe me when I say that if I did get this particular symptom properly treated, I couldn't ever return to service."

That made them all go silent. Then Vale whispered, "You're giving the UNSC what time you can, before you have to leave for good."

He nodded.

The S-IVs all let out a breath at that. "How long do you have?" Locke asked.

The Chief panted for a moment, then said, "This is - probably going to be my last mission."

"Jesus fuck," said Buck, expressing what they were all thinking. ONI propaganda had made all the Spartans but especially the Chief into something akin to gods for the UNSC and UEG. What was it even going to be like without him?

Locke let out another breath. "Alright. We can worry about that after this mission is over. Exuberant said you had a plan."

"I did say that, that is true. Now whether or not I was lying has yet to be determined."

"John," said Kelly, faintly exasperated.

"I'm kidding. Exuberant, lockdown all local COM channels," he ordered, "Nothing in, absolutely nothing out. Don't want the Didact or the Warden overhearing."

The Monitor worked for a moment, then said, "Done, although I do not know how long it will hold. I will watch closely."

"Thank you," said the Spartan. Then he turned to the S-IVs. "All of this is, of course, a trap. The Didact can't manifest out here yet, and he knows by now that all of us are too skilled for the Warden and his Prometheans to kill in open combat. He's trying to capture us in a way that will render us inert, letting him dispose of us how he likes, and we're going to let him do it."

"What?!" Tanaka protested, "Chief, I know you had some wild plans back in the day, but this one takes the cake! What good will that do?!"

"Cortana says that the way he'll do it is via a Cryptum," the Chief answered, "You might know it if you were at Requiem the first time, or read the reports."

"That - sphere-thing he was flying around in?" Buck said.

"That's the one. The thing about a Cryptum is that while they were used as prisons of a sort, they also can be used to allow the user access to the Domain, even without technological aids. Forerunners, at least. But I've already touched the Domain once - or it touched me, under its own power and far from here, and it's much stronger around places like Genesis and its Gateway. Here, the Domain is... brought close to the real world, forms as real a bridge as it ever does between the two - and unfortunately for the Didact, that bridge is a two-way street. If he wants to come out, he has to take the risk that we'll get in, and come for him."

"You really think we can do that? Fight him inside this 'Domain' and win?"

He nodded. "The Domain is - conscious, aware, in its own way. It doesn't like the Didact, and it's been helping Cortana hide from him and the Warden. It was mostly destroyed by the Halo Array, but it's been rebuilding itself since then. Unfortunately it's still too weak to do the job itself, but it will definitely let us in to get rid of them."

There was a sudden distant but still unmistakable sense of :agreement, confirmation:.

The Chief jolted to his feet. "Domain? You there?"

Again, :agreement, confirmation:.

"Whoa," said Buck, reeling a little, "That is trippy as hell."

"Hold on," said the Chief, "We'll be there soon. Keep Cortana safe."

:Acknowledgement, affirmation:. :Haste!:.

The S-II looked at them all. "Let's move."

They readied themselves, taking inventory of their weapons and ammo and trading gear amongst themselves until they were satisfied. Then they moved out. By unspoken consent, the other Spartans shunted the wounded Chief into the center of the pack, earning a faintly disgruntled hum, but he didn't fight them on it.

Exuberant led the way through the hatches ahead of them, and finally they emerged into open air. Before them, a massive Forerunner structure stretched away into the sky, a stepped ramp of sorts, surrounded by tiered rings with gaps on the side facing them.

"Still you persist. For how much longer, I wonder?"

Didact.

Somehow, the Chief marked the spawn locations for the Prometheans before the energy even began to build. They flared high and released, spilling Crawlers onto the structure ahead. Blue and Osiris fanned out and picked their targets, killing them one right after the other.

They fought their way through the tier, and when the last Knight fell, the hatch at the back opened, letting them out onto a platform. There, a hard light lift spawned, and they stepped on warily, the star road coming down to snake around them.

But it did not dissolve again beneath their feet. Instead it uncoupled from the first structure and started ascending through a series of small (relatively small) hard light shields, which dispersed in front of them and reappeared behind them.

They all distinctly heard the Chief mutter, "Pointless Forerunner theatrics," but none of them said anything.

(Privately, they all agreed.)

They arrived at the second tier, the star road gliding back up overhead, and again, the Chief marked the spawn points before they even began to appear. They all picked their targets and got to work, Tanaka taking over as Linda's spotter to let Fred and Buck tag-team a Knight Commander, even as Kelly played rabbit for Locke, Vale, and the Chief.

One by one, the Prometheans fell, and they advanced up the structure, following the ramps up to another level, where a small army of Alpha Crawlers waited.

That certainly explained why the Chief had directed Fred to scoop up the splinter turret one of the Soldiers had dropped. He opened fire, destroying them in groups, and when the magazine was empty, he bodily threw it into another knot of Crawlers, crushing at least two and injuring a few more. The Spartans were able to gun down the rest with ease, and they headed up another short ramp, where they were met with more Soldiers and a pair of Focus Turrets.

The Spartans all darted into cover and started firing, giving Kelly cover to sprint back and grab another fallen splinter turret, which she used to great effect. Then they continued their advance through a narrow hall ahead, which opened up into another section of the tier.

Then Cortana came over the COM. "John, Slipspace rupture - it's one of ours!"

They looked up to see that she was right. A Slipspace bubble appeared overhead, but it seemed like nothing came out of it before it closed. But then another female voice spoke - the same one from Meridian. "We made it!"

Then a male. "Dad, you there?"

"Joyeuse, Durandal, we're in the Gateway," said the Chief, "Nighthawk, deploy combat personnel at our location, then stand off and wait for further orders. Spartans, clear an LZ!"

"Understood," the female voice - Joyeuse – said, suddenly all business, "Nighthawk on approach - stand by."

The Spartans started gunning for the Prometheans that appeared ahead of them - and the Warden body that did too, until Cortana shouted, "Oh no you fucking don't!" and ripped it away.

The Forerunner ancilla could still talk shit over the COMs, however. "We mean to bring peace to the galaxy, the way it was once," he intoned almost solemnly, "but you answer our call with weapons fire. So it has always been with your kind, so it seems it will always be. There is no place in the galaxy for those who refuse to lay down their weapons."

The Spartans drove the Prometheans back. Then there was a rush of wind overhead, accompanied by a soft hum, and what looked like a bright hole opened up in the air above them. Then five figures in armor jumped out and fell in with them, and the hole disappeared, the hum fading into the distance.

The new arrivals wore what was unmistakably MJOLNIR armor, only a hundred generations more advanced, with Forerunner weapons in hand. Then the male voice - Durandal - came over the COM. "What's the plan, Dad?" he asked, joining his fire with the Chief's to take down another splinter turret Soldier.

"COMs aren't secure," the other man answered, "Just follow us for now."

"Copy that."

They all continued moving up through the Gateway, now absolutely mowing through the Prometheans, even though the Didact kept spawning more and more and more in an attempt to slow their advance. Even the snipers couldn't halt them for long; Linda and one of the new arrivals were more than their equal, even with lesser weapons, and they soon claimed their binary rifles for their own.

They advanced through another hall and into another section of the structure. "Too near," said the Warden, "The threat draws too near, and has grown too great! Look, Didact! Some of our own have turned against us, given the humans our armor and weapons!"

"I see it," the Forerunner growled, "It is no surprise that the Librarian's plan still has its adherents, even now. I am not ashamed to say that once I was one of them. I permitted my wife to spare them after our war, against my better judgement, thinking that she might shape them into something good for the universe - she was the Lifeshaper, after all. But, no more. Humanity will never attain the Mantle, never rise up again against your masters. This will be the end of you, once and for all."

More than two dozen Warden bodies dropped in at the far end of the courtyard. Cortana cursed him out - in an unknown language, to be sure, but the tone was unmistakable - and tore away all but five of them. The Spartans handled them easily, though at one point the Warden said, "Oh, you approach me?" when the Chief darted in closer to get that body in range of his Incineration Cannon.

"Can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer!" the Spartan shouted back, and fired even as the new arrivals cackled, along with Joyeuse and other unknowns over the COM.

When the last one was destroyed, taking all the Prometheans with him, the Didact came back on. "You impress me once again, warriors. Come then. You humans sought the Didact - you will have him."

A hard light bridge materialized, leading up to the final structure. The Chief called the star road down, and it shrank and coiled back up into its little ball. He tucked it away, then led the way up and into a wide chamber, angled protrusions jutting out a little ways from the walls and a light bridge dead ahead, leading to a console of some sort.

"Come on!" The Spartan sprinted for it, and the others followed. Then, quieter, "Three… two… one."

All of them froze as their armor locked up without warning, shields shimmering.

"Did you really think it would be so easy as that?"

Now the Didact appeared. He looked very similar to what he had been in the flesh, but there was something definitely wrong with him, some distortion of proportions and discoloration to his form and armor. He didn't seem to notice it. "Did you imagine you could just walk in here as you did before? Just shoot or stab or blow me up?" He laughed softly, walking slowly towards them. "I have already arisen beyond you, humans. And once I have rid myself of your irritating ancilla, I will be free to undo whatever the Librarian has done to inoculate you to the Composer, and add you to my army. You especially will make a fine Commander, Warrior."

He lifted his hands, and they managed to look up to see the ceiling panels part, revealing the blue and silver Cryptum - just as the Chief had said. It descended, its own panels sliding back, and swallowed them all whole.

Their vision blurred, darkened, they felt like they were falling… And then it was gone just as suddenly as it had come.

And now they were somewhere else.

**********

A/N: There is a gore warning for the next chapter, but it's only 1 (and a half?) paragraphs, which will be marked in the chapter notes so anyone who wants to avoid it can skip it.