Tartarus is leading two of his men, that are carrying Thel, down a jail full of Jackals.
"How much further must we heft this baggage?" One of the Brutes asks.
"Why not toss him in with this lot?" The other Brute asks.
The Brutes pass a cell containing three hungry Jackals, which hiss and growl as they reach out through the bars at the Jiralhanae passing by.
"They could use the meat."
"Them? What about us? My belly aches - and his flesh is seared, just the way I like it."
"Quiet!" Tartarus yells. "You two whimper like Grunts fresh off the teat. He's not meant for the jails. The Hierarchs have something special in mind."
The Brutes and their cargo move out onto a platform overlooking the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. They ride a gravity lift down to the walkway leading up to it and pass dozens of Elite Honor Guardsmen standing at attention, energy staves ready. They enter the Mausoleum, where the High Prophets of Truth and Mercy await. The three Brutes bow, forcing Thel to do the same.
"Noble Prophets of Truth and Mercy." Tartarus greets. "I have brought the incompetent."
"You may leave, Tartarus." The Prophet of Truth says.
Tartarus looks up, surprised. "But... I thought--"
"And take your Brutes with you."
Tartarus hesitates, and then bows again. "Release the prisoner."
"The Brutes drop Thel to his knees and rise, leaving the room. Thel touches the Mark of Shame on his chest.
Truth speaks to Thel. "The Council decided to have you hung by your entrails and your corpse paraded through the city. But ultimately, the terms of your execution are up to me."
"I am already dead." Thel states.
"Indeed. Do you know where we are?"
"The Mausoleum of the Arbiter."
"Quite so. Here rests the vanguard of the Great Journey. Every Arbiter. Every Arbiter, from first to last. Each one created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis."
The Prophet of Mercy then speaks. "The Taming of the Hunters, the Grunt Rebellion - were it not for the Arbiters, the Covenant would have broken long ago!"
Thel then speaks. "Even on my knees, I do not belong in their presence."
"Halo's destruction was your error, and you rightly bear the blame." Truth states. But the Council was... overzealous. We know you are no heretic. This is the true face of heresy, one who would subvert our faith and incite rebellion against the High Council."
Truth presses a button on his and a miniature hologram of a Sangheili, in abnormal equipment, appears.
"Our Prophets are false!" Sesa 'Refumee speaks on the holgramp "Open your eyes, my brothers! They would use the faith of our forefathers to bring ruin to us all! The Great Journey is a-"
Truth cuts off the hologram. "This heretic, and those who follow him, must be silenced."
"Their slander offends all who walk the Path!" Mercy shouts.
"What use am I?" Thel asks. "I can no longer command ships, lead troops into battle-"
Truth interrupts Thel. "Not as you are, no. But become the Arbiter... and you shall be set loose against the heresy with our blessing."
A large pod floats into the center of the room, opening to reveal a suit of ancient armor surrounded by white light.
Thel stares at this for a moment, before turning back to Truth. "What of the Council?"
Mercy speaks. "The tasks you must undertake as the Arbiter are perilous, suicidal. You will die, as each Arbiter has before you. The Council will have their corpse."
Thel 'Vadamee rises and walks toward the armor. He pauses before it, and looks to the pods containing the bodies of the Arbiters who fell before him. He reaches up and takes the helmet of the Arbiter, and places it upon his head. He turns to the Hierarchs. "What would you have your Arbiter do?"
An hour later, Thel is wearing his new armor as the Arbiter, as he's being escorted by a couple of Honor Guardsmen.
Suddenly a Field Marshal, wearing dark purple armor with pink lights sets into the hall and stops the three. "Leave us. I wish to speak to the Arbiter for a moment." They're revealed to be a female, as they speak to the Honor Guardsmen.
The Honor Guardsmen put their weapons to their chest in a salute and walk a little ways away.
The female Elite turns to the Arbiter.
The Field Marshal is missing her top right mandible, and a scar runs from the missing mandible to the back of her head, where it gets cut off by her helmet, a deep cut runs along the helmet to continue it. The scar also goes through her right eye, where her eye is milky white.
The Field Marshal has a pink plasma rifle on her hip that has red strips on it. It's name is Demons Tribulation.
On her right wrist is an energy dagger that is named Tesa's Oblation.
This Female Elite Field Marshal is named Tesa 'Tratam. She stands a couple inches taller than the Arbiter at 8 feet.
"'Tratam." The Arbiter says.
"It's been a while 'Vademee, or should I call you the Arbiter now?" Tesa asks.
"Call me whatever you want, but what are you doing here?"
"The Council is sending you on a suicide mission. So I managed to pull some favors in and I'm coming along with you."
"What, why?!"
"Because I've had hundreds of my friends die already, many died in my arms. So I want to keep the few friends I still have alive." Tesa puts her left hand on the Arbiter's shoulder, and she ignites her energy dagger, revealing a red blade. "The Council will not get their body."
"You're crazy." The Arbiter states.
"Hmph, you don't know the half of it." Tesa deactivates her energy dagger.
A while later Three Phantoms swoop past the ruins of Installation 04, a large piece of it still intact and with landscape and clouds still visible.
The voice of Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee is heard. "When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath!"
"According to our station!" Elites speak. "All without exception!"
Inside the center Phantom there are Special Operations Elites, along with the new Arbiter, line the walls, with a line of Special Operations Grunts in the center. The white-armored Elite Rtas walks among them.
Tesa is standing at the front, watching everyone.
Rtas continues his speech. "On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons... we swore to uphold the Covenant!"
All the Special Operations Elites all speak. "Even to our dying breath!"
"Those who would break this oath are Heretics, worthy of neither pity, nor mercy! Even now they use our lords' creations to broadcast their lies!"
A Elite holds up a Particle Beam Rifle to his chest, and a Grunt fumbles with the methane tank of the Grunt in front of him. Some air is released and the second Grunt turns around in anger.
All the Special Operations Elites all speak. "We shall grind them into dust."
"And continue our march to glorious salvation!" Rtas finishes.
The Phantoms enter Threshold's atmosphere and come upon a large Forerunner platform.
Rtas approaches the Arbiter. They stare each other down.
"This armor suits you." Rtas says. "But it cannot hide that mark."
"Nothing ever will." The Arbiter replies.
"You are the Arbiter, the will of the Prophets. But these are my Elites. Their lives matter to me. Yours does not."
"That makes two of us."
Rtas hums respectfully.
The Phantoms fly lower, near the top of one of several towers sticking out from the center of the main structure. One deposits a group of Unggoy and a Sangheili, followed by a second one that drops two Sangheili, The Arbiter and Tesa.
Tesa grabs her plasma rifle off his hip and follows after the two other Elites. The Arbiter ignites his energy sword and looks at it, before following his fellow Elites.
A Whisper in the Storm
Rtas speaks to everyone through the coms. "We are the arm of the Prophets, Arbiter, and you are the blade. Be silent and swift, and we shall quell this heresy without incident."
"First lance in position." A SpecOps Elite informs.
The Arbiter and Tesa approach the doors where the rest of the team is wanting to enter.
Rtas speaks through comes. "The storm has masked our approach, and it should have their local Battle-net in disarray. We have the element of surprise... for now."
The team enter the airlock, with a team of Special Operations Grunts and Elites.
"Engage active camouflage!" An Elite orders. "Reveal yourselves only after the Arbiter has joined battle with the enemy!"
The Elites and Grunts fade into their surroundings as their active camouflage is engaged. Tesa ignites her energy dagger and fades into her surroundings as she uses her active camouflage.
"You may wish to do the same, Arbiter, but take heed: your armor's system is not as...new as ours. Your camouflage will not last forever." Rtas informs.
The team enters the next room under cloak, where Heretic Unggoy are asleep and two Heretic Sangheili patrol
Tesa slowly moves up behind an Elite, and she grabs him and swift digs her energy dagger into his throat.
"What the-" The seconds Elite gets an energy sword through the neck.
The rest of the team kill the sleeping grunts. The group moves on and silently eliminates a patrol.
The group deactivates their active camo and follow an energy belt to the lower levels. They find an elevator and use it to descend into a hanger containing a Kai-pattern Seraph, and a new enemy appears: the familiar Sentinels. Most of them are patrolling the area, but one can be seen carrying a gas container under it and another firing a green beam at the Seraph, apparently fixing it.
"Sentinels, the holy warriors of the Sacred Rings. Why have they sided with these Heretics?" An Elite asks.
The elevator stops and a Heretic Elite sees the SpecOps team. "Sentinels, defend us!"
"Let's make this quick." Tesa says as she takes out her Plasma rifle.
The SpecOps team engages the Heritics.
"Arbiter, clear the hanger and open this door, so I may drop the second lance!" A Phantom Pilot says over coms.
"I'll cover you." Tesa says to her friends. "So get over there and open the door."
"Right." The Arbiter, with Tesa running alongside him, firing her Plasma Rifle, runs over to the hanger doors and opens them up.
"Hold Position, I am making my approach." A friendly Phantom enters the Hangar Bay and deploys additional troops.
More Heretics appear from below.
"More hostiles in the passage below us!" Tesa shouts.
After a few minutes of fighting the hanger is secured.
"Keep heading down." Rtas orders through coms. "Find the leader of these Heretics."
The Specops team descends through the facility, using mostly stealth tactics to take out more Heretics.
Eventually, they enter a room featuring a window looking out onto a landing pad with three Heretic Banshees.
The Heretic Leader, Sesa 'Refumee appears. "Deal with them, my brothers! I will defend the Oracle." He hops into a Heretic Banshee and flies of.
"Its truth must not be silenced!" A Heretic Elite yells.
Tesa huffs and charges into battle, with her plasma rifle and energy dagger at the ready.
After a long ten minutes of fighting Tesa rights her energy dagger out of the neck of the final Elite Heretic.
"Onward, Arbiter!" An Elite yells. "We will secure this section of the station."
The Arbiter turns to Tesa. "'Tratam, with me."
Tesa deactivates her energy dagger. "On you, Arbiter."
To The Hunt
The Arbiter and Tesa run outside and they take the remaining Banshees.
Rtas speaks to the two over Coms. "The Heretics are mobilizing their air forces, Arbiter. Get after their leader, but watch your back. I'm sending one of our Phantoms to support you."
The Arbiter and Tesa deal with a wave of Banshees.
"You've gotten better." The Arbiter says to Tesa over coms.
"Of course." Tesa responds. "It's only natrual."
"Hpm, last time I saw you fly a Banshee, you-"
"Don't. Speak. Another. Word."
The Arbiter chuckles.
A Phantom Pilot speaks over coms. "The Heretics have weapons emplacements all over the facility, Arbiter. We'll take them out, one by one, until we find the Heretic Leader."
The Arbiter and Tesa follow the allied Phantom in their Banshees. As they search for the Heretic Leader, they encounter multiple Heretic Banshees, as well as hostile Shade turrets and Heretic Grunts armed with fuel rod guns.
The group deals with several emplacements and they move onto the final one.
"We've tracked the Heretic Leader to this part of the station." Rtas informs. "Clear that landing zone and get inside."
The two clear the platform and land and walk over to the door. Tesa takes out her plasma rifle and readies it.
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08-25-2023
2163 words