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Halo 3: Insurrection: Parts Three and Four
Posted By: Wolverfrog<Wolverfrog49@Hotmail.com>
Date: 11 August 2009, 8:52 pm
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PART THREE - ASSASSINATION
"How much are you willing to pay?" The Assassin asked, with nods from his two partners.
"When I become Kaidon, you can have whatever you need"
"You do realise that if we fail, or honour compels us to reveal who you are, and you pay the price?"
The Elite in the shadows waved him down.
"I know the rules of succession. Do not fail me."
The Assassins bowed their heads.
"We shall do our best." They scurried off into the night, ready to kill.
High Councillor K'zath smiled, things were turning his way.
*******
John was tossed into the cell, barley coherent. He just about heard an Honour Guard growl something in his face, then saw them leave. He surveyed the cell. He wasn't bound in any way, other than the powerful energy barrier in place of a door. John suspected that inside the alien walls lay similar, wafer thin barriers too.
The world began to come back to him, and he slowly stood up. He tested his theory, and with a grunt, kicked the wall, shattering the thick metal. Through the crack, he saw blue. It seemed he was correct.
After waiting around for what seemed like hours, dinner came. It was a Grunt who brought it, under the protection of Honour Guards. After the barrier was deactivated, the small alien placed the meal down, never taking his eyes of John.
"Boo!" the Spartan said. The Grunt couldn't have run away faster if there was a pack of hungry Jackals on his tail. The barrier was erected again.
It looks like things were going to get very boring very soon. But it was fine. John could wait. One day, someone would make a mistake, and that would be when he would break free. There was still that Energy barrier to think about though. Things would be so much easier if Cortana were with him.
*********
The Assassins stole through the dark corridors of the Citadel, silencing all they came across. They were close to the Kaidon's chambers now, and they could hear the footsteps of the two Honour Guards up ahead. They were talking to each other.
"A tough day today, I was worried when the Demon went insane in the hall." One said, as he passed the other.
"Indeed, but he is locked up now, where he belongs." The two guards parted ways, each going to patrol a different end of the corridor.
As one approached the assassins, they chose that moment to strike. Without a sound, they fell upon the Honour guard, who gave a startled cry before succumbing to death. The other one paused in his tracks.
"Malthusian? What is it?"
The three assassins veered around the corner, and stabbed the guard in the head with the small plasma daggers they carried. The entrance to the Kaidon's quarters was now empty.
One went over to a terminal, and began hacking into the door controls. As he finished, the door slowly slid open, silently. They crept into the room, and saw Kaidon A'trinr asleep in his chair, head slumped slightly to the side. Creeping up behind him, they raised their daggers to strike.
Suddenly, as a dagger flew down through the air, the crack of an energy sword was heard, and A'trinr blocked the dagger with it's side.
"So, yet another assassination attempt." He said, standing up. "Let me guess, K'zath? Yes, it would be him, I have seen the way he looks at me when I hold council, craving more power."
"May you die with honour" One of the assassins said.
"Haha, we'll see" A'trinr smiled, knowing he was far too old to win. But he had accepted this would happen a long time ago. He was ready to die. His only regret was that the Demon was now in danger, despite his best efforts to have it otherwise.
********
Hours later, John was awoken by someone descending the stairs down to his cell. It was an Elite minor, not an Honour Guard for a change. The tired Spartan rose.
"Demon. Kaidon A'trinr is dead. High Councillor K'zath has succeeded him. The Elite paused. "His first decree as Kaidon is that you are to be executed one week from now...I'm sorry."
After hundreds of successful operations, and surviving Halo, it looked like John's luck had finally run out.
**************
PART FOUR - AIN'T NO LIGHTBULB GONNA KILL HIM
2 months earlier, Installation 04...
Sergeant Avery Johnson awoke to an unpleasant surprise. A Flood infection form was attempting to burrow it's way into his torso and hijack his nervous system. Evidently, it was having trouble.
With an explosion of pain, Avery drew out a Magnum .44 from his belt, and fired a bullet, the sound of the shot echoing in his sore ears. The Infection form exploded, splattering him with the dead biomass. Avery stood up.
He was slightly confused as to why he was still alive. That crazy Monitor had hit him square in the chest, surely it would have killed him. Yet here he was, live and kicking. For the first time since he had partook in it, Avery was glad he had volunteered for the Spartan I program, all those years ago.
It made no difference in the end though, he supposed, he would die when Halo detonated anyway. He could see no sign of the Chief and the Arbiter, hopefully they were already on board the Dawn, powering up her engines.
Suddenly, he heard a shimmering noise behind him. He turned around, and came face to face with the last thing he wanted to see. Another Monitor, but different than Spark. Golden, more regal.
"Great, another Light bulb." He growled, popping a cigar from his belt into his mouth. "You here to fire a laser at me too?"
The Monitor appraised him for a second, then dryly replied.
"Hardly. I am 032 Mendicant Bias, Grand Monitor of Installation 00."
After several moments of indecision on whether to believe it or not, Avery decided it didn't really matter anyway.
"Yeah? Well I guess that's some good news. I suppose it'll be nice to have some company in my last moments before this thing goes boom."
A series of sounds came from the Monitor, Johnson could have been wrong, but it almost sounded like it was laughing. In an artificial, clunky way.
"Why so pessimistic Sergeant?" Mendicant asked, curious.
Johnson walked to the edge of the control room, looking down into the chasm below. The darkness he saw seemed to sum up his life, empty.
"It's called realism Light bulb, you robots seem to have trouble understanding it."
It laughed again.
"Oh, don't worry Reclaimer, I understand the situation perfectly. What I don't understand, however, is why you seem to think there is no way out of it."
"Look around Light bulb. This whole place is about to blow, and you're standing, I mean floating there laughing." Johnson told the Monitor, growing tired of it.
"You are right there. Installation 04, and indeed, my own Installation 00, or what you call the Ark, is about to be destroyed. But that doesn't mean we have to be."
A pause, then.
"What do you mean?"
Instead of giving him a direct answer, Mendicant Bias chose to instead be ambiguous.
"Do you know why my former masters built the Halo array Sergeant?"
"Who do you think I am, an ONI Spook? Something to do with stopping the Flood." Avery said simply.
"You are correct, in a way. Originally, however, Halo was conducted not to destroy, but to preserve the Flood. Think, Sergeant, a life form which, from a single spore, smaller than a grain of sand, can destroy an entire empire. What a weapon that could be against my master's enemies, if controlled properly."
"Let me guess, the plan backfired?" Johnson guessed, and from the sounds of approval the Monitor made, it seemed he had guessed correctly.
"That is exactly what happened Reclaimer. The Flood had an aspect to them my masters hadn't predicted."
"And what was that?"
"The Gravemind." Mendicant said, in a strange tone of voice. "But look, even as we speak, Halo's inevitable destruction draws ever closer. We shall resume this conversation another time, for now, we must leave."
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that? And shouldn't I be falling into a deep, dark chasm right about now? Last thing I saw before I blacked out was this place falling to bits." Avery asked, sceptical.
"I still have some power Reclaimer, despite how fractured I am. Every structure my masters built had a transportation grid built into them, to cut down journey time, and for use in the event of an emergency. Usually, it can only be used to get around the same structure. However, in my case the rules are slightly different." It paused, then said, "Are you ready?"
Johnson didn't like the idea of leaving without knowing what had happened to the Chief, but he knew he had no choice.
"As ready as I'm ever gonna be."
A blue nexus surrounded both of them, and in an instant, they were gone.
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