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HALO

The
Glory
James A. Bass

Prologue

Chapter 1
Unknown Time
Onboard a Covenant Cruise Ship, Barracks

Space, stretching endlessly in all directions, with nothing but distant stars contrasting with the black. Somewhere in space, a Covenant battle cruiser floated toward a small planet.
The cruiser was huge, rear mounted engines propelled it onward, expelling purple flames from each thruster. The ship was a deep shade of violet.
Deep within the hull, inside the barracks, a grunt lay asleep in a cryo-storage tube.
The grunt was five feet tall, and had dark purple skin. Its face was flat, and it had pitch-black eyes that were closed at the moment. The grunt had long arms with silver spines on each elbow. It had wide feet with three large claws on each foot. The grunt wore thick golden armor over its chest, and metal armbands to match. A gas mask was stretched over its skull and hooked into the tank's methane reservoir.
The grunt was breathing deeply, in a semi-dream state when it was awoken by an elite, "Attention!" shouted the elite in a roaring voice. One by one, the Covenant soldiers awoke from their unconscious state.
The elite was a large creature, standing approximately eight foot six inches tall, the energy armor it wore, wrapped around its body, making it appear even larger. The elite had a hunched posture, its long legs and arms were covered with ruby-red armor. Elite's were higher ranking than grunts, but their precise status was determined by the color of their armor.
Elites had two separate mandibles on the front of their pointed skulls. This elite wore a red helmet that curved along the lines of its skull, and had two translucent panels over its eyes.
The Covenant soldiers lined up along the side of their cryo-tubes and turned to face the elite which paced between them. "We are about to reach the planet known as the 'Second Earth.'" The elite turned to face the golden-armored grunt, "The Prophets have chosen today to begin our assault on the humans, our intelligence reveals that the humans have set up several military outposts, these are our primary targets. They think that they are safe, but they will rethink that after today. We will win this war, but the war begins now, each one of you has a part in this chapter of Covenant history. Go into battle with pride, knowing that you are not only fighting for yourself, but for your brothers and sisters at home. The outcome of this battle, although the prophets would rather not admit it, rests on your soldiers."
"Now that I have finished the preaching," continued the elite, "I must tell you that some of you will not come out of this alive. You will all rally with your squad in thirty units, have your combat gear at the ready, you will be inserted onto the field via your preassigned drop ship."
"At ease men, I wish you all the best of luck. Fight for your beliefs, and for your people." The elite walked toward the exit.
The automatic doors flashed a white light and opened up, the lights turned red and sealed shut.
"What do you think, Arlean?" demanded one of the grunts, called 'Nguyen, to its golden-armored companion.
"I'd rather be anywhere but here, but you heard the bulkhead, we have no choice but to fight, even if it means dying for our cause, whatever that might be."
Arlean sighed, the Covenant and the humans had been fighting for centuries, yet still both sides continued the struggle for supremacy. The death toll had climbed to an insurmountable total, and was still rising. Two hundred and thirty one year ago, the Covenant was on the verge of total victory, HALO the most powerful weapon in the universe, capable of destroying entire galaxies, had been snatched away from Covenant hands and demolished by the humans.
Twenty-seven units later, Arlean was waiting in a hallway outside of the bay. Arlean now wore a plasma pistol on his combat harness, and carried a plasma rifle in his hands.
Arlean waited, two more units later and his unit was inside the bay. It was a large room, The hard metal floor was polished to perfection, purple cargo caches were piled along the walls. A huge glass wall opened up in the front of the room, revealing the starry black space.
Arlean's unit was shuffled onboard a fork-shaped Covenant Dropship. Each side had a number of small compartments in which each soldier would take. The compartments were very small, and permitted only the slightest of movement. Arlean climbed into his cabinet, the hatch sealed shut, and the ship lifted off and accelerated into space.

Chapter 2
1400 Units
Inside Covenant Dropship 8, Over the Grand Plains

Onboard a Covenant Dropship, the grunt named 'Arlean' sat cradling his plasma rifle. Even Arlean, who had been in the Covenant military for years, and had fought in many terrible battles was feeling uncomfortable about this operation.
He stumbled forward as somebody pushed him from behind. He turned around. Two lower ranking red-armored grunts laughed in high pitched squeals; Arlean turned back, shaking his head in distaste.
Along with the assemblage of grunts and Jackals, two elites were also onboard. They stood in the front of the ship, one of them was wearing blue armor, this elite was staring up at the ceiling. The other was a gold elite, and it happened to be gazing right back at Arlean.
Arlean didn't like the look the elite was giving him, and found himself unable to face it. Then, the ship lurched suddenly as the doors opened up, blazing light instantly blinded the Covenants inside.
"Move, move!" shouted the golden elite in a deep, booming voice, but without his vision, Arlean could not move without running into something.
The Jackal in front of Arlean fell backwards with a screech, spraying the compartment with blood. Automatic gunfire tore through the fuselage of the Dropship, and the Covenant troops inside were met with a flurry of bullets. Arlean trudged through the pool of blood and bodies and was able to make it outside the ship.
Arlean froze, in awe of the battle before him. No less than one hundred meters ahead of him, the humans had dug a deep trench. Arlean watched a blue elite ahead of him go down in a cloud of purple-blue blood.
Arlean ran toward his downed superior as bullets whistled above, so close he could feel the air brush his skull. Arlean dove behind the wounded elite, purple blood cascading out of its shredded chest. The elite looked at Arlean. Its eyes were glassy and black. Its helmet was lying on the ground with a bullet hole in the center of the visor. But as the grunt continued to watch the elite, a burst of gunfire shredded the elite's face oblivion.
Arlean was sprayed with the juicy blood. It took him several seconds to recover from the momentary shock, than Arlean stood up and pulled a plasma grenade from his belt. The human soldiers were well dug in, barbed wire was laid across the plain, and cover was minimal.
Arlean primed the grenade, which began to glow a shade of light blue, and lobbed it in the air. It landed just short of the trench, there was an explosion of blue plasma, dirt and other debris were tossed into the sky.
Arlean ducked back down and turned around, the golden elite that had been on his Dropship was fighting alongside a pair of Jackals. The elite's battle skills were superb, the elite charged toward the row of humans firing his Needler. The small purple projectiles homed onto their targets, and they went down as the small purple needles penetrated their flesh and exploded.
Arlean felt a stab of pain at his leg, he fell forward as his leg gave out. He looked down, blood was poring from both sides of the limb, luckily the bullet had completely exited his leg and the damage would be easily fixable, but blood continued to flow freely from the deep wound. Arlean tried to stand, but swayed and fell sideways. As he looked into the sky, bullets and plasma sailed overhead.
Arlean pushed himself up against the elite, everything was becoming foggy and faded, Arlean saw a human Fragmentation grenade bounce in front of him, he picked it up and tossed it back over his shoulder casually, he took a deep breath of methane as the grenade exploded behind him. A cloud of dust enveloped him.
"Screw it," thought Arlean, standing up. He walked slowly dragging his injured leg in the dirt. The loss of blood was making him woozy, and unable to think clearly.
As the dust and dirt cleared, Arlean continued his reckless advance, spraying the human positions with plasma fire. Another shot hit Arlean in the side, Arlean's numb body was pumping with adrenaline.
Without warning, something swept Arlean off his feet. Arlean caught a glimpse of a golden armored hand across his chest as he continued to flail and kick at his restrainer.
A fleet of dropships sailed above the battle, their dual plasma cannons discharging burning, purplish rays of plasma.

Chapter 3
0830 Units
Covenant Headquarters, Medical post

Arlean had no memory of getting there, but he didn't worry about it. The Medical Post was brightly lit, and somewhat crowded. Medics were busy going from patient to patient. Unfortunately for Arlean, they seemed to be starting with the higher-ranking officers and working their way down.
The Covenant Military had always treated Arlean and his fellow grunts like garbage, nothing but replaceable soldiers. Even the Jackal that was fixing Arlean's wound felt resentful toward its lower-ranking comrade.
The Jackal injected some burning solution into the wound, and took a stand when he had finished wrapping up Arlean's leg, "There, I've done all that I can for now. You must leave immediately," the Jackal pointed out the exit.
Arlean gave a small nod and departed the room. The door opened up and Arlean set foot in a hallway. A quick look around showed him that it was empty, Arlean shuffled down the hall, but stopped when he heard a pair of deep voices approaching from the intersecting hall.
"I just do not see the point of all this, your Excellency. After all, the one you speak of is only a grunt, am I correct."
The other speaker replied in a tired voice, "Yes, I will grant you that."
"Then why do you require him, I see no reason to make such a fuss over this."
"If I am correct, and I am quite sure that I am, you seem to be the one making the fuss. No further arguments, do you hear?"
"Yes, Excellency, but, where do we find the one you desire to speak to?"
"The grunt was wounded in combat, and it is likely he is still under medical attention."
Arlean saw the shadows of two large creatures around the corner, their footsteps reverberated down the passageway.
Two elites emerged from the corner, one of them clad in golden armor, the other in red. The elites stopped when they saw Arlean, standing flat-footed in the hallway.
"You, Grunt." Arlean gulped. "I need to find the one who goes by the name Arlean, do you know him?"
"I am him," said Arlean shakily. This could not be anything good. It was seldom that something pleasant would come from an encounter with one of the 'prophet blessed' elites. "What can I do for you, your Excellency?"
"Well first, you can call me Okasa," said the golden elite.
"Yes your exce-I mean, Okasa."
"You may or may not know it, but I was the one who pulled you away from the battle, earlier. I'm sure this will sound strange to you, not very many high-ranking soldiers such as myself," the elite puffed out its chest, "Would have made even the slightest attempt to save you."
"Thank you, Excellency."
"It's Okasa, but that's besides the point. I witnessed you in combat, and I must say I was quite impressed."
Arlean was shocked to say the least, maybe not all elites were too bad.
"I'm sure you were too busy to keep track, but you killed a total of twenty-three humans."
During this whole speech, the red elite had remained quiet, until now, "Okasa."
"You," said Okasa sternly, "Will address me as your Excellency, do you understand?"
"Yes your Excellency," said the elite in a sour tone. "But you must have realized, the grunt was lucky. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have made it out alive"
"That may be true," said Okasa smugly. "But I cannot recall you ever killing so many humans in a single day of fighting."
Arlean smiled, that shut the red elite up. "Arlean, the reason for this meeting, is I have decided that you merit a promotion, and I have also made it my duty to transfer you to my combat unit. You will be under my command, starting now."
"Yes your excellency," said Arlean, not sure if he was happy or not. In the end, Arlean knew it wouldn't really matter. Within twenty units, Arlean had all his gear packed, and had said fair well to his old regiment.
Okasa told him he had something else of importance to discuss, and the two were to meet in an hour. Arlean had nothing to do, so he decided to show up early. When he got there; Okasa was chatting with the red elite again, Arlean peaked into the small room. "Your Excellency," he said cautiously.
"Aw, Arlean, come in." Arlean stepped inside the room, "You're probably wondering what the point of this foregathering is." Okasa began to pace back and forth, "I'll get right to the point. The humans are becoming a larger thorn in our side than we hoped. The prophet's have decided we must start at the top of the political chain."
"What do you mean?" asked Arlean.
"It means, that if we take out the human's leaders, we can attack them while they're still disorganized. I was asked to select a certain member from my squad, and send that troop on a very dangerous assassination mission, usually this honor would be given to 'Dadabo here, but I have decided to give you a chance. Yes, this is an extreme situation for a grunt such as yourself, nut I have a deep confidence in you."
Arlean felt a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, but this elite could not be serious. "Oh, I forgot. Here is your new armor."
Okasa pushed an olive-drab chest plate, and a pair of shoulder cuffs to go with it, into Arlean's arms. You have been officially promoted, now gear up, you will be deployed solo, via Dropship in 1020 units.


Chapter 4
2050 Units
Outside the second earth embassy complex

Arlean was lying on his belly, the spot the elite had showed him was perfect, but the mission was not one of Arlean's favorites. The hill Arlean was on was about thirty meters high. The grass was soft, but itchy. About one hundred meters away, a white government building stood. The night was cool, a small breeze nipped at Arlean's skin. The building was rectangularly shaped and three stories high. The entrance had pillars on both walls, and the grounds were well-kept, and surrounded by a tall iron fence. The gate to the complex was patrolled by two guards. A booth was placed on one side of the road, the road was well lit by lights that had been planted into the ground.

Arlean adjusted the magnification on his scope to ten times. The Covenant Energy Rifle was bulky, but a deadly accurate weapon. More than once during the night had the grunt placed the cross-hairs over the head of one of the security guards, moved his finger to the trigger, than remembered his mission. Okasa had told him to wait until his primary targets arrived, these being several high-ranking government officials and a handful of military dignitaries.
The grunt was just about to doze, when he caught a glimpse of headlights in the distance. They broke through the darkness and followed the curves of the road before slowing down to a stop in front of the gate. The car was black, and the windows were tinted making the interior seem invisible. One security guard approached the opposite side of the vehicle, while the one inside the booth sat still. After a brief conversation, the first guard stepped back and the gate opened up allowing the car to coast inside.
The car pulled to a halt near the entrance, the driver of the vehicle stepped out. He was wearing a black tidy suit, he went over to the rear door and opened it. Another man stepped out, this one was wearing a gray suit and pants. Arlean recognized this man from the pictures Okasa had shown him during his briefing. His name was Thomas Gordon, and he was the Secretary of Defense for the United Council.
This, Mr. Gordon, was a short man with silver gray hair. He marched toward the entrance of the building when the doors swung open. Another man walked toward Mr. Gordon, wearing a dark-blue suit he extended a hand which Gordon shook.
As they turned toward the building, Arlean lined the cross-hairs of the rifle's scope on the spot just behind Gordon's ear. Arlean fired, the rifle's kick was next to none, and the round struck its target precisely.
Mr. Gordon turned around, hearing the screech of a rifle in the distance, he had a momentary vision of purple plasma hurling toward him before it hit him full in the face. The burning plasma sizzled through his skin and fried his brain, and his smoldering corpse dropped to the grass.
"Where the hell was that from!?" shouted one of the men. The humans scuttled around the grounds, "On top of the hill!" yelled another, "Concentrate fire!" Arlean cursed as bullets whistled around him, one bullet hit the ground in front of him and kicked dirt into Arlean's face. Arlean sat up and aimed his Energy Carbine, when a pistol round hit him.
Arlean felt the 12.7mm round punch his chest, and stumbled backwards. He tumbled head-over-heels down the reverse slope and came to a stop, rolled up in a bloody heap at the bottom.
Arlean could see the fuzzy outlines of three humans standing over him, speaking in their disgusting alien tongue.
"What the hell you suppose were to do with him?" Another human spoke, "If it was up to me, I'd just take his ass out, but you know Gerald's gonna want to see him." The first human replied again, "Well bandage his ass up and take him back to HQ for interrogation," said the first human.
Arlean saw a hand reach for him and tried to escape its grasp. "Sit still damn it" said one of the humans in an agitated tone. Arlean was pulled to his feet, for some time the humans dragged him across the grounds, conversing quietly. The humans had dressed his wound, but it was still stinging painfully.
The tour inside the building was thankfully short, Arlean was led down several bright hallways lined with rich paintings and tidily kept carpets, into a dark room lit only by a single overhanging light. The light was set directly over a wooden table in the center of the room, four chairs were set around the table, the corners of the room were invisible, shrouded by shadows.
One of the chairs was already occupied by a broad-shouldered man with pale skin and white hair slicked to one side. Arlean was shoved into the chair opposite of this man, the man's eyes were dangerous. The door to the room opened, two more figures entered, one leading the other.
The first was a human, but he stayed in the shadows so his features were hidden from Arlean's eyes.
The second was a Covenant Jackal, Arlean was shocked. The Jackal had a strong frame, with a prominent silver beak, its orange eyes swept across the table, resting for a moment on Arlean. It was not wearing the
standard battle armor that Jackals wore during combat, but it still was a head taller than Arlean.
The Jackal took the seat adjacent to Arlean. "What is your name, Grunt?"
"My name is Arlean."
"Well Arlean," said the Jackal, "I am Elihu, I will translate for you. I ask that please cooperate with me and my team."
"That's very kind of you," said Arlean sarcastically. "So you've betrayed me and the rest of your Covenant brothers and decided to help these humans?" Arlean was becoming angry, "How could you, you are a dishonor to the Covenant, you are a coward."
Elihu snarled, "Think what you want, I simply have a job to do."
"What! To align yourself with pitiful apes such as them!" yelled Arlean pointing at the man across from him.
"That is quiet enough, you will answer our questions truthfully, now I need to know, who sent you?"
"I would rather die than answer to you; I will not yield to a coward like yourself."
"I hope you realize, failure to comply with our questions, and I will have no other option than to terminate you on the spot."
"Than terminate me," said Arlean.
"I will ask you once more," said Elihu. Arlean remained silent, Elihu leaped across the table for Arlean who parried him with a fist to the face. Elihu hit the floor and returned to a vertical base. Arlean was bringing his arm back to throw a punch at Elihu, but one of the humans grabbed him.
Arlean struggled furiously, but stopped when he heard a metallic click from behind him, and the cold barrel of a pistol was pressed against his head. "Do it. I dare you," thought Arlean.
But instead of firing a shot into the back of the grunt's head, the human discharged a round into the methane tank on Arlean's back.
The shot blew a hole in the tank, the hole caused a sudden fluctuation in pressure, the tank exploded in a burst of gas, Arlean was rocketed forward onto the hard floor.
Arlean rolled over, somehow he had survived. But he was paralyzed and couldn't breathe, he tried to move his leg but was feeble in his efforts. He was becoming light headed from the loss of air. The human who had fired the shot was on his knees cradling the bleeding stump that had once been a healthy arm.
Elihu's corpse was hunched against a wall. The bloody orange backdrop completed the gory scene.
The emergency methane tank kicked in, but the tank was small and Arlean knew it would last an hour at maximum. Gradually, Arlean was able to roll over onto his back, but he still didn't have the strength to sit up, and intense pain racked his body.
Arlean assumed that the other humans had been knocked out from the blast, but all he could see was the dark gray ceiling above him.
It seemed an eternity as Arlean laid there, thinking of his homeland "What a wasted life," thought Arlean. A distant explosion shook Arlean from his daydreams.
The sounds of automatic gunfire suddenly rang thorough the complex. It drew nearer, and the familiar screech of a plasma rifle was added to the mix. A human scream echoed throughout the hallways, "What a beautiful sound," thought Arlean.
Without warning, a plasma explosion blew the door into a thousand splinters. A golden elite emerged from the doorway, it was Okasa. Okasa spotted Arlean and approached him quickly. Two Jackals followed Okasa closely keeping their energy shields at the ready, behind the Jackals was a pack of three grunts. The grunts were all armed with plasma rifles, then a blue elite with a Needler entered, and two more Jackals brought up the rear.
"Finally we've found you, grab him, Grunts. The grunts waddled forward and pulled up Arlean by his feet, "We most leave now!" said Okasa. The Jackals took the point positions, exiting the dark room and moving down the series of hallways.
Human corpses filled one hallway, each human was checked for signs of life, kicked, and stripped of their weapons. One of the humans was alive, he reached a hand up that was covered in blood. His eyes were blank, and his last memory was that of a blue elite's foot crushing down on his face.
"Clear," said the elite, sounding indifferent.
Outside of the installation was a hovering dropship. The engines created a dirt vortex, the external compartment hatches were open, every troop took their cramped cubical, except for Arlean who was given a somewhat luxurious spot in the fuselage.
"Let's leave this dump," said Okasa to the pilot. Arlean felt the ship ascending into the sky, his mission was done.

Chapter 5
2300 Units
Onboard Covenant Dropship
The cruise in the ship was uneventful, except for the period in which the ship fought through the outermost layers of the planet's atmosphere.
Arlean would be out of major combat for a long period of time, at least this is what Okasa had told him, and Arlean was in no state of mind to contradict him.
The wounds he had received were not permanent, but they would have been had he not been taken care of as quickly as he was.
"Your Excellency," said the engineer pilot, "There is a fleet of human fighter ships on our tail.
"Damn them!" barked Okasa.
"Your Excellency, we cannot escape them. Our plasma cannons are deactivated! Somebody has tampered with the weapon targeting systems!"
"Shit," said Okasa, "Call in for backup."
"We can't!" said the pilot, a hint of panic in his voice. "Communications are offline and we can't manually change the frequency wave!"
A small beacon above the pilot's seat began to blink red light. "Your Excellency, they have us targeted, we're gonna die!"
The pilot began to jabber incoherently, until Okasa fired a beam of plasma into the pilot's head, spraying blue blood onto the controls.
"This is how it ends," said Okasa aloud to himself, he placed the barrel of the plasma weapon to his head, lifted off his headgear and tossed it aside. He would not give the humans the pleasure of killing him, Okasa charged the weapon to it's fullest, the green plasma pulsed brightly.
Arlean heard a thump from inside the ship, and was about to check it out when an explosion rocked the ship violently. The rocket had created a huge hole in the center of the ship.
A high pitched alarm began to shriek. Arlean screamed as he was pulled towards the hole, his arms desperately snatching for something to hold onto. Before Arlean knew it, he was drifting away from the ship, and into the blackness of space.
Arlean began to scream, but his scream was cut short when his methane tank depleted. Arlean's head began to throb, his lungs burned in agony, and his eyes began to bulge.
"Well," thought Arlean, "His battle was done, and nothing was left for him, except to explore the glorious afterlife. At least there, peace was guaranteed, and nothing would come between him, and happiness...

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