V – Epilogue - Only The Beginning

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The space around Earth was ablaze when Goodness and Purity returned.

Nearly a thousand Covenant ships had amassed in the space around Earth and its moon, and were engaging what remained of humanity’s fleet. Miranda had received the transmission for all UNSC personnel to return to Earth as soon as they dropped out of Slipspace behind the moon once again, but she never imagined it would be this bad.

The general strategy among the humans seemed to be retreat, and most of the fleet were doing so, but some remained behind to distract the vicious Destroyers and Cruisers.

The entire crew inhaled sharply when the sight appeared on the forward viewscreen. Even Cortana remained silent. Explosions dotted the area, and debris hurled through space in all directions. The Covenant ships were everywhere… and soon they would know they were there.

Mercy’s last words rang through Cortana’s mind.

This time… none of you shall be left behind!

It seemed like he may not have been lying.

“I…” she stuttered. “I don’t know what to do. But I need to make a decision quick, because we are going to attract attention sooner or later.”

“Contact Seongnam,” Miranda said. Seongnam was one of the strongest military outposts on Earth – they could tell her what to do.

A few seconds passed, then Cortana’s voice said solemnly, “No response. I’ve even tried to ping a few of the computers that I am familiar with there and…” she then paused again, and sighed. “I don’t think that there is a Seongnam left.”

Silence stilled the air on the bridge.

“Wait,” Cortana said urgently. “The Chief.”

The silence was instantly broken. “What?” Miranda said. The other Marines on the bridge gave Sergeant Johnson an excited look, while he stared at Cortana. She opened the UNSC E-band transmission that she was now receiving.

“Cortana, I know Lord Hood has spoken with you. I am on the surface in central Sudan, heading for the Ark. I have to beat Truth there. As you can see, they beat you back. I knew they would as soon as I heard someone was going for you. I request that you find me, because I’m going to need you. It turns out you are more significant than ever. I need you to hack into the Ark.”

“The Demon…” the Arbiter said softly.

The message cut to static, then repeated. “Cortana, I know…”

She cut the channel. “It seems we have no choice now. I have to find the Chief and touch this ship down in atmosphere – we have to get to him.”

Just then, a battlegroup of thirty Cruisers turned their noses toward the Goodness and Purity and heated their lateral lines.

An idea flew through Cortana’s consciousness, but she then discarded it. No, it couldn’t possibly work. But… if you could jump from within an atmosphere, couldn’t you jump into one? She toyed with the idea for another second and a half and then decided to risk it.

“Hold on.” She fired the Slipspace drive, and the ship disappeared.

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On an open field with rolling grasses and nothing but horizon for seemingly forever, the Chief stood alone for the first time in a long time. No Covenant yet. He had taken a Pelican, and landed it in one of the deeper lows of the rolling hills. If he attempted to fly it to the Ark site, then he would be leading Truth right to it.

He had discovered that the Ark had been kept secret for years. It had been found a long, long time ago, but had been given the top security priority ever, and its existence had been known to only a handful of people – one of which happened to be his creator.

Halsey had contacted him as soon as he landed on Earth, and demanded that he get to Seongnam via a Pelican they were sending. He hadn’t wanted to, naturally, because he wanted to get to the Ark as soon as possible. They took a risk, and assumed that Truth did not yet know where the Ark was on Earth. Human forces were deployed to stall for time.

The Chief knew what Catherine had to tell him must be life or death for all this. At Seongnam, before it had been invaded and destroyed, she had given him all the codes he needed to get into what she called “The Facility,” but she had also warned him.

“There is nothing you can do without Cortana, John. There are things that she knows that even I do not yet. A long time ago, I programmed her to spend her entire lifespan decrypting some ancient Forerunner texts that we discovered here on Earth… what I believe to be the keys to stopping and hopefully destroying the Ark. According to my calculations, she should now be done decrypting them.

And most of all, she is me. You need her.”

Overhead, he heard a sonicboom, another deafening explosion, and a snapping sound, then witnessed a Covenant Cruiser appear in the atmosphere from Slipspace. It’s nose obscured the sun from his view, and the land under it fell into darkness. It remained at an altitude of about 7,000 feet, just enough to open a grav lift, he guessed.

He figured he wouldn’t be alone for long. Any second, he anticipated hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers pouring down a lavender grav lift attached to that ship.

Suddenly, an old friend’s voice rang through his head.

“Thought we’d stop in and say hi,” Cortana said. “I isolated your signal and jumped.”

“…Cortana…”

“I know. Missed me, didn’t you?”

“More than you know. I thought your ship would be just the beginnings of Truth’s army coming to beat me to the Ark.”

“No, but they are inbound,” she said playfully. “I have a feeling that they’re going to attempt to imitate what I just did, so we need to get a move on.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

“So…” she said, halting midsentence. “Are you ready to save the world again?”

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Author’s Notes! (7.30.07)

Wow, that was a hard chapter to write. I knew that I wanted to write a final chapter, but I wasn’t quite sure how to end the short little story that I have spun. Wow. I know that it probably wasn’t that good, or elaborate, but oh well. I’m not that good at writing. But if the people liked it, then that’s awesome, because I had fun writing it. Hope you enjoyed, and keep on the lookout for new stories…

I think I’m going to take a short break, then write a little more of my SH4 Parody, of which three chapters are already done. (Hint, Hint. wink wink)

Thanks for reading!