FrankieAlton

The phantom arrived at the hangars of The Shadow of Intent, upon arrival, the group that went down was guided by a major sangheili to the command bridge, there were gathered Lord Hood, Rtas Vadum, Miranda Keyes, Sera Sorom and Fevu Zugamai in addition to the crew of the ship The monitor left the comlink on the holographic table of the command bridge and went to work on the "Will it live, oracle? Can it be saved?" said Rtas sitting in the shipmaster chair "It's not safe, this storage device suffered considerable trauma, its arrays are very unstable" said monitor 343 still working on the communicator "Maybe one of our technicians…" Lord Hood said looking at the device only to be interrupted "That won't be necessary" said Rtas and then was interrupted "Chief" said the recording "Success" said the monitor satisfactorily "High Charity, the holy city of the prophet, is approaching Earth, with an army of Floods. I can't tell you everything, it's not safe. The Gravemind knows I'm in the system" said Cortana's recording to be stopped "It's just a message" said the Master Chief looking at Rtas "Let's see it" said Rtas refocusing his eyes on the message "But he doesn't know the portal, nor where it leads. On the other hand, there is a solution, a way to stop the floods without having to fire the rest of the Halo rings" Cortana said only to fall in pain from an energy discharge "Hurry Chief. The Ark. There isn't much time" said Cortana's recording and then finished "Sorry" said the monitor looking at the master chief "It's not necessary Oracle, we've heard enough" said Rtas looking at those present "Our fight is through the portal! Against the Jiralhanae and the bastard of Truth!" The room was filled with cries of Sangheilis, though Rizo and Thel couldn't help but hear Lord Hood's sigh. "Fine, we'll stay here. We'll hold out as long as we can" Lord Hood said looking at Miranda Keyes and Johnson "Didn't you hear? Your world is doomed. An army of Flood, a Gravemind, has you in their sights, you barely survived a small contamination" said Rtas getting down from the chair "And you captain, destroyed half a continent! Maybe the floods are not the only thing I have to worry about" said Lord Hood crossing his arms "A single spore can destroy entire species, if it hadn't been for the inquisitor's advice, i would have destroyed your entire planet" said Rtas leaning back on the holographic table "Sir, with all due respect, Cortana has a solution" said Miranda Keyes next to Lord Hood "Cortana? Did you see the state of her? How damaged is she? For all we know she could have been corrupted, her solution could be a Flood trap" said Lord Hood looking at the hologram "We should go through the portal, make sure" Miranda Keyes said only to be interrupted "What we should do, commander, is to clearly understand that this is humanity's last battle, here on Earth" said Lord Hood putting a hand on his shoulder "If we go, we risk everything. To the last man , woman and child, if we stay, we have a chance" "No, if your construction is wrong, the Flood have already won" Thel said approaching the table "I'll find Cortana's solution. And I'll bring her back" said the Master Chief looking first at Thel and then at Cortana's recording "Earth is all we have left, can you trust Cortana that much?" said Lord Hood approaching the duo "Sir, yes sir!" said the Master Chief looking at the higher ranking "This will be the best or worst decision you'll ever make. What the hell Chief, I doubt I'll live long enough to find out" said Lord Hood to leave the command bridge Those gathered began to withdraw, although Thel, Rtas, Fevu and Sera turned to a wall, Rizo looked thoughtful, with one of his hands on his lower jaws and his other arm holding his shoulder "I see you were thinking about something" Sera said approaching Rizo with the rest. "They reminded me of myself" Rizo said as he looked at the Earth "In which if you can know?" Rtas said confused "They are a surrounded prey, and their survival instinct leads them to seek solutions, when I and Therum were called heretics, we both hid in Kolaar, near the coast, in a house made of stone, hidden in it, always with some stone swords, waiting for them to come and kill us, but the AI, Cortana, is an escape opening, with her plan there is a way to save both our lives and the galaxy" said Rizo now looking at the portal "Rizo, I want to talk to you somewhere else, Rtas, Sera, Fevu, you know what to do" Thel said looking at the trio Thel began to pull Rizo towards the room they both shared in Shadow of Intent, which looked more like a hotel room, with 2 separate beds, a holoprojector in the center and a nightstand with 2 chairs, while there were 3 doors more, one for the bathroom and the other 2 were the closet "What did you want to talk with me?" said Rizo sitting in one of the chairs "I saw you thoughtful in the talk between Rtas and the human, Lord Hood, you seemed somewhat annoyed by the almost early discussion between the two" Thel said while he waited by the door "The humans believe that they have lost the Earth, but they don't see that there is still hope, if we find the solution in The Ark to the Flood, they can possibly recover the continent" said Rizo looking at the part of the Earth that was crystallized "You want others not to end up like you" Thel said with his arms crossed calling Rizo's attention "you can't deny it, in The Sacred Memory I reminded you that you lost everything, you didn't own a state like me or Vadum, but if you have lost your home, your father, your mother, your brother and your life, for something the despair of Lord Hood bothers you " Rizo sighed, he couldn't hide it, how insightful Thel was, without a doubt he could read it like a book, and he barely knew much about it, while Thel received some plates of meat and glasses of water for both of them. "Yes, we were farmers, and I was happy to be something in life" said Rizo looking into space smiling at the idea "You know, in part I believed that if you belonged to a state" Thel said to leave the food of both "I would prefer that you take off your armor, we have a cycle until we reach the Ark" Rizo began to remove his armor and leave it in a base for it, only staying in his battle mail, Thel had done the same, already with it, they began to eat "Sometimes I think that the calm in this ship is perpetual, but it is not in the end" said Rizo eating "You're right Rizo, while we are in this ship, its peace will be ephemeral, although I also consider that in Sanghelios it will be" said Thel thinking while he ate "Are you thinking about how to explain the Great Schism?" Rizo said looking at Thel Rizo noticed that Thel's hand was trembling, without a doubt something had reminded him of something, the doubt came to him until Thel began to speak "I can still hear them, the San Shyuum calling me a heretic, at the same time all High Charity, Tartarus calling me an *example of those who do not respect the Covenant*, Sesa Refumee saying that what they said about the prophets was false, and then to him, Truth" Thel said while the hand in which he held his glass trembled "Thel…" Rizo said to be interrupted by a shout from Thel "They wished us a horrible fate, they called us an incompetent race, they used us to later plan a massacre, and now there is nothing I want more than the death of that brazen damned Truth!" Thel said raising his voice until it became a cry with melancholy and anger "Thel!!" cried Rizo alarmed by Thel Listening to Rizo, Thel looked at his left hand that was bleeding, the glass he had had broken in his hand from the applied force, Rizo ran to the closet and took out a medical pack that the humans had given him, took out the alcohol, cotton, tweezers and a bandage to then start working on your hand "I… I'm sorry Rizo, I shouldn't have lost control" Thel said looking away embarrassed "You're not the only one" Rizo said as he continued to heal Thel's hand. Thel failed to notice that Rizo had wound marks on his knuckles as they tended to his injuries. "Let me guess, your brother?" Thel said looking at Rizo "When the ring exploded and they told me of her death, I couldn't bear the anger and pain of such an event that hit the wall of my room until it dented it and I didn't get out of it, it was Sera who helped me recover, although I also had downfalls" Rizo said bringing the chair closer and himself closer to Thel "It would be better to rest, we must have energy for tomorrow" said Thel getting up from the chair "although I'm honest, I don't want to sleep alone" "That's why there are 2 beds" said Rizo to go up to his Thel copied Rizo's idea and climbed into his bed, the 2 beds were close and instinctively married Thel and Rizo squeezed each other's hands on the nightstand that separated both beds, and then fell into the world of dreams To be continue…