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The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 1)
Date: 28 February 2004, 7:19 PM

      Three hundred years before the Covenant crusade against the human race, there existed an elite military unit comprised of the best and most loyal warriors from across the Covenant territories. This unit was formed to act as the personal honor guard of the Prophets. This unit was known as the Iron Hands. Unlike other Covenant military units, every single Iron Hand warrior wore pure silver armor except for their commander, who wore black armor. Respected and feared throughout Covenant controlled space, these bodyguards of the Prophets were fanatically loyal, not just to the Prophets, but to the gods themselves.
      But the Prophets were corrupt and the Iron Hand commander, an Elite named Sritha Summakee, realized this. Convinced that the Prophets had strayed from the true will of the gods and that they were leading the Covenant away from the path they were destined to take, Sritha managed to persuade the other Iron Hands that immediate action was required. In a bloody coup, the Iron Hands took many of the Prophets hostage and killed others in an attempt to show the Covenant people what the Prophets had done.
      Sritha said that rule would be given back to the Prophets once they saw the error of their ways. But the military had a different idea. In a series of brutal engagements in which thousands of Covenant soldiers were killed, the military managed to push the Iron Hands from all of the Covenant worlds except for one: Eden. Eden was a backwater world, of no real importance, except for the presence of a fortress complex built into the mountains. The real importance of Eden was the presence of the remaining Iron Hands and their Prophet hostages.
      Unable to bombard the fortress into dust from space for fear of killing the Prophets, the Covenant military was forced to lay siege to the fortress. In a speech that was broadcast across every channel of the battlenet, Sritha spoke the words that would never leave the memories of those who had fought there, "We will fight to the last soldier, and when we are dead, the gods will call upon our damned souls to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy!" The battle lasted for twenty-one days. More Covenant died in those twenty-one days than in the rest of the campaign to destroy the Iron Hands. Eventually, by sheer numbers, the military was able to defeat the Iron Hands, killing every last one of them. Many of the Prophet hostages were killed by the Iron Hands before the soldiers could get to them, but in the end, enough Prophets were saved to take back power and reinstate peace and order in the Covenant realm.
      The Prophets decided that they had to rid the Covenant territories of the "evil" that was the traitorous Iron Hands. In one of the bloodiest purges in the history of the Covenant, the Prophets ordered that the name of the unit was to be cast out forever, the names of every Iron Hand soldier were erased from the annals of Covenant literature, their entire families murdered and all mention of the coup erased from history databases. It was as if the Iron Hands had never existed. Things quieted down, and the people started to forget.
      Due to the need for bodyguards for the Prophets, a new organization was formed called the Elite Protectors. These Elites were chosen for their skill like the Iron Hands had been, but the most important quality that was needed for the Protectors was blind loyalty to the Prophets and no one else.
      Three hundred years later, when the crusade against humanity began, one warrior would rise, and the spirits of the Iron Hands would rise with him...

Three hundred years before the Crusade (2225 by the Human Military Calendar)/
A city on the Covenant capitol world

      Nora Summakee ran through the crowded streets, holding her baby son in her arms. She was the wife of Sritha Summakee. She had heard of his death through the propaganda of the Prophets. She also knew that there were soldiers searching for the family of the Iron Hand soldiers to murder them. She had seen one of her friends murdered because she was the sister of one of the Iron Hands in her husband's squad. It was only a matter of time before they found her. She was carrying her ID chip, as required by law, and it would give her and her innocent son away.
      Squinting to see farther down the street, she saw a patrol of Covenant soldiers stopping people and asking for their IDs. Looking behind her, she saw yet another patrol moving forward, combing the crowd for Iron Hand relatives. She felt the sinking feeling of despair as she looked around, trying to find a way out, a place to run. There was nowhere to go. She saw another mother and her child pass by her. She was a poor Elite, as made obvious by her ragged clothing. She might be susceptible to money. And Nora had plenty of money.
      Nora grabbed her by the arm. She stopped and looked at Nora, confused. "Hey, I'll give you two hundred work credits if you will agree to exchange ID chips with me," Nora said, ashamed at what she was about to do.
      "Two hundred? Not enough," she answered.
      "Two hundred fifty. I need to make the trade now. Don't worry. You won't get in trouble. I just need another ID for something," Nora whispered nervously.
      The other Elite eyed her suspiciously, but the idea of having two hundred fifty work credits was too much for her. That much money could feed her for three months. "I'll take it. Here, take the chip," she said.
      They exchanged chips and Nora handed over the money. Pocketing the money, the other Elite disappeared into the crowd. Nora looked at the data chip. Her new name was Forna Nomee. Nora turned and walked down the street until she was stopped by one of the Covenant soldiers, a tall blue-armored Elite. He asked for her ID chip. She gave it to him. He started to scan it. Nora prayed that he did not recognize her. Satisfied, the Elite handed the chip back and waved her on.
      Hurrying away with her son in her arms, she heard a scream behind her. Turning, she saw the mother that she had exchanged chips with surrounded by Covenant soldiers. Their eyes met, both realizing the shame and horror of what Nora had done. She tried to run from the guards, but they raised their rifles and opened fire. A hail of weapons fire tore through her, sending her to the ground, right in the middle of the street, killing both her and her child.
      Nora looked away. She continued on, not looking back. She had done what she and her son needed to survive, nothing more.

The Crusade (2532 by the Human Military Calendar)/
The Human colony of New Beginning

      Field Master Soka Nomee looked out over the battlefield. His vision was obscured by smoke from several burning vehicles, human and Covenant alike. Bodies were strewn across the barren landscape, lifeless, their dead eyes staring into the eternity of the sky. Blood stained the dirt and ran lazily in little streams from torn and tattered corpses. The battle for New Beginning was over. This had been the last stand of the humans. They had sold themselves dearly, as evidenced by the burning remains of six Covenant Wraith mortar tanks, as opposed to the shattered hulks of two of the human Scorpion tanks.
      Soka Nomee let this sight remind him of the cost of victory. He knew that the humans would claim the lives of many more Covenant soldiers before the Crusade was completed. The Covenant were winning, but the price was a heavy one. The Prophets had declared that the humans were an affront to the gods and that they must be destroyed. The Covenant had blindly followed the Prophets, entering into the genocidal campaign known as the Crusade.
      A call came out from behind Soka, "Field Master! A data disk for you, sir!"
      Soka turned and took the disk from the runner and thanked him. The runner bowed low, maintaining eye contact as he backed away. Though his rank deserved great respect, Soka found the runner's behavior odd. The way the runner looked at him as he turned and disappeared into the smoke reminded Soka of someone who knew something that everyone else did not. And whatever that secret was, the runner found it slightly amusing. This bothered Soka, but he put it out of his mind. He had to get back to his base to review the disk.
      He made his way over to his personal Ghost rapid attack vehicle, stepping over the twisted remains of two Marines and some Grunts. He mounted the Ghost and stomped down on the pedals, speeding off into the distance.


      Soka watched the landscape rush by as he gunned the engines of the Ghost, reveling in the speed. It was dangerous to push a Ghost to its top speeds, as an accident could send him flying from the Ghost and would most likely kill him. He did not care. He had been plagued by a longing deep down inside of him all of his life. He longed for purpose; he longed to know his destiny. He wanted to become what he was meant to be. No matter how much he meditated or how much he rose within the ranks of the Covenant military, he couldn't shake that feeling that he was not going where he was meant to go.
      So he did dangerous things, risky things, such as speeding across rough terrain at the top speed of his Ghost. He had always been known for his risky gambles. He had demonstrated his willingness to charge into battle, weapon blazing, without any concern whatsoever for his own life. This had earned him many promotions. Now he was a Field Master, in command of the entire 17th Special Operations Combined Arms Strike Team.
      The field headquarters emerged over the horizon. The Covenant would be pulling out soon in preparation for the glassing of the planet that was going to take place in a matter of hours. The base was full of activity as Grunts and Jackals moved equipment into waiting Phantom dropships for transport. Slowing down so as not to make it look like he was in a hurry, Soka pulled up in front of the headquarters and dismounted from his Ghost. He walked up to the front doors, which where guarded by a pair of motionless Elites. Nodding to the Elites, Soka walked inside.
      Soka made his way to his private quarters. He entered his code into the keypad by the door and it hissed open. He stepped into the dimly lit room and waited for the door to close behind him. He sat down at a table in the center of the room and retrieved the data disk. He inserted it into a reader mounted on the table. A hologram flickered to life over the table, displaying a symbol unknown to him. Normally, if a message were from another commander, the symbol would be of the unit that the commander represented.
      The symbol was of an armored fist thrust into the air, surrounded by an aura of light. The armor that covered the hand was shimmering silver. Curious, Soka minimized the message for the time being and ran a database check on the symbol. After running through the symbols of every military unit in the Covenant military, the computer came back with zero matches.
      Soka frowned. That couldn't be right. Perhaps it was a new unit, one that had not yet been added to the databases. Soka brought the message back up and the room was once again filled with the ghostly silver aura of the symbol. Soka continued the message. The symbol disappeared and was replaced by a single line of text. It read: 'Become who you were meant to be, Soka Summakee.'
      Confused and startled, Soka almost took the data disk from the reader right then and there. It was obviously a mistake. The runner had delivered the disk to the wrong Soka. But there weren't any other Sokas on New Beginning. It didn't make sense. Overcome by curiosity, Soka continued the message. More text appeared:
      'After you have secured yourself on the Invisible Truth, know that we will be meeting with you during the plasma bombardment. Stay in your quarters so that we will know where to find you. This is important. We hold the truth about you and your destiny. We wish to share it with you.'
      Now, Soka was about ready to report this to the Prophet aboard the cruiser Invisible Truth. Soka was assigned to the Truth, and it was his duty to alert the Prophet to strange happenings aboard the ship. But something stopped him. He stared at the line about his destiny. Perhaps it was worth seeing what all of this was about. He would make sure that he was in his quarters when they arrived. He always carried a plasma sword with him wherever he went, and he was well known in the Special Forces for his skill with the weapon. He could use it if things went bad. If things turned out good, then he would benefit.
      He continued the message, and the symbol reappeared. It signaled the end of the message. The hologram dimmed into nothingness. The disk popped out of the reader. When Soka went to reach for it, the disk suddenly heated up. Soka drew his hand back and watched as the disk heated itself to such a temperature that the chip inside melted. Soka knew what had just happened. It was a self-destruct device, designed to eliminate all traces of the message inside. The heat had fused the disk to the reader, breaking both pieces of machinery.
      Soka cursed. He stood and started packing his things for the trip back to the Invisible Truth. Though slightly annoyed at the message, Soka knew that he would find out what was behind all of this soon enough. All he had to do was wait.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 2): Secrets
Date: 3 March 2004, 1:18 AM

The Crusade (2532 by the Human Military Calendar)/
Aboard the warship Invisible Truth above the Human Colony New Beginning
In preparation for bombardment of the planet

      Soka Nomee sat in his private quarters aboard the Cruiser Invisible Truth, facing the door. His deactivated plasma sword lay on the table in front of him. He kept his right arm on the table so that he would be able to snatch it and activate it in a split second if his visitors were to be hostile.
      He felt the barely noticeable movements of the cruiser as it positioned itself to join the rest of the fleet in the glassing of New Beginning. After landing on planet and killing all of the human soldiers and a large number of their civilians, Covenant troops had pulled off the planet back to the warships in orbit. Now they were going to bombard the planet with their naval class weapons. Their warships' plasma weapons were designed to melt and blast the largest of warships from existence and their power was now about to be unleashed on New Beginning. When they were done with it, New Beginning would be nothing more than a burning hell where no sane creature would ever even think about living.
      Soka had watched the first bombardments of the Crusade, but he had stopped going to the bridge to watch. Somehow, it sickened him to see it. He knew that he should hate these humans and should enjoy watching their colonies burn, but he didn't. While others took pleasure in massacring their civilians, Soka took no pleasure in it. He felt honored to fight human soldiers and to witness their valiant last stands and to push back their brave attempts to breach his lines. But he did not tell anyone that. It could be considered heresy by the Prophets.
      There was a knock at the door. Soka tapped a holographic control panel twice with his right hand, and the door hissed open. A Field Master and five regular Elites strode in. The doors closed behind them. The five Elites behind the Field Master bowed deeply. The Field Master merely nodded. Soka gestured for them to rise and asked, "Where you the ones who gave me the message?"
      Soka knew it to be true, for one of the Elites standing behind the Field Master was the runner who had delivered it. "Yes, Soka, we are the ones who sent you that message."
      Soka gestured to the seats around the room and the six Elites sat in a rough semicircle around his desk. "What have you come to tell me?"
      "I am Field Master Noka Nomenee. I knew your father," the Field Master said.
      Now that he thought about it, Noka seemed older than most Elites. The Elite seemed much older than him. "You knew my father? That's not surprising. Many people knew him," Soka said.
      "Yes. Your father was a very distinguished warrior. But few really knew the truth about him. Not even his own son knew who he was." Noka said, observing Soka for a response.
      "How dare you! He was my father! How could I not know him?" Soka snarled, jumping to his feet, his hand hovering over his plasma sword.
      Noka held up his hand. "Hear us out. We have a long story to tell you. Maybe then you will understand."
      Soka sat down and glared at the Elites. "Well?" he said.
      Noka went through the entire story of the Iron Hands, from their formation and their role as bodyguards of the Prophets to their coup led by their commander, Sritha Summakee. Convinced that the Prophets had become corrupt and were no longer following the path laid out for the Covenant by the gods, Sritha managed to convince all of the Iron Hands to follow him in his coup. Noka described how they took a large number of the Prophets hostage and how the military grew enraged and devoted their entire strength to killing the Iron Hands. The battles raged across the Covenant Empire as the Iron Hands were pushed off of all the Covenant worlds except for one: Eden.
      The surviving Iron Hands and their Prophet hostages holed up in their underground fortress beneath the mountains of Eden. They sold themselves as dearly as they could, but eventually, every last one of them was killed. Many Prophets died, but the military managed to save many others. Rule was restored to the Prophets. They ordered the execution of every person related to the Iron Hands, saying that their disloyalty had most surely been passed on to their offspring. What resulted was a series of brutal executions of their entire families and all of their children.
      All except for one mother and her child. She was Nora Summakee, Sritha's wife. How she managed to get away was still a mystery. The military thought that they had killed her, but they had been wrong, dead wrong. Nora had assumed the name Nomee and passed on the truth of their heritage to her son. He told no one. His mother told him all about the Iron Hands and how his father had died for a great and honorable cause. After Nora died, her son had a single child, another son. He had then passed this on to his son and so on until Soka's father. Soka's father had never told him, deciding that the secret would be too much of a burden on his young son. Instead, he had entrusted the secret to his closest friend, Noka Nomenee, the Field Master that sat before Soka.
      "And why did he entrust this secret to you instead of me?" Soka asked.
      "He was afraid of the burden it would place on your shoulders, like I told you before. He trusted me, because I owe him my life. He saved me from certain death on sixteen separate occasions. Now, I return the favor."
      "And why do you tell me this now?" Soka asked.
      "Because your father told me another thing. If I viewed the time to be right, I was to inform you. If you were not ready, then, I was to let the secret die. But there is one small problem, Soka. Your father made me believe in the Iron Hand cause. Here we are, engaging in a brutal genocidal campaign with fanatical eagerness, sending millions of our brethren to die on human worlds merely because the Prophets said that the gods were disgusted with the humans. I don't think that the Prophets are listening completely to the Gods. I think that they are bending their will for their own benefit. We must stop this now, before it becomes too late."
      "You mean that you want me to take up the banner of the Iron Hands and lead a rebellion? And we do this to save the human race? That sounds a bit foolish to me," Soka said warily.
      "Search your heart, you know that what I have told you is true. It is your destiny. We are not only doing this for the sake of a few humans, we are doing this to save the millions of Covenant soldiers who will die in this war. The Prophets are driven by hidden motives, and I suspect by greed. You know that to be true. I see the emotions playing over your face. I would hate to see the youth of our generations sacrificed on the alter of greed." Noka said.
      "You are taking a risk, Noka. What would you do if I said no and went to inform the Prophet aboard this ship about your plans?" Soka said, testing him.
      "We would try to stop you. And even if you did turn us in, we would reveal your true heritage to them, and they would confirm it through your very own DNA, the DNA of your fathers. They would execute you on the spot. While most of the Covenant have started to forget the Iron Hands, the Prophets have not."
      "You are correct. And who are these Elites with you?" Soka said.
      "These are my most trusted friends. They too know about the plot. Soka, I have many loyal troops aboard this ship who would be willing to die for you and the cause."
      "So what are you suggesting? Are you saying that you and your troops are going to follow me against the entire Covenant Empire? Where would we start? How could we hope to succeed?" Soka said.
      "Eden," Noka whispered.
      "Eden? How would we get there? I am no Ship Master, and I have never heard of Eden before today," Soka asked.
      "We will take over this ship and take the Prophet hostage. I know where Eden is. I have been there before. I followed a group of mercenary bandits out there and annihilated them early in my career. It is cursed soil, home to none except for the occasional band of outlaws and dark caste members lucky enough to stumble upon it." Noka said.
      Soka chuckled. "Ironic isn't it. If we were to end up going there, we could be nothing but members of the dark caste as well."


      Outside the protection of the Invisible Truth, the fleet started a plasma bombardment. It was highly coordinated and very efficient. They fired in a crisscrossing pattern that filled the space between the ships and the surface with the harsh light of plasma blasts. Every square centimeter of New Beginning would be glassed. The clouds burned away under the savage bombardment and the oceans evaporated under the heat. Rock ran like water and was soon turned to glass.
      Inside the safety of the ship, Noka and his comrades continued to persuade Soka that the Iron Hand cause was right. Soka found himself believing and soon, he agreed to take his rightful place at the head of the new rebellion. By the end of their conversation, Soka was as fanatical about the cause as his ancestor Sritha had been. They had concocted a plan to take over the ship. All they had to do was wait for the right moment to strike.
      Beneath them, New Beginning burned.


      Field Master Soka Summakee strode onto the bridge in his resplendent gold armor. He was still getting used to his real name, but he liked it. Somehow, it fit him. Soka was pleased now. He had purpose; he had discovered his destiny. He was to lead a rebellion to restore the Covenant society to its former glory. By forcing the Prophets to follow the gods instead of their greed, he would save Covenant society from going astray, led by power hungry Prophets. Not all of the Prophets were serving themselves. Some remained true to the wisdom of the gods, that was made obvious by their actions. But many were corrupt. He would force the corrupt Prophets to see it his way, or die.
      He looked around and saw his friend, Ship Master Ruka Ronee, standing on the raised platform in the center of the bridge, observing the fleet as it moved away from New Beginning and prepared for the jump into Slipspace. Next to him, was the Prophet Ronu, the Prophet that was traveling on this ship in order to observe the fighting. Ronu was a brutal Prophet, known for his fondness of using execution as a punishment. Ronu was a very powerful Prophet, and everyone both feared and respected him. But Soka felt neither fear nor respect for this Prophet. Soon, Soka would be holding all the power.
      Soka walked onto the platform and nodded to his friend, Ruka. Noka had told him that Ruka was not part of their conspiracy, but that he could be turned easily. But until then, Soka would have to be wary of him. Ronu was staring intently at one of the screens that displayed the ruins of New Beginning. Soka looked at the Prophet, sitting high in his floating chair. He wore a tall headpiece made of metal and decorated with amber panels. His eyes glowed green and were filled with malicious intent. Ronu was a corrupt Prophet.
      Looking around the room again, Soka saw some of the guards starting intently at him. They were most likely some of Noka's loyal troops. Good, he would need them to pull this off.
      "Soka, my friend. What brings you to the bridge?" Ruka asked.
      "Nothing, I just wanted to be present when the ship goes into Slipspace," Soka answered.
      The Prophet turned to look at another screen, exposing his back to Soka. Now was the time. In one swift movement, Soka pulled out his sword, activated it, and grabbed the Prophet from behind, pulling him closer to him. Soka put the glowing energy blade to the Prophet's neck and said, "If anyone fires, Ronu dies."
      Guards leveled their plasma rifles at him, but none opened fire. Soka's friend, Ruka, stared in shock and horror, not believing what he was seeing. One Elite took a step forward, but was stopped when another guard raised his plasma rifle and pointed it at his head. More guards turned and aimed at their comrades. These were Noka's men.
      "Put down your weapons. Do it! Now!" Soka yelled.
      They reluctantly obeyed, all except for Noka's soldiers. They policed the weapons from the ground. One of the doors hissed open, and Noka burst into the room, followed by an entire squad of rebels. They rounded up all of the guards and marched them out, towards the brig. Soka released the Prophet. Noka came up and led the Prophet away as well. Surrounded by rebels, Ruka looked around, ready to fight his way out. "Don't even think about it, Ruka. We need you to take us through Slipspace to these coordinates," Soka said, tossing him a data stick.
      "Why should I help you?" he growled, glaring at Soka as he snatched the data stick out of the air.
      "Please. You trust me, don't you? I know what I am doing. This is important. I can't explain now. Just get us there," Soka responded.
      Ruka looked confused. Soka had just threatened to harm a Prophet. That was a crime punishable by death. But yet, Ruka did trust Soka. They had been friends for many years. But, what Soka had just done was so horrible that Ruka was wary. But he had no choice. If he did not do it, they'd simply find someone else. "Alright. I'll do it. I hope I won't end up regretting this," he said.
      "Trust me, Ruka. You won't," Soka replied.

      One by one, the Covenant ships in the system jumped into Slipspace. Pinpricks of light appeared around the ships. Space split, and they disappeared. The Invisible Truth was the last to jump, but it was going to a different place than the rest of the fleet. It was going to Eden, the site of the last stand of the Iron Hands.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 3): Eden
Date: 6 March 2004, 4:52 AM

The Crusade (2532 by the Human Military Calendar)/
Aboard the warship Invisible Truth en route to Eden

      Soka Summakee walked up to the doors of the brig and nodded to the guard. The doors slid open and Soka stepped inside. The Prophet Ronu was locked up in here. For almost the entire trip through Slipspace so far, Ronu had been spewing curses about how the gods would damn all of their souls and bar them from paradise. In order to preserve moral, Soka had ordered all the guards to leave the inside of the room and made sure that there were no prisoners in the same cell block so that none of them could be turned against him.
      The prisoners were still neutral and could be convinced to turn to their side. Many had volunteered already. Through constant explaining and persuading, more than eighty percent of the crew and its contingent of troops had already sworn allegiance to the Iron Hand cause. Soka himself had managed to convince his friend, Ship Master Ruka to join him. Ruka had been very uneasy about it, but in the end, he seemed to agree as well. The others stubbornly refused to join a band of "dark caste scum" and "rebel bandits." That was too bad. Once they reached Eden, those who would not turn would have to die. They could not afford to lug prisoners with them everywhere. Even if they did turn, they most likely would not be completely devoted to the cause. They could not afford that either.
      Soka waited for the doors to close and then he stepped up to the shimmering energy barrier that kept Ronu locked up in his cell. The second Ronu saw him, he started yelling curses and threats, laden with references to the wrath of the gods. Soka waited patiently for the Prophet to stop, and when he did not, Soka summoned his most threatening, most frightening voice and growled the words, "Shut up, or you will die."
      The Prophet stopped in mid-sentence. He then asked, "Who are you? Why are you doing this? The gods will curse you in eternity for this!"
      "No, Ronu, they will not. I do not go against the gods, I serve them. I merely go against those who would bend the will of the gods for their own purposes. In other words, I go against corrupt Prophets like you, Ronu."
      The Prophet started to curse again, but one look from Soka stopped him. "As for who I am, I am Soka Summakee, the only living descendent of Sritha Summakee, commander of the Iron Hands."
      The Prophet's eyes widened in disbelief. "That is not possible. No, it can't be. We destroyed the Iron Hands! We killed them and all of their kin!"
      "Wrong, Ronu. Somehow, my ancestors survived, hiding behind the name Nomee. We fooled you, and now, here I stand, a direct descendent of Sritha himself."
      "I refuse to believe it. I need evidence," Ronu said, turning his head.
      "Fine," Soka said.
      Calling over his personal communications channel, Soka ordered, "Srikk, bring me my DNA sample."
      After a few units, the doors slid open and a Jackal rushed in, handing a vial to Soka. The Jackal bowed and went back out.
      "What is that?" Ronu asked.
      "This is a sample of my DNA. I am quite curious, Ronu. Perhaps you have the data that was wiped from the databases on your own computer terminal. If you really want to make sure, you can check this blood and see exactly how closely I match Sritha's DNA.
      Ronu stared at the vial and then looked at Soka. "I do have the data. In fact, I have the genetic records of every Iron Hand soldier in my personal database. I also have the history of the coup. Only we Prophets have access to that information. I am curious as well, Soka. But tell me, how did you find out about all of this? How did you learn of the Iron Hands?"
      "When information cannot be spread through databases, it can be spread through spoken words. What the Prophets did has passed down from father to son through the generations, Ronu."
      "But how can you be sure?" Ronu asked.
      "I can't. But even if I am not truly a Summakee, my devotion to the Iron Hand cause will not lessen."
      "I don't have to cooperate with you. I don't have to tell you the passwords into my database."
      "Even if you didn't, Noka has acquired a brand new AI that can crack those codes. He is very efficient at it. Or, failing that, I could torture it out of you."
      Ronu turned pale and quivered with rage. Soka laughed and the mocking sound echoed off of the walls in the dark cell block. "Do you still want to confirm my lineage?" Soka said.
      "Yes. Take me to my quarters and I will get the information."
      "Good, Ronu. Maybe there is still some hope for you."


      Keta, a brand new Covenant AI, equipped with the best that the Covenant had been able to come up with for his construction, sat hidden in the Invisible Truth's mainframe, observing the things happening in the ship. Field Master Noka had helped in his programming and had managed to make sure that Keta would not feel enraged over the rebellion. Instead, his ethics drive had been secretly altered in a way that he would actually support the rebellion. Keta, when displayed in a holographic panel, assumed the form of an Elite in black armor.
      He was in the middle of searching through the Prophet's database, trying to find the history of the Iron Hands, when the Prophet entered the room with Soka and a few guards and Engineers. Keta withdrew from the Prophet's database and watched what was happening through a hidden surveillance unit.
      The Prophet sat down in front of the computer terminal under the watchful eyes of the guards. He entered the database and started bringing up the information related to the Iron Hands. First, he brought up the genetic information of Sritha Summakee, which Soka then uploaded onto a disk. He handed the disk to one of the Engineers. The Engineer accepted the disk and departed, followed by the rest of the Engineers and two Elite guards. Soka then uploaded all of the information on the Iron Hands onto another disk. He kept this one.
      Keta noticed that Soka was speaking to the Prophet. He listened in. "We still respect the holiness of your position, Ronu. We will not force you to reveal to us the secrets that are contained on that database. Let me remind you that we are here to eliminate corruptness in the Prophets, not to ruin all of them. I will lock this room until we need it again. No one shall enter, and our AI will not interfere. Guards, take Ronu back to his cell. If he tries anything foolish, kill him." Soka said.
      They all left the room. The door locked behind them. If Keta really wanted to, he could find out everything on that database. Well, maybe not everything, as some secrets were so protected that not even his own hacking ability could allow him to see it. And to disobey the leader of the rebellion would go against his ethics engine's programming. So Keta erased all of the information that he had already found and turned his attention from the Prophet's quarters. He would not look again unless Soka himself gave him approval.


      The Engineers soon came back with the results of the DNA test. It was very close. He showed the same genetic markers that Sritha had, plus a few others inherited from his mother and others. There was no question about his lineage now. He was a Summakee. Soka proudly displayed this before Ronu, but the Prophet remained silent. Soka saw fear and horror in his eyes, despite the Prophet's silence. Ronu knew now who he was dealing with and was afraid. To Ronu, the Iron Hands represented evil, and to be talking to a direct descendant of their commander was the equivalent of speaking with a demon.
      Soka did not care. Now he was sure of his legitimacy at the head of the rebellion. Everyone aboard was told as the message was broadcast throughout the ship. The message was greeted by a mixture of cheers from the rebels and curses from the ones still loyal to the Prophets. Ronu sat still, silent.
      A call came for Soka over the battlenet. It was Ship Master Ruka. "Soka, we are about to exit Slipspace."
      "Thank you, my friend," Soka answered. He rushed to the bridge to catch his first glimpse of Eden. The screens were blank as there was nothing to see outside in Slipspace. Suddenly, they snapped to the blackness of normal space, broken only by the light from a multitude of stars. In the middle of the central screen was Eden.
      It looked just like many of the human worlds that Soka had been involved in conquering. He could see oceans and landmasses, clouds and storms. A closer look revealed mountain chains. Noka walked onto the bridge. Seeing the screen, he nodded. "That's it. Eden. The place where the Iron Hands made their last stand."
      "I'm taking my 17th SOCAST with me to the surface. Noka, Ruka, you can come with me if you like. We're going to land and explore the ruins of the base." Soka said.
      He sent out a call for all members of his Combined Arms Strike Team to assemble in preparation for a drop on a potentially hot LZ. All over the ship, members of the 17th stormed the armories, donning the black armor of the Special Forces and loading up on ammunition, weapons, and grenades. Within fifteen units, the entire SOCAST was ready and standing at attention in front of their Phantom dropships. They would follow their commander into hell if he required it of them.
      Soka had chosen to bring them down with him for many reasons. First, they were the unit that he was technically in command of and they trusted him as their commander. Second, they were the best military unit on the ship. Noka was in command of a mere CAST, which could not compete with a Special Operations Team. The other troops on board, though good, would not hold under extreme combat conditions like the 17th could. Nicknamed the Infidel Stompers, the 17th were to be his personal bodyguards through whatever destiny awaited him. They would be his Iron Hands.
      Soka, accompanied by Ship Master Ruka and Field Master Noka, made his way to the bay and ordered his troops to board their dropships. After they were all strapped in and ready to go, Soka secured himself in one of the Phantoms. He looked around him in the cramped quarters of the dropship and saw the motionless black armored Elites and Grunts on both sides of him. They looked sinister and threatening in the darkness of the Phantom's interior. But then again, that was what the black armor was supposed to convey.
      The Phantom lifted off and flew out of the bay, followed by five other Phantoms. Soka himself carried no weapon except for his sword. He had decided not to bring a conventional weapon. His own armor was black, just like the other Elites, instead of the customary gold armor that signified his rank. Special Forces field commanders could opt for either color. The only thing that could be used to tell him apart from the other Elites under his command was the rank symbol on the back of his armor.
      Soka closed his eyes and waited. He was taking no chances in his arrival on Eden. Abandoned for three hundred years, no Covenant ship ventured into the Eden system. Rumors of cursed spirits and angry demons filled the Covenant Navy. Only bandits and dark caste members ventured into the system in order to hide from justice. Occasionally, a Covenant ship did enter the system to chase bandits who fled here, but they always left as soon as they could, and no one dared to land on the surface. The members of the dark caste were not friendly and would not respond well to an apparent Covenant invasion. They would view the Cruiser in orbit and an entire Special Operations Combined Arms Strike Team as a Seeker group intending to wipe them from existence.
      Soka was worried about engaging in a battle with them, if they were here at all. He might be able to enlist them into his ranks. Though disgraced and dishonored, members of the dark caste would make fearsome warriors. They were not bound by a code of honor, and saw nothing dishonorable in trickery, deceit, and betrayal if it meant survival. If they were willing to join his cause, Soka would gladly accept them, but if they were trouble, or if they showed signs of betraying him, he would smash them. Though capable warriors, the dark caste never could quite match fully equipped Covenant soldiers.


The Crusade (2532 by the Human Military Calendar)/
On the surface of Eden, above the underground Fortress Dark Horizon

      An Elite crouched behind a rock, staring into the sky. They knew that the Covenant were coming. This could signal the end for the dark caste on Eden. But they would not go without a fight. The Elite wore battered blue armor. His shields no longer worked and the dark caste members here did not have the resources or the Engineers to repair their equipment. He held a plasma rifle, but it was poorly maintained. Scratched and even dented, the weapon still worked, but was nearing the end of its operational lifetime.
      As the Elite looked into the sky, he noticed the shapes of six Covenant dropships as they neared his position. "Here they come!" he yelled.
      The comm. system in his armor did not work either. He slowly ducked farther down behind cover and waited with forty other dark caste members to ambush the Covenant. They could not hope to stop that many Covenant soldiers, but they would sell themselves as dearly as they could while the rest of the dark caste soldiers prepared Fortress Dark Horizon's defenses. The fortress had once belonged to a military group and a huge battle had been fought there, but the Elite did not know who had once fought here and did not care. What he did care about was preventing his own extinction.


      Soka felt the dropship flare to a stop and start to descend. "You are sure that this is where the fortress is supposed to be?" he asked Noka over the comm. channels.
      "Almost one hundred percent sure, Soka. There is a lot of wreckage and destruction in this area, but not on other places on the planet. This is where the battle was fought. The fortress is somewhere nearby."
      The door to the troop compartment opened and Soka quickly unhooked his harness. The others did the same and together, they leapt from the Phantom and scattered, taking up cover in the rocks. After everyone had dropped, the Phantoms lifted off and started to circle the area, ready to provide covering fire at a moment's notice.
      Soka searched for movement. There was nothing. The wrecks of ancient vehicles that had long been considered obsolete by the Covenant littered the mountainside. Craters decorated the landscape. But there was no sign of life.
      "Let's move out, Stompers!" Soka signaled.
      The 17th moved from cover and began to fan out, exploring the LZ. They would start to search the mountainside once the LZ was secure. Soka activated his plasma sword. It burst into life, filling the air with its energy. All they had to do now was find the fortress.


      The dark caste Elite raised his head just enough so that he could see the enemy. In the center of their formation was a black armored Elite with a plasma sword. It was obvious that he was the commander. In fact, all of them except for two wore the black armor of the Special Forces. Special Ops presence on Eden was a bad sign for the dark caste. But, perhaps he could regain his long lost honor by dying here valiantly on the field of battle. The more he thought about it, the more the dark caste Elite liked the idea. Raising his plasma rifle and aiming it at the enemy commander, the Elite burst from cover, his weapon blazing.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 4): Dark Horizons
Date: 21 March 2004, 2:00 AM

      "I sense something, commander. I don't know what it is, but it's got me on edge," one of the Special Ops Elites under Soka Summakee's command told him.
      Suddenly, a hail of plasma struck Soka full in the chest, making him stumble backwards. Plasma and needle fire erupted from all around them, tearing into the exposed Special Ops troops. Soka saw an Elite in battered blue armor charging straight at him, his weapon blazing. The Elite next to Soka jumped in front of him and took some of the hits, allowing Soka's shields enough time to recharge.
      Once they were fully charged again, Soka charged around his loyal soldier, plasma sword raised for a killing blow. Seeing him charging at the blue armored Elite, none of Soka's troops fired on the Elite, respecting Soka's right to the kill. The Elite screamed, his rage echoing off the mountainside as he fired his plasma rifle close to its overheating point. Soka heard the insistent beeping of his armor's warning of low shields. Ignoring it, he charged up to the Elite and slashed. The blade cut through the Elite's armor and bit into its flesh. The Elite spun around from the force of the blow, a spray of dark purple blood following him.
      Soka was surprised. He had expected the Elite's shields to absorb the impact of the blow, but this Elite did not have energy shields. He must have been one of the members of the dark caste. They had no steady source of new equipment and were forced to use old, worn out, and battered equipment. What they did have, they usually got from dead Covenant troops that they managed to ambush from time to time.
      The Elite was lying face down on the ground. He raised himself up on one arm and pulled out a plasma grenade. Before the Elite could activate it, Soka rammed his sword through the Elite's back. It went completely through the Elite. With a last gasp, the Elite collapsed and died.
      "We've got movement and enemy contacts all around our position, commander!" one of the Elites frantically yelled over the battlenet.
      "Keep calm. Just get them off of us so that we can explain our reason for being here," Soka said.
      Soka saw a plasma grenade fly through the air over his head. It landed on one of his Grunts. The Grunt let out a yelp and tried in vain to get the glowing grenade off of him. The grenade exploded, vaporizing the Grunt in a blinding flash of light. Soka looked around and saw his troops putting out a wall of fire, suppressing the dark caste ambushers. But even with the deadly accuracy of Soka's Special Ops soldiers, the dark caste members still braved the fire just to get off a few shots. Soka saw that at least three of his Grunts were down, lying in pools of their blood.
      The others were taking cover behind rocks. Soka wished he had brought a plasma rifle or a needler with him so that he could have something to fire back at the dark caste members, but there was nothing that he could do about that now.
      Suddenly, they stopped firing. Just as quickly as they had appeared, the dark caste disappeared. "Sir, the dark caste members are pulling back," an Elite reported.
      Why? Sure, they had taken significant casualties, as evidenced by the sprawled corpses of seven of their Elites, but the dark caste never passed up an opportunity to kill Covenant soldiers. It was a mystery, but Soka would gladly take the respite.
      The dark caste knew the area very well, a fact demonstrated by their sudden appearance and their sudden disappearance. It was very possible that they had found the ancient fortress of the Iron Hands. They could lead him to it. But to do that, he had to show them that he was not a Covenant hunter team sent to kill them. Opening a free channel, he sent out a message.


      The dark caste members ran, keeping low. One of the secret entrances to the Fortress Dark Horizon was up ahead. Their leader had just called them to retreat into the fortress because preparations for defense had been completed. They had bought enough time for the other caste members to set up traps and ambushes. Now, they had to get inside so that they could mount a defense against the superior warriors of the enemy Special Ops Strike Team.
      A message came over one of the free channels. The voice was unfamiliar. It was one of the hated Covenant soldiers, their commander. He was asking for a cease fire and a parlay with their leader. He kept repeating that they were not Covenant troops, but rebels.
      The dark caste soldiers slipped through the entrance and disappeared into the mountain. They passed others who were guarding the entrance and ran into their commander, who was striding towards the entrance.


      Soka ordered his troops to establish a tight perimeter around the landing zone. He was about to try contacting the dark caste bandits again when a call came over a free channel, "I am Jukka, leader of the dark caste here on Eden. If you are not Covenant troops, then who are you?"
      Soka played his trump card, "I am a descendent of one of the Iron Hands and these soldiers are my followers. I know that you have found the underground fortress of the Iron Hands. We are not here to kill you. We will welcome you into our ranks to help carry the fight to the Prophets. We merely ask for the use of the fortress."
      "The Iron Hands? Yes, that makes sense... Then you are here because you are trying to continue their fight against the Prophets?"
      "Yes. That is correct. They are our enemy, not you," Soka answered.
      "We care not for your grudge or your cause. If we were to join you, what would we get in return?"
      "Not only would you get to keep your lives, you would get new equipment. We also have plenty of Engineers to repair the equipment that you already have."
      "I admire your bravado. I think that we could hold off your Strike Team from within this fortress. Your death threat does not scare me. But your offer of fresh equipment tempts me. You know our weakness and you exploit it well," Jukka said, chuckling.
      "So we have reached an agreement? A cease fire at least?" Soka said.
      "Yes, a cease fire until we finally settle on an agreement. If we join you, we will take you to Fortress Dark Horizon. If you displease us, we will not."
      "Fine. I am sure that you will understand our reasons for being here soon enough. Give me a chance to explain."

      And so Jukka and many of his dark caste comrades went to Soka's LZ to negotiate. After a lengthy explanation of the Iron Hands and the rebellion, Soka managed to convince Jukka and his men that their cause was a just one. Even though the dark caste had no concept of a cause to follow, they wanted one. This, combined with the fact that most of them had been put in the situations they were in now by the Prophets, made them susceptible to Soka's argument. Within an hour, not only had all of the dark caste members sworn allegiance to Soka and his Iron Hand rebellion, but arrangements had been made for the repair and refit of all of their equipment.
      Soka called on the Phantoms to go and bring down a contingent of Engineers to help with the process. As the Phantoms were leaving to return to the Invisible Truth, Jukka led Soka and his troops into Fortress Dark Horizon.
      They came upon the nearby entrance and filed in. The entrance was only wide enough for a single Hunter, so the four Hunters in Soka's strike team went in first, one by one, to secure the room in case the dark caste were planning to attack them in the narrow space. Then, Soka went in, followed by the rest of the Infidel Stompers. The entrance sloped downwards, leading deeper into the mountainside. Once they had cleared the entrance, Soka could see the first of the major hallways. It was a long, narrow hallway with a very high ceiling and offshoots to the sides. What struck Soka as strange was the fact that the inside of the fortress was made of stone, not some stronger material. But then again, it was three hundred years old.
      And littering either side of the hallway were corpses, or what was left of them. They were nothing more than empty suits of armor, empty except for the skeletons still inside. Seeing his stare, Jukka explained, "There was once a huge battle fought here. It must have been the one you told me about. We had to move the remains to the sides of all of the hallways in here so that we could move around without tripping."
      "Nobody bothered to try and bury them?" Soka said.
      "Apparently, the Covenant pulled out real quick after the battle. There must have been too many bodies for them to bury in the hurry they were in to get off of Eden. From what I hear from your tale, it makes sense. I'll show you why. I'll take you to where the defenders made their last stand inside Fortress Dark Horizon."
      "Why, what's there?" Soka asked.
      "You'll see. Maybe you can make something of it," Jukka said, and then he led them deeper into the fortress.
      They passed more corpses. He noticed some were wearing what had once been a bright silver colored armor. Looking over at Noka, he said, "Those must have been Iron Hand soldiers."
      Noka merely nodded. Soka looked around at the halls. There were scorch marks and craters and scoring on the walls and floor. They passed through a short, obliterated hallway that had been littered with bits of armor. There had obviously been a big explosion there. Behind him, his Infidel Stompers were silent.
      Ship Master Ruka, Soka's best friend, matched his pace with Soka's. "Do you believe in the restless souls of the dead?" Ruka asked.
      "No. But these halls do make me think of such things," Soka answered.
      "Yes, the corpses are a very effective form of psychological warfare, even for those who don't believe in such things," Ruka answered.
      "Do you believe?" Soka asked.
      Ruka did not answer. Jukka kept up a running commentary as they made their way deep into the fortress, "You can see the fortifications such as the sniper points above us and the alcoves in the sides that are perfect for ambushes. We have not needed to construct anything in the way of defenses here. All we need are a couple of plasma grenades, and we can hold the entrances for hours before we would have to fall back deeper into the structure."
      "And the Iron Hands managed to hold this place for twenty-one days. Incredible," Soka muttered.
      "Do you know how many the Iron Hands managed to kill? We have never been able to count all of the bodies," Jukka asked.
      "Thousands, Jukka. Thousands. I am not sure of the exact number. I'll have to look at the data disk I got from Ronu for that."
      "How many Iron Hands were there at the battle?"
      "All that were left. A few hundred, if I'm not mistaken," Soka said.
      "Damn, they must have been one hell of a unit," Jukka said.
      "They were. They were the best."
      They rounded a corner and went down a wide hallway, flanked on either side by a row of columns. It was a temple of the gods. They walked in through a huge set of doors. The room was enormous. The ceilings were high, much like a human cathedral. Columns supported the ceiling, reaching high into the air above them. Statues of the gods and of valiant forgotten heroes were set in a complex pattern, almost as if they were guarding the shrine. Geometric symbols and letters covered the stone floor and chased each other up the sides of the columns, all the way to the ceiling. It was beautiful.
      Beautiful except for the hundreds of corpses that lay strewn about. Soka left the group and strode towards the center of the room, towards the alter. It was surrounded by the bodies of dead Covenant soldiers. But on the alter were the bodies of seventeen Iron Hands. On top of the shrine was a corpse wearing black armor. That was strange. No Covenant unit at that time in history wore black armor.
      "Who among the Iron Hands wore the black armor?" Soka asked, his voice echoing and distorting in the huge chamber so that it sounded like the restless spirit of one of the corpses.
      Several of the dark caste members cringed at the sound of the voice. Noka spoke up, "Only the commander of the Iron Hands wore black armor."
      Soka turned at looked at the corpse in front of him. "Sritha Summakee? If you can hear me, I am Soka Summakee, your descendant who has come back to finish what you started."
      Jukka walked up. "Look at the inscription in the stone at his feet."
      Soka looked down and saw that Sritha's corpse lay on top of a bloodstained and tattered banner. Soka knelt and pulled the banner out. The symbol on the flag was still recognizable after three hundred years. It was a silver armored fist thrust into the air, surrounded by a ghostly silver aura. It was the symbol of the Iron Hands. Soka moved the banner and saw that words had been carved into the stone at Sritha's feet. Soka crouched lower to see them. It had been done hastily and with a crude instrument. Soka read the words aloud, "We will fight to the last soldier, and when we are dead, the gods will call upon our damned souls to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy."
      As his words echoed eerily off of the walls and ceiling of the chamber, a gust of wind seemed to flow through the shrine, chilling all of those standing inside. Some of the dark caste members started getting nervous, their eyes darting back and forth, from shadow to shadow. Soka stood up and looked around. "This is where the Iron Hands died in the service of the gods. This is a holy place."
      Jukka nodded. No one else stirred.
      "Commander! Commander! A ship has just appeared in the system!" came a static filled transmission from the Invisible Truth in orbit.
      "Calm down, Elite. Who does the ship belong to?" Soka yelled into the comm. channel.
      "There are no symbols on it. It is a dark caste ship I think, fleeing from Covenant ships."
      "Then welcome them. We are on the same side."
      "No, wait, I'm picking up...Sir, another ship has appeared! It's a Covenant Cruiser! It reads as the Sword of Light!"
      "Damn! Do not engage either ship. If the Sword of Light asks, say that you are also here to exterminate dark caste bandits but that your Ship Master is on the surface and that you are confident that the Sword of Light can take out the ship alone."
      "Right, Commander!"
      Soka turned to Jukka. "We are going to capture the Sword of Light. We will need the firepower. It is important that they think that my ship and I are on their side until the moment that we strike."
      "Ruka! You are coming with me back to the Truth. Noka, stay here and wait for your Combined Arms Strike Team to arrive with the Engineers. Then, escort them into Fortress Dark Horizon and immediately start helping out Jukka and his troops."
      Soka then turned and looked out over his 17th SOCAST, "Infidel Stompers! You are coming with me. We are going to board the Sword of Light and we are going to capture her!"
      The Infidel Stompers let out a yell of bloodlust and one by one, everyone filed out of the shrine. Soon, it was as empty as it had been before. Empty except for the hollow pieces of armor and skeletons that lay scattered about in silent testimony to the eternal damnation of those who had fought and died there.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 5): Sword of Light
Date: 25 March 2004, 4:40 AM

      The blackness of space was somehow calming to Soka Summakee. He admired its beauty and its peacefulness. Once again, Soka was sitting in a Phantom dropship with members of the 17th SOCAST, the troops under his direct command. Nicknamed the Infidel Stompers, the 17th Special Operations Combined Arms Strike Team was one of the best Special Ops units in the Covenant military. Soka was proud to have them under his command. He and a single squad of Infidel Stompers were en route to the Covenant Cruiser Sword of Light.
      Under the ruse of trading supplies, the Phantom had been allowed to quickly come over. The dark caste ship that the Sword was hunting was badly damaged and was trying to limp away. Seeing that his prey could not escape, the Ship Master of the Sword had decided that it couldn't hurt to delay his destruction of the dark caste scum for a little while, especially since Soka had said that he and his troops aboard the Invisible Truth were in dire need of supplies.
      What the Sword's Ship Master didn't know was that the inbound Phantom contained the best squad in the Infidel Stompers, who were armed to the teeth and ready to capture the ship.
      Soka, learning from his mistake on the surface of Eden, had brought both a plasma rifle and a plasma sword with him so that he would have a weapon to use in every situation. He also carried twelve plasma grenades. Around him were the members of Purity in Spirit Squad, the only squad in the Infidel Stompers composed entirely of Elites. The Strike Team's designation as Combined Arms meant that it had Grunts, Jackals, and Hunters, as well as Elites, but the command squad was still an all-Elite squad.
      "Friendly Phantom, we are dropping shields now and you are cleared for docking bay 3A."
      The pilot answered, thanking the operator for his kindness. The Phantom flew into the bay and flared to a stop. The Elite to Soka's right raised his needler and pointed it at the door as he undid his harness. Soka unhooked his harness as well and pulled out his plasma rifle. The dropship stopped a few meters over the deck and opened its bay doors. Letting out a battle cry that shook the docking bay, the Infidel Stompers leapt from the Phantom, emptying their weapons at enemy troops.


      Kolz was the Elite put in charge of overseeing the transfer of supplies from the docking bay into the Invisible Truth's dropship. It was dull duty, perfect for a low ranking Elite like Kolz. He had to sit and watch as the Grunts and Engineers moved crates back and forth. How inspiring.
      The Phantom flared to a stop in front of him and began to sink to the deck. The Grunts under his command moved in, preparing to make the transfer of supplies. The doors fell open on the dropship and instead of crates and Grunts, black armored Elites jumped from the dropship, weapons blazing. The Grunts around the dropship were immediately blown backwards as plasma tore through their armor and flesh. The Engineers cowered behind crates as the black armored Elites stormed past them.
      Confused, but smart enough to realize that these were not friendly Elites, Kolz raised his weapon and began to fire.
      He fought valiantly, putting out a large amount of fire, but the combined fire of so many Elites took down his shields in a matter of seconds. Plasma struck his armor, melting through it and charring his flesh. Screaming in pain, Kolz collapsed to the ground. He reached for a plasma grenade, activated it, and threw it as hard as he could in the direction of the enemy Elites. They saw it coming and jumped out of the way. The explosion shook the floor of the docking bay, but it did nothing except to damage the shields of a few Elites.
      Kolz knew it was over. He struggled to his hands and knees and then sat up, his plasma rifle raised in a vain attempt to fire. His vision blurred from the pain of the plasma burns, but he could still see the Elite that walked over to him, his right arm held off to his side. In the Elite's hand was a deactivated plasma sword. The Elite triggered it and it glowed to life, illuminating the Elite's face and armor in the darkness of the bay. The Elite's armor seemed to come alive in the glow of the blade, filling Kolz with fear.
      Everything about Elite armor had been designed for both intimidation and effectiveness. The angular helmet gave off an aura of hatred that Kolz was feeling all too well. The eerie black armor seemed to shimmer in the light and the jagged armor on the Elite's forearms seemed that much more threatening. Kolz found himself unable to fire at the Elite, the demon that appeared before him. It strode up to him, raised the glowing energy blade, and brought it down on Kolz's head with blinding speed. The demon in the Elite armor was the last thing Kolz ever saw.


      Soka stepped back from the Elite he had just killed and let its body slump to the floor. Dark purple blood spilled out onto the deck from its head, forming a pool around its upper body. Soka turned and looked back at his Infidel Stompers. He gave out orders. He and three other Elites were going to make their way to the bridge. The rest of the Infidel Stompers were to hold the bay, creating a distraction so that Soka and the three Elites could slip into the bridge with active camouflage. Soka had exchanged his previous armor for the camouflage armor just for this mission. It meant that he did not have shields, but that was a sacrifice he would have to make if he wanted to get all the way to the bridge unnoticed.
      He reached down and tapped the button that activated the camouflage. He watched as his hand slowly faded from view as a result of the light bending camouflage. The other three Elites with the camouflage followed suit. Soka knew the way around this class of Covenant warship like the back of his hand. In fact, the Sword of Light had the exact same layout as the Invisible Truth. He found the door that would get him to the bridge and slipped through it, followed by the other camouflaged Elites. The rest of the Infidel Stompers took up defensive positions around the bay, under the protection of the Phantom's gun turret.


      On the bridge of the Sword of Light, Ship Master Palma frowned as his AI brought his attention to one of the screens. The screen showed a team of Special Ops Elites firing upon his men in docking bay 3A. It didn't make sense, but yet, it happened. He replayed the fight and watched the Elite with the sword kill a blue armored Elite that had been in charge of the supply transfer. "Send in as many troops as we can spare. Do not send them into the bay. Have them set up outside every exit of the bay until we can see what is going on. Call Prophet Lokna to the bridge. He needs to see this. Maybe he can explain," Palma ordered.
      "Yes Ship Master," his AI responded.
      There was not a Prophet aboard every ship, but Lokna had wanted to see the destruction of a particularly troublesome group of dark caste members, so he was present aboard the Sword of Light. They had followed them to this planet, a long abandoned backwater world that Palma had never been to before, but that the dark caste scum were trying to flee to.
      "What is it, Ship Master?"
      Palma spun around and saw Lokna moving towards him on his floating chair. "There has been a troubling incident in the docking bay, and I was wondering what you would make of it, Excellency." Palma said, bowing.
      He then showed the Prophet the surveillance footage of the takeover of the bay. "My troops have surrounded them. They are trapped there. They cannot leave unless we drop our shields, and they cannot break out of the bay. What should I do with them?"
      "Kill them. It's this world, it is cursed. This whole system is cursed. That is why the dark caste bandits always flee here. What ship did they come from?"
      "They came from the Cruiser Invisible Truth, which is also in this system."
      "The Truth? They aren't dark caste! What is this? Be wary, Ship Master. Dispose of the troops in the bay and destroy the dark caste ship. Then we will find out what is going on with the Invisible Truth."
      "Yes, Excellency," Palma said.
      In the middle of that conversation, no one had noticed that a door had hissed open and then closed. A guard thought he saw something in the shadows by the door, a faint distortion of the light, but it was gone a few seconds later and he attributed it to his lack of sleep. Ship Master Palma turned to look at the Prophet when he thought he saw the air ripple around him. His experience kicked in and he shouted out a warning to Lokna, but it was too late. A plasma blade came to life and pressed itself against Lokna's neck. Palma gasped and started to take a step towards Lokna when an invisible arm grabbed him from behind. Palma felt the cold surface of a plasma rifle pressed against the side of his head.
      "Put your weapons down or the Ship Master and the Prophet die!" the Elite with the plasma sword said. The guards obeyed. Two black armored Elites materialized behind the guards and policed their weapons.
      "Ship Master, order all of your soldiers aboard this ship to stand down!"
      Palma hesitated, but the Elite yelled, "Do it! Now! Or I'll kill this Prophet!"
      Palma obeyed. His troops were just about to charge into the docking bay when his order came over the battlenet.
      "I've got incoming dropships. Lower your shields!" the camouflaged Elite ordered.
      Palma obeyed. The shields dropped. Five Phantoms entered the docking bays and the rest of the Infidel Stompers poured into the Sword of Light's docking bays. Within the hour, the entire crew had been contained in the ship's brig and other isolated rooms. The process began again, just like it had when Soka had taken control of the Invisible Truth. A few immediately volunteered to join Soka's growing army, most took more convincing, and some would not join.
      While he worked on enlisting the crew of the Sword into his ranks, Ship Master Ruka, Soka's friend from the Invisible Truth, managed to hail the dark caste ship and soon, everything was under control. Lokna was alone in his own cell block aboard the Sword, just like Ronu was in the Truth to prevent them from lowering morale or keeping undecided prisoners on the side of the Prophets.
      The dark caste ship released all of its dropships to ferry its members down to the surface to link up with Jukka's dark caste band on Eden. Soka was happy. He was developing quite a force here, and it had not even been a single day since the takeover of the Invisible Truth. He had two Cruisers in pristine condition and one badly damaged dark caste frigate. With the inclusion of the new dark caste troops, he now had enough soldiers to form an entire division. The problem was the group of Covenant who did not want to join.
      He ordered all of the prisoners that still refused to join them executed except for the two Prophets. They could not afford to have to deal with disloyal troops. If the situation became dire and they had to defend one of their ships from attack, the last thing that they needed was a group of enemy soldiers behind their backs, even if they were unarmed. If the enemy got to them, they could easily arm the prisoners. Also, killing them saved Soka the trouble of feeding and supplying soldiers who were useless to him. That would let his supplies last much longer before they would have to go on a raid to get more.
      Soka Summakee laughed as he boarded the dropship that would take him back to the surface of Eden. This crazy rebellion of his just might work. It just might work. Perhaps, after the flames of this rebellion had died down, the corrupt Prophets would see the error of their ways. Perhaps the fighting spirit of his legion of soldiers would echo throughout the Covenant Empire, and the Prophets would have no choice but to listen and to eliminate the corruptness within their own organization. Maybe Soka's Iron Hand rebellion would be the dawn of a new era of glory for the Covenant Empire.
      Soka sure hoped so, because in the end, his army did not stand a chance against the full might of the Covenant military. Once the Prophets found out the true scope of their rebellion, they would bring all hell crashing down on their heads. And Soka did not think that they would be able to survive. There was a chance, but it was slim. Of course, Soka did not tell anyone that. If his men found out that their own leader was harboring doubts about their ability to succeed, then morale would plummet.
      But Soka would fight, no matter what the odds. He could not escape it. It was his destiny to be here and fight. He would fight until he and all of his soldiers were dead if that's what it would take for the Prophets to hear them.
      There was no way for Soka to know it, but at that exact moment, a breeze filtered through the shrine in Fortress Dark Horizon underneath the mountains on Eden, rustling the tattered and bloodstained banner of the Iron Hands.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 6): Turning Back
Date: 28 March 2004, 2:32 AM

The Crusade (2532 by the Human Military Calendar)/
Fortress Dark Horizon, Eden

      Deep within the mountains of Eden, Soka Summakee walked through the halls of Fortress Dark Horizon with his friend, Ship Master Ruka Ronee. They passed by Soka's troops who were also walking the halls, admiring the ancient beauty of the fortress. Soka's eyes fell on the ancient corpses that littered the hallways. He could have ordered everyone to clear the fortress and the mountainside of the skeleton-filled pieces of armor, but he decided that he would leave them there as a warning to anyone who dared to attack Fortress Dark Horizon.
      The Covenant would come eventually. He knew that. And when they did, he would play off of their fear of the rumored restless spirits that seemed to inhabit the halls of the fortress. Many of the rumors were true. Soka had heard the moaning and the sudden gusts of wind, but he knew it to be nothing more than the wind. The halls were designed to give that kind of effect. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why the Covenant army had abandoned Eden so quickly after destroying the Iron Hands that they hadn't even had time to bury the bodies.
      Ruka spoke up, "We need an orbital repair yard if we ever plan to get the Path of Righteousness in any shape for battle."
      The Path of Righteousness was the dark caste frigate that they had saved from sure annihilation at the hands of the Cruiser Sword of Light, which was now also under their control.
      "Actually, there is an orbital repair dock at Ambient Light," Soka said.
      "Are you thinking of capturing it?"
      "Yes. There is a good chance that if we capture the station, there will be one or two warships that will be helpless in the docks. We could double the strength of our fleet in one strike, and who knows how many we might be able to enlist into our ranks from the crews."
      They went on talking about their plans for the building of their army until they reached a hallway that seemed to be a dead end. Soka was about to turn around when he noticed that there were no corpses here. Walking deeper into the hallway, he came to the end. It was a wall covered with complex geometric patterns. Ruka followed him. "What is it?" he asked.
      "There are no bodies here," Soka answered.
      Soka ran his fingers along the stone when he discovered that there was a break in the wall. Following the line with his fingers, he realized that it formed the shape of a door. He pushed on it, but it did not budge. Looking around, he saw a similar line on the wall to his right, forming a hand-sized rectangle. Wondering if it was some sort of panel, Soka placed his hand on it and pressed. The panel gave way and the doors swung open.
      Soka and Ruka looked at each other with quizzical expressions and they walked inside. It was very dark. Soka pulled out his plasma sword and activated it. He held it high above his head for illumination. Ruka did the same with his own sword. They walked deeper into the room. It was long, like a hallway. But there was something different. On either side of the hallway were suits of armor. Iron Hand armor. Moving closer to one of the suits of armor, Soka saw that these pieces were in perfect condition, unlike the battered hulks that littered the hallways. They had not been touched for three hundred years. They were obviously obsolete. But something caught his attention. The symbol of the Iron Hands was emblazoned on the right chest plate of every piece of armor. Since the Iron Hands had been a unit comprised entirely of Elites, there were no suits of armor for Grunts, Jackals, or Hunters.
      As they moved to the back of the room, they noticed that every other niche was empty. It seemed that each Iron Hand soldier had two sets of armor so that they would always have a spare. They got to the very end of the long hallway. Against the back wall were four niches for armor. Three were occupied. The fourth was not. The armor sitting in the niches was black. He recognized that armor. It was identical to the armor of the warrior that lay on top of the tattered Iron Hands banner in the shrine. "Sritha's armor!" Soka whispered.
      Looking up, they saw another banner. This one was untouched. Though old, it had retained its shine. In front of them glowed the armored fist of the Iron Hands. "I am going to have the Engineers fix up all of the 17th SOCAST's armor to have this symbol on it, just like the armor we see here," Soka said.
      "Let's get the Engineers to rig up some lighting in here and we can let the others see it." Ruka suggested.
      "Yes. We shall do that."
      The friends walked out of the chamber.


      In space around Eden, the Covenant had placed several spy drones that were meant to collect reports from Covenant patrols that passed through occasionally. The Prophets had put several in the vicinity of Eden so that ships could report on any strange activity in the system if they happened to be there. The drones would relay the reports all the way back to High Charity, a Covenant holy city known as the Sanctum of the Hierarchs. The Prophets had not forgotten the events that had transpired on Eden three hundred years ago.
      From the surface of Eden, a burst transmission was sent into space. It was intercepted by the spy drones, which then transmitted the message via a hyper pulse generator built into them, sending the message to the next nearest system. The message thus traveled from system to system at an astonishing speed, and in a few minutes, it would reach High Charity.
      An alarm went off on the bridge of the captured Cruiser Sword of Light. Ship Master Palma asked his AI what was wrong. The AI quickly decoded the message and displayed it on the screen before him. It read: 'The Iron Hands live again on Eden. The threat they pose grows greater by the day. They have two Prophets as hostage. High and mighty Prophets, keepers of the words of the gods, save the Covenant Hegemony from this cancer before it spreads any further!'
      Palma stared at the message in disbelief. He turned to the hologram of his AI. "Where did this message come from?"
      "The planet, Ship Master."
      "Triangulate its exact position with the other ships," Palma ordered.
      "It came from the fortress."
      "The fortress? How is this possible? There must be a traitor down there!"
      The AI laughed, "Are we all not traitors, Ship Master?"
      Palma would have rebuked the AI, but all he could do was stare. Palma could not bring himself to answer that question, and that fact chilled him to the bone. He spun on his heels and stormed off of the bridge.


      Soka Summakee sat in the shrine, fuming over this recent turn of events. The Prophets knew about them now and would send all the troops that they could spare to crush them. Soka knew that he had to capture the orbital repair docks in orbit around Ambient Light while he still had the chance. He decided to let the dark caste stay behind to guard the fortress and their two Prophet hostages while he took all of his troops into space to board the warships. They were going to capture those orbital docks. It was their only hope. Secretly, Soka knew that even if they were able to capture the docks and the warships being refitted within, it would not help them one bit against the huge fleet that the Prophets were going to send against them. They were doomed.
      But Soka would still fight. He would fight because there was no other choice. For the first time in his life, Soka's course was set. There was no turning back.


Three days later/
Coming out of Slipspace aboard the Cruiser Invisible Truth

      The Invisible Truth tore its way out of Slipspace and entered the Ambient Light system. The Sword of Light appeared next to it. Soka Summakee stood on the deck next to his friend Ship Master Ruka. To their left were the space docks. Six warships lay within, its full capacity. If they could capture it, they would triple the size of their fleet. But Soka saw something else that crushed any hope that the sight of a full dock might have instilled in him. Ambient Light was being used as a gathering point for a huge fleet. Looking out over space, Soka saw at least thirty warships moving about, not including the six in the docks. Three more appeared out of Slipspace and moved to join the gathering fleet.
      There was no way they were going to be able to snatch the docks from under the noses of that many warships. They were doomed.
      A call came in from the ship closest to the Truth. It was a frigate. "Invisible Truth? Ship Master Ruka, we thought we had lost you in Slipspace back at New Beginning!"
      "They don't know who we are," Ruka said.
      "It does not matter. We cannot launch our troops at the station. They will be immediately identified as an attack force. We should go now. Keta, recharge the Slipspace capacitors. Relay the same order to the Sword." Soka said.
      "What?" Ruka said, not believing.
      Soka said, "Can't you see that fleet? I will not sacrifice my troops and my ships on mission doomed to failure. We're going back to Eden. All troops will land on the surface and prepare to defend the fortress. All of the ships will hide in the shadow of Eden's moon. You will have to try to ambush them when they come for us, take out as many of their troop dropships as you can before they land on Eden. You won't last very long, though."
      "I see. So it's over then," Ruka said.
      "Yes, Ruka, it is over."
      They made excuses over the comm. channels, buying enough time for the Slipspace capacitors to recharge. Then, the ships jumped back to Eden. Soka explained the situation to the crew and his soldiers on the way back during the Slipspace trip. They all knew that they were going to die. Now that the question of whether or not you were going to live or die was no longer relevant, what was important was how you died. These thoughts ran through the minds of every soldier under Soka's command. They all resolved to die honorably and to sell themselves as dearly as they could.
      Such a death would almost guarantee them all a place in paradise. But that was only if what they were doing was really in the interest of the gods. If it wasn't, every single one of them would be eternally damned. But if things were as they believed it to be, if they were truly fighting for the interests of the gods, then they would be forgiven for their treachery and would spend eternity in paradise.
      They could only hope.


One day later/
Fortress Dark Horizon, Eden

      Soka Summakee stood in the armor room that he and Ruka had found and put on his new armor. It was the same armor that he had worn before, except for the symbol of the Iron Hands that had been emblazoned on its right chest plate. He slid the armor on piece by piece. He flexed his hands in the gauntlets and attached the jagged forearm protectors to his arms. Once they were secured, he attached armor to his upper arms and then slipped armor onto his legs. He then slipped on the bulky back plate and secured it. Next, he secured his right and left chest plates and joined them together. Finally, he slid his helmet on and made sure that it was secure. He activated his shields and heard the air snap as his shields charged to full.
      Grabbing his plasma sword, Soka marched out of the armory. His troops ran through the hallways, desperately trying to reach defensive positions throughout the fortress. Soka merely walked. The enemy would not be here for another hour or so. There was plenty of time.
      Soka knew that there was a traitor in their midst, but there was no way for him to find out who it was. The traitor had sent the message that was about to kill them all. Soka knew that they were doomed because in space, above Eden, the Covenant fleet had appeared. There were fifty Covenant warships and more appeared every hour. Swarms of dropships were en route to the planet's surface. What the Covenant fleet did not know was the fact that Invisible Truth and Sword of Light and even the battered frigate Path of Righteousness were waiting in the shadow of the moon, out of sensor range. When the dropships got close enough to the planet, Soka's warships would explode from their hiding place and destroy as many of the dropships as they could before the Covenant fleet blasted them from existence. There was no other way.
      Soka was ready for the end. Now, if only it would come quickly, so he could finally be at peace.

To Be Continued

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Part 7): The Second Siege
Date: 2 April 2004, 5:11 AM

      Ship Master Ruka Ronee stood on the bridge of the Cruiser Invisible Truth, watching the battle unfold before him. In the distance, he could see the shapes of the sixty-three Covenant warships currently in system. Odd, though, that there were only sixty-three. Where were the other two?
      It did not matter. What mattered was the swarm of incoming dropships that were angling towards the planet. His job was to destroy as many of them as possible before the Covenant fleet ripped his ship apart. He and the other two Iron Hand ships, the Cruiser Sword of Light and the badly damaged frigate Path of Righteousness moved out of the moon's shadow. They set a course straight for the swarm of helpless dropships. The dropships did have a swarm of Seraph fighters providing cover for them, though. Hopefully, he could count on his ship's defenses to keep it alive long enough for them to cripple the invading army.
      Pinpricks of light started to form above the dropship swarm. "In-system Slipspace jump!" Ruka's AI warned.
      Space seemed to split open and two Covenant frigates appeared. Obviously, the fleet was aware of their plan to try and destroy the invasion force. Ruka was confident that he could easily take out two frigates with his Cruiser. Ruka was a gifted Ship Master. But Ruka had embarked on his own course, and there was no turning back.
      "Keta, I am abandoning ship," he told the AI.
      "What! We have a battle to fight!" the AI said, astonished.
      "No, Keta, you have a battle to fight."
      "You have betrayed us!" Keta yelled.
      "Yes, but aren't we all traitors in the end?" Ruka said.
      Ruka looked around. There were no guards to overhear the conversation as every spare soldier was on the ground preparing to repulse the invasion. There were two Engineers, but they were ignorant. Keta might decide to tell someone of Ruka's betrayal. Ruka briefly thought about ripping out Keta's disk and destroying it before he left, but he knew that that would leave the ship without a Master. So he decided to leave Keta there so that the ship would still be firing and moving.
      Ruka strode out of the bridge and to the lifeboats, leaving Keta utterly alone.


      The first dropships were entering the atmosphere. They contained the finest Covenant troops that the Prophets had been able to find on such short notice. Together, they numbered in the tens of thousands. When the fleet launched the second and third waves, the total on planet would number almost one hundred thousand soldiers. The incoming force contained Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Hunters, and even Brutes. Included in the force were several Special Operations Strike Teams. Everyone knew that the rebels were doomed on the planet.
      The Prophets had released valuable information to the commanders of the invading force, including the location of the fortress and all of the entrances that were known. There was no map of the inside. The last time the Covenant had come to destroy the Iron Hands, they had pulled out so quickly afterwards that they did not even bother to make a map. They had all been afraid because they had believed the fortress and the planet to be cursed. Now, history was repeating itself.


      In space, Keta maneuvered the Invisible Truth into a position that put the frigates between him and the Covenant fleet so that the enemy fleet wouldn't be able to fire on him. Keta had devoted every ounce of his processing power to the fight at hand, as he would need it to last very long. As a result, he temporarily forgot about Ruka's betrayal.
      As the Truth cruised over the dropship fleet, it opened up in a hail of plasma fire, swatting Seraph single ships from the sky and burning dropships into unrecognizable melted hulks. Behind the Truth came the Sword of Light and the Righteousness, following Keta's lead and unleashing a plasma hell on the small ships beneath them. The two frigates unleashed their plasma torpedoes at the oncoming Iron Hand ships.
      Keta timed his maneuver perfectly. He started a downward spin that brought the ship crashing through the dropship fleet and the Seraphs, destroying many of them. Explosions dotted the sides of the Truth, stopped by its shields. Rather than have the plasma torpedoes follow the Cruiser into the chaos of the dropship fleet and risk destroying more of their own craft, the frigates redirected the torpedoes at the Sword of Light. Ship Master Palma of the Sword followed Keta's lead and dove his Cruiser into the fleet below. Once again, the frigates redirected their plasma, this time at the Path of Righteousness. The frigate was too badly damaged to do any evasive maneuver in time. It sluggishly started to nose down into the dropships, but it was too slow. The torpedoes impacted.
      The first one splashed over its shields. They flickered and died. The second torpedo tore through the weakened hull of the Iron Hand frigate. The hull started to break apart and fiery tendrils of plasma leaked from fissures in the hull. The ship came apart. Separating into huge chunks of ship, the pieces of the Righteousness fell through the dropship fleet, destroying some unlucky dropships.
      The two Iron Hand Cruisers came back up through the cloud of dropships and Seraphs, the explosions of the ships giving them a fiery aura. The Truth and the Sword emerged from the dropships at almost point blank range with the frigates.
      Both frigates concentrated their fire on the Invisible Truth. Plasma impacted all along the Cruiser's port side. The Truth's shields flickered and died under the bombardment. Plasma reached in to savage the side of the Cruiser. Armor melted away under the bombardment. The Truth and the Sword opened up on the frigate nearest to them together with everything they had. The combined fire of two Cruisers overwhelmed the ship's shields in seconds. The plasma tore into the ship's hull, exposing the support structure beneath. Compartments explosively decompressed, sending the frigate spinning out of control. The stresses were too much for the damaged hull, and it started to break apart, sharing the same fate as it had dealt to the Righteousness.
      The second frigate opened up again on the Truth. The Cruiser's shields had only started to recharge and the incoming plasma smashed them. The rest of the plasma penetrated to rip into the already damaged port side of the Truth. In some spots, the armor was completely stripped away, exposing the support structure beneath.
      Pinpoints of light began to form in the space around them again and this time, four more ships appeared, two frigates, and two Cruisers. Keta knew that this was the end. They could not hope to last against such awesome firepower. But Keta knew that he had no other choice but to continue fighting. The Sword of Light fired all of its weapons at the Covenant ships, which, for the moment, were dead in space because of the energy drain from a pinpoint jump. The Sword's plasma impacted all over a helpless Cruiser, which began to tumble away, shedding huge portions of its hull and its armor. Fires broke out as it fell through the dropship fleet and began to fall towards the atmosphere. It would burn up in the atmosphere. It was doomed.
      The other three ships came back on line and immediately started to move toward the Sword of Light. Keta watched as the three ships fired on the Sword at the same time. Keta did not watch the result. He knew. The Sword wouldn't survive. Keta opened up with all of his weapons, sending streaks of plasma towards the frigate that had harassed his port side. The plasma tore into the ship, penetrating its shields and melting through its hull. Behind him, Keta detected the echoes of a huge explosion behind him. Turning his attention from the burning frigate, Keta saw that the Sword of Light had exploded in a huge, fiery, plasma riddled explosion.


      On the surface of Eden, it was nighttime. Looking up into the sky, Soka Summakee could see what looked like a meteor shower. He knew better than that, though. He knew that those were the wrecks of hundreds of dropships and Seraph single ships, as well as fragments of the hulls of destroyed and damaged warships. The second siege of Eden had already begun. The first Covenant dropships had already landed and around him, tracers from plasma weapons and the blinding flashes of plasma grenades split the night.
      Suddenly, a tremendous explosion flared like a supernova in the sky over the mountainside, lighting up the whole area for kilometers in every direction in a harsh false dawn. "Commander, was that one of ours?" came a panicked cry over the battlenet.
      "No, it wasn't," Soka answered, quickly shutting off the comm. system.
      He feared the worst, that it was indeed one of theirs. But in reality, there was no way for them to tell. Explosions like that caused an ionization of the atmosphere that would make communications with ships in orbit impossible for many long minutes.
      He tried to establish contact anyway, "Ruka, come in. Invisible Truth, what is the situation? Sword of Light, report in!"
      No answer. Silence.
      "Damn it!" Soka cursed.
      He knew that the Path of Righteousness was down already. Ship Master Palma of the Sword had informed him of that. But there was no way for him to tell what was happening up there now.


      Keta dove the Invisible Truth right into the center of the enemy ships' formation, targeting the frigate closest to him as he passed by it. The exchange of weapons fire was brutal. Once again, the Truth's shields failed and more plasma got in to ravage his port side. But the trade off was worth it as Keta's own plasma crippled the frigate. It started to fall away, dead in space, out of control, and doomed to burn up in Eden's atmosphere.
      Suddenly, the enemy Cruiser took the frigate's place and they exchanged fire as they passed each other. The Truth's port side was now completely stripped of armor. Another pass there would destroy her. The enemy Ship Master knew that. While the last frigate distracted the Truth, the Cruiser got the jump on Keta again and came in for another pass. But that was what Keta wanted.
      Right when the two Cruisers were about to deliver full broadsides to each other, Keta essentially flipped the Invisible Truth onto her back, showing the smaller frigate her damaged side and showing the Cruiser her fully armored starboard side. The exchange of fire devastated both ships. The enemy Cruiser got the worst of it. It started to limp away, plasma streaming from rents in its hull. But with her shields down, the Truth was easy prey for the frigate. The frigate's plasma tore into the weakened port side of the ship and suddenly, Keta knew it was over.
      The Truth started to break apart. The last thing Keta thought before a plasma torpedo hit vaporized the bridge was that he should have told Soka about Ruka's betrayal.


      With nothing to stop them now, the Covenant dropships were landing all over the mountainside and the valley. Soka's soldiers poured an immense amount of suppression fire down at the charging Covenant troops, but it seemed that no matter how many they killed, more seemed to take their place. The ground shook with the impact of grenades and fuel rod cannons, and the hillside ran thick with the blood of the hundreds of corpses that littered it. The occasional explosion, both from the sky and from the ground lit up the area enough for Soka to see.
      "Sir! Covenant forces have broken through our lines!"
      This was followed by an agonized scream over the battlenet. Soka looked and saw that there had indeed been a breech. Covenant forces streamed through the gap in the lines. Illuminated by a grenade explosion, Soka saw that the leading Covenant troops were Hunters and Brutes.
      Soka activated his plasma sword and charged towards the Covenant. He noticed that some of them were shooting each other, not sure who was on what side in the darkness. He smiled; their confusion would better serve him. The Hunters saw him coming from the light of his plasma sword and opened up.
      Harsh green projectiles impacted all around Soka, damaging his shields, but otherwise not hurting him. He kept up his speed until he was right in front of the first Hunter. The Hunter lifted his massive metal shield in an attempt to crush Soka. But Soka was quick. He dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding the swinging shield. In the same motion, he swung his plasma sword. The energy blade caught the Hunter in one of the gaps in its armor, slicing through its flesh and destroying vital organs. Bright orange blood splashed over Soka's arm as he continued his slash until the blade exited out of the Hunter's side and back. The Hunter fell sideways, collapsing to the dirt.
      The other Hunter charged forward. Soka primed and threw a plasma grenade. It stuck to the Hunter's chest armor, but he ignored it and kept coming. The grenade exploded, melting some of its nearly impervious armor, sending molten rivulets dripping off of it and to the ground. Soka decided to run up to it and repeat what he did with the Hunter's bond brother.
      The Hunter swung its shield, but Soka dodged it. The Hunter's momentum carried him past Soka. Soka spun around and thrust his sword straight through the gap in the Hunter's back armor. The blade severed the Hunter's spine and mutilated several vital organs. The Hunter fell forwards and died.
      Soka felt a stunning impact from behind that sent him sprawling forward, his shields flaring. Jumping back to his feet and spinning around, he saw one of the Brutes looming over him. Soka swung his sword. The energy blade caught the Brute in its arm, neatly severing it at the elbow. The Brute roared in pain, blood pouring from the stump of its arm. It turned and charged at Soka, its other arm outstretched, reaching for Soka. Right when the Brute was about to grab Soka's head, Soka fell to his knees and slashed. The blade cut through the Brute's knee, severing its lower leg. The Brute tumbled forward and lay on the ground, roaring in pain and anger.
      Soka primed another plasma grenade and tossed it onto the Brute's back. Soka ran so as not to be caught in the explosion. The ground shook and the space behind Soka lit up with a blinding flash. Calls came in over the battlenet from Soka's troops. Things were going bad. The Covenant were overrunning their positions, and they were taking heavy casualties. Soka made a decision that he hoped he would not regret.
      He ordered them all to fall back to the inside of the fortress.
      Soka ran towards the entrance, throwing plasma grenades at the mass of Covenant troops that were swarming over his soldiers' former positions. He was so intent on calculating his grenade throws that he ran into another Elite. He looked at him and recognized him immediately as his friend Ruka.
      "Ruka! What are you doing here?"
      "I managed to get off of the Invisible Truth before it was destroyed. We have lost the battle in space. All ships are lost."
      "I thought so. I am glad to have you back, Ruka."
      "I'm glad to be back," Ruka answered.
      Something in Ruka's tone seemed strange to Soka, but he did not think twice about it. Ruka activated his own plasma sword and together they fought their way to the entrance. They ran inside, down the ramp and into the heart of Fortress Dark Horizon. Inside were troops from all of Soka's units, mixed together from the chaotic fighting. Nodding to one of his 17th SOCAST Infidel Stompers, Soka turned to face the entrance. He was back in the fortress, the fortress of the restless souls of the dead.

To Be Concluded

The Iron Hands of the Prophets (Finale): Two Betrayals
Date: 4 April 2004, 9:18 AM

      Soka Summakee sat on the alter of the shrine deep inside of Fortress Dark Horizon. After his troops had retreated into the safety of the fortress, the Covenant had decided not to press their attack. They must have known that in the narrow entrances, they would have been perfect targets. Instead, they waited for the rest of their forces to land so that they would have support. There was no way to tell exactly how many soldiers that the Covenant had on Eden to destroy the Iron Hand rebels, but Soka estimated that they had probably come with close to one hundred thousand. The Prophets would have realized the threat of a resurrected Iron Hand rebellion, and he was sure that they had spared nothing in the way of troops for the second siege of Eden.
      Soka looked at the corpse to his right. It was an empty suit of armor, filled only with the skeleton of the Elite that had worn it in his last stand in the shrine. The armor was black, like the armor that Soka himself wore. The battered suit of armor next to him belonged to Sritha Summakee, the legendary leader of the Iron Hands. Now Soka Summakee, Sritha's only living descendent, was in the same situation his ancestor had been in.
      A gust of wind found its way into the shrine, rustling the tattered and stained Iron Hand banner that lay pinned beneath Sritha's armor. He had died on top of the symbol that he had cherished. Soka knew that there was no way they could hope to repulse the Covenant assault. Soka had more troops than Sritha's Iron Hands, but none of them were as skilled as the Iron Hands had been. It was only a matter of time before the Prophets erased his rebels from the face of the Universe. He looked at his two Prophet hostages, who were sitting in the shrine in a corner. He didn't know if he had the heart to kill them anymore. It was as if he had broken inside.
      Soka stood up, shrugging off his exhaustion, and moved to the entrance of the shrine. There was a battle to fight and he was getting impatient.

      Jukka, the leader of the dark caste soldiers under Soka's command, admired his new armor. While most of the dark caste had merely gotten their armor repaired, Jukka had gotten brand new black armor, sporting the symbol of the Iron Hands on its right chest plate. He was honored, not simply because the armor had come from one of the spares for Soka's Special Ops Strike Team, but because Soka had judged him to be a skilled enough warrior to warrant the symbol of the Iron Hands on his armor. Now Jukka really was one of the famed rebels.
      Jukka slid a fresh needler crystal into his needler, loading it. Glowing spikes protruded from the top of the weapon; these were the projectiles that it would fire. Jukka walked towards the entrance, nodding to the members of the dark caste that were arrayed in defensive positions all around the entrance. The dark caste had been given specific orders to hold this entrance at all costs, and they would gladly do that. It was a chance to regain their long lost honor.
      Jukka neared the entrance and saw that sunlight filtered down from the surface above. So the dawn had come. Suddenly, the sunlight was blocked by something moving at the top of the ramp. Jukka heard the clank of armor. He started backing away from the entrance and yelled, "We've got company!"
      His dark caste brethren, though disdained because of the disgraces in their past, were all very experienced troops. Their lifestyle, which was nothing more than being hunted wherever they went, had turned them into troops just as effective as the best of the Covenant frontline units. And when dark caste members were desperate, they fought like cornered lions.
      The clank of armor grew louder. Jukka raised his needler and prepared to kill whatever came through that entrance. Suddenly, a Hunter came into view. Immediately, a storm of plasma and needles blasted into it, making it stagger backwards. It lowered its stance and raised its shield in front of it and charged through the weapons fire. Behind it came another Hunter, and another, and another one. "Grenades, Iron Hands! Grenades!" Jukka yelled.
      He and the other dark caste troops by the entrance activated plasma grenades and threw them. They stuck to the lead Hunter just as he was about to clear the entranceway. He managed a few more steps into the room before all of the grenades exploded and he was torn apart in a blinding flash. But another Hunter charged through. More grenades fell. The Hunter moved away from the entrance, making room for the next Hunter. The grenades exploded, killing the second Hunter and wounding the third. But the third Hunter moved away from the entrance, firing his fuel rod cannon. Brilliant green projectiles passed over Jukka's head.
      He heard the screams of some of his men as they were torn apart form the impact of the deadly cannons. Priming another grenade, Jukka continued the fight. An almost constant rain of grenades fell on the entrance. The explosions of four grenades killed the third Hunter. The entrance was charred black from the explosions and covered with the bright orange blood of the Hunters. A fourth Hunter charged through, was met by three plasma grenades, but kept going. He was followed by two more Hunters.
      They couldn't kill the mighty Covenant warriors quick enough. The fourth Hunter was sent to his knees by more grenades and was finished off by a storm of plasma. The other two Hunters seemed to wither away under the storm of weapons fire as they moved to the sides of the entrance, firing their fuel rod cannons as they went. Four Brutes barreled into the room. The first Brute was killed in a few quick seconds by the sheer magnitude of the dark caste's weapons fire.
      The two surviving Hunters finally fell to some well-placed grenades, but it was too late. The Covenant troops had already established a presence in the hall. More Brutes streamed into the room, followed by Elites, Grunts, and Jackals. The rain of plasma grenades managed to keep their numbers down, but their supply would not last forever. Once they ran out of grenades, they were doomed.
      Jukka fired his needler at a Brute, emptying an entire magazine. The monster howled in rage as the projectiles embedded themselves in its flesh. It charged straight for Jukka, raising its weapon as it went. Then, the needles exploded, ripping the Brute apart in a spray of dark blood.
      More grenades went off, and the Brutes were finally put down. A gold armored Elite with a plasma sword charged through the grenade explosions, straight at Jukka. Jukka backed up, sliding a fresh needler crystal into his weapon. Now that the weapon was fully loaded, Jukka stood his ground. Plasma blasts from his men struck the oncoming Elite from all sides, making its shields flare up. Jukka opened up with his needler. The Elite kept coming, right into the hail of needles.
      The Elite ran up to him, needles protruding from his armor at odd angles, and raised his sword. Jukka's needler clicked empty. The Elite stabbed Jukka in the chest, penetrating Jukka's shields and his armor. Gasping, Jukka dropped his weapon and collapsed to his knees. At that same moment, all of the needles that were sticking out of the Elite exploded. The chain reaction ripped the Elite's body apart and thousands of slivers of microshrapnel blew through its armor and flesh. But Jukka was too close to the Elite. The microshrapnel tore through him as well. Jukka fell onto his back, mortally wounded by the Elite's sword, and then finished off by his own microshrapnel.
      Jukka stared at the ceiling and watched as plasma fire and needles broke the view with their harsh light. As the life drained from him, Jukka knew that he had regained his honor. And that was all that mattered to him. In the end, it was all that mattered.

      Noka ordered his troops to fall back to the adjoining hall as the Covenant forces poured through the entrance. They had almost run out of grenades. It was time to retreat. He sure hoped that the dark caste bandits were doing better at their entrance. Noka fired his plasma rifle at the oncoming horde of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals. It was not having as much effect as he would have liked.
      His team was falling apart. Their fire was scattered and uncoordinated. Enemy troops still staggered and fell, but they were not killing them fast enough. That was when Noka saw a plasma grenade arc through the air, straight towards him, from the enemy troops. He knew that he should attempt to dodge the grenade, but something deep within him snapped. Noka did not move. The grenade hit and stuck to his chest.
      Noka hoped that the gods would forgive him and allow him his chance at paradise as he ran straight at the Covenant troops. The front rank of Covenant tried to turn and run from the living bomb running at them, but the troops behind them did not know what was going on and they slammed into each other in confusion. Noka shouldered his way into their midst. The grenade exploded.


Seven hours later/
Fortress Dark Horizon, Eden

      Soka stood in the long, column-lined hall that led to the entrance of the shrine. Next to him stood his friend Ruka Ronee. Around him stood the forty-three surviving members of the 17th Special Operations Combined Arms Strike Team, the notorious Infidel Stompers. The sounds of battle throughout the fortress were dying down, and the reports of the Covenant breakthroughs and of Iron Hand defeats were becoming less frequent now.
      "I sense something..." one of the Infidel Stomper Elites said, trailing off.
      Soka looked at him, respecting the instincts of his men. An Elite to his left laid his armored hand on Soka's shoulder and whispered, "Commander, look! Look at the air!"
      Soka looked at the air in front of them at saw that it seemed to ripple like the heat waves off of the rocks on a very hot day. But Soka knew that there was no sun here to heat up the stone floor like that. No, it was something completely different. "Camouflaged Elites!" he yelled, "Fire your weapons!"
      His Infidel Stompers opened up, sending a tempest of weapons fire at the entrance. Plasma impacted all over the Elites, disrupting their active camouflage and exposing them for his Stompers to see. The plasma melted through their armor and Elites started collapsing all over the floor. Two enemy Hunters came around opposite sides of the entrance, their shields up and their weapons raised. The ends of their fuel rod cannons started to glow menacingly. Soka knew that he had to get out of the way. He hit the deck. He felt the heat of the cannon fire as it passed over him.
      Behind him, he heard agonized screams from wounded and dying Infidel Stompers. An Infidel Stomper Grunt leapt out from behind a column and fired his shoulder mounted fuel rod cannon. The horrible green blast hit one of the Hunters square in the chest, rocking it back on its feet and melting through most of its chest armor. The other Hunter quickly brought up his own cannon and blew the Grunt into the afterlife.
      The surviving camouflaged Elites opened up on the Infidel Stompers. Flashes of plasma came out of nowhere, striking the rebels. Soka primed a grenade and threw it. It exploded a few seconds later. The bodies of three camouflaged Elites materialized out of thin air as the explosion disrupted their camouflage. Deadly accurate plasma blasts from his soldiers quickly put them down.
      Soka got up and raised his plasma sword into the air, letting out a tremendous battle cry that echoed throughout the hall. Suddenly, plasma swords materialized out of nowhere in front of his troops. The other Elites had only been a distraction, allowing the real danger to creep up on them: camouflaged Elites with swords.
      The enemy Elites started hacking away, ignoring the plasma blasts that tore into them. His troops started to fall. In a few seconds, almost half of his troops lay dead or dying on the ground. Soka heard an armored foot clank against the stone behind him. He ducked just in time to avoid a swinging plasma sword. Soka spun around. He could not see the Elite, but he could guess where he was based on the position of the sword. Most Elites were right handed so that meant that his body had to be to the right side of the hovering energy blade.
      Soka swung his sword, but the Elite moved to block it. The two blades connected and for a few seconds, they were deadlocked. Soka, drawing on his immense experience with the plasma sword, feinted to the left and then attacked to the right. The trick worked. Responding to Soka's feint, the blade moved to block a blow that never came. Soka's real attack met something solid. The camouflage flickered and died as the blade cut through the Elite. Dark purple blood splashed over Soka as he pulled out the blade and kicked the Elite in the chest, sending it to the floor, dead.
      Soka turned and saw that Ruka was involved in a battle against two of the floating plasma swords, struggling to block the lightning fast blows. Soka dove in and slashed in the same motion, slicing open the back of one of the camouflaged Elites threatening Ruka. The Elite fell forwards, gasping. Another slash finished him off. Together, Soka and Ruka managed to put in a combination of slashes that the second Elite could not stop and soon, he too lay dead in a growing pool of his own blood.
      Soka looked around him. Covenant Elites, Grunts, and Jackals were swarming into the hallway, plasma weapons and needlers blazing. His Infidel Stompers were almost all dead. "Fall back to the shrine!" Soka ordered.
      Soka and Ruka ran towards the heavy stone doors of the shrine. The Infidel Stompers ran alongside them. A storm of plasma tore into their backs, and one by one, the Infidel Stompers fell. Soka and Ruka stumbled past the doors and turned to look back. Not a single Infidel Stomper had made it. "Close the doors!" Soka yelled. They pushed on the doors, and they slowly started to close. The last thing Soka saw in the hallway was one of the camouflaged sword Elites raising his sword to kill a wounded Infidel Stomper. The doors shut. As Ruka hit the locking mechanism, Soka realized that the Covenant would execute every one of the rebels that they could find. There would be no prisoners. So they killed all, even the helpless wounded soldiers still in the hallway.
      They moved deeper into the corpse littered shrine. Their Prophet hostages cowered in the far corner, all the way on the other side of the huge room. Behind them, they heard a faint pounding on the door. It wouldn't be long before the Covenant got in. It was time to kill the hostages. Soka started to move for them, but could not bring himself to do it. After all he had been through for his cause, after dragging so many others to the grave with him, he could not bring himself to complete the task. "Are you going to kill the Prophets?" Ruka asked.
      "Later. Not now. We must first decide how to best defend the shrine." Soka said, covering up his inability to bring himself to order their deaths.
      "No, Soka. I will not let you do that." Ruka said, his voice full of conviction.
      "What did you say?" Soka asked, turning to face his friend with an astonished look on his face.
      "Soka, it was I who sent the message revealing our presence here to the Prophets. I ushered in the doom of your rebellion." Ruka said.
      "What? No, that's impossible!" Soka sputtered.
      "Is it? Soka, if I had allowed your rebellion to live longer, you might have been able to do some serious damage to the Prophets and the Covenant Empire."
      "But, didn't you believe? Was that not our whole goal all along?"
      "Yes, Soka, but it was the wrong goal. This rebellion is the last thing that our glorious Empire needs right now. If you had managed to get your message out and to get a real following, we might have been talking about a civil war. That is completely unacceptable. What we need now is unity, not divisiveness. Our rebellion was indeed nothing but a cancer, a sickness inside the Covenant. We need the strength that can only come with a unity of thought and purpose to defeat the humans. You have threatened all that we once held dear, Soka. For that, you must die. For dragging me into this, you must die at my hand, or I must die at yours."
      "Ruka? How could you? Were we not friends once?" Soka asked.
      "Yes, we were friends once. But a traitor has no friends because he has proved that he cannot be trusted. Soka, we are all traitors, and we are all alone."
      "So be it, Ruka." Soka snarled, activating his plasma sword.
      Ruka activated his own sword. Their blades glowed with a killing gleam. They started to slowly circle each other among the ancient corpses and statues of the shrine. Soka attacked first, raising his weapon high over his head for a powerful downwards cut. Ruka quickly raised his sword to block the blow. The weapon impacted with such force that Ruka stumbled backwards. Soka surged forward, his weapon nothing more than a blur of motion.
      Ruka blocked Soka's lightning fast strikes, summoning all the skill he had with the weapon to keep himself alive. Ruka backed into the statue of a god. Seeing his enemy's plight, Soka attacked. Ruka dove around the statue, and Soka's blade blasted through the statue's legs. The tall statue fell to the side, hitting the floor and breaking. Soka leapt over the rubble and continued his attacks.
      The two Elites kept fighting, moving from the light in the center of the room over the alter. Their blades were flashes in the dark; their bodies were dark ghosts in the shadows. Eventually, they found their way back to the alter. Ruka backed up the steps of the alter, struggling to keep his footing as he stumbled over the three hundred year old hollow suits of armor of the dead Iron Hands.
      Ruka's foot hit Sritha Summakee's helmet and Ruka slipped. He fell onto his back, dropping his plasma sword. Soka leapt forward, his sword raised for a killing blow. Ruka rolled to his left and the blade cut through the chest plate of Sritha's armor, through the torn Iron Hands banner beneath, and then bit into the stone.
      Ruka grabbed Soka's arm and delivered a hard punch to the elbow. Soka's arm jerked from the blow, causing him to release his grip on his own sword. It clattered to the floor. Ruka flipped Soka over him. Soka landed on his back. Ruka leapt to his feet and so did Soka. Ruka punched Soka in the face so hard that he broke two of his knuckles. Ruka felt bone give way in Soka's face as one of his mandibles was broken. Roaring in rage, Soka tried to sweep Ruka's feet out from under him, but Ruka managed to avoid Soka's foot. While Soka might have been the master of sword combat, Ruka was his better in hand-to-hand combat.
      Reserving his right arm and its broken knuckles for blocking only, Ruka managed to land a few punches on Soka. It was not enough though. Soka landed a vicious kick to the side of Ruka's head and he fell backwards, back onto the alter. Soka dove on top of him, fist raised to drive Ruka's skull into the stone. Obviously, in his rage, Soka had not learned from his lesson. For the second time in as many minutes, Ruka flipped Soka over him. Soka landed on his back. Ruka started to get up and saw Soka's plasma sword lying a few feet from his face.
      Grabbing it and turning in the same motion, Ruka activated it and prepared to slice Soka in half. But to his surprise, Soka had retrieved Ruka's old sword. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Both blades impacted their targets. Ruka's blade cut deep into Soka. Ruka gasped in pain as Soka's blade cut through his side. They fell against each other. Soka looked into his friend's eyes and said, "There...you got...what...you wanted. The rebel...ion is...finished. Now...I die by your sword... and you...die by...mine."
      Soka Summakee drew his last breath, shuddered, and died.
      Ruka laid Soka's body down on the alter next to Sritha's. He staggered to his feet, gasping from the pain, his every breath painful. He called out to the two Prophets. They reluctantly came over. Ruka sank to his knees. The pounding on the doors grew louder. The troops outside were using the Hunters now. The stone started to fracture. Ruka stared at the growing cracks in the doors. The two Prophets were silent, looking at Ruka in awe. The doors collapsed, and two Hunters ran through, their weapons up. A swarm of Covenant soldiers followed them in. They froze and stood silent. They were shocked by the grandeur of the shrine, by the beauty of the statues, by the horror of the hundreds of ancient dead warriors, and by the figures that stood in front of them.
      Ruka rose to his feet, flanked by the two Prophets. He gestured to the body of Soka Summakee, his friend. Ruka's voice echoed throughout the chamber, the strange acoustics of the room making it sound like the death rattle of a cursed soul. "I bring before you the corpse of the last Iron Hand!" he yelled. The voice echoed until it eerily died away. At that moment, Ruka collapsed next to the body of his friend. As life left him, Ruka prayed that all who had died in this horrible place would find peace, and that he would live on in the eternal happiness of paradise. But it was not to be.

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