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In days long ago, the old ones dwelled in paradise. They were builders of great stone wonders. So real were their creations that they breathed with life, so the legends go. Greatest of their wonders was the sacred city. In the center of a sacred land it survived for millions of years untouched until one day 20 years ago, when the great disaster stuck. On that dark day, a column of fire engulfed the sacred city, propelling it to the sky. For the next few weeks it rained balls of stone and metal.

[Thud, a rock crashes to the ground.]

"Very funny Croaker," John says while shaking his head from side to side.

Croaker rolls on the ground close to the campfire; his reptilian skin reflects in shades of green and gold. As Croaker laughs he says, "I make a funny. Besides, what good is girly AI's story, everyone knows about great disaster and story of old ones."

John, ignoring Croaker's distraction, turns back to Cortana and says, "so that was the end of the Ark of the Covenant?"

"Yes, Chief" Cortana replies. "The God Emperor, fearing that the flood would soon discover the ark, launched the ark into space and used the orbital defense system to destroy it."

A voice comes from beyond the fire, where a large figure is cloaked in shadows, "Cortana, when you were linked into the circuits of the God Emperor, did you come across any information about Orsirus Rellius, Priest of Thorth."

Cortana speaks in soft voice, "Orsirus was your father, wasn't he? I'm sorry Max. I don't have much good news. Although the God Emperor turned out to be a simple machine, its archives were an enormous and vastly complex data storage array. There was very little information I could retrieve from it. I did come across the name, Orsirus Rellius, in one reference entitled the fall of the chosen. It goes: "

"Rise it be the chosen, to the heavens they go.

Sadness be the fallen, Orsirus Rellius be their king.

Banished in the land of the sacred, their king is gone.

Their king is gone."

[Solemn silence falls upon the group, only the muffed crackling of the fire can be heard.]

Max, the mighty Covenant Elite, perches on a cliff edge, overlooking the sacred lands. At his side is John, human Spartan. In any other world, the two would be bitter enemies, but here they have developed a bond of friendship.

John gazes over the lands below, in a crisp voice he says, "Max do you really think your father is still alive? Croaker told me that banishment to the sacred lands is quite a punishment. All of this land is overrun with the flood, let alone other adversities."

Max looks up at the stars, "we have Bella Luna, great fortune will come."

"Bella luna?"

"Yes, do you see the three moons above. The small moon is Bella. When Bella sits between the twin moons forming a perfect equilateral triangle. We have Bella Luna. Comes once every 20 years."

"Well I sure hope you're right about the good fortune, Max. By the way Croaker decided to stay with us, help us get through the sacred lands and find your father. He's even fixing up my armor right now. I don't think friendship was his only motivator, though. I think he decided to stay because he didn't want to be the bearer of bad news to his master, with the ark destroyed and all."

"You reckon John? (Smile across Max's face.)"

[Both pan up to gaze once again at the marvelous Bella Luna.]

The next day our heroes depart their camp on foot. With the many hazards in the sacred lands, it is better to move on foot than by land speeder. John, donning his pristine MJOLNIR battle suit takes the point. Croaker goes next, followed by Max covering the rear. From inside John's battle suit, Cortana monitors all bands of communication trying to locate enemy positions and find clues to where others might be.

A morning fog lowers visibility though the ruins of this once great land of wonders. The group moves in a tight formation, a single mistake could alert enemies of their presence.

John slowly moves around a corner, giving it a wide berth. Points ahead.

Croaker peers through an electronic eyepiece, moving his hand back and forth by his head to adjust the focus. Two taps twice means to evade the enemy.

The group moves away in total silence, cloaked by the fog, which seems to never go away, even though it is now mid afternoon.

"Help! Leave me alone!" a voice can be heard screaming.

[Crisp sound of small arms fire]

"Over there," Croaker says as he points toward flashes of plasma fire. Thump, Croaker hits the ground and is now lying flat on his stomach. "What you do that for Max?"

"Get down you fool, take cover."

John, speaks, "twelve flood with plasma rifles on the right."

Max, replies, "eleven on the left, two plasma rifles, nine slug throwers. What are they firing at?"

Croaker interjects, "they fire at Saurans -- my people."

John checks around to make sure he didn't miss anyone. "Max, what do say we give those Saurans an escape route?"

"John, you and Croaker, take out the right side. I'll stay here and take out the left side when they try to flank you."

The flood never knew what hit them; Three go down to a well-placed plasma grenade; six more to John's CER weapon's fire; four to Sauran small arms fire. The remaining are dispatched quickly by Max, whose cloaking shield enables him to close to point blank range undetected.

It never seems to fail that experience and a good arsenal wins the day. That seems to be the way it is against the flood - they're always falling for the same tactics, never seem to learn from their mistakes -- John knows this as well as Max. They also know that soon there will be hundreds more here. Our heroes gather up the wounded and head out.

Croaker carries a pair of Sauran children; behind him follow a dozen other young Saurans. John and Max each carry two wounded Sauran warriors and take up the rear. Into a run they go - the flood are coming.

A few kilometers away, they meet up with Sauran scouts. They are led towards a group of cave entrances hidden away behind a large waterfall.

Inside the cave, Croaker is greeted by a dozen or so smaller Saurans, "Great grandpa Croaker, yeah! Did you bring us any presents?"

"Children, children, we don't have time for that now, where are your parents?" Croaker pauses and looks at the little ones with sad expressions on their faces. He reaches into his pack, "Well maybe just one present."

"Yeah!" in unison.

"Here, a pack of gundarian jawbreakers. You'll have to share, but there's plenty for everyone."

Many more Saurans approach; all of different shapes and sizes, but sharing a common look similar to a gecko walking on hind legs. "Welcome," they say.

[Fade to black. The laugher of children in the background.]

That night there is a great feast. Our heroes sit at the head table with the Big Chief. One seat to his left remains empty, but otherwise the place is packed.

Croaker speaks with his mouth full of food, "mmmh, Big, mmmh, Chief (swallow), say we rescue lost party. Their ship shot down many days ago over sacred lands. He very thankful."

Johns shouts over the noise, "Tell him thank you for all the..."

[The noise ceases.]

John looks around.

Entering into the great hall is a smaller, shapely Covenant Elite with a long pointed head, dressed in flowing green and gold robes with many slits that reveal much of what is underneath. She sits beside the Big Chief.

Max throws his food down, "I've just lost my appetite," he mutters to himself just loud enough that John and Croaker can hear it.

A seducing voice comes from the curvy Elite, "Max Rellius, once great commander of the 7th Imperial Legion, I am Priestess Alainas the leader of these people. I bear you no ill will. However, I have sad news. Your father along with my father, Priest Arthas, both perished at the hands of the flood two years ago.

Max stares, eyes wide open, at the Priestess, "Deceiver, murder, where is my father?"

Alainas meets Max's stare with her own stare of death.

John breaks in, "hold on, can't we just all get along? Let's not forget the enemies still out there. You remember, the flood, right?"

Alainas speaks, "You speak wisely Spartan, perhaps..."

"Perhaps, nothing," Max interrupts her. "Perhaps, everything. You say you bear me no ill will, but you plot behind my back. Your kind has long pitted Covenant against Covenant, brother against brother. You are ill will."

A compelling, semi-sweet scent enters the air. Max scrambles to pour wine over a cloth and place it over his breathing slits. Then he turns to the exit, but he is cut off by armed guards that suddenly appear where friendly faces once were.

Alainas speaks at Max, "perhaps, you go too far slave. Perhaps you cowered too long in the slave pits while we chosen ones took battle to save this world. Why is it in ten years, you never once tried to escape?"

Max does not reply; still struggling to keep his breathing slits covered.

"Oh yes, what was your excuse? It would be dishonorable to escape the punishment of the God Emperor? Well you have seen what has become of the God Emperor -- you are a fool. At least we, the chosen ones, have a greater plan. We are the mothers of these people. Oh yes, we have deceived and murdered in the past, but it was all to protect the children."

Max, lowers the cloth; it is no use, he has almost succumbed to the priestess' pheromones. He speaks in desperation, "just let the children be, we're all grown up now." Then, Max falls into a walking sleep -- A drone under Alainas' control.

John feels no compulsion to help his friend. John too is in an intoxicated state.

"Chief snap out of it," Cortana speaks on the com.

"Hey, Cort, funny thing, never noticed all the guards around here are females. Got to say bye-bye, priestess want to talk to me."

"Chief...(snap)" Cortana is cut off as John turns off his com.

[Snap to black.]

Many hours pass, John wakes up in a daze. He feels the area around himself to find that he is lying on a thin blanket over a smooth and cold stone floor. He looks around the dimly lit room. Far above is a small skylight that allows a bit of the daylight from outside to penetrate the room. Sitting next to John is Max, stone-faced, his body in a trace, his mind transcending to another place.

"Blood, green blood, aaagh, the blood flows dry," a deep voice echoes from a pile or rags in the far corner.

John looks to see a figure moving in many layers of damp cloth.

A voice from Max, "John, that's all Croaker has said all night. He has the fever. I found what I could and soaked it in the cool water that seeps through the walls. They really messed him up, inside. They have no mercy for followers of demon kind. I did what I could for him."

John turns toward Max and says, "Max, the priestess... what happened?"

"You should tell me, John. You were gone the whole night. They carried you in just before the morning light."

"Max, I don't remember much..." However, as John speaks, memories return like childhood dreams.

[Out of focus edges - flashback time]

"Feel better?" Alainas asks John.

John looks around, his head spinning, "how long, how long have I been out?"

"Many hours, drink this, it will help."

John drinks the golden liquid, "Wow, one hundred percent better. Now what did you do to Max and me?"

Elainas, fearlessly moves closer to John, "I just did my duty, to protect the children. You are both trained killers, no telling what might have happened if things really got out of hand."

"True, for a moment I thought Max might try to bite your pretty head off (note to self, did I really say pretty? What is in this drink?). Anyway, if he tried and you got the jump on him, I wouldn't have just stood by and let you take my friend out."

"A Spartan and an Elite friends? I never really did understand your kind. One moment ready to kill each other, the next you're drinking buddies -- Utterly reckless."

Alainas continues, "Spartan, it is fate that brings you here, the time has come for the chosen to rise. You have heard that twenty years ago the great disaster destroyed the Ark of the Covenant -- so it is said. My father did not believe it was the only ark built. I continued my father's research after his death; analysis of the debris after the great disaster reveals it is much newer than the age that the ark should be. It may have been a ship, but it wasn't the Ark of the Covenant spoke of in legends. The God Emperor must have known about the ship and used it to deceive the flood into thinking that the ark was destroyed. That leaves only one problem, where is the ark? I only have a riddle passed down to me as a clue. Spartan, what to you make of this riddle?"

"Seek what is not there among the stars."

John shrugs his shoulders, then rubs the back of his head. "I thought it strange that the God Emperor's outer chamber resembled the night sky so perfectly, but with only two moons. The third moon, Bella, was missing."

Alainas smiles, "yes we had strong reason to believe that Bella is the Ark of the Covenant, I just needed to hear it from you. The time has come."

John questions, "the time for what?"

"Many years have the people of this world been separating into the chosen who are those that will leave in the ark, and the others who will stay. The time has come for the journey. We have gathered and hidden away any space-capable ships we could; even your ship is here Spartan."

John sits back, "Does the chosen include any demons?"

"Certainly not," replies Alainas, "why do you ask?"

"You said it was fate that brought me here. I would not say so, my friends and I were saved by a demon in return for finding the ark. I'm sure there has got to be some way..."

"Enough said!" Alainas says in an annoyed voice. "Spartan, I thought perhaps we could do this the hard way, but I cannot deal with your kind. The easy way it will be. Now tell me who among you is servant to demons. No demon would send anyone on a mission as important as finding the Ark of the Covenant without his eyes with them."

John feels the weight of a thousand eyes bearing down on his soul. His sins burn an effigy of human kind. John utters, "Croaker."

[Flash forward to the stone cell that holds our heroes.]

John heads to Croaker and wipes Croakers forehead, "I'm sorry Croaker, I didn't know."

"Know what?" Max interjects. "John you sort of spaced out on me, you seemed in deep thought."

John replies, "You know Max, what bothers me the most? I'm sick and tired of getting my ass kicked around here. I'm not going to take it any more."

Max grins, "John, you have a knack for understatement."

"You're forgiven John," Croaker's deep voice whispers.

"Croaker," John and Max say in unison, looks of great relief on their faces.

"Croaker okay, fever gone. Priestess try many tortures of the mind, but we Saurans are descended from old ones. We only pretend to be hurt. The fever was because they took my green blood -- my ambrosia away."

The sun outside is near directly over the skylight above. In the light can be seen a frail, more gray version of Croaker, the once strong and sturdy Sauran.

Croaker continues, "now years catch up to this old body. I think it time to let nature take its course."

Max interjects, "hey you dumb lizard, look alive, you didn't live all these years to just give up and die in some hole in the wall. Maybe now that you've slimmed down so much, you can fit through that skylight above? I reckon you Saurans can squeeze through anything."

Croaker sits up slowly, "Max, you thick-headed elite, if I was 500 years younger I'd slap you around like... well, like I would, if I didn't love you so much. Yes, you probably reckon right, we Saurans can squeeze through just about anything."

John whispers, "Aren't you guys worried that the guards will hear us?"

Max replies, "No. These walls around us are made of eldarstone, the stuff from deep underground. Surveillance devices would be useless in here as well as shields and plasma weapons. When the guards brought you here, there were more than thirty of them. They are afraid of us. No guards would dare ease drop on us because should they hear of our escape plans, they would be expected to come in here and try to stop us. Better to mind your own business, that is the way these Covenant guards think."

Some time passes as black clouds form overhead. First flashes of lightning, then in one loud spat, a wall of water hits the ground. Inside our heroes make their move; Max is on bottom, John stands on his shoulders, and Croaker is on top. Croaker, squeezes head first through a hole many times too small for his head to fit. Somehow he manages it. Twisting and contorting, Croaker uses his tail to push off of John's head to make the final push through the skylight. In the storm, he moves unseen.

Down below, Max and John use blankets to cover a pile of rags roughly shaped like a lying Sauran. John, soaked from the rain and mud that came through the skylight, wipes himself with a rag. "Max, what do we do now?"

Max replies, "wait and talk. Let me tell you of the legacy of my forefathers."

"Sounds good to me."

"Our legacy starts a thousand years ago in the times of expansion..."

Max continues through the storm, telling the story. He tells of two colony ships, the Naga and the Nata, and how his forefathers traveled to many worlds to escape persecution until finally being trapped in the web of Medusa. In life pods they made their way to this world, a jungle paradise. The natives they found here were simple folk, with long life spans and an incredible ability to understand complex things. These Saurans made good servants. Then the killing began... Once every four years there was a time with no moons called Darkling Luna, at this time the demons rose up to the surface. The Saurans worshipped the demons and made many bloody sacrifices to them. Many of the Covenant were killed during these dark nights.

These were the darkest of times until the Covenant discovered the oracle -- the God Emperor, as the High Priests did ordain. The God Emperor instructed them to build fortresses. With the help of Sauran servants who were converted to the light, they did build these great fortresses. When Darkling Luna came again, the God Emperor rained fireballs from the sky at the demons. The prey became the hunters, driving the demons deep down into the bowels of this world.

As the years went by, the great fortresses became great cities. Other Covenant life pods from trapped ships would occasionally come and bring news of what was going on outside the web of Medusa -- Quite an increase in the last 100 years or so; even other humans have come.

[A creaking sound from the chamber door.]

The door slowly starts to open, in a deep voice, "Does Croaker have to do everything around here?"

-- Next chapter, Blood in the Watcher's Eye --

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