Bab 74: Brutal End and Halo Jump Chapter
"Eddie! Lita!" I greeted the pair that had been brought to my palace after their suspended execution at the temple of Zaulia, "How goes the human revolution? Must be doing real well if you have made it all the way out here."
This was a nice distraction from my near constant battles in the jungle of late. Drowned Ophelia didn't disappoint me when she started sending her faction, the Drowning Doom, into the jungle to kill me after she limped away from our encounter. I played around with them like a Predator minus the active camo, the near century of commando warfare experience the Theron's provided me transitioned beautifully to jungle warfare. My enthusiastic walks through my densely green domain meant that despite the focus and numbers of her horde, the defenses I built up around the Zualia Temple and my palace rarely came into play.
Eddie looked far different after the months since our parting, having grown a beard and added a layer of fur to his leather vest. Lita looked much the same, only more pale and lean. They had a guy in a leather biker outfit with way too many studs with them, The Baron.
"We hit some rough patches," Eddie admitted, "but the revolution is back on the road kicking ass."
"Sorry to hear about you guys having troubles." I smirked, "I'd offer to help you but the revolution needs to be fought by human hands or it won't mean anything."
God I love being petty.
"Lars is dead." Lita snarled, "Don't poison his words when he isn't around to defend himself."
"Oh no." I faked an astonished tone, "Who could have possibly seen that happening."
"Us." Jack stated, "We did. Right before we left."
"I think you're right, babe." I chuckled, "I distinctly remember telling Lars he was going to die on that hill."
"It's not funny!" Lita yelled.
"It is when you're us." I laughed and Jack joined me.
"I heard that Doviculus killed him like a scrub." I chortled, "No fight, no epic moment of sacrifice. Just poke, game over."
"You're a monster." Lita shook her head in anguish at the memory.
"Yes indeed." I agreed, "You're brother had that right about me, but I offered to be your monster. Could have smashed Doviculus right then and there. Broke his army. Revolution won. But you all made your choices, poorly, and now here you are, in my home. Asking for help that you could have had from the start."
"Your Holiness." Rita, the leader of the Zaulia before I showed up, interrupted, "This man is the son of Rignarrok."
"Neat." I responded.
"I request that the Zaulia be allowed to aid him in his quest to throw back the forces created by the Sea of Black Tears." She continued.
"Sounds like a good time." I waved her off.
"Thank you, your Holiness." Rita bowed her head, "I will instruct the younger members of the tribe to take care of your needs while we are away."
"Okay." I nodded, "You do that."
"Your Holiness?" I heard Eddie ask when Rita led him out of my petitioner hall.
"Almost time." Jack sighed.
"All the pieces will be in one place." I smirked.
"Decapitatiooooooon!" Eddie roared as he swung his head side to side in barbaric glee as his axe passed through Emperor Doviculus's neck and he stomped his foot to make the head fall to the ground.
He then ripped a pair of hearts from the man's chest, the second of which was smaller and black which quickly melted to reveal a demon tooth necklace.
"Nice kill, Eddie." I slow clapped then reached into Doviculus's open body cavity and tore out his repulsive liver.
I like livers. They are incredibly nutrient dense. This liver is not one that I like. I liked eating it even less. If I wasn't the cure to Space AIDS I wouldn't have done it, but the feeling of incredible power that came after the deed was done from the Ring of Namira made the temporary desire to hurl my organs up fade away. The rush was almost as good as draining the imulsion stalks back on Sera had been. Several degrees lesser, but if this is how cannibalism is going to feel from now on then a lot more people are going to get eaten.
"You guys were just there the whole time and didn't help me?" Eddie asked incredulously.
"Yep." Jack answered as the monster we currently stood inside of began shaking in its death throes.
The wife and I made a leaping exit before it could drag us into the Sea of Black Tears. After Eddie and the original Ophelia popped back onto the beach Jack thrust her sword into the inky black sea and slowly but surely the sword pulled all the corruption out of it, leaving a normal sea of tears in its place.
The ebony blade was now ever coated in that same inky blackness and a test swing from Jack revealed that the Black Tears created an additional twenty foot cutting arc that traveled the same path as the sword strike, similar to the latter stages of the Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower fight.
"I think that is everything." I told the wife in regards to the power ups we could quickly pick up on this world.
"Yeah." She nodded and pulled out her Guitar and summoned The Good Evening.
"I'm sorry." Eddie interrupted, "What the fuck was all this about."
"Power." Jack answered then got into the passenger side of the car.
"What she said." I agreed, "It's been real Eddie, and it's been good, but it ain't been real good."
I got in and drove to the coast. When we arrived I pulled the Horn of Party Hardy from the trunk where we stashed our various loot and a bunch of handy stuff to have like Spider Queen Guitar strings and metal ingots made of Ormagoden's flesh. After getting good and drunk we fucked in the car and when I ripped a hole though reality I hung onto The Good Evening with everything I had.
I can only thank God that Chief Grax of the Halo Brutes (No I will not be using their fifteen syllable alien names) was such an egotistical bastard that he got the big private office on the Covenant Supercarrier heading for Reach. If he hadn't it would have been pretty hard to find a good space to land The Good Evening on this ship without bringing down the full might on the united non-human races of the Halo Universe down on our asses.
He may have been an objectively terrible leader, but at least he made for terrific road kill.
And I wasn't kidding about the guy being a terrible leader. Grax was the kind of guy that would make all his subordinates shave their entire bodies just so no one could have a better beard or mohawk than him.
For all you guys wondering, that is why all the Brutes in Halo: Reach were bald.
I pondered what to do with our situation as I stroked my now perfect and powerful jawline and the graphite plating that formed an Abe Lincoln style chin strap beard, the beard of leadership. Grax was one of those people with a strong enough vanity to physically affect both Jack and myself. He greatly valued his immense height and weight which had gotten him his place as a Brute Chieftain, and his luxurious beard and mohawk.
I was now a handful of inches over nine feet tall (2.84 meters) and fifteen hundred pounds (680 kilos) despite not being any thicker as the brutes are far more densely made than the krogan. As a generous man, that measurement does not include the now raised ridged of plates that went down my head and neck forming a short graphite mohawk.
Jack had shot up just over seven feet tall (2.16 meters) and weighed over six hundred pounds (272 kilos). She had grown proportionally, but was now a bit more muscular than before. Now she looked like Wonder Woman's big sister and I tell you gentlemen, it was doing things for me in the boner region.
Girl looked like she could bitch slap a big krogan around, and that is just appearances. With her current strength she could throw him around with ease.
Even with all my strength from my origins and the jumps I'd over doubled my lifting power after eating Grax. The guy had his place in the Brute hierarchy because he was one of the biggest and strongest Brutes around, a bully's bully. There were plenty of Brutes that could whip his ass in a fight, but none of them would want to turn that fight into a wrestling match.
While I was more tanky than him back when I was just Grunt, Jack got a huge durability boost out of this. Brutes are fucking tough, don't let the gameplay fool you.
After contemplating our changes, I knew what we had to do.
"Babe." I grinned, "I am going to need you to make a run on the ships armory and grab some things."
Jack nodded at the easy task.
Grax loved the armory and had his office nearby. With her stealth capabilities she would have no problems getting in and out with everything we needed over several trips. When she had everything I asked for I went into R & D mode.
Math, Physics, Chemistry, all of it changes every time we jump verses. It's why I can't just build Mass Effect guns in Gears of War, or Star Wars ships in Mass Effect. Here two plus two is four, there two plus two is blue. Things don't just work across universes, but sometimes they can give you an idea to work with.
I started with the power supply tech and moved onto shielding, once I got an understanding of those two things the rest was simple in regards to our armor. I used my flame breath and the Hammer of Might to turn the hulking metal slab Grax used a workstation into an anvil and hammered out two suits of workable armor, nothing Mjolnir level, not even close, but we were once again space capable.
I went back to the old classic smokestack armor from my youth with a bit more artistic flare and mounted up three power supply units, an active camo unit and two modified shield generators that I set up to work in tandem.
Jack only got two power supplies, a shield generator, and an active camo unit. She had the physical strength and endurance for more, but she has less real estate to work with than me.
After taking apart the Covenant weaponry, I was able to make us a better pair of plasma repeaters and pistols. With a few changed I managed to greatly improve the ammo economy, accuracy, and range of both weapon systems, changing the plasma color of both units to a fiery orange.
The biggest gain came when I figured out how to unleash the fire and scream of Ormagoden through my hammer. I disassembled Grax's gravity hammer and rebuilt it around Volendrung, and modified a plasma sword to form an axe blade that I welded to one striking head of my weapon.
"Gods of Metal. Ormagoden. Malacath. Jesus, if this is the kind of thing you are interested in." I prayed, "Make my hammer even more badass."
In answer, the Hammer of Might gave off a holy glow that made me look away and when it ended, all the magic and tech had fused into one perfect weapon. I took it up with reverence and with a thought activated the now glowing inferno orange plasma axe, the blade now aggressively spiked in the center and on both ends allowing me to catch other energy blades and keep them from sliding over or down the lethal edge of my magic plasma axe.
With a little testing from Jack we confirmed that anyone caught in the weapon's gravity manipulation was subjected to the stamina drain of the original Hammer of Might.
As for the scream, we'd be testing that out soon enough.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
JManM
JManM A bigger than normal chapter seeing the end of Brutal Legend and the start of Halo. Brutal Legend was a great vacation world for them, and an even greater power up, but didn't have anything to keep us there without me purposefully fluffing things to much. Despite its short nature the Brutal Legend Arc is the jump with the most narrative weight in the story as Jack and Grunt are now demigods descending from a primordial creation deity. That conceptual weight will have big payoff when they start facing other beings with divinity and will influence the things they can gain on other jumps.
If you want to support me and my family and contribute to the Weekend Bonus Chapters Stockpile, you can do so at
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Bab 75: Mutiny
"Brothers, can you all hear me? Can you all… see me?" I spoke with outraised hands to the assembled Chieftains and Ultras under the former command of War Chief Grax in what would be my greatest con or soon to be an absolute bloodbath through the use of the bombs Jack had fixed to the ceiling of the muster room, "Look upon me and witness everything the Prophets promised us. Transcendence, immortality, power. I have embarked upon the Great Journey and returned to you all to bear witness to the truth. Today I declare before you brothers, all of you… That the Prophets are mother fucking liars!"
Those giant space monkeys went ape shit.
They all, to some extent, bought into the bullshit being spread by the Prophets. Despite being the most recent addition to the Covenant, the belief in the Great Journey was pretty much universal among the Brutes.
"The Prophets have no idea how to launch the Great Journey!" I yelled over the rapidly turning hostile group, the power of Ormagoden carrying my voice to every ear, "Their belief in the Halo Rings is false! But today I live as an example to the truth! Any who doubt me come up and feel my strength for themselves! I have risen above and become more!"
One of the Chieftains leapt up at me with no hesitation and threw an overhand superman punch with everything he had. When his strike landed on my chin and failed to produce the expected result he stared at his hand as if it betrayed him.
"Is that all you have?" I challenged him, "Strike me! Prove the truth with your strength!"
He threw a hook with his other hand which I endured, then another right, and another left. Eventually I grabbed him and looked him in the terrified eyes.
"I said to strike me! Like this." I shouted as I reared back my muscular neck and headbutted him so hard his legs gave out.
I tossed him aside as if in disgust.
"You all see the truth for yourselves!" I declared, "None here can match me! None here can challenge my truth!"
I always love when I am dealing with a species of savages. It makes life so much more simple when might makes right and you got all the might. Though the Chieftains look unconvinced, the Ultras loved the violence on display. None of them could have weathered that assault, none of them could have dropped the Chieftain with a headbutt. This was strength on display, everything their biology told them to value, to pursue, to follow.
"Today I declare the start of the Great Schism and I will lead you all to greatness or drag you there! Glory and fame, blood is our name! Souls full of thunder and hearts of steel! Go forth brothers, rally the packs, and take this ship for the glory of the Brutes and the truth of the Great Journey!"
I walked to the exit as the Ultras began howling and sparked up a point defense gauntlet on my left hand and a shield of glowing red energy blazed in front of me as I began running with my hammer in hand towards a trio of Elites on patrol.
They were quick on the uptake, I'd give them that, as they began blasting away at me with their plasma rifles. I leapt at them and brought the Hammer of Might down in a detonation pulse that shook the area and tore the Elites apart in an explosion amplified by Ormagoden's scream. Only one survived the attack, but with both legs blown off. He tried to spark up a plasma grenade to take me with him, but I brought my foot down on his head before he could activate it.
This more than anything else bought me the souls of the Brutes. They wanted to kill the Elites, and I was giving that to them.
My mutineers spread out to gather the other Brutes on the ship and take over. I lead the charge to the life support systems, unwilling to let the Fleet Master order them destroyed to kill us should we prove successful. We already controlled the greater armory, giving us a huge advantage as our forces took whatever they wanted (whatever made the biggest boom) and turned the weapons on the rest of the Covenant.
The Elites had already moved a substantial amount of their own forces and the Jackals and Skirmishers to the planet of Reach as part of their rather complex infiltration strategy to lower the planet's defenses before the main body of the fleet arrived. This meant we were mostly up here with the naval forces and the Grunts waiting for the proper battle to begin.
Sensing the tide swiftly turning in our favor I noticed more and more Grunts turning on the Elites while shouting things like 'Long live the second revolution!' and 'Vengeance for the home world!'
I guess the little guys had been bottling up a lot of pain and resentment for the species that not only oppressed them, but also partially glassed their home world.
I was having a hell of a good time pushing to the bridge when the lights turned off and the dim red glow of the emergency lighting came on.
"Status report!" I shouted into my wrist-mounted communicator.
"The Elites took their swords to the engines and the slip space drive!" Answered one of the Chieftains who joined me in this uprising, "The ship is dead."
"Fuck!" I growled at having lost this precious ship, "Get to the hangers! Don't let them sabotage the Corvettes we still have docked!"
Jack was currently stationed on one of the Corvettes docked on the supercarrier, having driven The Good Evening onto it in the initial confusion of the mutiny, so we had a way off this ship, though it would be a tight fit to get all the Brutes onto that one ship despite its enormous size.
I continued fighting until I got to the bridge, where the Fleet Master waited in his silver armor and purple cape on his floating throne.
"War Chief Grax." He growled, "You will pay for this heresy. Your whole species will pay for this heresy."
"The only heresy I see hear is your cowardice." I countered as I sparked up the axe blade on the Hammer of Might, "Come down and face me. Prove your worth."
The man did just that. He stepped off his throne, threw off his cape, and activated a pair of plasma swords.
I was impressed by his quickness and skill. He would have slain Grax with little trouble, but I was so much more than Grax could ever be. This fight almost ended when I battered aside his swords and brought my axe down on the now exposed region between his neck and should, but the man was quick enough to get away with only a partial amputation of his arm, half the meat of his shoulder carved and burned by my axe making the whole limb useless.
"You have my respect for surviving the first exchange." I told him, "That is more than the rest of your kind have managed thus far."
"You're not Grax!" He hissed, "You can't be."
"I am Grax, and so much more." I declared, "I will deliver us from the lies of the Prophets and their attack dogs, the Elites."
I swept his legs out from under him with a swift tail strike and buried my axe in his chest.
Throwing his purple fur cloak over my shoulder and turning on its magnetic clips I sat up in the Fleet Master's throne and activated the ship wide broadcasting system.
"This is War Chief Grax!" I bellowed, "The Fleet Master is dead, slain by my hand in single combat! To all who follow me, begin loading the Corvettes in the hanger. If the Elites want to deny us our right to this ship by conquest, then we will deny them the chance to repair it. Our exodus from falsehood will be heralded by the destruction of this vessel!"
I travelled to the Corvette Hanger and found one of my Chieftains and his subordinates guarding an unarmed herd of Jackals and Skirmishers.
"War Chief." he greeted, "These mercenaries surrendered when the fighting started. I chose to defer judgement to you."
"Well done." I patted him on the shoulder.
The leader of the prisoners, a Skirmisher in golden armor that I recognized came forth and took off his helmet revealing a long scaly face and a head full of swept back feathers.
"Graxxy old boy, I sure do love the new look. Really sells the whole transcendent being thing when you have traits from so many of the Covenant species on display." Timit the Skirmisher Champion wheedled, "I take it you aren't averse to us joining the winning team?"
"Happy to have ya, little buddy." I grinned, "After all, just because we are on a quest to save the galaxy, doesn't mean we aren't going to charge an arm and a leg to save the day."
"Saving the galaxy?" he requested some expansion.
"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that." I chuckled, "The Halo Rings that the Prophets are so hard up about activating, they aren't some starting point for the Great Journey. They are weapons designed to emit a radiation pulse throughout the galaxy that will kill all life. A hard reset for the Forerunners to reseed the depopulated worlds with life from their archives and begin again with a fresh start."
"Oh." Timit looked up at me. "Shit."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
JManM
JManM
We have two bonus chapters coming this weeked sponsored by MrBadMan17 and SeekingRaven. Hopefully I will have the first out tonight.
Much love to the sponsores.
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