Prologue
Holy City of High Charity;
Floor X-14, Hallway 30
Truth hovered down the cavernous hall in his odd bowl shaped chair. For the past year, the Prophet lost more than he thought possible. Sure, his lesser forces were prevailing in the gruesome battlefield. Sure, the humans were losing their meager planets one by one, but the Covenant's latest project failed with an unexpected toll.
300 Sangheili, all who have served the Covenant military, all who were retired with their dignity and honor intact, and all still being young by their species standards, were forcefully snatched from their peaceful homes. The retired Veterans, given no choice or input, were then put through a brutal 6 months of training and serving the military as special forces. Those who survived the horrible battles and the terrors of training, then under went a Biological Enhancement Surgery.
The BES, as it was called for short, was an attempt to mimic what the Covenant knew about the human's "Spartan Project", which was used against the alien forces in recent combat situations. The Sangheili's BES was to make the already strong warrior into an uncontrollable force on the battlefield. They were designed to be as quick as a fleet of Ghosts, stronger than a pack of Brutes, and more durable than the unintelligent Hunter. The enhanced Sangheili were designed to ensure the Covenant would turn the tide in the war and keep it that way.
However, Project Shade, as it had come to be called by their test subjects, was classified as failed after 100 died from the training and 197 died from the BES. Although their were still three Shades left, they soon found their enhancements folding in on themselves. Two of the remaining killed each other in a combat for food caused by their ravenous appetite. The single Shade that was left, only acted out when desperate for food or was spooked by something. Eventually, she single handedly killed 5 of her Brute trainers, and consumed everything their bodies had to offer.
Many higher ranking Brutes, Grunts, and Elites tried to overtake the Shade, but she became spooked by their bashing and demolished the entire training facility with a focused blast of energy, a trump card that had developed from the BES. The Covenant demon was the only thing that remained to stand within a 1 mile radius. She stood panting on a pile of broken bodies from her attackers and the debris of the once luxurious training facility. She herself had sustained many injuries such as broken bones, torn ligaments, and large gashes that oozed her blueish purple blood. After this spectacle, The High Prophets used everything the could to detain the lone Shade, and eventually succeeded, with again, a heavy loss in troops. The only reason she was brought down was because of the extreme beating her skull had taken. More importantly, the beating that her soft brain took. Soon all but a few involuntary functions, such as breathing, circulating blood, and other necessary bodily functions were left of her conscious. She slipped into a vegetative state and hasn't budged since that day.
That day was almost 7 months ago.
The Prophet of Truth was called down to Floor X-14, the floor which contained all psychologically insane patients aboard the Covenant Holy City, High Charity. Though the cell that the High Prophet hovered towards was a solitary confinement cell and was meant to contain the worst of insane patients, this particular cell, X-14-275B was transferred into a hospitable room where the coma plagued Shade rested without a thought or care in her small world.
The door to X-14-275B Solitary Confinement Cell, opened with a whispering hiss. A pleasant aroma of jungle rain overwhelmed Truth. It wasn't the actual smells that bothered him, but more of the chemicals caused to make the smell that attacked his taste buds as he inhaled. He waved his gray wrinkled hand in front of his alien face hoping to disperse the putrid tasting chemicals that aggravated his senses, but to his avail, it had no effect. All he could do was ignore the pungent aroma and find out why he was burdened away from his luxurious abode several floors away.
He leaned forward, only enough to propel him effortlessly through the door and into the dimly light room. The chamber itself was nothing more than a rectangular cube carved out of steel and various other types of metal. To him, the room was barely big enough to house a pair of their armored Hunters, let alone himself, several pieces of medical equipment, a primitive cloth cot with the Shade and a medical examiner, who was a lesser Prophet. More than likely one who was never able to make a suitable path along the aristocratic line, but instead choose to examine any that entered her ward.
"What have you bothered me for, Atil?" Truth said through slightly gritted teeth. The lesser Prophet dropped to her knees within the instant he spoke. Apparently she was unaware of his existence until the softly spoken words reached her ears. As he waited for the medical officer to stand, he examined her. She wore a long white silk robe that covered her body from her scraggly misshapen neck on down past her misshapen toes. Like the rest of their kind, she held an almost humanistic face, but with many alien differences to set the two species apart. Her wrinkled skin was a lighter gray than most other Prophets, and unlike Truth, she did not sport the two curious flaps of skin, dashed with some form of hair, that lifelessly hung on to the neck just slightly past the jaw line of the alien.
Atil's bulging gold eyes finally peeled themselves away from the metal floor. "I'm deeply sympathetic that I had to bother you, High Prophet, but I felt that what I found may peak some interest in you." Atil said in a humbled whisper. The Hierarch waited with virtuous patience while the Lesser picked herself off the floor. With awkward steps, inclined mainly because of her hooked toes, she made her way over to a small tray that hovered at the far side of the room. She delicately took hold of opposite ends of the tray with three digit hands and then clumsily walked around the ancient cot and finally returned to the High Prophet. She looked at the tray and then held it out to where the contents of the tray could be seen clearly. She lowered her head as she were a dog disgraced by her master.
Truth examined everything that was presented before him. The tray, a simple medical tool that functioned mainly as a flat surface to put and carry surgical tools on. In this case, the thing sheet of Covenant metal held a purplish grey misshapen organic mass that seemed to be about the size of a Jackal's head. It also seemed to be smooth and covered in some sort of transparent film. Truth moved his head in every way he could to view the object better, but he was still unable to determine exactly what it was.
The Prophet let out a loud sigh as he looked towards the medical officer. "A tumor?" He inquired with a disgruntled manner. He hated being unable to answer questions or solve a problem.
"No, High Prophet. It used to be-" she paused for a moment to lift her head and pass a glance toward the Shade " - a baby."
Truth's eyes widened. To the untrained eye, this gesture was almost invisible, but to a Prophet, the slightest twitch could express more emotion than a smile. In this instance, utter shock over powered him.
"How?" Truth asked in awe struck whisper. He leaned forward slightly so he could propel his chair towards the primitive cloth cot that contained the naked experimental Sangheili. He intensely stared at the unusual specimen tha lay peacefully before him, hoping that she would mysteriously jolt to life and reply with a response with an answer to his previously asked question.
"She could have conceived before we took her away from Sangheilios. Remember, to the rest of the world, she is technically dead. If we didn't revive her after that explosion, then we wouldn't have her here today." Atil explained from where she stood. It was plausible, but is it what really occurred, Truth thought.
"Can we find the mate?" Truth inquired. His voice was still plagued with shock. Atil remained silent for a moment or two. Her black pupils darted from spot to spot as if she was searching for the correct answer and that it was plastered somewhere on the wall. Truth let out an exasperated sigh slip past his wrinkled lips. He turned his head to give a cold glance at Atil, hoping to get an answer quicker this way.
"Can you find the father of this child, Atil?" He repeated, making sure to stress key words. The medical officer nodded her head hesitantly. She wanted to say that the search would take days as the average Sangheili family had several relatives from each side of the family, usually many brothers and sisters who have children of their own. What burdened the medic more was the pressing matter of if the father was still alive.
"I will have my team begin searching immediately, High Prophet." She said humbly as she bowed and scuttled out of the jungle scented sanctuary to inform her colleagues of the task at hand. She didn't have to go far, in fact the other medical examiners were only down the hall perpendicular to the one room X-14-275B was in. Truth could hear the echoes of their chatter warble it's way to his ears. For the time being, he ignored the distorted words and compassionately looked at the morphed Sangheili. His memories flashed and showed him happy and sorrow filled moments he had seen, all having one thing in common, the Shade.
The rare white skin with black stripes and tips was the saddening reason why Truth had ever met this unfortunate being. After her BES, she was the most perfect specimen of all 300. The surgery, which was more of the placement and then agitation of DNA cells, caused the already muscular Elite to be larger than an adult Brute, physically stronger than several of the Covenant's finest warriors, mentally capable of comprehending strategies that a Grunt or Jackal couldn't even dream for, and swift enough to match a speeding Chopper in a race, and win.
To help with these enhancements, the BES also gave several physical differences. Her bone structure, musculature, and organ system still remained Sangheili, but there were several features that made her stand out from the average 8 foot tall warrior. A usual Sangheili had two pairs of mandibles that made up their lower jaw. They were unconnected and sported sharp shark like teeth that jutted out from the inside of the "mouth". Project Shade called for the bottom pair of mandibles to be fused together, forming a classic snake jaw lined with jagged teeth. This allowed the project to ingest food easier and digest it more efficiently compared to it's predecessor. The Shades were also allowed to deliver a toxic bite that could kill something 10 times it's size within 3 minutes.
The usual bald grey head of the Sangheili meant nothing to the Shade's. Along the side of their jaw on either side, large fox like ears protruded backwards. The also sported a pair of black menacing horns that curved up, then down, then back up in menacing 3 feet of solid bone. The Shade before him however, had her horns broken just after the horns began to curve up for a second time. Only a fourth of her now jaggedly cut horns remained.
The last biggest physical changes of the Shades, was flight gear. a second pair of arms jutted out from their scapula, which was modified to accommodate the new appendages,. The fingers on these arms were measure in an extraordinary length, the longest being up to 8 and a half feet. The fingers were then covered in a transparent membrane that would extend past the fingers and the curve back towards the finger parallel to it, separating each membrane so maximum control could gained in the air. These wings were strong enough to make the Shade fly, but like several large birds, taking off required a good drop off and a gust of wind. The last appendage was the extension of the Vertebrae, a long snaky tail that ended in a scythe like frill that was reinforced by cartilage, making it stiff. This was not only uses as a rudder for flying, but could also be used to grab things and act as a weapon if necessary. In this particular Shade, the wings had been forcefully ripped out of their sockets during her last battle, preventing escape, the tail remained intact, but with a portion of the cartilage frill missing.
All of these changes were for the better cause, but something went wrong. The remaining became increasingly more aggressive and ravenous due to the agitation and pain they went through to acquire these new features. By miscalculation, they were given rations that would feed 2 brutes every day. The Shades needed to eat their own weight in meat and other expensive foods tha contained several vitamins, calcium, keratin, and most importantly, carbohydrates. All they received was a nutritional gray paste which tasted like rotten fish, spoiled meat, dirt, and wood which even Elites couldn't bear to stomach. After only a few days, their chances stopped and the began to eat themselves from lack of food. Out of an animalistic state of starvation, the two remaining males attacked one another in an attempt to feed, but they both died from exahustion and blood loss. Why they hadn't attacked the last female, no one knew.
Truth morned the death of the Shade's child deep within his mentality. From what he had heard and seen, the experiment, formerly know as Selen Tainex, was a determined individual. She fought alongside the Covenant's previous Arbiter, Tartarus, the Head Chieftain Brute, and several other high ranking troops such as Yayap, Thel, and R'tas. To what the Prophet understood, the former Sangheili didn't understand the word "failure" and it was that concept that drove her to succeed in many of her previous teachings.. She was truly an unexpected breed, and it was likely that her strong will was the only reason she remained clinically alive.
She was truly a Shade, and a fine representative to the Sangheili race.
She was Covenant Special Forces, Shade One-One-Seven.