Unknown location
September 30, 2558
The dense jungle would swallow up anything taking place within, including the temporary encampment built inside just out of sight from a passerby. Along the sides were blue ovals of portable shields, effective at neutralizing the explosive effects of grenades. Further back did the portable structures comprise the main camp that could be set up or torn down in a jiffy. The gnarled appearance of the massive trees surrounding looked like dead limbs, snaking everywhere and ready to trip an unsuspecting traveler.
A large ship was stationed overhead of a clearing, escorted by two smaller sleek ships originating from an extraterrestrial source. However, in many popular culture beliefs of alien ships dwarfing the humans', the ship of human origin was about twice their size. In truth, the alien group, known as the Storm Covenant had ships far larger and superior, but the two CRS-light cruisers and their sister ships now formed the backbone of the radical remnant fleet. They were small and fairly weak, hardly a threat to most other starships on their own, but combine three or four of them and they could be a much serious threat to larger vessels.
The two cruisers broke their formation, flying off into the night, their green colored engines fading as they vanished over the horizon. With a radio set held to his face, the human ship captain was on the ground near the camp, guiding a pair of pelican dropships as they moved a massive rust caked shipping container to the ground. The multipurpose box carried a precious cargo that had spared the crew from a shoot on sight by the Storm's forces present.
The captain was a tall white skinned man, wearing a mismatched uniform of blue and dark green and reddish brown hair hidden by a cap. Circling his large neck was a collar that provided a cool touch to the humid and hot tropical air of a jungle. His companion stood nearby, observing the armed aliens instead of the maneuvering of the pelican pilots. Unlike the captain, he had much more of a commanding presence, an undeniable feeling once a good look was cast at him.
Amid the Covenant troops, he spotted his contact. The ranking elite wore the instant recognizable golden armor of the Warrior. Those who were permitted to wear this particular lightweight and strong combat harness were all some of the most seasoned veterans of the past wars against humanity and the Covenant loyalists of the original empire. Warriors were highly feared throughout the UNSC and thus were prime targets if they lived long enough to take him out.
Their warrior leader had a needler clipped to his belt and his eyes were hidden by a shade lense feature that was integrated into the combat suit's HUD.
The acting captain, Conan Pyra had been chosen for his height by the real captain of the ship, Trip Aegis to conduct their deal. Although the different species that had a grudging truce with one another, Aegis knew the representative sent by the Sangheili Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Storm Covenant would feel more at ease dealing with a human that shared the sangheili trait of being tall.
Pyra spoke something into a radio in his hand. The device didn't even have a battery inside. He once again scanned the Storm ranks, sizing up what their possible opposition was. There were at least two dozen of the cannon fodder unggoy, nine kig-yar with glowing shields and a handful of the tall sangheili. He didn't see any of the hulking lekgolo, which carried lethal shields and anti-armor guns, but he couldn't discount the possibility.
"Pelicans one and two return to port and standby for extraction. We'll call you once we're done." Pyra waved over once the unggoy had cut the lines with a nod from the elite.
"Solid copy, see you when you return." Pelican one's pilot responded before firing up the engines and disappearing upwards. Pelican two hovered close to the ground, dropping a couple more people before thundering back to the bay.
"Alright." Aegis lightly tapped Pyra's shoulder, "Let's go make a deal."
The two stepped at the front of the two others that backed them. Behind Aegis was an older man with thinning hair and freshly steamed clothes. Like the vessel above that seemed to barely run on minimal power, they were outfitted with little modern equipment. The fourth person, an individual named Leah Roush cradled an MA37 series assault rifle that had noticeable cracks along its stock. The magazine held on to tape fashioned inside the chipped metal confines.
"Ready to play jeweler?" Trip asked his executive officer, Drew Rayson. The latter had once had the physique of the former, but age had now thickened the belt on the dress pants he wore, which were coated with sweat from underneath. He was in his fifties, at Aegis' side on the very concept of their child, the private mercenary group Strike Blades. Their easy friendship of mutual respect had overcome every challenge they faced and the enemies of their clients were always throwing new ones.
Hopefully this one would prove to be survivable, as they now were face to face with a legion of one of the most bloodthirsty and hostile groups since the end of the Human-Covenant war. They'd dealt with them before, but not on diplomacy terms. Trip wasn't too thrilled about it being successful.
"As the old saying goes, diamonds are a mercenary's best friend."
"That's new." Roush whispered.
"It's true."
The lone warrior detached himself from the two dome helmeted rangers beside him and strode over. Pyra and Aegis led Roush and Rayson over to a table where the warrior gave a subtle nod.
The deal the Strike Blades were doing had been less than a week in the making, through highly sophisticated communication that wasn't allowed to be monitored by UNSC or ONI eavesdroppers. It was pretty simple though, in exchange for a pound of rare Forerunner soul diamonds, the Blades were arming the Storm with seven hundred storm rifles, two hundred and fifty needlers, two hundred fuel rod guns, fourteen hundred batteries for the rifles, two full caddies per needler and a thousand rounds for the handheld launchers. 'Mdama's messages didn't ask how the Blades had gotten ahold of the large amount of alien military equipment and Aegis wasn't going to ask how the cultist leader had acquired so many diamonds. Though coming from him, most likely brought by human or unggoy slaves in order to finance his cause. He had a surplus of willing soldiers and with the high number, was critically short on weapons. The prospect of using human weapons would've outraged him so the real supplier, ONI had delivered the shipment full of Covenant ones instead.
"Captain Pyra." The elite made quite a good attempt at pronouncing the "P" letter, something elites had much difficulty doing. "I am Warrior Jed Ontom of the Storm Covenant." He spoke quite good English in a deep rumbling voice that didn't seem to have any humanity to it, which made Aegis suspect that he served as a translator for human speech prior to joining.
"Warrior." Pyra stood his ground. Even at full height, he couldn't match the sangheili leader's form. He raised his hands as one of the rangers frisked him for weapons. The second one searched the other three. When he came to Roush, she begrudgingly let him take the assault rifle away.
"Our great leader, the Didact's Hand sends his regards and he regrets not being able to meet you in person."
'Mdama had been fronting his war from a secret location somewhere in the former Covenant held space or this Requiem shield world. He seemingly disappeared after his escape from ONI and had only been seen once by a Spartan team that had been sent to locate Dr. Catherine Halsey. What was nerve racking about him was that he had foiled all attempts by the UNSC to infiltrate his headquarters, personally killing four kig-yar that had been trained by the UNSC to join the Storm with orders to assassinate him. His air of invincibility only added to his appeal, with the blood of thousands of humans on his hands.
"Can I ask what has the Didact's Hand done to be absent for our exchange?"
"He has…" Ontom seemed to be thinking of a story, "He has some pressing matters to attend to. We are currently initiating a massive fleet movement away from the holy world of Requiem for an important operation."
As much as they wanted to relay that intel back to ONI, Pyra kept his cool and didn't inform anyone. He didn't know what to make of it, but the office would always be able to milk some sort of vital measures from a single sentence and then go through another dozen protocols.
"You have brought the weapons." The warrior made it more of a statement than a question.
"I have. You will see them as soon as my associate here inspects our diamonds." Pyra gestured behind him to Drew.
"Yes. As we agreed." Ontom said gesturing behind him. His ranger accomplices parted to allow the quartet through.
A table had been set up along the side of the building where an alien blue light illuminated the smooth surface was powered by a portable plasma cell. Ontom crossed his arms standing opposite of the chair where Drew plopped himself down. The air was thick with heavy tension. His two ranger accomplices stood behind him and a third was nearly at gunpoint to Drew. A black cloth bag was set in the center of the table. Drew's case had him busied with the contents. Removing an electronic scale, a few calibration weights and a notebook case that also contained a pencil and a calculator he had finished setting his inspection area before prepping the instruments. More elites, this time dressed in the storm and commander suits were ready to cut down Pyra, Aegis and Roush at the slightest indication from their leader. Tension ran very high in the night.
Ontom placed a hand on the bag before Drew could open it, "Shipmaster, I think that it would be a time to show good faith. I would like to see our weapons."
"That wasn't part of the deal." Pyra said. One of Ontom's ranger aides seemed to scoff.
"A show of faith," Ontom kept his tone with menace, "Goodwill on your part." He removed his hand from the bag, raising a hand. Rustling came from behind the vegetation and one and a half dozen Covenant soldiers emerged from the shadows, consisting of jackals and elites all armed with longer range carbines. "They are capable of killing your crew and taking our weapons anyway. This is just a show of my merciful good faith." He waved them off and they disappeared into the thicket just as quickly as they appeared.
Having no choice, Pyra turned back to the container. Using a crowbar set next to the side, he pried the heavy door open. Ontom, his rangers and a few other infantrymen followed them. Using a flashlight to light up the walls, Pyra stood aside as one of the rangers stepped inside, his pleased expression when seeing the oily reflection of needlers and storm rifles. He slung an unloaded gold fuel rod gun over his shoulder at the group showing off like a model at a trade show. A couple grunts let out an excited squeal and even Ontom had a slight smile creeping on his normally expressionless face.
"That is the extent of my good faith." Pyra gave a subtle gesture.
Ontom nodded, now it was just all the diamond inspection that had to be done.
With a very uneasy arms deal with one of the UNSC's most bitter enemies, what have the Blades gotten themselves into?
Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.