Yayap's Story
Chapter 1: Escape
At the edge of the foothills, Yayap dismounted from his Ghost. Intrigued by a series of noises, the Special Operations Grunt turned back to look at the Pillar of Autumn. Yayap witnessed a trail of explosions rip along the length of the ship's battered hull. The symphony of destruction that was laid out before him was rather beautiful.
Yayap felt a peace, felt as if he were floating in the air, then quickly realized that he was floating in the air, upward. Yayap looked up, to see that a DX-class Dropship, otherwise known as a Spirit, had caught him in its gravity lift beam and was reeling him in.
The very second Yayap was aboard the DX Dropship accelerated away from the Pillar of Autumn at full speed. Trying to keep his balance, Yayap leaned against the interior wall of the dropship as it rumbled and rocked. Yayap heard the squeaking of other Grunts aboard the ship.
"I regret everything!"
"We're not gonna make it!"
"Waaahaha ha!"
The Spirit barely escaped the explosion and destruction of Installation 04. The ship steadied and Yayap could now get his bearings.
Yayap could have sworn he recognized one of the voices that echoed through the transport. A memory that had been buried under all the stress he had been going through lately. He remembered the owner of that voice.
"Gagaw!"
"Yes?" a Grunt Major answered. The red armored Grunt stared at the black armored Grunt for three full heartbeats. "Yayap! I thought you were dead!"
"I thought the same of you," Yayap admitted.
"Nah, I'm invincible now."
"What?"
"Zakap saved me. He says I'm part of his squad now."
"Zakap….why does that name sound familiar? Wait, what happened to the rest of our old squad?"
"Dead, except for us."
Yayap felt his heart sink. Death was an all-too-real reality for Grunts, but he was fond of his former unit. He looked around, realizing that a Grunt in jet-black armor was piloting the Spirit while a green armored Grunt Heavy was dutifully manning the controls to the ship's lone plasma cannon, even though there was nothing to shoot.
"Who dat?" Yayap pointed at the pilot.
"Zakap, the one who save me and the others."
"Zakap…" Yayap finally remembered why that particular name gnawed at the back of his Grunty mind. "The demon killer?"
"Yep, dat me," the Special Ops Grunt driving the Spirit replied.
"What you doing here?"
"Trying to stay alive."
"You can fly this thing?" Yayap was acutely aware that it was uncommon to find Grunts operating aircraft.
"Not too hard to learn. Phantoms are easy too. Human aircraft you gotta be careful with, ugly and unreliable."
"I wondered why the transport risked the time to save me."
"Yeah, no Unggoy gets left behind. We all Unggoy here, except for Deadside, so no complaining to stop and save you."
Yayap had noticed that the only inhabitants of the dropship were Grunts, except for a large figure stirring in one of the troop racks. Yayap peered at it to find it was a black armored Special Ops Hunter. The massive Hunter was armed with a heavy metal shield and a needler cannon. The fuel rod tubes that would usually stick out of the cannon arm were replaced with purple needles.
"That's Deadside, my adoptive bond brother," Zakap explained.
An Ultra Grunt in pearl-white armor turned to Yayap. "So, Yayap, Gagaw told us about you. He says that you're smart."
"Smart enough to stay alive I guess," Yayap said, unsure about what the other Grunt was getting at.
"I'm Curlap, technically I'm the leader of this squad," the Grunt Ultra explained. "It would be nice to talk to someone with intelligence for a change, and maybe you can stay with us and help me boss these idiots around."
"Hey! I'm intelligent!" Zakap protested.
"The ability to kill does not make you intelligent," Curlap retorted.
"I drive vehicles too…"
"And get us in lots of trouble, that I have to deal with!" Curlap scolded.
"It ain't so bad, we alive right?"
"It is bad."
"It could be worse."
"And somehow with you Zakap, it always gets worse."
"Give me a break, you act like this is all my fault. That I go to sleep each night wondering how I can make our lives miserable for the day to come!"
Curlap turned back to Yayap. "A Special Ops Unggoy is a prize to be had. You want to stay with us; we can make that happen. Others will back off if Zakap says he wants you on the squad."
"That would be fine, but don't you think you're thinking too far ahead? No one might not even save us and we'll be stranded out here forever."
"Yes he is a smart one!" Curlap exclaimed. "You're right, we might all die here. But we must act like we're going to live, or we will die. That's what I've learned hanging around that crazy Zakap and his bond brother."
Yayap didn't like the sound of that. He was far away from his former sleepy post he had before the whole business with the Sacred Ring started.
A Covenant cruiser picked up the Spirit's signal.
"Incoming vessel, identify yourselves," an Elite's voice came in.
"This is Energy Hammer, carrying survivors from the Sacred Ring," Curlap answered.
"Has the Parasite infected your vessel?"
"No, we're all clean here," Curlap wanted to give a sarcastic reply to such a dumb question but didn't want to be left hanging out in space if the Elite on the other end took offense at his humor.
"You are to dock in bay four, prepare for decontamination, inspection and processing."
"Understood."
"What fun," Yayap sarcastically said once the comm channel was turned off.
Mehmep, the Heavy Grunt gunner spoke up. "Stupid Elite. What, they think the Parasite learned to speak somehow?"
"Inspecting transports isn't so bad, it save my life back on the Ring," Yayap said.
"Oh?" Mehmep was genuinely curious.
"We can heard your war stories once we get off the transport," Curlap said. "Everyone get ready for inspection!" The order elicited groans from the Grunts.
The Spirit docked in bay four as ordered. Yayap and the others got off the ship to be met with a security team of Minor Grunts and Jackals.
The blue armored Minor Elite leader spoke up. "Huragok Team One, check the crew. Huragok Team Two, check the ship."
Engineers began to swarm around the group of survivors. Their tentacles slithered across the Grunts, searching for any sign of the Flood.
"Gross," Gagaw complained.
"Look, I'm Zakap and this is my crew. Can we take a break in the methane suite please? We are all very tired."
The Elite's four-mandible mouth hung open, he immediately knew who the Grunt was. He also knew the Grunt was telling the truth, no Unggoy would dare impersonate Zakap, for fear of assassination attempts and there was a Special Ops Hunter in the group. Everyone was well aware that Zakap was the adopted bond brother of Deadside.
"Yes you may go," the Minor Elite replied. "You, show them the way to the nearest methane suite," the Elite ordered a nearby Minor Grunt.
"Yes boss," the orange armored Grunt responded. A few of the Jackals gave the famous Grunt evil stares as they left.
"Yayap, you up in front with me," Zakap said authoritatively.
The Minor Grunt guide walked far ahead of the rest of the group. The two Special Ops Grunts walked side by side with Deadside behind them and the other Grunts bringing up the rear.
"You new. Have to learn to walk in front of Deadside without fear of getting stepped on. Just keep pace with me," Zakap instructed. "It easy when you get used to it."
"I'm sure," Yayap said uncertainly. He could easily hear the clanging footfalls of the large Hunter echo throughout the hallway.
"Ha Ha! We no have to go through inspection and processing!" Mehmep exclaimed from the back of the convoy, happy to get away from the hanger bay with just decontamination.
Other Covenant troops gave the group a wide berth. Word had traveled fast of Zakap's arrival, some had deliberately gone to see the Grunt. Some curious, some vengeful. A group of Jackals hissed at the group as they passed.
"They afraid of Deadside. Stupid fools, should be afraid of me as well," Zakap purposefully pounded on his chest plate with his fist as the group of Jackals continued hissing at them.
"Here it is," the Grunt motioned to the door of the methane suite. The Grunty crew went inside while Deadside stood guard at the door. Inside the methane-filled room, the Unggoy docked into triangular depressions on one of the walls. Compressors started to refill the tanks as the Grunt ejected themselves from their harnesses.
They removed their masks and hung them on a rack. The Grunts circled around the room's food dispenser and uncoiled the food nipples and shoved them into their mouths.
"I hate this stuff. It tastes like Sangheili shit," Zakap complained as he inhaled the nutritious, but foul-tasting sludge.
"You've tasted Sangheili shit before?" Curlap replied.
"No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were feeding us Sangheili shit."
"Gagaw, when did you get promoted?" Yayap asked.
"Right after you were transferred out, I was the replacement squad leader. My squad got killed by the Parasite, but Zakap and Deadside managed to save me."
"Zakap and Deadside saved me on the human world Reach just before the Sacred Ring," Mehmep added.
"How did you kill a demon?" Yayap asked Zakap.
"It was fighting Deadside and his Mgalekgolo bond brother when I stumbled upon them. I turned on my active camouflage and the demon not notice me. It killed Deadside's bond brother and was about to finish him off as well when I shot it with my overcharged plasma pistol, and unloaded a full needler clip into it. What a mess that explosion made. Demon bits everywhere," Zakap waved his hands around for emphasis.
"Deadside is a peculiar Mgalekgolo name," Yayap said.
"He abandoned his old name and took that one when he adopted me as his new bond brother cause I saved him. Has no bond or line name anymore, just one personal name, like us Unggoy."
"Tell him the rest of the story Zakap," Curlap said.
"I get death threats and assassination attempts all the time, especially from Kig-yar, Jiralhanae and Sangheili."
"It true, I saw a Kig-yar try to kill him on the Sacred Ring!" Gagaw added.
"Yes, a big pain in the ass. Duels and death and messes I have to explain to the superiors," Curlap whined.
"Bah, they never do anything about it," Zakap cut in.
"Yeah, cause they want you dead too! All the suicide missions we get assigned too, it gets really tiring after a while."
The Unggoy Minor that had guided the group to the methane suite came back in. "You gotta come back out, the bosses want to talk to you guys."
The Grunts groaned as they abandoned the food dispenser and put their masks and suits back on. "Appearance over speed, better to for them to wait and have us look presentable," Zakap said, his real motive was to make the Elites wait a little bit.
After the group came out they were met with three Elites.
"We must take proper roll call of your squad. The Prophet of Regret demands you report to his carrier!"
Yayap sighed on the inside. Now he was being transferred to one of the Hierarchs ships? He never seemed to have any peace.
Author's Note: This story begins at Yayap's last scene in the novel Halo: The Flood. Yayap makes it some distance away from the Pillar of Autumn and turns to see a series of explosions across the hull of the ship. The story implies that Yayap dies though never specifically states it. In a cut scene in Halo Wars it shows that Spirit craft are equipped with gravity beams. Having Yayap caught in the gravity beam of a passing Spirit was the most believable way I could think to save him from his doom.
Gagaw also appeared in Halo: The Flood and did not die.