July 19th, 2011 Tulsa, Oklahoma 10:33 PM
Everyone always told me "You'll find your place in the world someday, Rick. Just give it some time." I clearly hadn't because here I was, at 18, no job, no life, still sitting on the couch with an Xbox 360 controller in hand, sucking at my favorite game in the world, Halo: Reach. I was in the middle of an invasion game, on defense, playing on my favorite map, Spire. My team was about to return the core to the top of the spire when a Spartan came from behind a rock with a rocket launcher.
"Aw, crap!" was my reaction as he fired the rocket at my teammates and I. I managed to evade out of the way before it hit. My teammates were not so lucky. I switched weapons to my needler, but I needed to reload. I swore under my breath as the rocket hit my elite in the face. The guy who was controlling said Spartan, a friend of mine, laughed evilly and said,
"How did that rocket feel, Sanders?" Instead of respawning, however, my Xbox flashed the words "You suck" across the screen. As if I needed to be reminded. Confused, I got up and walked to the Xbox to see what was wrong. When I put my hand over the vent, instead of the usual heat my palm was met with about a million volts of electricity. I was violently sucked through a point in the middle of the vent. If I had had some time to think, I probably would have laughed because it looked like I was literally being sucked into the game.
After a few seconds of blackness, I was spat out in front of someone's armored green shin. I noticed that it was below freezing wherever I was. All that registered after that was pain, it was like I was being stretched out on a taffy puller. I could feel bones snapping and being realigned, my skin being stretched to fit the realignment of my bones. My hands felt like someone had put them in waffle irons, being simultaneously smashed and expanding, while someone else ripped off my pinkies but stopped halfway down and then decided to reattach it there. I passed out when my head decided to suck in my nose and rip apart my jaw.
Unknown time and location
I groaned as I slowly lifted myself off the floor. Every part of my body ached as if I had fallen off a cliff. My voice sounded so much deeper than usual. I opened my eyes. This isn't my living room... I thought.
I had woken up in what looked like a purple and pink apartment. Bewildered, I tried to stand up. I got to a half-crouch before falling forward onto my face. What the... I rolled over and propped myself up on my arms to see what was wrong. Instead of slipping on something, like I thought, I saw the problem was my new legs, which had two knees, the lowest of which was pointing backwards, and ended in a hoof-like foot. My jaw dropped, or at least it tried to. Instead it split into four parts and just hung open.
"Wah eh ell!" I was starting to freak out now. I looked at my hand. Sure enough, there were only two fingers on the middle of my hand and two thumbs on opposing sides from each other. My skin was dark brown and covered in tiny scales. I was covered in a black jumpsuit made of some kind of breathable plastic. Ok, I thought, I'm an alien from a videogame, an elite to be precise, I'm in a strange apartment, and I have no idea where or when I am. First things first: figure out how to use these ridiculous mandibles.
••••••a few hours later•••••••
After learning how to talk with my new mouth, and figuring out how to stand up, I tried my hand at walking. It was much harder than it looked. After about half an hour I figured out how to walk in a straight line. I looked like an idiot and I wobbled a lot, but I'd work on that later. For now, I wanted to explore the apartment. Through a small archway to my left was what I thought looked like my kitchen at home - only purple and pink. It had a large counter that wrapped all the way around the walls and a barstool on the other side of the counter not against the wall. There was a small pantry to the right of the counter. On the other side of the living room was a locked door and to the left of that, a bathroom with another sink, a shower, and a cabinet. I was playing with my mandibles in a mirror I found when a voice came over an intercom system. "Hello, it is nice to see you have awoken. I am Undi Telotee, I apologize for not being here when you awoke, but there are other duties to be performed on this ship."
The voice sounded female. I wondered how she was allowed on the ship, and what 'other duties' she could possibly be talking about, seeing as the covenant military was exclusively male. She answered my question without my having to ask.
"I am the head of the science department on the ship 'regretful transcendence' and you, Richard, are our newest project."
How did she know my name?
"I will be your mentor and guide while you learn the ways of our people. But first you must learn how to use your new body, although you have made considerable progress today by yourself, you still have much to learn," Undi said, "but for now you must rest."
The door that was locked earlier dinged and opened; there was a large bed inside with a table and what looked like an alarm clock. I couldn't read it. Not because of my vision, (which had actually gotten even better), because instead of numbers, the display had triangles: covenant language. "What is the date?" I asked.
"By your human calendar, it is... July 22nd, 2552." My eyes widened. Not only because I had been launched over 540 years into the future, I remembered what would happen in two days. I would be there for the battle of Reach.
July 23rd, 2552, 8:30 AM on board the 'Regretful Transcendence'
Please let it have been a dream, I told myself. I'll open my eyes and everything will be back to normal. I opened my eyes to see a pink colored wall. Damn it. I had gotten little sleep that night- or as Undi called it, "dark cycle", because I was too busy just sitting on my bed, thinking about what I might have to do tomorrow and for the next few months. First, of course, I would be trained. What then? Sent to almost certain doom against hordes of SPARTANs? Forced to commit countless acts of murder? Undi had not let me out of my apartment, and I hadn't even met her in person, which I was kind of looking forward to. I had always wondered what female sangheili looked like. The intercom activated and another elite's voice spoke, this one was male.
"A panel on your wall will open in a short while. Put on the armor and meet Undi at your front door when you are ready."
I heard a mechanic whir as the said panel swung open to reveal a set of blue minor armor. The helmet looked very shark- like in that it had two 'fins' on the side and ended in a tapered peak at the very back of the helmet. It came with an instructional program that played on a small data pad next to the armor rack. I disregarded it, saying to myself,
"I don't need no stinkin' instructions!" After about ten minutes of trial and error with more error than trial, I finally started up the program, taking about two minutes to put the armor on correctly. I walked over and stood by the only door that was still locked.
Undi came by about a minute later.
"Hello." she said, nearly making me jump out of my armor. She was wearing leaf- green armor and was looking at a data pad with several graphs on it. She stopped short as she looked up from her work to see me sprawled out on the floor, scrambling to get up. Undi gave a nearly inaudible chuckle before she offered me her hand and helped me up. I took it and was somewhat surprised at her strength as she heaved me back up to my feet.
"We expected this to occur, which is why your first day of training will be on the basic functions of your new body and some features of your armor. But first," She put her data pad on a low table in the middle of the room and sat down on the chair directly behind it. "Sit, I need to explain to you how you got here and I must present you with a choice." I quickly sat down on the couch to the right of her chair. She took a breath and began. "We found a large Forerunner artifact on the surface of one of your planets. As we went down to investigate it we were attacked by a large group of human soldiers and forced to fall back into the structure. We eventually eliminated all but one, who we found hiding in a corner (he had soiled himself), and forced him to activate the device we found inside. As it powered up, one if my soldiers who was helping me set up communications equipment stepped onto a panel which triggered another function of the device which we did not foresee, that it could bring back any being from the past and alter their genetic code to be the same species as the one who stepped on the panel. However," she sighed in disappointment," The device only had enough charge to retrieve one person, you."
I gave an understanding nod, knowing exactly where this was going.
"We had only had two choices: we could kill whomever came out of the portal for heresy (we knew you were once a human, you did not come out of the portal a sangheili), or we could spare your life and," she spat out the next two words as if it were poison "induct you into the holy ranks of the covenant. We decided to take you aboard our ship and let you decide for yourself." she paused and let the words sink in. "You may choose to walk the holy path with us or you may seal your death. You have three of your hours." with that she left.
On board the 'Regretful Transcendence'
July 23rd 2552, 11:30 AM
I really didn't need those three hours; I knew exactly what I needed to do, not only for my survival, but also because I knew the entire chain of events from tomorrow until March of 2553, meaning I could steer clear of most things that would kill me. If I could survive until after the great schism, my continued survival was almost guaranteed. The door to the outside opened and Undi smugly walked in with two guards in red armor, Zealots. They were both holding carbines and had a holstered plasma rifle on their hips.
"Your decision?" she asked, giving what I could only guess was a smirk. I grinned back. "I," pausing for effect, the guard on the left gripped his carbine's handle tighter, "would like to join the covenant."
Undi's mandibles drooped in what I could guess was surprise and disappointment. Those guards were here to kill me.
"Well, um... We did not expect..." she stuttered.
"You thought you were gonna get to execute me, didn't you?" I retorted. She blushed, but instead of turning red, like a human, her light gray skin turned a very dark purple. Probably due to her blood, and that of all sangheili, being purple.
"Ju- just come with me." she replied angrily and dragged me by the forearm out the front door.