The calm before the storm
A low hum is all that can be heard. Its low and very bass like rumble after spending years aboard the covenant supercarrier, long night of solace, you could almost forget it was even there.
For Zimzam, he found himself enjoying the white noise. Zimzam always had trouble falling asleep in pure silence. The deep hum provided a soothing atmosphere for him to relax aboard the massive planet buster he was stuck on.
Unggoy are an easily frightened race, which meant that Unggoy, like Zimzam, struggle to find a sense of security and always live a life of fear.
in an ironic way, living aboard the large ship has provided Zimzam with the greatest sense of security he'd ever had in his life. the impenetrable armor, advanced shields, powerful weapon defenses, and competent leadership, let fearful Unggoy like Zimzam rest easy knowing their lives are in good hands.
The Long Night of Solace would not fall.
Zimzam is a minor Grunt in the covenant empire. "The lowest of the low." Zimzam would frequently think to himself, along with other pessimistic thoughts like "I could get stepped on by a hunter and I doubt anyone would notice." it was a dark thought that often kept Zimzam up at night, but it was a sad truth that all Unggoy would have to accept.
Zimzam's somber thoughts were abruptly halted by a loud THUMP sound coming from outside. This was our Sangheili lance (or squad) leader indicating that he was now (impatiently) waiting for us to rendezvous with him outside. Groggily, Zimzam, along with the rest of his Unggoy comrades, arose from their slumber and slowly shuffled out of their quarters in single file.
Their sleeping quarters aren't much to talk about. The room itself is a narrow six foot wide and six foot tall, at its highest point, triangular prism that stretched out roughly sixteen feet. Each Unggoy is given a tiny four foot long section for sleeping that is divided up on both sides of the prism shaped room by thin metal walls. There is little privacy and little space to stretch out. The entire room is filled with a methane gas which would be toxic to the rest of the crew aboard the Long Night Of Solace. The exit to the sleeping quarters contains a smaller foyer like room that could fit about two Unggoy at a time. There, the methane is vented out and replaced with standard ship atmosphere.
Zimzam was at the back of the line, meaning that he would have to be the last one out of the room. Zimzam gave a low energy sigh as he strapped on his breathing apparatus. Man, I always hate being the last one out of the room. Zimzam thought to himself. Our lance leader as well as every other elite in the covenant, will lash out at whoever is last to exit the quarters. "looks like that abuse will be falling upon me today." Zimzam thought to himself.
Elites must be a super strict and uptight species by instinct. Even minor elites, such as our Lance leader are extraordinarily dutiful individuals, always waking up and completing tasks with clockwork proficiency equal to that of AIs. Zimzam honestly couldn't help but admire this trait in Elites, although it was probably only natural for the grunts of any military to look up to their leaders.
" Jutfip! wake up you lazy scrub grub!" Yelled a voice, coming from two Unggoys in front of him. "Uunngh, I'm still tired. Why do we have to get up so early every day?" Replied a clearly very tired voice coming from four sleeping sections down from where Zimzam stood. "If you don't get up, Yuto's going to squish you for sure." Warned the agitated Unggoy which Zimzam now identified as Flipyip, the only Unggoy major in the lance. "hmmfffine I'll get up. but only because I don't feel like dying on an empty stomach."
It was a sad yet true fact that Unggoy life is not valuable to the rest of the covenant. If an Unggoy were to disobey his superior, it would not be uncommon for the superior to execute the Unggoy for nothing more than minor disobedience. However, worrying about dying in this life was of little concern to any of us. Just as long as we all end up in the great journey in the end. slowly, Jutfip shuffled into place behind Zimzam. At least this meant that he wouldn't have to be the last one to leave the quarters this time, much to his pleasure. Slowly, one by one, each Unggoy was filed out of the room until it was Zimzam and one other Unggoy's turn. He felt all of the methane surrounding him quickly recede and be replaced with a warmer air containing oxygen nitrogen and just a hint of argon. The second door then swooshed open and he and the Unggoy in front of him exited the foyer. They were then greeted by a large reptile like alien towering above all of them.
Yuto let out a low growl as he watched Jutfip exit last from the entrance, clearly taking his time in doing so.
The door to their sleeping quarters was only a little over five feet tall. Even some of the taller Unggoy would have to duck a little in order to fit through. This provided us with an escape from higher ups because: one, they couldn't fit in the door, and two, they'd probably die from breathing the atmosphere after a few seconds.
Yuto Stefumee watched Jutfip unenthusiastically fall into line with all of the other Unggoy, but not before receiving a firm kick to the ankles from Yuto.
"A strong warrior should maintain peak performance on and off the battlefield." Yuto spoke in his usual projecting voice. "Your lack of dedication to the great journey shows when you lack the necessary devotion to tasks as simple as rising at the start of each day."
Zimzam was very used to routines at this point in his service to the covenant. Yuto would give this lecture to the last Grunt out every single day. For Zimzam, this daily lecture was just as much of a white noise as the hum of the ships engine.
YUTO POV
After admonishing one of his subordinates, Yuto Stefumee glanced over every one of his Grunts under his command, watching all of them lazily shift under their weight. he hated accepting that those under his command wouldn't be taking in half of whatever he says.
With a huff and a slight gesture to the Grunt major at the front, the group moved out to their next destination.
Aboard the Long Night Of Solace, there was always work to be done, even despite that, within it, housed literally millions of crew members. For today, his lance was assigned to overseeing all operations within Hanger 17. This job is considered a privileged responsibility for a minor Elite such as himself. but due to the long span of time Yuto had spent aboard Long Night of Solace, he had earned the higher up's trust in his ability to maintain specific jobs, especially hanger monitoring.
Yuto Stefumee is a minor Elite. its not a very commendable rank but he wore it with pride;
semi-aversive pride...
Yuto had spent most of his time in service on board the ship rather than being on the battlefield. and because sangheili rank is majorly dictated by battle experience, he has yet to receive a most anticipated promotion.
As is customary with all minor Elites, Yuto's armor is light blue shade. His helmet is the standard cylindrical shape with fin jutting out at the sides and rear. There were no ornaments or unique features to his helmet beside a few meaningless symbols made from Sangheili body paint. Yuto himself is of impressive stature, standing upright at around 8'3'', much taller than most other Elites and also notably stronger as well.
Yuto knew that his commanded troops were nothing significant. He didn't command any other Elites, nor did he command Hunters or even Jackals. Nonetheless, he was proud of his small Grunt army and saw the potential each one of them possessed.
Before going to Hanger 17, Yuto brought his lance into the designated grunt mess hall. Within it was several "food nipples" that the grunts seem to enjoy. As Yuto watched them all disband to feed, he couldn't help but shudder at the very smell of it. The odor was similar to that have lekgolo mucus stained with a tinge of sulfur.
While trying to divert his attention away from it he caught sight of one of his comrades Alar Teferee, an Elite major, walking up to him.
"greetings Teferee." Yuto said, hailing him. "I have not seen you in some time." Alar Spoke. Yuto paused for a moment, sizing up his ally. he wanted to try and compare stature to see exactly what a major has over him, but it was easily suggestive that Yuto was trying to provoke the more humble Elite major.
Yuto had trained alongside Alar in their childhood. Even though Yuto always maintained strength greater than Alar, Alar had always been a better and swifter fighter than Yuto was which led to Yuto getting frequently scolded by his instructor for being too clumsy and too brutish.
Alar sensed Yuto's growing tension by how he was so obviously staring at him with a hint of jealousy glistening in his eyes like a burning flame. Wishing not to start anything with his childhood friend Alar broke the silence. "I've gotten word of the human stronghold were supposed to be on route to."
This caught Yuto's attention. Because of the enormous crew and the fact that Long Night Of Solace almost constantly saw action in the war meant that the crew was usually kept at a very tight need to know basis. Getting to hear anything having to do with the next engagements always excited Yuto.
"What have you heard?" Yuto asked curiously, trying to have a greater presence with a slightly lower and more gruff sounding tone. Alar relaxed his tense shoulders before responding, "This stronghold is supposed to be of great significance to the course of the war apparently." Alar spoke while glancing out the large window in the hallway, watching light zip by like white strands of hair. "This one is called Reach. The higher ups speculate it may be one of the most heavily defended strongholds the covenant has ever engaged."Alar said.
Yuto thought he detected a hint of worry in Alar's tone, a petty opportunity for him to exploit. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to put himself in a higher opinion, Yuto puffed up his chest and let out a defiant huff. "the human scum is on the verge of inevitable collapse." He taunted. "This planet will fall just like the others. the Long Night of Solace shall see to its demise."
Alar's upper mandibles stretched out, indicating a smile, "That's a lot of talk coming from somebody who leads Grunts." Alar commented with a sarcastic tone. Yuto's chest somehow puffed out even more "at least I lead my own pack. "Yuto retorted "you're still stuck being led by other Sangheili."
Zimzam's POV
Zimzam looked over at the Sangheili's sorry excuse for socializing. While a Grunt could never expect the "privilege" of small talk with an Elite, it really wouldn't be all that worthwhile from what Zimzam had observed.
Both Sangheili conversed about strictly tactically related stuff and each one seemed to be more focused on looking as big and muscular as possible than actually chatting.
Zimzam diverted his attention back to his Grunty friends. Lipzip was telling the story about how he saw a vision of the great journey right when he had a near death experience with a plasma grenade; he'd heard this story many times.
"Before I knew it, the grenade was already fizzling a hot blue and was stuck to my visor and If I had thrown my helmet off maybe a half of a second later I would've been done for" Lipzip chattered on, mostly to other Unggoy that were from another group, and hadn't already heard this story a thousand times. "And it was at that moment that I must've blacked out." Lipzip paused, standing still like a statue while his eyes darted around the room.
He was waiting for his so called "essential cue".
Zimzam took on the mantle of wingman for this session by chiming in with the essential question Lipzip would always need to hear before he could continue, even though it was entirely unnecessary anyway. "What happened THEN?" Zimzam replied with an incredibly forced sense of curiosity.
Lipzip instantly answered the question, "That's when I saw it!"
Lipzip's audience was totally eating it up right now. Some had even stopped feeding from the food nipple, allowing its precious nutrients to drip, just to give Lipzip their full attention.
Zimzam smiled under his breathing apparatus and gave essential question number two, "What did you see?" Chirped Zimzam. "I saw the path, an infinitely long and wide path, and it was made of that fancy, shiny, forerunnery metal. It must've been the path of the Great Journey, it had to be!" Before Lipzip could continue gloating, he was interrupted by Yuto Stefumee, indicating it was time to leave. all the Unggoy in his Lance formed a single file line behind him.
the journey in between destinations was never an absolute slog for Zimzam. it seemed like when all those mighty covenant architects came together to create the designs for all of the covenant ships in the navy, it seemed as if they all decided to try their absolute best to make the best possible experience for traversing the miles and miles of corridors within the supercarrier.
Whenever you walked through one of the thousands of tunnels inside the ship, usually every quarter mile or so, you would see either a long spanning window showing the expansive universe, usually seen through the odd distorted view of slipspace, or there would be an opening that allowed you to see immense high ceiling promenade like openings ranging in size from just big enough to fit a wraith through, to massive enough to fit most starships through.
Zimzam started to feel a slight pang of regret. Before he diverted his attention away from the two Sangheili he thought he overheard them exchange important intel about where Long Night of Solace's next destination was. In all honesty, Zimzam was actually really curious about what is going in this mini city and would've liked to know where it was headed to next. Even though chances were that his group would likely never even leave the ship regardless; it was still nice to know however.
Slowly cutting to the front of the line, Zimzam prepared himself mentally to shoot the question.
Talking to your Sangheili superiors without being directly spoken to is extremely dangerous, especially for Unggoy. Zimzam, however, was smart. He knew the particular technique one would need to use to approach a Sangheili without offending them personally. The key was to make yourself dumber around them. Sangheili have massive egos, egos that feed off of the flaws of others very well. this would apply especially With Yuto Stefumee.
With Zimzam's squeakiest voice, he proposed the question. "Where we going?" Asked Zimzam. Yuto sighed, obviously not very interested, and then replied, "Hanger 14."
That wasn't the answer he wanted.
"No, where's big ship going?" Squeaked Zimzam. The large Sangheili, clearly not interested in giving the lowly Grunt any information of that caliber, gave no answer.
After fifteen seconds of silence, Zimzam submitted to Yuto and fell back in line. He didn't expect to get a direct answer anyway.
Suddenly, Yuto spoke up, much to Zimzam's surprise, "It's a particular well defended human stronghold... That's all you need to know." Yuto informed Zimzam without ever looking directly at him, and used the same low and gruff voice he'd always use when trying to sound extra menacing. however, this time he noticed that Yuto walked a little prouder after having transferred information that Zimzam had not known and also desired to know as well.
Zimzam always found that he was good at reading people. Yuto, from what he could infer, liked to let others, as well as himself, think that his pride and ego was humble. Although deep down he could tell that he always wanted more recognition.
In his current state, he seemed willing to accept recognition even from a lowly Grunt.
Despite the views traversing the supercarrier proves burdensome. Zimzam calculated that the total distance required to go from the designated sleeping quarters, to hanger 14 was somewhere around 3 miles.
Luckily for them, there's always a gondola at the two mile mark that carried them that final stretch.
Unbeknownst to the tiny Lance as well as most of the crew aboard the ship, they were not going to arrive at the planet and immediately commence glassing as would be standard protocol.
No.
The Long Night of Solace was to maintain a covert operation. unusual for ships transporting whole armies at the supercarrier was accustomed to arriving on any human planet, engaging whatever defenses they had, and then proceeding to glass the planet along with all of its inhabitants. But reach was not a normal human outpost, and those in charge of the invasion were fully aware of that. Reach was not only going to be the greatest challenge Long Night of Solace had ever faced but it would also be its last...
...And so ends the calm...
This concludes the first chapter of the first story I have ever made on this website! This chapter was just supposed to be some exposition in their current environment, which may or may not change... action should commence in the next chapter however. also, I feel like I should give a show of respect to all of the other great authors on this website that make this look so easy. By no means is that an insult, I mean it as the highest of complements. Anyways, leave a comment telling me what you think. If you like it, let me know. If you specifically like certain parts of it, tell me what they are. If you didn't like it, or at least didn't like certain parts of it, which I'm sure there are plenty, then tell me what I should do or improve. Seriously though, don't be afraid to be goddamn brutal with me. I'm willing to face some harsh truth just as long as it's constructive.
also, the first time i posted this, i encountered a wee bit of an error where this chapter accidentally only posted the url for the document i originally made it on. thats all been fixed, and the process of transferring the chapter to this website gave me the opportunity to revise some stuff, which is something i hope i can do consistently from here onwards. also, for the people that somehow already saw this before i did and actually went out of their way to message me and tell me the problem, i give a serious thank you to them. i had already started a writers block for chapter two and would've completely missed it had they not pointed it out. i'm feeling pretty motivated right now (just got halo wars 2) so the second chapter shouldn't be too far away!