(Sangheili speech)

(Normal speech)

Chapter 1

The enemy of my enemy

16 November, 2558

Sanghelios

19:00 hours

The air was surprisingly more dry than it normally was off the more coastal regions of Sanghelios. Short and blissful breezes came into the canyon from outside, carrying the scent of the nearby ocean with the winds as they funneled through the rocks and to the base of the camp where it is subtlety enjoyed by the personnel residing in the sangheili camp belonging to that of the Swords of Sanghelios. Many under the human clan of the UNSC would likely love to jump at the opportunity to even just look at the planet from orbit or examine the various stone ruins and cities dotting the planet's landscape. The planet's sacred soil was saturated with the blood of countless generations of warriors and ocean filled with the wrecks of both ancient and recent ships, this planet only truly belonged to its people.

The natural beauty of the planet still remained to be given a worthy rival in Xuda's eyes. Although the rocky continent of Qivro was not his most ideal setting but instead preferring the rural farms of his home in the small state of Vuram on the continent of Kaepora where his family primarily served as consultants to those in the elder council. From what he had been notified upon his return to the planet, things in the keep had been in a state of disarray as their kaidon had died with an covenant general's energy blade to his hearts during the raids that had taken place at the battle in Sunaion.

Xuda slowly drew in another breath as the distant rush of a nearby waterfall could be heard clashing against the red and orange rocks down below leading out to the ocean where the crumbling towers of Sunaion struggled to stand. His Unggoy companion, Supap, sat down on the dusty red soil next to the plasma-scarred tree stump where he himself sat. Detaching the handguard off the hilt of his energy blade in order to clean the planet's persistent red soil off of it. The light grey hilt shined and reflected the sun's light beautifly once the layer of dirt had been removed, engraved with traditional runes as a prayer for good fortune during battle. The handguard's color remained the same, almost solid, dark grey as he re-attached it to the hilt. He had always seen the contrast in shades as a strangely pleasing sight. He looked down to see that Supap was messing around with his needler as if to mimic Xuda, quickly stopping to look back up at him and perked up at the elite zealot as if he were an excited pet and the master had just arrived home with a new toy for it to play with.

"Are you going to light it?" Supap asked enthusiastically. "I want to see the hot plasma burn!"

Xuda growled at his companion. Although the grunt was fairly intelligent, he couldn't fully comprehend the entire context of a sangheili's use of weapons for some odd reason. A weapon only being drawn if it were to be used in combat or if the wielder felt unsure if a vehicle contained friend or foe. Although he had broken that social rule upon a few times within the privacy of his own quarters aboard his ship or any other occasion he knew that he would be alone. Xuda was about to respond to his friend's request when the incoming comm from the older CAS carrier Seeker of Truth. Once the flagship of the former Supreme Commander-turned-arbiter but it had been gradually replaced as the newer and steadily upgraded Shadow of Intent over the course of the Great Schism and Battle of Installation 00.

"Shipmaster, Huragok servant-technicians have just reported that all ships in the fleet are now at ninety-two percent battle efficiency. We are ready to depart on your command but our contacts are requesting an update on our status."

Xuda stood up from the tree stump and placed the deactivated plasma-based blade onto his magnetic holster on the armor plating of his left thigh as Supap quickly jumped up and joined the zealot as they made their way to the arbiter's nearby camp.

"Acknowledged, commander. Send in a phantom and remain in orbit until the arbiter's council comes to an consensus about the guardian threat that the spartans had came back with."

"Yes sir." was the quick response before the line had gone silent once again.

The various red-roofed tents huddled closely to each other with few open spaces given on the arrangement of connected mesas. Members of the Swords of Sangheilos worked together in packing up of the camp. With the Covenant's defeat at Sunaion, there was little reason for almost the entirety of the arbiter's army to be stationed together in a single area. The localized military base would now serve as the home to many troops now calling the continent of Qivro their home in their task of defending the planet's surface as the Sword navy assembled together in the skies. Supplies being distributed around the planet in a potential attack by the 'prometheans' as the humans commonly called them.

Xuda paced himself as he walked across to the far side of the camp, passing by tents belonging to the stationed elites as Supap followed behind. Occasionally having to sprint in short bursts on all fours to keep up with the taller alien. They had come across few who were sitting around a fire with a metal tray suspended over it, one of which being one of the human demons he had recovered from the genesis installation after his ship had been pulled in by the Sunaion guardian. He never saw them in person before now as his commander was initially the one who welcomed them onboard and made sure that they had stayed close to their dropship in the time they had spent in the hangar of the Seeker. The human spartan was busy chatting with the others in the sangheili tongue but when it did notice him, he had simply turned away and continued on his path.

The two paused at a open stretch at the cliffside which had been designated the outposts' supply point. Two of the human dropships sat dormant a few feet away from the edge as a pair of huragok tore excitedly at the plates of one which appeared to have a destroyed 'wing',supervised by their handler. It was previously still on fire when he had arrived to the planet's surface but since then it looks as if they had made little progress in restoring it to a minimally functional state. Xuda tensed as he could feel the grunt sitting uncomfortably close to his leg, tempted to shove him to the side a bit to give him a small amount of space but it would ultimately be useless as the childish unggoy would likely attach it's stone-like claws around his waist in a tight hug until he threatened him with his energy sword. The familiar hum of multiple phantom and lich dropships echoed throughout the mesa, the sound often being soothing as he had once caught another sangheli under his command drifting to sleep to the effect during his earlier days as a major in the original covenant empire and a second time as a Shipmaster for the Seeker of Truth during Jul 'Mdama's campaign on Requiem.

Xuda's blood boiled at the thought of that imbecile. Meddling with the technology of their gods and going as far to permitting the destruction of the home of the Didact himself was an unforgivable heresy, a humiliating death at one of the human demons was more than justified. He sighed. But now either he liked it or not, the gods' technology has now been corrupted by the touch of the rouge human construct and the destruction of such priceless instruments was now inevitable. He wanted to openly place blame onto the demon with them responsible for this outcome but he suppressed his ideals around the arbiter as further conflict in their current position would do nothing to aid the fight against their new enemy.

His train of rather negative thoughts was thankfully halted by the approach of a type-52 troop carrier. Unlike others in the arbiter's arsenal, this one's hull plating bared a near-reflective green color. A reminder of the dropship's operation during the Great Schism on the Ark on behalf of the early days of the Swords of Sanghelios as it is known in the modern day. The phantom pulled to the ledge where he and Supap patiently waited as the bay door opened, revealing the dimly lit interior and a single elite inside. The accompanying elite bowed his head down in respect as a closed fist came to his chest in a acknowledging salute as the taller elite walked past,completely disregarding the unggoy.

"At ease commander."

The commander briefly nodded and stood in front of him, revealing a data pad he had kept hidden behind his back and began swiping away at the text. Handing it over to the shipmaster within a few seconds.

"I hope you would reconsider this, the Arbiter only just granted us a handful of support vessels and no capital ships, shipmaster."

Xuda looked at the complete list of every ship that had been granted to him by the arbiter for their journey. Their fleet count coming to a total of eleven ships. Consisting of a single DSC-class agricultural ship, three ket-pattern CCS-class Battlecruisers, continued command over the kerel-pattern Seeker of Truth, two DAS-class "storm cutters", three CRS light cruisers, and a DDS-class carrier. Personally he would have liked a bit more in terms of firepower but he would have to make way with what the arbiter had been able to spare for him, what he had been provided would be more than enough of a fleet if they were to join with the others and the ships were used with a capable fleetmaster. However, the entire operation now left him as a DeFacto Fleetmaster until their task was complete. What concerned him was that the arbiter had not yet appointed his new fleet a certain task but they were almost ready for departure.

"What about the brutes?" Xuda asked, handing the smaller sangheili the circular datapad back.

"They had so far denied details but we are currently estimating for there to be about fifteen ships under their chieftain's command."

Xuda had expected this outcome. He would have to see if he could pry it out of the short-tempered jiralhanae when he spoke to him later when he was given the uninterrupted privacy of his own quarters, away from the eyes and ears of his crew for the time being.

"But the humans have shared the bare minimum information they had been permitted by their superiors. Including ship classifications and the identity of their chosen fleetmaster but no word on their numbers or combat capability." The commander quickly continued. The human separatists were very insistent on the privacy of their deployed fleet, which was understandable given the Swords' strong alliance and support with the UNSC. He couldn't ignore his friend's word of caution as he was generally going out of his way to find a resolve to this new threat with the enemies of his people, if his plan was prematurely discovered by the arbiter himself than he would likely face the charge of treason. A trial he would most likely not come back from.

What he was hoping on was the arbiter's encouragement of peace-talks with the minority of brute tribes that had actually seemed interested in a cooperative alliance and sharing of resources with both the Swords of Sanghelios and the UNSC. IF he could get the chance to drill the idea into Chief Paktus' sometimes thick and arrogant skull than he could at least defend himself with some kind of argument. The sangheili shipmaster looked down at his unggoy companion who was sitting on the floor playing around with the glowing crystalline shards, even accidentally prodding himself with one but failing to notice immediately due to the Unggoy species' naturally tough rock-like scales that make up the bulk of their forearms. The grunt looked back up at him once he had realized that he was being watched.

The old separatist phantom stalled, momentarily confusing Supap as the bay doors opened to reveal the vast interior of the Seeker's primary hangar. The trio walked out onto the purple platform resting outside the door, catching the sight of the two DAS-class storm cutters fitted as tightly together as possible to avoid collision and still able to fit a suitable amount of dropships, strike craft and other weaponry. Following the sight to the starboard side, Xuda had spotted a small number of type-47 scarab platforms being directed into designated locations to the side of the hangar where they would remain out of the way until they were called upon. The scents of different foods being prepared to feed the soldiers was currently faint as but as they would get closer it would undoubtedly get increasingly overwhelming. Xuda pressed on to the gravity lift at the end of the suspended walkway, the elite commander and Supap following closely as he made his way throughout the maze of levitated spirit and phantom dropships.

Like he had expected, the smell of the food and chatter of the elites had only gotten stronger as they descended. Very little unggoy and kig-yar were present, leaving the possibility that each species was being fed at a time. Traffic of different infantry vehicles moved swiftly across the hangar floor, being directed by a single sangheili holding an inactive datapad standing in the center of it all. The elite wore a bulky outrider-class battle harness bearing the standard red coloring as most sword infantrymen, smaller grey sections of the armor and the large white sigil painted onto on his chest signifying his rank as a major. The elite quickly stopped what he was doing and bowed into a salute upon his shipmaster's approach.

"Shipmaster 'Trakamai! We are still preparing for the depart-"

The elite quickly cut off from the conversation and turned around to howl curses at the Unggoy driver of a Type-48 light gun carriage who was dangerously close to ramming into another who was hauling a plasma turret. Now that he had gotten a moment to look around, the shipmaster had quickly realized that most of their available equipment was a bit outdated in terms of design. A good number of their wraiths were that of the type-26 variety, having been left over from when he had abandoned Jul 'Mdama, but the arbiter had been able to spare a bit of type-58 carriages. Even a few of the anti-air model to complete his total inventory to the best of ability. Although many of his crew found respect in serving under the arbiter's command, addressing an individual by their covenant surname and speaking primarily in sangheili were still very common occurrences and a very difficult habit to drop.

Supap placed his needler onto the leather strap attached to a small metal plate of armor on his right calf. Unlike most other unggoy he had been given a choosing of different armors that best-friend Xuda had been able to provide, even while under pressure from Jul 'Mdama after being told to stop 'wasting resources' on the unggoy. Their fights used to be frequent, sometimes about how many troops went where, what needed protecting, how the big human ship over the metal planet should be destroyed. The metal planet falling into the nearby sun had really upset his friend, going far enough as to gather everyone possible and threatening to "let them die with Requiem" if they did not agree with his or the Arbiter's ideas. But that was all in the past as the entire ship now sang happily with words "The covenant is dead!" coming in what were presumably war songs.

Xuda was still talking with the other sangheili in the red armor who seemed a bit embarrassed and pulled out a datapad, likely for having to cut off from the conversation to yell at another unggoy. He never really understood their language, only understanding most formal titles and bridge commands such as "shipmaster", "commander" or even the one time he had heard "leave nothing for the humans to come back to". Supap slowly walked away, approaching the collection of open food stalls where lines of sangheili were collecting their rations of the strange brown meat that they often ate and even what looked to be cooked roots off of some kind of plant. He walked up to one of the elites who had been distributing food to the others, the elite glared at him and the others in line growled in annoyance. He was shoved onto the ground by the one next in the line.

"You will get your turn Unggoy." the elite growled, being handed his ration on a small metal plate.

Supap looked up to the towering sangheili behind the table and pointed over to where Xuda was still talking to the red and grey-armored elite with the white mark on his chest.

Very few elites around him bothered to follow the direction of where his stone-like claw was pointing but elite behind the table perked up at the sight of his shipmaster and nodded at the grunt as if to thank him for the heads-up, his jaws tightening together at the center of his mouth and heading to a nearby table where freshly-cooked meals sat to be handed out to the crew. He had personally found it odd that the entire sangheili race were made up of two different subspecies, much of their physiology being different. The more inpatient elites quietly growled to themselves in disappointment as the elite from behind the table came back with the small metal tray but proceeded to leave in Xuda's direction but Supap quickly got up from the spot where he had been pushed onto the floor and scurried up to the elite, cutting him off. The elite looked back at him both confused and greatly irritated.

"Don't worry. I will take it to him, you can go back to the others." Supap assured him.

The elite paused, as if he was weighing out the options although quickly deciding to hand over the tray to him. Supap enthusiastically marched up to his friend who was now leaving the red-armored one, handing over the datapad that the elite originally held. Xuda had quickly noticed his disappearance and scanned the scene, catching sight of the grunt among the small setup of tents. Part of him seemed flattered that his unggoy friend had gone through the effort in getting a meal but he had kept his expression in a neutral tone and respectfully denying the grunt's offer. He can wait until his current business regarding the human separatists' and brute ships had been taken care of, letting the content unggoy feast upon the luxury of sangheili cuisine opposed to the standard "food nipple" rations that they were normally fed as they began their ways down the brightly lit halls leading out of the Seeker's primary hangar.

Despite the large movement of troops and supplies, the halls were mostly empty as the placement of the primary armories were in a nearby location of the main lift and hangar of the Carrier to allow easy access and transportation to the ground directly or distribution by the dropships. Very few passed by and the sangheili routinely acknowledged their serperiors with a salute, members of other races instead just moved out of their way and avoided eye contact. Supap stopped when he had realized Xuda's hand hit gently onto his chest, too preoccupied with the mostly-eaten food in the tray he had been eating out of he had failed to realize that they were close to the bridge and not far away from Xuda's own quarters. The shipmaster simply looked back at him and nodded down the hallway from the direction they had come from with a rather small and animalistic hiss, his way of saying 'I'll call you back if I need you later'.

Upon his command, Supap enthusiastically ran off to the hangar to the best of his ability while holding onto the tray still containing the rest of the sangheili food. The elites, now alone, watched as the grunt scurried off before continuing on their path to the shipmaster's quarters as the bridge would most likely be occupied with crew very eager to depart and join the crusade against their new enemy. Too exposed to speak with their contacts.

On his approach the large purple doors slid open. The two passing by a spike that had been forcefully driven into the ground on the right of the door inside the larger space, adorned with the bloody helmets and UNSC identification tags belonging to the handful of human demons of the past that had unfortunately met their end at the tip of his blade. The commander could once remember how during the covenant empire's reign the trophies once brought him a great sense of pride when he had commanded the CCS Battlecruiser Undying Faith before he was given control of the Seeker of Truth, but ever since the events of the Great Betrayal and now the destruction of Requiem the totem only brought him the feeling of shame brought on by misled teaching.

'Most ironic.' The commander thought, mandibles breaking off from the center of his jaw and forming into a faint smirk as he locked the door and followed behind his shipmaster. Quickly returning to a neutral expression in preparation for the discussion ahead.

The room itself was seemingly large. The majority of the room was much more calmly lit, trading in the bright purples of the hallways for the more mild and darker shades shades found within a majority of other sections on the ship, although they were often being restricted to commanding officers for a quiet place to retreat to and work after dealing with the more energetic and ambitious of the others for extended amounts of time. The room was more like that of a half-sphere, similar to the shape of the bridge itself but much smaller. Personal equipment such as those of a bed and personal terminal accompanied by other luxuries not given to most other sangheili. shelves lined against the curved walls containing mostly tomes of many stories and traditions passed down by the generations, a familiar sight to the commander as many other officers he worked under liked to keep such sources of guidance, knowledge and entertainment close to themselves away from home while on duty as well. Prompting him to wonder if the Humans gave their own shipmasters their own refuge in the ships they commanded.

In the center of the room there sat a dormant holotable, roughly three fourths the dimensions of a type-32 ghost as the humans often referred to them. Holotables here normally unfavorable with sangheili shipmasters but they had proven very efficient in multi-vessel communications, and with the little privacy offered by the bridge given the sensitivity of the conversation that was about to transpire they had little choice anyway. Xuda placed a hand on the green panel mounted onto the side of the table and it glew to life, projecting the planet of sanghelios and all of the Arbiter's ships in orbit. Including on his collecting fleet. Just as they were issued, support ships close by gathered in a rather unorganized fleet position as they approached from all directions of the planet. The Swords' navy around Sanghelios currently being split into five separate fleets. Two of which he quickly knew were the Arbiter's own Fleet of Retribution -which had appeared to decrease in the number of ships- marked by the presence of the Shadow of Intent and his own much smaller fleet. Surely the arbiter intended for the dismissed ships to stay and protect the planet with an assigned homefleet in the case of a guardian attack. He quickly got to work with the panel mounted onto the table and transmitted to his other ships, sending the command to form a defensive cluster around the agricultural and capital ships.

Almost suddenly the other ships began to fall in formation as he wished. Satisfied, he had cut off the communications to the fleet from his room. They were still able to reach him at the bridge where it was much more appropriate, however. Xuda looked over to his loyal commander who quickly walked over to him to provide access to their contacts' long-range communications.

"I trust that their long-range communications array is not one of the rouge construct's traps." He asked. The commander looked at him and nodded as he arranged the text on his circular datapad.

"The humans' report that their AIs has been disconnected and isolated from their systems and 'kill switches' are being delivered through all of our ships routinely everyday. Any AI capable enough to be infected by the fabled 'logic plague' would most likely be terminated upon contact with the code." he assured him.

"Are you sure?"

"With all the trust I can currently give these humans. I have seen the results firsthand when they used the code recently to decommission one of their older and more….'rampant' AIs on one of their ships."

Xuda looked at him with confused expression, tilting his head in curiosity. Humans destroyed the AIs on their ships once they are considered 'too old' to continue their function? It may explain why some would switch sides in the journey to obtain eternal life after fearing an end to their own. But yet they choose to abuse this newfound power, to enslave their former allies and corrupt the holy relics of their gods. He knew how both Humans and their AIs tended to bond with their partners in varying degrees for maximum efficiency during primarily naval conflicts. most common example among his people being the story of humanity's champion willingly risking his own life and the successful destruction of the flood by piloting a banshee into the depths of the infested city of high charity to retrieve his AI that he had bonded with during the later events of what they called the 'Human-Covenant War' and into the Great Betrayal. The story's knowledge being shared to their kind by the kaidon-Arbiter Thel 'Vadam himself and verified by Shipmaster Ratas 'Vadum.

He was about to query his commander on the matter when they had been interrupted by a transmission originating from his table.

"'Shipmaster' 'Trakamai?" a voice spoke from the console.

Xuda looked back at the console and saw the hologram of a human female staring back at him, the commander had almost jumped at the sudden transmission. She seemed confused and rather disappointed. Although he could be wrong, Understanding human expressions and how it correlated with their emotions was never really his expertise as he had only killed them on sight before his abandonment.

"Are you the human fleetmaster?" Xuda asked. The commander stood further from the table behind his superior, mostly managing the ship's supplies based off the information each of his captains gave him but listened in on the conversation. The human was not alone but he could see the faint silhouettes of a large groups of others in the background, perhaps their end of the transmission was being held in a more public setting than that of his location.

"Rear Admiral Yanukovich of the New Colonial Alliance. I just wasn't expecting a Hesdurain zealot in the Swords of Sanghelios."

At least he now knew the human separatists' given fleet master a bit more directly. A small part of him was offended in their prejudiced assumption of his origin. Truth was that he only went to Hesduros after the Great Betrayal, taking on the uniform of the Hesdurian zealot-class harness when he had found his ship under the service of Jul 'Mdama.

"It does not matter how I came to be in service of the Arbiter." He growled. "Where is the brute chieftain?"

He could sense that the human was not any happier than him about the temporary alliance between the three of them than he or likely even Paktus would be about this. It was a forced upon them by the threat of extinction by a common and superior foe, much like the smaller conflicts with the flood during the war with the humans and Great Betrayal.

"Paktus should be on his ship, as to exactly where I have no idea. The bridge seems the most likely as I had received a number of empty threats by his right hand

-Tricius- that he would kill my technicians for being on his ships, helping feed the AI kill-code through their systems."

Xuda could tell that his commander had the same feeling he did, irritated at a brute's lousy incopitance to even show up for a meeting after he had requested it. So far the human female showed more responsibility than the war chieftain. Why the hierarchy of the covenant ever thought replacing the capable race of the sangheili for one so disorganized such as the Jiralhanae was beyond him. The Unggoy may have well been the ones to replace them and possibly prove themselves as much better commanders than the brutes seemed to have been. In his experience the Jiralhanae had always relied on numbers and their raw power rather than take advantage of any weakness or opportunity inside naval combat and a few instances on the battlefield. Often concerning themselves more with their stomachs rather than any given task or responsibilities.

"I will see if I am able to contact him from here but no guarantees. On the brighter side of things however, right now we have found a suitable planet to hide on in what we humans like to call: The "Scutum-Centaurus Arm" of this wonderful galaxy."

Xuda understood that she had said that last part with the infamous use of sarcasm that humans were known for producing on occasion, but to either use it as a coping tactic for what is happening or to mock his intelligence was unknown to him. Nevertheless a shared hologram on the table displayed a overlooking view of the galaxy, quickly highlighting a one of the few spiraling 'arms' and zooming in. Focusing on a single planet in what looked to be within the habitable range of a double-star system, accompanied by five separate natural satellites and a ring system similar to which had been observed in the humans' home system and Te . Xuda briefly looked to his commander and gestured to the hologram being displayed with a tilt of his head before looking back at the hologram. The commander had nodded and immediately got to work extracting what data was being given to them by the human fleetmaster using the console on the side of the table.

From what he could he could already observe based of the footage, the planet had three distinctive continents on the surface. It's landmass appearing to be sixty percent of the total exposed space with the oceans only being forty percent upon estimation. The terrain seemed have a healthy variety as small polar ice caps, large deserts, mass amounts of foliage, and a handful of mountains were all visible from space.

"You can actually thank Paktus and his men for finding this place. He dragged us here when he found it."

"Any forerunner constructs on the surface?"

"I sent a science team moments ago reinforced by a handful of my own and Paktus' men to provide security and they only recently landed. Nothing too major but there's a brief report of a large stone temple, similar to which the UNSC found on Installation 05."

Xuda had to quietly admit that the human we was currently conversing with had a sense of forethought. Although brutes were quite useful in roles of security they could never be trusted completely alone and had to be supervised by an outside party.

"I suggest caution to the both of you. We still have not been given the order to depart and there are many preparations my fleet has to take, antagonizing the enemy into a full-scale attack prematurely is bound to bring setbacks and wounded."

"Exactly what else is left for you to do?" she asked. Folding her arms in front of her chest and continuing to stand in an upright position, her body shifting

"I intend on bringing the one responsible for this entire crisis with us." Xuda growled. Not so much annoyed with the fleetmaster herself, but instead at the human demon in question for creating such a dilemma. Thankfully she seemed to understand the direction of his anger. At least he thinks she did, still not entirely sure on human emotions or expressions. "The demon's connection with the enemy could provide insight to their motives."

The Rear Admiral seemed to be momentarily confused, the short ridges of hair above her eyes coming closely together as if she was trying to think, moving her face to the side. To assume what he considered to be quietly echoing his words to herself until she looked back up him in what was similar to a state of surprise and anger.

"The 'Demon'?!" she almost hissed at him. "The Master Chief has obligation to kill us all except you because of your arbiter's allegiance with the UNSC!"

Xuda could still see the faint outlines of the humans in the background, all of which appeared to now be facing the duo. He was uncertain on what the expressions meant. Some showed possible features of excitement mixed in what he commonly recognized as human fear from his days in the covenant. Which seemed fitting as not only had the demon saved their race -a respectable feat which they would undoubtedly praise him for- but was also now an enemy after they had come into the service under the clan which now publicly opposed the UNSC.

"I am confident that the demon will make an exception in the pursuit of a much greater threat… Aside from that I can ensure you that the investment in having the demon present will prove worthwhile."

Alina took one of her arms from the fold and rubbed her forehead out of annoyance. Few sangheili she had interacted with had been this insistent such as the shipmaster she was currently talking with. Even if some had proven themselves right in the past, the thought of risking everything on a single emotionless drone of the UNSC greatly bothered her. In also brought in a concern for their slowly dwindling food supplies. They had only managed to scrape together enough to last their crew four months with the current troop and staff count and for all she was concerned, the chief would be a constant danger and another mouth to feed on this mission. Not to mention the possible risk of sabotage.

But the zealot, now looking at her patiently on the screen, had a point. His known UNSC service record and stories proved him to be quite the formidable opponent on the battlefield, a good chunk of the insurrectionists she had met still praised him for his success over the original covenant empire in the war. Having one of his skill would prove quite valuable although she was sure that the UNSC would be less than pleased about their favorite spartan being involved in the whole affair. If she kept him mostly isolated in his own little spot with only speaking to a few she knew would keep their mouth shut involving anything other than their current war, then he shouldn't be much of an issue in terms of information.

"Fine." she sighed defeatedly. She can feel the concerning stare of a few onboard the bridge, as if they were surprised at her act of agreeing on the situation. "I expect an eye for an eye, however. If this all goes south because of you, expect a personal target painted on your back and a high reward for your head."

It seemed that the brute Tricius was already beginning to rub off onto the human. But what he didn't understand was the phrase the human had just bound him to: "an eye for an eye."

"I'll try to reach Paktus and let him know that he missed the meeting he wanted but at you're informed on how our side of things are doing. I suggest you to hurry as the both of us don't know until the Created realize we're here."

Xuda nodded as the human signed off. The commander approached him with his datapad out, stopping a half a meter in front of him.

"I will have to take this information for further processing."

"Then do so. We have no time to waste."

The commander bowed his head in a nod before heading to the door, stopped by the zealots arm suddenly blocking him across the chest. Stepping back a pace he looked up to his commanding officer as he lowered his arm back down to his side.

"First thing upon sunrise I want you to convince the demon into joining us onto the ship. May it be by word or force."

He could see that his commander as a but unsure about the idea about provoking the demon of all things onto the ship.

"And of the other human demons?" he asked.

"Only if they wish to, but it is preferable that it comes alone."

"As you wish, fleetmaster." his fist came to his chest and he bowed his head down in a sangheili salute.

Xuda gestured to the door, allowing him to leave him be as he turned back to the console.