Ch. 1

Sounds of a struggle taking place in the entrance to Detention Center D, Cell bock F, alerted six Sangheili of the newcomer. Neither of them were typically eager to greet the furry monstrosities that held them captive there, yet they were curious, and amused, to see who was causing the Jiralhanae such trouble. They soon got their answer. "Let go of me, you oversized apes!" It was a human female, decked out in lab gear. Her hair was in complete disarray. Her lanyard, with her I.D. attached to the end, was flying every which way as she struggled in her captor's grip.
One Brute held onto her arms tightly and forced her to walk in front of him. Their chieftain held a holographic key in hand, its blue light reflecting off his scarred and furry face. The one Brute who was holding her finally got a grip on her and managed to pin the human's hands behind her back. Her mouth was set. The Sangheili could practically see the wheels turning round inside her head, trying to formulate an escape plan. The chieftain paused at a holding cell at the end of the hall. There were two Sangheili in a nearby cell who were, by the second Brute's standards, too close to their cell bars. He growled warningly and made a violent step towards them, slamming one foot on the ground in their direction. Both of the Sangheili met the Brute's furious gaze with mirrored cool, calm ones of their own.
As the Human watched on, one of the Sangheili almost seemed to smile tauntingly at the Brute barring his teeth as if to say, "Growl all you want, you can't get me in here." The human laughed quietly at their exchange. The chieftain looked up abruptly startling the human and Brute behind him. "Amus," he growled deep in his throat. The Brute dubbed Amus immediately stopped growling and bowed his head in a submissive manner to his chieftain. Appearing satisfied that Amus was remotely under control, the chieftain gave a contented "harrumph" and turned around to focus on tapping the access codes to the human's holding cell.
Once his back was turned though, Amus gave a low, menacing growl at the two Sangheili. "Once you are released, no amount of orders will keep me from ripping you limb from limb," he purred. "Well, I'm looking forward to it," one of the Sangheili replied in an aloof manner.
"God, I'm surprised you're smart enough to form a complete sentence," the human said referring to the Brute. The Brute and both Sangheili looked at her. The Sangheili who had just spoken chuckled and his expression seemed to say, "You don't know what you're getting yourself into." Amus was about to file a retort when the chieftain spun around and gave his subordinate a death glare. Amus seemed to wither under the chieftain's gaze.
"When I order you to stand down, I mean STAND DOWN!" the chieftain barked.
"Yes, Chieftain," Amus mumbled. "Stratus, throw the human in here," the chieftain ordered. The Brute named Stratus bowed his head quickly and shoved the human past the chieftain and into the cell. She stumbled and quickly regained her balance. She locked eyes with the chieftain as he sealed her in. "Glare all you want, Human, you just be lucky that the Holy Ones ordered us not to..." He paused for a moment as if searching for a word that escaped him and suddenly grinned in a manner that was nowhere near the normal happy.
"...Spoil you," he smirked.
"Pity really," Stratus said. Amus, behind him, eyeing the Sangheili, nodded in agreement. "And you, Chieftain," the human spat out his title like poison, "should be grateful that I'm in here because-" The chieftain cut her off. "Because what, Human? You'll sneeze on me?" he taunted.
"Because I know exactly which pressure points in your body that can instantly paralyze and kill you," the human replied coldly. The chieftain looked at her. "And I am NOT bluffing," she continued. The chieftain bent down in front of the bars so that he was eye level with her. "So, why didn't you attack me earlier?" he asked.
"There wasn't much room to work with in here. All the available space was taken up by all your bulk," she replied dismissively. The chieftain's eyes widened and she knew she struck a nerve.
The chieftain's expression changed from surprise to anger quickly but just as fast as they played across his face, the chieftain composed his emotions, not wanting to make a fool of himself by being provoked by a lowly human. He stood up and barked out an order. Amus and Stratus fell into step behind him as the chieftain led the way out. The doors slid open and locked behind the three Brutes.
Now that they were gone, the human slunk to the ground in her cell. She pulled her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes. After breathing out a sigh, a voice made her open her eyes.
"That was pretty impressive, Human."
She opened her eyes and glanced out to the left side of her cell. The Sangheili who provoked Amus was watching her. He was average size with his legs pulled up towards his body to make room for the other Sangheili in there with him. His white and gray armor glimmered in the light and reflected the purple floors. From what she could make out, his greenish-gray catlike eyes matched his armor. The way he held himself even within the confines of the cell, the human could tell that his rank, whatever that may be, was high.
She blew air out of her nose. "Hah," she scoffed.
"Were you bluffing?" he asked.
She just gave him a look and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you think?"
"Heh, obviously not."
"Mmm hmmm."
At that, the human crossed her legs and turned herself around so that she was facing the Elite. "How long have you guys been in here?" she asked. The other Sangheili inside the white armored one's cell exchanged a glance with him. "We've been in here too long, Human," the other replied. He had red armor that marked him as a Major.
"And how long was that?"
The two looked at each other. "About three weeks," the white armored one replied.
"Enough for our commander to suddenly grow soft and start talking to a human," came a disgruntled voice.
The Commander's head shot up and he fixed his gaze on the other speaker. "Norolamee!" he barked, "I have had enough! Are you that desperate to stoop down and call your commander a traitor? Does it look like I am consorting with the enemy?"
There was a slight hesitation before 'Norolamee spoke. "Next time, 'Norolamee, choose your words carefully," the commander continued.
"She is human, Commander," 'Norolamee replied.
"Thank you for your excellent observation," the Commander replied, "But am I giving out valuable information to this human?"
There was silence. 'Norolamee shook his head slightly. The Commander nodded once and exhaled.
Minutes passed by until there was sound again. "So, for the past three weeks you haven't come up with a plan to escape?" the human asked, curious.
"No," replied the Major. He seemed a little discomforted with talking with her as if he was expecting someone to... she searched for the right word... Punish him? It didn't seem right but it appeared that way. The left side of her mouth curled up into a smirk. "Well, then. Today's your lucky day, gentlemen," she announced. The Sangheili who could see her gave her doubtful looks.
"What? Don't believe me?"
"Oh, we believe you, Human," came 'Norolamee's voice dripping with sarcasm, "Please enlighten us with the plan you have thought up in mere minutes whereas we have NOT for the past three weeks."
"Look, Buster, I have been in here for the past three months. I watched my squad get butchered by these... these..." Her voice escaped her. "These.. Brutes. I have been in here long enough to memorize the patrol routes and I'd say we have about a good twenty minutes before the next one passes by here. So, in case you have any bright ideas..." She trailed off, leaving the rest to hang in the air.
"How do you wish to proceed?" asked their commander. The human looked over at him. His expression remained neutral but she thought she could detect a small amount of curiosity and amusement hidden within. "We'll proceed with this," she replied and removed from her pocket the chieftain's cell key. The Major let out a small laugh of disbelief. "And how did you manage to retrieve the chieftain's key?" the Major asked, smiling. "Well, during the initial struggle, I noticed that there were two blue keys. One on his belt and the other in his hand which he used to lock me in here. So, I put up a fuss to create a distraction in order to grab the key from his belt and slip it into my pocket. I just hope I grabbed the right one." The Commander turned his head a fraction to the side, asking a silent question. "They were identical, the one in his hand and the one on his belt," she explained.
"So, without further ado..." The human crouch-walked over to her cell door, the key in hand. Just before her hand reached through her bars, she paused.
"Are there any security cameras here?" she asked.
"None that we have seen so far," the Major replied.
"Okay." With that said and done, the human slid the key into the slot just above her. It beeped once and glowed a soft blue-green. The bars to her cell slid open. The bars disappeared into slots in the ground. She quickly walked out and stood up in the middle of the hallway. Now, she finally got a look at the Sangheilian commander.
He was pretty big.
Most Elites were.
She glanced around her. There were about six Elites in the cells, two in each cell. She looked over to the door and jogged up over to it. Six curious faces followed her. "Ah, here we go," she muttered to herself. She found two buttons on the side of the door. She pressed one of them and a small panel opened up nearby. Apparently it was the controls to the security cameras that WERE in there. The human had just caught a lucky break for most of the cameras were on a shakedown run to test new security equipment. Yet, the Brutes had forgotten to turn these ones back on when they completed the shakedown.
Making doubly sure that the cameras were still off, the human looked at her watch. They had about ten minutes till the next patrol came by and foiled their escape plan. She turned around to face the Sangheili. Her gaze was caught by the Commander's. "We have about ten minutes, and counting, till the next patrol comes by. I can't get out of here by myself and I highly doubt you all want to stay another night in this hell hole," she turned to face all the Elites. "So," she continued looking at the Commander, "do I have the word of you and your men that if I release you from your cells that you mean me no harm? If not, you can stay in here until the Brutes let you out, which I doubt and you'll regret not coming with me."
The Commander met her gaze.
"You drive a hard bargain, Human," he said smirking. She eyed him carefully. There was a slight intake of breath behind her. Turning her head just a fraction to the left, she could see the Elite who was named 'Norolamee, who was in gold armor, watching his commander with an incredulous look on his face. "You have my word, as well as the word of my men." The last word was forced out, as if warning 'Norolamee. The Commander bowed his head slightly. The human smiled a little and handed the Elite the key.
That done, she hurried back over to the console. A click and swoosh alerted her and she turned around to see four, almost six, Sangheili standing behind her. Her back quivered at the sight with an uneasy feeling building up in her stomach as she turned back around. She wasn't too thrilled at having mankind's most lethal enemy at her back. The Major watched her, curiously. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Looping old footage in case the Brutes check this area at the Main Control console. Want to buy us enough time to escape," she explained.
"Ah, I see," the Major replied. The human moved onto another part of the panel and tapped in a couple of commands. A small holographic map popped up. A small red dot was pulsing towards the middle of the map. There were three levels; they were on the second. A cylindrical shape, with a light blue dot moving up and down it, was in the middle of all three levels. At the top of the cylinder, there was a large box shaped building. "So, we're here," she muttered to herself pointing to the red dot. "I'm guessing," she said a little louder, "that the exit to this hellhole is at the top." She turned around to face her onlookers. The Commander stepped forward and leaned in to look at the map. "I believe you are right, Human," he said agreeing.
"Please stop calling me 'Human'," she objected. The Commander turned his snakelike head towards her. Elites are such strange creatures, she thought for a moment but snapped herself out of it. "Call me Kate. Kate Davidson.," she continued. The Commander nodded once and stood up so that he somewhat towered over her. Her expression turned to one of slight anger, as if him towering over her was offending her.
He smiled slightly and said, "My name's Varu 'Ptolemee, Spec. Ops. Commander." With that said, he began to introduce the other five Sangheili: Ven 'Norolamee (the Zealot), Ptal 'e Hanrumee (the Major), Fen 'Thromahee (the Minor), Yen 'a Centrumee (another Major), and Caru 'Ghosranee (the Ultra). When she was introduced to everyone, she glanced at her watch, about five minutes left. She pursed her lips and turned back around to the panel. After hacking in again, she found that each cell, after it was inspected and all inmates accounted for, was giving a certain code or number indicating that they were checked, so that when another patrol came down to the second level, they would have no need to inspect the cells for it was already done. Still looking at the control screen, Kate asked, "Ah, Hanrumee?" It felt strange to speak his name, namely it was strange to say any of them.
The Major turned around. "Yes?" "Do you know how to work this type of network?" Kate moved to the side so that Ptal could take a closer look. "It's foreign to me," Kate continued. Ptal moved closer to the panel as Kate moved to the side. "You're lucky," he said without turning back to her," I do know this. What do you need me to do?"
"Well, from what it seems, the detention centers run on a certain list of codes or numbers to indicate whether or not they were inspected. I can't find the codes to the second level. I wanted to enter in the codes that'll mark our cell block 'Inspected' or whatever it is that they call it."
Ptal placed his long fingers on the holo keypad. "Just give me a moment," he replied. "I hope you work well under pressure," came Kate, "because the next patrol is coming in in about two and a half minutes." Ptal nodded his head and immediately set to work. When Kate looked at her watch again, they had about thirty seconds.
"Done," came Ptal's voice. He looked up from the panel to Kate. "They'll pass by us in a moment." She nodded and Ptal turned around so that his gaze met the Commander's. "I'd recommend that we stay back away from the door in case the Brutes decide to come in here anyway."
The Commander nodded.