Undi dragged me through several hallways in the science department to an unused lab and cleared a table. "Sit." she said, and gestured towards a seat next to a disassembled fuel rod cannon. She left the room and the door locked behind her. About five minutes later an elite in ranger armor walked in, took off his helmet, sat down directly across from me and said, "I will be your instructor until Undi sees fit that you are ready to go into real training. My name is Y'tip Fuino. You may call me Y'tip, but your future mentors and commanding officers will require you to call them 'excellency' or 'master'." I nodded. He went on to explain how to maintain my claws, which had to be filed and sharpened, and the rows of razor sharp teeth lining the inside of my mouth, which needed to be cleaned with a brush that a human might use to scratch their back. As for diet, elites stuck mostly to meat, with a few fruits here and there. As he was explaining what kinds of foods I should avoid (including things that were perfectly fine for the other species to eat but would kill an elite) that I would find during my time as a soldier, my stomach gave a gigantic growl. I quickly said, "Sorry, I haven't eaten anything yet."
"That is fine, I was just about to suggest that I go retrieve something to eat," Y'tip quickly replied. He got up and went through the door, which locked behind him. After about ten minutes, I looked over at the fuel rod cannon and picked up a random piece that looked like the trigger housing. I had always wondered how you fired these things because I never saw a trigger on them in the games. Turns out, there was a fairly long trigger that would fit all the covenant species' fingers (except for jackals, who couldn't hold it up), but it was pulled into the handle when the safety was on. I put that down and picked up another piece: the scope display. I turned it on and discovered it was still connected to the scope. The scope was pointed behind me and on the screen was Y'tip holding two trays of food and a slightly irritated expression on his face. I turned around.
"Put that down." Y'tip snapped. I quickly put it back where I found it and took my food from him.
"Thanks," I said "but I just realized something."
"What's that?" he growled.
"I have no idea how to eat with this kind of mouth." he just laughed hysterically for a few moments, but stopped suddenly when he noticed I wasn't laughing too.
"You are serious?" I nodded. "Swallow it whole," he said simply, surprised I hadn't figured it out myself. I looked at my tray which had a long tong-like utensil, a knife, and several chunks of meat on it. I grabbed the tongs and gripped a small piece of the meat, which was kind of purple, and awkwardly stuck it into my mouth. Almost by reflex, my tongue snaked out and flattened so I could put the food on it. I dropped the meat onto my tongue, which curled up slightly and brought the meat into my throat. I swallowed and thought to myself *Weird, but effective.* I finished eating In the same manner about ten minutes after Y'tip had finished his. He was still chuckling at my awkwardness. "Undi was not joking when she said you knew absolutely nothing," he said. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Y'tip showed me several functions of my armor, including the HUD functions (waypoints, shields, motion tracker), how to install and activate equipment and how to activate the energy daggers in the armor's forearm guards (which I had not been given for now obvious reasons). After that he quickly assembled and disassembled the fuel rod cannon (which was missing a part of the outer casing) and showed me what each of the parts did. A surprising amount of the bulk of the weapon was devoted to decorative curves, which I could only guess were purely for making the weapon look more elegant. After that, Y'tip said I could go back to my quarters. He left the room as Undi was unlocking it from the outside. She gave him a quick salute, then walked over to me. "Come. I am supposed to show you back to your quarters."
"Lead the way." I said.
We had just passed in front of the mess hall when Undi's PDA beeped. She pulled it from a clip on her thigh and pushed a button, which activated the screen. An elite in general armor appeared on screen and began talking in... I couldn't tell, it all sounded like gibberish to me. Undi jabbered back a reply to the general's statement and replaced the PDA on her hip and said,
"The general wants to see me on the command deck. You will have to find your quarters yourself. Find a data console and download a map of the ship to your HUD. It will guide you to your room."
She jogged In the direction of the bridge and left me alone. I turned on the translator inside my helmet, which, for some reason did not translate speech, only text, and looked around for a data console. I found one already in use and stood behind the sangheili occupant at a distance, so I could see how it was used. To my disappointment, you needed a forearm guard to use it. I tapped the occupant on the shoulder, hoping for my life he spoke English. I was relieved to see it was Y'tip.
"Hello there- um," he muttered the next few words so only I could hear him, "what is your sangheili name, again?"
I hadn't come up with one yet.
"um... R'tik... Remamee?" I whispered back.
"That is believable, but you will have to get Undi to register you for an ID. Speaking of which, where is she?"
"The general wanted to see her on the command deck, as for what I have no idea. I don't speak whatever language you guys use, but that's beside the point, I need to get back to my room, but I don't have a map, and I can't download one because I don't have any forearm guards. I was wondering if you could guide me to an armory to pick some up."
"Didn't Undi tell you the room number?"
"No, she said the map would tell me where to go." Y'tip sighed.
"You can't get armor without a valid ID, so you can't get those forearm guards. You are welcome to wait in my quarters until Undi finishes her business with the general." he motioned for me to follow him and began walking towards the rear of the ship. On our way there, I noticed more of the other covenant species walking around, most of them grunts. We had to wait at a crossways as a small swarm of drones passed us with no intention of stopping or of letting anyone get in their way. We turned the corner to see the swarm had knocked over some grunts and jackals and even a brute in their haste. The brute scowled at me in distaste as we passed.
"Where were they in such a hurry to go?" I asked after we were out of earshot of the others.
"Who knows? Yanme'e are not exactly the most sociable species in the covenant. They are intelligent, just in... A different way than we are." I knew that, but I didn't tell him. The only way events would go the way they did in the games, and therefore predictably, was if I kept my meddling to a minimum and told NO ONE of future events or how I knew about them. A few hallways later we came to Y'tip's cabin, which was much smaller than my apartment. It had only two rooms, a tiny bedroom with a cot and a dresser, with a minuscule bathroom in the corner, and the other room was kitchen/living room with a small sink and an armchair.
"Wow. This makes my apartment look like a freakin' luxury suite." I remarked.
"Actually, your apartment IS a luxury suite." Y'tip retorted, his voice absolutely oozing with envy. "You will be moved to a barracks like this when you begin your training, which will take about a month. Until then you will be watched over with the scrutiny a paranoid jackal watches his fellows."
July 24th, 2552, 9:00 A.M. on board the 'Regretful Transcendence'
Happy birthday to me. Yeah, right. What better a way to celebrate one's birthday than to begin training for killing millions of innocent civilians in the largest genocide in human history? None what so freakin' ever.
After yesterday's incident, Undi came to guide me back to my quarters and then hurried off to the armory to get me a pair of forearm guards. I was beginning to feel a little sorry for her, as I seemed to just get in her way. I was also tired of relying on someone else to bus me around like a child. I heard the front door open as I was pulling on my undersuit, which was really the only garment I had. Someone walked up to the bedroom's door, which had a little screen to the side so the occupant could see who was outside. I finished sealing the seams on the suit and walked over to the screen. Undi was outside.
"Come in," I said.
The door opened and she stepped inside. I turned away to open the armor rack, removed the helmet and put it on. When I turned back, I noticed she was wearing a fairly casual looking dress which hung just below her ankles.
"umm..." I dumbly said. To my now alien brain, Undi looked attractive. Like, REALLY attractive. After a few seconds of mental blankness, I realized that she was speaking. I quickly snapped out of it and started listening.
"...ship has arrived at Sangheilios."
"What's that?" I asked. I still had to make it seem like I had next to no idea what was going on.
"The Sangheili homeworld," she said, "and your new home."
Author's note: sorry to make all 12 of you wait so long. School and procrastination happened while I was writing this. Expect another long wait for chapter 3. Apologies in advance.
