Chapter I: The Wild Warrior's Heart

All is quiet for many a crewman on the Covenant cruiser Celestial Asceticism. It is 5:30 A.M. for those onboard the ship, and besides a few auxiliary crewmembers and technicians on the bridge and in the engine room, everyone is either fast asleep or half-awake and on-duty. The former is true for Champion Commander Sammy Skirmisher, who lies in a deep sleep alone in his personal quarters. His bedroom is exceedingly tidy, with nary a scattered object to be found. On his nightstand sits a dimly lit holopicture of his girlfriend and potential mate, a stellar young female skirmisher named Zoy (English equivalent: Zoey). His bedspread is made of only the finest available silken fabrics, and his room's internal temperature is maintained at a solid seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit courtesy of the ship's custom-tailored heating/cooling system. Pristine though his room might be, Sammy's mental state attests to another situation entirely.

In his mind, an epic dream ensues, featuring him fighting on the front lines of battle alongside his trusty squad of troops. He eliminates enemy after enemy with relative ease and his squad does the same, only to be greeted by even more hostile combatants soon after the previous ones are defeated. "I'm running low on ammo!" a beleaguered major grunt cries out to his immediate left. "Same here!" another one shouts out to his right. "Just keep pushing, we almost have 'em!" he yells back at them as he downs yet another enemy with his focus rifle. Sure enough, the enemies finally stop coming as Sammy takes a deep breath and reassures his soldiers. "Okay, I think that's it. They're gone. We've won. It's over," he informs them. Suddenly, a huge swarm of unknown hostiles appears all around them and immediately begins to overwhelm his entire squad with impunity. "What the… all units, fall back, fall back, NOW!" he hollers out as soldier after soldier of his falls to this frighteningly and surprisingly efficient entity. He continues to clear out an opening for his escaping troops with what little charge he has left in his weapons, when suddenly he finds himself standing all alone surrounded by a seemingly infinite amount of these mysterious creatures. "YAAAAAH!" he shrieks as he plunges headlong into the crowd of little beasties firing nonstop and flailing his limbs all around him in a desperate attempt to annihilate every last target as best he can. After a pitched battle, he lies in the middle of a gruesome pool of murky olive-hued blood completely motionless, weaponless, and without any further opposition in sight. "Heh heh heh ha ha!" he begins to chuckle to himself satisfactorily. Then, as he turns to leave the area, one more of the strange savage creatures appears from nowhere and latches onto his upper back. "Agh!" he screams as he falls to the ground and an intensely burning sensation unlike any other ever known to him before fills his entire body. He then see his life flash before his eyes and Zoey smiling at him one last time before blacking out completely.

"Ah! What was that?!" Sammy yelps as he reawakens abruptly in his bed. "Oh… what… it was only… a dream? Thank heaven!" he gasps as he steadily regains his composure. He glances briefly over at his alarm clock and mentally records the time. It reads 6:45 A.M. "Quarter 'til. Good, got another fifteen minutes to head down to the mess hall for an early morning breakfast to start off my day," he mutters to himself softly. As he arises from his bed, he daintily pulls his covers back, affixes the ends of it to a pair of small hooks around the edge of his mattress, and walks over to his nearby dressing area. After pausing to think for a moment, he decides to wear his standard ceremonial suit and his favorite color dress pants over his somewhat meager sleepwear, while around his neck, he hangs a small metallic chain with a small yellow star-shaped attachment dangling from it. Looking in the mirror, he slicks back his ruffled plumage with some fresh saliva and murmurs, "Morning tough guy. Lookin' sharp!" Satisfied with his appearance, he locks his door and heads out of his quarters into the adjacent hallway. The halls on his end of the Celestial lie almost eerily silent, for besides the faint intermittent pitter-patter of the hooked claws on the ends of his toes hitting the cool metal floor with every step he takes, there is nothing to be heard.

As he passes the first junction in the hall ahead of him, he sees a minor jackal security guard patrolling the hallway wrapping around the corner to his right. "Top o' the morning to ya Commander!" he says cheerily as he gives Sammy a short skirmisher-style salute. "Same to you pal, same to you!" he replies with a smile as he nods respectfully. As he continues on his way to the dining area, he traverses a small escalator and a short flight of ramps until finally arriving at his destination. Upon entering the mess hall, he sees a small line already starting to form from all the other early risers on the ship. He takes his place in line and patiently waits his turn to receive his morning meal. "Breaded thornbeast and gravy with biscuits or scrambled ostrich eggs and bacon?" the cook offers Sammy. "Uh, I'll take the eggs and bacon," Sammy answers. He had consumed thornbeast recently for dinner, and not only that, but he found the taste of fresh ostrich eggs to be rather refreshing to start his day off. That particular Earth-borne food was quite delectable to him, as was the bacon. He moves down toward the drink dispensers and fills up a tall glass to the brim with haloberry juice. Haloberry juice was derived from a somewhat rare berry colloquially referred to by most as a "haloberry" due to its source of origin being certain wilderness areas of the halo installations. It was an intensely bitter berry in its raw form, but when blended with the right amount of sugar and water, it made for a pretty tasty and highly nutritious beverage. Afterwards, he picks a spot on an isolated bench on the far side of the cafeteria and enjoys his food by himself. Once his meal is finished, he places his tray in an empty sink near the entrance to the scullery and reenters the main hallway. After a brief stop in the nearest bathroom for self-explanatory reasons, he goes into the ship's central boardroom in preparation for a debriefing on his next mission.

Taking his seat in the boardroom, the ship's captain, a tall slender commander elite named Zul Djima in full ceremonial dress paces back and forth across the opposite end of the room. "I wonder what he's gonna tell us to do today," a gunner grunt sitting next to Sammy states. "Me too," Sammy responds. A short while later, the commander and his co-commanding officer approach a large metal podium in the middle of the room before clearing his throat and beginning to speak. "Good morning champion skirmisher squad! I hope you're prepared for what's in store for you today, because I'm deploying you all down to the surface of a small planetoid about five million miles out from Installation 06. As you might already know, there's a large mining operation going on down there to help replenish our needler crystal supply, mainly for our needlers and needle rifles. However, just a few hours ago, we received some isolated reports of extremely hostile contacts appearing without warning and violently killing off or abducting many members of the mining crew we had operating over there. Your mission is to secure the area, defend any survivors, and try to locate and rescue any hostages you come across. An optional secondary endeavor is to round up any shipments of needler crystals to appropriate for intergalactic transport. Logically, you can use any needler crystals you come across as a natural source of ammunition for their respective type of weaponry. Any questions?" he reports.

"Yes sir, I've a quick question for you," Sammy retorts. "Alright then, shoot," Commander Djima approves. "Exactly what kind of enemy is this?" Sammy asks him earnestly. "I'm not completely sure, but based on most of the reports I've been receiving, it's most likely a type of enemy that our forces are dearly unfamiliar with. They also describe the enemies attacking in massive waves of forces at a time, rushing their positions without the slightest hesitation, and literally drowning our workers in a veritable torrent of bodies and blood until you can't handle it anymore. Then, I'd assume, is when you die, or get captured alive for God knows what reason at the very least," the commander explains to him. Sammy gulps and shudders a bit after hearing that kind of description, for it is almost exactly the same description he would give those creepy enemies in his nightmare. "Why do you ask Sam? It's not like you're afraid of these enemies, are you?" Commander Djima inquires. "Who, me? Afraid? Bah, I'm not afraid at all! Just a little nervous about fighting a new brand of deadly enemies that could take and torture hostages at will to who-knows-what end, that's all," Sammy remarks candidly. "I see. Any other questions squad?" the commander queries. "Uh… Mr. Commander Elite sir, what do we do if the enemy captures one of us and we're still alive and able to communicate with the rest of the squad?" the gunner grunt asks coyly. "If that happens, then be sure to explain the situation to your squad as calmly and concisely as possible. The better you do so, the quicker they can locate and extract you from the enemy's evil clutches," Commander Djima advises him. "Okay sir, I'll try!" the grunt assures his supreme commander. "One final note everyone: remember that deep inside each of you, your wild warrior's heart is calling, so when you don't know what to do in the heat of the moment, just clear your mind and listen! Good luck squad!" the commander ecstatically encourages them. As the room clears out and the squad prepares to armor up and get ready to go, Sammy can't help but repeatedly whisper to himself, "Listen to your wild warrior's heart!"