Chapter 2

Date: August 13th, 2552

Time: 26:30 hours

Planet: Reach

Location: ONI Tower Base

Mission: Eradicate human resistance

The night air hummed with the sound of plasma drives as Phantoms, Ghosts and Wraiths glided over and through the human settlement, transporting brave Sangheili warriors to and from battles and scanning the damaged human keep for surviving humans.

A Phantom, it's hull curved and gleaming like the chitin of some giant purple beetle, came gliding through the night, sailing smoothly over burnt, shattered buildings and coming to a stop in the settlement's central courtyard.

The drop ship's doors folded out and down, allowing its passengers to spill out into the courtyard. A dozen Unngoy piled out of the drop ship, lugging weapons, comms equipment and other ordinance with them, shortly followed by a tall, muscular Sangheili in ornate golden armour.

Voro 'Chonchiyo, the commander of the Covenant forces laying siege to the human keep known as 'TOWER BASE', stepped out into the cool night air and assessed the situation, knowing full well that it was one thing to sit up in orbit passing judgement and another thing entirely to actually be on the front lines and make those same decisions.

The courtyard was a hub of activity, with Unggoy rushing to and fro setting up plasma barriers, weapon caches and vehicle depots at appropriate locations. Voro, like most of his Sangheili brethren, placed little trust in the small, squat aliens and had had them removed from Dagger Company, the force of soldiers that he wielded for the Prophets, as a fighting force.

Instead he had relegated them to the more menial tasks of Dagger Company's upkeep, freeing up his Sangheili warriors and improving his company's fighting prowess. In addition to that Kig-Yar were strictly forbidden from Dagger One, as Voro saw the vulture like aliens as nothing more then trouble waiting to happen.

"Pirates every on of them." Voro muttered under his breath, thinking back to darker days when he had had to serve with Kig-Yar.

In addition to this, Dagger Company had three ships in orbit, two Corvettes and one Capital ship with a Ventral beam that Voro could use to 'glass' a city, as the humans called it. Honour however, dictated that Voro met his enemy head on and eliminated as many of them as possible in glorious combat before cleansing the infestation from orbit.

In order to accomplish that Voro had ordered twenty teams of five Sangheili each to assault the human keep under the cover of night with Spirits providing close air support. The ensuing battle had been short lived yet brutal and bloody.

Thirty seven noble Sangheili had fallen to the humans, four of whom had died after refusing medical assistance and two Spirits had been shot down during one of their strafing runs. Dagger Company had had the advantage of surprise, technology and air support and the humans had still managed to inflict some serious damage on the initial wave.

Voro grunted, he had to hand it to the pink scum, even after all of their shortcomings, they knew how to fight. Just not how to win.

Voro rolled his shoulders and stepped forwards, striding through the courtyard towards it's centre where a human monument had once stood upon a raised a platform. The Unggoy in the course of their preparations however, had blasted the monument to oblivion and levelled off the platform, creating a raised area from which Voro could project his authority and manage the battle.

Sitting upon the platform, which was now more of a dais then anything else, was a large, rectangular table, it's surface a giant pane of flat, dull glass, known as the Prophet's Eye. It was a recent technological breakthrough, on loan to Dagger Company to test its effectiveness in combat.

Voro pressed a large button on the side of the table and it's glass top flared into life, a bright blue light replacing it's previous dull sheen. A three dee model of the surrounding area sprang into life on the Prophet's Eye.

Small green boxes were scattered throughout the holographic image, showing the location of friendly forces and detailing their health status and any comms that they were using. Red boxes detailed the last known location of enemy forces, their numbers and their weapons, though that was only if the Sangheili engaging them could be bothered to report such details.

At the moment there were four red boxes on the map, two down towards the base's southern end, one near the base's centre courtyard, which Voro suspected was simply a confirmation error as he was currently using the main courtyard as a base of operations, and finally there was another red box towards the base's west, near what the humans called a 'mess hall'.

Voro narrowed his eyes as he saw that the closest unit to the mess hall was Dagger One, a squad comprised of five of the best warriors that Dagger Company had to offer. But something wasn't right with their read outs. Their pulses were higher then normal and they were expending ammo at a rate far faster then normal.

Voro reached out to find out more from the display but was distracted at the last minute.

"Brother!" called a Sangheili whom had just arrived on one of the Phantoms.

The new arrival was Voro's younger brother Rha.

Rha was big even by Sangheili standards, standing at well over two metres with broad shoulders and thick arms. He was clad in the slim white armour of the Sangheili special forces, a great honour for one so young.

"Much glory has been won this night!" Rha laughed, slapping Voro's shoulder "How goes the lonely post of command? Have you any other great victories up your sleeve for tonight?"

"A great victory is one in which we lose not a single warrior." Voro grunted, turning to face his brother as more Phantoms began touching down in the courtyard.

Many sections of the base had been cleared and these returning warriors were in the process of being relieved by fresh Sangheili from one of Voro's ships in orbit. He knew how dangerous fatigue was for an army, though none of his men would ever admit to being too tired to fight, and made sure to keep his fighting force as alert and as efficient as possible.

"A battle with no casualties is no battle at all." Rha countered, shooing away some Unggoy who came trotting up to offer him replacements for his weapons.

"I was not talking about battles." Voro replied, straightening up "So how went the fight? How were the enemy this time?"

"Pathetic as usual," Rha grumbled "I slew several who had decided to turn and run rather then stay and fight. Disgusting."

Voro wondered wether Rha would have stood and fought if an alien twice his size and three times his weight had been hellbent on killing him. He shook his head to clear it of such thoughts. Sympathising with the enemy was the quickest way to be viewed ass one yourself.

"And that is why they shall lose." He said, turning back to face the Prophet's Eye "It is only a matter of time now. Are you ready for another deployment?"

"Of course I am!" Rha said, sounding somewhat indignant at the question "What would you have of me?"

"Head west brother, towards the human armoury." Voro ordered, tapping the Prophet's Eye and placing a marker at Rha's objective "The surviving humans may head there for supplies. Intercept any you find and kill them."

Rha stood still, opening and closing his jaws as if he wanted to say something.

"My apologies brother," he began, choosing his words carefully "but would I not be better off hunting down the pink worms rather then waiting for them?"

"No, you would not." Voro replied, studying the battle through the Prophet's Eye.

"But-" Rha began.

Voro's patience snapped.

"Enough!" He roared, whirling to face Rha, who flinched backwards "Our enemy is more devious then you can imagine, and only patience and persistence will see them all dead! Your brother I may be but I am your commander as well. Do you understand me!"

Voro stepped up close to Rha, he had to crane his neck upwards to look him in the eye, and glared at him until Rha looked away.

"Yes ship master." Rha said.

Rha turned around without another word and stomped off to find his squad. Voro breathed out and relaxed, conflicts with his brother were always tense moments and they were growing more frequent, something Voro blamed on Nixan, Rha's second in command whom had been vying for Voro's position for years.

"You did good Voro." Grumbled a deep voice "But perhaps it would have been better to send him down to eradicate the survivors in the south."

A heavily scarred Sangheili who was, amazingly, even bigger then Rha, stepped up onto the dais to join Voro. He must have just arrived as Voro hadn't seen him when he was talking to Rha.

"Garrak," Voro greeted the veteran warrior with a handshake "I did not know that you were already here. And there are but a handful of survivors in the south, they would not pose so much as a threat to my brother."

"Very true." Garrak laughed "I would have been down sooner, but all these new warriors were vying for the honour. A shame that many of the will not be able to claim it now."

"They will be avenged." Voro promised, clenching his fist.

Garrak grunted and said nothing for a while.

"So come on then," he said, breaking the silence "why send your brother to guard an armoury? We both know that's a task that even an Unngoy could handle. Provided they weren't sucking narcotics when they did it."

Garrak spat his last sentence out. Like many Sangheili he thought very little of the Unggoy, often regarding them as nothing more then dogsbodies and cannon fodder.

"Which is exactly why they are not allowed to be warriors." Voro replied, motioning Garrak over to the Prophet's Eye "Besides, I have a feeling that Rha may find this to be more challenging then he thought."

Garrak pulled his jaws together in confusion and followed Voro's gesture. Dagger One's green display box was showing low ammunition levels and high heart rates. And across from their box was a red one with the number three in it.

Garrak frowned, Dagger One was the best squad that Dagger Company had to offer and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why they were taking so long to finish off three measly humans.

"I do not understand." He said, peering closer "What is holding them up?"

"I do not know, but-" Voro broke off as Dagger One's display blinked.

Voro enlarged the box, bringing up a more detailed view of the squad. Voro and Garrak both gasped as they saw that the vital signs for Jaja' Mantakrae, one of Dagger One's members, had flatlined.

"How?" Voro muttered, shocked by the fact that one of the strongest men he had ever known was now dead.

Then the unthinkable happened, another squad member flatlined, and then another and another one after that and before Voro knew what was happening Dagger One was gone. Dead on the floor of some human building.

A red rage threatened to overtake Voro but he managed to push it to the back of his head. There would be time for grieving later. But first he would have revenge.

"How?" Garrak asked, of no one in particular "How were they bested?!"

"I do not know," Voro said, dismissing Dagger One's box which had turned black to reflect their status "but if they're are survivors then they're first objective will be..."

He trailed off as a strange, ice cold sensation rippled through his body. It was fear. And not the kind of fear he was used to, this was fear for another person, fear for his younger brother Rha. Because if the humans had slain Dagger One, then they're next port of call would almost certainly be the Armoury.

"Rha?!" Voro yelled, hailing his brother on the comms "Rha come in!"

"I have you brother." Came the response, clear over the radio due to Dagger Company's dominance of the area "What is it?"

"You've for trouble headed your way," Voro said, relieved to hear his brother alive and well "big trouble. Get to the armoury, fortify it and await for reinforcements. Garrak and I are on our way."

"At once brother!" Voro replied, recognising the shift in Voro's tone and realising that his mission had just become a lot more important.

"Good!" Garrak rumbled rolling his mountainous shoulders "When I get my hands on those deceitful heretics I'm going to rip them limb from limb and then start punishing them!"

Voro simply grunted in reply swiping a Plasma Repeater from an Unggoy and turning his armour's shields on.

"Suyok!" He said, calling over a slim Sangheili who wore the purple armour of an Ultra "You have command until I return, coordinate our southern forces and provide logistics to myself and my warriors."

"It will be done my lord." Suyok replied, assuming Voro's position at the Prophet's Eye.

Suyok was the best choice for leading Dagger Company after Garrak and Rha, and as such Voro felt confident leaving command to him for the time being.

Voro selected a dozen of the newly arrived Sangheili and led them away from the courtyard, towards the armoury, and as they trudged through the deserted, crumbling base that icy tingle of fear began to creep up his spine once more.

READING TIPS:

- Sangheili are Elites.

- Unggoy are Grunts.

- Kig-Yar are Jackals.

- Thank you for reading, if you could take thirty seconds to just drop me a review (whether you hated it or loved it) that would be much appreciated.