Draken was surprised at the appearance of the Brute barracks. They were cleaner than some marine quarters and filled with what looked like genuinely kind men and women instead of the brutes that humans had nicknamed them. He kept his thoughts to himself and walked behind the Jiralhanae to his commander's office. This too was well kept, and currently occupied by the general, seated at a desk and seeming to improve attack strategies. That, or it was a game he played with an unseen player, judging by the self-moving opponents.
"General, I have the Kligher, Draken with me," he introduced, the general looking up from his datapad. "I told him about the wager, and thought he might like some training before his trials." The officer nodded and gestured for Draken to sit opposite him, dismissing the Jiralhanae and waiting for the door to close before speaking.
"I can say with certainty that our training is the most difficult out of the rest of the Covenant," he said, voice gravelly.
"I know this, but I can do anything you set me to," Draken said, equaling the general's steel. He nodded.
"Just thought you might like to know what you're getting into first. We focus on using whatever tactics are necessary to achieve our objective, our reputation as bulky savages often helps with that. You'll be doing conditioning first, and then move on to combat after."
"Sounds alright. When and where?"
"Now, and in the yard," the general said. "Find an instructor and ask for drills, they'll get you started." He gave a salute that Draken copied, and dismissed him.
Even for a Kligher, the training was harsh. He was put into a weight suit that tripled his mass, and then sent into various exercises: 30 miles of running, a full body workout, and even agility training, all done in a room that was heated to 130 degrees. Thankfully, plenty of water and salt was on hand to refresh him, and buckets of ice water cooled him off. Over the next week, he got used to the heat and used the buckets less, going farther and faster with all of his exercises. When he was up to standard, he was put into CQC and weapon training. He used speed to his advantage, and his newfound strength ensured that he always hit hard and fast, going in and out of his opponents range with ease, striking and escaping before they could attack. He began to favor a pair of knives on his belt, as well as a sort of pistol-like shotgun and a rifle. He was deemed battle ready by his instructors and thanked them for the training they'd given him.
Still, he wanted to learn more. He went to the Elites next, three weeks left before his trials, and asked to be trained. It turns out that there were quite a few bets placed for his win, and the Elites were no exception. The Jiralhanae had ensured he was ready in the physical department, but they lacked the Elites finesse with weapons. He learned to use everything in the Covenant armory, plasma pistol to shade turret but learned his most sought-after skill after everything else: the plasma sword. Nobody but Elites even knew the first thing about this weapon, but he would learn every nuance of it. He spent his last two weeks mastering the weapon, and every style that was used to wield it, developing his own when he wasn't being guided by the Sangheili instructors.
The time of his trials arrived, and Draken was ready. Once again he stood before the Prophets, and he was shocked when he heard what he was to do.
"You are to find and eliminate The Demon, this Master Chief, of the humans," Regret said, making the Honor Guard Sangheili in the room shift uncomfortably at the name. "Bring us his head, and the title High Judicator shall be yours." Draken didn't know how to react. The best fighter in UNSC history, the greatest hero of humanity, the hope of every soldier; this was his target? He'd fought everything from Grunts to Elite Generals, but not only did he not know if he should, he didn't know if he could. His answer was calm, unlike his thoughts.
"It shall be done my Prophets." He was dismissed, and he thought of every way possible to complete his mission without actually killing the Spartan while he prepared to hunt for Master Chief. When he left High Charity in a personal Phantom, he still had nothing.
He followed the reported sightings of The Demon, jumping from planet to planet on his hunt, and finally found him on some backwater colony that had been overrun by Covenant. They were in retreat when he arrived, the stragglers getting pickled off by the scant few UNSC forces still alive, and headed by the Master Chief himself. With regret, he got in a Ghost and rode out to meet him.
The two opposing sides stopped a hundred yards away from each other, Draken and Master Chief with caution, the marines with confusion. Draken stood from his Ghost and called out across the dirt to the hero.
"Before this happens, just know that your men will be spared and that I'm sorrier than I can say for what's about to happen," he declares, unsheathing both of his plasma swords.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Master Chief asks but stops when Draken charges impossibly fast across the intervening distance, and he dodges the first two swings as he starts to fire his rifle at the new alien. Draken is dangerous and unpredictable, and almost faster than the Chief, but the Spartan's years of experience keep him alive, even if he's constantly on his toes. The Marines don't know what to do and stand back from the fight.
John finally gets an opening, and holds both of Draken's wrists in his hands, struggling to keep him still. "Who sent you?" he grunts out, shaking with the effort of holding his enemy at bay.
"The enemies of humanity," Draken answered sadly. "Ones that I can't eliminate at the moment, and have ordered me to kill you to prove my worth. It's your head or mine, and humanity's end with both. But you have a better chance with me around, so I'll bring them your head." He wrenches Chief's head up and punches him in the throat, kicking off of his stomach to dodge the knife slash that he threw. Draken draws his own knives, and the gradually slowing Master Chief and he engage in hand to hand. Slash, punch, knee, kick, slash, counter, knee, they fight fast, both going to kill. Another temporary stalemate is reached, and Master Chief pants out another question.
"Why do… you fight for… humans?"
"Because I didn't die," Draken replied, "I went MIA. You must have heard that somewhere before, Chief, and it's one that applies to both of us. The last Spartan on Reach, first Kligher seen in millennia, and both are trying to remove your head." With a grunt, Chief breaks Draken's knives, and takes a shotgun blast to the stomach from Draken's pistol for the move, dodging the second as he puts distance between them. He was tired, bleeding, and not losing to this Covenant lackey.
"Chief, he's weak on his right knee, see if that can give you the upper hand," Cortana suggested inside of John's helmet, and he drew an SMG to fire at the limb. Draken dived forward over the shots, managing to pump two rounds of heavy crystal into Chief's visor, cracking it.
"You should recognize a ruse Chief, especially one like that," Draken said. "Or did the AI in your helmet suggest the attack?"
"How did you-"
"I delivered that AI, Chief," Chief paused, wondering how he knew about- "I know you were on the ship I sent it to, cryo-frozen, not doing a thing to help the planet she left. Remember when you chose me, Cortana? Remember my Commander's last words? That you made the right choice? I'm still hoping that he's right and that I can end this war with three bullets. It's going to take quite a few more before that to take down Chief, and you helping will only waste ammo."
"Cortana? You've seen him before?"
"I…" she was in shock, unable to answer. "I thought… how did he…" her muttering was interrupted by the next attack.
"I know your training, I know your ally, and I'm not out of steam," Draken said, regret and grim determination turning his voice to cold iron. "This fight is over when I say it is, Chief," -he kicked down Chief's shields, clawed across his chest to spin him, and shout out the backs of his knees, and the Chief fell to them, shouting in pain- "and it's over now." He reloaded his weapon, slowly lowering it to the back of his neck when he stopped and pulled Cortana out of John's helmet, storing her chip in a belt pouch. "Last words?" The Spartan forced himself to quiet, and shakily said,
"Cortana… wake me… when you need me…" Under his helmet, Master Chief closed his eyes, preparing for his death. Draken fired, and Chief's head thumped into the ground, severed by the shot. He bagged it, helmet and all, and left quickly. The stunned Marines left as well, spreading the news of the Master Chief's death, not MIA, dead.
Draken dreaded returning to High Charity, mostly because of the difficult conversations he'd have with Cortana. He pulled her chip from his belt pouch, and set it into a holotank terminal. She was sitting on the ground hugging her knees when she appeared and looked at Draken with digitally tear-stained cheeks.
"Why did y-"
"I never once lied during the fight," he interrupted, shoulders heavy and face neutral. "I was on Reach, you chose me, I delivered you to the Pillar of Autumn, and held my ground until the last moment fighting off the Covenant."
Then why, Noble Six?" she asked, voice cracking. "Why would you kill off the hope of humanity, and what are you?"
"If we're going to talk, at least call me Markus," he asked, not looking at her. "I've explained why I did it: I'm in the unique position of becoming the High Judicator of the prophets, and was assigned to eliminate Master Chief to prove my worth. With his head, I've bought my way into their trust." She tried to ask a question but was cut off again. "Believe me, I know the consequences of that fight: morale will drop like a stone with the news of his death, while the Covenant's will surge and even more deaths will occur. I weighed my options in the spur of the moment and found this to be the most favorable outcome, the one with less time enduring war, at the cost of a higher casualty rate for a short period of time."
Cortana had nothing to say, what could she? It was logical, and even if other options had been open – taking John's helmet and sparing his life, or attempting an assassination before Markus had been assigned – Master Chief would have kept on fighting, and Markus' cover would have been blown, or he would have been intercepted and his cover blown regardless.
"So what now?"
"Now, I play a part, and you keep a low profile. I'm keeping you close for your own safety, and make sure that you don't fall into Covenant hands." Draken stopped, Gutrot showing his face for the first time in a while.
"Oh, by the way, I'm here too," he said, pushing Draken's face into a grin. "Think of me as a form of multiple personality disorder, with the origin story of a two-thousand-year-old alien corpse soul planting itself in Markus' head. I may do this from time to time, but you'll be able to tell when I come up for air."
Cortana sighed. "Great, can this awful day get any weirder?"
"Well, when you say it like that…" Gutrot said, pointing a finger at Cortana's avatar, currently glitching out and getting obscured by static. She looked down at her hands, horrified, and seemingly in pain.
"What-what-what-what's hap-hap-happening t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-to me-me-me-me-MEEEE-?" she asked, glitching out even more before freezing, and shutting down the holotank. Gutrot gave control back to a concerned Draken, who tried to get her to come back online. He couldn't and decided to leave her be until further notice, starting his slipspace jump back to High Charity. She came back online the second day in, and both of them were in for a surprise.
"Oh my god/Merciful skies above," Draken and Gutrot said at the same time, gazing down at the two AI avatars now frizzing on the holotank projector.
Hello readers. I know I didn't give any warning about this, but I'm now reworking my Demon of Reach story, and taking a break from Hicca for a while. Hopefully both stories are improved by their respective reboots, even if they've both kind of skewed away from their original arcs by a fair amount. I'll see everyone later, and hopefully you all continue to enjoy my stories.