Halo: Enter the Vale Ch 4
Bet'Karh sat at the helm of the ship as they made the jump through Slip-space. The hierarchs had given him the task of hunting down the demon that had stolen the Forerunner artifact and made off with it. The Prophets themselves gave him the shard of crystal that would allow him to travel after the demon, what they failed to tell him was that it could only be used once.
He found that out the hard way when they came out of Slip-space and their dropship shut down from an EMP blast. His crew was made up of Skirmishers, that was what the humans called them, though not as smart or strong as a Sangheli, they were faster, more agile, and smart enough as any. The remainder was made up of two engineers who were fighting for control with the other Sangheli aboard.
He was shouting commands to try to organize his crew, but the EMP blast had shut down all the important systems besides life support and other necessities. Before he knew it he was in the middle of an unknown land with half his crew dead, the ship was in ruin and the crystal had shattered when it had released the EMP blast.
And to add on their plasma weapons were basically useless other than the needlers and his sword. So he was not in the mood when the human savages ambushed them with even more primitive armor and weaponry than usual.
He growled a command and his Skirmishers quickly set to work killing the roaches with speed and agility. Dodging blows, pounding them with tooth and claw, some had gone to jumping off trees to grab heads as they flew passed humans, breaking necks as they spun. He caught a blade with his bare hands and roared in one of the human's faces, pulling out his wrist blade and shoving it in the humans face, it fell to its knees and he pushed it off the blade.
He popped out his other blade and charged down another human firing arrows at them, arrows! He tackled the human and rolled over him, jumping atop him and easily overpowering him as he punched the human and then split his chest open.
He scoffed and stepped off the human, looking around to see the last of his Skirmishers playing with the last one, running past him and clawing as they were much faster than him. finally his top lieutenant, Yar'Kaelesh jumped on him and bit into his skull with powerful jaws, quickly caving he humans skull in.
He flicked his wrists as he walked forward, the blades disappeared and his remaining dozen Skirmishers looked at him.
"What should we do with the ship Shipmaster?" Kaelesh asked him, his jaws dripping with the human's blood.
"A wise question," he said looking back at the ship as it burned, "Got aboard and grab any and all working gear you can carry, I shall set the self destruct to one hour after we are ready."
Kaelesh bowed and barked a command to his fellows and they scurried aboard, though they were not Sangheli he was glad to have them, it was better then Unggoy.
Kaelesh came out with the rest carrying nothing but needle rifles and what few needlers they had, they also had an experimental piece of equipment only Skirmishers could use called needle gauntlets. He brought a needle rifle up to Bet'Karh and handed him his energy sword, their three-fingered hands couldn't use them properly otherwise he would have gladly given him one.
He inspected Kaelesh's arm to see that he had one of the pieces of hardware on his arm, "Do they work properly," he asked the Kig-yar and he shrugged.
He clicked the gauntlet and aimed it, clenching his hand and twisting his wrist, a needle bolt shot out and hit a humans body. The purple needle stayed for a moment before detonating a little bigger than the usual needle rifle shot.
"Excellent, is this the only working device," he asked and Kaelesh nodded gravely, "A loss truly. Let us set out," he said and shouted a command, the remaining Kig-yar were fighting over scraps or watching got into line and came up to him. He activated the timer on the ship when they were a mile out.
An hour later the ship detonated, destroying all that remained of the crash with a silent explosion. The only sign was the bright light he saw from his vantage point, from which he also saw where the demon had crashed, his Skirmishers walking in single-file past him.
He felt the black spot on his mask that had been caused in the crash, it had melted the mask slightly when he woke he had found it lying next to a flame. It gave it a new look to it, it made Ultra armor even more intimidating, his remaining crew having given him nervous glances when he had put it on.
After another two hours they came across the crash of the demon and found no body, but they had found the crystal, with was also shattered and beyond repair, the ship also beyond flight ability. He stepped off the ship, the ones who had shields had them held defensively as they looked out into the woods, the others were waiting for him.
He looked to Kaelesh who broke off the defense group and came to him, "Are your forces ready to set out Kaelesh?"
"Yes Shipmaster, but what of the crystal?" he asked gesturing to his troops to form up.
He held it up in his hand for his lieutenant to see, "It is beyond repair, but if we can find a shuttle we can bring the remains to the prophets, but only after the demon has been slain."
Both he and Kaelesh had been trained to fly human shuttles for infiltration missions, usually coming in handy.
He bowed and they set off into the woods, eventually finding several bodies by a stream, Bet'Karh bent down and inspected one of the bodies. It had a clear needle wound in it, and from what he was told no other Covenant forces had been deployed to this planet yet, so why would the human kill his own?
He stood and looked over his troops as they went from corpse to corpse to make sure they were dead, he called Kaelesh. "How long have they been dead?" he asked the Skirmisher and he inspected the body, his head twitching from angle to angle to look at the wound. He quickly ripped off a chunk of flesh with his hand and tasted it; he always thought their species were jittery.
He spit out the meat and looked back at him, "About two days Shipmaster," he said.
"Then we have some catching up to do," he said and called over two in green armor, they were his best trackers besides Kaelesh. "I want you two and Kaelesh to lead us on the humans trail, the faster we find him the better," he said and one nodded, another was inspecting the dirt. "Deator!" he bellowed and the Kig-yar looked at him, "do you understand?" he was his best observer but that didn't excuse ignorance.
"Yes sir," his voice a hiss, "But the human is in company of two others, one wounded by the look of the tracks," Deator said and Karh bent down to see what the Skirmisher was talking about.
He gestured to two set of tracks and some trampled grass, "See there are three sets of tracks, but one disappears next to where some of the grass is crushed, I suggest the demon carried the wounded."
He picked up a tuff of black hair, "Can you tell who he was in company with?" better to know if it was indeed more than one demon.
Geatol stepped in, "By the looks of it one human female and tow males, one was a demon, the others were not," he said and Karh nodded, he stood and looked at the slowly rising sun.
"The sooner we set off after them the better. Lead the way," he said and Kaelesh, Geatol, and Deator set them on the right path, never discussing a flaw for too long when they found one.
Soon, Karh thought, soon they would have this human and be on their way, so was the Path.
Will sat atop a ledge in his armor looking out over the forest, he had heard something that had awoken him in the night, and when he looked out he saw a faint smoke trail in the sky. He frowned, that could be anything, but his instincts told him otherwise.
"What are you doing up there shemlen?" a voice called out below him and he looked down.
"Looking out over the forest," he said, he didn't see the point in lying.
"I'll be watching you shemlen," the voice called back and he saw the elf walk away in the darkness.
He sighed and climbed down, the sun was barely peeking out over the horizon and he had barely gotten that mush sleep. He didn't mind, they weren't going anywhere for another three days of what he pried out of Merrill. Apparently they were traveling to a place outside a large city called Kirkwall.
He quietly climbed into the tent and saw Merrill lying quietly on her bedroll, legs drawn up slightly as she slept on her side. He laid down on his bedroll beside hers, not bothering to climb in it. It was fairly warm out anyways and his armor was comfortable enough.
He set his hands behind his head and closed his eyes; it was a moment before he drifted to sleep.
Merrill awoke and saw Will asleep besides her she sat up and walked outside, there was a mist over the ground, she stretched and took a big whiff of the air. It smelled different around the camp, burning wood, and the sounds of busy people. She decided to finally bathe having not getting the chance yesterday. She grabbed her tunic she had set atop her trunk and walked to the spring to find it empty.
She looked around to make sure she had some privacy before stripping down and stepping in, taking in the warmth of it and sighing. She bathed for a while before hearing boyish giggling, she looked to the woods and saw two little boys, her arms shot up around her chest and she saw them make a dead sprint away from her, giggling all the way. She ran to the edge of the spring and climbed out, putting her clothing on and chasing after them.
Thomas and Frankie ran from the pool laughing, so they had peeped the elf girl, but who would stop them, no one in the town really liked the elves anyway. Thomas smiled at Frankie and they both ran head-first into something, he thought it was a tree, until he looked up.
His face was fear stricken as he looked up at the faceless giant, who reached down and grabbed them both by the collars and lifted them off the ground with ease. They both panicked, yelling and swinging fists, then the giant began to walk, it was going to kill them and eat them, he knew it!
But when the elf girl came through the foliage and slowed to a stop, the giant dropped them on their rumps suddenly.
"I believe you two have something to tell this young lady," the giant spoke down at them in a voice that was calm and emotionless, but cool and demanding at the same time.
"We don't have to tell the elf girl anything," Thomas said and the giant turned to look down at him, he felt his blood run cold, he turned to look at the elf girl. Her hair was still wet and she had her arms crossed most likely because she was cold.
"She's waiting," the giant said.
"Sorry," Frankie muttered and Thomas shot hit a look, but he got one back from him.
He sneered, "I'm not going to apologize to an elf, and there's nothing you can do to make me," he said and the giant shrugged.
He looked to Frankie, "Beat it peeper," he said and Frankie looked at him one last time before getting up and running. He stood, and was forced down by the giant, "Where do you think you're going?" he said and Thomas fell on his rump again.
Thomas just looked at him, he looked at the elf girl and then he crossed his arms and didn't budge, "Alright then, have it your way," he said, and then he just vanished. Thomas looked at the spot where the giant had been standing a second before, then the elf girl, she looked just as confused.
He smiled and looked at the elf girl, "Hah, see stupid elf, not even the giant stands up for you," he said and turned, then ran into something that wasn't there. He felt with his hands and there was nothing there, he walked forward and then at the elf girl, but she just watched him.
He walked away and felt something slide across his arm and he looked to see nothing, then felt something push him to the ground, and a cold voice came from next to him and whispered in his ear, "Get out," it said.
He ran forward to run into nothing, he turned and headed toward the elf girl to see her walking toward the spring, maybe she'd help her! He ran forward screaming and she turned to look at him, he ran around her and hid behind her from whatever spirit was following him.
"I'm sorry elf girl, I'm sorry!" he yelled as the bushes by the clearing shook and parted for nothing, he could see something ripple the air where the bushes parted. "PLEASE HELP ME!" he shouted from behind the girl's legs and the giant was standing there looking at him where there been nothing a moment before.
The giant looked at him and his heart pounded, was it some sort of spirit, no it had grabbed him, but could spirits do that. "Go," was all it said, and it was all it needed to say before he dashed passed him, he looked over his shoulder to see it still watching him, he didn't stop till he reached home.
Merrill looked at him, she thought he had abandoned her, "Sorry about that," he said walking off as she just watched him. He had told her that it wasn't magic and he didn't believe in magic, but how could one disappear and still be there?
She followed him having no need to be by the spring anymore, they went back to the camp to see that nothing had changed. He looked at her at the edge of the camp, "Well I hope that taught them," he said and she smiled gently, she did too, she personally didn't like being spied on.
Bet'Karh looked at the fallen tree, inspecting where the tree had shattered at the base, it was the demon, there was no doubt about that. He looked at Kaelesh as the Kig-yar looked at the prints dug into the ground, they had been searching for a day now and had come across several other battle zones with dead humans.
They had also killed several humans themselves, the ambushes despite their sizes never lasted long. Kaelesh nodded, confirming his suspicions, he stood and gestured across the stream, some of the faster and more agile troops jumped across successfully while the others quickly ran across.
He was the last across, but he did not mind, they were gaining on the demon, he could feel it in his bones.
He sensed something and looked at Kaelesh, who was sniffing the air and he nodded, they all were equipped with active camouflage, so they decided to put it to use. He activated his and slowly faded from view, his troops following not long after, and sure enough, after several minutes of staying still, several humans cautiously stepped out into the clearing.
He waited till he was sure all were exposed before decloaking with his hand held up, he closed his fist and pink crystals materialized out of thin air and imbedded themselves in the hopeless humans.
When there was nothing left of the failed ambush his troops ran forward and began to tear at the meat, only his top officers being obedient and staying by his side, but he allowed his troops some food, they had eaten nothing since they had set off and they deserved it.
They were quickly catching up to the demon and his companions, it was only a matter of time.
AN: Hello again, i appreciate anyone who have made it this far into the story. Getting tense, i bet you guys saw this one coming, those who didn't will probably say they did, it's alright though ;). Do leave a review and tell me your thoughts it would be even more appreciated, thank you again and if you were possessed during the reading of this story awesome priest says "Beat it in the name of Jesus Christ!"