Takes place a few weeks after the last chapter.
"Brontanus, there are those who say that the Prophets have gone on the Great Journey and left us behind. Do you believe this?" Elidius asked his older pack brother. Sometime after the Covenant civil war started, the religious leaders of the Covenant mysteriously disappeared. What Elidius said was one very widely believed theory among the Brutes.
"I do not believe such a ridiculous story," Brontanus replied confidently. "Why would they go on the Journey and leave their loyal servants behind? And how would they have done it? The only way to start the Journey is to light the holy rings and if that happens, every creature in the galaxy with faith in our lords would have transcended, even the lowly Grunts. This is what the Prophets have taught us. So how could they have gone on the Journey without anyone else?"
"Then what do you think has happened to them?" Elidius asked. "Why would they suddenly vanish?"
Brontanus thought about it for a few seconds of silence. He then said, "The Prophets told us that they came from a world that was destroyed long ago. Those who escaped made High Charity their home world. But after the holy city fell to the Flood, perhaps...perhaps their race is no more. It is quite possible since there were never that many of them in the first place."
Elidius grunted in agreement. "It is a strong possibility. But what shall our race do without their guidance and leadership?" he asked.
"Isn't it obvious? The Prophets might have become extinct but they have left us with such formidable gifts. We shall use them to continue their mission and make their dream a reality. But first we must conquer all the other factions and reunite our noble race under our Commander Hadeadus. For he is the only Chieftain fit to rule all Brutes. Then we shall remake the Covenant with our race as the ruling and primary military caste. The Elites will be beneath us and we shall treat them the way they treated us. And then we can finally focus on starting the Great Journey and we shall succeed where the holy ones have failed. But for now, let us not think about any of that. We are far from the front lines and this is our time to relax."
The two Brutes were looking down a steep cliff as they talked. Behind them, leaning against a large boulder, three Grunts were fast asleep. Further up ahead two Jackals mercenaries were having their own conversation about how bad it sucked to work for this particular Brute faction. None of the aliens knew that they were all being watched through the scope of a beam rifle by Sel Fatham who was perched high up in a tree. The distortion effect from his active camouflage was hidden by the dark night and to anyone on the ground, he would have been completely invisible.
"Leader, there are two Brutes, three sleeping Grunts, and two Jackals. The Brutes have their backs turned to us and are not in the Jackals' line of sight. There is no way around them," he reported.
"Very well," the voice of special ops commander, Usze Taham, came through the COM link. "The Spartan and I shall move in and take them out quietly. Cover us, in case something should go wrong."
"Yes, leader," Sel replied even though he wished that it was him on the ground fighting the Brutes up close and personal instead of being up here in this tree. He watched through his scope as a black shadowy figure moved up behind the Brutes without making a sound.
Jaimie G127 was the only team member who didn't have active camouflage, however, the photo reactive panels on her SPI armor could change color and texture to blend in with her surroundings. In this case, her armor had turned jet black. The Engineers working on the Shadow of Intent didn't have time to install energy shields or active camouflage into her armor because they had their hands full just keeping the ship from falling apart. But at least they replaced her broken visor with another one from one of her teammates. And they also installed translation software into her helmet so whenever one of her teammates said something, she would see a translation in English on her HUD. They had similar software installed so they could understand her. It was a slower way to communicate than regular talking but it was better than nothing.
Both Jaimie and Usze Taham slowly crept up on their respective targets whose backs were turned to them. The Brutes weren't even looking at each other as they talked which would make it so much easier to take them both out at the same time. Once Jaimie was right behind her Brute, she jumped up on the much taller alien's back, reached around and slit its throat with her combat knife. The Brute was interrupted right in the middle of talking. Blood sprayed out of the wound and it clutched its throat in surprise but the vocal cords were cut and it couldn't warn the rest of his squad besides make a choking gurgling sound. At the same time Usze grabbed the other Brute's head and suddenly twisted it, snapping its neck. Both of them pushed the Brutes off the edge of the cliff simultaneously.
Next, the Spartan and the Elite took out the three sleeping Grunts easily by smashing their skulls with the butts of their weapons. But they couldn't sneak up on the Jackals from behind because unlike the Brutes they were actually looking at each other so they could see behind each other. With their excellent vision they would be able to see the distortion effect of Usze's active camouflage and Jaimie didn't even have active camouflage. Jaimie crouched down low and peeked around the boulder to get a good look at them. They were engaged in their own conversation. She began to read the translation text on her HUD.
"That's exactly what I've been saying this whole time," Jok squawked to his friend Yak. "Hadeadus doesn't pay us nearly enough, his Brutes treat us like we're even lower than the gas suckers, and we're expected to risk our lives fighting the Elites for him?"
"We're not slaves like the Grunts," Yak agreed. "We're mercenaries and if these Brutes want our services they better pay for them or we'll just join another faction like Fawk did."
Without warning, the knife came spinning out of the darkness and imbedded itself right in Jok's skull. Before Yak even knew what happened and had time to duck behind his shield, a thin blue beam passed through his head causing it to explode. His decapitated body fell right next to Jok's. Sel Fatham chuckled, feeling satisfied that he finally got a kill, even if it wasn't a very honorable one by Elite standards. "Leader, all enemies are dead. We are clear to proceed," he said.
"Very well. Nice shooting. Come down and join us with the rest of the team so we may continue," Usze replied.
Sel fearlessly jumped down from the tree and landed perfectly. His double jointed legs were designed by eons of evolution for jumping and absorbing impacts from landing. Climbing, however, was a much different story. His species sucked at it and getting up that tree had been a major pain in the ass for the Elite. It was one of the reasons why he hated being a sniper. The other reason was that in Elite culture, killing someone from far away where they couldn't even see you was not considered very honorable. Elites preferred close combat and left the sniping role to Jackals who were more than happy to take it. But now that the Jackals were no longer on their side, many of their best shooters, like Sel Fatham, were forced to become designated marksmen and snipers out of necessity.
Six barely visible shapes came out of the bushes, all cloaked with active camouflage. It was fellow special ops Elite, Ntho Sraom, and the five special ops Grunts. "How did the demon perform?" Ntho asked curiously.
"She is a skilled assassin," Sel admitted. "But we already knew that. I want to see how well she fights when her cover is blown." He was not very impressed by what he saw when he first met her. Once her stealth was gone she was easily disarmed and subdued by his leader who didn't even bother using a weapon on her. The two Elites and five Grunts made their way to their leader.
"Nice throw," Usze growled as Jaimie pulled her knife out of the dead Jackal's skull. To her, no matter what this Elite leader said, his alien voice always sounded like he was growling. "You are well trained with that blade. Let us hope you are equally good at throwing plasma grenades."
Jaimie was about to tell him that she killed one of his fellow Elites that way not too long ago but decided it probably wasn't a good idea. They already hated her enough. She just kept quiet as she dragged the Jackal's body to the edge of the cliff and rolled it off. "You seem much more...silent than you were in our first meeting," Usze continued as she walked back to the body of the second Jackal.
"That's because we're in the middle of a mission," she reminded him as she grabbed the headless corpse by the ankles and began dragging it away. "Don't they teach you guys noise discipline?"
Her response made the team leader chuckle. Humans and Elites had similar sounding laughs but with this Elite's voice, he sounded plain sinister. "Of course."
Seven yellow dots appeared on her motion tracker. She turned around to look and didn't see anyone but she could hear them there. It was the rest of the team, all active camouflaged. By now Jaimie knew all their names and roles. There was Sel Fatham, the second in command, and the team's designated marksman. He was the one who took out the second Jackal next to the one she knifed. Jaimie had to admit he was an excellent shot with the beam rifle.
Ntho Sraom was the newest Elite in the team and second newest member after her. Even the Grunts were here before he was. By the time he joined the special ops community, the Covenant civil war had already begun and he never got a chance to fight against the humans, only the Brutes and their allies. But he did fight alongside the humans on Earth and later, the Ark. His main weapon was a plasma repeater.
Usze Taham was the leader of this team and the Elite who disarmed her on the corvette but chose not to execute her even though she killed two of his Elites. She was surprised by this because she certainly wouldn't have given him the same courtesy if he killed two of her Spartans. But Usze cared more about his code of honor than his personal vengeance. He was the only Elite on the team who spoke English and understood what she said without using the translator. His weapon of choice was a concussion rifle.
As for Jaimie, she chose a needle rifle because as a projectile firing weapon it was the most similar to the ballistic firearms that she was used to. There should have been one more Elite on the team since she killed two and she was replacing one. Word was, the new replacement was arriving very soon from another ship soon after this mission. Then there was Blacow, Padalo, Flatyap, Tagbad, and Zamamo, the five Grunts. Blacow and Padalo could be described as the team's 'machine gunners' who used portable automatic plasma cannons. Zamamo used a fuel rod cannon. On this special ops team, every member depended on each other and the Grunts were considered as important as the Elites. Well, maybe not quite as important, but they definitely weren't used as cannon fodder.
Once all the bodies were at the bottom of the cliff, Usze ordered the team to move forward with Jaimie taking point. She didn't see the logic in being at the very front because she wasn't nearly as well protected or as well camouflaged as the Elites were but she would be the first one to get shot if the enemy were to find them. But that's probably what the Elites wanted because they didn't consider her life as valuable as theirs or even their Grunts. They still hadn't forgiven her for killing their two teammates. They probably hoped she would attract all the hostile fire, while they would hide behind their active camouflage and take the enemies out stealthily. Basically, she was being used like a Grunt when even the Grunts in this team weren't used like regular Grunts. But Jaimie didn't want to argue so she just did what she was told. She just wanted to get this mission over with and get back to the Shadow of Intent where Io was. The A.I was her only friend on that gigantic ship.
She hoped that if she did well on this mission the Elites would reward her by letting her and her remaining Spartans go home but she doubted it. They would more likely just use her on mission after mission until she was killed. The war between them might have been over but she still had a lot of hatred for the Elites. However, she did accept that they were a lesser evil than the Brutes. Just before Gamma Company was deployed, she heard stories about what happened on Beta Gabriel. How the Brutes slaughtered the entire human population on the planet and used them for food and entertainment. Elites killed civilians too but the Brutes sadistically tortured any human civilians they captured and often tore them apart ate them alive.
This particular mission, the team was supposed to assassinate a high value target. A Brute Army Commander named Hadeadus. He was a quite brilliant tactician whose troops defeated the Elites in numerous ground engagements on many planets and shattered the myth that Brutes were all brawn and no brain. Right now, he and some of his troops were taking a break from war and vacationing on this planet for a short while before returning to the fight. The planet was located deep inside Brute controlled space. There was no way the Elites could get this far into Brute territory without alerting the Brute ships. So they had to rely on the Jackals. They were like mercenaries in the post-Covenant. They worked for anyone who paid them. They were used by different Brute factions and often fought against each other. However, none of them fought for the Elites because the Elites had previously refused to pay them. For this mission they were willing to make an exception. Thel Vadam, the Supreme Commander of their fleet, had come into contact with Gyur'R'Dat, a Jackal ship mistress who was unhappy with how much Hadeadus was paying her so she was trying to defect. Thel offered to reward her by giving her a fully functional Covenant frigate, which was far superior to the Jackals' pirate ships, if she agreed to sneak them to and off this planet.
All of a sudden, Jaimie's thoughts were interrupted as she could have sworn she saw something jumping from one tree to another several meters in front of them. Even with night vision, the movement was hard to pick up from this distance and the only reason she noticed it was because her eyes were specifically augmented to be sensitive to motion. She immediately dropped down into the prone and looked through the scope of her needle rifle. Behind her, the rest of the team froze and didn't make a sound. Jaimie saw three Skirmisher snipers in a tree. They were all alert and pointing their weapons in her direction. They must have heard them walking through the woods with their excellent sense of hearing. But they couldn't see them yet because Elites and Grunts were almost invisible in the dark while her armor had changed appearance to blend in with the dirt and vegetation on the ground. As long as she didn't move they would just think she was a rock or something.
"Spartan, what do you see?" Usze's voice whispered over the COM link.
"Snipers. Three of them in that tree up ahead. You want me to take them out?" she asked. She was in position to get a perfect headshot on one of them.
"No. Your weapon is too loud. It will compromise our stealth. Leave it to Sel. His weapon is much quieter."
That was true. Her needle rifle made a very unusual noise that sounded like shattering glass when it was fired.
"Okay but tell him to hurry up. I think these guys onto me."
One of the Skirmishers was looking directly at her curiously. Like it was no longer sure if she was just a rock on the ground or a very well camouflaged enemy. Jaimie didn't have shields so one shot from its weapon could easily penetrate her SPI armor which was designed to protect her from a few plasma bolts not particle beams. Just before the Skirmisher pulled the trigger, however, she heard Sel's beam rifle hiss behind her and the Skirmisher's head exploded. But as the particle beam passed through the air it left behind a trail of glowing ionized air that gave away his position. The snipers couldn't see him with his active camouflage but they could easily trace the source of his beams. Sel knew this and as soon as he took the first shot he immediately dove to the side and rolled back onto his feet. Two beams flew through the air where he was just standing, missing him. Sel fired another shot and another sniper fell. He quickly dropped into the prone and a beam passed right over his body. He fired the third shot and finished off the final sniper.
Jaimie carefully scanned the trees in front of them for more snipers but those three were it. "All clear," she said finally when she was absolutely sure. She got back on her feet.
"Good work, both of you," Usze said. "This is why you are in the front, Spartan. Those snipers could have easily killed one of us before we knew they were there but you managed to spot them first. Your powers of observation rival that of any Jackal."
"Is that why? I thought you put me up here to give the enemy something to shoot at."
"Don't be ridiculous, you idiot," Usze snarled. "We may not like you but you are now a member of our team and we depend on you to do your part to complete the mission. For that reason alone we will not unnecessarily risk your life."
"Sorry," Jaimie mumbled. The Elite nodded accepting her apology.
Not too far away, they heard many Brutes howling loudly. Their howls echoed through the forest. It made them all uneasy except for Usze.
"What was that about?" Jaimie asked.
"Perhaps they have discovered our presence in this forest," Ntho said.
"No, they are just celebrating," Usze told them. "Trust me, I know a little bit about Brutes. They probably just finished a hunt. But they will eventually realize that something is wrong when they try to communicate with that patrol we killed, not to mention, these three snipers. We must pick up the pace."
A short while later at the Brute camp, many Brutes cheered happily and pounded their chests with their fists when they saw the hunting party return with their dinner. A large thorn beast that was so big that even with their combined strength it took all ten of the Brutes to carry its body back to the camp. The Brutes' mouths began watering at the sight of the freshly killed animal. "My pack brothers! Tonight we shall feast!" a white haired Brute wearing red armor declared and they all began cheering again.
"Commander Hadeadus!" a voice called in the middle of all the cheering. The white haired Brute turned to look and saw his friend, a Brute War Chieftain named Tyrannus running towards him. He stopped next to him and caught his breath. He looked very worried and this worried Hadeadus.
"Tyrannus my friend, what is troubling you? Is there bad news from the front?" he asked hoping that his vacation wasn't going to be cut short. So far he was having a great time.
"One of our packs patrolling the woods stopped communicating with us. So I sent some other packs to go look for them. At first they did not find anything. But they did smell some blood on the ground next to a cliff. Logically, they looked down the cliff and found the bodies of the pack at the bottom. I think it is safe to say we have intruders on our planet."
Hadeadus let out a deep growl. "But how can that be? This planet is far from the front lines. There is no way the Elites could have landed troops here without our ships intercepting them."
"It is probably not the Elites, Commander. It must be one of our rival factions. And they must have had help from someone on our side," Tyrannus suggested.
Hadeadus grunted in agreement. "Yes that is a more reasonable explanation. It is possible that some of my Brutes are looking to defect to another faction and decided to help them by killing me. How sad that we Brutes continue to fight amongst each other when we should all be united against the Elites."
"What do you want to do, Commander?" Tyrannus asked.
"We shall prepare ourselves for a fight. I want every pack of ours to comb the woods looking for these intruders."
Tyrannus bowed. "I shall relay your orders to all the Chieftains."
Just then a thin blue beam came out of the trees and hit Hadeadus in the head causing his shields to light up as they absorbed the damage. He turned around and roared in anger. Every Brute in the camp stopped talking and looked at him.
"We are under attack!" Tyrannus shouted and un slung his massive heavy plasma cannon. "Commander, get behind something! I shall cover you!" As Hadeadus frantically made a run for it he was hit by another beam which further drained his shields but wasn't enough to overload them completely. This time Tyrannus saw where the beam was coming from. "There you are!" he roared and opened fire on the tree with his plasma cannon. The brightly glowing plasma bolts were like tracer rounds and every Brute could see where he was shooting at. They all joined him with their spikers and brute shots.
"Aaah! Curse you all!" Sel yelled in frustration as his target disappeared behind a large rock and his position was exposed. He jumped down from the tree just before it was torn apart by a storm of razor sharp projectiles, grenades, and plasma. "Leader, I have failed to snipe him!"
"Very well, begin the attack!" Usze ordered over the COM link.
The two Grunts, Blacow and Padalo, opened fire on the Brutes with their plasma cannons while Zamamo launched explosive radioactive projectiles at them. White hot plasma bolts swept over the enemy position, burning through any Brutes that got in their path. Green blobs landed and exploded all over the camp either vaporizing or badly scorching any Brutes that were too close. The Brutes who chose to stay out in the open to return fire were their spikers were either shot down by the superior firepower plasma cannons or blown to bits by the fuel rod cannon.
"Take cover, you fools!" a Brute Captain shouted. But even those that took cover behind trees were still not protected from the fuel rod cannon. Whenever the explosive projectiles hit a tree and exploded, they blew the trunk apart and sent sharp pieces of wood flying into whoever was hiding behind them. One by one, Sel picked them off with his beam rifle. The remaining Brutes did their best to hide behind whatever they could and return fire with their spikers and brute shots even though their weapons were not very accurate from this distance.
Meanwhile, Commander Hadeadus, War Chieftain Tyrannus, a Brutes Captain, and a Brute sniper were hiding behind a boulder. "The Commander is under attack! All packs come here immediately!" a Brute Captain barked over the radio.
Next to him a Brute sniper peeked around the boulder and fired a shot into the distance. "I have killed one of their gunners!" he proudly announced. Several purple plasma bolts hit him from the side, burning into his flesh. He howled in pain and dropped dead. The three remaining Brutes turned to face his killer.
Usze Taham emptied his concussion rifle's power cell at them. The red plasma bolts slammed into them and exploded, severely draining all their shields but killing none of them. He quickly reloaded a new power cell into the weapon while Ntho Sraom finished off the Brute captain's remaining shields with his plasma repeater.
"It was the Elites all along!" Tyrannus yelled in surprise. He opened fire on them with his heavy plasma cannon. The Brute captain helped him out with his brute shot. The two Elites ran for cover as their shields took heavy damage. Three needle rounds came out of nowhere and hit the unshielded Brute captain in the chest and he was torn apart by a pink explosion. Tyrannus and Hadeadus then saw their third enemy. It was not an Elite.
The red armored, white haired Brute who was their high value target pointed his finger at her with rage and roared, "The pack will feast on you!"
"Die demon!" Tyrannus growled as he sprayed her with superheated plasma. Jaimie took cover behind a tree and pulled out her second weapon, a plasma pistol, and began charging it. The intense heat from the plasma cannon began burning though the trunk of the tree. When it was weakened enough, the tree slowly toppled over and fell almost right on top of her. She quickly jumped to the side and it crashed right next to her. She then fired the overcharged bolt at the Chieftain overloading his shields, and followed up with three shots from the needle rifle. Hadeadus watched with fury as his friend was blown apart and raised his gravity hammer above his head and roared loudly. His shields began glowing very brightly.
Usze's and Ntho's shields had just finished recharging and they came out of cover and stared in awe at the glowing Brute. Hadeadus charged straight towards Jaimie who threw a plasma grenade at him. It hit him in the shoulder and stuck to him but the Brute just laughed as the grenade exploded without doing any harm to him. Ntho Sraom sprayed him with his plasma repeater while Jaimie emptied the rest of her magazine into him. It didn't do anything except get the Brute to notice Ntho. The Brute decided to go for the Elite first because he was closer. Ntho kept firing his plasma repeater at him until the rate of fire was starting to slow down from the excess heat. He dropped the weapon, pulled out his energy sword and activated it.
"No, it will not work!" Usze tried to warn him. But the young, overeager Elite ran forward with the sword trying to stab the Brute through the chest.
"Go ahead and try it," Hadeadus dared. He didn't try to block or evade but just stood there with his chest out as Ntho lunged at him. He laughed when the sword was unable to penetrate his brightly glowing shields. Ntho did not give up. He tried to stab him again and again but the Brute swung his gravity hammer and smashed him with it. The air around them became distorted from the energy pulse. In an instant, the young Elite's shields were overloaded and his broken body went flying through the air and landed several meters away.
Hadeadus looked around him for Jaimie. "Come out, demon. It is your turn," he growled. Jaimie popped out from behind a tree and fired an overcharged bolt of plasma which hit him right in the chest. However, it still failed to damage his strange glowing shields. "Do you fools not learn?" the Brute asked then sprinted straight towards her.
"You cannot defeat his shields that way! Run!" Usze's voice said to her over the COM link. The Elite himself was nowhere to be seen, probably active camouflaged himself.
Jaimie turned around and sprinted as fast as she could but Brutes were by no means slow. They might not have been as agile as Elites but in a straight line they could run pretty damn fast, especially when they were pissed off like this one was. Jaimie kept running until she suddenly tripped over a root and fell. She heard the Brute's heavy footsteps coming closer and closer. There was no time to get back up so she rolled onto her back and began firing her needle rifle up at him. The Brute stood there and waited for her to empty her whole magazine. The needle rounds shattered harmlessly against his seemingly invincible shield.
"Foolish, demon. You are no match for me!" He raised his hammer above his head and was just about to bring it down when his shields finally, for whatever reason, stopped glowing. A split second later the tip of an energy sword tore out of his chest. Both Hadeadus and Jaimie stared at it in shock.
"You should have killed her while your Invincibility was protecting you instead of wasting time showing off," Usze growled at him. He then pulled his sword out of the mortally wounded Brute's body. "You were a great warrior, Hadeadus, and you have earned the respect of my people. There is no shame in dying with honor."
The Brute Army Commander realized his fatal mistake. "You may have killed me, Elite. But I am not ready to drop dead this second. I shall take you down with me!" He swung around with his hammer and tried to hit Usze who jumped back. He lunged forward and hit the ground. Once again, the energy pulse caused the air to distort, and even though he didn't directly hit the Elite, the pulse overloaded Usze's shields and knocked him off his feet.
Jaimie surprised the Brute by jumping on his back and stabbed him in the neck with knife. Blood gushed out of his wound but the Brute ignored it. He reached around behind him, grabbed her leg and pulled her off him. He held her upside down for a second and watched her squirm, then tossed her straight up in the air. He pulled his hammer back ready to swat her all the way across the camp as she came back down. Before he could swing though Usze tackled him onto the ground. He stabbed the Brute multiple times with the energy sword. He then beheaded him.
"It is done," he said quietly. "The target has been neutralized."
"Wow, that was one incredibly tough Brute," Jaimie remarked.
"I actually feel regret for killing such an great warrior," Usze confessed.
"You do?" Jaimie asked incredulously. "I'm glad he's dead."
"Leader, we cannot hold these Brutes off forever," Sel's voice came over the COM link. "There are far too many of them. Padalo and Blacow have been killed and Zamamo has been wounded."
"We have lost Ntho as well," Usze said sadly. "But we are victorious. Fall back to the extraction point. I shall contact the ship mistress."
He then contacted Gyur'R'Dat. "Ship mistress, the mission was a success. We shall meet you at the extraction point. Remember, the only way you get paid is if you bring us back alive. So hurry."
"Whatever, I'll be there," the female Jackal squawked in an annoyed tone. "And don't be late or I'm leaving you behind. No amount of payment is worth my life, understand?"
The Elite shut off the COM and turned to Jaimie. "These Jackals have no honor," he snarled with disgust. "This is why we Elites cannot stand them. They have happily betrayed their former employers for a new ship. You can never truly trust someone like that."
"We should get out of here," Jaimie said picking up her needle rifle and loading a new magazine into it. "After all that noise we made Brutes are gonna be all over these woods looking for us."
"You did well this mission," Usze said. "The Supreme Commander will be pleased. And you are now one step closer to getting home."
Yeah I exaggerated the effect of invincibility. It only lasts like what 15 seconds in the game? But I thought he would make a better boss if it was longer. Also the Brutes in this are like the Brutes in Halo Reach meaning some of them have rechargeable shields like Elites and not that weak ass Halo 3 armor that falls off completely. Some weapons from Reach, like the concussion rifle are still used by my Elites although the Brutes use brute shots.