Chapter 3

I observed the symbol more closely. It was reminiscent to a bulls-eye,with pieces of the outer circle cut out a 3, 6, and 9 'o'clock positions from a human clock. I had never seen it before, nor did I want a tattoo at all. It just bugged me that something would appear out of nowhere.

Even more suspicious was that it appeared after that snip-it of a 'dream'. Was it a coincidence? Had it been something else that drove the fact that there is now a marking on my back?

Rsruss had told me that I should probably meet her and her brother out in the mess hall, our only source of food on this ship. She left right after she had put her armor on, while I went back to the Barracks, sitting on my bed and looking at my datapad.

The picture of my parents glowed from the electronic device in my hand. They had been the two people who cared for me after that found me in that place.

I never knew the name of it, and nobody probably ever will.

My mom, Resa, held me in her arms, while my father and trainer, Hora 'Nomad, were both holding my toddler aged body in both of their arms. The both nuzzled each other in the shot, and my face looked up at them smiling. All three of us wore robes that were sewn to resist the smoldering environment. In the background was something like a boardwalk, and the ocean beside it stretched out to the horizon, where it met the sun as it set, releasing a golden glow over the backs of my parents and I.

I hold the image in front of my face a few seconds longer.

Then, I heard Riondi's voice above me. "You know, the more you look at that, the more you will want to go back home."

"You're the only one who knows I want to go back home. Where the fight will never be, in a place where fight has never been in a decade."

"The place still has war and discrimination over honor. It wouldn't be right if you expected it to be a place 'without fighting'."

"You know what I mean." I put the datapad back underneath the pillow. I looked at Riondi. "I met your sister last night." Well, it was actually this morning, but I don't want a lot of people knowing I have this one dream. My mind had been automatically set for keeping it a secret.

"Huh. Well, I was going to eat with her in the mess hall. I guess you can sit with us."

"She's already promised that to me."

"Then this is a special case..." He jumped out of his bed, then prepared his stuff for his trip to the showers.

Most of the Sangheili were just now getting up, yawning and stretching while other went to the locker rooms.

After everyone left, at sat alone on my bed for a bit.

Riondi's words drifted in my head. Then this is a special case.

Had he been suggesting something like...a date? In the morning?

Meh, I'll just put that on my 'forget' list. I got up and headed to the mess hall to get me some grub.

I put the piece of fried egg into between my mandibles, and let the tastiness course over my flavor glands. Who could live without a tongue?

Rsruss sat across from me, playing with her food or taking a bite of the eggs every whole minute. Riondi just stuffed it all down and headed for the control room where most of his duty had been achieved.

The food the humans had delivered to us were a lot better than what we were given as rations throughout the early Covenant. After the humans settled back onto their restored home worlds, they started to find they had more than they needed.

Especially on Harvest, they had found that after all the agriculture had been burned, what was left behind was fertile soil. Reach was being reseeded, and earth itself was restoring it's monuments.

I put my focus back Rsruss, and was hoping to spark some sort of conversation. "So, what do you know about your brother?"

"I can tell you the most embarrassing thing he did." Rsruss looked up from her breakfast, leaving her fork remaining in what the humans call 'hash browns'. "One time, he had a crush on this new type of rifle, the Beam Assault Rifle. It was new and effective, yet it wasn't very popular in the Covenant. So to spread it's fame, he danced in front of a crowd of people singing about the rifle. A guy through a fruit at him, where he slipped and fell.

His robe got caught on a hook, and it fell off, revealing his Spongebob underwear." She smiled, revealing what she believed to be a humorous story. I snickered thinking about how Riondi would look in name brand iconic underclothes, except the outcome was slightly disturbing. "Our father had to punish him by making him stand in the front yard wearing nothing but the same pair of underwear for four day, only coming in to eat and sleep."

"Sounds pretty harsh." I said. I imagined what it would have been like to be me out there, in a dress like that.

"Actually, compared to other punishments, it isn't." Her eyes drooped back down to her plate. "After genocide can even occur for the simplest and smallest things. Death of family, wars on other states."

Her voice lowered. "What we did to the humans."

"For a race of Warriors, it's still hard to go on without making an example. But, yeah, it's pretty harsh."

Rsruss looked at me. "I have to go meet my new group, they should be waiting for me in the hangar." She stood up. "So long." She walked over to throw away her trash, and she stepped out the automatic door. I thought I saw her look at me for a quick second before disappearing out the doors.

I took my last bite of egg, then threw away the scraps from my plate. I set the plate down where they had to be washed.

I wanted to go somewhere quiet where I could think.

I saw the flickering red orb, symbol flashing over and over, the world burning, and everyone I knew dead.

The eerie voice came. "Welcome Ki. I see we have a meeting before the next Bustle of business arrives." The language it spoke was of-course, mine, Sangheilian. Yet the voice of croaky and human sounding, and parts of words were stressed the wrong way, like whatever it was, it was uncomfortable with this level of speech.

"You will change the lives of those around you. Your actions will determine the fate of the universe you live in. You are, as some might say, 'special', and your talents will serve you in great deed." it stopped, taking what seemed like a long breath. "It seems that your time is near, but I'm not at liberty to say what it is."

"Sorry for the quick..leaving, but I have business elsewhere in more universes." There was a hint of smile in his voice. "Now, let the chaos...begin."

The voice was gone, and the world around me was dark. The red orb had disappeared, and my symbol stopped flickering.

The world returned, except it was angular, silver, and covered in glyphs.

I looked down once again at my Jirilhanae hands, which held a Spiker loaded full of ammunition.

I had just went through a door, along with my pack mates, that led into a large circular room, with a beam of light going down the middle onto a computer terminal. We'd traveled upon miles to reach this one thing, and here it was, right in front of us.

One of my fellow brutes looked at the terminal. "Are you sure that's what we are looking for?"

"It is the control to release our ancient guardians, where they have kept their artifacts held so that it was reserved for the right time. Now is the time." The Chieftain said, and he approached the terminal.

"I have a terrible feeling about this." Said one of the brutes. "I can smell it from other peoples' skins."

"Chieftain, why must we do this now?" Another brute asked.

"The Great Journey will have been void without the Artifacts." The Chieftain said. He stepped up to the panel, and pressed a sequence of buttons. "Now, of they will keep trying to stop us, where we have failed, they will have to resort to different matters once we have the Artifacts."

"Now, shall the path to the Great journey continue, and let the light of our lords shine upon all worlds, destroying all nonbelievers!" He pressed the final button, and the room went silent.

Nothing happened. The Brute's face turned to raging disappointment. He slammed down on the keyboard, where it broke through and shattered.

Then a voice came over us in a language we never knew.

A noise sounded to our right, at the edge of the room. It sounded like a whir, then an electrical beep. We turned to it, but we saw nothing. Something was in the shadows.

Then, something jumped out of the darkness, and latched onto on of the brutes. It shot lasers through him, and the smell of cooked flesh quickly drifted off the body.

Next, more appeared, and we were swarmed in small, spider-like things that shot lasers through each of us.

Then, something large and metallic rammed the chieftain, and the Chieftain was shot.

Something jumped at me, and latched over my face. I couldn't see or breath, nor scream when it started drilling into my face.

I slammed into the floor, and felt pain along my side. Everyone jumped up when they heard me thud.

The covers were tangled around my body, and a sticky layer of sweat drenched my form.

I stills saw the images in my head. Whatever the things were, something was going to happen.