Chapter Seven
The Arbiter swam through a disassociated stream of consciousness, bits and pieces of memory, feeling, and feelings flying through him, around him, and over him. It was very confusing; no up or down, or anything for that matter.
He stayed like that right until he felt the bucket of water poured on his face.
He jerked, then his eyes opened as he realized he couldn't move a muscle. But he could feel, and he felt that his armor was still on him, that he lying on some sort of platform or table, and that his body ached in every place imaginable. Next step, open the eyes; he forced them too, as they didn't want to. Slowly, he saw a very bright light drop in intensity, then swing away. The pain in his mind slightly faded, and he saw.
In his previous life he had been a Shipmaster. As such, he knew every little detail, every unique facet about every Covenant ship that is in use now or has ever been used. And he was in the medical center of an Assault Carrier, he knew that for sure.
And he still couldn't move. He couldn't get even his muscles to twitch.
"Ah Arbiter," a high-pitched squeaky voice exclaimed to his left. Suddenly, he could move his neck; he turned, and saw an Unggoy dressing in short blue robes, waving its little claws at him in greeting. "Greetings."
"Why can I not move?" His voice rumbled like distant thunder.
"It's a new device we've come up with, with the help of our Engineer friends. It paralyzes you, but we can control what parts are paralyzed, what you can feel and not feel."
"Why am I here, and who are you?"
"I'm answering the questions here, Big Sangheili stupid man!" the creature waved a clawed fist at him. "I'm Freem jhour'in, and these are my People!" The Unggoy behind him squealed and threw their hands in the air, dancing around. Freem silenced them with a wave. "What I'm wondering is, why are you here?"
"You have proven a sufficient annoyance to the Prophets to have invoked me."
"We've heard the stories." Freem waved his hand casually. "But we Unggoy not afraid of you! Even the Big Bad Arbiter can't move now!"
Then, he could move. The Arbiter lunged off the table, then roared with pain as he smashed into an invisible barrier around him. Freem chuckled. "Oh yeah, a force field thingy, another little doohickey we've got. Face it Arbiter, for now you ours!"
"And for what? The second you drop this field, I'll proceed to wreak havoc on this ship, and kill you all, starting with you." His voice was filled with cold dire threat.
"Go ahead and try. Even you can't take on 25,000 of the People!"
"I'll take my chances." Freem moved to leave, and the Arbiter roared, "You should have killed me when you had the chance, you miserable vermin!"
The doors closed behind Freem, and the light flickered and went off.
Freem gathered his raiments, the few they were, and walked down the dimmed corridors of the ship. He walked to the bridge, deep in thought. Their victory had been immense, but the Covenant would inevitably strike back hard, and soon. The inclusion of the Arbiter into his plans really threw them for a loop. The Covenant was truly prepared to destroy them.
"Bridge."
"Yes, jhour'in?"
"Have our forces rendezvous at the nearest system from here. We're exposed."
"Yes holy one. Message has been sent."
"Good. Freem out."
Within a few minutes, he had made his way to the bridge. He called up a map of the sector. "Guider."
"Yes, jhour'in?"
"See this sector, its largely uninhabited. Any reason why?"
"We had not yet expanded to this area when the Big People caught up to us and enslaved us, jhour'in. Other than that, it is perfectly inhabitable territory. Many systems rich in methane that we could live on."
"Send expeditions there. We need to spread our bearings, and establish bases that the Covenant don't know about, and will never find. Alter our heading towards one of these systems."
"Yes jhour'in."
Several Hours of Declination later
The Uuk'Nar's Revenge swept in-system with sensors scanning, shields up, and weapons fully prepped. Freem jhour'in was on the Bridge supervising efforts to load the equipment they would need for his idea. So far they were several light-years from Unggoy territory, and many years from Covenant territory in particular.
In the medical bay, the Arbiter lay nursing his wounds. He had used the med-scanner built into his armor to determine the severity of his wounds, but either they had been patched up or they had been marginal, as he was close to his normal peak health. And they had taken his weapons, which left the Arbiter feeling almost naked. But, he thought, that does not make one any less of a warrior. He began examining the floor within his bubble, the table, and everything associated with the two. He discovered something glowing very faintly, on a spectrum that he would have seen or felt without his suit. Stupid vermin, he snarled. He grabbed the offending object, squeezed viciously, and a strength that could warp metal plating collapsed the device with a tinkle of broken glass. The Arbiter moved, and felt no field blocking his path. The Arbiter engaged his cloaking device and vanished.
In the duct-work above the med-bay, Hades grunted as he saw the Arbiter vanish. He had been preparing to rescue the Sangheili filth, but the scaly thing had proven more clever and observant than he had thought he would. He dropped into the med-bay, disengaged his cloak, and gathered what he would need to take care of his wounds. His fur was falling out in large clumps, his bones ached, and his flesh underneath his fur was seeping blood. He took several doses of anti-radiation medication, used several devices, and on top of it trimmed his charred, blood-soaked fur. He then crawled into the ductwork again, placing the grille back, leaving the room empty.
The officer stationed to guard the ship's armory sighed, then sucked some more on a portable food-nipple. Guard duty was boring. He never got to relieve his boredom, as a ripple broke his neck in one quick jerk, overrode the security codes to the armory's door, then dragged the body inside.
The Arbiter came out loaded for bear. Though these weapons were primarily meant for Unggoy, there was still a small selection of non-Unggoy weapons, just in case possibly. The Arbiter selected a plasma carbine that was beaten up but fully charged, two Brute spikers which clipped onto the magnetic holsters on his hips, and, in a corner almost unnoticed, a plasma sword. The Arbiter grinned, mandibles open in joy, as he grabbed the hilt, tested the sword on a plasma rifle which was sliced in half, then grabbed a belt of grenades. He took one grenade and, tinkering with the circuitry, put it on a delayed detonation. He placed it in the middle of the grenade rack, then fled the armory, intent on reaching the Bridge.
Unnoticed by the fleeing Arbiter, Hades smashed the door in, then grabbed a belt of grenades also. Grabbing a Brute spiker and a grenade launcher, Hades left the room, chuckling maniacally. He had seen the Arbiter's trap. He fled to the Hangar Bay, and waited. Around 20 minutes later he heard a tremendous explosion, and smiled. Invisible with his cloaking generator, he began commandeering a Phantom for immediate departure. He noticed how several items in the weapons readout had been modified, then raised his eyes. There were Grunts in the hangar bay, then a door opened, and the Arbiter appeared, clutching a panic-stricken Freem jhour'in.
The Brute leaned out from the open Phantom's doors, shot several Unggoy with his spiker, then roared, "Arbiter! Grab your scaly hide and get in!"
The Arbiter jumped in surprise. He could have sworn that Hades had died at the hatch on the station, but if he hadn't…so much the better, two is always better than one, even if it is a Brute. He dragged the squealing jhour'in onto the Phantom, who's doors closed just as hordes of Fuel Rod equipped grunts poured into the hangar bay to attack them.
Hades smiled, then hit the weapons selection that would normally be the mounted plasma cannon array. Instead beams of scathing-white energy lanced out, targeting each grunt simultaneously. The beam leapt from the first charred carcass, then turned on another, then another, all within less than one seconds. Within ten, all of the Grunts had died in the room, and severe damage to the bay was obvious also.
The Arbiter shouter, "GO!" Hades blasted the main field generators, and with a squeal of metal the field keeping the bay enclosed from space vanished.
The Phantom fled as explosions wracked the Uuk'Nar's Revenge, flame blossoming into the black as they fled further in-system. The Arbiter watched with amazement, then turned his attention on the Freem. He grabbed the chip in his neck, yanked, then grunted with pain as it ripped out, little claws having burrowed into his muscles. He took it and jammed it inside Freem's thorax, Freem screaming as the device latched through his bony coating, and into his soft organs. "That's a start, vermin. Stop squealing!" he roared as Freem fell in shock. "That isn't the last you've had of me."
He walked to the cockpit where Hades was evading weapons fire competently. The fleet that had accompanied the Uuk'Nar's Revenge, which now listed in space, was firing everything they had at them, but Hades was flying with unusually consummate skill. "Flown Phantoms before?" he asked, though it seemed obvious.
"A few times, then I transferred," Hades grunted.
"Ah." He sat next to him in the co-pilot's seat, but his skills weren't necessary here yet. They sat in silence for the next few minutes, the Arbiter calming his churning mind. Freem, aside from being something that the Arbiter would normally consider as excrement from his boots, for some reason really irritated him. In a few minutes, the Arbiter had calmed, and asked quietly, "So, how did you escape?"
Hades didn't answer, merely pointed with one hand quickly to the device on his belt harness.
"A cloaking generator! And one used by Elites, at that!" The Arbiter was truly astonished. Modern cloaking generators were hard to come by, and even the Arbiter's cloaking device was several thousand years old, and rather antiquated at this point. And, while very useful, risking his life any number of times as it always seemed to cut out just when he didn't need it to.
Speaking of which…a thought occurred to the Arbiter, a small, forbidden thought that would never have occurred to him, aside from these circumstances. "Hades, may I examine you cloak?" A grunt was Hades' only reply, and the Arbiter quickly grabbed the oval gem and switched it with the oval gem in his armor, peeling up a metal plate and switching quickly. He then gave his to Hades, putting it back like he had never switched in the first place.
The Arbiter went to the back, and, hidden from Freem's gaze, activated the newer cloak. He stared where his hand would be, and if anything the slight that was normally there was much less than before. He took his gauntleted hand and smashed it into the wall, but only pain in his hand registered, and the cloak stayed up, and it stayed up regardless of what he did to it.
The Arbiter smiled.
