Success

By Kool Killer

The Unyielding Triumph, Covenant cruiser 8/6/2540 5:31pm

Calla and Thel walked into the large lush dining hall of the Unyielding Triumph. Long tables filled with enticing meats lined the dining hall. There were many hungry sangheili chowing down and savoring the gigantic feast that was before them. Thel and Calla walked down the dining hall looking for their friends. Soon they spotted them. Rtas was sitting with Shelly, talking about the training they had engaged in hours before. Rtas looked up at Thel and Calla and waved them over.

"Ah Thel and Calla, I'm glad you both could make it," Rtas said as he scooted over so Thel could sit next to him. Calla sat on the other side of the table with Shelly.

"We would have come sooner, but we were, occupied," Thel parted his mandibles in a sly smile. Calla blushed a little and glanced over at Thel. Thel sneered playfully back at Calla.

"Indeed," Rtas smiled, and then he returned to eating his meal. The four sangheili began to exchange small talk, completely oblivious to the lone marine fourteen feet above them inside the ventilation exchange.

Richard Adams carefully crept through the ventilation system, looking for his friends that had been captured and brought aboard the covie ship. He had managed to sneak throughout the ship and avoid detection for a while, but he had a close call. Adams had almost been detained by the elites, but he managed to pull a fast one. He shot the elite that had grabbed him, not fatally though. Adams was glad he didn't get captured on the count of all the screams he had been hearing. Horrible screams and roars too, something very wrong was happing on the ship, and Richard had no intentions of joining those who were being tortured.

"This is so fucked, Jack, Velvet, where the hell are you?" Richard spoke quietly as he looked through different vent covers. As Richard crawled through the ventaltion shaft he paid special attention to vent covers that could give way. He didn't want to end up like the pilot that had screwed up and got caught. Richard was much luckier than Blake Cardney though. There was no way Blake would have made it out of that mess hall, not with all those damn elites. It was weird though; there were elites in the normal blue body suits and ones with orange body suits. Maybe the ones in orange were trainees? All the elites in orange looked like they had never seen a human before; did they not get the fucking memo? They are supposed to hate humans but these rookie elites looked more confused by Blake than hateful. And that one elite that had caught Richard a while later, Thel, had offered Cardney breakfast. Why would he do that when he's just going to kill him anyway? Richard had remembered the smug look Thel had on his face, his mandibles coiled into a diabolical smile. Then Richard remembered what Thel had told him, how he would make an excellent host. It was obvious what he meant by that. Holy shit, Richard thought, the elites are trying to make a chemical weapon that is toxic to humans, that's why they captured the SilverSides crew instead of killing them. As if glassing wasn't bad enough, now they're going to use CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON US! What the fuck is wrong with these tipsy elites!?

Richard shook his head in disgust. There's no way he would let anything like that happen. Now Richard had two objectives, find his friends and destroy the covie ship. The thought of the elites using the chemical weapon on his battle buddies made him sick. He could visualize Jack and Velvet gaging and throwing up blood while they desperately fought to stay alive. Fuck NO! Richard really started to pick up the pace checking on each vent he passed by.

One thing that worked to Richard's advantage right now was almost all of the elites were eating dinner, so he would have a little bit more leeway to move around the ship undetected. Richard continued moving through the vents until he came to a monitoring room. Richard looked side to side and did not see anyone. Richard pulled his combat knife from his sheath and carefully opened the vent cover. He pulled the vent cover inwards and placed it off to the side. Richard then slowly moved his head forward and looked around the room. Seeing that the coast was clear, he quietly lowered himself into the room. The room Richard was in must have been one of the many security offices aboard the ship. Richard walked up to one of the stationary monitors and tried to operate it. Richard tried to remember what Jack had told him about the covenant equipment. Jack had specialized in wiretapping enemy coms and other odds and ends. Jack had shown Richard many neat tricks when dealing with the oppositions monitors. Richard finally got it right and managed to hack into the security feed.

Richard immediately felt distress. There had to be at least close to five hundred elites aboard this ship. There were more elites in the orange body suits than the blue ones. This must have been a training ship. So it was a good thing that there were many unexperienced elites aboard. That would work to Richards's advantage. Richard continued to flip through the different channels until he got to the one for the holding cells. The only problem was the cells were all empty. Richard shook his head and continued to browse the different video feeds. The elites must have moved all the human crew members to a different area. Richard looked and looked, but he found no trace of humanity aboard the ship. Then, with much dread, Richard came to the disposal room camera monitor. What Richard saw made him sick. There were piles of human uniforms, boots, helmets, personal effects and weapons. It was like something straight out of the holocaust. All the clothes had, what looked like red and purple blood on them. What the fuck was going on? There was no way the elites could have offed everyone all ready, where were the bodies!?

Richard then remembered where he had seen human blood. Richard changed the channel to the hangar bay that had been converted into a make shift medical bay. Richard saw many elites in blue body suits removing medical equipment. Others were tearing down white curtains and removing beds. Shortly after, cleaning grunts came into the bay and began mopping up what little blood was left on the ground. Richard then went into the recorded data and typed in eight, four, twenty five forty, one day after the Silversides had been seized. Richard pressed play and watched the recording. There were many elites in the medical bay, about one hundred. They were all standing at attention while one elite gave a speech. Richard looked closely at the elite speaking, it was Thel. The sound was not working so he could not hear what Thel was saying. Not that Richard would be able to understand Thel anyway, he didn't speak elite. Richard pressed fast forward and sped the video up, until the elites cleared out and started to bring humans into the medical bay. Richard hit play and watched closely. The elites strapped the crew of the Silversides down onto beds with plasma restraints. Then the elites started injecting syringes into the helpless crew members. At first nothing happened, and then something terrible began.

Richard cringed as the video continued. The humans began to change. Their arms grew longer and started to bulk up. Their legs reformed into legs of a quadruped. Their necks starched out and became much thicker. And finally their faces changed as their bodies packed on muscle. Richard stood frozen unable to breath or form a cognitive thought. Until what he had just watched finally settled in. Everyone aboard the SilverSides, Jack, Velvet and all the others, they had all been turned into ELITES!

Richard held his head and stepped back. What was he going to do now. If he blew the ship up he would be killing his friends. Richard just couldn't do that. Richard spoke out shallowly.

"How could they do that, what's happing here?" Richard coughed and sighed heavily. There was only on last thing to do. He had to warn everyone back home on what was going to happen. Richard pulled the hard drive that contained the video logs and slipped it into his chest pocket. Unfortunately for Richard, he would never be making it off the ship with the hard drive on his own will. While Richard had been reviewing the information on the monitor the covenant AI aboard the ship had been logging his access attempts. The hairs on Richards's neck stood up straight when he heard a deep menacing voice breathed across the back of his neck.

"A curious little human, aren't we," Before Richard could turn around he was grabbed by large powerful clawed hands. The attacker pulled Richard into his chest and held him tightly. Richard looked up at his assailant. Before him was the biggest elite he had ever seen. This elite must have been nine feet tall. The elite was ridiculously muscular and had black skin with bright green eyes. Richard could not yell or do anything as the elite continued to constrict him, the way a boa would do when suffocating its prey. "So tell me human, do you like what you see?" The elite asked in a smug tone while he nodded to the monitor. Richard could not respond, he could only glare at the huge elite as he began to lose consciousness. The last thing Richard heard before darkness enveloped him was the elite's wicked laugh.

Shipmaster Sael Yersen'ee chuckled while he held his new prize. The little trouble making human was now his. Sael smiled and eyed the human up. He then brought his mandibles down to the humans' left ear and spoke.

"what am I to do with you?" Sael threw Richard over his shoulder and left the security room and headed for a detention cell. Along the way other sangheili acknowledged that he had caught the trouble maker. Sael smiled back at is sangheilian brothers. In no time at all Seal had reached the detention wing. Seal picked one of the nicer cells to put Richard in. Sael laid Richard down on the cot and searched him. Sael found a pistol, grenades, plasma sword and a plasma pistol. Seal held the plasma sword up and inspected it. Since the plasma sword was a symbol of status among sangheili high up in the ranks, there was no way the human could have taken it from the armory. Sael eyed the hilt closer and smiled. Thel's family symbol was engraved on the side of the plasma sword. Sael opened a compartment on his armor and slid the sword in, he would have to give the blade back to Thel the next time he saw him. Sael chuckled and continued to search the little human. Sael found a few more things; a small light brown bar that said chocolate, the hard drive from one of the security stations, and something else. The last thing Sael pulled out from the human's chest pocket made his hearts heavy with guilt. Sael was looking at a picture. In the picture was the human he had just caught and two of his friends. They had their arms slung over each other's shoulders and they looked intoxicated. They were laughing in the picture, they were…happy. Sael glanced down at Richard and looked back at the picture. Sael eyed the two friends that were with Richard in the picture. Sael had overseen the transformations of the humans and he had indeed witnessed the assimilation of Richards's friends. Sael sighed and slipped the photo back into Richards's pocket. Sael left the detention cell and activated the plasma barrier.

Sael turned around and stared at his captive for a while. The human had struggled so hard to escape. He probably knew what would happen if he got caught. But now the human was completely at Sael's mercy. However, Sael just didn't feel the excitement of being able to turn the human. If anything Sael now felt apathetic and sad. Sael shouldn't feel this way, should he? Richard was just a human, a heretic that spat in the very face of the gods. That's what the prophets had said. But Sael knew that the covenant were the true aggressors. The humans wanted peace, they never wanted a war. Sael always thought the humans would make excellent allies. The prophets however, had different feelings. Without any due cause, the prophets ordered the extermination of their species, using charges of heresy and blasphemy. But how could they be considered heretics if they never got a chance to learn about the great journey? They would have been ecstatic; they willingly would have joined the covenant if we had told them of the holy plan. Certainly we would be much closer to finding the sacred path to paradise if the prophets had not tied us up in a pointless war!

Sael snarled and walked away. Sael left the detention cells and set off to find Thel and Rtas. They had much to discuss. Perhaps turning the human would not be the best course of action. Sael had another idea, something even better.

Authors note: It's been a long time hasn't it. Sorry if this chapter is short. I haven't been able to figure out how the story should proceed. But I think I've got that all sorted out now.

Remember, the most important thing you, the readers can do to keep me motivated is, leave reviews. That is the main thing that keeps me writing. I want to know that people like what I am giving them. In short, the more reviews I get, the more chapters you'll get, and that way we all win.