The Halo Universe belongs to Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries. But these characters are my own creation and cannot be used without my permission. If you do use them without my permission, then Utarz will poison your food so that you die of internal bleeding. Enjoy the show.

The Sangheili 800 Squad

Chapter 9: Aftermath

February, 2550 (Human Calender)

0729 Hours

Forest Clearing

The 800 Squad stood solemnly in the middle of the clearing, with Atar in front of them.

Atar was currently struggling to find something to say to them.

Finally, he said, "Well… as you all know, last night was…"

"A failure?" Tracer suggested.

"A mess-up?" Utarz added.

"A conflict?" Repora said.

"All those things and more." Atar said. "It showed that all of us, except Miara, need much more training before we can even think of attacking those guys again."

"Question." Zen started. "Why is Miara exempt from this?"

"Because Miara suffered from a genuine weapon malfunction." Atar explained. "You lot failed to take out your opponents because… well…"

"We suck." Miara said bluntly.

"Well… that's one way of putting it." Atar agreed.

"I don't think that's the case." Zen said.

Everyone turned and looked at him.

"Well, I think we failed because we underestimated these guys." Zen said.

"Underestimated?!" Utarz exclaimed. "The Grunt had a fucking SAW! How the hell was I supposed to predict that?!"

"Well, from how you explained the situation, you should've just shot the Grunt and got it over with." Zen said.

Utarz started to say something, then stopped.

"Zen has a point." Tracer agreed. "We all assumed that this would be an easy job, even for us. We should've at least prepared for basic military actions from them."

"True…" Atar said. "Well, we won't make that mistake again! Everyone, let's state what those Heretics had on them and how we should prepare for that next time!"

"There's gonna be a 'next time'?" Utarz asked wearily.

"Yay!" Repora jumped in excitement. "I would love to kill them this time!"

POOF

"Tell them how you blew up their Phantom." Hell ordered. "Get some credit for once!"

"Now, now." Heaven said calmly. "There's no need to call attention to ourselves. Let's be modest."

"I blew up their Phantom!" Repora said happily.

Everyone turned to him.

"Goddammit Repora." Heaven muttered while Hell cackled.

"Oh, right!" Atar said, suddenly realising something. "That's where you went!"

"Great!" Miara said. "So they're dead now?"

"Oh, no." Repora said nicely. "I only put down enough C12 for one hole in it."

"So… how is that a victory?" Tracer asked.

"Well, they no longer have a vehicle." Repora pointed out. "I mean, they wouldn't want to waste time repairing it. And even if they did, where would they find the material?"

"And what if they do have the material?" Zen asked.

"Eh. It'd still take them about two hours."

"Excellent!" Atar exclaimed enthusiastically. "In that time, we can cut ahead of them!"

"In our piece of crap Phantom?" Miara questioned. "We'd get to their position just in time for them to repair their ship and take off."

"Hmm… good point." Atar agreed. "Then we'll just have to proceed on foot!"

"On foot?!" Utarz exclaimed.

"Are you seriously complaining about a walk?" Miara demanded.

"Well, the escape pod is a long way away…"

"And we can cover more distance in three minutes on foot than we can cover in one hour with the Phantom." Tracer pointed out. "Walking there will be much quicker."

"Not to mention that we'll be on even speeds with the Heretics." Zen added.

"Exactly!" Atar said. "We'll be there before we know it! Move out!"

"Uh, sir?" Tracer said.

"What now?"

"Don't you think we should get the supplies from our Phantom?" Tracer asked.

"I suppose…" Atar admitted, although he wanted to leave as soon as possible. "But take only what's necessary. Like the ammunition and medkit."

"Yes sir." Tracer agreed. "Should we take the Wraith as well?"

"I don't see why not. It'd be good to have a vehicle with weaponry."

"About that, actually." Utarz said. "Tracer, do you think that you could fix the guns on my Ghost?"

"They were sheared clean off." Tracer pointed out as he turned around to where their Phantom was. "I can't fix that. We'd have to completely replace the guns and we don't have the resources or time for that."

"Hold up, Tracer. I'll come with you." Miara piped up.

"No, you won't!" Utarz said heatedly.

Completely ignoring him, Miara walked up to Tracer. Tracer shrugged and said, "If you insist."

Then they walked off.

"Why is it that everyone just ignores me?" Utarz grumbled.

"Well, it'd probably have something to do with your attitude." Zen pointed out.

"What attitude?"

"Dishonourable behaviour, disrespect to superior officers," Atar listed. "Half-arsed way of doing jobs, drunken behaviour… That sort of stuff."

"So? People should just learn to deal with who I am." Utarz stated.

"Or, you could engage in more honourable behaviour." Zen said angrily. Whenever Utarz started to talk, Zen felt himself get aggravated.

"Yeah, uh, no thanks." Utarz snapped. "I don't do that sort of stuff."

"Why not?" Zen demanded.

Utarz didn't say anything. He didn't need to, however, because Repora suddenly spoke up for him.

"Because he's the kind of guy that likes to hold a grudge." Repora said pleasantly.

Atar and Zen looked at him.

"Right." Atar said. "So what does that mean?"

In a happy, optimistic tone, Repora replied, "None of your business."

After their ship crashed last night, Iro had decided that they would sleep for the night at the crash site.

As usual, Buzzsaw woke up early.

He grumbled a bit before fully waking up. Once he did, he got up and looked around.

No-one had bothered to take off their armour, as it was probably the only thing protecting them from the elements. However, this had the side effect of them being in freezing cold metal armour in the morning, which didn't really go well with Buzzsaw.

Tank had adopted a sleeping position where he was standing up, so you couldn't really tell whether he was sleeping or not. Iro had just slept on the ground.

Buzzsaw decided to wake up Iro first. After all, he had no intention of waking up Tank on his own. Tank had a habit of striking out if roused too quickly from his sleep.

Buzzsaw went over to Iro and began poking him repeatedly, saying over and over, "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

Iro groaned. "Whu… what now?"

"Wake up."

"Is it that time already?" Iro stood up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"It was that time about two hours ago." Buzzsaw replied. "You know when I wake up."

Iro sighed. "Damn. I'll wake up Tank. You see if anything can be salvaged from the wreckage."

"Yeah, yeah." Buzzsaw walked over to the Phantom.

It wasn't in too bad of a shape when you looked at the back of it. However, the front had a massive hole in it that took part of the engine with it. They had all agreed that it was some sort of engine malfunction.

Buzzsaw hopped into the Phantom and looked around for anything of use. The crash hadn't been too bad, but there was still significant damage to everything inside. Eventually, Buzzsaw managed to find a plasma pistol, a human pistol, a repair kit, a medkit and a radio set.

As Buzzsaw was gathering his stuff, he heard a sudden rush of wind, an impact sound, something fly through the air and then another impact sound.

"IRO!" Tank yelled.

"I'm fine." Iro said weakly. "My energy shield protected me."

Buzzsaw climbed out, all the things he found in his arms. "So what were you dreaming about this time, big guy? Your bro again?"

Tank growled threateningly.

Iro stood up. "So Buzzsaw, what did you find?"

Buzzsaw dumped his findings on the ground. "Just these."

Iro picked up the UNSC pistol and put it on his weapon holster on his leg. "It'll do."

Buzzsaw picked up the plasma pistol. "I don't understand why you like that thing. Why would you want to hold something made for five fingers?"

"It reminds me what I'm fighting for." Iro said simply.

Tank looked at the Phantom. "Do we tell Gears about crash landing?"

"Of course not." Iro replied. "He'd have a fit. You know what he's like with this stuff."

"Yeah." Buzzsaw agreed. "I don't wanna hear any lectures from Gears."

Tank grunted.

"Right." Iro went inside the Phantom. "Are the navigation systems still online?"

"I think so." Buzzsaw said.

A moment of silence while Iro investigated the wreckage.

"Here we go!" He came out, satisfied. "The artefact is due north. If we just head that way, then we'll eventually get to the artefact."

"Wait." Buzzsaw held up a hand. "Are saying that we just walk to the artefact?"

"Well, we can't fix the Phantom." Iro replied. "The damage is too great."

"Iro is right." Tank agreed. "Only way to get to artefact is to walk."

"But it's so far away…" Buzzsaw whined.

Iro sighed in annoyance. "Really? Look, we need to get to the artefact before the 800 Squad does, alright? The Phantom is down, so we have to walk. It's as simple as that."

"But…"

"We have to leave as soon as possible." Iro said coldly. "Start walking."

Buzzsaw looked up at Tank for support. He got none.

"Fine." Buzzsaw grumbled. "Let's just go."

Miara and Tracer reached the Phantom.

"I wonder if the Heretic's Phantom looks anything like ours now." Miara commented.

"Doubt it." Tracer replied.

"Okay, so I'll take the ammo and you'll take the medkit, how's that?" Miara asked.

"Sure."

As Miara climbed into the Phantom, she looked around the ship for the ammo. It was a collection of plasma batteries and needle clips really, plus some fuel rod gun and concussion rifle ammo.

Tracer, meanwhile, picked up the white packages with the red crosses on them. Tracer was really convinced that the same symbol was used for medkits universally.

"So…" Miara attempted as conversation. "How did your fight go?"

"I fired one shot at Iro, missed, then got knocked out in one punch." Tracer said bluntly.

"Ah…" Miara and Tracer stepped out of the Phantom. "Well, you still went better than I did."

"How so?" Tracer asked as he climbed into the Wraith.

"You fired a shot." Miara replied. "My flamethrower couldn't muster an ember."

Tracer sighed. "So you stuck with that thing, even though you knew it wouldn't work."

"Well, what else was I supposed to use?" Miara asked, annoyed.

"A plasma grenade, maybe." Tracer said, powering up the Wraith.

Miara blinked, then facepalmed. "Dammit. Can't believe I forgot about those things."

Unbeknownst to Miara, everyone had forgotten about the silver orbs that were connected to their legs.

"Me too." Tracer said. "Coming up?"

"Is there room for two?" Miara joked as she climbed onto the purple tank.

Tracer looked around the small confines of the driver's seat. "Uh… no… but the gun turret's available."

"Right." Miara climbed into it. "If only we had this thing when we attacked. Would've been a whole different story."

"Not really." Tracer countered. "It can't really shoot. I don't have enough electronite to power the main cannon and the gun turret needs a separate power core."

The Wraith started moving forward, ploughing through the trees.

"Do we have any spare cores?" Miara asked, dodging falling branches.

"Nope." Tracer replied. "Everything we have is powering the base."

"Great…" Miara ducked down to avoid another bunch of branches. "We really are lucky that the trees are so thin."

"Yeah."

They were silent for the rest of the trip, although they were both thinking about each other.

Miara really wanted to tell Tracer how she felt about him, but whenever she tried, she either lost her nerve or got interrupted by someone. On top of that, she didn't know whether Tracer felt the same way about her or whether he would return her feelings. She also didn't know much about Tracer's past aside from growing up, so she didn't know if he was an honourable choice.

Tracer had a similar problem. He knew how Miara felt about him and would have no problem telling her that he felt the same, but he didn't know if he did feel the same. And even if he did feel the same, he wasn't really sure how his family would react. They had reacted okay for when he said he was sent to the 800 Squad due to a minor technicality, but if he told him that he had found his love there… well, he just didn't know. On top of that, one of his siblings could do some research and figure out that Miara was related to Utarz.

Neither of them really knew what to do about it.

Eventually, they started hearing loud arguing, which signalled that they were nearing the others.

"…It's a human creation!" Zen's voice shouted. "You shouldn't even be thinking about it! The very fact that you drink the stuff-!"

"Well, who cares?!" Utarz argued back. "It's beer, alright?! I don't care what the label is, beer is beer!"

They entered the clearing by ploughing through a few more trees. Zen and Utarz were currently yelling at each other, Repora was sitting the ground humming to himself and Atar was clearly nearing the last of his patience.

"Where did you even get that stuff?!" Zen pointed to a discarded bottle on the ground that looked suspiciously human.

"From Repora, alright?!" Utarz shouted.

"Alright," Zen turned to Repora. "Where did you get it from?!"

"You know what?" Repora said pleasantly. "I really don't know."

"If you lot don't stop saying things," Atar muttered. "I will personally beat your skulls into dust."

Zen and Utarz stopped arguing, although they kept glaring at each other. The silence, however, allowed them to hear the Wraith's distinctive whirr. They turned and saw the giant clearing of trees that they had left in their wake.

"We're back, sir." Tracer called.

"Good!" Atar jumped up. "Men, let's move out!"

"You think you could've destroyed any more of those trees?" Zen asked drily.

"We'll be ploughing through a lot more on the way to the pod, don't you worry." Tracer replied.

Utarz walked up to the thing. "Hey, Miara! Get down here!"

Miara swivelled the gun to point at Utarz.

"Never mind." Utarz turned and walked off.

"Uh, Miara?" Tracer said once Utarz was out of earshot. "You know that thing can't shoot."

"Yeah," Miara said. "But he doesn't need to know that."

The Heretics walked on their way to the pod. They didn't know it, but they were quite ahead of the 800 Squad at this point.

"So…" Buzzsaw decided to address a major issue. "Once we get to the artefact, how are we going to get it out of here?"

"…I don't know." Iro admitted. "I'll have to think of something."

"Like what? We just drive the Truth down here?" The Phantom crash had really ticked Buzzsaw off. "I mean, what's gonna stop the 800 Squad from blowing it up when we're not looking?"

"Iro said he will think of something." Tank said angrily. "So he will think of something."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Are you saying you have no faith in Iro?" Tank demanded.

"I'm not saying that." Buzzsaw said quickly. "I'm just saying that it might just slip his mind, you know?"

"It won't." Iro said. "I've already begun thinking of something."

Buzzsaw blinked. "You have?"

"Yes…" Iro was indeed thinking of a way to succeed. "First, we need to figure out how to slow the 800 Squad down. Stop them from getting to the artefact."

"And how do we do that?" Buzzsaw asked.

"I haven't thought of that part yet." Iro admitted.

"Great plan. Really solid."

"Let's think." Iro said, ignoring Buzzsaw. "What could possibly make the 800 Squad pause on their journey?"

Buzzsaw thought about this. "Uh… loss of Phantom?"

Iro snorted. "I highly doubt that even they're stupid enough to keep using that broken-down piece of crap."

Buzzsaw thought a bit more. He knew that if he lost something dear to him, or important to him, then he would slow down. Maybe if he lost something he would try to find it… but the 800 Squad wouldn't have anything that they would be able to take from them… maybe their weaponry… but they kept that with them all the time…

Then the answer came to him.

"How about loss of teammate?"

Iro and Tank looked at him.

"What?" Buzzsaw asked, annoyed.

"I thought we agreed that we wouldn't kill any of them." Iro growled.

"That's not what I meant." Buzzsaw said. "I say that we kidnap one of them."

"Kidnapping?" Tank grunted.

Intrigued, Iro asked, "How will that slow them down?"

"Duh!" Buzzsaw exclaimed. "They'll try to find their teammate, right? They'll waste time trying to rescue him, which will give us more time to get to the artefact!"

"True…" Iro had to admit that Buzzsaw had a pretty solid plan. "But where will we hold him?"

"…Oh." Buzzsaw quickly started thinking. "Maybe we could find a Forerunner installation… and, um…"

"There are no Forerunner installations on this planet." Iro pointed out. "The Covenant doesn't want the 800 Squad to damage anything valuable, remember?"

"Uh…" Buzzsaw quickly thought up something else. "How about something like a canyon? Or a ravine? We could just shove him in there!"

"Is there a ravine nearby?" Iro asked.

Buzzsaw shrugged. "Dunno. I could go see."

Iro thought of Buzzsaw's plan. It made sense. The 800 Squad wouldn't leave one of their own people in a prison cell. It sounded like something that could work if they found a place to put the prisoner.

"Yes. Go see." Iro ordered. "Make sure that it's relatively nearby to our current location."

"Got it." Buzzsaw then pressed a button on his chest and disappeared.

Iro turned to Tank. "In the meantime, we should decide on a prisoner. That's to say, if Buzzsaw succeeds in his mission and finds a place for us to put him."

"Not him." Tank corrected. "Her."

Iro blinked. "The female? You're saying we should kidnap the female?"

Tank nodded.

"Have you got no sense of honour?" Iro snapped. "We can't kidnap a female!"

"She is only one with no working weapon." Tank said. "Wouldn't be as dangerous."

"It wouldn't be as dangerous to take the blue one." Iro argued. "He doesn't sound that competent."

"No-one like Utarz." Tank replied. "They would leave him to rot."

"…Seriously?"

Tank nodded.

"What about the purple one?"

"Is a doctor. You don't like doctors."

"…Erm… the white one?"

"Is insane. Too unpredictable."

"Zen?"

"Still hope for him. Kidnapping will remove hope."

"The red one?"

Tank growled. "No. Tank will not harm Atar."

"What is it with you and Atar?" Iro complained.

Tank said nothing.

Iro sighed. "Fine. We'll take the female."

Tank nodded. "Who will take her?"

"I will." Iro said. "But I will wait until the perfect opportunity before I do."

Author's Notes

I've got nothing to say here. :\

Thanks for watching.

Potato.