Nineteen days later

April 17th, 2552

Location: High Charity

Council hall entrance

High charity, the home world and headquarters of the Covenant. It was here the powerful alien coalition was formed many millennia ago and had grown strong ever since. Usually, it had been famous among the Covenant for It's vastness in size and the large chrome coloured pyramid-like structure in the middle of the city which was said to be a ship that their gods had once used and had been given to the prophets.

However, High Charity was well known for something else among the Covenant as well. If anyone in the Covenant had failed a great task, especially if it was set by the prophets, they were deemed a failure, or worse, a heretic and all of the Covenant knew very well what would happen to heretics, and today, outside the council hall entrance, the large groups of Covenant lined up along the sides of a silver pathway that led from the door to a dead end of the pathway that overlooked the city and several C shaped platforms that were connected to the sides of the tower and were descending down in full view of the end of the pathway were waiting for a heretic to be brought out.

Standing in the middle of the Covenant group, on the left side of the pathway near one of the pillars, was a silver Elite. It was Vadumee. He was filled with disbelief and shock, but he did not let it get to him, but still…it was…overpowering to think that this could happen to the Covenant, and that the heretic was one of their own shipmasters.

That shipmaster was someone Vadumee knew very well. It was Vadamee.

Vadamee had been given the task of finding the great creation of their gods and then, if he did find it, protect it, even with his own life. He had done the first part of that task by finding the great creation, which was an enormous ring called Halo, but a human ship called the Axiom had escaped from Reach when Vadamee's ships had attacked it when they believed they had found a lead to the great creation and one of those special human soldiers, a woman who the Humans called Eve, had destroyed the ring. When news reached the Covenant of this, it shook them to It's core and from deep within them, they desired a very deep taste for revenge. Vadamee had, of course, protested and tried to point out that he had been attacked by the Flood, or parasite as the Covenant called it, which was a fair point, but the prophets still regarded his task of protecting the Sacred Ring as more important than focusing his attention on the Flood and, for failing to stop the Human who had destroyed it, who they now called the Demon, he was going to be given the greatest punishment for the greatest heresy to the Covenant.

Vadumee groaned as he looked towards the door. In front of him were a group of four Grunts. Everyone was shouting and chanting, obviously impatient for Vadamee to come out and be punished. Vadumee was slightly worried for him though. Even though Vadamee had committed an act which even he was shocked by and even he saw as a great sin and great heretic act, he still saw Vadamee as his friend, but though his friendship with him was now only just for what he had failed to do.

He glanced at the door to the council tower again, waiting for Vadamee to emerge. The mood was getting more and more tense and exciting. Vadumee was tense, but not excited. He just wanted to get this over with. He knew very well what would happen to Vadamee. He had seen this happen only once before, but once was more than enough.

Then, as if a monster had been awakened, the Covenant on both sides of the pathway erupted into a chorus of cheers and claps as the doors to the council tower opened and a gold armoured Elite with three large Brutes, one of them being the largest of the two and had grey skin that looked thick like rhino skin with muscles that looked as though they could crush steel as easily as crushing paper and a large weapon strapped to his back called the Fist of Rukt, emerged from the tower and walked down the pathway. The grey skinned Brute was called Tartarus. He was the chieftain of the Brutes and very well trained and very loyal to the Covenant and the prophets. He and his Brutes really disliked the Elites, who had a similar attitude in return. In fact, the two races in the Covenant truly loathed each other and how the prophets managed to keep them together was a real mystery.

Tartarus and his Brutes led Vadumee, who was walking in front of the two Brutes and alongside Tartarus, down the silver pathway. All the Covenant soldiers along the sides of the pathway jeered and cheered as they watched a once great shipmaster be led off to be punished like cattle. Vadumee glared slightly at Tartarus as they approached. Tartarus saw his but ignored him and walked on, seemingly chuckling to himself.

Then, Vadumee felt heavy footfalls on the floor behind him and he looked lover his shoulder to see a Brute with a strap around his chest and going over his shoulders with a blue helmet on his head stop a few feet from him, watching Vadamee be taken off to the end of the pathway. Vadumee turned his head back to watch as well.

"Heretic! Heretic!" the four Grunts in front of Vadumee chanted as Vadamee and Tartarus passed them.

They stopped at the end of the pathway and two floating circular shaped cuffs hovered down and wrapped themselves around Vadamee's wrists and held them there in mid-air. Vadamee did not struggle. Vadumee heard a slight chuckle behind him, obviously from that brute, but he ignored him and looked on. He watched Tartarus mutter something to Vadamee, who replied in return but Vadumee could not hear him for all the chanting and shouting going on around him.

Then, another chorus of cheers erupted along the pathway as the cuffs suddenly lit up and fire shot down onto Vadamee's body. It was not a real fire, but a painful energy draining power that was to weaken the heretic for the next part of the punishment. Vadumee felt helpless in watching his friend be tortured like an animal, but there was nothing he could do. If he tried to stop Tartarus, the very same thing could happen to him, or worse: he could be killed and being killed protecting a heretic was a great source of shame to him and his own race, something which he would be infamously remembered for by all those in the Covenant.

After ten seconds, Vadumee mentally breathed a sigh of relief as the fire finally stopped and Tartarus turned to the Covenant that were lining the platforms in front of the end of the platform.

"This is the punishment the heretic deserves!" he shouted. "There can be no greater heresy! Let him be an example to all who would break out Covenant!"

The Covenant on the platforms and along the sides of the pathway erupted into a chorus of cheers again. Tartarus then barked a command and Vadumee watched as they tore off his now charred armour, removing his torso armour, arm and leg armour and then finally, as if it was a final great disgrace, tore off his helmet tossed it to the floor. Vadamee's shameful body was revealed. His thin skin and bones hung from the cuffs as they rose a few feet into the air and ,left him hanging from them like a dead animal ready to be butchered.

Another deep low laugh came from the Brute and Vadumee clenched his hands into fists and gritted his teeth together in anger. Oh, he really wanted to pound the face of that Brute in but he had to keep calm and not let this get to him. He took another deep breath and lowered his arms and watched as Tartarus, who was now wielding a long spire shaped device with a kind of circular end that was red hot, pointed the burning end towards Vadamee, muttered something and thrust it onto his chest.

Vadumee gritted his teeth together once again, though this time out of grief and closed his eyes. However, his friend's torture did not evade him there and a second later, a scream of pain emitted from Vadamee that rang in Vadumee's ears.

However, his grief was quickly replaced with anger as he heard the Brute laugh out loud, almost covering the cheers or the other Covenant. Vadumee felt anger overwhelm him like an overflowing cauldron. His fists shook madly and he desperately tried to resist attacking the Brute.

After a few seconds, Vadamee finally stopped screaming as Tartarus removed the burning end of the spire from his chest. Vadumee looked up and saw Vadamee's head look up once more at Tartarus once more before it fell down and moved no more.

Vadumee immediately turned and pushed through the Covenant towards the council hall entrance. He glared at the Brute as he passed him, but the Brute just smiled evilly at him as if he was trying to insult him with the fact that his friend had been tortured in front of everyone and watched as Vadumee entered the council hall tower and disappeared from sight as the doors closed behind him.

"What a fool!" the Brute muttered as he looked back at Vadamee's motionless body.