Charum Hakkor - Human Storage Chamber
Tamzi awaited his fate as the Warrior Servants stripped him of his combat skin and made him lie on a hovering medical stretcher.
"Damn you to hell General for surrendering, I should've died with honor on the battlefield resisting these invaders!" Thought Tamzi angrily as he laid on the stretcher. He knows the Forerunners will probably enslave, execute, or use him as a lab rat but he has done his part for Humanity and he is not ready to die with a whimper.
Suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he spots Warrior Servants rushing out of the room as if they were responding to an outside threat. Tamzi then with his augmented senses hear in broken Warrior Servant Digon, "-umans breached the system" and "-e're needed on the surface."
He looks incredulously at the other interred Humans around him in shock as they all sit up upon their respective stretchers as they tried to get more news. Suddenly the room shakes violently and dust rains down from the ceiling. Ideas raced inside of his head and despite being of a smaller build, he was still a Republic Super Soldier, Sergeant Major, a great orator, and leader, and with a grunt, he pulled himself out of the stretcher and rallied the humans.
"Brothers and Sisters" Shouted Tamzi as he walked to the center of the room and demanded the attention of every Human. They all turn to him and he continues, "Now is our final chance, like the Forerunners said, the Republic has pulled a miracle out of its ass and laid siege to this planet, and are we going to sit here and die? NO! We're going to give it all we've got!"
Men and Women nod their heads as the Sergeant Major spoke, and at the end, they all yelled, "Hoorah" and quickly followed Tamzi to the pile of discarded Human combat skins and weapons. Tamzi, unable to locate his combat skin amongst the hundreds, opted for that of a Colonel's.
As the combat skin wrapped around his body, the ancilla within demanded to know who he was. To which he replied with a half-smile, "A strong-willed Human." As the ancilla gathers her information from his visual receptors and surmises that this is a prisoner rebellion, she dutifully allows full access for Tamzi to the colonel's combat skin.
Tamzi then picks up a battered old Republic T9 Carve Hardlight LMG equipped with detachable 1,000 round batteries and with his weapon held above his head to signal the way, he leads his people to freedom.
He held his head high as he and his army of former prisoners ran up to the surface and a spectacular sight beheld his eyes.
Unknown models of human ships battle and raged against the might of the Forerunner Navy.
He was brought back to reality with Forerunner hardlight fire peppering the ground around him. Tamzi instantly takes cover and returns fire with the dakka dakka sound that his LMG made that struck fear into the Forerunners' hearts.
He spots two Forerunner Prometheans attempting to flank him and he obliges them by riddling their bodies with hardlight. The bolts of hardlight whittle down the Prometheans shields at 750 Particles per minute and eventually penetrate their combat skins much to his sick delight.
After the brief firefight, Tamzi then spots in the distance Forerunners attempting to repair a damaged War Sphinx along with Picket Ships. Now is his chance he thought and he motioned for one of his hastily formed fireteams to advance down the corridor leading to the next building as he takes the lone alleyway leading to the same destination, the War Sphinx. He then motions for the rest to stay behind and provide suppressive fire.
Tamzi regroups with the fireteam he had hastily named, Phoenix team. Quite like the mythical bird that rises from the flames, he was given a second chance and he will take it! A female on his fireteam named Gula then looks at him and asks, "What's the plan, Colonel Tamzi?"
Tamzi replies with a cool, "Who here is an engineer?" To which Gula replies, "I am, sir."
He then looks at her and Phoenix team intensely with glowing eyes through his helmet and says, "I will draw their fire while Pheonix team protects Gula as she repairs the War Sphinx, then we will commandeer it along with the Picket ships and assault the Forerunner FOB."
Gula and the rest of Pheonix team grin as their "Colonel" tell them of his audacious plan and at the end of which all replied, "Yes, sir."
Tamzi walks up to the Forerunners and lobs a pulse grenade at them much to their surprise at seeing him but not before he sprays the lot with his LMG.
The Prometheans take cover as hardlight ricochet all around them.
Suddenly, a large Promethean knocks Tamzi to the ground and starts pummeling him as the "Colonel" raises his arms to block the punches.
One of the hammer punches from the oversized Promethean manages to dent his helmet and he knows that if he doesn't do something, he will die.
He then desperately feels the ground around him with his left hand as his right kept the Promethean's face at bay. At last, his left hand found a particularly sharp piece of rebar and he plunges it into the Promethean's visor.
The Promethean rolls off of Tamzi and screams in agony as ichor drip down the punctured hole. Tamzi then hastily retrieves his LMG and fires off a few rounds into the injured Warrior Servant's head and watches as the smoking corpse falls to the ground.
He then takes cover and lobs another grenade at the remaining Warrior Servants, they look at him in surprise expecting their brethren to have finished him off but then they disintegrate as the pulse grenade takes its toll before they could recover from the shock.
"Repairs are almost done, I just need a few more minutes to subdue its ancilla!" Reported Gula telepathically as Tamzi searched the area for remaining Forerunners.
Suddenly he spots an orange dot on the ground near him and it takes Tamzi a moment to comprehend before he staggers back and his shields are completely broken by a Forerunner sniper!
Before the sniper line up another shot, Tamzi runs to cover and orders the rest of his fireteams to open fire on the building where the sniper was situated in.
Hardlight tracer fire light up the darkened day time sky as his squad provides suppressive fire. Tamzi then utilizes his barely functional anti-gravity jump jets and flies to the Forerunner sniper's level. As he touches down, another shot whizzes by inches away from him. Tamzi then moves from pillar to pillar as he corners the sniper. The Sniper can be heard speaking in raspy but understandable Terran Standard, "Give up Human, and maybe I will let you live!" At the last pillar, the Forerunner leaps at him with a hardlight blade and punctures Tamzi's abdomen!
Tamzi clutches his stomach in shock and pain and falls to his knees as the sniper prepares to execute him. He can see a brightness at the end of a tunnel but he summons all his willpower and said to himself "No!, I will not die like this." As he pushed through the agonizing pain and railed against the dying of the light, the vision of the tunnel is replaced with his reality. With a violent motion of his arm, the Promethean prepared to execute Tamzi but Tamzi was too fast! At the last second, he rolls out of the way and then sweeps the Promethean sniper's leg. The Promethean falls to the ground with a hard thud but before he could get up, Tamzi was already on top of him with a piece of rubble. The Promethean wriggled and tried to block the piece of rock that came crashing towards his helmet but it was in vain. For Tamzi was a madman now and primal anger fueled his rage as he bashed the Forerunner to a pulp.
He clutched his wound as his ancilla administered nano-regen bots but his combat skin remains damaged as the Forerunners had stripped the suit of its standard armor repair loadout when it was commandeered from its original owner.
Tamzi flies down to Phoenix team's location and they all look in surprise at their heavily wounded "Colonel." But Tamzi ignores the pain and stands up straight for the sake of his team even as hot flashes of agony rippled throughout his stomach.
"It is done, 'Colonel." Reports Gula as Tamzi then broadcasts, "Good, Pheonix team and the rest of the squad will each pilot a Picket Ship while I fly the War Sphinx."
Pheonix team all salute their "Colonel" and then hastily make their way to the nearest Picket Ship.
Tamzi climbs into the War Sphinx's cockpit and marvels at the spaciousness compared to Human Mechanized Harness cockpits.
He syncs his ancilla with the commandeered War Sphinx's main computer and activates it's anti-gravity engines with a whine."
As the squad flies in staggered formation towards the Forerunner's main FOB on the planet, Gula says, "Sir, I couldn't mask our Human life signs with that of Warrior Servants given the time we had so we will be expecting company."
Tamzi then replies with a cool, "Roger that, I wasn't expecting this to be easy anyways."
Suddenly, a squadron of War Sphinxes appears on Tamzi's sensors!
Just as Tamzi predicted, hardlight and anti-matter beams rain down on his impromptu 20 strong squad. One of the anti-matter beams manages to bisect a Picket Ship in half before lacerating his War Sphinx's shields!
Tamzi then increases his altitude to meet his enemies as the rest of his squad follows suit. Anti-matter beams emit from pairs of Picket Ships as they target the enemy War Sphinxes. With a blue explosion, Gula had managed to penetrate the reactor on one of the enemy's War Sphinxes and the debris rained down onto the planet above.
Tamzi then reaches altitude and he operated his torsion drivers sloppily as he has never even piloted a Mechanized Harness before let alone an enemy War Sphinx. But his erratic and confusing behavior managed to work in his favor! The enemy pilots can not predict Tamzi's next move much to their chagrin and Tamzi manages to rip apart a War Sphinx with his awkward piloting skills. He watches as the rest of the Picket Ships make short work of the enemy squadron for Tamzi knew, nothing is more dangerous than Humans backed into a corner, and his squad is those Humans.
"That was some expert piloting back there, Colonel, they never got a lock on you!" Exclaimed Gula as Tamzi winced at his healing wound before replying, "Same to yourself soldier, ETA is 30 seconds to Forerunner FOB,"
He pauses before continuing, "Our date with destiny is almost about to start, I hope everyone is ready." To which "Hoorah" and "Loyalty till Death, Strength in Unity" can be heard on the telepathic comms as the impromptu squad walked right into the lion's den.
Suddenly anti-matter beams, Hardlight tracer fire, and anti-matter torpedoes saturate the clouds with explosions and bright lights as Tamzi's squad descended upon the Forerunner FOB. The Forward Operating Base was constructed decades ago when the Forerunners first breeched Charum Hakkor's planetary defenses thanks to the San Shyuum's treachery and made landfall. And now Tamzi seeks its destruction!
As Tamzi loaded his Torsion drivers to the maximum amount of charge they can hold, he can feel the excitement in his heart. But suddenly with an eardrum rupturing bang, a bolt of hardlight and anti-matter shatters the bottom half of war sphinx and he plummets to the ground!
Alarms wail inside the cockpit as Tamzi then tries to engage the ejector seat. But to his surprise, the ejector seat was too damaged in the blast to function so as a last resort Tamzi braced for the eventual impact.
With a hard jolt, the heavily damaged War Sphinx crashes into the heart of the FOB and kicks up a dust cloud that blankets a portion of the base. Uttering groans and grunts, Tamzi crawls out of the War Sphinx only to be faced with rifles pointed at him by a group of Prometheans.
They ordered Tamzi to surrender in broken Terran Standard and Tamzi raises his hands and steps out of the War Sphinx but suddenly when he got within range of the lead Promethean, he deftly threw a mean left hook which knocked the Warrior Servant down unconscious. Luckily before the remaining Prometheans could attack, one of Tamzi's squadmates fired his entire payload around him. The resulting distraction let Tamzi run and find cover.
He looked to the sky above him, the unknown Human warships have begun to liberate the Northern part of the continent but much to his despair, he sees his squad being shot out of the sky like birds of game. "Damn it, I still have to locate the manual detonator!" Thought Tamzi as he made his way back to the War Sphinx.
To his left and right, countless Warrior Servants rush his location as they tried to disable the still loaded Torsion drivers within the damaged War Sphinx.
Tamzi pulls out his final two weapons, a Forerunner hardlight dagger he had commandeered from the sniper and an energy pistol. Without any other choice, he charges the crowd. A charged bolt of plasma encased in hardlight blows out the chest of a Promethean before the rest turn to face him. But by then he had already charged up another bolt and blew off another Forerunner's legs.
The Warrior Servants with their signature cruelty eviscerate Tamzi's legs with hardlight and he falls to a one-legged kneel. But he shoots off another charged bolt which vibrates through the air before beheading another Warrior Servant. Summoning every ounce of strength and in his heavily injured body, Tamzi then stood back up and back elbowed a Forerunner that was approaching him from behind. He hobbles towards the wrecked War Sphinx's cockpit and finally retrieves the manual detonator. He then cuts open two more high-ranking Prometheans who tried to stop him before he is impaled by an hardlight sword. At which he disengages his helmet and laughs sadistically like a deranged person and says through labored breaths, "I've already won." To the Forerunners' horror at hearing it through their translators, they then turn to the loaded Torsion Drivers but it was too late, Tamzi had already activated them with his newly retrieved manual detonator moments before his death. The entire FOB then spectacularly flips on its axis like a chef flipping a pancake before falling to the planet.
Gula and the many remaining members of Tamzi's impromptu squad watched grimly from above as they witnessed their "Colonel" make his ultimate sacrifice. Many more cheered as they accomplished what was first thought to be a suicide mission.
Gula, now being the highest-ranking officer in the order of succession, orders them the rest of the squad to land on the now ruined FOB and search for and capture Forerunner survivors.
Gula ordered, "Pheonix team and the rest of the squad will land on the destroyed FOB and capture any Forerunner survivors."
As the remaining members of Phoenix team and Tamzi's impromptu squad land in their Picket Ships and spread out on foot through the wrecked FOB, loud groans and screams can be heard all around. With hearts saturated with anger and brains loaded with hatred, Pheonix team took no prisoners but instead killed everything nonhuman on sight much to Gula's chagrin.
Even at this insubordination, she does not feel any enmity towards her comrade's actions as the man who rallied them for a second chance died a gruesome death at the hand of the invaders.
A rather large Human by the name of Namtar approaches Gula while carrying a body. She already knew who it was as Namtar gently sets the "Colonel's" shattered body down onto the ground. The rest of the fireteams having finished dispatching the Forerunners began to gather around the Tamzi's lifeless body.
As the unmistakable loud hum of Human Republic ships can be heard flying fly overhead having conquered the area, dropships pour out of their hangars to secure the now destroyed FOB.
From the North, Gula witnessed undoubtedly Human soldiers in unfamiliar combat skins make their way towards them flanked by Mechanized Harnesesses and IFVs.
The impromptu squad paid them no mind as they draped a Republic Flag that they had hastily made from a captured Forerunner fabricator over Tamzi's body and sang the Republic's anthem.
The unknown human soldiers clad in advanced combat skins then finally reached Pheonix Team and the rest of the other prisoner fireteams and take in the picture. They then noticed "Colonel" Tamzi's body in the middle of the crowd and they knew, this was the man responsible for destroying the base. The unknown soldiers then join the impromptu squad and Pheonix team as they sang the Republic anthem in unison. They don't even know the man but they have witnessed his actions. And even they pay their homage to the passed "Colonel" Tamzi and at the end of the anthem Gula gave a eulogy.
With a heavy heart, Gula said, "At the verge of our deaths, Colonel Tamzi rallied us and reinstalled in us a fighting spirit..." Gula pauses and looks around as every Human soldier including the ones clad in unknown combat skins hung their heads low in solemn respect and with disengaged helmets, she then continues, "He made the ultimate sacrifice as he led us to victory and ultimately destroyed the main Forerunner redoubt. He died as he lived, brazenly and courageously and most importantly a hero."
Anodyne Spirit - Cloaked on Charum Hakkor
The Librarian watched her holo screens in shock as the resurgent Humans retook their capital without much effort and when she had learned of the prisoner rebellions, her heart sank. But a question still lingered on her mind and she asked herself, "Why did these new Humans wait until we have captured their stronghold to act?" She thought for a long time and then wondered out loud, "Perhaps they are time travelers" She stopped to rid herself of the ludicrous idea but the idea still lingered and she further ruminated, "They did not want to disturb the time and space continuum..."