Helloooo

Aight, sorry, this ain't a chapter to advance the war, but it still is a piece for context on the story that I hope you enjoy.

And… Yup, first I'll address the reviews you left me :D

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Cooldude101011:

1st: There's the other post for that, I'll be updating it soon to include an in-depth explanation of vehicles! :D

2nd: Smart AIs are excellent for hacking, but sending PEM pulses and having a suite combined with weapons to interfere with enemy operations inland and in space is something only a modified ship can do; like the Spirit of Fire, an AI ain't an AWACS plane mate.

3th: Yeah, I meant to say that enough fire of 50mm could pierce enough that if used en-masse, it could be effective against enemy armor (Kinda) like on Reach and on novel depictions of human guns.

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AndyTheSharkGuy:

1st: UNSC makes use of HEAT on space, the 'Nuclear HEAT' ain't a new idea to halo either :D

2nd: Rotary cannons are indeed great, but there are different needs on a military, after all, ships like the Burkes still use autocannons in a role similar to the CIWS, aside from that, ship-borne weapons are rail/coilguns, so a Gatling style gun would be… Too problematic to design when you have something that already works.

And thank you for the reviews :D

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A different view:

Somewhere.

Unknown time.

It seemed like his times were going to run out, when he still only saw darkness.

His internal clock had stopped ticking after the first five cycles after they interrogated him last time, but his mind still told him it was probably what the humans called a month.

And although the rations he had been fed were… Acceptable, he felt weak due to the lack of movement, which gave terrain to the idea telling him that it was going to change soon, that soon he would get something special.

Sure enough that small thought came true, his instincts flared as the heat of light once again touched his skin, he was maybe outside, or in a place where the light of a real celestial body could pass through.

But that was impossible.

He always was interrogated in secluded spaces.

Even when an Admiral spoke with him; the room was a clear one, with only a table and some minimalistic seats to make company to the weird but clearly tasty human food.

And most times it was an 'Oney' agent punching him until he spoke military data.

What could they wish then? Or what was this new method of data extraction? He had already told him of what his fleetmaster controlled, about his views on different things, and what he knew of organization civil and military. He even explained what was an engineer for the gods sake.

For how long would they torture him, use his wishes to die soon or to get to his family on High charity; all to experiment on him?

Were the others captured that day not enough?

Did they fail to make the engineer reproduce?

But suddenly, the restraints that attached him to the cushioned metal slab where he was detained armorless and powerless apparently just dislodged themselves as the force restraining him was gone, immediately distracted him from any other kind of thought

And, sure enough, his 'ears' got notice of many footsteps. Was this the moment of his death? Was his death going to be on a sunny day, in contrast to the executions in High Charity? Bah, he accepted his death already, he wanted it, it was the the only thing between his eternal rest and him, other than the constant questioning of humans which he only answered as he was defeated, what honor he had as one of the thousand most important Sangheili alive, the right hand of Fleetmaster and Supreme Commander Candidate Jul'Mdamee and the swordmaster of the Vadum keep, sister to the Vadam keep; was lost, and thus the hand of the victor was his lead now, or so he thought to excuse the treason he committed by answering human questions.

But no ominous speech came to atone for his sins; instead, the footsteps went far away, and something akin to a door closed itself, leaving only one pair of feet to touch the ground, making noises that the 'imprisoned' Sangheili could hear getting closer. Maybe this was another round of questions… But he never was let without all restraints, and now he was practically free if not for the cloak around his eyes.

He wanted to see soon, and to try to escape, or to at least have an honorable death given his situation; but instead…

"Wakey wakey~."- An eerily calm and joyful and higher pitched than normal voice came to his notice, probably from the person that was now going to squeeze more answers from him.- "Hehe. I know you're awake and that you can understand us, you can't fool ME."

Rtas Vadumee acted immediately with martial fashion and decided that he wasn't going to risk his luck or try to not satisfy his newly-born intrigue so he took out the piece of cloth that covered his view of the situation and saw…

A woman.

A young human woman.

A young human woman that had a cheeky smile on her oddly soothing latte-skined face, one on top of a body clearly longer than most humans, with a black dress covering her up and a logo he had seen multiple times, the albino-black circle on the same-patterned triangle; but this time, the letters instead of two separate words; only showed one, which he did not understood, but for the warrior spoke leagues as it seemed like the style used for the hierarchs, minor and higher: Serin.

"Don't act too rashly, Vadumee, you have yet to gain your true liberty~."

After speaking, the woman pointed towards her back.

"You will gain this, and your life, if you're a good boy."

The Sangheili immediately forgot every sense of wanting to escape as he saw the room he was in, beautiful white like that on the Ultra's armors that he was promised to one day wear; tables made of a weird material, wood it seemed; a carpet surrounded by seats of weird designs, a bed, and even a kind of terminal near the aftermentioned bed; and more importantly, the sight of a window that showed something that he only had seen two times in his life, something that caused him to immediately get on his kneels and start trying to control his mind from destroying itself with the flood of thoughts that came.

"Maybe you have a tourist complex, dontcha?"

The woman laughed for some seconds while the warrior, the land-master of a fleet just stayed there.

It was the sight of a supply elevator of the gods, a godly stone and metal design that sent mass into an ugly rectangle-shaped ship on the sky; this was something he had only seen on the holy ship that powered High Charity and Heian and next to it there was the sight of a human vehicle casually passing by while humans moved boxes onto the structure, something that usually would infuriate him, but now, it perplexed him and forced him to get on the ground and begin praying his gods for guidance; especially the ones he mostly ignored, like the Librarian.

"Yes, this is Onyx, beautiful planet, do you like it? It's going to be your home until we have full knowledge of the Sangheili or… If we win the war and we have to return you."

The humans were living on lands of the gods.

"And why do you like that spire so much?"

He immediately stopped praying and looked again at the structure before him, making the 'Oney' agent get near him, maybe to see his astounded face.

"Yeah, those things usually ship carbon dioxide to the other planets on the system, but we use them to supply our ships. They are quick, efficient, and somehow know how to slow down before touching something, don't mock us."

The woman was smirking, she was taunting him.

"How do you dare touch the gods' creation?"- He interpleads, moving his fists to his legs and pressing them, trying to force his muscles to react and possibly awake from their long slumber.

"Oh? They were built not by gods, but by our probable antecessors, so don't worry, there's nothing sacred here."

"Blasphemy!"

The Sangheili swordmaster now stood up and looked eye to eye to the now emotionless human. His enraged face soon was followed by his body flexing, preparing for an inevitable conflict.

And she still had that air of condescending superiority, her hands on the back of her body, not prepared for battle.

"Tamara, can you please warn the Discovery Team for possible action? Thank you~."

Instead of addressing him, the black-haired woman decided to talk to a disembodied person, probably in some other room. This was insolence, and he was free now, he could strike back, so he did just that, his body regained the height advantage over the comparatively tall human and he directed his fist to the upper skull of the alien, striking the hair and skin of the human, provoking the tearing of some blood vessels as blood came out and poured to the brow of her, but the normally supreme force of a Sangheili, even without the combat harness, did not appear, the bones of the woman were intact, and she didn't even flinch, she stayed put on her place, but now she was frowning.

"You asked for it."

With blinding speed, the fist of the woman struck the ribcage of the swordmaster and nearly shattered him, even worse, the air got quickly out of his lungs, leaving him trying to regain his breath as the human woman just moved her legs equally as fast as her arms did, albeit with less force. The sweep from her foot just bashed his legs to drop him from contact with the ground, throwing him onto the weirdly lukewarm flooring tiles.

Then what proceeded was the human seating atop the left side of the now grounded elite, her legs preventing movement from his upper limbs, and she just got accustomed to getting her fist into the skull of the squirming creature until its arms finally stopped moving spasmodically along with his legs and he rolled with enough energy to make the woman fall off and let the now also bleeding warrior try to get up with help from his arms, just to again get swept-kicked by the human who laughed at the sight, her eyes with the fire of the strongest women of Sangheili history.

"You are unrefined, you fight to overpower and to tire out your opponent."

The warrior did not hesitate to growl and roll until he was some meters away from the human who ran to intercept him; but he reasoned that while her arms were strong, her legs lacked the sheer weight of the other limbs; so when he stood up again, he immediately got himself to crouch and tackle the woman, effectively dropping her and letting the elite have the upper hand this time.

"Got'cha."

The hands of the human swiftly moved as she smiled and they placed themselves on the mandibles of his right side and the 'nose' of the Sangheili.

[By the Didact.]

He throwed himself off the woman immediately as he knew what she was trying to do, so escaping was the only solution to not die by the crushed bones of his mandible striking his brain, and she was not able to do more than press one of his lines of teeth until it bleed.

The woman had a reaction time similar to his.

But he could run faster.

Thus the elite used that, he tried to reach the corner of the room, and when he did, he felt tired, his body was not ready to do this. He was just awaken from a slumber that began after the battle on that dammed planet; but he had to endure the assault of this marvelous alien that now ran towards him.

And when he tried to send a punch to her gut as she did with him; he received the harsh truth, the black-cladded woman did so too; and they were equally as strong and fast as her arm managed to slip by his defenses and punch at his 'diaphragm' while his fist managed to cause her eyes to expand and her mouth to open as air got out of her due to the incoming attack landing on her throat instead.

But it wasn't enough, both still could run on adrenaline.

Another fist was launched towards his mandibles using the lightly crouched state of the Sangheili; he had to lower his head even further in order to just grace it on his head, feeling the overwhelming power of this human just by that simple touch on the top of his cranium; and he retaliated with a jab to her clavicle, making her flinch and separate from him by some meters.

There it was, space to breath.

Wrong.

"You have everything to defeat me, but you have no armor, no sword; you're powerless."

Another fist is what he felt, his middle body, his belly, was struck by a force that broke that probably produced many internal bleedings due to the trauma as they were forced to resiste the entiriety human attack.

He instinctively grabbed her opponent's arm with his right and dealt a fist to her elbow with the left, causing her to flinch in pain; but somehow, probably due to his exhaustion as he did not believe he was weaker than the human; it didn't break, letting the human to ¿Hug him? After she violently shaked her arm.

"I- "

He had not time to correspond to the strong heretic nor he knew how to respond to a weird attack, as her back suddenly moved and her legs flexed in-between his own, when he knew what was happening it was too late, his head had touched the floor and the pain ensued. The human released the old she had on him, letting him struggle to come again to his feet due to the woman again coming to end his attempts with her hands taking him by the forearms and crossing her legs with the knees touching his neck, all the while making sure pressure that cut him off the newly gained oxygen.

How come he, who had won battles against supreme commanders and zealots, was now lying on the ground, on a body lock which slowly deprived him from oxygen; he was weak now, but Sangheili physiology wasn't the same as human, his neck was more resilient, so a harsh movement that surely was going to hit him later came to undo what the woman had him under.

"Cheeky bastard"- The woman said as the sagheili then smashed his skull against her stomach repeteadly, getting her to free him, allowing the alien to stand up again; at pretty much the same time as the now smiling human.- "You know, it is an honor to be an equal in combat to the hero of a clan such as yours; if you were human you'd probably train Spartans."

"Spartan?"- A question that suddenly got no answer as Serin again came to the offensive, launching jab after jab that landed on the now prepared arms of the tired Sangheili Major.

But one hit his elbow, another then his right wrist and finally one slipped to his left ribcage; making a crunch noise as he flinched.

"What you call demons."- As he was recovering, the alien had lost the anger that fueled his initial struggle; and now, he looked surprised for the praise from his enemy, humans did in fact have honor.- "And, as a curious fact, I'm one of them."

Then, with blinding movements came her again, slipping through the view of Vadumee and slamming her foot onto his left knee, making him to get lower; he tried to counterattack with a strike to her chest; but she just tanked even as she looked in obvious pain and kept subduing the Sangheili, eventually managing to have him kneeled.

[Such a warrior defeating me is thus a honor to have in the last act of my life]

Fists came raining to the now visibly disturbed woman, eyes flaring red with the contained pain, her sweat now coming visible, probably due to the same origin as eyes' stance; but her stiff body endured every hit that tried to revert how he now was under the eyes of that human.

"And I think, you were a good match."- She finished with her weirdly amusing yet now frightening tone

[So it was my end]

The prepared knuckles of the woman moved through her now free hair, the aspect of this Alastrassa* welcomed him to the sight of her upper body preparing to charge a hit into his eyes, with the intention to penetrate through it and kill him with those powerful fingers piercing the brain that controlled the swordmaster; a great assassination technique that if he was not misremembering, was used by the prelates, he sighed and stopped struggling, he tried to defeat her to escape, but she wasn't able, and now he was going to die.

But the slightly umber skin never touched him; rather, another arm as black as the suit she was wearing now resided on her, stopping her actions.

"Serin, he is not the enemy, he is a prisoner of war."

"Musa would love to see one of these creatures dead."

The woman had turned her sight upwards, looking to someone maybe as tall as him, the reflection on her eyes only told that darkness was the thing behind him; whose voice spoke leagues of who he was, probably a monster, a grave, unruly monster.

"Dear sister, I don't think you meant to say that."- He answered like a father reprimanding his kid, with a hint of… Sadness coming from him.

Suddenly the anger on her eyes disappeared, the before wide pupils due to the excitement of killing him now turned into focused points that denoted the impact of those words and she loosened herself, losing the stiffness on her arm as she stood up normally again, though the arm of the creature still resided in the same stance, guarding her arm from movement, such power, to stop one of the punches of the woman so nonchalantly; he was relieved that he hadn't fought him.

"Sorry, I- "- She tried to excuse herself, looking a tad to the ground, like a child that was just reprimanded by strict parents.

"Let's go. Forth has another mission."- The voice explained.

"That doesn- "

Silence came from the mouth of the human beauty as she was then intimidated by the sheer presence of the creature not saying anything and looking at her probably with some degree of anger; but when the swordmaster turned to see who was behind him; he saw a man dressed like one of the human Imps, save for it being massive; utterly massive; with his legs overly buffed with armor, and a gauntlet on his left hand, not even one of the famed demons that razed Zhoist was as big as him if the tellings of those 10 pace-beasts were true.

This was a forerunner planet, and apparently a human planet too, which they did not rever, and they had people apparently not tuned into the war; with one soldier so powerful that he had no doubt it may be able to overpower a brute… Just what kind of species was humanity in reality? Most on the fleet just obeyed the prophets' command and did not disobey or question orders just because the fleets sent into human space were hand-picked with honor promise.

But, how? The human girl had not said a single thing aside from the forerunners being their ancestors, leaving him on the doubt if this massive creature he had behind him was someone as great as the Didact; because as how he saw him; he might as well be a God. However it couldn't be, they were unruly, noisy, and generally ineffective in head-to-head space combat, having to rely in tactics that maybe only people like Watinree, Zenovigurothee or his friend Thel'Vadamee could think of, even if it was not well seen on their culture.

"You are to leave him with me."- A familiar voice spoke on the background.- "Please, and, could you too lift him?"

While the mind of the Sangheili flashed with thoughts of these creatures being a great addition to the covenant if given a chance; the surprise of the woman and the beast moving him from his limbs towards the couch came. There he stained it with some of his purple blood, which would cure, but was an indicator od the fatigue and damaged caused by the spar with that balck-cladded 'Oney' agent that now had a neutral face lacking either the blood or the emotions shown just some seconds before.

The giant just looked the same as always, but now he had a better sight of him; he looked some thirty centimeters longer than Serin, but almost twice as massive, with a pistol on his right leg and a human rifle on his shoulder; both of which looked strangely small for someone like him; but he wasn't the spotlight, rather it was a relatively average human.

Save for the fact that Rtas'Vadumee could remember his face with clarity; and even if those human factions could be lost to his mind, the body which he had, now lightly hunchbacked, assisted by crutches and some weird metal-film on his legs: all indicated to damage which confirmed his ideas of him being that human he stabbed on Redstow.

"Understood Commander."- The giant said, acknowledging the man like he was… his superior. But how could such an apparent force of nature answer to someone whose strength looked so diminished he might as well be weaker physically than a prophet? No, he said commander, the man then was a Senior in experience of sorts, and he looked older than Serin; maybe a 'grandfather'? How human culture worked was a mistery that he never knew would catch his attention, but maybe so much interrogation and explaining of his nation's military force had done something to him.

"Thank you again 'S-Team', I believe the Pony Express is ready to carry you."

"Take care, Loira."

A giant calling someone for their name and sending a good message on the same sentence, the Sangheili couldn't imagine Xytan addressing him as other thing than 'Vadum Swordmaster'.

Soon the pair left, not without the woman looking at the warrior with a hate on her eyes whose Alastrassa strength backed as a possible threat, an indication that should the moment arrive: she would kill him without a doubt. But no response came from that, but relief, as now another set of eyeballs laid looking at him, all the while a human cladded in greenish and grey clothes, with a rifle on hands and the 'Oney' symbol watched them from the door.

"Sorry for all of that, soon someone will come to clean."

No response came from him, the warrior just stayed put, looking with curiosity and some concern as the thought of him actually talking in a non-aggressive manner showed him that he probably had no ill intentions with him, or that he was good enough with charisma as to mask his real purpose when speaking to him.

"And, you shouldn't have tried to escape, there is only 'deathe' outside this building; this planet is a testing ground for weapons nowadays."

The last words made his blood boil again though, his fist slammed the cushions of where he was seated.

"That's the ultimate here-!"

*Click.*

The metallic sound of the soldier lifting his rifle came soon to his ears. He knew the power of those guns could deplete a shield in a burst, and that a single well-placed hit could kill even a brute; but he was unarmored, weak; and if the ability of the two people that were here before spoke; this guard probably could kill him even before he stood from the sofa.

"Don't worry ´Lexandro', he is just dealing with his new home."

"Understood sir."

"Nevertheless, you are free to shoot if you see fit."

"Thank you, sir."

That brief exchange now confirmed it, he was going to live on a golden birdcage, he tensed up, but then a sudden pain came, the adrenaline from the fight ran off and his muscles began to hurt him, he was practically forced by his own body to lie down on the couch, while the UNSC officer looked and took some images with a rectangular device.

"You really shouldn't attack an agent without permission, or aside from training."

Implications of soon becoming a sort of pet for the humans which fell almost deaf to the pained warrior, but he anyways decided to answer.

"Why-do-o… Rgh… Why do you keep m-… Me, alive?´

"Oh, a genuine question. Well, we needed a live Sangheili to interrogate, you were an officer, and you surrendered along with some thirteen other crew and soldiers, six of which are still alive."

His men died, these humans really were merciful only when it brought them some gains… No, maybe they revolted like he did and got no luck of being saved by the wrath of an 'agent' slamming them. Or, no, what was he thinking? This was the enemy…

"No…No! I-Hng… I mean, why, why now?! I already an-ne-n-nswered everything!"

"Well, you spared the life of my children, so I vouched to Admiral Stanforth that having you to learn about Sangheili culture on a controlled envivorement where to interact: was a good idea."- The smug face of the human now came flaring as he sat in one of the arms of the couch, leaving his crutches at one side.- "And he agreed as long as you still gave answers relating to how to deal with, *ejem*, your people.

Wait, those little creatures were indeed his kids, and he spared him, what kind of being did that aside from the Sangheili or the Prophet of Mercy? Even if his crew died, the fact that this man's experience with him was enough to make him live, to give him an opportunity to see his family again on the future; was astounding, prompting him to give a 'geili' smile, only that he lacked two mandibles and his eyes almost showed sorrow instead of happiness as the pain numbed some of his reactions.

"What happened?"

He wanted to speak but pain coming from his middle body surged enough to make him twitch like he heard again the forerunners being mentioned by the supposed heretics.

"Oh, yes, you were badly beaten. However worry not, after the capture of the Radiant Valence we have some things to cure you."

"WHAT!?"- He screamed in disbelief after hearing the Arbiter's ship being captured by humans no less.- "Do not play g-GAH!"- More words were to come, but again, the screeching pain of his body urged him to stop; groaning so loud that even the guard shrieked after hearing it, making a weird thing with his lips as he formed a circle, probably indicating pain… Or mocking him.

"Heh"- The calm human operative continued speaking, like he was the brother of Vadumee and just was listening to him.- "And you haven't even heard of the death of the Prophet of regret, but you will learn when we give you access to the computer."

His eyes shrunk, this people killed a prophet. No, there was no way. Or was there? How much time was he out of action, letting humans to use the tech on his ship, or worse; this holy planet, to adapt and attack High charity to kill one of the Hierarchs of the entire Covenant? He was a bout to get up to attack the human in just pure zealot hatred again when…

"Your leaders are very stupid when deciding how to keep attacking Harvest, he just appeared after his defunct fleet and was attacked by everything we had. We lost Cole, but we killed him and I got to say that any Sangheili shipmaster would have probably retreated, or at least done something… Less stupid."

He knew it wasn't wise to give control of fleets to the San Shyum, he expected a minor prophet to attack that wretched human planet and to lose enough ships as to give the aliens a morale boost, but this degree of loss… Somehow made sense on his mind, the zealous rage went into proud for his species after the praise to his own. He was right, the human had enough eloquence to deter him from heavy emotions; and he knew that this warrior knew, as a big smile came when the Sangheili un-flexed his aggressive stance and went back again into grunting because of his injuries.

"Now, I know you are a father too, and I need to know about our enemy so please let me present myself. I'm Allaire D'Loira, catchy name, is it not?"

The human then approached his hand to the squirming elite while smiling not in the almost evil way of before, but rather, honest, like he could feel the warmth of a mother in him; and he felt compelled. He had felt the human passion to strive for something grater, unbeknown to him, that goal was to strive, for the end of this war, to end the struggle.

Some time passed, with different and conflicting thoughts on the sangheili's mind.

He felt scared for the humans' actions.

He was enraged for what they did.

He felt confused as to why they attacked them at all now.

He felt empathy towards someone so strikingly similar to from where he stood.

He felt devastated because of how the humans treated his religion and the implicancies they carried

And he felt happy, or at least, safe, for now.

So he, while feeling all the pain from before, stretched his arm, and shook the human's hand and prepared himself to speak.

"I am Rtas'Vadumee."- [And thanks for not shooting at me.]

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A white clad figure sat on a chair looking at the grass where some marines where seating.

The figure had a cup on its hand, filled with a red liquid, all the while next to him was a human with brown hair, legs covered in iron, all the while wearing a standard navy BDU.

They seemed to be happy talking about something, when a door on their left opened.

The white figure stood up immediately and protected the human with his body.

A figure came rushing from the door and tackled the white figure, getting it to the ground and then launching the man on the uniform through the window.

"We need to get out of here."

"Vadamee?"

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* 1: Alastrassa, the Sangheili equivalent of a Valkirie

A/N: So… Yea, a chapter to set things for the future, I hope this wasn't too cheesy or illogical, I ain't good at reflecting people's emotions, but any help is greatly appreciated!

I would really like to hear your opinions, and stay tuned, because (hopefully) before the end of the month I'll have the closure of 2527 and the start of 2528.

If you have a comment, review or suggestion, please give it! As I said, it really helps; thank you again!