ONI SITE X-RAY, Near the Francescan Mines
Near the base's detention centre
April 7th 2552
17:00 (Local Time)
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"Forward brothers!" Erun roared, driving his sword through a human. There was a crunch as he twisted the blade, probably the nishum's wrist. Good, he thought, feel my pain, maggot. Humans were scum, they were parasites, they were…
Holy.
Erun roared in frustration, his shields bursting as a desperate human charged him, his weapon blazing. Erun spun away and crouched behind a grunt, who took the bullets head on as they flew down the hall towards him. The respite was just enough to allow Erun to spatter the man with plasma from his rifle, searing his flesh and killing him as he crumpled to the floor like burned kindling.
"Ketarus, watch the flank, take out that turret!" he said, growling as he hid behind the wall of an intersection.
"Argh, watch this." he growled, roaring himself into a rage and rolling his hammer in his hands, "raaaaarrrrgh!" he yelled, barrelling down the hallway towards the sandbag fort they'd built to stop him. Ketarus' shields took most of the blows but they flared just as he levied the hammer, swinging downwards with a roar as he demolished the defences, gravity doing untold damage to limb and bone in the enclosed space.
"The resistance was thicker here, brother, we must be close." Erun said, pausing as their troops pushed onwards, killing the routing humans.
"The security is dealt with… where do you suppose their leaders are? If we need to persuade the girl, then we should find them and make them talk."
He spoke so menacingly that even Erun shuddered. The sounds of fighting were dying out now, and Erun sighed, shaking his head as he turned off his sword, it's need for blood satiated for now. Just then, two little grunts waddled around the corner.
"M-master! The leaders are trapped in a big box! They're panicking!" the first one said.
"I'm sure they are." Erun huffed, "where are they?"
"Humans are so stupid! They build rooms for panicking! They went in there to cry, probably." said the second.
"You moron." Erun fumed, "you let them go in there?!"
"I-uh, it's called a panic room, my lord"
"Rarrrgh!" Erun roared, kicking the grunt so hard in the jaw that its neck snapped with a savage crack.
"Hehehe" Ketarus chuckled, "you always were short tempered."
"T-they're offering a prisoner as trade for their lives, my L-lord." the remain grunt said, meekly.
Erun frowned, "show us."
The grunt yelped and waddled off at great speed. Ketarus led the way as Erun followed closely behind him, wondering how long the god's planned to mock him. It was still hard to separate his faith from his actions and even his thoughts. Forerunner divinity was so ingrained that the very language they used coloured their perception of them and the deep rooted place they held in Sangheili culture only made that fact worse.
The grunt nodded eagerly and bounced away in the servile way grunts usually did when you'd reasserted authority over them. He led them along more steel corridors; humans were obsessed with them, until they came to an area littered with human corpses and a single metal door. Erun ignited his blade and plunged it into each of the hinges as Ketarus lined up the two remaining jackals to lead them in. He waited until they were ready to sear away the physical bolt in the door, then stuck his sword in, and with a quick succession of movements, withdrew it and kicked the door open.
The Jackals rushed in, paused, then stopped. Then, as they turned, something rushed them. Erun paused for a moment, eyes wide as a small ratty-looking figure assailed the Jackals, slitting one's neck as it ran past it, bundling the other over and jamming something into its neck. Ketarus barged in and there was a scream. Erun followed as Ketarus grunted, twisting the human into a hold that it couldn't break free of. Ketarus chuckled.
"Now, isn't this ironic, little mouse."
Erun frowned, his eyes wide.
There, in Ketarus' grasp, was the human he hated.
There on her knees, was the broken shell of Madeleine Harper.