Chapter 7 – Proditor
(6th Cycle, 26 Units - Covenant Battle Calendar), 9th Age of Reclamation
Epsilon Eridani System, In Atmosphere over human world of Reach
Aboard SDV-class Corvette Holy Dispersion
:********:
Zin Bayagga was unique.
At least he believed he was. It was fine for him to think this way so long as he kept it to himself. As long as his thoughts stayed in his head, he would always have the luxury of keeping that head on his shoulders. Life itself was a luxury for someone of his species, a lesson he'd learned long ago and never stopped learning ever since.
Being an Unggoy, a peon of the Covenant ready to shoot and be shot at a moment's notice, was extremely common. What really made him unique was that he had a surname: 'Bayagga'. Most Unggoy did not have such fancy privileges, those born in the breeding chambers of High Charity's lower levels, those who had little separating them from livestock save armor and weapons that helped them last a few seconds longer. Zin was different in this once again. Unlike most Unggoy, he actually knew who his parents were and they actually cared enough to give him a name. In fact, they cared so much that they had him while they were hiding away within the ancient bowels of High Charity. There they taught him what he needed to know to be someone great. It was among steaming pipes and platforms hanging lazily among frothing coolant pools that he learned his heritage.
He was Zin Bayagga, a descendant of another Bayagga who was the first Unggoy to lead a rebellion against the Covenant. That forefather was also named Zin, and in times past, he had fought within the halls and passages of the Holy City against famed warriors of the Sangheili, Kig-Yar and even the fearsome Mgalekgolo. They had almost won too or so his parents told him, leaving their enemies dead and buried beneath the fallen of several times as many brave Unggoy. They drowned them in their blood. They humbled the proud Sangheili into acknowledging their true strength and shook the confidence of the holy San'Shyuum themselves. Those were Zin's forefathers, his people, strong and valiant in the face of foes that would rather see them sterilized and dead than free and fruitful.
It pained him to think of how far they had fallen.
Were it not for the election of a new Disgraced One, the Unggoy might have perhaps returned to their homes. Were it not for the Covenant's decision to glass much of their world of Balaho, his people might have still had a chance. But that Disgraced One, that warrior of the deepest shame and the greatest authority, that embodiment of Sangheili hypocrisy, settled their fates.
The glassing stopped their rebellion cold. While many others were pardoned, his forefather Zin was executed for his part in it. After that his people were once again free to return to a life of bondage and hard labor. However, there was one gift given to them for the bravery they showed. Though they gained the respect of the Sangheili as warriors, they were now also given the freedom of being killed in droves for the sake of the Great Journey. The Sangheili's admiration for them meant that they could die beside them in battle. It was respect indeed from the likes of them, though in reality dying beside someone for an Unggoy often meant dying long before they did.
That too was on purpose.
They were brave expendable infantry under the best of circumstances, simple bullet sponges under the worst. It didn't matter that they could be brave beyond the fact that said bravery made them better cannon fodder, and that was all that was expected of them.
Now almost a century later, Zin could sense that that expectation had hardly changed. He felt it from the looks of the Sangheili he passed as he waddled down the long corridors of the Holy Dispersion. Teams of their warrior minors regularly patrolled the corvette's passageways in search of any detail left amiss relating to the ship's security. A few of those patrols went by him and the expressions were always the same. They spared him a fleeting glance of derision like he was a corpse that had died in an inconvenient spot. That was the case of course of the few that even bothered to look at him.
And he looked back at them as well. He tried to live his life with his head held high, despite rarely ever voicing his will to do so. He wasn't stupid like other Unggoy that let themselves get loose-lipped after one too many infusions. He liked to walk a tight line between self-respect and lethal disrespect. In doing so, he kept the old rebellion alive in memory.
They weren't fodders.
They weren't cowards.
Such was the belief that he tried to form his whole life around, to break that perception of his kind whenever he could. It was easier said than done when he was moving alongside a literal walking stereotype of everything he wanted to disprove.
Beside him strode his companion, nipple brother and occasional infusion provider, Ugug.
Ugug was what was known as an infusion junkie. In fact, he was known amongst the Unggoy of the Dispersion's crew as 'The Junkie' and they loved him for it. They loved him because he liberally gave them doses and samples of the narcotics that he had in great supply, at a price of course albeit cheap. Supply and demand tended to affect that kind of business with the popular gas being hard to find and even harder to buy on larger vessels such as cruisers, carriers and Gods forbid the holy city. The Sangheili shipmasters often made it that much harder by cracking down on the Unggoy's black market drug operations. They saw the infusions as violations of the strict discipline they wanted to impose on the crew. As such, they hammered down on them, much harder some might say than they did on the relic black market that the Kig-Yar tended to run among their own kind. Still, who was Zin to complain since he only bought the drug from Ugug when he felt particularly down in the dumps. This time around, however, it was down to bad optics and incredibly bad timing.
Ugug had taken far too many hits before tagging along with him on their current task. Every few steps he would extend his left leg much farther than normal, making him look like he was limping. He wasn't suffering from an injury of the body but an injury of the mind. His eyes were nearly shut, divided between some drug-fueled daydream and the way forward. He was sober enough to walk and talk but not enough to do those things properly.
Funny how what was part of the reason for their kind's rebellion almost a century ago was now possibly about to get them both in trouble.
Zin tried to compensate by making sure he did all the talking. Wherever they went, past guard posts or patrols of the anti-infusion and self-righteous Sangheili, he would lie.
"He's sleepy." He argued more than once.
The majority believed his story. Of those few who were more scrupulous, they ceased to care and sent them on their way, perhaps reminding themselves not to waste time on the affairs of lesser beings.
Zin never told anyone the full extent of what they were doing or where they were going. The mission he was assigned to was far too important to tell even the Sangheili, yet alone most of his fellow Unggoy in the crew. The only ones allowed to know were a select few that included the shipmaster, Ugug and himself.
And the Jirilhanae.
Before long, they came to a descending corridor leading to a secure door. A pair of Sangheili Minors stood guard to either side of it. Neither of them looked down at the approaching pair until they were right in front of them.
"What is your business here?" One of them asked.
Zin wanted to speak yet his infused friend beat him to the punch.
"C'mon, you know us by now. You know why we're here."
A look of sharp disapproval crossed the Sangheili's face. "What was that?"
"I said-"
Ugug stopped as Zin grabbed him by the mask and pushed him behind him, holding up his hands in apology. "Please, f-, forgive him, he is...stupid and-, and...sleepy. Yes, very-very sleepy."
The Sangheili scrutinized his partner. "That does not look like sleep to me. Stupidity, yes, but something else."
The other guard smelt the air and winced. "He stinks of infusion so his stupidity is assured."
"Infused?" The first put a hand to the plasma rifle on his belt. "You know the penalty of being caught as you are, don't you?"
Zin's courage faltered. Beside him, Ugug remained woefully aloof.
"Our business is with the prisoner." Zin said, hoping to switch topics. "We've been sent to escort him to the bridge. Just let us do that and we'll be on our way."
The first guard paused, sharing a look with his comrade. "You should know better than to be anything less than sober when on an errand of the shipmaster. That said, far be it from me to also delay his errand. For his sake, I will overlook this...transgression against our code of conduct. You may go. However, should your friend come back in a similar state I will feed you both to the jailers myself."
Zin gave a curt bow of his head and moved for the door which parted for him. Ugug trailed leisurely behind him under the disapproving stares of the two guards.
The brig of the Holy Dispersion stretched before them as a wide-open space. It was comprised of two floors with a central yard on the bottom floor. A pair of bridges spanned from one side of the second floor to the other side and walkways lined the dozens of incarceration cells that were secured by luminescent energy barriers. A number of prisoners sat, squatted or slept behind the translucent walls that kept them imprisoned. There were Unggoy, some of whom Zin recognized. They were other infusion dealers who, unlike Ugug, made themselves easier to catch in the act. That in and of itself was saying something. There were also bands of Kig-Yar strolling about in their cells. A number of them were involved in an incident a few days back when they were caught pilfering components from some of the dropships. Last were a handful of Sangheili who were given their own individual cells. It was rumored on the ship that these warriors were found guilty of cowardice in the face of battle. They were being kept here, either to await their execution by the hands of their peers or, if they were 'honorable', by their own hands.
No one imprisoned within the brig however scared him more than those in charge of guarding them. The jailers were the only ones free to move about, and of everyone here, they were the cause for the most concern.
Jirilhanae were always dangerous. Context didn't matter. So long as there was one in the room, there was a certain amount of risk posed to everyone else.
The brig was full of Jirilhanae jailers that warily patrolled both floors. For the time being they were calm though that could all change at a moment's notice. One wrong look or perceived slight and things could get very ugly very fast. Zin almost preferred his chances with the two Sangheili guarding the entrance.
Since they had come out on the second floor, Zin started for their destination, moving along the left side of the brig with Ugug in tow. As they journeyed on, snouts sniffed at the air. A few heads turned in their direction and some fangs were shown. Zin kept his posture erect. It was not a matter of intimidation or confidence so much as simply needing to look the part. Jirilhanae tended to walk all over anything that looked weak or rip out the throat of anything that looked strong. Since most of the jailers were on the ground floor and at a safe distance, he could manage a fine balance, appearing too far to bother with but strong enough to not be a pushover.
There were at least two packs onboard, one serving as the Dispersion's jailers and the other remaining on standby as a shock force. It did not always used to be so. Before the battle for the human world of Ballast, there were next to none of them onboard. Zin remembered this clearer than most since he was part of the crew then and by far the happiest to walk away from the battle alive. Too many of Valiant Prudence's ships had been obliterated by those orbital platforms for him not to appreciate what could only have been a miracle of the Gods.
After their cheerless return to High Charity, the surviving ships were given more Jirilhanae to be a part of their crew as per the direct orders of the High Prophet of Truth. Being among those surviving vessels from Ballast, Holy Dispersion was also saddled with the brutish additions.
No one dared question why, not when it came to a Hierarch. Especially not in the face of a defeat by the humans. With no room to complain, the Jirilhanae were brought in and made to serve in whatever ways the shipmaster saw fit. This was not always to the liking of the Jirilhanae. In truth, this was the most passive Zin had seen them of all the recent times that he had been sent to the brig. Ironically it was this passiveness that left him uneased.
Zin perceived part of the reason for their assignment here was to avoid problems. Anyone with half a brain knew there was bound to be tension if Jirilhanae and Sangheili were forced to rub shoulders on the same ship. Probably for this reason, the shipmaster chose to at least keep half of them confined to the monitoring of the ship's own incarcerated. The other pack were rarely seen either, thereby avoiding a daily eyesore for the Sangheili crew.
It was a smart move by the shipmaster.
It was also bothersome for the jailers themselves who wanted more involvement in the ship.
Lastly, it made Zin's job a good deal harder than he would have liked.
But he was an Unggoy. Who cared what he thought?
He turned a corner and waddled down the length of the brig. He was so busy looking down at the jailers on the bottom floor that he was surprised when Ugug reached from behind and caught him by the shoulder. He whirled on him, ready to ask what the problem was when the look in Ugug's eyes stopped him. Unlike before, they were wide open and alert. He wasn't looking at Zin but past him, above him.
Zin turned back around and found himself eye-level with a pair of strong, heavily armored legs. He slowly tilted his head, panning up the wall of black and red armor before stopping at the unamused face of a Jirilhanae chieftain.
The massive gravity hammer on his back cast a shadow over Zin though its blunt surface seemed a lesser threat than the warden's impatient scowl.
"Pay attention." He warned in a deep voice.
Zin instinctively took a step back.
The warden examined the two of them. "The shipmaster sent you for his little guest, did he?"
Zin swallowed. "Yes."
"He sent us before." Ugug said in a suddenly respectful manner, making an effort to avoid eye contact. "Don't you remember us?"
The warden examined them again. After a moment, he shook his head. "All you whelps look alike to me."
With that, he nodded for them to follow him as he strode down the walkway. The Unggoy struggled to keep up, having to take three strides to cover every one of his.
The warden stopped in front of a cell near the middle of the brig. Zin and Ugug reached shortly afterwards and peered inside.
On the other side of the energy barrier, sitting on the bare floor of the cell, was a lone human. Its clothes were tattered. Its face was gaunt and dirty as was the red hair on its head. It sat against the back wall, chin in hand, staring as if lost in thought.
The warden spoke to it in its own language. Of what little Zin knew of it, he discerned that the warden was preparing it to come with them.
But the human didn't appear to hear him. It remained seated, continuing to stare long and hard at the floor.
The warden spoke again and again received no answer. Then his fangs flashed in irritation and he banged a fist against the outside wall of the cell. This time the human responded and its gaze flickered to the warden then down to the two Unggoy. Zin grew uncomfortable when its eyes landed on him. The human stared long and hard at him, almost through him. It was like it was staring at nothing...or as if there was nothing behind those eyes.
Zin shivered.
The warden repeated himself a third time with a warning in his tone. The human finally stood up and wandered over to them. The warden pressed a nearby control panel and the energy barrier vanished, prompting Zin and Ugug to put a hand on their plasma pistols. The human stepped outside, staring up once again at the warden and for a worryingly long duration. Zin was nearly convinced the human was suicidal, trying to offer a subtle challenge.
The warden grimaced at him but did nothing else. "He's all yours. Take him before I take his head."
Zin nodded emphatically and gestured for the human to follow him. It seemed to hesitate. However, Ugug prompted it forward by poking it in the back with his plasma pistol. They continued this arrangement, standing to either side of the prisoner as they led it across the brig and out through the nearest exit.
:********:
Zin was a bodyguard.
He had tried to accept that plenty of times. It never worked. At this point he couldn't hope to get used to it, not when he was helping to protect a member of the very species the Covenant had vowed to exterminate. And if that wasn't hypocrisy, if it wasn't heresy, then he didn't know what was. Still, orders were orders and that went doubly for those issued by the shipmaster of the Holy Dispersion.
Their new guest was captured after a team of special operations Sangheili raided a small human settlement that they'd discovered in the region. They slaughtered most of the small population. This in itself was a violation of normal Covenant operations. They were supposed to kill all the humans they found, not most of them. However, one of them had spared itself the fate of its fellows by simply doing one thing.
It promised to help them find more humans.
More settlements, more territories and even more planets. As long as it was spared, it would give them the information they needed. It swore this on its life at the end of an energy sword and proved convincing enough to have the spec ops commander bring it aboard.
Since then, Zin's responsibilities were switched. He stopped helping the freight crew to disembark supplies from arriving dropships in the hangar. Instead, he was used as an intermediary between the Jirilhanae of the brig and the shipmaster of the bridge. Possibly hoping to get around tensions as well as having to divert any important manpower, the shipmaster personally decided against using his own kind. He rather chose who he deemed to be the most competent among the Unggoy crew. That ended up being Zin who was the supply chief of the freight crew and, perhaps unwisely, Ugug who was his pseudo second-in-command.
The prisoner had a name. Zin just wasn't sure how to say it right. It was less like an Unggoy name and more like a Sangheili name with too many syllables and consonants to pronounce. Apparently, they hadn't tortured it out of the human or any other information for that matter. They saw no need to as it told them its name as well as more of what it knew with each trip to the bridge.
Zin could pronounce at least half his name right: 'Zander'.
On this latest trip, Zander was unusually quiet. He often talked and made comments about things he saw with the Unggoy, of course without them being able to understand a lot of what he said. Regardless, he would prattle on and on while they continued to guide him.
Not this time however.
He kept his mouth shut and eyes straight ahead, not minding the odd stares of passing Kig-Yar and Sangheili who still weren't accustomed to seeing the enemy on their ship. He wasn't bound or restrained. The plasma pistols of his two guards were the sole obstacles keeping him in check. He should have known that. Nevertheless, he made no move to escape. He never did. It was like he was somehow comfortable here of all places.
Then again, the look on his face didn't suggest that. Zin had seen his fair share of human expressions for him to guess what they looked like when they were comfortable. Glancing at Zander, he discerned the opposite. There was an expectant air about him, as if he were ready and waiting for something.
The three of them turned a corner and immediately side-stepped out of the way of a pair of Mgalekgolo. The blue-armored titans lumbered past them, barely waiting for them to move aside as they strolled on by.
Zin checked on Zander again and saw him watching the Mgalekgolo. They were watching him too with both bond brothers turning their heads in his direction. Neither needed to do this since there were sufficient sensory organs in each worm of their colonies to see him individually. They wanted him to know he was being watched. Notwithstanding, Zander registered no concern whatsoever. For a pair of behemoths that could easily stomp him out of existence, he regarded them with the same quiet derision reserved for someone who'd looked at him funny.
They carried on down the corridor that the two giants emerged from. Another Mgalekgolo pair was waiting for them at the end of it. They were standing guard at the doors to the lift, one that would take them straight to the entrance of the bridge. Zin figured they must have just arrived and that the pair they ran into had finished their shift.
They reached the end of the passage just as the doors opened. The lift was finishing its descent on the other side. A trio of Sangheili came out, two minors led by a commanding officer that Zin recognized. He was Major Rydo Tevumee, one of the stricter anti-infusion enforcers on the ship. His presence alone made Zin keep a close watch on Ugug out the corner of his eye. Yet the major wasn't interested in them.
As he stepped off the lift with his entourage, Tevumee's attention was instantly fixed on the human.
Zander, being the fool he was, returned his stare.
"I assume you're bringing this filth onto the bridge again." Tevumee said in the human's own language, never looking away.
"Yes-yes, we are." Zin insisted. "Shipmaster's orders."
"Hmph. Before you do that, I have an order for you. Kneel."
Ugug quickly dropped to his knees, quivering.
"No, not you." Tevumee hissed, nodding instead to their charge. "You, human. Kneel."
Zander remained defiant and went out of his way to stand straighter.
Tevumee's mandibles shifted with displeasure. A hand reached for the handle of the energy sword on his waist. He pulled it out and held it at the ready. With a flex of his fingers he switched it on, causing twin forks of crackling plasma energy to spring from the handle.
"I said...kneel."
Zander didn't react, much to the visible chagrin of the major.
"I-, is there a problem, major?" Zin asked, feeling the fear creeping into his voice and hating it.
"Isn't it obvious?" Tevumee raised the blade so that its edge was a breadth away from the skin of Zander's neck. "Those haughty eyes do not belong on our bridge. A human especially does not. To combine the two would be a most insufferable heresy."
"Sir, we need to get him to the bridge." Ugug added, almost begging him.
"That is fine. You can bring his head and your friend can bring the rest of him."
"No, we need this human alive." Zin pointed out. "Please, let us through."
"Quiet yourselves or you may find that my hand has a broader stroke than you know."
Zin and Ugug fell silent as Tevumee brought the blade closer to their charge's neck.
"I hate your arrogance and I see it too often to ignore. On your knees, human. Show respect for your hosts because, if it were up to me, I would have gladly hewed you down by now."
"But it's not up to you, is it?" Zander calmly replied. "Do it and you'd find yourself in the same place soon enough."
The major cocked his head at him. "What?"
"If you don't let me through, you'll be risking the wrath of your shipmaster. You might cut my head off, sure, that's fine. Keep in mind that that'll be merciful compared to what your boss might do if he finds out you killed the best chance he had of finding more humans."
Zin and Ugug gawked at him as Tevumee growled.
"Do not speak again or I will cleave your lower jaw from the rest of that wretched face. Your very existence alone is already an unforgivable sin. Though I might receive my shipmaster's wrath, I would also receive the blessing of the Gods by spilling your bowels on this deck."
"Might want to rethink that. I'm the one guiding you here, giving you the information you need to carry out your oh-so-holy mission. You need me more than you need those invisible friends of yours." Zander smiled at him. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm your god now."
Zin, Ugug, the two minors and even the nearby Mgalekgolo winced, not only at the pure heresy that had proceeded from the human's mouth but also at the speed with which the major drew back his sword.
"Heretic!" He roared, preparing to swing.
Zin felt some small shard of courage return to him and he threw himself in the way of the oncoming strike, holding his hands up. "Wait!"
The swing stopped just short of his face and he felt the intense heat on his skin. He crumpled to his hands and knees.
"Please, don't strike him down! We need him! The shipmaster needs him! Please don't punish him! If you do, you'll punish us also, and we're only trying to follow the shipmaster's orders! Please, I'm begging you, don't punish us with him!"
Tevumee paused before his request for mercy.
Then Zander stepped forward so that he was right in the major's face. "Listen pal, me and your shipmaster have a deal. You get to see this world burn in exchange for me getting to see it burn. If you're still interested by that point then you can take my head off my shoulders yourself... 'after' we're all done here. Sounds good?"
At this, the major looked on the human with killer intent to which the latter appeared neither concerned nor moved. Tevumee peered down at Zin who was looking up to him pleadingly.
Then a voice arose on the corridor's intercom. "Do not delay him or kill him, major. We still have some use for him yet. Let the Unggoy through."
Tevumee hesitated.
"It was an order."
At last, the major withdrew his blade and deactivated it. He walked on with his two minors following after him. He took a final eyeful of Zander. "Should the shipmaster permit it, and I know he will soon, me and my blade will accept your offer...unwaveringly."
Zander merely smiled at him again.
Zin got back onto his feet and hurriedly led the way as he and Ugug guided the human onto the lift.
Never in his life had Zin felt so humiliated. Bowing down on hands and knees before a Sangheili in order to petition them to spare the life of a human? This was a new low that he never knew existed.
The human was shameless for one so surrounded by those who would rather kill him than talk to him. With his big mouth, he had managed to make one of his escorts become the very thing he hated most, a cowardly and desperate Unggoy.
In his anger, Zin had to restrain himself from taking his pistol and shooting Zander in the back of the head as the doors to the lift cycled shut. There would be an end to this, he told himself, and he sorely hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.
:********:
Zander considered every detail of the bridge, from its circular orientation to the columned control stations that surrounded the inner perimeter platform like several claws holding it in place. The bridge was somewhere on the bow of the ship. He could tell thanks to the forward viewing glass that encompassed much of the front of the corvette. Beyond it was a landscape of dark clouds above. Beneath them were the silhouettes of mountain peaks that passed close to the ship's underbelly.
It was night outside.
They were flying low over a mountain range. Knowing the exact location would have been nice since it would have helped him plan what he was going to say. Thankfully, he found some help.
At the center of the command area's perimeter platform was a slowly rotating projection of Reach. He saw Viery passing by, understanding that whether he lived or died in the next few seconds depended on how knowledgeable he was of the territory.
There were half a dozen Elites in the bridge crew with several manning various stations around the perimeter platform. The rest meandered from post to post, working at the less important stations in the space between the platform and the viewing glass.
The pair of Grunts that had escorted him from the brig now led him across to the platform. There, a golden-armored Elite stood in front of the projection of Reach, observing its continents and oceans. The Elite was Shipmaster Irym Rizanamee and he was the one pulling the strings that were keeping Zander alive.
The Grunts stopped him at the edge of the platform and called to the Elite in their language. Rizanamee, without turning around, gestured with his hand for them to leave. They quickly did so, bowing out through the doors that cycled shut behind them.
On any other occasion Zander would have thought it unwise for them to leave him there with the shipmaster's back still turned. What if he had a weapon he could use on their commanding officer? Then again, he had no means by which he could inflict any harm to someone or something as big as Rizanamee. And he probably knew that too.
Suddenly the projection of Reach stopped to zoom in on Viery alone.
"Where else?" Rizanamee asked in plain English.
Zander walked over to the platform and stopped beside the shipmaster, making sure he was just out of arm's reach. But spotting the energy sword on the Elite's belt, he realized he was still well within range. Moving any further would have looked suspicious so he stayed put. He briefly scanned the projection which made him notice nearly a dozen red contact points to the north and south of Big Crater Bay. They were human settlements, discovered and destroyed by the ship he was on. The icons represented thousands of people whose blood was on his hands, and now he raised one of those same hands to do it all over again.
He pointed at different regions surrounding Big Crater Bay. "There's a mining facility here that, if I had to wager it, your guys probably haven't found yet. It's really nestled in this eastern valley so there's a good chance it's slipped your radar. Their security's limited, it shouldn't be a problem if there's anyone else left holding out there. Next, there's a little village at the base of this mountain here close to the south coast. Their population's never bigger than 300 at the best of times, easy pickings. The last one for now is a quiet little fishing town here, on the southern tip of the island in the mouth of the bay. Life there is pretty seasonal so they never have more than say 1,000 residents around this time of year. They have a small force of police, law enforcement if you like, that doesn't go over 30 people."
"Then most of these are hardly defended either." Rizanamee noted thoughtfully.
"That's correct, for the most part. This is a relatively quiet area of Viery. Everyone here pretty much sticks to themselves, minds their own business, makes them easier to pick off."
"I suppose that is how a traitor like you managed to stay among them for so long."
Zander said nothing. The insult was to be expected. He was no guest here after all, only a momentary prisoner.
"And who said you could stop?" Rizanamee asked, more an order than a question.
"Pardon?"
"I allowed you on this ship because you said you could give me information on the smaller human presences in this region, the kind that I could not detect. You said you would give it freely."
"And I have."
"And you've withheld some." The shipmaster turned his head to him. "I would like to know why it is you think you can get away with it."
"...Withheld?"
"What you see here are locations that you revealed to us before our meeting today." Rizanamee held out a hand towards the projection. Two more red points appeared around the bay, one in the mountains to the east, another on the southern coast. "These are the mining facility you spoke of as well as the town of 300. We found them on our own and destroyed them already."
Zander felt his chest grow tight. He steadied himself to avoid showing any signs of nervousness, and by extension guilt. "You found them then. Good on you."
"But you knew of them." Rizanamee said, turning to him again. "You knew of them the last time I brought you up to my bridge and yet you chose not to reveal them to me, even when I told you to show me all you were aware of."
"Yes, however, you were obviously fine enough with what I said to let me return to that comfortable box you let me sleep in."
"I did that because I believed you were still holding onto secrets."
"You could've tortured them out of me and you didn't, so you were clearly satisfied with what I-" Zander stopped himself, realizing too late that he'd let the cat out of the bag.
Rizanamee paused. "Perhaps I should have tortured it out of you. Even so, the reason I did not rake your secrets from off your very bones is because I do not believe in torture. It is a dishonorable practice in my eyes and to do so would make me no better than you, however barbaric you are. Not to mention there are those who would gladly pass on lies as truths or go so far as to believe those lies just to evince some mercy out of their captors."
"Are you saying I'm lying to you, shipmaster?"
"To a degree, and still, I know torture would do me little good. Your kind's temptation for lies and treachery would be too great. You try to deceive everyone, even yourselves, and you would squeal useless madness in the place of useful information."
Zander stopped to gather his thoughts and muster an excuse. "I needed time to remember things. That's all."
"Time is wearing thin and so is my tolerance of your existence on my ship."
"We have an agreement, remember? You get your information and I get to stay alive long enough to see everything here get torched."
"Agreement? You say this as though you stand on some equal footing. Be careful or you'll soon find yourself with no feet to stand on."
"Alright then, let's call it a mutual understanding."
Rizanamee stopped to observe him for a moment.
As he did, Zander tried to gauge his precarious predicament. The shipmaster seemed to be more desperate than he was the other time that he summoned him to the bridge. Something had him concerned. It had to be the UNSC since they were the only real threat to the Covenant on this world. They must have been making a few moves, prompting the alien captain to squeeze him for more info. At least then, Zander guessed, the Covenant would have a more secure perimeter against whatever their enemies had planned. Such a possibility could ultimately spell doomsday for however many days or hours he had left. He could maybe make another deal with the shipmaster; tell him information he knew of Earth. The exact slipspace coordinates for the heart of the UNSC itself were unknown to him though. He never bothered asking about it to any of his old crew back in the days when life was simpler. Despite that, he could say for sure that he knew where some of the most important places on that planet could be found.
It could be enough to keep him alive for a little longer, or maybe it wouldn't.
A shame since the UNSC were the ones he wanted to see get burned out by the Covenant the most, especially before he kicked the bucket himself. So long as they got their comeuppance, he was fine dancing hand in hand and side by side with his own.
:********:
Shipmaster Irym Rizanamee could not bring himself to understand the human. This 'Zander' was a strange creature, an infidel, albeit a helpful infidel. That did not diminish his sins. However, it delayed his punishment and it was partly because Rizanamee himself was bewildered by him. Standing next to him and speaking directly to him was a living contradiction of what he had come to expect from humans.
They could be weak.
They could be cowardly.
Yet they never worked with the Covenant, none that he had ever heard of. So, why was this human so different?
"You are willing to sell out your own kind." Rizanamee said. "Yes, an abominable kind like humanity, but it still does not sit right with me."
"Come again?"
"You're a traitor to your own species, a betrayer of blood, a usurper of your own kin."
Zander shrugged. "I don't see how that's a problem. It's certainly helping you out right now, isn't it?"
Rizanamee squinted at him, scrutinizing him more closely. The human betrayed a measure of sarcasm of course though he never seemed to be resistant to the idea of helping him destroy his own people. While the shipmaster didn't say it outright, this was another reason why he hadn't had him killed after he revealed a few settlements in the area. He wanted to know what made this abnormal infidel tick the way he did.
"Why are you helping us destroy your own world, human? You have nothing to gain from this. Even you must know that your end is certain. So why do you help us?"
To Rizanamee's surprise, the human chuckled, showing his teeth in that strange way that humans tended to do when they laughed.
"That's the thing with you Covenant. You think us humans are all on the same page since we're all facing the same danger. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's just not the case. You see, when you know it's inevitable that both you and your enemy are going to burn in the same hell together, you figure that you might as well push the other guy over the edge first. That way they get to burn just a little longer than you will. That's the only way to get any sort of justice for yourself in a world like ours, at least that's how things are when it comes to us. I guess you'd disagree about you and your own people though, right?"
Rizanamee stood stunned. It was not an answer he had expected, nowhere close. He stared at him in blank fascination. Somehow the human's look of honest satisfaction at what he had said left his host troubled.
The humans were far more divided in a situation that he knew if his own people faced, they would excel in uniting against such a threat. They had done so once in the days before the Covenant. Regardless of the resilience of his own people, here was a specimen of a race of infidels merely telling him what infidels did. There could exist no such noble concept as loyalty among a species when it went out of its way to deny the divinity of the Holy Ones. As the old Sangheili proverb went, 'sin follows after sin' and so he inwardly rebuked himself for being surprised at Zander's statement.
Then he doubted again.
Briefly, he imagined the Sangheili in a similar circumstance to the humans. What if it was his kin on the run with the San'Shyuum declaring war on them as their servants executed their edicts. The Sangheili would be aimless then with no Gods and no hope. They might not be much better off than the humans were. Even worse, he imagined the San'Shyuum could only put one other race in charge of positions typically reserved for the Sangheili. The thought of a Jirilhanae shipmaster leading a carrier fleet over the skies of Sanghelios itself filled him with rage.
"Shipmaster?"
Zander's voice called him out from the depths of his thoughts. His imagination proved too visceral and he had nearly forgotten about his conversation.
"You are strange, just like the rest of your kind." Rizanamee replied. "You will follow suit with them all the same, as was your wish. Is there anything more that you are holding back from me? Speak now because you will not speak again."
Zander stared at him and slowly shook his head.
Rizanamee switched on his helmet's connection to part of the ship's intercommunication system. "Unggoy, come in. Take him."
A second later, the doors to the bridge cycled open and the Unggoy from before came waddling back onto the bridge. Zander walked towards them, coming to a stop halfway to the exit.
"You know I'm lying, right?" He said. "I know some information on Earth."
Earth.
The mere mention of the name struck a chord in Rizanamee and he turned back around to face him, finding an impudent little smile on the human's face.
"Earth?"
Zander nodded. "The place you guys have been busting your balls and everyone else's trying to find."
"Your homeworld?" Rizanamee queried, speaking lower despite that the mention of that infamous name had now drawn the attention of everyone on the bridge.
"Well, I wouldn't call it that. I hate the place myself."
Rizanamee took a curious step towards him. "Do you know the way to this world?"
"No, but I know what you'll find there."
The shipmaster's head drooped a little with disappointment then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And what will we find, human?"
"Hell." Zander answered as his smile widened. "Yours."
Rizanamee's suspicion turned to a glower. He withstood the urge to take his plasma rifle and burn a hole through the smug face of the infidel. Zander was out of information and therefore the shipmaster had no further use for him...save one.
He spoke to the two Unggoy in his native tongue. "Take him and send this message to the warden also. 'I deliver this gift to you and your jailers as nourishment. Enjoy yourselves with my blessing'.
The two Unggoy, hesitant before, brightened up at his declaration.
"It will be done, shipmaster." The leader of the two said. The pair went on gleefully, escorting their charge through the door with Zander none the wiser as to what was said.
Jirilhanae loved the taste of human. They were notorious for indulging in their sweet tooths for the creatures whenever they were sent to invade their worlds. The infidels were the lowest of the low and so it was only fitting that the Jirilhanae, the bottom feeders they were, would gorge themselves on this one. And in doing this they would enjoy themselves with Rizanamee's blessing, a fact they would naturally hate. But they could not resist an easy meal. That way, the shipmaster would keep them content while also reminding them where they stood in the ordering of all things.
He returned his attention to the projection of the human world before him. There was still one settlement left in the area that Zander had identified which his bridge crew had not. It would need to be dealt with soon. As such, he began making plans for its destruction which he intended to visit upon it and everything living in it at the first light of dawn.
:********:
Zin was happy.
He was grateful too. The shipmaster had finally passed judgment on the annoying human. His troublesomeness was almost at an end.
Zin would not have to deal with him for much longer. He marched down the corridor from the bridge with a greater pride in his step, knowing this would probably be the last time he would have to deal with Zander. Even more encouraging was that the human was going to die a terrible death. The Jirilhanae loved meat and by that reasoning they would love Zander. Once he gave them the news, they would certainly welcome their human hostage with open arms and open jaws.
Then he would pay dearly for all the grief he had caused him today.
Nearing the lift, he peered over his shoulder at Zander and found an expression that wasn't there before. Though he didn't speak their language, the human must have understood in some basic sense what was said back on the bridge. The look on his face indicated that. He wasn't horrified or worried or anything like that. Unless Zin was wrong, and he got a strange feeling that he wasn't, it almost seemed as if he was disappointed. It was a strange sight indeed for someone who might've figured out that their death sentence would be one of the worst imaginable.
Zin didn't let it bother him though. He was soon to be rid of him and back to work in the hangar bay with Ugug and everyone else. It would be business as usual again. That was all he cared about as the three of them entered the lift and descended back into the depths of the ship.
Proditor – Traitor