Halo: The Beginning of the End
By Chief Ratchet
Disclaimer: I do not own Bungie or Halo or anything associated with it
(A.N: I have a reviewer! This chapter and the one before details how 'Zamamee got the Wraith. Enjoy!)
mchmstr39: Thank you for the review. Your help will be appreciated. Enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter 2: The Escape of 'Zamamee
Standing onboard the Phantom, 'Zamamee pondered his fate. No doubt that my head will become another trophy for that cursed Jiralhanae, he thought. The other two Sangheili were there as well. Although they didn't show it, 'Zamamee knew that they were scared. I should have killed those Jiralhanae when I had my weapon, he spoke to himself mentally. While he was contemplating his ultimate fate, he didn't notice that the Phantom was starting to slow down.
"Alright you Sangheili filth, get up and start moving" ordered the Jiralhanae. 'Zamamee was so deep in thought that one of the Jiralhanae had to hit him in the side with his Plasma Rifle. 'Zamamee was jolted out of his thoughts when the blow struck him in the side. His shield flared, and 'Zamamee was sent reeling backwards. "Get moving, you worthless piece of filth" snarled the Jiralhanae Captain. 'Zamamee got up, and shot the Captain and the Jiralhanae that had hit him a glare that could have blasted through the armour of an Assault Carrier.
Striding across the cavernous troop bay of the Phantom, 'Zamamee reached the gravity lift, and stepped into it. Immediately, he was floated down to the ground. Looking around to take in his new surroundings, the first thing 'Zamamee noticed was that they were on a sandy 'beach' of sorts. Looking carefully, he noticed that the water's edge was actually over the cliff he was facing! 'Zamamee was so intent on taking in his surroundings that the Jiralhanae had to once again, hit him with a Plasma Rifle. This time, 'Zamamee stumbled forward as the Jiralhanae behind him chuckled with satisfaction. 'Zamamee was not hurt, but he was quite depressed with the situation he was in.
After the blow had hit him, 'Zamamee was ushered to a large building that he had failed to notice when he first arrived here. Most likely that it is a prison of sorts, or a holding cell. They aren't going to execute me here or else they would have done so already, he mused. While approaching the large, Forerunner building, he noticed many things. First were the Shielded Plasma Turrets, an improvement made upon the Shade turret used on the first Halo. Secondly, there was a large motor pool off to his right, which was filled with Wraiths, Spectres and many, many Ghosts.
They should be helpful for my escape. If I can find one. Then, as he got even closer to the building, he noticed the gigantic Scarab, parked near a platform, which must be connected to the main building, 'Zamamee concluded. When he neared the door, which had two Wraiths guarding it, the door automatically opened for him and his Jiralhanae escorts, who covered his every possible escape path. When he entered the building, his head hanging low with shame, he noticed through the mental haze which was making his head spin with confusion as the voices in his head argued with each other that there was a Plasma Turret on the balcony in front of him. The Jiralhanae next to him herded him to a ramp on the side.
Walking up the ramp, he was escorted to the next room where he noticed there were energy fields up sealing the cells. His captors walked him towards one of the empty ones and on the way to the cell; he noticed that there were Unggoy, Sangheili and Lekgolo in the cells that he passed. The room was quite large, with an empty space in the middle. There was a second floor with even more cells, and suddenly, the cold bleak realization dawned on him; the order to arrest him had spanned across the entire Sangheili race, and not just him. The Unggoy and Lekgolo were most likely just placed in there for a crime of some sorts.
As they escorted him to his assigned cell where he was to wait until he was sent to High Charity to be executed. In front of a large, no, wait, enormous crowd, who were seated across multiple levels and the platform was in view of all the levels, no less. When he passed a cell with an energy barrier in front of it, he peered inside curiously. What was inside the cell shocked him. It was a Sangheili Councilor.
The Councilor wore the helmet that all Councilors wear, which made them easy to recognize. The helmet and the silver amour made it clear that he was of a council. The helmet was larger than that of a normal Sangheili The High Council members wore the same helmet and armour; however they had a violet stripe running from their shoulder to where the chest armour ended.
As 'Zamamee passed the Councilor, the Councilor gave him a look of pity. Out of respect, 'Zamamee gave a slight bow of his head to the Councilor. The Jiralhanae obviously didn't approve of his action, and hit him. The sheer force of the blow sent 'Zamamee sprawling on the floor. "Keep moving, split lip" one of the Jiralhane snarled, using the nickname the humans assigned to the Sangheili. 'Zamamee, taking offence in the insult, got up, and turned to face his attacker. Bad move. All the Jiralhanae aimed their weapons at him. Noticing the weapons pointing at him, the Sangheili decided it was time to back down. He turned around and walked to his cell.
A few days later, inside his cell which was just a small room designed to fit at the most, two occupants. Obviously it was improvised. The cell had two beds in the corners and had enough space in the middle for him to pace around when he was bored. To let a little fresh air in, there was a window located at the back of the cell. There were metal bars, and each bar had a shield stop it from being broken, and consequently, having the prisoner escape.
'Zamamee was so bored that he was thinking that he would think himself to death. It was preferable than being executed. The sudden noise of foot steps jolted him out of his thoughts. They only approached his cell to either bring in food or to mock him. Since it wasn't time for his food yet, he decided that they must be here to mock and to make fun of him. The footsteps were getting closer now. Then he picked up the stench of a Jiralhanae. Sure enough, a Jiralhanae appeared at the barrier to his cell. "Looks like our lucky day, Sangheili. The Council has postponed your execution date until another seven cycles, at least. The holy city is having some problems" and with that the Jiralhanae left him to ponder what was going on.
The next day, footsteps approached him. This time, he picked the smell of the Jiralhanae, as well as the smell of something…different. It was only then did he realize that it was the smell of a human. The fact that it took so long to recognize the smell made him realize how long it had been since he attacked a human. Soon a Jiralhanae approached with a human in tow. The human's eyes went wide with fear when it realized that it was going to be put in a cell with a Sangheili. The human struggled a bit before realizing that resistance was futile. The Jiralhanae threw the human into the cell.
"Have fun, you two" he told them. When the energy field reappeared, 'Zamamee threw himself at the human and grabbed it around the throat. Judging from its size, it was a male. 'Zamamee had his hands around the humans throat and was about to squeeze when he noticed the Jiralhanae watching with interest and satisfaction. 'Zamamee stopped himself from squeezing the life out of the human. He wasn't ready to give the Jiralhanae outside his cell any satisfaction. Throwing the human down onto the cold, hard floor, he wordlessly turned around and stormed off to his bed.
Private Adam Kenzie was an exceptionally worried Marine, and he had a good reason to be so. There was an Elite in the cell with him. The thing had almost choked him, but, for some reason he didn't understand, the Elite had stopped. Though he suspected that the Brute standing guard outside probably had something to do with it. He rubbed the place where the Elite had grabbed his neck. It was then that he noticed that there were two beds, and the Elite had already occupied one of them. Damned split –lip, he thought. He then placed his hand onto his pocket. There, the M6C Magnum was still in his pocket. The Brutes were very careless; they just grabbed him and threw him to the Phantom without checking if he was carrying a weapon.
Walking over to his bunk, he gave the Elite a glance. It was lying in its bunk, looking up at the ceiling. It seemed to be in deep thought. Adam didn't really give a damn; all he knew about them was that they were killers. Settling down on his bunk, he pulled a picture of his girlfriend out of his pocket and for a long time it seemed to him, he stared at it. Finally, with a sigh, he lay down and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Adam woke up with a groan. The bed wasn't very comfortable, but the Elite didn't seem to complain about it. The Elite, in fact, didn't even seem to be awake. Absent-mindedly, he felt his pocket to make sure that the Magnum was still there. It was. After, he turned his mind to more important things, such as what use a Magnum would be if he was executed. Considering that he was a human, he was most likely to be. What if I gave it to the damned split-lip, he wondered. Maybe it would escape, and besides, if I am going to die, then I might as well have someone else have freedom, he thought. Soon, when he was going to be taken out of the cell and executed, he would toss the Elite the Magnum, and watch it escape. Soon, he thought. Very soon.
'Zamamee woke up without a sound. As he shook off the disorientation and weariness from his being, he noticed that the human in the cell with him was watching him intently. "What are you looking at, infidel?" 'Zamamee demanded to know. The human said nothing. With a sigh of frustration, 'Zamamee settled back onto his bed. What would Yayap be doing, 'Zamamee wondered.
The Unggoy had survived the destruction of the Holy Ring with him, and was promoted to the silver armour of Unggoy Field Commander, and was also his personal assistant. Probably getting into a fight with some Kig-yar, he thought with a mental chuckle. Yayap had been reassigned to a station on board the Forerunner ship in the middle of High Charity. What 'Zamamee didn't know was that Yayap was indeed fighting a group of Kig-yar. Just not the kind of fight 'Zamamee was picturing in his mind.
"Holy flare!" Yayap screamed, before tossing a Plasma grenade down the hallway of the ancient Forerunner ship at the enemy: a pack of Kig-yar advancing on him and his group of Unggoy, all of them wearing the black armour of SpecOps. Though the grenade didn't stick to the Kig-yar, the sight of the primed grenade in the hallway caused all of the Kig-yar to jump or roll out of the blast radius of the Plasma grenade. In doing this, they had to move their shields away from their bodies, which allowed the Unggoy to get a good shot at the now exposed Kig-yar.
Yayap fired his Plasma Pistol as fast as he could, and he was rewarded with the sight of one of the Kig-yar's lifeless body dropping to the ground, plasma scorch marks all over it. The other Unggoy did the same, firing at the Kig-yar with a combination of Needlers and Plasma Pistols. The Kig-yar must have orders to take as many alive as possible, because there weren't any Jiralhanae around to viciously kill them. That didn't stop the Kig-yar from firing back though, as one of the Unggoy fell after being hit with as least four overcharged plasma blasts.
"DOWN IN FRONT!" Yayap heard the cry behind him. A single Plasma grenade flew over his head to land in the midst of the Kig-yar pack. The grenade detonated, and many of the Kig-yar were given a flying lesson as they flew into the walls on the side, staining the shining metal of which the ship was constructed from with their blood. Yayap overcharged his pistol, and let the bolt of deadly, sizzling energy loose down the hallway. The globule of plasma splashed across the shield of a Kig-yar. The shield overloaded, and seven needles homed in on the shield less Kig-yar. The needles embedded themselves in the Kig-yar, and then detonated.
The blood of the unfortunate Kig-yar sprayed across the shields of the other Kig-yar and that alone startled the others long enough for the Unggoy to start shooting into the Kig-yars ranks, though albeit poorly. However, it was enough to kill some of the Kig-yar as well as wounding others. Yayap heard some explosions behind him, and turned around to see a Sangheili Minor run around the corner.
The Sangheili let out a war cry when he saw the Kig-yar advancing on them, and let fly a Plasma grenade at the Kig-yar. The warrior threw it with enough strength that it went over the Kig-yar's shields and adhered to one of the Kig-yar. The Kig-yar panicked and ran straight towards one of its companions. The resulting explosion killed them both.
After the explosion, the Sangheili fired the Plasma Rifle in his hand. The bolts of plasma slashed across the corridor and hit the shields of the Kig-yar. One of the Kig-yar couldn't hold the shield up against such a barrage of fire, and shield left its safe position and multiple bolts hit the Kig-yar. It collapsed moments later.
Still firing, the sole Sangheili turned more Kig-yar into burned corpses until his Plasma Rifle overheated. At that critical moment, an overcharged plasma bolt hit the shields of the warrior, therefore draining the shields. Then, another overcharged plasma bolt hit him, and then another, and yet another bolt followed the previous one. The Sangheili went down with his plasma rifle blazing.
The death of the Sangheili was enough to send almost all the Unggoy panicking, save a few. Yayap, being one of the few to stay to fight, decided that there were too many Kig-yar to fight. So he screamed down to the other heroic Unggoy, "Too many! RUN AWAY!" That was enough to change the minds of the other Unggoy. They all turned tail and ran as fast as they could down the corridor. Suddenly, a Jiralhanae turned around the corner. He leveled a Plasma Rifle at them, and growled "Stop. NOW!"
Yayap and all the other SpecOps Unggoy skidded to a halt, and reluctantly dropped their Plasma Pistols and Needlers to the floor. The Jiralhanae chuckled. "That is good. Be good Unggoy and you won't die. Yet." He chuckled another laugh, and without further remarks, herded them into the improvised 'detention level', and shoved them all into a single cell and activated the energy shield. After he left, all Yayap could think about is what is going to happen to him.
'Zamamee was still on his bed, but he couldn't sleep. The last few days had him so shocked that he needed to think. "Hey." A voice shook him from his thoughts. "What, infidel? If you interrupt me again, I swear, by the Forerunners, that I will choke the life out of you with me bare hands!"
"They are coming for me. I can hear them." 'Zamamee strained to here something, and sure enough, there were heavy footsteps.
"So? It doesn't worry me, human."
"You should."
"Why? I don't care about you."
"No, but because I have an escape route for you."
'Zamamee was fairly shocked to hear that. "How?"
"I have a pistol with me. When they come to get me, they will drop the energy field. You can shoot the Brute in the head, and then escape."
'Zamamee caught the pistol that the human tossed to him. It was a human pistol. But, it is worth the escape, he told himself. Nodding to the human, he hid the pistol so the Jiralhanae couldn't see it. Soon, a Jiralhanae came to the cell. "You will come with me, human." Adam got up threw the Elite a grim smile, and walked out. Just before the Jiralhanae closed the barrier, 'Zamamee shot the Jiralhanae in the head. The round went in, tore apart his head, and the Jiralhanae hit the floor.
'Zamamee ran out of the cell, and cast a look at the human, and saw him being taken away by two Jiralhanae. 'Zamamee ran on.
As he ran past, he saw an Energy Sword in a container. Stopping to grab it, as soon as his hand gripped the hilt and activated it, a Jiralhanae came around the corner. It leveled the Brute Shot at him. Before it fire, however, 'Zamamee had lunged forward and cut it apart.
Not stopping to admire his handiwork, 'Zamamee continued to run forward for the exit, which was the entrance. Stopping just outside the detection zone that signaled to the door to open, 'Zamamee remembered two things. First of all, there were two Wraith tanks stationed outside the door. Secondly, his armour has Active Camouflage. Momentarily cursing himself for forgetting about that piece of equipment, he soon stopped and activated the Camouflage, and disappeared from sight.
Taking a deep breath, 'Zamamee ran at the door as fast as he could, and burst through the open doorway. Sure enough, as he looked around, there were two Wraith tanks posting guard at either side of the doorway. Remembering the motor pool, he ran for it. As soon as he was in it, he headed for the Wraith tank parked there.
Hopping inside the cockpit and sealing the hatch, he quickly hit the holographic activation switch. The tank rumbled to life, and he turned the tank to face the rest of the tanks in the pool. Activating the mortar, he fired it at the tanks that were parked there.
While the blast didn't destroy the tanks, it did damage them enough for a second mortar blast to turn them into blazing wrecks on the ground. Turning the tank around to face the doorway, he fired a mortar at the doorway. The stream of Jiralhanae that were pouring out of the doorway were reduced to a trickle after the mortar blast flung bodies in every direction.
By now, the two other Wraiths had gotten a bead on his tank, and lobbed two balls of plasma at his tank. 'Zamamee quickly accelerated the tank, and the plasma narrowly missed him. Deciding that it was better to run, he gunned the tank forward, activating the automated plasma defence turrets that sprayed the mob of Jiralhanae in front of him with plasma.
Bodies fell, and some flew great distances when the armoured hull of the boosted tank hit them. Moving forward, he kept on going, ignoring the screams and howls of the Jiralhanae behind him.
'Zamamee was free.
(A.N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Soon the real thing will begin, so don't back out on me now!)
