"The Warrior and the Rifleman"
By Kpmh2001
In all of Set Vadum's years of military service, he'd grown a sense of fascination with worlds that teemed with life. His own homeworld, Sanghelios, was arid and rocky, practically desolate in comparison to the lush world that he now found himself on. Normally, he found the humidity to be very uncomfortable, much as most Humans did, but there was benefit to the humble jungle; it was a perfect place to hide, but even more so to hunt. Perhaps it was his natural state as a predator, but he found the very act of tracking a target to be very satisfying.
Perhaps that was why he decided to follow the Humans that he had found, or rather, what he was pretty sure were Humans. They were wearing full suits of armor made from what seemed to be a derivative of plastic, camouflaged to blend in with the surrounding jungle, but also covering up any identifiable features. For the moment, he was content to assume that they were Humans, or at least something similar, as the Faunus were.
He had followed them for some time now, studying them, hoping to garner some information as to their intent. There were four of them, keeping a tight formation and sweeping the jungle with their unusual rifles. Clearly, they were searching for something, although exactly what that was, Set couldn't say. It was admittedly a bit frustrating to be devoid of such simple information, but without knowing their intention, he was unwilling to endanger himself by disabling his Active Camouflage and speaking with them.
Whatever it is that they're looking for, they do not seem to be having much luck. Set thought. Then again, they hadn't even given any indication that they were aware of his presence, so perhaps they were just unobservant.
Whoever the armored soldiers were, they had been trained, very well in fact. Alas, they had also fallen into the same trap that the Covenant had, their obedience to their doctrine and training had made them predictable, and thus, vulnerable. Even so, he stayed his Forerunner blade and kept his distance, too many innocent Humans had met their end at his hands, and he was not about to slay somebody without knowing if they deserved it.
Suddenly, the leader of the group raised a fist, and they paused in place, rifles raised. For a moment, Set wondered if they had finally noticed his presence. The leader performed a rapid series of hand gestures, not saying a word, as the team fanned out and moved into cover. Even so, none of the soldiers looked at him, so it seemed that his cover had not been broken.
That was when he spotted the other figure, a very familiar glimmer lying prone between the trees not very far from the soldiers. It was not a trick of the light as an untrained eye might have assumed, but another predator, cloaked in the same manner as himself. At first, he assumed that perhaps it was another Sangheili, but it was too small for that to be the case. Another Human then, perhaps they are the target of the others' search?
Whatever the case, the armored soldiers either didn't see the camouflaged figure, or simply didn't know what it was that they were looking at. They had clearly seen something, however, and that was when the cloaked figure made their move. Set heard a familiar click and shrunk back behind one of the trees, even if the armored soldiers did not recognize the sound of a human grenade being primed, he did.
Moments later, the small object landed right at the feet of the team leader, blowing them apart and scattering shrapnel throughout the trees. The armor of the other troopers for the most part protected them from the blast, but they were still driven further into cover, and Set saw one of them badly leaking blood. The mangled form of their leader confirmed Set's earlier suspicions, they were indeed Human, although who they were fighting remained a mystery.
The armored soldiers stayed in cover, shouting orders in the familiar Human language as they swept the jungle for their assailant, which remained cloaked as it wisely repositioned. What was not so wise however, was the rapid speed with which they moved. One of the weaknesses of Active Camouflage was the difficulty that it had keeping up with rapid-movement, a weakness that any trained operator of such equipment would know.
Finally, the rest of the team noticed the cloaked figure as the shimmer of light moved between positions of cover. They opened fire with their strange weapons, revealed to Set's surprise to be some manner of plasma rifles. Whatever the case, they were unsuccessful in hitting their targets, but the bright light offered by their projectiles permitted Set to get a better look at the target's silhouette.
It was a type of Human Armor that he hadn't seen before, clearly UNSC in origin that superficially resembled a Spartan's armor, but seemed different somehow. I suppose that was predictable, if they are using typical Human grenades, they may be with the UNSC.
Even so, Set stayed his hand, he was still reluctant to spill Human blood if it could be helped, and he was still not entirely certain whether or not the cloaked target was an ally, or just another enemy.
The cloaked figure made it to cover, and returned fire with a UNSC Battle Rifle. Their camouflage dissipated as the weapon fired, revealing them entirely and confirming Set's earlier suspicions. Their armor was very similar to that worn by Spartans, but lighter, and apparently with Active Camouflage capabilities. That was enough in Set's mind to confirm that they were an ally, and thus, the other soldiers were enemies.
Quickly and quietly, Set maneuvered himself close behind the hostiles and tightened his grip on his blade, before igniting it. Obligingly, the UNSC-Human ceased fire, seemingly reluctant to hit him with a stray round, another confirmation that they were a friend. The three enemy soldiers panicked as they heard his Forerunner blade ignite and saw him uncloak, but his energy shields protected him from what few shots they managed to fire as he lunged forward.
Naturally, three panicked soldiers at close-range with a Sangheili Warrior, let alone an Ultra, stood effectively no chance of survival. Within moments, he had cut them to pieces, and extinguished his blade as the other soldier descended from cover to come and speak with them.
As they approached him closer, they depolarized their visor. To Set's surprise, it was Sergeant Xavier Meadows, one of the same Humans that he had fought alongside on Remnant. "I never thought I'd be happy to see a Split-Lip."
Set's mandibles angled into a small smile, it was good to see that the Human had not lost its nerve. "Nor I you, Imp. I suppose these Humans are not our allies?"
Meadows shook his head as he leaned down and pulled the helmet off of one of the dead soldiers, inspecting it for something. "Nah, I ran into another patrol a few kilometers back, and they opened fire as soon as they spotted me. Luckily for me, either they can't aim or their weapons just suck."
"Fortunate circumstances for ourselves, in any case." Set remarked. "Do you know where we are?"
Meadows let out a sight as he dropped the helmet. "This Scout Trooper's nav-data says we're on a planet called Kash- Kashyy-, how the hell do you pronounce that? Kashyyyk, I guess. Maybe if one of these guys doesn't want to shoot us for a minute, we can ask them."
"I find it immensely amusing that you cannot read your own language." Set coyly remarked.
"Oh, shut up." Meadows replied. "Apparently these guys work for a "Galactic Empire," hopefully we won't have to kill all of them ourselves."
Set shrugged. "It would not be the first time that we have defeated impossible odds. Come, we should move on before more of them arrive."
"Ain't like I had any plans for today… which way?" Meadows asked.
"There." Set pointed. "These scouts were coming from this direction, perhaps if we retrace their steps, we can find where they came from."
Before they moved on, however, he stopped to grab himself a pair of the plasma rifles. They were fairly small by the standard of normal Human Rifles, but he still managed to get his fingers within the trigger guards. Meadows also pilfered one of the weapons for himself, as well as grabbing one of their rucksacks filled with useful supplies.
As they marched, Set found his curiosity only grew as to their strange circumstances, but moreso, his companion's equipment. "I have not seen Human armor like that before."
"It's called Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor, but everyone just calls it SPI." Meadows explained. "A few years ago ONI brought me and a bunch of other Helljumpers in to trial it, although we never got proper training with it, or told what it was for."
"I see, and how did you find that set?" Set asked.
The Imp shrugged. "Woke up wearing it. Truth be told, where this came from is pretty low on my list of questions right now."
"A fair point." Set replied.
They marched onwards for an hour longer, occasionally speaking with one another, but neither had anything of significance to say. They were both devoid of answers for the many, many questions that they had. That was, until Meadows suddenly paused.
"What is it?" Set asked.
Meadows was silent for a moment, reaching up to the side of his helmet and adjusting something, before turning to face him. "Something on the UNSC E-band. You still have that radio that Curie put in your armor?"
Set nodded and tuned it accordingly, and sure enough he could hear that there was something being broadcast, although what exactly was a mystery. Between the pops, static, and random omissions of sound at all, discerning anything was impossible. Even so, Set was certain that it was somebody speaking.
"That is promising." Set remarked. "Perhaps we are not the only ones out here?"
"Maybe, do you think it's worth the risk of giving ourselves away to see if anybody's listening?" Meadows asked.
Set nodded. "Yes, even if we are pursued by the enemy, I am confident in our ability to evade detection, especially in terrain such as this."
Meadows reached up to the side of his helmet again before transmitting. "This is Sergeant Xavier Meadows, does anyone copy this communication?"
Set listed intently for a response, but discerned nothing aside from the usual static and scrambled speech.
"No good, it's gotta be this jungle. The one back in Menagerie played hell with our radios too." Meadows declared, before looking up at the trunk of one of the monolithic trees around them. "Maybe if we could get above it…"
"I have no better strategy to suggest." Set replied.
Reaching the base of the tree that Meadows had selected took another hour, and once they arrived at the stump, it became apparent that ascending the tree would be more akin to climbing a mountain. The branches were the size of the high-rise buildings that Humans built, and by the time that they reached the first of the branches, hours had passed, and night was setting in.
Although some darkness set in, one of the moons overhead was unusually bright, illuminating the canopies. It also meant that they did not have to activate any of their lights, which would have potentially given away their position to any other Scouts in the forest below.
"Do you suppose we should make camp for the night?" Set wondered, although he was not yet tired, he knew that Humans typically required more sleep than his own kind.
Meadows grunted as he sat down for a moment. "Nah, I'm good, just let me catch my breath."
Set took the moment to survey the landscape around them while they momentarily rested, there was an alien beauty to it all, and yet a lingering sense of danger. He already knew that this "Galactic Empire" had a presence on the world, but what of the wildlife? What strange and potentially malicious predators lurked in the shadows? While he doubted that there was anything of a nature similar to the Grimm that he'd encountered on Remnant, his memories of home reminded him that a creature did not need to be demonic to be dangerous.
After a few minutes, Meadows stood back up. "Alright, I'm good. Let's work our way up to that second branch, maybe then-"
The Imp paused, and gestured for Set to take cover. With no objection, Set activated his Active Camouflage and found himself a small crevice in the gargantuan branch upon which they stood. Looking around, he saw what Meadows had noticed, a pair of aircraft in the distance.
They were about the size of a Human Pelican, and despite only being a few kilometers away, they made incredibly little noise. He could only hear the faint sound of engines if he listened very closely. They were sweeping it with searchlights, which they did for a few minutes, before breaking off of their hunt without warning, and began sweeping the surface of the forest.
"I suppose that confirms that we are being hunted." Set remarked. "Do they truly hope to find us with only two craft?"
"That's no reason to get cocky." Meadows pointed out as he inspected the aircraft through his riflescope. "Those are gunships of some kind, looks like they've got troop bays too. I think it goes without saying that we'd lose to them."
"I could try to conjure something, perhaps the Gods will favor us?" Set proposed. He wasn't quite sure if the gift that the Gods had granted him worked on this planet, but it seemed unlikely that he would learn without trying.
"...We'll keep that as a backup plan." Meadows replied, before deactivating his cloak. "Come on, we'll take cover if they come our way, but we need to keep making ground."
The two of them kept climbing as the night went on, mercifully, neither gunship seemed to have any interest in searching the tree that they were on. After what must have been another couple of hours, they reached a large branch much, much higher up. By now they were above most of the canopy, perhaps a kilometer above the surface.
"Alright, let's see if-, ha, yes! Set, listen in!" Meadows excitedly remarked.
Set tuned back into the UNSC E-band, and heard what had Meadows celebrating. With the static clearing up, they could now discern what was being said and the familiar feminine voice saying it.
"This is UNSC AI CUR-02121 broadcasting to any UNSC Forces, you are not alone. Respond to this communication and we will arrange an extraction for you. Be aware of hostile Human forces-"
She went on to relay a bunch of things that he and Meadows had already learned the hard way, but learning that they were not alone was a massive relief. "If the ancilla is here, the Spartan must be as well."
"And they're in a position to come get us!" Meadows added. "We'll need to be careful though, if we transmit from here, the Empire might pick it up."
Set took another look out at the enemy gunships in the distance, it went without saying that if the Empire did detect them, they would almost certainly be found before friendly forces could arrive. Even so, what other option did they have? Languish in the jungle until they ran out of supplies, or were discovered anyway? "It is a risk that we must take."
Meadows was clearly of the same mind, and gave a stern nod. "Then let's do this while we've got the darkness on our side. Grab some cover and I'll put out our call."
Set found a small crevice in the tree branch to take shelter within, calmed his mind as best as he could, and made a brief prayer to the Gods. "Almighty Forerunners guide my blade, I do not fear the faithless, I shall stand against them no matter what shape they may come."
Meadows fumbled with his radio for a moment, before sending out the transmission. "Curie, this is Meadows. Set and I are holed up in a rainforest, transmitting Navdata now. We're being pursued by hostile forces and need immediate extraction, over."
Almost immediately, the automated repeating signal cut out, and Curie spoke back. "Affirmative Sergeant, we will send support as soon as possible. Stay alert and don't transmit again until we're in the AO. Imperial Forces cannot decrypt our transmissions, but they can detect them."
An eerie silence set in as Curie stopped talking. Set and Meadows kept a watchful eye out, primarily keeping their sights on the two Imperial Gunships. As soon as Curie stopped transmitting, the aircraft momentarily came to a brief halt, no doubt attempting to trace either her transmission or the one that Meadows had broadcast, perhaps both. All the while, neither he nor Set moved a muscle, nor removed their Active Camouflage.
After several minutes of tense waiting, the moment that Set had been dreading came. The two gunships pivoted in the air and began to fly towards the massive tree that they sheltered upon. Worse still, Set could see two more aircraft far out in the distance, and he already knew that nowhere near enough time had elapsed for it to the friendly reinforcements that they were counting upon.
"Hey Set, if you've got any favors to cash with your Gods, now would be a good time!" Meadows urgently whispered to him, but still did not move from his position.
Set clutched the Forerunner blade in his hand tightly as he concentrated and recited a prayer. "Almighty Forerunners, I call to you in a time of great need. I ask that you grant to me what you have granted to me before, a weapon with which to carry out your holy will, and strike the faithless from the sky!"
Much to his relief, and to Meadows' shock, a small Slipspace portal immediately opened in front of them. It was about half of his height in diameter, and of a similar width, and it disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving behind a gift from the Gods.
Where there had previously been nothing but the air, now there was a small Forerunner auto-turret, made prominent by distinctive glowing blue lights across its frame. It was vaguely rounded, but possessed an aggressive frame that made it immediately clear that this was a weapon, and more notably, one not pointed at them.
"...Holy shit…" Meadows mumbled as the turret swiveled around, taking aim at one of the incoming gunships.
One downside to summoning the weapon was that it had given away his and Meadows' position, first with the portal and then with the lights of the turret itself. Nevertheless, Set immediately knew that he had made the right decision as the turret let out an electronic sound, before unleashing a blinding beam of energy that sliced through the gunship with startlingly little effort. The pilot desperately fired off some of the gunship's weapons, which flew out and struck the tree around their position, but they had already lost control of the aircraft, and spiraled to the ground in a flaming mess.
The second gunship very wisely retreated for the moment, and to Set's frustration and horror, the turret did not fire upon it. Whether it was due to some limitation of the weapon, be it range or a buildup of heat, it did not matter, as the Imperial Gunship was free to fire off a pair of missiles at the turret, blowing it to smithereens.
The idea of summoning another immediately crossed Set's mind, but dissipated as he realized just how much the effort of the first conjuration had sapped him. He could fight for now, but not if he were to summon something else. For the moment, they were on their own.
He and Meadows awaited obliteration, but were surprised as the gunship held its fire. Set had expected the gunship to simply unleash a barrage of fire at the point at which their branch connected to the colossal trunk of their tree, which would certainly kill anybody hiding upon it as it plummeted to the ground.
But that's just it… they still don't see us! Set realized, sending a silent thanks to the Gods for his armor, and another for the fact that Meadows was also wise enough to remain still and camouflaged.
They weren't quite out of the woods yet, however, as the Gunship then began to fly much closer, before coming to a steady hover a few meters over the base of their branch. A pair of large doors opened on either side of the vehicle, discouraging an eight-man squad of white-armored soldiers. Immediately, the Imperial strategy was made clear, he and Meadows were now cornered, and they would sweep down the branch in search of them. Active camouflage or not, they would certainly be found, and so it was imperative to make the first move.
While Set holstered his sword and readied the Imperial Plasma Rifles that he had stolen, Meadows reached a similar conclusion to him, and whispered a simple warning over the radio. "Grenade going out!"
A small object flew through the air from the Imp's position, and Set watched, admittedly with perhaps a bit too much satisfaction, as every single Imperial Trooper before them dove in vain for cover that was barely present. Meadows' throw was magnificent, and the grenade detonated in the middle of their formation, blowing two of them off of the branch outright, and wounding those that survived with shrapnel and the fireball. Even the gunship above momentarily wobbled in the air from the shockwave, before waving off and falling back.
Meadows didn't move from his position as he opened fire, blowing a trio of holes through the head of the only soldier who'd been just a bit too slow to get down on the ground. Set rose from cover to join him, but before he could open fire, one of the Imperials lobbed a grenade of their own at him. His mind working overtime, Set reached a grim conclusion, cover would not save him, and so it was time to do something reckless.
The grenade landed right at his feet, and rather than run, Set leapted towards it and swatted it off of the branch and into the air. It wasn't a moment too soon either, as less than a second later, the grenade detonated. His energy shields absorbed most of the blast, but flickered and died as the fireball reached him, along with a few bits of shrapnel. He ignored the burning and stabbing pains in his body as best as he could, he staggered into a decent firing position and let loose with both of his stolen plasma rifles.
The Imperial soldiers were clearly well-trained, and put up a terrible fight, but even with a five-to-two advantage, they were simply outmatched. Superior Marksmanship from Meadows and himself, along with another well-placed grenade from the Helljumper, saw the demise of the remaining Imperial Troopers.
As soon as the last one was down, Set pressed himself down into the crevice in the branch and took stock of his injuries. He was wounded, the piercing pains across his body reminded him of that much, but he was still alarmed by just how much indigo blood stained the ground around him. The primary and by far most severe culprit was a massive gash torn through his right thigh, presumably by a piece of shrapnel from the grenade from earlier.
Sangheili Customs dictated that he allowed the blood to spill, as in being wounded he had forsaken the honor of himself and his clan, but if his time as an ally to Humanity had taught him anything, it was that some of his people's customs were perhaps a bit out of date. And so he dug around in his stolen imperial rucksack for something to staunch the bleeding with.
"Set, stay down!" Meadows shouted at him. The Human had clearly noticed that he was not in a good state, and was continuing the fight on his own, firing his battle rifle at something that Set couldn't quite see.
Well aware of the fact that he was steadily losing consciousness, Set finally found what he was looking for, a tourniquet. Ben had given him a lesson on how to use them some time ago, and now that time in training paid off as he managed to finally put a stop to the bleeding. Even so, he was worryingly lightheaded, and judging by his swimming vision and dimmed hearing, he'd probably only barely managed to save his own life, at least, for the moment.
Practically out of the fight, he glanced over to Meadows and saw that he was under attack by the gunship. It sprayed at his position with masses of red plasma bolts, but somehow Meadows managed to avoid every brush with death, and returned fire with his battle rifle. For just a moment, Set felt utterly crestfallen, how could Meadows hope to stand alone against a gunship, let alone the other two that were coming in just behind it?
Then, just as all seemed lost, the foremost gunship detonated in a terrific explosion. At first Set was dumbfounded, had Meadows actually managed to shoot it down? But as the other two gunships were blown apart, Set saw their saviors come flying by at blistering speeds. A pair of swept-wing fighters tore through the sky, shaking the branch that they were standing on as they passed.
With the danger passed, Meadows ran over to Set's side and began plugging some of his more menial wounds with his own medical kit. Even in a state of borderline delirium, Set couldn't help but find the situation entirely hilarious. An Imp saving the life of a Sangheili Warrior? "If I didn't know better, I would have said that you almost looked worried."
Meadows looked nothing of the sort of course, what with the golden visor obscuring his face. "Will you stop trying to be slick, for just one goddamn minute?"
He veered in and out of consciousness, but before he knew it, he was lying in the troop bay of a transport craft, and kneeling over him right beside Meadows, was another familiar visor. "Demon…"
Ben gave a friendly nod. "Good to see you too, Set. Get some rest, you've earned it."
Authors Notes: You know, I was originally going to make a full-fledged story based around my little Headcanon for the later years of the Kashyyyk Campaign. But honestly, I kind of like doing this more. Even if I've kind of lost my passion for RWBY and Halo, at least this way, I can keep playing with my Original Characters, not to mention explore new ideas.
Not sure how many of these I'm gonna do, there's probably not going to be any kind of big overarching plot to them, probably, I'm not sure. I want to think on it a little bit more.
