Chapter Two: Lost in Confusion

As the human ate, Set and his daughter walked side by side down the wide main hallway that spanned most the length of the Supercruiser. He did not want to broach the topic on his mind, as it was tiresome.

They walked in silence, as they neared their own family quarters, usually used for the Shipmaster and his closer officers, it was now being reserved for his family. They were nearing Sanghelios, under the guise of resupplying after their heavy losses sustained on the human colony. Mostly due to the low scum the Prophets had sent to 'aid' his mission. Nothing more than ground skimming vermin in his eyes.

Set thought back to his younger days, when walking this close to the bridge of the ship filled him with hopefulness and determination. As an elder warrior now, the halls led his mind to think of home. He looked to his side, where his oldest daughter walked. Her eyes looked forward, and he knew she was lost in thought. Odd he thought, she should never drop her guard. It can cost us her life.

He readied himself to scold her when she interrupted him. "Father, may I pose a question?"

Dropping his project of giving her a few choice words, he halted the thought process and switched gears. He grunted an affirmative.

"I still do not fully understand why you have misled the human", she said it as a statement.

He eyed her out the corner of his eyes, "I did not. He believes we will arrive in fourteen units. We will. The Spartan will not leave this ship, and he will not know where he is. The information would be useless to him".

"Yes, Father. I apologize for being ignorant"

Set always hated these games. They were a family unit, yet in the presence of his own soldiers, he could not delve into the family role. It irked him those below him could lose loyalty as simple gestures that by all rights a father should show. He deigned not to speak more. Least until prying ears would be shut away.

They strode into the Shipmaster quarters. Now he had decided it safe to speak. "You shall continue to watch the human. If any of ours decide to be rid of him, it will ruin our future".

Braxi sighed lowly so her father wouldn't hear, "My other duties still command my time, Father. Am I being relieved of my position?", she asked challengingly.

"The foundations are being laid now. Your section will be led by whomever you choose. It dishonors me to say, that human is the key to our future. One day your brother will lead and bring glory to our clan. That will not come to pass if harm falls on the demon".

"Yes Father, am I dismissed?". She asked as she stepped off, wanting to be away from her father.

Her father eyed her, staring intently. "You are to resume your duties. Take it around the ship if he seeks to, only the least sensitive places".

Braxi was already out the portal by a few feet when he had finished his sentence. Her frustration grew every minute as she thought more and more of what Set had said. She was a warrior, she could best most males in combat, yet it did not matter. She shrugged it off with a roll of her shoulders.

The hallway was mostly empty, it was the middle of the current shift. The crew either at their stations or asleep. Every now and then, a male would walk by her fulfilling their runner tasks. One out every few would cast their eyes on her form, and she would snarl at them. Her anger mounting, she walked forward. Alone on a ship full of males. Still warm from their recent fighting. A few units more. Then this ship will be full of families and clans. It won't last, she convinced herself.

As she neared the corner to take towards the human's quarters, she heard a loud crash. Of armor hitting the floor. Her feet hit the metal beneath her as she ran. Through the portal she came through and the sight made her almost pause.

Grunts and heavy breathing greeted her ears, before her the unarmored Spartan was beating a Sangheili minor with an energy sword in hand. One of the human's hands were wrapped around its wrist that held the sword, she was going to move forward to assist when he grabbed the elite around the neck, and threw him hard into the wall.

Attempting to rebound, the Minor leapt forward with a horizontal slash, quickly he dodged around the overreaching arm. Latching onto it, he rotated it down, and slammed his other fist into the elbow. Even with the difference in physicality, the Sangheili's elbow broke with a resounding crack.

Bellowing, the Elite's fingers let go of the energy sword, that burnt the floor beneath the blade. The Sangheili's other fist landed on the Spartan's unprotected ribs. The breath knocked from him, Gabriel grabbed at the alien's quartered jaws, and tore the bottom pair outward. Snapping at his hands, he yanked them. Even as they sliced his palms on their sharp edges, he jerked them outward until he felt them crack and pop out of their sockets.

Braxi moved forward, looking to stop the fight quickly when the Minor fell to the ground, and the human leapt downwards and began viciously beat the male underneath him. She saw the male lose consciousness, and even then he did not stop launching his fists again and again. His hands started coming back redder and redder.

Noble Six felt a weight around his chest and shoulders as he was lifted off the pathetic worm beneath him that threatened him. Instinctively, he tried to rotate around and attack his new enemy. His wild eyes caught the familiar face of the Shipmaster's daughter, and he relaxed his body. It was difficult, more difficult than he could ever remember. More so then even when several Marines beat him as a child, when he didn't fight back for fear of being thought of as a monster, like 117. He had heard the stories. His body twitched uncontrollably, adrenaline coursing through his heightened system. Braxi placed him heavily down, then reached down and picked the sword by the hilt, turning it off and placing it on her own belt.

"What happened here, human?", she interrogated, annoyed this would only prove her father correct, in her understanding.

The human still breathed hard, more of battle excitement than physical demand. "Fucker came at me while I was playing with Jack!", he exclaimed.

Her eyes squinted in confusion, not understanding half the sentence. "What is 'fucker' and 'Jack', I have never heard those words before", she stared inquisitively. Forgetting the fallen Sangheili near her feet.

As if his mind had returned from quick flight, Gabriel stared at her before he realized what he said. "I named the Huragok Jack. And fucker is an insult in human language", he explained quickly. She was going to respond, when he strode forward. With one stride followed with an upwards kick, he hit the rousing Sangheili under the already broken mandibles. He fell back into blissful sleep.

If Braxi was unseasoned, she would've been surprised. "This Minor attacked you, clearly. What punishment will he receive?", she questioned.

"Punishment? I broke his jaw and arm, by all rights I should kill him too", he said vigorously.

She nodded in agreement. Impressed a smaller, unarmored, unarmed human easily dispatched the larger foe. With finesse no less. Braxi pressed a finger to her helmet. "Father, there has been an incident at the human's quarters". She pauses a moment. "It was dealt with. The human beat him. What should I do with the coward? The human says 'death'".

Gabriel spoke up, "Let him go, he's learned his lesson. It won't come back again".

Braxi halted what she was going to say. She looked in his eyes for a hint of a jest. When she found none, she relayed the request to her Father.

"Then he will be let go to his duties", she leant down and grasped the Minor's broken arm. She hefted him up by it, causing him to groan in agony. She set him on his feet, even as he stared with swimming eyes. Forcefully, she pushed the bone back into place. The Minor yelled in agony as she then shoved him out the portal. He landed across the hall, against the wall and stumbled off.

Braxi stared back and found the human again stroking the Huragok. Perhaps he found it calming, she thought. Humans certainly are odd. Fight one moment to this. The human left for his sleeping quarters, and with a loud proclamation, "Jack! Go out! Go on now, go!", and the Huragok made a high pitched whine. "Get! I have to change!", he urged again.

Braxi felt her mandibles lift in amusement at the situation. 'Jack' floated over to her now, nudging against her four fingered hands. She idly pet him as she processed the recent situation.

Minutes after, the human came back out. Garbed in his full armor, except for the oddly shaped helmet.

A question popped into her head, "What does Jack mean?"

He shrugged his heavily armored shoulders, "Doesn't mean anything. It just sounded similar to Huragok to me". He looked at her, truly looked at her for the first time. "Braxi, right?", he returned the question.

"Correct, the ee sound is stronger. You have yet to tell me yours.", she pivoted.

"Gabriel. My name does have a meaning too. Although it might be difficult to explain", he hoped she would ask, and he did not know why.

Braxi took the hint to ask, curiosity took her over. Never had she thought she would speak with a human. She took the chance given. "What does it mean, 'Gabriel'?". She struggled with the odd human syllables.

He nodded, "It means 'My Strength from God'". Although he knew it childish, he always enjoyed speaking of his namesake and its meaning.

She realized that another question would keep leading into more questions. Instead, she nodded and pulled out a datapad. She quickly typed what she learnt in her journal section. Then she pulled up an old history of Sanghelios. Of distant wars fought and whatnot.

Six grew bored quickly. He had nothing to do but to watch Jack play with different trinkets. He had odd tools that he would piece together then take apart. He would often emit low hums when he finished a puzzle. After a few more minutes of watching, the Huragok leveled its eel head with Gabriel's, then approached. One tentacle reached for his plated forearm as the other one held a datapad similar to Braxi's.

After just a few seconds, it was attached to his wrist with an electrical current. It beeped to life and displayed English letterings. Gabriel's eyes shot up minutely, his eyebrows raised a millimeter.

"So you can understand me then? When did you ever hear me speak English?", he asked the rambunctious genius. The eel poked the datapad, and different letters pieced themselves together. It read: When you were screaming in your sleep and a mother hen had to calm you down.

Now his face furrowed completely, in utter confusion he stared at the Sangheili in her seat, eyes still pasted to her own reading.

He leant in close to the alien. "What do you mean?".

Again the gasbag poked his screen, She isn't as mean as she seems. When suffering can be relieved, she tries. She finds you curious.

If his eyes could be any different, he'd look like a new breed of alien in its entirety. The more he asked, again the more questions arose.

Gabriel dropped his wrist from the Huragok. Steeling himself from the various shake ups, he walked towards the Sangheili.

In apprehension, he asks "Care to show me around the ship? I feel like a prisoner cooped in here".

Braxi did not respond for a moment, she finished her paragraph and looked towards the noise. It took another moment for her to process the inquiry. "If you desire. Where would you like to go, Gabriel?". She again spoke his name slightly oddly. It sounded… smoother somehow than in proper English.

"I'd like to see something interesting. Where do you like to walk around?" he questioned the Elite.

She paused for a moment, already thinking of the repercussions of males seeing her walking with the sole human aboard ship. Although they were no longer a part of the Covenant, many Sangheili still held many sore points about the humans. Technically, until they made it to Sanghelios, they had to play the part of loyal followers of the Prophets.

Quickly she filtered out all the high traffic areas and other places that were deemed too sensitive for their still shaky ally.

"I know a hangar that still stands unused as of now. It is now used for storage, I go there every few units", she informed the Spartan.

Gabriel quickly grew more excited, not by much, but still. "Lead the way then, 'Rodamee", he spoke.

With her in slightly ahead and to his left, she led the way out the room. The Huragok did not follow, instead going the opposite way. Its tentacles still played with various tools and Gabriel could not help but wonder what it was planning to do. He still had no measure of the thing's intelligence. It was literate, and handy.

Spartan B-312 had been in ships much like this before, not to this same scale, but very similar layouts. When he was an ONI lapdog, they had sent him on a few black ink missions where he knew they already had an M.I.A stamp ready for him. The thought of failure never bothered him. Covert Ops were his forte. Frontline fighting is usually a last resort. Not that it was a weak point.

On their route, to what he soon realized was the path to the underbelly of the ship, a few Elites walked past the odd pair. A few bared their mandibles at the sight of the demon, but the growl of Braxi was more than enough of a deterrent. He had to appreciate how easy she made them back down.

Braxi was quickly getting more and more agitated, now the males were staring even harder at her. Wondering why the Shipmaster's Daughter was walking her pet demon on a leash around their ship. Each time they passed one, she could feel their eyes on the back of her head. She was broken out of her reverie of violence by the Spartan.

"Is it normal for Sangheili to bare their teeth at their superiors?", he asked the taller one.

She turned back to face him even as they walked forward, "No, but they think that a female warrior as myself is weak. How I wish they would try to test that theory", she said with vitriol. This caused the retired Lone Wolf to think back in his encounters with the alien race.

Never once had he fought a female Sangheili. Hell, he had never even seen one. This made him wonder even further if it meant something was amiss. Why would the Sangheili rescue a Spartan and tell him he was 'key to their people's destiny'? He had little idea. The more he thought and added the pieces of the broken puzzle, more possibilities added up in his mind.

"I think you are the first female Sangheili I have ever seen. Now that I think of it", he stated.

She continued looking forward as they neared their objective. "That is because females protect the Keeps. The males seek glory in fighting wars far from home. We seek glory in the household" she said with disgust.

Noble Six nodded, "Someone has to raise the young, I guess".

At this she let out a low hiss, "The strong should fight, whether it be male or female. I have seen human females fight before. I am one of few to fight instead of rearing young". At this, pride was evident in her inflection.

"I agree with that point. How does a Sangheili become a warrior anyways?", he asked as they entered a portal at the dead end of a long hallway.

She took a breath, knowing the extent of the question. She had to admit it to herself, she would rather not remember the trials needed for a Sangheili to grow into adulthood. Braxi walked slowly to the rear of the bay. All around them were the carcasses of old Phantoms, Banshees and Seraphs. Gutted and left to rot. All useful pieces were incorporated elsewhere in the Supercruiser's sizable armory. In the furthest corner of the bay, where the doors could be opened and a field activated to keep the ship vacuum sealed, she brought them. It was here that she tended to get away to. When she had to strategize or make plans for engagements. A Phantom was closest to the bay doors, and after activating the field she finally sat down.

As she stared into the black chasm of space, she began in the deepest part of her memories. "It is common for Sanghieli to not make it past infancy. If they are sick, weak, or small, they are given lesser chances. If they are born strong, they are pushed into training".

"By don't make it past infancy…" he began but stopped.

Braxi continued on, "The training is arduous, those who lack strength do not survive. They won't even make it past childhood. Wargames are fought to the death. My younger brother died in one. He was small, but cunning. He died to a coward, who waited for him to be exhausted before battling him", here her voice caught an edge.

"We spend years fighting, learning. The best are sent to the proper colleges, and the weak are left behind", she sped on. "When I was a child, I wanted to be a warrior. I was already in the early stages of training, but I wanted more. I wanted to make up for my brother's death. I demanded to be put against the males".

Here she stopped, she clicked her mandibles in annoyance. Here I am, telling an outsider of our customs. What Mother would do to me if she knew… I've said too much. She thought to herself.

Spartan B-312 listened intently, comparing it to his own personal experiences. He felt a relation to all she had said.

Braxi eyed the human some distance from her, silently asking him to share something. Uncomfortable at the idea of being the only one to share her past.

Organizing his thoughts, he spoke. "We were sent on a retrieval mission once. I was seven or eight I think. We were numbered thirty-one, split into teams of three. I didn't want anyone else to be the lone man out, so I remember making a deal for extra food if I went off alone. The goal was to sneak or fight past the instructors and grab their flag", now he began speaking, the memory flew like water out of a glass.

"Long story short, I got that flag. The thirty attacked from two sides, with them distracted I sprinted in and out. The instructors were so angry they beat us all. They targeted the legs, so it would hurt even more to run. One broke his leg". Gabriel finished his little story.

"Did anyone ever die?", Braxi asked bluntly.

Noble looked at her askance before dropping the look. "Yeah. Out of hundreds of us, we ended with only thirty". At this her eyes went wide. Barbaric she thought, That is how demons are born.

In silence, both digested what the other said. Even though they both witnessed a failed assassination attempt, they were calm. At peace. Gabriel let his mind wander, after speaking to someone, everything seemed a little less dull. His dead team, his mission, all the stress of the past week slid through his mind. With his face hidden behind his visor, he let his face melt into the emotion he was processing.

Side by side, closer than either of them realized, they digested their respective memories. Noble Six thought back to his first meeting with Noble Team, he thought back to the bickering he had heard the team share. Usually between Emile and Kat, and he smiled fondly. In one week, he felt close to the group. Hardship brings people together, and tears them apart he thought darkly. He was happy he still felt. In the recesses of his mind, he was grateful for the emotion. As of yet, he was still human. Not a machine he saw other Spartans become.

Braxi thought of the situation at hand. Soon they would be on Sanghelios, resupplying and gathering their families. As it remained, with her guarding the human, she thought of her brothers. Both living and dead. She was the eldest, but she second to her brothers, and as such, it was likely they would either supplement her duty, or outright replace her. Her mandibles twitched in agitation.

Perhaps she could convince her Father he was foolish, he was a Spartan. Unprotected and at a disadvantage, he held his own easily. To guard him is an insult on his honor. Yet, I don't wish to yet fall into danger. Father says he is the key to our collective betterment. However he means that. Her mind raced.

A small beep dragged her from her wanderings, instinctively, her hand reached her helmet. It was a private channel to her Father, her Commander.

In his deep rumble, her Father spoke. "If the Spartan is not in his quarters, bring him there now. We are fast approaching Sanghelios. R'tai will come to relieve you of the guard", certainly was a command. She turned her head to the Spartan beside her as she responded.

"I will bring him there now, Father".

There was no response, and she stood, finding the human already on his feet and walking towards the portal. With her being taller, her strides easily caught up with the smaller human. Although in full armor, he was only slightly shorter than her hunched figure.

Interestingly enough, the human seemed to know the way back. Her eyes stayed in the same place even as the human chose a different route. One she was not expecting him to know. Through the smaller walkways, past more Sangheili she was comfortable with, they reached the room without incident. Braxi halted her steps at the entrance of the portal, and Gabriel walked through it. Turning around and finding it empty, he poked his hand back outside. With her eyes again taped to her datapad, he waiting a second. After not responding to his presence, he poked her near her elbow. Her hand lashed out on instinct, if he wasn't quicker, he would've been sporting a healthy welt. Braxi stared hard at the human, mandibles bared.

"I will take note of the differences between our species this once. Do not lay your hands on me Human", she said heatedly.

Six pursed his lips behind his helmet, annoyed at himself for upsetting the Sangheili. "I meant no offense, just to get your attention", he tried to explain.

Bringing her mandibles close, she said "And what begs my attention?".

Not knowing exactly why he bothered her, "Well, wouldn't you rather sit inside than stand out here?", hoping the question would have an answer.

" I would. However, the change of guard is soon. It would be unfitting for me to sit as I wait", she explained. Truthfully, she did not want her younger brother to see her in proximity of the human. Always protective, she did not want a mistranslation to occur. Only the Forerunners knew what would happen if he took offense to the human speaking with her. Rarely would a male speak to a female outside of close bonding or business.

The human nodded and retreated to his domicile. With nothing more to do, he gazed at the purple blood on his floor. He again looked to the Sangheili on guard. Outside, he caught her attention without touching. Worried to offend her again. "Hey, is there anything I can use to clean the blood up?" he asked.

Removing her eyes from the screen in her hand, " I will send for a Minor" came the simple reply.

Soon enough, a Minor did come, this time unarmed. With the equivalent of a bucket, it began scrubbing. Gabriel retreated to his sleeping quarters so as to not dishonor the Elite by seeing it scrub the floor. He wondered why an Unggoy wasn't sent instead. Now that the thought deeper on it, he had yet to see any life besides the Huragok and Sangheili. Hopefully his host was speaking the truth, and they would be at their objective soon enough.

Quickly growing bored, he layed out everything he had in his armor. His possessions few, it did not take long. Among them were two pairs of dog tags. One belonged to Jorge, and the other to Emile. Shame filled him at the sight of the pieces of steel. He prayed silently that the fallen were in the afterlife, finally resting. The price demanded of the super soldiers went beyond any non-Spartan could fathom. Every second was aimed at winning the war between the Covenant and the human race.

Now he had no distractions, he thought of his situation yet again. It made no sense to him, he was confused, and was not hopeful of his predicament. As he thought this, he laid down on his oddly formed bed. Still in armor, he turned the alarm on his HUD that would warn him of movement in his area. After the Minor had attacked him earlier, he did not want to give another a more fortunate chance at his life.

When he woke, he realized his fixed HUD displayed the time. Gabriel was shocked to see almost four days had passed since he had first set foot on the Sangheili ship. Who woulda thought I'd go from fighting them to working with them? Am I already losing my edge? He questioned himself as he stretched on the bed. His armor wasn't comfortable to be exact, but it eased his mind to know he was both shielding and steel.

In the common area, he spied Braxi again in the seat against one of the walls, silently he wondered why she only did so after he had fallen asleep. She doesn't know when I sleep. How long has she been on guard anyways?

As if fate were answering, the portal opened and in came a new Sangheili Gabriel did not recognize, it was already difficult enough to distinguish them, as only their lower faces were bare. Easily he realized it was not a female, as it was broader and had a longer neck.

It stared hard at the Spartan, and in turn he readied himself. His hands remained still at his side even as the Sangheili bared its teeth. Braxi stood, and squared her shoulders. "Brother, you are to guard the human. Not kill him", she growled out and put herself between the pair. She knew what both were capable of and could not decide who would win, to her own surprise.

Gabriel took a step back, to give them room. He wouldn't get between the siblings.

The male snarled, fingers twitching towards his sword locked on his belt. "Father did not say I would be guarding a worm, Sister", he spat out the word worm and sister with venom and distaste. Braxi knew why, the youngest brother, outranked by a female, was a stain on his honor. Supposedly. She was sick of male pride and would not stand for disrespect.

Braxi neared her younger sibling, confident she could snuff out the rebellious sibling. "Father tells what needs to be told. Your orders remain", she said authoritatively. Itching for the prideful youth to challenge her.

Curling his mandibles in distaste, the Sangheili lowered his head. Finally accepting her ruling. She let out a breath of expectation, and unsquared her shoulders. He brushed past her and stood before the Spartan. Gabriel estimated him to be just shy of his father's height. Less scarred than his father. He glared into the visor a challenge, and Noble Six returned the look, ready to react to any threat the less experienced warrior could offer.

With his nerves on standby to fight, the Elite turned suddenly and walked towards the portal. Looking towards the elder sibling, "We shouldn't waste effort on such a little worm. The artifact could be accessed without him disgracing this ship", he spoke matter of factly.

Gabriel leveled his eyes from within his visor, "This worm speaks your language", he informed the Elite.

His heading snapping to the human he again squared his body in the Spartan's direction. "Watch your tongue, demon. I do not care if you can speak our language. You will not", he said threateningly. At this a loud thump resounded, Braxi had hammer punched the younger Sangheili on the top of his armored head. "Idiot, have you not matured? Are you still a young child?" she demanded of her younger brother.

His hands went to his head, even through the helmet it hurt. "It is true Sister, he is nothing more than a worm, undeserving of our hospitality!", he said childishly.

" I do not care, Xiun. Leave us", she told him as she pushed him by the shoulder towards the door. When he halted, she continued her urging, "Go! You have already lost your pride". At the added needling, he stormed off to nurse his injured ego.

Spartan B-312 was mostly at a lost of words, he tilted his head towards the female. "Is he usually like that?".

She sighed and held her head, as if it ached. "Only around humans, I swear, he has inherited all the negative traits of our family", she shook her head to dispel the thought.

"On behalf of the 'Rodamee Clan, I extend our apologies", she said formally.

Not feeling comfortable, Six put it simply, "Its nothing, I accept your apology".

The conflict dealt with, she sat back down on the seat. She then leaned her body down horizontally and rest her head on her forearm. He watched curiously for a moment before getting a ping on his datapad. There were a few 'files' that had been added. All in English. He opened it and saw a note, I have translated some Sangheili texts for you. Took a while but I thought they'd prove useful to you. - Jack.

He sat down on the opposing seat across from the Sangheili attempting to sleep. He knew she had performed guard duties a ridiculous amount of time recently. He began reading, enveloped in the customs of the Sangheili.

Hours later, according to his helmet's clock, and an announcement was made over the Sangheili Supercruiser. He half heard it, and from what he gathered, they were close to some destination. Various crews were ordered to come in full and prepare the loading operations. What mostly surprised him was the fact Braxi was still sound asleep on the uncomfortable looking couch. He softly walked over to her and saw her muscles twitching, her mandibles flexing as if she were fighting. He saw her hyperventilate and heard her give a growl. Hesitantly, as to not wake her, he put his hand on her shoulder. She still twitched, and he wondered what she was dreaming of.

He rubbed her shoulder and her breathing relaxed some, her muscles untensed and she seemed to fall deeper into her slumber. Satisfied he went back to his spot and continued his reading.

Later she woke, rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked towards the human tiredly. Caught off guard he was in the same room, she was confused where she was before her mind fully caught up with the awakening.

She put a hand to her helmet, and connected to the private channel to her Father. "How close are we, Father?", she questioned.

Quickly her answer came, "As we speak. Bring the Spartan with you to the bridge. The other Shipmasters want to see a 'live demon in the flesh' as they put it".

Standing upright, she looked towards the human still fully absorbed. "Father has called us to the bridge. Prepare yourself, you are now Ambassador to your species", she spoke. As they walked towards the portal, the headpiece buzzed again. "And Xiun told me what happened. We will speak of that later, Zealot".

Noting the way he said her rank irked her. She growled in annoyance and strode from the room with the Spartan. He followed her with questions running through his head. He dearly wished they would have told him in advance, but assumed it was a way to rob him of any potential advantage of preparation.

As they walked towards the bridge, he was astounded by the high volume of Sangheili foot traffic, it was close to clogging the wide hallway. They must have walked past thousands of Elites, many he noted were female, fewer were elders, and more occasionally were younger Sangheili still in childhood. Something is happening. Something huge. This looks more like a transport of refugees than anything… his thinking stopped for a moment when they reached the main portal to the bridge. She nodded towards him, and he prepared himself. Squaring his shoulders, lifting his armored chin, he stood straight and walked through the doorway as if heading into combat.

Immediately, he took notice of the high ranking Sangheili. Around Shipmaster 'Rodamee stood a dozen or more Shipmasters. They were the similar white armor he did, although with smaller headpieces. One caught his attention immediately, one of the Special Ops types he fought against on top the Corvette above Reach. His armor was more intricate and he assumed him to be a Commander of some sort.

Shipmaster 'Rodamee ceased what he was saying to bring his entourage towards the Spartan. He spied some of their looks, half seemed ready to kill him, while the others looked at him in interest. Surely they had all heard of the demon before. As the Special Ops Sangheili neared him, his memory hit like lightning. He knew he recognized that headdress! It was one the only Sangheili to ever best him in combat. Gabriel knew he was lucky to have escaped the skilled Elites energy swords. Ignoring most of the other Shipmasters, he centered his attention on the Special Ops Elite.

He bowed his head in reverence to the larger warrior, "The bridge, right before I detonated the explosive. You remember me?", he asked.

The Special Elite Commander stared at the ghost before him, "You killed many of my best warriors, Demon. I thought you would've died by now", he said and laughed. To this Six was pleasantly surprised there was a joking way the Elite spoke. Gabriel sincerely hoped he was not one to hold grudges.

"I thought for sure you were dead. That bomb certainly did a lot of work, huh?", he asked.

The Commander looked at him queerly."Are you boasting of your wicked combat? First you rob me of the chance at honorable combat, then you blow a hole in the middle of my ship. Took me weeks to make proper repairs", he said in distaste.

Six shrugged and smiled, "Orders are orders. I think you can relate, Commander", the other Sangheili around them shuffled their feet in discomfort. The Special Ops Commander was an odd one by their standards, which made sense to a choice few. To fight the way they did required a specific mindset and personality. None would question the Commander, he earned his rank by sheer strategic genius. His many victories proved his merit.

Shipmaster 'Rodamee coughed, catching the attention of the Spartan and Commander. "We must drink, human! Not often can I speak to someone who can sneak onto my ship and live to tell the tale!", and with that, he departed towards the closest hangar to board his Phantom for his own ship. Oddly enough, he waved towards Gabriel as he strode off.

Before confusion could cement in the Spartan's mind, the residing Shipmaster introduced the Spartan. Boasted of a few of his known deeds, how he had bested various other Sangheili and his purpose was heavily touched upon in the mission to come. Soon the Sangheili began speaking of him as if he were a show dog. Many questions and statements were made on his behalf by 'Rodamee. He tuned them out when he heard a call that sliced through the conversations, the Shipmaster was declaring the boarding and resupply complete, and the other Shipmasters departed for their own ships. When the crowd cleared, he could finally see out the bridge viewing port. Before him was a massive planet, easily twice the size of Earth. Three suns revolved around the planet and before him was an armada of what he hoped were Sangheili ships. Many questions popped into his mind, but when he felt the Shipmaster rest his large four-fingered hand on his shoulder, he turned to see the Sangheili with a grim look on his face. \

"It is decided, Spartan. On this day, the Sangheili leave the Covenant. We forge a new path for our people, away from the enslavement of our people. I'll have Braxi bring you to the armory, prepare yourself", and with that, Shipmaster 'Rodamee turned and shouted an order.

"Ready the generators! Full power and the main cannons! Aim for the Jiralhanae flagship! Spread the order to all the Shipmasters! Today we break our chains! On the blood of our Fathers, on the Blood of our Sons!", he roared.

As once, the officers bellowed their war cries, Gabriel was left in the background. Braxi motioned him to follow her, and so he did. He fell into his wartime mindset, focussing solely on the tasks ahead of him. Today he became an Ambassador, he would do any deed to secure his people from Armageddon. He prayed silently for his Team to watch for him. From whatever vantage point they had in the afterlife.