"A glimpse of something greater"

By Kpmh2001

UNSC Dominion, Brig

Each time that Ben visited their captive Elite, he was given the impression that the alien warrior was steadily losing his mind. Intricately constructed drawings now decorated every wall of Set's cell, each affixed by a small piece of tape. The drawings ranged from those of weapons and warships, to complex, strange iconography that Ben didn't understand. The small garbage can in the corner was so filled with discarded drawings that it was overflowing. Despite the rapidly deteriorating state of his room, Set himself was well-kept.

He's probably just waiting for us to let our guard down, strike when he gets the chance. Ben thought as he opened the door.

Set didn't even bother looking up from his current work until Ben cleared his throat. "Ah, Demon, wait just one moment."

Ben patiently waited for about a minute as Set finished the outline of what he was working on, before putting the paper aside and turning towards Ben. "There, that is good. Now, what do you want, Demon?"

"My friend wanted to discuss something with you." Ben flatly answered.

"It is most… unusual, to make your acquaintance, Set 'Vadum." Curie said, using Ben's helmet speakers to communicate. "I am Curie."

Set was clearly taken aback by the drastically different voice coming from Ben's armor, but quickly realized what was happening, with his face settling into what Ben could only guess was a scowl.

"An ancilla…" Set said, a hint of realization in his voice. Ben didn't recognize the word, but it was probably just a bad translation. "I did not know that your kind could inhabit the demons, Curie. Unless perhaps, you are actually two unggoy in a suit of armor!"

Ok, I'll give him that one, it was kind of funny. Ben thought, although he didn't budge his posture even a bit as Set chuckled to himself.

"We have deliberately set out to limit the Covenant's knowledge of Artificial Intelligences, that is not a surprise." Curie pointed out. "But I am afraid that is not what I wanted to ask you about."

Set gave a shrug that still held a shred of smugness to it. "Speak your mind Curie, but I cannot promise an answer."

Over a month in the brig, and he's still got an attitude like this. Ben thought. I bet his superiors hated him more than we do, they've probably been celebrating ever since he left.

"During an earlier questioning session, you mentioned that you lacked any considerable knowledge in the field of Slipspace." Curie stated.

Set cocked his head, as if already knowing what she was going to say. "I do not know how to get you home. If I did know, I would have told you already."

"You would?" Curie asked, making her surprise evident. "I thought that your set of beliefs prohibited you from aiding us?"

Set let out a groan of annoyance. "This may come as some surprise to you, but I do not enjoy sitting in this cell. Although my odds of returning to my people would be admittedly low, they would be better than the guaranteed failure that I am faced with now."

Suddenly, Ben empathized a lot more with the Elite. He was just trying to find a way to accomplish his mission, and even though it meant breaking his code of honor, and practically guaranteeing himself a traitor's welcome if he returned, he was still willing to do it for the sake of the mission.

If I was in his shoes, sitting with critically valuable intelligence in a Covenant cell, would I cooperate for a chance to return home and complete my mission? Ben mentally asked himself, but he was unable to produce an answer. Obviously cooperating with the enemy was unacceptable, but to complete a mission critical to humanity's survival?

"That does make a great deal of sense." Curie said. "But even if you lack any knowledge in the field of Slipspace, that does not mean you could not potentially help us, and by extension, help you."

Set groaned with undisguised frustration, visibly rolling his eyes in the process. "Very well, ancilla, what do you want?"

Even though he couldn't actually see her face, Ben could tell that Curie had a wide grin as she goaded the Elite into cooperating. "Do your people know anything about other realms besides our own, and Slipspace?"

Set's eyes narrowed and he bowed his head slightly, as he genuinely seemed to put some thought into the topic. "You speak of those that the gods spoke of, such as Shunspace, or the Glow?"

Curie's silence was somewhat concerning, as it could only mean one thing, she had no idea what he was talking about.

It seemed that Set was actually able to guess that, and sat back against his bed frame as he sighed in frustration. "Retrieve the helmet of my combat harness, I know that you have kept it somewhere, and we will need it."

Curie was unable to bite back her exclamation of excitement. "Are you going to permit me to access your helmet's data?"

"Temper your expectations." Set grumbled. "Unless you seek to gain wisdom from outdated field manuals and cryptic religious texts from before our time, you will be disappointed."

"I would not say so." Curie cheerfully replied. "I have always wanted to learn more about the culture of the Covenant!"

"What, were the briefings not enough for you?" Ben cheekily asked, before looking at Set one last time. "I'll be right back, don't try anything funny."

Set huffed with amusement. "Believe me human, if I did intend to break out of this cell, you would not be laughing."

Ben left Set's cell, and made his way to the Starboard Armory, where all of Set's personal belongings were Ben had actually seen Set's armor before, he had forgotten that the Elite apparently opted to use the traditional combat harness, rather than the more ornamental set that he had studied in training.

The combat harnesses were the far more common variant of armor that the Elites wore, and had a reputation amongst UNSC infantry of producing a frustratingly tough shield, especially for an Ultra like Set.

Practicality over style, perhaps he's got some brains after all. Ben thought as he retrieved the helmet.

When Ben returned to Set's cell, he handed over the helmet. Set gave his helmet a brief inspection, seemingly searching for damage, but found none. "You have not tried to access the contents?"

"I could certainly try, but I was reluctant to, as the failsafes inside the data drive would destroy the information." Curie explained. "Lieutenant Thomas was able to retrieve your name from the system, but that is all that he could do safely."

Set let out an unexpected chuckle as he turned the helmet around and manipulated the controls. "There are no failsafes on my combat harness, the information within does not necessitate them. Although I am happy to hear that the decoy works."

Damn, Curie was fooled by something? Ben thought, genuinely surprised, she had a nearly spotless record for solving problems. Although she remained silent, he could practically feel the sense of frustration that radiated from her.

Once Set turned the helmet on, he withdrew a small white device, and offered it to Ben. "Here, I hope whatever you find will bring us back to your home, so that I may return to mine."

Ben took the device into his hand, and Curie immediately set to work accessing the drive using his armor. While she did that, Ben opted to respond to Set's comment. "You know that we aren't just going to let you go, right?"

"I am well aware, but no matter the odds, I will accomplish my goal." Set confirmed. There was not a hint of malice in his words, only determination.

Again, Ben found himself drawing comparisons between him and Set. Both of them recognized that their missions were more important than their lives, and although the Covenant certainly seemed to be more willing to sacrifice their soldiers for sucide missions, Ben was not blind to the true goals of the Spartan III program.

Stop thinking about it, he's the enemy, he has nothing to relate to! Ben stubbornly reminded himself, banishing the thoughts from his mind.

"Then again, perhaps I could negotiate a deal with your leader." Set added. "If I were allowed to return home, my information would surely result in the Jiralhanae being ejected from the Covenant, which would offer your people a moment of peace!"

He sounds oddly confident in that. Ben thought, wondering if Richard would actually consider such a proposal.

"With their musclebound idiots gone, the Prophets may even deem you worthy of joining our ranks." Set continued, seemingly undeterred by Ben's silence. "Although I admit, I could not possibly predict what they would decide upon."

"Given some of their earlier decisions, I think we'll take our chances." Ben sternly replied. He switched his microphone off, allowing him to speak privately to Curie. "Anything useful in there?"

"More than you could possibly imagine." Curie happily answered, before speaking to Set once more. "Thank you Set, I will do my best to bring us all home."

There wasn't a hint of humor in Set's response. "I will pray for your success, Curie, if only for the sake of my people."

"Oh, how helpful…" Ben cynically said, before turning to leave.

Set laughed as Ben left his cell. "For once Demon, you speak with a shred of reason!"

Ben closed the door behind him, wondering exactly what that was supposed to mean.

Later

The Dominion, Foundry

It turned out that Ben's knowledge on the subject of traveling into an eleven-dimensional space and using it to access other realities was unsurprisingly limited, meaning that Curie was more or less the only person capable of actually pulling any worthwhile information from Set's data drive. While she quietly worked inside his head, he made himself useful in the Dominion's Foundry, where it seemed his experience in maintaining and repairing armor frequently came in handy.

"Any major revelations?" Ben asked as he inspected the utterly demolished remains of several components of body armor, including the components that he had removed from Jorge's suit of Mjolnir. While they could fabricate news parts, doing so would take valuable time that could probably be used for more important things.

This place was made to build radios and assault rifles, not sterile field generators and gravity plating. Ben thought. The Engineers down here aren't going to get a day off for years...

"Well… sort of." Curie answered after a strange moment of silence. "All of the relevant information that Set promised is actually buried in Covenant Holy Texts. With no other alternative, I must translate it all into a legible format."

"Doesn't the standard translation kit work?" Ben asked. His HUD also included a translation kit that was standard issue amongst Spartans and ODSTs, allowing them to understand the words of the Covenant's languages.

"That is not the issue, perhaps I should clarify what I mean." Curie said, a hint of irritation in her voice, although Ben could tell it wasn't directed at him. "The actual texts themselves are made up of the same language, but because they are full of reverence and praise for the fictional Covenant gods, I am finding it very difficult to actually deduce valuable intelligence from it."

Ben chuckled. "I understand, you have my sympathy."

The Covenant were well known amongst UNSC service personnel for their confusing, often nonsensical beliefs. It was to be expected from an alien organization presumably built up from many different religions, but that didn't make it any less unusual. Curie had the stomach for human religion and its historical significance, but it seemed that her patience had its limits.

"I believe I am starting to make some progress, although I will need some more time." Curie said. "I will let my subroutines manage that, and make my presentation to the Commander later."

"Whatever you think works best." Ben said, although frankly, he didn't understand entirely what she was talking about.

"But I found something else, and I believe you may find it a bit more interesting." Curie said.

She posted a large wall of blue text onto his HUD, causing Ben to pause his work as he skimmed the contents.

"Declaration of Holy Inspiration?" Ben asked, reading off the title of the largest portion of the text.

"It would appear that Set neglected to inform us that his entire military career is logged inside of this datadrive." Curie stated, adding context to what Ben was looking at.

Ben instantly understood the value of Curie's discovery, every major action that Set had ever undertaken was now in their hands. "We should inform Lieutenant Oswald."

"Do not worry, I will message him with the new discovery." Curie replied, easing his worries. "But you and I can take this opportunity to learn more about Sangheili culture, from a more neutral source."

Ben returned to working while he spoke. "You don't think that a Covenant field report would be exaggerated?"

"I fail to see why it would, these are internal reports." Curie said, although she lacked a great degree of confidence in her words. "Although I do find it funny that the uncensored files exist in Set's helmet, even though he lacked the clearance to access them in their entirety."

And it's not like clearance levels are a problem for Curie. Ben thought, momentarily reminiscing about how she would constantly irritate whichever ONI A.I was in charge of Zone 76 back on Onyx with her ability to make any digital defenses into confetti with little effort.

"Ah, I have found something of considerable interest." Curie happily reported. "Apparently, Set was involved in a raid to recover a one-of-a-kind Covenant artifact early in his career."

"That's not too out of the ordinary." Ben pointed out, the Covenant were known for going to extreme lengths to recover strange objects and knicknacks.

"It is not, but the circumstances around it certainly are." Curie replied. "Apparently, Set was involved in a violent battle between two "keeps" of Elites on Sanghelios."

Ben shifted his posture in surprise. "Your saying that the Elites were having an insurrection?"

"Well, technically no, apparently." Curie answered. "You see, the rival faction that Set was fighting was only declared heretics after their conflict."

Maybe just some infighting that got out of hand? Ben thought. "What were they fighting over?"

"Well, that's apparently up for debate, but it is widely considered a continuation of an existing rivalry." Curie answered. "But this is without a doubt the most interesting part, apparently, the rival keep was secretly holding the very first plasma rifle."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "The first?"

"The Type-25 plasma rifle is revered as a holy weapon, and is apparently based off of a weapon used by the gods… although I doubt that last part very much." Curie explained. "As such, the original is considered a relic of substantial importance."

I imagine the Misriah Engineer who made the first Assault Rifle prototype probably didn't place that much value into it. Ben thought. "That's interesting."

"Indeed, and apparently Set was actually the one to make the discovery, we should ask him about it when we get a chance!" Curie said, practically about to burst with excitement.

"But then he'd know that we have his service record in our hands, we might want to keep that card close to the chest." Ben pointed out.

There was a moment of silence before Curie responded. "I suppose I see the logic in that. I will submit a request to Thomas, hopefully he will permit us to inquire further about Set's military career."

"That sounds like a good idea." Ben said, double-checking things with Command was rarely a bad suggestion. "What about where we are, with all that Slipspace stuff?"

"That… will take me more time." Curie reluctantly admitted. "I am a scientist, not a pastor."

Ben chuckled. "Hell, if you were preaching, I might actually listen."

There was an awkward moment of silence before Curie replied, her voice rich with mixed emotions. "Thank you?"

"You're welcome." Ben replied. "Let me know if you make any more big discoveries, I'm going to see if this atmospheric seal is actually salvageable."

Valuable scrap, if nothing else. Ben thought as he held the small Mjolnir component, even as ruined garbage, the material used in its creation was of exceptional quality.

"And I shall continue to decipher this staggeringly unscientific jargon." Curie replied. "Hopefully, I will have a more robust Covenant vocabulary by the time I am done."

"If you find any swear words, don't tell the ODSTs." Ben joked.

"I would not dream of it." Curie replied, her voice making it clear that she was amused.

Author's Notes: Although I have big plans for Set, I struggle to blend him into the main chapters, which is a shame, because he's easily one of my favorite characters to write. In that respect, Unusual Paperwork is a godsend, especially in regards to backstories and history.