Chapter 2
-Lich docking with the ship Presumable Will-
The ride up to the ship he was now stationed on was uneventful. Not much happened other than a few of the sangheili being awestruck by the ship. He couldn't imagine how they would have reacted if it was something larger. Despite being one of the smallest ships in the covenant navy, the SDV-class heavy corvette was larger than the average human ship. He found it strange that humans could match the covenant on the ground, but when it came to space they were destroyed.
The war had only raged a couple of years, despite this the humans had taken massive casualties, multiple worlds have been lost. All glassed for the hierarchs. At first, he was against the covenant's declaration of war. After hearing what they did to artifacts, however. Then he thought different. These vermin were nothing but a stain on the galaxy. A stain left so the gods could test the covenant's strength. We were their instrument to eradicate the humans and their defiling footsteps.
The Lich shook as it connected with the Presumable Will. It opened letting all the recruits move out. They were all funnelled into a small room. Just large enough to fit everyone in cramped positions. The major from before stepped up on what looked to be some sort of podium and spoke, "Recruits, welcome to the ship, Presumable Will. Some of the more observant of you may have seen its name on outside hull. Anyways, you are to be transported in this ship to the closest military training camp. Lucky for you, that is the holy city itself". He stepped down, seemingly content with his short speech he had probably done hundreds of times before.
If the more zealous of the sangheili were awestruck before by the ship, now they were practically rolling around on the ground in zealous pride. The holy city, High Charity. Centre of all commerce and military might, it was where every member of the covenant wished to go at least once. The prophets lived there and shared their eternal wisdom from the heart of High Charity itself. The Sanctum of the Hierarchs. Now Cas was not the most zealous of the group, he did believe in the great journey, but not nearly to the extent of those here in his group. Even so, going to the Holy City awakened some hidden religious pride even in him.
-2 hours later Presumable Will-
Cas had decided after sitting through the eternally boring and long recruitment ceremony that he was going to go exercise. There were multiple sparring arenas on the ship. Instead of going to the larger ones he walked over to a room, polished floor and training sticks lining the walls. Targeting puppets were all over the open space and the terminals to activate them were to his left. He decided to give it a try and walked over to the terminal. Starting on the easiest difficulty and a slow rise to max.
Walking over to the training weapons he picked his favourites. The type-31 Needle Rifle. An elegant weapon, able to be both quick and precise. He loaded it up with training needles and went back to the terminals, pressing he ready button and it started.
The first stage was easy enough, he eliminated all the puppets in less than 20 seconds. Then the next 3 stages nothing of note was different. On the 4th stage however, they started moving much faster. Jumping around and ducking behind tables and the likes. It took him a bit longer this time, but he managed.
The 5th stage was a completely different monster. Now they had their own training weapons, he had to seek cover himself whilst trying to eliminate all the targets. There was a reason this stage and after were squad stages, he just gritted his teeth and pushed on. Dispatching two more puppets whilst they were in the air. And taking down a third one with a shot to the back of its head.
The 6th stage started and this time he had no chance. However, as any good sangheili, he fought to the bitter end. Managing to remove 60% of them before he was pelted with bullets. They stung like hell, but nothing fatal. Disengaging the exercise, he moved back to the armour stand to place back the needle rifle.
When doing this he noticed something, a sangheili had been stood watching him. "How long have you been watching me?" Cas asked curiously. The man was an average height elite with crimson read armour and two plasma rifle's hanging on his hip. He opened his mandibles in a smile before answering. "You did better than most seasoned warriors we have on board, you will go far in the military. I'm sure of it". And with that the major walked out, leaving a proud but confused Cas behind.
-Approaching High Charity-
Over the shipboard speakers a voice could be heard counting down, "Exciting slipspace in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Welcome to High charity" he said has the massive station in all its glory appeared on the viewscreen. The station was guarded by a fleet of thousands, 'Maybe I will leave on one of those ships' Cas thought. Before any of that he needed to finish the military camp. Then he could worry about where he was going. Preferably to the frontline. That was what most sangheili wanted. Whilst the rest of the covenant's military wanted the opposite. Possibly except brutes. A lot of elites dislike the brutes purely due to their status as being the largest on the battlefield. Cas need not worry about that; he was already taller than most brutes. Only the largest of all reached his height.
For elites the military camp was more of a refresher to check if they knew how to fight. The militaristic nature of sangheili culture made them natural warriors who did not need extensive training to fight properly. A stark contrast to the jackals, and the grunts. If he got any incompetent fools in his squad, he would make sure they learned and got better.
Back home before it was lost, he had heard people talk about their brothers dying in war because a unggoy decided to run instead of fight. Or that a jackal rummaged through wrecks to earn extra money instead of helping. He would not die that way, not if he could stop it anyways. The only 'reliable' covenant foot soldier after the sangheili were the brutes. They never fled like the elites. Their downside was the blatant fact they rather charge in headfirst than to do the obvious choice and use a gun. He would not want to be in a squad with brutes any time soon.
-High Charity military camp-
Having docked and released all the passengers the Presumable Will flew off to yet another world to carry out the will of the prophets. He walked side by side with his elite brethren towards what looked like a massive open hall. Surprisingly the other species had arrived before them. Three large groups of unggoy, 1 pack of brutes, 2 parties of kig-yar and the one group of sangheili.
A brute chieftain walked out on the stage, a strange choice to train the multiple species in this camp. He could see many of his fellow elites clench their jaws in disgust at the realisation that the brute was now their commander. Cas did not mind, if the Jiralhanae was experienced and the best suited for this job then it had to do.
They were all led to their respective barracks. The elites had the most prestigious rooms and grunts the least. Covenant caste system at its best. In their respective barracks they were told to rest then be ready for the first large exercise tomorrow. Cas sat down with some fellow elites around a table of sorts. They were casually talking and sharing stories. When he sat down, they just continued as if he had not been there. One elite was the exception, he smiled and asked Cas, "So where do you want to be stationed after this?" Cas thought for a moment then answered in a typical sangheili manner, "The frontlines, where we can earn glory and remove these humans!" That seemed to get the attention of the group and they cheered to that and suddenly he was apart of the group. The commander seeing that Cas and the little group talked and were comfortable around each other, decided to keep us there. In the little squad we formed.
-High Charity shooting range-
They were all lined up and the commander had made it a competition. The barrack with the best marksman got premium dinner. This got everyone's attention and the different species started eyeing each other out. Cas thought that it was almost a given that the kig-yar be the best, they were natural snipers. After that he assumed the sangheili would be. As their extreme vision gave them a massive edge in addition to their natural affinity with snipers.
One after another the elites of his group fired, never even getting close to the kig-yar who were standing a ways away cackling at the elite's lack of marksmanship. That was until it was Cas' turn. He was the last and he got the option between type-51 carbine and a type-31 Needle Rifle. He picked the latter and walked over to the shooting range. The jackals were now picturing them eating the premium food, the non-fabricated, getting ready to run to the cafeteria and eat what they deserved.
Cas took one shot, it missed completely, not even hitting any target. The commander scoffed whilst the jackals continued laughing. For all they know he missed, but in truth it was a calibrating shot, to see how this exact model reacted differently than the training variant from back home.
Confident that he now knew how it worked he lined up his shot. In quick succession he took down the 10 targets in less than 10 seconds. Half of them were clean headshots whilst the other were also fatal shots, like the heart. Now there were no scoff from the commander, nor any laughing jackals. Just the satisfaction of a job well done. The other elites stared at him in awe, just realising that he had won them real food they started praising him and congratulating him on the good shots.
The commander seemed to not something down before he dismissed them. When he got back, he could see that most of the elites had already started eating, they were focused on the fresh meat. He could not blame them, but he saw something better, Korpos fruit. Instantly flooded by memories of his mother. He pushed them away and went on eating. This was no time to grieve about her. It had been multiple years since she died, he was still a child. How could he ever forget?
He had stayed behind after most of the elites had walked back to the barracks. After all, he was much larger than the average elite and he needed way more food. In the end he was finished. The way back to the barracks was just over a kilometre. It should not take him long.
Walking back, he was intercepted by a pack of brutes. 5 of them. All very angry. Cas hoped that if he ignored and walked past them, they would not notice him. Alas, he could always hope. One of them put an arm on Cas' chest and pushed him back. "You took out food!" he snarled. As he spoke spit flew out of his mouth and hit Cas all over. The brute was not finished, "We had a deal, you see. With the Jackals, they were going to give us half of the premium food". He paused licking his lips then continued, "And you took both out halves! Now some of my guys say you need to pay. Let's say you give us half your food. That would be nice". The brute said. The other brutes grinned, thinking that they had just gained more food. "No" was all that Cas answered. He knew the volatility of brutes, and mentally prepared himself for a potential fight.
He was right, one brute not happy with his answer lunged at Cas. Their whole bodyweight, possibly around 500k kilograms smashed into Cas. If he had been any other Elite, he would have been done for. Cas pushed back and leveraged his won bodyweight to smack down the first brute who attacked. Quickly evading another punch, he kicked the leader in the chest as hard as he could. Cas could hear something crack. And was happy to see the brute on the ground, screaming in pain.
One brute managed to hit him square in the jaw and knock Cas to the ground. He was quickly up again, but now his mandibles were bleeding. He was about to be attacked again when they turned and saw another figure approaching. He was about as large as Cas himself and he walked right up to the chieftain of the little pack that attacked Cas. The chieftain not happy about this development started to speak, "Atriox!" He spat out. "You hinge-head lover should not be here, but now that you are. I can take the opportunity to knock some sense into you!". With a guttural roar he leaped at Atriox, hitting him with a massive punch In the abdomen. Atriox took the punch and threw one back moving around the pack so he could get closer to Cas.
During this Cas had been fending off 2 other brutes whilst passively observing Atriox's entrance. Now that they were beside each other they could defend more easily. Both knocked out two brutes before simultaneously turning to the chieftain who was now alone. "Well now, maybe we don't need to take your food hinge-head" he said shivering. Cas muttered to himself, 'That's no brute, that's a coward' Any proper brute like Atriox here would have stood his ground even against overwhelming odds. Before moving in for the finishing blow Atriox stopped him. "Allow me" he said with a distinct deep and powerful voice. Cas already knew this man had some leader potential.
And with that the fight was over all brutes on the ground and the chieftain launched into a nearby wall by Atriox's punch. Cas spoke up first, "Thank you for assisting me, jiralhanae" he said using the proper term for their species instead of the derogatory term used by many others. Atriox spoke "I have always despised the way the other races view our species, as dumb large muscle apes. But I can't blame them when this is who joins the military and becomes our face". Cas was surprised by this. A jiralhanae who sounded educated and spoke in a proper manner. That was Atriox's point Cas realised. Due to the outside look on the jiralhanae he had assumed Atriox could not speak formally and was just as much a brute as the others. Even more so regarding his physique. He was as tall as Cas at 290cm and probably weighed around 700 kilograms. He was glad he had not needed to fight Atriox. It would have been way more brutal than the fight was.
With a firm handshake they turned and walk to where they were supposed to be going. Over his shoulders Atriox said "Perhaps we will meet again sangheili, if so. I look forward to fighting side by side with you".
