Opening note: Ugh... been too long since I updated this > I'm SOSOSOSOOOO Sorry! I've been so busy with crap I kind of just forgot Oo;;;
Btw, might be a bit surprising at the end... Chapter 13 will bring a new weird twist to the story too, at the 'request' of a S7 member a while back... XD
Prepare!
- Ani.
Chapter XII – Backfire
"Deus Ex Machina…? God of the machine? What's that all about..?", asked Chakuth, somewhat mocking Duthaz' turbulent life as Shipmaster.The Sangheili muttered something then huffed, "Just as ridiculous as your sudden promotion to General.", he said, then walked up to meet his old friend.
"Ahh Duthaz 'Kinomanee, long lost shipmaster. Where is your fleet?", Enka asked, obviously unknown with Duthaz' recent demotion to scumbag and heretic.
The older Sangheili just nodded at him, he felt there was no need to explain what happened to his master position due to his failure at Halo 04.
"It doesn't matter anyway, what can I do for you my friend?", Enka rambled.
Duthaz' orange eyes remained grim, he knew what he had to do, take out the shipmaster and take control over the control centre of the Covenant fleet. And it also meant betraying the only friend he had.
"I have brought a few Seraph flyers, but I wondered how many you had left on this ship, in employment I mean.", he asked.
Enka looked over his shoulder and got a questionable stare in return, "To be honest we haven't got many soldiers on this ship, all drained to lesser CCS cruisers. Apparently the firepower itself is more important than the person controlling it, interesting enough.", he started.
"Can you give an estimate?", Duthaz asked anyway.
"Fifty, give or take…", Enka answered.
A short silence then he looked over to Chakuth, "I'm sorry Enka…", he said and stepped aside.
Enka seemed oblivious, "Who's this, your Unggoy servant?", he asked.
Chakuth smiled under his mask and pressed the holopad to open the door. As the bulkhead slowly parted the rest of his team stood armed and ready to kill at will. As Enka laid eyes on the Lekgolo brothers he slowly realized what was happening, they weren't around to chat over fancy dinner but to take control of the Divine Hierarchy, his ship.
Xehn stepped in, his massive armour showing his rank and function, Behemoth, bred for mass destruction in short time.
"What's this all about Duthaz…?", he asked in confusion and slight fear.
Chakuth stepped forward, "It's best to ask me that question, I'm the leader of this group and general of the Earth's Unggoy forces. I'm here to dismantle the control of this ship and perhaps… blow it back to High Charity.", he said, his voice cold and certainly not joking.
"The Earth's Unggoy forces…? What's the meaning of..", before he knew it humans had strained him down along with the rest of the bridge's crew and guards. Never had the faithful Sangheili Enka thought to see a member of his race to side with the filthy humans of the earth, to betray the Prophets like that and ignore every treasure promised to them as they activated the Ark.
"Kinomanee! Have you gone crazy!", Enka shouted through the grip of 3 humans.
"No Enka… I have seen what the Prophets will do with us when they find 'better' replacements, and believe me my delusional friend, it's not good…", he said and aimed a plasma rifle at the com-link console connected to the Forerunner ship.
"This holy war is over Enka, because there was never a goal to fight for…", he said coldly, then pulled the trigger and released a bolt of blue plasma at the machine.
Enka's brown eyes widened then stared back at Duthaz', "Heresy!", he shouted then fought himself out of the human's grip and drew his rifle.
"It's heresy!", he screamed but found himself in the strong grip of the massive Lekgolo staring down on him.
"Bad idea…", Xehn's heavy but translated voice thundered.
The thought of a translated, actually understandable Lekgolo was frightening enough to listen to the creature. Being at least two times his size it was the wiser decision to stop the pointless struggle. Kahlanx stepped up to stand next to the humans, helping them restrain the other crewmen Enka had under his command. And while Chakuth and Duthaz dismantled the ship's shields and weapons another group of humans ran off to the hangar, possibly to take down more soldiers.
Chakuth stared at the navigational logs and narrowed his eyes at them, "The remaining CCS' are positioned to fire…", Chakuth spoke and stared at Duthaz.
"Are they actually planning to glass the entire planet like they did to Reach…?", he asked his Sangheili team member, just as puzzled as he was.
"They wouldn't, that'd cost them to many troops…", Duthaz said calmly and looked at Enka.
The brown eyes of the captured shipmaster narrowed as his former friend walked up to him.
"I'm not saying anything Duthaz…", he said, but Duthaz knew his friend better than Enka did himself.
The rifle was just as easily placed on Enka's forehead as it was on the computer console.
"What is Truth planning to do…", he asked coldly.
Miph felt weird being separated from his leader and friend, but the task of commander of the 20 humans and Calith, Vemeth and Denakh was interesting enough not to chicken out of it.
"Ok this should be it then…", Miph spoke and opened the bulkhead to the Hangar.
The humans immediately stormed in, shooting down whatever moved and posed a threat. Calith and Vemeth, specialized gunmen had already taken their positions behind the turrets. Miph and Denakh remained where they were, he called it guard-duty.
"I count 8 Seraphs, good enough?", Denakh asked Miph, but the young Unggoy was to deep in thought to actually notice the rookie talking.
"I have a bad feeling…", Miph said and drew his plasma guns.
The rookie almost jumped at Miph's ominous warning, and rushed to stand behind him. The humans did what they could to get the Seraphs operational and out of the ship as soon as possible, they needed all the small fighters they could use. The opening bulkhead was a bad thing, Chakuth wasn't going to just run in without notice. Miph's bad feeling came true as 35 Sangheili soldiers ran in and started shooting at the working humans. Miph was fast enough to duck behind a crate, but Denakh found himself caught right in the sight of a soldier eager to shoot. A first shot, a second and a third, all pierced though his armour and body, throwing the young Unggoy off balance. Miph watched how the young rookie was shot down as easily as that, no remorse just three deadly shots.
It didn't take the skilled human marines too long to take care of the new problem, but Miph had no other goal besides getting Denakh to safety. As soon as the Sangheili were taken care of Miph ran over to Denakh and found a child, crying in pain.
"Hey… stay with us man…", Miph shouted to the young soldier as he held him upright. "Don't you dare leave this team, Chakuth himself chose you!", Miph added to it and watched the tears mingle with the phosphorous blue blood trickling from underneath the breathing mask.
"Come on…", Miph said softer this time while Vemeth and Calith joined him.
Calith sighed calmly, "Give up Miph… seen it a million times, he's not gonna make it…". Vemeth said nothing, then reached for his holopad and connected to Chakuth.
"Soldier down, I repeat… Never mind… Chakuth… Denakh was shot down…", Vemeth's raspy voice sounded on the Holopad, and Chakuth stared at Duthaz then back at the holopad.
"I hear you… is it… bad?", Chakuth asked unknowing what to do for a second.
He was trained to cope with death, and he had seen so many soldiers and even friends die. But the bond he had developed with his team was different… This was more then a soldier.
"He's dying Chakuth… We can't save him…", Vemeth sounded again.
"Damnit…", Chakuth uttered and turned his holopad off.
He marched over to Enka, "Duthaz do with him what you like, but this ship has to go. I'll have to figure out what this position means later.". The Unggoy walked over to the console, downloaded the information and walked out of the bridge room. The Lekgolo brothers and Duthaz were puzzled, they had never seen the cool-headed Unggoy as upset and almost confused as this. Returning glances, they then shot. The entire crew shot down in the blink of an eye, leaving the lone shipmaster to his fate, the larger part of Chakuth's team walked out of the bridge and followed Chakuth to the hangar.
In the hangar Denakh was still alive surprisingly enough, the biofoam humans used seemed to work on the scaly Unggoy skin as well.
"I … I don't want to go…", Denakh uttered silently, broken.
Miph shushed him, "There's no need to talk, we all know how you feel… save your energy, Chakuth will be here shortly.".
As Miph predicted, the bulkhead opened and Chakuth stormed in.
"Denakh, hold on, we're leaving now, we'll get you back to the Zealous Liberator now, there you will get the best treatment possible, hold on Denakh!", Chakuth shouted and told the Unggoy to load him into the Phantom. But to the sudden surprise of the Unggoy Kahlanx had already lifted the small Unggoy off the ground, and walked him to the Phantom. Chakuth nodded at him and walked to the carrier-craft himself, "Blow this ship up, it'd better not get back online anymore…", he said to the humans and stepped into the Phantom.
As soon as Chakuth's team was safely into the ship it took off, followed by the growing squadron of Seraph Fighters.
In a hurry they made their way back to their home, their only home now.
The frown on Kate's face was a difficult one, she bit her lip and moved the small burner around on Denakh's skin. Trying to repair the broken, ruptured and burned skin from the immense plasma burn it had to suffer.
Xehn hadn't strayed from her side since he had returned, but she didn't seem to mind. Her almost infinite patience when it came to operating and science kept her from getting irritated by anything.
She wiped her face, took a deep breath and squinted her green eyes in a fashion Xehn thought to be desperation.
He knew the pressure Chakuth's facial expression must've given her was immense, Chakuth was such a charismatic being, and he had an amazing effect on anyone he got close to. Xehn smiled to himself, thinking about the first time he laid eyes on the small Unggoy, brave and bold as he stood there carrying out orders. But he soon proved himself more than capable of leading the team and lifting the burdens of his rank on his young shoulders.
He watched the human doctor work, ever so keen on listening to the Unggoy's heartbeat, fast but still steady. Another flash, another piece of skin attached back together, but the damage the plasma had done to the fragile body of the young rookie was so big Kate had told Chakuth she wasn't sure if she could save him.
She started breathing irregularly and blinking her eyes more often.
"…Kate…", Xehn started carefully.
"Please… I can do this, just a little longer.", she said and aimed the burner again, her hand not as steady as before the moment the respiratory and heart machines started beeping in emergency.
Xehn now knew for sure she had no idea how the Unggoy anatomy worked, but she had been too proud and too certain she could be useful enough to stay in his eyes, she had gone head over heels into something that she couldn't do.
The machines started beeping more frantically now, and her hands shaking out of control.
For a moment she did nothing, to astounded at the sudden flat lined beep, a monotone eerie sound that filled the purple coloured room. Silence, the machine had started automatic defibrillation, shocking the small body in such a way Kate just couldn't watch. The machine precisely calculated every shock, and eventually proclaimed the Unggoy dead after few useless efforts.
She had her lower lip clenched tightly between her teeth and trembled, "I'm sure now you see much more reasons to get me off this ship huh…", she said quietly.
The massive Lekgolo that had been standing out of the operation light before now walked into the beam, the bright light reflecting off his shining black armour. He was silent, more silent than Kate had ever thought he could be.
But when he enclosed her into his arms and pushed her gently against the orange skin of his abdomen, it said more then his words could ever say. He remained silent, but through the skin, his flesh and his breathing she could hear his heartbeat, and for her it said enough.
Chakuth had stared out of one of the windows in hull, it showed the earth, the planet he was fighting for. But his mind wasn't with the war, or with the humans fighting for their lives. His thoughts were with the young Denakh, barely 17, possible KIA… He sighed and leaned on the sill of the thick window. He startled as he felt Miph nudge his shoulders and leaned against him, "Are you ok?".
Chakuth felt it as his duty to say he was, he was after all, the leader of a very representative team, not to mention the Unggoy General.
He didn't feel anything for being a general right now, he wanted to be himself, the Chakuth who could be honest about what he felt. He sighed and stared at Miph.
"To be honest… I feel horrible…", he said and stared back out of the window, leaving his team with a stare.
Duthaz felt he instinctively narrowed his eyes, "This is war, Chakuth… soldiers die… and it doesn't really matter if they're friends or not, the feeling always remains the same. It will always be horrible.", he spoke, the always present sneer in his voice now replaced with what should be his normal voice tone.
Chakuth stared at the Sangheili, never had he thought to hear such comforting words from the possibly most grumpy shipmaster he had ever met.
He nodded slightly, as he felt it was the only thing he could do in such a situation.
Then all went quiet again, just the regular silent breathing from the four Unggoy in the hall. Kahlanx had never been so quiet in his life and Duthaz felt this was the time to remain quiet for another purpose than out of irritation.
The door slid open, Kate walked out, her eyes red and gloves stained in phosphoric blue blood. Behind her stood Xehn, giving Kahlanx an ever meaningful glare.
"I… I did what I could…", she started.
Chakuth's dark pupils narrowed as he gasped for air, then ran past her into the room.
When he stopped at the table the figure of Denakh laid under he stared at nothing more then a maiden white sheet. It had no stains and it showed no signs of death.
He felt his eyes burn until tears rolled over his cheeks. The first failure in his short career cost the life of a friend.
Closing note: Well, yeah... uhm hoped you liked D:... will update more asap.