Chapter 2: Afternoon Chat

Municipal Center

Karla looked causally as Nicole administered another sound beating to the Elite in their makeshift interrogation room.

"That was nice." She remarked to the Spartan. "What move was that?"

"I made it up myself. I call it the 'Grunt Punt'." Nicole said as she administered a swift kick to the downed Elite.

"You'll have to teach me that move sometime." Karla glanced at her watch. "I think we've loosened him up enough."

Nicole roughly picked up the Elite and forcibly sat him on the chair opposite Karla. The Elite coughed and spat out a wad of purple blood onto the table.

"Is this your idea of treating prisoners humanely?"

"No, because I don't have to." Karla grinned malevolently. "The Geneva Accords are supposed to cover that end, but they only relate to prisoners that are human beings. Last I checked, you're anything but human, which means I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want to you."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you to answer some questions of mine."

The Elite gaped incredulously. "You could've just asked."

"What's the fun in that?" Karla motioned Nicole to leave the room. "It's private time. Report to Major Mackenzie, I'm pretty sure he can find a job for you."

The Spartan quickly nodded, saluted, and left the room, leaving Karla and Mako alone. Karla took the chance to carefully examine the Elite and for some reason, couldn't shake the feeling of why it reminded her of Holy. To tell the truth, she couldn't tell the difference between individual Elites, much like the rest of the Marines and most were hidden behind that body armor of theirs. However, this one was somehow different.

Which was why she hadn't had it killed outright.

"First things first, what's your name?" She asked.

The Elite sniffed and mustered up whatever dignity it had left. "I am Junior Marshal Mako Ralamee."

Karla winced at the last name. Now she suddenly understood that strange feeling of hers, and why Mako mentioned something about a brother.

"Now assuming that your surnames work the same way as ours, you don't happen to be related to a Holy Ralamee, do you?"

"How do you know that name?!" Mako slammed the table in rage, breaking the steel piece of furniture in two like it was made of plywood.

Karla quickly drew her plasma sword and pointed it right at Mako.

"Now, I'm really not all that experienced with this thing, but I'm pretty sure it won't be so tough to carve up a big, mean Elite like you in a room like this. Not to mention having a squad of very anxious, trigger-happy Marines waiting right outside the door. So I suggest you behave yourself and not break any more of my furniture. That stuff doesn't come cheap."

Mako merely sat back down in his seat and simmered with annoyed rage. Karla merely shrugged and leaned back in her chair, feigning ignorance.

"Anyways, getting back on topic." Karla eyed Mako. "I met up with Holy quite by accident. We hit it off pretty well from that point on, and you remind me a lot about him, except for the 'trying to kill me and stealing my favorite weapon' part."

"Impossible." Mako shook his head. "He's supposed to be dead."

Karla raised an eyebrow. "Well, he is now, though I doubt it's from the same reasons you're thinking about."

"Regardless, he is dead to me, after his betrayal."

"What, to the Covenant?"

"Not only that, but to me and my family."

Karla narrowed her eyes in curiosity. This was getting more and more interesting.

"Go on…"

Mason Tower

"Have I ever mentioned that I'm a little afraid of heights?" Leo said as he looked over the edge of the tower. "I feel kinda queasy."

"No, but I'm not surprised." Sam said nonchalantly as she polished the sights on her rifle. "You're pretty much afraid of everything in some form or another."

Leo scowled as he retreated from the edge and started setting up the surveillance equipment. It seemed as if Sam's wit had made a quick recovery from her brief period of angst.

"Goddamn, what a beautiful view." Kumi breathed. "Now I see why those corny romance movies are always staged on top of tall buildings."

"What?" Leo said as he caught Kumi looking at him. Why are you staring at me like that? It's creeping me out."

"Oh, you know why." Kumi smiled wryly and nodded to Sam.

"Don't be crazy. We may be friends, but it's nothing like that."

"Aw, then a lot of Marines I know just lost a lot of money. Me included."

"Well that's too bad for- wait, what?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Kumi scratched her head. "Some of the more 'perceptive' Marines in the 102nd have sort of figured out your little 'relationship' with Sam, and as with all things that rely on chance, people made bets."

"Well, people have to find a way to pass the time. I watch corny romance flicks when nobody's watching, you hang out with Sam, and other people gamble."

"Son of a bitch." Leo stood up.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to talk to the sergeant about this."

"Oh?" Kumi grinned. "I'm sure he'll be happy to know that he's been duped out of nearly a weeks pay."

"You mean to tell me that-"

Kumi nodded.

"I swear, I'm going to find a way to kill you all."

"You can try." Kumi wistfully picked up an ammo crate and turned her back to him. "But then I'd have to explain to Sam why I blew up her boyfriend with an ounce of C7 grafted to his kidneys."

"I hate you. I really do." Leo pointed at Kumi accusingly.

"Sticks and stones." Kumi whistled as she walked away. "Sticks and stones."

Municipal Center

"So you're telling me that Holy was a terrorist." Karla narrowed her eyes.

"Something like that." Mako sniffed. "After his secret mission, Holy seemed have lost sight of what the Covenant was trying to achieve. He believed that our race was being exploited by the Prophets and wanted nothing more than to make us independent from their rule."

"And you were against it?"

"No! By all accounts, I agreed with my brother. However, differed greatly in our methods. I believed that we should subtly and peaceably declare our independence, slowly gaining power and eventually breaking away. Holy, however, thought that our people were too short-sighted to achieve this, and sought more… extreme measures."

"Does this have anything to do with him crashing an entire ship?"

"To put a long story short, Holy's extreme measure was to hijack a brand new Covenant cruiser and defect to Humanity, using the ship as a bargaining chip. Of course, the plan failed and rather than being captured, Holy's band of rebels opted to self-destruct the ship. Holy, however, was captured alive and would have been executed on the spot, but the Prophets intervened and he was scheduled to be sent to High Charity for trial and punishment."

"And I suppose this had deep repercussions for you."

"Of course. My family was thoroughly interrogated and investigated for signs of heresy. Assets were seized and frozen, and many of my family members lot everything. Our reputation was tainted forever. I was transferred from my post to a poorly trained suicide unit and left to wallow in obscurity. Meanwhile, my brother found some way to escape, as the ship carrying him never reached High Charity."

"I can't imagine why."

"And, as you humans say, the rest is history."

"A really strange story." Karla closed her eyes. "If it were up to me, I'd think you were lying and shoot you in the head right now. Unfortunately, this little voice in my head keeps nagging me to trust you, so I will."

Is this your doing, Holy? Mako thought.

"So I guess I'll keep you alive for the time being. Get used to your surroundings though, because you're not going to be seeing much else for the foreseeable future."

Mason Tower

"What's the count now?" Paccone asked.

"The intel was actually right for once." Sam said while looking through her scope." Roughly twenty thousand troops each with armor and vehicle support. It looks like they're trying to link up so they can push in on us."

"Wait a minute…" Leo narrowed his eyes and adjusted the settings on his sights. "I can see some movement in between. Looks like one of the groups have sent about thirty Ghosts ahead of them. It's probably some kind of patrol to make contact with the other group.

Suddenly, there was a dull boom and small flash of blue in the distance.

"Holy shit!" Leo gaped. "The Ghosts are firing on the second the group!"

Paccone raised his head in alarm. "Friendly fire?"

"I don't think so." Sam said. "Looks like it's pretty intentional to me."

"What the hell is going on?" Paccone wondered.

"Look!" Alvarado pointed to the distance.

It was difficult to see at first against the blue sky, but the Marines were able to make out faint lines of blue-white arcing in the distance.

"Those are long-range Wraith plasma mortars if I'm not mistaken."

"You're right. They're definitely shooting at each other." Paccone agreed. "While I'm all glad that the Covenant are saving us the trouble of killing them, I'm wondering why."

The Marines continued to watch the distant spectacle with a combination of awe and fear. The distant alien cityscape glittered like stars as both armies fired upon one another with their energy weapons. With each bright flash, each Marine knew that several Covenant soldiers had just died.

"I don't understand." Alvarado scratched his head. "Why are they fighting?"

"Hey, as long as it's keeping their attention away from us." Paccone shrugged. "Get on the radio and tell HQ what's going on."

"Way ahead of you there." Alvarado nodded to one of his men, who quickly activated the radio.

"Now let's just hope that they don't move any closer, or things can get messy." Paccone said grimly as he watched the distant battle.