Notice: I haven't had a good time doing anything for quite a while. . In this chapter, I have decided to describe the setting a bit more than in previous chapters I have done. NH3, Saq, and you readers whom I do not currently know, if you have reached this chapter without fainting from boredom (if this book is boring), I am not currently in my right state of mind; I'm in my left. LOL! XD Anyway, catch some R&R for me; because I am exhausted. .

Chapter 4: Death of Peace

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0939 July 24, 2553 (Official UNSC Time) Armory/ Bringer of Peace/ Orbiting Sanghelios

Hell, the saboteur thought, those marines nearly found the bomb if I hadn't killed them and disposed of their bodies, I would have been found out. The Armory was larger than normal UNSC Ships usually have. Normally, a vessel of this size would have at maximum, eighty-four assault rifles, twenty flamethrowers, and one hundred thirty pistols with five hundred frag grenades, but this number was nearly triple that. I guess these UNSC people do really want to ensure peace to become a reality. Without warning, he heard some person or persons coming down here. Damn it, the saboteur exclaimed in his head, more people investigating what happened to those two idiots that were idiotic enough to try and see what I was cleaning.

"Sol," one of the voices said with a high pitched voice, "did you really need to buy all of that junk off of the planet?"

So, the saboteur thought, one of them is named Sol. Probably after the human's home planet's star. These better be some more marines, he thought as he activated his active camo.

"Luna," a mellower, deeper voice that could cut the fabric of space itself, said, "This 'junk' as you call it is actually an outdated, Covenant Slipspace Drive that could decrease the time needed to be in Slipspace. With some engineers and a semi-decent mechanic, I could reverse-engineer this 'piece of junk' to upgrade th" Two Spartans came into the room oblivious to the fact that there was another person in there listening to their whole conversation. "Why, hello," the taller of the two Spartans had said, "and your name is?"

Oh man, the saboteur thought, these are the Spartans that killed that first batch of Flood. "Private Helton, sir," the saboteur replied.

The other Spartan, who he had thought might be the one called Luna, questioned, "Then, why are you out of uniform? You should know that only on leave can you remove your uniform."

Starting to get worried, Helton said, "Sorry, sir, I must have slept-walked again. I have problems with that." Hopefully that will be a good enough excuse, he thought.

"Hmmm," Sol mumbled, "you do not look familiar. I thought I knew everyone that is on this ship. What is your station on this ship?"

"Umm," Helton grumbled, "I'm on the night watch, Engine Room." These two are harder to convince than those marines, he thought.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose. The intercom screamed, "WARNING: FLOOD DETECTED IN THE ARMORY, ENGINE ROOM, AND THE LAUNCH BAY! ALL SECURITY, INTERSEPT THE FLOOD AND PREVENT ANY HUMAN OR SANGHEILI DEATHS!" The intercom repeated the message over and over again.

Bursting in the Armory, a flood of security personnel don on anti-Flood armor and arm themselves with shotguns and battle rifles. "Sir," one of the security officers yelled at Sol so his voice could be heard over the intercom, "you should come help us with the containment problem. Here's a shotgun and some extra ammo."

Glaring at the shotgun, Sol's mental struggle went in favor of defend the ship and the planet from any rogue Flood. "You," Sol commanded some random security officer passing by, "stay with these two, and make sure that they don't kill each other." When Luna had heard this, she glared at Sol until he had left. This was to prevent Luna to "practice" her assassination techniques on a live target.

"When will it be safe for me to return to my quarters?" Helton asked. I hope this dope is worse than the marines.

"I would have to escort you to your quarters," the security officer said, "but I can't leave the armory or this Spartan unattended."

Hmm, Helton thought, this could be easier than stealing candy from a baby. "If she is armed, could you, then, take me to my quarters?"

"I could do that, but I would be disobeying a direct order," the security officer stated, now rocking on the ball of his heels.

The security officer's radio cried, "Multiple contacts coming your way, Armory."

"10-4," the security officer replied, "Trigger Happy, baring his teeth."

Then, when Helton thought that he was about to escape this tea party, the intercom said, "THIS HAS BEEN AN EMERGENCY DRILL. IF THIS WAS FOR REAL, THE AUTO-DESTRUCT WOULD BE ACTIVATED. ALL PERSONNEL RETURN TO POSTS."

"Private Helton," Sol's voice came from the other side of a solid wall, "if that is your name, we know that you are the saboteur. Give up and we will be lenient."

So, I have been had, the saboteur thought, I don't have to say anything to these military scum. "Why? Why should I give up? What have you done to help me?"

When he had let those words slip off of his tongue, Luna slammed the table with her fists. With fire in her eyes, Luna coolly said, "I have my way of taking the information that I want out of you. You don't want to know what will happen if you don't gladly give me what I want." While sharpening her augmented blades, Helton told all that he knew to them.

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1021 hours July 24, 2553 (Adopted Sangheili Calendar) High Council Chamber / Yermo / Sanghelios

The surroundings of the lobby of the structure, which would have caused anyone to be dumbstruck at the beauty of the interior, but it, had no effect on Shield. He simply thought that it was his worst nightmare for a firefight. After what would have seemed like an eternity to a marine, the receptionist, or at least Shield thought she was a receptionist, returned. "They are ready to see the hum--."

Shield, smiling, said, "Yes, I am a human."

Sighing with relief, the receptionist said to Nico, "They are ready to see the human and you."

"Good," Nico replied, "tell them we are ready as well."

"Yes, sir," she responded.

Glaring at the door that he had presumed they would enter through, Shield muttered to Nico, "Usually, how long will this take?"

Nico, shaking his head, mourned, "I do not know, this is the first time that I have heard where one of your species has entered that room."

Regaining his composure, Shield observed the room further. Usually, you can analyze a race's capabilities through their form of art, Shield thought. Very angular, he analyzed, they must have the same tastes in art as humans. "Well, I'm ready to have my head, figuratively, bitten off." Hearing his stomach grumble at him, Shield realized that he hadn't ate anything since 0600 hours yesterday. Shield asked, "Is there somewhere I can receive food?"

Nico, with a crystal, clear smirk on his "face", replied, "You had passed many places with food visible when you were lost. I am, in your language I believe it's said, guessing that you have no sense of direction."

At least, Shield thought, he does have a sense of humor and logic. "Yes," Shield sighed, "if it weren't for my younger twin brother, I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag." Shield grinned, "You do realize that I was trying to make a joke."

Shaking his head, Nico said, "You are horrible at making jokes."

Shield chuckled, "That's what everyone else says, and I still try." Both sat there laughing until they were coughing due to lack of oxygen to their lungs. "I see that I do have some humorous jokes still." Thinking to him, damn, that's more then I wanted to reveal about myself. I should try to stop acting as though he's one of my squad mates. He's still the enemy until the peace treaty is finalized. "Looks like we shouldn't keep them waiting," Shield muttered.

"If you say so," Nico chortled, "that is if you can find your way to the appropriate door."

He was right, Shield thought, he knows that I am not familiar with either the lay of the land or the culture. I had only assumed that the door that was in front of me was the one I should enter through. "So, you mind giving me a nudge in the right direction?" Nico pointed to the opposite side of the far right door.

"Next to that door is a cloaked panel," Nico instructed, "you may find that you cannot enter unless if your retinas are scanned."

Shield got the hint. They wanted to see if there was really a human inside the armor, or if the thing that they feared was a machine. He put in the command to analyze the atmosphere of the planet. After five seconds of anticipation, the results read that it was safe to breathe the planet's natural atmosphere. Removing the helmet, Shield revealed his sleek black hair with some streaks of gray. His facial features are similar to a younger version of the Old Earth James Bond actor, Sean Connery. "Here I go," Shield said with a harsher tone, "you with me?"

Stunned at the facial features of this human, Nico said, "Yes, I'm with you. How?"

Shield sighed. Every time I remove the helmet, this happens, Shield thought. "How could I look this way? I was born like this. Now, let's go."

Entering the Chamber with a former enemy flanking him and many former enemies around him, Shield felt as though he was a war prisoner. "Human," one of the Sangheili on the podium said, "Do you know why you are here?"

Shield, not wanting difficulties so early in the mission, replied, "First, you may call me Shield, and yes, I know why I am here. I am here to safely bring the delegates to Earth for a peace treaty, and to satisfy your curiosity on your former enemies, whether or not the Spartans are either man or machines. Is your curiosity satisfied now?"

"Human," another Sangheili retorted, "You are speaking in a council in which you have no rights. The former that spoke to you is our Head Councilor, make-shift leader of the Sangheili until a more permanent government is formed."

Why is it that I am always handed the harder assignments? Shield asked himself. Oh, yeah, Shield remembered, I put myself into this. "My apologies, Councilors and Head Councilor," Shield apologized. I hope this does have to go in my mission report to my higher ups.

"Now, onto more urgent matters," the Head Councilor spoke again, "your ship in orbit has reported in and said that you should be present as well before the commander delivers his news." Motioning to one of the Sangheili surrounding the room, the head councilor ordered "Open a channel to the Bringer of Peace." Within moments of following through with the order, the commander's image was projected in front of them. The Head Councilor spoke, "Shield is now here to hear your news."

Rocking back and forth as he usually did when he was extremely disturbed, Richmond said, "We have captured the saboteur that was on the ship."

Shield sighed with relief, "That is very good news, Commander. Was there any problems?"

With an unusual grimace on his face, Richmond replied, "The bad news is that one of the Sangheili on the planet has hired the saboteur. We have traced the many transmissions between them and the closest we can narrow the search, down to, is two kilometers of your present location."

"How could you accuse a Sangheili of such treasonous acts?" one of the other councilors rebuked Richmond. "Where is your proof of this?"

Richmond grinning replied, "Why, I am sending both the prisoner, AND the video recording of the interrogation, down to you right now." Turning his view to Shield, Richmond grimaced, "We had a problem while you were on the surface. We encountered more Flood in key areas of the ship. The Security detail is currently taking care of the mop up with the assistance of Sol."

"Commander," Shield inquired, "when will the Bringer of Peace be ready to depart?"

Richmond's grimace dug deeper into his face, "We don't know the full extent of the sabotage. It may take a couple hours to a full week. I give you my report on your return to the ship."

Off screen, Shield hears a bridge officer say, "Sir, the engines are overloading! She's gonna blow!"

"Evacuate the ship!" Richmond said.

"It's too late, she's gone nuclear. Activating Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive to prevent the destruction of Sanghelios," the bridge officer said.

Richmond turned back to Shield, "The Spartans that were on here are off and going to the surface. The vid and the prisoner are going to you with your Spartans as well. Good-bye…old friend."

With that, the com went dead. Shield payed his respects to those on the Bringer of Peace that would soon be dead. "Good-bye, comrade," was the only thing Shield said in his grief.

What a sad end to Commander Richmond. Still, this was pretty hard to find some way to end this and show a deeper side of Shield not shown until the epilogue of Book Three. This is one of the slowest chapters of the trilogy due to the fact that: first, no action; second, only talk; and third, I had taken eleven hour naps after school. Well, R&R peeps. Until Chapter Five, ciao.