DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bungee or Halo: Reach, but if a Bungee representative were to tell me I do, I certainly would not argue.
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Karl-591: Yes, pissing him off will lower your life expectancy by about 3000 percent.
Ralf Jones: Will do.
Gone Rampant: Don't worry too much, I don't know how I would write that anyway. Romance is not my forte. ;P
ArcherNoob: Thank you.
Nickelnick: Sorry about that. He has to have some form of recreation, and since killing people is out of the question...
ShadowedSerenity: Glad you like him.
LycanRed: I am not certain exactly what I want to do with them in the long term. I have a rough idea , but not much else.
Tinytim12: I will do my best to explain that.
PadawanMage: I'm working on it.
A/N: Sorry about the wait, school is a real [CENSORED] sometimes. Here is Chapter 4!
Chapter 4: Grand Theft Starship
K'tal piloted the Phantom toward the ship he had decided that they had the best chance of taking successfully. It was a stealth corvette, lightly armed and defended, and capable of operated by an extremely small number of individuals in a pinch.
He established a connection with the corvette. "Greetings, brother." he said to the irritable-looking image of the corvette's communications officer, hoping that the small bloodstains on his helmet would not show.
"What?" the other Sangheili growled rudely. "Who are you, and what is your reason for contact?"
"I am Special Operations Officer K'tal 'Varthikai, formerly of the assault carrier Indomitable Retribution. We captured a demon from the surface of the human planet, but it broke free and ran berserk through the ship, killed the Shipmaster, and set the core to overload. The Shipmaster told me to warn the fleet before the demon killed him, so I took a dropship and escaped. Your ship was the closest to where I launched, so I naturally came to you first." K'tal responded.
"You ran away from battle?" the communications officer frowned even more.
"And, regardless of whatever warnings you were told to give the fleet, they are void now. The Indomitable Retribution was destroyed not long ago, and the only signature detected leaving beforehand was your Phantom. The demon must have been killed in the explosion."
"I was following orders." K'tal replied defensively. "I realize that the orders are now void, but I need to land on your ship. My Phantom was damaged by the explosion, and I am not certain how bad the damage is, so I need to see how bad it is myself." The communications officer nodded slightly, and disappeared from the image for a moment, presumably to consult with his Shipmaster.
"Very well," the officer said, reappearing. "You have been given clearance to land and make repairs." With that, the image winked out. K'tal sighed in relief and leaned back slightly, glad they had bought his lie. After he eased into the hangar, and once he heard the magnetic locks engage and seal the Phantom tightly in place, K'tal slid out of the pilot's chair and strode into the troop compartment, heading for the exit.
...
Six pulled herself into a sitting position as the Elite entered, grimacing at the throbbing from her plasma burns. "Where're you going?" she groaned through the pain, seeing him head for the Phantom's airlock. He turned to regard her, and she noticed, oddly, a long gouge running down the left side of his helmet, across the eye slit. It looked like her helmet had as she threw it away, she realized, right after it had been mangled by that Zealot's energy sword.
"I am going to take this ship so we can escape." he said.
Six started to rise. "I'm going with you." she said. "Give me a weapon." The Elite shook his head.
"I cannot allow you to do that. You are injured, and if you come along, you would only slow me down."
He pointed at a control panel next to her head. "Activate that panel once I am gone; it will lock the door. Take this." He tossed her a small communicator. Then he opened the door and left, not giving her a chance to argue. Six watched the door close automatically, then tapped the control panel. A small light over the closed door changed from blue to red; she assumed that meant the door was locked. She pulled out her knives, setting the kukri on the bench next to her and tossing and catching her combat knife idly, and settled in to wait.
...
K'tal activated his active camouflage and snuck around the pair of bored-looking Minors on guard in the hangar bay. He quickly grabbed one in a chokehold while the other was not looking, sliding the blade of one of his energy knives into the guard's skull, then silently lowered the body to the ground. The other guard began turning, and K'tal snapped out his energy knife and sliced the guard's throat wide open. He grabbed the collapsing body and laid it down silently as well, deactivating his active camouflage.
After dragging both bodies out of sight behind a convenient pile of crates, K'tal walked to the door and keyed it open. Just in time to see a Major walking past. The Major gawked, seeing him, and K'tal took the opportunity to activate both energy knives, rush forward, and stab him in the face before the alarm could be raised. Looking down all the hallways to check for other enemies, he pulled out his plasma repeater and set off in the direction of the bridge.
K'tal reached the entrance to the bridge with no trouble, and paused for a moment to ready himself, and then charged in.
The six Sangheili inside looked stunned at his appearance, but quickly sublimated their shock and drew weapons as he mowed one of their number down. They spread out in an attempt to flank him, but he simply ducked behind a control console and activated his active camouflage. Sneaking behind the bridge officers as they slowly began flanking the console they thought he was hiding behind, K'tal clamped the repeater onto his back.
Coming up behind the Shipmaster, who was furthest back, holding a needler and unlit sword hilt, he grabbed the Shipmaster around the neck, activated one of his energy knives and ran the Sangheili through. Deactivating the knife and wrenching the needler from the dying Shipmaster's hand, K'tal opened fire on the other officers, keeping the corpse between them and him as a shield. One of the Sangheili collapsed, head snapping back, as three razor-sharp crystal fragments pierced his shielding and punched into his face. Another got eight needles lodged in him, all over his chest and stomach, which then exploded and tore the unfortunate Sangheili apart, spraying the remaining two officers with gore. K'tal hurled his meat shield at one of them, bowling him over.
He followed through by drawing one energy sword, activating it, and ripping into the other officer, first stunning him with a hook to the right side of his head, then killing him by stabbing into the officer's stomach and dragging the sword upwards, gutting the other Sangheili like a fish. Deactivating his sword and turning to the last one, who was struggling to free himself from the corpse he was pinned under, K'tal activated his right energy knife, and crouched down on his haunches to look him in the eye.
"Traitor!" the Sangheili spat. "A thousand hells await you!"
"Believe me, brother," K'tal said heavily. "If there were only another way." He slid the energy blade into the officer's heart. Standing up, he dragged the various bodies from the room and then, once he returned, went to the console that controlled shipwide functions. He overrode the emergency bulkheads so they would stay open, and then opened every airlock, force field, and door on the stealth corvette except for the bridge access door, venting the ship and blowing every single crew member out into the cold, unforgiving vacuum. Resealing the airlocks remotely and flicking through the displays from the surveillance camera scattered through the ship, K'tal checked for survivors. Having found none, he flicked to the image of the hangar bay, and, seeing the Phantom he had left the human in intact and still in place, let out a breath he had not been aware he had been holding.
Turning away from the console, he walked toward the door out of the bridge to go get the human.
...
Six was drumming her fingers impatiently on the bench next to her when the communicator crackled to life. "The ship is clear; unlock the door and come out." the Elite ordered. Picking up her knives, she slapped the control panel and the door opened. Walking out, she noted the dried bloodstains on the floor in the middle of the bay. They looked stretched, as if they had been sucked at by a vacuum cleaner before fully drying. That coupled with a suspicious lack of bodies and the thinness of the air made her guess that the ship interior had been depressurized and everything had been sucked out into space.
"Did you vent the ship?" she queried the Elite, who was standing near the door, watching her.
He shrugged. "It was the quickest and easiest way to dispose of the crew without compromising the ship." he replied simply, turning and beckoning for her to follow. "Come."
Following him to the bridge, she watched the Elite walk up to a console and begin typing rapidly into it. "If you want to be useful, go plot a Slipspace course. I've managed to translate it into your language." he said, not looking up from the display but pointing for a moment at another console.
Going to the console he had indicated, Six punched up the display and tapped in a set of random Slipspace coordinates in accordance with the Cole Protocol. "How do you know enough about my language to translate it?" she asked as she worked.
"I am Special Operations; we are typically sent on infiltration and intelligence-gathering missions behind enemy lines, so having knowledge of your language is useful." he said, still focused on his console. He prodded the display one last time, and the ship shuddered slightly as it entered Slipspace.
The Elite looked at her. "Human, I-" he started.
Six glared at the Elite and cut him off. "My name is not human, or do you want me to call you Elite all the time? You can call me Six, everyone else did." Her tone was slightly bitter.
"Very well...Six." he amended, starting again. "I am going to the armoury to recharge my weapons. I will be back soon. If we drop out of Slipspace before I get back, the stealth systems activate automatically activate and will keep the ship hidden from possible enemies until we can make another jump." Having said that, he walked to the door.
Six strode over to him. "Then I might as well go with you." she said. "I can't keep taking your weapons all the time." The Elite nodded once and allowed her to follow.
...
K'tal's first impression upon entering the armoury was that it was extremely well-stocked for a stealth ship. Racks of plasma rifles, needle rifles and focus rifles lined the walls. In sealed protective lockers along the back wall of the room were the heavier weapons: fuel rod guns, concussion rifles and plasma launchers, and holders for needlers and plasma pistols lay on the floor, fastened to the walls. Most importantly, to him at least, was a case on the wall next to the door, holding several energy sword hilts and spare power packs for them.
Going to the case, K'tal unsealed it and removed one sword hilt and several power packs. He walked to a table in the centre of the room and deposited the power packs and sword hilt on it, as well as the nearly-drained pair of hilts he had already been carrying. Working quickly, he stripped the hilts of their used power packs and slotted in fresh ones, then activated both swords to check if they were working properly, slightly startling Six, who spun around to look at him, hand hovering above one of her short-bladed metal knives. Seeing him deactivate both of the swords, she turned back to perusing the gun racks, before taking a plasma repeater and needler pistol.
Walking past the various racks, K'tal clamped his plasma weapons into a charging station and hooked up the feeds to the charging ports, and hearing the hum as the station powered up and began recharging the partly-drained plasma cores in the guns, He walked over to a rack and pulled one of the needle rifles free, exchanging it for the used one on his back.
"I have to ask," Six said from the opposite side of the room. "Why did you rescue me?"
K'tal turned to look at her squarely. "I... I honestly do not know." he replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I suppose I just felt that you did not deserve the fate put before you on that ship." he tried to explain himself. "And, seeing your defiance in the face of pain and death helped solidify my belief that you humans are not the weak, worthless beings the Hierarchs say you are."
Six folded her arms. "Really?" she did not sound very convinced. "How long have you been thinking that?"
"Since the planet your kind called Miridem." K'tal answered. "I saw your soldiers, including more of you," he gestured at Six, "Fight and die to protect your noncombatants as they escaped. The ability to put the safety of others before that of oneself; that is something I have a great deal of respect for. That is when I started believing the Hierarchs were wrong."
He tapped the warped, scarred part of his helmet. "This was another factor; I got it for questioning my commanding officer during that campaign; I was ordered to destroy a refugee ship as it tried to flee the planet, loaded with civilians. When I demanded to know why it was necessary to destroy an unarmed ship that was not even a threat, he attacked me before being restrained by his guards." he sighed. "I lost most of what little faith I had in the Covenant that day. What was once a glorious campaign, a holy crusade, had dissolved into glorifying pointless violence." he finished.
Six seemed struck speechless. "Have you got everything you need?" K'tal asked. She nodded once, then followed him as he turned and strode out the door in the direction of the bridge.
Next to the door he stopped, opening a locker, and taking a pair of items from inside. They were magnetized belts designed for carrying weapons, generally used by Kig'Yar snipers when they needed to carry their guns while leaving their hands free for other uses. He tossed them to Six. Understanding, she cinched one around her waist and the other crosswise across her torso, and they continued walking.
...
The next few hours passed monotonously. Once they dropped out of Slipspace into their random destination, Six keyed up the jump that would take them to Earth, with K'tal respectfully looking the other way at her request so he could not see the coordinates. Some minutes after the corvette eased back into the strange dimensions that allowed FTL travel, Six spoke up from where she sat, back to the rear wall of the bridge.
"I suppose I can't rightfully call you Elite," she called out at the Elite, who was standing by the viewscreen, staring out into the glowing void, "Not when I called you out for calling me Human. So, what should I call you? What's your name?"
"K'tal." he answered curtly.
She nodded, even though he probably couldn't see her, and went back to toying with her combat knife, before sliding it back into its sheath, which she had affixed to the belt across her chest. Soon, she felt sleep overtaking her. Good, she thought. It had been some time since she had been able to have a real night's sleep, rather than the cat-naps she had to have instead during the invasion of Reach. Six relaxed, closed her eyes, and let the world of dreams take her.
...
Six felt herself being shaken awake, and opened one eye a crack to see the Elite- no, K'tal, she remembered, looking down at her. "Come, we have reached your destination." he stated, pulling her to her feet one-handed. "I need you to initiate contact; they will not trust us if I am the one they see first." he gestured at the comm station a few feet away.
Nodding an affirmative, she walked to the station and activated it, switching to the UNSC FLEETCOM 7 frequency, and a voice crackled out of the speaker. "This is UNSC Destroyer 'Normandy', state your identity and purpose." came the voice of the comm officer on the other end of the line.
"This is Lieutenant Spartan Bravo-Three-One-Two under SPECWAR/Group Three of SPECWARCOM, Normandy." she replied swiftly and professionally. "Recently freed from Covenant captivity."
"A Spartan?" the officer sounded incredulous. "It says here you were listed as MIA. How did you get away from the Covenant?"
Six chuckled slightly. "Long story. Basically, I was captured, escaped in one of their stealth ships, and now here I am. Would you mind sending a Pelican to pick me up? I'll have the stealth systems powered down so you can find me."
"Alright, we'll dispatch a dropship, Lieutenant. We'll send 'em as soon as we can find you."
"One last thing," Six added. "Tell the Marine detachment you'll undoubtedly send along that there is a Covenant defector on board with me, so they won't shoot at him the moment they see him. They'll just end up getting hurt." she finished, remembering what K'tal had done to his former allies with just energy swords.
"How do you know he actually defected?" came the query. "He could be a spy."
"He saved my life, that's how I know." Six answered. "I wouldn't have escaped without him."
"Very well." the comm officer conceded, as K'tal powered down the stealth systems in the background. "We'll send the Pelican. Welcome home, Lieutenant."
A/N: Once again, I am SO sorry for not updating sooner! I've had exams to do and a mild case of writers block going on, so please don't eat my face! Also I've been distracted, 'cause I just got a new game and have been busy playing it. And Chapter 5 will probably be a while, as I have other things to do as well as this and I need to figure out where the hell I want to go with this story, so don't hold your breath.
Also, I apologize if you guys think Six is OOC, but it's hard to judge someone's character when said character has almost as few lines as Master Chief. So deal with it.