Deca Surov' the sangheili intelligence officer aboard the battle cruiser Chariot of Justice, was walking towards the med bay, the soft purple lighting shone off his silver grey heretic ossonna armor. The few sangheili that passed his way quickened their pace or chose not to acknowledge his presence. He was used to it.
He walked down the hallway and turned right by a pair of unggoy who seemed to be arguing about their rations and continued through the maze of corridors.
The confrontation with the loyalists had left them low on supplies and things were not looking up, there was large scale damage to much of the heretic fleet. They were now docked at a now derelict old mining colony at the edges of covenant controlled space. Their escape would not have been possible if not for the fast actions taken by the heretic leader.
He turned into a large room which had been brightly lit and smelling of cleaning supplies and charred flesh.
He walked upto a gold armored sangheili who was beside a patient and saluted. "Leader."
The heretic leader turned around and returned his salute, "At ease Lieutenant, what do you have for me today?"
"Excellency, we are running low on rations and medical supplies and I'm afraid that if we face another altercation with the loyalists, our ammunition supplies would fail us altogether." Said Surov'
The leader once again turned towards the occupant of the bed and said, "Looks like we'll be raiding another supply ship."
He turned to a red armored sangheili and said "Medic, keep me posted about his condition," and he turned to Surov, "To the bridge."
They turned to an empty hallway and stopped. After then lieutenant checked to see if the corridor as clear of any eavesdroppers the Leader asked, "Any new information about the going on's in High charity?"
"My sources say that the Fulsam' has been promoted to Fleet master," at this the leader dug his claws in to his palms not out of fear but out of pure anger, "If I get my hands on him...." the heretic leader trailed off.
"No doubt, he will now follow us with all his ships in command, Excellency."
"All the reason for us to finish off here and head for Haven, But I shall have to consult with the commanders of our ships." Said the leader while rubbing his left mandible.
"Excellency, I shall notify them of the meeting." Said Surov and excused himself.
Oh my head thought Sashi as he regained consciousness, things were still blurry for him, and I feel like I've been hit on the head with hunter. Wait, I'm supposed to be dead, he thought and he slowly opened his eyes, the lights hurt his eyes, he tried to move his arms, his left hand was in a cast, an itchy one at that.
He tried to sit up, but was roughly pushed back down, "Gerrof," he slurred.
"Sit down," commanded a voice and Sashi was not in a mood to argue. "You have lost much blood and you should not be rushing to get out of rest, it is a miracle that you survived."
"Now open your eyes," Sashi tried but his body was not cooperating with him right now, he felt his eyelids being pushed up and a light shining into them, he tried to draw away from the stranger but he felt wasted.
"I am Gtahe Fortil', the chief medic aboard the Chariot of Justice, Do you know who you are son?" asked the Medic
"Sashi, Sashi Fulsam'" he mumbled, he felt like the insides of his mouth was drier than the sands of Jisako
Then he promptly threw up at the orderly's feet and passed out.
Bridge of The Chariot Of Justice
"Fleetmaster, I'm detecting multiple slipspace ruptures behind the fourth planet of this system." Said the helmsman.
"A sangheili battle cruiser and a destroyer and a human freight ship," looking at the Fleetmaster for further orders.
The Fleetmaster looked up at the screen showing the tiny blips on the radar; at least they weren't searching for us.
Alert the Leader, I will be in the hangars, then into the ship wide comm. system All troops to prepare for battle and await further orders.
The familiar buzz of the com unit sounded in his head, "Fleetmaster what is the situation,"
"Leader, we have two loyalist vessels a battle cruiser and a destroyer positively identified as the Faithful Guardian and the Reverent Follower They appear to be pursuing a human freight ship."
"Take the destroyer, we don't need the cruiser and for the human ship we can take it later."
"Yes leader." Said the Fleetmaster.
"All boarding parties to positions eject on my signal he announced on the com unit."
He then opened a channel to the fleet main line, "This is Fleetmaster Weerath' calling all able ships to battle there is a loyalist scourge in the system that we have to eliminate, report in."
A chorus of acknowledgments echoed inside bridge.
"But Excellency." said Anja Retay' the shipmaster of the Requiem as his face appeared on one of the plasma screens on the bridge, "our weapons cache is critically low and most of our troops are still recovering from the previous clash. How do you suggest we pursue this situation?"
"I am well aware that our supplies are dwindling and that most of our troops are still tired and on the edge from what happened before. But today we will not attack."
"What are you suggesting Matla?" asked Fera Gurst' one of the shipmasters who happened to be the fleetmaster's best friend.
The Fleetmaster then looked up at the screens showing the various screens on which the faces of the fleet's shipmasters "Remember the shield disruptor that our technicians were working on?"
"What about it?" asked Fera who was getting impatient
"Well its complete, it disrupts the shields, disables their targeting system and disconnects the slipspace thrusters on covenant ships, as soon as we get within a certain range of an enemy ship all we have to do is activate the disruptor and their shields go out."
"I have already given the order for the disruptor probes to move into position we'll wait until the correct moment to strike as the disruptor can only function for a short period of time."
"Weerath'," buzzed a voice into his helmet, "I am boarding the battle cruiser with the warriors, await my signal to bring the fleet out."
"Yes leader." acknowledged the Fleetmaster
Just then a message came across the com
"Excellency, the destroyer the Reverent Follower has noticed our presence but they think that we are from the Faithful Guardian -here to give them support- But I don't think the ruse will work for long, We await your orders."
Matla could hear the anticipation in the warrior's voice, "Wait for my signal the disruptor has been launched and should be within range of the destroyer."
"Excellency, the probes are in place said ship ensign Dario Veeras'."
"Very good, Then." he said switching to fleet com, "Warriors attack on my mark."
Turning to Dario, "calibrate the probes."
"Calibrating..."
"Seraphs in position," the fleetmaster called over the com.
"Seraphs are in position excellency," countered a voice over the com.
"Excellency, the probes are in position, calibrated and ready to fire on your mark," said ensign Veeras'
Weerath nodded.
The leader who was listening on the conversation then said "Give the mark fleetmaster and we shall blast these cretins into the abyss."
'Acknowledged Leader."
"Warriors get ready," ordered Weerath'.
"Fire disruptors now!"
There was a blinding flash in the vicinity of space where the disruptors' fire and the shields of the loyalist ships crackled out of existence.
"MARK!" shouted the Fleetmaster over the com.
"Seraphs into yurrd formation attack aft and draw fire to opposing ship."
"Boarding parties have infiltrated enemy vessels; I repeat boarding parties are now in," shouted a voice over the com sounds of a fire fight could be heard over the line.
"Leader, I await your orders." said Weerath into a private com line between them.
"Strike when the seraphs have breached the lower decks of the battle cruiser." responded the leader. "I shall get the troops out before it happens."
Weerath' was listening to the com lines as the fight progressed.
"Draw back!!" shouted the leader, "draw back"
"Fleetmaster give the order to retreat now and engage as soon as the dropships are out of range."
"All warriors fallback, I repeat all warriors fallback."
He could see the tiny dropships moving away from the ships
Fleet master said Deca Surov' into his helmet, "I have gained access into the cruiser the crew is dead, no survivors we flushed the air out of the bridge."
"Fleetmaster the probes life is coming to and end only 3 minutes left," said the helmsman
"All the time in the world." said the Fleetmaster and gave an equivalent of a sangheili smile, "Shipmasters attack the freighter, the cruiser is under separatist control."
"Move out now."
The separatist vessels came into view and unleashed the full ferocity of plasma at the vessel, within minutes it was but a charred memory of its past self.
"Another victory for the separatists." said Fera his face showing a grin through the panel.
"Yes brother, a victory, one with perks indeed we have another ship at our command."
"But Matla what about the human ship?"
Matla nodded at the helmsmen to give an assessment of the human ship.
"Excellency, the human ship is not fully functional, life support systems are off line on most decks," he tapped a few keys on his holographic interface, "My data suggests that the ship is running on minimum power and its engines are offline probably because of the disruptor probe."
"I didn't know that it could work on human ships as well," mused the Fleetmaster, "make a note of it and send a team to salvage what we can from the human ship.
Well we could try and salvage metal or weapons from the human ship, suggested Matla to the inquiring Fleetmaster.
What, weapons of those savages exclaimed Retay', that would be...
Heresy suggested the heretic leader as he entered the bridge removing his helmet, revealing a scar that ran from his temple and through his left eye.
We have already been deemed heretics what else would come if we rummage through more 'heretical' goods.
Shipmaster Retay' visibly winced at the mention of 'heretics' "Forgive me Excellency I did not imply that..."
It is not your fault shipmaster, we were taught to hat the humans even thought their kind did no sort of harm to ours, sometimes I think that the humans may look different from us but they have the heart of a sangheili warrior, even thought they are severely outnumbered they throw themselves at us with no regard for their own lives.
I agree completely said Shipmaster Gurst' Their valor is surprising.
Excellency said the eager voice of the ensign the search team has com across something
Put them on the screen
A moving view of a ship interior came into view and the gruff voice of a sangheili who wore the camera on his helmet echoed through it, Fleetmaster my search team found no humans alive, the crew is dead as the atmosphere of the ship appears to be poisoned somehow, we are wearing masks, the navigational databases appear to have been destroyed prior to the death of the ships captain.
The sangheili walked around the ships hallways, there were dead bodies littering the corridor, then he walked into a large room where there appeared to be cylindrical tubes lining the walls and a team of sangheili technicians were surrounding one.
We found on life pod which happens to be active and I think you will be interested shipmaster.
The camera panned over to the cryopod and through the misted glass you could make out a mechanical shadow.
The shipmaster could only stare in disbelief, A demon said the leader slightly smiling, a brilliant plan was concocting in his mind.