The Halo Universe belongs to Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries. But these characters are my own creation and cannot be used without my permission. If you do use them without my permission, then Utarz will steal all the money from your bank account. Enjoy the show.

The Sangheili 800 Squad

Chapter 3: That Snow is a Spy!

For the first couple of days after command's refusal to get him out, Zen had taken to sitting in his room, fuming at the injustice. Atar had tried again and again to have Zen relocated to a better squad, but was having no luck.

Mostly because he still had the same radio operator.

After a while though, Zen calmed down and decided that if he was going to be stuck here, then he might as well make himself useful. No sense in sulking like a child.

This was also the same day that Atar gave up trying to get Zen out. When the Kig-Yar didn't realise that being called a 'stubborn, dishonourable half-wit' was an insult, Atar decided that the Kig-Yar wasn't worth the time.

The first thing Zen tried to do was help rebuild the base. On that day, Miara had gone up to Zen and asked him if he had a girlfriend. He had been so taken aback by this question that he said 'yes' before realising that he actually didn't.

Miara didn't seem disappointed though. If anything she seemed satisfied, as though she had made a choice of some sort.

Zen quickly learnt that progress on the base was slow. The base was gigantic and was built for more than six people. Rebuilding a section of a wall more than six metres long didn't count as one twelfth of the reconstruction process. But Tracer was determined to bring the base back to its former glory.

Zen noticed that everyone carried their weapons wherever they went. When he asked why, Tracer explained that Atar was slightly paranoid and insisted on it.

Zen also learnt that only he, Tracer, Miara and Atar were actually doing anything. Utarz simply couldn't be bothered and Repora was doing 'something secret' in his room. What he was doing, Zen didn't really want to know.

Day three was relatively peaceful, despite the odd argument that would occasionally flare up between Tracer and Utarz, or Miara and Utarz, or, more commonly, Zen and Utarz. Zen had never met someone who was so lazy and dishonourable.

Everyone else seemed to be on edge though. Everyone kept away from Repora's room (which was sort of expected) and looking up at the sky as though they were worried it was going to fall on them. Utarz in particular kept reacting to loud noises and was riding on his Ghost (which Tracer had grudgingly repaired) the whole day.

Zen didn't really know what they were afraid of. The humans had no reason to attack them and they were isolated from anything else. No one would hurt them.

The next day, though, he learnt better.

February, 2550 (Human Calender)

0925 Hours

SSMB 800

Zen and Tracer were working on a section of a wall when they heard a furious scream.

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZ!"

Zen looked up at the source of the voice. "Was that Repora?"

"…Yeah…" Tracer stood up, abandoning his work. "We should go now."

"Why?"

"Just trust me."

"…This wouldn't be one of those rampages you talked about, would it?" Zen asked nervously.

As if to answer his question, a fuel rod hit the ground behind him.

The force blew him backwards onto his face. He scrambled back up and saw half a dozen more rods falling from the sky.

"RUN!" Tracer yelled, dashing off. Zen quickly followed. He would happily kill a human or a Sangheili against even or overpowering odds, but Repora was more frightening than any monster.

Eventually, they reached the bomb shelter and ran in. Tracer slammed the door shut behind him. To Zen's surprise, everyone else minus Utarz and Repora was already there.

"Nearly didn't get here in time." Atar admonished.

"We were further away." Tracer replied.

"Well try and be a bit closer next time." Miara snapped. She seemed to be the type of scared when you were worried about something close to you.

Zen had a hunch of why this was, but that wasn't really important right now.

"What exactly is wrong with Repora?" He asked.

Tracer shrugged. "Dunno. He definitely lost his mind somewhere in the past. Probably a traumatic event or something."

"And there are his voices as well." Miara added.

Zen blinked. "What voices?"

"In his head." Atar explained. "He calls them 'Heaven' and 'Hell'."

"Great." Zen muttered. "So he hears voices as well."

"That doesn't prove anything." Tracer said. "Hearing voices in your head is actually perfectly normal. It's when you start talking back to them that you should be worried."

"He does talk back to them." Atar pointed out.

"I know, but I just had to point that out. It's a common mistake."

"Where's Utarz?" Zen asked. He wasn't concerned, just curious.

"Out there getting shot at." Miara said without a trace of remorse.

"…Why is Repora shooting at him?"

"We've asked both of them." Tracer said. "Neither of them want to talk about it."

"You know, Tracer," Atar grumbled. "I thought we agreed that you would make him stop this."

"You told me to stop him for Zen's arrival, sir." Tracer corrected. "And I did stop him for a while. We haven't had any rampages for the past three days."

Atar grumbled a bit more, but Zen was more concerned about all the hard work they did the last few days. With an aim like Repora's, then almost everything would be demolished.

Utarz knew the drill. Get on the Ghost, drive around randomly, stray away from Tracer's Wraith and the power room and he was good. It didn't really matter much where he drove, because Repora's aim was so terrible that only the stuff around Utarz got blown apart.

Repora also knew the drill. Wait for Utarz to insult him, listen to Hell to get angry, grab his fuel rod gun and blow stuff up. He didn't care where he shot, just as long as Utarz got hurt. The fact that Utarz wasn't hurt only added to his fury.

Trouble was, the angrier he got, the worse his aim became. This meant that after a while, the only metal object that wasn't destroyed was Utarz's Ghost.

In fact, an interesting note about the 800 Squad was that Utarz's Ghost was almost completely unscathed. No corrosion or scratches or even dust was on it. It was the only thing that Utarz kept clean.

"COME BACK HERE AND DIE, UTARZ!" Repora roared, firing rod after rod after rod.

Utarz gave him something that he learnt from some newspaper articles about human prisoners: the bird. "Go fuck yourself!" He shouted back.

Enraged, Repora reloaded his gun, went inside the base and grabbed the heavy plasma cannon.

POOF

"Now, now." Heaven said nervously. "Revenge won't get you anywhere. It'll just cause more misery."

"Bullshit!" Hell scorned. "If we get rid of Utarz, then we'll be at peace!"

Repora turned to his right shoulder. "Hell's right, Heaven!" He then jogged out the door, screaming, "REVENGE!"

It took about two hours, but eventually, Repora just got bored of the whole thing and went back to his room after taking a couple more pot-shots at Utarz. Satisfied, Utarz went back to his room and promptly got drunk. After all, Repora only went on one rampage per day.

The Sangheili in the bomb shelter had been waiting for the whole thing to blow over by talking and playing some card games (yes, Sangheili have card games. Everyone does). The card games seemed to always end with Tracer winning, ("No-one is that lucky!" Zen complained) and the talk was mostly of home and their jobs.

What really struck Zen was how much the other three were convinced of their own incompetence. They all seemed to think along the lines that they were in the 800 Squad because they were stupid, weak and uncoordinated.

That was a bit exaggerated, but that seemed to be what they thought. Zen couldn't believe that. There had to be something they could do right. Like Tracer. He built the whole Map that was almost the size of a small village using only spare parts. No normal Sangheili could do that.

He said nothing, though. He wasn't sure why.

When the explosions ceased, everyone nervously debated who should be the one to stick their head out. Zen eventually volunteered and poked out his head in the hope that it wouldn't get blown to pieces.

Thankfully, nothing happened.

To everyone's annoyance, though, their work had been undone. Burn marks, blown apart metal and snapped wires were everywhere. Zen and Tracer's wall had been completely destroyed. Metal was everywhere, so they set about patching it up.

"No wonder the base is a shambles." Zen muttered. "If this happens every day, then it'd be a miracle if we managed to rebuild a barrel."

"That's why we have four people working on this place." Tracer explained. "Otherwise, we wouldn't get anything done."

"Why do we even have Repora?" Zen asked. "If he's this dangerous, then why is he even alive?"

"We don't know. Seriously, we've tried to get him executed many times, but we're not allowed to."

"How come?"

"Apparently, execution is a privilege." Tracer muttered.

What you have to understand about the SMBB 800 was that it was in the middle of a small box canyon. It was a circle with a large complex in the middle, a path leading to the caves with the training equipment and a path leading to the landing pad.

It was also very close to the ocean, with the landing pad being directly above the ocean. One could easily fall off if they weren't careful, as there were no railings.

Otherwise, the 800 Squad was completely cut off from the rest of the planet. Even worse, it was the middle of this planet's winter, so there was ice everywhere. Sometimes, there was a blizzard and people couldn't see anything in front of them.

Thankfully, there was no blizzard, but it was still hard to see the small white figure on top of one of the cliffs.

The figure was an Unggoy (Unggoy were also known as Grunts) in almost silver armour. He was holding a Beam Rifle and was currently looking through the scope. The rifle itself had no battery, as the Unggoy had no intention of using it. He was just using it because he had no binoculars.

He was looking at two of the Sangheili, the one in the purple Spec Ops armour and the one in the green Minor armour. They seemed to be trying to fix the wall that the Sangheili in the white Ranger armour had destroyed earlier.

He zoomed in on the green Minor. It was possible that the green one was Zen, but he couldn't be sure. To him, all Sangheili looked the same.

In order to find out, he would have to go down and listen to them talk.

He put down his Beam Rifle and pulled out what looked like hooks. He grabbed hold of them and stabbed one into the side of the cliff. He climbed down with the hooks, looking down to see how close the ground was. He was relying on his armour's white coat to protect him from being spotted.

It worked. He reached the bottom without anyone noticing. Once he hit solid ground, he activated a cloaking device so that no-one would be able to see him. Then he crept slowly towards the two Sangheili.

"So Repora is the reason why we always have to carry our weapons." Zen stated.

"No." Tracer replied. "Atar's just a bit… paranoid."

"About what?"

"Dunno. I guess ever since he got brain damage, he's been on edge."

"He has brain damage?" Zen asked.

"Yeah. I think he fell off of a cliff. That was when he stopped being competent." Tracer added.

"…Huh." Zen focused back on his work. "That explains how he became a general."

"Yeah."

"Hey, about Repora's rampages…"

"Don't worry. He only goes on one per day."

"Great." Zen muttered. "How are we meant to rebuild this place when Repora blows everything up every day?"

"Well, it'd sure be a lot quicker if Utarz went somewhere isolated whenever Repora got angry, as we've suggested." Tracer grumbled. "But he never listens to us. Ever."

"I've heard it, but I still don't believe it." Zen said. "How can Utarz and Miara be related?"

Tracer shrugged. "I dunno. You can ask Miara, but she gets a little touchy about that subject."

Zen decided to do just that, against Tracer's judgement.

As Zen went to go find Miara, he found that it was hard to find someone in a base this large. After a while, he found Atar and decided to ask him for directions.

"Miara?" Atar thought about it. "Well… last I checked, she was trying to rebuild the door that leads to the watchtower… she might still be there, if she hasn't finished."

"Thanks, sir." Zen said.

"Don't mention it." Atar replied, returning to his work on a wall.

Zen made his way to the watchtower via the memory of Tracer showing it to him. When he got there, though, Miara wasn't there, so he made his way back out.

When he was outside, he heard some snow crunching. He looked around, but didn't see anyone.

Odd… He thought. He looked around a bit more and then noticed something even odder.

A set of footprints in the snow. Footprints that didn't look like Sangheili footprints. They were much too small and circular.

Uncertainly, Zen walked towards the footprints and was about to touch them when…

"Hi, Zen!"

Zen turned around. Miara was walking towards him carrying a toolbox.

Zen straightened up. "Miara."

"What're you doing?" She asked.

"Looking for you." Zen replied, remembering why he was here. "I wanted to ask you a question."

"Okay." She set the toolbox down. "What is it?"

"It's about Utarz." Zen added.

Immediately, Miara stiffened and seemed a bit angry. "What about him?"

"I just don't see how you two can be related." Zen said. "Your personalities differ so much."

Miara sighed. "Well, siblings are hardly ever alike, aren't they?"

"I know, but you and Utarz… you have nothing in common."

Miara looked around. "Actually, we do. We're both pretty stubborn at times."

"…Huh." Zen said.

"Yeah. I remember once when we were kids… Utarz refused to go to a school that my parents wanted him to go to." She seemed amused by the memory. "He wanted to stay with his friends."

"Why would he refuse to go to school."

"It was a military school."

"Oh. Was he that bad?"

"Not as bad as he is now, but yeah." She chuckled. "He used to pull a lot of pranks. But they were mostly harmless. He even took good care of me when I was only a few years old."

A small disturbance sounded to the right. They turned and saw a drunken Utarz 'talking' to Atar.

"While I understand that you are intoxicated," Atar growled in a manner that indicated little to no patience left. "If you don't shut up now, I will break your skull."

Utarz laughed in a deranged way. "You coul… couldn't hit a shi… shisno with a baby…"

"THAT'S IT!" Atar swung around and punched Utarz in the face, knocking him down into the snow. Atar then stormed off.

"And now?" Zen commented.

"And now." Miara agreed. "Honestly, how he got accepted into the military is a wonder."

"Well, that's all I had to ask." Zen said.

"Yeah." Miara picked up the toolbox. "I need to fix that door. Atar insisted."

"See you later, then." Zen said.

"See you." Miara walked inside.

Zen turned around, deciding to investigate the footprints. To his surprise, though, there was now a different set of footprints. The same shape and size, but they lead in a different direction. Towards the cliffs.

Zen followed the tracks, holding up his Needle Rifle. The footsteps lead to the base of the cliff and then stopped. As if the owner of the prints had climbed up the cliff.

In fact…

On closer inspection, Zen found slits in the side of the cliff, the size of small dagger blades. And they lead right up the cliff.

Zen looked up and would've frowned. No-one had any reason to spy on them. They were the 800 Squad after all.

So what was this? Why were there small footprints and dagger-size slits? And who did they belong to?

Getting no answers from the cliff-face, Zen walked back to the base and towards the wall he and Tracer were working on.

When Zen told Tracer of his findings, Tracer was silent for a moment. Then he said, "That makes no sense. Who would go to the trouble of buying Active Camouflage and climbing gear just to spy on us?"

"Who knows?" Zen replied. "Should we tell Atar?"

"No." Tracer sighed. "If we told Atar, then he would become more paranoid than usual. Might tell us to look for footprints. It's much better if we just look for intruders every now and then."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. And tell Miara as well. We might need some anti-cloaking equipment."

"Anti-cloaking?"

"Fire." Tracer said simply. "Lots and lots of fire."

The Unggoy finished hauling himself up the cliff and looked around for his Beam Rifle. He saw it and went to get it. Once he did, he made his way across the ice.

Eventually, he reached a point where the snow wasn't as thick as everywhere else. He threw down the rifle (he wouldn't need it anymore) and touched the air around the patch gently.

Almost instantly, a Banshee pretty much popped into existence.

The Unggoy made his way around the back of the Banshee and opened it up. Climbing inside, he pressed a few buttons and the vehicle flared into life.

As he flew the Banshee off of the ice and towards the sky, the Unggoy thought about what he had learned. As derived from the female Sangheili, the green one was Zen. That was good. He had found that out.

The bad news was that he was now suspicious, the Unggoy was sure of it. He had been silently terrified when the Sangheili had almost discovered him. He had been sure that the mission would've failed, right there and then.

Thankfully, it didn't. The Unggoy had slowly fled the moment the female had said Zen's name. He only hoped that the red one wouldn't know of what Zen had seen.

He kept piloting the Banshee towards the atmosphere, then above it and then he was in space. The Unggoy hoped that his methane supply wouldn't run out. The tank was second-hand after all.

After a while though, he reached a small, floating space-ship. It was custom made and the Unggoy had had a hand in building it. He was very proud of it at times.

Now, though, wasn't the time for admiration.

The Banshee flew into a large hatch for vehicles. With the trip over, the Unggoy got out and walked to the brig. There, the red Sangheili was there, reading something. When he saw the Unggoy, he put the touchpad down and looked at him.

"Buzzsaw." He said to the Unggoy. "How did the mission go? Is he there?"

"Yeah." Buzzsaw replied. "They're there all right. Almost got discovered."

"But you didn't?"

"Nope. Never saw me."

"Good." The red Sangheili replied. "Tank is just getting back from his search. I'll call him back now."

"So…" Buzzsaw said. "Do you have a plan of some sort?"

"Sort of." The Sangheili replied. "We'll send an ambassador first, someone to get Zen isolated… and then, we'll try to convince him."

"What if they attack our ambassador?"

"They?"

"The rest of his squad."

"They do not matter." The Sangheili replied. "If they leave us alone, then we will leave them alone. If they attack us, though… then we will attack back."

A screen flared up. On it was a Mgalekgolo, or better known as a Hunter. Its armour was coloured black and it was surrounded by desert.

"Tank has not found 800 Squad on desert planet." It said to the Sangheili.

"That's okay, Tank." He replied. "Buzzsaw had found them instead."

Tank nodded. "So Tank will come back, then."

"Yes." Zen nodded. "You'll be our ambassador."

Author's notes

So here's a question for you lot: If I made a Tumblr blog where you could ask the 800 Squad questions, would you actually go there?

You can answer in the reviews or in the poll I've made. I would like to make the blog anyway, but I don't want to be wasting time.

Thanks for watching.

Potato.