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 Miara will set fire to your car, home, family, friends, school, books, Xbox and TV. Enjoy the show.

The Sangheili 800 Squad

Chapter 4: Discovery One

February, 2550 (Human Calender)

0723 Hours

SSMB 800

Zen had gotten used to some pretty weird stuff in the five days that he had been in the 800 Squad, but this pretty much topped it.

He was talking to Tracer that day, who was actually looking through some reports on humans while they were repairing a door. Zen had previously thought that humans weren't worth thinking about, but then Tracer mentioned something that completely bamboozled him.

"They have animations for entertainment?!" Zen exclaimed.

Tracer nodded. "Yup. The one to five minute ones are called 'Youtube videos'. The ten to thirty minute ones are called 'cartoons' and the one to two hour ones are called 'movies'."

Zen processed this. The only animations he ever watched as a child were ones describing how to use a sword. The only entertainment he ever got as a child was wrestling with his brother.

"Seriously?" He asked.

"Yup." Tracer nodded.

"Humans are weird." Zen said, astonished.

"No." Tracer replied. "Just different. You see, they're not a warrior race, like we are. They're more relaxed than we are and don't place as much stock on the military."

"How do you know all this?"

"I've got a friend who works for interrogations." Tracer replied. "Most of the humans we take in alive don't really know anything worth something, but it makes for interesting information."

Zen looked at him curiously. "Why do you want to know anything about them?"

"Because they're an entirely new species!" Tracer said excitedly. "True, we are trying to kill them all, but still! A new species!"

"A species that the Prophets want us to kill."

"It's fascinating, really. Their history, their lifestyles…" Tracer thought about something. "Not their technology though. It sucks."

"Yeah." Zen agreed. "Seriously, physical projectiles… we stopped using those thousands of cycles ago."

"But apart from that… It's seriously fascinating."

"Maybe…" Zen looked at him. "But still, they're a threat to the Great Journey, remember? We can't admire them too much."

"I wouldn't call it admiration, I would call it… curiosity."

"Okay…" Zen said. A thought struck him. "What do you think is actually at the end of the Great Journey?"

Tracer hesitated. Then he said, "Well… we would transcend into divinity, right?"

"Right."

"And divinity means holiness, right?"

"Right."

"So, we would become gods, wouldn't we?"

"I guess." Zen looked at the sky wistfully. "I hope we find at least one of the rings soon."

"Yeah."

Zen looked down and blinked. "Damn, I'm out of sheet metal. Can you-?"

"Sure." Tracer stood up and left towards the storage room.

Once Tracer was out of earshot, he took a glance at his motion detector. When nothing showed up, he muttered under his breath, "Great Journey. What nonsense…"

"Goes to show we have something in common, huh Tracer?"

Tracer turned and saw Utarz leaning against the wall drinking a bottle of Sangheili alcohol.

"I don't want to talk to you, Utarz." Tracer replied. "Leave me be."

"You came here." Utarz replied, taking a swig. "I didn't come to you."

Tracer ignored him. Utarz shrugged and walked off.

He hadn't drunk that much, but Utarz was already feeling slightly sluggish. He took this as a sign to stop for now. He wanted a clear head for when Repora decided to start blowing things up.

As he walked back to his room, he passed Miara, who looked up and saw the bottle in his hand.

"Utarz," She said exasperatedly. "It's seven in the morning."

"Yeah? Well Atar made us get up at three." Utarz replied. "So that's four hours without drink, so I'm off the hook."

Miara remembered something. She stood up and glared at Utarz. "By the way, I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"What did you say to Tracer?"

"Dunno what you're talking about."

"Oh, please." Miara replied. "You told us all to leave the room except you and Tracer. What did you say?"

Utarz grumbled. "Well, if you really want to know, I told Tracer to stay away from you. Happy?"

Miara growled. "I remember telling you that this wasn't any of your business."

Utarz shrugged. "I beg to differ."

"No!" Miara said angrily. "You don't get to differ! You have to stay out of my life, you hear me?!"

"I'm sorry," Utarz snapped. "But I was under the impression that I was your older brother. You can't tell me what to do!"

"Oh, forget it!" Miara turned back to her work. "You're impossible to reason with."

"Yeah? Well that makes two of us!" With that, Utarz stormed off.

Miara tried to continue on her wall for about ten minutes, but found that she couldn't concentrate anymore. Giving up, she walked off to her room.

Once there, she put her flamethrower onto the bed. Then she got out a bunch of tools and dismantled the thing before looking at each and every piece to see what wasn't working.

It wasn't that she was out of gas, she had plenty of that. It was because something was either blocking the gas's path or stopping the gas from coming out of the canister completely.

Miara looked at the pieces. The gas canister looked fine. There was no visible blockage in the expelling pipe. She looked at it a bit more carefully but still couldn't see what was wrong.

Maybe there was something wrong with the trigger?

"Yeah," Repora said. "I don't think the trigger's working."

Miara grabbed a knife and was about to lop off Repora's head before she realised who had just talked.

Then she put down the knife, growling in annoyance and frustration. "Don't do that!"

Repora shrugged. "Just offering advice."

"GET OUT!"

"Alright, alright." Repora walked out the door.

Once he was outside, Repora thought about what he should do next.

He decided to call upon Heaven and Hell.

POOF

"How may we help you, Repora?" Heaven asked nicely.

"Yes, how may we serve you?" Hell chuckled deviously.

"Yeah, what should I do now?" Repora asked.

Heaven and Hell considered this for a moment.

"How about you work in your workshop?" Heaven asked. "You've been meaning to finish that C-12."

"True… true…" Repora said.

"Ha!" Hell laughed. "That's no fun at all! Why don't we just kill Utarz?"

"I dunno…" Repora said. "It's pretty early. We should probably wait."

"Where's the fun in that?" Hell asked.

"Good point…" Repora considered.

"Now, now," Heaven said nervously. "We don't have to kill him yet. That C-12 could kill him much quicker."

"You're right!" Repora said. "To the workshop!"

Hell grumbled in defeat.

Repora ran to his workshop like a jogger would run to the corner store. Once there, he opened the door, walked inside, closed the door and got out all of his tools. Then he got out a package that had a homemade detonator on the front.

Something that Repora prided himself on was his homemade explosives. They weren't excellent (he was in the 800 Squad after all) but they were pretty good.

Right now, he was working on something that was about three times more powerful than C-4, hence the name C-12. But he needed more gunpowder and a working detonator. Which he didn't have in the base.

So he improvised.

"One flint and steel," He said, pulling out a pixelated object. "Check! One cup of flammable substance," He pulled out some oil. "Check! One radio," He pulled out Atar's private radio. "Check! And one crafting bench," He pulled out an entire table out of nowhere. "Check! Now to-"

BAM

"Repora!" Atar snapped. "Is that my private radio?!"

"Maybe…" Repora hid the radio behind his back. "Maybe not…"

"I require it." Atar said coldly. "Give it back."

"I only need it for a few minutes." Repora pleaded. "Then, once I give it back, it may or may not be in one piece."

"NOW."

"Alright, fine…" Repora grumbled, tossing the radio to Atar. "I'll find something else to use."

Atar grabbed the radio and walked out.

"Stealing my own radio…" Atar muttered. "Is nothing sacred anymore? Honestly, sometimes I feel as if I have no control over my own squad…"

Atar marched back to his radio and eventually found Utarz riding his Ghost. He turned and looked at Atar.

"Hey, Atar." Utarz said. "What're you doing?"

"General," Atar growled. "Or sir. And what I'm doing is none of your business."

Utarz threw his arms up in the air dramatically. "You too? Why is nothing my business anymore?!"

"Well, it would probably have something to do with no-one liking you." Atar replied. "Now, if you would excuse me, I have some important business to attend to."

"Yeah, right." Utarz scoffed. "Only important people have important things to do."

Atar turned around, pulled out his Concussion Rifle and shot at Utarz. Utarz simply pulled the Ghost back and avoided the shot.

Zooming off, Utarz shouted, "You've got crappy aim, sucker!"

Growling, Atar continued to his office.

Some General he was. Ordinary Generals command armies, not small teams composed of incompetent half-wits. He hadn't been in a battle situation for almost two years now. He missed the sound of the cannons firing at the humans. The only cannon that got fired around here was Repora's Fuel Rod gun.

When he reached his office, Atar put the radio on his desk and tuned it to his preferred radio station.

There we go. Atar thought as he found the war music station.

Satisfied, Atar leaned back in his chair and listened to songs about great battles and perfect assassinations. It was his favourite type of music, a type of music that no-one else in the base seemed to like.

Kids these days don't appreciate the classics. Atar thought.

While the 800 Squad was enjoying a relatively ordinary day for them, a Phantom had landed on the ice fields, far from the SSMB.

Inside, the small team of three was there: the Sangheili, Buzzsaw and Tank.

The Sangheili opened the doors and turned to Tank. "Remember, avoid harming anyone if possible. We want to make a good impression."

Tank nodded.

Buzzsaw snorted. "What good will that do when they figure out who we are?"

"It might make them think twice." The Sangheili suggested.

"But they're just as religious as the rest of the Covenant!" Buzzsaw complained. "They might just decide to shoot us when they get the chance!"

"Or, they might listen to us because we sound convinced!" The Sangheili snapped.

As Buzzsaw and the Sangheili argued, Tank jumped down from the Phantom onto the ice. He looked up and asked loudly, "Which way is Sangheili base?"

Buzzsaw leaned out and pointed in a direction. "About thirteen clicks that way."

Tank nodded and headed off. The Phantom left.

It took a good while before Tank reached the location of the base (Hunters were pretty slow after all) but eventually, he reached the place.

To Tank, it didn't look like much. A good chunk of the place seemed like it was under construction. It was also way too oversized for a squad of five or six.

Tank looked around. He could see Zen. He was with a purple-armoured Sangheili and he appeared to be talking to him.

Tank looked around again, this time to see if there was a way to get down that wouldn't kill the Lekgolo controlling his legs.

He spied a white armoured Sangheili, almost invisible due to the snow. He appeared to be carrying a Fuel Rod gun and a large sack of unknown objects.

Then the white figure roared, "UUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"

"Seriously?!" Zen complained. "It's barely eight in the morning!"

"Never mind about that!" Tracer said, jumping up. "Run for it!"

So they did.

As usual, they were the last one to get inside the bomb shelter.

"You need to get closer to the shelter." Miara said critically.

"We would if we didn't have to keep rebuilding the same wall." Tracer grumbled.

Atar held up a pack of cards. "Well, we may as well start now."

"Okay, but I'm not playing against Tracer." Zen said. "I'm pretty sure he cheats."

"No." Tracer said smugly. "I'm just that good."

Zen sighed and lied down on one of the bunks.

"What I don't understand," Zen said. "Is why you guys put up with all this crap? I mean, if this is a group of rejects, then surely we'd be allowed to just leave?"

"If only I could make that happen." Atar grumbled. "If we were allowed to leave the army and do something useful, then we would've done that already."

"So why can't we?"

"Command believes it to be dishonourable for us to leave the military." Tracer said, looking at a fan of cards. "I don't know how they figured out that one. It's already a massive dishonour to be in this squad, what makes leaving this place a dishonour?"

"Command has their reasons." Miara said, putting down the Sangheili equivalent of a straight flush.

"Yeah, their flawed reasons." Tracer replied, putting down the Sangheili equivalent of a royal flush.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Miara said in disbelief.

Tracer chuckled in amusement.

Tank stared at the scene in bewilderment.

He didn't know what he expected when the white one shouted 'Utarz', but whatever he expected, he did not expect a full blown rampage in an attempt to kill a teammate.

Who were these soldiers and what was wrong with them?

The white one was firing fuel rods at the blue one who was fleeing in a Ghost. In fact, it looked like the blue one was putting barely any effort into avoiding the shots, almost like he was used to this and he knew what to do.

This went on for about an hour, with the white one not showing any signs of giving up. However, as the blue one turned into a corner, the white one turned around and walked to a side of the cliff, almost directly below where Tank was standing. As Tank watched, the white one attached some brownish packages to the side of the cliff, and then walked away a fair distance.

At this point, the blue one drove through an exposed passageway and near the side of the cliff. At this point, the white one held up what looked like a button of some sort and then pressed it down. The blue one seemed to know what would happen and quickly spun around and zoomed away.

Thankfully for the blue one, it took a while before the packages exploded.

Unfortunately, the explosion was so strong it reached up to where Tank was.

Tank stumbled, backing away from the edge. As he straightened himself, he heard a loud CRACK.

Tank looked down and saw that the portion of the ledge he was standing on had come loose from the explosion.

Due to this, it was starting to fall from the cliff.

"Oh." Tank said. He would've sworn if he knew any words.

And then he started to fall.

Repora watched in amazement as the cliff practically fell apart from the C-12. All the pieces fell together in one great big pile, destroyed beyond recognition.

"I really have to make that stuff again someday." Repora said to himself.

Repora climbed over the wreckage in order to get Utarz. True, he could go around, but that would take longer.

As he was climbing over, he saw a grey piece of armour sticking out from the rubble. Curious, Repora bent over and pulled it out. It was hard.

Eventually, he pulled the rest of the armour that the piece he was pulling was attached to. To his surprise, he found a Hunter. An unconscious Hunter to be precise.

"You shouldn't be here." Repora said.

Utarz pulled up in his Ghost. "Hey, have you given up or something? Because I- Whoa! Where'd that guy come from?"

"I don't know." Repora said pleasantly. "Should we tell Atar?"

"Pfft." Utarz shook his head. "No. He'll probably become paranoid, tell us to strengthen our defences…"

"And to strengthen our defences, we'd need more explosives! Which I can make!" Repora exclaimed. "I'm going to tell Atar!"

"I hate you so much." Utarz muttered.

"Me too!" Repora called as he went to the bomb shelter.

"Is he finished?" Zen asked.

"Can't be." Tracer pressed his head against the door. "He only started three minutes ago."

"Can you hear anything?" Miara asked.

"No…"

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

Tracer jumped back and massaged his head.

"Go away." Atar called.

"Guys!" Repora called back. "There's something you should see out here!"

"Unless you finally killed Utarz, we don't care." Atar replied.

"But I found a Hunter!"

Tracer blinked. "A Hunter? You mean an Mgalekgolo?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright, we'll come out." Atar said. "But only if you promise that you won't shoot at us."

"Silly Atar! I only shoot at Utarz."

"At least, you try to." Zen muttered.

"Alright… that'll have to do." Atar sighed, opening the door.

"Yay!" Repora jumped up and down like a video game character. "This way!"

They followed him to a massive pile of rock and rubble. The fact that that was there wasn't all that surprising, but the giant, armour-clad figure that was on top of it was.

"You were telling the truth!" Miara said.

"Of course I was!" Repora said cheerfully.

Utarz, who was leaning on a nearby wall, said spitefully, "I bet that if I told you that this lug was out here, you'd send me on my way."

Everyone ignored him.

"This isn't right…" Atar muttered. "What would one of these things be doing out here?"

"He may be injured." Tracer said. "We should take him to the medical bay."

"Right," Atar turned to everyone else. "Who are our strongest soldiers?"

Repora raised a hand. No-one else did.

"Right then," Atar said, annoyed. "Repora, Zen and Utarz, drag the Hunter to the medical bay."

"You can't tell me what to do, Atar." Utarz grumbled.

"General, or sir." Atar snarled. "And if you don't do this, I will give Repora permission to stab you until you die."

Utarz sighed and grabbed a leg.

Tank was floating in a black void for what seemed to be three seconds before the world started to come back into focus.

He wasn't outside anymore. He was in some sort of room on a large table. A purple-armoured Sangheili was standing over him, holding some sort of instrument.

The Sangheili barbled in its language.

"What?" Tank said groggily. Then he blinked and said, "Repeat?"

The Sangheili said the same thing, except this time Tank understood it as, "Are you okay?"

Tank nodded.

"Good. My general will like to have a word with you."

Tank really wanted to stand up. Unfortunately, his body wasn't built for bending.

"Tank has job to do." He said.

"Well, you can do it once my leader has asked you a few questions."

Tank said nothing.

Taking his silence as a 'very well', the purple Sangheili opened the door. A Sangheili general walked in, glaring at Tank in distrust.

"Good morning." He said to Tank. "I am General Atar. Who are you?"

"I am Tank."

"Your real name."

Tank stayed silent

"The silent type, are we?" Atar growled. "Let's try again. Why are you here?"

"I wish to speak to Zen." Tank spoke.

"Why?"

Tank stayed silent.

"Who are you working for?"

Tank stayed silent.

"Are there more of you?"

Silence.

Starting to lose patience with Tank's silence, Atar growled, "I know that Hunters travel in groups of two. Where is the other one of you?"

Tank was silent for a bit. Then he said gruffly, "Dead."

Atar looked at him. Then he said, "My apologies."

Tank shrugged. "You did not know."

Atar went back to questioning. "Right… do you work for command?"

Silence.

"Does command need Zen? Is he getting out of here?"

Silence.

"You may think that you're being smart with the whole silence thing," Atar growled. "But you're not. I'll have you know that I killed a human Demon once! And I'm sure that they've killed plenty of your kind as well. So you better tell me what I want to hear, or you won't be saying anything ever again."

Tank stopped listening once Atar mentioned the word 'Demon'.

"You killed a Demon?" Tank asked. His tone betrayed surprise.

"Yep!" Atar said with relish. "Back in the day, anyhow. Ripped out his spine while he was still conscious. Mind you, that little encounter took a toll on me as well."

Tank stared at Atar. Then he said, "I must speak to Zen."

"Why?"

Instead of silence, Tank said, "I am not allowed to say."

"Why not?"

"My leader has forbidden it."

"Do you work for the Covenant?"

Tank hesitated. Then he said, "No."

Atar looked at Tank for a bit more. Then he turned and left, gesturing for Tracer to follow.

Everyone else in the squad was outside the door. Tracer shut the door so that Tank wouldn't hear anything.

"So what did you get out of him?" Miara asked.

"Only that his name is Tank, he's working for someone outside the Covenant and he wants to speak to Zen." Atar replied.

"Nothing else?" Miara asked. "Did you tell him about the human Demon you killed?"

"Wait, what?!" Zen exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Atar grumbled. "But he seemed more impressed than intimidated."

"Hold on," Zen held up a hand. "You killed a human Demon."

"Back before I got brain damage." Atar said with pride.

"But then… why are you here?"

"Well, I did get brain damage."

"But still, a human Demon. Someone who does that shouldn't be here!"

"Can I interrogate him?" Repora asked.

"Negative." Atar replied. "We want information, not a shivering wreck."

"What I want to know is what he wants with Zen." Tracer said. "Sure, he's a good soldier, but if he doesn't work for the Prophets…"

"Then he's got a good gig going on." Utarz said from across the room.

Atar turned and shot a plasma bolt at Utarz.

He yelled in alarm and ducked down.

"In any case," Atar continued, not bothering to look at Utarz. "I don't think Zen should speak to Tank until we know exactly what he wants."

"It could be important." Zen said. "Although, I'm not sure if I'm that important, really…"

"I think that we should give Tank what he wants." Tracer said. "If we don't, we'll have to keep him here and that would use up supplies."

"Do Hunters eat a lot?" Miara asked.

"Yup. You have to feed each Lekgolo in its body. Individually."

Atar grumbled, but said, "I guess you're right."

"So… do I go in?" Zen asked.

"May as well."

Zen opened and went through the door. Tank looked at him.

"You wanted to speak to me?" Zen asked.

"You are Zen?" Tank asked back.

"Well, yes…"

"My leader wishes to speak to you."

Zen blinked, then said, "Why didn't you say that before?"

"Only you may hear." Tank replied.

Zen sighed. "So, where do I meet your leader?"

"If I can make radio call, I will arrange meeting."

Zen looked at Atar. He looked like he was sure he was going to regret this, but he nodded anyway.

Tracer went in and helped Zen get Tank off of the table, which was no easy feat.

After nodding curtly, Tank held up his cannon arm. It beeped.

"Iro." Tank said. "We need a meeting point."

Author's notes

Activate the actual plot line!

Now, only one person voted on the poll I put up, so… no ask blog.

Ah well.

Thanks for watching.

Potato.