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 Tracer will poison you. Enjoy the show.

The Sangheili 800 Squad

Chapter 16: Well, Shit

January 2550 (Human Calender)

0602 Hours

SSMB

Atar awoke to an irritating sound coming from his headset.

This was moderately annoying, as he had been experiencing a pleasant dream in which he had single-handedly won the war, destroyed all the humans and became the ambassador for the entire Sangheili race.

Ah well.

Atar identified the sound as the sound the radio made whenever someone was trying to call him. He pressed the button on his headset.

"This is General Atar." He grumbled, still sleepy. "Who's this?"

"Sir." Tracer's voice came out of the other side. He sounded panicky. "Repora's missing."

"That's… that's…" Atar's eyes widened as he realised what Tracer was saying. "He's WHAT?!"

"He's missing!" Tracer exclaimed. "He was here last night and then this morning, he's just disappeared! We don't know what happened!"

Atar jumped up off of the bed. "How could he have simply gone missing?! Is there any sign of a struggle?!"

"No and there's no sign of his equipment either! It's like he just got up and left!"

Atar growled in frustration. They had just lost a valuable teammate and lost a few valuable days to stop the Heretics. The last thing they needed was this.

"Well, find him!" Atar snapped. "He has the explosives and we need them!"

"How?! If we stop here for a few days trying to find him, then we'll lose ground to the Heretics!"

"Calm down, man!" Atar tried to think of a way to get around this new problem. "Right… well, continue on course! Radio Repora, try to find out what happened! I'll get there as soon as possible! Atar out!"

Hanging up, Atar ran out of the room, down the corridor and into the snowy outdoors. He looked to the cliff and ran towards it. No time to waste. He had to get to the others as soon as possible.

He stopped as he realised something: Repora's workshop! There could be explosives in there!

Atar ran to the workshop and burst through the door. He looked around wildly for anything that looked remotely explosive.

This didn't seem to be difficult, as half the stuff in the room seemed to be explosive. There were a pile of plasma grenades, a slipspace bomb, some half-finished plastic explosives, a hot tub full of gunpowder and an atomic bomb suspended from the ceiling via brittle ropes.

Taking care to avoid the A-Bomb, Atar made his way to the plasma grenades, as they were the only things that were complete and Atar knew how to use them. He shoved them all into a wheelbarrow and pushed them outside.

Atar pushed the grenades all the way to the base of the cliff before realising that he couldn't get them up there. Atar growled in frustration and looked around for any other way to get the barrow up the cliff so he could…

…Erm, hold on. If he did get up there, how was he going to transport both the Ghost and the grenades?

"Okay, think." Atar muttered to himself. "How'll I…? The idiot!" Atar realised. "He'll get here in a flying vehicle which I can then accommodate for myself! Perfect! All I have to do is to wait!"

So Atar sat down and waited.

Utarz slowly woke up from a deep sleep.

It had been a dreamless sleep, since he had fallen asleep from mere exhaustion, but he had welcomed the sleep at first. Kind of a bad move on his part, since he was supposed to be keeping a lookout for Tank.

Utarz looked around. Tank wasn't anywhere to be seen and Miara was still sleeping. So far, so good.

Utarz chuckled to himself. He couldn't believe that he had actually come up with that plan. Sure, Miara helped, but he was the one who noticed.

…Maybe.

In any case, this proved that he wasn't useless.

Miara's eyes fluttered open. She sat up and looked at him. "So… we escaped."

"Yeah." Utarz would've grinned if he could. "Showed those heretics whose boss, huh?"

Miara rolled her eyes. "This is just one part of our goal. Now we need to find the others."

"Oh, yay." Utarz said sarcastically. "More time with Repora."

"…That stuff you said earlier…" Miara said. "Y'know, about…"

"Yeah?"

"How come Repora doesn't put actual effort into trying to kill you?"

Utarz shrugged. "I dunno. I think he forgot how angry he was with our family. I mean, he sure as hell didn't attack you on sight. I think that just because he saw me first, he tries to mess with me."

"Huh…" Miara shrugged, not know how to continue the conversation.

"So should we tell the others we escaped?" Utarz asked.

"…Yeah."

"You're not being such a bitch towards me, you know?"

"Oh, piss off."

"There we go." Utarz pressed the button on his helmet. "R-DIO. Call Zen."

"Calling Zen. Is this correct?"

"Yeah."

"Calling."

About five seconds passed. Then a voice came on the radio. "Utarz?!"

"Yo, Zen." Utarz said. "I got Miara."

"What?! Hold on… you rescued her?!" Zen exclaimed.

"Well, no." Utarz admitted. "I got captured, then we figured out a way to escape, blahdy blah blah."

"Oh… Atar'll be pissed."

"You heard from him?"

"Yeah, he's probably at the base by now."

"Good. So, where're you?"

"I… dunno. We're still going in the same direction, though."

"Course you are."

"…You might want to hurry, though. Repora's gone missing."

Utarz blinked. "Missing?"

Miara looked at him curiously, unable to hear what was going through the headset.

"Yeah, we just woke up and he was…" Zen trailed off.

"Yeah, I get that he's missing," Utarz stood up. "I want to know who the fuck let him go missing!"

"We didn't let him go! He just disappeared in the morning!"

"Well, where is he?! Have you contacted him?!"

"He hasn't responded to any of our attempted radio calls." Zen replied bitterly. "We've tried, but we just get redirected to a channel which doesn't exist."

"Oh, joy." Utarz said angrily.

"What's going on?" Miara asked, completely serious.

"Look, just get to us as quickly as possible, okay?" Zen ordered him. "Don't stray."

"Right. Sure."

"Alright. See you soon." Zen got off the radio.

"What's going on?" Miara asked.

"Repora's gone missing." Utarz explained.

"Missing?"

"Yup. So we have to get to the others as soon as we can. Top speed."

"Right now?"

"Well, something tells me that Repora didn't go AWOL just to go back and find a missing pencil or something. I say that we get back before he finds us, kay?"

"Will do." Miara agreed. "You have your gun?"

"What do I look like, a freakin' idiot?" Utarz demanded. "Of course I kept the gun!"

"How much battery is left?"

Utarz looked at that particular value on his HUD. "Eh… about 85."

"That's a bit."

"I don't usually use the thing."

"I can see that." Miara looked in the direction of the Wraith. "Let's go."

Stupid Tank. Stupid, stupid Tank.

The prisoners escaped. He broke the boulder. He let his touchiness get the better of him.

STUPID TANK!

Tank ran through the forest, trying to figure out where they went. However, the melting snow had covered their tracks, so he knew that finding them was going to be near impossible. If only they weren't so quick, or Tank wasn't so slow.

Tank growled in frustration. He needed to tell Iro about this. Iro would know what to do. So he radioed Iro.

He waited a bit before Iro responded. "Tank? What's wrong?"

"Tank has failed you." Tank muttered.

"Failed me? What happened?"

"Prisoners escaped." Tank explained. "Don't know where they are."

"Oh." Iro sounded relieved. "Don't worry."

That was not the response Tank was expecting. "What?"

"You see, we've made a deal with Repora, the demolitions expert. We're going to let him kill Utarz in return for him not blowing up the relic."

"…That's not like you." Tank said concernedly.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. We'll get back the artefact in no time." Iro hung up.

Tank knew that he shouldn't question Iro's orders, but he was genuinely concerned about this latest development. At the beginning of this, Iro didn't want any of the 800 Squad to get hurt. Now, he was letting a maniac destroy a member of the said squad.

"Not good." Tank mumbled.

"I dunno." Repora said, materialising behind Tank.

Tank swung around in alarm, almost hitting Repora. He would have done, except he jumped out of the way at the last moment.

"It's working pretty well for me." He finished.

Tank growled angrily, recovering from his hearts attack. "What do you want?"

"Funny story, actually." Repora said. "You see, Iro pointed me in the direction of this chasm where he said Utarz was being held, then I arrived and didn't find anyone. It was rather disheartening."

"Prisoners escaped." Tank said bluntly.

"Oh!" Repora brightened up. "Awesome! Now it'll be much more fun! Wanna come?" Repora leaned in.

Backing up, Tank quickly thought of a reason to avoid being in the company of this lunatic. "Tank needs to stay put and wait for pickup. Iro said so."

Repora thought about this for a moment. "Hmm… yeah. I think this is the point where your ride comes along, but I'm not sure. WELP," Repora pulled his Fuel Rod gun out of his arse. "Gotta go now. Utarz isn't going to kill himself."

And with that, he skipped off as if he was going through daisies rather than a forest full of brittle trees.

Tank watched him go and shook his head. "Tank needs drink."

As Repora skipped away, he thought about what he was doing. Technically, it was treason… well, it just was treason, but, hey; they did let a crazy guy into the army.

Now, to take stock. Fuel Rod gun, check.

POOF

"We shouldn't do this!" Heaven cried. "It's not right at all! Our role in the story is meant to be comic relief, not antagonist!"

Repora scoffed. "There's no rule that says that I can't have a change of heart every now and then. Besides, I like being spontaneous!"

"This isn't even the correct usage of the word 'spontaneous'!"

"Says who?"

"The dictionary!"

POOF

"Oh, relax." Hell scoffed, grinning like a madman. "Don't you see that Repora's finally going to accomplish his lifelong dream? Finally, the 'Lano family will pay for what has been done to us!"

Repora chuckled in the darkest possible tone. "Yes… I must say, this is all quite exhilarating. Finally getting revenge… hoo, hoo, hoo…"

"It's not right!" Heaven said desperately. "This goes against our culture, our sense of-"

"Oh, shut up." Repora said irritably. "Go join Purgatory in the back of my head."

And with that, Heaven disappeared from Repora's mental radar.

"So, Hell." Repora looked at the demon on his shoulder. "How should I go about finding Utarz?"

Hell cackled. "Well, the first thing to do is make them fear your presence. Let them know that you're coming for them."

"Them?"

"Well, why stop at Utarz? Wouldn't it be more tragic to kill both of Jenaz's children? Really make him feel it?"

"Hmm… I guess you're right." Repora shrugged. "But that doesn't solve the problem of actually finding them."

"That's the second part." Hell said overenthusiastically. "Once we call them, we'll ask R-DIO to pinpoint their position!"

"She can't do that."

"Oh, right. Well, maybe we could just destroy the whole forest and hope that Utarz and Miara will be some of the things destroyed in the process."

"Sounds good." Repora nodded. "So… R-DIO! Call Utarz."

"Calling 'Utarz'. Is this correct?"

"Yup!"

"Calling…"

A few seconds passed. Then, Utarz picked up.

"Repora! Is that you?"

"Hello!" Repora said cheerfully. "How are you Utarz?"

"Dude, where the fuck are you? You just got up and abandoned the mission! The others are stressing their balls off!"

"That's nice… uh, where are you at the moment?"

"I don't know, and if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't tell you."

"I guess that's smart… after all, I'm the one that's hunting you."

"…Uh, come again? You're hunting me?"

"Yup!" Repora said gleefully. "It's gonna be a fun little game; I'll be the hunter, while you'll be the doarmir!"

"…You've fully lost it, haven't you?"

"I lost it a long time ago, as I'm sure you already know." Repora's voice turned deadly.

"Hey, look man, that wasn't my –"

"Don't care." Repora said coldly. "This is my personal 'fuck you' to your dad. I imagine that he'll be devastated to know that both of his kids died in a freak accident."

"Both?!" Utarz exclaimed. "Look, you can do whatever the hell you want to me, but if you touch my sister –"

"Fine. I'll kill you first, then. But trust me," Repora's voice dropped to a whisper. "I will find you. And I will kill you both."

Repora let that statement hang before saying, "Catch you later…"

Then he hung up.

"So," Hell said. "Phase two?"

"Phase two." Repora agreed, loading his Fuel Rod.

As the Wraith ploughed through the forest, Zen and Tracer were having a conversation, as Zen had gotten into the gun turret and they were close enough to hear each other without a radio.

"So we get to the crash site, and then… what, exactly?" Tracer asked.

"I dunno…" Zen shrugged. "Guard it from the Heretics, I guess."

"So we shouldn't try to destroy it."

"We can't destroy it, because we don't have Repora with us. We have no explosives."

"Joy. Of course, we'd fail our first and only mission."

"Hey, don't think like that." Zen said encouragingly. "Otherwise we will fail."

"Hm." Tracer grunted.

"Look, we'll figure this out eventually, right? Miara's on her way, so that'll be good."

"Yeah…" Tracer said. "Do you have her flamethrower?"

"Yeah." Zen felt his back to make sure the weapon was still there.

"You haven't tried to fix it, have you?"

"No. Why?"

"Miara wants to fix it by herself." Tracer explained. "She's kind of stubborn like that."

"Ah."

"…I'd like to have a look at it when we have time, though."

"Sure."

A silence passed between them as they progressed through the forest.

"Do you know what it's like to love someone?" Tracer asked after a minute.

Zen stared at him. "…That may well be the strangest thing you could've said to me."

"Yeah, ha, ha." Tracer replied sarcastically. "Seriously."

"What, like, family?"

"No."

"I wouldn't know!" Zen said, flustered. "I haven't had a relationship like that before."

"…So you lied to Miara, then." Tracer sounded amused.

"Wha-? Oh, that. I wasn't thinking."

"Hm."

Zen rubbed his eyes. "Is there a point to this?"

"Yeah… I don't know if I love Miara in that way or not."

"Oh." Zen thought about something he could say. "Well… how do you feel about her?"

Tracer scratched his head. "Well… she's very self-reliant. I like that. She can be a bit stubborn at times, which is slightly annoying. She's also the only female I've had contact with in years so… that's weird, I guess.

"I'm… extremely concerned about her wellbeing at the moment, as Repora's on the loose with intents that only the Forerunners know, and if she comes back, I'll never let her out of my sight again, you know, to protect her, and if she doesn't come back, I know that I'll never forgive myself no matter what."

Tracer blinked. Then he looked up at Zen. "Wait… is that love?"

Zen shrugged. "I think so."

"…Huh."

A noise sounded in the distance behind them.

Zen looked up, curious. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

In response to his statement, a green bolt of energy hit the trees in front of them, exploding outwards and setting the trees on fire.

The Wraith jolted to a halt, with Tracer slamming the brakes.

"…Was that Repora?!" Tracer exclaimed.

Zen looked into the air. A few more green bolts were flying in the air towards them in several different directions.

"Floor it!" Zen shouted. Tracer understood and the Wraith sped off into the fire and trees before any more green bolts could hit them.

Atar was too far away to hear any explosions, but every now and then, he would see a green flash over the cliffs and he would start worrying a bit more.

"What is going on up there?" He muttered to himself, pacing back and forth in the snow. He was getting impatient and twitchy. The Jackal should've arrived by now.

After a few more minutes, during which he saw a few more flashes, he finally spotted the purple shape of a Phantom floating down from the sky. It flew over above the base and stopped in place.

"About time." Atar muttered. He shouted towards the ship, "Come down here!"

In response, the Phantom turned around until the rear door was pointing towards him and stayed in the air.

"OI!" Atar shouted. "I SAID, BRING IT DOWN HERE!"

The rear door opened. Atar could make out the body of the Jackal in it, raising something indistinct.

Then a blast of purple light materialised and hit the wheelbarrow of plasma grenades behind Atar.

The force of the resulting explosion blew Atar forwards into the snow. Recovering quickly, Atar rolled over to see the purple flames dancing in front of him. Not one of the grenades had survived the explosion.

Shock turned to anger. Atar leapt up and whipped out his Concussion Rifle just as the Phantom's door closed and it started to rise again. He fired a few shots at the vehicle, but it was for naught, as the ship ignored the plasma blasts and ascended into the sky.

"Traitor." Atar whispered as the ship hovered over the base and over the cliffs.

As he watched the Phantom disappear, Atar became alarmed to see a constant green glow over them. Something was happening up there and there was no reason for it to be a good thing.

A spike of hopelessness entered Atar's brain. How on Sanghelios were they supposed to destroy the canister now? Repora was AWOL, Miara was possibly dead and the team was running out of resources. Atar was willing to bet that most of his soldiers were running out of ammo at this point, with the possible exception of Utarz.

Atar, however, was a military man, so he told himself, Keep moving. We'll improvise on what to do.

Atar made his way back over to the cliffs and started to climb, swearing to stab the Jackal in the stomach the next time he met him.

Author's Notes

And here you go! Another chapter!

Sorry about the wait, but it's the school holidays over here in Australia. I can't be bothered to do this and not waste time. So for what it's worth, enjoy the wait for the next chapter.

Potato.