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 Iro will assassinate you in the most painful form possible. Enjoy the show.

The Sangheili 800 Squad

Chapter 17: When It Hits The Fan

"You know, I do like a good fire." Miara commented over the flames. "But this is just ridiculous."

Utarz couldn't agree more. The green-red flames were eating up every single thing in the forest. The trees, probably due to their incredible thinness, were burning up extremely quickly. The snow had melted into water, which was just as quickly evaporating. Utarz could barely see a thing.

"I think this resembles a nightmare I had once!" Utarz said loudly. "Now what?"

A tree fell behind them with a crash. Utarz turned around at the sound, just in case it was Repora finding them.

"We need to keep moving!" Miara said firmly. "We can't let Repora find us!"

"Sounds good!"

"We also need to find the others, so we'll continue the way we were going before!"

Utarz gestured at the flames. "Through that?!"

Miara shrugged. "It's the fire, or Repora. Take your pick."

Utarz growled. "Alright, let's go!"

The two ran through the burning forest, dodging fires and jumping over panicking creatures. They didn't slow down for a moment, lest Repora find them and do the unspeakable to them.

Utarz had never been this scared since Repora first joined the team. He had always considered 'death by Repora' to be something that wouldn't happen to him. However, after hearing Repora's threat, he had, absurdly, only now realised that Repora was a psychopath who would stop at nothing to rip Utarz apart piece by piece. If he didn't die in this inferno, then he would get blown to bits or tortured until he could no longer scream for mercy.

So that put a damper on his already shitty day.

As they ran through the blaze, Utarz heard a mad cry echo over the crackling of the flames. Assuming that it was Repora, Utarz took out his plasma rifle and scanned his surroundings quickly.

They ran for a bit more, but then something occurred to Utarz and he slowed down.

"What are you doing?!" Miara demanded. "Keep moving!"

"Can't we just hide somewhere until this all blows over?!" Utarz shouted.

"Where are we going to hide?! If we hide in a cave, it'll just fill up with smoke! We just have to keep moving!"

"I can't tell which way we're even going!" Utarz claimed. "For all we know, we're heading right to Repora as we speak!"

"We can't stay still, or we're going to die!" Miara shouted back. "Move!"

"We need to find a place to hide!" Utarz insisted. "At least with that, we won't have the danger of burning to death!"

"Where the hell would we find somewhere like that?!"

As if on cue, a bunch of trees fell over, revealing a cave a few metres away.

Utarz and Miara stared at the newly revealed enclave, surprised at the convenience of the situation before remembering that they were surrounded by flames.

"Alright, get ready!" Utarz shouted. "It's gonna get hot!"

Miara nodded and the two ran for the cave.

Buzzsaw and Iro ran desperately through the forest, looking for ways to avoid being cooked to perfection. Unfortunately, the blaze was all around them, with no places to hide.

"Great idea with Repora!" Buzzsaw shouted angrily. "Real stroke of genius!"

"Oh, how was I supposed to know what would happen?!" Iro snapped. He activated his commlink. "Tank! Tank, can you hear me?!"

"Tank hears you!" Tank replied over the radio. "What is happening?! Forest is on fire!"

"Just keep calm and keep running!" Iro ordered him. "Don't stop, or you're dead!"

"Tank knows!" Tank replied. "Tank is - !" There was sudden static on the radio.

"Tank!" Iro shouted. "Tank, can you hear me?!"

"Well, we're dead." Buzzsaw muttered. "After all this time, we're killed by idiots."

"Shut up!" Iro roared.

"Well," A reedy, intelligent voice said over the radio. "That's not a good welcome for your saviour."

Iro froze. "Gears?"

Buzzsaw double-blinked. "Whoa, wait, what? Gears is here?"

"It seems that you're in a spot of bother at the moment." Gears said matter-of-factly. "Would you like me to swing around on the Phantom and pick you up?"

"Yes, Gears, that will do nicely!" Iro replied.

"Excellent. Just let me pick up Tank first."

"Fine, whatever, just make sure that you rescue us as well!"

"Very well." Gears hung up.

"So, hold on," Buzzsaw said. "Since when was Gears on this planet?"

"I don't know, but at the moment, I just don't care." Iro muttered.

They had to wait a while, the flames dancing all around them, but they eventually spotted the purple form of the Phantom flying in the sky.

"HEY!" Buzzsaw shouted. "DOWN HERE!"

The Phantom floated down to them, the doors opening up as it reached the ground.

Tank was in the entrance, shouting, "In! Get in!" The two happily obliged, jumping inside the Phantom to be spared the fate of being burned to death.

The Heretics backed away from the door as it closed up and the lights flickered on. The ship rose up into the air and stayed there.

Iro looked around the ship. It wasn't one of theirs, he realised. It wasn't overly personalised and it was rather barebones.

He looked at the driver, who turned to him. It was a Jackal, clad in grey armour, a beam rifle on his back. His grey eyes held a high intelligence and the way he was looking at him was slightly distrustful.

"Gears." Iro said bluntly.

"Iro." Gears greeted politely in the same reedy voice. He turned to the other one and greeted them as well. "Buzzsaw."

"Yo." Buzzsaw nodded. "When did you get here?"

"About two-point-eight minutes ago." Gears replied. "The leader of the 800 Squad called me down to this planet yesterday. Good thing too." He looked at Iro. "We wouldn't want our fearless leader to have been fried."

Iro glared at him. "Hold your tongue."

"Oh, yeah!" Buzzsaw blinked. "We sent you to infiltrate the Covenant! How's the accent?"

Gears sighed. "You mean for me to go into 'idiot mode'?"

"Yeah!" Buzzsaw said enthusiastically. "I love it when you do it!"

"No." Gears said firmly. "Whenever I make myself act like that imbecile, I have to perform an exorcism just to get it out of my system."

The others looked at him for a while.

"Anyway," Gears gestured towards the console. "I just arrived to find the whole forest burning down and no sign that Zen has joined us. Could someone please fill me in on what's been going on in my absence?"

"Oh… yeah…" Buzzsaw scratched his head. "Uh… long story…"

"When we arrived, we did make contact with the 800 Squad." Iro explained. "But Zen had no interest in joining us at all."

"Ah. A shame." Gears sighed. "So then what?"

"We attempted to convince them of our plight by giving them the relic."

"What?!" Gears spluttered. "You tried to- do you have any idea how valuable the relic is?!"

"We were going to shoot it right in the middle of their base on an escape pod." Iro continued, ignoring the outburst. "But Buzzsaw miscalculated the distance, so it misfired."

"Hey, I said sorry." Buzzsaw pointed out.

"We then learned that the 800 Squad intended to destroy the relic, so we've been racing to see who gets to it first."

"Iro wanted squad to slow down." Tank interjected. "So Iro convinced the white one to kill the blue one."

"The white one… Repora." Gears shook his head. "So I take it that Repora's responsible for this mess below us."

The other three nodded.

"You're all imbeciles." Gears muttered.

Iro glared at him. "We needed them to-"

"You needed to avoid conflict at all costs." Gears interrupted. "Was that not your very specific order?"

"We accomplish nothing by discussing past events." Iro said angrily. "Right now, we need to get to the artefact before they do."

"Very well." Gears turned back to the console. "Which direction?"

About 2 hours later…

Zen stood at the edge of the once-untouched forest. It was nothing more than a sheet of ash, now. The snow had melted completely in the blaze, leaving the ground wet and mushy. There was no sign of any life anywhere.

He tried the radio again. "Miara. Can you hear this? It's Zen… we're at the edge of the forest, not far from the capsule. If you can hear this, please respond."

Nothing.

Zen waited for a little bit more before giving up.

"Anything?" Tracer asked from the Wraith.

Zen shook his head. "Nothing."

Tracer didn't say anything.

"Do you think she's dead?" Zen asked.

"…It's possible." Tracer replied.

Zen looked ahead. He could clearly see the landscape now. The capsule was in the far distance, glinting in the sunlight. In the sky was the familiar shape of a Phantom. What it was doing here was anyone's guess, but Zen was willing to bet that it wasn't one of theirs.

Zen climbed up onto the Wraith turret. "We better keep moving. The Heretics will get to the capsule soon."

Tracer didn't do anything.

"Tracer." Zen said calmly. "Let's move."

"What's the point?" Tracer asked miserably. "This was supposed to be a simple mission. Any other competent squad would've gone to the site, blown up the pod and gotten back to base in the time span of three hours. We, on the other hand, have accomplished nothing, defeated nobody and we've lost two soldiers, three if you count Utarz."

"They're fine." Zen tried to assure him. "At least they've begun the Great Journey before we have."

Tracer snorted. "Small comfort."

Zen blinked. "What do you mean?"

"If I recall correctly, the Great Journey requires the use of the Halo rings. I've yet to hear any news of the discovery of such a thing."

"We'll find it." Zen insisted. "Have faith in the Prophets."

"Faith." Tracer muttered.

"They will find it. Then Miara's death won't be in vain."

"It already is, though. That's what frustrates me."

"Don't be stupid." Zen said forcefully. He saw the Phantom start to lower to the ground in the distance. "Let's go already."

There was a pause in the driver's seat. Then, Tracer said aggressively, "Do you even care that she's gone?"

"Yes, but we have to mourn her later." Zen insisted. "Right now, we have a job to do. He have to stop the Heretics from-"

The front hatch flew open. Tracer climbed out and glared at Zen, irrational anger radiating off of him.

"Heretics! Prophets!" Tracer shouted at him. "Does everything you lot say have to be rooted in religion?!"

Zen stared at him. "What do you mean? Those Heretics have betrayed the Covenant! They've refuted the Great Journey and- !"

"The Great Journey is a religion!" Tracer yelled. "A myth! A fairy tale! It does not exist, it never has existed and it never will exist!"

A tense silence followed this statement.

"What?" Zen said quietly.

"I am a man of science." Tracer said angrily. "A man of reason. Neither of those fit into religion. Gods? Ascension? These are the ramblings of someone with his head stuck inside a bucket. It doesn't make any sort of rational sense. Ergo, it doesn't exist."

Zen remembered something that Tracer said at the beginning of the trip, something that had confused him the first time. 'They respected my decision.'

"Is… that why you chose to…?" Zen said cautiously. "Did you deliberately act like a bad soldier?"

"Partially." Tracer admitted. "I purposely sabotaged my intellectual tests, but I didn't even have to try with my practical."

Zen stood up and glared at him. "But why?! Do have any idea how much of a dishonour-?!"

"I figured that the 800 Squad would be the only place where I wouldn't be surrounded by religious nuts!" Tracer snapped. "It may be dishonourable, but I would've only been a hindrance if I hadn't gone here!"

The two men glared at each other.

"So if you don't believe in the Great Journey," Zen said slowly. "Then why would you help us?"

"Because I'm not an idiot." Tracer replied. "The only reason the Covenant exists is because of this 'Great Journey'. What the Heretics want to do is to destroy a whole civilisation just because the primary belief is false. Would you want to do that?"

"No, because-"

"Exactly." Tracer turned around and sat back in his seat.

The two stood in silence for a minute.

"I'm going to try and contact Miara again." Zen said bluntly, getting out of the vehicle. "After that, we're leaving."

Tracer grunted.

Standing a fair bit away from the tank, Zen turned on the radio again. "RDIO, call Miara."

"Contact 'Miara'. Is this correct?"

"Yes."

"Calling 'Miara'…"

Zen waited for a bit.

"Contact 'Miara' is unavailable. Her radio unit is either switched off, or damaged."

"That wasn't the case two minutes ago."

"Unknown command. List of commands are-"

"Oh, shut up." Zen said irritably, switching the radio off.

"Anything?" Tracer called from the Wraith.

Ignoring him, Zen hopped back onto the gun turret.

"…Very well." Tracer sighed, starting up the Wraith.

Zen looked around the charred landscape one last time, this time searching to see whether Repora was close by. There was no sign of the white armour or the yellow shoulder-mounted cannon.

Zen blinked. Then he pulled out his sniper rifle. "Hold on, Tracer."

Tracer turned the Wraith back off. "What?"

Zen looked through the scope. "I think I just found them."

Miara's radio buzzed again.

"Shut that off!" Utarz growled.

"Alright, alright!" Miara snapped quietly, switching off her radio.

Utarz peeked out of the cave. "Crap… the forest is gone."

"Completely?"

"Yeah." Utarz looked around the destroyed landscape. "Nowhere to hide. We go out there, we die."

"Do you have any ideas?" Miara asked.

"Well… one." Utarz admitted. "But… I dunno if it'll work."

"Does it have a chance?"

"How should I know? I can't predict Repora's emotions!"

Miara glared at him.

"Yeah." Utarz muttered. "But it'll only work if I can get close enough to talk to Repora."

"We'll risk it."

"Lemme just repeat that: we have to get close to Repora!"

"Yeah, and I said that we'll risk it!"

"Fine." Utarz stepped out of the cave, looking everywhere for a potential attack. Miara followed him.

"Should we call the others?" Miara asked.

"Dunno… probably, if we don't find them."

"Right…" Miara looked up. "Well, I think we found them."

"Huh?"

Miara pointed ahead. A large purple blob was on top of a large hill in the close distance.

"Oh." Utarz followed her finger. "Well, problem solved."

"There's still Repora, though."

"Yeah, but he won't try to attack us when there's a big tank protecting us."

"I might try to kill you before you get to the tank, though." A male voice said behind Utarz.

"Well, yeah, but once-" Utarz froze. Then his eyes closed and he muttered under his breath, "Fuck."

Utarz slowly turn around to look at Repora, who was standing right in front of him, Fuel Rod Gun pointed right at Utarz's face. Alright, so that was phase one of his plan taken care of.

"Hello." Repora said darkly.

"Repora," Miara said carefully. "If you fire that thing at that range, then you'll kill yourself as well."

Repora shook his head. "No, he'll die. I've survived worse."

"Yeah, he has. I'll deal with this." Utarz assured her.

"That's funny." Repora chuckled. "You'll deal with this."

"Yeah. I can hardly believe it myself." Utarz muttered.

"So. Can't say I haven't been looking forward to this. I mean, it's been almost fifteen years! I was starting to wonder how much longer I would have to wait." Repora tightened his grip on his gun. "Not much longer, though. A few seconds maybe."

"Can you give me, like, a minute or two?" Utarz asked.

"Why would I do that?"

"Last words?"

"Yeah, sure." Repora scoffed. "Because you totally deserve that honour."

"If you kill me now," Utarz added. "Then you'll never know my dad's bank code."

Repora considered this for a moment.

"Fine." Repora shrugged. "You have thirty seconds."

"REPORA!"

Utarz turned. Zen and Tracer, who had presumably seen them, were running down from the Wraith and towards them.

Zen pulled out his rifle and pointed it at Repora. "Repora, stand down!"

"Nope."

"Now!"

"Just give me a second! Geez." Repora muttered. He turned back to Utarz. "So, what were you gonna say?"

Utarz sighed. This was it. The next two words to come out of his mandibles would simultaneously humiliate him and strip him of all the dignity he possessed, and they would be the most noble and humble words he would ever say in his life.

He took a deep breath and said clearly, "I'm sorry."

"That's great." Repora said in his trademark psychotically cheerful voice. "Now, prepare tooooooooooo…." Repora slowed and stopped, then lowered his gun. "Wait, what?"

"I'm sorry." Utarz repeated. "I'm sorry for what my dad did to your family. For what my family did to yours."

"…I'm not gonna lie." Repora sounded confused. "I didn't expect this."

"But all that? It's in the past." Utarz continued. "Fifteen years in the past."

"So what? This is revenge. Revenge takes a while."

"Look, your dad knew the risks when he sent those assassins!" Utarz argued. "He knew what would happen if they failed, and he did it anyway. I'm not saying it was his fault." Utarz added quickly. "He was well within the law and he had every right to do what he did. That's fine."

"Mm-hm."

Realising that he was losing track of what he was saying, Utarz said, "Basically, trying to kill me is fine. But abandoning the mission just to kill me? Does that really do anything for your precious honour?"

To Miara, this was an impressive move she wasn't aware Utarz was able to pull off. He clearly either knew a lot more about honour than he let on, or he really knew Repora well enough to know what could throw him off track.

To Utarz, this was desperate word-throwing.

Repora stopped moving for a second and really thought about that last part.

"Uh… give me a sec." He said, turning away, giving Utarz a momentary reprieve.

POOF

"Hey, you two." Repora muttered to the voices. "I need some advice here."

"Honestly, Repora." Heaven sighed. "You should already know the answer."

"Yeah! Kill them!" Hell urged.

"No, listen to Utarz!" Heaven snapped. "As much as we all hate his family, you have to admit that he has a point."

"So what?" Hell growled. "Look, we have waited YEARS for this moment. He is right there, at our mercy! Heck, they're all at our mercy! KILL HIM."

"Ignore Hell. Utarz may be your archenemy, but he's still your teammate. And there is no greater dishonour than killing your teammate."

"There are tons more dishonourable things than that! We've done hundreds more dishonourable things than that and we did it 'cause it was fun! KILL HIM!"

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Repora tapped his feet. "Alright, uh… lemme…"

Utarz looked at Repora cautiously as he talked to himself, ready to bolt just in case his plan didn't work.

After an agonizing five minutes, Repora finally turned around and nodded. "Okay Utarz. I won't kill you."

"Thank the gods." Utarz said, everyone else letting out a sigh of relief. "You know, for a moment there, I was-"

"But I will when this is over." Repora interjected quickly.

"-really worried oh GOD DAMMIT, REPORA!"

I'M BACK!