Quick Authors Note

I decided to take this one-shot over to the side of the Sanghelli, called "Doubt." It takes place on the brink of the Covenant Schism. And as always, leave me a review, I need some constructive criticism. All OC belong to me, the rest is Bungies.

Doubt

Varo 'Tahumme was a Sanghelli warrior, proud and brave. He held the rank of Ultra, carried an energy sword, and a plasma rifle. For many, many cycles he killed humans, without mercy, because it was the will of the gods, and he was their instrument. The Sanghelli are a elegant race, with a cultural epicenter of war. For 27 cycles, the Sanghelli have killed humans, in ships and on the ground. They have burned them, sliced them, and annihilated them. Their entire goal was to wipe them off the face of the galaxy. It was the will of the forerunners. For the great journey.

But Varo was different than the average Elite trooper. As a boy he had wondered, why? Why do we kill the humans? Why haven't they been offered a place among the Covenant? That question has grown inside him, a festering ball of doubt, ready to explode. It is a seething center of questions and doubt, but he has repressed it for years and took up the sword to the humans. For 14 years he has fought, but wondered why? Varo wondered why when he and his squad broke into a human building and put hundreds of human children to death by plasma sword? He wondered why when he found a thousand humans underground in a bunker, mostly women and was ordered to kill them. And he did. He killed them till the floor was slick with blood and human heads and limbs. And still he wondered. Why all the bloodshed? Why the burnt planets?

Doubt

The feeling never went away. Not when he dropped a fuel rod bomb from his banshee on a human family. Why did he do it? Well that had an easy answer, he was ordered to. But the real question was, why was he ordered? Varo had been told that the humans had forerunner relics on their planets and tarnished them. But Varo had never seen nor heard anything about relics on human planets. And still he fought, and still he killed. And still he wondered.

And now he was on their home planet. As his superiors put it, " The sewage this vermin of a species has spawned." But Varo thought it was beautiful place, it had majestic shore lines, beautiful forests, and untarnished grasslands. Why must be burn it? And how many other places just like this have we burned? Varo shook these thoughts from his head. He was hidden in a ruined building in a human city. He heard footsteps and peered out a window to see a crowd of about 30 human women and children running toward him. Varo ignited his energy sword and leapt into the crowd.

Varo was like a god of war. He ducked and weaved, spinning a pattern of death through the humans. He was unstoppable. He sliced off limbs, impaled women and decapitated children. He left a trail of blood and tangled bodies behind him. The street ran red with the blood of the dead. When Varo turned around, there was one human standing, a human female child, very young. She had a horrified expression and her face was covered in blood, she held a stuffed creature that was stained red from the blood of her mother. She looked up at him with fear in his eyes and asked. Why? Why have you killed us all, Mr. Alien. Varo faltered. He did not know the answer. The true answer. He searched his soul and hearts for it, but came up empty. I, I don't know. He replied. Then he took his sword and ran it through the human girl, when it came out, it dripped with blood.

His radio rang.

All units, this is Shipmaster R'tas Vadumee. The prophets have betrayed us. The Brutes are killing us. There is no Great Journey. We have been lied to. The humans are the forerunners descendants. Kill any brute you may see and do not fire upon humans, we have formed a temporary alliance with them. Brothers, we will prevail.

Varo was stunned, speechless. Everything he had ever known was a lie. Every teaching, every belief, every dogma, was a lie. Varo fell to his knees. He had the blood of thousands on his hands. With these two hands he had killed human children. Not just humans but forerunner descendants. His honor was ruined. His name was ruined. He had slaughtered innocents, by the thousands. Varo was dammed. He was no hero, he was a murder, murdering for false gods. There was no after life. Everything was a lie. Varo broke down, he cried and he screamed. Damning the prophets. Damning them for what they have done. For betraying them. For slaughtering billions of innocents. For burning entire worlds. Damn them. Damn them all. He looked behind him to see the pile of humans he just murdered. There was so much blood. Blood everywhere. He was drowning in a sea of blood of the innocents he murdered. Varo stood up, tears streaked down his face. He could envision every human he killed. He was damned. Varo picked up his energy sword, and ran it through his stomach, piercing his two hearts. His purple blood ran down the street, mixing with the humans. And leaving a macabre trail of death.

Doubt