One hour earlier
The Jiralhanae Chieftain stood in his private room, overlooking the pedestal displaying one of his personal gravity hammers. Shipmaster Laccabeus had just finished an exercise that would have been anathema to most his kind: a form of meditation.
While most Jiralhanae preferred savage slaughter, Laccabeus knew that a level of detachment could easily increase one's effectiveness in combat situations. It was because of this that he also preferred more than one personal weapon.
Laccabeus inwardly chuckled at how the rest of his kind seemed to love name their weapons. Tartarus, Torikus, etc. They loved to give their Hammers grandoise names, like the Fist of Rukt, Tartarus' family heirloom, or the Fist of Origer, Torikus' personal weapon.
Laccabeus never saw the point; a gravity hammer was a weapon, an instrument of death. While it could be an extremely dangerous weapon, it was just that; a weapon. Still, the Shipmaster couldn't deny that the hammer was his favorite weapon, especially with the modifications made to it, and some of his greatest battles had been fought with this weapon.
Laccabeus removed the hammer from its plinth, smiling at the memories of the kills he had made with this weapon. The smile disappeared as he felt another presence in the room. Sniffing the air, the Chieftain caught a faint scent. It smelled like...
Sangheili.
Spinning around, Laccabeus swept his hammer in an arc, causing a gravity wave to spread through the room, sending the Elite against a nearby wall and deactivating his active camo. Two facts about this warrior were immediately apparent: he was wearing an Ascetic helmet and was carrying a red energy sword.
The Sangheili recovered quickly and lunged toward the Shipmaster, who parried the blows with the hilt of his hammer. The Brute struck hard, only for the nimble warrior to sidestep the strike.
His blood up, Laccabeus increased the speed of his blows, causing the Elite to give ground until he was sent flying by a sweeping blow. Shaking off the cobwebs, the Sangheili attempted to rise, only to find himself pinned down by a massive foot, with the gravity hammer's pommel at his neck. Rather than finish off his opponent, Laccabeus just chuckled.
"Well played Halmat. You almost had me there." Laccabeus removed his foot and offered the Elite a hand, who immediately took it.
"You are as sharp as ever, Shipmaster." Halmat said warmly, shaking the Jiralhanae's hand. "And here I thought that sitting on your grav throne for so long had made you soft."
"You wound me, old friend." Laccabeus joked, smiling at the jab to his ego. "I take it that you and your warriors are getting restless?"
"You could say that." Halmat hesitantly replied. "Ever since we destroyed the last of those... geth, my Special Ops warriors have been striving for a true test of their skills."
"Patience old friend. The technology of the geth should be sufficient enough to draw in scavengers." The Brute Chieftain replied. "It's only a matter of time."
"Well, with your permission, I'd like to do a quick inspection on our ambush preparations, particularly in regards to the guards at the weather machine."
"Granted." Laccabeus replied. "Make sure that Commander Renad knows you're coming."
Halmat tapped his right fist over his chestplate. "As you command."
With that, the Spec Ops commander left the room, leaving the Jiralhanae alone with his thoughts. It had been a long time since they had encountered anyone worth fighting, with the robotic intelligences inhabiting the planet having been the last.
The last of these robotic "geth" had been destroyed after the Covenant forces had landed here. Since that time, Laccabeus had repurposed their technology for his own ends, ordering the Huragok to fix the weather control device, before sending out a low powered signal using the geth transmitter.
Once the signal had been broadcast on a loop, the weather device had been activated, causing a sandstorm which disrupted any attempts at scanning for lifeforms. Now, all they had to do was wait.
And they had been waiting for a long time.
With a sigh, Laccabeus put his hammer back on the pedestal and made his way to the bridge, buried deep in the heart of the ship. Anticipating another day of boredom and false alarms, the Shipmaster nevertheless knew that he had to be there.
Little did he realize that the plan would work sooner than he thought.
Commander Sato intently looked over the holographic displays. They were showing a small force of shuttles emerging from the cruiser's belly, setting course for the crashed assault carrier.
They also displayed the asari cruiser entering the atmosphere behind them.
"How soon will our reinforcements get here?" She asked expectantly.
"20 minutes..." Was the hesitant answer. "But the rest of our fleet is composed mostly of unarmed salvage ships and fighters."
"Which is why we draw the asari's fire so our fighters can come in from behind."
It looked like the bridge crew wanted to protest, but upon remembering their boss's temperment, they thought better of it and agreed. At that moment, another report came in.
"Ma'am, it appears that the cruiser is deploying their own forces. I've got Kodiaks and Mantises all on an intercept course for the crash site."
"So, it seems the blue bitches want to start a fight." Sato growled. "Then I'll be happy to give them one."
She gestured to her two guards. "Come with me, we're going bitch hunting."
"Shipmaster, it seems that we have two opposing factions coming after us."
"Then they may do most of the work for us." Laccabeus replied. "Are we prepared?"
"Yes, High-Chieftain." Chieftain Makterbus, his second-in-command replied. "The trap has been set. All our troops are in position."
"The Kig-yar, Yanme'e and Mgalekgolo are to await my signal." The High-Chieftain ordered. "And ensure the Unggoy keep themselves quiet and prepared. We can't have them run out of methane now."
Unlike the Covenant before and after its prime, Laccabeus didn't have nearly as many Unggoy as the Covenant at its height. He made up for this by allowing each individual one to recieve better training.
Because of this, the Covenant army under Laccabeus' command was more dangerous than the average legion during the Human-Covenant War. Now though, they relished an oppurtunity to put their skills to good use.
Laccabeus would ensure that they would get an oppurtunity soon enough.
Sergeant Hennessy of the elite Dagger squad looked out the window, spotting the vast wreck and scattered technology through the storm. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he took a good look at the crashed assault carrier.
There was something off about this wreck: the crash site just seemed too neat for a ship that had supposedly crashed from orbit. The carrier had clearly suffered battle damage, but it was still in one piece for something that had to have crashed from orbit. And the scattered vehicles looked too intact to be natural. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew were too excited to get their hands on Covenant technology to care. Nevertheless, he brought his concerns to the Commander but she brushed it off.
"It could have been a Flood ship." She had said looking over the hologram of the wreckage. "It might have been combat forms on this planet that were killed at the end of the Flood war."
In a way that made sense, but it also raised more questions; like what would the Flood have been doing here?
Regardless of the mystery, he and Dagger squad had a different mission: During another scan of the planet, their sensors were able to determine that Geth-made energy signatures had been detected on the planet, probably what was causing the weird storm and interference. While the rest of the CAT6 forces prepared to scavenge the crash site, Hennessy would lead Dagger to find the source of the jamming signals, and shut it down.
A task that was proving easier said than done, considering the massive dust storm that obscured visibility significantly. When the Kodiak touched down on the surface, the pilot was already complaining that visibility was near-zero.
As Dagger squad departed toward the energy signature which was emanating from a nearby rock formation, Hennesy tried to ignore the feeling that he was being watched, unaware of the cloaked beings on the rock formations they were moving toward.
D'ranna walked onto the planet surface, looking around at the scattered vehicles and supply crates littering the desert. Even though they were older models, they promised death and destruction to anyone who knew how to use them effectively.
While many scientists would start salivating over such advanced technology, the ex-Spectre was more focused on the human soldiers who were also scavenging through the wreckage. Choosing to focus on the task at hand, like Tela Vasir had taught her, D'ranna ordered her forces to spread out and get in ambush positions.
By the appearance of their armor, the asari could tell that these humans were members of the CAT6 mercenary group, most famous for their embarrassingly bad attempt to kill Commander Shepard and replace him with a clone.
These humans had a reputation of being so psychotic, that even Cerberus rejected them outright (and when the human-supremacist organization responsible for Sanctuary calls you insane... well, that says a lot). As such, she believed that they would be easy prey for the Athame Sisters. As soon as the asari were in position, they waited, watching the glowing blue lenses of the mercenary armor stumbling through the dust storm, no doubt trying to spot any signs of an ambush.
D'ranna resisted the urge to chuckle; the foolish ex-soldiers might as well paint bullseye targets all over their bodies. As soon as they came closer, the ex-Spectre gave the order that the Sisters were waiting for.
"All units. Attack!" She shouted as she vanished in a stream of violet light.
Reappearing in front of a CAT6 heavy soldier, she sent him flying before he had a chance to either raise his omni-shield or fire his Revenant. The rest of the asari also attacked, the more experienced following their leader's example with biotic charge, while others simply deployed warp fields and other biotic attacks against the humans.
To their credit, CAT6 was quick to respond, but the Athame Sisters were happy to use their mastery of hit and run combat against the humans. Eventually, one CAT6 Specialist began shouting over the din.
"Pull back! We need to-"
Whatever he was about to say died with him, as D'ranna put a bullet through his skull. With their officer down, the group of soldiers panicked and ran, only to be cut down as they fled.
D'ranna smirked in spite of herself. It was always fun to show the lesser races why the asari were superior. As the Athame Sisters pursued the retreating CAT6, they never noticed some of the sand shifting behind them. Nor did they see several massive figures emerge from the shadows of a crashed Phantom.
Lela Sato swore as screaming and panicked voices filled the comm. The asari bitches were turning her advance scouts into a laughing stock. Nevertheless, she was armed with the knowledge of where they were, she ordered the rest of her forces to pull back to more defensible positions.
As the asari attempted to attack, they were met by a hail of gunfire along with the occasional biotic attack from her and the twin gatling guns held by her large cybernetically enhanced bodyguards. For a moment, it seemed that this would hold, but then she heard a noise that filled her with dread: the whirring noise of a Mantis.
"Gunship!" Someone managed to cry out, just as the Mantis opened fire with its missiles.
Half-a-dozen men were killed in a single blast, while the following barrage from the mass accelerator cut down those soldiers who's barriers had protected them. Instinctively, one Specialist pulled out a rocket launcher and fired, intent on bringing the gunship down.
The blast damaged it but the asari craft held firm. Regardless, the gunship had served its purpose as a distraction, as an asari commando charged into the center of the formation, taking down two Specialists before a cloaked sniper put a round into her head.
"Where are our reinforcements?" Sato shouted over the noise of the battle. The answer that came over the other end made her smile.
Less than 30 seconds later, a pair of human fighters soared through the atmosphere firing on the asari gunships that were arriving from their cruiser. As the gunships exploded, bursts of light appeared in the air around the asari cruiser as the fighter squadrons performed attack runs on the ship.
GARDIAN lasers swiped a few of them out of the air, but CAT6 clearly had the advantage over the Athame Sisters. As the mercenaries on the ground cheered, Lela was quick to rally them.
"Alright, boys and girls! Now that out air support is here, let's show these blue strippers what humans can really do!"
Morale restored, CAT6 redoubled their offensive with increased vigour, eager to remove the asari presence and take all the technology from the carrier. Already, salvage ships were beginning their landing sequences, the crews salivating at the prospect of such a rich cache of Covenant technology.
They would soon realize their grave mistake at assuming that there were no survivors.
Sergeant Hennesy made his way through the sand storm, ignoring the shouting over the comms and the sounds of battle behind him. The four men of Dagger squad were professionals, and only had one job: find whatever was causing the interference, and disable it.
Eventually, the team made it to the entrance of a cave, where a beam of blue energy was emerging from within and shooting up into the sky. The group halted, taking a look around as they checked for any signs of movement.
When none were forthcoming, Hennesy gestured to two of his soldiers.
"You two, stay here and watch for hostiles." He pointed to the other soldier. "You come with me."
The two he had first pointed at stayed behind to guard the entrance, while Hennesy and his partner entered the cave, pulling out shotguns as they did so. They cautiously made their way through the cave, taking notice of all the potential hiding spots.
Hennesy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the feeling of being watched came over him yet again. Quickly, he spun around, shotgun aimed behind him, only to find nothing there, not even the signs of a cloaked figure.
"Sir, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied after a brief hesitation. "Let's just get this done." They resumed their journey to the cave.
Eventually, the two humans made it to the source of the interference, only to find that it was a geth weather device, and from the look of things, it had been activated recently. Ex-sergeant Hennesy felt his blood run cold at the implications, when he felt a presence right behind him.
"Oh, shit."
An energy sword sprang to life, the cloaked Elite impaling the former soldier on it's blade. His partner tried to run, only to run right into a Brute Stalker, who backhanded him, sending him flying across the cave before executing him with a single Mauler shot.
As the Elite and Brute surveyed the area, a third elite appeared, this one clad in silver armor with strange tusks emerging from his helmet. The last thing Hennesy heard was the Elite's voice on the comms.
"All hostiles eliminated." There was a pause before the silver Elite spoke again. "Acknowledged, we will begin the attack."
After that, all Hennesy knew was darkness.
Laccabeus sat in his command throne, watching the holographic screens. Witnessing the conflict between these asari and humans had just made his day. Of course, the rest of his forces were growing restless, but Laccabeus assured them that they wouldn't have to wait long.
Then he got a signal from Halmat. As soon as that happened, the Jiralhanae Shipmaster opened a channel on the BattleNet so that every Covenant soldier could hear his voice.
"Warriors, it is time. Rise up and show these fools the power of the Covenant!"
The local BattleNet exploded into life as the Covenant forces rose out of concealment. Inside the bridge, the Jiralhanae crew members were also alive with activity, restarting systems that had been deactivated in order to stay hidden.
As all this was happening, Laccabeus just sat back in his chair, content to let his forces have their fun. After years of nothing but training and boredom to occupy their time, they deserved to enjoy some savage slaughter.
Besides, it would only be a taste of what is to come.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.