Chapter CCXXI: Alea Iacta Est
November 3, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Delta Halo [orbiting Substance], Coelest System
"Alea iacta est."– Julius Caesar
"Frank, come here," Grass said. "The coordinates that Johnson gave us are just past those canyons."
I nodded. "Slow down, I want to see what happens. Caboose, have you managed to pick him up again?" I asked.
"Negative, sir."
"Well I-"
The column of light that shot out from the ring's surface was like something out of a fantasy film. I watched the bright light travel upwards at a prodigious speed. Grass slowed down the Phantom to a hover as we approached the coastline. There were several flaming wrecks that had once been Wraiths or Ghosts and a metal platform large enough to house a fleet of Phantoms.
"Land us there," I told Grass.
"Radio is gone," Caboose said. "As soon as the thing lit up."
Grass touched down on the gigantic platform and I stepped out so I could have a better view of the pillar of light. The rest of my men secured the empty platform quickly before gaping in awe at the gigantic pillar. It seemed to be moving, but I could make out the end of it. It hadn't reached the other side of the ring, seemingly staying in place. I tried not to think too much about it, some things were beyond my understanding.
"Uh, sir?" Lady said. "There are some dead brutes here."
I looked at them with some curiosity and saw that they had been killed by plasma weaponry. What intrigued me, however, was the presence of a few bullet casings. I had no idea how they had gotten there, but there was only one plausible answer. Johnson and his men had gotten free of the brutes and then somehow managed to activate the biggest flashlight in the universe willingly or by mistake. It was annoying, to say the least, to be this misinformed about what the hell was going on.
"What now?" Pavel asked.
"Johnson is there," Miri said.
"Or was," I muttered. "Goddamn. I don't feel like moving that way."
Pavel shrugged. "What else can we do?"
"Nothing much," I said. I sighed. "Ok then, I guess we have to move closer towards the stream of light of unknown origins."
"Seems almost angelic," Miri noted drily.
"So is calling this ring Halo, but there's nothing angelic about it," Grass said. "Are we going?"
I looked up once again. "Yeah."
The squad slowly moved back inside the Phantom, leaving behind the dead brutes and the strange platform. Grass moved through the canyons very slowly, staying close enough to the top that she could avoid something fired from above by diving or something fired from below by climbing up. It was not a pleasant spot to be in under any circumstances, but we didn't know whether Johnson was still alive.
Pavel and Caboose were manning the cannons, but they seemed entranced by the signs of battle in the ground. Everything from Ghosts to Shade turrets to dead infantry was dead on the ground. Some flaming Banshee husks had smashed against the canyon walls at high speeds, leaving scorched craters behind. It was either good news or bad news. The presence of such a large battle indicated that Johnson had more men with him, probably some units that had been taken prisoner during the chaos that the Quarantine Zone had been. Maybe even a few members of the In Amber Clad's crew had survived the assault by the Flood forces.
We turned one final corner before emerging into a larger area containing a building similar in architecture to that of the Library. The stream of light was coming out of the top of the pyramid-shaped structure. Other interesting details that jumped to mind were the Scarab and the hole that had been punched through the building's entrance, high above the ground.
"Shit," Grass said, instinctively banking sideways to avoid a blast from the Scarab. "It's targeting us, but it isn't firing."
"Keep strafing," I ordered. "Is it friendly?"
"That would be a first," Pavel said. "If Johnson managed to hijack it."
"If anyone can do it, it's him," I replied.
"Sir, not to disagree with you, but Scarabs aren't good to be around," Lady said. "I suggest we fall back and wait for that light to fade and reestablish radio contact."
I was inclined to agree with her, but as I leaned out I saw a human walking out the Scarab. I couldn't make out his face, but the man was clearly human, that much was evident. A big grin was formed on my face and I gave the word for Grass to touch down on top of the walker, putting the Phantom on a hover. I jumped out and was greeted by none other than Sergeant Banks.
"You're alive," he stated in disbelief.
"As are you," I replied.
He shook his head. "There are some-"
"Hostiles!" Pavel shouted.
They began firing at some enemies that I could identify, but I was running to join them before Banks could even draw his sidearm. Several elites had appeared on the edge of the gaping hole that the Scarab had punched through the entrance and were firing back at us. Two of them fell, dead from sustained machine gun fire, before the rest could take cover.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Banks shouted. "Cease fire!"
"What?" I asked.
"They're friendly! For now at least. We're working together."
"What?" I repeated.
"Exactly what you heard, sir. There's some feud going on between the squid heads and the brutes, they-"
"That much I know," I said. "How the hell did we agree to an alliance."
"Beyond our pay grade," Banks replied. "Not let's hope to God this misunderstanding doesn't destroy this alliance. Elite units, do you copy? This is Sergeant Banks. We have- Goddamit! Fucking radio is gone."
As if the powers that be were listening to Banks, the column of light disappeared.
"Elite units at the gate, do you copy? This is Sergeant Banks, cease fire. I repeat, cease fire. We have incoming UNSC units, they were unaware of any truce."
There was a short reply that I couldn't hear before Banks snapped back. It was obvious that nobody was happy to be in this situation right now.
"Where's Johnson?" I asked.
"Inside," Banks said. "With Keyes."
"So she made it too, huh? Incredible. Cam take me there. Caboose, you're with me."
"Frank, are you sure?" Grass asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
"I'm coming with you," Pavel said, hopping back on board the Phantom before anybody else.
"Banks, tell them not to fire or we'll make sure they meet their makers. Lady, Miri, stay here."
"Yes, sir."
Grass moved the Phantom the necessary distance for us to hop out. I jumped first, landing with a grunt and moving out of the way for Pavel. Caboose jumped down very carefully, with both of us catching him. He still had that bullet in him. I wanted to give him some medical assistance before we moved out. The bullet could remain there for all I cared, I just didn't want the thing to get dislodged or the wound to get infected. He didn't seem to be in a bad condition other than some discomfort and pain, but the wound was still open.
"Frank…"
"I see them," I replied.
The elites had their weapons trained on us and we reciprocated in kind. There was four of them and three of us, but Caboose and I both had our shotguns out, which evened out the odds a little bit. There were two majors and two minors. The two majors had bullet holes in their armor and were bleeding a little bit. I couldn't help but smile a little bit. With some luck we would've been facing a lone elite minor. It suddenly occurred to me that facing down three elites whose friends we had just killed was not a smart idea, but to be fair, I was a medically certified nutjob.
"Guns down," I whispered. "Just a little bit."
It was a gamble, but we had no other option right now. The elites didn't put their weapons down, but they let us pass through them and into a weirdly designed hall. Several brutes were littering the ground, bleeding from sword wounds and plasma blasts. Someone had burned through the defenders of this location with near impunity. From the looks of it, the attackers had been elites, but there was always room for Marines toting Covenant weaponry.
We took a right turn and emerged into a massive room that appeared to be bottomless. The room had a trio of platforms with a hole in the middle. That's where the light had come from. A dozen elites in very impressive armors were standing in a short platform that was separated from the three large ones by a gap. I saw zealots and field marshals as well as special operators. The elites dismissed us after one quick glance. They probably thought we wouldn't last long with them. Judging from their armor they were right, but that didn't mean we wouldn't kill a few of them.
"You've got to stop thinking like that," Schitzo said. "They're our allies now, remember?"
I nodded back.
"Your human is down there," an elite said without shooting me a look. "With the Arbiter."
I frowned slightly at the mention of that title. The frown turned into a scowl when I saw a large elite with an ancient-looking ceremonial armor.
"Didn't I kill one of those?" Pavel asked, stepping into the small gondola that would take us across the gap.
"Yeah. I've got the scar to prove it."
"Feel like evening the count?" he asked. "If I remember, a shotgun will do the trick."
I glanced at Caboose, who just shrugged.
"Johnson!" I shouted. "What the… What the hell is that thing?"
"These here we call elites, but they prefer Sangheili," he replied offhandedly.
"No, the light bulb."
He chuckled. "A friend, or an ally, at least."
"Lieutenant, are you three the only ones that made it?" Keyes asked.
My spine stiffened slightly and I saluted. "Negative, Commander. There's three more of my men. We commandeered a Phantom from a corvette, we were about to jump out of the system before we heard Sergeant Johnson's hailing call."
Keyes glanced at him.
"My apologies ma'am, if compromising our position allowed for more troops to help kill Tartarus… then it was a good risk."
"With the fate of the universe at hand, I'm inclined to agree," Keyes said.
The elite shuffled uncomfortably at that.
"Who's this?" I asked.
"The Arbiter, the leader of the elites," Johnson replied. "He helped broker the alliance with the elites."
"Uh-huh," I said. "They won't stab us in the back."
"You have my word," the elite rumbled in near-perfect English. I was very impressed.
"Your word doesn't mean much. My best friends have been killed by your kind. I've been maimed by your kind. Someone wearing that same fancy armor, in fact."
"Lieutenant…" Keyes warned.
"I won't be the one to break the truce," I said, "but I'll be the first one to fight them when they do."
"Very well," Johnson said. "Why don't we head back out, Castillo. The Arbiter needs to talk to his men."
"Arrange for a ship to take us to Earth, fight off the invasion and then we'll help you find the Ark," Keyes told the elite.
"Very well, ship master," the Arbiter replied. "I cannot promise you that the fleets of the Sangheili will make haste. The matter of the brutes must be dealt with."
"Let's go, Frank," Johnson said, grabbing my shoulder. "I have much to tell you."
We were flying in formation with two other Phantoms, both of them carrying all elites. My squad was half of the human survivors from the UNSC In Amber Clad: My six men, Johnson, Stacker, Banks, Keyes, and two other Marines. Everyone else was dead. Snark was dead, Dotsenko was dead, Crow was dead, and Longworth was dead. Their faces were beginning to come back, things would get difficult for me over the next few weeks and I don't think they'd get any better after that. I shook my head slightly to make them go away and watched the Phantom's hatches close as we reached high altitudes. The wind hit the Phantom pretty hard for a few seconds before we made it out.
"Lady, you alright?" Miri asked.
"My head," she said. "It's been killing me ever since that brute hit me."
"Are you alright?" I asked her again. "How does it feel?"
"Migraine," she said. "I just have to wait it out."
"The brute did hit her pretty hard," Miri said. "Sometimes I get headaches a day or two after I'm hit in the head."
"I just want it to go away," Lady growled.
"Wait it out," I told her, before moving to the cockpit.
Commander Keyes and Sergeant Johnson were both sitting there while Grass piloted the ship. I could see the space outside as a screen similar to the one on the Spirit. The three Phantoms were flying away from Delta Halo and towards a cluster of elite ships. The massive space station was hovering away fast enough for me to tell that it was moving, probably falling into a decaying orbit around Substance. With luck the whole infestation in there would die as the pressure became too much.
"I've never been on an assault carrier," I noted drily.
"Today's been a day of firsts," Johnson said coolly.
An assault carrier was the largest ship the Covenant possessed barring the supercarrier, which was just a kick to the balls. They could easily handle anything the UNSC could throw at them short of a fleet of Marathon cruisers or defense platforms. Sometimes a single assault carrier would eradicate the entirety of human presence on a planet. Something like that was not uncommon, but it didn't happen often since assault carriers weren't seen as being worth wasting on such puny planets. Even though I had seen them, been underneath them, and generally just suffered in their presence, being this close to one was a new experience. It was highly unnerving for all of us. The storage bay for the ship was immense. The Phantoms were one of the few that were flying, but we were by no means the only ones.
Johnson whistled in amusement.
"You could fit a frigate in here," I muttered.
"Maybe even two," Commander Keyes said.
"Prepare to touch down," Grass told us. "Over there."
I moved to the back of the Phantom and gave the signal for my men to get up and be ready. Caboose was the last one to get to his feet, but he managed it without too much trouble. He leaned on the wall until the hatches opened, at which point you wouldn't have been able to tell anything was wrong with him. We descended with our weapons lowered, but everybody was ready for trouble. Several dozen elites in unconventional harnesses were there, ready to receive us. A few of them positioned themselves around us in non-threatening positions while the majority instead went to the Phantom containing the Arbiter. A few helped the wounded elites get down from the other ship, but they were reluctant to accept even a shoulder to lay on.
"Arbiter, you've taken a big risk," one of the elites said. He was clad in white ultra armor. "The Demon?"
"He was in High Charity, but he got on board the Prophet's ship."
I raised my eyebrow slightly and positioned myself on Keyes' left flank while Johnson got on the right. The two elites in charge talked for a little bit more while the elephant in the room, namely us, was ignored briefly. No matter how long they talked about the treason of the Prophets they weren't able to ignore the twelve very well armed humans standing in the middle of the hangar bay.
"Ship Master," the ultra said, addressing Keyes.
"Ship Master," she replied in an equally polite tone.
"My name is Rtas 'Vadum and this is my ship, the Shadow of Intent. Circumstances have made us allies, but you are still guests in my ship. You shall be treated like a visiting Covenant ship master would be. Nothing more, nothing less."
"What about my men?"
"Barracks will be provided. I recommend that they stay there unless they want trouble. I cannot be accounted for the behavior of every single one of my troops."
Keyes nodded. "Some of my men are wounded and we don't have supplies."
The elite grunted in a way that could barely hide a chuckle. "We'll provide medical supplies, but our doctor isn't trained to treat humans."
"We'll manage," Keyes said.
Our doctor? As in just one? That seemed like a little bit of overkill.
"N'Tho!" Ship Master 'Vadum boomed. "Usze! Lead our guests to their quarters."
"If you'll excuse me, ship master," Keyes interjected. "There are some things I need to discuss with you first."
"Very well," Rtas said after a brief pause.
"Castillo, take care of the men," she ordered me. "Johnson, I want you with me."
An elite in crimson assault armor approached me. "Follow me, human," it said in passable English.
Another massive elite in blue armor settled into position behind the rest of our unit. Both of the elites were around eight and a half feet tall, on the end of the spectrum for Sangheili height. It was a bit unnerving, as oftentimes you came across large elites, but the majority of them were just eight feet tall. Hell, even the Arbiter and the ship master was less than eight feet. These two special operators were uncomfortably large if you asked me, but they would not be able to handle my whole unit if we decided to take them down. I took some small comfort in that.
The hallways in the ship were no different from those on a corvette. They were large enough to allow even the largest of hunters to walk through, but not large enough that they could march in a formation of five abreast. It was weird how the hallways were a little bit too similar in size to those on UNSC ships when you took into account the size of the species that crewed these ships. I saw plenty of little grunts moving through the hallways, but most of the elites appeared to be elsewhere. Several of the grunts were wounded and helping each other move, but moving nonetheless. I saw no jackals on board the ship, something which seemed odd, as I would imagine at least a few of the birds would pick the elites over the brutes if they were going to side with anybody in this conflict.
"Your quarters are near," the elite in blue, N'Tho, said after we left a large elevator. His English was very decent indeed. "Just about there."
The usage of that idiom just about made my jaw hit the floor.
"Here," the other one, Usze, said, jerking its head towards a large set of doors.
Grass led the way, carrying herself with dignity and grace as well as a sway on her hips that only a human male could appreciate. The doors slid open and revealed a very large room. There were several beds all placed in a circle around a pillar of sorts in the middle of the circular room. The pillar appeared to have holographic terminals of some sort and the beds were all bunk beds with cabinets in between and below them.
It all looked very futuristic, but I preferred the utilitarian look that the UNSC favored. Not to talk about grey. Here the purple was hurting my eyes.
"We'll need those supplies," I said. "One of my men is in need of medical attention."
"It will be done," N'tho said.
"Stay here," Usze told its compatriot in Sangheili, "I'll fetch the physician."
There was a certain contempt placed on that last word that I couldn't really place. The red elite in assault armor left the room, leaving us with the other massive blue alien. My men eyed him with distrust and even Banks and Stacker didn't seem at ease with the alien in our midst.
"Are you staying here?" I asked it.
"I was ordered to guard you," it replied.
I shrugged a little bit uncomfortably and ignored it. "Ok, listen up, pick your beds and try and get some rest. I'd order you to change, but from the looks of it these are the only clothes we have. Oorah?"
"Oorah."
"I call bottom bunk," Pavel said, moving one of the Marines to the side and throwing his weapon in it.
Miri and Lady shared a bunk and Caboose tossed his things on top of Pavel's bed. Grass looked at me and I pointed at the top bunk. She sighed and threw her weapons up top one by one. I watched as the Marines and my ODSTs carefully took off their armor. Caboose began by himself, but once it became clear that the pain was becoming too much he sat down and let Miranda help him. I sighed tiredly and put my shotgun and my rifle on the bed before taking off the forearm protectors. I let them clatter loudly and then moved on to my shoulder armor. Once my arms were bare I removed my chest armor piece by piece before finally taking off the abdomen belt armor and letting it drop. By the time I was done there was a little pile of equipment in the floor next to my soon-to-be bunk.
I kept my armored boots and thigh armor. Not because I wanted to, but because I didn't have other shoes and I needed at least a sidearm on me at all times. I leaned down to grab the abdomen belt and removed the sheath with my knife on it before doing the same with my chest knife. I had barely given them thought since coming to Halo.
I had only my undersuit to get me through the next few days. It was covered in blood, sweat, and other fluids. Ideally it would absorb them, purify them, or get rid of them, but right now it smelled like seven hells. I ignored it and examined myself for damage. There were plenty of spots where the suit had hardened in response to an impact, but no bullet had penetrated my armor. There were, however, two holes, one on my upper left arm and another below my artificial ribs. Both of them had a little bit of blood covering the skin that was exposed, but they were barely glorified scratches.
"Looks like we're going to be wearing our armor at all times," I said.
"I don't think a lot of us were planning on going without armor in this place," Sergeant Stacker said, giving the elite a once over.
"Hey, you," I said to the elite. "The Phantom we came in here with has a load of food that we can eat. Can you see about getting that in here?"
"I shall as soon as Usze is back."
"Some of us are hungry," Lady told it.
"My orders are to remain here."
"Uh-huh," she muttered.
"Get some rest," I told her. "Same goes for everybody else. I don't want people to die of exhaustion."
"Sounds good," Lady replied. "My head is killing me."
I frowned with concern, but she had been hit pretty hard by the brute. I was surprised that she got up so fast back then, but once she was on her feet I'd assumed that it hadn't been that big of a deal.
Two elites walked through the door, one of them was the large one with red armor and the other one was presumable the physician. The physician brought with him various instruments that appeared to be operation implements as well as other bulky apparatuses that were presumably scanners and other such things. It growled in Sangheili at the elite in red and then looked towards Caboose, who was leaning weakly against his bed.
"You," it said. "Here."
Caboose looked at me and rolled his eyes before stumbling forward. Blood was still coming out of his gut in short spurts and now that I could see the wound it was evident that we had neglected it a lot. The bandages applied had long since been soaked completely through and were falling apart. A little bit of biofoam would've gone a long way, but we ran out of that early on. I walked with him towards the physician.
"Who your medic?" it asked me.
"Dead," I replied, thinking about Andrea. "But we are all trained."
"Get best medic," the physician said. For an alien, he certainly had the superior air human doctors did. "What problem?"
"Bullet," I said. "In his gut. We're not sure if it split or went out."
"I see. Familiar with this injury."
"Well?"
The physician ignored me and produced a small device with a pistol-like grip. He aimed it at Caboose's belly and held it there for a while before then setting it down. A hologram popped up, it showed Caboose's organs as well as the trajectory that the bullet had followed through his belly. It hadn't gone out, obviously, but there were two foreign objects inside my man.
"Bullet must've dragged a piece of armor with it," Miranda said. "Looks like the armor cut an artery. Aaaand it's also keeping it plugged. Shit."
"It's not a terribly vital artery," Grass said. "We can pull it out then stitch him up. Wait, elites use some sort of fabric that works in a similar way to biofoam. It allows tissue to grow over it and also doubles as that same tissue while the body grows it again. Shit, I should know what they're called."
"We use them for lung injuries," N'Tho said. "They adapt to all Sangheili. I've even seen it used on a grunt once. A waste, if you asked me, but the critter lived."
"Do you have any of those?" I asked the physician.
It nodded and produced a grey piece of fabric. It didn't look very medical if you ask me, but I was willing to go out on a limb.
"We can leave the bullet there," I told Caboose. "That shouldn't be too much of an issue. The piece of armor, however, we need to pull that out."
"It's closer to my back, isn't it?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Will their anesthetics work on me?"
I shrugged. "I don't even know if these guys use anesthetics, but you could get a big allergic reaction from that."
"True," he said.
"I can put you under," I told him. "Choke you out for a few seconds, let you go unconscious."
He waited for a second before nodding in reply.
"Physician, are you going to operate?" I asked.
The elite nodded after a pause longer than Caboose's.
I looked at him and received yet another curt nod. Caboose positioned himself in front of me and I put him in a choke lock. He took a deep breath and I started squeezing. To his credit, he didn't flay or move one single bit as I cut off the blood and oxygen flow to his head. He would faint for a minute at the most, but it should be enough for the elite doctor to do the first cut and maybe even pull out the piece of shrapnel that was causing him so much trouble. As soon as I felt him go limp I positioned him face down on the floor. The physician set himself to work immediately. He produced a scalpel that, surprise, worked with plasma. The device opened his back immediately and the room was flooded with the sweet smell of burnt meat. Once the cut was made the elite looked at the hologram and then moved a little bit more. Caboose was still unconscious, but evidently could feel the pain. The physician opened up the incision with his hands and Caboose woke up.
"Stay down," I ordered. "Pavel, Cam, help me restrain him."
Pavel grabbed his legs while Cam and I each pressed his shoulder hard against the floor. The majority of the occupants of the room were looking in some kind of morbid fascination, but amusingly enough, it was N'Tho, the blue elite, that seemed most interested. The physician ignored the grunts of pain emanating from Caboose and quickly located the little shard of metal in his body. I had to give him credit, he went in fast and hard and located the thing without severing the artery that we wanted to patch up. The elite deftly plucked the tiny piece of metal with its two oversized fingers and tossed it away. A bloody spurt hit him in the face, making him instinctively turn it away, but a moment later he was placing a tiny patch of the magic cloth over the tear in the blood vessel. Blood bubbled through for a few seconds before stopping.
The elite went on and put some more of the fabric all along the edges of the incision that he had made before producing another device. This time the device turned out to be nothing other than a staple gun that he started using without a warning. Caboose actually yelled in pain a little, clenching his fists as the three metal staples went in.
"Done," the physician said. "No fast movement."
With those words he got up, gathered his things, and left. The physician left behind an agonizing Caboose and a pool of blood on the ground. My man was pale and would need some rations to get some sugar in him.
"Good job," I said, patting Grigori's shoulder. "Now you."
"N'Tho," the elite said.
"We need our food, and water."
"You can get water from the pillar," he replied, moving forward and tapping a few runes in the thing before a bit of water plopped into the floor. "Keep pressing the button for more."
Everybody that had a canteen moved forward to fill them with water. We had all but run out of fluids a long time ago and soon I tasted sweet water as it went down my throat. Even Caboose, half knocked out from the pain managed to ask Miranda to splash some water on his head and mouth. Lady was the only one that didn't join in the fun, already sleeping on her bed.
"The food?" I asked.
"Some grunts will bring it," Usze said. "The Ship Master has given word for you and your men to remain guarded at all times. N'Tho and myself will be outside."
"Where are Keyes and Johnson?"
"The other two humans? They're with the Arbiter. An honor too great for them if you ask me."
"I didn't," I told it. "We'll let you know if we need anything."
The doors slid shut as the two elites left us humans alone.
"Don't antagonize the lizards," Pavel said.
"I have to agree with him," Sergeant Stacker told me. "Our odds aren't very good if they decide to take us out."
I shrugged and sat down on the floor, too tired to make it to my bed. My neck was throbbing occasionally, but the injury was under control. It didn't look like it was infected just yet and an infection would take a while to kill me. I had to shake my head violently to wake myself up and saw Pavel offering me his hand. I took it and almost jumped up in order to get some blood flowing.
"I need to know what's going on, I don't like not knowing what's going on."
"Tell me about it," Grass said. "For a few years I knew pretty much everything about what was going on."
"Let Keyes handle this. She seems capable enough and Johnson is by her side," Pavel said. "We deserve some rest."
"That's true," I admitted. "Still, I don't-"
I went silent as the blue elite walked in. "Castillo, Lieutenant?"
"Present," I replied.
"Your ship master wants to see you at the bridge."
I looked at Pavel and Grass, who just shrugged at me with small frowns. I moved towards my bunk and grabbed the shotgun I had been using, slinging it across my chest and then behind my back. I had only one knife on me, but most of the time that was all I needed. N'Tho jerked his head for me to follow him as the red one, Usze, stood calmly while holding a carbine. The two elites were rather large, it was a bit intimidating, but there were some gaps in N'Tho's armor that I could exploit with my knife.
"The ship is too large to walk," he explained as we got inside a tram. "These move us throughout it."
"How impressive," I said.
"It's clever," the elite agreed. "It took our engineers several cycles to come up with them."
I almost gaped at it. If you built something that was five kilometers long, you built it with those trams in the first place. You don't pat yourself on the back for throwing in something that should've been a feature in the first place. Nonetheless I remained silent.
We rode in silence, alone. That changed as soon as we reached the bridge section. Several elites were moving around, barking to one another in that ugly language of theirs and stomping carelessly. I saw elites with little to no armor and elites with very unusual configurations. Most importantly, I saw grunts. They were being careful not to get stepped on, oftentimes carrying equipment in their backs. I gripped my shotgun a bit more tightly when I saw a hunter pair flanking either side of a large door. The hunters were a bit larger than the norm, but the door itself seemed to be screaming that something important was behind it.
"Very subtle," I noted.
"What do you mean?" N'tho asked.
"Anyone looking for an important place to blow up will look behind those doors," I told it. "Even if we didn't have schematics of your assault carriers."
The elite seemed a little bit confused by what I said but otherwise remained silent. He instead looked at the hunters and spoke in Sangheili. I couldn't understand without my translator, but the meaning of the words was clear enough. The hunters nodded as several other elites looked down at me and let us pass through the doors. I entered the control room of the assault carrier, escorted by an ally. It was a situation that I'd never prepared for. It was different, to say the least.
The bridge was rather large, a bit larger than you'd find on a UNSC carrier. In fact, it was a lot larger than that. It reminded me a little bit of the bridge design that Covenant corvettes had, but it wasn't quite the same. It had a massive holotank in the middle, but it was rectangular instead of round. Other than that it was a lot of wide open spaces, with pillars arranged in a circle around the holotank. Normally there would've been elites working on the terminals in the pillar stations, but right now they all appeared to be listening intently to the conversation that was going on in the middle of the room between the ship master, the arbiter, Keyes, and Johnson.
"Enough!" the elite captain boomed, his white armor sparkling clean. "We have a new visitor."
All heads turned to look at me.
"N'Tho," the ship master began, "why does he have a weapon?"
"You said to extend them the same courtesies we would visitors from the Covenant."
I almost chuckled.
"Human, I am told you are a lieutenant? What would that be, one of our majors?"
"More or less," I said. "Perhaps a major officer. Lieutenant can command up to fifty men in standard conditions."
The elite nodded slowly. "Your ship master tells me that… Johnson… is of a lower rank than you."
"He is," I said.
"Why aren't you here instead of him?"
"We're both here," I countered.
Keyes shot me a warning look.
I sighed. "My presence on board the In Amber Clad stemmed from unusual circumstances, and Johnson has at least as much combat experience as I do, if not more. Commander Keyes knows and trusts him, I am not surprised or offended that she picked him to come over me."
"Very well," it said, sounding almost as if it had solved a mystery. "Ship Master?"
Keyes seemed unsure whether she was the one being addressed at first, but the direction that the ship master was looking in made it clear that he wanted her to bring me up to speed.
"Fleet Master 'Vadum and I are of different minds. He wants to take care of the brute problem first, while I insist that we head straight back to Earth."
"I am a bit biased, Commander," I told her. "I see no reason for us not to head back to Earth."
"As you say, you are biased," 'Vadum said.
I looked at the Arbiter and then back at him. "Isn't your prophet going back to Earth anyways?"
"He's not our prophet, not anymore."
"Well, he's still the leader of all the brutes, jackals, and grunts not following you," I said. "If we kill him, we cut he head off the snake."
"Human expression," Johnson interjected. "The leadership would be eliminated."
"Indeed," 'Vadum agreed.
"Even now the brutes will be fighting each other," Keyes said. "Without Tartarus to guide them there'll be plenty of factions trying to climb to the top. If we go to Earth and kill Truth then the brutes will stop fighting."
"The humans are right, Ship Master," the Arbiter spoke. He had a deep, powerful voice that reminded me a little bit of the way hunters rumbled sometimes.
"Truth's lies have been clouding our judgment for too long. He deserves to die. Our honor must be upheld."
"That is true," Ship Master 'Vadum muttered. "But our fleets are scattered, our brothers are confused. Already hundreds of ships are meeting at Joyous Exultation under the banner of Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree."
"What a mouthful," Schitzo muttered.
"They are meeting to discuss steps to come. My own fleet remains with me, but millions of our brothers are flocking to Xytan."
"You have to convince him not to make war on the humans then," the Arbiter said. "But Truth cannot be forgotten."
"I will loan you a ship, Arbiter. With that you can go to Earth and as soon as the talks are over, we can take the next step."
"Thank you, Ship Master."
And that was that.
Keyes looked at Johnson and then at me. I shrugged.
"Thank you, Ship Master," Keyes echoed. "The UNSC is grateful for your assistance."
"Let's get this done as quick as possible," 'Vadum said. "I'll have one of my corvettes dock in the cargo bay. You can leave before the day is over."
The news was surprising. My men and I had just installed ourselves in the ship, moving to a different one would be an annoying process, but we would get it done. I waited for Keyes to start moving, who in turn waited for the Arbiter to do something. The elite was the one that had been loaned the ship, after all, not us pesky humans.
"How fast can the ship be here, Ship Master?" the Arbiter asked.
"Within the hour, I recommend you make haste. I want to move my fleet quickly now."
"Fleet Master! There are ships coming out of High Charity! Fleet of Righteous Vigilance confirms that they have Flood on board!" an elite barked suddenly.
"Damn them," Rtas 'Vadum said. "Arbiter, we'll have to speed up this process, the Flood can't be allowed to leave High Charity and Fleet Master 'Refum won't be able to hold them all."
"Castillo, get your men to the hangar," Keyes ordered. "Johnson and I will go with the Arbiter."
"Follow me," N'Tho said. "I'll lead you to your men."
"Don't stand there waiting," I told it. "Let's go!"
N'Tho seemingly fumbled after me, but alarms had begun blaring and everybody was moving to combat positions. I took careful note of the process in case the information was ever useful again. I watched as Keyes and Johnson made their way into a different tram than N'Tho and I. This time we were forced to share with at least a dozen elite warriors, many of which gave me dirty looks. I made sure to meet their stares and make them feel uncomfortable, but the elites didn't seem to care that much. After all, I was surrounded by a multitude of them.
"Almost there," N'Tho said. "Usze has told me that your men are packing up their things."
We were running at a pretty solid speed now. I bumped grunts out of my way before making it into my room. All of my men and the Marines were ready to go and Usze had already started to lead them out.
"Where's Lady?" I asked.
"Shit, nobody woke her up," Miri said.
"How the hell did that happen?" I snapped, dashing to her bed. "Lady! Lady!"
I shook her but she didn't move. It wasn't until I saw that blood had been leaking out of her ears that I cursed. I dragged her out of the bed and slung her over my shoulder. "Cam, Miri, get our armor and shit. Let's move!"
"Follow me," Usze said.
We had Caboose limping and I was moving Lady on my shoulders, but we made it back into the hangar rather quickly. A Covenant corvette had just docked inside the massive space. No matter how hard I looked around I couldn't spot the elite with ornamental armor that wouldn't have been out of place in a fantasy movie. Instead I followed the two elites and entered a gravity lift, momentarily grateful for the lack of weight on my shoulders. I considered that I hadn't even stopped to check in on Lady, but there just wasn't time it seemed.
"Lieutenant, I need you at the bridge!" Keyes' voice reached me as soon as the gravity lift put us into the corvette.
"Follow me, Lieutenant," N'Tho said. "It's this way."
The corvette was infinitely shorter than the assault carrier, but it still took a solid minute to reach the bridge. Once there I saw that Johnson and Keyes were looking at an obviously enhanced display of the battle. As N'Tho and I approached I felt the corvette decoupling and move. On the holographic display I saw Covenant vessels exchanging shots with one another. The vessels coming out from the station appeared unorganized and more than a little bit stupid, but they were starting to gain some ground on the defensive line of ships.
"Fleet Master 'Refum will hold them," the Arbiter was assuring Keyes. "He is one of our best soldiers. In Reach alone he destroyed three of your stations serving under my command."
"Lovely," I muttered.
"Lieutenant, we are departing the system. The Arbiter informs me that a short jump to a neighboring solar system will only take an hour at the most. From there we'll plot a course directly to Earth."
"Earth?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Ma'am, I really must protest. This alliance is tenuous and temporary at best. We've been killing the elites for the past thirty years. We can't jus-"
"My decision is final, Lieutenant," Keyes cut me off. "I am merely informing you as a courtesy. We're jumping to Martian orbit first, after that we'll communicate with the UNSC Home Fleet and explain our situation."
"Your call ma'am."
"We should be there within the week," Keyes told me. "Let's hope it's not too late."
"Ma'am," Johnson chimed in, "with over three hundred defense platforms, I think that it might be too late for the Covenant."
"If only it were so," the Arbiter rumbled.
"Dismissed," Keyes told me. "You too, Johnson."
N'Tho had long since left the bridge and Johnson and I were walking back towards the hangar when I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I instinctively began reaching for my weapon, but I stopped. We both turned to look at the Arbiter, who despite being relatively short for an elite, towered over both of us.
"Arbiter," Johnson said.
The alien nodded in acknowledgement. "I wish to speak to your Lieutenant briefly."
Johnson looked at me and cleared his throat before shrugging and resuming his walk towards the corvette's hangar bay.
I looked at the elite. The scar of my back it itched slightly at the thought of an energy sword cutting through it.
"You are Lieutenant now, is it?"
"Correct. First Lieutenant."
"Francisco Castillo?"
He butchered the pronunciation of my name.
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Not many people can kill an Arbiter and have it remain a secret."
"I didn't kill an Arbiter," I said. "I only helped."
"You were the ranking officer, as you say, in that engagement. And you personally took part in my predecessor's demise."
The elite's body language wasn't threatening, but I still prepared to jump back and blast it three times in the face with a shotgun of need be.
"Your name is well known by some. As is your face. You've grown older."
"And you're telling me this why?"
"I am merely curious, Lieutenant. Not everyone has the talent to kill an Arbiter, least of all humans. You imps are rightly feared by the lesser Covenant races and respected by the rest, but not even the most delusional of Unggoy would expect a couple of humans to be able to kill an Arbiter."
"He was just another elite, wearing fancy armor. Maybe a bit harder than most, but nothing to brag about."
"You've killed many, haven't you?"
"Have you?"
"Yes, I have burned millions of humans with the cleansing beams."
"I have killed thousands of your kind. On even terms. Fuck that, they're not even at all. You have energy shields, directed energy weapons, superior firepower, and worst of all, you're physically superior to us in every aspect. I've killed thousands of you while having the bad end of the stick. You haven't killed millions, you've murdered and butchered them."
I couldn't help getting angry.
"Perhaps it is so. The prophets' lies clouded our judgment. Now I fear that the Sangheili as a whole will never be able to atone for our sins."
"Have you ever thought that you don't deserve to?" I asked him.
"Perhaps, Lieutenant. Perhaps."
With that, I walked away.
"Frank!" Pavel called out as I walked into the hangar.
"How's Lady?" I asked.
"She- She's dead."
I sighed and looked up at the purple ceiling. "What happened?"
"Cam says that the hit on her head burst some blood vessels. Hematoma."
"How come she didn't die sooner?"
"Lucid interval or some such shit. Cam says that if the autopsy concurs with her Lady might have broken some kind of record. Longest amount of time being able to function normally with blood flooding your brain."
"Lotta good that does her now."
Pavel nodded. "She was a bitch."
"She was changing. Just a little bit, but she was getting better."
"Aye."
I looked over at the squad, which was now reduced by one more. Caboose, Grass, Miri. Pavel and I. Five people. It was a nice number, but that was about it.
"She died in her sleep," I noted. "I don't think I've ever known anyone like that. Lucky."
"Very," Pavel agreed. "I don't know how bad her headaches were, but it didn't seem like she suffered a lot."
I sighed loudly again. Cam got up from the floor and walked towards us, standing with her arms crossed. She had her undersuit on, but it was form fitting. I kept having those thoughts at the most inappropriate of times, but what else was I going to do? With Katie somewhere in Limbo I didn't know whether to try and begin accepting her death or whether to keep hoping. Her ship had made it to Sol, which was enough to keep the hope alive, but Sol was the largest battlefield that the universe had ever seen right now and that didn't bode her well.
Then there was Amber and Lavvie. I didn't want them gone either, the loss of his family would destroy Pavel. My best friend seemed to go through everything and take it in stride, but I just knew that he wouldn't be able to come out of that. If his steel mettle failed him then I'd have nothing to lean on. Nothing at all.
"What can we do with her?" Pavel asked, breaking my train of thought.
"I'm sure that the Covenant has some sort of freezer where we can put her. Once we get to Earth she'll get a proper burial. I'll see to it."
"So we are going to Earth then," Cam said.
"Yeah," I confirmed. "In a stolen Covenant ship. Borrowed."
"Cole Protocol?"
I shook my head.
Pavel raised both eyebrows in surprise.
"The elites are on our side now, for better or worse," I said. "We're trusting them with the coordinates of our home world if they didn't know them already."
"The die is cast," Cam said, looking down at the metal floor.
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
Now, for a brief note from the latter, who asked that this be put in the Author's Note.
Editor's Note:
Three years, almost one million six hundred thousand words, 221 chapters, six editors, close to two thousand reviews, and becoming the most reviewed, and longest and one of the best written Halo fics ever. The only thing that remained the same during that time was Casquis' dedication and conviction to this story. It had humble beginnings as a self insert by a Mexican teenager whose first language was not even English! That grew and took a life of its own transforming into not just another story but a work of art, it eclipses the Lord of the Rings series in length by three and a half times, and yet it still grows. But soon all too soon it will have to come to an end. It will be a bitter sweet moment that will signify the end of a era in my life that was devoted to wondering what will happen next, and waiting for the next chapter. As a reader I am sad that this is coming to a close so soon it feels like it was just started yesterday, but as Casquis' editor and friend I am happy for him to have been able to complete something that so few can do.
Till later,
General TheDyingTitan
And I appreciate everything that he's done for me and this story over the years. I would like to disagree with the part where he says it started out as a self insert, but to be honest he's right. And now we're here. The story has evolved and become so much more than that thanks to great people like GTDT and all of you, my readers, betas, and reviewers. And I thank you for that. Three days ago this story turned three years old and six hours ago Mexico beat Croatia and qualified for the next round in the World Cup. It's the little things that matter. I'd like to thank all of you that have read this story for staying with me and managing to go through all the bad to get to the good. The Life wouldn't be anything without you.
cannonfodder I have not, but I'll be sure to check them out if I have the time.
Anon22 we shall see
TehMaskedWarrior I've missed you, man
Electric2097 until the end of Halo 3
Well, that's all the questions that I could address in this author's note. At least all the ones that were asked it seems. I'd love to interact with you some more, but there's only so many things that I can say. Another one bit the dust in a bit of realism that was bound to hit this fic eventually. In the words of Colonel-Commissar2468 "Well, it's kind of depressing that a brain drowning in blood is the nicest death anyone's had in this entire story."
Well. (Sh)It happens.
Stay strong.
-casquis
PS: On the 30th of June I will be traveling overseas for an entire month. This means I won't be able to post new chapters or even write anything at all. I'll try to get one out before that happens, but no promises and well... sorry.