Chapter 3: Raku 'Solee

Raku 'Solee was a prized assassin, but not to the minds of the Covenant at large. Little more than he and his brothers-in-arms even knew of his feats. He had put down rebellions without them even knowing he was there, he had infiltrated a human colony and struck it down in the blink of an eye. And he couldn't have done it without his brothers.

Sen 'Rolahee, his right hand. The Sangheili that Raku had known for longer than any other. They had trained together, and they have never been separated on any mission. They knew each other as well as they knew themselves, their bond was unbreakable.

And Nos 'Attrumai, his left. Though he was the more reckless of the three, he was still as good a fighter as any. And with the title of Blademaster, he brought them glory. Both Raku and Sen were more than worthy to be Blademasters, but both of them refused only to keep their secrecy.

And with all the glory that they had brought to themselves, here they were babysitting a pack of Jiralhanae on one of the many worlds the Covenant sieged. Not only that, but they were fighting for a coward that had turned and fled the planet at the slightest sign of promise elsewhere in the galaxy. Raku looked to the sky where the Song of Unity once sat, the carrier that had ferried him and his brothers to this frigid world.

To the humans, the world was known as Zehar VI. The luminary that had led them to it listed the planet as Zezar. Raku wondered if the human name was a mistranslation of the Forerunner one, or if it was just a coincidence.

"Has the Minister of Animosity sent word yet?" Nos asked. The three of them huddled in an icy cave, surrounding a fire to keep them warm.

"None," Sen replied with a sigh.

"That coward 'Quraee will pay for this," Nos breathed. "Why are we even still here?"

"Because we are not cowards like him," Raku stated plainly. He stood up from the fire.

"What is he even chasing anyway?" Nos asked, rising alongside Raku.

"It is none of our concern," Raku replied, "we are not here for him. We are here for the Minister of Animosity."

The Minister of Animosity was a minor Prophet, one who answered directly to the triumvirate. And it was he who Raku, Sen, and Nos answered to. They were here on his orders, not the orders of Chel 'Quraee or whoever it was commanding the siege of the planet. For the past few cycles they had been trying to get in contact with him, but their communications with High Charity were cut off.

The sound of gunfire outside the cave alerted Raku and the others. He activated his cloaking, and rushed outside. But when they left the cave, there was no attack. It was only the pack of Jiralhanae, six of them, blindly firing into the horizon.

"What do you think you're doing?" Raku asked, deactivating his cloaking.

They all turned to him, and one of them growled. Axus was his name, he was the one that all the other Jiralhanae looked up to. Their ring leader, so to speak. He crossed his arms and stared down at Raku.

"There is nothing to shoot," Axus rumbled. "We are getting restless."

"You mean you are getting bored?" Raku stood tall and crossed his arms.

"Yes! Nothing for us to do!"

"Deal with it. This is a siege, they take time. I would send you off to battle, but the Minister wouldn't have it. Blame him for not having anything to do. Now, I would rather you do not give our location away to the humans."

Axus growled again, but didn't retort. He turned and barked at the others, and they put their crude weapons away. Raku turned back to the cave where Nos and Sen stood, watching him.

"This is taking too long," Nos sighed. "I will scout the area and see what's jamming us."

"Sen, check the transmitter, and keep an eye on our Jiralhanae," Raku ordered. "I will join you, Nos."

The two Sangheili bowed. Sen climbed the rocks to make sure there wasn't any damage to the transmitter, and Nos set out across the frozen plains. Raku followed close behind him. The lower gravity of Zehar made it easier for the Sangheili to move, but the piles of snow proved a little bit of a challenge to push past.

The walls of snow began to give way to the actual ground as they began to enter human territory. The two Sangheili soon stepped onto a paved road, and they both cloaked so they wouldn't be seen. Their black armour would stand out against the white backdrop of the ice and snow. The two stopped moving to make sure the coast was clear.

"You don't trust me, do you?" Nos asked, keeping his voice down even though there were no humans in sight.

"This is not the time for this," Raku said, annoyance creeping up in his voice.

"Answer me."

"Not entirely," Raku admitted. "I want to trust you, but you are reckless. You are like a Jiralhanae wearing a Sangheili's coat."

"You are exaggerating. The Minister of Animosity put me on your team for a reason. You know I am strong."

"It's not your prowess as a warrior that I doubt, it's your skills as an assassin. Now stop talking, and let's get this done."

Nos snorted, but he stopped talking as ordered. The two of them moved to the side of a tall cliff, and they navigated around it. The rocky area of land they navigated had been a sight of much contest during the siege. There had been a Spartan there once, one of the human super soldiers that struck fear into the hearts of lesser Covenant soldiers, but it had been bested by a Sangheili of the Minor rank. Because of that, Raku wondered what was even so scary about the Spartans. The area was also where Chel 'Quraee found a Forerunner luminary, and abandoned his own siege.

It had flipped between human and Covenant control time and time again until the Covenant realised there was nothing else of interest to find. Now it belonged to the humans again, and they had spent their cycles fortifying. But there was no fortification that Raku couldn't sneak past. He had to admit that the humans were fighting valiantly for this icy planet, but he couldn't blame them if it was their home.

The two Sangheili navigated between the steep rocky slopes, and stopped when the first human fortification came into sight. It was one of the most primitive things Raku had ever seen. A wall of bags filled with sand stacked on top of each other sat against a wall of rocks. A human shivering from the cold stood behind it, grasping a rifle so tight that it seemed like an invisible being was trying to take it from them.

Raku noticed that Nos was about to move and kill the human, but he raised a hand to keep him still. Nos stopped, and waited for Raku's move. The sound of a vehicle approaching in the distance grew louder, the noise of the primitive wheels against the icy ground gave it away. The human vehicle approached from behind them, and stopped next to the wall of sand bags. The human driving it had a conversation with the human guard. Raku used the sound of the vehicle's engine to mask the sound of his footsteps as he approached it. Nos followed Raku's lead, and they both stood at the vehicle's side while they waited for it to move.

The humans eventually ended their conversation, and the vehicle began to move. The two cloaked Sangheili sprinted after it, staying as close to its side as they could without alerting the driver. They passed several other guard posts on the way until the vehicle stopped in front of a wall, which was the entrance to a human outpost. A section of the wall opened, and the Sangheili followed the vehicle through.

Luckily for the Sangheili, the humans had cleared most of the snow out of the area, so they wouldn't leave any footprints behind. The sound of the vehicle and the chatter between the humans was enough to hide the sound of their footsteps as they navigated between the prefabricated outpost buildings.

"Any idea what a human jammer looks like?" Nos asked when they were out of earshot of the human soldiers.

Raku squinted as he scanned the buildings. When he saw the jamming tower in the corner of the outpost, he pointed it out for Nos. Nos nodded and made his way over to it while Raku kept his eyes on the humans. They showed no sign that they knew the Sangheili were there, and they never would as long as Nos was careful.

He turned back to Nos and watched as he tore the wires away from the tower. A violent act done quietly, none of the humans noticed it. His scans on the tower began to read that it was now offline, and Nos quickly returned to Raku. He gave Nos a nod of respect, which was returned. With the jammer offline, Raku took the moment to contact Sen.

"We have found a human jammer," Raku whispered. He didn't take his eyes away from the humans ahead of him. "It is offline now."

"Good," Sen responded. "Nothing was wrong with our transmitter, I figured it was a jammer. I will contact the Minister of Animosity right away, you make your way back to the camp."

"On our way," Raku dropped the connection. He and Nos exchanged a glance before looking for a way out of there.

The way they entered was the only way in and out. They would have to sneak past the humans once more, but this time they didn't have the advantage of background noise to suppress the sounds of their movements. They could attempt to leave without being spotted, or they could cause a distraction. Raku opted for the latter. He took a remote explosive from his back, and moved behind the buildings and tents to get to the other side of the outpost. He didn't want to make it obvious that the jammer was their target.

Raku found a tent with what seemed to be munitions inside, and he placed the explosive behind it. He and Nos continued around the outside of the buildings until they made it back to the entrance. The wall was just short enough for them to scale, but the guards standing along the top of it would prove to be a problem. Raku raised a hand, and began to count down with his fingers.

Raku made a fist, signalling for them to move. The two Sangheili sprinted into the open, the sound of their footsteps definitely alerted the guards. Raku triggered the explosive, and a fireball of hot plasma soon bathed the corner of the outpost, taking out the human munitions and alerting the other human soldiers to that part of the outpost. With the guards distracted, Raku and Nos scaled the wall, and sprinted back the way they had come.

Nos ignited his energy sword as they neared the guard with the sand bags, and he stabbed the human right through its back. The human hadn't even had time to react before its death, Nos left it behind on the ground as he sprinted after Raku. They quickly made it out of human territory, and they set across the frozen plains once more to get back to the cave.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Nos asked once they were able to slow down.

"No, it was quite trivial," Raku responded. Their cave soon came into view. He spotted Sen waiting in the entrance, but the Jiralhanae were no longer outside. The two waved to each other.

"I'm sure the conversation with the Minister will be fun," Nos commented as they reached the entrance of the cave.

"I will handle it," Raku said, not exactly looking forward to it.

When Raku entered he saw the pack of Jiralhanae gathered around a holoprojector, which displayed a projection of the Minister of Animosity. The projection made the Minister seem much larger than he actually was. He sat upon his highly decorated gravity throne, and stared at Raku as he entered the cave with a look of both anger and annoyance.

"And where have you been? I have been attempting to contact you for the entire last cycle!" the Minister shouted.

"I am sure the details would simply bore you," Raku said, crossing his arms. "Therefore I will not answer that question."

The Minister sat back in his throne and grinned, clasping his hands together. He always acted high and mighty, like he was more important than anyone else. But for some odd reason, he liked it when Raku talked back. He was one of very few San'Shyuum that Raku simply could not figure out.

"You would be correct. Now, onto business," the Minister continued. "I hear Chel 'Quraee has found a luminary under the ice. But that isn't the only thing he has located."

"Are you aware that Chel has abandoned the siege?" Nos interjected. "His own siege! He found the luminary and left, but his forces remain here under his orders."

"Nos 'Attrumai," the Minister's look of annoyance returned. "I care not. He found an artefact of value, and it is leading him to another prize. What he does with his forces is not my business, nor is it yours."

Raku raised a hand to silence both of them. Though Raku also saw Chel as a coward, he wasn't going to bring him up all the time like Nos. 'Quraee wasn't important to him, the Minister's orders were all that mattered.

"What is this other thing that 'Quraee located?" Raku asked, wanting to hurry the Minister along so they could end the conversation.

"It is what I have sent you to recover," the Minister explained. "An abundance of Forerunner data hidden in the planet's mountains. My intelligence suggests the data comes from the Lifeworkers themselves! How magnificent! Can you imagine what we can learn from it?"

"Yes, very exciting."

"I know! But there is one small issue. Though I have 'Quraee's data, his forces do not answer to me. There is a human base built into the mountains, exactly where the Lifeworker data is held. You must push past it on your own."

"Ha! You think that's a challenge?" Axus chimed in, turning to the Minister. "We will crush the humans! We will tear them apart!"

"Oh, but you must be cautious," the Minister warned. "You must not let anything be damaged. This Lifeworker data must not be compromised in any way, nor would you let any construction of the Gods be damaged."

"Hmph, what you ask is impossible," Axus scoffed.

"That is incorrect," Raku said. "It is very possible. Just not for the Jiralhanae."

Axus turned to Raku and snarled at him. Nos stepped forward with a hand on the hilt of his sword, but Raku gave no response. He wasn't afraid of them like they wanted him to be.

"You will make it possible," the Minister said, unenthused at the tension between the two races. "You are equal as warriors in the Covenant. The Great Journey leaves no one behind. Now, you have your orders. You will carry them out. Contact me again when it is done."

The projection of the Minister faded. The six Jiralhanae and three Sangheili were left to their own devices. The Great Journey leaves no one behind. Raku didn't believe that. He had seen Thel 'Vadamee's trial, and the entire purpose of the war with humanity wasn't worthy of the Journey.

"You should watch your tone," Axus said to Raku. His Jiralhanae lined up at his sides as they stared the Sangheili down.

"I meant no offence," Raku said, which was the truth. He was merely stating a fact. "But you and your pack are reckless, Axus. You would do well to listen to the Minister of Animosity."

"So would you," Axus growled. "He put us here. This is our mission as much as it is yours."

"I am aware."

"You may fight each other when the mission is done," Sen said, stepping between them. "We must not be divided on a task as important as this."

"Correct," Raku added. He turned to Sen and Nos. "Disassemble the shelter, we will be moving out immediately."

The two Sangheili nodded. Raku moved to the holoprojector as the group began to disperse, and he pulled a drive from it. On it were the coordinates to the human base in the mountains. It would be a long walk, and an equally long climb, but they wouldn't fail their mission.