Chapter 20: Kel
Figuring out the inner workings of the Phantom was a surprisingly difficult task, and it had taken Kel days to even get to it. He had only just finished clearing out the plants that had grown into it, and the insects and rodents that had made the ship's small crevices their home.
Kel was determined to figure it out himself, even when there were sentinels coming by every now and then with supplies for him. He didn't want to ask for help under any circumstance, no matter how much he needed it. He had done everything by himself before, so he didn't want to stop now.
He at first assumed it was just a matter of fixing the Phantom's controls. He stared at the Phantom's wiring for a long time, unclear on where to even begin. Eventually he figured out that the wiring was damaged from the plants that had grown into it, and from the dumb animals that had decided to chew on them.
Kel requested that a deactivated sentinel be brought to him, so he could take the wiring from that. He wasn't expecting the robots to oblige, but they did. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that the machines don't care about each other, as they weren't even sentient. The dead sentinel was placed on the ground underneath the Phantom, and Kel began the process of taking it apart.
Kel cut the machine's wiring very carefully, making sure none of it was damaged as he brought it back to the Phantom and replaced the ship's damaged wires. The Phantom's dashboard lit up when he tried turning it on, and Kel felt a wave of relief wash over him from being able to fix something. There was still a lot of work ahead, but he appreciated the small victory.
With the lights on in the cockpit, Kel noticed markings on one of the walls. The markings didn't seem to be any kind of damage from anything, they seemed to be put there deliberately. When Kel ran his hand along them, he felt more. Letters, words in the Sangheili language. He couldn't make them out completely, but he assumed they spelled out the name of the Phantom's previous pilot, the one he had killed. The other markings must have been related to how many kills the pilot had gotten, or how many missions he'd completed unscathed.
There was more history in this ship than Kel ever knew about. The old pilot must have been a distinguished soldier in the Covenant with a promising future ahead of him, and that was something that Kel had ruined. He didn't have a choice at the time, the pilot had been in his way. He wondered if the Phantom had a name, he knew that smaller transports like these did have names sometimes. There were no other markings in the cockpit that Kel could find, no sign of whether the transport had one or not.
Kel sat down in the pilot's seat and closed his eyes. He tried to think of a name that would fit, though naming things was not his strong suit. He pressed his hand against the words on the wall again, and scrubbed the dust out of the engravings so he could read them better. Oran 'Vettrumee. That was the pilot's name.
Kel closed his eyes again and thought. He stared at the bright dashboard of the Phantom when he opened them again. He'd heard that name before, a very long time ago. 'Vettrumee. Kel placed his hands on the ship's controls, gripping them tight. He stared at the screen that showed him a view of the outside world.
The Phantom soared through a field of clouds. When it lowered beneath them, it swerved through mountains and rocky cliffs. Kel jumped as the side of the Phantom scraped against a rocky wall, and hit the top of an arch as it made its way through.
"Place yourself in the middle of the canyon," 'Vettrumee told him. "A few more hits like that, and you'll be going down."
Kel grunted at the pilot's instructions. He knew that 'Vettrumee was trying to help him, but every word simply annoyed him. He did as the pilot said anyway, and just like that he didn't hit anything.
"Good, now rise," 'Vettrumee ordered.
Kel did as he was told, and lifted the Phantom out of the canyon. The snowy landscape was painted orange by the setting sun in the distance, the shadows cast by the mountains around him grew longer with each passing minute. Kel took a moment to breathe, and to take in his surroundings. Nature could be very beautiful. If only he wasn't stuck inside the cockpit of the Phantom.
"We're going to try a combat exercise," 'Vettrumee told him. "Return to the entrance of the canyon. Your task is to evade the pair of enemy Banshees without leaving the canyon, you need not destroy them."
Kel obliged, and returned to where he started. The Phantom held still in front of the arch that marked the canyon's entrance as he waited for 'Vettrumee to tell him to begin. But the pilot didn't say anything. The signal to start came in the form of being fired upon by the pair of Banshees. The globs of plasma that they fired burned into the Phantom's sides, and Kel could feel the ship vibrate with each hit he took.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" 'Vettrumee shouted.
Kel blasted the Phantom forward through the canyon at full speed. He had taken the time to memorise the path through it, but that all seemed to fall apart now that his life was in danger. He swerved past the rocky walls of the canyon, narrowly avoiding the Banshees' fire as they chased him through it.
This time he didn't listen to 'Vettrumee's advice, and he stayed close to the canyon walls. His mission was to evade the Banshees, but he wanted to take them down in the process. He wasn't allowed to use the Phantom's main plasma cannon, so he couldn't just shoot them down.
The Phantom glided through the canyon while it dodged the Banshees' fire. Kel turned a corner in a dangerous move, a turn so sharp it had the potential to damage the ship itself, but it caused one of the Banshees to fly past him and slam into the side of the canyon. He couldn't see 'Vettrumee's expression as he stood behind him, but he wondered what the pilot had thought of the move.
The second Banshee continued to chase Kel and fire on him as they flew. It fired a fuel rod at him that followed the Phantom's movements. He pulled another sharp turn that threw the fuel rod off course before it could hit him, but in the small moment of triumph after that he realised that he had turned into another wall of the canyon.
There was no time to avoid the collision, and the Phantom shook as it slammed into the wall. The screen in the cockpit turned off, and Kel let out a defeated sigh as the ship's doors opened, and the simulation ended.
"It seems you forgot to pay attention to your surroundings," 'Vettrumee said. Kel couldn't help but hear disappointment in the pilot's voice, but he was pretty sure he was just imagining it. "You were too focused on the enemy that you didn't see the way out."
"Am I not supposed to focus on the enemy?" Kel asked.
"You were too focused," 'Vettrumee repeated. "You keep making the same mistake, you haven't learned from the past few trials."
Kel sighed and rose out of the Phantom's seat. If he couldn't master piloting the Phantom, then he would never get where he needed to go. He would never be free. He turned away from 'Vettrumee, and jumped out of the Phantom. The sound of his feet hitting the floor echoed around the empty hangar.
"'Dauramee," 'Vettrumee said, stopping Kel in his tracks. "Those turns were impressive. I'm not sure where you learned to do that, but your piloting skills are improving very much."
Kel froze for a short few seconds. There was a hint of admiration in the pilot's voice, which was more surprising than anything. Kel cursed at himself for letting the pilot's words get to him, he knew he would end up having to kill him eventually.
"We will try again tomorrow," 'Vettrumee said. "Get some rest."
Kel nodded, and he left the hangar. He was in the forest again, on his knees as he stared up at the sky. He had told himself he wouldn't forget 'Vettrumee that day, yet he had. He stared into the sky and wondered where the pilot's body was now. It was many systems away, but it still had to be floating in space somewhere.
He looked back at the Phantom, which still had no name. When he rose back to his feet and approached it once more, he knew what he wanted to name it. He messed with the controls on the forearm of his harness, and he was able to activate the energy dagger built into it. With that he began to carve the Phantom's name on the other side of the cockpit, across from the pilot's. 'Vettrumee's Rest.
Now that he remembered the one who had taught him to fly, he would make sure to never forget him again. The pilot had never wronged him, nor had the General. They were only the unfortunate victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kel's hatred was never for his Sangheili brothers, only for the Covenant that he had believed indoctrinated them.
Kel eventually decided he needed to take a break after rewiring the Phantom, he asked a pair of sentinels to watch the Phantom as he left, which they did. He was surprised every time that they listened to him, but that was all thanks to the monitor, Era. He owed more to that monitor than it could ever know.
The sun had set once more when Kel returned to Era's facility, where the monitor was nowhere to be found. Kel was a little grateful for that, as it would be awkward seeing it again after having just said goodbye.
He returned to the facility's monitoring room, where he watched the screens as they monitored the planets of the galaxy. He didn't know what he was looking for in particular, but he watched the screens anyway. The station on the other side of the room that monitored comm traffic seemed to be extra busy when he arrived, so he approached it and listened.
It took Kel a while to understand what was being said as there were too many voices talking over each other, but he was able to understand a few things. Schism. Civil war. Prophets. Betrayal. Most of the words seemed to come from Sangheili, and they all seemed to be either panicked or unfathomably angry.
Kel looked around the room, and saw that one of the screens had a view of High Charity, the mobile capital of the Covenant that Kel had only visited once. It was where he had learned to fly that Phantom.
Bright flashes appeared around the station every few seconds, which Kel quickly realised were explosions. The ships in High Charity's defence fleet were shooting at each other for reasons that Kel couldn't imagine. He quickly returned to the monitoring station and played with the controls until he managed to isolate one of the signals.
"The Sangheili have turned their backs against the Covenant!" shouted a Jiralhanae. "They have turned against everything that is held sacred! These heretics must be punished!"
None of that sounded right. Even though Kel had turned his back against the Covenant, and done everything that the Jiralhanae described, he didn't think that any other Sangheili would do such a thing. That was impossible. He looked back at the station's controls and isolated another signal.
"With my blessing, the Jiralhanae now lead our fleets!" came the voice of a San'Shyuum. Though Kel hadn't heard the voice in a long time, he recognised it as the Prophet of Truth's. It was too distinct of a voice to mistake it for anyone else.
It was beginning to sound like it was the Prophets who had turned against the Sangheili, not the other way around. Kel could hear the malicious tone in Truth's voice, there was clearly something terrible that had just happened. Without the Sangheili there simply was no Covenant, why would the Prophets betray them?
Kel continued to search through the signals in an attempt to isolate one from a Sangheili. When he did find one, it was heavily encrypted. The codes used in the transmission were old, similar to when Kel was still in the Covenant military. Either encryption hadn't advanced at all in the time of Kel's isolation, or whoever was broadcasting was using old tech. Kel wondered what that was about. Luckily for him, the Forerunner tech was more than capable of decrypting the transmission, and he was able to listen to it.
"All Sangheili who are capable of hearing this message, this is the Sacred Provenance," a smooth Sangheili voice said. "The Prophets have betrayed us. The Covenant has cast us out. The future is grim. But there is no need to give up, there is no need to stand idly by and let this happen. We are capable of fighting back, we must fight back!
"We are not conniving politicians, nor are we lumbering beasts with no sense of honour. We are warriors of the highest order! We will not let anything put us down! Follow the coordinates embedded in this message, and join me as we prepare our retaliation. With our combined strength, we will show the Covenant why they should never have betrayed us!"
With that, the message ended. So the Covenant did betray the Sangheili, and it was all happening while Kel was in no position to do anything about it. That was his own fault, he had betrayed them first so long ago.
Suddenly his personal journey to the Assembly didn't seem so important anymore. If he was capable of helping the Sangheili in any way, he wanted to do it. He wanted to redeem himself in some way, to make it up to the ones he had wronged. He wasn't sure if he could be redeemed, the Sangheili he killed did nothing to deserve their fates, but he was going to make sure to try.
Kel extracted the coordinates from the message, which seemed to lead into the complete middle of nowhere. That was a little suspicious at first, but he couldn't blame the sender for hiding in the emptiness of space when the Covenant was out to kill him. He took the drive with the message and the coordinates with him as he left the facility, and made the long walk back to his Phantom.
The sun had risen again by the time he made it back, he hadn't even had the chance to sleep. He was too focused on the new situation, on the Prophets' betrayal. Now every other Sangheili was like him, either on the run or hiding from the Covenant. At least now he had something in common with them.
He climbed back into the Phantom and he felt a little disappointment when he saw his bed missing, he had forgotten that he'd thrown it out when he was cleaning the ship. He didn't care though, he didn't need to be comfortable to sleep. He didn't even bother taking off his armour, he just laid down and went to sleep.
When he did sleep, he experienced the same dream he'd had before entering Era's facility in the mountain, but this time he understood it more. He was with a group of Sangheili, ones who had been wronged by the Covenant, perhaps even including the one who had sent him the message.
They all stood on the surface of the Assembly as they celebrated their victory, their victory against the Covenant. They had done exactly what the message had said, they had shown the Covenant why they should never have betrayed them. The shipyards in the sky released hundreds of ships as they all stared up and watched, their force was unstoppable. With the fleet they had assembled of both Covenant and Forerunner ships, they would never be wronged again.
"You have done well, Kel 'Dauram," the smooth voice from the message said. It came from a slim Sangheili clad in black armour, the helmet covering his face was highly detailed and ceremonial. Kel didn't recognise anything about him other than his voice.
"Thank you, Supreme Commander," Kel said without any idea of what he was actually talking about. He shook hands with the other Sangheili, and they turned back to the sky.
The fleet above them disappeared as they entered slipspace, they went off to fight in some war that Kel didn't know anything about. Maybe they had continued the fight against the humans, or perhaps they had even somehow made peace. The thought that maybe the Prophets had lied to them about their faith hit Kel hard. Maybe there was no reason to fight against humanity, they had only been doing so because the Prophets claimed it was the will of the Gods.
But the Prophets could no longer control them. They had no power over the Sangheili anymore. Kel couldn't tell what was real anymore, he didn't know what was true and what wasn't. The only thing he knew the Prophets weren't lying about was that the Forerunners were Gods. They had to be because they spoke to him, they gave him these visions he experienced. That was the only explanation for the things he was seeing. And even though they spoke to him in that way, he didn't know their will, or their true intentions, like the Prophets claimed to.
The Forerunners had some kind of plan for Kel 'Dauram that they wouldn't reveal to him. All he knew was that his future was in the Assembly, and that he needed to join with the Sangheili once more, to assist them in their war against the Covenant. Maybe the next step in their plan for him would be revealed when he got there.
Kel looked back down from the sky, and all the Sangheili around him were gone. The sun had suddenly set in the short time it took him to move his head, and the landscape around him seemed to be ravaged. The grass was burned, the trees were rotting and falling apart. The Forerunner buildings in the distance were crumbling. Kel didn't know what had changed, all he did was look in the sky and look back down.
When Kel turned around, he saw Kars 'Chelamee behind him. The wound in the General's neck was still there, and it still bled, but he stood there and stared at Kel as if he was alive. Beside the General was Oran 'Vettrumee, his armour broken and battered from when Kel had beaten him to death. Letho 'Hiramee was there too, and so were all of the other Minors that Kel had killed in that human base.
All of them looked dead, but they stood tall and moved toward Kel. He felt a wave of fear wash over him as the dead Sangheili approached. When Kars reached out and took Kel's shoulders, he could do nothing. No matter how much he tried to move, he simply wouldn't budge. Kars's jaws hung limp as he spoke, and he stared furiously into Kel's eyes.
"The Gods have no plan for you," Kars spoke, getting uncomfortably close to Kel.
The other Sangheili began to grab onto Kel, they felt like they were trying to rip him apart. Kel tried so hard to beat them away, and to run before they could catch up to him, but no part of his body budged.
"You are delusional," Kars spoke again. "There is no future for Kel 'Dauram."
Kel awoke breathing heavily, and covered in sweat. His entire body ached after the feeling of being ripped apart, and with the uncomfortable position he had slept in. It hurt to even get to his feet and stretch. When he left the Phantom and looked at the sky he saw that barely any time had passed, which wasn't surprising.
Maybe the Gods didn't have a plan for him, but he didn't care. Even if the Forerunners weren't watching over him, the Assembly still gave him the purpose that he had sought for in the decades he spent alone. It didn't matter if those he killed forgave him, what happened in the past couldn't be changed. But Kel could change himself, and he already had.
He spent no more time worrying, and he went back to work as soon as he could. He would follow the broadcast, and he would use it to help him reach the Assembly. No matter what anyone told him, he was going to build his own future.
