The Major
Streets of New Mombasa
Eight Hours After Rupture
They didn't see any sign of the Engineer or its Brutes after that, though the Major was sure they had gotten onto the Covenant's radar after their encounter at the fire station. Over the next half hour, two dropships circled over the streets dangerously close to their position, he and Seela forced to duck into the buildings until they passed by. It could have been just standard patrols making the rounds, but if his training with ONI had told him anything, it was to assume the enemy was always searching for you.
"There is another patrol to our north," Seela informed him, the Elite pausing to check her communicator. "They're not moving."
"Good," he said. The road they were on took them east anyway. "Anyone out there talking about us?" he asked, the two crossing to the next block.
"One of them reported Heretics had attacked their Wraith, but I haven't picked up a reply," she answered, her mandibles flexing as she sighed. "It seems they have thrown me in with your lot, Imp."
"What do you mean?" he asked, sweeping his weapon across the street.
"They said they were attacked by Heretics, plural. As if I am less of a follower of the Great Journey than they are."
"But they're right," he said. "Your kind are out of the Covenant, the Prophets pretty much said so themselves, and they're your leaders."
"Were," she corrected. "I follow my own path now, I have no leader but myself. Does fighting for my life, betrayed by my fellow followers, make me a Heretic?" She hastened her steps so they were slightly closer together. "Why does a conniving San'Shyumm get to decide who is a part of the Great Journey, when all he does is hasten the demise of others who were once loyal?"
"Don't know," he said, thinking if he didn't give her much of a response, she'd turn her words into thoughts and shut up for a minute. That was not to be, the Elite directing her questions at him.
"What do Imps revere?" she asked. "I know humans have their false Gods, do you follow in their stead?"
"No," he replied, stepping around a derelict car, Seela simply tall enough to step over it.
"Is there an Imp God?"
"Why do you call me that?" he asked, continuing when Seela just blinked down at him. "With you it's always Imp this and Imp that."
"You call my kind Elites, yes? How is that different?"
She had him there, the pair moving in silence for a while through the endless streets. Eventually the road sloped towards higher ground, the Major trying once again to see if the altitude would help his radio establish a link with one of his team. He didn't expect much, but it was worth a shot.
Seela watched him strangely, her purple eyes reflecting the fiery sky as she watched him recite his team's nicknames. "You are trying to raise your Imp kin, yes?" she asked. "Anything?"
He shook his head. "Thank the Gods," she said. "I thought I was going to have to deal with more than one of you."
"That's my team you're talking about," he grumbled. "good people, loyal, but I wouldn't expect a turncoat to know anything about that."
"I was once commander of a squad," she answered. "So I would know."
"Yeah? They switch sides too?" He peered up at her in mild interest.
"I dismissed them not long before you and I met," she said. "And nobody here has switched sides, Imp. I go my own way, now. That is not the same."
"If you say so. Damnit, can't even connect with a satellite…"
"When did you say your team entered the city, after the rupture, yes?" He nodded. "Your team has probably fallen, I would have heard activity on the BattleNet if it were otherwise. We may both be leaders, but at least I spared my squad from dying alone out here."
Her comment stung. He should have planned more, should have expected Covenant anti-air to be ready for another drop after the first wave earlier in the day, and his team had paid a heavy price for his blunder.
As much as he wanted to hit her back, his tongue failed to find the right words, and if he gave her a reaction, she would know she'd hit a nerve. He kept his peace, wiping his visor clear as he continued on, the walls of the city blocks towering above the street like the walls of a deep canyon.
"Lead on, Major," Seela said, loping along behind him.
-xXx-
The storm merged with the fires pluming from the city in a way that came off as unsettling, the clouds backlit by the licking flames as though the very horizon was aflame. The silence that hung over New Mombasa made it difficult to realise there was a battle going on in high orbit, the Major having caught glimpses of the Prophet's fleet before they'd made the drop. The whole planet was in danger, yet the city seemed to stand still, the ruinous landscape oddly tranquil when there weren't Phantoms flying overhead. As they rounded another junction on their kiosk-planned route, he heard his alien companion growl, but unlike the previous times, she hadn't made that noise with her mouth.
"Was that your stomach?" he asked, pausing to look back at her.
"I have not eaten since we made landfall," Seela explained, putting a hand to her belly, seemingly embarrassed by this development.
"Always wondered what split-lips eat," he said.
"Nutrient bars, condensed supplementary paste, meat slabs if we are lucky. Unless you want to raid a Covenant barracks, I suggest you find me some food."
"Little peckish myself. Can you eat human food?"
"We shall see."
He clicked his tongue in thought, scanning his surroundings for a moment before motioning for her to follow. Power was still flowing through the city in places, maybe they could plunder a kitchen or someone's fridge for snacks. A restaurant seemed an obvious choice, but he didn't feel like whipping up a meal in a warzone.
He could see an apartment complex in the distance, towering a few storeys higher than the carpet of buildings, there had to be something edible in there. Seela followed him towards the building, and a few minutes later, they stood in front of the security gate that ringed the main entrance, a small lawn filled with a few bromeliads adding a nice splash of colour to the sterile area.
The main gate arched over a section of the fence, and the Major gave it a push, finding that there was some sort of electronic lock keeping it from budging.
"What's the delay?" Seela asked impatiently, waiting on the sidewalk with her carbine raised.
"Locked tight, looks like this is where you come in."
He gestured at the gate, Seela brushing him aside as she raised a fist and punched straight through the lock like she was some kind of martial artist smashing through a plank of wood. The gate clattered to the ground loudly, the Major wincing as the volume echoed through the empty street, following the Elite through the fence.
There was a glass door serving as the main entrance, and to one side of it was a porch extending out of the drab-coloured wall, protected by another fence. Each floor was a carbon copy, balconies extending out of the building all the way to the top. It seemed more intact than most of the city, that was a good sign.
The main entrance was also locked, Seela making the frame look tiny as she stood in front of it and gave it an experimental push. She used a hoof-shaped foot to kick the door down, the Elite practically having to crouch as she made her way inside, the Major following her into the lobby.
Doors marked with numbers led off into different directions from the front desk, the Major picking one at random, holding up a hand when Seela came over with her fist raised. "No need," he said. "it's open, see?"
He pushed the wooden door open with a glove, Seela having to turn sideways so she could squeeze her hips inside. She grumbled about the lack of space, but she kept her complaints under her breath, the two looking out into another hall lined with six or so doors, the far end opening up into a living area, the apartment lit by a few still-working lightbulbs.
"Okay," he said. "You search the rooms on the left, I'll take the right. Look for plastic wrappings and packets, preferably unopened. If it's brightly coloured and has words on it, it's probably edible."
"Fine," Seela replied, ducking through one doorway while the Major took another, the two glad to be out of each other's hair for a few moments. His first room was the master bedroom, so he didn't waste much time in it, the second room bringing him into an office. He rummaged through the drawers, pushing aside paperweights and staplers, only finding a scrunched-up bag of candy next to a stack of books on the desk. He snatched that up.
The next room was the main lounging area, a giant flatscreen propped up on the back wall, leather armrests filling up most of the space. He didn't hold much hope for this one, until he noticed one of the armchairs had a built-in refrigerator unit on one side. He popped it open and found a few cans of soda, plus a little canteen which reeked of whiskey when he gave it a sniff. He didn't want to get intoxicated on the job, he needed all his faculties, so he left that behind, gathering up the soft drinks and proceeding.
That was all of his rooms, the Major emerging into the living space at the far end of the apartment. On one side was the kitchen, and on the other was a table that could seat a small family. The wall leading to the balcony was mostly glass, but the curtains should conceal them from any wandering Covenant.
He searched the kitchen, finding a few bags of potato chips, a tin of biscuits, a trail mix bag and some ice cream in the freezer unit. A nice haul, if a little on the unhealthy side. He listened to Seela rummage through her own rooms for a few minutes, the alien appearing round the corner soon after, a bundle of random items in her arms.
"This was all I could find," she said, depositing her find on the countertop. He quirked a brow at her haul – a few pieces of fruit, a houseplant, and a collection of random household items.
"Better than nothing," he said, grabbing an orange off the counter before it rolled away. He slid it along with his own findings across the counter, appraising their food with a satisfied nod.
"This should be enough for now," he said, pulling a nearby stool closer, its legs sliding loudly against the tiles. Seela didn't bother with a seat, crossing her legs as she sat on the cold floor on the other side of the counter, her immense height putting her at close to eye level with him.
Plucking her helmet off with a hand, she set it down with a thud, the Major getting a clean look at her exposed head for the first time. It was smooth and somewhat flat, tapering into a winding neck, her blue skin completely smooth save for a small number of scutes trailing down the back of her neck. Her hide reminded him of stretched leather, not a crinkle on her from what he could tell.
She turned her purple eyes to their haul. He had seen other Elites without their helmets before, dead ones of course, but something about her was different - she wasn't as… bestial as her male counterparts. Whereas her brothers would have exaggerated proportions and huge mandibles that twitched like the fangs of a spider, Seela's bone structure was more tapered, her dainty features complemented by her flush skin. She could almost pass off as being acceptable to the eye, for an alien.
He smirked behind his visor as she picked something up from the pile, lifting it to her mouth, the four mandibles serving as her mouth flexing open. The Major noted the inside of each mandible was layered with spiky teeth, the sight making him grimace. Maybe acceptable was too polite.
"Uh, Seela?" he asked. She paused mid-motion, her eyes turning to him in an unspoken question. "You know that's… toothpaste, right?"
"Yes," she said, obviously lying, but squeezing the tube anyway as if to spite him, her gums smacking noisily as the paste splashed against her mouth. "Mm, interesting flavour."
"Toothpaste isn't food," he sighed.
"You said if it had writing on it, it was edible!"
"I… just eat this," he said, tossing her the bag of trail mix, a part of him wanting to see it smack right off her sloped head. She snatched it out of the air, the plastic crinkling as she appraised its contents with a frown, narrowing her eyes at him after a moment.
"This is your find," she said, gesturing at him with the bag.
"So? Trade you for the orange."
"Trade?" she asked, following his pointed finger towards the fruit pile. A strange expression passed over her features as she paused for the next few moments, the alien soon nodding her head. "Fine, that is acceptable."
She rolled the orange towards him, the Major stopping it before it fell, peeling at the skin with a finger as he watched her dip a hand into the trail mix. He suspected her way of eating would be entirely different, given her strange mouth structure, but she proved him wrong, her mandibles serving as extendible teeth that pulled the various nuts into her throat, the alien making a face as she swallowed a portion of it. "Salty," she said. "but I like a brackish aftertaste."
"They say you are what you eat," the Major chuckled, but the jab was lost on her, Seela cupping another handful of the mix and chewing contentedly for a while.
"What are you doing?" she asked after a bit of silence. He had found a kitchen knife in one of the drawers and was slicing the orange into pieces, digging the point into each slice.
"Don't like the seeds," he said, tossing one such seed away and moving on to the next. "Anyway, looks like you can eat human food, huh? And pretty well, too."
"It would seem so." She was wolfing the packet down, putting any thoughts of savouring aside. Weighing a couple hundred pounds, she must prefer the high protein count. "What is that one there?" she asked, pointing at the bag of chips.
"Pure calories," he answered. That got her attention, Seela hovering a large hand over her pile of fruit as she contemplated what to trade.
"Just take it," he said, tossing the packet at her. She caught it, her fingers so large they engulfed the bag, Seela flashing him a quizzical glance.
"You do not wish to eat?" she asked.
"I've always liked sweet over savoury, I'll live."
"But you are so small, surely one fruit cannot suffice you?"
He shrugged, silently going back to his orange cutting. "One would think you were trying to poison me," she noted. "for all I know, this could be a bag of chemicals that would kill me as soon as I opened it."
"Believe me, if I wanted to kill you, I'd do it with a gun, or one of these," he said, waving the knife back and forth.
"Yes, I do recall you trying once before," she chuckled. It was a halting, gruff noise, more a series of huffs than a laugh. "I would also grant you a similar death, Imp, for all you've done you deserve no less."
"Gee, thanks a lot."
"Do not misunderstand, a quick end is a powerful show of honour, as there is no prolonged suffering for either party. I am but returning the compliment."
He tilted his head at her, and she chuckled again, his reaction amusing her.
"Indeed," she replied, tearing open the chips, holding one up to her snout before taking an experimental bite. "Despite being my enemy – these things are stale – you have not made an attempt to betray me, which is more than can be said for my former Covenant brethren, and that deserves praise."
"Does it? Even the fact I'd shoot you on sight if we hadn't ended up stranded together by circumstance?"
"Especially, that fact," she replied. "I felt somewhat in danger when you came at me with that knife a while ago, I can only imagine facing you down on equal footing would be an exhilarating experience. You are fearless if nothing else."
It seemed her whole outlook revolved around combat and glory, no wonder she had been so against the idea of concealment.
He noticed she was almost done with the bag of chips, sliding another of his finds over to her side. "Let's see if you have a sweet tooth," he said, the Elite examining the bag of opened candy. "Even though sweet is the last word I'd use to describe you."
She pinched one of the little rocks of hardened sugar between her nails, beginning to nibble at its surface with her mandibles. As soon as she bit into it, she spat it back out, the candy falling to the floor with a loud tap. "Argh, disgusting! Humans eat that drivel?"
He chuckled, and after a bit more knife work, his orange was ready to eat. He set the knife aside, lifting his hands to his helmet. The slightly grainy view of his HUD gently petered out as he lifted it away, and before the neck of the helmet filled his vision, he could have sworn Seela's mandibles were flexing in what might be shock.
Seela
Streets of New Mombasa
Eight Hours After Rupture
"Argh, disgusting!" she said, trying to lick her mandibles clean of the overwhelming taste, but that just made it worse as the sensation glued to her tongue. "Humans eat that drivel?"
He laughed at her plight, Seela pushing away the candy as he called it, putting a hand on her stomach once the sugary taste subsided. It was liberating to have a meal in her after so long running on an empty stomach, and she couldn't help but direct her appreciation towards the Imp. He had found more food than she did, but had elected to share rather than keep it all for himself. Giving meals away, let alone trading them, was unheard of in the Covenant, and once again she found herself conflicted that this creature had shown her more charity than all her Covenant brothers combined.
He was still a Heretic, of course, and an annoying little thing, his earlier accusation still fresh on her mind, but his resentment towards her seemed to be born from her Covenant background, not because she was female, as she had expected it to be, which was a nice change of pace from her prejudiced kinsman.
She was brought out of her thoughts by a clicking noise, and she looked up, seeing that the Imp was fiddling with his helmet, apparently done with his strange fruit de-seeding. His hands gripped the sides of his visor, Seela splaying her mandibles wide in surprise. He wasn't going to take it off, was he?
The meal had put her in an acceptable mood, but not that acceptable, and she'd rather keep the food on the inside than out. Yet a kind of perverted intrigue washed over her, what kind of grotesque, abomination would look back at her if he was doing what she thought he was doing? Nobody in Regret's fleet knew what Demons and Imps looked like beneath their intimidating armour, and she wasn't sure she wanted to be the first.
A wave of shock eclipsed her features as his helmet gently lifted away, a rush of surprise soon following. She had only felt this kind of astonishment once before, back when she had been offered the position of Minor in Regret's frontline ranks, a lifetime ago.
His face was covered in pinkish skin, topped with fuzzy, brown hair that was cut short, a pair of equally brown eyes with white sclera peering back at her. A small button nose sloped out of the centre of its face, and below that, a pair of lips sat above a small jaw covered in ungroomed stubble.
The Imp was… Human. She hadn't known what to expect, chitinous plates like a Yanme'e, perhaps, mixed with something much more alien and hellish. Instead he looked, well, like a Human.
She watched with wide eyes as he set his helmet down next to hers, the starkly different headgears seeming to stare at one another, just as their users were at that moment.
His smooth skin was covered in a few faded scars, Seela unable to tell how old or new they were, the one sweeping over one of his eyes drawing her attention, had some beast mauled him? She finally tore her eyes from his flat face when he moved his arm, a piece of the orange 'orange' in his hand. He took a tentative bite of the fruit, Seela noticing his teeth were small and dull.
"You… You are Human?" she asked, struggling to find her voice through the soup of confusion that was her thoughts. "How?"
He took another bite, still staring at her, raising one of his hairy eyebrows at her. He seemed just as confused as she was by the question. "What do you mean, 'how'?"
"This is… how can you…" She hated how confused her tone sounded, taking a moment to collect herself. "You are an Imp, yes? You wear their armour, you fall from the sky like they do, you fight like one."
He chewed in silence on his fruit, his jaw not powerful enough to consume the whole piece in one go. "Explain yourself," she snapped. "what trickery is this?"
"The hell's gotten into you?" he replied, Seela thinking the same thing. "I was born here on Earth, that's about as Human as you get."
"Born?" She balked at that. Imps were created, not born, at least that's what she'd thought until now. Was this why he had been confused when she called him an Imp?
While she battled with this new revelation, the Imp, no the Human, removed one of his gloves, seeing the juices from the fruit were making a mess. His hand was likewise smooth and covered in pink skin, each of his five digits tipped with blunt nails, not claws as she had expected Imps to wield.
"I thought you were a…" Seela trailed off, narrowing her eyes at his face again, as though she was trying to will him into turning into the monstrosity he should be.
"Am I that ugly?" he chuckled, leaning back when Seela craned her neck towards him. His flippancy was a complete contrast to her amazement at this development, and it agitated her.
"Why did you not tell me you were Human?" she said, leaning back and resting her arms on the counter.
"Isn't it obvious?" he replied, and it was true. Same height, same build, all the differences were in his combat prowess. How could she and by extension, the Covenant, be so easily tricked? "Did you actually think I was a devil or something under all this gear?"
"Yes!" she said. "Imps put up more of a fight than Human warriors, you couldn't possibly be one of them, you had to be a different species, summoned or created by your false Gods, perhaps."
"I'll take that as a compliment," he said, chewing on another slice of orange. "Anyway, you thirsty?" he asked, switching topics. "Found some soft drinks, but I'm guessing you prefer clean old water."
She was still reeling from this new development, but her eagerness to sate her thirst eventually overpowered her hesitance. In fact, knowing he was Human put her a little more at ease. He didn't have claws or fangs, he wasn't some abomination with burning eyes, he was mortal, like her or anyone else. His features sort of reminded her of a Jiralhanae, minus the fangs and snout, and smell most of all. It was hard to taste his scent under all his armour, but that was a good thing, she'd had enough alien stench to last her a lifetime.
Despite her discouragement from the candy, she tried his cans of liquid anyway just to see what they were like. The soda was like drinking down thick syrup, Seela unable to swallow a single gulp. He fetched her a glass of water from one of the taps, which was still working despite the carrier taking a chunk out of the city, and her stomach grumbled its approval as she quenched her thirst.
The Major offered her the last of his findings, warning her that it was also a sugary substance. To her it looked like small balls of frozen, white water, but pink in colour, and he used a spoon to scoop little chunks off so they could fit in his tiny mouth.
"You Im… Humans certainly like your sugars," Seela noted, and it felt strange to refer to him as Human, like a part of her still wasn't convinced of his species. "but I will try some."
The spoons were too small for her to use properly, so she just scooped the substance straight out of the tub with her hand. It felt like solidified cream, and her mandibles had difficulty gripping the wet substance, but it left a very fruity taste on her tongue and was more edible than the drink or candy had been. Apparently ice cream was made purely for the pleasure of consuming, not at all like the military rations she was accustomed to.
"You said you were born here," Seela said, breaking the lingering silence between them as they ate. "Did you live in one of these buildings?"
"Nah, I meant here as in, this planet," he replied, his spoon clinking against the bottom of his bowl. "Can't imagine living in this soup of a city."
"It is very condensed," she agreed. "I couldn't begin to guess how many of your kin lived here before… we arrived."
"One-twenty million, give or take," he answered, Seela's eyes widening as she recalled Human numerics. "I don't know how they did it, but the whole city got evac'd a few hours after your fleet moved into high orbit, saved a lot of people."
"Some, not all," she corrected. "We crossed many Humans on our patrol routes, and some of them were… non-combatants."
"Yeah?" he said. She knew he wanted to ask her to elaborate, but didn't, perhaps assuming she did what anyone in the Covenant did when they found a Human.
"On my last patrol, we engaged a mix of warriors and non-combatants. This was when the carrier was still above the city," she added, pushing the tub of ice cream aside, as the memory had ruined her appetite. "I only found out a few minutes later the warriors were covering the retreat of a few civilians, one of which I believe was a female, as she was carrying an infant. She put herself between me and the child, as any mother would when an alien aims its carbine at you."
Her eyes met his brown ones. "You jested before that I always thought the Covenant was in the wrong. I do not regret my service to the cause, but in that moment, when I saw that child, it was a very… stark reminder that our journey across the stars is not so glorious as I had once believed."
"So that's it?" he asked. "Almost shooting a kid was what gave you a wakeup call?"
"Yes!" she growled, sounding very angry, but not at the Major. "Ever since my first deployment, I've known war is not at all like the Prophets would have us believe, yet it took me almost shooting an infant, to open my eyes, to see that our purpose has been corrupted. It's despicable," she sulked. "that moment shall hang over my head until the day I die."
"… What happened to the kid?" the Major asked.
"I do not know. My squad was tasked with eliminating all Humans, but we only managed to catch two of them. I never saw the mother or child after. Maybe it was all in vain, and they ran into more Covenant after we gave up."
"It's not impossible that they were exfilled," the Major noted, Seela looking up at him. "This was before the carrier jumped, right? The Corps had plenty of squads in the city before the rupture, those civvies were probably running to one of the evac points the Marines set up."
"You're trying to cheer me up," Seela muttered, shaking her head. "Save your breath, for every Human squad there were two Covenant ones, the odds were against them. If I had only done more to assure their escape…"
"Even if they didn't make it," the Major continued. "You can stop it from happening again. Tell me what the Covenant is doing here, what they're after, their plans. That kind of intel could save hundreds of lives."
"What would I know?" she replied, shrugging her armoured shoulders. She suspected he was manipulating her guilt to pry for information. She should lie, and pray that she had learned from her limited interactions with the Zealot. "I couldn't even be trusted enough to lead a fellow kinsman. They only saw me as a potential mate, not an equal," she spat, digging her claws into the face of the counter, leaving scratch marks on the granite. "No, the price of my redemption shall cost much more than a simple exchange of information, one I will be glad to pay."
"For what it's worth," he began. "you did something no Elite has ever done before, it was very… noble. 'Course, you could just be making this all up," he added with a shrug. "but I don't see why you'd be lying now of all times."
She felt a little better at his choice of words. Noble. The Zealot had seen her failure to kill as Heresy, but this Human acknowledged her actions as worthy, the right decision. Perhaps Heretics weren't so corrupt as she'd thought.
"Thank you," she said, feeling slightly better, despite telling the Human to save his breath a moment ago.
"Yeah… no problem," the Major answered, Seela smirking at his body language. He appeared out of his element, uncertain, like he wasn't used to giving or receiving praise. "You cleaned that tub out pretty quick," he noted, pointing at the empty tub.
"It is… an acceptable flavour. Is there no more?" she asked, her mood drooping when he shook his head.
"Fresh out. About time we got moving anyway, the mission won't wait."
-xXx-
She still kept a wary distance behind the Major as they walked through the city, but not so much as she had before, their conversation over their meal and his revealing to be a Human putting some of her reservations aside.
The only halts in their journey were to give those imposing blockades time to open, and to find more of the kiosk devices for the Major to plot their way forward, the Human apparently relying on memory when it came to following their route, mumbling the words left and right in specific sequences.
She kept alert for any sign of the Covenant, but splitting her attention between listening in on the BattleNet and scoping down the streets was hard enough without the endless rain dripping onto her face and soaking her mandibles. What she wouldn't give for one of those enclosed helmets the Rangers sported right about now.
"Can you not simply download a copy of that map?" Seela asked after they stopped at yet another kiosk. Her bodysuit was soaking, the material rubbing her hide raw thanks to all this walking and waiting.
"Do you see a port on this thing?" he replied as he tapped at the screen. "Usually I'd let Holiday do all the tech work. Unless you happen to see her, this is what we've got to work with."
"At least write the directions down," she mumbled. "I do not like staying out in the open for so long."
"Because of the rain?"
"Because Kig-Yar snipers could make quick work of us… And that, too," she added, her demeanour flipping as he called her out.
"Not a fan?" he asked, turning his visor up at her once they got moving again. "Gets your hair wet, does it?" he joked.
"If you have not noticed, I do not have an enclosed helmet or mouth like you do, Human. I feel like I've drunk a barrel's worth of water ever since leaving that apartment."
"The one con of being a split-lip," he chuckled. He said the word like it was a slur, and she took offence, despite not being wholly aware of what it meant. "Doesn't it rain on Sangheilios?" he asked, pausing to vault over a car.
"Yes, but never for nearly as long as this storm has," she answered, following after him. "On my homeworld rain comes in short, violent bursts, but our dwellings are built in the shelter of the canyons, which keep us safe from the more harrowing storms. The longest storm I've ever seen lasted maybe twenty of your minutes, and that is on the lengthy side for my people."
"Must be jarring," he said. "Here on Earth it rains pretty much all the time, sometimes for whole days depending on what season it is. Damn."
"What?" she asked, her grip on her carbine tightening.
"Nothing, just… realised we're literally talking about the weather, of all things," he chuckled.
"Not exactly a topic I ever thought I would discuss with an Imp," she admitted. "What of your home?" she added after they turned down the next intersection. "You said you weren't born in this city."
He glanced up at her silently, perhaps contemplating whether he should answer her question or not. "Yeah, born on one of the other continents. It's a little bit like your planet, mostly canyons and dry as hell, sometimes it goes for months without raining there, then other times it storms for two or three days in a row. Fucky weather, but its got its charm. Been deployed on the front for so long I almost forgot what this planet looked like.
"And you left to join your military, why exactly?"
"I didn't, I was conscripted," he answered, both his answers confusing her. "Means I was forced to join the Corps. We lost so many worlds to the Covenant that we started to have more guns than troops, and each town and city had to provide a certain quota of men and women for the war effort. Earth hadn't needed to conscript in over five hundred years, but we had no choice, you aliens were right on our doorstep."
"And what is the process of becoming an Imp?" she asked.
"You do well during basic training, have a knack for subtlety, someone's bound to notice," he said. "What about you?" he asked, turning the topic back on her before she could pry further.
"Me?"
"Why'd you join up with the Covenant? Surely there's other ways of earning glory besides genocide."
"The homeworld had nothing to offer me," she said, ignoring his comment. "In my youth, my eldest brother would often come home and tell us stories of the glories of war, and I was enraptured by his tales of the strange, colourful worlds he spoke of. Exploring and fighting went hand in hand with the Covenant, even though many sought to discourage me from joining, not just because I was female, although that was the most common argument I heard, even to this day it is a point of ridicule."
"It bothered your kind that much?" he asked. "We Humans have women in the army. Have to, considering millions of us have been wiped out in this war."
"Even on the front lines?"
"Yeah, not as many as there are men, but they're there. My squadmate Holiday, she's a woman. Half of her is machine, but still."
"In the Covenant, it is the collective opinion of all that the war is no place for females," she explained. "Sometimes, it was harder for me to decide who thought of me as the enemy, the Heretics, or the other warriors."
"Sounds rough. Why'd you stick around?" he asked.
"To prove that even the daughter of Rekan'Kahralum can carry the family name just as well as his sons could. The alternative was to be married off to raise young, but that would mean abandoning my family honorific, and that does not interest me."
"You deploy with your brothers? Speak with them a lot?"
"No, they are all dead."
"Oh."
He didn't add anything, and she respected that. Too many family friends had tried to console her, but their constant apologies had been tiring.
"Death is the penultimate display of one's deeds," she continued. "One can slay a hundred worthy foes and earn herself much renown, but if she were to be killed by one hundred foes, that shows she has earned a rightful legacy as a great warrior that required great effort to bring down."
"That what you were doing back in Kikowani? Where I met you?"
"In a manner of speaking," she admitted, not wishing to tell him much more than she already had.
"Don't go dying on a hill just yet, Seela," he said, his armour shining as he passed underneath the glow of an advertisement board.
"Taking an interest in my safety, are you?" she smirked. "I thought I was a Covvie?"
"Yeah, but you're my in to the BattleNet, won't get far if I run into a patrol without my eight-foot rat, will I?"
"That's appropriate coming from you, a Major who scurries in the shadows," she shot back. She took his silence as a small victory, but her smirk was short-lived as she glanced up at the cloudy sky, her eyes narrowing as something caught her attention.
"Do you hear that?" she asked, angling her head back the way they'd come. "Phantom."
"Get inside," he insisted, Seela ducking after him as he dashed into the closest building. Just as they had in the commercial district, they waited in the cover of darkness, guns aimed out of the doorway as a Covenant dropship banked over the buildings, gently coming to a stop in full view, its searchlights painting the buildings in white dots of light.
"They search for us again," Seela muttered, the Major leaning out to get a better view. She shot out her hand and pushed him back, taking cover herself as a circle of light splashed against their hiding place. "Do not peak, fool! They know we are in the area."
"They're probably just looking for survivors," he said.
"No, this is the same dropship as the one before. There are markings just above the nose of the ship."
When she saw the aura of the light displace, she allowed him to look. There was a marking painted in blue colouring just above the pilot's canopy, to the Human it would have looked much like the letter V, with dots surrounding the point. The symbol would have meant nothing to him, but Seela knew the rune belonged to the Jiralhanae alphabet.
"It's like a decal," the Major said after examining the rune. "Our pilots do that too, they personalise their birds with pictures of animals or sayings, but usually its skimpy ladies."
"Skimpy ladies?" Seela asked, bewildered. "Why would you have that on an aircraft?"
"What, Elites don't have vinyl alien girls on their wings?"
"A-Absolutely not!" she said. "That is hardly appropriate to put on a machine of war."
"Don't be so prude," he said.
Before she could reply, the Phantom searchlights illuminated their street again, the proximity of the light making them go silent with tension. They waited for the ship to move on, but after five minutes, all it did was bank over to the next street, it was lingering.
"I don't like this," the Major mumbled. "He's not moving off."
"Perhaps we should destroy it," she suggested. "That way, it cannot pursue us."
"Oh yeah?" he asked, Seela knowing he was scowling at her behind his visor. "Go do that then. You want to lead, or should I?"
"What is your idea then? Let me guess… slip past?"
"We can't stay here," he said, checking his long weapon to make sure it was primed.
"Splendid observation, Major," Seela said, rolling her eyes.
"Just shut it and follow me, try and keep your lanky ass down."
"What did you call me?" she hissed, but the Major was already moving, running in a crouch as he followed the sidewalk towards the right, putting a building between him and the Phantom.
Seela weaved between the vehicles at his flank, her excitement growing each time their sightline with the Phantom was unobstructed. For countless times she had aerial support as backup, and to be on the receiving end of the attention of its guns would be an exhilarating experience, a new challenge for her to overcome.
After a few minutes creeping along, the Phantom descended to the street ahead of them, she and the Major taking cover behind a wall. The bay doors slid open to reveal the brightly lit interior, the space cramped with troops, Kig-Yar and Unggoy leaping from the ship and landing on the pavement with a series of thunks, Jiralhanae following up as the smaller species cleared the area. There were maybe twelve aliens in all, splitting up into groups of three and four as they fanned out in different directions.
As the Phantom doors began to recede, Seela noticed not all of its occupants had disembarked. The glint of golden armour caught her eye, a Jiralhanae clad in the colourful armour standing just outside the cockpit bay, a gauntleted hand clutching at the handholds on the ceiling. She flexed her mandibles in a suppressed snarl, it was him, the Captain Major!
"It's just Major," her companion whispered, and Seela blinked down at him, realising she'd said that thought out loud.
"No you fool," she whispered back. "You see the Brute in gold? He was the one who coordinated the betrayal from the ground! Now we must destroy the Phantom!"
"Here we go," the Major sighed. "Killing one golden asshole isn't going to bring your dead buddies back."
"No, but he must face justice for his actions."
"Alright, let me just call in heavy weapon support," the Major said, lifting his finger to the chin of his helmet. "Oh wait, I forgot, we're just two soldiers against a dozen, completely stranded behind enemy lines. Unless you got a fuel rod stashed away somewhere, we're not going up against air support."
She remembered when they had encountered the Wraith, how his initial caution had ultimately been the correct approach. She doubted she'd be even able to kill a single squad before that Phantom strafed them with plasma fire, and she wouldn't let that damnable Brute have the satisfaction of watching her die.
"Then lead on, Major," she said, waving an arm at him. "You are the sneaky one."
She followed him as he dashed from sidewalk to sidewalk – keeping the potholes in mind this time around of course – sticking to the shadows wherever they could as the Phantom rose above the city after depositing its troops, beginning a lazy circle over the area. Its bay doors were still open to allow the Unggoy-manned plasma turrets to add even more aerial cover, one on each side. Seela lived for combat, but she'd be a fool to let herself be killed so swiftly by four plasma cannons.
They cut through a building rather than cross the next street in the open, the space littered with overturned tables and chairs, the arrangement reminding her of the dining establishments on the homeworld, this place must play some similar role.
Halfway through, the Major held up a fist, the gesture obviously meaning stop, Seela pausing behind a chair obediently. He pointed a gloved hand to the way they were going, the outside road turning at a right angle, leading north and east. A Jiralhanae and two Unggoy were loitering around in the rain, their backs to Seela and the Major as they kept watch.
The Major opted to wait for them to move on, he and Seela taking up positions behind fallen tables, but after a few minutes, Seela tapped him on the shoulder. "They are watching the street, they will not move for some time. We must kill them."
"Could double back," he countered. "but… we need to go this way. Fine."
Seela almost thanked him by how much relief was coursing through her. Finally, she could take out her frustrations on a traitor. "No grenades," he quickly added. "I doubt you have a suppressor for that carbine, but suppose it's not the loudest gun out there."
He drew his pistol, the weapon barely bigger than her thumbs, but she knew not to underestimate the stopping power behind Human weapons. "The Jiralhanae will have shields," she said. "I can destroy them easily enough, you deal with the Unggoy. Grunts," she added when he made to ask her.
"How many shots does it take to collapse a shield?"
"Five."
"Too many," he said. He drew a Covenant plasma pistol from his belt, taking aim with both of his sidearms. "I'll take his shields, then you pop him in the head. Ready?"
"Always," she answered.
She scoped in on the traitorous Jiralhanae, watching from the corner of her eye as the Major overcharged the plasma pistol, the weapon wobbling in his hand. When it reached maximum charge, he sent it, taking aim with his Human pistol as the bolt sailed towards the group. There were two loud snaps as he downed the pair of Unggoy with precise headshots, the Jiralhanae yelping in alarm as his underlings slumped to the street.
The bolt slammed into his backside with all the force of a hammer, and he stumbled around, his eyes going wide as he looked down the barrel of Seela's carbine. She pulled the trigger, and the Jiralhanae joined his dead squad without another sound. The whole attack had lasted about five seconds, Seela and the Major turning their heads towards each other in the ensuing silence.
"Nice shot," he said. "Let's go, the other patrols might have heard something."
They walked out into the rain, the Major stepping over the felled Jiralhanae, Seela lingering as she overlooked the dead patrol. Killing from the shadows wasn't an unheard of strategy, Sangheili swordsman often used cloaking technology to close in on their targets, but she'd always preferred facing her foe down where they could see one another. Yet this precise, hasty attack was no less thrilling than open warfare. She wondered why that was…
She noticed the Major was putting some distance between them, and she hurried after, the sound of the Phantom's engines fading into the distance as they slipped deeper into the city. When she was confident they weren't being followed, she spoke up, her mandibles flexing in a grin.
"The Brutes are none the wiser," she said. "I have heard tales of Imps striking from the shadows, but to be participating with one, it's a novel experience."
"They'll find out their patrol's dead soon enough," the Major interjected. "They'll know someone's been in the area. We've just painted a bigger target on our backs."
"Then we shall face them down like the glorious thorns in the Covenant's side like we are."
The Major huffed, his first word trailing out from a laugh. "You're impossible, Seela."
"How do you mean?"
"I'm so used to working with patient people, soldiers who pick their fights, not hot heads like you."
"I don't know what a hot head is, but I'll take it as an insult, given how many slurs you like to send my way."
"Hot heads are-"
He stopped, whipping around, the sound of the Phantom's engines returning in force as the ship banked into view above the rooftops, one of its searchlights swiping over the street they were standing in. They threw themselves into the closest building, the entire face of the structure made of shattered glass, the two vaulting into the shadows to take cover.
The searchlight locked onto their hiding spot. The Major might have been able to go undetected, his black armour helping him blend into the darkness, but Seela's power armour held no such concealing properties, reflecting the searchlight like a beacon as the Phantom locked onto her.
"The shadows fail us," she muttered.
"You mean your white armour failed us!" the Major replied. "Get down!"
There were a pair of marble columns a little deeper into the building, and they ducked behind them as a barrage of plasma fire streamed down from above. They appeared to have entered another space filled with tables and other furniture, the plasma melting through the wood and plastic as the dropship's guns opened up.
She peeked round the column between the volleys of fire, seeing an Unggoy on the side of the dropship was rotating a cannon mounted on a flexible arm, the little creature barely tall enough to look down its sights.
That wasn't the only weapon the Phantom had. On the chin of the slowly lowering vessel, another, larger cannon rotated on a gimble, the barrel splitting into three long arms arranged in a triangular shape. She knew from experience that its gunner was the copilot, safely nestled out of sight in the cockpit.
It aimed its multitude of barrels at her position, Seela crouching behind the column as it sent a burst of plasma her way, the muzzles glowing pink with heat as it suppressed her position.
She could feel the heat on the column as it took the brunt of the attack, Seela noticing the Major's cover was faring no better. He was to the left of her, the pillar turning to liquid as the heat splashed against it in droves.
She leaned her carbine round the side of her cover, exposing as little of her body as she blind-fired at the dropship, knowing her weapon couldn't penetrate the ship's hull but wanting to retaliate all the same.
"We'll die if we don't move!" he yelled over the plasma fire, clutching his weapon in his hand but refraining from using his ammo.
"Open to ideas!" she shouted back, ducking away to reload.
"Wait, you hear that?"
She was about to ask what he was talking about, when she did. It was a distant ringing sound, coming from somewhere to their right. She looked that way, spotting a door at the far side of the room, the lightbulb above it flicking on suddenly, despite being off not a few moments ago.
"Cover me," the Major said. Without warning he dashed across the open, narrowly dodging a stream of plasma fire that almost cut him down. Now he was behind her column, Seela leaning away as he edged closer out of the line of fire. "I mean that literally," he added. "you have shields, I don't. On three."
He counted down, and they ran across to the door, dodging round tables and couches, the Phantom's guns tracking them in their mad dash. Her shields absorbed the fist-sized bolts, but they didn't last long against concentrated plasma from a cannon, and she let slip a pained moan as a grazing shot skimmed the back of her leg.
She ducked under the frame, the two finding themselves in a kitchen, the thick walls cutting off the Phantom's line of fire. Pots and plates were stacked high on cabinets that would be unreachable to a Human without assistance, one such stack falling to the ground with a clatter as the Phantom began to harry at the building with its vast firepower.
Her companion wasted no time, running for another door on the opposite wall, Seela glancing at the strange appliances lining the room's edges as she followed, the scent of cold food wafting into her nose. Her leg throbbed with pain every time she put weight on it, but she couldn't let the pain stop her, she had to keep moving.
The Major shoved the door open with his shoulder, the frame swinging open to reveal a dark alley lined with waste bins and discarded bags of rotting food, rain drenching everything in a shining layer of water. Seela had to crouch to squeeze herself through the frame, knocking aside the door which had swung back to hit her on the face.
She looked up, seeing the Phantom's bulbous shape framed against the dark clouds, the chin cannon adjusting its aim as the dropship drifted over their heads.
"This way!" the Major said, his boots splashing against the ground as he took off in a sprint down the alley. Seela ducked under an awning projecting out of one of the buildings, for once glad of the city's confusing design as the many protruding facades made it difficult for the Phantom to zero in on her.
"Do you even know where you are going?" she shouted, running as fast as her pained leg would allow, her paces so much longer than his that her speed mattered little as she caught up with him.
"Not yet!" he answered, Seela giving him a bewildered look as he navigated the alleys. She couldn't see the Phantom, but she could hear it, the aircraft's vector engines flaring and dampening as it circled the skies, seemingly sounding like it was all around them.
The ringing noise from before was getting closer with each second, that must be what the Major was running towards, and sure enough, they emerged from the alleys back into the open streets, and across the road were four stations lining the wall. They were strange, blocky devices with number pads on them, protected by glass domes where Humans would presumably stand in cover while they used them.
One of the devices was giving off that incessant ringing noise. "Phones," he explained. "they're like the communicator in your helmet."
"Don't tell me you're going to answer it?" she asked. "Who could be hailing us here?"
The phone stopped ringing, and a bright light drew her attention to the left. There was an archway sheltering some sort of underground entrance, the sign above the incline flashing on and off, the word unreadable to her.
"Caution!" a synthetic voice said from over by the phones. "Surface traffic is busier than usual, please consider using subway systems! Don't forget your ticket!"
"Thank fuck, come on!"
"Who was that?" Seela asked, but the Major didn't answer her, taking off in a sprint towards the flashing entrance, kicking up splashes of water with his boots. She took off after him, her hooves thundering across the street, glancing back over her shoulder to see the Phantom was pivoting on the spot, its rear engines pulsing. In a moment it would make a pass right over her position.
She threw herself into the awning, the spot of light from the Phantom's searchlight washing over the entrance not a second later, the ceiling casting harsh shadows on the surrounding concrete. Seela rolled down the first couple steps before finding her balance, aiming her carbine up at the sky, but the Phantom wasn't there. The ship was making another pass at the alleyways they'd come from, she had not been seen.
She jogged down the steps four at a time, seeing the Major had already reached the bottom. When she joined him, she planted her hands on her knees, depositing her carbine on the ground as she collected herself. She looked up the stairwell, watching the thunderous sky occasionally glow bright white as lightning streaked, her heart pounding against her chest. Was she… exhilarated, right now? How could fleeing from her enemy inspire such excitement in her heart? Perhaps it was just the lack of breath, she had never had to run so hard in a long time…
"That was too close," the Major muttered, the Human likewise panting for breath, one of his arms leaning against the chiselled stone wall.
"Too close?" she echoed. "We were literally fired upon. That's not close, that's compact."
He shrugged, or maybe that was just him fighting for air, she couldn't tell. Seela took a moment to examine their surroundings in the following silence. The place was large and mostly empty, save for a few strips of railway tracks that cut channels into the colourless floor, with a depth of maybe her hooves to her chest. They were underground, obviously, the ceiling a huge stretch of tiled brickwork, with slopes instead of harsh edges at the corners. How much weight from the surface was sitting atop this thick roof? Just the thought made her nervous.
There were small shelters and sitting booths flanking the channels, the rails appearing and disappearing from tunnel mouths on either side of the complex. It reminded her of the place she had made her stand, only much bigger and more open. Kikowani, had the Major called it?
"Should be able to throw off the Phantom now," the Major said, likewise giving the area a look over. "Plenty of other exits leading up to the surface, just have to pick one."
He began to walk off, and Seela's nostrils flared in agitation, stopping his trek as she reached over to clasp his helmet between her finger and thumbs, turning his head around to face her with all the effort of scruffing an unruly housepet.
"Who, was, that?!" she repeated, jabbing her free hand over her shoulder. "You said before we were stranded in this city, yet we were coerced into this hiding place by… by someone!"
"Stranded doesn't mean being alone," he replied, still being mysterious even with her giant hand engulfing his head. She wondered how much effort it would take to crush his puny helmet.
"If you do not answer me in the next five seconds, I'm leaving."
"Best ultimatum I've ever been offered."
"You need me, fool," she growled, leaning close to his face, knowing where his eyes were by memory despite only seeing her reflection in his opaque visor. "I am the only thing stopping you from walking into a wandering Brute patrol."
"I could take my chances," he replied. "You know how good I am at slipping past Covenant."
"Perhaps I should fire off a shot, then? Lure the Phantom and their forces to this place? I am not afraid to die, but you are, your mission is too important, you said so yourself."
"Fine…" the Major sighed, rolling his eyes judging by the way his helmet moved. "I have a contact in the city, alright? A… sleeper agent. It's like a spy," he added when Seela cocked her head in confusion. "There, can you put me down now?
She blinked when she noticed his feet had left the floor at some point, and she deposited him back on the ground a little harder than was appropriate, the Human stumbling as she released him.
"See? Not so hard to give me a straight answer, is it?" she chided. "Now we may proceed."
He grumbled something she didn't quite catch, taking the lead as they delved into the complex. The place was huge, with various branching hallways twisting out of sight along the wall to their left, no doubt leading to more, identical areas like this one.
"So," she began, lowering her carbine as she nudged her way through the loose rocks and discarded wrappings littering the floor. "can this sleeper agent contact you only through those 'phones'?"
"My helmet's communicator got trashed a while back, so yeah. Pretty one-way though."
"How did you know he would direct you to this place?" she asked, glancing down at him. "What if we had not been close enough to hear the phone ringing? What if there had been no power, how would you know to come in this direction?"
"I didn't," he replied, pushing his way between a waist-high gate that spanned the hallway. "Looks like being on home soil for once has its perks.
"You don't seem very bothered," she noted, stepping over the gate. "I was sure we would have to make a stand against the Phantom."
"We operatives have to always keep a cool head when we're backed into a corner," he said. "We've always got to have a backup plan, or be ready to make one up on the spot, cause we never know when the Covenant's gonna bring the hammer down on us. We've got to be ready to slip away at a moment's notice, cause help's not coming."
"What about your team?" she asked. "Do they not help you?"
"They do, but… when you're deployed behind enemy lines, there's gonna be casualties, and when you lose as many teams as I have, you learn to take care of yourself. Sometimes I'm almost glad to work solo, means I can only get myself killed if I make a mistake."
"That sounds very… lonely," she said, the two travelling up another staircase. "At least I was given ample time to mingle with my kinsman, arrogant and impertinent though they may be, forming connections with the precious few who saw me as a fellow warrior. Perhaps Humans deal with isolation differently than we do."
She got the feeling he wanted to add more in the following silence, the Human mulling over her words. She remembered the day she had heard news of her first brother's death, how she wept for his loss, tempering her mourning with the thought that he had died well. This Human must have gone through something similar, if he preferred to work alone than with a team.
"You get used to it," he eventually replied. "I've gone for weeks without so much as uttering a single word, not sure if that's a good or bad thing."
"Well then, at least I am here to help change that," she replied, smirking down at him. Seela only realised that they had shared a quiet chuckle after the fact. It seemed that nearly getting cut down by a Phantom gunner had done wonders for their animosity.