Buza

Buza 'Luhomai, third of his name, shifted slightly at the phantom's sudden jolt. His two stomachs dropped briefly at the sensation, but his blood began to sing in his veins. The shift could only mean one thing; The gravity lift that had clutched the phantom to it's carrier's bosom had been disengaged. They were making planetfall.

Around him, Buza's brothers in arms began to hoot and holler in anticipation. The hierarchs had declared this new race of beings' very existence to be an insult to the covenant, and a great obstacle to the great journey. Buza was not a sangheili of great faith, but there was much honour to be had serving the covenant in battle against this race of heathens on the planet below, especially in these early days of crusading when the strength of the enemy was not exhaustively known. It was fitting, Buza thought, that 'Harvest' was the name given to this world in the tongue of these creatures they had come to visit righteousness upon, and the great commanders had clearly agreed. Many lives would be harvested this day.

As the phantom hit the atmosphere, purple synthmetals briefly wobbling as a corona of burning air formed around the vessel, the grunts began to chitter in fear. A barked word from one of his comrades was enough to quiet them as Buza shook his head in disappointment at their display. The grunts had always been fragile of mind and quick to startle, and were easily driven to hysteria without the presence of the Sangheili or similar betters to sooth their wild nerves. Why the covenant continued to employ them on the field of battle, Buza 'Luhomai would never understand; He and his people were warriors, not shepherds, though he supposed that every creature deserved at least a chance to prove themselves in the theater of war.

The phantom's engines kicked in but a few short leagues from the planet's surface as the craft decelerated. Buza grinned; from where he stood he had line of sight through a shielded opening of the craft that revealed the native city below. The air was sparse of gunfire, and it seemed the locals were either unprepared for an attack, or arrogant in their assessment of the covenant's might. A small burst of flak fire glanced off the phantom as it veered to the side. Buza snorted at the weak force, earning chuckles from his battle-brothers; judging by it's strength, even taken full on the round would've been barely enough to scratch the paint.

Buza took in a deep breath as the phantom began to decelerate further, almost at the surface as it prepared to join the many that had already landed, when all of a sudden everything went wrong.

The battlenet - clear and co-ordinated just moments before - broke into garbled chaos as the phantom's engines suddenly cut and the vessel began to fall from the sky. "BRACE!" One of his battle-brothers roared in controlled panic as the grunts began to screech in far less controlled panic.

"What is going on!?" Buza shouted at the squadron's captain, the sangheili that had just moments before been directing the phantom to it's assigned insertion point.

"The battlenet's gone haywire!" The captain cried. "Systems across the entire invading force have been crippled, they must have some kind of planetary ECM system! FEAR NOT, BROTHERS, WE HAVE ENDURED WORSE, WE CAN SURVIVE THIS LANDING!"

Systems across the entire invading force!? Rapidly, Buza began to check his weapons; His carbine was crippled, the onboard computer seemingly completely fried as the targeting recticle and battery displays had winked out. Thankfully his plasma rifle was much more primitive; the same would go for needlers, energy swords and plasma pistols. Buza almost sighed in relief; Why, the only hand-held weaponry used by the main covenant forces that relied primarily on computation was-

Buza blanched in realization as the only experienced grunt amongst their squadron - the one who'd been assigned the fuel rod launcher - screamed as the weapon began to glow brightly in it's hands. "FUEL ROD BACKFIRE!" Buza roared in warning before the entire world went white as a gaping hole was torn in the side of their vessel by the blast.

Buza 'Luhomai grunted as he slowly came to consciousness. Long years of training kicked in and he ran an immediate checklist before even remembering where he was; His body ached, but did not hurt badly enough to be wounded. Shaking the webbing out of his mind, Buza stood as he began to assess his situation with more alacrity. A fuel rod blast in an enclosed space? His shields must've saved him - but between that and the fall they'd have been completely fried. That or these strange electronic counter measures the ...humans used. Yes, after this act of cunning Buza would dignify them with their name; they'd proved a dangerous if not particularly honorable foe.

The state of his body assessed, Buza took the immediate second step his training dicated; He looked to the sky. If the covenant had established orbital dominance during his blackout then it was all already over, and he could work on gaining what glory he could cleaning up the defenders. If not? Then he may be needed at the local convergence point his part of the invasion force had been assigned in case of an emergency. As he gazed up, Buza's eyes turned practically to saucers.

Ship after ship broke the surface of slipspace as they sailed smoothly into the sky above, none of them covenant. Their make was distinctly unlike the defending forces he'd noted on the way down; far bigger and bulkier on average than their local counterparts. They were slow, but so terribly large and numerous, and their weapons fire tore through the covenant carriers as he looked on in horror with such ease it was as if they'd been specifically designed to hunt un-shielded covenant ships.

For a terrible moment, Buza wondered if they had. It didn't add up though; surely the defenders would've taken advantage of their own ECM unless... a virus implemented by the newcomers? No, the idea was laughable, and the scale and precision of such a program - let alone it's utilization in a co-ordinated attack - would be mind-boggling; far greater than anything the covenant had produced and rivaling if not surpassing the legends of the great forerunner AI.

In the end, it did not matter. Buza had functioning eyes, and as he looked to the heavens above he could see clearly what they were telling him; While these new forces seemed focused most of all on escorting the ships that fled from the planet's surface, even what attention they deigned to spare the crippled covenant ships was enough to turn this invasion into a slow, agonizing slaughter.

Buza 'Luhomai huffed in begrudging respect as he braced to confront their ground forces.

'Harvest' indeed.

At least, today, he would die with honor.