Chapter 20

Jetslinger333- Ah yeah. Secrets out that he's from an alternative universe. The next chapter focusing on Chief will probably do that along with video proof to back it all up.

Warmachine375- I'm fairly certain it's obvious to people that the Banished on the island were a separate group altogether, cut off from Jega. I'm fairly certain that was obvious. I think.

RedRat8- Ah, that makes more sense. All good. Also, yes. He will scavenge Banished weapons.

Jega

Central Asia

"Hm, this is an impressive number of armaments and vehicles that have survived the explosion that brought us here." Said Jega as he looked at the data pad that was given to him by a fellow Sangheili. It contained a manifesto of what vehicles and weapons they scavenged from the base along with other essentials like food and parts to maintain their equipment.

It was an impressive amount considering how all over the place the wrecked base was. Over a dozen Ghosts and Choppers were in working conditions, four troop transports, a Wraith tank, and three Banshees along with enough parts to keep them working for a long time, though since they had Huragok, they will be working indefinitely. Heck, given enough materials and time, the Huragok can make them new Banished vehicles if they wanted them to. Such was the power and skill of the Huragok, a creation by the ancient race called the Forerunners. Looking at what else they scavenged from the base, Jega then asked the Sangheili what the scouting parties have found, wondering if they found anything worth raiding or pillaging.

"They have found a military outpost nearby along with several villages." Said the Sangheili. "They're all humans, yet primitive. More primitive than the humans of the UNSC." Jega hummed at that, wondering what this all meant. The answers they got from the humans only confused him. Who were the Earth Federation and Principality of Zeon? What happened to the UNSC? What were these Mobile Suits and what purpose do they serve? Questions like this and more flowed through Jega's mind, making him realize that, to acquire the answers he wanted, he needed to interrogate a few humans. Fortunately, there seemed to be plenty of them around.

"What military does that human outpost follow? This Earth Federation? Or this Principality of Zeon?" Asked Jega, raising his head from the data pad.

"We do not know." Said the Sangheili honestly. "The flag that the humans have over their base is unlike anything that we have seen before. However, we noticed a large green humanoid mech with one eye in that base. Perhaps this is the Mobile Suits that we have heard about?" Jega hummed at that. A giant mech of human make? He knew that humans had employed mechs in their war against the Covenant and any conflict past the Human-Covenant War. The best-known example that Jega can think of was the Mantis exoskeleton developed after the Human-Covenant War. A combat suit that held firepower between the human scorpion tank and combat jeeps known was Warthogs. Perhaps these Mobile Suits were similar, just larger.

Humming to himself, Jega made up his mind on what to do.

"How close is this base to our location?" Asked Jega.

"Not too far, unfortunately." Said the Sangheili. "It's only a fair distance from the forest that our base is in. The forest is providing cover for us for now, but all it takes is one human plane to see the clearing our base is in and we're exposed to the humans."

"Indeed." Said Jega, seeing that they must destroy this base to keep themselves hidden from the humans of Earth. Not that they needed the reasons to do it in the first place, the Banished would have destroyed or raided any human settlements in range anyway. Such was their way. "How many warriors do we have that have cloaking equipment embedded into their combat harnesses or Power Armor?"

"Most of our Ultras have active camouflage embedded into their Combat Harnesses." Said the Sangheili. "In addition, we have a few Brute Stalkers amongst our ranks. We can also have the Huragok upgrade the rest of our warriors to have active camouflage as well, given enough time."

"No need." Said Jega as he set down the data pad. "What we have is more than sufficient. Besides, what we need is quality, not quantity. A single well-placed strike will bring these humans to their knees. Gather our Ultras. Tell them to gather as many explosives as they can carry on their persons. This will require precision and strong momentum before we can deliver the killing blow on these humans."

Later

Night

Zeon Base

"Well, inform Ginias Sahalin that unless he gets approval from Lady Kycilia herself, he can't just go out of the blue and request any materials or personnel from any of the Zeon forces under her command." Said a Zeon Commander before ending the call that he was having with his aide. Sighing, he thought back to the phone conversation he just ended.

Once again, his base received a call from a subordinate of Ginias Sahalin, the leader of Zeon's military presence in Southeast Asia. The call had been a request from the Southeast Asia Zeon army for additional resources and manpower to be transferred to their area. They claimed that they were facing increasing guerrilla activities and requested additional resources to help deal with them. They also claimed that the Federation forces in the area have received Mobile Suits of their as well, something that the commander found ridiculous. The Earth Federation couldn't have made Mobile Suits that quickly. Even with the industrial capabilities of the Earth Federation.

Even if he took the claim that the Earth Federation was deploying Mobile Suits in Southeast Asia seriously, it wasn't like he could do anything about it. Captain M'Quve had command over all of Rear Admiral Kycilia's forces on Earth. And with Garma's death, she was in command of all Zeon forces on Earth barring some exceptions, like Ginias' men, who were acting under the orders of Degwin Zabi himself for some project that could win them the war.

Going back on topic, M'Quve had heard of Ginias' requests before, from multiple officers throughout the Central Asia region, and denied them every time. According to a friend of his in M'Quve's own personal command staff, the reason was that M'Quve believed guerrillas didn't warrant a transfer of any major kind to Southeast Asia. He claimed that the Southeast Asia forces should have more than enough men and Mobile Suits to adequately hold the region from the Earth Federation as well as continue the development of their project, codenamed Apsaras, without help from his forces. Even if he desired to do it, which he didn't, M'Quve couldn't or rather wouldn't approve of any transfers at this time. Not in the Europe or Central Asia regions anyway.

Reports were coming in from all over the Europe frontlines as well as Central Asia that the Earth Federation military was mobilizing a large portion of the Earth Federation Army to Odessa. It was M'Quve's belief that the Earth Federation was planning on launching a major offensive on the Odessa region, Zeon's largest presence on Earth next to the California Base. It was because of this, M'Quve was not allowing any transfers of his forces in the Central Asia and Europe regions of Zeon control. He also requested reinforcements be sent from the Granada lunar city to reinforce Odessa in case the Earth Federation truly does launch an attack on the Odessa region. And his base was a part of the Central Asia Zeon forces and thus under M'Quve's authority, meaning the commander's hands were tied. Not that he wanted to help the Southeast Asia Zeon forces at all. They can rot in hell for all he cared.

Right now, he had his own problems to deal with. Dealing with the local Federation forces that have entered his region while also dealing with the local villages as well. Some of them were harboring guerillas and they've been harassing them as of late, so the commander had to keep what resources he had here. Not that there was much to go around. He only had in his command three Zaku IIs, several platoons of soldiers, some trucks, a trio of Magella attack tanks, and a few Wappa for scouting and recon missions. So, not exactly a real threat with the exception of the Zakus. Most of his men were even raw recruits with little battlefield experience. So, he wasn't exactly in a good spot. Especially if the Federation forces come in full force. Then he and his men were in trouble.

Sighing to himself, the man got up from his chair and went outside to get some food from the mess hall. He was feeling a bit hungry and perhaps some food will do him some good. It was getting a bit late for food, but he needed something to eat.

Walking out of the command tent, the Zeon commander went over to the shack that contained the mess hall. As he was walking towards the shack, he suddenly saw something kick up some dirt in front of the mess hall. Blinking at that, the Zeon commander rubbed his eyes a bit and checked again to see nothing out of the ordinary. Thinking that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, the Zeon commander was about to resume his trek to the mess hall when it suddenly exploded in a bright blue ball of flame that sent him flying back to the command tent. Crashing into the dirt just in front of the command tent, the Zeon commander looked to see more explosions of similar color going off all over the base, including their ammunition dump, the medical tents, and the barracks. A crippling blow to the Zeons.

As the survivors of the attack were beginning to panic or try to figure out what was going on, the Zeon commander got to his feet, trying to figure out what was going on.

Were the guerrillas attacking them? They've never been this bold before, so why were they attacking them now? Did they receive a new leader? New supplies? Was the Earth Federation supporting them? All these questions and more were filling the commander's mind as he tried to figure out what was going on and who was responsible for this attack. Eventually, he decided that didn't matter now and that he had to focus on getting his men out alive from the situation that they were in now.

As he was trying to restore order to his surviving men, he felt some heavy breathing down from his…head? Looking up, the command was stunned to find nothing above him yet he felt breathing coming down his face. Before he could comprehend this, he suddenly was impaled from behind, sending him into the air. Looking down at his chest, the commander saw two bright red points erupting from his chest and that was the last thing he saw before he was tossed to the ground and his head was stomped on by a large foot that caved it in. The killer of the commander then revealed themselves to be Jega 'Rdomnai. Scoffing at the human, Jega then looked to see several humans looking at him in shock, terrified of his sudden appearance and his general looks in general.

Feeling a psychotic thrill, Jega cloaked himself again before engaging the remaining humans in a one-sided engagement. In the meantime, Sangheili Ultras were engaging humans in the hangers that contained the Zeon Mobile Suits and the rest of their vehicles. A part of their plan.

Having arrived at the base hours ago in human terms, the Banished Sangheili began to scout out the base in order to create an effective plan of attack. While some Jiralhanae Legion Masters or Chieftains would attack head-on with no proper strategy, especially the raw recruits, most Sangheili preferred a subtle approach, especially Jega. Being part of the Silent Shadows during his time with the Covenant, Jega had seen the value in a well-organized plan along with the value of a swift sudden strike to throw the enemy off balance. Countless Spartans over the years have fallen in battle, some by his own hands, by a good strategy or tactics by the Covenant. He himself has slain several on Zeta Halo with the appropriate strategy and tactics.

Spartans were not easy prey to kill. They are not something that can be easily overwhelmed with numbers. They can, but they'll always take dozens, even hundreds, with them to their graves. No, to kill them without too many losses, one must be skilled in the arts of combat or use tactics to kill them. Otherwise, they'll reap a toll on their opponents. Sometimes too much of a toll. As much as it annoyed Jega, this was something that they had taught him the value of. The value of a sudden strike is to throw an enemy off balance or to turn the tide of battle with a key strike on a vital strategic target. Something they've proven to be effective countless times.

Throughout the Human-Covenant War, many a battle was turned against the Covenant because of a Spartan being at the right place at the right time, taking out a key component to a Covenant battlegroup's plans or composition. And today, where the current Spartans, Spartan-IVs, have proven to be just as capable as their predecessors in turning the tide of battle in their favor. And the Covenant, being the fools they were, failed time and time again because of those tactics and their refusal to adapt. Thus, it brought some measure of satisfaction to Jega, that he was using those lessons on humans, and it was working.

After identifying where the human mechs were along with their vehicles, Jega ordered them to be spared from the sabotage before giving out assignments to his fellow Sangheili on where to place their explosives, where to proceed after placing them, and what to do after the battle with the humans is over. Following the orders of the former Silent Shadow Operative, most of the Ultras broke off from the main group and went into the hanger bays to both capture and defend the human mechs and vehicles from their owners, preventing them from using them to fend off the Banished attack. The rest went to plant bombs in key locations in the base, using their cloaking technology embedded into their Combat Harnesses to infiltrate the base and get in without being detected by the humans until it was too late. They then used the sudden explosions from their bombs to fight the humans, using the sudden confusion to their advantage. Many humans were outright slain by this tactic and it brought some Sangheili satisfaction to use such a tactic against the humans, who have done similar tactics during the Human-Covenant War. Especially their fabled Spartans.

The human soldiers, meanwhile, were either running away and being gunned down by the Banished soldiers as a result of shooting back at them in an effort to get access to their Mobile Suits. Though the former happened more than the latter, especially with how large the Sangheili were along with the fact that their bullets weren't doing anything on account of the energy shielding that the Ultras had, which was some of the strongest that the Banished had for mass deployment for infantry. Only special forces or Banished leaders were given stronger shields. This terrified most of the humans, who were only fresh recruits from Side 3, and, combined with their sudden appearance and the explosions around the base, caused many to flee in terror. This only resulted in them getting shot to death by several Sangheili that had taken sniper positions all over the base. The Banished plan had worked to perfection.

After finishing off another human while invisible, Jega saw the rest running away for their lives. Scoffing at this cowardice, Jega looked around him to see the burning human base. Satisfied his plan went perfectly, Jega went around to find more humans to hunt and kill. Not that there were many more left. The Banished were not looking for prisoners. They were looking for spoils and they had no intentions of taking prisoners.