RSV-class frigate "Field of Sabres" (Formerly "Executioner of the benighted infidels")
"Brace for collision!"
Navigation officer Faurak Gou'oln's hysterical and belated cry echoed awkwardly through the Field of Sabres' bridge, the already tense atmosphere preventing any outward surprise from infecting the crew.
Shipmaster Tema 'Jeqkogo's gaze snapped towards the navigator as he manually overrode the alarms from his command console.
"Yet we have not collided despite having passed halfway through the contact's bow, have we?" He hissed at the young crewman, whose increasingly low posture indicated he had already realized his mistake.
Just as a measure of calm returned to the bridge, weapons officer Kairakei made a booming pronouncement of his own.
"I have the beast in our sights!"
Tema pounded the armrest of his command chair. "Hold your fire, fool! This is a different contact, and we remained unharmed despite our momentary lack of shields, do we not?"
"We cannot detect when these devils are targeting us," Njolle reminded the shipmaster from his post at the operations lectern.
"Control yourself! It had ample opportunity to fire and continues to do nothing. Put this unknown on screen, and relay the data back to the rest of the fleet to ensure they know what we've found…and in the event it really is trying to trick us," he added, which seemed to truly calm down some on the bridge.
Tema recognized that the crew had ample reason to be wary of this strange new contact, given that it displayed the same "ghost" sensor profile as their intended target. That "avatar", "devil" or whatever other moniker the crew used for it had proven itself the most unpredictable of these hostiles yet by turning the Zanar cruiser Canto for the lost into one of the lost itself when the scout ship had attempted to corner it at the start of the battle.
Even so, caution should never give way to hysteria, particularly when confronted with a peculiarity like the one standing in their path.
On his command, the central holodisplay that dominated the bridge darkened as its 3d rendering of the surrounding area was replaced by a view from the prow-mounted exterior hull cameras.
Instantly the shipmaster was struck by the vibrant lime green glow of the odd being's eyes. He could sense life flashing there, despite the somewhat grainy view afforded by the cameras. Patches of tanned skin unmarred by a layer of soot also indicated that it was normal human female, if unbothered by exposure to the vacuum of space. No, this one was certainly not of the same breed as the devil that had led the attack on his flotilla and the human world below. Despite this, he was wary of the weapon pointing back at him from over her shoulder, as well as the other small turrets and missile silos littering her armor, all the more so when scans revealed the presence of four dead vessels drifting in space further out.
This one had the same destructive capabilities as the "devil", she merely looked more outwardly "human" in appearance and attire. Tema would have to handle this delicately, for he could see how human's oddly-colored eyes remained frozen in astonishment.
"Shipmaster, this one's false sensor profile may be of interest," Njolle announced.
"Tell me. And correct our scans to match her real size."
"Her-?" the operations officer started, but cut himself off.
"The readings were an exact match with a profile in the ship's wartime database," he explained, choosing his words cautiously until Tema glared his way.
"One of the human destroyer classes, type D-IV, less than half the size of our ship," the words spilled out.
Kairakei started to speak, but Tema's loud inquiry silenced him. "And our target? Do you recall its false measurements?"
"Over twice the size of the new contact, of course. But for a large step, that one would be as long as our ship if it were real." He paused, then tilted his head upward. "We cannot match it with any known design, the distortion was too great," he added as an afterthought.
Now Kairakei found the courage to utter his opinion. "Shipmaster, I would not call this the work of a human plot, but that one is clearly connected to the devil in some manner, it merely looks more…presentable. It must be dealt with."
Tema held up a hand to silence the bridge, then tapped the buttons on his console to bring up a hologram of the destroyer pattern identified by Njolle on one of his armrest-mounted holodisplays. He didn't know human ship names by heart, but he had crossed paths with that variant on a few occasions while on patrol. As Njolle said, it was a wartime design that stubbornly remained in service over the following cycles.
Now he recognized where he knew the human's weaponry from, as her main gun was a close reproduction of the knife-shaped fore section of the ship itself.
For once, his weapons officer was right. This human was too similar to the enemy humanoid for it to be a coincidence. But how to ensure she remained compliant? Even now, she continued to gawk at the sight of his ship, and was starting to wonder if the obsolescent ship class reflected in her ghostly sensor profile was more than just personal choice.
—
The Covenant ship held its imperious position above her, bow tilted slightly down to bare its sharp sensor vanes.
Well aware that she had lost the chance to do anything before its shields recovered from the disruption caused by leaping out of slipspace, Kayenta could do nothing but hold her position before the intruder, unsure of what move might set it off and unable to conceive of a plan.
Certitude and focus melted away, returning her neophyte mind to the mire of confusion, and awe, and stirring memories.
Countless more violet, undulating hulls flashed before her eyes, scenes from 6 years of war. At Alchiba, Biko, Origami, and Chi Ceti, they advanced on her as one. But all of them yielded to the grandiose ship that had closed to an impossible distance before her.
She didn't know this class well. Briefings spoke of it as an older design that took to the frontlines infrequently. Certainly, she didn't remember any at Vodin.
New or old, at this range it could've struck her no matter how much smaller she was now. Then there would be darkness, like she knew before, or worse.
The only relief she knew was from its complete inaction. That too was why she failed to react. If she had no choice, she would fight. All she had to reassure herself was a single memory.
Remember Netherop, if they have reasons to fight each other, then they can have reason to make peace with us.
But Netherop was an isolated incident that was left unresolved for another 6 years. The Covenant advance, with few exceptions, simply rolled onwards in that time.
—
Tema 'Jeqkogo thought he saw the human female speaking to herself, but the terrible quality of the camera made him unsure.
No matter, he knew what he had to do.
"Try to contact the human," he told his communications officer.
—
Kayenta was trying to remember if she'd heard of any other incidents like Netherop when something pinged her comms.
"Hello?" She stammered without thinking.
"Listen well, because I've allowed enough time to be wasted as it is," a low voice muffled by heavy static began by way of introducing itself.
"I see by the wreckage around us that you are an enemy of these mutants," the voice went on, and she noticed that much of the supposed interference really came from the strange voice itself.
"My ship can transport you back to the planetary capital, where we might all seek answers and devise a plan in case they attempt to strike back. Is this acceptable?"
Finally she realized that it was an Elite speaking to her. She knew well that they were often knowledgeable in human languages, but this one sounded more precise than the amateurish slurring that often characterized their promises of destruction.
What that meant could wait, because the alien CO was clearly running out of patience.
"Yes."
—
"Come to the starboard hangar," Tema ordered, watching the human's paralysis fade on the primary holodisplay. After blinking its bright green eyes for a few moments, it boosted out of sight.
The shipmaster shut off the transmission and signaled Njolle. "I will be meeting with her personally. If that hangar isn't cleared out by the time I arrive…"
Njolle rattled his mandibles in acknowledgment. "It will be done."
Tema rose from his command chair and retrieved his personal energy blade. The day was awash with mysteries, and he needed his crew out of the way to avoid the slightest "misunderstanding".
—
Crossing the energy barrier felt like dipping into a pool of pure static electricity. The feeling was so strong that Kayenta forgot to account for the sudden introduction of artificial gravity and crashed loudly onto the indigo tile floor of the hangar bay in a heap. The sour scent of alien floor cleaner filled her nose, causing her to push up onto her knees in embarrassment.
Instead of a cacophony of laughter, she was met by nothing but the static hissing of Covenant crates bearing crown-like antennae and rhythmic humming of various holographic consoles that dotted the desolate hangar bay on 3 floors. Only a few fighters and scattered tools indicated that the room was usually more busy.
Directly across from her, a large set of grey doors on the ground level slid open to reveal an Elite in gold armor. Kayenta watched this newcomer carefully. Apart from memories of helmet cam footage, this was the first time she'd seen a live Elite, and the only time since some dubiously-obtained recordings of Subject 386 had made their way to her databanks that she'd seen one which wasn't in combat, dead, or about to be killed in an ambush. Though she felt a slight tug towards caution at the sight of him, it was easy to ignore compared to the shock of seeing his ship. When she only knew them from a distance (and often in less painful situations as seen on classified mission recordings), it was hard for her to be afraid of the aliens themselves.
The shipmaster kept his bright amber eyes on him as he calmly advanced on her. The stroll took several awkward seconds, during which time Kayenta checked on her left arm and found that the enemy's shot had only grazed her limb and ripped off a chunk of her armor. Having allayed her concerns, she looked back up at the unreadable Elite.
"Stand up," he demanded, "where is your dignity?"
Kayenta obeyed, unsure of what to ask first. The Elite must've guessed she was at an impasse.
"Welcome to the Field of Sabres. I am Tema 'Jeqkogo, master of this ship and commander of the flotilla assigned to this system."
"Why are you here?" Kayenta managed to ask.
'Jeqkogo didn't hesitate to answer.
"My squadron arrived on behalf of the Principality of Anvarl, as part of our treaty with the Swords of Sanghelios to assist in patrolling the boundaries of your space. Our rotation just commenced the previous year."
Kayenta remained silent for many seconds trying to process that explanation.
"I don't follow…"
Before the shipmaster could explain further, another voice filled the hangar bay, this one much less versed in English.
"Shipmaster and…guest, you must both be aware that the enemy has marshalled their forces to attack again. The devil is leading them."
"What?" The pair reacted simultaneously.
"It must've used a gravity whip maneuver to flee below the planet and come back around."
'Jeqkogo responded, seemingly through the comm system on his armor.
"Plot a jump back to that side of the planet, now. I'll return soon. Make sure there will be no accidents when we rejoin the fight, understand?"
The speaker said something in Sangheili and shut off the PA system.
"Nonsensical," the shipmaster growled to himself. "Why would it try to attack again, as if we can't simply turn the ship around and come back?"
Kayenta shrugged. "Maybe she thought you'd have your hands full."
Tema almost turned away, but paused to watch her out of one eye as the ship shuddered beneath him.
"Will you be ready to fight once more? Against the true enemy?"
Kayenta glared back at him.
"I'm here because this world needs me. I'll protect it no matter what the threat is."
The Elite tightened its mandibles. "You will find that there is much to discuss after these devils are dealt with, miss…"
"Kayenta. It's Kayenta."
Tema paused without a word, then turned back the way he'd come.
—
An urgent comms request from the bridge appeared on 'Jeqkogo's hud before he could leave the hangar bay.
"News from the battle?" he murmured.
"Important news. They've detected another one," Njolle explained.
'Jeqkogo looked back over his shoulder at his new guest, who now watched the space outside in anticipation. "Elucidate, now. What do you mean another-"
Starlight gave way to shimmering waves of blue as the frigate began its pinpoint slipspace jump back into battle.
—
Meanwhile over the new planetary capital of Veneticia…
The bridge of the Temperance glowed red, a hundred different warnings merging together on the main holodisplay.
"Yes, lay on, foul beasts! Face me with all your false might!"
Shipmaster Ilgan 'NworRol bellowed his challenge on all frequencies, speaking more to his allies than his foes. With 'Jeqkogo out of the fray, someone had to stand tall and inspire the fleet now that the enemy was resurgent.
The deck quaked beneath his feet for many heartbeats, hundreds of missiles striking at every angle. But the Temperance wasn't built for pomp and ceremony. Even if the shields had succumbed to the hail of missiles, the dense armor of the Ester frigate would endure.
NworRol didn't even wait for the shuddering to end before he shouted "My turn!" and pointed with gusto towards the nearest of the foul ships on the holodisplay. This one was a familiar face from the first clash, a squat hull half the length of the Temperance with two large cannons mounted on its ventral section and several turrets covering its hull. The red approximation on the display lined up well with the malicious crimson light that poured forth from its command tower. Arrayed behind it were several smaller ships and one of the same class, all of which glowed dull blue instead of harsh red like the ringleader.
"Fire the main plasma lance, get that flagship out of my sight."
The ungainly ship must've realized its mistake, because it was already turning away to port-too late.
A faster, more rhythmic vibration shook the Temperance. Azur light streamed out from the frigates' primary energy projector and towards the reeling target. The beam caught the ship on one of its protruding cannons, snapped the weapon in half, and boiled away rock-like ventral armor. The red light emanating from its bridge surged brighter than ever before, then faded and died. A moment later, the bridge lit up again, a bright blue that heralded the beam of plasma burning clean through the ship before its ammo reserves were touched off by the heat. The fore half of the ship disintegrated, leaving the aft section tumbling away.
The gaggle of escorts unleashed a swarm of vengeful missiles at the Temperance.
By this point, the fleet had recovered from the shock of the renewed attack, and other ships were starting to form up once again. Shipmaster 'NworRol watched as the frigate Sword of Respect finally started to follow his ship's lead. Dozens of missiles remained on course for his ship, but they soon vanished from the display beneath the withering fire of the A'uzr frigate's numerous pulse lasers-10 times the batteries of the unmodified Temperance. Meanwhile, the Akton escort ship Humble Sentry took up position on the armored frigate's port side and fired a dozen plasma torpedoes that vaporized an enemy corvette.
His immediate opponents contained, 'NworRol adjusted the holodisplay towards the rest of the battle, where the situation wasn't nearly as stable. Just as he started to observe the renewed struggle against the devil-ships, another friendly signal vanished from the display: the Zanar scout cruiser Bear the foisted burden, blown to pieces by a contact hundreds of times smaller.
Friendly ships near the burden dispersed with no mind for each other in a futile attempt to evade the deceptively small enemy. This in turn only left them at the mercy of the full-sized enemy ships, which battered their shields with missiles and high-velocity rounds. A storm cutter failed to endure the barrage and was left drifting. Another cluster of missiles zipping in previewed its fate.
Across the rest of the battle, the situation was holding, if barely. The three dozen functioning ships of the expeditionary fleet maintained their formation, now slightly knowledgeable of the enemy's capabilities and simpleminded tactics. But 'NworRol knew that state of affairs would change the moment the enemy's humanoid-sized flagship chose to intervene. Already the formation around him was bending, forced by the need to fill in the gap where the devil had struck.
The first attack had fallen apart after that creature had unexpectedly fled into slipspace, allowing the fleet to bring down a half-dozen vessels as they fled. But the monstrosity was back, and worse, it had led almost a dozen new devil-ships into battle behind it. Now the enemy once again enjoyed a near two-on-one advantage, and that edge was growing.
"If we had one Sinaris, this fight would be going differently," he muttered. Sadly, they didn't have a Sinaris destroyer. The fleet was full of Zanar scout cruisers, light frigates, storm cutters, and even an intrusion corvette. Everything necessary to maintain the appearance of a substantial contribution that was actually shallow in terms of quality. Only the Temperance and the older frigate that served as the flagship could bear the enemy humanoid's wrath for any length of time.
"A new contact reveals itself," one of the sensor operators shouted suddenly. The holodisplay showed a red glyph where the signal had appeared: right between two opposing squadrons.
"It appears to be corvette-sized," he continued, and a blocky holograph half the size of the Temperance flickered on the holodisplay.
"Onscreen," 'NworRol ordered, feeling the ship shake again from another missile barrage.
The view from an external camera appeared in one corner of the display. There, a heavy corvette and 3 light frigates dueled with a cluster of 5 enemy light corvettes.
"The newcomer is nowhere to be found," the shipmaster admonished, before seeing one light just below the crossfire start to move.
"It's diving-and quickly," the sensor operator warned.
'NworRol had an idea. "Cross-reference that signal with our database, now."
Out of nowhere, a familiar pole of light flashed between the two groups of combatants. The shot went wide, but 'NworRol knew better than to be relieved. This newcomer shared the same abilities as the enemy leader. The only difference was that its main gun appeared to emit a beam of pure white rather than the tainted bolts fired by the devil-ships.
"Someone had better be relaying this to the Field of sabers," he cautioned.
"The mutants are ceasing their attack," came a report from the nearby Ceudar corvette Koroteng on the battlenet.
"Demon fire is shifting towards that anomaly. No, so are the ships themselves!" Another shipmaster warned.
'NworRol ignored the differing labels, for the enemy, another round in the silent argument that had persisted among the fleet. Some shipmasters simply called the rotten vessels "demons", but others, young and old, apparently found the usage impertinent due to its association with human Spartans. Whether their disdain was out of respect or residual fear, they loudly referred to the enemy as "mutants" or "devils" instead.
"Bah, semantics," 'NworRol grumbled, then ordered his ship to shield the wavering Sword of Respect when the smaller ship's shields started weakening.
"The leader is making its move, it's going for the unknown," another sensor operator announced.
'NworRol kept an eye on the display, noting the marked decrease in warning glyphs flashing across the fleet as the enemy flagship peeled other ships out of formation to follow it towards the strange new contact and the enemy attack weakened accordingly. He caught sight of a beam of crimson light flashing into view on the camera and vanishing offscreen.
"The interloper was hit…it's not moving."
The shipmaster was fascinated by this turn of events. Clearly the enemy commander was incensed by the presence of that outsider, as its continued advance on the now-drifting signal indicated. Perhaps 'Jeqkogo's mysterious new "guest" had something to do with this?
Just then, the Field of Sabers finally reappeared amidst the stiffening defensive line. Before the frigate's shields had even reformed it charged to the forefront, and a new signal accompanied by human letters suddenly dropped away from its right side as 'Jeqkogo's voice broke through the chaos of the battlenet.
"All ships, take note of our new ally. She will deal with the devil flagship. Do not get in her way."
—
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Plasma torpedoes cast red and violet tendrils over the vacuum, the gaps filled in by hundreds of blue energy bolts and the occasional pale energy beam. In reply, hordes of missiles chased the ghostly afterimages of mass driver rounds towards their targets.
All of it was flying the wrong direction. Kayenta watched the bizarre scene for only a moment. She hadn't considered how jarring it would be to fight alongside covenant ships, or whatever polity these ships were really led by. The instantaneous slipspace jump around the planet left no time for an explanation of who these Elites were, let alone the course of the war in the preceding 46 years. All she knew for certain was that Vodin was under attack by something far worse than the Covenant.
Swerving away from the confusing crossfire, Kayenta accelerated towards the enemy fleet.
They were already rising to meet her, over a dozen hazy signals coalescing on her HUD from across the enemy line. More skeletal missile corvettes, ships made of rotting superstructure and pockmarked chunks of rock crudely fashioned into angular hull sections, and a lone ship with two protruding cannons mounted below its hull that glowed red instead of blue.
Leading the charge was the ghostly woman that had led the Elite ship her way, red light flickering hysterically from her lone eye. Shock, outrage, and enmity were all visible on her face despite the great distance between them.
For a moment she was overwhelmed by the hatred in her opponents eyes and the numbers being sent against her, and she wavered slightly from her course. The lapse in control proved critical when a MAC round flashed past where she'd been flying a heartbeat beforehand. Ahead of Kayenta, the enemy flagship snarled silently in the void and reached out angrily toward her.
Before she could think of how to respond, proximity warnings flashed on her hud as two dozen red and violet plasma torpedoes streamed past her from behind. Suddenly, Kayenta remembered that she wasn't on her own in this fight.
The glowing projectiles crashed into the humanoid's escorts, blowing a trio of familiar missile boats to pieces, cutting the engine blocks off larger warships, and tearing open the lone red-hued ship's hull. In a few seconds, half the charging enemy ships were pushing through a mist of red-hot debris and black fragments left behind by the other half.
Not waiting to examine her opponent's reaction, Kayenta armed 5 more archer missile pods and took aim at the diving flagship.
"Payback time is here. Fire!"
The glare from her first full salvo flashed across her vision for a second and faded into over a hundred tiny lights as the Archer missiles freed from the pods on her legs chased after the round.
As fate would have it, the rounds caught the humanoid right on the left arm, knocking her off-course and leaving her an easy target for the missiles. Only the enemy's point-defense guns and a strong jamming field prevented her from being completely swamped by the ordinance, and most of them still made it through to knock her further off-course.
Just as her target's body disappeared in a cloud of explosions, however, Kayenta's view was obscured when a destroyer-sized enemy ship lurched up to block its leader. The gash-covered ship fired a wild broadside from its secondaries and let off a hundred missiles of its own, forcing Kayenta into a loose series of corkscrews that took her away from the humanoid.
"Somebody get that thing out of the way!" Kayenta shouted. Her connection to the Sangheili battlenet was confined to a private frequency with Shipmaster 'Jeqkogo to avoid any confusion, and he would relay any requests to the rest of his fleet.
Luckily for her, someone seemed to recognize what she needed on their own, as 4 pink beams lashed out from somewhere below her to strike the enemy destroyer, followed by 4 more blue beams from the same source.
An unfamiliar signal pinged her comms, and she accepted while waiting for her MAC to recharge. The Elite on the other end spoke perfect English much like 'Jeqkogo.
"This is Garan, of the Storm Cutter As the Ring turns. I'll distract that mutant ship, but you'd best prepare to engage the leader. It becomes very irate when we kill its pets."
The pink lasers cut out seconds later, leaving only the smaller secondary beams to sweep over the destroyer's mangled hull. At the same time, several missile warnings faded well short of her courtesy of pulse laser fire from the smaller ship.
"Thank…you…Garan," Kayenta sighed, watching as plasma torpedoes fired by ships further away struck the enemy. Turrets melted and armor boiled away, but the decrepit ship remained on course for several tedious seconds. All the while, the flagship's signal flitted in and out of existence behind it.
Finally, it rose into view over the stubborn destroyer and fired over 200 missiles at the As the Ring turns, which was already ceasing fire to turn away. The pale-skinned woman's exasperated eye snapped up towards Kayenta with a painful intensity. More of her battered armor had been blown off by Archers, exposing her pale, unblemished skin. Incredibly, although her left arm had been pierced in two places by Kayenta's shot, she retained full usage of the limb, which she demonstrated by pointing swiftly back at her.
That was all the warning she had before the enemy fired again, a near-miss that seared Kayenta's eyes as the round passed by her head. A moment of concentration sent more energy surging from her engineers to her capacitors. The shift would slow her down, but that was all part of her plan. Boosting away well below top speed, she fired 3 more Archer pods as an invitation to come follow her. The battered humanoid followed without a second thought, firing thrice as many of her own missiles.
Soon Kayenta was darting between the Elite formation, which now charged through the remnants of the flagship's retinue and fired on the scattered clumps that the rest of the enemy fleet had devolved into. Leading the attack was the Field of Sabres, the RSV frigate's 5 plasma beam emitters melting through the armor of a block-shaped enemy cruiser. A lone CAR frigate advancing alongside the flagship fired its main energy projector into the exposed innards of the ship and snuffed out its blue "eye". In reply, the disorganized ships fired with surprising coordination, sending over two dozen mass driver rounds and a thousand missiles towards the fleet. A CRS cruiser was hit by 4 shots and promptly disintegrated, while 2 DAS cutters and an SDV corvette were stripped of their shields and battered into misshapen husks by missiles.
Despite being caught up in their counterattack, the Elite ships didn't ignore the enemy ringleader flying into their midst. Several took potshots at the passing humanoid with their plasma cannons and torpedo launchers, forcing her into maneuvers that pulled her away from Kayenta. Although she managed to dodge the plasma torpedoes, her armor began to wither under fire from several cannons. In response, she fired a swarm of almost 500 missiles at targets all around her, never taking her eye off Kayenta.
Several ships staggered and slowed under the barrage. An SDV corvette that was already stripped of its shields was promptly vaporized, the explosion swallowing up another CRS and turning it into an inert hunk of blackened metal.
Wincing at the scene, Kayenta checked the charge on her MAC capacitors.
92%
"Close enough," she whispered, and silently gave the order to fire.
The MAC volley flickered through the devastation and towards the enemy fleet while her target barely wavered, making Kayenta think for a moment that she had missed.
Then she felt the humanoid's warm gaze turn away from her, and realized that her pursuer was lagging behind.
The woman's mouth dropped open wordlessly. Exposed superstructure-like bones shimmered in the vacuum as she reached up with her wounded left arm to grasp at the hole in her chest.
She glanced back up at Kayenta and bit her lip, the light in her right eye dimming slightly.
Just as Kayenta thought it was over, the enemy leaned hard to starboard with no mind of her gaping wound and jumped into a slipspace portal.
Frozen in confusion, Kayenta's incredulous gaze was free to take in the sight of the remaining enemy ships following the humanoid's lead, most entering slipspace while a few disabled ships stayed behind for an impromptu last stand.
—
Tema 'Jeqkogo fell back into his command chair the moment the last straggler was put down. The Shipmaster flexed his aching mandibles for a few idle moments, then signaled Njolle to provide a summary of the battle.
"We destroyed 32 unknown ships in total during both phases of the battle," the operations officer began, displaying holograms and brief recordings of the various monstrosities on the primary holodisplay.
"But many of these ships were of middling threat to our own, as their weapons consisted solely of missiles." 10 holograms disappeared from the display.
"Of the remaining ships, 3 emitted red light rather than the blue we observed in the rest. These ships displayed superior maneuvering and heightened aggression." The display zoomed in on 3 reconstructions. Two of them were of the design that bore extra cannons added to the hull, and the last, which matched his ship in length, looked like a much-abused brick.
Tema leaned forward and signalled for Njolle to continue. The red-armored Sangheilli started off cautiously.
"Our losses amount to 19 ships destroyed…"
The Shipmaster watched the holograms manifest one by one without saying a word. Njolle wisely silenced himself, and the rest of the bridge soon followed, so that Tema could examine all the ships lost under his command:
6 Zanar cruisers, 3 Ceudar heavy corvettes, 5 Mutan-Et Storm cutters, 2 light frigates, 1 A'uzr frigate, and 2 R'sikosh corvettes.
Tema knew battle, but he had never known leadership in battle until now. Reading the names of those lost ships left his hearts beating rapidly in unison, almost as if the enemy was before him once again.
To dismiss their names quickly would be disgraceful and perturb the bridge crew. He allowed them to remain on the display for many heartbeats before signalling Njolle to move on, finding not solace but resolution in one thought.
After all that we have sacrificed in defense of this planet, I will finally be able to explain myself to these humans without fear of being turned away.
—
The hangar bay was no longer as empty as before. That was an unavoidable consequence of the battle and the considerable mess left behind by its aftermath. Exoatmospheric banshees crowded the ground floor of the bay, often from lost ships and always under repair or being cleaned. Phantom dropships idled on the second floor of the hangar, depositing survivors from other vessels.
Kayenta sat against the left-hand wall of the bay and tried to remain out of sight. Of the few dozen crew working in the bay (all Sangheili and a floating engineer or two, she noted), most remained fixated on their work. A few inevitably took note of her, but they never approached or even said a word. Kayenta suspected the shipmaster had some rules in place regarding her presence, and as far as she was concerned that was a good idea. She wasn't here for the amusement of some Elites, she was here to protect Vodin.
Kayenta wanted to know how the planet had avoided destruction. She wanted to learn about how the war had progressed, free of whatever biases these former covenant subjects might've had. From what little she remembered of ONI briefings, Sangheili lifespans were so long that a male who started his military service at Harvest in 2526 could easily remain a soldier through the 52 years between then and now and still be considered "young". Several of them might've been at work in that very room.
But she couldn't head down to the surface, not while that humanoid was still out there. She doubted it had left the system. That creature's demeanor was easy to comprehend and unmistakably human: the next time they fought, it would be personal. Kayenta only wondered if the ghostly woman would try to draw her out by bombarding a city from orbit.
The idea was so unnerving that she didn't notice when a familiar shadow fell over her.
"Are you ready to fight again?"
Kayenta shuddered at the question before she recognized Shipmaster 'Jeqkogo's voice. The Elite towered over her huddled form, and his harsh tone invited no disagreement.
"I'm a little hungry, but I can manage. Did you find that creature?"
"One of our Wasals detected the mutants over the abandoned metropolis called Karawankgrad. Before we lost contact, it also picked up strong energy readings in orbit above the city. They match nothing we've seen before." Tema's mandibles opened as if he were about to make a comparison, but realized it would've meant nothing to her.
Kayenta remembered that name-the last city the fleet had attempted to coordinate evacuation efforts from before their defenses had collapsed. Judging by Tema's wording it hadn't been touched after the glassing.
Disregarding her memories for a moment, she realized the Elite hadn't left for the bridge. He spoke again after an awkward pause.
"Our Intrusion Corvette, the Pious Whisper, recovered an…interloper who appeared at the start of the battle, one similar to you."
Although Kayenta remained outwardly idle, her mind started to race. If there were really more beings like her and not like those creatures, it meant she had a better chance of understanding why she'd returned like this. But that also left her with more questions.
"Similar in what way…and what do you mean recovered?"
"She was struck by the enemy flagship shortly after being detected. She is comatose, but stable."
Kayenta gave a slow nod. "Thank you for letting me know. I'm ready to move out."
The Shipmaster tilted his head slightly. "Would you not like to know more about her? Her identification number, perhaps?"
"I have a mission to complete. That's all I need to worry about."
'Jeqkogo tapped a button on his armor, and the ship hummed beneath them.
"A very wise outlook."