Phase 18: High Nightmare Pt 2
Yuri, Sela, and Alisa are in the hangar to look at the stars and see a friendly planet in the distance. "Gee, I was wondering something. Do you even use Grunts and Jackals again?" Alisa asked to see Hunters and Slugmen within the hangar to stand guard of the place not making a fuss and doing their jobs.
"The Slugmen were far more reliable than both combined and then some. We managed to secure data on High Charity on the special Lekgolo who form the Slugmen and now we can make hundreds of millions of Slugmen to aid our warriors with more on the way along with Hunters and Grunts in special roles. Hunters for heavy shock troopers and Grunts use for support and defensive roles," Sela said.
"Seems to make sense in the Swords' new military structure," Yuri said.
"Indeed it does. The Jackals can't be trusted or the Drones either. The Brutes seek their conquest which puts other worlds at risk," Sela said.
"Yeah what a mess but now we are working together thankfully despite our dark histories," Yuri said as Sela felt remorse about their cruel actions against Humanity.
"Lies led our violence against your species but it doesn't make it any better. I don't blame some humans who were still hating us and we will have to bear that until we can gain your trust fully," Sela said.
"Well all's well that ends well right," Yuri said to pat her on the back to calm her. "Time heals all wounds. In human history, certain nations did horrible things but in the end. We became friends and humanity put under one roof the UEG," Yuri said mentioning nations like Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan doing truly evil things but turning around to become powerful friendly nations that positively influence the world.
"Hopefully, we can have a united Sanghelios government with the many keeps and city-states coming together for the sake of our world and colony worlds. The Arbiter has already joined with the home worlds of the Lekgolo and the Unggoy to form something called the Concert of Worlds. He wants Humanity to join the alliance as well to secure the futures of our species better," Sela said.
"That sounds pretty good. Humans, Unggoy, Sangheili, and Lekgolo, great combo," Alisa said.
"What is the Concert of Worlds?" Yuri asked.
"An alliance of species built upon a foundation of strength and unity that comes from honor and acceptance, mutual trust, respect. A Concert of Worlds in an Age of Peace," Sela said as she believes wholeheartedly in this mission.
"So opposite of the Covenant?" Alisa asked as Sela nodded her head.
"Yes. Sadly the Kig-Yar and Drones don't care about this. The Brutes see it as a threat to their war of conquest. Only Humans, Grunts, and Leklogo agreed to join in this. We need a joint front to fight all the threats we are currently fighting now," Sela said.
"Many humans will not agree with this," Alisa said thinking about the rebel groups and other anti-alien terrorist groups who are stuck in the past.
"Thankfully the UEG President is not a bigot and can see the bigger picture here," Yuri said.
"Through our sins, we forged a new path but the Brutes will get their undoing soon. Trying to wipe out two species from the galaxy without remorse, their fall will come even harder than we did," Sela said as she remembered her further escape from the High Charity.
-Flashback Begins-
Sela and her team managed to get to the streets to see rows of dead Elites with Truth's voice echoing through the loudspeakers of the city.
"The Elites have now turned traitor at our time of victory. We are so close to the Great Journey with now the Brutes becoming the commanding force of our holy military. Now all Elites in known space must be killed on sight. They are as low as the humans with their heresy. Leave none alive," Truth's message repeats on the loudspeakers across High Charity with every Elite on their own beside their own Grunts and most Hunters giving them support with the others waiting for this moment to punish the arrogant Elites who have abused the other races for far too long.
"So the hammer of fate has come to us," Sela said as Ulva was not pleased with this.
"Damn, it's not happening. We have served this empire for thousands and now it's all gone in a flash," Ulva said feeling saddened by this.
"Never trusted Truth and now he is making a power move," Vala said to see a horde of Drones wielding Plasma Rifles and Needlers while Drone Snipers use Focus Rifles.
"Get a grip, we still need to get out of here," Dek said as he wielded his Concussion Rifle to blast apart chunks of Drone Minors and Majors. Seeing their bits falling onto the streets. Sela used her Plasma Repeater to let out barrages of blue bolts taking down Drones.
The Hunter Ultra fires its fuel rod shot to kill off the remaining Drones raining body parts and weapons on the floor. They collect some ammo with Ulva using a Fuel Rod Gun to see a bunch of Ghosts piloted by Grunts trying to run them over.
The Hunter droves its arm shield into the incoming Ghost to split it in half with the Grunt flopping onto the floor lifelessly. The Slugman Ultra aims its particle carbine to nail the Grunt in the head. "There are reports about the Demon being sighted within the city," Dek said to pepper a Ghost with explosive bolts to destroy it leaving it a burning wreck.
"The Spartan?!" Sela asked as she does find the Spartans interesting in how they can fight against their best warriors repeatedly leaving her weirdly impressed by this.
She fires her Plasma Repeater to take out the incoming Grunts on Ghosts. A Slugmen pops a Grunt in the head with its Particle Carbine. A Hunter Ultra blows up two more Ghosts with their arm cannons.
"Yes, he is spreading chaos against both Sangheili and Jiralhanae. Not only that the High Consulars are being wiped out by these savages," Ulva said as they cleared out the Ghosts with Sela looking over at the sky to see a human ship crashed into a tower.
"Hey, there is a human ship here," Sela said pointing to the Amber Clad crashed into a tower far away.
"I think that was detected not too long ago. Human transports were spreading out across the city but no one seems to care when they are getting their throats ripped out," Vala said as Sela had a deep sinking feeling in her torso.
"Oh no, that ship was in Delta Halo when the Flood outbreak was happening," Sela said as they saw a Grunt being attacked by an Elite Combat Form to grab his head and rip it off his torso.
"Stupid humans," Dek fires an explosive bolt of plasma to scatter the rotten corpse onto the floor. "They hijacked the human ship and spread it across the city. At all times," Dek said as Sela got a call from her Grunt on the ship.
"Mistress Sela, we are in deep trouble," the Grunt said to man a Heavy Plasma Cannon to unleash bolts of blue plasma to see a bunch of Flood trying to gain access to their ship.
"What is happening Tan-Tan?" she asked.
"Flood, trying to take the ship but the crew can hold them off. Get back as soon as possible," Tan-Tan said.
"Okay, keep up the good work. We are heading back there now," Sela said to check the energy gauge of her Plasma Repeater to see if it's still good to go.
"Stay safe Mistress," Tan-Tan said to hold down the waves of Flood coming at them.
"You too," Sela said as they found a lift that would take them down into the bowels of High Charity. "The Flood are trying to get into my ship," Sela said.
"The Brutes and now the Parasite. Things keep getting better by the second," Ulva said in a dry tone to check their weapons.
"Once we hit the streets, we brute force through and head for another lift which will take us to the docking area where my crew is holding," Sela said as they exited the lift to see Brutes fighting Elite Combat forms.
"Great," Vala unloads several bursts of plasma bolts from her Pusle Carbine to melt through the Flood units. Sela wields her Needler to unleash her bursts of super combines tearing up the rotting bodies.
"Sangheili, take them down," the Brute said firing his Brute Shot to clear out the remaining Flood units to go over to fight the group. A Slugman Ultra puts a beam of energy into the dome of the Brute's head to drop him lifelessly onto the floor. The other Slugmen were using their Plasma Rifles to burn and kill several Brutes.
Dek tosses a Needle Grenade to let the barrage of pink shards strike their targets to see the brutes get blown to bloody pieces. A Hunter Ultra fires two shots to vaporize the last Brute.
"More of them," Ulva said as Flood infected the corpses to turn them into Brute combat forms to rush at them. They unload their weapons to take them all down to reduce them to piles of broken bodies.
"Carrier forms," Sela said as Grunt and Jackal Carrier forms were coming out of a wall to unleash waves of pod infectors trying to swarm them. The Hunters use their rapid bolts and explosive shells to wipe out big chunks of Flood.
"Thankfully, Lekgolo forms can't be infected by the Flood," Dek said as their Lekgolo allies fought bravely against the Flood alongside them. A few Jackal Carriers leap at the Elites and Lekgolo forms with Sela using her Needler to trigger super combines to wipe them out easily.
"But we could milady," Dek said as to used his Concussion Rifle to blast apart the pockets of Flood infectors.
"Then we need to cut a path to prevent that from happening," Sela said as she fired bolts into a Jackal Carrier to make it explode releasing more Pod Infectors.
Ulva uses his Fuel Rod Gun to blow up groups of enemies to clear them up. "What a mess, the great city will become a full-on Flood Hive in mere hours," Ulva said.
"No time for time, this city is nothing but a sign of the Prophet's power. Good riddance to it besides the innocents who got dragged into this nonsense," Sela said as they saw a bunch of vehicles nearby. "This will get used to the lifts faster, get in," she said to have the Slugmen and the Hunters get into the Shadow with Ulva getting into the driver's seat while
Sela gets into the driver's seat of the Spectre with Vala on the turret and Dek on the right side. "Time to move out of here," Ulva said as he sealed the back to block their Lekgolo allies for them to speed off onto the streets to see a ton of Flood and Brutes fighting within the broken streets. Chaos has spread throughout the holy city as Vala is wielding her plasma turret to pepper incoming enemies with the plasma bolts melting through her targets.
The Slugman gets hit by an energy beam to disable its shields to turn its turret to wipe out the nearby Floods tearing and burning them apart.
"Yo Mistress, where are you?" Tan-Tan asked on the battle net using his turret to mow down the incoming Flood with an Elite Minor dual-wielding Plasma Rifles to lay out suppressive fire to wipe out waves of enemies with blue bolts of plasma.
"We are coming in, we got some vehicles to speed through the streets. It's a nightmare up here," Sela said as she saw more Pod Infectors making corpses come to life and twisting them into undead soldiers for the increasing hivemind of the Flood.
Tan-Tan tosses a Needle grenade to let the bright pink spikes scatter and unleash pink blasts destroying groupings of Flood units. Ten-Ten is holding down the fort with the other crewmembers consisting of Grunts, Elites, Slugmen, and Hunters holding off the enemy until their mistress shows up.
Their vehicles smash through hordes of enemies with Dek fires his Concussion Rifle to blow up chunks of enemies to get closer to the lift. They see a large Flood Juggernaut appearing to swing their long limbs to dodge the incoming attacks. Vala and the Slugman open fire to pepper the beast with plasma bolts to burn the hide but the Juggernaut keeps going to chase after them.
They are near the lift to unlock the hatches with the Hunters coming in to fire their Fuel Rod shots to pepper the Flood Juggernaut to kill the monster.
"Keep to go to the docking bay," Sela said to get out of the Spectre to get inside the lift letting everyone in to close the door. They speed downward to hear fighting outside with the civil war along with the Flood tearing the city apart.
"We are almost there," Vala said as they got into the docking bay to see biomass blocking their path. "Damn it, this much already," she said as Dek charges his Brute Plasma Pistol to unleash a glob of burning plasma to cling to the disgusting wall to burn it away.
"This crude weapon has its uses," Dek said as they moved through to hear their crew members fighting back the Flood.
"The Mistress has returned," Tan-Tan jumps for joy as they rush into the stealth corvette to pile through the door.
"Time to move, get us out of here," Sela ordered her crew to speed out of the docking bay.
"Yes Milady, activate the cloaking field," the Shipmaster said as they melted into the darkness of space to see Sangheili and Jiralhanae ships fighting around High Charity as the dream of the Covenant dies today by Truth's hands.
"Finally out of there," Tan-Tan said to flop onto the flop with Sela looking disappointed by all this.
"So the Heretics were speaking the truth along. Killing the second in command was the worst mistake I ever made," Sela said with a remorseful tone as her last big mission was to kill the second in command of the heretics on the moon of Basis which was near the destroyed ring of Alpha Halo. The corvette slips away to head back to Sanghelios to secure the Scions and bring them home to their keeps.
-Flashback Ends-
Sela recalled those days to be able to survive and join with the Arbiter and the other Sangheili against the "After that, all hands were on deck to deal with Truth and his Brute pawns. We were beyond angry and join you all to put an end to this," Sela said.
"Yeah and we became quite the team on Earth," Alisa recalled her and other Elites working with her Noble Team to take out Brute battlegroups on Earth.
"Indeed, With the Concert of Worlds, this will become a reality. Brother and Sisters in arms against those who want to harm our states and families like the Banished, the Storm, and the Didact," Sela said.
"You are pretty awesome," Yuri giving her praise with Sela blushing in the face.
"It was nothing, I was only using my training. Thankfully after all these years, the Swords are gaining ground uniting our people against the Storm to regain our noble past and embracing the future as peacekeepers, not bloodthirsty monsters like we were against humanity," Sela said.
"The Concert of Worlds, the Storm doesn't stand a chance," Yuri said.
"Speaking of which, we should be going to another mission involving the Storm. We need to know the location of Jul 'Mdama and cut the head of the Storm for good," Sela said as Sangheili is mostly under the control of the Swords with small yet strong pockets of Storm left on the planet.
"Also Doctor Hasley is still working with Jul. We need to find her and take her back to the UNSC to be punished for her war crimes," Alisa said.
"Indeed, our interest aligns. The Storm is getting weaker every day. Arbiter and his advisers have regained old Sangheilidesignsn in ships and weapons to bring them to the modern age. The Prophets were holding us back and now we are improving designs to make us compete with the growing Banished," Sela said.
"They will be a problem," Alisa said.
"Hunters and Grunts will be flocking to us to be equal partners. Not the Banished's brutal ways who only see them as a means to an end. We will bleed them dry and make them a thing of the past," Sela said as they resumed their duties with a new growing alliance between Humans, Sangheili, Lekgolo, and Unggoy which would be able to bring true peace and stability to the galaxy.